It wasn't a dream any more. The sheets felt real. The obsidian hair tickling his chin was real. The ache in his limbs and the satisfying lack of a hard on was also real. D was real, and he was sleeping tucked into his side.

Leon sat up gently to stretch out his shoulders. He realized he hadn't had a nightmare, the first time in quite a few months. Instead, he had relived their relatively quick, but very enjoyable night together. There had been something about a circus and a singing elephant as well, but that wasn't really the important bit.

The count looked peaceful, strangely enough. While Leon had pegged him as only having a few different faces, none of them included the look he was wearing. His brows weren't creased, his mouth resting in a very neutral, soft, kissable state.

He felt a little stupid thinking it, but it was true. The Count looked happy, and Leon only hoped he was feeling as satisfied as he felt.

He inched back slowly, making sure D stayed tucked up against his thigh, and rested against the large headboard. He was trying to figure out what he was feeling. The past few weeks felt like a bit of a mess inside his brain, and it was one he wanted to clean desperately. He still felt as if D was somehow trying to acquire him; that nervous tingle hadn't been vaporized by the other tingles he had felt the night prior. But it was softer, less of a threat. Not because they had slept together, but the way in which D had explained how he felt. The words that had come out of his mouth had sounded sincere, so whether or not Leon could trust them was a different situation entirely.

Stroking the soft hair that had plagued his dreams for so many nights, Leon sighed out of his nose. Exactly what he was going to end up as he wasn't quite sure. Boyfriend didn't sound right, partner had a cold feel to it because of work, and lover just sounded ridiculous. And he definitely didn't want to end up as a pet, or worse, pet food. That thought didn't make any sense, or maybe he didn't want to think about it. He figured he had more than a night to mull it over, as he didn't plan on leaving the count any time soon, so he pushed it away as a silly notion.

Besides, his head was filled with other thoughts.

Thinking about how soft D had been, how easy it was to make him moan and squirm, got Leon hard in less than an instant. Putting a hand over his erection, he tried to push it down to try and get rid of it, but that really didn't help.

The count was still sleeping, and all Leon wanted to do was fuck his brains out. He had never felt more stirred up in his life, and that included the one time he got to bang a hot, redheaded waitress behind the diner she worked at. Voyeurism wasn't his scene, but the count knew how to make his pulse jump.

He slid down again so that D was nestled into his chest, and just held him, hoping the sense of peace and affection that washed over him would calm his raging sex drive. Unfortunately (though Leon would have bet the count freaking planned it) D took that time to nuzzle up to him and heaved a tiny, dreamy little sigh.

His hands suddenly had a mind of their own. As Leon watched they near expertly undid the robe from the count, allowing his pale, radiant skin to slip into view. Unable to resist, Leon wiggled down even further and began to place small kisses around D's navel. The count had deliciously cool skin even after a full night's sleep, and it was impossibly smooth against his lips. He pressed his cheek against the other man's stomach, listening to the quiet pulse of his blood, wondering if he was tired again, or just content. Because suddenly he didn't have the urge to do any sort of lascivious act to the count. He had never had his libido suppressed just by feeling the other person's skin before. A definite improvement of getting over excited though. That had been one of his more embarrassing sexual encounters, so he was glad he had satisfied D.

"What on earth are you doing down there, Leon?"

And there it was again. Erect just at the sound of the sultry, gravelly undertone of the man's otherwise smooth as silk voice, Leon raised his head.

D was gazing down at him with nothing short of a morning after grin. Those perfect lips were tipped up in the way that Leon had often come to distrust, though in this case it was what made him even harder. He didn't feel like prey, especially since he was inches away from being in control.

"Just making sure you have a pleasant wake up call," Leon chuckled. He kissed a little lower, eliciting a little, amused noise from the man being kissed.

"My dear Leon, you don't have to worry about that. I can make us some breakfast if you'd-oh!"

Leon tried not to laugh with D's suddenly hardened cock in his mouth. "Let's shake things up and do dessert before breakfast," he murmured, adding a little lick for effect.

"As if I could ever say no to something sweet." The huff in his voice was everything Leon wanted to hear.

The more he kissed, licked, and tugged, the more the count cried out and gasped for breath. The thoughts running through his mind were all of D, and how badly he had waited for this situation even if he had never figured it out. And when D came right down his throat, he gulped it down without thinking.

Leon never thought about being with a man, but it wasn't something that bothered him if it meant he could make D quiver and moan his name.

He leaned over D, pushing the hair out of his face gently. "I'll take you up on that breakfast now if you're still offering."

"I'd really like to shower first if you don't mind," D said, running a nail down the bridge of his nose.

