REMY WAS TRYING TO SMOTHER HIMSELF INTO BUDDY'S STOMACH. The robot had one arm wrapped around him lovingly, and the other hand patting his head, trying to provide as much comfort as he could. For a robot, he had as much emotion as any person, as Remy has noticed for the months that he'd had BUDDY with him.

"Why are you crying, Remy?" BUDDY asked, in that same Australian accent that always made Remy's feel better just by the sound of it.

The boy sniffed, wiping at his eyes. "I don't wanna do these projects, there's too many of them," he whined, burying his face deeper into the strange material of the robot's stomach, "I don't wanna do anything."

BUDDY barely needed a moment to process all the information. "But you have a lot of time to do the projects. But are you feeling sad or unmotivated? Have you lost interest in things you usually love to do?"

Remy blew air out of his cheeks, rolling his eyes. "I'm stressed, not depressed. I think. Am I depressed, I don't know."

"You should talk to someone about all of this," BUDDY suggested, and Remy sighed heavily, shaking his head.

"No, I'm okay," he hummed, sliding off BUDDY's stomach and moving back to the floor where his homework was looking back up at him. His History, English, and Science classes had just been based around the big project they had at the end of the year, and he finished all his math with Peter, so now all he had to do was stare at his reports he had to do.

"Maybe you should focus on the family tree," BUDDY suggested, watching as Remy sighed and whined at the other report he had to do.

"No..." he whined, "'Cause we have to make it look like an actual tree, and it's just too much work..."

"Why is this hero project so hard for you?" BUDDY asked, reaching out and picking up the paper, his processors trying to compute the words in front of him.

The Hero Report was what the teachers all told them to get started on, since the DNA test was more about focusing on how cool science and technology was, and the family tree was part art project and part family research project, so the report was the easiest in comparison to everything else.

Yet Remy didn't want to do anything.

"I don't know who I would write about," the boy whined, and BUDDY immediately fell into listening mode, "I mean, we can write about people just in our lives in general, so I can write about Uncle Brad or Aunt Jayne or something, but I don't know."

After a few moments, BUDDY suggested, "Why don't you go talk to every person you could write about and see which one you think is your hero, someone you could write about?"

Remy took a deep breath, tilting his head back. "I don't want to...but it's a good idea, so yeah, why not."

BUDDY made a noise that was almost like a laugh. "Things aren't ever easy for you, are they, Remy."

The boy fell asleep before he could disagree, though even if he had been awake, he probably wouldn't have.

º º º

Remy's school got out early the next day, so he decided to go see Peter first. It wasn't as if he thought of even using Peter as his hero—he really did like him, and he appreciated that he really worked to help Remy understand his work and wasn't condescending about it, though he wasn't the biggest fan of his girlfriend—but he just wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to regret not using him as an option.

So he decided to go to the high school, an endeavor that no one wanted him to make. The high schoolers didn't want it, no adult wanted it, no other kid his age wanted it, he didn't even want it, but it was a necessary evil, as there was someone else that he wanted to see, just because he wanted to.

"Hey, Flash!" he called out, weaving through the sea of students, his small stature finally coming in handy, landing in front of the short boy who was pulling books out of his locker.

"Oh...hey, Remy, what're you doing here?" Flash asked, clearly not expecting him and not quite happy about it, though not quite upset. He glanced around, as if he was going to find an explanation just on Remy's heels.

"I came here 'cause I'm trying to figure out who to write about for my hero report," he explained, not making any indication that he was going to be leaving any time soon.

"Oh, cool," the boy said, glancing around again, "Um...did you want me to help you with it, or...?"

"No, I just wanted to see you again," he replied, fiddling with his backpack straps, "How was school?"

Flash sighed, finally giving Remy a genuine response. "Man, I didn't study enough for this one test, and I'm pretty sure I failed it. Like, I tried really hard on it, but I just couldn't understand anything on it. Whatever, I'll just do rewrites or something, but..." he threw up his arms, "I'm trying really hard to do well, but I guess that's not enough for some people."

