Ficlet: Born Lucky
Title: Born Lucky
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo, OCs.
Rating: PG-13
Setting: After Like Like Love, but referencing Vols. 1 and 6.
Summary: Dee knows there must be someone watching over him, because he’s always been luckier than he deserves to be.
Word Count: 917
Written For: Theme Prompt: 197 - Good Luck at fandomweekly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
Anyone hearing the story of Dee Laytner’s life might have been justified in thinking he’d been cursed with terrible luck from the moment he was born. There’d even been times he’d thought that way too, envying kids at school for all the things they had that he’d never known, like parents, a home, and toys and clothes that belonged only to them and didn’t have to be shared with everyone else.
He’d been abandoned, naked except for an old sheet, among the trashcans in a filthy alley when he was no more than a couple of hours old, then spent the first eighteen years of his life in an orphanage. Other kids had come and gone, finding new homes with loving families, but nobody had ever offered to adopt him, perhaps because no one could be sure his parents wouldn’t someday show up out of the blue, wanting him back. He’d thought about that a lot when he was little, imagining that he’d perhaps been stolen as a baby and his parents were searching for him, but if they were, they never found him, so eventually he’d had to accept that he simply hadn’t been wanted.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, one of his best friends had been brutally murdered when they were both fifteen, and shortly after that, the man who was like a father to him was also murdered, dying right in front of him…
Looking back though, Dee could see just how lucky he’d always been, because Officer Jess Latener had discovered the abandoned baby soon enough to save his life, then taken him to Mother Lane’s orphanage. He’d grown up knowing he was loved, both by Mother and by Jess, who’d visited him every day. They might not have been related to him by blood, but they’d been the best parents he could have asked for, and his good fortune hadn’t stopped there.
Yes, he’d tragically lost two people he’d cared very deeply about, but their deaths had inspired him to become a cop, and through his job he’d met and fallen in love with an amazing man he probably didn’t deserve. Despite an unfavourable start, his life had turned out pretty great. It didn’t bother him that he’d never be rich; he’d always had enough to live comfortably on, a roof over his head, and everything else he needed, plus he got to work with a great bunch of people, doing a job he loved. He’d even lucked out with his apartment, which was now twice its original size, and only cost him an extra fifty bucks a month. That was nothing now that Ryo was living with him. Both Dee and his lover were paying less in rent and utilities than when they’d lived separately. Dee even had a bit of money in the bank these days.uHi
Yep, he’d been way luckier over the years than he’d had any right to expect, and against all odds, his luck was still holding. It had to be, because he was still alive, something which, under present circumstances, was nothing short of a miracle. Someone up there really must like him. Maybe he had a guardian angel; that might explain a few things. Just in case, he offered up a prayer of thanks, because it wouldn’t do for whoever or whatever was watching over him to think he wasn’t grateful.
Okay, so his situation wasn’t ideal, but it could sure as hell be a lot worse, so he wasn’t going to complain about a few bruises and scrapes. Hell, he’d gotten worse injuries from fending off JJ’s advances, back when the little guy had still been obsessed with him. Getting shot at scarily close range while not wearing a vest didn’t generally turn out so well.
The funny thing was, if his keys hadn’t worn a hole in his righthand pants pocket to match the one in the lefthand pocket, which he kept forgetting to ask Ryo to fix, his wallet with his detective’s shield wouldn’t have been in his inside Jacket pocket, right where it needed to be to stop the bullet. If that wasn’t good luck, then he didn’t know what was. It had been a small calibre round, but still…
The impact had been hard enough to put him flat on his back, and he must have hit his head when he fell, knocking himself out. He couldn’t have been unconscious for more than a few minutes, but the numbskulls who’d shot him must have assumed he was dead, or at least seriously injured, since they hadn’t bothered disarming him or trying him up. Sometimes the good luck just kept on coming.
Moving carefully, Dee drew his gun, then took out his phone. He still had his radio, but he didn’t want to make any unnecessary noise, so instead he fired off a quick text to his partner, filling him in on the situation. He smiled as he read the reply; backup would be with him in less than five minutes. When they arrived, Dee would be ready and waiting to help take down the lamebrained trio of idiots responsible for a string of robberies that had so far left three people dead, including a retired police officer working as a security guard, and put four others in the hospital.
They’d committed their last robbery, and they didn’t even know it yet. Dee could only hope the asshole who’d shot him would give him a reason to return the favor.
