Title: Third Time's the Charm
Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Fraser/Vecchio
Rating: R (for language)
Word count: 936
Summary: "You telling me you didn't notice that was the second time recently that you almost died because I tried to shove myself into a part of your life I got no business in?"
Notes: Takes place directly after "North." This was a 2007 holiday giftfic for china_shop. Prompt: F/V, catalogue.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine and I'm not making any money off this.
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The first thing Ray did after he and Fraser got back from Canada---well, the first thing he did was drive Benny home, walk him up to his apartment, and stand there while he took his ibuprofen. But the first thing he did when he got home, to his house (still his house, thank God), was tear all those stupid catalogues in half---the Sears Roebuck catalogue he'd bought the saw from, the bathroom fixtures binder, all of them---and dump the suckers in the wastebasket. Then he kicked the wastebasket for good measure.
Of course, he then forgot to take them out to the trash for a week and a half.
And, of course, the next time Benny was over Ray ended up bringing him up to his room, partly because Ray's ma was still treating him a little cold and partly because Benny insisted that when he was searching for the locker key he had damaged the structural integrity of Ray's bed. So Ray was bouncing up and down on his bed, trying to prove it was fine, when Benny kinda gasped. Ray followed the direction of Fraser's eyes, and he was looking at the ripped catalogues, still in the damn trash.
"Ah, shit," Ray said. "Look, Benny---"
"It's quite all right, Ray," Fraser said, not sounding like it was all right at all. "I am well aware that our vacation was not the most idyllic."
Ray snorted. "Yeah, Fraser, it was fucking terrifying, and I just needed to---" He paused, trying to think how to say it.
"Relieve your feelings?" Fraser suggested.
Ray nodded, pleased that Benny got it without him having to explain. "Yeah."
"Understood, Ray," Fraser said, but he didn't seem any happier and Ray had a very bad feeling about what he was gonna say next. "I'm---glad you have an outlet for your frustration. Your patience with me has been such that---"
Ray shot to his feet. "Aw, Benny, it ain't you I'm mad at," he burst out. "You telling me you didn't notice that was the second time recently that you almost died because I tried to shove myself into a part of your life I got no business in?"
Fraser blinked. Then he frowned at Ray, his whole attention on him, working something out. Just like always, Ray felt naked and ugly, and at the same time he loved that he was the focus of Fraser's attention for once, not Street Urchin #3,539 or some hair from a crime scene. "Ray," Fraser said at last, softly, "there is no part of my life in which I would not wish your presence."
Ray closed his eyes for a second. Benny was Canadian, he had no idea what it sounded like he was saying, Ray knew that. He had no idea what Ray wanted him to be saying. "Thanks, Benny. Right back atcha, you know that."
Fraser swallowed. "Do you mean that, Ray?"
"Yeah, Benny, of course I do." Even if you don't.
"Ray, I---" Fraser looked so hopeful and scared, like a little kid afraid he was gonna be left alone in the dark. Ray couldn't help it---he stepped forward and gave the guy a tight hug. On the up-and-up, not pressing too close, not trying to cop a feel, and then Benny turned his head towards Ray's neck and---
Ray stepped back carefully. "Benny, did you just smell my neck?"
"No, Ray," Fraser said firmly.
But Ray was pretty sure. He looked at Benny doubtfully. Should he---? After all, it was pretty hard to see how he could almost kill Benny by hitting on him in his bedroom. But there was always the chance he'd be so horrified he'd jump out the window to escape and break something. Like his neck.
Fraser took Ray's silence for skepticism and started talking again. "Well---yes, I did. It's only that I find your scent comforting, Ray. I apologize if I went beyond the bounds of an ordinary Chicago friendship."
He made it sound so reasonable with that voice of his, like Ray was just an uptight city boy out of touch with nature, but Ray was pretty sure that even in the Yukon guys who were just friends didn't go around sniffing each other's necks. "Hey, it's okay," he said slowly, and took a step closer. "It felt kind of nice." He tilted his head toward Fraser, just a little. Plausible deniability, but if Benny was looking for it---
Fraser licked his lips. "Ray---?" he said uncertainly.
"Yeah, Benny?" Ray asked softly, leaning a little closer.
Fraser's chest was going in and out like he'd just chased down a car, and he was staring at Ray's mouth like it was evidence in a kidnapping, but he wasn't fucking moving. Ray coulda just gone for it, but---he wanted Fraser to. He wanted Fraser to choose him, this time.
He sighed. "You wanna kiss me, Fraser?"
Fraser froze.
Ray waited another few seconds, and nothing. "Because you can, if you want." And there went plausible deniability, out the fucking window.
"I can?"
"Yeah, Benny. Of course you can."
"Thank you," Fraser started to say, but he broke off in the middle to grab Ray by the back of the neck and drag their mouths together.
In the moments that followed, it developed that Fraser had indeed damaged the structural integrity of Ray's bed. But he didn't reopen his head wound when the headboard fell on them, and he didn't seem to mind the floor, so Ray figured maybe third time was the charm.
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