Brothers

9

Ages

Hiro: 13

Tadashi: 18

Okay, so this is gonna be a multiple chapter story. Maybe a trilogy at most, though I'm not 100% sure yet. It's just a bit too much content to fit in one chapter. Enjoy

Youngest or Oldest?

Part 1: The Switch

Hiro's POV

I was just finishing breakfast when I heard Tadashi's footsteps coming down from our room. When he got to the dining hall, I greeted him, but he didn't exactly look thrilled to see me. Confusion waves went over me. What could I possibly have done? I only just woke about ten minutes ago after all.

"Uh, you alright there Tadashi? I ask carefully. Tadashi does not look amused.

"How many times have I told you not to leave a mess in our room?" he asks, getting right to business. I take a bite of my donut and shrug.

"As many times as I've done it?" I respond smartly, just to tick him off.

"Hiro please. It's not just your room. I like things clean. Stop scattering everything."

"Exactly, it's not just your room either. I like things messy." I say jokingly.

"Hiro, I'm not in the mood for games. Clean it up now."

"I'm kind of eating breakfast right now as you can probably see."

"Hiro, I don't need any of your lip. Clean that room as soon as you're done eating."

"Oooooh, as much as I'd love to big bro, but I've kinda got plans." I say, finishing my donut and running to the door. Before I can make it out, Tadashi grabs me by the hoodie and spins me around, something I hate almost as much as when he messes up my hair. "Hiro, Clean. NOW." He says authoritatively. I roll my eyes. "It's not even on your side of the room bro. quit being such a neat freak." I say, shoving him away from me.

"Hiro c'mon. I always do things for you." He says. I raise an eyebrow. "Like what? Name one time." I challenge. Tadashi fold his arms. "Okay, I cared for you when you were sick. I took the blame for you when you broke Aunt Cass's expensive vase. I read you bedtime stories when you were younger. I checked the closet for monsters that one time. I also convinced Aunt Cass to keep Mochi when you found her as a stray kitten on the streets." He says.

"Yeesh, I only asked for one." I say, heading upstairs to clean our room.

"Ah, THANK YOU Hiro." Tadashi says, relieved.

That's the thing about mine and Tadashi's arguments. They usually last no longer than a minute and they get resolved pretty quickly.

I just finished cleaning out room and head downstairs. I hear Tadashi talking to someone, probably a friend from school. Deciding to eavesdrop like the good little boy I am, I hide behind the staircase.

"Hm? Yeah totally. I know right. Yeah. Being the oldest sibling stinks sometimes. Really? No way! Hiro's done way worse." I hear Tadashi say to the other line. I cross my arms.

Yeah, cause being a bossy, annoying, and over protective brother is SO hard. Psh, what a baby. None the less, I continue to listen.

"He has no idea. Yeah, it's like he just expects it and gets mad when things don't go his way. Yeah? Totally. Yeah, I remember one time in third grade, Hiro lost his science project and when I found it, he didn't even acknowledge me. Yup, just took off for school like he expected me to find it." I heard him say.

I shake my head in disbelief. Is he really holding something I did when I was EIGHT against me? How mature.

"Oh and he gets like whatever he wants just by making his stupid little puppy face. It's not even that cute. Like he wanted these cookies right? But Aunt Cass said to wait till after diner. But get this, he gives her that ridiculous face and BAM! He gets cookies before dinner. I could never get away with stuff like that." He continues.

So he thinks being the youngest is easy does he? It's not like I always get compared to him and people expect great things from me just because I'm his brother. It's not like I have to try extra hard to be where he is. Okay, so maybe I over achieved a bit, but my point still stands.

I suddenly get the perfect idea and run back upstairs.

"Hiro! I thought I asked you to clean up, not make a bigger mess!" Tadashi cries, looking at the mess I sort of made again.

"Okay wait, I know this looks really bad, but I promise I cleaned it! I just…made another mess. But this one is totally unrelated to the one from this morning." I say lamely. He shakes his head. "What are you even doing anyway?" he asks, curious. I shrug mysteriously. "For me to work on and you to find out. Eventually." I say, getting back to my project.

