Well I've found another fandom to join, having recently bought Pacific Rim and falling completely in love with it; I've been writing constantly for almost a week. I'm in love with the Raleigh/Mako pairing so three guesses the pairing in this story... Anyhow this is rated M for adult situations and swearing. Please drop me a review if you would like me to continue and let me know how I'm doing. As of yet I'm still writing so no idea how long it's going to be.
Chapter One
The view of Tokyo from the steep sided slopes on the outskirts of the small town of Shizuko were regarded among the finest vantage-points offered for miles around, a quiet place to sit and regard the past of a once bustling home to millions of people; completely destroyed by the kaiju Onibaba almost thirteen years ago to the day. To anyone who had never seen the city before the destruction would think it had been there for dozens of years, long deserted by humans once every natural resource had been cultivated and consumed; like a virus or perhaps a plague or sorts. It remained a lonely shell left to wither in the beautiful surroundings of the Japanese countryside, standing out as a beacon on the horizon and a sad monument to the hundreds of thousands who lost their lives that day - a stark reminder to those who had survived the terror.
It was just recently that the steadily decaying bare bones of the capital had been marked for regeneration by the government, the cost of repairing the damage to the city had been estimated to the equivalent of hundreds of billions of dollars. A figure which was steadily escalating as the extent of the damage began to emerge. It gave the people of Japan hope for the future, but it would take decades for Tokyo to return to it's former glory and it would not be an easy task by any means.
Shizuko was a small mountain town that stood in the valley between the ruined metropolis and Mount Fuji, roughly thirty kilometres away to the south east; a rather quiet place. Sitting on the end of a winding track just off the main interchange between Yamanashi and the shores of Lake Motosu; it was a perfect hideaway from the rich tourists seeking all the resort had to offer.
The local teenagers and young adults, some barely old enough to remember the turbulence of the attack and with nothing to do with their time would make the journey on foot with their Koibito or next of kin to climb the hills and watch the sun set over the city during the summer months. Brothers and sisters mourning the loss of a mother, a husband and wife laying a flower for a stolen child; lovers would whisper sweet nothings to one another on the evening air, stealing soft kisses as their words were swept away on the warm breeze and lost into the dusk as they reminisced.
After the attack, many refugees had been moved into the towns surrounding the city and Shizuko had been no exception. Those who could afford it had moved on, but many had lost their entire worldly possessions and could not leave. The town was a pleasant place, everyone knew everybody else's business and always made the time to say hello to a passer-by. The world was a lonely place these days and a simple hello or smile was enough to make another feel cared for, but with the economy hitting rock bottom after Onibaba, there were few jobs and rations were scarce. These days new residents to the town were rare and anyone new to Shizuko quickly found themselves at the forefront of the town's attention.
The only tourism the town particularly received were confused Westerners who had taken a wrong turn on the highway and had stopped to ask directions. They were easy to spot; ignorant, dressed in inappropriate clothing for a winter in central Japan and speaking with terrible pronunciation and they tried to find where they were in this backwater place on their satellite navigation systems.
These were the kind of folk that had spent their days holed up in Europe, Africa and the like; far away from the horrors of the Kaiju war in the pacific zones. The closest they had come to the war were news reports on television or scratchy images in the daily papers of the genocide.
They didn't care, they were safe; it hadn't affected them.
However, this new visitor to the town was somewhat of a different kind of tourist. Perhaps not even a tourist at all, but she certainly wasn't from around there.
It had caused quite a stir among the town when they had spotted a sleek black sedan drawing to a stop outside outside the best hotel in the town and a smartly dressed Asian man in a suit got out to unload two bags from the boot. The rear door had opened and a young woman had stepped into the street, conversed with the driver in Japanese accented English and left him with a curt nod. Dressed well in pricey black jeans, a cashmere jumper, riding boots and a thick leather jacket it was obvious she was someone important. She was a pretty young thing who looked no older than early twenties with a chin shoulder length bob, straight fringe and bright blue tips that framed her face. Carrying herself with an air of poise and wisdom beyond her years she swung her travel bag over her left shoulder and pulled her suitcase behind her and entered the building.
The gossipers had questioned who the woman was and why she looked vaguely familiar. Things had quietened down for a while until the next morning, the young woman emerged from the hotel, searching for a place to find some breakfast.
Stopping for tea at the bakery across from the road from the bus station she had purchased a paper and sat down quietly in the corner by the door, ignorant by choice to the glances she was attracting from the locals, she simply took an occasional sip from her tea and flicked through her paper.
After half an hour she had folded the paper under one arm and paid at the counter, before asking the little old man at the counter in Japanese if there was a market to buy souvenirs or flowers in the town.
What the townspeople didn't know, was that the woman had stopped off in the town on her journey South from Sapporo. She had passed through Tokyo to pay her respects to her mother and father, who had died there during the Tokyo attack. Being the only survivor within a block radius she had wandered the streets screaming for her lost parents, before being plucked from the wreckage by a brave and noble man who had rescued her and raised her as his own; he was also someone she sorely missed.
It was the first time she had found the courage to return to the area since the attack, having been based at the Shatterdome in Hong Kong for just over a year and before that, Anchorage in Canada.
Mako Mori was on the last stages of her pilgrimage before she was due to return to Hong Kong, after she was due a meeting in Osaka with the Heads of State.
