Wow you guys are awesome! I can't believe I'm at already at 72+ reviews, 158 favs, 150 alerts! That easily puts it in my top 20 stories of all time. I haven't replied to the reviews yet from last chapter (I'll do it in the morning) this week I had a major exam to study for, so hence my lack of replies. Anyways, onward! As always, cake for those who suggested the ideas in this chapter (there were so many of you who wanted to see Hiro going to school I lost track!)

Hiro's Age: 5

Tadashi's Age: 20

"Do I have to go?" Hiro looked up at his older brother with his wide brown eyes, pleading.

Tadashi kneeled down to fix the collar of Hiro's blue shirt. "What's the matter, Hiro?" he asked. "Just yesterday you couldn't wait to go to school." Yesterday, Tadashi couldn't keep Hiro's energy contained. His younger brother was practically bouncing off the wall, excited for his first day of kindergarten. This morning, though Hiro was quiet and withdrawn. He hadn't said a single word until they had arrived at the school.

Hiro shuffled his feet, biting his lip. "It's just, what if no one likes me?" he asked softly. He glanced at the white building before him where other kids were being dropped off by their parents.

Tadashi smiled and ruffled Hiro's black hair. "Just breathe," Tadashi said. "Relax."

Hiro took a deep breath and exhaled. "Can Baymax come with me?" Hiro asked. Most of his nervous energy had left him and, to Tadashi's relief, Hiro seemed calmer, surer of himself.

Tadashi shook his head. "No. But he'll be with me when I pick you up after school today. Ready to go?"

Hiro nodded. "Okay."

xXxXx

"So which one is yours?"

Tadashi blinked, startled by the question. It came from a woman to his right, several years older than him. She had a friendly smile and dark hair. He recognized her as one of the parents of Hiro's classmates. Mrs. Smith? Mrs. Samerson? It started with the letter S, Tadashi was sure. Her daughter was Suzy, that much Tadashi knew.

"Um, the one in the blue jacket, Hiro," Tadashi answered. He had arrived early to pick up Hiro today. The school wasn't quite over just yet. Through the classroom window, Tadashi could see the kids cleaning up their desks and getting ready to leave. It was loud and noisy and Hiro had a wide smile on his face.

"Oh, what a cute son you have," she said. "He looks just like you."

Tadashi choked. "No, no, that's my little brother."

Suzy's mother's hand flew to her mouth in surprise. "Oh! I'm so sorry. I didn't realize," she apologized.

Tadashi gave her a weak smile. "It's okay. It's a big age gap between us."

The woman laughed. "You're a doting big brother then. I guess your parents wanted you to pick him up?"

Tadashi felt his heart constricted like a snake with a vice grip was wrapped around it. His smile wavered, already drooping. Had it already been two years since his parents' death? In a way, Tadashi was grateful that he had Hiro to look after. It kept him so busy that he didn't have time to get lost in grief.

Sensing she had hit another nerve, Suzy's mother apologized again.

"It's okay," Tadashi reassured her. There was no way she could have known after all. It just hurt to think that they were gone. That they wouldn't see Hiro grow up.

"Tadashi!" Hiro came running out the classroom and into his brother's arms.

"Hey bonehead," Tadashi said, greeting Hiro with a big hug. He pushed away the dark thoughts of his parents' death from his mind. There was no sense upsetting Hiro.

"Where's Baymax?" Hiro asked, looking around for the white robot. Baymax was nowhere in sight.

"At home. He was still charging when I left," Tadashi said. That was partly his fault. He had Baymax activated since early this morning, performing several energy consuming tests and minor updates. By the time Tadashi had finished, Baymax had been drained of his battery and was in no condition to come with Tadashi to pick up Hiro.

"Can we get ice cream on the way home?" Hiro asked. His smile had a touch of mischief laced in it as his puppy eyes pleaded with his brother.

Tadashi laughed, feeling his gloomy thoughts fly away. Hiro never failed to brighten his day. "Sure, why not? It's Friday and you just made it through your first week of school. That calls for celebration."

"Yay!"

xXxXx

"Mr. Hamada?" called Mrs. Yamashita, Hiro's kindergarten teacher. "Do you have a minute?"

Tadashi nodded, already dreading what she wanted to talk about. It had been two and a half months since Hiro had started kindergarten. Mentally, he was already reviewing the countless advice from parenting books of common problems kids in kindergarten often faced.

"Baymax watch Hiro," Tadashi shouted. The white robot nodded in affirmative from where he was pushing Hiro on the swings.

"Mr. Hamada," Mrs. Yamashita started. She nervously tapped the pencil in her hands, unsure how to start this conversation. She sat behind her desk; papers with Hiro's work on it spread in front of her.

