Chapter Text
Of all of the things Chuck Hansen expected out of a lazy Sunday morning, waking up to find a half-naked, suspiciously familiar blond man in his living room was not one of them. Chuck stopped dead as he eyed the blond cautiously. The man sat on his couch, scratching his head and looking around sleepily, confused by the unfamiliar surroundings. Chuck glared and looked around for a weapon, still unsure of how the hell the man got into his apartment in the first place. The man turned around, most likely realizing that he was being watched, and smiled sheepishly at the younger man in front of him.
“Oh, umm…hi.” The blond spoke jovially albeit fairly softly, waving slightly at Chuck as he spoke.
A faint blush tinged his cheeks pink and Chuck narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth.
“’The fuck are you and ‘the fuck are you doing in my apartment?” Chuck growled.
The other man’s eyebrows shot into his hairline out of surprise; Chuck fought back the smirk tugging at his lips, apparently the blond wasn’t expecting Chuck to have an accent.
“Well this isn’t how I wanted to make this introduction…” The blond mumbled, mostly to himself, before making eye contact with Chuck. Which was awkward to say the least. “I’m Raleigh Becket—“
Before Raleigh could continue Chuck groaned in exasperation, “Another one? Oh Jesus Christ.” He threw his hands up as he spoke; he had a hard enough time dealing with Yancy half the time, he didn’t need another Becket to deal with. As far as Chuck was concerned—and he cited Yancy as empirical evidence—anyone with the last name Becket was bound to be ridiculous. So far Raleigh seemed to be proving Chuck’s assumption correct, given how he was currently seated on Chuck’s couch, shirtless and looking slightly hung over. Raleigh, to his credit, chuckled lightly at the response his last name received.
“I take it you’ve met my brother Yancy.”
Chuck raised an incredulous, and slightly annoyed, eyebrow at Raleigh before he spoke, “Met him? Mate, he’s over here constantly. The fuckin’ idiot…”
Raleigh laughed once more and stood up.
“I’m sorry about this… I just got in town yesterday and I went out with a friend and got drunk. You kinda live next door to Yance and I guess I broke in here and passed out on your couch…”
Chuck rolled his eyes.
“Bloody yanks.”
“So umm… yeah, hi, howya doin’ neighbor?” Raleigh smiled brightly at the end of his question and Chuck practically recoiled.
“I should’ve known that smile was hereditary, no way Yancy had that without it being a genetic thing… It’s too bloody early for that, put it away.” Chuck snapped, his tone was biting but Raleigh took it in stride, or at least he tried to.
Raleigh eyed the Aussie in front of him carefully as Chuck sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. He appeared to be slightly shorter than him, Raleigh pegged him to be around Yancy’s height of six foot. He guessed that Chuck was younger than him, although he couldn’t tell by how much. His ginger hair was mussed, disheveled by sleep and stubble dotted his cheeks. Seeing the stubble on Chuck’s face made Raleigh absentmindedly run a hand over his own chin, which felt rough to the touch. Chuck yawned despite himself, he was trying his best to keep glaring at Raleigh but it was hard to do when he was exhausted. The yawn drew Raleigh’s attention to Chuck’s attire; he wore a pair of loose, grey sweatpants and a tight black singlet. Raleigh assumed he just got out of bed, most likely to get something to eat and happened across the scene in his living room. Chuck’s eyes snapped open and Raleigh looked into the green eyes briefly before smiling, trying his best to remain cordial despite the other man’s obvious dislike of Yancy and his fairly reasonable annoyance with his current situation.
“Can I make you breakfast or something?” Raleigh asked quietly, hoping that if Chuck’s appetite was sated then he’d calm down a bit.
Chuck raised an eyebrow at him and sighed.
“Sure, knock yourself out.”
Raleigh smiled, toning down the gigawatt smile just so Chuck wouldn’t snap at him again; Raleigh liked to think of himself as a patient man for the most part, he had to be when dealing with Yancy all his life, but there was only so much attitude he could take before snapping. And that was without a hangover. Chuck gestured vaguely in the direction of the kitchen and Raleigh followed the gesture, finding the kitchen with ease. As Raleigh walked off Chuck looked around for Max, who happily came trotting up to his master the moment his name left Chuck’s lips. Max sat down at Chucks feet, wagging his stumpy tail and looking up at Chuck expectantly. Chuck sighed and knelt down and scratched the bulldog on his head.
