Summary : Despite how much he irritates you, when Jake loses his father’s watch, you go to the moon and back to bring it back to him.
Pairing : Jake “Hangman” Seresin x Fem!Reader
Important info : Your call sign is Lightning ⚡️ :)
Disclaimer : English is not my first language so sorry for any grammatical errors that might have escaped my proofreading !💞
Word count : 5.5k
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“Lightning watch out !”
You barely had time to register that Javy was screaming your call sign before a ball came crushing down next to you, sending sand flying everywhere on your opened book and sticky, lathered in sunscreen, skin.
Beautiful colors of pink and violet were painting the sky, the sun beginning his descent towards the western aerosphere. It had shined brightly throughout the entirety of the squad’s monthly beach day, bathing your skin in warmth and golden light.
“For fuck’s sake, Javy ! You guys can shoot down a target from two hundred feet while flying at Mach one but you can’t aim a volleyball for shit !” You snapped, dusting the thousands of grains of sands from your book and towel.
Next to you Natasha was hiding a laugh behind her own book.
Pointing a finger at her, you warned, “don’t you dare laugh at me, Nat.” You got up to brush off more sand off your legs, “that’s why I hate going to the beach with them, there’s nothing less relaxing on this earth,” you mumbled out, a frown making the lines on your forehead prominent.
“My bad, Lightning !” Jake called out, his hands around his mouth to amplify the sound, though his tone was very much not apologetic, and the smirk stretching his lips only fueled the irritation simmering under your skin.
Glaring at him, you debated for a second on yelling back a piece of your mind, indulge into this game he seemed to initiate anytime he could. Riling you up, provoking you and then simply grinning like an idiot when you eventually ended up taking the bait.
But for once, you decided to be the bigger person. So you settled on raising your middle finger high enough that he could very much identify what lovely sign you were throwing his way.
“I love you too, darlin’ !” He yelled back.
You rolled your eyes so hard you feared for a moment that they’d get permanently stuck.
“Careful, you’re blushing,” Natasha snickered, still lying next to you.
Scoffing you flipped her off as well, “which side are you on ?”
“The side of love, darlin’.” She smiled in a perfect imitation of Jake’s Texan drawl.
You couldn’t have contained the laugh that broke out of you even if you tried, “shit, you actually sound just like him.”
“I know,” she cooed, obviously proud of her trick, “is it turning you on ?” She inquired, wiggling her eyebrows at you.
A shocked laugh escaped you, “Geez Nat—“
“OH MY GOD WHAT TIME IS IT ?” Javy’s sudden gasp made you both jump as he came running towards you, where all of the squad’s stuff was and he started abruptly digging through his bag.
“It’s seven.” Bob supplied after a quick look to his watch.
“I was supposed to meet my mom for dinner fifteen minutes ago,” he explained, panicked as he was hastily grabbing all his stuff and throwing it carelessly in his bag. “Jake, can you drive me ?”
Usually, you carpooled to avoid bringing everyone’s car and having to park too far away if the beach was busy that day.
“Let me think about it…” Jake walked over, deliberately slow, pretending to think it over.
Javy groaned, not in the mood to entertain his friend’s antics, “come on, man.”
Jake sped up a bit, raising his arms in mock defense, “alright, alright, don’t throw a fit mama’s boy. I’ll drive you.”
As he was gathering his own stuff, you suddenly saw him frown, and then frantically look around. Lifting his towel, emptying his bag only to pack it again, passing his hands in the sand in visible hope of stumbling upon something…
You were about to throw in a witty remark when you noticed something missing on his wrist.
His watch.
His father’s watch.
In its place was now a tanning line. A ribbon of whiter skin surrounded by his Californian and natural Texan tan.
It didn’t take a genius, nor being Jake’s best friend to know how precious that watch was to him, or to guess that it might have been one of the last few things left from his dad.
He wore it at all times. There weren’t much occasion you had seen him without it ever since you’d met him. It had stayed securely around his wrist all throughout Naval Academy, and then had stayed through every one of his deployment until he got permanently assigned in San Diego. During every flight, every mission, every exam even, every casual outing… You could always see the watch rest proudly on his cuff. Perhaps it was the only thing about him Jake didn’t feel the need to flex, a quiet legacy he carried around with him, feeling the weight of it in his every move, every decision.
The only times he ever took it off was during underwater training and at the beach if he went for a swim. Surely a watch like that was waterproof and even capable of descending a few feet deep, but the fact that Jake was unwilling to bring it with him in an environment it was specifically designed to survive in, was only another proof of its value to him.
He never talked about it. Never ever voiced the words ‘my dad’ out loud, but everyone knew. You knew.
Javy was ready to go, packed bag at his feet as he hastily threw in a t-shirt over his head, “Jake ? Are you good to go ?”
Jake froze for a moment. It was rare to see him display anything other than sheer haughtiness. And it weirdly tugged at your heartstrings to see him look so lost for an instant.
You were about to help him look for his watch — sure you hated him, but that didn’t mean you didn’t feel empathy for him losing something so precious to him, when—
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” He said a bit absentmindedly, his eyes still frantically looking around as he stuffed, slightly violently, all his stuff in his backpack.
He quickly got up, threw the bag over his shoulder as Javy was waving everyone goodbye and starting to make a run for Jake’s truck.
You watched Jake with a shock you hoped wasn’t too visible. Yes, he was the emotionally constipated type, never one to speak about feelings or do so much as even mention or acknowledge them, but surely when he was about to lose, perhaps forever, the one thing that probably meant more to him than the whole world, he would say something, express himself, let it out.
And you knew that if he’d speak up right now, the whole squad would stop everything and help him look for it. Javy would run right back on the warm sand and rampage through the entire beach if he had to.
Surely, he had to know that the squad wouldn’t see him as weak over getting a little panicked upon losing the one item he held so dearly in his heart ?
But you watched, stunned, and for some reason with a weight pressing down on your chest, as Jake looked one last time at the beach, eyes boring into the sand as if the distance would give him some perspective and help him spot the watch in a nanosecond.
“See you on Monday,” he threw to everyone over his shoulder, soundly halfhearted as he turned around and began to walk towards his truck, joining Javy.
The image stuck with you for some reason. it was like seeing him willingly abandon a piece of himself behind, and for what ? Just so he could hold on to his ‘feelings make you weak’ Hangman persona ?
If you had been closer to him, and in any place at all to call him out on this, you would have screamed at him. Yanked him back by the collar and prohibited anyone to leave this beach until the watch wasn’t back on its rightful place, on Jake’s wrist.
“I think I’m gonna head out as well,” Reuben spoke up, “does anyone want me to drop them home ?”
“Me please,” cheered Mickey, dusting some sands off his chest.
“Yes, please. Thanks Reuben,” Bob smiled, gathering his things.
“I’ll ride with Y/N, we’re gonna head back as well, right ?” Natasha turned to you.
If you had been able to say anything other than insults and provocative remarks, you would have reassured him.
If you had been able to consider yourself his friend, you would have helped him look for it.
“Y/N ?”
But you were capable of none nor were you any of those things.
And still—
“Actually I’m gonna stay a bit longer,” you blurted out without really thinking about it.
“You sure ?” Natasha questioned, skeptical.
“Yeah, the sunset is beautiful, it’s still warm and my book is getting really good, I’ll stay for a bit.” You assured, as if trying to convince yourself more than Natasha.
“Alright,” she conceded, still eyeing you a bit suspiciously, “be careful, you text me when you get home and don’t forget that Penny’s right next door if you have any problem,” she pointed to the Hard Deck which was facing the beach.
“Yes mom,” you chuckled as she playfully rolled her eyes at you.
As Reuben’s car drove away, you stood there for a moment. Watching the waves crash on the beach, the soothing sound of it blending with the distant echo of music coming from the Hard Deck. This beach wasn’t an especially popular one, and you marveled for a second at being the only person standing there.
Why had you stayed ?
You kinda had blurted it out without any real thoughts of what you would actually do once left alone.
Because you hadn’t stayed for the sunset or your book, in fact, the book was getting a bit boring if you were honest.
Jake’s expression when being met with the realization he’d lost his watch suddenly flashed into your mind and it made your heart clench. And perhaps it was what prompted you to start digging in the sand where his towel had previously been lying.
“I can’t believe I’m fucking doing this,” you muttered to yourself while rummaging through the sand, the watch couldn’t be far… right ?
You didn’t even notice when the warm light of the sunset got subsided by the sharp, white one of the moon.
The spot where the squad had previously established its camp was empty. You didn’t find anything apart from a few seashells and a colony of small crabs that you had probably woken up from their slumber.
You probably should have gone home. The watch obviously wasn’t there. But then your gaze drifted out towards the ocean… the guys usually played volleyball closer to the water, perhaps Jake had lost the watch around there ?
The cold breeze coming from the ocean had started to pick up as you searched the grounds of what was previously the volleyball court.
And when you didn’t find anything there, you moved on to other parts of the beach, trying to remember and retrace the entirety of Jake’s steps during the day. Your knees were aching from being constantly on them, hands pruned from the wet sand you’d been digging up, nails completely darkened by the grains. Your phone was slowly dying, using all its battery to shine inside the holes you were digging up, desperate to see a flash of silver. And it was cold, so, so cold. The wind was getting stronger, making you clutch your hoodie tighter around yourself.
The moon had well settled into the sky now, an indicator of just how much time you’d spent there.
You had wanted to give up, oh so many times. But everytime you had wanted to get up and leave, an image of Jake’s face would flash back into your mind. The way he had looked back at the beach, like he was saying goodbye to his dad a second time. And every time, without fail, your brain had conjured images of him getting home, and calling his mom back in Texas, telling her about how he had lost the watch and the image was just too painful for you, enough to bring unwanted and in your opinion, unjustified, tears to your eyes if you thought about it too much.
Anyone could have argued you were being overly dramatic over a guy who you proclaimed your hatred towards from the rooftops. And you would have agreed. But you wouldn’t leave this beach until the watch was secured in your hands.
You were on your hands and knees, near shore where the water was gently lapping up at the sand, bringing new things and taking away some when—
“Y/N ! Is that you ?”
Penny’s voice from the front of the beach made you jumped.
“Jesus Christ, Penny !” You exclaimed, a hand over your racing heart, “you scared the shit out of me !”
Jogging up lightly to meet her, you saw her frown when she took in the state of you, her worried face illuminated by the Hard Deck’s sign.
“What are you doing out there, sweetheart ?” She asked softly, and you could perceive the same tone in her voice she’d use with Amelia sometimes, no doubt that her maternal instinct were kicking in, seeing you all alone, covered in sand and digging up holes in the dark.
“Oh I was— I lost my bracelet earlier, you know we had our beach day with the squad ? Yeah, so the bracelet means a lot to me and I— I couldn’t leave without it.”
You pestered Jake for being emotionally constipated but you couldn’t even admit to Penny, of all people, sweetest woman alive who’d never judge you, that you were doing this solely for him.
“I see,” she said, an empathetic smile pulling at her lips, “I’ll help you.”
“No don’t worry Penny, it’s alright, promise. I’m all good.”
Was there a sick part of you that wanted to be the one to find Jake’s watch ? Maybe, you would deny all of it thought.
“At least I’ll wait for you, I just closed the bar.”
“Don’t worry,” you repeated with the sweetest smile you could mutter out at the moment, “I won’t stay much longer anyway.”
“You sure ?”
“I am, thank you though that’s really nice of you.”
“Could you at least activate your location please ? And also text me when you get home, okay ?”
Saluting her you let out a chuckle, “I will, Penny. Promise.”
“Alright.” She conceded, bregrundly.
She knew this beach was safe, otherwise she would have never left you alone. You parted with a warm hug and watched her drive away, similar to how you’d watched your friends leave a few hours ago now… God, had it been really that much time ?
You were beginning to lose hope, Jake’s watch seemed to have truly vanished, and you tried to ignore the heavy feeling sitting on your chest that came along with this conclusion. Telling yourself to check towards the west side of the beach before leaving, though you knew it was useless, you couldn’t really recall Jake going there, you still crouched, and began to dig, again…
Phone flash blasting in the dark, the light reflected on something then…. Silver !
“Oh my god !”
You rubbed your eyes to make sure the sight in front of you was real and not the fatigue making you hallucinate. But it was real, the small silver circle was still there.
“Oh my god !” You exclaimed again in a laugh, immediately digging in.
And sure enough, the watch was there. Covered in sand, but there. You carefully inspected it for damage, but other than the general dirt, it seemed fine.
Turning the watch over, your eyes caught something. The initials of who you could only guess was his father were delicately engraved in the metal, G.S. Before you could even think about it, your thumb passed, almost tenderly over the gravure.
A small, disbelieving laugh escaped you again, and it was incredibly chocked up. You didn’t even notice you’d been tearing up until you felt something wet roll down your cheeks.
Quickly you wiped the tears off, a feeling of embarrassment creeping up your neck even though you were the sole person standing on this beach, moonlight illuminating your figure.
Forcing your emotions to settle down, it was only a watch for Christ’s Sake, you practically ran all the way back to your car. It felt as if your whole body was buzzing, and you couldn’t explain this weird feeling of excitement and… was it fulfillment ?
A genuine giddiness was coursing through your veins as you drove home, you couldn’t wait for Jake to have his watch again. See him settle, knowing his father’s legacy was in him, like it’s always been and always would be, but the physical representation of it, back on his wrist. The comforting weight of it bringing meaning to every one of his moves.
The excitement kept you awake once you were home, so you took the time to carefully clean the watch. You physically couldn’t give it back to him like that. And soon enough, once you were sure that there was not even the tiniest grain of sand left in any notches, only then, did sleep finally caught up to you.
The sun wasn’t even up yet when you made your way to base the next morning. You had decided that you would just leave the watch in his locker, he didn’t need to know who found it, and maybe he wouldn’t be too happy to see you holding his father’s watch, considering you hated each other…. Right ? At least that’s what you told yourself.
Arriving in front of his locker, you opened his numbered lock, honestly who was stupid enough to put in their birthday as a password ?
But then, anyone could argue that it was weird you knew his birthday, as someone who hated him so much.
Refusing to give this any more thought, you neatly placed the watch in his locker, on a little rag. You made sure one last time that it was perfectly clean, made sure it was not askew, made the sure the rag wasn’t wrinkled…. And for a moment it felt as if you were stalling.
“My god, I need to get a grip,” you mumbled to yourself, finally closing the locker door, a bit more forcefully than you had intended.
“I’m telling you, my mom is obsessed with getting me in a relationship !” Javy complained to Jake on their way to the locker room, “last night she just kept showing me pictures of her friends’ daughters and being like ‘you two would make an adorable couple’ like, oh my god, can’t a man go at his own pace ?”
Jake only hummed, not exactly in the mood to discuss Javy’s mom self proclaimed matrimonial agency.
Each of his step was heavy. Heavy with the lack of sleep and the mass pressing down on his chest. The missing weight on his wrist made him feel strangely stripped bare, like a piece of himself was missing, left where he had abandoned it on the beach the night before.
When Jake had gotten home after dropping Javy off, he had cursed himself. He couldn’t believe he had actually walked away, without even taking the time to look for the watch, no he had just left.
He had to refrain back tears when his mom had called him that night, asking him about his day, and he hadn’t had the courage to tell her what had happened, consumed by sorrow and shame. He felt pathetic. He spent that entire night sulking, thinking about how ashamed his father would be if he saw him like that. It felt like letting him down.
“Like she doesn’t get that I don’t want to settle down, I mean not yet anyway—“
“Yeah, tell her you want to keep bringing girls home from the Hard Deck every weekend for a little while longer, I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to hear it.” Jake finally answered Javy’s rant, trying to give his remark its usual wit.
“You fucking jerk, you’re supposed to be on my side !” Javy whined, opening up his locker.
Jake was abort to retort something but the words died on the tip of his tongue when he opened his own locker.
He froze.
He was met with his watch. Neatly placed on a small rag, looking as new as the day he had received it from his dad, just a few days before losing his battle against cancer.
His heart skipped a beat in his chest. How ?
Jake stayed there for what felt like an eternity to him, but was only a few mere seconds, just staring at the watch. He could faintly hear Javy next to him still talking, now rambling about how his mother compared him to his cousin or whatever, but the sound of his voice was drawn out, an echo in Jake’s ears.
With shaky hands, he gently grabbed the watch and immediately turned it over, eyes fixed on his father’s initials that he traced with a tender pass of his thumb, and his heart clenched, suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of emotion.
He had no idea how the watch had gotten there, and perhaps it should have worried him a bit more — whoever this was had cracked the impossible code of his locker for Goodness’s sake ! — but he chose to pay it no mind.
Now Jake wasn’t superstitious or a believer of any kind, far from it, actually. But in this moment, he chose to believe that whatever, whoever had found his watch and brought it back to him, had somehow been missioned by his father, who had probably been very upset about his son being so careless with the precious time teller.
Jake knew it was stupid, truly. His father, from the beyond, somehow orchestrating a whole plan to find the watch left on the beach and leave it in his locker on base, was a stupid theory. But the thought of it made a warmth spread out in his chest and his eyes sting slightly. So he decided that for once, he would let himself believe in a little stupidity.
This weird mix of euphoria and serenity hadn’t left him the entire week. He felt good, more confident now that the watch was back on his wrist. And he would sometimes just stare at it for a few moments, in amazement and incredible gratefulness for having been given a second chance, that’s how he saw it. And he would honor his father in every action he took while securely wearing the watch.
He had found a new vigor, a new desire to win, one that made him better, he thought. Though the squad would probably argue it just made him more insufferable.
So that’s with a pumped up step that Jake walked into the Hard Deck that week end, closely followed by everyone.
“Alright, what do you guys want ?” He cheered, still in an exceptionally good mood.
The squad all gave him their orders before going to find some seats, you merely grumbled a ‘nothing that comes from you’ and somehow, Jake understood it meant a virgin mojito.
He made his way to the bar, patiently waiting for Penny to finish off her conversation with a customer.
“Hey, sailor !” She greeted with a smile when she saw him, “what can I get you and the squad ?”
After he told her, she started to prepare the drinks on front of him, making small talk, asking about training, how life was on base when—
“Oh by the way,” she seemed to remember, momentarily stopping the making of your virgin mojito to look at Jake, “do you know if Y/N found her bracelet ?”
Jake frowned, confused.
“Um, I don’t know. I didn’t know she had lost a bracelet,” he said, head turning slightly to look for you in the crowd and he suddenly frowned more, looking back at Penny, “in fact, I didn’t even know she wore bracelets, her wrists are usually bare.”
“Oh, because I saw her last week, after your guy’s beach day. I closed the bar a little earlier than usual because it was pretty quiet, and she was there, digging in the sand, looking for her bracelet. I proposed to help her but she said she was fine. It was quite late though, so it really must have mean a lot to her, that’s why I was wondering if she’d found it. But I’ll ask her myself later then, thanks Jake.”
Penny’s words had the effect of a sledgehammer hitting Jake right in the chest. The realisation dawned on him and he froze for a moment, not sure what to do with the newfound piece of information.
“You okay ?” Penny asked him, his shock seemingly visible on his features.
Her voice got him out of his trance.
“Yeah, yeah I’m good, thank you for the drinks Penny, talk to you later !”
He made a beeline for the spot the squad had settled in, their usual one, next to one the pool tables. He absentmindedly handed the drinks to everyone, keeping your virgin mojito in his hands and making his way over to you. His heart was beating so hard in his chest that it was borderline painful. It seemed as though his vision had zeroed in on you, only you. Images of you on the beach at night, cold, alone, tired but still looking for his watch flashed into his mind and he felt a knot get caught up in his throat.
He barely heard the ‘thank you’s’ the squad threw him.
Leaning over some of the high tables near the windows, you were watching Mickey, Reuben and Bob engage in a heated game of pool.
“No Mickey it’s still my turn,” you watched with a smile as Reuben interjected his friend, “you sinked the cue ball so I get to shoot twice, gosh you’d think that you’d know the rules after playing literally every week end !”
You snorted, amused by their banter. And out of the corner of your eye, you saw Jake walking towards you. Expression unreadable but his step visibly determined.
Arriving in front of you, he practically shoved the drink in your hand.
“I told you I didn’t want anything,” you said, monotonously, nonetheless still grabbing the glass.
Any excuse was good enough to start a fight with him.
You turned your gaze back to the pool game unfolding in front of you, but when the quick wit you were expecting from him never came, you turned back to him, frowning.
His jade green eyes were trained on you. Chest rising up quickly, like he’d ran a marathon before coming here. You didn’t think you had ever seen him so… moved.
“You good ?” You asked, letting your tone convey the tiniest bit of concern.
Jake took a shaky breath, “why didn’t you tell me ?”
The hand that was bringing the glass to your lips froze halfway through.
“Tell you what ?”
“My watch.” Was all he said, eyes still boring into yours, seemingly looking for answers you were absolutely not intent on giving.
Your eyes quickly flicked to the leather band sitting proudly on his wrist.
You had noticed it all week, how it was right back on shining on his cuff. How Jake had seemed to smile even more cockily than before, brighter. And you hadn’t been able to ignore the weird, warmth feeling spreading in your chest every-time you had caught him eyeing his wrist with a flash of pride and cherish.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you replied, forcing yourself to keep an annoyed tone as your eyes flicked back up to meet his.
“There’s no use in lying, I know it was you.” He said, voice firm and steady despite the whirlwind of emotions threatening to choke him up, “why ?”
You weren’t known to give up that easily.
“Jesus Seresin, I literally told you I have no idea what you’re talking about, go win at darts or something, leave me alone.”
Swallowing uncomfortably under his prying gaze, you silenced the tiny voice in your head that was telling you just how much similar to Jake you were in terms of showing feelings.
Facing your stubborn resolve in not telling him the truth, Jake let out a small, humorless laugh, “Y/N I just want to thank you properly, so please, for once, just let up.”
Let up. Stop fighting me for a second, was really what he was saying. And looking at him be willing to be honest and open for once did something to you.
“I did it because you looked all pathetic, okay ? And really, I didn’t want you sulking all day on base and mess up every training.” you finally conceded, tone annoyed despite the loud thumping of your heart in your chest, “besides it was just underneath where you had put down your towel, so really you could’ve found it if you had put a bit more effort into it. But I guess that it’s just another thing I’m better at than you, huh ?”
It was a complete lie. And both of you knew it.
Just the fact that you had been the only one to notice he had lost his watch told him everything he needed to know. And he knew from Penny that you had stayed well past midnight looking for it. To see you in front of him, knowing the length you had been to for him — despite what you were saying — made his heart do something inexplicable.
And Jake moved before he could think any more about it. He slightly bent down to wrap his arms around you, slipping under your own and hugging your middle, bringing you into his chest, chin resting on your shoulder, head touching yours.
All your muscles stiffened on instinct. The contact took you by surprise and you stayed frozen like that for a second, letting him hold you without reciprocating the touch.
He was warm, very warm. His arms were tightly wrapped around you, one draped across your shoulder blades and the other one across your waist. His body was firm against yours and for a moment, you almost thought you could feel the thumping of his heart against your chest. Your head was resting just shy of the crook of his neck, on his shoulder, and despite yourself, you caught a whiff of his smell, residue of jet fuel, his expensive cologne, the warmth of his skin and something so undeniably him it almost made your head spin.
“Thank you,” he whispered shakily, a small crack in his Hangman armor.
Those words and his tone felt like a detonator, hearing him sounding so small almost broke your heart. It only took a second after that for your arms to wrap around his neck. And as soon as your arms made contact, you felt his whole body relax and melt into you.
“You don’t have to thank me,” you whispered back, rubbing his back comfortingly.
He seemed so small in this moment and it pulled at your heartstrings to know he was letting you be the one to seem him like that.
“You don’t know how much this means to me.” He murmured into your neck.
Oh, but you did. That was the whole reason you had done it.
It seemed as thought the entire bar had gone quiet, leaving only Jake and you, wrapped up in each other. You had no idea how long you stayed like that. But you certainly weren’t complaining, your arms tightening around him was met with the same intensity from Jake.
But the sudden sharp sound of a glass hitting the floor and shattering in pieces took you both out of the peaceful and comfort trance the embrace had took you both in. And you both found yourselves pulling away, reluctantly.
You noticed the slight pink hue dusting Jake’s cheeks, and his green eyes were bright, almost glassed over, shining with unshed tears.
God knew that if you had the courage you would take him into another embrace right here and then, and not let him go until the first rays of sunshine peaked through the windows, or realistically, probably until Penny kicked you out.
But unable to succumb to your deepest desire, no matter how much you wanted to, you instead fell back into your old ways.
“Try not to lose it again, cause I won’t get it for you next time.” You warned, though your tone was missing its usual bite.
You would.
You would do it all over a hundred times if needed.
Jake let out a laugh, a bit choked up, but a genuine one nonetheless.
“I promise.” He said in a smile as bright as a thousand suns.
And you had a scary realization then.
That in fact, there was not a lot you wouldn’t do to see him smile like that again.
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author's note : I have had this fic idea for literally forever and I’m so happy I finally got down to write it.
I really wanted to kinda ‘dig deep’ into Jake’s character here, I hope it worked and that I was able to do him justice. He’s my baby I love him so much.💞
Also quick question, are we sick of Jake and reader being rivals ? It’s like my favorite trope with Jake and the only one I really see fit with a character like him, and I have so many more ideas but they are all with rival reader and I don’t want it to feel redundant for you guys, so tell me what you think !
I think Jake always thought to be the cool dad, doing all sorts of cool things with his kid, dressing up his baby in cool outfits, showing him or her off. But now that he is an actual dad, he changed his mind about that when reality hits him. Babies get sick, a lot, teeth coming through, nightmares, sleepless nights. All the wants to do is take care of you and your little kiddo. Because now you are taking care of the little one with the two of you, but when he's away for work, it's all coming down on your shoulders. His admiration and respect for you grows every day.
He doesn't want to be the cool dad yet, that can wait, he wants to be the loving and caring dad. And he likes it a lot.
Summary : After too many drinks at the Hard Deck, your emotions are running high and witnessing everyone reject Jake when all he wanted to do was play pool, was your last straw.
Pairing : Jake "Hangman" Seresin × Fem!Reader
Important info : Your call sign is Lightning ⚡️:)
Disclaimer : English is not my first language so apologies for any grammatical errors that might have escaped my proofreading. Also I have never been drunk in my life so sorry for any lack of realism there💞
Word count : 6.1k
Part two :)
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“This is so much fun,” you declared, mostly to yourself, as you took a sip of your fifth drink, swaying slightly on your tool.
Reuben and Mickey had insisted to go to the Hard Deck on Friday night after a grueling week of training, and they dragged everyone with them. They even had managed to get you to come even though you were fervent on spending a calm evening at home. Their insistent pestering and pleading, along with Mickey promising to buy you your first two drinks, eventually sealed the deal for you. Who were you to refuse free drinks ?
Quite quickly after arriving at the bar, all of you had settled in your self proclaimed corner, the one with the biggest pool table which was also not too far from the throwing darts game.
It was later into the evening now, you had let yourself seduced by shots with Natasha and you hadn’t exactly stopped drinking after that. Sipping your mojito happily, you took a moment to take a look at the members of your squad, who were spread out in two groups. Natasha, Bradley and Bob seemed to be having a vigorous debate over by the dart board, while Javy, Reuben, Mickey and Jake were engrossed into a party of pool, which Jake was leading, of course.
