It felt wonderful, not having to worry about kaiju ever again. The destruction had been successful. He could go home, a place he hadn't been in for five years. Somewhere he hadn't thought he deserved to be since his brothers' death but now he was going home.
It had gone a week after they had won the battle and they finally got the time to bury their comrades. It had become decided that there would be a funeral for not only the Marshall and Charles Hansen but also for the Wei triplets and the Kaidonovskys'. It was hard for everyone, not because they knew them but because so many had to die. It wasn't fair but then again not much in life was, they could only be grateful for living another day and it wasn't like their work was a dance on roses. They couldn't expect to live forever. The priest in front of them had become silent and Raleigh looked up to the graves, laying on top of the caskets where blood red roses and other flowers Raleigh didn't bother to name. Mako sat besides him, tears running down on her cheeks silently. With a flower in his hand Raleigh tugged on her arm and led her towards Pentecost closed casket, it was in red cherry wood with engraved golden leaves on top. They had gotten the best and ignored the costs that much for sure he could tell. Upon leaving his own flower on it he stepped back a few paces to leave Mako some space. It seemed that had been the right choice for when she came back into his stretched out arm she looked up at him Mako mouthed a 'thank you' and in response, on the way down the stairs, he squeezed her body towards his. As they sat down Raleigh could hear a door close behind him, he resisted looking over Makos' shoulder to see who it was. Soft steps could be heard down the aisle and when the figure was in his eyesight, Raleigh was forced to clench his jaw for it to not drop onto the cold floor. The hair was longer and he wore a suit but there was no question of who he was. At least not to Raleigh for before him was Harry Becket, formerly known as Potter, Harry James Potter. As his older brother in law put down his two wreaths of blood red lilies, Raleigh moved closer to Mako so that Harry could sit down on his left side. The rest of the ceremony was relatively quiet after that, as the priest had said his part and now it was time for close ones to place flowers on the caskets.
Raleigh watched as the raven haired man offered a hug to Herc. If someone hadn't realized that this person knew the Hansen's by the wreath on Chucks casket this would not be passed as a stranger's action. But not even Raleigh knew the full extent of their apparent friendship, it was clear that Harry knew one of them and Raleigh was sure it wasn't the youngest but the senior Hansen he knew. Raleigh did know that he would find out as the tree of them was on their way towards him and Mako.
"Ms Mori I am sad to finally meet you, after all this time, like this," Harry said offering his hand for a handshake.
"I feel the same but I do not know how you know of me," came as a reply. You could hear that her voice was thick with grief.
"I know of you because of my correspondence with you adoptive father, my name is Harry Becket,"
"Becket? But I thought all of your family was dead?" Both Mako and Herc looked up to Raleigh and Harry couldn't help but chuckle.
"I am the brother-in-law, married to the wiser older brother." The friendly jab was clear to all and at least a twitch in amusement circled the group.
"I did not know either Mako so you don't need to feel bad about it," Herc said. The green-eyed man beside him looked down in embarrassment.
"Sorry," the response was quiet. "It wasn't like I didn't want to tell you but you were so busy al the time so I didn't want to interrupt and you had your hands full with both Scott and Charles."
"I doesn't matter, I know now don't I? But in the future I want you to come to me no matter how busy I seem," Herc said.
"Yeah and you will be busy wont you? After all you are Marshall now." Raleigh couldn't help but put in.
"Congratulations, you didn't tell me that," Harry said.
"I guess we are even," came from Herc before he hugged the former Potter and started to walk towards a group of people he knew. Waving as went. "I expect to hear from you Harry, don't forget about me and you know I need some distraction from the paperwork so you don't have an excuse." He said in a loud voice. Leaving the blushing male behind him. When Harry returned to normal again he looked at them.
"Do you want to come with me?" He asked them calmly, all traces of the blush gone. "I want to know for myself who the women in you arms is, little brother," Raleigh cursed the fact that his amusement had seeped out because now it was his turn to blush. Admittedly it wasn't only him because next to him Mako was seemingly trying to imitate a tomato. But she recovered faster then Raleigh did.
"It would be… Nice," she answered him. So here they were in a black SUV Chevrolet. It was ridiculous, felt like showing up at your first girlfriends parents. But he was twenty-seven for goodness sake, not fifteen. The car ride was tense; the road seemed to stretch out further than he remembered, opening mocking him for his nerves. When they finally pulled up in front of the house it all came down to him. No more battles, no more death all around him and he were home; he could finally come home after so long. Without feeling the oppressive weight of guilt. In the corner of his eye he saw Harry smiling that irritating, knowing smile before he stepped out of the car and into the house; surely to put on a pot of tea.
"British people and their irritating tea habits," he muttered. Raleigh was rewarded by a confused look from his partner before said partner shook her head and followed the raven into the house.
The house had changed even though the rest stayed the same. Over the floor laid tons of toys and from the kitchen he could hear Harry say that it might be better to keep their shoes on in case there was remaining Lego blocks around. Raleigh could only thank god that his best friend wasn't sadistic because that would be pure torture. He gently man handled Mako into sitting room, to wait for the steaming pot of whatever Harry had chosen to brew. They didn't need to wait long for barely a minute after they had sat themselves down on the couch Harry came out with a tray filled with different biscuits, tree mugs and a steaming kettle. Hurriedly Raleigh put out the stylish leather coasters for each mug. Harry put down the tray on the side table and placed down the mugs. Reaching out for the kettle Harry noticed that his little brother had stolen it and was already pouring the contents into each mug so he set down the biscuits.
"I hope you aren't allergic to something," he said to Mako. Smiling she shook he head.
Harry reached into a drawer and pulled out a bowl with mini marshmallows.
"For the chocolate, after all not al of us are grown ups," Harrys smile spread onto Makos lips.
Outside it had already darkened and if someone looked in they would see what was being mirrored in every household around the world. It was time to grieve the many loved ones that had become lost in the long battle against the kaiju.
I didn't really know how to finish this and I had to remove a character from it, namely Teddy Lupin because I felt I didn't want to write anymore. I also considered writing about Luna Pentecost, you know Stackers sister that died 2013, but replace her with Luna Lovegood, as I didn't know much about her. As you can see that plan went into the trashcan too. This is a sequel to Time to Heal. I don't know if it is hard to follow if you haven't read the other one but I did like to think that it isn't. I realize it isn't very long, only 1 365 words, without this note. But I rather like it. As you probably can see it is a complete work and therefore it is a one-shot. I won't upload another chapter, but I might write my Mako-Raleigh wedding. I don't know yet. I certainly know that I will continue to write HPxPR crossovers. As I only saw it a couple of days ago in the Swedish cinemas and Harry Potter is rather a obsession of mine.
Anyway this one published nearly a day after my other one. I want to show my appreciation to the one that favoured Time to Heal (Golden feathers Edward) and I felt this might be the way. Thank you for favouring it. You made me very happy.