ds_flashfiction | Hope and Change Challenge by Nos

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Title: One Thing Benton Fraser Knows About Love
Pairing: F/K
Rating: R
Length: 700 words
Summary: Just like the title says.
Author’s Notes: Many thanks to

caersmane for doing a very quick and insightful beta. Inspired by a bit of dialogue from the episode "You Must Remember This."

One Thing Benton Fraser Knows About Love

After Ray Vecchio left, Fraser often found himself thinking about love.

It wasn’t Ray’s leaving that inspired his musings, although doubtlessly the two were connected. He’d entertained some feelings for his friend, little more than small embers of hope and need that never truly flamed to full life. And how could they? Ray was firmly heterosexual, after all, and he seemed to view Fraser as some rare species of chaste innocent.

What does a Mountie know about love?

Lord, how that question had irked him. Even after Ray had vanished into the neon-washed landscape of Las Vegas, Fraser heard that question echoing through his dreams.

What do I know about love?

He knew that love was a wild animal: something to be respected, but not trusted. It was important, he knew, not to turn one’s back on love, because love would strike when one least expected. He certainly had the scar to prove it.

And he knew that love wasn’t taken seriously. At least, not in America. And certainly not in the last ragged years of this cynical and promiscuous century.

Though love had the power to wound or to heal (a belief to which he stubbornly clung, despite all evidence to the contrary) it was, to put it plainly, a joke. Love was a sentiment on a candy heart. Be Mine. Kiss Me. You’re cute. Love was a pink-covered romance novel. A poorly-executed sonnet. A salacious wink, or a sly elbow to the ribs. Something frivolous, or something embarrassing. Graffiti on the men’s room wall.

Love, to put it simply, wasn’t important. It was the province of fools, poets and greeting-card writers. According to Ray Vecchio, love rated rather far down on the list of priorities. Classic cars were important. Fine food, and good sex, and a magic pair of sunglasses were important. But love? One didn’t speak of love unless one had a severe head injury.

What does anyone know about love?

Years later, Fraser asked himself that question as he lay sprawled across a futon in his new partner's apartment. His leg was falling asleep, the post-coital sweat cooling on his limbs was making him shiver, and he felt wonderfully, blissfully alive.

Ray Kowalski shifted under him, the movement bringing their softening cocks together, and Fraser closed his eyes. He sighed in contentment.

“Jesus,” Ray murmured. “That was—”

“Good,” Fraser supplied. He pressed a soft kiss to the tender skin at the corner of Ray’s eye, where the skin crinkled slightly from too many years of smiling and squinting into the sun. “That was good, Ray.”

Ray chuckled and rubbed at the back of Fraser’s neck, and then his touch drifted upwards into Fraser’s hair, gently massaging his scalp. Another few moments of this, and Fraser knew he’d be purring like a cat.

He lay his head down on Ray’s chest and listened to the slowing thud of his heart. Soon they’d have to move, to clean themselves up, to dress. They'd meant only to take a quick nap before returning to the station to finish up the paperwork on a burglary case. But one thing had led to another, as it often did these days.

Fraser tried to muster the will to get up and attend to duty. But Ray’s massage continued, and he felt only a nameless, drifting contentment. A new sensation. A new realization. An answer to his question.

In the past weeks he'd come to understand that love was possible. It wasn’t a joke, or a predator, or the pursuit of fools. Love was real, and it was happening here, right now, to him. It was happening in this flat midcontinental city, in the midst of noise and traffic and endless concrete and cold, overcast skies. He felt the wonder of it wash over him, and he rolled over and buried his face in Ray’s neck. Love existed, and it took his breath away.

Ray took his breath away.

And that was as little, and as much, as Fraser knew about love.

END

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From:

love-jackianto.livejournal.com

Loved your use of dialogue from You Must Remember This.

'the neon-washed landscape of Las Vegas'
Oh that great line :D

'Ray took his breath away.

And that was as little, and as much, as Fraser knew about love.'
Oh, Fraser.

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Hope and Change Challenge by Nos

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