Title: A Million Miles
Author: Anactoria
Rating: PG-13
Pairings or characters involved: Leon/D
Disclaimer: All I own is a psychotic cat and far too many CDs.
Leon doesn't believe it.
He doesn't believe it when he glances down a side-street and there, against the lights of Tokyo (alien language, neon colours like old friends) is a silhouette so familiar he feels like he's just woken up from a five-year dream.
He doesn't believe it when his vital organs start rebelling against him, his heart flip-flopping into his throat and his chest constricting until he can't breathe.
He doesn't believe it even as he starts running, feet slapping on the tarmac, shoving through crowds like you'd brush aside cobwebs. He sprints blindly, heart hammering in his chest, because he knows if he doesn't catch up, if he loses sight of that figure for just one second, he'll round the corner of the street and find no-one there.
He doesn't believe it even when he does catch up, even when he manages to reach out and grab a silk-covered shoulder, even when he sees a painted mouth open in shock and hears D gasp "D – detective?" like someone's punched him in the gut.
And Leon hasn't thought that far ahead, so he just nods dumbly. D stares at him a little longer before whispering "You – found me?" in a voice that's soft with puzzlement.
Leon's about to agree, but then he realises he can't think of the words, so he ends up standing there stupidly instead, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. He's not sure what he expected – a smirk, probably, and some snarky little comment about what a pity it is the LAPD has no jurisdiction in Japan, Detective – but it wasn't this. He'd have known what to do with the sarcasm: yell, rage, demand to know what the fuck D thought he was doing taking off like that. Right now, he has no clue.
And then he looks in D's eyes – the sidewalk's crowded, and they're standing close enough to tough – and what he sees in them isn't just from memory. There's shock, sure, and maybe even fear, but there's something else too. Something that Leon realises, with a tiny thrill of horror, he's never seen in D before. Hope.
Leon finds his voice again, then. It's kind of shaky, but he keeps it low and gentle. "Yeah. Yeah, I found you." And then he's grinning like a crazy person, and D doesn't quite smile back at him but almost does, and the lights blur overhead and Leon almost thinks he can feel the Earth spinning under them.
There are five years between them. Hell of a lot of questions, too. Could be a million miles. A million miles, or nothing at all.