asher_talos | [for Ray

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[for Ray - Dated 1/07]

When the Island had gone back to normal they'd had a hell of a time breaking the news to the twins that Toys-R-Us had vanished along with the rest of the city. Truth be told, a small part of Asher had wanted to join Celia in her tantrum over the loss. Not of the toy store specifically, obviously, but of the city as a whole. He knew it was most likely all in his head, but since being back, the sun seemed brighter, the temperature higher and the sand about a hundred times more obnoxious than it had been before. More obnoxious even than when they were stuck in the old west, which was saying something.

Not everything was left behind, though. Of all the things that could have remained from their time in New York, the Island had chosen this. Of course it did. It might have still been wrapped, but Asher didn't need x-ray vision to know what it was.

When he'd picked it out, he actually assumed that, more likely than not, it would have stayed behind. For his birthday, he'd tell Ray about his good intentions without having to hand anything to him. The thought was supposed to be what counted most, and Asher wondered if that held true when nothing tangible was ever actually received.

Now he'd never know.

He'd kept the gift in the spare room on the boat since they'd been back on the Island. It was already late-afternoon - Ray's birthday was already more than halfway over now - and it had only made it as far as the kitchenette table from its original hiding spot.

Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if the thing didn't look like Martha-fucking-Stewart had done the wrap job.

Groaning, he swept the gift off the table after deciding he'd stared at it long enough, tucked it under his arm and started back home.

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"I don't have a problem with disowning the both of you." Asher joked. "He has a sister and I'm sure there's someone almost as obnoxious as you on the Island to fill that void." Not that he much liked the idea of having to go through what they did to get where they were now ever again with a new pain in the ass.

"You're welcome," he said, after returning the kiss.

"Almost as obnoxious but nowhere near as handsome," Ray insisted, seeing fit to point that out early on.

Since he was feeling brave, he opened his palm slowly, Daniel's hand there ready to pounce. After several warnings to be careful, Ray quickly had a miniature Riviera vrooming up and down his arm. One second too rough and-

"Okay, yeah, no, I tried." Ray closed his hand around the car again, holding it protectively to his chest. Daniel looked surprised, then pointed accusingly at Ray with one hand and held the other across his eyes. The tips of his ears were pinking immediately, just as he opened his mouth to cry.

As Daniel's father, Asher's instinct was to make the boy stop crying. But as the guy not responsible for making him cry in the first place, Asher just put his hands up and let Ray deal with it.

"If you do plan on bonding with him in the future, you might want to avoid making him burst into tears."

"We've been bonding for years," Ray insisted, even though it didn't look like any of that was going to pay off today. "He's just forgotten."

Picking up the box the car had come in, he wiggled it in front of Daniel's tearful face. "You wanna play with the box?" He might have been three but he wasn't stupid. The crying notched up a few decibels. Ray closed his eyes for a second, then put the car into the box, offering that instead.

"Compromise?" Daniel quietened a little and clasped the box with both hands, giving it a shake. Ray knew it wouldn't stay inside the box for long but maybe by then he'd have been able to find a new distraction for the boy.

"He's not a cat," Asher said once Ray offered Daniel the empty box.

Maybe it was partially his fault for letting Ray open the gift when he was there, knowing full well that there was a toy inside. Ray obviously couldn't have known that before it was too late. True as that all was, he wasn't about to willingly take the blame for any of it.

"It's going to be fun when he has to go back to his mother and can't take that with him."

"Kids are meant to like the gift wrap better than the gift," Ray defended himself, a look of concern for his precious car clouding his face. Maybe Daniel wasn't like all the other kids...

"Let's wait until he's napping, then hand him back."

"Maybe that's true for kids back home and not here? The ones that grow up here don't exactly see toys in brand new packaging all the time. I swear stepping into Toys-R-Us in New York was like sensory overload for him and his sister." And maybe for Asher, too, but for completely different reasons, and none of them good.

"Sounds like a plan."

"Sorry I missed that," Ray lied, not sounding very convincing about it. He guessed it was just one of the sacrifices he'd had to make to keep the other woman happy. Of course Ray would much rather have been in Toys R Us than joyriding around the city in his favorite wheels...

