The Day After
by Geri ([email protected])
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: D/Leon
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Matsuri Akino; no money is being made off this
story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
Summary: Sequel to "Revenge"; Leon struggles to come to terms with his feelings
for D on the day following the events in "Revenge".
Author's note 1: <> Indicates the animals' speech, which Leon cannot understand.
Author's note 2: As with "Revenge," this was written after I had seen the anime
but before I had read much of the manga, so it contains some details that do not
fit the "canon" version of the story: Chris does not live at the petshop, and
Leon makes references to his parents, when he seems to be an orphan in the manga
(his mother is dead, and he never mentions what happened to his father). Lupin
the wolf was not named after Professor Lupin from the Harry Potter books, but
after the anime/manga character Lupin III; I wrote this story before I started
writing Snape/Lupin fics.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Hello? Anyone home?" Leon called out as he opened the door to the pet shop. It
was late, about 8pm, way after D's usual closing time. He felt a little
uncertain. So much had happened since last night! D had almost been killed by
some of Liu Tai Wei's men, who had blamed the Count for the death of their gang
leader. Leon, both furious with and worried about the Count, had somehow wound
up kissing D in the middle of yelling at him, and one thing had led to
another... Last night his concern for D had overcome his inhibitions, but they
seemed to have returned in the morning. He had woken up to find D already
dressed, and serving him breakfast in bed. D had brought in a tray filled with
bacon, eggs, french toast practically floating in a pool of syrup and melted
butter (did D ever stop eating sweets?), and of course, tea. Leon had rushed
through the meal, telling D he was late for work, then left, giving him a brief
kiss after an awkward moment of hesitation. On top of that, Jill had somehow
guessed that he'd spent the night at D's!
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
"So you finally spent the night with D, did you? Well, you'd better not
disappear the way some guys do after--mmph!"
"Will you keep your voice down, Jill!" Leon hissed, clamping his hand over
Jill's mouth. "Let's not tell the whole department about this! Besides, I never
said I slept with him!" Jill could be so infuriating, especially when she was
right! Leon had been planning to avoid the pet shop for a few days while he
thought things over.
"You didn't have to," Jill smirked. "With the way you two were looking at each
other last night..." Suddenly she laughed. "Actually, I was just guessing! But
you just confirmed it with your reaction! Do you know you're cute when you
blush?"
"I SAID I didn't--"
"Didn't you ever study Shakespeare in school, Leon? 'The lady doth protest too
much'--that's from Hamlet."
"Grrrrr...!"
"Anyway, I'm just trying to help. Believe me, you don't want the Count mad at
you. And he will be if you don't show up tonight."
"You think so?" Suddenly Leon remembered that D had seemed a bit miffed that
morning. Oh shit, thought Leon, I didn't even thank him for breakfast! He had
been so embarrassed, and in such a hurry to leave... Oh man! For all that D was
slender and slight, he could be scary when he was angry--Leon could almost swear
that the Count grew fangs when he was mad! Sometimes D would shout at Leon, but
when he was REALLY mad, he became icily polite, which was even worse. If he
didn't make it up to D somehow, the atmosphere at the pet shop would be about as
pleasant as a winter day at the North Pole...
Jill smiled as she watched an expression of dismay cross Leon's face. Really,
the boy was an open book! "Stop by, even if it's just for a short visit. And
bring him a gift, flowers or candy or something."
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Keiji-san?" D said, snapping Leon back to the present. "Good evening." He was
dressed in some kind of blue robe that looked more like a Japanese kimono than
the Chinese cheong-whatsits he usually wore. Not that Leon was any expert. They
all looked like dresses to him, although it annoyed D to no end to hear him say
that. He remembered the first time he had said that...
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Hey D, is that a new dress?" Leon asked. D was wearing some sort of crimson
gown, emblazoned with a gold phoenix, and slit up the side to his waist. Leon
sneaked a quick sidelong glance. D was wearing some sort of close-fitting black
trousers under the dress.
The Count glared at Leon. "It is called a cheongsam, Detective, NOT a dress," he
said in a tone so cold it could freeze boiling water. "While usually worn by
women today, it was originally a long shirt worn by men in China back in--"
"OK, OK! Enough with the history lesson!"
Count D turned and stalked off in a huff, his red and gold cheongsam (dress!)
swirling around him. Leon had to stand in line for two hours the next morning at
Hotel de Marseilles to buy D's favorite cake before the Count deigned to forgive
him, with the air of a benevolent master forgiving a puppy who had just made a
mess on the living room carpet.
