11-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.
Extra Note: "Lui Yat Siu" - the Laughing Guy, i.e. head baddie, was borrowed from one of my fav Hong Kong movies - Jet Li's 'Last Hero In China' (which is a send up of his other Wong Fei Hung movies)
Earthsong: Part Eleven
The car drove them around the small terminal building and onto a strip where a small, fast-looking private jet waited, fuel truck moving away from it even as they arrived.
As the small group got out of the car and headed to the steep loading-stairs for the small plane, there was a low, ominous rumble that seemed to come from no-where and everywhere, and the ground beneath them shook. It lasted for a few seconds or a short eternity. When the earth stilled, D's head moved up and around, turning in a direction just north and east. "They've left the ground," he said, his voice cool and level.
It was an 'oh shit' kind of sound if Leon had ever heard one. He looked to D, thought of asking him how he knew, but it was probably the stupidest thing he could have done right then. Instead, he took one of D's arms and led him onto the plane.
Chang lost a shade or so of color at the Count's words and ran up the ladder, making his way to the cockpit to give the pilot instructions to take off immediately. They had, through one method or another, all the clearances they needed. The group they were chasing hadn't given any concern to being pursued or they could have made the process more difficult, but Chang had prepared for that as well, pulling in once in a lifetime markers that the current leader of one of Hong Kong's largest triads had access to.
They were airborne in a very short time. At that point there was little or nothing they could do but wait out the flight.
Leon was famously not good at waiting. He was also not good at pacing up and down a moving plane. Both facts irritated him, and he looked on the calm, composed manner in which D was able to sit next to him with a bit of envy. Not too much, though. "I guess," he began, looking down through the window, though he paid no attention at all to the passing scenery, "this is going home for you." When he realized that D might not know the words were meant for him and not Chang, he added, "Long time since you've been to China?"
The words drew a reaction from an unexpected source. D stiffened slightly, and Q-chan peered over his arm to glare at Leon. Squeak. /Meddler! Insensitive biped!/
D lifted the little creature and set him on a seat next to a window in the small cabin. Then he rose gracefully and moved over to stand in front of Leon. His doll-like features had an expression of faint sadness on them. He held out his hands mutely, asking to be taken on Leon's lap.
Leon directed nasty thoughts in Q-chan's direction, though there were only a few, as he knew the rabbit-bat was right. He was definitely insensitive. The question had been stupid and selfish, only meant to reassure himself, only meant to make sure that D had no thoughts of returning here, no thoughts of leaving him behind in America. Leon knew nothing of mermaids and dragons and magic, yet they all seemed a part of the Count's world, a world he had only recently become aware of and perhaps could not be a part of.
At D's movement, and the sadness on his face, Leon took the other man's hands, pulling him gently into his lap. He did not blush and there was no embarrassment for Leon, the thought of anyone else so very far away. In moments like these, Leon felt he *was* a part of that world, of D's world. But his mind always asked when it would end, and while he could always answer 'never', he could not drive the question away. Not entirely.
Having the Count this close calmed Leon, and he stopped wanting to march up and down the length of the small aircraft. He sighed softly.
D settled on Leon's lap, his weight negligible. His arms circled Leon's shoulders and his head dropped a little to rest his forehead against Leon's neck. "I have no home, my Leon," he whispered, his words not even audible to the canny Q-chan. "My home is the earth herself, but where on her surface are her children truly welcome?" After a moment he sighed and murmured, "You guess correctly. I have not been in China in a long time."
Leon shook his head, just enough to indicate a negation, not enough to unsettle D's forehead. "I thought the pet shop was your home." The pet shop had to be his home, because it was Leon's now, too.
He wanted to apologize. Apologize that D had to return to a place that obviously caused him pain. Leon should have been able to go alone, not need anyone's help. It was his brother, his business, his problem. It was a kidnapping, police business, again, his problem. Involving the Count was something he was not going to forgive himself for. Not for a very long time.
D lifted his head and gazed into Leon's crystal blue eyes as if hearing his thoughts. He stroked a bit of blond hair back that had escaped the fastening at his neck.
"They were taken from my protection," he said quietly. "It is my business as much... almost as much as yours." Tucking his head back down he added, "Yes, you are right. The pet shop is my home." He didn't add what he knew - that the pet shop itself wasn't truly a stable geographical situation. Or that from the time that Leon had tried to save him from the poison of the dragon-bite, that home had more to do with a certain American detective, a fact which both exhilarated and terrified him.
