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Title: Welcome
Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Fraser/Vecchio pre-slash
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 300
Summary: It was the first time Fraser'd been over for dinner since the whole mess went down.
Notes: Written for ds_snippets. Prompt: aloud.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, and I'm not making any money off this.

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"I told them the house got burglarized, okay? So don't say anything to contradict that impression. Ditto for mortgages."

It was the first time Fraser'd been over for dinner since the whole mess went down. Poor guy looked half-dead with nervousness, and Ray wanted to kill Victoria all over again because Fraser used to be better at hiding that stuff. Or else there was more of it to hide these days.

"All right, Ray." Then, more quietly, "You could have told them the truth."

Ray cycled through the nastiest reason he hadn't (I don't want to have to defend you to my family when I can barely defend you to myself) and the nicest (You got better shit to worry about than Ma bitching about her ugly-ass snowglobe. Look at you, you're limping, for Christ's sake) before settling on, "Yeah, well, I didn't feel like spending my evening listening to you apologize." Fraser hadn't apologized to Ray, but he was pretty sure Ma would be another story.

Fraser bit his lip. "Perhaps it would be better--I'll go." He looked up at the house, and Ray didn't know what he was thinking but he knew it wasn't pretty.

And yeah, he still hated knowing that when the chips were down, he couldn't count on Fraser. But he hated that look on Fraser's face more. "It's still my house," he said. "And if a man can't invite his own best friend over to his own house, I don't know what the world's coming to."

For a second he thought Fraser would cry. He held his breath, because if Fraser cried Ray was gonna do something stupid. But thank God, Fraser just blinked hard and said, "Thank you."

For once Ray didn't try to brush it off or ignore it. "You're welcome."