p class="p" style="line-height: 150%;"strongspan class="15" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Hi, this is a oneshot AU of a sequel no one acknowledges, Pacific Rim: Uprising. There is a genderswap and romance that was not in the movie. This is my first story uploaded so it may be written clunkily./span/strong/p
p class="p" style="line-height: 150%;"strongspan class="15" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"But I hope you'll still enjoy this. /span/strong/p
p class="p" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"The day started gloomy with all the rainclouds and storms. The shop was thriving quite well to the weather, with the informative books and the thoughtful baristas/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;", but at that late afternoon hour, it was quiet/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;". Two of them were manning what resembled a bar-but-not-really portion of the shop, with shelves of neatly labelled coffees and cocktails behind them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"He was glaring daggers at a nonexistent stain on the glass he was wiping clean. The nametag on his bottle-green apron read /spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"N. Lambert/span/emspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;" with a cute smiley face in straight and narrow penmanship./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"The shorter and older woman beside him had her black hair in a neat bob with dyed blue ends, /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"perking up/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;" when they both heard the ring on the doorbell. Her own nametag had /spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"M. Mori/span/emspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;" in swirly handwriting./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"In walked in the most beautiful woman Lambert ever laid his eyes on, brown hair and eyes mixing with pride and soul and spark and everything so good in the world. She flashed him a snarky smile before hugging Mori over the counter./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"He had never felt so jealous watching his coworker hug her own sister until now. He walked away to hide his undeniable blush whenever Jacqueline Pentecost entered his life./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"Calling her Jake implied a connection beyond a few in-jokes and hellos during impromptu street meetings/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;", so Pentecost made for an uncomfortably formal greeting/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"She was unhappy at Lambert's exit and unconsciously bit her lip. She was well aware of her sister's maddeningly handsome coworker. It reached the point that the younger woman unflinchingly did housework at their shared apartment in exchange for his name for two weeks./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"She received a swirly white and sage green mug of hot chocolate from Mako and sat down on one of the metal bar stools. An hour passed of her sharing gossip and complaints about her coworkers at the craftsman guild, punctuated by a disbelieving scoff or a reprimanding glare. It may also include furtive glances to the tall man with military-cut dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes, reading what looked to be a pastry cookbook./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"A quick glimpse outside made her realize that she should've taken up Namani's offer for an umbrella, the rain was /spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"not/span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;" letting up/spanspan style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;". Sighing, she gave her used mug to Mako just as Chuck Hansen pushed open the door, scowling and ready to swear until kingdom come before he stopped and lightly tapped her in the shoulder with his fist. He was another coworker of her sister's and a temperamental asshole with a weird brotherly affection for her, softened out by his family bulldog Max./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"He was relieving either Lambert or Mako from their shift, and since she didn't want to go home alone hallucinating every way and every place to kiss the former until she cried, the latter was the better choice. She made to reach for her when her sister smiled./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"It was very unnerving./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;""It's Lambert's time."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"Oh that sneaky -/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"span style="mso-spacerun: 'yes'; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12.0000pt;"That was how she found herself walking beside the devilishly dapper Lambert, thankfully using different umbrellas to weather through the rain./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"It was a bit unfortunate that she looked ill at the idea of walking together, even if he was buying groceries that happened to be near her place. The way she grabbed Mori's umbrella and ran away before he could untie his apron was hurting him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"He ignored how Chuck easily punched her. The bastard loved taking offense at any possible source but his heart was in the right place, just hidden behind the fuck-ton insults./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"Conversation didn't come easily as they walked, lit up by passing vehicles who thoughtfully didn't sped by to splash them with the puddles near the pavement. He badly wanted the stupidly romance cliche of them easily talking as if the world had disappeared but just the two of them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"Pentecost suddenly sighed. Nate realized he was a bit farther than he would've liked from her. He quickly backtracked and was ready to apologise when she scoffed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 150%;" align="center"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"She didn't mean to be humored by the way Lambert adorably ran back when he found out he went too fast. It felt like he didn't like her that much, but she was excellent at ignoring her feelings. That was still the most awkward walk she walked with another person in recent memory./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"She didn't mean to scoff. But hell, he was very cute, with the worried tilt of his head and slightly open mouth./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"But she did mean to go near him, the edges of their umbrellas fighting for space at her choice. It wasn't a kiss she did, although she would love one./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"Jake held his hand that didn't tightly grip to his own umbrella. Her heart was thundering, in sync with the now softly falling raindrops./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"He didn't let go. He didn't push her away./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"They walked away, hands softly clasped, umbrellas in awkward angles. It still wasn't the blazingly sexy time she thought she wanted from him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"Those times can wait./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: 150%;" align="justify"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; font-size: 12pt;"It wasn't everyday that a gloomy and rainy day ended with her together with him, the sunset in front on them./span/p