08-Aug-2002
Pet Shop of Horrors: Earthsong
by bonnejeanne and cassiopeia
Title: Earthsong
Author: bonnejeanne (bonnejeanne@yahoo.com) and Cassiopeia (cassiopeia@gundamwing.net)
Archive: http://www.no-assumptions.com/gundamwing/
Category: yaoi, AU
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Series
WARNINGS: Lemon/Limey stuff, AU
Disclaimer: Pet Shop of Horrors characters and universe are the property of the copyright owners. Our stuff is ours. No money being made here. As with all our fics, while our goal is to stay as in character as possible, any discrepancies are our mistakes.
Feedback: Any and all comments welcome, be they short or long.
NOTES: This is a sequel to our first fic, "Blood". See Part One for full Notes.
Earthsong: Part Ten
Going directly to his desk, but only to deposit the jacket he did not really need on such a hot day, Leon ran a hand over the tops of the several file folders and loose papers scattered across his desktop, his way of organizing. As the papers separated beneath his hands, moved into two or three indistinct piles, he let the number of thoughts he chose to acknowledge at the moment expand, and he shot his eyes around the room, looking for signs of the three men. He figured they would be back, sometime soon, given his abrupt departure yesterday.
Then again, his departure may not have caused any of them the least bit of concern. If that were the case, then he'd just have to change their minds.
Leon stepped away from the desk, his eyes never stopping their trek around the room, and went to his chief's office. He felt that the first place he should look for the three men he had met yesterday was the last place he had seen them.
The Chief's office wasn't so easy to get into, however. The door seemed to be on a swinging hinge, with people in and out, and there were urgent words flying back and forth and the Chief's voice was raised every couple of minutes.
Leon stepped back a little, surprised by the flurry of activity, and he waited a few seconds before trying to get his chief's attention with a wave of his hand over his head.
"Whaddaya want, Orcot?" the Chief yelled. "Bout time you showed up for work. Too bad we might have plenty for you if this day doesn't get any better..."
"Better?" Leon asked, narrowing his eyes. He didn't like the way that sounded at all. But his concern over the chief's cryptic comments slowly faded, changed, and he said, "Those three men that were here yesterday. The Chinese guys? I need to contact them."
"I haven't got time for foreign VIP's today," the Chief growled. "Chinatown's going crazy! Some kind of gang warfare breaking out without even a hint of anything before this. I haven't got enough street cops to cover all the reported incidents. I may need you to help out if it gets any worse..."
Leon's interest in the current situation quickly increased with the mention of Chinatown. And though he normally would have complained, loudly, about being sent out on such assignments, this time, he showed no signs of distaste. "When did this start?" he asked, seriously considering heading directly back to Chinatown right then, without waiting for any confirmation from the Chief.
"Start? Sometime this morning - early! You'd think these guys would sleep in after their drug parties or whatever... Someone put a hit on the biggest gang in Chinatown, some new group no one's ever heard of before. Hit 'em five times in six hours. That's not the way things are done in this city. That's Hong Kong style - bathe the street in blood to establish a new clique..." The Chief rattled the information off before grabbing a phone someone thrust at him and yelling into it, forgetting about Leon in the doorway.
Leon did not see or hear the other man's phone conversation. He only vaguely heard the last half of the man's explanation... everything after 'put a hit on the biggest gang in Chinatown' was hazy, catalogued in the back of his mind for later.
His heart suddenly beat very fast, and all of the blood in his face drained downwards, spilling out somewhere near the bottom, leaving him pale and cold. He knew perfectly well which gang was being targeted, and knew perfectly well who was behind the hits, who had to be behind the hits, and the betrayal he had felt upon first discovering Chang's 'more colorful activities' reasserted itself. In fact, it was much worse the second time around.
Just when he'd *almost* thought it might be okay, almost decided the boy could be tolerated, almost loosened his grip on the way he "should" live his life... Leon did not want to believe it, but there was nothing else he could do. His mind had already shown him the most likely scenario. It made too much sense.
Leon knew he was an idiot for not arresting, or at least detaining, Chang yesterday. It would have made everything a lot easier.
Still... Still, a part of him was doubtful. Not that Chang could or would lie, right to his face. That was common enough. But that the boy would put into jeopardy the thing he had come, supposedly, to America to retrieve. Chang had shown no previous interest in starting some kind of gang war. He'd said all he wanted to do was get their lizard and go home, without getting into any trouble.
Leon's mind raced ahead, and he wondered if the three men, especially the one that seemed so damn happy all the time, could have had anything to do with what his chief had told him of.
Before turning in the doorway, the detective announced, "I'm going there," and he was gone, running through the office past faces he did not see, to the streets that had become, very recently, his home.
