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FIC: Daiki, Part 1b (of 22)
Title: Daiki, Part 1b (of 22)
Rating: R overall, but mostly PG-13
Pairing: Leon/D
Word count: ~4,560
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Matsuri Akino and Yumiko Kawahara. No money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
Sequel to: This can be considered a continuation of my earlier series of stories (Revenge, The Day After, Spirits, Blodeuedd), but it can stand on its own as my version of what happens after Book 10.
Thanks to: Spare from the Petshop discussion group on Yahoo, who planted the plot bunny in my head about the Dolls shopkeeper being Leon and D's child! ^_^
Summary: A crossover between Petshop of Horrors by Matsuri Akino and Dolls by Yumiko Kawahara. Leon finally finds and confronts D in Tokyo two years after the Count has fled L.A. A child results from their reunion, but this is not an MPreg fic. If you want to know how this is possible, please read on...
Part 1a
***
"What the fuck--?!" Leon shouted as he woke up in what seemed to be the middle of a jungle. For a moment he thought he was back in the prehistoric jungle that D had dreamed up in the museum, or worse, in the jungle that D's crazy father had placed him in, to be hunted down as prey by Papa D's vicious pets.
"Leon?" gasped a startled D.
Leon was relieved to find D with him, and something less than relieved to find that they were both naked, because that meant that he didn't have his gun on him. No, wait--his mind still fuzzy with sleep, he had almost forgotten that he had quit his job at the L.A.P.D. and so no longer carried a gun.
He gradually realized that while he was surrounded by vines, he felt a soft mattress beneath him, which meant that they were still in D's bedroom and not in a jungle, which was somewhat reassuring. But only somewhat.
"D, what the hell is going on?!" Leon demanded. "Why is there a jungle growing in the middle of your bedroom?!"
"I do not know, Keiji-sa...I mean, Leon," D replied in a mild voice, although he looked almost as surprised as Leon did. That was not a good sign, when something was drastic enough to wipe that serene, smug smile off D's face. "When my kind are wounded, flowers and vines spring forth from our blood, but..."
"Oh my God!" Leon exclaimed, a horrified look on his face. "Last night...did I hurt you, D?"
"No, Leon," D replied calmly. He touched a graceful, long-nailed finger to his lower lip. "I think perhaps I did bleed just a little when you kissed me with such vigor." He gave Leon a coy and yet somehow provocative smile that made the former detective blush. "But not enough to account for all this." He indicated the vines with a sweeping gesture of his hand.
"Freaky shit always happens around you, D," Leon grumbled, but he was actually relieved that at least this time, it was only harmless vines and not a saber-toothed tiger looking to turn him into kitty chow. He pushed aside the vines, and they gave way without resistance, allowing him to climb out of the bed. D followed suit, then gasped again, his hands flying up to cover his mouth as his mismatched eyes went wide and round with shock.
"What now?" Leon groaned, and followed the direction of D's gaze. And then he gasped too, when he spotted a large pod growing from one of the vines. It wasn't so much the pod itself that shocked him, but the fact that it was pulsing rhythmically, like a heart beating, and there seemed to be a light shining within it, giving off a golden glow through the green husk of the pod.
"What is that, D?" Leon whispered, but with his detective's intuition, he was afraid that he already knew the answer. He couldn't help but notice that the pod was about the size of a human infant, and he had a sudden vision of D's grandfather lifting the reborn baby D from the vines that had sprouted from the body of D's father.
"This is how we reproduce," D whispered just as quietly, his voice trembling slightly. "We are born from the vines...but it is not supposed to happen now...not like this..."
"Holy shit, I'm a dad?!" Leon exclaimed, not knowing whether he should feel thrilled or horrified. Then he began to laugh, a touch hysterically. "Jesus Christ, of all the luck...I was always careful to practice safe sex and use condoms with my girlfriends, but then I go and somehow manage to knock up a guy! Or is it actually the vine that I knocked up?"
Leon's laughter started to grow shrill and manic, and D slapped him across the face. "Thanks," Leon said, calming down as he rubbed his stinging cheek. "I needed that."
"It is impossible for you to 'knock me up,' Keiji-san," D said, sounding like he was teetering on the brink of hysteria himself. As Leon pondered whether he ought to slap D (and whether he would be risking life and limb by doing so), the Count solved his problem by taking a deep breath and then exhaling slowly, managing to get himself under control.
"As my father explained to you, our offspring are genetic duplicates of the parent," D said. "So the child should contain only my genes, not yours." But then he hesitated and said uncertainly, "Only, things are not happening as they should..."
And then the pod began to quiver, and split along the seam down its middle, the two halves falling open to reveal a golden-haired infant curled up inside it. D reached out and lifted the baby out of the pod, but his hands were shaking so badly that Leon was afraid he might drop it, so he gently took the baby from D and cradled it in his arms. He didn't have a lot of experience with holding kids, but he had held Chris and his cousins Sam and Josie this way a few times when they had been babies.
"Well, I guess this answers my question," Leon said with a wry smile. "The kid obviously didn't get...uh..." He paused and looked down at the infant; it was definitely a boy. "...his blond hair from your side of the family. So I guess I did knock you up, after all, D." It was strange; D was the one who dealt with mythical beasts every day, and accepted miraculous events as a matter of course. After hatching a dragon, fighting off a vampire, jumping out of a plane and surviving, and exchanging bodies with a mermaid, you would think that a blond-haired baby being born out of a pod would be no big deal for D. Yet Leon seemed to be handling it better than the Count, when he ought to be the one going out of his mind. Then again, nothing much shocked Leon anymore, not after he had fallen through the air onto a flying ship.
The baby's golden lashes fluttered, then he slowly opened his eyes and smiled up at his father, making a happy gurgling noise. Up until that moment, Leon Orcot had never believed in love at first sight. Even his feelings for the Count, as deep as they were, had taken time to grow, and even more time for him to acknowledge them to himself. But as soon as the baby smiled at him, Leon was instantly and hopelessly smitten.
