Cuddly, Comfy Jill
Surprisingly enough, Sofu said nothing about the fight about Norma. Tetsu and Ten-chan both suspected that it was because D had stepped in before the eldest could even begin being angry at Leon; perhaps it also helped that Leon was clearly experiencing the same problems D was, perhaps even in a stronger fashion, since he was barely able to sit down due to the ache in his back for almost three days.
D for his share started being very irritable and snappy, being everything but happy that his chest had now started to grow in earnest. It itched, it hurt, and he refused to carry any child or pet on his arms for a week, being so sensitive that he winced even when putting his clothes on. Leon saw, tried to make amends, but wasn't able to do much. Especially since D now also refused to let him touch the small, sensitive breasts even when they were having sex.
What really helped was that the child moved for the first time, surprising not only Leon and D, but also Sofu, since the baby belly still wasn't more than a slight bulge in D's belly, not even noticeable under his clothes, if those weren't of the tight kind. Yi Jonas happened to be there when it moved for the first time; D suspected that the sudden astounded look on his face had made her quite suspicious, since a very secret smile graced her face when she left the shop, but she had not said or asked anything. He was glad for that; not because he didn't want her to know, but rather because a teatime at Mrs. Chang's had proven to be quite annoying in that respect. It seemed that what Carter had said was true; Chinatown was suspicious and keeping an eye on certain areas of D's body. Yet he was sure that it was nothing more than a rumour and that the origin wasn't to be sought at Yi and Patrick Jonas. In contrast to Leon, D had known the couple for years, and also knew that both never let on on what they really thought if they didn't trust anyone. He was sure that if they suspected, or even knew, they wouldn't be the ones to confirm any rumour without D's consent.
Norma was able to finally convince Leon about that, too, for she got to hear several other rumours, one more absurd than the other. There were rumours that said that D hadn't been showing up in public because he and Leon had split up (one could quite guess where that one came from, especially since it was very popular amongst the younger people) and didn't want the public to know. Another, whispered amongst the elders, said that Shao Lin had never left Los Angeles. They were parted on what had happened to her; one half thought that the Count had killed her to show the Shao family his power, and they were rather afraid of him now; the other half murmured that someone like the Count could really choose his lovers, and wouldn't it be rather… time-consuming if he had gotten himself another?
Luckily so far nobody had noticed that the population in the shop had increased again, for Sofu was very careful to keep himself and Dee out of any visitor's sight. Chris grumbled when both Leon and D strictly forbid him to talk about Dee, but he adhered that rule, mostly; Catherine met Dee once by accident in Chris's room, but that was okay. The girl didn't have any other friends in Chinatown.
That Carter was gone now helped a lot with things in the precinct, though. Jill was able to tell that Alex seemed to have lost his joy in stupid pranks since the agent had left, and things in Chinatown also slowly calmed where Poison Cave was concerned. D was relieved that Leon soon forgot about the nightmare he'd had and got back to being normal worried about him.
Not that this didn't make things complicated enough.
His bedroom door slammed closed behind him and D leaned against it, trying to breathe slowly and deliberately. His own heart was beating so hard in fury that he barely felt the child's pulse beneath it, which was, much to his relief, calm and undisturbed by his own. If Leon and Grandfather wouldn't soon manage to get along with each other, he would… he would…
"Argh!" A rather undignified sound, D thought silently, but one that expressed his frustration just right. Those two dumbheads! Imbeciles! Idiots! Over-worried mother-hens! Stupid fighting worried ignorants! How could they dare! How could they dare to fight over what was best for D! Without even asking him what it was that he wanted or needed!
Striding over to his bed, he grabbed a few cushions and immediately proceeded to throw them at the poor tree overshadowing his bed while he let the words he'd bitten back a few moments ago stream out of his mouth.
"Stupid – dim-witted – idiot – dumb – foolish – daft – relatives!"
