Immediately after rescue.

[dontchaserabbits]

Mako only let go of him to let Raleigh be airlifted into the helo to go back to the Shatterdome. Only just, though - as soon as Mako rejoins him, her hands are on his head, fingers in his hair. Raleigh does his best to shake off the medics, but in such confined space they all win. (It helps that he is tired as all hell.)

Back at the Shatterdome is absolute chaos when the helo lands. There are no other words to describe it - the tech crews are running every which way, medics charging the landing pad, people wanting to talk to Raleigh, to Mako, to make plans, to debrief, to --

-- Mako exits the helo first --

Raleigh follows after, but more slowly (stupid leg fucking ribs ow)

Mako tries to turn around to Raleigh but is getting yanked away by some middle-management yokel to probably look at paperwork and this is not happening --

"Everybody back the hell off!" Raleigh bellows into the crowd on the landing pad, much to the astonishment of nearly everyone there. So many people have never even heard Raleigh raise his voice; it's all new to them.

But the yelling hurts, so that's the last time for the moment.

Comments

[dontchaserabbits]

"No 'two moves earlier' commentary?"

[co_pilot]

"Not this time."

Not when the move had truly counted.

(And he certainly had never held back with her - being in each other's heads had inevitably made that impossible.)

[dontchaserabbits]

"Can I stay here?"

[co_pilot]

She'd been thinking it before he even voices the question; a part of her wonders if it's possible that their minds are still connected in some way, a few invisible threads of the handshake.

When she sits down on the bunk beside him, leaning against his side, her exhale is a tired sound.

"Please."

[dontchaserabbits]

Raleigh doesn't even care that he's still wearing most of his bodysuit.

Once he manages to splay himself out on Mako's bunk, he's asleep in about three minutes.

[co_pilot]

She curls up next to him, the two of them easily fitting close together in the bunk.

Her hand covers his, face relaxing in sleep.

[dontchaserabbits]

When he wakes up, he feels better and worse all at once. Sleep always does him good - but waking up means all his vertebrae crack like tinder-sticks. It makes him groan into Mako's hair --

Oh.

"Mornin'?"

[co_pilot]

She's slow waking, her face effectively hidden against his chest. She'd slept, dreamless, soothed by the sound of his heartbeat.

No one has come looking for them.

"Is it?"

[dontchaserabbits]

"No - we've only been asleep for about three hours yet."

[co_pilot]

She swallows back a groan, stretching to try and ease some stiffness.

"It felt like less."

[dontchaserabbits]

"We don't have to -- to go anywhere."

Not yet.

They could keep pretending.

[co_pilot]

"They will find us. Eventually."

Even as she says the words, she doesn't budge an inch.

[dontchaserabbits]

"I suppose all it is now is how do we want them to find us?"

[co_pilot]

"... the door is locked."

[dontchaserabbits]

"Knew you were smart."

[co_pilot]

She taps a fingertip limply against his head.

"I did see that in there."

Among - other things.

[dontchaserabbits]

"Anything else you might've peeked at you want to tell me about?"

[co_pilot]

"I didn't chase anything."

The temptation had been there, though.

"Did you?"

[dontchaserabbits]

"No."

There was too much going on. Too much at stake.

"But I think I know enough now."

[co_pilot]

There's a whisper of a thrill, a subtle flutter at his knowing.

His face is close to her own again.

[dontchaserabbits]

There are reasons why so many pilots have been blood relatives, or couples. There is a level of intimacy achieved in the Drift that no deep conversation or emotional sharing even comes near.

Being this close to Mako here is still very far away, somehow.

"If we don't get going now, we're not leaving for a while."

[co_pilot]

She draws in a breath, slow and even.

"Would that be such a bad thing?"

[dontchaserabbits]

Raleigh just groans. "No. It's not. But -- not now."

Not when they have literally everyone ever waiting for them to reappear.





"But it's the opposite of a bad thing."

[co_pilot]

As much as she's loathe to agree, she knows their discovery is inevitable.

She slowly extricates herself from him to sit up, pushing a hand through sleep-mussed hair.

[dontchaserabbits]

Raleigh sitting up is more of an effort, being ginger with all of his sore bits - which outnumber the not-sore ones.

"I need to go get clothes."