Geri-chan's Journal

FIC: Pumpkin Lattes

2008-12-02T08:56:20Z

Title: Pumpkin Lattes
Rating: PG
Pairing: Snape/Lupin, Ash/Tsubasa
Word count: ~1,465
Disclaimer: No money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
Sequel to: Scars, and the non-Snupin story Ash's Wand

Summary: Set in October of the school year following the end of Scars. This story came about after I bought a pumpkin latte at the local coffee shop, and I started wondering if the wizarding world would welcome the equivalent of Starbucks.

***

"This is it," Lupin said to Snape as they paused outside the door of the Full Moon Cafe. They had been invited to the grand opening of Diagon Alley's newest shop by Lukas, who had provided the capital for it with some of the money he had inherited as the head of the Diggory family. Some of the werewolves still had trouble finding work, even with the new laws protecting their rights, and they had gotten the idea to run their own business and open a coffee shop.

"It's rather crowded," Snape observed with a hint of distaste, but also surprise. He hadn't expected a werewolf-run business to do so well, given the prejudice that was still rampant in the wizarding world. But the shop was filled mainly with wizards and witches in their late teens and early to mid-twenties, and the younger generation was a little less bigoted than their elders. Snape let out a little snort of amusement as he thought of the current crop of Hogwarts students, who adored their werewolf teachers.

"Professor Snape, Remus--over here!" Tsubasa called, waving at them from across the room; Ash was sitting next to him. Snape and Lupin managed to make their way through the crowd, with Lupin offering apologies whenever they accidentally bumped into someone. Snape found it more effective to put a fierce scowl on his face and watch the crowd hastily part in front of him. They finally made it over to Tsubasa's table and sank with relief into two empty chairs.

"We saved you a table since we figured it would be crowded," Ash said with a wolfish grin. "Although I didn't really expect this many people to show up."

  "It's your own fault, my love," Tsubasa laughed. "You're the one who started the coffee craze at the Ministry."

"Well, actually it was Arthur's fault," Ash disagreed. "He was the one who brought in the cappuccino machine."

"But you were the one who got it working," Tsubasa pointed out.

Ash explained that the whole thing had started with Arthur Weasley bringing his latest Muggle toy to the office, some sort of fancy coffee-making machine. Ash had gotten the machine working, and he and Arthur's staff were soon enjoying delicious cups of coffee and espresso--which as far as Snape could figure, was a really strong and concentrated type of coffee. Soon other Ministry staffers were interested in the new coffee drinks, and while Arthur was happy to offer a cup to whomever dropped by, the demand soon far outstripped the supply that Arthur's little machine could handle.

"So Arthur gave me permission to buy and install some machines in the Ministry cafeteria, and I trained the staff on how to use them," Ash continued. "The coffee drinks were a big hit, and the Ministry workers started telling their friends about it, and Tsubasa thought there was enough demand to open up a coffee shop."

"I'd say that there is," Lupin laughed, looking around the crowded shop. "Are you planning to leave the Ministry to work here?"

Ash shook his head. "Brian and Kyra are running the shop, along with a few of the other wolves. Strangely enough, I'm beginning to like my job at the Ministry--well, except for the paperwork, of course. And Matilda is always going on about how important it is to be a role model for lycanthropes everywhere." He snorted and rolled his eyes. "Although if I'm supposed to be a role model for impressionable young werewolves, we're in serious trouble."

"Oh, you're not as much of a rogue as you like to pretend," Lupin said with a smile, and Ash looked a trifle offended, which made Tsubasa laugh.

"Take a look at the menu and see what you'd like," the crane man suggested, but Snape found the array of choices bewildering. What on earth was a caramel machiatto or a mochaccino? And apparently one couldn't even order a straight cup of coffee without having to chose between "Kona" or "Jamaican Blue Mountain" or "House Blend". There was, however, a less confusing choice of pastries, ranging from scones to muffins to brownies and cupcakes. A glass case on the counter displayed a mouthwatering variety of choices.

"Matilda bakes all our desserts," Ash said proudly, following Snape's gaze. "She says she doesn't understand what the big fuss is about these coffee drinks, but she understands pastries."

A slightly harried but still cheerful-looking waitress stopped by their table and asked, "Are you ready to order?"

"I'll have a mocha latte with whipped cream and extra chocolate syrup," Tsubasa replied without hesitation.

"I have no idea what most of these drinks are," Lupin confessed. "What do you recommend?"

"How about a round of pumpkin lattes for the rest of us?" Ash suggested. "It's a special limited-time offering that we're serving only through Halloween."

"That sounds wonderful," Lupin said, and Snape nodded his agreement rather doubtfully. Pumpkin juice was a common drink in the wizarding world, so pumpkin-flavored coffee couldn't really be all that bad...could it?

"And four pumpkin scones as well," Ash told the waitress, who nodded and hurried off before Snape could change his mind.

Despite the crowd, both sitting at tables and picking up drinks to go at the counter, their waitress returned promptly with a plate of scones and four steaming mugs of coffee topped with a generous dollop of whipped cream. There was a dusting of nutmeg over the whipped cream on the pumpkin drinks, and a swirl of chocolate syrup on top of Tsubasa's mocha concoction.

Snape picked up his drink and sniffed cautiously at it. The smell of coffee was rich and strong, overlaid with a deliciously spicy scent of nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon.

Lupin had no qualms about trying his "latte," and immediately took a deep drink, sighing, "Ahhh," in pleasure afterwards, before licking his whipped cream mustache off his upper lip.

Snape took a cautious sip from his own cup. It tasted...well, like a liquid pumpkin pie mixed with coffee. A little strange, but quite tasty, actually. He spread a scone with some Devonshire cream, and took a bite; it was equally delicious.

"Pretty good, huh?" Ash asked as he drank some of his own pumpkin latte.

"It's delicious, Ash," Lupin said enthusiastically.

"Not bad," Snape conceded.

"That's high praise from you, Severus," Lupin laughed.

"Hmph," was all Snape said in reply before taking another sip of his coffee.

"I came up with the idea of the pumpkin lattes," Ash said proudly. "Well, to be honest, I stole the idea from a chain of Muggle coffee shops, but it's new to the wizarding world, at least."

Tsubasa's head was bent over his cup, and he was making muffled chortling noises, and Snape realized that he was trying, not very successfully, to hold back a fit of laughter.

"What is it?" Ash asked suspiciously.

"I'm sorry," Tsubasa gasped, still choking with suppressed laughter. "It's just so funny to see a couple of fierce werewolves sitting around drinking a couple of sugary frou-frou coffee drinks!"

"Well, it might be ironic in Mr. Randolf's case," Snape replied. "But Lupin is about as fierce as a bunny rabbit."

"I'll have you know that I can be very fierce," Lupin said with mock-indignation.

"You?" Snape scoffed. "The one who brings home stray rats and dogs--?"

"You gave me the rat!" Lupin protested.

"And who likes to be scratched behind the ears like a lapdog during the full moon?" Snape continued, without missing a beat.

"Grrr!" Lupin said playfully, baring his teeth.

"Oh, behave yourself and drink your coffee like a good wolf," Snape ordered.

"I will, but only because this latte is so delicious," Lupin said, picking up his mug.

Meanwhile, Ash was glaring at his lover. "That's kind of like the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it, Mister Whipped-cream-and-extra-chocolate-syrup?" he accused.

Tsubasa smiled serenely and took a sip of his drink. "But I am one of the crane folk," he said sweetly, fluttering his eyelashes. "We are expected to be graceful and beautiful and elegant. No one expects us to be fierce."

"Not fierce?" Ash snorted. "Aren't you the same guy who chopped a bunch of Inferi into mincemeat and ran Imogen Macnair through with a sword?"

"I didn't say that I wasn't fierce," Tsubasa said, still smiling sweetly. "Just that it wasn't expected of me."

"You're impossible," Ash sighed in exasperation.

"But beautiful," Tsubasa added with a grin.

"We both seem to have impossible mates," Snape commiserated with Ash.

Ash laughed and raised his mug. "To impossible mates!"

"And pumpkin lattes!" Lupin chimed in, and the four of them laughed and clinked their mugs together.

THE END.

Afterword: I realized I have no coffee icons, so I made do with the next closest thing, a nemu*nemu icon with generic drink. ^_^

FIC: Ash's Wand

2008-12-01T00:04:19Z

W00t! I made it all the way through National Blog Posting Month--30 posts over 30 days, ranging from reviews to meta to fic. I didn't think I could manage to write that much, even if several of the entries were short, but I did. I don't think I'll be able to keep up that pace in the future, but now that I know I can do it, hopefully it will inspire me to increase my writing output. Now, on to today's fic...

Title: Ash's Wand
Rating: PG
Pairing: Ash/Tsubasa
Word count: ~4,330
Disclaimer: No money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
Sequel to: Scars, which ended here. This is part of my Snupin Always series, although Snape and Lupin do not appear in this story, aside from a brief mention.

Summary: Ash is uneasy about returning to his childhood home when he escorts his half-sister back to the farm for the summer.

***

For the first time in over fifteen years, Ash was returning to his childhood home, the Madley farm and residence, and he felt distinctly uncomfortable. He would not have returned at all, except that his half-sister Laura missed her home and her friends, and as her guardian, he felt that he should not let her come back alone.

Not that she was in any danger there, with Greyback and the Macnairs safely dead or locked up in Azkaban, and the farm workers would have been happy to look after her if Ash wasn't there. But as a wolf, he felt a strong sense of responsibility to his pack, and Laura was part of his pack now.

Which was how he found himself riding the Hogwarts train for the very first time, sharing a compartment with Tsubasa, Laura, and a few of Laura's Hufflepuff friends, including Rosie Zeller, who was the daughter of one of the farmhands--Ash's former friend John, as a matter fact, who had been the one to catch him in the apple tree on the Madley farm, which had inadvertently led to Madley marrying Rosalind. If John hadn't caught sight of Ash that day, his mother and Madley might never have met, and Laura would never have been born...

"Do you want something to eat, Ash?" Laura asked, interrupting his rather gloomy thoughts. An elderly witch was waiting patiently outside the entrance to the compartment with a cart filled with various snacks, mainly candy and pastries.

"I'm not hungry," Ash said, and it was true. The thought of returning to his old home had his stomach tied in knots, and eating was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment--well, second to last, to be more accurate. Returning home was actually at the top of the list.

Tsubasa bought him a sandwich, anyway--"Just in case you get hungry later. It will be evening by the time we arrive at the station." He also bought cups of pumpkin juice for everyone in the compartment, while the girls bought candies and pumpkin pasties.

