suicidemission | like a match to gasoline

There's no hesitation when Raleigh replies.

"I think it will be. If I could get back in Gipsy after five years and four months under just my own power I think together we can make a relationship work."

He runs his hands down Chuck's chest and sighs. "I don't think there's anything we can do to hurt each other worse than stuff we've already been through. And I think we'll get better as we go. You're a quick learner. We'll understand each other better eventually."

Maybe Raleigh's right, maybe it won't crash and burn. Chuck's not convinced but he's had a taste of something great and he doesn't want to let it go. He's selfish that way.

"Gonna hurt you," he says out loud, slowly sliding his hand up to cup the back of Raleigh's head, carding his fingers through Raleigh's hair.

"Sorry."

Raleigh tilts his head back, resting it in the curve of Chuck's palm.

"Yeah, I know. It's alright. Just keep rescuing me from shitty reporters and warming me up."

He grins. "Let me nap on you some more and we'll call it all even."

"Could deal with that, probably."

He gives Raleigh a slow, lazy kind of smile, then jerks him down to kiss him again, greedy because he's thinking maybe he finally has something of his own.

It'll be work, but -- Chuck's always worked for things, anyway. That isn't anything new. Raleigh's too good for him but maybe if he tries to fix himself at least a little, he can maybe feel like he's almost good enough for Raleigh.

Mako's still outside the door, patient and waiting and holding off anyone trying to eject the two pilots that are still too wrapped up in each other to remember they've got a bus to catch.

Raleigh wants to see Chuck smile like that every day. Stretching and lingering nice and slow, just for him. He kisses back until a soft knock sounds on the door.

"Mako's probably waited long enough. We've gotta go."

Reluctantly, he climbs off Chuck's lap and calls to Mako.

"Come on in. We're decent." He throws a rogue grin at Chuck to go with that statement.

He makes a noise of complaint when Raleigh climbs off of his lap, hand scrambling for his wrist to tug him back, but missing.

Raleigh's right, though. Mako's waited a while and the things he'd like to do, like to continue aren't suited for this environment.

Later, maybe. When he can get Raleigh alone.

"Yeah, yeah," he growls, getting to his feet as Mako opens the door, looking between them with quiet smusement, lips twitching with a hidden smile.

"The bus is here," she tells them lightly, hands folded calmly in front of her. "We can go, now."

Raleigh tosses Chuck his bag and his jacket as he shoulders his own and wraps an arm around Mako to squeeze her shoulders.

"Thanks for guarding the door. We had to work a couple of things out while we had our courage."

He pauses a moment, smiling at Chuck.

"So, how bad of a feeding frenzy did we make with the media?"

Mako hums a little as they follow her out.

"You are lucky. Your face was enough to make them hate her instead of Chuck. It helped that you followed Chuck out, even after the remark he shouldn't have made." She eyes Chuck for a moment, promising a painful spar, and then she smiles. "It was cute. Like you were saying you're the only one allowed to pull Raleigh's pigtails."

Chuck's used to people not liking him, so the idea that people would've hated him for anything he said or did bounces off his shoulders and rolls out the door. He slings his jacket back over his shoulders, not really knowing what the weather was like out there, and crams his hands in the pockets as he sort of listens to them talk.

"She was out of line," he finally snarls, glowering at the ground as they walk, not looking at them or anyone else that's around. Not until they're back on the bus and out of sight and out of mind. He needs a nap, wants to rest. Raleigh got one and Chuck...Chuck's still in overdrive from the kisses, body heated up substantially, and he can't tell if he wants to be alone or if he craves Raleigh's presence even more.

Mako simply looks back at him, lifts her brow and keeps walking, though the little smile on her face doesn't dissipate entirely. He scowls at her, but she's seen so much worse from Chuck Hansen that the look is met with a flat gaze before she gestures.

"The bus will take us back to the hotel."

When he's sure they're out of watching eyes, Raleigh brushes his hand down Chuck's arm in silent reassurance. Beyond that though, he just stands nearby, and takes a seat close to Chuck's on the bus. They've got a lot of stuff just between themselves to work out before trying anything where anyone else can see it. Mako doesn't really count, she's been in Raleigh's head, but the rest of the world, well they don't need to know.

The bus drops them off at a service entrance at Mako's arrangement and they go up in the elevator. Mako gives them a smile and a small wave before breaking off towards her room, and Raleigh is left standing there in the hallway with Chuck, not sure whether he should head for his room or something else.

Mako totally ditches them and leaves them to their own awkwardness and Chuck scowls after her, standing in the middle of the hall with his arms crossed, face to face with Raleigh. He's not sure what to say, what to do and he's not...sure what all he's ready for. He thinks maybe he knows what Raleigh's ready for, he'd felt it when he had Becket in his lap and Chuck can't deny that he wasn't in the same damn position, but--

That's a lot, really soon.

