Paradiso: Chapter Five-Cracks in Paradise

D lay awake, feeling the weight of the sleeping body next to him. He absently stroked Leon's soft golden hair, staring into the darkness. He could not say what troubled him; only that it was near and powerfully strong.

"What is it?" Leon's voice was rough with sleep. "What's the matter, D?"

"You feel it too?"

"I feel something. What is it?"

D shook his head and sat up, the room brightening as he did. "I do not know. Something is coming. Something strong and dangerous."

Leon rubbed at his upper arms like he had caught a chill. D glanced at him, a little dismayed at how weary the other man looked still. His eyes were sunken and shadowed deeply and there were lines etched around his mouth as he frowned absently at the wall. D pulled a blanket around Leon's broad shoulders, matching him frown for frown when Leon blinked him into focus with a scowl.

"You are still not recovered from the working." D reprimanded softly. "You are no longer what you were, but you can still take ill. And exhaustion combined with power depletion is one of the easiest ways to go about it." He quirked a rueful half-smile at Leon. "Take it from the voice of experience. I did it to myself when I was very young and inexperienced. It took me a long time to recover my strength and longer still to gain back my health, even with Grandfather taking care of me. You do not need to suffer the same."

Leon chuckled softly. "You just don't want to have to baby me if I get sick, right?"

D offered him a superior smile. A long time ago that smile would have grated on his nerves, but now Leon knew it was only playful. He had learned that D had an impish sense of humor. D leaned in and tapped the end of his nose with one sharp fingernail. "Exactly right, my dear detective."

Leon shrugged uncomfortably. "Don't call me that, D. It's been a long time since I was a detective. A really long time."

D sighed and settled against Leon's side. Without thinking about it, Leon automatically shifted to support his weight, slipping an arm around D's slender shoulders. "You may no longer have the title, but you forever will have the heart of a detective. I knew it the first time I met you. You search for the truth behind the truth, always."

Leon grunted noncommittally, but D saw the pleased flush warming his cheeks. "Well, what's the truth behind the truth of what we were sensing earlier?" Leon asked quietly, tilting his head to look at D.

D frowned, troubled. "I do not know. It is strange. I am very much disturbed by the feel of it."

"What are we going to do?"

"We will do nothing." D said archly, disentangling himself from Leon's embrace. "I will see if any of the others might know the feel of this power. You will rest and recover your strength."

"D…"

"D, nothing. This is not open for negotiation." D rose from the bed and glared down at the blonde man. "You have expended far too much of your strength. You need to rest." At the rebellious scowl, D softened his tone, adding a pleading note. "Please, Leon?"

Leon sighed and sulkily sank back down among the pillows. "Yeah, yeah. I'll be a good little invalid."

D settled lightly on the edge of the bed and embraced him again. "Just until you recover."

Leon grumbled but relaxed into the embrace. "Fine, I'll behave."

D pressed against him and dropped a gentle kiss on his forehead. Leon scowled in frustration when D pulled away. "That's it?"

D's smile was sly. "You have to recover some strength first."

"Dammit, D!"

Kiba looked up as he caught the scent of the blonde guardian. His scent had lost the heavy thickness of exhaustion, but was still tainted with weariness. Leaving Cheza napping in the shade of a tree, he rose to his feet and padded softly up the cliff-side to where the man sat, staring down into the valley where the pack rested.

He made no noise, but the blonde greeted him without turning. "Hello-Kiba, wasn't it?"

Kiba sat beside him in human guise. "That's right. What was your name-Leon, wasn't it?"

The other laughed. "Right. Sorry. Guess we haven't been properly introduced yet. My name's Leon Orcot. Nice to meet you."

"I remember you. You were there when I first woke. You were the one who showed me the others."

"Yep." Leon grinned at him. "That was me. You wouldn't settle down until you knew they were all safe."

"Thank you for that." Kiba eyed the man sitting next to him. To the eye, he was human, and his manner furthered that impression. But his scent was an odd thing, a strange amalgamation of human and 'other,' that indefinable odor that marked Count D and to a lesser extent, Cheza. "What exactly are you?" Kiba asked bluntly. "You aren't human, at least not entirely anymore."

Leon shook his head. "No. I was human, but I became something else, something like D, though not entirely. It's hard to explain." He shoved a hand through his unruly blonde hair with a sigh. "I first met D a really long time ago. God, it's a little scary just how long ago. Long before the domes and the Nobles. I was human, just an ordinary cop. D was a suspect in a case I was investigating. I got to know him, and before I knew it, I was a little obsessed. At first, he was just my pet obsession, but somewhere along the way, we became a strange sort of friends."

