Leon has a secret that he can't let D know. What happens when D begins to unravel the secret? Can he save the stubborn detective from himself? Helping Leon could change things, and even change his views on the detective when a shady past is unearthed…
Disclaimer: I do not own Pet Shop of Horrors or any of its characters. All are property of Matsuri Akino. I make no profit from this fiction; it's purely for entertainment purposes.
Heart of Darkness
Author: Darksinokaru
Paring: D/Leon
Rating: M
Well! I hope you guys enjoy this completely re-written and re-vamped version!
Night 1
It was fully dark, some grand clock in a distant location striking an hour of one. Curled up onto a small single bed nestled against a window with the curtain drawn shut, a heavy breathing figure trembled. A silver blade glistened red with blood along the jagged edge before the trembling hand let the weapon fall to the floor with a clatter that resounded loudly throughout the sparse bedroom.
A small noise issued from a tall, thin blonde man. A man who once went by the name of Detective Leon Orcot with pride and dignity, but now he cringed with every look in the mirror and avoided letting his mind wonder in distrust. He wished he were someone else. Despite a small sliver of light peeking in from the curtain stubbornly, it was too dark to see, but a series of lacerated wounds inched up his inner thigh, the placement picked for the use of concealment. Leon un-bunched his boxer shorts carefully.
'Why? What is wrong with me? Why did I have to start feeling this way? If only I had never met him…' Leon's right eye watered before a small tear trickled down his cheek and seeped into the seam between his trembling lips. How could this happen? How could he ever fall for him? Be attracted… To a man… Not to mention it just had to be the Count. Why did it have to be D? There was no way… He'd ever accept any kind of relationship like that with Leon. Leon could imagine the horrified look on D's face if he knew.
'I'm such an idiot. He hates humans, remember Leon Orcot.' Leon berated spitefully, mutilating himself emotionally as he did physically. Leon lay down gingerly on his stomach, hissing when his wounded leg brushed against the sheets.
'He probably hates me too. After all, I'm not only human but I'm American, he seems to hate us more than anything... He's so polite to everyone, kind to everyone, even when he doesn't like them, there's no telling how he really feels about me. I mean; he gets pissed at me all the time… Not that I blame him. I'm a fucking idiot.' Leon smiled bitterly.
'Wish I could turn into a dog or something. He'd shower me with affection then.' Closing his eyes, Leon fought with himself to not see the Count's face in his mind. That beautiful porcelain skin, those two gorgeous eyes… Leon especially liked D's eyes, even if they were two different colors. In fact, being two different colors made him like them all the more. And they were so… Expressive, and were capable of being so warm and soft… Leon frowned when he suddenly remembered, that he'd never really seen D look at him that way. He couldn't seem to recall anything but sarcasm and irritation. Leon's laugh was horse and broken as he turned around onto his back and stared up at his ceiling which were absent of any nudy posters.
Leon's frown deepened. Still, those black painted lips he dreamed were soft and warm when he pressed his own to them. Orcot knew but wished he could escape the pain of this desire. He so very much wished… Leon had been trying to hard to stay away; he'd managed a good month, completely avoiding any situation that would put him into contact with D. He'd been given questioning looks and even had been asked about it, but Leon kept shrugging it off. He'd been able to play it off smoothly, or at least, he had thought so, until someone asked him about his pale skin, his sunken cheekbones, and the dark sacks under his eyes.
Leon rolled onto his side restlessly, wincing when he once again caused pain in his thigh.
'Can't sleep… Can't eat… I'm gonna die.'
The Count looked up from his playful banter in a room full of animals when the bells on his front door jingled in signal of a visitor. D's expression was one of surprise when he felt Leon's familiar energy and looked up to see that very detective. But any pleasantness D had felt came to an abrupt stop when he saw the haggard blonde walking into the pet shop.
"Hey D!" Leon smiled and gave a light wave before sitting down on one end of the couch, throwing his right arm lengthwise along the top of the couch, looking over to see his archrival. Leon looked at Totetsu, and did something surprising; he smiled at the small creature.
"Yo there little man. T-chan, right?" Totetsu looked over at D, bewildered, and evidently, so was D. D smiled awkwardly and sat down on the small couch opposite Leon.
"My dear detective, I'm surprised. It's been quite a while. Were you busy with work?" Orcot's face tensed and body went rigid but only for a second. Leon immediately relaxed.
"Yeah!" Leon sighed but grinned wider.
"I worked myself half to death on this serial killer case. Finally caught the bastard, but by then I was so messed up," Leon motioned along his body with his left hand. "That they forced me to take a vacation." D nodded.
"I can see that. You almost look like a skeleton." Leon nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. Sorry, I know I look bad, but I wanted to see you."
"And Chris?" Leon's eyes bugged a second and he sat up, barely concealing a wince.
"Yeah! Where is the little bugger?" D glowered and crossed his arms over his chest.
"You left him here without any word! A call! Or anything! You're so irresponsible!" Leon flinched, for some reason feeling more beaten under D's words than ever before.
"You're right." Leon muttered, instantly dissolving D's irritation.
"I'm gonna start makin' things right." Leon smiled.
"I've got my head all cleared up now. I even got rid of all the shit in my apartment, and that spare bedroom can actually be a bedroom now." D's eyes widened in complete shock and surprise.
"You… Cleaned out your apartment?" Leon nodded.
"Yeah. Not a speck of mold or dust." D was instantly suspicious.
"If you were working so hard on a such a case, how did you get the time to clean?" Leon winced, covering up internal panic before throwing out a complete lie.
