Old fears

"Leon, I do not at all understand what your point is! You managed last time I left Dana with you," D said icily and continued to stride into the precinct, Dana sitting on his hip and waving gleefully to the surrounding officers. Leon was walking beside them, trying to talk D out of it. The kami was so busy being angry at the human that he didn't notice the strange glances he was rewarded with.

"D, I told you! This is the plaza, not a kindergarten where you can drop Dana at every given opportunity!"

"I am not dropping her here at any given opportunity, this is only the third time, and if I may remind you, you are her father!" D snapped, rounded the corner to Leon's desk and firmly placed his daughter there. "Dana, be a good girl and behave, I will be back in two hours and then we will go to the park," he told the girl in a much softer voice than that which he used with Leon.

Who, as it happened, was fuming behind him. "D. This. Is. The. Plaza. It's not a good place for Dana. She's frigg- only 23 months old! Kids that small aren't supposed to be in police plazas. There're a lot of things around here which aren't good for her, revolvers and bad guys and photos of corpses and such. Please, please, please find another place for her!" he begged.

D straightened and faced Leon, placing one of his hands on his lion's. The blonde looked down on their intertwined fingers with a strange expression on his face.

"Please, Leon. I do not want to leave her alone at the shop, can't you understand that? And I can't take her with me to that customer of mine, either. He's a very dangerous man. She's much safer here with you," the kami said silently.

Leon sighed. "D, I don't want Dana to have too much to do with my work. She's a baby, she's far too young to understand. Chris didn't understand, and he's much older than she is."

D smiled and pressed his hand. "I trust you and Miss Jill that Dana won't even realise what you are doing," he said confidently. "Though I have to admit, the last time she was here, she picked up quite some strange words…" he added, wrinkling his brow a little. Leon choked and coughed.

"Oh, that's – our pathologist stopped by and explained something to me," he hastened to explain. D's expression cleared and he smiled again.

"I see. Well, then goodbye, Leon. I will be back as soon as possible."

He hugged Dana a last time, already busy with examining the little plastic bags on Leon's desk and quite distracted and left with a last bright smile for the human.

The blonde slumped down in his seat and stared at Dana glumly. "Oh sweetie, perhaps we should've told your bàbà what happened last time he left you here," he said to the girl. She stopped examining a gun bullet in a plastic bag and looked at Leon with bright blue eyes. The golden dots sparkled mysteriously.

"Dana swear not tell," she said. He tried to grin.

"I know, honey. You're a good girl, and D would go postal if he found out I left you with Jill. And what happened after I left you with Jill. She's not even here today, so what am I to do if I've gotta go?"

"Amélie teach Dana bones," the girl answered and Leon's brow wrinkled for a moment until he remembered that Barf's real name was Amélie.

"Yeah, right, she did that. That was nice of her, wasn't it? But still, the pathology lab isn't a place for small kids like you either." He sighed desperately and threaded a hand through his hair. "Great. If I get a call, I'll have to take you with me. God, I really hope Gavin's smart enough to stay out of sight in case his attacker decides to finish his job."

He took the bullet from Dana and instead handed her the Rubik's cube sitting on his desk. "Here, there you go. Play with that instead, bullets are proof and nothing to play with. See, you can turn it around and then the patterns change."

Dana was intrigued and fell silent. Leon replaced her onto his lap and switched his computer on, starting with the testimony Gavin had made when he finally found his speech again. Not that it was useful in any way. The attacker had been masked, and all Gavin could say for sure was that he had been shorter than him. That could be a hint that the attacker had been female, but considering that Gavin was pretty tall, even for a guy, it could as well have been a small guy.

As to why he had shot Gavin in the first place, the man had no idea, at least he claimed he had none. Leon would've guessed revenge for Laura, but his gut told him that this was something else. Gavin had been shot at such a short distance that he had to have noticed more about his attacker, but he wouldn't tell it. In Leon's experience that usually meant that he knew him and didn't want to give him away. And even someone who wasn't used to handling a gun couldn't aim so bad that he fired four times at a distance of three feet and just got one bullet into Gavin. In Gavin's leg, to top it. The guy hadn't wanted to kill him, he had wanted to scare or punish him.

