Who: Leon and Robin What: Meeting over cake and coffee When: Late last week. Where: Robin's shop, Remember Yesterday Warnings/Rating: Pretty low. Some talk of Leon's job/murder Status: Complete
Leon would never admit it aloud, but since he had started dreaming, he kind of missed waking up in the mornings, hours before D would ever be awake, picking up some baking, and then visiting D and having tea sometime in the early afternoon not long after D had woken up. He didn’t miss D, oh God no, but… the routine of it really.
Which is why it seemed like a pretty good idea to go out and buy a small strawberry cake, the kind of light, fluffy, fresh thing that D would wet his pants for, and head over to Remember Yesterday, the shop that Robin had said she owned. Antiques really weren’t his thing, and besides he didn’t really have room in his apartment for any more clutter, but getting to know other people on the Network didn’t seem like a bad idea.
“Hello?” he called, entering the shop. “Robin?”
The shop itself looked relatively small from the front, but was deceivingly deep on the inside. The front windows provided comforting natural light during the day and Robin had set up some mock gas lamps on the walls to light the store once the sun went down. It gave a cozy warm and inviting feel.
All manner of items inhabited the store. Everything from beautiful antique chairs and furniture to lamps, to toys, to paintings and pictures and even a few articles of clothes that had been in fashion around the turn of the 20th century. The older or odder seemingly the better as far as Robin was concerned.
The smell of fresh brewed coffee was in the air and soft unintrusive music was coming from speakers strategically placed and hidden throughout the store.
Robin was stationed at the store’s rear next to the huge bronze plated antique cash register. A cup of coffee steaming at her elbow and a book in front of her. She had glanced up when she heard the jingling of bells over the door signaling someone had entered. She raised her head off her palm when she heard her name being called out.
“Yes?” She called back. “Back here. Can I help you?”
Leon glanced around the shop, taking it all in and trying very hard not to be a bull in a China shop - he rarely was, but being around this many old things always made him worry he was going to trip and go careening head first into a display of priceless such and such. And Leon did love the smell of fresh coffee. It wasn’t the flowery incense of D’s shop, but it still gave the place a feeling of comfort.
When he caught sight of the woman by the til, he grinned and held up the box the cake was in. “Hey, it’s Leon. From the Network? I thought I’d come by with cake.”
Robin had invited Leon to come down to her shop, playfully teasing that he could check to be sure she wasn’t selling any cursed teapots or haunted paintings. She had never expected him to actually show up, and with cake no less! What a pleasant surprise.
She stepped from behind the counter and watched as Leon navigated his way through the store. She had expected an older grizzled looking detective with day old stubble on a square chin, and wearing a rumbled trench coat over a beige suit. She giggled softly to herself seeing Leon was, in fact, a younger man with longer blond hair dressed in street clothes. Perhaps she had seen one too many old cop shows.
“Hello, Leon,” she greeted him, trying to keep the giggle from her voice. Her eyes fell instantly on the box of cake. “Thank you very much for the cake. Would you like to have some with me? I have a fresh pot of coffee on in the back.”
Robin was a lot younger than Leon was expecting an antique shop owner to be. He hadn’t really expected her to be a weathered old crone (he had his great aunt on Facebook, and he knew that old people on the internet didn’t tend to be terribly coherent), but he still had expected her to be maybe in her late thirties or forties. She seemed closer to his age.
He bit back a request for tea instead. Leon did like coffee, and just because D would probably go off about how terrible coffee was for him or how tea was clearly the only kind of warm beverage one should have with strawberry cake didn’t mean that Leon had to go along with that. “Yeah, I’d love to have coffee and cake with you.” Leon… didn’t really like sweets, though it occurred to him how strange it probably was to have a stranger come by with a cake and then refuse to eat any of it himself. If it happened to him, Leon would probably run the thing for poison.
“You can put the cake on the counter if you want,” she said and gestured to the space next to the till. “I’ll get a couple of plates and a mug for you. Feel free to look around if you want. I recently picked up a few new items at auction,” she gave him a playful little smile, “I haven’t had the chance to check to see if they’re cursed. According to the appraiser the old china doll I got has quite the history though.” She chuckled softly as she went into the back.