Laura's friends shyly thanked Tsubasa for the drinks; half the girls in the school were infatuated with the handsome Transfiguration Professor, and these were no exception. Ash smiled slightly, his inner wolf more amused by than jealous of their harmless schoolgirl crushes. He was glad that Tsubasa was with him; having his mate by his side was the only thing that made returning to his childhood home bearable.

He managed to nibble halfheartedly on his sandwich as he stared out the window and watched the scenery rushing by him. It felt a little surreal to finally be riding the Hogwarts Express after all these years. He had looked forward to it so much as a child, but it was more of a melancholy experience for Ash now, since it reminded him of everything he had lost, and all the things that he would never be able to do. The laws discriminating against werewolves had been repealed, but it was too late now for him to attend Hogwarts. Even if it was possible, he'd look ridiculous attending classes with the first-years.

They could have arranged to travel by Floo or Portkey, but Laura wanted to ride the train home with her friends, and Tsubasa thought it would be good for her to stick with her usual routine after so much of her life had been turned upside-down and inside-out by her parents' murders. Ash had reluctantly agreed, if only because the train ride would allow him to postpone setting foot in his childhood home for a few more hours.

It was early evening when they disembarked at the station, and most of the children were greeted by their parents with hugs and kisses. Ash felt that familiar pang of envy and bitterness that tended to resurface every time he saw a child with a loving parent. Then he felt Laura's hand hesitantly slipping into his own, as if seeking comfort, and he was reminded that he was not the only one suffering. He squeezed her hand reassuringly and smiled at her, and the lost look on her face seemed to ease a little as she smiled back at him. Tsubasa said nothing, but placed a comforting hand on Ash's shoulder for a moment.

"Miss Laura?" said a familiar voice, and Ash turned to see his old friend John waiting for them on the platform. Rosie had run over to greet her father, and now picking up on the air of tension, glanced nervously back and forth between Ash and John.

Ash managed a polite nod, and John and Rosie relaxed slightly. "Thank you for meeting us, Mr. Zeller," Laura said, smiling at John warmly. "This is Professor Tsubasa, and...um, of course you know Ash..." Her voice trailed off uncertainly.

"I do," John said quietly. "It's good to see you again, Master Eth...excuse me, I mean, Ash." Ash nodded again, not trusting himself to speak. "And I've, er, met the Professor before. Thank you for looking after Miss Laura, sir."

Ash had almost forgotten that John had met Tsubasa on the day that he had fled to his old hideout in the woods to grieve for his stepfather's death. Tsubasa had come in search of him, along with Snape, Lupin, and the Aurors, and John had led them through the woods and helped them find Ash.

Tsubasa shook John's hand and said politely but coolly, "It is my duty as her teacher, and as her brother's companion." He wasn't going to make a scene over it, but it was obvious that he hadn't forgiven John for failing to protect Ash as a child.

The farm was a long distance from the station, so John had brought a Portkey to take them back home, which they triggered as soon as they got out of sight of the Muggles in the station. They landed in front of the Madley residence, and John's wife Sarah immediately opened the door to let them in, and Ash's nose picked up the mouth-watering scent of roast beef and freshly baked bread.

"I thought you would be tired and hungry, so I have dinner ready," Sarah said kindly, but Laura froze in the doorway as she was about to step through it.

"Mother...and Father...the Aurors..." Laura stammered, her words coming out in halting, not quite coherent bursts. "Did they...that is...did they, well...leave the house as they found it?"

Sarah seemed to understand what she meant, and wrapped her arms around Laura in a motherly hug. "Oh my dear, of course we cleaned up the house...afterwards. Everything is as it was before."

Except that Mother and Father were no longer here, of course. But poor Laura must have been having visions of her parents' blood staining the floors, and she seemed reassured by Sarah's words.

"You know, dear," Sarah said hesitantly, "if you're not comfortable staying in the house, you know that you're welcome to stay with us over the summer. We'd all love to have you, especially Rosie."

"Thank you, but I'll be all right here with Ash and Professor Tsubasa," Laura said with a genuine smile.

"Of course, dear," Sarah said, flushing slightly as she glanced over at Ash. It was the same look that he remembered from his childhood, the look of shame on the farm workers' faces when they pretended not to notice the bruises on Ethan's face, or his stepfather's coldness towards him.

Laura allowed Sarah to usher her into the house, and the rest of them followed. There was a joint of roast beef sitting on the kitchen table, along with a large bowl of salad, a loaf of bread, and a dish of what looked like freshly-churned butter.

"Everything looks delicious," Tsubasa said politely, and Sarah smiled at him.

"Thank you," she replied. "There are several meals, casseroles and such, already prepared and stored in the cold pantry so that you don't have to worry about cooking, and can just heat them up when you're ready to eat. And when those run out, I can make some more."

"We can manage fine, but thank you so much, Mrs. Zeller," Laura said, giving her a hug.

"Well then, just let me know if you need anything, dear," Sarah told her, then hesitated and added, "And you too, Master Ethan. I...I know that I have no right to say this, but I'm glad that you're back home, and I'm sorry that we weren't able to protect you back then."

"Weren't able to, or didn't choose to?" Tsubasa asked pointedly.

There was an awkward silence as both the elder Zellers flushed, and Rosie and Laura stared anxiously at Ash. If he was going to be fair, he had to admit that there was not much that the Zellers and the other workers could have done for him. If they had tried to stop Madley from abusing him, they would have been fired and forced to leave the farm, in which case, they still wouldn't have been able to protect him. They could have tried to inform the Ministry of the abuse, but wizarding law was still decades behind Muggle law, and the Ministry didn't like to interfere in what it saw as "family matters". Also, Alden Madley had been a very wealthy man and the Ministry, at least back then, had been corrupt, and he could easily have bribed a ranking official to make the allegations go away.

However, that still didn't make it easy for Ash to accept that people he had loved and trusted had let him down and turned a blind eye to his pain. He didn't hate them anymore, but he still felt a lingering resentment, and wasn't sure if he would ever be able to truly forgive them.

Finally he told his lover, "Leave it be. There's no way to change the past now," and the Zellers relaxed slightly, although they still looked rather guilty. "And call me 'Ash'--Ethan belongs to another life. He doesn't really exist anymore."

"We'll let you folks get settled in, then," John said uncomfortably. "But I'll need to talk to you and Miss Laura tomorrow about some business matters."

John was one of the most senior of the farm workers, and by far the most sensible. He had been the one to stay calm and keep the others from panicking after their employer had been murdered, so he had been temporarily placed in charge of running the farm since Laura was too young to take up that responsibility yet.

"Are there any problems?" Ash asked.

"Not really," John replied. "The farm itself is running smoothly, but I'm not used to handling the contract negotiations with the various stores that we supply. And to be honest, most of the business people don't really respect a common farmhand. You and Miss Laura may want to consider hiring someone to handle the financial end of things."

"The farm belongs to Laura," Ash said curtly. "I have no say in it." Laura was looking at him anxiously again, and he softened his voice and added, "But I'll do my best to advise her, though I'm no businessman myself."

"All the contracts and accounting books are in your father's...er, in Mr. Madley's office," John said. "I'll come by tomorrow morning to go over them with you."

After the Zellers left, Laura told Ash earnestly, "The farm is just as much yours as it is mine! You're my brother, Ash, and I would love to run the farm together with you when I finish school!"

"Legally speaking, you do have a right to a share of the farm, since your stepfather originally named you his heir and never disowned you," Tsubasa pointed out calmly as he began slicing the bread and the beef. "Will you set the table, Laura?"

As Laura laid out plates, cups, and silverware on the table, Ash argued, "But I don't want the damned farm!" Laura looked hurt, and he sighed and added gently, "It's just that I'm happy with my Ministry job, and, well...it's awkward being here, for both me and the workers. There are too many painful memories."

"I'm sorry, Ash," Laura said tearfully. "You needn't stay here if it's too hard for you. I'll be fine with the Zellers, or we can all go back and stay with the pack."

Ash sighed. He loved his little sister, but this family thing was complicated at times. "Hey, what's with the tears?" he asked gruffly, pulling Laura into a hug and planting a kiss on the top of her head. "I'm a big bad werewolf; I'm not about to let a few memories scare me away." To his relief, Laura giggled and brushed the tears from her eyes.

"Look," Ash said, "I'm not planning to give up my Ministry career, but if you need help with the farm, I'll be there for you, though as I told John, I'm hardly a businessman."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Tsubasa said with a mischievous grin. "I hear that you used to run a pretty successful smuggling business."

"That's all in the past," Ash growled, glaring at his lover balefully, although he was gratified to hear Laura giggle again. "We don't discuss those things in front of impressionable young children."

"I'm not a child!" Laura protested indignantly. "I'm sixteen years old!"

"Yes, you're practically an old crone," Tsubasa teased, and the three of them laughed, and Ash relaxed enough to enjoy Sarah's cooking without the food forming a lump in his throat, as long as he didn't think too hard about the last time that he had sat down to dinner in this house.

After the leftovers had been put away and the dishes washed and dried, Ash made some coffee and the three of them sat down to go over the farm's accounts. "Are you sure you're not too young for that?" he asked his sister skeptically as she sipped from her cup of coffee, although it was diluted with milk and heavily sweetened with sugar and chocolate powder. "It'll stunt your growth."

"Why do I need to grow more?" Laura asked logically. "I'm already at a normal height; did you want me to grow as tall as Hagrid?"

"Smart-mouthed little sister," Ash grumbled, and Laura and Tsubasa laughed.

"Besides, I've had coffee before at Madam Puddifoot's," Laura added.

"What?!" Ash demanded.

"Only on Hogsmeade days," Laura replied, looking startled. "Honestly, I don't drink enough to stunt my growth."

"I'm not worried about that!" Ash growled. "Puddifoot's is a place for couples! Just who did you go there with?"

"It's not a big deal, Ash," Laura tried to reassure him. "It wasn't anything serious..."

"Not serious? You mean some guy is trifling with my little sister's feelings?" Ash demanded.

"Calm down," Tsubasa laughed, patting him on the shoulder soothingly. "I'm afraid that the boys you date will have to be very brave, Laura, to face your overprotective werewolf brother."

"Oh dear," Laura said, only half-jokingly. "Then I may be single for the rest of my life!"

She reassured Ash that nothing had happened on her "date" at Puddifoot's, but Ash was only slightly mollified, since she declined to name the boy for his own safety. Still, he supposed it was good that she seemed to be in a much better mood, even if it was at his own expense.

"Math always gave me a headache," Ash sighed, setting aside the account books after going over the figures.

Tsubasa flipped through the books and said, "Well, you should have an accountant go over these, but everything seems to be in order, and the farm is still making a profit."

  Ash stared at him curiously. "Did the tengu teach you accounting as well as sword-fighting?"

