A Year (More Or Less) In The Life by pir8fancier (NC17)

[akamine_chan]

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Ray Kowalski/Ray Vecchio
Length: 25,461 words
Author on LJ: pir8fancier
Author Website: Pir8fancier at skyhawke archives
Why this must be read: Because this story is about Ray Kowalski and Fraser, showing a relationship that didn't work and left Ray broken, shattered. A relationship that wasn't enough. It's about how far RayK falls, and his painful, slow crawl back to living his own life again. It's about Ray Vecchio and how his time undercover changed him, how he had to almost destroy the decent man he was to become Armando.

This story is about loss, and healing, and how redemption sometimes comes from unexpected places. It's about living life one day at a time until it no longer hurts as much.



"I'm going back to the store. You don't even have dish soap. When I come back all that garbage in the kitchen better be gone or I'm going to beat the living shit out of you. Empty out the refrigerator too. Everything. We are cleaning that kitchen top to bottom and then we eat. I didn't sell my soul to the feebs for two years just to die in your kitchen from ptomaine poisoning."

He had that 'Vegas' edge to his face, what I call his Lobster-the-Mobster look, all cool rage just waiting to pop and hopefully kill someone. I could see how he pulled off two years of undercover without breaking a sweat. He was good, but I was just as good.

"Fuck you."

He kneed me just enough to make me hold my breath and keep me up against the wall. "You want I call Benny? I talk to him every Sunday. Did you know that? This Sunday's little chat is going to be a stinky tee-shirt by stinky tee-shirt description of this hellhole you call an apartment. Then I'm gonna tell him that you're this close to being a full-blown alcoholic. That you…"

Motherfucker. I turned my head to the side in surrender.

"Okay," he said gently and eased up on his knee. His hand let go of my tee-shirt and became flat against breadth of my chest. "Okay."



A Year (More Or Less) In The Life

Comments

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

Another excellent rec, Aka! I'm so amazed by this story: pir8fancier crafts such a clear, distinctive narrative voice for her characters, and the Rays and their fucked-up way of falling in love handled in such a realistic and emotionally complex way. This is pretty much the epitome of "show don't tell" - Pir demonstrates that they give each other exactly what they need without turning it into a monologue about hearts n' flowers (as I probably would have done): instead she just takes us through the worst [and best] year in both their lives. It's quite the accomplishment, and thank you so much for shining a light on this terrific story and the wonderful author behind it.

[akamine_chan]

This was the first story that I read that convinced me that maybe Ray/Ray wasn't such a bad idea...And I loved it. This is another of my all-time favorites, because it's so painfully good that it makes me cry every time I read it. RayK broken and drinking to numb the pain, RayV joining him in the slow spiral down before helping pull them both out of their despair...

*g*

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

When I signed up to drive the crack van, a couple of posts after yours, it was mostly to recommend this story- I couldn't believe no-one had yet (its sequal was recommended in February, or so).

It's a touchstone, this fic, one I read every so often just because it works on so many levels, including the purely writerly one.

Julia, loving, especially, Ray V's need to cherish and care for Ray K

[akamine_chan]

It's a touchstone, this fic, one I read every so often just because it works on so many levels, including the purely writerly one.

It does, doesn't it? I read it often, as well.

And I guess you'll just have to find other great fics to rec since I snatched this one out from under you...*g*

[hurry-sundown.livejournal.com]

Good pick, chan. This story rips my heart out and then puts it back again, every single time (I won't say how many *g*). It kills me to think of a 'verse where Fraser doesn't love Ray back. OTOH, Ray and Ray are so good together here, how can you not be happy by the end? Plus, this is one of my very favorite RayV stories. pir8fancier has him down.

[akamine_chan]

It kills me to think of a 'verse where Fraser doesn't love Ray back.

Oh, in my mind it's so much worse than than, hurry_sundown. It's not a 'verse in which Fraser doesn't love RayK; he does. He just doesn't love him enough. And that's what absolutely kills me.

And yeah, I love this story to death, myself.