Raleigh Becket Open RP Post

[righthemisphere]

"Please take the ghosts from my heart;
I don't want to be haunted anymore."

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[righthemisphere]

Well, he is unlikely to leave if she's holding his clothes hostage in his washing machine. though honestly they should probably be burnt.

He slips his jacket off and lets her take it, easily guided to strip. Ragged, sweat stained layers hiding a sick, neglected body covered in marks left by strangers. He's embarrassed. Ashamed, and he hasn't even had to look at it in a mirror. He almost doesn't want her to touch him, he doesn't deserve it.

But Mako is tough and she gets her way whether he wants her to or not (he does want. He big wants). At least she didn't find him in a gutter somewhere which.. honestly isn't that unprobeable.

"I'd like that," he murmurs, voice rough. Emotions are stacked like dominoes in his throat and it's any wonder he can keep them all from tumbling. There's a void behind his eyes, filled with shadows and dark figures and galaxies not their own. It eats away at him a little more each day. He thinks it will devour him before any cancer from Gipsy's compromised reactor shield will, but time will tell. Maybe he should start taking bets.

[dorothied]

She takes care of shoving his clothes into her washing machine, and switches it on, because like he thought it himself, he can't leave if his raggedy clothes are held hostage. What's he going to wear? She did instruct Herc to put all his belongings in storage, just in case, before moving off base. Which means they exist, somewhere, but not where Mako can see and get nostalgic over and full of longing over.

So he'll get a pair of her biggest yoga pants, which will likely reach his knees or something, and a baggy sweater, which will maybe look ridiculous, but anyway the point is that he is safe here.

That sorted, she takes her own clothes off too, and guides him to her shower booth, wide enough for both of them to fit without feeling claustrophobic.

She lets the water soak them both, before she speaks: "I have cup noodles."

[righthemisphere]

Raleigh tries not the stare. He's thought about Mako in a lot of ways, always trying to be respectful but you can't blame him because wow she is beautiful in addition to all her other man, many highlights.

But this is not how he thought being naked in the same space as her would happen. If it ever happened.

He tries desperately to ignore the dirt coming off his feet. The sting of the water on his aching back. The way the heat makes the nerves in his arms tingle. He got burned that day. In Pitfall. The circuit burns over his right arm are still red and healing and they'll be as ugly as the ancient ones that spider across his left.

She speaks. Raleigh takes a moment to actually hear what she says and looks up, hair in his eyes which he moves to push back.

Another beat. He wants to touch her again but without clothes it's too intimate and he's, well, afraid.

"That sounds good," with a voice like graveled velvet.

[dorothied]

She can almost, almost picture his voice, sounding out the words: This isn't how I pictured this would be, Mako. And the truth is she agrees. She didn't think she'd end up naked with him like this, mostly because when he up and left a day after closing the breach, she'd thought she'd never see him again. So what did it matter that she had seen every little corner of his memory, that she knew he'd seen hers too? What did it matter that nobody knew you as well as your co-pilot did?

He hadn't stayed over long enough to discover where the closure of the breach left them, as people, as people who meant something to each other and had grown very close in a very short time. Entertaining thoughts about desire and warmth and arousal was a moot point, with Raleigh. Had been a moot point, anyway.

And Mako was very practical.

"We'll get something better tomorrow," she murmurs to herself, and grabs the shampoo bottle. Whether or not he agrees, she is going to start to wash his hair for him, stepping behind him just to allow him some privacy. "They've opened up the restaurants again, did you know?" she starts, a little lighter. "Without the curfew and the danger of a kaijuu or jaeger stepping on your livelihood, restaurant owners have popped up like mushrooms after the rain. And people love it. We even have a food market and all."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6EXUQUXtgI

[righthemisphere]

Raleigh leans forward with a soft noise of pleasure, allowing her fingers into his long, tangled hair that will come up sun bleached after the suds carry away his sin. Mako's hands bring a calm to his dizzy mind. It doesn't matter what she says to him, she couldn't be cursing and it would sound like poetry right now.

"That's great," and no, he hasn't really noticed. Maybe he has.. he doesn't remember. It's.. Things have been weird since he left. The more he tries to think about it the more he can't quite seem to pin down; erased by scrambling neurons and months of self isolated depression.

Six months has passed like the blink of an eye and he has nothing form degradation to show for it.

