Hiro awoke the next morning to someone gently shaking him by the shoulder.

"Hiro? Hiro, c'mon, time to wake up."

"No…" Hiro mumbles, pulling the blankets tighter around him. "Wanna sleep…"

"I know you do, otouto, but you need to get up-we have a lot to do today, remember?"

"Don' care…" Hiro grumbles, squeezing his eyes stubbornly shut.

"Hiro, either you can get out of bed or I will be forced to take more extreme measures."

"Sure…" Despite yesterday's close call with the fire before meeting Baymax, Hiro is pretty sure that his brother was incapable of ever physically harming him in the name of a prank or even to prove a point. That is, he is until he suddenly finds the blankets being ripped off of him and two hands closing around his ankles, suddenly swinging him upside down so fast that his shirt falls down to cover his face and he has to claw it away before demanding,

"Dude, what the hell?!"

"You didn't want to get up on your own, so I'm just helping you!" Tadashi answers mischievously, and the younger teen can tell that he's smirking even if he can't see his facial expression from his current vantage point.

"Okay, okay, you proved your point, now let me go!" Hiro cries.

"Nope! You'll just go right back to bed, and we can't have that!" Tadashi answers, to the younger boy's slight horror starting to carry him towards the door.

"So what, you're going to carry me down to breakfast?"

"That's kind of the plan!"

"...What happened to the nice older brother I met yesterday?!"

"Same guy, but you'll find that I'm willing to do what I have to to get results."

"So yesterday was all a lie? You were just trying to convince me to stay here, but now that I am you're showing your true colors?" Hiro playfully huffs.

"You've had your one day grace period, little bro-now you're getting to experience what it's like living here as a full-fledged member of the family!"

"Rude! What if I decide I don't want to stay here now and I want to go back to my adopted family?"

"You won't."

"And why's that?"

"Because," Tadashi answers playfully, swinging Hiro so that he was up in his arms instead of dangling, "you're my little bro and, complain all you want, you know you love me!"

Hiro scoffs at that, but, as he allows the older man to carry him down the stairs (not that he had much of a choice), he can't help but mull over his words. He didn't know much about love-familial or otherwise-but he knew that he did feel something of a warm pull in his chest towards his brother that kept him from really getting angry at him, even when he was teasing him like this. He didn't know if that counted as love, or if he'd even known him for long enough to be capable of loving him yet, but it did feel nice, and he decides that maybe he'd just not think too much about it and see what happened.

"Thank you for riding Hamada Air," Tadashi announces playfully as they reach the kitchen, depositing Hiro into a chair at the table. "We hope that you enjoyed your flight and will consider us in the future for all your transportation needs!"

"You are a horrible brother," Hiro deadpans, doing his best to glare up at him.

"Would a horrible brother make you chocolate chip pancakes?" Tadashi answers with a slight smile.

"Chocolate chip pancakes?" Hiro asks, realizing too late that he sounded entirely too eager and quickly crossing his arms over his chest to try to cover for it.

"I'll take it you like them?" Tadashi replies with a tiny smirk as he goes to gather the ingredients, obviously not fooled.

"I've… Never had them," Hiro admits, sighing and giving up on trying to act annoyed. "I didn't even know that you could put chocolate chips into pancakes…"

"Well, Aunt Cass doesn't usually encourage it, but what she doesn't know for this morning can't hurt her, right?" Tadashi answers, giving him a playful wink.

"I guess not…" Hiro answers, his rumbling stomach telling him that he really shouldn't complain given chocolate for breakfast sounded pretty amazing right now. He still couldn't quite figure Tadashi out-one moment he was swinging him upside down by his ankles, the next he was making him an awesome breakfast. Was Tadashi slightly bipolar, or was this just something families did? His adopted parents never teased him like this, but they didn't really do stuff like fixing him special pancakes either. Someone showing so many emotions at once was confusing for the teen, but hopefully it was something he could get used to.

