Summary: An unconcious choice is made on a short trip home.
Author's Notes: You all will notice something new on the next chapters. And there WILL be chapters coming more quickly, I promise.
BETA : Thanks a million to Erin (g iris) for putting up with my typos, and definite clarity issues. This fandom is definitely different then my past. It's hard for me to work with, and your amazing. Thanks for the tech help too!
"Do you really think that it's the best idea?" Ryo asked, looking at Dee's proposed idea as if it were the oddest thing he had heard in a long time. His features were contorted as though it were more phenomenal then it really was. "What if something happens up here?"
"Don't you want it?" Dee replied, silently admitting that the only thing he was thinking about was Ryo – once again. Something about this situation had, uncharacteristically, given him worry. He never worried about Ryo before, because there was no need. There still was no need. Ryo had more control of himself than anyone else around him. "I think it may be helpful."
Ryo sighed, trying to think about it. Dee had asked him, just moments before, if he would like to go back home for a couple of days, until they had to head back upstate for the funeral. Ryo knew that it was something he wanted. Yet he knew that he really did agree with Dee. He wanted a few days to spend with the friends and family that were part of his real life. He wanted to see how Bikky was doing, and whether he was being good for Cal's somewhat vicious aunt. Ryo wanted to see what had happened at the precinct in their absence. He knew there would be some amazing stories to be told.
Yet, there was a small part of him suffering from extreme doubt. What if an emergency were to take place, and he had no way of getting back here? What if his family caused more trouble for the woman who was trying to help him out?
Despite the doubts, Ryo's needs to go home were very strong, and he nodded to himself. "Yes," he whispered. "I think it is a good idea, and we should head back."
"Yes!" Dee exclaimed, his deep eyes sparkling in his happiness. "It's time to go where we perfectly belong! Old New York City... 's the place for us, right?"
Ryo grinned at Dee's sudden enthusiasm. "Uh-huh," he replied, nodding, and inwardly wondering what kind of pre-planned arrangements Dee had made to be springing this so suddenly. 'Never mind,' he thought quickly, before his reaction forced him to ask, 'It doesn't matter how he did it. It just matters that he knows what I need.'
"We've gotta be at the airport at five," Dee said, his face showing the familiar glow of mischief Ryo remembered. It made him feel unusually comfortable, and a bit more powerful in the way things were going. The control was extremely nice.
"That sounds great."
"I have everything ready," Dee said quickly. "All the plans are scratched out. Want me to help you get your things together?"
Ryo was astounded, even though it was like Dee to do things like this. Spontaneous events usually annoyed Ryo, because he hated it when things ran out of control. He liked orderly, planned events and ideas most of the time. Of course life itself proved to be anything but drawn up. So maybe a short, unplanned trip back home would work to ease things.
- - - -
"Hey, Dee."
"Yeah?" Dee asked, shifting uncomfortably in the seat of the airplane. They had only taken off about ten minutes before, but neither man had appeared to want to speak much.
"Thanks again," Ryo replied laughing. "You don't even know how excited I am to go home today and be with everyone back there. What made you – do all of this?"
"You kept asking to be normal," was the quick reply to the question. "I figure, what's more normal than going to the place you live? It's simple."
It did not feel like it could really be that simple, to go home and live for a few days. Yet, Dee's assured look almost sealed the fact that it would be for certain. "I still do want it," Ryo's calm reply settled them both. "It's a bit annoying, somwhate frightening, but I'll enjoy being here."
"That's exactly what I've been wanting," Dee admitted. Looking over to the next plane seat, Ryo could see that Dee was a little bit embarrassed, his head inclined downward.
"What do you mean?" Ryo asked, looking at Dee who moved over nervously.
"Nothing, I just – I got comfortable with how things were beginning to be at home," Dee laughed, leaning back into the seat. There was no use feeling uncomfortable with Ryo, when he would always would end up admitting everything to Ryo. "It was nice. There wasn't any confusion, and I didn't have to do anything stupid to you anymore. It was calm, it was starting to feel like it was a .... ah I don't know what I'm talking about." Dee turned away, seeming a bit flustered.
