Chapter Text
o/~
My winter nights are taken up by static
Stress, and holiday shopping traffic
But I close my eyes, and I'm somewhere else
Just like magic
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“This is completely ridiculous! I absolutely do not want or need a partner!”
Barnaby Brooks Jr huffs out an annoyed sigh, his knuckles going white as he grips the leather of his steering wheel a little too tightly.
“On the contrary, Mr. Brooks,” the pleasant voice over his speaker phone contradicts him. “You’re a complete rookie – it makes perfect sense that Apollon would want you to have the proper... support.”
Grateful that this isn’t a video call, Barnaby rolls his eyes, confident enough in his resume to risk arguing back. “You said nothing about this when we talked last week! I didn’t agree to this – in fact, I think I was entirely clear when I said I wanted to be the one representing my parents’ work!”
“You will be,” Agnes explains impatiently. “You just won’t be the only one – listen, this is the deal the company is offering. Wild Tiger is a veteran in this business and I already know you’re eager to sit down with Apollon’s engineer, Saito, as you expressed in your application.”
Being forced to argue his case while over the phone is an incredibly unfair handicap and Barnaby squints as the glare of oncoming headlights against the wet pavement reflects badly in his glasses. Is it starting to snow?
His hesitation in answering only gives Agnes a chance to barrel ahead in her usual brusque manner. “Take some time to read through the entire contract before you make a snap decision? I can set up a meeting next week-”
“I was intending to have this all sorted out in the next few days so that I can move back to the city before the end of the year and continue my work!” The headlights pass and Barnaby blinks into the sudden darkness of the winding road, spots of light in his vision and sudden fat flakes falling fast against the windshield blurring the road.
“I could try to set the meeting up sooner,” Agnes flat out ignores his complaint this time, continuing, “But the Christmas holiday is in less than a week-”
Barnaby’s focus scatters even more at the unexpected mention of that which he always pointedly avoids, his chest clenching suddenly from the heavy and painful thud of his heart, and he cuts her off with a decidedly rude snap of “I don’t care about Christmas!”
As if he’s somehow cursed himself with the statement, the universe chooses that precise moment for Barnaby’s little red sports car to skid on the messy road as he takes the next bend in the narrow highway a little too swiftly.
Suddenly there’s nothing but the slippery glide of ice under his wheels and he’s spinning, around and around in the dark, too many times to count, right off the road and into a ditch with a jarring crunch that dislodges his glasses, steals his breath and terminates the call.
The only feeling Barnaby even has in the aftermath is anger at the whole scenario.
Anger about the job, this partner thing, the black ice, his supposedly extra high-performance tires, himself for even being on the phone while driving this late, the snow, and of course, Christmas.
Huffing indignantly as he rights his glasses, he then grabs his phone from where it's been flung and his trapper hat from the passenger seat, shoving that over his curls. Wrenching his door open, he can tell he hasn’t gone that far off the road, but the slope of the ditch is steep and slick enough as he climbs back up it that he’s certain he’s not going anywhere without some help.
He immediately starts attempting to pull up tow services in the area on his phone, despairing at the empty green wasteland he appears to be in. The first set of results just starts to load as another set of headlights comes around the bend. Barnaby doesn't even look up until he hears the truck come to a stop, window noisily rolling down.
Leaning across the passenger seat of the pick-up truck, a man with a black knit hat pulled down almost to his eyebrows calls out to him in concern through the open window. “Hey, are you okay? Do you need any help?”
Well. He won't look a gift horse in the mouth. Until it gives him reason to, anyways. "I'm fine," Barnaby answers, trudging closer. "My car's definitely stuck, though."
Throwing the vehicle into park and turning on the hazard lights, the other driver gets out of his truck and comes around to the passenger side to get a look at Barnaby's car. Taking in the fancy red imported sports car with its back end stuck in the ditch, he makes a noise of agreement with Barnaby's assessment, bending down to get a closer look before commenting. "What's a kid like you doing out here on these icy roads at this hour?"
Barnaby's answer is as icy as the road. "None of your business, old man." He crosses his arms, huffing. "You wouldn't happen to have a tow line on that hunk of junk, would you?"
