soul_logs | [Closed] trophies for their trifle

Entry tags:

[Closed] trophies for their trifle

Characters: Kotetsu & Kerrigan
Location: DOGS building
Rating: PG
Time: April 9th, late afternoon
Description: Kotetsu attempts to not be a hastily-spoken jerk for once. Results are yet to be decided.

Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid.

That seemed to be the only word going through Kotetsu's mind as he meandered his way through the office of the Watch, both completely aware of what he was doing there but also wondering why he'd put any effort in being there and looking in the first place. He'd probably get kicked, or punched, or shot. Or worse. Who knew what sort of training Kerrigan had on her side in order to turn Kotetsu into a sad pile of mush.

Ugh, could he turn back? He really wanted to, but as Kotetsu continued his walk through the office with the weight of his mirror in his pocket, he knew he couldn't turn back. This was it, he'd finished screwing up. He was going to apologize for all those conversations he'd had with her that had been completely ruined on his part, and try to fix things before he got himself into a deeper hole, one that would probably get him into trouble sooner or later.

...if only he could figure out where she was.

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Sarah's restrictions to the office were chaffing already, and it had only been two days since she had been wounded grievously. She wasn't supposed to be in the office at all, but she disliked just sitting around in her apartment. There was paperwork she could look at without straining herself and she could listen to the whirling of the rumour mill in the office too. That was at least entertaining.

Her left arm was in a sling to prevent (and remind) her from using it. While she was sore and talked little, she moved around the office with a forced sense of health, checking in before finding a quiet and dark place to sag for a little bit to recover herself. She was pushing it, and she knew a few people who would yell at her if they knew about it too.

She eased her way silently out of a cubicle whose occupant was out for the day on patrol and decided to return to her office. That was, until she noted the suspicious activity of a certain someone lurking around. "If you lost your partner, he isn't here," she finally said as she approached, stepping by him to head back to her office. "Check the patrol routes."

The more he searched, the more Kotetsu's impatience and frustrations started to get the best of him, and he honestly had started to consider either calling Kerrigan out or simply giving up and leaving (he figured she'd appreciate him giving up more). But neither idea was debated on as all of a sudden a familiar voice caused him to stop in his tracks, and Kotetsu sputtered an answer as Kerrigan simply walked on past him. Rude much?

"I'm--! Bunny's not lost, I know where he... is...?" Kotetsu's words trailed off as he turned around to hurriedly follow Kerrigan, but as his eyes caught sight of her arm, the topic at hand was soon forgotten as he tried to keep up with her.

"Wait, how'd you...? Should you even be working?"

She kept herself rather professional given that her voice was lower in tone and rasped from her mouth. The bandages around her neck stood out, mostly because she was unable to wear her usual tight uniform or her dark clothes. No, she actually looked like a civilian with buttoned up shirts and pants and even shoes she could slip into. Yuri's idea, she thought grudgingly.

She couldn't actually turn her head to look at him, so she didn't bother to try. Instead, she walked into her office and proceeded to the desk where she settled into the seat without any hesitation even if it jarred her still rather fresh wounds.

"I have no need to gripe about my wounds. I took them for a good cause after all," she said simply and regarded him as he entered into her office. "Sitting at home isn't where I should be."

Too bad that as soon as Kotetsu caught on to the odd tone of Kerrigan's voice, along with the bandages and rather casual attire, he knew that he most likely wouldn't be leaving her alone anytime soon. At least not without knowing she was alright, which she certainly didn't seem to be, and Kotetsu merely followed along as persistently as ever into her office, choosing to remain at the doorway merely out of precaution's sake.

"I never said you had to complain about 'em, but obviously you'd probably do a lot better at home than in this place." Scrutinizing her appearance for a quick moment, Kotetsu turned to rest his back against the doorway, a leg extended so he could tap his shoe away at the other side. This was basically his way of saying, 'I'm staying here and there's nothing you can do to make me leave until I want to leave.'