"There's part of both of us in this kid, D," Leon said tenderly. "He's got my hair, but your eyes. Well, half of your eyes, anyway." Because the baby's eyes were a clear golden-yellow, the same color as D's right eye. Leon also noticed that the baby had D's porcelain-fair complexion, and there was a certain fineness and elegance to his features, even as young as he was. Leon had no doubt that the kid was going to grow up to be as beautiful as D, and that made him smile with pride, and then gave him a moment's pause. Did that mean that his son was going to have as many crazy suitors chasing after him as D did? Dominatrix dentists, mafia bosses, and bloodthirsty vampires, just to name a few. Leon envisioned himself waiting by the door with a shotgun when their son grew old enough to start dating. Dammit, Leon thought to himself in consternation, I'm not supposed to have to worry about these kinds of things with a son! It's almost as bad as a having a daughter--especially when I know from experience what horny teenage boys are like!
"Leon?" D asked anxiously, apparently concerned by the sudden change in Leon's expression. "Are you...upset? Are you angry?" He looked as worried as a teenage girl who had just told her boyfriend that she was pregnant.
"Not at all," Leon said reassuringly, touched by D's uncharacteristic insecurity. "Shocked, but not angry." With a mischievous smile, he added, "I'm a man of honor, D, so don't worry; I'll make an honest...er...man out of you." And still holding the child in his arms, he leaned over and kissed D soundly on the mouth.
"I noticed that you hesitated before you said 'man,'" D retorted, sounding a bit more like his old self. "However, I suppose that I will have to put up with you, as the baby will need both his parents, even if you are an uncouth, ill-mannered American." He glanced over at the bed, and Leon saw that the vines were quickly withering and falling to the floor, their purpose apparently having been served now that the baby had been born. And with the vines out of the way, he now noticed that the sheets were stained with blood...and other things.
"Your blood and mine mingled," D said softly, echoing Leon's thoughts. "Along with other...ah...fluids of our bodies. It should not be possible, not with a human, but somehow they merged together to create this child." He stared in awe at the baby in Leon's arms. "It is truly a miracle." He held out his arms and whispered, "May I?"
"Of course; he's your kid, too," Leon said, placing the baby in D's arms. And this time, D held him securely, with an air of familiarity. After all, unlike Leon, he did have a great deal of experience with taking care of babies--or at least, baby animals. And since the animals seemed to be human within the bounds of the petshop, Leon couldn't see that it made all that much difference.
D very gently and reverently ran a finger along the baby's smooth cheek. "He is beautiful, Leon," D whispered.
"Of course he is," Leon said, wrapping his arms around D from behind and kissing his cheek. "He's got two good-looking parents, after all!" Then Leon found himself unable to repress a grin that stretched from ear to ear. "Man, I can't believe that I'm a dad! I can't wait to tell Jill and the Chief! I'll pass out a bunch of cigars--"
"Smoking is bad for your health, Keiji-san," D said with mock-sternness. "You should pass out chocolate cigars instead."
"You just want an excuse to eat more chocolate!" Leon laughed. "But yeah, we could do that. They've got those candy bars too, the ones with the pink or blue wrappers that say 'It's a boy!' or 'It's a girl!' But you have to promise not to eat them all yourself!"
D smiled up at Leon, a look of wonder in his eyes. "You really are happy about this, Leon?"
Leon hugged D again. "Yeah, I am," he admitted, a little surprised himself. "I didn't expect things to turn out this way...but yeah, I'm happy. Thrilled, even." He kissed D on the mouth, then kissed the top of the baby's head, on his soft, golden curls. "I wasted enough time lying to myself. I wasted years that I could have spent with Chris, and with you. I told you before, I'm not going to waste any more time. I love you, D, and I love this kid. I want to spend the rest of my life with you both."
"I love you, too, Leon," D whispered, for the very first time, and there were tears shining in his eyes.
They kissed tenderly, and when they pulled apart, Leon said, "You know, we can't keep calling him 'the kid'. What are we going to name the baby?"
"Hmm..." D said thoughtfully.
"And we are not calling the kid 'D,' family tradition be damned," Leon said firmly. "It's just too damn confusing with three of you already!"
"Well..." D said.
"And please don't give him some weird-ass Chinese name that I won't be able to pronounce," Leon groaned.
D sniffed disdainfully and pretended to give him a miffed look, but then the baby cooed at D sweetly, and the Count couldn't hold back his smile any longer. "Perhaps a Japanese name, then?" D suggested. "Let me think...what about 'Daiki'?"
"Daiki," Leon said, rolling the word around on his tongue. "Daiki...it's kind of unusual, but it's not hard to pronounce. Hmm...Daiki. Kinda has a nice ring to it, and it starts with 'D'." Leon grinned. "So we're not totally abandoning the family tradition. What does it mean?"
D handed the baby back to Leon, wrapped a robe around himself, and headed over to a desk in the corner of the room. That reminded Leon that he was still naked, but he couldn't really get dressed while holding the kid. Besides, it wasn't like he was showing off anything that D hadn't seen before, and the kid was too young to care about modesty. So he bounced the baby gently in his arms, making goo-goo noises that Daiki seemed to find highly entertaining.
D glanced over at them for a moment, smiling in an amused manner at Leon as the baby gurgled with laughter. Then he dipped a brush in a bottle of black ink and sketched out two Chinese characters in elegant calligraphy on a sheet of blank paper. "This character is 'dai,' which means 'big' or 'great,'" D said, pointing at the first character. "'Ki' has many meanings, depending on how the kanji is written, but written this way--" He pointed at the second character. "--it means 'valuable'."
