Title: One Plants, Another Waters
Fandom: Tiger & Bunny
Rating: T
Length: 3000ish words
Summary: Keith was not the one who planted the seeds of change in Yuri's heart, but he has helped them to grow.
Notes: Keith/Sky High and Yuri/Lunatic literally never interact in the show itself, but there is this manga chapter which apparently gave lots of people ideas. Pretty darned good ideas, if you ask me. ;) Many references to that chapter in this ficlet, and it was inspired by my misreading the last couple of panels the first time I read it. (Hooray for happy accidents?)

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The first time Keith stayed overnight at Yuri's home rather than the other way around, just as Yuri had feared, he managed to discover one of Yuri's secrets. Fortunately this particular secret was a relatively innocent one; not the asymmetrical cloak that was hanging on the basement wall, or the accusations from his mother that were far from baseless, or what lay beneath the heavy layers of makeup that he applied in his bathroom each morning, or the decades-old hero suit that Yuri had often considered burning.

There had been plenty of excuses to avoid it so far. Keith's apartment in Sternbild was closer to Justice Tower. He had to walk the dogs in the morning before work. If the heroes were called into action while Keith was out in the suburbs, Sky High might not even arrive until the action was over. Though Keith had never said anything outright, he was terrible at hiding his curiosity, and not being able to indulge it had left Yuri irritable.

He'd made the preparations that afternoon. The door to the basement was always kept locked when he was not actively coming and going, so all that was needed was to clear away anything that might have given away the identity of his father. All the while his mother screamed at him helplessly from her wheelchair, accusing him of destroying even the memory and legacy of his father, and... he'd done his best to ignore her. Once he'd gathered the pictures, the awards, the obnoxious licensed merchandise bearing his father's likeness, he had placed them in a box in her room, and taken her there so that she could dream over them privately.

Yuri had plans for the night, with someone who was more worthy of dreams, and very much alive.

---

There had been a time, many years ago, when Yuri had imagined being a hero. In spite of the discrimination that NEXT still faced, Yuri didn't think it would be so bad if he became one, so long as he could become a hero. He could grow up to be just like his Papa, saving the lives of the innocent and keeping the peace and punishing those who did evil.

That desire had faded as he grew. Not only had he not manifested any NEXT power, but his father's behavior led him to question, as the man sunk deeper into alcoholism, repeatedly beat his mother without provocation. Was this a hero? Why would he want to have anything at all in common with his father? Yuri had turned his attention to study of the law, preparing for a career that might actually bring true justice to the world, and without any superpowers - rather than the false appearance of justice the heroes played at on television.

Left behind in place of his childish faith was a hole in his heart, which had begun as a tiny crack with the recognition of his father's failings, growing larger as the torturous months passed. Though once he'd believed so steadfastly in heroes, any fragment of faith he still retained went up in smoke the same day his father did, blowing that crack wide open.

---

Unlike Keith, Yuri had half a lifetime's worth of experience hiding things, and he offered the appearance of spontaneity. The cafe where they met to share a very late dinner was close to the edge of town - and with it being so late, after Keith's patrol, surely the heroes would not be needed for the rest of the night. Yuri's frail mother would be asleep by now. Perhaps he could finally have Keith over, if they remained quiet...

And though Yuri had taken every precaution to cleanse the communal rooms of every trace of the secrets he could not permit Keith to learn of, he had not thought to remove all traces of less troublesome secrets he kept in his own private space.

In fact, he'd entirely forgotten about one of them until much later that night, when he opened a drawer in his nightstand to put away a few items he'd earlier removed, and Keith caught a glimpse over his shoulder of something else within. "Wait a moment," he said curiously, reaching past Yuri. "Is that..."

Despite the lingering aftermath of their pleasure, Yuri froze. How exactly was he going to explain to Keith why he had in his nightstand...

"It is - a Wild Tiger trading card," Keith confirmed, holding it up to peer at it in the dim light of Yuri's bedroom. Perhaps fortunately, it was Keith; apparently the thought never crossed his mind that there might be a less than innocent explanation, and he just looked to Yuri with a bright smile. "So you're a fan of Wild Tiger?"

"...Ah..." For all his composure and oratory skills in the courtroom, Keith had a habit of leaving Yuri speechless, possibly because he never seemed to say what Yuri would have expected him, or any rational adult, to say.

---

Yuri already had not been watching HeroTV for years before starting law school, and he did not have any interest in watching it again afterwards. He was aware that it still existed - it would have been impossible to be unaware, seeing as the heroes were now monetized, their masked faces beaming out from every surface available for advertisers who sought to peddle their products in Sternbild. Apparently Albert Maverick's stated plans to make NEXT more accepted via positive representation was finally bearing fruit.

Not that Yuri cared. NEXT, heroes, common criminals - he had a job to do, and none of that mattered when any of them came before him in court. Everyone was to receive the justice they deserved.

