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‘Today he would do it. He would ask Linda, to have dinner with him’ was Ice’s first initial thought when he had seen the woman watering her plants in the morning, while he was drinking his coffee on their balcony. Maverick was out of town today, using his leave before having to go back to TOPGUN to be with Carole and Bradley. Ice, on the other hand, had a full two weeks of leave that came with his recent promotion and currently was rotting in their shared apartment. Maverick recently decided to move out from his house around the base, for god knows why, and he brought Ice with him, so now he felt as isolated as ever.
It had been long since he got this much time to pass. Without even Ron to hand out with, who was currently also visiting his family, he had been left alone in a quiet apartment, that not yet felt like home, only with his thoughts. And so he figured he really had to do something with himself to subsidize the pang in his soul Maverick’s leave had caused and the fact that he didn’t go with him. Because honestly, he was contemplating that he was starting to go clinically insane. He had still woken up early, gone for a run, and was unfortunately, or rather painfully, reminded of the plank of wood that still supported the jamb of Maverick’s bedroom door so he had to duck when going in and out and had done the dishes twice!
He officially had run out of options to occupy himself when cheap television also failed him with some poorly translated soap opera.
But his problem seemed to solve itself in the form of Linda, the pretty chick next door who could have been interested in entertaining him for tonight until Maverick was back.
She looked as pretty as always when she stepped out to her balcony to water the plants there. Iceman was too sitting on their own balcony, just staring into nothing. With Linda’s arrival, his gaze shifted, first onto the woman, who was humming a small tune while putting fresh soil on hers, but then fell to the ground, inspecting his and Maverick’s dead plants that slowly rotted away there. They looked miserable why Linda’s were probably the most vibrant plants Ice had ever seen.
When she noticed him she waved with a soft smile on her lips and Iceman, after many years of not spearing any glance at women waved back and decided he would shoot his shot today.
But the thing was, that Iceman, a great pilot, an even better captain wasn’t nearly that charming when it came to socializing.
It was easy to command people around the base and give out orders. Occasionally ask a few favors to smooth out Maverick’s poor decisions.
But no matter how much time he had spent in those circles or at the O club, he always stuck to either Maverick’s or their mutual friends’ sides.
Every party, every gathering had at least one of the before mentioned so he never had to find himself being left alone to handle everything by himself.
Even if he was, shaking men’s hands was easy compared to asking out a girl on a date.
Mostly because he had never done it.
He was married to the job. He wasn’t the town’s fuckboy, that was Mav’s title to hold up.
But Linda was an objectively pretty woman, who might have interested Ice. At least a bit. And that was already more than what other women had done to him so far.
So he had to seize the opportunity and ask her out.
It would have been a win-win situation. Ice could have escaped from the loneliness that had settled on him, and he also could have gotten his first woman. Not as if women were objects or something! More like in a ‘there’s a first time for everything’ way.
But just as Ice was about to open his mouth and address the woman, still from the comfort of his balcony, she had disappeared back to her flat without as much as a bye.
Ice buried his head in his hand and with a long sigh emptied which was his second cup of coffee today. He gave one last pathetic glance in their dying plant’s way then also stepped inside, trying to accept that his chance to ask Linda out had just flown out the window.
He didn’t have any other options than to forget about it, move on, and keep staring at the clock that seemed to tick away slower than ever until Mav arrived back home.
Or so he thought. Until the fortunes suddenly found him and lifted his miserable spirits. He heard the door next to theirs click and the lock turn. It must have been Linda. If Ice was quick enough he could have easily caught up to her in the hall.
So he did just that. Jumped off of the couch, a bag of chips he was about to eat forgotten immediately, and made a beeline to the door. He turned the key, unlocked the lock, pulled the key out, inserted it back in once he was outside, turned it to lock the door again, and then practically ran down the stairs.
And BINGO! Linda was standing near the mailboxes, buried in her purse probably to fetch out her keys. Ice smoothed down his polo shirt, and combed through his hair with his fingers in a lame last-minute attempt to appear more witty than he felt like.
And after fighting through his initial anxiety and willing his legs to move, he made his way to the woman, trying to not spook her too much.
He cleared his throat and put on the mask of surprise as if he really had just run into her by accident. “Linda! It’s good to see you!” He exclaimed with a smile. The woman turned to him, some signs of the dismay of still not finding her keys still visible in her features.
“Oh, hello Tom!” She said but soon turned back to the task of keys again, dismissing him entirely. When Tom stood there in silence for another moment or two, Linda spoke again, not looking up this time. “Do you need anything?”
