FIC: Daiki, Part 20a (of 22)

[geri_chan]

Title: Daiki, Part 20a (of 22)
Rating: R overall, but mostly PG-13
Pairing: Leon/D
Word count: ~5,670
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. The family reunion of the Ds takes place.

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, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19a, Part 19b

***

When Daiki and Raphael arrived at the petshop, they found Count D dashing around the shop frantically, wielding a feather duster in one hand and a vacuum cleaner in the other. Raphael's jaw dropped open in shock; the Count had tied his hair up in a kerchief, and was wearing an apron over his elegant robes, causing him to look more like a harried housewife than a supernatural being with godlike powers.

The Count swiped at a vase with the feather duster, although Raphael could spot no sign of dust on the vase, or indeed, anywhere else in the room. He shoved the vacuum under the couch, causing the lizard-woman to dart out from under it with a startled and indignant yelp.

"Please help us, Daiki," the lizard whispered plaintively, as the Count muttered to himself about how much there was to do before dinner. "He's driving us all crazy!" Several pets peeping from behind the doorway nodded; they were obviously afraid to come anywhere near the Count while he was in this state.

"Where's my Dad?" Daiki whispered back.

"Hiding," the lizard replied, motioning vaguely in the direction of the winding corridors of the petshop. "He got home from work about fifteen minutes ago, and ran out of the room as soon as the Count yelled at him for tracking in dirt on the carpets."

Daiki cautiously approached his father and said, "Papa?"

"Oh, Daiki," the Count said, looking frazzled and distracted as he greeted his son. "This place is a mess, and our guests will be here any minute!"

"Our guests will not be here for another two hours at least," Daiki said gently, resting a hand on the Count's shoulder. "Why don't you go and get ready for dinner, and leave the cleaning to us?"

"But the place is a mess!" the Count wailed.

The place looked immaculate, as always, but Daiki did not contradict his parent. "But you do not want Great-Grandfather and your brother to see you like this, do you?" Daiki asked in a reasonable voice, gesturing at the Count's kerchief and apron. "You should go and soak in a hot bath, so that you will be relaxed when they arrive."

"But--" the Count protested.

"Perhaps you could use those bath oils that Aunt Jill gave you for Christmas," Daiki continued, "so that your skin looks smooth and lovely as always. And you should pick out the outfit that you wish to wear tonight--the black cheongsam with the gold dragon is your favorite, isn't it? I think that would be a good choice. And then you can have the cat-girls do your hair and nails. You do want to look your best for Great-Grandfather and your brother, don't you?"

"Oh yes, of course!" the Count exclaimed, hastily pulling the kerchief off his head. "I must bathe and properly attire myself before our guests arrive! Thank goodness you reminded me, or I would never be ready in time! You will take charge of things here, Daiki?"

"You may leave everything in my hands, Papa," Daiki said reassuringly.

"You are a good and dutiful son," the Count said, patting Daiki fondly on the cheek, then he hurried out of the room, the silk skirts of his robe rustling softly.

"Oh, thank the gods!" the lizard-woman sighed, and returned to her favorite space beneath the couch.

The other pets came out of hiding, also sighing with relief. "You really know how to handle the Count, Dai," Ten-chan said admiringly. "He was driving the rest of us crazy! Even Leon couldn't deal with him."

"He is understandably nervous," Daiki replied calmly. "But hopefully his mind will be set at ease once he sees his brother again, and realizes that the young Count is just as nervous and eager about meeting him."

"I just hope this family reunion goes smoothly," Ten-chan said, sounding a little worried. "It's a bit of a volatile combination--three generations of kami, plus the Detective."

"Great-Grandfather, my cousin, and Dad each love Papa in their own way, so I think that all of them will try to make this reunion work," Daiki said confidently. "Things may not go smoothly, but I think that in the end, everything will turn out all right."