She really shouldn’t tease Leon like that. It wasn’t nice. He’d been so concerned with his post to the Network. And he had brought her cake. Bringing a gift of food when visiting was a sadly lost tradition these days and Robin was very appreciative of the gesture. If he had hoped to score brownie points with her (heh...brownies…) then he’d succeeded. Robin enjoyed cake and other sweet things. They went so well with coffee. She wished she had taken the time to look in the box to see what kind of cake it was to be sure the coffee would compliment it. What was already in the pot would have to do. She was sure Leon didn’t want to spend his entire day at her store. As a detective he surely had better things to do.
She had put on a dark roast about twenty minutes ago. She took a moment to inspect the pot. It hadn’t been sitting on the burner for very long so it was still fresh. She poured a mug for Leon, a blue one with a yellow daisy on it. Then she gathered up a couple of paper plates and plastic forks she kept on hand and brought them back out front.
“I’m sorry, Leon,” she said as she set everything on the counter. “I shouldn’t tease you like that,” She handed him his mug. “Would you like sugar or milk?”
Leon put the cake on the counter like she asked, and began to look at some of the little knick-knacks and doo-dads she had lying around the shop. Some of them probably wouldn’t be too out of place in D’s shop, and there was a set of skull salt and pepper shakers that Revy’d probably enjoy if he could picture her buying kitchen gear. "Well, if I get some ancient curse put on me I'm definitely going to come after you," Leon teasedback. . Curses and superstitions were things that Leon would absolutely not buy into. Never. He might have finally been convinced that the Dreams were some weird sci-fi parallel universe thing, and he might have accepted that maybe, just maybe there was something to Logan's theory that it had been a group of vampires around a couple months ago murdering everyone, but he was absolutely drawing the line at curses, and he tried very hard to ignore the voice in the back of his head that laughed and said yeah right. “What’s the spooky story behind the China Doll?” Spooky said with a quiver in his voice as if he was trying to mimic a particularly sarcastic ghost.
“Just black for me,” Leon said, taking the mug. The first time he’d had tea at D’s shop, the Count had put so much sugar in it that Leon was sure he’d get a cavity just from drinking it, and he appreciated that Robin had at least thought to ask. “How long’ve you had the shop?”
“I bought it from the late owner’s son last November,” Robin answered. She moved to open the box the cake was in. “He lives in Las Vegas and didn’t want to have to move here in order to keep the shop running. Originally he was just going to close it. A friend of my mother’s loved this place, I couldn’t let it simply close down. So I offered to take it off the son’s hands. I got it for a steal.” She probably shouldn’t make such jokes in front of a detective either, but Robin couldn’t help herself.
Oh! Strawberry cake! And it looked amazing. Almost too good to eat. Almost. “Leon,” she grinned at him, “this looks delicious. Thank you! I could certainly entertain the idea of a trade if you keep bringing me cake like this.” She frowned realizing she hadn’t brought out a knife to cut the cake with. She was just about to go back into the kitchenette when she remembered Leon had asked about the China doll.
“Oh, the doll,” she hurried across the shop and picked up a little clown doll from its stand. Its face had been painted with white around the eyes and mouth and a little red nose. Despite the painted smile, the actual mouth appeared to be frowning. “This doll,” she set it and its stand on the counter, “is about 100 years old. According to what I’ve been told the original owner got it for her birthday. One year later she fell out of a window to her death. Apparently the little girl’s spirit is tied to it and it follows wherever it goes and plays with it. I’ve been told that if its placed in a box over night it will be out of the box on the floor the next morning.”
“Yeah? And business has been good so far?” he asked. He kind of wondered what kind of people frequented antique stores. Probably a lot of very old people.
“Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks,” Leon said, a little pleased that his knack for picking out baking even if he hardly touched the sugary stuff himself had carried over from the dreams. “But I’ll be keeping that in mind in case something I want turns up.”
When she brought out the doll, Leon gave a rather visible shudder. Because the thing was cre-epy. He might not believe in ghosts or whatever, but that didn’t mean the super fucking creepy clown doll didn’t give him the heebie jeebies. Clowns were creepy in general, especially ones with painted smiles over their frowns. “And you just keep that thing out in the open? Where people can see it?” he asked. He wondered how many people had just Noped right out of the shop when they laid eyes on the thing.
