Travelin' Thru

by TheGodMachine

It's hard enough handling the ghost drift, but that loud mouth kid who keeps showing up everywhere Raleigh is seems intent in shaking up his world. Hooker!Chuck

Written for a prompt at the pacific rim kinkmeme. You can find it by visiting this story posted on my A03 account (look on profile for link).

This story has been posted on my A03 account for a while and I've debated posting this story on here for a while, but then thought why not? So here it is.

Summary: It's hard enough handling the ghost drift, but that loud mouth kid who keeps showing up everywhere Raleigh is seems intent in shaking up his world. Hooker!Chuck

Travelin' Thru

"Laos," Angela pointed to a map that was pinned to the wall. There were already several pins tacked in and a thin white string wrapped around and connecting each one. She held her son against her hip and looked down at his face eagerly. "And then to Hong Kong." She moved her finger up the string to the next pin. "And…what's this one, Charlie?"

Her ginger-haired son reached out and pointed to the next pin on the map. "Shanghai?" He asked. She nodded proudly.

"You're so smart," She smiled. "We'll go there next. And then we'll be off to Tokyo. You'll like it there," She said.

"I will, Momma?" He asked.

"Yup, that's where they make transformers," She explained.

"Really?" He asked excitedly. "I want to go there!"

"We will," She promised and then pointed back to the map. "We'll stop here for a bit," She said. "What country is this one?"

He shrugged. "I dunno."

"That's Russia," She said. They heard the noise of the front door opening and closing. Angela turned around and saw her husband at the end of the hallway, hanging his coat. She waited for him as he made his way to the den.

"There you are, Sweetheart," He greeted deeply. He walked closer and kissed her. Charlie made a face as he was squeezed between his two parents.

"Gross!" He cried and pushed at his father's chest. "You're squeezing me!"

Herc laughed and grabbed his son from under the armpits. "And here's my little man." He lifted Charlie above him and then brought him closer and kissed him on the cheek.

"Yuck," Charlie cried but he couldn't hide his smile. Herc lowered him to his hip and looked to the map that Angela had been explaining.

"I see you're planning our vacation?" He said.

She smiled. "Yeah, I've already found some hotels to look into."

"Well, we still have a few years before we can afford this trip," he said and sent her a slight apologetic look that was dominated but amusement.

"Of course, I know, I just want to plan it so it's perfect," she smiled half embarrassed at her eagerness. "Besides, I think the wait will be worth it."

Angela had a habit of planning everything to the smallest detail. She had run herself ragged planning their wedding but it had turned out beautiful, even if the ending did end with her falling asleep as soon as her body touched the bed. She was blessed that her husband was so patient with her.

She had also planned like crazy while pregnant with Charlie. She smiled at her son who was resting his head on his father's shoulder. He was gazing at the map curiously despite the fact she had explained most of it to him. She was sure he found her talks boring. He would much rather sit down before the TV and watch cartoons, but he shared the patient trait with his father and entertained her excitement. She had sweet boys in her life.

"Momma, what's that one?" Charlie interrupted her musings. He pointed to a pin that was the most northern on the map. She rested a finger on it before smiling at Charlie who watched her.

"That one is Alaska," She explained. "We'll go there and make our way south—"she pointed to several more pins before pausing on Australia and smiling wider, "And then we'll be home."

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Sitka, Alaska 2024

Raleigh was not having a good day. His harness was splintering while currently being the only thing between him and sudden death. Unfortunately the cheapskates that were his employers refused to pay for extra parts. They did, however, seem perfectly fine with hiring replacement workers. Raleigh didn't understand that math.

The hundreds of men working on the wall and there wasn't a spare harness for Raleigh Becket? There had been several stories of men falling to their deaths from the rafters, and while Raleigh had seen greater heights in his past, he still didn't fancy falling.

Also while dangling from one of the higher rafters, Raleigh reached for his tool belt only to find his wrench and his Philips head were gone. He would have to climb all the way down and risk getting chewed out by his supervisor before he could climb back up with borrowed tools and get any work done

As soon as his feet touched the ground, Raleigh unclasped himself and threw the harness to the ground. He looked around at a few of his coworkers before begrudgingly picking it back up.

"Afraid of heights, Becket?" A gruff voice asked.

Raleigh turned around and saw one of his older coworkers, Gerry Haddelwell. He had been in construction all his life and had instantly turned his nose up when Raleigh had been hired. He saw him as a washed up pilot who couldn't fight Kaiju but thought he could build walls. Somehow Raleigh's presence offended him.

"Just afraid of falling," he said benignly. He was never one to get into fights even before the Kaiju came around, but since the passing of his brother, Raleigh was finding his reactions to the people around him increasingly numb. "You wouldn't happen to have a spare Wrench and screw driver, would you?"

Besides, punching the smug look off Gerry Haddelwell's face was not worth losing the pittance of pay he was earning building the 'wall of life.'

Gerry simply spat at ground. "Nope," he answered. He threw his harness over his shoulder and walked away with an obnoxious laugh.

Raleigh bit his lip and trudged towards his supervisor's office.

"Hey, Rals," he turned around to the voice that called him and saw one of the few people who he got on with, Selena Mendez. She was wearing her hard hat but it kept slipping down her head as she fiddled with her tool belt. She grabbed her wrench then lifted her head and smiled at him. "I hear you are in the market for a wrench, Guapo?"

"He said wrench not wench," A passerby joked.

"Vete a la mierda," she snapped. The man just laughed most likely not knowing what she said and honestly not caring. Selena glared at him as he walked away before moving to stand closer to Raleigh. "I swear, one day I will throw my wrench at that man's head."

"Ignore them," Raleigh sighed. "They don't matter."

Selena sighed. She had been dealing with assholes much like Raleigh has. She came to the wall a month after Him but she had been more familiar with construction then he had. She had been working in the wall in SoCal before she relocated north.

She sighed but held out the wrench again. "Here, I saw the some of these assholes messing with your locker earlier."

He grabbed the wrench and mumbled quick thanks. That was apparently the third time someone here has messed with his stuff since he was hired. Lucky for him, before the Alaskan Shatterdome had shutdown, it had provided migration and therefore cheap housing to most parts of the pacific border in the state. The construction for the anti-Kaiju wall continued the tradition. He had his own place to live and he didn't have to move into a dorm like some of the other workers had to.

"A couple of the guys and I are going out for drinks after work, you interested?" Selena asked.

Raleigh lowered his eyes. He wasn't interested in going to a public environment. Loud noises and high emotions stressed him out, but he wasn't interested in spending another evening alone either with his thoughts and the ghost of his brother.

"Yeah sure," he replied. Maybe a drink could do him good.

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Raleigh was exhausted when he finally had a chance to clock out. He trudged off site with the rest of the tired workers. He almost regretted agreeing to drinks, he was so tired. He leaned against a metal post and decided to wait for Selena and her friends.

Around him other shift members were leaving. Construction on the wall was nonstop. The Kaiju attacks were sporadic; never within a week of each other but sometimes as soon as within three weeks. Raleigh knew the PPDC monitored the drift closely and some genius was trying to mathematically equate each encounter...but still they always seemed taken by surprise when one popped up. Maybe if the Kaiju could be predicted, Yancy would still...

Thinking of the PPDC and Kaiju was too depressing. Raleigh found himself feeling depressed sometimes. Sometimes felt like most of the time. Shit, he did need that drink.

He shook his head as if to shake out the dark thoughts and looked to the side. He raised an eyebrow at what he saw. There was a kid leaning against the fence—a ginger haired kid—bundled up in an old winter coat, harassing some of his coworkers. The kid was probably early twenties, but something about him seemed so youthful, or maybe the correct word was immature. He was yelling out profanities at one of the construction men who looked ready to punch him.

"Walk along, asshole," the kid said loudly. He didn't sound like he was intending to yell, but rather he just had a loud voice. From his position, Raleigh could hear that the kid had an Australian accent. He was a little far from the warm temperatures of down under.

"What'ch you say, punk?" The man yelled. He grabbed the kid by his coat and got into his space.

"I said 'get lost'," the kid said in a steely voice, "'Asshole'."

The man raised his fist and Raleigh felt he should intervene. The man was two hundred-plus pounds of muscle and the kid, while not small by any means, was still a kid (by Raleigh's standards). He was probably just waiting for his father to end his shift and the last thing the construction company needed was an aggravated assault on its record.

"Hey," Raleigh said as he walked over. "Why don't you let it go," he said to the man.

"I don't need your help," the kid cried defensively. Raleigh gave him a stiff look.

"Fuck it, kid, you're not even worth it with a mouth that yappy," the man snapped clearly tired of the scene they were creating. For some reason that Raleigh didn't understand, the kid flinched and looked away. The man walked away and Raleigh leaned against the fence.

They fell into an awkward silence.

"You know, civilians aren't allowed this close to the construction site," he said after a moment.

"Fuck if you know," the ginger kid snapped and adjusted his coat collar.

Raleigh felt his jaw twitch.

"Well there is a sign," he pointed out. Against the fence there was a rusty dirty sign that read 'danger zone. Keep away. Construction underway.'

The kid glared at it before glaring at Raleigh. "Well I see you hanging around."

Raleigh reached into his bag and put on his hard helmet. The kid snorted and looked away.

"Are you waiting for your dad?" He asked. He couldn't understand why else a kid would stand out in front of the construction site in the Alaskan cold, if not to wait for someone. The kid gave him a weird look that he couldn't determine.

"Hey, Rals, we ready to go, man?" he turned his head and saw Selena with a few familiar faces standing by the gate entrance. "Let's go! I need to get drunk, tonight."

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The bar was cozy. Raleigh had walked by it a few times since moving here but he wasn't a big drinker. As promised, Selena got plenty drunk as did one of her friends. They were all men and this one friend seemed particularly attracted to her. They seemed to only have eyes for each as they fell deeper into a drunken stupor.

The other friends seemed close to each other and Raleigh felt like the odd wheel conversing with them. They had continued conversations from topics began in earlier parts of the day and Raleigh was feeling a little overwhelmed with trying to keep up.

And he kept thinking of Yancy. It was so hard not to sometimes. Yancy was a ghost that never strayed from Raleigh. Sometimes a phantom pain would shoot up his left arm, and then his mind felt half empty and then he'd realize that Yancy was gone for good and that was what made him an incomplete person.

He hated those moments. They came in the quiet and usually the fallout was something he wanted to keep private. He looked around the bar and found Selena melting into her friend. He debated telling her he was leaving but at the look of her state, she probably already forgot about him.

He pulled on his coat and settled his tab. He threw a few dollars to the bar tender and made his way out into the cold.

The sky was dark and the air was still. This was one thing Raleigh loved about Alaska. It could be so damn peaceful sometimes. He had traveled quite a bit and had certainly seen places that were livelier, but Alaska would always be home.

His journey to his apartment was taking him by the construction zone and as he got closer to begin to hear yelling. He picked up the pace debating whether not he wanted to get involved. He was a bit of a busy-body but that was because he could never stand to see other people get hurt. Soon the construction zone revealed itself and Raleigh was frustrated to see the same kid again in the same place Raleigh had left him. Didn't the kid have a home to go to? The man from earlier was back as well but this time he had a few of his buddies with him.

Raleigh hung back for a moment. The man once again entered the kid's space. He moved his hand to the kid's hip but he was pushed away.

