Title: Christmas Every Day [Series: Pet Shop of Horrors]

Author: Drusilla Dax (drusilladax@free.fr)

Pairing: D/Leon Orcot

Rating: 15 [R]

Summary: Now D is in Japan. Leon is looking for him in the US. Which miracle can bring them together again?

Disclaimer: I'm just playing with someone else's toys. May I be forgiven in my next incarnation! Flamers will be adopted by my family (if you don't believe it's a threat... too bad for you!).

Betas: Mikee and Starkindler. The remaining mistakes are all mine, and I apologize for those.

Note: This is my answer to the Lyric Wheel Challenge (12/2004) of the Pet_Shop_of_Horrors_Fanfiction Yahoo group. The song I was given is at the end of the fic.

Christmas Every Day

Tokyo had been D's new destination when he returned to the human side of the universe.

It had not been his choice, but he had obeyed.

Everyone had said so many times that he had to obey his grandfather that he did so once more.

After all, it allowed him to come back, and in the beginning it was all that truly mattered.

The pet shop was exactly the same inside.

If D closed his eyes, he could imagine that nothing had changed.

After all, it was only the scenery outside that was different - much different.

Too different.

D didn't notice it in the beginning. He was happy to be back on earth, and that was enough - during the first months.

In the beginning, D dealt with customers, and handed out pets with special requirements and precise contracts. He drowned in his work.

Sometimes, some of the pets - and even some visitors - entertained him, but it was too rare a treat.

Finally, D began to understand that there were many things that he missed.

Of course, Tokyo was as polluted as Los Angeles, but the sunny weather of California was something he'd got used to. D had grown quite fond of the nearby desert, and he missed the palm trees as well.

After the scenery, D realized that he missed his former neighbours. He was in Asia, where he was supposed to belong, and yet, there was something alien in Japan.

The pets all loved him, some even worshipped him, but there was something in the air that was different.

D worked harder not to think too much.

One night, as he was walking back to the shop from his favourite sweet shop in town, D understood what was wrong. It was a week before Christmas, but it didn't mean much in Tokyo; snow began to fall, and D started crying.

D had been ordered to go to that city, but he missed his American friends, and the Asian residents who had lived next to the Los Angeles pet shop.

D was terribly lonely, and the impending Christian celebration made him feel the void that his life had become.

The box of Asian sweet in his hands was not what he wanted.

He wanted...

"Where has my heart gone?" D thought bitterly.

D had an epiphany.

He wanted chocolates and fruit pies.

He wanted Detective Leon Orcot to bring him those, and share them with him.

He wanted...

That night, D's grandfather found the box of sweets on a letter from D - D who was apologizing, but who needed to leave.

He had changed too much, and could no longer take care of the shop.

D wished that his grandfather would not be too angry with him, but it was better if he left because he was no longer worthy of the shop.

The Eldest D had felt that he would have to take care of the pets - that is to say, until his grandson's replacement was trained. It would take only a handful of mortal years.

After Leon had woken up in the hospital - again - he'd hoped that D would come and see him, somewhat soon.

Leon hoped that D was fine wherever he was. The blond guessed that his friend - for now Leon felt that the annoying pet shop owner had become a friend - had quite a lot to do wherever he went.

Leon was patched up, and released from the hospital. He drove to his flat, took a quick shower, and headed to Chinatown.

When Leon reached the street of the pet shop, his world crumpled. There was absolutely no sign of it, and it was as if the two shops that had been on its side had just expanded to fill in the gap. Leon drove around the block. He parked and explored the area. He finally went from shop to shop to ask the neighbours if they knew what happened to the pet shop.

Most people looked at the excited blond and blue-eyed Occidental as if he'd blown a fuse - or two.

It was a wrinkled old lady who took pity of him. Leon had sat on the kerb, and he felt as if he was becoming mad. The pet shop had been there for months, and everybody knew the Count; now they all acted as if the Kami had never been in the neighbourhood.

