ds_flashfiction | A True Vision by Matsutakedo

My friend wrote this in September for the Five Minutes After challenge we did in Japanese. It's brand new in English, so I hope I'm not quite breaking the rules. Much thanks to

imkalena for betaing the translation.

Title: A True Vision
Author: Matsutakedo (

matsutakedo)
Translated by: Zerlina (

zerl)
Pairing: BF/RV
Rating: PG13
Spoilers For: Mask
Notes: Original text at LCV705.

971 words.

"Thanks for tonight, Ray. It was very. . . spiritual." Louise smiled up from her taxi window. Ray nodded, but looked distant.

"Sure you don't want to come over to my place for a drink?" she asked.

"Um, yeah. But I think we'd better not. Another time, maybe."

St. Laurent looked somewhat relieved at that, though she was still smiling.

"Night, then, Ray. I really enjoyed our evening."

"Me too. See you around, Louise."

As soon as the cab was out of sight, Ray ran up the stairs to apartment 3J. He opened the kitchen window and slipped out onto the fire escape, gingerly but quickly ascending the steps.

The rooftop was dark. There was only a sliver of moonlight slipping through an opening in the thick clouds, but there was no mistaking who the huddled figure was, sitting on a half-broken crate at the far end.

The wolf found Ray first, and materialized from behind his human's shadow with a whine.

". . . Ray?" Fraser looked up.

"Hey, Benny."

From this far away, though, and with such poor light, his face was still hidden from Ray.

"Where's States Attorney St. Laurent?" There was an unfamiliar rasp in Fraser's voice.

"I just saw her off," Ray whispered back. "Hey. What are you doing here?" He slowly came up to the dark figure.

"I just wanted to think. What are you doing here?"

They were close enough to feel each other's warmth, now. He slowly reached out in the dark. When his hand felt the uniform -- the brown one, he could barely make out its color -- the shoulder quivered under his touch.

"I saw a vision." Still barely more than a whisper, as though he was afraid anyone else would hear.

"A vision?" the shadow responded in the same tone of voice, almost a sigh.

"Yeah, a vision. Just like you did."

Ray still felt the smoldering heat on his skin. The heat, the steam, and some herbs, whose names he wasn't sure he could pronounce if he knew them. He had let himself soak up all that dizzying heat, and somehow, the woman sitting next to him had disappeared.

It was a vision. It was Benny, his closest friend, sitting alone.

"I saw you up here. I've never seen this place, but I saw you here, just like you are now." He closed his eyes, breathing in the night air. "Benny, the way I saw you -- you were crying."

There was a low gasp.

"You were up here alone, and you were crying." He opened his eyes to hold his hands gently up to his friend's cheeks.

"I just saw you; there were no sounds. But I thought I saw your lips moving. Like you were calling somebody."

His eyes, adjusting to the darkness now, picked up the small movement on Fraser's face.

"Ray."

"Yeah. Yeah, just like that."

"Ray."

"I couldn't think anymore. I had to find out. Had to see if it was just a hallucination, like I told you today, or if it was for real. If you were real. That's why I'm here, Benny." He slid his fingers along Fraser's cheekbone, and felt the wetness.

"Why, Benny? Just tell me why."

There was no answer. He felt he tried to draw back, but Ray wouldn't let him.

"Tell me you were jealous. Were you jealous? Of Louise?"

The face shivered under his touch, and he heard a strangled moan escape through bitten lips.

"Tell me, Benny. And I'll have the guts to tell you I love you."

"Ray. . ." New, hot tears poured over the icy trails on his cheeks.

"I love you. That's what I came here to tell you. Just you, Benny. You don't need to be jealous of anybody."

New wetness, spilling over Ray's fingers.

"Ray. I love you. I -- I don't want you to share your vision with anybody else."

Ray gathered him close. He smiled, as Fraser's arms reached tentatively around his waist.

"Hey, just how long have you been out here, anyway?" He soothed Fraser's back with his hands, and pressed a gentle kiss to his temple. "God, you're freezing. Let's go down before you'll catch a cold."

Fraser nodded, tightening his arms. "Ray?"

"Yes, Benny?"

"Will you go into the sweat lodge with me?"

"Sweat lodge? You are freezing, aren't you?"

He slowly shook his head. "No, Ray. I just want to be there with you. I want to be beside you, when you see another vision."

"Another?"

"Yes."

Ray pressed his face into the soft hair and smiled.

"You know, maybe we can try again some other time. For now, I want to see the real you, and not just some stupid hallucination."

"It's not a halluci--"

"All right, Benny. But I want the real you. The you that I can touch, and hold, and kiss."

He could feel Fraser's smile through the fabric of his jacket. The contented feeling almost made him want to purr.

"Oh, and Benny?"

There was a slightly wider gash in the clouds now, and the moonlight drifted down on Fraser's upturned face.

"There was something else in my vision, too. Do you know what it was?"

Fraser's lips parted on a response, but before any sound came out, Ray covered it with his own. Chastely, almost reverently, on the rooftop of an apartment building he always called the ratpit. It was their first kiss. First of many, he hoped. In his peripheral vision, he saw the wolf bounce down the fire escape for the warmth of his alpha's den, seeming glad his chaperoning role was over.

Ray didn't know if there was something to the Inuit spirituality after all -- or if he had simply been caught by a certain ancient magic called love.