Disclaimer: Tiger & Bunny belongs to Sunrise.
I've found out something I shouldn't have
Chapter 6: A fault confessed is half redressed
Bunny was the most upset upon learning it from Sky High hours later —apparently, Keith tongue had slipped, the hero meant well.
Between his quest to catch Lunatic and his sparkling raise in popularity, Barnaby had his hands full to care for whatever Wild Tiger was into. The young hero had promised not pry in his partner's private life, but he'd still need time to adjust to the fact that Tiger had a significant other.
Blue Rose also confronted Kotetsu later the same day, her eyes on the verge of tears asking if the rumors were true. She actually called him idiot and ran away before he could understand what all that had been about.
Fire Emblem stated that he no longer will grope him now that he wasn't a bachelor anymore —that was good. As for Dragon Kid and Origami, they were perplexed as of why, from all the people in Sternbild, their colleague had decided to go out with Justice Petrov.
Whichever their personal views in the matter, all of them were happy for the couple and wished them the best.
Their inner circle of friends and coworkers were aware the hero Wild Tiger was dating the Judge and Hero administrator Petrov; however, for the rest of the world, it was just Kotetsu and Yuri, mastering the art of keeping their distance whenever they crossed each other during working hours.
After that eventful night watching the game with Antonio, the couple dealt with three weeks of not matching gaps in their schedules. Once, they had arranged a dinner when a hostage situation plucked Wild Tiger from the restaurant as soon as he had gotten ahold of the menu; in other occasion, Justice Petrov had canceled an outing to get lunch for an impromptu meeting with a lawyer. When they finally had the time to meet, they extended their plans through the whole weekend.
That Saturday morning, Kotetsu was at home waiting for Yuri to arrive. He checked on the fern he had bought as a gift for their second month since quitting bad habits —the seller had said ferns were fool proof and fitting for any room. He wondered if Yuri had already any of those. Ever since his boyfriend mentioned having many house plants at home, the hero had wanted to give him one. He was musing whether a bigger plant could show how much he cared, when the lock in the door clicked.
He had given Yuri a key to his apartment as a sign of trust —he wished the other at least could concur in sharing at least his address. Bunny had rationalized that Yuri was simply protecting his mother, but the secrecy couldn't stop bothering Kotetsu.
"I'm home." Yuri had learned the expression after discussing with Kotetsu about customs in Japan. After fumbling with his shoes at the entrance, he walked in in his socks —he always forgot the slippers for indoors, balancing several shopping bags.
"Welcome home." He jumped at Yuri as soon as he crossed the lobby, and kissed him. He reciprocated the kiss, that lingered less than Kotetsu would have liked. "I bought some wine and sweets to celebrate."
Yuri leered at him.
"Kidding." He beamed and went to the kitchen to retrieve a bottle of non-alcoholic champagne and a platter of cut fruit. While the other installed on the sofa, he removed the cap and poured two glasses.
"Has Barnaby Brooks Jr. discovered something new this week?" Yuri had picked an interest for Bunny's research about Lunatic —understandable, since the judge was a closeted fan of the vigilante. And Kotetsu had shared most of the information with him, since his point of view was external to the hero business, a third perspective was always welcomed.
In fact, thanks to Yuri's insight, and based in the origin of the fire proof fabric from the glove, they had deduced that Lunatic came from a wealthy family, probably one living in Gold stage.
Kotetsu let himself drop beside him, repenting as the champagne spilled from his glass by the motion.
"Not much since the last time. And that idiot hasn't made an apparition in a while, I hope he's gone for the best."
Yuri got a serious demeanor whenever he spoke about the vigilante, he leant his nose on his interlaced fingers, elbows resting on his knees.
"Could it be he's busy with everyday life?"
"Urg, I cannot imagine someone like Lunatic having a normal life." Kotetsu noticed the champagne droplets lingering on his vest and shook them away —those were going to leave a stain. "He must be a kind of freak rubbing his hands and twisting his mustache in some dark, stinky, underground lair all day."
Yuri half spitted his drink from a chortle.
"Since when was it established he had a mustache?"
"Who knows?" Kotetsu threw his hands into the air. "He can have all kind of things under that mask. A mustache, a beard, a wart…"
"Certainly…" Sidetracking the conversation, Yuri left the empty glass of champagne on the center table, in some available place in spite of the unfinished jigsaw puzzle, and bought up one huge blue shopping bag with the logo of Toy&Bears on its side. "By the way, here is your present. Congratulations for staying clean for another month."
"Oh, thanks. Wait a minute." Kotetsu went to the kitchen to pick up the fern to hand it to Yuri, who seemed pleased. "I couldn't warp it properly; I hope you don't mind."
"It's lovely. I will think of a suitable name for it and I will tell you later." The fern leaves brushed his lips as if he was feeling the plant's scent, or maybe he was hiding his grin from Kotetsu. Either way, the gesture was adorable. Yuri put down the plant beside his ever-present suitcase, and urged his boyfriend to check his gift.
Kotetsu's dazed expectation faded in a snap of fingers when he saw the contents of the bag —he might have as well been slap on the face. He produced from the bag a cardboard box with a collectable figure of Mr. Legend inside. Dazed, unable to utter a word —Yuri may have misinterpreted this expression, and started to explain, with his unreadable smile, how he knew Kotetsu loved Legend and that this was a limited edition.
