Oi! Ow! Ow ow ow ow OW! Gettimoff get him OFF!"

Maemi Hamada was having a hard time suppressing a laugh as she reached down and gently pried two-years-old Tadashi's tiny fingers from his elder brother's hair. Tadashi himself, however, had no such qualms as he openly giggled at the annoyed glare Hiro sent his way.

"Nii-chan!" he exclaimed gleefully and with as much pride as two-year-old could muster up at saying a word he had learned not long ago. Chubby hands found their way back to Hiro's face, this time settling on his cheeks and squeezing a bit.

Hiro valiantly tried to keep his face in an irritated expression, "What?"

Tadashi's grin only grew, "Nii-chan shouldn't pout!" at that Hiro's eyes widened comically as he sputtered in startled outrage. But the younger's grin was infectious and he couldn't help but returning it, ruffling his hair as a form of petty, meaningless vengeance, to which Tadashi only reacted with louder giggles.

Maemi then lifted him up and put him down on a different corner of the living room filled with little toys, "Okay boys, I'm going out for a bit and I don't want you playing rough. You hear me, Hiro?" she sent him a pointed look.

He mustered up the most innocent expression he could manage, "Whatever do you mean?"

The woman rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed, "You know what I mean. I don't want to see Tadashi hanging from the bedpost and covered in scrapes again."

"That was just an experiment!"

"Well, no more 'experiments', then."

"It was for science!"

"Uh huh."

"Science is important!"

"If it's so important maybe you should start on your homework, hm?"

Hiro visibly grimaced but before he could retort she was already out the door. He turned back to his little brother, gesticulating wildly, "You understand me, don't you, Tadashi?"

"Mh hm!" the other nodded enthusiastically, but soon found himself distracted by the toys that surrounded him.

Hiro sighed exaggeratedly and went to grab a screwdriver that he had dropped at some point. Probably when his brother suddenly pulled at his hair, taking him completely by surprise. As he resumed his work on the little contraption he was working on, his mind drifted off, suddenly fascinated by how using his hands to handle tools and put pieces together had become increasingly easier as time passed. Maybe it was because his hand wasn't as chubby as it used to be.

He looked at the mass of bolts, cables and stray pieces in hand and wondered yet again what it would end up as. Ever since his genius had been "discovered", he had started building pointless contraptions to take his mind off of things, made of potential garbage and a few little things he'd managed to swipe from his parents' lab-slash-workshop in the basement. He just put all the pieces together in some way, never missing a single one, to make a silly little thing without a purpose, contemplate it for a while, then dismantle it and start anew with anything else he could find around the house added to the mix.

He may or may not have taken the toaster apart at one point to get this one fuse.

He shifted a bit, his position on the carpeted floor starting to become a bit uncomfortable, and leaned back on the side of the sofa as he continued to fiddle with tools. Looking up for a moment to see exactly why his playing brother had become so silent out of sudden, he noticed said boy staring out the window at a flock of birds flying by. Tadashi frowned for a moment before turning to his elder brother.

"How do birds fly?" he asked earnestly.

Hiro, for his part, was taken completely by surprise at the sudden question and spent a moment trying to gather his wits, "Uh, birds? Fly, right, uhm..." he racked his brain for an answer. He knew this! He had asked about the subject himself not so long ago. Now, if only he could remember... "Ah! Right! Well, their bones are hollow, so that makes them light enough that they can keep themselves in the air. Feathers have something to do with it too..." he trailed off, contemplative.

Tadashi tilted his head, "Bones?"

"Uh yeah, you know," Hiro knocked on his forehead with his knuckles to illustrate, "the hard stuff. In your body, I mean."

Tadashi's eyes lit up in understanding and he looked down at his own arm in confusion. Hiro noticed and quickly realized what was going through the toddler's head, "Whoa, wait! Tadashi, no. Your bones aren't hollow, you can't fly."

Tadashi looked back up and pouted, "Eh? Really?"

"Really." Hiro sighed. "I mean, people can fly, just not the way birds do it."

Tadashi scrunched up his face in thought, then stood up and shakily walked over to the sofa Hiro was leaning against. He passed the older boy and Hiro could hear small grunts of effort and the soft, almost inaudible thump of skin on plush. He frowned but didn't stand up to look behind him, nor did he turn his head to look above him and see if could take a peek of the small boy, "Dashi? What are you doing?" For a moment, there was only the sound of hard breathing-

THUMP

"OOF!"

Hiro's pained groan was muffled by the soft, fluffy carpet his face was currently being pressed into. Above him, literally on him, something moved and writhed and squealed, only serving to increase the almost painful pressure on his back. Something twitched and suddenly there was an elbow digging into his neck.

