Becket Special

== Revised text ==
Date/Timing: 4 January 2018
Setting: The Icebox; Anchorage, AK, USA
It's high noon and merely /really cold to the non-Alaskans, so Yancy's almost comfy trudging along western edge of the island. He's also very alone.
Which is kinda-sorta-maybe related to his problem.
He stops, looks down the Cook Inlet, angling himself roughly the direction of Sydney, which is only, oh, seven thousand, three hundred and forty-nine miles away.
Practically next door.
Yancy sighs.
[Stupid] Becket Special.
Shakes his head and goes back to plodding.
""Yan?""
Yancy looks heavenward. "'ey, Ray," he sighs.
Raleigh bounds over, plants himself /right in Yancy's way, waves a thermos in his face.
"Quit it."
"Am I interrupting your mope?" Raleigh's eyes sparkle.
Yancy snatches the thermos, grumbles, "Interrupting, yes. Moping, no." Unscrews the lid and inhales a lungful of Darjeeling.
"You're /absolutely moping—"
Yancy swigs.
"—and I know why~!"
"Oh really." Another swallow.
"You're smiling at your tea." Bounces on his toes. "You only smile at food when you're in loooooove."
Yancy scoffs, closes up the thermos, aims them for Raleigh's bunker.
"No way I'm letting this go after all the times you've teased me for it."
"Quit while you're ahead, kid," Yancy growls.
Raleigh stops short and his eyes get huge. "Shit. This's serious." Blinks a few times. "You really /are in love."
Yancy shrugs helplessly, plunks down on the edge of the bunker's roof.
Raleigh drops beside him.
They swing their feet—in unison.
Yancy helps himself to more tea.
"It's Hermann, right?"
Yancy sighs, passes the thermos.
"Since when?" Raleigh drinks.
"Tail end of November, but it's been building since I first really talked to him, I think." Takes back the thermos.
"And you haven't really been flirting since then ...."
Yancy swigs.
"Awww, man," Raleigh groans. "You did the Becket Special."
Yancy hangs his head.
Raleigh bumps his shoulder. "I can't tease you for that. Some silly Jaeger Fly crush thing, sure, but not Hermann."
"Thanks for your blessing."
"Welcome~!" Nabs the tea and gulps a big mouthful.
Yancy lets his head fall back. 
Raleigh swallows the last of their drink, closes up the thermos.
Yancy takes a deep breath, murmurs, "Wish I could've seen his wings, just once." Smiles (not caring it's a dopey one). "I bet he looks happier when they're free."
"Yeah ...."
Yancy snaps his posture straight. "Wait a sec. What're the odds Custodial's already cleaned his room?"
"They've been busy clearing up after the News Year's—" Blinks rapidly. "/Seriously? You want to sneak in and see if he left any feathers?" 
"Pretty much."
Raleigh brightens, pops to his feet. "I'm in!" Tugs Yancy up. "And I've got a master keycard!"
"How'd you manage that?"
"Chief Callahan upgraded mine as a thank-you for helping her move walls one day."
"Guess being the sweet Becket pays off."
"Yup!"
Yancy snorts. "At least it'll save us some sneaking around."
"Yup!" Raleigh skips off toward the general J-Tech housing block.
Yancy strolls along behind.
They arrive in no time flat and Raleigh swipes his keycard through the lock. He bows Yancy inside.
Yancy huffs, steps through and to the right of the doorway.
Custodial hasn't arrived yet, since the mattress's on the frame and there's some non-standard furniture about.
The place still smells like Hermann: chalk dust, Earl Grey, lavender soap, and something sweetly lemon-y.
Scuffling noises.
Somehow, all of Raleigh but his feet is under the bed.
"I'll leave you if you get stuck."
""I'm not gonna get stuck, Yan. It's actually pretty roomy under here.""
"I swear you're part cat."
Raleigh squirms.
"Seriously. Get trapped and I'm—"
""Whoohoo! Found one!""
"No way. No way someone as careful as Hermann missed—"
Raleigh's hand reappears holding a large, coppery feather by the shaft.
"—Oh. Wow." Yancy plucks it from Raleigh's grip, admires the beauty of the thing.
Raleigh wiggles free, scrambles to his feet. "Lemme see."
