Disaster

Okay, I return! Ran to Tokyo for about two weeks and school started up so this has been on the back burner.

Heads up? This chapter is LONG and I wrote it in FOUR sittings. Stuff like that is never smooth. Also, um, D and Leon were being butt-heads and it took me a long time to get them to go in the right direction. I dunno, I just think that if they ever did, you know, confess their undying love for each other and ask where the other has been all their life (as they both frolic through a field of daisies), I think it would take a LONG TIME and would be full of stupid conversations and beating around the bush. Hence the title of chapter four.

Also, in case some of you were thinking that D’s character is changing too much, well, I think he would be lying to himself too about Leon. I mean, who wouldn’t want to think that all they have is a simple “God, he’s hot” attraction instead of a “nope, never gonna let you go” passion.

I also think D is more human-like than he or anyone in his family likes to admit. So, there ya have it. If you notice anything I really need to fix, let me know. I never proof…

Again, I don’t own PetShop. I don’t own Leon. I don’t own Chris. I don’t own D, but it is some small constellation to know you don’t either. Is that bad?

Chapter Four: Disport

Even though Chris had been gone for most of the summer, the new apartment still had coloring books and matchbox cars on most of the floor space until just last weekend when Leon finally put everything with uncharacteristic care in Chris’s room. It was last weekend when his aunt had called and pitched Leon the idea of keeping Chris again. Chris seemed happy on the phone when they talked. He was probably lonely without any other kids to play with.

Leon locked the front door behind him and tossed the mail on the kitchen counter. He fell into routine immediately. He popped a “Hungry Man” dinner into the microwave, grabbed two beers out of the fridge, and in almost one seamless motion had discarded his jacket on the far side of the couch, turned on the TV, and fell onto the couch.

He opened the first beer and put the other on the table. In one swallow half the first can was empty. He eventually looked at the TV screen to find his usual crappy reception was worse then usual and the only channel that came in semi-clear was UPN. It was going to be a long night. As the theme music for “King of Queens” finished Leon finished the rest of his beer and opened the other can.

The evening passed slowly. Without bothering to wait for commercials Leon got his dinner from the microwave and washed it down with another beer. As another sitcom polluted his TV screen Leon considered lifting weights for awhile to burn some of his excess energy when someone rapped ridiculously softly, then after only seconds a second time with a little more enthusiasm.

D didn’t come over to Leon’s often, only a few times in the past when Leon and Chris were first settling in together. Even so, Leon knew as soon as he heard the first knock it was D. Leon cursed himself for darting to the door so quickly he had spilled some beer on his shirt. When Leon opened the door, neither man said anything for a moment. Both were assessing the situation, looking at the other trying to find a clue of what to do next. Leon’s eyes scanned D looking for some sign of distress or other explanation as to why D would come to his apartment, which was strange enough, and at that hour. He noted that D’s clothes seemed fine, his face looked hesitant or anxious but otherwise normal, and for some reason D was carrying a large sack of what smelt like Chinese food that was uncomfortably heavy. D looked at Leon’s beer stain, untucked shirt, disheveled hair, and then looked passed him to the TV, crushed beer cans, and empty dinner tray.

D softly cleared his throat. “Mm, good evening. I hope I didn’t interrupt you.”

“No, nah. Uh,” Leon opened the door wider and stepped out of the way a bit. “here, let me take that. Come in, I guess.”

D mentally chided himself for expecting something more from Leon than an awkward “I guess you can come in” attitude. “Thank you very much. A client of mine owns a restaurant and stopped by this evening.” Instantly D regretted rushing right into his ludicrous lie. Even if a client did bring food for D, which had happened before, they always stayed and ate with him. There really was no reason, even if they dropped off a meal and left, for D to come across town at night with it. A quick glance at Leon told D that Leon didn’t seem to really accept that story. “He wanted to join me to discuss how his pet, a Quaker parrot named Jojo, was adjusting to life with him but he got called home just after arriving. His wife was sick.” D smiled like this sort of nonsense happened all the time. “There is simply too much for me to eat and these beans he gave us do not reheat well.” D passed by Leon into the living room area, hovering by the dinner tray. “ah, but you’ve already eaten. I suppose I should have called you first, to have seen what your plans were.”

