FAKE Fic: Foreboding
Title: Foreboding
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee, Bikky.
Rating: PG-13
Setting: After the manga.
Summary: Ryo has a weird dream that puts him on edge, but could it have been sending him an important message?
Word Count: 2104
Written For: Challenge 211: Premonition at beattheblackdog.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
Jolting upright, clutching at the covers and gasping for breath, Ryo woke abruptly from a deeply disturbing dream, but when he tried to focus on it, to remember the details and thereby break the hold it had over him, they slipped from his grasp, as insubstantial as mist, leaving him with nothing but a vague sense of unease.
Running his fingers through his sweat-dampened hair he drew a deep breath, letting it out slowly, trying to calm the erratic pounding of his heart; there was no way he’d get back to sleep now, not after that, but a glance at his alarm clock told him it was almost time to get up anyway. Pushing the nebulous remnants of the nightmare to the back of his mind, he threw the covers back and slipped out of bed, stretching in an effort to ease muscles knotted with tension. It didn’t do much good, but maybe a hot shower would help him relax a bit.
By the time he was showered, shaved, dressed, and fixing breakfast for himself and his foster son, he’d about managed to dismiss the dream as nothing more than the result of too much stress and not enough sleep. Eating cold pizza before bed probably hadn’t helped either, but he’d been hungry, and it had been convenient. He shrugged it off; everyone had nightmares now and then, and with his job they were practically guaranteed. Speaking of work, he needed to get a move on, or he’d be late despite getting up before his alarm.
“Bikky! Breakfast!”
“Coming, Ryo!” The boy entered the kitchen like a lanky whirlwind, practically skidding into his seat at the table. He was growing up so fast. “I’m starving!”
Ryo laughed as he set a stack of pancakes in front of his son. “You always are. I don’t know where you put it all.”
Bikky didn’t reply, just started shovelling food into his mouth as fast as he could. Sitting down across from the boy, Ryo ate his own breakfast at a more leisurely pace, wondering if his parents had ever despaired of his table manners when he was Bikky’s age.
Twenty minutes later, Bikky was off to school, and the breakfast dishes were cleared away. Ryo laced up his shoes, grabbed his coat, checked his pockets for wallet, phone, and keys, and then it was out the door for another day of solving crime. Being a cop was hard but rewarding work; he honestly couldn’t imagine himself in any other career, and working alongside the man he loved was just the icing on the cake. He smiled at the thought of seeing Dee; one more reason for him to enjoy going to work.
The morning passed in the usual way; catching up on paperwork, following leads, and talking to a few people they thought might have useful information. Ryo and his partner had three cases they were currently working, not the biggest workload they’d ever had but more than enough to keep them busy, so he didn’t give his dream another thought, focused entirely on the crimes waiting to be solved.
Then, shortly after lunch, an anonymous tip came through on the 27th Precinct’s phone lines, giving up the location where a suspect in one of their cases had supposedly gone to ground. It probably wouldn’t lead anywhere, such tip-offs seldom did, but they’d hit a dead end with the case in question and any potential lead, no matter how slim, would have to be checked out, just in case it was genuine.
“The caller didn’t give their name?” Ryo asked as he pulled his jacket on and slipped his automatic into his shoulder holster.
Most tips were anonymous, people preferred not to give their names, wanting to avoid getting too involved, but still, this one nagged at Ryo for some reason. He tried to shake off the uneasy feeling that had started the moment Dee had told him where they were going and why, but for some reason he couldn’t put his finger on, it wouldn’t go away.
Shrugging into his own jacket as they headed down the stairs and out to the parking lot, Dee glanced his way. “Nope. Why?”
Ryo shook his head. “No reason. Just wondered if it was one of our regular informants. Haven’t heard from any of them in a while.”
“Not from what Janet said when she gave me the message. Want to go back and ask? She might’ve just forgotten to mention it, the desk’s pretty busy today.”
“No, it’s fine. Might as well just get going.” Ryo slid into the passenger seat.
Silence fell in the car as Dee drove them towards the location they’d been given, a row of rundown tenements in one of the city’s worst neighbourhoods. Normally the two detectives would have been chatting, maybe discussing one of their cases or making plans for their next date night, but today Ryo was oddly subdued, something his partner couldn’t fail to notice.
