FAKE Fic: Misunderstanding
Title: Misunderstanding
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: JJ, Drake, OFC.
Rating: G
Setting: After Like Like Love.
Summary: JJ sees something that makes him doubt his relationship with Drake.
Word Count: 1661
Meme Fill For: lil_1337, who asked for FAKE, JJ/Drake & No. 5. “Wait a minute. Are you jealous?”
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
She was a truly beautiful young woman; just because JJ was gay didn’t mean he didn’t notice such things. He was a fully trained, experienced detective with excellent observational skills, and was also blessed with a finely honed appreciation of all things aesthetically pleasing. He could appreciate the woman’s beauty on an intellectual level, but what he didn’t appreciate was the way she was behaving towards Drake. She was all over him!
Smiling at him, laughing at his jokes, touching him all the time, straightening his collar… Dammit, why couldn’t she keep her hands to herself instead of pawing at his partner like that? If that weren’t bad enough, what made it worse was that Drake didn’t seem to mind! He was smiling back at her, laughing, openly affectionate… It was disgustingly unseemly behaviour to display in the middle of a police precinct! Who did she think she was anyway?
JJ watched from the doorway to the break room, knowing he was mostly out of sight. Drake had his back to him, so he wasn’t aware he was being watched, and the woman was too focused on Drake to notice anyone else. And then she kissed him! It was only a light brush of her lips to Drake’s cheek, but still, seeing it set JJ’s stomach churning. He’d always known this would happen someday; every time he found someone special, he lost them to somebody else. It hurt like a punch to the gut to see the woman slide her elegant little hand through Drake’s arm as they walked towards the stairs together and vanished from JJ’s sight. As soon as they were gone, JJ stepped out of his hiding place and headed for the men’s room, where he locked himself in a stall to wallow in private and try to compose himself.
By the time he returned to the squad room, Drake was seated at his desk, doing paperwork. Taking a deep breath, JJ crossed the room and sat down at his own desk, not sparing so much as a glance in Drake’s direction. Usually he loved that their desks were back to back, so they could look at each other and chat as they worked together to solve whatever cases they happened to be working at the time. Now though, all he could think about was the woman. He’d thought Drake was happy with him, but clearly he’d just been using JJ as a stopgap until he could find himself another girlfriend.
“JJ? Are you okay? I was looking for you earlier but I couldn’t find you.”
“I’m fine. If you don’t mind, I’ve got a lot of work to do.” JJ refused to look up, just pulled a manila folder towards himself, opened it, and tried to make sense of its contents. For some reason everything looked blurry, making the forensics report hard for him to read.
“You’re not alright, I can tell that from here. Since when did we ever lie to each other? This is me you’re talking to, JJ. You can tell me anything; you know you can trust me, no matter what.” Drake reached across their desks towards him, but JJ drew his hand back quickly.
“I thought I could,” he mumbled. “Now I’m not so sure. I saw you with her, all cosy and laughing.” When Drake didn’t reply, JJ looked up, doing his best to glare across at his partner, his boyfriend, or he supposed his ex-boyfriend now. How were they supposed to keep working together after this? Perhaps he should put in for a transfer to another precinct. That would probably be best.
Drake was just gaping at him, and a spiteful little voice in the back of JJ’s mind said it wasn’t an attractive look on him. Shoving his hand through unruly hair, Drake shook his head, baffled. “Wait a minute. Are you jealous?”
“Jealous? What could I possibly be jealous about, with you flaunting your pretty new girlfriend around right in front of me? When were you going to tell me about her? Or were you even going to bother?”
As if JJ didn’t feel bad enough already, Drake started to laugh, then quickly shut up. “You’ve got it all wrong, JJ; she’s not my girlfriend, she’s my cousin, Dani. I’m sure I’ve told you about her. I was looking for you earlier to introduce you; I wanted her to meet the man who’s made me so happy. She already knows all about you.”
“Your cousin?” JJ could hardly bear to hope. Had he got it all wrong?