"Well, I suppose I can't expect you to know any better, Keiji-san," D sighed.
"You may as well sit down and have some tea."
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Still, he had to admit, D looked pretty good. The robe was sky-blue, patterned
with white birds, and the edges were bordered with a darker blue. The robe was
wrapped loosely around D, and belted with a wide, dark blue sash. It left his
neck and throat uncovered, unlike the high-collared Chinese gowns. Leon
remembered kissing the hollow of that throat last night...
"Keiji-san?" D repeated. "Are you all right?"
"Uh, yes, of course!" For once, Leon was glad for the dim light of the pet shop.
He didn't want the Count to see him blush! "Um...here, these are for you." He
handed D the bouquet he had been hiding behind his back. Oh, real smooth, Orcot!
Couldn't you come up with anything better than, "um, here"? The charm he used on
women seemed to desert him when D was around.
"Flowers? For me? Ah, kirei! How pretty!" D lifted the roses to his face to
smell them, then looked up in surprise. "Chocolate?!"
Leon grinned, suddenly feeling rather pleased with himself. "Yes, they're from
that gourmet candy store. The petals are made of chocolate."
"But they're red!"
"They coat the outside with some kind of coloring so they look real." Leon had
not known what to get D. He'd have brought a woman flowers, but D wasn't a
woman, and he didn't know if D would like that sort of thing. And of course D
liked sweets, but he always brought D pastries. He'd wanted to get something
special... Then he'd seen the candy roses, which seemed perfect.
D delicately peeled off a petal and popped it into his mouth. "Oh...mmm!" He
closed his eyes and tilted his head back, an ecstatic expression on his face.
For a brief moment, Leon felt jealous. He couldn't remember D looking like that
when they were in bed last night...! Oh this is ridiculous, Leon thought. I
can't believe I'm jealous of a piece of candy! Then D smiled radiantly, and Leon
forgot his irritation...along with any other rational thought that might have
been in his head. "This is wonderful, Keiji-san! Thank you!"
"Ah, no problem." Damn! How come I can't think straight when I'm around the
Count? As D left the room to look for a vase, Leon realized they had gone back
to calling each other "Keiji-san" and "Count" instead of "Leon" and "D." Last
night he had been annoyed that D never called him by his name, but now...somehow
it seemed safer to fall back on their usual "Detective" and "Pet Shop Owner"
roles.
D returned with a white porcelain vase. It was round-bodied, tapering to a thin
neck, and decorated with an intricate design of birds perching on branches
bearing pink and red blossoms. It looked very old and valuable.
"So, is that a Ming vase, Count?" Leon joked.
"Oh no, Keiji-san. My Ming vase is blue, and would clash with the red roses,"
replied D. Leon shook his head. He never knew whether the Count was putting him
on or not. D set the vase on the coffee table and arranged the flowers in them.
"There! That looks nice. Have you had dinner yet, Keiji-san?"
"Uh, no, but it's a little late--haven't you eaten already?"
"Well, I was just about to have some tea..."
Leon laughed. "It's always tea time with you, Count!"
The Count left, no doubt to conjure up some magnificent feast. Leon heard a
little squeak, and turned to see Q-chan hovering in the air, trying to pull a
rose out of the vase.
"Hey, Q-chan, those are for your master!"
Count D returned, pushing a cart laden with Chinese food: noodles, spring rolls,
meat buns...plus tea and some sort of cake covered with strawberries and whipped
cream.
"You may have one rose, Q-chan, but don't eat them all--or you won't get any
dessert."
"Q!" The strange little animal plucked one rose from the vase, and flew up to
his perch in an ornate iron birdcage hanging from the ceiling. The door was
apparently left open so Q-chan could come and go as he pleased.
"How come you always have so much food on hand? How can you possibly eat so much
and never gain any weight?" asked Leon as he made himself a plate.
"I don't eat it all myself...there is this police detective who's always showing
up at mealtimes..."
"Hmmph!"
"So, how was your day at work? They didn't give you any trouble over the
shooting, did they?"
