Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Into the Woods ❯ Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Fake.

 

 

Back in the precinct on Monday, things were pretty strained between Ryo and Dee, and JJ avoided them both. Work moved quicker than usual since Dee concentrated more on his job and less on his partner. Drake noticed the change between them, but decided it was wiser not to get involved. So things went on that way for a while and before they knew it, another month had passed.

 

“Hey! You two!” the Chief called, pointing to Dee and Ryo, “MY office!”

 

The men glanced at each other and followed the older man to his office. “I need someone to go back to the old building and search for a couple files that might've gotten left in the basement. Guess who's going to do it?” he said with a vicious grin toward Dee.

 

“What, why ME?” Dee replied in his best whine.

 

“Because you screwed up the paperwork on that case last week, that's why!” he shouted back.

 

“Aww, come on! I've been SO good with everything else, give me a break!” the dark-haired man pleaded.

 

“Just because you used to screw up ALL the time and now you only screw up SOME of the time doesn't help you!” the Chief screeched, handing Ryo a set of keys. “Here, Maclean, you'll be escorting him there- since I don't trust this lughead to not get lost in the rubble!'

 

“But that building's not safe anymore! It could collapse! You might be sending us to our deaths!” Dee whined melodramatically.

 

“I'll take that chance!” said the Chief, walking around his desk to open the door. “Get going.”

 

Ryo simply nodded and dragged Dee out behind him.

 

A half-hour later the two men found themselves outside of what had, until a year before, served as the headquarters of their precinct.

 

“What happened to this place?” Ryo asked as they made their way as best they could through the roofless hallways toward the door of the basement.

 

“Some looney after the Chief set off a bomb in the place. Everyone got out, but it was a pretty close call,” Dee explained.

 

They stepped up to the door and Ryo pushed it open as it protested with a loud, rusty squeak. “Ladies first,” he said with a teasing grin as he motioned Dee inside.

 

“Hmpf,” Dee muttered as he turned on a flashlight and descended.

 

It took a few hours, but they finally managed to recover some of the missing files. By that time, the two of them were covered in sweat and caked with dust. The day had been hotter than anticipated and there was nothing they could use to cool down between the stuffy basement walls.

 

“Christ these New York summers can get hot!” Dee said, wiping his forehead with a grimy sleeve and smearing his forehead with dirt.

 

“Yeah, I'll agree with you there!” said Ryo, opening his shirt a few buttons further and blowing his bangs off his sticky forehead. “Let's get outta here and breathe some fresh air!” he said, motioning Dee to follow.

 

“Come on!” Dee called from behind when Ryo pushed at the door unsuccessfully.

 

“Just give me a second, the door shut behind us and I think it's stuck,” Ryo said over his shoulder.

 

“Well, try the keys the Chief gave you,” Dee said impatiently.

 

There was a pause from Ryo then he said, “I- I think I left them in the car.”

 

“WHAT?” Dee yelled. In a moment he had pushed his partner aside and was shouldering the door in a vain attempt to push it open. It didn't budge. “DAMN it!” he yelled, rubbing his shoulder. “This whole place falls to pieces and we get trapped behind the ONE door that won't move!”

 

“I'm sure they'll send someone out here after a while when we don't respond to the radio in the car,” Ryo said, in a voice calmer than he really felt. The heat was stifling and he didn't relish being stuck in it for another few hours.

 

One more try on the door and Dee sat down on the steps, defeated.

 

“Come back down,” Ryo said as he walked down the steps. “It'll be less hot if we're lower.”

 

Sighing, Dee nodded and they descended back among the dusty old filing cabinets and debris. He sat down and opened his shirt, leaning his head back against the wall. After Dee turned off the flashlight, it took a few minutes for their eyes to adjust to the dim light seeping through a few small, grimy windows. But, eventually, Ryo could see Dee across the room from him, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths. When he realized he'd been staring at the man's bare chest, he quickly turned away.

 

“So,” Dee said after a few moments of silence, “We might be here for a while, what do you wanna talk about?”

 

“Do we have to talk about something?” Ryo said, not sure where a conversation between the two of them would go at the moment and a bit frightened at what topics could come up while they were trapped together- alone.

 

“Well, it's kinda hard to talk about `nothing'” Dee said with a little laugh, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

 

But Ryo remained silent and the time dragged on, the sun slowing setting and the room between them growing dimmer.

 

Finally, Dee couldn't take the silence any longer. He was tired of the tension between him and his partner and tired of dancing around the issues between them.

 

“Ryo,” he said in a soft voice, “Why did you really leave that morning?”

 

Closing his eyes, the blond blew out a long breath, it was exactly the kind of question he had been dreading. But there was no avoiding it now.

 

"Dee.." Ryo began hesitantly, "that night...everything... it was too much for me; it was too overwhelming to feel so many emotions so intensely and suddenly. I had almost no experience before then, I was swept away by it all... and it left me wrecked and shaken on the other side."

 

As the man before him spoke, Dee finally realized that fatal error he had made that night when he set his mind on seducing this man. Ryo just hadn't been ready emotionally- no matter how ready his body had seemed. A bitter smirk crossed Dee's face. All this time, he had blamed Ryo for skipping out on him, for being too weak to face what was between them. But it was HE who had been weak- too stubborn and single-minded to realize the possible consequences of his actions.

 

"I'm sorry, Ryo..." the blond heard his partner mutter from the darkness of the other side of the room.

 

"Sorry? Why?" he asked.

