Title: Rain
Summary: Random ficlet, Ray and Fraser are on a stakeout, and it's raining.
A/N: From a 'getting me back into writing prompt' Due South, RayK & Fraser caught in the rain. :)
(un-beta'd, and first ever Due South fic, I was mainly just trying to get their voices, I think it'll take more practice but I'm getting there)
Feedback?: Is loved!
"What are we-"
"Ssh Ray."
"Can you ssh people? I mean its not all polite and Mountie like, is it?"
"Ray," Fraser responded using the tone. Ray grinned.
"Shouldn't you kindly request my silence or something? I mean that would be more," Ray paused and watched as Fraser rubbed his eyebrow. Score two for Kowalski, "in line with the courteous and respectful image you guys go for," he finished.
"It's no use," Fraser declared with a frown out of the windshield.
"You gonna defect?"
"I can't see from here," he spoke over Ray as he often did.
"Well go on then," Ray said gesturing outside. "I'm sure The Hat will protect you from the er ,downpour of biblical proportions."
"Indeed," Fraser nodded, afixing set hat upon his head and reaching for the door handle.
"Hang on a sec' there Fraser," Ray grabbed Fraser hand and halted it. "You can't go out there it's raining all kinda household pets all over the place."
"Exactly Ray, I cannot see through the downpour. It i hardly an effective stakeout if we can't see the criminals we are here to observe."
Ray rolled his eyes. "If you go out there then I have to go out there. And I'll tell you one thing Fraser, I am not. Going. Out. There."
"Well one of us has to," Fraser responded, taking his hand back and using it to make his escape from the car.
"Damn it Fraser." Ray squinted through the rain and watched as the the red shape that was Fraser ducked down a nearby alleyway. "I am not going out there," he muttered to himself. Fraser'd be back any minute anyhow, wouldn't want to ruin the uniform.
And like any bad guys would want to be out in this anyway. They'd want to keep their swanky shoes all nice and dry inside. Of course they'd have no trouble ordering their henchman outside. Heavily armed, big and nasty from what they'd already seen.
And Fraser was now completely out of sight.
"Crap. Okay, here we go," he flicked up his collar and yanked the door handle open.
"Fraser," he called in a whisper when he reached the alley. "Where are-?" A hand clamped over his mouth and pulled him backwards. He kicked backwards and manged to land an elbow before his assailant let him go, at which point he heard the sounds of Fraser's insitant voice.
"Ray, Ray, Ray-"
"Okay Fraser, okay," he said stepping away and turned to face him. "What was that about?" he demanded.
"You were giving away our position Ray," Fraser pointed out in his 'perfectly reasonable' tone.
"There's no one out here Fraser! No-one sane anyway!"
"Ray-"
"And even if there was anyone out here, they wouldn't be able to hear me over THE RAIN!" he shouted.
"Ray, please. Keep your voice-" He stopped and pulled Ray further into their battered little alcove as a door further up the aley opened. The sound of muffled voices travlled down the alley.
"-thought I heard something."
"Yeah? Well you can go out there and look on your own," someone replied.
"Probably just the rain." The door shut behind them.
Fraser was giving him a look, he knew it. "See, they don't want to go swimming, why should we?" he complained.
"Because it's our duty Ray," Fraser answered.
"It ain't my duty to get soaked to my skin on some waste of time stakeout."
"It is merely nature Ray."
"Yeah well I'd rather nature wasn't trying to be one with my underwear," he grumbled, plucking at his sodden jeans. Fraser's eyes followed the movement before snapping back up to Ray's. Ray raised his eyebrows.
"Perhaps, we could return later," Fraser said hesitantly.
"Great," Ray said shortly, darting out of their make shift shelter and jogging down the alley toward the car.
"Ray that was very irresponsible," Fraser said once he too was inside the car. "You didn't even check the alley before running out-"
"Mmmhmm," Ray agreed leaning back between the seats for his gym bag.
"There could have been men on guard, armed criminals whom you would have run blindly at-"
"Yeah," Ray muttered to the back seat which he was leaning on for support as he reached under the driver seat for his bag.
"-completely reckless – Ray, what are you doing?" Ray heard Fraser ask. The tone probably appropriately perplexed as Ray's behind was likely the only part of him Fraser was able to address.
"Got it," he said triumphantly as he pulled his bag free. Fraser snapped his head back out of the way quickly to avoid being hit in the face as Ray swung it round and onto his lap. "Here," Rayed threw a towel at Fraser's head.
"Er, Ray..."
"Don't worry its clean, not been to the gym this week yet," Ray said as he rooted around in his bag.
"Ah, thank you then Ray." Ray watched him towel his hair for a moment, it was curling at the ends where it had begun to dry.
"Aha," he said, pulling out a clean t-shirt from the bag. He yanked his sodden shirt over his head and flung it at Fraser. Who, much to Ray's irritation, caught it before it would have caught him smack in the face and threw it in the back seat.
Dief whined.
"Oh you've done it now Fraser," Ray said as he snatched the towel back to dry himself before pulling the dry t-shirt over his head. "I think you'll need to shout us both pizza now." He shifted around in his seat and contemplated changing into the sweat pants in his gym bag.
He glanced over at Fraser who was watching him fidget and decided against it.
"Right, let's get this show on the road."
"Ray we need to stay here," Fraser argued.
"No Fraser. Enough. I'm going home and I'm changing into some dry clothes."
"We should at least go and check in at the station," he protested. Ray growled at him. The way Fraser jumped at the sound was immensely satisfying. "I think perhaps you've been spending too much time with Diefenbaker, Ray," he said after a moment.
"Seeing as you and the wolf are like joined at the hip kinda implies I spend too much time with you too, huh?"
"Well, yes I suppose. I can walk back to the consulate from here Ray, unless you don't mind dropping my off-?"
Ray sighed. Guilt-trippy mounties sucked.
"Shut up Fraser, you still gotta buy us pizza," he said as he started the engine. "After we stop by the station to check in," he added.
"Very well Ray if you insist," Fraser answered. Neutral sentry face employed in full, but Ray had caught the small quirk of his mouth from the corner of his eye. Damn it the Mountie had played him again.
"Yeah well, you're still buying us pizza," he snapped, trying to get back some points. "With pineapple," he added with a grin; he was totally back in the game.
"Of course Ray," Fraser answered. "It would seem to be the 'polite and Mountie like' thing to do."
Ray glanced over; the neutral face had been replaced with a smug grin. Who was he kidding? Here he was in rain saturated pants, on his way to the station where Welsh was going to yell at him for long enough about screwing up the stakeout that his pants would be long dry, with a wet Mountie who only had Canadian money stored in his hat offering to shout him pizza.
Mountie always won, even when the game should be rained off.
He glanced over at Fraser who had retrieved the towel and was drying his face, using it to smooth down his eyebrows and valiantly trying to tame his curling hair. Ray snorted.
The Mountie always won, but Ray didn't care. After all, it was the taking part that counted.