Straightening up from his inspection of the car, Kaburagi T. Kotetsu turns his gaze onto the man he's stopped to help with a raise of one eyebrow. It takes quite some nerve to be asking for a favor in the same breath as both a rude retort and an insult, especially given the current situation. Despite his puffy red jacket, Kotetsu can tell the other man is freezing as he fights with his cell phone, his shivering making the furry flaps on his white hat bounce up and down. His glasses are slightly fogged from the falling snow and he looks so very lost and out of place that Kotetsu would put money on him being a pampered city boy. "As a matter of fact, I do, lil' Bunny."
"It's Barnaby," the blond snaps irritably, before the nickname even sinks in enough for him to be embarrassed. But then it does, and he feels his face flush as he turns away, pretending to look at his car instead, his next question a little softer around the edges. "...would you please help me get out of here? I've got places to be."
Kotetsu doesn’t miss the reaction that comes with the realization, and his lips quirk into the hint of a smile at having managed to get a name out of the stranger he’s standing in a snowstorm to rescue. The flaps on his white hat flop a little as he turns away and Kotetsu instantly decides that it doesn’t matter – Bunny is a more fitting name anyway. “I’ll see what I can do,” he tells Barnaby honestly. “You might have to help me get some straps around the tires, but I think if we manage that, we might be able to use the truck to drag it up out of the ditch.”
Whether the car will still be drive-able is another question entirely, as Kotetsu is pretty certain that at least one of the front tires is flat and he can’t see the back ones yet.
"Any way I can help," Barnaby answers truthfully, but then his phone chimes. "Ah, hold on..." He pops that open as the truck guy starts pulling out cables and things, seeing that Agnes has sent him a text.
Give it a day or two. Think about it. - A
He grumbles, but puts it aside for now. They can talk tomorrow in person, after he's finished this drive and he's had a full night of sleep in his own bed.
Working together, they manage to get the straps hooked around the front tires without too much trouble, Kotetsu giving directions and Barnaby following his lead, a bit surprised at how easily he’s able to follow despite the blinding snow. Then, with Kotetsu back in in his truck and Barnaby calling directions to him through the open window, they attempt to drag it up out of the ditch with a little forward momentum.
Watching through his rear view mirror, Kotetsu is actually a bit surprised when Barnaby jogs around to the back end of his car as it comes over the rise, kicking just enough of the gathering icy muddy slush out from under the last tire to get it up the incline. Kotetsu hadn’t expected a city boy to be willing to get his hands dirty so quickly, but perhaps he’d misjudged him a little bit.
They manage to get the car back up onto the road in short time, but it's clearly in no shape to simply drive off. Panic starts to set in just a bit as Barnaby realizes that one of his front tires is definitely flat. He has a spare tire, but the darkness already feels nearly oppressive, and he can calculate his arrival time slipping into the wee hours of the night.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Kotetsu finally says as he uses the flashlight on his phone to try and inspect the underside of the car. “But I don’t think you’re getting anywhere in this tonight. At the very least, you’ve got a flat, but it might be worse than that and the roads are dangerous right now.
Barnaby resists the urge to rub at his temples, shifting his weight restlessly instead. "I don't have time for this," he mutters, halfway to himself. "I need to get to Stern Bild."
Kotetsu's ears perk up at the mention of Stern Bild, internally congratulating himself on his accurate guessing. "Well, I guess you could try and call a taxi, but good luck getting anyone to come out this far in this weather," he shakes his head with a rueful chuckle, inserting his honest assessment despite the fact that Barnaby definitely hasn't asked for it. "And then you'd have to come back out here tomorrow to deal with your car too."
The guy's not wrong. Barnaby knows he still has at least an hour or twoon the road to reach the heart of the city, maybe more in this weather. And besides that, he's obviously in the middle of nowhere, judging by the general lack of traffic and spotty phone service. "I don't even know where 'here' is."
"Oh!" Kotetsu gestures out into the darkness of the wooded mountains beyond them. "You're maybe a mile from the Oriental Town exit – actually, my home's not far from here, if you need a place to crash for the night." The second the words slip out, his mind is off and running, automatically plotting the best way out of this mess. "There's a good auto shop in town. We could hitch your car to mine since the back tires seem okay, tow it to my place, and then take it into town to get looked at tomorrow morning."
