2-July-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.
WARNING THIS SECTION: Lemon - under 18 please don't read!
Earthsong: Part Four
The bedroom contained a scent of some special incense. It wasn't heavy, but wound around Leon's senses with an aroma both sweet and earthy. There were candles flickering, and the room seemed somehow subtly different. Perhaps a little... bigger. More comfortable for Leon, in an odd way. D slipped his fingers out of Leon's and went around him, passing the bed to walk over to a mirror that stood on the wall in front of a small antique dressingtable. Picking up a silver comb, he examined his reflection, making some invisible adjustment to his hair.
Leon watched the Count's actions from where he stood, then followed him to the mirror. He remained to the side, out of reflecting range, content for a moment to observe the other man. The face on the wall seemed somehow different. Not quite a mirror image, but more a painting, a portrait of something beautiful and light, like paper. Something ancient.
Leon shook his head, immediately relegating the thought to the ranks of stupidity, as he did so many of them. He wanted to stop thinking for a while. He'd been thinking all day, not about the things he usually did, about who might have done what to whom and why, but about D, himself, his family. None of it would make sense today, no matter how hard he tried to shove it into the correct spot. Round hole, square peg. He knew it wouldn't work.
He wanted to grab D, turn him around, and take him back to the bed. He usually did things without thinking about them, didn't like to hesitate. There weren't many people in the world you could trust, but you'd damn well better be able to trust yourself. That was his one piece of wisdom.
But now he did hesitate. The things he had seen with his own eyes, the things he had been told, made him stop. He could not believe, but doubt had begun to edge in on him, seeping into his world. If any of it was even remotely true, then... then... He could not finish the thought, not even in his head where it was almost safe. But it still made him stop.
He moved into the frame on the wall, and the portrait became of two. Leon could almost imagine that there, on the wall, they belonged together. Outside of the frame... he could not see that far away.
D stopped primping and placed the comb on the dresser slowly, his eyes meeting Leon's in the mirror as if he were looking at the same picture. Almost without moving, he leaned back against Leon's chest. His hands reached back, capturing Leon's and drawing them around his waist.
"You need not hesitate to claim what is yours, My Detective," he murmured softly, his hands stroking over Leon's.
Quite suddenly, it did not matter. The doubts went away, and he could barely remember where they had come from in the first place. D was his, and he would not share him with anyone without a fight. A fight he would win. His hands tightened around D's waist, and he moved his lips into that black silk hair, kissing it, moving it aside with his face to get to the other man's neck and shoulder. Nothing can take this away from me, he thought, and turned the Count in his arms to face him. The words released a hot wave of desire over his body, and he pulled the other man into it with him, as if to share it, let it jump between their bodies like a spark.
Leon joined their mouths, one arm held tightly around D's waist, one hand firmly latched to the back of D's skull, fingers threaded in his hair.
D's arms snaked around him just as possessively. His eyes closed, but not entirely, and he watched his lover under his lashes as he surrendered his mouth to the hungry invasion. The power in the arms around him and the mouth pressed to his incited a slow flame that had never really banked since the young American had claimed him the first time. It took a lot to get that flame fully ignited, but in turn it would take a lot to make it die. Twining his tongue around Leon's, he welcomed the young man in every way. Leon could feel the Count's hands clawing gently at his back, inciting sensations along his skin. He wanted his Detective out of control.
Somehow, Leon moved them backwards to the bed. He could not see, could not hear, could not feel anything that was not D. Along the way, he had managed to shed a few articles of his own clothing, and after pushing D onto the bed, began to dump the rest. His eyes did not leave the Count's the entire time, flashing a charged shade of blue.
Clever hands helped his, excitedly baring his detective's beautiful body, his eyes flickering over it appreciatively. Landing on the bed with a soft bounce, D looked up, his slight smile both teasing and admiring. His tongue appeared, moistening his lips delicately. "Yesssss....." he said, though to what silent question or statement was unknown.
