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Raleigh would go to the end of the world for Mako, and on a few occasions, it felt like she had. They had met in college, Raleigh using the GI bill to pay for her education, Mako a determined, young freshman. They probably wouldn’t have been friends if it hadn’t been for a group project. Their group started out with four people, but then one dropped the class and the other flaked. Somehow Mako and Raleigh persevered and finished that class with A’s, and that paved the way for a beautiful friendship.
They were both architecture majors, and their early friendship was filled with all nighters and coffee binges and crashing at each other’s place. During college, Raleigh lived in an apartment with her brother, and Yancy had no problem with letting Mako and Raleigh completely take over the kitchen table for homework and studying. Yancy left the military five years before Raleigh, and a year after that, their parents died: their mom from cancer, their dad from natural causes. Raleigh still had the sinking suspicion her dad died from a drug overdose, but nothing was ever proven.
Afterward, Yancy went ahead and put the money from their parents’ life insurance into the bank, and he eventually finished up a bachelor’s degree in engineering. And then he made friends because of course everyone couldn’t help but be his friend. He had a trusting face, and people liked his work ethic.
Eventually he found himself working in construction management, and he nagged Raleigh to hurry up and finish her degree so he could pull some strings and get her a job. She would’ve whined and complained, but then she had always like the idea of working side by side with her brother, and with Jazmine going to college without any financial aid, Raleigh hurried to catch up.
Now, three years later, Raleigh and Yancy ran their own company as general contractors, along with Tendo, a ridiculously smart engineer. They stayed on the west coast, but it varied. Mako worked for her father’s architecture firm, and she recommended Tendo, Raleigh, and Yancy’s company to all of her clients. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. If Mako didn’t like how the progress was going, she could complain to Raleigh and Raleigh would immediately change whatever was necessary. And Raleigh could always be sure that whatever job Mako threw at her would be something worth doing.
But at the moment, Raleigh stared at a tiny little house nestled in Studio City, Los Angeles. She normally didn’t work on jobs this low scale. Mako hadn’t begged, but the tone in her voice was enough to make Raleigh give in. Her company’s current main project wasn’t one of Mako’s creations, and she knew Yancy and Tendo could handle it by themselves. It was a hospital in Oakland, but she had faith in them. Mostly. Depending on the workload, she could fly out to him. Still, Raleigh looked down at her phone to make sure she had the address correct. She considered calling Mako and whining about the project, but then a bulldog waddled from behind the house. He plopped down in front of her, and Raleigh sat on her haunches to pet him.
“Oi! Get your hands off my dog.”
Raleigh glanced up and saw a man approaching her who no doubt had to be Chuck Hansen. She stood up, appraising him as she did. Strong arms, strong legs, grim face. She wondered why he wasn’t just doing the labor himself, but then again, being able to do fifty pushups at one sitting didn’t mean a person knew the difference between an allen wrench and a pipe wrench.
“I’m Raleigh,” she offered.
“I don’t care who you are. Don’t pet my dog and get off of my lawn.”
Raleigh refrained from rolling her eyes, but just barely. “I’m the contractor for your house.”
This time Chuck took a turn to appraise her. She stood tall, but did her best not to flex. She liked it when people underestimated her. Just because she was short and pretty didn’t mean she couldn’t lift a hundred pounds on any given day. She preferred wearing clothes a little bigger than necessary. She couldn’t wear her knit sweaters that often in Los Angeles considering the heat, but her current outfit was loose. Her pants fit her well enough, and a loose, long sleeved shirt hid her arm muscles.
From Chuck’s face, he seemed to be in the category of people who were going to underestimate her. “You.”
Raleigh smiled. “Me.”
When Chuck remained looking confused, Raleigh sighed, slumping her shoulders and crossing her arms. “Do you want to show me around the house? That way I can see what work you want done and I can give you a projection of how long this might take,” she suggested.
Chuck shook his head, but instead of saying ‘no,’ he muttered, “Fine.”
As she walked up the pathway to the house, she could admit it had a certain charm, but as soon as she walked inside, she knew exactly why Mako had been so persistent. Even from a glance, she could tell that the corners of the rooms weren’t perfect 90 degree angles. The ceiling wasn’t exactly level. It wasn’t too big of a deal. Most people wouldn’t have even noticed, but she had been trained to look at these minute details. Old houses tended to have more problems and were less likely to be one hundred percent up to code.
Raleigh turned in a circle, taking in the lack of furniture. “Did you just buy this place?”
“Yeah,” Chuck replied. “The person I bought it from completely rebuilt it from the ground up.”
Raleigh hummed. At least that meant everything was likely up to standards, despite the iffy angles. But people like Chuck tended to buy brand new. He seemed a little pretentious, and brand new homes and apartments with new appliances, new floors, and new paint would’ve worked best for him. She had nothing against modernity. She built enough apartments and sky rises to know their appeal. But this house screamed starter home. It would need a lot of work. She glanced down when the bulldog plopped down in front of her. At least the floors were beautiful hardwood.
