Title: Lightless
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Bikky.
Rating: PG
Setting: During the manga.
Summary: A blown light bulb gives Ryo far more trouble than it should.
Word Count: 909
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 259: Light. Also for the ‘Step’ square on my bingo card.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.



Arriving home late and tired after an even longer than usual day at work, Ryo let himself into his apartment, flicked on the light, and cursed. Nothing; the bulb was dead

“Dammit! That’s all I need.” Shrugging out of his coat, he hung it on the hook and leaving the door open so he could see where he was going by the light filtering in from the hallway, he made his way to the kitchen to fetch the flashlight he kept in a drawer for emergencies like this. He hadn’t used it in months, so it didn’t surprise him that when he turned it on it failed to light up. That was just the way his day had been going; why should his luck improve now?

A bit more rummaging netted him a new pack of batteries; at least he always remembered to buy more before he ran out. Taking everything back to the front door, he switched out the dead batteries for fresh ones and tried the flashlight again, relieved that this time it worked.

Now all he had to do was get a new light bulb from where he kept them in one of the kitchen cabinets, fetch the stepladder from the closet because the ceilings here were too high for him to reach the light fitting by standing on a chair, and he’d be in business.

Shutting and locking the front door, he fetched the bulb and put it safely on the sofa so it wouldn’t get broken, then opened the closet to find so much stuff crammed in there it took him a good ten minutes to shift enough that he could get at the stepladder. Hauling it out over the top of several boxes, he carried it to the middle of the living room floor, having to shift the coffee table out of the way, set the ladder up, climbed the steps, and found he was in the wrong place. Figured.

Down again, move the stepladder, climb up… and he still couldn’t reach.

“I should’ve just stayed in bed this morning,” he muttered as he returned to the floor, shone the flashlight upwards to check where the light fitting was, and moved the stepladder again before stomping his way back up, his shoes clanking against the metal steps… Third time lucky! Buoyed up by his success, he gripped the flashlight in his teeth to free up one hand and unscrewed the dead bulb; then he remembered the new one was still on the sofa. With an exasperated sigh, he climbed back down to get it, leaving the dead bulb on the sofa in its place and clanking his way back up the steps yet again.

“Ryo? Is everything okay?” Bikky’s voice drifted up to Ryo from where the boy stood in the doorway to his bedroom.

“Mph,” Ryo replied unintelligibly around the flashlight. He took it out of his mouth. “Everything’s fine, Biks, sorry if I woke you. It’s not easy changing a bulb in the dark.”

“Um, why didn’t you turn on the kitchen light or the table lamp?”

At the top of the stepladder, Ryo paused, flashlight in one hand and light bulb in the other. “Uh…” That was a good question; why hadn’t he? It was the obvious thing to do, but instead here he was messing about with a flashlight.

Snickering, Bikky padded barefoot across the living room and turned on the lamp, illuminating the room brightly enough that Ryo no longer needed the flashlight. He switched it off and stuck it in his pocket, screwed the new bulb in, and made his way back down the steps.

“In my defence, it’s been a really long day, I’m tired, and I’m not thinking straight.” Ryo crossed to the light switch and flicked it on before folding the stepladder and lugging it over to the closet, shoving it to the back.

Bikky helped him pile everything haphazardly in behind it and with a sigh of relief, Ryo closed the door. The closet was badly in need of a good clearout, but he wasn’t doing that tonight.

“You’ve got school in the morning; you should get back to bed,” Ryo told his foster son. “That’s where I’m headed as soon as I finish clearing up.” He moved the coffee table back to its place, turned out the lamp, and took the dead bulb to the kitchen, tossing it in the trash and returning the flashlight to the drawer. Back in the living room, he took off his shoes and left them by the front door, turned out the light, and made his way through the darkness to his bedroom.

“Y’know,” said Bikky helpfully, “you could’ve just left changing the bulb until morning. It’s not like we need the light tonight.”

Ryo groaned; Bikky was right, he’d just spent half an hour changing a light bulb he could have easily managed without until tomorrow. “Please don’t tell Dee about this,” Ryo pleaded. “He already thinks I’m a complete airhead; I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Taking pity on his demoralised foster father, Bikky nodded. “I promise. ‘Night Ryo.”

“Goodnight, Bikky.” Ryo traipsed into his bedroom and shut the door; all he wanted was to fall into bed and sleep.

Bikky went back into his room and climbed under the covers; he wouldn’t tell Dee, but Carol was really going to laugh about this when he told her about it at school tomorrow.


The End