[spooked challenge by Sionnain]
Title: Spookshow, baby
Author: Sionnain
Fandom: due South
Pairing: Kowalski/Vecchio
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 3714
Summary: Ray comes home from work on Halloween night, and finds Kowalski has made a very bad choice about what to watch on TV.
AN: Written for the "spooked" challenge for ds_flashfiction. Title from the Rob Zombie song of the same name. Thanks to waltzfornight for the beta!
Spookshow, baby
Ray hated working Halloween. Despite its reputation in the movies as a night of serial killers and monsters, the calls were mostly related to pranks, vandalism, or "suspicious personages" rather than all-out mayhem. Ray went out to investigate a tip from a woman convinced there was a "group of Satanists" sacrificing animals and summoning demons in the park, for example, and he'd eat his favorite pair of driving gloves if it turned out any of that was actually true.
In reality, the Satanists were four pre-teens in goth makeup, sitting in a circle and reciting shit from The Craft. The only evidence of animal sacrifice was a few empty Burger King wrappers, and the only thing they managed to "summon" was one tired Chicago detective who threatened to issue them a curfew violation. Ray sent them home in a police cruiser with a lecture about Chicago parks, and told them to stay in school and listen to their parents.
After that, he decided it was time to call it a night.
Ray left the station at eleven-thirty, making a quick stop at an all-night drugstore on his way. He went directly to the Halloween candy aisle, perusing the mostly empty shelves and looking for something to take home for Kowalski. Trick-or-treating in the building should be long over by now, and Kowalski had probably depleted any leftover candy hours ago. Ray had promised to bring some home out of guilt, because of a fight they'd had a about Ray working on Halloween.
Kowalski had wanted to go to a costume party and had been cranky that Ray hadn't asked for the night off. Ray hadn't wanted to go, especially in a costume--he was a grown-up, thank you very much. Besides, Kowalski wanted them to go as Batman and Robin, and when Ray had said, seriously, you're going to put on tights and a Robin costume?, Kowalski had scowled and spent the next twenty minutes not talking to Ray. Except that was a long time for Kowalski to be quiet, so he went over and bitched about Ray to the turtle--who was in the same room, of course--and Ray had tried really hard not to laugh at Kowalski's rant about some people, and by that I mean my boyfriend, not supporting my dream to be Batman.
Kowalski had forgiven him after a blowjob in the shower the next morning, though. That was the nice thing about Kowalski. His grudges lasted about as long as his attention span, usually, and he was very easily bribed with sex.
Ray'd felt bad about it, though; not bad enough to go to a party dressed as Robin, for God's sake, but enough to find a compromise. A few days later, he told Kowalski he'd switch his shift or try to get off earlier so they could go. But Kowalski had just shrugged, kissed him with his coffee-and-orange-juice flavored mouth, and said, "Nah, changed my mind. I don't want to go. It'll be stupid."
Ray had been skeptical--it took a lot for Kowalski to find anything stupid, especially if it involved the potential for costumes and/or candy--and figured there was something Kowalski wasn't telling him. So Ray had pinned Kowalski to the counter and tickled him until Kowalski gave up and gasped out, "Turns out it's a mobster party, you know, like a twenties wiseguy theme? I didn't want you to--y'know. Thought that wasn't--well, Batman and Robin can't go to that party, they're good guys, they'd have to arrest everybody. So, hey, nevermind. Just bring me some candy on your way home and that'll be good, it'll be on sale at Walgreens by the time you get off work."
Ray had just stared at him, stunned (about the party, not the candy), until he realized Kowalski was basically saying I don't want to take you to a mobster themed party in case it upsets you or gives you a Vegas flashback. Ray didn't really have those anymore, and he was pretty sure a party with a bunch of people in fedoras and fake pearls wasn't going to give him one--did Kowalski really think the modern-day Mafia was still like that?--but he was touched that Kowalski thought of it. Ray loved a lot of things about Kowalski, but that unshakable, unwavering loyalty was definitely at the top of the list.
So was Kowalski's mouth, though, so Ray stopped tickling and started kissing him. They'd been an hour late to work and Kowalski'd gone around half the day with his shirt turned inside out.
He probably didn't even need to stop and get the candy, but what the hell, Ray was a nice guy. So he picked up a bag of those mallowcreme pumpkins that nobody but Kowalski liked, and a bag of grape Bubble-yum gum that was hard enough to break someone's jaw. At the last minute he grabbed a bag of mini-Snickers bars even though they weren't on sale. Because Ray was in love, and nothing said I love you like tiny individually wrapped name-brand candy for which he'd paid full retail price, right?