After a few minutes of silence in which Tadashi worked at measuring out ingredients and Hiro awkwardly swung his legs back and forth over the edge of the chair, the younger boy finally gets up to go to get a closer look at what his brother was doing-his adopted parents didn't cook that much, and when they did they didn't really like anyone else in the kitchen "getting in the way" while they worked, so he was kind of curious as to how this worked and he could only hope that the older man didn't mind him hovering.

"You want to help?" Tadashi asks with a warm smile when he notices him standing next to him.

"Can I?" Hiro replies, slightly surprised but not displeased by the offer.

"Sure!" Tadashi answers with a grin. "How about you stir while I add the ingredients?"

"Okay!" Hiro agrees, eagerly accepting the mixing spoon from him and starting to stir. He couldn't help but feel like his movements were a bit choppy and awkward at first, but then Tadashi's hands gently close around his own, helping him find his rhythm. Soon he felt like he was actually getting the hang of it and he beams up at his older brother who grins back down at him.

"See? You're getting it!" Tadashi says, sounding oddly enough proud of him.

"Really?" Hiro asks hopefully.

"Totally! We'll make a chef of you yet!" Tadashi declares with a warm chuckle, finally letting go so that he could add the remaining ingredients.

"That could be a useful skill," Hiro muses as he continues carefully stirring the batter. "I was never really allowed to cook at home…"

"What did they let you do?" Tadashi asks, sounding like he was trying to keep his tone casual but unable to hide a hint of disapproval or maybe even something a bit stronger. "I mean, it sounds like almost everything even remotely fun was banned."

"Well… You're not wrong," Hiro quietly sighs. "I mean… At least I did get to build my robots, so that was something. But otherwise it was doing homework or something else 'educational'-anything that could get me 'ahead'... They were always trying to prepare me for my future and growing up… A bit ironic, isn't it?"

"How so?" Tadashi asks, frowning slightly.

"I mean, coming here-I pretty much get to be a kid forever, right?" Hiro answers with a slight smile. "So all their worry about me growing up so fast was kind of for nothing."

"I guess so," Tadashi agrees with a small smile. "I think it'll be good for you-getting to finally get to be a kid for a bit, y'know? That doesn't mean that, if you ever feel like you're tired of being fourteen, that you can't leave the Loop for a bit and age up. I mean, you wouldn't want to wait too long to do it depending on how old you think you'd want to end up as-eighteen or nineteen would probably be good so you'd be the same age as the rest of us. But you don't have to think about that for a while yet, so just getting to enjoy being a teenager is probably a really good thing for you after everything you've been through."

"Yeah," Hiro agrees. He honestly hadn't thought too much about the aging thing. Maybe someday he might want to actually get a little older like Tadashi had suggested. But, for the moment, staying fourteen years old and just enjoying being with his new family sounded like absolute paradise.

Not too long after Tadashi had started pouring small pools of batter onto a countertop griddle and the delicious smell of cooking pancakes begins to waft through the kitchen, Abigail appears in the doorway as if summoned by their fragrance.

"Nice of you to show up after we did all the hard work!" Tadashi tells her with a playful scowl.

"Yeah, yeah," Abigail replies, rolling her eyes as she takes a seat at that table. "You seem to forget that I'm the one who's going to be doing all sorts of teleporting today-I needed my sleep so that I'll have plenty of energy!"

"Sure you weren't just trying to get your beauty sleep in?" Tadashi tosses back, raising an eyebrow.

"Beauty sleep, nothing! I can stay up all night and still look this amazing! You, on the other hand, can sleep for an entire day and still look like a total dork!" Abigail replies with a small smirk.

"Ha ha, hilarious." Tadashi rolls his eyes at her. "See if I give you any of these pancakes if you're going to treat me like that!"

"No pancakes, no transportation," Abigail answers calmly. "Think your choices over carefully, Hamada."

"...You drive a hard bargain," Tadashi states after thinking that over for a moment.

