Fandom: FAKE
Author:
Characters: Ryo, Dee, Leo Grant.
Rating: PG
Setting: Vol. 5, Act 14.
Summary: Sometimes learning the truth hurts worse than not knowing.
Written Using: The tw100 prompt ‘Shell’.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Triple drabble and a half, 350 words.
Ryo felt hollowed out, an empty shell of a man. He hadn’t felt this low since his parents had been murdered, and he supposed he shouldn’t be so surprised that learning the truth about their deaths had knocked him for six again.
A mistake; they’d lost their lives in a brutal, horrific way, and he’d lost his family, all because of a simple mistake. He even knew who was responsible, but he couldn’t prove it, and he very much doubted that Leo Grant would be willing to confess in a court of law. There was nothing he could do about it.
Did it matter? Learning the truth hadn’t made him feel any better, it wouldn’t bring his parents back, and without proof he couldn’t clear their names either. The only thing that had changed was that his grief, which had faded over the past ten years, had been brought back full force, bringing with it a helpless rage.
He’d wanted to kill Grant, gun him down the way he and his men had gunned down the two people Ryo had loved most in all the world, but as good as it might have felt in the moment, ultimately it would have destroyed his life. Not even a cop could get away with the murder of an unarmed man; it would have made him no better than his parents’ murderer.
Slipping out of bed, careful not to wake Bikky or Dee, Ryo made his way through the moonlit apartment to sit on the window seat, looking out at night but not seeing anything. He started when someone sat down beside him. Dee.
“Can’t sleep?”
“Can’t stop thinking.”
“You did the right thing.”
“I know. Doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“Grant will get what’s comin’ to him, sooner or later.”
“Maybe, but he won’t pay for killing my parents, I can never get justice for them.”
“Just as I never got justice for Jess, or for Arnon. I know how ya feel, and it sucks.”
“How d’you deal?”
Dee shrugged. “By gettin’ justice for as many innocent victims as I can.”
The End