From: Viridian5@aol.com
To: MRKS@onelist.com
Subject: [MRKS] FIC: "Amigos" (1/1) Date: Monday,January 03, 2000 9:14 PM
From: Viridian5@aol.com
"Amigos" By Viridian5 1/3/00
RATING: PG; Fraser/Kowalski. If m/m interaction bothers you,walk on by.
SPOILERS: "Call of the Wild"
SUMMARY: Waiting out a storm gives too much unwelcome time tothink....
ARCHIVING/DISTRIBUTION: Serge and Hexwood. If some kind personfeels that this story is appropriate for DIEF and/or DSX andwouldn't mind posting it, that would be great as well. Anywhereelse too, as long as you ask me first. FEEDBACK: can be sent to
DISCLAIMERS: All things _Due South_ belong to Alliance nomatter how much I want Ray K to belong to me. _Three Amigos!_belongs to HBO Studios. No infringement intended. Suing me wouldbe a waste of time. Besides, I'd just kick you in the head.
NOTES: This is a companion piece to "One for Sorrow"and takes place before it, but each can stand on its own. Thanksto Kasha for the read.
================= "Amigos" By Viridian5=================
Snow swirled so thickly outside that I couldn't see anythingbut. We were fortunate to find an untenanted cave to wait out thestorm. It almost felt as if Ray, Dief, the dogs, and I were thelast beings alive in all the world.
For now that seemed romantic, but it would quickly start topale if the snow didn't let up soon.
Concerned, I watched my Ray, who sat surrounded by the sleddogs. He looked tired, even a bit haggard, in the flicker of ourcampfire. The last two weeks had been difficult for him, yet herarely complained and never stopped trying. He was so strong, atrue survivor, but I knew it wore on him to be so dependent on mehere. Not that he didn't like to be taken care of--I could tellthat he did, even if it made him uncomfortable to say so--but hepreferred not to *need* it, preferred to be self-sufficient. Iunderstood that.
It still amazed me that he'd agreed to stay here with me. Hegave up so much....
I understood how much he'd given up. To my surprise, *I* oftenmissed Chicago, our... friends, our life, while when I was thereI couldn't wait to leave, to return here. If I went back, would Ibe pining for the Territories again? Probably.
Foolishness. I would not let myself be like those tiresomepeople who were never happy where they were, always wanting to besomewhere else. If my father were here...
I buried all of those thoughts. I had everything I wanted. Myhome. My Ray, all to myself.
Ray stared out the entrance and absentmindedly strokedwhichever dogs settled closest to his hands. They almost seemedto be taking turns for that honor, shifting about so that no onewas left out. As they warmed and comforted him, their devotion tohim touched me.
"You'd do well to emulate them," I whispered toDief. He rolled his eyes.
"Snow, snow, and more snow. Does it ever do anything elseout here?" Ray asked softly. "Isn't there some Norsemyth says the world's gonna end this way?"
"Ray?"
"Giant wolf'll eat the sun, then the world'll get buriedunder a thick blanket of snow."
"I... believe so, yes."
Ray nodded. "Thought so."
My worry increased. Ray's soaring highs had corresponding deeplows, and he's spent more time in the lows of late. I had todistract him from this morbid train of thought. "Could I askyou something, Ray?"
He finally looked at me. "Sure."
"It may seem frivolous."
He almost smiled. "'Frivolous' would go down real niceright now."
"I understand that you renamed the sled dogs for Santa'sreindeer."
"But?"
"I don't understand 'Ned Nederlander.'"
"What's to understand? He's a sled dog."
"I mean his name."
"I just didn't have enough reindeer names. Might've tried'Olive'--as in 'Olive, the other reindeer'--but he didn't strikeme as an Olive, ya know?"
"I'm sorry, Ray. What I'm trying to say is that Iunderstand that the others were named after famous reindeer. Idon't understand why you named the last dog 'Ned Nederlander,'occasionally known to you as 'Little Ned,' or why you smile whenyou mention him."
Ray grinned, and it warmed the cave. "Highly obscure popreference there. You ever see a movie called _ThreeAmigos!_?"
"I don't believe so."
