Leon and D chatted over tea and coffee as the detective pulled himself together to go into work. The scene was so ultra-domesticated that it lent an air of the surreal. D sat primly on the couch teacup held delicately in hand. He wore a smooth dark purple cheongsam worked with deep mahogany embroidery on the sleeves and hem in a swirling pattern. Not a hair was out of place and he had a serene expression on his face as he sipped at his tea. Leon was sitting at the edge of his recliner pulling on his worn sneakers rattling off his agenda for the day; where he had to go, what he had to do and grousing about his workload in general. D listened patiently occasionally offering a piece of advice or another way of looking at an issue. If it were not for the locale it could have been any number of the conversations held in the parlor of D's petshop over late afternoon tea. The shabby bachelor pad furniture was a marked incongruity as well as the lingering kiss Leon bestowed on D before leaving.

The silence of the apartment bore into D. He lingered over the tea as long as he could. He savored each morsel of the cookies Leon had run out and purchased for him while he lay sleeping dragging out breakfast as much as possible. The utter stillness scratched at his nerves after years of the constant motion and noise his pets made. D loved solitude and did not mind being alone within his own shop because he was seldom without something to do. Each morning greeted him with a reassuring pattern of chores to do, there were water and feed bowls to change, living quarters to be cleaned, pets to be groomed and customers to service. Left to his own devices in Leon's home he was at a loss as to what to do. He wanted to go home and care for his pets and probably would have done so irregardless of anyone else's wishes except he was bared from leaving the apartment by one of his great grandmother's wards.

D's morning had, for him at least, been what dreams are made of. In a long existence punctuated with sorrow and regret D had never really felt loved except from his grandfather and great grandmother and while there love was a boon to him it could not replace the longing to be one half of a relationship. His father had pronounced a dreadful sentence on him when he had promised him to Wu Long. D had felt the very real responsibility of protecting those who would befriend him never able to become close in case Wu Long chanced to come for him. Leon had smashed through every barrier D thought he had in place and then some. He woke up to aroma of freshly brewed tea and Chinese Rolls wafting through the room. A smiling Leon had greeted him with a breakfast tray loaded with those items and chocolate macadamia nut cookies, raspberry cordials and tiny sweet sesame seed balls. D had been flustered about Leon seeing him without his 'face' on and had tried to shoo him out but Leon had merely laughed and kissed the end of his nose. His only response being that he looked damn beautiful, good enough to eat as a matter of fact and he could either eat his breakfast like a good little kami or be breakfast. A tangible warmth had spread through him at the open affection and good will Leon graced him with causing a part of the icy pain inside to dissolve.

Breakfast over and the detective gone D stared at the door listlessly. He felt a pang of irritation at his great grandmother for trapping him in the apartment. She was the only one of the family that had the strength to place wards too strong for a kami to break. He couldn't conceive of why she had felt the need to do so in the first place, doubtless she had her reasons, and it seemed he would have to wait to find out what those were. D let his gaze travel over the living room and settled on the television. He wrinkled his nose in distaste at the idea of watching it but then a notion stroke him as he stared at the gray screen. Dust. A thick coating of it covered the glassy surface as well as its casing. He took a more thorough inventory of the room. His brow smoothed out and he nodded to himself happily. He would clean, Leon couldn't complain if he straightened up a bit. Mind made up and feeling relieved to have a purpose D rose and carried the remnants of breakfast to the kitchen making lists in his mind of what to do first.

Across town his father was not having near so good a morning. He woke up with a screaming headache to find himself tied down to some strange woman's bed and one of his grandmother's strongest protection spells apparently intent upon keeping him there. He could sense his father's signature too and cursed both of them out loud. He was cursing and yanking viciously at his bonds when the woman came in. He seethed at her in hatred.

"Untie me now!" He demanded the instant she walked in.

"I would like to but I can't." She folded her arms under her breasts and peered down at him from her glasses. He yanked even harder at the rope causing the bed to shake a bloom of rage spreading across his cheekbones. Chinese curses poured from his lips fluidly.

"I shall kill you once free. How dare you to touch me." He shot at her pure venom dripping from his voice. The woman squared her shoulders and glared at him.