“You okay, babe?” Dee asked when the silence between them became too heavy.
“What?” Ryo startled out of his reverie. “Oh, yes, I’m fine, just tired. Didn’t sleep too well last night.”
“Maybe I should come back to your place tonight, wear ya out. Bet you’d sleep them,” Dee teased with a grin.
“Mm,” Ryo murmured distractedly, staring sightlessly through the windscreen, a slight frown creasing his forehead. Dee wasn’t sure his lover had even heard him; looked like his head was in another zip code.
Shaking his head, Dee gave a wry smile; it had been worth a try, and maybe he’d repeat the suggestion later, when their shift was over. He was used to his partner being distracted, but something was obviously bothering him and knowing Ryo, he wouldn’t talk about it until he was ready. Dee would just have to be patient.
They left the car a couple of blocks from their destination, not wanting to spook the suspect if he really was where the anonymous informant had claimed. They walked the rest of the way, doing their best to look casual, just two guys taking a stroll, not in any hurry, but Dee could feel the tension rolling off Ryo in waves. Normally in these situations Ryo was the calm one, alert yet relaxed, but this time he was uncharacteristically on edge, and that was making Dee himself feel a bit rattled. He hoped whatever was on his partner’s mind wouldn’t cloud his judgement. They worked well together because they knew they could always count on each other, whatever the situation, but if Ryo was distracted…
“Welp, that’s the one.” Dee nodded to a building across the street and to their right. “The caller said second floor; I don’t see anyone at the window so if he’s there he’s not keepin’ a lookout.”
“They’re all empty,” Ryo murmured, his voice sounding odd, faraway. “Nobody lives in them anymore, everyone’s been evicted.”
“How d’you know that?” Dee frowned at his partner.
“I…” Ryo shook his head, confused. “I don’t know, must’ve seen something about it on the news, or in the paper.”
He was trailing slightly his lover as Dee started across the deserted street, when a tabby cat darted out of the narrow alley between two buildings, hissing and spitting at something. Ryo jerked to a halt, feeling a sudden, inexplicable surge of déjà vu; he’d known that was going to happen, like he’d somehow lived this before, which was impossible.
Across the street Dee was approaching the building, angling towards the stoop, and a sudden chill of nameless dread swept through Ryo, almost taking his breath away. Without a moment’s hesitation he broke into a sprint, running flat out, calling his partner’s name.
“Dee! Wait!”
Dee paused, glancing back over his shoulder. “Jeez, get your goddamn head in the game, would ya? You’re supposed to be right behind me!”
But Ryo wasn’t trying to catch up; something bad was about to happen, he knew it with absolute certainty, just like he’d known it in his dream, only then he hadn’t reacted fast enough. Reaching Dee, instead of slowing down, he grabbed his partner around the waist and practically threw them both down the steps leading below the stoop.
“What the…”
That was all Dee got out before a massive explosion rocked the building they’d been about to enter, and the front door burst outwards, crashing into the street, propelled by a fireball that blackened the stoop in less time than it took to blink.
Huddled in the small, litter-strewn paved area at the bottom of the steps, Dee and Ryo felt the scorching heat pass overhead and covered their faces with their sleeves to avoid breathing the choking smoke now pouring through the doorway and the shattered windows to fill the street.
Ryo tugged at Dee’s sleeve, urging him back up the steps and away from the inferno, and they fled as fast as they could manage, clinging to each other, half-blinded by smoke, tripping on half-seen debris, and stumbling every time another explosion rocked the street beneath their feet. Around the corner, into the next street, they paused, leaning against the wall to catch their breath, coughing harshly, and beating smouldering embers from their hair and clothes.
Dee glanced back the way they’d come, not that he could have seen anything from where they were even without the billowing smoke. “Shit! If I’d been on that stoop, I’d be toast; you just saved my life! How’d ya know the place was gonna blow?”
“Just like my dream,” Ryo murmured, too low for Dee to hear, what with their ears still ringing from the initial explosion.
“What was that, babe?”
Ryo rubbed his face with one hand, leaving a dirty smear across one cheek. “Gas leak.”
“You smelled it? Nice goin’; I didn’t smell a thing! You must have some bloodhound DNA in ya somewhere.”