“Yes. When we were growing up, we lived across the street from each other, and because there’s only a couple of months between us, we played together all the time. We were more like brother and sister than anything. My aunt and uncle moved to L.A. when we were ten, so we didn’t get to seen each other much after that, but we kept in touch. Now she’s moving back to New York with her family, which is great because it means I’ll finally get to meet her kids in person.”
“Her family?” JJ wished he could come up with something more intelligent than just parroting Drake’s words back at him, but he was having a bit of trouble getting his brain in gear.
“Of course! She happens to be very happily married, with two little girls. They’re all staying at my parents’ place at the moment; they’ve bought a house in Queens, but the previous owners don’t move out until next week, and her husband started his new job last week, so…” Drake shrugged. “Anyway, we’ve been so busy with work I haven’t had a chance to visit with her and her family yet, and Dani was in the area for a job interview so she stopped in to invite us out for dinner tonight. I wanted to check with you first, but I couldn’t find you, so I told her yes, as long as you hadn’t got anything planned. I hope you don’t mind.” Drake’s forehead knotted with worry. “I mean if it’s not convenient I can call and cancel, we can do it some other time…”
“No! Don’t do that! Tonight will be perfect, honest, I just…” JJ bit his lip. “I’m sorry, Drakey, I’ve been so silly, but I can’t help worrying that one day you’ll meet some woman and forget all about me, and when I saw you with her, she’s so beautiful, and she kept touching you, and you seemed so happy with her, I just figured… You know.”
“I was happy, I’ve missed her, but JJ, you have nothing to worry about. Even if she wasn’t my married cousin, and so completely out of my league that I never would have stood a chance with her anyway, I still wouldn’t be interested. Me and women… well, there’s a reason it doesn’t work, I don’t think we speak the same language, and besides, why would I ever want to give up the best thing that’s ever happened to me?” He reached across the desk again and took JJ’s hand. “That’s you, by the way, just in case I haven’t made myself clear. Have I really never mentioned Dani to you? I was sure I had.”
“No, you have, but… Whenever you’ve talked about all the things you and Dani used to get up to, I always sort of assumed she was a he… I had no idea your cousin was a girl.”
A wide grin spread across Drake’s face and he chuckled. “I guess that just never occurred to me. It’s short for Danielle, but I honestly don’t think anyone’s ever called her that. She was kind of a tomboy back when we were growing up, still is really. The only time I’ve ever seen her in a dress was on her wedding day; growing up she was always in jeans or shorts. I didn’t recognise her at first when she showed up here; she cleans up pretty well when she needs to. You know, job interview, gotta make a good impression on prospective employers.”
“That is very important,” JJ agreed solemnly, but the sparkle was back in his eyes. He squeezed Drake’s hand as he apologised again. “I’m sorry, I should have trusted you instead of jumping to conclusions.”
“Yes, you should have; you must know I’d never knowingly hurt you.”
“I do, I just don’t want to lose you. I spent so many years pining over someone I thought I loved, all that time wasted, I guess I feel like I don’t deserve to be so lucky now. I don’t think I could stand to lose you.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’re not going to,” Drake said firmly. “So, tonight, dinner with Dani and her husband. We’re on?”
“Yep! Did your cousin tell you which restaurant? Because I’ll have to pick out something appropriate to wear…” JJ was already mentally flipping through the contents of his wardrobe, picking out possible outfits.
Drake laughed fondly. “That’s my JJ!”
The way Drake said the words gave JJ a warm glow inside. “Well, I want to look my best,” he said, blushing slightly. “First impressions are just as important when meting family for the first time as they are for job interviews.”
“Whatever you wear, you always look perfect to me. You have much better clothes sense than I ever will, I was kinda hoping you’d help me pick out something to wear.”
“Of course I will, Drakey!”
“Thanks. I guess we should probably get some work done, or else the Chief might make us stay late to make up the time we’ve wasted.”
“That would never do.”
As Drake let go of his hand, JJ returned his attention to the file folder open in front of him and picked up his pen. All was right in his world once more, and he made a promise to himself that he would never doubt Drake again.