"Orcot! If you're going out there, take a vest... damn the man!" the Chief cursed and then turned back to the phone.
As little time as it took to get to the streets of Chinatown, no sooner had Leon arrived in the familiar area than something, he'd never be able to explain what, reached into his chest from no-where and grabbed his heart in a crushing grip. It almost seemed as if the ground shook a little, something that could have happened in the tectonically active area. It left him with a feeling of impending tragedy that centered on a particular part of Chinatown, a part he had left only that morning.
He was less than a few blocks from where he needed to go, and before he had enough time to fully imagine all of his fears, Leon was sitting outside the pet shop.
The sight that met his eyes did not put any of his fears to rest. There was a crowd gathering there, hesitantly, and he'd actually heard the screech of tires ahead and glimpsed the back of a couple of vehicles pulling away as he arrived. The door of the pet shop was standing open and bullet holes pocked the facade and the sidewalk. But it was the almost unnoticeable bundle of silk that lay still on the top step that drew his attention, a much smaller hump of tan fur and black leather not far away. There were hesitant but shocked exclamations from the slowly gathering people, most of the words in Chinese, but he heard, "...those men!" and "...carried something away!" and "...gangs!" and "...it's a ill omen - disaster!"
If Leon felt pale and cold before, now he was closer to the color, and temperature, of snow. Nothing would click in his mind, the parts somehow frozen, but the rest of his body was far from still, and he walked quickly to the top of the steps. Kneeling, he took the silken bundle into his arms, unmindful of the crowd of people he'd had to push past to get there.
He did not feel anything. He was too cold for that. And the only thing he could come up with, a thought that circled, waiting to land, was that D could not die. That the man was not like other people. Leon did not retreat from the idea as he normally did, and thought the distance the Count's "differences" brought between them was, for this one moment, fortunate.
Even as he gathered the man into his arms, he felt D's body move slightly, almost reluctantly, as if forced by some inner strength. One pale hand closed on Leon's arm, as if trying to pull himself up. His dark head raised, and Leon got a glimpse of an ugly, dark bruise with cut edges on D's cheek about the size and shape of a gun-butt. Even as he lifted his head, the ugly mark was starting slowly to fade - slowly but far more quickly than on any human skin. The dark crescents of eyelashes began to lift, and the tiniest glimpse of purple and gold beneath caused the hairs on the back of Leon's neck to rise as if electrified. There was something powerful, elemental, flashing in those still mostly-lidded eyes. Air swirled around them, suddenly cold and the light seemed to be cut off as a dark cloud boiled over their heads in the sky, seemingly from nowhere. Once again Leon felt the unmistakable sensation of a ground tremor. Overhead, a bolt of lightning that could have swallowed the world blinded and deafened everyone on the street and probably in the buildings as well. The first drops of a cold rain began to spatter the ground.
When the body in Leon's arms had first moved, shown signs of consciousness, he had felt a little warmer, a little less like ice. The thawing had been short-lived, as the air around him grew cold, but it was more external than internal and therefore easier to manage.
Leon's eyes widened at the bizarre environmental changes, the display, and it did not take him long to suspect, then realize, then accept that D was the cause. If the Count was capable of such things, and as much as Leon liked to speculate otherwise, he knew D was, then whoever had bruised him, overcome him, must have been *very* worth killing.
Placing his hand gently on D's face, near where the bruise was still fading, Leon met the Count's electric gaze. "They took him?" he asked, looking for confirmation, and began to move, trying to stand and take D with him.
With Leon's help, D got to his feet, leaning on the detective for balance until he had his feet under him. "Them," he answered, still not looking up, the control in his voice keeping it soft, almost gentle, even as another stray crack of thunder overheard punctuated the word.
The dual effect of D's voice and the sharp thunder made Leon's eyes find something else to look at, and he tried to move them both towards his car. "Where?" he asked, not quite letting the idea touch him. Someone had his brother... no, that didn't make sense right now. They had to hurry... that made sense.
As Leon looked up, his eyes fell on a figure at the edge of the crowd that was now starting to pull back as the rain began to spatter the area with unseasonably cold drops. Standing as if he'd just arrived, his expression for once wide-open and shocked, Chang met Leon's glance as if the look pinned him for a moment. Leon could clearly see two conflicting impulses in the boy's face and while he could not decipher one, the other was an urge to flight.
Leon had no intention of letting Chang get away from him, and he advanced on the boy. There was an anger in his eyes, but it was too much a background in his blue gaze to be directed at anyone standing directly in front of him. The detective took D with him as he moved, as if it were a given that they would go as a group, and his steps betrayed a hint of eagerness to talk to the young Chinese man.