Hearing his last word, he let go of the cushion and chuckled a little helplessly. Relatives. That was not, as far as he knew, a curse word. But what else was he supposed to say to his two dearly loved, but also dearly aggravating?
Sighing, he sat down on his bed. In the far distance he could hear the shop's main door slam shut. It sounded like Leon – Grandfather had a habit of closing doors very quietly when he was really angry. So they would have peace for the next few hours, while Leon was at work. Relative peace, since Grandfather would be very wound up now and start going on D's nerves about the human again. Or, if he would be kind enough to let D alone, he would take Dee to some room to lecture the poor child about human insolence for at least four hours. D really pitied his father; Grandfather had always liked to talk about human faults, but in his memory those lectures hadn't extended one and a half hours at the most. The child now got all the frustration Grandfather felt at Leon being in the shop.
Oh, truly! Grandfather was so old, shouldn't he be able to deal with Leon by now? Even as Q-chan, he had never made such a fuss about the human. He had never made such a fuss about any human before.
D strongly suspected that Ten-chan was right in assuming that the reason for Sofu's dislike was to be found in his relationship with the human. Most of the things Sofu brought up were things that bothered D as well, such as Leon's language, his table manners, his tendency to say things before thinking about them.
But Sofu did not have all the other things that made up for Leon's temper and character faults. He did not have a loving mate, a trusted friend and a personal clown to make up for all the anger and grief Leon caused him.
Yet, D was not in the mood to forgive his grandfather yet. Throwing the last cushion back onto the bed, he went out, calling for the children.
Half an hour later a very surprised Jill sat down on the sofa after having shown Chris to the bathroom. "You are not serious," she said. "They honestly started quarrelling about if you should wear a bra or not?"
D nodded, his face still angry at the remembrance. "Dana only mentioned our visit to that boutique, and Grandfather blew up like a bomb. You cannot even begin to imagine what he said to Leon. He accused him of being everything from a horny lecher up to a tyrannical women-hater."
Jill gaped. "Leon. I mean, are you sure we are talking about our Leon? Okay, I'd probably have come up with something similar to the first part, but the second… Does your grandfather even know him?"
The young kami sighed and Ten-chan cut in, smiling at Jill. "Not very well, and he is inclined to not get to know him better, too. He's an old bitch about humans."
D tried to silence him with a look, but it was no use. It didn't exactly help either that Jill's cheeks suffused slightly as she looked at the young man, who had insisted on coming along. So instead he tried to change topics. "I am sorry for imposing on you like this, Jill, but I just needed some time out of that shop…"
She smiled. "Oh, never mind. You're not imposing at all. I'm happy to have some company – thought I'd have to spend my day alone with Jamie again. Mind you, not that that's such a terrible thing," she added hastily, glancing at where her son was trying to imitate Dana, who in turn was building something with Lego bricks. "But you know, it sometimes gets kind of boring, being alone with such a small child… I'm sorry. You've got that every day, I only three days a week. I shouldn't complain, really."
"There's nothing wrong with wanting some company with which you can talk about more than building bricks and picture books." D hid a smile behind his cup and then saw Dee and Chris sitting down on the floor, obviously not really knowing what to do now. "Do you have any cards, Jill?" he asked. The woman followed his gaze, winked at him and got up to fetch them.
His stomach gave a lurch already when he saw the eldest sitting in the parlour like a stone statue.
It didn't get any better when he rose, inquiring icily, "Where has he gone to?"
Leon stopped dead in his tracks and looked around the parlour. "Where is D?" he asked back. Sofu glared at him. "That is what I would like to know, human. He went out, taking all children and that insufferable fox with him, and I have not have word from him ever since."
No reason to start getting worried. Ten-chan would be keeping an eye on D.
"When did he leave?" Leon wanted to know nevertheless, trying to hang up his jacket as nonchalantly as possible when his stomach was acting so funnily.
"Six hours ago," Sofu gritted through his teeth and Leon stopped in the middle of his action.