Anyway, how could he sneak up on Gavin until he was only three feet away without him noticing?! He might be a braggart, but he wasn't dumb. And he'd been on his guard because he knew the police was after him because of Laura.

Leon rubbed his head tiredly and stared at the flickering computer screen. Perhaps he should get himself a cup of coffee. Yeah, that would help for sure.

"Dana, stay here and don't touch anything, okay?" he told his daughter and left her on his chair, still busy with the Rubik's cube. He grinned at the sight, stopping for a second to look back at the child. His heart swelled with pride. His daughter. She was his daughter.

Whistling a little, he pried himself loose of the sight and went to the coffee machine. It was broken as usual, and Leon swore. Now he had to go to the other floor to get a cup of coffee. But well, what should happen to Dana? Everyone around here knew who she was. No one would dare to hurt her.

Or so he'd thought. Because when he rounded the corner to his desk again, the chair was empty. "Dana?" Leon asked, placed the coffee cup on his table and looked around. But she was nowhere in sight. Worry took hold of him. "Dana, sweetie, don't play hide and seek with me now. Come out," he pledged. Silence.

The blonde stormed out, causing his colleagues to look up in surprise. It was early afternoon, the precinct was pretty empty at this time of day, most people were out making inquiries. "Has anyone seen Dana?" he asked and got questioning faces and shaking heads.

"Have you lost her again?" Christian teased, but shut up when Leon's face got even more worried.

"Dammit, I knew he should take her somewhere else!" he muttered under his breath. "Where can she be? I was only gone five minutes!"

"We'll help you look for her," his colleague offered and pushed back his chair. The others stood, too, and together they searched the whole floor, asking everyone passing by if he'd seen a small girl with brown hair and blue eyes. When they had no success, someone suggested Dana might have slipped into one of the elevators and ended up on another floor. So they parted and started to search the whole plaza, upsetting quite a few people. Leon grew ever more worried with every second. Jessica tried to calm him down, with little to no success.

"Don't worry, Leon, I'm sure she's alright. Perhaps she went down to Barf again, she seemed to like her last time," she said, only fuelling Leon's fear up again.

"Just great, she'll probably come across Barf while she's cutting up some corpse, with all the luck I'm having." And with that, he took off to the basement to make sure his daughter would not see open corpses.

He returned about seven minutes later with Barf in tow, who was quite worried herself. "I haven't seen her since last time," she said and chewed her lip. "Oh dear, Leon, what will the Count say when he comes back?"

The blonde paled. "Fuck, I haven't thought about D yet. Shit!" he swore. "Dammit, where can she be?! The plaza's not that big, she's gotta be somewhere around! I mean, she's a two-year-old kid! She has to stick out here!"

"What if one of the visitors took her out?" a young woman asked. Leon looked like being close to a heart attack and Barf quickly put a hand on his arm.

"I'm sure no one has done that. The guys at the entrance would have stopped them," she said sharply. "Let's get going, Leon. She probably just crawled into one of the cupboards and fell asleep there. Kids do such things, you know." She wanted to drag Leon away, but a baffled voice from behind stopped her.

"What are you all doing here?" D asked nonplussed and looked at the officers going around, bending down to look under tables, looking behind cupboards and opening doors with almost feverish activity. Leon turned, slowly, with the face of a man being led to the shambles.

"Hi D," he got out and then silenced. The kami took a good look at him and understood. His face froze into a cold mask.

"Where is Dana?" he asked, voice deadly silent. Leon shrugged helplessly.

"I don't know, D. I just got myself a cup of coffee, and then suddenly she was gone."

Silence was never good. Not when D went this deadly-silent. His face was unreadable, the mask firmly in place. Leon shrunk and looked at the floor.

"Where is my daughter?"

D's voice sounded as if he was close to shrieking in terror. Leon gulped.

"I don't know, D."

"You don't know."

"Yes."

"You don't know."

"Yeah, I said that already!" the blonde snapped and finally looked up again at the kami. "Quit it, okay?! I fucking don't know where she is, and I'm fucking worried, too, okay?!"

If Leon had ever thought D's face was a mask, the expression now on it topped every mask he'd ever worn in his life.