Bradley had invited you to their game a little while ago but you had gently refused, opting to just sit for a moment, content to watch your friends have fun while enjoying the warm feeling the alcohol was giving you. It wasn’t very often you drank, not really liking the way you became so emotional and loosed tongue. But so far, you seemed to be doing fine, the liquor in your system making you feel giddy for once and not so mushy like it usually did.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, how the hell are you still winning when there’s three of us against you ?” Mickey complained, which caught your attention.
“This is actually starting to feel unfair,” Reuben agreed, putting his cue stick on the pool table, while Javy was letting out an exasperated grumble.
“I don’t know boys, I’m just that good. There’s nothing you can do about it except maybe just make peace with it,” Jake retorted, a smirk brighter than the sun itself stretching his lips. “Let’s go again, I promise to go easy on you this time.” He winked charmingly at his three friends who were staring at him with infiltrated irritation.
“No way, I’m out.” Javy capitulated, throwing his arms in the air before walking towards the bar.
“Okay,” Jake smiled, letting the last syllable linger, “damn, didn’t know you were such a sore loser Coyote.” He called out after his friend, “come on, Payback, Fanboy, you two against me.”
“Sorry man, honestly it’s not even fun anymore,” Reuben declared.
Jake just waved him off, turning to Mickey expectantly.
“No way.” The man simply said before walking with Payback towards the rest of the group next to the dart board.
Jake was left with an air of incredulity deforming his features.
“What the hell, guys ? So what, you’re just gonna leave me hanging ?”
“Now you know what that feels like,” Bradley called out to him with a smirk, evidently proud of his quick wit.
“Shut the fuck up, chicken.” He then, looked at the rest of the squad while walking over to them, “are you serious ? No one wants to play with me ?”
You had been watching the whole exchange quietly from your barstool, and you didn’t like the way Jake’s tone changed, almost imperceptibly to the normal human ear, but it didn’t go unnoticed by you. Nothing he would ever do would go unnoticed by you, which you considered to be your greatest misfortune.
“Are you really surprised ? Nobody likes playing with you, Hangman.” Natasha retorted harshly.
In any other circumstances you would have agreed with her, threw in a snappy remark of your own, not wasting an opportunity to put him in his place. But in your state, her tone sounded overly cruel in your ears. And the way Jake reacted was not helping the oncoming wave of empathy and emotion you could feel rising in your throat.
He simply looked at them with an unreadable expression for a second and just as he was about to say something, Javy returned to the dart board, carrying a tray full of drinks.
“Alright who’s up for darts ? Jake, don’t even think about it dude, leave us a chance to win.”
Jake cleared his throat, “Yeah, okay. I mean, I thought pilots like you would like some competition but if you like an easy win, have at it,” he conceded with a resigned grimace.
“We’re not in the air, Bagman, let us have fun. Not everything has to be hardcore competition,” Bradley almost snarled at him, while taking off some drinks from Javy’s tray.
Jake let out a bitter chuckle, “yeah, alright. Have fun then.” He said before walking back to the pool table, where he had left his drink.
Despite the bravado he forced himself to put on at all times, it was clear as day he was hurt, and you felt your heart tighten. It wasn’t often you saw him showing any other emotion that wasn’t infuriating cockiness, thinking about it, never had you seen him like that.
Jake loved pool, everyone knew that. Sure, you could say that every respectable fighter pilot liked pool, it was always fun to play. But Jake ? Genuinely loved it, his face would light up when he was playing, especially when he was winning. Which was pretty much all the time. Every time you all went to the Hard Deck together, he would practically rush for the pool table in the left corner, hurrying everyone else, already putting on chalk on his cue. He knew all these strategies, which you had always laughed at, why need strategies ? It was literally a ball sinking game. Jake was also capable of doing these — this you’d admit — insane tricks with the balls, giving them effects as he sunk them, even making the cue ball jump over a striped one so that it could sunk one of his full ones and he was always ecstatic to show off to anyone who would deigned to watch him.
And with no warning, you felt tears rising to your eyes as you stared at Jake sipping his drink all alone. Why would they reject him like that ? He just wanted to play. Your heart lurched at the sight, your squad having fun together, and Jake, reassembling the balls to prepare to break them, so that he could play, by himself.
Without any second thought, drink still in your hand, you got up from your stool, swaying lightly and cursing as your feet hit the ground. If you needed any confirmation that you had too much to drink, this was it.
For a minute you felt dizzy — your blurry vision not helping — you waited a moment to avoid completely falling flat on your face and made your way to your friends by the dart board. Sniffling and keeping your head up high to avoid having tears run down your cheeks.
Bob was the first one to spot you coming, and immediately he seemed alarmed by your expression. A quick touch of your cheek confirmed that you hadn’t done a good job of containing the evidences of your chagrin.
“Hey, Y/N, what’s happening ? Are you alright ?” Bob asked gently, getting up from his stool so he could get to you.
His worried tone made everyone perk up, and all the pilots started to gather around you.
“You okay ? Did someone bother you ?” Bradley asked.
They were all accustomed to how emotional you could get while drunk, but Bradley especially would never put aside the possibility of some weird guy harassing you.
“You guys are—“ you were cut out by a pathetic little sob, “so mean !” You said an accusing finger pointed in their direction.
“Y/N, you’ve had too much to drink, okay ?” He said gently, while going to take the drink from your hand, which you quickly retracted, pulling it against your chest.
“No, you guys are so mean,” you sniffled, “why won’t you play with him ?”
Everyone shared confused glances, in the corner of your eye you saw Javy murmured to Reuben something that sounded like “the fuck is she talking about”.
Natasha got closer to you, features morphing into something gentle, she knew better than anyone how to handle you in that state.
“Y/N, who are you talking about ?”
The fact that none of them even had the smallest idea of who you were referring to was your last straw. They had just dismissed him entirely, someone they flew with every single day. Threw him away with some hurtful remarks, left him all alone and they had the nerve to ask who you were talking about ?
“What do you mean who am I talking about ?” You whined, the emotion felt like it would burst out of your chest from feeling too much of it, “Jake ! I’m talking about Jake ! He wants to play pool but none of you wants to play with him !”
Mickey bursted out laughing then, which got him a stern look from Bradley.
“Don’t worry about him, sweetheart.” Natasha told you, “he’s a grown man, he’s fine. Why does that bother you anyway ?”
“He’s not fine !” You insisted, smalls sobs along with the alcohol making you hiccup, “he’s sad ! Go play with him, right now.”
“We love you, Lightning, we really do,” Reuben started, “but no way in hell.”
“You’re really not helping,” Bob reproached him with a sigh.
Mindlessly wiping the tears running freely on your cheeks with your free hand, you tried to refrain the next sob that was threatening to break out.
“Fine, I’ll go play with him then.” You declared in a very determined tone, already turning around and making your way over to Jake, swaying lightly on your feet.
“Hey Y/N come back—“ Natasha was about to go after you but Bob quickly stopped her.
“It’s okay, she’ll be with Jake, he’ll take great care of her,” he mischievously smiled at her, which only got him a puzzled look.
“What, you seriously don’t know ?” He asked her, visibly incredulous.
The chatter of your friends got more and more distant as you got closer to the pool table where Jake was sinking balls easily with an evident lack of enthusiasm. There was a laziness to his movements, like he was disinterested. The contempt and rejection from the squad seemed to had drain all the excitement of the game for him.
He looked like a kicked golden retriever puppy and your heart couldn’t have possibly handled more.
“Hangman !” You called out, quickly wiping the tears that had ran down during your walk there, “I’m playing with you.”
Jake suddenly stood up straight from sinking a ball upon hearing your voice, and immediately he seemed startle by your expression, similarly to how the rest of the squad had been only minutes ago.
“Hey, Lightning, you good ?” He asked, getting closer to you, his sharp eyes taking you in and inspecting you for any physical hurt.
You waved him off, while trying to ignore how his concern made your whole chest feel warm, when you’d sober up you’d probably blame it on the alcohol.
“Put the balls back in the middle, I’m playing with you.” You declared, words slurring slightly.
Jake only looked at you for a second, his raised brows betraying his surprise.
“You,” he started, pointing a finger towards you, “want to play with me ?” His index now pointed at him.
Taking another sip of your drink, you nodded into your glass.
“Yes, that’s what I said. I’m playing with you.”
“How much have you had to drink ?”
“Jake that is literally not the point, I want to play pool, so let’s play pool !” You insisted in a whine, putting your glass down on a table — not before taking another sip — and going to collect the balls he had already sunken from the pockets.
He stared at you, taking you in. Your urgency felt uncharacteristic, especially if it was related to doing anything with him. Jake never really saw you drunk, it wasn’t often you allowed yourself to reach such a state and when you did, you usually sticked close to Natasha or Bradley. Your behavior was completely new to him and it was taking him aback a bit.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the rest of the squad eyeing you both, while whispering things amongst each other. A few seconds passed, the gears were turning in his head, he looked at your drink on the table, your tears streaked cheeks, the way the squad was so very obviously gossiping about the two of you… And then it clicked.
Jake took one long look at you carefully placing all the balls in the middle with the rack.
“You know you don’t have to play with me if you don’t really want to, right ?” He began cautiously, a gentle tone in his voice. “I was fine playing on my own.”
But the words ‘on my own’ seemed to trigger another wave of tears, they ran freely down your cheeks as you sobbed, “no you were not, you were sad.”
Jake’s whole face seemed to melt instantly.
“Aww, sweetheart…” he cooed, taking a step towards you.
But before he could get anything else out, you continued.
“And they are so—“ you began through sniffles, “so mean for treating you like that all because you wanted to play pool. So I am playing with you, I want to play with you.” You finished while weeping the tears from your eyes.
Jake stared at you for a moment, feeling like his heart would burst out of his chest just from looking at you. You were standing in front of him, determined and adorably empathetic — glassy eyes from the alcohol and the tears boring into his. Your cheeks were flushed from all the drinks you’d had, and you were leaning against the pool table, probably in an attempt to stabilize your dizzying vision.
He felt something dangerous happen to him, standing in front of you, having you be so nice to him for perhaps the first time ever since he had met you, he felt dangerous thoughts cross his mind — the ones he only ever allowed himself late at night, in the quiet of his apartment — and travel to the tip of his tongue. But he caught himself before they could become anything more than that, thoughts. Jake forced himself to swallow the words, and it left a bitter taste in his mouth. He was overcome with an emotion he couldn’t possibly had voiced you, but his face showed nothing of it when he looked at you.
Pink lips stretching into a fond smile, jade green eyes soft and staring at you with… was it fondness ? The alcohol might had been blurring your judgement.
“I really appreciate it, darlin’, that’s very nice of you. I’d love for us to play together.” He said in a soft, soothing tone, hoping to calm your meltdown and the state of distress you were in at the sheer idea of him playing pool alone.
You nodded, satisfied by his answer, and Jake helped you put all the balls back in the middle with the rack before taking it off. He handed you a cue stick.
“Break ‘em.”
“No, you do it.”
You knew he loved to break.
Seeing a spark of something you couldn’t decipher flash in his eyes, he let out an almost bashful smile as he looked at you, and you gestured for him to take the shot, not sure you could handle his intense eyes on you any longer.
Jake got in position, upper body getting close to the table and your drunken brain immediately diverted your eyes to the curve of his ass, making a warmth spread out in your chest that you couldn’t blame on the liquor.
“Eyes on the game, darlin’.”
Your heat skipped a beat.
“I was watching the game,” you slurred, hoping your cheeks weren’t any more flushed than they already were because of your many drinks.
He let out a chuckle as he lined up his shot and every ball went bouncing off in every direction. He managed to sink a striped one.
“Alright, you take the full ones.” He told you.
Simply nodding, you watched him take another shot, sinking a ball. And then another successful one. It’s been quite some time since you’d seen him play this close, he was really good. On his third shot, he missed, finally letting you take your turn.
Circling the table and holding on to it, you tried to find the best angle to sink one of your balls, “You know I’m very good,” you stated like it was obvious, “but it’s been a long time since I’ve played.”
Jake caught himself before he could make any remark about how in your state he wasn’t expecting you to be world champion anyway.
“I wouldn’t know,” he settled for instead, “we’ve never played together.”
You abruptly stopped your rounding of the table to look at him, both of you standing perfectly on opposite sides. Your brows frowned in a confused expression and Jake wanted nothing more than to kiss away the crinkle on your forehead.
“Have we really never ?”
“Never,” he confirmed, “you don’t exactly carry me in your heart, remember ? You always say you don’t want to play with an arrogant jerk like me.”
His words seemed to fall on you with the weight of a thousand suns, your heart aching at his depiction of your own words.
“Do I really say that ?”
But Jake didn’t seem to notice the way his — yours — words had affected you, he only laughed as he continued to reminisce.
“Yeah, I tried so many times. Don’t tell me you don’t remember all the nights I literally begged you to do just one game with me ? You normally never even want to be in my vicinity when we come here.”
You shook your head, feeling the emotional overload pile up in your chest, rising in your throat to form a lump that was impossible to swallow.
“Oh…” was the only pathetic sound you managed to get out.
“Anyway, I’m glad to finally see what you are made of, Lightning.” He finished with a small chuckle.
But it had been too much too fast. The crushing realization of your harsh words, the way you had treated him no better than your friends you just yelled at a few minutes earlier, made you sick at yourself.
Still holding your cue stick in one hand, you broke out into sobs. Your head fell into your free hand, shoulders shaking with the force of your inconsolable chagrin.
If you had been able to see Jake’s face you probably would have laughed at the way his eyebrows raised comically fast.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey,” he said in a hurried panic, putting his cue stick down on the pool table to cross the distance that was separating you, “Y/N what’s wrong ?”
He raised his hands in an instinctual move to put them on your shoulders to try and comfort you, but unsure of what his touch could do to you right now, he awkwardly put them back down. Instead he lowered himself slightly, trying to catch your eyes where you had your head bowed down into your hand.
“Y/N ?” Jake called out softly.
“I’m an awful person—“ you said in a huge sniffle, tears cascading down your cheeks with no way of stopping them. You still refused to look at him. “I’m so sorry Jake, so sorry, I’m so mean—“
He managed to get over his temporarily shock, attention now entirely focused on your wellbeing and seeing you smile again. He gently took the cue stick out of your hand to put it on the table, and before you could bring your newly free hand to your face, he took it softly, fingers wrapping around your wrist.
“Y/N ? Could you look at me for a second, sweetheart ?”
You shook your head, sobbing harder now.
“I’m sorry, Jake. So so sorry—“
“Everything is alright, I promise. You did nothing wrong,” Jake soothed, rubbing what he hoped were calming circles onto your wrist. “Could you look at me, please, Y/N ?”
Rubbing your eyes in a clumsy attempt to wipe the tears staining your cheeks, you finally lifted your head, your eyes meeting his. Jake’s heart nearly broke witnessing your lip quiver, signaling that another wave of tears was incoming. Your features were contorted into a chagrin he never witnessed before, an expression he never thought he’d see on your pretty face. And he got the most irrepressible desire to take you into his arms, rock you softly and shush you soothingly until your wet lashes dried.
His brain sent out the signals before he could stop it, his arms lifted open in an instinctual move to bring you into him, but stopped himself at the last second, arms still frozen open.
But your eyes caught the movement, and it was enough for you to launch yourself into him, sending him stumbling backward a bit from the force you had thrown yourself with. You buried your nose in his collarbone, your arms around his waist holding on as tight as your drunken state allowed you to.
It took Jake a second to get over the shock before his arms wrapped around you, one hand holding your head while he put his chin on top of it, gently caressing your hair.
“Shh shh, it’s okay, baby. Let it out. Everything is okay, I promise, everything is fine.”
Like he had imagined it only seconds before, he swayed you gently from left to right. Soothing voice hitting your ears and calming down your distress. You sniffled as you completely melted into his embrace.
“How you feeling, sweetheart ?”
“Better,” you mumbled against his collarbone.
Jake let out a fond chuckle, “i’m glad.”
He continued to rock you gently for a few minutes before he slowly began to pull back so he could look at you, his arms still wrapped around you. Your tears had dried, leaving small stains on your cheeks as you looked up at him.
“I’m really sorry I’m so mean to you all the time, Jake. I don’t know why I act like that.” You confessed in a small voice.
He gently put a strand of hair behind your ear, eyes soft as they gazed down at you.
He hummed softly, “I’ve got a little idea.”
You waited for him to explain further but when he didn’t say anything else, you frowned.
“What are you waiting for ? Tell me.” You whined.
He just smiled knowingly.
“I think that’s something you need to figure out on your own.”
Your bottom lip stuck out as you pouted and Jake playfully tsked you.
“Hey none of that,” he warned jokingly, “what can I do to bring a smile back on your pretty face ?”
Gazing at the table on your right, your voice found a new determined tone.
“I want to play pool.”
“Is that really what you want ?”
“Yes, with you.”
The smile that broke out on Jake’s face almost made you look away from how dazzling it was.
“Alright, let’s play, sweetheart.”
He handed you back your cue stick, signaling for you to take your shot since it was your turn. Aligning yourself with the cue all, tongue between your teeth in deep concentration you took the shot and—
“Oh, well I’m worse than I thought.” You stated with a hint of disappointment as you completely missed the cue ball.
Jake was unable to hide a laugh, “to be fair I don’t think everything you drank is helping you. Want some help ?”
“From the pool king himself ? Yes please.”
Jake was happy to notice some of your wit coming back, he came up behind you, not close enough to touch but close enough that you could feel his warm breath on your neck as he bent down slightly at your level.
“Just get really close to the table, yeah ?” He put a warm hand between your shoulder blades as you went down, “aim for number 5 over there,” he pointed at the ball.
You got low like he told you, chest almost touching the table, hips and ass pushing back as Jake respectfully stepped aside so he wouldn’t collide with you. Focusing really hard on where you wanted it to go, you finally took your shot and the ball went straight into the left corner pocket.
Excitement immediately made you stand up and turn around to see Jake harboring a bright, wide smile.
“Look at that, a true natural.” He praised, flashing his palm for a high five you eagerly participated in.
“What can I say ? I have the world champion player by my side,” you chimed.
You both continued to play pool, Jake very subtly letting you win. And when you had sunk all your balls and hazardously shot the 8-ball in the left middle socket, you squealed as Jake clapped for you.
“You beat me fair and square, sweetheart.”
That was clearly debatable, but you were in no state to question it, your victory seeming totally legitimate in your eyes. You walked around the table to go get your drink.
But right as you were about to take a sip, Jake — who had somehow crossed the distance in three steps — took the glass out of your hand.
“Hey ! That’s my drink !”
“How about you stick to water for now, mmh baby ?”
All the fight left your body as soon as the petname hit your ears, his Texan drawl making it sound so sweet. His voice having rendered you completely pliant, you just nodded.
“Let’s go ask Penny for a glass.” He prompted and you quickly took a hold of his arm as he guided you to the bar.
You were still holding on to Jake and Penny wasn’t able to hide her surprise when she saw the two of you.
“That’s certainly a sight,” she said with a smirk, eyeing the way you were clinging to Jake. “You okay, sweetie ?” She asked you.
“I’m great,” you assured, a tired but bright smile stretching your lips.
Jake chuckled fondly, “could we have a glass of water Penny, please ?”
The older woman nodded and quickly got out a glass that she filled with ice and water before she handed it to you. You thanked her and began downing the drink.
“Well, you definitely needed it.” Jake joked, ruffling your hair affectionately, “when you finish that glass, I’ll drive you home, yeah ?”
You nodded as Penny looked at Jake with squinting eyes.
“How much have you had to drink, sailor ?”
“Don’t worry, I just had one beer a few hours ago.”
“Alright, drive safe.”
Jake saluted Penny as you finished your glass, settling it down in the bar.
“Good night Penny !” You waved at her, the older woman eagerly returned your gesture.
“Alright, let’s say bye to the squad now.”
Making your way over to the squad, still firmly wrapped around Jake’s arm, it was almost comical to see your friends’ look of disbelief when they started to notice you walk over.
“Alright gang,” Jake caught their attention, “I’m driving Lightning home.”
All of them were stunned silent at seeing you two so close, and you so pliant and calm with him. Bob was the only one harboring a small, tender smile.
“Drive safe, we’ll see you guys on Monday.”
“I’m sorry, is no one gonna mention any of this ?” Reuben undignified himself while gesturing wildly to the two of you.
“What is that supposed to mean ?” You inquired, not liking the way he seemed to be referring so hostilely to Jake and you.
“Leave them alone,” Bradley’s voice caught everyone’s attention. “You get her home safe, Hangman.” He looked at Jake straight in the eyes, tone firm and authoritative before he softened and turned to you. “Text us when you’re home, alright ?”
While everyone was expecting Jake to come back with a smug and arrogant remark — like he usually did — his simple, diligent nod raised everyone’s brows. You let go of Jake momentarily to go hug Bradley, he wrapped his arms around you and left a quick kiss to the top of your head. “Don’t do anything you’d regret tomorrow,” he whispered in your ear.
“Me ? You know I could never Bradshaw.” You replied jokingly.
Jake patiently waited for you as you hugged every member of the squad. When you came back to him, you immediately took hold of his arm again while he bid everyone goodnight and led you to the door after your goodbyes.
The fresh air of the summer night was a welcome sensation on your flushed cheeks. “Tonight was so much fun,” you declared.
Jake chuckled, quietly wondering how could it had been fun for you when you spent half of it crying your heart out for him.
“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, sweetheart.”
“Did you have fun ?” You asked, looking up at him expectantly.
Stopping next to his truck, he looked down at you, feeling the words swell up in his chest — in which his heart was hammering. He took a deep breath, willing himself to calm the swirl of emotion billing in his throat.
“Yeah, I did. Thanks to you.” He said in a voice that carried so much fondness it felt like a warm embrace.
A bashful smile made its way onto your face, as Jake refrained the urge to leave the softest kiss on your forehead, instead he just opened the passenger door for you and helped you in.
The drive was rather short, but Jake was struggling to focus on the road as he could sense your intense stare on him. Your eyes never wavered from his face and despite himself he could feel heat slowly coming onto his neck and cheeks.
Parking out in front of the small house you were renting near base, he came to your side to open your door and helped you out. In front of your door, you both stopped.
“Thank you for tonight, darlin’.”
Your hazy eyes bore into his with an intensity that shook him to his core.
“Jake ?”
“Yeah, baby ?”
“I think I figured out why I’m so mean to you all the time.”
He froze, his heart skipping a beat, not sure if it was from excitement of finally hearing the words he longed to hear from you or fear of having you say them while the alcohol was clouding your judgement.
“You did ?” His voice was strained, feeling his palms sweat and wiping them down on his pants.
“Yes. The reason I’m so mean to you all the time is not because I hate you, I think—“
“Y/N, Don’t say anything, please,” he stopped you, putting his hands on your shoulders.
Giving him a confused look, you felt your heart drop, “why…?” You asked, voice small, “you don’t wanna hear what I have to say…?”
Jake let out a sigh, “It’s not that, sweetheart,” he assured, voice gentle, “I just don’t want you to say things you could regret tomorrow.”
“Do you know what I was going to say ?”
He gave you a small smile, one hand sliding from your shoulder to cup your flushed cheek, thumb rubbing gently. The cool temperature of his hand was a welcome sensation as you nuzzled against it.
“I do.”
“But I want to say it, I want you to know.” You whined, putting your hand on top of his that was cupping your cheek.
“Believe me, I already know, darlin’. Have for quite some time now. But when you say it to me, I want it to be because you are ready to say it, not because the alcohol is forcing you to.”
But Jake could still see the disappointment in your eyes and your pouting lip was making a reappearance, completely melting him from the inside.
“How about you tell me tomorrow ? When you’re sober.”
“I won’t have the courage to do it tomorrow ! That’s the whole point of doing it now…”
“Then I’ll wait, it’s okay.”
Feeling the tears starting to come back with the frustration of not being able to express what you had been feeling this whole time, you complained, “I don’t want to wait anymore, Jake. I lo—“
“Baby, please don’t,” Jake put a panicked hand over your mouth.
You frowned and he could see your eyes getting hazy with tears.
“If I take off my hand, will you listen to me for a second ?”
As you nodded, Jake moved his hand from your mouth to your cheek, so both of his hands were holding your face. He hated knowing he was the cause of the small tears that were slipping from your confused and hurt eyes.
“Y/N, I promise that I feel the exact same way you do, I have for years, okay ? And there is nothing on this earth I desire more than to finally hear you admit it, but when you do, I want it to come from you, not the alcohol.” Drowning in his jade green eyes, his words made your heart almost beat out of your chest. “I want you sober when you finally tell me, cause then there won’t be anything else holding me back from kissing you like I’ve been dreaming of, alright ?”
His words stunned you quiet as his thumbs gently wiped the tears on your cheeks. It’s like your breath had been taken away. Nothing had been said, and yet you both knew. The silent truth was lingering in the air, silencing every other noise. In this moment it was only you and him, standing in front of each other, finally on the same wavelength.
Your lips stretched out on their own. Unknowingly to you both, your hearts were beating in synch to the rhythm of your unspoken, and yet certain, feelings.
“You have to promise me something, Jake.” You finally said when you found your words.
“Anything.”
“You need to come find me tomorrow, so I can tell you. Tomorrow morning, first light, I want you right here in front of the door, so I can tell you. If you don’t come to me I’ll never have the courage to go find you myself.”
Jake let out a shaky, relived exhale before a smile broke out onto his face.
“I will, sweetheart. Promise.”
“What time will you be here ?” You eagerly asked, already impatient for the first rays of sunshine to cast a golden glow over his features as you would pour out your entire heart to him.
Jake chuckled, before he bent down slightly, leaving a tender kiss on your cheek that you leaned into the best you could.
“I’ll be here at first light, just like you said. If you think I’m not impatient as well, you’re mistaken, darlin’. Now go to bed, it’s going to be a long day tomorrow, we have a lot to talk about.”
You nodded, embracing him as tight as you could.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Jake.” you said in a barely contained excited giggle.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Y/N.”
You opened your door, flashing him one last smile before closing it and disappearing inside of your home.
Jake didn’t know exactly how much time he spent in front of your door after you closed it. His chest felt tight, heart filled with the quiet love he had carried all these years, a love he’d finally be able to express out loud.
He looked up at the moon which was casting an eerie glow over the street, and prayed for the night to fly by fast. He usually loved the stars, but looking up at them he found himself thinking that he’d be fine never seeing another star again if he meant he finally got to be with you. He smiled, feeling giddy like the first time he’d realised he was in love with you. He had waited patiently for years for this moment to come, and somehow it felt impossible to sit tight for another few hours.
Jake couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come.
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Author’s note : alright I definitely didn’t planned for this little fic to get that long, but I hoped you liked it, thank you for reading !!
Next fic I’m working on is Pleasure Is No Shame - Part 3, I can’t wait to bring it to you !!💞
Summary : You get stung by a stingray on a squad outing at the beach, to everyone’s surprise — including yours — Jake is the first one at your side.
Pairing : Jake “Hangman” Seresin x Fem!Reader
Important info : Your call sign is Lightning ⚡️ :)
Disclaimer : English is not my first language so apologies for any grammatical errors that might have escaped my proofreading !💞
Word count : 5.1k
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“I hate the beach,” you muttered as you were helping Natasha unload Bradley’s bronco.
The sun was blazing high in the sky on the beach in front of the Hard Deck, reflecting on the water and almost blinding you if it weren’t for your aviators, snugly perched on your nose. Reuben and Mickey had sprinted towards the ocean as soon as they were out of their car — as excited as children on Christmas morning — laughing as they launched themselves into the waves.
“Yeah that’s right, don’t worry about helping us, dickheads !” Bradley sarcastically yelled after them. “Javy, don’t even think about joining them before this car is empty.” He warned, index finger pointing at Javy who was looking with envy at his two friends — who were already in the cool water.
