Angelpuss
Disclaimer: I don't own Petshop of Horrors.
"So you've been searching for little old me all these years? You flatter me, detective."
"Yeah... And stop calling me detective! I quit, remember."
"Ah yes."
Silence as the two sipped their tea.
"Well, you're taking this well."
"I am taking what well, Mr. Dete- Mr. Orcot?"
"This. All of it. Me comin' back and all." Leon paused, then added. "And don't call me Mr. Orcot either."
"Well then, what should I call you?"
"Leon! Geeze, it's my name, use it."
"Alright then Leon. How am I taking this so well?"
"I mean, you're just sitting here, drinking tea like nothing happened. How can you be so calm?"
D took a sip of his tea. "Oh, quite the contrary. I'm actually quite rattled."
"Well, you sure have a funny way of showing it."
"I suppose so."
Leon studied the man in front of him. D sat on his oriental couch in the tea-room, sipping his tea from a small cup and staring right back at him under lowered eyelashes, sizing him up but not judging him as he used to. Back when he was human.
Abruptly, Leon set his cup down, and D looked up at him in surprise. Leon leaned forward.
"D, you wouldn't know what was going on, would you?" D blinked in surprise.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about Leon," D replied.
"Damn." Leon leaned back, frowning.
"Language, Leon," scolded D gently.
Leon rolled his eyes, but he grinned despite himself. "I'm sure T-Chan says worse."
D raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps, but it's certainly nothing he picked up from me." He took another sip of his tea. "And since when were you and T-Chan on name terms?"
"Since he was actually decent to me when I got here," Leon replied. There was a silence for a moment, then Leon hesitantly asked, "So… you really don't know what's going on? With me being here and all? 'Cause, Hell, I don't even know what I am!"
D looked at Leon for a long moment, his eyes holding the tiniest traces of laughter, sadness, pity and even- here, Leon thought he might be imagining things,- fear?
Finally, D closed his eyes, set his cup delicately on the table and gave a sigh. He opened his eyes and leaned ever-so-slightly towards Leon, like he was going to impart some amazing secret. Leon found himself leaning in as well.
"You," D said in a voice that was just over a whisper, "are a member of a very rare species, known as the Golden Lions. Your species are souls that come back to life to complete some unfinished business, so to speak. However, that is all I know. I have never met another one of your kind, so I have no answers for you." He reclined back onto his chair, watching carefully for Leon's reaction.
Leon frowned, pondering as he looked into his teacup. After a minute, his head snapped back up and he locked eyes with D. "What do you think?"
D had a hard time answering as he stared into two sky-blue orbs. They were beautiful, he decided, like precious sapphires were beautiful to humans… and they seemed to have a sort of… mesmerizing… effect…
Leon.
Leon had asked a question. D yanked himself out of the sea of blue he had found himself drowning in and focused on the present. Leon had asked him a question. What had it been?
Ah yes.
"What do I think? I'm not sure I know what you're talking about." He dropped his eyes to his tea as he took a sip, for fear of loosing himself in his- no, the lion's eyes again.
Leon rolled his eyes. "What else could I be talking about?"
D smiled mischievously. This was a game he could play. "Well, you could have been asking about a great deal of things, such as what I thought about you being here, what I think the other pets will think of you, how-"
"Alright, alright, I get it. It was a stupid question. What I meant was, what do you think my purpose is? What "unfinished business" do I have to finish? Why did I come back?"
D gave a look of thoughtful surprise. "I'm not sure. I think, however, that it might have something to do with Chris and the rest of your family. After all, from what you've told me, you seem to have disappeared from their lives."
'And besides,' he told himself bitterly before he could stop himself, 'he couldn't have come back for me.'
Leon had a thoughtful look on his face. "That could be it." He grinned. "Thanks, Count!"
The count gave a small, almost shy-looking smile. "Anytime, Leon." They sat in silence for a little while, sipping their tea.
Leon spoke again. "Um, I promised I'd talk with the twins, so…" The count smiled again.
"Ah, so you're waiting to be excused?" he chuckled. "Seeing as the petshop is your home for now, you may come and go from nearly all the rooms as you please."
Leon stood. "Alright then." He paused, as if he was about to add something else, but then just walked out the door, calling, "See you later then."
D waited until Leon was definitely gone before quickly tidying up the tea table and heading for the records room. As he entered the dusty study, an old yellow tabby opened one gray eye and glanced at him. She closed the eye and sat up, stretching her forelegs and giving a great yawn. She sat up tall and looked over at the count, who was literally throwing himself at a pile of documents and old books as he searched for something.