"Swear, this place is just filled to the top with workaholics. We really need one of those group seminar things where they teach you about what breaks are." Oh shut up Kotetsu, you hypocrite.

She didn't know what he felt the need to trail after her to her office, but the way that he took root at the door made it clear that she could expect no peace from there. She regarded him for a moment, stretching her legs under the desk as if trying to figure out what to do with him. He'd make a very unwieldy paper-weight unfortunately.

"I was at home yesterday and the day before," she said simply as if that amount of rest justified her being in the office as she was. She pulled some papers in front of her and leafed through them one-handed, getting on with the day even if he loomed in the doorway.

"Well, considering you work here too, I suppose that says a lot about you," she replied without looking up from her papers as she attempted to put her signature to it. It wasn't the cleanest job, but she couldn't well rest her arm across it either right now. "Do you have a specific purpose in mind, or are you now just filtering who can and cannot come into my office?"

"A whole two days! That's impressive." A slight hint of sarcasm slipped into Kotetsu's voice as he grinned over in her direction, but eventually it was gone, seeing as he was sure that if he kept the tone up he'd only irritate her more, and instead of bristling at her admittedly true comment, he merely shrugged it off.

"Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but I didn't come here to talk about me." Pushing away from the doorway, Kotetsu leaned against it as he crossed his arms over his chest, and for a brief moment his expression seemed to show that he really did mean to take this whole talk seriously.

"What happened the last time we talked-- and I don't mean that whole thing about my daughter today. I mean before that."

She raised an eyebrow at his trace of sarcasm, but she decide to say nothing about it. That was quite impressive for her after all, since she would have come to work the day after it had happened if she hadn't been guilted into resting. She shook her head and pushed the sign piece of paper to one side.

She snorted softly at his claim and glanced at this time, amusement colouring her eyes. "You're very good at talking about you though," she remarked before sitting back in her chair when he made it clear that he had something to say to her. This might get serious; she hoped he wasn't going to cry with whatever serious professions he was about to make.

Her eyes flicked away at his explanation, and she knew exactly the conversation that he was speaking of. "Hmmm, I do hope you didn't get too ill from that one," she replied, cutting him off. "Regardless, I have enough professionalism to keep our cute little chats off the record. You don't have to worry about demotion."

He scoffed. "Excuse me, but I happen to be good with talking about other things. --like my daughter!" That would have normally been Kotetsu's cue to nosedive into endless fawning and cooing over his daughter, but he stopped himself at the last second as he directed a pleased smile over in Kerrigan's direction which quickly fell away, remember that he most definitely hadn't looked for her in order to tell her about Kaede.

"But, that's not what I came here for either." Stiffening up slightly at the mention of 'demotion', Kotetsu grimaced and slid down slightly against the doorway, enough that he wasn't quite sitting up straight against it, his voice somewhat small and very guilty-sounding. "Th-thanks for the heads-up. Reassuring, honest. ...but, I don't feel right just leaving it like that. It's not the kind of person I am. If I mess up, and I know I messed up, then... I'd rather own up to it than just simply leave it alone." He sighed heavily, reaching up to rub at the side of his neck.

"And I messed up. Again. I just... I dunno what I can say at this point, other than apologize again, but I still feel like I should still say something else."

Sarah waited for him to dive into a rattling one-sided conversation about the joys of his daughter, but they had had that debate when she had spoken to the girl. She couldn't imagine having a father so close in maturity level to one's child, but then again... she cut off that thought before it could take root and went back to signing papers. Let him rattle on about being a father, since he had least had a good daughter.

She hummed in acknowledgement when he mentioned he hadn't come to talk about Kaede, but she didn't look up as she worked her signature across the required line. This was harder than it should have been and she considered snapping the pen in half in revenge for her troubles. No, that would be petty and she wasn't about to lose her cool here in front of Kotetsu who was currently stumbling over his apparent mess up.

