Entries tagged with challenge: ray/ray

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admin post: minor hiatus

darlings: the Ray/Ray challenge is...well, probably off fucking in an alley somewhere. You can find the eight challenge responses here!

and starting now, 12/3,

ds_recsredux is going on hiatus until after the holidays. Everyone is stressed and trying to keep up with various challenges, and we here at

ds_recredux are going to hold off on putting up new challenges until shortly after the holidays. We will be back with all-new fun challenges, so do not go away!

Meanwhile, the insta-rec deal is still active, so if you see a fic in your travels that desperately needs reccing in the month of December, this is the place to do it!

Many smooches to you all, and we will be back before you know it! ♥

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What It Is I See In You, Eight Ball, Corner Pocket, 10 Reasons to Hate Ray Kowalski, by Ray Vecchio

Title: What It Is I See In You
Author: Hth
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: NC-17 in parts
Length: Series of vignettes (So...long-ish, if you read them all together.)
Why I'm reccing this fic: When I first started reading Ray/Ray, I have to admit that it was mostly for the dirty, dirty porn. But this series made me a Ray/Ray believer. These guys are real and scarred, and nothing comes easy for them, and man, I really love that. I love that they aren't in a vacuum here, too--Fraser and their families are part of the story:

( A brief excerpt )

What It Is I See In You (scroll down until you see the story links)

Title: Eight Ball, Corner Pocket
Author:

brooklinegirl
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: PG-13?
Length: Medium
Why I'm reccing this fic: One of the things I like best about Ray/Ray is the ambiguousness of the chemistry between them. They're alike, but also one another's opposites; they kind of hate each other, but they understand each other, too. I love this story for that, and also for its Vecchio, who's hot as hell when he's being this cool:

( A brief excerpt )

Eight Ball, Corner Pocket

Title: 10 Reasons To Hate Ray Kowalski, by Raymond Vecchio
Author:

china_shop
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: NC-17
Length: Long
Why I'm reccing this fic: This is a brilliant story all on its own. It's completely insane, yeah, but it pulls off a non-linear narrative structure so smoothly you'd think it was easy to mess with time that way and still keep the plot moving forward. Plus, every single character voice is perfect.

But it's brilliant Ray/Ray, too:

( A brief excerpt )

10 reasons to hate Ray Kowalski, by Raymond Vecchio

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(I Love It When You) Call Me Names, Uncross My Heart, Daytona Beach, FL

Title: (I Love It When You) Call Me Names
Author:

brooklinegirl
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: NC-17
Length: medium
Why I'm reccing this fic: Well, I could be slightly partial since this was my birthday fic, but there are MANY reasons to love the hell out of this fic. For me, it just KILLS me to see them settling into their life together, the fucking domesticity of it. And that they fight and fuck and have ghosts and it's just so fantastic. YAY.

( A brief excerpt )

(I Love It When You) Call Me Names

Title: Uncross Your Heart
Author:

minervacat
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: NC-17
Length: medium/long? I don't know!
Why I'm reccing this fic: Because Min totally gets these guys, and how they have all of these THINGS, these people between them. They can't be them without Fraser and Stella sort of being there too. This fic has them drunk and messy and fucked-up, and kind of perfect for each other all at the same time.

( A brief excerpt )

Uncross Your Heart

Title: Daytona Beach, FL
Author:

china_shop
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: NC-17
Length: medium
Why I'm reccing this fic: This sort of fits with my obsession with sticking Ray and Ray in Florida together. I kind of love that. But anyway, this fic is about them figuring out how to be together, how to let the people in their lives who are important to them know about how important they are to each other. And it happens to contain my VERY favorite Ray/Ray line EVER. YAY.

( A brief excerpt )

Daytona Beach, FL

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Two Juvenile Deliquents Named Ray, untitled Teen!Rays

Title: Two Juvenile Deliquents Named Ray
Author:

cmshaw
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: NC-17
Length: short
Why I'm reccing this fic: This is the one that started me down the slippery slope of Ray/Ray. It's sort of, maybe AU, in which Ray Vecchio and Ray Kowalski went to the same high school and knew each other. Hey, it could have happened.