Yancy shoves his head away, tucks the feather inside his coat. "After we get back to our room."
Raleigh pouts.
"Those eyes aren't going to work this time."
"Then I'll race you!" Raleigh lunges—
"Not gonna do you much good if I've got it," drawls Yancy.
—stops, gives Yancy a spectacular eye-roll-and-sigh combo.
Yancy smirks and leads the way back to their suite. He reverently takes the feather from his jacket and smooths it on the tabletop.
Raleigh double-checks the lock, skips over, and leans in close. 
"Color matches his hair," murmurs Yancy.
"Yeah, but the edges are weird. Not like the gull and gyrfalcon feathers we've got."
"Let's see if we can find something close." Yancy snags their tablet and searches out an ornithology website.
Three websites, some voices raised in disagreement, and an offer from AGNIS to arbitrate later, they have it figured out.
"So ... that's it, then," breathes Yancy.
"Yeah, an oversize secondary covert from an /Athene noctua, usually called the little owl."
"How ... how the hell did this happen?"
They stare at the feather.
"We can't tell anybody," Raleigh blurts.
"No shit, Sherlock." Yancy picks it up, spins it slowly between his fingers. "Not like anyone would believe us anyway ...."
"They might if his hair starts getting white splotches like that, though."
Yancy rolls his eyes. "It's called 'dye', you goof."
"Oh. Right." Raleigh chews his lip. "Imagine keeping something like this secret your entire life."
"Probably why he pushes everyone away." Yancy shakes his head. "He's probably touch-starved by now. No /wonder he took your hugs."
"He's got the Kaidanovskys—the /Cherno Alpha pilots—too, I think."
"But they're in Russia and we're /here."
"There are good people in Sydney? Maybe he'll meet someone at the Shed?"
Yancy shrugs.
"So you'd better tell him before someone beats you to him."
Yancy huffs.
"It's not gonna be me, though. You're gonna have to do it yourself." Raleigh bats his eyelashes as he gets up to make tea. "The big, flirty Becket boy should be able to tell his favorite physicist he loves him."
"Thanks, that's so kind of you," Yancy remarks dryly, burying his face in his hands to hide a blush. "I'd rather tell him in person anyway, so at least he can slap me."
"He's not coming back to here any time soon. You shoulda told him the day he left," Raleigh points out as the water sloshes in the pot. "You're probably not gonna get another chance like that until this dumb war ends."
"Then I'll wait. I'll see him again."
"Yeah, maybe we'll get to chase a Kaiju down there someday."
"Jesus, Ray, that's too far to walk a Jaeger. 'sides, Sydney's got three Jaegers of its own."
"Maybe they'll need our help," Raleigh pouts.
"Don't want to meet the Kaiju that needs four Jaegers to take it down."
Raleigh huffs, "Then you'd better tell him over video."
"Can't. Have to do it face-to-face."
"I guess I don't get it cause I haven't done the Becket Special."
"Just you wait. Someday, it'll hit you like that rib shot you gave me last October."
"I'm supposed to look forward to that?"
"Yup." Yancy grins, carefully sets the feather aside, picks up the tablet, taps away.
"Whatcha doing?"
"Looking for a florist who delivers to the Shed."
"Flowers, Yan? /Seriously?" Raleigh fails at holding in a giggle.
"Oh, shove it. Ever hear of the language of flowers?"
Raleigh nods. 
"Gonna start wooing him that way."
"Huh. That's actually a pretty good idea. Are they going to be from the cheesy 'Secret Admirer' or something else?" Raleigh teases lightly as he pokes his elbow into Yancy's ribs.
"Something different." 
Images from Grimm's fairytales flicker through their Ghost Drift.
Raleigh hums thoughtfully. 
Yancy smiles. "Think that'll keep him interested?"
"Oh yeah." 
.
== Original text ==
Becket Special
(Peppermint Tea: One)
4 January 2018
Anchorage, United States
-January 4, 2018-
Yancy's touted as the natural one, the better Jaeger pilot. He doesn't see it like that and can't stand it when people tell him he's such a good brother. Raleigh goes through so much just to stand next to Yancy as his equal in the Drift. In a lot of ways, Raleigh's so much smarter than him; he stays committed to the idea of one partner, he's got a sense about people and he's
always the sweetest Becket. Yancy knows that a good deal of that is from Maman. Sometimes he wants to be selfish. Yancy wants, well, the person he wants is out of his reach now.