"It was starting to feel like a family at home?" Ryo suggested, pressing his hand against Dee's shoulder. "I know that it was. Soon it will be again."
"Times like these..." Dee's reply came out like a sigh, as he shook his head laughing at the world. Honestly, he believed that it was always that way; where things would work out fine for awhile, be shaken up by something tragic, wonderful, or even frightening, and then it would move back to being fine. "So, how do you think things have been these last couple of days? You think everything went on fine without us?"
"I'm sure it went well enough. I hope we didn't leave at a bad time for the district. Well... it seemed to be going all right when we left. There were a few things going down, but things have held a lot more control since the precinct went from being understaffed to normal sized."
"Yeah, finally they broke down and stopped dropping all of the cases on the two of us," Dee laughed, as the airplane seemed to bump on the air below them. Both men looked at each other, a bit tense and then Dee had to laugh at how silly they looked. "We need to relax before we get there."
Ryo looked back at him certainly, and tried to speak again. "Yeah, we do. I'm sure everything at work- and at home is all right. I'm positive that it is." Ryo nodded to Dee who smiled back. Ryo then turned to his bag, and pulled out the same book he had been reading the day after Rick and Elena died. It had actually been a book of his mothers, an old love story written in Japanese. It was so old that the title was faded from both the cover and his memories of his mother's love for the story. This time, the symbols on the pages made sense to him. From the first page he believed it was a fairy tale, with the classic fantasy settings and characters.
"What is that thing?" Dee asked out of an odd curiosity, looking at the old, faded leather on the cover. "I was wondering about it the first time you read it."
"It's old, isn't it?" Ryo replied, watching Dee nod out of the corner of his eye. "It's supposed to be very old. It was my mother's book. Elena figured that since my mother loved it so much, my mother would leave it to me after my parents died. Elena sent it to me the month before I began living with her. I kept it, but I never looked inside until the night I heard that she and Rick had died.
Dee looked over Ryo's shoulder at the dusty pages. He ran his finger across the complex Japanese, covering the page. "Seems so complex," he said, even though the neat, clearly scribed language was to unfamiliar to him in every way.
"Might look that way," Ryo mumbled, still a bit reserved about sharing things like this. "It's really like a fairy tale though ... or so it seems. Fantasyland type of stuff. The main character is some kind of prince figure. I wonder why my mother would like something like this..."
"Wasn't she that type of person, like I know you are?" Dee asked, not pressing Ryo, but trying to make conversation work.
"I don't know," Ryo said distracted, as he sank into the second page of the book in hand. "I guess anyone could enjoy anything, but ... it's funny to be looking at something my mother was looking at not so incredibly long ago."
Ryo went quiet for a minute, pulling up the text towards his eyes, so he could see without the reading glasses he had become dependent on. It really seemed to be an odd choice of story for his mother's liking. She was so practical and this was such fantasy, about finding the one person meant for you - even when you weren't looking. But Ryo did find himself
interested in the main male character's indifference, even when he and the girl he was
apparently meant to be with forever, were thrown together to face ridiculous obstacles. Yet, quickly he was starting to see how his mother found this book so good. It was somewhat comforting, making him tired and relentlessly interested in the romance. He never had even looked at the stories of romances, but something was interesting about this. The main character's feelings, they reminded him so much of how he'd felt for Dee early on. The messages reminded him that everything happened for a reason. It was comforting.
"Hey you, are you still engulfed in your fairy tales?" mumbled a voice close to his ear. Ryo turned his head, to be staring into Dee's eyes. "The plane is landing in a few minutes, might as well get our things ready."