"So it means he's of great value?" Leon asked, smiling down at his son. "Yeah, I think that's appropriate." He crooned to the baby, "Because you're my precious treasure, aren't you, Daiki?" He kissed Daiki's cheek, and found the baby's skin incredibly soft and smooth. And it smelled sweet, like flowers. Not a cloying perfumey smell, but a faint sweetness that made you think of wildflowers and spring.
"Daiki already has you wrapped around his little finger, Leon," D laughed. "I will have to take care that you do not spoil him rotten."
"Don't you worry, D," Leon said with a grin. "Daiki's gonna turn out just fine...aren't you, buddy?" The baby cooed happily in agreement. "That's right, you're Daddy's little boy," Leon crooned, then he suddenly fell silent and frowned.
"Is something wrong, Leon?" D asked.
"I was just thinking...what is Daiki gonna call us?" Leon replied. "I mean, it would get kinda confusing if both of us are 'Daddy,' don't you think?" He scowled at D. "And I am not being the mommy this time!"
"But you were such a good mother to Shukou," D teased. "You gave birth to a beautiful baby dragon."
Leon growled at D, and Daiki laughed delightedly, apparently unfazed by their arguing--which was, after all, only meant in fun. And Leon smiled proudly, pleased that his son was so perceptive, even when he was less than a day old. "You're a smart fella, aren't you?" he said, chucking the baby under his chin.
D laughed as well, then said, "Well, you can be the daddy this time, Leon. And I can be 'Papa'. That is what young children call their fathers in Japan--the equivalent of 'Daddy' in America."
"Papa?" Leon echoed incredulously, and D smiled sweetly at him. D certainly didn't look like a "Papa"--but what the hell, the kid had to call him something, and all joking aside, he didn't think that D would take kindly to being called "Mommy"!
"Okay, Daiki," Leon told his son. "I'm Daddy, and this is your Papa." The baby smiled, then began to squirm and fuss, not crying yet, but he was definitely working up to it. "What's wrong?" Leon asked anxiously. "Is he sick?"
D smiled in a rather condescending way. "Your daddy is not a very intelligent man, is he, Daiki?" he said to his son. "Nothing is wrong, Leon--save that Daiki is a newborn baby who has not yet been fed. All new babies come into the world hungry, Detective."
"Oh!" Leon exclaimed, feeling too relieved to be irritated with the Count. "Well, come on, then, let's go get him some milk." Carrying Daiki in his arms, he headed for the door, asking, "Baby Ds do drink milk, don't they?"
"Keiji-san!" D shrieked. "Put on some clothes first!"
Leon stopped in his tracks, looked down at himself, and grinned sheepishly. In his rush to take care of his son, he had almost run out into the shop buck-naked!
"Here, let me hold the baby," D said firmly. "Daiki can wait a few minutes while you get dressed."
Leon hastily pulled on his t-shirt and jeans, then followed D through the maze-like corridors of the petshop to the kitchen. They found Tet-chan, Ten-chan, and Pon-chan sitting at the kitchen table, while Lupin lay on the floor, happily gnawing on a large bone.
"Ah, so the two lovebirds have finally emerged from their nest," Ten-chan said with a grin.
"I have a meal ready for you, Count," Tet-chan said, rising from his seat. "Salad to start with, then a tofu dish for the main course, and for dessert--" And then his jaw dropped in mid-sentence as he caught sight of the baby in D's arms. "HOLY SHIT!" he screamed.
"You know, you really are sounding more like the detective every day," Ten-chan mused. He smiled and made funny faces to make the baby laugh, then said, "What a cute little guy. I don't remember seeing him around before, though. When did you have a time to find a new pet while you were...?" He leered at D and Leon suggestively.
"Y-you don't understand, you stupid kitsune," Tet-chan stammered. "Th-that isn't a pet..."
Lupin got up, bounded over to them, and sniffed at the baby curiously. "The pack leader and his mate had a cub!" he exclaimed. He cocked his head to one side and gave them a puzzled look. "Boy, that was awfully fast! It takes months for a she-wolf to give birth to her pups."
"A CUB?!" Ten-chan and Pon-chan chorused, their eyes going comically round with shock.
"But...but...but...that's impossible!" Pon-chan protested. "You're both boys!"
"Time for another sex-ed talk with the kids?" Leon murmured to D in amusement.
"The cub smells like both Leon and the pack leader!" Lupin insisted.
"You're absolutely right," Leon told him, patting the wolf on the head. He noticed that he could now understand Lupin's speech, along with that of the other pets, but he didn't let it worry him. He briefly wondered why Lupin still looked like a wolf while the others looked human, but he could ask the Count about that later. Right now he had more important things to think about. "D and I had this cub...er, I mean, this kid...together."
"I will explain everything," D said, "but first, could you please warm up some milk for the baby, Tet-chan?"
"Yes, Count," the Tou-Tet replied meekly, his eyes still looking dazed, but he set about warming a bottle of milk quickly and efficiently.
***
Ever practical despite his shock, Ten-chan had fetched some diapers and clothing for the baby while Tet-chan heated up the milk, and nearly every pet in the shop was now clustered around the couch in the lobby, watching in awe as D nursed the baby. Leon sat beside him, his arm around D, beaming like the proud father he was.
"So that's how it happened," Tet-chan murmured, still looking a little stunned, when D finished his explanation.
"Your grandpa is going to blow a gasket when he hears about this, Count," Ten-chan said, grinning widely, looking not at all perturbed by the prospect. But then, all kitsune loved nothing better than to stir up a little mischief, and Ten-chan was no different, although he was a good deal more responsible than most of his brethren.
"He will be upset when he hears about this," D admitted. "He will be outraged at the idea of our blood mingling with that of a human."
"Grandpa can just kiss my American ass," Leon said dismissively.
"Please watch your language around the baby, Leon," D scolded, but a small smile played around the corners of his mouth.
Then Leon frowned as a thought occurred to him. "Your grandpa...he wouldn't be mad enough to hurt the baby or anything like that, would he?"