Finally, she regarded him, trying to look bored but winced when she sat back in her chair. "There's nothing to say," she replied bluntly. "Your words just prove that while on the outside your some attempt at a knight in shining armour, but on the inside, you have little respect for me. I'm not the easiest person to get along with; I know it, and I frankly don't care. You can apologize all you like, and I'll forgive, but a Ghost is usually forced to forget. I can still do that I suppose."

Though he could clearly see that Kerrigan was visibly having trouble with the simple task of signing a few papers, he said nothing about it and merely waited for his moment to speak up again, but by the end he clearly knew that there was just about nothing else he could say himself to attempt to patch up the mess he had started between the two of them. Completely his fault, as was now usual, and Kotetsu slightly flinched at the comment about him not understanding her.

Stepping aside from the doorway, Kotetsu moved as if he was about to finally leave the room but instead he turned slightly reach for the door, shutting it behind him before stepping further into the office, taking up one of the spare chairs.

After removing his hat, Kotetsu stared down at it in his hands before running a hand through his hair. "It isn't that I don't respect you, I do. ...I, probably do now more than before, after you told me what it's like where you're from. Usually I don't meet people like you who've had to deal with that sort of thing. I know it's nothing like what I've ever gone through, but..." Sighing heavily, Kotetsu set his hat on his lap and sat up straight in the chair.

"I wanna tell you something, about why it is that I try to come off like some 'knight in shining armor', but just don't tell anyone." Kotetsu smiled a little crookedly. "It actually isn't supposed to be some big secret like I'm making it out to be but, it's just an old-fashioned hero thing I stick to. ...Bunny doesn't like it but, hey, he's not here right now, so I'm doing it my way."

She was fairly convinced that he would be on his way and let her struggle through her work now that she had ended the topic of conversation. She watched him head off towards the door, but her lips twisted into a frown when all he did was close it so she was locked in with him. Her green eyes slid to her stapler, and she suspected that she could knock him out cold if he said anything too stupid.

Slowly, she set down the pen and leaned back in her chair, ignoring the paperwork that was only going to pile more. She was curious as to what he had to say now that he was seated and assuming a far more subdued pose. "You have no idea what it's like where I'm from," she stated bluntly but let him proceed without complaint. Her world wasn't one that people wanted to hear about, and she was better off keeping it to herself anyway.

She raised an eyebrow at him, a silent acknowledgement for him to speak his mind. She was actually fairly convinced there were no secrets, big or small, that would make her toes curl anyway. "You mean your mouth isn't filtered, so you can say whatever you like. Fine, go on."

For a brief moment, Kotetsu had the strange feeling that he should have felt strangely thankful for some reason, because Kerrigan really could have used any excuse to try to get him to leave, verbally or physically. But, he was still in one piece, and she wasn't chewing him out, so maybe luck would be more on his side this time and he wouldn't do anything to warrant her flipping the desk onto him. ...she couldn't do that with one arm, could she?

Kotetsu shook the thought aside then stared down at the floor, scratching at his chin and frowning. "I know I've got no idea, and I have no right to ask either so I'll just... take your word on it, from what you said before." Lifting his head back up, Kotetsu continued.

"Things were kinda tough for me when I was a kid-- I mean, obviously not compared to whatever you had to deal with but, I'm just explaining myself here, okay? So, don't take it as some kinda excuse to make myself look better. I'm just stating facts."

"You already know about NEXTs, so I don't need to tell you about them. Same with how some people treat them. Sometimes they're treated well, other times they're not. That counts for people that are NEXTs too. Sometimes they like themselves because of their powers and how other people treat them, and sometimes they don't. I started out the second way. I was... pretty miserable, honestly. I mean, it's hard to be a happy kid when you can't even talk to people because they're afraid you'll hurt them. That's how I used to be, until a hero saved my life."