Leon was too tired, and he felt like crying.

The old lady caressed Leon's blond mane, and whispered gently, 'He's gone.'

'Where?' Leon asked, his eyes shining in the sun with unshed tears.

'No one can tell, my child, and soon we'll all forget that a God honoured us by staying among us,' she answered.

'Forget?' Leon gasped.

'That is in the power of their kind. I remember because I am old, and maybe because it is the second shop that I see in my life. I was born in Shanghai a long time ago, and a shop came to us one day. It was gone pretty much in the same way it did last week. We all forgot overnight,' she said.

'So, they all forgot,' Leon said.

She nodded.

'Soon, the memory of the shop will fade, and it'll be just a dream,' she added.

'How could I forget my friend?' Leon exclaimed, absolutely outraged. 'D became my friend.'

'It will happen, my child. His kind and ours are not supposed to mix,' she said.

'No!' Leon almost yelled. 'I'll find him!'

He felt the tears rolling down his cheeks when he looked up at the old lady.

He didn't mind.

Leon just needed to find D and make sure he was all right.

'Are you feeling unwell?' the old lady asked. 'Would you like me to call an ambulance?'

Leon understood that she had forgotten about the shop and D right in front of him.

She had forgotten, but he still remembered, and it was all that mattered in the end.

'Thank you, Ma'am, but I'll be fine,' he answered, smiling warmly and standing up.

Right then and there, Leon decided to find D again.

Somehow, Leon was happy that his files about D had not disappeared into thin air, and that his colleagues remembered D.

They remembered D, but they didn't understand why finding him was so important for Leon.

Only Jill understood.

Truth be told, Jill understood more than Leon did about his real motivation, but she felt that it was a journey he had to take alone.

One night, he went to her place.

All of Leon's possessions were in the trunk of his car, he had freed his apartment and was coming to his friend's to give her the letter of resignation she would hand to their boss the next day.

They had dinner together, and ended up chatting for most part of the night.

Leon shared with Jill his ideas to try and find D.

Leon was a very good detective, but Jill was amused to see how clueless her best friend was in this particular situation. All he could do was talk of D, even when he was in bed next to a young woman who knew for sure that she was good looking. He was leaving everything behind to go and look for D. His job, his friends, and even his family were not enough to keep him away from D.

In the morning, Jill wished him luck, and she promised she'd keep in touch with Chris.

She hoped that she'd get to hear good news from Leon... and hopefully from D.

That was how and why Leon left Los Angeles.

Leon didn't really know where to go, or what to look for.

The last time he had seen D, they were... somewhere. Leon didn't even know where that had been.

Leon wasn't even sure that D would come back, but he felt that he had to have faith in his Kami - faith that D would come back... to him.

Leon wasn't sure that he knew how he could locate D if he ever decided to come back.

Leon was completely lost, but he hoped.

He hoped, and somewhere down the line, he started praying.

Leon drove toward the east - he could have opted for north or south, but he liked the idea of going toward the morning sun. It was as if Leon was going towards light - and hope.

At one point, he stopped in a very small town. It was very strange, because it was lost in the middle of nowhere, but they had an astounding internet connection.

Leon settled there for some days, that turned into weeks, that turned into months.

He made friends. He even befriended the local Roman Catholic priest, and it turned out that the priest was more open-minded than Leon could ever have dreamt of. Like Jill, the priest understood the nature of Leon's quest, and being the kind man that he was, he helped Leon in his search.

In early December, as Leon was working in the local café, the priest ran into it. He had found a piece of information on the net that would interest Leon. It was something that looked as if a pet shop had been opened in Boston.

Leon and his new friends all thought that it might be worth a check, and Leon's new boss told him that he could go and have a look, and if, or when, Leon came back, he could have his job back.

Leon cleared his hotel room and was gone.