In reply, Leon dropped atop him, his hands moving to undress the other man, letting D help him whenever necessary. Everything in the room seemed to move, because he was moving. Even the silk butterflies below D's waist wanted to fly away, to light on all the surfaces in the room. Leon let the garment slide to the floor, the feel of the silk in his hand like a prelude to D's skin.
Leon kissed D's dark mouth, his fingers traveling over creamy skin, marking territory, learning paths. 'Yes', D had said. Nothing. Nothing felt beyond his grasp. D made him feel that way. Made him feel like no one ever had before. More like himself than he had ever been.
D squirmed a little under Leon's weight, not because he minded it, just the opposite. His body was anything but delicate, no matter what appearances suggested. He reveled in the strength and weight of the American, and even more, feeling Leon's entire focus on *him*. He raked his hands along Leon's skin, teasing with his nails. Feeling the friction of flesh on flesh as their hips shifted against each other, he felt a sudden delicious impatience.
Leon wasn't exactly sure what happened, he just suddenly found himself on his back, and the beautiful man perched above. His lips stretched in a smile that was more than a little wicked. Splaying his hands along Leon's skin, he bent over his lover's lap, licking his lips. Slowly lower, as his hands moved towards the focus of his gaze. The first flick of a tongue across Leon's swollen erection was electric.
With the reversal, Leon had been a little startled, but now, he only felt consumed, heat all around him. He could not quite stop his hips from moving upward in a thoughtless action. His hands fell downward, pushing through D's hair, and he raised his head to watch the other's dark mouth for a moment. Then his head fell back to the bed with a sound that was laced with enjoyment and appreciative surprise. His breath was raspy in his throat, and he closed his eyes so he could see enough to feel everything completely.
Long-nailed hands kneaded Leon's skin as D's mouth did things he'd never even remotely imagined possible. In some ways it was a little like being devoured by a hungry panther. Eventually D climbed on top of Leon, straddling him backwards, his slight weight helping to keep the man's hips flat against the bed. Unrelenting as he could be, Leon hadn't a chance in hell of withholding himself.
If the room seemed to be moving earlier, it was spinning out of control now, as if it might soon be hurled away from him, from them both, leaving him with only the beautiful weight settled over his body. His hips still wanted to move, even against that weight, but were held, for the moment. A familiar tension continued to grow low in his body, pressure building behind a wall, searching for a release.
When D felt the beginnings of that tension, his assault escalated, as if he were gleefully determined to drive Leon over the edge as quickly as possible. Then, just before he reached the edge, D... slowed... down....
Leon's hips did move against the weight now, and he let out a groan, loud and frustrated, even angry. He attempted to unsettle that weight, while at the same time, encouraging it. This settled an unanswered question Leon had in his mind. The Count's actions were inhumanly cruel.
Hands moved on Leon's skin, soothing, stroking, as the warm mouth around him resumed its torture, drawing out the sensations a bit more. In time, D could train his lover to enjoy this for longer than he'd believe possible, but for now he didn't want to anger his lover *too* much. Bringing him up to the edge again, D pushed him over, taking his release entirely, relishing the primal fluid that was as salty as blood. The climax when it came was twice as powerful for the small delay.
It was easily the most Leon had ever felt. And he felt it with everything he had, wrapping his hands around D's hips, Leon's back coming uncontrollably away from the mattress below. He could feel his energy draining away, being drunk away by the man, maybe more, sitting atop him. Before it could go completely, Leon surged upwards, twisting and turning both their bodies until the Count lay beneath him. He did not give the other man time to react, laying his mouth over D's, and made his tongue move deeply down the other's throat, picking up hints of salt.
He felt no resistance at all in the pliant body beneath him. A slight, odd taste greeted his kiss. There wasn't much of it, for D had greedily consumed what he'd harvested but enough to give the kiss that tang.
When their mouths parted, D looked up at his detective with an expression that could legitimately be called both sated and worshipful.
Leon took in the look on D's face with parted lips that slowly slid into a half-smile. "I'm not going to figure you out anytime soon, am I?" He asked the question of them both, though it was certain each of them already knew the answer.
D smiled slowly. "Not too soon," he said, his tone pleased. "I can't have you getting bored." *Taking me for granted.* It was silent but a clear enough pulse just a beat behind the other that even Leon could hear it.
