It's been a while. I'll try to get more going as I've just finished midterms.
I'd been planning to write Kaede in for a while now and decided that now would be a good time.
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11 - Youth
Kaede made frequent trips to the Apollon Media office. Agnes had made sure that she was very welcome there, though Kaede sometimes wondered if it was because of her exceptional NEXT power. That aside, Kaede would usually arrive at the office or at the Hero training facility to check on her dad, after some errand or trio had taken her to Sternbild city proper.
Kotetsu was usually largely preoccupied, and Kaede soon learned that a hero that wasn't doing any immediate crimefighting had to deal with a decent portion of the bureaucratic business involved with said crimefighting. Most trips had her sitting around the Apollon office cubicles while playing with her father's action figures. When Barnaby was present she would ogle him for a bit then ask him some questions if he wasn't too busy, and if she was lucky her dad would take them both out for ice cream later. Kotetsu got whichever sweet flavor he craved (exceo
Every so often she'd arrive at Apollon when neither Kotetsu or Barnaby were at the office, so Lloyds would send her off to Saito's to look at newer hero suit prototypes, or if Saito was too busy working with something hazardous she'd be passed on to Agnes and her film crew. When THEY were on location, Agnes would slip her in to any fashion shoots where the hair and makeup artists would have some fun making her up to look all cute for her papa and his buddy. When there weren't any fashion shoots, Kaede would just wander over to the offices where the minor league heroes usually conducted their business, and more often, where Lloyds interviewed new hires.
Very very rarely, Yuri Petrov would be at the office, although Kaede didn't know who he was aside from being the meanie judge that handled most of her dad's court cases. Yuri was extremely careful not to go near her, having pieced together her powers after asking Kotetsu some subtle questions over several conversations.
Sometimes it was Kotetsu conducting the interviews, which would lead to Kaede having Barnaby all to herself in the office. She was usually on her best behavior, but if occasionally Barnaby would be missing an office implement, Kaede would volunteer to help him look for it, or to go make copies of anything that needed copies. These little bits of help usually earned her ice cream and the odd pat on the head, which she found liking more than the ice cream on occasion. Every so often even Barnaby would get bored with work and he'd ask her if she wanted to come with him for a break, which typically involved food or a nice stroll around the Apollon building. Barnaby had a favorite cafe that they would usually visit, and he'd order a latte while Kaede enjoyed a frap and a cookie.
The fun trips were those at the training facility. Typically, one or two of the other heroes were there. On the very rare occasions that all of them were there, training usually ground to a halt in favor of playing with Kaede or regaling her with embarrassing hero stories from behind the scenes, like when Sky High's costume accidentally snagged a lightning rod or the random times that Rock Bison would get stuck between large objects during chases.
Kaede usually sat and watched her dad work out (with Barnaby acting as spotter for some of the exercises and vice versa). It had occurred to her only recently just how fit her dad was for a man his age and it sometimes amazed her that he could keep up with Barnaby at all. One time she'd tried lifting one of his weights and had to resort to borrowing Kotetsu's one minute Hundred Power in order to get it off the ground. (This had resulted in less chaos than you might expect.) Kaede would grab water for her dad when he asked for it, and would make chitchat when he was on the treadmill, and would get a grin and a pat on the head from her dad every so often. Prior to head pats it had been hugs, but Kaede complained that he was sweaty and that was that.
Watching Barnaby work out was enlightening for her. Barnaby made his usual game faces when he was lifting weights, but was a little more prone to spacing out while on the treadmill. Kaede would sometimes steal his iPhone and listen to whatever it was that Barnaby had been listening to and frown when she heard an opera piece. (Barnaby would return to find that his phone had been loaded up with very current pop songs afterwards.) One day Kaede discovered how silly he looked when his curls stuck to his forehead from the sweat, and the first time this happened Kaede had broken out into laughter, drawing everyone else's attention. Kotetsu had taken one look at his partner and followed suit. Barnaby had scowled at both of them and had made sure to order Kotetsu's unfavorite mint ice cream for him later. ("It's the same color as you so eat it.")
Kaede would sometimes just miss both Kotetsu and Barnaby at the training facility, but would usually run into another hero that would insist that she stay a bit for some fun. Keith usually had his dog with him somewhere in the building, so whenever he finished his training he'd ask Kaede if she wanted to take John out for a walk with him. Nathan typically had mani pedis or spa treatments right after his workouts so he'd ask if Kaede wanted her nails done. Antonio would offer to drive her to the Apollon office to go look for her dad (and for Ms. Agnes, Kaede suspected).
