t&b+ Moods

[dreamship]

Fandom: Tiger & Bunny
Title: Moods
Characters: Kotetsu Kaburagi, Barnaby Brooks, Jr.
Genre: humor
Rating: G
Written for fond. This is bad and you should feel bad.


Kotetsu had no idea what was going on. Earlier that week, he had ticked off Barnaby just about every single day, and he spent a good hour and a half trying to fix it. First, he accidentally broke Barnaby's stapler, even though he promised--the last time he accidentally jammed it--that he wouldn't touch it without asking (ha ha, like that happened). He promised he'd buy a new one. Next, he jammed Barnaby's fanciest pen, after promising he would never ever touch that without express permission (but he really needed to sign some forms! Lloyds would have killed him if they weren't done by the end of that afternoon, and his pens dried out). Needless to say, Barnaby got one of Kotetsu's pens to work and then spent the next half hour trying to fix the pen because Mr. Maverick gave it to him for one of his birthdays.

Then he accidentally spilled coffee on Barnaby's jeans when he tripped on the stairs, gave Barnaby wrong directions and almost made him crash their cruiser, and in the end had to borrow ten bucks for dinner because he forgot his wallet in his office that Wednesday. On Thursday, he almost launched himself off a building--really, who knew the younger NEXT robbers were so limber?--and Barnaby had to save him, leaving Fire Emblem to catch the criminal and walk away with the points.

By early Friday, he was sure Barnaby just wasn't talking to him anymore. He left early to that morning to hit up a coffee shop to buy a gift card as an apology--and bought a package of cookies from a little girl selling them to raise money for her very own bike because that was a lot cuter and handmade gifts were just better. And fully expecting Barnaby to completely hate him, he left the present on his desk and disappeared into the gym.

Half an hour of stretching, weight-lifting, and running later, and Barnaby finally entered the gym, heading straight towards him on the treadmill. Kotetsu caught his eye but was quick to look away, already preparing himself for the worst. Oh god, Barnaby hated him, he was going to punch him or yell at him or something. But... he didn't look pissed. No, he didn't even look stoic, or disturbed, or anything remotely unpleasant.

Actually...

Worse.

He was smiling. Barnaby Brooks, Jr. was smiling and it looked very warm and welcoming.

Nervous and a little scared, Kotetsu just carefully moved his feet to the sides of the treadmill, quite certain he'd fall if he kept trying to run. This also gave him the opportunity to give Barnaby a closer look. He just greeted him with a little smile, holding up a hand to wave at his partner while he gave him a glance-over. Something had to be wrong.

"H-hey, Bunny!"

"Hello," Barnaby greeted. "I don't want to keep you from your exercise. I just wanted to thank you for the gift you left on my desk this morning. I really appreciated it."

...wait, what?

Kotetsu looked completely dumbfounded. "Uh... You're welcome! Y-yeah, this little girl was selling them. She, uh... She reminded me of my own kid a bit, and she said they were sweet, and I figured, since I was causing you all this trouble and stuff then maybe you'd like something sweet as an apology!"

Oh god, he was rambling again. But even with his rambles, he only noticed Barnaby's smile growing more.

No, something was definitely wrong with this picture.

"Thank you," the blonde repeated. "They were actually quite delicious. Alright, I'll let you return to running." And with that, he walked off and took to the weight machines.

But Kotetsu didn't move just yet. No, no no no... something was seriously horribly wrong with this picture.

+

They had been called out of their work-outs earlier to help take down a man who set fire to a construction set as protest. It had taken a while to get inside and save the few employees who were still working, and Kotetsu found himself having a bit of difficulty fetching them all on his own while deflecting the building's falling bits. Barnaby was already dispatched to chase down the arsonist, and Kotetsu was sure he would have preferred to take the points for catching the man anyway.

But instead, as Kotetsu ushered two individuals through one burning hall, he found a pleasant surprise in red armor reaching over to help them escape a bit faster. Later, Barnaby explained that he let Sky High catch the arsonist and that he wanted to help Kotetsu escape safely along with the other individuals.

Now this day definitely wasn't making sense. Barnaby even got Kotetsu a water bottle when they had returned to the transporter.

As they finally were freed from their armor, Kotetsu freed a hand and touched Barnaby's forehead, then his cheek, even pressing the back of his fingers against Barnaby's neck. The younger hero stared, rather confused by the motion.

"Old man... What are you doing?"

"Checking for a fever," he replied, eyes narrowed behind his mask. "Something has to be wrong with you today. Are you feeling nauseous? Headache? Dizziness? You don't feel warm..."

With a laugh, Barnaby just reached over to lower Kotetsu's hand. "I'm fine. I don't see why you think something's wrong."

"You can't?" Kotetsu was completely shocked by this. How oblivious was his partner to not realize how abnormal this was? "Bunny, you're not normally this... this..." But how could he even describe it to him? He honestly wondered if he had sustained some sort of brain damage that night.

"I'm not normally what?" he asked.

"Not this... fluffy! Bunny, you've been nice to me!" Tugging his hand free from Barnaby's grip, he held the man's face and began to examine his eyes. Well, they didn't look overly red or dilated, and he was breathing quite normally. And with no headache or other sign of sickness...

Barnaby's smile dropped. "Is there something wrong with me being nice to you?" he asked. But he didn't look angered by this. No, no... he actually looked upset. Sad, even.

Not what Kotetsu meant to do! Kotetsu gasped, holding his hands up and away. "No, that's not it!" he protested. "I just... I'm not used to it! I mean, I bothered you all week and you were really mad at me! I thought it was going to stay that way!"

With a shake of his head, Barnaby looked away. "It didn't bother me today," he replied.

