Disclaimer: Tiger & Bunny belongs to Sunrise.
I've found out something I shouldn't have
Chapter 4: Don't do good things that seem bad
The car robbery resulted an embarrassing case for the duo. The perpetrator was a NEXT with the ability of controlling vehicles by sitting on them. She had been operating in all the city stages, tracking the owners' habits to rob their cars at times they had left their car in a public space.
Anyone with two neurons could have spotted a woman sitting on the roof of a driverless car. That's why, convoluted and convenient as it sounded, she had teamed up with another NEXT girl with the ability to camouflage anyone she touches, and a third one a man with the power to project her image anywhere.
The trio had escaped justice several times already, ever since the only visible one always had an alibi, getting sure he was seen somewhere else at the time the car hijacking occurred.
What was absolutely surprising about this case was that the trio of criminals, when unmasked and cornered, decided to take control of Apollon media transport. Dr. Saito and their double chaser inside and all.
From the roster of heroes, only Rock Bison, Origami Cyclone and Sky High joined the chase. Blue Rose was at home with an unexpected cough, while Dragon Kid had to study for her midterms. As for Fire Emblem, he was stuck in a business meeting.
The three men couldn't do much. Sky High lost track of the Apollon transport when the camouflage-maker NEXT decided to turn the whole vehicle invisible. Rock Bison was surrounded by the hundreds of images of the guy, fading and appearing all around him without a sense of reality. Origami was of little use in this mission, he focused on clearing the streets from pedestrians that may or may not be trampled by an invisible transport.
Tiger and Barnaby took separated paths to try and find the whereabouts of their transport, the helicopter of HeroTV urging them to hop into action. If only they'd know where the action was!
Bunny's idea of reverse tracking the transportation with their suits whittered when they realized the criminals had shut down any communication —they had probably taken Saito's personal phone too. Their only hope was for the Doctor to find a way to get in touch with them and share his whereabouts.
"It seems we will have to leave the robbers for later." Tiger could hear Agnes's forehead popping a vein out of frustration, no one would want to watch an episode of the heroes looking for something invisible. And even worse, their reputation was on the line since they were unable to capture a band of thieves who had just had stolen their belongings in front of their noses.
Kotetsu was about to protest that the safety of Dr. Saito mattered more than the ratings, but the Manager saw a better opportunity for the heroes to save face.
"Barnaby and Tiger, we've spotted Lunatic on the top of a billboard near your position. I'm sending you the coordinates. Bison and Sky High will continue with the search of Apollon's transport."
"Roger." Bunny never needed an explanation, he just obeyed orders.
"From all the nights, why did it have to be today?" Kotetsu mumbled annoying, hiding in secret he was a tad happy to know the Palm-face was alive. They ran to the sighting point, since their ride was still inside the missing transport, and they were saving their powers for when it came absolutely necessary.
"What is it, Old Man? You forgot to bring the glove to give it back." Barnaby teased —the fans actually loved the duo's childish bickering. And at this point, everyone and their grandmother knew Tiger had gotten ahold of one of Lunatic's gloves. Thank you, Mr. Lloyds.
"Don't put the blame on me, it's still at your house." Tiger mocked, although it wasn't a lie. After Dr. Saito had finished analyzing the glove fabric, he had given it to Bunny to keep it. Probably doubting the adequacy for Kotetsu to keep such important item.
As they left the vicinity, they could follow the chase of the criminals via their communicators. Rock Bison won the capture points for the image projection NEXT, and now there were only two car robbers left to catch. Thanks to Origami the streets were empty.
They sighted Lunatic three hundred meters ahead. The vigilante wasn't chasing anyone, he was just perched atop of a soda advertisement billboard, looking all imposing and dangerous. Tiger shot his wire to balance him from building to building in order to close the gap faster, while Bunny used his propulsors to hop beside him. They were half way when the eyes of the vigilante flared up and he pulled from under his cape his dreadful crossbow and aimed at… nothing.
