Work Text:
"Two weeks?!" Kotetsu shouted.
Barnaby winced at the volume. "Kotetsu, calm down."
Predictably, that did nothing to calm Kotetsu down. He whirled around to Barnaby, eyes wide. "Bunny, they want us locked up for two weeks!"
"IT'S A PRECAUTION," Saito said over the loudspeaker.
Kotetsu spun back around to face the thick glass separating them from Saito and Ben. "I heard you the first time!" He dragged a hand through his hair. "But two weeks?"
Barnaby sighed. There had been a terrorist attack at a research facility, which the heroes had thankfully foiled. Unfortunately, in the process, Kotetsu had crashed through a restricted area, exposing both him and Barnaby to a variety of things they probably shouldn't have been.
They'd gone through a decontamination process and the facility managers had determined it was unlikely they'd been exposed to anything particularly dangerous, but had recommended two weeks of in-home quarantine just to be safe.
"It's to ensure we don't expose anybody else," Barnaby said. "This isn't just about us. It's to protect other people, too."
As he'd suspected, those were the magic words. Kotetsu sank onto the couch, still obviously unhappy but looking more resolute about it. "It has to be two full weeks?"
"Fourteen days will be safest. If you did actually catch anything, we'll see it by then," Ben said. "You'll be quarantined inside your apartments and we'll have groceries delivered to you regularly. Every other day, they'll send doctors to check up on you and make sure you haven't developed any symptoms."
There was one particular word in that sentence Barnaby latched onto. "Our apartments?"
Ben nodded. "We asked about having you isolated somewhere more secure, but they said that wasn't necessary. As long as you two stay inside your apartments, it'll be fine."
Barnaby had assumed they'd be quarantined together. He hadn't realized that he would have to go two weeks without seeing Kotetsu in person, a prospect that suddenly bothered him more than the idea of staying inside for fourteen days. "It seems like more work to have us in separate locations. It would be easier if we stayed in the same place, wouldn't it?"
Ben flipped through his folder. "Well, logistically, yes, it would be easier, but this is already going to be hard enough for you. We're not going to ask either of you to give up your home for two weeks, too."
"I don't mind," Barnaby said.
Kotetsu's eyebrows shot up. "You don't?"
"If it's going to be easier in general, no, I don't mind being quarantined together for two weeks." Barnaby glanced at him. "We've been partners for more than three years at this point. I think I can handle living with you for fourteen days."
"Heh." Kotetsu looked away, but he was smiling. "We're probably going to drive each other crazy."
Barnaby shrugged. Kotetsu had been stomping on his last nerve—sometimes deliberately, usually not—since the moment they'd met, but Barnaby had gone and fallen in love with him anyway. "I'm all right with it if you are."
"Yeah." Kotetsu looked back to him, still with that soft smile. "I'm okay with that."
"Huh, that was easy." Ben shuffled through the papers he had in hand and made a note. "So where will you two be staying?"
"Kotetsu's apartment," Barnaby said.
"Eh?!" Kotetsu sat up straight. "But Bunny, your place is bigger!"
"My place also doesn't have a couch," Barnaby reminded him. "And I'd prefer sleeping on your couch for two weeks to sleeping in my desk chair."
"I wouldn't make you give up your bed." Kotetsu sounded offended at the very thought.
Barnaby gave him a flat look. "And listen to you complain about your back every morning? No."
"Hey."
Barnaby sighed. "Do you really want to stay at my place for two weeks, Kotetsu?"
Kotetsu found something fascinating to study off in the corner of the room. "Uh..."
That was a no. "Then we'll stay at your apartment. It'll be better, anyway. Your building has fewer people living in it, so not as many will be exposed if something goes wrong."
All of these were perfectly logical reasons for him to stay with Kotetsu, and none of which required Barnaby to think too much about how hard he'd balked internally at the thought of being separated for two weeks, or about how Kotetsu's apartment felt more like home at times than his own.
"Kotetsu?" Ben tapped the glass. "Is that okay with you?"
Kotetsu glanced over at Barnaby, and then nodded. "Uh, yeah. It's fine. We'll stay at my place."
