Handling together

"Would you tell me about it?"

D craned his neck and tried to look into Leon's face from his place on the human's chest. "About what?" he asked curiously. They were the first words spoken since what seemed to be a long time. They were both tired, yet they couldn't go to sleep right now. Perhaps Dana would wake again, and then one of them had to go and soothe her, more likely both. The girl was afraid to be left alone by either father.

So now they were lying on D's bed, still wearing their clothes. Leon had brought Dana to bed a while ago and then come to D, lying down without a word, just taking the kami into his arms tightly, and they'd stayed like that. Just felt the other body, the other's faint heartbeat. D had never known what contentedness could be found in simply being together.

Leon loosened a hand around D and threaded it through black silken hair instead. "About Dana. About the pregnancy. The birth. Would you tell me about it?"

D pushed himself up until he was propped up over his lover and could study his face. The blonde met his gaze with warm blue eyes, a tender expression the kami hadn't seen often yet. But every time he saw it, he fell ever more in love with the human.

"Yes, I will. What do you want to know?" he answered and slipped back into Leon's arms. His hand stroked D's back, sending warmth through the silk of his cheongsam. The kami closed his eyes and relished in the new sensations. How blessed he was to be here right now, with the one he loved.

Leon hesitated, but then asked. "What's it like, having a baby in you?"

D turned so that he lay on his back and placed one of Leon's hands on his belly. "It is wonderful," he replied softly. The blonde rolled over on his side, too, and propped his head on his hand, looking down on their hands on the kami's abdomen. "Feeling a new life growing in you is just – indescribable," D continued. "I cannot really say how it feels. But when it starts to move… it is better than anything else in the world."

"Didn't you feel bad sometimes? I mean, all women I knew who got pregnant were pretty sick during pregnancy." Leon grinned a little lopsidedly. "God, I remember when my mom was with Chris, she couldn't eat anything before midday. She'd throw up everything, even water."

D blushed. "I was pretty sick," he admitted shyly. "It was very difficult to find something I could eat."

Leon's fingers caressed his belly. "I'm sorry, D."

He smiled up at him fondly. "What for? You couldn't have guessed my condition."

The blonde shrugged. "Still, I wish I could've been there. I mean, okay, I would've been pretty pissed about it all, but still…"

The kami placed a finger over his lips and silenced him thus. "It was better this way, Leon," he said softly. "I could never have accepted your help. I was – too stubborn to admit what I felt for you. I was frightened and I needed my grandfather's help. I would rather not have both of you in one place while I'm already feeling bad."

Leon chuckled and then became solemn again. "So you had a pretty difficult pregnancy, didn't you?"

D considered what to tell him. But the words were still fresh in his memory. I never come through to you. He wanted this to work. He wanted Leon to trust him and love him. To achieve this, he had to trust the blonde as well.

"I was afraid," he confessed silently and dropped his eyes. "I was confused, shocked, angry, all at once. I hadn't asked to conceive and was angry that I did. I had no idea what to do, I was afraid to do something wrong and harm the child. There was this one evening –" he shuddered and clutched Leon's hand. "My body tried to get rid of Dana. It was weakened by the lack of food and decided the baby was too much for it. I was so afraid I would loose your child…"

His voice trailed off as he recalled the terror that had swept over him when he realised he might actually loose their baby.

A soft kiss snapped him back to the here and now. Leon's blue eyes looked at him lovingly as he brushed a strand of hair from his face. "You didn't want to loose my baby?" His voice was soft and tender. D smiled a little shakily.

"I was wrong not to tell you about her, but believe me, Leon, I never forgot you're her father," he said earnestly. In reply, Leon kissed him.

D gladly gave in to him, welcomed the lips on his, the tongue invading his mouth. But Leon drew back all too soon and leaned back against the head of the bed again, staring at the ceiling. A deep sigh heaved up his chest. The kami looked at him apprehensively. "Is something bothering you, Leon?" he inquired worriedly. "Has something happened in the Miller-case?"

The blonde shook his head and placed a quick kiss on his forehead. "No, D, it's nothing to do with work. It's Chris."

