Chamomile Tea

Chamomile Tea
(Tea Lovers Association)
14 January 2017
Anchorage, AK, United States
Walking along the lit path in the gray weather that seems to make up most of the Alaskan year, Raleigh hums Lisa Gerrard songs as he buries his nose in his scarf. The Rangers don't expect anything in the incredibly sub-zero temperatures so Raleigh just nods as they do. He strides past the Icebox and pauses thoughtfully. The mathematician had been doing better, according to Tendo, but he still didn't have much company aside from Choi himself. Raleigh was itching for that rematch with the older man so he does an about face to walk through the large hallways of the Shatterdome in search of Hermann.
"Excuse me," someone calls him out and Raleigh looks over to see Stacker Pentecost with an origami crane in his hand and a fond smile.
"Yes, Marshal?" he responds quietly as he stops and leans on the hallway wall, tugging down his scarf to reveal his face.
"Ranger Becket. I would think that you'd be sleeping still," Stacker murmurs in surprise.
"Yan'll sleep enough for the both of us, sir," he comments wryly as he shakes his head.
"Where are you headed?" The marshal's obviously not doing anything important and Raleigh's in the mood to indulge the man for a bit.
"I figured that Doctor Gottlieb's done enough work for today. Besides, he owes me a chess rematch," Raleigh answers honestly with a smile of his own.
"Perhaps some fresh air will to do him some good." Stacker casually salutes and Raleigh does the same, both of them parting ways at the central hallway.
Raleigh's starting to become a common sight in the math section of the labs so the techs and lab personnel don't accost him as he weaves his way through the bustle. Knocking on Hermann's door gets him a curse in German and a snap indicating thrown chalk.
"Doctor Gottlieb?" He cautiously pokes his head around the corner and looks at the wall of numbers with wide eyes.
"Oh." The mathematician looks up from the snapped chalk piece in his hand with a blank expression.
"I was kinda hoping for that rematch since Yan's hibernating. Can I look?" Raleigh asks as he picks up the broken bits and takes out the most useful piece before dumping the useless parts into the trash.
"The patterns are making absolutely no sense at the moment. Go right ahead and earn yourself a headache," Hermann grumps as he sits down in the swivel chair.
Raleigh tilts his head to the side to take it in as a whole, his mind racing as he lays flat on his back against the icy floor.
"What on earth are you—"
["Shh." He holds up a finger to forestall any arguments. "Thinking." He] wriggles for a moment, making sure his scarf is shielding his nose as he hums "Sleepsong" as it's long remembered to shut out any & all noises. The numbers flit across his closed eyelids as he looks at it from a tactical standpoint, organizing the Kaiju's frequent attacks and the intervals as he would the chess board. Factoring in the Jaeger Mark I, II, and IIIs as an afterthought provides the result he needs.
Raleigh shoots up from his spot on the floor and looks up to see a clear board. He takes white chalk, the red that's a bit too big, and the blue as he marks the sides and the equations (red for Jaegers, blue for the bastards they have to kill). Raleigh writes slowly, methodically as he wants Hermann to understand it and not squint at scribbled numbers.
"What are you doing?"
"In a sec." He finishes off with a scale that shows the frequency of attacks versus the rate of Jaegers built. When he steps back, his hands are still and quiet while his mind is still reeling with what he found.
Hermann's mouth opens, closes and then opens again.
"It's nuts. I'm not even sure if it works."
"If this is correct, Raleigh ...."
"Then we've been egging this shit on," he finishes with the driest tone he can manage.
"Perhaps not. When we upgrade the Jaegers, it takes a set period of Kaiju leaving the Breach for the creatures to get bigger. Wherever they're coming from, they're just dumb beasts lumbering through," Hermann counters as he draws thick, jagged lines through the scale linking the Jaegers to their successful kills. "It is partially correct."
"Huh. Sorry. I guess I'm giving them too much credit."
"Do not down-talk your intelligence. There are plenty of people who can do it for you," Hermann points out as he turns around to see at least half the math department staring at them.
"Look at the intervals though. Something's up with them being random." Raleigh erases part of his math before writing down the pattern's fluctuation rate. "Here and here it's thin and the Kaiju attacks stopped for a period of up to six months."
"Interesting. I believe that I will take you up on your offer of chess."
"Fresh air will clear the equation up some. I know that it's cold so how about I bring my set to the Rec Room?"
"They do have facilities to make tea," Hermann responds as he grabs the tweed jacket he carries everywhere.