"Great." Ben sounded relieved. "The van's secure, so Saito will take you over there once we're done here. Barnaby, make a list of everything you need from your apartment and we'll have someone deliver it tonight. If there's anything else you two need, let us know."
With that, Ben shut the folder and saluted them with it. Barnaby saluted back with two fingers, and Kotetsu waved despondently.
"I'LL COME GET YOU WHEN THE VAN'S READY," Saito said through the loudspeaker. "DON'T GO ANYWHERE."
"We can't leave the room!" Kotetsu yelled, but Saito was already walking away.
Kotetsu sat back on the couch with a sigh and glanced over at Barnaby. "I'm sorry about all the trouble, Bunny. Really."
Barnaby shook his head. "It wasn't your fault. For once."
The terrorists they'd been trying to catch didn't particularly care where the missiles were firing, and Kotetsu had been trying to get that one away from people when he'd crashed into the restricted area. That it had ended more poorly for him and Barnaby wasn't something he could've foreseen, even if he'd employed more than his usual amount of planning.
Kotetsu laid his head on the back of the couch. "Two weeks inside. Two weeks with no work. What are we going to do, Bunny-chan?"
Barnaby brushed a speck of dust off his bodysuit. "Just because we won't be out with the others doesn't mean we won't have work. I'm sure we'll be handling our paperwork just as usual."
Kotetsu groaned. "Of course they'll give us paperwork."
"With two weeks to focus on it, you might actually get caught up."
Kotetsu screwed up his face to show exactly what he thought of that. Barnaby did not smile or find it endearing in the least.
Although Kotetsu did have a point, which Barnaby was considering now that the initial concerns had passed. They were going to be stuck in one small apartment for two weeks with comparatively little to do and nowhere to go to get space from each other, and neither of them were homebodies in the first place.
And, just as importantly, Barnaby was going to be stuck sharing the same small space with the man he'd been in love with for the better part of three years now. For fourteen days. With no one else around.
He had, perhaps, not thought this decision all the way through.
Crap.
***
While they waited, Barnaby typed up a list of things he needed on his phone and texted it to Ben and Saito. There wasn't much: just clothes, his computer, his toiletry items, and a few spare pairs of glasses. He also threw in two of the books he'd been reading, since he would have some time on his hands for the foreseeable future.
After another thirty minutes of waiting, Saito took them to Kotetsu's apartment. It was a bit of a production getting them safely inside, because they had to make sure no one else was around and Kotetsu's building didn't have an elevator. But they managed it, and Saito promised someone would bring Barnaby's things by later that evening, along with dinner.
And then they were left alone in the apartment together.
Kotetsu rubbed the back of his neck. "Heh. Sorry about the mess, Bunny. I'll clean it up."
Barnaby examined the main room and raised his eyebrows. Sure, Kotetsu's apartment was never as clean as his own, but it wasn't any worse than it usually was. A couple of empty beer bottles on the coffee table, and the only dishes in the sink looked to be the ones Kotestu had used earlier that day. The trash needed to be taken out, but there was just one bag. "I'll help."
"No! No, I've got it." Kotetsu grabbed the bottles off the coffee table on his way to the kitchen. "You're a guest."
"I'm living here for the next two weeks," Barnaby said. "You're going to have to let me clean up occasionally."
"Yeah, the messes you make." Kotetsu turned on the sink and started washing the dishes. "This is my mess. I'll clean it up."
Barnaby followed him into the kitchen. "I've been cleaning up your messes at work for three years. How is this any different?"
Kotetsu winced, and Barnaby wondered if he'd accidentally hit a sore spot. "It just is. Go sit down! You want anything to drink?"
Barnaby decided the best thing to do right now was to retreat, so he grabbed a beer out of the fridge—Kotetsu usually had the kind he preferred in there—and took out his phone to make a list of groceries they would need for the next few days. Kotetsu was not particularly good at keeping anything stocked beyond what he needed to make fried rice, so Barnaby tapped out the things he liked to have on hand, as well as the ingredients for a few recipes he'd been meaning to try. No time like the present to test them out, and he'd have a very willing guinea pig in Kotetsu. The man would eat pretty much anything, especially if he could add mayonnaise to it.
"Is there anything you need from the store?" Barnaby held up his phone. "I'm going to send Ben and Saito a grocery list."
