Only the Lonely, chapter 7
Mar. 6th, 2012 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lirillithTitle: Only the Lonely
Fandom: Tiger & Bunny
Characters/pairing: Everybody's in this one!
Length: 4200 words
Rating: T
Summary: When Kotetsu returns from retirement and starts coming to Karina's performances again, she thinks she has her chance to get closer to him at last... but that also means getting to know his partner.
****
The next week had the two of them making their real re-entry - Kotetsu, showing off his wire-work, intercepted a flying NEXT she'd seriously thought was going to be Sky High's arrest, while Barnaby pried open a monorail car the guy's partner had welded shut, and she, Sky High and Barnaby ferried the trapped passengers to safety. Bison, of all people, had managed to snag the flyer's heat-powered partner.
"I'm glad that worked," Barnaby said quietly when they heard Mario announcing Kotetsu's arrest. "He hasn't wanted to show it, but I know he could use some confidence about holding his own in the First League."
"It should help sell the sponsors, too."
"Exactly."
"Blue Rose!" Keith hailed her, returning from handing the last of the passengers to the ground. "I look forward to attending your high school commencement ceremony, Blue Rose!"
"Oh. Um. Yes." She really hoped the audio hadn't picked that up. "I don't know why, but... wait, who else is coming?"
Barnaby was facepalming. Without even flipping up his faceplate. "What did he do?" she asked him.
"I did try to stop him," he said.
"He invited everyone, didn't he?"
"...yes."
She could tell even through the armor that he was watching her warily. "Ugh, fine. It's not my fault if you're all bored." She sighed. "Would it be unethical to point you out in a crowd?"
"Possibly, if you think it might cause a riot."
She created a few dollops of ice to slide down his neck, and rode her own ice-trail downwards, smirking happily.
When she called Jane that night, she mentioned the Hero influx. "So maybe I can show them to you, at a distance, for one bright side to all of them turning up," she said. She'd meant the general you, whatever her conceited semi-boyfriend might want to believe.
"I don't see why it's bad," Jane said. "It's their decision to attend, right?"
"I guess so."
"You're just upset because you don't want the part of your life you care about to have anything to do with high school."
"What?" That... made a disturbing amount of sense. "How do you do that?"
"Karina, look at yourself. You quit choir... I guess around the time you became Blue Rose, so that makes sense now, but it didn't to me then. You've been too busy to be in any activities or sports since then. High school didn't mean much to you, did it? You have me and Emily, but we'll be in touch after graduation. There aren't too many people that you'll never see again that you'll miss. Maybe some teachers?"
Except for Jane and Emily, all her closest friends were Heroes. "I guess you're right."
"So really, the Heroes are the ones you should celebrate with, right?"
"I do have the ticket to the school's big 'please don't drink and drive' celebration."
"Yeah, I'm going because all the people from the musical cast decided to... and Emily's going to a different party with her boyfriend."
"Oh, she is?" Karina yawned. "Sorry. I dunno, I guess it depends on whether everyone's called into action sometime in the Ls. That's what happened last year." Jane's older brother had been graduating.
"That's why you left when you did! So many weird things you've done make sense now," Jane said. "It's really enlightening."
"So glad I could help," Karina snipped, but she felt strangely relieved. She wouldn't be letting anyone down if she just spent the evening with Pao-lin and Nathan. Or Kotetsu and Barnaby. "Do you think I missed out by not being more involved in high school?"
"Gee, I dunno. You just saved like a dozen people's lives tonight? And made out with Barnaby Brooks Jr.? Yeah, I'd hate to have your life."
"I didn't make out with him!" Not tonight, anyway.
"Technicalities," Jane retorted. "I mean, do you feel like you missed out?"
Karina thought about it. "No. Not at all."
She was still disgruntled about Kotetsu's decision, though, and she finally figured out why; he couldn't leave it at an invitation extended to him and to Barnaby. It had to be all the Heroes.
No point to confronting him about it now, of course; it wasn't like she wanted to uninvite them. She just went around apologizing to them all, which just resulted in everyone assuring her that no, they wouldn't be bored at all, which seemed to kind of defeat the purpose.
"I just hope we are not called away early!" Keith said earnestly. "Graduations are very special days! Even more than birthdays, because they don't happen every year!"
"I guess so..." Karina said. Was he going to want to stay to the end because it was a special day for every single person? "I should be called up pretty early. The top fifty people in the class are called first."
"And you're in that?" Ivan asked, sounding a little stunned. She tried to decide if she should be insulted at his surprise.
"Wait, what's going on?" Pao-lin asked, so she had to explain and everyone had to congratulate her, and oh God she just wanted it all to be over. School was worse; people were signing yearbooks and exchanging senior pictures, and that was how she discovered two different boys she'd barely known had had crushes on her, which was awkward, and everyone was in a frenzy of planning, and that didn't even count the rehearsal they all had to attend.
Finally classes ended, and the day arrived - much better than last year, when the seniors had to come back after graduation to take their finals - and Karina's grandparents and her aunt and uncle and cousins all descended on the house. She really hated getting the obligatory graduation gift cards, because it wasn't like she needed money to buy things for her college housing, but her grandparents had insisted.
