Title: Friction – Standalone sequel to ‘Countdown’
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo, mentions Chief Smith and John Hale in passing.
Rating: PG-13 for some swearing
Setting: Vol. 4, fairly early in Act 11
Summary: Dee and Ryo have been temporarily demoted thanks to the bomb incident, and it’s causing friction between them.
Warnings: None needed.
Word Count: 353
Written For: Challenge #83: Fight.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: The dialogue and some of Dee’s thoughts are borrowed from the manga.



Dee was not in a good mood. He and Ryo were back in uniform, on traffic duty of all things, all because the station house had blown up maybe three minutes before it would have done anyway.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Ryo was blaming him for everything, like he’d done it on purpose or something! For a normally mild-mannered guy, he could be unbelievably catty when he was pissed off.

So now, somehow, they were having their biggest fight to date. It SO wasn’t fair.

“I haven’t had one good thing happen to me since we started working together,” Ryo snapped, glaring balefully at his partner.

Despite the sunshine, Dee felt the temperature drop another few degrees. Much more of this and he was sure he’d get frostbite. He’d never imagined Ryo could be so cold. If anything, it just made Dee’s anger burn that much hotter.

“Are you seriously going to pin everything bad that’s happened to you on me?!” he snarled back. Un fucking believable! Ryo had some nerve!

“Hmm, how about, yes. Because I didn’t do anything wrong.”

‘Goody two shoes. Chief’s pet. Ice queen. Why the hell am I so attracted to the guy?’ Because he was. Even now, when he wanted to shake Ryo hard enough to make his teeth rattle, he wanted more than anything to kiss him, and just keep kissing him until neither of them could even stand. Damn him!

But the chief showed up and de-railed that train of thought. Probably just as well, pouncing on Ryo in the street in broad daylight wouldn’t improve the situation any. Besides, Ryo was busy laying it on thick to that smarmy substitute teacher about how his demotion was all Dee’s fault. Dee scowled at the back of Ryo’s head.

‘Okay, you’re really starting to piss me off now.’

But the worst part? Dee knew damn well he couldn’t stay mad at Ryo for long, no matter how much he wanted to. He had a sneaking suspicion he was already more than half in love with his partner; he just wished Ryo felt the same.

The End