FAKE Ficlet: Annual Visit
Title: Annual Visit
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Jess, Ryo.
Rating: PG
Setting: After Like Like Love, referencing Vol. 6, Act 18.
Summary: Every year on the same day, Dee visits the man who helped make him who he is.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Challenge 324: Buried at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters.
Dee takes the same day off work every year, or he does now. Used to be, when it rolled around, if he was working, he’d just skip out, usually without telling anyone. Some of his oldest friends at the precinct knew why, and where he was going, but anyone who didn’t, well, it was none of their business anyway. Ryo got worried when he disappeared without a word the year after they started working together and became friends, so the following year he put in for a personal day and told his partner, figuring it was the decent thing to do. Now it’s become habit.
October Fifteenth is important to him, kind of a landmark. It’s nobody’s birthday, at least no one he knows, but it is an anniversary of sorts, just not the cheerful, celebratory kind, and perhaps it’s all the more important for that. It’s the day he lost the man who helped make him who he is, and it’s a reminder to him of how quickly someone’s life can fall apart.
So once a year he visits the cemetery where Detective Jess Latener is buried. He takes flowers, sits by the grave of the man who was the closest thing to a father he ever had, and fills Jess in on what’s been happening in his life. He used to smoke a few cigs, but he’s quit now, so instead he pulls weeds, tidies things, thinks about the past… Cemeteries are good places for some quiet reflection.
Sometimes Ryo comes with him, sometimes Dee’s not in the mood for company and comes by himself, and Ryo’s fine with that. He intuitively seems to know when to give Dee his space, and that’s one of the things Dee appreciates most about the man who’s now his lover as well as his work partner.
This time Dee’s alone, but not by choice; it’s just bad luck that today Ryo’s stuck in court. It’s all part of being a cop. On the plus side, it means Dee can talk about the man he loves without embarrassing Ryo. Jess deserves to know everything about the most important person in Dee’s life.
“We’ve been livin’ together for a year and a half now; can you believe it? He’s hands down the best thing ever happened to me, after you findin’ me and takin’ me to Mother, ‘cause I wouldn’t have survived if you hadn’t. He’s a better cop than I’ll ever be, but that’s okay. I’m proud of him. I just wish you could’ve met him. You’d like him, he keeps me in line. Well, mostly. He got me to quit smokin’, so that’s good, and I’m fitter than I’ve ever been with all the hikin’ and other stuff we do.”
Dee took a swig from the bottle he’d brought with him, then poured some on Jess’s grave so he could share. It was only fair.
“I miss you. I miss Arnon too, but mostly you. I hope I’m makin’ you proud.”
The End
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Jess, Ryo.
Rating: PG
Setting: After Like Like Love, referencing Vol. 6, Act 18.
Summary: Every year on the same day, Dee visits the man who helped make him who he is.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Challenge 324: Buried at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters.
Dee takes the same day off work every year, or he does now. Used to be, when it rolled around, if he was working, he’d just skip out, usually without telling anyone. Some of his oldest friends at the precinct knew why, and where he was going, but anyone who didn’t, well, it was none of their business anyway. Ryo got worried when he disappeared without a word the year after they started working together and became friends, so the following year he put in for a personal day and told his partner, figuring it was the decent thing to do. Now it’s become habit.
October Fifteenth is important to him, kind of a landmark. It’s nobody’s birthday, at least no one he knows, but it is an anniversary of sorts, just not the cheerful, celebratory kind, and perhaps it’s all the more important for that. It’s the day he lost the man who helped make him who he is, and it’s a reminder to him of how quickly someone’s life can fall apart.
So once a year he visits the cemetery where Detective Jess Latener is buried. He takes flowers, sits by the grave of the man who was the closest thing to a father he ever had, and fills Jess in on what’s been happening in his life. He used to smoke a few cigs, but he’s quit now, so instead he pulls weeds, tidies things, thinks about the past… Cemeteries are good places for some quiet reflection.
Sometimes Ryo comes with him, sometimes Dee’s not in the mood for company and comes by himself, and Ryo’s fine with that. He intuitively seems to know when to give Dee his space, and that’s one of the things Dee appreciates most about the man who’s now his lover as well as his work partner.
This time Dee’s alone, but not by choice; it’s just bad luck that today Ryo’s stuck in court. It’s all part of being a cop. On the plus side, it means Dee can talk about the man he loves without embarrassing Ryo. Jess deserves to know everything about the most important person in Dee’s life.
“We’ve been livin’ together for a year and a half now; can you believe it? He’s hands down the best thing ever happened to me, after you findin’ me and takin’ me to Mother, ‘cause I wouldn’t have survived if you hadn’t. He’s a better cop than I’ll ever be, but that’s okay. I’m proud of him. I just wish you could’ve met him. You’d like him, he keeps me in line. Well, mostly. He got me to quit smokin’, so that’s good, and I’m fitter than I’ve ever been with all the hikin’ and other stuff we do.”
Dee took a swig from the bottle he’d brought with him, then poured some on Jess’s grave so he could share. It was only fair.
“I miss you. I miss Arnon too, but mostly you. I hope I’m makin’ you proud.”
The End