It was admittedly a bit difficult to not take note of Wild Tiger, seeing as he appeared in court so often after incidents of property damage. That was essentially all that Yuri knew of the man - and it was all he wanted to know, particularly after the man once proclaimed as a defense in court that his brand of heroism was inspired by Mr. Legend. Though he did not so much as blink physically, Yuri was sorely tempted to give Wild Tiger the maximum fine permitted under the legal guidelines, just for invoking that name in his courtroom.

It was not until they had faced one another in battle, and Yuri had heard him speak of his idea of justice, that it occurred to Yuri that Wild Tiger was not seeking to become the man that Yuri had known as father, but the hero that Albert Maverick had shown to the world. A mere facade... which once upon a time, when Yuri was much younger, had been the truth.

Wild Tiger still believed that the heroes were agents of justice, and fought with that purpose in mind. In spite of all that had sprung up around that hole in Yuri's heart, Wild Tiger had planted a seed within - and even the blue-green flames of Lunatic could not destroy it.

---

"I can assure you," Keith told him, seeing Yuri's somewhat awkward reaction, "Mr. Wild is every bit as good a person in his daily life as he is on television. Even if he does break things, it's only because he tries so hard to save people. He truly has the heart of a hero. I admired him when I became a hero. I still admire him now."

"Is that so..."

"It is," Keith said with a firm nod. "It has been an honor and a pleasure to have worked alongside Wild Tiger for the years since Sky High's debut. He and I both feel very strongly about the responsibilities of being a hero, and he has taught me a lot."

Yuri allowed himself a subtle smirk. "I'm not surprised. The two of you do seem to have a lot in common, and a similar approach."

But there were differences, now that Yuri had begun paying attention. He was fairly certain that Kotetsu would not have been so willing to simply accept it without question if he had happened to discover that Barnaby was keeping another hero's trading card in a bedside drawer.

Not that Barnaby would have had anyone else's trading card in his bedside drawer, surely. Since the two of them had managed to overcome their differences and work togther, Barnaby was just as devoted to Kotetsu as Kotetsu was to him. Once that knowledge had been bitter for Yuri.

---

That first face-to-face encounter with Wild Tiger had sparked Yuri's interest, and he had taken advantage of his privileges as a member of the Justice Bureau to do further research into the man behind the hero suit. He had learned of Wild Tiger's civilian identity as Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, his deceased wife, his daughter. Learning that Wild Tiger also possessed Hundred Power had made Yuri pause, and he was lost deep in thought for some time. The parallels were truly eerie.

Also somewhat uncomfortable, as Yuri continued to gather information on Wild Tiger's activities and appearances - because Yuri was coming to find the man interesting in... more ways than the obvious.

Not that Yuri expected it could ever lead anywhere. Even if he could manage to overcome the awkwardness of Kotetsu's near-worship of his father, it was always difficult to discern whether or not someone might share one's own preferences - and the fact that there had once been a Mrs. Kaburagi made it far less likely.

But not impossible. And at first, it had seemed like particularly bad luck on Yuri's part when he did eventually come to believe Kotetsu might be open to the prospect of becoming involved with another man - since that belief came through watching his interactions with Barnaby as their partnership adjusted and settled. The way that they looked at one another, the smiles they shared and the touches that lingered... Yuri might have once had a chance with the man who had caused him to reconsider whether justice was so straightforward as he had come to believe, but he clearly had no chance now. The man who had planted the seed in Yuri's heart, he realized, could never know that change had begun to sprout there.

And so he kept watch from a distance, his continuing fascination indulged in subtle ways. On a whim, one day on the way home he had dared to stop at one of the street vendor stalls. A small reward for a young fellow who was working very hard on his schoolwork this semester, he assured the vendor as he passed her the payment for the card he was slipping into his wallet. Surely it would provide motivation, and a reminder to be persistent.

Although Yuri spent much of his time alone, seldom was it in a space which he fully controlled; his mother's home, public buildings such as Justice Tower, offices where someone might enter without much advance warning. He didn't want to chance someone stumbling across that card on his desk, or catching a glimpse of it when he opened his wallet. For a time, he kept it downstairs by the systems he used to do his research. He quickly discovered that seeing it there, Wild Tiger posed dynamically as if proposing a challenge, was causing him to hesitate in his preparations for Lunatic's outings.

Instead he took it upstairs to his bedroom, where the door was similarly always locked but for the moments when he would enter or exit. Sometimes after having returned from one of those outings, having faced the real Wild Tiger in combat only minutes past, he would look at that card and consider what might have been.

And then it seemed as though his bad luck may have been good luck after all.

---

"You're right - Wild Tiger and I do have a lot in common. Though I trust all of my fellow heroes," Keith stated, lying back against Yuri's pillows and looking up at the card he held with a warm smile. "We hold each other's lives in our hands each time we're called out to handle a situation together. But of all the other heroes, Wild Tiger may be the one I trust to do what is right. Regardless of whether it wins him points, or damages property, or is considered incorrect, or puts him at risk, he will do what must be done to help people. I greatly appreciate that."