The End
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo, OCs.
Rating: PG-13
Setting: After Like Like Love, but referencing Vols. 1 and 6.
Summary: Dee knows there must be someone watching over him, because he’s always been luckier than he deserves to be.
Word Count: 917
Written For: Theme Prompt: 197 - Good Luck at fandomweekly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
Anyone hearing the story of Dee Laytner’s life might have been justified in thinking he’d been cursed with terrible luck from the moment he was born. There’d even been times he’d thought that way too, envying kids at school for all the things they had that he’d never known, like parents, a home, and toys and clothes that belonged only to them and didn’t have to be shared with everyone else.
He’d been abandoned, naked except for an old sheet, among the trashcans in a filthy alley when he was no more than a couple of hours old, then spent the first eighteen years of his life in an orphanage. Other kids had come and gone, finding new homes with loving families, but nobody had ever offered to adopt him, perhaps because no one could be sure his parents wouldn’t someday show up out of the blue, wanting him back. He’d thought about that a lot when he was little, imagining that he’d perhaps been stolen as a baby and his parents were searching for him, but if they were, they never found him, so eventually he’d had to accept that he simply hadn’t been wanted.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, one of his best friends had been brutally murdered when they were both fifteen, and shortly after that, the man who was like a father to him was also murdered, dying right in front of him…
Looking back though, Dee could see just how lucky he’d always been, because Officer Jess Latener had discovered the abandoned baby soon enough to save his life, then taken him to Mother Lane’s orphanage. He’d grown up knowing he was loved, both by Mother and by Jess, who’d visited him every day. They might not have been related to him by blood, but they’d been the best parents he could have asked for, and his good fortune hadn’t stopped there.
Yes, he’d tragically lost two people he’d cared very deeply about, but their deaths had inspired him to become a cop, and through his job he’d met and fallen in love with an amazing man he probably didn’t deserve. Despite an unfavourable start, his life had turned out pretty great. It didn’t bother him that he’d never be rich; he’d always had enough to live comfortably on, a roof over his head, and everything else he needed, plus he got to work with a great bunch of people, doing a job he loved. He’d even lucked out with his apartment, which was now twice its original size, and only cost him an extra fifty bucks a month. That was nothing now that Ryo was living with him. Both Dee and his lover were paying less in rent and utilities than when they’d lived separately. Dee even had a bit of money in the bank these days.uHi
Yep, he’d been way luckier over the years than he’d had any right to expect, and against all odds, his luck was still holding. It had to be, because he was still alive, something which, under present circumstances, was nothing short of a miracle. Someone up there really must like him. Maybe he had a guardian angel; that might explain a few things. Just in case, he offered up a prayer of thanks, because it wouldn’t do for whoever or whatever was watching over him to think he wasn’t grateful.
Okay, so his situation wasn’t ideal, but it could sure as hell be a lot worse, so he wasn’t going to complain about a few bruises and scrapes. Hell, he’d gotten worse injuries from fending off JJ’s advances, back when the little guy had still been obsessed with him. Getting shot at scarily close range while not wearing a vest didn’t generally turn out so well.
The funny thing was, if his keys hadn’t worn a hole in his righthand pants pocket to match the one in the lefthand pocket, which he kept forgetting to ask Ryo to fix, his wallet with his detective’s shield wouldn’t have been in his inside Jacket pocket, right where it needed to be to stop the bullet. If that wasn’t good luck, then he didn’t know what was. It had been a small calibre round, but still…
The impact had been hard enough to put him flat on his back, and he must have hit his head when he fell, knocking himself out. He couldn’t have been unconscious for more than a few minutes, but the numbskulls who’d shot him must have assumed he was dead, or at least seriously injured, since they hadn’t bothered disarming him or trying him up. Sometimes the good luck just kept on coming.
Moving carefully, Dee drew his gun, then took out his phone. He still had his radio, but he didn’t want to make any unnecessary noise, so instead he fired off a quick text to his partner, filling him in on the situation. He smiled as he read the reply; backup would be with him in less than five minutes. When they arrived, Dee would be ready and waiting to help take down the lamebrained trio of idiots responsible for a string of robberies that had so far left three people dead, including a retired police officer working as a security guard, and put four others in the hospital.
They’d committed their last robbery, and they didn’t even know it yet. Dee could only hope the asshole who’d shot him would give him a reason to return the favor.
The End