Brothers

24

Ages

Hiro: 5

Tadashi: 10

Tadashi's POV

It was late at night and Hiro was not going to sleep.

Not because he was having nightmares. Not because he thought there was a monster under his bed. Not because he was high off of sugar, but because he simply didn't want to.

"Dashi! I'm not tired. I'm not going to sleep." He declared with crossed arms.

"Hiro please. It's late. I want to sleep." I say. He pokes his lip out and huffs. "No Dashi. I'm not a baby." He announces. I sigh.

"Well you have a cute widdle baby face!" I exclaim in a mock old people voice, pinching his cheeks. "Gross! Stop Dashi." He says, moving away from me with a laugh. I laugh along with him before letting out a big yawn.
"Alright bonehead, get some sleep so I can too." I say, pointing to his bed. He sits down on the floor next to my bed.

"No Dashi. No sleep for me. I'm not tired." He says stubbornly.

"Please Hiro. If you sleep now, I'll buy you a jar of gummy bears tomorrow." I promise him. He looks like he's about to give in, but decides against it at the last minute. "But I'm not tired." He whines.

I decide that instead of arguing with him, I should do something else. I pick him up and place him on my bed. He sits cross legged on it, refusing to lay down. I plop down next to him and seat him on my lap.

"I'm still not sleeping Dashi. Even if you try to make me." Hiro says, sticking his tongue out at me in defiance. I shrug. "Okay Hiro, you win. I'll just let you sit here and do nothing then." I say. He smiles smugly, as if he's won.

Then, I run my hands through his hair. He flinches and pulls his head away, glaring at me. "No!" he cries, protesting. I hold my hands up in surrender. "Okay Hiro. How about a shoulder rub? A massage?" I ask innocently. Hiro pokes his lip out, thinking it over. "Okay, but no hair touching." He demands seriously. I agree and begin to massage his shoulders. He sighs in content and leans back, easing into my arms.

"Feels good?" I ask. He nods, too mesmerized to speak. I continue to rub his shoulders and I notice that his eyes close in tranquility, but he still doesn't yawn or show signs of exhaustion. I try to find a pressure point, but can't.

"This feels goooooood." Hiro hums. I smile at him. He's such a dork, but he's my little dork. I finally hit a spot in his neck that makes him let out a sound of pleasure. I stifle a laugh as he leans further into me. "Enjoying this?" I ask. "Yeeeeeeeessssss." He stretches out, practically laying down on me. I decide to go in for the secret weapon now. I slowly, ever so slowly, reach for the end of his hair with one hand and continue to massage his shoulders with the other one. He slightly stiffens and gets up a bit, but soon relaxes as I ruffle his hair lightly.

He leans into me, but doesn't lay down again. I eventually work my way to have both my hands messing around in his hair. It's so soft and fluffy and it makes my hands feel soft too. I smile as I finally see him crack a yawn.

Touching his hair makes him tired and he knows it. That's why he hates people ruffling it, it makes him want to sleep. I'm probably the only one who knows this and he hates me for it.

I work on a knot that's tangled up pretty badly as he lets out a breath of bliss, eyes refusing to open now. I untangle it and continue to massage his hair. He snuggles into me and I think he's about to go to sleep.

I fluff up his hair after I get all the knots out and let my hands down. They're pretty tired now, but they've got enough energy to pick up Hiro gently and carry him to his bed.

I try to softly place him down without waking him up, but the little bonehead manages to clench his arms around my neck tightly and he won't let go. I try to pry his hands off gently, but they're clinging on too strongly. I know he's sleeping because he's letting out soft breaths of hot air onto my neck. I sigh and carry him back to my bed. I lay down and he's right on top of me.

"Unbelievable." I whisper, trying to get him off of me. He won't budge and I just give up. As I'm drifting off to sleep, I feel myself roll over, forgetting all about Hiro and he goes falling off the bed. I gasp in horror as he hits the ground with a thud. I painfully look down, seeing if he's okay.

Unfortunately, he woke up and now he's crying. I scoop him up and place him on my bed as he cries.

"D-Dashi, wh-why d-did you do th-that?" He asks between sobs. I feel a tug at my heart at his words. I pull him into me, but he yanks himself away, looking scared of me. I feel a stab of pain shoot up in me.

There are bad feelings I've had in my life. Getting falsely accused of cheating on a test, getting a girl to laugh at me, getting scolded for eating Aunt Cass's inventory, but none of those felt as horrible as this. Hiro, my baby brother looked genuinely afraid of me. He looked like he lost all trust in me. Like I was going to hurt him.

"H-Hiro, it was an accident, I'm sorry." I explain, voice cracking. I try to reach for him, but he backs up, still scared. There's still tears coming out of his eyes, but he stops sobbing. Sniffling, he sits on the edge of my bed, looking at the floor. I feel terrible. I should've paid more attention. My carelessness made my brother scared of me.

"Hiro, I'm so sorry. I just got careless. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I promise." I say to him. He looks at me with sad eyes. "P-promise?" he asks uncertainly. "Of course Hiro. I would never hurt you, I swear it." I say, crossing my heart. He looks at me as if he's deciding whether to believe me or not before he stick out his extremely tiny pinky at me.
"Pinky swear?" he asks seriously. I smile in relief. "Pink swear." I say, linking our pinkies. Mine seems so much larger compared to his bony little one and I chuckle. "Okay Dashi. I forgive you." He says, leaning into me once more.

"Good. I can't stand you looking at me like you're scared of me." I say honestly, pulling him as close to me as possible, not willing to risk letting him fall again.

"Me either Dashi. I don't like being scared of you." He says, closing his eyes again. I run my fingers gently through his hair as I watch sleep overtake him again. My cute little baby brother. I hope I never let him fall like that again.