Setting: After series
Genre: General/Angst
Rating: PG (may or may not change)
Summary: Four years is a long time to be missing, but it doesn't stop Barnaby from trying to find his partner, Wild Tiger, who went MIA those four years ago. By chance, a man of strikingly similar warmth crosses his path; he is everything that Kotetsu was, but at the same time everything about him is wrong.

Once Lost Yet to Return

"You've been awfully happy lately," the young girl noted. Barnaby only blinked at her, his hand pausing mid-air as he was about to take a sip from his cup. Kaede didn't say anything, giving him that "look" – the one she was always giving her father whenever he tried working his way around the truth. He hadn't seen that look in a long while, not since Kotetsu's disappearance.

"I… have?" he questioned. She only sighed, giving him a scowl as if to say that his mood wasn't obvious enough. Sometimes she wondered if parts of her dad had rubbed off on Barnaby without him even noticing; there were certainly rare moments when he did something she thought only her father was stupid enough to do.

"Yes – in fact, you've been so happy you're practically glowing! Are you pregnant or something?" she glowered. Barnaby choked on his drink at the comment, quickly putting his glass down as he put a hand over his mouth as he coughed. There was a light tint on his cheeks at the verbal blow, giving the girl a narrowed, nagging glare; Kaede only shrugged, fingers fiddling with the straw in her fruit smoothie. Her privilege to venture off the academy grounds were still revoked, but if a guardian or another close adult took her out for the day, it was considered a "supervised" outing. Kaede didn't like it; she couldn't use her free time to search for her dad, and there really wasn't much to do at the academy itself besides train or sit in your dorm room.

"Is something bothering you? If you're upset because of your punishment, that's your own fault for skipping class."

"Yeah, yeah – I've heard that speech three times already, thank you," she sniped, still not looking at him. Barnaby sighed, taking another sip from his drink; he thought he'd get her out and about the city for a day to give her something to do, but she didn't seem to want to do anything. He couldn't help but wonder what Kotetsu would do in this kind of situation; how would he be handling his teenage daughter as she is now? Then again, he doubt the girl would even want to spend a day with her father if the man had been here for the last four years; the other was an embarrassment even to Barnaby, so he could understand at least that much.

Kaede sat quietly, using the straw to stir the thick, creamy content of her smoothie around, staring at the pink liquid swirling around the glass. Barnaby was starting to wonder where this attitude was coming from; Antonio said he hadn't had any problems with her whenever he took the teen out. She was mostly quiet, since they didn't have much in common, and any approach to the subject about her dad was a little sensitive. Dark brown eyes looked up from the drink to the window of the café, watching the people walking back and forth on their way; she was half hoping her dad would coincidentally stroll by, hands in his pockets, that same silly little cap he always wore and humming to himself. She could imagine herself literally jumping from her chair, running out of the café to stop him, throwing her arms around him, trying not to sob against his chest.

"…Have I done something to upset you, Kaede?" Barnaby's voice snapped her out of her daydream. Her eyes turned to look at him, bright green eyes staring at her curiously and just a little bit concerned. Kaede looked away from him, feeling all the pressure in her chest suddenly well up to her throat, forming words before she could really think about them.

"What's with you…" she whispered softly. The blond man only blinked at her.

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"If you have so much free time that you can take me out, then why aren't you searching for dad?" she gritted. Barnaby could only stare at her in surprise, not entirely sure where this question was coming from or what was making the young teen ask it.

"Is it wrong for me to want to spend time with the daughter of my partner? He was always talking about you non-stop, you know," he replied. Kaede didn't seem to like that answer, her hands curling into fists.

"Why now? When he disappeared you didn't even so much as call or write! So why now after four years?"

"I'm…sorry; it's not that I didn't want to, I was just – I guess I made looking for him the only priority in my life," he didn't know any other way to answer that. Kaede finally looked up at him and he could see her chocolate-coloured eyes shimmering with a hint of tears.

"So what – now it isn't anymore?" she snapped. Barnaby frowned at her, opening his mouth to explain himself, but the girl cut him off as she went on, not caring if people were beginning to glance over at their table. "You're giving up too? Just like everyone else – you don't think he's alive, do you!"

"Kaede, enough!" he brought his hand down harder than he meant to. Several heads in the café definitely turned to their direction, suddenly going quiet at the tension between the two hanging in the air. Neither said another word to each other until the curious onlookers got bored and went back to their own business, the chattering starting up again. Barnaby let out a heavy sigh, Kaede bowing her head in apology.

"Kaede… it's not that I've given up; I still think that Kotetsu is very much alive, but – I've spent twenty years living a life of revenge. He knew that was not healthy for me and changed that for me," he tried to explain. "If he saw me now doing the same thing all over again, he'd scold me for trying to dig up my old habits. Besides, he'd feel even worse knowing he was causing me anguish." That time he managed to elicit a small, barely-there smile from the girl, seeing her shoulders relax a little.

"…I'm sorry, but I feel like everyone is giving up on him; grandma won't even mention his name and she always has to 'conveniently' do something every time I try."

"I'm sure when you become a parent yourself, you'll understand."

"Ew, don't!" she made a face. "I want my dad to say that to me – not you!" They shared a laugh, before going back to an oddly comfortable silence, each enjoying their respective drinks. They simply enjoyed the peaceful silence, listening to the clattering and prattle of noises around them. Barnaby stared at the table top for the longest while, before he spoke again.

"He wouldn't want you to be miserable like this," he said softly. "He'd want you out there, enjoying the moments in your life – not letting them slip by because you're too focused on one thing."