"No," Tsubasa replied with an amused smile. "But my step-uncle ran his own business--I believe I mentioned that he owns a kendo dojo? I used to work part-time in his office during summer vacations while I was in school, so I know a bit about balancing accounts. I do think that Mr. Zeller is right, though, and that you should hire someone to handle the finances, at least while Laura is still in school."

"But where would we find someone that we could trust?" Ash wanted to know. "We can't give just anyone control of all the finances."

"I'm sure that Lady Selima could recommend someone reliable," Tsubasa replied calmly.

"And why would Snape's mother want to do a favor for me?" Ash asked doubtfully.

"She wouldn't," Tsubasa replied, just as matter-of-factly as he had before. "But she has a soft spot for Lukas, so she might do a favor for him. And she would also do it if her son asked her to, and before you ask why Professor Snape would want to do you a favor, he wouldn't, but Remus would, and we all know that Remus has the Professor wrapped around his little finger." Tsubasa turned to Laura and added, "Pretend you didn't hear that."

"Too late," she giggled.

"Well, at least don't repeat it in Professor Snape's presence if you value your life and mine," Tsubasa said, and Laura grinned and nodded.

"All right, let me put these away, and we'll send a message to Lupin tomorrow," Ash chuckled, but as he reached for the account books, he accidentally knocked over his cup of coffee. "Damn it!" he cursed, but then he couldn't help but laugh as all three of them whipped out their wands and shouted, "Evanesco!" at the same time.

A few of the papers had gotten wet, but weren't soaked too badly, and Tsubasa was able to dry them off with a quick spell, although the edges retained a few brown stains. His wand was slender and almost delicate-looking, with a vine design carved into it, spiraling down from the handle to the tip--it was almost as beautiful as its owner, and Ash suspected that like its owner, it was probably much stronger than it looked.

"Your wand is so pretty, Professor," Laura said admiringly. "All the girls in class have remarked on it. It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen at Ollivander's."

"It's not," Tsubasa said with a smile. "I grew up in America, remember? My stepmother's cousin is a wand-maker, and Aunt Mari custom-made this for me when I started school at Salem. It's teak, with one of my father's feathers as the core."

He held out the wand for Laura to examine, and she very carefully traced the vine carving with her fingers. "How exotic," she said. "I don't know anyone else with a teak wand."

"Well, the American wizards are a little unconventional, compared to their more stodgy British counterparts," Tsubasa laughed. "But it's a good wood for a wand, strong and resilient. What kind of wand do you have, Laura?"

"Almond, with a unicorn tail hair," she replied, holding up her own wand.

"Almond is often called the tree of life, because it's the first to bloom in the spring," Tsubasa said. "It's a good wand for someone who wants to specialize in Herbology."

"That's what Professor Sprout said, too," Laura said proudly. "What about you, Ash? What kind of wand do you have?"

"I'm not really sure," Ash said, staring down broodingly at his own wand. It was made of a light-colored wood, with a simple rounded handle tapering down to a point, with no ornamentation. The grip was worn smooth and slightly discolored from many years of handling.

"Not sure?" Laura asked in a puzzled voice. "The shopkeeper didn't tell you what it was made of?"

"I didn't buy it," Ash said quietly. "My--your--father gave it to me when I was a child. He said it had been his first wand when he was a boy, before he bought a better wand from Ollivander's later. He didn't tell me what it was made of, and I didn't care. I was just happy to have my very own wand, one that had belonged to my father."

"Oh Ash, I'm sorry," Laura whispered.

"You never replaced it?" Tsubasa asked gently.

Ash shrugged. "Couldn't afford to. Wands don't come cheap, and most times there wasn't enough money to feed everyone in the pack, let alone buy new wands. Mine was serviceable, better than some of the others who had secondhand wands that had been broken and mended. I suppose I could have bought a new one after I got my Ministry job, but I'd grown used to this one, and it works well enough. Maybe it's not Ollivander's quality, but it's not like I'm doing any great feats of magic, like dueling with the Dark Lord. Mostly I've just used it for defensive magic, obscurement spells...and maybe a few lock-picking charms." He grinned with some of his old rakishness, and Tsubasa and Laura laughed.

"Now who's a bad influence?" Tsubasa joked. "Can I see your wand? I'm not an expert, but I learned enough from Aunt Mari to determine the wood and the core." Ash handed it over, and Tsubasa examined it carefully, then chucked.

"What's so funny?" Ash asked curiously.

"Ash," Tsubasa replied.

"What?" Ash asked impatiently.

"No, I mean that your wand is made out of ash," Tsubasa explained with a smile.

"What?! Really?" Ash gazed at him suspiciously. "You're not pulling my leg, are you?"

"I'm perfectly serious," Tsubasa said, although he was still smiling slightly. "It's a good choice for you--ash is particularly suited to charms and protective spells." With his own wand, he cast a murmured charm over the ash wand, and it glowed with a pure white light. "The core is a unicorn tail hair," he said, handing the wand back to Ash.

"Like mine," Laura said, looking pleased.

"It's one of the most common cores used in British wands, along with dragon heartstring," Tsubasa said. "It's a good wand, Ash. It may not be fancy, but it's sturdy and well-made, not likely to break or fail."

Ash smiled as he turned the wand over in his hands; it felt familiar and comforting, like an old friend. "It is a good wand," he said. "It's served me well, and gotten me out of trouble more times than I can count. It would be a shame to get rid of it." He remembered the pride and joy he had felt upon receiving the wand, and for the first time, that old memory didn't sting quite as much as it used to. Perhaps the wand could serve as a reminder that his stepfather had done at least one good thing for him before their family had been torn apart by bitterness and jealousy.

"Besides, I suppose it's meant to be--an ash wand for an Ash," he chuckled, tucking it safely away in the pocket of his robe. He wasn't sure if he would ever feel entirely comfortable on the farm, but the thought of spending the summer in his childhood home no longer seemed so intimidating.

"The coffee's cold," Tsubasa observed, after taking a sip from his cup.

"I'll make a fresh batch," Ash said, rising to his feet, and Tsubasa grinned.

"I don't know why you say you aren't a businessman, Ash. Even if it wasn't quite legal, you ran a very successful smuggling operation--"

"I thought we weren't going to talk about that anymore!" Ash complained.

"--and your little coffee business at the Ministry is doing quite well," Tsubasa finished, ignoring the interruption.

"Coffee business?" Laura asked. "I hadn't heard about that."

"He's exaggerating," Ash replied. "And it doesn't really have anything to do with me. Arthur brought one of his Muggle toys to the office awhile back, a cappuccino machine, and I got it working for him." Laura looked confused, so he explained, "It's a type of machine that makes fancy coffee drinks with steamed milk. Anyway, the other workers got curious about it, and Arthur was happy to offer a cup to anyone who stopped by his office, but pretty soon the little machine couldn't keep up with the demand. So Arthur authorized me to buy and install more machines in the Ministry cafeteria, which was easy enough. It took longer to teach the cafeteria staff to use them, but everything is running smoothly now. The drinks are very popular, but it was actually Arthur's idea."

"But you got the operation running," Tsubasa pointed out. "You know, I think enough demand will develop that a coffee shop in Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley could prove very profitable. Merlin knows that the Muggles are certainly willing to shell out a lot of money for overpriced coffee drinks, so I don't see why the wizards wouldn't as well."

"Maybe, but like I said, I'm happy with my Ministry job," Ash said. "Well, except for the paperwork."

"But there are several of your packmates who are unemployed or working at low-paying jobs," Tsubasa reminded him. "If they can't find work, maybe they should start a business of their own. Now that Lukas has inherited the Diggory estate, he should have enough money to provide the capital for a small cafe."

"Will the public really want to buy coffee from werewolves?" Ash asked doubtfully.

"Ah, but werewolves are in fashion now," Tsubasa replied. "Especially among the more adventurous young witches and wizards, who are exactly the market that we'd want to target."

Ash laughed and gave in. "All right, I'll talk to the pack about it and see what they say. But you know, Tsubasa, I think that you make a pretty sharp businessman yourself!"

He made a fresh batch of coffee, and they raised their mugs and toasted the future success of the farm and not-yet-existent coffee shop.

THE END.

***

Afterword: The story was partially inspired by this meta discussion about wands on snapedom. I started thinking that it would be appropriate for Ash's wand to be made out of ash, and this story developed around that idea. I also used the Alivan's website for additional inspiration and info. Tsubasa's wand is based on their Wood Vine Carved wand.

For what it's worth, I personally own the Petite Redwood wand, which I chose because it was pretty, and at the time I bought it, was one of the cheapest wands they had, though it seems to be more expensive now. I had actually wanted the vine-carved wand, but it was a little too pricey for something that's just going to decorate my desk. ^_^

Oh, and I guess it's obvious from the ending, but I'm also working a sequel dealing with the werewolf-run coffee shop.

Snapedom essay: Cooking with the Potions Master

2008-11-30T09:18:12Z

I was hoping to post my Ash story tonight, but it's not quite ready, so I'll offer up my entry for the Snapedom November Challenge, which is "Severus in the Kitchen": Severus in the Kitchen - Did Severus cook? What did he cook? How did he cook? When did he cook? For whom did he cook? Be as serious or as cracky as it pleases you. Creative meta is welcome and encouraged for this topic!

It's a fun topic, but sadly, I'm the only one who's posted an entry so far, a short essay combined with a few Snape-as-chef fic recs: Cooking with the Potions Master. Maybe people will be inspired to make a few late entries. And even if you're not a Snapedom member, all Snape fans are welcome to come over and comment.

Snapedom essay: Snape and the Marauders

2008-11-29T04:28:26Z

Once again, I'm showing off my lovely banner for the monthly snapedom challenge. October's topic was "Severus and the Marauders," and you can find my essay here. I took a look at Snape's relationship with the Marauders, focusing heavily on Lupin, partly because Snupin is my OTP and partly because we see more of Lupin than any of the other Marauders in the books. There is some interesting discussion of the Marauders' ranking in the comments, and how James and Sirius are really the Marauders, with Remus and Peter being hangers-on to a greater or lesser extent. There's especially good discussion about Peter, and what might have motivated him and how it wasn't really all that surprising that he betrayed them, since he wasn't really treated as an equal by James and Sirius, but more like a lackey and sycophant.

FIC: Firsts

2008-11-28T01:30:12Z

Title: Firsts
Rating: R to be on the safe side, but closer to PG-13
Fandom: Haru wo Daiteita (Embracing Love)
Pairing: Onozuka/Miyasaka (unrequited), Onozuka/Kikuchi
Word count: 1,593 total
Disclaimer: No money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
Sequel to: Comeback, Part 1 and Part 2

Summary: A list of Onozuka's first times, inspired by the weekly drabble prompt "Firsts" on youka_nitta. Unfortunately, I'm incapable of writing 100 words exactly, so I'm tagging this as a fic rather than a drabble, but in honor of the challenge, I wrote this in pseudo-drabble segments ranging from 97 to 320 words each.

