A/N: Hello, everyone. . I found this while going through my "original stories" folder. Apparently it got misplaced...That, and I barely remember writing it. .; Now that I've found it, I hope to continue writing it at some point, but if that doesn't happen, please don't get too angry. As for a disclaimer, I don't own PetShop of Horrors. Petshop of Horrors is property of Matsuri Akino. Kai, on the other hand, is mine. You will not find her in the manga (or the anime for that matter). If you would like to borrow her, then please ask me first and give credit where credit is due. On a side note: The name of the fic is "Destiny" because I thought it would be cute to title the fic like the way the chapters in the manga are. Thanks for reading the A/N and enjoy the fic!

Everyday she searched. Of course, the normal onlooker never saw her wandering eyes, the average passerby didn't see her analyzing his every move, but she was. Always.

Her favorite place to stop and spend the day was coffee shops. After all, they were everywhere, and even if the clientel weren't what she was looking for, those who passed by the large, glass windows sometime struck chords in her heart.

Her metal spoon clattered loudly against the saucer as she dropped it carelessly onto the table. A few people turned to see what the raquet was, but when their eyes landed on a lonely looking seventeen year old girl, they quickly returned to their coffee and friends.

"It's useless," she muttered to herself as she stared at her rippled reflection in the golden liquid. "I don't even know what I'm looking for, so why am I searching so desperately?" She sighed as she looked up and out the shop window.

Just as she did so, though, she caught the glimpse of a bright red dress fluttering in the wind as its owner walked into the bakery next door. Warmth rushed to her cheeks and her heart quivered in her chest. Something...was off. But what was it?

Her full attention on the one who was but a store away, she didn't notice the sharp sound of the chair screeching against the floor as she pushed away from the table. Nor did she notice the sound of the jingling bells on the door as she stepped outside into the July heat. The sound of cars rushing by and the brightness of the high-noon sun caused a brief pause in her step, just long enough for her to almost realize what she was doing...that the bakery was right there, and just the sight of it off to her left got her right back on target.

A rush of cool air greeted her as she opened the shop's door. She didn't realize that it had been strong enough to push a few loose hairs out of her face until they fell back across her forehead and cheeks. The temperature of the air, though, was not what she was focusing on. It was the smell. A faint trace of incense lingered in the air.

She took a step forward.

As she approached the person clothed in the blood red dress, the scent became stronger. She paused just a few paces away. What would she say? How would she explain herself. At this point, even the gender of the one who stood before her was lost to her.

She was only left with the obvious. Other than the blood red dress with patterns of cherry blossoms around the hem and up the sleeves, the person had dark black hair...or maybe it was blue. In the florescent lights of the shop, it was hard to tell the exact color. It did, on the other hand, definately fall almost to the person's shoulders. And from what she could see of their hands, it seemed "talons" fit more appropriately than "fingernails."

In the middle of her attempt to breathe in so she could attempt words, the baker came over with a small, brown paper bag, which he handed to the one in the red dress.

"Here you go. I had it special made for you, as always." The pudgy man with rosy cheeks smiled. "I can't understand why a guy like you could possibly like something so sweet, but, hey," he shrugged his shoulders, "Who am I to judge, right?"

From the tone in his voice, she could tell he was smiling. "These just happen to be a personal favorite of mine. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Anytime." Still smiling, the man behind the counter waved goodbye. So did the man in front of her, before turning and beginning to walk towards the door. Of course, this didn't work as well as he planned, considering there was a person blocking his path.

Count D's eyes widened in surprise as he looked in front of him to see a girl, either barely 18 or somewhere in her 17th year, standing between him and his exit. What was even more abnormal was that he could have sworn that, for just a second, the girl had fox ears as well as a fox tail, but as soon as he blinked the image was gone.

"Well, hello." A mysterious smile crept across his lips. "Who might you be?"

She blushed, tripped over the first few words she tried saying, and then sighed as if she had been defeated. "I'm Kai."

"Kai..." He ran the word over and over again through his thoughts. He knew no person by that name. So then why did it seem as if she had been following him? "Well, it was nice meeting you, but I'm afraid I must be getting back to my shop."

Her eyes lost their shine for a moment. He had to leave? As soon as she had met him? A sigh escaped from between her lips. Then, as she was about to step aside, opening his way to the door, a thought struck her. "Where is your shop? I mean...What kind of shop is it?"

His mysterious smile never left his lips. "It's a pet store. Maybe you've heard of it? It's in China town."

She shook her head slowly. No, she had never heard anyone make mention of a pet store in China town. "The only places I've seen in China town that sell animals are the kind with skinned rabbits and live chickens." Of course, she didn't realize that his was the wrong thing to say until the man's already pale face became several shades lighter. "I-I mean, that is, I imagine your shop wouldn't be anything like that."