“Of course I do,” Robin answered. She placed the doll back on its stand. “Old dolls like this are in high demand. This will probably be sold in the next week.” She fussed a bit with its little clothes. “Business has been very good so far. There are slow periods, like after Christmas and during the winter. It picks up again and is fairly steady from the spring on. Or at least it has been so far this year. The former owner had a few very loyal clients and I’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to keep them.” She moved the doll to the back counter behind the register and then turned her full attention on to the cake. It was a small cake, perfect to share with another person. Using one of the forks she cut it down the center and placed half on a plate and gave it to Leon. The rest she kept for herself on the little cardboard sheet.
She took a bite and her face broke into a broad smile. It was delicious! “Oh, Leon, this is perfect! Thank you so much for bringing it to me.” She took another bite and savored it. Then she took a sip of coffee and was pleased to find the tastes went together just fine.
“Mm,” She placed her cup down. “You’re a detective, right?” She asked. “How long have you been with the force?”
“You’re kidding,” Leon deadpanned. “I can’t imagine going to sleep every night with that thing staring at me. Would probably give me nightmares.” Half of the cake was probably too much for Leon on a normal day, not because he didn’t eat a lot but because eating cake wasn’t one of his favourite things to do, but he was fairly hungry and it occurred to him that he was technically on duty right now and he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get more break time to actually pick up lunch later on. It was the first time in a while he had left the precinct to make a social call, and while everyone in his Dreams seemed to be getting used to Leon’s frequent trips to Count D’s Pet Shop, the guys here weren’t.
“At least you can more or less predict the lulls, huh? Must make it easier to budget for that,” he said, taking his first bite of the cake. He was a little surprised about the fact that it actually wasn’t too bad. Light, fluffy, not too sweet. “It wasn’t any problem. The shop was on the way here, and you mentioned you liked cake so I figured why not.
“I’ve been with the police force since I was eighteen. So about eight and a half years now?” Saying it out loud always kind of came as a shock to him. One one hand, he felt like he had been with the job forever - he’d only had one other job before he joined the force, delivering pizza when he was sixteen for two years - but almost nine years still seemed like a lot. “Got promoted to detective a little over five years ago,” and that was clearly an accomplishment that he was proud of.
Robin smiled at him as she took another bite. She thought about showing him one of the other dolls she kept in the back. It wasn’t a clown doll, like this one, but it’s porcelain face was so realistic that even she thought it looked uncanny and a bit creepy. Whenever she was in the back she could swear its glass eyes were following her. She stifled a small giggle just thinking about it. She’d teased him enough for one visit. If she kept it up, he might not ever come back.
As she ate her piece of cake, she listened very intently when he talked about his career with the police force. Since he’d been eighteen. Imagine! Robin had known she’d wanted to major in history ever since she’d started her more “proper” education, but even then she hadn’t ever been sure what exactly she’d wanted to do with the degree. All throughout college she had waffled between becoming an archaeologist like her mother, or a professor like Dr. Clover or something else entirely. Even now that she had the shop, she still wasn’t sure if it was something she’d be happy doing her entire life. Eventually, she knew, the wanderlust would start again and she’d long for trips to shores unknown once more.
“Congratulations on your promotion,” Robin said as she picked up her mug again. It was a bit late, perhaps, for such words, but Robin hadn’t known Leon five years ago. The way he sort of puffed out his chest when he spoke made it clear that a congratulations were in order.
“What sort of cases do you have?” She asked next after sipping her coffee. “If you’re permitted to tell me, that is.”
People teasing Leon was really never enough to stop him from coming back. Apparently, and he didn’t know why, he had a personality that was easy to tease and most of his friends on the force took advantage of that. Leon took it, and though he’d never actually admit it out loud, he actually kind of enjoyed it. People who were jerks to his face were rarely jerks behind his back.
“Thanks. It’s a little late,” he said with a wink, “but I appreciate it. I mean, the job’s not easy and not exactly safe, but it’s good work. There really isn’t a feeling more satisfying than tracking down some dirtbag and slapping a pair of cuffs on him. There really isn’t much that can measure up to being part of Irvine’s finest.” There were shitty cops on the force, Leon knew. He tried to get along with all his coworkers - you had to be sure someone had your back when you were out there - but sometimes the easiest way to get along with some of them was to avoid them as much as possible.
