[ They're nearing the last five minutes of the game, with a losing score of 2 - 1 for the final and the pressure is palpable. One can only plan for so much up to this day, run through that many plays and strategies and the rest is up to the players, to all that they had taken away for the past few months. Mako's eyes are glued to her teammates, her boys -- they're in top form tonight but it's not enough. They need a victory, with every second that ticks by she knows that the window is getting smaller.
Her knuckles are white over the clipboard, over the lists of strategems she had employed, the details of every team members strengths and weaknesses, each used to full advantage to form a cohesive unit. It's a game that matters so much more -- if they could secure the Stanley Cup tonight, they would make history, for the first time in fifty years they would win, and Mako's mouth is dry.
Please win, she thinks, when she sees Raleigh streaking past; they have their star player back and it means something, it means everything.
Two minutes left, and they score to a tie -- ensuring them overtime after a battle in the corner, quick and sharp and intense and Mako rises to her feet, eyes wide. Yes, yes, they have a chance after all!
[Raleigh's heart is going so fast in his chest, it's threatening to come up his throat and strangle him, and it's taking every bit of his will power to keep that in the back of his mind, to keep his focus on the game and on the puck and on his teammates.
There's a minute forty left, then a minute thirty... twenty... ten... the play gets stopped because of an off side call around a minute left in regulation that has him nearly growling in frustration because that wasn't off side are you blind ref. But he skates in to take the draw anyway, because he's surprisingly good at face offs for someone who used to only play defense. He's got another twenty, maybe thirty seconds before his line gets pulled in favor of someone else.
And if that doesn't work, then it's overtime and Raleigh-- does not want to go to overtime. Again for the fifth time in this series. He wants to end it now.
He bends down, waiting for the puck to drop and he wins the face off cleanly, sending the puck back to the point, back to Kaidanovsky, a big Russian bear of a defenseman, who passes the puck off to Hansen. Raleigh drifts towards the net, the puck moves between his teammates a couple of times before Chuck takes the shot, it gets blocked by the goalie but the goalie gives up a rebound and Raleigh's right there to take it and--
-- it goes in.
Twenty nine seconds left in the game and he just scored. Raleigh feels like he might faint, like he could just pass out on the ice right now, here's his gloves and his stick count him out. He's down for the count, he's shaking so bad that he nearly does fall over when Kaidanovsky skates into him for a hug and Hansen's there too and the whole arena is screaming because they're at home and Raleigh Becket, the former defenseman that everyone wrote off came back to the game and he just won them the Stanley cup.
The last half minute of the game, Raleigh's out there again, even though it just feels like a formality. The other team is too stunned to do anything, to make a play happen and get another goal to tie it up and when that final horn sounds-- Raleigh does finally drop his gloves, throws them off and he could get care less about his stick because they won. They did it.
That's for you, Yance, he thinks, fingers pointed towards the sky as the rest of the team circles around him, one giant mass of players and coaches hugging.]
[ The crowd goes wild in a riotous explosion of sound, the triumphant squawk, the roar in the stands very nearly drowning out the proclamations of the commentators, and this is it. This is it, the moment they had all been dreaming of for years and years, Raleigh's name going up in the stands and he would go down as the player who broke the tie, who helped to propel the Anchorage Jaegers into their first ever victory in over fifty years.
The euphoria is infectious, it's stunning, and Raleigh, Raleigh did it like she knew, she hoped it would -- and her eyes are only on him when her father rises from the stands and she follows, just a few steps away from the dogpile that's descended upon him.
They've earned this, after so long, they've earned this, and she doesn't miss the way Raleigh pays tribute to his brother; she knows they've dreamed of this for the longest time, and this is a dream come true, that finally, all their hard work had paid off, all the blood, the sweat and tears culminating in a bittersweet, triumphant moment:
Raleigh Becket has just won them the Stanley Cup.
She'd never lost her faith in him, never stopped believing that he could do it, because look at him now, look at how he shines, and she's crying and laughing because Raleigh, Raleigh, look, this is your moment. This is what you've been waiting for all your life. ]
[Raleigh makes it through the handshake line in a total daze. He knows that guys are shaking his hand, that he's saying good series back to them, that more than half of them are saying that they're proud of him, that his brother would be too, but it all just goes in one ear and out the other.
When he's free of it, he skates around almost without direction because he's got no fucking clue what he's doing but his feet seem to have the game plan because he ends up face to face with Mako Mori and she's beaming at him and are those tears in her eyes?
And he is still in a daze but that's not why he reaches for her, grabs her with one hand on her shoulder and the other cupping her cheek. Then he just kisses her because he's wanted to do that forever, and he just won the Cup so he should be able to do it, right?]
