D sat doubled over on the couch in the front room of the pet shop, arms wrapped tightly around his waist against the pain and nausea coursing through his torso. Various animals crowded around him making various noises of concern until he shooed them away.
Tea was laid out on the table, but most of the plates he had laid out were empty. He had been waiting for Leon to arrive when he had been hit by an attack of the munchies. Even after all that, he was still hungry, but his stomach threatened to reject what he had already eaten. Q-chan flapped around him, squeaking sympathetically. The count had been suffering from waves of nausea and dizziness off and on for weeks, but never like this. It had never been so painful, or lasted so long.
He didn't hear Leon come in, or the detective's worried "Hey count, you okay?" He didn't even register the hand on his shoulder as Leon's concern for his friend overrode his inherent homophobic nature.
It was only when Leon lifted his chin to look him in the eyes and wipe some of the tears from his face that he became aware of the other's presence. "Hold on, D", Leon was saying as he kneeled in front of the count, "I'm calling a doctor right now, you're going to be okay..." *Man, I hate it when he cries...*
D snatched the handsome detective's arm away from his cell phone and held it in a death grip. "No, no doctors, Detective," he hissed through the pain.
"Ow!! Shit, that hurts, D!!" Leon kept forgetting how strong D was, when the count had such a passive disposition most of the time. D's grip didn't loosen, and his nails dug deeply into the blond's arm. . "Come on, you could have appendicitis or something! Whatever it is, you need medical attention!" He took his free hand and reached over to try to get at his phone that way. D lashed out and sent the phone flying across the room. Tet-chan pounced on it, shook it around a bit, then ran away with it in his mouth. Leon cursed. He was pretty sure he wasn't going to be getting it back.
"I said no," D hissed. Suddenly he felt something shift in his body. *No, I cannot change now, not in front of the detective...Why? Why is this happening?!* He tried to get up and flee from the room, succeeding only in falling forward off the couch, almost landing in Leon's lap. The taller man easily caught D before his face landed in an awkard place. "Easy there, Count," he said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. *Great, what now? Can't call the hospital...should probably take him there myself. ..* He pulled D into his arms and headed for the door. Suddenly Q-chan was in his face, blocking his path. "Get out of my way you flying furball!!" Q-chan vehemently shook his head. "Q!, Q Q!!" he said, pointing toward the back of the shop. Leon was about to duck away from the babbit and try to make his way to the door without tripping over any of the animals when D made a choked noise, and he felt something odd move against him. He looked down just in time to see some movement under the cheongsam. "Huh? What is tha-"
D put a hand to his mouth as he vomited up bright red blood. It ran between his fingers, spilling onto the white silk of his cheongsam and onto Leon's t-shirt. Leon stood in shock for a moment, not knowing what to make of what he just saw. *thought bubble: image of alien popping out of D's chest*
"Q!!!" Q-chan tugged on Leon's ponytail and once again motioned toward the back. He wasn't sure why, but this time he didn't argue. He heard a screech as he accidently stepped on something's tail in his haste to get out of the front room and into the depths of the store. He followed the count's familiar through the maze of the petshop, running at breakneck speed. Within a minute (the way is much shorter if you have a guide) he reached D's bedroom, where Q-chan led him to the bathroom.
It was the biggest bathroom Leon had ever seen. The little flying bunny flew over to the bathtub and tried unsuccessfully to pull the curtain out of the way. Leon shifted his grip to free up an arm and roughly shoved the silky fabric out of the way. The bathtub was huge; several people could have easily fit in it and still have plenty of room to move around. D rolled onto his side as Leon put him down and more blood poured from his mouth. Leon saw that there were quite a few 'somethings' sliding around under the cheongsam now. "Shit, D, what's the matter with you?!!" Leon exclaimed, a little more gruffly than he intended. The pale, shaking count only continued to sob as he had been on the way from the front room. Leon leaned over his stricken friend, not knowing what to do. *He's going to die for all I know, and here I am, sitting like an idiot, doing nothing.* D rolled onto his back and gave a sharp cry. Leon gritted his teeth in frustration...if only he knew what to do. He reached over and touched D's cheek. "It's okay, you're going to be alright...I'll think of something.." he said softly. Q-chan landed on D's chest, and tried to undo one of the frogs. Leon quickly got the hint and started to help, flushing with discomfort as he tried to open the garment, cursing as he fumbled with the unfamiliar fastenings. *Why can't you wear normal clothes, dammit?!!* Leon gaped at the mass of thorny vines writhing around D's body as he finally got it open and fell backwards against the side of the tub in shock. "HOLY SHIT!!!"
