Brothers

2

Ages

Hiro: 7

Tadashi: 11

Normal POV

The Hamada brothers were lazing around in their shared room, bored as buckets. They heard some clanking and something fall downstairs from the bakery kitchen and exchanged knowing looks. Aunt Cass wasn't the most graceful person in the world. As if on cue, they heard their Aunt's voice yell at them from downstairs.

"Kiddos, I kinda broke a glass brownie pan and need to run to the market to get a new one. Be back in 30. Stay safe and DON'T leave the house for anything unless it's life threatening!" she said, rushing out the door.

As soon as she shut the door, Hiro's stomach grumbled.

Tadashi smirked at Hiro with an idea brewing in his brain. "Hiro, you thinkin what I'm thinkin?" the mischievous pre-teen asked. Hiro shook his head and sighed. "I was Dashi, I was until I realized the consequences." Hiro responded. Tadashi rolled his eyes at his younger brother's worries.

"C'mon Hiro, we'll steal just one donut each and then sneak outta the bakery before Aunt Cass even comes back." Tadashi urged. Hiro pondered over the plan, but ended up shaking his head.

"No way Dashi. Aunt Cass barely has any rules, but one of them happens to be not to eat her merchandise. Plus, I don't wanna get in trouble. She could find out you know." Hiro reasoned. Tadashi blew a huff of frustration.

"Don't call me Dashi. You're old enough to pronounce the entire thing." Tadashi said sourly. Hiro looked down and winced a bit at Tadashi's tone.

His older brother didn't really have a strong relationship with him. People kept telling him that when he got older they'd get closer, but that he had to put forth some effort too. Maybe this was the effort those people were talking about? He had to take a chance. He really wanted Tadashi to like him.

"T-Tadashi?" Hiro asked nervously.

"What?" his older brother asked, still slightly miffed.

"R-race ya downstairs?" Hiro asked with a slight smile.

Tadashi's face considerably lit up. "Yeah! There he is! My little bro! Knew you'd come through." He said, ruffling Hiro's hair. Hiro crinkled his nose in annoyance at the gesture, but was pleased that nice Tadashi was back.

They raced downstairs, Tadashi obviously winning due to his longer legs. They headed behind the counter and marveled over the delicious teeth rotting goodies available at the Lucky Cat café. As soon as Tadashi opened the glass, the amazing fragrances penetrated Hiro's nose and sent him into a temporary mode of bliss. He smelled chocolate, strawberry, frosting, and powdered sugar all in one. Any second thoughts the seven year old boy once had now faded in an instant and he reached to grab something, but was stopped by Tadashi.

"Dashi?" Hiro asked, confused. Tadashi simply smiled. "Let's make this more interesting huh?" his older brother asked. Hiro cocked his head to the side, waiting for an explanation.

"Let's play for it. Pick a game. Whoever wins gets to pick what goodie we snag?" Tadashi suggested, knowing Hiro wouldn't back down from a challenge. As expected, the younger brother eagerly nodded in anticipation. "Okay. Let's shoot darts for it." Hiro said, quickly pulling some darts out of the drawer of the kitchen. He mentally thanked Aunt Cass for hanging up that dart board in the dining area for him.

"Alright, let's go oldest to youngest." Tadashi said, snatching the darts from Hiro's hands. "Heyyy Dashiiiii!" Hiro whined.

"Quit your incessant whining and lemme go. We know I'm gonna win anyway." Tadashi said dismissively. Hiro looked to the floor in sadness. Even when he tried to oblige with Tadashi's demands, his older brother was irritated with him. He tried to ignore the burning sensation in his throat, telling himself that seven years old was too old to cry. Especially not in front of Tadashi who would no doubt tease him for it later. He sat at a table and silently watched his brother shoot the darts one by one until three were smashed onto the board.

"HA! 30 points. Beat that Hiro. Bet you won't." Tadashi said smugly, pulling the three darts from their 10 point marks and handing them to his younger brother.

Hiro was craving a chocolate chip cookie so bad and knew that if Tadashi won, he'd pick donuts. He couldn't let that happen. Hiro focused with all his might and threw the first dart.

"YES! 20 points." He cheered. Tadashi looked slightly worried. Hiro took a deep breath and threw the second one. His eyes widened to the size of saucers and his face broke into a massive grin. "HA Dashi! That's 30 points so far! I can even just get 5 and beat you now!" Hiro said in victory.