At the event hall, her family deposited her in the right section and split off for their seats. Everyone around was fidgetty, excited, perpetually adjusting each other's decorations - shawls? - and mortarboards, and while she couldn't help checking the bobby pins keeping her own in place, it was hard to get that many butterflies in her stomach over this when five days ago she'd had a gun pointed at her. Emily dropped by from her own place in the Cs for hugs, adjustments, and a bit of squealing, and Karina and Jane further readjusted her before sending her back, but mostly, everything seemed to be taking forever. And then she got a call on her PDA.
"Oh my God, you're kidding," Jane said, seeing it.
"No, it's just... a personal call. Just a second," Karina said, heading for the restrooms so she could take it.
She didn't need to - Kotetsu and Barnaby were standing near the water fountain. Kotetsu tapped his own wrist and the tone stopped. He was dressed just like he always was, though he'd plopped the hat on Barnaby, whose hair was pulled back. Barnaby had left his jacket behind. "I'm not sure you'd fool too many people that way," she said, smiling, as she approached them.
"So far so good," Kotetsu said. "Congratulations, Rose."
"You look beautiful," Barnaby said.
"Barnaby, I'm wearing a mortarboard," she protested, secretly pleased. "No one looks beautiful in those."
"From the forehead down," he amended.
She mock-glared, but she still kissed him. Then she turned to Kotetsu and grabbed him by the tie. "Kotetsu..."
"Urk?"
"Next time, don't invite people without asking!" She released him. "I'm still glad to see you guys, but seriously."
"Sorry," he said. "When's the next time?"
"Her bachelor's degree, of course," Barnaby said, pausing to make some minute adjustment to her honors shawl. "You only need to remember it for another four years. We'd better go back to our seats."
"Wait," Kotetsu said. "Pictures! Just one," he added, when she and Barnaby both groaned. He grabbed Barnaby, then threw an arm around Karina, holding out his phone with one hand. "Squish down more, Bunny." She reached out to grab his arm, pulling him in close enough that she worried for her mortarboard, and finally Kotetsu said, "Okay, smile. Or kiss or whatever." The flash went off as she was in the midst of a laughing "Kotetsu!"
He inspected the result and nodded, seeming satisfied. "Better get a move on, Rose."
"Don't I get to see it?"
"What? You wanted to?"
"Barnaby, do something to get back at him for me," she said, and then she was off, dashing back to her group to resume her place in line. When she arrived Jane grinned secretively at her, then straightened her mortarboard, and the teacher who was minding them gave her a long-suffering sigh.
The ceremony was, as she'd expected, excruciatingly boring, though she and Jane were able to switch places with a few classmates between them on their way back to their seats and talk unobtrusively. She was also able to point out her "um, coworkers" in the audience. "The one you were asking about is the guy with the short blond hair."
"Ah," Jane said, maybe blushing. "He's kind of cute, in a tiny, blurry way."
"Yeah, what can I say, they had to go for the open seating."
When it was finally over, and everyone had tossed their mortarboards and then reclaimed whichever had fallen closest and poured out of the auditorium, Karina reunited with her family. They'd had dinner beforehand, one set of grandparents had a long drive back home, the other didn't but seemed eager to go anyway, and her youngest cousin was asleep on his feet, so the extended family was off. "The parking lot's going to be a nightmare," he father said. "We probably should have carpooled."
"We can wait out some of the rush," her mother said soothingly, extracting another stray bobby pin from Karina's hair. "Did you get a chance to talk to Jane and Emily?" she asked.
"Mom, I was sitting right by Jane," Karina said, checking cell phone - a message from Nathan, saying they'd meet her at the pancake house across the street. She texted back "be there soon as I can." She tried to imagine Nathan, in his usual getup, sitting in one of the plastic booths. Not that he'd ever be uncomfortable. "Did you want to talk to their parents?"
"I just haven't seen them in a while," Karina's mother said, which she took as a yes.
It was nearly half an hour later before they managed to get away, Emily with her boyfriend - Karina barely knew him, but Jane approved, and they'd been together a while - and Karina and Jane together. Karina had sent a hasty "hey mind if I bring my friend?" and Nathan had apparently polled the table and gotten approval, so that was their destination.
"Does my hair look okay?" Jane asked, just outside the door.
"Better than mine," Karina said.
"Oh, please, you always look good."
"Think about the hair on the guy I'm seeing," Karina reminded her, pushing the door open. Jane just laughed at her.
She spotted them as soon as she was inside, and headed for their booth, Jane trailing behind. Nathan's clothing was pretty subdued, for him, a tee-shirt and jeans, though the shirt was pink and skintight and he probably had on glittery high-heeled boots. Kotetsu was trying to put on his mask, over Barnaby's obvious objections, but everyone else was waving and greeting them, and Sky High, of course, had to reach out to shake hands with Jane. Who was being uncharacteristically quiet, really. "So you can probably guess who everyone is," she said, reaching out to pluck the mask from Kotetsu's hand. "I mean, now that you can see them all."
"Yeah," Jane said, not actually smiling but with sort of a manic look in her eyes. "Um, it's very nice to meet you all."
"Did you also graduate tonight?" Sky High asked her. "Congratulations, and again, congratulations! And to you as well, Ms. Blue!"
"Thank you," Karina said, for both of them, since Jane was looking a little overwhelmed.
"You went to a very large high school!" he added.
She laughed, because that was the closest she could imagine to a complaint from him. "I did warn you guys," she said. "Oh, jeez, I'm sorry. Everyone, this is Jane." Barnaby looked like he was about to extend a hand for a handshake, but Jane turned back to Karina without seeing it.
