Title: First Valentine – Part 3 – Valentine’s Day
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee, Bikky, JJ, Chief Smith, OC
Rating: PG
Setting: After the manga.
Summary: Valentine’s Day arrives at last; now Dee and Ryo can see if they made the right choices for each other.
Word Count: 2377
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: The final part.
They’re both working Valentine’s Day of course, but for once the postal service delivers on time, so their cards arrive before they leave home.
Bikky fetches the post from Ryo’s mailbox, vanishing into his bedroom to tear open the envelope addressed to him. Ryo goes into his room and carefully slits his envelope open with his letter opener. The card is astonishingly tasteful, ‘My heart belongs to you’; it gives Ryo a warm glow inside and he smiles to himself. Dee constantly manages to surprise him.
There’s a note tucked in the card:
‘I’ll pick you up for dinner at 7, we have reservations at Kanoyama. Love you, Dee xxx’
Ryo’s glad now that he didn’t try to book a table somewhere.
OoOoO
Across town, Dee uses a kitchen knife to slit open the envelope addressed in Ryo’s neat handwriting, and a wide smile spreads across his face as he pictures his bashful lover buying it. Putting himself through the embarrassment of buying a positively indecent card because he knows Dee will love it; that’s true love!
Dee’s a little late to work, thanks to the card. Thinking of Ryo buying it leads to thoughts of Ryo doing other, even more indecent things and… Well, that leads to a rather large problem that requires immediate attention. When he does eventually arrive, it’s to find a single red rose in a vase on his desk beside a package wrapped in silver paper dotted with red hearts. It’s tasteful, even understated, compared to some of the wrapping paper Dee had come across during his own shopping expedition; there’s no doubting who it’s from despite the lack of a label.
Ryo pretends to be busy with paperwork, but Dee knows he’s surreptitiously watching. For that reason alone, Dee unwraps the gift slowly. Chocolates, of course, dark chocolate coffee liqueurs no less. The very thought makes his mouth water, but they’re not suitable for workday consumption because of the alcohol content. Ryo must have realised that because there’s also a slab of expensive dark chocolate, something that he won’t have to wait to eat.
Dee fetches coffee for them both, and as he sets Ryo’s down within reach, he takes the opportunity to murmur his thanks, quietly so that no one else will hear.
“You’ll get yours tonight,” he adds and Ryo immediately blushes, making Dee smirk. “That too, count on it. Happy Valentine’s Day, babe.”
Ryo glances sideways at his lover, aware that he’s blushing furiously, but whatever he was going to say is forgotten as Dee falls victim to some very unwelcome attention.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Mr Wonderful!” JJ canons into Dee, almost knocking him off his feet as he enthusiastically attempts to kiss the man of his dreams.
“GET OFF! DAMMIT JJ, LEAVE ME ALONE!”
Ryo struggles to keep a straight face, but it’s damn near impossible.
“But it’s Valentine’s Day! I just want to show you how much I love you!” JJ shoves a heart-shaped box of chocolates into Dee’s hands. “Did you get me anything?” It almost seems cruel to shatter the little guy’s illusions, but this is JJ, he always bounces right back.
“Of course I didn’t, idiot!”
“That’s okay, I still love you!” JJ bounces away to his desk as the Chief bellows at everybody to get on with their work.
“I don’t care what day it is, you’re not being paid to socialize!”
Dee dumps JJ’s offering on the end of his and Ryo’s back-to-back desks and slides into his chair. “If I leave them there long enough, with any luck Drake might eat them.”
Ryo looks up at him, eyebrows raised. “You’re turning down free chocolate?”
“With my luck, JJ probably spiked them with a love potion. I’ll let someone else take the risk! Besides, I have this!” He waved the bar of chocolate at Ryo. “Wanna share?”
“It’s yours,” Ryo declines a little reluctantly.
“I know it is, and that means I can do whatever I want with it. I want to share it with you.” He breaks off four squares, puts two on his blotter and holds out the other two to Ryo. “Please?”
Well, Ryo can hardly refuse that. “Thank you.” Taking them with a smile, Ryo breaks the chocolate in half and pops one square in his mouth, letting it slowly melt. Dee’s eyes darken with desire; Ryo is so damned sexy, without even trying. Copying his lover’s actions, Dee sucks on a piece of chocolate and groans with pleasure. It’s really high quality, the kind he would never buy for himself, and his appreciation soon has Ryo blushing again.
