crack_van | Homemaking, by Resonant (Explicit)

This is my last rec as crack_van driver, and now I know that the van is hanging up its wheels and retiring for good I wish I could rec a fic that holds all of due South. But then I couldn't think of one, because I suppose the whole point of fanfic is that everyone picks up different details, and that even though we keep telling the same stories with the same characters, they aren't really the same at all. There isn't just one post CoTW story to tell; there isn't just one version of RayK and Fraser; it isn't necessarily RayK and Fraser at all - shout out to the rest of the due South fleet of ships! I am sorry I haven't managed to rec a RayV story, or a Ray/Ray story, or a Fraser/Inspector Thatcher story.

So I don't think I have one perfect story with everything in it to end with, and probably a story like that doesn't exist and wouldn't make any sense if it did. Every iteration is different and the fandom hasn't run out of stories yet. I'm very sad to see the end of crack_van, but the due South fandom is still here and still creating and I'm sure we'll go on reccing fic somewhere else for many years to come. Fandom moves to different places but it keeps on going.

On which note, here's my rec:

Fandom: due South
Characters: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Length: 2,640 words
Author website: http://www.trickster.org/res/
Author on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/users/Resonant
Why this must be read:

Well. Let's be honest - because Fraser getting tied up presses ALL my buttons. Those of you who know me from Tumblr will be rolling your eyes about now, muttering "she just COULDN'T leave it alone, could she?" because this is maybe a Thing I talk about ~~from time to time~~ a lot. Since there is no one story that has everything great about due South in it, I'm reccing this one because it's a fandom classic and because I still don't understand why submissive!Fraser is such a fascinating thing to me. And believe me, I've thought about it A LOT. I think this fic picks up a lot of why I find the character so interesting: at first glance he's hyper masculine - tall and good looking and physically strong and capable and independent and he throws knives and has a wolf - he's a wilderness survivor and a lone wolf and all those things that scream RUGGED and MANLY. And then, there's how he behaves. He's polite, and restrained and modest and passive aggressive and he has good old-fashioned posture and he doesn't swear and he's uncomfortable with sexual attention and he doesn't flirt or drink and he dips his head and hides behind his hat and somebody else is always driving and has to take him home, and think they need to look after him when actually they probably don't, and he spends a whole episode very convincingly and respectfully in drag and at the beginning of this fic he's cooking and it's called Homemaking - do you see where I'm going with this? Fraser sometimes behaves like a big strong man and sometimes he behaves like a lady (and by that I mean, how we typically see "big strong man" and "lady" presented on screen, not necessarily how the majority of men and women actually DO behave) and all of that adds up to me finding him taking a sexually submissive role within the parameters of a relationship of equals totally fascinating. And let's not examine any more closely than that why this is a Thing I like, in case we don't like the answer.

Homemaking