FAKE Quadruple Drabble: Working Parent

[badly_knitted]

 


Title: Working Parent
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Bikky.
Rating: PG
Setting: Vol. 1, Act 1.
Summary: Ryo wonders if he’s taking on too many responsibilities.
Written For: Challenge 423: Amnesty 70 at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 14: Performance Anxiety.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Quadruple drabble.
 


 

It wasn’t that Ryo was having second thoughts, he didn’t regret his decision, but he did wonder whether he should have thought things through, maybe talked to someone, before making it. On the other hand, who could he have talked to? His parents were dead, he didn’t have many friends, certainly none qualified to give him advice on something like this, and his aunt and uncle were child-free by choice. Dee, his new partner, had very definite reservations, but they’d only just met, so his opinion shouldn’t count.

 
Nevertheless, now he’d made the decision and set the ball rolling, Ryo couldn’t help wondering if he had what it took to be a single parent. He didn’t doubt that he could help Bikky deal with the grief of losing his father, that was something he understood, having lost his parents in a similar manner, but what about the rest of it?

 
Being a father was about more than simply providing food and shelter, and he’d only just been promoted to detective, so he was going to have his hands full getting to grips with his new job. Could he do that and raise a child at the same time without letting either his work colleagues or his young foster son down? He’d be working long hours, then coming home to another job that was equally important, if not more so. How was he going to juggle his responsibilities? Was he taking on too much?

 
And yet what else could he do? He couldn’t afford to take a year, or even a few months, off from work in order to focus on the boy, but neither could he postpone taking Bikky in. He was only ten years old, and he had nowhere else to go; if he went into the foster system, chances were that he wouldn’t get the individual attention he needed, and would wind up on the street, or in juvie. Ryo wasn’t about to let that happen.
 

Although it had been an impulsive decision, Ryo was still sure it was the right one, and no matter how difficult it proved to be, he would find a way to make it work. He owed it to Bikky to do his best, and maybe it wouldn’t be too hard. Dick Goldman hadn’t been much of a parent, so Ryo couldn’t be worse. He and Bikky would learn as they went along.

 
 
The End



 
 
 

Comments

[mrs_sweetpeach]

Nice. Is Bikky a canon character?

[badly_knitted]

Yes, he's a ten-year-old boy who Ryo takes in during the first volume of the manga. The murder of Bikky's dad is Ryo's first case as a detective, and he empathises with the boy because his own parents were murdered when he was 18. Bikky is mixed race, his mother was black and his dad white, so he's quite striking with blond hair and blue eyes, and darker skin. He likes Ryo right away, but hates Dee, lol!

Thank you!

[apachefirecat]

This is a very good perspective into Ryo's thoughts during this time. I'd never really considered it before, but with Ryo's own past, yeah, he may not have known how or been ready to become a father, but he never could have let Bikky go into a mess like the foster system. <3 Thank you for bringing this out so well!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you! Ryo has such a big heart, and all he wanted was to give Bikky the best upbringing he could manage. The thought of him going into foster care... he couldn't let that happen.