29-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.
Earthsong: Part Eight
The vehicle crawled, slowly moving up and down every street, side street, and alley Leon could maneuver. It had taken him a while to slow the car down... when he'd first started it up, he'd wanted to drive very very fast. Speed to a set destination, somewhere where he knew Chang would be, and then he'd have the boy. As impossible as that was, he'd tried it anyway. But driving at a suicidal rate had not helped him find Chang. So he slowed down.
There were plenty of people walking the streets of Chinatown. It was just starting to get a little less bright outside. Not dark, but the sun had taken a break, and was allowing the sidewalks the beginning of their daily relief. Leon examined each and every one of them. With his windows down, he stopped to talk to a few, even finding a couple of familiar faces. But no one seemed to know anything, or to want to tell him about it if they did.
He was starting to get frustrated, but Leon was far away from giving up his search. He would find Chang, if it took all evening, all night, all the next day and the next one after that. The simplistic nature of his resolve comforted Leon a bit. He just wouldn't stop until he found the boy. Easy.
His break came when he noticed a young man leaning in the doorway of a building, watching him, and thought he looked familiar. In fact the kid's face resembled one of the ones he'd seen that afternoon. The guy wasn't making any secret of watching him, with a half-smirk, either.
Leon put his foot to the break pedal and leaned closer to the passenger window. He looked at the kid for a minute before calling him over. "Hey!"
The kid straightened up nonchalantly and strolled over. "What's up, Mister?" he said, his mainland accent thick.
"You tell me. I'm looking for someone." Leon spoke the words without pretense, his eyes never still as he continued to watch the sidewalk behind the boy. "You look like you know something," he added, almost surfacing from his purpose enough to give the kid a 'Detective Leon Orcot' look. But not quite, the expression on his face remaining in the unchanged attitude of someone with one thing and one thing only in mind.
"Me? I don't know anything, mister, nothing at all!" This time the kid grinned.
Leon sighed loudly, then moved the top half of his body across the passenger seat. In the same quick motion, he reached one long arm outside the window facing the street and managed to grab a fistful of the kid's shirt, at his chest. He tugged, violently, and the boy fell partially against the car.
"I really don't have time for this," he growled, his eyes finally focusing on the boy, rather than the street behind him. "If you know something, tell me. Unless you want to go to jail, because those are your two choices."
"Ow! Hey that hurt!" The kid jerked back. He also loosed a few curses in colorful Cantonese. "Leggo, mister! I'll tell you..."
Leon did not let go. But the boiling anger in his eyes fell back into a calmer simmer, and his voice was no longer a growl when he spoke, merely discontent. "Talk."
"You're looking for a Tiger, right? Looking in the wrong place. Tigers don't hang out on the street. Tigers prefer the jungle..." The odd answer only started to make sense when the kid pointed. Across the street and slightly down the block was an old, well-worn gym/dojo with Chinese characters in the faded sign, and then in English, 'Jungle Gym'.
Finally dropping the boy's shirt, Leon gave the kid a small push, to get him away from the car, and moved the vehicle down the street, until he was in front of the gym, on the opposite side of the road. As he exited his car, he looked back to where the boy still stood and waved, though the action could hardly be called friendly.
Leon crossed the street and stopped in front of the Jungle Gym's front door, making sure he had his gun on him. Then he pulled the door open with no idea what to expect to find inside. Except Chang. That was the only thing he was relatively sure of.
The gym was far from empty, a number of people, mostly, almost exclusively of the male gender, and most between fourteen and twenty five. They were using the various facilities of the place, talking, only a few words in English.
The one Leon was looking for was in the matted floor of the dojo side, sparring with another person about his size and weight.
Leon's eyes locked onto Chang's form with speed and accuracy, the target confirmed. He shot through the room, along a straight path, until he was standing a few feet away from Chang. Leon completely ignored the other boy matched against Chang. Then he did something that surprised himself. He did not grab the boy and proceed to punch him repeatedly, about various parts of his body, starting with that smug mouth. No. Instead, he stared. Stared a hole right through the middle of Chang's head. "So this is the gym you mentioned," he said, teeth remaining clamped throughout much of the sentence.
Chang did not seem surprised to see him. He said something to his sparring partner who faded. Most of the heads in the place had turned, tracking Leon, and stayed on him.
"Nice to see you, Mister Police," Chang said. "You seem a bit upset."
"And you seem... occupied. Wouldn't you rather do this somewhere private?" Leon's voice seemed to indicate that he personally did not care *where* he arrested the boy.
