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Jake: morning Roo ;)
Jake: i’ve got maybe ten minutes before Javy breaks down the door and drags me out for breakfast
Jake: give me a call when you’re up, i KNOW you didn’t sleep well
Bleary-eyed, and rubbing a hand over his eyes, but smiling all the same, Bradley hit the call button and Jake answered before the first ring even went all the way through.
“Eager are we?” Bradley said, smirking.
“Good morning, to you too, Bradley Bradshaw,” Jake said, bright and clear. “I’d think you would want to hear from your fiance on your wedding day.”
“I would have had you in bed with me, but our friends insisted on tradition,” Bradley said and sat up in bed. It was early enough that there wasn’t much going on outside yet, just the September morning sun and the faint hush of the surf from the other side of the house.
“Smooth talker,” Jake said, sounding fond. He and Bradley would have been perfectly fine sleeping together the night before the wedding day, after all, they did quite literally, own a house together not far from Ice and Mav’s place on the coast. Bradley hasn’t slept by himself for a year now, with both him and Jake working at TOPGUN. But, Javy and Natasha had insisted, some speech along the lines of ‘the night apart will make your reunion even better, you horndogs.’ Bradley couldn’t really argue with them.
“Now, really, how’d you sleep?” Jake asked.
“Who's to say I didn’t get the best night’s sleep of my life?” Bradley said, just to hear Jake laugh, and oh he did, full-bodied, joyful. Bradley didn’t even have to see his fiance to know that Jake had thrown his head back with it.
“Me. I say!”
“Okay, okay. I woke up twice,” Bradley admitted. Each time he’d gone downstairs to stand on the porch, refreshing himself with a bit of bracing seabreeze. “I don’t know, I’m just full of energy.”
Jake hummed. “If it makes you feel better I made Javy go on a run last night after we all came back from the bar.”
For all that their friends had insisted on keeping them apart for the wedding day until they met again at the altar, they hadn’t insisted on separate bachelor parties. Instead, Penny had closed down The Hard Deck for the night, and with Ice and Maverick covering the tab on all the drinks, the whole of the Dagger squad had drunk themselves silly telling ridiculous stories about the grooms-to-be. Bradley couldn’t remember the last time he had so much fun, he could only hope that today would top it.
“How many miles did you make him run?” Bradley asked.
Sheepishly, Jake said, “Five.”
It was good to know he wasn’t the only one all keyed up. Within a few hours, there would be just over a hundred people filling up Ice and Maverick’s house and backyard. The wedding ticket of the season as Maverick had put it. Some of the decorations had already been put up, the tables, the furniture, and – oop, there was the sound of tires on the gravel outside and a beeping as a truck set in reverse. Bradley got out of bed and went to the window, where sure as he guessed, a small van with a chef’s hat logo on the side was pulling into the driveway. Within a few seconds, Maverick was out there in his robe guiding it in, making sure it didn’t back into Ice’s azaleas.
“Catering’s here,” he told Jake.
“Ah, yes–” There was a pause on the other line. A soft conversation that Bradley couldn’t pick out.
“Right on time,” Jake continued. “That was Javy. Apparently, it’s time to get dressed.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want you to look anything but stunning, princess,” Bradley teased.
“Oh, shut up.” There was a pause on the line. Then, softly, with an edge of wistfulness, Jake asked, “Are you ready to be married, Roo?”
“I’ve never wanted anything more in my life,” Bradley said, and God, he can already feel his eyes watering up.
He thought of the past year at TOPGUN, the first two months they spent teaching together, tiptoeing around the base, unsure if starting their relationship back up again was smart, but too drawn to one another to deny the interest – that long-held love that Bradley could say he never fully buried. He remembers the day they decided to try again, a quiet morning with Jake in his bed after they’d had one too many nightcaps, bare and golden and everything Bradley’s ever dreamed of, everything he spent years missing when they’d separated. They’d gone out to a bakery that morning, and Bradley had watched Jake lick the flaky edges of a croissant off his fingers, sprawled in the sand with his jean cuffs rolled up to his ankles and thought – I could look at him forever, and it wouldn't be enough.
It was safe to say that no one was surprised when Bradley popped the question not even three months after they started dating again.
“Me too,” Jake said. There was a rapping on the door from his side of the phone.
“Okay. I have to go now. I’ll see you soon?”
“You fucking know it,” Bradley swore.