"What are you looking for?" she asked, her voice reminding one of an old, strict, lady teacher.
"Hmm? Oh, Magistra, I didn't see you there," the count said as he peered over his shoulder at her. "I trust you are well?"
"I am fine, as always." She gracefully leapt off her precarious perch of leaning books and slid over to where the count was digging through a pile of papers. "What are you looking for? Maybe I can be of assistance."
"I'm looking for that encyclopedia of rare creatures. The one with the red cloth binding and gold bands."
"Yes, I know that one. It's over there, evening out that table." She walked over to a large, black wood table and pointed with one paw to the book, solidly placed underneath the shortened table leg. D stared with dismay first at the book, then at the table, and finally at the huge mess of documents and books piled up on top of it. He looked back to the cat.
"Good luck!" she chuckled as she slipped through the doorway. D sighed.
"I'll need it," he decided aloud to himself as he set to work.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
Leon wandered around the petshop, trying to find the savannah. He made an effort to keep his bearings, but since doors seemed to disappear and re-appear at will, it wasn't very easy. On the up side, however, nearly all of the pets were being decent to him, claiming that they had met his brother during his stay at the petshop. It was nice to have some kind of connection with the rest of the animals.
Leon cautiously opened another door to see a large, sunny-looking beach. Stepping onto the hot golden sands, he looked at the array of chaos around him. Animals were everywhere, tumbling, digging, rolling, running, and playing in the sand. But that was just on the beach. Out in the ocean, the water churned and frothed as all kinds of aquatic animals swam around, partaking in a variety of water games. For a brief moment, as he watched, he remembered that he had not always been part of the animal's world, D's world, and he felt alone. Once he was human, and this would've baffled him beyond belief. But, he shook the feeling off quickly.
'Now this is not what I would've suspected in D's petshop,' he thought to himself as he looked out onto the chaotic and playful confusion running rampant everywhere. A few large palm trees housed some tropically dressed people. Most of them were girls, and each had feathers woven somewhere into their outfits. Leon spotted Tikari in one of the trees and waded into the masses of animals to go and talk to her. As he walked, he realized that the other pets seemed to shrink back from him. He glanced around. The other pets didn't even seem to notice he was there, so how could they be avoiding him? He shrugged it off, and used his favorite excuse. 'D'll have all the answer-'
Oh wait. D himself had admitted that he didn't know anything about the situation… which meant he'd have to find out everything for himself.
Well, good thing he was a detective, then.
For now, he decided to be glad he wasn't getting pummeled in the melee, and continued towards Tikari to talk to the parrot.
He reached the base of the tree and looked up, frowning. Now, how was he going to get up there?
He thought for a moment, then remembered. He had a pair of wings on his back! He nearly slapped himself for being so stupid as he opened his wings and lightly flew up next to Tikari. Alighting on the branch next to the bird-girl, he became puzzled when she just kept chattering. He called her name, and when he got no response, he waved his hand in front of her face. "Hello, anyone home?"
When she kept talking with her friends, he sat back, confused. Could they really not see or hear him?
He spotted another door and leapt off the branch, making it shake. He left Tikari and her friends baffled and glided over through the door.
Now he found himself back in the staircase room, and in the far reaches of it, he could see the large decorated door that lead to the savannah. Lifting off, he tried to fly over to the door… and immediately wished that he hadn't. Since it was nearly impossible to tell which way was 'up,' he was having a hard time orienting himself and keeping his balance. As he careened through the staircases, he was really quite glad that no one could see him. He would have looked like ten kinds of a fool.
After an extremely klutzy landing, he walked the rest of the way to the door, and headed on in.
'Thank God!' he thought as he looked around the more familiar territory of the savannah.
"Yo."
Leon jumped a foot at the voice behind him. Spinning around, he found himself looking down at a saber-tooth five-year-old. She was looking around, her eyes betraying her annoyance. "Geeze, lion-boy, how'd you pull a disappearing act?"
She had called him Lion-boy. And she had short hair. Leon cursed his luck. Of course he had to run into the one that hated his guts. "I really don't know. Is your sister around?" Maybe the other saber could help…
The young tiger didn't answer for a bit. She just kept looking around. Leon was about to speak again when she cut him off. "Aren't you gonna say something?"
