The Eyebrow Incident

It was a gorgeous late spring day when it happened. Hiro had just turned six months old and Tadashi was just shy of six years when Carol and Shinichi had invited Cass over for a barbecue. It was just a small thing, nothing fancy. It wasn't like Carol and Cass weren't at each other's places all the time, not including their weekly Girls' Night Out.

Shinichi had been in the backyard grilling while Cass and Carol got the non-grilled food ready. Tadashi was playing quietly with Hiro. A little too quietly in Carol's opinion, which is why her ears pricked when she heard her oldest say, "There, done."

"Done with what, Tadashi?" she asked as she sat down the bowl of fruit salad on the table and turned to look at the boy just in time to see a guilty look as he tried to hide something. Eyes narrowing, she commanded, "Bring it here."

Reluctantly, Tadashi obeyed.

"What is that? Glue?" It was, specifically it was the glue for the fake eyelashes she had in their Halloween box, which was supposed to be buried in the hall closet. A quick glance at the closet door showed it was ajar.

"What were you doing with this?" Carol asked, afraid of the answer.

"Ms. Hernandez explained why we have odd things like bellybuttons and eyebrows and why they're important. Did you know eyebrows help protect your eyes? Then I realized Hiro didn't have any eyebrows, so I gave him some."

"You what?" Carol asked blankly even as her sister moved to get Hiro. Cass burst out laughing before picking up Carol's baby boy and Carol had to admit, it was rather funny.

Tadashi had glued the biggest, longest, fluffiest set of fake eyelashes he could get his hands on to Hiro's forehead. Hiro was obviously fascinated by them, as he was trying to look at them. He'd open his eyes wide in wonder, but when that would result in him raising the fake eyebrows out of easy view, he'd start to scowl but, as that would bring the eyebrows back into easier view, he'd go wide-eyed with awe again and start the cycle all over. The end result was her baby boy waggling the bushiest pair of eyebrows a baby could have.

With her attempt at being stern with Tadashi ruined by her and Cass's amusement and Hiro obviously unharmed, Carol shook her head and let it be. Shinichi would also get a kick out of it when he came in from the grill, crowing with laughter at his oldest son's ingenuity. Cass eventually insisted on a picture where Tadashi was holding Hiro.

"For when they go to prom," she said. Later on, the picture would be added to a family photo album.

14 years later

Tadashi came down from putting Baymax in his charger to see his friends gathered around the kotatsu with Aunt Cass, looking at something. Hiro was standing nearby, looking chagrined.

"What are you guys doing?" Tadashi asked with a slight frown.

"Just showing them the old family picture album," Aunt Cass stated before squealing, "Oh, oh, you have to see this one!"

Aunt Cass crowed as she pulled the photo from the album and passed it around. Tadashi glanced at it along with his brother and their friends only to pale and go, "Oh no."

"That is so adorable!" Honey Lemon cooed.

"And funny!" Fred added with a loud laugh. Gogo smirked when she took a look.

"The hell is on my face?" Hiro asked with a frown.

"Your brother decided you needed more visible eyebrows, so he glued some fake eyelashes on you," Aunt Cass cheerfully informed her nephew.

"Really?" Hiro asked, giving Tadashi a look.

"I was five, okay?"

"Almost six and already in first grade," Aunt Cass stated proudly. Hiro raised an eyebrow at Tadashi, who had buried his face in his hands in embarrassment.

"He wasn't hurt by them, was he?" Wasabi asked.

"Nah. Came right off with some baby oil. Hiro cried, of course, but that's because he loved them so much. Kept waggling them all over the place. I wish I still had the video we'd taken."

Fred, who hadn't stopped laughing, cracked up even harder while Hiro blushed.

"I... think I remember that," Hiro admitted reluctantly. "There was something that looked fuzzy that Tadashi had given me and I wanted to touch it but it kept disappearing every time I tried looking at it. Then it was taken away and I was so upset because it was mine and I hadn't gotten it to stay still long enough to touch it."

"Aw!"

"Next picture, please," Tadashi begged, "Like the one where Hiro was the tree in the school play."

"You were a tree?" Gogo asked, raising an eyebrow at Hiro.

"He was the best tree ever!" Aunt Cass enthused even as she flipped through the book. "I know we have a couple of pictures of that in here somewhere..." Since neither of her boys had gone to prom, she'd had to improvise a reason to pull out the pictures. It was her duty to embarrass them, after all.

Notes: Hiro as a tree in the school play was shamelessly stolen from Becky_Blue_Eyes (I hope you don't mind!). Concept art for the Hamada house implies their dining room table is actually a kotatsu, which is a short table with a heating element inside to keep the people sitting at it warm. The rest of this was inspired by a picture I saw online.