like. you see. goosemav is real but in the sense that not only was goose maverick's best friend, his job responsibility, BUT. BUT. goose had a wife. goose had a son. even if he was a couple of years older than maverick, goose was the adult. goose became maverick's father and carole became his mother in the way parents treat a son that's moved out of the house. they fed him they cared for him, and maverick always had that rock to fall back on because bradley was too young to require that much of them. goose asked maverick to not make stupid decisions for his family, maverick being part of that family, and maverick betrayed that trust in the worst possible way.
all of this to say maverick ALSO had the friend who would laugh at him and call him pretty, call him beautiful and do his collar up. that's who goose was to him, too. goose who would egg him on in flirting with pretty girls and maybe sometimes some of that was done solely with the purpose to impress goose with how quickly maverick could wow a woman.
the intricacies and the gaps that goose fit into in maverick's mess of a life where he was looking for love anywhere he could find it, actually finding it in the form of the bradshaws, and then also experiencing love in a way that he didn't know could be possible or that was even socially expected.
you understand. goose was his best friend. goose was his father. goose was everything juuuuuuuust short of a lover.
their relationship is SO complex it WOULD have freud rolling in his grave there was the mutual respect, the mutual love, the familial bond that haunts maverick through bradley's eyes.
