Author’s Note: One of the things I dislike (read hate) about my writing style is the fact it takes forever to get one chapter done, considering how descriptive it is.
[Written on November 17th through the 18th of 2002]
[Last edited on August 9th of 2004]
Disclaimer: Sanami Matoh holds all rights over this manga, my muses just happen to prod me with ideas involving characters from it, so, sue them, not me; maybe then they will finally leave me alone?
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“Three Little Words”
Chapter Six: Momentum
Ryo McLane lowered a hand to his forearm, and pitched a potion of his flesh for good measure, biting his lower lip as a stab of pain radiated from the action, he nodded to himself as the knowledge that this wasn’t a dream connected to his brain. Something was glaringly off, it was more likely they’d entered the Twilight Zone, or the Outer Limits then accepting the fact Dee and Bikky were getting along quite well. It was also unsettling, to say the least.
Currently, Dee had a broad smile on his face as he served Bikky two hard-boiled eggs and a few pieces of bacon, one eyebrow was raised in some unreadable emotion, but most likely from irritation, though over what, Ryo couldn’t fathom. Bikky himself was smirking, shoveling a forkful of the fried food into his mouth as he asked if Dee was going to be around this evening as well, the smirk on Bikky’s features had become a hard mask, and underneath the Japanese-American knew laid layers of other emotions as well.
Ryo’s mood from the prior evening hadn’t improved, if anything, it had gotten steadily worst, mostly since when he had first awakened this morning, he’d felt a stir of resentment at the position Dee and himself had ended up in; intertwining legs, Dee’s arms held tightly, if a bit possessively, around the sharpshooter’s waist.
But after a stiff moment, he had relaxed in the American’s restful arms, letting out a contented sigh when he realized just how comfortable their position was, after all it provided a good vantage point for observing Dee while he slumbered anyway.
Ryo brushed aside a strand of sleep-tousled hair, smiling when his partner’s even heavy breathing didn’t change at all, one arm pulled the sharpshooter nearer but not one of the two closed eyes opened. Most of the afghan had been unconsciously pulled towards Dee, and he made an unvoiced note that if the relationship ever advanced beyond fevered kisses, mild foreplay and snuggling, to have plenty of spare blankets around.
When his body had begun to prod at him to heed the call of nature, he’d slipped out of Dee’s embrace gently and silently, hoping the man wouldn’t wake up unexpectedly, but the man had slept on, gripping in place of Ryo, a cushion from the couch and moving deeper under the recesses of the afghan.
After he’d finished his morning shower, he had headed into the kitchen to find Bikky seated at the kitchen table, absently reading a graphic novel, the teenager hadn’t stirred even when Ryo had taken a mug of tea over to the table to join him. His cheeks had flushed slightly when he’d thought of the position both men had been in, and of Bikky witnessing it, but a voice at the back of his mind chided him, telling him the teenager was always going to be nearby when incidents like this occurred.
Bikky’s question had been unexpected, and Ryo nearly choked on his tea when the boy spoke. “Why do you like Dee?”
After the initial discomfort, the sharpshooter had begun to think Bikky’s question over seriously, wondering himself why his partner managed to stir such zeal from him, after he’d consumed one cup of tea, and had started on another, he began to provide an answer. “I suppose it’s because he makes me feel safe.”
“Safe?” Bikky had parroted, closing the graphic novel and tucking it onto his lap as he shifted his position so he could meet Ryo’s gaze. “What does that mean?”
“Because of my job, and its occupational hazards, I need some kind of escape, some reassurance that the world is not corrupt and everything is going to be fine. Dee provides that, even if he himself is not aware of it, do you understand?”
The young teenager had stared at him for a moment, gazing coolly at Ryo before he nodded his head. “You love him.” It wasn’t a question, but a flat-out statement.
Sputtering and coughing madly, Ryo would have frantically denied Bikky’s words if the object of their conversation hadn’t sauntered in, muttering quiet greetings underneath his breath as he headed for the fridge to fetch some food for his growling stomach. When Ryo had glanced back at Bikky, the boy once again had his face buried in the graphic novel, as if he hadn’t uttered that somewhat disconcerting statement.
“So what do you people want? Eggs and bacon, or pancakes?”
Dragging his mind back to the present, Ryo nibbled on a piece of toast as he quietly observed Dee, who was consuming the food on his plate with inhuman speed, practically scooping the food into his mouth and swallowing it whole, the sharpshooter was surprised Dee didn’t get indigestion every day. “Ryo, you sure you don’t want any?”