Tearing through the remnants of the kami's undershirt, they stretched themselves across the tub and beyond, wrapping themselves around anything within reach, knocking bottles and various containers everywhere, and tearing the unfortunate shower curtain to shreds. "Yaaahh!!" Leon shouted as one wrapped itself tightly around the his leg, but thankfully the thorns were small, and his jeans protected him from any real injury. Leon stared in fascinated horror at the transformation of his seemingly human, if somewhat eccentric, friend. Q-chan fluttered down to perch himself near Leon. He didn't seem particularly upset, just...waiting. This struck Leon as odd, since Q-chan usually had spazz attacks whenever something happened to D.
D screamed again, and Leon winced. He couldn't stand it, just watching D suffer and not being able to do a thing about it. The grip on his leg tightened sharply and Leon's eyes widened as he was pulled in closer to D. He fought, tugging at the vine, but several other vines joined the first, and the human soon found himself covered with them, forced to sit on top of D, and lean over him. The kami reached up and grabbed his upper arms in a near bone-crushing grip. Leon winced and muttered a few choice words, but he was more concerned about D at that particular moment than the injuries that were being inflicted on him. "D, you're going to be okay, just hold on, alright?" he hoped that he was right. D only whimpered in response.
Leon could see clearly now that the vines were indeed sprouting from D's body. *What the fuck is this?!* Leon wondered. *I knew he wasn't normal, but shit, this is ridiculous!!* The detective's notoriously weak stomach was sorely tested as D's body split open from navel to sternum right before his eyes, and he struggled to keep his lunch down . What he saw inside didn't look at all like human anatomy. *Okay, Leon, this is not the time to lose it. Deep breaths, deep breaths...don't puke all over him...* he told himself. Then something somewhat like a abnormally large seed pod emerged from the opening. "What the fuck is that?!" Q-chan hopped down from his perch on Leon's shoulder and tried to open it. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me..." He grimaced and stuck his hands into the object covered in blood and slime. He emerged with..a baby?
*Waitaminute, I thought D was a guy...But then, I thought he was human...* He stared down at the seemingly normal, golden eyed infant, which had started lapping at the scratches on his arm as he held it. It was all he could do not to freak out even more. "Ecch!!"
"Q!"
"What now?" He then saw that another pod had emerged. *Twins?! How many of these is D going to pop out?!!* He braced himself and pulled the other infant out as well. It was more difficult this time, as he had to do it one-handed. As he pulled it out, nearly dropping it, he saw that this one had purple eyes. Both babies removed, D noticably relaxed, and the vines loosened their hold, falling away from Leon's body. Slowly, they retracted, and the gaping hole in the kami's torso closed itself back up. Leon just sat where he was and stared in disbelief, still holding the infants in his arms.
"Hey D, you alright now?" he asked, once D appeared to have completely returned to human form.
D nodded weakly, "As well as can be expected, considering I never have suffered such excruciating pain in my entire life."
"But are you okay?"
"Yes, I am fine."
Relief quickly turned into anger, as usual. "Shit, D, don't scare me like that, you bastard!! I thought you were going to die! Why didn't you just tell me you were pregnant?!!"
"And you would have believed me, Detective?" D asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Er....um..." Leon looked a little sheepish.
"Besides, I had no idea as to my condition. I have never had children before; in fact I did not know it was possible for me to do so in this manner."
"Really?" Leon shook his head, not knowing what to make of the situation. Then he looked accusatorily at Q-chan. "You knew, didn't you? So how come you didn't do the Lassie thing and tell him, huh?" Q-chan merely crossed his arms and made a 'hmph'ing noise. D gave him a confused look. "How could you know anything about this? Explain yoursef, Q-chan." Q-chan ignored him and flew from the room.
Leon slowly became aware of his current situation. He was straddling the hips of his 'male' (And he was still convinced that D was male, judging by what he felt through the thin material of D's pants) friend who had just turned part plant and given birth to twins who were now suckling from the scratches D left on his arms, and he felt like thousands of little pins had been stuck into his upper body, which wasn't all that far from the truth. He jumped up so fast that he tripped over his own feet and landed on his butt. He sat cross-legged for a minute, trying not to hyperventilate. Then he turned his attention to the little kami he was holding. "All right, you little bloodsucking leeches, time to let go, " he said as he lifted an arm. The baby just held on with its little arms and hung there. *If they're this strong at birth...I'm never gonna to pick a fight with D again...* He did finally manage to pry them off and frowned at the hickey marks they had left on his arms. He tried hard not to think about the implications of what had just happened. His mind simply couldn't handle the fact that D wasn't human, that he had given birth to the very normal-looking little ones he was holding now, any more than he could handle any of the other weird things he saw in connection to the count and the petshop.