Right.
Ray opened the bag and ate four of them on the way home. Love was all about sharing said full-retail-priced candy, too.
When he got home, he parked the Riv in his customary spot and took the stairs to their apartment two-at-a-time. He was tired, but thinking about having tomorrow off and his freakishly double-jointed boyfriend on a sugar high got him moving pretty quickly up the stairs. The hallway was dark and quiet, and as he opened the door he was lost in a happy fantasy of Kowalski bent over the back of the couch and--
Screaming? Ray was so startled, he nearly dropped the bags of candy because seriously, why was Kowalski screaming?
Okay, maybe it wasn't actually screaming. Ray was admittedly prone to exaggeration, but Jesus, that was a loud shriek. "Kowalski, it's just me, who the hell were you expecting?"
Ray walked into the living room, took in the sight before him, and hid a laugh in a cough. Kowalski was sitting on the couch--no, he was huddled there--wearing his glasses and wrapped up in a blanket that looked a lot like--
"Is that my grandma Vecchio's quilt?"
"Yes, yes it is! I need something comforting, okay!" Kowalski yelped, his voice still about two octaves higher than usual. It was his Vecchio there is a spider in the shower, kill it, kill it! voice, which was a hell of a terrifying thing to wake up to at six in the morning. Ray was looking around for a spider out of habit, actually, and it took him a second to focus on whatever Kowalski was watching on television.
"Are you watching The Exorcist?" Ray put the candy bags down and walked over to him, trying again not to laugh at Kowalski's wide eyes and white-knuckled hands, clutching the quilt around him in a death grip. "Remember how you got scared during the Legend of Sleepy Hollow?"
"Hey, Christopher Walken had really pointy teeth! You know I got that thing about people with weird teeth like that, it freaks me out!"
Ray smiled and reached out, ruffling Kowalski's hair, which was standing on end like a cartoon. "I meant the animated one you watched with Gee when we babysat last weekend, but okay."
"Well that one was...atmospheric! And that headless guy was really--okay, look, I turned this on and I thought I'd watch it, 'cause it's Halloween."
Ray's eyebrows went up. "So? That give you some magical powers of being able to watch horror movies that you don't got the rest of the year?"
"Apparently not," Kowalski snapped, and then pointed his finger at the television accusingly. "Have you ever seen this? That girl's head--it turns all the way around and this thing she does with a crucifix--look, I'm as lapsed a Catholic as you'll ever find, but I kinda feel I need to go Mass after watching that."
"You can go with my ma on Sunday," Ray told him, moving around to sit next to Kowalski on the couch. Ray was barely seated before Kowalski was suddenly all over him, quilt and all, his face pressed against Ray's shoulder. "Jesus, Kowalski, what the hell are you doing watching this?" He moved the blanket aside and peered down at Kowalski's face--what he could see of it, anyway. "Did you think Exorcist meant it was a sex movie?"
"I know what Exorcist means, jackass," Kowalski muttered, offended, which would have carried more weight if he wasn't clinging to Ray like a fabric-covered octopus. "'Sides, all the dirty movies are on Cinemax after ten, not Showtime."
"Oh, right, sorry. I forgot you were the expert on soft-core porn cable offerings." Ray put his arm around Kowalski's shoulders, rubbed his hand up and down Kowalski's arm soothingly.
"Only 'cause you won't let me get the Spice channel."
"It's forty-five dollars a month extra! Besides, we got high-speed Internet and there's free porn on there. I know you can find that, Kowalski, you always save it to the desktop and don't change the file names."
"I told you, I gotta do that or I can't remember where it is. Is something scary happening right now on the movie, Vecchio?" Kowalski demanded, face still pressed against Ray's shoulder.
Kowalski was a grown man, forty-four years old, and he had stared down countless killers and rapists, some of the worst scumbags humanity had to offer. A year ago, in fact, Kowalski had helped put away a serial killer; he'd been the one to interrogate him and get the confession, and he'd sat on the witness stand and repeated it all back to the jury, word for sickening word. Ray had sat in the courtroom and watched him, full of pride at how Kowalski handled it all, even though Ray knew it was giving him nightmares and making it hard for Kowalski to eat dinner at night. You never would have known it, not from the way he acted on the stand.
That was the same detective who was now hiding his face from a thirty year-old horror film. Ray glanced at the television, then shook his head. "I don't think so, but I think we got different scary-meters, Kowalski. Why in the hell haven't you just changed the channel? I mean, it's not permanently stuck on this one, is it? Or are you doing some macho thing and refusing to change it on principle? Because, if you are? Nothing about this looks macho," Ray informed him, but he smiled and kissed Kowalski's temple.