"Depends on what you plan to do, if it's kiss me, yes, private would be better," Chang said, and several of the watchers snickered.
Leon flashed a look of unsuppressed anger at the boy, his only warning before stepping forward to grab the material at the neck of Chang's shirt, pulling their faces to within inches of each other, forcing the boy to the tips of his toes. "I'm sure you'll get better offers than I can provide where you're going." Though he ground out the words, his eyes were settling a bit in the knowledge that he had caught his criminal, that the wrong-doer was nearly in custody. The only hint of any other emotion was in his deeply furrowed brow, signaling his disappointment, his betrayal, to anyone who knew how to look for it.
The face in front of his did not change expression noticeably. However there were a rather large number of soft sounds that happened all around Leon, all at once.
When he glanced to see, there were about ten different weapons pointed at him from all over the room.
After he had taken stock of the situation, Leon redirected his gaze back to Chang. "Oh," he said, as if a schoolteacher had corrected him, though his concern over his predicament began to show along the edges of his eyes, finally blooming in the center. He did not quite give up his purpose of making an arrest, but other items were now pressing at him. Cold, metallic items...
"So you let go my shirt and we talk, ok?" Chang said in a conversational tone.
Leon barely realized that he was still holding Chang's shirt, and he let go, slowly. Everything that he did after that, in fact, was very slow. "All right," he agreed, turning his body and hands in various different directions about the room, trying to give the impression that Chang's... friends should put away their weapons. With a slight exhale, he added, "Okay."
Giving the wadded material of the tank top a brush, Chang muttered something in Chinese and the weapons were lowered, with noticeable reluctance.
"Knew you were smarter than you look," he said to Leon, but his expression was starting to reveal a grim cast under the nonchalant exterior. "So what's the problem? If I had to guess, I'd say the suits finally arrived...."
Looking a little like a caged lion, like he might very much like to bite someone's hand off, if only he didn't know what would come after, Leon stared at Chang. "Can't we lose the entourage?"
"Depends... can you promise I don't need 'em to keep from getting those enticing offers you talked about earlier?" The slight smirk was purely on the surface.
Leon was about to assert that he did not make promises to gangsters, but something in the boy's look made him stop. He was not sure what he saw there, but he had the strong feeling that it was something he might not have noticed a few days ago. It was as if something was opening inside Leon, and that is what made him stop. His voice was a little confused as he answered. "Yeah..." Then he seemed to come back, and he added, "How would I get you out of here in the first place?"
"Not very easily," Chang agreed. He looked around and the watchers moved away but not too far out of the way. Reasonably out of earshot. "So you gonna tell me or what?"
"The... suits. Yeah, the Chinese government guys. They had some interesting things to say about you. But," and Leon looked away for a minute, then back to the boy. "But I don't think they can be trusted. I'd ask you if any of it's true, but that seems pointless now." Leon met Chang's eyes, and by the time he spoke, they no longer looked at him, but through him. "I don't like being lied to."
Chang shrugged. "I didn't lie to you, I just left a few things out," he said. "Chin was my uncle. I *was* sent by the family. Those commie gooks don't care about anything but getting their hands on anything and everything for the government. I was hoping to take care of my business and get back before they showed up - they tend to run slow - but you already know why that didn't happen."
It took a few moments for Leon's face to change, and when it did, he was back to trying to stare Chang down. "So you're *not* a Triad boss?" With a glance to the still nearby men, Leon added with a mild touch of sarcasm, "You're the boss of something."
Chang sighed. "Don't you remember what I told you about the 'family business'?" He crossed his arms and waited for Leon's reaction.
"Not really," Leon admitted, annoyed with the boy's tone and posture.
"Figures. Look, boss, I haven't broken any laws over here. Do I look crazy to you? I went through all the proper channels, did it all nice and square. About what goes on back home... why do you care? Whatever I am I've still been given this same responsibility. Maybe they shoulda picked someone else. I won't argue with that one. But they didn't and I have to take care of it. So what are you gonna do about it?" Chang settled into a somewhat openly grim, and not a little aggravated expression that gave the impression that it was what had been under the surface the whole time.
Leon thought about the boy's questions for a moment. Why did he care? The answer was obvious to him. "If you break the law over there, you'll break the law over here. It's a lifestyle, isn't it? And I can't let you do that." He paused, unwilling to give away the two things that were really bothering him. That he'd been made a fool of, and that he'd very nearly... almost... let himself *like* a criminal. It left an awful taste in his mouth, and the picture he had of himself as a person disjointed.
