"We only got one person looking for a roommate, bud. But they're batshit crazy."
The woman behind the desk looked at him with mild irritation. Her name tag read Melinda and Raleigh Becket's face was impassive. He'd dealt with crazy before. Tendo was a mild crazy, more enthusiastic than anything, but they had become close in short time. Crazy was nothing to him. The Jaeger pilot—No, he wasn't a pilot anymore. He worked construction now and he was looking for a place to stay. It wouldn't be home, that was a given. Nothing was home anymore, but anything would have been better than sleeping on dirt. His last housemates were less than hospitable.
"I'll take it." Was his response and the brusque woman's face scrunched. If he knew better, Raleigh would think she pitied him. He didn't care. He wanted a shower. At this rate, cold water would have sufficed. Just something to get the dirt off of his skin and the oil out of his hair. She handed him the key and the papers. After a half-assed signing, she gave a sigh and gestured up the stairs.
The room was at the end of the tight hallway, one of two doors. A rusted '302' was nailed above the peephole and he didn't bother to knock. The key turned with a struggled groan and he eased the door open. Raleigh was met with a heavy silence and he stepped in, the door shutting behind him with a loud 'click'. The room was dimly lit, the small kitchen to his immediate left dark. The living room was vacant, but kept tidy. A small couch, a low-end coffee table, and a small television all that occupied it.
Behind the couch, through a cracked door, he heard the soft sound of a pen dropping. He cleared his throat, a cold feeling of regret creeping up his spine. He knew quiet. The drift had been a comfortable silence, for what he allowed himself to remember, but this was different. His brow furrowed and shuffling continued beyond the door, followed by heavy thumping. He stepped further in the living room and dropped his bag near the coffee table.
"Hello, I'm Raleigh…Raleigh Becket," he says and stays by the table, not wanting to spook whatever dwelled inside the darkened room. "Heard you were looking for a roommate, thought I'd take the offer."
The thumping lightened and neared the door. Raleigh flexed his body instinctively and when the door opened, he wasn't sure if he breathed a sigh of relief or a gasp of surprise. The woman leaned heavily on a cane and her face clearly read signs of discomfort.
He was unsure.
Should he help her? Or would that be insulting? His hands rested at his sides and gripped his belt.
Her shoulder hit the door frame and she grunted. One eye looked to him, a shade of mint green. The other was closed in a harsh wink. Slim braids peeked out from unruly auburn hair that fell well past her thin shoulders. She looked faintly surprised and straightened as best as she could when she finally registered that he was in the room.
"Oh Christ, I'm sorry," she finally said, lips twisting into a frown. "I wasn't actually looking for a roommate."
Raleigh's face fell and she was quick to notice. The woman moved and used the back of the couch to brace herself. Her hand flapped about in a panic.
"Shit, that sounded bad. No, no. It's just…," she trailed and pulled at the seams of the couch. "Miranda thinks I need a roommate. Someone to keep an eye on me, y'know? Because well…"
She gestured to her cane with a dainty hand and a light smile on her lips. The cane was becoming an object of curiosity to him. She didn't look older than twenty-five. Raleigh's lips twitched and she looked expectant. He finally smiled and she relaxed.
"What's it for?" His voice finally found him and he spoke what was on his mind.
"I've got brittle bones. It sucks. Didn't get enough milk as I child I 'spose."
Her words were light, but her cane was heavy as she came to stand before him. Raleigh had a few inches on her. She expected him to look her over, but his eyes stayed on her face. Her face was bright and clear, even with the signs of insomnia pulling at her eyes. He was familiar with that. His eyes flickered to the hand on her cane, noted the slight shake.
"But anyway, you're welcome to stay, Raleigh," she says and offers him her free hand. "I'll clean and all, but I'm a god awful cook."
Raleigh took her hand, felt the cool skin against his warmth, and gave it a light shake. He had to be careful with her. He knew how to do that. The ranger had learned all about being careful. Jaeger pilots were to be careful. Take precautions. Measure the outcomes, weigh the options. Come to terms with failures.
Yeah, he thought, like you came to terms with Yancy, huh?
"I can try cooking. You haven't told me your name yet." He forces out, bringing himself back to Earth from the depths of the sea. He had still been holding her hand and she was looking at where they were joined with a raised brow. Her hand found itself at her side and his found its way into his pocket.
"True. " She admits with an almost shy smile. "Name's Elaine MacGyver. Can call me Ellie if you want. Or Mac. Haven't been called that in awhile."