"You have lost your own child," he said, voice dead. The memory of Japan, of the way D had freaked out back then surfaced in Leon's mind and he swallowed hard again.

"Look, D, I was just gone five minutes. She probably walked around, crawled into a cupboard and fell asleep. We're already looking for her. We're going to find her."

He noticed his voice was pleading and scolded himself for that. Dana had to be around. She just had to.

This time it was fury that crept up in those mismatched eyes. For a split second Leon wondered what D was going to do now – if he would start screaming, or if he would hit Leon (and he would've let D hit him with no sound of protest), or what.

But what happened instead was that a door somewhere behind his back opened and a familiar voice asked: "What the hell is the matter here? Why are you not working?"

D's mask shattered all of a sudden. "Dana!" he gasped, the tension easing with one simple word. "Darling!"

The blonde turned around just in time to see the kami hurry to the chief and take the child he was carrying, hugging her tight to his chest. "Oh my darling," he whispered. The chief looked truly confused.

"Leon, your daughter was trashing your desk. I thought I'd have a little talk with her while you were getting coffee or doing copies or why ever you left her alone."

Barf besides Leon took a deep breath. Someone giggled. And suddenly everybody burst into laughter, with the exception of Leon and D. The latter was still busy whispering something to his child and the first was watching the kami. Something was wrong here, he could feel it. Why had D freaked out so much? Was it just because of Japan? Or was there more to this, something Leon didn't know yet?

Christian clapped Leon's back and the younger detective gasped with the sudden impact. "Well, buddy, as a father you've still got a lot to learn," he laughed. "Perhaps you should fasten a leash on your kid so that you won't loose her all the time!"

"Christian, shut up!" the blonde hissed, but D's sharp ears had caught the remark. Violet and gold glared at the human.

"What do you mean, again?" he asked sharply.

That was enough. Leon grabbed his kami by the arm and dragged him off to his cubicle, stubbornly ignoring the comments from his colleagues. Barf followed for some reason, but kept silent at first when they reached a quiet corner and Leon started to explain.

"Listen, D, that was just nonsense what Christian said. I've not lost Dana again. What he meant is that last time she was here, I had to go out and leave her with Jill. Jill then got work, too, and trusted another colleague with her. Since we're all here to work and not to baby-sit, Dana had a nice afternoon getting to know my colleagues and the precinct. End of story. She's still alive and she's not traumatized. So."

He crossed his arms and glared defensively. D's lips were a tight white line. "We are going to talk about that, Detective," he said stiffly, obviously aware of the young woman standing nearby. "However, there are some other questions I'd like to have an answer to. For example, why the nice man at the entrance knew I'd be here to pick up my child. Or why everyone keeps sending me such strange glances when I walk by. Don't think I don't notice the difference to how they usually look at me!"

Okay, so the usual comment about D dressing up like that wasn't going to work. But Leon hadn't expected it to work anyway.

He was searching for an answer when Barf rescued him.

"They're just curious, Count," she explained, trying to ease the tension by being calm and neutral. "After all, everyone thought you were a man. It's natural that they now are wondering how you manage to disguise your secondary sexual characteristics."

"Excuse me?" D inquired, glaring daggers. "Did you just say that some police officers are thinking about how I look without my clothes?!"

Barf snorted. "I think there's no possible doubt that roughly every guy in this precinct is at the moment busy imagining what you are hiding under your clothes," she said matter-of-factly.

D blushed furiously and kept on glaring. "What?"

Her hazel eyes were curious behind her glasses when she looked at him. "If I might ask, why did you choose to identify yourself as a male?" she asked. Leon looked positively horrified, while the kami managed – thanks to long experience – to keep his face straight. The only hint that he was completely caught off-guard was his voice when he spoke again.

"Why I chose to identify myself as a male?" he echoed.

Barf nodded. "Yeah. As a female hermaphrodite you are basically a woman, even if you look more male."

"I – I," D stammered and sent Leon a glance so murderous that the blonde felt positive he would drop dead to the floor any second.

"It – I had various personal reasons," the kami finished and tore his burning gaze off the blonde. Leon, being guilty of everything and knowing it, felt like he had to rescue him and cut in.