"Maybe you're right," Chang said softly, regret visible in his eyes. Turning slightly away, his posture closing off the subtle request for understanding he'd allowed himself to project without thinking about it, he said, "Well it should be easy enough for you. You know where I'm going to be tomorrow. Where I *have* to be. I'm not even going to ask if you plan to let me make my visit. I'm making it. I'll take care of that myself. Better come prepared. I'm not going to cooperate with anyone who tries to turn me over to the Communist government to do time in a red prison."
Leon stared at the boy again. And again. And again, as if he could somehow look long enough for everything to fall into simple, neat, clearly defined slots. As if there was one, obviously 'right' thing to do, and he should be able to find it. There had to be. If there was not, then his career and life were both meaningless.
Moving his eyes to the other side of the room, the severe look on Leon's face finally eased back a little, and he affected one of his more pleasant frowns. "I'm not letting you see D alone. If you're going to talk to them again, then you'll have to have me along." With a sigh of exaggerated disgust, he added, "I can't arrest you if you haven't broken the law. And I can't tell anyone where to find you, because I seem to be lost today."
Chang turned slowly, his expression shifting to the 'punk's' nonchalance, but a bit of surprise showing underneath it. He didn't say anything for a moment or two, then when he did speak, it was in Chinese and directed to the other people in the gym, some kind of short, general announcement or order. There was some exchanging of looks but no one actually dared to question whatever it was.
"You need an escort home or you not so lost you can't find your way?" the young man said to Leon.
"I can find my way home," Leon replied, a pair of mismatched eyes lingering in his thoughts briefly. "What about you?"
"I'll manage," Chang answered a little grimly. "See you later Mister Police."
As he entered the station for the second time that day, Leon was unable to keep his mind from falling down holes. At the bottom of which, he kept finding people that made him ask questions. Questions that he normally found quite easy to answer. But not today. And it bothered him to the point of high annoyance.
He should have taken Chang in. For questioning or anything else. It was easy to find ways to keep someone in custody, and Leon had lied when he'd said he couldn't arrest Chang if the boy hadn't broken the law. The question he kept asking was why. There was no reason for it. It was just something he'd felt, at the time.
Leon frowned. He wasn't someone who just ran through life, guided by his feelings and emotions...
Was he?
Narrowing his eyes in thought, Leon threw his body down into his desk chair. You couldn't live your life like that, you couldn't live like that... He let the words skim through his mind a few times before realizing their source. His father...
Retreating with violence from the desk and other less visible things, Leon stalked towards the Chief's office. For some reason, he felt like being yelled at.
He was destined to be disappointed however. The Chief had gone home. His office was empty.
Leon lingered in the doorway. His eyes fell on all the things in the office, one by one. The chairs, the desk, the phone, the (neat) stack of folders, the papers hung on the wall... but none of it meant anything to him right now. He knew that it should have, and that made the feeling worse.
Closing his eyes, he put his weight against the doorjamb and leaned for all he was worth. Where did he go from here? In less than a week, he'd managed to befriend a gangster and become the "concubine" of a... very strange man. Neither of which were on the list of accepted associates for police officers.
Leon sighed. He simultaneously began to feel very tired and like he wanted to run. Not away, just run.
In the next instant, he was sitting in his car, outside the pet shop. And though he had hurried to get there, he was in no hurry to go inside. Something about it calmed him. The rapidly warming car, in the still, unbroken sunlight... Like lying right outside of sparkling water, knowing you can go in whenever you want.
Before the car interior could begin to swelter, Leon left it, entering the pet shop with very little sound. Instead of searching out D, as he normally did, he immediately walked to the front room sofa and sat down heavily. Leon made himself comfortable, sinking down into the cushions, and propped his feet up on the table. Soon, he began to drift.
Eventually it was the very stillness of the place that slowly drew his attention back. Once his attention began to sharpen, details that had not struck him upon his entry to the shop or the room began to surface. The quiet seemed to extend through the shop. On the table in front of him, a tea tray was sitting. One cup, turned on its side. A tiny puddle of a few drops of tea on the tray beside it.
Chris's valise laying on its side, open, some of the contents spilled out.
Quiet.
Leon's feet fell to the floor, and then he was standing. Loudly, he called through the shop, for D, Chris, even the lizard kid. At the same time, he began to search through the front rooms. Leon tried to ignore the terrible, cold feeling spreading out from his stomach, and did a good job of it, except for the pale, white color taking over his skin.