"Hm hmph!" he attempted to complain and it was apparently understood as the pressure disappeared after some fumbling and tripping. Carefully, Hiro used his arms to push his abused body off the floor and looked up to meet Tadashi's sheepish gaze. He glared for a while, a low growl escaping his throat and Tadashi's eyes widened in mild fear for his wellbeing. He bolted for the hallway with unapologetic giggles trailing behind him just as Hiro stood up to follow.

"TADASHI!"

The following chase would later be looked upon as the most epic, most destructive game of tag they had ever taken part in. Even Tadashi would be able to remember most of it years later.

Needless to say, their mother wasn't very thrilled when she came back.

----------------------------------------

Hiro looked at the little pointless machine he had yet again created, contemplative frown marring his face. Unbidden, he suddenly remembered his brother looking out the window, strangely fascinated by the flying creatures. He kept staring at the thing. Then, he finally came to a conclusion and started dismantling it.

He was starting his first project.

A bird.

The next weeks passed in a frustratingly slow crawl as Hiro spent them gathering the necessary materials. Not just whatever he could find, no, he actually had to sneak into the basement while his parents weren't there and spend hours trying to figure out what exactly he needed, all the way trying not to freak out at every small noise because if his parents found out he would be so dead. (It never occurred to him that they might have let him borrow anything he needed and even recommended some things to him as long as he finished all his schoolwork properly – or maybe it did).

When he finally deemed his stash complete enough, he started tinkering. However, after only days of this he noticed that this process wasn't quite working the way he thought it would. Nevertheless, Hiro was nothing if not stubborn and kept trying to add piece by piece as they seemed to fit. He finally gave up on this approach three weeks later when he had already used half of his available parts, the tiny, ridiculously-difficult-to-handle ones included, and his work still didn't resemble what he was aiming for in the least. Then again, he didn't really have much of a mental image, just a vague idea... oh.

And so, Hiro discovered that plans, rough drafts and exact blueprints were actually rather important features in the process of creating something with an actual purpose instead of something that stretched the expression "It works" to the limits. Sitting down in front of his desk, he grabbed a pencil and started sketching some ideas – only to promptly realize that birds were really freaking weird and he had no idea how they worked. With a sigh, he turned on his computer – a gift from his sixth birthday – and searched for pictures of birds.

The search was agonizingly fruitless and it took him a while to uncover the fact that what he was looking for wasn't just birds, but their anatomy. Choosing a random, rather ordinary looking kind, he spent an impressive amount of time studying the pictures and trying to copy them onto a blank sheet of paper. Honestly, when Hiro had started this thing, he hadn't thought it would involve so much work and studying. It took a considerable time for him to produce a design that somewhat replicated this anatomy fittingly enough before he could finally move on to planning how he would put it all together, He had long since taken apart that failure of a first try.

Drawing proper blueprints, Hiro discovered after several failed attempts and days of measuring parts and the amount of material he had, was ridiculously hard and troublesome. Still he was about finished, though he wondered if there were any more efficient ways of doing this. Hm, well there was a thought. He opened his browser and played around with a few search keywords...

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

...what did they mean, there were softwares for this kind of thing?

Hiro stared at the screen for a while, feeling conflicted, before he released a cry of sheer frustration and almost tore the sheet he had just been working on into millions little pieces. He managed to convince himself that it was a bad idea and it would just waste all of his work, but the seemingly mocking smudges and wrinkles on the innocent-looking piece of paper made it oh so tempting.

The door to his and Tadashi's shared bedroom suddenly opened and Hiro scrambled to cover everything up before turning to face the intruder with what he hoped was an innocent expression. His father looked at him with confusion, then thinly veiled amusement. "Working on something, son?"

"Oh, um, yeah, well, you know, homework and... school... stuff." was his eloquent reply.

Tomeo chuckled and made to withdraw from the room, but not before throwing a comment over his shoulder, "You know, the next time you need something from us, you can ask."

The door closed as Hiro's eyes widened and his face turned an interesting shade of red that made his cheeks feel like they would burn off any minute now.

So maybe he should have asked.

----------------------------------------

Finally! It was finally finished! All those weeks, months even, of work had paid off. Hiro stood alone in his room. He would have preferred the garage, but it was currently occupied by the car. Still, he couldn't care less right now, what with his little masterpiece ready to activate.

The young boy couldn't keep the stupid smile off his face as he held his hand up, the little device fitting snugly between his fingers. Giddy with excitement, he pressed his thumb to the top of the pseudo bird's head and loosened his grip. His grin widened as it started flapping its wings and moving forward a bit-

And then it fell like a rock, clattering on the floor.

Hiro stared.

And stared.

And stared.

And sta-

"What the heck is this?!"

The bird apparently thought that ignoring him was the best course of action and remained silent.

"Well?!"

More silence.

Hiro did not throw a tantrum all by himself, nor did he trip on a bolt during said tantrum. It did not happen.