How? Kotetsu imagined Yuri walking in the toy store alleys to find the image of his father plastered all over the place. The mug of someone whom behind the mask used to make the life of his family miserable. At some moment, during Kotetsu's contemplation, Yuri could read something was off and halted at his explanation, his white eyebrows falling to the sides in fret.
"You don't like it?"
"I…" Kotetsu put the box back inside the bag and swallowed hard, the champagne had left a bitter aftertaste. He blinked in a failed attempt to fight the water condensing on his eyes. He had discovered something he wasn't supposed to know and his emotions were betraying him. It was the time to face the consequences. "I stopped fawning over Legend, when I learnt he used to hit your mother and you."
It was like dropping an atomic bomb, everything went still just after a first flash of light. Yuri had his eyes wide open, staring at Kotetsu. His boyfriend had become a ghost, an entity outside his understanding.
"…How do you…?"
"Agnes once told me something that made me think, and then Ben and Mrs. Ohara mentioned something similar. I connected the dots from there." He admitted bitterly. "Believe me, it was purely accidental."
Yuri was contemplating, his fist clenching on his knees. His flared-up nostrils meant he was angry.
"When… since when do you know this?"
"A little while before we started dating." The veil uncovered, there was no point in coating the situation. with any more lies. Yuri stood up to tower over Kotetsu.
"You didn't know him!" Yuri yelled, fist trembling, his lock of hair falling on to hide half of his contorted face. Then he hissed in a deep, shaky breath. "He never hit me, just my mother."
"There are many ways of hurting someone without ever laying a hand on them." Kotetsu retorted, as collected as he could.
"Why are you even dating me? What is all this about?" He opened the arms to motion at their invisible relationship. "Are you pitying me!?"
Kotetsu couldn't stand his glare and stared at the floor, shaking his head. No, how could Yuri even think about pity? He loved him, he needed him in his life.
"It's not that. Not at all." He mumbled, gathering some courage. "I love you and, I only wanted to protect you."
That line had worked wonders when he was a high schooler in Oriental Town. Girls dreamed of the idea of a strong man protecting them, right? But Yuri was not seventeen, neither a girl.
"I have spent a life despising the heroes, what makes you think I need one?" He spat like venom before storming out of the apartment. That part of not needing a hero had rubbed him in the wrong way, but Yuri had all his right to be mad.
Well, Kotetsu wasn't sure what he had expected to be his boyfriend's reaction. But he had messed it up with keeping the secret that long. Now, he would have to think of a way to apologize —he wasn't going to let this fight to define the end of their relationship. They could mend it, he had high hopes on it.
"Uh, I haven't heard Yuri turning on his car."
He jolted outside without changing shoes. Yuri's car was still parked at the entrance, and the man himself was behind the wheel, but it didn't seem he was about to turn on the engine at any moment. Kotetsu walked down the porch and opened the passenger door to get inside, Yuri barely acknowledged his presence. He was slouching with his forehead pressing the wheel, both hands on the side grip, frozen in position.
"…Yuri… I…" He tried to pat the other's shoulder, receiving a smack to keep his hand away. He wasn't giving up. "Can we talk about this? Forgive me, I should have told you before."
"You were right." He murmured, concealed by the cascade of his messed-up hair.
"Uh?"
"He never hit me but, when he started drinking, he made life at home unbearable. Always making unreasonable exigences. Mamma and I were always in the wrong; we were worthless without him; I was a disappointment for him." The more he talked, his stammering went more evident, until he could no longer contain the what he had been keeping locked in his chest for decades.
"You are in no condition to drive back home. Why don't you come back?" Kotetsu gently patted on his boyfriend's back. This time, he accepted the caress.
They walked back to the apartment. Yuri slumped back on the couch and elicited the topic again.
He loved his father when he was younger —he truly was the hero Kotetsu grew admiring, but at the end of Legend's career, he turned to alcohol and became violent.
"He had the habit of drinking, but it never was a problem when I was younger. I remember one day, he came home with a whole box of scotch, telling mom it was a gift from Apollon Media." Yuri's trembling hand reached to his scar, the one which ghost pain tormented him often. He reminisced in a husky voice. "He finished the box in three days… I think… that was the first time he hit mom. He…"
And he failed to continue as he crumbled in his weep. It was such a view to contemplate at this fragile individual breaking down, when only a couple of months ago, Justice Petrov was the impenetrable, unruffled, judge who admonished him all the time for not paying attention in the property damage hearings.
Kotetsu sat beside him, anger seeping through his pores. It wasn't rational to be mad at someone who had died so long ago, but that didn't stop him from being furious towards the man he once considered a role model. And that anger diverted to his younger self, the one that envied Yuri for living the apparent dream of having a family working close with the heroes. How foolish he had been.
Yuri calmed down enough to resume his story with a hoarse voice.
"All these years I've been convincing myself Papa loved my mother and me more than his career. He used to say he was severe out of love. But there's… there's a difference between being strict and exerting violence. I know about it, I've seen cases." He croaked, lamenting he hadn't noticed what was so easy to see in others. Kotetsu reached to cover Yuri's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Drops of tears kept falling on the back of the hero's hand.
