Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Sakura Monogatari (Cherry Blossom Tale) ❯ Chapter 9

**Ok, last chapter! Hope you like!

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Fake

 

Ryo reached out to the blankets next to him, hoping that Dee had come to him after he'd fallen asleep the night before, but all he felt was the bare sheets, still cold from the morning's chill. He could tell the sunlight was slowly creeping in, but he had no desire to open his eyes to the light yet. All through the night he'd waited for Dee, sure he would come to him on this last evening before he had to return to the Inn… and to the life he lived their.

 

Telling himself that it didn't matter, that he had to face reality and put aside the dreams he secretly harbored about his future with the dark-haired samurai, Ryo rose and dressed. However, he couldn't help but wonder what Dee could've been doing the night before that would've prevented his arrival. Maybe he just couldn't face Ryo knowing that he was going to have to share him again. Maybe it was too much, despite everything he'd promised. As he packed up the few belongings he'd brought with him, Ryo's emotions swung wildly between disappointment and anger. Disappointment and sadness that Dee's love seemed to fail him just when he needed it. Anger that he'd believed in their dream of love in the first place. His heart wouldn't let him despair completely, though. There was always hope, he had to believe that.

 

But his heart still was breaking as he slid the door open to begrudgingly head back to the Inn, to the men who used him, to the life he couldn't seem to break away from.

 

“D-Dee!” Ryo stuttered when he nearly rammed into his lover on the other side of the door. The samurai looked tired and worn and Ryo suddenly worried that something awful had happened for him the night before. “Are you alright?” he asked.

 

“Where are you going?” Dee asked nonchalantly, ignoring Ryo's question.

 

The blond's usual patience cracked under the long night of waiting and the stress of the morning that lay ahead. How could Dee be taking the situation so lightly?

 

Ryo's brow furrowed, his eyes suddenly filling with tears of frustration. “You KNOW where I'm going! I have to go back to the Inn today! And…” his voice trembled. “And… you never came,” he whispered, swaying toward Dee in his fatigue after the sleepless night.

 

“Ryo!” Dee cried. He steadied his blond lover as he told him, “Ryo, I'm sorry! I should have sent you a message…” Taking Ryo's things and setting them down, he encouraged Ryo to sit as well.

 

“No!” Ryo protested, embarrassed at his outburst now and pushing Dee away. “I have to go!” he yelled.

 

“Ryo, listen, you don't have to go,” Dee told him.

“I do!” he insisted.

 

“No, Ryo- I should have to told you right away- I paid off your debt this morning… you don't have to go” he replied.

 

Ryo paused in his struggles.

 

“You're free Ryo,” Dee said slowly, letting the unexpected information sink in.

 

“Nani…?” Ryo finally asked, looking up at Dee in bewilderment.

 

The raven-haired samurai lovingly brushed his rough fingertips along his lover's delicate, pale cheek and smiled. “You're free,” he repeated.

 

Now Ryo did let himself gently sink to the floor. “But…how?” he asked, still unable to believe Dee's words.

 

“Does it matter?” the samurai asked.

 

But despite Dee's reassuring smile, Ryo knew things couldn't be that simple. The man's eyes look weary; he hadn't gotten any more sleep the night before than Ryo himself had.

 

“Dee,” he said tenderly, looking his lover in the eye, “what did you have to do for the money to free me?”

 

Dee broke his gaze. “Tell me!” Ryo demanded.

 

Still Dee stayed silent. The last thing he wanted was for Ryo to worry over him like this. He had no regrets; he would've done anything for Ryo's independence. No, he couldn't tell him. However, he knew how stubborn Ryo could be…

 

Bringing his head up, Dee held the other man's eyes and asked in a serious tone, “Ryo, I'm sure there are things in your past that you would rather not talk about, right?”

 

He nodded.

 

“But if it meant you could help your mother, then you didn't have any regrets, ne?”

 

Again, Ryo nodded, understanding now where Dee was coming from.

 

“Wakatta…” he finally replied. “But, Dee,” he couldn't help asking, “If you take on my debt somehow, we'll still end up in the same place.”

 

Dee smiled, and it lit up his face. “It wasn't like that, don't worry Ryo- neither of us belong to anyone now except each other,” he said.

 

Ryo opened his mouth to say something else, but Dee stopped him with a gentle finger to his mouth. “No more worries, Ryo; we're both free to do what we want now… just be happy.”

 

Finally, Ryo let his questions drop and allowed Dee's joy to sooth him.

 

“Dee,” he said, the name encompassing all the love and gratitude in his heart. He fell into his arms and felt tears of joy slip from his eyes.

 

“Come on,” Dee said after a moment, pulling Ryo up.

 

“Where are we going?” Ryo asked, but he picked up his bags as he did so.

 

Dee turned and stepped out the door into the morning sun. Ryo followed him.

 

“Anywhere we want,” Dee answered, settling a slow kiss over the blond man's lips.

 

They turned, walking down the lane with the last traces of the sakura petals floating down at their feet. Even though he reassured Ryo of their future, he knew enough to know that things would be difficult for them. Even though Dee was still a samurai, he no longer belonged to Rose's school as of last night. Although he was free to do as he wished, he doubted he would find another samurai school to accept him and he wasn't sure how he would earn any kind of living.

 

Rose had asked him about this very thing the night before. At the time he had simply shrugged, saying, “The world's changing around us, Rose-sama; our lives will have to change either way.”

 

“What do you mean?” Rose asked as he watched the moon sink behind the hills, the sky returning to a soft blue after the dark black of night.

 

“They finally implemented the law- forbidding samurai to carry swords,” Dee replied. He was surprised to see that this information came as a surprise to his superior, even though they had all been expecting it.

 

“I see,” was all Rose said.

 

“So you see,” Dee continued, “we'll all have to find our own way in the days that come.”

 

“Dee?” Ryo said, calling him out of his thoughts.

 

“I'm sorry, Ryo, what did you say?” he asked.

 

His blond lover smiled. “Nothing,” he said, “You just looked like you were daydreaming…”

 

Dee smiled in return and took Ryo's hand, leading him away from the path and into the trees.

 

“W-where are we going?” Ryo said with a stumbling along behind Dee.

 

When the road was out of sight, the samurai suddenly turned and caught Ryo in his arms.

 

“Dee-!?” the blond exclaimed, but his lover had already claimed his lips. Soon the slender man found himself pinned against a sakura tree, with Dee steadying arms enfolding him. He was swiftly reminded of the time, not long ago, when Dee had put him in the same situation. It had been just as the spring had begun, and now the last vestiges of the season clung in the air, ripe for change.

 

“Aishiteru,” Ryo whispered, unable to believe how much life could change in so short a time.

 

“Forever, Ryo,” Dee replied.

 

And they forgot everything else as they made love in the soft early sunlight. The world might change and spin about them, but if they kept each other as the center of their universe, they would find a way through anything.

 

 

****Well, I hope this wraps things up to everyone's satisfaction! Sorry I didn't fit in a lemon!

Reviews welcome and if you'd like to be notified of when I update my current fics, feel free to e-mail me with your address to: mizu@goddessmail.com or visit me at http://www.myspace.com/mizu_goddess