"It's a gift," Abigail replies with a tiny shrug. "Now get cooking!"

"The pancakes are cooking as fast as they're going to cook!"

"Mm… Nope, not fast enough!"

"Well, I'd use my fire but you remember what happened the last time I did that…"

"Ooh, yeah, point taken… Okay, fine, I guess I can wait, then…"

"What happened last time?" Hiro asks curiously-he wasn't sure how serious Tadashi and Abigail's "arguing" was, but he had to admit that it was kind of fun to watch all the same.

"Bad things. Very bad things," Abigail states, her expression going momentarily serious.

"It wasn't that bad!" Tadashi protests.

"We were cleaning up broccoli and cheese for a week and it smelled like feet in here for over a month! Yeah, it was!" Abigail tosses back.

Tadashi lets out a small grumble before lifting the first pancakes off of the griddle and onto a plate. "Here." He gently pushes it into Hiro's hands. "You get started on those, and if you're still hungry after that then you can get some more, okay?"

"You sure it's okay for me to eat first?" Hiro asks a bit uncertainly.

"Yeah, why does he get the first pancakes?" Abigail cries, and it was hard for the younger teen to tell if she was just joking around or being serious.

"Because he actually helped make them, and he's never had chocolate chip pancakes before," Tadashi replies firmly.

"...All right, fair enough," Abigail finally says with a small shrug. "But I get the next ones!"

"Of course you do," Tadashi replies, sighing and shaking his head but smiling slightly all the same.

Hiro honestly wasn't sure what to expect-he didn't know how well pancake batter and chocolate chips would actually mix-but when the first sweet, fluffy bite of pastry is in his mouth he lets out a quiet moan of contentment.

"Good?" Tadashi asks with a hopeful smile.

"Better than good-probably the best thing I've ever tasted!" Hiro replies, eagerly taking another bite.

"I'm glad you think so!" Tadashi chuckles, seeming pleased as he watches his younger sibling eagerly work away at the food.

"Be careful not to compliment him too much-he'll get a bigger head than he already has!" Abigail states with a tiny smirk.

"Will you be quiet and just let him enjoy his breakfast?" Tadashi flashes her another tiny glare.

"Hm… How about 'no'?"

"You're impossible, you know that?"

"Yeah, but you know you still love me!"

"Yes, yes I do, nee-chan," Tadashi replies with a quiet chuckle.

"Nee-chan?" Hiro asks curiously, finding himself oddly enjoying their banter now that he had a pretty good idea that it was all meant to be harmless.

"It's Japanese for 'older sister'," Tadashi explains as he bring a plate of pancakes over to Abigail. "Since everyone's like a family here, I just call them all by their Japanese names-Wasabi's my nii-chan since he's older than me, and GoGo and HL are my imouto's. Fred… Oddly enough I never really called him by a sibling name, he was always more like a best friend than anything-probably a good thing, it would have been awkward if I'd been calling him 'brother' all those years only for us to end up dating…"

"That would have been pretty weird, yeah," Abigail agrees, making a face before happily starting in on her pancakes.

"So I'm your only otouto?" Hiro asks, finding that he was oddly enough slightly possessive of that title now.

"Yes," Tadashi reassures him with a slight smile, as if reading his thoughts. "You are and always will be my one and only otouto."

"Good." Hiro knows that he's grinning in spite of himself but he can't bring himself to care.

"Now you get eating those pancakes before they get cold!" Tadashi tells him firmly, trying to appear stern but with a hint of a smile twitching at the edge of his lips.

"Yes, nii-chan," Hiro answers, playfully sticking his tongue out at him before doing as instructed. Play arguing-who knew if could be so much fun? It was kind of nice knowing that it was just a way they could all show how much they cared about each other while still being able to air their grievances. If this was something that siblings did, he could definitely learn to live with it!

Not too long after the last of the pancakes were made and eaten, Tadashi stands up from the table and announces that it's probably time to get going.

