Alaska is cold, she finds, but it is not such a different cold than the winters she experienced in Japan as a little girl, though it is difficult to remember sometimes. The memories are old and tarnished, in need of polishing and buffing but they are still there, hidden amongst the recesses of her mind, waiting to be pulled free once more.
It is the Drift that brings them back to light and consequently it is Raleigh that succeeds in soothing the hurts associated with those old memories that have been stirred to life. He takes her on vacation to a remote area in a tiny town whose name she cannot remember, hunkered down in a small cabin with weak heat and lighting so low that candles now dot the entire living room where the two copilots sit facing one another, hands locked, breathing in one anothers exhales.
He loves the cold though. He hardly even notices it anymore, wears the sweaters more out of habit than anything. The only time he really notices the weather is when you bring him somewhere hot and humid and oh God, he's melting.
He takes Mako to Nome because there's hardly any people there and it's boring as hell, and that means that no one's really following them there. No one there cares that they're Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori, because they've got their own lives to care about. The candles are doing fuck all for keeping them warm, and Raleigh runs a thumb over the back of her hand, noting how cold her fingers are.
Mako likes it more now than she used to; partially because of Raleigh's influence but also partially because it means that she can rest against him, absorb his heat and bask in his presence. She loves sitting like this, drinking him in as they sit next to each other, barely touching but still sharing so much.
"Share yours."
It's almost a command as she leans closer, letting her forehead drop against his shoulder, fingers lacing with his.
As if she has to even ask him to do that. When she leans closer, Raleigh slips an arm around her shoulders, bringing the blanket with, pretty much just wrapping her up in it with him.
She smiles to herself and nods, slipping close. It's nice, being in close proximity with him and she eagerly hogs the blanket, leeching heat from both it and him.
"Much."
Her head drops to rest on his shoulders, eyes half-lidded, and she curls in close, breathing deep.
He hums lightly in agreement, tipping his head to the side so he can rest it against hers. When they're like this, it's just about as close to being in the Drift again as they can get, just sitting silently and close together and that's also when his head hurts the most, yearning to crawl back into hers like it can tell that she's right there.
[ When Mako was very, very small, she used to slip outside of her family’s small abode and race into the fields in the dead of the night, giggling and picking her way through the grass and freshly plowed land to find her secret place, the place where she’d go and stare at the stars and watch, wonder, hope. Out there, she thinks, is beauty beyond her wildest dreams – places that she can only think of in her imagination, that only come to life when she closes her eyes and wills them to be so.
Perhaps out there, it is not so difficult. Out there, it is perfect, she thinks, and as she spreads the blanket and settles her body down on her back, legs splayed and eyes wide, she imagines her paradise and what it must be like.
***
Now that she is older, Mako does not have time for such childish fantasies. There is a war, there is death and decay all around, there is fear and uncertainty and despair. She fights because she must, because she is driven, because there is no other option. She fights for her family, for the future of humanity, for life. She spends all of her time with Gipsy Danger, cooing at the giant mech and putting her lifeblood into the restoration project and her training.
She does not have time for the stars anymore.
***
The war is over and monotony has settled in; she goes on numerous press tours with Raleigh Becket, smiling and waving to the people though it is a hollow thing, because a piece of her died that day in the breach. She gives interviews, talks limitedly about her experiences, and leans on her co-pilot when the weight becomes to much to bear.
She stays in Hong Kong, pushing for the Academy to be reopened, for the Jaeger program to be reinstated and she fights for it in Stacker’s name, advising that everything may not be as it seems. They came once, they could come again. There is no harm in being ready, in being prepared.
It is exhausting and late one night she goes to the very, very top of the Shatterdome, climbs through the hatch and sits there, staring out into the abyss of the Pacific before turning her eyes back up to the stars, taking note of their existence for the first time since she was a little girl. ]
[ When Mako was very, very young, she lost her mother and father and her entire family in the attack on Tokyo. Back then, the international terrorist group 'kaiju' were still relatively new, still hitting with less frequency, less coordination. They were sloppy and messy and left evidence all over the sites, but that didn't make the pain they left in their wake any less devastating.
