FAKE Ficlet: Not Dying Today

[badly_knitted]

Title: Not Dying Today

Fandom: FAKE

Author: badly_knitted

Characters: Leo Grant, Ryo, Dee

Rating: PG-15

Setting: Mainly Vol. 5 Act 14 and Vol. 3 Act 9, but with a tiny hint to Vol. 7 Act 19.

Summary: Leo knows he’s not going to die today. That’s too bad.

Word Count: 346

Written For: Challenge #92: Enemies at fan_flashworks

Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They

Comments

[cyberiad_queen]

Ryo would have hated himself if he'd pulled that trigger. He's just not that person; there's too much goodness in him. And his parents would never have wanted that. I don't think he and Dee could ever have looked each other in the face again if Dee had done it.

I love how tired Leo sounds here. If only he'd been just a bit smarter, maybe he could've got out the way his wife wanted him to. It would've meant living the rest of their lives in hiding, but they could at least have had a life together.

[badly_knitted]

True on all counts. Dee would have sacrificed everything for Ryo's sake if he'd had to, but it wasn't necessary because Ryo could not kill in cold blood.

Leo could probably have got away with Alicia, but I think the guilt of everything he'd done was weighing too heavily on him for that. He didn't believe he deserved freedom, but he wanted one of the people he'd wronged the most to deliver the ultimate punishment for his crimes. Better that it should be Alicia rather than Ryo though, she was already damaged. Perhaps in a way what she did was a mercy killing. She freed Leo and maybe she freed herself in a way too. They couldn't have gone back to the way they were.

Thank you.

[cyberiad_queen]

I wish there had been another way out for them. I almost wanted to cry when I reached that part of the manga. They must have both felt like life had them in a stranglehold. :(

Very, very welcome; this really felt like it came right out of the manga itself.

[badly_knitted]

One of the things I love doing is trying to get inside the characters' heads during my favourite scenes, so I've done it quite a lot, but I think this is the only time I've taken the POV of one of the criminals. Usually it's Ryo or Dee, occasionally Bikky. I'm not really sure where this one came from, it just popped into my head and I was really pleased with the result.

Sometimes I think FAKE has spoiled me for a lot of manga because it has such depth of emotion. It really tugs at you.

[cyberiad_queen]

I love doing that, too. I keep going back to the Doctor in all his angsty glory, just because he's irresistible like that.

You might be right, there. Certainly InuYasha didn't have anything this deep. Or Death Note. I think Fullmetal Alchemist came close at times. But, yeah, nothing I've read has really come close to this. The characters are so well-rounded, with perfectly human foibles and strengths.

[badly_knitted]

I'm only 4 volumes in in FMA, I've read the first 2 on InuYasha, which is fun, and I've watched some of it on YouTube too but it's been a while. I started reading DeathNote, I've got the first 2 of that as well, I just haven't finished the first one yet. Not sure where I put it. FAKE just seems to have it all, so even when I dip into other manga it's FAKE I go back to over and over. I love that Dee and Ryo aren't perfect, they screw up, they fight, they have doubts, but they muddle though and do their best, and even before they become lovers, they're always there for each other. Even Bikky, he can be a brat but he's a good kid deep down.