"Whoa, you going in just that? Nah. Here." Raleigh pulls out the spare scarf he carries and wraps it around Hermann's neck. "Before you ask, yeah, it's an old habit of mine. I used to watch my sister a lot after our Mom passed on."
They continue to talk as they walk outside to get the tea and chess set in Raleigh's dorm. "Where is she now? I would assume with your—"
"Jazzy's with an old friend of our Mom's. The bastard who claimed to be our dad ran off after her death," he says coolly in regards to his deadbeat sire. "We couldn't take care of her and she would've been made a ward of the state if Mom's friend hadn't taken her in."
"You keep in contact?" Hermann's quiet after Raleigh mentions his Mom's death.
"Yeah. Twice a week when we're not too busy. It was once a month when we were cadets." He smiles at the thought of his younger sister. "Jazmine demands no less attention just because we're separated by a four-hour plane ride. She's not thrilled we're pilots either. 'It's dangerous and one of you is going to get hurt doing this thing you love so much.' Direct quote, y'know." Raleigh sneaks in to grab the tea and chess set, smoothing his brother's furrowed brow with a soft stroke through the short bristled hair.
"She seems to be worried for your safety," Hermann says after a long moment of content silence.
"It's why we call her as often as we do," he divulges as they set up on the table that's been staked out as Gipsy Danger territory. "I'll heat up the water."
The pilots of Romeo Blue (Trevin and Bruce Gage) look up from their sitcom to watch Raleigh boil water on the communal stove with his own tiny pot.
"What's up with the squint, Gips?" Trevin calls out as he taps his fingers on the plastic table.
Raleigh's shoulders stiffen as he turns on the heat of the gas stove. "RB, I suggest you take that back." His tone is bordering on the weather outside with how cold it is, his face pulling into a rigid sneer.
"Hey, not cool yo. Gips has the best sims and only his bro can catch him off-guard." Bruce lightly slaps the back of [Trev's head] with a snort as he nods to to Raleigh. "You're an idiot, Trev."
Raleigh nods in return, waiting for the water to heat up.
The J-Techs glance between the three pilots and Hermann with apprehension but Bruce's move disperses the tension.
He pours the water into the kettle he brought with and tucks the dry pan away in the canvas bag. Pouring the water over the chamomile tea is relaxed as Hermann makes the first move again. Raleigh drums his fingers on the cloth cover he bought as he examines the board carefully. The steam from the tea curls lazily into the much colder air of the Rec Room as they play slower than last time.
The moves are deliberate, calculated down to the last second of the piece touching the square. The checkmate is swift on Raleigh's part and Hermann loses by a tiny fraction. Their tea has been drunk slowly and warm. He's gotten up twice to reheat the water and brew more tea but the rest of the room had left them to their peaceful sort of silence and resumed their conversations around them. Raleigh stretches as Hermann makes his move, content to be lazy when the way the board is at the moment triggers his mind. He digs for paper and a pencil as he scribbles down his theory but it doesn't distract him from taking Hermann's bishop with his own. The chess match is now best three out of four and Raleigh's winning.
"Jesus. You'd think they'd be at each other's throats from the way they're playing but it's calm and some Zen shit if I've ever seen it," one of the J-techs mutters as she flexes her fingers around a cup of crap instant coffee.
"Yeah. I mean, the math guy barely ever leaves the labs. Becket's a bit off though." The medical intern thinks Raleigh's involved in the game far more than he actually is.
Hermann's also listening with a tight expression [that indicates] he's not fond of the gossip hounds either.
"What do you mean?"
"He's always on that ledge or with his brother and when he's not in either of those places ... Guess where he is." the other snorts as he motions to them.
"You don't think ...."
"Nah. Math guy wouldn't have any of it."
"How do you know?"
"For one, the man's way older. Two, Becket don't swing that way; neither of 'em do," the intern declares as Raleigh absently takes Hermann's queen while sacrificing his bishop to the wrath of Hermann's king. "Something in the younger Becket's med file though."
"Isn't that confidential?"
"Look, you ever know that Becket to flirt?"
"I hear some stuff and yeah, he does. Pretty damn shy about it as well as sweet but he does flirt," the J-tech counters, her dismissive glance of the intern more than enough to shut the idiot up. "Patient confidentiality is not something to break, you Kaiju piss-stain."
Raleigh barely keeps from grinning behind his mug. The J-tech works on Gipsy Danger and Romeo Blue so she's well aware of the rumors floating around.
"Sorry. It's just not in anyone else's file," the intern whines at the woman but she's done playing nice for the moment.
"Then leave it be."