"Okay, yeah, I'm not gonna lie, here," Kowalski said, lifting his face from Ray's shoulder. He shifted closer, all warm body and sharp angles covered in soft fabric. "At first, I decided I wasn't gonna let a stupid movie about demon possession get the better of me."
"Right, that makes sense," Ray said, absolutely serious, but Kowalski knew him well enough to know all the flavors of Ray's sarcasm, and socked him in the arm after identifying that particular brand. "Ow! You want me to move? No? Then stop hitting me!"
"Sorry. Look. It was mostly that, what I just said...but I, um. Kinda left the remote in the bedroom. And I didn't want to go and get it."
"Kowalski," Ray said, shaking his head, and he couldn't keep the laugh from escaping. It obviously never occurred to Kowalski to change the channel on the actual television, but that would involve Kowalski getting too close to it, probably.
"It would've been fine, but I....the movie is supposedly a true story, did you know that? So I thought, okay, we watch that History versus Hollywood show and they tell you all about the facts behind the movie and what's wrong and stuff." Kowalski edged closer. He was playing with Ray's watch now, his fingers sliding up Ray's arm and rubbing light over his skin. "So I...did something kind of dumb."
"Yeah?" This was one of those times Ray had absolutely no idea what Kowalski was going to say. "What? "
"Um." Kowalski gave him that crooked half-smile, the one that made Ray smile back at him even when it was accompanied by statements like I washed your white dress shirt with the red dishtowel on warm. Again, and hey, um, I borrowed your tie for court and did you know that paper shredders were that powerful, Vecchio, because I did not know that. "I called Fraser."
"Kowalski!"
"What? Look, he's like the real-life version of the History Channel! I called and I said, Benton, tell me about demon possession and the Exorcist movie and he did."
Ray groaned lightly and hit his head back against the couch. Repeatedly. "Well. That was a good idea." Thank you kindly, Benny.
"At first it was okay, 'cause he said this movie was a hoax--some kid who was mad at his mom? So I felt better. But then! He can't ever just stop, y'know? He had to tell me all this other stuff! People who got possessed and all these facts about it and then I was even more freaked out than before, so I decided maybe it was stupid and I should watch something else."
"And yet, Linda Blair is still crab-walking backwards down the stairs--hey, Kowalski, she's probably double-jointed like you--ow!" Ray scowled at him, rubbed at his shoulder. "What was that for?"
"For telling me what was going on, I don't want to know! And I wasn't finished yet. So I decided to change the channel and I...couldn't find the remote. I guess I took it with me to the bedroom when I got the phone."
Ray waited for more, but Kowalski had finished talking. "So you..."
"It's dark in there, Vecchio. And I started thinking about Fraser's stories and then thought, you know, it's safer with the movie 'cause it isn't real. But I don't know what's in the bedroom, so maybe I shouldn't go in there. But it turns out that movie is still scary, even if it's not true."
Well, that was pretty standard Kowalski logic, and Ray had learned over the years there was really no point in arguing. "Okay. The remote's in the bedroom?"
"Yeah."
"All right." Ray heard something that sounded like screaming and demonic voices coming from the television. He kissed Kowalski quickly, slow and hot, and Kowalski pressed against him and kissed him back. Kowalski tasted like peppermint and chocolate and peanut butter, which shouldn't have gone well together at all but somehow did.
Like us, Ray thought, and smiled against Kowalski's mouth.
Ray thought about pushing Kowalski back on the couch and distracting him with a blowjob, but he had a feeling no amount of cocksucking in the world would accomplish that if the movie was still on. "I brought you candy," Ray said instead. "Half-priced, just like you asked." Predictably, Kowalski scrambled up and off the couch and went looking for it.
"Bubble-yum! Hey, grape is my favorite! Ooh, the little pumpkins--why doesn't anyone like these, they taste just like candy corn and people like that--and--aww, Vecchio. You got me Snickers bars, that's buddies, thanks. Were they half off because somebody opened the bag and ate some already?"
Ray looked over and opened his mouth to answer--was he serious?--but Kowalski was grinning at him, eating chocolate out of the bag and obviously teasing. He was still wearing his glasses, the quilt around his shoulders like a cape, and Ray could see he had on two different socks and one of Ray's t-shirts that was entirely too big for him.
There were times Ray didn't know how the hell he was going to live with Kowalski for the rest of his life, and there were other times when he didn't know how he'd gone as long as he had without him. Somehow, impossibly, this particular moment was both.
Ray got up and went into the bedroom. He found the remote on the dresser, then walked back in the living room and switched the channel. "Hey, look. Finding Nemo. Is that more your style?"
