{A/N: In this chapter there's emails mentioned, however this site won't let me type in the at symbol, so I have typed å in its place. Thanks for the understanding!

All Rights Reserved.}

"Aunt Cass? Is it okay if a friend of mine comes over tomorrow night so we can work on our lab together? It's due on Friday, and we're not really gonna have any time in class to finish it." Tadashi's voice sounded hollow as it fed through the cell phone's receiver. He kicked a small pebble as he awaited her response, it skittering across the sidewalk and becoming lost amongst the many feet that were traversing San Fransokyo's streets in mid-afternoon. The 13 year old puffed a small sigh before adjusting his backpack strap, as his aunt's voice piped in her response through his headphones. The woman sounded out of breath, signifying the lunch rush must just be slowing down. "Thanks, Aunt Cass! I'll let her know." There was a pause, Tadashi letting out a chuckle at his aunt's reaction to his statement. "Yes. She's a her, Aunt Cass. No, it's not anything more than a project due. Alright. I'm on Octavia Boulevard. I'll be home soon. Love you." The teenager hung up, pressing play on his music before pocketing the device. Within 15 minutes, he was greeted by the chime of bells that hung above the Lucky Cat Café's door, a small toothy smile on his face. Seeing as there were only two of his Aunt's employees serving at the time, Tadashi crossed behind the counter and disappeared behind a floral curtain, where he traded his school supplies for an apron. That was something with Tadashi that set him and Hiro apart: the older of the two brothers was very selfless 24/7, and often did chores or favors without being asked. Hiro was more interested in bettering himself, and infrequently took interest in others needs above his own. Both traits were beneficial and counterproductive in their own way.

Tadashi knew he was too young to serve legally, despite the fact he often broke that rule. This, however, was not one of those times. He picked up a bluish gray plastic tin and filled it with cleaning supplies, grabbing rags, a spray bottle, and polish solution before heading out beyond the counter again to bus tables customers had left. He was only cleaning his third table, however, when his maternal figure kissed the back of his head, enveloping Tadashi in a hug. "Oh, there's my sweet little man." She squeezed him once, to which the teen just smiled at, before he spun to face her.

"Understaffed? I thought Jessica was supposed to come in today?" He knew all of the employees at the café, due to helping out so often.

"Called out sick, kiddo. I'll bus for now, you go do your homework, okay? Thank you for doing this on your own, though." The shorter woman ruffled her nephew's dark hair, taking the plastic container that was filled with dirty dishes from him as he fixed his hat back on top of his head.

"Thanks, Aunt Cass." He kissed her on the cheek, able to tell from her stature that the woman was still stressing over the staff being insufficient for the crowds, and by doing so he soothed her a little. The boy swiftly walked back to the personal room, retrieved his backpack, and headed up to the living area to begin his algebra homework. He was stopped cold, however, by a 4'6" seven-year-old with a very pouty lip and arms crossed. Something was up.

The little boy huffed, staring almost into Tadashi's soul. "Yes?" The older of the two raised his eyebrows, dropping the books at the top of the flight of stairs. "Why the sourpuss?" He grinned, grabbing his baby brother's cheek and pinching it gently. When Hiro just let out a snall huff and looked away, Tadashi's joking subsided. "Hiro? Really… Did something happen at school today?"

A silence followed, before the little boy's reply. "No. Nothing bad or anything." He refused to make eye contact, now using his nimble fingers to twirl something about, so his focus could be diverted from the conversation.

"Then what's up?" Tadashi tilted his head in concern, before dropping to one knee so he could see the little boy's face as he stared at what was in his hands. It was a bolt, seemingly stainless silver, probably from a toy the younger had dismantled. "And why do you have that…?"

Hiro shrugged it off, stuffing the small item in his pocket. "Tomorrow's Thursday." He muttered, scuffing his shoe on the hardwood floor. Tadashi just nodded in response, not seeing what that had to do with anything.

"Okay, and…?"

The younger one just shook his head. "Nevermind." Hiro stepped back, taking a deep breath before returning back to a more normal mood. "I'll be upstairs in our room. Got homework to do, plus I just found this new nut on the bus home from school today. Gotta check that out." He scampered up the next flight of stairs, disappearing into the remodeled attic that served as the boys' bedroom.

