Brothers
8
Ages
Hiro: 10
Tadashi: 14
Normal POV
Tadashi Hamada was downstairs in the kitchen trying to make a cake for Aunt Cass. Emphasis on trying. The robotics enthusiast didn't know jack about making a cake. Ironic since his Aunt was rather gifted in it.
The older Hamada brother sighed and glanced at the clock. Hiro's bus would be here in a few minutes and then he'd finally get some help. His little brother had a knack for figuring things out pretty quickly. Hiro would definitely be able to fix his sad excuse for cake batter.
On cue, Hiro's bus was heard and not much later, Hiro's footsteps were heard. The little genius ran into the lucky cat café, dropped his backpack on the floor and raced up to his room with a huge smile.
Tadashi laughed. He found it funny that Hiro missed his presence in the kitchen. No later than 30 seconds, Hiro's footsteps thundered downstairs and his eyes roamed around violently until they finally settled on Tadashi. His breathing was rapid, but his smile stayed.
"Tadashi! Tadashi! Guess what? Oh, forget the guessing part, I'll just tell you. I got the highest grade on my science test at school with a 100% and I got a prize! Guess what the prize was! Too late, it was a king size chocolate bar! Oh hey, what are you doing in the kitchen Dashi?" The younger child said at incredible speed, thrusting a Hershey's bar into his older brother's face. Tadashi took a moment to process all the information.
"That's great Hiro. I'm so proud of you and Aunt Cass will be too. Wait till she finds out. This is great news. I'm actually making a cake for her right now. Or at least attempting. Wanna help?" Tadashi asked hopefully. Hiro nodded eagerly, putting his chocolate bar on the counter behind them.
Hiro observed the "mix" that Tadashi prepared. Not wanting to hurt his older brother's feelings, he pondered on how to ask his question. "Uh, Tadashi, how exactly did you make this?" he asked uncertainly. Tadashi scratched his head and listed off ingredients. "Let's see, I added flour, egg, sugar, milk, cinnamon, you know, the essentials. Hiro shook the mix about and tried to figure out what his culinary illiterate brother did wrong.
Tadashi's POV
I could tell Hiro was trying to spare my feelings because he was hesitant to give feedback. If only he knew that I knew I screwed up. "Hey Hiro, don't hold back, I know that it's crap." I say to him, hoping that would help.
"Oh god Tadashi. You didn't mix the wet and dry ingredients together did you?" Hiro asked, horrified. I shrug. "Yeah maybe, why?" I asked, not understanding what he was getting at.
"Gosh Tadashi, you can't bake to save your life." He said, dumping the batter into the trashcan. "Ouch Hiro, just ouch." I say in mock hurt, clenching my heart in despair. Hiro rolls his eyes.
"Okay get me 2 eggs, some flour, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, milk and a wooden spoon." He says authoritatively. I salute him and run to retrieve the ingredients, but stop myself. "Hey wait, what are you doing?" I asked. He gives me a look. "I'm going to grease the pan, pre-heat the oven, and get some measuring cups." He says. I nod sheepishly and go to get the stuff he needed.
In about 10 minutes, there's 4 cakes done and one batter being mixed. Hiro insisted to make a seven layer cake. He's a stinker for his lucky number sometimes.
I can tell my baby brother is getting exhausted from mixing and I take over for a while. Hiro wipes his forehead and collapses on the floor. I chuckle at his exaggeration. "Hey, thanks for helping me out bone head." I say. He lifts his hand up and waves as a response, too tired to speak.
I hurry and mix the batter, pour it into the pan, shove it into the oven, and begin to work on the next batter.
Hiro eventually gets up to help me again. "Hey Dashi, why are you making Aunt Cass a cake anyways? It's not her birthday or anything." Hiro asks. "Yeah I know, it's just because she takes care of us you know. I feel like people that care for others should be rewarded and repeatedly thanked. In fact, you can't thank them enough." I tell him, hoping this will sink into him.
I know he's young, but he needs to learn these lessons. I hope Aunt Cass knows how appreciative we both are of her. I don't want her to think we take it for granted or anything. To my pleasure, Hiro seems to think about what I said for a while.
"You're right Tadashi. Let's finish this cake!" Hiro says with newfound energy. I smile. I'm glad he's not a bratty kid like most. I hope we stay close like this. Not many siblings are close enough to talk with each other like Hiro and I.