The last six months had been tough on the young woman. A former Jaeger pilot who along with her co-pilot and best friend Raleigh had helped to destroy the Breach in the Pacific Ocean where the Kaiju had been emerging from at an alarming rate. The two of them had been very lucky to return from the mission, saving the world had catapulted the two of them to the front pages of newspapers and televisions all over the world; heroes they had been called.
Raleigh, who had far more experience with piloting a Jaeger than herself had taken the attention in his stride; answering interview questions with a polite smile and giving her a reassuring squeeze or a peck on the forehead if she ever found herself hounded or harassed by the media vultures.
Tall, blond and handsome, the twenty eight year old Raleigh Becket formally from Alaska charmed the world with a genuine smile and slight air of mischief about him. He had been a famous pilot before...returning to the spotlight a second time in their Jaeger Gipsy Danger it was only a matter of time before old video's and pictures emerged of he and his brother Yancy with Gipsy in the early days.
Back then Raleigh had been cocky and arrogant with the world at his feet, but after loosing his older brother to a kaiju at twenty two, he had left the Jaeger program and disappeared into relative obscurity.
On a stark contrast to Raleigh, after being rescued in Tokyo by the former Marshall of the Pan Pacific Defence Corporation, Stacker Pentecost, Mako spent much of her teenage years studying hard to become a Jaeger pilot, training with him in combat until she enrolled in the Jaeger Academy.
Over those five years before being called to Hong Kong, Becket had been in Alaska, chasing shifts from Anchorage to Sitka, earning his living and coping with the pain of loosing his brother and co-pilot while Mako had moved from place to place before eventually stopping in Hong Kong with Pentecost, repairing every Jaeger the could get their hands on and concocting the plan for Operation Pitfall.
She had been in Japan for almost two weeks, it had been almost six months since the Breach had been sealed and the world had begun to move on...in a manner; the two of them had been forgotten. Not that she minded though, every time she was reminded of that last mission, she was forced to remember the sacrifices her Sensei and the rest of the crews had made in order to save the world...she didn't want or need the glory.
After the missions success, she had become an impromptu representative to the PPDC on Jaeger technology and it's uses; and was currently in talks regarding the viability of using Anti-Matter reactors to fuel the Space Program. The Chinese National Space Agency had been close to providing funding for the research before the Precursors had unleashed their first attacks and the worlds priorities had had shifted to war. The idea had been put on the back burner and now, with no threats currently trying to wipe humans from the face of the earth, companies were beginning to invest in the future once again.
It had been amusing watching the confusion spread across her co-pilots face when she had tried to explain the concept of fusing Anti-Matter particles to power jet propulsion systems to a bewildered Raleigh shortly after she had been asked to travel to Osaka to meet with representatives from the government.
He blithely explained that while he appreciated that she was completely brilliant and he was extremely proud of her, thinking about subatomic particles at six o clock in the morning made his head hurt.
Back in Shizuko, her train was not due to leave for another two hours bound for Osaka. The little old man from the tea shop had directed her to the west market where she wanted to buy something for her co-pilot.
The day before she had been due to travel Raleigh had barged into her room at six in the morning and prodded her in the side until she had woken up, ignoring the glare she shot him he practically dragged her out of the Shatterdome and into Hong Kong city.
Taking the ferry across the bay, they stopped to have dinner at a little noodle bar on Haiphong Road before wandering the Haiphong Temporary Market, which Mako informed him was not in fact temporary and had been there for well over forty years. They visited the temples and journeyed up to the Peak to watch the sunset over the city. Here he had presented her with a little jade necklace he had bought while she was occupied with a flower stall. It was a simple circle of green jade with a hole in the middle and knotted black cord wound through the middle. Accepting it gratefully, she sighed quietly as his fingers danced over the back of her neck to fasten it there.
She wanted to buy him something to give him when she returned home to thank him for the day out and just for being there for her whenever she needed him.
After stopping to buy a bunch of sweet smelling pink lilies from a kind man with a rickety old cart who looked like he had been standing in the same place with it for decades she stopped at a brightly coloured stall at the very end of the street.
The little man from the tea shop had directed her passed the bus station to a little market in the west of the town. Here they sold hand made jewellery, trinket boxes and weapons like daggers engraved with what looked like kaiju bone or ivory.
Nodding to a smiling old lady with liver spots all over her skin in an ancient looking kimono, she glanced down briefly at her wares and then focused her gaze on the woman.
"Watashi wa nani ka kawatta anata ga nanika o o sasume shimasu...dansei no yujin no tame ni hon o sagashiteimasu?" ("I am looking for a present for a male friend...something unusual do you recommend anything?")
Watching as the woman nodded and pointed to a selection of metal objects contained within a glass case, she looked passed the tourist trinkets and her eyes settled on a particular item.
"Anata wa, Honkon kara, terebi kara no josedearu. Anata to anata no patona wa, Kaiju kara watashitachi no subete o sukatta. Anata wa kare no tame ni kore o toru." ("You are the woman from the television, from Hong Kong. You and your partner saved us all from the Kaiju. You will take this for him.)
Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the ornate Zippo lighter complete with Gipsy Danger engraved on the front.
"Shikashi, kare wa kitsuen shimasen..." (But he doesn't smoke...)
The old lady smiled knowingly at her for a moment before taking the lighter from it's display case and handing it to her.
"He will like, trust me." The woman spoke in English in a thick accent.
Mako nodded and was about to fish in her bag for her purse but was stopped when the woman held up a heavily wrinkled hand.
"No payment...it is a gift." She smiled.
