FAKE Ficlet: Books And Other Comforts
Title: Books And Other Comforts
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo
Rating: G
Setting: Just after Vol. 4, Act 13, while Dee is still sick in bed.
Summary: Dee extols the virtues of books.
Word Count: 383
Written For: jujitsuelf’s prompt ‘Any - Any - Books are good, books drag you away from the real world and into another,’ at
fic_promptly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
“Books are good; books drag you away from the real world and into another one.”
Ryo chuckled. “That’s not what I expected you to say.” He sat down on the edge of Dee’s bed.
Dee raised an eyebrow, then winced as the movement made his head hurt. He was off work with what Ryo said was probably flu. Ryo had come over after work to see if he needed anything and had found him lying in bed, nose buried in a book, not a comic book but an actual novel. It had surprised him enough to make him comment that he hadn’t thought Dee would be much of a reader.
“So what were you expecting me to say?”
“I don’t know. Maybe that you were bored and the TV is in the other room, something like that.”
“Well, guess you don’t know as much as you think you do.” Dee set the book aside after marking his page. “I don’t get as much time for reading as I’d like these days, but I’ve always got a stack of books waiting to be read. I read when I can’t sleep, or if we’re working a really bad case, or if the weather’s bad and I don’t want to go anywhere. It makes me forget what’s going on in real life, gets me involved in something else. Right now, it’s helping me forget how gross I feel.” He held up the book. “This one’s set in Alaska. I thought all the snow might make me feel cooler.”
“Is it helping?”
“Some, I think, but I can’t read for long at a time because it makes my head ache.”
Ryo plumped up a pillow, swung his feet up on the bed and settled comfortably. “How about if I read to you for a bit?”
“You’d do that?”
“Sure.” Ryo held out a hand for the book and Dee gave it to him. “I read this one a few months ago, it’s really good. Where did you get up to?” He opened it to the marked page.
Smiling, Dee told him and lay back against his pillows, listening to Ryo’s quiet voice filling his head with images of forests and snow and barren tundra. Yes, books were good, but nothing beat the comfort of not being alone.
The End