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[wentnuclear]

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[oorah]

[ he smirks, glad that got to raleigh. maybe because it means he's close. he might even win that bet, though honestly for him it's more about mako and raleigh being happy. what a romantic asshole???? ]

Yet. [ an obvious tease as he dodges the fist coming for his face, but only once. he's glad the fight is getting dirtier and if anything it makes him more vicious in return. where raleigh is slowing down, frank is ramping up, though he's still focusing most of his powerful attacks to the right side of the man's torso. that face is a lot prettier than his, and he's got a lady to go back to, after all. let it never be said that he isn't considerate. there's that and the fact that hiding someone in the face could only ever remind him of billy, and that's not a road he wants to go down while he actually likes raleigh. they're something like friends, he thinks. that falter earns him a punch just below his eye, it'll definitely be black tomorrow. ]

You sound like you're getting tired, Beckett. [ he licks blood from his lips, still bouncing though now his chest is heaving, breathing labored. he could do this all night, but he also knows logically - that they should quit soon. maybe raleigh isn't the only stubborn idiot in the room. ]

[wentnuclear]

[ Frank might win the bet. Maybe. He's got a shot, but he probably should have accounted more time for them being complete idiots. Raleigh doesn't keep arguing, in any case, just throws himself into the fight hoping to tire himself out. It's kinda nice not to hold back, just aims the harder hits at places that won't do any damage. Still friendly, but real.

He's definitely the one to slow down first, and Frank noticing it makes him want to rally and win... but it's not really about winning. And the comment doesn't sound quite like a taunt. He just ran about five miles anyway, he's allowed to wind down first. So Raleigh just grins, circling for another opening. ]

You don't. Next time I'm gonna have to find somebody to tag in just to wear you out.

[oorah]

[ he grins wider at the concession, feeling like he won even though it was just a friendly match. he taps raleigh gently with his fist on the right to show he's okay with stopping. ]

Your old lady home? Maybe I could bring Max up for a meet and greet if he isn't too busy keeping the rest of the station in check.

[wentnuclear]

[ The little tap is clear enough, and after a moment's consideration Raleigh does drop his fists, stance relaxing. That was a good workout, though. ]

Don't call her that, or she'll punch you herself. [ He steps off the mat, waving a finger at Frank in warning. Then turns his wrist to check the time. ] But if she's not back by now she probably will be soon. You wanna track him down and swing by 427? If we've got time to kill I'll set you up with some yarn.

[oorah]

Yeah? She hit as hard as you? [ he wipes some sweat off his forehead with the back of his sleeve and looks at the smear of blood that accompanies it. ] ...Yarn?

[wentnuclear]

Maybe? I've never given her a reason to hit me. But she got me down in the kwoon. [ Raleigh takes a moment to consider if he wants to put the top half of his jumpsuit back on for modesty in the hallways, and decides against it. He's too sweaty. Heading for the door like this it is! ] Yeah, I thought you wanted to learn to knit.

[oorah]

Oh. [ did he say that? maybe raleigh hit him harder than he'd thought. ] Right - I knew that. I'll see you in 10... 20. [ depending on where max is then he should probably shower. he taps raleigh's arm again in farewell before heading in the opposite direction to check karen's room first. ]

[wentnuclear]

[ He didn't hit Frank that hard, or he didn't think so. But it was just an offhand comment anyway so Raleigh doesn't think anything of it, just nods and heads back down to his quarters.

Mako isn't there yet, but it looks like she made a little more progress balling up his yarn after he went to work out. He makes sure the door's unlocked and goes to clean up a little, then drags the whole mess onto the bed with him to further untangle. It's like 70% done, he's just got a few colors left still unraveled together. If Frank should knock when he comes by with Max, he'll hear Raleigh calling out. ]

It's open!

[oorah]

[ he does knock, albeit in a specific way. he raps the morse code for S-A-F-E into the frame before the door slides open to accommodate himself and the brown pit bull who immediately takes to sniffing every last square inch of the space. frank is wearing a fresh blue jumpsuit with a black hoodie overtop only zipped up a few inches but with the hood up over his head anyway. his eye is already swollen and well on its way towards a bruise by the morning. ]

I think Max likes what you've done with the place.