"Fuck off, Mate," the kid snapped.

"The kid's got a mouth," one of the other men said cruelty.

"He'll shut up when he's choking on my dick," the first man said with a laugh. His was red and more than a little wet, like he sputtered alcohol out of his mouth earlier and allowed it to drip all over his chin and clothes

"Go to hell you drunk bastard," the kid snapped and Raleigh could hear a small hint of fear.

He began to move towards them when the man slammed the kid against the fence and then turned him so that he could sink into the kid's backside and press his face against his ear. The kid struggled when Raleigh finally arrived and grabbed the man by his shoulder and threw him to the ground.

The kid scrambled away and the other man began to move at Raleigh. He remembered his kwoon training and threw his hesitance to engage in violence to the wind. It was four men against one. It was hardly a fair fight. Raleigh was a trained fighter and these men were drunk off their asses. He would hardly break a sweat. He kneed one and then spun around to block a punch. He grabbed his opponents hand and then flipped him. The man landed on his back with a thud, and while still conscious, he was drunk and disinclined to get back up. The third man came at Raleigh with a flying fist so he ducked and the man hit his friend who Raleigh had kneed. He took their brief distraction to punch at the fourth man who thought he had an opening. Raleigh felt the man's nose crunch under his fist. The man fell to the ground gripping his nose in his hands.

The fight was quickly ending. None of these men were real fighters and clearly he didn't need to do more to stop them from bothering the kid. Raleigh felt a small bit of adrenalin still in his system and for the first time in years, he felt rejuvenated. He stepped back from the men and turned around to continue home but stopped when he saw the kid was still there standing a small distance behind Raleigh, watching him.

Raleigh shrugged nervously not wanting to reveal that he used to be a Jaeger pilot and that training included transforming your body into peak physical human condition.

The kid seemed begrudging in speaking, but he opened his mouth anyway. "Look...thanks."

"No problem, Kid," Raleigh answered. The kid bristled at being called a 'kid'. "But you should go home. It's pretty rough around here at night."

The kid frowned at him. "I think you are the rough part around here, mate," the kid turned back and looked at the drunken men still trying to collect themselves from the fight. "That was impressive for an 'old' man."

Raleigh made a face. He had almost forgotten how annoying the kid was. "Go home, kid." He turned seeing no point in sticking around. The kid was no longer being harassed and he could continue on walking home. He really just wanted curl up in his bed right now.

The kid shrugged and mumbled something about being 'done for the night' and turned on his heel without saying goodbye. He gave a flippant wave without turning around and Raleigh found that to be pretty ballsy of the kid considering Raleigh had just saved him from being attacked.

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The next few days passed in a blur. Selena and her friend upgraded to 'in relationship' which Raleigh got to listen all about whenever he and Selena were paired up. Raleigh also found himself constantly getting top of the wall duty. He was pretty good about not falling but he was worried about the strain on his harness.

These few days felt so strange, that Raleigh decided he'd pop by that bar by himself this time and an enjoy a beer. The crowd was the same minus Selena and her friends. He actually noticed the interior a bit better and realized that there was a TV above the bar playing a hockey game. Nobody seemed particularly interested, though. Behind the bar was a wall of mirrors, and Raleigh got a good look at his reflection. He wasn't getting much sleep lately. Were the circles under his eyes always that dark?

He gazed at his reflection only taking small sips from his beer when he noticed a familiar face sitting at a booth behind him. Was that the ginger haired kid? Raleigh didn't want to turn around and get caught staring so he continued to study the kid's reflection. He was sitting alone and was intensely focused on whatever drink he had, though he seemed to barely touch it. Raleigh raised an eyebrow. He had thought the kid was a bit weird. Still does.

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The next time he sees the kid, he was in a grocery store. He just got off his shift and it had just turned dark outside. Raleigh had run out of milk the previous day and made a quick stop to grab some. He ended up getting distracted by the smoothie booster section and lost track of time. When he finally decided on plain and simple protein smoothie powder, he turned around and spotted the kid in the fruit section comparing prices of bananas versus strawberries. He had a cute look on his face. Raleigh held back an amused smile before turning away to buy his food.

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The next time, Raleigh suspects something is up. He decided to stop by his favorite sandwich joint in all of Sitka and not five minutes later the kid enters. He orders a turkey sandwich and finds a table out of the way to sit at, only Raleigh realizes that he has a straight view of the kid and the kid has of him.

Something was definitely up.

Raleigh finished his sandwich and leaned back. He still had his drink left so it wasn't weird if he stayed a bit longer. This time he decided to watch the kid openly. He kept popping up everywhere; Raleigh was beginning to wonder if he picked up a stalker. The kid seemed to be intensely ignoring him and instead was ravenously devouring his sandwich. It was pretty funny to watch because the kid made a mess. Raleigh couldn't help but find everything funny about the kid: the way he ate, the way he talked, what he talked about.

Raleigh finished his drink and finally caught it. The kid's eyes flickered to him before turning away. So the kid was aware of him.

Raleigh stood and threw his trash away. Instead of directly leaving, he moved to join the kid's table.

The kid leaned back in his chair startled when Raleigh sat.

"What the hell do you want?" He snapped. He quickly grabbed a napkin and wiped his face.

"Do you ever talk without swearing?" He asked.

The kid glared at him. "Fuck no."

A couple at a table over turned to send the kid nasty looks and he looked away petulantly.

Raleigh let a smile slip onto his face. The kid was funny, even if it was unintentional.

"Can I help you with something?" The kid snapped. "I'm not a boy scout so if your old ass needs help crossing the street, go bother someone else."

Raleigh rolled his eyes and then focused on the kid who was no crushing his trash into a ball. He was looking off into a random direction and seemed to be avoiding his eyes. Guilty.

"I just want to know why you're following me." Raleigh had meant it playfully. He thought the kid was annoying but he was cute...in an annoying way. He was however not expecting the kid to explode the way he did.

His eyes widened and his mouth dropped.

"I'm following 'you?" He cried. "That's a joke, you old perv. You just happen to be everywhere I am."

Raleigh frowned now that other people we're staring.

"Now why don't you do us all a favor and keep your dick in your pants and leave me alone," the kid stood up and all but ran to the door.

Raleigh was left behind with an incredulous look on his face and the little shit's trash.

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It was Friday and most of the week staff had piled into the bars and diners looking to forget what they did at work. Raleigh returned with Selena and her friends to the same bar and already drinks were being passed around and shared. The environment was loud and Raleigh felt his adrenaline spike but not in a good way. Instead he just felt tense and stretched. He was squeezed at the bar and was trying to finish his first drink but the loud talking and laughing was making him edgy.

It also didn't help that the kid was back. He had claimed a small table at the back away from most of the patrons which annoyed Raleigh. How'd he get a quiet table? The kid was probably too young to even drink—maybe. It was hard to tell.

Raleigh did his best to ignore him. He didn't want to be called a pervert again in front of his coworkers. But if the kid did say anything, Raleigh was sure Selena would punch him out for him.

He looked around and saw that she was in the corner making out with her man, so maybe she wouldn't have his back.

He downed the rest of his drink and debated leaving or getting a second one. His answer was made for him. He happened to glance up and caught sight of the TV. Instead of a hockey game, it was a news outlet. Those were always bad. They were talking about Kaiju. The world was about due for another one of them anyway now.

Instead of a Kaiju attack, it was UN making a boneheaded decision. After all the budget cuts and the shutting down a few shatterdomes, they were finally canceling the Jaeger program.

"Fuck me," the bartender mumbled. He was maybe the only non drunk person in the building.

"The announcement was made at 2 pm by the secretary-General," a pretty reporter said. "The past four months, we have seen an alarming increase in the closing of shatterdomes around the world. The very first right here in our own Alaska. Four years ago the UN cut budgeting for the Jaeger program, which is a factor in the closing and the decline of Jaeger construction."

"Doesn't that make you sick?"

Raleigh looked to the bartender who was wiping a glass clean with a sour look on his face.

Raleigh grunted. "Looks like world will be relying on my construction skills." He waved for another drink.

"The Jaegers and their pilots have become a part of our pop culture in the past decade." The TV lady continued. "Coming up next, we'll take a special look at the Jaegers and the men and women who pilot them. Stay tuned."

A preview came up and flashed a few quick snippets. He saw the Marshall Pentecost and his copilot Tamsin Sevier when they piloted Coyote Tango. He saw a quick flash of the Gage twins, and then he saw a flash of himself and Yancy. They were in their white drive suits and they were having their back spinal shields screwed in. Raleigh's younger self was looking eager and confident. Yancy looked—

Raleigh turned away. He felt a drift coming on. His left arm tingled.

"No, no, not here," he begged quietly. He grabbed his wallet and threw money at the bar tender. "Keep the change."

He stood from his stool feeling shaken and turned. His eyes zeroed in on the kid who was watching him intensely. His eyes moved to the TV screen and they widened a bit.

Raleigh left the bar before he could turn back. He hadn't put his coat on properly and it was freezing outside. His mind felt like it was split in half and that he was missing something important.

"It's just the drift," he mumbled and stopped his walking. He turned his head to the right and saw Yancy in his Jaeger white smirking at him.

"...I'm in your head, Kid," he said and then put on his helmet.

The memory flashed before it disappeared and Yancy was gone and Raleigh was all alone again. He sunk to his knees, exhausted and rested his head on his hands. He squeezed his eyes closed.

He hated the drift.

Once you drifted the first time, you didn't always need to be connected by wires to achieve a neural handshake. Sometimes it just happened naturally, even when the other person was far away. When Yancy died and Raleigh experienced his first ghost drift, he had thought—hoped—Yancy was still alive.

He heard footsteps crunching on snow. He prayed it wasn't another memory.

"You alright, there, Mate?" an obnoxious voice cut through the still night and Raleigh's thoughts.

He turned a glared at the kid who followed him out. But he was also relieved. The hazy cloud of memories and ghosts lifted from him and he began to feel a bit more like a whole person.

"What do you want?" He said tiredly. Now he got to throw the tantrum.

The kid was staring at him.

"You're..." The kid began. Raleigh sighed. "You're Raleigh Becket?"

He nodded.

"You're a Jaeger pilot," he said.

"I was," Raleigh tried to stand up.

"What are you doing at the wall?" The kid asked. He came to his side and watched as he tried to stand. With no help from the kid, Raleigh found his legs and dusted invisible dirt off his thighs. He sent the kid an annoyed look for staring but the kid didn't seem to mind as he was still blinded by the stars in his eyes. "What's it like to pilot a Jaeger? To drift? What—"

"Kid, shut up," he said irritated. "I've got a headache and I don't need you..." He trailed off. He didn't need this smart-mouth punk bringing up old memories ever and especially after he had ghost drift. He was still feeling shaken.

"Y'know, you don't need to call me 'kid,'" the kid snapped. Raleigh blearily opened strained eyes at him. "My names Chuck Hansen and I'm 20 years old, last I checked that's not a kid, even with your country's latent 18 years of age bullshit."

"You're 20, how the hell were you able to get drinks?" Raleigh asked. He finally zipped up his coat so that he could get warm properly.

"We're being attacked by giant alien monsters, underage drinking by a few months is the least of anyone's worries," then softer that Raleigh almost didn't hear, "Besides, tomorrow might not be a bar there anymore, anyways."

