FAKE Fic: Not That Different
Mar. 8th, 2024 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: Not That Different
Fandom: FAKE
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Dee, Ryo.
Rating: PG
Setting: After Like Like Love.
Summary: Dee and Ryo are about as different as two people can be, and yet they have enough in common to make their relationship work.
Word Count: 1038
Written For: Theme Prompt: 167 – Things In Common at
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fandomweekly.Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
At first glance, Dee Laytner and Ryo Maclean appeared to have little in common. It was difficult to see even the vaguest of similarities between them. Dee with his jet-black hair, olive skin, and fiery temperament, Ryo with his fair complexion and mild manners. Dee with his worldly ways and abundant self-confidence, Ryo with his distracted and often slightly confused air. Dee was an outrageous flirt, hitting on anyone he considered attractive, regardless of gender, while Ryo alternated between obliviousness and embarrassment, blushing at the slightest provocation.
Then again, it’s been said many times that opposites attract, and the partners, although as different as night and day, seemed to support that old adage. From their first meeting, under less than auspicious circumstances, something had clicked between them, and despite all their outward differences they’d developed a strong working relationship, quickly becoming close friends.
To outsiders, it might have seemed strange that the two men got along so well, but appearances could often be deceptive. Dig a little deeper, and you’d find they had more in common than people might have thought.
For a start, they were both cops, detectives working serious crimes, and neither had considered a career in law enforcement until they’d suffered lifechanging personal losses. For Dee it had been the death of one of his best friends, followed soon after by the shooting of the man who for his entire life had been like a father to him. For Ryo, it had been the senseless murder of both his parents barely a month after his eighteenth birthday.
For both men, living through so much grief and helplessness had made them fiercely dedicated to protecting others and to making sure that criminals paid for their crimes, and even though their methods often differed, they complemented each other, bringing different skills and life experiences to the table.
Ryo had grown up an only child, raised by loving parents in a middle-class suburban home, while Dee had never known his parents and had instead been raised by a catholic nun who ran an inner-city orphanage. Dee was street-smart, a little on the rough and ready side, playing fast and loose with the rules, and following his gut instincts. Ryo had a more analytical mind, following the evidence, painstakingly fitting the pieces together while doing his best to keep his partner from landing them both in trouble with their superiors. They had their share of disagreements, differences of opinion, and even outright fights, but they knew they could always rely on each other.
Looking back, perhaps falling in love had always been inevitable.
Dee, being more impulsive than his partner, had been at least half in love with Ryo since the day they’d met. For Ryo, the realisation that he was in love with Dee had grown more slowly, hampered by his reluctance to accept his sexuality after a lifetime of trying to maintain the appearance of being straight. Still, he’d eventually reached a point where he could no longer lie to himself, their relationship had blossomed, and eight years after their first meeting, Dee had asked Ryo to move in with him. They’d been living together ever since.
People still thought them an odd couple; Dee was hot-headed while Ryo was generally even-tempered. Ryo was obsessed with making everywhere clean and tidy while Dee couldn’t see the point since it would only get messed up again. Dee loved watching sports, while Ryo preferred to read. Ryo was something of a workaholic, while Dee was famous for avoiding paperwork as much as possible and napping at every opportunity, and yet…
Ryo loved to cook as much as Dee loved to eat. They both loved sushi. They enjoyed taking their boat out on the ocean whenever the opportunity arose, going white-water kayaking, or these days even hiking, which was why they were here, spending a long weekend in the Catskills. It was early spring, and the trees were at last beginning to burst into leaf after a long, cold winter. Their original plan for their time off had been to sail their cabin cruiser down the coast, but the forecast hadn’t been encouraging so they’d headed inland instead. The weather was a little on the chilly side, and up here in the mountains there were still patches of snow in sheltered areas where the sun had yet to reach, but the two men had wrapped up well against the cold, and the fresh breeze made a welcome change from the polluted air of the city.
“It’s good to get away from it all, even if it’s just for a few days,” Ryo said, pausing to look up into the trees where squirrels were jumping from branch to branch, and birds were singing, proclaiming their territories to others of their kind.
“Yep,” Dee agreed, drawing in a deep breath of the crisp mountain air. Everything smelled so much better since he’d given up smoking.
“Look!” Ryo grabbed for Dee’s arm with one hand, pointing with the other. “Yellow-rumped Warbler! I’d heard there were some up here, but I never thought I’d see one!”
Dee smiled indulgently; his baby was a keen birdwatcher, but although Dee had nothing against birds, he preferred watching Ryo. Besides, Ryo was long-sighted, and Dee wasn’t. Most of the time, his lover could see things up amongst the branches that Dee would need binoculars to spot. He had a pair hanging from their strap around his neck, but in his experience, birds seldom stayed in one place long enough for him to focus on them, so there was little point in trying.
“I’ll take your word for it. You know I couldn’t tell a Yellow-rumped Warbler from a hole in the ground. The only birds I can identify are pigeons and swans.”
