[ It was the last place Naomi would have pictured them meeting again: Raleigh one of the faces among the many working on the wall, his skin sunburnt and rough while she wandered the grounds, sent out on this assignment as if in punishment for speaking her mind on a column that had criticized the U.N. for their lack of faith in the people who didn't have to put their lives on the line but did anyway.
The first time she noticed his face, she's going through the photos on her laptop, trying to see what she can use for a photo-essay, because no job is a punishment if she can find the right story to spin and if the result makes Gary stew at her gumption -- that's fine, she can leave, the other broadsheets want their hands on her anyway. She stops short because she knows that face, would know it anywhere even if the last photograph of Raleigh Becket dates back three years.
The second time she spots him, he's alone at the bar and she's trying to stretch her patience with his boss because she's prompted the same question for the third time in a row, but apparently wearing a button down boyfriend top doesn't leave her shapeless enough because she can tell where the jackass' thought are -- and they aren't in the head set on his shoulders.
( She's not sure if Raleigh sees her, but if he didn't she wouldn't be surprised. The other men aren't sure how to place him: the pilot without a mech, the washout who's not afraid to scale the heights of the wall.
He just sits, quietly nursing his scotch -- just one, before he leaves, quiet as a ghost. )
The third time doesn't come until weeks after, and she can hear the snide comments whispered over drinks. Leave it to Becket to do nothing and gain the girl's attention followed shortly by laughter and a jibe of Sweetheart, don't waste your breath with that one. The Jaeger Program spat him out for the loser that he is.
( Tomorrow, she swears, she's going to knee that one in the balls. )
She's not the seventeen-year-old who'd written her name on his palm. He's no longer the pilot he once was.
She's hoping none of that matters. That they can start fresh. ] Raleigh, right? [ As if she doesn't have a full dossier documenting his entire career. ] Hi.
[ working on the wall is hell. or rather, living without yancy is hell and the wall just makes it worse in some ways. the dull monotony of doing the same thing day after day after day may be getting to him a little. it was great at first. the job helped keep him from throwing himself into the ocean. but it's been a couple years since yancy died now and raleigh's learning to live with the hole in his head.
but life still sucks. he can't sleep. and when he does, he has nightmares more often than not. he's lost some weight, even though exercise has kept him in shape fairly well. the last time he smiled was the night yancy died. even though he hates thinking about the night of yancy's death, when he's up there working the wall, it's hard for his thoughts not to turn to everything he's lost. dad, mom, brother, sister, friends... some of those are his own fault, but their loss still stings.
every once in a while, he wonders if he should give tendo a call. there's a part of him that's desperate for some human contact that's not the guys who have no idea how to deal with him. but he always ends up talking himself out of it before he does.
he's probably depressed. the internet has given him enough of an insight for him to "diagnose" himself. it makes sense, really. but like hell is he going to go and talk to a therapist ( or anyone ) about all of this. none of them would get it, so what's the point?
even though raleigh sequesters himself away from all of his co-workers ( not entirely by choice, but he can't really complain ) it's hard for him to miss that there's a reporter hanging around and asking questions. he catches sight of her in the bar one night and thinks, she looks really familiar, but there's nothing more to it than that.
not until she comes up to him a few weeks later. then it clicks. ] Naomi? [ he's surprised, and it shows through his dirt tan. after a minute, he remembers his manners and shifts so he's actually facing her. ] Hey. Long time no see. [ she looks good. different, but good. ]
[ She hadn't expected him to remember her, but apparently he does and she nods to the seat beside him and offers a friendly smile. ] This seat taken? [ She knows the short answer is no, but it's the longer one that concerns her. Because no one sits with him, no one wants to or cares and it doesn't take a genius to get that it's partly because no matter what he does, he's not like common folk, and partly because it's easy for people to resent those who are different rather than simply accept them for who they are.
