LOVE BLOSSOMS
BASED ON THE CHARACTERS CREATED BY MATSURI AKINO FOR THE MANGA SERIES, PET SHOP OF HORRORS.
CONTAINS SPOILERS ~ GUESS WHICH ONES
MEETING AGAIN
SEVERAL WEEKS LATER
The bag of potato chips balanced on the edge and was ready to fall, when it got stuck. A fist hit the vending machine hard.
"Damn it," Leon muttered; trying to shake the machine and get his lunch, "this is unbelievable."
"What's unbelievable?" asked Jill as she came into the small room of vending machines.
"This machine. Here I am trying to get my lunch and it gets stuck in the damn thing." He grabbed his can of soda and sat at one, of only two, small plastic tables. Leon rubbed his eyes and opened the can.
"What is your problem? Why are you eating this garbage? Come on, I'm going out for a sandwich at the sub shop. Why don't you come with me?" She sat in the chair next to him. " For the last few weeks you've been eating in here. Why, you hate this stuff?"
"It's just.every time I go out..It's.nothing, It's just nothing." He opened his soda and guzzled half of it down.
"Come on, I'm your friend. No matter what it is." She leaned in close, "You know you can trust me."
Leon guzzled down the other half of his soda and got up. "I know Jill, but not right now, ok, just not right now." He walked out of the room and went back to his desk.
Poor Leon, stubborn, pig headed, jackass. Jill sighed, got up and went to get her lunch.
At his desk, Leon followed up on a few of the cases he had worked on and made appointments with snitches for active cases.
Maybe I should have talked to Jill. It seems that every time I go out there's D and D's friend. I haven't wanted to look to deeply and to see why it should matter. Maybe I should look. Maybe I need to face what my problem is. Could this be jealousy? Why. why am I jealous?
He finished typing out a report on a drug bust and began to type on one for a drunken street fight.
Every time I see them together, I freeze. I freeze and.feel jealousy, yes jealousy, but something more. I feel empty and hurt. But why do I feel this? Could it be love? Oh, no way, no way in hell could it be that. Could it? Screw it, I'm going out, if I'm lucky, I won't run into him or his friend.
Leon quickly finished typing, and deciding he was hungry, grabbed his jacket and left for lunch.
"Take good care of your new pet." D told the little boy, as he handed the cage containing the hamster to him.
"Yes sir, I will sir." The little boy responded and took his father's hand.
"Thank you, Count D." The boy's father bowed respectfully to him and led his son up the stairs and out to the street.
Count D turned towards Q-chan, who flapped in the air next to him, and said "He will take very good care of his pet. The boy is good inside." He sighed, "If only all new pet owners were good inside."
He glanced at the ornate clock sitting on a table near a wall. "Oh, look Q- chan, it is tea time."
Q-chan responded with happy chirps and settled on D's shoulder. D prepared his tea and cut himself a slice of cake. A cake a grateful customer had gifted him earlier today. As he settled himself into a comfortable position on the couch, he glanced at the entrance, almost expectantly, hoping an intrusive detective would come in.
D took a very deep sigh. "Why do I keep hoping that he will come in to visit? It has been several weeks now and I still keeping hoping that he will come." Q-chan chirped sympathetically on his shoulder as he nibbled on a crumb of cake filched from D's plate.
"Perhaps, I should go visit him. I have not tried to visit him since that last failed time." Q-chan began to chirp agitatedly and flew in front of D's face, flapping his wings furiously. D could see the determined look in Q-chan's eyes.
"Obviously, you do not think that is a good idea. You are probably correct; why should I put myself into such a painful situation. When he is ready to see me, he will come to me."
Q-chan settled back onto his shoulder and chirped contentedly.
D reclined further onto the couch and sipped his tea. Somehow, I know Leon will come. It is only a matter of time. I'm not sure why, but, somehow I do know he will come.
He took a bite of cake, closing his eyes in ecstasy and savoring the sweet confection.
Perhaps I am only deluding myself, as humans are wont to do. He smiled, a little smiled. But humans do have a saying; hope is eternal? And if nothing else, I do have eternity to wait.
Count D's smile grew and he enjoyed his cake and tea.
Leon was driving to the same sub shop as Jill had gone to earlier. As he drove he kept looking around, as if he was looking for someone.
So far, so good. no sign of D. Thank God for small miracles. If I do run in too him, I would.