“Actually…” Come on, spit it out. But things were never that easy. The words were on the tip of his tongue, but as they threatened to roll down, Maverick’s face shot through his mind like a bullet in the dark. It was loud, bright, and silenced every other thing he thought about so far. He gaped at the woman, with a now empty mind, while trying hard to get away from Maverick, and that funny feeling in the pit of his stomach that felt awfully similar to guilt. “I was wondering if you...” He desperately tried to buy time for himself, to finally arrive back to Linda on Earth from planet Pete Mitchell where his mind seemed to migrate in the last few seconds.
So he spoke.
But the words that came out of his mouth were definitely not what he intended to say.
“If you could give me a few tips on how to keep plants alive. I eventually always have to throw them out, no matter how many times we water them” Oh god it was bad. He chickened out like some lovesick teenager. He was a thirty-year-old man, not some high school girl with a hallway crush.
But Linda’s face lit up, the fiasco with her key long forgotten.
“I think you overwater them. Water isn’t the only thing plants need, you know. Maybe try to keep them out of the shadow and also use more fertile soil than what they provide you with. Or at least try to fertilize them more often” Ice nodded in understanding, even though he had no idea how to apparently ‘fertilize’ a plant. But he would put the next batch into the sunnier side of the balcony in the hopes of not committing another plant mass murder.
“You’re a lifesaver, thank you,” he said with a smile. Linda nodded.
“I am a teacher, I have quite an experience with bringing back plants to life. It eventually grew on me I think” She replied. Ice hummed in agreement, trying to store away the information, in case he does end up on a date with her. But that was very unlikely considering the awkward silence that had settled on them. Not knowing what to do with himself, except to stand and stare at Linda, he bided goodbye and turned back to the stairs, so he could continue dying from boredom on their couch.
Judging from the sound of key dangling Linda seemed to find the key to the mailbox. Which made Ice stop. What if it was a sign to try again?
Iceman thought now or never, as he stepped back from the sole stair he had taken. He turned around.
“Oh, one more thing!” The brunette’s head shot up to him expectantly. “Do you happen to want to have dinner with me tonight?”
“Only if you bring that short, handsome guy,” she said with a sly smile. Ice’s eyebrows pinched together as he asked,
“Maverick?” Linda seemed to be caught by surprise at the declaration but nodded anyway.
Of course, she would be after Pete. He wasn’t even there but people still yearned for him. It was absolutely obnoxious.
“Your boyfriend’s name is Maverick?” She asked in a surprised but hungry voice. As if she was a vulture looking for meat in the desert. ‘Feed this woman gossip and all problems would be solved’ Pete once said to him. But Ice’s mind got stuck halfway through that sentence. Because; What?
“He is not my boyfriend” he corrected not quite understanding where that bold assumption had come from.
“Oh, I’m sorry! What do you call each other then? Husband? Partner? Lover?” Ice’s confusion only grew and his cheeks reddened. God, it was embarrassing. That was why he didn’t do this kind of thing; mingling. He was good with shaking hands and complimenting admirals but without Pete by his side, with regular people he was socially awkward and helpless.
“We are not married!” He said in a less confident way than he had intended. “He is my wingman” he chuckled awkwardly.
Linda’s eyes grew but quickly rushed to explain “Oh…Oh! I get it, don’t worry it’s fine by me, I won’t go around telling” Ice gaped at her. How could she not understand?
“Dinner with you and your man then. I’ll be home by six” she said with a smile then turned around trying to make her leave.
“Linda! Wait! He and I aren’t anything! We are not gay!” but Linda was already out the door, and nowhere to be seen by the time Ice had reached the end of his denying. He stood still on the first stair gobsmacked for a couple of minutes just trying to get the gears in his brain to work and process what the fuck had just happened. Because; What?
For one thing, he and Pete weren’t gay. But even if they were, they still would only have been friends. Good friends. They were wingmen after all! Bound to one another. Never leaving each other’s sides. That was their job, their destiny.
But that was hard to believe when apparently everyone in the building seemed to be under the impression that the two of them were married.
Because if Linda didn’t already shock him enough to have an out-of-body experience, Ms. Tolly from the second floor did it for him.
Ice was taking the steps one by one, not quite comfortable in his own skin after the recent happenings, and the fact that he now had to inform Pete about all of this, then prepare dinner for them and a woman who believed they were married.
If he had any feeling of being bored before, those were definitely nonexistent now. What’s more, he had his mind and hands full of everything.