The older shook his head slightly and pinched the crooked bridge of his nose, figuring he'd deal with the odd behavior another day. Sitting down at the bar/table in the kitchen, he pulled out his phone to finally relay the message to his lab partner that she could come over. She didn't have a phone, but every student had a school email, and she had told Tadashi she'd be checking it to keep in touch over the matter. He entered a mobile browser and entered his own inbox, before hitting the compose button.

TO: abigailcallaghan å fifthdistrict .k12 .ca .us

FROM: tadashihamada å fifthdistrict .k12 .ca .us

SUBJECT: Lab Project

Hey, Abby! Just cleared it by my aunt, she's fine with you coming over tomorrow night. Can you get dropped off at Lucky Cat at like 7?

Tadashi read the message over before sending it, and locking his phone's screen so he could concentrate on tonight's homework. Once he finished the entire algebra worksheet, he granted himself a short tech break and checked his phone again to see if she replied.

TO: tadashihamada å fifthdistrict .k12 .ca .us

FROM: abigailcallaghan å fifthdistrict .k12 .ca .us

SUBJECT: RE:Lab Project

7 is fine! see you tomorrow! :)

The boy smiled to himself and shut his phone off, peace at mind knowing all was accounted for the next day.

By the time 7 PM had come Thursday night, Tadashi had everything set up. The Café was hosting an event downstairs, as this day of the week was always Cass's open sponsor night. Companies were invited to advertise for publicity, and it often attracted a high surge in consumers for the café, making it mutually beneficial for all parties involved. In the dining room upstairs, though, things were quiet in anticipation for Tadashi's study session. He'd laid out his Biology binder with the lab packet flipped open, and had made chocolate chip cookies in case Abby had wanted any. Living and working in a bakery could really teach you some things.

The teen boy liked to be punctual, so he precisely at 7 PM awaited his classmate's arrival downstairs by the counter, out of the way of customers. Abigail strolled in a few minutes later, looking around the busy scene for a few moments before smiling when she recognized Tadashi amongst the crowd. He nodded to acknowledge her and peeled himself off what he'd been leaning on, meeting her halfway across the café's open floor.

"Hey, Tadashi! Um…Are we going to be able to do work here…?" Abby's voice barely cut through all the background noise, something Tadashi found ironic considering her question.

"Nah- This is just the business itself. We live upstairs, I have it out up there. It'll be much quieter. Follow me." He turned away from her, before lifting up a part of the counter top that could also serve as an entryway to the space behind the counter, where the baristas usually loitered to cater to coffee and tea requests. Abigail followed behind him, replacing the partition once they'd both passed through. Tadashi had entered a back room and was holding open a door, which held a staircase behind it. The noise levels were significantly quieter already, as he was better heard when he spoke again. "It's right upstairs. Just close this door behind you, okay?" He hustled up the wooden flight, immediately veering left and out of sight.

The girl made sure to follow through with his request before bounding up the stairs as well, finding herself on another open level with her peer sitting at a table with a half-eaten cookie in his hand. She'd brought a drawstring bag with her own binder in it, and tossed it onto the table beside him. "Nice place," she commented, before reaching over and taking one of the cookies herself.

"Thanks!" Tadashi smiled at her graciously, sitting back in his chair. Time to get down to business. "So, have you done any of the packet since we worked on it in class yesterday?"

"Nope. You?" She pulled the binder out of her bag as Tadashi shook his head, implying he'd done none of it as well. "I'm glad we're doing this together, though, because I always get the mRNA and tRNA codons and anticodons confused." Abigail flipped open to the DNA transcription lab they'd been doing in class, opening the packet to the back few pages, where all the questions were.

The boy nodded, pulling himself closer to the table to read his own notes. "It's not too bad. The tRNA transcript is the same as the original DNA, only with Uracil bases rather than Thymine."

Abigail looked at her paper as he explained, before nodding. "Oh! Yeah, that makes a lot more sense than translating it to mRNA and then back again. Thanks, Tadashi!" She filled in a few of the empty nucleotide bases on her paper, before looking over to see if they'd gotten the same answers.

The two spent at least half an hour on translating DNA strands alone, even though they were working together. By 7:45, the two were spent and tired of the endless codes of Cs, As, Gs, Ts, and Us.

"Jeez," Tadashi began to mutter as the two teens neared the end of the work to do. "This packet's ruthless. If we have to be in a biology class, can't we at least learn about something more interesting? Like… Diseases and stuff? DNA is just… DNA."

