After scanning the mass of short frames and smiling, chubby faces, I held out a hand and grinned as my favourite tiny human ran up to me. "Dada!" Andy called out, ignoring my hand and plowing into my legs with a hug.

"Hey, bud," I greeted cheerfully as he pulled away and grabbed on to a couple of my fingers. "How was preschool?"

"We learnt a new letter today!" he exclaimed excitedly as we started out the door and into the parking lot.

"Oh really, and what letter would that happen to be?" I asked with a smile as I pulled out my keys and unlocked the car.

"Zed! But Mrs. Dianna called it 'zee' and I told her that Uncle Matthew said it was actually called 'zed' but she kept saying it was called 'zee.'" he told me, exasperated, as I started buckling him in.

Laughing a bit, I ruffled his dark brown hair and said, "Well they're both right. It really just depends on where you learnt English, bud. Most people around here say 'zee,' okay?"

Instead of answering, Andy simply scrunched up his nose and looked at me as though I was speaking Spanish again...not that I did that on a regular basis in an attempt for him to pick up the basics that I was fluent in.

Through nurture rather than nature, Andy had managed to inherit my dislike of quiet. "We read a fairytale today about a brave knight that saved a princess from an evil dragon," he stated, staring at me through the rearview mirror. "But Jacob, Liliana and me also got to tell about how sometimes knights are girls and they have to save princes instead. Liliana said that sometimes girl knights still save princesses and that boy knights can save princes as well."

"That's exactly right," I told him as I put on my turn signal and started to check for oncoming traffic. When I glanced back up at him, Andy was grinning and swinging his feet.

"I played with them today on the playground. We were space explorers and we had rocket ships that were powered by stardust! Jacob and I almost had to save Liliana from an evil, green space monster, but she told us that she could save herself and she did! Liliana is really cool."

He paused for a moment, scrunching up his nose and continued on a different train of thought. "Dada, did you know that even though I'm a big kid now that I'm still really small compared to all of the universe?"

Glancing up at him through the rearview mirror, I asked, "Where'd you learn that from?"

"Papa Francis," Andy replied simply, smiling at me still.

Shaking my head slightly, I muttered, "Should have figured" under my breath as I pulled into the driveway.

Turning off the engine and hopping out of the car, I got Andy out of the back and walked him into the house. Out of habit, he sat down in the middle of the living room, waiting for me to take his shoes off, which I did after taking off my own. Untying his shoelaces, I started loosening them so I could pull the first shoe off his foot better.

"Hey Dada, I have a riddle for you."

"What is it?" I asked, setting his shoe aside.

"There's a reason for the world," he said expectantly, looking at me with big, wide, almost-black eyes. I paused over his left shoe, fingers still fumbling with the laces. After a second, I gently pried it off his foot and looked back up at him.

"Kid, when you get right down to the reason for the world, who am I?"

No puzzlement crossed Andy's face at all, as he beamed up at me and yelled without hesitation, "You're the hero!" Quickly jumping to his feet, he tackled me to the ground with a hug.

Pulling away and sitting on me, he continued, "And Dad is a writer, and Uncle Matthew is the Animal Man!" He stopped for a moment to think something over, before going on with, "And Papa Francis is a lover, not a fighter. Onkle Gilbert is a Roboto. Tío Toni is tomatoes!" He laughed at himself, sliding off of me and plopping down on the floor next to me. Sitting up slightly so I was supporting myself on my forearms, I listened to him as he continued to ramble. "And Uncle Kiku makes cartoons. Uncle Matthias is crazy just like Uncle Jett who is Animal Man Two!" He laughed at himself some more, apparently finding something in his words humorous.

Sitting up all the way, I ruffled his hair a bit and told him, "Yeah, bud, good job. That's the most that I can tell you about your riddle there. There isn't one answer, there's multiple and everyone has their own answer."

"Oh," he breathed, thinking it over in his head, eyebrows scrunching together.

The door to the garage creaked open, and Arthur looked at the two of us. "Am I interrupting something?" he questioned, cocking a bushy eyebrow.

"Dad!" Andy exclaimed, leaping to his feet and wrapping his arms around Arthur's legs.

Smiling as I watched Arthur sit down his stuff and lift Andy into the air, resting him on his side to ask him questions on his day, I couldn't help realize just how wonderful my small family was, as cliché as it sounds. The four of us weren't much, a science teacher, a journalist, an evolutionary biologist, and a three-almost-four year-old, but we were as much as I could have ever asked for, and I was glad they were the greatest good I was ever going to get.

It was the spring of 2015, Grandpa had been dead for two decades to the day, and I finally had an answer for him: I was a hero. I had had my answer since the age of eleven, it just took me to figure out exactly what it meant. There are the heroes everyone knows about, the people who run into burning buildings to get people out, or put themselves in harm's way to protect other, or just save lives in some other way. The ones that get recognized, get press coverage. Then there are the everyday heroes, those who make others happy and help when they know they're needed. Everyday heroes that shine in the eyes of many, or the eyes of a few, but that doesn't make them any less of a hero.

And that is exactly who I am, a hero.

Happy Holidays! Here's a present from me to you! (Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it)
I really hope you all enjoy Andy! I left his description fairly open for y'all's interpretation, and just ask and/or credit me if you want to use him in one of your works (fanfic, fanart, headcanons, RPing?). But yay! Child! Who also watches Thomas Sanders' vines if you didn't catch that.
Thank you, all of you, who have taken the time to read this, I appreciate it. Thank you to those who have followed since the beginning or have just followed recently. Thank you to all of those who have favorited this. Big thanks to those who have left reviews as I always love hearing from you guys about anything! Thank you thank you thank you! All of you are fantastic and thank you for sticking with me through this.

Thanks for reading!