Title: Snuggling
Fandom: FAKE
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Dee, Ryo, Ted.
Rating: PG
Setting: After Like Like Love.
Summary: It’s a bitterly cold winter’s night and instead of being home in the warm, Dee is stuck at a crime scene.
Word Count: 1079
Written For: Theme Prompt: #042 - Winter Nights at fandomweekly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Also for yaoigirl15 who wanted Dee and Ryo getting cosy in bed.
There was nothing like a freezing cold winter’s night, with the wind howling mournfully around the buildings and turning the falling snow into a blizzard, to make a man glad to be home, snug and warm, watching through the window as the weather did its worst. Which was precisely where Ryo was, and Dee most decidedly was not. A pang of envy shot through Dee, thinking of the man he loved, riding out the bad weather in their cosy apartment. If he could’ve gotten away with it he would have gone home already, but he still had a couple of hours left on his shift.
It was the luck of the draw that Dee’s turn at working second shift had come around just in time to coincide with what had to be the worst snowstorm of the decade. He’d been hoping he could pass the entire shift warm and dry at the precinct, going over evidence, re-reading statements, making phone calls, and pretending to do paperwork while not actually doing much at all. The universe apparently had other ideas, so here he was at a fresh crime scene, freezing his ass and other vital parts of his anatomy off, waiting for the coroner to determine time and cause of death before removing the body.
He would’ve thought the weather was bad enough even criminals would’ve had enough sense to take the night off, but maybe whoever had killed this guy had been counting on the snow to cover the body and destroy any evidence. Lucky for the cops, and the deceased, after a fashion, a shift-worker hurrying home from work had decided to risk taking a shortcut across a patch of badly lit wasteland and had discovered the body, the red of blood showing up in stark contrast against the fresh snow. He could have decided it was none of his business and hurried on by, but instead he’d called the police and stuck around until Dee had arrived to take his statement and contact details. That was rare; most people these days preferred not to get involved.
Dee did what he could while he was waiting, searching the immediate area with the help of the uniformed officers who’d been first on the scene. There was no point waiting for a crime scene team to arrive, not with the snow falling so heavily. A temporary shelter had been rigged up over the body, but that still left the rest of the vacant lot open to the elements. If the murder weapon had been discarded nearby, it needed to be found before the falling snow covered it completely.
Just their luck nothing turned up except the coroner, who’d been delayed by the weather.
With the body finally on its way to the morgue for autopsy, Dee left the recently arrived crime scene people to collect what evidence they could, and headed back to the precinct to log his preliminary report and clock off. His shift had officially ended more than half an hour ago, so he had a quick word with Ted, who was just starting his shift, filling him in on the case, not that there was much to tell at this stage, and then headed out into the biting wind once more, cursing himself for having taken the bus to work today. Naturally, no buses were running now; visibility and snow cover were so bad it was hard to tell where the roads were, so he trekked to the nearest subway station instead, knowing he’d be facing a walk of a good six blocks at the other end. It couldn’t be helped; if he wanted to get home it was the subway or nothing. There wasn’t a single cab to be seen.
By the time he reached his building, things had gone from bad to worse. That there were no lights in any of the windows he passed wasn’t so surprising at getting on for two-thirty in the morning, but the street lamps, which should have been shedding pools of orange light, were dark. The power in his neighbourhood was out.
“Oh, great!” he grumbled sourly, fumbling with frozen fingers to unlock the building’s front door. No power meant no heat, no hot drink, no steaming shower to chase the chill from his bones. No elevator either, meaning he had to trudge up four flights of stairs, using his flashlight to see where he was going and letting himself into a cold, dark apartment.
He shed his coat and boots at the door before hurrying into the bedroom, shivering, and wishing the power would come back. What he wouldn’t give for coffee, or soup.
Ryo was nothing more than a dimly seen tuft of hair poking out from under a huge mound of covers; looked like he’d spread every blanket and quilt they owned on the bed as protection against the cold. Shedding his own clothes as fast as he could manage, Dee scrambled naked beneath the covers, teeth chattering uncontrollably, and huddled up against Ryo’s warm body, drawing a shocked yelp from his lover.
“Sorry,” Dee mumbled, shudders racking his body. “Didn’t mean to wake ya.”
“Jesus Christ, Dee, you’re freezing!”
“I know. Spent more ‘n two hours at a crime scene, then had to walk half the way home, and now there’s no heat.”
“Power went out around eleven.” Ryo rolled over in bed to face his partner, wrapping his pyjama clad arms around Dee, holding him tight, twining their legs together and rubbing at Dee’s bare back and shoulders to get his circulation going. “Feel like I’m hugging a bag of ice cubes.”
“Sorry,” Dee murmured again.
“S’okay.” Ryo kissed icy lips, tugged the covers up further until he and Dee were buried beneath them, huddled together. “I’ll warm you up.”
“Mm,” Dee sighed, pressing as close to Ryo’s warmth as he could get. “Much better way of spendin’ a freezin’ cold winter night than bein’ out in that blizzard.”
“It’s that bad out there?” Ryo had closed the blinds, trying to keep some heat in the apartment, not that it had helped much.
“Worse; it’s blowin’ a gale.”
“With any luck power should be back by morning, probably just a transformer gone down.”
Dee smiled against Ryo’s shoulder; he was gradually beginning to feel warmer, the convulsive shivers lessening. “Doesn’t matter, long as I get to snuggle here with you. If this weather keeps up I’m considerin’ stayin’ right here with you until spring.”
The End