He looked down at D. The count seemed to have recovered, but he was completely covered in blood and slime. Leon and the twins looked just as bad. Leon removed his ruined t-shirt. Tiny prick marks and scratches covered his sculpted chest, and he was sure that his back and sides had suffered the same. Thankfully, they were small and had already stopped bleeding. "Detective..." D reached out his arms, and Leon handed him his children. "They're both girls, I think."
He move over to the faucet to clean off some of the gore, only to find an odd assortment of knobs, none of which were labeled. *Why does everything have to be so difficult?* He turned one that looked promising, and cold water gushed out from all sides of the tub, drenching them all within seconds. "Aiieee!!!" D screamed. Leon hastily turned the water off. "Eh-heh, well at least we're all clean now..."
D shivered and gave him a withering look. "Um, let me go get a couple of towels..." Leon said quickly and backs out of the tub.
D simply lay back in exhaustion. The babies hadn't seemed to mind the cold that much, oddly enough. They did start making soft noises and sucked at his skin, so he made a couple of small scratches on his chest with his nails and let them feed. He looked up at Leon, who was in the process of removing his soaked jeans and his eyes widened as he got a good look at his smiley-face boxers. Leon realized he was being watched and turned red with embarrassment, quickly covering them up with a towel. "Not a word, Count." he grumbled. D stifled a giggle. As Leon got back into the tub, he turned even redder, as D's drenched pants left little to the imagination where they clung to his hips.
Leon helped him out of the soaked cheongsam, then hurried to dry him off, careful to keep the towel between his hands and D's pale skin. He paused for a moment, unsure of how to deal with D's wet pants. *We're both guys, I guess it's okay...* He placed a towel over D's slender hips and peeled the wet material off his legs. D made no protest whatsoever.
"You need to go to bed and get some sleep, Count. Can you walk?" he asked.
"I...am not certain."
"Come on. " He fastened the towel around D's waist and then tried to figure out how to lift him up, as the kami had both hands full. Finally, he crouched behind the Count, pushing him up into a sitting position, then pulled him to his feet by the waist, supporting his weight as he helped him out of the tub. D's legs gave out and he sagged backward against the Detective. The feel of D's soft, bare skin against his own stirred the feelings in him that always caused him to be mean and violent toward the Count, to protect himself from something he didn't, couldn't acknowledge. D felt the detective's body tense and fully expected Leon to burst out in some kind of tirade and throw him to the floor. But Leon did no such thing; he just picked him up and carried him the rest of the way to the bed, although D did find himself somewhat unceremoniously dumped on the mattress.
Leon flopped down heavily on the bed (which he immediately regretted as he felt every single thorn prick make itself known) a safe distance away from D. He took in deep breaths, trying to calm down, but not from shock or fear. D rolled over on his side, carefully holding his children to his chest, and smiled at Leon. "Thank you, Detective," he said. The human seemed to be taking the situation a lot better than he would have ever expected, but then Leon seemed to be an expert at denial, and reality probably wouldn't actually hit him until later. But until then...
Leon was laying there with his eyes closed. (Chibi Leon popped up from the back of his mind and yelled, "What's with this 'Detective' crap?!! I freaking played midwife for you, doesn't that merit a little less formality?!!) Normal Leon ignored him, of course. "Yeah, no problem," he said.
D tenderly stroked the newborns' short wispy hair. As they stopped feeding and fell asleep, he gently moved them to the other side of him. The bed was large enough they would probably be fine there. He rolled back toward the detective. Having the handsome blond almost naked in his bed was a special treat....and a torture as well.
Leon's arms still hadn't stopped bleeding, and his blood was dripping onto the soft sheets. The temptation soon became too great. D moved so that he lay closer to Leon and started to lick the blood off of his arm, grimacing at the slight bitter taint of nicotine. *I must get the detective to stop smoking* he thought. He hoped that the twins would not suffer ill effects from having ingested it.
Leon, who had started to doze off, woke up with a start. "What are you--oh. Okay." He lay his head back down, and let the count continue. *He owes me for this big time.*
Tet-chan, who had been outside the bedroom door listening in with the other animals, was already pissed off enough about the detective being in the count's bedroom. So when he heard Leon's startled response, he opened the door slightly to see what they were doing. Smoke just about came out of his ears as he saw their state of undress. "Can't you bite him somewhere more vital, like the jugular?!" he fumed.