"I should probably go," Jane said, barely above a whisper. "I don't want to keep my parents waiting."
"Are you sure?" The traffic really hadn't cleared up at all.
"Yeah, you know, just in case," Jane said, so they headed back outdoors. Karina looked back a bit regretfully - maybe she should have tried to keep Sky High in reserve, or something. She hadn't even made introductions to Barnaby and Kotetsu. And Jane should really meet Pao-lin, since she and Pao-lin would be roommates.
"Sorry," Karina said. "I guess it was a little overwhelming?"
"Oh my God Sky High shook hands with me!" Jane squeaked. "Karina, this was the best graduation present, thank you!"
"You're welcome?"
Jane hugged her. "We'll be in touch, right?"
"Of course we will!" She stepped back. "Have fun at the party."
"Probably not because of the party itself, but I will," Jane said.
Back inside, Karina returned the mask to a pouting Kotetsu, and squeezed in between him and Barnaby. "Sorry," she said. "I think she got shy at the last minute."
"It does happen," Barnaby said. "She's a fan?"
"Kinda?"
"Darling, have you eaten?" Nathan asked her. "I hear the Moons Over My Hammy is exquisite."
Kotetsu and Bison both laughed; she just stared. "Is that actually a thing?" she finally asked, when Nathan's smile didn't even twitch.
"It's not half bad," Kotetsu said.
"Seriously, it's real?"
It was real, according to the evidence of Kotetsu's phone, though this was the wrong restaurant for it. Karina ordered pancakes - for all her scorn she hadn't been able to eat much before the ceremony - and let Kotetsu steal her bacon. Karina and Pao-lin started talking across the table about when they could start apartment hunting; eventually Pao-lin climbed over Origami so they could talk more easily, and Karina figured from the look on his face that either he did like girls or Pao-lin had misplaced a knee.
Bison needed to leave early, or maybe he just wanted to since there was no alcohol to be had, and she and Barnaby let Kotetsu out so they could go catch up for a while. Sky High excused himself since he still needed to patrol for the night, and Pao-lin had to leave because he was going to be her ride home.
That left Origami looking a little confused and frightened - he'd spent most of the evening, from what Karina could see, talking to Sky High and Pao-lin - and while Barnaby tried to engage him in conversation about the Hero Academy, that didn't seem to help once Nathan draped an arm around him.
"You have to let me help you decorate," Nathan was saying to her, not for the first time that evening.
"I'm not saying no, I'm just saying you should check with Pao-lin," she hedged. Knowing how Pao-lin felt about girly things compared to how Nathan felt about them, she really didn't want to make any unilateral decisions.
"Aw, honey," Kotetsu said, standing over the table with a crooked grin on his face. "I turn my back and I find you with your arm around a blond half my age?" Barnaby looked slightly startled - he did, in fact, have his arm around her.
"He's just a friend," Nathan retorted, letting Origami go.
"This booth is full of blonds," Karina pointed out.
"Just scoot over, Bunny, no need to get up," Kotetsu said, so she had to scoot too, and somewhere in the process Origami decided it was time to make his escape.
"Congratulations, Blue Rose, and thank you for inviting me." He actually bowed.
"Seriously, it was... I don't understand why you all sat through it... um, thank you?"
He bowed again and fled. "That kid..." Kotetsu said. "So what'd I miss?"
"A lot of discussion of decorating and Hero Academy, I believe," Barnaby said. "Definitely Hero Academy."
"I really am sorry I didn't get Jane introduced to you guys," Karina said. "I didn't know she was that much of a Sky High fan or I would have saved him for last."
"Oh, don't worry about it," Nathan said. "He's just friendly, anyway."
"Besides, we'll be around," Kotetsu said. "You're staying in touch with her, right? There'll be other chances."
She nodded. Nathan offered her a sip of his milkshake. "So how's it feel being done?" he asked.
"It doesn't feel real," she said. "It's like how it doesn't count as summer vacation until it's the first Monday of the break. And even then... the end-of-season party's, what, next week, depending on the crime?"
"If not sooner," Barnaby said. "I don't know how they pull them together so quickly."
"Well-compensated caterers, I know that," Nathan said. "Karina, forgive me, but this was the first event I've been to in years that made those parties seem entertaining by comparison. And you know I go to plenty."
She laughed. "I warned everyone! You have no one to blame but yourselves!"
He ruffled her hair. "It was your graduation! I couldn't miss it, I don't care how much you say graduating was a foregone conclusion."
"I haven't been to a graduation since... jeez, since I graduated," Kotetsu said. "Back when you were a baby, Rose. Maybe a fetus."
"Well, I won't say it's been that long, but... since I graduated, yes." Nathan grinned at them. "I need my beauty sleep. You three be good. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"Set the bar a little higher than that," Kotetsu complained. "We've got an innocent young girl here."
He just smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling, and slid out of the booth. Yes, Karina noticed, pink glittery boots, and a belt to match. "Have fun!" he called out, waving at them as he left.
"Well, I guess innocent young girls are pretty safe with him," Kotetsu said, once he was gone. Karina thought about pointing out that she regularly wore a costume that had to be glued to her nipples and included a feature she and her wardrobe people called the "ass-vines," but instead she just smiled to herself. Not only would that be a little awkward to bring up, but she knew perfectly well that Nathan had been talking to her, too.
They eventually paid up and relocated to Kotetsu's car. "You need to get home, Rose?" Kotetsu asked.