“You’re no fun Bradley,” Coyote mumbled.
“I’ll drink to that,” Jake agreed with his friend, making a mock cheers motion towards him with a beer he — somehow —already had open.
You rolled your eyes at his words, Hangman’s childish behavior was only fueling the irritation and oncoming exasperation you were already feeling bubbling up inside you, from merely standing on the burning sand.
“I don’t even know why I keep coming to these things,” you continued complaining to Natasha, needing to lament yourself at the prospect of the hellish afternoon you were about to willingly — only God knows why — put yourself through.
Natasha only chuckled and before she was able to retort anything, Jake’s voice resonated in your ears first.
“I have my theory Lightning, wanna hear it ?”
“No.”
“I think that the temptation of seeing my hot, sweaty and shirtless body absolutely destroy Bradshaw at volleyball is just too much for you to resist.” He laid out his explanation, cocky smirk firmly in place, shirt already nowhere to be seen as he took a sip of his beer.
Natasha’s eyes slightly widened at Jake’s bold choice of words. Her eyes flicked from him to you, awaiting your answer and not missing the way your nostrils slightly flared in irritation… or was it fluster ?
You scoffed, hoping it came across as indignation, rather than a pathetic attempt to hide how rather truthful his observation had been.
“Just shut the fuck up Hangman,” you hissed, “go splash around and leave us alone, will you ?”
He stayed silent for a beat, pride radiating from his features as a victorious grin stretched his lips. No doubt that your reaction gave him the answer he was looking for, he’d been bulls eye, as always.
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” he winked at you before making his way towards Reuben and Mickey who had started a swimming race.
Bradley, who was still busy unloading his Bronco — waist deep into the trunk, suddenly got out upon hearing Jake’s words.
“Hey no— come back here Hangman !” He yelled after the blond. He turned to you then, lifting his arms in incomprehension, “what the fuck Lightning ?”
You didn’t even dignify him with a response, too busy watching Jake’s back as he walked towards the ocean. Your eyes raked over his form. From the short hair at the top of his nape, giving way to his neck, meeting the muscles of his shoulders — expanding into his whole back. His waist, which narrowed a bit from the rest of his body — his hips, on which his bathing suit was sitting lowly, the curve of his ass—
The sound of Bradley clearing his throat next to you made you jump out of your trance. When you — regretfully — tore your eyes away from Jake to glare at Bradley, he was looking at you in a deadpan expression, one eyebrow raised.
“I’m not bothering, am I ?”
You heard Natasha snicker as she was now the one waist deep with Bob into the Bronco’s trunk, and you felt heat rising to your cheeks at being so blatantly caught ogling at your so called ‘arch nemesis’.
You cleared your throat, making your voice sound as normal as possible, “No, you’re not.” You smiled tightly at him, resuming the unloading of the car. “How many stuff did you bring anyway, Bradley ? Feels like you have enough things to camp here for a week.”
He placed a hand over his heart, feigning hurt.
“I’m sorry, Lightning, I like to anticipate. You never know when you might need something.” He explained, “besides, someone’s gotta think about it. And we can’t count on you for that.” He muttered out his next words, “you’re way too busy staring at Hangman’s ass…”
“I’m sorry what was that, Bradshaw ?”
He smiled sweetly at you, “Nothing, Lightning, it was nothing.”
“Alright let’s just finish unpacking this damn car.” Natasha called out to both of you, “I wanna go in the water already.”
You four finally finished getting everything out and setting up a small space with parasols, the cooler and all of your towels. When you had finished setting the last towel down, Natasha was already halfway out of her t-shirt and shorts and already in her bathing suit, Bradley was doing the exact same thing as he ceremonially took off his t-shirt.
“You guys coming ?” Natasha asked Bob and you, as you were both sitting comfortably on your towels under one of the parasols.
“Not for now, maybe I’ll come in later.” Bob replied with a sweet smile, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
“And I’m not going in at all, now or later.” You answered, aiming to smile as sweetly as your friend.
“Oh come on, you do this every time,” Natasha complained, “just come in ! Just for a quick swim, please !” She begged, joining her hands in a pleading motion as Bradley snickered next to her.
“Ain’t no way you are getting her near the water, Nat,” he said putting on his aviators.
“He’s right, I’m sorry Phee but you know it, there’s too many weird ass creatures in there for me to ever step foot near it.”
Natasha let out a defeated sigh, “it’s alright, I’ll just have to have tons of fun without you then.”
“Yeah you do that,” you chuckled, “please try to drown Hangman on my behalf.”
She saluted you before she started jogging towards where the rest of the group was with Bradley.
“Hey don’t forget to put on sunscreen !” Bob yelled after them as he was holding a tub of said sunscreen in his hand.
“Yes mom !” Bradley yelled back, even though they made absolutely no move to come back to get some.
You enjoyed the peace that came with their departure for the waves, only hearing the distant sounds of their voices and laughs as you could only make out the outline of their bodies as they were already so far out in the water.
“Since you don’t like going in the water, have you got any other plans for today ?” Bob asked you sweetly, as he was getting out a book from his backpack.
“Actually Bobby, yes I do,” you smiled back at him as you were getting out your own book from your bag.
Bob — as the sweet, curious and engaging man he was — looked at the cover of your book with interest. The cover was pretty simple, it was actually a pretty drawn picture of a beach, and it didn’t let anything on about what was happening inside the pages.
“Ohh what is it about ?”
You smirked, opening the book where your bookmark was, eyes skimming over the page before deciding to hand it to him.
“Just read this page, it pretty much sums up what the story is about, tell me what you think.”
You carefully eyed him as he was reading through the words. Gradually, you could see his eyes widen and his cheeks taking on an adorable pink hue. When he had read through the page entirely, he gave it back to you.
“Well,” he began, chuckling but obviously flustered, “that’s certainly something.”
“I know,” you grinned at him, delighted to see him so sheepish, “what is your book about Bobby ? Are there any naked men in yours ?”
He laughed as the pink on his cheeks deepened in a slightly darker shade of red, “There are not, it’s just a regular thriller.”
“Okay, enjoy your murder mystery.”
“And enjoy your orgy.” He winked at you, settling himself properly to read.
You laughed, surprised to hear the word coming out of his mouth, as you settled down yourself comfortably for a good read.
Two hours passed during which Bob and you cozily read your respective books next to one another. By now, the other squad members were out of the water, tired out by their endless races and splashing around. They had gone back to the sand and Reuben and Mickey had ran back to where you and Bob were laid out to grab the volleyball net. Even exhausted from swimming, a single “I could still beat you all right now” from Jake was enough for everyone to regain their energy instantly.
It was Mickey, Bradley and Phoenix against Jake, Reuben and Javy.
They were not too far from where you and Bob were settled, close enough that you could clearly see the game. And close enough so that you could ogle away at the — unfortunate, truly you hated having to admit it to yourself — object of your desires.
You looked up just a tiny bit from your book, just enough to gawk at Jake without making it obvious from his perspective.
He was still wet from his hours of swimming, drops of water cascading down his naked torso, disappearing beneath his swimming trunks. The way his muscles moved as he hit the ball, his thighs flexing as he ran up to the net to spike. And God that ass—
“You found someone more interesting than the naked men in your book ?” Bob mischievously asked, still laying next to you.
Must someone always interrupt you whenever you laid eyes on the best part of Jake’s body ?
Nonetheless, you were enjoying seeing this more playful side of Bob, even if it was at your expense.
“Well Bobby, sometimes I like myself a little reality instead of fiction,” you shot back, feeling comfortable enough to keep your eyes on Jake, even after Bob’s remark.
He just laughed, shaking his head fondly, “and you dare say that you hate him,” he sighed out with a smile.
“I do hate him, just not his God given attributes.” You countered, “I know when to admit Mother Nature did a good job.”
“Yeah, you tell yourself that.”
You just playfully smacked his arm before sliding your bookmark into your book, carefully setting it down on your towel.
“I’m going to dip my feet on the shore, it’s hot as hell here.” You announced as you were getting up.
“Mmmh,” Bob hummed, “is it really the sun or Jake’s half naked body getting you hot and bothered ?”
You looked back at him in slight, delighted shock at seeing him so openly teasing and playful. Your only response was to jokingly flip him off before walking towards the water. You were totally unable to do anything more than dipping your feet in the small waves that crashed on the sand. Everything that had to do with the ocean — while it was fascinating — freaked you out.
You walked past your squad mates, who were deeply immersed into their volleyball match, and didn’t see you walk up to shore.
Instant relief washed over you as soon as the wave hit your feet. While it was true that the heat of the blazing sun was getting unbearable, Bob was partially right. Your body temperature had significantly risen as you had taken the time to ogle at Jake — and the book you were reading before laying your eyes on him definitely did not help. So you welcomed the cooling sensation that came as the wave hit your feet, walking for a bit and taking the time to enjoy this moment. You hated the beach. But today hadn’t been so bad, you were able to get ahead in your book and gawk away at Jake in a way you weren’t able to do on base. So yeah, pretty good day so far.
And right as you were about to indulge yourself in some more Jake watching—
“OW FUCK !!”
Your scream of agony echoed on the beach as scorching, white-hot pain speared into your left foot. The pain was mind numbing and nearly made you fall over. A moment of clarity shined through the burning sensation and you looked down to where your foot had began to throb, and the sight made you jump back. You saw the stingray’s barb move in the water before the flat fish left and began to swim back towards the ocean. Blood had begun mixing with water where the barb had punctured the side of your foot.
Panic was seeping its way into your veins, mingling with the pain. Breath heavy with fright and excruciating suffering, you felt yourself start to fall backwards, unable to keep upright any longer. You prepared for the added hurt of the fall—
But instead of the blazing and hard sand, you felt two strong arms around your back.
You turned to see Jake’s face close to yours, green emerald eyes injected with worry and fear.
“Y/N what the fuck happened ?! Are you alright ??”
His voice was strained and breathy, like he had sprinted all the way over here. His eyes roamed over your body quickly, assessing if you were hurt, and finally his gaze found your left foot, that had already begun to swell and bruise, and which continued leaking blood.
Jake winced, cursing lowly under his breath as he gently set your head down on his lap. He took a beat to examine your foot from where he was.
By now the squad had gathered around you two.
“Bradley, call 911, Y/N was stung by a stingray.” Jake instructed, voice calm but firm.
You only heard Bradley running back to the towels to get his phone, you could also hear the others’ quiet and worried whispers, having shut your eyes to avoid looking at any of them. Even with the agonizing pain throbbing — not only in your foot now — but in your entire body, this felt humiliating.
“Shh, it’s okay sweetheart, I know it hurts,” Jake’s soothing voice came into your ears.
It’s only then that you realized that tears were freely running down your cheeks, your breathing was ragged, heavy with pain and you were letting out small, strained whimpers that were a testimony of the hell you were going through.
“Oh fuck,” you cursed in a mix of pain and embarrassment, still refusing to look at any of your squad mates, while furiously wiping away the tears on your cheeks.
Jake shushed you soothingly, one of his hand coming up to tenderly brush your hair back from your sweaty forehead.
“It’s okay Y/N, you’re okay I promise. I know it hurts right now but 911 will be here soon.” His voice was so gentle, and for a minute it pulled your mind away from the throbbing pain in your left foot.
You finally opened your eyes and turned back to him, squinting a bit to look up at him, and Jake immediately moved a few centimeters so his head was now shielding yours from the blinding light of the sun. His eyes were staring straight into yours, worry still swimming in them, along with a tenderness you were not used to see.
“Are you okay ?” He asked, voice impossibly soft and gentle.
It made your heart skip a beat, and the realization that he was still lovingly brushing your hair back did not help. To avoid blurting out anything stupid — though if you did, you’d at least be able to blame it on the pain later — you did what you were so used to do.
“Of course I’m not okay, what does it fucking look like Seresin ?!” You hissed at him.
But despite your unjustified anger towards him, Jake just smiled down at you. Not his usual cocky smirk, or his smug grin — a genuine one.
“The fuck are you smiling for ?”
His smile only widened, “you’re still angry at me, it must not be as bad as I thought it was.”
You scoffed, outraged, but just as you were about to retort something with the same amount of venom that was probably spreading in your body right now—
Another wave of pain flared up. Intense and excruciating, you cried out and instinctively, one of your hand shot out to grip Jake’s forearm, squeezing it as hard as you could to try and focus on anything else except the agonizing pain flaring up in your entire body.
And even though your nails were anchored in his arm, probably drawing a tiny bit of blood, Jake did not waver. He stayed with you, his other hand still lightly brushing your hair.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” he said again, voice reassuring. “That’s it, just hold onto me.”
He then turned towards the rest of the squad — who was still anxiously waiting behind him.
“Where is Bradley ? Does he have an ETA on 911 ?” He asked, not a trace of panic in his tone. Even when he wasn’t talking to you, his calm and lulling voice was soothing your system.
You could feel your blood pump in your ears and for a moment the intense pain calmed down, leaving just a permanent ache in your foot. You released your death hold on Jake’s forearm but kept your hand on his skin, the warmth of it grounding you.
“I don’t know, he’s still on the phone,” Natasha said, voice shaking a bit and trying to get a look at you from behind Jake.
“Should we do something while waiting for them ?” Mickey asked, panic in his voice at seeing you in such a state, “elevate her foot or something ?”
“Absolutely not.” Jake’s response was instant, “the venom is already spreading in her body and moving her could accelerate the process, it would do more harm than good. We just have to wait for 911 to come.”
You could feel your friends beginning to approach, in a desire to do anything that might help you while awaiting for the ambulance to arrive. But while the pain should have relieved you of your inhibitions, in this instant there was nothing worse for the tough fighter pilot that you were than your squad mates seeing you down and writhing in pain because of a stupid flat fish.
You squeezed Jake’s arm once to get his attention. He turned to you, eyes softening once again.
“Yeah, sweetheart ? You need anything ?”
The next words were hard to get out, not only because of the pain but because of how humiliating they were to pronounce out loud. Especially to someone like Jake — your rival, your arch nemesis, the one person you claimed to hate more than anything on this earth.
But right now — with your head on his lap, his hand caressing the top of your hair and him calling you sweetheart like you were the love of his life, you couldn’t find it in you to keep fighting him.
“Jake, I don’t want them to see me like that…” you whispered, voice strained by the pain that was still clinging to you.
Quick understanding flashed through his eyes, he didn’t say anything, didn’t question you, he just turned back to the squad — firm and authoritative.
“Could you please go load back the cars ? So that when the ambulance arrive we are all ready to go.”
Mickey, Reuben, Javy and Natasha all nodded diligently, happy to be of service given the situation. They all ran back to the towels and parasols, where Bradley and Bob already had started to pack up.
You squeezed Jake’s forearm again.
“Thank you— Oh fuck !”
Another wave hit you then, fuck, when was this going to stop ??
This one was especially bad, it felt like your entire body was burning alive. You cried out, reaching for Jake, trying to anchor yourself to him. Your eyes welled up with tears that were flowing endlessly down your cheeks, breath quick and heavy with panic.
“Jake, Jake Jake Jake—“ your voice was rushed, filled with fright and pain.
“I’m here, baby, right here. Try to take deep breaths for me okay ? Breathe in…” He made a show of taking an exaggerated inhale.
You just followed his instructions, breathing in deeply.
“That’s good, that’s perfect. Now breathe out…”
You copied his theatrical exhale, still holding on tightly to him. He gave you a proud smile, the one hand that wasn’t still busy brushing your hair, came up to cup your cheek — thumb tenderly caressing your skin.
“That’s good, you’re doing so good.”
You placed your right hand — the one that wasn’t holding on for dear life to his forearm — on top of his hand that was cupping your cheek, still breathing deeply with him.
Your next words would probably make you want to kill yourself when the pain stops numbing your mind, but right now there was only one thing you wanted. And it resided in the very man above you, who was looking at you and touching you with an affection that would have you shedding tears if you weren’t already doing so because of the pain.
“Please, Jake, don’t stop. Keep talking to me.” You pleaded, voice shaking with tears and a few sniffles.
Something shifted in Jake’s expression then, a reflection of how his heart broke for you right at this moment. His beautiful features took on a raw display of emotion, he inhaled sharply — forcing his voice to come out as calm and unwavering as possible.
“I will, baby, don’t worry. I’m right here with you, I’m not leaving you.” He soothed you, green eyes boring into yours and desperately trying to convey everything he felt in this moment and couldn’t possibly express with words. “Not ever.”
You let out a relieved sigh, not only at his words, but at the feeling of the spike of pain calming down, leaving — once again — only the static pain in your foot. You closed your eyes, still taking deep breaths like Jake told you and trying to slow your heart beat down. If it weren’t for this stupid stingray who had your foot feeling like it would burn and fall off your body at any moment, you would consider this moment peaceful. Jake holding you, touching your skin like you were the most precious thing in this world, voice soft and gentle like you’ve never heard before….
“The pain will continue to come and go in spikes,” Jake explained, voice low, as if to not disturb the moment, “it’s the venom spreading in your body.”
You kept your eyes closed, only nodding slightly to tell him you understood.
“You scared the hell out of me,” Jake admitted after a beat of silence, in a small, almost sad laugh.
You nuzzled closer to his hand that was cupping your cheek, “are you saying you care about me, Hangman ?” You inquired, a teasing smile pulling at your lips, your voice coming out a little strained and tired from all the pain.
“I don’t know, I might just do,” You only heard the fond smile in his voice.
Only moments after, you felt his lips press with an infinite amount of tenderness on your forehead. You sucked in a breath, opening your eyes in surprise. The kiss lasted a few seconds, and when he pulled away, the look in his eyes almost took your breath away.
“What ? You surprised ?” He probed, mimicking your teasing tone.
You felt yourself flush. Fluster temporarily replacing the pain in your body, filling you with a warmth that was making you forget about your punctured foot that was still leaking blood and painting the water crimson red.
You just snuggled further into his hand, tearing your eyes away from him to escape his prying gaze, “shut up,” you mumbled.
He just laughed, keeping his affectionate administrations to your skin.
And that’s when you heard the loud wail of the ambulance siren coming closer to the beach. Just seconds after, the whole squad was running at full speed towards you two.
“They are here !” Bradley yelled, “they are here Y/N !”
“It’s almost over, sweetheart,” Jake whispered, placing one more quick kiss to your forehead before the whole squad, along with the medics, reached you.
Jake immediately took the initiative to explain the situation, “she was stung by a stingray, approximately 10 minutes ago. The barb punctured the side of her left foot, it’s been bleeding ever since the sting. Venom has already started spreading.”
“Okay, thank you sir,” one of the medic addressed Jake before turning to you, “ma’am, my name is Martin. What’s yours ?”
“Y/N.”
“Okay Y/N. Listen we’re gonna need to put you on a stretcher to get you in the ambulance. Just know that it will probably hurt.”
You just nodded, taking a deep breath.
They hoisted you up onto the stretcher, you muffled a cry behind your hand and squeezed Jake’s hand which had slipped into yours. Once you were installed in the ambulance, the medics looked at you and then at the squad.
Martin spoke up, “one of you can climb with Y/N in the back of the ambulance. The rest can follow behind by car to get to the hospital. Who do you want coming with ?” He asked.
Lying in the stretcher that was inclined so you were sitting up a bit, your eyes immediately found Jake, who gave you a hopeful smile. You so desperately wanted to say his name, have him climb in with you and hold you like he had been doing on the beach. But sitting here, the whole squad in front of you, you felt the words get stuck in your throat. Jake seemed to see it in your eyes, the hesitation, seemed to feel that for some reason, you would not be able to express wanting him by your side. And witnessing the sadness and disappointment flash in his emerald eyes after having been so bright, made your heart fall into your stomach.
A beat passed before Natasha slightly raised her hand.
“I’ll come with—“
But Bob, of all people, was the one who interrupted her.
“Nat, I actually got a call from Cyclone there’s a meeting we have to attend, all of us.”
Phoenix, along with the rest of the squad looked confused, sharing interrogating glances.
“What ? A briefing ? Right now ?” Bradley questioned, incredulous.
Bob gave him a pointed look, “yes, Bradley, right now.” He then turned to Jake, a characteristic sweet smile on his face, “Jake, you’ll stay with Y/N, right ?”
Jake seemed surprised for a moment, his eyes flicking rapidly between Bob and you.
“I— Yeah, yeah of course,” he nodded quickly, he then turned to you, hopefulness returning to his gaze, “if you’ll have me.”
“Yes,” you answered, way too quickly — which Bob, along with the medics, quietly snickered at — “yes of course, come in.”
After the squad bid you goodbye and promised to come see you at the hospital, Bob mischievously winked at you and hurried them back to the cars.
Jake climbed into the ambulance, sitting on a seat next to your stretcher, fingers intertwining with yours instantly, like instinct. And almost as soon as his skin made contact with yours, a wave of pain hit you again, hard.
Cursing, you wiggled around on the stretcher, the burning sensation was stronger than before and was taking your whole body hostage, eyes almost rolling back from how painful it all was.
“It’s almost over, sweetheart, I promise.” Jake reassured, voice strained from seeing you hurt like that.
“Y/N,” Martin caught your attention, “the venom is progressing quickly and we need to act fast. We’re gonna give you something for the pain, it might make you a little loopy and you might fall asleep. You’ve been through a lot and the pain has definitely taken a toll on you, so totally normal if you want to crash for a moment, alright ?”
You nodded, feeling Jake squeezing your hand, you heard him take a deep breath next to you and you could feel the relief radiating off him. One of the other medics went to slap his shoulder.
“You did a good job, boyfriend.”
Jake just chuckled and you caught the faintest shade of red color his cheeks. Neither of you bothered to correct him on the term ‘boyfriend’. You all but smiled through the pain, looking at Jake with something that people might call love.
“Yeah, he really did.”
Martin turned back to you with a syringe, “okay Y/N, you need to be brave for one more minute, you might feel a slight pinch.”
And while the needle punctured your skin, similar to how the stingray’s barb had — only minutes prior to this, your eyes never wavered from Jake’s.
It only took a few moments for the painkillers to start acting, you let out a sigh of relief at feeling the pain peak progressively go away. Along with the disappearing agony, you felt your eyelids grow heavy.
“Jake…” you called out softly, already halfway into Morpheus’ arms.
“Yeah, sweetheart ? I’m right here.” He squeezed your hand again.
A smile pulled at your lips.
“I think— I think I’m gonna take a quick nap.”
“Yeah, looks like it,” he chuckled affectionately.
“Will you still be here when I wake up ?”
A beat of silence passed before he leaned forward, leaving a sweet kiss on your forehead that widened your smile.
“Yes I will, you rest, baby. You’ve been so strong today.” Another kiss. “I’ll see you when you wake up.”
And with that confirmation, your eyes finally closed, body finally at ease after all the events of the day. Before sleep took your mind away to a far away place, you registered Jake leaving one last kiss on your forehead, like he just couldn’t help himself. The warmth that filled you would have been able to alleviate any pain better than any of the medics’ painkillers. You fell asleep the heart light, knowing that when you would open your eyes, the first thing they would land on would be Jake’s green ones, full of something that could only be called love.
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Author’s note : thank you for reading "Saltwater Monster" I hope you liked it !!! Also I hope everyone spent lovely holidays !!
Please don’t hesitate to leave feedback and constructive criticism ! I always worry about out of character writing so if you think I made Jake too soft or something, don’t hesitate to tell me !!💞
Summary : Jake finds a lost puppy on base, a sweet golden retriever and the sight is physically too much for you to handle.
Pairing : Jake “Hangman” Seresin x Fem!Reader
Important info : Your call sign is Lightning ⚡️ :)
Disclaimer : English is not my first language, so sorry for any grammatical errors that might have escaped my proofreading. Also I do not have any knowledge of the Navy or military so sorry for any inaccuracies and lack of realism on that part, other than that enjoy !!💞
Word count : 3.7k
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It was a nice spring day in Fightertown, California.
You could hear the distant roaring of jets as you made your way out to the main hangar. Phoenix and Bob, along with Payback and Fanboy were up against Maverick in a dogfight, and you had no doubt that your friends were having a hard time defeating the Ace.
You were supposed to meet with George, a mechanic, to talk about the controls on your F/A-18, the throttle had a slight delay response and you wanted to get it fixed as soon as possible. Flying a fighter jet was hard enough as it is, you didn’t need any more added difficulties.
You leaned against the right wing of your Super Hornet, checking your watch. George must have been held up by something important, he wasn’t usually late. Luckily, you didn’t have much to do this afternoon so you just pulled out your phone, patiently waiting for him.
“Who’s a good boy ? Who’s a good boy ?”
Your brows furrowed almost instantly, was that…. Jake’s voice ?
God it sounded so different now, the permanent smug and cocky tone to his voice completely gone, replaced by a soft cooing, one that let his southern drawl flow more smoothly than when he was gloating about his higher score sim.
You crooked your head, trying to see where he was between all the jets stored in the hangar. Who was he talking to like that ??
“You are, you are a good boy !” His voice echoed again in the silence, reverberating on the metal paneling of the hangar.
You started walking in the direction in which his voice was coming from, more confused than ever. Again, Who was he talking to like that ?? Was there a part of you that wished you were the one he was talking to in that tone ? — Yes, but that was a problem for another day.
Finally you saw a glimpse of his side, he was crouched behind a jet, you couldn’t see his face yet, hidden by the nose of the Super Hornet.
“Okay Hangman who the fuck are yo—” You were cut short when you finally rounded the jet, Jake coming in full view now, as well as his interlocutor— You stopped dead in your tracks, the sight making you heart skip a beat, or stop entirely for a moment, you’re still not sure.
Jake, still in his flight suit, crouched down, his features softened in an expression of pure wonder and adoration, his gaze turned down on the sweetest, most adorable golden retriever puppy you had ever seen. Jake’s right hand gently scratching behind the puppy’s ear, whose eyes were closed in delight and tail flapping happily on the hangar floor, raising a small cloud of dirt each time it did.
That might have been the cutest thing you had ever been given the chance to witness in your life, and you were not sure the right words existed in the English language to describe how Jake looked right now. His beautiful green eyes crinkled as his focus was entirely absorbed by the adorable fluff ball in front of him, the most gorgeous of smiles had taken a comfortable seat on his face. He looked… Ethereal. Breathtaking. Perfect.
That realization almost knocked the air out of your lungs, your heart aching in the most wonderful of ways.
His head turned to you, having heard you coming, and to your surprise — and secret delight, the smile didn’t leave his face, it widened.
“Oh Lightning look who I found ! He was just wandering around the hangar !”
God help you he looked like a child discovering Christmas came early. It pulled at your heartstrings to see this side of him, and you almost had to turn your back to him, the sight of him, so happy and adoring with a puppy in his arms wasn’t one you were prepared to see when you woke up this morning — one that was definitely proving to be too much to handle right now.
You forced yourself to get a grip, there were more important things to focus on than Jake’s stupidly good looks, his warm jade green and adoring eyes watching the puppy, his tanned forearms wrapped protectively around it— okay, yes focus.
You crouched next to Jake slowly, not wanting to scare the puppy away.
“How did he even get in here ?” You asked, stretching out your hand to place it in front of the dog’s nose, letting him sniff you before petting him gently on the head.
Your shoulder was almost brushing Jake’s now, and it took everything in you not to inhale deeply upon smelling just a whiff of his cologne mixed with Jet fuel and something so undeniably him.
“I don’t even know” He answered, the smile never leaving his face, he turned his gaze back to the puppy, “anyway I’m glad I found him first.” His voice taking back on this impossibly gentle cooing tone, the kind you only use with babies and animals.