It shattered him more to realize how he had survived in an abusive household for this long. Yuri explained he couldn't possibly reach to anyone —the reputation of his father was above everything back then. How could he dare the legacy of Mister Legend?
Kotetsu repented from the fascination he had felt when he discovered Yuri was Mr. Legend's son –it must have been great to have a father, he had thought, but nothing could top having the King of Heroes as yours. But in hindsight, it must have sucked to have the most popular hero as father. Way before the man had turned violent.
Yuri expressed being ashamed of the water works, and that he was unable to stop them. Kotetsu had been a bad boyfriend, with his wacky theories and secrets, with his adoration towards something that hurt his significant other. That was why at least, he wanted to do this part right. He stood up to grab a box of tissues from the counter.
"I have more boxes in the bathroom. Finish all the tissue in the house if you needed it."
Yuri accepted the offering and wiped his nose, the soft paper came out smudged with concealer and sank on the trash can that Kotetsu swiftly brought just in time. More tissue followed the same fate as his boyfriend took a longer pause to sob in peace.
"This has never happened before." He blew his nose. The tears flowing relentlessly, as a broken faucet that a plumber apprentice had failed to fix no matter the many times they had tried.
"When… when Tomoe passed away, I didn't cry. I couldn't." Kotetsu felt it was fair to share a painful memory now that he had opened old injuries in Yuri. His significant other listened with interest, despite his puffed eyes producing more droplets occasionally. "And I tried at the funeral, I tried to force it."
Kotetsu saw himself all dressed in black, beating his head with the ball of his hand, as if trying to fix the signal of an old TV.
"Everyone told me I was in shock. But that didn't make me feel less horrible as a human being. Like, what kind of monster doesn't cry in the funeral of his wife?" He took a deep breath as the memories came to him. "And then, like two months from then, we were in the kitchen with mom and my daughter. And Kaede was talking about a beetle she found at her school excursion…"
Yuri was still focused on him, although the hero was unable to look at him in the eyes. For that instant, it was just Kotetsu and that episode from the past.
"And it was like a broken dam. It didn't even make much sense but, I whined like a small child at the top of my lungs." Now he chuckled. "God, Kaede and mom were worried sick."
Yuri pulled a new tissue and wiped his face for the umpteenth time, mentioning he was not the kind to wail. Kotetsu slid on the couch to give him a soothing squeeze with an arm around the other man's shoulders, mentioning he loved him altogether with his crying face —there was nothing to feel ashamed of.
As one whole hour progressed, Yuri started to get calmer. He tried to continue the puzzle, but putting three pieces together prompted more now-silent tears. At the moment he had gotten tired of talking, there wasn't much he could talk about Mr. Legend that didn't break him in sobs. Kotetsu went to the kitchen to get his boyfriend a diet energy drink, which the man accepted and finished it with hesitant sips while he alternated his hands with tissue and puzzle pieces. At the record of two hours of nonstop shed tears, Yuri finally went dry.
He described the sensation like feeling numb and relieved at the same time. His make-up was smudged from all the rubbing of paper tissue, while the scar under his eyes had gotten puffy and red. He looked haggard and fatigued, yet he said he was happy that his significant had been there with him during the episode —as if it hadn't been Kotetsu who triggered it to begin with. Yuri refused to eat, but he accepted to go lie on his host's bed.
It was midnight when Kotetsu finally decided to climb up the stairs and get into bed. At the beginning, he had thought of giving Yuri some space and sleep in the couch. As he rationalized it, his boyfriend needed him there to feel loved and cared for the most.
He took off his vest and trousers the darkness and slid under the covers where he found Yuri's back —he had found a white undershirt somewhere in the hero's drawers to sleep in. Maybe he wasn't in a position for cuddling, unless he could wedge an arm between the man and the mattress, so at least he got close to him and fell asleep breathing at his hair's shampoo. This wasn't how he had planned to spend the night of their monthly celebration, still, it was better than any other scenario he may have fantasized.
Yuri had opened his heart and Kotetsu had released a heavy burden off his chest. From thereon there shouldn't be any more secrets between them. Just the lingering question: was Yuri related to the death of Mr. Legend?
Yuri's attitude towards their relationship changed after that. He accepted being introduced to Anju, Muramasa and Kaede during a weekend call. Kotetsu's family took it better than the man had expected, sincerely grateful that his daughter understood nothing could ever replace her mother.
They found more time in their schedules to meet during lunch, and spent most of their weekends together. Yuri was more open to physical contact now, and despite what the hero had imagined, their embrace was special. It wasn't simply having sex with a man; it was more about making love to his significant other. Still, they had kept their word about taking turns, and Kotetsu was a bit reluctant to admit he liked receiving as much as giving.
At occasions they went to watch movies, to the theme park, or spent late nights playing card games with the Old School Heroes fan club at the Ebon Warrior —Yuri was very competitive, and he had crafted an elements-based deck that each week turned closer to unbeatable. However, most of their dates consisted in just hanging around in the veteran hero's apartment; sometimes making out, sometimes just working on the puzzle, most times both. Kotetsu had bought a kit to mount together their first jigsaw once they'd finish it —his boyfriend had called it a waste, still he promised to sign a corner of the craft with marker once the deal was done.