"Oh." D was silent for a moment. Then he spoke hesitantly. "Does he – know about his niece?"

"Not yet." Another deep sigh. "I wanted to tell him when we had settled in somehow. I guess that's now, and I really want to tell him. Have kept it a secret far too long. Only problem is, how am I gonna tell him that? I mean, we can't just turn up in NY on my aunt's doorstep with the kid and say, hello, here we are, that's Dana and she's our child."

"That would be rather rude," D asserted and laid his head back on Leon's chest. He felt it rise with every breath the blonde took. "But we could invite him here. He might perhaps want to come to the shop again."

Leon chuckled. "Might want to? D, he's crazy for you, completely. It almost broke his heart when I told him I wasn't going to continue searching for you."

"I am also glad you changed your mind," D replied softly.

Leon chuckled again. "Didn't have much choice, now, did I? Honlon's pretty persuasive if she wants to, and Kanan and Shuko are very stubborn."

"Just like their father," D couldn't suppress. Leon tweaked him.

"Both of their fathers, darling, don't forget to mention that. Thank god Junrei's different at least. Anyway, I should call Chris soon." He sighed deeply. "What am I going to tell my aunt and uncle? They didn't really like you, and that's probably not gonna change when they hear the news."

D suppressed a mean comment about Leon's relatives. He had liked Josie. She reminded him of Leon a lot, and he hadn't been surprised to hear the both of them had been good friends as children. Samantha was – well, a human girl. He didn't exactly dislike her, but he didn't like her either. The thing with Chris, well, that had been a quarrel between brother and sister, nothing he could hold against her.

However, their parents were another thing. Them he disliked. If Leon had been angry with him for letting Chris go with his sisters, D was angry at the parents for not thinking about Leon's feelings either. They had also just turned up and if not for Honlon, they would've taken Chris away without even telling Leon first. D had not been related to Leon back then. They were. If he'd hurt Leon by letting Chris go, they would've hurt him, too, by simply taking the boy.

Well, now the situation had changed considerably. He and Leon now shared a child. He could take his side, could he not?

"You could simply tell them what everybody believes anyway, that I am a woman," he suggested, trying not to sound pissed (which he still was, although he had to admit it presented a good explanation. Still, they had agreed on the 'rape'-explanation. D couldn't really picture himself getting raped by Leon. After all, he was the only human D'd ever had sex with).

"Will probably be best, won't it? Though Aunt Mary's sure to get all snobbish about you dressing up like a man, and I really hope Uncle Arthur only hears about it when I'm already out of hearing range. He'll have another monologue about how the young people nowadays don't know how to behave anymore and it's their own fault if something like this happens."

D chuckled and stroked Leon's chest with one hand, exploring the fabric and wondering if the blonde would mind taking his shirt off so he could get to the skin beneath. "But Miss Josie seemed to be quite open-minded," he voiced. The human snorted.

"Yeah, Josie's different anyways. My mother was her godmother and she spent quite a lot of time with us. Mom always was one for freedom. I think Uncle Arthur never said anything about it because he knew how much Aunt Mary loved her sister. Aunt Mary isn't bad. She's just a little antiquated sometimes. My mom was completely different. I always wondered why they were such good friends all the same."

"I wish I had got to know your mother," D said softly. Leon was silent for a moment.

"You would've liked her," he said then. "She was cool. And clever, and all. Just great. I never got why she married my father. Bastard left us for some strange plan of his when I was six, only to show up again fourteen years later, get my mom pregnant again and leave a second time. I don't even know why she welcomed him back. I didn't talk to him at all, but she just smiled and said he's still her husband."

D hesitated. "Why didn't your father get Chris after he was born?" he asked then. "I mean, I always – kind of assumed you and he are just half-brothers."

Leon grinned. "You did? No, we're real brothers, same mom, same dad. My father didn't get him because he left about four months after he'd come home for another project in South Africa. Don't know what exactly happened, but fact is, he managed to crash his plane on the way to some treasure. He was pretty adventurous, you know. Kind of like Indiana Jones, only he never had any success. Coulda been because he was just too dumb to know the difference between real stuff and fakes. Not that I was very sad about his death, especially because my mom had just told me she was pregnant again."