Of course, what he found in Boston was merely normal - human - criminal activity. Leon helped the local police department, and he headed back to his refuge.

Leon found himself caught in a nasty snow storm near Chicago, and he was forced to stop in a small and isolated coffee-shop.

It was Christmas Eve, and Leon found himself trapped there with only the waitress.

'More coffee?' the young woman asked.

'No, thank you,' Leon whispered.

The storm was raging outside.

'You look approximately as cheerful as I am,' she said.

Leon offered her a small smile, but his heart was not in it, and it showed.

'Why don't you sit with me?' Leon asked.

She grabbed a cup, a tea-bag, and poured boiling water on it before joining Leon.

The young man inhaled deeply, and a true smile - if a sad one - graced his lips.

'Would you like some tea?' she wondered.

Leon nodded, and she prepared a cup for him.

'It's not Chinese,' Leon said aloud.

She chuckled, sipping her brew, and said, 'You're right. It's Indian. I've had that blend shipped from Britain.'

'Oh! That's where you're from,' he said.

She rolled her eyes and growled, 'Say one thing about my pretty accent, and I'll kick you somewhere painful, boy!'

'I'd been wondering if you were training to be an actress,' he answered.

She chuckled bitterly.

'That's a first. You're quite refreshing,' she said.

'It looks like we're stuck here for some hours,' Leon said. He extended his hand toward the young woman and said, 'I'm Leon Orcot.'

She took his hand, and nervously touched the name-tag on her uniform; it read "Jane".

'I'm Daria Elliot,' she said.

Leon understood that she was telling him her real name.

'Are you hiding? Are you in danger?' he asked gently.

'I'm not in danger. Back home, everything was just too much, and I left. I disappeared,' she confessed.

'Your family and your friends must be looking for you!' Leon almost shouted.

'No,' she said.

Leon opened his mouth, but didn't comment.

'What happened to you?' Leon asked softly.

Daria told him how and why she'd left her native country, and how she'd ended there, licking her wounds.

'And you, Leon, what got you onto that God-forsaken road?' she asked.

She had told him her story, so Leon felt he had to tell her his, even if she might wish to call a mental institution, or if he saw in her eyes that she was afraid to be trapped in a lonely coffee-shop with him.

'Strange choice of word,' Leon said. 'I'm looking for a God... Well, a Kami, exactly.'

'Holy fuck!' Daria exclaimed.

Leon laughed heartily.

He told her everything - everything that Jill and his priest friend knew.

How he met D, how their respect and friendship grew, how D had become a part of Leon's life...

He told her what happened when D saved him.

He explained his quest.

He told her where he had settled, and why he'd gone to Boston.

Then he confessed that he feared that he'd never forget D, but would never be allowed to see him again.

'Oh, I...' Leon paused and looked at the waitress. He swallowed with difficulty, and fought not to start crying like a child when he said, 'I want to go back to believing in everything and knowing nothing at all. I miss him so much, and yet I fear that I'll never share another cup of tea with him. I'll never buy expensive chocolates for him again.'

She looked at him strangely, but Leon had told her so many bizarre things that he thought she was just trying to digest what he'd said.

'I'm happy that I didn't forget him like all his former neighbours did, but I do wonder why it is so, and why I have to endure that daily agony,' Leon said.

'Don't you understand what Jill and Father O'Neill didn't spell out for you? Don't you feel why you remember?' she asked gently.

Leon shook his head innocently.

'What is the only reason that can explain that?' she tried again.

Leon looked at her, completely lost, so she lightly tapped two fingers on her heart.

Leon tilted his head.

Realization slowly dawned.

Leon felt fat tears rolling down his cheeks.

'Dear God! I'm doomed! He's gone, and I'm here... alone,' Leon sobbed.

'Do you love him?' Daria asked.

'I... I think I do,' he admitted.

'Do you want him back in your life?' she asked.

'Yes!' he wailed.

'It's almost Christmas. Make a wish!' she said.