However, it all used to lead to the eternal discussion of why Yuri never invited his boyfriend to his house. Yes, it was stablished his mother was bound to a wheel chair and suffered from delusions; although that shouldn't deter her from meeting her son-in-law.
After too much nagging and probing, Yuri accepted to greet him at his house for a Sunday morning.
"I will introduce you to my mother, and we will leave immediately, agreed?" Yuri ordained, all judge-mode to avoid any mishap.
Yuri's house was in the suburbs of gold stage. It was a nice one level house with a garage, a properly tent lawn and a porch. It was not as fancy as one could imagine for the zone, but Kotetsu was sure that the home value estimate could range in a number with more zeroes on the right than what his own paycheck could ever reach. Kotetsu revised the address again as he stood at the entrance door, he fixed his cap and got a grip of the flowers he had gotten for Mrs. Petrov before ringing the bell.
It was his boyfriend who opened for him, surprised he had made it earlier. Since it was Sunday, his clothes were more casual. His hair was messily undone with two of the three customary brooches missing, alongside with the comb on his free hand, which told pretty much what he was doing at the moment the doorbell rang. He stared at the flowers and raised an eyebrow.
"I suppose those aren't for me…" He mumbled a snarky remark, juggling one of his brooches on his mouth.
"Unless you want me to buy you flowers…" Kotetsu beaming forced a smile on his host.
"Please come in." Yuri led him to the living room, dodging a three-piece sofa with floral patterns and a glass center table to reflect himself in a large ornamental mirror on the wall. He combed his hair in a rush, with heavy and rough strokes that could had easily bring out tears if done to a kid. "I'll be ready in a minute."
"Yuri, who rang the bell?" A frail woman entered the room on her wheelchair. She was pretty much like an older version of her son, with short ashen hair and lean figure. "Oh, we have a guest? Who is this young man?"
Young was not a word often associated to Kotetsu, so he took it as a compliment.
"Mornin' I'm Kotetsu T. Kaburagi." He got close to shake her hand, realizing he was still holding the bouquet he gave the flowers to the woman.
"Oh, those are lovely." The woman looked around, perhaps searching for a place to put them. "Yuri dear, where is the vase I had in the center table?"
"Sorry Mama, let me take care of this." He rushed to take the bouquet from her hands and to arrange it inside a vase over the faux fireplace, far from his mother's reach —that was a bit odd. Yuri made a hurried introduction for Mrs. Origa Petrov, his mother, and went on to give the last touches to his hair.
From what the hero could collect, the woman somehow had assumed both men were classmates at elementary school. Yuri didn't dwell too much on her confusion and ignored his mother's confusion; and then he picked up a jacket from the hanger and his keys.
"Shall we go?"
Half way towards the entrance, Origa Petrov called both men out.
"You two wait there a minute. Before you go out to play, have you already finished your homework?" She reprimanded as if she was speaking to two school boys.
"Yes mama, we have." Yuri rolled his eyes with the annoyance of some recurring instance. His hand already on the doorknob and ready to sprint outside the next second. But then Mrs. Petrov stared at Kotetsu. Somehow, the way the woman looked at him remembered him to his own mother.
"Kotetsu, you are at the same class than Yuri, right?"
Unsure if he should follow the charade, he glanced at his boyfriend, whose subtle nod encouraged to keep going.
"Urhg, yeah, you see. We already have done the homework, ma'am. Yeah." He scratched his beard nervously, making Origa to leer deeply. She asked then what was the assignment about, and this time even Yuri seemed dismayed. "Oh, something easy. You see… it was something like… history class. Uh… the founders! We had to make a report of Sternbild's founders."
To this point Origa's eyes narrowed into two thin slits. Yuri was tugging his arm to leave the place at once.
"You liars. You haven't done any of it." She confirmed, and both men flinched at sync. "You won't go anywhere until you finish your homework, understand?" She pointed somewhere upstairs.
"But mama…" Yuri moaned. It was probably the first time something like this happened.
"No buts, young man. You should be thankful to have an honest friend, who doesn't encourage you to slack around."
And that said, she sent them to Yuri's room to finish the report.
His boyfriend was sinking on his bed, drowning in embarrassment. It didn't matter how many times Kotetsu told him it didn't matter, the other still wanted to explain that this was an odd occurrence —yes, sometimes his mother had delusions of him being an elementary school boy, but it was the first time she had actually stood her ground for his education.
While Yuri mopped about, Kotetsu took a good view of his companion's room. With only a single size bed that didn't make justice to a 6'2" tall man; a plain wood desk and small bookshelf filled with kids' books gathering dust, and a large wall closet. If it wasn't for the ridiculous number of houseplants piling up on the bedside table and hanging from the ceiling and on every corner of furniture, the plain white walls told little else about the host.
"Hey look, it's our two month's fern." Kotetsu caressed the leaves, the houseplant was on the corner of the bookshelf, it looked healthy. "At the end you never told me how you called it."
Yuri raised his head, still dismayed. He blushed before gathering the courage to speak.
"Hope."
"It suits them well: Hope." He shook one of the branches and turned away to open the closet.
