A birthday present for my lovely birb and FoT AU partner in crime. Better known as uponagraydawn.

Cass squeezed her arms tighter, effectively pinning Hiro closer to her chest. To the nurses, it looked like a simple hug, a comforting gesture to offer the five-year-old in his time of heartbreaking discomfort. But she and Tadashi knew better. If Cass dared to loosen her grip on her nephew, even a smidge, he would've taken that opportunity to escape from his aunt's grasp, wailing as he raced down the hallways of Hamasaki Memorial Hospital, cradling his swollen arm. And Cass wasn't going to give Hiro that chance. Not again.

She wasn't even planning to spend most of her morning in the Emergency Room either. If it had been up to her, she would've played out that Saturday like any other day. No one was expecting Hiro to accidentally trip over his feet and tumble down the stairs. Tadashi reached his little brother's side first and carefully scooped him into his lap. Hiro's shrieks reached a higher decibel after his right arm was slightly jostled by Tadashi's hug. He visibly shuddered at the sudden spike of his little brother's voice, but paid no further mind as he began to gingerly inspect Hiro's injury.

Cass stood frozen at the top of the stairs, watching the scene play out below her. Since her nephews were entrusted into her care two years ago, none of their injuries had reached to this point of extremity. Even though she learned that boys were walking bullseyes for accidents after being unexpectedly thrown into parenthood. And her nephews were no exception. Since Tadashi had poured himself into learning everything he could about robotics, he practically signed himself a death wish, according to his aunt. From paper cuts to first-degree burns, Tadashi had sported nearly every kind of band-aid as a result of the aftermath of his failed projects.

Hiro wasn't any better. His personal method of self-transportation was running everywhere he could, and usually resulted in bruises and skinned knees after he fell. He never cried whenever Cass would disinfect his wounds with peroxide and plaster on band-aids, because "Dashi never cries. An' Dashi's a big boy."

So for Hiro break his self-imposed crying rule after he crashed down the stairs meant that something had gone horribly wrong.

As if the high-pitched screams bouncing off the walls weren't enough, one look at Hiro's arm was a clear sign that something was broken. She usually could take care of all their medical emergencies with a quick visit to the first-aid box that lived under the counter, but no amount of Spiderman band-aids could patch up an arm that was beginning to swell at an alarming rate.

Tadashi abruptly stood, cradling his little brother in lanky arms as Hiro continued to wail into his older brother's t-shirt.

"We need to go to the hospital!" He shouted up the stairs, hoping that his words were audible over the younger one's cries. "Aunt Cass! I think his arm is broken!"

If Tadashi hadn't barked up to her, Cass was positive that she couldn't have willed herself to move on her own. Immediately, her semi-maternal instincts sprung into action, and she hurried off to grab her purse and shoes from her bedroom. She trusted that her oldest could remember to grab shoes for himself and Hiro, and she returned to find that Tadashi somehow managed to wiggle Hiro's sandals on his thrashing feet and slip his own converse on, all while still cradling Hiro in his arms.

"Tadashi, are you ready?"

He glanced up, seeming to deflate when he saw his frazzled aunt somewhat ready for a long, unpleasant morning at the ER. Tadashi nodded, unknowingly holding his breath when Cass stormed down the stairs and grabbed the keys to the truck off the hook.

It was a miracle all on its own that Hiro managed to fall asleep in the waiting room. Cass wasn't sure if the adrenaline had worn off or he had cried himself to a stupor, but she honestly didn't care. As long as the pain had become manageable for him to nod off, it was a good sign, right? He seemed pretty content in Tadashi's lap, curled against his chest and his thumb stuck in his mouth. A nurse had been sweet enough to lend the two a blanket while they waited, as the ER wasn't a kind temperature for the brothers' summer attire. Tadashi looked about ready to nod off as well, the heat from both his little brother and the blanket were making him toasty and comfortable, despite the hard plastic chair that he was sitting on. Cass watched Tadashi's head bob from the corner of her eye, half-focused on the old magazine she flipped through.