"You really didn't like your father, did you?" the kami inquired, having found the place where Leon's shirt was hanging out of the waistband of his jeans and trying to get it out further to get beneath. Leon shook his head.

"I didn't know him enough to dislike him. Even when I was a kid, he was always on the road, getting into trouble all the time trying to get rich quickly. But when I had turned six, someone offered him a chance to get to Africa, and he came home and told my mom he was going to get rich there. He never even promised her he'd come back and build her a palace or any such stuff." He snorted disparagingly. "Not that my mom would've wanted a palace. Still. He should have told her something like that. What are you doing there?"

D stopped his attempts at getting his hand beneath Leon's shirt and blushed. The blonde looked down on him and grinned broadly. "D, if you wanna take my shirt off, you can just ask me. I was starting to feel rather uncomfortable in it anyway."

The colour crept all the way up to his hair. "I – I was just thinking you might be – it looks so disorderly if only half of it is out of your jeans," he stammered and Leon laughed out loud.

"You may be good at lying out of bed, but in it, you really suck at it, D," he told his lover and quickly took off his shirt, leaning back into the cushions again. The kami hid his face in his shoulder, glad that his embarrassment provided him with an excuse to do so. Not that Leon would believe that either.

"So, what about your dad?"

The blonde's voice was very silent. His hand rested heavily on D's back. The kami kissed his collarbone. "He got reborn. There is no reason for you to have a bad conscience. I think he is happier now."

"He truly got reborn? Can he remember anything?"

D got up on his elbows again and looked down on Leon's face. He tried to sound casual, but the kami saw the pain in there he'd seen so often, every time when Leon had had to kill. It didn't matter who the dead one was. His human always took the deaths to heart.

"Leon, please," he said softly. "My father was not happy. He wasn't even in his right mind anymore. I do not know what made him go mad, but I know he was very sad." He slipped back down and took the human into his arms. "He was in the pet shop during my pregnancy, as well as my grandfather, and he was happy then. He has forgotten everything, but he still is my father. I recognised his character, and I am happy for him. Of course it was a shock at first. But I know he is happier now."

"Q-chan really got the whole family together, didn't he?" Leon's hands started to caress D. He arched against the touches.

"Yes, but that is not the way it should be. We cannot be all in the shop for long. It can only have one master, and that is me at the moment. When two of our kin are present, they will bring it out of balance sooner or later, because it obeys both commands. And with all three of us, it was only a matter of time until they had to leave again to avoid trouble."

The blonde sighed. "God, you're complicated."

"Not in all aspects," D whispered and decided they had talked long enough now. It was time to get on to other activities, much more delightful activities. So he craned his neck and kissed Leon. Obviously he shared his opinion, because he returned it eagerly. And D already felt the hand fighting with the closures of his cheongsam. Chuckling into the kiss, he helped Leon to undo them and get the garment off, then lay back and purred in delight as his lover slowly kissed his way down to his navel.

"Not that I mind that much, but it's really a shame," Leon murmured.

"What?" The kami let his hands slip into blonde hair. So soft, so wonderful, so pretty… his child had the best father he could have found.

"That you don't have breasts." Leon sighed and looked up at D. "Don't kill me, but I just like them."

He looked so unhappy that D took pity on him. "I had breasts during my pregnancy," he told him freely. "But they vanished again when I stopped feeding Dana."

Leon gaped. "You are not serious, are you?"

D chuckled. "I am. How else should I have fed her? My species isn't that different from humans."

Now the blonde swallowed visibly. "I – had wondered," he croaked. "Oh god, D, don't tell me such stuff. You're tempting me far too much. I might think about getting you pregnant again just to see that."

The kami raised an eyebrow. "I did not like them, Leon. They felt strange, and they hurt."

"That's just because you had no one to show you how much fun they can be," his lover murmured, but D ignored him.

"And besides, it would be difficult for you to get me pregnant again," he said arrogantly. Leon propped up his head.

