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FIC: Daiki, Part 16 (of 22)
Title: Daiki, Part 16 (of 22)
Rating: R overall, but mostly PG-13
Pairing: Leon/D
Word count: ~8,575
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. Raphael is introduced to the petshop inhabitants, and an unexpected visitor drops by the San Francisco petshop.
Part 1a, Part 1b, 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
Rating: R overall, but mostly PG-13
Pairing: Leon/D
Word count: ~8,575
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. Raphael is introduced to the petshop inhabitants, and an unexpected visitor drops by the San Francisco petshop.
Part 1a, Part 1b, 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
***
The day after his trip to San Francisco, Daiki broke the news that Raphael had been able to see Tet-chan's human form to his parents and the petshop inhabitants. Everyone was overjoyed, especially Honlon, who would finally be able to meet Raphael in person, and the pets were insistent that they should have a party to celebrate.
So Tet-chan was drafted to prepare the feast, although he had little reason to celebrate. However, he couldn't object without revealing the reasons why, so he reluctantly went along with it, and besides, despite all his grumbling, he did want Daiki to be happy. And since the party was for Daiki as well as Raphael, Tet-chan was determined to produce a grand feast, regardless of his own personal feelings.
Raphael arrived at the petshop at dinnertime; he had spent some of his meager savings on a new pair of trousers (to replace the ones ruined by Tet-chan) and a box of Godiva chocolates. He handed the latter to the Count, who accepted them graciously, and then he entered the shop, tense with nervousness and excitement. Seeing just Tet-chan take human form had been shocking enough; he wasn't sure what it would be like to meet an entire shop full of animal-people. And he was also a little worried about exactly how this magical "Sight" worked, because it seemed to be a deal-breaker in his and Daiki's relationship. Daiki seemed to assume that if Raphael could see Tet-chan, then he would be able to see the other pets in their human forms, but what if that wasn't true? If he couldn't see and communicate with the pets, would that make him unworthy of being Daiki's mate?
While Raphael was fretting, a teenage girl with long, blonde ringlets of hair pulled back in ponytails ran up and hugged him tightly. "Oh, Raphael!" she exclaimed. "I'm so happy that you can see us now!"
"Uh...I..." a flustered Raphael stammered, and the girl pulled back, pouting and looking a little hurt.
"Don't you know who I am, Raphael?"
Raphael paused to think; there was something familiar about her mannerisms and her exuberant affection. "Pon-chan?" he asked hesitantly.
The girl beamed and hugged him again. "You do know me!" she said delightedly.
"Yes, of course," Raphael said, still feeling a little flustered. He blushed as he thought of all the times that he had held Pon-chan on his lap and petted her. In her raccoon form, it was perfectly innocent, but he couldn't help thinking that he would look like a pervert or pedophile to someone who could see her human form.
"It's a bit disconcerting to see them in their human forms for the first time," Leon said with wry amusement, so at least it seemed that he didn't think Raphael was a pervert. After all, he had once experienced the same thing that Raphael was going through right now.
Raphael got an even bigger shock when a beautiful woman in a black satin gown rubbed up against him, saying, "Hello, handsome," in a low, sultry purr. She was soon joined by two other women, one in white velvet and one in a gown of dove gray with dark stripes. They twined their bodies and arms around him sinuously, running their fingers through his hair.
"Uh...ah...uh..." Raphael stuttered incoherently.
"Ah, but you know these ladies very well," Daiki said with a mischievous smile. "This is Ebony, and Snowflake, and Tabitha."
"Oh, of course," Raphael said weakly. "I should have guessed." They were the cats--a sleek black cat, a white Persian, and a gray tabby--who always purred and rubbed against his legs. They were still purring and rubbing against him, but as with Pon-chan, it was quite a different experience when they were human!
"Shameless hussies," Pon-chan muttered disgruntledly; the cat women had shoved her aside in their haste to lavish affection on Raphael.
"That's enough, ladies," Daiki finally said in a gentle yet firm voice, and took hold of Raphael's arm possessively. "Raphael belongs to me."
"You're no fun, Daiki," Snowflake pouted, and Ebony teased, "We could share him," but the cats released Raphael and backed off, much to his relief.
There were more pets to meet: a young man with a bright yellow mohawk, who turned out to be a cockatoo, and a sleepy-eyed woman in a green dress covered with sequins that resembled scales, who turned out to be the huge lizard that usually dozed beneath the couch. And there was a teenage boy with pointed, elfin ears and white-blond hair tied back in a long braid. He calmly held out his hand, and Raphael shook it, then gazed more closely into the boy's almond-shaped eyes, which were filled with both amusement and a wisdom beyond his apparent years.
"You're Ten-chan, aren't you?" Raphael asked, and the boy smiled.
"Very good, Raphael." Ten-chan winked at Daiki. "This one's a keeper, Dai."
"Ten-chan is a kitsune," Daiki explained. "Kitsune are Japanese fox-spirits with magical abilities, mainly the power to shapeshift."
"Is that why you have nine tails?" Raphael asked.
"A kitsune's power is measured by the number of his or her tails," Ten-chan said smugly, "and the maximum number of tails that a kitsune can have is nine."
"Which means that he is a very powerful kitsune," Daiki said.
"And a big braggart," Tet-chan added.
"I was just trying to educate Raphael," Ten-chan protested innocently.
To his surprise, Raphael found that Lupin looked exactly the same as he always had, like a big gray wolf. However, there was one difference: Raphael could now understand Lupin's speech.
"I suppose I could turn into a human if I tried," the wolf said, absent-mindedly scratching an ear with his hind paw. "I just never saw the point in it." Raphael automatically reached down to scratch behind Lupin's ears, and the wolf wagged its tail happily.
"He's too simple-minded to want to take human form," Tet-chan said sourly. "He's perfectly content to be an overgrown canine."
"Lupin is a kind of kami himself," Daiki said with a smile. "A wolf spirit, to be precise."
"D says that he embodies the essence of wolf-ness, whatever that means," Leon interjected.
"There are a few others in the shop besides Lupin who normally stay in their animal forms," Daiki continued. "It's a matter of personal preference. One of the tigers, for example, says that a feline body is far superior to the human form."
"Tigers?" Raphael asked, although he wasn't really surprised, after the story Jason had told him about the gangster who had been killed by lions or tigers. "Where in the petshop do you keep a tiger?"
"Come, I will show you," Daiki said, holding out his hand. Raphael took a deep breath, then placed his hand in Daiki's, and followed him into the dark corridor leading out of the lobby.
It turned out that some of the mysterious doors lining the halls of the petshop opened up into jungles and forests and deserts and beaches--just about any type of habitat that could house a wild animal. He met the tiger that Daiki had mentioned, and also some fierce-looking men and women who were actually lions and jaguars and leopards. The beach room was home to a cheerful young man in scuba gear who turned out to be a dolphin.
"I always thought that the shop seemed bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside," Raphael muttered after they left Phillipe's room.
"You're looking a little pale," Daiki said in a concerned voice. "Are you all right? I know that this has been a big shock to you."
"I'm okay," Raphael replied, but he paused to lean against the wall. "I just need a minute to sort of let it all sink in. I knew that the animals were really people, but I didn't know about all these rooms. It's just...amazing. Now I understand why the people in Chinatown think that the Count is a god."
"Aside from taking revenge upon humanity, it is the duty of the Ds to provide shelter to animals who need it, both magical and mundane," Count D explained solemnly.
"And is the shop kind of a portal to another dimension?" Raphael asked hesitantly. "Like something out of Star Trek?"
Leon looked amused, and the Count looked bewildered by that reference. Daiki smiled and said, "It would be more accurate to say that the petshop itself exists in another dimension, although to be honest, I don't entirely understand how its magic works myself. But the petshop is portable; the various Count Ds have often had to change locations over the years, particularly when the authorities become suspicious of the many deaths connected to the shop."
"Portable?" Raphael asked in confusion. Leon gave D a mock-glare and said, "The last time he left L.A., the shop turned into a flying boat, and he just sailed off in it through the sky. It took me two friggin' years to track him down!"
"Language, my dear detective," the Count gently chided.
"Flying...boat?" Raphael asked, his eyes going wide. "And did this building just disappear when the, uh, boat flew off?"
"Nah, the building was still here, but it was just an empty shell," Leon replied. "There was nothing left inside but the lobby and a small storage room behind it. All the corridors and back rooms had disappeared; I thought was losing my mind when I first saw it!" He glared at his lover again, and the Count smiled at him apologetically.
"I...see," Raphael said weakly, and Leon gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
"Don't worry, kid, you're doing fine!" Leon said heartily. "Actually, I'm pretty impressed. Most people would have gone stark raving bonkers by now!"
"Well, my friend Jason warned me that the petshop was something out of the ordinary," Raphael admitted. "But knowing it and seeing it firsthand are two different things." However, Leon's encouragement did make him feel better; the Detective had gone through all of this before and seemed to have survived the shock just fine.
Pull yourself together, Raphael told himself firmly. You managed to survive being left alone with a drunken, man-eating Tou-Tet, after all. The magical rooms and the idea of the petshop being a flying boat were staggering in concept, but at least he wasn't in fear of his life. Daiki and the Count and Leon were here to protect him from any creatures that might have a hankering for human flesh, and most of the pets greeted him in a friendly and even respectful manner--although he suspected that they were not so much paying respect to Raphael the starving artist, but to the chosen "mate" of Count D's son. But as long as that kept him from being "dinner" in their eyes, that was just fine with Raphael.
"Okay," Raphael said determinedly, pushing himself away from the wall. "I'm ready to continue the tour."
"Actually, there's just one room left," Daiki said.
Raphael's spirits lifted when he heard that, until Leon said doubtfully, "The Crystal Chamber? Are you sure he's ready for that?"
"What--or I guess I should say, who is in the Crystal Chamber?" Raphael asked suspiciously.
"My friend," Daiki replied. "The one who wanted to see a picture of you."
"Oh," Raphael said, remembering how evasive Daiki had been when talking about that friend. "What kind of animal is she?"
"Well, first of all, you do understand that the shop contains creatures that most humans believe exist only in myth and legend?" Daiki asked with a slightly nervous and apologetic smile, which only worried Raphael even more.
"Yes..." Raphael replied hesitantly, wondering what could be scarier than lions and tigers and a man-eating Tou-Tet.
"Oh, just give it to him straight, Dai," Tet-chan said impatiently. "Honlon is a dragon."