Remy nodded earnestly, starting to follow the boy as he walked along a hallway, not leading to the exit. "Do you ever get annoyed when people ask you why you didn't do good on something 'cause they thought it was easy?"

Flash made a face, shrugging. "Eh, I mean, I do that, actually, but that's 'cause I'm just like that. I say it was easy, it actually wasn't, but if I say it wasn't people can't take me down for it, you know?"

Remy frowned. "But that's just like acting like you totally know something when you don't, so you sound really stupid when you say the wrong thing like you knew you were right, when you weren't."

Flash raised an eyebrow. "Straight white male confidence?"

Remy shrugged. "Yeah, if that's what it's called."

The older boy hummed. "I mean I'm not straight or white, but I'm a male, and I sure as hell act like one, so, yeah, I get your point, but I try not to be wrong, so if you're looking for advice or someone to look up to, I don't think you should be looking at me, kid. Look at my foster sister, she's great."

Remy sighed. "Diana?"

Flash frowned down at him, clearly not pleased with his tone. "We kinda adopted her and she's also literally my favorite person, so you better have a good explanation for that sigh, buddy." He said 'buddy' the way someone said 'bub' in those cheesy action shows Remy used to see on TV.

He shrugged, not liking the fact that he made Flash mad; he wanted Flash to like him. "Sorry, it's not really her, 'cause she taught me about forgiveness or whatever, which is really nice, actually, she's really cool in that way, it's just...why does she have to be dating Peter, can't she date someone else?"

Flash paused for a moment, blinking. Then, "Oh my God, not you too. I swear to God—why does everyone have a crush on Parker? Why did I have a crush on Parker? For like three days last week, don't ask, I don't wanna talk about it."

"But you brought it up—" Remy started, but Flash shushed him.

"Forget about it," he said, shaking his head, "And, man, I don't really like Parker all that much, I'm working on it and healing, or whatever, but he makes Diana happy and she hasn't been this happy since her parents died, so I'm not complaining, and Parker lost his parents when he was really young, and his uncle died back in freshman year, so...and you don't have to like Diana, you're one of the first, but you can't like everyone."

Remy nodded, glad that Flash didn't hate him for disliking his adoptive sister. He tried not to focus on the fact that Flash also said, 'healing, or whatever,' but was failing miserably, unable to fight the grin that was creeping up on him.

"Were you gonna see if Parker could be your hero for your report?" Flash asked, catching sight of the boy in question who was chatting with a boy Remy didn't recognize; he was blond and really tall and wearing really nice clothes.

He paused for a moment, glancing up at Flash, then shook his head. "No. I mean, Peter's been really great to me, but if I was gonna choose someone here, I would've probably written about you."

Flash snorted, raising an eyebrow. "What is it, kid, want me to do your homework or something?"

It dawned on Remy that Flash probably never heard people talking about him like he could be a hero, and that only made him like him more. "No. I mean it."

Flash looked genuinely confused. "Why?"

Remy forced himself to look the boy in the eye as he spoke, "'Cause you proved to me that I can be smart even when no one thinks I can."

º º º

He went to go see his aunts after school, the ones he was biologically and legally related to, at least. He had gotten back to school just in time to hop into the car with them, since his mom wasn't going to pick him up until later since she had work.

When they arrived at their house, Ethan was forced to go do his work, despite his cousin being over, which gave Remy a perfect opportunity to interrogate his aunts about why at least one of them could be the topic of his hero project.

Truth be told, he was most likely looking towards his Aunt Wilma for the hero, not so much his Aunt Treshelle, for no other reason than Wilma was biologically related to him which meant she also had connection to his mother, whereas Treshelle was actually one of his mother's friends, but there was just a feeling of disconnect. It had nothing to do with her, but everything to do with him, and it was his report, so he didn't really care.

"Aunt Wilma," he said, pulling out the chair next to hers on the dining table, knowing fully well that he was interrupting her work, but not caring enough to feel bad, "Can I talk to you about my school project?"

His aunt froze, gauging his reactions as she nodded. "Yeah, sure, what about?"

