CHAPTER 9 – PART 13
Ten-Chan was leaning against the wall, waiting for D outside of his bedroom door. A contemplative Q-Chan was perched on his right shoulder, waiting with him in silence.
"This doesn't look like a good picture that's coming together." The kitsune didn't look away from whatever spot in front of him he was focusing on when he spoke.
D observed Q-Chan turning to look at Ten-Chan's face with worried interest. "This particular criminal does seem to have the detectives more deeply disturbed than usual," he replied pensively.
"I don't think it's so much the criminal as it is the victims." Ten-Chan turned to face him with an unusually grim expression.
"Yes. I can understand that Detective Freshney would be more worried for Detective Orcot because of the similarities—"
"It might be safer for Orcot if he doesn't find out about the similarities that Detective Freshney just told you about…before his superiors do, that is."
"Why would Detective Orcot be safer not knowing—" Realization suddenly seemed to come to D.
Q-Chan had let out an astonished squeek, and then left Ten-Chan's shoulder to fly off in the direction D had come from.
Ten-Chan and D watched him go off in startled wonder, but didn't call or follow after him.
When the little creature finally disappeared from sight down the corridor, D turned to look at Ten-Chan, who merely shrugged with mild bewilderment.
"Want me to camp out near the main room," Ten-Chan offered casually.
D tilted his head in contemplation, then looked back to where his little friend had headed. "No, but thank you. I believe that won't be necessary…for right now, anyway."
Ten-Chan nodded, obviously satisfied with D's reply. "Sleep well, then," he told D with his customary smirk, before turning and heading to his own room.
"Thank you," D bowed his head appreciatively to the retreating friend, and entered the door to his room.
"You know I can't be home much to take care of the two of you. I know your still a young boy, but it would help your mother and me, a lot, if you did your best to act as the 'Man of the House' while I'm gone…"
Not long after T-Chan and Leon had both fallen into a peaceful sleep, Leon's brow wrinkled, giving his boyish appearance an expression of struggling thought. Just as quickly as the thoughtful frown had appeared, a soft smile replaced, it. "…I will--," the sleeping detective repeated the childhood promise made to his father when he was still alive.
Q-Chan had found his way into the room where Count D's grandson had deposited the exhausted detective. He'd been watching for only a few seconds after his arrival when Leon began murmuring in his sleep. The little creature's tiny face tipped to one side, slightly, obviously curious about what was happening in the human's dream. His head turned towards the door at the sound of tiny claws on the flooring.
"T-Chan?" Pon-Chan's half-whisper broke the settling silence just inside of the doorway.
T-Chan let out a small grunt as his brain registered the voice and his name being spoken.
"What?" T-Chan's reply was a groggy croak after he forced himself to raise his head from the comfortable spot it had found.
Pon-Chan seemed relieved and dismayed at the same time. "Are you sleeping in here tonight?"
"You mean this morning," T-Chan corrected smugly. "That was kind of the idea," he told the tanooki reluctantly.
"Oh," Pon-Chan responded with obvious disappointment.
Q-Chan's head was swiveling rapidly, alternately looking towards each of the two housemates as they conversed, until his ears picked up the sound of Leon's soft grunt.
Leon's eyes opened, and he turned his head in Pon-Chan's direction. "mmm…whatcha doin' outta bed, baby?"
Pon-Chan let out an indignant squeak, before declaring shrilly, "I'm not a baby!"
Leon let his eyes slid closed again and chuckled, "Relax, beautiful, that's just what city guys like me call the special girls in their lives." His face sobered. "I won't call you that if it makes you unhappy," he promised a little sadly.
Pon-Chan only took a second to make up her mind about the idea. "Oh. Well, it's okay if you call me that, if that's what it means," she told him carefully.
Leon's smile returned…with a vengeance. "Sounds good t'me, baby." He opened his eyes again and looked at her with sleepy appreciation. A smirk twitched a corner of his mouth upward. "Did the big, ugly cop steal your teddy-goat," he teased.
T-Chan snorted a short laugh onto Leon's bicep, not actually minding the reference.
"You're not ugly," Pon-Chan insisted earnestly.
"Oo!" Leon grinned with mild delight. "That means a lot, coming from you." He chuckled again, and scooted to the side of the bed, lowering his hand as close to the floor as he could. "Wanna sleep up here with us stinky guys," he asked softly.
"Yes, please," Pon-Chan didn't hesitate with her honest desire, and draped herself over Leon's hand.
"Up y'go, then." Leon lifted her easily over the side of the bed and deposited her in the space between himself and T-Chan. "There y'go," he told her pleasantly.
T-Chan rearranged his position to offer himself as the familiar living-pillow that he'd become for Pon-Chan since his arrival. "Comfy," he asked, after she finished squirming into place.
"Mmm-hmm," Pon-Chan told him contentedly. Her eyes shone brightly at the both of them before they closed.
"'night…baby," T-Chan told her with a wicked smirk.
Pon-Chan's brow quirked slightly, although her eyes remained closed, and then she grinned tiredly. "Mmmm-hmmm." Her little voice trailed off as she fell right to sleep.
A soft snort came out through Leon's nostrils. His eyes were closed again. "…knew I'd figure out something that the 'T' might stand for."
T-Chan's eyes slid over in studious gaze at Leon's face. "Dude-- do you want to be on a diet of milk-toast the rest of your life?"
One of Leon's eyebrows flicked upward. "You dis'n my mother's best cold-remedy?" His voice drawled playfully in T-Chan's ears.
T-Chan's smirk reached his voice. "Far from it. Any woman that could get a guy like you to defend milk-toast has my utmost respect."
Leon smiled fondly. "Yeah. My mother was a great cook. She could make nearly anything so that I'd like it."
A thoughtful look came over T-Chan's face. "How come you don't know how to cook? Is it something too 'girly' to you?"
"Nah," Leon answered casually. "Dad said I'd be helpin' him and mom if I did my best to be the other "man of the house", so I spent most of my time hangin out with the older guys in the neighborhood, when dad was at work, t'try'n learn how to."
T-Chan's mind filled with an image of a woman giving a much younger, and willingly accepting Leon, a bowl of milk-toast. "Damn, I'd certainly like to—" T-Chan's statement broke off when his mind finally registered something, "Did you say, 'was'?"
There was a short silence. "When I was eighteen…" Leon finally admitted quietly.
Another moment of silence passed before T-Chan spoke again. "I'm sorry, Leon. I had no idea. You're so young to have already lost a parent."
"Parents," Leon corrected solemnly.
T-Chan was beginning to feel as though he'd really opened up can of worms, but was too curious to end the discussion. "Your father, too?"
"…and brother…" Leon's voice sounded almost meek…
"You had a brother that died?" T-Chan found himself strangely fascinated with the new revelation of the human.
Q-Chan let out a soft, horrified squeak as well.
"…yeah…somethin' like that…" Leon murmured sullenly.
T-Chan was now spiraling into a whirlpool of unexpected sympathy. "Whadduh y'mean?"
This time, it took Leon much longer to answer, and his voice sounded constricted in his throat. "I'll tell y'later, okay?"
"Um, yeah, okay," T-Chan whispered with un-worded apology.
There was final silence, and human and totetsu eventually fell asleep again.
Q-Chan remained watching the young human, totetsu, and tanooki with sad fascination for a while, then hopped silently to a vacant spot of pillow next to Leon's head, nestled against soft, golden hair, and joined the three in slumber.