"Thanks," Ryo mumbled, shaking his head of the fantasies, and kicking himself into the real world. He slipped the book down into his bag, and prepared for the landing. He had been pretty caught up for the length of the two hour flight, taken by his mother's favorite love story. It was very romantic, and old fashioned. The protagonist's situations seemed to represent other hard struggles. Whatever it represented, it had kept him distracted for over an hour.
Slowly the plane began to descend. Within a half hour, Dee and Ryo were in the airport, were in the airport, had collected their baggage and were ready to go home.
Entering Ryo's home and seeing the mess shocked even Ryo, who had caused it all. His room was torn apart from the uncharacteristic outburst he'd had. "I was a bit upset," he mumbled, his face red with embarrassment. "I guess I do need to clean this place up."
"You'll get to it."
"You're right. It's night, and tomorrow is going to be a good day for normal lives. I'll see how it goes tomorrow morning. It's late..."
Ryo and Dee soon found themselves in Ryo's front room. Dee hurried to clear out the clutter, and Ryo was quick to sit down. He closed his eyes and could feel Dee's weight press down the sofa next to him. He leaned over. "Well... this is nice," Dee said to him, laughing.
"Yeah it is," Ryo replied, incredibly sunken into the feeling of being at home. "Do you think you can stay? I think you still have some good things over here."
"I practically live over here," Dee replied, his arm around Ryo's back. "I don't think me leaving is an issue that should worry you."
Ryo could not help but laugh, holding onto the fact that Dee's form was tightly pressed against him. He moved closer to Dee, relishing a quick but meaningful kiss, their lips brushing against each other's in rejoice.
"Ouch," Dee exclaimed, breaking away, and pushing Ryo over a few inches as a sharp point pressed against him. "What is that in your side pocket?"
Ryo moved slightly, pulling his phone out of the pocket. "Oh look Dee it's a telephone," Ryo teased, trying to be light hearted as he flaunted it in Dee's face. "Go on, get the cross and stake out. I know they're the absolute evil and now you should kill it."
Quickly, Ryo switched the thing on, before he put it away on the shelf. He was just about to put the cell phone with all of his other work materials, until he realized that he had a message. The name was identified as: Jane Douglass. The legal working on matters of the wills.
"Mister Maclean, there has been an urgent development in the legal issues surrounding your relatives deaths. It appears that... your uncle is contesting your duties for the child. He is objecting to your unfit lifestyle. I want you to call me as soon as is possible."
"Unfit lifestyle?" Ryo asked the empty air, as the telephone voice clicked off. He stared at the wall, unsure of what to think of the message. How could his life really be deemed unfit? Any why would his uncle be contesting his rights, when all Nevan cared about was getting the unwanted part of his family away from his presence.
"What's wrong?" Dee asked, watching Ryo stare at the blank telephone screen. "Who was it? What's going on?"
Ryo turned around, and sat back down on the sofa, pushing himself next to Dee, as close as he possibly could make himself be. "Dee, that was the legal - Miss Douglass."
"What did that woman want from you?" Dee replied, moving a bit and Ryo could not help but be happy about the way Dee jumped to concern lately. It was so uncharacteristic, but it helped make Ryo feel better about things around him. He leaned into Dee, feeling less insecure that way. He continued by speaking boldly.
"Her message said that... that Nevan has decided to contest my rights as were stated in Elena's will. She said that he has gone to lawyers, calling out my lifestyle as unfit to raise a child.
Ryo cringed, as he felt a hand on his shoulder. "What does she mean?" Dee asked, looking concerned. "Why would he even bring up stuff like that? He wants to get rid of the kid as soon as humanly possible, right?"
"Why would I be unfit to be a guardian to her?" Ryo asked, not even bothering to answer the question Dee had posed. Nothing made sense to him unless Ryo calculated each move clearly. "I don't get it. I have a lot of money saved over, the area is nice... my job is a little questionable, but what else?"
Hr paused, and Dee could see the clear grimace grabbing hold of his delicate features. His eyes narrowed as he clenched his face. He was thinking of something. Then he began to speak slowly, with a bit of waver to his voice. "Wait a minute. You don't think that I'm being called unfit to be a guardian because of us?"
