FAKE Fic: Bikky’s Sticky Situation

[badly_knitted]

 

Title: Bikky’s Sticky Situation

Fandom: FAKE

Author: badly_knitted

Characters: Dee, Bikky, Ryo, OFC

Rating: PG-13

Setting: After the manga.

Summary: Bikky learns the hard way that glue can cause more problems than it fixes.

Word Count: 2659

Written For: Challenge 105: Amnesty at fan_flashworks, using Challenge #53: Stuck.

Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

Ryo had been in court all day, testifying on a case he’d worked the previous year while Dee was off work after being shot in the leg. Dee had hoped his partner would be home by now, but trials seldom ran to a set schedule so it looked like he was going to be late. Under the circumstances, that was probably a good thing.

When he’d knocked on the door, it had been answered by Bikky, who looked like he’d gotten into a fight with a mad, scissor-wielding barber. A patch of hair on the right side of his head had been reduced to random tufts of varying lengths and he was glowering sullenly at his unwelcome visitor. Looking at the boy, Dee tried desperately to keep a straight face, but it proved impossible and he was soon laughing so hard he had to lean against the doorframe to keep from falling over.

“What’re you laughing at, you perv? It’s not funny!” Bikky was embarrassed enough anyway; being subjected to Dee’s laughter was adding insult to injury.

“Oh but it is! This is priceless! What did you do? Ryo’s gonna go ballistic when he finds out!”

“WHAT? No! You can’t tell him, Dee! Please! I’m begging you!”

“Beg away, Biks, it won’t do ya any good. Just how d’ya think Ryo’s not gonna notice, huh? I know he can be kinda oblivious at times, but this is something even he can’t miss!”

“I’ll just keep my ball cap on all the time until it grows back.” Bikky glared at Dee, as if daring him to criticise his plan.

“Like that would work! Get real, kid, you know how Ryo feels about you wearing your cap in the house.”

“Then I’ll wear a bandana! If you can get away with wearing one then so can I!”

Dee just shook his head.“You got a lot to learn, kid! What the hell did you hack your hair off for anyway?” His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Or did someone else do it?”

“No, it was me, but I had no choice!”

“Really? This I gotta hear.” Pushing away from the doorframe, Dee stepped into the apartment and closed the door firmly behind him, leaning his back against it and folding his arms over his chest. He fixed Bikky with his sternest look, the one that always worked on the kids at the orphanage.

“Okay, spill.” Bikky stayed silent. “You want my help, kid, you’d best tell me everything.”

“I broke one of my sneakers.” Dee raised an eyebrow and Bikky hastened to continue. “Not badly or anything, but I haven’t had ‘em long and the sole started to come off. I figured I could just glue it back, I know where Ryo keeps the superglue, that stuff’ll stick anything so I thought it should work fine. I think I used too much though, it was oozing out the sides so I cleaned it off and while I was waiting for it to set I sort of rested my head on my hand…”

“Let me guess; when you tried to move, your hair had stuck to your hand?”

Bikky hung his head, nodding. “I had to get my scissors and cut myself free!”

“Good thing you didn’t get stuck skin to skin; now that would’ve been nasty. Let me see your hand.”

Wincing, Bikky held out his right hand, still covered in tufts of hair, firmly glued to his palm.

“Could be worse. You’re in luck; I happen to be an expert at getting superglue off various body parts.” At Bikky’s incredulous look, Dee grinned. “What? You think you’re the only kid ever got into a sticky situation? Kids and glue; that’s just a disaster waiting to happen. I’ve unstuck at least a dozen kids at the orphanage.” Dee led Bikky into the kitchen and rummaged in Ryo’s cupboards until he found what he needed. Spreading old newspaper on the table, he pulled on a pair of latex gloves to keep his own hands clean, took Bikky’s hand and got to work.

Ten minutes later, Bikky had hairless palms again and Dee was busy clearing up, putting things back where he’d found them.

“Wash your hands thoroughly and rub in plenty of that lotion Ryo keeps by the bathroom sink. Solvents dry out the skin; if your hand starts to crack and bleed, it’ll be a dead giveaway that you’ve been into something you shouldn’t. He might be a bit of an airhead, but Ryo’s a damn good detective; he’d figure it out.” As Bikky hurried to do as he’d been told, Dee bundled up the newspaper, gloves and tufts of hair, shoving them in a trash bag. He’d drop the lot in the garbage on the way out, get rid of the evidence.

“What about my hair?” Bikky asked plaintively, coming back into the kitchen, still rubbing lotion into his hand.

“Just so happens I know someone who’s pretty damned good with a pair of scissors. Grab your sneakers, if you didn’t manage to glue them to something. If we’re lucky, we can be back before Ryo gets home from court.”