The End
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: JJ, Drake, OFC.
Rating: G
Setting: After Like Like Love.
Summary: JJ sees something that makes him doubt his relationship with Drake.
Word Count: 1661
Meme Fill For: lil_1337, who asked for FAKE, JJ/Drake & No. 5. “Wait a minute. Are you jealous?”
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
She was a truly beautiful young woman; just because JJ was gay didn’t mean he didn’t notice such things. He was a fully trained, experienced detective with excellent observational skills, and was also blessed with a finely honed appreciation of all things aesthetically pleasing. He could appreciate the woman’s beauty on an intellectual level, but what he didn’t appreciate was the way she was behaving towards Drake. She was all over him!
Smiling at him, laughing at his jokes, touching him all the time, straightening his collar… Dammit, why couldn’t she keep her hands to herself instead of pawing at his partner like that? If that weren’t bad enough, what made it worse was that Drake didn’t seem to mind! He was smiling back at her, laughing, openly affectionate… It was disgustingly unseemly behaviour to display in the middle of a police precinct! Who did she think she was anyway?
JJ watched from the doorway to the break room, knowing he was mostly out of sight. Drake had his back to him, so he wasn’t aware he was being watched, and the woman was too focused on Drake to notice anyone else. And then she kissed him! It was only a light brush of her lips to Drake’s cheek, but still, seeing it set JJ’s stomach churning. He’d always known this would happen someday; every time he found someone special, he lost them to somebody else. It hurt like a punch to the gut to see the woman slide her elegant little hand through Drake’s arm as they walked towards the stairs together and vanished from JJ’s sight. As soon as they were gone, JJ stepped out of his hiding place and headed for the men’s room, where he locked himself in a stall to wallow in private and try to compose himself.
By the time he returned to the squad room, Drake was seated at his desk, doing paperwork. Taking a deep breath, JJ crossed the room and sat down at his own desk, not sparing so much as a glance in Drake’s direction. Usually he loved that their desks were back to back, so they could look at each other and chat as they worked together to solve whatever cases they happened to be working at the time. Now though, all he could think about was the woman. He’d thought Drake was happy with him, but clearly he’d just been using JJ as a stopgap until he could find himself another girlfriend.
“JJ? Are you okay? I was looking for you earlier but I couldn’t find you.”
“I’m fine. If you don’t mind, I’ve got a lot of work to do.” JJ refused to look up, just pulled a manila folder towards himself, opened it, and tried to make sense of its contents. For some reason everything looked blurry, making the forensics report hard for him to read.
“You’re not alright, I can tell that from here. Since when did we ever lie to each other? This is me you’re talking to, JJ. You can tell me anything; you know you can trust me, no matter what.” Drake reached across their desks towards him, but JJ drew his hand back quickly.
“I thought I could,” he mumbled. “Now I’m not so sure. I saw you with her, all cosy and laughing.” When Drake didn’t reply, JJ looked up, doing his best to glare across at his partner, his boyfriend, or he supposed his ex-boyfriend now. How were they supposed to keep working together after this? Perhaps he should put in for a transfer to another precinct. That would probably be best.
Drake was just gaping at him, and a spiteful little voice in the back of JJ’s mind said it wasn’t an attractive look on him. Shoving his hand through unruly hair, Drake shook his head, baffled. “Wait a minute. Are you jealous?”
“Jealous? What could I possibly be jealous about, with you flaunting your pretty new girlfriend around right in front of me? When were you going to tell me about her? Or were you even going to bother?”
As if JJ didn’t feel bad enough already, Drake started to laugh, then quickly shut up. “You’ve got it all wrong, JJ; she’s not my girlfriend, she’s my cousin, Dani. I’m sure I’ve told you about her. I was looking for you earlier to introduce you; I wanted her to meet the man who’s made me so happy. She already knows all about you.”
“Your cousin?” JJ could hardly bear to hope. Had he got it all wrong?
