with the hounds of hell coming after you i've got blood on my name

[gipsy_danger]

Comments

Recipient: Royfriend

[unbreachable]

hey, you busy?

Recipient: Rals

[truckerhats]

[never too busy for you, babe

what's up?

Recipient: Royfriend

[unbreachable]

I have to go to Hong Kong.

Recipient: Rals

[truckerhats]

[okay, that was not the text he was expecting.]

wait what? when?

Recipient: Royfriend

[unbreachable]

I'm on the helicopter now.

[truckerhats]

[raleigh has to be held in medical for a while because of the injuries from pitfall, but roy isn't the least bit bothered by that. after he's determined to not be an actual threat, he has a place to stay in the shatterdome, though he spends the bulk of his time in raleigh's room, because he'd much rather be there anyway.

he, of course, brings card games to keep them entertained, because who doesn't love card games when they're recovering?

(well, not everyone, but roy's tons of fun to play card games with.)

when raleigh's finally well enough to leave medical, he has the option to stay in the shatterdome or go...wherever it is he wants to go. now with the wall no longer having a purpose, he won't exactly be able to go back to the makeshift barracks where he'd been living, which left him a bit homeless.

he doesn't need to say anything before roy immediately volunteers his apartment, because he's more than happy to have raleigh there -- since with the amount of time raleigh had spent over with roy, he'd practically lived there anyway.

roy didn't really bring much with him to hong kong, but he packs up his own things along with raleigh's duffle, and then it's that exhausting twenty hour flight home. despite the lengthy trip, roy is still practically bouncing with excitement because getting to bring raleigh back is just awesome -- even if it's back to alaska in the fucking cold, but maaaaaybe they could relocate somewhere warmer.

roy would be completely down for that.

there's...a few aspects of having raleigh live with him that'll make keeping his other "job" harder, but he figures he can do it. roy's pretty slick when he wants to be, and he has some pretty expert hiding places for his gear, so...no big deal, right?

the only thing roy's focused on is having raleigh back, safe and sound.]

[unbreachable]

[ It’s not going to be a fast healing process – Raleigh’s still kind of banged up, but he can do PT anywhere. He insists on leaving and going back with Roy, he’s been cleared by PPDC medical and he’s just ready to get back, get home.

He feels kind of awful about shacking up with Roy and he promises that as soon as he’s back on his feet he’ll get a place of his own and not impose, but for now he needs the help, especially when he stumbles or when he aches from a long day at PT. It makes him angry that he’s not as agile and mobile and on more than one occasion he asks Roy if he’s sure he wants to deal with Raleigh, because he’s pretty sure he’s going to have trouble the rest of his life.

Raleigh doesn’t struggle as much with insomnia at the moment – he’s pretty heavily medicated most days and while before he hadn’t liked taking sleeping pills or any kind of medication, period, he finds that the days post-Pitfall are going to be pretty pain filled until things heal up and he recovers.

So, Raleigh sleeps through the night most nights. Sometimes he’ll wake up early and jerk awake from a nightmare that has somehow broken through the haze of drugged sleep and manifested in his mind and he has to just sit up and stare at Roy, convincing himself this is real and that the things his dreams tell him aren’t true.

As soon as he’s able, though, he stops taking pain pills and sleep aids – just throws them away in the trash without a second thought.

The first night, Raleigh sleeps through, but he wakes up extra early – and Roy isn’t there.

Frowning, Raleigh peels himself out of bed and pads into the bathroom to pee, grabbing his robe in the process. Roy probably fell asleep at his work table again, but a quick look around tells him no – Roy’s just gone. There’s no one in the apartment but Raleigh. There’s no sign of a struggle, no sign of anything.

So he makes coffee – it’s the middle of the night, but he doesn’t care, he’s definitely up, now – and sits at the kitchen table, and tries to call him.

No answer.

…Definitely not okay.

He’s just gonna sit here and wait until Roy shows up. ]

[truckerhats]

[the medications they had raleigh on have been a godsend -- as far as roy needing to cover his tracks. he's not doing anything specifically bad, but where he goes at night isn't something he thinks he should share with raleigh; it could just as easily put him in danger.

roy's gotten pretty good at taking care of everything and covering his bases when he knows raleigh will still be fast asleep, and he figured tonight would be like any other.

there's not as much to do in alaska as in other areas that he's settled, but that doesn't mean there's nothing; it just happens to be goddamn cold, and he's grateful his light armor is thermoregulating or he'd probably have already lost a limb or at least a few fingers to frostbite.

he's usually in and out in the handful of hours he has, and he has no clue raleigh's awake when he swings himself up to his own window, perched carefully on the ledge as he jimmies it open -- quietly. he slips it open, and then maneuvers his way inside without a sound, his bow in hand and a half-empty quiver of arrows slung over his back.

his mask is still on, of course, along with the cap he never goes anywhere without (though he gets shit about it from other heroes), but as he takes a quiet step inside, he realizes that something's off.

something's different tonight.

he spins on his heel to look toward the kitchen, and then--

oh shit.]