D shook his head. "No, he will be angry, but at worst he will disown me and cut off all contact with me...with us."
Leon sighed in relief and leaned back against the couch. "No loss."
"And besides," D said fiercely, "I would never let anyone harm our child, not even my grandfather!"
The assembled animals in the lobby growled and hissed, exposing sharp fangs and claws. "Neither will we," they chorused.
Leon was gratified to see that even Tet-chan looked murderously protective of the new baby. "Thank you," he said.
"I'm not doing it for you," Tet-chan growled, and turned away, looking a little embarrassed. "I'm only protecting him 'cause he's the Count's son."
"Oh?" Ten-chan asked innocently. "And is that why you protected little Chris with such determination? You even took a bullet for him once, as I recall..."
Tet-chan pounced on the kitsune, and D and Leon laughed like indulgent parents as a nine-tailed fox and a small sheep-like creature rolled across the floor, wrestling with each other. Daiki laughed and clapped his chubby little hands together.
"I miss Chris," Pon-chan sighed wistfully. "How is he doing, Leon?"
"He's doing fine," Leon assured her. "He's getting along with his sisters, and he's made a lot of friends at school." The raccoon girl pouted, looking a little put-out that Chris didn't seem to be missing her, and Leon smiled. "He does miss all of you guys a lot, though," he added. "Especially you and Tet-chan and Shukou." Pon-chan smiled, then frowned jealously at the mention of the dragon-girl's name. Leon chuckled, then said, "Hey, that reminds me...I have something to return to you, D."
"Something for me?" D asked curiously.
"Yeah," Leon replied. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket, then pulled a folded-up piece of paper from the wallet. He handed it to D, then took Daiki and the bottle from the Count so that D could unfold and smooth out the paper with his trembling hands. It was a much-creased sheet of paper, still ragged along the edge where it had been torn from a spiral-bound notebook. It was a childish sketch of a cartoonish Chris, Leon, D, Tet-chan, Q-chan, and Pon-chan. It was the drawing Chris had lovingly made of his family, which D had carried with him when he first fled the petshop in L.A.
"I thought it was destroyed in the explosion," D whispered, tears trickling down his face.
"Your suitcase somehow survived the blast," Leon said, smiling at him tenderly. "Jill found it and gave it to me. I promised Chris that I would return it to you."
"Then I must thank Miss Jill," D said in a shaky voice, setting the paper aside so that his tears would not fall on it and stain the sketch. "And we must visit Chris and introduce him to his new nephew."
"Are we going back to America?" Pon-chan asked eagerly.
D looked at Leon, who shrugged. "I'll live anywhere you want, D," Leon said. "But it would be nice to go back home. The department's shorthanded, and the Chief told me unofficially that I could get my old job back if I wanted. Jill would love to see you, too. She's engaged now, you know, to a Chinese-American detective in Vice named Terry Hu. She already knew a bit of Chinese from watching kung-fu movies, but she's gotten pretty fluent since she and Terry hooked up. He speaks both Cantonese and Mandarin."
"Then I look forward to conversing with Miss Jill and her fiance," D said with a smile.
"Hmm," Leon said, suddenly beginning to get a little worried. "I might have to learn Chinese, too, just so that you guys won't be able to talk about me behind my back."
"So are we going home?" Pon-chan demanded.
"Yes, Ponta," D said softly, allowing the girl to climb onto his lap. "We are going home. Daiki should grow up in the United States, where he will be able to visit his uncle more frequently."
"That could be a problem," Leon said, frowning. "Even a baby needs a passport to travel abroad, and Daiki will need a birth certificate in order to get a passport. We didn't exactly have a physician in attendance at his birth, and it's going to be rather difficult to explain this to the authorities...including the fact that he has two fathers and no mother. Or would the vine be his mother? But we can't exactly put that down on the birth certificate."
D smiled. "I know some government officials who can help us obtain a birth certificate and passport, no questions asked."
"Of course you do," Leon muttered, wondering why he had bothered to worry.
"But my dear detective," D continued, "we do not need to travel on an airplane. Surely you have not forgotten that my ship can travel without regard for human borders?"
"But I thought you said that humans haven't yet earned the right to board that ship," Leon reminded him.
"Well, just this once, I believe that we can make an exception," D said, winking at him playfully. "You are, after all, the father of my son. And I do not wish to take Daiki on an airplane--it is so noisy and crowded, and in such close confinement, germs spread easily. Babies are susceptible to illness, and we would not want Daiki to catch a cold."
"Of course not," Leon agreed promptly. He certainly wasn't going to complain about not having to stand in long lines at the airport and worry about lost luggage! "Hey, can I use your phone, D, to call Chris and Jill?"
"Certainly, Leon," D replied. "I believe that we should stop by the East Coast first, to visit Chris, before returning to Los Angeles."
"Great!" Leon said, and dialed the number of his aunt's home. "Hey, Auntie, it's me, Leon! Yeah, it's good to hear your voice, too. No, don't worry, I'm fine...in fact, I'll be coming home soon. But don't say anything to Chris yet; I want to tell him myself. Can you put him on the line? Hey Chris, it's me! Guess what--I found D, and we're coming back home!" He had to pull the phone away from his ear for a moment as Chris shrieked loudly with delight. "And guess what, buddy, we're bringing home a surprise with us! No, I can't tell you what it is, silly, because then it wouldn't be a surprise. You'll just have to wait and see..."
Afterword: The shopkeeper in "Dolls" (whom Daiki will eventually grow up to be) is never referred to by name, so I felt free to make up an appropriate name for him. And I don't know what his real eye color is, so I decided to make them gold, so that he'd look partly like D.
Also, very observant readers might recall that Jill's new husband, Terry Hu, was mentioned very briefly in Spirits, when Jill was asking for D to help out as a translator for Jia:
"Isn't there anyone in the department who speaks Chinese?"