His blazing arrow breezed directly to the empty street. A squeal made Tiger twist his neck midway, his oscillation lost when the Apollon transport manifested from thin air. Two girls jumped down from the vehicle roof to get away from the flames spreading from the place where the arrow had hit —not even close to where they had been originally.
"Those are…" Bunny was as dumbfounded as himself. "I'll go get them. You go for Lunatic."
And the rookie propelled with his legs against the wall of a building to change trajectory. He was probably more interested in the easy points than to catch the vigilante. Speaking of whom, when he spotted Tiger coming his way, he let himself fall backwards to disappear in a burst of flames. That, Tiger could predict, and he launched his wire to trap him midfall. It didn't matter the act meant to lose himself the pivot point to keep balancing. He activated his powers expecting the worst when the wire retreated pulling Lunatic with it.
The eerie vigilante didn't make an effort to burn away the wire, letting himself being towed until he was five or so feet from crashing with Tiger, who braced himself only to find now it was him being pulled up by the man's propulsion. To be slammed by his own wire on the roof where both landed, the vigilante more gracefully than the hero. Although, soon the villain bent down, hugging his ribcage with one hand. When the HeroTV helicopter passed over their heads, ignoring their quarrel for the obviously more attractive Barnaby capturing the female criminals, Tiger sat up to expect Lunatic to have disappeared.
He was still there instead, staring at where his flames had startled the car robbers.
"Thank you." Kotetsu wanted to say more, like Where have you been all these months? Or are you okay? "Hey, you did the right thing tonight."
"I'm only a humble servant of Thanatos. He spoke to me, not all sinners deserve his heavy hand as punishment." He spun around with his uncanny broken doll movements and his eyes flared up, even if he hadn't removed the hand from his chest. "You and I aren't allies."
And now, for real, he disappeared in a burst of flame.
"Duh? Who said we are?"
Kotetsu basked in the coincidental fluke. He had been talking about his concerns of Lunatic's health with Yuri, and the vigilante showed up hours later. It was a coincidence too good to the true. Besides, he had helped the heroes to recover their transport. That was so unusual. Was he repaying for the hospital event?
The car robbers had tied up Dr. Saito, he said he felt lucky they didn't see a reason to gag him, they had taken his megaphone nonetheless. He was a resilient man, and was certain the heroes could locate the transport, that's why he was driving the vehicle mere minutes after being released.
From their urged pleas before the police shoved them in the patrol, the car robbers confessed it had been a stupid idea to try to steal to the heroes, but they had seen the silhouette of Lunatic and they had panicked. It meant the vigilante had been after them from the very beginning. But if he was not up for murdering them, why was he following?
And as the heroes bid their farewells —Kotetsu rejecting Antonio's invitation to celebrate tonight's capture in the bar, Dr. Saito offered to drive the duo to their respective houses.
"I think he fakes all that mumbo jumbo of hearing voices and being crazy. He's a smart guy. If only he had taken another path…" Back in their transport, he started to justify to Barnaby the vigilante's unusual actions.
"I have to admit he's very skilled with his NEXT abilities." Bunny pushed his glasses up even though they were in the right place from the start. "However, Kotetsu, have you noticed he's having more deference to you than to any other hero? The first time he appeared, he taunted me when I asked whether he was linked to Ouroboros; and when you asked him the other night, he didn't have a complaint to answer."
"Huh? What are you implying? It's all about the way you ask, Bunny. You were chasing him down that time." Kotetsu defended his pride as hero, accusing finger at his partner and all.
"Oh yes, it's not like he was a criminal who had just set on fire a building, and I was trying to capture him." Barnaby snapped with sarcasm. "Seriously, I think he likes you; and you might be starting to develop some sympathy towards him. Don't forget our job is to capture him, empathy doesn't fit in his case."