"Yes." D cleared his throat and smoothed out some wrinkles in his dress with the palm of his hand. "We sell only the most rare pets, and are in no way like the normal shops you see on the streets."

Kai breathed a sigh of relief. "Your shop sounds cool, then. Care if I join you in your walk back?"

Only one of D's pets would have been able to catch the slight twitch of a grimace in his smile. "No, of course not. Are you looking for a companion of some sort?"

The corners of her lips twitched into a smile. "You could say that."

It was a mere fifteen minute walk back to the shop. A walk Kai barely remembered happening since it seemed to pass by so quickly. The background sounds and smells of the city seemed to melt away in the presence of this...well, stranger...she had seemed to meet by chance. Or, maybe, it wasn't chance at all...

"Well, here we are." That string of thought was interuptted as D motioned with a wave of his hand at the shop that stood before them. The outside was very ornate, and reminded Kai of a shrine she had seen in a travel brouchure for China.

"This...is your shop? Funny..." She cocked her head to one side. "I never noticed it before."

He smiled. "You had no reason to find it."

Grinning, he opened the door and motioned her inside with his arm. She smiled and bowed slightly before passing through the doorway. Inside was a small flight of stairs that led downward, and in front of them, yet another door. This one, like the one before it, was very ornate looking and carved with all sorts of designs. Was it the gnarled roots of an old tree, or maybe it was animals that lined it's edges? She didn't have much time to study them, because before she knew it, this door was also open before her, and inside was a place her imagination would have never been able to create.

There were lounge chairs and day beds all over the room. Off to one corner was a small table surrounded by chairs. The ceiling was draped with long swathes of clothe that bathed the room in reds and oranges. Animals of all shapes and sizes walked, flew, or lounged about the room. Almost as soon as she entered, several pets were at her feet, all waiting for the man that was standing behind her.

Feeling a bit embarassed about blocking his entry, she quickly took several steps into the room. She hadn't realized how loud the room had been until she was encompassed by silence. It was then that the scent of insense wafted into her nostrils. The smell was nearly intoxicating, almost magical. She turned to look back at D to ask him just what he was burning, only to find him staring at her with wide eyes.

"Are you okay...?" Her voice trailed off. She had never found out his name, so she couldn't very well pull him out of his shock with it.

D was fine. He was just...a bit shocked. Standing infront of him was a normal girl, a girl he had met at a bakery only about twenty minutes ago...But she had a tail...and ears. But she was definitely human.

"What did you bring back with you this time, D?" It seemed that they appeared out of nowhere, beings that would have looked human, except that some of them had tails, others had large, fluffy ears, and then still more had horns. There dress was indescribable, for she had never seen anything even similar to most of the outfits these creatures donned.

"Kai..." D's voice trailed off.

"What?" She looked at him, and then looked around the room once more. In every place there was an animal, there was now a person staring very intently at her. Some had confused looks on their faces, others looked surprised, and a few even looked angry.

"This is a most...unusual...circumstance." A perplexed expression on his face, he walked over to the tea table and picked up a hand mirror with silver lining its edges. He then walked back to Kai and handed it to her.

For a moment, she thought the man must have been playing some cruel joke on her, for when she looked into the mirror, her face was nearly exactly the same, other than the two large, white, furry fox ears that stood on the top of her head. "What's going on?" She asked, a mixture of surprise and anger in her voice. It was only then that she noticed her fangs. And, as she dropped the mirror to her side, she caught the reflection of her tail.

"I must say...that this is...the first time this had ever happened before..." He covered his mouth with his hand and collapsed onto a nearby sofa.

She raised an eyebrow. "I don't get it. What do you mean?"

"What he's trying to say, girly..." Began a voice from behind her. "Is that you're the first human who's ever came here and displayed characteristics of an animal. Generally," she smiled, "it's the other way around."

Kai turned to see a woman who clearly donned leopard ears as well as a leopard tail. Her outfit had a rather similar spotted pattern. "So...wait...you all are...?"

The leopard woman nodded. "We're all creatures of non-human origin. Especially T-chan here." She jerked her thumb in the direction of a rather tall man who lacked a shirt, but sported rather large, curly horns. "He's a totetsu."

"A what?" She blinked in confusion and returned her attention to the owner of the shop.

"D, why did you bring this girl here?" T-chan walked over and took a seat next to the man in the red dress, who sighed.

"She said she was looking for a companion." Several animals laughed.

"Well, we all know you deal in dreams, but how are you supposed to help a human who's more like us than she is like them?"

A smile twitched at the corners of his lips. "I'm not quite...sure..."

