bakerstreet | The Suit and Tie Meme

Sorry Chuck he's got nothing. He doesn't know how to combat his sleepless nights. It's starting to wear on him physically and mentally.

He hands it over and snorts.

"Maybe."

He's starting to feel a little warmer, thinking about shrugging off his jacket.

"Hey." He knocks his foot against Raleigh's ankle gently again. "When you were workin' on the wall, just...why? You'd faced the things before, you had to know it wasn't going to do anything."

Either Chuck has a lot on his mind, or his attention span sucks when he's drinking.

Raleigh tenses a little because he doesn’t particularly like discussing his time spent between stints with the PPDC, mainly because it held a lot of bitter memories and a lot of things he doesn’t like thinking about or dwelling on. He hadn’t had the most honorable exit, Stacker had essentially booted him out of the program for not following orders and Raleigh hadn’t complained, hadn’t fought, hadn’t done anything except leave everything and run to go crawl on a wall like a rat for five years. He’d abandoned everything he’d fought for, including Gipsy.

“I thought—“ He struggles a minute, clearly trying to decide how much he wants to divulge, before he relents and leans back against his chair, shrugging his shoulders. Yeah, Chuck’s right, Raleigh knew it wasn’t gonna work but…

“If I wasn’t gonna be in a jaeger, then I thought maybe at least – I could be working on something that might help, no matter how far fetched. Had to try. Kept my hands busy.”

For once, Chuck isn't looking to start a fight about Raleigh's shall we call it a 'leave of absence' from the Jaeger program. Though there a couple of choice comments bursting on the edge of his tongue...

...that he swallows back with another sip of moonshine before handing it back again.

Though. "I hear knitting keeps your hands busy."

...."did it help? Make your feel better?" It could come off as snide, something drawled with eyes narrowed, spoiling for a fight. But it's an honest question, and Chuck's leaning his head on the back of the chair, still gazing up.

"So've I." So he knits, shut up.

The question has Reigh even more on edge but Chuck doesn't appear to be trying to start something. There's something in his tone that's just curious as opposed to condescending and that's the only reason Raleigh actually answers.

"Yes and no." He faced a lot of demons during his hiatus, fought them off only to have them come back full force in the dead of the night when he slept in his bunk. There's a reason Raleigh is so remarkably zen about most (not all) things these days, and it's not because he drinks chamomile tea.

....that's cool.

Chuck rolls his head to look at Raleigh.

"You wanna talk more about that?" Which could be leading, but it's sort of honest, again. Because the subject could get changed, Chuck is easily distracted right now.

Chuck is freaking Raleigh out a little. He attributes it to the alcohol, because it can't be anything else.

He hunches forward, elbows on his knees, head bowed as he looks at the ground.

"In the end, it didn't matter. I knew they could just busy through like it was a wall of fucking Legos. It was a waste of time but--"

Again he pauses, and shrugs.

"Doesn't matter."

Yeah, Chuck's an annoying selfish little shit.

Though. "Yeah." He drops his feet off the chair and sits up a little. "Cos it's over. And it doesn't--didn't matter, even when you were wasting your time on the wall, we were still fighting."

.....that probably didn't come out as comforting as he meant it.

"...Yeah."

That pisses him off, frustrates him and upsets him all in one.

"'M gonna go find Mako, say goodbye. I think I'm done."

It's the politest he can excuse himself from Chuck, and the party, especially after that comment.

--shit

"Wait I didn't-" he grabs at his sleeve, to hold him for just a second. "I mean. Go if you want, but I didn't mean it like that. Yeah?"

No, Chuck is..a little muzzy and tired and getting far too comfortable in his metal chair and he's...bad at. That. At this. Whatever it is. "sorry," he mutters as an afterthought.

He eyes the hand on his sleeve, though he doesn't pull away or tug free.

Instead, he just sits back down, flipping in the bench next to Chuck this time instead of the chair.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it."

If he doesn't pull away, Chuck gets a more secure grip around his wrist, sliding his fingers under the sleeve of his blazer to circle his wrist.

"Don't let me have any more." He knows his limits, and if he's going to make any sort of dignified exit at any point, he should stop and stop now.

"I just meant that you shouldn't feel useless. Now, obviously, but." He jerks one shoulder, looking irritated with himself for not being able to speak proper.

Chuck's fingers are hot against Raleigh's skin and he looks over at the younger Ranger, expression curious and apprehensive.