"I hope you're right, Dai," Raphael said, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

***

Much to everyone's relief, the Count spent most of the two hours before dinner bathing and primping, and peace and quiet returned to the petshop.

"Thank God," Leon sighed to his son. "I never would've suggested inviting Grandpa and Junior over if I knew it was going to cause this much fuss!" The detective had "dressed up" at D's insistence, grudgingly giving up his usual t-shirt and jeans for a deep blue blazer and slacks that brought out the color of his eyes, and a white dress shirt. He drew the line at wearing a tie, however. "Bad enough I gotta wear this damn monkey suit," Leon grumbled under his breath. "I'm not wearing a dog collar, too."

"Papa will calm down once they get here," Daiki said soothingly. "You know that this is really important to him."

"Yeah, I know," Leon sighed.

Sofu D and the young Count arrived at the appointed time, just as D had begun to pace back and forth in the lobby. By now, Leon was used to Sofu's youthful face, nearly identical to D's, although he still found it a bit creepy, so he wasn't taken aback to see that Count Junior also looked just like D, only with shorter hair and two gold eyes instead of one gold and one purple. Raphael, however, looked stunned although he had been warned about the Ds' nature and how they were all near-clones of each other. But Leon could sympathize; knowing it was one thing, and seeing it in the flesh was quite another.

"They really do look alike," Raphael marveled as Sofu greeted his grandson with his usual reserved affection, and the two younger Ds smiled at each other nervously. "They look like triplets! It's hard to believe that man is the Count's grandfather; he doesn't look a day over twenty-five, at most."

Leon smiled approvingly at his son's boyfriend. He hadn't cared much for Raphael at first, but all in all, the young artist was handling himself pretty well. He had received one shock after another since he had gained the ability to see the human forms of the pets, and even if he hadn't exactly taken it all in stride--Leon would have been suspicious if he had--neither had he run away screaming in terror. In fact, Leon was pretty damn impressed by the way Raphael had stood his ground against an angry Honlon. He had shown bravery and compassion and a touch of foolhardiness in the way that he had befriended the dragon, and that was when Leon had decided that Raphael was worthy of being Daiki's life partner.

"There are subtle differences between them besides the eye color and hair length, if you look closely enough," Leon said, clapping a friendly hand on Raphael's shoulder. "Even though Sofu looks young, there's something in his eyes that's different from the other two. It's hard to put into words...I guess there's a kind of wisdom and cynicism in them. If you just look at his eyes and not his face, you get the impression of something very old...ancient, even, and not at all human."

"Yes," Raphael murmured, taking a closer look at Sofu. "They're like the eyes of a god. I can understand why the Ds were once worshipped as deities."

"And the young Count has an air of youthfulness about him," Leon continued. "He looks nervous, and a little excited about meeting D. That's natural, I suppose, since he hasn't seen his brother for so long. But even if Sofu felt nervous, he'd never let it show outwardly." The nervous excitement and the hint of eagerness in the young D's eyes made Leon feel a bit more kindly towards him--it made him seem vulnerable, almost human, instead of an emotionless and untouchable godling. Leon still didn't entirely trust Junior, but at least his desire to meet his brother seemed sincere.

"You're right," Raphael agreed, looking impressed. "I guess that's why you're such a good detective, Leon, because you're able to notice little details like that."

Leon grinned proudly; he wasn't immune to a little flattery, especially compliments on his detecting skills. He didn't have much time to dwell on it, though, because the Ds finished greeting each other and turned towards Leon and Raphael.

"It is good to see you again, Detective Orcot," the young Count said politely, bowing slightly--just enough to show respect without indicating deference. For all that D complained about Leon being uncouth, he had managed to pick up on a few subtleties of Asian customs during the time he had spent traveling in China and Japan looking for D, not to mention the past two decades or so he had spent living in Chinatown.

Leon bowed to the exact same degree that the young Count had, and not an inch more or less. "It's good to see you, too," he replied, stretching the truth slightly for the sake of politeness. "D is eager to get reacquainted with you," he added, a bit more honestly.