“So what do you have in mind? Mako didn’t give me any details.”
Chuck motioned toward the main room they were standing in. “This area is too empty and too large. It needs to be broken up. I want a wall by the front door so there’s a dining room area.” Raleigh raised an eyebrow. Normally people loved open concept rooms. “And a built in wall unit in the living room. And I want the built in wall unit to be covered up when I’m not watching TV.”
“Okay,” Raleigh replied, pulling out her iPad to take notes. “The wall unit sounds fine. I can show you some pictures of my company’s previous work. I don’t normally do house renovations, so if you have a sketch or an idea, we can customize it.” She pursed her mouth. “Maybe bug Mako to design it,” she mumbled. Raleigh walked back toward the door. “And I’m sure we can create a wall, what, about three feet wide, right here. But we would have to drill into the floor in order to stabilize it.”
Chuck clenched his jaw. Yeah, most people didn’t like the idea of drilling holes into brand new hardwood floors. “Fine,” he answered sharply. “Also, the whole house is lacking on detail. I want crown molding for this entire area. And structural detail on the walls in the hallway. For the area that will become the dining room, I want light fixtures on the ceiling, and again, more structural detail to highlight it.” He turned to face Raleigh. “Can you do that?”
Raleigh held back a laugh. She wasn’t sure why, but everyone always seemed so hot for crown molding. This was why she preferred to work with Mako instead of clients with vision.
“Yep. Do you have a table or somewhere we can sit and talk numbers?”
Chuck went out the back door, and Raleigh followed. For a house in Studio City, the backyard was huge. It was a lot of space for such a tiny dog to run around in. “My dad lives in the guest house. It’s already all furnished,” Chuck explained. After Chuck knocked once and opened the door, Raleigh could see why Chuck had such high hopes for the main house. The guest house had so much structural detail, and despite its size, it was cozy instead of cramped.
“My dad Herc is here somewhere,” Chuck huffed.
Soon enough, a head popped out of the bedroom. When his eyes landed on Raleigh, he smiled. “Who’s this?”
“The contractor,” Chuck responded, heading toward the table instead of properly introducing Raleigh. It didn’t matter; Herc smiled and stepped outside of the bedroom.
“I’m Raleigh,” she offered.
Herc stuck out his hand. “Mako’s friend, right? We met a few years ago.”
Raleigh smiled. “Yep. I wasn’t sure if you would remember. Mako had me oversee the construction of your bar in Manila. Is it doing well?”
“Perfectly, but I’m going to sell it. Chuck and I are starting up a bar together now. It’s ten minutes from here actually. It doesn’t need any construction, or we’d love to hire you.”
“Thanks.” Raleigh practically preened under Herc’s words. Her own parents had been kind and loving, taking her and Yancy and Jaz on trips all over the world, but they had never actually been proud of her. She and Yancy used to get in more schoolyard fights than necessary, and neither of them had been good students. Jaz did better academically, but she was rebellious as a teenager. College suited them better than high school, but their parents were dead long before they could see their kids thrive.
“Raleigh,” Chuck drawled. “I thought you wanted to talk numbers sometime today.”
Raleigh pulled herself away and sat down next to Chuck, but Herc followed. “You should visit our bar, get dinner or a few drinks. Our treat,” he insisted
“No,” Chuck interjected. “You can’t go offering people free shit when we haven’t even made a profit yet.” He grabbed Raleigh’s iPad and began shuffling through pictures, but behind him, Herc made a face and shook his head, silently letting Raleigh know the offer was still available.
---
After the third day of renovations, Raleigh took up Herc’s offer. She must’ve been crazy to think Chuck would leave the house while her crew worked on the place, but that must’ve been fanciful thinking.
Sometimes Chuck went to his bedroom to work on god knows what, or he might take Max out for a walk, but more often than not he was hovering. Raleigh didn’t mind per se. She was good at her job and knew she could deliver, but his eyes and comments made her muscles stiffen. If Chuck was there making comments, she had to resist from throwing down her tools and quitting right there on the spot.
She told Mako as much, and only stayed on when Mako admitted that Herc was Stacker’s boyfriend of twelve years. Raleigh would’ve been surprised, but then Stacker always played his hand close to his heart. After that, Raleigh couldn’t even consider abandoning Mako’s almost-brother until the job was done.
Herc slid a plate containing a cheeseburger and fries in front of her, and Raleigh nearly swooned. After a twelve hour shift, she deserved this. Herc placed a beer in front of her as well, and she only melted farther into the bar stool. She couldn’t help kicking a leg out as she ate, hoping her crew was doing their best to enjoy themselves while outside of work. She already planned on upping her fee just so she could give them a bonus for having to deal with Chuck Hansen.
