asher_talos | [For Ray]

[For Ray]

When he wasn't possessed by the Island into thinking he was in love or being kidnapped, Asher had forgotten that being out on the boat could actually be pretty nice.

He wasn't sure where Ray was at that point, whether he was still out on the deck, the indoor sitting area, or even if he had gone overboard for that matter, though he was sure he would have heard the yelling from the bedroom if that last one were the case.

He was lying back on the foot of the bed, legs hanging over the edge and staring up through the porthole on the ceiling. He was also smoking, something he only did on the rare occasion now, having mostly broken the habit since the twins were born. Ray probably wouldn't appreciate it, which was why he hadn't simply lit up right in front of him.

After loosening his tie, Asher tucked his free hand behind his head. He wasn't sure if the peace even had half a chance of lasting the duration of their entire getaway, but he'd enjoy it for as long as it did.

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Ray had a sensitive nose, most probably due to its size, so one cigarette to others could smell like forty to him. Not that he expected Asher to understand or appreciate that.

"It lingers," was all Ray said, deciding not to even acknowledge the other comment with a response. Despite the risk to his health, he moved inside, holding out a mug of coffee over Asher's legs for him to take.

"Hey, whoa. Watch the merchandise," Asher warned, shifting out from beneath the mug. Hot liquid, rocking boat, his junk.

"Christ, you honestly dislike smoking that much?" Enough to potentially burn him, it seemed. Sitting all the way up, he took hold of the mug, more glad to just get it out of Ray's hand than for the gesture itself. "Thanks..."

"Smoking kills," Ray replied, steadying himself against the wall with his newly freed hand. He wasn't against the odd cigar every now and then thanks to his time in Vegas, but common cigarettes were horrible, period.

"They also make you taste funny so drink up."

"You taste funny." It wasn't the best or most mature response he'd ever made, but since he wasn't actually gunning for any sort of real conflict, he didn't really care.

He'd taken a soap dish from the bathroom to use as a makeshift ashtray, and snuffed the cigarette out into that before putting it all up out of the way on the shelf. "It's not drugged, is it?" He asked, yet took a sip before ever getting an answer. Weird shit tended to happen every time they were on the boat, so it would be keeping with tradition if it was.

"No. If I wanted my wicked way with you I'd like to think drugging wasn't a prerequisite." A little bit of alcohol sometimes, maybe, but no more than that.

Ray turned to lean against the wall, pushing a hip out to counter his balance. "So how d'you see our first official vacation going?"

"Two people got on the boat, but only one might walk off," Asher replied. It might not have been what Ray wanted to hear, but it was what he felt the outcome would be, given their track record.

"Wow," Ray commented, lifting his eyebrows over his mug as he took a sip. Even he and Ange hadn't been that bad during the divorce. This was supposed to be special, valuable time together. A positive experience.

Ha. Ray laughed in his head.

"I guess I did ask."

"I don't mean I think someone's going to die... At the most I'd toss you overboard and make you swim back. Or jump over myself." Because that made it all better.

"I'd give you a life jacket."

Given his track record, for Asher to die, someone most likely had to be aiming for Ray.

"I think you're all mouth," he told him, tilting his head as he leaned back. A year ago he wouldn't have thought so, but recently? Asher's bark was definitely worse than his bite and that was saying something.

"I think the fact that my bed is in your hut spares you a hell of a lot," Asher says. The bed was the equivalent of a child caught in the middle of their feuds. He couldn't exactly drag it out of the hut every single time he got pissed off and needed to get away.

"And I think you knew that would be the case when you asked me to move in."

Ray simply smiled in response, neither confirming nor denying it. Of all the people, things and pets back on the island, the bed was definitely what he was going to miss the most.

"It wasn't like I could move in with you." He pushed off the wall and went with the rock of the boat, hitching up a knee and scooting onto the end of the bed near Asher. "Privacy was kinda a factor, if you remember."

"Was," Asher agreed. But things were different now. "After you exposed yourself to the other guy down there do you really think there's much left to hide?"

There was plenty, of course, but Asher just liked reminding Ray of that incident whenever he got the chance.

"I can think of a few things," Ray replied, mouth pinched at one corner with the cringe-worthy memory of Snape walking in on him.

"Who wants to live in a basement, anyway? They're spooky. Hardly homely."

"Scared of haunted washing machines? The ghosts of lost socks of spin cycles past?" When he'd had the entire room to himself, it hadn't been that bad. It obviously wasn't his penthouse at the Tower, but it wasn't a hut made of sticks, either. If Ray's hut had been like the others, he would have easily turned down the offer.

"Damp, dark, dingy," Ray ticked off on his fingers. No windows meant no natural light and that wasn't something he could live with. "I can see why you'd like it though. Hundreds of years hiding from the sun."

"You do realize that there are people who live on levels beneath that one, right?" His sister being one of those people, and Danica didn't really do Damp and dingy.

As far as hiding from the sun went: "I bet I'm one of the people least likely to get skin cancer on the Island."

"And for that I'm grateful," Ray admitted ingenuously. It was bad enough having to worry about giant monsters, freak weather and magical disappearances taking Asher away from him; regular human stuff on top of that was too much.

"Now you just gotta make sure you don't catch anything lethal, fall from anything high, trip overboard," he leaned over to the nearest flat surface and rested his mug there, "or get fatally shot and I'll be a happy bunny."

"You'll be happy?" As the person not dying from a gunshot, drowning or an undetermined disease, just being 'happy' would have been an understatement for him.

"Still. I promise nothing."

"You should. Promise, I mean," Ray said, climbing back onto the bed and tucking a leg beneath him. "You lose nothing. Either you're fine forever and you keep your promise or you die but don't have to listen to my whining about you breaking your word."

He shrugged. It was a pretty stupid promise but it would still make Ray feel marginally better. "Win-win."

"I try not to make a habit of lying." Omitting the truth when it befitted him in some way? That, he was mostly okay with. "Or of pretending that this place is the least bit predictable. Besides, I'm pretty sure you told me you didn't like lying before."

"Let's talk about something else." Conversations about Asher dying wasn't exactly in keeping with the objective of the vacation - to relax and spend time together. Quality time, if that wasn't asking too much.

"Let's play a game, c'mon. It's looking kinda gray outside, so let's just hang here, play something."

"Wuss," Asher muttered under his breath, his mouth hidden behind his mug as he took another sip and set it down beside Ray's once he was done.

"You brought Monopoly?" He asked, sounding none too enthused by the prospect.

"Ah," Ray lifted empty hands, "no. You're safe. And just to prove to you that I'm not a wuss, because I did hear that, you can go first."

He leant back to rest on his elbows, trying to look like he was an open book and not at all fazed by his next suggestion.

"Ask me anything you want to know that you don't already. I won't lie."

"That sounds potentially dangerous..." He asked Ray a question. Ray answered. And after that?

Something told him that the game didn't just end there. But he could hope.

"Uh... Okay. You worked with the Mountie for how many years and you seriously never thought about... you know? Ever?" There was a chance he wasn't taking the game all that seriously.

"Well, that's an easy one," Ray replied, giving Asher a look of disappointment rather than relief. Maybe it would just take a while for him to warm up.

"Nope. Never. Too busy chasing skirt. Not to massage your ego or anything but you're genuinely the first guy I ever looked at differently."

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