FAKE Ficlet: Sponge-Brain

[badly_knitted]

 


Title: Sponge-Brain
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee.
Rating: G
Setting: After the manga.
Summary: Ryo’s memory for facts about their cases always amazes Dee, especially considering that nothing else seems to stick with him.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Challenge 187: Sponge at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters.
 


 
“Okay, let’s recap what we know so far.”

 
As Ryo reeled off the known facts of the case they were currently working on, Dee grinned and shook his head, as always full of admiration for the way his partner could keep so much in his head without needing to refer to his notes even once.

 
“I don’t know how ya do it. You’ve got a brain like a sponge.”
 

Ryo frowned, looking a bit insulted. “What, soft and squishy?”
 

Dee laughed out loud; only Ryo could completely misconstrue a compliment.
 

“No, you dope, I mean it just soaks everything up. Whatever case we’re workin’, you always have the details right there. Me, I gotta flip through my notebook. Or yours,” Dee added, tacit acknowledgement of the fact that he didn’t always remember to jot things down. Knowing that Ryo always did had made him a bit lazy.

 
Shrugging, Ryo gave a wry smile. “I have a good memory for facts, but when it comes to where I left my keys, or my phone…” He trailed off sheepishly.
 

In the last couple of weeks, he’d lost his car keys twice, his apartment keys once, left his phone at Dee’s and spent an hour the next morning trying to find it, and taken the new TV remote to work, having mistaken it for his phone.

 
“Don’t sweat it, babe. Everyone knows even the best sponge can only hold so much. Same with brains; yours is so crammed with the facts on all our cases there’s not enough room left for anythin’ else, so little everyday things escape ya. My brain’s the other way around; I remember keys, phones, and sports trivia, but I need your notes to keep me up to date with all our cases, otherwise I forget stuff. So, the Summerville case?”
 

“Summerfield case,” Ryo corrected automatically, and swiftly went over what was known so far and what was as yet only supposition. Dee didn’t need to check his notes to know it was all accurate. Ryo was only an airhead when it came to things that didn’t involve work.

 
Leaving the precinct that evening at the end of their shift, Ryo seemed distracted. Dee nudged him. “Hey, we’re off the clock; you can give your brain a rest now, stop thinkin’ about work.”

 
“I wasn’t.”
 

“Seriously? That’s gotta be a first. So what were ya thinkin’ about? Looked like you were miles away.”
 

“You’ll laugh.” Ryo’s cheeks flushed pink.

 
“Don’t tell me you lost your keys again.”

 
“No! Not yet anyway.”

 
“So what’s on your mind?”
 

Ryo sighed. “Sponge.”
 

Dee burst out laughing. “Sponge?”
 

“Yes, and it’s all your fault! Ever since this morning I keep thinking about sponge cakes, so now I want to bake one, and I’m trying to remember what ingredients I’ve already got and what I’ll have to pick up on the way home, but I can’t decide whether to make lemon sponge or chocolate.”
 

Dee snorted. “I was right; you really are a sponge-brain!”
 

 
The End