"Yeah, but you might not want to watch that. Remember you got kinda teary-eyed when that blue fish said that thing about being home...?"
"I told you, I got something in my eye! One of the kids' Sprite, or something." Ray quickly turned the channel to an infomercial about absorbent towels. There. Nothing demonic or heart-wrenching about that.
"Really? How's that even possible, Sprite in the eye? And does that happens every time you watch it, even when there's no kids and no Sprite?" Kowalski asked, laughing when Ray muttered and flipped him off, dropping the remote on the couch and heading towards the bedroom. Kowalski tossed him a Snickers bar and said, "Hey, change clothes and I'll share more of my candy."
"I got a better idea," Ray said, catching the candy easily and stopping to lean against the door to the bedroom. He unwrapped the Snickers and popped it in his mouth, then swallowed and grinned at Kowalski. "We missed the mobster party, but you know...I got my great-uncle's fedora. My Uncle Gino? Ma always said he was connected. I don't know if it's true, but I've seen pictures and he looked pretty damn sharp in the hat. I could put it on, it'd look good with this suit. It'd be just like we were at that party you wanted to go to."
Kowalski grinned back. "Except we can have sex right now and not have to drive home first."
"Precisamente, dollface," Ray said with a hint of an exaggerated accent and a wink, leering. Kowalski tossed the bag of candy down and crossed across the room towards him, dropping the quilt on the floor as he did so. How he looked sexy in Ray's too-large t-shirt, glasses and mismatched socks was a mystery of the universe.
"You know I love it when you speak fake Italian," Kowalski purred at him, pressing up against Ray and winding his fingers in Ray's tie. Kowalski pulled him forward with his tie and kissed him, licking at Ray's mouth. "Mmm. You taste like chocolate."
"Precisamente is real Italian, moron," Ray told him fondly, sliding his hands beneath the t-shirt and pulling Kowalski closer. "And you taste like chocolate, too. And..." Ray kissed him again. "Candy corn."
"See? I told you those pumpkins tasted just like--"
"C'mon, Kowalski," Ray interrupted, pulling Kowalski into the bedroom. "Maybe if you're nice to me, next year I'll get a pinstripe suit and a violin case to go with the fedora."
Kowalski followed him in easily, crowding against him again once they were both inside. "Really? That'd be hot, Vecchio. I guess we should've gone to that party after all, huh?"
"Nah. I like this better. Also, you're never living down how you were afraid to go into our bedroom because of ghosts--"
Kowalski tilted his chin up challengingly, but his eyes were bright and happy."Demons, Vecchio. They're different--"
Ray interrupted him with another kiss. "Whatever, Stanley, I've still got you forever with that one."
"Yeah, like you and Finding Nemo."
Ray pulled back and thought about saying something smart, but...Kowalski was right about the fish movie, damn it. "You want me to put on the fedora or not?"
"Yes, please," Kowalski said easily. He went and sat on the bed, legs crossed, looking expectant.
Ray headed to their walk-in closet to find Uncle Gino's fedora. As he rummaged around for the hat, he heard Kowalski say, "You want I should put on the Batman costume and pretend to arrest you for racketeering?"
Ray paused. "Did you actually get a Batman costume?" he called out, a little guiltily. He might actually feel bad again about the party if Kowalski had bought a costume for it.
"Nah, but we've got that set of dark blue sheets. I could cut eye-holes in it or something, you know, like a cowl? That'd be close enough."
Ray had a sudden image of himself in his work suit and his uncle's fedora, being chased around the apartment by Kowalski in a navy sheet with holes for eyes. "That'd make you look like a Pac-Man ghost, not Batman," Ray told him, shaking his head. Honestly.
"You hate all my ideas," Kowalski whined cheerfully.
"No, just when it comes to costumes. And pizza. And places to go on vacation. And how to spend our tax refund." Ray found the box and took the hat out, put it on, and left the closet with it pulled low over his brow. "Well?"
"Whatever, you like the Playstation 3, don't lie--" Kowalski broke off and gave a low whistle when he saw Ray. "You should wear that more often," he said huskily, reclining back on the bed in a pose that was at once sluttish and adorable. "Come over here and manhandle me."
"See? Now that idea, that idea I like," Ray said huskily, straddling Kowalski on the bed. "If we go to a twenties-themed party next year, I'll be the mobster, and you can be my moll. If there was a guy who could pull off a headband with a feather on it, it'd be you, Kowalski."
Kowalski opened his mouth to say something, but Ray leaned down and kissed him soundly to shut him up. Lucky for him, it actually worked this time.