"Thank you." She took one of the lilies in the bunch and handed it to the old woman, who looked delighted and brought the flower to her nose.
Pocketing the lighter and giving the woman a wave, she turned to leave.
"If you need to pay respect, climb hill. A shrine sits up there."
Nodding once again in thanks, Mako continued on her way.
Climbing the hill took almost half an hour, she stopped to gaze at a little shrine that had been lovingly placed against a base of a nearby blossom tree, bowed her head and said a silent prayer as she looked out over the valley towards Tokyo.
As she walked back down the hill, which took considerably less time than the journey up, she walked through the streets, comparing the stark contrast of the quaint place to the city of Hong Kong which had gotten by relatively unscathed after Leatherback and Otachi had attacked six months ago. The rebuild was almost ready to take place and it would soon be as though no physical evidence remained of the kaiju.
Wondering briefly how her co-pilot was doing, she stopped for a moment outside a street vendor selling dim-sum when spookily, though not entirely surprising, her phone rang. Without looking at the caller ID, she pressed answer and held the phone to her ear.
"Hai?"
"Hey...hows the world's best co-pilot getting on with buttering up bureaucratic busy-bodies into giving us their money?"
"Raleigh, you've been hanging around with Herc too long...the meeting went well; the viability of procuring a working subatomic antimatter accelerator to generate a prototype for testing the effects of-"
"Hold it...now say that again without all the long fancy words.."
Sighing she smiled and started walking back towards the hotel. "Why...are my long fancy words making your brain hurt, Raleigh?"
She heard a indignant grunt of offence on the other end. "You'll pay for that one Miss Mori...you still owe me a rematch in the Kwoon for making me fall on my ass in front of the new trainees last month."
"Well someone needed to show them how it was supposed to be done." she smiled haughtily into the phone.
"Gee thanks..." he muttered grumpily, all joking tossed aside in genuine curiosity. "I know I've gotten a bit behind in my training but the only person skilled enough to really challenge me has gone AWOL..."
"I've only been gone a few weeks...missing me already?"
She heard a faint bark on Raleigh's end of the line and the chuckle of her co-pilot.
"Put it this way, between Herc being too busy to do much but nod at me in passing and watching Newt and Herman making pissed little faces at each other over Kaiju guts, the only real company I have is Max..."
"Well what's wrong with that?" she was very fond of the bulldog that belonged to the current Marshall of the PPDC and his late son and as such always tried to spend time with the animal.
"If my new combat boots are drooled on under the damn table during mess hall one more time-"
She snickered at that.
"That means he likes you."
His warm laughter caused a smile on her face and she noticed with surprise that she was already at her hotel room door. Pulling the card key from her purse she opened the door and closed it quietly with her hand. The room was nicely furnished with a double bed, a closet and an en-suite bathroom. The best thing by far was the view of the blossom tree hills from the window to the right of the bed. She pulled off her coat, placed the lighter on the side and went into the bathroom to run herself a bath.
"I like the little guy too but you don't see me sliming all over his stuff do you? I still swear he chewed a hole in one of my socks cause I forgot to slip him some mash under the table a few weeks ago."
She glanced around her room in confusion, she thought she'd heard someone speaking distantly within the confines of her room. Noticing nothing out of the ordinary or out of place with her room, she walked back into the bathroom and closed the door behind her; grabbing a fluffy towel from the basket beneath the sink. Perhaps next door had left the television on.
"I'll write up a note to Herc when I get back, PPDC staff are being slobbered to death by an overly affectionate canine with a penchant for new shoes."
She couldn't help the peels of laughter that left her throat as she imagined Marshall Hansen's face if he received a memo that Max was terrorizing the staff. The line on Raleigh's end went strangely quiet for a moment as though he was thinking about what to say next and when he did, his voice was quiet.
"God I miss that laugh..."
It was a few moments before she registered the way her best friend had just said those five words and the laughter died in her throat. A warm feeling spread through her and she sighed, a note of contemplation washed over her briefly. Shutting off the water, she began peeling off her jumper, balancing the phone awkwardly against her right shoulder.
"I wish you could have come with me, I wanted to show you where I grew -"
"That was something you needed to do on your own, Mako." Raleigh murmured kindly. "Besides you know I'm always with you wherever you go, whether you like it or not Miss Mori."
She couldn't stop the rush of heat to her cheeks as she took in his words. A memory of floating alone on the surface of the Pacific Ocean in an escape pod drifted into her mind and she remembered the horrible feeling of being alone she experienced before Raleigh's pod had broken the surface and she found him unconscious within. Had he not woken up at all that day, she would have been completely broken.
She'd been so relieved when her co-pilot had woken up that she'd kissed him; just a peck on the lips but it was a kiss all the same...they didn't realise at first something was wrong until Raleigh felt something warm trickling down the inside of his drive suit...
Mako panicked as the two of them were quickly air lifted to safety, she pointed to Raleigh's stomach where a small trickle of red liquid had oozed through his suit and was dripping onto the floor of the helicopter.
His eyes were lulling between hazy and focusing on her face, the colour was draining quickly from him as he was unbolted from his metal armor and the circuitry suit was pulled quickly from his torso to reveal the damage to his chest.
"Hey...take it easy..." she scolded with a huff as he thrashed in pain, one of the medics informed her that there was no internal damage and he would be fine once the wound was closed and he was given a shot of morphine.