He smiled, pulling out his report guidelines which were already starting to get crumpled. "So I'm doing a hero report, and I don't know who to do it on, so I thought maybe I could do it on you. BUDDY said I should talk to people to get a feel of if they could be my hero. I already talked to this one high schooler I barely know, and as much as I like him, I don't think I could do a whole hero report on how he makes me feel smart because he's smart but struggles at school, so I gotta look somewhere else."

Wilma blinked for a moment, processing his words—most people, adults especially, needed to do that as he tended to talk a mile a minute—before saying, "Do you want me to just talk about our relationship and you can move on from there?"

He hummed, glancing over at the questions before tossing them aside. "Yeah, sure, like talk about how you're even in my life or whatever, I don't really know, I think you could be my hero, though, I don't really know why."

She smiled lightly, nodding. "Okay. Well, I'm your mother's sister for one thing, we grew up together. I'm only older by one year, so not that large of a gap, though we never did things together much, not until much later in life, like right about now, since you and Ethan are so close, that must mean something.

"I like to think I've looked out for your mother, especially this past year, though I'll admit I could have done more throughout our life, especially when we were younger. Especially then..." she trailed off, staring at the table, yet her eyes were unfocused, mind clearly elsewhere.

Remy watched her for a moment, before speaking up, "Aunt Wilma?"

She snapped out of it immediately, trying to give him a reassuring smile. "Sorry about that, just thinking. Um...you weren't born yet when I got married, which is disappointing because you would have made the cutest ring bearer, but..." she laughed, "I remember, you were pretty young so I don't think you do, but we were all out once, and someone had said something awful to Treshelle and I, I can't repeat it, but you. You couldn't have even been six yet, so you shouldn't have even understood what they said, but you knew it was mean and was against us being together, so you ran over and kicked that person in the shin and told them—"

She laughed for a moment, composing herself before she spoke, "You told them 'Jesus hates bullies and I do too!' and just kicked them again, then ran away before they could get you, you just left us behind, you didn't care, and we were terrified, but it was hilarious, and I just remember thinking that no one is born with bigotry because even you, who didn't really understand what it meant for Treshelle and I to be married, you didn't understand any concept of that, you just knew that it wasn't right for someone to say something hurtful, so you went to make sure that they didn't say it again."

Remy thought for a moment, surprised; he had never heard this story before. He had heard all about how his aunt had worked to advocate for gay marriage and equal rights, had seen how happy she was when it was finally truly legalized, watched her cry tears of joy, hug her wife, hug her son, hug everyone. He had seen the pure emotion, seen how much it meant to her to finally have someone on her side and tell her that she was perfect the way she was and she was entitled to the same rights as any other person; as a woman with a black mother and a white father who had grown up during a time when that wasn't okay, life was hard enough as it was, it must have felt good to finally feel accepted.

The fact that she had pushed through for this long was truly heroic, if you asked Remy.

"I think you could be my hero," he finally said, after sitting on those thoughts for a few moments.

She hummed. "Oh? Why?"

He shrugged. "Because you proved that I don't have to be what people want me to be and I'm not what anyone thinks I am. I'm what I say I am."

º º º

Remy was Skyping with his grandparents while Nicky Green watched over him. The man had been asked to just watch Remy for one hour while Tony rushed to the facility for a meeting, one that Remy couldn't be in the building for. He had picked him up, planning on taking him home, but he had to take a detour and drop him off at a loft that Remy didn't want to be in with a man that he certainly did not want to associate himself with.

"I don't like you," was what he said the moment Nicky opened the door to find Tony shoving the boy unceremoniously inside.

"The feeling's mutual, I'll get you some snacks and the wifi password," Nicky had said, making large shooing motions towards some people that had immediately rushed into one room. Remy felt a spike of interest, but it was clear he wasn't going to get any answers, so he dropped it.

So there he was, sitting on the incredibly comfortable couch of a man he didn't like, trying to work on his hero report, waiting for his grandparents to figure out how to get Skype to work on their computer.

"You know, give me their address and I can just get it to work for them, they don't need to tell me anything about their computer, make it easier for you," Nicky said, looking up from where he was working on patient files at the dining table.