When it was one of the younger heroes, Kaede would inevitably spend hours with them. Ivan usually had a stack of manga with him, and would occasionally lend a volume or two to Kaede. At some point Kaede would trade him some traditional snacks like dango or mochi from Oriental town for an origami animal or some other art that he made. (Her favorite was an origami tiger in Wild Tiger's colors. Ivan was still working on a matching bunny.) Pao Lin would trade snacks for snacks and sometimes drag Kaede off to a random cafe or cake shop in Sternbild, or talk with her about kung-fu movies. Karina's schedule was usually the tightest, but whenever Kaede caught her at the facility they would spend ages talking about silly things like boys and hairclips.
Sometimes Kaede would come to Sternbild at Barnaby's request. (Kaede very happily referred to these as dates, to the suspicion, disbelief and mild jealousy of her classmates until she returned with a Barnaby-aided selfy after one such date.) These trips usually involved plotting against her father in secret, like buying him presents or to talk about him in general. Barnaby, it seemed, never ran out of things to complain about when it came to Kotetsu, like how sometimes he smelled of alcohol in the morning or if he consciously knew how irritating he was. Kaede would ask how Barnaby's Heroes of Sternbild character was doing and he would lament that right after completing his hero armor they released a version of his prototype armor with better stats and that he wanted that instead.
Kaede's favorite moments with her dad and Barnaby at Sternbild involved actually tagging along with them on various interviews and shoots. Once, Barnaby was doing a shoot for a fashion magazine and Kaede and Kotetsu were hanging around in a corner of the studio not really doing anything. Kaede would show off a new craft bracelet she did, and would give one to her dad, or would talk about the boys at school (which Kotetsu actually enjoyed; Kaede took after her mom in that she was very reserved about them, except when she complained that they weren't like Barnaby at all.). Kotetsu would talk about training the minor league heroes, about dealing with Barnaby on a daily basis (they both agreed that he was very high maintenance) and adding random ingredients to his breakfast chahan.
Somehow, even though she didn't really spend a lot of time one on one with her dad, she enjoyed just running about after him and hanging out with the people he worked with. They were very different from her classmates and the people at Oriental town but they shared a lot of things in common. Kaede had asked her dad if he'd be okay with her signing up to be a hero and while Kotetsu hadn't exactly been enthusiastic about it, he hadn't said no either.
Barnaby had actually cautioned against it. "Enjoy the time you spend with friends and family.", he'd told her on one of the quiet little afternoons at the cafe when it was just the two of them. "Being a hero requires time above all things. You have a great dad and a wonderful family and you should treasure them." Kaede had been sipping her frap while seated and absentmindedly kicking into the air, and she hadn't really thought about it until she'd met up with her dad later and given him a really big hug.
Kaede refused to admit it but she missed her dad to bits and wished he could come home more often, but had seen how happy he was working for Apollon and being a hero. Especially when he was being a hero! When Kaede was in town and Kotetsu and Barnaby weren't on location, training or doing something involving paperwork, they were usually off on a hero run and Kaede would make it a point to hitch a ride with the Hero TV van (Her father had insisted, as it was safer, and Agnes agreed.) so that she could watch from as close as possible. It was like watching an action movie starring her dad and Barnaby half the time, and like a sitcom with the arguments in the Double Chaser the other half of the time.
"Why aren't we airing this?" she'd asked Marie the Hero TV crew lady with the cute glasses, after a particularly silly spat they'd had about the applications of mayonnaise in the kitchen. Marie had shrugged but had told her that they recorded it anyway and that if Kaede wanted to see any of the clips she could just ask Ms. Agnes. Upon asking Agnes, Kaede was given a series of clips ranging from the past year, which she'd listened to on her phone on the train ride home. The next time that they met, Kaede suggested that they possibly release these as a podcast, and the older woman gave it some thought.
"You know, even if you don't sign up as a hero, you'd fit in pretty well at Apollon, wouldn't you?" Agnes smiled at her from her desk while typing some messages to her secretary. "If you ever get a degree in journalism or communications let me know."
"Sure." Kaede had smiled back. She'd told her dad about it later and he was floored, and she'd told Barnaby but all he'd seemed to pick up was that their bickering was going to be turned into a podcast and good grief that's another bit of paperwork to be done, but he'd bought them all ice cream afterwards anyway.