"A dragon?!" Raphael exclaimed. After everything he had seen today, he ought to be immune to further shock, but it seemed that he wasn't. "As in fire-breathing and man-eating?"
"Well, she's never eaten a man, as far as I know," Daiki replied with a smile, but his words were not exactly reassuring.
"Hopefully she won't start now," Raphael laughed nervously. "Her name is 'Honlon'?"
"Well, her collective name is Honlon," Daiki said. "But she has three separate and distinct personalities."
"Huh?" Raphael asked, utterly bewildered. Daiki's friend was a dragon with a multiple personality disorder?!
"Honlon is a three-headed dragon," Tet-chan said gleefully, clearly enjoying Raphael's discomfiture.
"Three...heads?" Raphael asked in a shaky voice, bracing himself against the wall once more.
Daiki gave Tet-chan a brief glare before turning back to Raphael and replying, "Yes, she has three heads. There's a story behind that, but it's a rather long one, so perhaps we should save that for another day. Basically, Honlon is three separate people in one body; their names are Junrei, Kanan, and Shukou. Junrei is very sweet and childlike, and Kanan is...um..." He paused to glance at Leon, then continued, "...rather outgoing and boisterous. And Shukou is..." This time he glanced at the Count. "...usually calm and serene, but Kanan has a talent for making her lose her temper." Daiki smiled. "Think of them as triplets; they squabble sometimes, as sisters do, but they also love each other very much."
"Dragon triplets; got it," Raphael said, but made no move to let go of the wall.
"Her human form, however, has only one head," Daiki continued. "So it is a little disconcerting to an outsider, because she seems to be constantly changing personalities. Those personalities are very...ah...distinctive, though, so you should be able to tell the three sisters apart quite easily. It is Junrei who was most eager to meet you."
"Three sisters," Raphael repeated, still feeling rather dazed. "Junrei, Kanan, and Shukou. Junrei is the one who wanted to meet me."
"Well, I think that they all wanted to meet you," Daiki said, smiling. "But Junrei is the only one who would admit to it." He gave Raphael a concerned look. "Are you sure that you're up to this? I could introduce you to them another day if you're not ready."
He would love to postpone this meeting for another day--another month or year, even--but Raphael was too proud to back down and lose face in front of Daiki's parents, not to mention Tet-chan, who was still grinning widely.
"No," Raphael said gamely. "I wouldn't want to disappoint Junrei. Let's go."
"That's the spirit," Ten-chan said encouragingly, while Leon slapped Raphael on the back and said approvingly, "You've got balls, kid!"
"Oh, I almost forgot," Daiki said. "I brought some treats for Honlon, but I left them in the lobby."
"I'll go get them!" Pon-chan volunteered, and darted off. Raphael was grateful for the reprieve, which gave him a couple more minutes to gather up his courage before Pon-chan returned with two pastry boxes and a paper sack stained with grease.
"This way, please," Daiki said, and led Raphael to a set of huge double doors carved with the stylized emblem of a dragon--serpentine and wingless, in the Asian fashion. The doors easily swung open at Daiki's touch, although they looked too heavy for a single person to move, and they entered a huge and lushly appointed chamber. The floor was made of polished marble, and there were huge marble pillars supporting the ceiling; twined around the pillars like vines were dragons with long, snake-like bodies that appeared to be made from solid gold. There were heavy silk draperies hanging on the walls, and the room was filled with elegant, hand-painted screens and beautiful vases. Raphael was no expert on Chinese art, but he had seen similar items in the shop where Jason worked, and if these items were genuine, they were probably worth a fortune--maybe even more than the geezer could afford.
At the far end of the room was an ornate, throne-like couch set on a high, raised dais. Reclining on the couch was a beautiful Chinese girl dressed in silk robes and a gold tiara. She looked perfectly human except for her large, pointed, reptilian-looking ears, and Raphael smiled in relief; she didn't seem as intimidating as he had expected.
"Good evening, Shukou, Kanan, Junrei," Daiki said.
The girl looked up, smiling at Daiki eagerly. "Hello, Daiki!" she said in a high, childish voice. Then her gaze fell on Raphael, and she clapped her hands together in delight. "Oh my...is this Raphael?"
No one had mentioned anything about the dragon being royalty, but she was dressed like a princess, so Raphael went down on one knee before the dais and said gallantly, "I am Raphael Van Horne, my lady. And if I am not mistaken, you must be Junrei?"
"Oh!" the girl squealed happily. "You recognized me!"
"Daiki has told me about you and your sisters," Raphael said. Junrei seemed very sweet; in fact, she reminded him a bit of his little sister, so he was able to say with a sincere smile, "I'm happy to be able to meet you in person."
"Oh, I'm so happy, too!" Junrei said, running down the steps of the dais to clasp Raphael's hands. "I've wanted so badly to meet you," she said earnestly. "I was jealous that everyone else already got to meet you, but Daiki said I had to wait until you could see my human form."
"Well, of course," the dragon-girl said, but suddenly her voice was pitched slightly lower, and she sounded older and more mature, somehow. The excitement in her face faded into a cool and serene look that reminded Raphael of Count D. Her lips curved just the slightest bit, in a faintly amused smile as she said, "Raphael would have been frightened if he had seen us as a dragon."
"Um...Shukou?" Raphael asked hesitantly.
"Hey, he's not so dumb, after all!" the girl laughed, her faint smile stretching into a broad grin. "I was kinda worried; everyone said you were handsome, but looks and brains don't always go together."
"Funny, you don't have either," Tet-chan muttered under his breath, but not quietly enough, because the girl lashed out and rapped her fist on his head.
"I heard that," she said, scowling at him. Tet-chan growled sullenly, but instead of attacking the girl, he just rubbed his head and backed out of reach of her fists. Raphael wondered if he was prohibited from attacking the other pets in the shop, or if even a Tou-Tet was no match for a dragon.
Meanwhile, the girl looked Raphael over more closely and announced, "Well, I suppose you're handsome enough, but I don't really see what all the fuss was about."
Something about her voice sounded a little rough and brash, like Leon. "And you must be Kanan," Raphael said, more confidently this time.
But the girl had already switched personalities. "Kanan, you don't have to be so rude!" Junrei said reprovingly.
"So who's being rude?" Kanan demanded. "I was just being honest! At least I'm not all like..." She made a simpering expression and fluttered her eyelashes. "'Ooh, Raphael, I'm so happy to meet you! Ooh, Raphael, you're so handsome!'"
"That's not what I said!" Junrei protested angrily, and tears began to well in her eyes. "Kanan, you're such a meanie!"
"Yeah, well, you're a crybaby, Junrei!" Kanan retorted.
Raphael had been watching the argument with bemusement, but he grew alarmed when the girl suddenly slapped herself and Shukou's voice said sternly, "Stop picking on Junrei, Kanan!"
"Why don't you butt out, Little Miss Priss?!" Kanan snapped, and slapped herself again.
"Here we go again," Pon-chan sighed.
"Stop, stop!" Junrei wailed, but she was quickly overwhelmed by her sisters' more forceful personalities, and Kanan and Shukou continued shouting insults and slapping each other--although since they shared the same body, Raphael thought that it seemed to be defeating the purpose.
"Shukou, Kanan, stop fighting!" the Count scolded, but they both ignored him. As their argument grew more heated, their voices seemed to grow louder and deeper, echoing in the large hall with a booming noise that sounded like thunder, and the floor began to shake.
"Uh-oh," Ten-chan muttered nervously.
"Not again!" Leon groaned.
"Is this an earthquake?" Raphael asked, reaching out to brace himself against a pillar. It wasn't really that bad, a minor tremor like many he had experienced before while living in L.A., but he had the sinking feeling that this was not at all a normal earthquake, and that the delicate-looking girl standing in front of him was somehow causing it.
"More like a dragon-quake," Tet-chan said.
Junrei/Shukou/Kanan's form began to shimmer and turn transparent, and behind it, another form began to take shape--that of a huge, three-headed dragon.
"Oh...my...God," Raphael gasped, clutching at the pillar with both arms now, as his legs nearly buckled beneath him. "She really is a dr...dr...dragon!"
"That's what we've been telling you all along!" Tet-chan said impatiently, and with a noticeable lack of sympathy.
Now Raphael understood why the Crystal Chamber was so huge and cavernous. The ceiling was more than twenty feet above Raphael's head, but if the dragon stretched her necks out to their full lengths, she could probably touch the ceiling with the tips of her horned noses. She didn't really look like the Asian dragon carved on the doors; she looked more like a dragon from European fairy tales, with a more muscular, stocky body and bat-like wings. No, on second thought, she looked like a hybrid of both a Western and an Eastern dragon; her body looked more like a European dragon, but her necks were long and serpentine, and she had deer-like antlers growing out of her heads, more like an Asian dragon. Actually, what she really looked like was a monster from one of those old Godzilla movies, except that those rubber-suited movie monsters always looked more comical than scary, and there was nothing funny about the dragon standing in front of him.
The heads on the left and right hissed and spat gouts of flame at each other, while the head in the middle looked frightened, and tears spilled from her eyes as she wailed, "Somebody please stop them!" The voice was as deep and thunderous as the other two, but it was also strangely childlike and plaintive.
"Ju...Junrei?" Raphael stammered.
The dragon also had a tail nearly as long as her necks, and it whipped back and forth as Kanan and Shukou fought. Kanan's head lunged forward to snap at her sister, and the tail lashed out to the side and hit the pillar Raphael was clinging to. He lost his grip and stumbled backwards, and the pillar cracked and began to fall towards him.
"Raphael!" Daiki cried, and he leapt forward with lightning speed to push Raphael out of the way. They fell to the floor in each other's arms as the pillar landed with a loud crash just a few feet away from them.
"Daiki!" Leon shouted, his face turning sheet-white. "Raphael!" He ran forward, jumping over fallen debris, to kneel beside the two of them. "Are you all right?!"
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," a shaken Raphael said. "Are you okay, Dai?"
But Daiki was already rising to his feet, his golden eyes blazing with wrath; he looked even angrier than he had when Tet-chan had bitten Raphael in the Plant Dolls shop.
"SHUKOU! KANAN!" he shouted, in a voice that somehow managed to ring out loud enough to be heard over the dragon's roars. "CEASE THIS AT ONCE!"
"Eh?" Shukou and Kanan were startled enough to break off their fight and stare at Daiki in surprise.