Oh. Mako is so startled by his kiss that she drops her clipboard - and while she would usually pick it up, the feeling of Raleigh's mouth on hers, the magic of this moment, the fact that he's kissing her puts all things on hold.
She only hesitates for a moment before she's leaning into the kiss, parting her lips and tiptoeing to deepen it, to respond because she doesn't care and she adores him and finally. She can dimly hear wolf whistles and cheers but it's all miles and miles away because all that matters right now is the warmth of him, of the fulfillment of something she's wanted for the longest time. (The fact that Stacker Pentecost might want to kill Raleigh for besmirching his little girl's honour is also something out of considerations).
And she's totally not crying because she knows exactly what this means to him. Totally not. ]
[It takes him a moment to realize that the kiss tastes a little salty and that's because she's crying and oh Mako. Oh, sweet driven Mako. Raleigh instinctively slows the kiss down, calms it because he can't lie and say he doesn't want her and that he's not riding high on adrenaline right now. But he's so in tuned with her that he instinctively tries to make her stop crying, even happy tears.
Of course he's doing it with his mouth so he's not really that smart all the time.
He almost forgets where they are by the time he pulls back, because he's too busy smiling at her like a total moron.]
[ Raleigh, baby what are you doing. It's so, so unimaginably sweet that he's trying to kiss her tears away because because it's like something out of a scene of a sappy romance movie and look, his gallantly affectionate attempts are right there for hundreds and thousands of people to see, plastered right there on the big screen.
The hero of the night and his girl, and the cheers are nearly deafening. Mako herself is oblivious to all of it save for the way Raleigh looks at her, the way he's grinning at her -- the brightest, the most luminous sort of smile she's ever seen, the shadows that linger in his eyes are, for the moment, gone from sight. ]
I always thought that came before the kiss. [ She manages, and it's a dumb thing to say but she's never been good at it anyway but the answer's yes, yes of course. Then she catches sight of them both emblazoned on the big screen, just behind Raleigh's shoulder, and she flushes a bright, embarrassed red. ] Oh.
[He has to look around to see what caught her attention and is making her hide in his shoulder and-- oh. Maybe he could've picked a better time to kiss her. Like, maybe when everyone wasn't waiting for the cup to be presented and while none of his teammates seem actually mad (though Pentecost isn't smiling but he's not frowning either so it feels like a draw to him).
Raleigh squeezes her tight, dropping a kiss down to the top of her hair and then he pulls away a little.]
[ Definitely a draw. Pentecost isn't about to kill him and for that Mako i grateful, because dinner's good, and she'd like Raleigh in one breathing piece, daddy :c
And when he pulls away a little, Mako decides that fuck it, he's just kissed her in front of all the audience, and she's not letting him go that soon -- they've waited so long for that Cup, they can wait a few seconds longer.
Because here she is, a hand clasped on the back of his neck before she drags him down to kiss her again. ] Don't be.
[Raleigh is laughing into her mouth point five seconds after she kisses him again, so deliriously happy that he can hardly contain himself. That he can barely even kiss her properly because he's too busy smiling like a total fucking moron.]
Maybe I'm sorry your dad's going to kill me later.
[ Mako tells him easily, unperturbed at the fact that Raleigh's probably going to die three-quarters a virgin if her dad gets his hands on him. But he takes her breath away, when he's laughing and he's so deliriously happy and she's just -- so very taken aback by the fact that this is the first time she's ever see him so genuinely happy.
But she's already nudging him to where his teammates are -- she's not going to be the Yoko of the group, thank you very much. ] Now go, bring back the Cup for us.
[Probably safe to assume that no one on the team besides maybe Chuck Hansen really cares that the cup presentation is being delayed because everyone in the building is more preoccupied with watching the game's hero and his lady love (and no one listens to Chuck because all he ever does is bitch). Raleigh swoops in to kiss her again, before he skates off. Listens to the commissioner talk about the season, about the team, about them, about what happened tonight, about his brother too actually and for the first time in a long time, that doesn't do anything but bring a smile to Raleigh's face.
He's not the team captain, so he's not the first to lift the cup. But he is the second and it's everything he thought it would be. Heavy and awesome and he does he lap with it held high but he finds it so easy to pass off onto the next person, because letting go of it means that he can skate off to do what he wants.
Which is hang as close to Mako as he can get between his pads and jersey and the fact that he's in desperate need of a shower.]
[ ...Becket musk. That's quite special. The cameras, like the crowd, had gone wild, and she'll be expecting some raving reviews of the game in the morning, but Mako's eyes were on the team, on him, because this moment in time is when things change, when they've finally gotten the championship and what a morale booster that is.
