For Ka, who is turning the same age as when Rals return to the PPDC after five years without Yancy. ;u; This is a sequel to my Raleigh&Yancy fic, Water Damage where the ust gets resolved :D
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Damaged Goods
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Regret is for the old and worn.
Raleigh is not that, not anymore.
Not when this is a second chance he may never have in another world.
It's been years since Knifehead, so he says I love you, Yance instead.
For all of Raleigh's fearlessness, there is still a hint of hesitation right before he presses his lips over his brother's. And there would be a soft, bitten off sorry that follows but this is a world where he gets his brother back from the dead. This is the one where he doesn't quite let go because there isn't a Kaiju the size of a skyscraper tearing them apart. This is the one where Yancy makes a noise of what might have been a protest when Raleigh tries to pull back.
And instead of pushing him away, Yancy is already tugging Raleigh back to him with both hands clenched into the collar of Rals' sweater, lips feverish and seeking his out for more.
.
Regret is for the tired and the done.
Raleigh is only getting started when he drags Yancy down into his lap and kisses him soundly on their old couch. His eyes are closed against the Alaskan sun coming through the windows. And what is cold outside makes for a spread of warmth when Raleigh feels Yancy tilting his baby brother's head back with a push of his opened mouth. Running a hand at the edge of his shirt, his eyes are half-lidded as he glances back up at him from beneath his lashes. And they are still caught out in the sun, heads of blonde hair turning into gold.
Raleigh swallows and that is as good as a breathy please when Yancy finally gives way and slips a hand beneath his shirt with a slow, sure smile.
With his thighs splayed wide enough to bracket Raleigh's legs, Yancy gives an experimental rock of his hips as he runs his palms up against the taut pull of muscles over his baby brother's chest. And Yancy can't help but grin against Rals' lips when the kid is letting out a low appreciative noise from the way Yancy does it again.
They only lean back to pull Raleigh's shirt over his head.
"...You're fit." Yancy says when he has Raleigh's shirt balled up into his hands. Raleigh grins, nonchalant and almost teasing, reaching out for Yancy's still clothed body sitting pretty in his lap. "Must be all the construction."
But Raleigh has been Yancy's little brother all his life, been in the man's head for five years and piloted a Jaeger together for four, it is no wonder that he catches the way Yancy's hands clench into the fabric of his shirt.
.
Regret is for the damaged and the weak.
Raleigh isn't ever going to let Yancy think less of himself. So when Yancy tries to slip off of his lap, Raleigh closes one hand around Yancy's wrist and drags him back. Fitting his body right against his until the two of them are pressed impossibly close.
"…Let me in, Yance."
He curls a hand around Yancy's jaw, touches fingertips against the curve of cheekbones when he tries to look away. It is not a plead with the way it comes out. It's a statement because they've done this before. And they can't do it again.
"Don't cut me out." Raleigh says.
He doesn't and when he doesn't, Raleigh's is almost taken back by how good just Yancy is when he tries to bottle it all in, tries to pull rank because he is the older one and that will always mean something for Yancy in a way that Raleigh can't understand. Won't, because this is his turn and he wants to do it right.
"I'm not—"
"I swear to god, Yance, if you say you aren't enough I'll—" Raleigh cuts himself off with a frustrated noise and surges up to press an opened mouth kiss to Yancy's lips instead. Swallows down his words and turns thoughts into soft pants because they don't do last words, not this time. Not when they have all the time in the world to heal.
Raleigh grabs him by the hips, fingers wrapping around old scars that still ache on days when the weather gets too wet and cold, when the air hits them like ocean waves. Flipping them over to have Yancy lying flat on his back, stretched out against the length of the couch, Raleigh is careful of every damage Yancy's sustained over the Kaiju war.
"You'll always be more than enough for me."
Careful and so damn in love.
Yancy drops Raleigh's shirt to the ground before curling both arms around Rals' neck to drag him down and closer still.
.
Regret is not something that's been made for them.
Because every love you, Yance is said in earnest, a mantra that nearly catches in his throat when he sees Yancy sucking Raleigh's fingers into his mouth. His lips wrap around each digit obscenely, dragging a tongue over every calluses of every length, slow, meticulous, and downright filthy when he finally lets go.
"Love you too, kid."
He tells him with his eyes sliding shut just as Raleigh reaches down to wrap his spit-slicked hand around them both. Yancy lets out a groan, breath hitching, back arching just enough to give Rals a better angle between them.
And when he tries to help, bring them both off, Raleigh just noses at his neck, bites a soft kiss into the curve of shoulders like a protest of the most lovely kind.
"Let me."
And Yancy does.
XXX Kuro