By the time Hiro's name was called out two hours later, Tadashi's head had lulled backwards, his eyelids screwed shut and occasionally letting out a faint snore. Cass carefully scooped Hiro from Tadashi's lap and placed him against her hip, feeling him shudder against her as his body tried to adjust to the change in temperature. She followed a nurse to the examination room with a groggy Tadashi in tow, crossing her fingers in hope that Hiro would stay asleep until they returned home, or at least during the examination.

He had done a pretty good job of staying asleep at first, only responding to the pokes and prods from the nurse practitioner with soft whines and groans. He didn't even bat an eyelash when his ballooned arm was inspected even further, being twisted this way and that. Tadashi took this as a hopeful sign–as long as Hiro was asleep, his role as the ever-supportive big brother wasn't needed–and cocooned himself in the borrowed blanket, ready to settle himself down for a much deserved nap on the examination table.

Cass sat at the edge of the table, hoping that Hiro wouldn't stir from the incessant fluttering of her leg. The paper lining crinkled underneath the movement, but it was something to distract her while the nurses seemed to take their time at getting hold of a doctor. It shouldn't've taken this long to diagnose Hiro's prominent injury. Take a few x-rays, slap a cast on, maybe fill a prescription for painkillers if Hiro said that his pain was over a 5. But they had been in the room for a near hour, but the nurse practitioner had dropped by every fifteen minutes to update Cass on the delays.

"We're still waiting on an x-ray machine," or "The doctor is really swamped today," or her personal favorite, "It shouldn't be too long now. Any minute!"

Cass was more than ready to gather up her boys and go back home. She was a girl scout once upon a time, she could make a splint out of wooden spoons and cloth strips. But knowing Hiro, he would most likely take it apart, break it, or ruin it in a thousand different ways.

One more hour, she eventually decided, readjusting Hiro to her lap so she could give her hip a rest, if we're not out of here in an hour, I'll go out there and give them a piece of my mind.

"Mmm…"

She peered down her nose to see Hiro's eyelashes splitting apart, then squeeze back together when the artificial light speared into his sensitive eyes. He didn't dare to move his right arm, mainly relying on his left hand to wipe away the remnants of sleep from his face.

"Aun' Cassie?" He quietly slurred, struggling against exhaustion.

"Hey, sunshine," she whispered, careful to keep her voice at a comfortable decibel for the sleepy toddler. "How are you feeling? Does your arm still hurt?"

"Still hurts." He stretched his legs out, humming as he rose his good arm above his head. "Where's Dashi? Are we gonna go home soon?"

She let out a long, exasperated breath. "Tadashi's taking a little nap. See?" She pointed behind her, tilting herself backwards so Hiro could see his nii-chan tangled up in the faded yellow blanket, completely undisturbed and peaceful. "And I don't know when we'll go back home, sweetie," she reeled back up to her previous position, "We've been here for a lo-o-ong time already."

The five-year-old let out a huff, blowing a strand of his bangs away from his face in the process. Cass helped brush the remainder of loose hair away from Hiro's vision, tucking a majority of it behind his ear. She really needed to take him in for a haircut.

Hiro pressed himself further against his aunt, letting a weak sigh escape his lips as his eyes started to close again. "I jus' wanna go home an' see Momo."

"You'll see Mochi soon." Cass chuckled at his nickname for their new kitten, threading her fingers through Hiro's thick locks of hair. "What do you think he's doing right now?"

He hummed, deep in thought. "Maybe he's-"

Hiro was suddenly interrupted when the door swung open with a bang, and a familiar nurse came barging in, pushing a rickety table with an x-ray machine on top of it, the doctor trailing close behind.

"A'ight! Let's get a looksie at that arm now, why don't we?!"

Tadashi woke up in a panic once he heard his little brother's scream ricochet of the walls of the examination room. Even more so when the sound of Hiro's sandals started to slap against the linoleum, and further down the hallway. He shot off the table in a hurry, and soon joined his aunt in the frenzied chase after the runaway toddler.

It took a lot of coaxing from Cass, Tadashi, the nurse, and the doctor, but they all finally got Hiro to calm down long enough to stay still for the x-rays, mainly reassuring him that it wasn't going to hurt.