Sofu just nodded coolly at Leon, and Leon nodded back at him. The two of them were never going to be friends, but at least the old D was refraining from uttering his usual insults, so Leon figured that he'd hold to the truce as long as Sofu did.

"Great-grandfather, Cousin, this is..." Daiki hesitated for a second, then continued firmly, "my mate, Raphael Van Horne. Raphael, this is my great-grandfather, whom you may address as Sofu D, and Papa's younger brother, who is also known as Count D."

The young Count bowed and greeted Raphael politely, and Raphael returned the favor, greeting the two Ds in carefully pronounced Chinese that Daiki must have taught him. The young Count smiled, and Sofu just nodded and said casually, "Ah yes, the young artist with the unique gift of painting death."

"You know about that?" Raphael asked, looking startled.

"Of course," Sofu replied, smiling in an amused and slightly condescending manner. "Even if I do not visit in person very often, I still like to keep myself informed about what is going on in the lives of my dear grandson and great-grandson."

"What he means to say is that he has been spying on us," D said in an exasperated yet affectionate voice.

"Well, I would not have phrased it so bluntly," Sofu protested, with a contrived--at least in Leon's opinion--look of wounded innocence. The eldest D frowned disapprovingly and added, "You have been picking up bad habits from the detective. Let us say, rather, that I am concerned about you, and have listened to the bits of gossip that happened to come my way."

"In other words, spying," Leon said pointedly, as he and Sofu exchanged glares. The truce, it seemed, was off.

But the young Count disarmed the situation by laughing and saying lightly, "Now, now, Father, you promised to behave. Please don't spoil dinner by fighting with Detective Orcot."

Sofu harrumphed, sounding more like the old grandfather that he really was than the beautiful youth that he appeared to be, but he looked away, breaking off the glare, and said coolly, "No one is fighting, child. The Detective and I were merely having a discussion."

Leon knew D would kill him if he ruined this dinner, and Sofu had backed down first, so he said amiably, "Yeah, just a discussion. No big deal."

Everyone seemed to relax a little, and the young Count presented D with a Madame C's pastry box. "A gift for you, Brother. Daiki tells me that the fruit tart is your favorite."

"Why thank you," D said, smiling at his brother warmly as he accepted the box. "We shall serve it for dessert tonight. But truly, your presence here is gift enough. You did not need to trouble yourself."

"Oh, it was no trouble at all, Brother," the young Count assured him, an oddly mischievous and merry glint in his golden eyes. It made him look almost human, a far cry from Sofu's cool disdain or Papa D's sadistic smile, and Leon hoped that meant that Junior wasn't going to turn out like his predecessor, after all.

"Father and I enjoy the chance to eat Madame C's delicacies just as much as you do, so it isn't really a proper gift, since we will be partaking of it as well," the young Count continued. "Therefore, we have brought you a second gift."

"A second gift?" D asked, looking puzzled. "You really should not have..."

"Don't be so quick to say that, Count," a cheerful voice said as the doors to the petshop swung open.

"Chris!" Leon exclaimed, as his brother walked into the shop, grinning from ear to ear.

"Don't forget Beauty," Chris said, smiling fondly down at the Plant Doll who was walking beside him, her little hand gently but protectively clasped in his. "Sofu and the Count kindly gave us a ride down here."

"By boat?!" Leon exclaimed, thinking of the flying ship he had sailed on with D.

"By plane, Leon," Chris laughed. "The Count chartered a private plane to fly us all out to L.A."

"It is a pleasant surprise, and a gift that I shall gladly accept," D said, smiling at Chris and the young Count. "But we were not expecting you for dinner, Chris, as you had said that you did not think you could get away from work."

"Well, we were able to close the case I was working on sooner than expected," Chris said. "You know, it's the strangest thing, but the suspects suddenly turned themselves in and confessed to all their crimes. Although their lawyers may try to plead insanity, because those men claim that they were attacked by monsters." He gave the young Count a wry smile.

