Author's website: http://www.mrks.org/~viridian/

Disclaimer: All things _due South_ belong to Alliance. No infringement intended.

Author's Notes: Read-through by LaT.

Story Notes: I had a vague version of this story in mind for months but started actually writing it after Khaleesian asked me at Escapade if I had any more _due South_ stories coming up.

Staring out at a white snow sky, a Fraser kind of sky, Ray huddled in the doorway, using it as a windbreak, and dialed Fraser's number on his cell. "Hey, it's me."

"Hello, Ray."

"I would have called before, but this is the first moment I got. Bad day. We close up this case, then the feds come swooping down to claim it for their own and micro-manage. Welsh sent me out here before I could punch someone."

"Ray." It sounded fond and chiding all at once.

Ray's mouth curved. "It got me outside to call you, didn't it?"

"Are you telling me that your fit of temper was all a ruse?"

"Nah."

"Would you like me to come down and act as a liaison?"

"I would love it, but the feds have been staring at us cross-eyed and snapping for hours now. They might start frothing at the mouth if we brought our Mountie in. Which would be fun to watch for a few minutes, but then we'd have to sit through hours of hissyfitting."

"I miss you. I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight." Fraser's voice sounded so warm.

Ray sighed. "You sure you still wanna do that? I have no idea when they'll let me go, and I know I'm gonna be cranky, tired, and good for nothing by the time I get home."

"Those sound like excellent reasons for me to stay at your apartment tonight."

God, Fraser was sweet. "You hear that?"

"What, Ray?"

"That's the second smile I've done in a few minutes and the second smile I've done all day. I love coming home to you." They'd been going out for only a month now, but maybe he could....

But Ray was being Vecchio, and it really wasn't a good idea to take chances with the guy's life at home, a life Vecchio would be coming back to one day.

"Hey, Ray," Dewey said as he opened the door. "Let me give your girlfriend a kiss."

"Dewey, it'd be the last thing you ever did in your life."

"You're wanted inside, loverboy."

"Great. Now scat, Dewey. Give me some privacy."

Dewey made kissy faces at him as he closed the door.

"Comedians." Ray sighed. "I gotta go. I'll give you a call when I get sprung. The way it's going, I'll be picking up something to eat here, so don't wait up for me on dinner."

"I love you, Ray."

"Love you too. See you later."

As soon as Ray put the ice scraper under the passenger seat, he called Fraser at his apartment. "Hey. They finally let me out."

"Did you kill anyone?"

Ray yawned, then said, "Somehow I stopped myself. Yet people give me no credit for self-restraint. See ya soon."

The drive home passed in an exhausted haze. Not like he was a danger to anyone while behind the wheel, but he wasn't one hundred percent. He unlocked and opened the door to his apartment on autopilot. Dief barked in greeting and beat his tail against the floor a few times as Ray hung up his coat.

"Ray, I'm in the bedroom," Fraser said.

Bedroom sounded good. So did "bed." Ray wrestled his holster off as he walked in... then stopped.

Fraser was lying on top of the covers. Naked. With his cock at half-mast. Reading an issue of Maclean's. He put it down on the night table when Ray walked into the room. Considering the circumstances--you know, the erect nakedness--Maclean's was better than Fraser's usual choice of Arctic expedition books whose titles contained words like "doomed" and "fatal."

Ray had a whole lot of big, naked Mountie lying casually on his bed, just lounging like he did the nude around the house thing all the time.

Even exhausted, Ray felt a deep twinge of interest. He was tired, not dead. "Did I miss a party?"

Okay, it was kind of weird, but it wasn't liked they'd started their relationship, finally coming out--heh--about how they felt about one another, on a normal note either. Maybe being tied together and locked in a meat locker as a prelude to being made into a "cutting edge" sculpture by a deranged butcher/serial killer with pretensions of being some kind of artist might be normal for them, but the rest of the world would figure it was pretty loony.

"No, Ray, you're just in time."

"This some kind of five Ps thing?"

"I did prepare myself," Fraser said, his voice deeper than usual.

That would explain the tube of lube on the nearby table. Ray's mouth went dry as he imagined Fraser riding his own fingers, writhing, sweat gleaming on his pale skin. "I'm up, but I don't know if I can find the strength to do much with it." And wasn't that a crying shame.

"Leave it all to me. Come here."

"At this very moment? That's no fun for you."

"Ray."

"Walking." Once Ray reached the edge of his bed, he put his holster down on the table, then kicked off his boots, almost falling over as he did so. Way too tired. Ray lost sight of Fraser as he pulled his sweater and undershirt over his head, but when he got them off he saw Fraser eyeing him the way Dief looked at donuts. It felt good.

"I could help you with the pants," Fraser said.

"You could help me into shooting off way too soon. Nah, let me. I know I'm slow, but maybe you could see it as a striptease. It's all in the way you think about it."

"I'll amend my thinking."

"You do that." Taking his pants off almost sent him headfirst to the floor again, with only Fraser's sudden grip on his arm keeping him upright. "Looks like you'll have to stop me from offing myself by accident too."

"All in a day's work."

The briefs and socks came off next. "Nudity achieved."

"Lie down next to me."

Once Ray did, Fraser gave him a fond and heated look, then suited up Ray's cock with a condom and stroked the slick up and down it in long, thorough caresses. Ray arched into his touch, sighing. Fraser kissed him, then positioned himself and sank down onto Ray's cock.

Heaven. Just heaven. Fraser felt so good, so hot, inside. When Ray opened his eyes, he basked in the pleasure on Fraser's face. He didn't want all this goodness to be one-sided, some pity thing Fraser did for poor Ray.

Ray didn't have much power behind his thrusts, but that was okay because fucking Fraser became a team effort, with Fraser raising himself up and down on Ray's cock, trying to get a good rhythm, a good friction, a bit like how those carousel horses go up and down, up and down, on their poles. Fraser, smiling, asked, "Why are you smirking?"

"Because my mind is a scary, weird place, and amusement parks aren't ever going to be the same for me ever again."

Fraser just nodded and accepted that as if it made sense. How could Ray not love him?

They got a good harmony going, and Ray started to feel orgasm flow up on him like a wave. He gripped Fraser's cock with one hand and touched his face with the other, groaning as Fraser sucked on his fingers, enveloping them in wet heat. Fraser looked so damned sexy being fucked and jerked, blowing his fingers, riding him, murmuring his name....

Ray came in a wash of pleasure; Fraser nipped his fingers as he followed. He must have lost a few moments, because it seemed like all of sudden Fraser was crouching next to the bed with a warm washcloth cleaning him up. Half-conscious, he even savored the way that felt and knew that he had to be flashing Fraser one hell of a loopy grin.

"I wanna see you riding a merry-go-round horse," Ray murmured.

Fraser smiled and kissed him. "Maybe next time."

**THE END**

More Viridian5 stories can be found in The Green Room version 2.0 at http://www.mrks.org/~viridian/

No-frames but no-frills access available at http://www.mrks.org/~viridian/Viridian_side.htm

Fandoms represented: due South, Hard Core Logo, Twitch City, Andromeda, X-Files, Once a Thief, Angel, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, Two Guys and a Girl (was Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place), X-Men, Doctor Who, Fight Club, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

End Waiting Up by Viridian5: Viridian5@aol.com

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