Pet Shop Of Horrors Fan Fiction ❯ some kind of bliss ❯ Grievous Light ( Chapter 5 )

See Chapter One for warnings, disclaimers, thanks and failed authorial attempts to be funny.

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"Uh, hey D. How's business?"

"I… cannot complain, thank you, Detective." D smiled faintly, then brightened as Leon set down a small, prettily-wrapped package on the table and plonked himself on the couch. "Ah -- confectionary? And from -- ?" One hand flew to his mouth as he caught sight of the label, which was an expensive one. Very. "Why, you spoil me!"

Leon felt sure he ought to be able to think of some sarcastic comment to the effect that D did a pretty good job of spoiling himself, and a pricey box of candy was hardly gonna make much difference, but his wits had deserted him as usual. He wasn't entirely sure what had possessed him to go to one of the most expensive candy stores (was that what you called them? Leon guessed there was probably some sort of fancy French name or something for the posh ones D shopped at, but hell, if it sold candy it was a candy store) in this part of town, beyond the fact that he'd felt weirdly, inexplicably guilty about walking out in a huff yesterday afternoon. It wasn't even like D had noticed, but he'd just felt bad. Like he'd felt bad this morning when he'd been about to set off for work and found his jacket lying in a crumpled heap by the door, on top of a cigarette packet and a mug with some sort of slimy, greenish substance that he hadn't looked at too closely in the bottom. He wasn't sure why. It wasn't like there was anyone else in the apartment to complain about it. He'd just felt kind of like he used to when he was a kid and he broke something or got ketchup on the carpet, stuff like that, but managed to hide the evidence before his mom got home. She'd never yell at him -- probably didn't even notice -- but he'd bug himself about it for hours anyway.

After that he'd shaken himself, decided hanging around D was obviously getting to him more than he'd realised, and slammed out the door.

D had finally managed to tear his eyes away from the box of candy, and was busy cutting a fussily-decorated little cake into slices that were way too small for human handling. Leon hated that. It always made him get crumbs everywhere, and then D tutted at him like it was his fault. D was smiling to himself, though, and even humming a little under his breath, looking a lot perkier than yesterday. It didn't seem like he was in a mood. Still, it couldn't hurt to check, right?

"Ah… D?"

D glanced up mildly. "Mmm?"

"Well, uh -- sorry if I was rude or anything yesterday. Going off like that. If I, you know, pi… annoyed you or… something."

D's eyebrows shot up. Jesus -- Leon apologising for being rude wasn't that big of a deal, was it? He was half-expecting a snitty comment pointing out that yes, in fact, around here it was only slightly less unusual than somebody getting attacked by a pack of carnivorous rabbits, but for once all D did was blink, pause for a second and then murmur: "Not at all, Detective."

"Okay. Well. Ah. Good. Can't go making the department look bad or anything, you know."

The small glimmer of amusement that that earned stayed for just a second, and then was replaced by something Leon couldn't quite put his finger on.

"In fact," D was saying, "Perhaps it is I who should… apologise for my manners. I was a little distracted yesterday evening. I do hope you were not -- offended?"

"Huh? Oh, no. Yeah, ah, no."

D sparkled at him over the rim of his teacup. "Oh, I am glad. I had rather thought that you were."

"No, no. No. Didn't even notice."

"Good." D smiled sweetly. "Tea?"

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That, at least, had been a small mercy. D was quite sure Leon had been bothered, but it appeared he was not prepared to admit it. Since that meant he wasn't going to sulk, either, D honestly could not object. Sometimes, he reflected, the detective's unrivalled capacity for denying the obvious was really quite useful.

Leon, right at this moment, was slumped forward in his seat, elbows on knees, head in hands, frowning to himself. He reached for his cup, swallowed a mouthful of tea and set it back down on the saucer. There was a loud clink as delicate china connected with delicate china, and D winced inwardly.

"Distracted?"

D blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"You said you were distracted. Something up?"

D's eyebrows raised a fraction, his lips parting in faint surprise. This was a little… unexpected. Leon had certainly never hesitated to accuse him of smuggling, or drug-dealing, or whatever the police department was focusing on in any given week, but asking what was on his mind was altogether a different matter. He had never quite expected Leon to find the nerve. Most interesting.

All he did, however, was smile politely and reply. "Just a trifle, Detective. Nothing for you to concern yourself with."