The Count stopped, one hand brushing Leon's arm as he turned in the opposite direction. "Q-chan..." Crossing to the little mound of fur and leather, D scooped the creature in his arms.
At that, Chang took one step backwards, too many things going through his face to tell what he was thinking apart from the still-visible shock.
Shaking his head, Leon took a few steps towards Chang. He felt that the one thing he could not do was to allow the boy to get away from him. Turning back to look at D and his pet, Leon was torn between the two directions. Finally, he moved towards Chang, trying to maintain a non-threatening pace. His eyes did not leave D as he went.
Chang took one more step back, something like resignation entering his eyes, but to what? Leon didn't have time to ponder it. The next moment a number of things happened very quickly. A screech of tires and the sound of a motor being gunned came down the street. People around them began to scream and scatter, already interpreting the sounds. A black sedan thundered down the street and skidded to the curb and one, two, three gun muzzles poked out of windows, trained on the detective's distinctive form.
Something hit him hard in the chest, throwing him to the street as bullets spattered the ground, the car revved again and took off.
He'd barely time to stare into Chang's dark eyes an inch from his before the boy jumped off of him and started to back away, half his attention on the disappearing vehicle and an expression of directed murder in his face.
Leon lay on the ground, blinking for a few moments, then sat up quickly, his head flying around to let his eyes find D. After finding the man still standing, he turned back to the boy who had just saved his life. "If you don't tell me what you know, I can't guarantee that I won't..." Leon let his voice trail away, realizing that he had chosen poor phrasing for what he was trying to say, and started again.
With one hand, he gingerly rubbed his lower back, and said in a casual tone, "You didn't have to do that *quite* so hard." After a long pause, he looked away, in the direction that the car had gone. "They have my brother." He met Chang's eyes then, and though he remained silent, every part of his body seemed as if it was about to break, snap under the weight of a near-desperate need.
Chang's eyes widened and he stopped backing. Meeting Leon's look directly, he made a decision. Stepping forward, he said, "I got a pretty good idea who and where. They'll be out of the country any minute. If you wait and work it through channels, there's a good chance you'll never see your brother again. China is a big place to lose something in - things can stay hidden there forever. The only chance is to catch them before they have time to bury this whole thing. I can get you there, but you have to trust me. My way is the only way you've got any chance. And you have to help me."
D had appeared next to Leon, still cradling Q-chan. The events of the last moments had not been lost on him, not at all. He placed a hand on Leon's arm as if to reassure himself the man was still in one piece.
Leon experienced a moment of almost hesitation, of almost wanting to reject the help Chang offered him, almost unable to trust the boy, as requested. But 'almost' was a long way from 'completely', and he could see that he didn't have much of a choice. If he wanted to save his brother.
The mentioned 'helping' was another matter. Leon felt indebted to the boy now, true, but instinct kept him from making promises without knowing what he was promising.
As he felt D's hand settle on his arm, Leon turned to the Count, his eyes trying to give the impression that he was in control of everything. His question, however, was directed at Chang. "What kind of help?"
"Help in keeping this vicious act from destroying his homeland," D said calmly.
Chang's face paled slightly. His eyes dropped to the ground as if deferring to someone of vastly higher rank, though there was a struggle in it. "Yes, what the Honored One says is so," he managed, partly through his teeth. "If the Ti Lung of Hong Kong's province is angered by this treatment, there is no telling what the results could be." Then he lifted his eyes and his chin. "I won't give my land up to that without a fight."
"How am I supposed to do that?" Leon said, in reference to what D had said, though he watched Chang's face in his peripheral vision. The idea that the little lizard boy could cause such implied destruction was ridiculous, but somehow, Leon knew it was not an exaggeration.
"I don't know..." Chang said.
"If you truly have enough strength of spirit to make up for this evil, he will help you," Count D said to the young man. "My Detective is honorable and compassionate and his heart is true."
Leon blushed very deeply, looking away from them both. That kind of thing was fine when they were alone, but in front of Chang...
The boy looked away as well, as if commiserating with his embarrassment. Such a being as the Count could not be expected to understand a man's pride.
In D's arms, the small bundle of tan fur and leather wings stirred. Leon heard a low squeak, while at the same time his mind heard, /The boy.../
"Gone, both gone," D murmured to the little creature. His voice seemed calm enough but there was an edge, a chill in it, something that hinted at a distant, inhuman rage, echoed by a faraway flash of lightning and a peal of delayed thunder.
Chang swallowed, his eyes mirroring an almost superstitious apprehension before he pulled the mask of self assurance back over his face and sealed it tightly.
Turning to look over his shoulder, he snapped his fingers and three young men appeared from where they had been half-hiding on the street and sidewalk. Leon thought their faces might have been among those he saw at the Jungle Gym.