"Monsters?" Leon asked suspiciously.

"Massive hounds with glowing red eyes, and bodies so black that they seemed to be made out of shadows rather than flesh and blood," Chris elaborated. "Their teeth, however, were substantial enough, because the suspects were wounded, and their clothes torn and bloodied. They said that they would rather go to jail than face those hounds."

"A bunch of hardened criminals were afraid of a few dogs?" Leon asked, although he already knew that whatever creatures had chased the men into the arms of the F.B.I. were more than mere "dogs".

Chris smiled wryly again. "They said that the dogs weren't just trying to kill them, but were going to consume their souls."

D muttered something that sounded like "hellhounds," and Leon wasn't sure that he really wanted to know what they were--something nasty, by the sound of it. "You turned monsters loose on the streets of San Francisco?" Leon demanded angrily of the young Count. "What if they had hurt innocent people instead of Chris's suspects?"

Count Junior just smiled at him innocently. "I have no idea what you are talking about, Detective. I am merely the owner of a humble pet store--"

"Oh please, spare me the 'I'm just a humble shopkeeper' speech!" Leon snapped. "I've already heard it a thousand times over from D, and we all know that it's a load of bull!"

"Your mate is so uncouth, grandchild," Sofu sighed to D, clucking his tongue in disapproval, but Junior just looked amused.

"The men that you were pursuing were drug dealers, were they not, Agent Orcot?" the young D asked sweetly, and Chris nodded. "Perhaps they sampled a little too much of their own product. Most likely they were attacked by a pack of feral dogs, and the drugs caused them to hallucinate and think that the dogs were monsters. After all, everyone knows that there's no such things as monsters."

"I've seen many different types of monsters," Leon shot back, thinking of the murderers and rapists and child molesters he had arrested over the years, although those weren't the type of monsters that Count Junior meant. "Some human, and some not." In fact, the human monsters were worse than the non-human ones. A dragon might destroy a city in a rage, and a Tou-Tet might eat human flesh, but at least they were only acting according to their natures. The human monsters preyed on their own kind, and sometimes Leon could agree with D that humans were the most deadly predators of all.

"Even if there were such thing as 'hellhounds,' which of course there aren't," the young Count continued, "they would pursue only the guilty, not the innocent. And these were very bad men, were they not?"

Chris nodded. "They were guilty of drug trafficking and murder, to say the least."

"Then isn't it wonderful that such men are behind bars, where they will not be able to hurt anyone else, and that Agent Orcot was able to join his family tonight?" the young Count asked cheerily.

While Leon was trying to decide whether to pursue the matter further or not, Tet-chan showed up and announced, "Grub's on." Then he caught sight of Chris and shouted delightedly, "Chris, you made it! I thought you weren't coming!" He ran forward and embraced his lover, while Beauty pouted. The Plant Doll tugged on Chris's shirt to get his attention, and he released Tet-chan and smiled down at her. "Sorry, Beauty, we didn't mean to forget about you."

"Hey, it's the plant girl," Tet-chan said cheerfully, patting Beauty on the head. Either the bad-tempered Tou-Tet was mellowing out a bit, or seeing Chris had put him in such a good mood that he was being nicer than usual. "I wasn't expecting you, but I'll heat up some milk, and we have some cookies that Pon-chan made the other day." The Plant Doll smiled shyly at him, and Chris beamed, obviously pleased that his two loved ones were getting along.

A short time later, everyone was seated around the dining table, enjoying the feast that Tet and Pon-chan had prepared. Beauty, of course, had only a cup of milk and a sugar cookie, but that seemed to be feast enough for her, because she was clearly enjoying her meal.

Leon scowled at Chris and Tet-chan, who seemed to be enjoying the feast a little too much, staring at each other over their plates all goo-goo eyed as Tet-chan kept feeding Chris tidbits, deftly picking up choice morsels with his chopsticks and popping them into Chris's mouth, saying, "You must try this tofu in black bean sauce, Chris," or "What do you think of the spring rolls?"