You chuckled a little, not expecting that.
“Why ?”
Jake gave you a look and shrugged like it was obvious.
“So I can keep him.” He simply said, like it was as immutable as telling you the earth orbited around the sun. The puppy was now tucked comfortably against his chest, so at ease.
“Hangman, I really don’t wanna ruin this moment for you,” you started carefully, “but this dog probably has very loving owners who are looking everywhere for him.”
“Well apparently they don’t love him enough to keep him from infiltrating a guarded military complex completely unsupervised.”
You laughed again, unable to keep a straight face in front of his childish behavior.
“I mean, there is one way we can know for sure if he has a family, we could take him to a vet and ask if he has a microchip ?” You suggested. There was a clinic not too far away from the base.
Jake’s face brightened a notch, if it was even possible.
“Look at you Lightning, always so resourceful.” He said teasingly, a twinkle in his eyes.
You turned your head away for a moment, desperately trying to hide the bashful smile you couldn’t refrain, and the oncoming blush you could feel already warming your cheeks.
“Alright let’s go.” Jake declared, securely and protectively holding the golden retriever in his arms as he stood up.
You stood up as well and both of you started walking to exit the hangar. Right as you were passing by your F/A-18, you saw George walking towards you.
“Oh Lightning you’re here ! Sorry, I was held up in a meeting with Cyclone.”
“It’s okay no worries !”
“Should we go over your jet’s issue right now ?”
“Oh well— um…”
You turned to look at Jake, puppy snuggled against his chest, the eagerness from before having temporarily left his eyes. You could physically feel your heart ache at the sight.
And then the words left your mouth before you could think twice about the consequences.
“George could we actually reschedule ? I’m really sorry, I just— I have something I need to do.”
George took one look at you, then one long look at Jake, whose smile was already returning and eyes impossibly gentle and adoring upon gazing down at you. He smirked softly.
“No worries, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
You thanked him and started heading towards the base’s exit along with Jake and the puppy still in his arms. You couldn’t believe you had actually said that. Refused to go over your jet’s problem with your mechanic — just to go to the vet with Hangman and his lost and found golden retriever puppy ? Jake was silent next to you, but you just knew, you knew it was only a matter of seconds now before he—
“So.“
Yep, here we go.
“That was quite the reaction back there,” He said, the self satisfied smirk evident in his voice — you refused to even look at him — as he gently scratched behind the dog’s ear, who was making little satisfied sounds that almost resembled purrs. “Can’t believe you decided to come with me and furball here to the vet instead of reviewing very important calibrations on your jet.” His voice dipped, playful, “If I didn’t know any better I’d say you definitely have a thing for me.”
You scoffed, hoping it came across as indignation and not for what it really was, a bad attempt at trying to hide how flustered you were.
“Oh please, I’m only coming along to make sure you don’t abduct someone else’s dog.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night sweetheart.”
Whatever response you had already loaded and ready to go upon hearing the first few words of his sentence, died instantly at the last one, sweetheart. You wish you had the fight in you to retort him to shut up, to never call you that again, never even think about it. But the warmth that spread in your whole chest — down your legs, along your arms and meeting the tip of your fingers, flushing up your face, painting your cheeks in a pink hue that couldn’t lie even if it tried — just at the sound of this little word coming from his lips ? Rendered you absolutely useless. You barely managed your next words.
“Shut up.” You mumbled out, devoid of any aggression.
He only chuckled in response, the sound warm and low and not at all helping your current predicament.
When you finally reached Jake’s truck, you hopped into the passenger’s seat, Jake on your side and carefully handing you the puppy so he could go around the truck, to the driver’s side.
You were so busy watching Jake the whole time —an embarrassing thought to admit, even to yourself — that you didn’t take the time to truly appreciate how cute this little fluff ball was. The puppy was happily wagging his tail, soft brown eyes staring up at you. You cupped his adorable little face and murmured in a cooing voice close to it :
“You are sooo cute aren’t you ? The cutest.”
“And here I thought I was the sole owner of this title.” Jake playfully sighed as he took place on the driver’s seat, buckling himself.
“And what gave you the impression ?” You scoffed, equally playful, and uncharacteristically willing to entertain his antics.
“Well I don’t know,” he started with a smirk, eyeing your face, “maybe it’s those rosy cheeks of yours every time you look at me that gave it away.”
Your jaw went slack as you turned to look at him, heat rushing to your cheeks once more, heart threatening to escape your rib cage from how fast it was beating against your chest. You didn’t see any realistic way you could get out of this without him catching you in an obvious and frankly, embarrassing lie.
“Okay smarty pants, just start the damn car.” You just mumbled out, snuggling the puppy protectively against your chest.
Jake chuckled once more, his gaze lingered on your face for a second longer. Not failing to notice the pink hue your cheeks were once again adorned with, as well as the way your eyes were doing everything in their power not to cross his. He slightly bit his bottom lip at how cute you were looking right now, desperately trying to refrain himself from flustering you further with another smug remark. He finally detached his stare from you, turning the key in the ignition and putting the address of the clinic on his phone.
The drive was a relatively short one. You decided to focus all your attention on making sure the puppy was comfortable on your lap and entertained, petting him, whispering sweet things that were only meant for his adorable floppy and fluffy ears. Every few minutes, Jake couldn’t help but stealing glances at you, the sight of you in his truck, with a golden retriever puppy on your lap felt strangely domestic and his heart leaped at the thought that maybe this could be real, that this could be what his life might look like if you both started being honest with each other and stopped ignoring the simmering tension between you.
Jake parked the car on the clinic’s parking lot when you arrived, and before you even had time to unbuckle your seatbelt, he was already out of the car and on your side of it. He opened up the door for you, his hands stretched out, ready to take the puppy from you so you could get out. You gently passed him over. And the puppy seemed happy enough to be back in his arms. Jake secured it firmly against his chest with one strong arm, making sure the puppy was well seated on it before stretching out his free hand to you.
You looked at it, then back up at his face, his eyes devoid of their usual teasing and smug twinkle, the only thing left was eagerness. And before your brain could even think of brushing him away with a deflecting and snarky comment like ‘keep that hand to yourself Hangman, I don’t need you’, your body instinctively reached out for him, grabbing his hand and leaning on it as you climbed out of the car.
“Thanks.” You said, still intent on avoiding his gaze.
“No worries.” He all but answered with a dazzling smile.
You both made your way to the vet, and Jake once again opened the door for you, despite still holding the puppy. Has he always been that gentlemanly ? Have you just been refusing to see it all this time ?
Fortunately for you, the clinic was looking pretty empty as you made your way to the front desk. There was just an elderly man with a black cat that was matching its owner’s gray hair, waiting on a chair.
“Hello,” Jake greeted with a characteristic charming smile, “we found this little guy wandering around our military base, we wanted to see if he has a microchip, to know if he has owners, if that’s possible.”
The woman behind the desk, a sweet lady in her sixties, looked up from her computer and melted at the sight of the puppy in Jake’s arms.
“Awww he is so cute !! You three would make an adorable family !”
Your heart skipped a beat.
“Oh no we’re not—“
But Jake cut you.
“Thank you, we’d definitely love to keep him if we can, we’ve been thinking about adopting a dog for a while now, I guess it’s the universe sending us a message !”
You practically gave yourself whiplash turning your head to look at him, bewildered. What was he saying ?? Though you were confused by his antics, you couldn’t help the warmth you felt at the lady thinking you were a couple and Jake so easily playing into it. Like it was believable, like you two could actually be something.
Jake turned to you, chuckling softly at your expression.
“Close your mouth honey, you’re gonna catch a fly.”
You didn’t even notice your jaw was hanging open until now, beyond embarrassed, you quickly closed it. The front desk lady let out a soft laugh, muttering out a low ‘God, young love is so beautiful’. She typed a few things onto her computer and looked back up.
“You guys are lucky, it’s pretty calm today, you can just wait a few minutes right here and the doctor will be right with you.” She smiled as she pointed out the little chairs to the left, which served as a waiting room.
You both thanked her and went over to sit down.
“Why would you let her believe we’re together ?!” You whisper yelled as soon as you were out of earshot from the front desk.
Jake just shrugged, smiling from ear to ear.
“Well sweetheart, I didn’t exactly hear you deny it, you know there is no shame in admitting you liked it.”
“Liked it ??” You scoffed, opting for trying to sound deeply and truly offended.
He only hummed in response, green eyes never leaving yours, all the while still petting the puppy on his lap who was now playfully trying to bite his fingers.
“That’s just ridiculous,” you started, not even knowing where your sentence was going or how to defend yourself, “yeah ridiculous that’s what it is, it’s— I mean you’re— I don’t even—“
You cut yourself off with a frustrated huff, deciding to put an end to your own suffering “Yeah anyway you get what I mean.” Praying that he would just — for once in his life — shut up and drop it.
But of course, he wouldn’t be Jake “Hangman” Seresin if he did.
“No I actually don’t, enlighten me darlin’.”
There he was again with the pet names. You weren’t sure you could handle all of this for much longer before you accidentally blurted out something you were not meant to or just totally told on yourself. And right as you were about to answer something that would probably dig your own grave, the universe decided to give you a break.
“Alright sweeties, the doctor will see you now !” The lady from the front desk called out to you, “Right this way.”
You couldn’t help but let out a small relieved sigh, happy to catch a break from Jake’s unrelenting flirting — or were you really ?
Jake just threw you a look that said that this conversation was nowhere near being over, and you didn’t know if you awaited the next moment you’d be alone together again with dread or excitement. You were led inside the vet’s consultation room. The veterinarian was a kind looking man in his forties, he gave you both a warm, welcoming smile, and it widened upon gazing down at the puppy that Jake had gently put down on the examination table.
“Hello little guy,” he greeted the puppy, gently petting his head, “alright tell me, what brings you in here ?”
Jake explained the situation.
“And so we wanted to know if it was possible for you to see if he has a microchip ? See if he has owners ?”
“Yeah that’s absolutely doable.” The vet, Dr. Martin as it was written on his scrubs, nodded as he rummaged through some drawers to retrieve his pet chip scanner.
When he found it, he turned it on and as he was about to scan between the puppy’s shoulders — where the chip would be if he had one — you could sense that Jake was a bit fidgety. He’d put his hands in his pockets, inhaled a bit more sharply than usual, something that would go unnoticed by everyone, but not you. You knew Jake had gotten his hopes up about genuinely keeping this puppy, and you found it cute to see him be a bit nervous about the reveal on whether or not this puppy already had a family. You gently placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly, in an attempt to comfort him in case Dr. Martin didn’t deliver the news he so desperately hoped for.
Jake seemed surprised at the contact at first, his brows raised as he turned his head to make eye contact with you. When you smiled up softly at him, his features relaxed into an expression of serenity as he placed a warm hand above yours, squeezing it affectionately. Dr. Martin’s voice pulled you both out of the trance and kept you from drowning into each other’s eyes :
“Seems like this little guy doesn’t have anyone.”
Jake physically lightened up, you could feel the relief radiating from him as well as the excitement at the idea of getting to adopt the little fluff ball.
“California laws are a bit strict with strays though,” Dr. Martin said gently. “But I can get you intent-to-adopt paperwork. You’d foster him during the hold period, and if no one claims him, you’ll be able to adopt him officially. How does that sound?”
“Sounds amazing, thank you.”
Dr. Martin nodded with a smile before stepping out to go get the paperwork, leaving you alone with Jake, without forgetting about the puppy of course. You noticed then that your hand was still on his shoulder, and his hand was still very much holding yours in place, you were suddenly very aware of how warm his skin felt against yours. You quickly retracted it, opting for a casual tone when you started talking again, hoping he wouldn’t catch on the fact you just pulled your hand from his like it had suddenly burnt you.
“So,” You began, clearing your voice slightly, “excited ?”
He looked at you for a moment, absentmindedly petting the puppy again, debating on whether or not he should torment you further by bringing up your earlier conversation or even the way you just pulled out your hand from under his, and walked away to the end of the examination table, so you were now on opposite sides. Jake decided to let it go — for now.
“I sure am,” He answered. “I’ve been thinking of names ideas, what d’ya think about Lightning ?” He asked, teasing smirk returning in full force.
You let out a laugh before taking on a fake apologizing tone.
“I’m sorry Hangman, but I fear this one’s already taken.”
He played into it, feigning disappointment.
“Bummer, I thought it was a really cute name.”
You let out a chuckle as you diverted your eyes down on the examination table, unable to hold his beautiful green gaze when he watched you so intensely.
“Well, if I can’t use Lightning,” he continued, giving you a playful pointed look, “you’re just gonna have to find me a better one.”
“Oh Hangman, always deflecting responsibility on others.” You sighed teasingly.
His only answer was a small, soft chuckle. He turned his head back to the puppy, who was adoringly gazing up at him while wagging his little tail. He scratched behind his ears — which seemed to be the absolute all time favorite move of the little furball — and placed a soft kiss on the top of his head. You almost had to tear your gaze away again from how sweet it was, your heart feeling as if it was being squeezed inside of your chest. You discreetly took out your phone to snap a picture of it, one you’d probably be ashamed of later for how long you’d end up staring at it.
And for a moment you looked from the puppy to Jake, and from Jake to the puppy, and it seemed as if they had somehow been carved from the same stone, only brought to life into different shapes.
“He really is the most beautiful boy isn’t he ?” Jake spoke again, affection dripping from his voice, still looking down at the puppy.
But your eyes were fixed on Jake as you agreed, a small, almost enamored smile pulling at your lips.
“Yeah, he really is.”
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Author’s note : I had soooo much fun writing this one, I hoped you enjoyed it !! If you have any feedback, constructive criticisms and all that, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment !!💞
Summary : A trip down memory lane brings you and Jake together as you both reminisce the tales of how you fell in love.
Pairing : Jake "Hangman" Seresin × Fem!Reader
Important info : Your call sign is Lightning ⚡️ :)
Disclaimer : English is not my first language so apologies for any grammatical errors that might have escaped my proofreading, also I have no knowledge of the US navy or military, so sorry for any inaccuracies about that !💞
Word count : 11.8k
Part one :)
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Jake didn’t immediately drive home when he watched you close your door.
At first, he stayed. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, just watching your door, excited to no avail to see it open in the morning to reveal your pretty face.
After a what felt like an infinity to him, he concluded that he didn’t want your neighbors to think he was a creep before both of you had even put words on your feelings.
Jake took the long way home, window opened, ocean air greeting his face and the sounds of the crashing waves making a poor attempt at soothing his racing heart.
Back at his place, it was clear to him that he wouldn’t get any sleep. He watched TV, reviewed his flight route sim for Monday, cleaned his apartment… twice. No matter what he did, his heart rate wouldn’t go down, nor the sweat slicking his palms no matter how many times he wiped them on his pants.
Jake didn’t consider himself to be a nervous kinda guy, by any means, but perhaps he had underestimated what the knowledge of the woman he’s been in love with for so long confessing to him in a few hours would do to him. It was a weird mix of excitement and sheer nerves. Had the course of your entire relationship truly changed in one night because of too many drinks you’d had ? Would the night and sobering up change your mind ?
By the time he had turned over these questions endlessly in his mind, he was taken out of his trance by the first rays of sunlight passing through the cracks of his poorly closed blinds. Without a second thought for these endless questions, he got ready to go back to your place.
Jake found himself standing in front of your door for the second time in the span of just a few hours. If earlier that night he’d been hopeful, excited and without any other words to describe it — love sick, the beating of his heart felt more hurtful than love struck now.
Swallowing felt difficult as he raised his hand to knock three times on your door.
The silence that followed somehow felt deafening. God, he should’ve known. You had changed your mind, probably sobered up and realized the mistakes you had made, you were avoiding him, playing dead, probably planning the papers to be transferred—
“Seresin,” your voice boomed, startling him out of his spiral as you opened your door in one swift movement, “you’re late.”
The relief upon seeing you was short lived, as a confused expression distorted his features.
“Late ? How am I late ? The sun’s barely up !” He countered, one arm pointing to the skyline where pretty shades of pink and yellow had began to illuminate the atmosphere.
“It’s actually been up for ten minutes, where has this military punctuality of yours gone ? I said first light, it’s the fourth one at least”
A scoff escaped him, and before any more futile arguing remarks could leave his mouth, he realized something. You were there. You had opened the door and not shooed him away yet. He barely could contain the small smile stretching his lips as he took what he hoped was a discreet, long look at you.
You had already closed shut your door behind you. You had changed clothes, which made Jake feel a bit stupid because his anxiety spiral didn’t even let him make the effort for you. Standing in front of him, arms crossed, looking at him with that frown that never seemed to leave the crease between your brows whenever you looked at him. The first and only time it did was just a few hours ago, he thought. But your usual cold and stern facade was betrayed by the pink hue blooming on your cheeks, a shade that reminded Jake of the one painting the sky above you. And that’s when it truly hit him. You had opened the door. You were there. Which could mean only one thing.
“Well, I’m here now,” he said, trying so hard to repress the giddy smile he could feel forming on his face.
“Yes you are.” You answered, an expression on your face that Jake couldn’t read.
“Is your head okay ?” He questioned a bit sheepishly, “I have ibuprofen in my car if you need.”
“I’m okay, thanks. I took one already, right when I woke up and realized the room was fucking spinning.”
Jake grimaced lightly.
“We can talk another time if you wa—“
“No.” You interrupted him firmly, “we are talking right now.”
Jake chuckled, raising his hands in mock defense. “Okay, okay, can I at least buy you something to drink and eat ? I know a nice place.”
“Is anything even opened right now ?” You asked, obviously dubious.
Jake couldn’t help but find funny the contrast of your behavior right now compared to just a few hours before with a little alcohol flowing in your veins. The stars had replaced the glowing sun of California when at this same place, right in front of your door, you had been ready to confess your love for him. And now you were acting like usual, meaning you were acting like his mere existence was a nuisance. To anyone, it would have looked like you had changed your mind and were ready to send him on his way. But to Jake, who never once missed a cue in your comportment, no matter how small or how imperceptible, it looked like an awkward attempt at keeping things the way they were — if only for a few minutes — before they inevitably changed forever. He had to admit, it was a strange feeling, to stand in front of one another, both aware of the words that you would exchange. And he couldn’t imagined how it felt for you, to have realized, and worse, outed the idea of your feelings when you were obviously not entirely in control of yourself. A control Jake knew you craved and found comfort in.
“Yes, it’s actually not too far from here.” When he saw your non-impressed look, he let out a chuckle, “come on, they even sell those French pastries you like,” he coaxed.
That seemed to do it, and somehow, Jake knew it would.
“Alright,” you conceded, “lead the way, Hangman.”
The drive was rather short. Jake wasn’t able to say if the silence filing the car was uncomfortable or just… charged.
Charged with every word left unsaid, that despite never having been spoken in the open, you both knew the extent of.
By the time Jake parked in front of the small coffee shop, the sun had settled in the eastern sky, casting a golden glow over San Diego. The early morning birds had begun to sing, it was a nice summer morning, Jake thought. It felt even nicer knowing what was to come.
“Ohh it’s cute,” you marveled, taking a look around the shop as you passed the threshold of the door, which Jake was holding open for you.
“I know, right ? And look right there.”
Your gaze followed his finger to the display of various pastries. It was like seeing your eyes light up, and Jake was unable to hide the huge grin stretching his lips at seeing you make a beeline towards the counter, admiring the sweet pastries from up close. He followed close behind you.
“See anything that catches your eye ?”
“Oh I sure I do.” You grinned.
A second after, a woman with a warm smile and kind eyes, came out of the kitchen in the back.
“Good morning, what can I get for you ?”
Jake turned to you, signaling you to go first.
“Hi,” you smiled, “can I get—“
A hot chocolate and a ‘pain au chocolat’, Jake guessed.
“A pain au chocolat and a hot chocolate, please.”
He did his best to hide his proud and fond smile.
“And for you, sir ?”
“Just a coffee, thank you.”
Jake paid for the two of you, promptly ignoring your protests. He led you to the backyard of the shop, where small tables were spread out around the yard. Trees and bushes were hiding it from the streets, giving it the intimate atmosphere Jake thought you would need to be comfortable. Adorned with flowers which colors seemed to come alive with the early morning greeting them, the yard was empty, except for the two of you, standing there.
“That’s really cute,” you remarked, looking around with a small smile on your face, “how did you even discover this place ?”
Jake led you to a small table, holding the trays with your drinks and food.
“Javy actually found it first,” he said, pulling up your chair, “occasionally we come here before or after training.”
“Ohh so you have little dates with Javy, I see,” you teased, sitting down, “what does that make me ? Your dirty mistress ?”
Jake let out a laugh as he sat down across from you, “I mean, you said it. Not me.”
“Our relationship isn’t off to a very great start,” you joked.
Jake’s heart skipped a beat right then and there, and he froze for a second.
“Relationship ?”
He cringed internally at how pathetically hopeful he sounded. But you didn’t seem to perceive his tone as expectant, only hearing slight surprise that your anxiety and nervousness totally misread in the moment. Panic flashed through your eyes as you rushed to explain yourself.
“I mean I thought that that’s what we were— you know because of yesterday ? I just— I mean I thought that was implied— but maybe I misunderstood—“
“No no, you’re good, that’s exactly what this is,” Jake interrupted your panic issued rambling, trying to make his voice as soothing as possible and not let show every bit of the giddy nervousness overwhelming his system.
You visibly couldn’t contain an exhale that perhaps you didn’t even know you were holding, and Jake could see your shoulders drop slightly out of relief. You let out a little embarrassed laugh that translated just how uneasy this whole situation felt.
“Sorry, this is a bit awkward,” you said, heat rushing to your cheeks at addressing implicitly the matter of this encounter between the two of you, “it’s just— I mean you know it’s weird, just like knowing we, um we both, you know.”
“Are in love with each other ?” Jake supplied, a small smile stretching the corner of his lips.
Your breath hitched on an inhale. The words seemed to hang between the two of you, freezing time if only for a second. And for a moment, Jake feared you would deny the word ‘love’, perhaps reduce it to ‘like’, diminish the affection you felt towards him, but—
“Yeah,” you only exhaled, a shy smile making its way onto your face and Jake physically felt himself relax, “so, where, um— where do we start ?”
“Well first I’d like to know how you realized after five mojitos that you were in love with me after spending the last few years hating me like you were paid to.” Jake said, teasing smirk firmly in place in hopes of hiding the way his heart was hammering against his rib cage.
Letting out a laugh you tore your gaze away from him, pointedly looking at the daffodils in bloom on your left, “yeah,” you admitted, stretching out the syllable, “that kinda came out of the blue, didn’t it ? That wasn’t exactly my plan to have it happen like that.”
“I can imagine.” Jake answered, smile reassuring as he tried to catch your eyes.
“I’ll be honest,” you said, straightening up and gaze returning back on him, as if regaining a bit of courage now that the words had finally passed the threshold of being spoken out loud, “I never, ever, not in my fucking wildest dreams, would have thought that I’d end up falling in love with you.”
“Yeah, no shit,” Jake laughed, “we didn’t really hit it off at first, and for the next years after that.”
“Oh my god,” you exclaimed in a laugh as if you remembered something, “do you remember when we met ?”
“I think the proper question would be if I could ever forget it.”
“I fucking hated you.”
“Feelings reciprocated, sweetheart,” Jake winked as you giggled.
It was a hot day in Pensacola, Florida. Which was pretty much the case of everyday in the Sunshine State.
You couldn’t contain the mix of excitement and nerves flowing through your veins as you passed the doors of the Naval Air Station. Today would be your first flight. You wouldn’t be solo, of course not, you’d be safely assisted by an instructor in your back seat, but still. After four grueling years at the Naval Academy and six month in Pensacola, you’d finally get your familiarization flight. It was putting you just a step closer to your dream, and what a step it was.
You had spent literal years visualizing and imagining this very day, and you were certain that nothing could ruin your day.
“Y/NNNN !” The loud shriek of your name startled you on your way to the locker room.
“Jesus Christ, Natasha !” you laughed, turning around to see her, “keep your voice down !”
She totally ignored you, jogging up next to you, falling into your step as you both made your way to your lockers.
“Okay but on a scale from one to ten, how fucking excited are you ?”
Hiding the huge smile stretching your face was impossible now.
“Twelve !” You squealed, putting all your stuff into your locker.
“God I can’t wait,” Natasha sighed, almost dreamily as she was putting her own stuff into her locker. “Did you see ? They sent us the list of our partners last night.”
“Oh did they ?”
While you would be flying with an instructor in the backseat, you would be flying in the same time slot as another student, navigating a small exercise together.
“Yeah, I’m with Kathy. I’m so relieved, I was scared to end up with Javy.” She exhaled as you were making your way to the briefing room.
You let out a laugh, Natasha and you had both met Javy during your first year at the Naval Academy and Natasha and him bickered and fought every time they could.
“Come on,” she laced her arm through yours, making you quicken your step, “they said the list would be hanged in the briefing room.”
You made a beeline for the list once you passed the threshold of the room, Natasha hot on your heels. Scanning the list with focused eyes, you searched for your name.
“I looked for your name last night, and you’re with a guy named um— what was it again… Jaden, I think ?”
“Jake.” You corrected when your gaze landed on your name next to a guy’s one.
“Yeah that’s it. He’s not in our class, I see him around sometimes. Guy’s southern and he has the biggest Texan accent I’ve ever heard, makes me crack up every time I hear him honestly,” Natasha chuckled behind you, before adding, “he’s super hot though.”
Turning around to face her, you raised an inquisitive brow.
“Objectively !” She defended herself, feeling exposed under your prying stare, “I’m just saying, if I liked men, I’d totally go for him.”
You couldn’t have hidden the surprise you felt at her words.
“He must really be something, then.”
“Oh trust me, he is.”
And Natasha was right, he was. But in the worst possible way.
He seemed charming enough when you went up to introduce yourself to him before the flight, when Natasha had pointed him out to you.
“Hey, I’m Y/N,” you said with a polite smile, extending a hand, “we’re flying together for the familiarisation flight.”
You had been doubtful of Natasha’s marvels about his looks. But you had to admit, he was hot. And hot wasn’t even cutting it. He looked like the type of man you fell in love with in dreams, a man so perfect it left your heart empty when you’d wake up knowing that no one even close to that man existed.
“Jake,” he said with a smile so charming it almost left you speechless for a second as his big hand slid into yours, his warmth immediately sipping into your skin.
And you felt your heart do something weird in your chest.
Ever since entering the Naval Academy and more so when entering the Naval Flight School, you had pretty much closed off every romantic relationship, choosing to focus on your career. And Jake was doing something very dangerous to your focus right now.
But his heavenly looks were quickly subdued by his godawful personality. And that was a harsh come back to reality.
“So this flight will consist of a small exercise, the one you’ve been training for on the sim. You’ll be in total control of the plane, we’re just in your backseats to make sure you don’t run us into the ground. Sounds good ?” Both yours and Jake’s instructors had explained in the ready room.
You had trained for this exercise probably harder than everyone else in your class, spending almost a hundred hours on that damn simulation to be sure to get it perfect for the big day. And from what Natasha had told you, Jake had been top of his class at the Academy and he had the highest sim scores out of every recruit on base.
Surely, this would be easy.
Take off went without any problem. And it felt surreal to finally have your hands on the center stick and know you were the one controlling the giant metal bird.
“Alright,” you heard your instructor’s voice behind you and echoing in your comms, “steady altitude, ceiling’s at ten thousand feet, start when you are ready.”
Making a turn right, you officially started the exercise. It was only a matter of placement, teamwork and height control. Nothing tricky or especially hard, nothing you hadn’t been training for.
