Together

Together
(Oolong Tea: Three & Four)
21 February 2018
Anchorage, United States
-February 21, 2018-
Raleigh yawned into his oatmeal, scrubbing at his eyes as he steadied Yancy. Patrol had been particularly brutal with the howling gale force winds and hindered even further by the ice-floes they had to step around with seals on them.
Ugh. I hate drawing the short straw. Yancy complained mentally, way too tired to even form physical words.
Brawler Yukon's out right now and Sergio's got a cold. How do you think they feel? he counters with a small nudge.
As miserable as we are? Mmm, I could use some sleep.
"Beckets, have you-Oh man. Nasty patrol?" Tendo sympathized as he sat next to them with his four cups of coffee. He's sorely tempted to steal one from his friend but a pitiful look might take care of that.
"Yeah." Raleigh's throat is raw from barely being awake at all. "We'll file our report when we're a little more, y'know, awake."
"Raleigh, you can quit the puppy face. I am completely--Okay, okay. Geez. You practice that in the mirror?" Tendo hands over a single cup and Raleigh shares with his brother, the latter more aware of his surrounding after a few precious sips.
"Nah, Tendo, years of goddamn practice. He pulled it with our donor before he perfected it on Charlie an' me." Yancy grumbled as he stabbed his still steaming scrambled eggs to shovel them into his mouth. "Maman alone was immune."
"Seriously?"
"Yup. Mom always knew when to put her tiny but ferocious foot down." Raleigh chuckled softly as he used Yancy's shoulder as a makeshift pillow. "We gotta catch up some time. Too damned busy lately."
"Ha. Yeah. Get some sleep and maybe I can share some of my stash and give you the particularly juicy bits of gossip." Tendo winked, ruffled both of their hair and smiled around the rim of his second cup.
"We'd like that. Downtime's good." Yancy hums as he sets his chin on Raleigh's completely messy hair.
"Mmm-hmm."
After several hours of undisturbed rest, Raleigh stumbles out of the top bunk only to blink at the sight of Tendo curled up outside their door with a San Francisco Giants baseball bat in his hands.
"Hmm." He closes the door silently (thanks to judicious use of the WD-40 Charlie had sent from Base) and taps his chin. Making up his mind, Raleigh starts digging around for the minuscule coffee stash they keep just for Tendo. He sets the French press down and boils the water as he picks Tendo up in a fireman's lift to settle him on the couch. The bat is replaced with the Reckoner plushie Tendo left behind last time they'd had a sleepover. Yancy wraps around him from behind, pillowing his head on Raleigh's shoulder with a happy hum.
"Why's Tendo on our couch again?" Yancy mumbles into Raleigh's sleep shirt.
"He fell asleep guarding our door with a baseball bat. Can't be comfortable at his age sleeping in funny positions."
"'M only twenty-six, you jerk." comes the muffled protest from the couch.
"You could get a crick in your neck and despite what you think, Tendo, we need your happy ass in LOCCENT and relatively well enough to track Kaiju." he chides as he turns on the gas for pancakes, snagging the ingredients from the mini-fridge as he talks.
"Everything would fall apart without me. They could fire me and I'd be rehired in less than a week, brother." Tendo snorts dryly as he reaches for the mug offered to him. "Mmm, liquid life."
"Your face looks like you've found the fountain of youth." Yancy chuckled as he peeled away from Raleigh to fix his own cup of coffee.
"Brawler got in late and we shut down for the night; Russians were up and ready to go." Tendo explains after drinking the rest of his scalding coffee and going back for seconds. "They wanted to wake you up and I planted myself in front of your door to deter the bastards."
"Thanks. We needed that sleep more than they needed a Jaeger. If we're not fully functional then the damn Jaeger's practically useless."
Well, Yan, maybe not. You noticed that memo?
Oh yeah. Haven't we been gettin' double-drag the last couple of patrols? Yancy murmured as he pulled Raleigh's memory of the official memo from last October.
Mmm-hmm. I think our Jaeger might pass the Turing test soon. he hummed, showing Yancy the times where Gipsy seemed to heat up on extra frigid patrols.
What?
She's gonna be sentient sooner or later bro. Raleigh sighs and then Yancy gets it.
Seriously? The mix of awe and joy made him smile softly.
It's already happened to at least one of the Mark I Jaegers, maybe even more. The OS for the Jaegers is based in the coding for the Mark Is so... Gips might wake up. It's somethin' Hermann an' I were throwing around before he left. he offers the conversation as a memory. Yancy hums in understanding.
"Uh, guys? Hello?" Tendo drew them out of their link when he waved his hand in front of their faces.
"Sorry, Tendo. We zone out occasionally. Ghost-Drift stuff, y'know." he apologizes as he mixes the dry ingredients for the pancakes. "It's not easy separating Yancy from Raleigh and the longer we do it, the more we take on each other's traits."
"Yeah. I noticed that. When you two were Cadets, you were good but not to the point where you are now with the synced-up steps." Tendo laughs as Yancy sits down and cradles his coffee with care. "It'd be a little uncanny if I hadn't met you two before you were Gipsy's pilots."
"Mmm, that was a good day. Weren't some of the special blueberries pickin' on you?" Raleigh's brows furrowed as he remembered the day.
"You mean the jerks who were threatening me because I wasn't too keen on joining them?" Tendo snorted as he leaned back on the couch.
"Yeah." Yancy smirks because, well, it had been a good day.
-February 21, 2018-
Raleigh grins as the shared memory plays out through their link with Tendo looking between them with slight confusion.
"Mind tellin' me what that was exactly?" Tendo asked as he looked at them over the rim of his cup.
"Ahh, umm, wehaveamindconnection." Raleigh blurts as he buries his face in his hands.
"A what?"
"What Rals is tryin' to get across is that we have a telepathic connection." Yancy sighs as he gently slaps the back of Raleigh's head before ruffling his already messy hair again. "I don't know if it's just us or what but Hermann knows and now you do. The Marshal might but he hasn't told a soul."
Tendo's mouth opens, closes and then he shrugs, "I think there might be more pilots with it. Maybe the Gages, D'onofrios and the Marshal plus his old partner but that's about it. Pretty peculiar thing that I've been seeing lately and you two confirmed it's a pilot-only thing."
"Huh. But you only think they might have it." Yancy finishes thoughtfully.
"Yeah, just a theory. Is that why you two giggle out of nowhere when one of you is completely on the other side of the Shatterdome?" Tendo reassures them and both of them start giggling. "Just like that!"
"We use this link for everything. It's got some pretty good mileage to it." Raleigh answers after the giggles have subsided into the link. "You're a damn good friend, Tendo."
"Uh-huh. You Becket bros sure do make life interesting." Tendo snorts as they reminisce on memories of a certain winged mathematician whose presence is much-missed in The Icebox.
Category:Ficlet
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Category:Becket boys are technopathic
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Category:Gage twins (mention)
Category:Pentecost (mention)
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Category:Team Brawler Yukon (mention)
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