Author's Notes: Unbeta'd. Number two in a Three-Snippet-Amensty-Challenge issued by Spuffyduds. Part of Sionnain and Waltzforanight's What Else Would You Have Me Be 'verse, available at the LiveJournal community used_to_love_me. Title by the Headstones, of course. From their song Unsound, one of my favorites.

Story Notes: Written for the Livejournal community ds_snippets.

It had been a bad week.

Mike had been working on an ugly case and he'd managed to bring home his anger and frustration. He couldn't let it go, but he wouldn't talk, he wouldn't fight, he wouldn't touch Ray; he just drew further away, retreating into his head, where Ray couldn't reach him.

It pissed Ray off. They were supposed to be partners.

So Ray waited until Mike wasn't expecting it and used his anger to fuel his pounce, knocking Mike onto the bed and holding him down with a knee to the back, cuffing Mike's hands to the headboard. If Mike hadn't been off his game, Ray would never have managed it. As it was, Ray got a hard elbow to the ribs and what would surely be a nice set of bruises on his arm. It was a small price to pay.

He had Mike right where he wanted him, naked and face down on the bed. He kept his weight on the back of Mike's muscular thighs, holding him down in spite of the thrashing and angry words.

Leaning over, he grabbed the scented oil from the night stand and poured some into his palm, letting it warm up a little before laying his slippery hands on Mike's broad shoulders. Mike jolted under Ray's touch and cursed; Ray ignored him and went to work on massaging the anger and tension and pain out of Mike's body.

It took a long, long time, because Mike fought him, but eventually Ray had Mike pliable and relaxed under him. He dropped a kiss on the back of Mike's neck, ignoring the ache in his hands. "Better?"

"Hate you," Mike mumbled sleepily. "Kick your ass...later."

Ray chucked and unlocked the handcuffs. "Later."

-fin-