Hello Readers!
At a reviewer's request, I've decided to try and turn my story "How To Be A Super Mom in 5 Easy Steps" into a longer one. This takes place immediately after the events of that story, so if you haven't read that one yet, you should probably check that out before moving onto this one.
This will be longer than a one-shot, but probably not too terribly long, I would put it at five, six chapters tops. Eventually, I hope to introduce the Hamada fmaily to the Parr family with some appearances of other supers, but we'll see where it goes.
Thank you for reading! And please, review!
(And by the way, I don't own any of these characters or the movies they appear in. Just gettin' that out of the way).
Enjoy!
Narwhals Forever.
Hiro raised an eyebrow at Aunt Cass, who was laughing nervously as she shuffled papers and bowls around on the countertop.
"NOTHING! I'M NOT TALKING TO ANYBODY! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" Aunt Cass shouted, hanging up the phone. She smiled nervously, propping her head up on her hand, leaning on the counter (a pose that didn't last long, as her elbow slipped off the counter not too long afterwards).
"Um…ookay…" Hiro gave Aunt Cass a weird look. "Are…are you okay, Aunt Cass?"
"Fine, Hiro. I'm fine," Aunt Cass said quickly, and a little too loudly. Awkwardly, she brushed a stray piece of her hair behind her ear. "Uh…how are you?"
"Fine, I guess." Hiro's eyes flicked down to the pad of paper that Aunt Cass was leaning on. She saw where he was looking and quickly hid the paper clumsily in a random drawer.
She was up to something. Hiro's eyes narrowed as he said, "What's going on, Aunt Cass?" He paused. "Who were you talking to on the phone?" Rolling his eyes, he said, "If you're calling those college jerks' parents again about them calling me 'nerd-'"
"No, no, I'm not, I swear I'm not," Cass told him, although she was still confused about why Hiro had been upset when she gave those jealous jerks a good tongue-lashing. "I was…I was talking to one of my old friends."
Hiro walked up to the counter, carelessly slinging his bag on the window seat and sitting across from Aunt Cass. Mochi walked over, clumsily trying to leap up onto Hiro's lap but failing until Hiro good-naturedly picked him up and began scratching him behind the ears. "Who?" He asked, curious.
"Uhhh… her name's Helen. Helen Parr. She lives over in Virginia," Cass explained.
"Were you guys high school friends or something?"
"Yeah." Cass smiled wanly. "We go way back." Studying her nephew's face closer, she frowned. "What's that?" she asked, her finger tracing the bruise that was just barely visible along Hiro's hairline. At her touch, Hiro winced slightly.
"Nothing," Hiro lied, smoothing down his hair to cover the purple spot. Mochi leapt down from his lap and lumbered off to find something else to do.
Aunt Cass swallowed. Now or never, Cassie, her inner voice told her. She sighed and leaned over the counter, making unflinching eye contact with Hiro that caused him to look away uncomfortably.
"Hiro…you need to be straight with me." Cass told him.
"What are you talking about?" Hiro asked, even though he knew that they both knew exactly what she was talking about.
Had Baymax been down here, he would have informed Hiro of an elevated heart rate and hormone levels rising in his brain…diagnosis: anxiety.
Cass shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Because…if there's anything that you think I might need to know…I'd really like it if you talked to me about it."
He took a deep breath (he'd known from the get-go he'd have to tell her sometime, he was just trying to avoid it as much as he could. Now he had to play that game where you try to tell somebody something without actually telling them something). "Uh..." he began. "I…I've been taking some extracurriculars. With the guys." He finished. There. Not a complete lie.
"What type exactly?" asked Aunt Cass worriedly.
Dangit.
"Uh…" Hiro gulped. "Well…" The bizarreness of the situation suddenly occurred to him. How do you tell your aunt/mother figure that you are secretly a superhero? Why is this even something that needs to be addressed in his life? What type of life was he living?
Eh. Might as well get it out now. "Aunt Cass, I'm a superhero." He said bluntly, waiting for a reaction.
Hiro was surprised to see that Aunt Cass had little to no panic attack, no asking him what it meant, why was he doing this to her, and, perhaps most shockingly of all, no immediate stuffing her face with donuts and other stress relief foods. In fact, she seemed to have little to no reaction whatsoever.
"Yes." She said.
What, that was it? Seriously?
"Um…yes what?" Hiro asked uncertainly. "Aunt Cass, did you hear a word I just said?"