"Urg, that's gross. How old do you think I am? Five?" He crossed his arms and let himself fall on the backrest, uncomfortable with the direction Bunny was taking to this odd understanding with Lunatic. "I was merely mussing if he would have been a hero, but what I want the most is to capture that idiot."
Bunny conceded the benefit of doubt, but the seed had been planted. Kotetsu was left in the porch of his house with a tangle of qualms of his recent encounters with Lunatic. And tonight, it had not been different, as the vigilante merely appeared to help them find the stolen vehicle and disappeared without giving a fight —without claiming a victim.
Seeing Yuri's car parked outside his house raised an eyebrow in befuddlement, and the unlocked door cleared any confusion.
His friend was sleeping soundly on the couch. It was quite a sight: the all-respectable judge Petrov was cuddling a Wild Tiger figurine, his hair ribbon edging the strands of his long hair gave him a disheveled appearance. He had left the suit jacket on the back of a chair, alongside with his funny tie and his shoes underneath. Kotetsu resisted the urge to take him a picture —that would be a form of blackmail, he was sure. And wondered why has the judge decided to stay when he had explicitly told him he could leave whenever he pleases.
It wasn't that it bothered him, it was just unexpected.
Yuri had advanced a little more in the jigsaw puzzle, but not at a rhythm that could mean he'd been solving it all this time. Instead, Kotetsu traced many of the judge's actions through his apartment. The Bunny and Lunatic dolls had a ridiculous mirrored dance pose —who would have guessed Yuri had that kind of humor? And the dishes were done, except for two disposable empty cups of pudding left on the sink as evidence of their existence. And someone had picked up and placed in the wrong angle his family portraits from the shelf.
He tried to call Yuri up, but the man had become a log. Judging for the everlasting bags under his eyes, he must have been exhausted to crash in an old couch like he was sleeping on clouds. With a shrug, Kotetsu went upstairs to the mezzanine to hit the sack himself.
He had an odd dream. He went back to Oriental Town because, apparently, Lunatic had his house there. And he was determined to give the guy his glove back —something about a curse may or may not have been involved.
He found Lunatic in the dancing studio, practicing with Bunny the new choreography for a musical Lloyds had decided without consulting him. They were going to perform in one month and Blue Rose had been teaching everyone but Wild Tiger, because he hadn't given Lunatic's glove back. And when he finally was face to face —or mask to mask, with him, he rummaged through his pockets to realize he had forgotten the clothing piece at home in Sternbild.
Lunatic didn't have a problem of driving back him to his apartment to recover the garb. Cue to them entering the place until Kotetsu remembered it was Barnaby who had kept the thing. At which point the vigilante's patience was over and he became downright menacing. He summoned flames to attack him, burning his belongings without gazing him once.
"I trusted you Wild Tiger." The man kept screaming at a stunned Kotetsu, suddenly froze in recollection of the haven he had built with Tomoe consumed by flames. "I trusted you Kaburagi, and you never listened."
"It is you who never listens." He retorted, picking up pieces of courage from his despair.
"I trusted you!" And that voice, Lunatic's voice, changed: It was Yuri's now. "Kaburagi… Mr. Kaburagi… Kotetsu!"
His eyes were rusty, ingrained with sawdust and sweat. He should have taken a shower after all. A figure towering over him, with a hideous mask over his face, startled him.
"Waaaa!" He writhed backwards until his back hit the bed headrest. Blinking his drowsiness back, he realized it was Yuri, clearly dumbstruck too.
"I apologize for starting you, but I ignore at what time do you wake on weekends and it seems you locked the door when you returned yesterday."
"Huumrg." Kotetsu stretched like a lazy cat and rubbed his still glassy eyes. He picked up his alarm clock, unable to figure out the numbers he concluded. "What time is it?"
"It's seven thirty."
At last, he glanced at Yuri standing in the middle of his room, like a sore spot that was unlike the rest of the messy environment. He had propped up himself —he'd probably had applied more makeup, his hair fixed again in a tidy loose pony tail, and his black briefcase an extension of his arm.
