Title: Late Night Talk
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo.
Rating: PG
Setting: After Like Like Love.
Summary: Late at night, the shadows of the past come creeping.
Word Count: 400
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 381: Amnesty 63, using Challenge 330: Shadow.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.



Dee awoke, sometime in the early hours, to find the bed beside him empty. The door to the ensuite bathroom was open, the light off, and the apartment was silent.

He looked around in the darkness, picking out the familiar shadowy shapes of the bedroom furniture, but could see nothing resembling his missing lover, so he slipped out of bed, shrugging into his robe, and made his way to the bedroom door. It was ajar, although Dee knew it had been shut when he and Ryo had gone to bed earlier.

Out in the living room, everything was still, but there was a Ryo-shaped shadow over by the window, and Dee started in that direction, only to collide painfully with the coffee table, swearing under his breath.

“Frickin’ stupid place to put furniture!” he muttered.

“You’re the one who put it there.” Ryo’s voice was barely more than a murmur.

“I know. You okay?”

“Yeah, just couldn’t sleep and I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“So ya came out here to… what? Stare out the window at the night?” Dee picked his way more carefully around the furniture until he reached the window.

“Something like that. I was thinking.”

“About?”

“Life, I guess. I got through the whole of yesterday without remembering it was my mom’s birthday. I completely forgot, for the first time ever. It started me thinking, wondering how different my life might’ve been if my parents hadn’t been killed. Would I still have become a cop? Would we have met? What might have happened to Bikky?”

“Would you want your life to be different than it’s been?”

“No, I have a good life and I’m happy, but I had to lose so much to get what I have now, and I feel a little guilty for being happy.”

“Everything has a price, even happiness. Sometimes I think people who’ve never known real sadness can’t really appreciate bein’ happy. They take it for granted. You, me, Bikky, even Carol, we’ve known some pretty rough times, but we’ve made it through. We’ve walked through the shadows of the valley of death and come out the other side, stronger than we were. You’ve got nothin’ to feel guilty about. Spend too much time thinkin’ about the past, you’ll forget to live. Come here.” Dee wrapped his arms around his lover, pulling him close, chasing away the shadows of the past.


The End