"Six hours ago?" he echoed. It wasn't like D to stay out so long. Not when he was with the children, not when Leon didn't know where they were.
The eldest tried to pierce him with a glare. "This is all your fault," he hissed. "You are the one who encourages him to act in such inconsiderate ways!"
"Wha – hello, D's old enough to know what he does!" Leon protested, his anger sparked anew. He didn't know what it was about Q-chan that rubbed him in such a wrong way, it was just there. He knew he would have been able to deal with the batbunny, but this talking, walking beast of a grandfather made him just so fucking angry.
"I raised my grandson to be polite and sensitive towards the ones he cares about. It is your fault that he has turned away from us in such a way."
"He just grew up, you old bitch. Every child grows up sooner or later," the blonde replied, growling now. "Just because he didn't grow up to be exactly like you."
"Causing problems, that is all that you can do!" Sofu's voice rose to heights Leon hadn't even heard from D yet, no matter how enraged the kami was, and he didn't get why the eldest was so angry all of a sudden.
"Now just take a break!" he protested, but the other would not be stopped.
"All of this is your fault! You were the one who made him miserable in the first place, you are the one who will make him miserable again. You endanger him carelessly, you disregard his feelings, his needs, everything about him! You only ever cause problems he has to deal with when you have left him alone with them again. I wish he had never met you! I wish you had never been born! If it had not been for you, my grandson would never have had a lot of problems! He would not have fallen pregnant, would not have had to flee from you, would never have come to Japan, and Rau Wu Fei would never have had a basis to blackmail him with – much less would he have thought of kidnapping my grandson's child to force him to act according to his will!" Sofu screamed, hatred discontorting the pretty face.
A million synapses fired in Leon's head, all at once. He staggered back as if Sofu had actually hit him in the face.
"Does the name of Rau Wu Fei mean something to you?"
"- what's-his-name, Rau Wu Fei -"
"- looking for someone in the Chinatowns -"
"That just shows why the Count was able to win over you."
"I am going to take him down – him and his stupid traitor. You'll get your revenge. We'll both get our revenge."
"I don't want to end up in prison like you."
"I don't want to end up in prison like you."
"I don't want to end up in prison like you."
"What did he do to him?" he asked, his lips white. "What did he do to that Rau Wu Fei?"
Sofu's mask broke and he looked at Leon with confusion in his golden eyes. "Why, he of course made sure he will never bother him again." He showed a few too many teeth in his smile as he spoke the next words. "I would, of course, have made sure by ending his pathetic existence, but warm-hearted as my grandson is, and in his foolish joy over your return, he just sent him to prison."
"Taizu!" Leon choked.
"Of course Taizu, who else?" Sofu's face didn't get any friendlier, but quickly dissolved into complete surprise as Leon only jumped up and ran out. "Where are you going, you imbecile? My grandson does not want to be found!"
"I don't fucking care!" Leon yelled back. "I don't fucking care if he wants to be found or not, I have to find him before Taizu and Carter do!"
With a little sigh, Jill closed the door to her bedroom and stretched, making the bones in her back crack a little bit. Then she tiredly smiled at D. "I don't know how you manage them. I mean, I love Jamie, but sometimes he's just so much work that I don't even want to imagine what it'd be like with more kids."
"One gets used to it pretty fast," D replied and poured her a cup of tea. With another little sigh, Jill sat down opposite to him and sipped.
Then they both sat and looked at each other for a moment. Finally a small smile cracked their faces and Jill leaned forward to help herself to a slice of cake.
"I'm sorry," she apologised. "It's just that you've only been here once, and only to pick Jamie up, and I'm kinda feeling strange, with all those children in my bedroom and all of that, you know."
All of that meaning Ten-chan. D smiled into his teacup. Oh, as if he hadn't noticed the looks those two had been giving each other. It wasn't as if the air sizzled where they met – but a certain tension was definitely there. And Jill was more than pleased to see the fox and her boy. Pleased, but at the same time confused.