"You sure did a number on yourself, Raleigh." she murmured, more to ease her own concern as he tried to focus on her face again. "I'd be more concerned if it didn't hurt."
Raleigh grunted in pain as the force of being assisted onto a bench irritated the gash on his stomach, Mako gasped and a lone tear trickled down her cheek.
"M-alright...Ma-ko." he smiled jerkily up at her and raised a hand to cup her cheek.
"Quiet Raleigh...quit fidgeting and sit still until we get back to base." she slapped the hand that had tried to wrap itself around her shoulder and moved to look at his stomach.
"You...hurt." Raleigh managed to grind out as he felt his co-pilot jerking quickly away from him and trying not to wince as her shoulder twinged in protest. .
"I'll be all right." she whispered quietly to him. "I'm more concerned about you bleeding to death."
He tried to argue but the sound came out as a whimper...it was a foreign sound on his lips and it made her panic again.
Blinking at her through hazy blue eyes, much more lucid after being administered fluids to help him stay awake, he nodded weakly and tried to help by tugging her towards him to rest against his good side. Mako hissed and batted him away.
"Come here." she murmured softy as she reached to his arm and pulled him towards her to rest against her chest; a spasm of pain shuddered through him and his head fell backwards onto her shoulder, his pale lips connecting with the bare skin of her jaw bone.
Blushing at what would have been an intimate gesture in a different situation, she placed her hands on his shoulders to steady him.
"Hang in there, we'll get you fixed up right as rain, okay?"
Dipping his head in a nod, his breath turned heavy as she reached up to wrap an arm across the front of his shoulder and her other hand to wrap around his own and with a fierce blush on her face her eyes met his and she offered him a comforting smile.
The journey back to the Shatterdome took too long for her liking, Raleigh had all but fallen asleep against her except for whenever they hit a bout of turbulence and he groaned; which made her wince in sympathy. Eventually they had returned to the Jaeger base and were escorted to the medical bay, the doctors had tried to separate the two of them but after Mako swore rudely at one young trainee in Japanese as he tried to push her out of the way, she was allowed to stay with him.
Raleigh raised his head to look at her as he was lain down on a table, his eyes still glassy. Her gaze dipped eventually to watch as she herself was pulled onto an examination table and her suit was removed. The circuit suit was removed from her shoulders, revealing tangled raw scars of her right arm, where Raiju had ripped the arm from Gipsy and the electricity had burned against the nerves. Somewhere between watching his wound being cleaned and stitched and forgetting how to breathe she saw he was still watching her softly, his concerned gaze flickering to the damage she had sustained.
"It's just scar damage, with a bit of Physiotherapy I'll be fine." how she managed to keep her voice level was beyond her, her shoulder hurt like hell but it did it's job in soothing him.
She knew the doctors had finished with his wound when she felt a pair of rough hands slip round her waist and his lips ghosted over her forehead, the fingertips of his right hand ghosted up over her injured shoulder.
"Now we match." he murmured huskily against her neck as a wave of sleepiness washed over the both of them. She smiled benignly and ran a hand over the newly healed skin.
"Not quite..." she mused, running a few fingers over the four lined scars at his left side.
"Are you okay?" he asked her seriously.
"Yeah, I'm tired though."
Tilting his head to one side a note of amusement passed his lips and he moved to pull her off the table. Looking around to the basic and uncomfortable looking bed he pulled her towards it. The doctor still in the room nodded and told them to rest, they were free to leave in the morning; clearly not phased by the two of them sharing the bed.
It was common among drift partners to spend hours and even days needing the physical comfort of one another until the side effects of the drift had worn off, Raleigh and Mako both doubted they were the first to share a infirmary bed.
"I can't believe its over." Mako had mused sleepily as Raleigh spooned her back. "What do we do now?"
"I'm too tired to think about our places in the universe right now...sleep Mako."
Sighing as she remembered waking up wrapped up with him under the thin blanket the next morning, she'd been relieved to find him mostly back to full health.
A hand raised itself to her right shoulder, where the skin had been burned by the circuitry suit as Gipsy had her arm ripped away by the kaiju at the bottom of the Pacific.
Finding how much she had enjoyed the feeling of being in his arms, the consequences were not something she found herself thinking of. There was definitely an attraction between the two best friends and they had both been stunned by the other as they'd met under a pair of umbrella's in the Hong Kong rain, they danced with each other in combat in the Kwoon and knew everything about each other from their time in the Drift. All thoughts of what they could be had been pushed aside as there was no time to dwell on these things when there was a war to be fought.
Even now, as the threat was gone and the world was slowly returning to how it once was, albeit a little wiser and hopeful for the future, nothing between the pair had changed dramatically...a few heated glances here...one or two pecks on the lips there. They remained very good friends who were drift compatible, lived across the corridor from one another, always ate together and spent much of their time in the same company.
Mako and Raleigh rarely came in any other concept apart from together these days.
Making a small note of amusement as she finished undressing and stepped into the warm water, she pictured the handsome face of Raleigh Becket as he grinned at her across the mess hall table at breakfast after being released from the med lab the morning after sealing the Breach. She'd been late to the mess hall and all they had left were yesterday's meatloaf and a few packages of cold noodle soup. Raleigh had pulled her to their table where she found a tray of three warm dumplings he'd swiped for her to eat when she was eventually discharged.
He'd gone and kissed her...really kissed her as she'd boarded the plane from Hong Kong just a few weeks ago and it had left her flustered to realise he might feel the same as she did.