Standing there like a wraith, taking all this time to summon the courage to raise his hands a little and dare, dare to skim them up her sides.

"People are like that, I guess. We don't give up."

Except that's exactly what he did, isn't it, tried to do.

samson im gonna chop a lot more than your hair if you leave again

[dorothied]

She gives his shoulders such a bitter look. Oh, people are like that, are they?

This reaction, she blames on the remains of Raleigh's personality running through her mind. She snorts, a sound worth a million sarcastic quips.

"No, I suppose we do not give up." She hasn't exactly given up on him, has she? He's been in her apartment for all of twenty minutes and she is fighting for him all over again.

She guides him under the shower head again, and steps around to stand facing him, holding her hands up against his forehead like a shield, so he doesn't get soap in his eyes. And while she's there, there is no escaping the intimacy, proximity, and devastating blueness of his eyes. Or the press of her lips together, like she is still angry and trying to be soft, trying very hard.

fair enough

[righthemisphere]

She deserves to be angry. she deserves every ounce of it building up in her body and he deserves none of the mercy she shows him. Yet here they are. There are no words. but the indescribable pull in his chest that's lead him back feels softer. Less exhausted. More... home.

Where he should have been all this time. Home. With her. the only good force left in his life.


A long, silent moment. His lips are pressed thin though they're hard to see with all his unruly facial hair. He's aged these past months but Mako.. Mako seems perfect to him.

Raleigh takes her in and it almost feels like he's looking at a ghost. Like maybe she isn't real. Like she could disappear at any moment and that terrifies him. He recognizes the anger and hurt in her face. It's bright in her eyes and mixed with worry and maybe pity, and he wants to run. His rabbit heart wants to flee from his shame. From everything he's put her through, from being the last person to leave her when she's been abandoned by every single person she's ever known or loved. One more tally on her belt of inconsolable loss.

Finally,

"You let your hair grow". Idiot, Raleigh. Shut up.

Re: fair enough

[dorothied]

When the water starts to run clear, that's when she moves again. In part motivated by his soft-spoken, raspy observation that she let her hair grow (it's true, it touches her shoulders now and can go up in a ponytail, though the blue is starting to look silly), she runs her fingers through his hair, pushing it away from his forehead and down the shape of his scalp, to finish at each side of his face, palms against the scruffy beard.

"You look strange with a beard," she murmurs back, a little flicker of a smile. "Not bad, but strange."

Like what Raleigh should look like on holiday, on a break. Softer, more relaxed. What the future should be like.

Maybe a different version of him, who had stayed, would've still been sporting a beard. And still showering with her, for other reasons.

It's clear that they got unglued too soon, because she is not keen to let him go yet, and she can't stop touching him.

[righthemisphere]

"I need to cut it," murmur. He can't look away from her. His hands move again to her sides, hovering to touch, to reconnect, the want is palpable.

"Gets in my mouth."

[dorothied]

She feels the ghost touch of those hands, she does. It has been six months without them on any part of her body, and it's six months too many. She isn't going to ask about the scratches on his back, about who put them there, about what he's been doing this time, because he can either choose to tell her or not. But she hasn't exactly touched anyone else in the meantime, and she is starved for it.

For Raleigh's strange, open affection. She almost wills him to put his hands on her hips instead of hovering there.

Instead, she reaches up and twirls his mustache at the ends, like a villain in a black and white movie.

"I fixed it," she jokes.

[righthemisphere]

It works. His hands land with a soft tremor whether by sorrow or nerve damage, a smile breaking out across his face. And when he smiles is with his whole self. Just for her.

Mako is right, they unplugged too fast, too hard. It's all his fault.

He laughs, and for a moment, just a flicker, nothing hurts.

"Should I keep it like that?"

[dorothied]

"Yes." She lets out a little laugh together with him, and just as his hand settle on her hips, hers settle back on his face, against his jawline. She's weirdly enjoying the scratch of the beard.

"Definitely." And since they're both wet anyway, she runs one hand down his beard and makes it sort of take a v-shape. "Even better."

[righthemisphere]

A snort. "Enjoy it while it lasts. I'm using your razor" Raleigh promises, playful, a hint of who he used to be. How they used to be. Who they light have been if he hadn't tried to destroy himself without her.

[dorothied]

She pulls a face. "That's gross, Raleigh." A roll of her eyes, slipping into some familiar territory here. "You better trim it first."

