Title: An October Sort of City
Author:
Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Fraser/RayV
Warning: No spoilers
Word Count: 500
Rating: SFW
Summary: Chicago is a feast for the senses; Fraser has only to sit and eat.
Notes: Playing drabble games. For .
The first time a shop clerk asked Fraser if she could help him, he spent ten minutes telling her all the things he needed to discover and locate and figure out about this new city. She listened patiently, and then said, “Sir, we’re a clothing store,” and he realized she meant . . . something else.
That’s one thing.
Another thing is the noise. Chicago is a loud city. Somehow he’d gotten the idea that there was music in the streets of Chicago—its history with jazz, he suspected—but of course what he actually heard was sirens, gun shots, arguments; people shouting for help, for God, for their loved ones, for someone to change their lives.
There’s also the smell. Forests smell clean and cold and green. Cities don’t. Chicago smells like gasoline, like spices, like exhaust, like a woman’s perfume. (And sometimes just like Lake Michigan, which is an odd mix of chemicals and sea weed.)
There are good things about Chicago, of course. Like the pizza. Genuine Chicago pizza is what every Chicagoan claims it is: a feast for the senses, a treat for the tongue. Fraser doesn’t buy it often but when he does he eats it slowly, slipping pieces to Diefenbaker, savoring every bite.
There’s also the parks. Every city needs some green, and Chicago has its share. Diefenbaker particularly likes the dog area in Wicker Park, where he’s made many friends of the female persuasion. Fraser doesn’t begrudge him that, though sometimes as he watches Diefenbaker romp around he wishes it were as simple for him, just to know by scent that this one (and that one, and this other) is right for him.
Though not strictly a park, the sculpture garden attached to the Art Institute is another of his Fraser’s favorite places—and the museum itself when the weather is poor or he wants to simply sit and look at art for a while. Plus, it’s free after five on Thursdays. Free is good. Looking at art for free is very good. Looking at art for free with Ray is practically perfect.
The thing Fraser likes most about Chicago is, of course, Ray. Ray’s loud family and louder shirts, his alternating obsession and generosity with his car, his investigative methods, his complaining when Fraser makes him come to the museum with him, his sneaking Ding Dongs to Diefenbaker even after Fraser warns him about the effect chocolate can have on canines—well, love is blind, as the saying goes, and friendship closes its eyes.
This is the recipe for a satisfying day: a morning running with Diefenbaker, an afternoon in the museum, pizza with Ray at night. Though Fraser can enjoy a day standing in front of the consulate if he has pizza with Ray to look forward to when the day is done.
Sometimes Chicago tastes like chocolate and smells like cotton candy. Sometimes there is music in her streets. Sometimes it feels like canyons and meadows. Sometimes it looks like stars.
end