Silent except for the sounds of Dee enjoying his chocolate, the two settle down to some paperwork. For once, Dee doesn’t even complain, just gets on with it. It’s his way of saying ‘Thank you’ for the deliciously decadent treat. The rest of Ryo’s gift to him is safely locked away in Dee’s bottom drawer where no one else can get their sticky fingers on it.
OoOoO
The rest of the day is fairly routine, though Ryo treats Dee to lunch at a charming little bistro. The food is excellent, the company even better, especially as they can talk openly here.
“Thank you for my card, it’s perfect.” Ryo blushes slightly. “I half expected something obscene.”
“You mean like the one you sent me?” Dee’s grinning, green eyes dancing with humor.
“Yes, well, that one was tame compared to some I saw.”
Dee reaches across the table to squeeze Ryo’s hand briefly. “I love it, and I’m going to claim my prize. Later.” He winks lasciviously and Ryo’s blush deepens. “Must admit I was surprised though, it wasn’t what I was expecting.”
“You were expecting a card?”
“Well, more hoping than expecting, but… Definitely brightened my morning!”
“It was kind of a spur of the moment decision, an impulse buy. I couldn’t even look at the cashier.”
“You should have more impulses like that.”
“I don’t know about that; I’d probably die of terminal embarrassment.” They’re silent for a moment, enjoying their food. “I think Bikky got a Valentine this morning too, probably from Carol.”
“Ah, young love! He better have sent her one or he’ll be in big trouble.”
“I let him have a little extra on his allowance this week so he could send flowers. I wouldn’t want Carol to be disappointed. She’s got quite a temper.”
“Good thinking. Don’t want to get on her bad side.”
Their lunch break over, they head back to the precinct. The afternoon drags; all they want is for their shift to be over, but instead they’re interviewing witnesses to an assault, and as so often happens, none of the witness statements seem to match.
“So we have two, three or four attackers, Hispanic, Caucasian or Asian, dressed in jeans or track pants, black or blue t-shirts with or without logos, one or more of them might have been wearing a baseball cap, and they drove off in a van that was either beige, grey, or white but very dirty.” Ryo has his elbow on his desk, chin resting on his hand. “Great afternoon’s work.”
“Whatever would we do without witnesses?” Dee downs the rest of his coffee. “Cheer up, only another half hour and we’re out of here! Have some more chocolate, we’ll try again tomorrow.” He hands Ryo a couple more squares. “It’s scientifically impossible to stay gloomy while eating chocolate. I think I read that somewhere.”
That gets a smile out of Ryo. “You’re right, no sense in spoiling the rest of the day worrying about something we can’t do anything about until tomorrow.”
Clocking off time finally arrives and for once Ryo doesn’t hang around, grabbing up his coat as the detectives on the next shift arrive. He and Dee walk down to their cars together then head off to their own apartments; they have a date to prepare for.
OoOoO
By 6.30, Ryo is showered, shaved, and dressed, smart but semi-casual, a suit but no tie. The tickets to the basketball game are in a silver envelope on the coffee table. Bikky shouts goodbye as he heads out the door; he’s going over to Carol’s for the night.
Ryo’s not sure if he’ll be coming back to his place or spending the night at Dee’s. It doesn’t really matter much when Bikky’s not home; they both have a few things at each other’s homes for when they stay over, it’s only sensible.
Dee arrives fifteen minutes early, as impatient as Ryo to begin their Valentine’s Day date. Ryo opens his door to be greeted by Dee, looking very suave in a black suit and silky emerald green shirt that matches his eyes. The sight of Dee is slightly overwhelmed by what he’s carrying; a big plant pot in which eight sunflowers are just opening their buds. It’s wrapped in cellophane to protect the flowers from the cold. Dee grins at Ryo over the top of his burden.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, babe! Thought I’d get here a bit early and help you find somewhere to put this!”
“They’re beautiful, Dee! Thank you.” Ryo leans carefully over the flowers to give Dee a quick kiss before ushering him in.