Keeping a steady pace for the first part of the exercise, a quick look to your left made you frown. Jake’s plane was way too close to yours, more than what was necessary for a formation like that.
“T-6 one reporting to T-6 two” your voice crackled in the comms, “could you back up a little please ? You’re too close.”
“T-6 two reporting to T-6 one, I’m far away enough, staying in position.”
You — barely — contained a surprised and offended scoff. What the hell ?
What did he mean, ‘far away enough’, the guy was practically clipping your wing !
You expected your instructor or his to say something, tell him to actually back up, but they didn’t. You guess that as they had said, if none of you were in active danger of crashing, they wouldn’t intervene.
Swallowing back your pride, you said nothing else, just focused back on the exercise.
But it just got worse from there.
Jake was not even following the formation and exercise course anymore, deciding to show off and toe with the altitude ceiling.
“T-6 two to T-6 one, taking some altitude.” He said, not even a question, his voice sounding commanding.
Without a response from you, he took the initiative, plane rising up a few feet.
“T-6 one to T-6 two, abort, you’re too close to the ceiling.” You retorted, barely hiding your exasperation with his antics now.
“Not even a little, join me.”
The sheer audacity of that man was making your blood boil. You were about to cut his bullshit short when the voice of your instructor carried over from the backseat.
“You need to stick together, pull up.”
Your hand froze on the center stick for a second, what the fuck ?
“With all due respect sir, aren’t we supposed to steer clear of the ceiling ?”
“As long as you aren’t breaching it, it’s all good. Match his altitude.”
Reluctantly, you positioned your airplane next to his, keeping a reasonable and textbook distance from him.
Then out of nowhere, Jake sped up, leaving you behind and fuming under your helmet. What the fuck was this guy doing ?
“T-6 one to T-6 two, you are going too fast, slow down.” You called him out.
“You can never go too fast,” his voice crackled through the comms and somehow you could hear the self satisfied smirk in his voice and even though your eyes weren’t blessed to see it, you decided that this one definitely wasn’t as charming as the one he gave you earlier on the tarmac. “Match my pace.”
“No,” your answer was firm, you had already matched his altitude, and only because of your instructor, otherwise you would have given Jake a piece of your mind. And that was exactly what you were about to do. “You match my pace, end of discussion. I went to your altitude, so you go to my speed.”
Your authoritative tone was met with silence, one that left you squirming in your seat. For a moment, you feared that you’d get reprimanded by your instructor for being too harsh, or too commanding. But the scolding never came, only Jake’s voice resonated in your ears.
“Yes, ma’am,” was simply Jake’s answer, and you hated that you could still so clearly hear the smirk in his voice.
You felt yourself relax, maybe now you would be able to properly enjoy your first flight instead of worrying about his unpredictable next move. But perhaps had you been too quick to let down your guard.
Suddenly you were met with Jake’s radome, coming at full speed towards you. Your body, nor your mind even had the time to react, the only thing that registered was fear. Sheer and unfiltered fear that made your hands freeze on the center sticks. As quickly as he had turned around, Jake deviated, flying past you, almost clipping your right wing. His bird turned around you, closer than comfortable to the rear of your aircraft and finally ended up beside you.
It seemed as though time had frozen.
“Jesus Christ, Seresin !” You heard his instructor exclaim in an incredulous laugh and you wondered what there was to laugh about in this situation.
“That was an unnecessary maneuver, Seresin, very impressive but unnecessary.” Your instructor remarked through the comms and you were fuming over the praise.
Was no one going to firmly condemn his careless behavior ? If he had been one millimeter off, all four of you would be knees deep into the ground !
“Alright I think that’s enough for today, let’s go back to base.”
During the flight back to base, you felt stuck in that fight or flight feeling you got when you saw Jake’s plane coming right onto yours at full speed. Your knuckles were turning white on the center stick, and you did your best to hide your frantic breathing. Adrenaline was still pumping in your veins, your whole body trembling beneath your flight suit. Landing the plane proved to be a challenge, but your instructor seemed to notice none of it when he joyfully praised ‘beautiful landing, Y/N.’
When your boots hit the concrete floor, your instructor only threw you a ‘debrief in five !’ over his shoulder before he left you alone, standing next to your plane with trembling legs.
Behind you, you heard the heavy sound of someone jumping off their jet ladder, and when you turned around, your blood ran cold.
Jake was there. Helmet in hand, self satisfied smirk firmly in place after he had nearly killed you both. The fear left your body in the blink of an eye, only leaving fury boiling in your veins. You were already two meters away from him when you realized that your legs had taken you right up to him.
“Hey, what the fuck was that ?” Your outraged voice echoed against the wing of his plane.
He jumped slightly at the sound of your voice, and his face contorted in a confused expression that only fueled the rage piling up in your throat.
“Hey, woah calm down.”
There couldn’t have been a worse possible choice of words for him in this instant.
“Calm down ? Calm down ?! You almost fucking killed us both !” You screamed, anger bursting out of you as you took another step towards him.
Jake seemed wildly unimpressed by the fury burning in your eyes, he only raised his brows at you.
“Well, are we dead ? No. So no need to come screaming about it in my face, sweetheart.” He scoffed, turning away from you and walking towards the hangar.
You thought for a second that your ears had deceived you. Who the fuck did he think he was ?
“Hey !” You walked after him, “I’m talking to you, do you realize how insane you fucking sound ? You almost—“
Suddenly he turned back around, and you almost bumped into him.
“No, do you realize how insane you sound ? Yelling at me about something that didn’t happen !” He snapped, “just because I pulled a maneuver that you can’t do doesn’t mean you have to nag my ear off about how it was ‘dangerous’ ! It wasn’t, because I know what I’m fucking doing.” He finished in a breath, his green eyes — that only an hour before you had found so enchanting — were boring straight into yours, and you didn’t like the flash of superiority you saw in them.
Natasha was right. He had a thick Texan drawl, and if you weren’t in such conditions you probably would have found it attractive.
“Oh my god, who the fuck do you even think you are ?” Your voice raised an octave from the sheer anger sizzling under your skin, an incredulous laugh left you, this situation couldn’t be real, “you don’t fucking know me !”
“Oh, I know enough. Do you know any fighter pilots who are afraid to approach the ceiling or go a little fast ?” He spat in your face.
“I’m not afraid I was just respecting the rules of the exercise and If you think playing with orders makes you better than me you’re a fucking idiot !”
That made him let out a humorless chuckle.
“I mean I don’t know. Didn’t hear any of the instructors complain, but I bet they’ll definitely have something to say about your landing.” He scoffed that last part out.
You didn’t think it was possible for your fury to reach new heights, but apparently every single word coming out of Jake’s mouth was making you discover new things about yourself.
“Jesus fucking Christ you are the biggest asshole I’ve ever met, you fucking—“
“Hey what’s going on here ?” Your instructor’s voice resonated behind you.
Freezing, you felt your blood run cold for the nth time that day.
Turning around, you saw his brows furrowed. Clear disappointment on his face that made your heart sink into your stomach.
“What the hell is this screaming match ? We can hear you all the way to the debrief room !”
You half expected to hear Jake’s voice retort something to discredit you, but you were at least relieved to see he knew to shut it in front of a superior.
In front of both of your silence, your instructor’s voice raised again, “not much to say now, huh ? This is not the kind of behavior that flies high here, alright ? Both of you, grounded for a week. Maybe that’ll teach you something.”
“What ?” You heard yourself exclaim along with Jake.
“Sir, with all due respect—“ Jake started.
“I don’t want to hear it, you’re grounded. That’ll leave you some time to think about how a Naval Aviator must behave.”
Your eyes were strained on your boots. This felt so humiliating. And you knew exactly who to blame.
“Now get your asses to the debrief room.”
He turned around, boots angrily hitting the floor and Jake and you wasted no time to follow behind him.
“This is all your fault,” you heard him whisper accusatory next to you.
“Oh my God just shut the fuck up already.” You whispered in an exasperated exhale.
You didn’t think you had truly hated anyone, or even anything, for that matter. Sure, you disliked things. Disliked certain food, disliked the way certain people were too full of themselves, disliked rainy days… but you had never hated anything, especially anyone.
But you knew it then, you hated Jake Seresin. More than anything.
But it would be alright you thought. Jake wasn’t in your class, and after graduation you’d probably be sent on bases on opposite sides of the country. Or he would probably end up joining the Blue Angels, if he liked to play and do aerobatics for people to marvel at so much.
Either way, you’d never seen him again.
“Jesus, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, what an arrogant son of a bitch you were.” You snickered before taking a bite of your pastry.
Jake let out a laugh, slightly shaking his head, “I’ll have to agree with you on that one.”
You feigned to freeze, mouth hanging open around your pain au chocolat.
“Jake ? Is that… is that an acknowledgement of your past mistakes I hear ?” You wondered in a mock, overly amazed tone.
He playfully nudged your foot under the table as he rolled his eyes and you giggled, taking another bite of your sweet treat.
“That looks good.”
“It is.”
“Can I have a bite ?”
Truly, Jake didn’t expect anything when asking. You weren’t particularly fond of sharing your food. Especially if it was one of those French pastries you loved so much. And especially if sharing was with him.
But then Jake got hit back with the context of your meeting in such early lights of the morning. You loved him. Maybe that would make you more inclined to share. The thought had his chest filling with warmth and he hoped that the top of his ears weren’t reflecting the sudden fluster he felt.
You seemed to consider it, if only for a second, before your hand reached out with the pastry still in hand.
“Here.”
Refraining a grin, Jake made a move to grab the pastry but you swatted his hand away.
“Just bite it.”
Unable to contain it any longer, his lips stretched out in a delighted smile.
“Ohh bossy, I like it, sweetheart.”
Rolling your eyes, you were powerless to hide the pink hue blooming across your cheeks, “take the damn bite before I change my mind, Seresin.”
Jake leaned in, eyes boring into yours as his teeth sunk into the flakey treat. Warm and rich chocolate instantly filled his mouth.
“Mhm, damn that’s good.” He marveled in a mouthful.
“Of course it is, had you never tasted one ?”
He shook his head. Chewing, his eyes trailed down to your lips, and he wondered if he were to kiss you right now, if you’d taste like the chocolate you were eagerly biting off the pastry.
“You have a flake here,” your voice took him out of his reverie as you were pointing to the right side of your own mouth.
Purposely, Jake wiped the wrong side of his mouth and internally marveled at the rolling of your eyes.
“The other side, idiot.”
He leaned slightly over the table, “get it for me.”
“You are such a baby,” you muttered under your breath, nonetheless reaching out to gently wipe the flake off from the corner of his mouth, and he barely repressed the shiver running along his spine at your finger being so close to his lips. “There, take it.” You said, holding the crumb of pastry out to him.
Refraining a smirk, Jake leaned in, face coming impossibly closer with your held out finger. As delicately as someone like him was able to, his lips touched your skin, closing around the flake, tongue coming in to sweep it off your finger, barely grazing you. All the while his jade green eyes were locked onto yours, and he was able to see the whirlwind of surprise and fluster flash through your gaze. The pink hue on your cheeks took on a darker shade as it spread from your neck all the way to the tip of your ears.
“Thanks, darlin’.”
Jake could have sworn he saw your lips twitch, maybe debating on insulting him or maybe kissing him senseless, making up for lost time.
He prayed it was the second option.
You quickly retracted your hand, busying yourself with a sip of your hot chocolate, while Jake absolutely reveled in the obvious stir up of emotions he was causing in you.
Jake smirked before taking on a mock serious expression, “I mean, thinking about it, all of this could have easily been avoided if you had just matched my pace.”
Watching you realize the implication behind his words might have been the highlight of Jake’s year, an undignified scoff left you. “Fuck you, Jake.”
“We’ll eventually come to that, yes.”
Your eyes widened out before your foot kicked his shin under the table, “you are the worst, I hope you know that.”
He hummed, eyes raking appreciatively over your flustered form, “I do know, now why don’t you stop deflecting and tell me how you realized you loved me ?” He asked, casual smile firmly in place while trying to calm down the frantic beating of his heart against his chest.
Taking a deep breath, you put down your cup of hot chocolate and immediately your fingers went to play with crumbs from the pastry on your plate, looking for a distraction, your eyes followed the movement, not daring to face Jake’s intrusive stare.
You cleaned your throat before speaking, “um… a few months ago, maybe four or five months I don’t really remember, I had this talk with Bob and—“
“Bob ?” Jake interrupted, the ecstasy he felt upon you telling him about your feelings momentarily replaced by sheer confusion upon hearing the name of his teammate in such a context.
“Jake.”
“Sorry, go on.”
“I was talking with Bob at the Hard deck…”
Perched on your stool, you were sipping on your drink, eyes intensely trained on Jake from across the room.
He was leaning against the bar, flashing his dazzling smile at a pretty blonde that had been hanging on his arm ever since he’d set foot in the bar.
Nothing went unnoticed by your focused gaze on the pair.
Not the way the girl’s hand was brushing his forearm everytime he said something that made her laugh, not the occasional wink he’d throw after an overly flirtatious comment, and certainly not the proximity between the two that seemed to shrink with every passing minute they spent together.
To the untrained eye, it might have seemed like envy, desire, jealousy, even.
But you deemed evident that anyone who truly knew you would know that this was just pure resentment for Jake. You hated the way he talked, moved, behaved, breathe…
You just hated him. And perhaps what you hated above all was this mating parade he seemed to throw himself in every time the squad came to the Hard Deck. It’s like he couldn’t help but whore himself around for everyone to see, thinking that every woman on God’s green Earth wanted him.
“What are you doing ?” Bob’s joyful voice suddenly reached your ears, the sudden sound tearing you out of your trance.
“Jesus Christ, Bob !” You exclaimed, jolting and almost dropping half of your drink on your clothes, “where the fuck did you come from ?”
“I’ve been here for quite some time actually,” he smiled, somehow knowingly, at you. “What are you looking at ?” He asked again.
“Nothing,” you lied, “what were you doing just standing there ?”
“I was waiting for you to stop looking at Jake so we could talk.”
You froze, if only for a second, before forcing yourself to act normal.
Scoffing, you let out an undignified laugh, “Jake ? Do you hear yourself ? I wasn’t looking at him, i’d rather crash my plane and be left for dead before I even look at him a second longer than what the United States Navy requires me to do my job correctly. And even then I don’t even look in his direction, his whole existence makes me want to throw up.”
Bob watched your rant with raised eyebrows. “Wow, you must have had a lot on your mind.”
Yeah, perhaps that’d been too much.
Cringing a bit at your outburst, you cleared your throat, “yeah, it seems I did.”
Bob’s gaze turned to Jake, who was still eagerly talking with the blonde at the bar. And Bob hid a smirk when he made eye contact with Jake, the southern man’s eyes drifted towards you, checking to see if you were watching him. Bob saw the clear disappointment in his eyes when Jake noticed that you were too absorbed by swirling your straw into your drink, and he reluctantly directed his attention back to the woman flirtatiously gripping his forearm.
“Is it bothering you ?” Bob asked you in that calm voice of his.
“Is what bothering me ?”
“Jake flirting with that girl.”
Freezing for the second time in the span of three minutes, you looked back at your friend, wondering where the hell was this coming from, and why the fuck was your heart beating so hard against your rib cage.
“Why would that bother me ?”
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking.”
“I don’t give a shit what he does.” You tried to say as matter of factly as possible.
Bob hummed, “could’ve fooled me.”
You squinted your eyes at him, “is there something you wanna tell me, Bob ?”
He looked at you for a second, a warm smile on his lips as he seemed to carefully choose his next words.
“Can I ask you for some advice ? I have a friend who’s in a bit of a tricky situation, and I’d like to know what you think.”
A bit surprised by the turn of the conversation, you shrugged, “yeah, go ahead,” you agreed, sipping your drink and sneaking a glance toward Jake, one of his finger was twirling a strand of the girl’s hair and it physically made you want to throw up. He was disgusting.
“She likes this guy,” Bob started, making you tear your eyes away from the repulsive spectacle taking place in front of you, to look at him. “But I think she’s really in denial about it.”
You frowned, “in denial ? So how do you know she likes him if she doesn’t even know it herself ?”
He shrugged with a mischievous smile, “it’s obvious.”
“Hmm, and what’s the problem ?”
“I just don’t like to see her deny herself of something that could make her happy if she would just accept it.”
Your heart clenched at his words and a weird sense of longing filled your chest, almost unconsciously your gaze drifted to Jake again, and when your eyes met his for a brief second, you immediately looked away.
You cleared your throat, “why don’t you just talk to her about it ?”
“it’s just gonna make her clam up if I’m too upfront, I need to be more subtle than that. What do you think I should do ?”
Bob’s eyes were intensely trained on you, and you squirmed lightly under his prying gaze. It was as though his warm and sapphire eyes were stripping you bare, breaking down every one of the careful walls you’d spent years building up and you weren’t sure why the conversation was making you so uncomfortable.
“I mean,” you let out a sigh, taking a second to think it over, “I don’t really know. Maybe just have a conversation about life ?” You tried, “I know it sounds stupid but maybe talking about missed chances, how life is short and all that might make her realise something ? Act on her feelings ? I don’t know, Bob, sorry I’m not a huge help.” Chuckling, somehow sadly, you stirred up your drink with your straw, busying yourself by watching the liquid swirl in your glass.
“No, that’s great advice actually,” he smiled warmly at you, “I guess the guy she likes doesn’t really fit the idea she has of love, you know ? They haven’t always gotten along, so I guess she’s stuck with a vision of him that she refuses to let go of, and also even a version of herself.”
Your breath hitched without knowing why and Bob paused, his voice dropping to a soft and gentle tone.
“And I get her, you know ? It’s scary to challenge and let go of a belief you’ve had for a long time. But it’s a part of life, and I just hope that for herself, she’ll accept her feelings, and know that it doesn’t change who she is as a person.”
Feeling a weird and unexpected — even unwanted — wave of emotions crash over you, you swallowed difficultly. Bob’s words resonated so hard within you it felt like your inner world had shifted on its axis, and even though his wisdom wasn’t directed towards you, you felt so fully understood.
Instinctively, and without anything you could have done to stop it, your gaze searched for Jake in the crowd. He was still at the bar, but the tall blonde was gone. Sitting alone, he was lightly chatting with Penny whenever she came his way to fill up beers. He looked at ease, and your heart clenched at the sigh. The feeling of longing you felt earlier returned in full force, almost taking your breath away.
“Will you tell me if she finally realizes it ?” You asked Bob, eyes still trained on Jake.
Bob hummed, a hand coming up to your shoulder to squeeze it affectionately, “I have a feeling you’ll know.”
“So you’re telling me I owe our relationship to Bob ?” Jake asked incredulously and a tiny bit offended.
“Is that truly the only thing you got out of all this ?”
The side of his lips quirked up, “not at all, sweetheart. Absolutely loved how jealous you were. I’m happy to know it worked.”
Confusion slid his way onto your face, making a crinkle in between your brow apparent as you gazed at Jake, “happy to know what worked ?”
Jake reached out to tear a piece of your pain au chocolat, and was actually surprised you let him.
“You didn’t actually think I went home with every woman I talked to at the Hard Deck, did you ?” He said with a playful grin, throwing the piece of pastry in his mouth.
“I mean I don’t know, you are pretty damn convincing,” you muttered and Jake could hear the clear annoyance in your voice, and it only made him smile brighter.
He knew you were jealous every-time a girl came up to him at the Hard Deck, he could feel your eyes boring into the side of his head whenever he played into it. That was the only reason he did it.
“You know I never engaged with anyone, right ?” He asked, his voice dropping to a gentle tone.
“Do you seriously expect me to believe that ?”
God, he loved seeing you get riled up over him. Seeing you so blatantly show your desire towards him, even more so in a sense of possessiveness made him slightly feral if he were honest. It was the confirmation of every implicit sign you had unconsciously given him over time, the confirmation of every single fantasy he’s had, the confirmation of every ‘what if’s’. And finally having you talk about it in the open was a feeling like no other that Jake wouldn’t be able to describe, even with all the words in the English language.
“I just wanted to make you react,” he tilted his head in an attempt to catch your eyes, “I thought that maybe jealousy would make you realise something, and I mean… I was right.” He smirked teasingly.
You glared at him.
Jake straightened up a bit, “I haven’t really engaged with anyone ever since I fell in love with you.”
He found it surprising how easily the words were slipping away from him.
He saw you visibly tense up a little before speaking, “when did you fall in love with me ?”
He pretended to think for a second, if only in a poor attempt to not look completely head over heels for you, even though he was. Jake knew the exact moment he realized his heart beat to the rhythm of you, he could tell you what day it was, what time surely. The clothes you were wearing, what perfume you had put on, what song was playing in the background… and he would be able to recount it all in the most acute of details even in a hundred years if he were given the chance to.
“At Mav and Penny’s party when Mav moved in,” he finally said after a fake time of reflection.
Jake could see the exact moment the information registered into your brain. Your eyes widened, eyebrows raised and mouth hanging open in the most shell shocked expression he’d ever seen.
“Jesus Christ, Jake !” You exclaimed, “that was…” taking the time to think it over, the number you landed on only made you more astonished, “that was four years ago !”
Feeling the top of his ears redden slightly, he slowly nodded. “Yeah…”
You looked at him with an expression he couldn’t really decipher, shock, that’s for sure, but there was something else. Sadness…? Regret, maybe ?
“Why didn’t you tell me ?” You asked, in a bit of a breathless voice, “we could have had this conversation a long time ago.”
He shook his head with a small smile, “No, I don’t think we could have.” When he saw your offended expression, he was quick to explain himself, “I don’t think you would have been ready, I mean, shit I can’t believe I’m about to say that but Bob was right, you would have clammed up. Would have rejected me if I’d told you then, probably changed squadron to never see my face again. It wasn’t the right time.”
His response obviously surprised you, and he could see the faintest tremble in your fingers where you were cupping your hot chocolate.
“So… you just waited ?”
“I did.”
He saw you sucked in a breath, “why ?”
Jake stared at you for a moment.
The sun had well settled into the sky now, its rays coming down gently to bless your skin, making you look like a fallen angel who had taken the time to come down on earth and chose him, of all people, as a receptacle of all your attention. The sing song of the nearby birds only added to the feeling of serenity filing up Jake’s veins.
He’d always thought that he felt the most at ease in the air.
But perhaps all he needed was you.
Perhaps you expected a longer time of reflexion, but the answer came to him like en evidence, a quiet truth he’d been carrying for so long there was nothing much he could do to hold it back anymore.
“Because I love you.”
Time seemed to freeze for a moment.
“I love you and I knew this wasn’t the right time. I had hope maybe one day you’d feel the same way, you know ? and when I finally started to notice you did, I… I don’t know how to explain it, but it still wasn’t the right time. You were so focused on hating me that my feelings wouldn’t have changed a thing. You weren’t ready, so I waited.”
And he would have waited a million years if that’s what you had needed. He kept it to himself for now, thinking that perhaps it might be too early to be saying such things, but you were it for him, he waited because there was no one else he could ever fathom spend the rest of his life with. For four years, in his mind, it had always been you and him.
The expression on your face was unreadable, and for a second Jake feared that perhaps it’d been too much. And his heart dropped when he noticed the faint, glowing sheen of water in your eyes.
You let out a nervous laugh that was awfully watery, too much for his liking, “Jesus, Jake,” you looked up, obviously intent on trying to avoid any tear running down your cheeks, “who knew you were so romantic ?”
Jake absolutely melted at that. All he wanted was to smuggle you in the affection he had locked up during all these years, but he reigned it in, reminded himself to take it slow.
“Well now you know, and you’ll get to enjoy it plenty,” he said, eyebrows wiggling suggestively in hope of seeing a smile making its way back onto your face.
And it worked. The sound of your laugh blessed his ears, making his own lips stretch out.
“It was a nice night,” you said when your giggle died down.
“You remember it ?” Jake questioned in a hopeful tone, eager to know if perhaps that night had meant as much to you as it had meant to him.
“Yeah, it was nice to not be fighting for once.”
He let out a small snicker, “yeah… I think about that night often.”
“Tell me about it.”
Jake’s brow furrowed in confusion, through a smile remained on his face, “what for ? You just said you remember it.”
“So ? That’s when you fell in love with me, I had to tell you my story, so tell me yours.”
He lightly bit his lip, a poor attempt at refraining himself either from kissing you breathless or just pouring out more of his feelings into the open.
Clearing his throat, he took on an exaggerated storyteller’s voice, “on a nice and warm summer evening…”
Giggling, you leaned in, head resting on your open palms, avidly drinking him in along with his words.
“Goddamn is this thing heavy !” Mickey complained, voice strained with the effort of holding up his corner of the pool table.
“No shit,” Javy retorted, voice just as breathy.
“Did we really have to buy a fucking pool table as a gift ?” Reuben questioned while adjusting his grip.
“Why aren’t you helping ?” Bradley gritted out at Jake, who was right behind, simply watching the four of them struggling to get the large table through the door.
“I don’t know,” he smiled, showing off his perfect teeth, “you guys seem to be doing just fine.”
“Jesus Christ I’m gonna drop it,” Mickey groaned under his breath, “Penny !” He called out, “where do you want us to put this thing ?”
His question was only met with silence.
“Shit I can’t—“
He didn’t even finish his sentence that he let his corner of the table drop, landing with a loud thud. With Mickey’s abrupt abandon, all the boys dropped their own corner one by one, the table falling heavy on the ground.
Just a second after, Penny came rushing in.
“Hey ! Be careful of my floor ! It’s hard wood !”
“Oh so that’s when you decide to show up ?” Bradley groaned.
“Watch your mouth, Bradshaw,” she warned in a mock serious tone, index finger pointing directly at Bradley, “come on everyone, let’s get outside for drinks, we’ll take care of this later.” She beckoned.
Everyone followed after her, and just as Jake was about to pass the door’s threshold, he heard footsteps coming from downstairs. Turning around, he saw you.
The corner of his lips stretched out automatically.
If there was anything Jake loved as much as winning and flying, it was annoying you.
And you were easy to rile up, always jumped right into it. Sometimes, Jake thought that maybe you liked fighting with him just as much as he liked fighting with you.
“Lightning,” he called out.
Whereas a smile automatically made its way onto Jake’s face whenever he saw you, on your end, it seemed to be your eyes, rolling all the way to the back of your head that worked as a reflex whenever he set foot into your vision.
“What do you want ?” You huffed out, tone dripping with annoyance.
“A game of pool ?” He asked, picking up two cue sticks.
You let out a scoff, as if the idea was down right incongruous.
“What makes you believe I’d ever want to play with an arrogant jerk like you ?”
Jake shrugged, the smirk never leaving his face, “why not ? I thought you liked a challenge.”
You only glared at him for a moment before walking past him, making your way outside to join all the others.
But of course, Jake wasn’t gonna let you leave so easily.
“I mean I get you, I’d flee too if I were you. Really, there’s no shame in being scared to lose.”
Without even turning around, he heard your footsteps stop.
God, it was almost too easy.
There was no possible way Jake would have been able to council the absolute shit eating grin making its way onto his face as you backed up, facing him once again.
Your brows were furrowed in that ever lasting frown that seemed to never leave your face in his presence. But in your eyes was shining a twinkle of provocation. Jake and you fought everyday, in the air and on the ground, and you never let up an occasion to shut him up, much to his pleasure.
“Okay,” you conceded, “I’ll play with you. But darts, not pool.”
Smirking from ear to ear, it was physically impossible for him to smile bigger than that, but had it been possible, he would have.
You were good at darts. Better than good, you were great. Both of you knew that you wouldn’t be able to beat Jake at pool, so naturally you had picked something where you’d have a chance.