"Wasn't gonna." The flask is safely put away and out of reach for both boys.

"Thanks." He wonders at Chuck sometimes, this...arrogant and tightly wound young man keeps surprising him at every turn. "But I was then. That's what you're saying. I was useles for five years."

He passes his thumb over the inside of Raleigh's wrist idly, forgetting for a while that it belongs to another person who can feel things.

Which might explain most of Chuck's behavior, come to think of it.

"Sorta," he admits, making a face. "But it wasn't all your fault." There was a part of him angry that he just walked away without even trying, but that's an angry seventeen year old using whatever anger he could to beat Kaiju senseless. "And you shouldn't feel useless. Even if you were."

...yeah that last was sober asshole Chuck, and it's said with a smirk.

It feels pretty good, actually. Chuck's thumb over Raleigh's pulse point has his heart beating a little quicker but he feels more relaxed, less pissed off than he did a few minutes ago.

"Wasn't it?" Raleigh thinks maybe it was, Mako certainly seemed to when he first met her. She'd labeled him unpredictable and unable to follow orders - he got people hurt.

But it's hard for someone to really understand until they're in the situation. Mako gets it, now.

"Fuck off," he says, though it without malice and more with a smirk that mirrors Chuck's. It's easier to fall into that routine than to dwell on the fact that Chuck Hansen - of all people - is sitting here telling him that he shouldn't feel useless.

"I'm not repeating this later," Chuck's gotta remind Raleigh this in case he tries to bring this up while they're sober.

He leans against his side, lifting the hand to inspect his palm closely.

"Nah, not fuckin' off," he drawls, passing his thumb over the heel of the hand. "We're stuck together until we sober up, or we go out drunk together."

"Never happened," he says -- because who would believe him anyway? Chuck has a reputation and it's not the best. People would laugh if Raleigh tried to repeat any of this.

He's gonna be hard pressed to believe it happened tomorrow, himself.

"You wanna stick around me?" Chuck's picked up Raleigh's 'bad' hand from the side that took all the damage from Knifehead. His palm is scarred, though the back of his hands are fine.

"...Why?"

..yeah. Awesome. Hah.

"Well, at least until we sober up. I mean, you can go out there drunk if you want," Chuck shrugs carelessly, drawing a fingers over the scars before dropping the hand. "Never mind."

"Just thought you hated me."

He's actually kind of disappointed when Chuck drops his hand. His fingers flex before he rests his hand on his knee, fingers casually brushing again Chuck's thigh.

"Mmhm, I do." He grins and knocks his elbow into Raleigh's side.

"Burr in my side." Yeah, Chuck's getting warm, he's unbuttoning his jacket and shrugging it off and draping it over the back of a nearby chair. ...and rolling his sleeves up.

Not a half bad idea. Raleigh's hand moves away in favor of shrugging out of his own jacket and loosening his tie, flicking open the top button. Between his jacket and the shine, he was getting warm.

"Thought so." He grins, because at the moment there doesn't seem to be as much hate tonight and Raleigh likes that. It takes too much energy to stay pissed at someone, though Chuck did try to make it as easy as possible most days.

....mmmh. Chuck's got an eye on the skin exposed by Raleigh's open collar.

Damn, Chuck thought he was hot as a cocky pilots five, six years ago. This older version's somehow hotter, in a sort of more mature enthusiastic and world weary way.

............Chuck didn't say any of that out loud right.

Shit.

Sleeves now rolled up, Raleigh's got an arm draped across the back of the bench at this point, all casual like, blue eyes fixed on Chuck's face.

"I dunno which part to comment on first," he says dryly, one brow raised though he looks more interested than he does mocking or amused. "The being hot five years ago part, or the being hotter now part."

"I was sixteen," he says sharply, defensively, face hot. He's rethinking his desire to sober up before going back into the party, because he'd like to hide.

But Chuck Hansen does not back down from a fucking challenge.
"You were--shut up, crushes are hard to shake. Fuck off." The lack of laughter isn't necessarily a good sign, Rahhhleigh's too polite to laugh at someone with a confessed crush.

"I'm not poking fun," he points out, giving Chuck's shoulder a little nudge. "Why the fuck would I do that now? I mean, Jesus -- you've actually been nice to me tonight." Which is bizarre enough.

He's quiet for a moment, letting Chuck's words sink in.

"...Still got a crush?"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject