Title: For the Best
Fandom: Petshop of Horrors

Characters: Tetsu/Chris Orcot

Prompt: 89, If

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Tetsu thinks of how it could have been.

If Leon had got his stupid head out of his stupid ass and no one left and D and Leon had just given in to what they were both feeling…maybe D wouldn't have pushed him away.

If D had mastered his fear, seen that love, while terrifying, was…freeing, too, he might have hesitated—in Chicago, in Berlin, in Paris, in Venice, any of those places where Leon had got so close—and Leon would hold him, bind him, keep him close.

Or maybe, Tetsu decided to become his own master. Maybe he found Leon himself, and led him to the petshop, or maybe he just left Leon and D to their own damn self-destructive devices and left the petshop altogether.

Maybe he'd watch Chris grow, and protect him and guide him, and Chris would think of him as another older brother.

Maybe he'd be too late, and Chris would see him only as a pet—strange, special, maybe slightly frightening, yes…but just a pet.

Maybe Chris would have forgot him altogether, in the end, and when pressed recall that Tet-chan was the name of an imaginary friend he'd had as a small boy.

If things had been different would he have forced himself on Chris when the boy was a teen, giving off so many pheromones Tetsu couldn't help himself? Or would Chris have found himself a girlfriend or boyfriend? And would Tetsu have been content to watch on the sidelines or would he have claimed Chris in jealousy and anger? Would Chris have been long mated and have cubs of his own before Tetsu found him again.

If Tetsu had been gone when Chris came back, and D had smiled that poisonous sweet smile and reeled him in…

"Yours," Chris murmured.

Tetsu lifted his head to give him a questioning gaze.

Chris sighed happily and ran a hand through Tetsu's hair. "Always," Chris said softly. "In all of those little worlds you make in your mind," Chris said, tapping his fingers over Tetsu's temple. He leaned in to briefly press his lips to Tetsu's. "I'm always yours."

Chris wrapped slender arms around Tetsu's neck from behind. And then, gentle touches of Chris' mind to his own, a whisper like a caress. If you took me when I was a teen, certainly it would have been because I had provoked you. Kisses down Tetsu's cheek and a sharp nip at his earlobe. If I had a boyfriend or a girlfriend, it would have been to drive you crazy. A smile pressed into Tetsu's throat, hot breath making Tetsu squirm. If I ever mated with another…he paused, fingers skating down Tetsu's chest, separating the halves of the vest…he chuckled…who am I kidding? I never could mate with another.

And if, Chris went on slowly, nimbly slipping out from behind Tetsu, hooking a leg over Tetsu's hips and swinging himself around to straddle Tetsu, D had ever smiled at me like that, I think I might have had to run and hide. I'm not as brave as my brother. D's are a little too creepy for me.

"Are you saying D is scarier than me?" Tetsu asked with a growl.

"Oh definitely," Chris said, and smirked. Tetsu grabbed his hips and jerked their groins together. Chris squeaked, a delighted sound. You're so fuzzy and cuddly and—"Oh!" Tetsu reversed their positions, thrusting his hips hard, too much clothing in the way Chris kept giggling.

Chris' face softened, looking up at his lover, ran his hand down Tetsu's cheek. "Always yours, Tetsu."