Title: Currently Untitled
Author: honigjaeger
Note: Posting this for a friend who doesn't have a FF account but writes awesome stories. Posting this story with permission.
Rating: M – for later chapters
Warnings this chapter: some language
Chapter One
Ryo wasn't answering his phone. It wasn't like Ryo, especially as Dee couldn't recall any reason for why he should be ignoring him. To his knowledge, he had done nothing to piss his partner off recently.
He glared at his phone as if it was responsible for Ryo not picking up before dialing again. Speed-dial one, just like vice-versa. Really, Ryo ought to at least tell him when they weren't talking to each other.
Second shift wasn't quite over with, but nothing was happening and all that was left to do was paperwork. He had been planning to head over to Ryo's later, but now it would have to be earlier.
Dee slipped his jacket on and walked across the room, leaning back against one of the desk with a pack of cigarette lifted up to his lips so he could tug one out.
"Hey, JJ, would you do me a favor?" Dark hair fell in front of eyes like a curtain as he lit one, the green gaze reflecting the flame as he watched his colleague. He braced himself for the expected reaction. It wasn't easy being irresistible.
The way JJ's eyes instantly told from normal to creepily big and sparkly was frightening and Dee leaned back a bit, just in case.
"Of course, Dee, my beloved, anything for you to proof my love and devotion!"
"Awesome." There was one up-side to Ryo not being here, it made it a lot easier to leech off JJ. "I've still got some reports to finish, they are on my desk." He pushed away from the table and side-stepped a tackle with practiced elegance. "Thanks!"
He headed towards the door when he heard JJ, who was getting back on his feet, call after him. "How am I supposed to finish them? I wasn't there."
"I dunno. Make something up, it's what I would do. It's not like the old badger gives a fuck. Hey, chief." The last to words were added when the chief suddenly appeared. Not wasting any more time, Dee was already out the room by the time that tirade started.
It might not always be easy, but every now and then, it sure paid off to be irresistible, Dee thought to himself. He got into his car, dialing again with his left hand while he started the motor. No answer. "Fine, go ahead and ignore me," Dee mumbled, fingers playing along the steering wheel nervously when he turned to join the steady stream of traffic. It just wasn't like Ryo not to answer his phone.
The streets weren't as crowded as usual. In New York, leaving work some minutes sooner could make you be home two hours earlier if you timed it right. Dee was a master at this art, developed over years of getting away from work the moment he could or sooner. Today, too, he had managed to avoid the worst traffic. He slammed the door shut and approached the apartment building one hand in his pocket. Dee looked up to check whether there was any light on, but all of Ryo's windows were dark. Damn.
The way up the flight of stairs to Ryo's apartment was so familiar that he could have walked it with his eyes closed. He fumbled for his keys. Of course, Ryo had been reluctant to actually give him his own set of keys for a long time, but Dee had made a very good case for himself by the second time Ryo had found his lock broken and himself handcuffed to the headboard with a very horny Dee on top. Sometimes it was just too much to ask him to control certain urges. Not that that it had ever stepped Ryo from trying.
Since Ryo had decided that giving him his own keys would be easier on his wallet, Dee was now able to unlock the door and walk inside the apartment.
"Ryo?," he called out, one hand sliding through dark hair as he looked around. After a short pause he added, "Bikky?" though he knew the teen wouldn't be here, something about a school-trip or other, if he recalled right.
All that answered him was his echo and his heart was beating a bit faster in his chest. This just didn't feel right.
"Fuck this," he mumbled and walked through an empty living room to the kitchen. Clean as always, no dirty dishes stashed on the counter like at his place, everything cleaned up. All in all, nothing out of the ordinary. Without thinking, Dee checked the fridge, but then halted in getting a beer out and decided to first check Ryo's bedroom. Perhaps his partner was sick and too proud to ask for help again.
Dee slowly treaded into the room, suddenly finding it a bit harder to breathe. He was on the edge and hopting there was no reason to be. No sign of Ryo, apart from an unmade bed. Which, on second thought, was a damn disconcerting thought. Ryo always made his bed. It was a damn annoying habit, too, Dee couldn't even count the times he had been thrown out of bed just so Ryo would have time to make it before work, costing them five precious cuddle-minutes.
He put one hand on the sheets, just to check whether they might still be warm. Negative.
"Alright, Ryo, I swear to God, if I find you hiding with Berk in the closet, I will kill you and kick your ass."
There was no one in the closet, either.
Dee slammed shut the door to the closet and started to pace from the bedroom to the living room and back again. He was trying very hard to be rational instead of freaking out and it wasn't working.
