Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Misery ❯ Much Needed Apology ( Chapter 12 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Kita and Subu-chan 
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Action / Drama / Romance / Police | Type: Shounen-ai | Uploaded On: 01.25.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 435 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Action / Drama / Romance / Police | Type: Shounen-ai | Uploaded On: 01.25.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 435 | Status: Work In Progress
Chapter Twelve-Much Needed Apology
Disclaimers still stand, people. We don’t own any of this. We just have a little too much fun with it. We like confusing the hell out of poor Drake.
Catti-Do you want a job? I like having a number one fan like you! (Shut up, Akita. And Catti-dono-please ignore anything she says. I saw you take her Ritalin. I would very much appreciate it if you would give it back. If I have to put up with her unmedicated, there will not be a chapter thirteen. I may send her over to your house so I can get some work done.-S.) Don’t do that, Subu-chan! *whimpers* She won’t like me anymore if you do that. (And your point is? I already don’t like you.) You’re mean!
Drake woke suddenly, with a crick in his neck from hell. His left arm was totally numb and there was something warm cuddled against him. Blinking the sleep crust from his eyes, he absently wondered where he was. He glanced down at the silvery-hued head of hair nestled against his shoulder and felt his heart skip a beat. What the-?
Slowly, memory returned and he managed to start breathing again. After JJ’s breakdown, they had eaten dinner and decided to watch a movie. They must have both fallen asleep, but how in god’s name had he ended up being used as a pillow by his partner? Drake studied JJ’s face, relaxed now in sleep. The vestiges of last night’s crying jag were still visible. His eyes were puffy and Drake would bet a hundred bucks that when he opened them, they’d be red-rimmed. His lashes were dried together in clumps from the tears and his nose was red. All in all, he looked like hell, but was curled up contentedly against Drake, a tiny smile curving his sleeping lips.
Drake jumped at the knock on the door, somehow managing not to disturb his sleeping partner. Carefully, he slipped out from under JJ, groaning softly as stiff muscles protested. Leaving JJ still sleeping, he padded silently to the door of JJ’s apartment and opened it.
Dee leaned casually against the doorframe, dark hair tousled. He looked surprised to see Drake. But he grinned quickly. “Hey, Drake.”
For a moment, Drake was taken aback. How dare he show up here now! Wasn’t JJ’s heartbroken crying bout last night enough?! Did Dee honestly have any idea how much he had hurt JJ? Suddenly, a feeling of unreasoning, unremitting hatred for his friend seized Drake. How could he-?
Stunned by the anger that filled him, Drake could only blink stupidly at Dee for a long moment. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Can I come in?” Dee asked when the silence stretched to uncomfortable proportions.
Drake shook himself. “Not my place to say. JJ’s asleep.” He resolutely shoved his anger and subsequent thoughts into a dark corner of his mind where he could look at them objectively later. HA, his subconscious snorted. Okay, so maybe not so objectively.
Dee frowned at him. “Look, I want to talk to him, okay? Anyway, what the hell are you doing here?”
Drake managed a half-hearted chuckle. “I took JJ to the ER yesterday, y’know, for that fall I told you about?” When Dee nodded, he went on. “They doped him up but good. He and pain meds don’t mix well. He was pretty out of it and acting like he was high. His aunt ran into us when I was bringing him home. She insisted I stick around and take care of him. And let me tell you, that lady’s scarier than Chief Smith, Commissioner Rose, and Diana Spacey all rolled into one. No way was I crossing her!”
“Drake-sempai?”
They both turned as one to locate the source of the voice. A very wobbly JJ supported himself against the wall. “I heard you talking. Who-?” JJ’s voice trailed off and his skin went so pale that his red-rimmed eyes gave him the appearance of the walking dead. Or the falling dead, Drake amended mentally as JJ’s knees gave out and he sank into a heap at the base of the wall.
“JJ!” Drake rushed to JJ. “Are you okay?”
JJ struggled back to his feet with Drake’s aid. “I-I’m fine, Drake-sempai. It’s nothing.” Drake watched in concern as JJ pasted a patently false smile on his face. His face was still colorless and through his grip on JJ’s arm, Drake could feel his partner’s heart racing.
Dee took a step towards them and Drake reacted without thinking, fixing the dark-haired man with a glare and a snarl. Dee actually flinched back.