That was a depressing thought, but a very true one. They were both silent for a moment and Raleigh debated taking this as a chance to leave. Chuck however sighed and then nailed him with a look.

"You however are still alive, so why ya not piloting anymore?" He asked with mischief. Raleigh wanted to punch him. "Dishonorable discharge? You perv on too many boys, they had to finally kick you out?"

Raleigh really wanted to punch him. Instead he turned around and just silently walked away. That only served to make the kid mad.

"Or did you run away? You strike me as a coward," he called after him.

Raleigh turned around and punched him in the eye. The kid—Chuck fell backwards on his ass.

"What is your problem?" He yelled in the punk's face.

"What the hell is yours, Rahhhleigh?" he snapped. He was holding his face and glaring up at him. "You walk around with your tail between your legs, looking like you want to cry all the damn time, and yet you go out of your way to save me. Twice, I might add. Like you have some hero complex. And then you turn out to be a Jaeger pilot. Why the hell are you here and not out there kicking Kaiju ass?"

"None of your business," Raleigh said. He was feeling deceptively calm outside but in the inside he was panicking.

"I think it's the whole world's business," The kid said. "You left us high and dry."

"I don't have to explain anything to a punk like you."

"You think your problems are so unique. Look around you the whole world the suffering."

"And what about you? I don't see you gearing up and jumping into Jaeger."

Chuck didn't say anything. He closed his eyes but held his chin up. His face was still red from where Raleigh had punched him.

Raleigh glared at the kid a moment longer. Superficial sense of achievement for shutting the kid up washed through him quickly leaving him drained and not a little hollow. The kid looked a little pathetic with his red face and pouty expression. But as juvenile as Raleigh expected him to be, he saw a familiar shadow fly across the kid's face. He had his own ghosts.

"I guess we both have our problems," Raleigh sighed. Chuck looked at him like a little kid. He was still sitting in the snow and his ass must be freezing.

"C'mon, let's go somewhere," Raleigh held out his hand.

Chuck stared and for a moment and then at is hand. He reached for it and Raleigh helped him stand.

"Where are we going?" He asked.

"I don't know. I'm pretty hungry, you?"

"I could go for food, yah," he said.

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They went to Raleigh's favorite sandwich joint. The very same where Chuck caused a scene and called Raleigh an 'old perv.' Raleigh May still be embarrassed but he liked the food.

Raleigh ordered meatball sub. He wondered if Chuck would get a turkey sandwich again but was amused when Chuck ordered the same as him. He gave Raleigh a defensive look as if he expected Raleigh to want an explanation. Raleigh didn't really care; he just thought it was cute.

They pick the quiet table and began to pick at their food.

"Judging by your accent, I'm assuming you're from Australia?"

"Genius, mate," Chuck said with his mouth full. "Got that one all by yourself?"

"You're prickly little thing aren't you?" He wasn't really hurt or annoyed anymore. Maybe he was a bit numb from everything that just happened but he knew better than to expect for Chuck to be nice. He wasn't nice.

"Like you said, I'm from Australia. Everything down there has a nasty bite."

"So what are you doing all the way up here?"

Chuck took the time to swallow this time. "I'm traveling the world. And I don't need to ask you the same. You're building the Wall of Life."

"Not impressed by it?"

"Don't think it will make much difference." He put his sandwich down. "We've seen Kaiju rip through buildings; some taller than the wall itself. So what if it's reinforced by the world's collection of adamantium, the Kaiju will knock it down as they always do."

"Well first, adamantium isn't real, and second of all...you're probably right."

They were both silent after that, finishing their food.

"You know," Chuck said after a while. "I was actually in the Jaeger academy. "

"Yeah?" Raleigh asked intrigued. He couldn't imagine this prickly little bastard in that place. Too wild.

"I didn't make it," he said and then kicked Raleigh's shin when he had feigned surprise. "I was damn good, damn it."

"So what happened?"

Chuck paused and smirked at him. "I was a little shit and I got kicked out."

"Surprise, surprise."

They talked a bit more. Chuck, it turns out was a wiz at robotics and mechanics.

"I built my own Jaeger once," Chuck said. Raleigh snorted into his drink. "I'm serious. Sure it was about this tall." He held his hands out a certain distance. "And it didn't have all the bells and whistles. I called it the Tasmanian Moma."

Raleigh stifled his laughter especially when Chuck said the name. "Did it have plasma cannons?"

"No," Chuck looked petulantly stubborn.

"Weapons?"

"Beanbag gun." Chuck said and Raleigh laughed.

"So you basically made a toy?"

"A very complicated toy."

"You ever consider being a j-tech?" He asked. Chuck shrugged.

Raleigh was impressed that Chuck was smart enough to design his own mini-Jaeger despite his teasing. Raleigh had never tried hard when he had been at school. He had never been that interested in clubs or sports. In fact he didn't have much of a drive until his brother one day pulled him before the TV as the newly formed PPDC presented the technological monstrosity that would soon save the world or that was the initial hope for the Jaegers.

It didn't take long for Yancy to sign up, and as lost as Raleigh was, he could only follow him.

In a way Chuck reminded him of Yancy as he talked excitedly about some of his gadgets and his dream of being a pilot. Chuck had high scores in the kwoon and on paper looked to have a high compatibility drift rate. Unfortunately he also reminded Raleigh of himself. Raleigh who had never accomplished anything unless he had his brother pushing him along. Even now, in a weird way, Raleigh still had his brother, even if it was only in the drift.

"Gentlemen," Raleigh looked to the waitress standing before their table. "We're closing for the night."

"Uh yeah, no problem," Raleigh said. He stretched and looked at his watch it was one in the morning.

Chuck looked a little put out at being interrupted but he silently gathered his trash and followed Raleigh out into the night.

"Thanks for the food," Chuck said awkwardly. Nice words must not be easy for the younger man.

Raleigh shrugged it off and wondered if this was something that he and Chuck would do again. They both shuffled awkwardly unsure of what they wanted to say and where they stood with each other.

"I live out in the old apartments on the edge of town, you close by?" Raleigh asked.

Chuck blushed and looked away. Raleigh noticed that Chuck liked to avoid eye contact. "Yeah," he mumbled.

"Do you...want me to walk you—"

"I'm not a girl, Becket," Chuck snapped, "And I'm perfectly capable of walking by myself."

Raleigh held both hands up in a calming manner. "Sorry, meant no offense."

Chuck sighed frustrated.

"I guess I'll see you around." He turned to begin his trek home when Chuck called after him.

"Wait."

Raleigh turned and looked at Chuck expectantly.

"If you don't have a ride, I can give you one," Chuck seemed embarrassed but Raleigh couldn't understand why.

"Yeah, thanks, Man, appreciate that."

"My car is parked down the street," Chuck gestured loosely behind him. They made the short walk to Chuck's beat up wagon. They both scrambled in to escape the cold air.

Raleigh took a casual glance around not expecting anything but was taken aback by the amount of things in Chuck's backseat: Blankets, clothes, a small pile of food. Raleigh turned around and glanced at Chuck. He was pretending not to notice.

He revved the engine and glanced at Raleigh, "Where to, sir?"

"Take this straight and at the stop sign, turn left onto Main Street."

Chuck nodded.

Raleigh tried to relax and block his thoughts but it bothered him that Chuck was for all intense and purposes, living out of his car. He didn't seem to have a job as far as Raleigh knew and he was always waiting near that damn fence harassing construction workers or getting harassed. Whoever he was waiting on must not be a good friend if they hadn't taken the kid in yet. Living in Alaska, one learned to live with the cold, but that didn't mean it couldn't get deadly.

They arrived at his apartment and Chuck was sitting anxiously as he waited for Raleigh's slow ass to get out of his car. In fact, Raleigh was only halfway out if the car before he turned to the feisty redhead.

"Hey, kid?" He smirked at the annoyed look he received.

"What, Old Man?"

"Do you want to come up?"

Chuck looked like a mix bag of emotions. There was surprise, dissapointment, and something that Raleigh chose to interpret as desire. Above all he looked a little scared.

"Not for anything like that," Great. The kid was maybe right calling him a perv. "Look, I couldn't help but notice that all your stuff..." he nodded to Chuck's back seat.

Chuck's eyes widened and he glared at Raleigh.

"Why don't you mind your own business, Asshole. I don't need handouts." He snapped. "Get the hell out of my car."

"Whoa, Hey I didn't mean anything. I get it," Raleigh snapped over Chuck revving his engine, threatening to drive away with Raleigh halfway in the car. "But the weather is supposed to be in the 30s tonight, and I know I sure as hell wouldn't want to be in a car. Come on. I have a couch."

Chuck looked torn, stuck between pride and a warm place to sleep.

"If I say yes, will you get the hell out of my car, already?" He asked.

.

.

.

Raleigh's couch was by no means perfectly comfortable. His apartment had been bare and Raleigh spent his money on a mattress and food before picking up a couch from the thrift store. Chuck didn't seem to mind as he immediately moved to the couch upon entering. Raleigh contemplated offering him something to drink. Coffee and water were the only liquids in his kitchen but one look at Chuck's exhausted face sent him walking towards his closet for a spare blanket.

"Bathrooms over there," he pointed to a hall behind him, "And here." He handed Chuck the blankets and pillow.

"Thanks," Chuck mumbled and went back to not making eye contact.

"Do you need a toothbrush," he asked and Chuck shook his head. Raleigh felt a little awkward and shrugged, "Well, sleep tight."

He went to his room and before closing it he snuck a glance at Chuck who was placing his pillow against an armrest.

.

.

.

Chuck was gone.

The next morning, Raleigh stood over the couch where the blankets were folded away and the pillow was placed cleanly on top. Raleigh had half expected the kid to leave the couch in disarray as some childish form of spite.

Raleigh stored away the blankets and went to the kitchen to make some coffee.

.

.

.

Monday came around faster than what Raleigh wanted and Work was the same dreary unfriendly place it had always been. Another man had fallen from the top of the wall which should have been horrifying news but every few months a Kaiju popped up and killed thousands; Mother Nature's way of population control.

To continue with the dreary mood, Selena's world ended sometime over the weekend. Her man broke her heart by sleeping with a woman who didn't have calluses on her hands and couldn't bench press 200 pounds.

Raleigh and she were scheduled for top of the wall meant he spent an eight hour shift in another man's grave while listening to Selena cry her heart out.

"After a day like this, I need a drink," she said as they slid down to ground level.

"Drinks were what got you into the situation," he said.

"And they'll help me forget about them, Guapo" she smirked and then draped herself over him. "Which is why you should come out with me."

He gave her a tight smile, "Not today, Selena."

She pouted at him and walked away. He tried to avoid whistles and catcalls that their scene caused and walked away to his next station.

.

.

.

"You have a girlfriend?" An Australian accent asked.

Raleigh's shift had ended and he had just stopped by the entrance and had paused to check his bag to make sure he had all his tools. He no longer trusted his locker.

He looked over and saw Chuck leaning against the fence watching him.

"No?" He asked confused. He hadn't seen Chuck all weekend and the punk had left without goodbye.

"What about that female construction worker?" He asked.

"Selena? Naw," he shrugged. "She broke up with her...one night stand."

"And you're the rebound?" Chuck asked. He had moved closer.

"Jealous?" Raleigh took a risk.

Chuck was an arm reach away. He shrugged. "Of you, old man? No."

Raleigh shrugged and looked away.