"Eh, probably. I'll take a look when I'm done with these." Kotestu gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry about the fridge. I was going to go shopping tonight when I got home."
Barnaby took a seat at the counter, rather than heading to the couch. "It's doubtful we'll starve before tomorrow. Besides, you probably have enough rice alone to last us two weeks."
That got a more genuine laugh out of Kotetsu, finally. "Well, it's not like rice goes bad."
Barnaby took a drink of his beer. "And you use it a lot."
Kotetsu turned off the sink and started drying the dishes. "You, uh...you're not worried about getting sick, are you?"
Barnaby shook his head. "No, you heard them. We've been decontaminated and we were both in our suits. It's highly unlikely we were directly exposed to anything. This is just to be on the safe side, on the slim chance we did carry something out."
"Yeah, but our suits don't filter anything." Kotetsu paused with a towel in his hand. "Do they?"
"Yes, they do. Saito was very proud of the filtration system upgrades in the last version." Barnaby sighed. "Maybe one of the things you can do in the next two weeks is read the instruction manual for the suit you climb into on a daily basis."
"Eh." Kotetsu put the dishes away. "I know pretty much everything I need to. And in two weeks Saito will have an upgrade, anyway."
While Barnaby was skeptical of the first part of that statement, the second part was fair enough. With the two of them grounded, as it were, Saito was probably going to spend the next two weeks messing with their suits and the Chaser. Who knew what he'd come up with.
Kotetsu finished putting the dishes up. Barnaby expected him to grab a drink and join him at the counter, but instead he rummaged under the sink and reappeared with a bottle of spray cleaner.
Barnaby frowned. "Kotestu, what are you doing?"
Kotetsu waved him off. "I just have to clean the bathroom, that's all. Don't get up!"
Barnaby got up anyway. Kotetsu had never been this worried about making sure his apartment was clean before, even when Barnaby had pointed out that he was letting his trash build up, or that he'd left dirty dishes and magazines strewn across the living room floor. Every time, Kotetsu had shrugged it off, even if he eventually picked things up before Barnaby left. Until right this second, Barnaby hadn't even known Kotetsu owned spray cleaner.
He followed him to the bathroom and leaned on the doorframe, watching Kotetsu go at the counter with a rag. "Do you want me to help?"
Kotetsu jumped. "No! No, I've got it. Go sit down and find something to watch! It's been a long day. You need to relax."
Barnaby disagreed; they'd both had long days, and it would feel weird to be sitting there on the couch while Kotetsu was darting around the apartment cleaning up. But he had a feeling disputing that right now wouldn't have the effect he hoped for. "Are you sure you don't need help?"
"Positive." Kotetsu shooed him with the rag. "Go on, go!"
Barnaby went back to the counter with his drink and texted the grocery list to Ben; if Kotetsu had additions, he'd send them later. Then, he didn't have anything else to do, so he scrolled through his phone and checked the text messages that had been building up for the past few hours.
The group text with the other heroes had a number of messages, mostly well-wishes (Dragon Kid and Origami) and promises to keep the city safe (Sky High) and one "good luck, you'll need it" (Rock Bison, unsurprisingly). Barnaby responded to all of them with the assurance that he and Kotetsu would be fine, and thanked them for continuing to do their jobs well.
But he had a separate message from Fire Emblem.
From: Nathan Seymour
So Handsome, rumor has it you're spending the next two weeks with Tiger. At his apartment. Alone.
Barnaby narrowed his eyes at the phone. He could hear the insinuation from here.
To: Nathan Seymour
Yes. It made the most sense.
Fire Emblem's next message was a series of smirking emojis, followed by an eggplant and a peach.
Barnaby didn't dignify that with a response. Fortunately, from Fire Emblem's next message, it sounded like he hadn't expected one.
From: Nathan Seymour
Hey. Are you going to be okay?
To: Nathan Seymour
I'll be fine. It's unlikely we were exposed to anything. This is really just a precaution.
From: Nathan Seymour
Aw, Handsome. You're cute when you pretend to misunderstand me.
To: Nathan Seymour
It's only two weeks.
From: Nathan Seymour
Hmm. True. Well, if you change your mind and decide to climb Tiger like a tree, spare no details. I want to hear EVERYTHING.