( She still remembers the way he'd looked: a year older and somehow more bright-eyed than she'd ever been his full attention on just her while his brother had listened in. When Yancy Becket had urged them to leave, to get back to base because they had class in the morning, she wasn't quite sure how she'd managed to keep her hands from shaking as she'd scrawled her number on Raleigh's palm. )
There's a low whistle from somewhere on the other side of the mostly empty bar, and her ears are sharp enough ( a reporter's skill ) to catch the half-laughed Jaeger fly, makes sense. She doesn't take offense at the term, instead, she wears it like a badge of honor, because her entire career has been built atop the foundation of her love for the PPDC and if people have a problem with that, they can go jump off a cliff. ]
I wasn't sure if it was you until the other week. But if you'd rather be left alone... [ she lets her voice trail, a hint of hope coloring her words as she rocks back on her heels just a little.
Oh, she'll back off if he asks her too. But for her part, it's great to see a friendly face, to know at least one person in this godforsaken patch at the end of the world who doesn't make her want to put a fist in their eye. ]
[ it would be hard to forget her after the fight he and yancy got into over her. they didn't really fight very often. bickering and giving each other shit was one thing, but really going at it was another. so when they did, it was memorable.
because of that, he almost says that he wants to be alone. but he's been lonely enough recently that he just waves at the empty seat next to him and says, ] It's yours if you want it.
[ there's no missing the whistle from the other side of the room. naomi seems either oblivious of unfazed by it though, so he's not exactly going to do much about it. the way he figures it, she's probably used to the comments by now. a lot of the guys working here aren't exactly the politest of folks. but work is work and he needs to survive. ]
There any reason in particular you want to talk to me? I'm not exactly good company. [ raleigh's not exactly one for small talk or any kind of talk anymore. if she's looking for something to add to her article, she's going to be sorely disappointed. ]
Still better company than [ the quip she had in mind was these sorry bums, but they're not really that. She sees enough how hard these people work even if it's tinged with resignation -- have to in order to eat as opposed to want to because it means something, because while their foreman spouts a whole lot of bull about them contributing to a worldwide effort to keep the kaiju at bay, she knows it's all propaganda; so she settles for taking the seat and just repeats: ] Still better company.
[ It's not often that Naomi finds herself at a loss for words, but tonight is apparently one of them, so she gestures to the barkeep and asks for a beer and while she holds out for about a minute of silence, she eventually caves: ] How are you?
[ She's genuinely curious. She'd heard about his brother, had spent a full thirty minutes crying on her bathroom floor and the rest of the day in a haze at school. She'd never told anyone about her tryst with Yancy, had kept it to herself like a dirty little secret after word had gotten around that the boys had all but been thrown out of the diner where she'd first met them.
The question feels... stupid though, about two seconds in. Because they're not friends, they're not really anything to each other and she finds herself grateful for the beer set in front of her. ] Sorry. You... don't have to answer that.
[ the question makes him look back down at his scotch, hunching in on himself a little. how is he? well, he's depressed. he's working a dead end job that he hates because it's the only way he can convince himself he's still helping ( even if he really doesn't think the wall is going to work ever ) while also getting to eat. he still wakes up screaming sometimes. you know, when he sleeps at all. and he's in a constant state of missing his brother. while he's not the only one to have lost family and he figures his loss isn't any greater than those other people who have had people they loved die because of the kaiju, there's something about grieving a co-pilot that's a little different. ]
Don't know that I could, even if I wanted to, [ he ends up saying. it's a bit of a cop-out answer, but it's the only one he's got that's not short or annoyed. because really. she's seen him. how does she think he's doing?
raleigh knocks back the rest of his scotch. that's probably an unfair thought. it's not like naomi really knew him way back when. they met once in a diner and flirted for all of five minutes and haven't seen each other in the flesh since. for all she knows, this is his natural state. ( except for the obvious way it isn't. )
and he really needs something else to think about. enough of his thoughts during the day are dedicated to yancy and raleigh's own current state of life. he doesn't need that when he's got potential conversation sitting right next to him too. ] You gonna be slumming it with the rest of us for much longer?
[ Naomi tips the bottle to her lips, careful not to look at him too long and instead settling for observing him out of the corner of her eye. He's so very different -- and not just from the last time they'd seen each other, because she'd tracked the Becket boys' career in the years after, the way a girl might a sports star crush, or a band that she'd seen before their rise to stardom.