"How about I show you how 'non-jealous' I am?" He reached out and played with the front of Raleigh's shirt.

Something about how he said that and of course his action had Raleigh look back at Chuck surprised. While he had taken a risk in teasing Chuck, he wasn't surprised Chuck had quickly verbally shut him down. His last comment, however, blew him away.

"You mean, like sex?" He asked dumb founded. He looked back at Chuck's hands but Chuck let him go.

"You stupid, don't talk so loud," Chuck frowned at him.

"Whoa, man, sorry," he said. "I guess I'm just surprised."

Chuck just glared at him and crossed his arms.

"You keep calling me old," he mumbled under his breath.

"It's been a while for you, hasn't it?" Chuck asked with an eye roll.

It was Raleigh's turn to blush.

"C'mon, wine and dine me, then we'll go back to your place! Yeah?"

"For sex?" Raleigh asked with a teasing wide smile.

"Stop talking, you tactless moron," he grumbled.

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.

.

They took Chuck's car to a restaurant closer to the edge of town where they could grab kabobs. They sat on the curb and ate the greasy meat on a stick.

"Mm," Chuck said, "Actual freshly cooked meat."

"What about those meatballs from the other day?" Raleigh asked with his mouth half full.

"Those were probably refrigerated since last year," he said. "This place is a damn icebox, I bet they just stick the meat out in the open in their backyard and it gets freezer burn."

"We're only in Sitka, man. Have you even been further north?" He asked.

Chuck shook his head vehemently. "And I have no intention of going either."

Raleigh sent Chuck an amused glance and then grabbed a french fry from the basket they shared. They stared out across the skyline. This was nice. The sun had set an hour ago, and the stars were twinkling merrily. The lights were always brighter up here. As a kid, Raleigh and Yancy were so taken with the sky, especially Yancy. He one day hoped to become a pilot or an Astronaut. Yancy had tried to teach himself how to use a sextant and learned all the constellations.

Raleigh pointed to a particularly bright light in the sky. "Do you know what that is?"

Chuck squinted, "The North Star?"

"Nope, that's the ISS," he said. At Chuck's blank look, he clarified, "Space station."

Chuck nodded. "Lucky bastards, they're up there away from the Kaiju."

"I think they're dead...actually," he said and watched as Chuck was about to take a big bite out of his last remaining piece of meat, but instead turned and glared at Raleigh.

"That's fucking morbid, to tell a man as he's about to finish his meal," he said.

"Sorry," Raleigh shrugged. "Well do you see that bright one right there," he pointed to another bright light. "That one's Jupiter."

"Lovely," Chuck said and tossed his kabob stick towards the trash can.

"And that one right there, that's the moon," he explained seriously.

"No way, I always wondered what that was," Chuck said with wide eyes.

"You can see it with your own eyes, brightest light in the night sky," he said factually.

"You should have been an astronomer, you know so much," Chuck chewed on a french fry and Raleigh was tempted to kiss him.

"Well I paid attention in elementary school," he grabbed Chuck's fry and shoved it into his mouth. "Some people think the moon is hollow because it rang like a gong when some rockets or something crashed into it. It rang for hours." Raleigh explained. "My brother, Yancy, told me it was an egg and that a dragon lay dormant into it. I use to get to scared that we'd do something to wake it up—anyway, that was a few years before the Kaiju attack."

"Your brother is a dick to tell poor elementary school astronomer Raleigh that."

Raleigh just nodded and then Shrugged.

He felt heat on his thigh and saw that Chuck had put the basket of French fries in his lap and had moved closer to Raleigh so that their thighs were touching. Chuck wasn't looking at him but instead at the moon. That was fine. Chuck often did things without making eye contact, like he wasn't knowingly comforting his friend.

.

.

.

They eventually made it back to Raleigh's place. Chuck didn't need instructions again, which meant he either had a freaky good memory or he was the little stalker that Raleigh's accused him of.

They parked on front of the building. Raleigh looked over to Chuck and saw him for once not pretending to ignore Raleigh. He moved a warm hand onto Raleigh's thigh and then began to inch up.

It was as if the floodgates had opened up. Soon they were an entanglement of awkward limbs as they tried to make out in Chuck's car. In fact Chucks elbow kept hitting the horn.

"Backseat?" Chuck asked before continuing to suck on Raleigh's tongue.

"No, upstairs," Raleigh said though his tongue was otherwise occupied and he found it difficult to speak.

"Mhmm, okay," Chuck mumbled into his mouth though neither made a move to get out. Instead Raleigh let his hands drift lower until, they rested on Chucks butt.

"We should really move," he said when they finally broke the kiss and were just resting in the other's space.

Chuck just nodded.

"You can stay with me?" Raleigh didn't know what drugs were interlaced in Chuck's kisses but he was feeling a little high right now.

Chuck leaned away.

"Sorry," Raleigh mumbled and loosened his grip if Chuck wanted to breakaway.

"So what, I become your kept boy? Pretty woman style?"

"Pretty woman? Kept boy? I don't really know what you're talking about, but its way too cold at night to be living out of your car."

Chuck looked torn, which surprised Raleigh. He had expected Chuck to go ballistic considering his track record of yelling at Raleigh. Instead the kid looked depressed and more than a little lost.

"I don't expect anything, if that's what you're worried about," he removed his body from Chuck and moved closer to the car door.

Chuck just watched him. "Why are you being so nice? You don't even know me."

Raleigh just shrugged.

"I think you're a bit of an asshole, but I like you just fine," he said.

Chuck just frowned.

"You like that I'm an asshole?" He asked.

Raleigh shrugged again.

"I like that you're a masochist, than," he said. "And a nice guy. Okay."

"Okay?" Raleigh nodded to the apartment building.

"Okay, means okay, Asshole," Chuck reiterated but there was a fondness to his voice. "I'll stay."

They didn't have sex that night like Raleigh had wanted. Instead they made several trips from Chuck's car bringing his stuff up into Raleigh's apartment. Most things were packed away in suitcases, which reminded Raleigh of Chuck's transient lifestyle. The kid was from Australia and it looked like he was just traveling through.

Raleigh had promised Chuck the couch and that was where they left his things. Somehow they ended up in the kitchen drinking coffee to moving into Raleigh's bedroom, where he showed him a few photos of Gypsy Danger. Chuck had been ecstatic to see them and they had fallen into Raleigh's bed. Chuck had listened eagerly as Raleigh relayed stories of Tendo Choi and Marshall Pentecost. He kept away from Yancy in this setting. He was weary of jump starting a ghost drift. Chuck didn't need to know how fucked up he was.

Eventually they fell asleep like that.

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.

.

It was weird living with another human being again, Raleigh discovered. While Chuck officially had the couch and slept their sometimes, more often than not, Raleigh found him crawling into his bed with kisses. One time Chuck proclaimed it was his birthday and encouraged Raleigh into sex. Not that Raleigh needed much encouragement.

Raleigh was a bit of a mess, he didn't have a lot of stuff, but what he did have was never put away properly. Chuck was a bit of an organization nut which explained why he kept everything in the suit cases instead of unpacking them. Raleigh realized that Chuck was a bit of a control freak and knowing where everything was seemed to give him some comfort in this uncontrollable world.

Chuck also did the shopping—with Raleigh's money, of course. Chuck seemed to have some cash but mentioned he wasn't making anymore at the moment. Raleigh asked what he did and Chuck just shut him with a kiss and shoved a protein shake in his hand.

One time they had tried to do grocery shopping together, which turned into a bit of a nightmare. Chuck, it seems, as well as being an organized control freak, was also health freak. Raleigh while in good shape and kept up with his exercise, never paid attention to what food he was eating beyond the boosters in his shakes.

Chuck had exploded when Raleigh threw some ramen in their cart.

"This shit has so much sodium in it; you might as well have salt in your veins instead of blood."

"It's cheap," Raleigh reminded him.

"It's unhealthy," Chuck took the ramen out and put it back on the shelf—in the wrong place, too.

They had a mini face off before Raleigh sighed and let Chuck buy whatever food he wanted.

After that, Raleigh just gave Chuck cash and let him go on his own.

Raleigh actually found that he liked Chuck in his living space, despite how bossy he was. Chuck could make scrambled eggs and sandwiches, or that's as far as his patience would let him. So in the morning before Raleigh left for work, they would eat together and then Chuck would hand him a paper bag which had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or if Chuck was I a good mood, a ham sandwich.

The domesticity of the situation was becoming the new norm. Chuck also seemed to like having him around if only to insult him and then make him food. Like Raleigh always thought, Chuck was a bit weird.

After the month of August passed and the September ushered in the fall season, Raleigh was thankful he made Chuck the roommate offer when he did. The weather started to get colder and the days shorter. There would've been no way Chuck could've continued to live out of his car without getting sick.

Currently they were sitting on Raleigh's couch otherwise known as Chuck's sometimes-bed and watching the blank wall where if Raleigh had money, would've been a TV. Instead Chuck had stolen some packaging paper from a dumpster and somehow scrounged up markers and drew several picture that looked like a kindergartener had drawn them. Chuck switched them out every few days or at least when he thought about it.

"I'm bored," Chuck sighed. He was leaning heavily on Raleigh.

"What am I supposed to do about that?" He asked. Chuck was being cute and he was having a hard time not showing how it affected him.

"Entertain me, Moron," Chuck said. "Your apartment, what do you do for fun?"

"I read—"

"Boring."

"I listen to the radio—"

"How old are you?"

Raleigh laughed.

"Usually I'm too tired to do anything after work so I go right to bed."

"You really are old," Chuck said practically into his arm.

"Well, kid, what about you? Tic-tac-toe? Pokémon? What?"

Chuck sat up, one hand resting on Raleigh's arm. They looked at each other for a moment before Chuck got brave and gently stroked his arm.

"Well..." Chuck said in a low voice and then leaned over so his face was inches away from Raleigh. "You could always teach me...street hockey."

Raleigh shoved Chuck away and mumbled damn.

Chuck laughed.

"What? I've always wanted to play. As a kid, I loved hitting things with sticks."

"You really want to do that? I don't even think I have skates?" Raleigh knew he didn't. He and his siblings all had a pair but they were packed away somewhere in anchorage and Raleigh sure as hell wasn't about it drive up there because Chuck wanted to play hockey.

"Tell me a story then," Chuck said and leaned back into Raleigh. Raleigh moved so that he as lying as well and that Chuck was pressed against his chest. He didn't seem to mind the new position and instead grabbed a blanket and draped it over their legs.

"Tell me about being out there, in a Jaeger?"

Chuck was insistent in badgering Raleigh about the Jaeger program, Kaiju, being a pilot, everything. It had been uncomfortable at first because sometimes he would feel the tendrils of a drift beginning. Chuck himself had never drifted when he had been at the academy. Said he got into one too many fights and was asked to leave before they could properly test him. Most people who had never drifted thought it was cool, always talking about wanting to experience it for themselves, they didn't realize that once you drifted, your mind stops being uniquely yours.

"What's wrong?" Chuck asked. He twisted his neck to look at Raleigh. "You're not talking."

"Sorry," he mumbled. He put the drift aside and focused on Chuck. "How about my first Kaiju take down?"

Chuck nodded, "Tell me that one."

"Well, I was 18—"

"So a long, long time ago?" Chuck interjected.

"Hey," Raleigh sighed. He squeezed Chuck's thigh and Chuck laughed. "I thought you wanted to hear a story," he mumbled.

