Signature Move
Ray was drinking his coffee and idly watching Dief do his wolfy business in the park they sometimes went to in the mornings if Fraser wasn't on guard duty, when Fraser did a hard double-take and said, "Oh, dear," in a tone Ray had learned to pay attention to. Mostly because he was determined to get through at least one Thursday without getting blown up since Welsh had taken to muttering dire things about insurance premiums on Wednesday afternoons.
Ray glanced over his shoulder to see what had Fraser's jodhpur's in a twist. Only thing he saw was path, path, more path, a black squirrel, and a knock-out redhead with very perky assets jogging their way.
Had to be the redhead. Ray sighed and drank more lukewarm coffee. Fraser had problems that most guys sold their souls for.
"What's her deal?" he asked. "Black widow? Performance arsonist? Evil clown?"
"No, nothing of the kind." Fraser licked his lower lip. "Ms. Temple, who is the lady jogging toward us, well, she seems to have what you might call... romantic designs upon my person."
Ray tried not to snort coffee up his nose. "She's hot to trot, huh?"
And Fraser had to be seriously freaking if he let that one go without a comment. "Ray, I feel I ought to inform you that Ms. Temple is notoriously difficult to dissuade, and should you have any suggestions as to gently discouraging her attentions, they would not go amiss at this juncture."
"You wanna let her down easy?" Ray demanded. "Someone who looks like that, you let down easy?"
"Ray, please,," Fraser said, his blue eyes wide and staring over Ray's shoulder like a spooked cat. Kinda like the look he'd give Frannie when she cruised him a little too hard, only about ten times worse.
Ray didn't have the heart to keep teasing him. Instead, he decided to make an impulsive and possibly monumentally stupid gesture, but hey, that was pretty much his signature move. "Don't worry about her, Fraser. I'll take care of it."
And that immediately made Fraser get a worry-wrinkle between his eyebrows, but that was a big improvement over the thousand-yard-stare. "Ray."
"I'll be nice."
Fraser just tilted his head and didn't look convinced.
"I can be nice!" Ray protested. "Just tell me when she gets close."
Ray tossed his empty coffee cup into the trash and shook out his arms, and when Fraser said, "Ray," he took a step forward and kissed Fraser like it was something he got to do every day. Fraser froze up like an iceberg at first, but Ray just held onto Fraser's hips and kept up the gentle 'hey, hello there' with his mouth. In between a breath and the next, Fraser finally melted and went with it. Put his hands on Ray's back and stroked down. Down-down-down until he could slide his fingers up the back of Ray's T-shirt. Started kissing back, his tongue wet and licking past Ray's teeth. The buttons on Fraser's uniform pressed into his chest. Fraser tasted a little like baking soda toothpaste, and he smelled like wool and leather.
Dief's barking startled them both, and when Fraser stepped back, Ray could only blink at him like the sun had come out from behind a cloud.
Fraser's face was bright-eyed and flushed. "That was an unorthodox approach to the situation, Ray."
Ray shrugged and looked around for the redhead, but there wasn't anybody else on the path but him, Fraser, and the deaf half-wolf. Even the squirrel had packed it in. "I like to think outside the box."