Daiki's voice dropped to a more normal volume, but his eyes were still glowing slightly as he pointed towards the fallen pillar and said accusingly, "You nearly killed my mate!"
The anger faded from the dragons' faces, to be replaced by sheepish looks. Shukou lowered her head until she was face-to-face with Raphael, who swallowed hard and tried not to flinch, which required a massive amount of self-control. She was close enough that he could feel her breath, hot and smelling faintly of sulfur, against his face, and her teeth were as long and sharp as knives. He fleetingly wondered if it was worse to be eaten alive or to be burnt to a crisp.
But Shukou just said meekly, "I apologize, Raphael. We got a little carried away."
"Sorry," Kanan mumbled, a little less graciously, and then a spark of interest lit up her eyes and she raised her head and turned towards Daiki. "Hey, you called him your 'mate'!"
"Well, duh," Tet-chan said, rolling his eyes, although Raphael noticed that he was careful to stay on the other side of the room, out of reach of her long neck, and more importantly, her sharp teeth. "Why else do you think that he can see us?"
Daiki blushed deeply and mumbled, "Well, yes, I suppose that he is, although I haven't formally asked him to be my mate..."
Raphael, who was still sitting on the floor, smiled up at Daiki, suddenly not caring that there was a huge, three-headed, and very bad-tempered dragon standing in front of him. "I thought that I'd made my feelings pretty clear the other day, but if you need an official declaration, then yes, I would be honored to be your mate, Daiki."
"And I yours, Raphael," Daiki said, smiling at him tenderly. He held out his hand and Raphael took it, and he helped Raphael up to his feet.
"Oh, that's so romantic!" Junrei sighed, weeping a little, teardrops the size of a man's fist splashing on the marble floor.
"Hmph!" Kanan snorted, a little puff of smoke blowing out from her nostrils.
"Oh, Kanan!" Junrei scolded. "Can't you be nice for once?"
"Listen, you little crybaby--"
"Please don't fight," Raphael said, hastily stepping between the two heads, although he belatedly realized that was probably not a very smart move as Kanan glared at him and Junrei blinked in surprise.
"You wanna piece of me, pretty boy?" Kanan demanded.
Daiki moved forward to defend his mate, but before he could say anything, Raphael said quietly, "No, I do not wish to fight with you, Kanan. Neither do I wish to be the cause of dissension between you and your sisters. Family is something very precious that should be cherished. And I can see that despite the way you quarrel, the three of you care about each other a lot."
"And what would you know about it, pretty boy?" Kanan said belligerently.
"I used to fight with my little sister the same way," Raphael replied, smiling at the dragon sadly.
"The one who died?" Junrei asked in a hushed voice.
Raphael nodded. "I used to tease her a lot, the way that Kanan teases you, Junrei, and she would get really mad at me. But if anyone else picked on her, then I'd immediately jump to her defense, the way that Shukou defended you. You remind me a little bit of her."
"Me?" Junrei asked.
"All three of you," Raphael replied. "My sister was very pretty, with long, dark hair like you--in your human form, that is. She was very sweet, and with outsiders, she was a little shy, like Junrei. And she was very smart and mature for her age, like Shukou. But with me, she wasn't shy at all, and we'd fight a lot, the way that Kanan and Shukou fight. For such a sweet little girl, she could be very fierce." He grinned, with less sadness this time. "I liked that about her."
"I'm so sorry about your sister, Raphael," Junrei said earnestly. "She sounds like a nice person. I wish I could've met her."
"I wish that you could have met her, too," Raphael said. "I'm sure that she would've been thrilled to meet a dragon princess."
"Is she a princess?" Tet-chan muttered skeptically.
"Well, she was wearing a crown, so I assumed that she was," Raphael replied.
"Well, of course," Shukou said haughtily. "The dragon is one of the four sacred beasts--along with the phoenix, the tortoise, and the Kirin. So all dragons are nobility, basically."
"Unlike certain other scruffy peons," Kanan said, giving Tet-chan a pointed look.
"Who are you calling 'peon'?" Tet-chan asked indignantly, but he still didn't come any closer to the dragon.
"Anyway," Raphael interrupted hastily, "the point that I was trying to make was that the three of you should remember how lucky you are to have each other. Please don't fight over me."
"Even though Kanan was being rude to you?" Junrei asked.
"I don't think that she was being rude," Raphael laughed. "What was it she said--'I don't see what all the fuss was about'? My sister would agree with her! She would say that I shouldn't get swell-headed."
"Heh," Kanan chuckled. "I think I would've liked your sister."
"She would've liked you, too, I'm sure," Raphael said. It was strange; for years, the mere thought of his family had caused him such pain that he had avoided talking about them as much as possible. He still felt a little sad, but for the first time, he felt more happiness than sorrow as he reminisced about his sister with the dragon. In trying to forget the pain, he had blocked out the happy memories of his family as well, and maybe that had been a mistake.
The dragon suddenly shifted back into her human form. "Chris left us," she said in a quiet voice that Raphael thought was Shukou's, but he wasn't sure. "And then Daiki left, too, even though he still comes to visit."
"Oh, Shukou..." Daiki said softly.
"I think we were a little afraid that you might take him even farther away from us," Shukou whispered, staring down at the floor. "We...I mean, Junrei...gets lonely here when no one comes to visit the Crystal Chamber."
"I would never try to take Daiki away from you," Raphael said gently, reaching out to take the dragon-girl's hand in one of his. "You and Tet-chan, and the Count and Leon, and everyone else here are all his family. You'll always be family, even if he doesn't live at the shop anymore. I know what it's like to lose a family, and I could never take Daiki away from his."
The girl looked up, and it seemed to be Junrei who was smiling at him shyly. "I...we'll be your family if you like, Raphael. Do you think...would it be okay..." She blushed. "Could I kind of be like your sister, Raphael?"
"I would like that very much," Raphael said, and found himself blinking away tears as Junrei flung herself into his arms and hugged him tightly.
"Hmm, a brother," Kanan muttered against his chest. "Never had a brother before; that might be kind of interesting."
He lightly kissed the top of her head and said, "I'll try to be a good brother and not tease you too much."
Kanan pulled back to grin at him. "You'd better not, if you know what's good for you! I bet your sister wished she could turn into a dragon and put you in your place!" She whacked him on the arm, hard enough for the blow to sting. "You oughta be ashamed of yourself, picking on a little girl!"
"I was just a kid myself back then," he protested good-naturedly, rubbing his arm. "I'm older and wiser now."
"Older, anyway," Kanan retorted saucily. "It's not really that wise to confront an angry dragon, but I'll give you points for bravery."
"He's wise enough to manage to charm that dragon," Ten-chan whispered to the Count, but fortunately, Kanan didn't hear him.
Daiki hugged the dragon-girl and said, "I'm so glad that you and Raphael are getting along! And I haven't forgotten you just because I'm running the Plant Dolls shop now. I promise that Raphael and I will come to visit you often."
"I'm happy, too, Daiki," the girl said, and Raphael wasn't sure which sister was speaking, until she sniffed at the air and said eagerly, "Hey, do I smell cheeseburgers?"
Daiki laughed. "Yes, I brought the treats that I promised you: cream puffs for Junrei, a fruit tart for Shukou, and cheeseburgers and fries for Kanan."
"Then let's have a tea party!" Junrei said happily, clapping her hands together.
"What about the feast that I've been slaving over all day?" Tet-chan complained.
"You can join us at the dinner table now that Raphael can see you," Daiki told the dragon. "You can share in the feast, and we can save the cream puffs and the tart for dessert."
"Okay, but I'm having the cheeseburgers for my dinner!" Kanan said emphatically, eyeing the greasy bag greedily. "And I'm not sharing any with you, Leon!"
"Little brat," Leon said affectionately, while Tet-chan muttered, "Ungrateful little brat."
"Shall we all go to dinner, then?" the Count asked, and he smiled warmly at Raphael for the very first time. That smile made him even more radiantly beautiful than his usual look of cool serenity, and when the shock of it wore off, Raphael was touched by the trust that it implied. Daiki was really a great deal like his Papa, in the way that they both wore a beautiful, smiling mask in public, and he wondered if Leon had felt the same sense of triumph when the Count first gave him a real smile that Raphael had felt when Daiki had finally dropped his mask and let him see the real person behind it.
"Okay!" Junrei said happily in response to the Count's question, and slipped her hand into Raphael's.
As they all left the Crystal Chamber, Leon came up on Raphael's other side and slung an arm around his shoulders. "Welcome to the family, kid," he said, smiling just as warmly as the Count had, and there was no lingering doubt or disapproval in his eyes. It seemed that by winning over Honlon, he had finally managed to completely win over Daiki's parents as well.
Daiki grinned at him delightedly, and Raphael had to blink away a few more tears. "Thank you, Leon," he said softly.
***
No one informed Chris that Raphael could now see the pets in their human forms, since they knew that it would cause him unnecessary grief and frustration to learn that someone else had gained the Sight that he so desperately coveted. So he remained cheerfully oblivious in San Francisco as he went about his normal daily routine of working at the F.B.I. office and courting the young Count.
For a change, things were pretty slow at work, and Chris was able to take off early and stop by Count D's with a box of assorted pastries: perfectly sculpted miniature cakes, tarts, and eclairs. He was very proud of himself for having discovered the new bakery that made them; even the Count had not yet heard of them. The pastries were very expensive, of course, but it was well worth the price to see the look of surprise and delight on the Count's face when he saw them.
"They're simply lovely," the Count said, rewarding Chris with a dazzling smile. He scooped up a dab of frosting with one finger, popped it into his mouth, and nearly swooned as a look of orgasmic ecstasy filled his face. "And they taste just as good as they look! Thank you so much, Agent Orcot!"
"I've told you many times, please just call me 'Chris,'" Chris replied, blushing hotly, because the look on the Count's face made him think of something other than food.
He had been trying for weeks to get the Count to call him by name, but the Count persisted in calling him "Agent Orcot," as if to keep a degree of formal distance between them. But either the Count was softening towards him slightly, or the sweets had impressed him sufficiently enough for him to offer up the words, "Thank you, Chris," as a kind of reward.
Chris hoped it was the former, but would settle for the latter; it was a small step forward, after all. He resolved to stop by that bakery again, since it had made such a favorable impression on the Count.
