And here we are, the final chapter *single tear*
Many thanks to my beta-chan paradorx, long may she reign as queen of grammar.
"This is ridiculous," Yancy said bluntly. Raleigh was too busy being blissed out to even respond, running around wrapped in a towel and damp from his rushed shower. Yancy took his silence as an invitation to continue, standing in the middle of Raleigh's living room with a mug full of coffee with him. "I mean, just take an overnight bag for Christ's sake. You're going to be late to the fair."
Raleigh flashed Yancy a smile, his toothbrush hanging out of the corner of his mouth. "Let me tell you, Yance, it's much more exciting without an overnight bag."
"I didn't need to know that," Yancy remarked quietly into the lip of his cup, taking a fortifying slurp of bitter liquid.
"Well maybe if you didn't pitch such a fit about Mako staying over here, then you wouldn't need to know." Raleigh disappeared into his room to get dressed leaving the door open to continue his conversation.
"Hey, cut me some slack! Hearing about it second hand is much better than hearing about it through your bedroom wall." He shuddered at the memory. "You are loud, bro."
Raleigh smiled brightly as he pulled a sweater over his head. "It's a joint effort."
"Oh my god, you manage to say that like there are hearts coming out of your eyes. Are there hearts coming out of your eyes? Jesus." Yancy stomped around towards the garage. "I'm leaving! See you at the fair."
"See you," Raleigh huffed as the door slammed. He rolled his eyes and continued getting ready.
It was May. The rains of April had let up only a few weeks earlier, and with them came the ceremony Raleigh thought he'd never manage to see. The fiftieth anniversary Payload Award was given to Pacific Rim High School by default—seeing as Breach Academy was revealed as grossly corrupt, stealing football plays and test scores in an attempt to secure the money for themselves. Their Physics and Anatomy teachers had been caught red-handed attempting to intercept a memo between Stacker and Herc, about the codes for the school's online gradebook, with which they would have been able to fail every student enrolled. Mrs. Otachi confessed at once—while Mr. Leatherback growled occasionally and made lewd comments about Herc Hansen and handcuffs until a lawyer was present, when he opened up about the plan for the Payload Award's extra cash to be divided as bonuses among the staff. The school was investigated, corroborated the story, and had been forcefully and shamefully removed from the running for the Payload Award.
The entire staff of Pacific Rim High had been there to watch and applaud as Stacker accepted the award from the school board, his face serious but eyes alight with pride. No one from Breach Academy was allowed to be in attendance. The after party in the town hall ballroom had been good so far as Raleigh could see—but Mako had pulled him into a closet after only a half an honor to make out, and that was all he ended up seeing of the after party. He heard later from Yancy that Tendo drank Chuck under the table and Aleksis and Sasha danced a tango so fiery they had to be removed from the dance floor before it became something obscene. But, considering the night he had, he wasn't sorry to have missed it.
Raleigh spent most nights at Mako's condo, so many that he was, despite his teasing Yancy, actually thinking about packing some kind of bag or box to keep there, so he wouldn't have to drive back home before heading to school to freshen up.
Looking less like he had spent the night doing something suggestive, Raleigh finally got into the car and sped towards the school, arriving amid traffic to a main office full of gossiping teachers, all leaning amicably against the bar surrounding Tendo's bullpen. Raleigh quickly discovered that Mako was not there yet and visibly deflated. Yancy scoffed and hit Tendo with his elbow, pointing it out. Tendo rolled his eyes and followed the Wei Tang brothers out to the quad, new soundboard held carefully in his arms to set up the sound system for the celebratory fair.
The entire day's worth of classes had been cut, and all the students were going to be the recipients of a fair, set up down the central outdoor hallway, stalls of games and food and entertainment, free of charge, courtesy of the Payload Award, which was also funding a new sports announcement shed, new computers for the computer lab and library, and completely renovating the drama center, right down to wood floors to replace the cheap 70s linoleum currently in place on the stage. New sports team uniforms, smaller entry fees for the arts, as well as a larger book budget was all a result of one date and one brave girl who locked the door.
