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Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin never feels nervous. No, negative, not in a million years. So when he stands out of the office of Admiral Kazansky - the COMPACFLT - in his best suit, his forehead sweaty, he regards his crazy heartbeat as…positively wound up, yeah.
He takes a deep breath and pushes the door open.
“Sir, Admiral Kazansky, I…” He peeks at his palm and finds that the note he wrote in ballpoint there has been blurred by his sweat. Damn. “I want to ask…”
“What, Lieutenant Seresin?”
He didn’t notice that the admiral had his laptop open until now.
“Oh, are you in a meeting? I am so sorry, sir, I will…”
The admiral waves his hand and types something on the laptop. “It’s OK, Lieutenant. Please continue, I believe you are asking me something?”
Jake tries his best to square his shoulders under Kazansky’s sharp gaze. “I want to ask for your permission to date Rooster.”
The admiral’s eyes go wide and he looks very amused. He glances at the laptop, the corner of his mouth twitching, like he is trying to suppress laughter.
“Rooster as in…?”
“Lieutenant Bradshaw, sir. Bradley Bradshaw.”
“And you are asking me, because…?”
“Because Mav is not here and you are also his dad. No, no, I mean…” Jake winces. This is definitely not what he has imagined. “Because I like him so much and I want to give him the best. And I want to make our first date as memorable as possible. I just want him to be happy and I have planned this for one week now but I think I have messed it up because you are laughing at me right now…”
“You have planned this for one week?”
Rooster’s voice. And Jake is one hundred percent positive that he is having a heart attack now.
“Aww, this kid is so romantic. I am literally crying now.”
Mav’s voice. Can a person have a heart attack two times in ten seconds?
Kazansky turns his laptop around, and Jake sees two faces on the screen. Three, actually, if his own miserable one is included.
“It’s our family video chat time, kid.”
“Bad luck, Lieutenant.”
“I won’t say it’s bad luck, Ice.” Rooster is staring at him (although it’s kind of hard to tell where he is staring at from the video), his eyes soft. “We can see it as a practice. This idiot will need to ask for your permission to marry me in the future anyway.”
“Hey, Rooster, watch your mouth as I am right here… Wait, what?”