If Buying Isn’t Owning, Piracy Isn’t Stealing.

Maverick: Hey love, made anyone cry today?

Iceman: Sadly, no. But it’s only 13:30.

Maverick: You're off your game. I expect at least one junior officer trembling by now

Iceman: I gave a look to someone and he dropped his clipboard. Does that count?

Maverick: Barely. I’ve seen you make admirals question their entire careers with one eyebrow raise

Iceman: I’m saving my strength for the 15:00 meeting. Admiral Cain keeps calling me “Sir” like he’s not terrified

Slider: *From across the room* He’s definitely terrified, I saw him rehearse his briefing in the mirror. Twice.

Male College Student: so I think my roommate’s older brother is, like, hitting on me.

Female College Student: really??

Male Student: yeah, well…like, he’s like helping us out with rent and stuff? And he, like, wants to hang out a lot…like, even with just me, like, Roommate isn’t even there…and then he bought Roommate’s books for next semester, except he asked if I wanted to come to the bookstore, and then he bought my books. Like, I didn’t let him buy all of them ‘cause I felt weird. But then he bought me dinner. So, like…

Female Student: (half-joking) is he hot?

Male Student: uhhh…I guess? Yeah. Maybe. I mean, I dunno.

Female Student: wait, though, is this like a creepy thing? Is he creepy?

Male Student: no! No, dude, he’s not like–like he’s actually a pretty cool guy, like he’s paying for Roommate to go to college and helping us out, and he’s all smart, like he’s a lawyer and shit, and he’s, like, chill, y'know, and–

Female Student: oh my god you like, LIKE him.

Male Student: (loudly enough that heads turn) I’M NOT GAY.

Female Student: you totally like him!

Male Student: BUT I’M NOT GAY.

Female Student: you’re, like, gay FOR HIM.

Male Student: (stops walking) BUT–FUCK.

Female Student: you could, like, be dating a lawyer!

…at which point, because they’d stopped walking, I had to maneuver around them and pretend I’d not been eavesdropping, and find my car.

We may never know the outcome, but I like to think that Sudden Epiphany College Student and Roommate’s Hot Lawyer Older Brother are now happily dating. (I also wonder what Roommate thinks of this–as a friend I imagine he is pleased–and whether he was secretly hoping for this outcome.)

1 - I teach at a college in Southern California, in Orange County. Yes, the O.C. Which perhaps helps set the scene, and;

2 - neither of them had been in my class, I just happened to be walking behind them at the right time;

3 - Female Student was tiny, adorable, delighted, and, best guess, about thirty seconds from pulling out a phone and calling Roommate’s Hot Lawyer Brother just to make sure these two idiots got their act together;

Pete watched as his husband had started to fade. Slowed breaths, subtle movements. He held Tom tightly as the sun began to set on the horizon.

“Are you scared?” He whispered softly. Tom shook his head slowly.

“I am at peace in your arms, Pete.”

Pete felt his throat tighten. He continued to hold on as if clinging to Ice would keep his soul tethered to his body. By the early morning hours, Tom’s chest had stopped rising and falling. He was gone.

Wet trails stained Pete’s face for hours after his husband’s last breath. He cried in pain, in loss, in grief. How was he supposed to do this without his wingman? The love of his life? The one who grounded him and made him feel safe, and whole.

Morning came quickly. The sun rising over the horizon just as it fell hours ago. Pete looked down at Tom. His body still warm from being clung to all night long. “Take me with you,” Pete whispered, brokenly.

He knew that Ice would want him to live on. To be there for everyone, especially Baby Goose. But… Pete just couldn’t. He stared at his husband with a type of brokenness that couldn’t be fixed. The pain started slow but gradually increased.

He grasped at his chest.

Too tight.

Too painful.

His heart snapped. Pete didn’t fight it. He was at peace.

Later that morning, paramedics found the two men snuggled together. They knew Tom passed away from his sickness, but Pete? His death was caused by Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy. Broken Heart Syndrome. A mirror to a heart attack.

Slider: “at IKEA — does this shelf work in the den.”

*sends pic*

Ice: “I don’t know, where’s Mav?”

Slider: “got it.”

*sends picture of shelf and Mav looking at it, turned away from the camera, because he doesn’t know*

Fast forward to when Mav and Ice are dating. One night at the bar, the theme is Hawaii and a Hula song starts playing. Mav, drunk as fudge, starts to Hula dance.

Ice is just staring with a beer in hand, eyes wide behind his aviators. He’s captivated by how smooth and perfect Mav is moving with the music. Everyone else is just having a BLAST and laughing and trying to copy Mav.

The next morning, Mav wakes up with a massive hangover and asks Ice what happened. And all Ice can manage to say is that he fell in love further with Mav.

Mav is so confused but he doesn’t find out what he did until Slider tells him that afternoon. He was morbidly embarrassed but Ice tells him not to be and that it was gorgeous and sexy.

So now on rare occasions, Mav will Hula dance for Ice in their little home because he can be is fullest truest self with his boyfriend.

…

Anyone…?

I love how at every given opportunity Michael's like "excuse me I just want to talk more about Nacho, he's honorable, he loves his father, he is Romantic, he's Orpheus descending into the underworld for love, he is the Bearer of the Curse, he is the serpent in the grass and he wears the symbol of his fear on his ear, there is a quiet nobility about him, he is a frightened cat, he's an alligator floating motionlessly in the water, he is motivated by love, he could have had a mundane life with a loving family, he has Mother Issues, he is a prince among thieves".

When actually they know Mav love them all equally

They fight for Ice though.

“I’m his literal child.”

Mav knows how to fix it himself—he's a grown ass man, but it’s never quite Kazansky-approved (also he secretly messes it up bc he likes having Ice up and close whenever possible.)

So... when it’s finally their wedding day, Ice literally stops the officiant mid-ceremony to adjust Mav’s tie.

Mav grins, cheeky as ever, and goes, “Thanks, baby,” before kissing him. It's quick, chaste, automatic. It’s how he always says thank you to his partner. Only… he wasn’t supposed to kiss Ice yet. That part’s at the end. Ice sees him panic, so he just kisses him back to even the score.

Hollywood, officiating, splutters and fumbles his notes bc that's not suppose to happen yet!

Everyone in the reception laughs but Slider, Ice's best man and the one that put the whole shit together is two seconds from strangling Mav and Wood.