"As usual," the Count said with a charming smile, "you have arrived just in time for tea." He poured out cups of tea for himself, Chris, and Q-chan, and Chris accepted one of the cups and inhaled the aromatic scent of the tea with a sigh of contentment. It smelled just like the tea that Leon's Count used to serve when he had been living at the shop, and it was as familiar and comforting to Chris as a security blanket was to a child. Because of D, he had grown accustomed to drinking his tea well-sugared, and he smiled as he sipped the tea and tasted the sweetness in it. It was another good sign, he thought, that the young Count had grown familiar enough with him to automatically sweeten his tea without needing to ask Chris how much sugar he wanted.
The Count took the cake that he had already sampled, and Chris took an eclair for himself and placed a cupcake-sized strawberry shortcake on a plate for Q-chan. "I picked this one out especially for you," he told the babbit.
"Kyu," Q-chan squeaked softly, looking sad and worried as he always did whenever Chris was around.
Chris assumed that he was worried that his son might take a human lover like his grandson had, which Chris supposed was an encouraging sign. If Q-chan didn't think that there was a possibility that Chris and D might get together, then he wouldn't be so worried. I'm sorry, he silently told the babbit. But you'd better get used to having me around, because I'm not going anywhere.
Q-chan sighed, as if he could read Chris's thoughts--or maybe he could just see the determination in Chris's eyes. In any case, his worried look changed to one of resignation, and he plunged his face into the shortcake, gobbling it hungrily.
The Count chuckled and Chris smiled. It was hard to believe that Q-chan was really the elegant and dignified Sofu D, and he wondered if the eldest D enjoyed being able to relax and loosen up a little in his babbit form. Chris had never met Sofu face-to-face, of course, but he had seen the old photograph from Berlin and heard Daiki's and Leon's descriptions of him.
As they ate their pastries and made small talk, the doors of the shop suddenly swung open with a loud crash, and a young man strode into the room and shouted, "I'm looking for Count D!" He appeared to be in his early twenties, about Daiki's age, give or take a couple years, and his blond hair stood up on his head in short, messy spikes that reminded Chris of a bird's crest of feathers. He was dressed casually, in a leather jacket, t-shirt, and jeans, and something about his manner reminded Chris of Leon, although he didn't look like a cop. Then again, a lot of people thought that Leon didn't really look like a cop, either, and the way that he had burst into the room was certainly Leon-like. The resemblance to his brother might have amused Chris, if he had not been angered by the threatening tone of the man's voice. And although he knew that the Count could no doubt handle any intruders without his help, Chris found himself rising to his feet and resting his hand on his gun. Q-chan looked up from his shortcake, his face and whiskers covered with whipped cream, and his little black eyes seemed to widen in recognition.
The Count rose to his feet in a single fluid, graceful motion, his face serene and composed as always, despite the abrupt and unexpected entry of the stranger. "I am Count D," he started to say, but then he gasped and his golden eyes widened when they met the eyes of the spiky-haired man.
"Vesca?" he whispered.
The anger faded from the blond man's face as his gaze locked with the Count's, and he whispered, "Doc?" The two of them just stood there staring at each other, and they seemed to have forgotten that Chris and Q-chan were even in the room. In fact, they seemed to have forgotten that the petshop itself and the outside world existed at all; it was as if the two of them were in their own little world, where nothing existed but each other. Chris stared at the pair helplessly, feeling as if the Count had just slipped out of his reach. Even though Chris was standing right next to him, the Count seemed as far away as if he had sailed out among the stars in the flying ship that Leon had described.
The Count and the stranger stared at each other in silence for perhaps a couple of minutes, although it seemed like hours to Chris. And then the blond man slowly shook his head, as if trying to clear his thoughts, and said, "My name isn't Vesca."
The Count blinked and said with a puzzled smile, "Oh...no, of course not. How could I even know your name, when we've never met before? And I am not a doctor."
"Right, of course not," the blond man said, looking flustered as he shook his head again. "I don't know why I said that. It's weird...I feel like I know you from somewhere, but I'm sure that I would never forget meeting someone like you!"
"What a charming thing to say," the Count said, flashing a dazzling smile at the blond man.
Chris ground his teeth together and seethed with jealousy as the stranger flushed and snapped, "I didn't necessarily mean it as a compliment!"
"Well, I shall take it as one anyway, Mister..."
"Holland," the blond man said. "I'm Victor Holland."
"I am Count D," the Count said, still not taking his eyes from Holland's.
"Uh, yeah, I figured," Holland said, fumbling clumsily in his jacket pocket because he seemed to be having trouble looking away from the Count. He managed to fish out his wallet and opened it to show an I.D. card. "I'm a private investigator looking into the disappearance of a teenage girl who was last seen at this shop."
"Well, Mr. Holland, I will of course do anything I can to help you with your investigation," the Count said, but his voice did not sound as smooth and composed as it usually did. There was just a bit of excitement and a hint of uncertainty underlying the lovely dulcet tones of his voice; it was so subtle that a stranger might not have noticed, but Chris most certainly did. And the Count's golden eyes were different, too. The ever-present detached amusement had been replaced by desire and a kind of vulnerability, as if the Count was confused and a little frightened by these new--and very human--emotions. It was something that Chris had been longing to see, only that look was not directed at him, but at Holland.
"Please have a seat, Mr. Holland," the Count said, gesturing at the couch. "We can discuss your investigation over some tea."
The private investigator nodded and headed for the couch, brushing past Chris as if he didn't even see him. The Count poured a cup of tea for Holland, moving a bit jerkily and without his customary grace, and he didn't seem to notice when some of it splashed on the table instead of the cup. Holland didn't notice either, because he was too busy staring at the Count with a bewildered and enraptured look on his face.
Chris just stood there numbly, completely ignored and unnoticed by the other two men, until he felt something pinch his ear. He looked up to see Q-chan hovering in the air beside him, tugging at his ear and obviously trying to urge him out of the room.
"Kyu," the babbit squeaked softly.
Chris let Q-chan lead him out of the shop and into a dark, narrow alleyway behind the store. The babbit glanced around, as if to check that no one was looking, and then he suddenly transformed into a tall, slender figure clad in a hooded cloak.
Chris was too numb and miserable to feel any shock. "Sofu D," he said dully.
The eldest D nodded. Chris could see that familiar youthful face shrouded beneath the hood, so like his son's and grandson's, and his golden eyes were filled with unexpected sympathy. Chris glanced away; God, he must look pathetic if even Sofu D, who hated humanity, felt pity for him!
"I tried to warn you, child," Sofu said quietly. "I tried to discourage you from courting my son, but you were as stubborn as your older brother."
Chris smiled at him wanly. "I thought that you just didn't want a human courting your son. I thought that you were trying to protect D from me."
"You were the one that I was trying to protect, child," Sofu said in a surprisingly gentle voice. "I knew that my son was not capable of returning your feelings."
"Oh!" Chris exclaimed, a little shock finally piercing through the thick fog of self-pity he had wrapped himself in.
Sofu flushed a little and hastily added, "I knew that it would upset my grandson if my son broke your heart."
Chris still felt miserable, but it made him feel just the tiniest bit better to know that Q-chan really had cared about him. "Sorry I didn't catch on to your warning. I was a fool. I thought that because Leon had won over his Count, that I could win over mine, too. I thought that we were fated to be together, as if being an Orcot gave me some sort of special power to woo a kami."
Sofu sighed heavily. "To be honest, I did not think that my son could love any human, but it seems that he retains some attachments from his previous life. You do realize, of course, that the young detective in there is the reincarnation of Vesca Howell?"
"Yeah, I did kind of figure that out," Chris said dejectedly.
"I give up," Sofu said in a resigned voice, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "I tried to keep my son and grandson from associating with humans, but I failed. If Vesca has followed him into this life, perhaps it is meant to be." He smiled mirthlessly, his eyes filled with bitterness and sorrow. "In my son's former life, I came between him and Vesca. I absolutely forbade him to take a human lover. That was one of the reasons, although by no means the only one, for the rift between us. He went on to have a child in the traditional manner of the Ds, but he grew increasingly bitter and unstable--so much so that I eventually had to take the child into my care because I feared for his safety. It was almost as if because his love for a human had been denied, he decided to swing to the opposite extreme of hatred, and my son became determined not just to get revenge upon the customers of the shop, but to eradicate all of humanity." Sofu sighed again. "I thought that I was doing the right thing at the time. I did not want my son to take a human consort, of course, but I also thought that Vesca was too narrow-minded to truly love my son and accept his true nature. But then again, I also thought the same of your brother, and I was wrong. Maybe I was wrong about Vesca and my son; maybe if I had left them alone, they would have worked out their differences and found a way to be together. Or maybe they would still have parted, but at least I would not have been the cause of it, and my son would not have hated me, and perhaps he would not have been consumed by the madness that led to his death. We will never know now what might have been.
"But this time, I will let my son choose his own path, wherever that may lead." Sofu's lips curved in an ironic smile. "You see, even one as old and obstinate as myself can learn to change when there is no other choice. Or rather, when the only other choice is to risk losing my son a second time."
Chris knew that he ought to feel happy that Sofu had changed. It might mean that he would be less hostile towards Leon and visit his grandson in L.A. more often, which would make D and Daiki happy. And maybe now that Sofu had relented and the young Count had found love with a human, he might be able to form a closer relationship with his brother instead of watching from a distance. But...where did that leave Chris?
Part of him wanted to charge back into the petshop and do something stupid, like challenge Holland to a duel for Count D's hand. But after seeing the look in the Count's eyes, he knew that it would be futile. How could he possibly compete with a love deep enough to survive beyond death? And if he truly loved the Count, he should want him to be happy, even if it was with someone else.
Except that it left Chris all alone again, a misfit who no longer had a place in the magical world of the petshop, but who had been changed by that magic just enough that he no longer completely belonged to the human world, either. There were stories of men who had briefly visited the world of the fairies, and then spent the rest of their lives pining away and longing to return to the fairy realm. That was how Chris felt, like a character from one of those old fairy tales. He had thought that he had found a way back to that land of enchantment, but it had been an illusion all along.
"Go home, Christopher," Sofu said, gently but firmly, his golden eyes filled with pity once more. "Go home to those who love you; there is nothing more for you here." He swirled his cloak around himself, transformed back into his babbit form, and fluttered off towards the shop without another word.
Chris stumbled out of the alley, his eyes blurred with tears, and went to hail a taxi to take him to the airport.
***
Afterword: Added a picture of Vesca/Victor to the Daiki gallery.