She shook her head. "I should probably check in at some point, but I told my parents I'd probably be out most of the night. The school hosts an all-night party, and they were fine with me going to that."
"Doesn't mean they'd be fine with you hanging out alone with a couple of older guys all night," he pointed out, and she had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. She'd done this before! "Of course you've got me as a chaperone," he added. "Hey, that's an idea. Bunny, let's show her your apartment!"
"You're actually bothering to consult me?" he asked. "Does that mean I could say no?"
"Is there some reason you don't want your girlfriend to see your apartment?"
They hadn't actually gotten around to using that term, as such, yet, so Karina blushed, and she strongly suspected Barnaby was doing the same. "No," he said, a bit strangled. Kotetsu chuckled a bit evilly as he started the car.
"So that's the plan. We're going to go watch movies at Bunny's place in hopes you can talk him into buying a couch, Rose. Especially once you see his amazing TV."
"I've been shopping for one," he protested. "I just have to find one I like."
"What exactly does a couch need to do?" Kotetsu argued. "You sit on it. If your ass doesn't hurt, the couch works, so you buy it."
Karina sat back to let them bicker. She'd need to buy a couch, probably. Other furniture. She wasn't sure if she wanted Pao-lin to let Nathan help them decorate or not. On the one hand, she was sure he'd do a good job of it, but on the other, if it reflected his personal taste too much, it might be a bit blinding. Or pink enough to kill her roommate. Eventually, she dozed off, only waking once they reached the apartment. "You really do tend to fall asleep in cars," Barnaby noted.
"I'm kind of conditioned to," she said. "Sometimes I think I get more sleep in my transport than at home."
"Might want to break that habit before you learn to drive," Kotetsu said. "Brace yourself for this place, it's pretty fancy."
"I'm sure she can cope," Barnaby said, so of course she had to look unimpressed by the elegant lobby and gleaming elevator. His apartment was... "The first word that comes to mind is 'cavernous,'" she admitted, when Kotetsu asked what she thought. He headed off for another room, snickering.
"I've been thinking of redecorating," Barnaby said, a little defensively.
"It's really nice, just... large," she said. "I think you need more furniture just so it won't feel so empty."
"I do get the picture," he said, then "I apologize. I'm getting a bit tired of Kotetsu needling me about it, but that's not your fault."
"Where's the-- oh, wow," she said, her question about the fabled TV superceded by the view. "No wonder you don't bother with hanging things on the walls. It'd be pointless with a view like that." The city was spread out below, glittering and beautiful, darkness and distance hiding all the flaws.
"And that's the reason I live here," he said, joining her at the window, their arms just touching. She leaned into his side a bit, smiling.
"Bunny, you're supposed to be picking out a movie," Kotetsu called from the other room.
"All right, all right."
Karina tore herself away from the view to watch Barnaby pick up the remote, only to blurt "Holy crap, that's your TV?"
She could hear Kotetsu's laughter loud and clear, even before he emerged with a tray full of drinks.
"So that's the kitchen in there," she said. "Barnaby, can I look around?"
"Of course."
There wasn't much to see - a bedroom, with a neatly-made bed, a nightstand, and nothing else; a sleek, modern-looking bathroom, noteworthy mostly for the array of hair products on the counter; and the kitchen, which looked like exactly her mom's style, with a kitchen island in the middle, a lot of dark, gleaming wood, and equally gleaming appliances with elaborate controls. "You keep things really clean," she commented, leaving the kitchen.
"Er, thank you?"
"Rose, you called your parents?"
"You're really bossy tonight," she noted, pulling out her phone and stepping out into the hallway.
Her mother was the one who picked up the home phone. "I'm going to be staying over night with some of the other heroes," Karina reported, hoping that would be enough.
"All right, Karina. Just remember to be careful, especially if you're, you know, with Barnaby..."
"Mom, oh my God shut up, I told you it's not like that." This was what she got for admitting to her mother that there might be a Barnaby/Blue Rose subplot in the works with maybe a tiny bit of basis in reality.
"Don't worry, I won't tell your father."
"Because there's nothing to tell!" Maybe Pao-lin would be willing to go look at apartments tomorrow. Or right this instant. Better yet, yesterday.
"Well, have fun, sweetie," her mother said, and Karina gritted out a goodbye and waited in the hall for a bit to get over the mortification before she went back inside.
"Water, soda, or juice?" Kotetsu greeted her when she came back in.
"Vodka," she said, claiming a water bottle and flopping down on the floor by Kotetsu.
"Well, there's beer," Kotetsu said, seeming unfazed.
"Suddenly you drink decent beer?" Barnaby asked, apparently just noticing the bottle Kotetsu had in hand.
"I never said I wouldn't drink the stuff. I just said I wouldn't pay for it. You want any, Rose?"
"Still underage," she reminded him.
"You just graduated! Sometimes you relax the rules a little." He passed her his bottle, and she hesitantly took a sip, her face twisting immediately at the bitterness. Kotetsu cracked up, and Barnaby smiled wryly as she passed it back to Kotetsu.
"Dark beers aren't something you give to a new drinker," he said, disapprovingly.
"Unless you just want to see a classic facial expression," he said. "Sorry, Rose, but that was priceless."
"So glad you enjoyed," she said, taking a long drink of her water to get the taste out of her mouth.
"You get the chair," Kotetsu said. "Ladies don't have to sit on the floor."