"Sorry, Mate, continue," he said.

"So 'a long, long time ago ' after I graduated with my brother they put us in Gypsy Danger. We would do some patrols, practice maneuvers, you know, get a feel for her. She was good and we were good. We impressed the shatterdome with how quick we took to her. She was cutting edge technology back then."

Raleigh felt his mind drift with thoughts of gypsy danger. He was slowly getting more comfortable talking about Yancy and when Chuck was nearby, he never felt the normal threat of a ghost drift coming on. He looked down at Chuck in his arms and saw that he was staring at the drawing he had taped to his wall. Raleigh realized that Chuck had drawn a Jaeger. Raleigh moved a heavy hand to Chuck's belly. Chuck gave him a weird look but didn't complain.

"Anyway, the Kaiju alarm rang and the Marshall had us suit up. We were to protect the miracle mile in the northern direction. Everyone wanted to show off the newest mark-3. Gilded Hammer had point off the LA strip."

"This is Yamarashi, right?" Chuck asked.

Raleigh nodded, though he didn't know if Chuck could tell.

"I remember this from TV," Chuck said. "Gilded Hammer had a two-kill count. I remember liking them."

"Yeah?" Raleigh asked.

Chuck looked as if he was blushing. "I had one of their action figures."

Raleigh laughed. Chuck was such a fanboy.

"Heh, anyway," he continued. "Gilded hammer was on the scene first. They launched a missile attack—their secret weapon and it had no effect. They tried to stave off Yamarashi but it was no good. The beast swiped at their reactor and nearly pulled the damn thing off. Cut off their power supply that's for sure."

"And then big bad Gypsy Danger shows up," Chuck said.

"You already know how this story ends," Raleigh said.

"You can't stop it there, you're the worse story teller ever. Finish it."

"Morbid, but yeah, we showed up. We engaged the Yamarashi. Half of LA was destroyed before Yancy and I took a busted crane and wrapped the wire around Yamarashi's neck and suffocated him."

"Another one down." Chuck smirked.

.

.

.

Charlie watched horrified from his desk as the large monster took down a few RAAF jets with one swing from its massive paw. His teacher had turned on the TV an hour ago and as a class they watched the beast move towards the mainland. Charlie had thought it was like sitting on a boat heading straight for an iceberg and there was nothing anyone could do. The Australian military had unleashed a full scale attack on the creature and it didn't even slow it down. There were interruptions from anchors talking about what the rest of the world had to say. The US was urging for a nuclear attack.

Time seemed to move in weird speeds for Charlie. Everyone seemed to move slower around him, but the Kaiju seemed to be moving horrifyingly fast. Reporters had claimed that the kaiju—named Scissure— had a trajectory heading for Sydney. Heading for Charlie. Scissure—he hated that the beast was named—was destroying the Australian forces like they were nothing. He had seen the attacks on California and Manila. It had taken the US and Britain together six days and three nuclear missiles to stop the trespasser and Just one to take out Hundun. Nukes seemed to be the only thing effective.

Since time was failing on Charlie, he wasn't sure how much later it was when military suits came running down the school hallways ordering the teachers to lead their students to the buses outside. That was all they were allowed to do, run to the buses. Charlie wasn't allowed to ask questions. He wanted to know where his father was. Would they take him to his mother? He had stuff at his house he still wanted. The men just ignored him or pushed him towards the buses. His teacher eventually grabbed his wrist and tugged him against her where she sat on the buses.

Charlie couldn't tell, but people said it had been three days since the monster came out of the ocean. In those three days, Charlie hadn't seen or heard anything of either of his parents. Military outfits had led the school buses further inland and the set them Up in a closed airport.

They were other refugees there but none that Charlie knew that weren't from his school. He was alone. His parents were out there somewhere. He had no idea if they were alive and if they were how he would find them. They could be hurt and they needed him. What if they were waiting for him?

He felt too small and helpless so he stewed in a corner of the building. He glared at anyone who got too close. A tall black man in a familiar looking uniform seemed immune to his stares as he simply knelt before him. He had sad eyes and Chuck was suddenly scared.

The man opened his mouth to speak.

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.

.

"Happy birthday."

Raleigh opened his eyes and saw Chuck's ginger face peering down at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Happy birthday," Chuck said. "You do remember your own birthday, right?"

Was it December 11th already?

"Yeah, but how do you know it?" He asked. He sat up in his bed and looked at Chuck who was wearing sweats and a t-shirt. Chuck had slept on his couch the previous night which wasn't uncommon as he didn't like to be crowded.

"I stole a peek at your id," Chuck said, "You should have told me. I would've done something special like, I dunno, make you waffles."

"That's sweet, I'm surprised," he said. Chuck pouted at him.

"Har, you're hilarious, mate," he said. Raleigh kind of loved the pout and he leaned forward and captured Chuck's lips. Chuck had been staying with him for several months now and they had slowly developed little intimacies like that. Raleigh didn't quite understand what their relationship was but he liked that Chuck seemed to trust him and was willing to stay with him despite the cold weather and the general impression Raleigh had that Chuck was just intending to pass on by.

Chuck leaned away towards the nightstand where Raleigh realized were two steaming mugs of coffee.

"I brewed it myself," he said smugly. "Your coffee pot has been trained."

Chuck was kind of inept and didn't fully understand how to make coffee. He reused old coffee grimes to make several pots or took the pot out without realizing liquid was still dripping. He had burned himself somehow several times. It was awful and yet funny.

"Well let's see how the coffee of champions tastes," he took a sip and instantly made a face.

"Stop it, Raleigh," Chuck said. "It's good and you know it." Chuck took a sip followed by a manly swallow. "See, good." He grimaced.

Raleigh laughed. "I'll go make some."

"No, it's your birthday," Chuck said but he got comfy in the bed as Raleigh crawled out of it. If he was expecting a sexy show, he didn't get one. Raleigh was wearing a sweatshirt over his t-shirt and sweatpants. It had gotten dastardly cold with the coming of winter.

He switched out the coffee filter and the grimes then brought the new drinks back to his bedroom. Chuck was already under the blankets and all Raleigh could see was the tips of his light ginger hair.

Raleigh sat the cups on his nightstand and watched Chuck's lumpy form under his blankets. Chuck had taken to the middle of the bed leaving no room for Raleigh. He reached over and ran a head through Chuck's hair. The redhead glared at him playfully as he lifted his head from the blankets.

Raleigh found this irresistible and fell into bed behind Chuck. He wrapped an arm over the kid's waste and pressed his chest to Chuck's back. Chuck let him and actually snuggled into him.

Raleigh felt something painful in his chest with the realization that for months, he has had this. In quiet moments like this, Chuck made him feel whole in a way that Raleigh hadn't felt in years. He felt old and yet frightened. Good things like this don't last long, not for him.

He pressed his face into Chuck's neck and tightened his arms.

.

.

.

Raleigh got off work and moved towards the parked cars in the street. Chuck was waiting for him with a rolled up magazine in his lap. He was trying to finish the crossword puzzle Raleigh had seen him start earlier in the morning.

"I hate crosswords," he mumbled and looked at Raleigh. "You look like shit."

"Thanks," Raleigh said. He opened the door and took the passenger seat. "Let's head home," he sighed.

Chuck threw his puzzle to the backseat and sent Raleigh a weird look. "What crawled up your butt?"

"Just a bad day."

"Well stop it, it's bringing me down," Chuck said. He started to drive slowly.

Raleigh raised an eyebrow up at him. "I'm sorry," he said sarcastically.

Chuck gave him a sheepish look. "Bad day at work?"

"You know how it is," Raleigh sighed. "But today my harness snapped."

Chuck gasped. "Holy Kaiju shit, you okay, mate?" He asked.

"Oh yeah," Raleigh said. "I bruised my thigh and my ego, but I'll survive."

"That's good," Chuck said. "I'd be pretty sad if you died."

Raleigh smiled at him. "Good to know."

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.

.

On the way home, Chuck pulled over into a Christmas tree lot.

"What are we doing?" Raleigh asked as he looked at all the green trees with a frown. He hadn't celebrated in years' not since Yancy died.

"I want to get a Christmas tree," Chuck said and got out of the car. Raleigh scrambled after him.

"I haven't celebrated Christmas in years," Raleigh said awkwardly but followed Chuck into the maze of trees. The shatterdome never decorated so Yancy one year bought a tiny plastic one that sat on a night stand, they hung two ornaments, one for each of them then strung popcorn stolen from the cafeteria. Before, in anchorage, their mom would take them out and buy the largest tree they could find. It was a big deal and they would drive to several tree lots before picking one. It felt weird to be doing that with Chuck...who was eyeballing a particularly gimpy tree that came up to his waist.

"Not that one," Raleigh said as if saving Chuck from a terrible decision. "If you're gonna get a Christmas tree, than get a Christmas tree, not that sad thing."

"It looks easy to carry," Chuck shrugged. "Does any tree catch your eye?"

Raleigh looked around and settled on a large one that would probably need a good trim on the trunk to be able to stand up right in his apartment. It was not the ideal tree for his living space, but he liked it.

"This one," he said.

Chuck whistled. "Compensating? You know they have Viagra for that." Chuck walked towards Raleigh and put his hand on his crotch like an asshole.

"I'm sure you know all about that," he pecked Chuck on the nose than turned to the seller. "We'll take this one." He turned back to Chuck who was as red as his hair and gazing at him with surprise. "What?"

"Nothing," Chuck said and did the awkward cough that people do when they're feeling uncomfortable. Honestly, all Raleigh did was kiss him on the nose. Chuck has no problem with molesting Raleigh's junk in public but one tiny kiss has his face matching the color of his hair? "But I don't think that tree will fit."

"You're suppose to tie the tree to the roof of the car."

"I don't think I have anything to tie it with?"

"Excuse me, sir?" Raleigh turned to the tree seller, "We'll take rope too."

The three carried the tree to Chuck's car and Raleigh showed him how to strap the tree down. Chuck gave him an impressed look.

"Before you joined the Jaeger program were you a lumberjack?" Chuck asked. They got back into the Car and began to drive back to Raleigh's apartment. Though more and more, lately, it was beginning to feel like theirs.

When they arrived to his apartment, Raleigh ran inside to grab his tools then helped Chuck untie the tree. It rolled off his car into the parking lot. Chuck stood back as Raleigh pulled out his saw and began to carve the trunk a bit shorter.

"The tip is gonna bend against the ceiling," he said.

Chuck shrugged. "You're talking to the guy who was gonna buy the sickly tree. I don't really care."

"Yeah that thing had like no branches, what were you thinking?" Raleigh finished carving and packed his tools up. "Let's bring it on up."

They carried the tree slowly up several floors and flights of steps. They eventually set the tree up against the wall where Chuck taped his drawings. The plain tree, now standing up, had no ornaments or decorations, and it took nearly the entire living room.

"I don't think we thought this through," Chuck said and slid onto the couch.

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.

.

Slowly, as the days came closer to Christmas, the tree became more dressed. Raleigh had taken to collecting small scrap metals and attached fishhooks to them. Chuck did his share by making small ornaments out of construction paper.