Well, perhaps he could talk to her about that, now that Ten-chan was in the bedroom and out of reach. He knew what the fox's intentions were, but he had no idea what Jill's opinion on the matter was yet. And if she had even realised what was going on here…
The woman in question favoured D with a curious glance. "Dee really looks a lot like you. No wonder Leon is so freaked out if you all look so much alike and he – well, he -"
"Shot Dee in his former life," D said, undisturbed. "Yes, I know. It is very difficult for him, but I still wish he would be calmer about this. Dee cannot remember anything. I don't know why he is so fascinated by Leon – maybe" a smile played around his lips, "it's genetic."
Jill chuckled. "Genetic?"
"Yes," the young kami asserted and made himself comfortable on the couch, for the first time noticing that his belly was starting to get in the way. Not much yet, but enough to notice there was something. Smiling, he caressed his bulge. "My father and I never were close. He never told me much about his life, nor did he know much about mine. But when I saw him on the evening he died… I cannot say what it was. Something in the way he acted towards Agent Howell. Something in the way he was so very intent on not helping me with Leon's injuries. The way he was hiding behind his fan." Unconsciously his hands repeated the movements he had seen his father do. Jill watched, fascinated, as he plunged into his memory.
"And then something in the way Grandfather reacts whenever he notices that Dee is friendly towards Leon and Chris. Grandfather likes Chris. He always has, and even if he might not show his affection anymore, now that he is back in his real form, he still likes Chris. He is quite friendly towards him – but only as long as Dee isn't in sight."
"You think that maybe your father and Agent Howell…?"
D sighed and let his hands drop, looking a little miserable. "I now wish that I had cared more about Father. I wish I had asked him so many questions when I still had the time. Whatever happened between him and Howell, it wasn't like it is between Leon and me." A smile made his lips quirk. "I am most assuredly a complete kami."
"How do you know?" the woman asked, sipping her tea. D spread his hands. "My degeneration is best proof of that," he said flatly. "The changes I show in contrast to my relatives. By the time my father gave birth to me, my family had not reproduced for almost twenty generations. The ancestor back then had begotten himself with child, and every time one of them died, he completed the rebirth."
"So it was just two of you, all the time?" Jill asked, fascinated against her will. D smiled a little. "Well, I suspect – I am not sure, but I suspect – that a few times one of us tried begetting themselves with child, too. But the frequent rebirths weakened our bodies, and if there were children, they must have died very soon. My grandfather has not told me about it," he added, seeing Jill's brow wrinkle. "It is what I deduced from a few remarks, and some pets' words. If the lone reproduction – or if you wish, you might call it natural cloning – would have worked, I am sure that my species would not hover just above the brink of extinction. No, I am quite sure that the problem was that the genes were already so fragile that no offspring could be produced anymore."
"And how come you are here today?" she wanted to know, looking at him with something resembling pity. But it wasn't the pity people usually felt for an extinct species – it was more as if she really felt the loneliness he sometimes felt, understood what it was like to be so alone amongst the humans, who had so many options to choose from and still never managed to do so…
D smiled at her warmly. "My father was a quite stubborn being, right from the start. He didn't want to go on like we had done, and he decided that he would give it a try. It must have taken years for him to fall pregnant. Just imagine his joy – and then his fury when my grandfather told him that he had done wrong and that his child was doomed to die." He stared at the liquid in his cup. "But I lived. I had severe degenerations – like my eyes, or my heart. It could not be healed, not with what we knew about ourselves. So Father must have decided to fall back on the human ways. Around the time I was born, there were great developments in both medicine and genetics. He went away one day, and I never saw him again until the night he died."
"Do you remember anything about him?" Jill's voice was so soft he could barely hear her. Blinking a few times, he shook his head.
