#any time money comes into play is just ray sugar daddying tbh except for the One time they make it clear it's a loan

[variousqueerthings]

haha yes. this is exactly how i read the dynamic! fraser is spot on as per what i understand of him/how i read him:

1. his mother died when he was young (i have been spoiled that it was violent but i don't know the details yet) 2. his father was an emotionally and physically distant mountie who dropped him with his grandparents when he was in single digits and didn't see him for most of the year, but fraser idolised him 3. his grandparents were very austere people who travelled around often, and so fraser didn't stay in one place for long enough to make any close friends (he had a friendship with a guy when he was 13, whom he calls his "best friend"... he meets him again as an adult and said man does not remember him all that well/there were several kids involved in said group and mainly they just played hockey) 4. his grandmother rescued a group of inuit people at the cost of getting burnt over large parts of her body -- it took a long time for fraser to learn about this, and was part of instilling into him that you don't "boast" about doing good, you simply do it, all the time 5. two of his favourite movies as a kid were "it's a wonderful life" and "the passion of joan of arc" 6. while he's quite savvy about some things, he's also incredibly naive about interpersonal relationships (leading to him thinking he's in love with a woman who is a violent criminal who definitely definitely manipulates the hell out of him. i think she does sincerely like him in some capacity but ohhhh boy was that not going to end well -- this was the situation that led to ray accidentally shooting him. he was aiming for her) 7. canonically struggles to set boundaries and stand up for himself, although will stand up for others. relies on the law as a concept to fall back on, even though this has failed him multiple times (and this is also where ray often steps in in various capacities)

as for ray: 1. grew up in a rough mafia-run neighbourhood and had a very bad experience as a teenager when he witnessed a kid's face getting mutilated with a basketball by the mob-boss' son and he feels guilty for not having stepped in, despite being a kid himself 2. i extrapolate from that that he joined the police idealistically, in an attempt to genuinely try to help people -- they're the only other people with power around the place after all 3. when we meet him he's clearly slipped somewhat, willing to do entrapment to help a case (canonically this is something he never would have done a few years ago!) jaded, doesn't like most people, chides fraser for being kind to others (although his second instinct towards fraser was kindness, once he learnt that his father had been murdered. his first was annoyance, but it only lasted a short while) 4. also, an older brother 5. also, was beaten and emotionally abused and neglected by his father as a child (suggested at least the latter well into adulthood/up until his father's death)

so ray, to me, reads as someone who was about drowned by the casual cruelty of the world and had reached the point where you do as you're told, you make things work, you don't make waves, you take care of your own and don't do hand-outs, and you don't care anymore... only for fraser to come along and upend all of that and genuinely it's within the pilot episode that ray becomes so ride-or-die that he gets himself blown up for fraser's sake and then checks himself out of hospital and goes to the middle of nowhere in canada to help him out in a gunfight

so fraser is ray's lifeline to the idea that there is something in the world worth fighting for and believing in (that is, fraser). ray needs fraser to be okay, because fraser represents some kind of higher purpose -- ray has described him both as a fairytale and as a saint, which is... exactly what fraser is

i think ray gets a lot out of caring for him, i'd say the same amount as fraser gets being cared for, but for the fact that one day ray's going to die of high blood-pressure because of just how jeopardy-friendly fraser is

and yeah. it's got some kinky vibes to it

ray's bullet forever lodged in fraser's spine because they couldn't remove it. the fact that he only shot him to save him. the depiction of the healing bullet wound and the lingering over fraser's scars. the entire episode dedicated to recovery. ray's guilt even though he did what he had to. ray taking a bullet for fraser. ray's later series anger that fraser always puts himself last and never lets himself feel anger or resentment at how people treat him. the ways ray so often takes on the role of caretaker for him, both as protector and emotional support. fraser's emotional landscape often taking on quite childish dimensions because he's had to be a serious and self-sustainable person from such a young age. the several narratives that toy with fraser becoming permanently disabled. ray's bullet. in his spine.