A/N: Again, so many thanks for the lovely reviews, favorites, and alerts! I hope this chapter makes up for ending the last on a cliffhanger. And this isn't the end yet! There's at least one more chapter in this little fic, and I'm definitely not done writing Tiger & Bunny. Please enjoy!

"What if I tell you it's because I love you?"

"I'm going to assume that question wasn't hypothetical."

There was a quiet roaring in Barnaby's ears that only emphasized the silence between them. At the other end of the couch, Kotetsu had buried his face in his hands, making his mood difficult to read, but Barnaby ventured a guess that the old man probably felt horrific. He wasn't even speaking, likely because he knew there was no taking back or explaining away the words he'd blurted out in that heated heartbeat of time.

What a turn of events this was. What an absolute reversal of where they had just been. The absurdity of the situation made the corners of Barnaby's lips twitch upward despite himself. To go from certain he'd ruined their friendship, to being the recipient of that sudden exclamation...! Well. Now to work through this. He felt his heart fluttering again, along with a warm flood of certainty that this mess they'd gotten into could be handled if they just examined the problem appropriately. Yes. He had a handle on this now. A solution would be found and everything would be worked out.

"So. Assuming that it wasn't hypothetical. Maybe you should clarify what you mean."

Kotetsu's answer was a muffled, choked sound that sounded equal parts worried groan, incredulous laugh, and pained whimper.

He turned toward the old man, tilting his head with an expectant expression. "That doesn't give me much to go on."

Now Kotetsu lifted his head from his hands, staring at him disbelievingly. His face was still pale, something Barnaby noted with concern. "You want me to...to clarify?"

"Yes," he said patiently, even as his heart continued to flutter an exhilarated pattern against his chest. "You were the one who said we need to talk, and I don't think that's changed now. So, what do you mean?"

"I..." Kotetsu rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the floor, the window, anywhere but at his partner. "I mean, you're important to me, Bunny."

He nodded slowly, trying to look encouraging, even if Kotetsu was avoiding looking at him. "We're partners, so that makes sense."

"Eh, yeah...partners..." He still looked stricken. "You're so important to me that...that I want you to be happy, no matter what."

Barnaby leaned back slightly, taking in those words. His cheeks were starting to flush, an odd feeling under the itch of the dried tears. "You've done a lot to make me happy, Kotetsu."

There was a flicker of emotion across his face at the use of his name. Barnaby remembered, from that dark moment, that confession of how much it meant to his partner when he first called him by his name. "Yeah, and...and you too, Bunny. We...really make a great team."

"We really do," he agreed, his voice quiet and prompting.

"So I... I want you to be happy. You deserve it."

He flushed deeper. "So do you."

Kotetsu waved a hand weakly. "Nah, I'm... I'm okay, as long as you're okay."

Barnaby considered his words very carefully, trying to nudge the old man into saying what he really meant. "We could go around in circles with that sentiment for a while and never get anything settled. It sounds like we agree that we're important to each other. But that wasn't exactly what you said."

"No, not really..." He sounded sheepish now.

He scooted further down the couch, closer to Kotetsu, with the knowledge that things were very delicate and there was incredible potential humming around the both of them. This required delicacy and straightforwardness in just the right balance. Just out of arm's reach, he studied his partner, the still-open shirt, the scruffy beard with a new day's worth of stubble, the mussed hair dried in a state of mild disaster, the soft brown eyes filled with concern. Taking a soft breath against the sudden jangle of nerves tightening his throat, he spoke again. "So when you said that, do you mean...that you want to be with me?"

Those soft brown eyes fixed on him now, widening, as his mouth opened in a muted expression of surprise. "Bunny..."

He set his jaw, determined not to try to hide from this. "Well, old man?"

Kotetsu's face looked on the verge of crumpling. "You mean more to me than almost anyone, I can't- I can't make things more complicated for you."

"That's not an answer."

"Bunny..." Pleading now.

"No, Kotetsu. We've both managed to complicate things very well for each other, I think we can withstand a few more complications. And I want to hear it. Do you-" His voice failed him, and he had to swallow and start again. "Do you want to be with me?"

The look on Kotetsu's face made his heart ache, it was such a beautiful mix of fear and worry and hope and disbelief, a pain unlike any pain he'd ever seen him bear. His mouth worked soundlessly for a few moments before he managed to make his reply, and the words made Barnaby's heart ache even more. "More than anything, Bunny."

