What Is In A Name?
Title: What Is In A Name?
Fandom: Tiger&Bunny
Characters: Kotetsu/Barnaby
Summary: Barnaby reveals his real name.
Warning: Angst
Barnaby had refused to tell his real name to the press. Revealing his past had been more than enough. His motivation was now used to turn his greatest enemy to the number one city's enemy. He gritted his teeth.
He hated being manipulated.
---
Among the heroes, nobody asked his real name. Kotetsu kept calling him Bunny, Nathan still nicknamed him Handsome whereas the others either didn't adress him by name or used Junior as a medium.
The change was palpable. They didn't see him as the brave, new generation hero but as a kid in need of help, thus deserving pity.
It made his skin crawl with barely restrained anger - and disgust - to know such confessions had warped people's perception of him. The only one who hadn't made a one hundred and eighty degree in his attitude towards him was his partner.
He despised his lack of forethought, his lack of tolerance for what was only logical to those who didn't understand as well as his total lack of effort to get out of his new image.
---
Late night had long since fallen on Sternbirld. Kotetsu lounged on his leather chair while he sat on the floor, like last time. Not looking at his partner, gazing through the window with a frown marring his face, he had asked his partner if he wanted to know his real name.
He had shrugged, not acquiescing nor refusing, clearly leaving a way out for Barnaby. When it came to his parents and their murder, the older male always let him do the decisions, never forcing him to speak up unless he wanted and was prepared to.
So when the name he had been given at birth, the name he had renounced to for twenty years swearing to wear it again once the murderer dead and buried, never to be seen again but in his nightmares, the name he had outgrown of, a surrogate to what he was now, slipped from his mouth to pierce the heavy silence-
"Tomoe."
-he never expected Kotetsu to look so shocked. His partner had stilled in his seat, not moving an inch, breath stolen.
"W-What?" Kotetsu weakly asked, eyes darting to his ring before fixing themselves on the young man who looked so small, so fragile with the picture window in the background, ready to swallow him in darkness.
"My given name is Tomoe," Barnaby turned his head, lifting his gaze from the floor to stare right through Kotetsu, a dead look invading his eyes.
Dead
They were both dead. Both his Tomoe, his wife and the one Barnaby had once been, his four year-old self. They had the same name. They were both gone.
Terror gripped his gut, twisting until he could feel pain coursing through his nerves. It urged him to get up and capture Barnaby before he could disappear as well, swallowed by the night, the nightmares, the fear, the sorrow-
He had to save him from himself.
Stopping before his partner - who looked up at him with the same blank look, trepidation tearing his heartstrings - he put a hand on a blond mop of hair and ruffled. Barnaby seemed to snap back to reality, looking confused and angry.
Shock flashed across his face as he saw Kotetsu's gleaming teeth in the dark, easily recognizing the pained but comforting smile,
"Your name doesn't matter. You're still Bunny to me."
Fandom: Tiger&Bunny
Characters: Kotetsu/Barnaby
Summary: Barnaby reveals his real name.
Warning: Angst
Barnaby had refused to tell his real name to the press. Revealing his past had been more than enough. His motivation was now used to turn his greatest enemy to the number one city's enemy. He gritted his teeth.
He hated being manipulated.
---
Among the heroes, nobody asked his real name. Kotetsu kept calling him Bunny, Nathan still nicknamed him Handsome whereas the others either didn't adress him by name or used Junior as a medium.
The change was palpable. They didn't see him as the brave, new generation hero but as a kid in need of help, thus deserving pity.
It made his skin crawl with barely restrained anger - and disgust - to know such confessions had warped people's perception of him. The only one who hadn't made a one hundred and eighty degree in his attitude towards him was his partner.
He despised his lack of forethought, his lack of tolerance for what was only logical to those who didn't understand as well as his total lack of effort to get out of his new image.
---
Late night had long since fallen on Sternbirld. Kotetsu lounged on his leather chair while he sat on the floor, like last time. Not looking at his partner, gazing through the window with a frown marring his face, he had asked his partner if he wanted to know his real name.
He had shrugged, not acquiescing nor refusing, clearly leaving a way out for Barnaby. When it came to his parents and their murder, the older male always let him do the decisions, never forcing him to speak up unless he wanted and was prepared to.
So when the name he had been given at birth, the name he had renounced to for twenty years swearing to wear it again once the murderer dead and buried, never to be seen again but in his nightmares, the name he had outgrown of, a surrogate to what he was now, slipped from his mouth to pierce the heavy silence-
"Tomoe."
-he never expected Kotetsu to look so shocked. His partner had stilled in his seat, not moving an inch, breath stolen.
"W-What?" Kotetsu weakly asked, eyes darting to his ring before fixing themselves on the young man who looked so small, so fragile with the picture window in the background, ready to swallow him in darkness.
"My given name is Tomoe," Barnaby turned his head, lifting his gaze from the floor to stare right through Kotetsu, a dead look invading his eyes.
Dead
They were both dead. Both his Tomoe, his wife and the one Barnaby had once been, his four year-old self. They had the same name. They were both gone.
Terror gripped his gut, twisting until he could feel pain coursing through his nerves. It urged him to get up and capture Barnaby before he could disappear as well, swallowed by the night, the nightmares, the fear, the sorrow-
He had to save him from himself.
Stopping before his partner - who looked up at him with the same blank look, trepidation tearing his heartstrings - he put a hand on a blond mop of hair and ruffled. Barnaby seemed to snap back to reality, looking confused and angry.
Shock flashed across his face as he saw Kotetsu's gleaming teeth in the dark, easily recognizing the pained but comforting smile,
"Your name doesn't matter. You're still Bunny to me."