[ They move out of the Shatterdome and into an apartment of their own -- it's not so much intentional as it is the next course of action, a natural thing to do. Ever since Pitfall, they've been inseparable, and she's never thought too much of it until Tendo takes her aside the day before they're slated to leave, tells her in no uncertain terms that she ought to let him go if she doesn't feel the same, because Raleigh is a man who's in it for the long haul, who falls in love so deeply and so completely that it would be cruel to keep stringing him along.
Mako said nothing and only nodded, because she hadn't thought of it -- hadn't considered them, and definitely hadn't actually taken the initiative to talk to Raleigh about it. They'd simply fallen into such a comfortable, familiar pattern with each other that not talking about it worked.
And so began making a home for them, Raleigh with his skills and foresight and knowledge of making things with his hands, and with her help, slowly but surely furnished their bare apartment into something much more livable, with furniture and counters and a bed and all necessary plumbing and appliances.
Finally, the Becket-Mori household of two.
It's a week after all this had gone on, six months in total that Mako thinks hard about this again -- about the depth of their relationship, and where they would be going with each other. She's twenty three today, still young with a whole road ahead of her, would she be happy living out her entire life with this man? It means seventy, eighty years if they're lucky, and it's a heavy commitment to make.
She's awake in the early hours of the morning, when the light is just shining over the horizon and lightening the sky, and Mako gets to study the way he sleeps beside her, on his side facing her, features relaxed and peaceful in repose. He's beautiful, with lovely thick lashes and a soft mouth and incredible cheekbones -- but beauty isn't a deciding factor in making a lifelong commitment. Loving someone is different from wanting to spend all your years with them; the difference is subtle, but it's there, and now more than ever, she ruminates on Tendo's words.
Mako wavers, thinks long, thinks hard - to keep him, or let him go? She doesn't get her answer easily, and she shifts closer to admire him, her knuckles brushing over his cheek before tracing lightly over his features. ]
[If Raleigh knew that Tendo was trying to protect his honor or his heart or whatever, he probably would've smacked him for it. Even if he's not wrong about him, it's still none of his business. Raleigh hasn't even really talked to her about it, about them, about what it means and how he never wants to lose her and he's weak and selfish, he'll take whatever she's offering but that doesn't stop him from hoping for more, for all of it, for everything she has and is and will be.
She's really it for him, he's already come to that conclusion. Raleigh's a one and done kind of man now. People in general bug him and he's so not the cocky, young, stupid pilot that wants to sleep with anything with boobs who's willing. He's quieter, tempered by the storm, preferring to be left alone than to bask in any attention thrown his way. Mako is the exception to the rule, the one person he trusts completely because she knows, she's seen it, felt it.
It would be cruel, probably, to string him along but Raleigh's pretty sure that it'd be worse if she cut him out entirely.
Raleigh stirs, her knuckles drawing him out of his dreams and here's why he doesn't have to think too hard about this, about her-- waking up to Mako hovering over him is literally the best thing that's happened to him in years.]
[ It's the moment when his eyes open, when there's the flash of blue underneath lovely gold eyelashes, when she catches a glimpse of his soul, of a sleep-fogged affection that is so true, so earnest that it makes her breath catch in her throat.
It's a perfect moment, and she wishes she could have a picture of it, forever and always. They haven't talked about it, about their future together -- but a part of her had always known; that there's no one else but him, no one else that could complete her except for him.
Tendo's words ring in her ears, in her heart, because don't be cruel, Mako, and she knows that she could never bear to have him leave. She settles for cupping his face and giving him a slow, deliberate, thorough kiss, trying to find her answer in the shape of his mouth and the touch of his tongue, in the sweetness of the morning before their day starts and everything else starts to crowd out her thoughts.
She pulls away eventually, licking her lips briefly. ]
[Correction; waking up to Mako kissing him like that is literally the best thing that's happened to him in years. He shifts so he can return the kiss properly, because he's a fair guy and he won't just let her be the only one doing all the work.
When she pulls away, he pouts at her a little, while managing to smile at the same time because she just-- makes him so happy to be around, to kiss and wake up to that he has a hard time not smiling around her.]
[ Mako teases back, because his smile lights up her day and she knows it now -- she could see the happiness, pure and breath-taking, and he's changed so much since she'd first met him at the bar years ago, when he'd thought she had been a client and Mako had done nothing to dispel that misconception.
And here they are now, sharing the same bed, each such a large part of the other's life that it's impossible to extricate either one of them from it. She cups his face, leaning in to press her forehead against his. ]
I was thinking about how blue your eyes are. Or how your lips seem to be so naturally pink always. [ She leans to kiss his mole, that adorable one above his upper lip. ] You could put many women to shame.
[Raleigh laughs softly, and he nudges her a little so that he can get off his stomach and make it easier for her to kiss him, isn't he thoughtful. But it's also selfish because he wants to face her and slip his arms around her.]
You really know how to flatter a guy. Telling me I'm prettier than a girl-- how do you think I got any business before I met you?
[ Oh, he's so thoughtful. Mako's happily accommodating, because she'd accommodate anything if it means that she's got an easier time of kissing him senseless.
