Work Text:
"When I come home..."
Kotetsu's mouth was dry cotton, his tongue coarse sandpaper against the torn inside of his cheek. His teeth, blood-caked and bruised at the gums, chattered as he spoke from the cruel breath of cold February upon his scrapped skin. The tiny little alcove of the building was hardly a safe hideout, just a crack between a rock and hard place in Kotetsu's life. Slippery black brick, stained with the coughs of industrial smoke, cradled his weary body. Bones broken and his left arm completely useless and dangling over the side of the building's edge like a dead clock pendulum, unable to swing with the rhythmic ticking of life.
"Daddy's going to take you to ice cream..."
Howls and moans rippled through the air, a dead city's zombie of tragedy still lumbering about in the form of gunfire and civil protest and hate crimes and self-destruction over a mix of prejudice and attempted accommodation going all wrong. The build shivered, fearful itself over the chaos. Kotetsu knew it would soon collapse to its knees, like Agnes had when she hadn't moved out of the way in time for that man to shoot him. He should have been shot. He should have been goddamn shot.
"We'll go to the zoo, see the Tigers. Just like Daddy, eh?"
A lion was mauling its keeper in the East Silver District. From his hawk's perch, he could see the man's head roll across the pavement, guts spilled and blood lapped up like the fresh smoothies the zoo's snack bar would serve at exactly 3 PM on Sundays. He knew because he took Barnaby there last weekend, an excuse to get the other man out and in the fresh air. The air was sweet, smoke and toxin free. The sun was warm, hanging in a blue, smog-less sky. And the ice cream was sweet, on his chapped lips, on Barnaby's pampered lips, on their blood-free tongues, the inside of their healthy cheeks; he knew more than one flavour that day. Rainbow sorbet became his favourite.
"And we'll bring Barnaby with us! You'd like that, wouldn't you, sweetheart?"
Barnaby went down, a crumpled piece of paper kicked by a cold steel boot. His pride, his glory and fame, could pay him not out of Death's trap. If Kotetsu craned his neck, he could see him from his lookout; still lying face down in shame in that stagnant puddle of water, helmet and skull cracked open like eggshells. is eyes, still furious and unrelenting in the scolded he'd been bestowing upon Kotetsu the moment of his fall from his throne, the King caught mid-word by a rock tumbling loose, a roar betraying the accident a not-accident, and Kotetsu left with the cold realization hitting him in the head and heart over and over again harder than that little (big) rock ever could. But now, because he could still see him, he just smiled down at Barnaby being lazy, lounging in that pretty slug puddle, his blond mane tattered and torn and dyed a new shade of red. Kotetsu always told him to get his hair dyed (died), and for once, Bunny listened to him! The colour was a bit off though; too bright, too fresh, too much goo.
"Bunny dyed his hair! I'm not kidding - Daddy will send you a picture later, I promise-"
His lungs shuddered, black and battered, choked with smoke and ash and fumes from factories and radiation leaks and the stench of decaying, moving flesh. His heart was quivering, no longer fearful, and he felt his eyes leak something other than tears and the left one go out like a dead bulb, useless and dry. The stone scratched his palms, and he clenched his fists in wonder if his daughter would get his message in time when she got home from school, before Mom took her out to her friend's house. It was Clair's birthday party today. Clair was turning 12 today. She'd told him so over the phone. (Clair went missing two weeks ago and turned up dead in the stream by the school, right before the school closed for a "flu epidemic").
"I promise-"
Empty words were never his thing. He swore on Tomoe's life, he wasn't a liar. He knew truth. He knew truth. He kn ew t ru th. H e k n e w t r u t h. (HeknewtruthheknewtruthheknewtruthheknewtruthheknewtruthheknewtruthHEKNEWTRUTHHEKNEWTRUTHHEKNEWTRUTH!)
"-Daddy will bring you the biggest present when he get home-"
He tried to think of the past, of when it was Spring. When the wind whispered, and home was kempt and clean. No pots lying askew, his mother only lying down in her bed at night or on the floor if she was playing with his little 5 year daughter from 6 years ago. The wooden structure of the Japanese country home in good condition, his brother still driving a moving van with his posture actually straight behind the wheel and not slouched like some bum who'd had too much to drink and was lucky to sleep behind the wheel before he actually drove off. And his daughter was jumping on her bed like he used to when he was her age, not lying like some preteen askew across the covers with her doll face blank, phone in a limp, tired hand, as if she were asleep.
"-and we'll spend the weekend together. I promise."
A hiss greeted him, and in his line of vision he saw Barnaby stumble towards him. The water had turned his skin a gross grey colour- that was going to take forever to shower off - his hair matted and limp and eyes glazed over and bloodshot with exhaustion, anger and hunger. Kotetsu cricked his neck looking up at him. He smiled, holding up the bracelet to his partner - his lovely, young and vibrant partner.
"Bunny! Want to say hello?"
An irritated snarl answered him.
"Ah, Bunny's just a bit mad at Daddy at the moment. No, I didn't mess his hair or accidently hit him on the head or do something stupid. Just a bit of paperwork I missed at the office. I-"
Barnaby cut him off with an enraged roar, lunging at Kotetsu. A beast, paws outstretched and one eye wide with envy for the living lie of a Hero, the prospect of life grappling with the temptation for death and decay and vengeance. Kotetsu didn't fault him, even as the cold stone gave away and Barnaby sank his teeth into Kotetsu's neck, sexually frustrated and obviously turned on at being talked down to by an idiot (such strange kinks Bunny had). Kotetsu felt the saliva from Barnaby's mouth, wet, slick and red, dribbled down his broken chest. The rocks shivered more and gave way completely. They fell a mess of tangled limbs and thoughts, romance and guilt, routine and not-routine guiding them to the bottom.
"Ah, got to go, sweetheart. Bunny's dragging Daddy off for work again. Hero's work is never done."
He shifted, moving their bodies as if they were one, until Bunny held properly him in a princess carry, his blond hair whipping around his wild face, green eyes starring cold into Kotetsu's dying amber ones, slowly turning the same white as his partner's.
"I'll call you later, okay? Daddy promises ... Good night, sweetheart. I love you, Kaede."
He ended the call to the answering machine. And he leaned his head back, letting Bunny lavish his neck in "love bites" and "kisses" (too rough, Bunny, this old man will be bruised), and watched the sky fall away as they sank to the place of evil far below, the green clouds parting for white light as crows circled over head.
(And had he stayed awake, he'd have seen the red molly sitting on his former perch, shark grin for the bloodshed and eyes of dead spirit green glowing. And the book marked in his hands. And the words upon the page.
"Kaburgai T. Kotetsu. Born February 17th 1941. Died February 17th 19-"
The words erase.)