"And so do I," Yuri agreed, settling down at Keith's side. "His methods may be... coarse... but his consistent commitment to protection of the innocent is unquestionable." And of course Yuri would have been lying to say that he hadn't immediately seen some similar traits between them - particularly the ones he had initially found obnoxious in Wild Tiger.

---

I don't really believe in good and evil. I'd like to think that sometimes lending a helping hand can change things.

I'm going to save you! It doesn't matter who you are, I just will!

Each one of you can become somebody's hero!

Optimistic naïveté combined with thoughtless enthusiasm and over-confidence nearly to the point of a savior complex, Yuri had observed after first meeting Sky High in his civilian identity. Heroes were no better people than any ordinary citizen, and sometimes far worse. And this one held the same faults he had observed in Wild Tiger, but taken to an even more extreme level. Keith Goodman was distracted by meaningless matters, gullible even in the face of the most absurd excuses - and when confronted with proof of wrongdoing, he went further than simply not rendering the punishment deserved, but even shrugged it off as unimportant, not worthy of punishment at all.

How could one distinguish between good and evil when they didn't even believe in such concepts? How could someone enforce justice when they didn't think that the guilty should face consequences for their actions? While Wild Tiger had caused Yuri to have some second thoughts about Lunatic's objectives, his thoughts about Keith had initially been only to wonder how such a childish fool had managed to be crowned King of Heroes multiple times.

Even more foolish and childish, upon crossing paths again and discovering that they were in a sense coworkers, Keith seemed to believe that the short time they'd spent together looking for his lost dog somehow made them friends. No matter how much Yuri ignored his overtures, and then actively discouraged his overtures, he and Keith seemed to encounter one another far more often than seemed reasonable. This meant Yuri was further exposed to Keith's absurd opinions, voiced as Keith did everything - with absolute confidence.

It was surely all rubbish, talk of the goodness inherent in mankind and the certainty that everything could and should and would get better if everyone just gave each other a chance, reached out a hand to anyone who asked, tried a little harder to be understanding and forgiving.

At last, after a particularly long day involving a particularly troubling case, Yuri snapped - though in the socially acceptable way, rather than another way he could have been said to have snapped some time ago. He pushed back against Keith's optimism... and almost before the cynicism had left his lips, he regretted it. With Keith's naïveté came a certain amount of innocence; to push back against it felt a bit like when Yuri had accidentally stepped on the tail of Keith's dog.

But Keith's expression never faltered as he smiled and repeated that he believed everyone deserved a chance to be their best selves.

Keith's beliefs about humanity and right and wrong were so incongruous with Yuri's that somehow, he wound up listening. Incredulously, just to try to figure out how anyone could possibly think it made sense.

Incredulously or not, however, he was listening, and he found himself thinking about what Keith said as well. The seed that had been planted in months past had been largely left to itself; the grace that flowed unceasing from Keith's heart was watering it without even realizing it was there.

Or given what he believed about everyone having the capacity to do good, maybe he recognized that such seeds were in everyone. Yuri wasn't so self-important as to believe Keith used his words and his deeds to water only his - he had seen plenty of evidence that Keith spread his optimism to everyone who would listen - but when nurtured by the constant stream of Keith's positivity, Yuri certainly found that his own untended seed was growing.

---

Keith's smile was soft and warm, turning away from the card he held in his hand to shine upon Yuri instead. "It makes me happy," he told Yuri, handing the card back to him, "to see that you appreciate Wild Tiger as much as I do."

Yuri just smiled back and said nothing. He certainly hoped that Keith did not appreciate Wild Tiger quite so much as he had in the past - but Keith didn't have a jealous or suspicious bone in his body. Even if Yuri had admitted to it, he was sure Keith wouldn't have become concerned.

By that token, it wasn't so strange that Keith hadn't asked. Yuri would tell him anyway. "In case you're wondering," he remarked, turning over to replace the card in his bedside drawer, "I bought it some time ago, and I do not have a collection. Just this one card."

"It would be fine if you did," Keith assured him. "We are both adults, and we have earned the right to do as we please, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Collecting trading cards is a harmless hobby."

Of course Keith would think that was why he'd said it, and immediately offer reassurance. Yuri chuckled softly as he settled down to face Keith again. "I agree. But what I was leading up to," Yuri told Keith, reaching out to take the hand he offered, "was the observation that I have no Sky High trading card, and no need for one - seeing as I have the real thing in my bed."

"You do," Keith agreed cheerfully.

With that growing seed having produced uncertainty and introspection, Yuri had taken to wondering sometimes what might happen if Keith was made aware of the secrets he kept. Particularly the one sin of Yuri's that even someone so forgiving as Keith might find unforgivable... Surely even Keith would not be so accepting of Lunatic as he was of the relatively minor infraction of keeping one of their coworkers' trading cards in his nightstand.

But at this moment, Keith's warm smile had become even more brilliant. Like the seed Wild Tiger had planted and Keith Goodman had watered, Yuri found himself reaching not for the moon, but for a kiss from the sun.
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