She shifted the sling a little more towards her elbow, scratching an itch on her left forearm even as she continued to watch Kotetsu. The hilt of a knife was rather prominant hidden in the sling, but she paid it no mind as if it wasn't even there. Once the itch was dealt with, both forearm and weapon were hidden again.

"A small taste of Confederacy life," she remarked simply, aware that he wouldn't ask after her life and she probably wouldn't tell anyway. She wanted no pity, no soft words, or no attempts to console her; she had lived that life and become who she was because of it. There was no changing the past, just making a future.

She shifted in her chair, not about to judge the hardships of his childhood compared to anyone else's. She made no fuss over the comparisons between her own and his and simply listened as he began to explain how his life had been a miserable affair. "A Hero? Which one?" She knew a few names from pulling details from Yuri and listening in on conversations of Barnaby and Kotetsu.

Though the hint of the weapon could have easily escaped his vision, Kotetsu noticed it soon enough, and though the presence of it was concerning, he somehow knew better than to be legitimately fearful of it. She most likely just had it for her own protection. He knew by then she must have had experience with plenty of weapons as well as good knowledge on how to handle them, so Kotetsu felt there was no real danger (whether this was a good assumption to have or not, he'd have no idea) and so he never commented on it as it fell away from his view.

Kotetsu stared down at the floor once more, a bit of an awkward smile suddenly on his face. "It was Mr. Legend, Yuri's father. That day, he was the first person that ever told me that I didn't have to hate my powers, or be afraid of myself, because my powers could let me protect people." Kotetsu lifted his head, the brief memory fading from his awareness.

"That's when I decided that I wanted to be a Hero."

She might have been wounded, but her eyes worked just fine and even at this distance, the sensation of shy admiration seemed to drift over her way. The smile gave the man away, and she raised eyebrows again when it seemed that the tangled web of Sternbild just got worse and worse. So, this man knew the father before the fall?

"I haven't met the man personally, but he seems to have quite an impact on the city you are from," she said, trying to be at least a little bit more grudgingly conversational. "You knew Yuri then as a child?" She didn't let her curiosity show.

"So you protect people by being a Hero," she finally said after some silence. "That doesn't seem so different from your partner. He does it too, does he not?"

"To put it in plain terms, he was pretty famous when he was still a Hero. Lots of people liked Legend." Kotetsu in particular, even when Legend's popularity had started to decline... in fact, now that he was technically deceased, even with the knowledge of what had happened during his downfall as a hero, he couldn't help but still hold some type of respect for him. Being able to speak with him in person and actually see the sort of person he was had assisted in that somewhat.

Of course, his relation to Yuri still held a lot of unknowns for Kotetsu, and he shook his head. "I never met the judge when he was a kid. Didn't even know Legend had a son. Back then, heroes were always meant to keep their real identities a secret from the public, so no one ever knew anything about their families. I always thought it was better that way. Y'know, just seems safer to keep them out of the spotlight." But that was a line of values that Kotetsu wasn't meant to go into, and he left it at that.

At the mention of his partner though, Kotetsu slipped out of his dazed reminiscing and focused his attention back on Kerrigan, though he appeared a little conflicted on what to say. "But, that's my job, yeah. And it's Bunny's job too, but he didn't have the same reasons I did that made him want to be a Hero too."

"Yuri said he retired, so I take it his fame went down after he left active duty?" She knew of the events that had involved Yuri, but she was curious if there were more events that Kotetsu knew about. She wondered if the man in front of her was aware of some of those events, but she doubted it.

Nodding a little, she sat back to try to get more comfortable, rubbing at the bandages around her neck. They itched and she found them annoying as she couldn't drop her chin much. "My, my, BREW brings all manner of surprises then. To be fair, those two don't look much alike aside from the eyes and cheeks," she said thoughtfully. "Everything is better from the shadows."

She noted his conflict and found it interesting. "What are his reasons then if not to serve and protect, hmm?"

