FAKE Ficlet: One Small Step
Title: One Small Step
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee, Bikky, Melinda, OCs.
Rating: G
Setting: Early in the manga.
Summary: Most accidents happen in the home, which is absolutely no consolation to Ryo.
Word Count: 440
Written For: The dw100 prompt ‘Accidents’
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: This one ended up as a ficlet.
Most accidents happen in the home, Ryo reminded himself. It was a well-known fact; it just didn’t make him feel any better. Of all the stupid things to do! Maybe Dee was right and he was too much of an airhead to be trusted to take care of himself, never mind raise a child. What if Social Services took Bikky away because they decided he wasn’t a fit parent, traumatising the boy the way he had?
All he’d been doing was changing a light bulb, but then the phone had started ringing, he’d forgotten he was standing on a chair, tried to take a step only to find nothing beneath his foot but air, and he’d fallen, hitting his head on the corner of the kitchen table. Or so he’d been told; he didn’t really remember that part. It was a miracle he hadn’t broken anything. Bikky had arrived home from school to find him unconscious on the floor, lying in a pool of blood, and had called Dee in a panic before dialling 911.
Ryo had never felt so stupid as when he woke up with paramedics, Dee, and Bikky, not to mention Melinda from next door, all hovering over him. The only consolation was that he didn’t have a concussion, just bruising, a lump, and a nasty cut, which the paramedics had taken him to hospital to get stitched. Now he was home again and under orders to rest, and he wasn’t about to argue. He felt like his head had been used as a bowling ball.
“See, this is what you get from standing on chairs,” Dee was telling Bikky. “Learn from Ryo’s mistake and just don’t do it. First thing tomorrow, I’m buying that idiot a stepladder!”
“Already got one,” Ryo mumbled from the sofa where he was lying. It was just the three of them here now, which was a relief. The apartment had been way too crowded earlier.
“If you’ve got one, why didn’t you use it, dumbass?”
“It’s buried at the back of the closet and I only wanted to change a bulb. Didn’t seem worth the effort to dig it out. Besides. I would’ve been fine if the phone hadn’t started ringing.”
Everything went suddenly quiet and Ryo cracked his eyes open. “Dee? You still here?”
“Yeah, sorry.” Dee sounded strangely subdued. “That was me callin’, guess that makes all of this my fault more than yours.”
Ryo smiled faintly. “No, Dee, it was no one’s fault, just a stupid accident, that’s all.” Despite the ache in his head, his smile widened. “Didn’t you know that most accidents happen in the home?”
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee, Bikky, Melinda, OCs.
Rating: G
Setting: Early in the manga.
Summary: Most accidents happen in the home, which is absolutely no consolation to Ryo.
Word Count: 440
Written For: The dw100 prompt ‘Accidents’
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: This one ended up as a ficlet.
Most accidents happen in the home, Ryo reminded himself. It was a well-known fact; it just didn’t make him feel any better. Of all the stupid things to do! Maybe Dee was right and he was too much of an airhead to be trusted to take care of himself, never mind raise a child. What if Social Services took Bikky away because they decided he wasn’t a fit parent, traumatising the boy the way he had?
All he’d been doing was changing a light bulb, but then the phone had started ringing, he’d forgotten he was standing on a chair, tried to take a step only to find nothing beneath his foot but air, and he’d fallen, hitting his head on the corner of the kitchen table. Or so he’d been told; he didn’t really remember that part. It was a miracle he hadn’t broken anything. Bikky had arrived home from school to find him unconscious on the floor, lying in a pool of blood, and had called Dee in a panic before dialling 911.
Ryo had never felt so stupid as when he woke up with paramedics, Dee, and Bikky, not to mention Melinda from next door, all hovering over him. The only consolation was that he didn’t have a concussion, just bruising, a lump, and a nasty cut, which the paramedics had taken him to hospital to get stitched. Now he was home again and under orders to rest, and he wasn’t about to argue. He felt like his head had been used as a bowling ball.
“See, this is what you get from standing on chairs,” Dee was telling Bikky. “Learn from Ryo’s mistake and just don’t do it. First thing tomorrow, I’m buying that idiot a stepladder!”
“Already got one,” Ryo mumbled from the sofa where he was lying. It was just the three of them here now, which was a relief. The apartment had been way too crowded earlier.
“If you’ve got one, why didn’t you use it, dumbass?”
“It’s buried at the back of the closet and I only wanted to change a bulb. Didn’t seem worth the effort to dig it out. Besides. I would’ve been fine if the phone hadn’t started ringing.”
Everything went suddenly quiet and Ryo cracked his eyes open. “Dee? You still here?”
“Yeah, sorry.” Dee sounded strangely subdued. “That was me callin’, guess that makes all of this my fault more than yours.”
Ryo smiled faintly. “No, Dee, it was no one’s fault, just a stupid accident, that’s all.” Despite the ache in his head, his smile widened. “Didn’t you know that most accidents happen in the home?”
The End