Chang spoke to them in rapid-fire Chinese, his tone one to rival any army commander twice his age. They barely had time to shoot more than half a curious or dubious glance at either Leon or Count D, the snap in Chang's tone allowing for no hesitation in carrying out his orders. One young man whipped out a cellphone and in bare seconds, a car pulled up at the curb, this one not black like the shooter's car, and an older model, but from the sound under the hood, this one had as much or twice the horsepower of the drive-by vehicles.
Leon eyed the vehicle briefly, then the three young men Chang had summoned, then the car again... he had no choice but to trust them. For now. At the first sign of suspicion, he was ready to send them all to Hell, and find Chris himself. Surely, even in a country as big as China, he could...
He let the idea go. For now, it was okay. Leon moved closer to the car, hanging to the side as he waited to make sure D got into the vehicle without incident. The Count seemed mostly recovered, but that bruise had been nasty, far too graphic of an account of what had occurred.
D tucked himself into the back seat of the car, his posture delicate and graceful, his head slightly bowed to curtain his face with the dark silk of his hair. The only sign he was maintaining his awareness of what was around him, a pale-skinned, carefully manicured hand that found its way to Leon's when the blond detective sat beside him. Chang took the front seat without displacing the driver, and gave terse orders that resulted in the car taking off from the curb and heading through downtown with a speed that rivaled some of Leon's occasional driving habits.
Leon gripped D's hand in his tightly, grateful for the link and, given their current velocity, something to hang on to. Without letting go, he rummaged briefly through his pocket, producing a cell phone after a moment.
He debated briefly on which to call, Jill or the chief, but he'd known before he'd pulled the phone out that it would be Jill. She would be the least annoying. She always was.
Leon punched in the number to her desk. By the fifth ring, he had made up his mind that she wasn't going to answer, and geared up to leave a message on her voice mail.
"Hello?" Then, "...Leon?"
"Yeah," he said quietly, trying to keep the conversation between the two of them, though he knew even the driver could hear in the enclosed space. "I'm going to be away for a while. On personal business. Tell the chief for me, okay. I don't know how long."
"Leon... is... is the Count okay? We've been getting the craziest calls.... someone claimed a lightning bolt had struck the pet shop... something is going on isn't it?" her voice was worried as well as somewhat stressed. From the sounds in the background it seemed things hadn't quieted down at the precinct noticeably.
"D's fine. He's with me. Storms in the area may, um, continue for a while. I don't have time to explain it all right now, but yeah, something is going on. I don't think you're in any immediate danger, but stay far away from the line of fire, okay?" Leon stared out the window and realized that they were going to be at their intended destination very soon.
"I don't like the sound of this, Leon," Jill said. "Take care of the Count! Promise me!"
Smiling to himself in a sad sort of way, Leon made a put upon sound into the mouthpiece. "All right, I will." He paused. "Promise."
"And take care of yourself!" Jill hated it when she got these kinds of feelings. The rare few times she was able to find out what was happening afterwards, her apprehensions were usually justified.
Leon shook his head slightly. "Okay Jill, okay. Geez, maybe I should have called the chief instead. He wouldn't have tried to mother me to death." He was quiet for a minute, then very softly said, "Gotta go. Don't spend your time worrying about us. Spend it keeping yourself safe." Then he added, with a spare hint of brightness, "And don't let me get fired!"
"All right, Leon, I'll do my best," Jill promised, knowing it could be quite a task. Then a thought struck her and she almost shouted, "Leon what about your little bro..." but the click in her ear told her that her impulse had been seconds too late.
Returning the phone to his pocket, the detective looked around to find that no one had been overtly listening to his conversation, and moved forward in his seat a little. He directed his voice to the front of the car, to Chang, and he asked, "Are we there yet?" Then he frowned, realizing he sounded like a five-year-old, and tried to express his impatience in another manner. "Are you going to let me in on this plan of yours or not?"
The car was actually entering the gates of a small private airfield. "The plan is simple," Chang said, turning to look over his shoulder. "They are heading for Hong Kong. We get there and find them. As fast as we can. My people there have already been alerted and will pick them up coming off whatever plane they use, and trail them until we arrive. That enough of a plan for you?"
"Yeah," Leon said, refusing to acknowledge the boy's assistance any more than that. "They know how to stay out of sight, I assume." It wasn't a question, and Leon turned his attention to the airfield. For some reason, he had imagined a larger area, but this was good. Smaller meant faster.
"They do... The ones we want don't have to stay out of sight in my country. They happen to be the government," Chang kept the irony in his tone low out of respect for the situation, but it wasn't completely masked.
TBC