"Terry Hu over in Vice, but he's on vacation. Look, I can round up an official translator, but that'll take time, and the kid's hysterical! Get over here as soon as you can!"
I didn't intend for him to play a bigger role at the time, but I liked the idea of Jill marrying a Chinese-American detective, given her interest in Chinatown and the Count.
Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15a, Part 15b, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19a, Part 19b, Part 20a, Part 20b, Part 21, Part 22a, Part 22b
"What the fuck--?!" Leon shouted as he woke up in what seemed to be the middle of a jungle. For a moment he thought he was back in the prehistoric jungle that D had dreamed up in the museum, or worse, in the jungle that D's crazy father had placed him in, to be hunted down as prey by Papa D's vicious pets.
"Leon?" gasped a startled D.
Leon was relieved to find D with him, and something less than relieved to find that they were both naked, because that meant that he didn't have his gun on him. No, wait--his mind still fuzzy with sleep, he had almost forgotten that he had quit his job at the L.A.P.D. and so no longer carried a gun.
He gradually realized that while he was surrounded by vines, he felt a soft mattress beneath him, which meant that they were still in D's bedroom and not in a jungle, which was somewhat reassuring. But only somewhat.
"D, what the hell is going on?!" Leon demanded. "Why is there a jungle growing in the middle of your bedroom?!"
"I do not know, Keiji-sa...I mean, Leon," D replied in a mild voice, although he looked almost as surprised as Leon did. That was not a good sign, when something was drastic enough to wipe that serene, smug smile off D's face. "When my kind are wounded, flowers and vines spring forth from our blood, but..."
"Oh my God!" Leon exclaimed, a horrified look on his face. "Last night...did I hurt you, D?"
"No, Leon," D replied calmly. He touched a graceful, long-nailed finger to his lower lip. "I think perhaps I did bleed just a little when you kissed me with such vigor." He gave Leon a coy and yet somehow provocative smile that made the former detective blush. "But not enough to account for all this." He indicated the vines with a sweeping gesture of his hand.
"Freaky shit always happens around you, D," Leon grumbled, but he was actually relieved that at least this time, it was only harmless vines and not a saber-toothed tiger looking to turn him into kitty chow. He pushed aside the vines, and they gave way without resistance, allowing him to climb out of the bed. D followed suit, then gasped again, his hands flying up to cover his mouth as his mismatched eyes went wide and round with shock.
"What now?" Leon groaned, and followed the direction of D's gaze. And then he gasped too, when he spotted a large pod growing from one of the vines. It wasn't so much the pod itself that shocked him, but the fact that it was pulsing rhythmically, like a heart beating, and there seemed to be a light shining within it, giving off a golden glow through the green husk of the pod.
"What is that, D?" Leon whispered, but with his detective's intuition, he was afraid that he already knew the answer. He couldn't help but notice that the pod was about the size of a human infant, and he had a sudden vision of D's grandfather lifting the reborn baby D from the vines that had sprouted from the body of D's father.
"This is how we reproduce," D whispered just as quietly, his voice trembling slightly. "We are born from the vines...but it is not supposed to happen now...not like this..."
"Holy shit, I'm a dad?!" Leon exclaimed, not knowing whether he should feel thrilled or horrified. Then he began to laugh, a touch hysterically. "Jesus Christ, of all the luck...I was always careful to practice safe sex and use condoms with my girlfriends, but then I go and somehow manage to knock up a guy! Or is it actually the vine that I knocked up?"
Leon's laughter started to grow shrill and manic, and D slapped him across the face. "Thanks," Leon said, calming down as he rubbed his stinging cheek. "I needed that."
"It is impossible for you to 'knock me up,' Keiji-san," D said, sounding like he was teetering on the brink of hysteria himself. As Leon pondered whether he ought to slap D (and whether he would be risking life and limb by doing so), the Count solved his problem by taking a deep breath and then exhaling slowly, managing to get himself under control.
"As my father explained to you, our offspring are genetic duplicates of the parent," D said. "So the child should contain only my genes, not yours." But then he hesitated and said uncertainly, "Only, things are not happening as they should..."
And then the pod began to quiver, and split along the seam down its middle, the two halves falling open to reveal a golden-haired infant curled up inside it. D reached out and lifted the baby out of the pod, but his hands were shaking so badly that Leon was afraid he might drop it, so he gently took the baby from D and cradled it in his arms. He didn't have a lot of experience with holding kids, but he had held Chris and his cousins Sam and Josie this way a few times when they had been babies.
"Well, I guess this answers my question," Leon said with a wry smile. "The kid obviously didn't get...uh..." He paused and looked down at the infant; it was definitely a boy. "...his blond hair from your side of the family. So I guess I did knock you up, after all, D." It was strange; D was the one who dealt with mythical beasts every day, and accepted miraculous events as a matter of course. After hatching a dragon, fighting off a vampire, jumping out of a plane and surviving, and exchanging bodies with a mermaid, you would think that a blond-haired baby being born out of a pod would be no big deal for D. Yet Leon seemed to be handling it better than the Count, when he ought to be the one going out of his mind. Then again, nothing much shocked Leon anymore, not after he had fallen through the air onto a flying ship.
The baby's golden lashes fluttered, then he slowly opened his eyes and smiled up at his father, making a happy gurgling noise. Up until that moment, Leon Orcot had never believed in love at first sight. Even his feelings for the Count, as deep as they were, had taken time to grow, and even more time for him to acknowledge them to himself. But as soon as the baby smiled at him, Leon was instantly and hopelessly smitten.