"Nah, of course not," Dee responded, staring blankly at him. But Dee did not take Ryo for a complete fool. He knew as well as Ryo did, that being together was likely to be exactly
what Ryo's awful uncle had used as his first proclamation to his lawyers. He met his lover's eyes, apologizing wordlessly for the outright lie.
"Well, this is going to be a fun ride, isn't it?" Ryo asked softly, leaning back against the cushion, with only a trace of despair in his eyes. He looked as though he had strengthened, and empowered himself over the situation this time. "It's late so I suppose I'll call her in the morning. Come on, let's get ourselves to sleep Dee."
"Are you..." Dee started, but Ryo quieted him with a quick gesturing of his hands. He shook his head, and smiled.
"Not a chance Dee," Ryo mumbled, walking towards his bedroom. "I honestly need rest, and total control of things. I don't need to be taken care of, honest. Now come on, I need you with me one hundred percent – no matter what I might be choosing in the future."
"What-" Dee started but once again Ryo did not allow him room to speak.
"No listen for a second," Ryo mumbled, as his lover seemed to panic in front of him. "Listen to me, okay? I know you don't approve of a lot that I may choose to do, but if the only other option is Nevan winning – and turning my cousin's life into his own choice, then I choose to do what I know is right."
"Sure," Dee said, somewhat regretful of his words. But when Ryo smiled again he knew that he had to agree to whatever Ryo chose in his life. Dee had followed Ryo for years, running and chasing, because he wanted to be part of that life. And he was going to be no matter what. "Whatever it is you want to do, Ryo."
"Thank you," replied the man with his back turned. "I honestly didn't think you could stand up to something like this. Yes, I doubted you... but you are more than just your average person."
Dee followed, knowing that Ryo had chosen not to back out of anything. Ryo was that way; strong, and unfaltering in everything he chose. And he chose to fight for full rights to his cousin's guardianship, no matter what the world told him.
Author's Notes: You all will notice something new on the next chapters. And there WILL be chapters coming more quickly, I promise.
BETA : Thanks a million to Erin (g iris) for putting up with my typos, and definite clarity issues. This fandom is definitely different then my past. It's hard for me to work with, and your amazing. Thanks for the tech help too!
"Do you really think that it's the best idea?" Ryo asked, looking at Dee's proposed idea as if it were the oddest thing he had heard in a long time. His features were contorted as though it were more phenomenal then it really was. "What if something happens up here?"
"Don't you want it?" Dee replied, silently admitting that the only thing he was thinking about was Ryo – once again. Something about this situation had, uncharacteristically, given him worry. He never worried about Ryo before, because there was no need. There still was no need. Ryo had more control of himself than anyone else around him. "I think it may be helpful."
Ryo sighed, trying to think about it. Dee had asked him, just moments before, if he would like to go back home for a couple of days, until they had to head back upstate for the funeral. Ryo knew that it was something he wanted. Yet he knew that he really did agree with Dee. He wanted a few days to spend with the friends and family that were part of his real life. He wanted to see how Bikky was doing, and whether he was being good for Cal's somewhat vicious aunt. Ryo wanted to see what had happened at the precinct in their absence. He knew there would be some amazing stories to be told.
Yet, there was a small part of him suffering from extreme doubt. What if an emergency were to take place, and he had no way of getting back here? What if his family caused more trouble for the woman who was trying to help him out?
Despite the doubts, Ryo's needs to go home were very strong, and he nodded to himself. "Yes," he whispered. "I think it is a good idea, and we should head back."
"Yes!" Dee exclaimed, his deep eyes sparkling in his happiness. "It's time to go where we perfectly belong! Old New York City... 's the place for us, right?"
Ryo grinned at Dee's sudden enthusiasm. "Uh-huh," he replied, nodding, and inwardly wondering what kind of pre-planned arrangements Dee had made to be springing this so suddenly. 'Never mind,' he thought quickly, before his reaction forced him to ask, 'It doesn't matter how he did it. It just matters that he knows what I need.'
