Barnaby had no experience with child-rearing, nor did he ever really wish to gain any. And yet, thanks to that damned NEXT they had fought a few days ago, he was going to be forced to learn whether he liked it or not.
A very short, beardless, round-faced little Kotetsu looked up at him with big, playful eyes. Barnaby had never been good with age estimation, but the child looking up at him so fondly couldn't have been older than seven. He was a cute little thing, except for the fact that he was Barnaby's partner. Like he could ever even hold a conversation with a seven-year-old, much less partner with one.
A tug on Barnaby's jacket sleeve accompanied a cute voice tinged with oriental accent. "Mr. Barnaby, why are you so boring?"
A blonde eyebrow twitched as Barnaby looked down his nose at the child with a kind of fear. What the hell was he supposed to do? After a moment of thought, he knelt down to the child's eye level and attempted a smile.
"Since I'm so boring, why don't you tell me what you want to do?"
Asking Kotetsu that question had been a bad idea. The child immediately began listing off activity after activity that he wanted to do with Barnaby. The rookie hero wasn't sure why the little snot was so clingy with him. Barnaby hadn't even been born when Kotetsu was this age. He must have retained some part of his normal self, then, proving that he knew of Barnaby's existence at least.
Or maybe Kotetsu was just desperate for attention and he would have been this clingy and annoying with anyone.
"—then we could play on the playground and you could get me ice cream from the ice cream truck and you could take me to see Mr. Legend's statue and—"
"Okay," Barnaby intoned firmly, just trying to get the kid to stop. "We can do that, okay? Just, stop talking. Please."
Kotetsu fell silent with an immature little huff of defeat and moodily crossed his arms.
This was going to be a very long day, and it hadn't even begun.
"Barnaby! Why aren't you playing?"
"It's okay, I'll just sit here." The hero waved his little friend onward and crossed his legs comfortably in the park bench where he was sitting. "I'll be watching, okay? That's good enough, right?" Please let it be good enough.
"No."
Stubborn little bastard.
What did one even do on a playground? Barnaby couldn't remember the last time he'd seen one, much less played on one. Had he ever? The memories he had of himself and his parents were so few and far between, and once he had been placed in the orphanage he had made it a point to never play with anyone. He had been too depressed for that.
"Fine. You win. You always win. You know why? You don't play fair." It was true. Barnaby just couldn't resist the cute little tilt of Kotetsu's head and the pleading eyes that seemed to inject guilt into every fiber of Barnaby's being.
"You show me what to do, and I'll do it with you."
Kotetsu grinned so big Barnaby was surprised the smile even fit on his tiny face. Before he knew it, he was being dragged to the mulched area and up into the playground, led on to the adventure he had never had by a child who was determined to teach Barnaby Brooks Jr. what "fun" was all about.
