Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Verge of Something Wonderful ❯ Talking In Your Sleep ( Chapter 5 )

Author Note: Thank you for reading. I apologize for the lateness in updating, the holidays were busy. This is unbeta'ed for the moment so I hope there aren't a great deal of mistakes. I'll put up a cleaner copy later.

 

Disclaimer: FAKE does not belong to me, no profit made.

 

 

Dee woke first having slept longer, he didn't bother waking Ryo. He didn't want to move, these times with Ryo meant so much more to him than he could get Ryo to understand. He wanted desperately to understand Ryo completely. He wanted even more for Ryo to understand Ryo. By all laws of normalcy men didn't let other men sleep with them the way Ryo did with him. Sure there were occasions and times where that could be bent with grudging understanding, foxholes in war, snowed in at base camp in Tibet, and other odd ticks of strangeness, maybe brothers sleeping on the pull out bed at their parents home during the annual holiday visit.

 

This? This was maddening and cherished all at the same time. It drove his body crazy but made his heart feel warm and safe. Ryo guarded his entire self, mind, body and soul, Dee understood that all to well. Dee guarded his heart as zealously as Ryo did probably even more. These times of closeness meant so much to his fearful heart that he could and did ruthlessly squash down his body's more sexualized reaction. No way would he say anything to Ryo that would make him worried about letting Dee near him like this. He could wait and should he lose in the end at least he would have the memories of now, when they felt like a long married couple wrapped comfortably around each other.

 

And so he laid there quietly. Ryo had shifted in his sleep rolling to his other side. Dee being awake for the shift had carefully rolled with him, ignoring his back's protest and eased himself up against Ryo the front of his thighs tucked up against the back of Ryo's. His mind thought back over the past few days. They were absolutely at a stand still but Ryo was not going to accept the answer.

 

The damn place was haunted. There was nothing he could do about it, nothing Ryo could do about it and if the spoiled owner of this place wanted it stop than he needed to hire an entirely different set of investigators. Dee grinned at the thought of The Ghost Hunter's taping an episode at the house, if they got half the greeting that they had it would be one hell of an episode. He could just see them checking the plumbing and talking to the camera about how some times pipes bang and people mistake it for a ghostly activity. Tango walking around with Steve, the tech guy, asking the ghost to make himself known and doing an EP Session. And then all those sounds of the doors and cupboards opening and closing at the same time. They would stare at each other in the green light and say “Did you hear that?” and “Did we get it on recording?”

 

The smile left when he thought of Grant, and it would be Grant, he was sure of it, having the 'personal experience' of a deathly cold hand pushing him down and not letting him up. Dee sighed deeply. Ryo would explain it away, he wouldn't call Dee a liar, he would just think he was confused and mistaking one thing for another thing. Dee wasn't confused but it wouldn't matter because unless it happened to Ryo himself it was just to implausible for Ryo. Even if it did Dee would be damned if didn't believe Ryo would find some perfectly ridiculous way to explain it way rather than admit that it was a paranormal experience.

 

Dee curled his arm tighter around Ryo's waist and buried his nose in the hair at the back of Ryo's neck. Take it for what it was worth. That is what he would do. He would agree to whatever Ryo decided to report back to their Chief and his friend and live each day he had here with him for what it was, time with Ryo that was not consumed by cases, joint parenting, and other distractions. He'd bottle down the fear he felt, hide it and deny it, the creed of the vast majority of men the world wide. He'd take every scare and freaky experience in trade for this time with his Ryo. His. Ryo just didn't grasp it yet that was all. And when he did, when he finally figured it all out for himself, he would realize that it went both ways and that he had been Ryo's for so very, very long.

 

Ryo slept on. Dee kept watch. Ryo would never tell Dee that he had a tendency towards snoring, even though Dee knew this because he woke himself up doing it, and Dee would never tell Ryo that he talked in his sleep. Soft mumbles that could mean almost anything, odd dislocated phrases that had no proper beginning or end and bits and pieces of secrets. Ryo knew Dee snored only if his head was twisted the wrong way, he knew how to move it and not wake him letting them both go back to sleep. Dee knew to keep his mouth shut and not tell Ryo that he called for Dee in his sleep, told him he loved him in his sleep, or that he knew Ryo still had nightmares about his parents. It was an agreement neither knew the other made but it served this both well. So when Ryo pushed back into Dee's hold and mumbled “Love you Dee.” Dee just quietly whispered back, love you too and continued to keep watch.

 

_________________________________________________________________ __________

 

Ryo woke up with his head tucked up under Dee's chin, his nosed pressed into his throat, and his head resting in the crook of Dee's arm and shoulder. Dee's other arm was around his waist, giving patient strokes to his back, and their legs were a tangled mess, Dee's leg over his, his other leg over Dee's, and Dee's other leg stretched long across his, hooking around Ryo's ankle with his foot. It was Ryo's arm that awoke him, the right one was flung out over Dee's body resting at his hip, but the left one was trapped under him and Dee and had gone to sleep.