Kotetsu yawned and scratched his beard before slugging out of bed to follow a beeline to the bathroom.
"It is too early for a Saturday morning." He closed the door behind him and called from inside. "Wait for me downstairs. Will ya?"
"I'd rather you open the door? It would take you one minute and I can leave." Yuri urged exasperated, but he gave up once Kotetsu turned on the shower.
The drops of warm water on his skin soothed his body. It is a universal truth that the shower is the place where the craziest ideas come from. Yuri's scar looked much like a hand. Lunatic had a palm-shape on his mask. What an ugly coincidence.
Twenty minutes later, with a cleaner body and mind, Kotetsu descended the stairs to find Yuri revising some documents on the kitchen table. The man noticed his presence but didn't do much to stop this task. The Lunatic doll was no longer accompanying Barnaby's —Yuri had probably accepted the offer and the toy was going somewhere else nice.
"Do you have to go to the office today too?"
"No. This is standard work I take home to finish during the weekend." He didn't lift his gaze from the text doused sheets.
"That is not fair. They should give yourself a break during weekends." Kotetsu went to the fridge to figure out what could they have for breakfast.
"Tell that to the Mayor. This is another reason the justice in Sternbild is flawed, the courthouses are overloaded with work and the administration never has budget to hire more personnel." Yuri's furrow deepened as he sorted the papers and put them back on his suitcase. When Kotetsu told him if he wanted a cup of tea, the man hesitated for a heartbeat before accepting it.
There wasn't much in the apartment for what one could call a balanced breakfast. At least Yuri was enjoying his bowl of Sugar Flakes with the most honey imbued tea in the world. His guest rejected any portion of the traditional eggs and bacon Kotetsu was eating.
"You asked me to lock the door, but I couldn't find the key. I felt it could have irresponsible from my part to leave your house open during the night, considering this suburb is notable for its criminal activity." Even though that explained the reason Yuri had stayed the night, it still felt a bit forced. And although he had woken up early to prepare himself to leave, Yuri was not forcing Kotetsu to unlock the door either.
It almost feels like he wishes to stay for longer. Maybe he's delaying that boring self-imposed homework.
"Did you watch us last night on TV?" Kotetsu rarely had the chance to share the excitement about his job with anyone. His coworkers, being in the center of the action too, usually brushed it as if it wasn't a big deal; as for his family, he had to keep the secret from Kaede and mom worried too much when he spoke about it. "How long do you think Lunatic had been following those NEXT robbers?"
"I was surprised he found the vehicle before you. Perhaps his strategy was to put you heroes to shame."
"Rock Bison was amazing capturing the duplication guy."
"The Blue Rose fan base was probably disappointed from her absence."
They kept going for a while. Kotetsu was grateful his guest didn't ask him whether he was happy to see Lunatic alive or not. He guessed Yuri had implied his thoughts through other topics, and the passing mention of the vigilante. It was fifteen to nine when the phone rang. This call was something Kotetsu looked forward every Saturday morning.
"Sorry Yuri, I will come back to you in a moment." He shot him a one hand prayer before picking up the receiver of his old disc phone. The judge shifted uncomfortable in his seat and nodded. "Kaede sweetheart, how have you been?"
"Dad, you do like bunnies, right?"
"Uh? Where does that question come from?" Her little girl urged him to answer. There was a particular bunny in his life, and he liked him. "I suppose, yes."
Kaede squealed and with rapt she turned her back to the screen. "You see grandma, he likes bunnies."
"Hey, hey heeey, what's happening there?"
"Mrs. Ohara's bunny just had a litter of kits, and she wants to give a couple to Kaede." Anju capitulated. Kaede had the bad habit of putting him in speaker whenever she called. Now the entire kitchen intervened in the discussion.
