Pet Shop Of Horrors Fan Fiction ❯ Tuatha de D ❯ chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Archived: PSoH Fanfiction Group

Chapter 2/?

Chapter finished: 01/24/05

Rating: PG 13 (subject to change if story progresses)

Disclaimer: still stands

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     Every night, the dreams came. For weeks now, he had spent every spare minute trying to research a way to help his brother. When he did rest, the rest was troubled by riddles, and mocking red eyes. Vaguely he could recall flashes of gold, and creamy white arms held open. He could never quite remember what the dreams were about though. And he couldn’t waste the effort to try and remember. He had more important matters to focus on. There was no way he was going to let it happen.

     Not again.

     Not to Chris.

     “Yo D,” Leon plopped down on the elegant couch with complete disregard for its age or worth, letting his head fall back against the red velvet cushions. Hopefully the Satan possessed demonic goat thing of the Count’s wouldn’t make an appearance today; he was way too drained to deal with it.

     Purple lips thinned slightly in annoyance at the treatment of his possession until mismatching eyes really looked at the human who had taken up occupancy on the couch. Leon had not been visiting the shop very much at all of late, and when he did it was never for very long.

     Exhaustion was etched into the younger man’s features, strain showing in the set of his mouth and in the circles under his eyes. The young American hadn’t been dropping in very much of late, and whatever had been keeping him away was obviously wearing him out. Gone was the fire that crackled in the air around him when he stopped by to accuse the Count of some new crime. In fact all signs of his dear detective’s passionate energy seemed to be buried under some unnamed weight. The same weight that was causing his broad shoulders to sag as if in defeat.

     The beautiful Asian man realized that he had not truly concerned himself with what could possibly have kept the other man away so much. In fact he wondered if he had driven the detective even farther away by expressing his displeasure at his ‘not taking proper responsibility for his own brother’ the last time he had paid a visit to the petshop. Something was troubling his golden lion, and Leon had brushed aside all inquiries as to what it was. And what was worse was the awareness that D had allowed it.

     Delicate black brows drew together in consternation at the realization.

     “Oh yeah.” A blue eye cracked open in annoyance when a fumbling hand couldn’t withdraw a small square from the denim jacket pocket. Finally he managed to yank loose the now battered box of chocolates and toss them in the slender man’s general direction. The eye slid closed, satisfied that he had accomplished his goal.

     “Why Detective! How considerate of you!” But the blonde wasn’t looking, so he dropped his gleeful act. Not that he wasn’t appreciative of the gift, he merely understood the effort of expressing his appreciation would obviously be wasted.

     Black hair fanned forward to shield the ivory face while the kami studied his human ‘pet’ more carefully. The pet shop owner would find out what was bothering the police officer. But it was obvious the blonde was too tired to fight him right now.

     Yes. He tapped his long pink fingernails lightly against the arm of the chair he reclined in, consideringly.

     The Count would find out what was wrong and deal with it accordingly. After all, dealing with humans and animals was his specialty. This time his lips curved just the slightest bit and his attention became completely focused on the unsuspecting human.

     Poor, poor soul.

     The sweet smell of incense subtly increased as white clouds of it gently billowed in under the doors. Pale wisps wrapped themselves around the ankles of the resting detective. Ever so slowly the exotic smelling smoke crept higher, caressing the muscular thighs hugged by form fitting denim and over the wrinkled band shirt. Finally the soft smoke ghosted against moist lips, teasingly lingering over the soft flesh there. Mismatching eyes carefully traced the path of coiling mist with an almost reverent longing. D felt almost silly that he should feel envious of something as empty of life as incense smoke.

     Stupid human. Stupid, belligerent, devoted, beautiful human. D closed his eyes with a resigned sigh. He opened them again to glare at the more than slightly offensive creature that had unknowingly captured his attention. This was not a new development; there was no point in getting upset over his emotions on the matter, or resenting the rather ignorant cause.

     Ok…very ignorant cause.

     Then the incense blocked his own sight of the nearly drooling man sprawled across his favorite settee. With a deep breath the slender Asian man allowed his head to fall back, his body instinctively relaxing into the chair’s embrace.

     When the mist cleared Count D stared in wonder at the sight that greeted his eyes. The comparatively young nature god found himself standing in a darkened forest. Moss that clung to the branches of the crooked branches brushed against the material of his silk cheongsam. The rich smell of soft loam filled the air, mingling with the scent of the trees. The sky beyond the tangled limbs above was swiftly darkening, and he could see stars just beginning to come forth in the dusky sky.

     How curious that the detective should dream of a forest.

     D tried to think back on all previous conversations with Leon but he could remember nothing that indicated that his young friend had at any time lived anywhere outside of the city. In fact D recalled that Leon had mentioned in passing that he disliked camping because the absence of other people was too ‘weird’.

     He found it very strange that the young man would dream of such a natural place.

     Perhaps it was his own influence that was causing Leon to have dreams set in a forest environment. D’s responding smirk was just the slightest bit malicious when the thought occurred to him. He knew that his teasing and mysterious airs drove the other man into fits, but it was oddly pleasing to think that he could have even this extra little bit of control over the blonde. Especially since he knew how uncomfortable the human seemed in such places.