"Mm, delicious," Chris would say after each bite, not looking embarrassed in the least. It was enough to make Leon roll his eyes in disgust, although D smiled at them like an indulgent parent.

"You are so fickle, Agent Orcot," the young Count teased. "Not so long ago, you were declaring your undying devotion to me, and now you have cast me aside for a new love." He sighed dramatically, his crimson lips forming a pout that looked both ridiculous and beautiful at the same time--a familiar expression, since Leon had seen it on his Count's face often enough.

Chris just laughed and said, "I apologize for my fickleness, Count. But somehow I doubt that your heart has been broken--I hear that Mr. Holland has been a frequent visitor to your shop recently."

Sofu scowled and the young Count smiled coyly. "Yes, indeed, Victor has been visiting the shop quite often, and he always brings me the most delicious pastries and candies."

"So it's 'Victor' now is it, not 'Mr. Holland'?" Chris asked with a knowing grin, and Sofu's scowl deepened, frown lines furrowing the smooth skin of his forehead.

"Stop that, Father, or your face will freeze in that expression," the young Count teased, and Sofu continued to glare at his son, but Leon noticed that he was careful to smooth out the lines on his face. Maybe even near-immortal kami worried about getting wrinkles; Leon grinned at the thought.

"Yes, Victor has asked me to call him by name," the young Count replied in response to Chris's question. "He assures me that he just hates being called 'Mister' and that it indicates no affection or feelings of friendship on his part."

A smug smirk on Junior's face indicated that he was aware that it was pure denial on Holland's part, and Leon felt a kind of rueful sympathy for the private detective. No one knew about denial better than Leon, and he hoped that Victor Holland wasn't going to be as stubborn as he had been, because trying to hold out against the determination and charm of a D was a losing battle. He took another look at the young Count's smug face, and while he felt a little sorry for Holland, Leon wasn't as concerned for him as he might have been before tonight. He had been afraid that Junior would turn out like crazy, megalomaniac Papa D, but he was tentatively inclined to trust the younger D's motives, at least in regards to Holland, if not his customers. In fact, he was surprised to find that he was beginning to like Junior, whose playful mischievousness made him seem a great deal more human--not to mention much less stuffy--than Sofu, and even to a certain extent, his own D. Of course, D had his playful side too, but he rarely revealed it in public, and he liked to keep up an air of reserve and control--which Leon had always taken pleasure in breaking, even back in their adversarial days, although it was all in fun now. That air of mischief, however, seemed to be the young Count's natural state.

"So if there's no friendship on his part, why does he keep coming to the shop?" Leon asked, although he already knew the answer.

"He claims that he is investigating me," Junior replied, still smirking. "However, except for the first case that he came to see me about, none of his clients have any connection to my shop. In fact, his employer, the head of the detective agency that he works for, complained most vociferously about him 'chasing down phantoms on company time,' so his visits to my shop must now take place during his off-hours."

"Did he ever find the missing girl he was looking for?" Daiki asked. It was a question that Leon had deliberately avoided asking because he didn't think that he would be able to control his temper if he found out that an innocent teenage girl had been turned into pet chow. Beside him, he sensed D growing tense, anticipating a possible argument between his brother and his lover.

But the young Count said casually, "Oh yes, Victor found the young lady well and unharmed. It turned out that she had run away from home to escape her abusive father--the same reason, I imagine, that she came to my shop to purchase a guard dog. She told me that she needed protection, although she did not say whom she wished to be protected from."

"Your detective didn't take her back to her father, did he?" Pon-chan asked anxiously, and the young Count smiled and shook his head.

"The father died of a heart attack shortly before Victor located the young lady, so all's well that ends well."