He closed his eyes with a satisfied smile, taking a deep breath and feeling his heart trembling and near bursting in excitement. "Good. Because I want that too. I-" He forced the words past his failing voice, certain now that they were the right ones. "I love you."

"Bunny...!" The breathless exclamation of his name made him feel slightly dizzy as it rushed over him. He opened his eyes to see Kotetsu closing the distance between them, and then his arms were around him, and he melted eagerly into the embrace as he lifted his head for their lips to meet.

The kiss was tender, so tender, soft and lingering and so wonderful, beyond any of his secret daydreams, and Barnaby realized with surprise that Kotetsu was holding back in order to keep it a gentle and tender kiss. All things considered, maybe that was a good idea, because it seemed what they needed now was a kiss to enjoy every beautiful moment. He could feel him smiling, as their kiss became another, and then another.. He cupped his hand against his cheek, running a thumb along his jawline. He felt Kotetsu's fingers twining tenderly in his hair, urging him closer still, until he had climbed up into his partner's lap and was pressing himself gently against him, aware even in this moment of the still-tender scars his partner bore. And there it was again, that deep-down long-buried desire, bubbling again to the surface, but he refused to let it get the better of him, instead just letting it be known in those tiny gestures, the swipe of his tongue, the press of his hardness against his hip, the soft noises of pleasure in his throat as they continued to kiss.

It was a beautiful eternity that came to an end too soon as their lips parted, and Barnaby found that they were now tucked up against the arm of the couch, with Kotetsu leaning back and holding him in his arms. Now oriented, he removed his glasses to place on the end table, then snuggled himself up against Kotetsu, nuzzling his face against his neck and breathing softly. "You were right. We did need to talk."

He heard and felt Kotetsu's warm laugh, felt the rush of dizzying pleasure that it gave him to hear him laugh like that, and he felt a smile forming that was almost embarrassing in its brilliance. He kept it buried against Kotetsu's neck, out of sight, sighing in contentment at the hand stroking gently through his hair. "And you were right, I would have been a hypocrite not to talk about this."

"Mmm. I think you made up for it in your actions afterward." He was giddy, he almost wanted to laugh, but he kept it to a breathy chuckle instead, punctuated by a kiss to Kotetsu's jawline.

"I liked that part," Kotetsu admitted, his voice taking on an endearing shy tone.

"Good. We'll have to do it again sometime." His dry comment was met with another of those warm laughs that made him tingle all the way down to his toes. How long had his partner had this effect on him? How long had he been denying it to himself? Barnaby tried to think back and figure out how long he'd been oblivious to his own heart, then wrote it off as pointless to worry about right now. Now was for this incredible moment between the two of them that made him feel the happiest he could remember in his life.

"Bunny," and his partner was murmuring his name again, and he had to admit to himself that he didn't just put up with the nickname when he was in a good mood, he adored it, especially when Kotetsu said it like that. "I've been such a fool."

"You're not going to take all the blame for this," he objected softly. "We're a team, and we're both fools. But now we can start to fix that."

"If that was your idea of fixing it..." Kotetsu's voice trailed off suggestively.

"Oh," he said airily, "I have some other ideas, too." And not to be outdone in suggestiveness, he arched his hips against Kotetsu, to make sure his partner felt what exactly this close contact was doing to him.

It elicited a gasp from Kotetsu, much to his delight. "Bunny!"

"I know you're not too old to be able to handle that," he smirked, knowing what the sense of challenge was going to do to him.

"Ohhh, I think I can handle it," he answered, his voice thick with something Barnaby just knew was an amazed longing. He knew, because he felt it himself.

"Good," and Barnaby snuggled himself back into that comfortable embrace. "Then you have something to look forward to."

Kotetsu made a choking sound, and Barnaby was glad his face was hidden and not giving away his smirk. "Tease," his partner accused.

"I'm still suffering the after-effects of the hangover, which means I'm not at my best," he explained patiently and gently, shifting his position to one slightly more comfortable, and also slightly more on top of Kotetsu. "And when it comes to this...I definitely want to be at my best."

He heard and felt Kotetsu make a noise that was both sigh and gasp. But then those hands were stroking through his hair again, gentle and lingering. In a halting voice, he said, "I should just be grateful you want...that."