"So I'm sitting on a throne with you two at my feet?" She grinned. "I think I like this idea."
****
Fandom: Tiger & Bunny
Characters/pairing: Everybody's in this one!
Length: 4200 words
Rating: T
Summary: When Kotetsu returns from retirement and starts coming to Karina's performances again, she thinks she has her chance to get closer to him at last... but that also means getting to know his partner.
****
The next week had the two of them making their real re-entry - Kotetsu, showing off his wire-work, intercepted a flying NEXT she'd seriously thought was going to be Sky High's arrest, while Barnaby pried open a monorail car the guy's partner had welded shut, and she, Sky High and Barnaby ferried the trapped passengers to safety. Bison, of all people, had managed to snag the flyer's heat-powered partner.
"I'm glad that worked," Barnaby said quietly when they heard Mario announcing Kotetsu's arrest. "He hasn't wanted to show it, but I know he could use some confidence about holding his own in the First League."
"It should help sell the sponsors, too."
"Exactly."
"Blue Rose!" Keith hailed her, returning from handing the last of the passengers to the ground. "I look forward to attending your high school commencement ceremony, Blue Rose!"
"Oh. Um. Yes." She really hoped the audio hadn't picked that up. "I don't know why, but... wait, who else is coming?"
Barnaby was facepalming. Without even flipping up his faceplate. "What did he do?" she asked him.
"I did try to stop him," he said.
"He invited everyone, didn't he?"
"...yes."
She could tell even through the armor that he was watching her warily. "Ugh, fine. It's not my fault if you're all bored." She sighed. "Would it be unethical to point you out in a crowd?"
"Possibly, if you think it might cause a riot."
She created a few dollops of ice to slide down his neck, and rode her own ice-trail downwards, smirking happily.
When she called Jane that night, she mentioned the Hero influx. "So maybe I can show them to you, at a distance, for one bright side to all of them turning up," she said. She'd meant the general you, whatever her conceited semi-boyfriend might want to believe.
"I don't see why it's bad," Jane said. "It's their decision to attend, right?"
"I guess so."
"You're just upset because you don't want the part of your life you care about to have anything to do with high school."
"What?" That... made a disturbing amount of sense. "How do you do that?"
"Karina, look at yourself. You quit choir... I guess around the time you became Blue Rose, so that makes sense now, but it didn't to me then. You've been too busy to be in any activities or sports since then. High school didn't mean much to you, did it? You have me and Emily, but we'll be in touch after graduation. There aren't too many people that you'll never see again that you'll miss. Maybe some teachers?"
Except for Jane and Emily, all her closest friends were Heroes. "I guess you're right."
"So really, the Heroes are the ones you should celebrate with, right?"
"I do have the ticket to the school's big 'please don't drink and drive' celebration."
"Yeah, I'm going because all the people from the musical cast decided to... and Emily's going to a different party with her boyfriend."
"Oh, she is?" Karina yawned. "Sorry. I dunno, I guess it depends on whether everyone's called into action sometime in the Ls. That's what happened last year." Jane's older brother had been graduating.
"That's why you left when you did! So many weird things you've done make sense now," Jane said. "It's really enlightening."
"So glad I could help," Karina snipped, but she felt strangely relieved. She wouldn't be letting anyone down if she just spent the evening with Pao-lin and Nathan. Or Kotetsu and Barnaby. "Do you think I missed out by not being more involved in high school?"
"Gee, I dunno. You just saved like a dozen people's lives tonight? And made out with Barnaby Brooks Jr.? Yeah, I'd hate to have your life."
"I didn't make out with him!" Not tonight, anyway.
"Technicalities," Jane retorted. "I mean, do you feel like you missed out?"
Karina thought about it. "No. Not at all."
She was still disgruntled about Kotetsu's decision, though, and she finally figured out why; he couldn't leave it at an invitation extended to him and to Barnaby. It had to be all the Heroes.
No point to confronting him about it now, of course; it wasn't like she wanted to uninvite them. She just went around apologizing to them all, which just resulted in everyone assuring her that no, they wouldn't be bored at all, which seemed to kind of defeat the purpose.
"I just hope we are not called away early!" Keith said earnestly. "Graduations are very special days! Even more than birthdays, because they don't happen every year!"
"I guess so..." Karina said. Was he going to want to stay to the end because it was a special day for every single person? "I should be called up pretty early. The top fifty people in the class are called first."
"And you're in that?" Ivan asked, sounding a little stunned. She tried to decide if she should be insulted at his surprise.
"Wait, what's going on?" Pao-lin asked, so she had to explain and everyone had to congratulate her, and oh God she just wanted it all to be over. School was worse; people were signing yearbooks and exchanging senior pictures, and that was how she discovered two different boys she'd barely known had had crushes on her, which was awkward, and everyone was in a frenzy of planning, and that didn't even count the rehearsal they all had to attend.
Finally classes ended, and the day arrived - much better than last year, when the seniors had to come back after graduation to take their finals - and Karina's grandparents and her aunt and uncle and cousins all descended on the house. She really hated getting the obligatory graduation gift cards, because it wasn't like she needed money to buy things for her college housing, but her grandparents had insisted.
At the event hall, her family deposited her in the right section and split off for their seats. Everyone around was fidgetty, excited, perpetually adjusting each other's decorations - shawls? - and mortarboards, and while she couldn't help checking the bobby pins keeping her own in place, it was hard to get that many butterflies in her stomach over this when five days ago she'd had a gun pointed at her. Emily dropped by from her own place in the Cs for hugs, adjustments, and a bit of squealing, and Karina and Jane further readjusted her before sending her back, but mostly, everything seemed to be taking forever. And then she got a call on her PDA.