“No.” Ryo shook his head, dazed. “Something’s been nagging at me all day, only I didn’t know what it was, I couldn’t remember, but when I saw the cat…”
“Cat? What cat? You sure you didn’t get hit on the head or somethin’? You’re not makin’ sense.”
“It was…” Ryo trailed off, looking up at Dee. “Last night, my dream... I think I had sort of a premonition. It was weird, like I knew exactly what was going to happen.”
“Yeah? Well, ya might wanna leave that part outta your report.” Dee pulled out his phone and quickly put in a call to the fire department, identifying himself and giving the location, although with all the smoke and flames, the blaze could probably be seen from miles away. “C’mon, we should get back to the car in case we haveta move it. Fire’s spreadin’ fast.”
“You don’t believe me, do you,” Ryo said tonelessly as Dee tugged him along the sidewalk. “It’s okay, why should you? I didn’t believe you that time you said you saw a ghost.”
Dee paused, turning to his lover and tilting Ryo’s chin up so he could look him in the eye. “Yeah, I believe you, ‘course I do, but I’m not so sure anyone else would. They don’t know ya the way I do. You’re the most down to earth person I’ve ever met, and if you say you had a premonition then I know it’s gotta be the truth, ‘cause you’re not the kinda guy to make stuff up.”
“In my dream…” Ryo shuddered, closing his eyes. “In my dream I was too slow, I didn’t reach you in time and you… you died. The fireball hit you and you were just… gone. There was nothing I could do.”
Wrapping his arms around his baby, Dee pulled Ryo close. “I’m right here, babe, and I’m fine, thanks to you. A little singed around the edges maybe, but so are you. We should probably stick around and get checked out when the paramedics arrive. Which should be any minute,” he added as he began to detect the sound of approaching sirens over the roar of the fire, and the ringing in his ears.
Ryo pulled away. “D’you think our suspect was really in there?”
“You mean was it a set-up?”
At Ryo’s nod Dee shrugged. “No idea. Guess we won’t know until the arson investigators can sift through the rubble and figure out what happened. See if there’s any sign of a body, or of someone livin’ there.”
“I guess you’re right.”
Leaning wearily against the wall of a building by their car, away from the worst of the smoke, they waited for the emergency services to arrive.
The End
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee, Bikky.
Rating: PG-13
Setting: After the manga.
Summary: Ryo has a weird dream that puts him on edge, but could it have been sending him an important message?
Word Count: 2104
Written For: Challenge 211: Premonition at beattheblackdog.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
Jolting upright, clutching at the covers and gasping for breath, Ryo woke abruptly from a deeply disturbing dream, but when he tried to focus on it, to remember the details and thereby break the hold it had over him, they slipped from his grasp, as insubstantial as mist, leaving him with nothing but a vague sense of unease.
Running his fingers through his sweat-dampened hair he drew a deep breath, letting it out slowly, trying to calm the erratic pounding of his heart; there was no way he’d get back to sleep now, not after that, but a glance at his alarm clock told him it was almost time to get up anyway. Pushing the nebulous remnants of the nightmare to the back of his mind, he threw the covers back and slipped out of bed, stretching in an effort to ease muscles knotted with tension. It didn’t do much good, but maybe a hot shower would help him relax a bit.
By the time he was showered, shaved, dressed, and fixing breakfast for himself and his foster son, he’d about managed to dismiss the dream as nothing more than the result of too much stress and not enough sleep. Eating cold pizza before bed probably hadn’t helped either, but he’d been hungry, and it had been convenient. He shrugged it off; everyone had nightmares now and then, and with his job they were practically guaranteed. Speaking of work, he needed to get a move on, or he’d be late despite getting up before his alarm.
“Bikky! Breakfast!”
“Coming, Ryo!” The boy entered the kitchen like a lanky whirlwind, practically skidding into his seat at the table. He was growing up so fast. “I’m starving!”
Ryo laughed as he set a stack of pancakes in front of his son. “You always are. I don’t know where you put it all.”
Bikky didn’t reply, just started shovelling food into his mouth as fast as he could. Sitting down across from the boy, Ryo ate his own breakfast at a more leisurely pace, wondering if his parents had ever despaired of his table manners when he was Bikky’s age.
