FAKE Ficlet: Shelter From The Storm

[bk_forever]

Title: Shelter From The Storm

Fandom: FAKE

Author: badly_knitted

Characters: Dee, Ryo.

Rating: PG-13

Setting: During the later volumes of the manga.

Summary: Visiting a murder scene is never peasant, but sometimes the weather makes things so much worse.

Word Count: 396

Written For: My own prompt ‘FAKE, Dee/Ryo, "I know the forecast said high winds, but this is insane!",’ at fic_promptly.

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

“I know the forecast was for high winds, but this is ridiculous!” Dee shouted over the gale, hoping Ryo could hear him.

They were struggling to keep their balance, buffeted by powerful gusts, as they tried to make their way across the open area of wasteland beside the East River to where a body had been dumped.

Ryo kept trying to pull his coat tighter around him, but it wasn’t doing him any good. The bitter wind seemed to cut right through to his bones and it was all he could do to keep his teeth from chattering as he replied.

“I don’t envy the crime scene people; the wind’s going to make collecting evidence next to impossible, everything that matters has probably already been blown away, except for whatever the body might be lying on.”

They were walking side-by-side, but because of the howling gale whipping their words from their mouths, they could barely hear each other. It was hard enough to stay on their feet because of the uneven ground, so they had to keep their eyes down and watch where they stepped, but then a particularly strong gust suddenly caught Ryo mid-step, knocking him off balance and against Dee, who stumbled even as he grabbed hold of his partner, only just managing to keep them both upright.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, thanks for that.”

“Better keep well away from the river’s edge or we might find ourselves taking a swim.”

Ryo nodded, grimacing. “Not a pleasant thought in these temperatures.”

A few more minutes of battling the elements and they reached the site of the body dump. The vic looked like a street kid, late teens; a drug user judging by the track marks on his arms. But it wasn’t the drugs that had killed him; he’d been beaten to a pulp.

“No one deserves to wind up like that,” Dee said soberly as he and Ryo joined the uniforms in trying to keep the wind off the coroner, who was examining the body.

“He’s not much older than Bikky,” Ryo agreed quietly, his words coming through clearly in a momentary lull.

“Didn’t have someone like you to look out for him,” Dee replied.

“Sometimes I wish I could do more than just investigate their deaths after the fact and inform their families.”

“I know, but at least if we can find the killers we can give the families a degree of closure.”

It wasn’t much of a consolation, but that was how it usually went with murder cases. As the wind whipped itself into a frenzy once more and an icy rain started to fall, the detectives stood firm against the battering they were taking, providing some small amount of shelter in the lee of which the forensics people and the medical examiner could do their jobs. Later they’d get down to the business of finding the murderer, but for now, it was the best they could do.

The End

Comments

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

It must always really bother him if a victim's around Bikky's age; what a mess Bikky's life would have been if Ryo hadn't taken him in. I'm sure he can't help but wonder what if sometimes.

I just got up to Jess's part of Dee's backstory. Wow. It shows how strong a person he is, that he still thinks highly of Jess despite the corruption. Geez, if this manga isn't making me laugh, there are times when it almost makes me cry.

[bk_forever]

FAKE is an emotional roller-coaster, I love the way it engages my emotions, even after a dozen or more re-readings of some scenes. Dee can separate Jess the man from Jess the cop, he knows that Jess gave him good advice and taught him to be a good person even though he didn't follow his own advice.

I like to explore that about Ryo, the knowledge of what Bikky would likely have faced if he hadn't taken the boy in. Ryo cares, he'd do more if he could, but at least he's given one boy a better chance at life.

Thank you.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Very welcome. :)

These characters are just so fascinating; I'm really glad I started reading it.

There's so much more depth to them than you'd find in most real people. Including both men's inherent goodness. Such shitty experiences for them both, and instead of making those experiences into excuses to fail, they use them for the inspiration to succeed. Plus, there's this strong innocent vibe from Ryo, in spite of it all. In a way, he's very much a manga equivalent to Radar: Seen a lot of shit, still maintains a certain degree of innocence that it can't touch. If it weren't for that, Dee would have gone ahead and done as he likes with him early on, probably. The fact that he can't let himself, that he respects Ryo too much to push him too far too quickly (despite the eagerness with which he pounces on the poor guy)...I absolutely love that in him.

[bk_forever]

Dee has a strong moral compass, he'll not force himself on anyone, and he falls pretty hard for Ryo, probably because of that innocence and goodness he sees in him. He wants Ryo, but he wants Ryo to want him to. Ryo's not naive, but he's idealistic. He's also oblivious to certain things and a bit of an airhead, so I think that makes Dee feel protective of him, even though he knows Ryo can take care of himself.

I love Radar. He has his feet firmly on the ground despite the horrors of Korea. M*A*S*H wasn't the same without him.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

That reminds me: One thing I really didn't like was Dee calling Ryo a "dumb blonde". That was very uncool of the creator to do that. *is a blonde*

Gotta love that Radar, alright! I'm amazed the place was able to run without him. He pretty much kept that camp as clockwork as possible.

[bk_forever]

Tact is not always Dee's strong point. I do love him calling Ryo a little worker ant though.

I'm a darkish blonde myself, my sister has fairer hair than I do, and CAN be a bit dumb, but she's also a fully qualified occupational therapist with a doctorate, so she must have a bit of sense too. I'm proud of her, but we don't really get along. She's very bossy.

Radar and Hawkeye were always my favourites. I've got all of M*A*S*H on DVD now, managed to get the whole collection in a box set very cheap, I was lucky.

[lil-1337.livejournal.com]

I loved the comment about the Forensics people. It adds so much to the flow of the piece and gives it a sense of being grounded in reality.

The last part was sad and far too real unfortunately. Far too often the families don't care and/or are the reason the kid ended up where he did.

[bk_forever]

Yeah, I know. Ryo lives in hope and tries his best though. This went in a direction I didn't expect. It was going to be light-hearted, but this happened instead.

I do try to make the policework realistic. I don't always succeed, but the forensics people deserve some recognition.

Thank you!