***

The first time that Onozuka kissed another guy was at a high school party on a drunken dare. Which was also the first time that he admitted to himself that he might be gay, because he liked it a lot more than he had expected, although of course he pretended that he didn't.

But it didn't come as a complete surprise, because he'd had an uneasy feeling about the fact that he didn't seem to find girls as fascinating as his friends did, and that he took more notice of the boys around him than he did the girls. The kiss only confirmed his suspicions.

***

The first time that he had sex--if you wanted to call it that--with another guy was a couple of years later, a quick mutual hand job in the restroom of a gay bar. But it felt furtive and dirty and shameful, and while there was a certain thrill to it, Onozuka decided that wasn't the way that he wanted to have sex.

Besides, he wanted to be an actor, and there was no way that an openly gay actor was going to make it in this business; he still recalled how the career of one of his favorite actors, Kikuchi Katsuya, had been ruined a few years ago after he had been outed by the tabloids. All Kikuchi's talent, charisma, and blockbuster hits had counted for nothing against the "gay scandal" headlines.

***

So although he preferred men, Onozuka slept with women when he slept with anyone, but mostly he slept with no one and dedicated himself to working hard at his career. And eventually it paid off when he and Miyasaka won "The Best New Actors of the Year" contest held by a popular entertainment magazine.

The first time that he met Katou was shortly after winning the contest, when all three of them had been appearing as guests on a variety show. They had been waiting in the green room between segments, and Onozuka had gone up to Katou and said, "Hey, if you're interested, I hear there's a wild orgy party going on tonight after the show." The party created a bond between the three of them, and also gave Onozuka some good potential blackmail material on Katou. He figured that it couldn't hurt to have a friend who was a rising star, nor could it hurt to have something to hold over that star, just in case.

***

The first time that Onozuka realized, much to his chagrin, that his feelings for Miyasaka were more than platonic was when he found himself filled with irritation and jealousy over the way that Miyasaka fawned incessantly over Iwaki.

However, he knew that he would never act on those feelings, because to be quite frank, Miyasaka was a bit of a bonehead. Despite his new attraction to Iwaki, Miyasaka had rather narrow conceptions about gender roles and he still thought in terms of being "the man" and "the woman" in a relationship. Onozuka wasn't really averse to the idea of bottoming (in theory, anyway, since he'd never actually done it), but he wasn't interested in becoming Miyasaka's "wife". He knew that it would just screw up their perfectly good friendship if he tried to throw sex and romance into the mix.

***

So if Miyasaka was such an idiot, why was Onozuka friends with him? Well, Miyasaka had his good points, too. In a way, his simplemindedness was his good point; you always knew what to expect from him. For someone like Onozuka, who was constantly scheming, Miyasaka's straightforward nature and predictability were comforting.

And even though Miyasaka often got into messes that Onozuka had to clean up for him, he was always up for some fun and willing to go along with whatever scheme Onozuka had cooked up. He was also faithful, loyal, and dependable--kind of like a golden retriever, actually. Miyasaka was like his pet puppy, which was another reason why Onozuka thought that their relationship should remain strictly platonic. It wasn't really appropriate to fuck one's pet dog, after all.

***

The first time that Onozuka thought it might be possible to be an openly gay actor after all was when Kikuchi returned to Japan to make a comeback in the wake of Katou's and Iwaki's success. That comeback went slightly awry when he left the film that he and Katou were supposed to star in under mysterious circumstances--which Onozuka suspected had something to do with Katou's obsessive jealousy and protectiveness of Iwaki.

But Kikuchi managed to rebound by starring in a smaller sci-fi film by a young director who had been deemed "the next big thing". Personally, Onozuka thought it was a silly-ass story even though the critics praised its "message of tolerance," but Kikuchi's performance was as excellent as it had always been, and gave added depth to the shallow plot.

***

Onozuka was envious when he heard that Kikuchi's first project after the movie would be Miyasaka's new TV series. It wasn't so much that he was hoping to get with Kikuchi, but he was intrigued by the older actor, and he had genuinely admired him as a kid, even before he had known Kikuchi was gay. And he admired the strength it must have taken to move to America and rebuild his career in a foreign country where no one knew or cared that he had been a star in Japan.

But Onozuka didn't mention any of this to Miyasaka. He was a little embarrassed about his schoolboy crush on Kikuchi, and he was leery of revealing any personal information that could be used against him to anyone, even his best friend--and even though Miyasaka was probably too dense to figure out that Onozuka was gay unless he came right out and told him.

***

So Onozuka's first opportunity to meet Kikuchi didn't come until after Miyasaka's series ended. Miyasaka told him to drop by the wrap party if he had time, but filming on Onozuka's own series ran late that night, so he ended up going straight home and to bed.

He had only just begun to doze off when who should show up but Miyasaka and Kikuchi! Onozuka sauntered out half-naked into the living room to scold Miyasaka for making so much noise, and was pleased when Kikuchi's eyes drifted up and down his body appreciatively.

***

Onozuka was annoyed that Miyasaka was hitting on Kikuchi instead of the one person right under his nose who actually cared about him, even though he would have turned Miyasaka down even if Miyasaka had propositioned him...well, probably. And he was equally annoyed that it was his own schoolboy crush that Miyasaka was using to try and get over Iwaki.

So he took a certain vindictive pleasure in attempting to steal Kikuchi away from Miyasaka after the idiot accidentally called Kikuchi by Iwaki's name in bed. Although it probably didn't matter to Miyasaka, since he was only using Kikuchi as a substitute for Iwaki, anyway.

He had a chance to chat with Kikuchi while they were waiting for Kikuchi's cab to arrive, and Onozuka felt like the two of them genuinely hit it off, bonding over their mutual dislike of Iwaki. Onozuka felt a sense of satisfaction that his boyhood hero had not fallen under Iwaki's spell; he'd known that Kikuchi would have good taste.

As Kikuchi was climbing into the cab, Onozuka took a calculated risk and bent down and kissed Kikuchi for the very first time. The other actor seemed amused rather than offended by his audaciousness, and even asked Onozuka for his number.

***

A couple of days later, Onozuka received a call from Kikuchi while he was at the studio, waiting in the dressing room for his next scene to come up.

"So you said to call if I was bored," a familiar deep voice said. "Are you busy tonight?"

"I just have one more scene left to shoot," Onozuka replied. "I should be free within a few hours at most."

"Great," Kikuchi said. "Do you want to get together for dinner?"

"Sure," Onozuka said with an air of casual indifference, although his inner teenager was jumping up and down in gleeful excitement over the idea of having dinner with Kikuchi Katsuya. "When and where should I meet you?"

"You have to be careful of your career, Onozuka-kun," Kikuchi chided in a seductive voice. "If you were seen meeting me in public, it might cause a scandal, and I'm not convinced that the public is ready to accept another gay couple."

"We aren't a couple," Onozuka reminded him, then added coyly, "At least, not yet."

"You're a clever young man, Onozuka-kun," Kikuchi replied. "You know that in this business, the public's perception matters more than the truth. Let's play it safe for now--why don't you come over to my apartment, say, around seven?"

He was jotting down Kikuchi's address when the director's assistant knocked on the door and called out, "We're ready for you, Onozuka-san."

"I'll be right there," he called back, then told Kikuchi, "I have to go now. I'll see you at seven."

"I'll be looking forward to it," Kikuchi chuckled, in a voice filled with promise.

Onozuka was grinning from ear to ear as he turned his phone off, and he paused for a moment to compose himself. By the time he walked onto the set, he was the very image of calm professionalism, but he was eagerly looking forward to his first date with Kikuchi.

THE END.

***

Afterword: I tried really, really hard to write 100-word drabbles, but I just couldn't do it, mostly because I tend to be long-winded. I did come close with 105 and 97 for two of the segments, but for the life of me, I just couldn't get it to 100 exactly. I am so impressed by all you drabble writers out there--I don't know how you do it!

Still, I'm happy that the prompt inspired this fic, even though it totally distracted me from the HP fic I was supposed to be working on! Onozuka wanted his story told, and it seemed like a nice way to uncover some of his background. It was written as a companion piece to Comeback, and when I was writing that story, I wasn't specifically thinking of Onozuka as being gay or a fan of Kikuchi. (If anything, I was thinking that maybe he was bisexual.) But Iwaki, Katou, and Miyasaka are all straight guys who just happened to fall in love with one particular guy, and it's not clear whether Asano is actually gay or bi, or if he's perfectly straight and just wants to become Iwaki's lover in order to further his career. It seemed like a prevalence of what I've heard termed as "I am gay only for you" syndrome (mostly in Harry/Draco meta), and I thought it might be nice to have one guy besides Kikuchi who is flat-out gay. (Even if Onozuka doesn't really act on his preferences. He's a very calculating guy, and I don't think that he'd risk a scandal ruining his career before it even got started.)

(Well, actually, I think Sawa is also gay--I don't think there's any indication in the books that he's interested in women. And Yukihito doesn't seem to be interested in anyone but Sawa, so I suppose that makes him gay by default. Anyway, I'm digressing from my discussion of Onozuka...)

Then I thought that it might be kind of fun if Onozuka had been a fan of Kikuchi's as a kid. He appears to be in his early twenties, so he would have been young enough to have a little hero worship for his favorite movie star ten years ago, and Kikuchi's scandal would also have served as a cautionary tale for an aspiring young actor.

Canonically speaking, I feel like Onozuka might have some unrequited feelings for Miyasaka, but I really like the idea of him and Kikuchi being together--I think they'd make a good couple who would challenge each other more than poor Miyasaka would. I would like to do a sequel focusing on Onozuka's continuing relationship with Kikuchi, and how Miyasaka, Iwaki, and Katou react to it.

Btw, I could've posted this earlier, but I decided to spend the morning making some Onozuka, Miyasaka, and Kikuchi icons first. ^_^ It may be my glasses fetish, but I think Onozuka is so hot when he wears glasses!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T08:15:20Z

It's a little bit early, but wishing everyone on my Friends list a Happy Thanksgiving--may you enjoy lots of turkey (or tofurkey if you're a vegetarian) and pumpkin pie! ^_^ I baked two pumpkin pies myself, and am looking forward to chowing down on them tomorrow with my family. (And if you're not American, I wish you a happy day as well.)

As I mentioned earlier, I was working on a story about Ash, but thanks to this drabble challenge on youka_nitta, a persistent plot bunny about Onozuka from Harudaki demanded to be written, so I ended up working on that instead. Since I'm incapable of writing a drabble, it actually turned out to be a fic disguised as a series of drabbles, and it should be ready to post tomorrow. Then hopefully I'll be able to get back to my poor neglected werewolf!

