speakscanadian | (no subject)

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Even if Asher didn't realise it, Ray was just trying to help. As much as he disliked him smoking, Ray hated seeing him so stressed and unsettled all the time even more. So while he couldn't in good conscience encourage Asher to puff his merry way to cancer town, he was willing to try other options.

Even if one of those options involved him getting repeatedly hit in the head.

"Rules. Number one, nothing below the belt." Ray ducked under the ropes and into the ring. "Nothing unpleasant anyway. Rule number two, I'm walkin' outta here with all of my teeth still inside my mouth, okay? And number three," he bashed his boxing gloves against his skull, "no making fun of my head guard."

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Ray might have lost the boxing but clearly the fight wasn't over. He rolled onto a gloved-hand and knee, then threw a leg over Asher's midriff and straddled him for an unmistakable advantage.

"I'll dial it back after you get a medical," Ray promised, more than happy to make that compromise. Whether or not Asher was as willing, he'd have to wait and see.

"And yet another illegal move," Asher said, although this one was much more pleasant than the last one had been.

"I'll consider it after you dial it back."

Ray needed more than that and he knew Asher knew that. He also knew Asher was fully aware that if he refused, Ray would dial it right back up again, a hundred times worse than now. He'd grown up in a house filled with women - if there was one thing Ray'd learned how to do well, it was nag.

"How about I bash you in the face so hard that you have to seek medical help?"

Ray figured that was the sort of option Asher would give him were the roles reversed.

"If you're trying to turn me on it'd probably be easier without the marshmallow on your head." He knew that wasn't actually Ray's goal, but it was hard to be serious when Ray looked the way he did and was straddling him in the middle of a boxing ring.

"Also? You and I both know you're not going to do that. You'd end up more injured than me in the end, and I don't think you're that dumb." Close, maybe, but not quite.

"That's not why I wouldn't do it," Ray replied, not even partially amused by anything Asher had said. Fear of retaliation played no part in whether or not he smacked Asher in the face. Trying not to be violent towards those he said he loved did. Boxing match aside...

"I'll take off the helmet if you let Coop check your lungs and your blood pressure," he bargained.

"So... if I say no you're just going to walk around with it on forever?" That might have been a bit more amusing if Asher didn't have to be seen in public with him on a daily basis.

"My lungs are probably in better shape than yours. I didn't start smoking until well after I was turned, and vampires can't get lung cancer. You, on the other hand, lived in a major city for your entire life. Who knows what the hell you've breathed in over the years."

A glove zeroed in on Asher's stomach, punching him gently. Ray got the feeling he wasn't taking this as seriously as he ought to be.

"Maybe all the bad effects got released into you when you turned human and now you're more susceptible," he argued. He highly doubted Asher could counter-act that statement with scientific evidence proving otherwise.

"Look, it's real simple, Asher." He leaned over him, looking him in the eye. "I'm worrying about you. If you want me to stop and shut up about it, you'll see Coop for a check up."

"Worrying?" Asher echoed, rubbing at the spot Ray had just hit. "Sounds to me like maybe you need a check up from Coop. Hit me one more time and there won't be any maybes about it"

Ray huffed out a sigh just above Asher's head. "Why d'you have to make things so hard? If you're right about being fine, you get to say 'I told you so' right after seeing him."

Asher loved saying that, so Ray hoped the incentive would be enough.

"Win-win for you."

"Where's the fun if I just roll over and say yes?" Asher replied, quirking a brow. There might have been a time and a place for just that response, but this didn't seem like one of them.

Sitting back up, Ray stripped off the gloves and started to take off the head guard too.

Threats hadn't worked, nagging hadn't worked, bargaining hadn't worked and guilt-tripping hadn't either. He wasn't holding out much hope of 'fun' working after all of that but he'd try, at least.

Dropping the head guard on the floor, he rubbed his hands on Asher's stomach where he'd hit him just before.

"Fun could persuade you...?"

"Might," Asher said noncommittally, shrugging a shoulder.

"Or not. I know that it couldn't hurt to try." No more than beating each other up had, anyway.

Ray knew he was getting played.

He pushed his hands up to Asher's chest to steady himself as he leaned back down. Sometimes he and Asher had different ideas of fun and in this case, playing dumb was one of Ray's.

"Scrabble...?"

"Otherwise known as the lamest board game in history," he said, moving his hands to rest on Ray's thighs.

"Upwords. All the boredom of Scrabble with a twist."

"Only one problem with that," Ray whispered as if to let Asher down gently. "We don't have Upwords."

Perhaps the boredom of Scrabble would be enough of an incentive for them to make their own fun. Ray still didn't rate his chances of persuading him though, if a crappy board game was all he had up his sleeve.

"Great. Just when I thought the day couldn't get any worse," Asher drawled, not bothering to actually hide the fact that he wasn't really too torn up about it.

"We'll figure something out."

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