It also didn't didn't make the survivors any less bitter and filled with the lust for revenge, either.
She's the only known survivor of the attack and she's immortalized in newspapers but she doesn't give a shit about any of that, she just cares about revenge. At seven years old, all Mako can think about is how she's going to get back at the bastards that destroyed the city, and her parents. She's filled with hate and anger and she fights her way to the top of the newly formed jaeger program, a division separate from the CIA and FBI and MI5 and all the secret government agencies in the world.
It's a combination, a joint effort to take them out, and you know a terrorist group is a serious threat when every nation contributes soldiers, volunteers.
She's assigned to a partner, as they all are, and they don't particularly get along, not at first. She thinks Raleigh is too risky, takes too many chances in the field and gets others killed. Raleigh thinks Mako is too stuffy and rigid and they don't really see eye to eye.
But it's after they have a go at a couple kaiju agents that they see how well they fight together, how connected they can really be.
Then it gets better.
Their hotel is incredible in Dubai; their in the tallest tower, pool extending out and over the city, glass bottom so you can shit yourself while you have a swim. Mako likes it, she doesn't know if Raleigh does. She likes the exhilaration of diving in, keeping her eyes open and watching as she goes. They're undercover but it's late, they're done for the night and she strips down to bra and underwear, steps to the edge, and dives in. ]
[ People were reluctant to believe it at first, that a blind man could be a fighter. That he could be a pilot. But there was no arguing that his other senses were quite extraordinary, and when two minds became one, only one of them really needed to have a working pair of eyes anyway.
So this is it, the final hoop to jump through to prove that he really can pilot a jaeger.
His test partner is waiting for him, and he approaches her with a friendly smile and an outstretched hand. ]
[ Mako, for the record, thinks that his haters are idiots and have no business being in the cockpit anyway. Eyesight, while crucial, isn't completely necessary. Hell, the Russians pilot nearly blind in those antiquated suits, staring through keyhole lenses while Loccent offers guidance. Mako, for all that she loves them dearly, still doesn't understand how they do it.
His drift partner would have to have vision, but it's silly to think him incapable. She knows damn well that the if you take one sense away, all others heighten. Not because you want them to, but because they must. It is human instinct, the desperation of the human body and mind to survive. She herself has sparred blindfolded, closed her eyes and steadied her breathing and listened, the hanbō becoming an extension of her arm, hearing acute. Her partner never stood a chance.
At any rate, he seems pleasant enough, smiling and offering a hand and she cannot begrudge him that, even if it is beyond unfair that she is not a candidate. ]
[ Not to mention the fact that his seses are... a little out of the ordinary. He still doesn't know how that happened but he's learned to live with it.
Matt is actually assuming that Mako is, if not a pilot, then a candidate herself, perhaps even being tested to see if she could be his co-pilot.
He drops his hand, still smiling though the expression softens somewhat. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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no subject
It is the Drift that brings them back to light and consequently it is Raleigh that succeeds in soothing the hurts associated with those old memories that have been stirred to life. He takes her on vacation to a remote area in a tiny town whose name she cannot remember, hunkered down in a small cabin with weak heat and lighting so low that candles now dot the entire living room where the two copilots sit facing one another, hands locked, breathing in one anothers exhales.
no subject
He takes Mako to Nome because there's hardly any people there and it's boring as hell, and that means that no one's really following them there. No one there cares that they're Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori, because they've got their own lives to care about. The candles are doing fuck all for keeping them warm, and Raleigh runs a thumb over the back of her hand, noting how cold her fingers are.
"You want another blanket?"
no subject
"Share yours."
It's almost a command as she leans closer, letting her forehead drop against his shoulder, fingers lacing with his.
no subject
"Any better?"
no subject
"Much."