They're going to have to train harder to hold on to the title, but that can wait. Tonight, even her father looks pleased (somewhat, but Mako can read him well enough to know when he's proud of them), and so when Raleigh comes up beside her, she smiles briefly and squeezes his hand. ]
[She could bottle the Becket musk and make millions. Just saying.
Raleigh twists his hand in her grip, just so he can thread their fingers together. He's a little surprised that he's still able to skate because he's pretty sure that he can't even feel his legs, can't feel anything but her hand in his because he's just-- so fucking happy that he's numb.
Does that make sense?]
I didn't really mean tonight. I don't think I could sit still long enough to eat.
[But he'd be damn good for some marathon celebratory sex, just saying.]
[ .........................are you sure about that...
He's a hockey player, he can skate even when he's asleep. She's careful to help keep him properly upright and not falling all over his own skates or something; and when their fingers thread together, she squeezes them gently in quiet recognition. ]
And I'm sure the team has other plans for you this evening. I don't expect you'll be getting much sleep.
[ THEY'RE NOT HAVING SEX BEFORE THEIR FIRST DATE. ]
[ She's not selling it. Becket musk is all hers to have. ]
Depends on where you're going.
[ Really, this is her being cheeky. They just won the Cup, she can be cheeky. WELL SECOND BASE POSSIBLY... BOTH BOOBS THIS TIME. NOT JUST THE ONE. Also if Stacker doesn't kill you before you get there it's cool, too. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
victory.
two goals in 17 seconds.
[ They're nearing the last five minutes of the game, with a losing score of 2 - 1 for the final and the pressure is palpable. One can only plan for so much up to this day, run through that many plays and strategies and the rest is up to the players, to all that they had taken away for the past few months. Mako's eyes are glued to her teammates, her boys -- they're in top form tonight but it's not enough. They need a victory, with every second that ticks by she knows that the window is getting smaller.
Her knuckles are white over the clipboard, over the lists of strategems she had employed, the details of every team members strengths and weaknesses, each used to full advantage to form a cohesive unit. It's a game that matters so much more -- if they could secure the Stanley Cup tonight, they would make history, for the first time in fifty years they would win, and Mako's mouth is dry.
Please win, she thinks, when she sees Raleigh streaking past; they have their star player back and it means something, it means everything.
Two minutes left, and they score to a tie -- ensuring them overtime after a battle in the corner, quick and sharp and intense and Mako rises to her feet, eyes wide. Yes, yes, they have a chance after all!
One minute, fifty-five seconds more to go. ]
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There's a minute forty left, then a minute thirty... twenty... ten... the play gets stopped because of an off side call around a minute left in regulation that has him nearly growling in frustration because that wasn't off side are you blind ref. But he skates in to take the draw anyway, because he's surprisingly good at face offs for someone who used to only play defense. He's got another twenty, maybe thirty seconds before his line gets pulled in favor of someone else.
And if that doesn't work, then it's overtime and Raleigh-- does not want to go to overtime. Again for the fifth time in this series. He wants to end it now.
He bends down, waiting for the puck to drop and he wins the face off cleanly, sending the puck back to the point, back to Kaidanovsky, a big Russian bear of a defenseman, who passes the puck off to Hansen. Raleigh drifts towards the net, the puck moves between his teammates a couple of times before Chuck takes the shot, it gets blocked by the goalie but the goalie gives up a rebound and Raleigh's right there to take it and--
-- it goes in.
Twenty nine seconds left in the game and he just scored. Raleigh feels like he might faint, like he could just pass out on the ice right now, here's his gloves and his stick count him out. He's down for the count, he's shaking so bad that he nearly does fall over when Kaidanovsky skates into him for a hug and Hansen's there too and the whole arena is screaming because they're at home and Raleigh Becket, the former defenseman that everyone wrote off came back to the game and he just won them the Stanley cup.
The last half minute of the game, Raleigh's out there again, even though it just feels like a formality. The other team is too stunned to do anything, to make a play happen and get another goal to tie it up and when that final horn sounds-- Raleigh does finally drop his gloves, throws them off and he could get care less about his stick because they won. They did it.
That's for you, Yance, he thinks, fingers pointed towards the sky as the rest of the team circles around him, one giant mass of players and coaches hugging.]
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The euphoria is infectious, it's stunning, and Raleigh, Raleigh did it like she knew, she hoped it would -- and her eyes are only on him when her father rises from the stands and she follows, just a few steps away from the dogpile that's descended upon him.
They've earned this, after so long, they've earned this, and she doesn't miss the way Raleigh pays tribute to his brother; she knows they've dreamed of this for the longest time, and this is a dream come true, that finally, all their hard work had paid off, all the blood, the sweat and tears culminating in a bittersweet, triumphant moment:
Raleigh Becket has just won them the Stanley Cup.