As expected, Yuri had about ten grey tailored suits in pristine condition. His boyfriend also had two red sport trousers and three pairs of running shoes. Kotetsu found the funny boxers he had liked so much from the other night, alongside with several others with amusing patterns. The ties where another piece of attire that revealed Yuri had a terrible sense of fashion, but that was precisely what made him more appealing. The top shelf was brimming with piled up jigsaw puzzle boxes, about two dozen of them. "I wonder where you put the Lunatic doll I gave you."
"Excuse me, what exactly are you doing?" Yuri leaped in to close the closet, putting himself between his boyfriend and his curiosity.
"It's okay. You can rummage in my drawers as much as you want too."
"That's beside the point." He usually put his hand on his face when he was having a bad time —it was probably his scar that started throbbing when he was stressed.
Kotetsu had learn to leave him alone whenever he was feeling unwell. So, he crouched beside the bookshelf to read at the titles, finger scanning them until he found a history text book. "Hey, I used to have the same book." He leafed through it. "This is super tidy, you were such a diligent kid. Mine was full of scribbles. I liked to draw pirate eye patches and missing tooths in all the portraits."
He put the book down on the part of the desk that was not brimming with plants and picked a small notebook from the drawer and sat down. Founders of Sternbild wasn't a long chapter, and he had reviewed it with Kaede some months ago, it shouldn't be hard to pull a quick report.
"You cannot be serious…" Yuri stared dubious from his guard post by the closet. "My mother's memory is short. We can leave and she won't have a notion of what she just ordered us to do."
"Nah, I wouldn't like to upset your mom." He fiddled with the pen and leant on the back rest of the spinning chair. "Besides, when I was a kid, I didn't have many friends. No one wanted to come home to do homework, they were afraid of my powers. And team projects were horrible —no one wanted to team up with me." He stared at the clean handwriting from his boyfriend, thinking how hard would it be for little Yuri as well. "The teachers tried fix it by telling me I could present them by myself… that was beside the point."
Yuri came to sit beside him on the bed.
"Do you want me to gather the images for the report?"
The report was as easy as it could be with two grownups doing a fifth-grade assignment. And once it was done, a thing led to another and they ended making out on Yuri's bed.
Kotetsu feared for the integrity of the poor wooden bed whenever it cracked in agony, and the small size confirmed Yuri must have been a contortionist to fit in such a contained space. The best part of having his boyfriend in casual clothes was that they didn't have to worry about getting their shirts wrinkled or stained by makeup.
He loved the aroma of his cologne. Yuri used a sweet and spiced scent that pretty much described his personality. It masked most of the perfume from his concealer, and made him feel more masculine. Kotetsu pulled him closer, just to feel his warmth and the pound of his chest closer to his own. Yuri was a clumsy lover, never knowing what to do with his hands —which usually were cold, not very pleasant when he slid them undershirt. But he was diligent to please, and very easy to satisfy.
They had started to take out those cumbersome clothes when Mrs. Origa called from downstairs to announce lunch was ready.
"You go ahead. I need to fix this." Yuri motioned all over his face, his scar was barely visible.
Kotetsu walked downstairs with the report, however Mrs. Petrov didn't want to review it. She barely acknowledged him for doing his homework, before asking for help to put on the table. She reminded him to put four sets of cutleries, and when he did, she introduced Yuri's father to him.
"Uh, nice to meet you, Sir." An ugly foreboding creeping down his spine. He couldn't decide which one was more unsettling, the fact that he was supposed to greet an empty chair; or that he meant to be speaking to his former idol Mr. Legend.
Yuri came down, his face composed in the perfect mask he wore for everything in life. Now Kotetsu had to sit during the most uncomfortable meal in his life, where Mrs. Petrov was having a cheerful conversation with the void, while Yuri shoved peas soup in his mouth like there was no tomorrow —he was probably nervous, and wanted this situation to end as quickly as possible.
"Kotetsu, he made you a question." Mrs. Origa picked up his attention from the chicken mayo sandwich he was probing. Was she referring to the late Anton Petrov?
"Sorry, uh, I was distracted. What was it?"
"My husband asked if you watch HeroTV." And upon Mrs. Petrov saying it, Yuri's spoon clattered on the porcelain bowl.
"Ah, of course I do! I don't miss an episode." He laughed mirthless. But Mrs. Petrov couldn't read the irony —not that she knew the context, and her eyes gleamed with joy. She started to tell how she loved heroes, and Mr. Legend was her favorite of them all.
At this point, Yuri slammed both hands on the table to stand up.
"How many times do I have to tell you, mama? Papa is dead." He spat with exasperation; he was an inch to break apart.
Mrs. Origa stared vacantly at his outrage for full five seconds before her features twisted in a grimace.
"Dead, dead, it's easier to say than murdered! It was because of you! You, bastard, homicidal!" She picked up her plate —sandwich sundered by the fall, to throw it at Yuri. Kotetsu reacted to grab her wrist before the situation grew to worst.
"Ma'am, you are too agitated. Don't do something you would repent later." He tussled with her — surprisingly she was pretty strong for a woman of her complexion. She started screaming that she regretted ever giving birth to such a monster, at which point Yuri couldn't take it anymore and exited the house. "Look what you have done. That's a horrible thing to say to your son."
"You don't understand. His father was passing a bad streak, he was just venting." She justified. And then her glare pierced somewhere the way her son had left, fingers still crisping the plate. "And he had to interfere."
