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i.
Barnaby and Blue Rose make a beautiful couple, their moving images splashed up on the television screens everywhere Kotetsu goes. They’re well suited to each other—young and successful. Both things that Kotetsu decidedly is not. He’s a washed-up has-been whose powers barely last a minute.
Any pang in his gut is written off as hunger, and as for the ache in his chest… Kotetsu pushes it deep down, where he doesn’t have to think about it.
Barnaby and Blue Rose make a beautiful couple, and Kotetsu’s no longer convinced that their affection for one another is merely a performance.
ii.
Karina doesn’t hate Barnaby as much as she once had, but that doesn’t mean she likes him. At least, not the way they’re pretending. Barnaby’s hand feels cold in hers when they walk onstage, and the smile that curls on his mouth when he kisses her cheek is entirely manufactured.
Surely this farce can’t go on for much longer. There’s obviously no chemistry between them.
And yet, Hero TV’s ratings have never been higher. Karina dreams about what Tiger’s skin would feel like against hers—warm, safe—as they wave to the crowd.
People see what they want to believe.
iii.
Throughout the promotion, Barnaby is careful to ensure Karina doesn’t get the wrong idea. His hand at the small of her back feels like a poor imitation of actual affection, in any case. She must feel it, too, because the moment the cameras stop rolling, she pulls away from him like she’s been burned, like Barnaby’s a second away from receiving an icicle to the gut.
He hadn’t thought his company was that bad, but as their eyes linger on the same man in the crowd, Barnaby’s overwhelmed with the realisation he’d much rather be doing this with Kotetsu instead.
iv.
Drinking with the younger man somehow always leads them into a competition, as though Barnaby’s determined to keep up and Kotetsu’s determined not to show his age. They’re both sitting on the floor of Barnaby’s apartment when Kotetsu looks over at his partner wistfully and raises his beer as though in toast.
“I hope you and Karina are both very happy together,” Kotetsu slurs, but the clink of Barnaby’s glass against his bottle never comes.
Instead, Barnaby chokes, spluttering on his wine as he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and fixes Kotetsu with a stare. “What?!”
v.
Karina’s kicking herself for not realizing earlier, for not noticing Barnaby staring at Tiger with the same pained longing she feels herself. The only difference—the most important difference—is that Barnaby actually has a chance. As they leave the set of their most recent faked romantic escapades, Karina smiles at Barnaby with genuine affection, like they’ve been brought together by this simple thing they have in common.
“You should tell him,” Karina says, providing no additional context.
Barnaby doesn’t pretend he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Taking a deep breath, he answers, “I don’t know if that’s wise.”
vi.
I hope you and Karina are very happy together, the old man had said, and every cell in Barnaby’s body screams to correct Kotetsu. Barnaby and Karina couldn’t be happy together, because there was nothing between them, the actual object of Barnaby’s affections sitting in front of him all along.
You should tell him, Karina had said, but he had dismissed her. She was just a girl, unskilled in affairs of the heart.
But it’s not like Barnaby knows any better. Maybe Karina’s right. Maybe it’s the alcohol. Wetting his dried lips, Barnaby decides to put Kotetsu’s misconceptions to rest.
vii.
Kotetsu is not expecting Barnaby to kiss him. One moment he’s congratulating his partner on his fledgling relationship and the next Barnaby’s lips are upon his, hard enough to bruise. It is not a particularly skilled kiss, more teeth than tongue, but Kotetsu attributes that to the alcohol.
What’s more pertinent is what this means. Maybe if he hadn’t just talked about Karina, Kotetsu would dismiss this, too, as part of the drinking.
But the implications are impossible to ignore, and there’s a flutter in his chest, a spark of hope igniting deep within his belly.
Barnaby likes him back.
viii.
Barnaby and Tiger make a beautiful couple. It’s not like they’ve announced it or anything – Barnaby had always been a very private person – but they’re no longer hiding it, either. It makes everything easier, in its own way, no longer having to dance around the tension that’s been simmering between the two men this whole time.
Karina had been too distracted by her own affections for Tiger to notice it herself, but the other Heroes tell her that Barnaby and Tiger had been like this for years now, each too scared to make the first move.
She’s happy for them.
ix.
There’s some growing pains in the beginning, the typical kind that result from transitioning a friendship to a relationship. But being with Kotetsu is worth the effort of figuring out what must be done in order to fit more and more into each other’s lives, giving each other the companionship they need while making sure they each have the space they need.
They haven’t told Kaede yet, but they talk about it, talk endlessly about what the future holds.
Besides, it’s very likely that she’s figured it out already.
Barnaby had never thought that he deserved to be this happy.