"Grandfather never spoke about him, safe with spite and scorn. I remember a few moments – a warm hand on my head, arms around me, but nothing more. I was never quite healthy, and especially when I was very young, I slept much more than normal children do to compensate for the exhaustion. It got better when I was about two years old, in human time. At that time my species has already developed as far as a human eight or nine-year-old."
There was silence in the room. He tried to breathe slowly, stroking his belly. The child had begun to make weak movements; probably it shared his emotional turmoil.
"Can I – could I – you know, embrace you?"
Jill's voice was almost meek, and D looked up to meet her eyes with surprise. She smiled a little sadly. "I know. Asking this sounds so totally stupid. But I'm not Leon. With you, I just never know. I've wanted to embrace you so often, so many times, when I could see you were totally down, but I've only dared on so few to just touch you…"
D blinked another few times and smiled as he held out his arms. Jill's sheepish face cracked; she smiled, too, and came to hold D in her arms, warm and smelling of child, tea and cake.
"It's stupid, isn't it?" she murmured into his ear, but D shook his head.
"No," he answered quietly. "Leon won me because he never was afraid of the barricades I put up around myself; but I didn't put them up for nothing. Tearing them down without asking any kind of permission is in most cases not very wise."
She chuckled. "Oh yeah, that sounds like Leon alright. He doesn't mean harm with it, you know."
"But he still does harm."
They let loose a little bit and looked at each other for a moment. Then, as if on some unspoken agreement, D leaned back and Jill rested her head on his shoulder, coming to lie beside him on the couch. "D, can I ask you a question?"
"Of course."
"Even if it hurts you?"
"Jill, if there is anyone else in the world besides Leon I would allow to hurt me, it is you."
She took a deep breath. "Why did you never tell Leon about Dana? You had to know that he isn't a guy like Alex – and you had to know that he loved you."
D smiled as he rested his chin on her head. "I did, Jill. I did know all of that. But what I did not know was if I would be able to deal with the love between us. You see, in the terms of my species, I am still very young to be a parent. Leon once said that I do not fit into the usual teenaged-mother-scheme, and he is mostly correct with that. I have lived a life that has shown me more of the world than many people get to see in their whole lives, but I never lived it, if you understand what I mean."
"I think I do. We socialise; we find friends, we quarrel with them, we fall in love… all those stupid things every generation does again, with exactly the same mistakes as the one before them."
"Exactly. I never had the chance to do so. My father was always absent; my grandfather loved me, but one person isn't sufficient exchange for a society. As for the pets, I do not doubt that many of them taught me a lot of things, but they could not teach me the things I had to learn for a relationship with a human."
"So you were afraid?" Jill voiced after a moment of thinking.
"Deadly," D replied quietly. "And most of all, I was afraid of myself. Of what I had suddenly discovered about myself. You have to understand, even though I slept with him, I was not ready to acknowledge that I had found my mate in Leon. I considered it impossible. I thought I was in love – like so many of my customers. An infatuation, a fling, something that wouldn't last. And when I realised what my body had done – I don't think I really started to process the fact that Leon really, truly is my mate before he was shot. I always thought I had some kind of choice in this matter, although we had a child, although we were a couple…"
Jill looked up at him and smiled. "Funny, you know. That we humans always wish to be gods, and you end up having the same problems we have."
The young kami laughed softly. "Yes, I guess it is."
She studied his face. "And now, D? What is it like now, with the second child? With all that has happened?"
He tugged her tighter and smiled at her. "I live, Jill. I do not claim to be perfect at it, but I am alive, finally. I am still afraid of many things. I still fight with myself. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. But through it all, I know that I have someone at my side, and even when you drive me mad, my human pets are there to help and understand me."
She suddenly blinked very quickly and freed one hand from his chest to rub her nose. "D, don't say such things. It's not me who's that important to you…"
"Yes you are," D interrupted her. "You are, Chris is, even Sandra and Leon's family are. Every one of you has added his piece to who I am today, even if it was only in shaping Leon into the man he is today." He kissed her forehead, very lightly. "And I am more grateful than I can express that you exist. Even if what your species does can never be pardoned."