“Yes. When we were growing up, we lived across the street from each other, and because there’s only a couple of months between us, we played together all the time. We were more like brother and sister than anything. My aunt and uncle moved to L.A. when we were ten, so we didn’t get to seen each other much after that, but we kept in touch. Now she’s moving back to New York with her family, which is great because it means I’ll finally get to meet her kids in person.”
“Her family?” JJ wished he could come up with something more intelligent than just parroting Drake’s words back at him, but he was having a bit of trouble getting his brain in gear.
“Of course! She happens to be very happily married, with two little girls. They’re all staying at my parents’ place at the moment; they’ve bought a house in Queens, but the previous owners don’t move out until next week, and her husband started his new job last week, so…” Drake shrugged. “Anyway, we’ve been so busy with work I haven’t had a chance to visit with her and her family yet, and Dani was in the area for a job interview so she stopped in to invite us out for dinner tonight. I wanted to check with you first, but I couldn’t find you, so I told her yes, as long as you hadn’t got anything planned. I hope you don’t mind.” Drake’s forehead knotted with worry. “I mean if it’s not convenient I can call and cancel, we can do it some other time…”
“No! Don’t do that! Tonight will be perfect, honest, I just…” JJ bit his lip. “I’m sorry, Drakey, I’ve been so silly, but I can’t help worrying that one day you’ll meet some woman and forget all about me, and when I saw you with her, she’s so beautiful, and she kept touching you, and you seemed so happy with her, I just figured… You know.”
“I was happy, I’ve missed her, but JJ, you have nothing to worry about. Even if she wasn’t my married cousin, and so completely out of my league that I never would have stood a chance with her anyway, I still wouldn’t be interested. Me and women… well, there’s a reason it doesn’t work, I don’t think we speak the same language, and besides, why would I ever want to give up the best thing that’s ever happened to me?” He reached across the desk again and took JJ’s hand. “That’s you, by the way, just in case I haven’t made myself clear. Have I really never mentioned Dani to you? I was sure I had.”
“No, you have, but… Whenever you’ve talked about all the things you and Dani used to get up to, I always sort of assumed she was a he… I had no idea your cousin was a girl.”
A wide grin spread across Drake’s face and he chuckled. “I guess that just never occurred to me. It’s short for Danielle, but I honestly don’t think anyone’s ever called her that. She was kind of a tomboy back when we were growing up, still is really. The only time I’ve ever seen her in a dress was on her wedding day; growing up she was always in jeans or shorts. I didn’t recognise her at first when she showed up here; she cleans up pretty well when she needs to. You know, job interview, gotta make a good impression on prospective employers.”
“That is very important,” JJ agreed solemnly, but the sparkle was back in his eyes. He squeezed Drake’s hand as he apologised again. “I’m sorry, I should have trusted you instead of jumping to conclusions.”
“Yes, you should have; you must know I’d never knowingly hurt you.”
“I do, I just don’t want to lose you. I spent so many years pining over someone I thought I loved, all that time wasted, I guess I feel like I don’t deserve to be so lucky now. I don’t think I could stand to lose you.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’re not going to,” Drake said firmly. “So, tonight, dinner with Dani and her husband. We’re on?”
“Yep! Did your cousin tell you which restaurant? Because I’ll have to pick out something appropriate to wear…” JJ was already mentally flipping through the contents of his wardrobe, picking out possible outfits.
Drake laughed fondly. “That’s my JJ!”
The way Drake said the words gave JJ a warm glow inside. “Well, I want to look my best,” he said, blushing slightly. “First impressions are just as important when meting family for the first time as they are for job interviews.”
“Whatever you wear, you always look perfect to me. You have much better clothes sense than I ever will, I was kinda hoping you’d help me pick out something to wear.”
“Of course I will, Drakey!”
“Thanks. I guess we should probably get some work done, or else the Chief might make us stay late to make up the time we’ve wasted.”
“That would never do.”
As Drake let go of his hand, JJ returned his attention to the file folder open in front of him and picked up his pen. All was right in his world once more, and he made a promise to himself that he would never doubt Drake again.
The End