Tiger & Bunny: Publicized Kiss
Written By: Angel Ayami
Disclaimer: Tiger & Bunny is of full copyright to Sunrise, if it were Kotetsu and Barnaby would be together. However, I do claim ownership of Nanami.
Author Note: So no one kills me, this isn't really supposed to ship BarnabyOC I swear this is just meant to be fun.
~o~o~
It was pasted everywhere on the news, reran on Hero TV, seen in tabloid front covers and on newspapers. People were eating this up like mice to cheese. The saddest part was that everyone believed it was true! Barnaby Brooks Jr. was sitting in his chair, staring at the large screen television that spanned from wall to ceiling just across from him. He stared with glazed green colored eyes in the dark, the illumination of the screen glinting white on his glasses. On the side table that held his laptop was a glass half filled with red wine, including the bottle, the front cover from the incident dangling off the edge. He listened to the news reporter mention the news about a "romantic notion" between Heroes.
Was Barnaby really mad? No, not really. It wasn't exactly an intentional action, more of an accident really. What had happened that caused such a buzz? Well…as the tabloid headlines would say "Barnaby Brooks Jr. (King of Heroes) and Sea Nymph Romantically Involved?!" The incident happened not too long ago, two days really, and the presses were STILL eating up the made up rumor.
~o~o~
Sometimes catching a thief was easier said than done really, it all depended where you were at the time and how long it could take for you to catch it. For the publicized show Hero TV which was a show of Heroes fighting crime recorded live for all of Sternbild to see along with other viewers. To gather the most points was for thief or culprit capture, those were worth more than anything. Barnaby and his partner Kotetsu had gotten the call not too long ago and were speeding along the roadways of the city in order to catch onto the trail of the culprit. What was the crime? Bank robbery, stolen close to one million stirn dollars and jewels were locked up in an armored truck by about five people, armed with guns.
Barnaby was driving down the roads at a fast speed that anyone they passed would see streaks of green and red go by. He and Kotetsu had been armored up and were hot on the trail. Kotetsu had a video call up by a young woman, two years younger than Barnaby was. The bike had been tricked out to show the screen of the one calling on Kotetsu's side. "What does the situation look like from your side Nanami?" the elder of the two spoke over the loud roar of the engine and rushing wind in his ears.
Nanami Hanae, otherwise known as Sea Nymph by the other Heroes (and media) except to Kotetsu and Barnaby was surfing along a conjured up wave, her feet gliding along it as if she were ice skating. A blue green visor covered her eyes and was whirring to life showing off different items such as signals and a map of the city, the red mark blinking as it traveled down the road at a fast pace. She looked down at her wrist at her call wristband which she was using to communicate to Kotetsu with. "I was able to tag the car with a tracker, if you keep going I'll meet you there on site, I'll head them off."
"Alright, take care of yourself Nanami, you don't wear armor like Bunny-chan or me. If things get hairy don't stick around."
"I know, you don't have to treat me like I'm 12, Tiger." With that her image blinked out and Kotetsu laughed softly to himself and Barnaby looked to the side.
"Is she okay?" he asked. Nanami was a good friend of theirs since she first joined up with Apollon, though she had no intention of really teaming up at first, she was making a splash in the show ironically. Nanami treated them like the two best friends she'd ever had and she would watch their backs as they would watch hers, she never joined them up to make a trio, people loved Tiger and Barnaby duo, she hated to ruin the equation. What she did do was give them a helping hand in catching criminals; at least they gave her partial credit.
"She'll be fine. We can trust her on that fact. She said to just continue heading straight and she'll cut them off before they pass the end of the bridge. Told her to be careful, she got all mad at me for treating her like she was 12 what's up with that." Kotetsu complained a pout evident in his voice. For an old man he acted like he was younger than that.
"Don't let it get to you. She's just trying to be mature on the job." Barnaby chuckled softly, he had hung out with Nanami long enough to understand her quirks. They continued their speed race to catch up before other Heroes would come along.