~
“I think the SECDEF is here,” Bradley said, peeking through the breezy white curtains. Ice was outside shaking hands with a couple of tall guys in dark suits Bradley guessed were Secret Service. It was hard to tell honestly, and with the long line of parked cars down the street, many of which were black Escalades, there certainly wasn’t a lack of VIP guests at his wedding.
“Ah, yeah. Paul. Ice hates him. He’s a pompous bastard. We’ll keep him away from you and Jake, don’t worry,” Maverick said.
Maverick hip-checked him to make room in front of the mirror. Maverick was fiddling with his bowtie, even though Bradley was sure Ice had done it for him earlier that morning – somehow Maverick still managed to get it crooked.
Bradley snorted. “When did my wedding become a networking event for the Navy?”
Maverick smacked him on the shoulder, smiling. “You’ve got friends in high places, kid. Ignore all the fuss. You’re only here for one reason.”
Bradley rolled his eyes, but his stomach had been full of butterflies for the past hour. He knew Jake was here. He’d heard Javy laughing from downstairs, they were probably getting set up in one of the guestrooms away from the dozens of people pouring into the house, and down the trail path to the beach where the ceremony was set up.
Soon, he’d be walking that path himself.
“Okay.” Bradley smoothed down the front of his tuxedo. While Ice and Mav rocked the traditional black-and-white look, Bradley was more than content with his cream-colored ensemble. They could have worn their dress uniforms but had decided against it. They wanted to make this wedding theirs when in many ways it was already the Navy’s. There would be enough dress whites in the crowd already, both Bradley and Jake had no shame in deciding that they wanted to stand out on their big day.
He turned to Maverick. “How do I look?”
The old man’s eyes were misty. “You look great.”
“Ah, don’t cry now.”
“I’m not,” Maverick protested, even if a tear trickled down. He came over and put both of his hands on Bradley’s shoulders. He had to crook his neck up to look Bradley in the eye, and he couldn’t hide the tears then.
“Your parents would be so proud of you,” Maverick said, hoarsely. Then he cleared his throat. “I’m proud of you, Bradley.”
Bradley didn’t trust himself to speak. There was so much he could say to this man. Maverick who’d basically raised him. Maverick and Ice, who had plenty of their own shit to worry about, but were happy to take in a snappy troubled teenager who’d just put his mother in the ground, and who truthfully, could not remember what his father sounded like.
And it had blown up, yes, Maverick pulled his papers, and Bradley had taken all he could fit in a backpack and gone off one night to enlist without a word, because what did it matter to him if he lost another set of parents – he’d gone through it before. But he’d been alone, so alone in those early years, stone-faced and trying not to cry as his birthday passed or the Christmas weekends went by, the ones he used to spend throwing footballs on the beach with Ice and Maverick. Jake had been a godsend, and still was, but back then Bradley had been too full of fear to commit, and Jake too quick to anger – they’d burned bright and burst into flames.
After everything they’ve been thorough, him and Jake and Maverick and Ice, every fuckin’ fighter pilot that had been in that room when Maverick slammed a stack of instruction manuals in the trash can, they deserved to be here now. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done to run off alone, and even harder to live that way, cold to the world.
He didn’t know how to say that, or if he should, so he hugged Maverick to him. Tightly, they swayed in one another’s arms for a short while, before wiping their tears and putting their final touches together in the mirror – side by side.
~
It really was a perfect day. San Diego rarely cracked above 80 degrees in a year, and today had settled into a balmy 75 by noon. By the time all the guests had arrived, and Maverick had tamed the most rebellious of Bradley’s curls, Bradley was standing at the bottom of the stairs on the trail path – the chairs and platform and archway before him on the beach, backlit by the shimmering blue Pacific.
Ice was at the front by the altar, talking to the officiator, but Ice came their way as soon as he saw them. Maverick, with a blinding grin, went happily to his husband’s side.
“How many hands have you shaken already?” Maverick said to him, leaning up for a kiss.
Ice indulged him, then rolled his eyes. “You don’t want to know.” Then he turned to Bradley and God, he was getting a lot of hugs today, but Bradley supposed he must be looking rather emotional – and he hadn’t even seen Jake yet.
“How are you doing?” Ice asked.
“Nervous. Happy. I want to see him,” Bradley admitted, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
Ice chuckled, and tipped his chin upwards, looking over Bradley’s shoulder. “All you gotta do is turn around, then.”