Tadashi huffed in annoyance and felt his more advantageous side take over him. He saw Hiro getting ready to throw the third dart and calculated his timing right. Right as Hiro released it, the younger Hamada brother felt a chair hit his leg and his dart went spiraling toward the wall, completely missing the dart board. He glared at Tadashi who whistled innocently, not meeting Hiro's gaze.

"Tadashi! You KNEW that was important to me and that I was clearly going to win. I get to pick the dessert. You CHEATER!" he said angrily.

"Shut up you big baby. Take your loss like a man." Tadashi said nonchalantly. Hiro felt tears of anger and hurt approach his eyes. He couldn't believe how unfair and mean Tadashi was being.

"Tadashi that's NOT fair. If anything and I mean ANYTHING at all, we're tied, but I should get a do-over!" Hiro exclaimed, flailing his arms about, not allowing himself to cry in front of his older brother. Tadshi rolled his eyes once more.

"Fine whatever." Tadashi said, thrusting the dart into his younger brother's hands. Hiro blinked twice as if he didn't believe it. He gave a light smile and took this as a step in the right direction. He aimed the dart and threw it with new found motivation and then closed his eyes.

"NO way." He heard his brother breathe. Hiro opened his eyes to see that he had got a bull's eye. "NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY! I did it! I pick chocolate chip cookies! YES!" Hiro shrieked, not bothering to try and contain his excitement.

The little boy rushed behind the counter and took out two chocolate chip cookies. He reached to hand one to his older brother first, just to be nice.

"Here Dashi, try it!" Hiro said eagerly. Tadashi smacked Hiro's hand away, causing him to drop the cookie. Hiro's face fell instantly.

"Dashi, why'd you do that?" Hiro asked, confused.

"Stupid little kid. I'm still taking a donut. Only you'd be dumb enough to agree to those rules. I mean, who even cares if we take different desserts? And another thing. QUIT calling me Dashi. You're not 5 years old. It's not cute anymore. Actually, it never was." Tadashi said.

Hiro felt tears welling up again and tried his absolute hardest not to let them fall. Maybe people were wrong. Maybe he and Tadashi would NEVER get along.

Tadashi grabbed a sprinkled donut and hurriedly ate it. Hiro hung his head down. "I would've done it if you won." Hiro whispered quietly.

Tadashi looked guilty for a split second, but his sour mood of losing to Hiro won out in his emotional conflict. "Yeah, well that's the difference between you and I." he said nonchalantly. Hiro looked up and gave his brother the meanest glare he could manage. "Yeah, I guess it is." Hiro said as deeply as he could, turning away from Tadashi.

The younger of the two suddenly wasn't that hungry anymore. He turned to place the cookie back in the glass encasing. Before he could though, the bakery door opened to reveal their Aunt Cass with a paper bag in her hand. Hiro's eyes widened, realizing he still had the cookie in his hand. His aunt looked at them both and then she did a double take.

"Hiro HAMDA!" she yelled. Hiro gulped and lamely tried to hide the cookie behind him. "What is the matter with you? Not only did you take a cookie, but you wasted one by dropping it on the floor? I've told you once I've told you boys a thousand times not to eat my inventory and what did you do? Words can't describe my disappointment Hiro. Tadashi never did anything like this. I didn't expect this from you. GO to you room. You're grounded mister!" Aunt Cass yelled.

Hiro looked to Tadashi for help or something, ANYTHING really, but found his brother had a stoic expression. At this point, Hiro couldn't help it nor did he care any longer.

He looked at the cookie in his hand and back at Tadashi. He thought, 'screw it, I'm in trouble already so it shouldn't matter'. He aimed and flung the cookie right at Tadashi's face and made perfect contact. "Bull's eye." He whispered loud enough for Tadashi to hear.

Aunt Cass gasped. "Hiro, ROOM. NOW!" she commanded. Hiro walked grudgingly to the steps, still high on anger and frustration and betrayal.

"YOU KNOW WHAT TADASHI HAMADA?! I HATE YOU. I. HATE. YOU!" Hiro screeched, stressing each syllable as if they were separate words. He then rushed upstairs, tears clearly present in his eyes and spread across his entire face. He sobbed and didn't care if Tadashi teased him for it because he apparently hated him.

Little did Hiro know that his words had indeed affected Tadashi. 'Wow, I'm a jerk of a brother.' Tadashi thought to himself. He turned to Aunt Cass. "Hey Aunt Cass, there's something you should know….." Tadashi said.

Hiro had been glancing at the clock every few minutes to see how long he had been confided in his room before going back to his revenge plot on Tadashi. He would SUFFER for being unfair and rude, though tears still streamed down his face.

