Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Delicate ❯ Hearsay ( Chapter 13 )

Disclaimer: Lyn and Andrew and their beautiful family are mine, must have expressed written consent to use, fanfic or whatever. Dee and Ryo etc. are not mine. Don’t sue, I’m poor ; Delicate Chapter 12: Hearsay

By: Irish ~*~*~*~*~*~

“He did what!” Lyn’s voice was incredulous, staring at Dee, even as Keiry was pulling on his ear.

“And you went?” Andrew asked, a little less range to his voice, though he too sounded a bit surprised and maybe just a little appalled.

“Yes,” Dee sighed, reaching for Keiry across the table, lifting her from Lyn’s lap as he pried her little hand from his ear. “Yes, I went. How do you ignore that?” Dee shrugged, settling the little red-headed monster in his lap, picking up a jelly packet off of booth table and opening it, scooping up the contents with his spoon and handing the sweet to Keiry, who promptly popped it in her mouth, settling to suck all the sweetness off the spoon.

“Fair enough.” Andrew nodded, knowing that no matter what the situation, he could no more ignore a sobbing phone call from Lyn, then Dee had been able to ignore Ryo’s. In love was in love, even when you didn’t want to be.

“Fair enough my arse.” Lyn snipped. Andrew covered Annie’s ears with perfect timing to block out the swear. “He had no right to do that to you Dee.”

“Too late now.” Dee shrugged, retrieving his coffee much from Keiry before she could dump it over the both of them. It was early in the morning, the day dreary, not unlike the night Ryo had called him, but that had been two weeks ago, and no words since. Nor had his jacket turned up at work. The last almost annoyed him, it was getting cold out. On the other hand, that meant Ryo wanted to keep it, but that was only false hope.

He had met the Doren-Darling entourage for breakfast after his work shift as he did once a week for the last few weeks. He was pretty sure they were keeping tabs on him, and he wondered what they thought he needed looking after for. Did he seem that depressed?

“Are you okay, Dee?” Lyn asked, shifting tone of voice and tactic as the way only a master of torture or a lawyer could.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve been better, but its been long enough now that I can stop jumping at every ring of the phone and anxiously checking my desk for notes in the evenings. I was just a breathing teddy bear.” Tossed out like a used condom, really. Dee shrugged again, taking a sip of his coffee with one hand, corralling Keiry from taking a flying super-woman leap off the bench of the booth.

“Why didn’t you tell me early?” Andrew asked, brows furrowing just a bit, cutting up a pancake for Annie to stuff in her mouth with the zest that only a toddler recently introduced to solid food could manage

“Because, I wasn’t ready to talk about it. Besides, I wanted to see the Mick over there pitch a fit on my behalf.” Dee smiled a little. He saw Andrew almost every day, often when he had the girls in the office with him. Lyn he saw late ate night, meeting him occasionally during his hour break. Lyn was a night owl.

“Mick this.” Lyn rolled his eyes, managing to have folded his long narrow body into a position that had his knees nearly up to his chest, feet on the seat, despite the close quarters of the booth. Despite his words, he didn’t make the corresponding gesture, both hands wrapped around his own coffee mug, the heat steaming up his glasses.

“Have you talked to Ryo at all?” He had tried to refrain from asking, it was none of his business any more, but he knew that Ryo had some contact with Lyn. Mostly emails.

“Yeah, I guess so. Nothing much, nothing like that.” Lyn looked down into his coffee flavored cream and sugar. He hurt for Dee. Not in the same way he knew Drew did, Drew had been there, but the whole situation was pure hell all the way around. Ly knew his husband had no empathy whatsoever for Ryo, which Lyn understood. Dee needed someone completely in his corner. But gods, what Ryo was doing to himself...

“You guess so?” Dee raised an eyebrow. For a lawyer, Lyn could be absolutely transparent at times.

“He emails be every couple days. What Bikky’s up to, work, sometimes books or movies he thinks I’d like...” Lyn shrugged, wanting to pull the hood of his hoodie sweatshirt over his head and draw the strings tight instead of facing Dee at the moment.