"The more time we have to get everything packed, the better," he says when Abigail starts mildly complaining about how early it still was.

"Fine, fine!" she sighs, standing up from the table. "Let's get going, then-the sooner we do this, the sooner we can get back."

"You sure you're going to be okay doing this?" Tadashi asks gently when he sees the slightly deer-in-the-headlights expression on Hiro's face.

"I'm… fine," the younger boy answers even though his heart was hammering slightly in his chest. He was doing this-he was actually doing this.

"If it would be easier, you know we could just pack your things for you and bring them back here," Tadashi says, laying a hand on his shoulder. "You don't ever have to go back there if you don't want to."

"N-No." Hiro shakes his head, hoping to clear away some of his fear and anxiety. "T-They weren't the best parents in the world, but they were my parents. I owe them a goodbye, at least. If nothing else, I need a chance to say goodbye and officially cut ties with that place, y'know?"

"Of course." Tadashi gently squeezes his shoulder. "Whatever you need to do. Just let me know if it starts to get to be too much or if you need anything, okay? I'm here for you."

"Thanks, nii-chan." Hiro flashes him a grateful smile before taking a deep breath and saying, "Okay, let's do this."

The trip back to the house, except for the whole teleporting thing, was oddly benign. So was actually going into the house and starting to pack things-it almost didn't feel real, in a way, more like being in a dream, and in a way Hiro was almost glad that's how it was. Maybe it was the fact that he'd been taught in this house to always suppress his emotions or that his brain was refusing to accept the truth of what was happening that was causing him to just feel slightly numb. Any nervous energy that he might have been experiencing was channeled into carefully packing his belongings into cardboard boxes which Abigail in turn would transport back to the Loop entrance and then to the Cafe. Tadashi helped with the packing as much as he could, but, at least in the bedroom, it was hard for him to know what was important and what could just be thrown away and so that was mainly left up to the younger teen. The garage, which they tackled after lunch, was easier-most of what was out there was already neatly packed into storage containers or were pieces of equipment that could be moved as singular units. Abigail was honestly pretty exhausted by the time they were finally done, and, given they had a little bit of time before the Takachichos were supposed to be home Tadashi tells her to head back to the Cafe to rest before coming back to pick them up around 5:30-hopefully that would be enough time to have everything settled. Hiro, seeing how much all the moving had taken out of her, thanks her for her help so many times that she finally has to force him to stop, reminding him that if he kept her there then she wouldn't be able to actually rest before coming back to pick them up. That was enough to finally get him to leave off, and, with a friendly wave, she's gone, leaving the two brothers standing alone in the living room.

"So-you doing okay?" Tadashi asks softly.

"Yeah," Hiro agrees, trying not to let on just how nervous he was.

"I know it must be pretty hard leaving the home you grew up in," Tadashi starts gently, but Hiro shakes his head to cut him off.

"No, it's not that. Honestly, this place never really felt like what I've heard home is supposed to feel like-not like the Cafe."
"Then what is it?" Tadashi gently prompts.

"I just… I know Mr. and Mrs. Takachicho were never really 'loving parents' or whatever, but it's kind of hard to not want them to be proud of me, and somehow I get the feeling that going off to live in a house full of superheroes isn't going to be winning me any 'son of the year' awards…" Hiro mumbles.

"I'm so sorry," Tadashi say, laying a hand on his shoulder. "I can't imagine how tough that is. But I promise, I'm going to be right here for you, and no matter what happens I will always be proud of and love you."

"Thanks." Hiro flashes him a grateful smile before stiffening as he hears the sound of a key in the lock. "T-That must be them…"

"You've got this," Tadashi tells him, firmly squeezing before adding, "We've got this."

Hiro nods in agreement before turning to focus on greeting his adopted parents-possibly for the last time.

