Author's Notes: This story would not be possible without the contributions of fellow user dori4n, who's fellow love of this smaller "Heroes" ship, chatting about head canon, and Skype roleplaying helped to inspire and create this story. So if you like it please, make sure to check out their page and stories as well.
[Please see bottom of each chapter for translations to Japanese words or phrases used by the characters.]
The blond could almost have laughed at the shocked, open-mouthed expression on the smaller man's face. He looked every bit like the carp he'd always accused him of being. Opening and closing his mouth without any words coming out, trying to find a response, falling back against the tree beside him for support, clearly stunned. "Yes, Hiro" the immortal replied shaking his head, using the man's actual name for once. "My biggest fan, the first and often the only one to believe in me, my inspiration, my friend, my Carp. You. How could it not be you?"
The immortal studied the man opposite him as he seemed to still be reeling with the realization that in fact his hero had been just as taken with him, more so in fact, as he had been with the stories of Takezo Kensei as a young boy; trying to reconcile this new information with his memories and experiences. Meanwhile the blond fought back his heart trying to leap out of his chest when Hiro said the word 'love,' and trying not to make too much of the fact that the time traveler was no longer willing, or perhaps no longer able to look him in the eyes.
He laughed, he couldn't help it, Hiro was suddenly so serious, so determined, like he had just been tasked with saving the world-again. "Hiro, aren't you forgetting something? Did you- Did you overlook the part about me wanting to kiss you," he asked a little uncertainly eying this curious, and extraordinary man skeptically. He couldn't have done, he thought, pushing back down the hope that had welled up in him.
Then the time traveler did something he didn't do often: he took off his glasses to rub his eyes with his fingers and took a few steps around. This was... Stressful, if he was being honest with himself. He felt something clenching inside of him but when he heard the other man laugh he stared at him, or at this blurry shape his myopia allowed him to see and he couldn't suppress the amazed smile that crawled on his lips. It was such a rare sound, such a precious thing than this immortal's laughter. "I will always believe in you, even when you wont." He was about to put his glasses back but realized that not seeing the world around him was quite helpful, somehow less scary and threatening. Even when he violently blushed at Kensei's last question. "I... Might have missed this yes." But would he mind? If he had to face himself for once, to think about the way he'd felt toward this hero, would he really mind it? He had to confess that no... he wasn't so sure that he would.
"Kensei..." He began, stopping his pacing up and down to face the man in front of him, his dark eyes barely focusing on him. "I thought... Yaeko was a fairytale character, and so were you. Little boys are always in love with the princess, this is... The right thing to do, this is what is normal. This is what I've been taught. When I met you, the two of you, It was like I was 10 again and I was living my fairytale. She was who I was supposed to look at but... In the end... You were the one who mattered." He knew he was about to lose his words, to say stupid things, to confess dangerous thoughts he'd been burying inside of him since he'd left Adam's time, back then. But he had to say them.
'Kensei' the blond froze as effectively as if the shorter man had frozen time again. How long had it been since he had heard his Carp call him that? Less than a year he had said, and yet it had been far too long. And there was a different tone to it now, softer somehow, not the cold angry words they had exchanged in the vault before he had locked him away in the coffin he was now leaning against. And in that moment, the immortal didn't care about Adam anymore, or anything he'd done before. He would have given anything to be the man that had once belonged to that name if it meant that Hiro would look at him the way he once had. Like he was special, like he meant something, even if he hadn't yet deserved or earned his admiration then.
The blond watched curiously as his one time companion removed his glasses, rubbing his eyes with his fingers before taking a few steps. He looked tired-whether of him, or just in general the immortal couldn't be certain, but he seemed to smile, just a little when he laughed, even though the blond was laughing at him. His words that followed, cut the laughter a bit short, causing something in his chest to tighten a little. This man... he would never cease to amaze him. The blond nodded as the now nearly sightless carp continued to speak. He understood. Yaeko was to be his princess, it was what was expected of a warrior and a hero, of a man-to be with a woman. That was how the legend was written, that was simply what was done. Even now, though many cultures and most people had in the many centuries since become more-well at least tolerant of the idea of men who were interested in other men, it certainly wasn't something that would likely have been encouraged by Kaito, or the culture in which he had raised his son, he thought, fighting the urge to say anything against the assertion that falling for the princess in the fairytales was 'normal', or 'right'. But suddenly the time travelers words drew him back from any and all other thoughts. 'In the end... You were the one who mattered.' the words seemed to sink in beneath the skin like a soothing balm, relieving all the old unspoken hurts. He mattered. He still did. He'd never stopped mattering to Hiro, even as often, and frequently-colossally as he screwed up. He mattered.
He seemed to start to put his glasses back on before deciding against it. He seemed somehow a little more relaxed without them, despite the fact the immortal remembered well the one time he had borrowed them for curiosity's sake, and declared his friend's vision was 'dreadful.' Hiro had flushed a very pretty, and endearing shade of pink when the blond pointed out that he was either missing or forgetting in his eagerness to redeem him that he'd just admitted to being attracted to him, and had wanted to kiss him. Or perhaps he thought the ageless man had simply gotten over it? That it no longer applied anymore?
"When I reached for you hand, when everything was going to hell, after we fought, after the place had began to burn... I really wanted to save you. I was... Devastated when I had to leave without you. I thought you were dead for good. Despite our fight... I mourned you." Oh no, please, not that, not those tears in his eyes, this was not a proper thing, this was not good. He hadn't been raised like this. His vision was even more blurry now. He gathered the few that was left of his courage and took a deep breath. "You were... And will always be... My model, my hero, my friend, my immortal." Then he didn't move anymore, waiting to see what would happen next and whatever it might be, he was willing to face it. He owed this to this man, to this incredible and desperate man before him, to his friend and maybe... His first love? After all, he couldn't deny the incredible boyish crush he'd always had on the mythic hero.
As the man continued, speaking about their last, and rather ugly encounter before the time traveler had returned to his own time, the blond shook his head. "I wanted to die,"he replied when he told him how desperately he had wanted to save him. "I wasn't sure that I could, but I thought if anything might kill me... How could I go back, and watch you with her -or let you go back to the world you came from the one you belonged to," he whispered softly. Hiro looked, almost tearful now the immortal looked on surprised, though he was clearly doing everything within his power to fight back the emotion that was welling up within him.
The blond listened as Hiro told him in no uncertain terms everything that he had meant to him, as a boy, when they had met, and even now, heart ablaze with everything that he felt for the man who'd finally stopped pacing to stand in front of him, albeit looking a little nervous, and it suddenly occurred to him just how vulnerable he had allowed himself to become in the presence of his one time hero, despite being well aware of all that his one time hero was capable of, and the amount of faith he continued to put in him moved him, and to him seemed more beautiful than anything he had ever seen in any of his many lifetimes.