 

It was a weird mix of entirely comfortable and distinctly unpleasant. Ryo tugged on the arm to free it and Dee rolled just a little bit to help him out, releasing him when Ryo struggled to sit up, cradling the arm against him.

 

“What's wrong?” Dee asked sitting up himself.

 

“Arm went to sleep. Hope I didn't wake you up.” Ryo replied starting to rub the arm with his right hand to try to ease up the pins and needles feeling. Dee gently tugged on his wrist pulling the offending limb to him. Dee's long fingers worked there way up, warm and firm, massaging and stroking as he went helping the blood to start circulating properly again. Ryo smiled at him in gratitude. Not for the last time Ryo would wonder why the human body didn't come with a convenient way to deal with extra arm syndrome in couples. Surely it couldn't have been that hard to come up with.

 

“What'cha thinking you've got that look on your face?” Dee asked his fingers moving from right below his elbow to right above it.

 

“That nature should have made it so that sleeping with someone didn't involve waking up to your arm full of needles and electricity.” Ryo told him ruefully.

 

“Oh but it did! That's what the person you are sleeping with is for, it is their God given job to rub, massage, and caress such things away.” Dee said in mock solemnity. Ryo laughed.

 

“Is that so? So what is the other person suppose to do in exchange for such kindness.” He asked, a playful crinkle in the way he held his eyes. Dee looked into them and had to make a quick decision whether to push the moment forward or let it fall back comfortably. The tip of Dee's tongue flicked out to moisten his bottom lip. It was so hard to read what Ryo really wanted to happen in these situations. Do you push when you want to pull or not?

 

Dee settled for smiling and let Ryo's arm. “I do believe the correct response is the other person is therefore responsible for getting coffee going.” Ryo's smile widened.

 

“Why I do believe I can oblige. You want it in here or the kitchen? I haven't asked yet so I don't know how your back is. You seem to be moving all right.” Ryo asked, giving Dee a critical once over. Dee gave a characteristic shrug. His back hurt but it wasn't unbearable. He'd already been up once to smoke a cigarette. He wouldn't want to be running down some perp in the alleys of New York but otherwise was all right.

 

“I guess I'm all right. Just a little sore and stiff is all.” He said scratching at his chin and the stumble on it. “Might go shave and shower while you get coffee going, if that's all right.” He missed Ryo's eyes fixing on his chin where his fingers were scratching, dark eyes intent on the way the skin pulled sharp over the bone.

 

Ryo scampered off the bed and made for the door. “No problem Dee.” And fled.

 

Dee's eyes were on him then, narrowing and thoughtful. “Well, well, well, wasn't that most interesting.” He whispered into the air before meandering off into the bathroom.

Safe in the kitchen Ryo wandered not for the last time why Dee could have such an effect on him. And not for the last time he pushed it away using the daily motions of going through life to still the noise in his head and ignore the tightening in his chest. You do things in order and absorb yourself in them, lose yourself to the minute and live in that exact moment. Dee thought that mediation was all about sitting lotus (or Indian style as Dee said) and going “OM” over and over again. One day Ryo would explain aum to him. Just like one day he would tell him that mediation can take many, many forms. Doing the dishes can be mediation if it is done in the right frame of mind and so can be making coffee and breakfast. Especially if it stilled a too hard beating heart and kept Ryo's thoughts from going to places that made him nervous.

 

Coffee mugs out and ready, pot rinsed out, burner cleaned, previous coffee grounds and filter thrown away, new filter in holder, this amount of coffee in the filter, filter shut, water in the pot, pot poured into the water receptacle, switch turned on. Ryo lived each bit fully thinking only of each step and the sensation each one gave him. What he wouldn't give for a sink fully of dirty dishes just right then, warm soapy water and plate after plate to be scrubbed clean, the plates becoming clean and useable under his expert hands. It would take his mind into a nice quiet place of contemplation that did not involve contemplating just how handsome and masculine Dee looked with a head full of bedhead and a day and nights worth of dark stubble. Damn the man anyways for being so hard to ignore. And then Ryo hurriedly took it back not wanting any type of the damning of any sort when it came to Dee.

 

Ryo gave up meditating him a way and instead followed the path of letting it wash over him, neither resisting or compelling it, it was easier and still part of the path he only seemly regularly followed when it came to his spirituality. He let his feelings and thoughts roam freely. That so many of them involved Dee, Bikky or Carol was only natural he reasoned, they were the people he cared for the most. The ones involving Dee that were colored warmly filled him deeply and he really didn't want to deny them anyways.