Everywhere he went, Bradley would swear for the rest of his life, Jake took all the air in the vicinity. He was walking down the pathway with Javy, Mickey, and Rueben – and tagging along a bit of a way behind was Natasha and Bob, their hands tangled as they walked. The wind played gently at Jake’s hair, tossing it out of its styling, bright as the fucking sun. He’d opted for a white tux, bold and bright, and no, not in “any way virginal” as he liked to say with a smirk once he was a few beers deep when people had asked him what he planned on wearing.
The rest of them were in their dress whites, and Mickey was gesturing wildly with his hands in the middle of some story that had them all grinning like loons, but as soon as Jake caught Bradley’s eye his face changed – that grin transformed into something awed, and soft, and he left Mickey and his story behind to make his way to the beach as fast as possible.
“Hey, baby,” Bradley breathed, once Jake was within earshot. He wished he’d had something more eloquent to say, something that would take the nerves off, but truly, looking at Jake knocked the breath out of him.
Jake didn’t even say anything, just rushed over and threw his arms around Bradley’s neck. It was a far more involved kiss for polite company, all heat and eagerness. Jake teased his tongue at Bradley’s palette, but they finish quickly, a little out of breath and eager to get to the damn altar already.
Natasha’s got her hand over Bob’s eyes, which he playfully swatted away.
“You’d think they’d been separated for months or something,” she teased. Jake stuck his tongue out at her.
There was a flurry of greetings and smoothing down of suits. Jake’s sister, Taylor, a spitfire blonde wisp of a thing, came running up from the front with her mother, Joanne, to coo and fidget over her brother. Bradley had only met them once before, when Jake flew them out to California after the official engagement announcement, and they’d been nothing but lovely to him. Joanne baked a mean peach pie and cursed like a sailor when UT was playing horribly on Saturdays. Taylor, who at seventeen had decided she wanted to be an engineer, had cornered Maverick fifteen minutes after their meeting into a conversation about plane mechanics and endeared herself to both him and Bradley ever since.
Joanne, smiling, cupped Bradley’s cheek, picking some lint out of his hair. “You look good, honey,” she said, in her sugar-sweet Texas drawl.
“Only the best for him,” he said, and fucking meant it.
They’d decided on walking down the aisle together, Bradley first with Ice and Maverick at his side, and Jake behind with his mother. Bradley’s heart was in his ears, and he could barely clock who was watching the ceremony, but when he got to the altar, the soft strings of the quartet they’d hired fading into softness, he caught a glimpse of Ice and Maverick seating themselves in the front row – the row behind filled with a myriad of old naval pilots Bradley had become familiar with in his youth, Wolfman, Hollywood, Merlin, even Uncle Slider, gray-haired, but flashing Bradley a big grin and a thumb’s up.
The Daggers fanned out at the altar’s side, and Bradley spared Natasha a quick watery smile, but he couldn’t keep long from Jake, who had taken their hands together, and held them tight between their bodies. Their wedding officiant, Jessica, a former co-worker of Ice’s that he and Maverick remained friendly with after she retired from Pearl Harbor, tipped her head just a bit to the side when Bradley looked her way, her eyes fond.
“Hello, everyone,” Jessica said. “I’d like to welcome you all to the wedding of Bradley Bradshaw and Jake Seresin. I understand that the grooms have written their own vows?”
Jake nodded, his face turned all serious. There was a little crease of tension between his eyebrows that Bradley wanted to smooth out with his thumb. He settled for rubbing his thumb against the side of Jake’s hand in small soothing circles.
“Roo,” Jake said, his voice cracking. He shook his head and started again. “Hey, Rooster. You look good, baby. I saw you today, and God, it’s like I couldn’t breathe until I got to touch you. Breathe your air. It’s like that all the time, I can’t believe that it still is even after all these years. But I’ll be honest since we’ve met, all I’ve ever wanted to do was be around you.”
“I certainly roughed you up a little at first, we swapped our fair share of insults because I couldn’t help but tug at your pigtails like a kindergartener with a crush,” Jake continued, rolling his eyes a bit. Bradley was chucking though, he wasn’t wrong.