Drake struggled to get his temper back under control. When he could speak again without growling, he cleared his throat. “If we’re going to talk, let’s do it in the kitchen, so JJ can sit down-” He quelled the incipient protest with a sideways glance. “And take his medication. I’ll make coffee.”
Drake helped JJ into the kitchen and set about making coffee, blessing JJ’s aunt for showing him where the coffee and filters were last night. Dee watched him work with a curious look on his face and JJ just huddled in his chair, staring at the tabletop. Drake couldn’t help the black scowl that crept over his face at the sight of JJ looking so pathetic and beaten. He poured three cups of scalding hot coffee and wished that he could pour it in Dee’s lap instead. Dee had been his friend for a long time, but at the moment, his feelings were anything but friend-like toward the dark-haired detective. Drake knew he should be embarrassed by the anger he was displaying toward his friend, but couldn’t find it in himself to care. God, if he so much as made JJ sniffle, he was going to take a few strips out of Dee’s hide.
Dee sipped his coffee in silence for a moment and glanced up. “Good coffee. Thanks.”
Drake grunted a noncommittal reply and JJ raised his head. His cheeks were still colorless and the hands around his coffee mug trembled ever so slightly, but his voice was clear as he asked, “How’s Ryo?”
Dee grimaced. “Getting there. He was still asleep when Bikky and I went there first thing, but they woke him up for tests. I left Bikky there and came to see how you were doing. He’ll call me when they get done with the tests.”
“Oh…” Drake expected JJ to brighten at the thought that Dee actually cared enough to come check on him, but oddly enough, his normally hyper partner just drooped even more.
Dee glanced at Drake, taking in his stony scowl and looked back at JJ’s slumped figure. “JJ, can I talk to you for a minute without the watchdog?”
JJ looked up and blinked slowly. “Uhh-”
Drake set his coffee cup down with a thump, ignoring the way coffee sloshed onto JJ’s kitchen table. “If you have anything to say you can say it in front of me, Dee. Otherwise, get lost.” Ignoring Dee’s raised eyebrow, he rose and got JJ’s medications from the bag on the counter. He was filling a glass with water from the refrigerator when Dee finally spoke.
“Geez, could you give it a rest with the jealous boyfriend routine for a minute?”
The glass slipped out of Drake’s fingers and shattered on the tile as he turned to glare at his friend in shocked disbelief. “What the hell…?”
JJ looked up, his face a mix of emotions that Drake was too upset to try and figure out. Dee, on the other hand, merely smirked and rested his chin on his hand. “Oh, don’t even try to deny it. You’ve been acting the jealous bitch ever since I got he-”
That was as far as he got before Drake’s fist connected with his jaw. Dee went down hard but came up again, spitting mad. “What the fuck was that for, you bastard?” He roared, ignoring the trickle of blood leaking from his split lip.
JJ lurched to his feet. “Drake-sempai!”
Drake had dropped into a fighter’s stance, ready for Dee to come at him. Dee stared at him for a long moment and then started to laugh. “Hell, I deserved that one, didn’t I?”
Drake warily uncoiled, eyeing Dee like he still might attack. “Y-yeah, you did.”
Dee wiped the blood from his chin with a grimace, righted his overturned chair and sank back down into it. “And you still have a left on you that Muhammad Ali would envy. Damn, that hurt!”
JJ looked like he was torn between wanting to confront Drake and comfort Dee or curse at Dee and calm Drake. Finally, the picture of confused exasperation, he did neither and sank back into his chair, head lowered.
Only to bolt back to his feet a second later. “Drake-sempai, your feet!”
Drake glanced down at his bare feet, only then registering that he had sliced his left foot to ribbons on the broken glass. “Ow, shit!”
Dee, the only one wearing shoes in the room, came to Drake’s aid, sliding a chair under him so he could sit and fetching the broom and dustpan from the corner. JJ hurried to the bathroom and fetched his first aid kit. As Dee swept up the rest of the broken glass, he cast a sidelong glance at JJ as the slender man knelt to pull bits of glass out of his partner’s foot. So, that was the way of it then…
Dee disposed of the glass and watched the two men with something bordering on amusement. Drake was trying to reassure JJ that he was fine and that JJ needed to sit back down and take his medicine while JJ insisted that Drake wasn’t fine and that he didn’t need to sit down. Dee grinned again, even though it made his split lip sting and his entire jaw ache. If only those two had any idea of just how much they looked like a couple. Far be it from him to enlighten them, though. He rubbed his jaw ruefully. He didn’t think he could take another punch.