She smiled at him and then quickly, as if ashamed of her smile, hid her head in his shoulder. D chuckled and petted her hair. "Why, what do you think, maybe we should take a photo and have it published in some newspaper? Do you think it would convince Chinatown that we are the real couple and not Leon and I? I'm sure he has told you about those quite idiotic rumours that you are Dana's mother."
"Yeah, he did. But we could try, you know. We'd be the better couple anyway," she replied, grinning now and propping her head up again to look at him. "I mean, just look at us – the perfect harmony, isn't it?"
There was a sound at the door; someone rang. Jill started giggling. "A million on that being Leon. Just like him to disturb our idyll." D wanted to stand up, but she hindered him. "Don't bother, he's still got the spare key. He'll let himself in. What do you think, should we maybe surprise him with a hot lesbian kiss when he comes in? You wanna bet how far his jaw can drop?"
D started laughing. "What? Jill, are you -?"
"Ssh, he's coming!" she hissed, hearing the key in the apartment door. "Just hold still -!"
And before D could say or do anything, he had Jill's mouth on his, her grey eyes sparkling with excitement and mischief. He had never before kissed anyone but Leon – well, if one didn't count the kisses that had been forced upon him by women (and men) like Anessa Battory – and in a sudden bout of curiosity he opened his mouth and started kissing her for real, closing his eyes.
After all, if he was a teenager, he could act like one every once in a while.
A key landed on the floor with a crash. "What the -?" Leon got out. D blinked in his direction, seeing his mate's jaw hanging open, his eyes nearly bulging out.
Neither he nor Jill had expected Leon to start screaming like this.
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND, D? TAIZU'S AFTER YOU AND YOU START MAKING OUT WITH JILL! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
With two big steps he was at the couch and dragged a rather startled Jill aside, who started to protest, batting his hand away. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" she snapped, shoving him back while D sat up, looking at them with big eyes. "You know fucking well that we're just joking!"
"You may be, but Taizu and Carter for sure aren't!" the blonde man yelled. "Do you have any fucking idea how fucking worried I was about you, D? I come home and no one safe Q-chan is there, who tells me that you've chosen to just up and vanish, taking all of the kids with you, going to god-knows-where, coming back who-knows-when -!"
Jill and D exchanged a look and then both stood, determinedly forcing Leon to sit down on the chair. He sputtered, but was too surprised (and probably just too weak in contrast to D's strength) to do anything against it. Jill knelt down beside her friend while D poured a cup of tea. "So, and what's the matter now?" she asked calmly. "What's the matter with Carter and who's that Taizu?"
Leon took a deep breath, not leaving D out of his sight. "Q-chan said it. Q-chan said that you sent Taizu to prison before you left Japan."
"Yes, I did," D replied, surprised. "But why would that -?"
"He's not in prison anymore," Leon cut him short. "He escaped. He's in America, nearly dead sure in some hiding spot of the Shaos."
The kami felt as if he'd been doused with cold water. "What?"
Jill looked between them. "Okay, might someone want to tell me what we are talking about in the first place?"
D laid a hand on Leon's thigh, which was gripped immediately, as if Leon was afraid that he would vanish again the moment he let go. While he gulped down his tea, D filled Jill in on everything concerning Taizu. At the end of his lecture, her face was as serious as Leon's.
"You're probably right," she addressed her friend. "And that's everything but good. Why in hell didn't we get to know earlier?"
"I didn't know Rau Wu Fei and Taizu are the same person!" the blonde defended himself. "I mean, how could I? You always talked about Taizu."
"I did. That was the title he was called in Neo Chinatown." D sighed. "This would of course explain the sudden power of the Shao family. If they now have Taizu's family backing them up from China… no wonder Shao Xi could rise to such heights. But how could Agent Carter -?"
