Chapter Text
You’re wiping down the bar counter when you hear the bell ring. You laugh as a cheer fills the bar. Whoever did it must be new, all the locals are well aware of Penny’s rules. You look around in search of Penny and the poor guy who has to pay for everyone’s rounds and stop in your tracks at who you see.
“Mav?” You ask incredulously. You immediately rush over to the man.
Mav doesn’t look nearly as shocked to see you. The two of you still talk frequently, always keeping tabs on the other. But the last you heard, he was testing plane models hours away. “Hey, kiddo.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Wow, it’s nice to see you, too.”
Penny laughs from beside you. She puts a hand on your shoulder, “I’ll let you two catch up.” You watch Mav as he watches the other woman go. You let out a huff of amusement. The man hasn’t even been back for more than twenty minutes and he already has heart eyes. When he turns back to you, you simply raise your eyebrows. He blushes, knowing he’s been caught.
You lean onto the counter, a menacing look in your eyes. “You have two choices right now, Mav. You can tell me what you’re doing here, or you can tell me why you’re giving Penny that look. We’re gonna get to both eventually,” you quickly reassure him, “I’ll just let you pick which one we get to first.” You finish by giving him your best smile.
Mav groans, breaking your eye contact. “That’s not fair and you know it.”
You laugh triumphantly, remembering all the times you would get Mav to cave with your toothy smile as a kid. “So, what it’s gonna be, old man?”
Mav’s eyes soften at the endearing nickname. “Your uncle ever tell you about the trouble I got into before I went to Top Gun?”
You act as if you’re thinking hard. “He may have mentioned it once or twice.” Mav was a common topic of conversation between the two of you. You always loved hearing your uncle’s stories about Mav, especially when they included him being an idiot and fooling around with an admiral’s daughter.
Mav huffs. “Ice really needs to stop being such a gossip.”
You shrug your shoulders, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the man. You’ve always been a sucker for some innocent gossip yourself. “So?” You push Mav to get to the point.
“I’ll tell you what that look means when I figure it out myself.”
You boo the man for his disappointing explanation. But, ultimately, you move on. You’re more interested in why he’s here anyways. “So, what brings you about these parts?” Mav releases a heavy sigh. “Oh, that’s not good.”
“No, it isn’t.”
You stand up, tenser now. “Okay, Mav, you’re kinda scaring me.”
He waves away your concern. “It’s nothing, just… the people at Top Gun want me to teach a mission. You know I can’t give you all the details.” You nod in understanding. Being the niece of a high-ranking officer means you’re more than familiar with how these things work. You’re lucky he’s even telling you that he’s here on a mission.
“How bad?” You mutter gravely.
Mav simply shrugs. “It’s a doozy, that’s for sure.” You close your eyes for a moment. You’re well aware that on a scale of training level to suicide mission, Mav just put this mission right up there.
“So, who’s on this mission?” You ask as if the group of people in uniforms by the pool table haven’t already clued you in.
Sure enough, Mav gestures over to the group. You follow his line of sight, and subconsciously your eyes fall on the blonde by the darts. You’re familiar with everyone, first meeting them when they were students at Top Gun. Jake seems to sense your eyes on him because he turns around to meet your gaze. He catches you looking at him and gives you that classic smirk and a wink. You simply smile back and roll your eyes.
You turn away to find Mav looking at you with his eyebrows raised. You wave him off, and he drops it, taking a swig of his beer instead. He peels at the label on it once he sets it down. “There’s twelve of them…” Your furrow your brows in confusion. To confirm your suspicions, you turn back around and count all the people in uniform. Yup, eleven. “...one of them is Bradley.”
You swing your head back around to Mav, your eyes wide. “ Bradley ?” Mav nods his head gravely. “As in Bradley Bradshaw? The same Bradley Bradshaw that has not spoken to you in more than a decade?” Mav winces as if the reminder physically hurts him. And knowing the man, it probably does.
“Trust me, kid, I’m aware.” He looks up at you, hopefully. “What about you? You talk to him recently?”
You bite the side of your lip, a nervous habit you’ve had since you were a kid. “We made up if that’s what you're asking.” You see Mav deflate a little in relief. Bradley had been mad at you for still being in contact with Mav after pulling Bradley’s papers. It had put a strain on your friendship, and Bradley didn’t talk to you for a few years. Mav never stopped feeling responsible for the falling out. But no amount of guilt would get him to tell you why he pulled Bradley’s papers.
“It was kinda hard for him to avoid me while he was at Top Gun, so I basically forced him into talking to me again.” Mav lets out a fond laugh. “We talk every once in a while, less than I would like, but I’ll take whatever I can get.” Mav sobers up at that. You know better than anyone how desperate he must feel to be able to talk to Bradley again. “Last I heard, he was stationed overseas. That mustache of his is still going strong, though.”