It must be the hat.
Author: Sionnain
Fandom: due South
Pairing: Kowalski/Vecchio
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 3714
Summary: Ray comes home from work on Halloween night, and finds Kowalski has made a very bad choice about what to watch on TV.
AN: Written for the "spooked" challenge for ds_flashfiction. Title from the Rob Zombie song of the same name. Thanks to waltzfornight for the beta!
Spookshow, baby
Ray hated working Halloween. Despite its reputation in the movies as a night of serial killers and monsters, the calls were mostly related to pranks, vandalism, or "suspicious personages" rather than all-out mayhem. Ray went out to investigate a tip from a woman convinced there was a "group of Satanists" sacrificing animals and summoning demons in the park, for example, and he'd eat his favorite pair of driving gloves if it turned out any of that was actually true.
In reality, the Satanists were four pre-teens in goth makeup, sitting in a circle and reciting shit from The Craft. The only evidence of animal sacrifice was a few empty Burger King wrappers, and the only thing they managed to "summon" was one tired Chicago detective who threatened to issue them a curfew violation. Ray sent them home in a police cruiser with a lecture about Chicago parks, and told them to stay in school and listen to their parents.
After that, he decided it was time to call it a night.
Ray left the station at eleven-thirty, making a quick stop at an all-night drugstore on his way. He went directly to the Halloween candy aisle, perusing the mostly empty shelves and looking for something to take home for Kowalski. Trick-or-treating in the building should be long over by now, and Kowalski had probably depleted any leftover candy hours ago. Ray had promised to bring some home out of guilt, because of a fight they'd had a about Ray working on Halloween.
Kowalski had wanted to go to a costume party and had been cranky that Ray hadn't asked for the night off. Ray hadn't wanted to go, especially in a costume--he was a grown-up, thank you very much. Besides, Kowalski wanted them to go as Batman and Robin, and when Ray had said, seriously, you're going to put on tights and a Robin costume?, Kowalski had scowled and spent the next twenty minutes not talking to Ray. Except that was a long time for Kowalski to be quiet, so he went over and bitched about Ray to the turtle--who was in the same room, of course--and Ray had tried really hard not to laugh at Kowalski's rant about some people, and by that I mean my boyfriend, not supporting my dream to be Batman.
Kowalski had forgiven him after a blowjob in the shower the next morning, though. That was the nice thing about Kowalski. His grudges lasted about as long as his attention span, usually, and he was very easily bribed with sex.
Ray'd felt bad about it, though; not bad enough to go to a party dressed as Robin, for God's sake, but enough to find a compromise. A few days later, he told Kowalski he'd switch his shift or try to get off earlier so they could go. But Kowalski had just shrugged, kissed him with his coffee-and-orange-juice flavored mouth, and said, "Nah, changed my mind. I don't want to go. It'll be stupid."
Ray had been skeptical--it took a lot for Kowalski to find anything stupid, especially if it involved the potential for costumes and/or candy--and figured there was something Kowalski wasn't telling him. So Ray had pinned Kowalski to the counter and tickled him until Kowalski gave up and gasped out, "Turns out it's a mobster party, you know, like a twenties wiseguy theme? I didn't want you to--y'know. Thought that wasn't--well, Batman and Robin can't go to that party, they're good guys, they'd have to arrest everybody. So, hey, nevermind. Just bring me some candy on your way home and that'll be good, it'll be on sale at Walgreens by the time you get off work."
Ray had just stared at him, stunned (about the party, not the candy), until he realized Kowalski was basically saying I don't want to take you to a mobster themed party in case it upsets you or gives you a Vegas flashback. Ray didn't really have those anymore, and he was pretty sure a party with a bunch of people in fedoras and fake pearls wasn't going to give him one--did Kowalski really think the modern-day Mafia was still like that?--but he was touched that Kowalski thought of it. Ray loved a lot of things about Kowalski, but that unshakable, unwavering loyalty was definitely at the top of the list.
So was Kowalski's mouth, though, so Ray stopped tickling and started kissing him. They'd been an hour late to work and Kowalski'd gone around half the day with his shirt turned inside out.
He probably didn't even need to stop and get the candy, but what the hell, Ray was a nice guy. So he picked up a bag of those mallowcreme pumpkins that nobody but Kowalski liked, and a bag of grape Bubble-yum gum that was hard enough to break someone's jaw. At the last minute he grabbed a bag of mini-Snickers bars even though they weren't on sale. Because Ray was in love, and nothing said I love you like tiny individually wrapped name-brand candy for which he'd paid full retail price, right?
Right.