To: Nathan Seymour
No.
The next message was nothing but a series of crying faces, and Barnaby rolled his eyes. He was still not entirely sure how Fire Emblem, of all the heroes, had become the person he was closest with aside from Kotetsu, but it had happened.
Fire Emblem was also the only other person who knew about Barnaby's feelings for Kotetsu, which was less because Barnaby had told him and more because he'd figured it out on his own. It had nearly sent Barnaby into a panic when Fire Emblem had first told him, and he'd only been calmed by the assurance that nobody else knew, including Kotetsu.
"Oh Handsome, I promise you, there's no way Tiger knows how you feel," Fire Emblem had said. "He's sweet, but kind of dumb in that way. You're going to have to crawl into his lap and kiss him before he'll get a clue."
That had proved to be true, which was at least some small blessing. Although how long it would continue to stay true, with them sharing an apartment for the next fourteen days, remained to be seen. Barnaby couldn't imagine anything more awkward than having to share an apartment for any length of time after being rejected, no matter how kindly Kotetsu would do it. And Kotetsu's strange behavior right now wasn't helping matters.
He finished his beer and put aside his thoughts. There was no way out but through at this point. He just hoped that neither of them would end up regretting it.
***
Barnaby opened another beer and stayed at the counter while Kotetsu finished cleaning the bathroom, then got out sheets for the couch, and then darted upstairs for some initially unspecified reason that ended with him bringing down a small chest of drawers for Barnaby to put his things in.
"It's only two weeks," Barnaby said. "I can live out of my suitcase."
"No!" Kotetsu protested. "I just had it upstairs. It wasn't getting any use. It's fine."
Barnaby raised an eyebrow. The muffled cursing and thuds he'd heard from the loft told a different story, but if Kotetsu had set his mind on not telling him, it would take a lot for Barnaby to get him to change it.
Ben brought over Barnaby's things, as well as dinner, and let them know through the door that groceries would be there by noon the next day and they'd get their first checkup around ten in the morning. The arrival of dinner put a pause on Kotetsu's cleaning extravaganza and dinner itself, thankfully, was about as normal as it ever was. Barnaby hoped that would be the end of it.
That hope lasted until it was time to go to sleep and Kotetsu tried to get him to take the bed.
Barnaby stared at him. "You have got to be kidding me."
"I sleep on the couch all the time." Kotetsu gestured up the stairs. "Go on, you can have the bed. I know you need your beauty sleep."
"I'm not taking your bed." Barnaby took the pillow out of his suitcase and very deliberately placed it on the couch. "You're already sharing your apartment. I will be fine down here."
"Yeah, but you wouldn't be stuck here if it weren't for me," Kotetsu said. "C'mon, Bunny, take the bed."
Barnaby frowned at him. "Are you doing this because you feel guilty about the quarantine?"
Kotetsu flinched and looked away. "What? No, that's not it. I'm just trying to be a good host."
Barnaby dug his knuckle into his temple. This was ridiculous. "I've been over here dozens of times and you've never gone to this much trouble. I don't want you going to this much trouble now. If it's about the quarantine—"
"I told you, it's not!"
"—and I told you, it's not your fault," Barnaby continued. "So you don't need to try to apologize for it by acting weird."
Kotetsu swept his arm around the apartment. "Since when is cleaning acting weird? I know you like to keep your place clean."
"It's acting weird for you because you don't do it," Barnaby reminded him.
Kotestu winced. "I do! I've gotten better."
"Kotetsu." Barnaby crossed his arms. "What is this really about?"
"Nothing!"
Barnaby glared at him and waited.
Sure enough, Kotetsu's shoulders sagged and he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Eh, it's...you're going to be here for two weeks, and I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with. Or live with. I just...uh. Don't want you to hate it here."
I don't want you to hate me, Barnaby heard. He scoffed. "Don't be absurd. I won't hate it here. Or have you forgotten that staying together was my idea in the first place?"
"I mean, it was, but—"
"Then it would follow, logically, that I knew what I was getting into and suggested it anyway."