     D knew his pleasure was more than slightly petty of him, but since it wasn’t a common indulgence he felt it was justified; if only this once. He also figured any lesson to be had from the dreamscape would be lost on the taller man, so at least one of them was getting something from Leon’s neurosis toward nature. Was that so bad?

     Besides, it really did serve the uncultured clout right.

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     ~You̵ 7;re still not going to get on, are you?~

     ‘No.’

& nbsp;    ~Must you be so stubborn?~

     ‘Haven’t we been over this before?’

     ~Yes. But that still doesn’t negate the fact that you’re being an ass.~

     ‘Oh that’s rich, coming from a species confused horse-goat!’

     ~You’re the one who doesn’t know what I am. How does that make me the confused one?~

     ‘I don’t think I have to answer that.’

     ~Because you know if you tried, you’d sound even more like an ass?~

     ‘I know I don’t have to answer that.’

     ~Would you please just get on? This is getting us no where.~

     ‘No.’

     ~Why are you being difficult?~

     ‘Why are you offering me rides all the time?’

     ~You don’t want a ride?~

     ‘No I don’t want a damn ride!’

     ~Then what do you want?~

     ‘Oh here we fucking go again.’

     ~What is it you desire?~

     ‘I desire for you to leave me the fuck alone already!’

     ‘Are you listening to me?! Where the hell are you? Wait… where am I?’

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     ̶ 0;Wait… where am I?”

     “An informed question Detective. I assumed that you would have the answer.”

     Leon Orcot whirled around to face the musical voice that was so familiar to his ears.

     “D! What are you doing here?! I should have known you were behind all this! That freaky horse-goat thing is probably one of your psycho animals! Let me guess if I ever got on it would throw me off and break my neck, right?”

     “Detective, what are you talking about? I have no ‘horse-goats’ in my shop. In fact the only ‘goat’ I own would be Tet-chan; and he is in fact related more closely to a sheep than a goat.”

     “Hah! That’s what you want me to believe!” the blonde waved his arms in agitation.

     “Detective whenever have I lied to you before? Tet-chan really is a relative of the sheep,” the elegant Chinese man glided forward, his glittering, mismatching eyes, staring curiously around at the sudden lack of scenery. They now stood facing each other on a field of darkness. Gone were the trees with the smell of fresh earth, and no longer was there the sound of running water in the distance. Leon didn’t even appear to notice the absence.

     “I heard you talking to yourself, and came to explore. Is everything alright?”

     “Talking to myself? I wasn’t talking to myself.” A blue eye began to twitch. “He was right here a few seconds ago!”

     “Who was?” the Count laced his long fingers together within the concealing folds of his sleeves.

     “He was! That damn horse-goat that you claim not to be in league with!”

     “My dear detective, I am in league with no one. In point of fact, this is your reality, not mine. Thus there is nothing I can do to directly influence you or the events taking place here.”

     “What??”

  ;    “Consider this dream a realm of sorts. Yours. I have no control over things that occur here, and am merely a spectator. That makes any ‘horse-goat’ creatures either products of your own mind, or possibly a ‘guest’, as I am. As your ‘guest’ I cannot force you to do anything here; I only have the power to observe or try and coax you to make decisions that I feel would be beneficial.”

     “Beneficial to who?” Leon asked the man staring at him with an infinite patience. The smug bastard.

     “Oh that would depend.”

     “On?”

      “One’s perspective I suppose. Also on the events occurring around us. Unfortunately your mind seems quite empty at the moment and there is nothing for me to work with.” He smiled at the sputtering outrage that followed his comment, allowing his hair to swish across his face so as to hide his amusement from enraging the entertaining human further. Before his golden lion could launch one of his verbal attacks, the kami smoothly cut him off.

     “Tell me about this… horse-goat of yours. Perhaps I can help you figure out what he is?”

     “I don’t want to talk about it!” Leon snapped.

     “Very well,” the Count replied in a completely unruffled voice, “what would you like to talk about?”

     “Not that!”

     “Why must you be so difficult Detective?” this was accompanied by an almost imperceptible sigh from the effeminate man.

     “You know he accused me of the exact same thing.”

     “Well then he obviously knows what he’s talking about. Perhaps you should pay attention to him.”

     “That’s it! Riddle time with weird shifty animals and China-men in dresses is now officially over! If this is my ‘dream’ then I don’t want to deal with this. I’m going to sleep now.”

     “You are asleep.”

     “Yep, and if I can get some sleep right now then maybe I’ll actually be rested by the time I wake up.” The young officer was sitting down, even as he spoke.

     “If it comforts you to think so, Mr. Detective,” was the kami’s encouraging response.

     The blonde took off his shirt and scrunched it up under his head in a pillow of sorts. D was torn between wondering if he should be upset that the human felt that he could just ignore his presence, or if he should settle for being merely appreciative of the view provided. Before he could quite decide electric blue eyes snapped open, and Leon lurched back into a sitting position.

     “Wait a minute! If this is my dream what the hell are you doing here?!”

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And so it begins. ^^ Ok, have a vague idea of where I'm heading with this, but suggestions or flames are completely welcome. Sorry this chapter was too light, it wouldn't be as serious as I tried to make it. ~_~