'Don't be silly! Do you think I just have to say "I want D back into my life" and it's going to happen?' Leon said.

Daria pointed one finger toward the door of the shop.

In spite of the storm, without a single noise, D was inside the shop.

Daria had seen him charm the elements to enter silently, and she had made Leon speak his heart aloud for the Kami to hear.

'Do you want me?' D whispered.

It was a whisper, but Leon heard him loud and clear. D's voice was louder than the storm, louder than Leon's heartbeat.

'Life is not worth living without you,' Leon answered, standing up and taking one step towards D.

'I've left everything behind,' D said.

Leon opened his arms, and D flew, almost literally, to him.

'I've missed you,' Leon whispered, hiding his face in D's neck.

'You were looking for me. When I arrived on this continent, I felt it,' D said, hiding his tears in Leon's jumper.

'I've left everything and everyone to find you, and you're there!' Leon said, practically crushing D.

'I need you to go on living in this world. Will you have me?' D whispered.

Leon could hear D's insecurities in his soft voice.

'This world is a nasty void without you. Will you stand having me by your side until I disappear from earth?' Leon asked, a big knot in his throat.

'I want nothing more than live and die with you,' D answered.

'Die?' Leon gasped.

D looked at the floor. He looked embarrassed, and he was blushing fiercely.

'D?' Leon whispered gently, forcing the Kami to look at him with two fingers placed under his chin.

'I've left everything behind to be with you. I've linked my fate to yours. If you had rejected me, I would have withered,' D confessed.

Leon held the man he'd come to love, and said, 'Then I hope we have many long years together. I don't know where we'll go, but wherever you are is my true home.'

Leon took D's face in his hands. Both were crying.

'I don't know how to deal with what I feel for you, but holding you is a blessing. You make me feel alive,' Leon said.

'Ai ni,' D sobbed.

Leon reacted instinctively, and kissed D's tears away.

'I love you, too, silly God,' Leon said.

'I'm no longer exactly a Kami,' D murmured.

'You are the God of my heart.'

Then, both men heard a sob that came from neither of them, and they turned as one man towards the waitress. She was looking at them, tears rolling down her cheeks.

'You bonded,' Daria said between sobs.

Leon was lost, but D gasped, and held Leon tighter than he already did.

'What do you mean?' Leon wondered.

'I became a solitary practitioner, but I am a priestess, and I just saw your auras blend. You committed yourselves to each other. It's a natural bonding, the manifestation of true love,' she explained.

D was blushing, but he was smiling, so Leon knew that their witness was telling the truth, and he started grinning.

He'd been looking for D.

He'd felt desperate and dying but moments before.

Now D was back to him.

Bonded?

Leon could live with that. He was looking forward to having D all to himself - or nearly so.

Daria dried her tears and asked if they wanted some tea.

Both men nodded.

'I'll make us real tea,' Daria said.

'May I help you?' D asked.

She shook her head and pointed at the table where she'd chatted with Leon. Both men sat down there. She came back to them with a small teapot, and little cakes.

D almost purred next to Leon.

'It's a miracle you didn't freeze to death in that awful weather,' Leon told D.

'The elements cannot harm me,' D explained.

'That's a good thing,' Leon said.

Leon had just understood what he felt for D, and he'd just had D back into his life. He didn't know yet how to physically interact with D. He felt like holding him, but he didn't know if his "whatever" D now was would like that. They needed to talk, but all alone.

'Lady Grey,' D purred, sipping his cup.

Daria smiled.

'I was heading back to the place where I had settled to look for you. It's very quiet and in the country, would you like to go there with me?' Leon asked D.

'Will your new friends accept me?' D wondered.

Leon nodded and gently took D's hand. D blushed, and that made Leon's heart beat faster.

Leon finally felt complete.

'We can go as soon as that dreadful storm stops, except if you can do something,' Leon told D. 'And I guess it would be nice to phone Jill to tell her I've found you.'