“I’m in homicide, so mostly, and this is going to be fucking depressing mind, domestic disputes that got taken too far. The good thing about those is that they’re usually pretty easy to solve so it doesn’t take too long to get the guy behind bars. Then probably drug deals gone wrong, though a lot of the time we need to hand that off to organized crime or the drug unit.” Leon would usually try to get the chief to keep him on those cases too, and sometimes he was successful. “You’ll sometimes get something a little unusual though, like someone a little unhinged going around. I’ve been working on those junkie related murders from a few months ago.”
While he wasn’t obvious about it, he was going to take careful note of Robin’s reaction to that. No detective worth their salt actually thought they were drug-related crimes (for one, the vics hadn’t had their money stolen, and most of them had no known ties to drugs), and he and Logan had decided to follow down a path of ‘maybe it’s fucking vampires, because why the hell not, this place is insane.’ And if it was vampires, that meant that it was probably someone on the Network. Robin was new on the Network and wasn’t really someone Leon would suspect at all, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Police work wasn’t glamorous work and Robin knew it was probably nothing like what was on TV or even in the movies. Investigations didn’t take a nice neat little hour to solve. So she actually found what Leon was telling her kind of fascinating, even if he wasn’t going into very much detail. She had her chin in her palm and continued to eat her piece of cake as she listened.
Leon himself really seemed dedicated to his work and that pleased Robin. It was nice to meet someone who truly enjoyed their job and knowing someone like Leon was on the police force had a comforting kind of notion to it. She felt as though she could trust him, even if his “friend” had dreams about running around with an odd count who sold dangerous pets to his clients.
The light interested smile that had been on Robin’s lips faded a little when Leon mentioned the murders he was investigating currently. “What junkie related murders a few months ago?” She asked, standing up a little straighter. She didn’t remember hearing anything about any murders involving junkies. She tried to follow the news as best she could, however sometimes her quest for new items to sell in her store had her traveling around the region. She frowned a little, “don’t tell me we have a serial killer or something on the loose.”
Leon had led with calling them junkie murders because when criminals heard that a cop was on the wrong track with their investigation, unless they were seasoned pros they always let a little bit of satisfaction bleed through. He got the opposite of that impression from her, and it genuinely seemed like she hadn’t heard of them. Besides, Leon’s gut wasn’t giving him any warning with her, and he tended to trust his instincts more than he trusted anything else. That was exactly the reason he had been investigating D for about a year and a half in the dreams despite lacking any actual evidence.
“Back in May we had a spike in homicides,” Leon said. “Multiple murders a night, all over the county. We got it pretty bad in Irvine, but it was the worst in Anaheim. Anyway, after a couple of weeks, the murders mostly stopped. We’ve made no arrests, but the prevailing theory was junkies with a particularly bad batch of drugs.” Prevailing almost entirely among the media, at least. Leon suspected that that particular rumour had gotten out because of the Agency. They seemed more concerned with keeping the public in the dark than with actually protecting people.
Robin’s frown deepend hearing about these murders. She had been traveling quite a bit in May, tracking down and picking up special interest orders from those aforementioned old loyal clients. She must have been traveling when the murders occurred, but it certainly had explained the air of unease, even fear, lingering around the city when she had returned. It had worn off after a day or two, so she hadn’t given it much thought. Now, however, she was deeply concerned. Especially since the killers apparently were still at large.
“Prevailing theory,” she repeated carefully, fixing Leon with a deeply thoughtful look. “Do you really believe it was some drug addicts out of control on a bad batch of their drug of choice?” She asked. “Leon, given what I’ve learned in the last few days - all the strange things that happen here: the spiders, the storm - do you think...do you think it has to do with…” she leaned towards him and lowered her voice to a conspiring whisper, even though they were the only two in the store, “the Network?”
There was a brief moment where Leon caught sight of the exact situation he was in. Investigating murders probably caused by vampires, a theory that all of this was a plot being executed and covered-up by a super secret government agency so secret it was known only as The Agency, and then the conspiring whisper of The Network. It was too much, and he couldn’t help but burst into laughter. This had to be what losing your mind felt like.