"A heart attack, huh?" Leon asked suspiciously, but didn't feel any pity for the abusive father. As a cop, he shouldn't approve of vigilantism, but he had to privately admit to himself that he took satisfaction in seeing justice done, especially since it probably would have been difficult to convict the bastard in a human court of law.

"A heart attack," the young Count agreed sweetly. "The coroner ruled it a natural death. And now the young lady lives happily with her mother and her pet dog Grim."

"Grim?" Raphael asked, looking startled.

"What?" Leon asked.

"I've been doing a lot of reading on myths and folklore since I met Daiki," Raphael replied. "In British folklore, a Grim is an omen of death. It's supposed to look like a shaggy black dog with fiery eyes."

Junior laughed as if he found the idea absurd. "Grim is shaggy and black, to be sure, but he is merely an ordinary dog." He smiled innocently. "A stray that I found and took in."

"Ordinary, my ass," Leon muttered under his breath.

The young Count politely pretended not to hear. "Victor can certainly attest to the fact that Grim is real and not a myth," he continued. "The dog was a bit overprotective of his mistress, and bit Victor on the leg when he arrived to rescue the young lady."

"Does every human who hangs around a petshop end up with scars?" Raphael asked with a wry smile. Junior looked puzzled until Raphael explained about the scars that Tet-chan had left on him and Leon, and the youngest D laughed along with him while the Tou-Tet grinned, looking sheepish and yet proud at the same time.

"Well, soon you and Detective Orcot will not have to worry about gaining more scars," the young Count said with a smile. "Agent Orcot--"

"Chris," Chris interjected. "You might as well call me by name, since we're practically in-laws."

"Chris says that Tet-chan will soon be moving to San Francisco to join him," the young Count continued.

"Yep, soon as I finish training my apprentice," Tet-chan said with satisfaction. "She's nearly ready, I think." Pon-chan smiled proudly until Tet-chan added with an arrogant grin, "Of course, even with years of training, she'll never be as good as me, but she can handle basic meals on her own, and I'll come over to help out if the Count needs a fancy feast prepared for some reason."

Pon-chan stuck her tongue out him, and Tet-chan stuck his tongue out right back, and the petshop residents all laughed, but Chris sighed heavily. "What's wrong, Chris?" the young Count asked. "I thought you would be happy to be reunited with your mate."

"Yeah, why so glum?" Tet-chan chimed in, looking a little hurt, although he tried to make a joke of it. "Not only will you be getting the handsomest Tou-Tet in China as your mate, you'll be getting your own personal chef and a baby-sitter for little Miss Beauty."

"Oh, of course I want us to be together, and I've missed you so much since we've been apart," Chris quickly reassured him. "But I really hate the idea that everyone will think of you as my pet, not my lover."

"Oh, is that all?" Tet-chan asked, looking relieved. "I told you that I don't care about that."

"But I do," Chris said unhappily. "And even if I try to pass you off as a pet, some things will still be hard to explain. One of my neighbors has been looking after Beauty while I'm at work, and how am I going to explain that I won't need her to baby-sit anymore because my pet goat will be heating up milk and baking cookies for Beauty? And I was looking forward to your home-cooked meals, but then I started thinking that my neighbors will think it's strange if they smell food cooking when I'm not home."

"I never thought of that," Tet-chan admitted, frowning.

"If only there were some way to make your human form visible to everyone," Chris sighed.

"Well, you'd still have to explain away the horns," Leon pointed out. "But I guess he could cover them with a hat or something."

Tet-chan looked indignant for a moment, then shrugged in a resigned manner. "It's a moot point, anyway. Even with the incense, most humans can't see our true forms. It's impossible for me to appear human to all of Chris's friends and neighbors."

Sofu D was silent for a long time, a thoughtful look on his face, and then he said slowly, "That is not necessarily true..."

"Grandfather?" D asked, looking startled--no, not just startled, but shocked. "You always told me that only those humans with a particular need to be fulfilled, or those few who naturally have the Sight, can see the pets in their human forms."