"There's part of both of us in this kid, D," Leon said tenderly. "He's got my hair, but your eyes. Well, half of your eyes, anyway." Because the baby's eyes were a clear golden-yellow, the same color as D's right eye. Leon also noticed that the baby had D's porcelain-fair complexion, and there was a certain fineness and elegance to his features, even as young as he was. Leon had no doubt that the kid was going to grow up to be as beautiful as D, and that made him smile with pride, and then gave him a moment's pause. Did that mean that his son was going to have as many crazy suitors chasing after him as D did? Dominatrix dentists, mafia bosses, and bloodthirsty vampires, just to name a few. Leon envisioned himself waiting by the door with a shotgun when their son grew old enough to start dating. Dammit, Leon thought to himself in consternation, I'm not supposed to have to worry about these kinds of things with a son! It's almost as bad as a having a daughter--especially when I know from experience what horny teenage boys are like!
"Leon?" D asked anxiously, apparently concerned by the sudden change in Leon's expression. "Are you...upset? Are you angry?" He looked as worried as a teenage girl who had just told her boyfriend that she was pregnant.
"Not at all," Leon said reassuringly, touched by D's uncharacteristic insecurity. "Shocked, but not angry." With a mischievous smile, he added, "I'm a man of honor, D, so don't worry; I'll make an honest...er...man out of you." And still holding the child in his arms, he leaned over and kissed D soundly on the mouth.
"I noticed that you hesitated before you said 'man,'" D retorted, sounding a bit more like his old self. "However, I suppose that I will have to put up with you, as the baby will need both his parents, even if you are an uncouth, ill-mannered American." He glanced over at the bed, and Leon saw that the vines were quickly withering and falling to the floor, their purpose apparently having been served now that the baby had been born. And with the vines out of the way, he now noticed that the sheets were stained with blood...and other things.
"Your blood and mine mingled," D said softly, echoing Leon's thoughts. "Along with other...ah...fluids of our bodies. It should not be possible, not with a human, but somehow they merged together to create this child." He stared in awe at the baby in Leon's arms. "It is truly a miracle." He held out his arms and whispered, "May I?"
"Of course; he's your kid, too," Leon said, placing the baby in D's arms. And this time, D held him securely, with an air of familiarity. After all, unlike Leon, he did have a great deal of experience with taking care of babies--or at least, baby animals. And since the animals seemed to be human within the bounds of the petshop, Leon couldn't see that it made all that much difference.
D very gently and reverently ran a finger along the baby's smooth cheek. "He is beautiful, Leon," D whispered.
"Of course he is," Leon said, wrapping his arms around D from behind and kissing his cheek. "He's got two good-looking parents, after all!" Then Leon found himself unable to repress a grin that stretched from ear to ear. "Man, I can't believe that I'm a dad! I can't wait to tell Jill and the Chief! I'll pass out a bunch of cigars--"
"Smoking is bad for your health, Keiji-san," D said with mock-sternness. "You should pass out chocolate cigars instead."
"You just want an excuse to eat more chocolate!" Leon laughed. "But yeah, we could do that. They've got those candy bars too, the ones with the pink or blue wrappers that say 'It's a boy!' or 'It's a girl!' But you have to promise not to eat them all yourself!"
D smiled up at Leon, a look of wonder in his eyes. "You really are happy about this, Leon?"
Leon hugged D again. "Yeah, I am," he admitted, a little surprised himself. "I didn't expect things to turn out this way...but yeah, I'm happy. Thrilled, even." He kissed D on the mouth, then kissed the top of the baby's head, on his soft, golden curls. "I wasted enough time lying to myself. I wasted years that I could have spent with Chris, and with you. I told you before, I'm not going to waste any more time. I love you, D, and I love this kid. I want to spend the rest of my life with you both."
"I love you, too, Leon," D whispered, for the very first time, and there were tears shining in his eyes.
They kissed tenderly, and when they pulled apart, Leon said, "You know, we can't keep calling him 'the kid'. What are we going to name the baby?"
"Hmm..." D said thoughtfully.
"And we are not calling the kid 'D,' family tradition be damned," Leon said firmly. "It's just too damn confusing with three of you already!"
"Well..." D said.
"And please don't give him some weird-ass Chinese name that I won't be able to pronounce," Leon groaned.
D sniffed disdainfully and pretended to give him a miffed look, but then the baby cooed at D sweetly, and the Count couldn't hold back his smile any longer. "Perhaps a Japanese name, then?" D suggested. "Let me think...what about 'Daiki'?"
"Daiki," Leon said, rolling the word around on his tongue. "Daiki...it's kind of unusual, but it's not hard to pronounce. Hmm...Daiki. Kinda has a nice ring to it, and it starts with 'D'." Leon grinned. "So we're not totally abandoning the family tradition. What does it mean?"
D handed the baby back to Leon, wrapped a robe around himself, and headed over to a desk in the corner of the room. That reminded Leon that he was still naked, but he couldn't really get dressed while holding the kid. Besides, it wasn't like he was showing off anything that D hadn't seen before, and the kid was too young to care about modesty. So he bounced the baby gently in his arms, making goo-goo noises that Daiki seemed to find highly entertaining.
D glanced over at them for a moment, smiling in an amused manner at Leon as the baby gurgled with laughter. Then he dipped a brush in a bottle of black ink and sketched out two Chinese characters in elegant calligraphy on a sheet of blank paper. "This character is 'dai,' which means 'big' or 'great,'" D said, pointing at the first character. "'Ki' has many meanings, depending on how the kanji is written, but written this way--" He pointed at the second character. "--it means 'valuable'."
"So it means he's of great value?" Leon asked, smiling down at his son. "Yeah, I think that's appropriate." He crooned to the baby, "Because you're my precious treasure, aren't you, Daiki?" He kissed Daiki's cheek, and found the baby's skin incredibly soft and smooth. And it smelled sweet, like flowers. Not a cloying perfumey smell, but a faint sweetness that made you think of wildflowers and spring.
"Daiki already has you wrapped around his little finger, Leon," D laughed. "I will have to take care that you do not spoil him rotten."
