FAKE Ficlet: Not Dying Today

[bk_forever]

Title: Not Dying Today

Fandom: FAKE

Author: badly_knitted

Characters: Leo Grant, Ryo, Dee

Rating: PG-15

Setting: Mainly Vol. 5 Act 14 and Vol. 3 Act 9, but with a tiny hint to Vol. 7 Act 19.

Summary: Leo knows he’s not going to die today. That’s too bad.

Word Count: 346

Written For: Challenge #92: Enemies at fan_flashworks

Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

A/N: I was not supposed to be writing a third fill for this challenge. I’m supposed to be writing drabbles and working on some of my WiPs. But this happened instead.

To Leo, it had been just a job; one he and the boys had managed to royally screw up, it’s true, but still just one more job for the boss.

That’s not the way the kid sees it though. No, not a kid, not any more. He’s a cop now, sighting down the barrel of the gun he has aimed, albeit shakily, at one of the men who killed his parents and destroyed his world. To him, Leo Grant is the enemy: a criminal, a mob boss, and the source of the greatest grief and pain he’s known in his life.

Leo can see the desperation and rage in the other man’s eyes; the urge to kill is strong, but it’s already clear to Leo that he won’t be dying today. If he were the one holding the gun, he could take the man’s life without a second’s thought, but this young detective is no killer. He could do it self defence, or in the line of duty, but not like this; not in cold blood, facing an unarmed opponent, no matter how badly he wants to avenge his parents. Even with his soul screaming for Leo’s blood, he doesn’t have it in him to be so completely ruthless.

His partner though… he’s a different matter. Street punk made good, he’s got that edge, and right now the muzzle of his gun is pressed to the back of Leo’s head. He’s willing to do it, to kill Leo on his partner’s behalf and take the murder rap. That’s just beautiful. He really could do it. Still, despite being faced down by two armed cops with every reason in the world to kill him, Leo’s just going to get in his car and drive away, because one of them can’t kill him and the other chooses not to.

Leo has no choice but to go on living because one of the only two people in the world who has the undeniable right to take his life has too many scruples to do the deed.

How bitterly ironic.

The End

Comments

[awieatti.livejournal.com]

Ah, that was an intense scene! At first I was a bit sceptical about reading it from Leo's perspective, but it turned out great. It's really interesting to see Ryo and Dee (and the whole situation) from his point of view. I must admit, Leo has pretty good people skills, recognizing right away what's going on in their heads.
Great fic! :)

[bk_forever]

Leo's smart, he can read people's body language or he wouldn't have lived as long as he has in the business he's in.

I wasn't even intending to write FAKE at all when I opened document to do some writing - I was going to write a Torchwood drabble, but somehow I got this instead, I wrote it in about twenty minutes. Leo is kind of world weary. I got the feeling he wants to die, but doesn't think he deserves that release, not by his own hand. He has Ryo pegged pretty quickly; Dee he's initially less sure of, but the longer Dee delays in pulling the trigger, the more sure Leo is that he won't do it. It's a bit of a stand-off, but in the end it's more important to Dee to be there for Ryo than to kill Leo, so he lets him go. It really is a very powerful and emotional scene

Thank you.

[timelordshines.livejournal.com]

Wonderful.
You painted the picture really well.

[bk_forever]

Thank you! It's one of the big, important scenes, a stand-off between Ryo and Leo Grant, which thankfully Dee interrupts. This is part of the scene before Ryo comes on to Dee and gets slapped in my fic 'In Hot Water', this is what Ryo was trying to use Dee to forget.

Leo is high up in the Mob by now, but he has kind of a death wish except he's not going to take his own life. He's waiting for someone else to do it, preferably someone who has the right to, which means either Ryo or Leo's wife Alicia.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Ryo would have hated himself if he'd pulled that trigger. He's just not that person; there's too much goodness in him. And his parents would never have wanted that. I don't think he and Dee could ever have looked each other in the face again if Dee had done it.

I love how tired Leo sounds here. If only he'd been just a bit smarter, maybe he could've got out the way his wife wanted him to. It would've meant living the rest of their lives in hiding, but they could at least have had a life together.

[bk_forever]

True on all counts. Dee would have sacrificed everything for Ryo's sake if he'd had to, but it wasn't necessary because Ryo could not kill in cold blood.

Leo could probably have got away with Alicia, but I think the guilt of everything he'd done was weighing too heavily on him for that. He didn't believe he deserved freedom, but he wanted one of the people he'd wronged the most to deliver the ultimate punishment for his crimes. Better that it should be Alicia rather than Ryo though, she was already damaged. Perhaps in a way what she did was a mercy killing. She freed Leo and maybe she freed herself in a way too. They couldn't have gone back to the way they were.

Thank you.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

I wish there had been another way out for them. I almost wanted to cry when I reached that part of the manga. They must have both felt like life had them in a stranglehold. :(

Very, very welcome; this really felt like it came right out of the manga itself.

[bk_forever]

One of the things I love doing is trying to get inside the characters' heads during my favourite scenes, so I've done it quite a lot, but I think this is the only time I've taken the POV of one of the criminals. Usually it's Ryo or Dee, occasionally Bikky. I'm not really sure where this one came from, it just popped into my head and I was really pleased with the result.

Sometimes I think FAKE has spoiled me for a lot of manga because it has such depth of emotion. It really tugs at you.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

I love doing that, too. I keep going back to the Doctor in all his angsty glory, just because he's irresistible like that.

You might be right, there. Certainly InuYasha didn't have anything this deep. Or Death Note. I think Fullmetal Alchemist came close at times. But, yeah, nothing I've read has really come close to this. The characters are so well-rounded, with perfectly human foibles and strengths.

[bk_forever]

I'm only 4 volumes in in FMA, I've read the first 2 on InuYasha, which is fun, and I've watched some of it on YouTube too but it's been a while. I started reading DeathNote, I've got the first 2 of that as well, I just haven't finished the first one yet. Not sure where I put it. FAKE just seems to have it all, so even when I dip into other manga it's FAKE I go back to over and over. I love that Dee and Ryo aren't perfect, they screw up, they fight, they have doubts, but they muddle though and do their best, and even before they become lovers, they're always there for each other. Even Bikky, he can be a brat but he's a good kid deep down.