[righthemisphere]

"Never gonna happen," he smiles. Of course he will. Honestly it's a shame she doesn't have a dog she could just shave him like he deserves.

His hands rest a little more firm on her hips. They feel exactly like he always thought they would. Her skin is soft, her heart is iron, Mako Mori is everything good in his world and God he has missed her.

[dorothied]

It brightens him up, makes him look younger, when he smiles or laughs. He's lucky that he seems to frail to her, or she might allow herself a few seconds to think about how at home those hands feel on her bare hips.

Fix first, that's the rule.

"The razor will not be able to handle this mess."

[righthemisphere]

"There's a pocket knife in my bag," he suggests, speaking of the duffle he'd dropped just inside her door.

[dorothied]

There would be. Still makes her narrow her eyes a little bit, because she just got him smelling nice. "Tomorrow." She doesn't trust herself with a pair of child-proof scissors right now, and definitely doesn't trust him with them.

"If you really want to get rid of it, tomorrow."

[righthemisphere]

His smile softens, just.. just looking at her. All this time and all these miles and so much blood and he's here. Like a ghost in her shower on a council estate in Tottenham. Its.. really unbelievable, actually.

"Tomorrow," he agrees. It doesn't actually matter. He doesn't actually care. Clearly. All the hair does get in his way but it was easier not to cut it and besides it's served as a mask of sorts. People don't look at him as much. Don't recognize him. It's been useful in his survival. Old injuries aside. Wrecked knuckles aside. The bruises on his ribs aside.

He stares another long moment before, selfishly soaking in her touch before he reaches for her soap to actually clean himself and then, risky move, her too if only to touch. Words no longer needed as they actually bathe and get out.

Something as simple as a shower makes him feel like a new man but it's Mako who's grounding him and that is making the biggest, immediate difference.

"I like your place," he offers as they dry and he takes the clothes he's offered holding up her little yoga pants with intense scepticism.

[dorothied]

She lets him wash her back, but draws the line there. If he touches her anywhere else tonight, she might burst, or do something equally embarrasing like whimper. Her back still gets goosebumps but at least it's contained to one place.

Later, as they dress, she almost says it's not my place. But, there is nothing left of Stacker here but his books and photos. The rest, the functionality and belongings, are Mako's, scarce as they are.

"They stretch," she says instead, about the pants. "And you can't sleep naked, it's cold at night."

[righthemisphere]

"I'm used to the cold.." and to lycra not so much but he'll try if only to make her laugh when he wriggles them on like tights. There's nowhere for his junk to go. There's no way..

He looks at her with defeat. He will break these. He looks like Peter Pan with a moose knuckle.

[dorothied]

She manages a solemn poker face for all of twenty seconds, before she bursts into laughter at that look he gives her. "Okay, okay, take them off." She waves him off before rushing to the closet and grabbing a pair of sweatpants, looser and more likely to fit.

"You deserved a little bit of torture," she defends, handing him the looser pants as a peace offering.

[righthemisphere]

"Fair.."

You monster. Raleigh sags with relief and immediately peels himself out to take the sweats. He checks the tag and weighs his options. If only Mako weren't so damn small.

But they fit...mostly. Tight but not entirely humiliating. Much better. He isn't concerned with a shirt and knows better than to try.

But.. well. What now. Here and clean and gently, happily, trapped. Raleigh cards his hands through his long hair, hoping it will dry out of his face and watches her like she's made of gold. Feed him. Pet him. Let him sleep at your feet.

[dorothied]

She gives herself a little nod as he puts the pants on. Nice, nice choice. His ass still looks mighty fine, that has not changed yet.

She has a feeling he caught her looking, because when he meets her gaze she flusters enough to blush, and stands there in silent awkwardness for a few seconds.

"Food?" she asks, desperate for a segue.

[righthemisphere]

Maybe a little. Maybe it makes his heart swell. Maybe it makes him change posture a little for better viewing because the way Mako blushes makes him want to grab her up and tuck her inside his chest and keep her there.

But.

"Right.. yeah.. yeah, that sounds good."

He'll settle for trailing after her to the kitchen, instead. Pad barefoot to the window and look out into the night. It's beautiful up here in the crow's nest, so to speak. It reminds him of the views from Gipsy.

"You can see for miles.."