It looked like JJ was finally getting over him. As for Drake…? Dee shrugged mentally. As far as he knew, Drake was straight, but he could be wrong. God knows, Drake’s track record in the dating department wasn’t exactly flawless. He had no luck hanging onto a girlfriend for more than a few months at best. Well, it wasn’t like it was any of his business, but he had no desire to see either of his friends get hurt. He’d have to keep a careful eye on this to see how things played out.
When JJ had finished picking glass from Drake’s lacerated foot and had wrapped it in gauze, Dee jerked his head toward the living room. “JJ, I still need to talk to you for a minute.”
JJ hesitated, torn. Drake scowled fiercely at Dee until the dark-haired man dropped him a wink that made his cheeks turn red. “C’mon, JJ.”
Glancing hesitantly back at Drake, JJ rose to his feet and followed Dee into the living room.
Dee turned and pushed JJ down on the couch. “Drake was right, though. You really need to sit down.”
JJ looked up at him warily, appearing for all the world like he thought he was going to be yelled at again. His good shoulder was hunched up as if to ward off a blow and his silver-toned hair flopped into his eyes.
Dee dropped down to sit cross-legged on the floor. That put JJ’s head higher than his and some of the tension eased from his posture as JJ unconsciously responded to that. “Look, JJ, I’m sorry.”
JJ shook his head. “You were way out of line, but Drake really shouldn’t have punched you.”
“Not for that, idiot.” Dee scowled but quickly modulated it into a grimace when he saw JJ’s almost imperceptible flinch. “I’m sorry I’ve been an ass to you sometimes. Okay,” he corrected himself. “A lot of times.”
“Dee-sempai?”
“Look, you know I don’t love you, right? That I love Ryo?”
Pain flashed across JJ’s mobile face but he nodded. “I know. I’ve known that for a while now, but it’s just hard. I’ve loved you for so long.” Tears welled in JJ’s eyes, but he bit his lip and held them back with an impressive show of will.
Dee sighed. “Look, I’m sorry that things turned out the way they did. But even if I had never met Ryo…”
A small, tremulous smile curved up the corners of JJ’s mouth, an expression that held more sadness than humor. “-You still wouldn’t ever have loved me, right?” As Dee’s nod, JJ sighed. “I knew that, really, but I just couldn’t make myself give up hope. I loved you from the moment I met you.”
Dee sighed. “What can I say?”
JJ forced another smile, this one somehow managing to be more pathetic than the last. “You don’t have to say anything. It’s not your fault that I’m an idiot who fell head over heels for someone who couldn’t care one way or the other about me.”
Dee scowled at him. “Now stop that! I never said that. You could be a good friend if you would just quit glomping me every chance you get. Look, I know you’re a good detective and pretty damned smart, so just quit acting like a kid, tackling me around blind corners and in stairways, and we’ll get along just fine. You know it pisses off Ryo too, right?”
Something that might have been a real smile tugged at the corner of JJ’s mouth. “I know. That’s part of why I kept doing it. His expression is priceless.”
That made Dee chuckle. True, Ryo couldn’t hide his feelings when he saw JJ pounce on Dee. To someone like JJ, that jealous expression had to be worth a lot. “Just don’t do it anymore, okay?”
“Okay.” JJ hesitated and met Dee’s eyes, his expression pathetic and full of longing. “Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“It’s only one little thing. It’s not much, I promise. I’ll be good and won’t glomp you ever again…” JJ’s voice quivered on the razor’s edge of breaking, but never quite managed.
“What?”
“D-Dee-sempai, can I have a hug? Just one real hug, please?” Tears welled in Blue eyes as JJ begged earnestly. “I-I won’t do anything else-I just want a hug-I’ll be good-”
“C’mere, you.” Dee sighed and pulled the slighter man against him. JJ quivered like a drawn bowstring an first, but slowly relaxed into Dee’s embrace, his hands tentatively creeping up to wrap snugly around Dee’s waist.
