Title: Of Coffee And Tea
Beta: Kris
Rating: G
Summary:
Mako watches in amusement as Raleigh gravitates towards the coffeemaker and faceplants on the counter in front of it, one hand groping for the mug that she always gets out for him in the morning when she’s making her tea.
Raleigh stumbles into the kitchen a little after seven o’clock. His body doesn’t deal with travel well, so his eyes are closed and he’s yawning, with truly adorable bed-head. Mako watches in amusement as he gravitates towards the coffeemaker and faceplants on the counter in front of it, one hand groping for the mug that she always gets out for him in the morning when she’s making her tea. He finds the mug, grabs the coffee pot and pours himself a cup without even looking, the movements so habitual that they’ve become instinctive at this point. He manages to raise his head from the counter in order to take the first gulp of coffee with his eyes still closed, only to frown in confusion as nothing comes out of his mug. He struggles to pull his eyes open and bring enough brain cells online to deal with this, but is unable to do so. He looks over at Mako for an explanation.
“You used the last of the coffee before we left for Australia,” Mako reminds him. He just blinks at her, so she sighs and elaborates. “We didn’t have time to buy any more before we left, so you said that you would just pick some up there. Did you forget?”
Raleigh makes a pathetic moaning sound and faceplants back onto the counter, which Mako translates to mean, “Yes.” She makes a humming sound of sympathy and goes over to run her fingers through his hair.
“Here,” she says, taking a last sip of her tea before offering him the mug. “You have a meeting with Tendo at eight,” she reminds him as he takes the mug and drinks greedily. Tea is not his drink of choice but desperate times call for desperate measures, apparently. “Pick up more coffee on your way home.”
He grunts agreement, still not caffeinated enough to produce actual words. Mako hides a smile behind her hand, because it’s been four years, now, since they went through the Breach, and she still finds early morning pre-caffeine Raleigh to be one of the most adorable things she’s ever witnessed. She pets his hair again and he groans and pushes up into her fingers, his eyes slipping shut with bliss. When she stops, he manages to pull his eyes open and give her a lop-sided smile.
“You gave me your tea,” he says, voice still sleep-husky. “It must be true love.”
“Yes, for Tendo,” Mako says, teasing. “Because I like him too much to subject him to you without caffeine.”
Raleigh pouts at her until she laughs, because he is ridiculous and adorable and hers, all hers. “I would only give my tea to you,” she promises. He perks up a little, the caffeine from the tea finally starting to hit his system and wake him up, and grins up at her, his full sunny grin that can light up a whole Shatterdome.
“I love you,” he says. Mako nods.
“Yes,” she agrees. “That is what I just said.” She leans over and presses a careless kiss to his forehead. “I have meetings with the Mayor again. I don’t know when I will be home. Remember to pick up more coffee - I love you enough to share one mug of tea with you. I do not know whether I love you enough to share more than that.”
He laughs and nods his agreement, standing up and catching her in a brief hug as she gathers her tablet and materials for her meeting.
“I’ll buy you more tea, too,” he says into her hair like it’s a secret. Mako leans into him and buries her face in his shoulder to take a deep breath of him.
“I know,” she whispers back, leaning up for a brief kiss before heading out for her meeting with the Mayor of Tokyo.