“And? Don’t even try Lyn, I can tell you’re trying to avoid something. Just have out with it. I was the retard who asked, don’t try and spare me.” Dee shook his head, taking his mug from Keiry again, taking it from her rather abruptly instead of giving her a chance to let go.

The little girl tilted her head way back, craning her head to see Dee’s face, her blue eyes brimming with tears and the size of dinner plates. “Shit.” Dee sighed, closing his eyes a moment. God, he was such and ass, grabbing something from a little kid. He had no control over himself these days and it drove him nuts. “I’m so sorry sweetie.” Dee said, circling his fist on his chest, the sign for sorry.

“She’s fine.” Andrew said, tapping the table to get Keiry’s attention, hands moving quickly when she looked over to him, easily avoiding Annie in his lap. You know better, those are big people cups. Not for little kittens. He raised a stern eyebrow, but Keiry knew all the men around her were softies. She grinned sweetly, clapping happily at the sign for ‘kitten’ and pulled the hood of her own little zip up sweatshirt, a light gray color, little cat ears were stitched onto the hood. She felt them, just to be sure they were there, and clapped her hands again, making a bubble nonsensical sound. She hadn’t really been scared by her uncle Dee, just confused.

Dee sighed looking up from Keiry, who was signing ‘kitten’ to herself over and over, patting her chest Me kitten! Me Kitten! “I’m sorry Drew.”

“Don’t be. She knows she’s got you wrapped around her little finger and will play it to the hilt. I would have hung her up by her curls by now.” Andrew said, with out a lick of truth.

“She’s already learning to bat those lashes.” Lyn agree with a nod, keeping an eye on her from across the table, glad he was out from under Dee’s magnifying glass.

“So, Ryo’s emails?” Andrew said, turning to his husband, raising his eyebrows.

“You wanker!” Lyn hissed, pinching Andrew under the table. Andrew jumped, far more, Dee was sure, then was warranted. “I’m flushing the toilet the next time you’re in the shower.”

“Oh what else is new?” Andrew rolled his eyes.

“Dee... Ryo’s met someone.” Lyn sighed, looking at Dee with sympathetic eyes, biting his lip nervously. “I’m sorry, I thought, well until now, I though Bikky would have said something. You are still seeing him on the weekends right?”

“A couple nights a week, yeah.” Dee said, almost mechanical, feeling like every gear in him had just ground to a rough halt. Ryo had met someone? Just when he was sure the pieces of his heart were too small to be broken any further, someone managed to stomp them just a little smaller. Leaving Ryo had been a dull constant ache, this... Dee honestly felt like someone had knifed him in the chest. There wasn’t enough air in the room.

“Dee?” Andrew asked gently, reaching across the table to touch his hand, now feeling bad for putting Lyn back on the spot. Dee needed to know eventually though, he supposed.

Dee looked up, but not at Andrew, almost ignoring him. “Who?” he asked Ryo raggedly, not sure what would hurt more, a man or a woman. If it was a man, then Ryo just simply hadn’t loved him, not like Dee loved Ryo anyway, that was a nearly intolerable thought. At the same time if it was a man, then Dee could just work on convincing himself Ryo was a deceiving bastard. If it was a woman... Dee had always harbored doubts, worries that he had cornered Ryo into the relationship they had. Trapped him. Ryo wasn’t really gay, or bi, or any of that crap. He was just too nice for his own good, and Dee was the fucker.

“I think her name is Mary...” Lyn said softly, still chewing his lip. He wasn’t sure what to say. Ryo talked her up, a lot. She was attractive, great personality, kind hearted. In fact, Ryo talked her up so much, Lyn was almost positive it was himself that Ryo was trying to convince, not Lyn. There was so much about Mary, and no mention of Dee. Not a breath. It seemed unnatural, to Lyn, false. For one it was so damned soon, just a couple months, since he and Dee had broken up. That wasn’t long enough. Far too short a time for Ryo to start dating again, if anyone had asked Lyn, which they had not. Far too short of a time for Ryo to completely erased Dee from his life. Especially considering they shared custody of Bikky.