'You don't need a phone,' D said.

'How?' Leon wondered.

D squeezed Leon's hand, and Leon felt something strange, like a tingle.

"Miss Jill?"

It was D's voice, and Leon was hearing it in his head.

"Uh?" came the surprised answer.

Jill thought she was overworked, or she had caught a bug of some sort.

"I came back to Leon. We'll stay together. I'll contact you through dreams when I feel that my relatives can't find us," D told the young officer hundreds of miles away.

'Tell her to keep an eye on my brother, if you're watched, he's the link they'll try to use,' Leon suggested.

"I can hear you, Leon," Jill said straight in his head. "Can you hear me?"

"Yup!" Leon thought back.

"Be safe, and be happy, dear friends," she thought warmly.

They both thanked her, and they felt the warmth of her feelings for them.

'That was incredible, Love,' Leon commented, without noticing the endearment he'd used.

D blushed again, and bowed.

'We can now go to the place you have found if you want. I could offer you to bring you there immediately, but we can't leave your car here, and my grandfather would feel my energy if I were to transport us,' D explained.

'We can chat, and start planning... things while I drive,' Leon said.

D nodded enthusiastically.

'A thousand blessings in your lives,' Daria said.

D meant to caress her cheek with his remaining free hand, but she backed away.

'Please, I don't want to forget I met you,' she begged.

'This is not what I had in mind, Miss Elliot,' D said.

'Oh, sorry,' she said.

D caressed her cheek, and the sadness she still experienced because of her past disappeared. It was not gone, but no longer painful. The look in her eyes told D that he'd done a very good thing.

'Why don't you come with us?' Leon offered. 'There's an adorable café that could do with a nice waitress.'

She looked around, and made a choice.

The next day, in a much sunnier part of the country, Leon's car arrived home.

Leon asked his former boss to hire Daria. Said boss was practically treading on his tongue just looking at the young woman, so she got the job (and a future husband, D predicted).

Leon went to see the Sheriff, and while he was being made Deputy, D spotted an old house that they could buy thanks to a bank- account the well-organized D had kept secret from his grandfather.

When the DIY-gifted Father O'Neill came to help them settle, D found a part-time job as the priest's secretary. O'Neill knew the nature of D, but it didn't threaten his faith - quite the contrary. Leon found that refreshing, and they settled in a quiet routine.

Leon told D how he had clung to the drawing Chris had made and that he'd found after he woke up in the hospital. D told his companion that they could make it a marker to allow true friends to find them, and Leon liked the idea. They had the drawing framed, and D used a tiny bit of magic to send it away like a message in a bottle - they didn't know if or when it would work, but people wishing them no harm would now have the way to visit them.

One step at a time, Leon and D settled in their new life - the life they had chosen.

First they worked on their house.

They soon understood that they could only sleep if they were in each other's arms.

When Leon was fully comfortable with his feelings, they finally kissed, and it deepened their bond.

Leon felt like his life had turned into a huge Christmas day on a loop, and he loved every moment of it.

Of course, there were still moments when D and he fought or argued, but usually, it only made them feel as an old couple, and they always ended grinning like two happy Cheshire-Cats.

Soon enough, kissing became as natural as breathing, and both men dreamt of deepening their bond even more.

Valentine was very sweet in their home, and they started playing in their bed, but it was still rather sweet and quiet.

The weekend Daria got married, there was not only one wedding night. Leon and D had been appointed best men, and when they arrived home, D was high on cream and cake and sugar, and Leon was slightly intoxicated.

Their clothes were torn so that they could kiss, lick, bite, scratch, suck and nibble.

Leon had gathered all the information he needed from the internet, and he - technically if not practically - knew what he had to do.

'How do you want us to make love?' Leon asked huskily.

'Um?' D purred.

'Position, Darling... What do you want us to do? We haven't discussed this yet. I'm ready for... anything,' Leon declared.

