By Anam71 (my first story!)

January 2000

NC-17, for M/M slash and you know what (wink, wink…)

A winter romance featuring Fraser and Vecchio and snow-flakes.

Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em, but I do love ‘em…oh yeah…don’t sue me.

E-mail me at: [email protected]

First snow

falling

on the half-finished bridge.

-by Bashõ (from The Essential Haiku, Trans. & Ed. by Robert Hass; The Ecco Press, 1994).

Detective Raymond Vecchio was a kid again and it took the bitter cold of the high North to do it.

Oh, yeah, the Mountie helped also.

Ray still couldn’t believe that he and Benny were lovers. They have only been lovers for less than a month, the idea still fresh in his mind like newly fallen snow, pristine and clean. That may explain why Ray couldn’t believe it.

It may also be due to the fact that Ray Vecchio was never that lucky when it came to love: divorced from Angie and Irene’s tragic death…his most successful relationship may have been with Susan Chapin because they’ve both never acted upon it.

Ray always thought himself a heterosexual too until he met Benny. He had never really looked at other men before. Well, maybe a few times, mostly out of envy. Ray was never confident about his looks and half the women in Chicago throwing themselves at Fraser’s feet didn’t help his situation either. Benny would always give his ‘clueless -- I don’t know what sex is-- I’m an innocent-- look.’ There were times Ray wanted to smack the Mountie on the back of the head.

But now that he and Benny were lovers… Ray imagined that the next time some hapless woman threw herself at Fraser, Ray would step up to the plate and stick his tongue down Benny's mouth. That should turn her off.

The cop shook his head sadly with a laugh. ‘Think nice thoughts, think nice thoughts…’ Ray went back to being a kid again and stared out the frost-tinged window of the cabin. He also went back to not believing that Benny and he were actually lovers.

Ray and Fraser had immediately decided to go up north to repair the cabin of the late Fraser Sr. and to build up their newfound love. The cabin was severely damaged by the fire inflicted upon it by a revengeful Victoria, but nothing both men couldn’t fix. Ray saw to that.

Ray beheld the fat, white flakes falling, twirling and fluttering down to the already thick blanket of snow covering the vast expanse around and beyond the tiny, warm cabin. It seemed that the whole world was just one big ball of snow and the cabin was the only structure that existed, like a mere speck on a white canvas. It was well beyond midnight, but that world was glowing bright with the snow, the moon and the stars.

He remembered how he loved to watch the snow falling, peering out of his Chicago bedroom window when he was a kid. Snow meant no school. Snow meant building snowmen and hitting Frannie in the head with snowballs. Snow meant Ma bundling up Ray in so many layers of clothing that he could barely move and feeling plump like a little fat Italian sausage. Snow meant Ray’s contentment.

However, to a grown-up Ray, snow meant getting up early in the morning to scrape goddamned ice off the Riv. Snow meant traffic accidents and dirty slush and another pair of ruined shoes and slipping on your ass and shoveling the crap until you suffer a coronary and scraping more damn ice off the Riv.

Benny transformed all that like everything else in his once lonely life. Watching the snow now meant he was a kid again. Snow meant Benny.

Ray never considered himself a romantic, but the snow will always remind him of his Canadian lover.

The snow outside the cabin made everything quiet and calm. The silence was so pure Ray felt he could float on it. Quiet, calm, silent, soft, pure and gentle…just like his Benny. Ray can gaze out of that window for hours, look upon the softly falling snow and feel as if Benny was falling all around him, making him happy and light-headed and feeling like a kid again. Ray shivered.

The snow was also making him excited. Ray looked down upon his naked frame and was amazed to find himself quite erect. The snow made him hard? Jeez! Ray was glad this never happened when he was a kid. Ma would have thrown a fit.

It wasn’t really the snow, was it? It was Benny. Benny was the snow and the snow was Benny. The snow will always remind him of Benny. Benny was Ray’s snowman.