"Twice. I failed twice," Leon said, not angry but certain. "Both times, I wasn't there. Causing you trouble..." His voice trailed away for a minute, then he picked it back up. "I never wanted to. The only thing I can do worth a damn is police work. Protect people. Protect you. And I... didn't." He moved his chin onto D's shoulder, settling there before he finished. "That's what we're left with."
Slender fingers stroked his hair. "You are wrong, my Leon," the soft velvet voice murmured in his ear. "You have already protected me. The trouble is not of your making. And this is what we are left with."
Tilting Leon's face, D pressed his lips to the detective's and kissed him softly.
The action did not surprise Leon. In fact, he had hoped...
He returned the kiss and turned it to something deeper, as he'd wanted to do ever since that moment, back at the pet shop, when D had moved, shifted from a cold, disturbingly still mass of silk into the man he now held in his arms.
After a long moment, Leon pulled away, and buried his head in black silk, the one place where nothing could touch him, could touch either of them.
D felt himself settle in a way that was still terribly new to him, felt the easement of ancient disturbances, the calming of a primal anger that the attack had brought about. Felt his lover seeking refuge in his hair and found the act so precious and tender that it bonded him to the warm human soul wrapped around him. He was aware of Chang in the cockpit, sitting in the chair next to the pilot, giving them their privacy. He was aware of Q-chan, disapproving in his seat by the window. In some sense he was aware of the fear, rage and bewilderment of two young souls somewhere ahead of them, Chris with his arms wrapped around the lizard in his lap protectively, the gem eyes of the creature sparking dire warnings and promises to the oblivious men who watched them with mixed indifference and curiosity.
Closing his eyes, D wrapped his perceptions around Leon and sent soothing feelings to the human detective, finding a suspension and a kind of contentment that he'd never expected to know.
Leon felt his mind droop, sag downwards, and he was asleep in no time, surrounded in safety and something tender, a feeling, a memory, from his childhood. When his mother would hold him, but unlike then, he did not pull away, demand that she stop crying, insist that his father would be back to make all the bad things go away. No, he did not have a problem staying like this with D, and he would ride all the way to China without a word.
The plane trip was the longest one Chris had ever taken. It seemed to go on and on forever. The men who had taken him from the pet shop had taken over the entire first class cabin, money appearing to be no object or something, and even the stewardesses were not allowed to look very closely at the small boy who sat with a large lizard-like creature on his lap. Chris was not even dressed in his own clothes but in a Chinese silk suit D had found for him that morning. The pin Ti-lung had given him the night before was pinned to the mandarin collar of his tunic. He wasn't sure how or why but that pin had had something to do with the way the men looked at him and treated him.
He kept his arms around Ti-lung on his lap. The small dragon had attempted to bite the men who had physically attacked the Count, and only stopped when another of the men had grabbed Chris. He finally realized he couldn't bite them all quickly enough and that whoever was left would seriously hurt the blond boy who was his second, and perhaps closest friend. It was an earth dragon's nature to bond to things, places, and apparently even people. His senses told him Count D was still alive, even in the midst of his rage, but they also told him that Chris was far more fragile than the pet shop keeper. Frustrated and furious at his inability to protect them, he'd been forced into an apparently passive role, making sure the men did not come close to Chris once they'd been put on the plane.
There was a second reason the small dragon stayed on Chris's lap. He could tell by the smells and sounds that this large metal building was like the other one, the one he'd been put into enclosed in a small box. The one that left the ground. And leaving the ground was the one thing that terrified the young earth dragon. Other races of dragonkind had wings, and even some without them could fly, but earth dragons were intimately connected to their mother, the planet herself, and being lifted from her embrace confused, disoriented and frightened them. It was something that could only happen to a child of that race. He'd never wanted to feel it again and yet it was happening. His clawed feet clutched at Chris, not hard enough to hurt or part his silk clothing with sharp talons, but enough for Chris to feel the deep tremble in his body, masked by the fierce glare he directed with ruby jewel eyes at the evil men around them.
Chris kept his arms tightly wrapped around Ti-lung, trying very hard to seem like he was not afraid. The lizard's shaking body made it difficult, though. If Ti-lung, the bravest person he had ever met was this frightened... then there wasn't much hope for Chris's own courage.
But he could pretend, for his friend. /I think we'll be there soon./ They *had* to be there soon. They had been flying for so long already... if they kept going, they'd be circling back on themselves. /I think they are looking for us./ He did not clarify who he meant by 'they', since there were not that many people who would have any interest in finding them. Nor did he clarify what he meant by 'think'... that he *hoped* they were looking for them. That he hoped his brother would not leave him so soon.
