Southern Charm
folder
+. to F › FAKE
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
18
Views:
4,850
Reviews:
13
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
+. to F › FAKE
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
18
Views:
4,850
Reviews:
13
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own FAKE, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter One: The Magician
Chapter One: The Magician
Date Written: 9/11/05
Rating: Same as Chapter Zero
Characters/Pairings: Dee/Ryo
Warnings: Homosexuality, Murder, Hoodoo use
Disclaimer: Same as Chapter Zero
Spoilers: All the way through Book 7
Notes: And here we go! First chapter.
----------
Café du Monde is a famous coffee shop on Decatur Street in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is best known for its café au lait and its French style beignets. In the New Orleans style, the coffee is blended with chicory.
The location at the upper end of the French Market was established in 1862. For over a century it was one of two similar coffee and beignets places in the market, the other being Morning Call, established in 1870 and for political reasons forced out of the Old French Market in 1974 and moved to the suburb of Metairie, Louisiana.
Starting in the late 1980s, Café du Monde has opened up additional locations in shopping malls. While originally appearing as far away as Atlanta, Georgia, in recent years the company has restricted its operation to the greater New Orleans metro area and a single location in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Café du Monde locations can also be found throughout Japan.
It is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, except for Christmas Day (and days when "the occasional hurricane passes too close to New Orleans," according to the shop's Web site), and is patronized by both locals and visitors.
Hurricane Katrina did, indeed, pass too close to New Orleans -- the shop has been closed since the city's mandatory evacuation.
---from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia
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"Shit, this place is crowded," Dee Latyner swore, looking around the small, wrought-iron table he and his partner, Ryo Maclean, were seated.
"Well, it is one of the most popular breakfast spots in the entire city, Dee," Ryo chastised, looking at the side of the silver napkin holder, where the restaurant's menu was pasted. It seemed the only thing there was to eat were beignets, whatever those were, and drinks such as coffee, tea and milk.
The place WAS crowded, though. The tables were jammed in as close as physically possible, and the patrons had barely enough room to sit in. The entire restaurant area was open-air, giving it a almost Parisian feel. The air was thick with the scent of coffee, baked goods and sugar, and outside the black wrought-iron fence around the perimeter of the café, fat grey pigeons hopped around, waiting for crumbs to fall.
"Hey, Ryo..." Dee leaned over close to his lover, a smirk on his face. "Is it just strange that all the workers are Asian?"
"Dee!" Ryo exclaimed in a whisper, smacking the dark-haired detective on his arm.
"What! It's true!" Dee replied in a low tone as three Asian waitresses, their arms full of trays, quickly swept past them.
"Just shush and tell me what you want to drink."
The two entered whispered conversation briefly before a short black-haired man came up to them. He was dressed in khaki slacks and the green and white striped uniform shirts, a paper soda jerk hat perched atop his head. He set two small glasses of water before them, the glass clanking on the marble tabletop. "What you want?" he asked in rough English, his eyes bored.
Dee tried hard to hide a smirk as Ryo ordered two plates of beignets and two cups of coffee. It was brought out in relatively short order, placed before them with disinterest by their waiter, whom the half-Japanese New Yorker payed before he left.
The New York natives eyed the beignets; each plate contained three squares of fried pastry, roughly two by four inches, and COVERED in powdered sugar. Obsidian eyes met jade ones and the two lovers shrugged.
"I guess... we just..." Dee said, picking one up delicately by the corners. A mountain of powdered sugar sifted as the French pastry was moved, thick granules falling off the sides. Dee leaned over and bit into it.
Powdered sugar blew up into his face, sticking to his hair. Jade eyes widened in surprise.
Ryo started laughing.
Dee bit off the corner, chewing thoughtfully before swallowing. "Not bad. Messy, but not bad."
Ryo was still giggling as he dipped a napkin in his water to wipe a streak of white powder off his lover's face. "So it was worth it?"
"Eh," Dee replied, going for another bite. This time, the sugar didn't kick back as much, and Dee chewed the steaming delicacy. "Better than those pra-lean things we got yesterday."
"It's pronounced 'praw-leanes', actually," came a feminine voice from Ryo's other side, drawing the two detectives' attention. A young woman put her coffee mug down on the tabletop before turning to them, a smile tugging at her lips. "And y'all must be Yankees, yes?"
She was very pale-skinned black, a café au lait color and obviously half-black like Bikky. Her hair was a lighter color brown and in thick wavy ringlets, pulled back in a high tight ponytail before cascading down to her mid back. A pair of gaudy dangle earrings hung from her earlobes, and she looked at them over imitation designer sunglasses. Her southern accent was soft, with a hint of French laced through it.