Two Juvenile Deliquents Named Ray

Title: untitled Teen!Rays story
Author:

thermidor
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: NC-17
Length: short
Why I'm reccing this fic: It's almost a sequel to

cmshaw's story. It inspired me so much that I had to write more Teen!Rays stories myself.

Untitled Teen!Rays

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Admin Post: It's a Ray/Ray extension!

Upon realizing that THANKSGIVING interrupted our little Ray/Ray challenge over here, we have decided to give you another WEEK to rec Ray/Ray fics! In case you're in need of a little inspiration, read

brooklinegirl's post, which should be enough to get you going. Plus new Ray/Ray fics over on

vecchiofest! YAY!

The challenge will close FOR REAL on Sunday, December 3 sometime around midnight.

And leave us suggestions for future challenges on any admin post, like this one!

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Waking Up Wrong, Life Goes On&Life Or Something Like It&Life And Love, Five Stages Of Grief

Title: Waking Up Wrong
Author:

ultra_chrome
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: NC-17
Length: Short
Why I'm reccing this fic: Genderfuck is fun! And this is hot and quite amusing. And this really is the way the pair of them would deal with this situation.

( A brief excerpt )

Waking Up Wrong

Title: Life Goes On, Life Or Something Like It, Life And Love
Author:

jenboo
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: NC-17
Length: Medium, long, short respectively
Why I'm reccing this fic: Because it takes a long, in-depth look at the way their relationship develops and the way they face the struggles that come with being a couple. And this is rare when looking at the Ray/Ray relationship. And it's not too heavy on the angst.

( A brief excerpt )

Life Goes On & Life, Or Something Like It & Life And Love

Title: Five stages Of Grief
Author:

aerye
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: None given, but probably PG-13
Length: Short
Why I'm reccing this fic: Because her Ray K voice is spot on. And because this fic breaks up Fraser/Kowalski and makes me believe it.

( A brief excerpt )

Five Stages Of Grief

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I know, by ifreet

Title: I know
Author: ifreet
Pairing: Ray/Ray, but really Fraser/RayK
Rating: Nc-17
Length: Medium
Why I'm reccing this fic: Because Fraser is telling a story that doen't involve Caribou. Because this story involves RayV giving RayyK a handjob against the GTO. Because there are two parallel sex scenes in one fic. Because it's hot, and touching, and achingly sad, and it makes me happy every time I read it.

I know

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Five ways Vecchio knows Kowalski loves him, Restraint, snookums, skeezy, cigarettes and blowjobs

Title: Five ways Vecchio knows Kowalski loves him, even if Kowalski never says so
Author:

justbreathe80
Pairing: Kowalski/Vecchio
Rating: NC-17
Length: short
Why I'm reccing this fic: Because she knows what their sort of love is all about. Really basic things: cars and beer and blowjobs, but it's all so fierce, how they look at the world, and why they do things for each other, and she GETS that, in a handful of sentences.

( A brief excerpt )

Five ways Vecchio knows Kowalski loves him, even if Kowalski never says so

Title:Restraint
Author:

lordessrenegade
Pairing: Kowalski/Vecchio
Rating: NC-17
Length: short
Why I'm reccing this fic: Oh, man. I love it because they make it so hard for each other. Vecchio likes being handcuffed, but he can't say it, definitely can't ask for it. He's an asshole when Kowalski figures it out, but that's okay, Kowalski can work with that, he's used to Vecchio being an asshole. God, I love how this is written: again, with them being fierce and knowing each other better than they know even themselves.

( A brief excerpt )

Restraint

Title: cigarettes and blowjobs, skeezy, snookums
Author:

cmshaw
Pairing: Kowalski/Vecchio
Rating: NC-17
Length: short! All three of them!
Why I'm reccing this fic: My favorite

cmshaw moment was the day after I found and mainlined all of her DS ficlets in on 24 period. I saw her in chat that night, and begged her to write Ray/Ray fucking for me. Her immediate response: "Up against what?"