Neither of them had heard Drake’s cell phone ring, but they turned with a start as he snapped it closed, standing in the kitchen doorway. His poker face, the one he used on suspects at work slid neatly into place over an expression that was so full of mixed anger, confusion and hurt that it was downright frightening. “Ted just called.” His voice was flat and unemotional; as coldly clinical as the look in his gray eyes was not. “They’ve got a lead on the guy who shot Ryo.”
Dee straightened up, all his attention now focused on Drake.
“About twenty minutes ago-several of the serial numbers from the cash he stole showed up on a bank scan.” Drake continued tonelessly. “The match came in via Murray’s Pub.”
Dee brightened. “Really?”
Everyone in the Criminal Investigations unit knew Murray’s Pub. It had been used as a money-laundering scheme before, and they had been lucky enough to slip some agents in. Now, it was crewed almost entirely by cops and trusted agents, in the hopes of a truly major bust coming down the pipe. They had kept their predations on the small fry who came through very subtle and quiet, so no one knew Murray’s was now a trap waiting to happen.
“Did they get a shot of him, Drake-sempai?” JJ asked.
In addition to being crewed by cops, Murray’s was wired to the gills with every bit of surveillance equipment the Precinct could beg, steal, borrow, or buy. You couldn’t take a piss in there without electronic eyes on your every move.
“Yep.” Drake nodded and now his expression was predatory and entirely too feral. “And the best part is, he’s still flirting with one of the waitresses. We’re moving men in to take him down as soon as he’s clear of the neighborhood. I’m on my way over now.”
“Not without me.” Dee said with a grin that was even more bloodthirsty than Drake’s.
“You are going back to the hospital to be with Ryo, whether you like it or not.” Drake growled. Dee was taken aback by the anger in his tone. “The chief wasn’t fucking kidding about locking your ass up if you stepped one inch outside the lines on this case.” He transferred his scowl to JJ. “You are taking your meds and going with him to the hospital. Ted says the chief wants both of you ‘overly-emotional schoolboys’ out of harm’s way, and I am not taking the heat for it this time, so you two better damned well do what you’re told this time!”
Drake favored both of them with a final scowl before snatching up his keys and stalking out the door, limping only slightly as he shoved his bandaged foot into his shoes on the way out.
Dee stared after him, a small grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Huh. Wonder what’s got his panties in a twist?”
JJ stared at him in confusion. Dee chuckled and turned the smaller man back toward the kitchen. “C’mon. Maybe we’d better do as we’re told.”
“Dee-sempai?”
Disclaimers still stand, people. We don’t own any of this. We just have a little too much fun with it. We like confusing the hell out of poor Drake.
Catti-Do you want a job? I like having a number one fan like you! (Shut up, Akita. And Catti-dono-please ignore anything she says. I saw you take her Ritalin. I would very much appreciate it if you would give it back. If I have to put up with her unmedicated, there will not be a chapter thirteen. I may send her over to your house so I can get some work done.-S.) Don’t do that, Subu-chan! *whimpers* She won’t like me anymore if you do that. (And your point is? I already don’t like you.) You’re mean!
Drake woke suddenly, with a crick in his neck from hell. His left arm was totally numb and there was something warm cuddled against him. Blinking the sleep crust from his eyes, he absently wondered where he was. He glanced down at the silvery-hued head of hair nestled against his shoulder and felt his heart skip a beat. What the-?
Slowly, memory returned and he managed to start breathing again. After JJ’s breakdown, they had eaten dinner and decided to watch a movie. They must have both fallen asleep, but how in god’s name had he ended up being used as a pillow by his partner? Drake studied JJ’s face, relaxed now in sleep. The vestiges of last night’s crying jag were still visible. His eyes were puffy and Drake would bet a hundred bucks that when he opened them, they’d be red-rimmed. His lashes were dried together in clumps from the tears and his nose was red. All in all, he looked like hell, but was curled up contentedly against Drake, a tiny smile curving his sleeping lips.
Drake jumped at the knock on the door, somehow managing not to disturb his sleeping partner. Carefully, he slipped out from under JJ, groaning softly as stiff muscles protested. Leaving JJ still sleeping, he padded silently to the door of JJ’s apartment and opened it.
Dee leaned casually against the doorframe, dark hair tousled. He looked surprised to see Drake. But he grinned quickly. “Hey, Drake.”