Part 17, Part 18, Part 19a, Part 19b, Part 20a, Part 20b, Part 21, Part 22a, Part 22b
The day after his trip to San Francisco, Daiki broke the news that Raphael had been able to see Tet-chan's human form to his parents and the petshop inhabitants. Everyone was overjoyed, especially Honlon, who would finally be able to meet Raphael in person, and the pets were insistent that they should have a party to celebrate.
So Tet-chan was drafted to prepare the feast, although he had little reason to celebrate. However, he couldn't object without revealing the reasons why, so he reluctantly went along with it, and besides, despite all his grumbling, he did want Daiki to be happy. And since the party was for Daiki as well as Raphael, Tet-chan was determined to produce a grand feast, regardless of his own personal feelings.
Raphael arrived at the petshop at dinnertime; he had spent some of his meager savings on a new pair of trousers (to replace the ones ruined by Tet-chan) and a box of Godiva chocolates. He handed the latter to the Count, who accepted them graciously, and then he entered the shop, tense with nervousness and excitement. Seeing just Tet-chan take human form had been shocking enough; he wasn't sure what it would be like to meet an entire shop full of animal-people. And he was also a little worried about exactly how this magical "Sight" worked, because it seemed to be a deal-breaker in his and Daiki's relationship. Daiki seemed to assume that if Raphael could see Tet-chan, then he would be able to see the other pets in their human forms, but what if that wasn't true? If he couldn't see and communicate with the pets, would that make him unworthy of being Daiki's mate?
While Raphael was fretting, a teenage girl with long, blonde ringlets of hair pulled back in ponytails ran up and hugged him tightly. "Oh, Raphael!" she exclaimed. "I'm so happy that you can see us now!"
"Uh...I..." a flustered Raphael stammered, and the girl pulled back, pouting and looking a little hurt.
"Don't you know who I am, Raphael?"
Raphael paused to think; there was something familiar about her mannerisms and her exuberant affection. "Pon-chan?" he asked hesitantly.
The girl beamed and hugged him again. "You do know me!" she said delightedly.
"Yes, of course," Raphael said, still feeling a little flustered. He blushed as he thought of all the times that he had held Pon-chan on his lap and petted her. In her raccoon form, it was perfectly innocent, but he couldn't help thinking that he would look like a pervert or pedophile to someone who could see her human form.
"It's a bit disconcerting to see them in their human forms for the first time," Leon said with wry amusement, so at least it seemed that he didn't think Raphael was a pervert. After all, he had once experienced the same thing that Raphael was going through right now.
Raphael got an even bigger shock when a beautiful woman in a black satin gown rubbed up against him, saying, "Hello, handsome," in a low, sultry purr. She was soon joined by two other women, one in white velvet and one in a gown of dove gray with dark stripes. They twined their bodies and arms around him sinuously, running their fingers through his hair.
"Uh...ah...uh..." Raphael stuttered incoherently.
"Ah, but you know these ladies very well," Daiki said with a mischievous smile. "This is Ebony, and Snowflake, and Tabitha."
"Oh, of course," Raphael said weakly. "I should have guessed." They were the cats--a sleek black cat, a white Persian, and a gray tabby--who always purred and rubbed against his legs. They were still purring and rubbing against him, but as with Pon-chan, it was quite a different experience when they were human!
"Shameless hussies," Pon-chan muttered disgruntledly; the cat women had shoved her aside in their haste to lavish affection on Raphael.
"That's enough, ladies," Daiki finally said in a gentle yet firm voice, and took hold of Raphael's arm possessively. "Raphael belongs to me."
"You're no fun, Daiki," Snowflake pouted, and Ebony teased, "We could share him," but the cats released Raphael and backed off, much to his relief.
There were more pets to meet: a young man with a bright yellow mohawk, who turned out to be a cockatoo, and a sleepy-eyed woman in a green dress covered with sequins that resembled scales, who turned out to be the huge lizard that usually dozed beneath the couch. And there was a teenage boy with pointed, elfin ears and white-blond hair tied back in a long braid. He calmly held out his hand, and Raphael shook it, then gazed more closely into the boy's almond-shaped eyes, which were filled with both amusement and a wisdom beyond his apparent years.
"You're Ten-chan, aren't you?" Raphael asked, and the boy smiled.
"Very good, Raphael." Ten-chan winked at Daiki. "This one's a keeper, Dai."
"Ten-chan is a kitsune," Daiki explained. "Kitsune are Japanese fox-spirits with magical abilities, mainly the power to shapeshift."
"Is that why you have nine tails?" Raphael asked.
"A kitsune's power is measured by the number of his or her tails," Ten-chan said smugly, "and the maximum number of tails that a kitsune can have is nine."
"Which means that he is a very powerful kitsune," Daiki said.
"And a big braggart," Tet-chan added.
"I was just trying to educate Raphael," Ten-chan protested innocently.
To his surprise, Raphael found that Lupin looked exactly the same as he always had, like a big gray wolf. However, there was one difference: Raphael could now understand Lupin's speech.
"I suppose I could turn into a human if I tried," the wolf said, absent-mindedly scratching an ear with his hind paw. "I just never saw the point in it." Raphael automatically reached down to scratch behind Lupin's ears, and the wolf wagged its tail happily.
"He's too simple-minded to want to take human form," Tet-chan said sourly. "He's perfectly content to be an overgrown canine."
"Lupin is a kind of kami himself," Daiki said with a smile. "A wolf spirit, to be precise."
"D says that he embodies the essence of wolf-ness, whatever that means," Leon interjected.
"There are a few others in the shop besides Lupin who normally stay in their animal forms," Daiki continued. "It's a matter of personal preference. One of the tigers, for example, says that a feline body is far superior to the human form."
"Tigers?" Raphael asked, although he wasn't really surprised, after the story Jason had told him about the gangster who had been killed by lions or tigers. "Where in the petshop do you keep a tiger?"
"Come, I will show you," Daiki said, holding out his hand. Raphael took a deep breath, then placed his hand in Daiki's, and followed him into the dark corridor leading out of the lobby.
It turned out that some of the mysterious doors lining the halls of the petshop opened up into jungles and forests and deserts and beaches--just about any type of habitat that could house a wild animal. He met the tiger that Daiki had mentioned, and also some fierce-looking men and women who were actually lions and jaguars and leopards. The beach room was home to a cheerful young man in scuba gear who turned out to be a dolphin.
"I always thought that the shop seemed bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside," Raphael muttered after they left Phillipe's room.
"You're looking a little pale," Daiki said in a concerned voice. "Are you all right? I know that this has been a big shock to you."
"I'm okay," Raphael replied, but he paused to lean against the wall. "I just need a minute to sort of let it all sink in. I knew that the animals were really people, but I didn't know about all these rooms. It's just...amazing. Now I understand why the people in Chinatown think that the Count is a god."
"Aside from taking revenge upon humanity, it is the duty of the Ds to provide shelter to animals who need it, both magical and mundane," Count D explained solemnly.
"And is the shop kind of a portal to another dimension?" Raphael asked hesitantly. "Like something out of Star Trek?"
Leon looked amused, and the Count looked bewildered by that reference. Daiki smiled and said, "It would be more accurate to say that the petshop itself exists in another dimension, although to be honest, I don't entirely understand how its magic works myself. But the petshop is portable; the various Count Ds have often had to change locations over the years, particularly when the authorities become suspicious of the many deaths connected to the shop."
"Portable?" Raphael asked in confusion. Leon gave D a mock-glare and said, "The last time he left L.A., the shop turned into a flying boat, and he just sailed off in it through the sky. It took me two friggin' years to track him down!"
"Language, my dear detective," the Count gently chided.
"Flying...boat?" Raphael asked, his eyes going wide. "And did this building just disappear when the, uh, boat flew off?"
"Nah, the building was still here, but it was just an empty shell," Leon replied. "There was nothing left inside but the lobby and a small storage room behind it. All the corridors and back rooms had disappeared; I thought was losing my mind when I first saw it!" He glared at his lover again, and the Count smiled at him apologetically.
"I...see," Raphael said weakly, and Leon gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
"Don't worry, kid, you're doing fine!" Leon said heartily. "Actually, I'm pretty impressed. Most people would have gone stark raving bonkers by now!"
"Well, my friend Jason warned me that the petshop was something out of the ordinary," Raphael admitted. "But knowing it and seeing it firsthand are two different things." However, Leon's encouragement did make him feel better; the Detective had gone through all of this before and seemed to have survived the shock just fine.
Pull yourself together, Raphael told himself firmly. You managed to survive being left alone with a drunken, man-eating Tou-Tet, after all. The magical rooms and the idea of the petshop being a flying boat were staggering in concept, but at least he wasn't in fear of his life. Daiki and the Count and Leon were here to protect him from any creatures that might have a hankering for human flesh, and most of the pets greeted him in a friendly and even respectful manner--although he suspected that they were not so much paying respect to Raphael the starving artist, but to the chosen "mate" of Count D's son. But as long as that kept him from being "dinner" in their eyes, that was just fine with Raphael.
"Okay," Raphael said determinedly, pushing himself away from the wall. "I'm ready to continue the tour."
"Actually, there's just one room left," Daiki said.
Raphael's spirits lifted when he heard that, until Leon said doubtfully, "The Crystal Chamber? Are you sure he's ready for that?"
"What--or I guess I should say, who is in the Crystal Chamber?" Raphael asked suspiciously.
"My friend," Daiki replied. "The one who wanted to see a picture of you."
"Oh," Raphael said, remembering how evasive Daiki had been when talking about that friend. "What kind of animal is she?"
"Well, first of all, you do understand that the shop contains creatures that most humans believe exist only in myth and legend?" Daiki asked with a slightly nervous and apologetic smile, which only worried Raphael even more.
"Yes..." Raphael replied hesitantly, wondering what could be scarier than lions and tigers and a man-eating Tou-Tet.
"Oh, just give it to him straight, Dai," Tet-chan said impatiently. "Honlon is a dragon."
"A dragon?!" Raphael exclaimed. After everything he had seen today, he ought to be immune to further shock, but it seemed that he wasn't. "As in fire-breathing and man-eating?"
"Well, she's never eaten a man, as far as I know," Daiki replied with a smile, but his words were not exactly reassuring.
"Hopefully she won't start now," Raphael laughed nervously. "Her name is 'Honlon'?"
"Well, her collective name is Honlon," Daiki said. "But she has three separate and distinct personalities."