His thoughts were immediately cut off, as his cell phone began to ring. Just a standard ring, no fancy tunes for him. He saw that it was the Chief giving him a call and knew it was an emergency. He quickly answered it.
"Leon, Chief. What's up."
"A bank robbery just went down, the suspect is making a run for it. Get your ass in gear." The chief answered with his gruff voice.
"Where?" Leon asked and listened as the chief rattled off the bank's name and address. After he got the information, he realized it was in Chinatown. He threw his flashing siren on top of his car and gunned the engine. He would make it to Chinatown in record time.
D heard sirens and shouts outside his pet shop. Curious about what was going on, he turned to Q-chan and the other pets in the shop.
"Everyone stay here. I will be back shortly."
As he walked up the stairs and out onto the sidewalk, he immediately saw police cars racing up and down the street. He also saw, coming towards him, a very unkempt man with a gun and, a short distance behind him, a handsome blonde detective.
Momentarily distracted by the sight of Leon, it was just enough of a distraction for the unkempt man to grab him around the throat and point the gun to his head.
"Young man, this is not the wisest step you could make in your life." Count D softly said.
"Shut the fuck up, freak. Don't make me blow your brains out!" He pressed the muzzle hard into the Count's temple.
Leon was immediately in front of them, with his gun pointed at the suspect. "Let him go and throw down you weapon. I swear nothing will happen to you, if you just surrender."
The suspect pointed his gun at Leon and then quickly turned it back on the Count. "You, you shut up and put your gun away. If you don't, I swear I'll blow his fucking head off."
Damn, I can't risk D's life. But this man is so whacked out on drugs, he'll probably do it.
Doing the only thing he could think of, he took his finger off the trigger and raised his hands up with his gun pointed skyward.
"Ok man, I'm putting my gun away. See, I'm putting it away." Leon put his gun back into his holster and raised his hands again. "Just let him go. You don't want to do this, man. Don't throw away anymore of you life."
Please let D go, Leon thought to himself. This drug addict tried to rob a bank to feed his habit; shot a bank clerk in the process and ran without even getting a single penny. Just let D go.
While cop cars stopped and officers kneeled behind them with guns drawn, the suspect pulled D down the steps and into his shop. Leon turned towards his fellow officers and said quickly, "Stay here, till you get the word from me. Understand?!"
The other cops nodded, but kept their ready stance. Leon walked down the steps and into the pet shop.
"D, are you ok?" Leon asked as he stepped into the shop.
"Yes, detective. I'm quite all right."
Leon saw the suspect looking around the shop with the wild-eyed look only an addict can have.
"Where the hell am I?" The suspect said as he looked around. "What do you want pig? I'll kill this freak, so don't screw around with me, man."
Leon looked at the Count and saw that he was very calm, despite the situation they found themselves in. In fact D had a conspiratorial smirk on his face.
Hell, I'm even happy to see that smirk, Leon thought, as he made sure to keep his distance; so as not to startle or upset the suspect.
"Just let your hostage go and we can talk about this. There's no reason to get an innocent person involved in this. Why don't you let him go and we can talk." Leon tried to reason with him.
"Ain't gonna happen. I shot someone and they're probably dead."
Leon noticed that he was pulling the trigger of the gun tighter and tighter. If he didn't do something quick, it would be too late.
I can't loose D!
But before he could think of anything Tet-chan ran from beneath the couch he had been hiding under and Q-chan flew down from the ceiling. In a blur of action, other animals flew or ran out of various hiding spots and attacked D's assailant.
"Get the hell away from me!" he screamed over and over again, as different animals clawed, bit and pulled at him.
Leon, shaking himself out of the shock of seeing an explosion of animals, ran toward the assailant and jumped him. Pushing him down to the floor, he had to push and pull the animals away in order to get the plastic tie cuffs on him. Because of the way everyone fell, he had no choice but to cuff him with his hand in front of him.
"Back off guys, I can take it from here." Leon locked the cuffs onto the suspect's wrists.
"Owwww, damn it, that was my arm." Leon yelled as he cast tet-chan a dirty look. "Somehow, you little bastard, I know you did that on purpose."
The totetsu seemed to just glare at him and bared his teeth. He also, appeared to be ready to take another bite.
"Tet-chan, that is enough. Settle yourself. All of you, settle yourselves." D said with his normal calm demeanor as he rose from the floor in a very graceful movement.