Research

2008-11-26T09:44:02Z

I was trying to think of meta topics to write about, and it occurred to me that sometimes I get a little obsessive about doing research for a fanfic--spending way more time than I need to on it. And I was just wondering if other writers also spend almost as much time researching the fic as they do writing it.

The best example of this is my still-in-progress (and not yet posted) post-DH plot bunny in which Snape runs off to Japan to try and forget about Lupin. (Snape, Lupin, and Tonks all survive the war, and Lupin and Tonks are still married.) Snape would be living with the tengu (the half-human, half-crow shapeshifters who show up in my Always series), and helping to heal the ailing leader of the tengu clan. So I researched both tengu and real crows on the web, and borrowed books on Japanese legends and folklore from the library. The tengu are warriors, and in my universe, have a culture based on the samurai of the feudal era, so I borrowed books on the samurai, life in ancient Japan, and Japanese weapons, and made copious notes. I also watch samurai shows on the local Japanese-language station, which is for pleasure and I would still be watching them even if I wasn't writing this fic, but I do make mental notes when I see some interesting bit of information that might be relevant to my fic, or "cast" actors in the roles of characters in the story. (The lead actor in Furin Kazan looked so tengu-ish to me, that I ended up creating a character for the story based on his appearance.)

I had planned a scene where a tengu patrol battles a band of ninja, so naturally I had to do some research on ninja, which led to this post on how ninja use aconite.

Snape's tengu love interest, Kuro, has a childlike hero-worship of the legendary Japanese warrior and tragic hero Yoshitsune. This came about partly because I watched and enjoyed the NHK TV series Yoshitsune, and also because one of the legends about Yoshitsune is that he was taught swordsmanship and military strategy by the tengu as a child. All I really needed for the story was his basic biographical story, but I ended up borrowing and reading several historical and fictional books about Yoshitsune, including The Tale of the Heike (all 500+ pages of it), which chronicles the war between the Heike and Yoshitsune's clan, the Genji.

I also watched and taped a PBS special on the crafting of samurai swords, which is full of fascinating information--most of which will never make it into the story.

Of course, I am rather selective about the type of research I become obsessed with. I know that there are HP writers who keep strict track of the canon timeline, and research what the weather was like on the particular day that that their fic takes place, or what phase of the moon it was, etc. But I'm not interested in being that realistic, so I fudge it and chalk it up to artistic license. But I am fascinated with Japanese culture, and I love watching samurai TV dramas, which I guess is why I got carried away with the research for the Snape-in-Japan fic.

I also admit that there's probably a bit of procrastination involved, considering that I've been working on the damned plot bunny for more than a year. (Although it's also because I kept putting it off because I was working on various fic and meta challenges for snapedom and lupin_snape.) The research part is fun, and it helps put off the actual work of writing the story. Not that writing isn't fun, but I'm sure that all fanfic writers know that it can also be a struggle at times.

I actually have written a couple of complete chapters, plus various bits and pieces for future scenes. So I've resolved to start posting it before the year ends, and that will force me to work on it, since I have resolved never to leave a WIP unfinished, since it drives me crazy when I get hooked on a WIP and the author abandons it.

So if anyone on the Friends list is reading this and wants to comment, how far do you go with your research, and what kinds of things do you like to research? Is it something you enjoy, or is it just a necessity of the writing process?

Zack and Miri

2008-11-25T04:36:59Z

I went to see "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" last night with some friends, and I highly recommend it. It was a typical Kevin Smith film, with a foul-mouthed, irreverent sort of humor, but it was also surprisingly sweet and romantic at the same time. Justin Long (Mac in the "I'm a Mac; I'm a PC" commercials) has a small role as a gay porn star, and he was totally hilarious--my friend said that his scene alone was worth the price of admission, and I agree.

Oh, and be sure to stay through the credits--there's a sort of epilogue about halfway through, and Smith included some silly comments just before the very end of the credits, including "If you can read this, you're driving too close". They went by a little too fast for us to catch them all, so we've agreed to rent it when it comes out on dvd so we can watch the credits again. ^_^

Oh, and I should warn, there's a very gross scene towards the end of the movie that caused the entire theater to exclaim and groan in disgust. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but believe me, you'll know it when you see it.

InsaneJournal sale

2008-11-24T08:32:43Z

Once again, no time for a detailed post today, so I thought I'd mention that InsaneJournal will be having a special sale on Friday, Nov. 28th, for permanent accounts, paid accounts, and extra userpics. (Most IJ users have probably already seen the announcement, but just in case you haven't heard, or for LJ users who come over to IJ to comment on fic and such. Either way, it's a good opportunity to snag a permanent account.)

I already have a permanent account, but I might buy the extra userpics, even though I haven't used up all of my 300 slots yet. It's just so cool to be able to have an icon for every conceivable fic or occasion! I wish I had more icons for my LJ, which is a free Plus Account. It's not that I can't afford a paid account; I just didn't want to give LJ my money after the whole strikethrough debacle. Things seem somewhat better now, but I'm still a little leery, and two of my favorite fandom communities, snapedom and lupin_snape, have completely or mostly moved over to IJ anyway.

(Public service announcement over. ^_^)

As for my fanfic projects, now that I've finished the two Petshop fics I was working on, I'm moving on to a couple of short fics about Ash, my OC werewolf from the Always series--at least I hope they'll be short, since I tend to get carried away at times. And then I want to really buckle down and work on my long-postponed post-DH Snupin plot bunny, and maybe squeeze in a short Harudaki (Embracing Love) fic, since evil lore gave me this plot bunny about a missing scene where Iwaki finds out that Katou concealed the truth about Asano. ^_^ (The actual bunny is in her comments to my main meta post.)

HP Prognostications #93: Female Role Models in Harry Potter

2008-11-23T09:12:01Z

No time for a detailed post today, so I'll just post a quick rec for the HP Prognostications podcast. They generally have a nice mix of humor and analysis, and the last episode (#93) was particularly interesting. They were discussing an essay by Elizabeth Heilman, "Blue Wizards and Pink Witches: Representations of Gender Identity and Power," which argues that there are no good female role models in Harry Potter. As the hosts say, whether you agree with her or not, it makes for a very interesting discussion. One interesting thing that was pointed out on the podcast was that while there is a very traditional portrayal of women as wives and mothers--we see married women like Molly, or single women with no children (like McGonagall), but no single mothers, which is perhaps a little odd, since JKR was a single mother herself.

The episode was posted about a week ago, but I only just got around to listening to it now. You can download it from iTunes, or directly from the HP Progs website.

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe

2008-11-22T09:47:33Z

This isn't exactly a review, because I haven't read the book yet, but I just bought "Wolfsbane and Mistletoe," an anthology of werewolf Christmas stories by various authors, including Charlaine Harris (who writes the Sookie Stackhouse books, which were the premise for the True Blood tv show) and Patricia Briggs, whose werewolf stories I recommended on this post. It's a hardcover book, so it's a little pricey, but I got it half off with my Barnes & Noble reader discount and a 30% off coupon, so I felt that I could take a risk on it. I love Patricia Briggs's stories, and there are stories by two of my favorite mystery authors, Dana Stabenow and Nancy Pickard, plus I've been wanting to try Harris's books, so I think it will be worth the $13 I ended up paying. Besides, as a Snupin fan, how can I resist a collection of holiday werewolf stories? ;-)

What's really funny is that I'm such an HP geek that I forgot "wolfsbane" is not a word in the average person's everday vocabulary. I couldn't find it on the shelf at first, so I asked the guy at the info desk for help, and it took him three tries to pull up the right title on the computer: he tried "wolf bane" and "wolf's bane" until I explained that it's "wolfsbane," one word. Jeez, doesn't everyone know that? ^_^

FIC: Decisions, Part 3 (End)

2008-11-21T09:16:12Z

Title: Decisions, Part 3
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Victor (reincarnation of Vesca)/Young Count
Word count: ~5,550
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Matsuri Akino. No money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
Sequel to: Daiki (last chapter ended here)

Summary: Victor returns with his report on D's father.

Part 1, Part 2

***

Victor returned to the shop a few weeks later, looking grave and troubled. He set a Madame C's pastry box down on the table, and very carefully laid down a fat manila envelope beside it, handling the envelope as if it were made out of glass--or as if contained something explosive.

"This is my report," he said. "There's still a lot of mystery surrounding your old man, but I managed to find out how he died, along with some of his background. It's not pretty--in fact, some of it's downright ugly. Are you sure you still want the truth, D?"

D's heart beat a little faster, partly out of fear, and partly out of elation that Victor had finally called him by his name instead of his title. Though as a Count D, he should not want a human to be so insultingly familiar with him...and yet he did.

He took a deep breath, then answered Victor's question in a firm voice. "Yes, I do."

"Very well, then," Victor said, opening the envelope. "I got off to a slow start because I was looking for a petshop, and your father didn't run one."

"He didn't?" D asked incredulously. "But...that is our tradition. That is what we do."

"Yeah, well, your dad chose to break with the family tradition. Maybe that's partly why your grandfather doesn't like to talk about him."

"But if he didn't run a petshop, then what did he do?"

Victor pulled a college brochure out of the envelope. "He enrolled at S.U.N.Y. Albany over forty years ago, claiming to be a transfer student from Hong Kong."

"My father went to college?" D asked, leafing through the brochure. "What on earth did he study there?"

"Genetic engineering," Victor replied. "He worked as an assistant to a professor who was doing research in biotechnology. The professor got the official credit for some groundbreaking advances in the field, but I talked to some of his colleagues and students, and unofficially it seems that the work was actually done by your father, though he let his teacher take the credit." He pulled more papers out of the envelope and handed them to D. "Here are some copies of articles published under the professor's name."

D skimmed the articles, but found the technical and scientific terms bewildering. "I do not understand," he said, frowning. "Why would my father be involved with genetic engineering? The very idea of meddling with nature, of genetically altering a creature, is abhorrent to us. That is something that humans do." Victor raised his eyebrows, and D hastily added, "I mean, the people who arrogantly assume that humanity is the most important species on the planet, of course."

"But humans are the real monsters," Victor added, with bored air of someone echoing an oft-repeated phrase. "According to the people who knew him at the university, your father said that all the time, too."

"What was he doing with his research?" D prompted impatiently.

"Right; sorry," Victor apologized. "He told a few people that he was working on engineering a virus for the U.S. government. One of those people was a medical student named Vesca Howell, who joined the F.B.I. when he graduated."

There was a very odd look on Victor's face that D couldn't quite read. "I wasn't aware that a medical degree was a requirement for joining the F.B.I."

