mad_madam_m: Mad Madam Mim as a dragon (Default)
mad_madam_m ([personal profile] mad_madam_m) wrote2019-12-18 06:21 pm

Tiger & Bunny Fic - Home Is Where the Heart Is, Chapter Eleven

Chapter Title: In Which They Share a Horse
Fandom: Tiger & Bunny
Pairing: Barnaby/Kotetsu
Rating: T
Word Count: 3681
Excerpt: The days grew shorter, the leaves started to turn, and the early mornings held a crispness in the air that meant summer was soon to go and autumn was well on its way.

Just as the seasons changed, they set the last brick in place and the north wing was finished.

Well, not entirely finished—Barnaby still had to refurnish it—but the rebuilding was complete.

He walked through the empty halls, peering in the rooms. Bright, open windows. Blank walls. A plain canvas just waiting for paint and paper.

The thought should have worried him, but it didn't. It felt like...freedom. As though some time in the past several weeks, the house had cast off the weight that had been sitting on it for twenty years.

Or maybe it was Barnaby who had cast a weight off. It was difficult to say.

To his continued surprise, the lowered rents had helped tremendously. The town was not yet thriving, but it was on its way there. People were happier, it seemed, and the entire air of the town was lighter when he went in to visit.

He and Samantha had gone through the house piece by piece, deciding what to keep and what could be sold. That had earned him enough to bring on more help—not yet enough to properly keep a house of this size, but enough to make it easier on Samantha. And with his new investments bearing fruit, he'd be able to hire a few more before the end of the year.

It might be by the skin of his teeth, but they would make enough to keep the estate running.

Barnaby looked up at the ceiling and let the relief wash over him. For the first time in years, he did not feel the crippling grief he'd come to associate with this place. In fact, he rather liked it.

Read it on AO3.