Kotestu T. Kaburagi was seriously not having a good day today.

Last night had been kind of...not good either. The call from Kaede, as usual, lightened his spirits considerably, but, well, he had forgotten a rehearsal of hers, and having to dodge her accusations that he wouldn't show up was always difficult, especially because he knew that most of those accusations were quite true.

This morning had been a complete fiasco. He'd fallen over in the shower, for a start, and just about thrown out his back. That sucked, especially considering the fact that he would no doubt be heckled mercilessly for it should he show any pain, really, thanks to Barnaby's new moniker for him.

He'd also decided to follow his gut and cover up the tattoo today. Yeah it was on his hip, and that was a place that...not a lot of people really looked at at his age, if he was honest with himself, but...his gut instinct had never really failed him. Usually it was pretty right to a tee, so he didn't think anything of it when he applied the makeup.

"Premonitions" about his tattoo (if they could even be called that) were never a good sign that the day was going to go well. It was kind of an unwritten rule, or something.

From then on, until he managed to get to the office for the first few hours before the call about the statues, it was nothing but (minor) disaster. His favorite coffee shop was closed, he got caught in construction, and then, after that in traffic. The only good thing about this morning was that he'd not had to do any paperwork before he got called off to his actual job. (Though he really could have done without meeting his new boss' seceretary, because, um, wow was she ever hard to deal with)

The whole fiasco with the statues really didn't do much to help his mood, especially since it was Bunny, of all bloody people, to save his daughter and not him. Also, hearing his own child fangirl over his complete jackass of a partner? Not cool.

Helping that kid feel better about his NEXT abilities was kind of a plus, though, he guessed, though he'd come bloody close to mentioining something he shouldn't have.

Home now, finally, Kotestu took off his shoes and dropped his coat on the couch. He sauntered further into his house, shedding clothes as he did so, before stepping into the shower.

Fiddling with the knobs a bit, he waiting until the water was giving off steam to step in, and sighed. He doubted Jake would be happy to see him now, even if he weren't imprisoned for the rest of his life. I mean, when someone technically saves you from a bank robber by shooting him in the head with a barrier and takes you in for the better part of your teenage life, it's pretty rude to completely throw away their ideals after they get imprisoned and you get married. Jake had been obbsessed with the idea that NEXTs were better than normal humans, and when he'd killed the two robbers, and Kotetsu had thrown the third ('the one who pointed a gun to your head' he thought) into a wall, killing him, Jake had...

Kotetsu laughed, a little bitterly. To say that Jake Martinez had "taken him in" would be much too strong, it was more like he allowed him to tag along. And then, when Kriem came, having been abandoned by her parents after Jake had kidnapped her, it had begun to feel more like a family, albiet a pretty screwed up one.

Kotetsu's parents hadn't been physilically abusive, no. But they'd been too petrified of touching him, since he'd been about eight. When he had found Jake, he'd been twelve. Four years had cultivated a pretty skewed idea of family life. It was no surprise, then that he'd began to see Kriem and Jake as his only family.

But then, Tomoe...

He felt a pang behind his eyes at even the name, and he quickly banished his thoughts, but that didn't stop his eyes from dragging across the tattoo as he passed the mirror, nor the tears that came later, in his dreams.

This was possibly the most retarted parody of a date that Agnes (or any body else, for that matter!) had set him up on, ever.

He'd basically been in the background the whole time, but still. Shit, they'd gone to the park, walked around, went and got ice cream, and now were having dinner together in a newly inaugerated building with, admittedly, a rather fantastic view of the city at night.

"Old man, what's that?"

Kotetsu was about to start grumbling about more pointless questions about buildings, when he realized that Bunny wasn't actually staring out the window anymore, but instead, rather transfixedly at his face.

The honey-eyed man simply looked at him with sort of a half-smile and a cocked eyebrow. "What?"

The blonde frowned, but it wasn't as harsh as his earlier scowl. "On your ear. is it a freckle, or something?"

He froze.

"U-Um, that's..." he fidgeted, and brought a hand up to the ear in question. "...A piercing scar."

Bunny's eyebrows met his hairline, "...I never pegged you as the type to get your ears pierced. You're pretty traditional for that, don't you think?"

"I never said I had my ears pierced now!" Tiger scowled, but without any bite to it. "I used to be kind of a punk when I was a kid." 'And boy, you don't know how much of an understatement that is, kid.' "That's why it's a scar, Bunny, and not just a piercing."

The blonde look, appropriately, shocked, but then it quickly melted into a more relaxed almost-smile. "Well, I guess that does make sense, then. You actually do seem like the type to be a kid-delinquant." scratch that, it was definately a smirk.

"Brat. You're definitely not cute at all."