She'd never lost her faith in him, never stopped believing that he could do it, because look at him now, look at how he shines, and she's crying and laughing because Raleigh, Raleigh, look, this is your moment. This is what you've been waiting for all your life. ]
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When he's free of it, he skates around almost without direction because he's got no fucking clue what he's doing but his feet seem to have the game plan because he ends up face to face with Mako Mori and she's beaming at him and are those tears in her eyes?
And he is still in a daze but that's not why he reaches for her, grabs her with one hand on her shoulder and the other cupping her cheek. Then he just kisses her because he's wanted to do that forever, and he just won the Cup so he should be able to do it, right?]
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Oh. Mako is so startled by his kiss that she drops her clipboard - and while she would usually pick it up, the feeling of Raleigh's mouth on hers, the magic of this moment, the fact that he's kissing her puts all things on hold.
She only hesitates for a moment before she's leaning into the kiss, parting her lips and tiptoeing to deepen it, to respond because she doesn't care and she adores him and finally. She can dimly hear wolf whistles and cheers but it's all miles and miles away because all that matters right now is the warmth of him, of the fulfillment of something she's wanted for the longest time. (The fact that Stacker Pentecost might want to kill Raleigh for besmirching his little girl's honour is also something out of considerations).
And she's totally not crying because she knows exactly what this means to him. Totally not. ]
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Of course he's doing it with his mouth so he's not really that smart all the time.
He almost forgets where they are by the time he pulls back, because he's too busy smiling at her like a total moron.]
So you wanna get dinner sometime?
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The hero of the night and his girl, and the cheers are nearly deafening. Mako herself is oblivious to all of it save for the way Raleigh looks at her, the way he's grinning at her -- the brightest, the most luminous sort of smile she's ever seen, the shadows that linger in his eyes are, for the moment, gone from sight. ]
I always thought that came before the kiss. [ She manages, and it's a dumb thing to say but she's never been good at it anyway but the answer's yes, yes of course. Then she catches sight of them both emblazoned on the big screen, just behind Raleigh's shoulder, and she flushes a bright, embarrassed red. ] Oh.
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Raleigh squeezes her tight, dropping a kiss down to the top of her hair and then he pulls away a little.]
Sorry.
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And when he pulls away a little, Mako decides that fuck it, he's just kissed her in front of all the audience, and she's not letting him go that soon -- they've waited so long for that Cup, they can wait a few seconds longer.
Because here she is, a hand clasped on the back of his neck before she drags him down to kiss her again. ] Don't be.
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Maybe I'm sorry your dad's going to kill me later.
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[ Mako tells him easily, unperturbed at the fact that Raleigh's probably going to die three-quarters a virgin if her dad gets his hands on him. But he takes her breath away, when he's laughing and he's so deliriously happy and she's just -- so very taken aback by the fact that this is the first time she's ever see him so genuinely happy.
But she's already nudging him to where his teammates are -- she's not going to be the Yoko of the group, thank you very much. ] Now go, bring back the Cup for us.
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He's not the team captain, so he's not the first to lift the cup. But he is the second and it's everything he thought it would be. Heavy and awesome and he does he lap with it held high but he finds it so easy to pass off onto the next person, because letting go of it means that he can skate off to do what he wants.
Which is hang as close to Mako as he can get between his pads and jersey and the fact that he's in desperate need of a shower.]
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They're going to have to train harder to hold on to the title, but that can wait. Tonight, even her father looks pleased (somewhat, but Mako can read him well enough to know when he's proud of them), and so when Raleigh comes up beside her, she smiles briefly and squeezes his hand. ]
Dinner, you mentioned?
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Raleigh twists his hand in her grip, just so he can thread their fingers together. He's a little surprised that he's still able to skate because he's pretty sure that he can't even feel his legs, can't feel anything but her hand in his because he's just-- so fucking happy that he's numb.
Does that make sense?]
I didn't really mean tonight. I don't think I could sit still long enough to eat.
[But he'd be damn good for some marathon celebratory sex, just saying.]
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He's a hockey player, he can skate even when he's asleep. She's careful to help keep him properly upright and not falling all over his own skates or something; and when their fingers thread together, she squeezes them gently in quiet recognition. ]
And I'm sure the team has other plans for you this evening. I don't expect you'll be getting much sleep.
[ THEY'RE NOT HAVING SEX BEFORE THEIR FIRST DATE. ]
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But you'll be coming with us, right?
[BUT WHAT ABOUT LIKE SECOND BASE?]
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Depends on where you're going.
[ Really, this is her being cheeky. They just won the Cup, she can be cheeky. WELL SECOND BASE POSSIBLY... BOTH BOOBS THIS TIME. NOT JUST THE ONE. Also if Stacker doesn't kill you before you get there it's cool, too. ]