She hobbled past him and pushed open the only other door in the room. A pale finger beckoned him to join her. A light switch flicked on, illuminating the shadowed room.
"This'll be your room. I've been kind of using it as storage."
There was nothing in the living room and the walls were bare. Raleigh was skeptical.
"Oh."
The word passed his lips unnoticed. Oil paintings covered every expanse of wall. Not a single inch of flowery wallpaper peaked through. A small desk and bed had escaped the painted paper, seemingly untouched. The stale smell of dried paint made his nose twitch and he stepped in even further. Some paintings stood alone. Others formed elaborate pieces. The pieces on the ceiling caught his eye. Stars collided against one another amidst a kaleidoscope galaxy, but there was no destruction. It was interesting to say the least. The blinds were closed on the lone window in the room, but he could make out the faint twinkle of starlight. He wanted to sleep and the single bed whispered to him, but Elaine hovered near like a quiet ghost. If he spoke too loud, she might disappear in a wisp of red hair.
"Do you sell them?"
"No," she answers shortly and this takes him aback. "Art doesn't have much of a place in the world anymore. The Kaiju are to thank for that."
The Kaiju were to thank for a long list of things. For his family being torn apart, for the scars that lined his body like angry trails. They had brought the world together, sure, but they had taken away more than they had given. His teeth grit and he sat unceremoniously on the edge of the bed. She hummed and pulled out the chair from under the desk. The pain in her face as she settled onto the hard wood unsettled Raleigh, but he made no notion of it.
"I've tried to sell them. I really have. Melinda sometimes buys them off me, but out of pity I suspect." Her voice was hushed, but the venom was still there. The former pilot leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees.
"But my creations are nothing compared to Jaegers or giant beasts," she hums and meets his eyes. "Mine don't level cities or save people. Mine tell stories of other worlds and people whose faces we might never know."
Was this what Melinda meant by 'crazy'? A part of him wanted to listen, but the other weighed down on his shoulders and fogged his brain. Elaine had a pleasant, quiet voice that strummed him along. His hands rubbed at his face and Elaine stood up from her seat with shaky legs.
"Well, Raleigh, I hope this is okay. I can clear out the pictures if you wa-".
"No," he cuts her off, raising a hand. "I like 'em. Sometimes those stars out there get a little old."
Elaine giggled, snorted unpleasantly, and then managed a full-bellied laugh. The woman shook her head, her hair falling into her pale face. Raleigh blinked once, twice. He had missed the joke. She wiped at her eyes and made her way out the door. She turned back to him and smiled again, flashing white teeth.
"That's because you're looking at the dead and they're looking back at you. Goodnight, Raleigh. Sleep well."
She waved, flicked the light off, and shut the door behind her. He listened to the falls of her cane grow distant, and then he let out a ragged breath.
"What the hell was that?"
He questioned the paintings and they offered no reprieve. Trying to wrap his head around what just happened proved too much and a dull pain throbbed in his temples. He tore his coat off his frame and pulled off his long-sleeved shirt, now dry and stinking of sweat. His nose scrunched and he swore. His bag was still in the living room.
A tap came to his door.
"I left your bag by your door. Don't carry much do you?" She was met with silence. "Didn't want to come in, in case you're naked or something. If you sleep naked, that's totally okay."
The laughter in her voice was mischievous and his skin reddened. Here he was, thinking she was this shy cripple, but she was already making lewd comments. The sound of her door closing roused him. He shook his head and cracked his door, bringing the bag in and setting it at the foot of his bed. The bed squeaked under his weight once more and he fell back against the sheets, hands cradling the back of his head.
Blue eyes looked to the moonlight paintings. A painting of a girl overlooking a mountain from cloud tops. Another of a crescent moon cradling a newborn. One beside the bathroom door captured the image of a frail woman in a bathtub, just under the water's surface. Her eyes were open and aware, but her face was placid. Accepting.
Ophelia, he thought.An old story he had read.
Raleigh closed his eyes, hearing Elaine's voice in his head again.
'That's because you're looking at the dead and they're looking back at you.'
He looked back up to the ceiling, to the bright lines of the stars and the swirls of nebulae. The stars were entwined, not crashing like he had thought. Their 'limbs', he felt safe to call them, were entwined like holy lovers. Elaine had a talent and it showcased itself across the landscape of these four walls.
She wasn't crazy, not like what Miranda had said. Raleigh's lips drew lazily into a smile.
Elaine MacGyver was lonely.