Kotetsu held the woman still with his hands on her shoulders, and stared at her with resolution sweeping from every pore.
"Listen. I have a daughter, and she means the world to me. I cannot imagine ever hating her, she's my everything in every waking hour. And I can assure you, that if she ever has to do the unspeakable to help me… the fault will never be hers, but mine."
Mrs. Origa calmed down, but Kotetsu didn't want to discuss further with her. He pulled the plate from her now limp hand and, by removing the full plate for Mr. Legend, the glasses and the flower pot, he got sure nothing else was on her reach. He took the stuff to hide in the kitchen and made his way out of the house to look for Yuri.
As he hadn't heard the car engine turning on, Kotetsu had assumed his mate would be waiting outside —he wasn't.
The hero resolved to take a wild guess and started walking down the street. When he reached the end of the apple: he eeny, meeny, miny, moed between going left or right. Faithful to his choice, he went straight until he saw Yuri's back several feet ahead. He jogged to him to tap his shoulder when he caught up.
"Leaving so soon? The party had just started." He quipped mockingly.
Yuri couldn't step any further, his head low and jaw clenched; it took him more than ten seconds to raise his chin towards a worried Kotetsu. His haggard expression explained how so done he was with life in general.
"I… apologize for what you just witnessed." Yuri trussed with his hair lock, inspecting his surrounds to get sure it was just the two of them in the street. "I'd wish to say it's not what it seemed but… now that the cat is out the bag, there is no point in hiding it. I—"
"Wait." Kotetsu planted his palm in front of Yuri, ashamed. "Do you remember the other day we fought and I promised I'd never hide anything from you again?"
Yuri nodded warily.
"I told you that I knew something else, but it was only based in supposition. And then I wanted to tell you but you asked if it was something potentially hurtful, and when I told you yes, you said that in that case you preferred me to keep it to myself, right?"
Now Yuri was aghast.
"Do you mean… did you know what happened…" He moistened his lips; his heartbeat was practically audible from the distance. "Do you know how my father died?"
"Not in detail, no." Kotetsu kicked a pebble on the pavement. He dove his hands in his pockets and started to walk back to the house. "And I don't want the details if you don't want to share them. I understand that is a painful memory for you. I'd only ask you a single thing… was it all an accident?"
The judge's hand grazed the area where his face hurt the most, fingers stretching over the hand shaped old scar. How ever that marking had occurred, Kotetsu had pieced together it was something Mr. Legend had had done to his own son.
"I've studied all the criminal code regulations, reviewed similar case laws… I was a minor —barely thirteen… By all laws yes, it was an accident caused from defending a third person." He wheezed, his shoulders starting to tremble. "Papa was beating my mother with brutal force. The reason she's bound to a wheelchair is from that day. My father, he… he had taught me to never turn a blind eye to injustice."
Kotetsu grabbed Yuri's hand to comfort him; while his partner clawed at his face with his other hand, putting the makeup in compromise.
Needing more space to catch fresh air, they decided to lean on Kotetsu's car one beside the other. Where his significant other went on telling his intentions weren't to kill; and how now his father was haunting him in dreams; and how he deserved the way his mother treated him; and how he could never contrive justice as Mr. Legend did; alongside with all sort of worries and frustrations.
He started circling the same topics like a broken record, unable to get out of that loop of self-pity and misery. At some point, he got stuck reenacting the tainted memory inside his head, cold droplets of sweat forming on his temple, and shivering taking control of his body. He was on the onset of a panic attack.
"Yuri, hey Yuri, listen! I have something important to tell you." He shook him by the shoulders, bringing him back to reality. "Yuri, Mr. Legend was not your father."
This seemed to unbalance him, Yuri's breathing normalized and looked rather offended.
"Have you listened to what you just said?"
"Yeah. Believe me, it makes more sense of what you think. Give me a minute to rephrase it." He scratched his beard, his smile flashing at that eureka moment. He turned all solemn to base his argument. "You know, Kaede doesn't think I'm cool because she doesn't know who's behind Wild Tiger's mask."
"She doesn't think Wild Tiger is cool either." Yuri rebutted, but Kotetsu feigned he didn't hear that and kept going.
"But still, she's fan of the heroes. And aside from Barnaby, she doesn't know who they are behind their mask, and she doesn't care!"
Whenever the other man raised an eyebrow was an invitation to elaborate further —it was a good sign.
"When Legend saved me in that bank robbery, I never thought whether he had a family, a mortgage, or if he had health problems." Kotetsu felt bitter confessing he didn't care either, and Yuri's frown told him he was processing the argument. "All I saw was the icon. And now that I work as a hero myself, I understand that I'm not Wild Tiger. Because Wild Tiger wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Ben and the people from Top Mag, thanks to Dr. Saito and Mr. Lloyds, Agnes, and recently thanks to Bunny. Do you see my point?"
Yuri's eyes waltzed between his boyfriend, the floor and his house, rummaging in his memories, untangling thoughts.
"I see… your point." His browns fell to the corners of his closed eyelids. "But if you put it like this, what does it make me? What I did to my own father?"
"You protected the weak from an abuser. You didn't turn a blind eye to injustice. That makes you a hero." And he kissed him in the forehead.