“Okay, let’s do it.”
“That’s more like it.”
“Shut up before I change my mind.”
Penny had an indoor electronic game of darts that the whole squad absolutely overused every time they came over.
Jake gathered all the darts, handing three of them to you.
“Ladies first,” he made a show of exaggeratedly letting you open the game, “we playing best of three ?”
Scoffing, you took the darts, “what ? You scared you’re gonna lose with just one round ?” You inquired, a teasing smile making its way onto your face.
Was Jake scared to lose ? Never. It thrilled him knowing someone could meet his skills and potentially challenge his never ending winning streak, though it was very unlikely.
But did he fear you’d run away outside after only one round of the game without even glancing twice his way ? Yeah.
The best of three was purely so he could spend more time with you.
“What do I get when I win ?” You asked, settling in front of the board.
“When you win ?” Jake laughed, “that’s a little presumptuous don’t you think, darlin’ ?”
“Look at you using big words, i’m surprised you know the definition. And I already told you to not call me darling.”
He had about a hundred and one witty remarks loaded and ready to go when the loud sound of the electric board reacting to the landing of your first throw cut him off.
Bullseyes.
You turned back to him, a satisfied smirk on your lips.
“As I was saying, what do I get when I win ?”
Your confidence and satisfaction over your abilities made his stomach flip. Gazing down at you, he hummed.
“Whatever you want, winner should get to choose their prize.”
Humming back, you threw your second dart.
The board cheered loudly. Bullseyes.
Shit, perhaps he had underestimated you.
Your third dart landed on the triple ring.
“What about you not talking to me for two weeks ?”
Jake simply raised his eyebrows at you, while pointedly ignoring the tug at his heartstrings.
“Jesus, do you hate me that much ?” He snickered, watching you gather back your darts as he got ready for his turn, hoping his tone came across as teasing disbelief and did not show any bit of the pitt he felt settling down in his stomach.
Turning back around to stand next to him, you didn’t dignify him with an answer.
“I want you to buy my drinks the next four times we are at the Hard Deck,” you simply said.
“I can do that,” he conceded, a genuine smile melting into his usual smirk.
Jake threw his three darts one after another, the projectiles all landing right in the center.
He suppressed a laugh as he heard you sigh in annoyance next to him, “thank you my dear Lightning for asking what I want if I win.” He cooed in an overly nice and touched voice, “Let’s see… I want you to be my wingman on every training for a month.”
That seemed to spark a new desire to win within you.
“Move over,” you mumbled.
Two triple ring and one double ring. Pursing your lips at your score, you let Jake take his turn.
“Okay what the fuck ?” You exclaimed after his first two throw landed on bullseyes. “You have to be cheating, there’s no way.”
“How exactly do you think I might be cheating, sweetheart ?”
“I don’t know yet, but trust that I will get to the bottom of this.”
His heart flipped when you didn’t even reprimanded him over the pet name.
“Okay, Sherlock. Call me when you have a lead.” He chuckled, throwing his last dart, which, obviously, landed on bullseyes.
You scoffed but Jake saw the hint of a smile pulling at your lips, and the warm feeling suddenly taking his whole body hostage felt familiar. He noticed it had been happening more and more around you lately.
“Tell me if you want any advice, you look like you might need some.” He teasingly told you as you got ready.
“For starters, you shutting up might help me so shush.”
“Ma’am, yes Ma’am.” He saluted you.
Jake saw you biting your lip in a vain attempt to repress a smile, “stop that,” you warned.
Two out of your three darts landed right in the middle, and he got this weird sensation of disappointment to know he hadn’t shook you enough to make you lose focus.
When he stepped up to get ready to throw, your hand lifted to cover up his eyes, not close enough to touch him, but close enough that he could feel the warm radiating off your skin.
He burst out laughing, “is that your way of checking I’m not cheating ?”
“Yes,” you replied in all seriousness, “now throw, I’d like to see you try to land a bullseyes like that.”
Gently, Jake grabbed your wrist and positioned your hand so it was now entirely covering his eyes, making direct contact with his skin.
You were so close to him now he could vaguely smell your shampoo, and Jake felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up as he refrained a shiver.
“That’s better,” he said in a breath.
“Just throw.”
Obediently, and not without feeling a strange flutter in his lower stomach, Jake threw his first dart.
The loud ringing of the board told him everything he needed to know.
“Oh come on you have to be fucking kidding me !” You protested while keeping your hand in front of his eyes.
A laugh bubbled out of him, “what can I say, darlin’ ? Greatness is not stopped by darkness.”
“Yeah right, okay wise man, did you get that quote from fucking Facebook ?” you chuckled and Jake followed along, “back up. I will get you to fail a throw.”
“I admire your life goals, Lightning.”
Your hand was still covering his eyes, and Jake was absolutely reeling from the closeness. He took two steps back and stopped. And he swore he could practically hear your eyebrows shot up.
“No no, cowboy, further back, come on.”
“Okay I feel like you’re the one who’s cheating now.”
You let out a giggle that made his heart skip a beat, “I will refrain from commenting these allegations for now.”
Jake’s cheeks were hurting from how hard he was smiling, but he found it be to a pleasurable ache, made better by the knowledge it was caused by you.
When he took another step back, his foot met the step that was very inconveniently placed in the middle of Penny’s living room.
It was a step that everybody cursed and that caused the literal downfall of a number of people. It was already too late for him when Jake realized it was there, and he felt himself stumble backwards.
“Oh my god, Jake !” Your panicked voice resonated in his ears as your hand finally left his eyes.
He landed hard on his butt with a loud thud.
The first thing he registered was your laugh. He squinted up at you, his eyes slowly getting readjusted to the light. You were doubled hover laughing, laughing so hard in fact that there was barely any sound coming out of you.
The pain Jake felt in his backside immediately dulled at the sight of you.
Pretending to frown, though it was very hard considering the smile that reached his ears, he looked up at you, “wow Lightning, I mean I knew you were vicious but to purposely hurt your opponent in order to win ? I really thought that was below you.”
Your eyes widened out through your laughter, “Seresin, you are not seriously accusing me of sabotage right now ?”
“Oh I very much am.”
Shoulders still shaking with the remains of your laughter, you lightly wiped the tears that had accumulated in your eyes.
And it hit Jake that rarely had he ever seen you like that. He had, of course, but always from afar.
He saw you joke with Natasha, affectionately banter with Bradley, laugh your ass off with Coyote… but never with him.
It did something to him right there and then, like his heart was soaring, similar to the feeling he got whenever he took off into the air.
And he decided he liked it.
“I’m sorry,” you said when the laughter died down a bit, “I didn’t mean to make you fall, I swear. I had forgot about this stupid step.” You explained, still smiling while you held out a hand to help him.
Jake made a show of looking between your hand and your face, which you playfully rolled your eyes at.
“I accept your apology,” he conceded teasingly, accepting your help and purposely letting you do all the work.
“Jesus Christ, you are heavy,” you groaned once you had finally gotten him back up.
Towering back over you, there was only a few inches between you now, and Jake noted how you didn’t immediately back away.
“That’s all muscle weight, darlin’.” He winked at you.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” you retorted in a snicker but the red tip of your ears betrayed you. “Alright let’s finish this—“
“There you are ! What the fuck are you guys doing ? We’re about to eat,” Natasha exclaimed, bursting through the door.
Her booming voice made you both jump.
“We were playing darts, we’re almost finished.” Jake replied.
Natasha stared at the two of you, her eyes going from you to Jake.
“Playing ? As in playing together ?” She asked, visibly dubious.
“Yeah,” you answered, shrugging in a poor attempt to look casual.
“What even made you agree to play with him ?”
Jake witnessed the impact of her words on you. You took a step back from him, straightened back up and the smile made a prompt departure from your face.
You scoffed, not in the playful way you did only minutes prior, but more in the annoyed way, the way you usually did whenever you were near him.
“I don’t even know, guess I was bored.”
Natasha only nodded, “alright, come on outside now, both of you. Dinner’s ready.”
With only a brief look back towards him, eyes full of something Jake couldn’t decipher, you made your way outside.
He stayed inside for a moment, alone with the turmoil of feelings sitting heavy in his chest.
Jake considered himself to be an emotionally intelligent and aware man, so the answer came to him easily.
He was in love with you.
There was no hiding it, there was no denying it. The truth was simple and it settled quietly in his chest.
But he did chuckle to himself when he noticed the irony of the predicament he found himself in.
Of all the girls fawning over him, he had to fall for the one who despised him more than anything.
But it was okay, he thought, he could live with that. Sure, it’d hurt sometimes, but he could live with it.
Rubbing his face, he finally made his way outside and when he saw you laugh again with Natasha and Bradley, he realized that he’d be fine simply continuing to exist alongside you, no matter if you returned his feelings one day.
All he needed was you, whether you loved him back or not.
“Wow, you’re a great storyteller,” you marveled, visibly a bit choked up.
Jake only watched you for a second, eyes gently raking over your emotional form.
“Do you want the last piece ?” You suddenly asked, pointing to the last small chunk of pain au chocolat on your plate.
“I’m good, thank you, darlin’. Enjoy it,” he replied in a gentle and enamored voice.
He smiled over how your cheeks seemed to bloom over his tone, and you quickly ate the last piece.
“Do you want to go someplace else ?” Jake questioned, giving you an opportunity to compose yourself on the way.
And you eagerly grabbed the lifeline he threw you.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Getting up, you both made your way to leave, you leading the march. When suddenly you turned around, making Jake almost bumped into you.
“Wait,” you said, “I never actually said it.”
Jake didn’t even need to ask what you were talking about.
“It’s okay,” he reassured you, “you don’t have to.”
“I do.”
Your determination silenced him for a moment.
“I told you about that moment with Bob at the Hard deck,” you started to explain, your nervousness made evident by the quick flow of your words, “but that’s not when I actually understood. After that talk, I kept thinking and thinking… and Jesus, to think it took me this much time, gosh I sound stupid,— anyway, I truly realized it yesterday. I know you know that but I need to say it. When you were driving me home I was looking at you, and you had been so nice the whole evening and it felt so good and then in the car it just hit me, that I— I…”
You took in a deep breath.
“I love you, Jake.”
Jake never imagined that words could have such an impact on him. But those three little words alone almost made his knees buckled, and God knew all he asked was to be on his knees for you.
“Do you remember what you said you’d do when I finally tell you ?” You asked, eyes courageously boring into his, voice slightly breathless.
His breath hitched, lips quirking up.
Wordlessly, he leaned down and preened over seeing you meeting him halfway, lightly standing on your toes to avoid him bending down too much.
Finally, his lips met yours, in the most gentle of kisses. And it seemed as if tension left his body altogether at your contact.
Jake made a noise into your mouth, a mix of pure relief and desire for more. Instinctively, his hands came up to cup your face, deepening the kiss. Your lips moved together in a rhythm that felt strangely familiar, and Jake took it as a sign that you were simply meant to be.
Eventually, you both had to reluctantly pull apart, if only to catch your breath. Forehead against yours, thumbs rubbing your cheeks affectionately, Jake felt… fulfilled.
“I love you, Y/N.”
A giggle of pure giddiness escaped you and Jake couldn’t hold back from stealing another quick kiss from you.
“Do you want to go for a swim ?” You asked, smiling up at him, your arms coming up around his waist.
“We don’t have swimsuits.” He answered, the smile and love in his eyes never leaving as he gently brushed a strand of your hair back behind your ear.
“Does that really bother you ?”
Your smirk was downright mischievous and it made his stomach flip.
“Now that I think about it… not really, no.”
Laughing, you pecked him again. Grabbing his hand, you eagerly made your way out of the coffee shop, and to his car.
You both had the whole day ahead of you. Hell, Jake thought, you had the whole life ahead of you. And he couldn’t believe he finally got to share it with the one person he had dreamt about for the past four years. He watched you excitedly jump into this new chapter with him and it made his heart soar.
Yeah, it couldn’t really get much better than this.
Three weeks later, the squad burst through the Hard Deck doors like they owned the place, and at this point, some regulars were actually questioning if you guys owned shares in the bar.
“Alright,” Jake clapped his hands, “who’s up for pool ?”
“Geez can you give us a minute at least ? I don’t know, let us settle down,” Natasha complained.
“Yeah, hell no bro.” Mickey declined, “I’ve had enough of losing.”
“Same here,” Javy agreed.
“Don’t even bother asking me,” Bradley warned.
“Come on, Seresin, I’ll play with you.” You said, throwing a smirk his way that everyone interpreted as sheer arrogance.
“Gladly, sweetheart.”
On his way to the pool table, Jake clapped Bob on the shoulder, shooting him a bright, almost grateful smile.
Everyone felt deeply confused watching the two of you get ready to play.
“Am I fucking hallucinating ?” Reuben questioned.
“I think that time she got drunk permanently altered her brain and now she acts like his… friend ? That’s fucking weird.”
Bradley and Natasha eagerly nodded in agreement.
Bob was the only one harboring a small, knowing smile.
And the whole squad watched in awed disbelief….
As Jake let you win.
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Author’s note : okay this was never supposed to be this long😭 I feel like I genuinely talk too much, if that’s the case please let me know I’ll try to post shorter fics😭 I yap and yap and yap and all I do is yap😭
Also so sorry for how much time this took, I’ll definitely try to get back on a more regular posting schedule.
Hope you liked it as much as the first one, thanks again for your patience !💞💞
Here is everyone that asked to be tagged, I have also taken the liberty to tag people who asked for a part two but didn’t necessarily asked to be tagged, I hope that’s okay !! Thank you to all of you for the love you’ve shown the first part, I hope you’ll like this one just as much !!💞
Summary : After an eventful weekend, you dread getting to see Jake again. But he’s not letting you out of this conversation and the tension between you two reaches an all time high that finally implodes where it was always meant to, in the sheets.
Pairing : Jake "Hangman" Seresin × Fem!Reader
Important info : Your call sign is Lightning ⚡️:)
Disclaimer : English is not my first language so apologies for any grammatical errors that might have escaped my proofreading ! This is my first full on smut, keep in mind I literally never even held a guy’s hand before, so sorry for anything unrealistic concerning the smut💞
Word count : 18k
‼️‼️CONTENT WARNING : explicit, smut, porn with plot, oral (fem), handjob, safe sex, p in v penetration. MDNI.
Part one and part two :)
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Monday morning was bound to be awkward.
You weren’t sure if it was sheer, pure dread that was flowing through your veins or unfiltered excitement and wanting upon the idea of facing Jake after everything that had happened during the week end. And God a lot had happened in so little time.
Laying in your bed on Sunday night, you struggled to find sleep. Turning in your bed nonstop, you were trying to silence the whirlwind of thoughts going through your head. Heart beating like you had ran a marathon, you were hyper aware of every single thing going on in your body. The sensation of your covers on your skin, the way you could feel your — still — hard nipples poking through your pajama shirt, the phantom pulsing in your clit like it was still reeling from every sensation from the afternoon…
Feeling yourself get wet at the memory of the last few hours, you cursed yourself.
Truth be told, you hadn’t really expected Jake to still be on the phone when you woke up from your nap. But he had patiently waited for you, just like you’d asked.
“Shit, how long have I been out ?” You groggily asked, rubbing the sleep from your eyes.
“Not too long, don’t worry,” came Jake’s voice, calm as ever, “thirty minutes, something like that.”
A silence stretched out. And it seemed as if your earlier words were still hanging in the air ‘I’d like to go again after, if you want that as well’, waiting to be acted upon, and there was nothing you wanted more in this moment than that. Would you be able to express it as clearly, though ? You wondered if Jake would—
“So,” he began, and really you should’ve guessed he would be the first one to bring it up, “do you still want to ‘go again’ ?” You could hear the smirk in his voice as he used your earlier words.
He took your second of silence for hesitation, and he took on a more serious tone when he added, “That’s totally okay if you don’t want to anymore, say the word and I’ll hang up.”
“No not at all !” You reassured immediately, cursing yourself for still struggling to get the words out, even after what you had just done with him. “Yes, I want to, sorry this is— I’m akward sorry, I’m not really used to this.” Cringing at your own words you wished there was a for you to feel even an ounce of Jake’s shamelessness and demonstrate his easy going attitude.
You refrained the urge to muffle a scream in your pillow at his words, you never knew it was possible for a man to have this effect over you. And yet here you were. Heart thumping violently in your chest to the sound of his breathing, blood already traveling south to the sound of his voice, and brain conjuring the wildest and filthiest fantasy, all including him teaching you various things in various but oh so delicious scenarios.
Slipping a hand between your thighs, which were slightly sticky from your earlier release, you let out shaky breath that expressed, louder than any words could, the excitement pumping in your veins. “Teach me then.”
You swore you could have heard his smile through the phone.
That evening had passed in a blur of moans, mind numbing pleasure, gasped breaths, shaky limbs and so much talking.
From Jake, who had instructed your every movement, from the slightest run of your fingertips down the thin skin on your neck, to the swift passes of your hand on the most sensitive part of you. Had soothed every once of nervousness you had felt linger at some moments. Had expressed every filthy fantasy he’s had about you, worshiped your body verbally, his words had painted you as a goddess you never thought someone could picture you as.
To you who had spilled every thought going through your head, without any barrier left. To his every command, you had responded between strings of pleasured gasps how good he was making you feel, how hot he sounded, how you wished he could be there with you, how you wished you could see him. It’d been like your thoughts were slippery, slipping right from the unreal and unspoken part of your mind to express themselves out loud in the open.
You usually were quiet during sex, never having any reason to voice your pleasure because you didn’t feel any. But it was like Jake had awaken something in you, cracked your soul open and you were begging for more.
By the time the sun had set, hiding behind the western sky to give place to the half lit moon and the stars, you had came three times, and after your third orgasm, the endorphins and adrenaline had completely drained the energy out of your satiated body. Leaving you a floaty mess.
“Get some sleep, sweetheart.” Jake’s fond — and slightly hoarse from moaning your name — voice came through to your ears, “we have to get up early tomorrow.”
That had been it, you’d hanged up after that.
Being left with your own thoughts after having Jake’s voice in your ears for so long felt strange, like a melody you felt nostalgic of.
After long minutes of debating it, you opted for taking a shower, deciding that the evidence of your pleasure sticking to your thighs wouldn’t be a pleasurable sensation throughout the night. The hot water felt nice cascading on your still sensitive skin, a small smile stretching your lips at the reminiscence of everything you had just done.
Getting out of the shower, you caught your reflection in the body length mirror in the corner of your bathroom. For the first time in a long time, you took the time to look at yourself, really look. And warmth filled your stomach as you remembered everything Jake had said. He hadn’t left a single part of your body un-praised, a body he only ever saw covered, but it hadn’t stopped him from worshipping it from the other end of the line. A wave of self-confidence hit you then, you felt good in your body, in your skin, you felt good being you.
Slipping underneath your covers after putting on your pajamas, you would have thought that sleep would have came easy, muscles and mind relaxed from your three releases, but you wouldn’t be yourself if everything was so easy.
That’s how you ended up lying wide awake in your bed on Sunday night, with one persisting thought taking your brain hostage.
Monday morning was bound to be awkward.
The thought was eating you alive. You had spent the entirety of your Sunday evening and half of the night masturbating with the man you called your arch-nemesis guiding you over the phone, how were you supposed to act ? Were you supposed to just pretend nothing happened, insult him like usual ? Or did everything you did implicitly and inevitably changed the course of your relationship ?
All those questions were enough to make you dizzy. And before you realised it, you heard the graving sound of your alarm clock ringing.
Fuck.
You had barely gotten any sleep, and when you had successfully managed to close your eyes for a few moments, your dreams were filled with Jake, plaguing your mind. Inserting himself in every crevice of your brain, settling with no intention of ever leaving.
The drive over to base was the closest thing you could imagine to hell. Your palms were sweaty against the wheel which you were gripping like a vice. Heart beating so hard against your rib cage you felt like it was trying to get out of your chest. Never had you been this stressed ever since your first solo flight in a F/A-18.
Parking on the base’s lot, you waited a few minutes to get out. Mentally giving yourself a pep talk, and it gave you this weird déjà-vu impression, reminded you of when you had stood in front of the sex shop only a few days before, not knowing that you had probably changed the course of your life when passing the threshold.
Taking a deep breath, you finally opened your car door. Deciding that if you didn’t get out now, there was a high chance you’d never do it. Swigging your bag over one shoulder, you made your way to the base entrance.
After flashing your military I.D to the personnel out front, you made a beeline for the locker room, hoping you could be quick and then make a run for the briefing room where you’d pretend to have a hundred questions for Maverick. Surely, that would avoid any awkward interactions, wouldn’t it ?
As you pushed open the locker room’s door, you couldn’t contained the relived sigh that left your lips when you noticed it was empty.
Going for your locker, which was hiding in the left corner of the room, you hastily began to put all your stuff away when the creaking of the door made you jump—
“Y/N !” An excited squeal came behind you, and before you even had time to understand what was happening, Natasha had slung an arm over your shoulder, bringing you close to her. “How was your weekend ?”
The smirk stretching her lips and the mischievous twinkle in her eyes made you freeze, did she know something…? Had Jake told her something ?!
“I- I mean yeah it was good, like a normal week end, you know,” you tried to keep your voice steady while avoiding her gaze by rummaging through your locker, “why do you ask ?”
“Did you not go to the sex shop ?” She asked in a too loud voice right as the door swung open, revealing Reuben and Mickey who could not contain a snicker at Natasha’s words.
“Well good morning to you too, ladies.” Reuben grinned.
You merely flipped him off, thinking that they would make their way over to their lockers on the opposite side of the room, which were hidden from your view by a row of lockers, but they stayed right there, staring at the two of you.
“Well, Lightning, are you not gonna tell us if you went to the sex shop ?” Mickey inquired with a raised brow and the start of a smirk pulling at his lips.
“Fuck you.”
“Alright, get going now, this a private conversation,” Natasha shooed them away with a movement of her hand.
They just giggled like middle school boys before making their way to their lockers, leaving the two of you a semblance of privacy. Natasha lowered her voice when she spoke again.
“Well ? Did you go ?”
Finally looking into her eyes, you were torn between confessing everything, or telling her only part of the truth. It only took you a few seconds to decide that you did not want to deal with the interrogation that would follow if you did tell her everything, especially not on a Monday morning minutes before pre-flight briefing. And you desperately tried to silence the voice in your head telling you the true reason you were so reluctant to tell her was that you liked knowing this was something you only shared with Jake, liked the privacy of it. Those moments you shared this week end were well and entirely yours.
“Yeah, I did.” You simply answered, hoping that she wouldn’t catch your half lie like she usually so easily does.
Natasha just stared at you, visibly waiting.
“Okay ? Why are you withholding crucial information ?” She jokingly complained, slightly shaking your arm, “come on tell me, what did you buy ? Vibe ? Clit sucker ? Oh my god—!” She suddenly gasped, “did you buy a dildo ??”
You swore you heard Reuben and Mickey giggle from the other side of the room.
“Nat, what the hell ? Lower your voice, oh my god.” You mumbled, cheeks flushed.
Natasha all but snickered, raising her hands in mock defense.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But you need to tell me, you owe it to me.”
Raising a playful, inquiring brow at her, you refrained from asking her in what way exactly you owed it to her to tell her what kind of sex toy you’d bought.
“I… I bought a vibrator.”
“And…? Oh my god, Y/N why are you so secretive ?”
“What do you even want to know ?” You chuckled, still pretending to look for something non-existent in your locker, just to keep your hands busy.
“Was it good ? Did you cum ? Did you squ—“
You slapped a hand over Natasha’s mouth to keep her from saying any more as you let out an incredulous laugh.
“What the actual fuck, Nat ?” You laughed, “I didn’t know you were so interested in how I touch myself.”
She just stared you, putting on a mock empathetic face as she removed your hand from her face.
“I’m worried about you that’s all, ever since you told me you couldn’t feel any pleasure at all I’ve been thinking of ways to help you. I’m just a good friend, looking out for my girl, you know—“
But as Natasha continued to ramble, your blood suddenly ran cold. Coming from the corridor, and inevitably approaching the locker room door, you heard three booming voices.
Bradley, unmistakably. Deep and raspy voice, probably complaining about a problem on his Bronco.
Javy, then. Joyous laugh echoing down the hallway.
And… fuck.
Jake.
His smooth and rich tone reached your ears, the sound of a smirk evident in his voice, and you weren’t sure if the butterflies who had took off like Super Hornets in your stomach were from arousal, excitement or sheer stress. Maybe it was all three at the same time.
Physically feeling the heat rush to your cheeks at the impending knowledge that he would open the door in a few seconds, you prayed, pleaded to any gods above who would deigned to hear you that Jake would be too engrossed in whatever conversation he was having to notice you standing at your locker in the far left corner.
The voices kept creeping closer, your heart was beating sporadically to the sounds of their footsteps approaching.
“Your car is a piece of junk.” Javy’s voice boomed as the door swung open so violently it hit the row of lockers on its side.
Bradley scoffed, “excuse me, have you seen your car ? You couldn’t pay me to set foot in that piece of shit. Probably would start falling apart the second more than one people sits down.”
Unable to resist the urge to turn around despite the knot in your stomach, you saw Javy and Bradley walk through the door, the latter only being wide enough for them two. Jake followed behind them, and you could only guess that all your prayers had fallen into deaf ears. Jake’s eyes were already staring right at you when he walked in. Like before he even walked through the door, his gaze had been directed into your locker’s direction, prepared to check if you’d be there.
Your eyes locked, and you felt a surge of longing take your heart hostage. A weird and unfamiliar feeling of wanting to go up to him, greet him with an embrace like what you had both done this week end meant something.
The look on his face didn’t help the sudden yearning you got hit with. A small, almost bashful smile lifted the corner of his lips, and where you had expected a teasing twinkle in his eyes, you only found a burning that seemed like a reflection of the fire setting ablaze under your skin.
“Hellooo ? Y/N, are you even listening to me ?” Natasha’s whiny voice yanked you out of your trance, and you reluctantly tore your eyes away from Jake’s green ones as he was walking towards his locker, a few rows away from yours.
Looking at her, you offered her a small, apologetic smile, “sorry, got lost in thought for a second.” At least, you could console yourself in saying that this one wasn’t totally a lie.
All of a sudden, Natasha seemed to be hit with a dawning realization.
“Wait, fuck, what time is it ?” She asked urgently, looking for her phone in her flight suit pockets.
You looked down at your watch, “six forty five, why ? Is everything okay ?”
Her eyes widened before she started to hastily put all her stuff in her locker. Quickly grabbing her helmet bag, flying boots and glove, “I had a meeting with Cyclone at six forty, shit he’s gonna kill me.” She made a run for the door while calling back to you. “I’ll see you in the air ! And this conversation is not over !”
And as you laughed at her urgency and the screaming she’d probably get from Cyclone, you suddenly realised that everyone was following behind her. Not as panicked as her, but they all had their gear in hand and were heading to the briefing room.
Realizing that in your attempts at deflecting Natasha’s interrogation, you hadn’t prepared anything, you were now the one being late. Gathering everything as quickly as possible, you tried not to think about how you’d laughed at Natasha only seconds before only to end up in the same position as her. The gods didn’t listen to your desperate pleads about Jake but they sure as hell made sure you got your karma back.
Cursing, you tried to pick up everything and pile it up in your arms, your helmet bag, your g-suit, your harness… and you refrained from letting a scream of frustration when you saw your pair of gloves slide from the top of your helmet bag to fall pathetically in the ground.
“For fuck’s sake,” you whispered angrily, “this shit only ever happens when I’m late.” You hissed, trying to find a way to bend down without having to let go of everything you were holding.