D stopped there. He was so uncomfortable he was rambling. Leon shifted the bag in his hand. “No, no need to call. I was thinking about making another TV dinner anyway. I had to skip lunch today so, you know. Uh, just move shit out of your way and uh, I’ll make space on the table.” Leon scooped up four empty beer cans and the food tray and returned with knives, forks, spoons, and plates from the kitchen. He held up the silverware, maybe apologizing for not having chopsticks he perhaps assumed D would have preferred, and sat on a chair near where D resided on the couch.

“Skipped lunch?” D asked, trying to draw some sort of conversation from Leon.

“Yeah, trying to finish up a couple of cases Jill and I were working on last week.”

“Anything I might be familiar with?” D pushed. The bag of food between them was still tied shut.

“Uh, I dunno. Maybe. Nothing special. Working on a case right now where tenants in some apartments in Russian Town don’t have hot water or decent roofing. Poor guys were so scared of getting deported almost no one wanted to complain, and one lady had a baby with phenomena but thought that if she took him to a doctor he’d be refused medical treatment ‘cause she is an illegal.” Leon untied the bag and began unloading its contents. “I had to drive her to the hospital myself to get her to go and ended up paying for the kids prescriptions since the husband is out of the picture.”

Leon didn’t make eye contact with D the entire time, prattling on without much thought. D sat there looking politely interested but was immensely pleased. Without hesitation or thought, it was so like Leon to just take action and do whatever he perceived the right thing to be. For a moment D wondered what else Leon could have for a career that would suit his as well as the work he did as a detective.

“What brought you to the case in the first place?”

“Ah, well, the owner of those builds has a reputation of being a slum-lord and another guy in the department asked if Jill and I would check out the apartments for him. After that we just ended up adopting the case.” Leon scooped some mixed vegetables on his plate and motioned if D wanted some as well. D nodded once and extended his plate. “Anyway, Jill and I were finishing up some paperwork. Gonna make an early day of it tomorrow too.” A pause. “So, sell anything I am going to be familiar with?”

D enjoyed the harmless jab. “Perhaps.” D put the plate down. He wasn’t hungry before and was relishing in this unusual, unexpected, and completely welcomed dialogue exchange. Part of him had prepared himself to have been told to leave the moment he arrive. After being as close to welcomed in as Leon would ever muster, everything else just felt like stolen time. He noticed Leon had barely touched his meal as well. “Actually business has slowed down a little, which is welcomed after remaining busy for so long.”

With the topic of their jobs exsaughted and neither of them showing any real interest in eating D wondered if he should depart now while things were pleasant, perhaps creating opportunities to let things develop slowly. as iff the past few years haven’t been slow enough? Without thinking it through, D inquired about Chris.

“Oh, yeah, he’s with our aunt. He, uh, went out to spend the summer there. You know, cousins back there an all. Plus with him not in school he really needs someone fulltime to watch him and all.” Leon ended it there, not directly lying but by focusing so much on summer the situation sounded more temporary than he suspected it was.

“That’s good. When does school resume? Some of the animals miss his company.”

“Uh, you know, I don’t remember the exact date. Got a letter and some forms from his school recently though. Gotta take care of that at some point… thirsty?” Leon stood up. “Uh, all I have is beer, water, and some orange juice that might have expired before Chris left for the summer.”

“Water, please.”

Leon acknowledged his replay with a gesture and disappeared into the kitchen. D took the opportunity to recollect his thoughts and consider where he wanted things to go and how to push Leon in the right direction. It was moments like tonight, simple exchanges of dialogue, which forced D to accept that his feelings perhaps for Leon might run deeper than lust after all. Every so often he found Leon simply adorable and tried to image circumstances must more meaningful that momentary physical pleasures. For a moment D dismissed the precise circumstances that led him to where he was and enjoyed just sitting casually in an apartment having dinner with Leon who was bringing him a glass of water looking at a picture Chris had drawn that was tacked to the wall above the TV.

D stood up to look at the drawing more closely. Chris had given him a similar picture, a drawing of Chris, Leon, Pon-chan, and himself, but this one was different because Pon-chan was absent. When D turned around Leon was standing near the couch looking more than slightly uncomfortable.

