new(ish) due South fic, anyone?
In ascending order of spice, we have Strawberry Jelly, written as a gift fic for @cro-mignonette back when we were both on the tumblrs, on the stresses that can lead to alcohol abuse in remote areas, on Ray moving to the middle of nowhere and being undiagnosed ADHD starting to get bored out of his gourd, but mostly about... fruit preservation. As it were. Ahem. Rated T for teen because there are allusions to canon-typical violence between our beloved duo.
Then there's Know I'll stay beside that telephone line, which wasn't directly responsible for the change in relationship status between me and @hereeatthiskitten but also wasn't not, so. Kept private because sometimes things are just too precious to be public for a while; she gave me permission to post it years ago, nonetheless, but did I? Look, it's there now, isn't it? Anyway, it's about longing, and repression, and how challenging it can be to change the shape of a relationship, even when you both know the other knows you want to. Talking is awkward, okay, sometimes it's easier in a chat box over the telephone. Rated M, because there is sex, but it's mostly alluded to, not described.
Finally, we have the fully smut rated Book, Book, Duck, which if I recall correctly was just me trying to prove to @hereeatthiskitten that Fraser and Duck could so do the deed (ish), what that would look like, and what Ray's reaction would be. It's about... libraries? and alleys? okay it's about dopplegangers and public-ish sex and jealousy and desire. Explicit, no question, though once again, the point is the feelings. Please leave comments on this, it took me over seven years to finish, I crave the validation.
That's it! Enjoy! Feel free to use this to promote your new-ish old fandom creations, too! Fic, art, gifs, meta, squees, literally any engagement with this cheesy buddy cop show that is way too good for being as absurd as it is!
A/N I couldn’t actually wrap my head around Fraser wasting perfectly acceptable sustenance so I looked at your prompt sideways and went ‘a fight about food.’
~*~
Fraser was usually the cook between the two of them, mostly because the first time Ray made Fraser breakfast in the morning he looked at the plate and went, “...Ah.”
(In Ray’s defense, he thought a clove of garlic meant the entire garlic bulb. It wasn’t like those suckers had labels on the packaging.)
So it wasn’t unusual when Ray got home (home, home, home, with his boots kicked next to Fraser’s and his coat hung up on the same peg, warm clothes snugged up together) that Fraser already had dinner going on the stove. It wasn’t unusual that Fraser gave him a quick kiss over his shoulder, and served up greens and potatoes and brisket with gravy. It wasn’t even unusual that Fraser, still sometimes shy about casual physical touches, nudged his toes against Ray’s under the table and asked about Ray’s day.
Ray, growing up Polish and taking a brief side-step into being Italian, was well skilled in eating while talking. Working on machines up North was a life or death situation at the best of times, but for once he’d got to tinker on a pet project for the Josies on the far side of what passed for a town. It was a long drive back in the snow, and a hot meal did a lot to thaw the tightness in his limbs.
Fraser hummed to show his interest, one silvery lock of hair flopping forward on his brow as he nodded toward Ray’s plate. “Are you enjoying the bear?”
Ray blinked. “The what?”
Fraser’s eyes were incredibly blue while he finished his current bite. “The bear. Ruby Monroe brought it by to say thank you for the work you did on her rig.”
Ray’s fork clinked as he set it down.
The meat--not brisket, but a dark, lean meat that tasted...like meat, what the hell, what the hell, “Fraser?”
Fraser took another bite, and spoke around it, like that wasn’t a tell all to itself. “Yes, Ray?”
“You-- I-- How--”
“Do you like it?”
A flush spiked up the back of Ray’s neck. “That’s not the point, Frase, you can’t just feed a guy Pooh--”
“That’s not fair, Ray,” Fraser said, pretending at being insulted even though he knew very well--
“As in ‘Winnie the Pooh,’ ya hooligan, treasured American--”
“English, Ray.”
“I’m speaking English!” Ray squawked, though he knew what Fraser meant, he knew, it was just that his mouth was dumber than his brain sometimes. “Fuck. You got any Canadian bear cartoons? Or they trying not to des--descent--desensitize you to turning cutesy woodland friends into happy meals?”
Fraser took it as an actual question, which was both frustrating and adorable, damn him. “I can’t think of any off the top of my head. But I wasn’t exposed to much children’s television, growing up.”
Boy did that show. Ray felt the all too familiar sensation of wanting to throttle the love of his life and simultaneously wrap him in a blanket and show him shitty kids cartoons he would hate. Well. He might like Scooby Doo. Hey, sorta-talking mystery-solving dog, just like Dief.
It was that image, more than anything, that drew him up short.
