FAKE Ficlet: Frozen
Title: Frozen
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, JJ, Ryo, Drake, Ted
Rating: G
Setting: Somewhere in the middle of the manga.
Summary: Dee and JJ are lost and cold.
Word Count: 588
Written For:
davincis_girl’s prompt ‘any, any, huddling together for warmth’ at
fic_promptly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
“Don’t get any ideas,” Dee muttered to JJ. “I’m only agreeing to this because otherwise we’ll probably both freeze to death.”
“You DO care,” JJ managed through chattering teeth.
“NO! I just don’t want to get stuck with the paperwork if you drop dead.”
“You’re just saying that, I know you don’t mean it.” JJ snuggled closer, shivering.
Investigating a crime scene together, the blizzard had hit so suddenly that they’d had little chance to look for shelter. They’d tried to head back to their car, but the air was so full of snow that they couldn’t see more than a couple of feet in any direction and soon became confused, not sure which way they were going. As they were in Central Park, there was a real danger they could get lost, so they’d huddled up against some rocks where they were at least out of the icy wind, hoping to wait out the worst until they could see where they were going. He’d radioed in to let the chief know then just hunkered down with JJ, huddling together for warmth.
That had been almost an hour ago and it was starting to get dark; snow was piling up around them, but there didn’t seem to be any less of it falling down. Dee couldn’t feel his feet, or his hands despite his gloves. His teeth were chattering just as hard as JJ’s and he wished he was cuddled up with Ryo instead. Freezing to death beside the man he loved would have been kinda romantic, in a macabre sort of way. JJ was probably loving every minute.
After what seemed like forever, the hypnotic fall of snow seemed to be starting to lessen and Dee blinked wet snowflakes from his eyelashes.
“JJ? Still with me?”
“Mmmm, right here, Mr Studly.”
“I think the snow’s stopping.”
“Uh huh.”
They fell silent again, waiting, until distantly Dee heard a voice.
“Dee? Dee, where are you?”
For a moment, Dee thought he was hearing things. That sounded like Ryo. Then he saw the beam of a flashlight, swinging back and forth in the gathering dark. Search party!
“Over here!” he shouted, as loudly as he could manage. “By the rocks!” It took a bit of shouting back and forth before Ryo appeared out of the snow in front of them like a vision, Ted, Drake, and a handful of uniformed officers with him, all of them wrapped up against the cold and bearing blankets and other emergency supplies. “Man, you’re a sight for sore eyes!” Dee was grinning so hard his teeth hurt.
“Thought we’d never find you,” Ryo replied, handing Dee a blanket. “You okay?”
“Hot shower and something to eat and I’ll be fine. Not sure my feet will work though.”
“That’s okay, you can lean on me.”
Ryo helped him up, supporting him, as Drake fussed over JJ, bundling the little guy up until he looked like an Eskimo.
“You’re lucky we found you. If you’d been lost in the Park all night in these temperatures…” Ryo didn’t need to finish his sentence; they both knew what he meant.
“Nah, no chance of that. I knew the Chief would send out a search party.” Hobbling along beside Ryo on half-frozen feet, Dee smiled to himself, content despite being so cold. It hardly mattered what had almost happened. Ryo had come looking for him; that had to mean he cared, right? Dee knew he could survive anything as long as he had Ryo to come home to.
The End
Sequel: ' The Search Party'