Ti-lung's claws tightened a tiny bit in acknowledgment. His answering thoughts were also a little trembly but fierce. 'They have angered a kami-sama and a dragon. They will have short and unprosperous futures.'
Chris didn't like the sound of that. It struck him as unpleasant. But he guessed the men deserved it, after what they'd done. He hadn't technically seen what they'd done to the Count, but he had heard and felt a lot. Turning his head to the side a little, he tried to look out the far window, to change the subject slightly. /I get to see your home. You said it was pretty.../
The emotions he felt coming from the earth dragon at that were confused. Longing, as well as a different kind of fear but mostly something like the unpleasant feeling of being airsick only a lot more profound. 'You know where we are going? I can't feel her...'
The blonde boy nodded a little, though his head barely moved. /I think we'll be there soon,/ he repeated, wondering if they really would be. If time really couldn't just stretch on and on, as long as it wanted to. /This is what that guy wanted to do. To take you back home, right?/
Ti-lung moved restlessly. 'That one, yes. That one is not here.'
Chris nodded again. /No,/ he agreed, then, /They must really like you, or you must be very important, if they want you back so much./ He didn't expect an answer to the statement, and kept thinking about it. It seemed incredible to him for someone to be wanted so much.
The dragon pressed his head down on Chris's lap. 'It's because they are afraid, not because they like me.'
/Afraid of... you?/ Chris thought about it some more. /Afraid of not having you? Why?/
'Things happen...' the little dragon was vague. He only had the faintest idea himself of how it affected the humans, they often seemed so distant from their connection with the earth. And it was something that wasn't supposed to happen. He had a kind of race memory of many things relating to himself, but the specific understanding of what his displacement truly meant wasn't a part of his awareness.
Somehow satisfied with the answer, Chris tightened his grip around the lizard's body. /Bad things, probably./ He was quiet for a minute. /I won't leave you,/ he finally promised, as if it actually needed to be said. He was so tired, he wanted to go to sleep, but too scared to do so. Maybe when they got where they were going...
'I'll protect you,' his friend told him with a return of the fierceness. His body, unlike that of any other lizard Chris had ever touched, was warm, and the warmth was vaguely comforting.
The boy and dragon were being watched by a man sitting two empty rows of seats away. He'd been careful to never get near either of them, had directed the other men from a careful distance. As he observed the silent blond child he had more than an idea of whom he might be. Lui Yat Siu remembered the brief meeting with the American detective, and had gathered quite a bit of intelligence on the man so closely associated with the Los Angeles pet shop. The physical resemblance between the two was striking. He guessed correctly that by taking this boy he'd made an enemy, but that only made the game more interesting. Once in China, the man could do nothing, nothing at all.
His eyes returned to the small pin on the boy's collar. That, he recognized as well. Chang. The boy was somehow connected with Chang. How nice. Lui loathed the young Triad leader with his entire being and scoring him off in this little race and chase gave the affair a very pleasant aroma.
Getting the boy and lizard off the plane was going to be a bit different than getting them on. The stupid Americans were easy enough to fool, but Asian eyes would be curiously drawn to the boy's blond hair, and while he doubted they would recognize the creature, its resemblance to a mythical being would make the superstitious peasants among them uneasy. However he had an answer for it. As the plane neared its destination, he signaled to his men and they took the pieces and began putting together a sturdy box just big enough for the boy to sit cross-legged inside.
The landing of the commercial plane was somewhat rougher than expected. As the wheels of the landing gear touched the tarmac, Ti-lung sat up suddenly in Chris's lap, and a ripple seemed to move through the earth's surface from that point of contact outward, for many miles. The pilot kept from losing control of the last stage of the landing, bringing the plane to a stop at the gate. The slight delay caused by reactions to the tremor worked in the favor of Lui and his men, enabling them to secure their live cargo in the box and remove it from the plane with none the wiser, save for one stewardess who wondered why she hadn't seen the adorable blond boy depart.
The door from the cockpit opened and Chang stepped through, coming back to find a seat and fasten the seatbelt.
"You'd better secure yourselves," he said, his eyes slightly averted from where D sat, perched comfortably, eyes closed, on Leon's lap. "There was some kind of tremor on the ground at the airport, and they aren't certain the runways haven't sustained some damage. They wanted to divert us to another terminal but we told them we don't have enough fuel."