“I guess that explains why Bikky is over on Fridays so much more these last few weeks.” That was the best Dee could manage.

“Dee,” Andrew said softly, waiting until Dee looked at him, well, at least looked in his direction, he couldn’t hold Andrew’s eyes, didn’t even really meet them. “don’t you start emotionally abusing yourself. He’s the one making the mistakes. Not you.”

Lyn had to agree on that account, even as a somewhat more neutral party. Ryo was pushing things, rushing things, trying too hard to prove... lord only knew. Dee, Dee had taken steps to improve himself, find ways to heal from what had been, Lyn knew from Andrew’s inferences, a devastating emotional blow. Lyn could see it too. The man sitting across from him was not that man who had joked about S&M in his living room four months ago.

“I’m fine, Drew. Don’t worry about me. I’m just pissed he still has my jacket.” Dee managed a dry brittle smile. “I better go. I need to try and get a couple hours of sleep before class.” He handed Keiry back across the table to Lyn, after kissing her curly head. He gave Annie a similar kiss, tossing a twenty on the table, way more then his share, but he didn’t care, money was nothing but paper. “See you later Drew. Lyn.” he nodded and sketched a mock salute and a wink, striding off before Lyn or Andrew could manage to form an objection.

Dee strode out of the small diner and into the early morning foot traffic, disappearing easily amidst the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, like an bee in a hive. One more worker bee, identical to all the other worker bees around him. No one would notice if he didn’t come back to the hive. The only reason people would notice if he fell off the face of the planet is because they wanted something from him. Work would call, of course. Ryo would, just to be sure Bikky would be there that weekend, so he could go out with his pretty little straight girl. His co worker cum ‘friends’ would be vaguely surprised, but it wouldn’t be life stopping. The only one who would care was Bikky. Just like Jess.

Dee switched the direction he was heading, cutting east before heading back north. Bikky should be on his way to school. As far as Dee knew, he took the same route every day. It would still take some luck to catch him, but what else did he have to do anyway.

After ten blocks he started to jog, checking his watch. He was cutting it close. In fact Dee was almost positive he was going to miss him. He rounded the corner of seventh, moving onto Kissinger. He stopped three blocks down Kissinger, ducking into an alley way. If he had managed to beat Bikky, and Bikky was taking this route, he would be climbing over that fence in the next five minutes. He leaned back against the wall, hands in his pockets, dropping his head back against the brick and closing his eyes.

“Dee?”

Dee hadn’t realized any time had passed, even though it had only been a few minutes at most, it had managed to slip from his grasp. He straightened, turning to the fence as Bikky hopped down onto the pavement.

“What are you doing here?” Bikky looked worried.

“Just wanted to see you, sport.” He grinned, sauntering over to Bikky. “Unless of course, you’re too cool to be seen walking to school with your whatever.” It was Dee’s official title ‘whatever’. Bikky had dubbed him such after watching Muppet Treasure Island, and Gonzo’s species had been determined as ‘whatever’.

“Nah, just try not to be a retard, okay?” Bikky rolled his eyes heavenward, as if asking the Holy Father to give him the strength to deal with his super lame double dutch retarded whatever.

“Okay... so I should untuck my jeans from my socks?” Dee asked with a smile, resting a hand between Bikky’s shoulders, guiding him out of the alley.

“Yeah, please. And, just a little tip Dee... the tighty-whiteys go under your pants. That’s why they are called ‘under’wear.”

“Damn, no wonder I was getting so many weird looks. I thought the hole in front was for my wallet.” Dee managed to say it with a straight face, barely.

“Oh my god! Only you Dee!” Bikky was terribly amused and embarrassed all at the same time, a faint pink actually heating his cheeks, even as he laughed. “For your wallet. God your dumb.”

“Who would you mock if I wasn’t, hmmm?” Dee grinned a little, managing to have amused himself in the process, picturing wearing his underwear on the outside of his jeans and sticking his walled in the front flap.

“I guess every village needs and idiot.” Bikky agreed, not shrugging off Dee’s hand even once they were back in the crowd.

