Okay, so I don't even know where I'm going with this. I guess I finally ran out of Tiger & Bunny fanfics on , so here I am with my own…
I'm such a sucker for outsider POV. There's not nearly enough in this fandom, and when you can't find the prompt you want, the only solution is to write your own!
This is inspired by two fics I found but can't remember the name of- they were about outsiders hearing the conversations that the heroes have whilst fighting. Personally, I find them hilarious. I thought I'd share that with you people. This story…kind of ran away. It was going to be an angsty one, with the anniversary of Tomoe's death, but apparently I'm in a happy mood so you guys get a new version of 'Possible ways Barnaby and Kotetsu come out to Stern Bild'. Surprise!
Enjoy!
Agnes sighed. This was not how she'd wanted the day to go; she had been hoping for a little more excitement but it seemed that Sternbild had decided to behave itself for once, and the entirety of the criminal population appeared to have taken the day off.
There was nothing for it. If she wanted to keep ratings high, then they couldn't afford to stop broadcasting for yet another day, so some sort of entertainment was going to have to take place.
Luckily, she had just the plan. It was an idea that she had been pondering for a while, twisting it over in her brain during the lulls of her job, and it seemed like the perfect time to put this thing into action.
Leaning forwards, she pressed the call button and held it down.
"Heroes, you have a minute to grab your masks and protect your true identities. I've got a plan for you," she smirked, certain that they could all hear that smirk through their wristbands, and signalled to the camera man to find positive confirmation on all eight of the heroes so that when their minute was up, she would be able to get them all live immediately.
The man gave her a firm nod after about 50 seconds had passed, and Agnes grinned back with an evil gleam in her eye. The presenter put a hand on the back of the other's chair, and pressed the button to make them live with 5 seconds still to pass, and the screen flickered to life on Keith, who was wearing his helmet and continuing to exercise determinedly.
Other screens came to life on the dashboard in front of the team; seven different images of the other heroes which were currently not being broadcast.
They all seemed to be within the building, meandering their way somewhere towards the centre where they hung out with one another, helpfully just where the most cameras in the area were, but they seemed to be clueless that they could be broadcast at any moment.
Agnes grinned again; that was just the way she liked it (although she wondered whether she should say something when she noticed Wild Tiger yawning sleepily and definitely walking with a limp. It progressed to the point where he began leaning against the wall every few minutes to catch his breath and check that the bandage under his shirt hadn't leaked any blood through, but as soon as he came into contact with Barnaby, the pain seemingly vanished).
She dismissed it with a shrug and flipped the cameras to where Fire Emblem and Rock Bison walked down the corridors, chatting somewhat amicably despite the fact that Rock Bison would squeal every few minutes and leap away from Fire Emblem with a scowl.
"Dammit, Emblem! Stop doing that!" he scolded, keeping his friend under a watchful eye as the other shifted around behind him.
"Aw, honey, that's no way to talk to a girl," Emblem responded with a pout and another teasing attempt at Rock's behind.
"You're not a girl!" Rock retorted, and Dragon Kid visibly drooped behind them, where she had just caught up to.
"I'm sorry…I'll try to be more feminine," she looked down, frowning, and Rock smashed his head into his palm in despair.
"That's not what he meant, Kid," An older voice chirped at them, and Wild Tiger and Barnaby Brooks entered the scene from a corridor leading off to the left. The woman watching smiled in glee; here were a lively group that would help the program.
"Not that you would have noticed, old man," Barnaby told Tiger drily, who wheeled around to him as fast as his namesake, and opened his mouth with a smarmy retort, but overbalanced and fell with a yelp onto the floor.
"That's what you get for drinking before midday," Rock sighed, bending over his friend and poking him with an insistent finger.
"Oi! I haven't been drinking! I just stayed up late last night, and then my beautiful daughter called me early this morning and who am I to say no-" Tiger started rambling at Rock, who ignored the comments and picked up the older man with one swift action. On the camera, Agnes winced at the personal information that Tiger had unknowingly just admitted, and was just thankful that he hadn't mentioned any other names.