Her thumb gently smooths over his bottom lip, and not for the first time, she thinks that she's the luckiest woman in the world -- there would be so many who would kill to have him look at them the way he looks at her, so many who would want to be kissed by him. And here he is, in her bed, in her arms.
She smiles, before she gently coaxes his lips apart and gives him an openly sensuous, wonderfully french kiss, her tongue in his mouth and exploring him for a good few moments. Pulling out, she murmurs. ]
Luck, and reputation. Thankfully, I'm your very last customer.
[Any time she feels like waking up for something like this, he's completely okay with. Raleigh leans into the kiss, part of him tempted to push it into something deeper, more urgent, take it further but he holds off on that, following her lead instead. It's a wonderful kiss, open and arousing but it's just that right now-- a kiss. Exploring each other, coming back home, spending a few lazy moments together first thing in the morning.]
Not a customer. [And if she was, she clearly owes him a literal fuck ton of money for all the sex they've had since that first night.] You never really were.
[ ...Yes, well. If they had to count that all those times, the amount she'd owe him would be in the cushy seven digits. Mako sighs, contented and happy, delight and warmth evident in the way she looks at him. He's happy, very much so, and Mako runs her fingers up and down his side, tracing over the lines of his body, the curve of muscle, lean and powerful.
She's considering Tendo's words again, and she looks back at him, contemplative and hesitant. She's never asked this -- never thought that she needed to, but there are some things that ought to be spoken out loud. So she asks him the one thing lovers have always asked each other: ]
[That's something that Raleigh never expected her to ask, even though it makes sense they would talk about it, have to put words to it at some point. Does he love her? Did she not see everything in the Drift? Is the sky blue?
It doesn't bother him so much anymore, when Mako touches his side, brushes against his scars. He's got new ones, fresh ones from Pitfall that are still red and angry, layered with the ones from five ago.
Something's a little off this morning. The distraction of kisses aside, she seems more somber and quiet than she usually and that's saying something for Mako.]
[ Mako doesn't smile at that, because she has to know, because some things are better when spoken instead of known. Her fingers trace over his scars, old and new -- he's her hero even if he thinks otherwise, he's been through so much, and yet he still gives without complaint. Raleigh is a neat package of complications under a simple exterior, and her thumb lightly strokes over one of the newer scars, smoothing over the raised flesh.
She wears some of them herself, knows how sensitive it can be. Mako is quiet as she contemplates this simple, profound truth. Does she love him? How does she define it? ]
I don't know what it's supposed to mean. [ It's nebulous, undefinable and all-encompassing, and is she doing this right? Does she love him? ]
[So this isn't really a cute moment, it's more serious than that, Raleigh's gathering now because she's not smiling or laughing at him and he mimics her mood without even realizing he's doing it.
He moves to put his fingers through her hair, as she traces over his scars.]
[ How best to say this? She's sure that there isn't any easy way to start this conversation, especially when she'd been mulling over it for the longest time.
Brushing her fingers over a particularly nasty one that narrowly skirts a nipple, Mako finally says, ]
I was wondering if I loved you. Someone told me that if I didn't, I should let you go.
[Raleigh tenses, more so than he already has, and he reaches to catch her her hand, make her fingers stop doing that because it's distracting. They haven't really talked about it, have they but he thought it was so obvious and she can't leave, that's not an option, he won't accept it so she must love him.]
[ Her hand stills in his, and she stops to look at him, bereft of her distraction. It's only when she looks into his eyes that she gains more of an awareness, an understanding, perhaps. She doesn't want to be without him; he's so much a part of her that she doesn't know what to do with it.
It should terrify her, but it doesn't.
She breathes. ] I don't know. But no, I'm not. [ The thought of sending him away makes her tighten her fingers on his. She leans closer, hesitant. ] I don't want to let you go.
[He's still not really appeased by that answer. Raleigh doesn't relax, telling him that she doesn't want to let him go-- that doesn't really solve what's really bothering him. Because he doesn't want her to stay because she feels obligated to.]
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[ They move out of the Shatterdome and into an apartment of their own -- it's not so much intentional as it is the next course of action, a natural thing to do. Ever since Pitfall, they've been inseparable, and she's never thought too much of it until Tendo takes her aside the day before they're slated to leave, tells her in no uncertain terms that she ought to let him go if she doesn't feel the same, because Raleigh is a man who's in it for the long haul, who falls in love so deeply and so completely that it would be cruel to keep stringing him along.
Mako said nothing and only nodded, because she hadn't thought of it -- hadn't considered them, and definitely hadn't actually taken the initiative to talk to Raleigh about it. They'd simply fallen into such a comfortable, familiar pattern with each other that not talking about it worked.
And so began making a home for them, Raleigh with his skills and foresight and knowledge of making things with his hands, and with her help, slowly but surely furnished their bare apartment into something much more livable, with furniture and counters and a bed and all necessary plumbing and appliances.
Finally, the Becket-Mori household of two.