Ms. Tolly was just the cherry on top, really.
“Tom dear!” She called out when Ice was about to pass the second floor to the third one. He turned back, putting on his sweet expression, clear from his inner turmoil. Ms. Tolly was a nice woman, probably already in her seventies. But she kept fit, was friendly with everyone, had a perfume cloud following her wherever she went, and an ugly ass chihuahua that probably should have died ages ago.
She also had a soft spot for Tom and Pete. Mostly Pete though. He had met her the first day they moved in, the woman offered help, and when Pete declined she invited him over for tea and home-baked goods. When Tom met her, she already knew who he was and passed him a tray of freshly baked cinnamon cookies, for him and Pete. For what Ice asked, she just smiled and patted him on the shoulder with a smirk.
“Ms. Tolly, hi!” He said, then jogged on the way to her, knowing that conversation would have been inevitable. If only his mind wouldn’t have been running a mile per hour.
“I heard Pete leave this morning, you haven’t split, have you?” She asked in a worried tone. Ice looked at her funny, then shook his head, commanding his mind to stop OVERTHINKING.
“Oh no, he just went to visit his nephew. I didn’t feel like driving, he went by bike” She hummed in understanding, but it felt like she wasn’t really paying attention to what Ice was saying but rather to his hands. It was eventually proven when she gently took Ice’s hand into her own and inspected them throughout, searching for something that clearly wasn’t there.
“Did he not ask it?” Ice laughed awkwardly.
“Asked what, Ms. Tolly?” She sighed disappointedly.
“Your boyfriend loves you very much, he just needs a little nudge now and then. Don’t worry, he’ll pop the question” She said, patting his hands. Then went inside to bring out a cake.
Ice stood there, frozen in place. His brain gave up the fight to think, to contemplate, to act. He just kept standing there, now with a cake in his hands, staring at the closed door of Ms. Tolly’s apartment.
He felt like he was going crazy. Was this a skit? Did the whole building run conspiracies against him? Did they plan this?
He knew he had to move, he after all had a whole dinner to make and a very long conversation to have, with a very specific Pete Mitchell. But he couldn’t. When he finally moved from his designated spot, and somehow managed to get into his flat he was lowkey in a frenzy. He put the cake in the fridge and mindlessly stared at the notebook on the counter that had Pete’s messy writing reminding him that he’d spent the night at Carole’s. Ice felt bad that he had to bribe him to come home.
And as he took the phone from the wall to his ear, he caught a glimpse of his hand, which was bare from anything. Or, it was bare from a specific thing. A ring!
Holy fuck.
He rushed to the fridge and opened the box in which the cake lay. ‘Congratulations on your engagement’ was written on its top with a navy blue icing.
The world started spinning as the cause of Ms. Tolly’s strange behavior sank in. Was Maverick about to propose? What the fuck! As far as Ice knew, they weren’t even dating. Not like he wanted them to, but you know some warning would have been great.
He dialed Carole’s number, hoping it would be Pete to pick it up.
He was twirling the cord around his fingers, his mind traveling to a thousand different conclusions regarding the matter of his engagement, about which everybody seemed to be aware of except him of course. The suspected GROOM!
He was nauseous. Or something like that. His stomach did flips, his heart almost beat out of his chest and with sweat bubbling on his forehead he feared he was only seconds away from a cardiac arrest. Not because the idea of marrying Pete was that bad, but rather because the idea wasn’t bad at all!
Just the imaginary of them sharing a bed, waking up next to each other for the rest of their lives, doing basically everything they were already doing now, but with their relationship shifted into something more than platonic made his throat dry out.
The room started to spin, he needed air. But he also needed Carole or someone to finally pick up the damn phone.
And just as he was about to run out to the balcony because fuck he was sure he was hyperventilating, the serial sound of ‘beeps’ suddenly quieted and a feminine voice filled the line.
“Hello?” She asked hesitantly. Tom gulped. He felt if he said a word now, he would vomit all over the floor from the crippling anxiety and the fact that he might be gay.
“Carole” he eventually choked out.
“Tom!” Her tone immediately shifted to panicked sensing that something was not quite all right. “Is everything okay?”
“Tell Pete!” His stomach turned, and he had to cover his mouth to not throw up. “To come home immediately!” Was all he could get out before deciding his lungs would not work without air. He ran towards the balcony, it being in Pete’s room because obviously, he was the one to get that benefit, while completely forgetting about the only thing he should have paid attention to in the whole flat.