Yuri stared at him; it was like he was baring his soul in the unraveling of a revelation. Only then he accepted a hug, and they stayed fixed in their own binary world until the sun settled down. And then Kotetsu's communicator started to ring.
According to Agnes, Lunatic had been spotted in the Bronze Stage. He was trailing the convoy of vans leading the mafia capo Trever Canby to his new cell in Sternbild Prison. The man had been extradited from Italy just last month. Yuri had only heard of the process, because the higher ups had kept him out of the case, and the transfer dates under the highest secrecy. It was probably a measure to avoid any drawback.
Disregarding complaints, Agnes had sent the transport to the judge's house. Yuri wanted to stay, but Kotetsu wasn't listening to any of that —the man was not in the mental state to go back home with his mother after that huge argument. So, Wild Tiger invited him as Justice Petrov, administrator of the heroes, as a guest in the Apollon Media transport.
"That sounds like a good idea, it should count as a form of audit." Agnes approved from her communicator. "In fact, he can spend different nights following each of the heroes, and see if there are areas we can improve."
Bunny was already in the transport when Kotetsu and Yuri arrived. His partner filled them with more information: the convoy had four cars with police officers disguised as civilians and three vans. No one had for sure which one had Trever inside, as the goal was to mislead any attacker. However, ever since the convoy entered the city, Lunatic had been spotted by several HeroTV cameras and from amateur journalist. The number of sightings confirmed the vigilante was tagging the convoy.
Their plan was to intercept the vigilante before he approached too much to the cars, which they were going to disperse at some point to create a diversion. The heroes had dealt with Lunatic enough to understand that the guy was too hard to catch, therefore his capture was out of the question. At least they wanted to protect the convoy.
Tiger asked Agnes where were the others, if they had been called as well; the producer had decided this was going to be a HeroTV special for the duo, and hadn't summoned the others. That was a bit unfair. Blue Rose was going to be mad tomorrow when she'd find that out.
During the operation, Yuri Petrov was going to stay in the transport with Dr. Saito.
Kotetsu was yearning to kiss goodbye Yuri before getting on the double chaser, but as the judge urged Wild Tiger to implement his justice, it was obvious their characters had gotten in the way of any romance. Bunny was awfully silent as he drove the motorbike through the streets of Gold stage.
"Did you have to bring Petrov with you?" Bunny finally spoke when they had reached the Bronze stage. "I thought you had said you'd keep your personal life out of work."
"Where did that come from? He's in professional mode right now, you saw it. Don't worry about that." Tiger pouted, but soon a devilish grin formed in his face. "Unless you are jealous?"
It was clear as water Bunny would like to have a romantic partner like Kotetsu had —if only the poor boy wasn't so picky. There were plenty of girls in line to court him.
"Of what, old man? You are right, I may be overthinking. Let's finish this soon."
The GPS showed they were half a mile behind the convoy. Wild Tiger skimmed at the surroundings, particularly at the rooftops, in search of the traditional blue flames and uneven cape. However, the convoy halved in opposite ways once they arrived to a roundabout.
"I will go right, you go left." Bunny ordered, and Tiger separated the side car to transform it into his own motorcycle.
He kept the even distance behind the one car and two vans. They started to make strange turns and to speed up. He was about to reach them out when a firing arrow almost hits him, grazing at his helmet by a minimum. The source of the projectile was Lunatic, running over the rooftops to catch up with the vans —which meant this half of the convoy had Trever inside.
It was an oddity to have Lunatic up and above with barely a couple of hours from sunset. Something was weird.
Tiger used his grappler hook to climb to the nearest building, never losing sight of the van and cars underneath. Contrary to how the guy usually acted during their previous encounters, Lunatic didn't stay to confront Wild Tiger. Instead, he was trying to put a distance between the hero and himself —probably to get a vantage point to attack the cars.
You are not setting innocents on fire, are you? Kotetsu thought. Some minuscule hope made him think the vigilante would never allow the officers who were escorting the criminal to get involved in the crossfire.
Concluding from the direction the van took, Wild Tiger predicted the path Lunatic was about to follow and got ahead him. The palm-face was genuinely startled when the hero leaped from underside to land just in front of him.
"Let's roar, Lunatic." Urg, he'd better think of a better motto in the future.
"Wild Tiger! Move aside, don't interfere with my justice." The villain made his custom theatrics, the cape flowing with his dramatic arm movements. He took his crossbow out, but it didn't seem he was going to create one of his fire arrows any time soon. He rather sprinted sidewards, dodging Tiger with an unpredictable roll over before leaping from the rooftop edge.
The hero rushed to the side, expecting the vigilante to burst in the air with his fire propulsors, however, he found Lunatic parkouring down by the building's windowsills until he reached the sidewalk and kept running. And the night was getting weirder.
A shameful pang of guilt patted Kotetsu on the back, maybe Lunatic was broken beyond repair after the flood incident. He wanted to bring the idiot to justice, not to disable him for life.
Wild Tiger caught up with a Lunatic on the run several apples ahead, he followed by feet since the motorbike was too far to turn back and pick it up. When they confronted each other again, Tiger actually weighted his words, wary that Agnes and the team were recording from the camera inside his helmet.
"Is there a reason you are not using your fire? Are afraid of something?" He meant to say if the man was injured and avoiding pain, perhaps he wasn't as good with discourse as Bunny.