There's a weight to Raleigh now, a heaviness in even the way he just sits or knocks back the drink that is worlds different from the boy who'd looked straight at her with a smile in his eyes and a good-natured quip on his lips as he told her all that he was allowed to say about training at Kodiak.
She breathes in, exhales: ] For as long as my editor needs me to be out of sight from "upper management," [ she frames those last two words in air-quotes before folding her arms over the counter to let out a quiet, if frustrated sigh. She shrugs and lools over. ] This is me on time-out, so to speak. The U.N. isn't very happy with me right now. [ Freedom of the press, her ass. ]
[ that surprises him a little. maybe it shouldn't, considering this is the girl who, despite not even being a legal adult at the time, decided it'd be fun to hit on a few jaeger pilot wannabes. she'd seemed to have confidence in spades when he met her. it makes sense that she'd still have that years later.
but it makes him pretty curious, too. it's an interesting feeling. raleigh honestly can't remember the last time he was actually interested in learning something he doesn't already know. ] What'd you do to piss the U.N. off?
[ that seems like a pretty hefty thing for a girl who's, what? twenty-two? twenty-three at the most? ]
[ She'll be twenty-three in October, actually but that's still a few months away. But age has nothing to do with what a body can and cannot do, and that's something Raleigh should know -- he was a jaeger pilot and saving the world at what, nineteen?
When he asks, the look that crosses her face is one of surprise, because she's been here a couple of weeks but no one's asked why, no one's cared to know her story because when people think of reporters, they see a camera and a list of questions from her to whoever, not a person with a story of their own.
Naomi takes breath and deadpans: ] Accuse them of sanctioning grave robbery.
[ Because wasn't what Oblivion Bay was? A grave site as legitimate as the PPDC memorial grounds that she one day hopes to visit in Hawaii. ]
[ this conversation is just full of firsts. because for the first time in a long time, raleigh feels something more than the dull, muted numbness that follows him around everywhere. the confusion and surprise he's been feeling give way to a small smile tugging at his lips. it's not much, and it's nothing compared to the thousand watt grins he used to toss around. but it's definitely a smile.
it's not even that it's funny. it's just--no one else here gets it. no one else understands that jaegers aren't just hunks of metal that you can mine for another project. they're machines, yeah, but they're so much more than that too. and so raleigh's grateful that there's someone else around who can understand.
and he's maybe thinking that she's even more attractive now than the last time he saw her in person. which is really something he didn't expect to think. it's not like he hasn't thought that people are attractive in years. he's had a hook-up or two since knifehead. it's a decent way to get out of his head for a little bit of time. but it's not exactly been a priority, and out on the wall there's not exactly that many women working the long, dangerous shifts. he hasn't had much opportunity to think things like that recently.
raleigh looks over his shoulder at the people not so surreptitiously staring at them, and then back at naomi. ] You want to go somewhere we won't have a bunch of assholes trying to listen in on us?
[ The invite surprises her just as much as the ghost of a smile that he sends her way. ]
They're going to think we hooked up. [ The observation is matter-of-fact. She's already been tagged with jaeger fly, it's common enough knowledge that he's a former pilot, and no one knows about their shared history. ] You okay with people thinking that?
[ She's been called worse, and after a while, names just slide off her like water on a duck's back. The fact that they think she's just another pilot groupie actually works to her advantage.
But Raleigh works here. Works with these people, and is probably stuck with them until the Wall is finished and when the kaiju stop coming. So the remark is of concern, for him. ]
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loccent2013-10-08 09:58 pm
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[ It was the last place Naomi would have pictured them meeting again: Raleigh one of the faces among the many working on the wall, his skin sunburnt and rough while she wandered the grounds, sent out on this assignment as if in punishment for speaking her mind on a column that had criticized the U.N. for their lack of faith in the people who didn't have to put their lives on the line but did anyway.
The first time she noticed his face, she's going through the photos on her laptop, trying to see what she can use for a photo-essay, because no job is a punishment if she can find the right story to spin and if the result makes Gary stew at her gumption -- that's fine, she can leave, the other broadsheets want their hands on her anyway. She stops short because she knows that face, would know it anywhere even if the last photograph of Raleigh Becket dates back three years.