"Oh, hello Kotetsu." A raspy voice came from somewhere beside Anju, through the faulty screen of the phone and her daughter taking a lot of the view, it was hard to discern who it was.
"Hello, Mrs. Ohara, long time no see." He ventured who this person might be.
"Dad, I saw someone behind you. Are you with someone?" Kaere inched closer to the screen, as if she could peer over her dad's shoulder. "Wait, is that Justice Petrov!?"
Kotetsu requested permission with a glance, and Yuri conceded with a collected nod. He moved aside so the judge could enter into view from the table where he still was enjoying his diabetes inducing tea.
"Good morning, Miss Kaburagi. It has been a while."
"Dad, you never told me you were going out with him." At this, Petrov literally spit his tea.
"I- I don't. I- I swear Kaede, how do you get to these conclusions?" The stunned judge getting red on the face made Kotetsu want to dig himself a hole in the earth. "Yuri is a friend, we were merely doing puzzles and playing with my toys last night."
"Kotetsu! Don't talk about that in front of your daughter." And mom had to come and make things more embarrassing.
"It doesn't matter grandma, they already explained me everything at school." What had they explained her? "Then dad, can I keep a bunny?"
Grateful the conversation had diverted from his friendship with Yuri, Kotetsu sighted abated.
"I don't know, what did mom say?"
"I don't want them roaming around, eating my vegetables." Anju scoffed.
"Oh, don't worry about that, you can keep them in a cage." Mrs. Ohara justified with cheerful calmness; she was too old to care a bit for the world.
Yuri tapped on Kotetsu's shoulder.
"I really need to leave." He motioned with his mouth, pointing to the ever-locked door with his thumb.
"Yes, please hold a minute." He mimicked his voiceless gesture and put down the phone receiver to pick up the keys from a drawer in the shelf. While he twisted the key in the lock, heat raised once again to his cheeks. "Sorry you had to hear that. Honestly, I cannot understand kids nowadays. I mean, I had a lot of fun yesterday. I won't finish the puzzle without you, please visit whenever you want to complete it."
"I had fun too. I will send you a message when my schedule clears out. And… I don't dislike the idea of going out with you."
"Don't dislike? It has been great. Please let's repeat it."
He patted Yuri on the back before closing the door behind the judge. The gesture seemed trivial, hence the more he reflected on what he had done it gave the impression he wanted his touch to linger.
When he came back to his Saturday family chat, Kaede was making plenty of questions to Mrs. Ohara about how to raise a bunny. He had to clear his throat to make himself noticed again. Even though Anju hadn't given her permission, Kaede was penchant to having one of the little bunnies. When Kotetsu asked how would she call it, her daughter said without a second thought 'Barnaby'. Making her father lose it.
Mrs. Ohara was saying her farewells when Kotetsu remembered she was the neighbor who was taking care of Yuri back when they met for the first time. He asked the old lady if she remembered Yuri.
"Of course I remember, such a sweet child. He was too foreign looking to ignore in our small Oriental Town, don't you think, Anju?" Mom agreed. Mrs. Ohara continued. "Poor thing had a very severe father. I won't ever forget how angry the man was when little Yuri told him what he had done to your book, Kotetsu."
That was new information. Kotetsu mentioned that he should thank the man as well, because that made Yuri go out and get in line to get Legend's autograph on the magazine.
"What do you mean in line?" Mrs. Ohara mussed if she had heard wrong. "No, the kid never left my home. His father gave him a very long lecture about what means being a hero, and then he came to the kitchen —I was in there, listening to everything, I was afraid of going out since the man was furious. I'm a bit coward myself."
Anju justified that the boy's father was a huge guy, pretty imposing from what she had heard.
"Thank you, Anju. Yes, he was large like a building. He came to the kitchen and asked if I had a marker, and asked how to write your name. He signed the magazine himself, there in front of me. And requested me to make sure Yuri apologized for what he had done."
