[CLOSED] lights turned up, it's hard to hide

[insinerate]

WHO: Yuri Petrov and Kotetsu Kaburagi
WHERE: Streets of Heropa and then a bar
WHEN: Forward-dated to the evening of August 24th
WHAT: Kotetsu buys a drink for Yuri on his birthday.
WARNINGS: None yet! If that changes, I'll edit this.


[Forty-one. It's a hell of a number, but...

If he's honest with himself, most days, Yuri feels even older. When he considers the way he looks beneath generously applied foundation and silicone prosthetics, beneath layers of carefully chosen brand name suits and pressed shirts, hair adornments and flashy neckties, he feels like he could be a decade or even two his senior. And on days when his scars ache? Because he has so many of them now. On days when they pain him, he sometimes wonders how he hasn't already got two feet in the grave.

Today, however, isn't one of those days. Miraculously, for his second birthday in this far away world, things are quiet. Peaceful, even. That is, if he doesn't pay the news too much attention. If he skims past the explosive front page headlines and reads the articles in back of the paper instead.

The Hiring section.

He still owns the Haberdashery, but business has been slow and, if things don't get better soon, he knows he'll be forced to sell and to find something else. Probably not the best way to spend his forty-first, but it's a comfort to feel the newsprint between his fingers, to read the stark black serif font against an off-white page, to lose himself in the words and the purpose with which they were written, some even with urgency. More comforting than paying mind to the people who avoid him on the street, reluctant to even make eye contact with a criminal let alone stroll along the same side of the street as him.

Which is why he's startled into dropping his paper when, rather suddenly, he finds himself colliding with someone's back...]

Ah...excuse me. I didn't...

[That hair is familiar. That hat, too.

Oh no.]

...see you there.

Comments

[earnedmystripes]

[Luckily, Kotetsu's not carrying anything or eating or drinking anything that can be dropped or splashed when he gets bumped. It's a totally harmless thing, one he might have barely registered if attention hadn't been drawn to it, and he turns, an easygoing grin on his face--]

It's al... [ah.]

...right.

[Ah.

There's two options here: Turn on his heel and walk away as if nothing happened, or...

Bah. Fine.]

......So it's your birthday, right. [An exhale that could potentially be construed as huffy.] ...Have a good one.

[insinerate]

My...

[Ah, of course. The broadcast he made earlier. Kotetsu had seen it, then.]

...yes.

[He kneels momentarily to collect the paper he dropped. Stands, dusting off its pages. And then, collapsing it, stares at Kotetsu from above the crisp fold line.

This is awkward. He thinks it would have been better if Kotetsu hadn't said anything at all. No doubt the man hadn't wanted to. So why bother?]

Thank you, Mr Kaburagi. I...hope to enjoy what's left of the day.

[And he prepares to leave, walking around him.]

and then i accidentally a teal deer oops

[earnedmystripes]

[That's a question he doesn't even know the answer to. Kotetsu doesn't usually think about Yuri, is, for the most part, not content, but accepting of mutually staying out of each other's way. Whatever association they may have once had is long dead and buried--if it ever even existed at all, which Kotetsu is never sure it did.

In fact, when his thoughts drift in that direction (as he seldom allows them to do), he's mostly convinced that it didn't, and Yuri basically just took advantage of his trust and his goodwill and feelings of camaraderie to make his own life easier, so he could keep on committing his crimes under the guise of finding them abhorrent and dangerous. He'd said it himself after all, that day: Kotetsu had only ever been in his way. He'd been an obstacle, so Yuri had seen fit to remove it in the only way he could....by gaining Kotetsu's trust, keeping him at a safe distance; not so close that he risked finding out, but not so far away that his feelings wouldn't affect his judgment.

It's probably what stings the most about the betrayal--that to Yuri, there was probably never anything to betray in the first place. Kotetsu Kaburagi never really meant anything to him, or...not as the man, anyway. This past year has been even more frustrating and confusing, because Yuri seems to feel some kind of bizarre obligation toward his capacity to be Wild Tiger, even at the same time as finding his brand of justice weak and useless.

So Kotetsu has lashed out, allowed pettiness to reign over their interactions because he'd been hurt and he was angry and frustrated and had no recourse for any of those things. And yet...here he is, wishing the man a happy birthday despite having originally intended to ignore the broadcast and go about his day like it hadn't even happened.

Why? Maybe it's to do with those confusing snippets of concern Yuri has shown him on certain occasions, or the limping vestiges of the feelings of friendship he held for Yuri before they were dashed on the rocks.]

...Yeah. It's uh, good weather and stuff for that. Enjoying the day.

[What the fuck was that? That was hardly a sentence, let alone a coherent one. Kotetsu would facepalm if he weren't in front of Yuri right now. Really, he should take that as his fucking cue to go. Who wants to spend their birthday with the one guy he can barely have a civil conversation with?