Hermann Gottlieb, Raleigh's best friend, had been moved to the Sydney 'The Shed' Shatterdome earlier that week. The man had taken Yancy's heart along with him. It wasn't like in the movies where it was love at first sight. No, nothing so silly as that. Yancy had fallen in bits and pieces with all of it collecting into an epiphany some time late in November. He'd gone and done the Becket special; falling hard and forever in love with just one person. Raleigh wouldn't notice anything until Christmas Eve when Yancy's gift to Hermann caused him to block the link they shared. His brother, ever the sharp one, had caught Yancy's feelings the day the good Doctor had left Anchorage.
"Yan?" Speak of the devil and he'll appear, Yancy thought to himself.
"Mmm." he pulled out of his reverie to see Raleigh wiggling a thermos in his face. "Quit that."
"You've been mopey since Hermann left." comes the sing-song tone.
"Three days, Rals, it's been three days. No, I haven't been mopin' around." Yancy growled as he snatched the thermos from Raleigh's grip. He sniffed at the contents and his expression softened at the smell of Darjeeling Tea.
"Yan. The last time I saw you kiss a girl was in October." Raleigh pointed out as he wrapped Yancy's scarf in the same pattern it always landed in. "Plus you're smiling at your tea." You never randomly smile at your food.
"Shut up already, stronzo." he snaps as he replaces the lid of the container to follow his brother out to the old Cold War era bunker that sat on the edge of the Shatterdome's fences.
"No way am I letting this go after you teased me so many
times before bro." Raleigh announces with a smirk.
"I'm gonna rearrange your face if you don't shove it." he warns sharply, his end of the link coursing with frustration and anger mixed with longing. "Quit while you're a long fuckin' way ahead."
Raleigh's expression switched from smug jerk to understanding in three seconds flat. "Shit. You're serious."
"That's what I've been tryin' to tell you Rals. This isn't some dumb Jaeger Fly crush. It's real." Yancy says with a helpless shrug as they sit on the ledge together, their legs kicking in unison.
"When?" Raleigh pressed softly as they sat drinking tea and looking up at the Aurora Borealis.
"Tail end of November but it's been buildin' since I actually talked to him, I think. I ain't gonna wax all poetic or some shit if that's what you're expecting Rals. I just... He's unconventional and I like him that way." Yancy murmured as he smiled at the memory of Hermann's face when he hugged the man. The wings, up close and personal, had been so warm through the fabric binding them down.
"Aww man. You did the Becket special." Raleigh groans as he flops onto the frosted grass with his hood cradling his mop of hair.
"Yup." he sighs as he pillows his head on his arms.
"Now I really can't tease you, Yan." If had been somethin' silly then I would've laughed at you 'til kingdom come. But doing that to Hermann? No can do.
"Wish I could've seen his wings, y'know, cause I bet he looks happier when they're free." Yancy remarked lightly, "Maybe sketched a decent portrait of 'em."
"I don't even know what species they were." his brother complains with a pout.
Yancy sat up suddenly. "Wait a sec. Aren't his rooms still closed to the general staff?"
"Seriously? You want to break into his room and see if he left any feathers?" Raleigh scoffed as he also sat up. "Okay."
"Please don't tell me the mischievous streak is a thing with you?" he asks as they close the lids of their empty thermoses. They drop off their used dishes in their quarters, sneaking through the halls and around the Shatterdome camera blind-spots until they're in front of Hermann's rooms. I know I didn't teach you that and I damn well know that Charlie didn't either.
"Mmm, I usually hide it better." the laughing response comes as Raleigh inserts his key into the lock. "Besides this is more fun than another patrol."
"We're gonna get caught." Yancy warns even as Raleigh tugs him inside the now empty room. It still smells like Hermann which Yancy knows must be part of his imagination. He inhales anyway, taking in chalk dust, Earl Grey Tea and something uniquely Hermann. Cracking open one eye he sees Raleigh wriggling under the bed frame that not even the slimmest of techs could fit under. "Jesus Rals you're gonna get stuck down there."
