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There was a knock on the door. Mako knew who it was without even gazing through the peephole, so she quickly shoved away the hydraulics she was tinkering with and hopped to the door.
“Ralei- Oh! Hello. I was not expecting you.” She visibly started at the sight of the tall Ranger standing in her doorway like an impending blizzard.
“I thought that I should talk with you.” Sasha tilted her head down slightly, as if in compromise. Not that it was needed- although Mako’s quiet nature and dark, subdued clothes made her easy to miss in the bluster of the Shatterdome, in person she did not so much daintily peek up like too many of her countrywomen, but lifted her chin to look Sasha in the eyes. Certainly a good sign.
“I’m sorry. What is it?”
“Don’t apologize. I came here to tell you some things I thought you should know, before you Drift with your new copilot.”
Mako wasn’t sure how to respond, and she certainly couldn’t think of an excuse to refuse. “Thank you. I hope it’s not an inconvenience to you,” she said, bowing her head slightly.
“Not at all.” Sasha pushed the door open with her shoulder and walked past Mako, looking around at the younger woman’s room before sitting down on her chair. Mako winced at the sight of the grimy boots over her floor, but followed her lead and sat on the bed across from her.
“My husband went to talk to the American too,” she said conversationally.
One moment Raleigh was alone in the canteen, and the next, there was a large shadow on him and two bottles of gin came crashing down on either side of him.
“Drink,” Aleksis grunted.
“Sorry?”
“Drink.”
“Uh, okay. Let me get a cup-“ Raleigh looked around the cafeteria for either a cup or an escape route.
“No. No cups. Drink,” Aleksis repeated, slamming his hand on the tabletop in what he thought was a gentle pat but in reality made the other end of the table bounce two feet in the air. As if demonstrating, the Russian lifted up his own open bottle to his mouth and took a long swig.
Cautiously, without taking his eyes off of the other man, Raleigh copied the motion, his eyes burning from the sudden sting of hard alcohol. It wasn’t that he had ever been a lightweight- once upon a time he’d have sucked the bottle dry in a gulp, but five years with only the cheap watery beer that ration cards afforded meant that the burn took him by surprise.
Thankfully, the Russian man didn’t appear to notice, as he immediately began talking again. “Okay. So, I give you advising.”
Raleight rubbed his forehead, unsure at times as to whether his new companion was speaking English or Russian. “Thanks, I guess?”
“Yes thank you.”
There was a silence. Aleksis was difficult enough to understand on a good day, on the rare occasion that he chose to talk. Between his heavy accent and the fact that his voice was very near the lower limit of human hearing, it was no wonder that he let his wife translate for him most of the time. Combined with the fact that Aleksis appeared to not want to say anything, it was not the best conversation Raleigh had ever had.
“So. Um. Advice,” Raleigh said.
There was another silence before Aleksis spoke again.
“Good advice is… Is…” The big Russian shifted uncomfortable in his seat, obviously feeling quite put on the spot. “Not buy heroin in bulk.”
“When my husband and I were recruited, none of this was invented yet,” she said, nodding her chin towards the staff on the wall and giving Mako a knowing glance- Kwoon room equipment was never to be taken outside the Kwoon room. By the unmaintained varnish, the staff had been in the young woman’s possession for quite a while.
Sasha expected Mako to quickly make up an excuse or at least ask her not to tell, but the Japanese woman was silent, meeting her gaze with an even stare that said, I took it because I meant it.
“You are the Marshall’s top student. You know everything about Jaegers, about the Drift. You know all the theory. I won’t bore you with that. So, I want to tell you what you do not know yet.” Sasha folded her hands in her lap. “All this emphasis on being Drift-compatible when you first come in, I think it’s wrong. Maybe it’s convenient way, bring in pairs who know each other beforehand, because they have shared memories that they can work off of- but that doesn’t mean they’re compatible. If you’re not compatible today, you may be compatible tomorrow- and same thing other way around. I don’t think ‘Drift-compatible’ is a baseline, I think of it as end goal, you see?”
Mako thought she had the gist of it and nodded cautiously.
“Aleksis and I. Strongest neural handshake, they say,” she said, her voice slightly boastful. “I tell you this, I don’t tell anyone else, but we were at first not Drift compatible. Not at all. And before all this, we were- not married, we were just friends. We heard that recruiters were coming to Moscow, so we volunteered together because we had no one else. I had no family, no friends because I am not woman who has friends. He had no family, no friends other than me. Many people, they didn’t like him because he charged a lot of interest and made many enemies when he collect. I was Prapor- a Warrant Officer at the time. Aleksis sold heroin. They tested our compatibility by making us play Xbox games.”
“I see.”