Lunatic made more broken puppet movements.
"Afraid? I don't experience such thing as fear." And he flashed the crossbow once again, which wasn't charged, and never pointed at anywhere in specific.
Tiger had lost a sight of the van he was supposed to protect; they were already too far from the disguised police cars and the van. He realized they were missing totally the point of what the vigilante intended to do in the first place, which led the hero to abandon his fighting stance.
"You are not Lunatic." He inferred. And he heard Agnes ordering to cut the transmission. All the while, the vigilante was affixed on the sidewalk, unsure of what to do next. "Who are you?"
The pseudo-Lunatic morphed with a flash of light into Origami Cyclone. Wha—?
"Agnes-san, please cut the transmission. There is no point in me keeping on with this." The photobomber hero performed a 45 degrees angle bow. "Tiger-san, I apologize for all this confusion. I was invited to participate in the special, but my intention was never to fool you."
"Fool me? Wha-what's going on? I'm so confused."
"Tiger, Origami, change of plans." Agnes interrupted via the communicators. "You are still close to the van transporting Trever Canby. A dozen of cars have intercepted them, it appears several Canby's stooge are trying to retrieve their boss from the police."
"Roger! You heard that, Bunny?" Wild Tiger listened his partner saying he was already on his way. Before leaving, he called out Origami with his accusing index finger. "You will explain it later."
The younger hero nodded apologetic and started running behind his sempai.
After interrupting a crossfire, saving about a half a dozen of police officers, and re-capturing Trever Canby, the heroes could at last sit on the Apollon Media transport to discuss what all that Lunatic charade had been about.
The masterminds behind the theater were no other than Agnes and Barnaby. Their intention was to lure Lunatic out of hiding, by creating a bait with the mafia boss and, on the other side, by showcasing occasional shots of HeroTV transmissions with the vigilante in the background. Lunatic was to notice eventually there was a copycat, and react about it.
Kotetsu should feel crossed, since no one had taken his opinion in the matter, but upon seeing Bunny overthrown by the failure of the mission, he didn't feel like reprimanding him.
"C'mon Bunny, we can drop all this Lunatic chase for a while. It's not like you need more points for this season." Kotetsu sat beside his partner. Despite being the early morning, they were still in the transport wearing their under-suits. Origami had left to his own transport, at least he had managed to save civilians from any astray bullets, wining some rescue points in the process.
"I didn't do it for me. It's you who needs the points. You cannot simply stay at the lower levels in the ranks. You deserve to be recognized more than anything." Bunny replied, crestfallen.
"D'aww. But hey, cheer up! We actually made a lot of points tonight. I guess those criminals intercepting the van were not part of your plan, uh?" It had pulled Kotetsu's heartstrings. However, Yuri was not as easily moved by those arguments.
His boyfriend was rather pissed, since no one had informed him of the operation —and he had been against the extradition of Trever Canby since the beginning, but it seemed Mr. Maverick was very interested in pulling the strings of justice to get things his way. It probably had to do with this plan Agnes had presented to him.
"The main reason the position of heroes exist is to protect citizenship from gangsters like Canby. If they start attracting criminals in order to keep the heroes working, that'd become a paradox." Yuri pointed out, cold as the glacier that sank the Titanic.
"I'm sorry your Honor, but we thought that if we got Tiger and you involved you would disapprove from the very beginning."
"Well, we'd do." Kotetsu crossed his arms and searched the approval from his significant other, who assented solemn. "And now poor Origami Cyclone will get into trouble for impersonating a murderer!"
"Don't trouble yourself for that, Tiger." Agnes spoke from her office, her suave voice coming from the speakers inside of the vehicle. "Since the real Lunatic never showed up, we can call this a rehearsal. And since it wasn't part of the plan, you will keep the points from re capturing Canby."
That didn't explain what was going to happen to Ivan, but Kotetsu felt arguing with the producer would have a terrible outcome.
"You should have informed the Justice Bureau. Had the criminals haven't attempted to recover their boss, you would have faced dire legal consequences by dispatching the heroes for a staged operation."
"Thank you for your understanding, your Honor." Agnes haven't heard —or had refused to hear, a word of what the judge had just said. Yuri had an annoyed grimace; it drove him mad when people overlooked his authority.
"I feel I must apologize in some other way." Bunny stood up, recovering his good mood. "You don't take many off days to begin with, and even thought we had to take advantage of this opportunity, it was unfair to pull you in my stunt."
"Nah, a hero must be ready for the action at any time." Kotetsu patted Bunny on the back and went to sit beside Yuri. Then passed his arm around his boyfriend, who wasn't very comfortable at showing affection in front of others. "But if you want to apologize, you should know we were on a date. What about coming with us to have dinner?"
"That —" Bunny glanced between a rather cornered Yuri, and a beaming Kotetsu. He adjusted his glasses and sighted. "Sounds reasonable."
"Awesome! You know what? the night is young. I will call the others; we may pull out something with whomever is available." He quickly browsed Antonio in his contacts. Yuri uttered he would rather they take him home, but Kotetsu couldn't envision having his significant other coming back to that house full of dread and bad memories… not yet.
Author's Note: This chapter is heavy in revelations. According to wiki, Yuri is actually taller than Kotetsu —that was kind of a surprise.