Then his phone rang. He pulled it out so fast that it fell to the ground, but it kept ringing, and Dee crouched down to get it back. One look at the screen before he picked up.
"Ryo? What the fuck do you think you are doing, not picking up your damn phone? How hard can that even be, you just have to push the damn green button! I better hope for you that you have a damn good excuse for doing this. Where the hell are you? Not at the precinct, not at your place and it's not as if you have a fucking life outside of work, you damn workaholic!"
He had to take a break from yelling in order to breathe. The voice from the other end of the line cut into the sudden silence. It wasn't Ryo's.
"Twelve missed calls from this number. It seems like your Ryo isn't the only one who doesn't have a life, Mister...Dee."
"And who the fuck are you supposed to be?" Someone had Ryo's phone. Shit. Dee had known that something was wrong, but he had hoped that just this once his instincts had failed him.
"That doesn't concern you."
"Like hell this doesn't concern me! Listen, asshole, I don't know why you stole Ryo's phone, but I can tell you that it wasn't a very smart move."
"Then I guess it's lucky that I haven't technically stolen it." The hint of amusement to the cold voice wasn't pleasant.
"Technically, huh?"
"Yes. I suppose, techically, it is your Ryo I stole. He just came with the phone."
Dee's heart stopped for a moment.
Stole Ryo. His heart was beating again and it was beating too fast. "Why?"
"Let me explain to you. It's Dee Laytner, right?"
"Detective Laytner, for you, asshole," Dee corrected automatically, wishing he could shoot someone through the phone.
"Detective. Of course." The voice sounded more disbelieving, but that was hardly Dee's major problem right now. "See, there is a case you are working on right now. I am sure you know which one I mean."
"...yes." There was only one case that stood out enough to warrant this.
"I will need the files you have on that. All of them. No copies left behind."
Dee wanted to scream at him again, but he stayed quiet and listened. It was just a voice right now, and yet the hatred he felt made it hard to breathe.
"Now, Detective Laytner, of course I could have just asked you or your partner, but I prefer to up the stakes right away. I'm sure you understand. I don't like playing around."
Dee's green eyes closed and he counted to three. It was something Ryo had, more than once, told him to do and it hurt to remember the advice right now. But it did help make his voice sound calm. "I want to talk to Ryo."
"Detective Maclean, you mean." The mocking tone wasn't helping Dee's temper.
"Fuck you, asshole," he mumbled, listening careful to the sounds on the other end of the line as, he assumed, the phone was moved.
"Your partner," he heard a different voice, probably informing Ryo, before he finally heard the man himself speak.
"Dee?"
"What the fuck are you doing, Ryo? Making me worry like this. I'll get wrinkles and turn ugly."
"A sad day for the men and women of New York, I'm sure." Dee could imagine those dark eyes roll, dark enough to see himself in them. His chest hurt.
"It would be." Focus, he had to focus. "Where are you? How did this happen?"
"I don't know, Dee. Some warehouse down by...-ow!" The slap had been hard enough for Dee to hear it through the phone and his hand clenched into a fist when he heard Ryo being told harshly to watch his mouth.
"Ryo?" His voice sounded too small, too helpless. Dee tried to swallow it down.
"Yes. I'm alright. Listen, Dee, promise me you won't give them the files."
"Are you fucking kidding me? They could hurt you, Ryo." Or worse. "Hell, they are hurting you."
"It's not that bad. Promise, Dee. You can't give them what they want."
"How can I not when they..." He stopped himself from saying it, though he was sure that Ryo knew how the sentence would have ended.
"Alright, that's enough." The voice was once again the first one. Dee tried not to allow himself to think about how easily this could have been the last time he talked to Ryo. Fuck this.
"Now, where were we. The files, right. Now, Detective Laytner, you will get those files to me and you will not try to trick me. Trust me, it wouldn't be very healthy for your partner."
"Fuck you," Dee said, but it was hard to bring the needed malice to the words with his chest still far too tight.
"In your partner's interest, I advise you not to talk to anyone about this and hurry with getting the files to me."
"Right." Thoughts flew through Dee's head as he tried to grab onto them, to form a plan. All he could focus on was the desperate hope of keeping Ryo from being hurt anymore. "I swear, if you hit him again..."
"Then what, Detective Layton?"
"..."
"That's right. Hurry. I will call again." With that, the line went dead. Dee glared at the phone before tightening his hand around it and taking a deep breath. He'd find a way, he thought, to keep the promise Ryo had demanded of him as well as the promise he made to himself. Not to let anyone hurt Ryo.