That stupid piece of wood supporting the recently fixed jamb.
It was a loud bang, a sharp pain in his head, his ears’ ringing, and the phone dropping to the ground and then snapping to the wall as its cord pulled it back.
Then Tom was out like a light, with Pete’s face being the last thing to cross his mind.
When he woke up, it was to his wingman’s shouting, and not knowing what time of the day it was or how long was he unconscious.
“TOM!” Ice propped it was the first time Maverick ever said his name out loud. At least when he was also around to hear it. It sounded beautiful. Pete looked beautiful too. If only his voice wouldn’t have been muffled and he wouldn’t have looked blurry.
“Oh god, you are back!” He exclaimed relief dripping from his voice. Ice groaned loudly then closed his barely open eyes as the pain in his whole head finally settled in.
When he opened them again, Pete was much more clear, currently hovering over him, with his eyebrows pinched in the middle. It wasn’t a pleasant look but Ice wouldn’t complain.
“Mav?” He croaked, being less nauseous and more parched now.
“Hello to you too hotshot,” he said in a witty voice that earned an eye roll from Ice. “The lengths you would go only to have me back home. All you had to do was call” he said his voice softening when he reached the end of his sentence. Ice considered it flirting. He was probably red from it. But while laying on the ground, probably concussed, he didn’t find it in himself to fucking care.
“I believe I did. Call I mean” he admitted. Mavrick’s expression softened.
“And damn right you did!” Ice’s face soured. He wasn’t planning it like this. Maverick must have been so worried. It was a miracle he didn’t end up crashing his bike on the way. “So, fancy telling me why I had to rush home and find you lying unconscious on the floor?” His voice had an edge to it as if he was scared Tom would somehow die. But Tom wasn’t gonna die, at least not until he had interrogated his supposed boyfriend on their recent engagement.
“I think… that I forgot about the plank” he admitted as he tried to push himself up a bit. Maverick provided him with support immediately. It felt good. Not necessarily the physical contract, but the gesture.
“Of which I had reminded you every other minute for the past two days?” Maverick smiled softly. His tone wasn’t even mocking, it was more like how any worried spouse would have questioned their partner. “What had you needed from my room anyway?” He asked.
Ice had to think for a minute so the happenings would come back to his memory. It wasn’t that clear but he could take a guess. “Probably the balcony” he answered.
“How the tables have turned, Kazansky” Maverick scoffed as he moved to help Ice up. “It’s usually me who acts dangerous”
“What can I say, living with you has done its wonders to me” Mav laughed as he pulled him up and Ice kind of got stuck on how beautiful it had sounded. “You good?” The other man asked when Tom wasn’t doing anything but still staring at him, just admiring really. And he couldn’t help but notice how their clasped hands gave a strange warmth to his heart.
“I guess,” he said, a bit uncertain about everything not just about his wellbeing. But when he proceeded to take a step towards the kitchen, so he could drink and maybe not feel like a lizard who just crawled out from a desert, he wobbled and almost fell again.
“Easy there soldier” Maverick rushed to his side, catching him before further damage could have been done. “I believe it’s best if we have you seated. Come on I’ll bring a pack of peas” Pete escorted him to their couch, Ice’s discarded chips staring at him, mocking him.
“No!” He gasped as Maverick was about to pull out the drawer of the freezer. “I mean…Bring the carrots instead, I was planning on doing the peas for dinner” he added in a lower, less confident voice. Pete looked at him funny but complied easily.
“Whatever you say,” he said as he pulled out the bag of frozen carrots. Ice would also do that for dinner. Maybe. If he would still have a husband by then.
“And could you maybe get me a glass of water too?” He asked when Maverick passed the kitchen sink.
“Sure thing” he took out a glass from the cupboard, set the faucet to cold, tested it, then filled up the glass. Ice thanked him as he passed it into his hands, Pete’s fingers still lingering for a while to make sure Ice wouldn’t drop it. His skin burned at the contact.
Then he let go of the glass and suddenly placed his cold, a bit wet, from the frozen veggie and the water, hand on Ice’s forehead. Ice was suddenly scared to breathe. No, he felt like he forgot how to. As Maverick’s calloused hand kept inspecting his forehead, he leaned in ever so slightly, almost sighing from the feeling. Mostly because it felt good. And also because Maverick, his husband was touching him.
God, Ice might have been concussed.
“I think I have a concussion” he blurted. Maverick replaced his hand with the packet of carrots wrapped in a kitchen towel. Ice wanted to cry at the sudden loss of contract.