"Huh?" Raphael asked, utterly bewildered. Daiki's friend was a dragon with a multiple personality disorder?!
"Honlon is a three-headed dragon," Tet-chan said gleefully, clearly enjoying Raphael's discomfiture.
"Three...heads?" Raphael asked in a shaky voice, bracing himself against the wall once more.
Daiki gave Tet-chan a brief glare before turning back to Raphael and replying, "Yes, she has three heads. There's a story behind that, but it's a rather long one, so perhaps we should save that for another day. Basically, Honlon is three separate people in one body; their names are Junrei, Kanan, and Shukou. Junrei is very sweet and childlike, and Kanan is...um..." He paused to glance at Leon, then continued, "...rather outgoing and boisterous. And Shukou is..." This time he glanced at the Count. "...usually calm and serene, but Kanan has a talent for making her lose her temper." Daiki smiled. "Think of them as triplets; they squabble sometimes, as sisters do, but they also love each other very much."
"Dragon triplets; got it," Raphael said, but made no move to let go of the wall.
"Her human form, however, has only one head," Daiki continued. "So it is a little disconcerting to an outsider, because she seems to be constantly changing personalities. Those personalities are very...ah...distinctive, though, so you should be able to tell the three sisters apart quite easily. It is Junrei who was most eager to meet you."
"Three sisters," Raphael repeated, still feeling rather dazed. "Junrei, Kanan, and Shukou. Junrei is the one who wanted to meet me."
"Well, I think that they all wanted to meet you," Daiki said, smiling. "But Junrei is the only one who would admit to it." He gave Raphael a concerned look. "Are you sure that you're up to this? I could introduce you to them another day if you're not ready."
He would love to postpone this meeting for another day--another month or year, even--but Raphael was too proud to back down and lose face in front of Daiki's parents, not to mention Tet-chan, who was still grinning widely.
"No," Raphael said gamely. "I wouldn't want to disappoint Junrei. Let's go."
"That's the spirit," Ten-chan said encouragingly, while Leon slapped Raphael on the back and said approvingly, "You've got balls, kid!"
"Oh, I almost forgot," Daiki said. "I brought some treats for Honlon, but I left them in the lobby."
"I'll go get them!" Pon-chan volunteered, and darted off. Raphael was grateful for the reprieve, which gave him a couple more minutes to gather up his courage before Pon-chan returned with two pastry boxes and a paper sack stained with grease.
"This way, please," Daiki said, and led Raphael to a set of huge double doors carved with the stylized emblem of a dragon--serpentine and wingless, in the Asian fashion. The doors easily swung open at Daiki's touch, although they looked too heavy for a single person to move, and they entered a huge and lushly appointed chamber. The floor was made of polished marble, and there were huge marble pillars supporting the ceiling; twined around the pillars like vines were dragons with long, snake-like bodies that appeared to be made from solid gold. There were heavy silk draperies hanging on the walls, and the room was filled with elegant, hand-painted screens and beautiful vases. Raphael was no expert on Chinese art, but he had seen similar items in the shop where Jason worked, and if these items were genuine, they were probably worth a fortune--maybe even more than the geezer could afford.
At the far end of the room was an ornate, throne-like couch set on a high, raised dais. Reclining on the couch was a beautiful Chinese girl dressed in silk robes and a gold tiara. She looked perfectly human except for her large, pointed, reptilian-looking ears, and Raphael smiled in relief; she didn't seem as intimidating as he had expected.
"Good evening, Shukou, Kanan, Junrei," Daiki said.
The girl looked up, smiling at Daiki eagerly. "Hello, Daiki!" she said in a high, childish voice. Then her gaze fell on Raphael, and she clapped her hands together in delight. "Oh my...is this Raphael?"
No one had mentioned anything about the dragon being royalty, but she was dressed like a princess, so Raphael went down on one knee before the dais and said gallantly, "I am Raphael Van Horne, my lady. And if I am not mistaken, you must be Junrei?"
"Oh!" the girl squealed happily. "You recognized me!"
"Daiki has told me about you and your sisters," Raphael said. Junrei seemed very sweet; in fact, she reminded him a bit of his little sister, so he was able to say with a sincere smile, "I'm happy to be able to meet you in person."
"Oh, I'm so happy, too!" Junrei said, running down the steps of the dais to clasp Raphael's hands. "I've wanted so badly to meet you," she said earnestly. "I was jealous that everyone else already got to meet you, but Daiki said I had to wait until you could see my human form."
"Well, of course," the dragon-girl said, but suddenly her voice was pitched slightly lower, and she sounded older and more mature, somehow. The excitement in her face faded into a cool and serene look that reminded Raphael of Count D. Her lips curved just the slightest bit, in a faintly amused smile as she said, "Raphael would have been frightened if he had seen us as a dragon."
"Um...Shukou?" Raphael asked hesitantly.
"Hey, he's not so dumb, after all!" the girl laughed, her faint smile stretching into a broad grin. "I was kinda worried; everyone said you were handsome, but looks and brains don't always go together."
"Funny, you don't have either," Tet-chan muttered under his breath, but not quietly enough, because the girl lashed out and rapped her fist on his head.
"I heard that," she said, scowling at him. Tet-chan growled sullenly, but instead of attacking the girl, he just rubbed his head and backed out of reach of her fists. Raphael wondered if he was prohibited from attacking the other pets in the shop, or if even a Tou-Tet was no match for a dragon.
Meanwhile, the girl looked Raphael over more closely and announced, "Well, I suppose you're handsome enough, but I don't really see what all the fuss was about."
Something about her voice sounded a little rough and brash, like Leon. "And you must be Kanan," Raphael said, more confidently this time.
But the girl had already switched personalities. "Kanan, you don't have to be so rude!" Junrei said reprovingly.
"So who's being rude?" Kanan demanded. "I was just being honest! At least I'm not all like..." She made a simpering expression and fluttered her eyelashes. "'Ooh, Raphael, I'm so happy to meet you! Ooh, Raphael, you're so handsome!'"
"That's not what I said!" Junrei protested angrily, and tears began to well in her eyes. "Kanan, you're such a meanie!"
"Yeah, well, you're a crybaby, Junrei!" Kanan retorted.
Raphael had been watching the argument with bemusement, but he grew alarmed when the girl suddenly slapped herself and Shukou's voice said sternly, "Stop picking on Junrei, Kanan!"
"Why don't you butt out, Little Miss Priss?!" Kanan snapped, and slapped herself again.
"Here we go again," Pon-chan sighed.
"Stop, stop!" Junrei wailed, but she was quickly overwhelmed by her sisters' more forceful personalities, and Kanan and Shukou continued shouting insults and slapping each other--although since they shared the same body, Raphael thought that it seemed to be defeating the purpose.
"Shukou, Kanan, stop fighting!" the Count scolded, but they both ignored him. As their argument grew more heated, their voices seemed to grow louder and deeper, echoing in the large hall with a booming noise that sounded like thunder, and the floor began to shake.
"Uh-oh," Ten-chan muttered nervously.
"Not again!" Leon groaned.
"Is this an earthquake?" Raphael asked, reaching out to brace himself against a pillar. It wasn't really that bad, a minor tremor like many he had experienced before while living in L.A., but he had the sinking feeling that this was not at all a normal earthquake, and that the delicate-looking girl standing in front of him was somehow causing it.
"More like a dragon-quake," Tet-chan said.
Junrei/Shukou/Kanan's form began to shimmer and turn transparent, and behind it, another form began to take shape--that of a huge, three-headed dragon.
"Oh...my...God," Raphael gasped, clutching at the pillar with both arms now, as his legs nearly buckled beneath him. "She really is a dr...dr...dragon!"
"That's what we've been telling you all along!" Tet-chan said impatiently, and with a noticeable lack of sympathy.
Now Raphael understood why the Crystal Chamber was so huge and cavernous. The ceiling was more than twenty feet above Raphael's head, but if the dragon stretched her necks out to their full lengths, she could probably touch the ceiling with the tips of her horned noses. She didn't really look like the Asian dragon carved on the doors; she looked more like a dragon from European fairy tales, with a more muscular, stocky body and bat-like wings. No, on second thought, she looked like a hybrid of both a Western and an Eastern dragon; her body looked more like a European dragon, but her necks were long and serpentine, and she had deer-like antlers growing out of her heads, more like an Asian dragon. Actually, what she really looked like was a monster from one of those old Godzilla movies, except that those rubber-suited movie monsters always looked more comical than scary, and there was nothing funny about the dragon standing in front of him.
The heads on the left and right hissed and spat gouts of flame at each other, while the head in the middle looked frightened, and tears spilled from her eyes as she wailed, "Somebody please stop them!" The voice was as deep and thunderous as the other two, but it was also strangely childlike and plaintive.
"Ju...Junrei?" Raphael stammered.
The dragon also had a tail nearly as long as her necks, and it whipped back and forth as Kanan and Shukou fought. Kanan's head lunged forward to snap at her sister, and the tail lashed out to the side and hit the pillar Raphael was clinging to. He lost his grip and stumbled backwards, and the pillar cracked and began to fall towards him.
"Raphael!" Daiki cried, and he leapt forward with lightning speed to push Raphael out of the way. They fell to the floor in each other's arms as the pillar landed with a loud crash just a few feet away from them.
"Daiki!" Leon shouted, his face turning sheet-white. "Raphael!" He ran forward, jumping over fallen debris, to kneel beside the two of them. "Are you all right?!"
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," a shaken Raphael said. "Are you okay, Dai?"
But Daiki was already rising to his feet, his golden eyes blazing with wrath; he looked even angrier than he had when Tet-chan had bitten Raphael in the Plant Dolls shop.
"SHUKOU! KANAN!" he shouted, in a voice that somehow managed to ring out loud enough to be heard over the dragon's roars. "CEASE THIS AT ONCE!"
"Eh?" Shukou and Kanan were startled enough to break off their fight and stare at Daiki in surprise.
Daiki's voice dropped to a more normal volume, but his eyes were still glowing slightly as he pointed towards the fallen pillar and said accusingly, "You nearly killed my mate!"
The anger faded from the dragons' faces, to be replaced by sheepish looks. Shukou lowered her head until she was face-to-face with Raphael, who swallowed hard and tried not to flinch, which required a massive amount of self-control. She was close enough that he could feel her breath, hot and smelling faintly of sulfur, against his face, and her teeth were as long and sharp as knives. He fleetingly wondered if it was worse to be eaten alive or to be burnt to a crisp.
