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Title: Vested Interest
Fandom: due South
Pairing: Ray/Ray, references to Fraser/Cousteau
Rating: PG
Word count: 570
Summary: Ray and Ray just had dinner with Fraser and his new boyfriend, and Kowalski is trying to find the courage to make a move.
Author's Notes: This is for andeincascade, who wanted Ray Cousteau. Sorry it didn't turn out to have much of him in. (Ray Cousteau is one of my original Rays. He's French-Canadian, and played by Jim Allodi.) Beta'd by mrs_laugh_track.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, and I am making no money off this.

###

"Man, who woulda thunk?" Ray says after they leave the restaurant. "Fraser's new boyfriend smokes."

Vecchio grimaces. "Uch. Like kissing an ashtray."

"You always talk in PSAs, Vecchio?" Course, that's why he hasn't started smoking again. 'Cause he's hoping Vecchio will want to kiss him, one of these days. Still, he lies, "I been thinking about starting again," just to see what Vecchio will say.

Vecchio stops short to stare at him. "That is not funny, Kowalski."

"What do you care? I'm a lot less annoying when I smoke, you know." The twitchiness, the tics--people thought it was from quitting, but only 'cause they didn't know him before he started. That's just what he's like. Smoking calms him down, smooths him out. Gives him something to focus on, something to do with his hands and his mouth.

Vecchio starts walking again. "Nothing could make you less annoying. Anyway, you think I want to train a new partner? I got a vested interest in your lungs."

Ray snorts. "You got a vest, anyway." It's striped and ridiculous and Ray can't figure out why it's not a turn-off.

Vecchio flushes. Cousteau mocked the vest too, before Fraser kicked him under the table. "At least I didn't ask Cousteau if he was related to the mime," he retorts.

"Hey, I was just curious."

"You know the mime is Marceau, right?"

"Obviously I don't. Anyway, you sure he's really French? I mean, he don't got an accent or anything."

Vecchio rolls his eyes. "I'm Italian, and I don't have an accent."

"Yeah, but you don't speak Italian."

"Sure I do."

"Really?" That is hot. "You been holding out on me, Vecchio. Say something Italian."

Vecchio backtracks. "I don't speak a lot of Italian. A few words here and there, some weird proverbs. 'I love you.' Dumb stuff like that."

They're at the car. Fraser was so fucking happy he was practically glowing. Ray wants that too. He puts a hand on the Riv's hood by Vecchio's head while the guy's messing with his keys.

Vecchio turns around and gives him a what the fuck, Kowalski? look.

"Yeah? How do you say it?" Ray demands.

"How do I say what?"

"'I love you.' In Italian. Say it."

"I'm not your performing monkey, Kowalski," Vecchio snaps. "Just get in the car."

"Nuh-uh." Ray shifts closer. "C'mon, say it."

Vecchio's looking him right in the eye, but then he loses his nerve. His gaze slides away, and Ray can't fucking believe it. Vecchio's nerve is attached to him with handcuffs, like those little briefcases in the movies with Kryptonite bombs or the antidotes to world-dominating viruses inside them, and here he is losing it, just because Ray is flirting with him a little. "Ti amo," Vecchio says resentfully. His voice changes, just a little, rolls and rounds out.

"I, uh, me too," Ray says, and leans in.

###

DVD Extra: the next 30 seconds!

china_shop was unsure that was a happy ending, so I wrote her this:

Vecchio tasted faintly like apples, from that dumb French tart thing they'd had for dessert. It had looked all pretty and shiny but it hadn't been that great--it tasted about a million times better on Vecchio, though. Everything was better with Vecchio--

Vecchio pulled back. "What the hell, Kowalski? Is this about Fraser?"

"Wha--no! Well, sorta."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Let me go, Kowalski."

"No, I mean--I just--I figure we're living in Bizarro World if Fraser has the guts to tell someone how he feels and I don't, you know?"

Vecchio didn't have anything to say to that.

Kowalski searched his brain for something that would convince him, but he couldn't think of anything so he settled for wheedling. "C'mon, Vecchio, just let me blow you."

"Blow me?" Vecchio sounded kinda shocked, but he was mostly smiling, wide and incredulous. "You were one of those kids who always wanted to eat dessert first, weren't you?"

"I still am." Ray licked his lips. "And I like Italian desserts way better than French." He waggled his eyebrows.

"Yeah, that pie was a let-down, wasn't it?" Vecchio said in a totally normal tone of voice, but--remember how Ray said Fraser was glowing? Vecchio was quietly radioactive. That had to be a good sign.

"C'mon," Ray said, tugging lightly at Vecchio's belt.

Vecchio laughed. "Why don't you kiss me again, and we'll see where it goes from there?"

Ray didn't wait to be asked twice.