simplepuzzle | Aquatic AU

The tea heats in the background and Raleigh swallows, eyes moving over Chuck's face, drinking him in and memorizing his features all over again.

"You look good," he says hoarsely, swallowing the lump in his throat. "Didn't think I'd ever see you again."

"For a while I didn't want to see the face of any human ever again," he admits, keeping a hold of Raleigh's arms and almost leaning him against the wall.

"...couldn't manage to forget yours, though." It was almost irritating. He pulls a hand from Raleigh's arm then to run his fingers over his face, as if to reassure himself that it's really there.

He does sort of slump against the wall, though he leans into the touch when Chuck's fingers graze his face.

"Don't blame you. I can't believe you came back at all."

For Raleigh. He's not -- worth the risk.

Chuck's only at risk if people know or he tells anyone. It's been years, Sam's got to have moved on.

"You don't want me to go but I'm not getting the sense that you want me here either," he says quietly. "I had to know you got away too."

Maybe he has, maybe he hadn't. Hard to say.

"I worry for you." It's not really verification either way. He wants Chuck see, but seeing him on land kind of scares him. He doesn't want him trapped again.

"I've been hiding," he says eventually. "I go by Richard Lapierre now."

Raleigh is so confusing, he hugged Chuck so hard when he saw him and he said he didn't want him to go--

Maybe this was a mistake.

"Your dad, right?" He remembered that.

Raleigh seems all right to stand on his own, he thinks, so Chuck takes a step back, giving him room.

"Dads first name, mothers maiden," he says, and Chuck moves back but Raleigh reaches out for his hand, a quiet whine in the back of his throat.

"I've missed you, Chuck. I'm glad you're alright. Never stopped thinking about you."

He looks at Raleigh's hand and takes it after a moment, curling their fingers in together.

"Are you okay?" he demands.

Because for as much as he seems to be taking care of himself, the jury for 'okay' is still out.

Raleigh sighs when Chuck accepts the touch and leans his head back against the wall with a soft thump.

"I'm alive. I...guess I'm okay."

He exists. He lives, breathes, eats - but that's it. He's lost everything, his whole family, and doesn't know how to even begin making himself happy again.

'Alive' and 'okay' aren't the same thing.

"You don't look okay." He squeezes Raleigh's hand, jaw tightening. "...Have you called Janine since you...disappeared?"

Because that was the last time he remembered Raleigh being anything resembling happy. He doesn't know if she'll help, but--she liked him too, he could tell, she'd do what she could to help Raleigh.

He absently thumbs the back of Chuck's hand, rubbing the pad of his thumb over knuckles.

"No."

And he's sorry for that.

"She looked for me. But I can't...go back there." For a lot of reasons.

"She can come here." Chuck can't believe he's arguing for this, fuck, but Raleigh looks so wretched and he just wants to make him better. Return the favor.

"You don't have to tell her everything," in fact Chuck would prefer it if you didn't, "but you can tell her some of why you had to run, she'd understand."

"It's fine, Chuck. It wouldn't be fair to her. I'd never love her like she deserved."

She had to know his heart was somewhere else the whole time they were together, anyway.

Well there's that idea.

"I want you to be happy," he says, stubbornly. "You did so much for me, I'm not leaving you until I know you're going to be okay. For real okay, not just you saying it."

He means it, Becket. Lapierre. Whatever.

Chuck, you are as frustrating and stubborn as you ever were.

"Chuck, you can't stay here. You're...got a life out there. You've got family. You've got the ocean." He's wistful.

"I've literally got nothing. You don't belong here."

Of course he is.

"And you put your life on hold to help me," he says sharply, pushing Raleigh's hand away and scowling at him. "You're so confusing! You said you didn't want me to go, and now you're trying to stop me from staying! I want to help you!"

Stupid stupid human maybe Chuck will leave.

Raleigh whines in the back of his throat again, but then he loses his temper and pushes off the wall.

"I love you, Chuck! I love you, and I can't fucking -- have you! It's never going to be alright for me! Okay?"

Stupid stupid human.

Chuck takes Raleigh's head between his hands and leans their forehead together.

"Stupid human," he growls, thumbs stroking against Raleigh's temples. "Who said you can't have me?"

He sort of crumples in Chuck's touch, thumbs soothing some of the tension out of his body. His hands clutch at Chuck's sides, hands twisting in the material of his shirt.

"You can't stay on land," he mumbles, eyes closing. "I would never keep you here and you don't belong here." And he obviously can't go with Chuck, he'll drown.

"I can have both, you giant dumb." Chuck tweaks a strand of Raleigh's hair. "I stayed on land with Sam because he forced me to, I could never return as long as he had my skin. You won't take my skin, I could come and go."

And no, he wouldn't be there all the time, but he'd still be Raleigh's. And Raleigh would be his.

"I love you too, stupid human." He kisses his forehead, still holding onto his face.

"I would never," he repeats, shivering when Chuck tugs at his hair. "Would you...want that?"

Raleigh works, he works hard and it shows - his everything hurts, there's lines in his face, and he feels like he's eighty. He's strong though, strong and as healthy as he can be, but he's not...sure Chuck really wants someone as busted as he is.

As far as coming and going...Raleigh could live with that. He'd worry when Chuck was gone, but he'd never stop him leaving.

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't."

He slides his arms around Raleigh's shoulders and presses a quick kiss to his lips.

"I loved you when I was fourteen and I hated you when I was eighteen," he says against his mouth. "And then you were back and I couldn't decide if I loved you or hated you." Feelings are hard.

"...do you want this?" he asks, a little hesitant and ready to book it if he doesn't.

The kiss is too brief and fleeting for Raleigh, but until he's compeltely sure how Chuck feels, he won't push for more.

"I've been in love with you since that kiss," he admits, wrapping his arms tighter around Chuck. "I want this. I want you."

He sighs against Chuck's lips.

"How do you feel now?" He's pretty sure chuck doesn't hate him but it's good to make sure.

"I said I love you," he reminds him, sliding his fingers into his hair and grinning. "How many times do you want to hear it? I think there's a finite number of times per year, you'd better ration."

But after Chuck's finished kissing you, because he's done that a grand total of twice and they've got a decade and a half to make up for.

"I'm used to rationing," he says, holding Chuck tight, "but this, I don't think I can negotiate on. I want to hear it every day, as often as possible."

He meets Chuck for the kiss and sighs into it, tongue flicking over his lips, tasting salt and sea and perfection.

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