“How’s the remodeling going?” Herc asked.
“Awful,” Raleigh smiled before popping another fry in her mouth.
“I know he’s a little hard to work with,” Herc sighed. Raleigh did her best not to snort. “But he’s a perfectionist. And it’s his first house.”
Raleigh nodded. “It’s okay. I still live with Mako because I’m too afraid of dealing with finding a place of my own.” She dunked a fry in ketchup and wondered just how pathetic that might be. Mako didn’t mind Raleigh living there.
Chuck passed by Herc behind the bar. He stopped when his eyes landed on Raleigh’s food. “That’s not free,” he reminded Herc.
“Eh, take it out of my paycheck,” Herc said, waving a hand at Chuck.
Raleigh popped a fry in her mouth before smiling sweetly at Chuck’s look of annoyance.
---
Over the next week, Chuck didn’t lighten up on his need to oversee the remodeling. It irked Raleigh to no end, but at least if she fell off her ladder, his body would probably be there to crush her fall. She wouldn’t hold her breath hoping he might catch her, considering she repeatedly told her crew to ignore Chuck and to defer to her on all work that had to be done.
The first time Raleigh said that, Chuck had almost blown a gasket. But she reiterated each and every time he brought forth an idea that went against her common sense, “I’m the one with an architecture degree, and I’m the one in charge of remodeling your house.” His complaints of being the one paying and the one who had to live here fell on deaf ears. For the first time in her life, she wished she was on a show where she was given money to redesign and remodel a home, and the homeowner was kicked out during the construction.
Sometimes she heard her crew speaking in Spanish, and Raleigh couldn’t help but laugh and smirk when they complained about Chuck. She tried to remain professional by not joining in, but it helped her through the day. Raleigh’s parents had taken their kids all over the world and impressed upon them the need to know multiple languages. Chuck squinted and tried to comprehend what they said, but Herc told her that he and Chuck only knew English and the basics of French. Her crew’s hushed complaints gave Raleigh life.
In all her experience, she hadn’t felt so judged over such a simple project. She wondered if it was the lack of faith from Chuck or the lack of her brother being next to her. Yancy always made Raleigh feel confident, and by the middle of the week, she felt herself withdrawing.
When it rained on Saturday, Raleigh pulled out her big, lumpy sweater she had stolen from Yancy years ago. Technically she was borrowing it, but technically she had been borrowing it for the last several years, and Yancy needed to give up hope thinking he might one day get it back—just like Raleigh had accepted Jaz was never going to return Raleigh’s green jacket.
Chuck didn’t answer the door when she knocked, and instead she pulled out a key he had made for her. As she and her crew walked into Chuck’s house that day, she could smell coffee brewing, but she didn’t bother asking if it was for them. She smiled at her crew in commiseration at the fact that Chuck was the least hospitable homeowner to work for, and then listed the day’s objectives. Twenty minutes into their work, Chuck walked out from his bedroom.
“Rah-leigh,” Chuck drawled.
Raleigh raised an eyebrow, but kept her eyes on the crewmembers holding up the crown molding on the wall. “A little bit higher on the left,” she ordered. When that was done, Raleigh nodded her head. “That’s level. Go ahead and attach it right there.”
“Rahls,” Chuck called, and this time Raleigh turned, annoyed that Chuck had decided to give her a nickname.
“It’s Raleigh,” she said primly.
Chuck hummed, not deterred in the slightest, and walked forward. When he held out a Styrofoam cup of coffee to her, she frowned but took it. “Thanks.” She spotted David off to the side. He had been waiting in the drizzling rain for a few minutes before her, and he was still trying to warm his hands up. She handed it to him and turned back to Chuck. “Did you make enough for the rest of us?”
Chuck cocked a hip. “Yeah, but don’t expect this as an everyday thing,” he muttered.
“Wouldn’t dare,” Raleigh said airily. She motioned for the rest of her crew to come over.
She waited to get her coffee last, and she pointedly ignored Chuck while she filled her cup a quarter full of creamer. Chuck squawked when she picked up the sugar, but she had some sense of dignity and only added a spoonful. By the time she added coffee, Chuck was gaping at her.
“How the fuck are you not diabetic?”
“I don’t know.” Raleigh shrugged, honestly puzzled herself. “I try to limit the number of coffee drinks I get per week.”
“You could just limit the sugar you put in it.”
Raleigh took a sip of her concoction, smiling while her toes curled in delight. “Then it wouldn’t be worth it.”
---
“You know, Chuck served in the Australian Royal Air Force,” Herc told Raleigh while she ate a burger, this one with bleu cheese and bacon on it. “He did well while in it.”
Raleigh tipped her head, not sure how she was supposed to respond to that, but Chuck walked toward them, arms crossed over his chest. “Of course I did well in it.” He widened his eyes in mock derision. “Wasn’t hard to overshadow you, old man.”