“City boy,” Ryo teased, grinning at his partner.
“That’s me.” Dee grinned back. “C’mon, let the Warbler warble in peace; still a long way to go if we wanna reach the ridgetop by lunchtime, and I’m already gettin’ hungry. Bein’ out in the fresh air always gives me an appetite.”
“Being awake gives you an appetite.”
“That too.”
In the end, perhaps the main thing they had in common was their love for each other.
The End
Then again, it’s been said many times that opposites attract, and the partners, although as different as night and day, seemed to support that old adage. From their first meeting, under less than auspicious circumstances, something had clicked between them, and despite all their outward differences they’d developed a strong working relationship, quickly becoming close friends.
To outsiders, it might have seemed strange that the two men got along so well, but appearances could often be deceptive. Dig a little deeper, and you’d find they had more in common than people might have thought.
For a start, they were both cops, detectives working serious crimes, and neither had considered a career in law enforcement until they’d suffered lifechanging personal losses. For Dee it had been the death of one of his best friends, followed soon after by the shooting of the man who for his entire life had been like a father to him. For Ryo, it had been the senseless murder of both his parents barely a month after his eighteenth birthday.
For both men, living through so much grief and helplessness had made them fiercely dedicated to protecting others and to making sure that criminals paid for their crimes, and even though their methods often differed, they complemented each other, bringing different skills and life experiences to the table.
Ryo had grown up an only child, raised by loving parents in a middle-class suburban home, while Dee had never known his parents and had instead been raised by a catholic nun who ran an inner-city orphanage. Dee was street-smart, a little on the rough and ready side, playing fast and loose with the rules, and following his gut instincts. Ryo had a more analytical mind, following the evidence, painstakingly fitting the pieces together while doing his best to keep his partner from landing them both in trouble with their superiors. They had their share of disagreements, differences of opinion, and even outright fights, but they knew they could always rely on each other.
Looking back, perhaps falling in love had always been inevitable.
Dee, being more impulsive than his partner, had been at least half in love with Ryo since the day they’d met. For Ryo, the realisation that he was in love with Dee had grown more slowly, hampered by his reluctance to accept his sexuality after a lifetime of trying to maintain the appearance of being straight. Still, he’d eventually reached a point where he could no longer lie to himself, their relationship had blossomed, and eight years after their first meeting, Dee had asked Ryo to move in with him. They’d been living together ever since.
People still thought them an odd couple; Dee was hot-headed while Ryo was generally even-tempered. Ryo was obsessed with making everywhere clean and tidy while Dee couldn’t see the point since it would only get messed up again. Dee loved watching sports, while Ryo preferred to read. Ryo was something of a workaholic, while Dee was famous for avoiding paperwork as much as possible and napping at every opportunity, and yet…
Ryo loved to cook as much as Dee loved to eat. They both loved sushi. They enjoyed taking their boat out on the ocean whenever the opportunity arose, going white-water kayaking, or these days even hiking, which was why they were here, spending a long weekend in the Catskills. It was early spring, and the trees were at last beginning to burst into leaf after a long, cold winter. Their original plan for their time off had been to sail their cabin cruiser down the coast, but the forecast hadn’t been encouraging so they’d headed inland instead. The weather was a little on the chilly side, and up here in the mountains there were still patches of snow in sheltered areas where the sun had yet to reach, but the two men had wrapped up well against the cold, and the fresh breeze made a welcome change from the polluted air of the city.
“It’s good to get away from it all, even if it’s just for a few days,” Ryo said, pausing to look up into the trees where squirrels were jumping from branch to branch, and birds were singing, proclaiming their territories to others of their kind.
“Yep,” Dee agreed, drawing in a deep breath of the crisp mountain air. Everything smelled so much better since he’d given up smoking.
“Look!” Ryo grabbed for Dee’s arm with one hand, pointing with the other. “Yellow-rumped Warbler! I’d heard there were some up here, but I never thought I’d see one!”
Dee smiled indulgently; his baby was a keen birdwatcher, but although Dee had nothing against birds, he preferred watching Ryo. Besides, Ryo was long-sighted, and Dee wasn’t. Most of the time, his lover could see things up amongst the branches that Dee would need binoculars to spot. He had a pair hanging from their strap around his neck, but in his experience, birds seldom stayed in one place long enough for him to focus on them, so there was little point in trying.
“I’ll take your word for it. You know I couldn’t tell a Yellow-rumped Warbler from a hole in the ground. The only birds I can identify are pigeons and swans.”
“City boy,” Ryo teased, grinning at his partner.
“That’s me.” Dee grinned back. “C’mon, let the Warbler warble in peace; still a long way to go if we wanna reach the ridgetop by lunchtime, and I’m already gettin’ hungry. Bein’ out in the fresh air always gives me an appetite.”
“Being awake gives you an appetite.”
“That too.”
In the end, perhaps the main thing they had in common was their love for each other.
The End