"It isn't," Victor replied. "He had been planning to become a doctor, but according to some of his old friends from S.U.N.Y., he became obsessed with the idea that Count D--that is, your dad--was up to no good, and that influenced his decision to go into law enforcement instead. He was convinced that your father was trying to create a biological weapon, an airborne plague that would target only humans."

D felt frozen in place, as if his blood had turned to ice. Yes, he hated how humanity had despoiled so much of the earth...but to wipe out an entire species? And there were a few humans that he liked--Chris Orcot, for one, and he even liked Agent Orcot's abrasive and foul-mouthed older brother. And of course there was Victor...especially Victor. He had known the detective for only a few short months, but he could not imagine living in a world without him.

"Hey, you okay?" Victor asked gently, laying a hand over D's, and the warmth of his touch thawed D slightly. "We can stop now if you want."

"No," D said faintly. "Please continue, Mr. Holland."

Victor squeezed D's hand comfortingly, but D felt rather disappointed when he released it a moment later. "Howell spent the next twenty years trying to track down your father," Victor continued briskly. "He worked on other cases, of course, but he never lost his obsession with Count D. In fact, it seems that he grew increasingly obsessed as the years went by."

"This sounds a little familiar," D murmured, and Victor smiled.

"Yeah, kinda like Detective Orcot and your brother," he said. "Only Orcot and Count D...um, your brother...managed to come to an understanding, and Howell and the older D never did. Although..." He hesitated for a moment. "Some of your father's and Howell's classmates thought that there might have been something going on between them--a flirtation, if nothing else. They always argued, but Count D spent more time with Howell than anyone else. They seem to have been friends before they became enemies. The classmates say that D was very popular at school, and that he was always unfailingly charming and polite with everyone--except Howell. With Howell, it seemed like he could let his guard down a bit enough to exchange cross words. They argued a lot, like I said, but Count D never stayed mad at him for long; it was more like he enjoyed teasing Howell by provoking him on purpose. As for Howell, he claimed that he found D arrogant and annoying, but he spent an awful lot of time in the company of someone that he supposedly didn't like."

"I see," D murmured, ducking his head to hide his smile as he thought to himself that Howell reminded him a bit of Victor. No doubt the comparison had occurred to Victor, too, and when D glanced up again, he expected to see a scowl on the detective's face. However, he still had that odd, troubled look on his face.

"There was another student at the university, a wealthy young man named Albert, who was infatuated with your father," Victor continued. "He tried to court D, without much success, but I was able to find out a few of the details you wanted to know through him. He wanted to woo the Count with special gifts, so he asked D what his favorite color and foods were. Your father's favorite color was blue, and his favorite food was chocolate--he was especially fond of chocolate-dipped strawberries, it seems."

"Chocolate like me, and strawberries like Father," D said, tears welling in his eyes. Victor offered him a handkerchief, and D accepted it with thanks, using it to dab at his eyes.

"He was also a vegetarian like you," Victor told D. "He never ate meat--called it 'barbaric'--and he was crazy about sweets in general, though chocolate was his favorite. Albert also said that your dad had eclectic tastes in music. He liked going to classical music concerts, but he'd also hum along with the latest pop tunes on the radio. Sometimes he'd go to movies or watch TV with the other students, but he always had this slightly detached air about him, like he was a sociologist studying some interesting foreign culture. Maybe it was just that American college life was novel compared to his life back in Hong Kong." He paused and added, with a bit of his usual suspicion, "If that's where he really came from."

D had managed to compose himself enough to respond innocently, "My family is originally from mainland China, but we have traveled all over the world."

"Uh-huh," Victor replied skeptically, then continued with his report. "I prepared a more detailed file on this Albert guy's background, in case you were interested, but he seems to have been peripheral to your father's life. Poor guy; he was way more interested in Count D than the Count was interested in him. He's married with kids and grandkids now, but he still thinks fondly of your father, and was happy to talk about his college days. He refuses to believe that his Count D was really a terrorist."

"Do you think that's true?" D asked hopefully. "Is it possible that Agent Howell was wrong about my father?"

"I'm afraid not," Victor said gently, shaking his head. "Albert has a somewhat romanticized and idealized image of your father. Do you still want to know how he died?"

D didn't trust himself to answer, so he nodded mutely, and Victor continued.

"So after leaving the university, your dad pretty much dropped off the radar for about two decades, although rumors of a Count D would crop up every now and then. Of course, most of those involve petshops, so they were probably about your grandfather and your brother rather than your father. Eventually Howell tracked 'Count D' down to L.A. shortly after your brother left his shop in Chinatown. My boss had to call in a favor from a friend at the F.B.I. to get this info, and some of it's classified, so I don't have the whole story. But I can give you the gist of what happened."

He paused, as if asking for permission to continue, and D nodded again. "Because of Detective Orcot's obsession with the L.A. Count, Howell allowed him to assist in the search for Count D. He was convinced that Orcot's Count and his old classmate were one and the same, even though the L.A. Count appeared to be in his early twenties. He claimed that their fingerprints were exactly the same, so they had to be the same man.

"Howell found evidence that the Count was in Colorado, and went there to arrest him. Orcot had to stay behind in L.A., since that was out of his jurisdiction. Howell managed to catch up with the Count and shot and wounded him, but the Count escaped by throwing himself off a cliff into the Colorado River. The local police said that no one could survive a fall from that height, but Howell was convinced that he was still alive. The Count had left behind a suitcase, and Howell said he was going to take it back to the Bureau for analysis while the locals continued the search for Count D's body. And that's when things start getting fuzzy.

"Howell never made it back to F.B.I. headquarters. Somehow he, Orcot, your brother, and your father all ended up in a private office building in L.A. It was owned by a dummy corporation that was traced back to your father; he seems to have been conducting his research there. The boss's contact isn't sure exactly what happened, but apparently your father threatened to unleash his biological weapon, and Orcot shot and killed him. Before he died, he triggered a bomb to destroy his lab, and Howell was killed in the blast. There was something kind of weird about that explosion--witnesses claimed that they saw ghostly images of mythical creatures flying out of the ruined building--dragons and flying horses and stuff like that. The F.B.I. said that there may have been some chemicals released in the explosion that caused the witnesses to hallucinate.

"At first it was thought that only Orcot made it out alive, but the younger Count's body was never found, and Orcot insisted that he was still alive. He even quit his job to look for him, and was proved right when he brought your brother back to L.A. with him two years later. The F.B.I. questioned your brother, but it was determined that he had been unaware of his father's terrorist activities, and he was let off with a warning. Of course, he does have friends in high places, including a former President. But Orcot has a reputation as a stand-up guy, and I don't think that he would be living with your brother if he was a terrorist."

"So it's true," D said numbly. "Detective Orcot killed my father." He had been half-expecting this all along, but the impact still hit him harder than he had thought it would.

"He did," Victor said quietly, reaching out to take D's hand again. "But it was in self-defense--and not just to save himself, but the entire human race, if your father's weapon did what it was supposed to. Though I know that you think most humans aren't worth saving."

"Most humans," D whispered, clutching at Victor's hand as if he were drowning and it was a lifeline. "But not all."

"Glad to hear that," Victor said with a genuine smile that eased D's pain just the slightest bit.

"So that is all?" D asked. "That is the entire story of my father's life and death?" It seemed so sad, that the sum of his father's life could fit into a single envelope, but on the other hand, D wasn't sure if he could handle any more.

The odd expression was back on Victor's face. "Well...not quite," he replied. He reached into the manila envelope with his free hand pulled out a photograph. "Albert gave me this picture of your father and some of his college friends, including Howell. He took it on a trip they all went on."

D recognized his father instantly, of course, but he was shocked to see the man standing next to him, scowling at the camera: a young man with a lanky build and spiky blond hair, who could have been Victor's twin brother.

He released Victor's hand to snatch up the picture and stare at it more closely, to see if his eyes had been deceiving him, but the image remained unchanged. He pointed at the blond man with one of his long, elegant fingernails and demanded more than asked, "This is Vesca Howell?"

"Yeah, it threw me for a loop, too," Victor replied. "When I met Albert, he thought I was Howell's son at first."

"But you aren't," D said, his voice hovering somewhere between a question and a statement.

Victor shook his head. "I'm not related to him at all. I even researched my family tree to see if we were second cousins twice removed or something, but as far as I can tell, we have no blood relation to each other. There's a saying that everyone in the world has a doppleganger, so maybe I'm Howell's. Although..." He hesitated.

"What is it?" D prompted.

"Well, I'm sure it's just a freaky coincidence, but I was born exactly nine months to the day after Howell was killed," Victor finished reluctantly.

"When I first met you, I felt as if I had known you before," D said, suddenly recalling their first meeting, which seemed hazy and dream-like to him now. "I called you a strange name that just popped into my head...it was 'Vesca'!"

"Yes, and I felt the same way," Victor agreed, still looking uncomfortable. "And for some reason, I called you 'Doc'. Your father was a scientist, a doctor of sorts, and, well...Albert said that 'Doc' was Howell's pet name for Count D."

"Perhaps...we knew each other in a previous life?" D suggested.

"What?!" Victor exclaimed, although from the expression on his face, he had considered this possibility, too. "You're a reincarnation of your dad, and I'm Howell's reincarnation? I don't believe in shit like that, and besides, weren't you born before your father died?"

"I'm not sure," D replied, frowning thoughtfully. "I was told only that my father died when I was a baby, but it is possible that I was born after he died, though probably not very long after." Father had explained how the Ds reproduced, by using their blood to generate a vine which would then grow and birth the new D. It was possible that with his last dying strength, the former Count D had created a child to...what? Become a receptacle for his soul? Or perhaps he had just wanted to create a child who would have a better chance at happiness than he and Howell had had.

"Hey, that reminds me," Victor said, breaking D's train of thought. "During all my research, I never found any mention of your mother, and there were no rumors of Count D having a wife or a lover."

"I do not need to know about my mother," D said, knowing that he couldn't tell Victor that he didn't have one--unless one counted the vine as a maternal parent. "Her identity is not in question. It was only my father that I knew nothing about."

"Well, you're the client," Victor said with a shrug, although he was obviously still curious about D's non-existent mother. "There's a written report in the envelope, but I've covered just about everything. So...what are you gonna do now, D?"

"Yes, child, what are you going to do?" a smooth, dulcet voice asked. D looked up to see Father standing in the doorway. He was wearing the illusion that made him appear to be older, if not quite the proper age for a grandfather--a few lines on his face, and a few streaks of gray in his otherwise raven-black hair.

