Mad Dogs and Englishmen

via http://ift.tt/2dDdjRE:
“They’re all gonna be jealous,” Newt grins, and leans back in the taxi cab. “Ten years on and we’re still sexy sexy rockstars.”

Hermann would have once rolled his eyes, hissed at Newt, acted annoyed. It’s been ten years and he no longer bothers. “Hmm,” He leans in, and paws through Newt’s hair.

“Hey!”

“What’s this, are those grey hairs, Doctor Geiszler?”

“Oh fuck you, I’ll have you know they’ve been grey since I was like, twenty.” He elbows Hermann, “You’re just jealous ‘cause you’re not a sexy silver fox.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Hermann looks at himself quickly in the taxi’s rearview mirror. His hair is still dark, not a thread of grey. Funny, both of his parents had gone grey in their early forties. “Besides, are you denying you want to show me off?”

“Hell no.” Newt kisses him, “I have the sexiest boyfriend ever, totally showing you off-”

The taxi pulls in at the old Shatterdome. Hermann pays the driver and they both step out onto the ancient helipad, now cracked through ten years of typhoons and heat and monsoons.

“We’re not the first.” Newt points, and Hermann nods, two people are standing near the entrance to the ‘dome. A man and a woman, even from here, he can recognises Rangers Beckett and Mori.

The wall of the Shatterdome is covered, top to bottom by a steel plate that had once come from the Wall project. On it, scribed in tiny letters, are countless names.

Somewhere on there are the names of Stacker Pentecost and Yancy Beckett. As they watch, Mako raises her hand and traces a worn name.

“Hey, Mako!” Newt calls, hurrying across the pad.

They turn and- Hermann stops dead.

Gott, they haven’t changed.

Neither have they, and it’s only now, only here, that Hermann can see it. Newt, and Raleigh and Mako and all three of them could have stepped out ten years ago. Hermann could half imagine he could turn around and they could all be here, Marshall Pentecost, Herc Hansen, Tendo Choi-

“Hermann! My man!”

Hermann turns, and the illusion dies.

It’s Tendo, but - changed. His hair is grey around the temples, his eyes marked with crows feet and the smile lines around his mouth don’t smooth away any more. It’s a shock to see him. It’s a shock to see someone who’s changed.

His smile fades, although the wrinkles still flicker on his skin, a wink to time. He looks at them, the four of them, unchanged. Timeless.

Something cold locks in Hermann’s stomach. He looks at Newt, he’s trying to smile, but he’s shocked too. After ten years of always seeing the same face in the mirror, the same face across the breakfast table, Tendo has shaken him. “Hey man,” He forces a smile.

“Newt, great to see you!” Tendo smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. There’s an uncertainty there, almost fear. “You- look great.”

There is nothing they can say to that. If to look great is to look exactly the same as the last time you met, they cannot say it back to Tendo. “You all look great.” He hesitates.

“Great moisturiser,” Newt tries to brazen it out, although there’s a faint quaver in his voice. “I’ll send you a few cases, you’re back in the states, right-”

He’s trying to make this normal, pretend so hard maybe they could make it real. Raleigh’s eyes spark and he joins in, a brassy cheerfulness to cover up the fear.

Mako meets Hermann’s eyes, remains silent. She can’t look away, Hermann’s can’t. It’s like the Breach calculations all over again, something he doesn’t under stand but knows is wrong, something bad, hiding just under the surface. They don’t know what it is yet, but it’s there, unable to ignore, like a burrowed insect, under the skin.

They need to do something.