Ray wondered what would remind Benny of him. Ray frowned. Would it be Chicago? Loud sirens, bright lights, rude strangers, slums and alleyways? Would it be the sweat and chaos of the bullpen? Vending machines that never work? Pizza takeout and bad Chinese food? Coffee that was weak and donuts that were stale? Stinking garbage dumpsters crawling with parasites? Heavy pool tables and dark train station platforms? Endless hospital stays?

Ray sighed. How could he ever compare to the pleasant and gentle images that Benny conjured up in his mind? What did the Mountie see in him anyway?

Shit.

"Ray?" Benny’s voice was heavy with sleep. He shifted in the bed. "Ray?"

"I’m at the window, Benny. Go back to sleep, caro." Ray turned his head to see the Mountie lift his dark head from the pillow. His features were glowing softly in the firelight. The man was gorgeous, warm and velvety.

"Window? Why are you at the window?" Benny yawned, passing a hand over his mouth.

"Because it’s there, Benny. Go back to sleep." Ray turned his head to look out the window again.

A moment passed. Quiet as the snow outside.

"Are you coming back to bed, Ray?" Fraser sounded hopeful.

"Yeah, Benny. I’ll be there soon." Ray was in no state to saunter back to the bed. His erection was throbbing. He was also embarrassed. What was he supposed to say? ‘I would love to come to bed Benny, but the snow made me so horny I can’t walk let alone crawl to you.’

The Italian kept his back turned to the Mountie, hiding his hardness.

"Sure, Ray." Fraser sounded disappointed, and a little hurt?

Ah, jeez!

The detective continued to stare out of the window, feeling lousy now. Maybe that guilt will kill off his arousal.

Ray gasped when he felt two warm hands on his shoulders and a moist, soft breath on his neck.

"Benny!"

"I didn’t mean to scare you Ray. Did you think I was Diefenbaker?" Benny kissed Ray’s shoulder blades, a kiss to one and then the other, and back again.

"You didn’t scare me, Benny," Ray lied with a sigh.

"Ah." Benny paused, then continued the tempo of his kisses.

"Don’t ‘ah’ me Frasier. I was …I was just looking out the window, and it’s snowing, Benny."

"Ray, I not sure you have noticed, but it snows quite often here," Benny joked.

Oh great! A wise-ass Mountie.

"Very funny, Benny. I was just looking at the falling snow. What? Are you going to arrest me?"

"Maybe. Where are your handcuffs?" Benny slipped his hands down to rest on Ray’s smooth hips.

"Benny, you’re something else."

"What’s wrong, Ray? You couldn’t sleep?" His voice had gone soft with concern.

Ray shrugged. "Yeah. Sometimes that happens, but it’s no big deal."

"It’s a big deal to me, Ray. It means an empty bed…" Benny pressed his hands tighter on Ray’s hips and went to turn Ray around to face him, but Ray resisted. The Italian body tensed like a tight coil.

"Ray?" Fraser shifted and stepped aside to see Ray’s hidden face.

"Ah, Benny." Ray was really embarrassed. Why?

Benny now noticed that Ray was very erect, his dark length hard and curved and flushed.

"Ray..."

Ray looked out the window, not at his lover.

"Ray?"

Damn. Who can resist those Mountie blue eyes?

"Well you see, Benny, I was looking at the snow and I was thinking …you know…daydreaming, and the snow reminded me of you. I was thinking about it and about us… ah jeez, Benny, just go back to bed."

Fraser began to smile. "The snow reminds you of me, Ray?"

"Yeah. I guess so. Sounds corny, I know."

"Why does the snow remind you of me, Ray?" Benny was always the curious one of the duo.

"I don’t know. Well, its always snowing in Canada, and you’re Canadian."

"Actually, Ray, there are many parts in Canada where it’s not always snowing. In fact, based on the season and the air currents and global--"

"Benny! I don’t need to know the weather forecast." Ray looked down and shifted his feet.

Yep. Erection still there, despite Fraser’s near endless lecture on global air currents and shit.

"Ray. Tell me about the snow. Tell me how it makes you feel." Benny placed his hand on Ray’s shoulder, gently nudging him. His breathing slowed, as if Ray was ready to make a very profound revelation. Still more silence, but Ray relented.