"Don't you worry, D," Leon said with a grin. "Daiki's gonna turn out just fine...aren't you, buddy?" The baby cooed happily in agreement. "That's right, you're Daddy's little boy," Leon crooned, then he suddenly fell silent and frowned.
"Is something wrong, Leon?" D asked.
"I was just thinking...what is Daiki gonna call us?" Leon replied. "I mean, it would get kinda confusing if both of us are 'Daddy,' don't you think?" He scowled at D. "And I am not being the mommy this time!"
"But you were such a good mother to Shukou," D teased. "You gave birth to a beautiful baby dragon."
Leon growled at D, and Daiki laughed delightedly, apparently unfazed by their arguing--which was, after all, only meant in fun. And Leon smiled proudly, pleased that his son was so perceptive, even when he was less than a day old. "You're a smart fella, aren't you?" he said, chucking the baby under his chin.
D laughed as well, then said, "Well, you can be the daddy this time, Leon. And I can be 'Papa'. That is what young children call their fathers in Japan--the equivalent of 'Daddy' in America."
"Papa?" Leon echoed incredulously, and D smiled sweetly at him. D certainly didn't look like a "Papa"--but what the hell, the kid had to call him something, and all joking aside, he didn't think that D would take kindly to being called "Mommy"!
"Okay, Daiki," Leon told his son. "I'm Daddy, and this is your Papa." The baby smiled, then began to squirm and fuss, not crying yet, but he was definitely working up to it. "What's wrong?" Leon asked anxiously. "Is he sick?"
D smiled in a rather condescending way. "Your daddy is not a very intelligent man, is he, Daiki?" he said to his son. "Nothing is wrong, Leon--save that Daiki is a newborn baby who has not yet been fed. All new babies come into the world hungry, Detective."
"Oh!" Leon exclaimed, feeling too relieved to be irritated with the Count. "Well, come on, then, let's go get him some milk." Carrying Daiki in his arms, he headed for the door, asking, "Baby Ds do drink milk, don't they?"
"Keiji-san!" D shrieked. "Put on some clothes first!"
Leon stopped in his tracks, looked down at himself, and grinned sheepishly. In his rush to take care of his son, he had almost run out into the shop buck-naked!
"Here, let me hold the baby," D said firmly. "Daiki can wait a few minutes while you get dressed."
Leon hastily pulled on his t-shirt and jeans, then followed D through the maze-like corridors of the petshop to the kitchen. They found Tet-chan, Ten-chan, and Pon-chan sitting at the kitchen table, while Lupin lay on the floor, happily gnawing on a large bone.
"Ah, so the two lovebirds have finally emerged from their nest," Ten-chan said with a grin.
"I have a meal ready for you, Count," Tet-chan said, rising from his seat. "Salad to start with, then a tofu dish for the main course, and for dessert--" And then his jaw dropped in mid-sentence as he caught sight of the baby in D's arms. "HOLY SHIT!" he screamed.
"You know, you really are sounding more like the detective every day," Ten-chan mused. He smiled and made funny faces to make the baby laugh, then said, "What a cute little guy. I don't remember seeing him around before, though. When did you have a time to find a new pet while you were...?" He leered at D and Leon suggestively.
"Y-you don't understand, you stupid kitsune," Tet-chan stammered. "Th-that isn't a pet..."
Lupin got up, bounded over to them, and sniffed at the baby curiously. "The pack leader and his mate had a cub!" he exclaimed. He cocked his head to one side and gave them a puzzled look. "Boy, that was awfully fast! It takes months for a she-wolf to give birth to her pups."
"A CUB?!" Ten-chan and Pon-chan chorused, their eyes going comically round with shock.
"But...but...but...that's impossible!" Pon-chan protested. "You're both boys!"
"Time for another sex-ed talk with the kids?" Leon murmured to D in amusement.
"The cub smells like both Leon and the pack leader!" Lupin insisted.
"You're absolutely right," Leon told him, patting the wolf on the head. He noticed that he could now understand Lupin's speech, along with that of the other pets, but he didn't let it worry him. He briefly wondered why Lupin still looked like a wolf while the others looked human, but he could ask the Count about that later. Right now he had more important things to think about. "D and I had this cub...er, I mean, this kid...together."
"I will explain everything," D said, "but first, could you please warm up some milk for the baby, Tet-chan?"
"Yes, Count," the Tou-Tet replied meekly, his eyes still looking dazed, but he set about warming a bottle of milk quickly and efficiently.
***
Ever practical despite his shock, Ten-chan had fetched some diapers and clothing for the baby while Tet-chan heated up the milk, and nearly every pet in the shop was now clustered around the couch in the lobby, watching in awe as D nursed the baby. Leon sat beside him, his arm around D, beaming like the proud father he was.
"So that's how it happened," Tet-chan murmured, still looking a little stunned, when D finished his explanation.
"Your grandpa is going to blow a gasket when he hears about this, Count," Ten-chan said, grinning widely, looking not at all perturbed by the prospect. But then, all kitsune loved nothing better than to stir up a little mischief, and Ten-chan was no different, although he was a good deal more responsible than most of his brethren.
"He will be upset when he hears about this," D admitted. "He will be outraged at the idea of our blood mingling with that of a human."
"Grandpa can just kiss my American ass," Leon said dismissively.
"Please watch your language around the baby, Leon," D scolded, but a small smile played around the corners of his mouth.
Then Leon frowned as a thought occurred to him. "Your grandpa...he wouldn't be mad enough to hurt the baby or anything like that, would he?"
D shook his head. "No, he will be angry, but at worst he will disown me and cut off all contact with me...with us."
Leon sighed in relief and leaned back against the couch. "No loss."
"And besides," D said fiercely, "I would never let anyone harm our child, not even my grandfather!"
The assembled animals in the lobby growled and hissed, exposing sharp fangs and claws. "Neither will we," they chorused.
Leon was gratified to see that even Tet-chan looked murderously protective of the new baby. "Thank you," he said.