“Where the hell were you when he broke in here mate?”
Raleigh came out of the kitchen and smiled sheepishly. Chuck, hearing the shuffling of feet coming from the direction of the kitchen looked to the doorway on the opposite end of the living room.
“Actually, he kinda barked at me a little when I first laid down on the couch. I wondered when Yance got a dog but I didn’t really question it…he left me alone after I scratched him a bit.”
Chuck looked back down at Max and shook his head.
“You are the worst guard dog ever.” Chuck stood up and looked at Raleigh. “And you, stop poaching my dog.”
Raleigh put his hands up, indicating surrender and smiled a bit. He turned back around, forgetting about what he was going to ask Chuck and returning to the kitchen instead. Chuck followed him out, eyeing the man carefully as he entered the kitchen, which was just on the opposite side of the hallway from the living room. Raleigh settled into the kitchen, opening up the refrigerator to establish what all he could make with what was available. Chuck sat down in one of the bar stools surrounding the small bar that split the kitchen in half. He watched as Raleigh pulled out milk and eggs before moving on to open the cabinets surrounding the fridge.
“So Ray, how the hell did you get in here?” Chuck drawled casually, eager to find out where the breach in his apartment occurred.
Raleigh pulled out some pancake batter and set about trying to find a bowl to mix the batter in.
“Living room window. You and Yance have the same general layout in your apartment from what I can tell, and I remembered him saying that if I lost my key the living room window can be jimmied fairly easily.”
“Know a lot about breaking and entering Ray?”
Raleigh stopped and turned towards Chuck, placing the large bowl he’d found on the counter top. Chuck noticed that the blond man’s jaw was tensed and his blue eyes were alight. Clearly he was holding back his growing anger with the repeated jabs Chuck was throwing at him. Chuck smirked, he enjoyed getting a rise out of Raleigh and as far as he was concerned, he deserved it for breaking into the wrong apartment anyway.
Raleigh’s voice was tight as he spoke, his eyes locking with Chuck’s, “It’s Raleigh.”
“Whatever.” Chuck retorted, he broke eye contact with Raleigh and yawned, indicating that he was unconcerned about the current tone of the conversation.
Raleigh glared at the other man but fought back the urge to give into the man’s baiting. He set about mixing the pancake batter before addressing Chuck once more.
“Where are the pans?” He asked curtly.
“Bottom left drawer by the stove.” Chuck answered without giving it much thought.
An awkward tension settled between the two men and Chuck caught Raleigh eying the clock on the stove on more than one occasion as he cooked the pancakes. Raleigh was biding his time until he knew Yancy would be awake, which on a Sunday would mean around ten am because the eldest Becket always had a massive amount of emails to deal with on Sunday mornings, much to his chagrin. The clock on the stove read nine fifteen am and Raleigh sighed as he flipped a pancake. Chuck yawned once more and before he could start to annoy Raleigh once more Raleigh presented him with a plate of pancakes, or “hotcakes” as the man had called them. Chuck shrugged and got out of his seat, he grabbed a fork out of one of the drawers by the fridge and flopped back down in the bar stool. He took a bite of pancake and chewed; he eyed Raleigh as he chewed. Raleigh sighed and rolled his eyes, just desperately wanting to get out of this situation. His head was starting to throb dully and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could ignore it.
“Do you have any ibuprofen? My head’s killing me…” Raleigh asked quietly, not wanting to ask Chuck for anything.
Chuck pointed at a drawer on the opposite side of the fridge, next to where he’d gotten the fork from. Raleigh walked over and pulled the drawer open, eying the various painkillers and medical gauze, tape and a prescription bottle warily. Chuck swallowed his bite of pancake and rolled his eyes at Raleigh’s reaction.
“I’m an athlete Ray, not a drug dealer.” He remarked coolly before taking another bite of pancake.