"Easy," Leon said glumly. "He had Poison Cave. I bet he and Mrs. Shao found out only too soon that they're both not too fond of me. And he arrested them, he was the one who met them every time one of their employees was in court. I can just guess how that happened. And once she found out that Carter really wanted both of us dead, it probably wasn't too difficult for her to get him to work together with Taizu, too. I mean, all Carter's after is us. I don't think he cares much about the fact that Taizu's wanted, as long as he helps him bring us down."
Jill winced. "And what now?" she asked. Leon's hand squeezed D's so hard he almost thought the human would break it.
"We're leaving. Now. I won't risk any of my family on some lunatic's revenge trip."
D suddenly rose. "We are not!" he protested. "I am not going to run away from Taizu! Never!"
"Brother? What's the matter?"
They all startled and turned around to the bedroom door, where Ten-chan, Chris and Dee were standing, blinking into the light. Ten-chan's face was serious. Chris was quite clearly still sleepy, but Dee…
D sent the kami child a sharp glance. His eyes were sparkling in a way that made him suspicious. Could it be that Dee had been standing there for a while already? If so, how much had he heard?
Leon pulled himself together and smiled at his younger brother. "Nothing's the matter, Chris, nothing. I'm just here to pick you all up and take you back home."
"But, we were -" The boy stopped at the look on his brother's face.
"We are all going home. Now." The blonde's voice tolerated no opposition. Jill looked at D, silently asking his opinion, but the kami only nodded. Perhaps it really was best if he and Leon discussed this first in the privacy of their own bedroom. Once they were back at the pet shop, an area where Leon very well knew that nothing would happen to them, he would calm down and be more reasonable.
So Jill helped them gather their things and carried a sleeping Dana down to her car. D at first wanted to protest and remind Leon that Jill only had one baby seat and none for Chris or Dee, but seeing the look on his mate's face, he shut his mouth again. It didn't seem like Leon was in the mood for such considerations.
Luckily nothing happened on the way back and Leon managed to put all children in their beds in record time. Sofu was nowhere to be seen, so D sat in the parlour and waited, looking around, playing with his hands, petting Pon-chan and fidgeting in general. Ten-chan, who had stayed there too, seemed to want to say something, but every time he closed his mouth again and just waited like D.
Finally Leon came back to the front. An air of quiet determination surrounded him. "I meant it, D. We're leaving as fast as possible," he said.
D stared at him. "You. You want to leave. The one who never, ever thinks about the danger before jumping headlong into it. You expect me to leave Jill and Jamie, run away in the midst of a pregnancy and resume a life of fleeing and hiding. Now, when we have just found some peace."
Leon glared outright. "This isn't peace, D, this is war! And I personally don't feel like I'm up to that kind of war. I don't know when someone is going to strike, I don't know how to protect you against it, I don't even know where the danger is coming from!"
"That can easily be found out, and if I may remind you, Norma is already working on it," D said calmly. "Running away head over heals now would be a most stupid thing to do. Do you want to take Chris with us? Do you want to take him away from his friends and family? If we start to flee once, it might take months before we can settle down long enough for him to be able to send a message to Mary. Do you think she will be happy about that?"
"She'll probably be happier with that than with Chris dead!" the human snapped. Now D started to heat up, too.
"Chris is not, nor has he ever been, in danger!" he replied hotly. "Not as long as he is in this shop!"
"And what was that about Carter stalking you all? What was that about Taizu nearly kidnapping Dana from the shop in Tokyo? You call that safe?"
"It's safer than it would be would we flee now!"
"And how so?"
D glared right back. "Do you really think I would want anything like Tokyo to happen again? When I brought the shop back, I made sure no one and nothing can enter here against my will. I put up defences around this shop, the power of which you can barely imagine. Should Taizu try to enter the shop, he would receive a very nasty surprise, and the same is true for Mrs. Shao and Agent Carter."
