#hangster drabble

[exhuastedpigeon]

Hangster hallmark AU except Jake is the city boyfriend with a high flying corporate job and a deal that, if he manages to land it before the end of the year, will get the promotion he’s been working so hard for because it means his pick of their many offices around the country and better hours as a partner.

And Bradley is the hometown childhood crush who moved back to town earlier that year to look after his mom and her little bakery when she got sick. He looks every bit the hallmark love interest with his soft flannels and beard and doe eyes.

So Jake’s girlfriend (let’s call her Megan) gets mad at Jake for putting his career first (he’s explained the situation to her at least ten times, at this point he’s convinced she just wants to make him the bad guy because they didn’t go to her hometown for thanksgiving either and that was because of her job but he knows she blamed him anyway. He’s fine being the bad guy if it means she’s not taking heat but it does suck because he’s sure her family kind of hates him now). She goes back home and in typical hallmark fashion she keeps running into Bradley.

Megan’s convinced Bradley’s doing it on purpose and well, he’s even hotter that she remembers him being so she leans in and flirts a bit. Bradley’s confused — he definitely remembers Mrs. Walsh saying Megan has a long term boyfriend — but his mom always tells him to smile and be charming when he’s working so he does just that.

Except Bradley wasn’t trying to run into her on purpose, the bakery just supplies most of the little shops in town with their baked goods so he’s almost always running around doing stuff. He’s excited about how well the business is going because now that his mom’s cancer is in remission and business is booming he can move back to San Diego and get back to work at his restaurant (he left it in the very capable hands of Natasha, his kitchen manager and Bob, the general manager, but he misses the warm weather and his friends and the west coast).

Jake manages to land the contract on the 23rd, so he takes that last flight out and manages to make it to Megan’s parent’s place the morning of Christmas Eve after two connecting flights and an hour in a rental car with the radio stuck on the holiday station. When he gets there he finds the Bradshaws and some other local families all there for the annual Christmas Eve brunch.

Megan looks happy, happier than Jake has seen her in a long time, and he sees how she’s looking at the unfairly hot bearded guy with the soft looking curls and the basset hound eyes. It hurts, but he’s never been one to wait around for second place so after a few hours of Megan kind of avoiding him and accidentally making charged eye contact with this Brad guy who his girlfriend (ex girlfriend?) seems to be into, he fakes a call and leaves, heading to the only bar on Main Street.

Bradley, who wasn’t interested in Megan to begin with and definitely isn’t after he sees her act so distant and chilly with her boyfriend, sees all of this unfold and feels really bad for the guy who seemingly took a cross country red eye just to be here. He slips out and heads to the bar, figuring if Jake didn’t skip town, that’s where he’ll be.

Jake sees him walk in and can’t even be that mad. Clearly Megan wasn’t happy with him and clearly she is with this Brad guy. It sucks that it happened and it sucks that Brad is here instead of off on a carriage ride with Megan or whatever they do in these small east coast towns in winter, but he’s not going to let it kill his vibe. He landed the fucking contract. He’s getting the corner office and the best contracts. He’s fucking partner now. Beau already sent him the paperwork, all he has to go is sign it.

Bradley joins him and they get to talking. Jake finds out that Bradley and Megan aren’t together because when he tells Brad he hopes he makes her happy and Bradley laughs and says “it’s Bradley actually, I have no idea why she calls me Brad”. And Jake finds out that Bradley also lives in San Diego, that he was just here temporarily to help his mom, that he’ll be home next month.

It’s a really nice day, all things considered. When they stumble out of the bar that night for the town Christmas festival in the square, Megan sees them with their arms around each other, laughing and smiling, and realizes that fuck she lost both guys. But maybe that’s okay because she really missed it here and she wants to move back no matter what and she heard from Carole that Bradley is heading back to California soon and isn’t it such a small world that they both live in San Diego? Megan won’t be living there for long, but she doesn’t tell Mrs. Bradshaw that.

Jake ends up leaving on Christmas morning to go to Texas for a few days, celebrate with his family and all that jazz. It takes a lot of effort to convince himself to leave the warm bed and even warmer body next to him, but he misses his family and hopefully he’ll see Bradley soon. He leaves his number in Bradley’s phone and hopes for the best.

The first week of the new year he gets a text from Bradley that he’s back in town and would love to see Jake soon. His schedules a little crazy getting back into the swing of things at work so it might be a few weeks. Jake’s just glad Bradley texted though. He doesn’t mind waiting, not after spending Christmas Eve having more fun than he’s had in years. Bradley’s a little mean and sharp and so funny, it’s a little like he was made in a lab for Jake.

So imagine Jake’s surprise when he walks into his favourite restaurant for a celebratory lunch with Beau, Javy, Reuben, Callie, and a few other coworkers only to see Bradley fucking Bradshaw in chef whites chatting with the hostess.

Maybe he and Bradley would have found each other no matter what.

