Kotetsu's morning began with Lloyds ordering him via callband to come in to work on a Sunday when he usually was supposed to be just on standby. As he arrived at Apollon Media, he was sent to visit the heroes' training room without further explanation. Believing an emergency might have occured, he was completely caught off guard when everyone chanted 'Happy Birthday' as he walked into the room. Next, a bouquet was trusted into his arms, made of flowers in the sunny colors of orange and yellow and decorated with some chocolate bars of a brand that was sure to grant heavenly delicacies to the person eating them - at least by Keith's statement.
Kotetsu had barely time to recover from the surprise when Antonio handed him some fine brandy by Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla. The amber colored liquid promised a redolence of liquorice and vanilla with some floral touch to it. Antonio gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder whispering to him not to drink all of it at once, as he shoved him over to the other heroes.
Ivan timidly held a tiger made of white-green-striped origami paper (which surely must have been hard to find) infront of Tiger's nose. He stuttered something about not having much time to find anything else and remembering that Kotetsu had given him an origami folding book for Christmas and so on. He received a broad smile on the old man's face while he ruffled the young man's hair as thanks.
The next gift he received was a token coin adorned with a dragon and a phoenix around a quadratic hole in its middle. The coin was bound to a small tablet with Chinese characters and the whole talisman held together by a red thread. Pao-Lin told him the object was supposed to bring good-luck, wealth and would strengthen south and east as she held it out to him. Even if Kotetsu didn't get the thing about the cardinal directions, he was still thankful for the good fortune part of it and gave the girl a fatherly hug in combination with a pat on the head.
Karina shyly presented him a black leather flat cap with two white stripes running down the top. The lining was made of white silk and felt just wonderful on his head as he tried it on. It must have cost quite some money and Karina looked terribly flustered with her emotions running high between feeling stupid for giving him anything at all and hoping that he liked it at the same time. Kotetsu knocked her out with a light embrace and a kiss to her forehead. That gesture made her linger on cloud nine for the rest of the day - after wrestling herself away from Kotetsu, flailing and yelling at him to forget about it in her embarrassment, of course.
That left Barnaby to be the last one to give something to Kotetsu. As the veteran hero looked over to the corner where his partner had positioned himself, his pleased smile told him that the whole thing must have been his idea. Sighing in annoyance, but still grateful to receive so much love by everyone, he walked over to him with all the presents carried in his arms.
"Good morning, Bunny." A goofy grin spread over his face as he greeted him.
"Good morning, Kotetsu-san, and happy birthday to you."
"Well, thank you. For everything, you know..." He was quite lost for words, scratching his head in an attempt to find the right things to say. Barnaby didn't let him finish, though. He grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out of the room, wrenched Kotetsu's presents away while muttering something about collecting them later and piled them over their desk in passing. Kotetsu was quite lost in the situation, trying to sort out his feelings from parting with his gifts so soon after he had just received them. Barnaby wouldn't answer any of his questions, though, as Kotetsu was ordered to take his seat in the Wild Chaser and to put on his half-mask as Barnaby reved up.
They were driving to some unknown place in the inner city, it seemed. Kotetsu only watched very few people passing by and even less came from the direction they were headed for. Hardly surprising, considering the streets were lined by countless bars and cafés and the fact it was Sunday morning. This place was not to brim with business until late at night, maybe until the afternoon, earliest. So why were they here? It was clearly too early to eat lunch already, even too early for brunch. Glancing up at his partner he tried for the last time to get some information out of him.
"Hey, Bunny, what are we doing here?"
"You'll see soon enough."
So he was still not supposed to know, was he? Just when he decided to kick back and wait they came to an aprupt halt infront of a bar. Looking at the establishment in question it seemed highly unlikely that they were open for business yet and even if they were the place all but screamed 'shady' from the very first letter in its unlit neon sign to the the very last corner.
"Bunny, are you sure we're right here?"
"Positive, now stop asking pointless questions and come on, ol-Hrmhrm! Please come with me."
Kotetsu had already heard the 'old man' spilling from Barnaby's lips even if he stopped himself at the last second. Still, it was nice of the blonde to try not to call him by that name at his birthday, even if he seemed annoyed by his partner by now. Maybe the guy was just nervous that his plan would not work the way he wanted. As he got off the chaser, Kotetsu thought to himself to better be as positively surprised as he possibly could be about whatever Barnaby had planned for him. He did not want to hurt the other's feelings after he obviously tried so hard for him.