"Is there anything wrong?" Tadashi asked. Hiro was a sweet kid. It might be biased about him as Hiro's older brother, but there was no reason for Hiro to be in trouble.

Mrs. Yamashita shook her head. "No. It's just… your brother is a very gifted child."

Oh. Oh, this conversation. Tadashi should have seen this coming. Hiro seemed to like to school, but to Tadashi's dismay, it was clear Hiro was utterly bored. Tadashi supposed it was his own fault. With only his friends as babysitters, Tadashi frequently brought Hiro to SFIT and more than often Hiro would find his way into Tadashi's classes. Sure, his classmates cooed over his baby brother and his professors were amused, but few seemed to grasp that Hiro more than often understood some of the concepts that were presented. How many five years old knew the basics of circuits: voltage, current and resistors?

Tadashi closed his eyes, remembering a similar conversation from his own childhood. In third grade, his teacher had sat down with his parents over the same conversation. For him, skipping was grades were a good thing. He graduated at age 16 from high school, comfortable in his own skin despite being younger than his classmates. Tadashi was also much older than Hiro when the option to skip came up.

"I know," he said, pride ringing in his voice. Sure, it was a pain to figure out, but Tadashi was very proud of his little brother. One day Hiro was going to surpass him.

"To admit, I'm at a lost," Mrs. Yamashita said. "Hiro isn't my first gifted child, but…" she trailed off, unsure how to explain it.

"He easily outpaces everyone in elementary school already," Tadashi offered. By Tadashi's calculations, Hiro was somewhere at the 5th-6th grade level of studies with dashes of college education from whatever Hiro soaked up from Tadashi's classes. His shyness meant no matter how many times Tadashi encouraged him and took him to the playground, no new friends were made. Even now, Hiro had yet to make any new friends in kindergarten. Tadashi feared that Hiro wouldn't able to make friends in his own age group. Baymax did not count, nor did Tadashi's friends.

Mrs. Yamashita nodded. "I would suggest skipping a grade, but to keep Hiro academically entertained he would have to skip several and at his age, emotional level, I wouldn't suggest it skipping too many."

"Double edge sword," Tadashi nodded. Damn, if you do, damn, if you don't. Hiro's mind was too advanced for his still growing body. Emotionally, Hiro was just not ready to skip a grade yet (any grade).

"My best suggestion would be Tensai Academy since they're a school with an acceleration program for gifted children," Mrs. Yamashita said. Tensai Academy boasted itself as the only school for prodigies and genius. It was an elevator school, starting from kindergarten up until high school. The difference was the children were grouped by IQ first, age second, allowing them to be among others who could mentally keep up with them. The groups were small, allowing a smaller student to teacher ratio and many of the teachers were graduates from Tensai and equal geniuses in their own respective fields.

"It's nothing we can afford," Tadashi said. He had looked. Even with his paycheck from Kinga Company, Tadashi simply didn't have the savings built up to send Hiro there. There were scholarships, but by the time Tadashi had remembered to look, they had been closed. It was a highly competitive school to get into. The wait list was outrageous. If they could afford it, Tadashi could have loved to send Hiro there. Tensai Academy had been where Tadashi had wanted to go as a child, but like now, his parents couldn't afford it back then.

"We can move him into first grade. It won't keep Hiro entertained very well but might as well transition slowly. It's a good way to test the waters, to see if he's ready to handle it," Mrs. Yamashita offered. "Once the year is done and he's done some growing, he can move to the third grade and we'll just repeat the process."

"No, I think it'll do Hiro some good to stay in kindergarten. I'm hoping he'll make friends eventually. When the scholarships open again, I have Hiro try for Tensai. If he doesn't get in, I'll consider letting him skip up to second grade," Tadashi said.

Mrs. Yamashita nodded in agreement. "That is a sound plan."

xXxXx

Hiro's Age: 4

Tadashi's Age: 19

Tadashi crept slowly toward his target. Hiro sat unsuspecting on his bed, reading his book. 'Wait for it. Wait for it.' Tadashi pounced.

"Gotcha!" Tadashi tickled Hiro. His nimble fingers found the soft sides of his little brother.

Hiro's laughter filled the air. "Tadashi! Hahaha! Stop it!" He swatted at Tadashi's fingers, trying to get away.

"Never!" Tadashi exclaimed, laughing.

"Tadashi!" Hiro shrieked.

Tadashi was relentless. Finally, after a few minutes, Tadashi stopped. Chest heaving, he laid next to Hiro. Hiro rolled over pressing himself into Tadashi's side. "Love you," Hiro whispered.

Tadashi draped an arm over Hiro's side, cuddling him. "Love you too, little bro."