Author's website: http://unhinged.0catch.com

Disclaimer: Not mine. Considering the way I treat them sometimes, that may not be a bad thing.

Author's Notes:

Story Notes: AU and DEATH. These aren't the Fraser and Ray Kowalski you know from the series.

Title: Fairy Tales
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Character death (sort've)
Summary: In a very different Chicago, a very different Ray and Fraser meet. This is an AU and is the first story in what may become a series provided I can work the details out.

There were times when Ray couldn't even remember how long he'd known the Mountie; days when it seemed like he'd always been there, with his smile and his offer to buy him something to eat and his stupid stories about the Indians in Canada.

Most of the time he tried not to think about him, because that sort've thing didn't get you anywhere. He'd been on the streets long enough to know daydreaming wasn't an option. Never mind why they want what they want, Robbie'd told him, just give it to'em. He sometimes wished Robbie were still alive; maybe he could make sense of the guy.

The first time they'd met, though...Ray remembered that. Benton (and what the fuck kind of name was that, Ray wondered?) was feeling down. He claimed he'd been walking the streets for hours just thinking. He said he had no idea how he'd ended up in Ray's territory and Ray believed that, because there was this innocence about him that just dared you to say otherwise.

They'd sat in a 24-hour coffee shop half the night, talking about the Mountie's friend who'd left without really saying goodbye. Actually, the Mountie did most of the talking; Ray just listened, and drank coffee laced with M&M's. When the guy offered to buy him breakfast, Ray was sure he had one on the hook.

Turned out he was wrong. He made the offer, and the Mountie just looked at him sadly and said something about how it wouldn't be right. Even when Ray showed him his ID to prove he was over 16, he'd still shaken his head and left, though not before he bought Ray the deluxe breakfast.

That had been, what, two years ago? Now the Mountie showed up every Thursday, and he and Ray spent the night sitting in Donato's, talking about whatever happened to come to mind.

"Doesn't it bother you?" He'd asked Ray one night, and Ray had almost laughed. It didn't matter if it bothered you or not, he'd told him; it was a business, like working in a grocery store or being a cop. You did what you had to survive, and when you were a high school drop out living on the streets you didn't have a whole lotta choices. You could hustle, you could steal, or you could deal drugs. In his case, he had the body and looks for the hustling

And he was good at it. He had Robbie to thank for that. Robbie was the one who taught him how to show it, and how to sell it, and when to run and how fast. He could smell a psycho a mile away, he told Benton, and he avoided the psychos, because life's too short as is.

"And where are you going?"

The question still puzzled him. Why would he be going anywhere? He was here.

When Benton told him he wanted to sleep with him Ray had actually been disappointed, because he'd really believed this guy was different. That was before he'd discovered that when Benton said he wanted them to sleep together, he meant just that. Sleep, with no sex involved. The idea that someone would pay for a warm body to hold knocked him for a loop at the time. Not that he hadn't wished for the same thing himself since Robbie died, but it was different with tricks. Most of them you never even made it into a bed, and if you did they left as soon as you were done. He'd never had one spend the night, and he sure's hell never had one that just held him like Benton did, like he was some sort of anchor keeping the guy from drowning.

It was weird, but by then he'd already figured out Benton wasn't normal, even for a Mountie.

And that had been his biggest mistake, Ray decided, wishing to hell the ambulance would get here. He hadn't realized the depth of his own hunger for contact. When Benton started talking about going back to Canada he'd panicked, because he couldn't imagine what life would be like without Benton Fraser showing up every Thursday to sit and tell him stories and treat him like he was something besides pond scum. Then Benton had started talking about taking Ray with him, and damned if he hadn't ignored the voice in his head that told him to run and listened. He could tell how much Fraser loved Canada just from the way he talked, and after a while Ray felt like maybe he could love it too.

He'd started to believe things could be different. And look at where it gotten him.

"Hang in there, honey." Wauneta, the night waitress at Donato's, was bending over him. "The ambulance's on its way." Ray nodded, still not entirely sure how he'd made it all the way here from the alley. He could feel the blood flooding his lungs, choking the life out've him. Hadn't he asked her to call somebody else to?

"Ray." He blinked a couple of times at Fraser, dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt, bending over him. Benton pried his hand off the wound and frowned, then said something to Wauneta, but Ray couldn't hear what, because he was too busy looking at the Mountie. He was scared. Worried and scared. About him.

Benton took something from Wauneta and pressed it hard against his side, and Ray would've screamed if he could've, but all he could manage was a choked gurgle. Then Fraser had his head in his lap and was brushing his too-long hair off his face. "Shh. You'll be okay, Ray. The ambulance is here." He wanted to tell Benton that wasn't true, that there were no fairy tales, no happy endings, but maybe it didn't matter after all; because he could think of worse ways to die than wrapped in Benton Fraser's arms, tucked up against the solid warmth of his body. So Ray huddled nearer, because things were suddenly very white and cold. Just like Fraser had said Canada would be.

FIN

End Fairy Tales by MR: psykaos42@yahoo.com

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