Kotetsu was aghast. He ran to the bookshelf where the magazine had stood proudly and he read the text wondering if he had dreamed those letters. The autograph said 'From Mr. Legend'. How could he had been so naïve? He was just a dumb kid, who had only once met his hero in person. There was no way he'd know the hero's handwriting. At least the conversation ended in a happier tone, with Kaede getting mom's permission to have a single bunny.
Kotetsu slumped on his couch for a good minute, piercing the fake autograph with a glare. Adult Yuri hadn't done anything to pull him out of the lie —that was a low blow. Soon, he remembered this magazine wasn't the only Legend autographed item he owned, although he feared ending like an idiot for comparing both signatures, he didn't have much dignity left to lose.
He pulled out a never-taken-out-of-the-box Legend figurine —he had paid a small fortune for it in an online auction, signed by the man himself. The signatures were identical.
Either Anton Petrov was an excellent forger, or… Anton Petrov was Mr. Legend. Mom had described the man as a large person: Mr. Legend was a large person. The temporary amazement upon considering that Legend may have been Yuri's father lasted the time a tide washes away seashells in the beach, because if Legend was Yuri's father, it meant…
"No, no, no, no." Kotetsu spat in the void of his apartment. Ben may be right; Efrain may be right. Did Legend was an abuser?
The knuckles on his fist went white from the thought. Remembering how his friend had paled during that the conversation with the old-school hero fan club drifted towards Legend. The judge didn't have the face of someone recalling fond memories.
The car, the legendmovile. If Anton Petrov was Mr. Legend, he couldn't have set his own legendmovile in fire, as Agnes had narrated, someone else was responsible of that. What if that was what had killed Legend in reality?
The scene unfolded in Kotetsu's imagination like a black and white movie: Legend getting a call from his producer, and jumping inside the car with enthusiasm. The next frame, the engine explodes with the turn of his key, and Mr. Legends jumps off the burning car and rolls on the floor, but it's too late. Someone had imbued his suit in some flammable component too. He's alone in the closed garage. He gives his last breath with scorched hand clasped on the door latch, which was locked from outside.
Kotetsu is heaving from the thought. He didn't know he was capable of having such grim thoughts, and having the Legend figurine on his hand just ignites a vision of the plastic toy melting inside its sealed box. He literally throws the box to the floor, far to where the imaginary heat cannot burn him.
"Yuri." He whispered, as the air suddenly became too dense to enter his nostrils. And a new character appears in his imagination. As a hero he knows best that criminals tend to be egocentric bastards. They usually hang around in the scene, to have a look and rejoice on what they have done. And setting a car in fire this doesn't sound like a crime executed on the spur.
Legend was not alone in that burning garage. A little kid, resentful and with resources to harm the strongest man on Earth, is in the same place, observing the scene unfold. He is getting sure the person who has hurt him is receiving a punishment. He observes, though not for long, he becomes a victim as well. That palm shaped scar, it looks almost like a heavy slap. Someone slapped him, with a spandex glove alit.
"Did Yuri kill his father? Did Yuri kill Mr. Legend?"
The image of the judge as a kid plagued his memories. Setting the car in fire and getting a nasty burn in the process. It must have been an accident, right?
Kotetsu realized he had picked a piece of the jigsaw puzzle and had crushed it under his index and thumb. He unfolded it back, but the cardboard had a new dent and it would never regain its plain surface.
He called Antonio. All this speculation was giving him a headache —his best friend told him he was probably overthinking what should be a big misunderstanding. Because Kotetsu wasn't going to confront Yuri about his suspicions, there was no correct way to approach this. So would better don't do it, and Rock Bison seemed like the best bet to help him to forget it all.
Antonio and him went to the Bar Number 06. Blue Rose didn't play the piano that evening —it was expected as she was still bedridden.