"I was escorted home and told to rest… But I'm bad at sleeping under orders, so I just started cleaning." Leon sighed and leaned back more comfortably on the couch, hoping he looked convincing.
"I had hardly been there since the case got started, so it was absolutely hell when I returned, I had to clean it. But before I knew it, I was cleaning everything, and started thinking that it was about time to take Chris to live with me. Even got rid of the nudy posters." Leon explained in as nonchalant manner he could muster.
"I… See…" D watched Leon closely from behind friendly, warm eyes. Something was wrong; it just didn't make sense… And there was a disturbance about his chi that D hadn't caught onto right away. A very strong disturbance.
"Chris is playing right now." D smiled warmly.
"How about I make some tea?" Leon nodded.
"Sure." D stood up and moved to make the tea, but his eyes flashed at Leon from over his shoulder as Leon busied himself with a Chinese painting to redirect his eyes from D. Leon was in such poor health; D knew that Leon had to be lying. But why? What had happened over the month? D paused.
"My dear detective… Are you feeling alright?" D asked and again Leon went rigid in his seat, his expression was so obviously nervous D frowned deeply.
"Uh fine. Why do you ask?" Leon finally managed to stammer after a brief moment and that moment's hesitation made D wonder if that was the truth. Or just another lie. D turned and left to make the tea, brows knitting together in deeper worry. This was not like Orcot at all, D never remembered the man lying like this, and so obviously either.
D began to set about making the hot tea in a small room connected to the shop with no door to separate the two, simply a Chinese tapestry. His mind was swimming with questions and worries.
'I have no choice. Even if it is wrong of me…' D didn't like to force his way into minds, but he needed answers. D closed his eyes and concentrated on Leon's thoughts.
'Fuck… Why did I have to come here?' D paused when he heard an internal groan Leon hissed physically.
'I think I reopened them… They hurt like hell! Shit, there go a good pair of pants… I really hope the blood hasn't soaked into them yet.' D braced himself against the wall when a sudden influx of anguished memories and a tidal wave of deep, heavy emotions began to assault him. D moaned in woe as he pressed a hand to his mouth, feeling his eyes moisten. He very rarely tried to channel a person, with animals it was much easier, but humans were so tied to their emotions that they became incredibly intense and D was sometimes overwhelmed, like now.
D couldn't make out any of the images, or the chaotic symphony of depressing sounds that accompanied the darkness pervading the images. But one noise began to steadily over power the rest in volume. It was sobbing, and it continued to grow until it was eerily ringing in D's head until it completely drowned out any other sound. And D finally was able to grasp a concrete image, it beheld Leon, fully groan on his small bed in his lonesome apartment, curled into a ball with his knead between his knees. He hugged his legs tightly and sobbed, no matter how much they stuttered for his attempts to rein them in, they were what was dominating Leon's conscious and subconscious mind, as well as the source, but it was too garbled for D make it out.
D suddenly realized he was being pulled in too deep and found he was having trouble breaking free as well and fought to un-attach his mind from Leon's. The image of Leon jumped on the bed, sleep deprived, puffy red eyes jerked and stared right into D's mind in pure shock and horror. D hissed when he finally broke free from Leon and in the disorienting state after such a turbulent mind, D stumbled a little and knocked over the teapot, shattering it on the floor.
D's breath was labored as he stared down at the broken pot, robotically sinking down to pick it up in a slight daze. He paused and drew a trembling finger to his equally trembling lips. That had been extremely dangerous, especially since Leon's subconscious almost caught him.
'Or did.'
D gasped when he saw a pair of tennis shoes in front of him, and then up at Leon. The man quickly bent down in front of D's crouched form on the floor and helped ease the Chinese man away from the glass and too his feet.
"Are you okay? You didn't yourself did you?" D looked up, bewildered, into Leon's face and suddenly Leon turned away and released D's hands.
Blood entered D's nostrils, invading his senses, assaulting him with the unpleasant smell and he gazed down to where he instinctively knew Leon's self-inflicted wounds were. Leon shifted on his feet and D wordlessly looked at him again.
"Uh… D?" Leon tried nervously and D blinked rapidly for a brief second.
"Yes. I am…. Fine." Leon nodded and bent down to start carefully picking up the pieces.
"Leon." Leon looked up; it was a rarity when the Count used his name. "What is the matter? You've changed." Leon tensed under D's expressively worried face as he rose fully and shrugged.
"Don't know whatcha talkin' about." Leon replied casually, but he knew it was time to leave. The look on D's face told him that he must have let something slip. D was asking to many questions and he was starting to act strange. Leon turned, his legs carrying him quickly toward the door as his escape route.
"Orcot! Wait!" D called as he left the kitchen in a quick strut to catch the officer, but Leon made a break for it and ran, the bells on the door jiggling louder than normal when it closed and D paused in the middle of the shop.
"What the hell is wrong with the human?" Toutetsu growled as he flipped his red hair over his shoulder, being as irritated as usual when it came to Leon. D was silent as he turned and went back to think the day over while doing some chores, he would have to try and asses all the strange things that had just happened in little more than a half an hour.
'I don't think I've ever experienced such an emotionally disturbed being before.'
Hey there! I know, been gone a while! But I can actually do stuff here again. ((I was unable tot hanks to a horrid computer)), but now I've got one that works better. Anyways, I rewrote this whole thing ((If anyone who read the original is still around)), and I hope it's much better. ((I've developed a strong liking to be as realistic possible in character interaction and events.))
