Haha I new I said I wasn't going to update for a while but I couldn't help myself...I already love this story. It's still the start thought so don't give up on this too quickly.
Cass, Labarthe, and the boys walk outside and stand by the side of their aunt's beat up car. Cass and Labarthe have a conversation about Cass's custody.
"I think it would be best that you go visit the social services office and talk to them about maybe getting a couple of support from their welfare that way you're not too caught up on completely giving them your all. If you want I can help you to be qualified to receive aid from the agency." Labarthe suggested sophisticatedly.
"I don't know. Go ahead and see if I can and then let me know, I'll think about it." She opened the passenger seat door and put Hiro on the front and put Tadashi in the back. She doesn't really know about the law on where to put kids in the car. However Labarthe ignored it. She gets into her car and starts the engine. Labarthe follows and stands outside her window. "I understand you don't like getting help but look at this Miss Cass you actually need to accept it. I hate to admit it but you could barely handle yourself.
"What does he mean by 'barely handle yourself'?" Hiro asked next to her.
"Nothing." Cass waved him off. "Well. I'm off."
"Wait!" Cass turns to Hiro to see what was bothering him. "I don't know how to put on a seatbelt." Impatient, she reaches across Hiro's seat to grab his belt and straps it across him to lock it. He was too small but at least he has something to hold him down like the bottom strap, so the higher strap covering his eyes was pulled back behind him. She drives off into the street and before making her way home she decided to head somewhere else. She should stop by her parent's condo. "We aren't going straight to my house yet, I need to visit my parents."
"Are they our aunts too?" asked Hiro.
"No Hiro they're our grandparents." Answered Tadashi from the back.
"How?" Hiro turned around to get a view of his brother. He sure was a curious one but Cass just continued to ignore them.
"They're dad's parents. Cass and dad are siblings so they share the same parents."
"Ohh…" Hiro gave an 'oh' expression sitting back down on his seat.
"Okay boys let me get this straight." Cass interrupted. "I still don't know your names. So far..." Cass pointed toward Hiro. "...you're Hiro."
"Yes." Hiro stated proudly with a lisp.
"And you are…." Cass didn't hear his name at all during the time. She was told their names by the judge however she wasn't paying attention because she wanted to leave the place.
"Tadashi." He finished her sentence, knowing that she hadn't heard much from him. "Sometimes Hiro calls me Dashi, or sometimes he calls me Nii-san."
"Right." Cass nodded. "Why's that?"
"He tried to pronounce my name once but he couldn't."
"I can do it now!" Hiro cried.
"Oh yeah? Then why haven't you used my real name yet?"
Hiro looked down on his lap shyly. "I like Dashi better." He said calmly.
"Well Tadashi, I'll call you by your first name. By the way how old are you guys?"
"I'm 3!" Hiro held up two fingers. Cass brought up another one of his fingers and counted them out loud pointing at each finger. "Oh." Hiro said disappointedly.
"So are you really 3?"
"Yes!" Hiro said it proudly with a lisp still added.
"M-hm. Tadashi how about you?"
"I'm 6 right now, but I'll turn 7 in next week." Tadashi addressed her politely.
"My birthday was last month." Hiro included himself in again stating it 'as a matter of fact.'
"Okay, so far I learned that you two are 4 years apart, your birthdays are a month apart, Tadashi has pet names and his birthday is next week, and Hiro has a lisp problem.
"I do not! Only sometimes." Hiro told her in defense. This time he pronounced it correctly.
"He's getting better at it." Tadashi pointed out.
"Has Hiro been seeing someone to help his speech?"
"No one knows about it, only me. I've been helping him." Cass turned to see Hiro peaking over the window. He sure is something. And that big brother of his too.
"Good! You don't need to pay for a therapist. Why pay for something when it can already be solved." Cass turned her way into the parking lot and parked in the visitor's area. "Kay boys, we're here." She got out of the car and helped Hiro out of the car as Tadashi came out on his own and saw the condo building in front of him. He stares in awe, the building was huge! It looked like a big house with many floors inside.
"Is this your house?" Hiro asked as he climbed out of the car.
"No. And I told you: we're here to see my-Your grandma and grandpa." She only repeated it once to him but she was already annoyed by the questions he was asking. Oblivious to her attitude, Hiro happily ran over to his brother to hold his hand so they could follow her into the building.
"Please mom! At least for like a month." Cass was begging her parent to take the kids off her hands so that she didn't have to deal with them. So far it was not working. The boys were sitting in the living room with their grandpa as he showed them how to play poker.
"Sweetie, I said no. Besides we're too old for this."
"You haven't even started your menopause." She argued as a fact.
"Started this year." Her mother stated back with a glare.
"But I don't want them." Cass was following her around the kitchen as her mother cleaned and washed the dishes.
"Cass it's time for you to stop acting so care-free and start acting like a responsible adult. I'm just as surprised as you are when you were given full custody of Hiro and Tadashi but maybe it's a way for you to learn it's not always about you." She went back to her dishes. Cass remained quiet for a couple minutes and sat down on the kitchen table. Her mother realized she was in one of her thinking modes. She stops what she's doing placing the plate into the sink and walked over to her daughter and pulled a seat next to her. Cass left her train of thoughts when she heard her mother join her, but she still doesn't face her.