"How could you tell?" Ryo asked, cocking his head to the side.
"Y'all have an accent. It's unnoticeable from where y'all're from, but it's plain as day down here." She turned sideways in her seat, crossing one long, smooth leg over the other at the knee. "Lemme guess... New York?"
"She's good," Dee muttered, going for another bite of beignet and ending up with another face full of powdered sugar. He grumbled to himself, swatting at the streaks that ran down his shirt; however it seemed to make the sugar cling to the fabric even more.
"There's a trick to these," the young woman said, picking up a beignet off her own plate. She showed it to the tourists, making sure they saw the pile of powdered sugar on the top of her square before delicately biting into it. The sugar on top trembled slightly, but otherwise didn't move, and she pulled back, chewing and biting her lips. After she swallowed, she smiled at them. "Breathe in whenever you bite down."
Ryo smiled at her, going for his own breakfast. "Thank you."
"Mais oui, but of course," she replied, standing and smoothing out her clothing. "Bonne journeé, good day gentlemen, I hope that our paths shall cross again."
The two detectives stared after her as she left, crossing Decatur and disappearing into the French Quarter crowd. Ryo took her advice and breathed in through his nose as he bit into the pastry, grinning at his lover as he chewed, free of powdered sugar.
Dee, in retribution, leaned over and licked a spot of sugar off the corner of Ryo's lips.
"Dee!" the blonde hissed, although he leaned into the contact. "We're in public!"
"Hey, you're teasing me, so I'm teasing you," the dark-haired man replied, kissing his lover's sugar-sweetened lips. "Besides, we're on vacation. They don't know us."
A small gust of wind blew something against Ryo's foot, and he broke away from the enjoyable activity of kissing Dee to look down. Something that looked like a playing card was fluttering against his shoe. He leaned down to pick it up.
On the face of the card was a hand holding a gold chalice. A dove holding what looked like the communion in a Catholic mass in its beak was above the chalice. At the bottom of the card were the following words: Ace of Cups. Inflexible will; unalterable law.
Ryo heard Dee's voice call his name and he looked up. "Turn the card over, Ryo," Dee told him, his eyes wide.
Ryo did so, his own eyes widening in shock.
The back of the card was stained with blood.
----------
Date Written: 9/11/05
Rating: Same as Chapter Zero
Characters/Pairings: Dee/Ryo
Warnings: Homosexuality, Murder, Hoodoo use
Disclaimer: Same as Chapter Zero
Spoilers: All the way through Book 7
Notes: And here we go! First chapter.
----------
Café du Monde is a famous coffee shop on Decatur Street in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is best known for its café au lait and its French style beignets. In the New Orleans style, the coffee is blended with chicory.
The location at the upper end of the French Market was established in 1862. For over a century it was one of two similar coffee and beignets places in the market, the other being Morning Call, established in 1870 and for political reasons forced out of the Old French Market in 1974 and moved to the suburb of Metairie, Louisiana.
Starting in the late 1980s, Café du Monde has opened up additional locations in shopping malls. While originally appearing as far away as Atlanta, Georgia, in recent years the company has restricted its operation to the greater New Orleans metro area and a single location in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Café du Monde locations can also be found throughout Japan.
It is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, except for Christmas Day (and days when "the occasional hurricane passes too close to New Orleans," according to the shop's Web site), and is patronized by both locals and visitors.
Hurricane Katrina did, indeed, pass too close to New Orleans -- the shop has been closed since the city's mandatory evacuation.
---from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia
----------
"Shit, this place is crowded," Dee Latyner swore, looking around the small, wrought-iron table he and his partner, Ryo Maclean, were seated.
"Well, it is one of the most popular breakfast spots in the entire city, Dee," Ryo chastised, looking at the side of the silver napkin holder, where the restaurant's menu was pasted. It seemed the only thing there was to eat were beignets, whatever those were, and drinks such as coffee, tea and milk.
The place WAS crowded, though. The tables were jammed in as close as physically possible, and the patrons had barely enough room to sit in. The entire restaurant area was open-air, giving it a almost Parisian feel. The air was thick with the scent of coffee, baked goods and sugar, and outside the black wrought-iron fence around the perimeter of the café, fat grey pigeons hopped around, waiting for crumbs to fall.
"Hey, Ryo..." Dee leaned over close to his lover, a smirk on his face. "Is it just strange that all the workers are Asian?"