"No, it was pretty clear it was self-defense. We've been rounding up the rest of
Liu Tai Wei's men. The Chief is having the patrol cars swing by regularly for a
few days to keep an eye on the shop, but I don't think you'll be having anymore
problems. Rumor has it that some sort of monstrous beast tore up the men who
attacked you last night. All the gang members seem terrified of you now. One guy
said he heard that you're not even human--that you're some sort of sorcerer or
demon." Leon rolled his eyes. "Can you believe that?"
The Count smiled. "How silly."
"Arf!"
Leon looked down to see the puppy from the night before sitting at his feet,
wagging his tail. "Hey fella," he said, patting the dog, who barked happily. "I
can't believe it! One of your pets actually likes me!"
The Count heard giggling from the doorway. He saw several beautiful women with
cat-like ears and eyes. All Leon saw and heard were a bunch of cats mewing.
<Oh, I like him very much!>
<Me too!>
<He's sooo handsome! Bad-tempered, though.>
<With a bod like that, who cares?>
<Do you think it will really work out with him and the master?>
The detective laughed. "They're sure talkative tonight."
"You have no idea." The Count shot an icy glare at the cat-girls. The cats
stared back insolently, then slowly walked away, with a saucy twitch of their
tails.
Tora-chan, curled up on a pillow in the corner of the room, regarded the other
cats with contempt. <Brainless kits! Don't they realize that the feline form is
far superior to the human form?>
Leon fed the puppy a morsel from his plate. "What's his name?"
"Lupin."
"Lupin? Why does that sound familiar?"
The Count smiled. "Just a little inside joke. It's French for 'wolf.'"
"You're a little small for a wolf, " said Leon, scratching the dog behind its
ears.
Lupin's mouth fell open in a canine grin. <I like this one, Pack-leader. Is he
going to be your mate?>
"That's none of your business."
"Huh?"
"Not you, I was talking to the wolf."
"Whatever." Leon was starting to feel a little more at ease. This was familiar
ground, eating and arguing with the Count. Somehow the pet shop had started to
feel like home, despite the fact that he still had tooth-marks on his ankle from
the last time Tetsu-chan bit him! When had the Count stopped being a suspect,
and started becoming a friend?
"I'm glad you stopped by. I wasn't sure I would see you tonight."
Leon choked on his tea. Damn it, why was Jill always right?! "Uh, I don't know
what you mean."
Count D smiled in his annoyingly superior way. "I was afraid I had scared you
off."
"Q, Q!" chimed in Q-chan from above.
"Of course not!" said Leon defiantly.
The Count leaned back on the couch in a most enticing way. "You puzzle me
sometimes, Leon-Keiji. You face armed men without flinching, yet a mere shop
owner like myself makes you uneasy..."
"That's not true!" snapped Leon as he set down his plate with a clatter. Lupin
whined softly.
The Count leaned forward, suddenly serious, his luminous eyes half-hidden behind
a veil of black hair. "Do you regret what happened last night?"
Leon opened his mouth but nothing came out. He cleared his throat and tried
again. "Dammit, D, what do you want me to say?"
<"No" would be nice> said Lupin.
"The truth," said D. "I hold no creature here, man or animal, against its will."
Leon stared at the Count. It was impossible to read the expression on his face.
Those strange eyes, deep purple and clear yellow, seemed utterly alien, not
human at all. For a brief moment he could understand the superstitious fear of
Liu's men.
"Well," said Leon defensively, trying to stall for time, "do you regret it?"
"I asked you first," replied D petulantly, sounding like a spoiled child, and
the strange spell was broken. Leon hid a smile despite his discomfort.
"Look, D," he sighed. "This isn't easy for me, you know. I've never, well, had
feelings for a guy before."
"And you are of course a red-blooded American male in a most, ah, 'macho'
profession."
"Yeah, yeah, I imagine life would be tough for an openly gay cop, but that's not
what I was talking about. What I meant was...well, I always liked girls--"
"How nice for them," said D sarcastically.
"Will you shut up and let me finish? Like you said, I was a red-blooded American
boy, OK? I dated a lot of women, had a lot of fun, but I figured one day I'd
meet the right girl, and settle down and get married and have kids. Not right
now, but someday. Have a happy life, give my parents a few grandkids--that's
what people expect. That's what a normal life is like."
"Oh? I would have thought a policeman would have a more cynical view of life."
"Yeah, OK, I know life is not like a 50's sitcom! But that's the idealized
version most of us have. I thought I knew who I was and what I wanted--now I
feel like my whole world's been turned upside down! I'm not sure who I am
anymore. And that's well...scary. OK, I admit it, are you happy now?"