"We've gotta be at the airport at five," Dee said, his face showing the familiar glow of mischief Ryo remembered. It made him feel unusually comfortable, and a bit more powerful in the way things were going. The control was extremely nice.
"That sounds great."
"I have everything ready," Dee said quickly. "All the plans are scratched out. Want me to help you get your things together?"
Ryo was astounded, even though it was like Dee to do things like this. Spontaneous events usually annoyed Ryo, because he hated it when things ran out of control. He liked orderly, planned events and ideas most of the time. Of course life itself proved to be anything but drawn up. So maybe a short, unplanned trip back home would work to ease things.
- - - -
"Hey, Dee."
"Yeah?" Dee asked, shifting uncomfortably in the seat of the airplane. They had only taken off about ten minutes before, but neither man had appeared to want to speak much.
"Thanks again," Ryo replied laughing. "You don't even know how excited I am to go home today and be with everyone back there. What made you – do all of this?"
"You kept asking to be normal," was the quick reply to the question. "I figure, what's more normal than going to the place you live? It's simple."
It did not feel like it could really be that simple, to go home and live for a few days. Yet, Dee's assured look almost sealed the fact that it would be for certain. "I still do want it," Ryo's calm reply settled them both. "It's a bit annoying, somwhate frightening, but I'll enjoy being here."
"That's exactly what I've been wanting," Dee admitted. Looking over to the next plane seat, Ryo could see that Dee was a little bit embarrassed, his head inclined downward.
"What do you mean?" Ryo asked, looking at Dee who moved over nervously.
"Nothing, I just – I got comfortable with how things were beginning to be at home," Dee laughed, leaning back into the seat. There was no use feeling uncomfortable with Ryo, when he would always would end up admitting everything to Ryo. "It was nice. There wasn't any confusion, and I didn't have to do anything stupid to you anymore. It was calm, it was starting to feel like it was a .... ah I don't know what I'm talking about." Dee turned away, seeming a bit flustered.
"It was starting to feel like a family at home?" Ryo suggested, pressing his hand against Dee's shoulder. "I know that it was. Soon it will be again."
"Times like these..." Dee's reply came out like a sigh, as he shook his head laughing at the world. Honestly, he believed that it was always that way; where things would work out fine for awhile, be shaken up by something tragic, wonderful, or even frightening, and then it would move back to being fine. "So, how do you think things have been these last couple of days? You think everything went on fine without us?"
"I'm sure it went well enough. I hope we didn't leave at a bad time for the district. Well... it seemed to be going all right when we left. There were a few things going down, but things have held a lot more control since the precinct went from being understaffed to normal sized."
"Yeah, finally they broke down and stopped dropping all of the cases on the two of us," Dee laughed, as the airplane seemed to bump on the air below them. Both men looked at each other, a bit tense and then Dee had to laugh at how silly they looked. "We need to relax before we get there."
Ryo looked back at him certainly, and tried to speak again. "Yeah, we do. I'm sure everything at work- and at home is all right. I'm positive that it is." Ryo nodded to Dee who smiled back. Ryo then turned to his bag, and pulled out the same book he had been reading the day after Rick and Elena died. It had actually been a book of his mothers, an old love story written in Japanese. It was so old that the title was faded from both the cover and his memories of his mother's love for the story. This time, the symbols on the pages made sense to him. From the first page he believed it was a fairy tale, with the classic fantasy settings and characters.
"What is that thing?" Dee asked out of an odd curiosity, looking at the old, faded leather on the cover. "I was wondering about it the first time you read it."
"It's old, isn't it?" Ryo replied, watching Dee nod out of the corner of his eye. "It's supposed to be very old. It was my mother's book. Elena figured that since my mother loved it so much, my mother would leave it to me after my parents died. Elena sent it to me the month before I began living with her. I kept it, but I never looked inside until the night I heard that she and Rick had died.