"Dee!" Ryo exclaimed in a whisper, smacking the dark-haired detective on his arm.
"What! It's true!" Dee replied in a low tone as three Asian waitresses, their arms full of trays, quickly swept past them.
"Just shush and tell me what you want to drink."
The two entered whispered conversation briefly before a short black-haired man came up to them. He was dressed in khaki slacks and the green and white striped uniform shirts, a paper soda jerk hat perched atop his head. He set two small glasses of water before them, the glass clanking on the marble tabletop. "What you want?" he asked in rough English, his eyes bored.
Dee tried hard to hide a smirk as Ryo ordered two plates of beignets and two cups of coffee. It was brought out in relatively short order, placed before them with disinterest by their waiter, whom the half-Japanese New Yorker payed before he left.
The New York natives eyed the beignets; each plate contained three squares of fried pastry, roughly two by four inches, and COVERED in powdered sugar. Obsidian eyes met jade ones and the two lovers shrugged.
"I guess... we just..." Dee said, picking one up delicately by the corners. A mountain of powdered sugar sifted as the French pastry was moved, thick granules falling off the sides. Dee leaned over and bit into it.
Powdered sugar blew up into his face, sticking to his hair. Jade eyes widened in surprise.
Ryo started laughing.
Dee bit off the corner, chewing thoughtfully before swallowing. "Not bad. Messy, but not bad."
Ryo was still giggling as he dipped a napkin in his water to wipe a streak of white powder off his lover's face. "So it was worth it?"
"Eh," Dee replied, going for another bite. This time, the sugar didn't kick back as much, and Dee chewed the steaming delicacy. "Better than those pra-lean things we got yesterday."
"It's pronounced 'praw-leanes', actually," came a feminine voice from Ryo's other side, drawing the two detectives' attention. A young woman put her coffee mug down on the tabletop before turning to them, a smile tugging at her lips. "And y'all must be Yankees, yes?"
She was very pale-skinned black, a café au lait color and obviously half-black like Bikky. Her hair was a lighter color brown and in thick wavy ringlets, pulled back in a high tight ponytail before cascading down to her mid back. A pair of gaudy dangle earrings hung from her earlobes, and she looked at them over imitation designer sunglasses. Her southern accent was soft, with a hint of French laced through it.
"How could you tell?" Ryo asked, cocking his head to the side.
"Y'all have an accent. It's unnoticeable from where y'all're from, but it's plain as day down here." She turned sideways in her seat, crossing one long, smooth leg over the other at the knee. "Lemme guess... New York?"
"She's good," Dee muttered, going for another bite of beignet and ending up with another face full of powdered sugar. He grumbled to himself, swatting at the streaks that ran down his shirt; however it seemed to make the sugar cling to the fabric even more.
"There's a trick to these," the young woman said, picking up a beignet off her own plate. She showed it to the tourists, making sure they saw the pile of powdered sugar on the top of her square before delicately biting into it. The sugar on top trembled slightly, but otherwise didn't move, and she pulled back, chewing and biting her lips. After she swallowed, she smiled at them. "Breathe in whenever you bite down."
Ryo smiled at her, going for his own breakfast. "Thank you."
"Mais oui, but of course," she replied, standing and smoothing out her clothing. "Bonne journeé, good day gentlemen, I hope that our paths shall cross again."
The two detectives stared after her as she left, crossing Decatur and disappearing into the French Quarter crowd. Ryo took her advice and breathed in through his nose as he bit into the pastry, grinning at his lover as he chewed, free of powdered sugar.
Dee, in retribution, leaned over and licked a spot of sugar off the corner of Ryo's lips.
"Dee!" the blonde hissed, although he leaned into the contact. "We're in public!"
"Hey, you're teasing me, so I'm teasing you," the dark-haired man replied, kissing his lover's sugar-sweetened lips. "Besides, we're on vacation. They don't know us."
A small gust of wind blew something against Ryo's foot, and he broke away from the enjoyable activity of kissing Dee to look down. Something that looked like a playing card was fluttering against his shoe. He leaned down to pick it up.
On the face of the card was a hand holding a gold chalice. A dove holding what looked like the communion in a Catholic mass in its beak was above the chalice. At the bottom of the card were the following words: Ace of Cups. Inflexible will; unalterable law.
Ryo heard Dee's voice call his name and he looked up. "Turn the card over, Ryo," Dee told him, his eyes wide.
Ryo did so, his own eyes widening in shock.
The back of the card was stained with blood.
----------