But Shukou just said meekly, "I apologize, Raphael. We got a little carried away."
"Sorry," Kanan mumbled, a little less graciously, and then a spark of interest lit up her eyes and she raised her head and turned towards Daiki. "Hey, you called him your 'mate'!"
"Well, duh," Tet-chan said, rolling his eyes, although Raphael noticed that he was careful to stay on the other side of the room, out of reach of her long neck, and more importantly, her sharp teeth. "Why else do you think that he can see us?"
Daiki blushed deeply and mumbled, "Well, yes, I suppose that he is, although I haven't formally asked him to be my mate..."
Raphael, who was still sitting on the floor, smiled up at Daiki, suddenly not caring that there was a huge, three-headed, and very bad-tempered dragon standing in front of him. "I thought that I'd made my feelings pretty clear the other day, but if you need an official declaration, then yes, I would be honored to be your mate, Daiki."
"And I yours, Raphael," Daiki said, smiling at him tenderly. He held out his hand and Raphael took it, and he helped Raphael up to his feet.
"Oh, that's so romantic!" Junrei sighed, weeping a little, teardrops the size of a man's fist splashing on the marble floor.
"Hmph!" Kanan snorted, a little puff of smoke blowing out from her nostrils.
"Oh, Kanan!" Junrei scolded. "Can't you be nice for once?"
"Listen, you little crybaby--"
"Please don't fight," Raphael said, hastily stepping between the two heads, although he belatedly realized that was probably not a very smart move as Kanan glared at him and Junrei blinked in surprise.
"You wanna piece of me, pretty boy?" Kanan demanded.
Daiki moved forward to defend his mate, but before he could say anything, Raphael said quietly, "No, I do not wish to fight with you, Kanan. Neither do I wish to be the cause of dissension between you and your sisters. Family is something very precious that should be cherished. And I can see that despite the way you quarrel, the three of you care about each other a lot."
"And what would you know about it, pretty boy?" Kanan said belligerently.
"I used to fight with my little sister the same way," Raphael replied, smiling at the dragon sadly.
"The one who died?" Junrei asked in a hushed voice.
Raphael nodded. "I used to tease her a lot, the way that Kanan teases you, Junrei, and she would get really mad at me. But if anyone else picked on her, then I'd immediately jump to her defense, the way that Shukou defended you. You remind me a little bit of her."
"Me?" Junrei asked.
"All three of you," Raphael replied. "My sister was very pretty, with long, dark hair like you--in your human form, that is. She was very sweet, and with outsiders, she was a little shy, like Junrei. And she was very smart and mature for her age, like Shukou. But with me, she wasn't shy at all, and we'd fight a lot, the way that Kanan and Shukou fight. For such a sweet little girl, she could be very fierce." He grinned, with less sadness this time. "I liked that about her."
"I'm so sorry about your sister, Raphael," Junrei said earnestly. "She sounds like a nice person. I wish I could've met her."
"I wish that you could have met her, too," Raphael said. "I'm sure that she would've been thrilled to meet a dragon princess."
"Is she a princess?" Tet-chan muttered skeptically.
"Well, she was wearing a crown, so I assumed that she was," Raphael replied.
"Well, of course," Shukou said haughtily. "The dragon is one of the four sacred beasts--along with the phoenix, the tortoise, and the Kirin. So all dragons are nobility, basically."
"Unlike certain other scruffy peons," Kanan said, giving Tet-chan a pointed look.
"Who are you calling 'peon'?" Tet-chan asked indignantly, but he still didn't come any closer to the dragon.
"Anyway," Raphael interrupted hastily, "the point that I was trying to make was that the three of you should remember how lucky you are to have each other. Please don't fight over me."
"Even though Kanan was being rude to you?" Junrei asked.
"I don't think that she was being rude," Raphael laughed. "What was it she said--'I don't see what all the fuss was about'? My sister would agree with her! She would say that I shouldn't get swell-headed."
"Heh," Kanan chuckled. "I think I would've liked your sister."
"She would've liked you, too, I'm sure," Raphael said. It was strange; for years, the mere thought of his family had caused him such pain that he had avoided talking about them as much as possible. He still felt a little sad, but for the first time, he felt more happiness than sorrow as he reminisced about his sister with the dragon. In trying to forget the pain, he had blocked out the happy memories of his family as well, and maybe that had been a mistake.
The dragon suddenly shifted back into her human form. "Chris left us," she said in a quiet voice that Raphael thought was Shukou's, but he wasn't sure. "And then Daiki left, too, even though he still comes to visit."
"Oh, Shukou..." Daiki said softly.
"I think we were a little afraid that you might take him even farther away from us," Shukou whispered, staring down at the floor. "We...I mean, Junrei...gets lonely here when no one comes to visit the Crystal Chamber."
"I would never try to take Daiki away from you," Raphael said gently, reaching out to take the dragon-girl's hand in one of his. "You and Tet-chan, and the Count and Leon, and everyone else here are all his family. You'll always be family, even if he doesn't live at the shop anymore. I know what it's like to lose a family, and I could never take Daiki away from his."
The girl looked up, and it seemed to be Junrei who was smiling at him shyly. "I...we'll be your family if you like, Raphael. Do you think...would it be okay..." She blushed. "Could I kind of be like your sister, Raphael?"
"I would like that very much," Raphael said, and found himself blinking away tears as Junrei flung herself into his arms and hugged him tightly.
"Hmm, a brother," Kanan muttered against his chest. "Never had a brother before; that might be kind of interesting."
He lightly kissed the top of her head and said, "I'll try to be a good brother and not tease you too much."
Kanan pulled back to grin at him. "You'd better not, if you know what's good for you! I bet your sister wished she could turn into a dragon and put you in your place!" She whacked him on the arm, hard enough for the blow to sting. "You oughta be ashamed of yourself, picking on a little girl!"
"I was just a kid myself back then," he protested good-naturedly, rubbing his arm. "I'm older and wiser now."
"Older, anyway," Kanan retorted saucily. "It's not really that wise to confront an angry dragon, but I'll give you points for bravery."
"He's wise enough to manage to charm that dragon," Ten-chan whispered to the Count, but fortunately, Kanan didn't hear him.
Daiki hugged the dragon-girl and said, "I'm so glad that you and Raphael are getting along! And I haven't forgotten you just because I'm running the Plant Dolls shop now. I promise that Raphael and I will come to visit you often."
"I'm happy, too, Daiki," the girl said, and Raphael wasn't sure which sister was speaking, until she sniffed at the air and said eagerly, "Hey, do I smell cheeseburgers?"
Daiki laughed. "Yes, I brought the treats that I promised you: cream puffs for Junrei, a fruit tart for Shukou, and cheeseburgers and fries for Kanan."
"Then let's have a tea party!" Junrei said happily, clapping her hands together.
"What about the feast that I've been slaving over all day?" Tet-chan complained.
"You can join us at the dinner table now that Raphael can see you," Daiki told the dragon. "You can share in the feast, and we can save the cream puffs and the tart for dessert."
"Okay, but I'm having the cheeseburgers for my dinner!" Kanan said emphatically, eyeing the greasy bag greedily. "And I'm not sharing any with you, Leon!"
"Little brat," Leon said affectionately, while Tet-chan muttered, "Ungrateful little brat."
"Shall we all go to dinner, then?" the Count asked, and he smiled warmly at Raphael for the very first time. That smile made him even more radiantly beautiful than his usual look of cool serenity, and when the shock of it wore off, Raphael was touched by the trust that it implied. Daiki was really a great deal like his Papa, in the way that they both wore a beautiful, smiling mask in public, and he wondered if Leon had felt the same sense of triumph when the Count first gave him a real smile that Raphael had felt when Daiki had finally dropped his mask and let him see the real person behind it.
"Okay!" Junrei said happily in response to the Count's question, and slipped her hand into Raphael's.
As they all left the Crystal Chamber, Leon came up on Raphael's other side and slung an arm around his shoulders. "Welcome to the family, kid," he said, smiling just as warmly as the Count had, and there was no lingering doubt or disapproval in his eyes. It seemed that by winning over Honlon, he had finally managed to completely win over Daiki's parents as well.
Daiki grinned at him delightedly, and Raphael had to blink away a few more tears. "Thank you, Leon," he said softly.
***
No one informed Chris that Raphael could now see the pets in their human forms, since they knew that it would cause him unnecessary grief and frustration to learn that someone else had gained the Sight that he so desperately coveted. So he remained cheerfully oblivious in San Francisco as he went about his normal daily routine of working at the F.B.I. office and courting the young Count.
For a change, things were pretty slow at work, and Chris was able to take off early and stop by Count D's with a box of assorted pastries: perfectly sculpted miniature cakes, tarts, and eclairs. He was very proud of himself for having discovered the new bakery that made them; even the Count had not yet heard of them. The pastries were very expensive, of course, but it was well worth the price to see the look of surprise and delight on the Count's face when he saw them.
"They're simply lovely," the Count said, rewarding Chris with a dazzling smile. He scooped up a dab of frosting with one finger, popped it into his mouth, and nearly swooned as a look of orgasmic ecstasy filled his face. "And they taste just as good as they look! Thank you so much, Agent Orcot!"
"I've told you many times, please just call me 'Chris,'" Chris replied, blushing hotly, because the look on the Count's face made him think of something other than food.
He had been trying for weeks to get the Count to call him by name, but the Count persisted in calling him "Agent Orcot," as if to keep a degree of formal distance between them. But either the Count was softening towards him slightly, or the sweets had impressed him sufficiently enough for him to offer up the words, "Thank you, Chris," as a kind of reward.
Chris hoped it was the former, but would settle for the latter; it was a small step forward, after all. He resolved to stop by that bakery again, since it had made such a favorable impression on the Count.
"As usual," the Count said with a charming smile, "you have arrived just in time for tea." He poured out cups of tea for himself, Chris, and Q-chan, and Chris accepted one of the cups and inhaled the aromatic scent of the tea with a sigh of contentment. It smelled just like the tea that Leon's Count used to serve when he had been living at the shop, and it was as familiar and comforting to Chris as a security blanket was to a child. Because of D, he had grown accustomed to drinking his tea well-sugared, and he smiled as he sipped the tea and tasted the sweetness in it. It was another good sign, he thought, that the young Count had grown familiar enough with him to automatically sweeten his tea without needing to ask Chris how much sugar he wanted.