One date had become many dates, over the few months between the arrests and the award ceremony. Many, many dates. In fact, the 6th month anniversary of when they decided to go steady was yawning ahead, and Raleigh was already in a flurry of trying to decide what to get.
Raleigh ended up leaning against the bullpen next to Yancy and listened to Newt and Hermann argue about exactly how much fun carnivals were. It was an endless argument, and Raleigh thought that they should have realized it by now, two geniuses, but they refused to in favor of arguing with their favorite combatant forever.
When Mako entered the room, Raleigh could feel it. His head whipped around and he nearly ran to her.
"Morning," she purred, giving him a quick kiss and holding his hand.
"Hey," he said, entire face lighting up.
Newt made a gagging noise and beat a retreat, Hermann on his heels.
"I have never felt so single in my entire life," Yancy reflected with a shudder. Chuck slid down the bar next to him.
"I'm with ya, mate," he said, wrinkling his nose as Mako and Raleigh kissed again. "It sets my stomach churning."
"Amen." They fistbumped and Yancy stared resolutely at Raleigh, who rolled his eyes.
"Everybody, stations!" Tendo poked his head inside the office and then disappeared again. Raleigh tried his hardest to ignore how Chuck and Yancy continued to chat as they left.
"It's ridiculous, he's been spending nearly every night at her house and he's still too wimpy to commit to bringing a bag with him."
"Amateur."
Mako squeezed his hand, bringing his attention back to her. "What are you in charge of?" she asked. By unanimous staff decision, she was exempt from having to work on the grounds that she was the one responsible for revealing the subterfuge in the first place.
They began to walk out of the offices. "I was going to do the strongman contest, with the hammer-bell contraption, but Aleksis pulled rank and stole it from me. Sasha's next door, so I think he just wanted to be near her." He spread the hand that was not currently in her possession. "I'm free."
Her smile lit him up from toes to the top of his head. "Good."
At the quad, Tendo was making full use of his new soundboard, replacing the busted one, and the Wei Tang brothers were demonstrating an awe-inspiring mix of breakdancing and acrobatics, putting their own cheerleading squad to shame, struggling to keep up with their coaches.
They watched for a while, hand in hand, and then began to walk down the main hallway, looking at games and entertainment. Raleigh tried to do the strongman contest, but came up laughingly short. Mako muttered something about fulcrums before nearly doubling his score. He tripped after her from the stall, stars in his eyes. Aleksis and Sasha, in the next booth selling cotton candy, passed some money over their waist-high partition.
As they neared the end of the hallway, the crowd got denser, and the sounds louder. Everyone seemed to be shouting out encouragements and asking for reinforcements for whatever was ahead. Raleigh racked his mind and remembered what was set up there.
"Who's in the dunk tank?" Raleigh asked loudly, struggling to be heard.
Mako chuckled. By standing on her tiptoes, she could speak right into his hear, sending pleasant shivers down his spine. "As if you need to ask." She pointed, and Raleigh couldn't help but grin in amusement. They stopped to watch the show, getting close to the action.
The dunk tank had a long line of angry looking kids lining up for a chance to try and dunk none other than Chuck Hansen, perched on the small chair in nothing but a white shirt and skinny jeans, looking pleased beyond measure, shouting out insults and urging them all to give it a go.
He was particularly hard on his own football players. "Step up, boys, show me what you've been hiding all season!"
"You call that a throw? No wonder you warmed the bench!"
"Ha, if only the target was shaped like the visitor's defensive line, you might hit something!"
"Come on, boys, you throw like toddlers!" Chuck mimed a noodle-armed throw with a childish coo and dissolved into harsh laughter, "My grams could throw harder; and she's dead!"
With a red face, the big football player took off his shoe and threw that, aiming for Chuck rather than the target. Chuck laughed and dodged. "Are you kidding me, Jones? If that toss wasn't so horrible, I'd make you run laps!"