"You can do whatever you'd like if you keep using those nails of yours." They made him incredibly hard, very quickly. So his libido wasn't exactly as tamped down as he thought, but hell, he didn't think he could be blamed.

"Oh my. Well I'm not one to disappoint." Those nails were abruptly other places that made Leon moan and writhe. He was glad he had forgotten to put on pants again.

The count sure knew what he was doing. He had the swiftest orgasm of his life when it came down to the nails, the mouth, and the tongue pleasuring him. It left him on his back, huffing for breath.

"And to you my dear detective, I wish a good morning." The smile on his face as he licked his lips was sweeter than any cake he could serve.

Leon merely moaned as an answer, his eyes closed.

"I'm going to go take that shower now if you don't have any objections."

'None. Not a freaking one."

D chuckled and Leon felt him get off the bed, and then heard a door close with a small click.

With a small huff of breath he got up, even though he wanted nothing more than to stay all day with the count. He did have to go to work. He pulled on his clothes once he had located them all, and then walked around the room, looking at all the items D had. None of it made sense to him, but the stuff probably meant a lot to D. A lot of it looked foreign, and some of it downright stupid, but he'd never say that out loud.

He wondered what sort of life the count led before coming to America. Leon figured with some of the stuff he had in his room, he must have been around the world a few times. Plus there were the other rooms in the shop that were fully furnished. There was no way he could have gotten all of it from America.

It was a little funny to think about, but he didn't really want to slap handcuffs on the count anymore, even though he knew weird shit was going down in his pet shop. He'd have to still do his duty as a cop and watch for anything that might endanger children, but other than that, D seemed to spread bits of mysterious joy in the dismal city, and Leon couldn't arrest him for that.

One of the tables had a few different statues on it. They looked poorly made, and were painted in the most garish of colors. Some of the faces were lopsided, and none of them looked exactly human. It made him laugh that the count would keep such silly looking statues in his high end room.

He reached out to touch one that looked like a large scorpion, thought better of it, and went and put the rest of his clothes on.

Leon really didn't want to get on D's bad side by breaking something that was sent to him by his weird ass father or some other family member traveling around the world. For once, he was content to keep his hands to himself.

D stepped out of the bath at that point. He was wearing a beautiful robe, black with umber lining, and white flowers trailing across his chest. They spiraled around his cuffs and down the left side, and suddenly Leon didn't want to keep his hands to himself any more.

He let his eyes wander, taking the liberty he figured he had to view D at his leisure. D hung his head and sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"I know I don't have to ask, but I feel like I should. Especially because your eyes look like they're about to pop out. So," D did a little pirouette. "How do I look?"

"Amazing as always, D. Killer." He coughed and shook his head. Was killer really an adjective he wanted to use to describe him? "Uh, I mean, well, you look great."

The count laughed. "From you I'll take that as the highest sort of compliment. Come now, how about some breakfast?"

"Sounds good, I'm starved."

D moved past him and gave him a little smile."I know how that feels," he said, walking down the stairs.

Somehow Leon didn't think he was talking about food.


"Do you have to go into work today?" D asked him as he set a tea set down on the table. The cake on the tray looked interesting. D caught his gaze and explained, "I know you don't like terribly sweet items, and that you were very interested in that tapioca we had a while back. This is a poppy seed cake that's very popular in Germany, and it can be paired with Earl Grey or Darjeeling, which I also remembered you like. It's flavor is very mellow."

"You sure are thoughtful."

"I do what I can to please, especially towards my dear detective."

Leon didn't respond. He was busy thinking about work, and figuring out what Amara would be up to. No doubt making trouble since the day before. It was probably rude of him, but he really couldn't help it. He was worried.

"So, did you have to go to work today then?"

"Yeah, I'm sure that bitch has caused a stink abut my name, and that's fine. It's what the chief will say that has me worried."

"The chief? Not the young lady that you shared affections with?"

"Christ, I told you D, there was nothing between us. It was to get her off my back."

"To get her off your back, you got her onto her own? An interesting strategy, Leon."

Leon scoffed and shoved another bite of the cake into his mouth. It was a great start to the day, not too sweet, and it didn't make him crave a cigarette like most sugary foods did. "Don't say it like that, you make me sound like some sort of damn man whore."

"Well now, I couldn't say that if you weren't serious about her but then again I can't be sure."

"Are you fucking serious?" Leon rose to his feet, outraged. "You can't be. After last night? This morning? And you still don't know how I feel about you?"

D looked taken aback. He had sat on the couch with a cup of tea in hand, but he left it half raised to his mouth. "I, well that's not entirely what I meant either." He paused to then take a sip of the tea. "I do know how you feel, but it's simply physical at this point. Don't forget, we were apart for quite some time due to the conflicting emotions that tend to crop up."