The shorter girl shrugged, her dark hair bobbing around her face because of it. "I'd rather do like, physics and engineering. Like, mechanical engineering." She haphazardly scribbled in another sequence of DNA bases as she talked, her long and thin nose scrunching up in thought. "I like technology and stuff."

Knitting his eyebrows, Tadashi narrowed his brown eyes on the girl next to him. Sure, San Fransokyo was a very forward city, but very few girls in his middle school took open interest in STEM fields. Most stayed in whatever niche kept them "popular," with distaste for "nerdy" things like science.

"Really?" He smiled softly, putting his pen down. "I love robotics and tech. That's so cool." Her bright blue eyes looked up from the paper, a grin widening on her face as well. "What kinds of technology you into?"

Abigail opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a crashing sound upstairs followed by Hiro running down to the living area level with a paper in his hand. "Tadashi! Good, you're not busy! I need-"

Tadashi flicked his gaze over as soon as the noise sounded, but ended up cutting his brother off mid-sentence. "Hiro, I am busy…" The older of the two looked over to his classmate, mouthing a quick 'sorry' to her before focusing back on his younger brother. "Hiro, do you want to say hi? This is one of my school friends, Abby." He's never really considered himself and the girl anything more than acquaintances, but the words just rolled off the tongue. She didn't seem to mind much, either.

"But, but-" Hiro huffed, shoving the slightly crumpled paper towards his brother. "I need your help on math homework! I don't get it!"

Tadashi scrunched his eyebrows, taking the paper and glancing at it. Sure enough, it was riddled with eraser marks and lead scribbles that were left over, looking messy overall. The taller boy handed it back, looking down at his brother. "It'll just have to wait. Abby and I are doing something right now, and we've gotta finish before she has to leave. Sorry, buddy."

The brunette smiled at the short boy as Tadashi turned back around to pay attention to his work again, before she swiveled away as well. Soon, the two were chatting again, leaving a crestfallen Hiro to sulk back up to his room, rejected.

"Sorry about that," Hiro eavesdropped, considering he could still hear the teen's conversation from his spot on the stairs. It was Tadashi's voice. "He usually has no problem with homework. The kid skipped 2nd Grade. I'll have to see what that was all about later."

The higher pitched voice that replied must've been Abby's, then. "It's fine, don't worry 'bout it, 'Dashi." The two laughed, as Hiro steamed the rest of the way up to his room. How dare she?! That was his nickname for Tadashi. NOT her's. First she stole his brother, now she's stealing his name, too! Hiro threw his homework on the ground, deciding then and there that he hated Abby, and everything to do with her. Ironically, in 7 years, he'd be risking his life for her own.

"Thanks for coming over!" Tadashi called out as his newfound school friend climbed into the back seat of her father's car. The teenager shut the door to the empty café as she drove out, flipping the sign from OPEN to CLOSED. The event had ended around 8:30, so by the time Abby left, nearly everyone else had already departed as well. "Aunt Cass? I just closed up, okay?" Tadashi called out to the open area, not knowing where exactly in the Painted Lady house his aunt was. He heard a faint "okay!" in response, and took it as his cue to shut out all the café level's lights and empty the cashier for the night to present his guardian with. He headed up the stairs and left the money in an envelope on the kitchen table, before cleaning up his school things from his time with Abigail.

His aunt walked out from down the hall where her own bedroom and bathroom were, drying off her hands on her jeans. "Thanks, dear." She rubbed Tadashi's back quickly to show her gratitude as he picked up after himself.

In response, he smiled and jutted his chin out towards the kitchen. "I left today's profits on the table. I didn't count it, or anything, just brought it up." He heaved the backpack over one shoulder, offering another toothy grin. "I'm gonna head upstairs, see how the munchkin's doing."

As soon as he reached the boys' shared bedroom, Tadashi found Hiro sitting on his bed, back facing the staircase. "Hey," he began, "You still need help on your homework? I just finished my own."

The younger boy let out a small huff, glancing over his shoulder as if he didn't know who had walked in. "Oh." Hiro let one of his legs fall off the bed and rested his cheeks on his fists. "Hey."

