Chapter Two
"Hello, Bunny!" Wild Tiger called out down the hall as he saw his partner coming from the opposite direction. He waved at him.
"Good afternoon, Ol—" Barnaby stopped in mid-sentence. He stood completely still and deeply embarrassed that his partner was waving his hands in a rabbit ear motion on top of his head, just like Eden did when she said good bye to them the other day.
"What is it, Bun—Oh, damn!" And Kotetsu took off down the hall, running back the way he came as Barnaby started after him with murder in his eyes.
"Good morning, everyo—" Barnaby tried to greet the office as he entered, but his voice caught in his throat when he saw his partner, Kotetsu, at his desk (for the first time ever arriving before the blonde did), waving his hands on top of his head like bunny ears.
"Good morning, Bunny!" He acted as if nothing was wrong. When Barnaby said nothing, standing perfectly still at the entrance, he slowly stopped his teasing. "Bunny?" The younger Hero slammed the door behind him with frightening force, the loud bang causing Wild Tiger to jump under his desk in fear of his partner.
Barnaby returned from his lunch break with some time to spare before his meeting with Alexander Lloyds. Deciding to take initiative and wait in the meeting office, the Hero entered the room and was surprised to see his older partner waiting patiently. He tensed up, but entered the room and took a seat next to Kotetsu (he would have rather sat opposite of his annoying companion, but knew that Lloyds would have preferred to sit there).
"Hello, Barnaby." Kotetsu greeted pleasantly, smiling. Alarm one: the old man was using his proper name.
"Hello, Kotets—" The blonde froze in mid-sentence. His partner moved his hands from the chair arms and to the table, stopping when Barnaby halted his greeting. He paused a minute, trying to read his partner through his goofy smile.
"Kotetsu,don't —" He held his breath again and Wild Tiger raised his hands level to his chest, still smiling devilishly. Another minute of pause. Barnaby was losing his patience.
"Old Man, if you—" Too late. Kotetsu was waving his hands on his head like bunny ears. His grin could have split his face.
"How was lunch, Bun—Ouf!" He was tackled to the ground and suffering the wrath of his partner in red when a man with greying hair and a high forehead entered the room. Alexander Lloyds gave a disappointing sigh at the sight of his two Heroes fighting on the floor.
"Good morning, Bunny!" Kotetsu cried out in the weight training room. He peered around a corner and caught sight of Barnaby on the treadmill. At the same time he called out, he held up his hands to his head and signed 'bunny' at his partner. The reaction was immediate and swift; Wild Tiger saw the shift in his partner's green eyes and decided the situation was suddenly not safe. The blonde hero jumped off of the treadmill and lunged forward. The older man quickly tried to escape.
"Damn you, Old Man!" Barnaby cried out, his honest emotions showing. He gave chase all around the exercise room, with his fellow heroes watching the madness ensue around them. Ever since the mute girl taught Kotetsu that sign, he abused every chance he could to show and call out to Barnaby with it. Barnaby didn't like his nickname as it was, but was even beginning to accept it from his partner. The hand signal with it as well though, drove him nuts. It just seemed to further humiliate him, almost degrading him as a hero.
But boy did Kotetsu love to use it. Not out of malice or loathing, but because it was too cute to not use on the younger man. Like the old man he was, he loved to tease those younger than him. Every day since he met Eden, he used the sign he learned and even taught it to his fellow Heroes. He even showed his own 'tiger' sign to them, boasting about how cool it looked. Only Dragon Kid seemed to agree with how cool and cute the signals were.
Despite having been on the treadmill before chasing after Kotetsu, Barnaby did manage to catch his prey by his collar and forced him to turn around. Both men were panting very heavily from the hunt, but Wild Tiger couldn't manage to lose his smile in such a bleak situation. Barnaby also couldn't lose the intensity in his eyes, despite how tired he was.
"Stop teasing me, Old Man!"
"I'm sorry, Bunny, but it's too much fun!" His blonde captor shook him by his collar quite vigorously.
"I mean it, Kotetsu! I can put up with the name, but please stop signing with that silly 'bunny' motion!"
"You mean, I can call you Bunny and you won't fight me on it anymore?" Barnaby stopped shaking his partner for a moment. He thought about it. Ideally, Kotetsu would just call him Barnaby and not tease him at all. That wish seemed unreachable at this point.
"So long as you can stop the rabbit ears motion…" He hesitated. He didn't want to give his permission for this pet name, but he hated the hand signal more. "… I guess you can call me Bunny." He said it so softly that Kotetsu almost didn't hear. Unintentionally, Barnaby's cheeks turned a faint pink color. The older man couldn't help but smile in spite of himself.
"If you feel that strongly about it, I can give up the bunny ears to call you Bunny." He gave a reassuring pat on the blonde man's shoulder, trying to show is honestly and good faith by being a little serious. The younger man gave a disbelieving blink before slowly letting go of Kotetsu's shirt. The man's grin widened to a point where it looked like it hurt, and a sinking feeling came from Barnaby's gut about what he just agreed to.
"Thank you." It seemed to be the appropriate thing to say, though he was unsure if the dark haired man would keep his promise.
"Oh? No more bunny ears?" A tall black man with pink hair cut close to his head spoke up. He and the rest of the heroes in the training room had heard the crazy run-around, but he was the first to show and speak up. "But they were so cute!"
Barnaby's eye twitched a little. Surely Nathan wouldn't push the matter back to Kotetsu teasing him again. He waited to see if his partner would uphold his promise.
"Yeah, the bunny ears were cute." Wild Tiger gave a sad smile. "But if Bunny doesn't want me to do it anymore, then I won't." He patted the younger man on his shoulder before taking off, giving him a slight wave and disappearing around a corner. Antonio, Keith, Ivan, Karina, and Pao-Lin poked their heads from behind another wall as Kotetsu left silently. All were quite stunned by the quiet departure of their boisterous co-worker. All curious eyes then landed on Barnaby, who felt like sweating under the heat of their gazes.
"What?!" He said very nervously, unable to control the volume of his voice.
"We can't believe you settled the matter so smoothly and quickly." The ninja hero piped up, prompted by the strangeness of the whole situation to speak first.
"Wild Tiger loves to tease. He would never be so easy to persuade under normal circumstances." Blue Rose elaborated, her light brown brows knitting together, as if unsatisfied that Barnaby could do something that she did not know how to do.
"What could all this mean, hmm?" The fire wielding Hero gave a suspicious glance with a hint of knowing, his flirtatious manner of speaking hinting at his meaning. But just to make sure, he gave a sly wink to the handsome man. The newest Hero tried to act like he didn't notice Nathan's comment, but the tinge of pink across his face betrayed him. He pushed up his glasses.
"It's nothing." Barnaby tried to brush off. "Just some persistence and persuasion. Even the Old Man can't ignore reason." He decided that sticking around with a bunch of people that didn't believe his explanation was asking for trouble, because everyone was still giving him strange looks, so he quickly excused himself and left the training room.
"Well, that was kind of awkward." Pao-Lin stated.
A/N: This chapter was half the size of the first. lol. Hope you all enjoyed it. :)