"Yeah, but there were reasons for that! Your building has more people and it'll be easier for everybody if we're staying in the same place." Kotetsu looked out the windows, where a few raindrops had splattered on the glass. "That doesn't mean you'll want to stay with—stay here."
"I didn't want to go two weeks without seeing you."
Kotetsu jerked his head back around to blink at him. "Huh?"
Barnaby started making up the couch, mostly to give himself something to do so he did not have to look at Kotetsu right this second. "There were logical reasons to stay together. But I suggested it in the first place because I didn't want to go two weeks without seeing you."
There was a very long silence from Kotetsu, punctuated only by the sound of the rain outside picking up speed and intensity.
Barnaby finished smoothing every last wrinkle out of the sheet he'd laid down. "I've known you for more than three years. I've worked with you most of that time. I came out of retirement to keep being your partner. I know what you're like, Kotestu. And if I didn't strangle you with your own wires when we hated each other, I think I can handle living with you for two weeks now that we don't."
"I never hated you, Bunny," Kotetsu said quietly.
Barnaby snorted. "I doubt that."
"Hey, I mean that," Kotetsu insisted. "Yeah, you were kind of a jerk—"
"Thanks," Barnaby said dryly.
"—but you wanted to help people, even if we went about it different ways. I didn't hate you." He grinned. "Especially since you saved my kid. That helped."
Barnaby found himself returning the smile. "The point is that I like you, Kotetsu. I like spending time with you. So I'm not going to hate it here."
Kotetsu's smile softened. "Really?"
Barnaby nodded. Like was accurate—he did genuinely like being with Kotetsu—but it was not a wholly honest description. Still, it would be good enough for now.
"Heh. All right," Kotetsu said. "I still feel bad about you taking the couch, though."
Barnaby rolled his eyes. "It'll be fine."
He took off his glasses and lay down on the couch, beyond ready to fall asleep for the night. It had been a hell of a day, and it was only just the first day of their quarantine.
Kotetsu stayed nearby, far enough away that Barnaby couldn't make out the expression on his face without glasses.
He sighed. "What is it, Kotetsu?"
"Nothing! I just. Uh." Kotetsu fidgeted. "We could share the bed?"
Barnaby blinked up at the ceiling, half-convinced he'd heard wrong. "What?"
"I mean, my bed's not as big as yours, but it'll fit both of us. We could share it." Kotetsu took a step back. "But if you don't want to, that's okay!"
"Okay," Barnaby said, faster than he should've. "We'll share."
"Eh?" Kotetsu stared at him for a second. "Really?"
Barnaby stood up and put his glasses back on. "I'm guessing that otherwise you're going to stand there and argue with me about sleeping on the couch again. This will save us both time and trouble." He grabbed his pillow. "Just promise me you don't snore."
"I don't snore," Kotetsu muttered. "And you had better not kick."
"No promises," Barnaby said. "But I'll try not to kick you out of it, at least."
Kotetsu turned off the lights and headed up the stairs, and Barnaby followed, mostly ignoring the part of his mind that was currently blaring a warning so loud it was a wonder he couldn't see red flashing lights. Sharing an apartment was already putting him on thin ice. Sharing a bed was only going to make it worse.
But he very, very much wanted to, no matter how much he was going to regret it later. If Kotetsu was willing to share, Barnaby was more than willing to meet him there.
Kotetsu crawled into bed and took the side closest to the wall; Barnaby sat down hesitantly and set his pillow beside him. He hadn't actually shared a bed with anybody before this. It was more nerve-wracking than it should be.
"Lay down, Bunny." Kotetsu sat up long enough to turn off the lamp, plunging them both into darkness. "And you'd better not get up and go back down to the couch."
Barnaby laid down and stretched out his legs cautiously; at least the bed was long enough. "I did go through all that trouble of making it up."
Kotetsu snorted. "You put a sheet on it. It took you two minutes."
"I'll stay up here," Barnaby assured him.
Kotetsu grunted affirmatively.
Barnaby took off his glasses, set them on the shelf behind his head, and settled back down. The bed wasn't as comfortable as his own and it was just barely big enough for the two of them, but Kotetsu was close beside him and with the rain pattering steadily against the windows, it was kind of...nice.
Barnaby fell asleep faster than he had in years.
