Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews! Last chapter~

Beta'd by the lovely beta-chan paradorx

Raleigh's heart was beating a tattoo against his ribs as he looked down the small incline towards the dark and closed offices.

"Come on, Mako," he urged under his breath. She had agreed to meet him here after her one evening class got out, and he had been waiting, crouched in the darkness, for half an hour, shivering slightly in his old dark jeans and black jacket. He rubbed his hands together nervously.

They had to get into the Breach Industry outbuilding offices, find a piece of paper with the local passwords on it—not unlike their own password graph back at the café—and bring it to Tendo to finish his virus.

"Hey."

Raleigh jumped, and a small hand clamped over his mouth to keep him from screaming. "Calm down." Mako's face was inches from his own in the darkness. "It's me."

She removed her hand after a moment waiting for him to calm down. He was breathing heavily. "Jesus, Mako," he whispered. She smiled, and he finally got a good look at her.

Tight black jeans, a black leather jacket that showed off her curves. Her blue highlights almost glowed in the darkness.

She watched him as he made his observations, eyes moving rabidly over her. "What?" she asked in a playful voice. "Are you going to say anything?"

He cast his mind out for something clever to say (rejected telling her he loved her) and settled on "You look good."

She grinned and crouched on the hill next to him, looking at the offices. "This is going to be dangerous," she told him under her breath, getting close to him to keep their voices low. "They will have security that we need to get around."

He nodded, turning over the situation in his head. "It will be dangerous," he said. "You don't have to…"

She gave him a look and he chuckled. She was with him all the way. For her family. For his family.

"I never thought about the future…" he said, looking at her, glowing in the darkness, so close he could the way her eyelashes curled and how her hair brushed finely against her cheeks. Then, with a small laugh he looked away. "I have terrible timing," he said.

She took his hand. Nothing else needed to be said.

Together, they headed through the darkness towards the building.

"Oh God. Oh God." Raleigh's knuckles were white on the wheel of his car, and his foot pressed the gas pedal to the floor. In the passenger seat, Mako panted and hugged the password paper to her chest, slumped low in the seat.

As they raced away through the darkness Raleigh let up on the gas pedal; it would do them no good to be pulled over now for speeding. He took in and released a few calming breaths.

"… We did it," he said in an awed voice. He looked over at Mako with his teeth white in the darkness. "We did it, Mako!"

"Watch the road," she suggested, a smile on her face.

He turned back to the lonely road, still smiling. "God, you were incredible," he said. "Absolutely mind-blowing." He glanced at her again and she was smiling at him in that private way that made his chest seize up.

He wondered what would happen if he pulled the car to a stop and kissed her on the side of the road. For a wonderfully long moment, he wondered.

Then he focused on the dashed yellow lines and pushed the thought away.

Mako waited until Tendo showed up at 10 AM and asked for the Wi-Fi password. She brought the chart to his table to show him, placing it down on a pile of papers he already had out.

When she took the chart away, there was a new paper at the top of his stack. Tendo's eyes widened slightly and he glanced at her. She nodded, and he cracked a grin.

"I knew you guys could do it," he mumbled under his breath, and dragged the paper closer to his laptop, cracking his knuckles in preparation.

When Mako was back at the counter, she held up her fist and with a rather dopey smile Raleigh bumped it.

The next morning was Sunday. Raleigh allowed himself one morning to sleep in.

His door slammed open. "Raleigh!" Mako stood in the doorway. "Come watch the news." He fell out of bed, tangled in the sheets, and ran with her to the living room, where the tiny television was turned on to the news.

"And today it has come to light the tragedy of deaths caused by acidic cleaner Kaiju Blue. These horrific deaths in Japan and elsewhere were covered up by the parent company Breach Industries. Breach Industries is now facing a federal lawsuit from several countries and has been shut down."

They were laughing together, Raleigh lifting Mako up and spinning her around. She held onto him so tightly that he couldn't breathe. And he didn't care.

Their world wasn't going to end.

The next two weeks were nothing but bliss.

Daily habits solidified again. Newt and Hermann showed up after lunch to argue and drink coffee, sitting a bit closer than was purely professional. Tendo would barge in at odd times and demand black coffee with a side of password. Now Mako was "Mori-Girl" to Raleigh's "Becket-Boy".