For a moment, Drake was taken aback. How dare he show up here now! Wasn’t JJ’s heartbroken crying bout last night enough?! Did Dee honestly have any idea how much he had hurt JJ? Suddenly, a feeling of unreasoning, unremitting hatred for his friend seized Drake. How could he-?
Stunned by the anger that filled him, Drake could only blink stupidly at Dee for a long moment. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Can I come in?” Dee asked when the silence stretched to uncomfortable proportions.
Drake shook himself. “Not my place to say. JJ’s asleep.” He resolutely shoved his anger and subsequent thoughts into a dark corner of his mind where he could look at them objectively later. HA, his subconscious snorted. Okay, so maybe not so objectively.
Dee frowned at him. “Look, I want to talk to him, okay? Anyway, what the hell are you doing here?”
Drake managed a half-hearted chuckle. “I took JJ to the ER yesterday, y’know, for that fall I told you about?” When Dee nodded, he went on. “They doped him up but good. He and pain meds don’t mix well. He was pretty out of it and acting like he was high. His aunt ran into us when I was bringing him home. She insisted I stick around and take care of him. And let me tell you, that lady’s scarier than Chief Smith, Commissioner Rose, and Diana Spacey all rolled into one. No way was I crossing her!”
“Drake-sempai?”
They both turned as one to locate the source of the voice. A very wobbly JJ supported himself against the wall. “I heard you talking. Who-?” JJ’s voice trailed off and his skin went so pale that his red-rimmed eyes gave him the appearance of the walking dead. Or the falling dead, Drake amended mentally as JJ’s knees gave out and he sank into a heap at the base of the wall.
“JJ!” Drake rushed to JJ. “Are you okay?”
JJ struggled back to his feet with Drake’s aid. “I-I’m fine, Drake-sempai. It’s nothing.” Drake watched in concern as JJ pasted a patently false smile on his face. His face was still colorless and through his grip on JJ’s arm, Drake could feel his partner’s heart racing.
Dee took a step towards them and Drake reacted without thinking, fixing the dark-haired man with a glare and a snarl. Dee actually flinched back.
Drake struggled to get his temper back under control. When he could speak again without growling, he cleared his throat. “If we’re going to talk, let’s do it in the kitchen, so JJ can sit down-” He quelled the incipient protest with a sideways glance. “And take his medication. I’ll make coffee.”
Drake helped JJ into the kitchen and set about making coffee, blessing JJ’s aunt for showing him where the coffee and filters were last night. Dee watched him work with a curious look on his face and JJ just huddled in his chair, staring at the tabletop. Drake couldn’t help the black scowl that crept over his face at the sight of JJ looking so pathetic and beaten. He poured three cups of scalding hot coffee and wished that he could pour it in Dee’s lap instead. Dee had been his friend for a long time, but at the moment, his feelings were anything but friend-like toward the dark-haired detective. Drake knew he should be embarrassed by the anger he was displaying toward his friend, but couldn’t find it in himself to care. God, if he so much as made JJ sniffle, he was going to take a few strips out of Dee’s hide.
Dee sipped his coffee in silence for a moment and glanced up. “Good coffee. Thanks.”
Drake grunted a noncommittal reply and JJ raised his head. His cheeks were still colorless and the hands around his coffee mug trembled ever so slightly, but his voice was clear as he asked, “How’s Ryo?”
Dee grimaced. “Getting there. He was still asleep when Bikky and I went there first thing, but they woke him up for tests. I left Bikky there and came to see how you were doing. He’ll call me when they get done with the tests.”
“Oh…” Drake expected JJ to brighten at the thought that Dee actually cared enough to come check on him, but oddly enough, his normally hyper partner just drooped even more.
Dee glanced at Drake, taking in his stony scowl and looked back at JJ’s slumped figure. “JJ, can I talk to you for a minute without the watchdog?”
JJ looked up and blinked slowly. “Uhh-”
Drake set his coffee cup down with a thump, ignoring the way coffee sloshed onto JJ’s kitchen table. “If you have anything to say you can say it in front of me, Dee. Otherwise, get lost.” Ignoring Dee’s raised eyebrow, he rose and got JJ’s medications from the bag on the counter. He was filling a glass with water from the refrigerator when Dee finally spoke.
“Geez, could you give it a rest with the jealous boyfriend routine for a minute?”
The glass slipped out of Drake’s fingers and shattered on the tile as he turned to glare at his friend in shocked disbelief. “What the hell…?”