"Then why were they in here a few times?"
"Because I let them in!" D snapped. "If you wish to, you can try it. Go outside and try entering while I don't want you to. Help yourself! I am not going to run away! Not before I have given birth to my child in peace!"
Leon's face contorted. "Perhaps you should think about what could happen to that child if you don't run away now! Why do you have to be such a stupid hardhead? And don't tell me it's so difficult for you to run away during your pregnancy! You've more than enough experience with that!"
The kami's face took on a rather dark shade of red. "Don't you dare mention that! I swore I would never force you to leave the shop again! I swore I would not draw you into this madness my life consisted of so many years!"
The blonde snarled. "What the fuck does that have to do with the shop? And you're not fucking forcing me, you dumbhead, but I'm gonna force you!"
"This has to do with the shop insofar as humans aren't allowed onboard!" D hissed. "I don't even know if I could turn the shop into the ship while you and Chris are in here! And do you have any – any – idea what might happen to you if the shop decided that it doesn't want to have you here while it changes and takes flight?"
Someone behind Leon murmured "Ouch!" while the human silenced and stared at the kami. "So it's real, this 'humans aren't allowed aboard', isn't it?" he said, his mouth dry. "It isn't just a saying."
D leaned back in his chair, suddenly looking tired. "No, of course not. And you might just happen to die a very nasty death should you try to board without the shop's acceptance."
"But you are the shopkeeper!" Leon exploded and earned another glare.
"Yes, I am, but in contrast to what you humans believe, the fact that I am the master does not make me the dictator in here! The shop, as well as every one of my pets, still has its own free will, and if I start fighting against it and forcing it to something, I might destroy it in the end. Do you want that?"
"Goddammit, no, I just want you to be safe!" Leon screamed, losing all control. The few pets in the parlour fell absolutely silent as he raged on. "I just don't want to come home one day and find you all dead in the parlour, 'cause I wasn't there at the right time! I don't want to have to explain to my fucking child why his father was murdered just because he wanted to give birth to him! I don't want you dying, I don't want you suffering, I just don't fucking want anything to fucking happen to you!"
D sagged down in his chair, closing his eyes, as if Leon's rage had pulled every strength from his body. The fury deflated, making way for a bad conscience. The blonde knelt down in front of the chair, taking D's hand.
"I'm sorry, D. Let's not fight anymore," he said, trying to be reasonable. "Please. I'm sorry. I didn't want to aggravate you."
He could feel the kami's dismay, but he bent forward hesitantly. Leon heaved a silent sigh of relief and met D's lips…
"What the hell, D!" he screamed, jerking back. D brought his finger to his lips and smiled cruelly, letting him see the tiny droplet of blood on the blue nail.
"If you do not want to listen, I will have to show you," he replied, his eyes gleaming in a way that promised trouble. Lots of it. "I am not a child, neither am I unable to watch out for myself, no matter what Grandfather says. So don't you dare treat me like you do at the moment!"
Still unbelieving, Leon brought a hand up to his face and felt his cheek. There was a cut right beneath his left eye, not deep, not dangerous – D had taken care, after all – but stinging and reminding him of just who exactly he was dealing with here.
Fury boiled up in Leon. "Fuck you, you bastard!" he yelled, jumped up and left the shop, slamming the door shut behind him. "You sick inhuman bitch, care for yourself if you don't want me to fucking help!"
A/N: anonymous: o.O "too far for you" meaning you won't continue reading? Oh dear - it's gonna get much worse yet... ^^' Won't you gimme a chance, please?
Well, seeing that their relationship is unbalanced by nature (I mean, one being a god-like kami and the other a mere human), it's not that surprising that compromises usually end up not being compromises at all... at least that was what I thought while I was writing it...
However, seeing what Leon has already been able to deal with, I think the same as for D applies to him, too: just a little stronger than one would think at first glance...