[wentnuclear]

[ Frank hasn't actually been over before to be able to note the changes, has he? If he has ever glanced in, he'd know that there used to be a makeshift bedroll on the floor that's gone now since he and Mako have started -- albeit very awkwardly -- sharing the double bed. It's otherwise spartan, a toolkit and first aid kit on top of the dresser beside a little action figure of Gipsy Danger. Above her, a sketch of a man bearing a resemblance to Raleigh, but who definitely is not Raleigh, is tacked to the metal wall. The sketchbook it obviously came from is resting on their little table with an assortment of pencils and knitting needles. ]

We didn't exactly have much to work with. Hey, Max.

[ Raleigh sets down the tangle of yarn and lowers a hand to the dog's level, waiting patiently for him to wander over for a sniff. ]

[oorah]

[ because raleigh doesn't stand or try to approach him, max beelines for him within seconds, sniffing his hand before licking a sloppy stripe across his palm and panting like he's happy with himself, his tail going a mile a minute. raleigh will be able to see his fancy collar now, brown leather with a blue leather inside, and a big brass plate that reads MAX please return to 319 or 619. frank is wandering closer too once they've gotten properly acquainted, trying to get a better look at the yarn like he's never seen something like it before. of course, he had, and he'd probably even watched someone knit in his life. he had to have, right? a grandmother or great aunt. but for the life of him, he can't pluck any specific memory from the air and maybe that's for the best. ]

For this you really will have to go easy on me. [ he's always excited to learn a new skill though, especially something repetitive and mindless that he can lose himself in. this might be just the thing he needs. frank leans over the bed and starts helping to untangle the last of the yarn before winding it up neatly again. ]

[wentnuclear]

[ Even though he's never had one of his own, unlike many people on the station Raleigh is familiar with dogs. Knows to let them come to you, so only once Max has expressed his approval via lick and tail wagging does he go in for a proper scritch. ]

Good boy. You wanna hop up here to watch your dad? Just stay off Mako's pillow.

[ Metal flooring isn't comfortable for anybody to lie on, dog or person. And with that Raleigh scoots over so both Max and Frank can sit, and he can reach the needles on the table. ]

Pick a color, and... here, any of these in the middle are a good size for learning. Technically you should use specific widths for specific yarns but we can just eyeball it.

[oorah]

[ mako's pillow !!!!!!! frank takes off his magboots despite the instructions by the space people he usually follows and sits crosslegged across from raleigh. then he pats his leg to tell max it's okay to listen to the other man and that's all it takes before max is launching himself at the bed. he lays between them like a little fence and gives a doggy groan of defeat. frank then hesitates over which needles to take, like he's choosing a weapon carefully for what's about to come next. but he snaps up the blue ones in the center and thinking about clary, chooses the red yarn without nearly as much hesitation. ]

Is that you? [ he asks, inclining his head towards the picture on the wall. ]

[wentnuclear]

[ Don't get excited, Frank, they are very platonically sharing the bed, that's all!!! God. Raleigh picks out his own set of needles and a ball of green yarn, and is pulling out a length to show Frank how to start casting on when he draws attention to the sketch on the wall. Oh. He shakes his head slightly. ]

It's my brother, Yancy. Usually I carry a picture of us, but it didn't come here with me so Mako... I guess she needed to her him out of her head, too.

[oorah]

[ he follows raleigh's lead, leaning in to watch his hands carefully and make sure he's doing it right. then he holds up his attempt so raleigh can correct him if needed. ]

Because of the... drift? [ ghost thing - yeah. ] She's a good artist.

[wentnuclear]

Yeah, because of the drift. [ He hesitates, then, as he demonstrates a slipknot for the first needle. Slowly, clearly, then pulls it free and does so again. The motion is smooth and natural, from long practice. Talking about himself... isn't quite as easy, and his voice is halting, uncertain. ] Yancy wasn't just my brother, either... he was my first co-pilot. So when she drifted with me, Mako might as well have been drifting with him, too. It's all once removed, but it doesn't always feel that way.

[oorah]

[ it sounds awful, and he nods, watching the knot and replicating it as he focuses. not so hard then, he tries again and it goes smoother. ]

Sorry. [ it comes out lame, but raleigh's him in opposite so it's hard to know what to say. he lost a brother and gained a partner. frank lost his family and gained a brother. ]

[wentnuclear]

[ The smoother knot gets a nod, and Raleigh twists the tail end of the yarn between his fingers in a triangle shape. Waits for Frank to mimic the positioning so he can draw the needle through, looping a stitch on. ]

It's... you can't hide anything in the drift. If I could have, I would've kept him away from her. I should have warned her better, at least.

