FIC: Heat Wave (Ray Levoi/Walter Crow Horse, R)
Heat Wave, R, for myhappyface
Thunderheart, Ray Levoi/Walter Crow Horse, cold shower on a hot day
The dry, summer heat was one thing; the drought was another. DC got hot, and was humid besides, but there was always plenty of water. On the rez, the ground was so dry it cracked, and the water coming through the pipes-if it did come-took forever and started brown and viscous. After Ray had told their story to Maggie’s media contacts, the government had cleaned up the test-drilling site, and they had begun construction on a water treatment plant. But that was months in the future.
DC summers had also had air conditioning. It was the end of July, and Ray would have given his right arm for central air.
He had been sprawled on the couch, six inches from the rickety fan and stripped down to his shorts, for over an hour when he snapped. Ray jumped up, startling Crow Horse enough that he spilled his beer, and stomped down the hall.
“The hell is the matter with you?” Crow Horse demanded, trailing after him.
He wiped the amber beads from his legs irritably, then tripped on Ray’s discarded shorts, and cursed.
“It’s a million fucking degrees in this house!” Ray shouted, his voice echoing in the tile vault of the shower.
“What are you doing?” Crow Horse said. He tried the handle on the bathroom door but found it locked. “You passive aggressive son of a bitch, let me in!”
There was no answer. Crow Horse pressed his ear against the bathroom door; he heard some scuffling, then Ray muttering, and then the crack of knuckles on porcelain.
“Ray!”
The door swung open. Ray, flushed and growling, filled the frame.
“There’s no water,” Ray said. “All I want is a cold shower, and there’s no water.”
Crow Horse took Ray by the arm and dragged him down the hall.
“You are such a pain in the ass when you’re uncomfortable, you know that?”
Ray pulled away, but he was so angry he was reckless. It made him careless, and Crow Horse was focused; he was able to keep Ray in his grasp. He marched them into the kitchen, threw open the refrigerator door, and forced Ray to the linoleum. Normally Ray couldn’t have the icebox open long enough to pull out a soda without Crow Horse griping, but now he forced Ray back until his back was actually inside the fridge. The damn thing was older than he was, and it wasn’t really chilly, but it felt like heaven on Ray’s febrile flesh.
“Now, you sit your brash ass down there and behave, or a little heat wave’s gonna be the least of your problems.”
Ray sunk down, suitably cowed. Crow Horse rifled through the freezer a moment before sinking to the floor with him. Crow Horse took Ray by the shoulders, pushed him back into the cold cuts drawer, and kissed him. Ray jumped; Crow Horse’s mouth was frozen cold. He was grinning when they broke for air.
“Ice,” he said, and Ray caught the telltale bulge in Crow Horse’s cheek.
Crow Horse kissed him again, his mouth and then his neck. Ray shivered, and curled his fingers in Crow Horse’s hair as he worked his way down Ray’s body. The refrigerator shelves rattled; Ray whined.
Crow Horse was right; there were a lot more pressing matters than some silly heat wave.