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“Remind me why we decided to come to this?” Ron glanced over at Sam, who just shrugged and downed the glass of wine in his hand.
“Because we wanted to see Mav’s special detachment as they get a special commendation of service, and Ice would’ve killed us if we missed it?” Marcus replied.
“Oh yeah,” Slider grimaced sipping his own wine as the group of former pilots made polite smiles from the corner of the military function as members of the admiralty and officer’s ranks made their rounds. Merlin snorted, and quickly snagged another glass from a passing waiter, before finally spying Maverick and Iceman as they entered the room.
“You think Ice’ll ever convince Mav to wear lifts or something? I’ll never get over how damn short he is.” Wolfman spotted the couple too, subtly waving to catch their attention.
“Fat chance. Ice likes that Mav’s shorter than him. And Mav doesn’t really care anymore. He said something once about his height pissing off some admiral one time who couldn’t believe anyone had that much audacity in such a short stature.” Slider rolled his eyes, and Chipper cracked up laughing, because that really was something Maverick would say.
“You can tell Rooster’s related to Goose though, standing next to Mav like that.” Hollywood spoke up, gesturing to the gaggle of Lieutenants filing into the room, specifically pointing out Bradley, who towered above his former SO.
“Christ, I forgot how tall Goose was compared to Mav,” Bill Cortell entered the conversation, laughing under his breath. “I remember taking a picture of the two of them one time, and Mav only came up to his nose. Goose used to use Mav as an armrest because of the height difference.”
“Yeah, Goose was the only one Mav let do that to him. I tried it once, he punched me in the stomach.” Wolfman rubbed the spot on his abdomen where Pete had struck him as if reliving the pain from an event long past.
“All things considered, those kids are far better behaved than we were. I half expected them to act like feral cats, like Mav in his heyday.” Rick pointed out, directing the whole group’s attention towards the group of Lieutenants lining up to prepare for the ceremony.
“That’s because the girl has ‘em scared straight.” Wolfman smirked, and Ron thrust his fist out to catch the man in the stomach in the same general area that had just been previously discussed.
“A, dumbass, there’s two girls. B, don’t say that shit, it’s sexist, and C, Bradley’s gay so you can’t say that anymore anyways.”
“C’mon, does everything have to be offensive these days? It’s just a goddamn comment!” Leo wheezed, guarding his stomach with his hands.
“Here’s a comment for you; if you kept your mouth shut, people wouldn’t have the urge to hit you.” Chipper snarked, before totally altering his body language. “Hey Ice!”
Everyone straightened up as Tom joined the group with a professional grin on his face. “Well isn’t this quite the reunion, huh?”
“Yeah, I can’t remember the last time we were all in the same room together,” Cougar offered his hand out for Ice to shake. “Sorry I missed the wedding by the way. Christine had her baby the day after you guys tied the knot.”
“It’s all good, Mav got a kick out of the vapor message by the way.”
“I bet you two got an earful from the Secret Service though.” Bill winced as Marcus reminded everyone of the VIP who had made it to the wedding.
“Eh, it wasn’t that bad. Anyways, ceremony’s gonna start in a minute, so you guys should probably find your seats.” Ice advised, glancing back at Maverick, who was casually speaking with one of the other Admirals in charge of the service.
“Sir yes sir,” Rick teased the retired Admiral, who just rolled his eyes in turn.
“Before we do, I gotta say, Ice, Mav actually seems great with those kids.” Sam asked, giving the whole group pause, as they all watched Mav finish up his conversation, and strike up a pep talk with the assembled Lieutenants, who were all starting to glance around nervously.
“Oh, definitely,” Ice responded with a fond expression, eyes locked on his husband. “He was tough on them at first, but he’d do anything for those kids now.”
“What do you mean tough on them? It’s Mav! He probably took those kids and taught them all how fuck around without the finding out!” Rick asked, a confused look on his face.
“I swear, I will find whichever one of your grandkids taught you that phrase and scare them shitless,” Marcus scowled, glaring at Hollywood. “But you’re not wrong. Mav’s not exactly the teaching type, isn’t that why he was kicked out of teaching at TOP GUN?”
“He was kicked out because he didn’t stick to the curriculum for TOP GUN,” Ice corrected. “He was unconventional, and he challenged his students, which we all know, the Navy doesn’t like.”
“No shit.” Sam choked out, trying to hide a smile.
“But his methods damn well worked.” Ice finished up, side-eyeing Merlin. “Now, sit down, shut up, watch the ceremony, and come meet them after.”