"It's like whenever Aunt Cass takes a picture! But this time you get to see your insides!"

They finally got the diagnosis a half-hour later, that the x-ray revealed that the five-year-old had a simple greenstick fracture. The nurse wrapped Hiro's little arm in a purple cast, gave Cass simple instructions on how to care for it, slapped a hefty bill in her direction, and after nearly four hours, the Hamadas were finally allowed to leave.

"Aunt Cass?" Tadashi asked once they were in the truck.

"Hmmm?"

Distracted with bucking her youngest in his car seat, Cass could only peek up at Tadashi, slightly taken aback at his stony expression. He had turned a complete 180 from a few minutes ago, when he encouraged Hiro to sleepily curl his free fingers around his own, whispering words of comfort that only a big brother knew to provide. She couldn't remember the last time she saw Tadashi this serious, except when they played go-fish on family game night, nor could she think of a good reason why he would suddenly wear a hard look. Hiro was going to be fine, he heard the doctor say that it would be just six weeks in a cast and he'd be good as new. Unless…

"Are you mad at me?"

Bingo.

He never liked being anyone upset or angry, especially when there was something he could've done to prevent it. He went above and beyond to ensure everyone around him was happy, going out of his way to help others. Family, friends, complete strangers, it didn't matter through Tadashi's eyes. If there were anything in his power that he could do to help someone, he wouldn't think twice.

Cass could see the gears turning in his head, most likely formulating the perfect way to make up to her.

She clicked Hiro's seat buckle, tugging it for good measure, then reached over him to place a soft hand on Tadashi's cheek. He seemed startled by her touch, even more by her kind expression. Completely taken aback if he was being honest with himself.

"Tadashi," she started, "I am not mad at you. I'm not mad at Hiro either. What happened this morning was a complete and utter freak accident. And don't you dare give me that 'responsible older brother' spiel," pointing a stern finger at her nephew when he began to open his mouth to interrupt her. He pursed his lips together, looking around the truck's interior to find something beside his aunt to look at. She continued, "Could it have been avoided? Yes, absolutely. But Hiro's okay, and he'll be back to driving us up the wall in a few weeks."

She gave his face a soft pat, refusing to return to her place at the drivers seat until she saw a tiny smile flash on Tadashi's face. She waited until he bucked up before sticking her key into the ignition.

"Don't let this hold you down, honey," Cass said, turning the key and letting the truck sputter to life. "Think of today as a lesson learned."

"'Lesson learned'?" He repeated. "Like what? Invest in a lot of bubblewrap to make sure Hiro doesn't break anymore arms?"

She couldn't help but let out a chuckle. That was the nephew she knew. "I was thinking of something more simple? Like that you shouldn't agree to race your brother down the stairs while wearing socks."

Tadashi only snorted, ears flushing a deep red in embarrassment.

And there were a lot of lessons to be learned over the next few years, mainly involving the brothers' newfound-shared interest in robotics. They received many stern lectures from their aunt as she patched them up with their trusty first aid kit, or in the more severe cases, whisked them off to the hospital. After cuts were stitched up, x-rays were evaluated, and burns were treated, Cass would stand in front of the two, wearing a practiced, frustrated glare with hands on her hips.

"Now, what did we learn?"

"Don't make Mochi wear the rocket boots unless he wants to."

"Always ask permission before taking apart appliances."

"You shouldn't try to recreate the house from Up."

"Good. Now, go put the washing machine back together. You too, Hiro. Concussion or not."

Unsurprisingly, Hiro often received the blunt end of all the injuries out of the two. He preferred to see things "up close and personal" when it came to their projects, ensuring that every single detail was going according to their hurried calculations. And he would have to pay the price. Black eyes, split chins, first and second-degree burns, and lots and lots of bruising. And concussions. Those were never fun.

Tadashi was more careful, and he mostly emerged from the garage unscathed, except for a few instances when a project was his idea, and he would have to be the first one to test it. But those cases were few and far in-between, along with his injury record with the hospital.

But then came the day Tadashi tried to pull his first all-nighter.