"Checkmate," Hermann practically purrs as he sets his rook down.
"Psyche." Raleigh points to where his lone bishop and knight have surrounded the king on Hermann's side along with a pawn that can be switched out for a stronger piece.
"You are much better than last time."
"I told you, I work better under pressure or I learn by example." He grins as he slurps the last of his tea. "You done with your tea?"
"Unfortunately. Would you like to write that down on my board and have some more in my lab space?" Hermann asks as he grabs the thick green scarf that had been draped across his lap for convinence's sake and winds it around his neck so that the scarf ends are against his back.
"Definitely." Raleigh wraps his own red scarf around his neck so that the scarf ends are the opposite of Hermann's. He shrugs on his black peacoat, snagging his bag and gently placing it on his shoulder.
The second they step out of the Shatterdome, the Alaskan winds whip their scarves up so that they flap like banners in the wind. Raleigh chuckles quietly into the scoop of his scarf as Hermann gets buffeted by the wind but wraps his arm around the slimmer man's shoulders to steady him.
Their scarves flutter in the wind as they walk back to the labs.
Raleigh shakes off the slurry that built up from the mini-blizzard even as Hermann shivers slightly. "Aww crap, are you cold?"
"I could ask the same of you." Hermann shivers again, harder this time and Raleigh's mother-henning kicks in. He shakes out the coats to get them less wet and scootches Hermann's chair closer to the space heater.
Hermann curls up into a miserable ball so Raleigh texts Tendo quickly.
R_Becket: I need some blankets for our stick. Hurry up.
The response is instantaneous.
coffee_choi: You went out when the blizzard started, didn't you? How's Hermann?
Raleigh rolls his eyes and taps back quickly,
R_Becket: You're an assbutt, y'know that? Hermann's shaking like a leaf.
Tendo walks in with a bundle of blankets that are carefully wrapped around Hermann's thin frame and one is even for Raleigh.
"I can't have my bro's caretaker freeze either. You two are crazy to go out in that storm," Tendo chides as he makes tea for all of them.
Raleigh hums as he texts Yancy, who's barely awake by the tone of his answers.
R_Becket: Stay inside today and watch crap TV without me. There's a blizzard out there.
le_dangereux: Okay, Rals. Mother-hen anyone else [lately?
Raleigh smiles stupidly at his phone.]
R_Becket: Yeah. Hermann. He's so twiggy that the wind nearly blew him away. Tendo and I are all hamster-piled to keep him warm.
The message takes a while longer but he giggles at the reply.
le_dangereux: Like this?
Under the text is a pile of hamsters in a Tumblr post. He shows it to Tendo, who nearly chokes on his tea at the sight.
"I didn't know that thing was still up."
"You post it?" He asks as Hermann's breath slowed again.
"Nah, but I know who did."
"Awesome."
R_Becket: Tendo knows who posted that.
le_dangereux: Did he choke on whatever he was drinking?
R_Becket: He came close. Hermann's asleep now. What are you watching?
Raleigh pins the theory he has on the desk with a sharp tack as he yawns.
Tendo's not far behind and he cusses in rusty Cantonese.
le_dangereux: Max Steel. I think your math guy might actually like this one; has quantum mechanics and alien symbiotes.
Raleigh snorts as they cuddle on the incredibly tight love seat and look at the equations scrolling across the holographic interfaces.
R_Becket: Oh joy. We've been looking for aliens in all the wrong places.
le_dangereux: Smartass.
R_Becket: Your smartass. You love me anyway.
le_dangereux: I do. Enjoy your hamster-pile. I hope your math guy doesn't freak when he wakes up.
R_Becket: Why's he my math guy again?
le_dangereux: Cause he is. You're the one making [friends with] the dude.
R_Becket: [... 
R_Becket: Right.] Sometimes I forget you're actually full of interesting tidbits like that one.
le_dangereux: I am a fountain of knowledge, Rals, a goddamn fountain.
R_Becket: Oh shut up.
le_dangereux: Whatever bro.
The texting stops after that and Raleigh steals Tendo's stylus to doodle on his mini-tablet.
"Dude, seriously?"
"You weren't using it," he huffs as he draws Hermann sleeping with cute little fluffy wings. "Ha. Can you imagine if people had wings?"
"Hermann would have them. He loves the wind more than anyone I know," Tendo replies as he dies in his phone's game.
"Yeah. Maybe." The colors of a gyrfalcon he once saw in Budapest in his travels flashes across his mind briefly. He doodles some more and drinks his tea, wondering faintly what it would be like to have wings.
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