You both laugh, the mustache being an inside joke of sorts. When Bradley was younger, he always vowed that he would grow the “best mustache in the world,” one his father would be proud of. “So I’ve seen. His old man would be proud of it, that's for sure.” Mav gets the same far-away look he always does whenever he mentions Goose.
The moment is interrupted when you hear someone call you. “What’s it gonna take for a guy to get some drinks around here?” Mav immediately gets a hard look on his face and moves to stand up. You quickly stop the man, putting a hand on his arm. You look at him, signaling that you’ve got it.
You turn around to find Jake leaning over the counter, his toothpick peeking out of his lips. Your eyes fall to those lips, the same way they always do. You quickly look back at his green eyes, but you don’t know if that is any better. You’ve always thought you could get lost in those eyes for days.
“The same it always does, Seresin,” you tease as you walk over to stand on the other side of the bar. Due to him leaning over the counter, your faces are barely a foot apart. You turn your face and tap your cheek, expectant. And like he always does, Jake takes the toothpick from his mouth and gives your cheek a kiss.
Satisfied, you turn back to him. “Now, what can I get for you?” The toothpick is already back in his lips, and he swivels it around his mouth. It takes every ounce of self-control you have to keep your eyes on his, you know this close to Jake, he would never miss you looking at his lips. And you would never hear the end of it.
“Another round of beers for me and my colleagues,” he says. You raise your eyebrows. He rolls his eyes. “Please.”
“There’s that southern charm,” you laugh when he wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. “I close up at midnight tonight, do you think you could drop me off at my place?”
“It would be my pleasure,” he says, now speaking in a thick southern accent. It’s impossible to ignore the butterflies in your stomach that appear after hearing his drawl.
You quickly turn around to hide the flush you can feel on your face and get your beers for him. You school your expression before turning back around. “Okay, cowboy, calm it down.” You set the beers down in front of him and shove him away. You turn to walk back to Mav, but you can still hear Jake shout, “Javy, get your ass over here and help me with the drinks!”
After making your way back over to him, Mav simply says, “Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin.” His eyes don’t leave yours as he takes another sip of his beer. At this rate, the man is going to go through five within an hour.
You decide to play the oblivious act for just a moment longer. “Someone’s been doing their homework.” You cut the man some slack when you hear Mav clear his throat expectantly. “It’s not what you think, Mav. He’s just a friend.”
He makes a noise. “Penny and I were ‘just friends’ too.”
You push down the hope that bubbles in your chest at the implication. The moment you met Jake “Hangman” Seresin you had promised yourself that friends are all the two of you would be. You wouldn’t be just another notch on the man’s belt. You love him dearly, but you also know that every night, the man leaves with a new person on his arm. He tends to keep it 50/50 between men and women. Not that you’re paying attention or anything. You can’t blame him for having fun. You just know you wouldn’t be able to handle being his “fun” for one night, and then nothing the next one. So, you’re more than happy to settle with being his friend.
Thankfully, you’re saved from having to respond to him when you hear the front door open. The first thing you see is an, admittedly, hideous Hawaiian shirt. And as you trail your eyes upward, you see a carefully groomed mustache and a pair of aviator sunglasses that rest on the bridge of his nose. Bradley’s nose.
You suddenly feel as if the air has been knocked out of you. Without realizing what you’re doing, you walk away from Mav to the other side of the bar, so you can keep Bradley in your eyesight. It’s been so long since you’ve last seen him, it feels as if you’re looking at an entirely new person. But at the same time, you’re not. Because you know, without a doubt in your mind, that’s Bradley. The same Bradley you spent every second of every day with as a child. And he looks… good .
You’re distracted from your thoughts when you hear Bradley utter those same words. “Hangman, you look… good.”
“I am good, Rooster. I’m very good.”
You furrow your eyebrows as you watch the two of them. Your childhood best friend and crush, and your current best friend and crush. You’re not surprised that they know each other. They’re both fighter pilots in the navy, not to mention the best of the best. It’s bound that they would cross paths every once in a while.
What you are surprised to see is the tension between the two. As they stand opposite each other, you can see that Bradley is clenching his fists as if he’s ready to punch Jake. Jake, on the other hand, is resting against the pool table, looking cool as can be. But you can see the tension in his shoulders, the way he’s gripping onto his pool cue. Something’s going on with these two, you just can’t tell what it is quite yet though.
Your thoughts are interrupted when you notice that Bradley has moved his eyes past Jake to look at you. He doesn’t look surprised to see you. You smile when you realize you weren’t the only one keeping tabs on the other. You notice him giving you a once over, taking you in. You feel yourself start to blush under his gaze.