Raleigh sighed and pulled out a bottle of Advil; he supposed all of the items in the drawer could be used to treat athletics related injuries, although he wasn’t sure why Chuck kept them in the kitchen. Raleigh shook out three tablets of the medicine and capped off the bottle once more. He grabbed a glass from the same cabinet that held the plates and bowls and filled it with tap water. He took the pills and finished the glass of water before addressing Chuck again.
“Why do you keep all that in the kitchen?” Raleigh asked as he put his glass on the counter.
“Do you always ask people so many questions when you break into their houses?” Chuck countered.
Raleigh glared at Chuck and Chuck smirked. Raleigh shook his head and turned to look at the clock once more; it was nine thirty, which meant that if he was lucky Yancy would be awake. However, considering his luck so far, Raleigh was almost positive that wouldn’t be the case. He chose to ignore Chuck’s comment in favor of getting more water, hoping that it would drown out any other snide comment Chuck decided to make in the immediate future. Chuck finished his pancakes and got up, putting the plate in the sink without saying a word to the other man in the room. This whole situation was beyond awkward as far as Chuck was concerned and he didn’t feel like dealing with it anymore. This was shaping up to be anything but a boring Sunday. Raleigh shifted his weight from foot to foot before deciding to risk it and head over to the apartment he was supposed to be sharing with his brother, the apartment that he should’ve broken into the night before.
“I’m gonna go and get Yance out of bed…”
Chuck made a motion of “go on then” with his hands, practically shooing Raleigh out of his kitchen.
“Tell your drongo of a brother not to let you go drinking again Ray.” He stated as Raleigh started to leave the kitchen.
Before Raleigh could retort with something particularly rude—and ask what drongo meant—Chuck smirked at him once more, dimples on full display as he spoke. “Thanks for the pancakes.” Raleigh smiled at that, and Chuck rolled his eyes brushing past Raleigh as he did. Raleigh headed for the front door, trying to figure out how the hell he was going to explain all of this to Yancy. And whether or not Yancy would ever let him live this whole thing down. Once he established that the odds of the latter were very, very small he opened Chuck’s front door and walked out into the brisk, Sunday morning. He shivered slightly as he closed the door and walked over to where he was supposed to be living.
Raleigh banged on the door, hoping that Yancy was awake enough to hear the noise. “Yance! Open up!” He yelled as he banged. After a few more loud knocks, Yancy threw the door open, eyes still bleary from having just woken up. He stood in the doorway, blond hair mussed, in tight boxer briefs and a loose grey t-shirt. Raleigh pushed past him and Yancy closed the door behind him. The eldest Becket turned to Raleigh, eying him carefully. A smirk tugged at his lips.
“Where’s your shirt kid?” Yancy’s voice was gruff, still gravelly from sleep as he spoke.
Raleigh raised an eyebrow, confused about what he had meant and then looked down. The vast expanse of skin he saw when he looked down surprised him, he didn’t remember taking off his shirt. Then again, he didn’t remember a lot of things from the night before. Yancy fought back a chuckle as he looked his little brother over, looking for signs of a hookup on him.
“I must’ve left it next door…” Raleigh spoke before he could stop himself.
After the words left his mouth Raleigh immediately wanted to kick himself for it, especially when he saw the way Yancy’s blue eyes lit up at the statement.
“Next door? You mean you were at Chuckles’ last night?” Yancy couldn’t help but smile as he spoke; he was going to have fun with this little tidbit.
Raleigh sighed.
“Yes, I may have accidentally broken into his apartment thinking it was ours.”
Yancy laughed outright, a shit-eating grin firmly in place by the time he could form coherent sentences again.
“What did you do kiddo? Did you seduce Chuck?”
“No! I just…Tendo dropped me off last night and I got confused about which one was ours and I just passed out on his couch.”
“Oh this is just fantastic.” Yancy laughed harder as Raleigh blushed and grumbled under his breath. “Way to make a first impression kiddo.”
“I made him breakfast…”
Yancy had to sit down to keep his legs from giving out from underneath him and Raleigh glared at him.
“You’re a good hookup Rals.”
Raleigh kicked at Yancy, who promptly fell over, still chuckling to himself. “Oh shut up old man.” The younger Becket grumbled at his older brother, wanting to just get in a proper bed instead of dealing with a sleepy, hyena version of Yancy Becket.