this idea came to me randomly, don't know why but I thought itd be fun to explore lmaooo
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Jake "Hangman" Seresin is always walking around with a toothpick in his mouth. If he's not actively eating or drinking, he's absentmindedly chewing on or fidgeting with a toothpick.
Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw notices as much when they're deployed together at North Island for the Dagger special detachment. Leaving the TOPGUN briefing room to go out on a hop, on the tarmac after landing, at the Hard Deck after a long day-- there it is, the toothpick, always in his mouth.
One day, about a week into the detachment, Bradley invites Nat to his place to catch up over dinner. He decides to make those little slider sandwiches with the toothpicks through the middle since they're low-effort and delicious.
He realizes, right before he heads home for the day, that he's nearly out of toothpicks. He decides to stop at the on-base commissary to get more, and when he reaches the aisle with the toothpicks, he sees Jake Seresin himself putting a box of them in his basket.
He makes eye contact with Bradley and smirks at him, and as Bradley goes to take his own box of toothpicks, he realizes Jake took the last one. A lot of people must have needed toothpicks today.
By the time Bradley turns around, Jake is gone.
Half of Bradley's sandwiches are sentenced to having no structural integrity. It's a tragedy, really.
For the remainder of the mission training, Bradley swears Jake is purposefully chewing on toothpicks more often, just to rub it in his face. Sometimes he even has two in his mouth at a time, and he makes sure to get in Bradley's face as often as possible when that happens, just so he sees the toothpicks he barely missed.
At some point, Bradley starts to want to just pluck that toothpick out of Jake's mouth and chuck it away. He can't stand Jake flaunting the toothpicks at him all the time. That desire gets stronger over time, and somehow Bradley doesn't realize that that's not normal.
Their "rivalry" grows into full-blown aggressive flirting as the mission approaches, and naturally, Bradley and Jake are the only two people who are oblivious to the others' feelings (and, honestly, their own).
They both realize it on the carrier returning from the mission-- Jake was a little too distraught when Bradley's plane went down, and Bradley was a little too happy that it was Jake, rather than anyone else, that came and shot down the Russian jet and saved him and Mav.
A few days after they get back, once Bradley's been released from medical observation, he's standing out behind the Hard Deck, leaning against the porch railing, watching the moon rise over the San Diego Bay.
He hears the door open and gently shut behind him, and someone leans against the railing beside him. He doesn't even need to look-- he knows by the characteristic dramatic sigh and the smell of that cologne that it's Jake.
And when they finally meet each other's eyes, nothing needs to be said. They both finally know, and as Bradley puts one hand on Jake's waist and Jake loops his arms around Bradley's neck, he finally gets the chance to pluck that stupid toothpick from Jake's mouth and toss it into the sand.
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happy pride everyone!!! yay for the gayest military propaganda movies in existence
