Submission

A/N: I\'d like to apologize for the extremely long wait for this chapter. I submitted a piece to the Yaoi-Con fiction anthology and discovered that I couldn\'t write a single word while I waited to hear news on that. Then, I had to finish my Weiss fic, because when you leave someone bleeding at the end of the chapter, you find out how badly people want to make you bleed for doing so. X.X

The next chapter will come much quicker. Honest. This fic has taken a rather serious turn, and I hope that doesn\'t drive away any readers, but my muses seem to have run away with me without asking first. Sorry. Oh, and just to remind, I don\'t own the FAKE characters, I just wanted to play with them for a little while. I promise to put them back, hopefully with all of their necessary pieces intact.


Chapter Two

Arriving at work Dee was quickly disabused of the notion that his day was going to be pleasant. Diana stood waiting to greet them as the elevator doors slid open, and her usual smile was nowhere in evidence.

“We\'ve got another body,” her voice was brisk as she stepped into the elevator with them. “I want to get you to the crime scene to check it out.”

“Lovely,” Dee muttered, slumping back against the wall, “and I haven\'t even had breakfast yet.”

“You might be glad of that,” Diana replied, and even Dee couldn\'t manage a flippant retort to her words.


Ryo\'s face was pale and as Dee watched he wiped sweaty palms on the side of his jacket. Diana had been right, and Dee was glad there was nothing but coffee currently churning around in his gut. Noticing the fine trembling in Ryo\'s fingers, he headed for his partner.

“Hey,” Dee slung an arm around Ryo\'s shoulders and started to guide him toward the yellow tape that blocked the mouth of the alley from curious passerby. “Let\'s get away from here for a minute.”

Ryo didn\'t speak as Dee led him out of the narrow alley. Nodding to one of the cops at the entrance, Dee steered Ryo around the corner and toward a nearby bench. Once seated, Ryo\'s hands clenched in his lap. Dee waited quietly, his arm still around Ryo\'s shoulders.

“I\'m sorry,” Ryo broke the silence, his voice low. “You\'d think I\'d be used to this by now.”

“There is no \'used to this\',” Dee countered. “There\'s no way to be prepared for seeing someone like that. To see someone whose life has been cut short so violently isn\'t something you can ever be ready for.”

Ryo nodded, taking a deep breath and tipping his head back to rest against Dee\'s arm. They sat there for a moment, each drawing a little peace from the other. When Diana approached they stood, Dee\'s arm falling from around Ryo\'s shoulders after offering one last comforting squeeze.

“I\'d like the two of you to ask around the neighborhood to see if there were any witnesses,” she said. “No one has come forward, but if you press you might find something. I\'ll have the paperwork delievered to the station as soon as we finish up here.”


The afternoon had proved fruitless, though neither of them had been surprised. The area wasn\'t well known for it\'s helpful residents. Most of the people that lived around there wanted nothing more than to avoid any contact with the police.

Before heading for home, Ryo had picked up the paperwork Diana had left for them. In addition to information on this case there were folders on four other cases where the victims had been killed similarly. Diana had come to town to try and help them determine if it was a serial killer or a few copycats who had gotten ahold of the details of the first killing.

So far, they had precious little to go on. They had yet to find a fingerprint or even a single strand of hair that didn\'t belong to one of the victims. Ryo flipped the page he was reading and blinked, brow furrowing. His concentration was broken by a knock on the door. He rose to answer it with a curious glance over his shoulder at the file he\'d placed carefully on the table.

“Oy, give me a hand here, would you?” Dee staggered comically as Ryo opened the door, his hands loaded with plastic bags.

“What did you do, rob the store on the corner?” Ryo asked, smiling in spite of himself as he reached to relieve Dee of some of his burden.

“How\'d you guess?” Dee opened his eyes wide in feigned puzzlement before nodding. “Oh , I , I get it. Someone as handsome as I am couldn\'t possibly be anything other than a scoundrel.”

Ryo rolled his eyes, though he laughed as he did “W “Well come on then, Prince of Theives, let\'s get your unfairly gained booty into the kitchen.”

“I\'ll have you know,” Dee replied with a grin as he twisted around to look over his shoulder at his backside, “that this booty certainly isn\'t unfairly gained. It took a lot of hard work.”

“I can see that,” Ryo said, eyeing the cocky smirk that curled Dee\'s lips before continuing blandly, “All that sitting does seem to have enhanced it\'s... spread.”