The second time she spots him, he's alone at the bar and she's trying to stretch her patience with his boss because she's prompted the same question for the third time in a row, but apparently wearing a button down boyfriend top doesn't leave her shapeless enough because she can tell where the jackass' thought are -- and they aren't in the head set on his shoulders.
( She's not sure if Raleigh sees her, but if he didn't she wouldn't be surprised. The other men aren't sure how to place him: the pilot without a mech, the washout who's not afraid to scale the heights of the wall.
He just sits, quietly nursing his scotch -- just one, before he leaves, quiet as a ghost. )
The third time doesn't come until weeks after, and she can hear the snide comments whispered over drinks. Leave it to Becket to do nothing and gain the girl's attention followed shortly by laughter and a jibe of Sweetheart, don't waste your breath with that one. The Jaeger Program spat him out for the loser that he is.
( Tomorrow, she swears, she's going to knee that one in the balls. )
She's not the seventeen-year-old who'd written her name on his palm. He's no longer the pilot he once was.
She's hoping none of that matters. That they can start fresh. ] Raleigh, right? [ As if she doesn't have a full dossier documenting his entire career. ] Hi.
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but life still sucks. he can't sleep. and when he does, he has nightmares more often than not. he's lost some weight, even though exercise has kept him in shape fairly well. the last time he smiled was the night yancy died. even though he hates thinking about the night of yancy's death, when he's up there working the wall, it's hard for his thoughts not to turn to everything he's lost. dad, mom, brother, sister, friends... some of those are his own fault, but their loss still stings.
every once in a while, he wonders if he should give tendo a call. there's a part of him that's desperate for some human contact that's not the guys who have no idea how to deal with him. but he always ends up talking himself out of it before he does.
he's probably depressed. the internet has given him enough of an insight for him to "diagnose" himself. it makes sense, really. but like hell is he going to go and talk to a therapist ( or anyone ) about all of this. none of them would get it, so what's the point?
even though raleigh sequesters himself away from all of his co-workers ( not entirely by choice, but he can't really complain ) it's hard for him to miss that there's a reporter hanging around and asking questions. he catches sight of her in the bar one night and thinks, she looks really familiar, but there's nothing more to it than that.
not until she comes up to him a few weeks later. then it clicks. ] Naomi? [ he's surprised, and it shows through his dirt tan. after a minute, he remembers his manners and shifts so he's actually facing her. ] Hey. Long time no see. [ she looks good. different, but good. ]
no subject
( She still remembers the way he'd looked: a year older and somehow more bright-eyed than she'd ever been his full attention on just her while his brother had listened in. When Yancy Becket had urged them to leave, to get back to base because they had class in the morning, she wasn't quite sure how she'd managed to keep her hands from shaking as she'd scrawled her number on Raleigh's palm. )
There's a low whistle from somewhere on the other side of the mostly empty bar, and her ears are sharp enough ( a reporter's skill ) to catch the half-laughed Jaeger fly, makes sense. She doesn't take offense at the term, instead, she wears it like a badge of honor, because her entire career has been built atop the foundation of her love for the PPDC and if people have a problem with that, they can go jump off a cliff. ]
I wasn't sure if it was you until the other week. But if you'd rather be left alone... [ she lets her voice trail, a hint of hope coloring her words as she rocks back on her heels just a little.
Oh, she'll back off if he asks her too. But for her part, it's great to see a friendly face, to know at least one person in this godforsaken patch at the end of the world who doesn't make her want to put a fist in their eye. ]
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because of that, he almost says that he wants to be alone. but he's been lonely enough recently that he just waves at the empty seat next to him and says, ] It's yours if you want it.
[ there's no missing the whistle from the other side of the room. naomi seems either oblivious of unfazed by it though, so he's not exactly going to do much about it. the way he figures it, she's probably used to the comments by now. a lot of the guys working here aren't exactly the politest of folks. but work is work and he needs to survive. ]
There any reason in particular you want to talk to me? I'm not exactly good company. [ raleigh's not exactly one for small talk or any kind of talk anymore. if she's looking for something to add to her article, she's going to be sorely disappointed. ]
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[ It's not often that Naomi finds herself at a loss for words, but tonight is apparently one of them, so she gestures to the barkeep and asks for a beer and while she holds out for about a minute of silence, she eventually caves: ] How are you?