"Oh yeah? I did it once, I could do it again." He let his eyes scan over D's naked body to where his light silken trousers began and grinned. "Especially if we keep going at this pace."

"You still would have no success. I have taken precautions," D replied and resumed his caresses. Leon blushed.

"Oh. That. I – I wanted to ask you anyway if we've got to use stuff, ya know, condoms or anything…" His voice trailed off. D nearly laughed at his embarrassed face.

"No, we do not. In fact, the herbal tea I prepared for myself is far more effective than anything humans thought up."

"Oh." Leon was still red, but he grinned again. "Well, then…"

He crawled up and started kissing D again. The young kami purred and stole Leon's hair tie while the blonde was busy with his throat. This morning, he'd told D that he liked him much better in clothes that didn't have a high collar. But since D couldn't very well show off his hickeys, he'd had to disappoint his lover with a heavy heart, promising him only that he was always welcome to take care of the high collar. The spark of lust in Leon's eyes following this statement had nearly tempted him into dragging the human back into bed and continuing their nightly activity. But common sense had argued, and D had watched his lover leave for work sadly.

However, now Leon was back and not at all averse to going further. D was almost embarrassed at how much he wanted this to happen. It was as if his body had decided his abstinence was to be over. Still, the kami had remembered how Leon had been careful not to really sleep with him and guessed the reason why. Since he consented that one child was enough for the time being, and was averse to the human ways of preventing, he'd taken his own precautions.

And it surely seemed he'd done so rightly, if one could judge by the way Leon was kissing him, so hungrily and needful. D gladly returned the kiss, wrapped one of his legs around Leon's body and snuggled closer. Leon's chest was wonderful to look at, but feeling it against his own was better. And then there was the way those hands were stroking his back, caressing and demanding at the same time…

The whimper was at first so soft D didn't realise neither of them was making the little sound. But then Leon startled, stopped kissing him and listened closer. "Isn't that Dana?" he asked, worried. The wail grew louder, definitely coming from the room next door. D let himself fall back into the cushions, groaning in frustration. His frown grew when Leon started to laugh while he climbed out of the bed and put his t-shirt back on.

"What?" he snapped.

The human shook his head and grinned."You know, I never thought you'd look so pissed just because I'm leaving your bed," he whispered, the low deep voice making D shudder with lust.

"Language!" he groaned and hid his burning cheeks in the cushion. Leon's hand stroked his ass. "Behaviour!"

The blonde went to the door leading to Dana's bedroom and grinned back at him. "Well, D, sorry to have to tell you, but you know what they say: The small sins god punishes at once – the big ones nine months later."

He was in the other room when the cushion hit the door. But D was at least granted compensation: Leon was the one who had to carry Dana around until early morning.

And in contrast to D, he couldn't sleep in.

"D, can I use your phone?"

The kami looked up from Dana's book surprised and nodded. "Of course," he answered, noticing that Leon seemed to be extraordinarily nervous, and had ever been since he came home from the precinct.

Then he understood what the human wanted to do. Well, they had talked about it yester-night. And better sooner than later. Still, his heart started to flutter, too, and he smiled at his lover encouragingly, wanting to show him he was with him.

Leon smiled back at him, took a deep breath and dialled in the number. He talked to Samantha and then Chris was on the phone. "Brother!" he exclaimed happily.

The elder Orcot smiled a little, although he couldn't see it. "Chris, hey lil'bro, how's it going?"

D sat beside him and tried to understand what Chris was telling Leon, but Dana wanted to be kept busy. She was crawling around on his lap and he had to watch her so she wouldn't fall down. He could only listen to the conversation with half an ear.

"Sam really did that? Wow, that's nice of her. I hope you thanked her for that. Yeah, course I know you're a well-mannered boy." The blonde sent a meaningful glance at D, who smirked smugly and caught Dana before she could really loose balance. "Listen, buddy, I've gotta tell you something as well. Do you remember my journey to Japan and who I met there?"