Leon looked dissatisfied, and D thought he might have been about to pursue the matter when the telephone rang. Leon shot it an irritated look, and D pursed his lips. He had never been fond of telephones, though he supposed that for human beings they were a necessary evil. But they were so noisy, and always rang while one was busy -- and communication, when one could not read the expression of the person one was talking to, could surely only ever be false. Cellphones he understood even less. Humans were social creatures, yes, but the bizarre need to be constantly at the beck and call of a bleeping piece of machinery beggared belief. It was another little part of the human tragicomedy, he supposed -- all attached constantly to various pieces of communication technology, flashing lights and ringing noises and computer screens, and none of them ever quite listening to anything.

D let the phone ring twice, three times, before moving to pick it up.

"Good evening," he began. "This is Count D's pet shop. May I help you?"

"Uh, hey, Count. Is Leon there?"

"I beg your pardon? That is, yes, he is, but… who is this?"

Leon glanced up from the piece of cake he'd been eating -- trying and failing as always, D noted, not to get crumbs all over the carpet -- and looked over at him, a questioning frown on his face. D held up a hand to shush him.

"Oh, sorry, yeah. It's Jill. From the P. D. You've met me before… I just figured he'd be at your place."

"Ah, of course. Do pardon my manners." D let his tone brighten, his eyes widening with mild surprise. "I shall put him on the line at once." He held the receiver out towards Leon. "It is for you, Detective."

"Huh?"

"For you," D repeated patiently.

Leon said nothing more, but took the receiver and gave it a suspicious look before putting it to his ear.

"Hello?" he said cautiously. "Jill? Why the hell are you calling the pet shop? I've always got my cellphone on -- Yeah, okay, I'm here but that's not the point -- Anyway -- Oh." Leon's face fell. "Shit. I'm sorry, Jill. Really sorry." A short pause And then; "Yeah, yeah, sure. I'll be right over."

He hung up the phone. D had been watching Leon's expression discreetly from behind his hair, and now he gave him an enquiring glance.

"Shit." Leon said again. "Sorry. I mean -- ah, shit."

D raised his eyebrows.

"Jill. Her grandfather died. Not like it's a big surprise -- guy must have been in his eighties -- but she just found out and, well, I said I'd go keep her company for a while."

"Of course," D nodded. "I would not dream of keeping you. Please, do give Miss Jill my best wishes."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure." And then Leon had grabbed his jacket and gone.

Glancing after him, D could not help the tiniest flicker of amusement at the idea of Leon playing the agony uncle. It was only the thought that that nice, polite Miss Jill had lost somebody close to her that kept him from smiling. After all, it was difficult to imagine his dear detective attempting to be reassuring. Still, he was prepared to try, and that was surely something. The loyalty some human beings held for one another -- well, it was admirable, in a way. D could not remember ever having experienced such a thing himself. Oh course, he had had the loyalty of his pets, and of those human beings who worshipped and revered him, drawn to his grace, his knowledge, his power - but the affection of an equal, somebody drawn simply to who he was (whatever that might mean)? Well, no. That was not the way of his kind. This loyalty, this emotion, was for humans -- blind, foolish creatures that they were. And yet occasionally -- just occasionally -- it looked like such a beautiful thing.

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"So, what were you doing at the pet shop this time, anyway?"

"Jill…" Leon rolled his eyes, but inwardly he was kind of glad. Jill had seemed really down when he got here -- understandably, he guessed -- but she'd perked up a little now. That was a blessing. Leon wasn't exactly good at doing the 'comforting friend' thing, especially when it involved talking about stuff. He could never think of anything to say that didn't sound fake, or patronising, or just really, really dumb, and that always made him feel bad. He wasn't that good at doing the cheering-up thing either normally, seeing as he wasn't exactly Little Miss Sunshine himself most of the time. But Jill was smiling now, even though she looked tired and her eyes were still a little red, and she was giving him that sideways look that always meant he wasn't going to get out of being mocked that lightly.

"Aw, c'mon. And don't try and tell me you were investigating the Mysterious Case of the Murdering Marmoset or any of that crap, either."

"Jesus fuck, Jill! Can't I even go for a cup of tea without you making out it's something… I dunno, gay?!"

Jill raised her eyebrows. "Hey, I never made out it was anything! Still, you know what they say -- it's the mind it goes into…" She ducked out of the way just in time to avoid a flying armchair cushion, smirking now. "And anyway, since when do you drink tea?"

"Jill…" Leon glanced round for a distraction, caught sight of the clock and seized on it thankfully. "It's nearly nine. Didn't you say you had to call your grandmother?"

Any other time, that would have been the cue for a comment or five about changing the subject and denial. As it was, Jill's smile faded.

"Oh, yeah. Shit." She sighed. "I just… hope she's gonna be okay in that house by herself, y'know? Must be lonely as hell." A little pause. "She's got the cats though."

"Huh?"

