He sat across from his friend, his brow knitted. The Chinese food they ordered had been mostly eaten, but Ray found himself having to force it down, pushing aside his anxiety where the Canadian was concerned. Benny was looking at his own hands on the table, his gaze neutral, except for the distinct fact he wouldn't meet Ray's eyes. Benny was doing that a lot lately. It worried him.
Irene had been gone for weeks now and the Italian was starting to feel a little less than horrible when he thought about her. He remembered Fraser taking him home from the hospital to his apartment. He couldn't hold it in any longer and started crying the moment he hit the door. Much to his shock, Fraser just held him, letting him weep, the odd sensation being that Benny felt so good, so right holding him so close.
It wasn't long after that did they become lovers. It was then he began to see just how awful he'd treated Benny during the whole Zuko thing and never even apologized for it. He couldn't let it go. Finally, he got Benny to talk about it on a stakeout. As usual, Fraser refused any apologies or attempts to talk. He kept saying he understood and that Ray should just forget about it.
Ray demanded for him to listen and that he wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"No, Benny. I want to say this and I mean it. You're not gonna' stop me this time."
He said he was sorry getting so angry with Fraser for simply doing his job and for not acting like an officer of the law, but a vigilante and for not admitting he was wrong in the first place. Fraser remained quiet, listening to Ray with his head down, eyes unfocused. It was when Ray was finally finished did he speak.
"Tell me, Ray, if I have not asked you for an admission of guilt, then why are you insisting on one? Are you doing this for me...or for yourself?"
His voice was soft and sincere, with no malice present. It was an honest question. It was at that point the stakeout produced its target, right on cue to keep Ray from responding to his partner. The bust went down and the bad guy was caught, with the both of them afterward looking for a late night Chinese place at which to get some quick grub before passing out back at Fraser's run-down apartment.
Fraser had been far too quiet since then and there was a gnawing in Ray's insides, wondering if he was okay. He decided he would try again, stopping if Fraser wanted him to.
"Benny."
"Yes, Ray?"
"Look, I just wanted you to know you were right. I mean, I was just tryin' to make myself feel better about all I did and what happened."
Fraser started playing with one of the two cellophane-wrapped fortune cookies that had been left with the change from the bill Ray insisted on paying. He began twirling it over and over in his nimble fingers.
"I'm just sorry and...jeez, Benny, there I go apologizing again. I wanted to make sure everything was okay between us, ya' know? That it's not gonna' change what we've become, what we have now. I wouldn't want to lose that for the world, Benny. I just hope you don't...ah, never mind."
With that, Benny opened the tiny package and cracked open the dark beige cookie in his hands. The thin strip of paper was slid out and he tilted it toward the streetlight to read it. Ray never understood why Benny even bothered with those silly things. The Italian had stopped reading them long ago when he ran across one that literally said, "Eat more Chinese food."
"Would you like to know my fortune, Ray?"
Ray sighed. Whatever makes him happy...
"Sure, Benny."
The Canadian read in a slow monotone, his eyes shrouded by the orange light outside.
" 'You will never find true happiness. What are you going to do? Cry about it?' "
Ray's eyes bloomed generously. Fraser continued to stare at the little piece of paper in total concentration, his brow knitted in deep concern.
"*W-what?!* What does it say? Let me read that!" snapped the detective with the hazel-green eyes. They made Benny's stomach do flip-flops.
Dark sky-blue eyes glanced up at him, the gleam of mischief twinkling, the wicked curl of those thin lips melting Ray's heart and causing his own smile to slowly, but fully, emerge.
"You're funnin' me!"
"Yes, Ray."
"I can't believe you!"
"I can see that, Ray."
The smile on the Italian drooped a bit.
"I love you, Benny."
"And I love you, Ray."
The smile Ray knew and loved was back. Everything was gonna' be alright.
END
P.S. The fortune cookie saying is actually from the song "Horoscope" by "Weird Al Yankovic", which I thought was hysterical.