D bit his lip and pulled his daughter closer. How would Chris react? He really hoped the boy would be able to cope with the news. He hoped he wouldn't hate him afterwards. Chris loved him, sure, but his loyalty was to his brother. D wouldn't want it otherwise, but still, he was afraid. Chris had become kind of a son to him as well, and if he wouldn't like Dana, then…

Leon sensed his fear and took one of his hands, pressing it hard. He smiled at D and the kami relaxed. Leon would know what to say and do. After all, Chris was his brother.

"Yeah, course I don't think you'd have forgotten I found the Count there again. Just wanted to make sure. But I didn't tell you all."

Chris silenced. He sensed the weight of the situation. Leon took another deep breath. "The Count's back in America, Chris. In fact, he's sitting right beside me at the moment."

The boy screamed so loud Dana startled and stared at the receiver with wide eyes. She'd not yet gotten used to the strange technique. Every time D phoned Leon and let her talk to her father, she looked around as if searching him inside the shop.

"He's back! He's really back?! Oh, can I please come visit? Please, please, please, brother, I wanna come visit him!"

The elder laughed relieved. "I don't think he'll say no, Chris. But before you come visit, there's something else you should know." The pressure on D's hand increased while Chris silenced again. "There's someone new in the pet shop, lil'bro. No, not a pet. In fact, the Count has a daughter, Chris. And I've got one, too."

The boy was quiet. Then he spoke up meekly. "The Count has a daughter? But – can I come visit then?"

Leon sighed silently. "Of course you can come visit, Chris. We just wanted you to know before that Dana's here now. We want you to come here. I want you to meet Dana, and D does, too. I mean, she's your niece. You should get to know her."

Another silence, even longer this time. D pressed Leon's hand. Dana watched her fathers curiously and a little confused. She made a small sound, wanting to get their attention, but it was fixed on the receiver. So she climbed down from D's lap, the kami helping her absent-mindedly, and went to find Pon-chan.

"Chris? Are you still there?" Leon asked after a while. He heard a strange sound at the other end.

"What do you mean, she's my niece? Why is the Count's daughter my niece?" Chris asked, sounding both confused and meek.

D wanted to take the receiver, but Leon shook his head and held on to it."Well, okay, I didn't explain good, did I? Sorry, Chris. Well, you see, the kid the Count has – it's my kid as well. We've got a kid together."

"But – isn't the Count a man? You always said he's a man, and men can't get babies."

Leon cleared his throat. "Yeah, Chris, but the Count's special. He can get children, even though he is a guy."

Chris accepted that without protest. Leon hadn't expected otherwise, though he was relieved all the same. He really didn't want to discuss D's anatomic peculiarities with his little brother on the phone.

"Oh, wow!" the boy said breathless. "You mean, you really have a kid together? Like Mom and Dad have Sam and Josie?"

Now the elder blushed while D hid a giggle behind his hand. "Yeah, you got it, buddy. Just like that. I'm the father, and D's the – mother."

"Wow." Chris still sounded dazed. "T-chan's never gonna believe you have a kid."

Now even Leon's mouth twitched. Tetsu, who had been lying beside D on the sofa, raised his head and grumbled, "Wish it was that easy, buddy!" His master chuckled, mismatched eyes twinkling.

"Chris, T-chan's here," the elder reminded his brother. "He knows Dana since she was born. We would like you to come here for her birthday, if you want to. That would be in your school holidays. You wanna come?"

There was a howl in the receiver, and Leon quickly put some distance between it and his ear, grinning broadly. He guessed the squeaking sound beneath the cries of joy were the springs of Chris' bed on which he was probably jumping up and down at the moment.

"You got a kid with the Count!" the younger Orcot screamed into the receiver. "You really got a kid with the Count! I'm an uncle!"

"Yeah, Chris, you are." Leon laughed, relieved. "Congratulations, buddy."

"Why do I have to wait till the holidays?! I wanna see her! I wanna see your baby!" Chris yelled. D smiled brightly and sighed softly, relieved as well.

"Whoa, Chris, make slow!" Leon tried to thwart his brother. "Dana's not really a baby anymore, she's already two years old. Well, she will be when you come visit. And we want you to come in the holidays because your parents won't be happy if we keep you out of school."

