The Penguin Challenge by exbex
Title: Epiphanies
Author: exbex
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Word Count: 855
Notes: Yes, shot glasses. Bear with me.
Ray really had thought he had aced Vecchio 101, but today was like one of those pop quizzes that he always flunked. He stared at the gift, looked back at Vecchio, then back at the gift, then back at Vecchio.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t grateful; Ray liked shot glasses as much as the next guy, he figured. It was just…bizarre. Even though Vecchio wasn’t quite the style pig he had once been, Ray figured that he’d find shot glasses tacky. Besides, Vecchio hated Vegas like he hated the road salt that threatened his Riv’s paint job, or going to court, or…all the other things that Ray figured Vecchio hated. But there he was just looking at Ray all serious like, while Ray stared back at him as if a penguin had suddenly dropped into their living room, hell, as if a whole flock of penguins had flown right in. And why the hell was Vecchio giving him a gift today? It wasn’t like it was their anniversary. Ray was sure of that because he had it written down in a book that he told people was for case notes but was really stuff about Vecchio.
Vecchio broke the silence, still with that serious look on his face. “It’s symbolic, Kowalski.”
“Oh, right. Yeah.”
The dubious look on Ray’s face apparently clued Vecchio in to the fact that Ray was employing all of his detective skills but was still fumbling around like a penguin lost in Chicago, because he continued: “It’s an anniversary. Not our anniversary, I mean. It’s been one year since I got back from Vegas and you and Benny blew my cover and then ran off to your Canadian gay love nest and left me laying in the hospital.”
Ray furrowed his eyebrows, looked at the Welcome to Las Vegas shot glass in his hand, then back at Vecchio indignantly. “Vecchio, you weren’t left laying in the hospital. You ran off to Florida with my wife and opened a bowling alley. And Fraser and I were looking for the Hand of Franklin, you prick.”
“Ex-wife, and the Hand of Franklin wasn’t in Fraser’s ass. Anyway, not the point. The point is…” Vecchio paused, then took Ray by both shoulders, the look on his face getting even more serious. “I was in Vegas for all of two weeks before I figured out it was the biggest mistake of my life. And trust me, Kowalski, there’s been plenty of them. I thought maybe, after I got back here, after it was over, that maybe it wasn’t a total wash, maybe I’d done something good after all, got the bad guys. But I didn’t get the bad guys, you and Fraser did. And I figured that pretty much summed up my career and maybe my life; pretty worthless without Benny around to put the Mountie glow on things. So I ran away. And then when I got back from Florida I thought I’d really fucked up my life beyond all recognition.”
He paused, then his voice softened and his eyes lost some of the intensity. “Then I started thinking about it recently. If I hadn’t gone to Vegas, you wouldn’t have gone undercover as me. Maybe we wouldn’t have caught Muldoon. Benny still would have gone back to Canada eventually, and I would have been here, but minus the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Ray had never been good at math, but Vecchio’s little monologue was forming some kind of algebraic equation in his brain, with all the things Vecchio had just said forming a little column and adding up to Vecchio just called me the best thing that’s ever happened to him, then subtracting Ray’s inferiority complex to equal Vecchio needs me. Ray grabbed him and pulled him close, kissing him fiercely, trying to keep his hands from shaking and his eyes from tearing up.
Vecchio pulled back and looked at Ray, taking a thumb and slowly caressing his face, giving him that slow grin that Ray was pretty sure only he got to see, which made Ray push him down on the couch, sprawl on top of him, and start kissing him as if it were seriously going out of style. He finally paused for a moment, raising his eyebrows at Vecchio and giving him his best shit-eating grin. “Really, Vecchio? A shot glass? What the hell?”
Vecchio sighed, rolling his eyes in the you’re the most irritating man alive manner that Ray was fairly certain was actually a gesture of endearment. “I had to start the conversation somehow. You want I should make you a candlelight dinner next time?”
“It’d be better than having a row of shot-glasses in the cabinet with your grandmother’s china. It could get pretty crowded if you get me one every time you want to have a little heart-to-heart….”
“Shut-up and put your mouth to better use, Kowalski.”
Later that night Ray quietly slid downstairs and slipped the shot glass into the cabinet, hiding it behind one of Vecchio’s grandmother’s plates. He carefully closed the cabinet door, looked out onto their city, then walked upstairs.