"Hey! Baka! Put me down!" the man immediately started spouting insults (luckily, all of which were suitable for more sensitive ears) and Rock sighed, turning his head around in search of somewhere to put the other. He practically emitted glee as he found a place, and promptly dumped the babbling man into Barnaby's arms.
"…"the blonde said, staring down at the writhing man and then turning back to Rock with a pleading look. Rock laughed from inside his suit, whilst Emblem started fanning himself with a dark hand. Dragon Kid just rolled her eyes and walked back a little, grabbing Origami Cyclone from the corner he had been lurking in and re-entering the conversation.
In the camera room, Agnes blinked. She hadn't even noticed he was there.
The group started walking again, chattering friendly until they reached the heroes' room and noticed that Tiger wasn't squirming anymore, and was actually rather unexpectedly silent. The rest of them fell quiet, turning to see what was going on until Blue Rose marched forward and interrupted the silence.
"Guys?" she asked a little awkwardly, and the Heroes snapped out of quiet mode and continued talking, apart from two. It wasn't too noticeable to Agnes on the other side of the screen, but once she spotted the private conversation going on alongside the bubbly debate on who was going to get more points, she nudged the camera man to zoom a bit closer to catch what they were doing.
Barnaby was still holding his partner princess style, looking a little bit shocked at the situation whilst Rock was staring at Tiger in silence.
"…he fell asleep," Rock said, stating the obvious as the two of them peered curiously at the man, who was indeed sleeping.
"Does he often do that?" he asked again, staring up at Barnaby instead of at the unconscious man.
"H-How should I know!" Barnaby stuttered back, a light blush forming across his cheeks and Agnes suddenly had a terrible premonition that something was about to be revealed that she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
"Come on, Bunny. You don't need to lie to me," he teased, and Tiger shifted in his sleep.
"Bunny…" he whispered gently, and then his hand clutched onto the shirt of his partner and he fell back into a deeper sleep.
Barnaby blushed furiously, shaking his head at the same time and fleeing to a corner of the room with Tiger, where he sat carefully on a sofa (making sure not to wake him up) and watching the rest of the chaos with a slight smile on his face as he brushed through Tiger's manic hair with soft fingers.
Rock gave the impression of rolling his eyes, stepping away just in time to crash into a newly arrived Sky High and sending them both tumbling harshly to the ground. The two heroes groaned in unison, and the other four stared at them, long enough for Rock to start shifting from foot to foot and for Sky to start apologizing frantically.
"Okay, fine, we get it Sky!" Origami eventually burst out, shocking everyone with the unusually loud comment and shrinking back on himself in embarrassment. "Sorry…"he whispered, his body language displaying pure shyness as all the attention was focused on him, and Agnes couldn't help but chuckle at the amusing insights she was only now seeing in all of them.
"It's fine," Sky responded with an unexpectedly gentle tone, sharing a look with Origami and then wandering casually across the other side of the room to have a private conversation with the teen, and Agnes felt that odd feeling again.
Surely it couldn't be…
She scanned the room with the camera, all of a sudden noticing the subtle body contact between Emblem and Rock that had been maintained consistently and the teasing pinches that went with it, and the fond looks being swapped between Dragon Kid and Blue Rose along with hands resting on one another for longer than normal, and felt the need to draw back a little.
She rubbed her brow harshly, knowing that this was all live and nothing could be changed, then turned to Cain and asked "did you know they were all dating?"
He looked back at her with a shocked expression, which quickly faded into one of realisation. "Well, I suppose that does explain some things…" and Agnes wanted nothing more than to whack her head into the desk and erase the epiphany that she had just worked out.
She settled for face palming, and moved to turn the camera off, but accidently knocked the wrong thing and zoomed in on an awake Tiger and an equally awake Barnaby.
Kissing.
Agnes jumped back in shock and quickly stabbed the off button, attempting to solve the situation.
But it was too late. The damage had been done, the world had seen this footage, and there was going to be hell to pay in the morning.
She wondered if Heroes would save someone from a pay docking.