Her head drops to rest on his shoulders, eyes half-lidded, and she curls in close, breathing deep.
"This is nice."
no subject
"Maybe tomorrow we can actually go outside."
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no subject
Perhaps out there, it is not so difficult. Out there, it is perfect, she thinks, and as she spreads the blanket and settles her body down on her back, legs splayed and eyes wide, she imagines her paradise and what it must be like.
Now that she is older, Mako does not have time for such childish fantasies. There is a war, there is death and decay all around, there is fear and uncertainty and despair. She fights because she must, because she is driven, because there is no other option. She fights for her family, for the future of humanity, for life. She spends all of her time with Gipsy Danger, cooing at the giant mech and putting her lifeblood into the restoration project and her training.
She does not have time for the stars anymore.
The war is over and monotony has settled in; she goes on numerous press tours with Raleigh Becket, smiling and waving to the people though it is a hollow thing, because a piece of her died that day in the breach. She gives interviews, talks limitedly about her experiences, and leans on her co-pilot when the weight becomes to much to bear.
She stays in Hong Kong, pushing for the Academy to be reopened, for the Jaeger program to be reinstated and she fights for it in Stacker’s name, advising that everything may not be as it seems. They came once, they could come again. There is no harm in being ready, in being prepared.
It is exhausting and late one night she goes to the very, very top of the Shatterdome, climbs through the hatch and sits there, staring out into the abyss of the Pacific before turning her eyes back up to the stars, taking note of their existence for the first time since she was a little girl. ]
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spies au kind of thing?
It also didn't didn't make the survivors any less bitter and filled with the lust for revenge, either.
She's the only known survivor of the attack and she's immortalized in newspapers but she doesn't give a shit about any of that, she just cares about revenge. At seven years old, all Mako can think about is how she's going to get back at the bastards that destroyed the city, and her parents. She's filled with hate and anger and she fights her way to the top of the newly formed jaeger program, a division separate from the CIA and FBI and MI5 and all the secret government agencies in the world.
It's a combination, a joint effort to take them out, and you know a terrorist group is a serious threat when every nation contributes soldiers, volunteers.
She's assigned to a partner, as they all are, and they don't particularly get along, not at first. She thinks Raleigh is too risky, takes too many chances in the field and gets others killed. Raleigh thinks Mako is too stuffy and rigid and they don't really see eye to eye.
But it's after they have a go at a couple kaiju agents that they see how well they fight together, how connected they can really be.
Then it gets better.
Their hotel is incredible in Dubai; their in the tallest tower, pool extending out and over the city, glass bottom so you can shit yourself while you have a swim. Mako likes it, she doesn't know if Raleigh does. She likes the exhilaration of diving in, keeping her eyes open and watching as she goes. They're undercover but it's late, they're done for the night and she strips down to bra and underwear, steps to the edge, and dives in. ]
no subject
So this is it, the final hoop to jump through to prove that he really can pilot a jaeger.
His test partner is waiting for him, and he approaches her with a friendly smile and an outstretched hand. ]
You must be Mako. Hi. I'm Matt.
no subject
His drift partner would have to have vision, but it's silly to think him incapable. She knows damn well that the if you take one sense away, all others heighten. Not because you want them to, but because they must. It is human instinct, the desperation of the human body and mind to survive. She herself has sparred blindfolded, closed her eyes and steadied her breathing and listened, the hanbō becoming an extension of her arm, hearing acute. Her partner never stood a chance.
At any rate, he seems pleasant enough, smiling and offering a hand and she cannot begrudge him that, even if it is beyond unfair that she is not a candidate. ]
I am. It is good to meet you.
no subject
Matt is actually assuming that Mako is, if not a pilot, then a candidate herself, perhaps even being tested to see if she could be his co-pilot.
He drops his hand, still smiling though the expression softens somewhat. ]
I can only say the same. Shall we?