Following the ceremony, Maverick introduced the pilots to admiral after admiral, watching the cocky grin on Mav’s face as many of the senior officers shoved down the deep resentment in favor of putting on airs of courtesy to respect the rank. Each of them were subjected to Maverick’s prideful praises of the young aviators to the point of boasting, until finally he’d made the full rounds towards the class of ’86.
“And I suppose you better meet these guys.” Maverick muttered, rolling his eyes cheekily, which was met with a reproachful sigh from Ice.
“You’re the pilots from Mav’s class at TOP GUN.” One of the pilots observed, which had most of the older airmen blinking in surprise.
“How the hell did you know that, Bagman?” The woman glanced at the taller pilot.
“Hangman,” Jake corrected, giving her a mildly irritated look. “And I know because I did my research.”
“He recognizes them from the class picture of the group that was conveniently sat in the briefing room back at TOP GUN.” One of the other pilots filled in.
“Thank you Fanboy.” The woman emphasized the helpful pilot’s callsign, before turning back to the older group of pilots.
“Natasha Trace, callsign Phoenix.”
“You’re the one they’re scared of,” Wolfman grinned at her, prompting the rest of his cohorts to roll their eyes, but Phoenix just grinned back.
“Yes sir.”
“Leonard Wolfe, formerly callsign Wolfman.” Wolfman extended his hand out to her, which Natasha shook.
“As for the rest of them, that’s Bill Cortell, aka Cougar,” Maverick started gesturing to each of his former classmates. “Sam Wells, aka Merlin, Slider, whom you all might remember from the wedding reception, Rick Neven, aka Hollywood, Charles Piper, aka Chipper, and Marcus Williams, aka Sundown.”
Each of the senior pilots nodded at the group before Maverick moved on to introducing the pilots. “And as for this lot, Jake Seresin, callsign Hangman, Natasha Trace, Bob Floyd, callsign Bob, Reuben Fitch, callsign Payback, and Mickey Garcia, callsign Fanboy. And you all already know Bradley.” Maverick finished, gesturing at Rooster who waved awkwardly.
“So you all flew with Rooster’s dad too?” Fanboy asked, giving everyone pause for a moment.
“Yeah, we…we did.” Hollywood said quietly, glancing at Rooster with a nervous expression.
“Do you know how he put up with Mav?” Payback asked, breaking through the tense air, ignoring Maverick’s affronted expression.
“Oh, that was easy,” Sundown caught on. “Goose put up with Mav’s drama because the man practically lived for it. Only person who got more kicks out of Mav causing trouble than Mav.”
“That sounds like Coyote, putting up with your crap.” Payback teased, elbowing Hangman.
“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve got a clone there, Mav?” Bill picked up on the jib.
“I suppose out of all of them, Hangman is the most like Maverick. Cocky, self-serving, issues with authority, decent pilots…” Ice mused. Maverick glared at his husband’s assessment and Hangman spluttered.
“Decent?”
“So who does that make Rooster then?” Natasha asked.
“Ice.” Maverick answered, before his eyes widened upon realizing he’d said that out loud. Rooster and Hangman exchanged startled looks, before blushing and looking away from each other, not even aware of how unsubtle they were.
“Oh? You draw many comparisons between me and Bradley do you?” Ice challenged, the tone in his voice inviting Maverick to say the wrong thing.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Mav smirked. “But I’d trust you both to have my back in the air any day. The two of you don’t seem that different to me.”
“Mav, that is the sappiest shit I’ve ever heard you say.” Phoenix observed, sending the group of older pilots into fits of giggles or muffled sniggers. Maverick just shrugged unashamedly.
“It’s true.”
“I have’ta ask, what was Maverick like back in the day?” Bob asked, redirecting the conversation.
“A pain in the ass.” Marcus deadpanned, sending the younger aviators into fits of giggles this time.
“Yeah, he didn’t change much.” Rooster commented, smirking at Maverick.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Maverick announced, and Ice rolled his eyes.
“Like your ego needs any more of those.”
“My ego? If anything, I’m not the one who constantly tries to get me to say you’re the better pilot.”
“It’s true.” Ice challenged.
“Eh.” Chipper shrugged, glancing over at Maverick. Everyone turned to stare at him in shock. It was an unspoken rule amongst the older pilots that no one weighed their two cents on the decades-long disagreement between Ice and Maverick on who the better pilot was…unless they wanted to hear the other person cite all the aerial feats they’d done to convince said person otherwise.
“You got something to say there Chipper?” Slider warned.
“I’m just saying…Mav’s technically an ace now. I don’t think anyone can really dispute this anymore.” Chipper defended himself, quickly snagging another glass of wine from a passing waiter.
