FAKE Fic: Dee’s Sock Dilemma
Title: Dee’s Sock Dilemma
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee
Rating: G
Setting: Fairly early in the manga.
Summary: Ryo picks Dee up for work and learns a few things about his partner.
Word Count: 599
Written For: Challenge #94: Footwear at fan_flashworks.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
Dee’s car was in the shop, so Ryo had swung by on his way to work to pick his partner up. He’d expected Dee to be waiting outside for him, but as that didn’t seem to be the case, he found a parking spot and headed upstairs to Dee’s top floor apartment.
When knocking on the door failed to get any response, Ryo let himself in and followed the sound of cursing to the bedroom, where he found Dee frantically digging through one of his dresser drawers.
“I can’t believe you’re not ready yet. Did you oversleep?”
Dee’s head shot up in surprise.
“Ryo! Sorry, didn’t hear you come in. And no, I didn’t oversleep. I would’ve been ready in plenty of time but I can’t find a pair of socks!” Dee’s voice got louder and louder as he spoke, the last word coming out in a frustrated howl as Dee continued tossing assorted socks out of his drawer.
“Looks to me like you’ve got enough socks for an army,” Ryo commented, sounding as bemused as he felt.
“But I can’t find two that match! Dammit!” Dee pulled out the drawer completely, upended it and dumped the remaining socks onto the tangled mass that already littered the floor. Dropping the drawer on the unmade bed, he sat down heavily on the floor, plucking up socks at random and tossing them aside. “The laundry room’s out of order and I haven’t had time to go to the Laundromat recently. All I’ve got left are odd socks, and I don’t even know where half of them came from!” he exclaimed in exasperation, brandishing a fluorescent green tube sock. “I’m sure this isn’t mine.”
“How long have you been looking?” asked Ryo, trying not to laugh.
“Dunno, half an hour maybe? I looked everywhere, the odd sock drawer was my last resort.”
“You have a drawer set aside for odd socks?” Ryo was astounded.
Dee looked back at him, similarly shocked.
“You mean you don’t? What do you do with your odd socks?”
“I don’t have any odd socks,” Ryo replied, looking baffled.
“Wow! You mean you’ve never done the laundry and ended up with an odd number of socks?”
“Not that I can recall, no. Anyway, I usually buy a dozen pairs the same so if I get holes in a couple the others still match.”
“All the same? That’s boring, I prefer a bit of variety.”
“I can see that,” Ryo chuckled, looking at the colorful jumble that Dee was still digging through. He checked his watch. “You’d better hurry up or we’re going to be late.
“Okay, okay! Fine!” Dee snatched up two socks that looked vaguely similar. “These will have to do, they’re almost the same color. No one’s gonna be looking at my feet, right?”
“As long as you don’t sit with them up on the desk you should be okay,” Ryo told him, amusement tingeing his voice.
“Good enough.” Dee tugged the odd socks on and went in search of his boots. “Aren’t you comin’? You’re the one said we were gonna be late!”
“But what about…?” Ryo trailed off, gesturing helplessly at the mess on Dee’s bedroom floor.
“Ah, just leave ‘em. They’re not going anywhere. Probably. You can never really be sure with socks.” Dee snatched up his jacket. “I’ll put they away tonight.”
As they left the apartment, Ryo just had to ask.
“Why don’t you just throw the odd ones out?”
Dee shrugged.
“That would be wasteful, they’re perfectly good socks! Besides, you never know, the matching ones might turn up someday.”
The End