Fraser knew that Ray loved to touch people. It was second nature to him. Until he touched someone, he didn't really know them.

Fraser didn't mind touching and licking things: dirt, money, food scraps, small furry animals; as long as those things were evidence. But he'd always had an unreasonable dislike of being touched by another person.

He got over that the very first day he met Ray Kowalski. Ray was hugging him before Fraser had managed to get out anything beyond, "Who are you?"

And things continued just the way they started. While talking, Ray always stood as close to him as he possibly could without actually kissing Fraser. He slapped Fraser on the back, squeezed his arm, poked him and punched him playfully, and slung his arm around his shoulders.

Ray smelled like chocolate, cinnamon and chewing gum. He always smelled as if he'd just brushed his teeth and had a shower. The whole thing made Fraser more than a little uneasy, especially once he realized that after touching Ray, he himself felt as clean as a spring day. He was careful not to let this slip to Ray, because Ray would only have cackled at him and said, "Oh yeah, definitely unhinged."

Fraser figured he probably was. Unhinged. Because within a week or so, Fraser started making excuses to touch Ray. He let their fingers brush ever so casually while handing Ray evidence, files or a cup of coffee full of M&Ms. He leaned unnecessarily close to Ray when standing behind his desk. He bumped into Ray each time they walked through a door, making sure they had to squeeze through at the same time. Being Fraser, he was of course always very polite about it, apologising profusely for his clumsiness.

Ray simply grinned at him and kept doing whatever he was doing, and Fraser felt uncomfortable and flustered for a good half hour afterwards.

Was it any wonder that the whole thing wore Fraser down to the point where he actually assaulted Ray on a stakeout?

Well, not exactly assaulted, because that wouldn't be Fraser. But to lean in and kiss Ray full on the mouth when his unsuspecting partner was holding a sandwich in each hand, offering one to Fraser, unable to fend him off... well, that was, as Ray would say, not buddies.

It was, however, not altogether a bad idea, aside from the fact that the floor of Ray's car ended up littered with rye bread, salami, tomatoes and cheese. Because as soon as Ray recovered from the shock, regained his breath, and made quite sure that yes, it was still his mountie partner sitting in his passenger seat, he began to laugh. And then he said, "I wondered if all that fondling was leading up to something, Fraser."

"Um..." said Fraser.

"Shut up," said Ray.

"Understood," said Fraser, and then neither one of them said anything for quite a while.