LINKDING

<blockquote>In hindsight, he could see how true the fables were, how sex and death and ritual sacrifice were all mingled up together.</blockquote>

➤ In which Fraser is thrilled by the great idea of being friends with benefits and Ray finds himself frustrated

<blockquote>I am not the only person here who wants a do-over.</blockquote>

➤ The one where they go undercover in the circus

also on ao3 at http://archiveofourown.org/works/241902 ➤ the one where Kowalski and Fraser have eight mandated therapy appointments after an incident involving lethal shooting

➤ cdnshack. does what it says on the tin

<blockquote>"Be that as it may," Fraser managed, forcing the words out, "you've got it wrong."</blockquote> ➤ early on, Ray asking Fraser for stuff about Vecchio's personal life that wouldn't have been in the file, for added verisimilitude. ➤ Sort of...queer genish with the possibility of f/k in the future

<blockquote>The man was settled comfortably into the sofa next to her, his hands loosely laced over the front of his pale blue sweater. His hair was dark and slightly messy, his face fixed in an expectant expression as he leaned closer to the lady, head cocked and obviously trying to tune his ear to her voice. It was Fraser, and Ray felt the floor kind of reel underneath him, because he would never, ever have recognized him in this crowd. He'd been looking for red serge and a military posture, and the guy sitting across from him didn't have either. Hell, Ray would have bet that Fraser's spine didn't even bend like that. </blockquote>

<blockquote>Was it okay to fall crazy stupid in love with the ex-wife of the murdered guy who was your best friend's partner and lover? I didn't think there was any sort of greeting card out there for this one.</blockquote> ➤ the one where Vecchio is pulled from the Langoustini gig because Kowalski's been murdered, and Fraser thinks Kowalski's still alive ➤ has an odd stylistic choice of having occasional sidebars with a snippet of fic of what's going on for a different character

➤ The one where the FBI make F and R stay in a locked hotel room cell to prevent them getting in the way of a case the FBI is working on that R feels strongly about

<blockquote>it seemed to me entirely logical that if the brief was to give Fraser and Ray a mass of kids--then why not SIX kids, and then why not scramble the entire ending? So it becomes this switcheroo, where everyone gets someone else's ending. </blockquote> ➤ love watching the family dynamics

➤ first half is about Ray's history with Stella, then Ray finding out more about Fraser's history, then Ray and Fraser working things out and deciding to move to Canada

<blockquote>"So for instance," Ms. Badeaux continues, obviously happy to give him the entire company brochure, "one of our recent projects was a structural report on the distribution of wolves in the Northwest Territories and Nunavit—" "Which wolves?" Ray asks, just for the hell of it. "Tundra, boreal—what?" She stops and re-considers him. "Both. Tundra and boreal—also high arctic. You know wolves, Mr. Kowalski?" </blockquote>

<blockquote>"Now look here," I said, barging into Lieutenant Welsh's office and slamming the door behind me. "I may be a few cards short of a deck, but that is not Ray Vecchio, nor is it the person to whom I have come to refer to as Ray Vecchio over these last two years. My patience is elastic but it is not infinite.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"Cause Fraser and me are starting to fuck outside of crime scenes!"</blockquote>

<blockquote>Fraser's showed him a smile that was pure challenge. "Not at all. It seems like a fair trade. I'll wear the dress—but you have to squire me to dinner." </blockquote>

➤ the one with the parallel versions of the story, one each from Fraser and Ray's perspective. ➤ Not much plot, just the story of them getting together, and it's a little too "romance and/or a good dicking solves all your problems", but the stuff that's done with the structure is really good.

➤ The one where they're all in a hotel in Inuvik dealing with the aftermath of the whole Muldoon situation

➤ a day in the life, settled into their relationship and their patterns of life post-show, good details

<blockquote>And it suddenly struck him as wildly wrong that he was calling Fraser Fraser now that he was naked and dead and sharing a shower at five in the morning. </blockquote>

<blockquote>"Just--the Mountie love fest. It's everywhere. It's like disco. It sucks." </blockquote>

<blockquote>"Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Ray! It's me!" The thin figure leaned around the doorway. "You don't say!" A bullet ricocheted off the wall near Fraser's shoulder. "See, he doesn't remember you either. Come on! Get down!" Huey and Dewey gestured frantically from behind the upturned table they were using as a barricade. Welsh was checking his watch. "He shot at you fer chrissake!"</blockquote>

<blockquote>Ray woke up staring at his own face, which was - okay, yeah, that was weird. Lately, he hadn't been waking up to anyone, and the last time he'd seen his own face first thing in the morning had been after that one-night stand with - Cyndi? Mindi? Didn't matter, anyway; she'd kicked him out before he'd had time to do more than notice his own bedhead. Ray had gone home, crawled into his own (mirrorless) bed, and gone back to sleep, which, hey: sounded like a pretty good idea, at that. "Ray," the other - and significantly more awake - him said, "Ray!" "Grnh?" Ray said, sitting up and scrubbing a hand through his hair, only it wasn't his hair - it was smooth, and longer, and when he pulled a strand down over his eyes to look at it, it was dark brown, the color of - oh. Oh.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"Of course he got the money--he's Fraser, he's organized, he's a fucking criminal mastermind, what do you think?!"</blockquote>

<blockquote>Out loud Ray cleared his suddenly thick throat and said, "I'm gonna miss you. You know that, right?" "Of course, Ray. And I'll miss you, too." But Fraser wasn't meeting his eyes, and after a moment Ray decided not to go in for the clinch like he'd told himself a thousand times he would. </blockquote>