Aunt Cass nodded. "Well, yeah, I mean, I knew that."
"Knew what?!" Hiro asked incredulously.
"The superhero thing. I mean, who else has a giant inflatable robot that knows jiujitsu?And can fly?"
Hiro had to give her that one. But wait… "If you knew all this time, why didn't you tell me?"
"Well, why didn't you tell me?" Aunt Cass said. "Why wouldn't you come to me about that?"
"I don't know, I-" Hiro paused. "I was afraid you'd…freak out, or something."
"Well, I gained like three pounds from the stress eating, but I get it. I seriously get it," she told him, "and I've been talking to Helen and I can handle it now. I mean…as long as you guys think you can handle it."
"Well, yeah, but…wait." Hiro's eyes widened. "You didn't…you didn't tell your friend, did you?"
Aunt Cass blinked. "I did, but…" she began before Hiro jumped up from his seat at the counter.
"Are you CRAZY?!" Hiro cried. "You're not supposed to tell people..."
"Wait, wait!" Aunt Cass said, trying to calm him down. "No, no, no. See, you can trust Helen. She's like a sister to me. And besides, she's used to keeping secrets like this. It's not a huge deal."
Hiro stopped freaking out and eyed Cass suspiciously. Aunt Cass could practically see the wheels turning in his head. "What do you mean?" He asked tentatively.
Aunt Cass waved that aside, trying to remember what Helen had said about being the super mom. Oh geez, her inner voice said, it's so great that your friend gave you a freaking list of how to be the mom of a superhero and you can't remember a single freaking step.
Shut up! Aunt Cass's other inner voice yelled. I got this, just let me think…hold on a sec. Uh…don't panic, right, right…got that, at least I think…umm, communication…communication! That's it!
"Uh, I'm just letting you know that you can feel free to communicate with me about anything," Cass told him. Silently noting how weird that sentence sounded, she tried again. "I mean, whatever it is, you can talk to me about it. It doesn't matter how weird or awkward or even scary it is, just let me know what's going on."
Hiro's eyes widened slightly, his suspicious expression fading.
"And…I know it sounds weird, but if you or anybody else in your…team feels like they need help, just tell me. Or call these numbers, but I'd rather you tell me about it first." Aunt Cass opened the drawer and pulled out the pad of paper, tearing out the piece of paper that had the numbers of all the supers and sticking it to the fridge. Hiro craned his neck to look at the paper, then back down at the pad of paper that Aunt Cass was holding.
"What-" he began, but Aunt Cass shoved the rest of her notes back in the drawer.
"So I'm not angry or anything, I'mcompletelysupportiveofyouinthis, IjustwantyoutobecarefulandtoknowthatI'malwayshereforyouandIloveyouand…and yeah." Aunt Cass blurted out.
They stared at each other.
"Wow. Uh…thanks, Aunt Cass." Hiro said. "I…love you too."
Aunt Cass continued to stare at Hiro. Hiro swallowed. "Um…and I'm glad you're not mad?"
Aunt Cass grinned, scooting around the corner and pulling Hiro into a hug. Smiling at first, Hiro frowned, puzzled. He looked up at Aunt Cass. "Um…so your friend…why exactly is she used to keeping that kind of secret again?"
Aunt Cass continued to hug him. "You shouldn't think so much," she told him sweetly.
Hiro rolled his eyes. "Aunt Cass…"
Shoot, that kid didn't give up, did he? She pulled away from him, still smiling. "Um. I guess you could say she's had some experience in the field," she said.
Hiro gaped. "You mean she's…" He jumped out of Aunt Cass's arms, waving his arms in excitement the way he sometimes did when he got really, reeaally excited about something really, reeaally science-y. "NO WAY!" He yelled. "You know a superhero? But, like, not me or my friends? That is so COOL! Wait," he paused his bouncing for a second, "which superhero is she? Is she like, a new one, or one from like, the glory days of supers?"
"She's Elastigirl," Cass explained. "Or, used to be. I'm pretty sure she goes by a different name now."
"That is so freaking awesome! Wait, is that number that you gave me, is that hers?"
"And a couple of other supers," Aunt Cass said. "I know, it's so cool, right?"
"Totally sick!" Hiro agreed, still in geek-out mode.
"But anyway…those numbers are just in case, you know, you guys ever need help. And so am I. For help, I mean."
Hiro smiled at his aunt/mother figure. "Thanks, Aunt Cass."