"Yeah. Three of them. They had them from kittens -- they must be pretty old themselves by now…" She stopped just as Leon felt his expression start to glaze over. "Sorry. I'm rambling."

Leon started to protest, but Jill cut him off again. "No, really, I was rambling. You were doing your I'm-not-listening-but-I-don't-wanna-complain-in-case-you-get-pissed-off face."

"Was not!"

"Were too. Don't tell me you're really interested in hearing about my grandma's cats."

Leon guessed he had to concede that one. "Okay, okay. You were rambling."

Jill didn't rise to that. In fact, it looked like she'd stopped paying attention altogether, looking intently at the wall. Then she turned her gaze back to Leon.

"You ought to get a pet, you know."

Leon blinked at the sudden change of tack. "What?"

"You should get a pet."

"Huh? Why?"

"You just should. It'd be good for you. I don't know how you manage living on your own like that. I'd be climbing the walls in a week."

Privately, Leon thought going crazy would probably be slightly more bearable than living with most of Jill's roommates. She had a point, though. It did feel kind of… weird going home to an empty apartment sometimes, and he found himself thinking about it more than usual these days. He wasn't sure why. It had never bothered him that much before. He shrugged. "I dunno. I guess."

"Plus it might make your apartment smell a bit nicer…"

"Hey!"

"Okay, okay. Probably nothing could make that place smell better. But seriously, you ought to think about it." And then Jill's eyes were glinting at him wickedly. "Hey, I bet the Count would even find you one for free if you asked him right…"

"Jill -- "

For a moment, it looked as though Jill wasn't going to let it drop. Again. Then her face fell, and she glanced over at the phone. "Ah, anyway. I really ought to go ring my grandma."

"Yeah, it's getting late. I probably oughta go, anyway."

"Guess so." Jill smiled again, wearily this time. "Thanks for coming round, Leon. Careful going home." A slight pause, and then another little sparkle of amusement. "If home is where you're going."

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Leon had found himself thinking about it, after. The pet thing, that was, not any of the other comments Jill had made -- God knew he should be used to those by now. He couldn't really see how it would work -- he wasn't a cat person and he sure as hell didn't have time to look after a dog, and goldfish had always seemed like pretty useless pets to him anyway -- but maybe it was an idea. Maybe he could ask D for some advice.

Come to think of it, that was probably why he found himself at the pet shop so often these days. It was just to have someone to talk to, something to do that wasn't watching TV or drinking beer. Being on your own did suck sometimes, he had to admit. Yeah, he had friends, but he couldn't hang out with Jill or the guys from the P. D. every night, and it didn't look like he was ever going to manage to get a girlfriend who lasted longer than a week. He'd pretty much given up even trying lately, in fact. But yeah. D was better company than no-one at all, he guessed, however much of a pain in the ass he could be at times. Hell, maybe he should even ask D to sell him a pet.

Leon shook his head. Jesus, now that was crazy. He'd seen what those things did to people --

But then D only sold those animals -- the freaky, man-eating ones -- to some people, anyway. Weird people. Sad people. Fuck-ups. Not that that was any excuse, but he had plenty of normal animals too, didn't he? Well, some. And he liked Leon or at least Leon kind of thought he did. He didn't see why else D would put up with him going round to the shop and grumbling about his day pretty much every evening. And you didn't visit people in the hospital, or give them houseplants, or feed them for free all the time if you hated their guts, did you? Nah, D wouldn't try to bump him off, even if he had every reason to. Leon wasn't sure why he was so certain of that, but… no -- he wouldn't. D was --

Thinking about D and the pet shop, Leon realised as he finally registered his surroundings, seemed to be fatal. He couldn't believe he'd ended up here again.

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D could not say he was entirely surprised that the detective had come back, despite the lateness of the hour. Leon's inability to stay away from the shop for any substantial period of time would normally have afforded D a small, gratified glow of amusement. The pull his little world exerted over the human seemed to grow stronger every day. Today, however, Sofu's eyes from that dream gleamed sternly in his mind's eye, and the words You are too fond of that human seemed to hang in the air, a whispering echo just beyond hearing.

"Hello again, Detective," he began, raising his eyebrows in an approximation of mild surprise. "And what brings you here at this time? Surely it must be almost ten."

Leon frowned and ran a hand through his hair, and for a moment it looked very much as though he were trying to think of an excuse. "I, uh, thought you might wanna know how Jill was," he said, after a few seconds' pause. Judging by the visible grimace that crossed his face as he said it, that must have sounded rather weak even to Leon's own ears.

D chose not to comment, however. He merely smiled, murmured, "But of course," and stepped back to let Leon into the shop.

It was then that he felt the air change.