D felt all his bones melting because Leon was being completely unselfish in their relationship.

D made it clear that he wanted very much to be under his lover.

Leon surprised D by having stored all they needed under his pillow, and by managing to prepare him as gently as possible.

D's nature made him slightly different from Leon, but his lover was not a doctor, so he simply enjoyed having D meowing under his caresses and kisses. The first time they made love, they ended up crying in each other's arms because it felt so good, and it was something they'd almost have been deprived of if they'd not gone looking for each other.

Some days later, Leon's test came back clean, and D was not human, so they made love with nothing between them, and it felt... it felt so good that they thought they were very much higher than cloud nine. D had ended up riding his lover, and he'd fell asleep on Leon - Leon who was still sheathed deep in D. When they woke up, they were grinning like they belonged in Bedlam, even though they were nastily glued to each other.

Day after day, D became more and more radiant.

Leon and D were Christmas-tree decorating with their closest friends (Daria, her husband, and Father O'Neill) when it happened.

D sat on the floor next to the tree where he had just placed an angel.

Leon was instantly by his side.

'What's wrong, Love? Are you tired? Would you like some sugar?' Leon asked.

'I'm feeling strange, Airen,' D said.

Daria's husband, David, had to be reminded that they could not call an ambulance if they didn't want D to be analyzed in a Federal lab.

D started glowing - literally - and vines sprouted from both his wrists and touched. The point where they touched glowed even brighter than D, and started growing, and growing.

It was a bit painful, and very tiring. Leon held D, and offered comfort while Daria made sure D wasn't dehydrating.

When the ball had reached the size of a big pumpkin, the vines disconnected themselves from it, and disappeared, leaving a greyish thing on D's lap.

'Open it,' D whispered to his companion.

'How?' Leon wondered.

'Carefully, gently, but swiftly,' D fought to say, exhausted, and about to faint.

Leon obeyed. Something in D's tone was telling him that it was important.

D was old enough to conceive, but he had never thought that his essence might mix with Leon's. For months, he'd been harbouring the seeds, and instead of creating a child from his genetic heritage only, he had literally sprouted his and Leon's first-born.

The child's first wail was loud.

D was resting in the priest's arms, and they were all crying.

'It's a miracle,' O'Neill said between sobs.

The child was wrapped in a warm towel, and she was given the name of her unofficial godmother - Daria. Since she was to be given her human father's surname, Leon found it was fair to give her a name starting with a D.

With plenty of sugar, D recovered fairly quickly - only to discover that he now was able to feed his child.

While their friends were gone to help them with some emergency shopping, the happy family settled in their old sofa. D was feeding their daughter, and resting in his companion's arms. When he looked at Leon, D knew that the child was far from being the last miracle they would create together.

They were meant to be together. The first tangible proof of their love was dreaming on D's chest, lulled by his heartbeat.

It was merely a starting point.

From their refuge, they would spread love and happiness.

Hopefully, D's relatives would understand and imitate him...

When the new Count D found Leon and D, he understood what he could have with Chris if only he believed in love.

D caught his replacement looking at Chris playing with his two nieces and two nephews, and the humanized Kami knew he had won that battle.

He knew there was hope for earth, because love could win.

Finis

Challenge song:

Field Of Innocence by Evanescence

I still remember the world

From the eyes of a child

Slowly those feelings

Were clouded by what I know now

Where has my heart gone?

An uneven trade for the real world

Oh I - I want to go back to

Believing in everything and knowing nothing at all

I still remember the sun

Always warm on my back

Somehow it seems colder now

Where has my heart gone?

Trapped in the eyes of a stranger

Oh I - I want to go back to

Believing in everything

Where has my heart gone?

An uneven trade for the real world

Oh I - I want to go back to

Believing in everything

Where has my heart gone?

Trapped in the eyes of a stranger

Oh I - I want to go back to

Believing in everything

I still remember...