It was his own fault; he really hated to admit it. He knowingly put off his project for AP Physics for the past several weeks. But according to Hiro's calculations, he only had to work for ten and a half straight hours in order to meet the next day's deadline. So he armed himself with a fresh case of energy drinks and made a beeline for garage straight after dinner.

Cass was completely against the idea of the sixteen-year-old spending all night in the garage, even more so when he was going to operate unsupervised with dangerous tools. While throwing back energy drink after energy drink. It was an honest recipe for disaster, but Tadashi swore he knew what he was doing.

"I just don't see how you'll be able to work all night, have your project perfected and finished, and keep your sanity by the time I wake up tomorrow morning."

Tadashi stifled a laugh, ripping off a piece of butcher paper from the large roll that they kept in the supply closet. "Aunt Cass, I really think you're underestimating me. I'm a Hamada. And don't Hamada's work well under pressure? Didn't you tell me one time that dad constructed his Masters' thesis project in one night?"

"He also burned off his eyebrows and got a nasty concussion."

Tadashi bit the inside of his cheek, darting his eyes to the corner of the room and away from his aunt's glare. She let out a hopeless groan, "Are you sure that you can't get Hiro to help you?"

He let his eyes roll to the ceiling, obviously exasperated. "Aunt Cass, we've talked about this. I can't because," he held up his pointer finger, "one, it violates the academic honesty policy. He's not in my class, so it falls under the rule that I'd be accepting outside help." Another finger, "Two, I'm not dragging anyone down with me. I dug my own grave, but I'll dig myself out. And three," he let out a shaky breath as he lifted another finger, "don't you remember the last time I had Hiro help me with something?"

She hissed, clenching her crossed arms even tighter and buckling her knees. Ah, yes. The brothers were inspecting the engine of Tadashi's moped that he was gifted for his sixteenth birthday, and long story short, Hiro's foot was the unfortunate victim when Tadashi unknowingly pressed the reverse lever. That day's lesson, don't work in the garage without shoes on. Even if it is the hottest day of the year.

The sound of ripping duct tape stole her concentration from the painful memory, and she was thankful to be distracted by something other than faint screaming and broken toes. Watching Tadashi set up a makeshift drafting board, she sighed,

"There's no way I'll be able to talk you out of this, is there?"

"Nope," he replied, putting emphasis on the 'p'. "Trust me, Aunt Cass, by the time you wake up, there'll be a full-functioning Rue Goldberg machine right where you're standing. It's gonna be awesome."

The first thing that crossed her mind when Cass was first shaken was she knew that she hadn't slept for eight hours. She wasn't even sure if she even reached three. But either way, she was awake, and she recognized the tall, dark silhouette by her bedside as Tadashi through lidded eyes.

"Aunt Cass?" She screwed her eyes shut, letting out a deep moan when Tadashi began to shake her again. "Aunt Cass. Aunt Cass. Aunt Cass, are you awake?"

"Barely," she whispered, muffling a tired yawn into her pillow. "What time is it?"

"2:41."

"What?" She opened her eyes again, and sure enough, the red numbers by her bedside confirmed the time. "Did you finish your project?"

"No."

She was beginning to grow cross with every second that passed, and the fact that his answers were blunt and to the point were somehow ticking her off even more. Tadashi knew way better than to wake his aunt up in the middle of the night for no good reason. Even if he did finish his project, he wouldn't say anything until the morning. Sleep was more important than waking up his entire family to show off his physics project.

"Then why, pray tell, did you need to wake me up in the middle of the night?"

"I need to go to the hospital."

"What?" She reached over to her bedside to flick her lamp on, completely unprepared for what the darkness concealed.

She couldn't help but let out a shriek once she saw all the blood. Although the wound was hidden underneath a cloth, it still leaked down his arm and gathered at his fingernails. His shirt wasn't any better off, random splotches and streaks of red covered the front. He looked way worse than he probably was, but it didn't stop Cass from ripping the covers off her body and leaping out of bed, suddenly more alert.

"What happened?!"

"X-Acto knife. I cut my arm. It's really deep."

