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It was the middle of November, and the weather in San Diego was still really warm, Jake thought.
He was in line to get into the aquarium, his niece Louise—whom he affectionately nicknamed Loulou—in his arms, and the sun was shining softly above their heads that early afternoon.
Since the United States Navy had exceptionally granted the entire Daggers Squad a whole month's leave, Jake had suggested to his sister Jessica and her husband Mark to visit him in California for a weekend.
Lemoore wasn't bad at all, huh, but there were so many more interesting things to do in San Diego, especially for Loulou.
The adorable little four-year-old blond monster had, in the meantime, perched on his arm and looked down from her height at the entire crowd that, like her, was waiting to enter the aquarium.
The line was moving quickly, Jake had a perfect view; in ten minutes at most they would be inside, ready to enjoy an immersive journey into the depths of the oceans.
Even though she was little, Loulou was already very interested in animals and had an insatiable curiosity about the world around her. She was still in the midst of her Why? phase, but Jake didn't mind at all.
He saw her a few times a year in person - even though cell phones and FaceTime existed, thank goodness -, so he took advantage of every single opportunity to cuddle her and spend quality time together. Loulou was growing visibly, and Jake couldn't believe that the tiny bundle he had held in his arms years before through tears was becoming, day after day, a little girl so full of life and joy.
Jake, standing and wearing a light shirt, was chatting with Loulou about where to go for dinner with mom and dad - it was fair that Jessica and Mark spent some time alone as husband and wife, he had decided to spend the afternoon exclusively with her for this reason too - to make the wait pass faster, but, at a certain point, the little girl was attracted by something in the sea of people in front of them.
"Uncle Jakey, look at the strange pattern on that person's shirt!" Loulou exclaimed, pointing her cute little finger at a man a few feet away from the two of them.
The pattern of that Hawaiian shirt was really offensive to Jake, not much to say about it. Pink and green flowers on a black background, and his mind immediately connected the thing to Rooster.
It wasn't Jake's fault if that man came to mind in the silliest things that happened to him on a daily basis.
After saving him, their relationship had finally stabilized: no more scathing jokes, no more tension.
It was as if they had cleared away all the thorns that had surrounded their every interaction for the past ten years, but now they weren’t sure how to talk to each other without that convenient patina of sarcasm that actually hid their mutual care and affection.
Jake had once compared the whole thing to a minefield to Javy—he was a little afraid of stepping on something dangerous, blowing everything up with Rooster, and ruining every single thing between them again.
Maybe, in the end, they just needed some time before they could find the right way to be together as Jake and Bradley, not Hangman and Rooster, and start having a new personal relationship.
That specific thought inexplicably tugged at Jake’s heart as he answered his niece.
“You don’t point at other people’s shirts, Loulou. Even though they are objectively waaaay out of fashion,” he laughed, squinting and watching for a few long seconds the man who wore that horror in a public place, heedless of the most basic concept of fashion.
And oh my God... unfortunately for Jake, he would have recognized those brown curls and those huge shoulders even in the dark, if forced.
“Rooster!” he found himself shouting in front of him, waving an arm in the air and hoping to get the attention of his... colleague? Acquaintance? Friend? He had no idea what category to put the living mystery that was Bradley Bradshaw in for him.
He wondered what the other man was doing in line at the aquarium too... It certainly wasn’t a popular place for social gatherings, after all.
He was alone, Jake immediately noticed, as Rooster turned to him, his Ray-Bans balanced on his nose as usual before he took them off and a surprised expression plastered on his face.
Bradshaw’s laughter erupted from his chest as he noticed Loulou in Jake’s arms and waved at them both before walking over to them, leaving his previous spot in line.
“Hey, Hangman. Funny meeting you here today,” he began, and Jake felt a pang in his heart at the thought of him not calling him by his name, and that they were still at the same usual point despite everything that had happened a few weeks ago.
It didn’t matter that Jake didn’t call him by his first name either; he would die before he gave in to that.
His middle name was Pride, after all.
“And hello to you too... Louise, right? That’s your niece’s name, right?” Rooster asked before reaching out to the little girl and introducing himself tenderly.