...crap.

[unbreachable]

[ As quiet as Roy may be, Raleigh still feels the air shift in the apartment when he slips back in. He doesn’t hear the window, but there’s the feeling of another presence besides Raleigh’s – and he knows for a fact that the front door has not opened, and no one has come in.

He casually slips the robe off – he’s in boxers and a t-shirt – and gets to his feet, carefully tip toeing over to the knife set on the counter, pulling out the santoku and hefting it in his hand. He was never good with blades like Mako, but when you set up camp in someone’s head that spent their childhood forging steel and using swords, you pick up a few things.

So when Raleigh catches a glimpse of an intruder - masked - he’s not hesitating. He grips the handle in his palm with a familiarity that feels weirdly foreign, and points the sharp edge right at the figure. ]

You have five seconds to get out before I kill you and claim self-defense.

[truckerhats]

[roy can't help that his immediate reaction is to draw an arrow and notch it on the drawstring; it's done in a heartbeat, before he even realizes that the arrow's drawn. all he'd registered was knife and threat, and he'd automatically had his bow drawn in a flash.

ollie hadn't called him "speedy" for nothing.

no, fuck, stop, that's raleigh.

he lowers the bow quickly, the arrow still notched with the one hand he holds it all in, and he raises his other, palm out.]

Raleigh, it's me.

[he says it immediately, wanting to defuse this before it got worse.

so much for secret identities.]

Can't break into your own house, okay?

[truckerhats]

[it happens before roy even has time to process it.

his mind screams knife, threat, and he's not exactly used to having someone there waiting to stab him when he gets home for the night. his body moves on instinct, hands a flash a motion as he snags a razor-sharp arrow from the quiver on his back, and it's notched and pulled before roy even knows what he's doing.

he's fast, and he has to be fast, especially when he's going up against guns and knives and other ridiculously dangerous things, so his body moves on its own with the practiced need to keep himself alive, and it's like his brain flicks a switch from "conscious" to "survival", and before he can even realize that it's raleigh, not a true threat--

--the arrow leaves the drawstring and flies straight and true towards raleigh.]

[unbreachable]

[ In the months that passed Pitfall, Raleigh slowly - carefully - tried to start putting his life back together. It wasn't easy - things for ex-jaeger pilots never seemed to be - but with Roy's help (and Mako's), Raleigh finds himself standing on the shore of a beach in Hawaii, staring off into the distance, eyes vacant and unseeing.

He'd been to the doctor again recently; his aches and pains were getting worse and he knows it's from putting too much stress on old injuries when he was in Gipsy - that, coupled with the new ones he'd sustained down at the bottom of the Pacific, was enough to earn him a head shake from Dr. Stanley and a quiet sigh as he's told that he's disabled at this point and that any kind of real work - the things he'd been doing with the cleanup of kaiju blue - was no longer an option.

Not unless he wanted to risk further injury, further pain, further damage to an already damaged body.

He's useless. He's useless and there's nothing he can do about it.

He refuses to let himself go, though -- he keeps working out, keeps running, because they haven't told him not to do that yet, starts doing yoga to loosen up stiff and painful joints. He doesn't ever want to become completely unable to fend for himself so he keeps moving when he can, how he can.

Eventually the sky begins to darken though, and he's going to have to go back inside otherwise risk stumbling over things and falling and that's not something he wants to deal with.

Picking his way back, he heads inside, calling out-- ]

Roy?

[truckerhats]

[roy's done everything he can to be present for raleigh during his recovery after pitfall, and he's there because he wants to be, because he loves raleigh and he loves the fact that they can have a life together now. things aren't easy, especially not on raleigh and his thoroughly damaged body, but roy's there every step of the way -- as much as raleigh will let him be.

for the most part, he's even stopped with the whole masked-vigilante-thing, if only because he knows raleigh worries, and roy doesn't feel as...empty without it as he thought he would. at first, he'd just been doing it because it had always felt like a part of him, but that hole isn't as overwhelming and it's easily filled by having raleigh there.

he still does commissions work, since that really is his main source of income, but what he designs now is less for himself and more for whoever hires him.

he's currently poking through old weapons, though, going over a set of arrows -- the razor-tipped ones, with the jagged edges meant to do more damage coming out than going in. he's running his hand over the sharp edge, testing it slightly and giving it a tentative push with his palm -- not enough to cup himself, but just trying to test its give and whether or not it's still up to snuff.