We finally finish and I'm glad we didn't make too much of a mess. I really wasn't in the mood to clean right now. I was borderline wiped out and could see that Hiro was pretty knocked out too. "Alright knucklehead, let's clean up." I say, wiping my hands on my apron.
Hiro just stares at me and I get self-cautious. "What? Is there something on my face?" I ask. He nods and points at my chin with a laugh. I wipe it a bit to see white powder. I groan. Hiro points and laughs. "You look like Santa!" he cries, still laughing. I smirk at him. "You think that's funny do you?" I ask teasingly. Hiro still nods, too oblivious to notice I'm about to get revenge.
I grab a cup of flour and dump it on his mess of black hair. He cries in surprise.
"Ah! Tadashi! I did NOT ask to be Santa!" he says with a huff, crossing his arms. A bunch of flour falls off of his head when he does, making me burst out laughing. He glares at me. He then grabs a handful of chocolate chips and flings them at me. I try to dodge it, but a few end up pelting me anyway. I fix my hat and gaze at Hiro who's in a fighting stance. We mentally tell each other that it's war and grab various ingredients.
I fling a ball of brown sugar at him and it bursts on impact, sugar coating him. "Awwww, Hiro, you're so sweet!" I shout, laughing. He rolls his eyes, tossing an egg at me. It cracks, getting my clothes all gooey. "Lame pun bro." he says.
I throw a glob of leftover cake batter at him. It lands on his face and he gets grossed out. "Ewe! UGH GROSS!" he yells, wiping it off immediately. I laugh at his girlish antics. He shoots me a glare.
I look at the clock. "Oh god! Hiro we gotta clean like right NOW if we wanna finish before Aunt Cass gets home!" I cry in alarm, starting to put the bowls and spoons into the dishwasher. Hiro follows my lead, wiping off the counter tops.
I glance down at the floor and sigh. So much for not making a mess. The floor is littered with flour, eggshells, brown sugar, and other various unidentifiable substances and ingredients. Hiro looks too and is surprised at the mess. "Wow, we did all that?" he asks, gesturing to the mess. I nod and continue staring in disbelief. Hiro disappears and comes back with two mops and brooms.
"Well, it's not gonna clean itself Dashi. Let's get to it." He says, starting to mop. I help him and we finally finish. I check the dishwasher and slap my forehead because my idiotic-self forgot to START it! Hiro sees my predicament.
"Okay Dashi, Aunt Cass will be here in about fifteen minutes. Go shower because your clothes are gross and I'll just clean them by hand." Hiro insists, pushing me away from the kitchen. I look at him in awe. "Hiro, you are the best brother in existence!" I cry, picking him up and spinning him around. He laughs and tells me to put him down if we want to finish before Aunt Cass gets here. I nod and rush upstairs.
When I get back from my shower, Hiro is still cleaning dishes. "Wow Hiro, how long does it take? We didn't make that many dishes dirty did we?" I ask. Hiro shrugs and continues. "Here, your clothes are kind of messed up with all that sugar. You go take a shower." I say, taking over. Hiro shakes his head. "Aunt Cass'll be here any minute. I made some icing, start icing the cake layers. If we hurry, we can ice the entire thing." Hiro says, shoving me away from the dishes.
Wow, my little bro is pretty good at taking charge. I kind of feel like the younger one for once. It's…weird. A good weird. I do as he says and look at the icing he made. He made pink, purple, and red; Aunt Cass's favorites. I'm about to ice it when Hiro's voice stops me. "Wait Dashi, don't ice the cake here. Ice it in the dining hall. On the middle table." He says.
"Why?" I ask.
"Because we'll have to move it eventually, so why not now." He says dismissively.
I guess that makes sense, although not really. It's a weird suggestion, but I listen anyway, taking the heavy seven layer cake into the dining hall.
I finish icing it and Hiro pops out of the kitchen. It took him a long time to clean those dishes in my opinion, but I let it go.
He comes toward me with two tubes of sprinkles, shaking them in my face. "Whatcha say big bro?" he asks goofily. I nod and we bombard the cake with rainbow flavored sprinkles.
I stand back to stare at our master piece. It's no food network cake boss winner, but it's not something that you wouldn't want to eat either. "I'll give it a 7/10." I say. Hiro thinks for a moment. "I'd give it an eight. We just could've put the sprinkles on in a better way." Hiro says.