Tadashi collapses on his bed and starts reading. I smirk and run to him, grab his hat off of his head, and run back before he can process what just happened.

He blinks and touched his head. "What the- Hiro!" he yells. I smile sweetly at him and search the hat for any loose hairs. Finding one, I snag it and hide it behind me before he can see. Tadashi comes at me and snatches his hat back. "Crazy little kid." He mutters, though I know he's amused.

"So Hiro honey, Tadashi tells me that you're working on something new?" Aunt asks, interested. I glare at Tadashi. He know I hate it when people know I'm working on something. He just smirks at me, grabbing more mashed potatoes on his plate. I glance at my untouched dinner and shrug. "Yeah, but it's just a work in progress so you know." I say plainly.

"You okay Hiro, you haven't touched your dinner at all." Aunt Cass asks. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just really wanna work on this project, so if you'll excuse me." I say, rushing upstairs.

"Alright little bro, you've been working on that thing for two weeks now, what is it?" Tadashi asks me, finally interested.

"Well, now that I'm finally finished, I guess it's time for you to know." I say, wiping my forehead.

"First, a hair from each of the test subjects." I say, pulling out two hairs. Tadashi observes the hair. "Wait a second, is that MY hair?!" he asks, shocked. I nod and place the hairs in my machine.
"Whoa whoa, way Whoa whoa. What exactly does this thing do?" he asks in caution.

"Chillax big bro. so remember how a couple of weeks ago you were on the phone and were talking about how it sucks to be the older sibling?" I ask accusingly. Tadashi looks guilty and nervously adjusts his hat. "Hiro, I didn't mean it. I was just talking you know. I don't really mind being your older brother." He says. I wave it off.

"Don't worry about that, that's only one of the reasons I decided to build this. See, this machine allows us to switch ages. That way, I can see how 'terrible' it is to be the older one." I say, satisfied. Tadashi looks less enthusiastic than I hoped.

"I don't know Hiro. I mean, so many things can go wrong with this." He says uncertainly.

"Alright, I'll just tell Aunt Cass who really got in trouble at school for blowing up the chemistry lab." I threaten nonchalantly. His eyes widen.

"Oh fine. Whatever. It's not like this is going to be terrible. I can get away with everything now." He says.

Yeah you think that it's all fun and games being the youngest. Psh, this is my best idea yet.

I fire up the machine and wait for it to work its magic. A bright flash blocks my view and I can't see anything for a second. I open my eyes and look around for Tadashi, looking forward to being taller and less lanky.

Well, one thing's for sure. I'm definitely taller. But something feels a little weird. I can't place it.

I finally let my eyes fall on Hiro. Wait, HIRO?! I'm Hiro! What in the world."

I apparently get up and rub my eyes? "Wow Hiro. That was definitely something." I say. My brain really hurts and I can't comprehend anything.

"WOW WAIT WHAT THE HECK?! HOW CAN YOU BE ME WHEN I'M ME?!" I scream. I rub my head and look in the mirror. It takes me a while to process what happened, but I finally piece it together.

"Tadashi. Something did go wrong. We didn't switch ages. We switched BODIES!" I scream in horror. Tadashi in my body laughs. "Ha, good one Hiro, what really happened?" he asks. I shove a mirror into his hands. His eyes practically pop out of his sockets.

"Oh. My. GOD." He says in shock and horror. "I'm in your body. I'm in my little brother's body. Those are words that shouldn't come out of anyone's mouth." Tadashi says.

I look around nervously before gazing at my body from someone else's eyes for the first time. Man my hair is all over the place. I'm a pretty pathetic looking kid overall. I can't believe this is real. I can see that Tadashi is looking at me too and checking 'himself' out.

Tadashi's POV

Holy cow. I can't believe that I'm looking at myself. God, that sounds weird. I'm pretty tall, or maybe that's just because Hiro's pretty short.