And that was that. They had a pleasant lunch together and then they went home. If Barnaby wanted to just disregard everything and be nice to him, Kotetsu was not going to argue. If anything, he would encourage that sort of behavior. It was weird, definitely, but... Barnaby was really cute being this nice. Kotetsu liked that.

+

The next morning, that pissy expression was back. The pent-up frustration and anger awaited him as Barnaby worked on the elliptical, eyes nearly glaring when Kotetsu entered. Kotetsu hadn't expected it at all, especially not when Barnaby actually got up and moved machines when Kotetsu entered.

Kotetsu waited until Barnaby had taken a water break before stomping his way over to his partner. "Hey! Bunny, what's the big idea? You're all mean again!"

Barnaby narrowed his eyes as he glanced over his water bottle. "If I'm so mean, why are you wasting my time talking to me?"

Cold. Ouch. Kotetsu really hadn't been expecting that one. But with an attitude like that, he wasn't going to deal with it. So instead, he just stormed off and weight-lifted the tension from his shoulders while doing his best to blatantly ignore his partner.

Two hours later, as the two sat at their desks, Kotetsu was already back to whining. "At least tell me what I did!" he pleaded. "Sheesh, I can't just magically fix everything! Why are you so mad at me?"

Barnaby's emerald orbs glared from the corners of his eyes, then returned to watching his hands. He was currently folding four sheets of paper at the top left corner, in the hopes that they would stay together. Obviously a hint that he was still lacking his stapler. Really? Bunny was still mad about the stapler? A few minutes later, Barnaby slipped off to fetch himself a cup of coffee. Kotetsu so sneakily placed his own stapler on his partner's desk and went back to scrolling through The Most Boring Article Ever. Barnaby returned, completely ignored the little device, and took his papers to the secretary.

What a jerk!

Thankfully, he was a little less miserable the next day, having bought himself a new stapler. The two returned to their usual bickering and bantering, and within a week, everything had gone back to normal. Kotetsu liked normal. Well, he tolerated normal. What bothered him, he reflected one evening on his couch, was that one day when Barnaby seemed ridiculously happy about everything. It was odd.... Something had happened.

Kotetsu was going to find out what.

For the next week or so, he tested out new methods. One day, he offered Barnaby a ride home. It was a particularly warm evening in Stern Bild and his bulky little compact SUV had air conditioning. Barnaby opted for walking. Another day, he asked if he was up for getting lunch with him--Barnaby outright refused and said he was planning on going to spend time with Mr. Maverick instead. And that was cold because who wanted to hang out with Mr. Maverick of all people? Kotetsu snuck him a new pen, tried leaving a lollipop on his desk, even drew him a little picture. Barnaby called him childish and asked him to stop, even though he did accept the lollipop.

Then one day it happened again. It was a good month after the first time, and Barnaby was actually working on his files and humming softly. When Kotetsu arrived, yawning and tired, he told him good morning.

Barnaby... telling him good morning?

And when Kotetsu accidentally spilled coffee on Barnaby's leg--again (really, there was just something wrong with the stairs, that second to last one had some odd infatuation with Kotetsu's shoe)--all Barnaby did was head off to change.

For lack of better words, it was kind of creepy. Just seeing Barnaby generally nice and not frowning all the time. He had asked Antonio about it, just to make sure he wasn't going crazy--and when Antonio said he didn't really notice any major differences, while Barnaby focused on his work-out, Kotetsu was quite sure he was going crazy. To test his luck, he asked Barnaby to join him for dinner.

Barnaby accepted. Life was definitely over.

The next day, Kotetsu confronted his partner about this again. "Look! I don't know what's up with you but you did the whole super-nice thing again! Bunny, I just don't get it!"

Barnaby just stared at him. "Is there a problem with me being nice to you, old man?" he asked.

Shaking his head, Kotetsu decided he was just not going to ask. The less questions, the better. If Barnaby wanted to be nice to him once every month, Kotetsu would let him. He would cherish that one day and hopefully encourage Barnaby to make more of them. Everything returned to the normal routine of Kotetsu being an accident-proned damage hero and Barnaby's busy schedule making him the public heartthrob and typically pissy behind the scenes, and Kotetsu decided this was normal.

But curiosity had him on the internet, and he spent a good portion of time on web searches and medical websites trying to figure out if this was some sort of mood disorder. Or... a condition...?

And then something popped up on that search which all but stunned him to no end.

Well, Barnaby was normally honest with him, wasn't he? He just had to ask.

After the fourth day of uncharacteristic niceness, Kotetsu caught up with Barnaby in the Apollon hallway. He pulled the man to the side, checking down the staircase and down both ends of the hall before he turned to his partner again. Barnaby had his confused and annoyed expression on, obviously impatient and waiting for Kotetsu to ask.

So he did.

"Bunny, um... This is kinda personal, but I really gotta know. Are you... Are you a woman?"

Okay, that sounded a lot dumber out loud. And when Barnaby looked completely appalled, he tried to clarify. "I-- I mean, well, you know how girls have their... you-know-whats and stuff, and their moods get all wonky--"

"Are you asking me if I have a menstral cycle?" Well, at least Barnaby wasn't afraid to say the word.

But it was a little stunning. And there really was no way Kotetsu could get himself out of this mess now. So, with that shocked and confused and concerned expression, the most he could do was shrink back at Barnaby's glare.

"I can't deal with this right now.You're an absolute idiot. Why do I work here, again?" And with that, he spun around and headed up the staircase.

"Wait, Bunny--Bunny wait, I'm sorry! I was just concerned!"

"You're saying I'm having a womanly mood swing because I was nice to you? That's exactly what you're saying!"

"That--"

...was exactly what he was saying.

Barnaby left early that day. Kotetsu bought him more cookies to apologize. But secretly, even though he was pretty certain Barnaby was completely male, he totally had girly mood swings once a month.