"So," he finally says, "I'm kinda tired. You got a nap, I didn't. I could use--" He hesitates and looks around, then scuffs the floor with his boot.

"Could use some company."

For a brief second, Raleigh thinks Chuck's hinting at something else, the higher rated kind of company that they'd almost made it to in the hotel. Then he sees the way Chuck won't meet his eyes and his boot tapping at the floor. Raleigh melts on the inside because Chuck's actually asking for something from him. Something gentle and comfortably intimate.

"I'd like that." He steps closer to Chuck, not quite in his personal space because the hotel had cameras in the hallways, but more friendly. "Your room or mine?"

He would think something like that.

"Mine." He says immediately. It's -- more familiar territory, even if it's just a hotel. It's got his stuff strewn everywhere and it has Chuck's touch to it. Raleigh's -- is still too foreign. He wouldn't be comfortable.

Raleigh just nods following Chuck into his room. He drops his bag in a chair and toes off his shoes. He looks around the room a little, taking in Max's dog bed and the way Chuck seems to have made a bit of a purposeful mess around the place, making it his own without making it cluttered or actually messy looking.

He smiles a little and pulls the dress belt out of his slack and his sweater off over his head before crawling into the bed.

"You got a side you'd rather be on?"

Raleigh didn't think it would matter too much since he planned on using Chuck as his pillow, but he wanted to check, just in case.

He definitely did it on purpose. Chuck's a spartan man, he doesn't have a lot of things and in his room back at the 'Dome, it's squeaky clean.

He sort of wanted to know what it felt like to just not give a fuck. It was kind of nice.

"Left," he says automatically, though he's a little distracted because Raleigh is peeling out of his clothes and he's staring before shucking the jacket and stumbling towards the left side of the bed to sit down.

Raleigh stretches out on the right side of the bed for a moment before changing his mind and pilling the covers down beneath himself so he can slide in them. He'd pulled his sweater off in anticipation of sharing the bed with Chuck, but in the meantime the air condition on his bare chest wasn't his favorite thing.

He turns on his side to watch Chuck's back when he sits down on the left side of the bed.

"Need help with your boots?"

If Raleigh's trying to test Chuck's resolve to see if he'll waver, it's working.

"Uh. Sure?"

He's trying not to stare at that chest, and instead focuses on trying to unknot the laces of his boots.

With a smile, Raleigh slides back out of the covers and crawls across the bed. He steps off and to one knee, gently batting Chuck's hands away and nimbly pulling at the laces of both boots until he can pull them off Chuck's feet himself. He rolls his socks down and pulls them off too.

"You got any routines you do before you sleep?"

"Not really-"

Raleigh's down there on a knee and taking Chuck's boots off for him and despite having his hands knocked away Chuck's reaching again and shaking his head, cursing himself for his answer because Raleigh...Raleigh can't be down there on his knees, almost in supplication. He just can't, Chuck just cant.

"Rals," he grates, "c'mon. Don't -- do that--"

Edited 2013-12-10 04:48 (UTC)

Raleigh tucks Chuck's socks inside his boots and sets them aside, looking up at him.

"Why not? You took care of me. I want to do the same for you. I just don't have a handy flask, and you don't shiver."

He gets up, climbing back on the bed.

"Time for a nap, right? Mako and Herc'll find us if they want to go out for dinner or something."

Something about him and the boots had obviously thrown Chuck off kilter. Raleigh'd figure out what it was sometime later, but for now he'd let if go if Chuck would.

Chuck's face is flushed a dark, violent red and the very tips of his ears are burning, he can feel it. He wants to protest more, to tell Raleigh why he can't just...get on his knees like because Chuck knows he's a pain in the ass, he's not a good person and Raleigh really should not be helping Chuck take his shoes off but --

But it's nice. It's nice to have someone want to take care of him.

"Yeah. Right, then."

He eases himself back, a little stiff in Raleigh's arms but he's not pushing Raleigh away, either.

Raleigh presses Chuck all the way back onto the bed, ignoring the way Chuck's tensed up beneath him. It was the same way at the tv station, he remembers. Chuck didn't actually relax until Raleigh had bumped their heads together.

This time when Chuck's laid out flat, Raleigh pulls the covers up over them and slides himself a little down Chuck's body, determinedly not thinking about other reasons he'd hopefully be making that same motion later. He hooks his arm over Chuck's chest pressing his hand against the side of his chest warm between his bicep and body.

He pillows his head on Chuck's other shoulder and sighs contentedly.

It's Chuck's turn to think inappropriate things and for a split second he's not sure Raleigh's going to stop where he does and instead just keep sliding down.

He doesn't, and instead he's got Raleigh tucked up nice and close against his side with his arm around him, heavy and safe and warm. It's a solid, tangible presence and Chuck sighs, eyes fluttering shut as he wraps his arm around Raleigh's shoulders, holding him tight.

like a match to gasoline

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Noooot sure where you want to go with this one next

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