“I didn’t know people could feel like this. Love, like you're on fire. No matter where we went, whether we were together, or the years we were apart, I never stopped thinking about you. No one else had ever, in my whole life, completely occupied my thoughts day in and day out. It drove me crazy, but it also drove me back to you and, Roo, there is nowhere else I’d rather be. I want to spend the rest of my life with that feeling. With you. I’m going to love you like that. I don’t feel like I’m a man who’s good with my words, but I want you to understand just how much I love you – more than I can really say.”
Bradley barked out a laugh, thick with tears. There were more than a few sniffles in the crowd as well.
“I think you said it pretty damn well,” Bradley said.
Some laughter from the crowd and a smile bloomed on Jake’s lips. “I try, I try,” he said.
Bradley took a deep breath. He had to hold it together through this.
“I remember the first time I saw you out in Okinawa,” Bradley said. “You were sitting on the edge of the bench in the mess hall telling some ridiculous story with a toothpick hanging out your mouth. When you caught me staring, it didn’t phase you. You just winked, and I remember thinking ‘Be careful. This one is trouble.’”
Jake’s eyes were sparkling, lost in the memory. It hadn’t taken long after that first wordless flirtation for them to fall into bed with one another, full of lust and more than a bit of irritation on Bradley’s part – mad that a pretty face and a whiskey-smooth tongue had managed to ensnare him so quickly.
“You were trouble, you still are, and I’m so fucking glad for it. And it’s because of you that I get to stand here today and call you my husband in a few minutes. You saved me, in more ways than one.”
He was thinking of the long years they spent apart, in large part because of Bradley’s damn stubbornness. He was thinking of the mission, his heart in his throat in the backseat of Mav’s F-14, eyes squeezed tight and wondering if Jake would grieve for him. His throat got tight and he had to take his hand back for a second to wipe at his eyes, but as always, Jake was there to steady him. Jake’s hand went to his flank, and they were close enough to kiss. They didn’t, Jake just cupped his cheek and mouthed silently, “It’s alright.”
“Jake, you light up my life,” Bradley said, more settled. “You’re one of the best aviators I’ve ever met. There’s no greater pleasure than working with you and flying with you, every single day. You’ve made my life even better by loving me and being proud of it. I swear that I will love you with all I am, and all that I have for the rest of my life. You deserve all of that and more. Ask and I’ll give it to you. I love you. So much. I couldn’t fill the sky with how much I love you.”
Bradley couldn’t help it. He tipped their foreheads together. Both of their breathing was shaky. Jessica let them have the moment for a few seconds before she handed them the rings.
“Do you, Jacob Christopher Seresin, take Bradley Nicholas Bradshaw to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself unto him for as long as you both shall live?”
Jake was beaming as he slid a shining golden ring on Bradley’s finger. “I do,” he said.
Jessica turned to Bradley. “Do you, Bradley Nicholas Bradshaw, take Jacob Christopher Seresin to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself unto him for as long as you both shall live?”
Once Bradley had put the ring on Jake’s finger, he brought his hand up to kiss, his lips tingling against the cool metal.
“I do,” he swore and had never meant anything more.
“By the power vested in me by the State of California, I now pronounce you husbands.” Jessica proclaimed, and finished with a cheeky, “You can kiss now, boys.”
Bradley had a hand at Jake’s nape before he could even think about it, pulling them together, and sliding his tongue into Jake’s mouth, pulling back, then coming back in for a softer kiss, then another, blind to the applause and the wolf-whistling that was most definitely coming from one of the Daggers. Jake had his arms tight around Bradley’s shoulders, so Bradley did what was only instinctual, swung him up into a bone-cracking hug, and spun them around, kissing all the while, his skin like fire everywhere they touched.
~
It was 1 a.m. by the time the reception slowed down. It had been a damn good party. Equal parts sappiness and genuinely good fun. He and Jake had been preparing a first dance for months now, and Bradley was looking forward to watching the wedding video of him and Jake hamming it up to a fast-paced swing on the dancefloor in Ice and Maverick’s backyard. They weren’t slow dance kind of people, and there wasn’t a much better time to be had for Bradley than throwing a sweaty laughing Jake around to an upswing beat, catching him in his arms, tuxedo jacket long discarded, the top buttons of Jake’s shirt done down revealing a tantalizing collarbone.
The cake had been ridiculously good, and Maverick’s toast after dinner had Bradley smiling through his tears and all of the 86’ flyboys practically bawling. The liquor was free-flowing, and the local band they’d hired knew its audience well and had songs to match – by the night’s end, Bradley could say he’d never seen so many old men ten sheets to the fuckin’ wind in his life. It was a special treat, he would admit, to see the stone-faced admirals from his weekly conference calls being firemen carried into a waiting car to sleep off the hangover at a hotel.
