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And then on the uranium mission, when he got called back to topgun he finally thought he was good enough for something. But even there he came up short, ending up being landed with the title of dagger spare.

He wasn’t enough to be anything other than the spare.

The first person to clock him was Ice after maverick dragged him to north island for a day. Ice noticed because he’d seen it before, in himself and in Maverick.

Maverick noticed not long after. Called him aside one day to talk. Told him about his own experiences of being a spare, and how sometimes that was the most important role. How he chose hangman as the spare because he knew that if it was needed, he’d move heaven and Earth to get there in time, even if it meant breaking a few rules along the way. Not because he wasn’t good enough.

BUT MAKE IT THIS:

John MacTavish who went to the military to escape feeling like he was trapped by overbearing parents, who doesn’t even like women but doesn’t have the heart to tell his parents that. Especially since they’re catholic.

Cue a mission that leads to Soap and Ghost accidentally trespassing on the MacTavish family farm, without even realising it after they were given incorrect coordinates to their safe house, until they bump into said family taking a stroll around their property.

They’re decked out in full gear, covered with cuts and scrapes and blood from their victims and it causes Mrs MacTavish to faint.

They then spend a few days there while transport gets sorted out and the MacTavishes slowly come to realise that Soap doesn’t need coddling, that he’s quite capable of taking care of himself and that he’s definitely in love with the other scary bloke that follows him around like a lost puppy.

And of course Grandma MacTavish is the first one to clock all of this because she is a #icon.

It was always sider and gooses job to make sure ice had fun and did stuff other than study during the academy

Then when they joined the fleet properly and went their separate ways it became sliders job to make sure ice finished work at a humane hour and that he wouldn’t bring it home.

Then there was a gap between ice being grounded and him and slider following their own paths and ice and maverick getting their shit together that ice would just keep working continuously. Often forgetting to stop. He never got enough sleep and was running on coffee and spite. Bonus points if he goes through something hard during this time period.

Then Mav and him get their shit together and it becomes Mavs job to make sure ice stops and relaxes. He got a few tips from slider after receiving the shovel talk and others he worked out by himself.

Whenever he went on a longish deployment or if ice had to travel for a conference he tried to call whenever he could and check in, knowing without it ice would work the hours away to try and suppress his worry (if it was a deployment) deal with stress (if it was a conference)