It was barely detectable at first -- a thickening of the atmosphere, the tiniest rise in temperature, and a deepening of the quiet into silence as the background murmur of animal noises faded, and finally ceased altogether. And then D felt something else, and an icy little shiver started at the back of his neck and scuttled all the way down his spine.

Somewhere, beneath the usual energies of the pet shop and its inhabitants, there was a presence D did not recognise. It was weaker than his own, but more potent than that of any of the animals, and strangely unidentifiable -- fluid and shadowy and pervasive. The darkness itself seemed to be intensifying, growing heavier -- and then D did not know whether to trust his eyes, because he saw it begin to stir. The darkness in the corners of the room looked almost solid now, and before his eyes, sinuous, curling shapes began to form. The movement was directionless at first. Shifting tendrils of shadow hovered indecisively in the corners of the room, wavered -- and then, as though suddenly catching sight of prey, started to drift slowly inward.

Leon, it appeared, had noticed nothing. He was still talking -- something about Jill's roommates and how the hell could she put up with them watching Sex and the City all the time -- and his eyes were fixed on D. He looked neither up nor down as a swirl darkness closed in on him, curling round his legs like a vine, a strand of it snaking through his hair. D stared in frozen, incredulous horror.

"Count? You okay?"

D blinked, realising he must have stopped smiling and nodding -- and then the vision was gone, the black shapes vanished, the shop lit, dimly but clearly, by the usual soft red glow. For a moment, relief swept over him. He had been imagining things, that was all -- his tired eyes and the lateness of the hour playing tricks on him. But that strange, wary prickling at the back of his mind was still there, and he still could not speak. He was seized with a sudden desire to reach out to the human, touch him, grasp his arm, something, just to be certain he really was still there.

"Something up?"

He summoned a smile, at last. "No, not at all, Detective. I beg your pardon. You were saying?"

"Oh, yeah. Jill seems to have gotten it into her head that I need a pet." Leon rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, frowning slightly. "It does get kinda boring living on your own sometimes. I dunno -- what do you think?"

D's heart caught in his throat. For some reason, that sounded very much like a cue.

His eyes went wide. And then things were slotting together, suddenly -- the strange creature, that bizarre story from the old book, the dire words from his dream. It was not perfect sense, it was not all quite clear, but it was enough to form the start of a picture he did not like in the slightest. He suddenly had little doubt as to why the snake had not revealed its real form to him, or what that form might be.

"Go," he whispered. "Go home."

Leon blinked. "What?"

"You must leave now, Detective."

"Huh? What's up? What'd I do?"

"Nothing, Detective." And now D was taking his arm, practically bundling him out through the door -- sure, if he could be sure of anything, that he had to get Leon out of the shop, and now. "I am a little unwell, that is all."

Leon was still looking at him in obvious bewilderment. "Was it something I said?"

"Please do not worry, Detective. Good night." And with a last, little push, Leon was out on the sidewalk, and the door closed. For a moment, D leaned against it, his eyes drifting shut, head spinning from the last few minutes and their sudden, awful clarity.

But it was obvious, in hindsight, so obvious. Of course Leon did not want a pet. That was only an idea Miss Jill had put into his head, and he would doubtless have changed his mind again by tomorrow. No. People did not go visiting at ten o'clock in the evening because they suddenly wanted to buy puppies. Of course, D had entertained the possibility -- the certainty, if he were to be honest about it -- that the reason Leon came to the shop so often was for his company, even if the detective did not know it himself, but he had not thought about it on any serious level until recently. Human beings were not to be taken seriously, after all. They were trivial, petty creatures -- and so often fickle. What they wanted one day was forgotten the next.

But still, the creatures that came to D's shop represented only a human's deepest desires, his greatest needs. Could it really mean -- ?

And then there was the matter of what he had just done. Never before had D failed to do his duty, hand out the contract, follow the script. He realised he had no idea what the consequences of doing so might be, aside from the certainty that they would not be pleasant. Were his grandfather here, he would surely be most displeased.

At that thought, D had to suppress another shiver. The room was still warm, though, he noticed -- suffocatingly so -- and quiet. The animals had gone silent before, but now, glancing round, D realised that none were visible. Even Tet-chan appeared to have gone into hiding, and Q-chan was nowhere to be seen.

A cold, heavy feeling started to form inside his chest. He took a cautious step forward, then another, casting around again for a sign of any one of his pets. Nothing. He was quite alone in the room, save for his own breathing -- and the awareness, again, of that not-quite-alien presence somewhere in the shop.

Whatever was about to happen, it appeared there would be no avoiding it now.

D reached the couch. He sat down, and folded his hands, and waited for the storm.

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Spread a little sunshine - R&R.