Look at him, it's as if nothing unusual happened. God, why does that make me happy. Dunno, but it does. I'm just happy he's ok.
Lifting the perp up, Leon pushed him onto the couch while he raved about animals and hell. While he ranted, Leon picked up the man's gun, emptied the chambers and made sure no live rounds were left in it. He then placed the gun out reach.
Leon walked over to the Count and, unconsciously touched his cheek. "Hey D, long time, no see. You ok?"
D closed his eyes and savored the touch. "Indeed it has been a long time; too long since your last visit. But, yes, I am all right."
"You sure, you can tell me if you're not. Most people would be in hysterics by now." Leon's simple unconscious touch, became a caress.
D, leaning into the caress, nodded and said, "I'm positive."
Leon doesn't know what he is doing. What his touch means. It says so much without a word being spoken. Let him remain unaware, for a little while long. D thought as he continued to savor the closeness.
Leon laughed, "Looks like all your pet pals came to the rescue. Lucky thing too, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I was afraid I was going to loose you."
D simply smiled that very mysterious smile of his, the one that infuriated him, when he first met the Count. Leon felt himself warmed by that smile now.
Quickly going back into cop mode, he walked over to the suspect and read him his rights.
I'm not sure if he understood what I just said, the idiots still going on about Hell's demonic army of animals. Ah, well, too damn bad.
He grabbed his cell phone to notify the officers waiting outside that it was all clear and they could relax, no one was hurt, except for a few bites and scratches.
Just as he started to make the call, the perp pulled a small but lethal knife from his pocket.
Cop school 101, always pat the suspect down. Don't let yourself get distracted or it will get you killed. Shit, I let myself get distracted by D and now, the teach, can use me as an example of why you should never get distracted.
Knowing he had no time to get out of the lunatic's way, Leon braced himself for the blow; as the man threw himself at him, with the knife clutched in his cuffed hands.
"No!" Leon heard the Count command. His voice, unlike anything he had heard before, seemed to echo and bounce off the walls.
In that very moment time froze and reality seemed to shift. Leon could not believe what he saw with his own eyes.
"No way.." He muttered.
END CHAPTER FIVE
BASED ON THE CHARACTERS CREATED BY MATSURI AKINO FOR THE MANGA SERIES, PET SHOP OF HORRORS.
CONTAINS SPOILERS ~ GUESS WHICH ONES
MEETING AGAIN
SEVERAL WEEKS LATER
The bag of potato chips balanced on the edge and was ready to fall, when it got stuck. A fist hit the vending machine hard.
"Damn it," Leon muttered; trying to shake the machine and get his lunch, "this is unbelievable."
"What's unbelievable?" asked Jill as she came into the small room of vending machines.
"This machine. Here I am trying to get my lunch and it gets stuck in the damn thing." He grabbed his can of soda and sat at one, of only two, small plastic tables. Leon rubbed his eyes and opened the can.
"What is your problem? Why are you eating this garbage? Come on, I'm going out for a sandwich at the sub shop. Why don't you come with me?" She sat in the chair next to him. " For the last few weeks you've been eating in here. Why, you hate this stuff?"
"It's just.every time I go out..It's.nothing, It's just nothing." He opened his soda and guzzled half of it down.
"Come on, I'm your friend. No matter what it is." She leaned in close, "You know you can trust me."
Leon guzzled down the other half of his soda and got up. "I know Jill, but not right now, ok, just not right now." He walked out of the room and went back to his desk.
Poor Leon, stubborn, pig headed, jackass. Jill sighed, got up and went to get her lunch.
At his desk, Leon followed up on a few of the cases he had worked on and made appointments with snitches for active cases.
Maybe I should have talked to Jill. It seems that every time I go out there's D and D's friend. I haven't wanted to look to deeply and to see why it should matter. Maybe I should look. Maybe I need to face what my problem is. Could this be jealousy? Why. why am I jealous?
He finished typing out a report on a drug bust and began to type on one for a drunken street fight.
Every time I see them together, I freeze. I freeze and.feel jealousy, yes jealousy, but something more. I feel empty and hurt. But why do I feel this? Could it be love? Oh, no way, no way in hell could it be that. Could it? Screw it, I'm going out, if I'm lucky, I won't run into him or his friend.