The remark jolted Leon a bit, not because of the unspoken addition he felt trailing after, but because it seemed to see farther into himself than he tried to let people see. He did not get tired of things... he'd kept the same car for years, though it had to spend more than once a year in the shop, would wear a pair of shoes until they fell apart. But people could grow cold with a speed that facilitated forgetting they ever existed. All the women he'd ever stayed with for more than one night had ended like that. Sure, he was always the one who got dumped, but not once had he cared. Not once had his protests been more than formalities, battle tactics in an unwinable war - yes, you win, you hurt me more than I hurt you.
But to apply that to D... No, he could find no way to do it. And the reason why dropped into his mind from nowhere, an odd piece of fruit from an old tree. He got tired of people, but the Count was... not... a...
Leon moved his head down again, his lips brushing across D's on his way to the man's neck, then his chest, kissing anything that looked like it might taste good, which on D, was everything. "If you can wait a few more minutes, neither one of us will be bored," he said, already starting to feel small stirrings below his waist. Just the feel of the other man's skin against his own was almost enough...
D moved a little under his touch, an almost-audible purr vibrating his body. "For you, My Leon," he murmured, "I can wait, a little while..." He relaxed back into the mattress, his arms spreading wide as if to offer himself to Leon's attentions. His skin seemed to warm under the American's lips and fingers. The level of his response was almost that of intoxication.
As Leon continued to mouth various parts of the Count's body, he realized that it would truly only be a 'little while' that they would have to wait, his desire for the man beneath him already like a warm sea around his body, that held him, would not let him go, even when he needed to breathe, even when its embrace became deadly.
Leon moved his hands low on the other man, encircling his erection in a loose grip that slowly tightened, then stroking him at a steady, even pace. The detective felt his own cock jump at the contact, and brought his mouth down on D's once again in a kiss that was not hurried, but insistent. His lips brushed against D's ear, and he breathed, "I'm ready... how about you?" Even as he spoke, he was moving the finger of his other hand inside D, deeply.
At first when he touched D's erection, the beautiful man sighed, but his hips almost seemed to try and twist away from the touch after a moment or two. The other touch... the penetrating one... that was what he wanted from Leon. Turning his body sinuously, he lifted one slender leg over Leon's arm and moved onto his hands and knees on the wide bed, somehow dislodging one touch without losing the other. Tossing his head, he looked back over his shoulder. "Leon..." he murmured, almost a complaint. His hips moved back against Leon's hand.
Leon was definitely ready now, the sight before him pulling him down into that surrounding sea once again, and he moved his body forward, preparing to drown in D. He removed his hand, placing it on a slender hip, and at a slow pace, entered the other man. He could not breathe, his lungs seemed almost to fill with water, and as the Count's body stretched to accommodate him, he continued to move further inside, still slowly because the water held him. He began to feel a little like he was going insane.
A low sound, something between a growl and a purr seemed to come from D's throat as he arched his back. He swayed with the slow rocking, pushing back, taking more of his lover, a little faster than Leon was giving it to him. Tossing his head, he looked back again, one golden eye focusing on Leon's face, sending a message of hunger and need.
It took Leon a moment to catch the look, focused as he was on the sounds coming from D's mouth. Both sent a long-nailed fingertip down and across his back, and he moved faster in response to it and his own need.
Fast and long, hard and fast, long and hard... with each of his thrusts came a piece of internal dialogue.
'Weird shit.'
'Weird shit's been in my head.'
'All day.'
He did not know where it came from. He did not know...
Tension built in his body, not quite the same as before. Leon was in control of this. But even as he thought it, he knew that he was not in control of as many things as he imagined.
The body under him moved with his, matching his rhythm. Another head toss over the other shoulder, and a purple eye sparked fire. It seemed to draw him back, refusing to let him think about anything else, wanting his whole focus and attention as well as his driving body. D bucked, his spine undulating with sensual flexibility.