 

"I didn't realize... I thought you, well, I thought you wanted that as much as I did," he paused, "I didn't realize that it might overwhelm you; I never wanted to push you..." His words trailed off.

 

"Dee," Ryo murmured, a smile so sweet gracing his face that if the other man had seen it in the failing light, it would've melted his heart. "You didn't push me," he said.

 

"You say that but..."

 

"No, Dee," insisted his partner, scooting his way over to the other man until he was able to see his face. He raised one hand and gently brought it up to press his palm against Dee's face to find it wet with tears. "Oh, Dee, please don't regret what happened between us," he said. Then, in a barely audible whisper he added, "I never did."

 

But Dee caught these words nonetheless and looking up, he saw those deep onyx eyes piercing into him with a sincerity beyond his words. Was he a fool to take hope in those words? Dee wondered. It was all he could do not to pull the man to him and press their lips tightly together.

 

Unbeknownst to Dee, Ryo looked at him and found the same urge welling within him. And he realized that this was the reason he hadn't allowed himself to be alone with this man. It became clear to him in that moment that, although he had told himself he had to be careful of Dee's overtures toward him, he had really been protecting himself from his own temptations.

 

"Do you remember it, Ryo?” Dee whispered, his face leaning forward so that the words brushed against the blond's cheek. When Ryo didn't protest he continued,“Do you remember the way our lips met that night?” Shifting his weight, Dee pushed back from the wall and brought a hand up to gently caress the line of Ryo's jaw, eyeing his parted lips.

 

“Do you remember my mouth moving down your neck?” he breathed heatedly, letting his hand drop and trace the column of the man's throat, feeling the pulse throb beneath his fingers.

 

Ryo remained silent, eyes shut, suspended in indecision. The very air around him seemed to pound in his ears in the silence between Dee's words.

 

“Or how I touched you and made you cry out my name?”

 

A barely audible whimper escaped passed Ryo's lips and he swayed forward. Not much, but enough for Dee to see that he was yielding, that with every breath he was closer to giving in.

 

“Do you want to feel that again?” Dee said in a hushed, seductive tone. When an involuntary gasp came from the blond man, Dee knew that all he had to do was take what he wanted and Ryo would be his. Until the morning anyway. At that thought the old feelings of anger and abandonment swelled up inside him, pulling Dee's lust in check.

 

Eyes shut, sweat slipping down his back from the heat and the anticipation for the kiss he secretly yearned for, Ryo waited. But he felt Dee suddenly move away.

 

Ryo blinked at the empty space before him, his mind slowly coming back to him and he shivered at the realization of how deeply he had been under Dee's spell just moments before. It was this knowledge that, with just a few words, Dee was able to supplant his will with his own that frightened Ryo the most. That his true desires were fighting to surface was not an option Ryo was willing to confront just yet.

 

“Dee...?” Ryo called out into the now-darkened room.

 

“Ryo,” came his voice, somewhere nearby, “I-“

 

"Well! There you are!!" a loud voice said, piercing the fragile air between the two men and casting a beam of dazzling light down into the room.

 

"Drake!" Ryo called, trying to sound grateful at his rescue. Dee merely turned away to grab his coat and avoided the other man's eyes.

 

"You guys ok?" the other officer said, leaning down the steep steps to look at them.

 

“Come on, hurry up!” they heard JJ call from the top of the landing.

 

"Yeah, we're fine...," said Ryo, starting up the stairs.

 

Behind them, Dee sighed. He decided then that he was either going to have to pine after Ryo forever and switch partners, or finally put the man out of his heart and move on. There was no way he could continue in this limbo of unrequited love. It was too painful and, if Ryo truly wanted his traditional life, it was too unfair of him to ask for more than the man could give. And then there was Lizzy, who he'd forgotten of as he rehashed old memories with Ryo in the darkness. Despite himself, Dee liked her, and chasing after Ryo would only cause her to pain as well.

 

Shaking his head, Dee decided, there was nothing for it. He was going to have to give up on Ryo.

 

Silence permeated the car as Dee and Ryo made their way back to the station. Each was lost in their own thoughts and a few minutes after they had returned the Chief told them they might as well head home, since it was technically the end of their shift.

 

When Ryo arrived home, he leaned back against the front door and surveyed the apartment around him. Lizzy was still at work; everything was dark and rather lonesome in the gray light. He put down his things then wandered around the rooms, not even bothering to turn on the lights. It didn't matter to him, the shadows seemed appropriate as he glanced at all the items- books, keepsakes and such- that he had collected over his short life. Each cast a shadow in his mind as surely as they cast shadows over the walls or floor. Each surrendered a different memory. He thought he kept them to comfort himself with those memories, but now he wondered if he hadn't placed them about his rooms to try and somehow anchor himself to the life he was now leading. As if the memories they represented were the /proper/ ones, the ones he felt he /should/ remember, rather than the ones that actually haunted his heart and mind.

 

There was nothing he had kept from those few days with Dee. No concrete evidence that it had ever happened. But that hadn't stopped Ryo from reliving that time over and over, wondering if he had made the right choice when he left that morning so many years ago.

 

He'd done such a thorough job of convincing himself that his life was on the right track, that it was the life he wanted and had worked for. But being around Dee again had shaken his firmest resolve, it made him feel like that teenager again: so unsure of what he was supposed to do in life and feeling that spark of love for the first time...

 

Had it been love? Ryo mused, sitting down and wrapping himself in the dark, hugging his knees tightly to his chest and a familiar ache bound his heart.

 

Lizzy found him in the same position hours later when she came home.

 

 

********Final chapter is next!