Suddenly, Aunt Cass walks in, looking beat. "Oh kiddos, I'm so put out. Let's just order take out tonight beca- WHAT is THAT?!" she cries in alarm, pointing to our cake, dropping her grocery bags in the process.
"We made you a cake!" we shout at the same time, sharing a glance. Aunt Cass looks beyond thrilled. "Oh you boys are so sweet! Thank you!" she says, crushing us in a hug. She dives into the cake, urging us to join her. I'm about to, when Hiro grabs my arm, stopping me. I look at him expectantly. "C'mon, follow me." He says, dragging me to the kitchen.
"What are we doing here?" I ask, confused. Hiro ignores my question and goes to the fridge and pulls out a blue and yellow iced two layer cake coated in a Hershey's bars little rectangles. I stare at in wonder.
Hiro shyly meets my gaze. "You said to remember to thank the people that take care of you. While it's true that Aunt Cass takes care of us, I think you take care of me in ways no one else ever did or will. Even mom and dad, so uh…you know…I uh…" he trails off, placing the cake on the counter.
I smile at him teasingly. "Aw, that's so cute Hiro, are you admitting you CARE about me? And almost saying THANK YOU?" I ask. Hiro punches me in the arm, blushing. "Yeah yeah, get cocky all you want." He says. I laugh and tackle him in a hug. "Thanks bro. at least now I know why it took forever for you to clean those dishes." I say.
I stare at the cake. This one definitely gets a 10/10. It gorgeous and the Hershey's pieces are a sweet edition to it. Wait a minute, Hershey's pieces?!
"Hiro, you didn't use your chocolate from school for this did you?!" I ask in shock. Hiro nods shyly. "You said you can't thank those people enough, so I thought using that would make it somewhat enough." He says bashfully. "Unbelievable." I breathe. I come down to Hiro's eye level. He looks away from me, embarrassed.
"Hey, look at me knuckle head." He looks at me. "You're way more than enough. You're the best brother a guy could have." I say honestly. Hiro blushes like crazy. "Th-th-thanks Tadashi." He says. I smile at him.
I suddenly take my hat off since something was bothering me in there and a bunch of chocolate chips come out of it, breaking our 'moment' and causing us to laugh. "God Hiro, how many of these did you get me with?" I ask, nudging him in the side. He shrugs, picking one out of my hair and eating it. "Gross Hiro." I say mockingly. He punches me in the shoulder playfully.
"Hey kiddos, I did bring you guys something. Come see." Aunt Cass called, her mouth sounding full. We head into the dining hall and she hands us a smallish white paper bag.
"Donut balls!" Hiro breathes in excitement, shoving his hand into the bag. He bites into it eagerly and moans in delight. "Delicious! You're the best Aunt Cass!" he exclaims. I cross my arms. "Oh what, she buys you donut balls and suddenly I'm second best?" I ask accusingly. Hiro's cheeks turn a fresh red. "I-uh,-Dashi!" he sputters incoherently. "Relax Hiro, I was only messing with you." I say, giving him a noogie. He pulled away from my grasp and glared. I smiled sweetly in return, taking a donut ball for myself.
"Mm, it's good but it's missing something. It's a little plain." I muse. Hiro looks at me in confusion. "What are you talking about? It's perfect." He says. "Not quite." I say with a smirk.
I rub the donut ball across Hiro's brown sugar covered face and eat it. Hiro looks disgusted but I laugh. "Now it's perfect." I say. Hiro tries not to, but ends up laughing too. "Tadashi that was gross!" he cries, laughing so hard, he has to hold his stomach in pain. I shrug. "Says the one who picked a chocolate chip outta my hair." I say mockingly. He looks away, embarrassed.
"Hey bonehead, whaddya ya say we head into the kitchen and dive into that beyond delicious looking cake?" I ask. Hiro doesn't even wait for me to finish that sentence before rushing into the kitchen. "Unbelievable." I snort.
Aunt Cass comes up behind me and puts a hand on my shoulder. "You know, he may not admit it, but he really loves you Tadashi." She said. "Nah, I can get him to admit it sometimes." I say to her. She smiles and goes back to her cake. She already finished an entire layer. I give her a look.
She waves a piece of cake at me. "Joy eating." She defends, stuffing her face with a pink iced slice. I ignore it and head into the kitchen to eat the cake my baby bro made.
SHA-ZAM! Another chapter DONE!