***
He thrashed his way to wakefulness, images of fire so vivid in his mind he couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't, and then there was an arm around his shoulders and Kotetsu's voice saying his name.
"Bunny. Bunny. Hey, Bunny, snap out of it!"
Barnaby opened his eyes, finally sorting out where he was: Kotetsu's apartment, in Kotetsu's bed, with Kotetsu holding him. It was still raining outside.
Generally, he did not have nightmares as much anymore. But they still cropped up occasionally, somehow worse now that he went longer without having them, and that was one particular pitfall he hadn't considered before climbing into bed with Kotetsu.
It took another moment before he could speak. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."
"Bah, who cares about that?" Kotetsu rubbed his arm. "Are you okay?"
Barnaby looked away. "It was just a dream."
Kotetsu, to his credit, didn't push. "Sounded like a bad one."
Barnaby shrugged. It had been, but it was dissipating much faster than the nightmares usually did. He wondered if it was because he had found ways to move forward, or if it was because Kotetsu was with him. Both, possibly.
"Do you need a drink or anything?" Kotetsu asked.
Barnaby shook his head. "I'd just like to go back to sleep."
He lay down again, facing away from Kotetsu, well aware that it would probably be awhile before he did fall back asleep. If he were at home, he would have put on some music to distract himself, but that wasn't an option here. At least with the rain outside and the sounds of an older building, he had something to focus on other than the lingering images from the dream.
Kotetsu slid an arm around him, and suddenly said lingering images were no longer a concern. "Is this okay?" he asked, his voice right by Barnaby's ear.
Barnaby didn't know what to say. He wasn't sure okay was the word to use when every single fiber of his body was now on high alert. He hadn't known his ability to form coherent speech could be so utterly impaired by something as simple as Kotetsu spooning him.
"It used to help Tomoe when she had nightmares, after she got sick," Kotetsu said, like he'd heard the unsaid what the hell are you doing bouncing around Barnaby's head. "So I thought..."
He trailed off and sighed, and then shifted like he was going to move, and suddenly Barnaby knew with piercing clarity that was the last thing he wanted. He set his arm on top of Kotetsu's and threaded their fingers together, heart pounding like a bass drum. "It's okay."
Kotetsu stroked his thumb along Barnaby's finger. "Yeah?"
There was something cautiously hopeful in the word, a larger question of just what was okay, and Barnaby had the sudden thought that maybe Kotetsu was not the only one of them who'd been a bit oblivious.
He curled up tighter, like he could somehow keep his heart from ricocheting out of his chest, like he could somehow pull Kotestu even closer than he already was. "Yes."
It's okay, all of it's okay with you.
Kotestu kissed the back of his neck. "Okay. Get some sleep, Bunny."
Barnaby nodded, thought he made an affirmative noise, and he listened to Kotetsu's breathing even out behind him.
Sometimes they could stand beside each other and talk for half an hour, and completely misunderstand every word the other was saying. And then...they had times like this, where they said hardly anything at all and yet were perfectly in sync.
He didn't always understand it, but Barnaby wouldn't trade it for anything.
He closed his eyes, listening to the steady beat of the rain outside and Kotetsu's equally steady breathing, and smiled.
***
The next time Barnaby opened his eyes, it was morning.
The storms that had come through during the night must've still been marching across the city, because the light inside the apartment was gloomy and gray, and he could hear the gentle patter of rain on the windows.
But more importantly, Kotetsu's arm was still around him, his breath fanning across the back of Barnaby's neck and sending a shiver down his spine with each exhale. He hadn't moved away in the middle of the night.
Barnaby thought he should get up, maybe start getting ready, but he didn't have anywhere to go. The doctors wouldn't be there until ten. And if he were being perfectly honest with himself, he didn't want to move until he absolutely had to.
He relaxed a little, sinking closer to Kotetsu, and closed his eyes again.
Kotetsu shifted. "Hey, Bunny, are you awake?"
Barnaby did not open his eyes. "No."
Kotetsu laughed softly. "So you're sleep-talking right now?"
"Yes."
"Do you want some coffee?"
Barnaby tried to bury his face in his pillow. "No."
Kotetsu tightened his grip, just enough to be noticeable. "Is this still okay?"
