ds_aprilfools (9) All problems can be resolved in one of two ways.
Title: All problems can be resolved in one of two ways.
Author:
whiterabbit1613
Rating: PG-13
Fandom/Pairing: Due South; Fraser/RayK, RayV/Stella
Prompt:
ds_aprilfools (9) jealousy
Summary: You can trade teams, or you can trade players (or both) ...
Ray knew it was ridiculous. He was a grown man, afterall; he knew better than to be a dick about stupid, pointless things. But that didn't really change the fact that he was stupidly, pointlessly jealous of the thing that Fraser had going with Detective Stanley "call-me-Ray" Kowalski. And Ray was convinced that is was a thing - they spent way too much time together, watching hockey and eating pizza for it to be anything else. (Ray conveniently forgot that he had spent just as much time with Benny in the olden days, the days before Langustini had happened to him.)
Ray had been demonstrating these emotions continuously for the last few days, by staking claims and becoming ridiculously territorial. (He'd chewed Stanley out the day before for the small sin of taking a sticky note from his desk.)
He thought he knew the trigger, too. The other day, he'd asked Fraser if he wanted to grab a bite at the diner across the street after work. It was so easily done, to slip back into his old habits, no matter how old they were. But Fraser had surprised him with an uneasy, slightly-guilty look, and an "I'm sorry, Ray, but Ray and I already agreed to go get Chinese tonight. You're more than welcome to come along, if you'd like."
Ray turned him down. He could see it in his mind's eye, how that evening would turn out, and no matter what, he only saw himself as one thing: the third wheel. Being the third wheel was pretty much always the worst position to be in, and that, combined with his intense dislike for Stanley meant there was no chance of Ray having Chinese with Fraser that night.
Things would likely have continued along the same track, if Ray hadn't had the good fortune to meet Stella Kowalski. She ended up providing his ticket to salvation, in more ways than one.
"Look," Stanley said.
Ray looked up from his paperwork to see the other detective's hands, planted on his desk. Stanley was leaning forward with a determined sort of look in his eyes, like he was going to say something no matter what happened as a result. "What is it?" Ray snarled. Then he tacked on "Stanley" for good measure, because it never hurt to antagonize the enemy whenever possible.
"I know that you and Frase had a thing before I got here. I mean, he never said nothing, but I can tell."
Ray reddened. (It suddenly became more important than ever not to blush.) "No way, Stanley! Benny and I weren't like that. We just hung out and did manly things. Manly bonding things."
Stanley rubbed his chin and sort of grinned. "Yeah," he mumbled. "Manly bonding."
Ray did not want to know. Ever.
"Look, what's your point?"
"Just this," Stanley said, and leaned in even closer. "Fraser and I have a thing now, and I don't care if you still want to be friends, but I am not letting you mess up what we got going. So I'm here to make a compromise. A trade."
"A trade for what?"
"Benton Fraser for Stella Kowalski."
"What?!"
"The way I see it, Stella was mine before I went undercover, and Fraser was yours before you went undercover, so if I want Frase, then I gotta give you Stella. Fair's fair. Plus, I've seen the way you look at her. If your intentions aren't honorable, then you'd better quit now, or I'll rip your balls off and feed them to you for breakfast. Same goes if you ever hurt her. Other than that, I'll leave you alone. Deal?"
Ray thought about it for about a minute. Some part of his brain kept yelling about the immorality of doing such a thing. The other part was loudly reminding him that ASA Kowalski had a really nice butt. A butt he would like to know better, really get personal with. "Yeah," Ray found himself saying. "Okay."
"Okay. Good." Stanley nodded to himself. "Cool. So, uh, you like Chinese?"
A/N: Kinda cracky, I know, but the idea amused me at the time... :)
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