Raleigh snorted, rolling her eyes at Chuck’s lack of respect for his dad.
“Sorry, do you have something to say, Raleigh?”
Raleigh set down her burger. “Nope,” she replied before licking off some sauce from her thumb. “Just think you’re all talk.”
Chuck scoffed. “What do you know?”
“I know I could probably take you down,” Raleigh replied.
Chuck eyed her before shaking his head. “What are you, 140 pounds on a good day?”
Raleigh slid her plate over, glad the place was emptying out. “I bet you fifty bucks I could beat you at arm wrestling.”
Chuck laughed and glanced at Herc, who only raised his eyebrows in response. “Fine,” Chuck gritted out. “If you get hurt, this isn’t my fault.”
“The only thing that’s gonna hurt will be your pride,” Raleigh smiled. She stood up from her chair and placed her right foot in front of her, then gripped Chuck’s hand and tried curling her thumb underneath her fingers. She stopped when she realized Chuck’s hand was too large for that, and readjusted her hand until she could. Chuck smirked at her, but Raleigh didn’t rise to the bait. She did, however, pull his arm a little closer. Whether he thought she was flirting or not didn’t matter if she had the tactical advantage right from the start.
When Herc said “go,” Raleigh pulled her hand towards herself, pulling Chuck’s hand away from his body. She could see Chuck’s muscles straining against her, but she stayed focused and pulled her body back. As she pushed Chuck’s hand down, she pulled his wrist back, rotating it toward the ceiling. She could hear Chuck muttering obscenities as she rotated her body to use her shoulder strength and body weight to win, but she didn’t smirk until his hand slammed down on the table.
When she looked up, Chuck was red in the face. A light smattering of applause came from Raleigh’s left, and she turned to see Sasha and Aleksis clapping. She wasn’t sure when they had sat down next to her at the bar, but Sasha stole a fry from Raleigh’s plate before sliding it back in front of Raleigh. “Good form,” she nodded.
“Raleigh used to be a marine,” Herc explained. Chuck turned his head in Herc’s direction. Raleigh couldn’t tell if he was more shocked or betrayed, and Raleigh brought her beer up to her lips to hide behind a possible blowup. If Mako were here, she would definitely be scolding her for embarrassing Chuck, but Chuck was a brat. Regardless, Mako’s voice rang loud in Raleigh’s head, and Raleigh turned to the Kaidanovskys. The couple had begun a discussion about the differences in the American, Russian, and Australian militaries, and Raleigh pretended to find it remarkably interesting. Their discussion was actually much tamer than their usual conversations of their daily work as prison guards, but she didn’t have anything to add.
Raleigh jerked when a hand slammed down on the bar in front of her, but when she looked over, only a clean fifty dollar bill was there, Chuck already walking away.
---
“There is a hole in the floor!”
Raleigh shrugged. “It’s the cost of remodeling.”
David stopped the drill and glanced at Raleigh. “Should I stop?”
“No, no,” Chuck waved. “I’m just saying there’s a hole. Continue.”
Raleigh pressed a hand on Chuck’s arm, gently trying to steer him toward the door. “Maybe you should go out for the day. Run some errands, get some groceries, meet people at a farmer’s market,” she suggested. Chuck glared at her, but Raleigh kept pushing. “It’ll be good for you,” she insisted. “You can get out of the house, and you won’t be forced to watch your house get drilled with holes.”
Chuck pursed his lips, but then he nodded and walked over to the kitchen to grab Max’s leash. Max had been banned to Herc’s house in the back due to the construction, and Raleigh got just the tiny bit wistful that she hadn’t seen the bulldog in such a long time. “Don’t mess up my house,” he ordered.
Raleigh crossed her hands over her chest. “You’ve loved everything else you’ve seen so far.”
Chuck raised an eyebrow and gave her a look. “Don’t mess it up.”
When the door slammed shut, Raleigh tilted her head upward, contemplating. “Do you think he would notice if we ate all of his food?”
A couple of her workers laughed, and Raleigh smiled before sighing. “Lunch time soon. And hopefully with Chuck gone we can finish our work early today.”
---
When Raleigh went to the Hansen’s bar Striker Eureka, she usually found herself people watching. Herc chatted with her in between customers. He also had been nice enough to introduce her to a few of the patrons. That was how she met the Kaidanovskys, Newt Geizler, and Hermann Gottlieb. They were all interesting in their own little ways.
The Kaidanovskys were a middle aged couple without any kids, and despite Sasha only being fifteen years older and Aleksis twenty years older, they had a habit of treating her like a child. It wasn’t bad per se, just odd when they bestowed wisdom on her, like she didn’t know the difference between a stout and a porter. Raleigh was twenty-nine years old. She had figured a few things out on her own. Some information was useful—like how to hotwire a car or open up a can on concrete—but probably only useful for surviving an apocalypse.