To answer him, Barnaby kissed the hollow of his neck, just above his collarbone. "Believe me," he breathed. "I do."

Kotetsu's arms tightened around him, and he felt that gentle twine of fingers through his hair again, right at the nape of his neck. "Then I suppose I'd better plan to stay the night again," he murmured.

The idea gave Barnaby a thrill. Stay the night. With all the exciting implications that he had been so worried about the night before. "I'd accuse you of having planned this," he said with a smirk in his voice, feeling the gentle rise and fall of his partner's chest.

"Ah, Bunny..." A soft sigh. "I've wanted to say something. But I hid it in stupid jokes. I just didn't want to risk our friendship. Especially if it was just me being a dirty old man."

He felt his brows lift in surprise at Kotetsu's admission. So his partner had been harboring feelings for a while? How interesting. He resisted the urge to dig deeper into that, sensing that the gentle perfection of his moment needed to be carefully maintained if it was to continue. Instead, he shifted his position, moving a bit further up to place a soft series of kisses along Kotetsu's jawline, pausing at his ear to murmur softly, "I think I'm the lucky one."

"Mmf." A quietly strangled noise, a shift of Kotetsu's hips, then a soft chuckle. "No, I'm the lucky one...to have a partner like you..."

Barnaby gazed into those eyes, fighting back a shiver of reaction to the emotion he saw there. Was it just his imagination, or did "partner" take on a new meaning? Or had it been that way for a while? Another thing to think on later, he decided. Now was for enjoying this revelation and the intimacy it permitted. His lips sought Kotetsu's for another chain of soft, lingering kisses, and it was an electric feeling of rightness when Kotetsu was kissing him in return. How odd, that this felt so very right, and not at all awkward for him to be engaged in kiss after tender kiss with Kotetsu. No, not odd at all. They were, after all, the very best team. This was just another facet of that. A very wonderful facet.

A soft rumble of thunder startled Barnaby out of their gentle exchange, and he turned his head to blink toward the window. Without his glasses, he wasn't able to make out much, but from the darkening of the room it seemed the storm that threatened earlier had finally rolled in. Again Kotetsu was stroking a hand through his hair soothingly, and he smiled and turned back, placing a soft touch of his lips against the corner of his mouth. "Good thing we don't have anywhere to be," he murmured.

"I'd make excuses for us not to go, even if we did," Kotetsu replied. "Even if it wasn't storming. But the storm makes for a good cover story, just in case."

"Mmm," Barnaby agreed, listening to the soft patter of rain starting to fall. The storm last night had been one of turbulent emotion, jangled nerves, overwhelming uncertainty. But now, in daytime, so many of those fears had been melted away, and now this storm was simply the message of promise for the renewal it would bring behind it. He loved the way the world became softer at the edges after a rain, the way that the grass and leaves seemed an even more vibrant green. Lazily he thought of a walk with Kotetsu, and he could almost smell the scent of the rain. The thought of sharing one of his calming little rituals with his partner rang with rightness. Maybe they could go stargazing too...

He was drifting, and surprised that he was drifting. Then again, he had a sleep deficit to make up, and it had been a rather emotionally exhausting morning. But still, to be so comfortable as to start falling asleep here? Well, maybe he shouldn't question it too much. Sleepiness was sleepiness. He shifted a bit. "Comfortable?" he asked.

"I have you laying on me, what do you think?" Kotetsu retorted, giving him a lopsided grin. "Though some parts aren't quite as comfortable as others..."

"Idiot. I want to know if you're comfortable because if you are, I'm going to fall asleep. If you're not, I'll move."

Kotetsu's brows raised, and then a tender smile replaced the surprise. "Ahh, Bunny..." His voice was thick with emotion, and he sighed as if to release some of that tension, his arms wrapping around him to give another gentle embrace. "Stay. I'll be fine. More than fine."

Barnaby smiled back, making a last adjustment to his position draped across Kotetsu and snuggling his head against his shoulder. As he closed his eyes, he felt that gentle caress of Kotetsu's hand through his hair and down, coming to rest at the small of his back. The touch gave him a sense of being anchored safely, and he sighed in contentment and allowed himself to start drifting off, his thoughts a blurred haze of warmth and light. Worries were for later. Now was for appreciating the quiet perfection of what they now shared, no matter how rough the road had been.

After all, there needed to be rain before there could be a rainbow.