Author's website: http://www.geocities.com/a_kite_fic/

Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine, though if they were they'd have more fun than a barrel of monkeys, eh? No copyright infringement is intended, and no money is being made.

Author's Notes: Thanks to KarenS for the beta and to Bridget as always for just being her.

Story Notes:

DO YOU MISS IT

People ask me all the time, don't you miss Chicago? I just shake my head. No, I don't miss it. I miss some of the people there sometimes, but not the place.

Up here there's the sky. I can get lost for hours just looking at the sky. It's so big. On those perfect days it's blue. I mean really blue. With those little white fluffy cumulous clouds. Ha! You weren't expecting me to know about clouds, were you? I read a lot, especially during the winter.

Now winter, that's something. Winter can be brutal up here, but it can in Chicago too. People up here are better equipped to deal with it, that's all. Anyone can learn that if I did. What got me through the first one, going back to the sky again, was the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. It's beautiful. Better than any manmade light show anywhere.

The people up here are nice and not in that phony do-gooder way. They care, I mean really care about each other. It's a way of life for them. For us. There's not a lot of people here so we stick together. Help each other. I didn't think I was ever going to fit in around here. But I do. I have a place.

Of course, the best thing about it all is Fraser. My place is with him. When it's winter and snowing, where you don't see the sky for weeks, I look in his eyes. Yeah, that's sappy as hell, I know. Bite me if you don't like it. You asked.

Fraser is why I'm here and why I don't miss Chicago. I love him. He loves me. The people here don't give a damn about what we might be up to in the bedroom. He gave me all this: the sky, the Aurora, books, the people, a place to fit in. So as far as I'm concerned, Chicago can sit there by the lake they call Michigan. I don't miss it a bit.

Does He Miss It?

I worried at first. Worried that life here would prove too harsh for Ray. That he'd miss television, pizza delivery, Chinese take out, all the things that living in Chicago means. His car, I thought he'd very much miss the car.

He doesn't. When we first came here, he'd go off, just walking and I'd find him hours later sitting looking at the sky. I thought he was thinking about leaving. I thought wrong. He loves living here, loves me. And I him.

I remember the first time he saw the Aurora Borealis. The look of wonder on his face. He looks at every day that way. As if it's an adventure. Even though that part is over. We live here in Inuvik now. I never dreamt it would be this way. I thought he'd leave once our adventure was complete. Then I thought when winter sets in, he'll go. He didn't.

Ray adapted to this environment, much easier than I ever did in Chicago. He's carved a niche for himself in the community and certainly in my life, in my heart. Sometimes in the winter, I'll look up from my book and catch him watching me. He'll look into my eyes, and I ask him what he sees. He says the same every time. He sees the sky. Sentimental claptrap, you might say, but true nonetheless, and you did ask.

End Do You Miss It/Does He Miss It by A. Kite: AKite68163@aol.com

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