However, it was sometimes very useful having people who constantly treated her like she was younger than she was. When guys tried hitting on her even after Raleigh tried to make them go away, she just nodded over at Sasha and Aleksis and pretended they were her parents until the guys left in a hurry. When the Kaidanovskys found out she was doing that, they laughed and were more than willing to play along. If she thought about it, she could’ve technically been their daughter.
Newt and Hermann were another story entirely. They weren’t married but they might as well have been. Raleigh couldn’t stand Newt, but Hermann loved him. Newt had the bad habit of speaking over Raleigh’s arguments, and she wasn’t going to start a fight simply because Newt refused to listen to any other voices but his own. But Hermann was okay sometimes, shushing Newt and telling him to go see what beers were being showcased. Most of the times they invited her to sit with them, she did, but she learned to pretend to suddenly need to speak with Herc or Chuck whenever the topic of politics or religion came up.
Ironically, despite constantly hovering over her work at his house, Chuck never made too much of an effort to interact with her at the bar. He hovered when Herc talked to Raleigh, but most of the time he was busy elsewhere.
As she sat at the bar that night, Raleigh found the place was a lot more packed than usual. It was a Friday night, meaning she had been working on the remodel for a little more than two weeks. Raleigh sighed in agitation. The people she met during her time in Los Angeles were nice enough, but she wanted to go home already.
She checked her phone to see if she got any new texts. The Wei triplets were supposedly in town for a martial arts demonstration, but where they were at the moment, Raleigh had no clue. She had talked with them the night before and given them directions to the bar, but she hadn’t heard anything from them all day. Raleigh ate her food already, and she was working her way on her third beer.
She considered calling them when someone rattled her chair. She turned around to yell at whoever did that, but was instead greeted to the faces of Cheung, Hu, and Jin.
She let out a peal of laughter and jumped off the barstool. Hu was closest to her, and she hugged him first, then Cheung, and last Jin. She lightly punched him in the arm afterward. “I know that was you who kicked my chair, Jin.”
Jin smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, leading her away from her seat at the bar and to a table that opened up. “Besides our parents, only you and Mako can tell us apart.”
Raleigh snorted as she slid into her new chair. “That’s because we’ve made charts and had debates over who’s the prettiest triplet,” she said blithely.
“And who’s the prettiest one?” Cheung asked.
Raleigh quirked an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
They ordered a few pitchers of beer over the course of the next couple of hours, and when they left the bar, the place was already pretty vacant. Herc had come over to their table to meet the triplets, but Chuck didn’t. Raleigh tried spotting the Hansens before she left but Herc was in the back and Chuck didn’t raise his eyes from the drink he was mixing in front of him.
Mako had dated Cheung during college, and more often than not, Raleigh found herself in bed between Jin and Hu. If she took Jin and Hu back to her hotel that night, it was her own business.
---
Three weeks into the remodel, Yancy called her and asked if she could come back. She would’ve laughed at the tone of his voice, but she obliged. Yancy wasn’t liking their clients’ new demands, and whenever these sorts of things happened, he liked presenting a united front.
Raleigh apologized to Chuck for her need to travel to Oakland for a few days, but he just shrugged and agreed to it. She didn’t resent her crew when they appeared happy to have the next few days off—she was trying to stick to a deadline, and Chuck was always nitpicking.
As soon as Raleigh and Yancy arrived at Yancy’s apartment after the meeting, Raleigh plodded into the living room and found Naomi sitting on the couch, her pregnant belly looking even more round than ever.
Raleigh laid down on the couch, settling her head in Naomi’s lap. “People suck,” Raleigh whined.
Naomi snickered and carded a hand through Raleigh’s hair. “That’s because you’re used to us and Mako, and we’re perfect.”
“’s true,” Raleigh sighed, arching into Naomi’s touch.
Yancy set down Raleigh’s bag with a thud. “Should I be jealous?”
Raleigh spared a glance at her brother before closing her eyes. “I want to say no, but I also feel like I should be honest and tell you that I would marry Naomi for the head scratching alone.”
Yancy yanked Raleigh’s foot. “No trying to seduce my wife.”
Raleigh already felt herself getting lulled to sleep. “No promises,” she murmured.
---
When Raleigh came back from Oakland, Herc took up the habit of feeding the crew working on the remodel. While Raleigh and her guys appreciated it, Chuck was annoyed.
“Stop feeding my contractor food! Don't give her lemonade! I swear if you put a shot of alcohol in there, I'm gonna kill you when the work comes out sloppy.”
Raleigh smiled and continued eating her sandwich. The day couldn’t possibly go any better than already. The doors they had built for the kitchen went up on a sliding track earlier. Unfortunately, the doors didn’t close properly, and they had to be sanded down in order to be completely closed. It was a lot of work, and took lots of trial and error, but her crew was amazing and made it happen.
