[for Ray - Dated to 4/01]

[asher_talos]

Things had been quiet, and Asher wasn't sure yet if that was a good or a bad thing. In that moment, as he sat at the bar of the gazebo outside the hut, he couldn't say he actually cared one way or another. The farthest thing from his mind was Hannibal King and the trouble he'd brought along with him when he showed up.

Maybe he didn't often show it or even think about it all that much, but he knew he had it pretty good on the Island. It wasn't the sort of thought he'd openly express to Danica - lest she disown him completely for thinking something so disgustingly vile - but he knew. It wasn't perfect and it wasn't home, not really, but life on the Island wasn't what it used to be nearly five years ago.

He had Danica, pain in the ass that she was, and that alone made things more bearable than they had been when he first showed up. He had Del and the twins. And, now, he had Ray.

Things could have been a lot worse. Things have been a lot worse...

And its with that thought that he thinks maybe Danica should disown him, because even he was making himself a little nauseous.

Comments

[speakscanadian]

"Really?" Funny how Ray felt the complete opposite. Not being an inexperienced, chastity-belt-wearing prude made it a lot less weird for him this time. The kisses he was pressing to the side of Asher's neck was testament to that.

"Want me to give you my ring again?" he smirked against skin, lifting their joined hands that he'd managed to intertwine. The ring on his own finger could be seen between Asher's. "That make you feel more comfortable?"

[asher_talos]

"Would a knee in the nuts make you feel more comfortable?" Asher asked, shifting just far enough to see Ray's face, his knee poised and at the read to oblige. All Ray had to do was say the word.

[speakscanadian]

"Would a knee in the nuts make you?" Ray retorted with a sly smile, bending his own knee and adding some pressure where he guessed Asher needed it the most.

Wanted, needed. Same difference in this case.

[asher_talos]

"That... doesn't suck, but I wasn't planning on being quite so gentle." It had been a while since he'd felt the actual need to knee Ray in the junk, but he had done it before and was confident that Ray still remembered the event well enough to know not to push his luck.

[speakscanadian]

"Good," Ray replied firmly, nosing Asher's cheek for a second before he left a hard kiss on his mouth. He leaned over then and reached for the iron cuffs on the rickety side table. Heavy, rusty and cold, but most of all, strong. Impossible to break out free from.

As he clicked one end around his wrist, he rolled off Asher and onto his back. "You can start being not so gentle now."

[asher_talos]

Asher scrunched his nose as the sight of the cuffs. "Those aren't quite as I remember them either." At least the bed didn't look like it would give either of the an infection.

Pulled around and through the headboard, Asher hesitated before securing the other cuff. "You sure? We kept people shackled in cells back home and probably wouldn't even consider anything that looked like that..."

[speakscanadian]

As soon as the words left Asher's mouth it was clear from Ray's face it was close to a mood kill. But it only took a second for three little other words to pop back into Ray's head and he was reaching up to Asher to pull him back down. The cuffs dangled from one wrist but hopefully not for long.

"Belt," he muttered, free hand running down Asher's body to reach for the top of his pants. "And key." With so much skin under his palm, Ray was distracted from his attempts to get the belt and travelled his fingers the opposite way, up and along Asher's spine, then down again.

[asher_talos]

"What was that face for?" Asher asked. Starting an argument right then was the furthest thing from his mind, but that didn't mean he still wasn't curious. Especially when it wasn't as if he currently had anyone shackle up in a cell against their will. Ray might have been halfway there, but he'd put himself in that position.

[speakscanadian]

Flopping back down to the mattress, Ray looked up at Asher with a touch of sulkiness in his eyes and tugged on the sleeve of his shirt.

"No thinking about other people." It wasn't a completely honest reply to Asher's question but it was part of it. He flicked his gaze below Asher's waist for a second, then glanced back up. "Don't waste all my hard work."

[asher_talos]

"So talk fast, then," Asher said, lying beside him, his head propped up on one hand as the other moved to Ray's belt.

[speakscanadian]

When the two of them were together, it was usually Asher's line but now it came flying out of Ray's mouth, a matching expression on his face.

"What the fuck?" Even before the little heart-to-heart moment, they had been heading straight to Sexville, so now they had said what they'd said, they should have been going there full throttle. Not making a pit stop to have a chat.

"I don't wanna talk," he half-whined, half-coaxed, turning his head on the pillow and lifting a hand to the back of Asher's neck. He rubbed it encouragingly. "You don't want me to talk. So let's make me not talk for the next half hour." Hopefully by then Ray won't even have the faculties to talk if he wanted to.

[asher_talos]

"I wouldn't have bothered asking." Reaching up, Asher pulled Ray's hand down, rolling onto his back onto the mattress.

"A gag might help with that," he suggested, abandoning the front of Ray's pants and caving to the self-conscious feeling, tucking himself back into his own.

[speakscanadian]

A crease of confusion formed as soon as Asher removed his hand and rolled away. He wasn't about to jump to conclusions though, but the fact Asher was zipping himself up made that difficult.

"I'm sure we can find something," he commented, sitting up a little and resting back on his elbows. "What are you doing?"

[asher_talos]

"Nothing," Asher answered simply, shrugging. "No fucking gag. I was being sarcastic."

[speakscanadian]

"If you're doing nothing, then why are these going back on?" Ray asked, leaning over and hooking a finger through a belt loop. "Makes sex kinda hard..."

[asher_talos]

"Yeah, I'm well aware of how sex works." Or didn't work, in this case. "You should probably get your key."

[speakscanadian]

"Woah, what?" Ray gave a sharp tug on the belt loop, his brow furrowing further. "What's this? What's happening now?" It felt like he had blinked and missed something.

[asher_talos]

"Nothing," Asher repeated. "Still. You're awfully chatty for someone who doesn't want to talk."

[speakscanadian]

"One second we're all over each other and the next you're snapping at me," Ray pointed out, pushing himself upright, a hand proppd behind him. "What changed?" Because he sure didn't know what had.

[asher_talos]

"I'm not snapping." If anything, Ray appeared to be the more agitated of the two as Asher just continued to lie there. "If you think this is snapping then I clearly haven't done it in a while."

[speakscanadian]

Staring at Asher for a moment, Ray's expression was unreadable. Then he twisted, reaching for the key and uncuffing his hand, dropping the metal over the side of the bed. The bang as it hit the wooden floor was barely audible over the creaking of the bed as Ray shifted, this time onto his side.

There was another moment of silence and then he moved again, wriggling closer and resting a hand on Asher's bare stomach.

[asher_talos]

Breathing out a small, irritated sigh, he put his hand over Ray's.

"What are you doing?" Asher asked, echoing Ray's earlier question as he watched him.

[speakscanadian]

"Trying not to completely ruin the moment," Ray replied quietly and honestly, crooking a thumb over one of Asher's fingers, gaze there instead of looking back at Asher. "Is it working?"

[asher_talos]

"I wouldn't know," Asher lied. It might have been a few hundred years since he'd been in a situation like that, but he didn't have to be to know that things probably should have been playing out a little differently.

[speakscanadian]

Ray used to worry that he and Asher would never fit. They weren't the ideal couple, weren't a match made in heaven, not by a long way. Asher was an ex-vampire who used to kill people for a living; Ray was a cop who used to save people for a living. Hated bad guys and Asher would surely have been classed as one of those.

They shouldn't have fitted and they didn't. They would grind and grate and it would be hard work and Ray had come to accept that. Because no matter how wrong it looked from the outside, it was times like these that made it feel so right.

Lifting his gaze, Ray moved his head a little closer on the pillow. "Kiss me?"