Who would've thought Chuck would enjoy crafts? When Raleigh would come home from work, he'd find all sorts of scrap paper and markers displayed about in his living room as Chuck had dropped what he was doing to quickly pick him up. One evening Raleigh sat with him and let Chuck teach him how to make paper snowflakes. They taped those to the window. Eventually Chuck made a paper angel which hung awkwardly from a tall branch as opposed to the tip of the tree, which was folded under Raleigh's ceiling.

His home became increasingly more festive with paper decorations and on Christmas Eve, Chuck and he went out to the local deli and bought turkey lunch meat which they roasted over Raleigh's stove. Chuck had

so bought a pie a few days earlier for desert.

They ended up snuggling on the couch eating their food out of makeshift tinfoil plates. Raleigh had taken a large slice of pie and let Chuck finish his turkey.

"This is my first white Christmas in years," Chuck said.

Raleigh swallowed and gave Chuck a questioning look. "Oh yeah? Where've you been all this time?"

Chuck smiled, "After the academy, I went home for a year, and then I went to California for some time and I've been working my way up the coast."

"I'm surprised you didn't move further east," the densest populations were living along the Atlantic coasts. Raleigh had considered moving out there himself, but the moment he got on a bus he'd find himself waiting for another bus back, the pull of his brother calling him home. Or maybe it was the pull of the Kaiju?

"I couldn't do that," Chuck said. "It didn't feel right. I feel too connected to the ruins to live anywhere else."

Raleigh understood that.

"But I couldn't stay in Australia either," Chuck said. He balled his tinfoil up and gave Raleigh a rare vulnerable look. "It's a little silly, but I'm following my mom's plan. She had this whole vacation trip planned out from before the Kaiju. We were gonna visit all these places along the pacific coastlines. That's why I'm here. Alaska was on her list."

Raleigh felt his heart sink at that. So Chuck would eventually move on to the next location on the list. He put his pie aside and took Chuck back into his arms.

"You're doing this alone?" He asked.

"Yeah," Chuck shrugged. "I don't have anyone else."

Raleigh could understand what that meant. "I'm sorry."

"I know," Chuck lifted his head and looked at him. "That's why I'm doing this, it's for her. She wanted this so bad. My dad was always away because of work and he was gonna take two months off for vacation and we were all gonna go, just the three of us. Sorry, I'm rambling."

"No it's okay," Raleigh said.

"I've never told anyone," Chuck said. He leaned into Raleigh. "I don't really know what happened to them. Their bodies were never found. My dad was In the RAAF and they told me that he supposedly abandoned his post and stole a helicopter to head to downtown Sydney. My mom worked there but they couldn't evacuate them because it was too late. The Kaiju—'Scissure' had already made land and was wrecking shit."

"I'm sorry," Raleigh said. Losing someone like that to the Kaiju never felt fair. In some other universe, they were all living other lives where the Kaiju never came and everyone was alive and together. Chucks parents would be alive and so would Yancy.

Raleigh closed his eyes and felt soft tendrils creep over him. The drift. His eyes snapped open when he heard Chuck's voice.

"Fuck Kaiju," Chuck said as if Raleigh had never spoken and really what could Raleigh say. Raleigh tried to focus on Chuck's voice but his mind felt a little foggy. "Fuck 'em. You know, Australia doesn't even have any fucking nukes. That's why it took so fucking long. They had to wait to get them so the Kaiju was left to stomp all over our military until then. And then they had no time and could only drop the bomb on populated land. I have no fucking clue which did them in. The bomb or the Kaiju?" Chucks voice sounded thick and his body was slightly heaving. Raleigh wouldn't be surprised if Chuck was crying though he wasn't making noise.

Raleigh rubbed Chuck's arm and tried to comfort him. He also tried to anchor himself against Chuck. They sat in silence except for Chuck's heavy breathing and Raleigh's loud thoughts.

.

.

.

"Hey, kiddo," a voice said and Raleigh twisted his neck to look behind. He saw Yancy in his drift uniform smirking at him with his helmet under one arm.

"Yancy?"

Everything around Raleigh became dark and Chuck was no longer in his arms. In fact, Raleigh was no longer sitting down. He was wearing his old drift uniform and was standing in the con pod.

"Merry Christmas, Kid," Yancy said with a heavy smile. Yancy always called him kid or some variation of the word. Raleigh didn't mind, he liked being Yancy's kid brother. "I brought the tree out. Tonight we'll put the ornaments on."

Raleigh looked around and then focused back on Yancy.

"Cat 2 heading towards Kodiak Island. You ready for this? The PPDC will have front row seats."

"You know Gypsy is a star," Raleigh said.

The impending battle with the cat 2 never came, though Raleigh knew it happened in the real world. Instead the drift played a hodgepodge of memories.

He saw his 10 year old self walking to school with Yancy. They turned and waved to his mother who was holding a bite-size Jazmine against her hip.

Then he was fifteen trying out for the football team and failing, feeling humiliated. The thing was, Raleigh had never tried out for any sports, Yancy had.

Then he was back in the con pod. He turned to Yancy who was about to talk before he was ripped out and gaping hole was left.

.

.

.

Raleigh opened his eyes. Chuck was leaning over him looking concerned. "What the fuck, Mate?"

Raleigh felt terrible. He closed his eyes feeling defeated. He felt Chuck run a hand through his hair and wondered how long this drift lasted.

"Sorry, it's okay," Chuck said again.

"No," Raleigh said and tried to sit up. It wasn't okay. He didn't want Chuck to see how messed up he was, drifting with a dead man. Raleigh sometimes felt like he was missing something, and other times he felt like he was housing two souls.

"Raleigh?" Chuck asked. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," and he was. No matter how much he'd like to avoid them, he had ghost drifts plenty over the past few years, and he always woke up so there was that. Chuck just watched him from where he knelt on the floor beside the couch. He had wrapped the blanket over Raleigh.

"You just passed out except not really," Chuck explained. "You were like catatonic. I couldn't wake you up."

"Yeah that happens, not recently but it happens," he explained as Chuck just stared at him. "It's called a ghost drift."

A look of understanding flickered across Chuck's face. He must've been thought about those at the academy. "Oh."

"Yeah," Raleigh sat up and tugged the blankets off his legs. He was feeling a little hot at the moment. Chuck instantly reached out and rubbed a hand against Raleigh's ankle.

"This has been some Christmas," Chuck said. "Though honestly it isn't a family holiday unless someone ends up crying."

"No tears here," he said.

"I almost started," Chuck said and Raleigh had thought so, though looking at his eyes they were still looking raw. "Do you want a hug?"

"What?" Raleigh asked.

"Sorry I'm new to this comforting other people business, and I kinda want one," Chuck said softly.

"Get up here," he adjusted his position on the couch so that Chuck could sit behind him. In a weird non-sexual which was unusual for Chuck, he initiated a hug with Raleigh. Chuck was so awkward but Raleigh was damaged and so they went together well.

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.

.

They spent the night on the couch and on Christmas morning, Raleigh woke up first and gathered their greasy tinfoil trash and went to the kitchen. He turned on the coffee maker and rummaged through the fridge. He decided to make breakfast this time around. He needed some kind of focus, and trying not to burn the house down was a strong focus. He was still feeling weird from the previous night but that was expected after a ghost drift.

He cooked eggs and sausages and separated them onto two plates. He then grabbed their coffee and entered the living room like a pro server, balancing the two plates on one arm and the coffee mugs in his other hand. Chuck seemed to be awake and was sitting by the tree. He was hunched over and Raleigh realized he was drawing something. He rested their food on the side coffee table before sitting back on the couch to watch Chuck.

"I made breakfast," he said.

Chuck glanced at him. "Smells good," he said. He turned back to his drawing and added some finishing touches. Then he joined Raleigh on the couch and they enjoyed a quiet breakfast together.

Later when Chuck ran out to play in the snow leaving Raleigh to clean the plates, did Raleigh see what Chuck had been drawing, it was a beautiful portrait of Gypsy Danger with a surprising amount of detail. Chuck must've been very familiar with Gypsy Danger to capture that amount of detail. The boy made no bones about his fanboy nature to other Jaegers and Raleigh realized that Chuck might've been a fan of Gypsy and maybe of her pilots.

He left the drawing where he found it and joined Chuck out in the snow.

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.

2025

They spent New Year's getting drunk on the couch and then making out at midnight, than the next morning, moaning with a hangover. Going back to work after New Years was always a pain. Raleigh usually drank himself drunk, whether he was with coworkers who invited him out on the one night he was willing to get along with people he didn't necessarily like or by himself.

However, Raleigh had to buy a new harness which put a dent in their grocery money. Chuck used his own money to buy food, though he still wouldn't explain what job he had to earn it.

They kept the decorations up until the tree started to lose its pines and rot. It took a couple of weeks to get to that point and together they dragged it out to the back of the apartment complex.

"Let some raccoon make a home of that," Raleigh said.

"You should have let me chop it up, mate," Chuck said and wrapped an arm around Raleigh's waste fondly. "For firewood and what not."

"I don't have a fireplace," Raleigh said.

"Then because I wanted to use your ax," Chuck said with a wide dimpled smile.

"Don't use the psycho smile on me," Raleigh said and tugged Chuck with him back to the apartment. "That face holding an ax will give me nightmares."

Chuck pouted.

"You're a disturbed, kid," he said.

"Am not," Chuck said. "And doesn't your old ass have to be at work?"

Raleigh glanced at his watch, "Shit."

"Hah," Chuck laughed and pulled out his car keys. "Come on."

.

.

.

Sometimes Raleigh thought life with Chuck was like having a family again. Chuck had stopped being a guest a long time ago. He had even begun to unpack a few of his bags. His things displayed cleanly in his living room, a few making their way into Raleigh's bedroom; His toothbrush in the bathroom next to Raleigh's.

It was weird that in all the fucked up things to happen in the world, that the two of them would find each other

Raleigh wouldn't have minded if Chuck stayed, forever, maybe. But would Chuck want to?

.

.

.

"Holidays treating you well, Chico?"

Raleigh turned to Selena who was standing very close to him. "Hey, Selena." He took a step back in surprise and she smiled lasciviously at him.

"You're looking less droopy than usual, must've been a big turkey?" She asked and then poked his belly. She cackled as he blushed. She was covered in dirt and dust, Raleigh realized. She had been welding today. She wiped her face which was sweaty. "Phew, I am burning."

"I don't envy you, but then again in these temperatures." He left that hanging and gestured to the community area. They moved to a tiny rec area to relax for a few minutes.

"Are you offering?" She asked. "I'm tired of playing with fire today." She grabbed an empty wooden seat which hadn't been taken up by a few other workers on their break.

"Nah," he shrugged. "They have me pretty low to the ground today. No top of the wall duty until my harness comes in."

She shrugged.

"Too bad. I haven't seen you in a while," she said. "I was hoping you would swing by the bar for New Years. Y'know, celebrate no Kaiju attacks till next year...well this year."

"Don't jinx it," he frowned. He watched Selena grab an open water bottle from one of the men. They whined about it but ultimately let her because she was pretty. Pretty; a good resourceful tool. She batted her eyelashes at them as thanks.

"But seriously, man. Come hang out, it's not good to be all on your own like you do. Plus I miss you," she said. "Who's gonna have my back when I make stupid mistakes?"

"I'll watch it for you," A new voice cut in.

Raleigh twisted his neck and then groaned. Gerry fucking Haddelwell. Selena kept the scowl off her face, barely.

"You couldn't handle my backside," she said saucily. "You wouldn't know what to do with it."