Twenty minutes later, Bikky was off to school, and the breakfast dishes were cleared away. Ryo laced up his shoes, grabbed his coat, checked his pockets for wallet, phone, and keys, and then it was out the door for another day of solving crime. Being a cop was hard but rewarding work; he honestly couldn’t imagine himself in any other career, and working alongside the man he loved was just the icing on the cake. He smiled at the thought of seeing Dee; one more reason for him to enjoy going to work.
The morning passed in the usual way; catching up on paperwork, following leads, and talking to a few people they thought might have useful information. Ryo and his partner had three cases they were currently working, not the biggest workload they’d ever had but more than enough to keep them busy, so he didn’t give his dream another thought, focused entirely on the crimes waiting to be solved.
Then, shortly after lunch, an anonymous tip came through on the 27th Precinct’s phone lines, giving up the location where a suspect in one of their cases had supposedly gone to ground. It probably wouldn’t lead anywhere, such tip-offs seldom did, but they’d hit a dead end with the case in question and any potential lead, no matter how slim, would have to be checked out, just in case it was genuine.
“The caller didn’t give their name?” Ryo asked as he pulled his jacket on and slipped his automatic into his shoulder holster.
Most tips were anonymous, people preferred not to give their names, wanting to avoid getting too involved, but still, this one nagged at Ryo for some reason. He tried to shake off the uneasy feeling that had started the moment Dee had told him where they were going and why, but for some reason he couldn’t put his finger on, it wouldn’t go away.
Shrugging into his own jacket as they headed down the stairs and out to the parking lot, Dee glanced his way. “Nope. Why?”
Ryo shook his head. “No reason. Just wondered if it was one of our regular informants. Haven’t heard from any of them in a while.”
“Not from what Janet said when she gave me the message. Want to go back and ask? She might’ve just forgotten to mention it, the desk’s pretty busy today.”
“No, it’s fine. Might as well just get going.” Ryo slid into the passenger seat.
Silence fell in the car as Dee drove them towards the location they’d been given, a row of rundown tenements in one of the city’s worst neighbourhoods. Normally the two detectives would have been chatting, maybe discussing one of their cases or making plans for their next date night, but today Ryo was oddly subdued, something his partner couldn’t fail to notice.
“You okay, babe?” Dee asked when the silence between them became too heavy.
“What?” Ryo startled out of his reverie. “Oh, yes, I’m fine, just tired. Didn’t sleep too well last night.”
“Maybe I should come back to your place tonight, wear ya out. Bet you’d sleep them,” Dee teased with a grin.
“Mm,” Ryo murmured distractedly, staring sightlessly through the windscreen, a slight frown creasing his forehead. Dee wasn’t sure his lover had even heard him; looked like his head was in another zip code.
Shaking his head, Dee gave a wry smile; it had been worth a try, and maybe he’d repeat the suggestion later, when their shift was over. He was used to his partner being distracted, but something was obviously bothering him and knowing Ryo, he wouldn’t talk about it until he was ready. Dee would just have to be patient.
They left the car a couple of blocks from their destination, not wanting to spook the suspect if he really was where the anonymous informant had claimed. They walked the rest of the way, doing their best to look casual, just two guys taking a stroll, not in any hurry, but Dee could feel the tension rolling off Ryo in waves. Normally in these situations Ryo was the calm one, alert yet relaxed, but this time he was uncharacteristically on edge, and that was making Dee himself feel a bit rattled. He hoped whatever was on his partner’s mind wouldn’t cloud his judgement. They worked well together because they knew they could always count on each other, whatever the situation, but if Ryo was distracted…
“Welp, that’s the one.” Dee nodded to a building across the street and to their right. “The caller said second floor; I don’t see anyone at the window so if he’s there he’s not keepin’ a lookout.”
“They’re all empty,” Ryo murmured, his voice sounding odd, faraway. “Nobody lives in them anymore, everyone’s been evicted.”
“How d’you know that?” Dee frowned at his partner.
“I…” Ryo shook his head, confused. “I don’t know, must’ve seen something about it on the news, or in the paper.”
He was trailing slightly his lover as Dee started across the deserted street, when a tabby cat darted out of the narrow alley between two buildings, hissing and spitting at something. Ryo jerked to a halt, feeling a sudden, inexplicable surge of déjà vu; he’d known that was going to happen, like he’d somehow lived this before, which was impossible.