"Hiro!" Mrs. Takachicho says as she comes in the door, looking slightly relieved to see the younger boy standing there. "Thank goodness you're alright! You weren't answering your phone all day yesterday and we were starting to get worried!"

"We know you get wrapped up in your work, but you should at least answer one of our texts," Mr. Takachicho adds with a bit of disapproval in his voice.

"Sorry guys," Hiro says, wincing. "I was a bit… distracted. But I'm fine, really!"

Mrs. Takachicho looks like she's about to answer when suddenly she realizes that her adopted son isn't the only one in the room. "Hiro, who is this?" she asks, her eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion.

"You must be Mr. and Mrs. Takachicho," Tadashi answers before Hiro can, surprising the younger boy by just how professional and even friendly he sounded-apparently acting was another skill the older man had that the teen didn't know about. "It's a pleasure to meet both of you. I'm Tadashi Hamada-Hiro's older brother."

"Brother? Hiro doesn't have a brother!" Mr. Takachicho answers, frowning in confusion.

"He does, actually, as well as an aunt," Tadashi replies. "And we've been trying to find him for a very long time-it wasn't until I saw him at the Expo that I even had any idea that he might still even be alive."

So, that's the story he was going with. They hadn't exactly discussed this beforehand, but Hiro decides to try to play along.
"Yeah," he says with a nod. "He and Aunt Cass came up to me after my presentation because I had the same name as their brother/nephew who went missing and I looked a lot like him."

"We got talking and the dates for the kidnapping matched for when he was found," Tadashi quickly puts in. "We also took the liberty of having a gene test run, and I have Hiro's birth certificate right here. I think you'll find everything is in order." He pulls a sheaf of papers that Hiro hadn't even realized he had with him out of his blazer and hands it over. "And, in case you have any doubt that they're real, you'll find that they have been stamped with the county recorder's seal."

The two adults in the room silently shuffle through the papers, both looking slightly at a loss.

"So, what are you saying?" Mr. Takachicho finally asks, looking up from the papers. "That you're just going to take Hiro away?"

"Not take him away, no," Tadashi replies, shaking his head. "But we offered Hiro the choice, and he's decided that he would like to come live with us. If you want to, we'd still like you to be a part of Hiro's life, but you'll have to understand-"

"How. Dare you?"

Hiro flinches at the positive rage being directed not towards Tadashi, but at him, by his adopted parents.

"After everything we've done for you, how could you decide to just leave us like this?" Mrs. Takachicho spits.

"Done what?" Hiro answers, finding a bit of rebellious fire kindling to life in his chest. "Granted, you put a roof over my head and gave me food, and I'm grateful for that. But anything else? You never treated me like your son! I was just a show dog that you could show off to all of your friends! 'Oh, look at our little genius, he skipped five grades of school!' Did you ever think that maybe I wanted a normal life instead of constantly being put under the microscope like that?"

It wasn't until the loud sound reverberated in his ears that he realized that Mr. Takachicho had actually slapped him-he was in too much shock to actually be able to feel the sting, but he knew he probably would later.

"How dare you disrespect your mother like that?" Mr. Takachicho growls. "You will not speak to her like that in this house!"

Hiro found his will slightly crumbling, too scared to be able to reply, but suddenly Tadashi steps forward, the anger physically rolling off of him in waves of heat.

"How dare you treat any child in you care like that?" he cries, and Hiro suddenly wasn't sure who of the adults in the room he was most scared of at the moment. "I've had my doubts about you for a very long time, but to see that you'd actually strike you adopted son for speaking his mind-"

"What do you mean 'for a long time'-have you been spying on us?" Mrs. Takachicho blanches.

"I've been keeping an eye on Hiro from a distance, yes," Tadashi quietly growls. "I let him live here as long as I did despite my concerns because I thought he'd be happier here. But after this, there is no way I am ever letting you even be in the same room as him!"

"You have no right! We will take this to court if we have to-" Mr. Takachicho starts.