Breathing heavily and rubbing his bruised chin, he continued to stare at the stupid, insolent bird. Why didn't it work? What had gone wrong? Were he mechanisms having problems? No, he had checked those. Maybe a short circuit-

"Well, their bones are hollow, so that makes them light enough that they can keep themselves in the air."

After a moment of shock at his utter stupidity, he decided to introduce his palm to his face. Several times. Of course! It didn't work because it was too heavy. So either he needed to make the motor and the wings stronger... or he needed to make the whole thing lighter. That meant lighter materials altogether.

He looked back at his creation. That would mean making it again out of scratch. But the other option couldn't guarantee anything. The thing was pretty heavy, he admitted as he lifted it off the floor.

Hiro sighed.

Starting from scratch it was, then.

----------------------------------------

It was while working on his second bird, having stayed up a bit later than he probably should have, that he realized he hadn't drunk anything since that morning and decided to sneak into the kitchen for a quick sip of water. He opened the door of the room as quietly as possible, so as not to disturb his sleeping brother, and slipped into the hallway.

However, his trek to the kitchen was cut short when he heard voices coming from his parents' room. Curiosity took over and he leaned against the door in the hopes that they would become clearer.

"...first few he solved perfectly really. But the other problems, the most difficult ones..." that was kaa-chan.

"He didn't get them, huh?" and tou-san.

There was a moment of silence in which he assumed she was shaking her head, "No, he didn't. These are the same problems Hiro solved at the same age, so..."

Hiro sucked in a sharp breath, heart suddenly pounding in his chest as he listened more intently. They couldn't be talking about... but when had it happened? Had he been too distracted to notice?

"So Tadashi, isn't as brilliant as Hiro. Big deal. He was still able to solve the first few at the age of three. He's still a little genius. Besides, even if he wasn't-"

"I know, Tomeo. He's still our Tadashi. That will never change. And he's still really smart."

"I'll say! Now, come on, Maemi. You need to sleep. Hell, I need to sleep. It's late. Nothing's changed. They're still our boys."

A slight chuckle, "I guess. Good night."

"Night"

Hiro waited for a moment to make sure they wouldn't continue their conversation before he headed back to his room, drink all but forgotten. He sat down on his bed and released a shuddering breath.

Tadashi was smart, he knew that. But... not as smart as Hiro, apparently. He looked to the small lump on the other bed and his eyes softened, then closed.

"I'm glad," he sighed. And he was. He was also angry, annoyed, sad and a bit desperate, but above all he was glad, "Be a happy kid, otouto. Don't let anything ruin that."

----------------------------------------

Tadashi's birthday – the occasion on which he had wanted to give him the little piece of work – flew by while he worked on the second version of his little bird, now affectionately dubbed Bird 2.0 because he couldn't come up with anything better.

He did finally get it finished, although the process wasn't really shortened by his newly acquired experience, seeing as he had had to trade materials from his parents with responsible homework-doing. And man did those things take time. As he finished fine tuning it, the door opened and his parents walked in.

"We're going out, dear. Cass will be here soon, so please don't give her too much trouble, hm?" said his mother as she knelt and hugged him briefly. Hiro hummed in agreement to her request as his father also hugged him and then patted his head, smiling warmly.

"Have fun." he said distractedly, missing the amused glance his parents shared before they departed. Hiro stood up shakily, excitement running through is very being. It was done. He had even given it a test run. It worked perfectly. No more disappointments.

He almost ran out of his room and down the hallway, barely stopping himself at the doorway of the living room, where his brother was playing with a toy car (if trying to see how high he could throw said car counted as playing). He breathed in deeply, the exhaled.

"Hey Dashi," the response was automatic. Tadashi immediately looked up and grinned from ear to ear.

"Nii-chan!"

Hiro couldn't help the laugh that escaped him at the sight as he approached the smaller boy, "I have something for you."

"Really?" Hiro didn't know a grin like that could get even bigger, but apparently it could.

He smiled, "Yeah. Here you go." He dropped the object into Tadashi's hand and let him stare down at it for a moment, "Well?"

Tadashi looked up, confusion clouding his gaze as he frowned, "It's an egg."

Hiro snorted with barely contained laughter. It was indeed an egg, if one of the shiny, silver variety. "Yes, it's an egg." he said, pointing his index finger towards the top of the egg from above in a dramatic gesture, "Until you press the top."

A circle was suddenly visible at the top as it was momentarily pressed downwards. Mere seconds later, several smooth, hairline cracks appeared on the surface. Then it started shifting. Tadashi looked on in unadulterated fascination as it sprouted wings and a head out of sudden. It kept shifting until the egg shape was completely broken to be replaced by a rather simple looking bird.