“Sorry, sorry,” he said once he managed to get control enough to speak between the laughter, and wiped a tear from his eye. “You catch on quick. Yeah, there’s a chance it was some sort of Network thing. Me and a buddy from work who’s also on the Network are looking into it.”
Robin frowned a little bit. She didn’t appreciate being laughed at, although she was fairly certain Leon wasn’t laughing at her. Still....
“Your buddy. Is he another detective?” She asked. She took another bite of cake and washed it down with some coffee. She thought about making a teasing remark about this buddy being the “friend” he was referring to on the Network earlier, but decided against it. She had told herself she wasn’t going to tease Leon anymore. Besides, this was far more interesting, if concerning.
She set her fork down and picked up her coffee mug with both hands. “What have you found?” She asked.
“He is. Just got promoted not too long ago, actually.” Logan definitely deserved it, and Leon was proud of him. They’d been partners once years ago when they were still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. “Gotta say it’s nice to have a coworker who goes through the dream things too. Woke up drunk not long ago and he helped cover me.”
At her question, Leon grinned and tapped the side of his nose. “‘Fraid I’ve told you all I can,” he said. He might come across as an idiot cop, but he hadn’t been promoted to homicide at twenty-one without a college degree because he let details spill about cases he was working.
“Having someone else around that understands what you’re going through must help,” Robin nodded her head. She had finished most of her half of the cake and was now holding her mug with both of her hands. She had been listening to Leon very attentively. Everything he said she found informative in some way or another. Plus, he was a very genial kind of person, despite what her first impressions of him on the site had been. She gave him a warm smile, “He sounds like a very good friend, Leon.”
She was disappointed that he wasn’t able to give her any more information, but she understood. There was only so much information a detective can divulge when an investigation was on-going. Anyone who watched police shows knew that. She frowned at him in playful disappointment. “That’s too bad,” she said with a little pout. Then added a tad more seriously, “if there’s anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to ask. I don’t mind telling you that it doesn’t sit right with me, knowing a killer is on the loose like that. Dream related or not.”
“It really does. I’m pretty sure I’d think I was losing my damn mind if I didn’t know there were other people in the same boat.” It was a weird kind of catch-22 where he was both grateful for the Network for bringing him in touch with other dreamers, and more than a little suspicious that he wouldn’t have become a dreamer in the first place if it wasn’t for the damn thing. “But yeah, we’ve got each other’s backs.” It was a good feeling to have knowing that you had people you could count on when you needed it, especially in his line of work.
“Thanks,” Leon said, grinning. “Just keep me in mind if you hear anything suspicious from anyone on the Network. It would be a big help.” He finished the last bite of his cake and washed it down with the rest of his coffee. "Thanks for the coffee. Where should I put the dishes?"
“I’ll take care of them, don’t worry,” Robin answered with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I’ll be sure to let you know if I hear anything odd or suspicious,” she added with a nod. After bringing her delicious cake (even though he’d barely touched his) and having a nice chat with her as well as answer her initial questions on the Network itself, she wanted to help him. Even if the ways she could help was limited to simply keep a wary ear out for anything strange. Robin knew how to listen to people, even when they weren’t even aware of it. She set her mug down. “Thank you for coming by,” she told him. “And for bringing cake. It was delicious. If you ever want to come again, you’re more than welcome to. As you can see,” she made a vague gesture towards her shop, “it’s not always jumping in here. Having the company is nice once in a while.” She set her chin in her palm and gave him a playful smirk, “I can tell you more stories about creepy dolls.”
Leon didn’t do a very good job at suppressing his shiver as he set his dishes down on the counter. “I uh… think I’ll pass on the doll stories, thanks.” Maybe they couldn’t all be as creepy as Frowny the Clown, but doll’s (and mass amounts of teddy bears all grouped together) kind of gave him the heebie-jeebies.
He stopped by a jewelery display on his way out, and gave them a casual look through until he found one with a crucifix on it. “This’d look good on you,” Leon said. “You should wear it.” He wasn’t sure if she’d take his advice, given that he hadn’t exactly phrased it as advice, but as he left the shop, he hoped that she would.