After lunch when Chuck pulled out wallpaper and told them he would be wallpapering the bathroom, Raleigh didn’t think too much about it. Wallpapering wasn’t that hard, but she soon heard Herc and Chuck cussing. She peeked into the bathroom after she helped install wooden detailing on the hallway walls, and saw Chuck and Herc bickering over the placement of the wallpaper. Herc saw her, and he immediately called her in.
“Look at this mess. It should just get painted, right?”
Raleigh stepped inside, seeing the way Chuck was fuming. The wallpaper looked okay, minus all the little air bubbles, but she could see what Herc was talking about: the wallpaper pattern wasn’t even on the bottom. “You could probably still wallpaper it,” Raleigh started. “Just your ceiling isn’t perfectly even, which is causing the wallpaper to look sloped on the bottom. A professional is probably necessary, and you would probably want to get a wallpaper design without any pattern, so it’s not as easily noticeable that the ceiling isn’t even.”
Herc let out a grunt, and Chuck stalked out of the bathroom, brushing up against her as he pushed his way out the door.
---
After four weeks, Chuck’s house was almost complete. After all the crown molding getting placed, the standing walls put up, the wallpaper tacked down, and the painting done, all that was left was furniture. Raleigh wasn’t a huge fan of decorating a house, but she offered to go with Chuck when she overheard Herc and Chuck talking about what kind of furniture was needed.
Mako had a new project for Raleigh’s company, and Yancy would be flying down to Los Angeles to talk to the clients with Raleigh. It meant Raleigh would have a few days between Chuck’s remodel being finished and her next job starting.
Before Chuck went shopping with her, he had bought a chair that could be attached to the ceiling. It was a large wicker shaped thing that hung in the corner of the living room, and Raleigh found it unbelievably ridiculous, but that didn’t stop her from sitting in it while she looked through papers.
When she did go shopping with Chuck, it was an experience. He had already picked out the dining room table and couches, but he lacked pillows, a coffee table, end tables, and accessories. Raleigh trailed behind Chuck through the store. Thirty minutes into their shopping trip, Raleigh considered she may have gotten in over her head. Chuck kept pointing at odds and ends, and Raleigh kept staring blankly at each item.
Eventually Chuck accepted that she was useless, and she went to find a comfy chair to sit in and provide moral support from there. She was busy responding to a text from Mako when a sales associate approached her. The sales associate couldn’t have been more than twenty, and she smiled at Raleigh. “Are you finding everything okay?”
Raleigh smiled back. “Yeah, just waiting for the shopping to be over.”
The sales associate glanced over Raleigh’s shoulder. “Your husband is a little intimidating,” she whispered. “He yelled at a few of us, and we were wondering if you could maybe rein him in a little? He’s sort of scaring some of the employees.”
Raleigh jerked up, too worried that she and Chuck were a second from getting kicked out of the store than being mistaken as Chuck’s wife. She rushed over to where Chuck was busy muttering about the store not having enough of the same type of pillows in stock, and wrapped her arms around Chuck’s waist. “Hey, honey,” she started, “you want to calm down before the store calls the police on us?”
Chuck froze in her arms, and she tilted her head at the sales associates watching them from the front of the store. “You’re alarming them,” she whispered. Chuck bit his lip and tried pulling away, but Raleigh held Chuck firm. “Promise to behave?”
Chuck rolled his eyes but nodded his head. “Yeah.”
“Good,” Raleigh replied. She stayed next to Chuck for the rest of the shopping trip, and together they picked out a good assortment of accessories. She smiled at the sales associates as they left.
When they left the store, Raleigh told Chuck that the employees thought they were married. She laughed all the way to the car while Chuck blushed.
---
Naomi was only seven months pregnant when Yancy flew to Los Angeles, but Mako went to stay with her just in case anything happened while Yancy was away. Regardless, it didn’t help Yancy’s nerves, and he kept worrying about what might happen to Naomi while he was gone. It wasn’t like he was going to be gone for a long time—Tendo had already agreed to work with Raleigh on the new project in Los Angeles, and Yancy would finish the hospital in Oakland and stay near Naomi. Still, Yancy was nothing if not a worrier.
Finally Raleigh gave up on trying to convince him that Naomi and Mako were fine, and she took him to the Hansens’ bar. The place had a nice atmosphere, and despite not being there for a week, she felt like it was a second home. Raleigh ordered a few drinks from the bar and led Yancy to the pool table.
When Raleigh started losing, she wasn’t above heckling her brother. She didn’t have a problem shoving her face in his and annoying the shit out of him while he tried to make a shot. Yancy took it all in stride and simply pushed her away. With a couple more rounds of beer, Raleigh’s antics increased. She discreetly pinched his arm during the rest of the game until finally Yancy shoved her hard enough to make her trip backward. The shove jostled her beer, but Raleigh laughed as she caught herself.