D stepped back from the picture slightly. “Chris is talented. Most children his age don’t worry about dimension and shadows.”

“Yeah, he just started getting more and more into art. Not much else he can do when I have to sneak him to the station with me or here at the apartment,” Leon replied. “Here’s your water.”

D reached for the glass, not touching Leon’s outstretched hand. “Thank you.”

D held the glass in silence, Leon staring at him. “What really brought you here tonight?”

A smirk. “Unusually perceptive, Detective.”

“Can the bullshit. Something is obviously on your mind. Say what you need to say and…”

“..and?” D replied, probing.

Leon sat down on the couch. “I don’t know.” He rubbed his eyes with his fingertips, massaging the stress and tension that was building there.

D still stood before Leon waiting for him to continue.

Leon looked up at D, the exhaustion in his face apparent to D now. “Look, I don’t know what you think is happening here but I don’t want any of it, okay? I’m not queer or anything. I just want…”
There it was. The rejection D had been waiting for. Now that he heard Leon say it he felt somehow less burdened. “What do you want?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

D smirked again and moved closer to Leon, making his way to the couch. “No, really, what do you want?” D’s voice was deeper, slower, every word came out with precision and intention.

It was like everything else in the room faded into the background. “I don’t know what I want. I want Chris to come back here but he is better off with our aunt. I want a job that will let me spend time with him, like he needs.” D’s attention waved for a moment, hearing that Chris was possibly living with the aunt for good, something he was shocked Leon had kept from him. Leon kept talking however. “And you. What the hell am I supposed to think of you?”

D’s attention retained sharp focus. “What do you mean, Detective?”

“’Detective,’” Leon said under his breath before continuing on. “You might not be selling drugs or killing people directly but you can’t lie to me that you weren’t involved with all those peoples’ deaths. I mean, you are a criminal but I haven’t even tried to pursue your case in months. What kind of detective am I? And…”

D sat still, his hands folded neatly, uncommittingly, in his lap.

“And what the fuck do you want from me? Do you get some sort of sick jollies doing this? You come to my apartment, you watch my kid brother, every other case I take on I can trace back to you.”

It was as close to a confession as D thought he would get from Leon. D’s face never changed as he leaned into Leon, drew Leon’s face toward his own, his nails insistent on Leon’s cheek, and kissed him, softly at first in case he had misunderstood, but when Leon didn’t resist or snap back appalled, D put his other hand against Leon’s chest to support his weight as he lean in deeper. At some point in the kiss D felt Leon grabbing him from around the torso while his other hand pressed against the back of D’s head, pushing him into him further. They both held onto each other until they broke the kiss when their breath ran out.

D was nearly ecstatic, though he hid it well. A small smile, one could only see it in certain light from the right angle, appeared on his face. Leon, on the other hand, was coming into the realization he had just kissed a man. D moved quick, pulling Leon into another embrace, this time moving his mouth over Leon’s possessively. Leon’s eyes remained open, looking at D as best he could from the close proximity.

‘It wasn’t too late,’ a part of his mind fired off. He could blame this on the stress of work and the issue with Chris if he stopped now. D pulled out from the kiss, moving back just enough for both men to look each other in the eye. D’s two tone eyes were fascinating to Leon for some reason. He had always thought one was yellow and the other was purple but at this distance he noticed, for some reason the exact shade.

“One’s golden and the other is plum.” Leon said, aloud to his surprise. D maintained his distance. He had initiated both kisses. Leon could almost hear D’s rationale in his head by staring at his eyes. If he wanted this, he had to say so. D didn’t want him to dismiss this or blame him in the future. Leon, hearing countless homosexual slurs and Bible school lessons in his head, pulled D into him again.

TBC.

Bleck! What an awkward chapter! I just could NOT get these boys to get it together. I know people usually prefer to see D as a more stoic, less wishy-washy guy, but I think his whole “I am Count D, more cool than thou” thing must be an exhausting act. I mean, he can be kinda of silly and emotional. So, there is my defense of D’s character. I think the only thing that has kept Leon from jumping D’s bones is a combination of “but you’re the BAD GUY!!!” and probably taught homosexual prejudice. If D can just get Leon to look past all that outside interference…