"Oh my God, you're kidding," Jane said, seeing it.
"No, it's just... a personal call. Just a second," Karina said, heading for the restrooms so she could take it.
She didn't need to - Kotetsu and Barnaby were standing near the water fountain. Kotetsu tapped his own wrist and the tone stopped. He was dressed just like he always was, though he'd plopped the hat on Barnaby, whose hair was pulled back. Barnaby had left his jacket behind. "I'm not sure you'd fool too many people that way," she said, smiling, as she approached them.
"So far so good," Kotetsu said. "Congratulations, Rose."
"You look beautiful," Barnaby said.
"Barnaby, I'm wearing a mortarboard," she protested, secretly pleased. "No one looks beautiful in those."
"From the forehead down," he amended.
She mock-glared, but she still kissed him. Then she turned to Kotetsu and grabbed him by the tie. "Kotetsu..."
"Urk?"
"Next time, don't invite people without asking!" She released him. "I'm still glad to see you guys, but seriously."
"Sorry," he said. "When's the next time?"
"Her bachelor's degree, of course," Barnaby said, pausing to make some minute adjustment to her honors shawl. "You only need to remember it for another four years. We'd better go back to our seats."
"Wait," Kotetsu said. "Pictures! Just one," he added, when she and Barnaby both groaned. He grabbed Barnaby, then threw an arm around Karina, holding out his phone with one hand. "Squish down more, Bunny." She reached out to grab his arm, pulling him in close enough that she worried for her mortarboard, and finally Kotetsu said, "Okay, smile. Or kiss or whatever." The flash went off as she was in the midst of a laughing "Kotetsu!"
He inspected the result and nodded, seeming satisfied. "Better get a move on, Rose."
"Don't I get to see it?"
"What? You wanted to?"
"Barnaby, do something to get back at him for me," she said, and then she was off, dashing back to her group to resume her place in line. When she arrived Jane grinned secretively at her, then straightened her mortarboard, and the teacher who was minding them gave her a long-suffering sigh.
The ceremony was, as she'd expected, excruciatingly boring, though she and Jane were able to switch places with a few classmates between them on their way back to their seats and talk unobtrusively. She was also able to point out her "um, coworkers" in the audience. "The one you were asking about is the guy with the short blond hair."
"Ah," Jane said, maybe blushing. "He's kind of cute, in a tiny, blurry way."
"Yeah, what can I say, they had to go for the open seating."
When it was finally over, and everyone had tossed their mortarboards and then reclaimed whichever had fallen closest and poured out of the auditorium, Karina reunited with her family. They'd had dinner beforehand, one set of grandparents had a long drive back home, the other didn't but seemed eager to go anyway, and her youngest cousin was asleep on his feet, so the extended family was off. "The parking lot's going to be a nightmare," he father said. "We probably should have carpooled."
"We can wait out some of the rush," her mother said soothingly, extracting another stray bobby pin from Karina's hair. "Did you get a chance to talk to Jane and Emily?" she asked.
"Mom, I was sitting right by Jane," Karina said, checking cell phone - a message from Nathan, saying they'd meet her at the pancake house across the street. She texted back "be there soon as I can." She tried to imagine Nathan, in his usual getup, sitting in one of the plastic booths. Not that he'd ever be uncomfortable. "Did you want to talk to their parents?"
"I just haven't seen them in a while," Karina's mother said, which she took as a yes.
It was nearly half an hour later before they managed to get away, Emily with her boyfriend - Karina barely knew him, but Jane approved, and they'd been together a while - and Karina and Jane together. Karina had sent a hasty "hey mind if I bring my friend?" and Nathan had apparently polled the table and gotten approval, so that was their destination.
"Does my hair look okay?" Jane asked, just outside the door.
"Better than mine," Karina said.
"Oh, please, you always look good."
"Think about the hair on the guy I'm seeing," Karina reminded her, pushing the door open. Jane just laughed at her.
She spotted them as soon as she was inside, and headed for their booth, Jane trailing behind. Nathan's clothing was pretty subdued, for him, a tee-shirt and jeans, though the shirt was pink and skintight and he probably had on glittery high-heeled boots. Kotetsu was trying to put on his mask, over Barnaby's obvious objections, but everyone else was waving and greeting them, and Sky High, of course, had to reach out to shake hands with Jane. Who was being uncharacteristically quiet, really. "So you can probably guess who everyone is," she said, reaching out to pluck the mask from Kotetsu's hand. "I mean, now that you can see them all."
"Yeah," Jane said, not actually smiling but with sort of a manic look in her eyes. "Um, it's very nice to meet you all."
"Did you also graduate tonight?" Sky High asked her. "Congratulations, and again, congratulations! And to you as well, Ms. Blue!"
"Thank you," Karina said, for both of them, since Jane was looking a little overwhelmed.
"You went to a very large high school!" he added.
She laughed, because that was the closest she could imagine to a complaint from him. "I did warn you guys," she said. "Oh, jeez, I'm sorry. Everyone, this is Jane." Barnaby looked like he was about to extend a hand for a handshake, but Jane turned back to Karina without seeing it.
"I should probably go," Jane said, barely above a whisper. "I don't want to keep my parents waiting."