"Fear is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a defense mechanism; it helps keep us
alive. Any animal knows that. Fear is only bad when you let it overwhelm you so
much that you are afraid to live your life."
"I'm just saying...I don't exactly regret last night. I certainly don't regret
saving your life! But you can't just expect me to suddenly decide that I'm uh,
well, uh..." Shit, thought Leon, I can't even bring myself to say the word out
loud! "Don't expect me to start wearing any 'Gay Pride' t-shirts!"
D laughed. "No, Keiji-san, I do not expect that."
"I...I...I care about you, all right? But I'm not sure what's going to happen
with us. I'm not sure what I want. Hell, I'm not sure what YOU want! I'm not
sure of anything anymore! My life was a hell of a lot simpler before I met you!"
D gave him a faintly hurt look. Leon sighed and relented. "But I don't regret
meeting you."
The Count smiled and laid a hand over Leon's. "I don't expect you to marry me,
you know."
Leon faked an indignant look. "Why not? Aren't I irresistible?"
"Oh well, then, in that case, why don't we--" D laughed at Leon's suddenly
panicked expression. "I was only joking, Keiji-san."
Leon sighed. Life with the Count would be infinitely complicated, though never
dull. He shifted his hand slightly so that his fingers entwined with the
Count's. Although Leon was fair-skinned himself, the Count's hand looked pale,
almost ghostly beside his own, the long, elegant fingers tipped with perfectly
manicured blood-red nails. Being with D meant giving up other things, like the
"normal" life he'd mentioned, and the peace of mind that came with it. The easy
camaraderie he had with his fellow cops. (Although Jill would certainly
approve!) The chance to have children, and to be the kind of son his parents
wanted. Perhaps all that was only an illusion, but it was an illusion that was
surprisingly hard to give up...
The Count waited patiently while Leon thought. When the detective finally looked
up, he saw an amused, but surprisingly sympathetic smile on D's face. "You don't
need to decide your whole life's future tonight, you know. I told you we could
take things slowly. For example, we could merely sit here, drinking tea and
discussing the latest gossip in Chinatown." The Count removed his hand from
Leon's to pick up his tea cup. Leon felt strangely bereft. "Your tea is getting
cold."
Count D was such a strange man--capricious and moody one moment, cool and
distant the next. Yet he had saved Leon's life in the past, as Leon had saved
his last night. Leon wasn't sure he could give up his "normal" life, yet he
wasn't sure he could give up the Count either. Leon sipped his tea without
tasting it. Give up their long conversations over tea, and the look of delight
on the Count's face when presented with a box of pastry? Nights spent running
all over town to haul the Count's ass out of danger, only to find that the Count
already had things perfectly under control? Give up the Count, who could comfort
him with one word, and send him ballistic with another? What was an illusion
worth, weighed against a friend, however irritating he might be at times? A cop
had to be able to make life-and-death decisions in a split-second, so why was he
unable to make up his mind about D? He'd never wanted anyone--man or woman--as
much as he wanted the Count, but just thinking about that made him twitch with
discomfort.
"Would you like some cake, Keiji-san?"
"Huh? Uh, sure."
"Q Q Q!!"
"Yes, and a slice for you, too, Q-chan."
Leon picked at his cake, only half-listening as D talked about what had happened
in Chinatown recently, and Lupin stared at him, eyes pleading soulfully. Finally
he set the plate down on the floor, and the pup gobbled up the half-eaten
dessert.
"Hey, D, you've got some whipped cream on your face."
"Oh?" The Count raised a hand to his face.
"No, not there--here!" Leon impulsively leaned over and kissed the corner of D's
mouth, tasting strawberries and cream.
"Oh!" D looked startled for a moment, then laughed. "You never cease to surprise
me, Keiji-san." His eyes narrowed with amusement. "You have some cake on your
face, too, Detective," he said, giving Leon a long, slow kiss that left him
breathless.
"We can take things slowly?" Leon asked softly, when he was able to speak again.
"One day at a time," said the Count.
"I think I can handle that," said Leon as he brushed the Count's hair away from
his face with one hand. It felt wonderful, smooth and silky to the touch.
"You're so beautiful," he whispered.
"I know," D whispered back.
Leon burst out laughing, worries gone, at least for now, and kissed D again.
THE END.
Onward to
"Spirits"