♥ This is a woman who understands what draws me to Ray/Ray. Dirty, hot, desperate, slightly skanky love. And so, I'm cheating. Clearly. But Kowalski and Vecchio never play by the book either, do they? And man, if you can read just one

cmshaw fic at a time, well, you have more self control than I do. Back in the day, people, cmshaw was the queen of dirty, dirty ficlets. She wrote dozens of the hottest and best Ray/Ray fics this world has seen. These are my three favorites, and I'll tell you why, in very simple terms:

- "cigarettes and blowjobs": holy Christ, this is one of the hottest things I have ever read. Slutty Kowalski, who has Vecchio completely confused and completely fascinated, and completely turned on. The final kiss in this is my all-time favorite kiss in fandom, bar none.

- "skeezy": Road trip. Skanky motel. Kowalski being deliberately infuriating. Some of the hottest sex I've ever read.

- "snookums": nrrrrrgh. Car sex. Kowalski - yes- being annoying. Vecchio wanting Kowalski so bad he can't see straight. One of my favorite blowjobs, and one of my favorite jerking-off scenes, all in one tiny fic of PERFECTION.

( cigarettes and blowjobs excerpt )

( skeezy excerpt )

( snookums excerpt )

cigarettes and blowjobs, skeezy, and snookums

(mm, one last cheaty thing: did you all know

pearl_o wrote Ray/Ray for me once? Really! She did! Look: A STORY FOR TRACEY BY PEARL-O, AGE 21 AND A HALF. It's kind of the most perfect ray/ray fic EVER.)

Current Mood: good
Current Music: American Beauty OST - Weirdest Home Videos

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Insta-Rec: The Power of Grace

Title: The Power of Grace
Author:

catwalksalone
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: NC-17
Length: 5000 words
Why I'm reccing this fic: I DO NOT READ RAY/RAY. I admit it! I followed the link with ulterior motives! I wanted Kowalski to run away to Canada and break Vecchio's heart if he had to! Love and war, it's all fair, I don't care who's a casualty!

...Except not, because

catwalksalone writes a stunningly good Vecchio, and his love for Ray demands respect in a fic like this. He expresses it in such a way -- without overblown drama or schmoop -- that you can't deny it. Vecchio really shines in this one.

This is the third in a series, but stands on its own. Basically, Vecchio wakes up one morning to find Kowalski shoving his clothes in a backpack and leaving. Vecchio looks for his own answers why -- the answer is 'Fraser' -- and starts driving to Canada looking for Kowalski, who he guesses is hitchhiking along the side of the highway.

Highly recommend this one to everyone, Ray/Ray fan or no. Emotionally tense but handled with subtlety and some very well-chosen dialogue. The winter imagery is just amazing, too -- you can practically smell the Riv's heater.

( Excerpt )

The Power of Grace

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You Get What You Need, Close to the Chest, Refugees

I LOVE this challenge. I clapped my hands together and made incoherent squeaky sounds of joy, and then damn near broke my brain trying to narrow my picks down to three.

Title: You Get What You Need
Author:

aerye
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: In the R/NC-17 range.
Length: 4000 words, more or less.
Why I'm reccing this fic: Because I love it more than words can express? Because

aerye writes Ray/Ray perfectly? This story has absolutely everything, expertly layering the mundane routine of life that is such an important part of Ray/Ray with flirting, snarking, and supercharged emotions running under everything. Great Kowalski perspective with pissiness and sexiness and mercurial mood changes. It's a raw, hurty Kowalski who could just be spinning out of control into the bad place, except he's got Vecchio holding him together. And Vecchio! The bitching, the fond insults, the clothes, the love, the strength, and the stubborn, scared need. There's something both fierce and vulnerable about him that is just wonderful. And Fraser! I can't begin to describe the Fraser. Also check out the rest of her Ray/Ray, including the "prequel sort of thing" Speaking in Tongues.

( A brief excerpt )

You Get What You Need

Title: Close to the Chest
Author: Hth (

hth_the_first)
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: Not porny. What are those not-porn ratings, anyway?
Length: 2700 words, more or less.
Why I'm reccing this fic: I just love the whole idea of this fic. It's Ray/Ray established relationship, Kowalski's 40th birthday party. It's Kowalski POV and full of wonderful kind-of-drunk!Ray mental tangents. Kowalski falls asleep with his head in Vecchio's lap and overhears Vecchio and Fraser talking. It's lay-the-cards-on-the-table time for guys who Just Can't Talk About Their Feelings. It's got that lovely, sharp thread of angst, but is also rich with humor and love and affection and tolerant, exasperated understanding.