"Benny, I use to watch the snow fall when I was a kid and how I loved it so much, ya know?" Ray sighed as Fraser’s hand gently stroked his shoulder.

"But as a grown-up, I began to hate the snow. It’s messy, cold and a pain in the ass to drive in. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Benny, but it can snow a lot in Chicago." Ray teased him.

"You changed all that, like you changed so many things in my life. I look at everything with brand new eyes, eyes that you’ve given me. Everything seems so peaceful now. I’ve never felt like that before with anyone. Not even with Angie. And the snow, I love it now…" Ray faltered a bit as he realized what he was saying. God, he sounded like Barry White.

"I remind you of snow, Ray?" Fraser seemed in mild state of shock. He didn’t realize how much he really mattered to his partner, his friend, and now lover… the discovery a bliss.

"Yeah, Benny. When I see snow, I see you and it feels good, the way snow feels when it’s new on the ground." Ray blushed slightly. "It sounds dumb, right?"

"Ray, I think it’s wonderful."

Ray looked up into the face of the Mountie and saw a wide-open smile. It looked as if Benny won the lottery.

"Ray, I always want the snow to remind you of me." Benny breathed, softly now, like a prayer.

"Every snowflake, Ray. I want you to see me. Forever." Benny stepped in front of Ray now, blocking Ray’s view of the snow blowing outside the window.

"I want to be your snow Ray, and I want to make it… official…Ray." Benny then slipped down to his knees so that he was now eye-level with Ray’s groin. Ray can now see out the window again and all that snow.

"Benny? What are you …BENNY!!!" Ray shouted as a warm, velvet mouth engulfed his shaft completely.

"Oh God, Benny, God…oh!" Ray tipped himself forward into the sweet Mountie mouth. His hands went flat against the wall framing either side of the window to keep himself from tumbling over into the luscious abyss.

Ray’s head hung down to watch the soft dark head of his lover bobbing back and forth over his cock, listening intently to the wet lapping of that mouth on him, bringing him to that snowy edge of the cliff.

"Benny…Benny…. Benny…" Ray was beside himself and the name *Benny* was so damn sweet, like the mouth working on Ray’s flesh over and over.

Benny glanced up to see Ray staring down upon him so intently with love, sea green on sky blue, and Benny stopped.

"Benny?"

Fraser let Ray’s erection slip free from his mouth.

"Oh God, please Benny, don’t stop." Ray moaned, awkward and still half-bent.

"Ray. Don’t look at me. Look out the window, look at the snow, Ray. When you come, I want you to look at the snow. I want to always remind you of the snow." Benny was practically pleading with Ray. This meant everything to the Mountie.

"Okay, Benny." Kinky. Ray looked up and out of the frosty window. The snow was really falling hard now just as Ray was falling hard as the warm mouth took him in again.

Benny’s mouth sucked and caressed his cock, and the gentle scrape of teeth along his sensitive skin was now sending sparks along Ray’s lithe body, all the way down to his toes and up to his fingertips. Gentle nibbling at the tip of his cock only provided more flint for those sparks. Ray sobbed with pleasure.

Ray peered steadily out the window, doing the best he can and the snow, clean, white, soft and still falling. Fraser was now swallowing, milking Ray’s erection very delicately.

"Benny! Yes…oh yes…Benny!" Ray felt buried under all that snow, the avalanche that the clever Mountie mouth brought to him. Ray was now gently thrusting into that mouth and still the snow fell - to bury him.

Ray felt those large, soft hands cup his buttocks, kneading and stroking. Fingertips gently slip in and out the crack of his ass. Ray was twirling and fluttering like a snowflake caught up in the winter wind.

Ray’s palms were still flat against the log-wall, his arms straining with muscle fatigue, the snow still falling outside, steady and sure. Something had to give.

A hand reached under to cup Ray’s balls. It wasn’t a grope or a tawdry grab. It was more like a loving hug, an embrace.

Ray shrieked as his orgasm slammed hard through his body.