“The problem was that me and Aleksis, we had never touched an Xbox before. They gave the controllers to us and gave us directions and we didn’t know which buttons were which, and I think we didn’t really understand what was going on… So we pressed buttons and we had really no idea what we were doing. And then the recruiters said that we were great compatible. That the way we aligned our combination attacks showed that we were really reading each other. Something like that. They talked over us, enrolled us in new Academy right away- before we even got a chance to say that we didn’t even know which button was attack. I don’t even know what a combination is. So yes, we got in on a fluke. We were not compatible. So we became compatible. We worked hard to become compatible. And here we are.”
There was a silence. Sasha wasn’t a small talker, and apparently neither was Mako.
“You saw today. The test. Raleigh and I were compatible,” she finally said.
Sasha shook her head. “No,” she corrected. “You two are likely to be able to Drift together in a lab. But if you can fight a Kaiju together? That we don’t know.”
At first he thought that there was some kind of language lapse, a mistake in communication- perhaps their Russian-to-English dictionary was not working? But no, he was in fact truly receiving a lecture on the ins and outs of dealing heroin in Moscow.
“When you first start, hard part is finding people, people who are not have a dealer. But you get your people! You give them advising, like Demerol, use rubber bands… And once they owe you money they come back. But one thing you be careful of- you never do wrong for a gang. Never. Do not deal with… With… What’s the word? A big gang. A very, very big gang.”
Raleigh shifted uncomfortably, wondering if he could be arrested for just listening to the big man talk. “…Mafia?”
“Yes! Yes, Mafia, here is best advising: you never work with Mafia. You never go anywhere, or do anything the Mafia doing. There. That is best advising I can give you.” He fell silent, as if he considered it a job well done.
Five minutes passed and Aleksis and Raleigh sat in silence, occasionally pausing to take a drink, before Raleigh speared the elephant in the room.
“Did you really come all this way to tell me how to sell heroin in Russia?” he asked in disbelief.
The Russian man glared at him balefully. “….Sasha say, ‘give American boy advice.’ You, you’re not newbie boot pilot. You have four kills. What advising I give you that you don’t already know?” Aleksis muttered sullenly.
“I don’t know, maybe something that I’ll actually use one day?” Raleigh exclaimed. On one hand, it probably wouldn’t be that polite to just run off (and offending the Russians was probably not the smartest things in the history of putting man inside giant robot and sending him to fight Godzilla), but on the other hand, there were better things he could be doing with his time, such as picking lint off of his jacket or hitting himself in the shins with a crowbar.
“How do I know what you use one day? I am not your mother!” Aleksis snapped, his famous temper rising.
Impolite or not, Raleigh got up. “Thanks for the- …Gin, Mr. Kaidanovsky. Excuse me, I have to go run over the schedule tomorrow with Mako-“
Aleksis thumped down his own bottle in triumph. “I have good advising!! Do never- do not take first date on tour of prison.”
“Lieutenant, I think that Raleigh and I have a very different relationship than you and your husband. We’re not-”
“True. How long you know him? A few months?”
“I only met him this morning,” Mako confessed, surprising Sasha, who clicked her nails against her teeth in either admiration or disbelief.
“He does act familiar to you.”
“It’s not just to me. He is friendly person. Maybe all Americans act like that.”
“But you act familiar to him too.”
“Really?”
“Me and Aleksis. We don’t talk, you notice that. Because we watch. And we watched you.” Sasha folded her fingers together. “And you act familiar to him.”
‘Relationship advice with a drunk seven-foot Russian’ had never been on his bucket list, but it was happening no matter what he wanted.
“Get suit. If army not give you a suit, get regular suit. No, point is not looking good- even if she say ‘Aleksis you look stupid in suit, you look like sad monkey haha,’ even if she think you look better in normal clothes, not matter. Suit is about showing her you are taking this serious. Yes? Serious. Suit tells her, ‘I am serious and I taking this seriously.’”
“Okay. Suit. Got it.”
“And when you get suit- even if it is cheap shit suit, spend a little, get person who sews to make it fit you. It worth it. Haha, unless you are big like me- then you buy two suits and ask friend to sew them together to make one big suit. And smell- men’s perfume, ask her opinion first. Sometimes you think it is okay smell, but then you put it on and she will not let you in her apartment until you garden hose it off. And it will be snowing.”
Raleigh shifted, unsure of what to make of A Brief History of the Kaidanovskys’ Courtship.
“You will get into fights. Lots of fights,” Aleksis continued.
“Well, I’m sure that most relationships would involve some disagreements-“
“-And when you two are the only two people left standing in the bar and there are bodies everywhere, you will look at her and she will look at you and you will know that no matter what, there will always be a way to make it work. That this is person you want to fight world with.” The big Russian gave a big smile. “Is that simple. You not start working good together. You not start being perfect together, walking together, or anything together. But you and her will work to make it happen. And that is what makes Drift.”
“You and American. He is good-looking, nice, you want to be compatible with him.”
Mako let her eyes turn the barest millimeter towards the ceiling, as if expecting an ignorant question. “No. You have it wrong. I want to pilot a Jaeger, with or without Raleigh Beckett. I want to pilot a Jaeger, no matter who is in the Conn-pod with me.”
