Brothers
6
Ages
Hiro: seven
Tadashi: fifteen
(Remember the stories don't necessarily correlate with each other, so that's why Tadashi isn't exactly four years older than Hiro like he is in my other chapters. Just clarifying in case someone was lost).
Tadashi's POV
I woke up and stretched like a monkey. Yawning, I glanced over at Hiro's bed. I did that everyday just to make sure he was still there. I saw rustling under his bed and got curious.
I tip toed over to his bed and yanked the covers off fast and yelled "BOO!" Hiro jumped up, alarmed. A wrench barely missed my face in the process, making me jump as well.
I looked to see a beyond startled Hiro. He had a hand clenching his heart and his breathing significantly quickened. "God Tadashi, what's wrong with you?!" he exclaimed, flailing his arms about. I chuckle.
"Well in my defense, you DID throw a wrench at me." I say. "That's not fair. That was just an accident. And it didn't hit you." He says, sticking his tongue out.
"Yeah yeah. So what's my little bro workin on? And more importantly, did he get any sleep?" I ask, raising a brow. He smiles sheepishly, scratching his head.
"Just a little something. Nothing that big or anything. And I might've gotten like an hour or two of sleep so don't worry." Hiro says dismissively, getting down to pick up the wrench.
While he's not paying attention, I grab the little metal box looking thing he was working on. While I examine it, I continue to question him.
"Hiro, I know you've really gotten into robotics since you found out you're a genius, but please don't let that affect your sleeping patterns. You could get sick, or worse, sleep deprived!" I say that last past in mock drama, though I am serious about him needing more sleep.
Hiro rolls his eyes. "Oh great. Protective Tadashi's here. Just what I needed on beautiful Saturday." He says sarcastically.
I chuckle. "You know you love it when I'm all over protective." I joke. Hiro puts his hand on his face and widens his eyes. "Oh yeah! It's what I live for. Please fuss over every little thing I do big brother!" he says satirically. I laugh and he joins in.
"So seriously, what is this?" I ask, referring to the metal box thingy. Hiro snatches from my hands in a heartbeat. "It's nothing!" he says quickly, shoving it under his pillow and pulling the covers over it, as if that would keep me away from it. I raise my eyebrows at him. He giggles sheepishly. "Maybe you'll find out one day." He says with a shrug.
That's when I realize that Hiro's breathing didn't slow down from when I scared him yet. It was heavy and stressed sounding. "Hey Hiro, you okay? You're not still scared are you?" I ask, concerned. Hiro punches me in the shoulder and shakes his head. "Chill Tadashi. You're not that scary. Even with those dimples." He says playfully.
I remain stoic and Hiro notices. "Bro, I'm fine, honest. It's okay. I know you were just kidding." Hiro assures me. That's when I notice that Hiro's voice sounds a bit different too. I walk to him and place my hand on his forehead. He just stares at me, silent. It's warm. So warm in fact, that it's burning up my hand almost. I quickly yank it back and look at my brother carefully now.
Reddish face. I first assumed that it was red because the lack of sleep. Now that I think about it, he was sniffing a bit more than usual. His eyes were a little red where they were supposed to be white.
"Stay here, get into bed, and don't move. I'll be right back." I say, going out of the room, but not before hearing Hiro mutter "Worry wart. I'm not even sick. I don't FEEL sick."
I shake my head. He's so reckless. He shouldn't have stayed up all night doing god knows what with that metal box. Grabbing the thermometer from the kitchen cabinet, saying a quick good morning to Aunt Cass, and getting a glass of water, I run back upstairs to our room.
Thankfully, Hiro listened for once and was lying in bed like I told him to. Unfortunately, he was working on that box again. "Hiro put that thing away." I say. He huffs, but none the less places it back under his pillow.
I stick the thermometer into his mouth and sit on his bed. He stares at me and I stare back. We begin an unspoken staring contest. He always beats me, but this time, I'm not even close to cracking when his eye starts twitching. I smirk and cross my arms. He rolls his eyes, but that does it for him. His eyes reluctantly blink and he has a look of defeat.