Antonio was too immersed in bragging about his last capture, he had reasons to be proud of, since it had been his worst season in years. They spoke about points and sponsors, until inevitably the topic fell into women —his best pal was obsessed with finding a significant other by the end of the year. The thing was, he'd been saying that for the last five years, and the promise was going stale. Kotetsu was mildly interested in finding a partner, Bison kept pushing that the marriage ring was scaring any pursuit away, still he refused to take it out.
"Listen, this is the proof of a promise to Tomoe, a promise. It no longer has to do with being married." He retorted, already drenched in alcohol.
"Yeah, yeah, speak as you wish, but any nice lady you find will tell you the ring has to go." Antonio gave him a nudge before resuming his fifth pint of beer.
In his inebriated state, the memory of Yuri solving the puzzle with towering concentration made him blush. Antonio noticed it and took advantage to tease him into confessing who was the lady swarming his thoughts, but Kotetsu rather bit his tongue than ever blurt it out.
Could he trust a friendship with Yuri? What if he had murdered Legend? The void in his chest cracked open from thereon, and not even the strongest of spirits could bring him back to his good mood.
The bender didn't make him happier but at least he was relieved to ignore it during the night; or so he had thought, as when he found himself alone back at home, it only went worse. Alcohol had numbed him for the most part, yet he was in his lowest. Not under when Tomoe had passed away, but still pretty close. If Antonio wasn't helping him to cope with this, perhaps Bunny could be a better option. He dozed off in the couch, inspecting the puzzle on the table with the bent piece in the unsolved center.
He went to visit Bunny on Sunday. Despite his popularity and busy life on weekdays, his partner was plain boring to be around, and preferred to spend his free days roaming at home. Kotetsu had come many times to the younger man's apartment to watch movies in his huge ass screen, and to try his partner's home cooking —he had a killer recipe for butter cookies.
"Yo, I was thinking we could watch a comedy today." Kotetsu said as soon as the sliding doors opened for him. He had gone ahead to the movie rental and to the store to buy some groceries, putting them on the kitchen as if he already lived there. "Bunny, would you care for me to make dinner tonight?"
"No crime fighting movies today?" Barnaby raised an eyebrow, checking at the movie cases of 'Crazy vacation 3', 'Life with the neighbors' and 'My husband is a slime'.
"Err, I think we should have a change of pace from time to time. To see things from a different perspective." He spoke from the kitchen, already marinating the shrimp.
"Are we still talking about the movies?" Bunny knew him well enough to figure out something was going on, at this point he had become sharper than Muramasa. "Did something happen yesterday?"
While the vegetables boiled for a while, Kotetsu sank on the most comfortable chair of the world to stare at the ceiling lights of Barnaby's apartment. He didn't want to worry his partner with his boring troubles.
"Suppose I learnt something very painful about a friend." He started absentminded; Bunny stood beside him to listen the full extent. "They don't know I know. And I know the moment they know I know; it will hurt them. Because nobody is supposed to know about it. I barely learnt it by accident."
Barnaby adjusted his glasses.
"Is this something related to someone we both know?"
"…maybe?"
"How could they discover you know? Do you have the intention to tell them?"
Kotetsu twiddled his thumbs with both hands resting on his stomach and quickly sat up. That was it! It was for the better, he needed to forget the question and have life going. Maybe someday he could speak about it with Yuri, and both would laugh at the occurrence.
When Bunny noticed the shift in his attitude, his partner understood Kotetsu had reached a conclusion. He probably wanted to confide he wouldn't tell anyone if the old man shared the secret, the curiosity was readable in his eyes. That's why he brushed his partner's interest aside by narrating the story of Kaede and her new little bunny, and how she intended to call it Barnaby. That sent Bunny off rails, and he accused Kotetsu of suggesting the name only to rile him. The bickering lasted enough to make the young hero to forget about the secret Kotetsu had discovered.
Author's Note: Thanks so much for the new readers. I've been publishing more in AO3, but I will add more chapters soon. Thanks again for your patience.