Shaking herself out of the memory and resolving to find out just what they were to one another when she got back, Mako she vaguely registered she still had the phone held to her ear and that her co-pilot had just spoken.
"Sorry...almost dozed off there...what did you say?" she smiled apologetically.
"I said don't fall asleep in the bath..." he chuckled.
"Oh I see..." something registered in her mind starkly and she blushed. "How do you know I'm in the bath?" she asked quickly.
"Ah..I...I heard the taps running from this end." he chuckled. "At least I'm assuming your in the bath given how long you've been in bathroom..."
Narrowing her eyes at the hesitation in his voice she sat up and rested a hand on the side of the tub. He seemed to know rather a lot about her current activities considering he was supposed to be miles away in Hong Kong...
"Raleigh...where are you?"
A nervous chuckle came from the other end and she could practically feel the guilt ebbing over the phone line.
"Um...trapped in your closet."
Spluttering indignantly, her eyes widened like saucers. Mako quickly removed herself from the bath, wrapped the towel tightly around her frame and opened the bathroom door, glaring warily at the closet. Blushing right to her hairline at the anticipation that seeped through her body she swallowed a lump in her throat.
"How? Why?" she asked into the phone.
"Let me out and I'll explain...please I've been sat in here all morning." he whined from the phone. The same voice she had misinterpreted earlier was back and now that she listened...it was definitely not a television in another room.
Blinking at the door in shock as she opened it, she watched as a silly grin etched it's way onto the face of the tall blonde who was indeed sitting cross legged on the floor among her suitcase and his own bag; looking rather sorry for himself.
Mako was clearly trying to figure out how he was here in the middle of a small Japanese town and why he hadn't told her he was coming rather than wonder how he'd gotten into her room and locked in her closet in the first place.
"Hi." he grinned up at her raising his hand in salute as though it was a normal thing to find your best friend camping out in your cupboard.
Her bewilderment quickly turned to embarrassment as she watched his bright blue eyes widen at the state of her undress and he got to his feet quickly.
"You could have gotten dressed first Miss Mori...not that I don't appreciate – ow!"
Levelling a glare at him, she blushed fiercely and smacked him on the arm, snapping her phone shut and turning to storm off back into the bathroom to change as he stood by her window, stretching languidly.
"That's loads better..." he groaned as he arched his stiff back and followed her to the bathroom. "I thought you were never going to come back..."
"How on earth did you get in here?" came a muffled but still slightly angry reply from the other side of the door. "I'm leaving for Osaka in two hours."
"I wanted to surprise you...Herc was fed up of me moping around the Dome with nothing to do but file reports and bully the new recruits so he rang the hotel last night to explain what I wanted to do and he bundled me onto the first flight out of Hong Kong in the early hours of this morning. One of the receptionists handed me a spare card-key and here I am." he grinned as the bathroom door swung open and Mako emerged, dressed but hair still damp with the wet towel in her hands.
There was a lovely tinge of pink dusted across her cheeks as she gazed at him softly.
You really missed me that much you couldn't wait another week?"
She knew they really needed to discuss what they were to one another but stood in a small hotel room with barely two hours left to pack her things didn't seem like the best time for a heart to heart with her best friend.
He'd barely opened his mouth to reply before she had shook her head and changed the subject.
"That doesn't explain how you locked yourself in my closet, Raleigh." she threw the towel into the laundry basket by the bathroom door and folded her arms as she glanced at him.
"See...I thought it would be good to jump out and surprise you but I didn't realise the door doesn't open from both sides..." he gave her an easy grin and a hint of red hit his cheeks as he scratched his head nervously.
Rolling her eyes, the upturn of her lips gave away her amusement as she glanced out of the window.
"It swung shut and locked you in..."
The embarrassment on his face was momentary as his phone rung out from his pocket.
Shook from his thoughts, Raleigh glanced at the caller ID and mouthed 'Tendo' at his best friend. Nodding her head in understanding, she went to grab a comb from the sink and began running it through her shoulder length bob.
"Tendo...what's up buddy?" Raleigh walked from the window to sit down on the bed. Mako raised an eyebrow at her co-pilot making himself at home and rolled her eyes when he grinned at her.
"Yeah got here a few hours ago...funny story actually I'll tell you when we get back to the Shatterdome...seems like it...how's the scan go?" Raleigh glanced over at Mako with a wink then grinned. "Two?...damn you two have certainly been getting busy you horny bastard...well tell Alison we're glad sealing the Breach has had such a profound effect on your love life..."
Listening in and putting two and two together, Mako's eyes widened.
Alison was Tendo's wife, they had a two year old son and now it seemed the Choi's was expecting double the trouble; Mako hadn't realised the mechanic was pregnant at all.
"Can't help it if the woman can't keep her hands off you right?" Despite the humour in his voice, Raleigh felt a strange stab of envy in his gut. He had always admired the bond that Tendo and his wife shared, he hoped one day the fates would allow him to experience the same thing for himself. A relationship like theirs took commitment, passion and promises he desperately wanted with someone special one day.
It was the only thing he was certain he wanted in his future, and his future was currently bobbing up and down on the balls of her feet, humming the latest popular Jpop song as she folded her spare clothes ready to pack them into her suitcase.
She briefly shot him a smile and he winked at her again.
While he had allowed himself forgiveness for what had happened to his brother Yancy, his heart had been wary of getting close to anyone should he loose them too. It had surprised him at how quickly he had taken to his co-pilot and just how helpless he'd be if Mako wasn't in his life. He'd decided that pretty much immediately after they had first drifted together in the con-pod of Gipsy.