"Barf, I'm sorry, but we've got to go. Dana's gotta get her dinner and all," he said and gently steered D towards the door. The Chinese looked still sort of calm, but Leon doubted he would stay like that for long. He only hoped he would wait until Dana was out of hearing range until he started screaming.

"You're already leaving?" Leon's colleagues looked very disappointed.

"Yeah, we are. Little kids have to go to bed early," he gritted through his teeth and draped an arm around D's shoulders, not only because he wanted to make sure he came along, but also because he didn't like the glances the kami was rewarded with. He was a guy himself. He knew when other guys were secretly undressing someone, and they were doing it with D right now. He didn't like it at all.

"Bye, guys," he said and nudged D through the door. Barf followed them into the garage and handed Leon Dana's toys after he had placed the girl in her seat. She looked like she was about to fall asleep the moment he started to drive and he got her shoes off. It would be much more comfortable for her.

Dana reached for him sleepily. "Daddy," she mumbled and Leon bent inside.

"Yes, what is it, honey?"

"Not fight with Bàbà," she sniffed.

"Don't worry, sweetie. We're not going to fight," he murmured and stroked her hair. "Go to sleep, huh? We'll be home soon."

D was quietly talking to Barf. The young woman was flushed, but she answered calmly. Leon straightened and sent a glance at the kami. "Hey D, you're coming? Dana's asleep on her feet, I'd like to get her into bed as soon as possible."

The kami sent him a strange glance. "I am coming. Goodbye, Miss Lefebre."

"Goodbye, Count. See ya, Leon," Barf smiled and returned to the elevator while D got into the car. Leon started the engine and drove off. Uncomfortable silence settled. He didn't dare turn on the radio like he usually did. Dana made no sound either, and D was pointedly staring out the front window.

Leon sighed inwardly. That was why he hadn't wanted Dana at the precinct. It just was no place for little children.

D didn't say anything when they arrived back at the shop. He took the sleeping child out of her seat, carried her to the bedroom, dressed her in her pyjamas and laid her down, Leon all the time idling around behind him, not knowing what to do. Only when the kami was convinced that Dana was fast asleep and wouldn't wake anytime soon, he turned and strode to the front room, still not even glancing at Leon. The blonde sent a last glance at the kid and sighed. He'd promised Dana they wouldn't fight, but he saw no real alternative. D was going to have his head for everything at the precinct.

Once they arrived in the parlour, D whirled round and attacked Leon, mismatched eyes blazing with fury. "How dare you tell everybody at the plaza I am not a man, but a woman?!" he hissed and looked like he was about to hit Leon. He took a step backwards.

"I didn't! I just told them you're Dana's mom, nothing else!"

"Are you completely crazy?! You told the whole precinct that I am Dana's mother?!" D screamed, his pale cheeks taking on red colour. Leon glared back.

"What was I supposed to do, funny? You appear, drop a kid on me that just happens to have my eyes and your looks and think in a building full of police officers no one is going to suspect anything?!"

"It was your job to make no one get suspicious!" D snapped. His fist met the back of his chair.

"If you don't want anyone to get suspicious about Dana, then you've gotta keep her hidden in this fucking shop, because otherwise someone will always get the right idea!" Leon answered angrily. "Besides, I don't see why you're freaking. Okay, everybody thinks you're a woman underneath your dresses, but what the fuck? Everybody was mistaking you for a woman anyway!"

D's eyes narrowed until they were barely slits. "You impertinent stupid! How can you tell them I am a woman?! I am not a woman! I am both!"

"Yeah, but unfortunately, real human hermaphrodites aren't able to get children," the human gave back hotly. "Be glad Barf talked everybody into believing you're a woman!"

"I am not the one who should be grateful for that intelligent young woman!" the kami jeered. "You were stupid enough to let slip I gave birth to the child!"

"Yeah, now it's all my fault again, is it? Who was the one that brought her to the plaza in the first place? It wasn't me, I told you it's a bad idea!"

"And I am sorry I ever did it! I should've known you cannot protect her!"

The words cut deep into Leon's heart. He roared with fury. "I can protect her, damn you! No one will get suspicious as long as you don't start telling anyone that you're not a real woman! They'll just think you're cross-dressing, that's all, and no one will care. Fuck, there are thousands of cross-dressers of every gender here in L.A.! Why should they think you're any different to them?!"