OoOoOoOoO

Dee’s friend with the scissors turned out to be a woman who ran a unisex salon. She had more piercings than Bikky had ever seen on one person; that made her super-cool in his opinion and he immediately decided he liked her.

“Hey, Macey.” Dee grinned at her.

“Hey yourself. Back already? You’re not due for a trim yet.” She eyed Dee’s hair and nodded in satisfaction.“Still lookin’ good.”

“You’re the best in the city, Mace, and you know it. I need a favour.” Dee pulled Bikky around in front of him and snatched his ball cap off his head. “Glue accident. He’s my partner’s boy, doesn’t want his dad getting mad at him. Think you can fix this so he looks presentable, but still cool enough not to lose his street cred?”

Macey took a good look at the spiky mess and nodded. “I’ve seen worse.” She turned to Bikky. “Don’t look so worried, kid. By the time I’m done, it won’t show at all.”

Bikky wasn’t sure that was possible, he’d seen the state his hair was in and he shut his eyes tight as Macey snipped away, not sure he wanted to see what was happening. He both hated and loved his hair in equal measure and detested getting it cut. It seemed to take forever, but in reality it was probably only about twenty minutes before the snipping stopped and he felt the cape that had been protecting his clothes being removed.

“Well, you gonna take a look at my handiwork or not?” he heard Macey say; she sounded amused. Steeling himself, Bikky opened his eyes and cautiously looked in the mirror, his jaw dropping in surprise.

“Wow!”

“You’re a miracle worker, Mace, no doubt about it. The house ape almost looks human.”

“Hey! Who’re you callin’ an ape, you pervert?”

Macey raised her eyebrows.“Pervert? That’s the thanks you get for saving his ass? Why do you bother?”

“Because he’s trying to get into my dad’s pants, that’s why.” Bikky scowled at Dee.

“News flash, twerp, that ship already sailed.” Dee smirked back at Bikky, letting the news sink in. “We got together while you were away at camp.”

Bikky’s mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally found his voice. “You better be treatin’Ryo right, ‘cause if you don’t you’ll wake up one mornin’ singin’ soprano!”Bikky couldn’t remember where he’d heard that line, but it sounded like the kind of threat Dee would take seriously.

“Duly noted. You don’t have to worry though, I’m not gonna screw this up. He’s all I’ll ever want.”

Bikky had seldom seen Dee so completely serious, but he wasn’t about to let his nemesis off the hook quite that easily. “You’d better mean that, ‘cause if you slip up you won’t know what hit ya,” he grumbled. “Okay then. You better pay the lady.”

“Aye aye, captain!” Dee pulled out his wallet and handed over a few bills. “Money well spent. Thanks, Mace.”

“So you’re permanently off the market, huh?”

“You better believe it!”

“This the guy you’ve been bending my ear about for the past couple years?”

“One and the same, yeah.”Dee’s smile lit up the room.

“Took ya long enough to snag him. Bring him by sometime, I’ll give him a free trim. I want to meet the man who’s got you to settle down. He must really be something.”

“He is, and I will, I promise.” Dee hugged Macey. “I owe you one. Take care of yourself, and thanks again.”

“Anytime, you know I’ll always fit you in. Be seeing ya in about a month?”

“Already marked on my calendar. C’mon, Biks, better get you home.”

OoOoOoOoO

Miraculously, they made it back to Ryo’s apartment with time to spare. By the time Ryo stepped through the door, Dee was sprawled on the sofa sipping coffee while Bikky was stretched out on the floor playing computer games.

“Hey, guys.” Ryo looked and sounded tired.

“Rough day?” Dee asked.

“Not really, just long. For some reason, sitting around waiting to testify is more tiring than working all day. Everyone seemed to be running late except me, and that includes the judge. I’m gonna take a shower. Dee, could you order something for dinner? I can’t face cooking tonight.”

“Sure, babe. How about Chinese?”

“That’d be great, thanks.”It was testimony to how tired Ryo was that he didn’t even notice that Dee had called him ‘babe’ in front of Bikky, something he’d been told not to do because Bikky didn’t know about them yet.

When Ryo emerged from the shower, barefoot and dressed in comfy clothes, Dee steered him over to the sofa and handed him a steaming cup of tea.

“Dinner should be here in a few minutes, just put your feet up and relax, I’ll take care of everything.”

Too tired to argue, Ryo did as he was told, stretching out with a sigh of relief and sipping at his tea carefully; it was really too hot to drink, but just the heat from the cup was soothing. He looked over at Bikky, intent on his game, and smiled; it was good to be home at last, with the two people he loved most in the world. Another cautious sip of tea and he closed his eyes in bliss then opened them again, frowning. Something wasn’t quite right.

“Bikky?”

“Yeah?”

“What happened to your hair?”