People knew nothing. He and Tadashi would NEVER be friends. He was already miserable that they were even brothers.

Hiro suddenly heard the door creaking open and rushed to his bed, trying to cease his crying. He faced the other side of the bed, readying himself for more yelling from Aunt Cass or even threats from Tadashi for throwing that cookie at him. What he got instead surprised him greatly.

He felt arms encircle him so tight, it almost cut off his breathing. "Wh-who?" Hiro tried to speak.
"Oh Hiro. I'm so sorry. Tadashi told me everything. I'm so sorry." Aunt Cass said apologetically. Hiro was mildly confused and extremely shocked, but he patted Aunt Cass on the back. "I-it's okay Aunt Cass. Really." Hiro assured. Though in reality he was a bit pissed for being locked in his room for thirty minutes. "Come downstairs for dinner in 10. And if it wasn't already obvious, you're not grounded anymore." She said, heading downstairs to set the table.

Hiro blinked. Unsure if that was real or not. Did Tadashi really tell the truth for him? He couldn't believe it and he chose not to. He heard the door creak open again and found himself face to face with Tadashi. Hiro remained wordless. Tadashi cleared his throat.

The older of the brothers plopped himself down on Hiro's bed, getting close to him. Hiro lowered his eyebrows and had a glare present on his face, almost daring Tadashi to do something else.

"Hey baby bro." Tadashi started softly. Hiro maintained his heavy glare.

Tadashi sighed. "I was a jerk. And loser. And meanie. And sore sport. And a hypocrite. And I'm sorry Hiro. I never realized how much what idiotic things I did affected you and I'm sorry. I never wanted you to hate me. It's just, I'm jealous Hiro. Aunt Cass loves you because you're smarter and she thinks you work hard when that's not true. YOU don't even have to try. Even with mom and dad. You three. FRICKIN 3 years old and you stole all the attention away. You started talking at 1 ½. That's crazy. Whereas me? I have to put effort and try my hardest but even then you're more exciting and what you do or make is a million times better than mine and I'm sorry that all my anger toward you came out like that. I didn't mean it and I'm really sorry. If I could do anything, I'd go back in time and change how tonight went down. We could've actually had fun were it not for my stupid jealousy taking over like that. I hope you'll forgive me because Hiro, no matter what you do, I'll never hate you. And I REALLY hope you didn't mean it when you said you hated me, because it stung. Did I deserve it? Hell yes, but it still hurt. And I hope it was just your anger talking, because Hiro, I don't think I could live knowing that you hate me." Tadashi said slowly, with some tears of his own threatening to pour out.

Hiro blinked. He could not believe that Tadashi was jealous of him. Tadashi was a great guy. Tall, handsome, smart, and loving (when he wanted to be). Hiro was overwhelmed with that speech. "Tadashi, I… I don't know what exactly to say. You're definitely forgiven. I don't hate you. It WAS just the anger talking. I didn't mean it at all. I'm also sorry that I threw a cookie at you." Hiro said softly. Tadashi broke into a grin and tackled Hiro into a bone crushing hug. Though it still wasn't as bad as Aunt Cass's hug to Hiro.

"Great, let's go down for dinner now. Then how's about I buy you a fresh chocolate chip cookie outta the oven and try to be a better big brother?" Tadashi asked.

Hiro nodded eagerly. "Sounds awesome. And Tadashi? Thanks. Not many people have the guts to admit they're jealous or even apologize like that, so thanks. And by the way, with those looks, you ain't got nothing to be jealous about." Hiro said teasingly. Tadashi shook his head and went toward his bed. Then, in a flash, Hiro came back to reality and pushed his brother away from his bed.

"What the heck Hiro?" Tadashi asked, getting up. He looked up only to see that Hiro was drenched in ice cold water and shivering violently. "What in the world?" Tadashi questioned.

Hiro chuckled sheepishly. "Uh, heh heh, that was for uh, ya know…I didn't think you'd apologize. So I had a…an um.. a revenge plan." Hiro admitted ashamed. Tadashi gaped before sitting. Hiro was gonna drench him in ICE WATER? He then thought it over.

He sighed heavily. "Hiro, it's okay. I probably deserved it anyway. Hurry it up and change so we can go eat and get that cookie." He said, pushing his shivering bro toward the bathroom.

"Thanks Tadashi." Hiro said, teeth chattering.

"Hey Hiro?" Tadashi called.

"Yeah?"

"C-Call me Dashi. If you want. It's starting to sound cute again. Actually, it never stopped." Tadashi said smiling at the ground.