Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Come on Kazansky! You can’t just stand there and be boring the whole time, you’re bumming me out man!”

Ice just shook his head and smiled. He would participate in the game, if he could. But he couldn’t, because he was looking at an impressive lineup of wives with his nowhere to be seen.

Because Mav was his “wife” and none of his coworkers had made the connection quite yet.

The game was for each husband to have a turn being blindfolded and going down the line of women to correctly select his wife. Should he fail, the couch would certainly be waiting.

Ice chuckled the more he heard people bickering about him playing the game. He’d sort of gotten himself into this situation by talking about Mav as if the other man was his wife, because so many of his coworkers had made the assumption, and it was hilarious.

“What’s it like being settled down man? She must be something special.”

“She is.”

“Like how?”

“I don’t know. She’s always smiling, pretty green eyes, this thick, dark hair. Hates helping me around the house though.”

And then everyone would chuckle and nod, as if this was just some normal wife Ice was talking about, not Pete Mitchell.

He felt the blindfold being put around his eyes.

“Come on guys, I can’t play, she’s not in the line.”

“Not possible, this is all the wives.”

“I’m sorry to hear you say that Kazansky, its gonna be hard to find her if you can’t recognize her with your eyes open!”

Ice sighed, resigning himself to quickly going down the line and getting it over with. He couldn’t select his spouse if his spouse wasn’t in line.

Mav was on his way back to Ice after corn hole with Merlin. He saw his husband with a blindfold over his eyes, faced with the challenge of a line of women.

Ah, the find your wife game.

Mav chuckled, realizing that Ice must have messed with people the way he himself did. It was just too much fun to talk about his tall, blond wife who was so smart and good at cooking that he loved unconditionally.

He pinched his lips into a mischievous smile.

He tapped one of the women in line on the shoulder and scooted in next to her. The other wives were snickering and laughing, the husbands waiting to play were howling with laughter.

Ice’s brow was furrowed, unsure why people were laughing. But he continued his efficient brush past each woman in line.

He had a list he was checking from. He wasn’t really sure why, Mav was somewhere else, he didn’t even need to think about it, yet he was.

He would gently set his palms against their shoulders, feeling how slim they were. Some had locks of long hair on them, others had purse straps or bra straps. None of them were heavily muscled from a lifetime of taming thousand ton jets like Pete’s.

None of the women smelled like a pilot. They smelled like perfume and hairspray, instead of the jet fuel and machine oil scent that plagued all of them, Mav most of all.

He heard the giggling from his coworkers start up again.

He didn’t have time to think about it before his palms were settling on firm shoulders. He stopped short, confused as to why these shoulders felt like the ones he’s been smoothing the uniform over and working the knots out of for a small eternity.

The person in front of him smelled like a pilot but he also smelled like Mav’s cologne. Well, it could still be one of his coworkers messing with him, Mav had gotten the cologne at the BX and it wasn’t unlikely that someone else owned the same one.

He slid his right hand down the other’s left, searching for the small digital watch Mav wore. When he found it, he pressed a button to hear the beeping sound it made. It checked out, this could be his husband.

He felt the ghost of a laugh in the person’s shoulders, felt the exhale against his chin right where Mav’s mouth was when they stood face to face.

But he refused to make a fool out of himself, so he doubled his efforts, ignoring the roaring laughter at what was surely a prank on him.

He brought his left hand to cup the back of the other’s head. He tried not to smile at the familiar baby hairs that fringed “Mav’s” regulation hair cut.
He had one more test before he could be sure.
His hands moved on muscle memory, he had no need to guide them across this person’s body because he knew exactly where to go and what to do.

He brought the curled index finger of his right hand to “Mav’s” prominent nose and traced the knuckle down the familiar ridge, smiling when his husband scrunched his face at the tickle, just like he did every time Ice did this.

It was him, somehow. Ice leaned in and kissed him, smiling at the way Pete was already wearing that tell-tale smirk and trying to kiss him at the same time.

Some people were laughing, others seemed confused, a few came over and introduced themselves to Mav after Ice had taken the blindfold off.

“Dude, why the hell did you tell us you had a wife? This is a husband. Not even, that is a fighter pilot.”

“Well you all assumed I had a wife when I mentioned being married and I thought it was really funny, he does the same thing to me all the time.”

Mav just grinned and squeezed Ice’s ass from where he was tucked under his husbands arm.

Chapter Text

A life time later, Ice and Mav stand back and watch themselves do it all over again.

Except this time, the wives find the husbands.

Bradley was stuck in line with all the other guys in his unit, playing the funny party game but not really loving it because Jake wasn’t in line so it was pointless for him to be here aside from adding confusion.

