FAKE Ficlet: Too Quiet
Title: Too Quiet
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, mentions Bikky and Dee.
Rating: G
Word Count: 414
Setting: Midway through the manga.
Summary: Ryo is finding being home alone harder to take than he expected.
Spoilers: Nope.
Written For: prisca1960’s comment_fic prompt ‘any fandom, any character, the loneliness is not the worst.’
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
The loneliness isn’t the worst part for Ryo; he lived alone for years, quite content with his own company most of the time. What gets to him is the silence, and he’s aware of that even when he has the TV on in an effort to drown it out.
Over the last few years he’s grown used to the constant background noise of another person around the apartment. Children, he discovered early on, are almost incapable of being quiet. Whether it was the thumping of books as homework was reluctantly done, the cacophony of sounds issuing from video games, laughter at a TV show, or even on odd occasions actual conversation, there was always noise. The only time Bikky was anything close to quiet was when he was asleep, and by then Ryo had welcomed a bit of peace and quiet.
Now though, Ryo can feel the boy’s absence acutely. There’s no point sitting at the table for dinner, because there’s nobody sitting across from him regaling him with the events of their day. He doesn’t have to watch where he’s putting his feet because there’s no small body sprawled on the living room floor, eyes glued to the TV screen, and no books or toys left carelessly scattered where someone could trip over them. He doesn’t even need to keep an eye on the clock so he can remind his foster son that it’s bedtime, and listen to Bikky complain that he’s not tired, and can’t he stay up a bit longer?
Everything feels wrong. Where silence used to be soothing, now it’s unnatural. Ryo can’t even imagine how he’s going to get through the next few weeks by himself. He keeps reminding himself that summer camp will be good for Bikky, it’ll give him a chance to run and play with other kids, climb trees and swim in a lake, maybe even learn a bit about what the world is like beyond the big city. There are so many things he doesn’t really get to do living in a New York apartment; things Ryo took for granted during his own childhood.
The time will pass, Bikky will be home before he knows it; Ryo just wishes it wasn’t so quiet. At this rate he’ll wind up talking to himself just to hear the sound of his own voice. He smiles wryly. Maybe he’ll call Dee and see if he’s busy. A night out somewhere noisy wouldn’t be a bad idea at all.
The End
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, mentions Bikky and Dee.
Rating: G
Word Count: 414
Setting: Midway through the manga.
Summary: Ryo is finding being home alone harder to take than he expected.
Spoilers: Nope.
Written For: prisca1960’s comment_fic prompt ‘any fandom, any character, the loneliness is not the worst.’
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
The loneliness isn’t the worst part for Ryo; he lived alone for years, quite content with his own company most of the time. What gets to him is the silence, and he’s aware of that even when he has the TV on in an effort to drown it out.
Over the last few years he’s grown used to the constant background noise of another person around the apartment. Children, he discovered early on, are almost incapable of being quiet. Whether it was the thumping of books as homework was reluctantly done, the cacophony of sounds issuing from video games, laughter at a TV show, or even on odd occasions actual conversation, there was always noise. The only time Bikky was anything close to quiet was when he was asleep, and by then Ryo had welcomed a bit of peace and quiet.
Now though, Ryo can feel the boy’s absence acutely. There’s no point sitting at the table for dinner, because there’s nobody sitting across from him regaling him with the events of their day. He doesn’t have to watch where he’s putting his feet because there’s no small body sprawled on the living room floor, eyes glued to the TV screen, and no books or toys left carelessly scattered where someone could trip over them. He doesn’t even need to keep an eye on the clock so he can remind his foster son that it’s bedtime, and listen to Bikky complain that he’s not tired, and can’t he stay up a bit longer?
Everything feels wrong. Where silence used to be soothing, now it’s unnatural. Ryo can’t even imagine how he’s going to get through the next few weeks by himself. He keeps reminding himself that summer camp will be good for Bikky, it’ll give him a chance to run and play with other kids, climb trees and swim in a lake, maybe even learn a bit about what the world is like beyond the big city. There are so many things he doesn’t really get to do living in a New York apartment; things Ryo took for granted during his own childhood.
The time will pass, Bikky will be home before he knows it; Ryo just wishes it wasn’t so quiet. At this rate he’ll wind up talking to himself just to hear the sound of his own voice. He smiles wryly. Maybe he’ll call Dee and see if he’s busy. A night out somewhere noisy wouldn’t be a bad idea at all.
The End