She made a hurried beeline for the bathroom, hearing Tadashi's footsteps follow behind her as she tore through the cabinets.

"Sit on the counter, now!"

He obeyed, hopping on the marble while he watched his aunt make her way over to him with a clean hand towel and medical tape.

"It's not going to be perfect," she said, folding the towel in half, "but it'll hold until we get you to the hospital."

He stayed silent, watching his aunt's steady hands peel away the blood soaked rag off his forearm. Tadashi's stomach turned when he saw more blood ooze out of the cut, feeling his calm demeanor fading away along with the color in his face. He didn't even realize that he was swaying until felt a strong grip on his bicep.

"Tadashi, I know how you are about blood. But you gotta stay strong, okay? I can't pick you up if you fall."

"I… It's jusht a lot of blood," he slurred. "Where's it all coming from?"

"I wouldn't know. I'm not a medical expert." She tossed the rag into the sink, and Tadashi let out a gag when it landed with an ugly squelch. "How did you manage to make it this far without passing out?!" she snapped. "You're the one who cut yourself!"

"I didn't even look at it!" he responded, raising his voice with every syllable. "I felt myself get cut and looked away! I put that rag on it and came straight upstairs! Do you really think that I'd look at it?! I hate blood, aunt Cass!"

"I know!" she yelled back with equal volume. "But you gotta calm down, or else you'll make it worse! You can't pass out, Tadashi!"

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying not too!"

Letting out an angry huff, Cass returned to patching up her sassy nephew, hastily taping the towel to his arm.

"Alright." She separated the tape from the roll, pressing it firmly against the cloth. "Get up. Let's go."

They made their way to the living room at a snails pace after Cass threw on a better change of clothes. She kept her grip on Tadashi's bicep as strong as before as she led him to the kitchen table, helping him sit down in a chair.

"I'm going to leave Hiro a note. Stay here, okay?"

He let out an affirmative hum, letting his head roll backwards with a groan as Cass began to tiptoe up the stairs

"And put pressure on that! Or it'll keep bleeding!"

Just hearing the word was enough to make Tadashi's head spin. It took a lot of hesitation, but he lightly pressed against the makeshift bandage, squirming when he felt warmness underneath his palm. By the time Cass returned, he was barely putting any pressure on his arm. She groaned,

"Seriously, Tadashi?" She crossed over to his side, taking his hand and firmly pressing it against the towel. "You need to keep pressure on it, or else it-"

She was cut off when Tadashi suddenly slumped forwards, as if gravity harshly pulled him with a rope towards the floor. His forehead made contact with the table, and harsh bang echoed throughout the kitchen. Cass quickly grabbed hold of his shoulders, hoisting him up until he was siting upright again. She slapped his pale cheeks, hissing his name in hopes he would regain some consciousness. But it wasn't working.

He had officially passed out.

"Dear lord," she whispered, shaking her head, "this day just keeps getting better and better." She crossed over to the staircase, leaning over the banister. "Hiro! Wake up! I need you to help me get Tadashi into the truck!"

Not counting the instance at the table, Tadashi passed out three times in total. Once in the waiting room, again when the doctor took off the towel, and in the middle of getting his seventeen staples.

"I am never pulling an all nighter ever again," Tadashi groaned, pressing the cold, wet towel that a nurse gave him against his eyes.

"Aunt Cass'll be happy to hear that." Hiro let out a yawn, feeling the outcome of being awoken at three am hit him. The nine-year-old continued pushing Tadashi's wheelchair out the front door, slowly coming to a stop at the curb. Cass would show up with the truck any minute. "Look on the bright side, Dashi, at least-"

"There is no bright side, Hiro." He slid the towel off his face, letting it fall against the hospital gown that replaced his gory t-shirt. "I pretty much embarrassed myself four times today, I've got staples in my arm–and no, it doesn't make me part robot, so please stop asking–, aunt Cass is going to be grumpy all day, and I'm going to fail my project. So please, enlighten me, how is there is a bright side to this?"

"Look," Hiro pointed in the distance, "we get to see the pretty sunrise. It's technically a bright side."

"…Oh, my God."