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"I’m going to be late!"
Raleigh feels bad for the smile that comes to his lips. Mako has a congressional hearing at ten and its half past eight. She has time. But its impossible to tell her that and he hears shoes go flying across the room when they aren’t the ones she wants. He sets down his coffee and heads to the bedroom of the small apartment they’ve been put up in.
Mako’s on her knees looking under the bed wearing nothing but the bra and panties he’s pretty sure he tore off her last night. Mako pushes herself up with a look if pure triumph, clutching the red soled pump. Raleigh smiles and shakes his head, kneeling on the bed and reaching up, dislodging the other pump from where its caught behind the headboard. He brushes the leather and holds it out to her.
She grabs it and tosses it on the bed, turning to the drawers and yanking out a pair of stockings. Raleigh sits back on his heels as she slides the fabric up her legs, encasing her pale skin in sheer black. There’s a good two inches between the tops of the stockings and the edge of her panties. Her legs look endless and her face is flushed and Raleigh has to sternly remind himself that she’s late and if he does what he wants she’s going to murder him.
they exert their own subtle influence over each other. How they dress, the foods they like, even the way they speak. The influence is everywhere. Its part of the Drift. Mako thumbs through her dresses before pulling out one the color of the night sky. he climbs off the bed as she unzips it and steps in. She pushes her arms through the sleeves and he steps behind her.
he lets his fingertips brush her skin as he goes for the zipper, tracing the line of her spine. he doesn’t let them linger though, she’s late after all. He grips the tab and pulls it up, encasing her skin in the midnight silk. She smooths her hair back and runs her fingers along the chain on the back of her neck. She runs her fingers through her hair. The blue’s still there and Raleigh loves that she won’t take it out even now that she’s a public figure.
Their eyes meet in the mirror and hers soften.
He kisses her neck lightly, taking care not to mess up her look or make her think he’s trying to add to her hickey collection. It’s a chaste brush of lips against her skin but he lets them linger, smelling the jasmine and tea on her skin. she sighs softly, her body leaning back against his and it takes everything in him not to go for the zipper and make her very, very late.
"I wish you were coming with me," she says.
"Don’t want me making a mess of it," he says against her skin.
She makes a sound in the back of her throat. He’s a shit public figure and he knows that if he goes to the hearing they’re going to ask him shit he’s not ready to answer. Mako and Herc have decided not to bring him in yet. not ever if possible. He’s been to the anteverse, he’s been conscious in it. They all know its a miracle he’s not in a government lab hooked up to a PONS system and being forced to relive those moments over and over again.
Instead he gets to wake up every morning with Mako’s body tangled around his. He gets to dog sit Max and meet Tendo’s little daughter whose the sassiest girl he’s ever laid eyes on. Jazz takes his phone calls now and Newt tells him how Hermann’s numbers is the language of God stuff has fallen to the side as he holds a baby and his life gets taken over by the perfectly ordinary chaos of raising a kid in a world that’s not on the brink of ending.
He still has bad nights, nights where he wakes up gasping, his head turned sharply to the right as all his screams get caught in his throat. He’s got more scars now and no matter where he goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays a military ordered doctor shows up and works the damaged tissue until he’s almost ready to climb into a Jaeger just to get away.
but he’s happy and he’s not on the wall and he still can’t wrap his head around how lucky he is.
"It’s raining out," he says and Mako nods.
"Good," she says untangling them.
he smiles and shakes his head as she goes for the hall closet and grabs her black jacket. Gipsy’s logo is blazed across her back. There are two Kaiju heads and a symbol that Tendo drew to represent the breach on her arm. Her other has a sword. He’s got an almost identical jacket hanging next to hers. It’s a lot nicer than his last Gipsy jacket but Tendo’s nothing if not a planner.
She turns around and he holds out the umbrella.
They own precisely two. they’re identical except one has a notch in the handle from being dropped. That one’s hers. She dropped it ages ago, on the day when they flew the wreckage of Gipsy to the Hong Kong Shatterdome. They flew her in on her birthday. Birthdays were strange for Mako and Pentecost respected her enough not to make a big deal of it. He had called her up to the roof and Mako had dredged up a smile, telling herself she wouldn’t cry. They had stood there quietly for a moment after exchanging pleasantries and then Mako had heard the choppers.
She likes to say that even in the distance she’d known what was coming. Raleigh believes her. Even for only a few days he can see what kind of connection she has to the Jaeger.
She’d been so surprised that she’d dropped the umbrella. In his mind he can see the picture of her, he can feel the emotion as a soaked Mako welcomes Gipsy to her new home. To this day he can feel his throat tighten at the though. Sometimes he hates how easily he cries. He holds out the umbrella with the chip to her and she takes it.
she moves it to her side as she kisses him, drawing him back into the present. There’s no rain and no Gipsy. There’s the press of silk on his body and the taste of tea in his mouth as she kisses him long and hard until he groans in his throat and his fingers dig onto her dress.
"You’re gonna be late," he mutters before this goes farther.
"Right," she says pulling back and he hates the way her eyes seem to close off, "i’ll see you when i get back."
he nods and hates himself as they walk over to the door. She opens the umbrella and steps out in the downpour to face the hearing. He glances over his shoulder at the clock that reads ten past nine. He does some mental calculation as she steps towards the car but his foot is already out the door. He grabs the other umbrella, his umbrella, and jams it in there, running out into the rain.
"Hey!" He calls. Mako stops with her hand on the door, turning to face him and getting that look on her face when she thinks she’s forgotten something. but he turns to the driver, "Can you hold the car for 15?" He questions.
"it’ll be close," the driver warns.
"Raleigh—" Mako begins.
"Done," he says and practically runs back to the apartment.
He’s down to his underwear when the door opens and Mako comes charging in. Her eyes go to the dress pants he’s thrown onto the bed and the white shirt he’s shrugging on. For a moment he thinks she’s going to tell him all the reasons that this is a bad idea. That he should wait here. But then she smiles and he can’t help but grin back as she goes to the drawers and pulls out a belt and tie.
They work together because that’s what they do best and in record time he looks decent enough to stand next to her. Her fingers fly through the knot on his tie as he shrugs on his blazer and then grabs his own jacket and umbrella. She doesnt thank him or comment on his sudden change of heart, but then again she doesn’t really need to. When they leave together its the first time he’s seen her smile going to one of these things. They slide into the back of the car together and the driver keeps his face smooth though Raleigh can see a twitch of a smile on his lips.
"Good morning Miss Mori, Mr. Becket," he greets and Raleigh wonders if the entire world has been waiting for him to get his act together, "ready to go?"
"Yes," Mako says tightening her fingers in his, "we are."