"That is not the point here!" D screamed. "The point is that you endangered Dana!"

"I did not! How the fuck should I have endangered her?! Okay, it's gonna need some pretty good explanations, but nothing we can't take care of. If worst comes to worst, you can still use those magical powers of yours."

"It's dangerous!" D was going real crazy now. "She isn't human, she's a hybrid! They will take her to the scientists, they will examine her and do all kinds of horrible things to her, don't you understand that?! It's dangerous!"

He turned away, staring at the wall. Leon glared. "C'mon, D, cool down. It's not easy, but what are you gonna do? Lock her up in the shop so that nothing can happen to her? That's just cruel! She's a kid, and she needs to meet other people!"

A strange sound reached Leon's ears, and D's shoulders hunched oddly. The blonde hesitated and looked more closely.

Then he realised D was crying.

"God, D, stop it!" he claimed, exasperated, and hurried over, standing behind the kami, not knowing whether to touch him at all, and if, where. His hands were reaching and withdrawing again. "D, please. We can do that, I know it. If it's necessary, we can move to some other state, where no one knows us. Stop crying."

D mumbled something.

"What?"

"I said you don't understand at all!" the kami burst out and turned to Leon, attacking him with his fists, so fast Leon could barely jump back. "You don't understand anything!"

"Hey, whoa, make slow!" The blonde caught the fists and drew D close to him, realising he'd never seen him truly cry. Tears swimming in those mismatched eyes, yes, one tear rolling down his cheek as he pushed Leon away from him, too, but cry, like he did now, whole body convulsing with sobs and tears running down the beautiful face, no. Whatever had happened, D had always had himself under control, never allowing his feelings to get the better of him.

Suddenly Leon understood. He embraced D and forced him to lay his head down on his shoulder. The kami resisted, but not very strongly, and the blonde managed to take him into his arms. "D, why did you never tell me? Damn, I'm here to take my responsibility as Dana's dad, and I'm here for you. Why did you never tell me you don't have a clue what to do with her yourself?"

D hid his face in his shoulder and didn't answer, but he needn't to. Leon knew exactly what he would say. He was a kami, he was the one who had brought Dana upon them both, he was supposed to know what to do with the child. And Leon, truth be told, had never really questioned that D knew what to do with her. He'd never spared a thought to the fact that Dana was D's first child as well, and probably the first child his kin had had in god-knows-how-many generations. No wonder he was freaking.

The blonde looked around, saw only D's high-backed chair and sat down on it, pulling the kami with him and seating him on his lap, legs to both sides of his legs. His hands stroked D's back in soothing movements. "D, we're gonna be alright, I swear. I won't let anything happen to you or Dana. Hell, I'd rather let myself be killed for you!"

A sob heaved up D's chest. "I don't want you to die," he mumbled into the wet spot on Leon's t-shirt.

"I'm not going to die anytime soon. Calm down. I'm a detective. I'm right where all suspicious things end up. I know what they do to make people talk. I'm pretty sure we can handle it if anyone really gets suspicious."

He felt the kami nod shyly into his shoulder. Leon continued to speak, trying to soothe him and feeling like he was sitting in front of a frightened animal, aware it might vanish any moment if he made an unexpected move.

"We're gonna be alright. Trust me. No one ever listened to me when I was going on about how you were responsible for all of those deaths. No one will listen to anybody trying to tell them you're not human."

"The FBI might start to investigate me again," D murmured beside Leon's ear.

"They might. But why should they? Agent Howell is dead, and as far as they're concerned, you weren't even involved in his death. At least the report we sent them after your father died said that. People forget so quickly. Why should they investigate further?"

"But when Dana grows, they will notice she's different."

Leon put his hands to D's shoulders and held him at arm-length. His blue eyes searched his face solemnly. "D, we're gonna handle that as we handled everything else. If worst happens, we can still move. We both have a lot of experience in that by now. Please just don't think you've gotta take it all yourself. Tell me about it, will you?"

D's head dropped onto his chest, his hair shielding his eyes. But he nodded. The blonde smiled, put a hand under his chin and made him look into his face. "Don't worry. We're gonna be okay."