"I'll talk to Mom, really! Please, brother, I wanna come!" the boy pleaded, but the elder was firm.

"No, Chris, not before your parents said yes. Is Aunt Mary home? I have to talk to her about it anyway."

"Okay," Chris gave in and jumped down from his bed. "You really have a kid!"

Leon laughed again. "Yes, we do. It's wow, ain't it? I couldn't believe it myself at first."

"But when did you get one?" the younger asked clambering down the stairs and calling for his mother on the way down.

Leon shrugged and carefully chose his words. "D got pregnant before he left America, Chris. Shortly after you went back with Sam and Josie. He got the baby while he was in Berlin."

"But that's long ago!" Chris sounded astonished.

"Yeah, it is. Listen, Chris, I think it's better if we explain to you when you're here. It's kind of difficult over the phone, and I think D wants to tell you some things himself."

"Okay."

Leon could hear someone in the background and guessed it was his aunt. His suspicion was right.

"Mom, Leon wants to talk to you. He wants me to come visit him, because the Count's back and he's got a baby!" Chris spilled at once and Leon cramped his hand around D's unwillingly. Perhaps he should have told his brother he wanted to tell his aunt himself.

"We're gonna make it," he said quietly, although whether he wanted to reassure D, who had paled slightly, or himself he wasn't sure.

The woman took the phone from her excited nephew and spoke, sounding suspicious.

"Leon, what is Chris talking about? He cannot be serious, can he? Please tell me that Chinese isn't back in America."

Not a good start at all. Leon took a deep breath. "Sorry, Aunt Mary, but he is."

Silence at the other end. Then: "Chris, go outside and play in the garden for a bit. I have to talk to your brother. Alone." His aunt's voice tolerated no opposition. Chris protested still, but then a door closed and Leon knew she was alone now.

"Leon, are you crazy? We've had enough trouble with that Chinese and the stories Chris keeps telling about him and his strange shop. Why in all heavens is he back, and, more important, why should we let our son come near him ever again?"

The blonde took another deep breath. "Well, because he has a child. Or better, we have a child. He and I, I mean. We have got a daughter."

He counted the seconds. At twenty he wondered if he should call an ambulance, but then Mary spoke again. "Leon, is this some kind of weird joke? Are you drunk? Have you finally gone mad or what?"

D's hand was pressing his so hard he could barely feel it anymore. Leon motioned for him to come closer, and D willingly climbed into his lap, hiding his face in Leon's shoulder. He could feel the kami's uneven breath.

"No, Aunt Mary, I'm not. Neither drunk, nor mad, and I'm not joking. It's as I said. The Count has got a kid, and I'm the father. Listen," he cut her off before she could start, "it's not like you think. I know we all thought he is a guy, but he isn't. He's a hermaphrodite woman, you know, one of those women who look really male, but aren't male at all. He's a woman, just like you. Only without bosom."

Mary was silent again. "Why does she pretend to be a man, then?" she asked, sounding surprisingly calm and collected. "And why do you have a child with her?"

Leon felt the kiss on his cheek. D's mismatched eyes were bright and pleading. "Well, he pretends to be a man because – listen, I don't wanna go into details, but there was this one guy, and he – didn't treat him too well." If Mary hadn't been Mary, Leon would simply have told her that D had been raped. But it was just as well. At least so he didn't really lie to her, though of course he knew exactly that she would reach the wrong conclusion.

To his great relief, her manner changed almost at once. "Oh dear, the poor thing. I didn't know that. I'm so sorry, Leon. I – well, I guess it's not surprising, then…"

Well, that had been the first hurdle. Leon sighed quietly and proceeded. "Yeah, well, how should you know? I didn't know either, for a very long time. As to why we have a kid, it's pretty easy. I don't really know why, but he told me the truth, and well, things went their way. But he was pretty frightened and went away without telling me where to, and then he discovered he was pregnant. He didn't tell me, though, because he thought I'd take the news pretty bad. I only got to know when I went to Japan and found him there. We worked things out and he came back, and now I'd like Chris to meet my kid. Please, Aunt Mary, can he come?"