Ray opened the bag and ate four of them on the way home. Love was all about sharing said full-retail-priced candy, too.
When he got home, he parked the Riv in his customary spot and took the stairs to their apartment two-at-a-time. He was tired, but thinking about having tomorrow off and his freakishly double-jointed boyfriend on a sugar high got him moving pretty quickly up the stairs. The hallway was dark and quiet, and as he opened the door he was lost in a happy fantasy of Kowalski bent over the back of the couch and--
Screaming? Ray was so startled, he nearly dropped the bags of candy because seriously, why was Kowalski screaming?
Okay, maybe it wasn't actually screaming. Ray was admittedly prone to exaggeration, but Jesus, that was a loud shriek. "Kowalski, it's just me, who the hell were you expecting?"
Ray walked into the living room, took in the sight before him, and hid a laugh in a cough. Kowalski was sitting on the couch--no, he was huddled there--wearing his glasses and wrapped up in a blanket that looked a lot like--
"Is that my grandma Vecchio's quilt?"
"Yes, yes it is! I need something comforting, okay!" Kowalski yelped, his voice still about two octaves higher than usual. It was his Vecchio there is a spider in the shower, kill it, kill it! voice, which was a hell of a terrifying thing to wake up to at six in the morning. Ray was looking around for a spider out of habit, actually, and it took him a second to focus on whatever Kowalski was watching on television.
"Are you watching The Exorcist?" Ray put the candy bags down and walked over to him, trying again not to laugh at Kowalski's wide eyes and white-knuckled hands, clutching the quilt around him in a death grip. "Remember how you got scared during the Legend of Sleepy Hollow?"
"Hey, Christopher Walken had really pointy teeth! You know I got that thing about people with weird teeth like that, it freaks me out!"
Ray smiled and reached out, ruffling Kowalski's hair, which was standing on end like a cartoon. "I meant the animated one you watched with Gee when we babysat last weekend, but okay."
"Well that one was...atmospheric! And that headless guy was really--okay, look, I turned this on and I thought I'd watch it, 'cause it's Halloween."
Ray's eyebrows went up. "So? That give you some magical powers of being able to watch horror movies that you don't got the rest of the year?"
"Apparently not," Kowalski snapped, and then pointed his finger at the television accusingly. "Have you ever seen this? That girl's head--it turns all the way around and this thing she does with a crucifix--look, I'm as lapsed a Catholic as you'll ever find, but I kinda feel I need to go Mass after watching that."
"You can go with my ma on Sunday," Ray told him, moving around to sit next to Kowalski on the couch. Ray was barely seated before Kowalski was suddenly all over him, quilt and all, his face pressed against Ray's shoulder. "Jesus, Kowalski, what the hell are you doing watching this?" He moved the blanket aside and peered down at Kowalski's face--what he could see of it, anyway. "Did you think Exorcist meant it was a sex movie?"
"I know what Exorcist means, jackass," Kowalski muttered, offended, which would have carried more weight if he wasn't clinging to Ray like a fabric-covered octopus. "'Sides, all the dirty movies are on Cinemax after ten, not Showtime."
"Oh, right, sorry. I forgot you were the expert on soft-core porn cable offerings." Ray put his arm around Kowalski's shoulders, rubbed his hand up and down Kowalski's arm soothingly.
"Only 'cause you won't let me get the Spice channel."
"It's forty-five dollars a month extra! Besides, we got high-speed Internet and there's free porn on there. I know you can find that, Kowalski, you always save it to the desktop and don't change the file names."
"I told you, I gotta do that or I can't remember where it is. Is something scary happening right now on the movie, Vecchio?" Kowalski demanded, face still pressed against Ray's shoulder.
Kowalski was a grown man, forty-four years old, and he had stared down countless killers and rapists, some of the worst scumbags humanity had to offer. A year ago, in fact, Kowalski had helped put away a serial killer; he'd been the one to interrogate him and get the confession, and he'd sat on the witness stand and repeated it all back to the jury, word for sickening word. Ray had sat in the courtroom and watched him, full of pride at how Kowalski handled it all, even though Ray knew it was giving him nightmares and making it hard for Kowalski to eat dinner at night. You never would have known it, not from the way he acted on the stand.
That was the same detective who was now hiding his face from a thirty year-old horror film. Ray glanced at the television, then shook his head. "I don't think so, but I think we got different scary-meters, Kowalski. Why in the hell haven't you just changed the channel? I mean, it's not permanently stuck on this one, is it? Or are you doing some macho thing and refusing to change it on principle? Because, if you are? Nothing about this looks macho," Ray informed him, but he smiled and kissed Kowalski's temple.