"Now you look here. I will not be threatened by the likes of you. I said I couldn't untie you and I can't. I tried to untie you earlier to check your wounds and found I couldn't undo the knots no matter how hard I tried. As for daring to touch you, you can just bite me, you got that? Just who the hell do you think you are anyways? I don't owe you a damn thing. How dare you try to hurt Count D and just what were you up to on that window ledge, huh? I can't imagine it was anything pleasant. I was going to ask if you needed anything but as I can see you are a universe unto yourself I'll just be going now." The door had fairly bounced off its hinges as she slammed it behind her. He could hear all kinds of things being slammed about the house and then was overwhelmed by loud music that started pouring from another room in the apartment. He laid back against the pillows somewhat stunned by her outburst. And oh how the music was making his head ache even more. He groaned in frustration. It would do him no good to try and coerce the woman into setting him free her words telling him that the hex was two sided, the woman did not have the ability even if she wanted to.

A flurry of motion caught his eye had he looked over into a large cage teeming with four good size rats. He let his mind relax and sent a probe over to them promising to free them if they would come and gnaw the ropes apart for him. Four separate images came back to him of love for the human and that regrettably they would not fulfill his request. He turned his head to get a better view of them and their home. Their coats were sleek and full, eyes were bright, whiskers flickered through the air, he could smell the fresh bedding and food. There were several water bottles dispersed through out the cages and it was cages not just one large one as he'd originally thought. The water was clear and the bottles full. There were various treats and toys available for the animals; all in all, these were extremely well taken care of rats. The smaller of the two females squirmed her tale outside of the cage and popped her own lock showing him they could free themselves. She sent back an image of movement and the woman. He realized she was asking if he would like to see what the woman was doing. A wave of adoration came through the link then and it occurred to him that the rats wanted to show off how wonderful their human was and then he wouldn't be mad at her. He smiled at their loyalty. Anything was better then nothing he reasoned and sent back his approval. She was off in a flash wiggling her way under the bedroom door.

The kami closed his eyes and used one of the talents he possessed letting himself see through the rat's vision. The woman was practicing what looked like tae bo in the living room. The loud music was coming from the stereo on the far wall and she was moving in time to it. With each exhale he could see she was muttering but couldn't make out what she was saying but she was apparently still quite angry. Inside his own mind he inelegantly snorted his own contempt of her species. Who cares what one of them thought anyways? She was just proving what he held to be true of humans by her behavior he thought to himself. He followed her through out the day with the aid of the female rat and as the day waned Jill's actions planted the seed of self doubt in the kami's mind.

He watched as she carefully tended to all of her plants and animals. She talked to each and every one as she went. Well, he couldn't help but admire her for taking such good care of the living beings in her home. It had shaken him up when she entered the bedroom to check on the rats with the weirdness of seeing himself through the rat's eyes. The woman had clucked to herself in dismay at the empty cage and had gotten down on her hands and knees searching for the errant rat. Spying her under the stand the cages were on the woman had coaxed the rat out of the corner with yogurt drops she had fetched from the kitchen. Replacing the rat and locking the door the rat now gave him a perfect view of her bending over him. She must have believed he was asleep. He could see the concerned expression on her face. She whispered to the rats to watch over him for her until she could figure out what to do. A gentle hand had brushed the hair back from his brow and she smiled at him.

"He looks like an angel doesn't he?" She asked no one in particular.

"I really am sorry I hurt you. I know you don't understand but the people you are hurting are like family to me. I wish there was some way to make you see that what you're doing is wrong." She voiced her thoughts out loud not realizing she had an audience. The minute the door closed the female rat was working the lock open and back under the door. A silent tear trickled down from his lashes. She wasn't suppose to care about him. No one cared about him and he was her enemy. Idiotic woman he told himself but it lacked conviction. The female rat found a perch and Jill sent another crack into his soul when he saw what she was doing. She sat at her computer keying in endless requests for information on kami's, mostly she chatted back and forth with one source. All of her questions revolved around two issues. How to help the Count she knew (too be expected) and how to care for the wounded kami. She diligently plugged away for two or three hours digging up old arcane sources of information on how to care for a wound, what to feed him, what could she do to make him more comfortable and what she shouldn't do. Her true concern ate away at him. He watched when she stopped wore out and scrubbed at her eyes. He saw when she got up and nearly stepped on a spider. She didn't scream and swat it like he imagined. No, that would have been the expected. She took a cup and piece of paper and trapped it then took it outside. She sang along with the radio (turned down now) and he could hear the real loneliness in her voice. The tired rat returned home and climbed in its cage pulling the door shut as it went. His last image of the woman was of her sitting on the floor working on a pad of paper all her ideas of how to help free his son of the arrangement he had made for him. He fell truly asleep then exhausted from the mental energy it had required too keep the link up all day. Fine cracks spilled through his defenses while he slept and in his dreams a curly haired woman held his head in her lap and sang to him.