Hooray, I'm back! And that means, another chapter is here, too…

Guys, I have a plea: please be so kind and say "thank you" to my lil'bro in any review you might want to leave. Because really, it was very, very nice of him to upload the eighth chapter, considering the fact he doesn't even like this story (nothing to do with PSoH, though, he just doesn't like the pairing. Honestly, boys are strange!).

And, if you do not mind, I will stop answering reviews now until the story is finished, because anything I would write would spill something, and none of us wants to ruin the surprise, now, do we? So just let me say THANK YOU for the reviews. One of the first things when I arrived home was looking if I got any, and I was so happy when I saw them. Really, really thank you all!

Well then, go on and have fun :-) So long, Enaty

Threatening

A kiss. A kiss was placed on his mouth, light and almost shy. Another followed close, another light peck, just barely brushing his mouth with soft, tender lips.

Leon didn't dare open his eyes, afraid he might cause the kissing one to stop. He willed his body to relax, though he could feel it responding to those gentle touches. He didn't think this would be good.

But damn, why had D's lips to feel so soft? And why did he have to murmur silent little Chinese phrases into Leon's ear between the kisses, phrases the blonde didn't understand, but that he got the meaning of anyway? And why was D's body snuggled comfortably along Leon's body, half-lying on him and letting him feel how fragile that slim body was, and how pliable against his own?

This was just not fair. Leon knew that D would be very taken aback if he tried to do something now, he just knew it. Fucking a hallucination and fucking a real, living human was a whole different kettle of fish.

Besides, Leon himself felt too clumsy, too, to have a try at it. He didn't know anything about sleeping with a guy and he was pretty sure if he got started with D, retreating would be very difficult. Gods, his whole body yearned for the feel of this slender, delicate figure against it! And of course right now his mind provided him again with the image of said body in the pool of a hot fountain, the memory of the wet skin against his own, the weight on his lap…

Life was just not fair.

A quiet knock on the door saved him further torments. D let go of him and left the bed, walking to the door with bare feet, as Leon discerned from a careful glance through his lashes. He breathed a silent sigh of relief. The kami opened a crack and then whispered with whoever was standing in front of it. The blonde could pretty much guess who it would be and decided now would be a good time to fake waking up, while D was still distracted.

He sat up, deliberately causing enough noise to make D turn around. His heart filled with warmth when he saw the love in those mismatched eyes. "Morning, D," he said and yawned widely. His jaw cracked.

"Good morning, Leon," D answered softly and came back to the bed, leaving the door slightly ajar. Ten-chan took his chance at slipping inside and taking a good look of the bedroom. Seeing that Leon was still in his clothes, he raised an eyebrow and grinned at the blonde mockingly.

"It seems you had a good night's rest," he said slyly and Leon blushed.

"Can't remember since when that's your business," he growled back. The fox looked utterly insulted.

"Oh, believe me, Leon, it is. My room is next to the Count's bedroom," he mentioned and delighted in the horrified look on Leon's face.

"Now, Ten-chan, please!" D cut in, cheeks not as pale as usual. "There is no reason to insinuate that Leon and I –" he stopped and blushed furiously. "We did nothing," he said firmly and sat down in front of the big dressing table, thus turning his back to both human and fox.

Leon tweaked one eye together and stared at Ten-chan. "You've got a dirty imagination, Ten-chan."

"I bet it can't hold a candle to yours." The fox was always ready with a good repartee, but he took pity on his master and the human and made a peace offering. "Do you wish to have breakfast in here or would you rather eat in the front room?" he asked and played with his braid. D cast a careful glance into Leon's direction, who shrugged.

"I don't care. You decide. I'm gonna take a shower first anyway," he announced and climbed out of bed.

"Your clothes are over there," D said and pointed to a chair.

Leon rummaged around in his duffel and found what he was looking for. "I'll be in the bathroom," he said and vanished behind the door, missing D turning around and staring at his back. Ten-chan eyed his master and quickly pressed a hand to his mouth to suppress the laugh that was bubbling up in his throat.

"I'll be preparing breakfast!" he murmured and beat a hasty retreat, not daring to laugh until he was back in the kitchen.

T-chan turned around as he stumbled inside, holding his sides with laughter. "Oh, gods!" he panted and sat down on the floor unwillingly. "We've gotta teach Leon how to sleep with a guy, because if not, he and the Count are never going to do anything at all!"

The totetsu turned back to his frying pan grumpily. "And that's all you've gotta tell?" he asked curtly. The nine-tailed fox put up a knee and propped his chin on it. His eyes sparkled amused.

