FAKE Ficlet: Together
Title: Together
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Bikky, Carol, Ryo.
Rating: PG
Setting: Several years after Like Like Love.
Summary: Bikky and Carol are facing the next stage of their lives, side by side, just as they always have.
Word Count: 708
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 321: Amnesty at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 4: Stages.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
Together they’d gone through all the stages of growing up; Bikky could scarcely remember a time when he hadn’t known Carol. They’d started out as playmates back when he was four and she was seven, and she’d never looked down on him for being three years younger than her just as he’d never looked down on her for being a girl. She’d been a tomboy back then anyway, all skinned knees and mad roller-skating skills. She’d taught him to skate, giving him her old pair when she’d grown out of them, and he’d loved her for it, but just as a friend.
Time had passed and their friendship had endured, although they’d drifted a bit when Carol had changed schools. Bikky had never stopped thinking about his friend, even when he didn’t see her for weeks at a time, but then his dad had been killed, and Ryo had taken him in, and suddenly Carol had been back in his life fulltime. It had been so great to find their schools were now on the same campus, and they saw each other all the time. From occasional playmates they’d soon become best friends, and the best thing about that was the way Carol never treated him like a little kid, even though she was a teenager by then and he was still only ten.
Despite his youth, Bikky had noticed the way Carol was blossoming into a beautiful girl; it would have been impossible to miss, and by the time he was thirteen and she sixteen, he’d been head over heels in love with her. She’d told him then that she wasn’t going to date boys until she was eighteen, so he’d impulsively kissed her, wanting to make sure that when the time came he’d be right at the top of her list. If anyone was going to date Carol Baker it was going to be him.
It had worked too; as the days and weeks and months had drifted by they’d grown closer than ever, hanging out together whenever they could, and although neither of them said so, Bikky decided they were dating, however unofficial it might be. That was that, they belonged to each other, and aside from Carol’s single, disastrous date with another boy when they’d had a minor falling out, they never strayed.
First love became true love, and they weathered the difficult times when Bikky was at college in L.A. and Carol was still in New York, finishing her own studies. Then as soon as she graduated she’d headed south to join him and they’d moved in together. Within six months they were engaged, and they travelled back to New York for their wedding shortly after Bikky graduated, before returning to L.A.
Bikky was drafted by the L.A. Clippers and with his mind-blowingly huge signing fee he and Carol had been able to buy a house in a nice suburban neighbourhood right on the beach; that had been ten months ago, and just now Carol had given him the biggest news imaginable, that they were soon to embark on the next stage of their life together.
“I’m pregnant!”
In Bikky’s eyes she’d never looked so radiantly beautiful. He was ecstatic, hugging his wonderful wife and dancing her around the room, both of them laughing with the sheer joy of the moment.
A baby! A new life, the start of their own family! Bikky was over the moon; he was going to be a dad! It was a scary thought but exciting too, and he vowed to be the best dad he could possibly be to this kid, and however many others he and Carol might have in the future. All he really had to do was follow the example Ryo had set over the past twelve years: be strict but fair, love his kids unconditionally, teach them to take responsibility for their actions, and always encourage them to follow their dreams, just the way Ryo had always encouraged him.
Bikky and Carol had come so far together, from little kids playing together, to teenage sweethearts, to man and wife, and still their journey was only just beginning. Being parents was going to be the biggest adventure of all and Bikky could hardly wait.
The End