king of the hill

“It’s really not your decision to make, I told you already” came back the annoyed response. Same results, it seems.

“I’m sure you could just talk to them, or Maverick, he’d do you a favor, you saved his life!”

“Well, first of all, he saved mine as well, so he owes me nothing, and second, no, this is not something that either of us gets to decide. I’ll be fine on my own, I don’t need you to babysit me.”

“You’re not listening to me!” Hangman was getting impatient, now nearly shouting. Yes, he was angry, for not being paid attention to, yes, he considered himself right and was not going to let go, and yes, he was ready to argue for an eternity if needed.

Because yes, he loved Rooster. Above anything else. And he was not going to let the other go on a mission, alone, without him, so far away. It’s not that he didn’t trust him, of course he did, Rooster was a great pilot, careful and considerate, and his reaction time and bravery improved in the past year, but he could never forgive himself if Rooster - Bradley, his Bradley - would have gotten hurt somehow.  

“And you’re not listening to me, Jake!” Bradley was starting to lose it as well. Their fights were usually heated, despite their relationship (or maybe because of it), but they haven’t had one like this in quite a while, marching down the hallways, cursing and shouting at eachother. “I can take care of myself, I’ll be alright, you can let me live my life and make decisions alone sometimes. You can let go now.” Bradley stopped next to an office door and turned back to Jake, crossing his arms and looking expectingly at the man.

Jake stopped close to him, not expecting the sudden halt, and opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, opened it again, thought for a second, and changed his mind.

No. I can not.

“I’ve already lost you once,” he started quietly. He thought back to the seconds and minutes and maybe hours, fuck if he can recall, when he thought Bradley died trying to pick up Maverick. Crashing his plane somewhere in the forest, surrounded by the enemy, basically defenseless. How he was told not to act up and go rescue him, to stay put because they won’t lose any more soldiers. The minutes passed and Rooster’s signal was off, no sign of life anywhere. There’s no way he’s ever going through that horrible anticipation once more. “I’m not risking it again.”

Oh, thought Bradley. Yeah, thinking back, this would have been his first mission without his partner since that last, well, incident. They’ve been flying together every single time, even on trainings, not separated for more than a few minutes. Oh.

“Listen,” he said softly, after recovering from his surprise. “This is gonna be a very low-risk operation. I’m most likely not even gonna engage. Just, you know, cover. In case something happens. But nothing will.” He hoped this was enough to calm his partner, assuring him that there’s little to no chance of him even fighting, let alone getting hurt.

Jake took a moment to think. A short one, but at least he considered it. “But what if something does. And I’m not there. And you’re an idiot and get yourself killed.” He stared at the floor, trying to avoid having to look up.

Bradley reached out and touched his left shoulder, making the other look deep in his eyes. “I won’t. I promise. I’ll stay back. There’ll be like three other planes around, you can trust me. I’ll take care.”

Jake’s eyes softened a little and he sighed. Of course he knew he can’t always be there, this is not a profession where you can just do that, but he tried to push this moment as far into the future as possible. He believed Bradley. He always did.

“Yeah,” Jake sighed, “yeah. Okay.” He gave the smallest smile ever, still filled with worry, but also with care, so much that even Bradley couldn’t miss it, even though he was not the best at reading emotions sometimes.

“I’ll call you before the mission. And I’ll call you as soon as I land. I’ll be back in no time, I promise. Just wait for me.”

“That was rather cheesy, Rooster, I’ll have to admit” Jake said, with shine in his eyes and a smile on his lips, maybe even a smirk. Bradley gave a small laugh and slid his hand down from the other’s shoulder to his arm to his wrist, putting his other hand on the man’s neck and pulled him in a soft kiss. It wasn’t long or aggressive like many of their others, it was slow and comforting and calm.

Bradley was the first to pull away, and after a few seconds and smiles he said “alright, gotta talk to Cyclone. Grab some food after?”, and Jake found this weirdly soothing, so he returned a smile and nodded, waiting for Rooster to walk into the office before leaving to catch up to the other pilots and brush off all their questions about their small quarrel.