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Ficlet: The Sweetest Thing (Petshop of Horrors)
Title: The Sweetest Thing
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anactoria
Characters: Leon, D, Taizuu
Rating: PG-13
Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
stagesoflove Week 5. Prompt: Chocolate
Week 4: Cake
Just in case anyone reading this is unfamiliar with the end of the original manga series, this contains spoilers for "Departure" onwards.
"That will be forty-three dollars, sir. Would you like those wrapped?"
Leon knows he's distracted when he forgets to even grumble at the girl behind the counter, just pulls a fifty out of his wallet and tells her to keep the change. But he can't help it-- his mind keeps wandering back to this afternoon, that Agent Howell guy, the way even the Chief seemed kind of, well, wary of him, and the steely, implacable look in his eyes when he talked about D.
Leon's already decided he doesn't like Howell. Which makes no sense-- they're both working towards the same goal, after all, and hell, he oughta be able to sympathize with anyone who D's pissed off-- but something about the guy just screams asshole. And now he feels weird about going to see D, like D will just know, in that freaky, near-clairvoyant way of his, that Leon's been talking to him, or something in Leon's eyes or his manner will give the whole thing away.
The chocolates should mollify D, though, or at least keep him distracted long enough for Leon to clear his head. Christ, if he's gonna spend half his week's food budget on a box of candy, it had better be of some use to him.
Then Leon's cellphone rings, and he forgets all about D and Howell and the ridiculous chocolates, because it's Josie, calling to tell him that she and Sam are on their way to the airport.
Chris is going with them. Chris chose to go with them.
And Leon knows he ought to be glad about that, but fuck if it doesn't feel like a punch in the gut, because Leon and D have been looking after him all this time, and the girls aren't even his real family and Leon is, and he didn't even get the chance to say goodbye. That's rough.
So the box of chocolates gets tossed onto the passenger seat and left there, and then everything goes crazy and Leon doesn't even remember that they're there until weeks later, after he gets out of the hospital.
D is long gone by then, and the chocolates are just an expensive mess melting through onto the upholstery. It takes Leon close to an hour to clean the damn stuff off.
He sells the car when he leaves LA. But the first time he catches D's trail, in Berlin, he remembers that last box of candy he never gave D, and he hunts out the swankiest-looking chocolatier in the area before he goes to look. The price tag's extortionate, and the temporary bar job he's taken doesn't exactly pay well, but somehow Leon can't quite bring himself to care.
Of course, by the time he manages to track down the petshop, it's empty. He leaves the box of chocolates on the dining table in his apartment when he moves out.
But he keeps on buying chocolates, every time he thinks he might be getting close. It's like a ritual. Like the sugar might somehow summon D to him, conjure him up out of thin air. But then there always was something about D that invited superstition, even before those weird-ass dreams Leon had while he was unconscious, before Howell started coming out with all that shit about how D and his family might not be human. (And sometimes Leon starts thinking that maybe it wasn't all shit, and that really scares him because he can't be sure it even matters, not now, not any more.)
In Paris, he gives the chocolates to a waitress in the cafe where he's sulking after D manages to evade him again. She's pretty, in a porcelain-doll kind of a way, and she giggles and slips him a napkin with her phone number on it along with the bill. He doesn't call her.
In London, he's in a foul mood and the chocolates end up in the Thames.
In Hong Kong, he leaves them on a park bench for some passer-by to pick up.
In Tokyo, Leon's close to giving up. He doesn't bother looking for any candy stores, and after a month without leads he figures the trail has gone cold. He'll move on as soon as he's worked his notice.
And he figures, what the hell. He only has a week left here, maybe two. He may as well enjoy himself. So he goes out and has a few beers, and when he's walking home past some shiny new mall complex just after one in the morning, he almost doesn't notice that the guy who elbows past him is muttering to himself in Mandarin, not Japanese. But he does notice, and then a second later he realizes that not all the words were Chinese.
He recognized a couple of them. And the first one sounded a lot like 'Count'--
Something stops Leon from grabbing the guy's arm and asking. But he follows, at a discreet distance, as the guy walks into the mall, and, sure enough, there's a big, neon sign at the entrance proclaiming its name to be 'Neo Chinatown'. And on one of the upper floors there's a light, and then he's sprinting up the stairs, not caring who sees him or what they think, and there's a sign and a door he knows all too well, and--
And the only candy he has on him is half a packet of vending-machine Pocky that's gotten squashed from too long in his jacket pocket--
And then that doesn't matter, not even the tiniest bit, because the door's opening and it's D, it's really him, and the startled expression on his face slowly giving way to a smile is the sweetest damn thing Leon's ever seen.
