Disclaimer: So totally not mine.

Notes: Written for ds_snippets and the prompt: so I hold my breath 'till my heart explodes, cause this is how it is and this is how it goes. -- Billy Talent. Thanks to Lipstickcat and Nos4a2no9 for sterling betawork. This fic is also available as a podfic, thanks to the reading skills of the incomparably awesome Keerawa.

Feed(back) etcetera-cat.

This is water dark and water cold. It coils and curls around his limbs, makes the wiring in the wall undulate and dance like kelp in a tidal pool. Ray can’t swim. He kicks. Kicks at the water as it ties his muscles into cramping knots.

Don’t you leave me behind, Fraser, he thinks.

This is water dark and water cold. It’s battered Ray into a tangle of metal and wires and he’s trapped, trapped, trapped, and Ray’s heart is squeezing in his chest, grinding against his ribs.

Fraser! Ray thinks, except he shouts it as well, and gritty, icy water fills his mouth, shreds his voice into mocking bubbles. A moment of clarity: this is how it ends.

This is water dark and water cold. It cradles Ray, beckons him into its silent depths, tempts him to just let go, escape—breathe in.

Goodbye, Ray thinks, opens his mouth—and Fraser is there, his mouth is on Ray’s and Ray breathes him in and never wants to let go.