Dee looked over Ryo's shoulder at the dusty pages. He ran his finger across the complex Japanese, covering the page. "Seems so complex," he said, even though the neat, clearly scribed language was to unfamiliar to him in every way.
"Might look that way," Ryo mumbled, still a bit reserved about sharing things like this. "It's really like a fairy tale though ... or so it seems. Fantasyland type of stuff. The main character is some kind of prince figure. I wonder why my mother would like something like this..."
"Wasn't she that type of person, like I know you are?" Dee asked, not pressing Ryo, but trying to make conversation work.
"I don't know," Ryo said distracted, as he sank into the second page of the book in hand. "I guess anyone could enjoy anything, but ... it's funny to be looking at something my mother was looking at not so incredibly long ago."
Ryo went quiet for a minute, pulling up the text towards his eyes, so he could see without the reading glasses he had become dependent on. It really seemed to be an odd choice of story for his mother's liking. She was so practical and this was such fantasy, about finding the one person meant for you - even when you weren't looking. But Ryo did find himself
interested in the main male character's indifference, even when he and the girl he was
apparently meant to be with forever, were thrown together to face ridiculous obstacles. Yet, quickly he was starting to see how his mother found this book so good. It was somewhat comforting, making him tired and relentlessly interested in the romance. He never had even looked at the stories of romances, but something was interesting about this. The main character's feelings, they reminded him so much of how he'd felt for Dee early on. The messages reminded him that everything happened for a reason. It was comforting.
"Hey you, are you still engulfed in your fairy tales?" mumbled a voice close to his ear. Ryo turned his head, to be staring into Dee's eyes. "The plane is landing in a few minutes, might as well get our things ready."
"Thanks," Ryo mumbled, shaking his head of the fantasies, and kicking himself into the real world. He slipped the book down into his bag, and prepared for the landing. He had been pretty caught up for the length of the two hour flight, taken by his mother's favorite love story. It was very romantic, and old fashioned. The protagonist's situations seemed to represent other hard struggles. Whatever it represented, it had kept him distracted for over an hour.
Slowly the plane began to descend. Within a half hour, Dee and Ryo were in the airport, were in the airport, had collected their baggage and were ready to go home.
Entering Ryo's home and seeing the mess shocked even Ryo, who had caused it all. His room was torn apart from the uncharacteristic outburst he'd had. "I was a bit upset," he mumbled, his face red with embarrassment. "I guess I do need to clean this place up."
"You'll get to it."
"You're right. It's night, and tomorrow is going to be a good day for normal lives. I'll see how it goes tomorrow morning. It's late..."
Ryo and Dee soon found themselves in Ryo's front room. Dee hurried to clear out the clutter, and Ryo was quick to sit down. He closed his eyes and could feel Dee's weight press down the sofa next to him. He leaned over. "Well... this is nice," Dee said to him, laughing.
"Yeah it is," Ryo replied, incredibly sunken into the feeling of being at home. "Do you think you can stay? I think you still have some good things over here."
"I practically live over here," Dee replied, his arm around Ryo's back. "I don't think me leaving is an issue that should worry you."
Ryo could not help but laugh, holding onto the fact that Dee's form was tightly pressed against him. He moved closer to Dee, relishing a quick but meaningful kiss, their lips brushing against each other's in rejoice.
"Ouch," Dee exclaimed, breaking away, and pushing Ryo over a few inches as a sharp point pressed against him. "What is that in your side pocket?"
Ryo moved slightly, pulling his phone out of the pocket. "Oh look Dee it's a telephone," Ryo teased, trying to be light hearted as he flaunted it in Dee's face. "Go on, get the cross and stake out. I know they're the absolute evil and now you should kill it."
Quickly, Ryo switched the thing on, before he put it away on the shelf. He was just about to put the cell phone with all of his other work materials, until he realized that he had a message. The name was identified as: Jane Douglass. The legal working on matters of the wills.