"I know… but it's – hard trying to do other things, knowing he might be out there somewhere," she answered back.

"Trust me, I know that more than anyone. I'm just thankful your father was persistent enough to not leave me alone." They both laughed in agreement to that statement; if there were any points that stood out about Kotetsu, it was his endurance and his persistence. The pair sat in comfortable peace, finishing off their orders before Barnaby paid the bill, both leaving the café. When he asked if she wanted to head back to the academy, Kaede shook her head, reaching to take his arm. She giggled at the slight blush on his face, Barnaby hissing at her to let go. She only gave him a devious grin.

"What's the matter? Worried about the media scandalizing you for being caught with a teenage girl?" she taunted. The blush darkened, Barnaby running his free hand through his bangs as he tried to pull away from the girl's grasp.

"T-That's not it! You're – you're my partner's daughter! He'd kill me if he saw this!" he exasperated. Kaede only giggled, giving his arm a quick squeeze before she let him go, seeing him nod in approval. She was beginning to see why her dad liked to tease him so much – the usual cool-guy persona he always displayed for the cameras was easy to shatter whenever he was flustered. It was kind of cute, in a strange, uncharacteristic way; no wonder her dad had taken an intensive interest in this man. Barnaby blinked at the odd smile on her face, the girl waving it off when asked about it as they continued on their outing.

Barnaby let the subject drop, sighing to himself as he shook his head – seems like the daughter was going to pick on him just as much as the father had. A small smile spread on his face at the thought, however; at least a part of Kotetsu wouldn't be too far away.

-8-

It was impossible to tell that Christmas was only two weeks away, aside from the usual holiday decorations that Sternbild churned out, lining the streets with colourful lights and green wreaths. The snow had been light this year, almost melting as soon as it fell, the air not quite cold enough to keep it solidified. The sky was murky at best, with rare shimmers of sunlight breaking through the tiny gaps in the clouds; but this snowless winter didn't stop the freezing chills, making everyone bundle up in winter coats and hats.

Antonio gazed out over the cityscape from the large glass windows – it was helping distract his mind, if only a little. He had been sitting down earlier on the lounge chairs provided in this spacious waiting room, but he couldn't keep still. After weeks of interrogation, they had managed to track down both gang leaders with information they got from the teenager they caught during the whole warehouse incident. He still grimaced at the remembrance of those three teens that were shot. Although the Justice Bureau claimed they would handle the leaders, Antonio wanted to do a little side investigation of his own – namely, who the assassin hired to kill those three youths was.

"Sorry for the wait~" the familiar flirtatious voice pulled him from his thoughts. Antonio shifted his gaze from the window to the fiery Hero waltzing into the room, a very shapely female secretary walking behind him. The old veteran tried not to stare openly at the woman as she dropped off the files on the coffee table and sauntered off with exaggerated hip swings back to the office. He was distracted out of his daze at the hand creeping down his back, dangerously close to his rear end, letting out a rather unmanly squeal.

"Now then – shall I tell what I discovered?" Nathan cooed playfully. Antonio quickly recoiled away from the other man, nodding his head hastily as he cleared his throat.

"So – what did you find?"

"Well, getting into Corvi's files was a little difficult, but I had a few favours to use," the other began, sitting down on the couch as he pulled one of the files towards him. "Seems he's not the type to do the dirty work himself, so his bank accounts are flooded with outgoing transactions."

"Any close to the date when those kids were killed?"

"Yes, thankfully it was the only one during that month," Nathan explained, handing the file to the other to see. Antonio took it, seating himself down as he looked through the statements; there were a bunch of numbers he didn't understand, but he could recognize at least what were payments and dates.

"Any way we can trace the other account?"

"That would require going through the actual bank's records – there's just one problem with that, though…" the other explained. "The payment was made in euros – the wiring was made to a foreign account, and with Corvi's assets frozen the culprit can easily erase their tracks by the time we're able to gain access again, if they haven't by now." The dark-haired man let out a heavy sigh, setting the file back down on the coffee table, folding his hands to lean his chin against them. Whoever had been hired left no loose-ends, making it impossible to hunt them down; but if they could get even a vague lead and if it turned out they were related to the other sniper cases, it would be a step closer to stopping these incidents.

"Ah, right – did you find anything about the other thing I asked?" Antonio snapped up as he remembered. Dark rose eyes looked at him for a moment, before the other nodded his head, crossing one leg over the other as he regarded the man across from him with a serious look.

"I did… this 'Akira Hurst' you asked me about… he doesn't exist."

"What!"

"Unless he changed his name without making it official, he hasn't shown up in any databases I've hacked into," Nathan continued, his expression becoming a degree darker. "The only 'Hurst' I've managed to dig up is a man called Aldric, but he's been dead for almost twenty-years now." Antonio buried his chin against his hands again, thick brows furrowing together, the lines on his forehead becoming more prominent. The conversation he had with Barnaby that day after the school hostage scare had been nagging him for a while, but between work, stress and dealing with a semi-rebellious teenage girl he had put it on the back burner. Now that he had more free time thanks to the upcoming holidays, he was thinking about it more than he wanted to admit.

"Antonio – who is this Akira Hurst?" Nathan asked, his voice completely voided of his usual playful octave tone. The other remained silent for the longest while as he tried to come up with an answer himself; he heard a sigh, before looking to the floor.

"…I don't know…" he finally answered honestly. The two men only sat in contemplative silence, each lost to their own thoughts and theories; the deeper they tried to delve into this sniper assassin case, the more and more mysterious it became.

-Chapter Nine/End-