[ She's genuinely curious. She'd heard about his brother, had spent a full thirty minutes crying on her bathroom floor and the rest of the day in a haze at school. She'd never told anyone about her tryst with Yancy, had kept it to herself like a dirty little secret after word had gotten around that the boys had all but been thrown out of the diner where she'd first met them.
The question feels... stupid though, about two seconds in. Because they're not friends, they're not really anything to each other and she finds herself grateful for the beer set in front of her. ] Sorry. You... don't have to answer that.
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Don't know that I could, even if I wanted to, [ he ends up saying. it's a bit of a cop-out answer, but it's the only one he's got that's not short or annoyed. because really. she's seen him. how does she think he's doing?
raleigh knocks back the rest of his scotch. that's probably an unfair thought. it's not like naomi really knew him way back when. they met once in a diner and flirted for all of five minutes and haven't seen each other in the flesh since. for all she knows, this is his natural state. ( except for the obvious way it isn't. )
and he really needs something else to think about. enough of his thoughts during the day are dedicated to yancy and raleigh's own current state of life. he doesn't need that when he's got potential conversation sitting right next to him too. ] You gonna be slumming it with the rest of us for much longer?
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There's a weight to Raleigh now, a heaviness in even the way he just sits or knocks back the drink that is worlds different from the boy who'd looked straight at her with a smile in his eyes and a good-natured quip on his lips as he told her all that he was allowed to say about training at Kodiak.
She breathes in, exhales: ] For as long as my editor needs me to be out of sight from "upper management," [ she frames those last two words in air-quotes before folding her arms over the counter to let out a quiet, if frustrated sigh. She shrugs and lools over. ] This is me on time-out, so to speak. The U.N. isn't very happy with me right now. [ Freedom of the press, her ass. ]
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but it makes him pretty curious, too. it's an interesting feeling. raleigh honestly can't remember the last time he was actually interested in learning something he doesn't already know. ] What'd you do to piss the U.N. off?
[ that seems like a pretty hefty thing for a girl who's, what? twenty-two? twenty-three at the most? ]
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When he asks, the look that crosses her face is one of surprise, because she's been here a couple of weeks but no one's asked why, no one's cared to know her story because when people think of reporters, they see a camera and a list of questions from her to whoever, not a person with a story of their own.
Naomi takes breath and deadpans: ] Accuse them of sanctioning grave robbery.
[ Because wasn't what Oblivion Bay was? A grave site as legitimate as the PPDC memorial grounds that she one day hopes to visit in Hawaii. ]
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it's not even that it's funny. it's just--no one else here gets it. no one else understands that jaegers aren't just hunks of metal that you can mine for another project. they're machines, yeah, but they're so much more than that too. and so raleigh's grateful that there's someone else around who can understand.
and he's maybe thinking that she's even more attractive now than the last time he saw her in person. which is really something he didn't expect to think. it's not like he hasn't thought that people are attractive in years. he's had a hook-up or two since knifehead. it's a decent way to get out of his head for a little bit of time. but it's not exactly been a priority, and out on the wall there's not exactly that many women working the long, dangerous shifts. he hasn't had much opportunity to think things like that recently.
raleigh looks over his shoulder at the people not so surreptitiously staring at them, and then back at naomi. ] You want to go somewhere we won't have a bunch of assholes trying to listen in on us?
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They're going to think we hooked up. [ The observation is matter-of-fact. She's already been tagged with jaeger fly, it's common enough knowledge that he's a former pilot, and no one knows about their shared history. ] You okay with people thinking that?
[ She's been called worse, and after a while, names just slide off her like water on a duck's back. The fact that they think she's just another pilot groupie actually works to her advantage.
But Raleigh works here. Works with these people, and is probably stuck with them until the Wall is finished and when the kaiju stop coming. So the remark is of concern, for him. ]