It was immobile at first, which is why Tadashi gave a startled shout when it started flapping its wings and took off from his palm, flying around the room with seemingly boundless energy. It came very close to the walls and furniture, but never quite managed to collide with them. Tadashi gaped, then looked at Hiro in disbelief, "This is for me?"

Hiro rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, yeah. You were talking about birds and flying a few months ago so I thought you'd like it. I mean, I know it's not that awesome, but-" he was unexpectedly cut off by a three-year-old tackling him to the floor.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"

The eldest was paralysed for a moment before he returned the hug, "You're welcome, otouto. Have fun with it."

"I will!" was the enthusiastic reply.

This was the scene their aunt walked into when she opened the front door, "Awwww! Aren't you two adorab- oh my goodness what is that?!" She jumped when Bird 2.0 approached her, he quickly changed directions before it could crash into her face.

"Nii-chan made it for me!"

Cass stared at them for a moment, then looked back at the bird, "Seriously? You made this, Hiro?"

He blushed, "Ah, well..."

"Wow, that's amazing! And I get to see it before Tomeo! Hah! Take that, you boasting brother."

The afternoon quickly spiralled down into a pillow fight prompted by Tadashi (which the bird did not take part in) which left all three in a giggling heap in the corner of the living room.

By the time they were done, it was late and both boys were exhausted, Tadashi was already nodding off. Cass had already tucked him in and was in the process of convincing her other nephew that yes, sleep was necessary for a seven-year-old when the phone rang. She gave him a look – this discussion is no over, young man – while she walked up to the phone and took it.

"This is the Hamada residence, Wha-" she cut herself off and scowled, probably listening to the person on the other end. Then her eyes widened and she covered her gaping mouth with one hand, "No, you must be mistaken. They can't- I... please." Hiro noticed with some worry that there were tears at the corners of her eyes and he moved closer to her. She didn't seem to notice him, however, as her expression grew more and more horrified. Out of sudden, she hung up and let the phone fall from her grasp, trying to cover her face with her hands as she leaned on the wall.

"Aun- uh, O-oba-chan. What..."

She looked down at him, surprised at his proximity, and he finally noticed the tears streaming silently down her face. "A-ah, Hiro, you, ah..." she trailed off, closing her eyes and the kneeling in front of him, hands firmly grasping his shoulders even with the slight tremble in them, "Hiro... yo- your parents... there was an accident... a... a car accident. They were coming back and... and... someone crashed into their car. He was drunk...and... oh God, Hiro..." he trembling of her hands intensified but he didn't notice.

No, he just replayed her words in his mind again and again, staring blankly off into space.

They couldn't-

It couldn't be-

"...ing" his whisper went almost unheard, but she lifted her head, anguished eyes meeting blank ones, "You're lying." he whispered again, this time a bit more loudly, "You're lying."

She suppressed another sob, "Oh Hiro..."

"You're lying." his eyes were shining, "You're lying!" his frame was trembling, "You're lying!" his face was contorted in rage and grief. "YOU'RE LYING!"

He tried to hit her, tried to hurt her. His heart was breaking and the world was at fault. Cass took two hits before she pulled him into a firm embrace. He struggled, but to no avail, she still held him. He yelled at her, but only got sobs and soothing words in reply.

After a while, he felt like all his energy was depleted. He stopped struggling and sagged into her arms. "You're... lying. You're lying..." he repeated in-between sobs.

"I wish I was." she whispered brokenly into his hair, "I wish I was."

Soon, even his sobs subsided and he just sat there in her arms, exhausted and not able (not willing) to think about anything.

"Nii-chan?" he stiffened, immediately recognizing both the form of address and the sleepy voice, "Aunt Cass? What's going on?"

Their aunt tensed when he tried to pry himself from her arms, but she let him go. He slowly walked up to Tadashi, "Come on, otouto." is voice was raspy, but he paid it no mind, "You need to go to bed."

"Nii-chan, are you alright? I heard something..."

"I'm fine, Tadashi. Let's go. I'll sleep with you tonight, okay?"

"Eh? Really?" a sleepy smile pulled at the youngest's lips at the prospect.

"Yeah. Come on. You need to sleep."

"Hai hai."

Cass watched the scene unfurl almost detachedly. She waited a few minutes, then went into their room to check if they were alright. Finding one bed empty, she looked at the other and saw two lumps under the blanket, the bigger one spooning the smaller.

Oddly content with this arrangement, she closed the door and headed for the guest room, being very careful not to look and the parents' room door on the way. Once she was alone she could cry herself to sleep without worrying about those two.

Tadashi Hamada was three years old when their parents died, but he would barely remember them years later.

Hiro Hamada was seven years old when their parents died, and as he watched the coffins being lowered into the ground a few days later, he swore to himself that he would never see his brother's.

He wouldn't allow it.