“Don’t shove people around my bar.”
Raleigh glanced up from her beer to see Chuck attempting to stare her brother down.
Yancy rolled his eyes and pointed out the bruises Raleigh’s pinches had left him. “She deserved it.”
Raleigh placed her beer down and took a few steps to stand with the two of them, but the next thing she saw was Chuck pulling his arm back and swinging at Yancy’s face. Thankfully, Yancy had height on his side, and Chuck only got in a few swings before Raleigh shoved between them and pinned Chuck to the floor using moves Mako had taught her.
Raleigh grunted as she tried to keep Chuck in place. “I don’t want to fight you, just stop trying to beat the crap out of my brother.” Raleigh let go of Chuck when she felt him go lax underneath her, and Yancy tugged her to her feet.
Chuck shoved his way through the crowd to the back, and Raleigh pulled Yancy in his wake. “Let’s get your face some ice,” she insisted.
Herc let them follow behind Chuck. She peered into the kitchen, but stepped aside when a server walked out with a tray of food. Chuck came out next, holding an ice pack for Yancy. Chuck had a split lip and his skin was purpling around his eye, and Raleigh winced knowing she had probably been the cause of that with her moves.
Chuck pointed at an office. “You can go in there,” he offered, not looking Raleigh in the eye.
Despite Chuck only punching Yancy’s face a few times, he still practically beat the shit out of him. He had the element of surprise on his side, and Yancy simply hadn’t been prepared for it. Raleigh cradled Yancy’s head and held the ice pack to his face. “This is what you get for being the worst brother. Absolute worst,” she told Yancy, smiling as she did.
“Your friend Chuck is the worst.”
“Chuck isn't my friend.”
“My black eye says otherwise.”
---
The next day Raleigh dropped off Yancy at the airport and begged him not to let Naomi kill her for sending Yancy back all broken. Yancy, the asshole, made no promises.
Raleigh spent the day going through paperwork and channel surfing. By seven, she gave up and went out to eat at Striker Eureka. Herc grinned at her from behind the bar, and motioned for her to sit at the seat in front of him.
“You’re back.”
Raleigh nodded. “I like the food here too much to go elsewhere. The service is pretty good too,” she added.
“You beat the shit out of my son, Raleigh.”
“Well, he was beating the shit out of my brother.”
Herc nodded his head in agreement. “Chuck’s in the back if you want to talk to him.”
Raleigh sighed and headed to the kitchen. Better to clear the air now then let it fester.
Chuck sat in a chair, hunching over the desk as he punched numbers into a calculator. Mako had told her that Chuck was smart, and for once, Raleigh realized she knew absolutely zero about the person whose house she had built.
Raleigh sat down on the desk, disrupting Chuck as she sat down on papers he was looking at. “What did you major in?”
Chuck blinked up at her. “Mathematics.”
“And you felt like owning a bar was the best use of your degree?”
Chuck’s expression turned into a scowl. “I’m good at it. And I like running it.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Who even let you back here?”
“Your dad.” Raleigh stared at her hands. “And that’s good that you like your job. Being a marine wasn’t all that fun. Being in construction is a lot more enjoyable. Less chances of dying and all.”
Chuck hummed but didn’t bother responding. The skin around his eye had turned purple, and Raleigh raised her hand to cup his face before thinking better of it. Her hand paused midair and quickly returned to resting on her lap. “Sorry about your face.”
“Sorry about your brother.”
“Don’t worry. It was nice of you for trying to defend me out of the context of the situation.” She shrugged. “Sorry for beating the shit out of you.”
Chuck smirked. “You learned that from Mako, right?”
“Yeah, she kicked my ass the first few times I sparred with her.”
“Are you dating Mako?”
“Well…” Raleigh paused, but then Chuck must’ve known this about Mako considering they were practically siblings. “She’s asexual.”
“So?” Chuck sneered. “Doesn’t mean you two can’t be in a relationship.”
That eased Raleigh’s nerves. She coughed, stalling for as long as possible before she explained the situation to him. “No, I’m not in a relationship with her. I had considered it a few years ago, but Mako didn’t like the idea of it. She liked my friendship and that was all, and I adore Mako, so we’re perfectly fine keeping it the way it is.” She squinted an eye at Chuck. “Technically we share an apartment. Or well, Mako has a couch with a pull out bed, and I sleep there whenever I’m in San Francisco.” Raleigh let out a laugh, feeling like an absolute idiot for sharing all the lovely details of her pathetic life. “Why do you even care? Do you want to date me?”
Chuck didn’t quite pout, but his brow furrowed and his lips pursed enough that he might as well have been. “Yeah,” he replied as defiantly as could be considering they weren’t fighting.