D turned and gave the tou-tetsu the evilest, nastiest glare he had ever recieved in his life. Tet-chan hastily slammed the door and ran off to the kitchen. "What was that all about?" Pon asked from the back of the gaggle. The other animals just shrugged. They hadn't seen anything.
"You finished?" Leon asked.
"No, not yet." D leaned over and started to lick the wounds on Leon's other arm.
"Er.." *Why am I letting him do this?!* He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the fact that he had another man laying on his chest, and that it felt pretty good... *waitaminute*... "That's enough, D, get off!" He grabbed the count by the shoulders and pushed him off. It was a mistake. D looked at him with a mixture of hurt and bloodlust in his eyes. Leon suddenly felt very threatened, and sat up in preparation to run for his life. He didn't move quickly enough, and D was on him, sinking his fangs into the human's neck. Leon felt a slight pain as his neck was punctured, but that was all. After that, Leon fell back onto the bed as a pleasant sensation washed over him, holding D and twining his fingers in the kami's soft hair. *The son of a bitch is going to kill me...* was Leon's last coherent thought before he slipped into unconsciousness.
D pulled away as he felt the detective's arms go slack. He quickly checked Leon's pulse, which was still strong and steady. He sighed in relief and rested his head on the other man's shoulder; he would never have forgiven himself if he had caused Leon serious harm. He did feel much better, though. The detective looked almost angelic when he slept, all traces of his customary scowl erased. D leaned over and pressed his lips against Leon's for several seconds. He sighed and returned his head to Leon's shoulder. D could still smell the faint reek of the human's cigarettes on his skin even after the dousing he had received in the tub. He had enjoyed the feel of Leon's lips against his own- if only he could do that when the American was awake. Even if it brought only a negative reaction. He slowly moved a hand across Leon's chest, playing with the sparse blond hair.
*And to think that I had started to despair of ever winning his affection...* Leon would probably turn back to normal in the morning, but he had shown that he cared for the count, and there was no way to take that back. He would no doubt have a complete hissy fit upon finding D sleeping on top of him in the morning....D smiled. He didn't care; in fact, he could hardly wait. He turned to check on the babies one last time before pulling himself and his would-be lover under the covers. He settled back down against Leon and sighed contentedly, pleasantly drifting off to sleep...
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D awoke in pretty much the same position as he had fallen asleep, only the detective had wound his arms around the smaller man sometime during the night. He sighed and snuggled closer.
Leon was dreaming he had made up with his girlfriend and was holding her in his arms. D started slightly as Leon moved a hand up into his hair. He found himself being kissed on the cheek, along his jawline, then onto his neck. He leaned his head back to give the detective more access. Leon was slowly waking up, and as he worked on giving D a massive hickey, he started to notice that his bedmate was rather...flat chested. He muttered his ex's name in a questioning tone. D's eyes flew open and clenched his nails against Leon's chest, finding that he was not the object of Leon's affection after all.
The detective completely came to his senses, and realized that it wasn't his ex sleeping next to him, wasn't even a woman... "EEYAAAAGH!!!!!" Leon bolted out of the bed, falling heavily to the floor. He tried to stand, wobbling and dizzy from the loss of blood.
"You should not stand up so quickly." D said calmly. Leon cursed and unsteadily made his way to the bathroom to retrieve his jeans.
D smiled. Well, that was entertaining. It remained to be seen whether or not the hot-tempered human would forgive him. He turned to his still sleeping babies. They would have to feed again soon, and he needed to find a more healthy source of nourishment for them than the grouchy tobacco-addicted detective. He got up and dressed himself. He noticed that Leon was spending an inordinate amount of time in the bathroom, so he walked over and knocked lightly on the door. "Detective, are you all right?"
Leon opened the door, clothed only from the waist down. "Yeah, I'm fine."
D reached out and touched the bite marks on the human's neck. "I'm so sorry, Detective..."
"Forget it." he said, knocking D's arm away.
"But I took it against your will..."
"I said forget it. Just like I'm going to forget everything that happened last night. I'll see you later." He headed for the bedroom door.
"Detective, wait! You should at least get some breakfast first, and what about your shirt..?"
"I'll be just fine, thanks, and I have another shirt in the car." With that he left the room. D followed right after.
"Please, we need to talk!" D pleaded.
"I don't need to talk, I need to go to work! I'm already going to be late!! I said I'll see you later!"
"Then you'll be back?"
"Of course I will. Why wouldn't I be?" And with that he left the shop.
D blinked. This was not what he expected. There was no way the detective could just shrug everything off like that. He shook his head and returned to the back of the shop. He had babies to take care of.