Father's golden eyes transfixed D's with an intense, piercing gaze. "Will you take revenge upon Detective Orcot, and thereby break your brother's heart?" he asked, his voice still smooth, but taut with tension now. "Will you make war with your kin? Your brother, I believe, could not bring himself to harm you no matter what you did, but..." He paused, then switched to Mandarin so that Victor could not understand. "Daiki acts sweet and gentle, but he has some of his human father's fire within him. If you harm Leon, he will come after you with a vengeance, probably with the wolf, the kitsune, and the Tou-Tet, not to mention his own personal dragon bodyguard..."

Victor might not have been able to follow all of Father's words, but the part that he'd heard in English was enough to alarm him. "Hey, wait a minute!" he exclaimed. "I know that you're upset, D, but you can't go taking revenge on a police officer! If you try to hurt Orcot, every cop in L.A. will be gunning for you! Not to mention that Orcot's an experienced cop--if you try to kill him, he might end up shooting you instead!"

"Like he did my father," D whispered, and Victor turned pale.  

"D..." he said helplessly.

"My dear child," Father said, his gaze and voice gentling now. "If you wish to blame someone for your birth father's death, blame me. For it was I who drove my son into obsession and madness."

"I do not understand," D said, staring pleadingly at Father, silently begging him for some way to make sense of what he'd just learned, and to come to terms with it.

"Your father was in love with Vesca," Father said, his face shadowed with grief and pain. He suddenly looked decades older, and D didn't think it had anything to do with the illusion he was wearing for Victor's sake. "But I forbade that romance, because I thought it would interfere with..." His eyes flickered towards Victor for a moment, and he paused before finishing, "...the family business."

"You did not want him to take a human mate," D said in Mandarin, as Victor stared at them suspiciously.

"Yes," Father replied in English. "I had not approved of him attending university in the first place; I wanted him to take over the shop as I had from my father, and his father before him. But my son was convinced that he could use human science to mend some of the harm that humans had done to nature."

"So he had good intentions when he started at S.U.N.Y.," Victor murmured, more to himself than the eldest Count, and D was surprised when Father acknowledged the human's words and nodded.

"But when I ended his romance before it had even really begun, something snapped in my son's mind, and he went a little mad. The Count Ds have always been interested in, ah, protecting nature, but my son took that to an unhealthy extreme, and became obsessed with creating the virus that he told Vesca about--a virus that would destroy all humanity and leave the earth solely to the plants and animals that it truly belonged to."

"Wouldn't the virus have killed him as well, not to mention the rest of his family?" Victor asked, but there was a speculative look on his face, as if he were wondering if the Ds were really human.

"At that point, I do not think that he cared about his life or anyone else's," Father replied. "Which is why I took his young son, the one that you know of as the L.A. Count D, into my care, because I feared for his safety. Which only gave my son another reason to hate me." He sighed wearily, and turned to address D. "I was not the loving father to him that I was to you, child. I loved him, of course, but perhaps I did not show it as well as I should have. I was very strict with him, always emphasizing how he must do his duty and carry on the family business. I denigrated his interest in science, but he enrolled at the university against my wishes. He was always a rebellious child." The eldest D's lips curved in a smile filled with both fondness and sorrow.

"Then why did he not rebel further and take Vesca Howell as his lover?" D asked, and Father's smile faded.

"Going to university was just a small rebellion. In the end, he heeded my orders about Vesca, but he hated me for it, and he never forgave me. Ironically, I may not have needed to incur his wrath, for Vesca was a rather narrow-minded man. I do not believe that he could have accepted my son wholeheartedly, with all of the...ah...complications that came with him."

"Like being a man?" Victor asked wryly.

"That, among other things," Father replied. To D, he said, "I tried to atone for my mistakes with you, child. I tried to raise you with more affection and freedom than I gave your father."

"You have been a good parent to me," D assured him loyally. "I have always felt loved and happy growing up. I wanted to know the truth about my birth father, but I am sorry to have brought back painful memories for you."

"It is I who should apologize, child," Father said, with a humility that D had never seen before. "I told myself that I was trying to protect you, but perhaps it was only myself that I was trying to protect...I feared that you would think less of me for the mistakes that I made with your father, and I feared to have my family torn in two if you should decide to seek revenge upon your brother's lover."

D's confusion and pain was replaced by a wave of tenderness and compassion for the man who had truly been a father to him. "I do not think less of you," he said, reaching out to take the old Count's hands in his. "I think more of you for raising me with such love and care, and for trying to make up for your past mistakes. That is why you did not interfere when my brother chose Detective Orcot as his mate, is it not? You did not approve, but still, you let him choose his own path and find his own happiness." Father nodded, with unshed tears glistening in his eyes, and D continued, "Do not fear--I will not seek revenge on the Detective. I mourn my father's death, and also his unhappy life, but I do not wish to cause more pain and suffering for my brother and Daiki...and you, Father." He switched to Mandarin for a moment and added, "And you are allowing me to choose my path as well, aren't you? That is why you are here, in human form, discussing personal family matters in front of Victor." Until this day, D would never have dreamed that Father would do such a thing.

Father nodded, squeezing D's hands gently. "I wish you happiness and joy, child, in whatever path you choose." His eyes flickered towards Victor and back again, and gave D a resigned smile. "Even if it is not the path that I would have chosen for you."

Victor blushed and mumbled, "Hey, I think we're kinda getting ahead of ourselves here..."

Father glared at him indignantly, as if offended that this mere mortal did not appreciate the incredible honor that had just been bestowed upon him, and D could not help but laugh, which caused both Victor and Father to forget their other concerns and gaze at him with relief.

"I am not ready to make such a momentous decision just yet, Father," D laughed. "But I am glad that I have the freedom to choose, and gladder still that I have your blessing."

Just then, a familiar aura of power swept over the shop. From the way that Father flinched, D could see that he felt it, too, although Victor didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. The doors to the shop began to swing open, and a cheerful voice sang out, "I brought a strawberry cheesecake for you today, Sofu!"

But apparently, even strawberries were not enough to tempt Father into spending time with the Kirin, because he got a frantic look in his golden eyes and hissed, "Tell him I'm not home!"

Father fled into the back rooms as Souki entered the shop with a large pastry box. "Hello, Count D," he said pleasantly.

D bowed respectfully and said, "Good day, Lord Souki. Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Holland, the detective that I told you about. Mr. Holland, this is Lord Souki, who is a very good friend of my brother."

"Nice to meet you," Victor said, rising to his feet and extending his hand; the Kirin shook it firmly.

"It's nice to meet you as well," Souki replied, then smiled at D. "Does this mean that you found out what you wished to know about your father?"

"I did," D said.

"And what will you do with that information now?" Souki asked. He wore a carefully polite and pleasant smile on his face that revealed nothing of his true feelings, not even to a kami who was trained to read the innermost desires of men and women.

"Nothing," D replied. "As you warned, I discovered some painful truths about my father, but I do not wish to avenge his death. I only wished to know the whole truth about my father so that I might understand him and mourn for him properly. And perhaps so that I could learn from his mistakes, and not repeat them myself."

Souki's smile seemed more genuine as he said, "I am glad, for both your sake and your brother's. How fortunate that I brought this to celebrate, then." He held up the pastry box. "Is your grandfather in?"

D did not dare to lie directly to the most senior of the Kirin. "Well..." he hedged. "Father is a bit indisposed at the moment."

"This strawberry cheesecake will make him feel better in no time," Souki said confidently, then headed for the back rooms, calling out, "Yoo hoo, Sofu, I know you're in there! It's useless to hide from me--I can read minds, remember?"

"Is that guy a psychic or something?" Victor asked as Souki went off in search of Father.

"Ah...something like that," D replied. Victor was becoming more receptive to the realities of the petshop, but he didn't think that the detective was ready to believe in the existence of a Kirin just yet.

Victor just smiled and shook his head. "You sure know some interesting people, Count. By the way, what was it that he was calling your grandfather--Sofu? Is that his real name?"

"It is a nickname of sorts," D explained. "It is Japanese for 'grandfather,' and that was what my elder brother called him when they were living in Japan for much of my brother's childhood. Because it gets a little confusing when more than one Count D is present at the same time, Detective Orcot and his family started referring to Father as 'Sofu D,' and Lord Souki has also picked up that habit."

"You can say that again!" Victor exclaimed. "The confusing part, I mean! It got really confusing at times when I was talking to that Albert guy about you and your dad and your grandpa. Whose bright idea was it to give everybody in the family the same name, anyway? Doesn't it get kind of awkward at family dinners, like if someone says 'D' and all three of you look up?"

"I suppose it was my ancestor's idea originally, the very first Count D," D laughed. "I do not know why, though. Perhaps to emphasize the importance of carrying on the family tradition of caring for the shop over our individual desires."

Victor frowned. "Well, this may be my biased American viewpoint, but I think that you oughta be free to do as you like, and not be tied down to what your great-to-the-umpteenth-power-grandfather decided before you were even born."

"Father has given me his blessing to choose my own path," D reminded him. "I am content to run the shop, but I thank you for your concern..." He was about to say "Mr. Holland," but at the last second, decided instead on "Victor."

The detective flushed, looking pleased that D had called him by his first name. "So is there some nickname that you have, D, to distinguish between you and the other Counts?"

"Hmm," D mused thoughtfully. "I do not, but there is no reason why I cannot choose one for myself. Why don't you call me 'Shiro'? 'Shi' means 'four' in Japanese, and 'ro' is a common suffix for a boy's name, so 'Shiro' is a name often given to the fourth son in a family. And I am the fourth Count D, after my grandfather, my late father, and my elder brother."

"Shiro," Victor said experimentally, trying the name out. "Shiro...that has a nice ring to it. So I can call you that from now on?"

D nodded. "It pleases me that you have a special pet name to call me by," he teased, and Victor turned beet-red.

"Hey, that's not what I meant," the detective grumbled, but he looked rather pleased with himself, albeit in a sheepish manner.

"Detective Orcot also complains that it is confusing to have three Count Ds," D said, smiling mischievously. "He calls me 'Count Junior' behind my back, although he thinks that I don't know about it. At least this will give him a more dignified name to call me by."

"Hey, I thought it was my special pet name," Victor said jealously, in a voice that was only half-joking.

D leaned over and purred seductively into Victor's ear, "It is special, because I chose it for you."

Victor turned red again and said hoarsely, "Well, I guess it's okay, then."

In a more serious voice, D said, "Thank you, Victor, for discovering the truth for me, and for giving me my freedom. Though the truth was sad, I feel as if a great burden has been lifted from me."

"Well, I was just doing my job," Victor mumbled modestly. "I didn't really--"

He never finished his words, because D leaned over and kissed him in the middle of his sentence. Victor didn't seem to mind, though; after a few seconds in which he was too stunned to react, he recovered and began returning the kiss with enthusiasm.