"Cass…..I know deep down you actually care about those boys. What made you want to really keep those boys from going straight back into child services?" She asked calmly.
"I don't want them to go through what Tomeo and I went." She replied while remembering the hardships she and her brother had to face. "It was horrible."
"And how did you feel when we finally wanted to adopt you two?"
"I felt like we were finally accepted by someone."
"Don't you think those boys might feel the same way you do? Except this time they still have their family." Her mother pointed towards her nephews who sat around the coffee table with their grandfather on the couch in the living room. Tadashi was smiling and Hiro kept faking wins as the grandfather let Hiro 'win', thinking that Hiro no matter what will not understand to rules of the game right away. "Do you remember that one night when you and your brother told us that when you have kids you will love them and raise them in a way you wanted to be raised in?" Cass nodded, it was two months after they came to live with the Hamada's. Once they were comfortable with everything they told them about the projects and the foster families who would abuse them and that was when they thought if they ever had kids, they would give them a life without having to worry about needing to earn love. "Cass...You can still do that. It's your turn to help finish what Tomeo started. I don't care if they aren't living with you after they find a family for the boys but for right now just be with them. They are just like you two."
Cass turned to face her mother and took her advice. "But mom… I don't know a single thing about parenting."
"Oh don't worry about that. Start of slow, if you need anything you can always let us know!" She got up from her seat and went to get her purse. "Tell you what, I'll help you out by giving you some money."
As her mother took out her checkbook to write an amount, Cass tried to deny it, "Come' on mom don't do this to me don't waste your money on- What!?" Her mother handed her a check of a thousand dollars. "Who said anything about you using the money? This is for the boys. They are going to need some stuff right now. And I can tell you don't have a car seat for Hiro yet." Cass took the check and put it in her purse. She mentally reminded herself this is for Hiro and Tadashi and to not try to use it on herself for selfish reasons.
"But before you three head home I think you deserve some dinner. Want to help me cook?" Cass agreed. If there was anything else that could keep her mind off of all her drama it was cooking.
They all stayed an extra hour to eat their meals and let the boys play more rounds of their poker game letting Hiro win. They said goodbye and before they left the grandpa gave Hiro and Tadashi 5 bucks each to keep for their own. They were happy about their present and Tadashi had to remind Hiro to say thank you.
The finally got to Cass's apartment and she lead them to her room. She opened the door and let the boys enter the living room first. It was dark and dull but still decent to the boys' opinion. "Okay kiddos I really wasn't expecting to have any guests over but don't worry I can still arrange something." There was only one bedroom in the place and it was hers. As she grabbed a few extra blankets from the hallway closet she sees Hiro standing in front of her door looking inside her room. "Are we sleeping in here?" Hiro asks his aunt.
"Well kid that's my room… but I have couch that has a foldable bed you're going to sleep on."
"Oh…." He walks back into the living room. Cass brought the blankets in the room and drew out the bed from the couch. She placed some covers and threw some pillows on the bed and made sure they had everything they needed for the night.
"Alrightly then, so if you need to use the bathroom it's down the hallway to the right, the kitchen is right behind you if you need anything like drink maybe. I ran out of champagne but there's plenty of others. And yeah and that's about it. Ok! Goodnight!" She swung herself around but was stopped by Hiro's voice, "Excuse me, what am I supposed to call you?" Hiro asked shyly.
"What you mean?" Cass was confused.
"Oh, it's just that you haven't told us how to call you by. Do we call you mom?" Hiro was very innocent at this point. She could not believe what he was saying.
"No. Don't call me that. Just call me Cass."
"Can I call you Aunt Cass?"
"Cass is fine." She reminded the boy sternly and turned around to make her way out. As she got to the front of her room she felt a tug on her shirt. It was Tadashi.
"Um Au- I mean Cass? I just want to let you know that my brother may not look as smart as he seems but...he really is smart...bright for his age actually. It's just that he doesn't know how to express himself in the right way. It's like he has everything in his head but he forgets that he does or he pulls out the wrong info. Trust me, he's a very bright boy." He was addressing his brother's problem to her nervously. She doesn't understand why.
"Does he have dyslexia or something?"
"I don't think so… he just gets very nervous sometimes. It really affects him sometimes." Cass looked at the younger brother down the hall who was sitting on the bed staring at the television across from him He was holding on to the blankets closer on his chest.
"He can hide it thought. It's something he's been doing to avoid trouble from our last foster mother. But don't worry Cass, I'm taking care of him. I swear one day he'll improve."
She looked back down at Tadashi. Determination, that's what she saw. She honestly had never seen someone so young want to do this for a baby sibling.
"Thanks Tadashi, your brother was lucky to have you. Well, goodnight." That was all she can manage. No emotion. Tadashi nods his head and ran back to his brother. As Cass got ready to go to bed she couldn't help but think about those two boys. They were something alright, it made her want to get to know them a little bit better, but why should she? They aren't going to stay with her for long. The problem is that she didn't know how long. She gets into her bed ready to fell asleep after the unexpected events that happen today. She was sleeping fine for about an hour until she was awakened by someone who poked her lightly on the shoulder. Cass opened her eyes to see a boy with messy hair. Great. It was Hiro.
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