"I haven't for a while either. I actually learned theword 'plethora' from that film, and so did a lot of other people.It has Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Martin Short.... Oh, what am Italking about. You don't watch movies unless I make ya. Youprobably don't even know who those guys are."
"I know of Martin Short. He's a Canadian comic who wasawarded the Order of Canada in l994."
"What's that all about?"
"That's equivalent to the British knighthood, Ray."
"To Martin Short? I mean, I can see the Brits giving aknighthood to Sean Connery, but--"
"Are you questioning my country's judgment?"
"Not this Chicago flatfoot." Ray regained some ofhis animation as he spoke. "Okay, so the movie's story hasthese three unemployed actors--who were silent film comedyWestern guys, the Three Amigos of the title--and they accept aninvitation to come to a Mexican village. They figure it's a paidpersonal appearance thing, just them showing up in costume forfans, but it turns out the villagers want them to fight thisreal-life baddie, El Guapo, like they would in the movies. Thingis, they're *actors*, and they're not really bright actorseither. No brains, no bravery, no skills, no luck. Anyway, in theamigos you had one actor named Lucky Day and another named DustyBottoms, while the last guy was--
"Ned Nederlander?"
"Known in his earlier, child star career as 'Little Ned.'Played by yer Canadian knight, Martin Short. Got it in one."
I understood. In a pack of dogs that had names like"Prancer" and "Cupid," "NedNederlander" would be every bit as incongruous as he wouldbe in a pack of actors with outlandish names. But I still had aquestion. "How did they deal with El Guapo, then?"
"Huh?"
"You said they were overmatched, and the townspeople musthave been as well if they called for help to begin with. How didthe actors win against El Guapo?"
"Well, they tried a stealth raid, and that was a bust.Hilarious, especially that bit about raping the horses and ridingoff on fast women--"
"Ray!"
"It's a quote from the movie." Ray grinned."Dusty's mouth is about as matched up with what brain he hasas mine is."
"I have great respect for your brain."
"Yer full of it."
"I've always felt that you simply face moments when yourbrain is moving too quickly for your mouth to follow."
"That's pretty damned fast considering my mouth."
"Exactly."
He shook his head but smiled. "So they botch it, and ElGuapo's coming to the town after them. They ask the townspeople if they have any special gifts that might help. 'We can sew,'they say. You can imagine how real impressed the actors are withthat. But it turns out to have some use, because when El Guapocomes there are all these people running around in Amigocostumes, and he doesn't know who's who, right? I mean, in reallife, they wouldn't have the materials or time, but it's acomedy, and their plan works. With the townspeople's help, theysave the day."
"I like that."
"What, that the actors redeem themselves and that thetownspeople end up having something they can use to help defendtheir town? Yeah, figured you'd like that." He shivered.
"You can come over here if you're cold, Ray." TheNorth sculpted its natives into compact forms to enable them toretain vital warmth. Ray's long, slender body, whileaesthetically pleasing, bled heat badly. He suffered from it.
He seemed so fragile, so lost, out here sometimes....
"Eh. Chicago, the Yukon, whatever, I'm cold. Always cold.Would probably be cold in Arizona too." But he carefullystood up--gently displacing the dogs with a smirk and an "OnDasher, on Dancer"--and sat next to me. The dogs followed.
I gathered him in and settled the blanket around us. My coldhome gave me a wealth of excuses to hold him close that he didnot question. Even his earlier hypothermia had been something I'dselfishly taken advantage of.
His shivering slowly dissipating, he leaned his head againstmy shoulder and closed his eyes. If his hair had beenexperimental before, wearing a hat over it most of the time hadturned it into an even wilder explosion of planes and angles. Hesmelled of dog, snow, pine, and unwashed Ray. I fancied I couldhear the slow, steady throb of his heart through all the layersof clothing that separated us.
Life here, in my own home, would be inconceivable without him,and when did that happen?
"Yer happy here, right?" Ray asked suddenly.
"Yes, Ray."
He burrowed deeper into my shoulder. "Good. Yer my bestfriend; ya should be happy. Deserve it."
But so do you, Ray.
**********************THE END***********************
More Viridian5 stories can be found in The Green Room athttp://members.tripod.com/~drovar/viridian/