"BENNY!!!"

Fraser wrapped his arm tight around Ray’s petite waist, holding him steady as Ray rocketed into the air with each spasm. Fraser drank him in like it was a life-giving liquid to slack his thirst.

The spasms subsided into soft little shivers as Ray slowly came back to himself. His arms felt like Jell-O and the pit of his belly burned of glowing-red embers.

The cop found his forehead pressed hard against the cold glass pane of the window, cooling and icy from the cold winter wind. Fortunately, Ray had just enough control not to smash his head through that glass. Barely enough though.

Benny clung to him, thank God.

Ray was trembling. "Benny? Can I look down at you now? I think I seen enough snow for now."

Fraser laughed as Ray toppled on top of him with a soft whimper.

Benny shifted and twisted so that he can cradle Ray’s limp and spent body between his legs. He rested his back against the wall under the window and listened intently to Ray as his breathing slowly returned to normal. He stroked the feathery close-cropped hair of the head now resting on his chest.

They both remained quiet for some time. The tastes of Ray still fresh in Benny’s mouth, the touch of Benny still fresh on Ray’s cock. It required time for silent contemplation.

Ray spoke first.

"Gee. Thanks a lot, Benny. Every time it snows I’ll get a hard on. How am I going to manage Chicago winters?" Ray teased softly, his voice languid with satiation.

"I’ll help you manage, Ray. However, you’re on your own if I have guard duty at the consulate. Duty comes first." Benny kissed the soft peach-fuzz head, tickling his lips.

"Benny, your loyalty to your country is touching. God forbid my erection be the cause of the downfall of the Canadian Empire." Ray looked up at his gentle lover and nipped his chin.

"Now that’s just silly, ray."

Ray nipped his chin again. "Oh, yeah, and you like to jump out of windows."

A few more quiet moments passed.

Ray didn’t want to change this rapt scene of being held in Benny’s arms, but the floor of the cabin was getting too cold for him.

"Benny, I’m ready for bed now." Ray glanced up and met a warm, open mouth placed tenderly over his. They kissed and kissed, and the floor was too damn cold and hard for Ray.

"Fraser, I mean it. The bed." Ray reluctantly got up and pulled up the sturdy Mountie body with him. Benny himself was now erect, his cock pale and long and slightly pink around the foreskin and wet…

Oh, God.

Fraser snaked his arms around Ray’s waist and offered yet another open kiss, his tongue working and pulling like he was sucking on hard candy.

Ray finally pulled away. "Come on, Fraser, what you want me to do? Carry you to bed over my back?"

Ray had somehow managed carrying an injured Fraser over his shoulder through a Canadian wilderness, even with an escaped convict hunting them, but after a bursting climax, Ray had barely the strength now.

"I was thinking, Ray, what would remind me of you." Benny was now intent on the subject.

Ray winced, remembering his earlier gloomy thoughts. "Probably nothing as cool as snow, Benny."

"Oh, Ray, I highly doubt that. In fact, there are probably a number of pleasant things in life that will always remind me of you." Benny buried his face in the crook of Ray’s neck.

"Oh yeah?" Ray was skeptical. "Name one."

Fraser considered his choices, landed on one and smiled. It was too simple.

"Peaches."

"What? Peaches?" Ray made a face, the curved brows now knitted in confusion. "I don’t go around eating peaches all day, Frasier. Donuts maybe."

Ray didn’t get it.

"Peaches," Benny repeated, then he let his hands slide down and mold over the perfectly round buttocks of his mate. Ray gasped, tilted his head to one side as a ‘click’ of a switch went off in his head.

"Oh. Peaches." Ray got it now. Peaches.

"Peaches!" Ray’s forest-green eyes went wide. "You mean to tell me my ass reminds you of summer fruit at the produce section! What’s the matter with you?" Ray’s arms flapped up.

Benny laughed. "Ray, when are you ever going to learn?" The Mountie was going to have to teach him.

He dragged the Italian to the foot of the bed. The Mountie then spun Ray around and gently pushed him onto the mattress. Ray landed on his stomach with a ‘oomph!’