At that, Barnaby opened his eyes. "Of course it's still okay. Why wouldn't it be?"
"I don't know! Just maybe...if you saw things differently in the morning," Kotestu said.
Barnaby raised an eyebrow. "Do you?"
"No, but—"
Barnaby rolled over, pushing Kotetsu flat on his back, and threw an arm and leg over him and settled his head on Kotetsu's chest. "Is this okay?"
"Uh." Kotetsu did nothing for a second, and then put his arm around Barnaby again, this time with his hand on Barnaby's shoulder, tracing idle patterns there. "Yeah, it's okay."
"Mm." Barnaby closed his eyes again. "Good."
The relative peace lasted for about two minutes, just long enough for Barnaby to determine that Kotetsu was possibly more comfortable than his pillow.
"We should probably get up," Kotetsu said, his voice weirdly loud with one of Barnaby's ears pressed to his chest.
Barnaby frowned at the suggestion. "No."
"The doctors are going to be here at ten. You don't want breakfast before that?"
"I'm fine."
"Not even coffee?"
Barnaby lifted his head and propped his chin on Kotetsu's chest so he could properly glare at him. "What do I have to do to get you to shut up for five more minutes?"
Kotetsu's gaze flicked from Barnaby's eyes to his mouth, and he cleared his throat. "Um."
Not the answer Barnaby had expected, but it was one he was perfectly willing to work with.
If you'd asked him before that very second how he'd thought their first kiss would go, Barnaby would have put money on it being at work, probably after Kotetsu had pulled some dumb stunt that saved half the city and nearly gotten himself killed in the process. Something forceful and overwhelming and probably mid-argument.
He would not have thought it would be this: something quiet and sleepy and tender in the gray half-light of a rainy morning, both of them in bed and in pajamas, with Kotetsu lazily twisting Barnaby's hair between his fingers with one hand and cupping his face with the other. It was achingly soft, a word Barnaby would rarely have applied to either of them before now, and certainly not in the context of each other. But Kotetsu's fingers were gentle on his face, thumb lightly stroking Barnaby's cheek, and Barnaby had to clench his fists in the sheets, as if that would somehow keep him from falling even more in love.
"So," Kotetsu said a few minutes later, "does this mean you're good with sharing the bed for the next two weeks?"
Barnaby settled back down and closed his eyes again. "Yes, Kotetsu. I'm good with sharing the bed."
For the next two weeks, and hopefully for even longer.
***
To: Nathan Seymour
He brushes his teeth in the bathtub.
To: Nathan Seymour
I said ONE CABINET was crooked and now he's taken all the cabinet doors off the hinges to re-hang them. The kitchen is a DISASTER.
To: Nathan Seymour
I just watched him put mayonnaise on ice cream and eat it. And he has the gall to criticize me when I have a glass of milk before bed.
To: Nathan Seymour
We've been here for six days and he still, somehow, hasn't done any of his paperwork.
To: Nathan Seymour
He decided to KonMari everything he owns and I just watched him spend ten minutes staring at two identical hats trying to decide which one sparks the most joy.
To: Nathan Seymour
Did you know he's saved literally every fan letter he's ever received? There are two massive boxes in the closet. The oldest one is from NC 1967. *1967.*
To: Nathan Seymour
He's been singing the same song for three hours and I'm positive this is what it feels like to lose my mind.
To: Nathan Seymour
He set up a video call with the kids at the orphanage so I could say hi.
To: Nathan Seymour
I've never eaten so much fried rice in my life.
To: Nathan Seymour
Ninety percent of his movies are old Legend reruns. He can quote every single one of them from memory.
To: Nathan Seymour
He had Ben pick up two bottles of rosé and three opera recordings for us to watch tonight.
To: Nathan Seymour
I've been trying to research, but nothing on the Internet is helpful. Is two weeks of dating too soon to propose to someone if you've also been living together?
From: Nathan Seymour
Two days wouldn't have been too soon for you two.
But you might want to wait until you can go buy a ring, Handsome.
...You've already asked him, haven't you?
To: Nathan Seymour
I have not.
He asked me.
From: Nathan Seymour
MY HANDSOME IS OFF THE MARKET?!? 
Congratulations, and FINALLY.