"No, it's not all I've gotta tell. But I really doubt you'll be very interested to hear what the Count had to tell Leon while he thought he was asleep. Which, in fact, he wasn't, but that doesn't matter, because the Count wasn't bold enough to tell him in English anyway, and in case Leon still hasn't learned to speak Chinese in the last few hours, he probably didn't understand anything."

Tetsu looked like he was about to vomit. "So not interested," he announced and Ten-chan grinned even wider.

"Thought so."

His friend changed the subject, feeling uncomfortable. "Any ideas yet who the guy was that bewitched the Count?"

He was standing with his back to the fox, so he couldn't see the sudden alertness creeping up in his eyes. "Not yet," he said and leaned against a cupboard.

"Could it have been Q-chan?" T-chan continued, expertly turning over the pancakes.

Ten-chan shook his head. "Why ever should the Count's grandfather decide to make him believe Leon's real? If it would've been Q-chan, he would've made the Count ignore Leon completely, and if possible, forget he ever existed."

Tetsu shrugged. "Was just a thought. I mean, who else would take an interest in those two? Apart from us, I mean, and I'm pretty sure there's no pet in this shop that would be able to bewitch the Count that way."

"Well, perhaps there are some other gods who think they'd be a sweet couple?" the fox suggested and now T-chan turned to stare at him. Ten-chan shrugged and grinned. "Was just a thought," he said easily and stood up again, clapping his friend on the shoulder. "Don't worry, T-chan, it'll be alright, I'm sure. I mean, whoever it is, he or she can't want anything bad for them, now, can she? Why should she first make them come together only to part them again?"

He strode from the kitchen, leaving Tetsu with a furrowed brow and an ever growing suspicion.

#

A low hiss pierced through the darkness in the room. Eyes snapped open and gleamed in the blackness, animals started hissing as well. The slim figure standing at the window turned back to the crouching shadow.

"Are you sure?" she growled. The shadow nodded and stood up a little. It was a child, ears strangely long and topped by silvery hairs.

"Yes, Count, I am. It is what I heard from the birds, and they are trustworthy," it replied.

Sofu D stepped from the window, golden eyes blazing with fury. "How dare he?" he murmured, fists trembling with rage. "How dare he come to the shop again when it has been made clear that he isn't welcome there?"

The animals, feeling his fury, screeched, partly because they were afraid, partly because they were angry, too. The Count swept over and snatched his cloak. "This is intolerable," he grumbled. "Why didn't he call me if he was sick? Now it will be nearly impossible to get rid of that human!"

Closing the cloak, he turned and ordered the pets. "Take care of my great-grandson. I will be back soon. Behave, you all."

Then he took off, changing shape. The little batbunny determinedly set course for Tokyo, Japan.

#

"Tell me."

Leon's voice was calm and solemn. D hesitated and sent him a shy glance. "What do you want to know?" he asked. The blonde shrugged.

"Dunno. Everything. Are we in danger? What about your father and grandfather?"

D sighed softly and played idly with his teacup. They were sitting in the front room, having dinner with the animals. The shop was closed. Not that it would change anything whether Sofu D would be angry about the shop being closed or about Leon being here. So the kami had figured he could as well keep it closed. They had spent the day introducing Leon to the shop. To Philippe, who had been delighted to at last meet the famous Leon Orcot, to Chris' other friends. Not to Honlon yet, though. D didn't want to overstrain the blonde, and he figured a dragon might still be beyond his comfort zone, even though he'd taken everything else quite well.

"Grandfather is very angry," he answered silently. "I can feel it. If we want to avoid trouble, we should leave as soon as possible. I cannot discern what he will do. But I am pretty sure he will try to kill you."

Leon snorted disparagingly. "Well, he wouldn't be the first one to try that. So far none has succeeded."

"We're not talking about some human, Leon," D reminded him. For the first time the blonde was able to hear a little quiver in that voice. "We are talking about my grandfather, and I am not sure whether I would be able to protect you from him. Leaving would for now be the best solution."

"You wanna move back to America?" Leon's voice was hesitant, and he didn't look at the kami. D's gaze wandered through the room, over the pets listening to them, the furniture, the teacups on the table and came to rest on the form of the blonde, trying to sound casual and failing. He smiled, stood and sat down beside Leon, placing a light hand on his arm.

"If you want to go back to America, we shall do so," he conceded. "I would like to see Chris again, too. But we cannot move back to Los Angeles. I am far too known there. It would cause problems."

Leon looked down on the hand on his arm and smiled, too. He carefully laid his own hand over it. D's eyes went wide. He started to beam.

"That's fine with me. My old friends think I'm mad anyway. Not Jill, but well, we can visit her if we want to. You said we could go wherever we want to with this thing?"

D nodded, a little breathless. "Yes. We do not have to concern us with any paperwork or other things humans thought up. We can just go."