Leon laughed harshly before continuing. "It was a strange relationship, let me tell you. Somewhere along the way, I stopped trying to pin every strange case on him and started to trust him. Hell, I even let my kid brother stay in his pet shop while I was at work. Then something happened. It's a little too much to go into, but let's just say that D left town. Somewhere along the way, it drove me a little nuts. I quit my job and left everything I knew to try and track him down." He broke off his story suddenly and turned to see Toboe lying on his belly a few paces away, listening alertly. Leon chuckled softly.

"I didn't think I was that great of a storyteller, kid, but if it's that fascinating, you're welcome to listen in." Toboe glanced at Kiba, a low whine building in his throat. Kiba nodded and Toboe's tail thumped the ground twice. He inched closer, resting his head on Leon's knee. Leon looked down at him in surprise and then tentatively stroked the fur between his pricked ears. Toboe sighed in bliss and looked up at him with adoring golden eyes.

"Which one are you?" Leon asked.

"I'm Toboe." The youngest of the pack answered. "Man, you feel nice, like the Count and Cheza." He shivered all the fur on his body and heaved a huge sigh. "You smell funny, but in a nice way."

"Thanks, I think." Leon laughed and continued to smooth the fur on Toboe's head. Toboe's tail thumped steadily against the ground.

"Tell me the rest, mister, please. I thought it was really interesting." Toboe pled.

"Okay, kid, you win. Just remember, I'm not much of a storyteller." Leon glanced at Kiba. "To make a long story short, I tracked him for a long time before I found him. Better to say, he found me. It was something of a surprise to both of us. I was on the verge of just giving up and going back home when I heard his voice. He was apologizing to someone, saying he had mistaken him for someone else. I turned around and there he was. We must have stared at each other for a good five minutes before we spoke. It was kinda funny. We both said 'It's you!' at the same time.

"Turns out, he was looking for me too. Not on purpose, but in a way like how I was dedicated to pinning everything I could on him. He told me he would find himself turning to say something to me, only to remember I wasn't there anymore, or seeing someone on the street who looked like me and being surprised and disappointed when it wasn't." He laughed. "Guess you could call it fate, us meeting like that."

A low, musical voice joined the conversation. "This one would not call it that. Fate is luck and chance, but destiny is what is meant to be." Cheza came up the hillside to rest a hand on Kiba's shoulder. "It was destiny that this one would meet these wolves and no other. It was destiny that Kiba was meant to meet this one. It is this one's destiny to reawaken the world that sleeps in the ice." She dropped to her knees beside Leon and touched his cheek with delicate fingers. "As it was destiny that brought you two back together. You were destined to be together."

Leon shivered under her strange eyes. "You think it was destiny, huh?"

Cheza offered him a rare smile. "This one does not think; this one knows. This one can feel the hand of destiny weighing heavy on your shoulders."

Leon looked away. "When I was human, I would have argued with you, lady, but I've seen way too much weird stuff since then. I never believed in destiny, though."

Cheza shook her pale head. "Destiny believes in you. Destiny does not mean that all is predetermined; only that certain events must and will happen. What one makes of them, what choices are made, all are free will given form. It was destiny that you would meet again, but a thousand paths could have diverged from there. You could have chosen to walk away, he could have resented your interference, you both might have ended up hating each other, but destiny was borne out in your finding one another again."

Leon stared at the flower maiden with wide eyes before shaking his head. "That's a little scary to think about."

"It is. But go on. This one would hear how you became what you are now." She settled against Kiba's shoulder.

"What am I-a book on tape?" At the blank looks he received, Leon sighed and shook his head again. "Never mind. I forgot that you guys wouldn't get that reference. I'm showing my age."

Toboe, who had inched over so he could lie between Cheza and Leon, raised his head. "You're not old."

Leon chuckled and ruffled Toboe's reddish fur. "Thanks for thinking that, kid, but you couldn't be more wrong."

"I'm not a kid!"

Leon glanced down at Toboe, who had resumed his human guise to give him a sulky frown. He chuckled and raised his hands in surrender. "My mistake. You're not a kid."

Toboe nodded, contented, and gave his full attention back to the matter at hand. "Finish the story."

Leon laughed. "Right. Where was I?"