Bikky tensed slightly. Could Ryo tell?

“What d’you mean?”

“I’m sure it was longer than that this morning. Did you get it cut?”

“Oh, yeah.” What a relief, Ryo was just being his usual self. Bikky shrugged casually. “It was getting in the way, I wanted it shorter but not dorky so Dee took me to his hairdresser; she’s really cool, she has like a hundred piercings!”

Ryo looked at Dee questioningly.

“Not really, there’re only forty-seven.”

“How come you took him? I could’ve done that.”

“Like he said, he didn’t want to end up looking like a dork. Seriously, Ryo, that guy you take him to has no idea what’s cool for kids. Macey knows what she’s doing, she’s done my hair for years and Mother takes the kids there too. You’ve gotta admit she’s done a good job.”

Looking back at Bikky, Ryo hid a smile. “Well, I can’t really tell, I can only see the back from here, I haven’t seen the front yet.”

With a huff, Bikky put down his game controller and turned around. “There, now you can see the front.” He stared challengingly at Ryo. “Satisfied?”

Chuckling, Ryo nodded.“You’re right, it does look good. Next time you want your hair cutting, I’ll take you back there if Dee will give me the address.”

“Cool!” Bikky turned back to his game and as soon as his back was turned, Dee leant over and planted a kiss on the top of Ryo’s head.

“Next time you want yourhair cutting, I’ll take you there too.”

Tipping his head back, Ryo looked up at his partner. “You will, huh?”

“Oh yeah! I kinda promised Macey; she wants to meet you.”

“Why?”

“Probably because I’m always talking about you when she does my hair. I think she probably doesn’t believe you’re real.”

“You talk about me to your hairdresser?”

“She’s one of my oldest friends, we grew up together at the orphanage. She’s kinda like my big sister. Of course I talk to her about you.”

“How come you’ve never mentioned her before?”

“I have. I’ve told you loads of stories about Mace!”

“Oh! Yeah, you have. I just always assumed Mace was a guy.”

They were interrupted by a knock at the door and laughing, Dee went to answer it. “That’ll be our dinner; drink your tea. Bikky, go get washed up.”

“In a minute.”

“Now please, Bikky,” Ryo told him in the tone of voice the boy had learned not to argue with.

Heaving a put upon sigh, Bikky slouched off to do as he was told.

OoOoOoOoO

Later that evening, when Bikky was in bed at last, Dee sprawled on the sofa beside Ryo.

“Alone at last,” he smirked, sliding closer to his lover and putting his arm around him.

“Mmmm,” Ryo sighed contentedly, resting his head on Dee’s shoulder. “Dee? What really happened with Bikky’s hair?”

“What d’you mean?”

“I wasn’t born yesterday. Besides, the superglue’s missing and one of Bikky’s new sneakers is stuck to the desk in his room. He got glue in his hair, didn’t he?” Tilting his head back slightly, he peered at his partner. Dee’s answering smirk was all the confirmation he needed. “I knew it! I’ve told him before not to mess around with that stuff!”

“Don’t be too hard on him, babe, he really learned his lesson today. Besides, he was only trying to fix his sneaker. He told me the sole started coming off and he didn’t want you to have to pay out for another new pair.”

“Hmpf. Nothing’s made to last these days, he only got those last month. I don’t think the shop would accept them as a return now that one’s covered in glue.”

“Doubtful. Don’t worry though; I already took care of it. I photographed it and emailed the manufacturer on your behalf, told them your son had tried to fix them but now had one stuck to his desk like a novelty penholder. They admitted there’d been a problem with a small batch and they’re sending a replacement pair.”

“Really? That’s a fast response!”

“Apparently they’ve had other complaints. And I might have mentioned you’re a detective with the serious crimes squad…” Dee smirked. “They seemed quite eager to make amends.”

“Dee! I don’t think that’s exactly ethical…”

“Probably not, but it worked. Now, what d’you say we head for bed so I can help you unwind after your stressful day?”

“What about Bikky? He’s just in the next room and I haven’t told him about us, I can’t seem to find the right time.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already figured it out. He’s a smart kid, but if you tell him I said that, I’ll deny it.”

“Your secret’s safe with me,” Ryo told him with a laugh.

“So, how about it? Do I get to spend the night?”

“Well, okay, but you’ll have to be quiet.”

“Me being quiet isn’t going to be a problem; I plan to have my mouth full pretty soon. You, on the other hand, might have more trouble.” Dee got to his feet, holding out a hand to Ryo and grinning wickedly. “Coming?”

Blushing furiously, Ryo let Dee pull him up and lead him towards the bedroom. One day soon, he would have to have a talk with Bikky about certain things.

Soon, yes, but not tonight.

The End

Sequel: 'Time For A Trim'