I'm trying to decide what to do or say when Hiro speaks up.

"So…maybe the machine didn't do exactly what it was supposed to, but maybe this will be easier to explain to Aunt Cass. I mean, I'm just looking on the bright side here." He says.

"Unbelievable. How could this possible be easier to explain?! Oh, hey Aunt Cass. I'm trapped in Hiro's body and Hiro's trapped in mine. Yeah, that'll be a pleasant little talk!" I shout, terrified. Hiro rolls his eyes.

"Calm down big bro. use your brain for a second. We don't have to tell her anything because she won't know. You see what I'm getting at?" he asks. "You mean, just pretend that everything's normal?" I ask. Hiro nods. "Precisely."

"I don't understand why we can't just use your machine to switch back bodies." I say. Hiro looks at me as if it's obvious.

"Because we still didn't experience what it's like to be each other's age. Or each other for that matter." Hiro jokes. I sigh. "Okay. But only for a while. Got it?" I say. He nods. "One day. Two days tops." He promises. I nod too. "Alright, well, let's go eat breakfast." I say, heading downstairs.

Aunt Cass greets us with a big smile as always. "Alright kiddos, I made your favorites. Blueberry pancakes for Hiro and chocolate chip pancakes for Tadashi." She says, plating the yummy breakfast in front of us.

Hiro and I look at each other. I hate blueberries. But I'm Hiro, so apparently I love them. I take a hesitant bite and want to spit it out.

"Okay smart one, we may have switched bodies, but I think our brains stayed. Which would also explain why I don't feel like a super genius." I whisper to Hiro. Hiro smiles a chocolate tooth covered smile at me. It's strange since I'm so used to seeing a slight teeth gapped one. "Too bad I like chocolate chips and blueberries huh?" he says teasingly. Leave it to Hiro to remain childish, even while in my body.

We finish breakfast and head to the park because we've got nothing better to do. While we're on the swings, I see a couple of my friends and I'm about to call to them, before Hiro stops me.

"Are you crazy?!" he asks me.

"What do you mean?"

"I MEAN genius. How do you think they'll react when they see ME waving to them? I'm you, remember?" he says.

Oh right. I just look at the floor. "This is going to take some getting used to." I say. Hiro grabs my shoulder softly. "Hey, it's okay. Maybe we just need to practice. We should just hang around Aunt Cass. If we can fool her, we can adjust way easier in public." Hiro suggests. I nod and we head home silently.

It's when we're walking home that I realize something important. Maybe some parts of our brain switched, but some stayed the same. When Hiro was comforting me a second ago, it was almost like my older brother instincts took over him. In fact, that's probably exactly what happened. Maybe we really can experience what it's like to be the opposite age.

I tell Hiro what I just figured out. He smiles. "I knew my invention would work. I shake my head. "Hopefully, this switching bodies thing will teach you a lesson or two." I say, nudging him in the side. "And maybe teach you three or four." He says goofily, nudging me back.

"Okay mister always has a comeback." I say nudging him slightly harder.

He laughs and nudges me twice as hard. Apparently Hiro didn't know his new strength and I didn't know my lack of and so I went falling down on the sidewalk.

Normal POV

"Ouch!" Tadashi cries. Hiro kneels down to help. "Oh god Tadashi. I'm so sorry. I didn't know." He says apologetically, picking Tadashi up. "It's cool. I just lightly scraped my arm is all." he says whilst inspecting it. "No, c'mon let's get it disinfected." Hiro insists, pulling Tadashi into the café behind him.

'Gosh, way to overreact over a little scratch.' Tadashi thought.

'Wow, did he have to be so clumsy. And on top of that, if we don't disinfect it, it'll hurt worse.' Hiro thought at the same time.

Little did both brothers know that their brains were adjusting to their bodies more by the minute. Hiro was getting really over protective and Tadashi was beginning to want to do more interesting things.

Well, that's the end of part 1. Any guesses on how this will turn out? Let me know what you think! I'm all ears. Till next time!

-girl you wouldn't expect