The fact that he remembered his niece’s name made something inside Jake drop... maybe just his heartbeat.
“I’m Bradley, but you can call me Rooster like your uncle. He and I fly together.”
“So you’re a pilot too! My name is Louise, but Uncle Jakey calls me Loulou. You can do that too if you want,” Loulou replied as she leaned over and shook Rooster’s hand. It was so small that it disappeared into his palm.
“Okay, Loulou. So what are you and your uncle doing here at the aquarium today?” Bradshaw asked, anticipating the question that Jake felt burning on the tip of his tongue.
He was obviously there to accompany his four-year-old niece, but what was a grown man like Bradley Bradshaw doing there by himself?
Jake couldn’t think of a sensible option for the whole thing.
Loulou’s quick response prevented Jake’s curiosity from being satisfied.
Meanwhile, the three of them had begun to march briskly toward the aquarium entrance.
“I’m here to see...” she said before she began to list off her answers with the tips of her little fingers. “Jellyfish, fishes like Nemo, seahorses, and most of all... penguins! I really want to see penguins!”
The laughter that erupted at the sight of her enthusiasm for penguins came out of Jake’s throat without any restraint.
He leaned conspiratorially closer to Rooster to explain his reasoning, his nostrils filling with the scent of the other man's cologne—it was sweet as ever.
“We watched Madagascar for the first time two days ago, and Loulou really liked the penguins squad. So today we came here to see them,” Jake said, as he set his niece down on the ground and placed her between him and Bradshaw.
He loved the little thing with all his heart, for God’s sake, but he couldn’t hold her for more than fifteen minutes without his back starting to hurt.
Rooster couldn’t help but chuckle, too. “Madagascar is a milestone in children’s animation... Loulou, you’re really growing up!”
“Thanks!” was the little girl’s honest reply, and Jake found himself smiling again without being able to stop it.
Seeing Rooster and Loulou interacting together had never been on his bingo card that day, but, in a very deep part of him, that was warming his heart like a steaming cup of hot chocolate.
Then Jake saw Loulou suddenly grab Rooster's hand, pulling him towards her.
"I don't want you to be alone, without us... you're going to stay with us now, right?" she asked in a very sweet voice.
Jake felt an unstoppable avalanche of strange emotions pouring into his chest.
Rooster didn't even have to look up to ask Jake for permission in some way. His answer could only be one in front of such a plea.
"Of course! I love penguins too, you know? There are eighteen different species in the whole world," he whispered to her under his breath, while he gently squeezed her fingers and continued to tell her a lot of other fun facts about penguins.
Jake swallowed at that image as they stood a step away from the aquarium entrance, and prayed with his whole heart that this wasn’t the day he developed a ridiculously, completely unfounded crush on Bradley Bradshaw.
The inside of the aquarium was dark, to allow all the marine species housed inside to live as best as possible, but Loulou was so happy that she lit up everything with her presence.
She was a very lively, unstoppable child. Plus, she had the big green eyes typical of the Seresin family, and Jake saw so much of himself in her.
Loulou was his only niece—Jessica was his only older sister—and he showered her with every single ounce of affection.
That little rascal was the only person he was sure he would kill for... the other one he had actually done it for was right there, next to him, holding Loulou's hand and explaining to her, along with Jake, everything they remembered about fish, shellfish, and so on.
That meeting between him and Rooster that afternoon had been a coincidence, but for Jake it had turned out to be a real unexpected blessing.
Pavilion after pavilion, along the way, he was discovering the Bradley Bradshaw he had glimpsed at the Academy before the tensions between them ruined their relationship, the Bradley Bradshaw Phoenix constantly talked about: a generous, nice man, capable of great impulses.
And he was liking this a lot... much more than he could admit.
Or maybe it was just the fact that Loulou's presence magically always softened him and allowed him to let others see so much more than the facade of the conceited asshole he had so carefully built for himself in the Navy.
At one point, when the three of them were in front of the sea turtle tanks, Loulou turned to Rooster and asked him a question point-blank with such a serious expression on her little face that Jake couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Why do they call you Rooster? You like sea animals so much!”
Rooster bent down to her height on his knees to answer her—a detail that always struck Jake, since it meant he was more than just a metaphorical equal when he spoke to her.