Once the pot of flowers is unwrapped and settled on Ryo’s bedroom windowsill, he leads Dee back into the lounge, picking up the envelope from the coffee table and passing it to Dee.
“Happy Valentine’s, Dee.”
“What’s this?”
“Open it and find out!”
Doing as instructed, Dee opens the envelope, pulls out the tickets and his mouth drops open. “Tickets to the All-Star game? Ryo, these must’ve cost you a small fortune!”
“Doesn’t matter, I wanted to get you something you’d appreci…”
Ryo’s last words turn into a startled squeak as Dee nearly squeezes the life out of him, practically lifting him off his feet.
“I do, thank you!” Dee pulls back a little, looking Ryo right in the eyes. “Just please tell me you’re planning to go with me? ‘Cause taking Bikky just wouldn’t be the same.”
“Yes, I’m going with you, I even took the liberty of making sure we won’t be working tomorrow ni…”
Again, Ryo gets cut off mid-word, this time by a kiss that steals his breath away and leaves him feeling dazed and tingly all over. The expression on Dee’s face says he knows exactly how Ryo feels.
“If we didn’t have a reservation, and if I wasn’t so hungry, I’d say to hell with dinner, and drag you back into the bedroom. But we got all dressed up, so I guess we’d better go before we get too carried away.”
Ryo can only nod agreement, his wits too scattered to come up with a coherent sentence. Thankfully, Dee takes charge, slipping the tickets back in the envelope and putting them back on the table before grabbing Ryo’s coat and keys.
“Ready?” he asks, holding Ryo’s coat for him to slip into.
Fastening the buttons, Ryo finds he’s just nodding again and makes an effort to collect himself. “I think so.” He pats his pockets; phone, wallet… “Keys?”
“Here.” Dee passes them to him and ushers him towards the door, pausing in the hallway while Ryo locks up.
It’s chilly out, February in New York is never going to be warm, but it’s dry and free from snow. There’s a cab waiting outside to take them to the restaurant, the driver an old friend of Dee’s who’s doing him a favour.
“You’re on your own getting home,” he tells them as he drops them off. “Got a hot date myself; can’t keep my girl waiting.”
Dee thanks him and gives him an extra twenty. “Have fun! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”
“Anything goes then.” The words are out before Ryo can stop himself and once again he’s blushing as Dee slips an arm around him.
“Sounds about right,” Dee agrees, laughing. They say their goodbyes and step into the sushi bar, hanging up their coats and settling into their seats.
The sushi, as always, is perfect, each piece like a taste of heaven. Dee had ordered in advance, all their favourites and a few of the more expensive items. Ryo can’t help thinking that their meal must be costing Dee almost as much as he’s paid out for the basketball tickets. In an odd way, it makes him feel better about his own extravagance. They take their time, there’s no rush. The entire meal is spent exclaiming over the food, and grinning goofily at each other. By the time they leave it’s getting on towards nine and they’re both stuffed, so they take a walk through the brightly lit streets before getting a cab back to Ryo’s place.
OoOoO
“You have a good time tonight?” Dee asks as they sink onto the sofa with a bottle of wine and two glasses.
“Yeah, I did. In fact, witnesses aside, the whole day’s been pretty great.”
“You know the day’s not over yet, we’ve still got over an hour left. What d’ya say we skip the wine and go straight to dessert?” Dee picks up the overnight bag he’d brought in with him when he’d picked Ryo up for dinner and digs inside, pulling out a box. “Didn’t think I’d forgotten, did you? Gotta have chocolates on Valentine’s Day.” Heart-shaped chocolate truffles, light and airy, the kind that just melt in your mouth. Dee leans in for a kiss that does things to Ryo that he’d never imagined before he’d met his wonderful, infuriating lover. There’s no doubt where they’re headed now.
The wine is left abandoned on the coffee table as Dee pulls Ryo to his feet. Now they’ve started kissing, they can’t stop, it’s just like the first time they’d come back here after a great meal, back when Ryo had finally admitted his feelings for Dee. They stumble towards the bedroom, shedding clothes as they go, Dee still clutching the chocolates in one hand and somehow managing to kick the door closed as they make it through. He has scarily good coordination at times like this.
Oh yeah, this is going to be a night neither of them is ever likely to forget! Ryo just hopes they don’t get too much chocolate on the sheets.
The End