Oh, and in this story, I can't feel sympathy for Fraser, because I think that he's a totally, snarky a**hole to RayV. The snarkiness is how he was in the last two seasons of Due South with RayK, which is why I don't like Fraser very much during those seasons. I'm glad that RayK called Fraser on his attitude toward RayV and told him not to do that.
From: Nancy Date: 04/14/2011
Okay - I normally really hate any F/K story that has RayV homophobic, or even experiencing lingering feelings of homophobia. I just DON'T see him that way - and to point to his religious and cultural background and work as a cop for the reasons for his homophobia is just unfairly stereotyping him. I only accept that he may have been taught homophobia from Pa Vecchio - but then I also think that RayV would have rejected anything that Pa taught him, especially if his dear friend Benny is the one who is gay.
But your story is a refreshing change. I still don't like the idea of RayV having homophobic feelings, and of Fraser hiding his relationship with RayK from him (though I acknowledge that they were going to tell him privately before anyone else except for RayK's parents - and that's how it should be if Fraser truly cares about RayV).
It is a breath of fresh air, however, for Fraser to have told RayV a long time ago that he was gay, and for RayV to still have him as a dear friend (and still love him as a friend, I say). And it's refreshing that RayK doesn't seem that jealous of RayV's friendship with Fraser - and WANTING them to keep up the friendship because it's important to both of them. Many F/K stories with homophobic!RayV just let the Fraser-RayV friendship die, with Fraser rejecting RayV instead of trying to assure him that he's still his friend and cares about him despite being with RayK, or with RayV rejecting Fraser as a friend. Those stories are just terrible for the fandom - they only set the RayV fans against the RayK fans. And, as I said, it's really stupid to make RayV the villian and make him reject "Benny" - I can't see him not being friends with him under any circumstances, especially since he had forgiven "Benny" for some terrible things, and should know that there are far worse things than his best friend being gay.
RayK often drives me batty in some F/K stories with his jealousy and neediness, but I really like him in this story, and I can easily see him becoming close friends with RayV.