He was getting tired of standing here aimlessly, but every time he tried to leave people would complain.

He perked up when he saw Phoenix dragging Jake over to the line of wives. Bob’s hand was tucked in her’s before she swatted his ass and sent him to get in line next to Bradley. Bradley gave him a nod of solidarity, but didn’t speak so the game was still a little challenging.

They shuffled around after every turn to keep it confusing so he and Bob separated before Phoenix had her turn. She found her husband way too quickly, between the glasses and the way they both started laughing.

Bradley was excited when Jake made it to the front of the line. A lot of the other guys in line were laughing, trying not to ruin it as their friend passed them by. Jake had his hand set at the height of Bradley’s shoulder and would only stop for the guys who were of a similar height.

When Jake finally got to him, he smiled. The hand hit his shoulder at just the perfect height.

His boyfriend brought the hand to cup his left cheek, feeling the scars there and letting his thumb graze Bradley’s mustache. The blond was smiling wider as he went to investigate the curliness of Bradley’s hair.

He was just being cheeky now, drawing it out for laughs. Bradley smiled fondly at him until he took two handfuls of Bradley’s ass and yanked him closer.

Bradley pulled the blindfold off of him and tried to frown but ended up smiling anyway as Jake pouted and begged for a kiss.

He got one, Bradley could never deny him that.

As he left the line, a couple of young guys corralled Mav in to take his place. Bradley laughed and dragged Jake over a couple feet to watch.

“What are we doin’?”

“Just watch, this is kinda cute.”

Mav had that glimmer in his eye, Bradley traced it in the air with his finger so Jake could see how Mav was giving heart eyes to none other than Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, who was shaking his head with the same look on his face. Jake squinted, watching the silent conversation.

The Captain was making sad eyes at Admiral Kazansky, and the Admiral was smiling and shaking his head, mouthing the word ‘no.’

“Are they in love or something?” He asked Bradley, incredulous.

“Yeah, they’ve been married for as long as I can remember.”

Jake didn’t know what to think, he wasn’t shocked, they seemed perfect for each other actually. He just couldn’t believe he never knew.

Mav stayed in for a few rounds, smiling politely as women and men went past him in search of their pilot husbands. He had himself loosely at attention, but after a while he stopped smiling.

Iceman tilted his head at his husband, and Mav smiled tightly, rolling his shoulders and tapping the toe of his left foot on the tarmac.

It was incredible, in an instant Admiral Kazansky was on the move, getting in line good-naturedly. When he made it to the front he accepted the blindfold and got to work finding Mav.

It was like watching a professional, he didn’t even stop for people of similar height like Jake had, he knew exactly how his husband would fit under his palm. Jake was smiling uncontrollably when the Admiral got to Mav.

He watched in fascination as Iceman confidently brought one knuckle up to the bridge of his husband’s nose and dragged it down to the tip.

Mav was smiling up at him, waiting for his husband to undo the blindfold so he could get a quick peck on the lips before Admiral Kazansky was guiding him away from the line. The Captain pointed to where Bradley and Jake were watching, Admiral Kazansky looked concerned but nodded and course corrected.

“Hey kids.”

“Hi Uncle Mav, Hi Ice.”

Bradley got hugs from both of them, Jake got one from Mav and shook hands with Admiral Kazansky. He refused to admit he was starstruck.

“We’re going to head home for the day but I wanted to invite you both to dinner tonight, Ice is making tacos.”

“Sure, we’’ll be there. Are you okay though, usually you guys stay longer.”

“We’re good kiddo, Mav just needs to rest for a little while.”

Jake looked surprised, even he thought the older pilot was invincible and he hadn’t even grown up with the man proving that to be true whenever he could.

“Wait, are you okay? Is something wrong?”

“I’m fine. I’m good Jake, don’t worry. Just sore, still healing from the crash you know? Can’t stand too long, Jesus Ice you gotta stop saying that, they’re gonna start thinking I’m old or something.”

Ice snorted a laugh and pulled his husband in closer.

“Try for 6:30? House is in the same spot it was last time.”

Bradley laughed again.

“I sure hope so, we’ll see you then. Let us know if we can bring anything over too, cilantro, sour cream, a walker.”

“Bradley Bradshaw, that hurt my feelings, I thought you loved me!”

Bradley smiled warmly and pulled his godfather in for a hug, whispering “I do love you” in his ear before waving the pair off as they strolled to the car.

“Do you think we’ll be like that some day?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, sappy?”

“You’re already a sap Jake, I’m sure it’ll only get worse from here.”

Jake scowled at him but Bradley just kissed his temple and pulled him to get in line for hamburgers.