"I'd really like to visit China," Leon said thoughtfully. D's breathing became ever more difficult.

"You would?"

"Yeah, why not? I wanna see at least where you come from. If it's okay with you," he added hastily, searching the kami's face, but finding nothing but happiness there.

"I would love to show you," he said softly.

T-chan's snort snapped them out. D quickly averted his gaze, blushing, while Leon cleared his throat. "Well, I guess we should be off to bed, then. It's been a long day," he mumbled. D, still beet-red, nodded. The blonde got up and held out his hand. "C'mon, D. Night, you monsters."

"Goodnight, Count! Sleep well, Leon!" the pets answered synchronously, more or less successfully hiding their broad grins. Leon blushed, too, and they vanished into the back.

#

Ten-chan watched his master and Leon with glinting eyes, smiling contentedly. When Leon finally reached out for D to lead him to the back of the shop, he tweaked his eye and slipped down from his observation spot. Carefully making sure no one was paying him any attention, he sidled to the door, opened it a crack and slipped out.

T-chan on the sofa stretched luxuriously and got up, too. Now where would Ten-chan want to go to at this time of night? He didn't know, but he was going to find out soon. Not that he suspected his friend to be in league with Q-chan. But still, the fox had been acting strangely, too. And Tetsu was determined to find out what was going on here.

The fox went down a little dark alley right behind the shop, sending alert glances around. T-chan smiled grimly and hid in the shadows. Ten-chan's senses might be good, but not good enough to sense him if he didn't want him to. Gliding through the darkness as if he was a shadow himself, he followed the nine-tailed fox to a dark corner of the alley. There he stopped and knelt down. Tetsu remained silent, watching everything from a hiding place behind a few cartons.

He could hear Ten-chan whispering something, though he was too far away to understand what it was. But it sounded like an incantation. His fur stood and he bared his teeth, suppressing a growl. So much for 'I don't know who has bewitched the Count'. It seemed pretty clear that he knew very well who was responsible for it.

The totetsu's thought trailed off as the air in front of the fox started to shine with a glowing light. His jaw dropped as power, pure, blinding power rippled through the alleyway. Oh yes. This one was without any doubt powerful enough to bewitch even someone like the Count.

Now he only had to find out who exactly it was.

#

D looked into the mirror for about the tenth time in the last five minutes and brushed his silken hair a third. Why in all heavens was he so nervous? It wasn't as if Leon hadn't already slept in his bed…

The remarkable difference was that the last time the blonde had done so, D had been unconscious and fighting with the fever. Today he was well and Leon was not there to nurse him.

"What the hell are you doing in there so long, D? I swear, you're worse than any girlfriend I've ever had. C'mon, I'm tired," Leon called out to his lover and shook his head when the bathroom door slowly opened. The kami appeared, dressed in one of his silken pyjamas, dark blue today. The blonde noticed the blush on his cheeks and had to hide a smile behind his hand. As long as I was a hallucination, all I could do was keep him from fucking me at any given chance. But once he notices that I'm real, he's as shy as a new bride.

The kami hesitated and looked at his lover through a dark curtain of hair uncertainly. Leon patted the bed beside him. "I don't bite, D, you should know that by now." Grinning, he added, "Well, not much. And not when you're entering the bed."

Blushing even more, D made his way to the bed and snuggled in, careful to keep a distance to Leon. The blonde sighed inwardly, but turned and switched off the lights. They lay in the darkness, each trying to decide what to do now. At last Leon reached for D and felt him shudder slightly when his hand touched the Chinese's body.

"D, please. I'm not going to do anything you don't want me to do. Would you please come closer now?" he pleaded, an exasperated note in his voice. He felt embarrassment radiate off D like heat.

"If you insist," he relented hesitatingly and skidded ten centimetres closer. Growing tired with the fussing, the blonde pulled him against him and slung his arms around D's shoulders and waist. The kami's body was stiff and uneasy. Leon nuzzled his nose into D's hair and breathed in deeply.

"You smell nice," he murmured.

"Thank you," D answered quietly. Strong hands started to caress his stomach and played with his hair. Unintentionally he stiffened even more. Thoroughly confused he tried to make his body relax. What's the matter with me? I wanted this. I even tried to seduce Leon in the pool! Why am I so afraid now?

"Relax, D," a soft voice murmured in his ear. "I'm far too tired to have sex with you. And I don't know enough about sex with another guy anyway."

That was Leon live. Straightforward telling his mind, no matter what the consequences.

D chuckled and let his body ease. Leon's hands still caressed him and he curiously explored the feelings they were causing in him. The most predominant was warmth. It spread from where the hands touched him through the silk and filled his body with a strange contentedness.