Across the street Dee was approaching the building, angling towards the stoop, and a sudden chill of nameless dread swept through Ryo, almost taking his breath away. Without a moment’s hesitation he broke into a sprint, running flat out, calling his partner’s name.
“Dee! Wait!”
Dee paused, glancing back over his shoulder. “Jeez, get your goddamn head in the game, would ya? You’re supposed to be right behind me!”
But Ryo wasn’t trying to catch up; something bad was about to happen, he knew it with absolute certainty, just like he’d known it in his dream, only then he hadn’t reacted fast enough. Reaching Dee, instead of slowing down, he grabbed his partner around the waist and practically threw them both down the steps leading below the stoop.
“What the…”
That was all Dee got out before a massive explosion rocked the building they’d been about to enter, and the front door burst outwards, crashing into the street, propelled by a fireball that blackened the stoop in less time than it took to blink.
Huddled in the small, litter-strewn paved area at the bottom of the steps, Dee and Ryo felt the scorching heat pass overhead and covered their faces with their sleeves to avoid breathing the choking smoke now pouring through the doorway and the shattered windows to fill the street.
Ryo tugged at Dee’s sleeve, urging him back up the steps and away from the inferno, and they fled as fast as they could manage, clinging to each other, half-blinded by smoke, tripping on half-seen debris, and stumbling every time another explosion rocked the street beneath their feet. Around the corner, into the next street, they paused, leaning against the wall to catch their breath, coughing harshly, and beating smouldering embers from their hair and clothes.
Dee glanced back the way they’d come, not that he could have seen anything from where they were even without the billowing smoke. “Shit! If I’d been on that stoop, I’d be toast; you just saved my life! How’d ya know the place was gonna blow?”
“Just like my dream,” Ryo murmured, too low for Dee to hear, what with their ears still ringing from the initial explosion.
“What was that, babe?”
Ryo rubbed his face with one hand, leaving a dirty smear across one cheek. “Gas leak.”
“You smelled it? Nice goin’; I didn’t smell a thing! You must have some bloodhound DNA in ya somewhere.”
“No.” Ryo shook his head, dazed. “Something’s been nagging at me all day, only I didn’t know what it was, I couldn’t remember, but when I saw the cat…”
“Cat? What cat? You sure you didn’t get hit on the head or somethin’? You’re not makin’ sense.”
“It was…” Ryo trailed off, looking up at Dee. “Last night, my dream... I think I had sort of a premonition. It was weird, like I knew exactly what was going to happen.”
“Yeah? Well, ya might wanna leave that part outta your report.” Dee pulled out his phone and quickly put in a call to the fire department, identifying himself and giving the location, although with all the smoke and flames, the blaze could probably be seen from miles away. “C’mon, we should get back to the car in case we haveta move it. Fire’s spreadin’ fast.”
“You don’t believe me, do you,” Ryo said tonelessly as Dee tugged him along the sidewalk. “It’s okay, why should you? I didn’t believe you that time you said you saw a ghost.”
Dee paused, turning to his lover and tilting Ryo’s chin up so he could look him in the eye. “Yeah, I believe you, ‘course I do, but I’m not so sure anyone else would. They don’t know ya the way I do. You’re the most down to earth person I’ve ever met, and if you say you had a premonition then I know it’s gotta be the truth, ‘cause you’re not the kinda guy to make stuff up.”
“In my dream…” Ryo shuddered, closing his eyes. “In my dream I was too slow, I didn’t reach you in time and you… you died. The fireball hit you and you were just… gone. There was nothing I could do.”
Wrapping his arms around his baby, Dee pulled Ryo close. “I’m right here, babe, and I’m fine, thanks to you. A little singed around the edges maybe, but so are you. We should probably stick around and get checked out when the paramedics arrive. Which should be any minute,” he added as he began to detect the sound of approaching sirens over the roar of the fire, and the ringing in his ears.
Ryo pulled away. “D’you think our suspect was really in there?”
“You mean was it a set-up?”
At Ryo’s nod Dee shrugged. “No idea. Guess we won’t know until the arson investigators can sift through the rubble and figure out what happened. See if there’s any sign of a body, or of someone livin’ there.”
“I guess you’re right.”
Leaning wearily against the wall of a building by their car, away from the worst of the smoke, they waited for the emergency services to arrive.
The End