It's a week after all this had gone on, six months in total that Mako thinks hard about this again -- about the depth of their relationship, and where they would be going with each other. She's twenty three today, still young with a whole road ahead of her, would she be happy living out her entire life with this man? It means seventy, eighty years if they're lucky, and it's a heavy commitment to make.
She's awake in the early hours of the morning, when the light is just shining over the horizon and lightening the sky, and Mako gets to study the way he sleeps beside her, on his side facing her, features relaxed and peaceful in repose. He's beautiful, with lovely thick lashes and a soft mouth and incredible cheekbones -- but beauty isn't a deciding factor in making a lifelong commitment. Loving someone is different from wanting to spend all your years with them; the difference is subtle, but it's there, and now more than ever, she ruminates on Tendo's words.
Mako wavers, thinks long, thinks hard - to keep him, or let him go? She doesn't get her answer easily, and she shifts closer to admire him, her knuckles brushing over his cheek before tracing lightly over his features. ]
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She's really it for him, he's already come to that conclusion. Raleigh's a one and done kind of man now. People in general bug him and he's so not the cocky, young, stupid pilot that wants to sleep with anything with boobs who's willing. He's quieter, tempered by the storm, preferring to be left alone than to bask in any attention thrown his way. Mako is the exception to the rule, the one person he trusts completely because she knows, she's seen it, felt it.
It would be cruel, probably, to string him along but Raleigh's pretty sure that it'd be worse if she cut him out entirely.
Raleigh stirs, her knuckles drawing him out of his dreams and here's why he doesn't have to think too hard about this, about her-- waking up to Mako hovering over him is literally the best thing that's happened to him in years.]
Hey. You're up early.
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It's a perfect moment, and she wishes she could have a picture of it, forever and always. They haven't talked about it, about their future together -- but a part of her had always known; that there's no one else but him, no one else that could complete her except for him.
Tendo's words ring in her ears, in her heart, because don't be cruel, Mako, and she knows that she could never bear to have him leave. She settles for cupping his face and giving him a slow, deliberate, thorough kiss, trying to find her answer in the shape of his mouth and the touch of his tongue, in the sweetness of the morning before their day starts and everything else starts to crowd out her thoughts.
She pulls away eventually, licking her lips briefly. ]
I was just thinking about something.
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When she pulls away, he pouts at her a little, while managing to smile at the same time because she just-- makes him so happy to be around, to kiss and wake up to that he has a hard time not smiling around her.]
That's dangerous. You thinking.
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[ Mako teases back, because his smile lights up her day and she knows it now -- she could see the happiness, pure and breath-taking, and he's changed so much since she'd first met him at the bar years ago, when he'd thought she had been a client and Mako had done nothing to dispel that misconception.
And here they are now, sharing the same bed, each such a large part of the other's life that it's impossible to extricate either one of them from it. She cups his face, leaning in to press her forehead against his. ]
I was thinking about how blue your eyes are. Or how your lips seem to be so naturally pink always. [ She leans to kiss his mole, that adorable one above his upper lip. ] You could put many women to shame.
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You really know how to flatter a guy. Telling me I'm prettier than a girl-- how do you think I got any business before I met you?
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Her thumb gently smooths over his bottom lip, and not for the first time, she thinks that she's the luckiest woman in the world -- there would be so many who would kill to have him look at them the way he looks at her, so many who would want to be kissed by him. And here he is, in her bed, in her arms.
She smiles, before she gently coaxes his lips apart and gives him an openly sensuous, wonderfully french kiss, her tongue in his mouth and exploring him for a good few moments. Pulling out, she murmurs. ]
Luck, and reputation. Thankfully, I'm your very last customer.
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Not a customer. [And if she was, she clearly owes him a literal fuck ton of money for all the sex they've had since that first night.] You never really were.
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She's considering Tendo's words again, and she looks back at him, contemplative and hesitant. She's never asked this -- never thought that she needed to, but there are some things that ought to be spoken out loud. So she asks him the one thing lovers have always asked each other: ]
Do you... love me?
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It doesn't bother him so much anymore, when Mako touches his side, brushes against his scars. He's got new ones, fresh ones from Pitfall that are still red and angry, layered with the ones from five ago.
Something's a little off this morning. The distraction of kisses aside, she seems more somber and quiet than she usually and that's saying something for Mako.]
Yeah. Do you really even have to ask?
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She wears some of them herself, knows how sensitive it can be. Mako is quiet as she contemplates this simple, profound truth. Does she love him? How does she define it? ]
I don't know what it's supposed to mean. [ It's nebulous, undefinable and all-encompassing, and is she doing this right? Does she love him? ]
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He moves to put his fingers through her hair, as she traces over his scars.]
What's bothering you?
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Brushing her fingers over a particularly nasty one that narrowly skirts a nipple, Mako finally says, ]
I was wondering if I loved you. Someone told me that if I didn't, I should let you go.
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Do you? Are you going to?
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It should terrify her, but it doesn't.
She breathes. ] I don't know. But no, I'm not. [ The thought of sending him away makes her tighten her fingers on his. She leans closer, hesitant. ] I don't want to let you go.
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How do you not know if you love me or not?