 

He was lost in these thoughts as he went about pulling together the things to make breakfast for him and Dee. Bacon from the meat drawer and egg carton set on the counter, and a loaf of bread found, Ryo put a clean frying pan he found in the drawer at the bottom of the stove on to warm up. He was in the process of testing the toaster to see if the ancient beast still worked when he heard the first pop.

 

Ryo looked up and around, nothing immediately seemed out of order. He spared the frying pan on the stove a glance but nothing amiss there either, his eyes traveled across the counter coming to rest on the open carton of eggs. He didn't remember opening it but that was such a minor thing that it was easy enough to brush off, he noticed one of the eggs was missing. Ellen must not have checked the carton before buying it. He made a mental note to check the rest of the eggs for cracks before using them and went back to the toaster, satisfied to see the wires inside were glowing red and hot. Toast would be had! For Ryo this was a small triumph, Dee loved food and had a passionate love of both meat and grease. The bacon and eggs were more for him than for Ryo, however, the toast was for both of them. Dee would use it to sop up the yolks of his eggs, over easy and definitely runny. For Ryo though it would make up the bulk of his breakfast, that an apple cut into slices. Ryo wanted it nice and crisp with a smear of butter on each slice and nothing else, much less egg yolk. Honestly he didn't see how Dee could stomach all the heavy food he ate but if Dee's abdomen was any indication it certainly didn't hurt him any.

 

Pop. Ryo pushed the toaster back to its resting place and looked around again with a frown. What on earth was making that noise? He looked around again. His eyes came back to the eggs. There were now two missing from the cartoon. Ryo's frowned deepened. He stared at the carton. An egg from the center of the carton was shaking, trembling in its place. He watched it in rapt fascination as it rocked back and forth and then slowly lifted out of the carton into the then air wobbling in nothing but space. It held there suspended and improbable. Ryo couldn't have taken his eyes off of it if he wanted to watching it twist in the air.

 

Suddenly it launched across the room smacking into the far wall across from the stove and breaking on contact, egg white and yolk sliding down the wall. Ryo blinked a few times his mind not coming up with any convenient answers when another egg went whizzing across the room and into the wall. Pop, pop, pop, went another egg and another the busted shells coming to settle on the floor in a random, scattered mess.

 

Ryo didn't know what to do, he just stood stock still and watched it happen, eyes wide and shocked. Once all the eggs had met their demise the empty carton made a valiant attempt to reach the same wall but fell short fluttering down to land on the kitchen table. There was the sound of something slick being pulled across something smooth and Ryo turned his head back just in time to see the package of bacon be pulled off the counter it sank down just a bit in the air but then seemed to heft itself back up and launch at the wall with enough force that it managed to stick, for just a moment, to the wall before sliding down. Ryo was still staring at it when Dee walked in and brought himself up short when he saw the mess. Dee turned surprised eyes to Ryo that suddenly grew frighteningly large, it was the only warning he got before he felt the air around him displace as the frying pan passed by his head in route to making quite a sizeable dent in the wall before clattering to the floor.

 

They just stared at each other both in shock, not saying anything at all. It was Dee who finally moved. He never said a word, he just went straight to the stove shutting it off and shutting off the coffee maker to. He came up to Ryo and pulled him by his arm, tugging him out of the kitchen. Dee pushed him into the main bedroom and shut the door behind.

 

“Get dressed Ryo. We're going out to eat this morning.” Dee said carefully, trying very hard to sound calm. He helped him grab things from their bags, Dee very grateful that Ryo had had the foresight to drag them into the main bedroom last night and gently shoved him into the restroom shutting the door between them on Ryo's still surprised face.

 

It couldn't have taken Ryo more than five, ten minutes tops, to pull himself together. Unlike Dee he sometimes didn't need to shave for a few days before it was noticeable so it wasn't much to swipe a wet razor over what was there, splash some cool water on his face and stuff his legs into a clean pair of boxers and jeans. He was still pulling his shirt down when he through open the bedroom door.

 

Wallets, keys and cellphones were shoved into pockets and they were heading out the door. They were nearly at the front door when they heard the unmistakable sound of a half full coffee pot crashing into the wall and shattering on the floor. Dee shut the door on what was most likely the sound of their coffee mugs following suit.

 

They were getting out of the house right damn now if Dee had to carry Ryo over his shoulder to do it. He wasn't giving Ryo anytime to think about it either practically bullying him into the passenger seat of the car and gunning the engine a tad more than necessary when he backed out of the driveway. He had his head turned and his eyes watching where he was going. It was Ryo, staring straight ahead at the house, who saw the curtains in the living room lift open and a grinning face, sans the body, staring back at him from the other side of the glass.