Leon quickly finished typing, and deciding he was hungry, grabbed his jacket and left for lunch.
"Take good care of your new pet." D told the little boy, as he handed the cage containing the hamster to him.
"Yes sir, I will sir." The little boy responded and took his father's hand.
"Thank you, Count D." The boy's father bowed respectfully to him and led his son up the stairs and out to the street.
Count D turned towards Q-chan, who flapped in the air next to him, and said "He will take very good care of his pet. The boy is good inside." He sighed, "If only all new pet owners were good inside."
He glanced at the ornate clock sitting on a table near a wall. "Oh, look Q- chan, it is tea time."
Q-chan responded with happy chirps and settled on D's shoulder. D prepared his tea and cut himself a slice of cake. A cake a grateful customer had gifted him earlier today. As he settled himself into a comfortable position on the couch, he glanced at the entrance, almost expectantly, hoping an intrusive detective would come in.
D took a very deep sigh. "Why do I keep hoping that he will come in to visit? It has been several weeks now and I still keeping hoping that he will come." Q-chan chirped sympathetically on his shoulder as he nibbled on a crumb of cake filched from D's plate.
"Perhaps, I should go visit him. I have not tried to visit him since that last failed time." Q-chan began to chirp agitatedly and flew in front of D's face, flapping his wings furiously. D could see the determined look in Q-chan's eyes.
"Obviously, you do not think that is a good idea. You are probably correct; why should I put myself into such a painful situation. When he is ready to see me, he will come to me."
Q-chan settled back onto his shoulder and chirped contentedly.
D reclined further onto the couch and sipped his tea. Somehow, I know Leon will come. It is only a matter of time. I'm not sure why, but, somehow I do know he will come.
He took a bite of cake, closing his eyes in ecstasy and savoring the sweet confection.
Perhaps I am only deluding myself, as humans are wont to do. He smiled, a little smiled. But humans do have a saying; hope is eternal? And if nothing else, I do have eternity to wait.
Count D's smile grew and he enjoyed his cake and tea.
Leon was driving to the same sub shop as Jill had gone to earlier. As he drove he kept looking around, as if he was looking for someone.
So far, so good. no sign of D. Thank God for small miracles. If I do run in too him, I would.
His thoughts were immediately cut off, as his cell phone began to ring. Just a standard ring, no fancy tunes for him. He saw that it was the Chief giving him a call and knew it was an emergency. He quickly answered it.
"Leon, Chief. What's up."
"A bank robbery just went down, the suspect is making a run for it. Get your ass in gear." The chief answered with his gruff voice.
"Where?" Leon asked and listened as the chief rattled off the bank's name and address. After he got the information, he realized it was in Chinatown. He threw his flashing siren on top of his car and gunned the engine. He would make it to Chinatown in record time.
D heard sirens and shouts outside his pet shop. Curious about what was going on, he turned to Q-chan and the other pets in the shop.
"Everyone stay here. I will be back shortly."
As he walked up the stairs and out onto the sidewalk, he immediately saw police cars racing up and down the street. He also saw, coming towards him, a very unkempt man with a gun and, a short distance behind him, a handsome blonde detective.
Momentarily distracted by the sight of Leon, it was just enough of a distraction for the unkempt man to grab him around the throat and point the gun to his head.
"Young man, this is not the wisest step you could make in your life." Count D softly said.
"Shut the fuck up, freak. Don't make me blow your brains out!" He pressed the muzzle hard into the Count's temple.
Leon was immediately in front of them, with his gun pointed at the suspect. "Let him go and throw down you weapon. I swear nothing will happen to you, if you just surrender."
The suspect pointed his gun at Leon and then quickly turned it back on the Count. "You, you shut up and put your gun away. If you don't, I swear I'll blow his fucking head off."
Damn, I can't risk D's life. But this man is so whacked out on drugs, he'll probably do it.
Doing the only thing he could think of, he took his finger off the trigger and raised his hands up with his gun pointed skyward.
"Ok man, I'm putting my gun away. See, I'm putting it away." Leon put his gun back into his holster and raised his hands again. "Just let him go. You don't want to do this, man. Don't throw away anymore of you life."
Please let D go, Leon thought to himself. This drug addict tried to rob a bank to feed his habit; shot a bank clerk in the process and ran without even getting a single penny. Just let D go.