( A brief excerpt )

Close to the Chest

Title: Refugees
Author:

china_shop
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: R
Length: 70K (12,300ish words. Yes, I really like word counts.)
Why I'm reccing this fic: It's Vecchio POV, and, despite my love for the recs above, I'm mad about Vecchio perspective on Kowalski. It's a stimulating read, as it hides some things from the reader, letting us wait for explanations while we try to piece together past and present events. It's Kowalski newly returned to Chicago, and he's at rock-bottom. Vecchio sweeps in with flair and a curled lip and some issues of his own. It's got a handy device to let them cohabitate without being friends or lovers, leading to these fabulous strange interactions as they circle around each other in Kowalski's crappy apartment. Plus, it has an awesome Frannie secondary storyline.

( A brief excerpt )

Refugees

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Admin Post: Ray/Ray Challenge!

This week's challenge, my lovely fangirls, is the Ray/Ray challenge. (You're shocked! I know!) That's right - we want to you to rec us your very favorite Ray/Ray fics. Those stories that opened your eyes to the wonderful pairing of Ray Kowalski and Ray Vecchio! After you swore you'd never read the pairing, promised yourself it wouldn't happen, what's the fic that dragged you, made you leave poor Fraser all alone up in Canada while Kowalski and Vecchio have messy, dirty, fucked-up sex down in Chicago, all full of desperation and love and need and wonderfulness?

And for those of you, like me, who sort of came into the fandom fully vested in the cult of Ray/Ray-ness, what are your favorites? What is the one that make you moan with delight, the one that you force upon your very strict Fraser/Kowalski or Fraser/Vecchio friends and insist that it will open their eyes and show them that yeah, come on, if - just if! - Fraser and Kowalski break up, this is the safety net, this is the thing that saves Kowalski from falling to itty, bitty pieces and drinking himself to death in a lonely Chicago apartment.

Ray and Ray need each other, they want each other. They had the same partner; they married the same woman. They're fucked up, and they recognize that in each other, and together, they can put together the broken pieces in a way that works. Also: there's punching and sarcasm and huge amounts of unresolved sexual tension and they fuck if you blow on them.

So, go forth! Rec! Ray/Ray! Tell us which fics you love, and why, and how you came around to loving the pairing! And who knows, you might just convince someone to come over to the dark side with your sheer, unadulterated enthusiasm.

Uhm. Yes, okay, so the Ray/Ray Challenge is open until Sunday, November 26th! Have fun! Be dirty!

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April After All, Breaking Cover/The Sporting Life, Easy

i can only rec THREE? you guys are MEAN.

Title: April After All
Author:

sprat
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: uh. the pants stay on?
Length: 2800 words
Why I'm reccing this fic: this is the fic i rec when i want to turn someone on to Ray/Ray. it just squeezes my heart in all the right places and makes me so happy. the Kowalski pov is a thing of beauty, and through Kowalski's eyes, Vecchio is smokin'. (ok, so it's pre-slash technically, but whatever.) this is my happy place fic. i love it.

( A brief excerpt )

April After All

Title: Breaking Cover [and] The Sporting Life
Author: Speranza
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: pants come off!
Length: short (flashfics)
Why I'm reccing this fic: am i allowed to do this? because technically this is one fic and its sequel, but they go together. this is probably what got me into Ray/Ray in the first place. it's Speranza, so you know it's gonna be awesome, but damn. it's funny, it's got plot, it's got stuff blowing up, it's got a fantastic Fraser, and it has clandestine orgasms. whoo-hoo.

( A brief excerpt )

Breaking Cover and The Sporting Life

Title: Easy
Author:

brooklinegirl
Pairing: Ray/Ray
Rating: pants are not only off but flung out the window.
Length: shortish-medium
Why I'm reccing this fic: porn. what the Rays are best at. (aside from fighting.) this has got to be one of the hottest things i've EVER read. porn porn porn. there is a god. written for the jewelry flashfic challenge, and it took me about five rereads to get past the SCORCHING HOT PORN to figure out why it qualified for said challenge. i'm perceptive.

( A brief excerpt )

Easy