“Have you ever seen a rooster, Loulou?”
The little girl nodded. “My grandparents have a lot of them on their ranch in Austin!”
“Yeah, your uncle’s mentioned that to me many times over the years—more than I’d like, in fact,” Bradley said, stifling a crystalline laugh.
Jake felt stung and joked back. “Hey, I’m sorry, but I want to keep you and your birth family in touch!”
Rooster just shook his head at his response, almost affectionately, before rolling his eyes and continuing to speak to Loulou.
“Roosters are brave animals and they watch over the ones they love. When I fly, I act like that... hence my callsign,” Bradshaw whispered softly, as if every word was pure honey.
“And also because you sing so well and have a beautiful voice,” Jake quickly added, without thinking.
For a long second, he wanted to take back what he’d just said; he had never, ever indulged in public compliments about Rooster’s musical talents.
Bradshaw noticed right away, of course, as he took Loulou’s hand and they moved together along sea turtles's glass wall.
Those beasts were really huge, my God.
“Oh, so you noticed? I’m glad to hear that my piano performances have had you among my adoring audiences,” Rooster joked, as Loulou’s face lit up like a Christmas light.
“Does that mean you can play me Let It Go, then?” the little girl asked, a streak of tremendous happiness in every word.
“I happen to love Disney and can play a lot of its soundtracks. If you’re good, we can ask Uncle Jakey if you can come to my house for a private concert just for you,” Bradshaw promised her, looking at Jake in a way that had never happened between them before.
Words struggled to escape Jake’s throat, which had become as dry as the desert by then, while his thoughts about crushing on Rooster echoed in his head like a terrifying echo.
“We’ll ask your mother later at dinner... I promise, Loulou,” was all he could say before he stood next to his niece, grabbed her free hand, and tried to figure out how to calm down his stupid Bradley Bradshaw fantasies.
Holy shit, what was happening to him?
When Loulou saw the penguins for the first time in her life after more than two and a half hours of walking through the aquarium, Jake took out his phone and took a video of her.
Up until that point, he had limited himself to taking very few pictures of her—children should be left free to live their experiences without the constant eye of technology in his opinion—, then he asked Rooster to take a picture of him and his niece to send to Jessica.
Finally, he got up the courage to ask him something else.
“Um, do you want to take a selfie with us?” Jake asked with difficulty, as if there were a handful of broken glass in his throat that was preventing him from speaking.
God, this was getting really awkward for him.
“What do you say, Loulou... do you want to take a picture with Rooster, since he was so nice to be with us today?”
The little girl didn’t need to be asked twice, exclaiming a “Yes!” so enthusiastically that Jake’s heart grew two sizes in that moment.
So Jake handed his phone to Bradshaw, while he picked up Loulou and quickly fixed his hair in front of the screen.
He always cared a lot about his look, now even more than usual.
Jake didn’t want to ask why, for his own sake.
Rooster took a very cute photo of the three of them together—one that Jake would most likely stare at for the rest of his life, but that would be a secret between him and God until his dying breath—and handed Jake his phone back before stroking Loulou’s blonde head and pointing to one of the benches in the penguin room.
“I’m going to sit down now, but I want to tell you one last thing about penguins... did you know that they’re together forever?” Rooster revealed, a strange look in his brown eyes.
Loulou nodded. “Uncle Jakey told me that when we watched Madagascar! He thinks that’s soooo romantic!”
Jake wished the aquarium floor would open up at that moment and drag him away from his embarrassment forever, but the damage was done.
“Oh, yeah? And who would have thought that Uncle Jakey was, deep down, a true sentimental!” Rooster exclaimed sarcastically but, at the same time, impressed.
Jake couldn’t quite figure out which of the two feelings was prevalent in Bradshaw’s statement, so he simply continued to walk for a few more minutes next to Loulou before leaving her to meditate in front of two penguins who were walking funnily together and going to sit next to Rooster a very short distance away.
Never losing sight of her even for a second, he decided to finally ask him in that moment of privacy carved out by miracle, the question that had been buzzing around in his mind for almost three hours.