“I think so too” he wondered. Ice shook his head, put the glass away to the ground, and reached for Pete’s hand.
“No, you don’t understand. I think I have a concussion” he repeated a bit slower this time. Pete lifted his eyebrows in confusion but his lips stretched with a sweet smile. He placed his other hand on Ice’s cheek.
“I heard you fine the first time” There was something in the way Pete said it. The pet name, like ‘darling’ or ‘sweetheart’ hung silently at the beginning of the sentence. Ice once again leaned into the touch, looking up at Maverick from under his lashes.
“You didn’t pop the question yesterday,” Ice said after a while. Pete withdrew immediately.
“Wh-what?” He asked anxiously. Ice gave him a sad look.
“Linda rejected me today” Maverick’s already pained expression soured further.
“I’m sorry” he bit out. Ice knew he wasn’t sorry at all. Because Maverick knew Ice would have said yes to him. Okay, maybe not yesterday, he wasn’t aware that he was gay yesterday. But now, regardless of his concussion he thought, if Mav had gotten on one knee before him, mind you they weren’t even boyfriends, he would have definitely said yes. Because he wanted ‘sweetheart’ and ‘darling’ and ‘baby’ to not go unsaid anymore. He wanted to kiss Maverick with everything he had, and he wanted them to bask in each other’s love. He wanted to learn how to fertilize plants together, so they could keep buying them. But most and foremost he wanted to be not Maverick’s friend, but his husband.
“Do you want to know why?” He asked. He was almost there. Almost.
Maverick shied away, as he shrugged and shook his head.
“Because she thought, my boyfriend had already popped the question” Ice confessed, tasting the word out loud for the first time. The air froze and Mav let out a loud exhale.
“Let me explain..” He rushed to say. Ice shook his head.
“So you did know about it. Was it great? Keeping me in the dark?” He asked, his hurt bubbling to the surface. But he wasn’t angry, just a bit concussed and wile. He could never be angry at Maverick. Maybe if he married another man that wasn’t him. But hopefully, he would never have to find out.
“I-Ms. Tolly, just assumed. Ice, she is a lesbian, her face when he learned we moved in together, I just couldn’t say the truth. That we are only friends. That my wingman has no straight explanation of avoiding girls the way he does yet he still doesn’t pick up on the clues that I am in love with him, so he might just be straight after all. Do you think that would have landed well? She’s an elderly woman who probably lived this exact scenario a thousand times already!” Maverick was spiraling. Ice reached for him, still quite stuck on the part, that Pete was apparently in love with him. But the other man stepped away further. “I played into the fantasy because deep down it was eating me alive, and I finally had someone who didn’t think I was a waste of their time. But eventually the lie got out of hand, and I went a bit far, and she gifted me a ring, Ice! She said she wouldn’t live the day when gay marriage would be legalized so she gave her mother’s ring to me!” Mav sounded desperate, torn. And all air erupted from Ice’s lung, because, as funny as it sounded, he understood. “I didn’t want you to know, because I was scared of losing you” Ice made a lame attempt to stand up, but when he fell back, Maverick moved to him. He reached out again, this time managing to take his hand. Maverick couldn’t get away this time. Not anymore.
“Pete…I…You know I would never leave you, right?” He choked out. Maverick let out a huff of breath as a sign of disbelief. This time it was Ice to cup Pete’s face. “Even if I wasn’t gay I wouldn’t have left you” Maverick gasped quietly.
Things made sense now. The world clicked into place and Iceman saw bright colors for the first time in ages. He knew where he belonged, and who he was. Who he wanted to be. An admiral. And a doting husband. And as he kept looking into Pete’s eyes, he figured it was a fucking good thing that Linda had rejected him. Because it turned out, the only person he ever wanted, wanted him just the same.
“I was willing to settle for anything you would give me. Friendship or more I would have been satisfied. But the lie came easily because it wasn’t just a lie, it was a desire”
“If you ask me now, I will say that I would give you the world. And I don’t expect you to settle for anything less from me” He said in a raspy voice, full of emotion.
“Tom,”
“Ms. Tolly said, you might need a little encouragement. So, Pete Mitchell, man up, bring that ring here, pop the question, so I could finally say yes, and kiss you senseless” The look on Mav’s face, Ice would never forget. He was concussed, maybe, but god, the teary smile, the relief, the happiness on Pete burned into his brain forever. He got up clumsily, not quite finding his pace, and rushed to his jacket. And while he was there Ice took the carrots off of his head as he wasn’t going to be proposed to with a pack of veggies in his face. He might have been concussed but he still had some dignity left.