He tugged slightly at the kami's head, guiding him closer to his face. His breath stopped for a second before it resumed in a shattering cadence, his eyes became wild and a little frightened. But Leon hadn't spent so much time for nothing at the pet shop. He gently laid his other arm around D's waist again and pulled him closer, and D followed him as if hypnotized. And then their faces were barely two centimetres apart.

Their lips found each other. At first it was just a shy peck, but then D leaned closer and pressed his mouth to Leon's. He was no experienced kisser, but he was trying, and the blonde felt so overwhelmed by the feeling of those soft lips on his that he wouldn't have minded if D had been the worst kisser in the whole world, past and future included. Carefully he tried to show D how to kiss, and the kami eagerly followed his ministrations. A small sigh escaped Leon. God, this was so much better than fighting with D…

His hand slid from D's back to his shoulder, where it met the top the kami was wearing today and the many closures on it. His annoyance at the complicated outfit caused him to growl in his throat. D jerked back at once, looking utterly mortified. "I – I am sorry!" he stammered and placed a hand over his mouth. "I – I am not…"

His voice trailed off as his blush increased, and his mismatched eyes looked miserable. Leon hurried to soothe him. "No, no, D, cool down. It's not you," he said and pulled D back against him. "It's not you. It's that top of yours."

D's face lost its tense expression and he just looked confused. "My top?" he echoed, sounding unbelieving.

Leon grinned lopsidedly and shrugged. "Yeah. Silly, ain't it? But that's it."

"Why do my clothes bother you?" D's voice was astounded. Leon bit back a rather dumb comment about D's clothes being in the way of what he would like to do with the kami and tried to think of a good answer. The Chinese pecked his head to the side and eyed him curiously, not even realising what pass he'd just provided Leon with. He thought desperately, but his mind wouldn't come up with anything else than with the truth. But it just sounded stupid.

He cleared his throat and tried to wave it away. "Never mind, it's not important."

"But, Leon…" D protested, and the blonde knew he was hooked now and wouldn't let go until he'd told him.

Perhaps it was the fact that Leon felt like one of D's mysteries had been revealed to him, now that he had seen him cry, really cry. "I don't know," he admitted silently. "It's just – your clothes, they are so – so -" He stopped again, not sure how to explain. D raised his head and looked at him, brow wrinkled again in dismay.

"They're too girlish for you," he stated flatly.

"No!" Leon shook his head vigorously. "No, that's not it. It's just – they're like armour."

He felt stupid at saying such a thing, but the curious look in D's eyes encouraged him to explain further. He tugged at one of the little closures. "You're always so wrapped up in them, all high collar, and tight behaviour, and closed up, and there's no breach in them, no place where one can get inside. And I'm trying and trying, but you just keep on being all tied up and I don't get through to you. You always shut me out. Everybody else gets through to you, Jill and Chris and Dana and your pets, but not me. Never me."

The words tumbled out of his mouth and he realised that he'd wanted to say them for a very long time. "I never reach you," he conceded silently, sighing deeply and stroking his hands down the kami's back. The feeling of the warm body underneath them made him feel something like close to the Chinese for the first time .

Sometime during his speech, D's head had dropped again to rest on Leon's shoulder. Now, when the blonde stopped to take a breath, he mumbled something. Leon arrested his hands on D's back. "What?"

The kami's lips brushed his ear as he whispered silently, "But you did."

"Yeah?" Leon felt D nod shyly.

"You always did. That was why I hated you so much. You robbed me of any defences I had. You made me fear and long for you at the same time, and you never noticed how much you frightened me."

"Oh, fuck." The blonde took a deep breath and resumed caressing D. "I'm so sorry, D. I never wanted to – well, I guess I did, but not that way."

"It is my own deficiency," D said silently, still not moving. But the human felt his body relax slowly under his hands. "I should have forced you to leave me alone when I got aware of the feelings you caused in me. But I was so vain, I thought I could handle them, and could handle you. I wanted to prove myself I was not afraid of you." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "And I wanted to prove myself that I was not attracted to you, either."

Leon couldn't help the lopsided grin on his face. "Well, seems we agree at least on this. Because I was telling myself the whole time there was just no friggin' way I could be attracted to you, too."