Author:
anactoria Characters: Leon, D, Taizuu
Rating: PG-13
Written for
stagesoflove Week 5. Prompt: ChocolateWeek 4: Cake
Just in case anyone reading this is unfamiliar with the end of the original manga series, this contains spoilers for "Departure" onwards.
"That will be forty-three dollars, sir. Would you like those wrapped?"
Leon knows he's distracted when he forgets to even grumble at the girl behind the counter, just pulls a fifty out of his wallet and tells her to keep the change. But he can't help it-- his mind keeps wandering back to this afternoon, that Agent Howell guy, the way even the Chief seemed kind of, well, wary of him, and the steely, implacable look in his eyes when he talked about D.
Leon's already decided he doesn't like Howell. Which makes no sense-- they're both working towards the same goal, after all, and hell, he oughta be able to sympathize with anyone who D's pissed off-- but something about the guy just screams asshole. And now he feels weird about going to see D, like D will just know, in that freaky, near-clairvoyant way of his, that Leon's been talking to him, or something in Leon's eyes or his manner will give the whole thing away.
The chocolates should mollify D, though, or at least keep him distracted long enough for Leon to clear his head. Christ, if he's gonna spend half his week's food budget on a box of candy, it had better be of some use to him.
Then Leon's cellphone rings, and he forgets all about D and Howell and the ridiculous chocolates, because it's Josie, calling to tell him that she and Sam are on their way to the airport.
Chris is going with them. Chris chose to go with them.
And Leon knows he ought to be glad about that, but fuck if it doesn't feel like a punch in the gut, because Leon and D have been looking after him all this time, and the girls aren't even his real family and Leon is, and he didn't even get the chance to say goodbye. That's rough.
So the box of chocolates gets tossed onto the passenger seat and left there, and then everything goes crazy and Leon doesn't even remember that they're there until weeks later, after he gets out of the hospital.
D is long gone by then, and the chocolates are just an expensive mess melting through onto the upholstery. It takes Leon close to an hour to clean the damn stuff off.
He sells the car when he leaves LA. But the first time he catches D's trail, in Berlin, he remembers that last box of candy he never gave D, and he hunts out the swankiest-looking chocolatier in the area before he goes to look. The price tag's extortionate, and the temporary bar job he's taken doesn't exactly pay well, but somehow Leon can't quite bring himself to care.
Of course, by the time he manages to track down the petshop, it's empty. He leaves the box of chocolates on the dining table in his apartment when he moves out.
But he keeps on buying chocolates, every time he thinks he might be getting close. It's like a ritual. Like the sugar might somehow summon D to him, conjure him up out of thin air. But then there always was something about D that invited superstition, even before those weird-ass dreams Leon had while he was unconscious, before Howell started coming out with all that shit about how D and his family might not be human. (And sometimes Leon starts thinking that maybe it wasn't all shit, and that really scares him because he can't be sure it even matters, not now, not any more.)
In Paris, he gives the chocolates to a waitress in the cafe where he's sulking after D manages to evade him again. She's pretty, in a porcelain-doll kind of a way, and she giggles and slips him a napkin with her phone number on it along with the bill. He doesn't call her.
In London, he's in a foul mood and the chocolates end up in the Thames.
In Hong Kong, he leaves them on a park bench for some passer-by to pick up.
In Tokyo, Leon's close to giving up. He doesn't bother looking for any candy stores, and after a month without leads he figures the trail has gone cold. He'll move on as soon as he's worked his notice.
And he figures, what the hell. He only has a week left here, maybe two. He may as well enjoy himself. So he goes out and has a few beers, and when he's walking home past some shiny new mall complex just after one in the morning, he almost doesn't notice that the guy who elbows past him is muttering to himself in Mandarin, not Japanese. But he does notice, and then a second later he realizes that not all the words were Chinese.
He recognized a couple of them. And the first one sounded a lot like 'Count'--
Something stops Leon from grabbing the guy's arm and asking. But he follows, at a discreet distance, as the guy walks into the mall, and, sure enough, there's a big, neon sign at the entrance proclaiming its name to be 'Neo Chinatown'. And on one of the upper floors there's a light, and then he's sprinting up the stairs, not caring who sees him or what they think, and there's a sign and a door he knows all too well, and--
And the only candy he has on him is half a packet of vending-machine Pocky that's gotten squashed from too long in his jacket pocket--
And then that doesn't matter, not even the tiniest bit, because the door's opening and it's D, it's really him, and the startled expression on his face slowly giving way to a smile is the sweetest damn thing Leon's ever seen.