#leond

  That wasn’t going to happen though, as his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. Groaning, Leon removed it from his pocket, “Whatda ya want?”

  *

“I’m sorry, I must have misheard you, what is it that you want?” D crossed his hands across his front, tilting his head as he tried to keep the pleasant smile on his face. Of course he knew just what the man had asked for, a harsh looking bad with a bald head and a long curving scar down the side of his face.  That didn’t mean that he had to give them what they wanted right off the bat though, he was the one with the power here.

  The man leaned back on his heels, looking around the shop like he had nothing better to do. His companion, a rather pleasant looking woman with her hair twisted into a braid and pinned at the back of her head, said nothing, but D could see that her eyes were cold. She was the real power here, not the scarred man.

  “A kirin. We know you have one, we know that you sold one to the United States President”

  D didn’t let his surprise that they had heard about that show on his face, it was possible that Robert or the man who was now Robert had let it slip to someone who had let it slip to these people, “If I did have a Kirin and I sold it would it not be gone now?”

  “Please. Count, we both know that is not how the kirin works”, the woman’s voice was quiet, but there was steel underneath, a woman who was used to getting what she wanted, “It grants wishes, it does not simply stay with the person that it is sold too. I have no ideas as grand as becoming the leader of Germany, I just desire to live a happy life”, she smiled slightly, as she spread her hands out, “Is that enough for you?”

  Count D stared at the woman, arching an eyebrow slightly, “If you know how the kirin works, you must know that she must choose her own master”

  “Then you must show her to me, and she will decide”

  *

  The room was dense with the incense that always filled the room, the woman coughed gently, before her lungs adjusted, “Count is all this showmanship really necessary…” her voice trailed away, the kirin coming into view.

She was just as grand as always, sitting primly on her throne, looking so regal and strong, draped in finery. The kirin blinked her wide eyes, staring at the woman rather intently.

  “This is a child…”, the woman whispered, but she wandered closer to the throne, holding her hand out, like she couldn’t believe that the beautiful child in front of her was real. The kirin reached out her hand, touching the woman’s gently.

  “All the showmanship must be confusing you, it’s simply a kirin, I know she’s beautiful, but you must not confuse yourself”, he put his hands on her shoulders, “I assume that she likes you, it is possible whatever not so lofty goals you have, are good enough for her”

  The woman left holding the kirin, her eyes full of stars, with dreams of what she could do with the beautiful creature in her arms.

  *

The woman smiled at the kirin, stroking the child’s cheek so gently as she tucked her into bed, “You will be just what I need, to bring me what I desire…” The kirin simply stared at the woman, not saying a word. She had no need to, her gaze was enough to enchant the woman all over again.

  And when the men came through her window, after the woman had gone, the kirin still made no noise, she just clinged the man in black instead, her eyes closed as they escaped the mansion.

  *

Leon leaned back into the couch, his bullet wound still throbbing. The beautiful woman that had greeted him set a tray of tea and cakes in front of him and a twinge went through his heart, this all felt a little too familar, but the woman should have been dressed in some weird Chinese outfit and a man instead. That one man.

  “Mister Orcot, tea?” The woman offered, with a smile as she lifted the tea pot.

  “I don’t drink tea, just tell me why you called me. You said you want me to find something on the phone”, he stretched his arms over the back of the couch, resisting the urge to groan out of pain. He just wanted to get his job and get out of here. He had saved some money when he was a cop, not that he had ever thought it would be used for hunting down a man across the globe, but that wasn’t enough to keep him going so he had taken up a job as a P.I. At least it allowed him to put his police skills to use.

  She smiled pleasantly, and a year ago he would have been all over that, flirting with her, trying to get into her pants and get his pay day at the same time, but now he just kept a professional expression on his face, “Right down to business, I like that in a man. Well Mister Orct”, her english was crisp and ever so accented with German, it was a nice sound, “I recently obtained something from a man who finds shall we say special things, that no one else can get”

“Count D”, everything always came back to D, god only knew what the woman had gotten from him this time, something that had killed someone in her life?

  “Ah, you were the right man to call then, as you already know of the situation. Well then, I obtained a Kirin from the Count, a Kirin is a--”

  “A mythological beast that will grant a wish”

  She smiled against, a brighter one now, “Should I even tell you about what I need you to do?”

  He shrugged, not even speaking for this one. He just wanted to get to the point. She was making him uncomfortable, especially now that he knew it was a D situation.

  “The kirin was stolen from me, and I want you to get it back. I know who took her, I just need you to get her back. It could cause a rather large incident if any of my people were to do it, so…”

  “So a foreigner is what you want”

  “Of course, will you take the job?”

  “Yes”, anything that could lead him back to D.

  *

  As always, everything that even slightly involved D completely fucked him over. Finding the girl had been easy enough, there was only so many places you could hid a girl like that. Germany didn’t have all that many Chinese girls in traditional dress.

  Leon scooped up the kirin in his arms, she snuggled into his neck, making a sound that he could have sworn he had heard coming from a horse before. He stroked the back of her neck, he knew that she wasn’t a human girl, but something about her innocent face made him think of Chris, back in the states.

  He scooted out of the room where she had been kept, apparently her guard had been on break instead of guarding her like he should have been. But his break was up, the man was coming down the hall, faster now that he had seen Leon.

  “Sie! Stop! Lassen Sie die Mädchen!” the guard yelled, pulling his gun from his pocket.

  “Shit…”, he dropped the girl, “Hide, okay? I’ll find you”, he pulled his own gun, holding it up, “Ich werde schießen!” the only German that Leon had learned, besides Gimme another.

  He could just see the guard’s hand on the gun, and there wasn’t any time to get away before the bullet tore through the side of his chest, the blood spurting everywhere, “...shit”

  Leon could feel his fingers starting to go cold his fingers still wrapped around the grip of his gun. He hadn’t even gotten a chance to shoot the bastard before he had gotten shot himself. All he wanted was to find that goddamn asshole D. That’s all, and now he was going to die on the floor of some German mansion

  The girl peeked out from the door jam, grasping at his hand, stroking the palm gently. He could swear he could hear her voice in his head, “You are a good man Leon, and you deserve something for what you have done”

  The image of the girl blurred in front of him, what he could only assume was a kirin appearing in front of him, like it was superimposed in front of the girl. “What do you desire Leon? Tell me”

  It might have been the blood loss, or the scent that he knew so well filling the air, but all he could think of in that moment was D, “I want...I want to be with him, I want to be with D forever”

  He could have sworn she smiled, and then everything went black.

  *

  “I cannot even”, D grumbled to himself, stomping through the hospital, a bit of a lie and some charming smiles, was all it took for him to get Leon’s room number. The idiot had somehow found the Kirin and she had granted his wish. Now he had an immortal Leon on his hands. Even if the wish had been slightly…warming.

  He had always had the feeling that Leon’s feelings had been a little deeper then the detective had wanted to admit, and he had just gotten his conformation. “Idiot idiot…”, his voice trailed off, seeing the man laying in the bed.

  Leon’s chest was wrapped, and he was breathing through a ventilator, his skin was deathly pale. It was enough to make D’s heart stop, if not for the slow beep of the heart monitor he would have thought Leon was dead.

  It was...concerning. Feeling so upset over such a dumb little man.

  Leon was his dumb little man though. And now he was the only person that was going to be able to deal with Leon. Just like it should have been from the beginning.

  “We’re stuck together, me and you. Somehow I can’t help but feel like you planned all of this you bastard…”