"Benny!" Ray was sensitive enough to feel that soft warm breath on his ass already.

"Ray, Ray…." Benny kissed one buttock, then the other. The skin was satin and silk under his lips and tongue. Ray’s scent sweeter than a summer garden and so perfect.

"Oh God, Benny, caro mio!" Ray responded instantly. Peaches seemed damn fine now. Ray’s hips lightly bucked against the bed as Benny sampled his lover over and over, his wet tongue tracing the crack of Ray’s ass. More satin and silk in his mouth.

He can get lost in the wide expanse known as Ray, and once lost, he never wanted to be found.

Fraser reluctantly got up and left to get the gel for his purpose. Ray remained open, and he waited.

Benny was back in a flash and applying the cool gel to his fingers, warming it before the touch.

And Ray’s sweet body waited, whimpering in the knowledge of what was to come.

Fraser looked down upon that beautiful, slender form so ready for his touch. Ray was extraordinary; his long, stern body curved like an ax handle that Benny wanted to swing.

He slipped a slick finger into the dark tight heat of Ray’s body and Ray bucked with a soft cry. Slipping in and out, preparing and relaxing. Sometimes Ray was uncomfortable with this new way of love making, but he was getting the hang of it. It was a matter of time, trust and Benny.

Another finger was added to make two and then three. Ray sobbed into the sheets with each tender movement of Fraser’s hand working him loose. Ray was ready, his elegant hands clawing the sheets with need. Gentle fingers finally slipped out of the sugary heat of Ray’s body.

Fraser now straddled those long, firm thighs. Ray’s skin was much darker against his, like old museum bronze.

Parting the soft flesh, Benny placed his hard cock against that secret dark opening and drove himself in. He entered a burning furnace, fiery and oh so tight.

Ray screamed, only to match the sounds that escaped from Benny’s lips. "Ray!"

Benny grinded against the willing body, his motions smooth and deep and getting deeper still. His left hand caressed Ray’s long back and up to the nape of the willowy swan neck.

Ray complied in every way possible, forcing himself to open wide and pressing his ass up the length of his lover. Pleasure lanced through the sweetness. Ray moaned, quite taken with the sensations, filled to his brim and impaled by his lover.

Benny’s right hand reach down and under to grip Ray’s shaft and another wordless cry escaped from Ray. He stroked Ray with each wave of his movement, his hand wrapped firmly and building in intensity, like building blocks, like building a road, like building a bridge.

Benny fell forward to cover that body up, to keep Ray from fluttering away like a snow-flake. He savagely pounded that featherweight body into the mattress now, his self-control a distant memory. Benny didn’t care.

Peaches.

And classic cars and expensive Armani suits, musky aftershave, cozy diners, a warm and noisy house, polenta and lasagna, no-rust power-saws and bathroom fixtures…too many items on the list now, all that will forever remind Benny of Ray. And the list kept growing, growing, and growing--

"RAY!" Benny came with a howl, his head thrown back.

A loud wail tore itself from Ray’s mouth and a gush of hot liquid flooded Benny’s hand. The bridge they built was now complete, until the next one.

Moments later, Benny finally stirred and was mildly amused to find Ray sleeping under his bulky weight. Ray can really sleep in any position, anywhere, when he was content enough.

He lifted his body up carefully so as not to wake Ray and lowered himself to lie by Ray’s sleek side.

Benny yawned and politely passed a hand over his mouth. It was getting late.

Sleep was ready to claim him, but not before turning his head to look out the cabin window. Then Benny dropped his head in exhaustion and drifted asleep immediately.

Outside, it was still snowing.

This is a poem of the air,

Slowly in silent syllables recorded;

This is the secret of despair,

Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,

Now whispered and revealed

To wood and field.

-from ‘Snow-Flakes’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

-The End-

Endnote: The word ‘snow’ must have been mentioned a thousand times in this story. Sorry. I wrote this story during a really heavy snowstorm and school was canceled and…damn, I said the word ‘snow’ again!

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