***

A few minutes later, Souki came back out into the lobby, pastry box still in one hand, and a small, squirming babbit clutched firmly in the other. "I found Q-chan!" he announced. "Now we can have our cheese--" Then he laughed as he caught sight of the couple entwined on the couch.

"Well, I guess we shouldn't disturb them," Souki whispered to Q-chan. "But on the bright side, there's more cheesecake for us, right?"

"Kyuu," Q-chan squeaked resignedly as Souki turned and headed back down the corridors of the petshop, humming a cheery love song under his breath.

THE END.

***

Afterword: I must offer special thanks to N. Ranken, from the Pet Shop of Horrors Fanfiction Yahoo Group, who suggested the nickname of "Shiro" for the young Count when I complained about how confusing it got writing about 3 Count Ds at the same time while I was working on "Daiki". ^_^

Steve's new HP book approved

2008-11-20T09:10:08Z

Some good news: according to this news post on HPANA, Steve Vander Ark's new book, "In Search of Harry Potter," has been approved for publishing by JKR's lawyers. As I had mentioned in this earlier post, JKR's agents had asked to review the book to make sure it doesn't violate any copyrights. A rather petty move, in my opinion, since it was obviously a travel memoir rather than a reader's guide or encyclopedia, but at least the book is good to go now, and I'm looking forward to buying it as soon as it becomes available. (I notice that neither Leaky nor Mugglenet reported on this HP-related news--is this an anti-Steve bias, not wanting to report anything positive about him or maybe not wanting to encourage people to buy his book? I'd expect that from Leaky, but I thought that Mugglenet was at least attempting to be objective.)

I'm trying to polish up my Petshop fic "Decisions," and hope to have it up by tomorrow night.

The Graveyard Book and nemu*nemu

2008-11-19T09:37:42Z

Sorry, but I had to work late, and "Decisions" just isn't going to get done tonight. Hopefully tomorrow, or at most, the next day. I'm almost done, just another page or two left, but I don't want the ending to feel rushed or tacked-on.

So in the meantime, a couple of quick recs:

I mentioned in my Neil Gaiman post that I downloaded the audio version of The Graveyard Book. I just started listening to it, and it's wonderful. Gaiman does a great job of reading it; I swear I am just in love with his voice! The story itself is intriguing and engaging. It starts off a bit gruesomely for a children's book, with a man named Jack murdering a husband, wife, and their daughter, for reasons as yet unknown. (I've only listened to about one hour of the 7+ hour long audiobook.) The last member of the family, a baby boy, managed to crawl out of his crib, out the open door, and over to the nearby graveyard. The ghosts in the graveyard, particularly one protective female ghost, decide to raise and protect the child, with help of Silas, who is the only one able to leave the graveyard to get food and other necessities for the boy. (The ghosts are bound to the land where their bones are buried, which is why the baby's own family cannot raise him themselves.) It is not stated openly, but there are plenty of hints that indicate that Silas is a vampire. Silas and the ghosts form a rather odd, but very loving and protective family for the child that they name "Bod" (short for "Nobody"). And he needs their protection, because Jack makes it clear that he intends to finish what he started and kill the last member of the murdered family, even if it takes years.

But for a story with such a grim start, it has a surprising sense of innocence and humor, since most of the story is told from young Bod's viewpoint. Having known nothing else, the graveyard is not at all a spooky place; it is his home, and it's perfectly normal for him to be raised by ghosts, and wear a winding sheet for his clothing, and to be taught his ABCs by a vampire. He is beginning to chafe a little at the point where I'm at now, wanting to go into the outside world, while Silas kindly but firmly tells him that it isn't safe for him to leave the graveyard yet. However, he has made friends with a little girl named Scarlett who happened to be walking past the graveyard, and she comes to play with him often. She has told her parents about the boy who lives in the graveyard, but they think that he's an imaginary friend, and see it as a harmless phase that she's going through.

Right now Bod is taking Scarlett exploring in the graveyard, and they've entered the barrow of an ancient Celt--a rather ominous place, since Silas has told Bod that one young man who went in there came back out with his hair turned white, and another didn't come out at all. So boys being boys, how can he resist wanting to check the place out for himself? ;)

I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the story. I kind of want to savor it, because I don't want it to end too soon, but on the other hand, I'm eager to see the inevitable confrontation with Jack.

***

And I found a link on mangablog to an interview with the creators of nemu*nemu, an adorably sweet webcomic that I reviewed here. The childish sense of innocence and whimsy is reminiscent of Yotsuba, and the stuffed-animals-come-to-life plot will appeal to Calvin and Hobbes fans. The interview gives a good background of the authors and the story, and it has some nice samples of artwork from the comic.

FIC: Decisions, Part 2

2008-11-18T09:45:49Z

Okay, it looks like I'm not going to finish the story by tonight, though it's almost done. So I'll post this short middle chapter to tide you over and keep up with the daily blog posting.

Title: Decisions, Part 2
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Victor (reincarnation of Vesca)/Young Count
Word count: ~1,145
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Matsuri Akino. No money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
Sequel to: Daiki (last chapter ended here)

Summary: D takes Souki's advice and decides to hire Victor to look into his father's past.

Part 1

***

"Thank you for stopping by, Mr. Holland," D said as he poured a cup of the tea for the young detective. Victor set a small pastry box down on the table, and D opened it, oohing and ahing appreciatively over the strawberry shortcake within.

"The little bat thingie seemed to like it the last time," Victor said, blushing slightly.

"The 'thingie' is not here at present, but I shall save a piece for Q-chan," D laughed as he sliced the cake and put two pieces on plates for himself and the detective.

"So you said you wanted to hire me for a job?" Victor asked, taking a bite of his cake. "Maybe I can make back some of the money I've been spending on sweets for you!" His eyes narrowed with suspicion and a hint of jealousy. "Did you want me to find out if one of your lovers is cheating on you?"

D was pleased by the jealousy, but hid his pleasure behind a serene smile. "I have no lovers, Mr. Holland," he replied, and Victor snorted in disbelief. "I have many suitors," D clarified, "but none of them have won my heart--or my body--as of yet."

Victor blushed again, but looked relieved. He cleared his throat, then asked gruffly, "So what is it that you want me to investigate for you?"

D's smile faded and he said quietly, "I want to find out how my father died."

"Has something happened to your dad?!" Victor exclaimed, looking alarmed and somehow protective.

D was touched by Victor's concern, and it eased some of the anxiety he felt over prying into truths that might be better left uncovered. "No, Father is fine," D reassured him. "I apologize for the confusion. The man I call 'Father' is actually my grandfather. My birth father died when I was an infant..."

So D explained what little he knew about his father, which was only that he had been one of the succession of Count Ds, and that he had died not longer after D himself had been born.

"That was around the time that my older brother left Los Angeles for two years," D continued. "I think it might have had something to do with my father's death, so maybe you should start your investigation there." He hesitated, then added, "It's possible that Detective Orcot may have been involved in some way. But I would prefer that he and my brother not know that you are investigating this matter."

"Are you really sure you want to go down this road?" Victor asked bluntly. "I know that the Count Ds, yourself included, have been involved in some shady business. What if you find out that your father was a criminal and that the police killed him?"

"I...I do not know," D replied, his voice faltering as Victor voiced his worst fear. Surely it was impossible for a mere mortal to kill a kami. But if that was true, then why was he so afraid of what Victor might find, and why had the details of his father's death been kept a secret all this time?

"I do not know what I will do or how I will feel," D finally said. "I only know that living in ignorance is worse than finding out the truth. Whatever it is, it cannot be more terrible than some of the things that my imagination has conjured up."

Victor's expression softened and he said, "Yeah, I can understand that. Our agency has investigated several missing persons cases, and the families always say that not knowing is the worse thing."

D felt an unexpected pang of sympathy for those nameless humans. "Well, I at least know that my father is dead, and I am not tortured with the mingled agony of hope and despair as those poor souls are. But I need to know how my father died, no matter how dark that tale is. And I also want to know how he lived--where did he keep shop? Did he have any friends? What were his likes and dislikes?"

"You haven't given me much to go on," Victor said gently, as if not wanting to get D's hopes up too high. "But I'll do my best. There will be additional expenses if I have to fly to L.A."

"Money is no object," D assured him. "Spend whatever you must."  

Victor grinned. "You really shouldn't offer me a blank check like that, you know."

"You are an honest man, Mr. Holland," D said sweetly. "I know that you would not cheat me."

"Lucky for you," Victor retorted, but he seemed both flattered and a little embarrassed by D's words. "I'll keep my receipts and submit them with my report. Do you have any pictures of your dad? Although I suppose he probably looks just like you and your brother, huh?"

"I have just this one photo," D said, handing it over to the detective. He was loathe to let it go, because it was the only one he had, but he knew that Victor needed it for the investigation. Father had reluctantly given it to him many years ago, when as a young child, he had asked about his birth father and wanted to know what he looked like.

"Look in the mirror and you will see him," Father had replied, but when D had looked disappointed, Father had given him the photo, looking so worried and so sad that D had not dared to mention his father again for a very long time.

Victor solemnly accepted the wallet-sized snapshot, which was faded and creased with age. "He does look like you," the detective observed. "Although his hair is a lot longer."

"Do you like long hair?" D asked, attempting a bit of flirtatious humor, although it probably fell flat. "I could grow mine out."

"Idiot!" Victor snapped, his cheeks turning a very becoming shade of rosy red. "I'm not into girly guys." Then he mumbled, in a nearly inaudible voice, "Besides, you look fine as you are." D gave him a genuine smile, and Victor thrust a sheet of paper and a pen at him. "You'll need to sign a contract before I can begin investigating. Bet it's kind of odd for the shoe to be on the other foot for a change, huh?"

D carefully read over the contract, then signed his name at the bottom. "It is a novel experience," he agreed, then smiled mischievously. "I suppose, in a sense, this means that we are bound together for the duration of the contract."

Victor snatched the contract back from him and stomped out of the shop, pausing on the threshold to growl, "I'll let you know what I find out."

"Thank you, Mr. Holland," D said with a smile as the detective slammed the door behind him.

Part 3

The Price of Magic

2008-11-17T09:15:17Z

Today's post is a link to my meta post on snapedom: Fannish Magic: The Price of Magic. "Fannish Magic" is a category that snapedom mod sylvanawood came up with to use fanfic as an example to discuss "an aspect of magic/ a character/ an item/ the potterverse". My post expands a bit on comments I made in my Hibiki's Magic manga rec, in which I also discussed the concept of magic having a price, and the lack of that concept in HP. (Which I, of course, attempted to correct in my Snupin fanfics. ^_^)

I'm also working on my "Decisions" Petshop of Horrors fic, and hope to have the second half ready by tomorrow.