T-chan laughed. "Oh, this is a riot." Grinning, he pushed himself up off the couch and began walking towards Kai. He stopped a few inches away, leaned forward, and sniffed her arm. "D, she doesn't even smell human. She smells more like Ten-chan over there."

As if on cue, a boy that nearly screamed "fox" appeared between two red curtains. "What about me?" He stopped in the middle of a step when his eyes fell on Kai. "D, you didn't mention about going anywhere to get another fox, especially not a one-tail."

D smiled briefly. "That's because she's not a fox."

"Oh, I see." He laughed. "That makes perfect sense. She's not a-" He stopped in the middle of the sentence. "Wait, of course she is! Look at her! She's got ears and a tail! She can't be human, D!"

"I assure you, she is. Completely and one hundred percent human."

Kai was starting to get not only paranoid but annoyed. "D, if that's really your name, what in the world is going on!"

"If I knew, I'd be more than happy to tell you." His smile wasn't half as bright as it had been earlier.

She paused, ears back, tail fluffed, mouth open, not quite sure what to say. Although, after a few moments, when the initial shock began to wear off, a smile crept across her face.

"Okay. I have a tail and ears. And this isn't a joke, right?" She laughed and buried her face in a hand for a moment. "So, you're telling me, that by walking into this shop, I can see things that I normally wouldn't be able to see?" Her eyes flashed gold for a moment. "Amusing, amusing." Grinning, she took several steps towards the shop owner.

"Wait. So you understand now?"

Her smile was so broad that her fangs slipped outside her lips. "Well, sorta, yeah. Ever hear of the astral plane?"

He blinked. She laughed. "It's a plane of existence parallel to this one. Spirits travel through it freely. It's also the plane that your soul exists on, along with other parts of you that cannot be seen on the physical plane. Apparently..." She glanced down at her claw-like finger nails and long, furry tail. "This place seems to make that what was which unseen, seen." She grinned. "And I think I like it." Smiling, she took a seat next to D on the couch.

Eyes wide, he stared at her. "Do you have...a split personality...or something?"

Her full-toothed grin spread to her eyes as well. "They say that the fox has many faces, right? Well," she twitched the end of her tail and shifted the positions of her ears. "Then it only makes sense, right? For me to have completely different personalities, as well as completely different appearances, depending on where I am.

His expression soon softened into a smile, and Ten-chan laughed as if he knew exactly what she meant. "This girl...is far from normal, isn't she, D?"

The owner of the shop smiled. "Oh, yes. Far from normal indeed."

"So, what is this shop, anyway?" She lifted her nose to delicately sniff the air. "It absolutely reeks of incense." After climbing to her feet, she walked across the room, toward a door that seemed to lead to the back of the shop.

D didn't answer her question. Humans weren't meant to know his secret. If they did, well, then his life could only end in tragedy, as it almost had once before.

Kai, on the other hand, had been so curious about the shop, that she didn't even notice that her question had gone unanswered. For, behind the door, laid a labyrinth of corridors with hundreds of doors. The smell of incense had seeped into this part of the shop as well, although there was also a musky undertone, one that spoke of many animals. It was not a foul smell, more of just a touch of information to those who could notice it.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ten-chan appeared at her side, his curiosity written plainly across his face.

"Just...looking around. Why?" She shot a sly glance at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh, no reason." He simply smiled and fell a step behind her. "What brought you to the shop? Count D said you were looking for a companion."

Kai's ears flattened a bit. That was almost what she was here for. Her main reason for coming, though, was not for a pet, but for the Count himself, and that seemed like it was going to be a goal far out of her grasp at this moment. Because of this, she decided to change the subject. "Say, Ten-chan, what's with all these rooms?"

He smiled, a secretive one. "You'll only know if you open one of the doors."

She laughed. "You really are a fox, aren't you? Sly and cunning."

He grinned, but didn't say a word.

The next door Kai came to, she openned. It wasn't a gloriously carved door, nor was it horribly plain, but the scent it gave off seemed to be the one she was looking for. A forest. A very old smelling forest.

As the door creaked open, she caught Ten-chan smiling out of the corner of her eye. What's he so happy about? What greeted her eyes was the exact answer to that question.

Old, gnarled trees filled her line of sight. Their trunks grew high into the sky before sprouting branches that reached up to grasp the sun.

"So, who lives here?" Kai turned her head to the left and right, scanning the area, her hand still resting on the bronze doorknob.

"Me." The sound came from a brach about ten feet above her.

"Ten-chan?" The kitsune was almost gleaming. "This is your home?"