"Okay, yeah, I'm not gonna lie, here," Kowalski said, lifting his face from Ray's shoulder. He shifted closer, all warm body and sharp angles covered in soft fabric. "At first, I decided I wasn't gonna let a stupid movie about demon possession get the better of me."
"Right, that makes sense," Ray said, absolutely serious, but Kowalski knew him well enough to know all the flavors of Ray's sarcasm, and socked him in the arm after identifying that particular brand. "Ow! You want me to move? No? Then stop hitting me!"
"Sorry. Look. It was mostly that, what I just said...but I, um. Kinda left the remote in the bedroom. And I didn't want to go and get it."
"Kowalski," Ray said, shaking his head, and he couldn't keep the laugh from escaping. It obviously never occurred to Kowalski to change the channel on the actual television, but that would involve Kowalski getting too close to it, probably.
"It would've been fine, but I....the movie is supposedly a true story, did you know that? So I thought, okay, we watch that History versus Hollywood show and they tell you all about the facts behind the movie and what's wrong and stuff." Kowalski edged closer. He was playing with Ray's watch now, his fingers sliding up Ray's arm and rubbing light over his skin. "So I...did something kind of dumb."
"Yeah?" This was one of those times Ray had absolutely no idea what Kowalski was going to say. "What? "
"Um." Kowalski gave him that crooked half-smile, the one that made Ray smile back at him even when it was accompanied by statements like I washed your white dress shirt with the red dishtowel on warm. Again, and hey, um, I borrowed your tie for court and did you know that paper shredders were that powerful, Vecchio, because I did not know that. "I called Fraser."
"Kowalski!"
"What? Look, he's like the real-life version of the History Channel! I called and I said, Benton, tell me about demon possession and the Exorcist movie and he did."
Ray groaned lightly and hit his head back against the couch. Repeatedly. "Well. That was a good idea." Thank you kindly, Benny.
"At first it was okay, 'cause he said this movie was a hoax--some kid who was mad at his mom? So I felt better. But then! He can't ever just stop, y'know? He had to tell me all this other stuff! People who got possessed and all these facts about it and then I was even more freaked out than before, so I decided maybe it was stupid and I should watch something else."
"And yet, Linda Blair is still crab-walking backwards down the stairs--hey, Kowalski, she's probably double-jointed like you--ow!" Ray scowled at him, rubbed at his shoulder. "What was that for?"
"For telling me what was going on, I don't want to know! And I wasn't finished yet. So I decided to change the channel and I...couldn't find the remote. I guess I took it with me to the bedroom when I got the phone."
Ray waited for more, but Kowalski had finished talking. "So you..."
"It's dark in there, Vecchio. And I started thinking about Fraser's stories and then thought, you know, it's safer with the movie 'cause it isn't real. But I don't know what's in the bedroom, so maybe I shouldn't go in there. But it turns out that movie is still scary, even if it's not true."
Well, that was pretty standard Kowalski logic, and Ray had learned over the years there was really no point in arguing. "Okay. The remote's in the bedroom?"
"Yeah."
"All right." Ray heard something that sounded like screaming and demonic voices coming from the television. He kissed Kowalski quickly, slow and hot, and Kowalski pressed against him and kissed him back. Kowalski tasted like peppermint and chocolate and peanut butter, which shouldn't have gone well together at all but somehow did.
Like us, Ray thought, and smiled against Kowalski's mouth.
Ray thought about pushing Kowalski back on the couch and distracting him with a blowjob, but he had a feeling no amount of cocksucking in the world would accomplish that if the movie was still on. "I brought you candy," Ray said instead. "Half-priced, just like you asked." Predictably, Kowalski scrambled up and off the couch and went looking for it.
"Bubble-yum! Hey, grape is my favorite! Ooh, the little pumpkins--why doesn't anyone like these, they taste just like candy corn and people like that--and--aww, Vecchio. You got me Snickers bars, that's buddies, thanks. Were they half off because somebody opened the bag and ate some already?"
Ray looked over and opened his mouth to answer--was he serious?--but Kowalski was grinning at him, eating chocolate out of the bag and obviously teasing. He was still wearing his glasses, the quilt around his shoulders like a cape, and Ray could see he had on two different socks and one of Ray's t-shirts that was entirely too big for him.
There were times Ray didn't know how the hell he was going to live with Kowalski for the rest of his life, and there were other times when he didn't know how he'd gone as long as he had without him. Somehow, impossibly, this particular moment was both.
Ray got up and went into the bedroom. He found the remote on the dresser, then walked back in the living room and switched the channel. "Hey, look. Finding Nemo. Is that more your style?"