He chuckled and moved to join the other men. The rec room was pretty small, so they were all essentially sitting pretty close together.

"I'm sure Becket here knows all about taking care of someone's ass," Gerry chuckled.

Raleigh frowned wondering why he was getting dragged into this and why

"Mmm, I'm Sure he does," Selena smiled at Raleigh in a flirty manner. He gave her a tentative smile before giving Haddelwell his best 'Chuck' glare.

"Give it up, Mendez," Haddelwell said. "Becket here is already taken in case you haven't noticed, and even if he wasn't, you're missing some important parts to be his type."

Selena raised a flirty eyebrow still focused on Raleigh. "Uh huh?"

Raleigh glanced at her before standing. "I think I'm gonna get back to work."

"Wait up," Selena said. She took a large sip of water before tipping an invisible hat to Gerry and his friends. "Good day, Sirs."

She caught up with Raleigh as he entered the work zone.

"Don't let them get to you," she said. "They're just talking out their ass."

"I know," he shrugged.

"But you know, I have seen you and that kid when he picks you up?" She said. He bit his lip wondering how he felt about this conversation. He felt afraid to admit anything substantial about the relationship. If he spoke the words aloud, Chuck would slip through his fingers and fly away in the Alaskan breeze and he'd be left wondering if Chuck had ever been real.

"What's the deal there? You're not paying are you? That's got to be expensive?" She asked.

"What?" He asked confused. What was she talking about?

She was about to answer but someone had yelled her name and she cringed.

"Oh shit, that's my supervisor," she cried and began to hurry away. "I'll talk to you later, but seriously, come out drinking with me again, Kay?"

And then she was gone. Raleigh shook his head feeling unsettled by today. Something wasn't sitting right.

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.

.

Charlie stared at himself in the mirror. The PPDC finally accepted his application. Pentecost had pulled some strings and got Charlie allowance a few months premature of his twelfth birthday to become a Jaeger pilot in training. Charlie wondered if what he was feeling had any parallels to what his father felt on his first night as an RAAF pilot. But then again Herc Hansen had joined in time of peace. He didn't have revenge motivating him.

Charlie pulled out a razor he had stolen from the local pharmacy and held it to his scalp. His bangs brushed against his brows. He closed his eyes and felt the gentle touched of his mother as she ran her fingers through his hair and sung a soft lullaby. He remembered his father rubbing the back of his head as Charlie ran to him after his football team won the match.

"That's my boy," Herc had said proudly every time even if Charlie's team lost. "Losing is just as important," his father would say then. "It teaches you how to be a good winner."

Charlie pressed the razor closer and felt the warmth of blood spill forward. He softened the pressure and then readjusted the blade.

"Keep it together, Hansen," he mumbled. He began to shave his hair into a military cut; His tresses falling to floor, soaking with the blood.

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.

.

"Are you okay?" Raleigh asked. Chuck had been late picking him up and quiet on the ride home. Raleigh didn't mind at first as he appreciated the quiet after dealing with the obnoxious and loud people at work.

But Chuck had locked himself in the bathroom for a half hour and then came out without talking. He sat stiffly on the couch and began to doodle on scratch paper before settling on just staring out the window.

Raleigh's stomach nearly dropped as he realized what this was. What he was feeling and what Chuck was doing. Their time together was getting shorter. A countdown had begun at some point, an hourglass had been flipped. Anytime now, he would lose Chuck.

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.

Chuck had settled on quiet. He didn't ignore Raleigh necessarily but a dynamic had changed. Chuck was depressed. Raleigh could tell and he didn't know how to make it better. Chuck didn't want the distraction though he would let Raleigh hold him without complaint.

He hadn't gone grocery shopping in a while, and he didn't draw or try to teach himself origami anymore. This morning Chuck was still sleeping in, and Raleigh didn't want to wake him. He leaned over and kissed his forehead, Chuck was still on the couch, he hadn't visited Raleigh's bedroom in a while, and had multiple blankets bundled around him to keep him warm. A quick glance told him that Chuck's things were looking nicely snug in his suitcases. Feeling sad, He swept his fingers gently through Chucks hair and then left to walk to work.

Chuck opened his eyes softly feeling like a failure.

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.

.

Raleigh was still waiting on his harness so he was close to the ground and could hear the stirrings of a popular topic sweeping through his juvenile coworkers. Raleigh wished he had earmuffs so that he could block them out.

"He's back," he heard rumblings.

"Tired of Becket?" Another voice said.

"That's who he's been shacking up with?"

Raleigh stopped welding and turned around to look for the conversation.

The men talking glimpsed at him before awkwardly quieting. The first voice cleared his throat. "Yo Raleigh, your...um boy is here."

Raleigh frowned. "Chuck?"

The man shrugged. "Yeah, asking for you."

Raleigh nodded and turned away from the men.

He gathered his tools and left for the construction entrance. Chuck was leaning against a pole, once again bundled up in the winter coat that He had worn when Raleigh had met him.

"Hey Chuck," he said tiredly and nervous.

Chuck just smiled weakly. "Hey," he said. "I forgot to make you lunch."

He held out a brown paper buck that he was gripping. "We're out of bread so I had to use the ends."

Raleigh grabbed the bag and gave Chuck a soft look. "Thanks."

Chuck seemed antsy. All week, Raleigh had been getting weird signals from Chuck. He had been quiet all week, but Raleigh got the feeling that Chuck wanted to say something. Raleigh glanced around at all the people milling about. Shifts were changing, some were coming and some were going. Chuck followed his gaze than stared back at him.

"I was gonna take my break," Raleigh said. "You wanna stay?"

Chuck shook his head. "No offense but I kinda hate it here."

Raleigh shrugged. "I could leave, we could go somewhere else?"

Raleigh wasn't sure if he meant for lunch or in general, but Chuck was already shaking his head.

"I'll see you around," Chuck said.

"C'mon," Raleigh tried again, scared. This felt important. He needed Chuck to know he'd push for this and that he wouldn't let him go easily.

"I'm not that hungry," he said but Chuck was always hungry.

"Naw, of course you are," Raleigh said. "Wait here. I'll clock out for lunch." He didn't give the kid time to respond and sped around.

When he came back out, Chuck had waited for him by his car. Raleigh eagerly went towards him, happy that Chuck had stayed. That felt like an achievement. He was sure that Chuck had been planning on leaving. Maybe he wanted to move on to the next place on his list but if that was the case, Raleigh wanted to follow.

They found an empty parking lot, and Raleigh tore the sandwich in to two. Chuck complained about the ends despite the fact he had made the sandwich. Chuck ate his half though.

They talked about everything from music, which Raleigh didn't listen to, though Chuck had his favorites from the radio. They talked about books; Raleigh was a fan of the classics, which caused Chuck to tease him for being sappy. Chuck himself had been a fan of comics as a kid, before the Kaiju came along.

Raleigh wanted to ask Chuck if he could follow if Chuck left, but the words wouldn't form instead he grabbed Chucks hand and laughed at the appropriate places.

Chuck dropped him off at work and told him he'd pick him up later.

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.

.

Raleigh's coworkers were staring when he came back, whispering loudly as well. They had done this shit to him before when he first came here when they speculated on why the quiet new construction worker looked so familiar.

He was determined to ignore them since he had no value in any relationships here except maybe Selena, but that plan was shot to hell pretty soon. A few coworkers who outwardly couldn't stand him approached him as he was coming down from a mid level rafter.

Maybe it was someone calling Chuck a whore or that god damn Gerry Haddelwell proclaiming he had Chuck the first week the kid popped up in Sitka. Apparently Chuck was loud and a biter. Raleigh knew that to be true but he hoped it was just an obvious guess on Haddelwell's part based on Chuck's overall personality and not from intimate experience.

He had punched Haddelwell, which sparked a dog pile. About seven guys held Raleigh back as Haddelwell went on about Chucks perfect little mouth and his shapely balls.

Raleigh was seeing red.

"Face it. Becket," Haddelwell sneered. "You're playing house with a hooker. It's pretty sad."

He breathed deeply but kept a tight glare on Haddelwell's face.

"Playing it cool," he snorted. "Look, Becket, it's fine if you like repeat performances but the Hansen brat was one of the cheaper whores in the city, and the rest of us would like—"

Raleigh ripped his arm free, and pushed Haddelwell again, this time the other man's back slamming against the wall. The men holding him back were forced to follow him. They seemed surprised by his strength.

"Stay the fuck away from him," he roared. "If you get anywhere near him I'll rip your balls off."

Raleigh felt like he was giving the crazy eye and something in his face must have spoke volumes of his anger, as Haddelwell froze in his arms. A few of his buddies, jostled him, but Raleigh broke away from him.

"That goes for all of you."

.

.

.

Raleigh didn't bother clocking out and had contemplated going home to Chuck but he was feeling so wired and antsy. He didn't know what he wanted Chuck to say but he sure as hell knew what he didn't want to hear.

Instead he took a turn to the bar.

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.

The walk in the cold air and the alcohol in his belly did nothing to clear his head. His mind still swarmed with thoughts of Chuck and the words of Gerry fucking Haddelwell.

He couldn't believe Haddelwell or most of the assholes there. No background checks. Many of these guys were probably drug abusers or criminals.

But then he thought about it.

Chuck hanging by the construction fence. Horny miserable men coming and going, looking for a warm body after a hard day of work. Chuck had even compared himself to pretty woman, which now that Raleigh thought about was some ancient movie that his sister Jazmine liked to watch as a kid about a hooker.

Even Selena had asked if Raleigh was paying?

Chuck had probably been hoping to turn a trick when Raleigh first met him. Fuck, he had even asked the kid if he had been waiting for his dad. How stupid was he?

Raleigh stopped outside his apartment building. He sat on the stoop and rubbed his eyes. He blinked a few times and saw Yancy standing before him.

"Not you," he mumbled.

Yancy just gave him a half smile.

Raleigh had a sinking feeling.

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.

.

Chuck was lying on the couch. He had one of Raleigh's books resting on his chest but his eyes were focused up on the ceiling. He sat up when Raleigh closed the door.

"What time is it? Your shift can't be over now, can it?" He asked and looked to the wall clock that read 4:50

Raleigh didn't answer, instead he just took in Chuck's appearance. Shit, he was just a kid...

"Ral..." Chuck frowned. "Are you okay? You're not fired are you?"

Raleigh shrugged. "Maybe."

"Your face is fucked up," Chuck observed with a frown. "And, are you drunk?"

"You talk to all your clients this way?"

Chuck froze and Raleigh frowned. He did not just say that. He looked away from Chuck not sure what to do or say.

"What did you just say?" Chuck scrambled off the couch once he found control over his muscles.

"Nothing," Raleigh mumbled still avoiding looking at Chuck. He made a move towards his kitchen but Chuck got in his way and pushed on his chest.

"No, what did you say?" Chuck yelled. His voice was getting loud.

Raleigh finally looked at him and saw a panicking kid, whose face was red with humiliation. But he also saw the man that he brought into his home and allowed into his life. The man who Raleigh had spent the past few months fearing would leave him while simultaneously pondering if he could follow him. This man was prostituting himself all the while.

"I asked...if you talked to all your clients this way."

"Fuck you!" Chuck cried. He pushed Raleigh and he fell into the wall.

"What the fuck is your problem?" He yelled. He rubbed his back and glared at Chuck. "You're mad at me because I found out about your little secret?"