Not sure whether or not his voice would come normal, he simply shook his head, taking a sip of tea as he tried to shift his attention to the newspaper in his hands, but a pair of unwilling eyes refused, coming to rest back on Dee’s monstrous eating manner once again. His partner had begun to keep a set of spare clothing and a small duffel bag of essentials at the apartment since he was spending so many nights at the place, and Ryo found this a bit disquieting, it meant the relationship was evolving at a swift pace, and he didn’t want things to skid out of proportion too quickly.
Currently, Dee was dressed in a pair of tight jeans (which provided an excellent view of the man’s bottom if Ryo was willing to consciously acknowledge it) and a dark blue flannel shirt that had been buttoned in haste, as two of the buttons on his upper chest were undone. Dark emerald eyes meet his heavy gaze questionably, and Ryo started, shifting his eyes to the paper in front of him; damn the man for being a piece of excellent eye candy.
Though he’d gotten away from the subject at hand, Bikky and Dee were actually getting along with each other quite well, exchanging small talk, and occasional bouts of laughter, one would think the two were romantically involved instead of Dee and himself. Chuckling quietly at the mental image it had provided, he stood, abandoning the uninteresting newspaper.
“We should get a move on,” Ryo said quietly, heading for the front door to gather his coat, ignoring the curious glances cast at his back; without waiting for a reply, he stepped out of the apartment, still a bit disturbed from Dee and Bikky’s odd behavior.
Dee shoveled the rest of the food in his mouth, barely taking the time to chew, and hurriedly threw the plate in the sink. “What’d you do to piss him off, dumb-ass?”
Swallowing a curse, the detective regarded the young teenager with a heated glare, noting with detached amusement, the boy mirrored his expression. “I have no idea, I thought we were doing quite well, acting all civil to one another. Do you think he suspects something’s up?”
“Definitely, he was way too quiet this morning even when I asked him what he thought of you. Shit.”
“What’s the curse for, forgot a date with Cal or something?” A silver-plated fork bounced off the side of his head, and Dee growled underneath his breath, planting his hands on the edge of the kitchen table as he advanced on the boy; maybe if he had his arms under control, he wouldn’t throttle Bikky to death. Maybe, he added swiftly as his fingers began to dig into the underside of the table.
“I caught Ryo earlier this morning, and asked him why he bothered to get involved with an asshole like you, he said you made him feel safe, though I can’t figure how that’s possible. His voice was really soft when he was talking, and he doesn’t speak that way unless it’s about someone he really cares about so I just assumed he loved you and flat out told him that much.”
I will not strangle Bikky. I will not strangle Bikky. I will not strangle Bikky, Dee thought to himself, turning the words into a mantra, as his fingers grew white underneath the table from the intense pressure he was exerting on the digits. “You fucking idiot! The man just recently accepts the fact he’s gay and you blurt that nonsense out?”
Bikky rose from the table angrily, taking offense at the words. “I’m the idiot? If you hadn’t come around in the first place, maybe Ryo wouldn’t be so confused right now!”
Dee felt the glower on his features go up a notch, and extracted his hands from the table, noting the ashen tips of his fingers as he turned away from the teenager, it seemed him and Bikky had come to a cessation and the issue wouldn’t melt away anytime soon. Aware of the fact Ryo was awaiting him; Dee ignored the intense glare being cast his way, and stalked out of the room, contained violence in his jerky actions as he grabbed his jacket and opened the door. He had much to fix, and nowhere near enough time to do it in.
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Once the pair of detectives had entered the 27th precinct of the New York Police Department, a familiar set of lungs inhaled air and screeched out the name of his adored, legs instantaneously preparing to launch themselves towards the unsuspecting detective.
“Dee-sempai!” J.J. cried out the name meaning it almost religiously; once situated around Dee’s waist, he snuggled against that warm body, nuzzling the man’s chest, convinced it was pure heaven.
“Goddamn it, J.J.! Let me go!” Dee roared, finding the clinging figure quite difficult to pry off, as it pressed even closer. “J.J.!” He growled warningly, glancing anxiously at Ryo as he unrelentingly tried to jerk the over-affectionate man off him.
Said man cried out in alarm, and halfway in pain when a pale hand wrenched the skin on the back of his neck, prompting his limbs to go flaccid and release the body in his arms. “Hey, that hurt!” J.J. complained, rubbing the back of neck as it sung in pain.
Ryo stepped away, a ghost of a self-satisfied smile on his face as he muttered an apology he obviously didn’t mean; Dee was just as astonished as J.J. who quickly stood up, eyeing the Japanese-American distrustfully. Since when had Dee’s partner actually paid heed when he glomped the man?
Trailing Ryo past the various offices, and into the main room, Dee watched as the sharpshooter settled into his chair, hands sorting through the newly deposited papers on his desktop. “What did you do to J.J.?” He questioned curiously.