Immediately, you scold yourself for acting like that lovesick kid again. It’s been years since you’ve seen Bradley. You’re not going to get into that again. We are keeping the childhood crush in the childhood , thank you very much.
It doesn’t help that Bradley winks at you before he goes to unplug the jukebox from the outlet. You laugh softly as you realize what he’s about to do. As expected, Bradley walks over to sit on the piano bench and starts to play those familiar notes before looking over his shoulder at you.
Not even having to think about it, you mouth the first words along with Bradley, “ You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain… ”
Bradley smiles wide at you before turning to Phoenix to sing the next line. You’re interrupting from joining in any further when you hear the bell ring a second time. You shake your head, disappointed at Mav.
You search for Jake so you can call him to throw Mav overboard, but once you find him, he’s already looking at you. You can’t quite decipher the look on his face, but you decide to let it go. You raise your brows at him, “You know what to do, Jake.”
Jake seems to break out of his thoughts, putting that smirk of his back on his face before he turns to Coyote. “You heard the woman.” You laugh as you watch Jake and Coyote carry Mav out, giving Mav a mock salute. Your eyes widen in panic once you realize that Bradley might have seen Mav.
You turn around quickly, but Bradley isn’t looking at the door. He’s looking at you. You can’t quite tell what he’s thinking, but whatever it is, he doesn’t seem too pleased about it. You don’t get a chance to figure out anything else, because next thing you know, he’s turning back around to sing with Phoenix and the rest of the group.
You’re enjoying the performance when you look out the window and notice Mav watching Bradley as well. Your heart squeezes when you see the look on his face. You look at Penny and know she’s seen him as well. Without even having to ask, you head out to the front door to check up on the man you consider family.
He doesn’t hear you as you walk up behind him, too focused on Bradley. You clear your throat and he whips his head around to look at you. “You know, you never told me why you pulled his papers.”
Mav lets out a heavy sigh. Like it’s too much to get into for him right now. “Kid…”
“Don’t worry, you don’t have to tell me,” you cut him off. “I know you, and I know how much you love him, so I don’t have to ask to know that there was a pretty damn good reason.” You watch as the relief washes over his face. But while you don’t want to push the man to tell you why he pulled Bradley’s papers, you do want him to see that you understand. And that you’re here. “You know, I lost him for a while there, too, Mav. And it felt like a part of me was missing.”
Your voice breaks when you think about the years you went without Bradley in your life. “I have never missed someone so much in my entire life. I still miss him, even though we ‘talk.’” You walk closer to Mav, and rest a hand on his shoulder. You make sure he’s looking at you before you continue, “This is our chance to get him back in our lives. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not gonna make the mistake of wasting it. Are you?”
“I don’t know where I would even start to fix it.” You have never seen the man look so hopeless. It’s honestly jarring. Growing up, Mav seemed invisible. Like a superhero. Now that you’re older, you’re able to realize he’s just like every other human being.
“Just talk to him,” you practically beg. “Let him know you love him. Just give him something that he could use to forgive you.” While you haven’t talked to Bradley like you once did, you do still know the man. And you know how much Bradley used to look up to Mav. There isn’t a doubt in your mind that Bradley would give him a chance if the two would just talk . But he’s also too stubborn to be the one to start the conversation.
He nods hesitantly. “I… I’ll try.” You sigh in disappointment, but you know that’s the best you will get from Mav. So, instead of pushing him any further, you pull him into a hug. It’s nice to be back in the arms that once made you feel like you were protected from anything and everything. You’ve missed the familiarity of it. It’s been far too long since the last time you’ve felt it.
“You know, Penny is going to kill you if you don’t get her that money.”
He wetly chuckles. He pulls away and if you see a shine in his eyes, you don’t call him out on it. “Tell her I’ll get it to her tomorrow.” He holds your chin between his thumb and pointer finger. “Thanks, kiddo.”
“Anytime, old man.” If he sees a shine in your eyes, he doesn’t call you out on it. At the mention of tomorrow, you’re reminded of the reason why he’s here. Why they’re all here. “Just promise me they’ll get back home safe.”
Mav raises his eyebrows. “‘They?’”
You roll your eyes and shove him away when he starts to laugh. You know better than to let something like that slip with Mav.
Maverick gives you another hug before he walks back to his bike. You watch him pull out of the parking lot and wave goodbye before heading back inside. You make it back just in time to hear the ending notes of “Great Balls of Fire” and the cheer of the crowd. You cheer along with them, and you watch as Bradley turns his head as if he’s searching for something. He seems to have found it when he spots you and gives you a bright smile.
You’re suddenly hit with the certainty that you’re going to make good on that chance, starting tonight.