...he gets that answer when raleigh calls his name, startling him, aaaaand his palm slices across the arrowhead when he jerks back in surprise.]

--fuck.

[he bites back the hiss of pain and tries to clamp down on that curse, but jesus fucking christ, those teeth were painful as hell. just like they were supposed to be.]

In here, Rals!

[he grabs a rag, curling it around his bleeding palm before raleigh can come into the room; he'll fix it up himself, and he doesn't want raleigh worrying over him because of his own stupidity.]

grossly short sorry skldfj

[unbreachable]

[ He shuffles into the room and jerks in surprise at the rag around his hand, and he comes over quick, eyes flashing in concern. ]

Babe -- what happened? Are you okay?

IT'S ALL GOOD uvu

[truckerhats]

[roy quickly pulls his hand back before raleigh can see the blood starting to soak through the rag.]

Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. It's all good. Just a little cut, no big deal.

[he offers raleigh a smile, hopefully to distract him.]

How was your walk?

[unbreachable]

Cut?

[ He's coming over, brow furrowed, concern etched into his features. ]

What happened? [ Because that doesn't look like a small cut, yikes. ]

[truckerhats]

[roy hadn't expected his teasing to get them so far, honestly. he'd figured maybe he and raleigh would mess around with super light bondage after raleigh got off work, but the way it had panned out, roy's waiting on the couch for the blond to get home while a container of wax heats in the bedroom, with leather cuffs attached to the headboard, a blindfold waiting on the pillow.

he had plans for raleigh, now that he knew what the other man went for. roy usually liked to sub, but when it came to raleigh, he couldn't help the occasional urge that came on and made him want to shove the blond on his knees and make him know he belonged to roy.

that's the plan for tonight, at least, but maybe a little less of putting raleigh on his knees and more keeping him bound to the bed instead.

the tv is on, and roy is stretched out on the couch while he waits for raleigh to get back, his phone resting on his stomach. when he hears the door open, he immediately smirks to himself, sitting up on the couch and looking towards the doorway.]

Over here, babe!

[unbreachable]

[ Raleigh would not mind Roy putting him down on his knees, for the record. Raleigh does so enjoy giving head and he will be your cockslut forever, darlin'.

When Raleigh lets himself into the apartment he shares with Roy, he lets the door slam behind him and takes his time in heading into the living room, hands in his pockets as he strolls in. ]

Hey.

[truckerhats]

[roy just grins casually at him, like there's nothing different as he reaches for him over the back of the couch.]

How'd your day go?

[unbreachable]

[ He comes up behind the couch and leans over, pressing his palms to Roy's shoulders and sliding them down his chest. ]

Was alright. How about you?

[truckerhats]

Boring. Boring, boring, boring.

[he chuckles as he slides his hand up raleigh's neck and into his hair. he plays with it absently for a second, being deceivingly gentle before knotting his fingers tight in raleigh's blond hair, pulling raleigh's face to his for a kiss.]

Less boring now.

[truckerhats]

[pitfall was supposed to be the last of it.

the kaiju were gone, the breach was closed, that was it. end of the line, end of the rangers' obligation to the PPDC.

but apparently not.

more jaegers were being built, and while roy heard about it, he didn't assume raleigh would be involved. he'd paid his dues, and he'd come out of it with more than his fair share of injuries and pain, so why the hell would they drag him back into that?

raleigh doesn't owe them anything.

at least not in roy's eyes.

so when raleigh tells him he's getting called back for active duty?

roy isn't amused.]

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

[no no no no no, this is the epitome of not okay. he almost lost raleigh during pitfall, why the fuck should he have to go back and pilot a jaeger and put even more strain on himself?]

[unbreachable]

....

Not kidding you.

[ Raleigh doesn't want to do it, but he feels...

Obligated. Mako is his partner, there's no one else that he'd want in his head than her and he knows without a doubt in his mind she feels the same.

They're copilots. They belong in a jaeger together. ]

I'm sorry.

[truckerhats]

[roy's completely flabbergasted, and he just-- shakes his head, momentarily speechless (which is a real rarity).]

Just-- fucking tell them no, Raleigh. You already did this shit, you don't owe them anything anymore.

[roy doesn't understand why raleigh thinks this is so acceptable.]

[unbreachable]

...I already said yes.

[ He's standing his ground, hands in his pockets, shoulders squared. ]

I can't back out.