"Are you sure?" The traffic really hadn't cleared up at all.
"Yeah, you know, just in case," Jane said, so they headed back outdoors. Karina looked back a bit regretfully - maybe she should have tried to keep Sky High in reserve, or something. She hadn't even made introductions to Barnaby and Kotetsu. And Jane should really meet Pao-lin, since she and Pao-lin would be roommates.
"Sorry," Karina said. "I guess it was a little overwhelming?"
"Oh my God Sky High shook hands with me!" Jane squeaked. "Karina, this was the best graduation present, thank you!"
"You're welcome?"
Jane hugged her. "We'll be in touch, right?"
"Of course we will!" She stepped back. "Have fun at the party."
"Probably not because of the party itself, but I will," Jane said.
Back inside, Karina returned the mask to a pouting Kotetsu, and squeezed in between him and Barnaby. "Sorry," she said. "I think she got shy at the last minute."
"It does happen," Barnaby said. "She's a fan?"
"Kinda?"
"Darling, have you eaten?" Nathan asked her. "I hear the Moons Over My Hammy is exquisite."
Kotetsu and Bison both laughed; she just stared. "Is that actually a thing?" she finally asked, when Nathan's smile didn't even twitch.
"It's not half bad," Kotetsu said.
"Seriously, it's real?"
It was real, according to the evidence of Kotetsu's phone, though this was the wrong restaurant for it. Karina ordered pancakes - for all her scorn she hadn't been able to eat much before the ceremony - and let Kotetsu steal her bacon. Karina and Pao-lin started talking across the table about when they could start apartment hunting; eventually Pao-lin climbed over Origami so they could talk more easily, and Karina figured from the look on his face that either he did like girls or Pao-lin had misplaced a knee.
Bison needed to leave early, or maybe he just wanted to since there was no alcohol to be had, and she and Barnaby let Kotetsu out so they could go catch up for a while. Sky High excused himself since he still needed to patrol for the night, and Pao-lin had to leave because he was going to be her ride home.
That left Origami looking a little confused and frightened - he'd spent most of the evening, from what Karina could see, talking to Sky High and Pao-lin - and while Barnaby tried to engage him in conversation about the Hero Academy, that didn't seem to help once Nathan draped an arm around him.
"You have to let me help you decorate," Nathan was saying to her, not for the first time that evening.
"I'm not saying no, I'm just saying you should check with Pao-lin," she hedged. Knowing how Pao-lin felt about girly things compared to how Nathan felt about them, she really didn't want to make any unilateral decisions.
"Aw, honey," Kotetsu said, standing over the table with a crooked grin on his face. "I turn my back and I find you with your arm around a blond half my age?" Barnaby looked slightly startled - he did, in fact, have his arm around her.
"He's just a friend," Nathan retorted, letting Origami go.
"This booth is full of blonds," Karina pointed out.
"Just scoot over, Bunny, no need to get up," Kotetsu said, so she had to scoot too, and somewhere in the process Origami decided it was time to make his escape.
"Congratulations, Blue Rose, and thank you for inviting me." He actually bowed.
"Seriously, it was... I don't understand why you all sat through it... um, thank you?"
He bowed again and fled. "That kid..." Kotetsu said. "So what'd I miss?"
"A lot of discussion of decorating and Hero Academy, I believe," Barnaby said. "Definitely Hero Academy."
"I really am sorry I didn't get Jane introduced to you guys," Karina said. "I didn't know she was that much of a Sky High fan or I would have saved him for last."
"Oh, don't worry about it," Nathan said. "He's just friendly, anyway."
"Besides, we'll be around," Kotetsu said. "You're staying in touch with her, right? There'll be other chances."
She nodded. Nathan offered her a sip of his milkshake. "So how's it feel being done?" he asked.
"It doesn't feel real," she said. "It's like how it doesn't count as summer vacation until it's the first Monday of the break. And even then... the end-of-season party's, what, next week, depending on the crime?"
"If not sooner," Barnaby said. "I don't know how they pull them together so quickly."
"Well-compensated caterers, I know that," Nathan said. "Karina, forgive me, but this was the first event I've been to in years that made those parties seem entertaining by comparison. And you know I go to plenty."
She laughed. "I warned everyone! You have no one to blame but yourselves!"
He ruffled her hair. "It was your graduation! I couldn't miss it, I don't care how much you say graduating was a foregone conclusion."
"I haven't been to a graduation since... jeez, since I graduated," Kotetsu said. "Back when you were a baby, Rose. Maybe a fetus."
"Well, I won't say it's been that long, but... since I graduated, yes." Nathan grinned at them. "I need my beauty sleep. You three be good. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"Set the bar a little higher than that," Kotetsu complained. "We've got an innocent young girl here."
He just smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling, and slid out of the booth. Yes, Karina noticed, pink glittery boots, and a belt to match. "Have fun!" he called out, waving at them as he left.
"Well, I guess innocent young girls are pretty safe with him," Kotetsu said, once he was gone. Karina thought about pointing out that she regularly wore a costume that had to be glued to her nipples and included a feature she and her wardrobe people called the "ass-vines," but instead she just smiled to herself. Not only would that be a little awkward to bring up, but she knew perfectly well that Nathan had been talking to her, too.
They eventually paid up and relocated to Kotetsu's car. "You need to get home, Rose?" Kotetsu asked.
