Work Text:
I was good at the game, when I had nothin’ to lose…
Morning is not my favorite part of the day. I crack open an eye to reveal the time. The bright red numbers on the display contrast with the dark of the room, revealing that if I don’t drag my groggy ass out of bed soon, I was going to be late. Welsh would then serve my newbie ass to the wolves in the unemployment line for lunch. Rubbing a fist over my eyes, I dislodge a few built up sleep crusties and yawn widely. I fling a leg over the edge of the bed and then the other, forcing myself into a sitting position. Stretching helps wake up the muscles in my back, arms and legs but it will take a strong cup of coffee to convince my brain to follow suit.
The path to the bathroom is littered with discarded clothes and I silently beg the gods above that they all belong to me and not a random… no, I’m not that kind of guy. I don’t do random. Let’s just say I hoped they were all mine. After I take care of things in the bathroom, I gather the discarded clothes, breathing a sigh of relief when I don’t come across any foreign articles of clothing. I toss them haphazardly into the laundry basket in the corner of my bedroom, get dressed in clean jeans, t-shirt and blazer and head to the kitchen for that much needed cup of coffee.
I stole my share of good hearts in the night, then vanished before the dawn…
After Stella, I made my heart off limits to love. Sure, I played the game, accepted the napkins with phone numbers written on them from the women who hit on me in the bars. Even made out with a few of them behind the bar in the dark veil of the alley, but never promised them something I knew I couldn’t give. A few of the women even got a few dates out of me, which may have led to making out in my car. But I knew what line I didn’t want to cross and it was the line of ending up with discarded clothes leading to my bedroom.
So, last night must have been a fluke. Maybe my lady of the evening got me one more beer than I had anticipated, and maybe we started the dance down the hallway. But from the smell of things, the dance ended at the doorway and that was how things were supposed to be. Again, I don’t do random… I’m not that kind of guy. I played that dating game, but no one was getting all of me, ever again.
I stirred a handful of chocolates into my coffee and remembered Welsh telling me the Mountie was scheduled to return from vacation today and to expect him to grace us with his presence at some point during the day. I sighed as I imagined running around Chicago with a Mountie tripping on my heels. Little did I know, but I had that thought all backwards.
Then you started playin’, it changed all the rules…
Detective work was a lot of boring busy work. I had my nose buried in a file when a flash of red caught my eye. I look up and see a wolf coming towards me and experience a moment of fear, thinking Welsh was seriously feeding me to the wolves. But this wolf was different. He was accompanied by or rather accompanied my Mountie partner. One look at the Mountie’s confused state and I knew it was make or break time. Welsh would probably feed me to the wolf for lunch if I didn’t convince Fraser I was Vecchio.
There was something about him, something about that perplexed expression that refused to leave his face the entire day. Only when Welsh finally explained things to him, did his features melt into a somewhat defeated appearance. Although, there was hope hidden in those bright blue eyes. That is what I chose to focus on when he asked me quietly to have dinner with him. Tapping the postcard anxiously against the palm of his opposite hand, he awaited my reply. The hope began to flicker away when I hesitated with my response. Not that I was refusing, no far from it. There was a spark that had been ignited in my heart when he asked that simple question. A flicker of feeling that I hadn’t felt since… well, since Stella had said ‘Yes’ at the end of an altar. There was something in those eyes, as I looked again, that begged to be understood. Something about the Mountie told me he didn’t do random either and asking me to dinner was the start of… something.
And for the first time in my life, I knew exactly what I want…
Fraser was capable of irritating me like no other person in the world… and I secretly fell in love with the banter we shared. There was a chemistry building between us that neither of us knew how to handle. We walked closer together down empty streets. Casual shoulder bumps cascaded into tender touches and shared glances that nobody else could decipher. Hell, we couldn’t even decipher it ourselves, but there was something there. Yet the feelings remained bottled tightly on both sides.
With the return of Stella and the emergence of the bounty hunter chick, our chemistry got mixed up and diluted. Stella made me realize that I was missing out on life and love. I tried to rekindle feelings for her but she gently reminded me or helped me see rather that my feelings weren’t really for her anymore.
I knew the bounty hunter chick with the numerous kids wasn’t what Fraser wanted in love either. He was fighting against himself and what he really wanted as he watched her walk away. I felt him lean into my squeeze to his shoulder as I asked him out to dinner and told him it would be okay.
I wanna kiss you good morning, let’s not let this one end in good night, it’s just the start of our story…
We shared a lot of laughs over a pineapple pizza that evening. The two of us swapped stories about our lives, now that he could rest easy knowing I wasn’t just Vecchio experiencing a bad hair day. He was heartbroken over the loss of his friend and the father he never really got to know. I mentioned a few things about my own past with my dad and I think our duet clicked even tighter.
Making our way to my apartment to catch a late hockey game and get some caffeine in us, I got the feeling he wasn’t ready to head back to the Consulate and the tiny office he called a home. He was standing in my tiny kitchen, watching me prepare the coffee and the longer he stood there… the more I wanted him to stay.
I turned to find him smiling at me and I blushed in return. The heat reached my ears and turned them pink. I offered him a mug of coffee along with a warm smile. He smiled back and wet that lower lip with that sneaky tongue.
I wanna cross that secret line, that says now we’re more than friends…
I take a long swallow of my coffee to calm my raging nerves. Taking the two steps across the kitchen, I pin his back to the counter. First with my gaze, then with my body. He parts his lips to speak and I cover them with my own. My hands find their way into his hair and I pull his lips harder against mine. I sneak my tongue past his lips and run it across that crooked tooth right there at the corner. I hear him gasp as I pushed my body closer into his. From the feel of things, we’re both on the same page. His hands work their way up my back, massaging and kneading and feeling their way into my hair.
“I wanna kiss you good morning, Frase,” I whisper into his ear. “Let’s not let this one end in goodnight.”
And Fraser spent the night and we did the dance down the hallway… and we did this every night from that night on.
There’s no better way than to start everyday lyin’ next to the one you love…