Agnes slammed her hand down on the desk, both of the idiots in front of her jumped, Kotetsu visible wincing and rubbing at his head. They were both so obviously hung over, which didn't surprise her (she had seen them like this before when she showed up to pick up baby Sam) but did disappoint her.
"Do you two have any idea what you have done to my ratings? Instead of a glorious flashy come back next season with planned interviews, product marketing, commercials, and a huge televised event, I got you two idiots reuniting in some trash-hole dealership on Silver bickering over a broken hood!" She was shaking with rage as she said this.
"W-well Agnes… you see… I didn't even know this guy was in town! I was doing what you told me to do!" Kotetsu said thrusting his thumb in the direction of Barnaby.
"If you had told me Kotetsu was coming back, or any of your plans then maybe this wouldn't have happened Agnes," Barnaby had his arms defensively crossed over his chest. Of course both of these idiots were going to blame anyone but themselves.
"Tiger, you could have easily apprehended that criminal long before he got on the roof, what were you doing?" She was fuming, she had chipped a nail this morning in her rage as she typed trying to maintain control over the situation, and now she had nothing but excuses being thrown at her.
"Ya see… you told me that I needed to be on the air long enough for Mario and Cain to explain my return, and by then the rest of the second league were almost on top of him. I knew we would be off the air soon so I thought it might be nice to let the kids actually accomplish something. But then Chopman tripped up Violet and… well anyways I ended up taking over after that," he was twisting his hat in his hands as he spoke.
"Because of your antics you ended up causing property damage, both the glass and the car hood," Kotetsu's eyes darted to Barnaby, he looked like he wanted to protest this, but was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. "You let the criminal get away," once again he looked at Barnaby like maybe we shouldn't have bickered like an old married couple and caught the bad guy. "And to top it all off, you allowed yourselves to be recordedby non-media personnel, which is in direct violation of your contract."
"Technically I'm not on contract so that shouldn't apply to me," Barnaby spoke up.
"Oh you want to play that game? Fine, I'll have you arrested for property theft of the suit you stole and have charges laid against you for endangering Apollon's Hero with your actions," she could feel the smugness evaporate out of the young hotshot in front of her. Who did he think he was challenging her. "Or you can sign on and be Tiger's partner again, it's up to you, but I doubt your family fortune will be enough to get you a lawyer good enough to beat Apollon's."
"That isn't necessary Agnes!" Of course Kotetsu would defend him, always the hero.
"Y-yeah I'm more than willing to sign a contract to be Kotetsu's partner again, even retroactively taking responsibility for my actions," he adjusted his glasses and turned his head slightly away. Good, be humbled.
Kotetsu didn't look so sure about what he just said and seemed to shift about in his chair. "Agnes… I don't think it's fair for Barnaby to be forced to pair up with me again, if he wants to be a Hero he should get to choose," Barnaby looked at Kotetsu with shock and possibly a little bit of hurt. Maybe there was more going on here than she knew.
"I'm not offering him any other position than to be your partner, Barnaby and Tiger coming back as a duo will lead to better ratings than you two broken up."
"What if I don't agree to it?" Kotetsu said with his hands on his knees leaning forward.
"Then you should have read your contract better, its right in there that Apollon can place any other Hero into a Hero Pairing with you, and I naturally will be pairing you with Barnaby." Through this whole exchange Barnaby had been awfully quiet. Agnes looked at him and realised he had his chin lowered and looked absolutely defeated.
"But he shouldn't be dragged down to second league to be with me, he's way too good of a Hero to run around chasing cats, he should be up in the first league kicking ass, right Bunny?" Kotetsu finally seemed to clue in that Barnaby wasn't really with them anymore, lost in his own thoughts.
"Bunny?" Kotetsu repeated reaching over to put a hand on Barnaby's knee, which shocked the younger man out of his thoughts.
"Sorry, what?" He said with a look of a lost puppy on his face. For someone who had so much media experience and was known for keeping his expressions to himself Barnaby was being rather unlike himself.
"Kotetsu was just saying you shouldn't be lowering yourself down to second league because you are too good of a hero and should be in the first league. I would counter that Barnaby is not fit for the first league. As someone who experienced the dreams, I can certainly say they left me out of sorts, and if what Dr Saitou has told me our young Barnaby here is experiencing them on a scale much worse than anyone else. He would be a danger to the general populace as well as himself in the first league." Barnaby looked a little bit ashamed at having his mental health brought up, but seemed to straighten up and plastered his normal camera worthy smile on.
"Agnes is right, I don't want to be in the first league, if I return to hero work it would only be with you as a partner," he said this and turned to look Kotetsu in the eye. His voice was firm and sure, more sure than Agnes had heard from him all day.
"But Bunny, you should be in the big leagues! You should be out stopping criminal syndicates and taking down crazed NEXTs not stopping petty crime and helping little old ladies," Kotetsu was waving his arms around while he spoke, per usual.
"Listen, Old Man, if you don't want me as your partner, just say it, don't make up stupid excuses," Barnaby stood then, making his way to leave. Kotetsu bounded out of his chair and walked after him.
"That's not what I meant! Bunny, wait!" The two went out into the hallway, the door to Agnes's office shutting behind their whirlwind exit. What was that about? She stood and walked to the door, their voices carried through it easily.
"Bunny, I want you as a partner, I really do! I just didn't think you would want to be in the Second League." Kotetsu was pleading now it sounded like.
"Do you really want me as a partner? You aren't still mad?" Barnaby, cool and calm now.
"Of course! I was mad, furious, but that doesn't mean I don't want you around, don't want you as a partner. Just don't pull that shit again," Kotetsu sounded a little angry, surprising.
"I promise not to, you'll be the first to know anything about me from now on, alright Kotetsu?" Barnaby was using Tiger's actual name, he must be sucking up for not talking to him about the dreams then.
She could hear footsteps; they were heading back to her office. She threw herself bodily back to her desk, sitting down just as they walked in.
"Sorry Agnes, had to work something out," Tiger said as he walked in, hat in hand, his other rubbing the back of his head. Barnaby followed after with a look of triumph on his face.
"So you'll sign the contract then Barnaby? It means taking a penalty for breaking the rules about filming as well as half the damage fines from the car lot," she said as she pulled out a copy of Barnaby's new contract.
Barnaby didn't look pleased at having to pay half the fines, Kotetsu looked like the cat who ate the canary. "That's fine, Agnes," he relented, gosh he really was sucking up to Tiger right now if he was paying damage fines.
"Great, sign here," she pointed at a line, "and here, here as well… initial… and you're done."
"So we start at the new season then? We get time off for Christmas?" Kotetsu said with hope in his eyes.
"Yes—and no. You won't be on Hero duty until after the New Year with the new season; you will be expected at the New Year Gala for the season launch as well as for pre-recorded interviews to be launched with your return in the new season. I'll have my secretary e-mail you your itineraries this afternoon," Agnes said as she turned to her computer beginning to type away. The two of them sat there staring at her. "That means you can leave…" she said turning back to look at them, eyebrow raised.
"R-right, thanks Agnes," Tiger said before standing up "let's go, Bunny."
The two left and Agnes pinched the bridge of her nose. Those two better be worth the headache they gave her.