I'M NOT DEAD! Thanks for the lovely reviews. They really make feel like writing more. Sorry for the lack of updates. I had a huge writers' block, lots of college work, watching new animes, planning new stories (Pewdiepie, Hetalia, Attack on Titan, Free!, Bleach, Dgray Man, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, and DRAMAtical Murder), reading more, and drawing more. The story will continue and keep getting better and fluffier and cheesier.

I don't own Tiger and Bunny. Just my OCs

…

Chapter 4: Happy Birthday… Kind of.

It was beautiful autumn day in Sternbuild. It was late October and things have been going great for our heroes. Casie and Keith have become great friends, Pao-Lin and Ivan seem closer than ever, and all the heroes have had a chance to shine. Hero TV has gotten more ratings thanks to the Backup League and everything seemed perfect. Well, not exactly, in Barnaby's case. It was Monday, October 31, Halloween, his birthday, and he is in bed with a bad headache. Not the best birthday ever, you could say. He couldn't sleep. Just shutting his eyes plagued his mind with nightmares. Maverick and Ouroboros, his parents' and Aunt Samantha's death, and if that wasn't enough he also dreamt that Kotetsu really did die and that he was left alone.

"I wonder how work is going without me." Barnaby thought. Of course, no matter how badly he wanted to, he didn't go to work in his condition. He called Kotetsu earlier, but didn't get a reply.

"He's probably busy and working to make up my absence today," he thought. "Poor guy." He got up from his bed and went to his bathroom cabinet. There he got a sleeping pill, hoping he would fall asleep without nightmares. He got in bed again and drifted off to sleep.

During lunch break, Kotetsu checked his phone finding a missed call from Barnaby as well as a voice mail. Of course Kotetsu didn't take the call because he keeps his phone on silent during working hours. He had much more work today than usual because of Barnaby's absence today. And there he was with a set of tiger ears and tail for Halloween and making public appearances in places where there were mostly children. All heroes were dressed up for the holiday and gave children treats in a big trick-or-treat event. They kept their hero masks or makeup but the rest was a costume. Blue Rose had a royal blue princess dress decorated with blue flowers. Pao-lin was a pumpkin witch with orange pumpkin shorts, an orange shirt with a jack-o-lantern face, and long stripped knee-high stockings with matching shoes. Rock Bison wore a military uniform with his helmet on. Sky High was a pilot, Fire Emblem a devil, Origami a ninja, the twins were nurses, and Casie was an angel. Barnaby was supposed to be the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, but sadly, he didn't make an appearance. Kotetsu would have liked to see that.

Sighing, he put the phone on his ear and listened to the voice-mail he had. 'Hey, it's Barnaby. Sorry I couldn't make it. I'm not feeling well today and sorry for probably dumping all the work on you. Anyways, happy Halloween Kotetsu. Bye. The message ended there.

'Poor Bunny.' Kotetsu thought. 'And especially today, his birthday.' He made up his mind that after work, he was going to see him.

He used the rest of his lunch break to go to a nearby store and buy a few things that will surely cheer his Bunny up.

…

'Barnaby was walking around in a familiar dark room. There were pieces of a very damaged wall on the ground and some of the roof. There was a hole in another wall giving him a view of Sternbuild at night. There were also pieces of metal and machine scattered all over the place. Yes, this was too familiar and Barnaby knew where he was. This was the place they confronted Maverick after he killed his aunt and framed Kotetsu.

Wait a second. Where was Kotetsu? Looking around, Barnaby found some sort of gun by his feet. He picked it up and felt how warm it was, meaning it was used just recently. Shaking a bit, he dropped it back on the floor and ran towards the place he found Kotetsu after he shot the android along with him. And he found him. Kotetsu was in the same position that Barnaby expected him to be in. He was on his back, his suit damaged, his burned chest exposed, and his eyes closed.

Barnaby ran to him and held just like he did this night and just like this night Kotetsu said the exact same words while they cried.

"Kotetsu," Barnaby said as he pulled him closer, his glowing blue eyes never leaving the older man's amber tired ones.

"Too close buddy." Kotetsu said. "Hey, you have pretty long eyelashes." And he lost consciousness.

"Kotetsu!" Barnaby yelled his name, but got no response. He quickly took off his helmet, fully exposing his blond hair, and pressed his ear to Kotetsu's darkened chest and listened. Something was different and not in a good way because he heard nothing. No way. This wasn't supposed to happen. Kotetsu only fainted and woke up later, saving his daughter. He wasn't supposed to die.

"Kotetsu!" he shouted. "This has to be a dream." Yet it felt too real to be just a bad dream.

"I love you, Kotetsu." Barnaby said as his tears streamed faster from his eyes and he screamed his partner's name over and over again.'

"Kotetsu," Barnaby said again, but softly this time as his closed eyes produced more wet streaks down his rosy cheeks. He felt something slide on his cheeks brushing the tears away and heard a voice.

"I'm here, Bunny." It said.

Barnaby slowly opened his eyes, blurred by his bad eyesight and by his crying. After blinking away the tears he had leftover, his eyes adjusted to his surroundings and he was able to make out objects. He was on his bed, holding the pink plush bunny tightly to his chest, and Kotetsu was on top of him, pressing his forehead against his. Wait. What? Barnaby's eyes widened and there goes his damn heart.