At night, they would pour over work together, her homework mingling with shop orders and finances, and they would sneak downstairs and make daring mixes of teas and drinks. Some of them worked out and were added to the sidewalk sign. Others had them spitting into the sink, doubled over in horrified laughter and rinsing out their mouths. They talked.

Raleigh told her about traveling aimlessly with Yancy. She told him about the beauty of the village where she was born. With her, his Japanese got considerably less rusty. Chuck came around a few times and in short, stuttering tones managed to get an apology across, with an explanation that Raleigh could buy but not fully forgive. There would always be something between them, now. Wounds that wouldn't close.

"Good luck," Raleigh told him. Not forgiveness.

Chuck nodded, once. "Thanks," he replied. Not an apology.

It was as close as they would ever to the real thing, however. And two weeks passed.

Raleigh watched from the doorway of the café.

They stood side by side, echoed wide shoulders and set feet. Chuck was still a few inches shy of his father's height, and it really showed in the early morning sun how his hair had only faint traces of his father's red.

The bus arrived, pulling up to the corner and stopping with a hiss of released hydraulics. The door squeaked open and Chuck shouldered his bag. He turned to his father, and Raleigh could see the conflict of emotions crashing around on his face.

Herc was the first to speak. "Always having you around… I never felt it necessary… I never thought that I would regret all the things I never said."

A small, sad smile flashed on Chuck's face for a short moment before he sobered up. "It's fine. I know them all." He looked down at Max, sitting obediently by his father's side. "Take care of him for me?" he asked, voice cracking a bit.

Herc's answer was to crush his son in a backbreaking hug. Chuck's hands tightened on the back of his jacket for a moment before they separated, looking like they'd been caught at something indecent. Chuck nodded once more and mounted the steps, heading into the empty interior of the bus and finding a seat.

Herc leaned into the doorway for a moment, addressing the bus driver. "Be careful," he said, pride obvious in his voice, "that's my son you got there. My son." Raleigh thought he could see Chuck rubbing at his eyes inside the bus as it pulled away.

With one arm raised in farewell, Herc watched as the bus disappeared around the corner, out of sight. He then looked down to Max, who looked back and gave a small wag of his behind. Herc kneeled down and began to mechanically scratch at the dog's ears. Raleigh had never seen an action so normal be performed with so much sadness.

Months passed.

Raleigh and Mako would rent giant monster B-Movies and watched them as they worked together at night. Homework and bills. Her specialty drink was placed on the menu as the Mako Mori Special.

When mid-terms came Raleigh closed the café for a day and bribed Dr. Gottlieb with free tea for a month to hold a day-long study session, with Newt sitting in the background with a muffin adding in his own opinions. When she got an A, Raleigh insisted that she tape it up behind the counter to show off her intelligence.

Herc made the morning deliveries, looking less and less downtrodden as time passed.

Before Raleigh knew what hit him, it was December and his life seemed impossibly perfect.

Except for one thing.

He still wanted to know what it would be like to kiss her.

"Kid!" Yancy exclaimed, slamming the cab door behind him. It wasted no time in taking off.

Raleigh was grinning like a fool. "Old man!" he returned, arms open wide. With a loud laugh, Yancy hugged him tight. He pushed Raleigh away and looked him up and down, hands on his shoulders.

"No missing limbs," he observed. He looked over Raleigh's shoulder at the shop. "And the café hasn't burnt down. You did good, kiddo." He slung one arm over Raleigh's shoulder and led him into the shop, packed with people escaping the late December cold. Christmas decorations, strings of wrapping-paper origami cranes made by Mako and Raleigh late one night (Raleigh's rather crushed ones were hidden in dim corners and behind the counter where no one could see them) pinned to the ceiling. Yancy let out a low whistle.

Mako was behind the counter, handing over a cup to a customer. As they passed, both Becket brothers snuck a peek at the design on the top. A Christmas tree. They shared an impressed look.

"Miss Mori!" Yancy greeted her warmly across the counter. "I see you've become quite the barista while I was gone."

She ducked her chin into the collar of her shirt, colored with pride, and thanked him.

"Now, I was going to volunteer to help you guys out, but now that I see the shop is in capable hands, I'm going to order a chai latte and relax." Raleigh bumped into Yancy's shoulder as he snickered.