In a great flutter, the thoughts blew away in a cloud of dissipating birds that temporarily blocked everything else from sight. When they had gone, he found only D, and with another powerful movement of his hips, he was filling the other man, hands held tightly at the Count's waist. His grip tightened through each moment of his climax, the soft skin beneath his fingers seeming to melt into his own.
D's body shuddered delicately, as he drank his lover's seed for the second time, his body accepting and absorbing it like an elixir. He seemed to drift down, hips held by Leon's hands, as his cheek slid along the satin pillows. Another low purr emerged from his lips as his eyes fluttered, closing slowly. "Leon..." it was half breath and half vibration.
After a moment, Leon was beside him, rolling D into his chest, holding the other man to face him. His lips leafed through black silk hair, his arms and legs pulling their two bodies as closely together as they would go. "What?" he said softly, an almost tease to his voice, his eyes closing in a way that suggested he didn't plan on opening them again anytime soon.
"You think too much, my lover," D murmured, watching Leon's eyes close. That's right... sleep, love...
Leon smiled sleepily at the words, and fell down, down into a deep slumber, the way made easier by the body in his arms.
There was no way of telling what time it was, unless Leon looked at his watch. The light was dimmer, but not nonexistent, a couple of candles still flickering in their pools of melted wax. The scent of incense lingered in the air, and the sheets were warm, but devoid of a beautiful pet shop keeper.
Leon turned in the bed, his eyes going to all the dark corners in the room. They were already well-adjusted to the darkness, but still bleary with sleep, and everything seemed to have an almost human shape, as if the Count were standing somewhere in the room, watching.
The detective quickly determined that he was truly alone in the space, and sat up fully in the bed. He found his jeans on the floor and pulled them on, listening for any sign of D, expecting the man to return any instant from a brief trip to tend to some little something with one of his animals. Now that Leon thought of it, it was kind of odd that no one else worked at the shop. The general racket whenever he entered the store seemed to indicate that there were quite a few 'pets' living here, and for one person to be able to take care of them all... And never appear to be tired, as if he worked all day tending their needs... And even have time to prepare elaborate meals, lunches, teas... Well, it was suspicious.
As Leon pulled on his jeans, he became aware of a soft sound, not from the hallway beyond the entrance to the room, but from a different direction. There was another beaded curtain over a doorway at the back of the room. Leon heard a murmur of a soft voice and though it was barely audible, his senses recognized it as D. Following the sound, he found himself in a dark room with another doorway, the glimmer of light beyond. The next room had a large sunken bath with yet another room beyond that.
The voices, D's and another, were low but slightly louder as he went from room to room. In the doorway of the next, he saw a large place with an intricately designed oriental rug, and seated on the rug was D, his body wrapped in a silk robe with a beautiful design of a phoenix across the back. Sitting on his lap was a young boy, with wild red hair and dark eyes, and they were talking softly.
Leon took a few more steps into the room, watching the strange child closely. He had no idea what some kid was doing here in the middle of the night, though from the way D was talking to him, he seemed more than welcome. In fact, now that Leon got a closer look at the child, he began to seem almost familiar. Maybe he had seen him somewhere before...
Not moving from his position several feet away, Leon let his eyes leave the child and seek out D. That kid was probably the same age as... and he'd told Jill he'd ask... and tomorrow... tomorrow...
"He's listening to us," the boy said, the voice even more familiar than his appearance, as he threw a dark-eyed look over D's shoulder.
"He won't tell anything he hears," D said soothingly.
Frowning at the boy's tone of voice, Leon looked at them both then turned his head to the side as if he was thinking. Then he turned back, the frown gone. "Who's your friend?" he asked lightly, letting his hands go casually into his pockets.
The boy scowled. "Still stupid."
D stroked the boy's wild hair soothingly. "No," he said in the tone of a correction. "He is not. You were never properly introduced. Leon, this is Ti-lung."
Leon gave the boy a look, a little startled at being insulted so out of the blue by some unknown kid, but the voice did begin to tickle at something in his memory. And the name... it was something he'd heard before, wasn't it? "Shouldn't you..." Leon stopped, redirecting the question from the boy to D. "Should he be at home or something?"