As they entered, a familiar voice greated them in a womanly way of speaking.
"Finally, Handsome, I thought you wouldn't come anymore."
The put-on tragic in Nathan's voice was clearly discernable as the tall man strode over in his pink heeled boots and huffed one air kiss to each side of Barnaby's cheeks.
"I thought we are still right on time.", Barnaby muttered in irritation and got an overdramatised answer, including a punctuated roll of the other's eyes.
"You are ten minutes TOO EARLY, Handsome. How is a girl supposed to prepare herself properly when the man is over-punctual?"
Nathan leaned in closer, his manner of speech normal by now. "Really, don't be so nervous, it'll be just fine, he'll like it, I'm sure."
"Hey, what are you two whispering all about? Why are we here, hm? Bunny won't tell me anything."
"Oh, oh, he's complaining, you better get going then." He crossed the room with a feminine swing of his hips to reach a curtain, gesturing for them to walk through it. Barnaby turned around to give Kotetsu an approving nod, waiting for him to cross the curtain first. Nathan put a hand on Kotetsu's shoulder and susurrated "Happy birthday to you, Tiger!" as he shoved him behind the curtain into a dark room. Kotetsu nearly tripped, revolving around himself for a second, cursing.
"Wha-? It's pitch black in here!"
The room was illuminated the next moment, as a big group of people all cheered in a choir: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, TIGER!"
They even popped some crackers and applauded when he had fully entered the room.
Kotetsu stood there, gaping at the crowd standing around a giant cake, much like the ones you see on a wedding ceremony normally. His eyes scanned the room full of people. Some of their faces seemed oddly familiar to him, even if he didn't know where he might have met them before. He even spotted Ben in the back row, next to a brown haired girl with two moles below her eyes. Well he definitely remembered HER from somewhere. Wasn't she like the heroes' most rescued passerby? Maybe that was it what made some of the other people look so familiar, too. He might have rescued them on some occasion once.
"Bunny, what is this all about?", he asked breathlessly, while Barnaby just passed him by and motioned for Ben to come closer. The dark skinned man held a wrapped present in his hands, smiling fatherly towards Kotetsu as he handed it over to him.
"Happy Birthday, Kotetsu, we hope you'll like this."
Kotetsu's hands shook nervously. What could be wrapped in there that so many people wanted to know his reaction towards it? He sent an unsure look over to his partner, nearly expecting to find Agnes filming the whole scene from somewhere. But it was just him, his friends, and that crowd of people looking at him.
Swallowing hard once, he swiftly unwrapped his present, determined to get it over with, but not sure if he could fake an approving facial expression anymore. The thing coming to light behind the gift wrap all but made his eyes grow bigger and bigger though. He looked like his eyeballs would pop out any moment now, while his jaw had reached an angle that one had to worry for him to get a trismus out of it. There sat a black mask with a golden lower line in his hands. It was similar to Kotetsu's own half-mask, but covered the entire forehead, cheekbones and nose when set in place. There was a legendary man once wearing this mask and he was Kotetsu's favorite hero of all times. A shiver ran down his spine, making it hard for him to hold onto the mask and not to let it fall from his shaky hands.
"Bu-bu-but-Ho-ho-how-?"
He turned to Barnaby, who stood there smiling and seemingly relieved next to him.
"I made a call-up to all of your fans via internet and asked them to spent one Sternbild Dollar each to buy you this present, Kotetsu-san."
"Eh? But this is a real, worn Mr.-Legend-mask! A super rare item on the fan market! It costs hundreds of dollars! Hundreds... of... them!"
He looked close to hyperventilating, as if by receiving this gift he had to pay just another fine for something he didn't do this time. Barnaby put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Relax. You have more fans out there than you might think, Kotetsu-san. Believe me. The ones gathered here are only a few of them chosen by lottery in lack of a space big enough to rent for all of them. We even had some money left so everyone assembled here can eat and drink for free today in this barroom Nathan kindly lent us for the event."
To say Kotetsu was moved by all of that effort spent on his person was a complete understatement. He couldn't say anything as thanks in return because his jaw shivered from his teeth clattering too much by now. Even as he turned around to the people watching him and tried to speak there was only an unintelligible gibble gabble to be heard from his lips while he couldn't stop himself from smiling - or from what he thought was a smile that distorted his face. The tears ran wild and he had difficulty keeping his half-mask to his face since it threatened to be washed away.