[oorah]

You can't warn someone for something like that. [ take it from a guy who's a walking trigger warning. max starts snoring and frank leans over him to make sure he's doing it right, watching raleigh loop the yarn through with laserlike focus before trying it himself. ] It's good you have each other. [ and he doesn't just mean here ]

[wentnuclear]

You can, I just didn't. She knew what she was getting into in a textbook sense, that people's worst memories wind up floating to the top, but I never told her... [ Hm. This is kind of a big thing to admit. Practically common knowledge back home, but he doesn't look at Frank even as the other man leans in, eyes on his hands. ] When a Jaeger pilot dies in battle, it's just a given that their partner's done for too. Always. Except me and Yancy. Thing is, we were still connected.

[ Casting on is something you have to repeat a bunch, so Raleigh keeps looping the needle, letting Frank follow along and get the hang of it. ]

Don't pull these so tight.

[oorah]

[ still connected. he doesn't get it at first. that was his brother, of course they were connected. but then he remembers the explanation, and realization dawns. ] You were connected... in the drift. When he-

[ frank unravels his yarn at the other man's correction, then tries again looser. jesus, this is a heavy convo for a knitting circle isn't it? not like he would know actually, maybe this is common practice. ]

What made you different? [ it all really is disturbingly familiar. he had always gotten up, gone on. even though everything he lived for was gone. he literally died, only to come back because something was anchoring him to his life. something wouldn't let him give up. maybe it's the same for raleigh too. ]

[wentnuclear]

[ Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, Raleigh's never actually knitted with anyone. Either way, he's opening up to someone besides Mako, which is rare in and of itself. ]

Yeah. The Kaiju ripped him out of the conn pod and killed him before severing the link. I felt him die in my head, and it took a piece of my mind with it.

[ As for what made him different... he's not sure he actually is. That anything made him special, exactly. Raleigh considers the question, then shrugs. ]

Nothing? It's not like I'm not the only person to survive piloting alone. Pentecost managed it once for even longer, so it screwed him up more physically. I'm just the only one to survive losing a copilot in battle. If you could call it surviving. But I don't really know why I kept fighting Knifehead. Maybe just for Yancy.

Either way, they kicked me out after that. I said I'd never drift again. Went into construction and pretended I didn't exist.

[oorah]

[ it would be impossible to picture... if not for the losses he'd suffered. if not for the dreams he'd had ever since. frank swallows, listening to the sad tale with deep empathy writ clearly across his face. he knows he has to give something back. raleigh might have given him a black eye, but he'd all but egged the guy on, and now he's teaching him something to help him. and telling him something deeply personal he doesn't have to besides. it isn't so much that frank feels he owes him the truth as feeling a kindred spirit. it's impossible not to think of the veteran's therapy group now and maybe that's what makes his lips so loose in the end. ]

I lost my only family too. [ he swallows past the lump in his throat that instantly appears, staring down at his knitting so he doesn't have to look at raleigh's face. raleigh deserves to know he isn't alone, even if frank would never regard himself highly enough to consider them in the same category. ]

[wentnuclear]

[ When Frank says that Raleigh glances up at him, only to find the other man has looked away instead. His "only family" ... what does that mean, exactly? A sibling? A lover? Children? What Raleigh doesn't have to ask is how. Frank wouldn't have said it that way if it wasn't something traumatic. Something terrible. ]

I'm sorry. Did you keep going? Or did you lose yourself, too?

[ If it's the latter, he'd want to know what changed it for Frank. For Raleigh, it was mostly Mako. ]

[oorah]

[ I'm sorry. words he'd heard so many times before - he's sure raleigh had too. he pulls himself up a little straighter and forces himself to make eye contact, however briefly. ]

Not sure I ever found myself. [ and that's the most honest thing he's said yet here, by far. he clutches the needles a little too hard, biting into his lip as he tries to suss out what he's supposed to do next. ...in the knitting. ] I was in construction for a while too. Well, demo. Nothing but long hours to myself, to remember.

[ and maybe that had driven him the most crazy of all. ]

But I always keep going anyway. I can't seem to stop. [ he's like a shark ]