"Yeah, but you might not want to watch that. Remember you got kinda teary-eyed when that blue fish said that thing about being home...?"
"I told you, I got something in my eye! One of the kids' Sprite, or something." Ray quickly turned the channel to an infomercial about absorbent towels. There. Nothing demonic or heart-wrenching about that.
"Really? How's that even possible, Sprite in the eye? And does that happens every time you watch it, even when there's no kids and no Sprite?" Kowalski asked, laughing when Ray muttered and flipped him off, dropping the remote on the couch and heading towards the bedroom. Kowalski tossed him a Snickers bar and said, "Hey, change clothes and I'll share more of my candy."
"I got a better idea," Ray said, catching the candy easily and stopping to lean against the door to the bedroom. He unwrapped the Snickers and popped it in his mouth, then swallowed and grinned at Kowalski. "We missed the mobster party, but you know...I got my great-uncle's fedora. My Uncle Gino? Ma always said he was connected. I don't know if it's true, but I've seen pictures and he looked pretty damn sharp in the hat. I could put it on, it'd look good with this suit. It'd be just like we were at that party you wanted to go to."
Kowalski grinned back. "Except we can have sex right now and not have to drive home first."
"Precisamente, dollface," Ray said with a hint of an exaggerated accent and a wink, leering. Kowalski tossed the bag of candy down and crossed across the room towards him, dropping the quilt on the floor as he did so. How he looked sexy in Ray's too-large t-shirt, glasses and mismatched socks was a mystery of the universe.
"You know I love it when you speak fake Italian," Kowalski purred at him, pressing up against Ray and winding his fingers in Ray's tie. Kowalski pulled him forward with his tie and kissed him, licking at Ray's mouth. "Mmm. You taste like chocolate."
"Precisamente is real Italian, moron," Ray told him fondly, sliding his hands beneath the t-shirt and pulling Kowalski closer. "And you taste like chocolate, too. And..." Ray kissed him again. "Candy corn."
"See? I told you those pumpkins tasted just like--"
"C'mon, Kowalski," Ray interrupted, pulling Kowalski into the bedroom. "Maybe if you're nice to me, next year I'll get a pinstripe suit and a violin case to go with the fedora."
Kowalski followed him in easily, crowding against him again once they were both inside. "Really? That'd be hot, Vecchio. I guess we should've gone to that party after all, huh?"
"Nah. I like this better. Also, you're never living down how you were afraid to go into our bedroom because of ghosts--"
Kowalski tilted his chin up challengingly, but his eyes were bright and happy."Demons, Vecchio. They're different--"
Ray interrupted him with another kiss. "Whatever, Stanley, I've still got you forever with that one."
"Yeah, like you and Finding Nemo."
Ray pulled back and thought about saying something smart, but...Kowalski was right about the fish movie, damn it. "You want me to put on the fedora or not?"
"Yes, please," Kowalski said easily. He went and sat on the bed, legs crossed, looking expectant.
Ray headed to their walk-in closet to find Uncle Gino's fedora. As he rummaged around for the hat, he heard Kowalski say, "You want I should put on the Batman costume and pretend to arrest you for racketeering?"
Ray paused. "Did you actually get a Batman costume?" he called out, a little guiltily. He might actually feel bad again about the party if Kowalski had bought a costume for it.
"Nah, but we've got that set of dark blue sheets. I could cut eye-holes in it or something, you know, like a cowl? That'd be close enough."
Ray had a sudden image of himself in his work suit and his uncle's fedora, being chased around the apartment by Kowalski in a navy sheet with holes for eyes. "That'd make you look like a Pac-Man ghost, not Batman," Ray told him, shaking his head. Honestly.
"You hate all my ideas," Kowalski whined cheerfully.
"No, just when it comes to costumes. And pizza. And places to go on vacation. And how to spend our tax refund." Ray found the box and took the hat out, put it on, and left the closet with it pulled low over his brow. "Well?"
"Whatever, you like the Playstation 3, don't lie--" Kowalski broke off and gave a low whistle when he saw Ray. "You should wear that more often," he said huskily, reclining back on the bed in a pose that was at once sluttish and adorable. "Come over here and manhandle me."
"See? Now that idea, that idea I like," Ray said huskily, straddling Kowalski on the bed. "If we go to a twenties-themed party next year, I'll be the mobster, and you can be my moll. If there was a guy who could pull off a headband with a feather on it, it'd be you, Kowalski."
Kowalski opened his mouth to say something, but Ray leaned down and kissed him soundly to shut him up. Lucky for him, it actually worked this time.
It must be the hat.