Raleigh’s eyes widened before she let out a soft, “Oh.”
“What? Am I not good enough?”
Chuck’s hand tapped nervously against his arm, and she felt the need to place her own over his and comfort him. Instead she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I have policy of not dating clients, so we shouldn’t schedule a date for another week or so until the final check is cleared at the bank.”
Chuck frowned. “That’s a stupid decision.”
“Yancy made up that rule,” Raleigh smiled, but she internally agreed with Chuck’s sentiment. The job was done, and all that mattered now was making sure the money transferred funds correctly. She leaned down, placing her hands on Chuck’s chest to steady herself, and kissed him.
---
Raleigh liked rough sex, which was good considering that that was Chuck's preference as well. And after dating him for five months, she knew just how much he liked being physical and lifting Raleigh up, liked pinning Raleigh's arms, liked bending her over, even liked tying her up. Chuck was creative, and Raleigh appreciated it. It spoke to her on a spiritual level.
But as much as she loved Chuck's sheer determination to make them both orgasm in as quick and as kinky of a way as possible, sometimes she needed variety. And in this case, variety meant vanilla.
She slid the leg currently pressed up against Chuck's shoulder downward. Chuck had a habit of pulling out every time she messed up whatever pace he had set, intent on putting Raleigh back in her previous state. However, she had planned on that, and instead of letting Chuck rearrange her, she wrapped her right leg around his waist and planted her left foot firmly on the bed. Too focused in his mindset, it was easy to wrap her hands around his shoulders and flip them over.
It ended with Chuck breathing hard on his back while Raleigh straddled his hips.
“Fuck” Chuck gasped. Raleigh pressed her hands against Chuck's heaving chest. “You need to stop doing that. You're going to break my cock.”
“Don't be such a baby,” Raleigh admonished, but she had seen a penile fracture before. It had been a college boyfriend's, and she still couldn’t get over that accident. Definitely was not pretty. That was back when she lived with Yancy, and instead of calling an ambulance, she asked her brother to drive them to the hospital. That had been a poor decision. Yancy didn’t like her boyfriend, so he laughed the entire way. Needless to say, Raleigh and that guy broke up.
She palmed Chuck's cock once before sinking down. “I would never purposely break your cock.”
Chuck grunted, and Raleigh stopped talking. She had brought up her previous sexual experiences before, and each time she did, it left Chuck out of sorts. At first she assumed it was a jealousy thing, but then she could never really tell. Chuck really hated it when she hinted that there had been anyone else. He would make jabs about her past partners, but that was just him and his inability to let the past go.
In the beginning of their relationship, she had her doubts on whether or not Chuck ever had any sexual encounters before meeting her. He had been good at sex—not great, but good. And then Raleigh liked directing and narrating everything, and all Chuck had to do was listen to her in order to make her happy. She had considered he was faking at being a pro, but if so, he deserved a standing ovation. When she wondered aloud if he had ever gone down on someone else, ever given or received a hand job, Chuck didn't say anything. He thought of all that as “private matters.”
He rolled off questions like “how many sexual partners have you had?” by responding that be had a clean bill of health. At first it was a good enough answer in her books. But then she pestered so much that he stopped responding to her altogether. And then the next day Raleigh flew to San Francisco for work. She hadn’t meant to ignore Chuck for a week. She had only turned off her phone in an attempt to finish her work well enough that she could fly back to Studio City as soon as possible. When she returned, Chuck was still quiet, but then he admitted he hadn’t ever been with anyone else sexually. He had followed it by telling her that if she wanted to find someone else, it would be fine, he would understand.
Raleigh glanced down at Chuck and kissed him. She had once broken a guy’s dick mid-coitus. She wouldn’t ever leave Chuck simply because he lacked experience. Raleigh twined their fingers together and moved their hands above Chuck’s head. She rolled her hips downward, doing her best to find a comfortable angle. The position stretched out her body, but Chuck pushed back hard enough that it wasn’t too difficult of an effort.
When Chuck squeezed her hands, Raleigh sat up and began going faster. Chuck always seemed to hold on tighter before he came. After a few minutes, he grabbed Raleigh’s hips, urging her to move even faster. Raleigh let him and gripped onto his arms.
“Fuck,” Chuck gasped. “I want to have your babies.”
---
Afterward, Raleigh scooted closer to Chuck and rested her chin on his shoulder. “You know, that’s really sweet of you to offer, but last time we checked, you don’t have a uterus. But who knows? Maybe scientists are working on male pregnancy as we speak. We could discuss it with Newt.”
Chuck groaned and yanked her in front of him in an attempt to shut her up with the power of cuddling. “You're the worst,” he mumbled.
“I would let you have my babies. We could have lots of kids. All that good stuff,” Raleigh whispered, smiling and carding a hand through Chuck’s hair.