He squinted, wishing he hadn’t left his glasses in his coat pocket. “Is this a test?”
Fraser chewed, thoughtfully. “No,” he said finally, “it’s bear.”
Ray loved him so much it smacked him upside the head sometimes.
A nearly-atrophied part of his imagination tried to slot Stella into Ray’s place, the face she’d make, the fit she’d throw, but it was a tired old projector wheel and the tape was warped. It was a bad movie anyway, made in a whole other time, before techno-color and special effects.
He took another bite, this time deliberate, focusing on the food in his mouth rather than the warmth of it. It...tasted like moose, honestly, the closest approximation his brain came up with, and wasn’t that something, that the pathways in his brain had slotted earth’s meanest cow in between pizza and Chinese food.
Despite Fraser’s claim of ignorance, he watched Ray swallow with the kind of rapt attention usually saved for a crime scene.
Ray put down his fork, and pushed his plate back--just far enough that he could stand, lean over, and kiss the sudden wide-eyed look off Fraser’s face. The spark of tension in Fraser flickered and dissolved against his mouth, and this taste was familiar too--home, home, home, home, home.
“Best damn bear I’ve ever had,” Ray said, and this time Fraser kissed him.
9. Favourite guest-star appearance on a television show?
idk does it have to be in a show I was actually following, or does watching 2 episodes JUST because that specific actor was in them also count.. if the latter counts then maybe it’s CKR in La Femme Nikita, bc his character Gray Wellman was adorable in that show, but I’ve never seen any of the other episodes :’)..
if the latter doesn’t count then maybe I’d go with william shatner AND leonard nimoy being in an episode of The Man From UNCLE together before star trek tos ever happened :’) bc that’s still hilarious to me.. but tbh there’s too many things I could list here bc every single time I recognise an actor I like while watching an entirely unrelated show I kind of lose my shit like OMG IT’S [insert character I know them as’ name]!!!
27. Name a show that had the worst series finale, in your opinion?
idk there were definitely shows I’ve seen that had endings I didn’t like.. either bc they killed off one of the main characters right at the end which was uncalled for tbh (medium), or bc there kind of wasn’t an actual tied up ending bc the show got cancelled unexpectedly, so you’re just kinda left hanging (pushing daisies, shattered).. but I can’t really think of one specific example that was The Worst(tm).. most of the shows tumblr posts mention having bad finales are things I either haven’t seen at all or I stopped watching long before the finale even happened.. so.. idk
69. An actress you love that nails it in both television & film?
idk tbh, most of the actors I’ve seen a lot of things of (so both movies and tv shows) are male :\ (ckr, michael palin, paul gross).. I mean otoh when you watch a lot of canadian things bc of ckr and pg you also end up seeing molly parker 100 times so.. and I did see her in both movies and tv shows (shattered and twitch city).. so I could definitely answer her bc she’s great. (can’t answer sandra oh bc I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in a tv show myself, although I’m sure she definitely does nail television as well)
(also honorary mention to piper perabo who I’ve seen in one (1) tv show (covert affairs) and then watched 2 queer movies of, one of which was nice (imagine me and you) and the other kinda depressing (lost and delirious), but she personally was great in all of them so..)
86. Have you ever walked out of a theatre mid-movie? What was the movie?
honestly I never actually went to movie theaters that often even before covid.. especially after a lot of movies started being in 3D only (at my theater at least) I just waited until it was released on dvd to watch it.. so whenever I DID go to the movie theater it was probably a movie I was quite sure I was going to enjoy (otherwise I wouldn’t have gone through the effort of leaving my house for it)
the few times I did watch a movie in the theater that I ended up hating, it was during a school trip or something (like the wickerman movie with nicholas cage) and you don’t really walk out of a movie theater when you’re there with your whole school class.. tbh it would have to be really bad (as in BAD sensory overload or actually triggering things happening) to get me to walk out in general, bc I have social anxiety and the thought of having to get up and bother everyone between your seat and the exit sounds terrifying..
weird asks, if you're still doing that one: 21, 61, 92
I am! Thank you!
21. obsession from childhood?
I was DEFINITELY a Horse Girl. I had horse toys, I had horse posters, I went to horse camp (twice!). Straight up horse girl. I haven’t been on a horse in a really long time, though.
61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.?
I have so many. The one that comes to mind right now is from The Good Place: “The wave was just a different way for the water to be for a little while.” I cannot tell you the profound effect that whole quote had on me when I heard it.
92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights?
Sunlight. I thrive on sunlight (which makes it kind of ironic I love living in the PNW but summer here is when I am my truest, best self - forests in sunlight are like my spiritual home).