Barnaby just stares at him for a good long moment. He has to be joking, surely. People don't just do that sort of thing. "You don't even know me, why would you... do all of that?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Kotetsu frowns, a bit irked at the skeptical response to his goodwill gesture, and exasperated at the expectation that he explain it too. "OK, sure thing, lil Bunny," he lifts his hands beside his head to imitate the floppy ear flaps of Barnaby's hat. "I'll definitely just leave you and your broken car stranded out here in the snowy dark and-" Kotetsu about-faces in the direction of his truck, fully expecting Barnaby to stop him, and instead, he slips on the ice, his feet flying out from under him with a surprised little yelp. "Gah!
Barnaby moves before he can even think about it, the instinct too far ingrained in him, darting forward to catch the other man deftly. Something about the way the glow of the headlights hits his face – or maybe it's simply how suddenly close they are – makes Barnaby's eyes catch on his, their deep amber drawing him in. My, he is rather attractive when he's not running his mouth…
Kotetsu is absolutely expecting his tailbone to collide mercilessly with the icy pavement, so he’s entirely surprised when he doesn’t end up on his ass. Instead, Barnaby suddenly has a strong arm underneath his back and his other hand is wrapped around Kotetsu’s wrist, almost as if he’s dipped him in a dance.
I’ve never seen eyes such a vivid green before… Their faces are mere inches from each other and Barnaby’s unusual hexagonal glasses have slid down to the end of his nose. Kotetsu gazes up at him, watching as the whirling snow catches in his curls, and then he mumbles the first vaguely coherent and entirely ridiculous thought that pops into his head. “You have pretty long eyelashes.”Barnaby freezes, the comment catching him off-guard, despite his own train of thought – or perhaps because of it. It takes him a long moment to reboot, and even once he moves to pull the other man to his feet he keeps himself as neutral as possible despite the embarrassed noises going off like sirens inside his head.
Kotetsu has no idea what in the world possessed him to say such a thing, but now he’s too tongue-tied to do anything besides mumble “...thanks,” as he re-gains his balance.
Barnaby changes the topic back to their previous conversation instead, fiddling with his glasses, focusing on the situation at hand. "...you'd really let me stay the night?" Considering the circumstances, it's probably his best option.
This is the second time that Barnaby has questioned whether his offer is sincere, but instead of being snarky this time, Kotetsu peers through the other’s hesitancy to see more clearly that, for whatever reason, this isn’t someone who trusts others easily. Maybe he can change that a little.
“I’m not the sort who says things that I don’t mean,” he tells Barnaby honestly, then hooks a thumb over his shoulder at the truck. “Help me hitch it up properly and we can be on our way.”
Barnaby nods, pulling his hat down a little further. "Alright, old man. Let's do it."
It takes them only a few more careful minutes to properly hitch the front end of Barnaby’s car to the back of the truck, but despite his thick gloves, Kotetsu can feel his fingers starting to go numb from the chill of the damp night.
Climbing back into the driver’s seat, Kotetsu waits until Barnaby’s climbed into the passenger side and buckled in before turning off the hazard lights. “Warm enough for you?” he asks with a sidelong glance as he pops the temperature up a few more degrees.
Barnaby notices immediately that there’s music playing – some sort of soft jazzy piano – tolerable, at least – and the heat is leagues better than the weather outside. As they pull carefully back onto the highway, he has to admit to himself that the ride feels surprisingly comfortable, considering the circumstances. "...yeah, thanks." Barnaby smiles a little, subtly trying to hide his lingering shivers.
Kotetsu catches the hint of a smile and can’t help offering one in return, carefully steering with one hand while the other unwinds a green scarf from around his neck a little. “It’s only a few minutes from here,” he says as they take the exit. “I can show you to the guest room, bathroom – you can raid the fridge if you’re hungry. It’s not a big deal. Just try and keep it quiet, yeah? Some of the family is probably already asleep for the night.”
The charming smile and unique beard both catch Barnaby's eye, enough so that he's only half-listening until the word family. Barnaby suddenly starts to feel awkward for not even asking his name yet, but it's far too late for that. Really, he doesn't know anything about this guy, but it can't be too bad, right?
...Or so he thinks, until the sign on the corner where they turn in reads "Kaburagi Christmas Tree Farm".
Barnaby’s heart drops into his toes and his hands go ice-cold again, but it's not from the temperature this time.