FAKE Triple Drabble: Careworn

[badly_knitted]

 


Title: Careworn
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo, Mother.
Rating: PG
Setting: After Like Like Love.
Summary: Dee blames himself for the lines on Mother’s face.
Written Using: The dw100 prompt ‘Wrinkle’.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Triple drabble.
 


 
Back when he was a kid, Dee had considered Mother old, even though she would have been in her mid-forties. Now she was in her seventies and time had taken its toll. Her kind face was lined with wrinkles and Dee couldn’t help wondering how many of them he’d put there. He knew he’d been a handful growing up, always getting in trouble. He’d probably given her a lot of sleepless nights, wearing her down, making her old before her time.

 
When he mentioned it to Ryo, his lover smiled. “There’s no point blaming yourself, Dee. People age no matter how much we might wish they wouldn’t; it happens to everyone, even to us someday. I’m sure you weren’t the only troublemaker Mother had to worry about, and besides, not all wrinkles come from frowning; a lot are from laughter.”

 
Dee relaxed, realising Ryo was right; he wasn’t the only child Mother had raised. He hadn’t even been the most trouble; he knew there’d been a couple of kids who’d wound up in juvie despite all her efforts.

 
“Maybe she got more laugh lines from me than frown lines. I did make her laugh a lot, when she wasn’t yellin’ at me, threatenin’ to tan my hide.” Dee chuckled. “I never did get a spankin’ despite the threats. Mother’s idea of punishment was usually chores, loss of privileges, no dessert, that kinda thing, but the threat of bein’ spanked kept most of us more or less in line. Hard to believe now, she seems so small, but she could be scary when she was angry.”

 
“I imagine she still is, she’s had a lifetime of practice, and it doesn’t look like she’ll be slowing down anytime soon.”
 

“I hope the kids livin’ with her now appreciate how lucky they are.”
 
 

The End