The day carried on as it usually did; when Tendo arrived he sat with Yancy and they caught up on what each other had been up to. Raleigh hovered nervously, wondering if Tendo would drop anything on the Breach incident, but he caught him watching and sent him a wink. Secrets were safe. Raleigh was able to relax and banter back and forth with Mako during the day, with Yancy watching contentedly.

That night Yancy helped Raleigh with reports, giving him a much-needed break and a few pointers.

Mako tried to let him have his room back and he refused. "I'd never force a lady from a bed to a couch," he said. "I'll be fine; God knows I've fallen asleep out here often enough."

She nodded and they exchanged goodnights. Raleigh watched her head to her room and shut the door. When he looked back to help Yancy spread blankets over the couch, his older brother was looking at him fiercely, arms crossed over his chest.

"Do you love her?" he asked bluntly.

Shocked, Raleigh opened his mouth. Closed it.

Yancy smiled. "I thought so. This mental thing we have goes both ways, as it turns out." Raleigh frowned at him.

"It doesn't matter," he said, and tossed his bundle of blankets onto the couch pettily still gathered.

"I think it does," Yancy replied gently. He paused. "Do you think she knows?" His voice was carefully lowered.

Raleigh didn't trust himself to answer, looking again down the hall to her closed bedroom door. "It doesn't matter," he repeated stubbornly. "'Night."

"Goodnight," Yancy said in an odd tone of voice, and watched as his younger brother slumped into his room, so obviously in love that it almost hurt.

The next morning, Raleigh hit his alarm and stretched, his late night conversation with Yancy weighing heavy in his chest. Did she know? Hell, he barely knew until Yancy brought it up. Did he dare to hope?

He got out of bed and got dressed, and emerged from his room at the same time as Mako. He couldn't help but smile across the hallway at her, dressed in her work clothes. No classes; they were all out for winter break.

She smiled back and he nearly flinched, sliding down the stairs banister while she walked down the stairs in careful, measured steps. He wondered, not for the first time, what it would be like to dance with her. And, not for the first time, he shoved the thought away into a dark, deep corner of his mind.

Herc wasn't there yet with their delivery, and they fell into easy, practiced step together, walking through the back room and into the front. Raleigh held the door open for her and she slipped under his arm. He followed just after her, and paused behind the counter with her at the sight of Yancy standing in the open space before the counter, waiting with his hands on his hips and a calculating look in his eyes.

"You're awake!" Raleigh exclaimed in surprise and shock, immediately suspicious and looking over his brother for any sign of obvious injury. He moved to take a step forward.

"Stop!" Yancy said suddenly, hands held palm out. Mako and Raleigh paused in confusion. Yancy waited a beat and then pointed to the ceiling with one finger. Together, they glanced up.

Mistletoe. Taped sloppily to the ceiling above them. Raleigh felt his heart stop.

"There," Yancy said, matter-of-factly. "I've saved you the awkwardness of finding an excuse to kiss each other. Go on."

Raleigh looked at his brother and wondered if he could get away with killing him. He turned to Mako, color rising in his face, attempting to make some excuse on Yancy's behalf, give her an easy way to say no…

She fisted her hands in his shirt and pulled him down to her level, kissing him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, their chests pressed together so that their heartbeats were felt as one.

Nothing else mattered.

Yancy left a week later, mourning the fact that he couldn't spend Christmas with his younger brother, but secretly relieved he didn't have to be surrounded by Raleigh and Mako being incredibly, stupidly in love with each other.

"Stay out of trouble," Raleigh told him, laughing as they embraced at the front of the shop. A cab idled in the street, waiting.

"Hey, that's my line," Yancy joked, and ruffled Raleigh's hair. "I'll catch you later, baby bro." He smiled widely over Raleigh's shoulder, to the interior of the shop, dim and awaiting a new day. "I left something on the back door for you." With that and one final embrace, he got into the cab and drove off, Raleigh waving after him.

He headed into the shop and paused, laughing quietly to himself at Yancy's 'gift' before heading inside and up the stairs to wake Mako up.

When the door to the back room shut behind him, it was the same except for one small detail. A small piece of paper with a single word on it had been taped above the sign, a wedge indicating where it should be inserted in. All together, the sign now read:

BECKETS & MORI ONLY

It was a change, not a small one either, but it settled around Raleigh like it had always been there.

And, there we have it. Ta-Da.

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