ineffabilities: (k/b - you're a sight for sore eyes)
an ineffable plan ([personal profile] ineffabilities) wrote2012-01-08 12:32 pm

T&B DRABBLE DUMP.

oh dear god what has my tumblr wrought. AHEM. Anyway, these are all safe for work! Mostly. There are undercurrents of gay and crack and AU's and angst and stuff, but I don't really write anything explicit. Also there is no order.

Title: Scenes and Snippets
Summary: i. Kotetsu, that's not your Barnaby...
ii. "No, seriously, Bunny. Magic."
iii. "Who's Bunny?"
iv. The criminal is a little too familiar.
v. An outsider's view of the relationship between Kotetsu and Barnaby.
vi. The worst thing he has to deal with is that Kotetsu doesn't remember him.
vii. It's raining, and Kotetsu doesn't have an umbrella.
Rating: ...um. T?

one.

“Bunny?” Kotetsu asked.

Barnaby whirled around, somehow pulling out a gigantic sword from out of nowhere. He noted the sudden appearance of pointed ears and blood-red eyes. “What do you want now, Kaburagi?” he snarled, then looked around. “This isn’t the Netherworld.”

Kotetsu blinked innocently at him. “Netherworld?”

MEANWHILE…

“Kotetsu?”

Kotetsu whirled around, then stared at the confused Barnaby in front of him.

The confused, green-eyed Barnaby. With human ears.

“Hi, Bunny-chan!” he greeted, then realized he was probably going to be dissected for that.

Barnaby’s eyes narrowed in a piercing glare.

two.

Barnaby stared at his partner, trying to rationalize what just happened. Okay, so first there was that strange NEXT—couldn’t be anything else, really—that could somehow generate things (illusions, perhaps? No, too solid, and they could pack one hell of a punch to be simply illusions), then there was that…thing, there was no other word for it, that exploded outwards from the young woman he was helping out, and now his partner had just rescued him and was holding out a stick. That had runes carved into it and was glowing scarlet.

“You okay, Bunny?” he asked.

“Only if you tell me just what is going on here, Kotetsu,” he snapped. “What was that thing? For that matter, how did you know where to find me?”

“Magic,” Kotetsu replied.

“Ha ha, magic, yes, very funny, stop trying to joke around with me!” he hissed.

“No, seriously, Bunny,” the older Hero said, as if he’d had to deal with this before and was used to it. “Magic. And that thing was a Red Court vampire.”

“You have got to be joking me.”

“Not joking.” Now that he mentioned it, Barnaby knew what Kotetsu sounded like when he was joking around, and right now, he didn’t sound like he was kidding. In fact, he sounded deadly serious.

…either his partner had gone off the deep end (not likely) or he was telling the truth.

“So,” he finally said. “Magic. And you never told me you could do it.”

“I’ll explain over Chowking,” Kotetsu offered.

three.

The first thing he hears is a word.

“Bunny?” someone asks.

“Who’s Bunny?” he answers.

He doesn’t know why the person’s face, full of warmth, falls, and he doesn’t know why his heart feels so pained when he sees that person look sad.

He remembers nothing, and at night, wakes up screaming.

“Shh, don’t worry, Bunny,” the person says, hugging him tightly as he sobs softly for some reason that escapes him. “I’m here. Daijoubu, daijoubu…

He clings onto those words like a lifeline.

four.

Kotetsu falls, wakes up remembering nothing and strapped to a table.

“You’re awake,” someone says. “I was worried about you, Makoto.”

He doesn’t quite know why his instinct screams that Makoto Hirata isn’t his name, why it feels so foreign on his tongue, why he feels wrong when he activates his enhanced power for the first time, or why he feels so wrong when he tries to do his best to help out, sets off a series of bombs in abandoned buildings. (Why are they always abandoned buildings? he asks himself once, and he doesn’t have an answer.)

And he doesn’t quite know why he feels so wrong when he crosses paths with an upstart Hero, or why fighting him makes him feel so sick.

And somewhere in Sternbild, as he recovers from the fight, Barnaby Brooks Junior wonders just who that new criminal is and why he seems so achingly familiar.

five.

Mao is pretty sure that the only people he’s ever met that were this obvious over their attraction to each other are Almaz and the Princess, and look what’s happened to them.

“I swear, if you keep charging recklessly into situations like that, I’ll disown you!”

“Yeah, well, maybe I wouldn’t charge in so recklessly if you didn’t keep taking too much time to think!”

“Are you saying there’s something wrong with something that’s saved you more than once in the past?!”

“I’m saying you need to follow your instinct for once!”

“You nearly get killed when you follow your instinct, excuse me if I prefer working out a strategy!”

“Shut up already!” he snaps, then, as an afterthought, adds, “And get married already, too.”

six. (sequel to four.)

The worst thing about the events of this week is not the fact that he’s had to explain the situation at least eight times over to the press. It’s not the fact that their information isn’t entirely reliable (though it’s managed to help stop half of the planned attacks before they’ve even gone off). It’s not the fact that he’s barely had three hours of sleep in over a week. It isn’t even the stress that comes from the research he’s been conducting on the group and their patterns.

The worst thing that he has to deal with is that Kotetsu doesn’t remember him.

He knows it’s irrational—after all, he doesn’t even remember himself, how could Barnaby expect him to remember the person who says they’re partners—but every time he enters the hospital room and is greeted with a tired, “Oh, hey, Brooks,” instead of the cheerful, “Hi, Bunny-chan!” he’s used to, something inside him dies a little bit.

But he’s got to go on.

“Good morning, Kotetsu,” he greets. “Did you…”

“Remember anything?” he completes, and for a moment, he almost believes that he remembers. “Ah, no, not yet. Sorry.”

“I understand.” Doesn’t make the way he completed his sentence any painful.

Kotetsu gives him a reassuring smile. “I’ll remember,” he promises. “Definitely.”

“Let’s hope you remember how to fend off the press,” he deadpans. “They’re practically eating up this story. It doesn’t help that Agnes wants you back on the show as soon as possible.”

“Guess there’s nothing good on TV, if they’re that desperate,” the older man observes. “Don’t worry, Brooks, this old man can take it.”

“I’m fully aware of that fact,” he replies. “I’m just worried about the bills you’ll cause.”

“Oi! I didn’t rack up that much property damage before, did I?” He strokes his beard thoughtfully, as if this is a particularly fascinating fact.

“As a matter of fact, you did.”

“Oi!!”

He smirks, and all the while, the part of him that died when Kotetsu fell, when he showed up as an amnesiac criminal, revives a little more.

Maybe he’ll remember everything, with time. For now, Barnaby’s satisfied with making new memories. Perhaps this week won’t be so bad after all.

seven.

It’s raining, and Kotetsu doesn’t have an umbrella.

Typical, really. He never listens to the weather, after all.

He looks up, watches the rain come down, then grins, glimpsing Barnaby approaching with an umbrella and a scowl.

“Really, Kotetsu—” he begins, but Kotetsu’s already on him, pulling him into the rain and crushing his lips against his, then, with a start, he realizes that they’re dancing.

In the rain.

The umbrella is quickly forgotten, as they laugh and twirl, as if they’re the only two people in the world.