"See?" He looked a little self-satisfied. "I've totally got a hang of this parenting malarkey."

"By figuring out the best way to hand a kid off to someone else?" Asher didn't think he was in line to win any Father of the Year awards, but even he knew there was something wrong with that.

"By figuring out the least distressing way to deliver him back to his mother when it comes to it," Ray corrected, employing a little political spin to serve his purposes.

As if on cue, Daniel got overenthusiastic in his shaking and threw the box as hard as he could at the back of the seating. It bounced off the gazebo and, mouth open wide, Ray only just managed to scoop it into his hand before it ricocheted onto the floor.

"Okay, comforting I can do but disciplining right now is alllll you," Ray told Asher, moving the gift out of the way and passing Daniel to him.

"Discipline?" Asher echoed. "That's pretty much how I feel about the car. He just can't put his feeling into words the same way."

He set Daniel down, adjusting his clothes and retrieving his ball, handing it to him and sending him back to his game.

"You've still got basketball to look forward to," he told Ray, retaking his seat.

"That requires a different kind of discipline," Ray waved off, climbing to his feet as soon as Asher sat. "I'll still get to be the cool, fun one." Not the one that tells the kids off for leaving their greens or makes them do their homework.

"Y'know, this," he wiggled the box as he headed for the hut, "is taking pride of place. You better get used to seeing this every day."

"I still get the better stuff after the divorce," he replied. Sure, he'd have to find a way to drag all that stuff back up to the Compound since it was Ray's hut, but the bed, gazebo and hot tub were all his.

"I'll let you keep Pac-Man, too." Because he was just that nice.

"Not without a pre-nup you don't," Ray called back before disappearing inside. He checked the car for scratches or damage as he removed it from the box one last time, dropping that on the bed and doing a one-sixty of the room.

In the end, he placed it on the table by his side of the bed, lining it up so he would be able to see it when lying down.

"Those don't even exist here," he argued, taking the ball from Daniel when he offered it and tossing it back to him when he was ready. He missed, of course, but that didn't stop him from picking it up and running it back over.

"So enjoy your little car and your little dog."

A couple of minutes later, Ray returned minus his sweater, starting to unbutton the cuffs on his shirt so that he could roll the sleeves up. Only a month off the tropical island and Ray was still having to readjust to the heat.

"Aren't we missing a step before the divorce?"

"Resenting each other and a crappy sex life?" Asher shrugged, sending the ball to Daniel once more.

"Before that," Ray clarified, moving to his collar to loosen that too.

Asher was quiet for a long moment before finally shaking his head.

"Can't think of a thing," he said, giving Ray a pointed look that said if he cared anything about his own sex life, he'd watch what he said next.

"You'd look good in a tux," was all Ray said, sending the pointed look right back to Asher. He technically hadn't mentioned the W or the M word, so Asher couldn't be mad at him yet.

That was a given, and also probably the one and only comment Ray could have gotten in without pissing Asher off. It was hard to be mad at a compliment, but that didn't stop the exasperated sigh from escaping him.

"Smooth."

"It was, wasn't it," Ray agreed with the hint of a smile. It was kind of disconcerting how against the idea Asher clearly was but it wasn't exactly a surprise. Asher probably would have heaved the same sigh if Del had run her pregnancy idea by him first too.

Too bad Ray couldn't marry Asher and then break the news to him...

"Cheer up." He nudged a finger under Asher's chin to lift his gaze. "It might never happen."

"Might never? Why do you make it sound like it's not a decision I'll have any control over?" Sure, there were a few occasions where he hadn't had any control over certain things thanks to kooky Island shenanigans, but the M-word wasn't one of those things.

"It's a figure of speech," Ray deflected, pulling his hand away just in case Asher's temper rose. "Besides, you know this place. Next year it could turn into Vegas and pair everyone off like Noah's Ark. Last time it dabbled in the affairs of the heart I would've made an honest man of you on the spot."

Who said that couldn't happen again?

"It doesn't count if the people involved are possessed." When reality set in again after the last time the Island dabbled, he and Ray had gone right back to insults and throwing punches. Asher didn't think there would have been any reconciling if they'd gone all the way and exchanged vows, only to have to get them undone in a few days time.

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