"Yup. Ancient Japan." He jumped down, landing gracefully on his feet. "Beautiful, isn't it?" His smile was sincere, his expression relaxed. She could tell he felt at home. "But I visit the front of the shop every now and then, just to make an appearance and what-not." His eyes only left the trees for a moment, just so he could take a quick glance at her. "So, tell me, what's your home?"

She laughed. "An over-heated too-small apartment in down-town." She grimaced. "Not only does it smell, but it's cramped, and I have to share it with my mother." Her ears flattened against her skull. "Not very fun at all." Her tail swished back and forth angrily.

"Well," Ten-chan hopped onto a nearby branch. "Why don't you ask the Count if you can live here?"

She looked at him with wide eyes. "Here? At the shop?" Her ears swiveled back in concentration. "I don't know..What would I tell my mother? And where in here would I stay. I mean...there's definately hundreds of rooms, but they're all occupied, right? There's no place for me here." She hid her sadness with what seemed to be a genuine smile.

Ten-chan, being a fox himself, saw right through it. "That's nonsense! Count D opens his doors to all...animals..." His voice trailed off. She was, indeed, not an animal. She was a human. But she had saw him as he truly was, not as what she wanted to see. "Besides, you can always stay here with me!" He smiled.

She laughed. "With you? In this forest?" She couldn't help but grin. "I don't think D would allow that either. I mean, as you just said, I'm not one of his animals, it would never work."

Frowning, the nine-tailed fox jumped off of his branch and next to the girl. "Well, we won't know if we don't ask. Come on! It's not exactly fun being the only fox in this entire place. Sure, the count has normal foxes, but nine-tails are hard to find." He sensed her about to make a comment, so he continued without giving her time for a rebuttal. "And even if you aren't a nine-tail, you're still fun to talk to, so you should at least talk to the guy and see what he says before you give up hope, right?"

She laughed, and then nodded. He was being persistant. He was also right. It couldn't hurt to ask, right?

It didn't take them long to get to the front of the shop. Ten-chan knew his way around pretty well. After all, he had said that he made random appearances at the front of the store.

"D!" The nine-tailed kitsune ran up to the shop owner, dragging Kai behind him. "D, can she stay here?"

A silence fell over the shop. All the animals turned to look at them, not a single one of them daring to say a word.

The Count looked up at him with steely eyes. "Ten-chan, you know I can't allow that. She's human. You know why a human wouldn't be able to stay here. They are the only creatures not granted residence in my shop."

"But D, she's different! What about her tail and ears! No mere human had shown such characteristics entering our shop before! That must mean she's different than the rest, that something within her seperates her from the rest of those fil-"

D raised his hand, a stern expression on his face. "No. It's not allowed. It would go against everything I stand for."

Ten-chan glared at him. "Well, I don't care." His hand was clamped tightly around hers. "I think she should stay."

Then, all of a sudden, his expression softened, and his attention turned to Kai. "Well, I think you found the companion you were looking for."

Kai blushed in embarassment, and Ten-chan blushed in rage. "D! What are you saying!"

"Well, clearly you have chosen this girl, correct? So why don't you go home with her. Here, let me go get a contract."

Ten-chan was obviously starting to lose his temper. "You know that's not what I mean, nor what I want! I don't want to leave the shop, D! I want her to stay here! There's no way she's completely human, so why can't you just let her stay! We don't even know why she's the way she is, so don't you think that she should at least stay until we figure it out!" He had been screaming so loud that his eyes had been clamped tightly shut in frustration.

The Count closed the small draw he had opened and placed the piece of paper he had slipped out back inside. "Maybe you are right." His eyes seemed to be holding something from them, a secret only he knew. Kai noticed, but Ten-chan seemed to not have seen a thing. "I shall let her stay for a few days and we'll see what develops."

"Count, you can't be serious!" Pon-chan had latched onto his dress and was pulling at its hem. "She's a human! What about the promise?"

Smiling lovingly, Count D bent down and scooped the little girl up into his arms. "Don't worry about it, Pon-chan. She'll be staying with Ten-chan. You have nothing to worry about." Smiling to himself, he walked over and placed the frilly-dressed girl in a chair next to a plate of cookies and a cup of tea.

Kai couldn't tell if Ten-chan was shocked or elated. How she felt, though, was neither of the two. She felt as if she had violated some unspoken code, and that everyone would hate her for it. It didn't help that she had come to the shop for the Count, not some fox who just happened to think she'd make the perfect playmate. In the middle of her attempt to speak, though, Ten-chan pulled at her hand. She turned to see why and noticed he was pulling her back towards the labyrinth of corridors. "Come on, I have a lot to show you!"

Sighing, she followed the kitsune thought the back door of the shop and into the realm that rested beyond.

TBC...