"Jesus D, no," Leon moaned, slumping back down on the couch. "Don't start this again. You're going to give me backlash. Can't you just accept that I...uh. I..."

D raised an eyebrow, watching him struggle with his words. "You what, Leon?"

Leon looked down at his half eaten slice of cake, his cold tea, and the ferret that was squirming over his foot. "All these pets, can't really feel comfortable here," he mumbled, lifting up the happily squeaking thing and setting it on the couch. It skittered and darted at his leg, then back again. He patted it, the tiniest smile on his face, and stood up.

"Let's do it this way then. I have to get to work or the boss will have my ass. But do you want to go have dinner with me or something tonight? That way we can, I don't know, get to know each other and maybe..." He didn't really know how to say what he wanted to say. "Maybe I can show you what I feel."

He sounded like an idiot. He felt like an idiot, too. Standing there, with pets starting to wake up around them and crawl through the living space, curiously looking at the two of them; he felt like he was under trial. And with D giving him an indifferent look with his blank eyes, he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

The craving for a cigarette struck his hands. The familiar motion of hand to mouth would have made him feel more comfortable under the count's scrutiny. But he didn't have any on him, and he didn't want to stoop to that. He wanted to feel comfortable with the count, and that was honestly what he was hoping to achieve by getting to know him more.

The count put his tea cup down and watched the ferret for a moment. It had jumped off the couch, rolled into a few others who had been hiding under the table, and then all of them ran off.

"I don't know if I'm in the mood to go out for dinner tonight," D said. "But why don't we do something in is what I was going to say so you don't need to pout," he added as Leon's mouth did a little twitch.

"Well only if you're up for it you know," Leon grumbled. Now he felt like a bit of a jerk. More so than usual, anyways.

"I'm sure I'll be up for a few things later." The count set his tea cup down and stood. He walked over to Leon and ran one finger down the his button up shirt, clicking the nail on each button, and then trailing it over his belt and sudden bulge. "If you'd be so kind as to choose what you would like me to cook, I'm sure I can please you with a few of my more intricate recipes."

"Uh, yeah sure. I'll pick up something at the store on my way over," he stammered.

"That would be lovely. I'll look for you around eight then?"

"I'll be here."

Leon walked up the stairs with a mixture of feelings roiling inside of him. The ecstatic feeling of achieving his dream, having the count treat him as an actual human instead of a mongrel, and then the dismal trepidation he felt about going to work.

He just knew he'd be getting into trouble for something with Amara being there. She wasn't the kind of woman to let him walk away from whatever the hell it was they had been doing easily. In the few weeks she had been his partner, she had been nothing but difficult, trying to constantly get him to bed, and had stopped at nothing to cause trouble for him. She was sweet as a pie with a golden crust, but the fruit was rotten.

The walk to the station was filled with fretting and worry, which of course made it seem longer, which of course pissed him off. Why should he be the one to worry? She was the crazy psycho. The chief should end up believing him, but he wouldn't That wasn't how his luck worked.

He had no idea what the chief was going to do or say when Amara told him about their little tiff. Shit, if it came out that they had slept together, Leon bet every used lotto ticket in his car he'd be fired.

They had stuck together because the higher ups wanted to keep an eye on their precinct. It hadn't been doing too well, and they had taken to dispatching senior agents to keep an eye on struggling cops. The chief had warned him against screwing up, because he'd not only be losing face himself, he'd be making their entire department look like crap. And he wasn't the most thoughtful of guys, but he did care about everyone.

Enough so that during their weeks of partnership, he strove to be the best, getting his papers filed on time, not rushing into situations hot headed, and he found he actually liked it. People had taken notice that he wasn't as brazen as normal, and that it was refreshing.

Not that he took offense to being called one of the more sloppier cops on the force, he did take offense to being assigned Amara.

She wasn't a senior agent, or he was a giant rabid bunny.

The long walk was suddenly over. With a sigh of defeat, or maybe just resignation at his current situation, he walked into the precinct, hoping the chief would go lenient on him.

Or at least let him pack up the stuff he had in his desk before throwing him out on his ass.


Where am I? It's dark, and cold, and I've been forced to continue updating. I'm so scared...but mostly hungry. Aiight, so I'm sitting in my living room and I'm hungry because I haven't eaten dinner yet. It's not actually dark, and it's not actually cold. Aaaaand I wouldn't say I'm being forced to update, I'd just like to after a very, very, very, very long time. Please to forgive, I've been living a fabulous life that, sadly, writer's blocked me so hard I thought it was fatal. However it wasn't! So I continue on, and hope that all y'all will still enjoy this story. There is plenty more to come. Huehuehue.

~M