"Yeah!" Tet-chan said indignantly. "Daiki asked you for advice on how Chris could regain his Sight, and you just told him to meditate! Have you been holding out on us all this time?"

"If you will be quiet long enough for me to get a word in edgewise, I shall explain," Sofu said crossly. Tet-chan continued glaring at him, but fell silent and waited for Sofu to continue. "First of all," Sofu said coolly, "Daiki told me only that Chris wished to regain his Sight. He did not mention anything about you, nor did he tell me that you wanted to make Chris your mate."

"Oh yeah," Tet-chan said sheepishly, the anger draining from his face. "I didn't think that Chris could possibly fall in love with a sheep, so I didn't want to say anything to him until he could see me as human."

"Furthermore," Sofu continued, "what you refer to as 'the Sight' is merely a matter of perception. One person might see you as a sheep while at the same time, another might see you as a human, but your body does not change. The ritual that I have in mind is an actual physical transformation, and is not something to be undertaken lightly."

"Transformation?!" Tet-chan exclaimed. "You mean, turn me into a human for real?"

"In a manner of speaking," Sofu replied. "In the distant past, before the massacre of my ancestors, there were--on very rare occasions--marriages between kami and humans, or between humans and some other type of supernatural creature, such as dragons."

Daiki, who had loved fairy tales as a child, smiled and said, "In Asian legends and folktales, dragons often have the power to take human form, and there are stories of dragon princes and princesses who fall in love with human women and men."

"However, fairy tales aside, such unions are almost certainly fated to end in sorrow," Sofu said. "After all, a kami or a dragon is near-immortal by human standards, and will likely outlive his or her human spouse by several centuries."

"Yes," D said quietly. "That was why I feared to let myself love Leon at first--the knowledge that I would someday lose him."

There was still a hint of fear in D's eyes, and the mischievous young Count's face suddenly turned solemn; perhaps he was thinking of what might happen between himself and Holland. Leon hoped that they would be able to work things out this time around, but his main concern was for D.

Leon grinned reassuringly at his lover and said in a deliberately casual and arrogant voice, "Hey, what're you worried about? I told you before, it's much more likely that I'll outlive you! You've got your weak heart, after all, and I'm healthy as a horse!"

Sofu looked appalled by his words, but D understood his intent and managed a weak smile. "Nonsense, my dear Detective!" D retorted. "With all the nicotine and alcohol and junk food you have consumed over the years, it is a miracle that you are alive at all!"

The two of them laughed, and Sofu shook his head disgustedly while Junior gave them a bemused look. Truthfully, Leon wasn't sure whether it would be better for him to outlive D or not. Of course a life without D in it would be empty and lonely, but neither did he want D to go through the pain of living through the centuries alone, mourning his loss. In a way, Leon thought that he was tougher and better able to handle the loss than D would, because in spite of all his powerful kami magic, D was a little fragile emotionally. Maybe it came from having a madman as a father, but whatever the reason, Leon still remembered how D had fled from his home and the people who cared about him after his father had died. D had already lost his father and his "sister," and Leon wasn't sure if he could handle another loss like that. Leon had lost people that he cared about, too, including his mother, but because of their limited (by kami standards, anyway) lifespan, humans accepted that death was a part of life. Maybe it was harder for a near-immortal being to deal with death when it touched their life personally.

Then Leon shook his head impatiently. He knew that he would die someday, but there was no point in worrying about something that he had no control over. As he had once told D, it was better to live for the moment and enjoy the time that they had together. And who knew? Maybe when the time came, they would go out together--at a ripe old age, after a long and happy life together, maybe with a few grandkids at their bedside. He hoped that Daiki and Raphael would be able to have a child together someday, as he and D had, but if not, there was always adoption. He smiled as he thought of Daiki caring for the Plant Dolls, and the way that Raphael had befriended Honlon. He was sure that they would make good parents.

Part 20b, Part 21, Part 22a, Part 22b