It didn't take long to come up from behind the armored vehicle, but the driver must have seen them in the side mirror cause the back opened was followed by a barrage of semi-automatic bullets hitting the concrete of the road which Barnaby swerved to get out of the range. However, one did manage to knick the shoulder of his armor, the white turning black. Damn, Saito wasn't going to be happy with him. However, a simple gun shooting wasn't going to really put Tiger and Barnaby in a corner. Suddenly Barnaby hit the brakes on the motorcycle causing the tires to screech and leave skid marks as the rubber burned on the ground. "Eh? Why'd you stop Bunny-chan?!" Kotetsu spoke but then paused, Barnaby was looking to something and he caught it too, the sound of rushing and rising water.
The thieves thought they were in the clear and were about to shut the door until the driver too stomped the brakes, causing the back to fishtail slightly as a large archway of water motioned by Nanami had curved upwards right from the ocean, straightened on the road and arched back downwards to make a continuous circling ring, her body emanating a blue glow around her as she hopped off. Stopping the thieves was at least worth an additional 200 points to her score at least that was added from the camera view of the chopper above that had been following behind. "Ah! Wonderful timing Nymph!" Kotetsu called over raising a hand up in recognition as she moved over to them, the shock was still settling in on the ones in the truck.
"Hey, it was nice and on time, but you try to lift a pillar of water while trying to avoid civilian harm." She spoke poking a gloved hand at Kotetsu's armored chest as he and Barnaby dismounted from the vehicle. "They look like they got jostled up pretty good, I think you can at least make a good arrest this way." She spoke placing a hand on her hip as she glanced to the back of the truck which doors were wide open and one of the men was slumped out, more passed out from hitting his head on the door.
"You sure you don't want to take credit?" asked Barnaby, though no one could see it he was frowning a little behind his mask.
"Don't worry about me, you two go at it, I have to be sure the wall stays up." She spoke she was moving a finger to her side in a swirl like motion, though she was a small distance away she was still keeping the water wall in a twisting motion so it wouldn't break and flood the roads.
Barnaby and Kotetsu gave a brief nod and made their moves to round up the criminals without having to waste a bit of their power. The police were arriving on the scene as well while they were getting the ones from the back, racking up the points. But as they were working to hand them over, one thing had been slightly forgotten; the driver of the vehicle. Out from the corner of her eye, Nanami caught movement of the driver's side door opening up and a man stumbling out and picking up the gun that had tumbled out; her scanner picked it up as a much more powerful semi-automatic that with shaking hands was aimed to the back of Barnaby where the only part was covering tender flesh was the body suit. She could hear the faint click the sound of the trigger that could be pulled, Nanami couldn't put what she was doing down or else it would flood the whole place; it was both good and bad. The only thing she felt she could do was shout to him in alarm with the only thing she caught onto; "Bunny-chan!" slipped out, but it caught his attention.
However, that was bad on her part because the man had turned to her and out of sheer of either fear or anger, pulled the trigger a round of bullets being fired in rapid succession. Nanami was frozen in place, eyes were wide in shock. Her mind blanked, the only thing she could hear was someone calling out to her and feel someone grabbing a hold on her side and moving her out of the way in a blur of very soft pink. There was cold metal pressing against her cheek and she sighed, with the light touch she knew who it was; Barnaby had pulled her out of danger's reach. Together they landed a little further back in time to see Blue Rose come to the scene, freezing the arch of water Nanami had put up and the man's gun hand, rendering her capable of winning the arrest. A voice soon broke past all the odd silence between the water NEXT's ears.
"Are you alright?" Barnaby questioned her as he turned to look down at her (since she was a head shorter than him).
"Huh? Yeah…I'm okay." She replied curtly, a little hint of red forming on her pale cheeks and Barnaby sighed pulling up his mask to look at her a bit more clearly.
"You could have been killed." He spoke; Nanami could feel a lecture coming on already.
"I'm sorry, I froze up, I didn't mean to…it just…happened." She was trying to apologize but flinched when she felt two fingers flick her forehead.
"You didn't let me finish. I was going to say thank you for alerting me to the danger that could have rendered me no longer capable of being a Hero or worse." He smirked a little, rendering the girl speechless and she felt that hand pet the top of her head lightly in a friendly gesture. "Be more careful though understand."