Briefly after the defeat of the Precursors and sealing the Breach, he had spent the better part of a week sat in his room staring at a blank notepad and pen, in an attempt to decide what he was going to do with himself now that he had a real future ahead of him. After a brief but irate lecture from one annoyed Mako Mori informing him that if he didn't get his ass out of that musty old room and back into the real world she was going to drag him out by his nostrils. He had found the thought of her doing so hilarious and it had certainly worked in pulling him out of his slump.
After voicing his thoughts to his co-pilot that morning, the two had stopped by the now vacant Gipsy Danger hanger to mull things over. Whenever the two of them wanted time to think, they always found themselves wandering to this place. The whole of the Shatterdome felt too big now that there were no more Jaegers to fill the cavernous space. It was in this space of time that Mako had informed him that the government had issued a dossier to Marshall Hansen, telling of the PPDC's plans to use the sheer size of the Shatterdome as a ready made test facility for research and building the Anti-Matter reactor prototypes that CNSA were so interested in.
The plans would take months to draft but in the meantime the staff, work crews and everyone who worked at the Dome were free to remain to stop the place from falling into disrepair. Several dozen had moved on slowly but the Loccent team and a few of the Jaeger crews were still milling around. So were the two scientists always at each other's throats.
Mako glanced over at Raleigh as he continued his phone conversation with his old friend and smiled.
"Huh? Yeah...I think we're leaving for Osaka soon...that's if Miss Mori doesn't mind some company?" he looked across at her at that question and gave her a puppy dog look. He knew she would say yes even as she did raise an eyebrow at him and fold her arms.
"Go on then..." she drawled with a hint of a smile.
Grinning happily at her in response he quickly said his goodbyes and tossed the phone on the bedside table.
"Off on another adventure are -"
"Looks like it." Mako smiled across at him, he had stopped mid sentence because the lighter that the old woman from the market stall had caught his attention.
Watching in anticipation as he reached out a hand to pick it up and examine it, he turned to her in surprise.
"Where did you get this?"
"A little old lady in the market, I wanted to buy you a present and she told me to take it." Mako moved towards him slowly and reached out to close his hand over it.
"I told her you didn't smoke but she told me you'd like it."
Looking down at her in surprise, his eyes softened with a grin.
"Yancy always used to carry a Zippo in his back pocket even though he never smoked in his life. He left it in our room when we were deployed to fight Knifehead. I lost it not long after I left the Jaeger program."
Blinking at him in surprise, her heart rate picked up when he turned his head to place a soft kiss against her hair. Smiling, she took the lighter from his hand and slipped it into the pocket of his jeans.
"Well we wouldn't want to loose this one..." She warmed at the genuinely touched look he gave her and patted his back pocket. "You better take good care of it."
"Thank you." He whispered against her hair. A shiver ran down her arms as he took hold of her wrist and tugged her into his arms. Looking up at him in surprise he gazed down at her with a look she had not seen since he'd kissed her at the airport.
"Mako...we...I mean..." He murmured huskily.
Raising her arms to wind them round his shoulders, she pulled his forehead down to hers.
"Later Raleigh..." She whispered, closing her eyes to will the redness of her cheeks to disappear.
She felt him nod but not before she opened her eyes and her breath shuddered in her throat at the heat in his eyes. Dipping his head, his lips ghosted over hers softly and his arms tightened around her.
"Alright...Later then." He smiled against her lips as she blushed cherry pink.
It was beginning to get cold by the time the two of them emerged into the train station. Raleigh went to sit on a bench while Mako went to order their tickets.
They were to take the train to Yamanashi, a taxi to the airport and from there straight to Osaka. Raleigh had briefly joked about taking a train from Yamanashi to Osaka all four hundred plus miles and Mako had replied with a smile that if he wished to spend the better part of fifteen hours on busy public transport they by all means do so.
They arrived at the airport with several hours to spare before their flight, it was surprisingly quiet but then again not many people could afford to travel by plane these days, when the war started fuel prices had sky rocketed and this had led to overcrowding on the bullet trains and buses. It wasn't as bad now as it had been six months ago, but the airport should have been busier for this time of day.
There were signs written in both English and Japanese and Raleigh pointed to the sign saying 'Food hall'.
"Let's wait til after check in." Mako smiled at his pout and the two of them joined the queue of people lining up against a row of low glass booths where officials were checking flight details and carting off luggage on conveyor belts.
Eventually it was their turn and Raleigh grinned at her passport photo as it was checked by the woman behind the counter.
"Nice specs." He grinned at her as she was handed her passport.
Narrowing her eyes at him, she huffed.
"I had to wear them during school, at least my passport is due for renewal next year so I can destroy this hideous picture."
Grinning Raleigh showed her his own photo. A messy haired teenager was looking at her and a glint of silver could be seen between his lips.
"I wasn't always such a catch...see?" Raleigh grinned.
"Braces?" She snickered.
"Yep...got my two front teeth knocked in at eighteen after an argument with some dick who dented my brothers motorbike with his truck."
"I spent six months wearing glasses until one of the girls at the Jaeger Academy told me I looked like Velma from Scooby Doo."
Raleigh howled with laughter as their luggage whizzed away on the conveyor belt and they were handed their boarding passes.
"Well you certainly turned out well." He complimented.
