I had such high hopes for Academic Punk Ray. You knew that. I'd been daydreaming about this for months, and you just went so far above and beyond my daydreams that I just, just, just have to stalk you, honestly. This was fucking amazing. Ray, all leaning back and slightly rude, lazily and easily defending Fraser in that first faculty meeting. Sheer utter love. The glasses, omg, the black-framed, perfect-geeky-glasses - *heart heart heart*.
SR Kowalski. That just kills me, I utterly love that, and the difference between when he's all dressed up and all being SR Kowalski, and when he's just Ray, is simply wonderful. I loved the details - Ray's messy, cluttered office door, the aversion to red-pen-marking.
Your description of Ray's lecture style was wildly fun, totally entertaining, made me feel like I was there, and was just so dead on, because I've seen professors who lecture like that - like you said:
This wasn't an English class – this was stand-up comedy, with tuition as an admission fee. But you nailed it mostly b/c yes, oh yes, such a very cool professor, but you never once went over the top, never made me make that face of, "oh, come on, we just wish there were professors like this." He was just cool enough, and I adore you for that.
And he calls Fraser a dish - so very much adored that - and then apologizes for it just by looking at Fraser - guh. Just - guh.
He smokes in his office. *swoons* He flirts just perfect - like I said about the lecturing, it's smooth and easy flirting, not over the top, just enough, just wonderful. He calls himself queer, and he's real okay with that. He's nice to the students! He's sweet! They cry on him! The way you describe his marriage to Stella - the way he talks about it, married too young, before they could have any real idea of who they were, and then the decision to find someone - find a guy - that he wants to be with, who wants to be with him - yes.
You just - the characterization on both Fraser and Ray were perfect. I loved seeing Ray through Fraser's eyes - you described his perpetual, twitchy motion to a T, and yet I do love the tiny important moments of stillness - like when Fraser asks him about not going to NY - that just stuck with me as, yeah, okay, this is Ray.
Gladys peered suspiciously at him from her desk, where she was having Fraser fill out some leftover paperwork. "Was it broken before or after you touched it?" Ray scrubbed at the back of his head with one hand. "I can't help it. It hates me."
Oh my god. I have this faculty member. Seriously. Hell, I think I have this copy machine. And I simply love that Gladys gets Fraser to help out - very nicely done.
"Thank god for that – being a polite smoker is hell." Ray pulled out a cigarette and lit up in a few smooth movements. He leaned his head back against the booth and exhaled with obvious pleasure.
Oh dear lord, how very, very much I love that.
"I'll show you painful. Painful is comparing me to Byron. In public. That's not buddies." Ray parked a hip on Fraser's desk, leading Fraser to wonder about Ray's seeming inability to actually sit in chairs. Even when Ray was sitting down, it wasn't sitting so much as slouching, leaning, or otherwise taking up more room than one might have thought possible. The imagery. God. I fucking love this. The leaning. The teasing. Sitting there on Fraser's desk. Guh. Oh so very guh.
"Better with sugar, isn't it?" Ray asked, looking satisfied. Better with you, Fraser wanted to say.
Love that. Total, wonderful, perfect exchange. I keep going back to re-read that scene. Just - lovely.
They call to each other, from office to office. That kills me, that just kills me with an overflow of happiness.
Grading papers together, while watching the hockey game. God.
Fraser, working so very hard on his paper, his book, and Ray helping, and yes.
I loved what you did with the other characters: Sandor, the small bookstore owner! Turnbull's comedy troupe! Frannie the coffee shop flirt! Your Thatcher, oh, how very much I love your Thatcher, so dead-on, and yeah, she's a wicked closet case!
"Nuh-uh. And I'll bet you that as soon as her nameplate's up on the department head door, she's going to introduce her lovely partner at the next faculty dinner."
Adore. I've mentioned that I adore this, right?
That. First. Kiss. Slightly drunk, sleepy, perfect, guh:
Their lips touched, and Ray had one hand on the back of Fraser's neck, holding him close, and the other still holding Fraser's tie.
God. Yes. Just - guh. And this was so very, very Fraser:
He was exhausted by the time they entered their hotel room. Still, he stepped toward Ray, intending to kiss him with everything he had left.
I adore that. Just - he wants it so badly, wants to give Ray everything he has left, and Ray is good enough to not just take, to give it just enough time.
Fraser had no intention of doing any such thing. Instead, he leaned over the desk, grasped Ray by the front of his shirt, and pulled him into a hard, triumphant kiss. Ray stood up, and tried to pull Fraser closer. They kissed frantically for a few minutes, before Ray pulled back and snarled. "Stupid desk! God, Fraser, this is my office, we should go – " "We should go home," Fraser said. "And you should drive very fast to get there." Ray looked like he was reconsidering the desk option, before decisively grabbing his car keys and hustling Fraser out the door.
That was. Uh. Yeah. Mind-blowing. What a kiss. What a fucking good, intense kiss. My mind keeps providing me with very vivid pictures of them making out in Ray's office. Jesus, I love that.
He slid one hand up Ray's forearm, as he'd been longing to do ever since he'd first seen Ray lounging insouciantly, his dress sleeves rolled up like a truant schoolboy's
Killing me with forearm lust.
And my dear god. The sex. The fucking book talk sex turned me on so hard. That was just -
*flails trying to express the sheer utter love I have for Academic!RayandFraserFucking*
This whole thing was just as perfectly wonderful and satisfying as I could have ever, ever hoped. I'm so impressed with you for following through on this in such a fabulously gratifying manner. Deeply impressed, deeply in awe, and maybe sort of stalking a little tiny bit.