“Pressure point. It was quite effective, no?”
So, even if Ryo was confused about his feelings for him, at least he cared enough to be become envious and protect his dignity; the day was beginning to take a turn for the better.
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“Ronald Forest Harrison, two accounts of shoplifting as a teenager, one attempted break-in at the age of 20, and two years served in jail for possession of narcotics, minor offenses for a drug dealer really," Ryo said tearing his eyes away from the record to regard his partner across the desk.
Dee met his gaze for a moment then shifted his eyes away, focusing on some object just beyond the Japanese-American’s head; sighing heavily, Ryo stabbed the end of his pen into Dee’s elbow prompting a muttered curse and hunched shoulders as the man crossed his arms to ward off any future assaults.
“Is something the matter, Dee? You’ve hardly listened to a word I’ve said all morning, and we need to solve this case before the human population uses up all of Earth’s resources and becomes extinct.”
“Sorry. It’s just, well, Bikky mentioned he talked to you earlier this morning, and he said something about blurting out the fact that you…” The rest of his words trailed off as Dee glanced up at Ryo’s face, noting the apprehensive body language and guarded expression. Why did he suddenly feel like he was talking to a brick wall?
“Let’s not talk about this right now, Dee. It’s personal, and has noting to do with business at hand.” With a reconciled sigh, the raven-haired man complied, asking if they had any information about Harrison’s haunts or any such places he happened to frequent. “One night club and a few restaurants; it seems the guy wasn’t too fond of people, and avoided them when he could, outside of business, of course.”
Dee scanned the list of businesses, and raised a brow as he recognized a few of the places. “Some of these are pretty shady places, Ryo, especially this nightclub, Beyond Twilight.”
The Japanese-American cast a curious glance towards Dee who quickly shoved the sheet of paper over his face to avoid the question lingering in his partner’s gaze.
Smirking lightly, Ryo looked over the report from the lab technicians, the fingerprints on the woman, Anna Smith, were indeed Ronald Harrison’s as well as some traces of his blood on the corpse. The detective’s scenario had indeed proved correct, with the exception of the woman managing to injure the drug dealer in the assault, just how greatly they didn’t know, but Anna Smith hadn’t gone down without a struggle.
The weapon used had been an eight-inch carving knife, which explained the mass amounts of blood littered about the bedroom walls of the apartment, like the crimson liquid was merely a different sort of paint, one that congealed and dried more quickly then the regular kind.
“Are we going in with or without back-up at this nightclub?” Dee asked when he detected his partner had become completely absorbed into the technician’s report. “For the nightclub, yes but I don’t think it’ll be necessary when we investigate the restaurants, just a quick interview with the owner and a few of the employees and then we can be on our way. Do you feel up to visiting a few of the establishments later this evening?”
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The first restaurant, one specializing in French cuisine, hadn’t provided any clues on the whereabouts of the suspect, but one of the employees had mentioned Ronald Harrison had come in and ordered take-out during the weekend, looking rather anxious and skittish the whole time he had waited for the food to be cooked and packaged. They’d taken the employee’s name and told her to call if he happened to come in at any time in the near future.
They had a bit more luck at the next place of business, where the owner was sure the man had stopped in on Monday evening, which meant the suspect was still in the remote area, chancing being spotted to stop at his favorite restaurants.
Dee and Ryo both agreed to run a through check through the nightclub the next evening, when they would have backup at their beck and call if anything happened to go wrong.
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Tension was laden in the air when the trio had sat down and began to consume dinner, Dee and Bikky were trading dirty looks across the table, and occasionally one of the two would utter a curse as if they’d been kicked from underneath the surface of table. Once the food in front of him had been consumed, Bikky slipped out of the chair, muttering something about meeting Cal at a place nearby.
“You think we’ll have any luck at the club tomorrow night?” Dee inquired as Ryo piled the dishes in the sink, and began running hot water to start the process of washing them. The Japanese-American shrugged one shoulder lazily, squeezing the bottle of dish liquid as he spoke. “It appears he’s managed to evade us so far, but one never knows when he’ll slip up, all criminals usually do.”
“Hmm.” Ryo started to turn round to see what had captured Dee’s interest when a chin came to rest in the crook of his neck and arms gently pushed him back to his previous position. “Dee…” He muttered underneath his breath, trying hard to concentrate on the task in front of him as a warm mouth ghosted down the side of his neck and nipped at skin occasionally.
The raven-haired man glided his hands down the sharpshooter’s arms until they rested on Ryo’s own pair of hands, transporting the lifeless digits to the soapy washcloth that sat a foot away on the side of the sink, Ryo could only stare in mute fascination as Dee restarted the task he’d abandoned using a combination of Ryo’s hands, and his own, once he’d run water over the plates and silverware, he sat the dishes in the other side of the sink to dry off, turning his attention to the body in his arms.