She shook her head. "I should probably check in at some point, but I told my parents I'd probably be out most of the night. The school hosts an all-night party, and they were fine with me going to that."
"Doesn't mean they'd be fine with you hanging out alone with a couple of older guys all night," he pointed out, and she had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. She'd done this before! "Of course you've got me as a chaperone," he added. "Hey, that's an idea. Bunny, let's show her your apartment!"
"You're actually bothering to consult me?" he asked. "Does that mean I could say no?"
"Is there some reason you don't want your girlfriend to see your apartment?"
They hadn't actually gotten around to using that term, as such, yet, so Karina blushed, and she strongly suspected Barnaby was doing the same. "No," he said, a bit strangled. Kotetsu chuckled a bit evilly as he started the car.
"So that's the plan. We're going to go watch movies at Bunny's place in hopes you can talk him into buying a couch, Rose. Especially once you see his amazing TV."
"I've been shopping for one," he protested. "I just have to find one I like."
"What exactly does a couch need to do?" Kotetsu argued. "You sit on it. If your ass doesn't hurt, the couch works, so you buy it."
Karina sat back to let them bicker. She'd need to buy a couch, probably. Other furniture. She wasn't sure if she wanted Pao-lin to let Nathan help them decorate or not. On the one hand, she was sure he'd do a good job of it, but on the other, if it reflected his personal taste too much, it might be a bit blinding. Or pink enough to kill her roommate. Eventually, she dozed off, only waking once they reached the apartment. "You really do tend to fall asleep in cars," Barnaby noted.
"I'm kind of conditioned to," she said. "Sometimes I think I get more sleep in my transport than at home."
"Might want to break that habit before you learn to drive," Kotetsu said. "Brace yourself for this place, it's pretty fancy."
"I'm sure she can cope," Barnaby said, so of course she had to look unimpressed by the elegant lobby and gleaming elevator. His apartment was... "The first word that comes to mind is 'cavernous,'" she admitted, when Kotetsu asked what she thought. He headed off for another room, snickering.
"I've been thinking of redecorating," Barnaby said, a little defensively.
"It's really nice, just... large," she said. "I think you need more furniture just so it won't feel so empty."
"I do get the picture," he said, then "I apologize. I'm getting a bit tired of Kotetsu needling me about it, but that's not your fault."
"Where's the-- oh, wow," she said, her question about the fabled TV superceded by the view. "No wonder you don't bother with hanging things on the walls. It'd be pointless with a view like that." The city was spread out below, glittering and beautiful, darkness and distance hiding all the flaws.
"And that's the reason I live here," he said, joining her at the window, their arms just touching. She leaned into his side a bit, smiling.
"Bunny, you're supposed to be picking out a movie," Kotetsu called from the other room.
"All right, all right."
Karina tore herself away from the view to watch Barnaby pick up the remote, only to blurt "Holy crap, that's your TV?"
She could hear Kotetsu's laughter loud and clear, even before he emerged with a tray full of drinks.
"So that's the kitchen in there," she said. "Barnaby, can I look around?"
"Of course."
There wasn't much to see - a bedroom, with a neatly-made bed, a nightstand, and nothing else; a sleek, modern-looking bathroom, noteworthy mostly for the array of hair products on the counter; and the kitchen, which looked like exactly her mom's style, with a kitchen island in the middle, a lot of dark, gleaming wood, and equally gleaming appliances with elaborate controls. "You keep things really clean," she commented, leaving the kitchen.
"Er, thank you?"
"Rose, you called your parents?"
"You're really bossy tonight," she noted, pulling out her phone and stepping out into the hallway.
Her mother was the one who picked up the home phone. "I'm going to be staying over night with some of the other heroes," Karina reported, hoping that would be enough.
"All right, Karina. Just remember to be careful, especially if you're, you know, with Barnaby..."
"Mom, oh my God shut up, I told you it's not like that." This was what she got for admitting to her mother that there might be a Barnaby/Blue Rose subplot in the works with maybe a tiny bit of basis in reality.
"Don't worry, I won't tell your father."
"Because there's nothing to tell!" Maybe Pao-lin would be willing to go look at apartments tomorrow. Or right this instant. Better yet, yesterday.
"Well, have fun, sweetie," her mother said, and Karina gritted out a goodbye and waited in the hall for a bit to get over the mortification before she went back inside.
"Water, soda, or juice?" Kotetsu greeted her when she came back in.
"Vodka," she said, claiming a water bottle and flopping down on the floor by Kotetsu.
"Well, there's beer," Kotetsu said, seeming unfazed.
"Suddenly you drink decent beer?" Barnaby asked, apparently just noticing the bottle Kotetsu had in hand.
"I never said I wouldn't drink the stuff. I just said I wouldn't pay for it. You want any, Rose?"
"Still underage," she reminded him.
"You just graduated! Sometimes you relax the rules a little." He passed her his bottle, and she hesitantly took a sip, her face twisting immediately at the bitterness. Kotetsu cracked up, and Barnaby smiled wryly as she passed it back to Kotetsu.
"Dark beers aren't something you give to a new drinker," he said, disapprovingly.
"Unless you just want to see a classic facial expression," he said. "Sorry, Rose, but that was priceless."
"So glad you enjoyed," she said, taking a long drink of her water to get the taste out of her mouth.
"You get the chair," Kotetsu said. "Ladies don't have to sit on the floor."
"So I'm sitting on a throne with you two at my feet?" She grinned. "I think I like this idea."
****