"I'm not doing it for you," Tet-chan growled, and turned away, looking a little embarrassed. "I'm only protecting him 'cause he's the Count's son."
"Oh?" Ten-chan asked innocently. "And is that why you protected little Chris with such determination? You even took a bullet for him once, as I recall..."
Tet-chan pounced on the kitsune, and D and Leon laughed like indulgent parents as a nine-tailed fox and a small sheep-like creature rolled across the floor, wrestling with each other. Daiki laughed and clapped his chubby little hands together.
"I miss Chris," Pon-chan sighed wistfully. "How is he doing, Leon?"
"He's doing fine," Leon assured her. "He's getting along with his sisters, and he's made a lot of friends at school." The raccoon girl pouted, looking a little put-out that Chris didn't seem to be missing her, and Leon smiled. "He does miss all of you guys a lot, though," he added. "Especially you and Tet-chan and Shukou." Pon-chan smiled, then frowned jealously at the mention of the dragon-girl's name. Leon chuckled, then said, "Hey, that reminds me...I have something to return to you, D."
"Something for me?" D asked curiously.
"Yeah," Leon replied. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket, then pulled a folded-up piece of paper from the wallet. He handed it to D, then took Daiki and the bottle from the Count so that D could unfold and smooth out the paper with his trembling hands. It was a much-creased sheet of paper, still ragged along the edge where it had been torn from a spiral-bound notebook. It was a childish sketch of a cartoonish Chris, Leon, D, Tet-chan, Q-chan, and Pon-chan. It was the drawing Chris had lovingly made of his family, which D had carried with him when he first fled the petshop in L.A.
"I thought it was destroyed in the explosion," D whispered, tears trickling down his face.
"Your suitcase somehow survived the blast," Leon said, smiling at him tenderly. "Jill found it and gave it to me. I promised Chris that I would return it to you."
"Then I must thank Miss Jill," D said in a shaky voice, setting the paper aside so that his tears would not fall on it and stain the sketch. "And we must visit Chris and introduce him to his new nephew."
"Are we going back to America?" Pon-chan asked eagerly.
D looked at Leon, who shrugged. "I'll live anywhere you want, D," Leon said. "But it would be nice to go back home. The department's shorthanded, and the Chief told me unofficially that I could get my old job back if I wanted. Jill would love to see you, too. She's engaged now, you know, to a Chinese-American detective in Vice named Terry Hu. She already knew a bit of Chinese from watching kung-fu movies, but she's gotten pretty fluent since she and Terry hooked up. He speaks both Cantonese and Mandarin."
"Then I look forward to conversing with Miss Jill and her fiance," D said with a smile.
"Hmm," Leon said, suddenly beginning to get a little worried. "I might have to learn Chinese, too, just so that you guys won't be able to talk about me behind my back."
"So are we going home?" Pon-chan demanded.
"Yes, Ponta," D said softly, allowing the girl to climb onto his lap. "We are going home. Daiki should grow up in the United States, where he will be able to visit his uncle more frequently."
"That could be a problem," Leon said, frowning. "Even a baby needs a passport to travel abroad, and Daiki will need a birth certificate in order to get a passport. We didn't exactly have a physician in attendance at his birth, and it's going to be rather difficult to explain this to the authorities...including the fact that he has two fathers and no mother. Or would the vine be his mother? But we can't exactly put that down on the birth certificate."
D smiled. "I know some government officials who can help us obtain a birth certificate and passport, no questions asked."
"Of course you do," Leon muttered, wondering why he had bothered to worry.
"But my dear detective," D continued, "we do not need to travel on an airplane. Surely you have not forgotten that my ship can travel without regard for human borders?"
"But I thought you said that humans haven't yet earned the right to board that ship," Leon reminded him.
"Well, just this once, I believe that we can make an exception," D said, winking at him playfully. "You are, after all, the father of my son. And I do not wish to take Daiki on an airplane--it is so noisy and crowded, and in such close confinement, germs spread easily. Babies are susceptible to illness, and we would not want Daiki to catch a cold."
"Of course not," Leon agreed promptly. He certainly wasn't going to complain about not having to stand in long lines at the airport and worry about lost luggage! "Hey, can I use your phone, D, to call Chris and Jill?"
"Certainly, Leon," D replied. "I believe that we should stop by the East Coast first, to visit Chris, before returning to Los Angeles."
"Great!" Leon said, and dialed the number of his aunt's home. "Hey, Auntie, it's me, Leon! Yeah, it's good to hear your voice, too. No, don't worry, I'm fine...in fact, I'll be coming home soon. But don't say anything to Chris yet; I want to tell him myself. Can you put him on the line? Hey Chris, it's me! Guess what--I found D, and we're coming back home!" He had to pull the phone away from his ear for a moment as Chris shrieked loudly with delight. "And guess what, buddy, we're bringing home a surprise with us! No, I can't tell you what it is, silly, because then it wouldn't be a surprise. You'll just have to wait and see..."
***
Afterword: The shopkeeper in "Dolls" (whom Daiki will eventually grow up to be) is never referred to by name, so I felt free to make up an appropriate name for him. And I don't know what his real eye color is, so I decided to make them gold, so that he'd look partly like D.
Also, very observant readers might recall that Jill's new husband, Terry Hu, was mentioned very briefly in Spirits, when Jill was asking for D to help out as a translator for Jia:
"Isn't there anyone in the department who speaks Chinese?"
"Terry Hu over in Vice, but he's on vacation. Look, I can round up an official translator, but that'll take time, and the kid's hysterical! Get over here as soon as you can!"
I didn't intend for him to play a bigger role at the time, but I liked the idea of Jill marrying a Chinese-American detective, given her interest in Chinatown and the Count.
Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15a, Part 15b, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19a, Part 19b, Part 20a, Part 20b, Part 21, Part 22a, Part 22b