Your helmet almost went crashing on the ground but you caught it at the last minute, you closed your eyes for a moment then, taking a deep breath to calm the sheer frustration bubbling in your throat.
“Yeah, that tends to happen unfortunately.”
Jake’s voice startled you out of your thoughts, opening your eyes you saw him standing only a meter away from you, holding your pair of gloves.
“Jesus Christ, Hangman ! You scared the shit out of me !”
“Hangman ? Have I already lost my first name privileges ?” He smirked, quickly eyeing you up and down.
Pausing for a moment, you didn’t even register his words, your attention focused on the fact that despite the little plan you had made up in your head, you still ended up alone with him.
“What ?” Was all you were able to get out as you felt your palms sweat where they were holding your g-suit and helmet bag.
Fuck, you couldn’t believe you had actually ended up in this situation. Had your prayers been heard by demons instead of the intended gods ?
“You were calling me ‘Jake’ just a few hours ago, what changed ?”
It was only when the initial shock and panic wore off a bit that you were able to truly register what he had said. The implication behind his words made heat rush to your face, and you internally cursed yourself for reacting in such an obvious way. You knew he would make references to Sunday night, he wouldn’t be Hangman if he didn’t, and it infuriated you to still feel your whole body and nervous system react even though you were prepared for his remarks.
“We have to go, we’re already late for briefing.” You simply said, hoping that the idea of being late, which Jake always referred to as ‘slacking off’, would deter him from teasing you.
“Oh please, ever since he started sleeping at Penny’s everyday, Maverick is always late. He still probably hasn’t left her place yet. I’d say we still have about,” he checked his watch before looking back up to you with a grin, “a good fifteen minutes, plenty of time to talk.”
Your breath caught on an inhale, eyes darting down on your helmet bag and catching on a loose string, anything to avoid looking in his emerald gaze, “what do you want to talk about ?” You asked slowly, knowing there was no way out of this conversation, but still trying to delay it as much as possible.
You wished you were able to understand what made you like that. It was like, with every breakthrough you had made with Jake, at the sex shop, and then on the phone, you eventually had to take three steps back, every time. Why were you putting up such a fight ?
Jake paused, looking at you with a raised brow.
“Really, Y/N ? I honestly can’t say I’m surprised, I was actually expecting it but still, I had some faith in you.”
A silence stretched out, not knowing what to respond, you simply continued to look at the unstitched string on your helmet bag. The whirlwind of emotion inside of you had touched down in your chest like a tornado and was rummaging through your entire body. Torn between keeping up with the denial facade, pushing him away with a harsh remark like you were so used to do, or face the truth that had been simmering for a long time, long before the sex shop, long before you allowed yourself to acknowledge this weird feeling you got whenever you looked at Jake. A feeling you had always classified as loathing, but the events of the last few days had totally turned your perspective upside down and you didn’t even know which way was up anymore. The only constant remained him.
“Just tell me one thing, do you regret it ?” Jake’s sudden serious tone made you look up to him.
His jade green eyes suddenly held a grave air to them as he looked at you. Before you could say anything, he added, “if you do, tell me, and I’ll never talk about this again. Promise.”
You didn’t like the look on his face. Didn’t like him saying that if you gave him the word, you’d both just pretend nothing ever happened. Didn’t like the way his eyes held uncertainty as they gazed at you, when only days ago they had been full of something fond you still couldn’t quite name.
Perhaps the desire of seeing that look again was what prompted you to speak up.
“No !” The volume of your voice startled the both of you, cringing you brought your voice down. “Sorry, I— No I don’t regret it.”
Relief washed over you when you noticed the grave look leave his face as he let out a chuckle at your reaction.
“Is there something you want to do about it ?”
Your heart leaped at the question.
“What do you mean ?”
“Do you want what happened this week end to change something between us, or would you like for this,” he gestured between the two of you, “to stay the way it’s always been.”
The care in his voice and the fact that he was voicing the concern, letting you choose, made your heart clench.
“What do you want ?” You asked, bracing for whatever his answer would be.
“Doesn’t matter what I want.” He lightly smiled at you.
You frowned, of all the responses you had anticipated, this for sure wasn’t one of them, “the hell does that mean ? Yes it does matter.”
A flash of something you couldn’t decipher passed in his emerald irises, and your heart skipped a beat when he took one slow step towards you.
“Alright, You really wanna know ?”
Throat too tied up to speak, you simply nodded, body buzzing with anticipation at his next words.
“There is nothing I want more right now than to ditch the morning flight to bring you back to my place and make love to you like I have been fucking dreaming of for months.”
You could only imagine the look on your face, perhaps Jake would have laughed at it if he wasn’t so busy pouring out his undying and uncontrollable desire for you. Your brain was stuck on a specific way he expressed himself, ‘make love’. You only had ever heard guys talk about ‘fucking’, which was usually followed by descriptions of what they wanted to do to a girl and it has always repulsed you. You guessed you could qualify your rare hook ups as ‘fucks’, very, very lame fucks. But Jake, he had said ‘make love’. Like he’d take his time, discover every single inch of your body, take care of you like you had silently been pleading for so long… ‘make love’. It was rising your body temperature to levels you hadn’t thought possible. Eyes trained on him, he looked ethereal. The white, clinical light of the locker room you absolutely despised and made sure every one knew it whenever you could complain about it, was somehow drawing a halo around him as he was standing directly under it. You didn’t know anyone could look this good under this shitty excuse of a light. And suddenly you got hit with a dizzying realisation.
You had always beheld much disdain for all the women fawning over Jake, even more when they had the audacity to compare him with a Greek god. But right now, in this light, you wondered how you could have ever seen a devil sent to lure in him. Jake looked ready to worship the very ground you stood on, even if that ground was the dirty floor of the locker room on a Monday morning.
“For months, God maybe even longer than that, I have been fantasying about what you’d sound like, look like, taste like,” he inhaled sharply, “yesterday I got a glimpse of all of it, and it wasn’t enough. Truly I don’t think anything will ever be enough when it comes to you, but I— I want you. All of you, in every and any way you’ll let me.”
Knees almost buckling with the tsunami of desire and overwhelming feeling that crashed into you, you did your best to show nothing of it, only taking a shaky breath. His words felt like everything you had been dying to hear from him.
“Now question is, what do you want ?” He asked, eyes boring into yours, caging you in this moment, needing your response like a breath of oxygen after being stuck under water for a too long.
Looking at him, words were stuck in your throat and a whirlwind of emotion passed through you at being unable to express yourself. Why was it that it was so hard for you to simply say your feelings out loud ? What was stopping you ? What was this vice wrapped around your heart, extending out its vines to squeeze around your throat ? Why was it only when your mind was drowning into the waves of pleasure that you were finally able to let the words pour out of your mouth ? Why were you like this ?
Facing your silence, Jake stood before you, waiting, and for a moment you were terrified that he would leave, tired of seeing you unable to just get over your silly inhibitions and that you would be incapable of even telling him not to go.
But Jake did none of that. Instead, he took one more step towards you.
“Y/N,” he began, voice gentle but somehow laced with a firm tone, like he wanted his next words to imprint into your mind, “I know I have already told you this, but I feel like this is something you can’t hear enough.” Gently, he took your g-suit from your arms, “Pleasure is not a shame, wanting to feel pleasure is not shameful, in any way.” He lifted your harness and lightly threw it right above his own on his shoulder, “It’s human, it’s normal to feel that way. Normal to feel desire for someone, it’s not shameful if you want someone.”
He paused and took your helmet bag, leaving your arms empty.
“It’s not shameful if you want me.”
And suddenly, It was like the world shifted on its axis. With every word he had said, it was like he’d given you a breath of fresh air from the box you caged yourself in. And with every gear he had taken from you, it was like he had freed you from every burden, every inhibition, every fear you ever had.
You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding.
“I—“
Jake’s eyes filled with hope as he looked expectantly at you.
“I want everything you said, Jake. I want— I want you. All of you.”
It felt like the world had been lifted of your shoulders, your heart was beating frenetically against your rib cage but it didn’t hurt like before. It felt new, exciting, good.
Jake broke out into the most genuine small you had ever been given to see, small crinkles forming around his emerald eyes.
“Yeah ?” He asked, breathless.
“Yeah, sorry it took me so long.”
He let out a chuckle that sounded just a tiny bit choked up.
“It’s okay, baby. We’re here now.”
Trying not to swoon over the nickname, and how different it was hearing it on the phone and having him say it to your face, you offered him a small smile.
“Alright, so” you cleared your throat, “where do we go from here ?”
Jake looked at you, genuine smile morphing into a mischievous one. He was still holding all of his gears in addition to yours and you thought funny how on you it looked like you were about to fall from holding everything but he looked steady. Like the combination of both your equipments was as light as a feather for him.
He took another step towards you, crowding your space in the best way possible, bending down lightly, his voice came out as a low whisper.
“Well, first, how about we—“
“Hey what the fuck are you guys— Wow.” Bradley’s voice came booming and then abruptly stopped.
He stood there, eyes bulging out of their sockets, jaw hanging open as he looked at Jake and you being so impossibly close.
His eyes comically went from you to Jake. And then to you again. His mouth opened, then closed, looking like a fish out of water.
Jake just straightened back up, a smirk pulling at his rosy lips.
“Are you alright, Bradshaw ?”
Bradley turned to you once again and noticed your crimson cheeks and how you had took a step back from Jake. He broke out in a small laugh, passing a hand through his hair.
“Well I guess it was only a matter of time. Alright you two will get a room later, get your asses back there, we’ve been waiting on you, and Mav is not happy.”
Jake and Bradley shared a laugh, while you looked at your mustached friend, deeply confused.
“Wait, what do you mean, ‘it was only a matter of time’ ??”
Bradley stared at you with a raised brow, a grin dancing on his lips.
“Come on, Y/N. Everyone knew you’d jump his bones eventually, we just didn’t know when.”
Had everyone been aware of your feelings this whole time, while you were completely unable to acknowledge them, not even daring to admit it in thoughts ?
But today marked the start of a new era you thought, and it felt great.
“So yeah congratulations and all that, now fucking hurry up lovebirds or Mav will have us run laps.” Bradley declared, clapping in his hands twice before disappearing out the door.
Jake looked back at you, and bent down to leave a sweet kiss on your cheek. You felt your whole body ignite at the feeling of his lightly wet lips — from him licking them only seconds prior — settling briefly and gently on your cheek. You found yourself disappointed when his mouth left your skin, craving more of him. But he didn’t pull back immediately, he stopped right at your ear where you could his hot breath fanning over you.
“Let’s get today over with, and tonight ? I’ll get you home and eat your pussy like I’ve been fucking dying to. And after that I’ll have you crying on my cock, how does that sound, sweet girl ?”
You let out an involuntary whimper, not ready for the contrast between the gentle kiss on your cheek and the dirtiness of his words. But what sweet words they were though. Jake pulled back, searching your eyes and smiled even wider when he saw your expression. Half lidded eyes which conveyed a far away look, pupils dilated, mouth slightly open.
“What do you say, mmh ?” He prompted again.
“Yes, I’d like that very much.” You agreed, voice breathless, and already wondering how the hell were you supposed to hold out for ten hours.
Jake seemed just fine as he straightened up, “alright, let’s go then.”
And with that he started to walk towards the briefing room, still carrying all your gear.
The day had been close to what you imagined hell was like. It turned out that piloting a Super Hornet was not as easy when anticipation and permanent arousal was sizzling under your skin. Thankfully, you made it back in the ground alive. But Jake ? He had no intention of making this easy for you.
He kept whispering teasing words to you in passing.
“You did good up there, sweetheart. It was hot hearing you command me like that,” when you got out of your jet after the morning flight where Jake had acted as your wingman.
“Fuck, you smell good.” A groan when you passed him on your way to your debrief with Maverick. You hadn’t even found the words to tell him you probably stank after all the G’s you had pulled in the air.
At lunch, he sat across from you as Bradley threw you a knowing and amused glance.
You thought that maybe, considering the fact that you were surrounded by the squad, Jake wouldn’t dare to do anything. But now you realized that was pretty stupid of you to think.
Talking to Natasha who was seating on your right, you felt Jake’s foot nudge yours under the table. You only spared him a glance, thinking it might had been an accident. Returning to your conversation with Nat, you almost choked on your bite of broccoli when you felt his foot oh so slowly go up your calf.
“You good ?” Natasha asked you, lightly clapping on your back.
Coughing behind your fist, you prayed to God, though at this point you thought he wasn’t really on your team, that you could pretend the redness on your cheeks came from almost choking to death.
“Yeah, yeah I’m good.”
After making sure you were indeed alright, Natasha continued to go on about how disappointing dating apps were, but your mind had already gone to the moment where you’d finally be alone with Jake again. His foot was still rubbing your leg under the table, going just a tiny bit higher everytime. You had to fight back any embarrassing sounds when his boot reached the top of your knee, brushing your thigh.
The worst part ?
When your eyes quickly flashed towards him, he looked absolutely unaffected, talking to Javy as though he wasn’t subjecting you to sexual torture right under the table.
You didn’t think that during all your time spent on planet Earth, you had ever been so turned on. You thought that being on the phone yesterday would be the sexual highlight of your life, a pinnacle you resigned yourself to never feel again. But you were apparently reaching new heights, and you were counting down the minutes, hell even the seconds until you could finally go home, and let Jake take care of your body and mind like you had silently, and unknowingly been begging for.
Reviewing your flight routes and preparing a simulation for the next morning was impossible. Everyone was spread out in the mission planning room, focused on their own monitor, but your mind was plagued with Jake. Bouncing your knee up and down, you willed yourself to focus. But it was hard when Jake was only two monitors away from you and kept sparing heated glances at you, a small smirk always dancing on his lips like he was revealing in the effect he was having on you.
The squad kept quietly working all the while you were slowly losing your mind. You had managed to draw out a flight route for your sim, though it was half assed and you were sure to get a remark from Maverick, but it was the last of your problems at the moment.
You looked at the clock displayed on your monitor, four fifty seven.
Oh my god.
Mindlessly moving your mouse around and pretending to work, your knee continued to bounce rather loudly in the quiet room. You turned to discreetly look at Jake, only to discover he was already looking at you. He threw you a wink that sent your entire nervous system reeling as you desperately tried to hold back a sound.
Four fifty nine.
You took a deep breath, eyes locked on the clock.
Four fifty nine.
Four fifty nine..
Four fifty nine…
Five !
You got up abruptly, chair scraping on the floor and startling everyone.
“Jesus Christ, Lightning !” Mickey exclaimed, “what’s happening, you have a flight to catch ?” He joked when you made your way to the door to leave.
“I have things to do !” You exclaimed, throwing what you hoped was a pointed and discreet look at Jake, which he bit his lower lip at.
Everyone seemed confused by your behavior, even more so when Jake got up as well, waving everyone off.
Bradley let out a chuckle, “be safe kids !” he called out after him, which only got him a raised middle finger from Jake.
But you heard none of the banter, your ears only picking up the sound of Jake’s heavy boots following behind you in the hallway. Walking comically fast, you burst through the door of the locker room, Jake opening it only seconds after you.
“Are you alright, sweetheart ? Fanboy was right, you do seem to be in a bit of a hurry.” He gave you a false confused look.
The arousal pumping in your veins seemed to give you a surge of courage as you stepped closer to him, almost coming chest to chest with him. You had to tilt your head up to look at him.
“Kiss me,” you breathed out, entire body burning at the idea of finally feeling his lips on yours after only ever imagining the sensation for so long.
“No.”
“Wait, what ?”
“There is absolutely no way our first kiss is happening in this disgusting locker room that smells like Bradshaw’s awful Axe deodorant.”
You let out a chuckle, Jake smiled down fondly at you as he bent down to leave a kiss on your jaw, just beneath your ear. His lips lingered there, and you felt the tip of his tongue lightly brush your skin. Your knees almost buckled, the sensation of it all almost felt overwhelming after a grueling day of anticipation. Your hand shot out to grip his arm as you let out a little pleasured sigh.
When Jake pulled back, his eyes were half lidded and glazed over, a look that made your core physically throb.
“Your place or mine ?” He questioned.
“My place,” you immediately said, feeling like you’d be more comfortable in your own home for this very special moment.
He nodded.
“Get your stuff, baby.”
You both got your bags from your lockers. Jake immediately took your hand in his and you walked down the long hallways on base to make it out in record time.
You both quickly passed your car on the parking lot to get to Jake’s truck, he opened the door for you and somehow this awfully gentlemanly behavior sent more heat down your core. You were so doomed. You grabbed your seatbelt with slightly shaky hands from sheer desire as Jake was settling in the driver’s seat. He spared you a glance, his pupils dilated so much it was almost hiding the beautiful green of his eyes. Jake gently grabbed your wrist and brought it to his lips, leaving a heated kiss right on top of your pulse.
“Jake…” your voice came out in breathless exhale, almost turning into a moan.
But Jake didn’t stop at one kiss. His lips kept moving all around the inside of your wrist, and this rather innocent touch made you squeeze your thighs in a desperate attempt to relieve the unbearable tension between your legs. He made a sound in the back of his throat resembling a groan.
“Fuck, Y/N…” he heaved, sniffing lightly the inside of your wrist. “Okay, we really need to go, otherwise I’m taking you in the backseat.”
You only nodded, not trusting anything that could come out of your mouth right now to be anything other than an embarrassing moan. Starting the car, Jake made his way out of the parking lot and started driving towards your apartment. When he merged onto the freeway, one of his hand left the wheel to rest on your thigh, and you almost jolted at the unexpected contact. His thumb was lovingly rubbing your clothed skin as he squeezed your thigh every once in a while. You were avoiding to look at him at all costs, staring out of the window and praying for this ride to go by fast so that he could properly put his hands on you. When Jake parked in your building parking lot, you both almost ran out of the car, not even bothering to get your stuff out. The elevator ride up to your floor was torture, and thank god it was empty. Jake was heavy breathing behind you, his hands on your shoulders, desperate to have some sort of physical contact with you. And you were not doing much better.
Opening your door proved to be a challenge, your hands were shaking as you tried to put the key inside the keyhole.
“Sorry, I— oh shit—“ you mumbled when the keys fell from your hand to clatter on the floor with a sharp noise.
“It’s okay.” Jake’s familiar reassuring voice hit your ears, but it was laced with lust, “you nervous, baby ?”
“A little.” You whispered truthfully as you bent down to get your keys.
Right as you bent down, your ass bumped into Jake as he was standing impossibly close to you. You were about to apologize, when you felt something hard against your backside that immediately made you straightened back up and turn around to face him. He let out a small chuckle at the expression on your face.
“Surprised ?” He asked, voice having dropped an octave since he last spoke.
You just looked at him, unable to say anything even if you wanted to. His face was only centimeters away from yours, the height difference had him slightly look down at you. His gaze felt like a burning touch, pupils so dilated you could barely see the beautiful emerald of his eyes. Gently, and without ever breaking eye contact, he took the keys from your hand, his arm went behind you and fumbled with the door for a second before opening it.
The sound of the door opening sounded like freeing bells. With, somehow, a controlled hurriedness, Jake put his hands on your hips to push you inside, and slammed the door shut behind him with his foot. After that, it all happened so fast it almost made you dizzy.
Still holding your hips to maneuver you, he — with a gentleness and a carefulness that alone made you throb — spun you around to pin you against the door, watching out for your head. And before you could even think about saying anything, or uttering a sound that would had probably been one of pure delight—
Jake’s lips collided with yours. A surprised noise left you before it turned into a moan.
His lips moved against yours with an hunger that made your stomach churn in the best way possible. He faintly tasted like those sour candies he sometimes bought from the ready room dispenser machine, and something so undeniably him that you wouldn’t be able to describe even with all the words and the will in the world. You never knew kissing could feel this good. He felt perfect.
His hands gripped your hips a bit tighter as he let out a low moan into your mouth, having you immediately moan in return. starting to feel a bit dizzy from the whirlwind of sensation running in your veins, you reluctantly broke the kiss to breathe.
Jake’s eyes were trained on your lips as he licked his own, like was trying to catch every little taste of you. If you had been throbbing all day, you could practically feel yourself leaking into your panties now. You wanted him, needed him to touch you. And just as you were about to voice that burning need, Jake reclaimed your lips. His tongue lightly brushed your bottom one, and your heart raced when you understood what he was silently asking, you opened your mouth a bit more to let him in. His tongue was almost shy at first as it brushed yours, but he quickly became eager and started licking into your mouth, tangling his tongue with yours, almost desperate to not let a drop of your taste go to waste.
Your hands, which had been helplessly and awkwardly staying still on each side of your body, suddenly had the urge to grip him. Tentatively, you slid your hands on his hips, giving them a gentle, experimental squeeze. The groan Jake let out into your mouth reverberated in your entire body. Feeling empowered by his reaction, with a bit more force, you made his hips buck up into yours, the weight of his cock standing at full attention in his flight suit met your burning, aching core through the fabric of yours. The friction felt delicious.
“Fuck, baby,” Jake moaned, pulling away from the kiss, a thin string of spit connecting your mouths “Where is your room ?”
You whined as he broke the kiss, trying to chase his lips, his question having not even registered in your mind as you were trying to grind against him and feel fore of his cock on you. Jake let out a husky chuckle, cupping your face so you’d look him in the eyes.
“Sweet girl, where is your room ?”
The nickname brought you right back, and the implication of his words and what was to come almost had your knees bucking.
“It’s—“ you inhaled sharply, finding yourself comically out of breath, “Down the hall on the— the left.”
Your hands were still gripping his hips, his lustful emerald eyes looking down at you and the small, pleased smile dancing on his swollen lips from your kisses were not helping the situation. Moving away from where your back was up against the wall, Jake began to walk you backwards towards your room, lips claiming yours again, like he couldn’t bear to to not taste you for too long. But the tension in your core was radiating in your entire body, and your legs were genuinely starting to get weak, so much so that while Jake was backing you up, you almost tripped on your own feet, but he immediately caught you.
“Aww, you weak in the knees, sweetheart ?” He asked in a cooing, husky voice. His accent had gotten thicker.
Unable to maintain his gaze any longer, you buried your head in his neck, letting out a pathetic little whimper.
“It’s alright, baby, ‘m gonna take such good care of you.”
Suddenly you felt his hands travel to the back of your thighs, and without any warning, you found yourself up in the air. Instinctively wrapping your legs around his waist, you pulled back from his neck to look at him, absolutely stunned from the way he seemed to be holding you up so effortlessly.
Jake let out a husky chuckle at the look on your face and his hands — which had traveled from the back of your thighs to your ass — gave your plump flesh an affectionate squeeze.
“Jake. My room. Right now.” You urged, feeling like your body would catch fire any second now.
“It’s so hot having you command me like that,” he rasped, half lidded eyes fixed on you as he began walking with ease, despite holding you, towards your room.
No longer able to hold back in front of his unfair and frankly erotic display of strength, you buried your head in his neck once again, inhaling his scent, he smelled like jet fuel, the dirty fabric of his flight suit and sweat, and yet you didn’t think you had ever smelled anything better. Your tongue poked out on its own, licking the side of his neck up to his jaw, which made Jake inhale sharply.
Finally he pushed the door of your room open, and with a gentleness you didn’t think was possible he set you up on the bed, while his eyes quickly took in your room. And you physically saw his green irises darken.
“So that’s where you touched yourself to the sound of my voice, hmm ?” He questioned, teasing and smug while his mouth went straight for your neck, nibbling on the sensitive flesh there. “Begged me to talk you through it, rubbed your little clit like a good girl and soaked your sheets while I told you how I fuck my fist to the thought of eating you out ?”
His hands had also started to wander, feeling your waits through your flight suit, cupping and squeezing your breast through the thick fabric while you could only moan helplessly.
“Jake, please, take my suit off.”
“Patience, sweet girl. I thought we had already established that your problem was that you didn’t take your time. Always rushing into things…” he tsked into your neck, “but I’m gonna take my time with you. I’ve been waiting for this moment too damn long to rush anything.”
He pulled out to look at you, smiling and biting his bottom lip at the look on your face. Red in the face, lips still slightly swollen and glossy from your earlier make out session, chest rising fast with the rhythm of your frenetic breathing, pupils completely drowning out your irises as you looked at him like a woman dying of thirst in the desert would look at an oasis.
“Should I tell you what I have in mind for you ?”
You nodded vigorously.
“First I’m going to kiss all over your gorgeous fucking body, I can’t fucking wait to see you bare and get my mouth on your tits.” His hands illustrated his words by giving a squeeze to your chest that you felt travel down all the way to your clit, which was painfully swollen in the confines of your panties.
“Then,” he continued, “I’m going to eat you out, baby, bury my tongue in your pussy and you’re gonna feel so, so good. I’ll make you cum once or twice, haven’t really made up my mind yet.”
Absorbed by the imagery he was painting you, you tried to squeeze your legs together but you only squeezed Jake who was between them, and he hummed, seemingly satisfied with the effect he was having on you.
“And after that, how about you ride me, pretty girl, hmm ? Bounce on my cock, you choose the pace, you choose everything… you can even grind your pretty little clit on me….” He almost moaned at his own description. “What do you say ?”
The way he checked for your approval had you almost as weak as his words.
“Yes yes, just do it, please, Jake.” Your inhibitions were completely gone, the only thing on your mind being him, and the promise of everything he was about to do to you.
He completely laid you down on the bed, climbing over you between your legs, his nose tracing into your neck, taking the time to take your smell in.
“You are so eager, baby, I fucking love it.” he whispered, sending chills in your entire body and making you squeeze your thighs around him.
Jake let his lips wander around your neck, mouthing and nibbling on the sensitive flesh, tongue darting out to lick at certain areas. One of your hand shot out to bury itself in his hair, mindlessly tugging on it.
“Ngh— Ah, Jake…” you let out a breathy moan.
He groaned in delight, “yeah keep tugging on my hair, darlin’.”
Jake continued his exploration of your neck while his hands were squeezing your waits through your fluid suit. He took the lobe of your ear in his mouth and sucked on it lightly.
“Fuck…” you whined, eyes closed in pure bliss, while you had started to grind lightly into Jake, desperate to get just a tiny bit of relief.
“So sensitive.” He marveled and you could feel his smirk on your skin.
When his kisses met the top of your flight suit, he finally began to unzip it, and your heart got wild at the sound of the zipper being tugged down. Carefully, he took it off you and was met with your white t-shirt and leggings. He playfully raised a brow at you.
“I can understand the t-shirt, but leggings ? How are you not burning alive, aren’t you hot with all this ?” He inquired.
You shrugged, finding it hard to explain yourself when you were in fact burning alive, but because of his gaze and touch, not your flight suit. “I don’t like the feeling of the suit rubbing on my skin.”
He hummed, “of course you don’t, with such a sensitive skin…” he played with the hem of your t-shirt, “can I, darlin’ ?”
“Yes please.”
Jake took off your t-shirt off with a smile, smiling even bigger at the sight of your flushed chest and breasts squeezed into your sports bra. He could see the faint outline of your nipples where they had already began to pebble. His thumbs lightly traced around them, the light touch already had your back arching. With your approval, he took off your bra, and he let out a moan at finally seeing your breasts bare.
“Sweetheart, you are gorgeous.” He almost whimpered, eyes raking over the swell of your tits hungrily.
His hands cupped them, squeezed, massaged, not letting an inch of your boobs go unattended. Your hips were bucking up into his as you began to cry out.
“That feels— so good.” You whined, pushing out your chest onto him.