"You don't know shit, Asshole!"

"I know you're a fucking prostitute and I'm a fucking idiot for not seeing it sooner."

Chuck growled, "You're just like the rest. I don't know why I..." He frowned. "Forget it. I'm done here." Chuck turned around towards his suitcases and dragged them past Raleigh. Over the period of his stay, Chuck had slowly unpacked some things like his toothbrush and some underwear but Raleigh wasn't an idiot. Chuck had just recently packed his things up earlier. He had already been planning in leaving. This was just a nice excuse.

He moved out of the way. No point in stopping the kid if the kid was so desperate to leave. He was never Raleigh's to keep in the first place.

"You know, Raleigh," Chuck said as he opened the door, "I had stopped."

He turned and left.

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.

.

Raleigh should have been fired. His supervisor wanted to fire him, at least, but instead he cruelly stuck Raleigh on top of the wall duty for the unforeseeable future, which probably meant till Raleigh fell off of it.

His coworkers were unbearable. Haddelwell's crew were giving him shit eating grins. Raleigh wondered if Chuck was back in business but he really didn't want to think about that.

Truth is, Raleigh's couch still smelled of Chuck and his bedroom despite never fully functioning as Chucks own bedroom felt empty and cold. He had left his drawings behind which Raleigh left taped to the wall. It was stupid and he knew he should get rid of them, but they were a part of Chuck that actually seemed genuine...even if a small part of his brain wondered if their relationship wasn't...

But he kept them.

However, he followed Selena to the bar more often despite the chorus number the loud crowded environment did on his nerves. The room was packed and he felt like canned food. Selena was all over him and she had even drunkenly licked his ear.

Raleigh was drunk too but he saw his brother smirking at him from the bar mirrors and pushed her away.

Yancy was everywhere these post-Chuck days. Raleigh's head was fuzzy and the ghost drift wouldn't let up. At work, Yancy was standing at another beam, looking down.

"Get ready for the drop, kid. Today's the day."

Raleigh tried his best to ignore him, but the rolling clouds behind him spoke of bad omens.

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.

.

That afternoon, three men had fallen from the top of the wall; the worse numbers in some months. The place seemed subdued as if the deaths hung over the place like a wet rag. Nobody bothered Raleigh after that, even Haddelwell had backed off. The deaths put everyone in a state of professional mourning.

Despite the reprieve from Haddelwell, He hadn't seen Selena at all but he figured she was keeping her distance since he turned her down. He hoped he hadn't lost that relationship as well. Fuck.

Yancy was still there, though. Raleigh only saw him from afar, but he was standing on the wall looking out into the ocean, the sky grey behind him.

Raleigh tried to see what Yancy saw but only saw the sky and water. At the top of the wall there were less people and because of the danger, most people kept to themselves and focused on their tasks. The quiet environment allowed Raleigh to become lost in the muted atmosphere. He closed his eyes and felt a breeze blow through his hair.

It was nice to feel peace, though with the terrible way that Raleigh had been feeling these past few years and more strongly these past few days, he wondered how he could tell the difference from numbness.

An unrelenting noise began to ring in his ears.

He opened his eyes and saw that everyone was scrambling around, trying to climb down from the wall. Suddenly everything became less muted and Raleigh realized the menacing ring was the Kaiju alarm.

Everyone began to hustle. The supervisor on the ground was yelling at everyone to head to the basement area. Most listened though a few made a run for the exit. Those few must have had family to run to. The rest, like Raleigh had no one and nothing to lose.

The basement was actually small collection auxiliary and utility rooms connected by empty concrete walls. It was standing room only and Raleigh was shoved into a corner where he spent the next few hours with a pipe in his back.

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.

Raleigh realized that of all the faces around him, not one was Yancy. For a heart-stopping second, he thought he had left his brother out there. But wait, Yancy was dead and what haunted Raleigh everyday was a figment in his head. The Kaiju had already killed him.

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.

Chuck was safe. That's what Raleigh hoped at least. The boy had already been in a Kaiju storm, so he had to know protocol? Chuck should've moved east, Raleigh thought. He had a list of cities; maybe he had already left and was out of reach.

Not for the first time that day, Raleigh wondered if he should've run out the gates and looked for Chuck.

No, he knew he should've. Even if Chuck had planned to leave, maybe he had stayed.

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.

The only sound that could be heard from the basement level for the past few hours was the blaring alarm muffled by concrete and the moist coughs made by the frightened construction workers. Nobody talked but even that wouldn't have hidden the sounds of destruction from a Kaiju if the beast had made landfall in Sitka.

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.

.

They we're let out after four hours and all of them crowded towards the small break room TV. Someone turned the volume up and Raleigh listened as he heard the news reporter speak with a shaky voice.

"I am here at Sydney where Earlier today, yet another Kaiju attack took place. The Kaiju, an enormous category 4 broke through the coastal wall in less than an hour. The wall had been deemed unbreachable by its builders." The woman spoke as if reading from a prompter. Her words were much too concise for someone who had lived through a Kaiju event. But her words despite coming from a woman across the ocean seemed to have a damning affect on everyone around Raleigh.

The wall had been 'deemed unbreachable' by its builders...what a load of shit. The only people saying that were the politicians footing the bill who were tucked a continent away.

"Why the hell are we even building this thing?" A voice rang out among the grumblings of people within earshot. Workers agreed easily with him.

"That thing went through the wall, like it was nothing."

Raleigh turned to his side and saw Haddelwell had been next to him. Haddelwell gave him a look as if expecting Raleigh to say something. What he didn't know. He was a Jaeger pilot; he fought the Kaiju in a metal shell. Didn't mean he didn't fear them. He looked away, feeling bad for Haddelwell for some reason. He was all smoke and no fire.

The TV played footage of the freshly named Mutavore who was a gangly creature; His beak like nose bursting through the wall like a battering ram and the tall almost human silhouette walking among the Australian cityscape taking huge sloping steps. People were running and buildings were falling.

Raleigh realized that this was the second time that Sydney had been targeted by a Kaiju and the first time happened about eleven years ago. Only that time there were no Jaegers and Chuck was just a little kid who never got to say goodbye to his family.

The footage shown on the screen showcased the toppled buildings. There were some bodies strewn about. The cameras no longer tried to shield the audiences from death as it had become an all too familiar site. Raleigh tried imagining being a kid who saw that and wondered if his parents made it out alive.

"Ironically it was the recently decommissioned Eureka striker and its pilots, Scott Hansen and Jonah Northron, who defeated the beast—"

Raleigh turned away from the TV screen and pushed his way through the crowd. His head felt clear and Yancy hadn't been seen for hours. His ghost drift had ended, yet he still felt like he was missing half of himself.

As if a domino effect had been put into place, another piece of Raleigh's life came crashing down.

Fast on the heels of the attack, a roar ripped through the structure they all stood in. Some people responded as though the Kaiju resurrected and appeared before them. Raleigh however recognized that roar as something else. With a tired soul, he walked out from the construction zone and saw a black military helicopter land, the PPDC logo stenciled on the tail.

"Looking sharp, Marshall," he sighed. After five years, what could they possibly want with him now?

.

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.

The Marshall gave him two hours to pack up his necessities. Not that he really needed it. He was leaving most of his furniture behind and he owned nothing valuable. Some grunt from the PPDC was going to come by in a month and handle his lease. He wasn't sold on the Marshall's plan, not that the man revealed much. But the man threw the 'end of the world' on the table, and after seeing the destruction that Mutavore had wrought, Raleigh had felt some moral obligation to step up. Also he wanted out of Alaska.

"You're leaving?"

Raleigh stopped packing his duffle bag at the surprisingly familiar voice and turned around. Chuck was standing at his bedroom door with wide eyes. He hadn't heard his front door open or Chuck's heavy footsteps. He was looking pale and Raleigh felt uncontrolled concern wash over him.

"Chuck?" He asked. "I thought you were already gone?"

"I was on my way to Juneau." He shrugged and walked further into the bedroom. "I saw the attack on TV…at some fucking truck stop."

He looked young and lost. Raleigh could imagine that Chuck saw the Kaiju in Sydney and saw only his parents or the busses that drove him away towards a lonely future.

"Hey," Raleigh dropped his bag on the bed and moved towards Chuck. He opened his arms and Chuck immediately moved into them. Raleigh held him tightly and Chuck's arms wrapped around his back, his face pressed against his shoulder.

"Fuck," Chuck moaned.

Raleigh just held tighter.

"Don't leave," Chuck mumbled.

Raleigh didn't know what to say, so instead he just squeezed Chuck a little tighter, and then loosened his grip.

"I have to," He said softly in Chuck's hair. Chuck leaned away and stared at him.

"Why?"

"I'm getting back in a Jaeger," He said. Chuck's eyes widened. "The Marshall came for me. I'm leaving in an hour."

Chuck continued to stare at him. "An hour?" He asked. He sounded a bit heartbroken. "But I…You can't leave."

"I'm sorry."

Chuck stepped out of his arms.

"I can't believe this," He mumbled, then glared at Raleigh. "I came back for you. I was gonna ask you to come with me or if I…"

Raleigh smiled and felt a knot in his chest loosen. If Chuck coming back here at all proved how two-way their relationship was, it didn't lessen his satisfaction at hearing Chuck verbalize his desire for Raleigh join him on his Pan-Pacific trip. He rested his hand on the back of Chuck's head and kissed him.

"What?" Chuck mumbled.

"Thank you for inviting me on your trip," He smiled.

Chuck just sighed still feeling down. "It's not like I had a choice. I couldn't stop thinking of you. Even though we parted on bad terms."

Raleigh nodded feeling ashamed. He should have behaved differently and maybe Chuck wouldn't have left him. But he was here now. In his arms. "I'm sorry."

Chuck just stared at him.

"I'm sorry for the things I said and the way I made you feel. When I found out, I got scared that everything we had wasn't, well, wasn't real," Raleigh rubbed Chuck's forearms as if fascinated that Chuck had arms. Chuck just gave him a hard look.

"You should be sorry," Chuck said and stilled Raleigh's arms. "I think I showed I was pretty fucking ecstatic over you. I wouldn't have stayed if I didn't like you. And by stay, I mean stay in Alaska any longer than a week."

Raleigh just look chastened and Chuck looked away.

"But I'm also sorry," He sighed. "I just needed the cash. I didn't hook up with anyone after you invited me to your place."

Raleigh nodded. It pained him to hear Chuck talk about his life as a hooker but he was happy that they were now being honest.

"Alright, so were both sorry."

"But you're more sorry," Chuck said petulantly.

"Yeah," Raleigh said. "I am. That's important to note."

"But does it even matter?" Chuck sighed. "You're leaving with the PPDC."

"No," Raleigh said quickly. An idea came over him. "It's my turn to invite you. I want you to come with me to Hong Kong."

"Hong Kong?"

Raleigh nodded.

Chuck looked ponderous for a moment but Raleigh could see that Chuck was willing. "I get to see you in a Jaeger, right?"

Raleigh nodded.

"And we'll get to stay together?"

Raleigh had no idea what the housing plans would be at the last remaining shatterdome, but he was sure that there would be room for Chuck and if not, no problem. Chuck could stay in his bed with him. He nodded.

"Well, okay then."

"Okay?"

"Okay, means okay, Asshole," Chuck smiled. "Plus it's a stop on my list."