[#006] Birthday Disaster (FAKE)

[badly_knitted]

Theme Prompt: #006 – Unexpected Company
Title: Birthday Disaster
Fandom: FAKE
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 / Some swearing.
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 890
Summary: Dee’s birthday has gone from bad to worse thanks to a domestic disaster.



Some days Dee’s life just sucked beyond belief. He stared numbly at the ruins of his kitchen and what would have been his lunch, splattered all over everything; the universe must really hate him.

‘Happy birthday to me,’ he thought glumly. Bad enough that he’d ended up having to work a half-day despite booking the whole day off months in advance, but now this… There went his plans with Ryo as well; he’d have to call and cancel. Sorting this mess out was going to take the rest of the day. “Worst birthday ever.”

Pulling out his phone he called his partner. “Hey, babe. It’s me.”

“Dee, is everything okay?”

“Not even close.” Sighing, Dee shoved one hand through his hair and winced as he dislodged bits of plaster and god knew what else. “Gonna have ta cancel on ya.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“My new goddamned microwave just blew up. I managed to put the fire out, I think, but between the smoke damage and the fuckin’ hole it blew in the wall it’s gonna take me the rest of the day to clean up.” As tempting as it was to abandon everything and just walk out, leaving the mess for later, everywhere smelled of smoke and for all he knew something might still be smouldering. Last thing he needed was to go out and come back to find the whole apartment burned down, along with everything he owned.

“My God!” Ryo gasped. “Were you there when it happened?”

Dee snorted; Ryo could be such an airhead. “Course I was, dumbass! I was usin’ the damned thing, rustlin’ up a snack for lunch! It didn’t just come on all by itself.”

“Oh. Right. Are you okay?”

“Slightly singed, nothin’ serious, but you’d best cancel our reservation. This is turnin’ out to be one crummy birthday. Look, I gotta go, this mess isn’t gonna clean itself up and I think somethin’ might still be burnin’ somewhere. I just wanted to let ya know.”

“Okay, Dee, be careful and if you need anything… Well, just give me a call.”

“Thanks, babe.” Dee hung up. Too bad Ryo was still at work; he could’ve used another pair of hands dealing with the mess. “Stupid modern technology! Had the thing less than twenty-four hours!” he muttered as he began the task of cleaning up. “Should’a known there might be somethin’ wrong with it; box looked like the delivery guy bounced it up the stairs.” Pulling out his phone again, he took photographs of the damage. He was so getting a refund.

An hour later he’d still barely made a dent in the mess, although he’d put the ruined microwave out on the fire escape and dealt with a couple of things that had still been smouldering. When someone knocked on the door he groaned in despair; the last thing he needed was company. It was probably the landlord or his downstairs neighbour, wanting to know what was going on up here. He wended his way through the mess and threw the door open.

“Whaddaya wan…” His words trailed off at the unexpected sight.

There in the hallway were Ryo, Ted, Drake, and JJ, their arms laden with cleaning supplies, quick drying plaster, paint, and brushes. He could scarcely believe his eyes.

“What’re you guys doin’ here? Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“I told the Chief what happened,” Ryo said. “He gave us the rest of the day off to help you get sorted out.”

That was a surprise. “I’ll be damned! Guess the old badger must like me after all!” Dee stepped back to let his lover and their friends in; unexpected they might be, but definitely not unwelcome. “Thanks, guys, I really appreciate this.”

“You’d do the same for any of us,” Ted pointed out.

“Besides, it’s your birthday,” JJ piped up. “We couldn’t leave you to deal with this mess all by yourself. That would be mean, and anyway, I got you a present. Happy birthday, Mr Studly!” The smaller man thrust a neatly wrapped gift into Dee’s grubby hands.

“Uh, thanks. I’ll open it later.” Dee set it down out of the way; JJ’s crush on him was a pain in the ass, but under the present circumstances he could afford to be more tolerant than usual. He could use all the help he could get.

“Alright,” Ryo said, taking charge. “Let’s get to work, there’s a lot to do if we’re going to get the place cleaned up by tonight. Then we can all go out for drinks and pizza.” He threw a smile Dee’s way. “Not much of a birthday party, but…”

“Right now this is better than any party,” Dee assured him. “Thank you. Times like this you really find out who your friends are.”

As the other detectives spread out and began cleaning, sweeping up plaster rubble, washing down the kitchen units, walls, ceiling and floor, Dee felt his gloomy mood evaporating. Sure, it wasn’t the relaxing birthday he’d hoped for, his home was in disarray, and his romantic dinner out with his lover had gone out the window, but thanks to the guys he worked with, he didn’t have to deal with the mess all by himself. No matter what, he knew they’d always be there for him, and in the end, that was what mattered.


The End