At first he just enjoyed being stroked, but after a few minutes, he snuggled closer to his human and started to return the caresses. Carefully minding his nails, he let his hands glide over Leon's back and through his hair, causing a little sound of pleasure from his lover. A light kiss was placed on his lips.

"See? It's nothing to be afraid of," Leon murmured, his breath tickling his ear. D was thankful he didn't mention that it actually wasn't something new. Because even if he had touched Leon in the pool, it had been different when he still thought him to be a hallucination.

Hands went over silk and cotton, not demanding, but giving. Bodies huddled against each other, trying to touch as much as possible. D buried his head in Leon's shoulder and breathed in his lover's enticing scent. He giggled when the blonde touched a little spot just beneath his elbow and unintentionally tickled him. Leon kissed his throat in response and the kami delighted in the feel of his human's soft lips against his skin.

Slowly, almost lazily, Leon's hand wandered under D's shirt and caressed the soft skin there. A deep sound of contentment, almost a purr, made its way from D's throat and he closed his eyes in delight. Leon's lips nibbled at his ear and D burrowed his hand in the blonde hair. He let his fingertips glide over the rim of the cotton tee Leon wore and explored the skin beneath the fabric.

The touches caused sleepy warmth in him. D yawned and felt another kiss on his cheek. "Good idea, lovely," Leon said quietly and pulled him very close. D snuggled up along the larger body gladly, secure in strong arms. "Good night, D."

"Just a moment before you sleep, Leon."

The kami felt his lover wonder. "What is it?"

In the darkness he cradled Leon's cheek in his hand and kissed him sweetly, lovingly. Leon returned the kiss softly until D ended it. "Good night, Leon," he whispered.

#

"Does everything go according to plan?" the hooded figure whispered. The nine-tailed fox nodded, wiggling his tails in delight.

"Better than anticipated, Mistress. They haven't yet decided what to do, but I think they'll stay together," he asserted. T-chan could almost hear the smile in the husky voice when it spoke again.

"Good. I trust you, little one. Do not forget: no one is to know about this, especially not Leon and the youngest Count D. Not yet."

"I'll take it to my grave," Ten-chan swore solemnly, placing a hand over his heart.

"Good. Thank you, little fox." The figure started to vanish. He bowed deeply.

"It is my honour to serve you, Mistress."

The second it was gone, T-chan emerged from his hiding place and flung himself at the surprised fox, growling. "Who was that?" he snarled, fuming with rage. "And what kind of deal do you have with her?"

"T-chan, leave me be!" Ten-chan struggled in vain to free himself, but the totetsu was much stronger than he was. "She's not here to harm anyone, I promise you!"

"Oh yes? What plan was she talking about? Is she the reason that the Count was so ill?" T-chan understood a lot and he tolerated a lot. But one had to draw the line somewhere. And his personal line was where someone threatened his friends and his master. And even Leon.

Not because of the American, though (he told himself). But the Count obviously loved the human, and T-chan was willing to do almost everything for his master, even if it meant putting up with Leon Orcot.

Ten-chan stopped struggling and lay still. "I swear, T-chan, she does not want to hurt the Count. I can only guess if she's the one responsible for the Count's sickness, but I'd say yes." The totetsu squeezed his throat and he choked. "Damn it, Tetsu, listen to me first! Do you really think I'd do anything to harm the Count? Or Leon? Do you really think that?"

The grip on his throat was eased slightly. "No," the tiger-goat answered. "No, I do not. But even you could have been tricked into something. And now with Q-chan in a fury, we cannot be careful enough."

The mysterious smile appeared on the fox's face again. "Yes, but I'm telling you: if we want to stand our ground to the Count's grandfather, she's absolutely the best person to have on your side."

T-chan released him. "How so?" he asked, confused. The smile widened into a wicked grin while the fox rubbed his sore throat. The totetsu was damn hell strong.

"Let's just say, even the D family has had to made certain – concessions – in the past. She's just gathering one of them," he answered. Then he turned and walked back into the shop. T-chan trailed after him, thoroughly confused and deep in thought.

#

There was a storm, but that was not going to stop him. Not the lightning, not the thunder, and not even the wind, though the small batbunny had to fight hard to keep moving steadily. But it would manage. It had managed so many storms over the years, and this one wasn't by far the worst.

While it proceeded on its way, Sofu D mused over the whole affair with his grandson. It was unacceptable, of course. His grandson knew this. Why did he do it all the same? It couldn't go well. Not those two. They were – too different. They weren't even the same species! How was it supposed to work?

Still, he had the growing suspicion that it wasn't only his grandson who was responsible for this affair. For a second he forgot to bat his wings and a heavy blow whirled him around. He struggled to get back to his pace, to fly even faster. She wouldn't dare. She couldn't dare.

Or could she?