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There were times Ray thought he was gonna go spazzy on the ice. Times when he thought he'd scream just to hear noise in the endless silence. Times when he missed the traffic, the lights and the chaos of the city.
There were times Ray couldn't have been happier. Times when he thought maybe this was what it was all about; wide open, wild, just him and Frase standing with their toes in eternity. Times when all that quiet let him figure things out in his head, get it together, give some issues a one-two punch.
One thing was sure: He wasn't the same when he came back from that trip. Because you can't be. Because you went out there, and you got to wind through mountain passes and take care of dogs and sleep under the endless sky and search for a hand, and somewhere in there, he got that it wasn't the destination it was all about, it was the journey.
So, when the time came, Ray was ready. He was so ready.
"I... are you sure, Ray?" Frase looked somewhere between wary and hopeful, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Yeah," Ray answered, emphatically, his heart pounding his ribcage like a championship boxer. "Yeah, I'm sure. I wanna stay. I wanna stay with you."
Fraser stared at him, and Ray could see his breath tremble. And Ray...
Ray had found the grace to wait; a gift from the endless silence. 'Cause while he sure had plenty of impatience to share with the rest of the world, somewhere in all that silence he learned that he had just as much the opposite for this man.
In the half-life of the universe, this wait wasn't even a speck.
His answer came with Fraser taking his hand.