Title: Spring At Last

Author: badly-knitted

Characters: Dee, Ryo.

Rating: G

Setting: After Vol. 7.

Summary: Dee is delighted to wake up to glorious spring weather, but it quickly loses its appeal.

Written For: The dw100 prompt 'Springtime'.

Word Count: 571

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

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Dee stared out the window in surprise, feeling as though he must have fallen asleep and missed a couple of weeks. When he'd gone to bed last night, there'd still been stubborn patches of hard-packed snow here and there refusing to melt, but this morning… Outside the sun was shining, the birds were singing, buds were swelling on the branches of trees, flowers were blooming, and there wasn't a trace of snow in sight. After dragging its heels through the whole second half of March and into April, spring had finally arrived.

He showered and dressed quickly, eager to get outside and enjoy the warm spring morning. It would be a shame to waste the sunshine; who knew how long it would last? Global warming was making the weather so unpredictable these days. After a hasty breakfast, he grabbed a light jacket in case it got chilly later and ignoring the elevator, bounded down the stairs and out onto the street, full of the joys of the season

By the time he reached the 27th Precinct, he was feeling a lot less enthusiastic about the glorious spring weather. His eyes were red and itchy, his nose was dripping like a tap, and he kept sneezing. Why was it that every year in his eagerness for warmer temperatures he always managed to forget about the misery of hay fever? Flowers were all very well, but all that pollen in the air was a nightmare.

"Isn't it a beautiful day?" Ryo greeted him cheerfully as Dee slouched into the squad room, his vision blurred and his nose already getting sore. This was so much worse than having a cold.

"Yeah, sure." Dee slumped into his chair, sneezed yet again, and blew his nose, wishing he could crawl back home where he could suffer in peace.

"Here." Ryo tossed something across the desk to his partner. "I had a feeling you might need these so I stopped by the pharmacy on my way in."

Picking up the familiar pack of his usual hay fever tablets, Dee gave a sigh of relief, popping one out and washing it down with half the bottle of water Ryo pushed toward him, and fervently hoping it wouldn't take long to start working. "Thanks, bud. You're a lifesaver."

"Anything to keep from having you sneezing in my ear all day," Ryo teased. "Maybe one of these years you'll think to stock up on hay fever remedies before you need them."

"Oh, but where would the fun be in actually being able to breathe and see where I'm goin'?" Dee asked sarcastically, mopping at his watering eyes. "You're lucky you don't get hay fever."

"That's only because I have to take antihistamines all year round," Ryo explained. "Otherwise I'd be even worse than you. D'you know why I keep my place so clean? On top of being allergic to every kind of pollen there is, I have a dust allergy. The meds help, but I've gotten used to keeping dust to a minimum, just as a precaution."

"How come you never said anything?"

Ryo shrugged. "It's not something I give much thought to. As long as I take my antihistamines morning and night I'm fine."

"Huh." Dee filed that piece of information away with everything else he knew about his partner and silently vowed to never complain again about having hay fever for a few weeks out of the year.

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The End