Dee made sharp, high sound of mingled surprise and outrage. Chuckling, Ryo set his bags on the counter and turned just in time to find himself trapped against the surface by a midly irate Dee. Their eyes locked and Ryo felt his pulse speed under the light of desire in Dee\'s eyes.

The counter pressed sharply into his lower back and Dee stood so close he could feel the heat that radiated off his skin. Ryo\'s breath caught and he licked his lips, lifting his face and giving Dee tacit permission to kiss him.

He felt Dee smile against his lips before he slid his tongue into Ryo\'s mouth, a slow assault that made Ryo\'s knees week. He gripped Dee\'s upper arms as Dee\'s tongue continued to leasurely plunder his mouth. When Dee drew back, Ryo gasped and spent a moment trying to remember how to breathe, supporting himself on the counter as Dee knelt to attend to the bags.

“Damn,” Dee swore softly, lifting one of the bags and giving Ryo an chagrined smile. “It seems I\'ve broken your present.”

“Present?” Ryo asked, still slightly breathless. “You bought me a present?”

Dee nodded, still wearing that boyish smile. “I suppose I shouldn\'t have dropped it on the floor.”

“Well? What is it?” Ryo attempted to peer around Dee to see what he was hiding behind his back.

“It\'s ruined now,” Dee warned, hand emerging from behind him, cupped around an object. “It was silly anyway.”

In Dee\'s hand lay a rose, the stem only a few inches long now, ragged where it broke. The petals were soft white, tipped with blushing pink that darked to red at the very edges. It was slightly battered from being dropped while still in the bag, but beautiful all the same.

“Oh, Dee. That was sweet of you,” Ryo smiled, brushing a soft finger across the delicate petals.

“Here, we may not be able to put in in a vase now, but,” Dee checked the remaining stem for thorns and then carefullckedcked it into the pocket of Ryo\'s shirt. “Lovely,” he murmured, leaning down to gently kiss Ryo again.

“What the hell do you think you\'re doing, you nasty old pervert?” Bikky\'s outraged voice rang through the apartment as he raced into the kitchen and tackled Dee.

“You little shit!” Dee bellowed, hitting the floor with a loud \'oomph!\' and trying to push Bikky off him.

“Me?” Bikky\'s voice cracked over a high note and he clung tenaciously around Dee\'s waist. “You\'re the sicko that\'s always trying to molest Ryo!”

“Was not!” Dee retorted.

“Were too!” Bikky replied in kind, and Ryo rolled his eyes, retrieving the remaining bags from the floor. He lightly touched the rose in his pocket and then started to make dinner, listeingthe the sounds of Dee and Bikky fighting behind him.


After dinner Ryo sent Bikky to his room to work on homework while he and Dee discussed the case in the living room. Ryo set a cup of coffee on the table in front of Dee before settling on the other end of the couch and picking up the papers he\'d left on the table earlier.

“There was something,” he said, frowing, “something I thought could be important that I noticed just before you came in. I don\'t remember exactly what it was now.”

“It\'ll come back to you,” Dee soothed, sipping his coffee and reaching for one of the folders on the table. “If we could just find a link other than MO between all of these cases...”

“Well, they were all men,” Ryo pointed out, eyes still scanning the pages in his hands. “Different ages, occupations, backgrounds... Nothing seems to jump out as the reason they were targeted.”

“It might not be one killer,” Dee said rationally. “Thanks to the first victim being rather high-profile there was a lot of news coverage. We could have some copycat killers on our hands, hoping to foist their kills off on the original deal.”

“I know, I know,” Ryo squinted at the paper he was reading and made a little sound. When Dee looked at him he held out his hand without looking up, “Hand me the transcript of the interview with that victim\'s family.”

Dee gave him the papers, waiting as Ryo quickly skimmed through them. Suddenly Ryo thrust the papers back into his hands and scooped up another of the folders. He flipped it open and began to scan the page. His face paled and Dee leaned toward him with slight alarm.

“Are you alright?” Dee demanded, placing a hand on Ryo\'s shoulder and blinking as Ryo twitched away.

“I think I found the link between our victims,” Ryo said slowly, reaching for the final folder on the table.

“Well?” Dee clasped his hands and rested his chin on them, watching with concern as Ryo read through the last folder.

Apparently he found what he was looking for. He drew in a deep breath and straightened, looking at Dee with his face carefully blank.

“I found it, Dee. They were all gay.”