"You will do no such thing! He is leaving with me right now, and he is never coming back!" Tadashi shouts, and just then Hiro sees the one thing happening that Fred had said was possible but he'd never actually believed would ever happen-the fire in Tadashi's hands grew so hot that it literally burned through his gloves, causing the thick material to crumble away and leaving his bare hands literally glowing with heat.

"What- How-?" Mrs. Takachicho sputters, her eyes going wide with shock.

"He's a Peculiar," Hiro answers, finally finding his voice again and smiling proudly up at his elder sibling. "Like me. We're not normal, and my real family accepts me for who I am, even if you guys never did. So I'm going to go live with them in a time loop and I will never have to take another intelligence test or prove to the world just how smart I am because they don't care-they want me just for being me, not because of what I can do and because they can show me off to all their friends."

Mr. and Mrs. Takachicho seemed at a loss for words, and even if they could have spoken the fact that there was a man who was literally on fire and probably looking like an avenging archangel standing protectively over the teen was probably enough to keep them from saying anything that might have come to mind. Hiro was just debating walking out the door just so he didn't have to stand here and look at them anymore when suddenly Abigail appears in the living room.

"Hey guys, how did it g-Holy shit, Tadashi, what happened to your gloves?" she cries, taking in the scene before her.

"Long story," Tadashi answers tersely.

"Can we please just go?" Hiro adds.

"I, um… Sure," Abigail agrees, still seeming somewhat confused but deciding not to ask any questions for the moment. "Tadashi, I think I'd better hold onto you than you holding onto me…"

"Understood." Tadashi nods curtly, never taking his eyes off of Hiro's adopted parents as if daring them to try to take Hiro away. They didn't seem in any condition to try to do anything, though-apparently having a girl appear out of thin into their living room on top of having a human fireball was too much for them. Still, as Hiro slips his hand into Abigail's free one, Mr. Takachicho manages to get out in a low voice,

"You're making a grave mistake, Hiro. Just think of everything you could have become, and you're throwing it away for these-freaks?"

"These 'freaks' are my family," Hiro answers. "And I'd much rather be with them and be loved than stay here for another minute."

And with that, they were gone-Abigail had them back outside the entrance to the Loop, and, for possibly the first time in his life, Hiro felt totally and completely free.

"Otouto, I'm sorry," Tadashi says after fishing a pair of fresh gloves out of his pocket-apparently his clothes were fireproof, which was probably a good thing given his powers. "For everything they did to you and if I did anything to make it worse…"

"No." Hiro shakes his head, finding himself oddly enough smiling. "They finally showed how they really felt about me, and I'm glad to be out of there. If they can't love me and you guys for who we are, then I don't need them in my life."

"You sure?" Tadashi asks, seeming slightly hesitant but also relieved.

"I'm sure." Hiro agrees, nodding firmly.

"Okay then… Is it alright if I hug you now?"

"Yeah. I'd like that, actually," Hiro answers, feeling warmth (both physical and emotional) flood through him as the older man wraps his arms tightly around him.

"Let's go home, huh?" Tadashi says softly in his ear when he finally lets him go.

"Yeah," Hiro agrees, grinning up at him. "Home." And, after all these years, he finally knew exactly what that felt like. His new family might be slightly eccentric and definitely peculiar, but so was he. And he wouldn't have it any other way.

0o0

Hey guys! So, I hope you guys enjoyed reading this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it! ^W^ Okay, so, announcement time: I have a huge backlog of fics that I haven't posted and if I kept posting them at one chapter a week it would take probably well over a year to get all of them out. So, that said: in celebration of the holiday break starting, I'm going to start trying to post a new chapter/fic every day to help whittle down my archive of unpublished fics! There are TONS of AU's to come, most Fredashi but a few cute Hezra ones in the mix too! I'm really excited to share these stories with you, and I hope you'll really enjoy all of them too! All the best to all of you who are finishing up the semester, especially if you have finals! See you soon!

~Dashi