JJ looked up, his face a mix of emotions that Drake was too upset to try and figure out. Dee, on the other hand, merely smirked and rested his chin on his hand. “Oh, don’t even try to deny it. You’ve been acting the jealous bitch ever since I got he-”
That was as far as he got before Drake’s fist connected with his jaw. Dee went down hard but came up again, spitting mad. “What the fuck was that for, you bastard?” He roared, ignoring the trickle of blood leaking from his split lip.
JJ lurched to his feet. “Drake-sempai!”
Drake had dropped into a fighter’s stance, ready for Dee to come at him. Dee stared at him for a long moment and then started to laugh. “Hell, I deserved that one, didn’t I?”
Drake warily uncoiled, eyeing Dee like he still might attack. “Y-yeah, you did.”
Dee wiped the blood from his chin with a grimace, righted his overturned chair and sank back down into it. “And you still have a left on you that Muhammad Ali would envy. Damn, that hurt!”
JJ looked like he was torn between wanting to confront Drake and comfort Dee or curse at Dee and calm Drake. Finally, the picture of confused exasperation, he did neither and sank back into his chair, head lowered.
Only to bolt back to his feet a second later. “Drake-sempai, your feet!”
Drake glanced down at his bare feet, only then registering that he had sliced his left foot to ribbons on the broken glass. “Ow, shit!”
Dee, the only one wearing shoes in the room, came to Drake’s aid, sliding a chair under him so he could sit and fetching the broom and dustpan from the corner. JJ hurried to the bathroom and fetched his first aid kit. As Dee swept up the rest of the broken glass, he cast a sidelong glance at JJ as the slender man knelt to pull bits of glass out of his partner’s foot. So, that was the way of it then…
Dee disposed of the glass and watched the two men with something bordering on amusement. Drake was trying to reassure JJ that he was fine and that JJ needed to sit back down and take his medicine while JJ insisted that Drake wasn’t fine and that he didn’t need to sit down. Dee grinned again, even though it made his split lip sting and his entire jaw ache. If only those two had any idea of just how much they looked like a couple. Far be it from him to enlighten them, though. He rubbed his jaw ruefully. He didn’t think he could take another punch.
It looked like JJ was finally getting over him. As for Drake…? Dee shrugged mentally. As far as he knew, Drake was straight, but he could be wrong. God knows, Drake’s track record in the dating department wasn’t exactly flawless. He had no luck hanging onto a girlfriend for more than a few months at best. Well, it wasn’t like it was any of his business, but he had no desire to see either of his friends get hurt. He’d have to keep a careful eye on this to see how things played out.
When JJ had finished picking glass from Drake’s lacerated foot and had wrapped it in gauze, Dee jerked his head toward the living room. “JJ, I still need to talk to you for a minute.”
JJ hesitated, torn. Drake scowled fiercely at Dee until the dark-haired man dropped him a wink that made his cheeks turn red. “C’mon, JJ.”
Glancing hesitantly back at Drake, JJ rose to his feet and followed Dee into the living room.
Dee turned and pushed JJ down on the couch. “Drake was right, though. You really need to sit down.”
JJ looked up at him warily, appearing for all the world like he thought he was going to be yelled at again. His good shoulder was hunched up as if to ward off a blow and his silver-toned hair flopped into his eyes.
Dee dropped down to sit cross-legged on the floor. That put JJ’s head higher than his and some of the tension eased from his posture as JJ unconsciously responded to that. “Look, JJ, I’m sorry.”
JJ shook his head. “You were way out of line, but Drake really shouldn’t have punched you.”
“Not for that, idiot.” Dee scowled but quickly modulated it into a grimace when he saw JJ’s almost imperceptible flinch. “I’m sorry I’ve been an ass to you sometimes. Okay,” he corrected himself. “A lot of times.”
“Dee-sempai?”
“Look, you know I don’t love you, right? That I love Ryo?”
Pain flashed across JJ’s mobile face but he nodded. “I know. I’ve known that for a while now, but it’s just hard. I’ve loved you for so long.” Tears welled in JJ’s eyes, but he bit his lip and held them back with an impressive show of will.