When Pete rushed back to him it was now with a burgundy box in hand.
He kneeled before Tom and opened the box.
It was a gold wedding band, nothing extravagant. It was perfect. Everything Tom had ever wanted and more.
“Tom, when I met you..” Ice held up a hand.
“The question Mitchell. I’m concussed, remember? You can say the rest tomorrow, after I had taken you to bed” Pete laughed, tears still glistening in his eyes.
“Ice. I don’t just want friendship from you. I want companionship. I long for everything with you. But most of all, I want you to give me your world so I can give you mine. Will you marry me?” Ice sighed, overflowing with happiness. His eyes crinkled as he smiled.
“We have a ‘congratulations on your engagement’ cake in our fridge. I don’t have much of a choice now, do I?” He teased. Pete laughed again. Ice reached out and cupped his face from both sides, he leaned close and whispered a yes before he kissed Maverick with everything he had.
It was cosmic. Magical. It felt like after oh so many failed attempts Ice’s heart had finally arrived home.
The feeling of Maverick’s lips against his sent him into a near state of unconsciousness again.
It was addictive. If Ice ever would have found himself in the situation of doing drugs, he imagined it would have been like this.
Raw. All consuming. Stripping him from everything to the bone, until he was standing before his man completely bare.
When they parted Ice leaned back on the couch, his hand lingering on Pete’s face caressing it softly.
“I think I’m going to throw up” he admitted with a smile still on his lips. Pete’s laughter filled the apartment as he escorted Tom to the bathroom, where he did in fact throw up.
“Good to know what an exceptional kisser I am” he commented, while lending him a glass of water o freshen up.
“Believe me, you are. This is just the concussion” Maverick scoffed.
“Keep telling me that, asshole” Ice laughed.
“But you love me” Mav rolled his eyes.
“Bold of you to just assume that”
“The ring on my finger kind of gives it away” Maverick stepped closer and pulled up Ice while peppering a soft kiss against his cheek.
“Up you go Romeo, I think your celebratory sex will have to wait, I don’t want vomit in my bed” Ice laughed again. They walked back to the couch, their sides pressed together tightly.
Ice turned and kissed Maverick. He reciprocated. It was kind of obnoxious. Ice had just thrown up, it surely couldn’t have been that good. It made him love Pete more.
“I love you,” he said with a swooning expression, which was crazy, Kazanskys weren’t really the swooning types.
“Good to know babe. But the ring kind of gave it away” Pete retorted. He sat down right next to Ice, his head on his shoulder as snatched away the chips, and turned on the TV.
Ice then snatched away the chips and the remote from Pete’s hands who complained loudly.
“Don’t get too comfortable, Linda expects dinner to be on the table, by the time she gets here” he enlightened his husband. Pete cringed.
“You serious? On our engagement day?” Ice popped a chip in his mouth as he shrugged.
“I don’t know her number, so I can’t cancel it”
“But you are concussed!” He reasoned.
“And you are whining! Pull yourself together, and help me cook” he ordered. Maverick scoffed.
“Unbelievable, you can barely stand!” Ice somehow could stay on his two legs confident enough to give Pete an unimpressed look. He signaled to him to also stand up. He did, the sucker.
“Kitchen. Now” Pete grasped his hand, and let Tom pull him away from the TV into the said kitchen.
Ice was reminded again, that Pete was a terrible cook.
He burnt the chicken.
Ice made the peas and the carrots with some butter and seasoning and prayed that Linda would too bring something or else they were going extinct today.
“Stop frowning” Ice gritted out as they waited for six pm to come around. It was only minutes away. They got themselves ready and now were fussing with the tableware. Tom was.
“You wanted to ask her out just this morning, she is competition” Maverick grumbled as he stole a carrot from the bowl. Tom rolled his eyes and swatted Pete’s hand.
“She comes here, knowing we are married!” He reminded him. Pete scoffed.
“As if she could ever pull a man like you” he muttered deaf to whatever Ice had said.
“Pete!”
Linda did end up bringing food. She brought pad thai.
And as they ate Tom had to keep kicking Maverick’s feet under the table so he would stop shooting daggers with his eyes at the poor woman.
Ice loved him so much.
It was perfect.
They were.
And probably will forever be.
Or at least until Ice could put up with Maverick’s bullshit.
When Ice told him that, he just rolled his eyes and argued with an ‘I am cute and you love it’.
And he was absolutely right.