Title: Different Perspectives
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee
Rating: PG
Setting: After the manga, but references Vol. 4, Act 11.
Summary: Ryo thinks back to the day Bikky’s school was blown up.
Word Count: 714
Content Notes: None necessary.
Written For: Challenge 144: Memory.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.




Ryo remembered the day all too well; it was engraved so deeply into his memory that he doubted he’d ever be able to forget. Dee had gone to Bikky’s school alone to investigate John Hale, the mysterious substitute teacher who had sent a gunpowder-scented bouquet to Ryo the previous day. Then a bomb threat had been phoned in to the Bronx station. It was the same anonymous caller who’d warned Ryo about the bombing of the 27th precinct just days earlier, this time telling them the school had been wired with explosives.

Arriving with a bunch of uniformed and plainclothes officers, they’d been getting ready to search the place for bombs but before starting in, Ryo had radioed his partner to find out where he’d got to. His heart had almost stopped dead when Dee told him he was already inside the main school building, along with fifteen bombs set to explode in three minutes. Worse, he’d been shot in the leg so he couldn’t even try to escape.

The terror and despair Ryo had felt when Dee had ordered him to stay outside the perimeter fence and keep everyone else away was as real to him now as it had been on that day. Logically he’d known it was the only thing to do, there wasn’t enough time to even get inside the building, never mind find and defuse all those bombs before they blew. Besides, the bomb squad had only just arrived and they’d needed time to assess the situation before choosing the best course of action. Entering the school at that point would have been suicide; Ryo had understood that but it hadn’t made him feel any better about Dee being in there, injured and all alone.

He’d desperately wanted to run in there anyway, to at least try to rescue Dee, but he couldn’t. Dee had said to stay put, that he could handle the nearest bomb, that he’d be fine. All Ryo could do was hope and pray that his partner was right. The cold dread that had filled him as the school went up in a series of massive explosions had been the same feeling he’d got when he found his Aunt Elena on the doorstep all those years ago, just before she’d told him his parents had been killed. Had he Just lost his partner too?

“Hey, earth to Ryo, you okay babe?”

“What?”

“You were miles away, what’s got you lookin’ so down, did I do something wrong? ‘Cause I thought we’d been havin’ a pretty great time here.”

Lying beside Dee in the afterglow, Ryo softly traced the scar in Dee’s left thigh. “No, everything’s fine, I was just remembering how you got this scar. Do you realise it’s been almost a year? I could have lost you that day.”

“Could have, but didn’t. It’d take more than a bullet and a little bomb to get rid of me, I’m not so easy to kill. Ask Mother; I’ve got more lives than a cat!”

“Don’t joke about it, Dee. I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

“Sorry.” Dee pulled him close, kissing the top of his head. “You wanna know what I remember most about that day?”

Ryo, head resting on Dee’s chest, nodded, his hair tickling Dee’s chin.

“You. The way you threw yourself at me afterwards, kissin’ and huggin’ me as if you never wanted to let me go. All the pain was worth it to get a peek at how you really felt about me. Despite everything, that was one of the best days of my life because it gave me hope that one day I might be able to break through all the walls you were hidin’ behind.”

“I love you, Dee, more than anything. I think deep down I knew it even then, I was just too scared to admit it.”

“I know, baby. I love you too, and I always will.”

“Good, because I don’t know what I’d do without you, and I never want to have to find out.”

Memories are strange sometimes. The same day, two different perspectives: one recalls only the fear and horror of the situation while the other remembers a desperate, passion-filled kiss and the sense of hope it ignited.

Both are right.

The End