As he left the front of the shop, taking his search to the back caverns of the building, the frown on his face grew. At that moment, he would have even been glad to see Q-chan.
In front of him, a door opened, it happened to be the door of Ti-lung's 'room'. The Count came out of the room, his face secretive and calm as he closed the door carefully. Looking up, he raised one finger to his lips as he moved down the hall back towards the front of the shop. It would have been hard to say which telltale sign betrayed him but Leon sensed a bit of weariness, and also a deeply-hidden, but formidable anger.
Leon followed close behind, wanting to say and ask all kinds of things, but deciding to wait until they got to where they were going. The relief he felt at seeing D, unhurt, was pushed to the back, and he felt angry at whatever had happened, because he did not know what it was.
When Leon felt they were far enough down the hall and away from Ti-lung's room for the need for his silence to have ended, he asked in a bit of an undertone, "What the hell's going on?" He did not, however, stop walking.
"We had some visitors," the Count said, his tone pleasantly neutral.
Leon stopped walking for a second, then moved up behind D and turned the man to face him. "What kind of visitors? Friendly?" Unlike D's, Leon's voice was not neutral at all.
Pliant in Leon's hands, as usual, D looked up at him, his head tilting in a familiar gesture that curtained half his face with black silk. His smile became slightly wider. "Very friendly. Three men - so nice to have a crowd -who said they had your endorsement to take away the animal that belonged to Chin Su."
The frown came off of Leon's face instantly. "What? My..." His eyes fell for a moment, and when they came back up, they focused intently on D's own mismatched set. "I didn't give them anything." Then his voice fell. "Where are they now?"
"Apparently they had somewhere else to go. They seemed somewhat unhappy when I requested that you would need to be present to accept custody of the creature," D answered calmly. Only a slight glimmer from his gold eye revealed a moment of malice, which in its own way was reassuring. From the request D had made it was obvious he hadn't believed the men for an instant.
Leon thought of the overturned tea cup and the spilt valise. "'Somewhat unhappy', huh?" Then he sighed and shook his head. "I don't think I like the Chinese government much." His was quiet for a moment, and his eyes took on a dark shade as he thought of going to look for the officials in question. But he knew they'd most likely be waiting for him in the morning, at work, which was actually not an unpleasant thought. They certainly had things to talk about now.
"So you are familiar with them. Of course that is not surprising given your reputation, Detective," the dark lips curved a tiny bit more as D gazed at him, waiting to be released from Leon's grasp. Moment by moment the deeply hidden anger was sinking under further layers. It might have been a small miracle that Leon had even been allowed to see the slightest hint of it. "I'm afraid I have not had time to prepare dinner, however," he added, his tone slightly mournful.
Leon showed no signs of wanting to release D from his grasp. He smiled. "We could order out for a pizza," he said, well aware that D would find the idea fairly horrifying. The smile faded a little, and he wanted to ask the man if he was okay. Instead, he asked about his brother, that seeming easier than the other. "Is Chris... Is everything..." His arms tightened a little around D as he asked the incomplete questions.
"I'm afraid you brother was a little frightened," D explained, easing little by little into the embrace. "He had come to get something from his bag while we were... talking."
Leon did not like the implication in D's words, but he tried not to get angry. He wanted to save his anger for tomorrow, when he would see the three men again. His eyes turned down as he thought of Chris. "He gets frightened by everything," he said softly. He did not mean the words unkindly, it was just something that he'd noticed.
"Perhaps he would not be so easily frightened with a big brother to protect him," D said softly. Then he sighed. "Of course you may order pizza," the word was pronounced with a slight shudder, "If you wish. I can understand why you might not want to help me prepare something more nourishing... you are probably tired..."
Leon did not raise his eyes immediately, the Count's words staying with him. Protect... He would protect them all, Ti-lung, Chris, D... It was his job, after all. And maybe something he wanted to do as well. It was another of those things he felt rather than knew, and though there were far too many of 'those things' lately, he couldn't think of a way to stop.
He finally looked up at the Count, his mind focused on the idea of food. The way in which D had declared that Leon would not want to help him prepare food had almost sounded like... a challenge. "If pizza's so horribly unhealthy, then we can do something else. For the kids. What," Leon continued, "did you have in mind?" At that, he released D, indicating that he was ready to do whatever it was the Count maybe thought he couldn't or wouldn't do.
TBC