Title: Silver Linings

Author: badly-knitted

Characters: Dee/Ryo

Rating: PG

Setting: After the manga.

Summary: Dee can turn most situations to his advantage; it's all a matter of how you look at things…

Word Count: 500

Written For: Prompt #403: Stairs or Elevator? at slashthedrabble.

Disclaimer: I don't own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

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Dee scowled; he hated crime scenes in high-rise buildings. It wasn't that heights bothered him, they never had, any more than they bothered Ryo; it was just a pain dealing with everything that a murder investigation entailed in a building with so many floors, especially considering the number of people they'd be required to question. On top of that, there'd be police officers, crime scene investigators, the coroner, and who knew who else trooping in and out. It would be a logistical nightmare trying to keep potential evidence from being contaminated, even after evacuating the floor where the murder had taken place.

"Dee? Are you even listening to me?"

"What?" Ryo didn't deserve to be snapped at like that and Dee was immediately contrite. "Sorry. Just thinkin' about what we've got to look forward to on this one," he said with an apologetic grimace. "What were ya sayin'?"

"Should we take the stairs or the elevator?"

"The murderer is likely to be someone who either works here or had business here, so while he probably used the stairs to make his getaway, he'd draw less attention to himself if he took the elevator up. Guess that means we should do things the same way. Up in the elevator, down again via the stairs."

Ryo grinned. "I suppose that makes sense. And naturally your clever theory has nothing to do with avoiding having to climb seventeen flights of stairs?"

"Why waste energy if we don't have to?" Dee shrugged nonchalantly. "It's just common sense. Why? Did you want to do it the other way?"

"Not particularly." Ryo led the way over to the bank of four elevators, punching the button for the seventeenth floor as they stepped into the first one that became available.

As the doors closed behind them, Dee scanned the interior of the elevator car. "No security cameras."

"That's annoying." Ryo frowned. "We'll have to check CCTV footage on every floor to see who got in and out of each elevator and where, instead of just looking at the footage from inside the four cars. It'll take forever."

"Can't have everything go our way, can we?" Dee said with a wry smile. "That would make the job way too easy and fate is rarely that kind to the overworked cops of the NYPD. On the other hand, it's not all bad."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because it means I can do this." Dee crowded his partner against the wall and kissed him, long and slow, finally pulling away leaving Ryo dazed and breathless. "There's a silver lining to every cloud, babe; you just have to know how to look for it."

Ryo dragged his scattered wits back together, straightening his clothes as the elevator stopped on the seventeenth floor. "I'll try to keep that in mind for future reference," he replied as the doors opened and he exited.

Dee followed his lover, smirking. They'd pick up this 'discussion' later, but right now they had work to do.

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The End