Bunny embraced his partner and patted his back in an understanding gesture. Than he flashed his most positive and earnest smile towards the fans behind him and ensured them that Tiger was just fine.
"He says he is very very happy for all the effort. Please help yourselves to some drinks and food in the meanwhile."
The idea was approved by the crowd in a collective murmur and they did as they were told.
"Bunny?", a shivering question wrung himself from the older man's throat as he turned his head slightly to look up to the blonde whose jacket was now soaked in tears and some snot. The Mr.-Legend-mask was still sitting safely on the palms of Kotetsu's hands while his forehead leant on the other man's shoulder. "You arranged this, didn't you? How did you know it was my birthday in the first place? I mean, I've never told you and you never seemed to be the person interested in birthday parties anyway."
"About one week ago, Antonio asked me if I wanted to contribute something to a birthday present he had in mind for you. I was quite shocked never to have even thought about the date of your birthday and much less giving you anything to celebrate it, even though you always make such a big fuss about my own date of birth. Thus I decided it was supposed to be something special, but at first I lacked on ideas. But then Nathan barged in on us and we planned this whole thing with the help of Ben and the other heroes. Judging from your expression you seem to be as overjoyed about it as I had hoped you would be."
"I hate my birthday.", Kotetsu muttered with a scowl on his face, then sniffled once and brushed his tears away roughly with the back of his arm. "At least I did so for a very long time." An open-hearted smile enlightened his rugged features and made him look so unmistakably like himself again. "Thank you, Bunny." He took off his hat, placing it infront of both their faces to hide the affectionate kiss he shared with his partner. Not that there was anybody who would not have guessed what the two of them were doing behind that improvised privacy shield, but fortunately nobody seemed to look at them during this tender moment.
As for the ongoing of the birthday party, Kotetsu was more than glad to cut the cake as soon as he had calmed down enough to hold a more or less sharp object in his hands again. He soon knew why the cake had been so big, considering the mass of people congregated here, only this way everyone had the chance to get a slice of it.
He soon was addressed by a longtime fan excitedly asking him whether he could sign the Tiger-cards the man had collected over the years. Well, granted that meant he held up pretty much only two differently designed cards at his hero, it took not that long to grant his wish. But then other fans gathered around him, asking him for autographs and even starting to state what moves they liked best out of his repertoire. Being the type of man to take his fanletters home to read them, Kotetsu was quite at a loss of words at the sudden attention towards him. But he seemed to enjoy himself nevertheless.
Barnaby stood in the corner of the room with his arms crossed and the Mr-Legend-mask sitting next to him on a spindly legged table. He was instructed not to leave his eyes off the object by Kotetsu, but really, who would steal anything from a man they adored? The young blonde enjoyed the view of his partner being surrounded by the crowd of people. He was happy that for once the veteran hero was allowed to be in the spotlight he had to earn himself so very hard to get in to - though he grinned like a happy idiot as he stood there.
Nathan made his way across the room with a plate of cake in each hand, handing one over to Barnaby while he positioned himself next to him.
"Lovely sight he is giving off, hum, Handsome?"
"Yeah, he seems so happy, I'm glad we arranged this after all."
Nathan nudged Barnaby in the side, a smug smile on his face. "And you were so worried he would dislike it, when it was just the right idea. I am sure, Tiger will reward your effort tonight, eh?"
Barnaby flushed up to his ears and turned his head towards Nathan in a robotic way, his mouth working without saying anything.
Nathan put him off. "Oh please, it's so obvious that he is special to you. Besides..." Nathan's eyes darted around, then he leaned in close to Barnaby's ear. "If I had not guessed so anyway already, I got a good view of what the two of you were doing behind the old man's hat earlier. It looked quite delicious."
Barnaby's words were even more stuck in his throat now, like he couldn't decide how to defend himself even when his tongue could usually be as sharp as a knife. Nathan patted him on the shoulder. "Relax, Handsome, I won't hawk it around. Not that it would be necessary to do so in the first place." He whirled around, throwing an air kiss towards Barnaby's direction while teetering away on his high heeled boots.
Barnaby sighed heavily, his head slumping down to his chest. He eyed the cake still resting on the plate in his hands warily at first, but decided to eat it to busy himself for the moment. He hadn't thought about any kind of reward for setting the whole thing up until now. But since Nathan had mentioned it, he wondered whether Kotetsu might do so after all. For the moment though, all that mattered to Barnaby was the happy look on his partner's face and the fact that he enjoyed his formerly hated birthday.