[ Joke or not, Fraser looks utterly devastated for a brief moment, because it really wasn't his fault--but then he startles out of it, blushing and ducking his head a little further. ]
Not at all. At least not intentionally. I don't know.
[ It wasn't really like Fraser to not be able to construct his thoughts without contradicting himself so blatantly, and yet he was still clearly recovering from being flustered. It tended to wear off a lot faster recently than it once had, but today was different for a variety of reasons: it was a wedding, he was still ruffled from kissing Ray, and Francesca - Francesca had called him gay. Why did that embarrass him? It wasn't like it was even true. He'd even offered to take her for coffee once, to make a genuine effort, and there was Victoria, and...and there had been other women.
Ray really was the exception. Which meant that by law of mean he was definitely heterosexual...
Why was he trying to escape it? For Ray's sake, maybe? He didn't want them to be pinned down like that, labeled, judged. No--he didn't want Ray to be any of those things, as though it might scare him off to have people talking about him behind his back. Fraser could care less what other people thought of him, and while Ray had said much the same thing not half an hour ago, this was real life, not just a reassurance promised in regard to Canadian flights of fancy.
He was afraid that it might hurt him, that the blow to his reputation really had stung, and so the joke had fallen flat, knocking him off his own footing.
With a very visible full body twitch he came out of his thoughtful melancholy, the burn of blush taking a little longer to subside, and he raised his eyes to Ray's. There was some desperation showing there, a hint of the continued embarrassment he was trying to smother. ]
Are you done eating?
[ As if the answer wasn't obvious. The real question was whether or not Fraser wanted to skip the dancing and get out of there before he accidentally made the situation any worse than it already was. There were still some people in that room who hadn't witnessed the bride's ex-husband getting publicly intimate with a drunk Mountie.
no subject
Not at all. At least not intentionally. I don't know.
[ It wasn't really like Fraser to not be able to construct his thoughts without contradicting himself so blatantly, and yet he was still clearly recovering from being flustered. It tended to wear off a lot faster recently than it once had, but today was different for a variety of reasons: it was a wedding, he was still ruffled from kissing Ray, and Francesca - Francesca had called him gay. Why did that embarrass him? It wasn't like it was even true. He'd even offered to take her for coffee once, to make a genuine effort, and there was Victoria, and...and there had been other women.
Ray really was the exception. Which meant that by law of mean he was definitely heterosexual...
Why was he trying to escape it? For Ray's sake, maybe? He didn't want them to be pinned down like that, labeled, judged. No--he didn't want Ray to be any of those things, as though it might scare him off to have people talking about him behind his back. Fraser could care less what other people thought of him, and while Ray had said much the same thing not half an hour ago, this was real life, not just a reassurance promised in regard to Canadian flights of fancy.
He was afraid that it might hurt him, that the blow to his reputation really had stung, and so the joke had fallen flat, knocking him off his own footing.
With a very visible full body twitch he came out of his thoughtful melancholy, the burn of blush taking a little longer to subside, and he raised his eyes to Ray's. There was some desperation showing there, a hint of the continued embarrassment he was trying to smother. ]
Are you done eating?
[ As if the answer wasn't obvious. The real question was whether or not Fraser wanted to skip the dancing and get out of there before he accidentally made the situation any worse than it already was. There were still some people in that room who hadn't witnessed the bride's ex-husband getting publicly intimate with a drunk Mountie.
Or maybe it was too late. ]