Smiling at him, the two headed off towards departures.
Over the course of the next week, Mako and Raleigh had met with the governing body of Japan to discuss funding. What that meant in the literal translation was that Mako had compiled a three hundred page report on fusion of anti-matter and how to develop the technology to do so, while Raleigh had sat and nodded occasionally and pretended he had at least a small idea what the hell they were talking about.
It was after five hours discussion and after he received an impatient kick under the table from Mako as his head lolled back against his chair did they announce that they were glad to go ahead.
Finally...thought Raleigh as he and Mako stood to shake the representatives hand and were shown to the door.
In the elevator, Mako sighed and turned to her best friend with a sigh.
"That went well...although I can't say it was very entertaining for you."
Rubbing his eyes with an easy grin, he chuckled.
"Nearly nodded off right after the guy starting discussing compact reactors."
The doors pinged open and Mako took her phone from her pocket and dialed a number.
"Good evening Marshall...yes we're well...the meeting was a success and we will receive word within two weeks...yes we will stay in Osaka overnight and fly back to Hong Kong in the morning."
They left the office building via taxi and Mako briefly spoke the name of their hotel to the driver and buckled herself in. Raleigh got into the other seat and he reached up to undo the tie at his neck and the first button on the shirt Mako had insisted he buy for their meeting. They had argued briefly about looking presentable when Raleigh told her of his intentions to wear his khaki slacks and one of his oversized jumpers to their meeting. He had been dragging kicking and screaming (not really but he really hated shopping) to an overpriced department store in the center of Osaka where he was measured and fitted for a shirt and smart trousers. He'd really glared at her when she found a fashionable thin black tie to wear with it.
"Give me a pair of black specs and call me Newton why don't you..." He had scowled at her.
Glancing over at him as the tie was removed and stuffed into his pocket, she couldn't deny he looked extremely handsome in that shirt. It was fitted and with the sleeves rolled carelessly up to his elbows she wanted nothing more than to grab him by the front of the shirt and -
Blushing furiously when he noticed she'd been gawking at him, she turned away quickly as he grinned slowly at her.
True to his word, he hadn't mentioned anything about the conversation they desperately needed to have about how they felt about each other, but she could tell that Raleigh was getting impatient. Several times she had felt his fingertips ghosting over her hand at dinner or brushing against the small of her back when he passed her.
She never shied away from his touch, quite the opposite she found herself gravitating towards him. The two were sharing a room in a little hotel on the outskirts so it was inevitable they were going to grow closer.
It was during the night of their last in Japan and they were due to fly home in the morning at nine. Raleigh had just hopped in the shower and changed before bed when Mako sat in a chair by the window, trying to pouch up the courage to say something to him. As he emerged from the bathroom with his torso glistening and clad in a towel she caught his reflection in the window and had to bite down on her lip to avoid saying something.
"Showers free." He smiled at her.
Swallowing low in her throat she got to her feet and nodded at him, working extremely hard not to let her eyes trail over his muscled abdomen as he handed her a towel.
"Thanks." She smirked at him as she passed and waited until she was locked in the bathroom before she let the blush stain her cheeks.
Back in the room, Raleigh smiled at the door and walked into the closet to change.
The hotel room was clean and modern, floor to ceiling windows, a wooden bed either side of a table that could be moved to push them together if needed. A separate bathroom and equal sized closet completed the furnishings.
When Mako eventually came out of the bathroom, Raleigh was laid in bed with a book open, he briefly caught a glance of her wrapped in a towel as she opened the closet door and entered it to change.
"We need to leave by six so I suggest having an early night." Came her muffled voice from the slightly ajar closet door. After a moment she came out dressed in a pair of shorts and a tank top while she towel dried her hair in the mirror.
"What no bedtime story?" He smirked at her.
Turning towards him with a look of mischief, she scrunched up the towel she had been using and flung it towards him.
A yelp of surprise left his throat as the book was flung unceremoniously to the floor and he rolled out of bed.
"Not fair Mori..." He peered at her over the mattress and got to his feet. Her arms were folded over her chest and she was smiling slyly at him.
"You started it, Beckett." She challenged.
"Well I'll finish it." He got to his feet and lunged over his bed, grabbed her by the waist and dumped her back on her bed, pinning her by the wrist and at their hips. She looked up at him in momentary surprise before her eyes narrowed in jest.
"And just how are you going to finish it Mr. Beckett?" She enquired innocently.
Breathing heavily for a moment, he hesitated before dipping his face closer to hers.
"How I want to finish it and how I do is -"
He never got a chance to finish as she mentally decided to hell with it and raised her chin up to press her lips to his. Liquid heat travelled through his body and he was so taken aback by her bold move that she managed to wrestle her hands free of his grip and slide a warm hand to the nape of his neck. A small groan left his lips as their eyes slid closed slowly and he returned the kiss.
Mako slid her free hand along the back of his spine and pulled him down on top of her. His hands travelled to wrap themselves around her waist and he rolled them to the side, without breaking contact. It was a few minutes before the need for air became too great and they parted just enough to take in a harsh breath.
"Mako..." He started huskily.
Her eyes fluttered open and she gazed at him as though deciding something.
"I want this Raleigh...we've been avoiding the obvious long enough -"
Grinning at her, he leaned in and peppered quick but soft kisses to her nose and forehead.
"I know...for once I think I had everything worked out before you." He pulled her into his embrace and rested his head on her shoulder.