With his fingers laced together, Kotetsu leaned forward and propped his elbows onto his knees, his mouth hidden behind his hands as all he did was nod at first before speaking up. "Yeah, that's usually the norm. People come and go in the 'Hero business'," There was a distinct bit of sarcasm at the mention of the last two words. "One minute you're at the top and the next you're at the very bottom. If you're lucky, retiring just means that you don't have to deal with all that gossip and news about what you're doing and how your life is going."

And Kotetsu already knew how Petrov Sr. had dealt with his declined popularity as Mr. Legend, but he wouldn't dare mention it, his eyes glancing up at Kerrigan. "I dunno, I can kinda see it myself, but maybe that's just 'cause when you find out people are related, you look for the similarities."

As he shrugged, Kotetsu's hands lowered as he bit at his lip for a moment, unsure of what to say. He knew Barnaby had no problem with admitting anything about his personal history, but Kotetsu preferred for it to be something he mentioned himself instead of something that Kotetsu shared to others.

"...something happened to Bunny's parents when he was a kid. He's a Hero because he's trying to find the person who did it."

She thought that his emotions were more guarded on the subject, but given that he had to be closing in on his forties soon, he must be close to retiring as well. She suspected she knew where he was in his rankings, though Barnaby seemed like the type young women would take to. "And how is your life going aside from being overprotective of your only child?"

The way he glanced, she knew what he was thinking or she had a very good idea. Her own gaze reflected back at him as if to say 'I know what is on your mind', but she simply sat as pleasantly as she could. "I suppose so. I'm sure they are more reflected in their personalities."

Raising an eyebrow, she dropped her hands to her lap and the corner of her lip turned up in amusement at his choice of words. "Vengeance hardly seems like a noble reason to join a special group of people bent on saving people from harm."

Kotetsu couldn't help but feel that the question was almost meant as an insult of some sorts, or at least a subtle attempt at a meager one, but thankfully Kotetsu was more than assured of his answer and thus didn't even bother to react to it aside from crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in the chair, raising an eyebrow. Kerrigan, you need to work on your people skills.

"Aside from the overprotective thing, I'm actually doing great. Before I was roped into helping with this whole war because of a weird cube, I was actually pretty happy with my life." A small hint of a surprisingly content smile crept over Kotetsu's face, only for a few seconds, as he thought back to the last moment he lived before being brought to Death City. "Happiest I've been in a long time."

However, that wasn't a conversation he was meant to have at that moment, and after coughing into his hand, the smile was gone, and Kotetsu's voice continued on neutrally, or at least as long as it could with him discussing his partner's troubling past. "To be honest, I can't argue with you there, but when you go through what Bunny's been through... somehow, even if you can't accept it, you have to understand it, even a little." Kotetsu glanced away, his eyes and even his voice almost cold.

"When you're a four year old kid, watching your parents get murdered right in front of your eyes on Christmas Eve, it's hard to want anything other than revenge."

Well, she supposed that his admitting being good was something beneficial to working. One had to enjoy their job, particularly in an environment when it was all forced for a war effort. Certainly they weren't required to participate, but there was no escape so doing nothing was a wasted effort.

"And you don't seem so bad off here, aside from chronically putting your foot in your mouth or getting the shakes around your idol," she remarked simply, the corner of her lip quirking a little. It was a gone a second later so it was hard to tell if it had even better there at all.

The information that was revealed hit a little too close to home, but she had thankfully been readjusting her shoulder, so the grimace would surely be associated with pain, right? She set her jaw and nodded her head a little in reply. "Yes, I suppose that you're right. Depends how you were raised after that too, I'm sure."

Kotetsu's lips pursed just the slightest bit, the only sign that she'd struck another chord with him, but he found more amusement in the rather obviously seen reaction he always tended to have when he spoke to Legend than anything else. "Could be better, but it's not much different than how things usually are for me." (The foot-in-mouth thing didn't need mentioning, even though it was true, but not like Kotestu would admit to it outright).