“Manipulator, “ Ryo accused, voice coming out a bit breathier than normal when the younger man spun him round; teeth nipped at a corner of his mouth lightly, and sharpshooter felt his knees go weak. Brushing lips against Ryo’s, Dee whispered into his mouth, voice soft and just as breathy as his own. “You don’t seem to mind, in fact, you’re rather receptive to the tactic.”
Ryo growled lightly, silencing the American with a fevered kiss, then withdrew for oxygen when the meeting of mouths had gone beyond normal lung capacity. “Less talking, more doing,” He panted; feeling his body response to the ministrations Dee was slowly dispensing upon him.
Dee eagerly submitted to the request, moving both of their bodies towards the surface on the kitchen table, where he pressed the small of Ryo’s back against the steeled edge, quickly, he ran his hands over the older man’s back, pulling the shirt out of jeans so he could press his fingertips against the exposed line of Ryo’s spine.
His thought processes had gone on strike, refusing the older man reason when he tried to drudge up the common sense that defiling the kitchen table would not be a wise move, but when fingernails were hauled down his back, Ryo swiftly abandoned his mind, and surrendered to the feel of Dee’s body moving against his own.
Ryo gasped when teeth sank into his neck, involuntarily arching his body as his partner’s mouth went quickly to work, sucking the wounded skin with fierce determination, satisfied with the mark, Dee realized that if they went beyond this point, there would be no stopping beyond the inevitable climax.
“If-“ Dee panted, resting a forehead against Ryo’s bared neck as he spoke in halting breaths, his jeans had become unbearably tight, and he distanced himself from the willing body sprawled in his arms. “We don’t stop now…”
Ryo opened half-lidded eyes, trying to bring his thoughts into some kind of order to concentrate on the prattle Dee was speaking, when the words sank home, his body tensed, and he stood with the help of Dee’s assistance. “However, disappointing those words are, you’re right, I don’t think I could live with the embarrassment of Bikky catching us in this position or worse.”
Dee cursed underneath his breath, swearing vengeance on the young teenager for daring to draw breath, or even existing, Ryo had made it clear that he was more than ready, or else he wouldn’t have allowed himself to be caught so easily or coaxed with so little effort. “Are you sure you wouldn’t miss the little bastard if he just happened to disappear for a few nights?”
The Japanese-American laughed, straightening his ruffled clothing as Dee took a few steps back to allow him room to maneuver himself. “You like him; you just don’t want to admit it.”
“Now you’re talking drivel, Ryo.”
Upon meeting his partner’s level gaze, Dee recalled the morning’s events and took a seat on the kitchen table, which so happened to be quite warm. “Well, mostly nonsense, if you must know, Bikky and I struck a bargain. We would try not to drive you to the nuthouse by at least acting civil to one another, I thought we were doing rather well this morning.”
Ryo glanced at the now dry dishes in amusement, before taking part in the conversation. “Too well, I thought we had all entered some alternative universe or something. Do me a favor and forsake the deal, however much I pretend to dislike you’re fighting, it’s a piece of normality and without it, nothing seems right.”
“Ho, you actually enjoy our trivial banter?” A set of pale shoulders shrugged in casual dismissal, as Ryo made his way into the living room to take a seat on a piece of furniture that hadn’t come close to being defiled; no, wait, the couch almost had but that incident had been swiftly avoided courtesy of Dee’s wild yet somewhat controlled hormones.
Dee entered the room a moment later, carrying a small carton of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and took a seat next to Ryo, glimpsing at the television screen in mild interest as the older man flipped through the channels.
“Hey, you want some?” He questioned, popping a mouthful of the cold concoction into his mouth, Ryo shook his head quickly, trying to concentrate on the news program that played on the screen. Idly, Dee took a few more spoonfuls of the ice cream before putting it aside, and resting his head on Ryo’s thigh.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting comfortable,” Dee explained, taking hold of a cushion from the opposite corner of the couch, when the older man said nothing in response, Dee supposed he had better make use of the time they still had alone. “Thank you.”
For accepting me, for giving me a chance to prove my feelings true, preventing me from making mistakes, for having such a varied personality, for loving me…
Ryo looked down at Dee curiously, wondering just what the man was thanking him for. “For what?”
The raven-haired man only smiled secretively, putting an arm around Ryo’s waist as he shifted into another position, Ryo shook his head and brought his gaze back up to the television screen that flickered erratically in the heavy darkness of the living room.
To Be Continued…
Onto Chapter Seven?
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