[shealwaysreads]

Traditions

It became a tradition to gather on the beach, when they could, to play dogfight football. Mav invented it to make them into a team, and they kept it up after they’d become even closer than that.

Bradley was flat on his back, hot and sandy.

Nat had shoulder-checked him down into the sand—nothing stood in the way of her urge to win, not even friendship—but it was Jake’s face he saw against the big blue sky.

It was Jake’s hand, pulling him up, and Jake’s mouth on his, an easy kiss.

This was a new tradition, too: them. Together.

Written for the prompt ‘beach’ over at @topgundrabble ❤️

[iprefervillains]

First Kiss 💋

My first drabble for the Top Gun Drabble Challenge:

Jake could never regret his first kiss with Bradley. In his mind, it's stored right next to his other most precious memories.

Sometimes, he wishes he'd been a little more sober for it, though.

Sober enough to still remember it in perfect clarity years later. To still remember the precise feeling of Bradley’s warm hands cradling his head, the way their breaths had mingled in anticipation until they finally caved, the first touch of their lips, the exact sound that left Bradley when Jake deepened the kiss.

Instead, all he remembers is feeling warm all over and thinking:

'God, finally!'

I hit a perfect 100-word count 🥳

Many thanks to Bella @shealwaysreads and Sam @green-socks for organizing this little challenge! 🫶🏻

Go follow them and the event @topgundrabble.

[hangster-hangout]

Jake has a cold and is laying on the couch binge watching first responder soap operas when Bradley gets home from work.

“That could be us.” He points to the tv, his speech a little slurred from the cough medicine.

“What could be us sweetheart?” Bradley takes off his shoes and presses a kiss to Jake’s forehead. Only his head is visible from the mounds of blankets on the couch.

“These two. Hot cop falls for a hot firefighter.” Bradley sits down on the couch and lets Jake rest on his lap.

“Who is who?” Bradley smiles, running his hand through Jake’s hair.

“I’ma cop. You’re the firefighter.” Jake yawns and his eyes start to close. “Rivals. We fall in love anyway.” Bradley presses another kiss on Jake’s head.

“Sounds about right.”

[exhuastedpigeon]

Can't stop picturing Jake's sister bulling him into coming to her bachelorette party because "you're my man of honour Jake, you have to come".

Jake wants to say no. He wants to say no so badly, but Abby is his little sister. They're less than a year apart. He beat up more than one guy in high school for talking about her in the locker room. He'd do anything for her.

And apparently anything includes leaving his perfectly nice apartment and convincing his fire captain to let him switch shifts for the next week so he can stay at an Airbnb less than ten minutes from where he lives in San Diego for the party. He thought Nashville and Scottsdale were the new bachelorette spots, but Abby wanted the ocean so they're giving her the ocean.

They do goat yoga one morning. They spend an entire day at the beach. They go to a sip and paint class. On the last night they have a chef come in a make them a fancy fucking dinner and they all drink too much and despite not wanting to come at first, Jake finds that he's having fun.

And then the hottest firefighter Jake has ever seen shows up at the door. Maybe if he were a little less wine drunk he'd have noticed that the guys uniform was cheap plastic instead of the actual turnout coats they wear. Maybe if he hadn't eaten half an edible he'd be aware enough to realize no one called the fire department. Maybe if Abby's best friend from college hadn't made them all do tequila shots he would have spotted the obvious signs that the guy at the door wasn't a firefighter at all. If he were a firefighter, Jake would probably know him at least in passing. But he did have the tequila shots and he did have too much wine and he did eat half an edible.

So when the guy starts stripping Jake's brain kind of just melts out of his ears.

Abby thinks the whole thing is hilarious. She lets the stripper dance up on her. She puts his helmet on her head and yeah, that's definitely a Halloween costume helmet. Jake kicks himself for not noticing sooner, but now he can't take his eyes off the guys shoulders as he shimmies, making Abby laugh again.

It takes the Abby less than two minutes to clock that Jake is into the stripper so she whispers in his ear to ask if he'd be willing to give her brother a lap dance. She spins a whole story about how Jake is only here because he's such a great brother and he's been such a good sport all weekend.

When the stripper comes over to Jake he's grinning. It's a really nice smile and Jake hates how much he likes the guys mustache. Hates how badly he wants to tug on his curls.

"I heard you've been a really good boy this weekend," The stripper says right into Jake's ear, making him shudder. "Since you've been so good, you can call me Bradley."

Then Bradley proceeds to give Jake the dance of a lifetime, rolling his hips and grinding down on Jake's lap. Jake was pretty sure strippers weren't supposed to touch, but he's not complaining. He even takes Jake's hands from where Jake had them respectfully on the couch and puts them on his hips.

This close, Jake realizes the guy—Bradley—looks familiar. It takes him pushing his sweaty curls off of his forehead for Jake to realize the guy looks so familiar because Jake has seen him before. At fucking work. At the hospital. Because Bradley's a fucking E.R. nurse.

Jake's saving grace is that Bradley doesn't seem to recognize him outside of his uniform.