"I'm not 12." She mumbled heatedly with a glare to match, she hated being treated as such instead of an adult, but she saw that teasing smile on Barnaby's lips that she couldn't really be mad at, so in return she softened up and smiled a little too.
"Yo, Bunny-chan, good work saving the damsel in distress!" Kotetsu crowed, he had lifted up his mask too and was grinning just like a tiger with prey and without realizing the closeness delivered a good, hearty slap to Barnaby's back and almost like that time froze and other Heroes arriving on the scene stopped to gawk.
Minty green eyes were wide as were the heterochromia tones of blue and light lavender. Pale colored lips were on top of ocean blue painted ones. There were frenzies of flashes from cameras and blinking red lights capturing the scene. Everything seemed to end like that with a final threatening shout at the veteran Hero.
~o~o~
Barnaby's eyes opened a little, the news report had long since ended, had he dozed off a little? He must have. Getting off his chair he stretched until he heard the relaxing popping of his back before he picked up his glass of unfinished wine and took a drink from it walking to his window and staring out at the city lights below. His mind wandered and he blinked a little when his bracelet went off looking at the blue writing 'CALL' he pressed a finger lightly to it and blinked when on a holographic screen of Nanami who should have been in bed by this hour. "Nanami?" he asked curiously a blonde eyebrow raising.
"Hey Barnaby." She muttered looking away a little and yawned a little behind her hand.
"Thought you would be in bed by now, you're normally out by this time."
"I know, but I kinda got stuck watching the news report. Can you believe they're still stuck on that subject? I mean…it's not like there's anything between us other than friendship."
"Ah, I fell asleep during that. I didn't find it something to worry about, it'll blow over in no time." His voice spoke in reassurance to the female friend of his, smiling ever so slightly, she worried over the littlest of things. "This doesn't change us. After all it was mostly Kotetsu's fault."
"Yeah…you're right." She replied looking a little sheepish and with a sigh she flopped onto her back, head hitting the pillows. "But…the reason I really called, I never got to thank you properly for saving me then." Barnaby found that true, the vultures of the press would be around him and always questioning him about his relationship with her. "So…thanks." She mumbled.
"Don't worry about it. After all, what are friends for right? I wouldn't forgive myself if something had happened to you." Nanami brightened up to that and she nodded a bit and covered another yawn, her eyes looking at his face drowsily.
"Mm. Yeah." She spoke in an incoherent sentence. "Goodnight…Barnaby." She muttered.
"Goodnight, sleep well Nanami." He replied with a soft smile and turned off the call to let her sleep before sipping his wine again and staring out the window, mind once more easily wandering. Absently he raised a hand to his lips, tracing the lower portion, the memory still vivid as he registered the feel of Nanami's soft, costume colored lips and the scent of sea mineral that had been perfumed on. His green eyes glanced to the cover of the magazine and he looked away from it, he supposed his first kiss wasn't that bad however accidental it was.
~o~o~
Nanami: Well…that was interesting to say the least. I knew you had half a mind to have me accidentally kiss Barnaby but the scene…
Ayami: Don't blame me for it, I write soft scenes so I can't exactly jump to a crime fight easily!
Nanami: I didn't say it was bad. *pats author's head*
Kotetsu: Oh yeah fun for Bunny-chan and Nanami, but I didn't get much screen time!
Ayami: Oh don't get your boxers in a bunch Kotetsu, I have plans for you as main character.
Kotetsu: Really?!
Ayami & Nanami: Yes!
Ayami: Barnaby will you please lead us out while I start running from your rabid fanbase?
Barnaby: Er…sure. Well, Ayami appreciates everyone's time to read this fan fiction of hers. She has another Tiger & Bunny fan fiction in the works…
Kotetsu: The one starring me!
Barnaby: Anyways! Kotetsu has his work cut out for him when he has to deal with a preteen Nanami who is charged for robbery. Her dislike for Heroes runs deep and her powers aren't always under her control. Will he be able to lead her the right way? Keep an eye out and find out in Ayami's upcoming Tiger & Bunny: Guilty until Proven Innocent. See you.