I fist pump the air. "AW YEAH! I beat you!" I cheer, doing a stupid vitory dance.
"Whatever, I usually always win. You just got lucky." He says, dropping the thermometer out of his mouth in the process. I sigh and pick it up. He looks down. "Sorry Dashi." He says solemnly. I pat him on the shoulder. "It's okay buddy. It's been two minutes anyway. You're good." I say, checking the thermometer. I notice him look up and anxiously wait for me to read it.
"Ooooh Hiro. You're gonna have a boring weekend. You're not gonna be doing much with a fever of 100.1 degrees Fahrenheit." I say. Hiro huffs a breath of annoyance. "I don't get it. I don't feel sick at all!" he exclaims.
I chuckle. "Oh don't worry Hiro, you'll feel the aftershocks soon enough. See, this is why you need SLEEP." I say smartly. "Pshh, I'll be fine within a few hours. You'll see." He says coolly. I roll my eyes. Typical Hiro. Not taking things serious as always. I do hope he gets better though. No one likes a cranky Hiro. He loses his sarcastic demeanor, which isn't the bad part. The bad part is that he gets angry and throws a fit.
Hiro got out of bed and looked for his shoes. "What do you think you're doing?" I demand. Hiro looks at me. "Looking for my shoes and going downstairs to get breakfast?" he says as if it were obvious. "Uh uh mister disease. You're not going anywhere. A kid your age is extremely contagious. You're not getting anywhere near Aunt Cass." I say, shoving back to bed.
Hiro rolls his eyes sassily. "Okay, first of all, what a lame name. Mister disease? Really bro? Second, how come you're so worried about Aunt Cass, but then you proceed to make close physical contact with me huh? You're more prone to get sick than her." He says, raising a brow. "Look Hiro, I don't mind getting sick. Besides, I've got an immune system of steel. I'll be fine. Aunt Cass on the other hand, she gets sick by sniffing flowers. Coming to contact with a sick seven year old isn't gonna do her any good." I respond.
"Whatever. Just bring me breakfast." He says. I raise an eyebrow at his command. "Please?" he asks, showing his teeth gap with his dopey smile. Shaking my head, I head down to the kitchen to get him something to eat.
When I head back in, I see him tinkering with that metal box yet AGAIN. "That's it." I say, grabbing that box out of his hands. "Hey!" he cries, his voice a bit hoarse. "No more science stuff until you're better. You need rest." I say firmly. He huffs and glares at me, but I don't budge. He then looks away from me.
"C'mon Hiro. This is for your own good. I'm doing this to help you. You'll thank me when you're better. Now eat your breakfast." I say, handing him the tray of food.
He looks at it, then at me, crinkling his nose. "Gross, oatmeal." He says dejectedly, shoving the tray away from him. "That's gonna make you feel better Hiro." I say patiently. He squints. "I don't feel bad though." He says stubbornly, crossing his arms. I sigh. "Want me to feed you?" I ask. He shakes his head and doesn't look at me.
Gosh he was a stubborn little kid. I grab the tray and get some oatmeal on the spoon. Hiro glances at me with an expression that says, 'I'm not gonna eat that even if you feed me.'
I read somewhere about reverse psychology and thought this was a great way to test it out.
I wait till the oatmeal isn't hot enough to burn my tongue and shove it in my mouth. I'm not the biggest fan of oatmeal, but I had to act like I was to make this work. I ate another spoonful and another. After every spoonful, Hiro would open his mouth to say something, but then shut it. I inwardly smirked. This just might work. After my fifth spoon, Hiro lost it.
"Dashiii, that's MY breakfast! You can't just eat all of it!" he cries, crossing his arms again. Got him. I love how even though he's a super genius, he has his childish moments so techniques like this still worked.
"Well, you didn't want it, so I figured, why let it go to waste." I say with a shrug. "Give it Dashi. Get your own breakfast." He says whiningly. I hand the tray back to him and he downs the oatmeal in no time at all.
I smile, satisfied. Hiro looks at my expression and his expression turn sour. "Dashi! You did that on purpose." He said, cheeks puffed out. It looked pretty cute to see him like that.