“Why are you here today? I don’t think you have nieces to escort or you want to leave the Navy to suddenly become a marine biologist,” was all Jake said before turning and staring at him for a few quick moments.
He’d known that from the moment he’d met him, but Bradley Bradshaw was a very handsome man, and the dim lights of the aquarium only made his soft features look even better.
Oh God, he really had to stop!
Once they parted ways, nothing would ever happen between them—even if there was that whole thing about inviting Loulou to his house to do a Disney piano concert. After all, they still didn’t know how to connect, how to not hurt each other... and yet Jake really wanted to learn how to do that.
Those hours spent with Loulou had left him with that desire—a desire that would probably never be fulfilled.
“I don’t have many memories of my father, I was even younger than LouLou when he died. But I remember him walking me here one day the week before—” Rooster began, Jake’s heart sinking with every syllable he spoke. “I remember the smell of his patched leather jacket that I loved to touch, I remember the softness of his mustache as he kissed my cheek, I remember how he held me close... I just come back here every time I am in San Diego when I need to feel my father around me.”
Rooster looked at Jake with such sadness that he literally felt shame wash over him.
The words he’d said to him during their argument at Top Gun came back to him and hit him like a brick wall.
“I’m so sorry I brought up your father during that briefing. I know I’ve told you this before, but—”
Bradshaw’s low laugh hit his eardrums perfectly.
“You don’t have to apologize any more, it’s water under the bridge. Oddly enough, I have to thank you for what you said to me, you know?” Rooster whispered, each word reduced to thin air. “You made me pull my head out of my ass, after all. I know I wasn’t fully myself during those weeks and my personal way of flying in opposition to your and Mav’s strategy would probably have killed me-”
The thought of Bradley Bradshaw’s death broke Jake in half again, right down to the core, just like the day of the Mission, and knocked all the air out of his lungs like a terrifying punch to the sternum.
Perhaps he was slowly beginning to understand the true reason for his desperation at the idea of living in a world without that furious, wonderful man.
“Come on, you flew perfectly during the Mission. I only stepped in at the right time at the end because you and Mav were on a museum piece!” he said sarcastically, trying to steer the conversation back to a more relaxed pace.
Jake never, ever expected to have a heart-to-heart with Rooster in the middle of an aquarium, with his niece less than two feet away, and in front of some penguins.
“Well, I’m here now because of you, and I’m very grateful for that. I would really like to play the piano for Loulou, though... I was serious about it before. I mean it,” Bradshaw confessed sincerely, and Jake felt his heart leap into his throat again at the thought of spending time with him again outside of Top Gun and Miramar.
Maybe they should learn to be together without any masks for the first time in over a decade and see where it would take them.
Jake would really like to find out.
Maybe... even too much.
“We could come over tomorrow morning, how about it? My sister and brother-in-law would love to go on another hike around San Diego and leave me with Loulou,” he said, looking intently at his niece—she was completely enthralled by the penguin couple by now—before trailing off. “Of course, if you have nothing else to do. I know you and Mav are currently restoring his old plane.”
Bradley’s laughter—it was time to call him by his first name, Jake thought—filled the space between their bodies on the bench before his big hand settled on Jake’s.
The other man's heat pierced his skin like a sharp needle, and Jake hoped that their contact would last forever.
“I need to stop telling Nat my own business, she’s worse than a gossip site,” Bradley huffed, his mustache curling high. “But no, I’m not busy. We can meet at 11, is that okay?”
Jake opened his mouth to tell him that yes, sure, that was fine. In fact, that was super fine, and he would have even picked Loulou up and walked all the way to his house if necessary without a problem, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so.
Loulou suddenly descended on him and Bradley like a mini blonde tornado, grabbing their joined hands and dragging them in front of the two penguins she’d spent the last five minutes gazing at.
“Tell me, aren’t they a cute couple?” she asked in her sweet little voice, and Jake found himself staring at Bradley, their fingers still intertwined.
His green gaze met Bradley’s brown one, who gave him a secret smile before answering Loulou and continuing to stare at him.
“You’re right... I think they do make a really cute couple,” he whispered in his warm baritone.
And Jake finally understood that the future that was opening up to him with Bradley was full of potential and hope.