Dee sighed. “Look, I’m sorry that things turned out the way they did. But even if I had never met Ryo…”
A small, tremulous smile curved up the corners of JJ’s mouth, an expression that held more sadness than humor. “-You still wouldn’t ever have loved me, right?” As Dee’s nod, JJ sighed. “I knew that, really, but I just couldn’t make myself give up hope. I loved you from the moment I met you.”
Dee sighed. “What can I say?”
JJ forced another smile, this one somehow managing to be more pathetic than the last. “You don’t have to say anything. It’s not your fault that I’m an idiot who fell head over heels for someone who couldn’t care one way or the other about me.”
Dee scowled at him. “Now stop that! I never said that. You could be a good friend if you would just quit glomping me every chance you get. Look, I know you’re a good detective and pretty damned smart, so just quit acting like a kid, tackling me around blind corners and in stairways, and we’ll get along just fine. You know it pisses off Ryo too, right?”
Something that might have been a real smile tugged at the corner of JJ’s mouth. “I know. That’s part of why I kept doing it. His expression is priceless.”
That made Dee chuckle. True, Ryo couldn’t hide his feelings when he saw JJ pounce on Dee. To someone like JJ, that jealous expression had to be worth a lot. “Just don’t do it anymore, okay?”
“Okay.” JJ hesitated and met Dee’s eyes, his expression pathetic and full of longing. “Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“It’s only one little thing. It’s not much, I promise. I’ll be good and won’t glomp you ever again…” JJ’s voice quivered on the razor’s edge of breaking, but never quite managed.
“What?”
“D-Dee-sempai, can I have a hug? Just one real hug, please?” Tears welled in Blue eyes as JJ begged earnestly. “I-I won’t do anything else-I just want a hug-I’ll be good-”
“C’mere, you.” Dee sighed and pulled the slighter man against him. JJ quivered like a drawn bowstring an first, but slowly relaxed into Dee’s embrace, his hands tentatively creeping up to wrap snugly around Dee’s waist.
Neither of them had heard Drake’s cell phone ring, but they turned with a start as he snapped it closed, standing in the kitchen doorway. His poker face, the one he used on suspects at work slid neatly into place over an expression that was so full of mixed anger, confusion and hurt that it was downright frightening. “Ted just called.” His voice was flat and unemotional; as coldly clinical as the look in his gray eyes was not. “They’ve got a lead on the guy who shot Ryo.”
Dee straightened up, all his attention now focused on Drake.
“About twenty minutes ago-several of the serial numbers from the cash he stole showed up on a bank scan.” Drake continued tonelessly. “The match came in via Murray’s Pub.”
Dee brightened. “Really?”
Everyone in the Criminal Investigations unit knew Murray’s Pub. It had been used as a money-laundering scheme before, and they had been lucky enough to slip some agents in. Now, it was crewed almost entirely by cops and trusted agents, in the hopes of a truly major bust coming down the pipe. They had kept their predations on the small fry who came through very subtle and quiet, so no one knew Murray’s was now a trap waiting to happen.
“Did they get a shot of him, Drake-sempai?” JJ asked.
In addition to being crewed by cops, Murray’s was wired to the gills with every bit of surveillance equipment the Precinct could beg, steal, borrow, or buy. You couldn’t take a piss in there without electronic eyes on your every move.
“Yep.” Drake nodded and now his expression was predatory and entirely too feral. “And the best part is, he’s still flirting with one of the waitresses. We’re moving men in to take him down as soon as he’s clear of the neighborhood. I’m on my way over now.”
“Not without me.” Dee said with a grin that was even more bloodthirsty than Drake’s.
“You are going back to the hospital to be with Ryo, whether you like it or not.” Drake growled. Dee was taken aback by the anger in his tone. “The chief wasn’t fucking kidding about locking your ass up if you stepped one inch outside the lines on this case.” He transferred his scowl to JJ. “You are taking your meds and going with him to the hospital. Ted says the chief wants both of you ‘overly-emotional schoolboys’ out of harm’s way, and I am not taking the heat for it this time, so you two better damned well do what you’re told this time!”
Drake favored both of them with a final scowl before snatching up his keys and stalking out the door, limping only slightly as he shoved his bandaged foot into his shoes on the way out.
Dee stared after him, a small grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Huh. Wonder what’s got his panties in a twist?”
JJ stared at him in confusion. Dee chuckled and turned the smaller man back toward the kitchen. “C’mon. Maybe we’d better do as we’re told.”
“Dee-sempai?”