“I thought that’s what we elected George Dubbya for.” Dee chuckled, shaking his head. He hadn’t been a fan of bush in years, so he most certainly hadn’t elected one to be president.

“jshyeah.” Bikky rolled his eyes. He didn’t actually know much of anything about politics. He had far more important things on his plate, like working on his jump shot. But he knew Dee didn’t like him, and Ryo changed the channel every time he came up on the news. He knew there was some shit about making a law against queers getting married. He decided by default, that he didn’t like Bush either.

“You have no clue do you?” Dee laughed.

“Yeah right. Like I care.” Bikky rolled his eyes again. “That’s lame adult stuff.”

“You’ve got that right bud. If anyone ever asks, just tell them your a pinko commie, okay?” Dee grinned, doubting anyone Bikky’s age had any idea what a ‘pinko commie’ was anyway.

“Whatever man, whatever.” Bikky clucked his tongue, glancing up at Dee, wondering exactly why he was here. He had to have just gotten off work. He looked kind of tired, and like maybe he wasn’t feeling to well. Bikky wrapped an arm around Dee’s waist, walking close against his side.

“I know, I’m a crazy old geezer.” Dee agreed, his arm going around Bikky’s shoulders, surprised that Bikky was being so touchy feely with him. Bik had always been someone who wanted a lot of touch, but generally the gentler expressions of it were reserved for Ryo. Dee got the rough housing.

“True that.” Bikky nodded sagely, falling quiet.

It was a quiet journey the rest of the way to P.S. 82, neither of them finding the need to say too much. Bikky was finding it harder and harder to talk to Dee. Not because he didn’t want to... but Bikky didn’t want to be the one to tell Dee that Ryo had moved on. Ryo refused to tell him, and so Bikky didn’t know what to do. He wanted to talk about Mary, about Ryo, about Mary and Ryo. He hated the whole damn thing, and he wanted to talk about it. But to talk about it, he had to tell Dee.

“Alright tiger. I’ll let you walk the last block around. Wouldn’t want to ruin your rep.” He smiled. “I know you think you’re badass.”

“I am badass. No think about it.” Bikky sighed though. “Dee...”

“What’s up?” he asked, crouching down to be on eyelevel with the kid.

“I have to tell you something.” Bikky said softly, looking down at his ragged sneakers, he felt a little sick, and he wrapped his arms around his stomach. “Don’t get mad, okay?”

“I wont...” Dee said slowly, watching his son closely, he looked absolutely ripped up about something. What could he have done that had him so worked up?

“Ryo... Ryo...” Bikky bit his lip. “He’s going steady with some chick.” He managed to squeak out finally, then closing his eyes tight, waiting for Dee to flip.

“I know.” Dee sighed softly, smoothing back Bikky’s blonde hair. “I know kiddo, you can relax. You weren’t the one to tell me. Don’t you worry about all that, alright? That’s lame adult stuff too.” Poor kid... damn Ryo anyway! Dee smoothed his hair again, caressing his cheek. “Its okay Bikky.”

“I didn’t want to tell you! But Ryo said he didn’t have to because it was none of your business. But... but you were gonna find out.” Bikky said quickly. It wasn’t even the breaking of the news that he was so upset about. He knew how he’d feel if Cal decided to stop hanging out with him, and hang out with some other guy instead.

“That shouldn’t have been on your head. Do you feel any better? Now that its off your chest?”

“Yeah.” Bikky let out a slow breath “Yeah I do. Can I stay at your place tonight?” Mary was coming over.

“I’m fine with it. I will call your dad about it. Get to school, alright? I’ll leave a message with the school secretary so you know where you’re going, alright?”

“Sure. Thanks Dee.” Bikky was finally able to look him in the eye.

“Anything kiddo, anything.” Dee hugged him tight, surprised when Bikky let him, even hugging him back a little. He squeezed Bikky to him for several long moments, turning his face against his hair, kissing the top of his head before shooing him on his way, watching him trot off down the street. You’re my world, little guy Dee thought himself, realizing with some surprise Bikky was the one person he loved most in this world. He had always loved him, but the kid was fast rising in his list of priorities. Maybe God did always have a silver lining for you somewhere.