Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Mistletoe ❯ Three Ghosts ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: leejeeg
Ryo has visitors during the night.

Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Fantasy | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 11.27.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 283 | Status: Completed

Mistletoe
by leejeeg
Sanami Matoh owns Fake: I just borrow them a bit
Dee x Ryo
A Dickensian inspired holiday fic.
R for language
Lemon
Happy Holidays
 
Three Ghosts
 
Ryo twisted under the covers. What a shit hole of a day. Dee had left after their shift was over, miserable and defeated. Bikky was disgusted with him for not doing the holiday thing properly, and he was exhausted, bone and soul weary. He let himself drift off, hoping that the morning would bring better things.
He was shivering; so cold, like a window had been left open. Ryo opened his eyes. It was dark in the room. His covers were on the floor. He bent low off the side of the bed to retrieve them when he noticed a weird green light under the door. He became instantly alert, his cop instincts sliding into place as he crept silently to the door and carefully pulled it open. The light streamed into the hall from the living room. He advanced, taking tentative steps until he stood at the edge of the room. The whole room was lit up and felt warm, almost cozy. A figure stood by the tree. A girl. She turned around. “Carol,” he gasped relieved and confused. “What are you doing here at this hour and where is Bikky?”
The girl smiled radiantly. Something was off here. She was almost as tall as the tree, and she wore a long lavender robe. On her head rested a laurel crown. “I'm not Carol,” her voice chimed merrily. Ryo blinked. “Oh? I suppose you're going to tell me that you are the ghost of Christmas past?”
Soft, tinkling laughter. “T`is why you are such a good policeman, detective MacLean. So intelligent and sharp.”
“No,” Ryo said. “This is some elaborate hoax. Did Dee put you up to this?”
She shook her head. “Come Ryo, we haven't much time.”
Ryo refused to go to her outstretched hand so she glided over to him and touched his elbow. Before he knew it they were floating, then soaring through time and space. Ryo kept his eyes shut tight, refusing to believe any of it. They stopped. He finally opened his eyes. They were standing in the middle of the living room of his childhood home. It was the snow day he'd been thinking about so recently. “You had a happy life,” the girl who was not Carol, said.
“Yes,” he whispered. They surged through his life and times, good memories and bad. “Your parents' murder is why you became a policeman.”
“Yes. I had to.......avenge them in some way.”
“Yes. You revere them. That is fine. But why do you dishonor them now?”
Ryo felt as if he'd been struck. “Dishonor? How? I never forget-I cleared their names.”
“Our time is done.”
“Wait,” he cried. “You can't say a thing like that and just leave....”
 
