Title: Off The Beaten Track

Author: badly-knitted

Characters: Dee, Ryo.

Rating: G

Setting: After Vol. 7.

Summary: Vacation activities don't always go as planned, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Word Count: 500

Written For: Prompt 6: Dense at anythingdrabble.

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

.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

.

Some vacation this was turning out to be; the fog was so dense Dee couldn't see more than a couple of feet in any direction. One minute they'd been taking a scenic cliff-top walk and the next a heavy mist had rolled in from the sea, blotting out the view completely.

The damp, swirling tendrils felt chilly against their faces and hands while droplets of water clung to their hair, clothes, and the bushes bordering the path. It was almost beautiful, in an eerie sort of way, and they'd kept walking because the path was well marked; there was no point just standing around hoping the weather would clear again. They didn't want to be stuck out here all night.

Ryo had the map in his hand and was looking at it.

"What's up? Are we lost?" Dee asked, frowning at his lover.

"I'm not sure; can't tell where we are. I thought we would've reached this path by now." He pointed to the map, where a turn-off to their right was clearly visible. "Maybe we missed it. If we keep going though, we should come to a small town in another two or three miles.

The path they'd intended to take would have led them to a road, which they could then have followed back to the parking lot, little more than a field, where they'd left their rental car.

"Probably best to keep going forward rather than back," Dee said. "It's hard to judge distances in this so maybe we haven't walked as far as you think."

"That's possible," Ryo agreed, and they continued along the path, coming a few minutes later to a narrow track leading away from the one they were following.

"What did I tell you?" Dee grinned. "We just have to follow this one down to the road."

Ryo was dubious. "It's a bit overgrown; doesn't look like anyone's been this way in a while."

Dee shrugged. "It's Britain; lots of rain so the plants grow fast. C'mon." Grabbing Ryo's hand he tugged his lover off the main path onto the narrower, winding track. Several times they almost lost the trail they were following, pushing on through dense undergrowth until they found it again. By now, even Dee was thinking they'd gone the wrong way, but there was no turning back. When the building loomed suddenly out of the fog in front of them, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"It looks like an old chapel," Ryo said, studying the weathered stone. "Maybe we can shelter here until the fog lifts; let's see if there's a way in."

The door was around the other side, and opened easily. Inside were weathered pews, a visitor's book, pamphlets, postcards, and a box for donations. Ryo sat in a pew studying his map and discovering they'd overshot the turning they should have taken by nearly a mile.

Looking around, Dee found he didn't care. Sometimes the best parts of vacations were winding up somewhere completely unexpected.

.

The End