Concerned, Tadashi began to cross the room, when midway the floor crinkled beneath his shoe. The older boy stepped back, picking up the paper he hadn't realized he'd stepped on and looked it over. He recognized it as the math problems that Hiro had showed him earlier, and took the paper over to the younger boy's working desk in the room, sitting in the swivel chair. "Still haven't completed it?" He looked over his shoulder at the scrawnier, dark haired kid, who just stared at his comforter.

"Nope." The boy answered in a monotonous voice, lifting one of his hands and using it to pick at a loose thread in the bedding. "Glad you're bored enough to spend time with me, now."

"What's that mean?" Tadashi spun around to face the boy, who snapped the thread and tossed it over his shoulder. "Hiro, are you okay? You acted weird last night, too. What's up?"

Hiro shrugged, disappointed that Tadashi didn't even seem to notice his own mistake. "Yesterday Aunt Cass told me you were having someone over tonight."

Tadashi waited for him to elaborate, but a few seconds passed of silence between the two, indicating Hiro had no intention to go on. "…Okay, and? I really had to finish that lab, Hiro. You'll understand when you're in middle school." He turned back to the math equations, which were easy considering he learned it five years ago. But all the work was correct, but the answer was gone and an obviously wrong number held its place. He could still even almost make out the erased but correct answers. "Hiro…" The boy turned back to his younger brother, taking the paper with him. "Why did you say 6+15 was 39? You were adding tax sums when you were four. I know you can do a dumb worksheet like this." Tadashi stared at Hiro, knowing something was up.

"Oh, silly me." The small boy took the paper away from his brother, dropping it on his nightstand instead. "Guess I didn't need your help after all. So you can go, since you have better things to do." Hiro turned away again, which the 13 year old noticed.

"Woah," He muttered, standing up and making his way over to sit down on the bed next to Hiro. "What do you mean? I don't have anything better to do than spend time with you, you're my brother, I-"

"It's Thursday." Hiro snapped again, interrupting the older boy. Tadashi shook his head at his sentence, trying to decode it.

"I didn't comprehend that last night, and I still don't."

"Auntie Cass is always super busy on Thursdays, and we're not allowed out. So we made a pact that Thursdays are Hamada Brother Night, where we just spend time with each other, not stupid girls who have cooties." The little one pushed the elder's hand off of his shoulder, scrunching his nose in disgust. "Speaking of, I don't want the cooties. Don't touch me until you've cleaned them off."

Tadashi couldn't help but laugh quietly at his last point, before wiping his hands on his pants to showcase he was ridding himself of girl-cooties. "Okay, okay. Now I can understand why you're upset." He hesitated, before softly starting to comb out some of the knots in Hiro's messy hair. "Buddy, we can have Hamada Brother Night whenever, it's not limited to Thursdays. I just really had to get that project done."

He pouted, swatting away his older brother's hand. "You really had to replace me." He mimicked Tadashi's last sentence under his breath, not speaking loud enough to cause a conniption. Or, at least, he thought it wasn't loud enough.

"What?! Hiro, I… Replacing you? Really? That's what this is about?" Tadashi pulled his baseball cap down onto his head, before scooting closer to Hiro. "I'm not always gonna be there for you every Thursday. I'm gonna try my very hardest, because I love Hamada Brother Nights, but sometimes, like this one, I'll have to give it up. That doesn't mean I don't like you anymore, okay?"

Hiro remained silent, so the older boy continued.

"Hiro, nobody on this planet could ever replace you, okay? And not just to me… You might not understand this yet, but people need you." Tadashi put his hand on his brother's shoulder, a small smile on his face.

There was another silent moment, before the smaller boy glanced up at the taller one. "Nobody on this planet? So… I still have to worry about aliens?" His concern was genuine, and Tadashi let out a short laugh.

"Unbelievable." He grinned and ruffled the kid's hair, shaking his head. "Nah, you don't. But, hey, whaddya say we have a whole Hamada Brother WEEKEND?" The teen stood up, offering his hand to help up the little one as well. "And we can kick it off with a scary movie tonight."

Hiro jumped up at that suggestion, taking his brother's hand and initiating their secret handshake. "Deal! Last one down has to do dishes tomorrow!" Hiro sprinted out of the room, getting a head start, and Tadashi knew he was just trying to get out of chores like the little snake he was.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, at least grateful Hiro wasn't upset anymore. However, the seven year old was also probably already on the couch, meaning the race was over. And since they lived in a café, Tadashi would be doing LOTS of scrubbing on dishes tomorrow.