“But it wouldn’t hurt if it was Beckett boy?”
“It wouldn’t hurt because it wouldn’t matter. But now, he is my only chance. So I will trust him.”
“Yes, it would not hurt if copilot was Beckett boy,” Sasha repeated.
Mako fell silent, as either an admission or guilt or a refusal to go down this topic.
Sasha sighed. “Having feelings. It does not make you less of a soldier. Of course everyone else will think so. They will say, ‘Mako, she is just a silly girl, woman are too emotional, look, everything is based on-‘” Sasha paused and let her voice go high and flute-like, a cruel parody- “’lo-ve.’ But they’ve never Drifted. Everyone else, they don’t know what it takes to pilot a Jaeger. They call it being sentimental. We call it power.”
“Power.”
“Caring about someone does not make you weak. Don’t listen to gossip columns or feminist radio shows. This is not about you being a woman or having feelings- this is about you being you. You are Mako Mori, and no one should expect you to be anything else.”
That man was drinking of the bottle. Literally drinking out of the bottle because there was nothing figurative about the Russian chugging liquor like it was soda, or at least until he moved on to Raleigh’s bottle, possibly by accident. The American sat back, jaw slightly agape, held spellbound by a mixture of morbid curiosity and despair.
“And- Sexes,” Aleksis continued.
Raleigh’s eyes darted towards the nearest emergency exit.
“Before, I was thought it was all about- about- fjrhekls, English word… What was that word- cock, right? Yes, I was thought that you always had to use fjrhekls, cock, in sex, but no, use hands. Yes, cock is most important but hands is very important xcvczxcv too. I have big fingers yes-“ Aleksis held up his hands to show off his oversize digits (Raleigh wished he didn’t), “-So stroke her there until she bites and shouts.”
“Uh. I see. Look, it’s really getting late-”
“You will have surprise- do things you didn’t know you want to do. Like… Did you know you will like being tied up with belts and hit with a aksjdflkds?”
Raleigh’s expression clearly said that he did not know.
“And it is easy to set up. First, you find as many belts as you can. Then, set aside some time and decide what you want to do. Make sure you have all supplies with you. And then…”
“And outside, everyday. I don’t know if you will need this advice. Maybe in less than a month, the Breach will be closed and there won’t be any need for Jaegers.” Sasha left the most likely possibility unsaid: ‘Maybe in less than a month, we will be pieces at the bottom of the Pacific.’
The first choice was clearer in Mako’s mind, though, so she nodded, her eyes looking to a future Sasha had never had a chance to imagine.
“But in case. Co-pilots. It isn’t something you can walk away from. It’s not a job that you can come in for work, and then leave and do your own thing, have your own life. You are Drift partners and you stay Drift partners.” Sasha laughed, the first time that evening she had been anything but completely solemn. “Me, I am lucky that Aleksis is Aleksis. After you Drift for so long, you cannot imagine being with anyone else… Which means that you need to make things work.”
“TOC,” Mako recited absentmindedly, trying to think of having someone like that in her life- the closest she could imagine in her own life was Sensei. Trust Open Communication. An entire world of a concept squashed into a handy, catchy little abbreviation.
“You have the Drift. But it doesn’t make things easier. If anything, it makes it harder. You cannot dictate what and when to share, you cannot make excuses or allowances for yourself or the other person. Allowances- you have that in normal relationships, but you won’t have any here. No hiding. No cushioning. You will hear it all, and nothing less.
By the time Aleksis was done talking, Raleigh was feeling spectacularly uneasy about gardening supplies.
“Sometimes you will see things in Drift. Like, first time I saw that she wanted have sexes with me while I am tied up and she is hitting with me and Mr. Tendo Choi from LOCCENT watches, I was surprise! But after she explain, it was okay. So, whatever you see in Drift, talk to them about it. No, not talk in Drift, talk in real life, like normal couple. This is not just with sexes. This is with everything… So, do not depend on Drift. Ask her.” Aleksis waved his hands around, only slightly uncoordinated. “Ask her. Talk. And… Do not tie belts too tight. Always have scissors on hand in case you get stuck and your Marshall wants to talk to you, or else you will have awkward. And use real leather because if you use plastic leather it will hurt your testicles. Yes, always use leather. That is good advising. Okay, Beckett? Good advising? There. …You may go.” Aleksis peered up, bemused as the American’s seat was empty and its occupant out of the canteen in five seconds flat. “If you need any good advising, I am here!” he shouted, and he thought that he might have heard a very faint, wailing “Noooooo” from the hall.
“That’s all. I will leave you now.” Sasha didn’t smile, but she nodded at Mako. She rose silently, and Mako followed suit, bowing slightly as the Russian passed under the doorframe.
Before she was out of sight, Sasha turned her head very slightly. “Mako Mori.”
“Yes?”
“…Maybe I will see you down in the Marina Trench.”
Mako’s fists tightened, and her eyes darted back to the staff on her wall. “You will,” she said. “I will.”