Kotetsu finally lets out a sigh, frustrated.]

You really oughta just tell me to piss off if that's what you want, y'know. 'Cause this whole polite crap is stupid and I don't even know what the hell I was trying to say just now.

.....But if for some weirdass reason you don't want that, I guess I could buy you a drink or something.

[insinerate]

[Whether or not Yuri desired Kotetsu's company, he wasn't the sort of man to tell another to piss off. Kotetsu, of course, had to know that. He'd felt the sting of Yuri's preferred method of dismissing people in the past.]

...a drink?

[He's less inclined to dismiss the veteran Hero now, however. And not for the promise of anything to commemorate this day, but because he's just...tired. Of all the conflict between them. The lack of resolution. And nothing, nothing at all ever coming from it.]

You know, you're not obligated to do anything like that, but if your offer is sincere...perhaps I will accept.

[earnedmystripes]

[Kotetsu resists (for once) the urge to be totally childish and roll his eyes, though his expression does take on a particularly sour cast.]

I wouldn't offer if I didn't mean it.

[Yuri knows, after all, that Kotetsu does not cultivate a public face like his partner does. ...Like Yuri did, once upon a time.]

Accept or don't, it doesn't really matter to me.

[Or so he tells himself, anyway.]

[insinerate]

Of course.

[As Kotetsu had done, Yuri also resists the urge to be childish. He needn't point out that the Hero was exactly the sort of man to offer something out of obligation, even if his offers were generally still tinged with an ounce of sincerity. There was no reason to sour this encounter any more than Kotetsu's bitter expression already has, to make this day something...less than pleasant.]

Then yes, I would like that. If nothing else it will give us an opportunity to...talk. Something we haven't done very much of, though I suppose I understand why.

[They're not friends, after all. Yuri had said as much once upon a time. But they weren't enemies anymore, either. Not in the strictest sense of the word, at least. What were they? It would be good to know...]

[earnedmystripes]

[Yeah, the whole "lying about being a serial killer" thing does kinda put a damper on social calls is the first thing to spring to mind, there, but for once in his life, Kotetsu doesn't blurt it out.]

Or we could just get smashed without talking. That'd work too.

[Since, you know, their conversations always go so well.]

[insinerate]

Smashed?

[That doesn't sound even remotely enticing, but in an effort to keep from instigating yet another conflict, Yuri simply nods.]

I suppose our discussions [he means arguments] haven't bode well for us in the past, have they?

[Particularly those involving alcohol. Yuri still cringes with embarrassment when he recalls the last time he and Kotetsu had thought to get drinks together. There hadn't been a pair of eyes in the whole establishment that weren't focused on them during their shouting match.]

Very well, but I'm not someone who frequents bars. If you happen to know of a place, I trust you to lead the way.

[Please, don't let it be the same place as before...]

[earnedmystripes]

You know--trashed, hammered, wasted? [Yuri probably wasn't questioning your slang, Kotetsu....]

And that's probably the understatement of the year, but yeah, I know some places.

[Don't worry, Kotetsu doesn't even remember which bar they had their fight in. Actually, that's probably not reassuring, but what are the odds of picking the same place twice, right?

...probably not as low as the odds of the bartender on duty back then being the one that greets them in this bar, but whoops, it's happening anyway. It'd be almost comical, the way his Retail Smile™ suddenly freezes in place, if it weren't so unfortunate.]

[insinerate]

[There isn't anything Yuri can say to Kotetsu following his explanation that wouldn't sound exasperated, so he settles for nodding and allowing the other man to do as requested and lead the way. Unfortunately, even that seems to backfire, as no sooner do they find themselves a ways from where they'd run into each other on the street and in a quaint-seeming bar that Yuri locks eyes with the bartender...

They remember each other. There is very obvious regret on both their faces, but whether Kotetsu notices or not or even remembers the man serving drinks at the counter it's hard to say. And, frankly, Yuri isn't eager to find out. He indicates a table far from the bar hoping the Hero will rake the bait and that they can spare themselves and the bartender the awkwardness of their presence near the taps.]

The jukebox is rather close to that table, and the dart boards.

[Music and games. Neither required much talking. It was perfect, right?]

[earnedmystripes]

[Kotetsu doesn't immediately place the man, though there's a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that it's familiar from somewhere, and he's about to ask Yuri what's with that face he's making when the former judge indicates that far table.]

Sounds fine to me.

[He follows Yuri to said table, picking up one of the darts and twirling it idly in his hand.]

Guessing we're doing this first, right?

[Drunken darts almost seems like the exact sort of thing to do with Yuri Petrov, but even Kotetsu has a shred or two of common sense left in him.]