"We have all the time in the world when we get home...but for now this is more than enough for me." She murmured against his neck, dropping a long and slow kiss there that shot straight through his core.
"Let's get some rest...I hope you don't mind sharing cause I'm not letting you go tonight." He smiled against her lips.
"Just don't hog the sheets or I'm kicking you onto the floor."
She wasn't quite sure at first what it was that had slowly lured her from the deepest throes of sleep, but with her eyes still shut an electric shiver ran through her semi conscious body as a warm but callous palm smoothed slowly across the skin at her waist.
After a moment and suddenly remembering where she was, a tinge of colour peaked across her cheeks and her eyes fluttered open. Wrapped up in soft and cool sheets, she could feel the even breathing of a certain co-pilot who had fallen asleep with her wrapped in his arms the previous night. A brief note of embarrassment passed through her mind at the thought of her being so scantily clad in a pair of briefs, a thin tank and the oversized knitted sweater that Raleigh had slipped from his body during the night when she had shivered in the cool air of the room. She could feel the warmth of his torso of sinuous muscle that was pressed against her back and she swallowed a moan.
It took Mako several moments to realise that it was Raleigh's hand that was trailing across her heated skin and she wondered if he was having a bad dream and subconsciously seeking her out for comfort in his sleep. It had been well over six months now since they had sealed the Breach and she herself knew well how bad nightmares could still be.
When she felt his fingertips aim for the covered skin under his jumper, her heart rate began to speed up.
Struggling to keep her breathing even, his hand moved slowly over the taut skin of her stomach and tightened across her as though cuddling her. A small pressure of warm lips against the back of her neck made her stop breathing.
After a few moments of no movement from behind her, she began to relax.
He obviously wasn't having a nightmare and was just cuddling against her out of reflex. Letting a small sigh pass her lips, Mako closed her eyes and tried to get back to sleep.
Just as she was about to drift off again, she couldn't control the gasp when his warm lips latched themselves onto her throat and sucked lightly. Whimpering in delight at the sensations rocketing through her, one of his legs wrapped slowly around hers and pulled her back towards him; a stray hand wandering up to the underside of her breast.
Beginning to seriously doubt he was having just any normal dream, she wondered if he was normally this amorous when asleep. The two had shared a bed before (not in that sense) and neither had wandering hands then, he was obviously having a steamy encounter in his sleep. She swallowed low in her throat and tried not to think about the tightening of his arms around her body.
"Mako..."
Her eyes shot open again in surprise as a low whimper of her name passed his lip and she briefly wondered if her groans had woken him up. She was surprised at what he was doing, but she certainly wasn't complaining that he was doing it. It felt wonderful.
As his lips moved up to the curve of her jaw another more louder whimper left her throat and a heated throb centred itself deep inside her core. Judging by the hard portion of flesh grinding into her lower back, her co-pilot was in the same situation.
"Raleigh..." the low whisper that fell from her lips caused the hand at her front to freeze just as it was about to slip over her breast. It was a few moments before she turned her head to look behind at the steady but lust stricken gaze of her best friend.
"Shit...I'm sorry – I..." quickly mumbling a hasty apology, he quickly froze at the way she was gazing softly at him over her shoulder. "M-Mako?"
Shifting slightly onto her back, Raleigh swallowed heavily in his throat as one of her bare calves ghosted over his own leg and she smiled at him through hooded eyes. Feeling emboldened by his regard, Mako pushed aside all thoughts of chastising him in favour of deciding she wanted his rough hands on more than just her stomach.
"Good dream Mr Becket?" she quirked her eyebrows and her lips unturned as heat rocketed through him and his light blue eyes darkened considerably as he weighed up her challenge.
His eyes locked with hers and he registered a gasp when his hand boldly slid back under the oversized jumper and ghosted over her navel, the softness of firm skin he found there fuelled him to lower his lips to hers in a rough kiss.
Bringing a shaky hand to the wispy blonde hair at the nape of his neck, her eyes slid closed slowly. Her other hand slid cheekily to the back of his boxer shorts.
Earning herself an indignant huff against her lips, Raleigh pulled away slowly.
"I believe that is a high disregard of professional conduct Miss Mori." he murmured roughly against her lips.
More than a little breathless, she raised an eyebrow at him.
"If that is a disregard of professional conduct then you groping me under the covers shall require immediate disciplinary proceedings Mr Becket."
Chuckling low in his throat, he locked eyes with her again as his hand moved up from her stomach to slide slowly over the hardened nub at her breast, causing her to moan. He tried to stop the gasp of pleasure that left him when she ground her backside into his groin and pulled him down to her lips harshly.
Sliding his tongue into her mouth she moaned breathlessly as his free arm tugged the jumper up her body and squeezed against her hip bone.
"Damn it." he hissed against her lips.
He growled this time as she moved her hips so she was laying back completely on the bed and her hair splayed around her head, the blue tips distracting him as he tried to catch his breath back. Smiling up at Raleigh as she rolled towards him and pressed her body tightly to his and ran a hand along the back of his neck.
"Don't stop." She whispered quietly.
Gazing down at her in earnest, his subconscious took all of three seconds to decide to hell with it and he reached to pull his jumper from her frame and he pulled her into his arms, kissing her desperately.
So much for getting an early night, he thought adamantly.
Sorry, I had to end it there, it's past midnight here and I'm up at six. I could easily keep going but if I put all of the juicy bits in one chapter theres nothing for later :D See you soon hopefully!
xHellfirex