"I am so sorry my stubbornness has brought all this upon you," D whispered and sounded like he was about to cry again. Leon tightened his arms around the kami.

"As I've told you before, it takes two to tango. It's as it is, no point in thinking about what-ifs now. Just let's try to make this work, okay?"

D's head moved in a nod. The blonde leaned back in the chair, causing him to practically lie down over his chest. He felt tired, so tired he could almost fall asleep right here, on Leon's lap. His eyes kept closing although he tried to keep them open. But the warmth of Leon's body beneath him, the strange new tenderness between them, the exhaustion from the terror he had felt earlier all summed up. A few seconds later he was asleep as well.

He awoke the next morning to find himself still sprawled over the detective's body. Leon was asleep beneath him, face peaceful and relaxed. D didn't dare to move. He just gazed at the human in wonder. So this was love.

He dared to place a shy kiss on the blonde's lips. He stirred, tightened his arms around D's back and murmured something indecipherable. "Leon, it is time to wake up," D said softly, giving him another kiss. "It is nearly half past seven. You have to go to work."

"Not yet," Leon mumbled and one of his hands started to stroke D's back. The kami shivered and bit his lip. He couldn't give in to that sudden flaring desire, not now, not here…

"Please, Leon, wake up. Miss Jill is going to be displeased if you run late," he pleaded and tugged at Leon's arm. "And I have to go to Dana and prepare breakfast."

The blonde sighed deeply, cracked open a blue eye and sent a weary glance at the kami on top of him. "Don't be silly, Jill's gonna be squeaking like you when you get sweets when I tell her what happened last night," he said.

D blushed. "I do not squeak if you bring me sweets," he reprehended stiffly. Leon's grin widened. "Course not."

But he straightened, raising D as well in the process. He quickly slid down from his legs before he could change his mind. Never had his body yearned more for the nearness of the human than it did right now. But now was neither the time nor the place for such. And this time, he wanted to take it slow. Enough had been destroyed by his rash actions in the past.

Leon yawned widely and stretched. "That chair's not the most comfortable either," he commented. "You prepare breakfast, I'll go fetch Dana?"

D smiled at him. "Do you want something special?"

"Make sure I get my meat. That's all I want," the blonde called, already on his way to D's bedroom.

He returned half an hour later with the girl sitting on his hip, already dressed, wide awake and up to mischief as usual. She seemed quite happy that both of her fathers were there for breakfast and not at all surprised. Sitting on Leon's knees, she entertained both adults, Pon-chan, Tetsu and some pets who were in the kitchen with a song she'd apparently invented herself. Leon petted her hair affectionately. "My little songbird," he said proudly and flashed a smile at D.

All pets gaped when their master returned the smile happily. "Will you come back after your shift?" he asked and took Leon's plate. The blonde hoisted the girl up on his shoulders and carried her to the parlour.

"Yeah, will be back at seven or so if nothing happens." He sat the girl down. "Dana, I've gotta go work. Be a good girl. I'll be back in some hours," he said and smiled at her.

"I shall prepare a room for you then… Leon," D offered. The blonde smiled back at him.

"Yeah, do that," he called and jumped up the stairs. Pon-chan and T-chan didn't seem to know where to look. But their master barely turned back to the shop, smiling happily.

The raccoon nudged her friend. "What happened yesterday after they quarrelled?" she asked astonished. Tetsu shrugged.

"Dunno," he replied and went over to get Dana. "But it sure is a change for the better if you ask me."

A/N: They just can't live without bashing in each other's head every now and then, now, can they? *sighs* Just great -.- (The inserted "now" hit the nail on the head, Dark Inu, and not only for the moment... *smiles*)

No, sorry ;-) Actually, I like it, and I hope you liked it, too, and thanks for the reviews!

Oh, BC, you really, really deserve a big hug for that review! *hugs* Yeah, prepare more popcorn, although I think you're gonna need to get some stashed... at least if everything goes like I want it to go... ah, I can't talk about that yet ^^
Okay, you're either from Spain or from Mexico... but considering that most of my readers seem to be from Mexico, I'd say the latter. On the other hand - the time difference seems to be too short for a land on the other side of the ocean...