Five days later when Jake is back at work and in the back of his stations ambulance even though he's fine because he fell through the floor of a burning building trying to save a kid (he did save the kid, so he doesn't care that he's hurt) he spends the entire ride to the hospital praying that the stripper/nurse isn't on shift.

Of course he is though. Nurse Bradshaw turns the prettiest shade of pink Jake has ever seen when he realizes who Jake is and won't look him in the eye for the entire E.R. visit until Jake says, "I think this uniform suits you a hell of a lot better than the other one."

Bradley flips him off, but he stops blushing.

A few weeks later when Jake's dropping off a victim he runs into Bradley again and this time he asks for his number. He finds out on their first date that Bradley started stripping to pay for nursing school and he kept doing it a couple times a month because the money is so good.

[shealwaysreads]

Bronco

Shiny and perfect on Mav’s driveway, fresh from the sprayer: his mom's car, her last gift, blue like the sky.

Bradley's first legal drive, as familiar as the sofa at home. Freedom tasted like hot asphalt and sea air.

Dented and glass-shattered after the crash that left scars on his face and the knowledge of his alone-ness deep in his bones. No-one for the hospital to call.

Dusty but ever-present in his own garage after long deployments. A tender restoration.

Pulled into an empty lot--engine smoking--keys sharp in his fist. Bradley presses call.

“Hangman? Can you come pick me up?"

Written for the prompt 'dead wife montage (with a twist)' over at @topgundrabble ❤️

[exhuastedpigeon]

#74 want to hear my alibi for any ship!!

Hi Hale! This is a very fun one!

hangover from hell

"You," Nat turns to Jake as he slides into the opposite side of the booth from her, doing her best to glare at him. She's not sure if it works since she's still got sunglasses on, but it was worth a shot.

He looks much less worse for wear than the everyone else, tired but not like death warmed over. His hair is still a little damp like he even managed a shower this morning instead of doing what Nat did, which was throw up several times while trying to psych herself up to get in the shower. Hell, half the table is still wearing the same clothes from the night before, but not Jake. He's got a fresh white tee shirt on and a comfy looking pair of sweats.

"Me?" Jake looks around like she could be talking to someone else.

"Yes, you," She leans across the table to poke him in the chest. "Where the fuck did you disappear to last night? I had to get Javy home!"

"I got you home, asshole," Javy lifts his head off the table to respond before putting it back down.

"Semantics," Nat waves his comment off. "So, where'd you get to and why the fuck did you leave so early?"

"Tell me, Trace," Jake grins at her like she's being funny. "What time do you think I left."

"Early!" Nat exclaims, not actually sure what time he left. The night started with tequila shots around 7 to celebrate surviving another mission and only got more blurry from there.

"I left at 11," Jake tells her, grabbing one of the untouched coffees off the table and taking a sip. "Which is a perfectly respectable time to go home when you're 33 years old. It's not my fault you dumb asses all forgot that you're old now and that you can't hang."

"Nah. Nope. I don't buy it," Nat says, looking around the table where everyone is nodding in agreement. "You don't leave early unless you've got a reason, so what's the reason."

"What do you want? To hear my alibi? Are you worried I dipped early to murder someone?" Jake's laugh is accompanied by the bell over the door dinging. Nat looks over to see Bradley walking in looking just as fresh as Jake.

"Oh get fucked," Javy says, looking between Jake and Bradley. Nat blames the hangover from hell on why it takes her so long to put it all together.

"No."

Jake's still grinning, "Yes."

"Bradshaw tell me you didn't take Hangman home with you last night," She says when he reaches the table and squeezes in next to Jake. Fucking hell, he definitely did take Jake home.

"I didn't take Hangman home with me last night," Bradley parrots back dutifully before he steals Jake's coffee right out of his hands.

"Lying ain't a cute look on you, asshole," Jake takes his coffee back, pushing a fresh one towards Bradley along with the sugar.

"Come on baby, it's not a lie," Bradley somehow gets even more into Jake's space. "You took me home."

"Now would be a good time to pull out that SAT word, Trace," Jake turns to her with a shit eating smile before looking back at Bradley, his smiling turning soft around the edges. Natasha thinks she might be sick again. "Semantics."

"I fucking hate you both," Nat says, dropping her head onto the table so she doesn't have to watch whatever is about to happen. Based on the groans and wolf whistle from Javy, she's pretty sure they're making out. "Someone put me out of my misery."

As if summoned by magic, their server reappears. Ruth is their regular on Sunday mornings, so she's at least used to their antics, "Are y'all ready to order?"

"Yes," Nat looks up to see Bradley's arm draped along the back of the booth, his fingers playing with the sleeve of Jake's shirt. "I'll have the number two with wheat toast and some bleach to soak my eyes in if you've got it."

Ruth follows Nat's gaze to Jake and Bradley. Her eyebrows shoot up, but she smiles at them like she's not surprised. Nat drops her head back onto the table. She's too fucking hungover to deal with this.

Drabble List #14 / read on ao3