"You're an asshole!" someone in the middle of the gathered crowd shouted.
"I've never claimed otherwise!" Chuck replied. "Now, come on up, you pansies, show me what you've got!" He flexed his arms challengingly.
The rabble was pulling the biggest kids possible and pushing them forward, egging them on, to Chuck's continued amusement and derision. He shouted abuse and was abused in return, but he didn't seem to care, too busy enjoying his ability to be abrasive and not punished.
Then, all fell under a hush.
Wearing his weekend clothes, not his normal suit, Herc approached the stall with Max happily slobbering away by his side on a leash. His arm was fresh out of its sling, and he smiled gamely at his son, now with a look of shadowed suspicion on his face.
Herc picked up a ball and rolled it around his palm.
"I've been meaning to test my arm again," Herc said loudly, meeting with cheers from the surrounding kids. Chuck's eyes grew wide as he witnessed his father warming up his throwing arm, Max barking happily along.
"Old man—" Chuck said warily, holding up one hand, and with the other, holding onto his small seat.
"Don't call me that," Herc responded, winked, pulled his arm back, and threw. With a loud bell and a bitten shout, Chuck dropped into the drink. The kids were ecstatic.
Sputtering and cursing, Chuck pulled himself out of the water, drenched completely. His hair was plastered to his forehead and his white shirt clung to him in lewd ways, made almost completely transparent. He hovered on the edge of the bin for an extended moment, arms straining, and then swing one leg over the side, tight material made tighter from the water.
"Oh my god," one girl said faintly, and dozens of camera phones were out. As soon as his feet hit the ground, Chuck was swarmed, eyes wide in shock and a little bit of fear—girls offering him jackets and help, plucking at the material of his shirt, urging him that taking it off would keep him warmer. Slowly they herded him and began to move him from the central hallway towards the girl's locker room.
Raleigh's eyes met Chuck's over the girls' heads as they ushered him away, and Raleigh grimly—only barely keeping a smile in place—saluted him. Tendo, on the platform in the quad, also apparently saw the destruction taking place, as a surprisingly well-mixed dubstep cover of Taps began to play, heralding Chuck's departure. Herc looked out, somewhat repentant but overall feeling pretty good.
Raleigh felt a crushing grip on his shoulder.
Yancy, having momentarily abandoned his dart game, loomed behind him. "If you don't go pay attention to your girlfriend I am going to—"
"I can handle this, Yancy," Raleigh sighed.
"Yeah, Yancy," Mako snipped, "he can handle this." Yancy's face was priceless and he held up his hands in defeat.
"Alright, you win. I wash my hands of you!" He walked back to his station, ruefully shaking his head.
With a laugh, Mako tugged on Raleigh's hand, bringing them to a walk again. It was a good, easy day, Mako stepping in to reply to some of his student's catcalling at seeing them together, making him feel proud and deliriously content. He won her a big stuffed bear and she clung to it, burying her face in the thick fur. He could barely handle it. They strolled together through the fair until the bell alerted that the day was over. Slowly, they followed the stream of students out, ending in the faculty parking lot, alone. Mako put the bear in her car before turning to face him, rocking on her heels in her thoughtful way, arms tucked behind her back.
"I know that it's a bit early," she said carefully, "but I think I have your anniversary gift."
His heart gave out a loud, nervous beat. "Really, Mako, that's—I haven't—"
She laughed, "If this goes right you won't need to get me anything."
He raised an eyebrow, squinting. "What…?" he felt that heavy silence between them, full of words unspoken. She smiled, sensing what he was doing.
His face went slack. "You want me to move in with you." A smile took over him and he repeated himself, excited, unbelievably excited, "You want me to move in with you! Right?"
He smiled was so big he thought his heart would burst. It swelled, grew full of everything Mako, and he picked her up, swinging her around in absolute happiness, and it remained intact.
Ta-da, and thank you for reading! Leave me a review, please?