ds_flashfiction | Sorry for the delay!

About 660 words.

Inertia: Part Two
by lamardeuse

"I've been thinking, Ray."

"Whuzzz--Frazzzzer? Wha--"

"Are you awake?"

"I am now. Jesus, it's three thirty."

A huff of breath. "Don't you want to know what I've been thinking about?"

"Mmm." A soft thud that might be the sound of Ray's head hitting the pillow. "I'll take a guess, how's that? You woke me from a sound sleep to tell me you got promoted."

"No."

"You wanted me to know Dief had puppies."

A snort. "Unlikely."

"Miracle of modern fuckin' medicine, what do I know?" Ray's voice was small now, lostness bleeding around its edges. "Can we do this tomorrow? Can you call back tomorrow, when I'm awake?"

A pause. "I suppose I could--" Another pause. "No, I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"Because--I want to tell you now." He was aware he sounded like a petulant child. He didn't care. He finally had acquired some momentum, and Ray was going to be the one to poleaxe him?

"All right, already."

Fraser listened to himself breathe.

"So, go. You gonna go?"

"Go where?"

"Talk to me, Frase. Talk, already. Just get it--"

"I love you."

Silence, because Fraser was no longer breathing.

"How come?"

It was about the last question he'd been expecting to hear. All he could manage was to repeat it, like a particularly intelligent parrot. "How come?"

"Yeah, how come? They don't have how come in the Arctic? Like, it means, why?"

"I know what it means. I just don't see how--why it's important to explore--"

"At this juncture?" Ray asked, a hint of amusement in his tone. "You call me up eleven--no, twelve-- hours after I call you and tell you I'm a fag and like magic, wave the wand, Harry Potter, you're one too?" He chuckled, but the amusement had died. "You're somethin' else, you know that?"

Fraser frowned. "Are you trying to imply that I'm a sympathetic homosexual?"

"Huh. Cute. Yeah, somethin' like that. But don't worry, Frase buddy, ‘it's a perfectly natural reaction to being under extreme stress.'"

Fraser closed his eyes. This wasn't at all how he--

"You still there?"

"Yes, Ray."

"So look, it's real nice of you and all, and I appreciate it, but I'm gonna survive. No bullshit, okay? I'll get over it."

Fraser swallowed. "I'm--happy for you, Ray."

"So, you can just tuck yourself into your bed and count sled dogs jumping over the ice crevasse, and you'll be asleep in no time."

"I, ah, well, that's going to be difficult," Fraser said, rubbing at his eyebrow until he feared it might come off.

"Whyzat? You got a problem with endangering the lives of imaginary sled dogs?"

"No. I, ah, I don't happen to be near my bed at this time."

"Oh. Still at work, huh?"

"No. I'm in a phone booth."

Ray snorted. "Yeah, Superman. Like there's a phone booth in Inuvik."

"There isn't. Well, there was one until the winter of 1983, when a man named Stinky Milligan...it isn't important."

Fraser listened to the hum of the phone line. The service here was appalling, considering--

"Where are you? Where?" The volume of Ray's words made the connection crackle and splutter.

Fraser inhaled, held the air in his lungs a moment, let it escape. "In a phone booth across the street from your apartment."

"Jesus. Wait, wait--"

"I can't wait," Fraser said. "I have to keep moving. Now that I've started, I can't seem to stop."

"Fraser--"

"You see, I took this bus. Then I took a plane. Then I--"

"Don't. Why are you--"

"Because," Fraser said calmly, "I knew, before. Long before. And God help me--" He trailed off, choking back the words.

"Dammit, Fraser--"

The words burst forth. "I don't want you to survive," Fraser said fervently. "I don't want you to survive without me."

"Hang up the goddamn phone," Ray growled.

"And?"

"And move."

And Fraser was left with a dial tone.