Ryo woke up with his head by the foot board, one leg dangling off the bed. “What the hell? What a crazy dream.” There was a snicker coming from the corner. He bolted upright. “Who's here?”
A figure suspiciously resembling his foster son emerged. “Bikky,” he growled, “ I knew it! You are putting me on to get even with me about being less than....festive.”
“No-I am not your foster son, Ryo. I am...”
Ryo sighed. Not again. “Let me guess. You are the ghost of Christmas present.”
“Good. C'mon, you know the drill.”
Flying through the space/time continuum again. This time Ryo kept his eyes open but there was really nothing to see. They landed at a bar. It was kind of seedy, pathetic decorations amid worn furniture. It was cold and a bit dingy. “Why are we here?”
The ghost raised his arm and pointed to a shadowy corner in the bar. Dee was sitting alone at a table, several empty bottles of beer surrounding him. “Dee! Hey, that's Dee, my partner.” Ryo frowned. “What's he doing here?”
“I should think that would be perfectly obvious, detective. Your partner is drowning his sorrows, the pain of unrequited love.”
“What? That's not true, Dee knows I love him.”
“Really? How's that? You told him you had regrets about your relationship, you won't let him tell anyone about you and you've been mean to him these last few weeks. Yep-sounds like love.”
Ryo flushed with anger and shame. “It's just the holiday-he knows I get upset.”
“Upset? Why?”
Before Ryo could answer, the scene shifted and they were at Carol's aunt's home. Bikky was whispering to Carol. “Ryo has been impossible and now I think he and Dee may be breaking up. I love him like he's my dad but I can't take these moods any more.”
Ryo stood with his arms splayed, disbelieving his ears. “Why am I not allowed to grieve in my own way? Am I just supposed to forget about my family?”
The ghost shrugged. “You're supposed to move on. Grief should not linger this long. It is not healthy. Besides, you still have a family who cares for you, but you are not caring back when they need you most. The holidays can be a lonely time, for others too.”
Ryo shuddered. He and Dee had a similar conversation earlier that evening. Dee suggested that he get some help and he suggested that Dee perform a certain act on himself. He thought about the ghost's words. Get over it? Family. Were he and Bikky and Dee and Carol a family? He had Aunt Elena and Uncle Rick as well. What had they ever done, except show him how much he was loved? A wave of dizziness swept over him. He blinked and found himself standing outside a forbidding looking building. The ghost was gone. Ryo turned around in a slow circle. It was foggy and he could not see his feet through the mist. “Excuse me, handsome, I believe we have an appointment.”
Ryo turned. “You have got to be kidding,” he said as the very image of Berkeley Rose came into view. “You're the ghost of the future?”
“Hey, we're not all scary like in the movies.”
“Says you. Okay, let's get this over with.”
“My, my but we are impatient, detective.”
“Yeah well, isn't this the part where you show me how my scrooge-like behavior is harming everyone I know?”
The Rose ghost sighed. “No need to be so surly, detective.”
Ryo looked at the building. “What is this place?”
“Let's go in.” The Berkeley ghost led him through the doors in the traditional manner: walking through them. “I really have to wake up,” Ryo muttered. The ghost smiled charmingly at him. “What an appropriate choice of words.” They headed for a room at the end of the hall. Dee was in a room that looked a lot like the solitary confinement cell at the precinct. “Why is Dee here?”
Dee was lying on a cot staring off into space. He looked haggard, worn and completely broken. Ryo's heart ached at the sight of him. “This is a drug and alcohol rehab center. After you broke off your relationship he went on a drinking binge that nearly killed him. He is broken hearted. You were the love of his life, Ryo. He couldn't handle it when you.....”
“When I what?” Ryo pleaded, grabbing the ghost by the lapels of his suit. The ghost gently removed his hands. “Your bleak Christmas depression spiralled out of control. You neglected your foster son and he was removed from your custody. Then you shut everyone out, including your aunt and uncle.” The air shimmered and again Ryo felt that wave of dizziness. When he blinked they were in a cemetery. Now Ryo did shiver a little from fear. “Oh god, please don't tell me-it's my grave, isn't it?”
“You took your own life on December 24th. All because you were too frightened to let yourself be happy.”
Ryo sobbed. “Is that why....... Dee?”
The ghost nodded. “This is not set in stone. I have a special gift for you.” The ghost vanished and in his place Ryo's parents materialised. Ryo gasped, astonished. He rushed into their outstretched arms and hugged them tight, tears streaming down his cheeks. “How?”
“Sweetheart, it is so good to see you.”
“I've missed you both so much!” He hugged his father. “Dad,” he sighed. He knew that this was all probably just a dream, but he felt such joy, he cold not find it in him to care. Then his mother pulled him into her arms tenderly. “Ryo, we have come for a reason. To tell you that you must stop grieving this way.”
Ryo stared at her. “I don't understand. Now even you want me to forget?”
“Not forget, son,” his father answered. “Remember all of the good things.”
“I-I do....” he faltered. His mother kissed him and he felt her warmth all over him. “Ryo, you have been mourning us a long time, to the exclusion of your own happiness.”
“I thought that if I allowed myself to......enjoy things that I'd forget you. I love you.”
“And we love you too, that is why we have come. You honor us more by living a fulfilled life, son. You have a wonderful family who love you, and there is Dee.”
Ryo was startled. “Y-You know about Dee?”
His parents smiled. “He's a pistol,” his father said chuckling.
“And he adores you,” his mother added. “Loving Dee is not wrong, and it is not a betrayal to be happy. We want you to be happy or our deaths would become meaningless.”
Ryo was thunderstruck by his mother's words. It was okay to be happy. It was not a betrayal. The three embraced again and now Ryo's heart felt light. The weight of despair had been lifted. His parents began to fade into the mist.
Ryo was waking up and as his eyes opened and his mind cleared he heard these words echo in his brain: be happy. He sat up slowly. It was light out. He glanced at the bedside clock. It was 6 a.m. Christmas morning.