"I am saying something!" Leon half screamed. "Why can't you hear me?"
"Geeze, relax, I'm just kidding," she replied, cleaning her ear out casually with her pinky. "I can hear you just fine, so cool it."
He sighed, plopping down next to her. "Did I really deserve that?"
"Yes." She sat near him, squinting in his direction. "So, what's your story?"
"I don't know," Leon replied miserably. "I had just gotten done talking with D, and suddenly- Poof! Invisible."
Arianna squinted more. "I think I can see your outline now. What a pity."
Leon didn't reply. He was thinking hard. It was obvious that Arianna hated him, and things might get a little dangerous with them being 'roommates,' so to speak. He sighed, and Arianna glared at him suspiciously. 'Hm, I must be visible again,' Leon thought as he decided what to say.
"Look… Arianna, I'm really, really sorry about killing your dad. I didn't realize… D was in danger, and… I know this is a lame apology, but… if there's any way I can make it up to you…"
The second the last statement came out of his mouth, Arianna's expression changed from glaring anger to mischievous grin. Leon realized that that had been what she was waiting for.
"Any way, huh?" she asked slyly. "Well, I can think of two things. How about I tell you, and you choose?" Her grin looked almost like a leer now.
Leon barely kept from cringing, reminding himself that it was a five-year-old, for God's sake. He had a feeling that he may regret this, though. "All right, what are my choices?"
"First choice," she held up one finger, "you agree to help me with some target practice any time I want. Or second choice," she added another finger, "you foster."
Leon blinked in surprise. "I what?"
"You foster." She crossed her arms. "You know, like foster parents? You took our dad away, so you should take care of us in his stead."
Leon weighed his options. Target practice sounded easier… but he hated owing someone something, and he knew deep down that there was no way target practice would repair the damage he had done by taking their father. Besides, if he chose target practice, he would only be making it up to Arianna. What about her sister, Anya? It seemed that, for all the difficulties he was sure it would include, fostering the twins was the better choice.
"I'll be your foster parent then," he told the saber, trying not to sound like he didn't like kids. The cub frowned.
"Damnit, and I really needed a target for target practice!"
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
D heaved a sigh of relief as he finally pulled the red covered book out from under the table leg, no longer in any danger of being at the bottom of a book and paper avalanche. The records room looked decidedly neater, he decided as he took the precious book to the only real private rooms in the petshop; his quarters.
He sat down in a large armchair in his bedroom and opened the book. 'Now, let's see what we can find out about the detective,' he thought as he opened the book.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
I love you all for sticking with me for so long! I'm terribly sorry about not posting for over a year; I hit a slump, and by the time I got back to the fanfiction world, I had other ideas I wanted to make use of. But now, I'm back and I've got plenty of ideas to keep this story going! Thank you all again for inspiring me to continue this story!
Now to answer your wonderful reviews!
VampireGirlKyra: Yes, I did make up the Golden Lion. And I'm very sorry for not updating sooner; hopefully it will be easier now that I've gotten some more ideas and I'm on a schedule at school.
hekelachan: Hello! I really do still want you to help me, but I'd understand if you weren't interested anymore. I would've sent this chapter to you, but I wanted to get it out as close to Christmas as I could, (Aka, 2:50 Dec 26)
I did check out that site, and read that story. I thought it was funny.
Yami no Kaze: Trust me, I've had enough relaxing. I've gotten lazy.
eagle-chan: I'm glad you have such good things to say! It makes me very happy, and I hope you continue to enjoy this story as you read on!
Mus4u: And thank you for your review!
S: Here's more!
Christy: Lammasu? Varient foo lion??? I don't think I've ever heard of those, actually...
Yes, it's simpler with Q-chan as just a winged bunny.
In the Arms of a Stranger: ...Please don't kidnap me... Puppy dog eyes Hopefully, the next chapters will be up faster.
Rayz: Here it is, although a bit of a long space between.
Caddy: Ah, the Q-chan dilemma. Thank you for that information, and here's that chapter you wanted!
Pandora de Romanus: Keeping it up!
DarkShadowArchFiend: There's more to come.
DarkRememberance: Thank you!
Random Reader: Here's your update!
Kristona: Oh, please don't die! Here's the saving update!
Tialakit: 0.0 I can tell!
IchikoKitsuneKoumori: It took longer than expected, but here it is!
Kayla: As I am addicted to fanfiction. Here is your drug!
Kaylin18: To my n01 fan! Thanks!