However, after rubbing his fingers over his mouth, he was back to a rather neutral facial expression, his eyes darting toward her at the hint of movement, but of course, he merely took it as a sign of her injuries. Something that somewhat bothered him, but he'd already gotten his point across earlier that she was better off getting out of that stuffy office and back to her own place to rest.

"...Bunny's life didn't get much better after that. It's all I'll say." More than twenty years of hell is what he could have expressed it as but Kotetsu already felt as if he'd said too much. However, once he realize what he'd said, Kotetsu rubbed at his chin wistfully, eyes narrowing in thought. "--no, that's not right. Bunny's life didn't get much better after that, until he finally became a hero. And then we met. That was about three years ago now."

No, she suspected that his foot entered his mouth just as much back where he was from as it did here. It wasn't, after all, a skill one picked up when traveling across space and time or they'd all do it. She wondered if he did it as often with other people as he tended to do it with her.

She wasn't leaving, at least not yet. She had work to do, even if it pained her to do it. At least he wasn't nagging at her again. She took that as a peace sign for them.

"So his meeting you apparently propelled his sad isolated existence into something worth living, huh?" She was all too familiar with living a life of pure hell, so she supposed she could understand. However, Barnaby was still too... normal to be a walking time bomb. Just a traumatized man with a need for revenge.

Kotetsu chuckled lightly for some reason, even if he knew that the way the question sounded could very well seem as if she couldn't quite believe what he was saying, that he was merely sugarcoating his partner's situation and everything that had happened between them. Making himself look good, giving himself so much credit for helping out this poor young man who lived his life for only revenge.

"It sounds like that, doesn't it?" Distractedly, Kotetsu began to fiddled about with his hands and fingers, eventually focusing on his wedding band.

"You probably can't tell that that's how things are with him, and there's a good reason for that. Bunny and I aren't from the same time right now. He's at least two years behind me, which means that's two years of changes that he doesn't know about." Kotetsu's eyes focused on Kerrigan, and he wasn't sure of whether or not to tell her anything further about the gap of time between himself and his partner, but he figured there was no need for it. Heck, he supposed she might not even care much for the details.

"But you've gotta believe me when I say that the Bunny I know, after those two years, is way different than the one you know now. More different than the one I met three years ago. I'm not gonna say that because of me, his life's perfect, as if I 'fixed' him or anything, but... he's kinda actually happy. And he hasn't been happy for a long time."

She suspected that they were from different times, mostly because it was hard to come by two people who were. BREW had a tendency to just grab whenever and not always the most convenient timing for anyone. In fact, sometimes it was the most inconvenient timing possible. She had to wonder if that had been the case for Barnaby.

"So he has two more years to go in order to be less stuffy then," she remarked dryly. At least he was easy to make blush, which held her from making too many comments against him. Bugging people was just a way to get by when she was forced to remain in the city. "Kind of happy?" That was a novel concept.

"Well, so long as he blushes when I make fun of him, I don't much care how much he changes." She shrugged and winced a little at the action.

The timing had been incredibly inconvenient initially, because Kotetsu not only hadn't been prepared to deal with that old personality of his partner's when he hadn't seen it for two years, but ever since they he had discovered the whole problem, he knew that there were things he would always have to hide from Barnaby until he returned home. However, with the brief months that followed, the two of them had actually started to get along, slowly and gradually. They weren't quite at the point where they were meant to be, but things were better.

Of course, things would be much better if Barnaby could stop being so stuffy, as Kerrigan brought up, and it was enough to make Kotetsu grin, which was followed by a warm, amused chuckle at the later statement. "That's a dangerous habit to get into, I should know! Sad to say that it'll probably be a little harder to get away with after two more years; don't think that Bunny doesn't know how to take a joke by then and throw it right back at you, but at least he's way less stuffy. I think it's a good exchange."

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[Closed] trophies for their trifle

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