"Yup. But hey, now you're gonna get better much faster." I say, holding back a laugh. He pushes the tray toward me and I see that a spoonful is still left. "Hiro, please finish it?" I ask. He shakes his head. "No way, you finish it." He says playfully. I shrug and eat the last spoonful. He smiles at me, and it makes me nervous. "Hiro, what'd you do to that oatmeal? You didn't spit it out did you!?" I ask. Hiro makes a disgusted expression. "Gross Tadashi, no way." He says, repulsed that I would even suggest such a nasty thing. I decide to let it go and get up.
Hiro gets up too. I point to his bed demandingly and wait for him to retreat. "C'mon Dashi, gimmie back my project." He begs.
"No Hiro."
"Please?!"
"Hiro, NO."
"Dashi c'monnnnn!" he whines.
"Hiro, I want you to get better." I say firmly.
"What's messing with my project have to do with me getting better?" he asks.
"You need rest, you're sleep deprived. Go to bed." I order.
Hiro sighs and reluctantly gets back into bed.
"Dashi this is pointless and boring! I'm not even tired." Hiro complains. I feel my patience lose me. "Well try Hiro! Go to bed! I don't wanna hear any more complaining from you!" I say raising my voice. Hiro winces at my tone and covers himself with his covers. I sigh.
Poor Hiro. I know how much he hates being yelled at. In fact, sometimes he can't even handle it. I feel bad.
"H-Hiro?" I call. No response. I pull the covers off of him. He looks at me blankly. "Hiro, you can talk." I say. He opens his mouth, but I stop him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. You didn't do anything wrong. I just need to learn to be patient." I say.
Hiro smiles and hugs me. "You're pretty patient to put of me most of the time Dashi." He assures me. I smiled. "Thanks little guy. But really, you do need rest. Please at least TRY to go to sleep?" I ask. Hiro nods. "Deal." He says, closing his eyes immediately.
No more than two minutes later, he opens them softly and looks at me hesitantly. "What is it?" I ask soothingly. "I'm sorry Dashi, I'm trying! I really am, but I just can't go to sleep." He says softly, whimpering. "Shhh, it's okay. Just relax." I say, sliding down next to him.
"Dashi, it's hot. Like really hot now." He whines. I look at him. "Aftershocks." I whisper. He looks down. "Don't worry bro, you'll be just fine." I say calmly. He nods and snuggles into me.
"Will you tell me a story?" he asks hopefully. I think for a while and nod. "Alright little guy." I say
"Okay. Once upon a time, there were two sisters-"How old were they"- Let's see… One was 15 and one was 7. They got along really well, and so one day, the younger one-"What was her name?"- Uh, her name was Hillary. So anyway, one day Hillary asked the older sister-"what was her name?"- hmm, her name was Tarry. So as I was saying, One day Hillary asked Tarry if they could go to the park. Tarry agreed and so they went. When they got there, Hillary begged to be pushed on the swings and Tarry agreed. Then Hillary wanted to go on the seesaw and Tarry agreed. Then Hillary got hungry and so Tarry bought them both some ice cream…."
Hiro was knocked out before I could continue. I carefully got up to go downstairs and inform Aunt Cass about Hiro's state when his voice stopped me. "Dashi? Hillary and Tarry. They're really me and you aren't they?" he whisper asked with a yawn. I smile. "Yeah, maybe." I say teasingly. Hiro smiles in his half-awake state. "Night Dashi. Thanks for taking care of me." he whispers, drifting off. I lean down to kiss his forehead. "Anytime bone head. Anytime." I say, leaving.
As I head downstairs, I start to feel a bit light headed. Then I cough a bit, followed by a sneeze. "Oh no…." I groan.
At least now I know why Hiro smiled as I ate the oatmeal. Eating after a sick person doesn't do well to the immune system.
Hope this is happier and maybe better than the other ones! Hope you enjoyed. Feel free to tell me anything that I could've done better. Be as brutally honest as you want, don't worry, I can take it. Feel free to leave any kind of feedback. Even if you want to tell me it sucked, go for it. That's your opinion, and I wanna hear it. Till next time
-girl you wouldn't expect