The band was playing something slow to wind the night down, and Bradley watched, sprawled on the grass with a champagne flute in hand, as Jake indulged Taylor in one last dance before her mom dragged her off to bed, her periwinkle-colored dress fluttering out in a spiral as she twirled.
“You look happy, Bradshaw,” Natasha said. She was sitting to his right with her legs sprawled out. They’d all changed out of their dress whites for the reception, and she was stunning in a plum purple dress number. Bob had his head in her lap, half-asleep after downing a few more tequila shots than advisable. Even after all these years in the Navy, he was still a lightweight.
“I am,” he confirmed, the joy in his chest jumping up another notch as Jake finished with his sister and headed his way. “I’m going to be happy for the rest of my life.”
“Oh? That makes two of us,” Jake said, and bent down to kiss Bradley on the crown of his head.
“Saps,” Natasha teased.
“We’re allowed. It’s our wedding day,” Jake said, a hand on his hip. He held a hand out to Bradley to pull him up. They fell into an easy kiss, heads knocking together as Jake scratched his nails at the back of Bradley’s neck, playing with the little brown baby curls there, twisting them on his fingers.
“Time to head out?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Bradley turned to Natasha. “Think you can make sure the rest of these old men make it to their beds without breaking a hip, best woman?”
Natasha waved him off. “Please, I’ve handled worse. Go have fun. I’ll take care of the stragglers. I’ll see you in the morning for brunch, then you’re off to your honeymoon.”
Yes, two weeks at a tropical resort with Jake and nothing better to do than fuck slow in the mornings, eat an obscene amount of good food and indulge in a private pool that both Ice and Maverick insisted on paying extra for. Bradley might swoon at the thought, but he had bigger dreams to tackle first – supremely, Jake on his arm, his breath sharp with a hint of champagne, his eyes bright. Bradley snuck a hand under his shirt, just to press his palm against his back, and relished in the gasp Jake let out.
They sprinted for the house. Ice caught his eye halfway up the porch. He was sitting at one of the tables with a red-cheeked guffawing Slider. Maverick was sitting in a chair close to his husband, with his feet propped up in Ice’s lap, nursing a beer, and shaking his head at whatever Slider was saying.
Ice tipped his glass Bradley’s way, his lips ticked up at one corner before Jake dragged Bradley inside.
Jake had him against a wall in seconds, kissing with fierce intent. Bradley’s hand went to his hips, partly to steady him, partly to pull him into a desperate dirty grind. Heat crawled thickly up his collar, and pooled in his stomach. He was already halfway hard, and all Jake had to do was kiss him – it was as easy as that.
Jake pulled away with a slick sound, a bit of wetness on his lip shiny from the lights outside. Bradley put his thumb there without thinking, going short-breathed when Jake hummed and nipped at him, the tip of his tongue pink and teasing.
“We’re married,” Bradley said when he could catch his breath.
“I know. I was there,” Jake said, all suave assuredness.
“You are ridiculous. I love you.” Bradley kissed him harder, and together, hands joined, they stumbled up the staircase to Bradley’s room taking brief detours in dark corners and one long stop on the landing, to push up against each other, untuck their shirts, and just touch and feel.
They were more settled by the time they got to Bradley’s room. Up here the moonlight came in well, and Bradley took one moment just to hold Jake, and look at him as the silver light struck his face. Bradley was going to worship this man, there was no doubt about it.
“I’d do it again. All of it to be here with you,” Bradley said. He wasn’t sure if that even captured the depth of his happiness, his feeling, but he wanted to try.
He supposed it must have, because Jake tucked his face into Bradley’s neck, content to be held, and probably hiding some of the emotion he felt he couldn’t handle. The muscles in Jake’s back flexed tight and strong beneath Bradley’s fingers as he breathed. Bradley would get him bare soon, and see him in full, but he took the time to relish his simple heat and weight first. The gift of a husband. Jake Seresin as his husband. It was official now.
Jake tipped his head up eventually. “Take me to bed, Bradshaw. I’m a sure thing.”
“I’ll give you all I’ve got, anyway,” Bradley swore and turned him ‘round, pushed him into the pillows, laughing, and got to work with un-buttoning Jake’s shirt.