"I *am* home!" Ti-lung said, and then threw his arms around D and burst into tears. The Count looked up at Leon with a slight shake to his head.
"I told you that you could stay," he said calmly. "But I think you should meet the man."
At the boy's tears, Leon's face went from slight disapproval to wide-eyed shock. Obviously, he was no good with kids. He took his hands out of his pockets and raised them in a placating manner, then let them fall to his sides as he spoke, trying to keep his voice as close to friendly as possible. "I didn't know anyone lived here... besides the owner. I haven't seen you around," he added the last with a shrug of his bare shoulders, trying to watch D's eyes and see if he was acting appropriately.
The boy wiped his eyes and looked at Leon. "I just got here," he said, crossly. "But I can stay! I don't have to go. "
D continued to pet the boy's hair. He looked up at Leon and smiled slightly. "Leon could tell you something about the man who wants to meet you," he said. "He spent some time getting to know him after they left here earlier in the day." There was a slight hint of dark humor twinkling in D's golden eye.
Leon caught the humor in D's eye, though he didn't know what to do with it. He could not figure out what the Count was talking about... he didn't know anyone that would want to meet this kid. He wondered for a moment if this might have something to do with getting the kid adopted, then discarded the idea. D dealt in animals, not kids.
"Is he a relative of yours or something?" he asked, not seeing a bit of family resemblance, but allowing it as a possibility in his mind. "And I don't know of any men who want to meet little boys. Outside of prison, that is."
D threw Leon a momentary frown at the last remark. "He will be meeting your friend, Mister Chang, tomorrow," D said. "Since the two of you performed a ritual of male bonding over fisticuffs on the public street, I thought perhaps you could offer some insights into his character."
"Chang wants to meet with you. He never said anything about any kids," Leon said, then looked away, mumbling to himself. "I figured you'd know about that, one way or the other. And bring it up," he added, something tugging his mouth downwards. "You want insights?" he said, his voice a little louder. "He's a decent guy, under a thick layer of arrogance. I don't think he'd do anything he found 'dishonorable', and I'd turn my back on him without worrying too much." Directing his next comment at the boy rather than D, he added, "He's a nice guy. Besides, I'll be here when he's here, the Count will be here... he couldn't hurt you if he wanted to. But he doesn't want to."
The boy looked up at Leon and his face cleared. He still frowned a little but on his cute face it was only endearing. "I'm not afraid," he asserted. Then he climbed off D's lap and walked to within about four feet of Leon. "Did you fight? A warrior's duel?" He took up what looked like a martial arts stance and threw a few shadow kicks.
Watching the child's performance, Leon nodded approvingly at the kicks. "Yeah, I guess we did." Then he looked over to D, his blue eyes uncertain, but willing. He came down to the child's level, his face softening, a smile chasing the frown from his lips. "So you're going to be living here? Then I'll probably see you a lot. I'm here... a lot." Leon offered the boy his hand.
Ti-lung looked at Leon's hand as if he weren't exactly sure what to do with it. Then he placed his small hand against Leon's, the skin dry and almost cool. "American custom," he muttered, as if figuring it out.
D watched the exchange with a faint smile, his aura one of approval for both of them.
Shaking the boy's hand slowly, Leon looked up at the Count for a moment, then stood. "Well, it's getting late," he began, thinking that it probably wasn't really, but that it sure felt like it. "I'm going to head back to bed." His voice and eyes, which watched D intently, suggested that'd he prefer it if D accompanied him, but that he'd go alone if he had to, if the Count had other things he had to attend to. If he couldn't leave the child just yet.
The boy frowned, not quite ready to relinquish his new acquaintance. "You want to walk me to my room?" he asked, looking up at Leon. "It's not very far."
D smiled, averting his face slightly from Leon.
He has a room already? Leon thought, not quite sure what he made of the speed with which the boy had moved in. If he didn't like having to share the Count with all the other, much less obtrusive members of the pet shop, then he really couldn't believe he wouldn't feel the same, or worse, about the boy. And yet, something stopped him from it, and he wasn't able to pinpoint what. He just knew the kid was kind of... almost... cute.