Remy turned to scowl at him, having to push himself up on the couch in order to do it. "I don't like you."

Nicky laughed. "I'm well aware. You also don't like Diana, and I love you for it."

Remy made a face, infuriated by his words. "Why? I thought you hate it when people don't like you."

"I do!" he cried, grinning madly, "But I'm not losing sleep over you not liking me, it's amazing! I'm getting better, because you actually terrify me, but your opinion of me doesn't matter to me, and I love it. Honestly, it's wonderful, I feel so free. And realistically, not everyone is going to like me, so thank you for helping me start to be okay with that."

Remy blinked at him for a moment, letting his words sink in, then scoffed, forcing them out of his mind despite himself. "Why are you like this, I swear to God..."

He picked up his phone where he received an incredibly apologetic text message from his grandparents, explaining that they just can't get their computer to work, and that they'd rather talk to him in person, and they felt so terrible that they couldn't help him, because they wanted nothing more than to make his life easier, and they hoped he could forgive them for not being able to call then.

He sent them a quick text, explaining that it was okay and he didn't really mind, he had just wanted to see if he could get to them that day, and that he was okay. He was honestly surprised by how upset they were at the idea of letting him down, and he couldn't stop thinking about it.

Toeing off his shoes, he moved so he was lying down along the couch, staring up at the ceiling of the loft he didn't want to be in, thinking about his grandparents.

It had been revealed to him back during Christmas that they had been the ones helping his mom pay for everything, not Mark, and the real reason why they had had to move out of their brownstone was because his grandparents had fallen rather tight on money, and his mother didn't want to ask any more from them in their old age, his grandfather still working despite his old age.

The more and more he thought about it, the more surprising it was for him.

They had stuck by his mother throughout the entire divorce, stuck by him throughout the entire divorce, and they had done everything they could, even lying to Remy so he could think that Mark was still in his life, they did that for him and his mother.

His grandparents could be his heroes. Because they proved to him that there was such a thing as unconditional love.

º º º

It was after dinner and Remy finally got a chance to talk to his Aunt Jayne. There wasn't really much to talk about now that he thought about it, as he already knew everything that made her a hero to him, and pretty much everything about her pertaining to him.

"I've been there since the beginning, I was there when your mother found out you were conceived, I was there for all of it," Jayne ranted, Brad laughing at her from where he was hiding in the kitchen, pretending not to be eavesdropping, "I am practically your other mother, forget Mark or whatever other man, I am your other parent! I practically raised you, alongside your mother! I was there when you were born! All of it!"

Remy laughed at her shouting, trying not to let her see, as she seemed to be rather serious about the whole thing. "How does that make you my hero, though?"

"A lot of ways!" she cried, "I taught you so much. I painted your nails. I helped out your mom by watching over you, I helped you out by watching over your mom. I told you the story about Tony, so you were able to find him, and now you and your mom both have him in your lives. I've been there since day one and I'm not going anywhere!"

Remy grinned, a warm feeling spreading through his chest. "Yeah. You could probably be my hero."

She made a motion with her hand. "No need to tell me, I already know why."

He laughed, hugging a pillow to his chest, looking towards the door where his mother and Tony had just returned with more ice cream.

Because she had proven to him that not everybody leaves.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

The title is based off of that one children's book "Are You My Mother?" because I thought it would be funny.

So I don't know if you caught this, but Nicky had actually given him something new to learn, like, he genuinely doesn't like Nicky (nor is he particularly fond of Diana, which is great because not everyone is gonna like those two characters even though everyone does) but he learned from both of them, which is interesting.

Also, ya'll thought Remy was gonna find a brother figure in Peter? Ha! The boy found it in my boy Flash Thompson, they're actually really similar if you think about it in terms of how headstrong they are, the need to prove their dads wrong in terms of their intellect, it's great, I love the dynamic, it was actually an accident, but we're rolling with it.

Also, the true savior of this story is not Tony, but Jayne. Jayne is the reason for literally everything, think back to every moment in this book that was started, it was all because of Jayne, she's the true hero, I love her.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!