"Mister Maclean, there has been an urgent development in the legal issues surrounding your relatives deaths. It appears that... your uncle is contesting your duties for the child. He is objecting to your unfit lifestyle. I want you to call me as soon as is possible."
"Unfit lifestyle?" Ryo asked the empty air, as the telephone voice clicked off. He stared at the wall, unsure of what to think of the message. How could his life really be deemed unfit? Any why would his uncle be contesting his rights, when all Nevan cared about was getting the unwanted part of his family away from his presence.
"What's wrong?" Dee asked, watching Ryo stare at the blank telephone screen. "Who was it? What's going on?"
Ryo turned around, and sat back down on the sofa, pushing himself next to Dee, as close as he possibly could make himself be. "Dee, that was the legal - Miss Douglass."
"What did that woman want from you?" Dee replied, moving a bit and Ryo could not help but be happy about the way Dee jumped to concern lately. It was so uncharacteristic, but it helped make Ryo feel better about things around him. He leaned into Dee, feeling less insecure that way. He continued by speaking boldly.
"Her message said that... that Nevan has decided to contest my rights as were stated in Elena's will. She said that he has gone to lawyers, calling out my lifestyle as unfit to raise a child.
Ryo cringed, as he felt a hand on his shoulder. "What does she mean?" Dee asked, looking concerned. "Why would he even bring up stuff like that? He wants to get rid of the kid as soon as humanly possible, right?"
"Why would I be unfit to be a guardian to her?" Ryo asked, not even bothering to answer the question Dee had posed. Nothing made sense to him unless Ryo calculated each move clearly. "I don't get it. I have a lot of money saved over, the area is nice... my job is a little questionable, but what else?"
Hr paused, and Dee could see the clear grimace grabbing hold of his delicate features. His eyes narrowed as he clenched his face. He was thinking of something. Then he began to speak slowly, with a bit of waver to his voice. "Wait a minute. You don't think that I'm being called unfit to be a guardian because of us?"
"Nah, of course not," Dee responded, staring blankly at him. But Dee did not take Ryo for a complete fool. He knew as well as Ryo did, that being together was likely to be exactly
what Ryo's awful uncle had used as his first proclamation to his lawyers. He met his lover's eyes, apologizing wordlessly for the outright lie.
"Well, this is going to be a fun ride, isn't it?" Ryo asked softly, leaning back against the cushion, with only a trace of despair in his eyes. He looked as though he had strengthened, and empowered himself over the situation this time. "It's late so I suppose I'll call her in the morning. Come on, let's get ourselves to sleep Dee."
"Are you..." Dee started, but Ryo quieted him with a quick gesturing of his hands. He shook his head, and smiled.
"Not a chance Dee," Ryo mumbled, walking towards his bedroom. "I honestly need rest, and total control of things. I don't need to be taken care of, honest. Now come on, I need you with me one hundred percent – no matter what I might be choosing in the future."
"What-" Dee started but once again Ryo did not allow him room to speak.
"No listen for a second," Ryo mumbled, as his lover seemed to panic in front of him. "Listen to me, okay? I know you don't approve of a lot that I may choose to do, but if the only other option is Nevan winning – and turning my cousin's life into his own choice, then I choose to do what I know is right."
"Sure," Dee said, somewhat regretful of his words. But when Ryo smiled again he knew that he had to agree to whatever Ryo chose in his life. Dee had followed Ryo for years, running and chasing, because he wanted to be part of that life. And he was going to be no matter what. "Whatever it is you want to do, Ryo."
"Thank you," replied the man with his back turned. "I honestly didn't think you could stand up to something like this. Yes, I doubted you... but you are more than just your average person."
Dee followed, knowing that Ryo had chosen not to back out of anything. Ryo was that way; strong, and unfaltering in everything he chose. And he chose to fight for full rights to his cousin's guardianship, no matter what the world told him.