"All right, I think I can stay awake long enough for that," Leon said, making as if to follow the boy. Then he paused, thinking, and moved his hand in the child's general direction, just in case he might want to take it.
The small hand took his as if never in doubt that it would be offered.
As Ti-lung started to lead Leon down another hallway, D stood up and said, "Don't try to get him to stay and play with you. He has to sleep so he can do his work in the morning. It is very important work."
"Yes, Elder," Ti-lung said, tugging Leon a bit faster.
The detective offered no resistance to the boy, and allowed himself to be led off in any direction the child wished, shooting D a look over his shoulder, one that held too much curiosity to be called 'worried'.
He was led down a hallway and finally to a rather ornate and heavy door. "Xie xie," the boy said. "Go to sleep!" He pulled the door open and a bit of a new scent came out of the room - incense mixed with a musky smell Leon remembered from a recent situation involving D and a bitten wrist. Slipping into the room, the boy pulled the door closed.
Letting himself get a little swept up in the boy's enthusiasm, Leon smiled wide. The scent from the room took the edge off his expression, the smell still having several negative connotations in his mind. He did not focus on the scent for too long, his eyes taking over in the next beat.
As Leon was hesitating outside the door, something flitted through the air from further down the hall. Q-chan seemed to fly at him, as if accidentally making him duck to avoid a collision. A series of squeaks sounded like, "Meddler... shoo! Go away!" The rabbit-bat flitted off down the hall in the general direction of where Leon had come from.
Staring after the creature, his head still bowed to avoid a face full, Leon cursed a little indignantly. Rising to an upright position, he shook his head, trying to clear away the words that he couldn't have heard. After a moment, he followed the most annoying of all D's pets, bristling the entire way. He'd been shooed... by a stuffed animal!
Leon made his way back to the room where he'd come upon D and the child, forever watching the dark shadows that pooled like water throughout the labyrinthine halls and rooms of the pet shop. He could get lost easily, he admitted to himself, if he didn't pay attention. But it had always been in his nature to remain observant of his surroundings, even when it meant losing track of everything else. To be so absorbed by everything outside, that he didn't, no, *couldn't* think of anything inside.
D was no longer in the room, but something drew Leon's attention to the room just beyond. The sound of water splashing, a soft murmur of a familiar deep velvet voice and another, soft squeaks not audible as words at this low volume.
Leon moved in the direction of the sound, remembering that he had passed a tub on his way here earlier, and concluded that perhaps D was taking a bath. He shouldn't pass through the room and disturb the other, but he knew no other way to go. And if Q-chan was invited...
The thought caused a fresh bit of aner to come boiling to the surface. Only for a moment did it strike him as ridiculous to be jealous of the little animal. After that moment, he was mad, and that's all there was.
As he opened the door to the next room, Leon adopted a look meant for Q-chan: Try running me down in the hall again.
The picture that met Leon's eyes was something out of a decadent fantasy. The sunken bath - more the size of a pool, really - held a singular nymph. His white skin and black hair shone in the candlelight. The water only came up to his hips, the rest of his body nude, and fragrant opalescent soap bubbles floated on the water and clung to the Count's lithe form. In one hand he held a small hose with a shower nozzle, directing the spray onto his body in a graceful arc, causing the suds to slide along his faintly glowing skin.
As a bit of comic relief, Puck to Titania, Q-chan flapped energetically in the water at the far side of the pool, using a few of D's soap suds that had floated over to take his own bath.
Leon felt the look slide from his face, his eyes expanding as if he couldn't fully take in the sight of D's candlelit bath without assistance. Q-chan's own bathing efforts caused it to return. He did not like the creature being in the water with his... his...
Leon could not finish the thought. His what? He wasn't sure, but he could not get the idea of Q-chan as a threat out of his head. Finally, he simply disregarded the small creature. He was easily disregardable next to D's soft, bright form, moisture dancing with the candle glow, making his skin seem alive, all on its own. Leon did not say anything, did not apologize for interrupting the other man's bath, and it occurred to him, with a jump in adrenaline, that D would have known he'd be passing through the room anyway.