Leon opened his eyes slowly. He'd only been dozing. "Have you heard anything? From your people on the ground?" As he spoke, he shifted a little in the seat and began to think about digging out his seatbelt.
"Yes," Chang answered, as D stirred. The Count lifted himself gracefully and resumed a seat beside Leon. "They did not see any child, but Lui Fai, he calls himself Lui Yat Siu now, they did see, with his little clan of government thugs. They carried a big box off the plane, and he used his credentials to circumvent customs."
With a small noise of contemplation, Leon fastened the restraint, looking down for a moment. When he again looked back up, he met Chang's eyes. "The second we hit the ground, we go." It was a degree less than a demand, a degree more than a question. "Box... big enough, you think? For two kids?"
Chang shrugged. "That's my guess, but I have not seen the box. But whatever means he uses to hide them, I can find *him*. He is not a subtle man. We will go as fast as we can, but it depends on where he goes. There are some places I can't follow him to, without some... preparations."
Leon tried to take a deep breath, but it caught. He didn't try again. "I'm no good at waiting. If you can find him, though..." Leon looked away from dark eyes. "I'll follow you." Then he looked at D and immediately amended, "We'll follow you."
"I will find him," Chang said, his voice as devoid of question as a vow. There was a deadly gleam in his dark eyes, as he contemplated this last part of the game, which would decide the fate of the city of his birth, as well as that of a small American boy.
D watched the exchange between his detective and the young man, his features unreadable. He wasn't going to let Leon see for a moment that his thoughts included a musing about young Chang, who resembled in some features the younger image of his uncle, before his madness has stolen all his beauty. How ironic to be returning to China in the company of this relative of the one who had driven him from it decades before. As ironic as the boy's courage, a strength which, in his uncle, had turned to cruelty.
The look in Chang's eyes lightened the load on Leon's shoulders by the smallest of degrees. He had seen it before, in his own eyes, and he knew what it meant. He moved his body in a way that brought him a fraction closer to D in the next seat, and asked, "Any pointers for operating in this place? I've never..." He didn't finish. He'd never been out of the country, much less overseas. Not even out of California, really, except once.
"Just the usual... watch your back, don't scare the citizens, and don't forget who your friends are," Chang returned in a manner more like his banter back in Los Angeles. The plane began to come down for a smooth landing.
Leon made a slight 'humph' noise at the "friends" comment, then focused his eyes forward. He liked landings a lot better than takeoffs.
Once on the ground, they were met by a small group of young men who eyed Leon and D with open curiosity, but gave their report to Chang in clipped, hurried voices. He asked a couple of questions, the frown forming on his face telling a preview of the story.
"They've gone, with the box, to the Red Flower Trade Building. It was a very prosperous business but they sold out and moved before the Reunification. It's used for business the government doesn't want done out of their official offices. We can't walk in, and demand your brother. We'll have to break in tonight."
Listening to Chang's words, Leon didn't really start paying attention until he got to the last part. He *could* goddamn well walk in and demand his brother. He wanted to. But that presented the chance for failure, Leon admitted. Instead of voicing those thoughts, however, he voiced others. "Tonight. Fine. But I'm not just going to sit around until then."
Chang shrugged. "You've crossed the world - tonight is soon. I've been given an order to meet with the elders, to report on my mission," the frown became a grimace. "They want to see you, too." He turned to D, his tone respectful. "Will you come?"
D ran a hand along his cheongsam, wiping away imagined dirt. "Of course, if my detective agrees."
Leon frowned a little, his face coloring a little at the 'my detective' remark. The *last* thing he wanted to do was go hang out with a bunch of old guys, but it had to be better than waiting around. And it annoyed him that they wanted to see D, to bother him about something, Leon speculated.
Of course, it didn't even cross his mind to refuse. "Well, it'd be a shame not to drop in on them, while we're here. I've heard so much about them already."
Chang smiled with a corner of his mouth and issued instructions to his people.
Chang, Leon and D were not able to avoid customs, which could have been a problem considering Leon had no passport, and as for D it was anyone's guess. However, the oddest thing happened when they approached the customs station. The officials all stared at D, and the Count simply smiled at them. And the next thing Leon knew, they were being ushered to the street where a car waited, courtesy of Chang's men.
Once inside the car, Leon thought about commenting on their ease of passage through customs, thought about asking D what he had done. He did not, though. There were going to be lots of strange things happening here, lots of weird things going on, all around him. He had already decided that, and it was best that he start getting used to it now.
If they got his brother back, he couldn't say he gave a damn.
TBC