No one said anything, as eyes danced back and forth between Maverick and Ice. Ice’s face was stone cold and calculating, but Maverick’s face was lit up with the biggest, most shit-eating grin anyone had ever seen from the pilot.
“Now you’ve done it Piper,” Marcus lamented, downing his glass of wine in one gulp. “You’ve officially inflated Maverick’s ego to the point of unbearability.”
“You mean it wasn’t already?” A new voice cut into the conversation and everyone turned to see Admiral Cain approaching the group.
“Admiral Cain.” Maverick greeted, his face going as stone-cold as his husband’s. “Nice to see you again.”
“Maverick.” Cain tilted his head, mimicking a signal of respect, but he didn’t clear the outright scowl from his face.
“Admiral Chester Cain, you run that new promising drone program,” Bob recognized the newcomer, and Cain nodded, acknowledging the recognition.
“I have to confess, Maverick, I didn’t expect to see you wearing the uniform again, after the last time I saw you.” Cain mentioned, and silently the hackles of younger and older pilots alike were raised. Maverick internally bristled, and Ice shifted closer to his husband, sensing the animosity between the two Admirals.
“Admiral Cain was it? Callsign Hammer?” Slider asked, feigning nonchalance.
“Yes,” Cain responded, clearly ignorant of the rising tension amongst the group.
“So, Hammer…what did Maverick do to piss you off?”
“I screwed over his plans of acquiring new funding for his drone program.” Maverick admitted, not even looking ashamed at his actions.
“Oh was this the Darkstar project funding?” Ice asked, already fully aware of the history between the two.
“Uh, what’s Darkstar?” Fanboy asked.
“Classified.” Multiple people responded to that question in a way that was almost reminiscent of a cliché, had it not been for the joyful candor coming particularly out of Maverick’s mouth, as if he were delightfully amused by the situation.
“It’s an experimental manned hypersonic stealth jet that’s been running test flights out of China Lake in the Mojave.” Bob answered, garnering several surprised looks.
“You are not supposed to know that,” Ice said carefully, looking at Bob with a stern look.
“Mav’s not supposed to crash it,” Bob retorted, triggering a round of snorts from the assembled aviators.
“You crashed a classified hypersonic jet?” Slider asked Maverick.
“Legally speaking, I can’t answer that.” Maverick replied, but the glint in his eye said everything they wanted to know.
“And yet one of your pilots seems to know all about it,” Cain accused, reminding everyone of the intense dislike they felt for the man. “So perhaps your ability to retain sensitive information should be questioned, Maverick.”
“Actually, I’m not a pilot…” Bob’s protests fell on deaf ears, as Hollywood and Wolfman squared up, towering over Cain.
“And perhaps your mixed feelings about Maverick have affected your judgment Admiral, because clearly you’re missing the two stars extra Mitchell has on his collar compared to yours.” Rick challenged. The younger pilots were silent, eyes dancing between the two older men as they faced each other down.
Bob couldn’t help but realize for a moment, in that moment, that despite being the ranking officer of the group, Maverick wasn’t even doing anything to stop Cain’s snide attacks. He didn’t even have to. His friends had his back, in the same way Maverick had had theirs, on the day of that mission and ever since. Hangman and Phoenix had similar thoughts as they exchanged brief glances before glaring at the Hammer, and moved themselves ever so subtly between Maverick and Cain in the same way Hollywood and Wolfman had.
Cain paused.
Whether it finally occurred to him in that moment the sheer weight of power Maverick actually had, or the amount of vitriol being fired his way from older and younger pilots alike that clued Cain in on how much trouble he was causing for himself, the dawning of awareness on his face was a satisfying moment for everyone who could see it.
Without saying another word, Cain spun on his heels and marched off, whether to complain or to fume privately. Either way, Maverick didn’t care. Instead, all he could do was laugh.
The kids looked at Maverick like he had lost his mind, not used to seeing the carefree jovial nature of their commanding officer erupt in such a manner, but the older pilots just joined in on the laughter. None of them cared as glances of confusion and mild disgust were fired their way, the amusement becoming a contagion as even Phoenix and Rooster joined in.
“That, plus marrying you, made the whole promotion worth it,” Mav wheezed, bumping into Ice’s shoulder. Ice snorted, rolling his eyes.
“I’m glad I made the list.”
“Of course you did,” Maverick smirked, the grin on his face fading into a seductive smirk, as his fingers wrapped around the belt on Ice’s uniform. He pulled Ice in, dragging him into a deep kiss, before pulling away softly. “You’re my wingman.”
And then Maverick glanced over at the group, all of who were still giggling away, a soft smile on his face. “And so are they.”