Unmoving, Leon watched.
His guess was confirmed when D turned slightly and a half-veiled golden eye glanced over the beautiful man's shoulder. "My Leon," he murmured. "I know you need rest, but would you like a bath? It might relax you..."
Leon much preferred showers to baths. They were quicker, and sometimes, submerged in water, he felt a strange tugging, backward or downward, he wasn't sure which, and it was difficult to breathe. But it was more of a remembered feeling than a real one, and only sometimes. Neither of these occurred to him at the moment, however, and Leon only found himself stepping out of his jeans. Moving closer to the small pool, he knelt at the edge and his eyes met D's. Then, indicating Q-chan with a quick glance, he said, "Three's a crowd, isn't it?"
The little creature glared at him with its little button eyes.
D turned and reached up with one elegant hand. "Q-chan is finished," he said pleasantly. The little rabbit-bat splashed noisily and then climbed out of the water, flapping his wings to dry them.
Leon almost smiled at the creature, though the look he actually wore on his face was far less pleasant. Then he directed his look back to D and stood, stepping down into the water without waiting for the Count's pet to disappear, as he assumed it was about to.
The faint sound of flapping wings were the only indicator of Leon's correct guess.
D's eyes moved over his body, their mismatched irises seeming to linger possessively. D lifted a large natural sponge heavy with water and began to sluice warm, fragrant water over Leon's skin.
The warm water felt good, smelled good, and Leon found that D was right, it did relax him. Another feeling, just as warm but not nearly as quiet, fought for supremacy in his body, and even as he felt his eyes drooping downward, Leon tried to move himself into a position to get at that dark, warm mouth, and that soft, white neck.
D slid around him, just out of easy reach, to sponge warm water across his back, the strokes slow and caressing. The sponge moved around his waist and over the curve of his hips, trickling water along every contour and crevice.
Leon did not attempt to move after D's evasion, the sponge feeling far too wonderful for that. Instead he closed his eyes, several pleased sounds coming out of his mouth before he even knew they were there. Sounds that moved lower, took on a growling quality, as the sponge moved lower. Reaching behind, Leon sought to grasp the man again. He did not like being avoided, and yet, it sent a strange throb throughout his body. As if D was raking his long nails across his back, as if there was something extremely pleasant just beyond the unpleasant. As if this was a game he needed to learn how to play, and then... he could win.
He was allowed to capture one slender wrist, the same wrist that had started the whole situation.
Holding the hand to his mouth, Leon kissed the moist, smooth skin, his lips finding the spot where D had been bitten, the flesh there just as much like silk as the rest of the man. He took his mouth away, remembering, and pulled D towards him, hard, by his wrist, not willing to be denied any longer.
The Count fell against Leon, tipping his head down to let his dark hair fall across his face. It gave the appearance of a shy gesture, but his lips were slowly curving. "Am I a doll to be played with like a puppet?" he complained in a sultry voice.
Leon didn't answer right away, the movement he'd started by pulling the other man against him needing to be finished first. He brought his mouth down on the other's, invading, possessing, but not playing. Games had to have a clear purpose to make sense to him, and this one... did not. "Is that what you want?" Leon breathed against D's neck, one hand burying deeply in black silk, the other slipping down a finely shaped back.
He felt D's mouth curve against the skin of his neck, and then the sensation of teeth nibbling along his artery. The Count chose not to answer. The truth would have spoiled the game. His body moved against Leon's sensuously as his free hand spidered across the detective's flank.
Leon didn't know exactly what to make of it all, especially the lack of answer to his question. When he'd said earlier that he had little hope of being able to figure the Count out, he'd meant it. Sometimes he was moving ahead, sometimes he was retreating. One minute he was tackling him, the next he was pulling away. Like something that was forever changing, never able to settle... never wanting to settle? Leon's thoughts had only managed to confuse him further, but something in them made him tighten his grip around D's body, his arms encircling the other's waist. He bent his head to drink the moisture from D's chest, the skin there tasting fresh, infused with the fragrance from the water.