The Count took the cake that he had already sampled, and Chris took an eclair for himself and placed a cupcake-sized strawberry shortcake on a plate for Q-chan. "I picked this one out especially for you," he told the babbit.
"Kyu," Q-chan squeaked softly, looking sad and worried as he always did whenever Chris was around.
Chris assumed that he was worried that his son might take a human lover like his grandson had, which Chris supposed was an encouraging sign. If Q-chan didn't think that there was a possibility that Chris and D might get together, then he wouldn't be so worried. I'm sorry, he silently told the babbit. But you'd better get used to having me around, because I'm not going anywhere.
Q-chan sighed, as if he could read Chris's thoughts--or maybe he could just see the determination in Chris's eyes. In any case, his worried look changed to one of resignation, and he plunged his face into the shortcake, gobbling it hungrily.
The Count chuckled and Chris smiled. It was hard to believe that Q-chan was really the elegant and dignified Sofu D, and he wondered if the eldest D enjoyed being able to relax and loosen up a little in his babbit form. Chris had never met Sofu face-to-face, of course, but he had seen the old photograph from Berlin and heard Daiki's and Leon's descriptions of him.
As they ate their pastries and made small talk, the doors of the shop suddenly swung open with a loud crash, and a young man strode into the room and shouted, "I'm looking for Count D!" He appeared to be in his early twenties, about Daiki's age, give or take a couple years, and his blond hair stood up on his head in short, messy spikes that reminded Chris of a bird's crest of feathers. He was dressed casually, in a leather jacket, t-shirt, and jeans, and something about his manner reminded Chris of Leon, although he didn't look like a cop. Then again, a lot of people thought that Leon didn't really look like a cop, either, and the way that he had burst into the room was certainly Leon-like. The resemblance to his brother might have amused Chris, if he had not been angered by the threatening tone of the man's voice. And although he knew that the Count could no doubt handle any intruders without his help, Chris found himself rising to his feet and resting his hand on his gun. Q-chan looked up from his shortcake, his face and whiskers covered with whipped cream, and his little black eyes seemed to widen in recognition.
The Count rose to his feet in a single fluid, graceful motion, his face serene and composed as always, despite the abrupt and unexpected entry of the stranger. "I am Count D," he started to say, but then he gasped and his golden eyes widened when they met the eyes of the spiky-haired man.
"Vesca?" he whispered.
The anger faded from the blond man's face as his gaze locked with the Count's, and he whispered, "Doc?" The two of them just stood there staring at each other, and they seemed to have forgotten that Chris and Q-chan were even in the room. In fact, they seemed to have forgotten that the petshop itself and the outside world existed at all; it was as if the two of them were in their own little world, where nothing existed but each other. Chris stared at the pair helplessly, feeling as if the Count had just slipped out of his reach. Even though Chris was standing right next to him, the Count seemed as far away as if he had sailed out among the stars in the flying ship that Leon had described.
The Count and the stranger stared at each other in silence for perhaps a couple of minutes, although it seemed like hours to Chris. And then the blond man slowly shook his head, as if trying to clear his thoughts, and said, "My name isn't Vesca."
The Count blinked and said with a puzzled smile, "Oh...no, of course not. How could I even know your name, when we've never met before? And I am not a doctor."
"Right, of course not," the blond man said, looking flustered as he shook his head again. "I don't know why I said that. It's weird...I feel like I know you from somewhere, but I'm sure that I would never forget meeting someone like you!"
"What a charming thing to say," the Count said, flashing a dazzling smile at the blond man.
Chris ground his teeth together and seethed with jealousy as the stranger flushed and snapped, "I didn't necessarily mean it as a compliment!"
"Well, I shall take it as one anyway, Mister..."
"Holland," the blond man said. "I'm Victor Holland."
"I am Count D," the Count said, still not taking his eyes from Holland's.
"Uh, yeah, I figured," Holland said, fumbling clumsily in his jacket pocket because he seemed to be having trouble looking away from the Count. He managed to fish out his wallet and opened it to show an I.D. card. "I'm a private investigator looking into the disappearance of a teenage girl who was last seen at this shop."
"Well, Mr. Holland, I will of course do anything I can to help you with your investigation," the Count said, but his voice did not sound as smooth and composed as it usually did. There was just a bit of excitement and a hint of uncertainty underlying the lovely dulcet tones of his voice; it was so subtle that a stranger might not have noticed, but Chris most certainly did. And the Count's golden eyes were different, too. The ever-present detached amusement had been replaced by desire and a kind of vulnerability, as if the Count was confused and a little frightened by these new--and very human--emotions. It was something that Chris had been longing to see, only that look was not directed at him, but at Holland.
"Please have a seat, Mr. Holland," the Count said, gesturing at the couch. "We can discuss your investigation over some tea."
The private investigator nodded and headed for the couch, brushing past Chris as if he didn't even see him. The Count poured a cup of tea for Holland, moving a bit jerkily and without his customary grace, and he didn't seem to notice when some of it splashed on the table instead of the cup. Holland didn't notice either, because he was too busy staring at the Count with a bewildered and enraptured look on his face.
Chris just stood there numbly, completely ignored and unnoticed by the other two men, until he felt something pinch his ear. He looked up to see Q-chan hovering in the air beside him, tugging at his ear and obviously trying to urge him out of the room.
"Kyu," the babbit squeaked softly.
Chris let Q-chan lead him out of the shop and into a dark, narrow alleyway behind the store. The babbit glanced around, as if to check that no one was looking, and then he suddenly transformed into a tall, slender figure clad in a hooded cloak.
Chris was too numb and miserable to feel any shock. "Sofu D," he said dully.
The eldest D nodded. Chris could see that familiar youthful face shrouded beneath the hood, so like his son's and grandson's, and his golden eyes were filled with unexpected sympathy. Chris glanced away; God, he must look pathetic if even Sofu D, who hated humanity, felt pity for him!
"I tried to warn you, child," Sofu said quietly. "I tried to discourage you from courting my son, but you were as stubborn as your older brother."
Chris smiled at him wanly. "I thought that you just didn't want a human courting your son. I thought that you were trying to protect D from me."
"You were the one that I was trying to protect, child," Sofu said in a surprisingly gentle voice. "I knew that my son was not capable of returning your feelings."
"Oh!" Chris exclaimed, a little shock finally piercing through the thick fog of self-pity he had wrapped himself in.
Sofu flushed a little and hastily added, "I knew that it would upset my grandson if my son broke your heart."
Chris still felt miserable, but it made him feel just the tiniest bit better to know that Q-chan really had cared about him. "Sorry I didn't catch on to your warning. I was a fool. I thought that because Leon had won over his Count, that I could win over mine, too. I thought that we were fated to be together, as if being an Orcot gave me some sort of special power to woo a kami."
Sofu sighed heavily. "To be honest, I did not think that my son could love any human, but it seems that he retains some attachments from his previous life. You do realize, of course, that the young detective in there is the reincarnation of Vesca Howell?"
"Yeah, I did kind of figure that out," Chris said dejectedly.
"I give up," Sofu said in a resigned voice, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "I tried to keep my son and grandson from associating with humans, but I failed. If Vesca has followed him into this life, perhaps it is meant to be." He smiled mirthlessly, his eyes filled with bitterness and sorrow. "In my son's former life, I came between him and Vesca. I absolutely forbade him to take a human lover. That was one of the reasons, although by no means the only one, for the rift between us. He went on to have a child in the traditional manner of the Ds, but he grew increasingly bitter and unstable--so much so that I eventually had to take the child into my care because I feared for his safety. It was almost as if because his love for a human had been denied, he decided to swing to the opposite extreme of hatred, and my son became determined not just to get revenge upon the customers of the shop, but to eradicate all of humanity." Sofu sighed again. "I thought that I was doing the right thing at the time. I did not want my son to take a human consort, of course, but I also thought that Vesca was too narrow-minded to truly love my son and accept his true nature. But then again, I also thought the same of your brother, and I was wrong. Maybe I was wrong about Vesca and my son; maybe if I had left them alone, they would have worked out their differences and found a way to be together. Or maybe they would still have parted, but at least I would not have been the cause of it, and my son would not have hated me, and perhaps he would not have been consumed by the madness that led to his death. We will never know now what might have been.
"But this time, I will let my son choose his own path, wherever that may lead." Sofu's lips curved in an ironic smile. "You see, even one as old and obstinate as myself can learn to change when there is no other choice. Or rather, when the only other choice is to risk losing my son a second time."
Chris knew that he ought to feel happy that Sofu had changed. It might mean that he would be less hostile towards Leon and visit his grandson in L.A. more often, which would make D and Daiki happy. And maybe now that Sofu had relented and the young Count had found love with a human, he might be able to form a closer relationship with his brother instead of watching from a distance. But...where did that leave Chris?
Part of him wanted to charge back into the petshop and do something stupid, like challenge Holland to a duel for Count D's hand. But after seeing the look in the Count's eyes, he knew that it would be futile. How could he possibly compete with a love deep enough to survive beyond death? And if he truly loved the Count, he should want him to be happy, even if it was with someone else.
Except that it left Chris all alone again, a misfit who no longer had a place in the magical world of the petshop, but who had been changed by that magic just enough that he no longer completely belonged to the human world, either. There were stories of men who had briefly visited the world of the fairies, and then spent the rest of their lives pining away and longing to return to the fairy realm. That was how Chris felt, like a character from one of those old fairy tales. He had thought that he had found a way back to that land of enchantment, but it had been an illusion all along.
"Go home, Christopher," Sofu said, gently but firmly, his golden eyes filled with pity once more. "Go home to those who love you; there is nothing more for you here." He swirled his cloak around himself, transformed back into his babbit form, and fluttered off towards the shop without another word.
Chris stumbled out of the alley, his eyes blurred with tears, and went to hail a taxi to take him to the airport.
***
Afterword: Added a picture of Vesca/Victor to the Daiki gallery.
Part 17, Part 18, Part 19a, Part 19b, Part 20a, Part 20b, Part 21, Part 22a, Part 22b
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Thanks for reading!
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**"I give up," Sofu said in a resigned voice, his shoulders slumping in defeat.**
I love how he just resigned himself to the inevitable. Now if only he could find someone for himself!
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Someone like Souki should tame him. LOL
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Do you have a recommendation for Sofu D & Souki fic?
Anyway I look forward to yours^_____________^
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