While cop cars stopped and officers kneeled behind them with guns drawn, the suspect pulled D down the steps and into his shop. Leon turned towards his fellow officers and said quickly, "Stay here, till you get the word from me. Understand?!"
The other cops nodded, but kept their ready stance. Leon walked down the steps and into the pet shop.
"D, are you ok?" Leon asked as he stepped into the shop.
"Yes, detective. I'm quite all right."
Leon saw the suspect looking around the shop with the wild-eyed look only an addict can have.
"Where the hell am I?" The suspect said as he looked around. "What do you want pig? I'll kill this freak, so don't screw around with me, man."
Leon looked at the Count and saw that he was very calm, despite the situation they found themselves in. In fact D had a conspiratorial smirk on his face.
Hell, I'm even happy to see that smirk, Leon thought, as he made sure to keep his distance; so as not to startle or upset the suspect.
"Just let your hostage go and we can talk about this. There's no reason to get an innocent person involved in this. Why don't you let him go and we can talk." Leon tried to reason with him.
"Ain't gonna happen. I shot someone and they're probably dead."
Leon noticed that he was pulling the trigger of the gun tighter and tighter. If he didn't do something quick, it would be too late.
I can't loose D!
But before he could think of anything Tet-chan ran from beneath the couch he had been hiding under and Q-chan flew down from the ceiling. In a blur of action, other animals flew or ran out of various hiding spots and attacked D's assailant.
"Get the hell away from me!" he screamed over and over again, as different animals clawed, bit and pulled at him.
Leon, shaking himself out of the shock of seeing an explosion of animals, ran toward the assailant and jumped him. Pushing him down to the floor, he had to push and pull the animals away in order to get the plastic tie cuffs on him. Because of the way everyone fell, he had no choice but to cuff him with his hand in front of him.
"Back off guys, I can take it from here." Leon locked the cuffs onto the suspect's wrists.
"Owwww, damn it, that was my arm." Leon yelled as he cast tet-chan a dirty look. "Somehow, you little bastard, I know you did that on purpose."
The totetsu seemed to just glare at him and bared his teeth. He also, appeared to be ready to take another bite.
"Tet-chan, that is enough. Settle yourself. All of you, settle yourselves." D said with his normal calm demeanor as he rose from the floor in a very graceful movement.
Look at him, it's as if nothing unusual happened. God, why does that make me happy. Dunno, but it does. I'm just happy he's ok.
Lifting the perp up, Leon pushed him onto the couch while he raved about animals and hell. While he ranted, Leon picked up the man's gun, emptied the chambers and made sure no live rounds were left in it. He then placed the gun out reach.
Leon walked over to the Count and, unconsciously touched his cheek. "Hey D, long time, no see. You ok?"
D closed his eyes and savored the touch. "Indeed it has been a long time; too long since your last visit. But, yes, I am all right."
"You sure, you can tell me if you're not. Most people would be in hysterics by now." Leon's simple unconscious touch, became a caress.
D, leaning into the caress, nodded and said, "I'm positive."
Leon doesn't know what he is doing. What his touch means. It says so much without a word being spoken. Let him remain unaware, for a little while long. D thought as he continued to savor the closeness.
Leon laughed, "Looks like all your pet pals came to the rescue. Lucky thing too, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I was afraid I was going to loose you."
D simply smiled that very mysterious smile of his, the one that infuriated him, when he first met the Count. Leon felt himself warmed by that smile now.
Quickly going back into cop mode, he walked over to the suspect and read him his rights.
I'm not sure if he understood what I just said, the idiots still going on about Hell's demonic army of animals. Ah, well, too damn bad.
He grabbed his cell phone to notify the officers waiting outside that it was all clear and they could relax, no one was hurt, except for a few bites and scratches.
Just as he started to make the call, the perp pulled a small but lethal knife from his pocket.
Cop school 101, always pat the suspect down. Don't let yourself get distracted or it will get you killed. Shit, I let myself get distracted by D and now, the teach, can use me as an example of why you should never get distracted.
Knowing he had no time to get out of the lunatic's way, Leon braced himself for the blow; as the man threw himself at him, with the knife clutched in his cuffed hands.
"No!" Leon heard the Count command. His voice, unlike anything he had heard before, seemed to echo and bounce off the walls.
In that very moment time froze and reality seemed to shift. Leon could not believe what he saw with his own eyes.
"No way.." He muttered.
END CHAPTER FIVE