Rather than bore all of you with the reasons why I think  RayK is the bee's knees, I'm going to talk a bit about the three fics I feel best define him.

I do love the stories (some of them amongst the classics for this fandom)  by  cesperanza   and  bertybertle  and kelliem and could rec them for days. Still, I thought I would pick other dS writers in order to show the many ways all of us embrace the fandom. Please note all of these are F/K.

Written for Gloriana over at the Due South Sekrit Santa site,j_s_cavalcante 's Desiderata  (NC-17) is an amazing FT fic. Out of all the genres out there, First Times tend to be one of the simplest ones. Not to say that they are easy to write. Just that the premise is fairly basic: Take 'X'  and 'Z' characters, add lots of chemistry and romance and heat. Stir. Aahh, it goes down easy.

In this particular story, there is a fierce heatwave going on in Chicago. RayK takes Fraser over to his apartment to cool off. They get to talking about this and that and RayK, inadvertingly, reveals that he's feeling, well, horny. What follows is less PWP (though the sexin' is incandescent) and more of the sweet realization two men have about their feelings (sexual and romantic) for each other. The RayK we see here is one who shows us so much about what he feels for Benton even in light of his earlier talk about women.

How can you not love a fic with the following excerpt:

Fraser reached a hand over like he was going to touch Ray, but then he didn't. "You spoke of certain...physical needs," Fraser said.

And that's when it hit Ray what Fraser was getting at. Hit him like a sucker-punch, making him gasp almost as hard. He went hot all over, just like that; the a/c was never going to catch up.

Ordinary Days (R) by busaikko is the type of fic I wouldn't usually read. As a fan of dS, I embrace its magical realistic, loopier aspects with glee. This fic give us a truly broken Fraser and a RayK who faces up to the new reality with equal parts love and snark.

Told from RayK's POV, what makes this story such an amazing one to me is that,  for every sweet moment (Fraser and RayK at ease with each other while they prepare dinner), there is an equally sour one (RayK reading to Fraser, who due his ordeal, is left unable to, gulp, read anymore.)

An excerpt:

He'd thought being made dumb, poor, and queer was some divine joke that he was the punchline to. But now he realises that all those things, the dumb-poor-queer mix of him, they'd all led him to be the one here, tonight, with Benton Fraser. Take away any of that and he might be too smart to have hope, too used to luxury to make sacrifices, too scared to love Fraser the way he does.

and there is something about that quote that is so RayK as to make my eyes water whenever I read it again (especially given the context in the story. Seriously, I wept like a bebeh the first time I read this. And I can't say I regret it.) This is a dark journey, especially for RayK who is, by nature, perhaps the (emotionally) needier out of the F/K pairing. Hope lingers though and that is what makes it perfect.

Bizarrely Perfect bytorakowalski is yet another twist into the post-COtW fic. This is "I'll try anything" RayK as a 'selective transvestite' . Granted, drag is a quiet fic kink of mine, especially when it is placed within the framework of the everyday. RayK has always struck me as being very "and what?", i.e. filled with snarky attitude. Reading this very short fic, I was utterly charmed by the idea of drag!RayK.

Fraser understood that sometimes – not everyday, but sometimes – Ray needed to do this to feel at peace in his body. Ray knew Fraser understood, but a lifetime of being told it was wrong still got to him sometimes. He finished screwing the lid back on the mascara and was just about to stand up when he felt two big, broad hands, still warm from the shower, settle on him, one per shoulder.

Ray put his hands on top of Fraser’s and smiled at their reflection.

“You’re beautiful.” Fraser said, bending down and kissing his nose.

“I…” Ray stopped himself from offering any explanation. He knew he didn’t need to. “Thank you.” He said instead.