Tiger & Bunny Not!Fic - Soulmate AU
Dec. 10th, 2018 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mad_madam_mAnother not!fic being imported from Tumblr! Originally posted here.
Okay so first off I love soulmate AUs in GENERAL but what I really love about soulmate AUs is thinking about the types of soulmate AUs that let you know your soulmate when you first meet, and the dawning horror some characters would have at the realization of who their soulmate is.
This particular AU crossed my dash and oh boy do I have thoughts. I have thoughts mostly because one of my OTPs has this, canonically, as the first time they touch:
I MEAN REALLY.
Barnaby would realize it first. He’d have to change out of his armor and into the red suit he wears at the award ceremony, so he’d see that the black marks on his hands and arms and across his chest are bright with colors now. He’d always wondered how he’d meet his soulmate, how they’d touch in such a way that he had these massive marks across his upper body when most people just have a hand print or the brush of a finger.
It’s confusing for about 1.5 seconds before he realizes what this means, and he has to take a solid 5 minutes in the locker room to compose himself because no. There’s not a way in hell that ridiculous old man is actually his soulmate, even though the marks on his body are telling him otherwise. He finishes changing as quickly as he can and keeps his palms turned so that no one can see them and determines to do his best not to think about it.
Kotetsu doesn’t realize it until the next morning. His marks are on his side and back and across the backs of his legs (except for Tomoe’s; he always wondered what it meant that he still had big black marks on his body even after hers had turned its brilliant colors after they’d touched), so he doesn’t see if they’ve changed unless he’s actively looking. So it’s not until he’s pulling off his tank top to get into the shower that he catches a glimpse of his side in the mirror and sees the black mark along his right side and hip is now a vibrant mix of colors. He checks the ones on his back and thighs; they’re just as colorful.
He’s still waking up, so it takes a little longer than it should for it to click that this new guy, the hotshot with the blond curls and that stupid salute, is the one who’s responsible for these marks.
The realization feels like getting punched in the chest, only less fun. Kotetsu has to sit on the side of the tub and remind himself to breathe, and his hand goes instinctively to the mark on his upper arm in the shape of Tomoe’s hand. The only reason he can make himself move long enough to get ready for work is that he knows, he knows, he can’t be late after a night like last night.
(Then he gets to work and finds out he doesn’t have a job anymore and kind of wishes maybe he’d slept in.)
And I mean. Look at that picture. Those marks are going to be huge and it’s not exactly the kind of thing you can hide if you’re going to be in any state of undress around another person. And once they’re partners, they’re going to be sharing a locker room.
So the first time they have to change together, they know.
Barnaby’s just taken off his bodysuit when he turns around and sees the bright swaths of color across Kotetsu’s back and thighs, and he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that they’re the exact size and shape of his arms. He’s spent a lot of time ignoring the color on his arms and palms and chest, but seeing the matching marks on Kotetsu’s body brings it home that this is real.
Then Kotetsu turns before Barnaby can pretend he wasn’t looking, and it’s not like Barnaby can do anything to hide the giant marks on his chest and arms (even if his first instinct is to try to cover them), so they just stand there, staring at each other, for a full five seconds before Barnaby turns around and gets dressed as quickly as possible. He’s hoping he’ll be finished and can leave before Kotetsu, so he doesn’t have to have what will surely be an awkward and unproductive conversation, but as soon as he closes his locker and turns around, Kotetsu is there, tossing his hat in his hands.
(How in the hell did this guy get dressed first, Barnaby wonders, when he’s wearing a buttoned shirt, a vest, and a tie, and all Barnaby had to do was throw on a damn t-shirt.)
“So,” Kotetsu says, “we’re—”
“Nothing,” Barnaby snaps. “We’re working together because our sponsor company is making us. That’s it.”
“But we’re—”
“I don’t care,” Barnaby says. “Just because the marks turned colors doesn’t mean anything.”
The look Kotetsu gives him says pretty clearly that he feels otherwise. “They’re soulmarks.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Barnaby says. “Leave me alone.”
He brushes past Kotetsu and leaves the locker room. He has too many other things to worry about; he doesn’t give a damn about soulmarks and if fate thinks it’s funny to stick him with a foolish old man for a soulmate, then fate can kiss his ass.
(Kotetsu had no idea anybody could be less happy than him about this turn of events, but apparently Barnaby—no, Bunny, he’s definitely going to be Bunny now—is super ticked about it. At least Kotetsu didn’t really expect that conversation to go much differently than it did. He’d hoped it would. But he didn’t expect it to.)
Kotetsu doesn’t bring it up again. But he can’t just make himself turn off the part of him that cares about other people, and he can’t make himself stop caring about Bunny—who might be an asshole but he’s also apparently Kotetsu’s other soulmate—so he continues to care in his own somewhat-overbearing way. He nags Bunny to take care of himself and puts together a surprise birthday party and keeps his damn mouth shut when Nathan tells him about Bunny’s parents, because that is none of his business. Not until Bunny decides to tell him about it, anyway.
And Barnaby has absolutely no idea what to do with this. He doesn’t know what to do with it when Kotetsu won’t leave him behind with a ticking bomb, even though there’s nothing for Kotetsu to do. He doesn’t know what to do with it when Kotetsu just gives him a criminal and says “happy birthday, you take the points.” And he sure as hell doesn’t know what to do with it when Kotetsu jumps in front of a goddamn firebolt to keep Barnaby from being hurt.
(He also doesn’t know why he can’t stop worrying about Kotetsu, when he doesn’t want a soulmate and he’s not supposed to care.)
But then Jake happens, it’s only by some miracle that Kotetsu doesn’t actually die, and when the dust finally settles, Barnaby finds himself sitting on the side of his bed, facing four incontrovertible truths:
1) He is actually in love with Kotetsu.
2) Kotetsu is his soulmate.
3) Barnaby essentially told him to fuck off.
4) Just because Barnaby is in love with him does not mean that Kotetsu will love him back.
He swears he can hear fate laughing at him.
(Of course Kotetsu is in love with him, but he’s trying really hard not to be because Bunny said no and he’s going to respect that. Just because they get along better now doesn’t mean that “no” is suddenly a “yes.”)
(He is going to celebrate the shit out of Bunny finally calling him by his first name, though.)
(Original tags: #THEY GET IT HASHED OUT EVENTUALLY #there's just a lot of dumb pining in the meantime #when they're finally together Kotetsu likes to kiss the marks on Barnaby's palms #and Barnaby kisses the one across Kotetsu's back #Me: Self you are not allowed to write any more Tiger & Bunny fic until you finish your Sterek WIP #Brain: Not!fics do not count as fic #Me: by God you're right! #because at this point I want to see every version of a soulmate AU for Barnaby and Kotetsu #so I'm probably gonna end up writing a dozen not!fics #because otherwise I'll write a dozen soulmate fics #and nobody wants to read a dozen soulmate fics for the same pairing by the same person )
no subject
Date: 2018-12-11 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-11 02:53 am (UTC)And yeah, you're probably right about me underestimating people. Which...is not something I needed to know because I will literally write a dozen soulmate AUs for Barnaby and Kotetsu if I have the time. >.>
no subject
Date: 2018-12-11 05:31 pm (UTC)