"K-Ko-Kotetsu," he stuttered, his face red. "Ge-get off of me!" He pushed his partner off and sat up on the bed, his breathing a little heavy. Kotetsu was so close to him a second ago. Hell, he could have kissed him if he wanted to. He was that close and that passed Barnaby's comfort zone by a mile.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, still flushed.

"I got your message." Kotetsu replied. "So I came to see how you were doing and damn, Bunny, you have a freakishly high fever. Did you know that?" Barnaby stayed silent, realizing that Kotetsu was only checking his temperature. Was it really that bad?

"And also," Kotetsu continued. "You were crying and saying my name."

"I didn't know I could sleep talk." Barnaby thought. He brushed his messy curls away from his face. "I'm alright," he said. "It's was only a nightmare."

"It must have been a really bad one if you cried while sleeping," Kotetsu said. "You don't have to tell me, but it's better when you talk to someone about it."

"It's okay," Barnaby replied. "I'll tell you." Kotetsu sat on Barnaby's bed and listened to his partner's nightmare.

"Remember that time when we destroyed H-01 and I got you injured?" Barnaby asked. Kotetsu nodded. "Well, it's basically that memory, but different." Barnaby continued, "Because you never woke up." Kotetsu's eyes widened, but he stayed silent and listened. "Y-you really were d-dead, Kotetsu." The tears came back even though Barnaby tried to hold them back in. "I called your name and checked your pulse and the worst part was that it didn't feel like a dream. It was like reliving a memory with the worst possible outcome."

Kotetsu still didn't say anything. All he did was pull Barnaby into a tight hug.

"You can feel me now, right Bunny?" Kotetsu asked as Barnaby relaxed in his arms, but didn't stop crying. "This is real and I won't leave you alone."

"You promise?" Barnaby asked, not letting go of the older man.

"I promise." Kotetsu said as he let go of his partner.

"We have been making a lot of promises lately, haven't we?" Barnaby asked, laughing a little and wiping any moisture in his eyes.

"Yup," the brunette replied as he handed the blond his glasses, "And we are keeping each and every one of them."

Barnaby put on his glasses and went to his drawer to find a brush for his bed head.

"You aren't going back to bed?" the older asked, "You are sick, Bunny."

"Nope," the younger simply replied, "I'm feeling fine. Besides, I'm hungry and haven't eaten anything since breakfast."

"Well, I brought some of my homemade fried rice." Kotetsu said smiling, "All we got to do is heat it up. You can finish getting ready while I prepare the table."

Barnaby nodded as Kotetsu left his bedroom leaving him to change out of his sweaty night clothes and into his usual black shirt and brown pants. He looked at himself in the mirror and finished fixing his messy blond locks in place. After he was satisfied with his appearance, he went to the dining room.

Kotetsu finished setting up the wooden table that Barnaby bought not too long ago and looked at his work proudly. A dark red tablecloth, two white plates filled with warm fried rice, a bottle of champagne in the center accompanied with two identical wine glasses, and Bunny's present sitting on said man's chair. It was a green tiger plushy similar to the pink bunny Barnaby has in his room. He also lit a single white candle in the center giving it a semi-formal appearance.

It was then that Barnaby arrived and just froze in place staring at the dinner table. Wide green eyes kept going back and forth between the table, Kotetsu, and the tiger plush.

"Kotetsu," he finally found spoke. "What is this?"

"Surprise!" the older man smiled. "Happy birthday, Bunny!"

"Why?" Barnaby asked as he walked towards the table.

Kotetsu placed a finger on his chin and looked up appearing pensive. Then he began to list counting his fingers.

"First, you deserve it; second, you are my best friend so I like doing this for you; third, it's your birthday; fourth, you are not spending the day sick and alone; and fifth, I really, um…never mind. I think that is all for now." He finished.

Barnaby sighed, but smiled anyways. "Thank you old man," he said. "But why a plush toy?" he asked as he moved the green tiger aside to sit to eat.

"To match the bunny one silly," Kotetsu said with a goofy grin. "Let's just eat before dinner gets cold."

…

Dinner was great for Barnaby. The food and champagne were good, there was strawberry cake after, Kotetsu almost confessed but got a call from Kaede wishing Barnaby a happy birthday, and they watched Hero TV looking at all the Halloween activities all the heroes did. Kotetsu stayed the night to watch over Barnaby's fever which quickly healed in the morning after a good night's sleep. The next day, Barnaby had to wear his Alice in Wonderland rabbit costume and the heroes threw a huge birthday party for him.

Finally finished this chapter after more than a year. Not only did college take away most of my time but I was stuck in the end of this chapter for a long time. Sometimes I pulled the document out and stare at it for hours. Thus the rushed ending because I needed to continue. The next chapter revolves mostly around my OCs with some backstory to them.

I thank:

n7shoujo: Thanks for the reviews and sorry for the long wait.

ShootToThrill: Thank you for the review. Being the first story gives me a lot of bumps in the road, huh? I'm happy to know you like my OCs and I apologize for my tardiness.

~Kirara