"Nope. It's actually pretty roomy once you scrape under the edge. Hey, I think I found one." the reply is muffled but still distinct in the empty personnel rooms. Raleigh shifts and then makes a noise of triumph.
"No way. He probably policed all of them. I would've done the-Oh." Raleigh's hand comes out with a beautiful copper feather that's got a few barbs broken on the shaft (most likely how it had survived scrutiny, having fallen under the bed). Yancy snags the lone survivor of Hermann's residence in the place and slips it into his pocket. He helps Raleigh by lifting
the bedframe so that his brother doesn't have to flatten himself like a crab to get out from under the bed. "It matches his hair at least." Yancy smoothes it out and notices that the edges aren't like the seagull or gyrfalcon feathers they have littering their own quarters. "Feather looks different than the usual ones."
"Let's go look it up then."
The feather that they ended up finding is a secondary covert, one that normally stabilizes flight and is a great deal larger than the raptor it names. Athene Noctua. Of course, Hermann's is a lot bigger than the little owl and both brothers come to a similar conclusion. They had to keep Hermann's secret because he trusted them.
"We can't tell anybody." Raleigh blurts into the quiet of their quarters.
"No shit Sherlock." he quips back as he spins the feather shaft in his hand. The feather has splotches of white on it and Yancy wonders to himself if Hermann's hair will start doing the same thing. "Not like half of those assholes out there would believe us anyway. Cherno's pilots might know. They're good friends with him, right?"
"Yeah. Probably. I think he mentioned that one of his siblings is a doctor so that explains why he's cleared for all the PPDC physicals." Raleigh mutters as he leans back. "Imagine keeping something like that quiet your entire life."
"More like having to push people away." Both of them frowned at that thought; Hermann had tried desperately to keep them at a distance, his sharp words and even sharper barbs making sense now. "No wonder he accepted your hugs. Touch-starved." Yancy imagines running his fingers through the auburn and cream speckled feathers, bring a happy smile to the so-often
dour face. "He's beautiful when he smiles."
"Y'know, I actually agree with you on that one. You get Hermann to open up and he's amazing. I'm not gonna tell him you love him." Raleigh promises sweetly as he gets up to make more tea.
"... Thanks." Yancy remarks dryly.
"I'm making you tell him yourself. Big, flirty Becket bro should be able to tell one physicist he loves him." Yancy turns bright pink at the thought, his mind showing him a beet-root red Hermann shutting off the vid-con. "What?"
"I'd rather tell him in person so at least he can slap me." he eventually replies as his face stops burning in shame.
"He's not coming back to The Icebox. You shoulda told him the day he left." Raleigh points out as the water sloshes in the pot. "You're probably not gonna get another chance like that until this dumb war ends."
"Then I'll wait." he insists stubbornly. "I'll see him again."
"I guess I don't get it cause I haven't done the Becket special."
"You'll know. Trust me when I say that it'll hit you like that rib shot you gave me last October." he laughs ruefully as he turns on the TV. "Besides, Hermann deserves someone who can see all of him and appreciate it."
"But-"
"If that's not me then that's okay. However, that bein' said, I'm not goin' down without a fight. Gonna have to find a flower delivery service in Aussie territory that'll go to The Shed." Yancy continues despite Raleigh's protest.
"Flowers, Yan? Seriously?" the muffled giggles don't help as the link reverberates with joy and laughter.
"Oh, shove it. Ever hear of the language of flowers?"
Raleigh nods and of course his brother knows obscure Victorian flower meanings. "Gonna woo him that way."
"Huh. Actually not a bad idea. Are they going to be from the cheesy 'Secret Admirer' or something else?" Raleigh teases lightly as he rubs his elbow against Yancy's ribs.
"Something different." Memories of Grimm's fairytales flicker down the link and Raleigh hums thoughtfully as he shows his younger brother his idea. "That oughta keep him interested."
"Oh yeah."
Category:Ficlet
Category:Tea Lovers Association storyline
Category:Yancy
Category:Yancy's POV
Category:Yancy (ficlet)
Category:Raleigh
Category:Raleigh (ficlet)
Category:Hermann (mention)
Category:Kaidanovskys (mention)
Category:Anchorage Shatterdome (setting)
Category:Ficlets with images
Category:Peppermint Tea