"Yes, of course." His aunt still sounded kind of stunned. "Well, I do certainly not approve of what he did, but I guess it is kind of understandable considering what he – she – went through. I will talk to your uncle about it, but I'll make sure Chris can come visit you in his holidays. What's her name? Will you bring her to us, too?"

A heavy weight tumbled from Leon's shoulders and he sighed, making no attempt to conceal how relieved he was. "Course I will, when things have settled down a bit. Her name's Dana, she's nearly two years old. Thanks, Aunt Mary. Really, thanks. I – it's not easy."

Her voice was soft when she replied. "I understand, Leon. It's okay, really. Congratulations to you and her."

"Thanks." He hesitated. "Please, don't call D she. He's – still kind of picky in that respect. Perhaps it will wear off with time, but at the moment…"

"Okay. Then congratulations to him. And hello to your baby, too. I can't believe it. You're a father. Good lord, my nephew is a father." Mary sounded as dazed as Chris, and distinctly delighted. "If only Dana could be here right now. She would be so happy for you."

Leon's mouth was dry. "Yeah." He tried to ignore D, whose head had shot up and who was staring at him with wide eyes. "Well, I have to get going, Aunt Mary. Say hello to Uncle Arthur and Sam and Josie. I will call in a few days and then we can talk about when Chris is going to come, okay?"

"I will tell them. Bye, Leon. And enjoy your time with your child. They grow up so quickly, you won't believe it. Before you've noticed, they're all grown up and have kids themselves."

Mary hung up and Leon carefully placed the receiver on the telephone again, aware that D was following his each and every movement.

Finally he looked into the kami's discoloured eyes. "What?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

"I did not know," D said faintly, so silent Leon had to strain to hear him. "I am sorry, Leon. I did not know that when I chose her name."

The blonde smiled shakily. "It's okay, D. You couldn't have known that my mom's name was Dana too. I like it. I never planned to name my kid after her, but hey, it's fine with me. If she turns out like my mom did, I can't wish for anything better."

The kami bit his lip. "But I chose the name because you once said you liked it. I thought – I don't know what I was thinking. I should have asked myself why you would say such a thing…" His voice trailed off. He seemed to be genuinely distressed.

Leon wrapped his arms around his waist and kissed him. "Well, if you named her that because you remembered me saying something, it's all the better. I told you, I don't mind. It fits her. Dana Orcot sounds pretty. My mom was beautiful and Dana will be, too. It's okay."

D calmed down a bit, but he still looked worried. Leon sighed. "Well, okay, I was kinda shocked when I realised you'd named my kid Dana. But what the hell? Like Aunt Mary said, my mom would be happy for me. She'd probably feel honoured the baby got her name."

D looked into his eyes and smiled a bit unsure. "If you say so."

"Yeah, I do," the blonde said firmly and pulled him closer to kiss him again. But a loud cry in the other room stopped him.

"Daddy!"

He sighed and stood, D slipping down from his lap in the process. "I better go look what the little princess wants this time," he joked and went out. Tetsu, who had slipped under the sofa unnoticed, came out and looked at Leon's back.

"Wow. I really didn't expect that," he commented, and D saw respect in his eyes.

"Me neither. I should have guessed it, though. Only something special could have made Leon say a name is beautiful. But I didn't think," he said quietly.

"There's more to him than one's eyes can see," T-chan said, still staring at the human who was just scooping his daughter up from the floor. "Perhaps he wasn't a bad choice at all. I mean, you could have made someone far worse Dana's father."

D's eyes rested on Leon with so much love the totetsu thought he'd burst any second. "I know, Tetsu. I have truly been blessed."

A/N: One more test done, only two to go (not to mention the three essays I've yet to write. Such fun without a working computer!). Since I was fed up with learning, I reread this chapter instead. Hope you had fun reading it :-) (Everybody who suspected beforehand that Dana got the name of Leon's mum, please say hi. Everybody who thinks it's stupid, please say so, too.)

Both of my computers are still broken. Don't expect the next update before the end of next week, and don't expect answers to reviews before I've got my own computer back. I apologise again DX