The tighter he held D, the more responsive the other man seemed to be. His eyelids lowered over mismatched eyes, watching the detective with undisguised heat that seemed to smolder behind his eyes and just under his skin. His hands settled on Leon's shoulders and kneaded the muscles there like a cat.
Leon wanted something to push against. Without giving up the contact between his mouth and D's chest, he moved them both in the water, pressing D in front of him until he felt them connect with something solid, one of the pool's walls, and he levered himself fully against the Count, the pressure against his body moving heat throughout him in waves. He kissed D's mouth again, finding it was hard to stay away from it, and the water around him began to feel like caressing hands, as if every part of his body not in direct contact with the Count was still being touched by the man.
Pressed against the side of the pool, which fortunately had a rounded lip, D's legs lifted and wrapped around Leon's hips, rubbing his body against the American's swelling erection. He sucked Leon's tongue deeper into his mouth as if drinking it, soft purring sounds muffled in his throat.
Leon broke away from the Count's mouth with a sharp inhalation of breath followed by another low sound. He was far from relaxed now, surrounded by D and the water that seemed to somehow hold a part of the other man, and he needed to be inside that, to be a part of it. Leon draped his head on D's shoulder, laying his lips on the skin there, as he moved inside the man, like a wave rolling home to shore. He held D to the wall with his hands to keep the other man from slipping away and pushed deeper, into warmth and safety. The safety of knowing he had someone to watch, someone to guard, someone to come home to. It was something he'd never had, and he held onto it, as surely as he held onto D, with everything he could find within himself.
D's gasp blended into a murmur of pleasure as he received his lover. His head turned, lips brushing the blond's ear, whispering words that Leon couldn't understand. The low rich voice, breathy with arousal, could have been offering endearments, obscenities, entreaties... it throbbed with each movement, an audible enclosure around him that matched the tactile sense of the water, and the tightening of D's warm body sheathing him in liquid heat.
Leon quickened his pace at the sound of D's voice, water lapping at the edges of the pool with his movements. He could feel everything rising within his body, gaining height, but instead of moving away from him, he rose with them, carried high on a current of hot air. Turning his head, he kissed D's mouth, pushing the man's head back to front and then backwards, continuing to slide quickly in and out of the Count, continuing to rise with the heated air.
Nails raked along Leon's back as D was deprived of the ability to whisper foreign syllables to incite his lover. His legs tightened around Leon's waist as the delicious sensations built inside until they seemed to burst within, the beautiful man writhing and pulsing around Leon in an abandon of pleasure.
Leon felt the rising things within collapse, and he was falling, tumbling down in a great rush of feeling. He filled D in pulses, each beat coming closer to the edge of what he found bearable, and needing to breath, make some kind of noise, Leon released the other man's mouth, a gasp of fulfilled desire echoing from deep within his throat.
Finally, sagging against D, Leon sank a little lower in the water. He ran a hand along the Count' side and then around his waist, his eyes falling closed as he let his head rest in the hollow at the base of the other man's neck. "You were right," he said almost lazily, "That did relax me."
The soft laugh that answered him was blurred with satiation. Stroking Leon's hair, D pressed soft, brief kisses along the detective's cheek. "Mmmm..." The Count was quiet for a while, but then he could not ignore the desire to leave the water. Shifting, he urged Leon up enough to begin pulling him out of the pool.
Thoroughly waterlogged himself, Leon let himself be pulled from the water. As he turned his head to begin searching out a towel, he asked casually, as if it didn't matter much at all, "You coming to bed?"
D reached for his robe, which was of course hanging conveniently close, along with another... this one in gold silk, embroidered with a huge, beautiful dragon in red and gold. He dropped it across Leon's arm. Sliding into his own, he drifted in the direction of the bedroom, leaving a languid smile over his shoulder for an answer.
Leon stared at the robe for a moment, then slipped it on curiously. He didn't normally wear anything even remotely similar, but he found it felt nice, especially against his still sensitive skin. Following D, he found a smile of his own, one that disproved the casual tone with which he'd asked his question. One that he was glad the Count could not see.
TBC