His hands on your chest combined with the feeling of your cunt rubbing against his cock was making you delirious. The barrier between his core and yours was getting thinner and thinner and it was sending you crazy.
“Yeah I can see that.” He smirked huskily as his fingers began targeting your hard nipples.
His thumbs swirled them as his hips started to meet your movements, grinding himself into your clothed pussy.
“Jake, you feel so good— ah fuck !” You got interrupted by the feeling of his hot, wet mouth around one of your nipples.
He hummed around it, sending vibrations throughout your entire body. Your other nipple was swelling under the attention of his hand, it felt divine. His mouth was sucking on your nipple, tongue swirling around it, teeth grazing it just lightly.
He let go of it with a loud pop, staring at his spit coating your red and swollen bud, he let his thumb brush over it.
“So pretty…”
He gave the same treatment to your other nipple. Jake would have been fine staying hours worshipping your breasts, but eventually you cupped his face, forcing him to look at you. The wetness pooling in your panties was beginning to feel uncomfortable.
“Jake,” you hesitated for a moment, not even believing the words that were about to come out of your mouth, but his adoration of you and you body was fueling your new found confidence, “eat me out— please.”
“Loot at you, asking for what you want, ‘m proud of you,” he praised, giving a lick to your nipple, “I will, baby, I will. Just give me a second to appreciate you, yeah ?”
Jake trailed kisses in the valley between your breasts, tongue darting out to taste your skin every now and then, and when his lips met the top of your legging, he, oh so slowly, took them off you. Your thighs fell open on their own.
“Baby, you are fucking leaking.” He rasped, eyes marveling at seeing how your grey underwear was soaked through, taking on a darker shade and clinging to your hot and slippery core.
“Yeah well, what were you expecting ?” You tried to scowl, heat rising to your cheeks out of embarrassment at his remark.
He didn’t dignify your brattiness with a response, only taking on a cooing voice to ask you, “could you back up a bit for me, sweetheart ?” You nodded, letting him get completely on the bed with you, “that’s it, get comfortable.”
Jake’s eyes returned to your clothed pussy, gaze laced with an hunger that felt too much to handle. His face got closer to you then, and you couldn’t contain the shaky breath that left you. Much to your surprise, Jake didn’t take off your panties, but his nose met your clit through the wet fabric as he took a sharp inhale. The contact sent a surge of electricity through you.
“Jake what are you— Ah !”
Your question ended in a moan when Jake’s tongue darted out to lick you over the fabric, gathering some of the wetness that was desperately leaking through, an irrefutable proof of the lust you felt for him. Before closing in bliss, your eyes caught Jake’s one almost rolling to the back of his head, from the mere taste of you on your panties.
“Taste better than I imagined,” he moaned into your panties, continuing to lick the fabric, letting his spit mix with your slick.
One thing you had noticed about Jake was that he was vocal, more than anyone you had been with. Vocal in his words, the way he talked to you, the way he expressed his pleasure… he wasn’t shy, wasn’t embarrassed about letting you know how good you looked, how good you felt. Wasn’t embarrassed about his pleasure being loud. And god did you love it.
At the feeling of him sliding your panties off, your eyes snapped open again, meeting his.
“Is this okay ?” He asked, a gentleness mixing with the huskiness in his voice that made your heart clench.
“Yes, thank you.” You smiled, gratitude taking over you at him being so careful, so respectful with you.
He returned your smile, leaving a kiss on your inner thigh and nosing at it, “no need to thank me, sweetheart.”
You grabbed at his flight suit, tugging him so he would come back up to you, he let himself get tugged while raising an inquiring brow, but his questioning expression quickly morphed into a melting one when you placed a tender kiss on his cheek, hoping the touch would convey every bit of the whirlwind of feelings taking your body hostage. You let your lips linger on his skin, and you heard him hum in delight. Cupping his cheek, you let your thumb rub his cheekbone adoringly. When you pulled away, you found nothing short of fondness and pure adoration in his eyes. Jake got close to you again, affectionately rubbing his nose with yours. In this moment, no words needed to be exchanged, only the quiet understanding of what this moment meant to you both.
Trailing kisses on his way down, he settled back between your thighs and finished taking off your panties, a string of your slick momentarily kept you connected to the fabric. Had Jake been any other man, you would have closed your legs, too embarrassed to have anyone that close to the most intimate part of you, but it was Jake. Jake who made it clear how much he wanted you, how he thought you were beautiful, Jake, who had promised to worship every inch of your body if you’d let him. So you kept your thighs open wide, baring yourself completely to him.
Jake fell silent as he took in your naked, weeping core for the first time, and you swore you could physically see his pupils dilate even more, if it was still possible at this point.
“You’re beautiful, Y/N.” He finally said, after a few seconds of contemplation.
“Thank you…” you mumbled out, feeling dizzy under the weight of his heavy stare.
“You’re so sweet, baby.”
His hands came up to your pussy and your whole body clenched in anticipation of his touch, but it never really came. Instead, he used his thumbs to open you up, getting a better look of your glistening pussy that was burning alive for him. Stretching out your outer lips, his gaze lingered on your hole, and all this attention involuntarily made you clench, the movement of the muscles getting out another string of slick. Jake let out an appreciative hum.
“Oh yeah, I can’t wait to feel that around my cock.”
Whining, You tried to close your legs, if only to get the tiniest bit of friction but he kept them open.
“Shh, shh baby it’s alright, be patient. I’ll take care of you in a sec.”
He returned to his investigation, this time moving up to your clit. Very gently, he pulled your hood back with careful fingers, looking at the swollen, red bud that was begging for his attention.
And just as you were about to cry out, maybe even beg him to do something, anything, because the tension in your core was becoming unbearable and truly uncomfortable, you saw a string of spit left his mouth and slowly land on your clit, and you physically felt the little sensitive flesh twitch. Your eyes left his face to take a peek at the obscene visual your pussy was showing. Jake’s spit had began sliding down your folds, mixing with your arousal, cascading slowly towards your clenching hole.
Your hips bucked involuntarily towards his face, this whole situation felt too much to handle “fuck, I’m sorry I’m just— oh my god !” Your apology morphed into a surprised moan when you felt Jake’s tongue lick a long stripe from your hole to the very top of your clit.
It was unlike anything you had felt before, Jake’s mouth felt wet and hot on your already burning core. It was slippery, sticky, messy… but perfect. He kept going like that a few times, tongue flattened, licking long stripes, covering every inch of your cunt, from the base to the top.
“How does that feel, baby ? You like that ?” He asked, smug smirk firmly in place while he looked up to you.
“Feels— so so good, Jake, fuck, can— can you keep going please ?” You asked breathless, already desperate to feel him on you again.
“‘Course, sweet girl,” the pet name alone made you moan, which Jake chuckled at, “can’t believe no one has eaten this sweet pussy out before.” He mumbled to himself, before going back to work.
Next thing you felt was his lips wrapping around your clit, trapping the sensitive bundle of nerves in his mouth and sucking on it, sending white, sharp surges of pleasure through your body. Needing to grab onto something, your hands were frantically fisting at your bed sheets. Jake then let his tongue circle your clit, which had your back arching, and he didn’t even let you get accustomed to the feeling before he immediately changed the stimulation by gently flicking the sensitive flesh. The room was quickly filling up with the sounds of your choked up moans and whimpers, you couldn’t find it in you to care anymore at that point, the only thing on your mind being Jake between your legs, making you see stars. Your cries were joined by the obscene sound of Jake’s mouth meeting your cunt. The wet and slurping noises should have embarrassed you, disgusted you even, but it only fueled the fire in your stomach, heightening the pleasure already burning in your veins. Your knuckles were turning white from how hard you were clenching the sheets.
Gently, and without ever interrupting the filthy attention he was giving your clit, one of Jake’s hand came up to yours, covering it entirely. The touch took a few seconds to register in your mind and when it did, you let go of the fabric to hold his hand. But the intertwining of your fingers that you were expecting never came, instead, Jake guided your hand down on the top of his head, making you grab a handful of his golden hair.
“Hold on to me, sweetheart,” he spoke against your folds, emerald eyes flicking up to you, “that’s what I’m here for.”
Shivering at the sensation of his voice against you, you tried to reason, “but I grip really hard, I don’t want to hurt you.” You explained, voice strained and out of breath from all your moaning, but sincere.
“You won’t, baby, I can take it. And even if you do hurt me, don’t worry, I promise I’ll like it.”
Experimenting, you slightly tugged his hair and The sound he let out went straight to your clit.
After letting out an involuntary pathetic whimper, you conceded, “okay, I’ll hold on to you.”
Jake gave your clit an appreciative kiss, “what a sweet little thing you are, baby.”
His words seeped into your mind, adding a soothing warmth on top of the burning sensation running under your skin as Jake went back to his administrations.
Licking up every drop of the arousal that was profusely leaking out of you, he was letting out humming noises, as if your essence was the best thing that he’d been given to taste. The vibrations were deliciously reverberating against your core, sending you to new highs and causing you to tug on his hair, hard. Perhaps harder than what he had imagined. But the apologies you had loaded and ready on the top of your tongue died when he let out a moan that was unmistakably one of pleasure, not at all pain. And seeing him get pleasure out of this only heightened yours.
His hands were maintaining your thighs open this whole time when you were desperately trying to close them, and it got worse when his tongue left your swollen clit to trail down and meet your aching hole. Jake only teased your entrance, slurping more of the sweet nectar dripping out of you.
“You taste so fucking sweet, baby.”
“You— oh god ! You feel so good,” you cried out, head thrown back in pleasure while you had unknowingly and instinctively started to rock back against his face.
Jake’s tongue circled your entrance once more before dipping in slightly, licking the inside of your walls with a ferver that had your back arching, more so when his nose started bucking against your clit. You were babbling, saying anything and everything that came to your mind, mainly praises about how good he was to you while he hummed appreciatively against you. You almost screamed when his mouth returned to your clit, sucking on it, letting his teeth slightly graze it. You didn’t think it was possible for you to feel anymore pleasure than the one locking your whole body up at the moment, but then Jake’s hands, which had been comfortably settled on your thighs, squeezing them, went up your body, gave your waist an affectionate squeeze and continued their way up to reach your breasts. His warm palms cupped your boobs and his fingers toyed with your nipples, which were still tender from his earlier administrations.
The added stimulation forced a guttural moan out of your throat, a noise you probably would have cringed at if your brain wasn’t so clearly seeping out through your core and straight into Jake’s relentless mouth.
The string was beginning to coil tighter and tighter in your stomach, one of your hand was still gripping into his hair for dear life while the other was on top of one of his that was squeezing your breast.
“Jake, Jake Jake—“
“Yeah, baby ? You getting close ?” He cooed, lips brushing your clit with every word.
“Yes— Oh fuck,” you moaned, back arching, “you’re so good, Jake, keep going please, don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop—“ you pleaded, delirious with the feeling of your impending orgasm.
“‘M not, sweetheart, promise. Just relax for me.”
His tongue never stopped, neither did his fingers — twisting, rubbing, pinching your nipples. Your whole body started to lock up in anticipation of your release, thighs tensing and desperately trying to close around Jake’s head, breathing erratic… you were on the precipice, so so close… The string was coiled so tight in your lower stomach it was almost starting to hurt.
“Baby, just let go for me, you’re doing so good.” Jake whispered against your slippery folds, sensing your internal panic. “Relax and let it come to you, you’ve been such a good girl,” His hands adoringly cupped your breasts, letting go of the rough treatment on your nipples for a moment.
And before he could even return to sucking on your clit, his words had already pushed you over the edge. White, hot pleasure crashed into your body, making you arch your back so hard you’d probably still feel it tomorrow. Moans and cries got stuck in your throat, mouth silently hanging open, eyes rolling back to the back of your head though you wished you had been able to keep them on Jake.
Jake, who was loudly moaning against you, continued to lick and mouth at you while your pussy was frenetically clenching, rewarding him with your cum. He was enthusiastically prolonging your orgasm, he was making waves after waves of pleasure continuing to pass through you and you swore it felt dizzying for two seconds.
“Thaaaat’s it, baby,” he coaxed, hands running all over your body, “fuck, you look so beautiful.”
When you found your voice again, it was barely whimpers which made it past the threshold of your mouth. After what felt like blissful forever, you slowly started to come back down, you opened your eyes again at the feeling of Jake leaving small kisses all over your trembling thighs. He caught your eyes and smiled.
“There you are, how do you feel ?”
“Good,” you slurred, “so good, like my brain is gone.”
“Perfect,” he chuckled, “that was the plan.”
He continued to pamper your thighs and lower body in kisses, contact that was only reinforcing the floaty state you were in. His hands left your chest to rub your stomach, your thighs, but when he affectionately squeezed the high side of your left thigh, you hissed.
Immediately, Jake looked alert.
“Did I hurt you ?”
“No it’s okay, it’s just a bruise.”
He moved a bit to get a look at the place he had touched and he grimaced when he saw the deep purple bruise stretching on your thigh and stopping just shy of your ass.
“That’s a nasty bruise, what the hell did you do ?”
“Do you promise not to laugh ?”
He quirked an eyebrow at that.
“Well I’m definitely intrigued now. I promise, baby.”
“On Wednesday, you know it was raining really hard and I had that solo training flight. And… When I got out of my jet I slipped right off the ladder. Literally smashed so hard on the concrete.”
You saw the end of Jake’s lips quirk up slightly, he was so evidently holding in a laugh.
“God,” he exhaled a faint chuckle passing through, “I wish i’d been there to see that.”
“You fucking jerk,” you snarled with a teasing grin, giving his hair a tug that was meant to be reprimanding but felt more affectionate than anything. “actually, you know what’s funny ? My first reflex after I fell was to check that you weren’t fucking lurking nearby to make fun of me.”
Jake couldn’t hold back anymore and burst out laughing.
“Damn, how much of an asshole do you think I am ?”
You only deadpanned at him, no words needed to be said.
“Yeah, okay but I would have helped you, not laughed at you.”
“Really, Jake ? Is that the first thing you would have done ? Run to help me in my distress ?”
He took a minute to jokingly think it over.
“Okay I definitely would have laughed first,” he conceded, “But,” he held up a finger to stop you from saying anything before he could finish, “then, like the true gentleman I am, I would have ran by your side, baby.”
He placed a tender kiss on the inside of your thighs while being careful to not touch your bruise anymore. And suddenly, you were reminded of the context, which the banter had quietly taken you out of. You were sprawled out in front of Jake in all your naked glory, thighs open wide and trembling around his head while he laid on your bed, the end of his legs dangling off it and still entirely clothed with his flight suit.
Feeling a bit of shyness come back running as well as the need for his touch, you squirmed a little.
“You— you would have ?” You asked, already having lost the course of the conversation.
“Mmmh, do you not believe me, sweet girl ?”
You gulped, “not really, no.”
“I wonder what I could do to fix that…” Jake placed a kiss on your pubis, just above your little patch of hair.
Inhaling sharply, you refrained your hips from bucking into his face, “you don’t have to, Jake, you already— you know, you already made me… cum.” You whispered that last word out.
He looked up to you then, and the look in his eyes almost made you shy away “don’t even think about that, I want to.” He assured you, “question is, do you want to as well ?”
Was there any universe where you would have said no to having Jake Seresin stay longer between your thighs ? No, you didn’t think so.
You nodded.
“Words, sweetheart.”
“Ugh, I hate you.”
“No you don’t. Come on, you were doing so good earlier, telling me what you wanted...”
The sheer idea of being good for him again gave you back some of the courage you needed.
“Please eat me out again.”
A huge grin stretched his lips, glossy from your arousal, “that’s my girl.”
And he didn’t waste a second, immediately diving back into your cunt, munching on your puffy lips. Sensitive from your first orgasm, the pleasure felt so much more intense. It took him no time to have you writhing and squirming again as he focused all his attention on your swollen clit. Your moans were echoing off the walls of your room and you were so loud you were sure to receive some mean looks from your neighbors in the morning.
Silently, Jake’s hand gravitated towards your entrance, and the feeling of his fingertips on your hole startled you a little.
“Can I, sweetheart ? Need to get you ready for me.”
The prospect alone made you clench, “yes, yes, just— um, be gentle please ? It’s been a long time since, um,” you cleared your throat, “well, you know.”
“Of course, baby, I’ll be so gentle, don’t worry.”
His tongue returned to your sensitive bundle of nerves while his index finger circled your entrance, teasing you a bit before slowly inserting it. The stretch felt a bit uncomfortable at first, touching your own clit barely felt like anything so fingering yourself was always kind of out of the question for you, and it’d been a long time since your last miserable hook up. But the uncomfortable sensation quickly left place to pleasure as Jake gently curled his finger, and for a moment he only rubbed your inner walls, not even fully taking his finger out, only slowly dragging it along your walls. Somehow, how gentle he was with it all made it hotter for you.
“You’re so tight, sweetheart, just relax for me.”
You gasped when he gave your clit a particularly hard suck, “fuck— I’m trying, but you’re not exactly making it easy, ohmygod !”
His finger suddenly hit a spot that made you see stars and had your thighs trembling even more.
“Oh yeah, that’s the spot,” Jake spoke low in his throat, finger rubbing on the cluster of nerves.
Slowly, his middle finger joined his index, making come hither motions and hitting that sensitive spot every time.
“Jake, Jake yes right there, please— oh god that feels so good !” You cried out, pushing out your hips onto him, an unconscious attempt to feel more of his mouth on you.
Your walls were desperately fluttering around his fingers, a sign of your impending orgasm that you could feel building stronger than ever in your lower stomach. Hands feeling frantic again, you grabbed at Jake’s hair, arms, shoulders — any part of him that you could reach. It didn’t feel like enough, you needed more of him, the desire felt irrational, delirious and you must have looked crazy frenetically trying to hold onto him.
Wordlessly, since his mouth was occupied worshipping your twitching clit, his free hand gently took one of yours that was desperately grabbing at his shoulder, and he intertwined your fingers, thumb soothingly rubbing on your skin. The gentle touch amidst the hot and sharp pleasure was what you needed and your orgasm felt closer than ever.
“Can feel you clenching so hard, baby, you close, aren’t you ? Cum for me, sweet girl, make a mess, I’m right here.”
It seemed to be a pattern now, but his words immediately made the coil snapped as you came with a cry of his name, walls clenching so hard around his fingers it was almost impossible for him to keep fucking you through your orgasm. He made up for it by giving little licks to your overstimulated clit.
“Jake fuck !”
“Just like that, sweetheart, yeah must feel so good, huh ?” Jake coaxed, fingers inside still rubbing your inner walls.
The orgasm felt never ending, cunt frenetically pulsing and clit twitching under his tongue, the pleasure pulsing in your body felt like too much. And not long after, Jake’s mouth on your clit felt more uncomfortable than pleasurable and you gently tried to push his head off you with a whine, which he immediately did.
“Sorry, baby, you sensitive ?”
You nodded, not feeling like you could talk. Very slowly, Jake took his fingers out of you and immediately put them in his mouth, sucking them clean, not wasting a drop of your taste. And somehow, even though he just had been munching on you for the past twenty minutes, the visual made you blush. He took a look at your puffy pussy from his work and hummed low in his throat, seeming proud of his work. He soothingly rubbed his hands all over your body, being careful of avoiding where you were the most sensitive.
“You did so good, sweetheart, you were such a good girl for me.”
You let out an involuntary whimper at the praise and pulled him back up to you by the neck of his flight suit.
“That was so fucking good, Jake, I never— I never came like that.”
He smiled and leaned in to capture your lips in a sweet kiss, and you could taste yourself on his lips. It only sparked a new flame of desire inside of you. Sighing softly into his mouth you almost whined in protest when he pulled back. He was still entirely clothed in his flight suit and suddenly every repressed thoughts you had ever had about him came running back. The urge to act upon them pushed the words out of your mouth before you could stop them.
“Jake, could you lay down, please ?”
He seemed surprised, and intrigued, but definitely pleased, judging by the familiar smirk pulling at his pink and swollen lips.
“You wanna take care of me, baby ?” He cooed while doing what you asked.
“Yes,” you simply said in a breath, switching position with him.
Your honesty took him back for a second but he happily complied, and he began unzipping his flight suit but your hand shot out to stop him.
“No, let me.”
His breath hitched almost imperceptibly, but you noticed. You always did when it came to him.
Jake got comfortable against your pillows, opening his legs slightly so you could get between them, and you took a moment to admire him. He was completely laid out on your bed, jade eyes looking up at your naked form hovering over him.
“You have no idea how many times I’ve imagined this exact situation,” he confessed in a breath.
His endless praise and confessions of how long he’s wanted this were only fueling your confidence.
“I think I might…” you trailed off, eyes pointedly looking at the prominent bulge in his flight suit.
Leaning down, your mouth landed on his neck and the first thing you did was take a whiff of his scent, of him. And you only thought of yourself as disgusting for half a second for finding the smell of his sweat arousing. Breathing into his neck flipped a switch into your brain.
You trailed kisses all over the thin skin of his neck, and you licked a long stripe from the base of it up until his jawline, just beneath his ear. Jake let out a pleasured sigh, hands shooting out to grip your hips, desperate to feel you. Trailing your way down with kisses, you met the top of his flight suit and the sheer idea of taking it off him sent your heart reeling.
“Can I take it off ?”
“Hell yes, baby.”
You began unzipping it and helped him out of it, he was left only in a white t-shirt and his boxers. Without waiting a second, both your pair of hands made quick work of disregarding his top. The sight before you was nothing short of heavenly and you barely noticed the whimper that left your throat.
Splayed out on your bed sheets, Jake looked like every single repressed and unconscious fantasy you ever had. His cheeks were visibly getting redder under your scrutinizing gaze, it made his eyes stand out more as he looked up at you, anticipation burning in the two emeralds throning at the top of his face.
Your eyes hungrily followed the course of his deepening blush. His neck was beautifully blooming in a gentle pink, and you could see his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. The blush continued its way down, painting his collarbone and tanned chest. And God his chest. It looked firm and soft at the same time, his nipples were hard, and stupidly you didn’t think men’s nipples could do that but you suddenly got an urge to take them in your mouth.
Your eyes continued their way down, passing over the hair adorning his chest, his well defined abs, his happy trail disappearing beneath his boxers — taunting you. And finally, your gaze settled between his legs. His black boxers were very obviously strained with the weight of his erection, and you could even see a tiny dark patch of fabric where he’d been leaking precum. The entire sight of him was so erotic you practically could feel the blood drain from your brain to make a one way race over to your pulsing clit.
“Are you just gonna look at me all night ?” He prompted in a teasing tone laced with something strained.
“You’re so hot, Jake.”
You would have thought that someone like Jake would be used to this kind of praise, but the blush only darkened on his already tanned skin, and that turned you on more than you could have imagined. Leaning down, your mouth started licking at his collarbone, tasting his skin. And quickly you navigated towards his nipples, circling one with your tongue while you toyed with the other with your fingers, mirroring the sweet torture he had inflicted you only minutes prior.
“Oh fuck…” he let out a guttural groan mixed with a small chuckle, “not gonna lie, nipple play was not something I expected from you.”
“Me neither,” you admitted, lips brushing his bud with every word. “But your nipples are very pretty— I mean you’re very pretty— fuck I’m sorry I’m not good at this.”
“You’re all good, baby, don’t worry, you’re good.”
Giving one of his nipple a small lick of appreciation, his whole body shivered and you felt his cock twitch beneath you when you resumed your administrations.
“Y/N, please just touch my cock.”
“Patience, Jake, let me appreciate you.” You cooed with a smirk, mimicking the tone he’d used with you.
Jake let out a strained laugh, “asshole.”
Winking at him, you resumed your path down his body, licking his abs, nibbling on them, letting your teeth ever so slightly graze them… And every single one of Jake’s reaction, every low moan, groan, gasp, buck of his hips, every whine — because yes Jake Seresin was not a man who was afraid to whine — was driving you insane. Replacing every single rational thoughts in your mind by him, only and purely him.
Getting to the level of his Adonis belt, one thought got through the thick fog of want and desire clouding your mind.
“I’ve never— um,” and then you just stated rambling, “listen I know you ate me out and that felt so so good but I— fuck I never went down on a guy before and trust me I want to go down on you but, it’s just that I’m nervous I won’t do good and—“
“Hey, hey hey hey, baby, it’s alright, you’re good” he sat up a bit to face you, “no obligation at all, ‘m not expecting anything from you, okay ? We can stop right now.”
“No no, I don’t want to stop,” you expressed a bit too eagerly, “I— I want to jack you off, if that’s alright.”
Jake thought right there and then that your politeness in such a context would end up killing him.
“Yeah, that’s more than alright, sweetheart. Just do what you’re comfortable with, we can try other things next time.”
‘Next time’. The possibility made your head spin.
After locking your lips with his briefly in a grateful gesture, you started, with his help, to take off his boxer. His cock finally sprung free, and the sight was almost too much. You were wondering if perhaps your arousal hadn’t started to leak on your sheets by now.
He was big, but that was to be expected of Jake. He had veins running all along his shaft, leading to his tip which looked swollen and red and had precum profusely leaking from it. You never would have thought that you’d say that about a dick, but he looked pretty. Or perhaps it was the fact that it was Jake’s that made it look so appealing to you.
You were about to spit in your day to get it wet when you thought of a better idea. Locking eyes with Jake, your hand went between your legs, gathering some of the slickness glossing your folds. His eyes widened at the sight.
“Shit, Y/N…”
Your hand now wet with your arousal, you carefully wrapped it around Jake, who let out a hiss at the contact. Your hand went up and down his length, swirling slightly on his tip, gathering his precum and mixing it with your own juices.
Placing a hand on his chest — his skin felt burning under your palm — you gently pushed him back so he could lay on your pillows again. You were in no way near as talented as Jake was for dirty talk, but you were determined to make him know just how much he was turning you on. So you simply decided to let your mouth run free, translating out in the open every thought going through your mind.
“Your moans are so pretty,” you told him, hand still on his chest while the other was slowly stroking him up and down.
This only prompted him to let out a louder one, “fuck, sweetheart, you’re killing me….”
Your thumb gently wipes his slit and he bucked up in your hand, “does that feel good ?”
“Yes— Hmm shit, yes, you’re doing so good.”
“Your cock feels amazing in my hand.”
His head was thrown back, eyes tightly closed, he looked perfect. Leaning down, you began to tease his nipples with your mouth. A string of moans and groans were leaving his mouth, as you continued to stroke him, alternating between rubbing his sensitive tip and his length.
You could hear his moans getting breathier and heavier, his cock was constantly twitching in your hand as your mouth was occupied switching between his buds, which had gotten all swollen from your attention. His abs were contracting and from your limited experience, it was a sign of his impending orgasm. Eager to see him completely lose himself in the waves of pleasure only by your hand, you sped up, just slightly, before his hand suddenly shot out to stop you.
“Wait, I want to feel you around me when I cum.”
Only capable of nodding feverishly, you took your hand off him.
“Do you have a condom ?” He asked you.
“Um— fuck let me check.”
Rummaging through the drawers of your bedside table, you were praying to find at least one condom, you didn’t think you’d be able to survive not feeling him inside you any longer. When you found one, you quickly checked that it wasn’t expired before handing it to Jake. He made quick work of unwrapping it before rolling it down his cock, an action you watched intensely with noticeable hunger.
“C’mere, sweetheart.” Jake lightly patted his lap.
With slightly shaky limbs from anticipation, you swinged one leg across his lap, straddling him.
“You ready ?” He asked you, gently rubbing your thighs up and down.
“Yeah,” you answered in a breath.
Rubbing his cock a few times, he lined it up with your pussy, rubbing your clit with his tip. Your thighs trembled slightly.
“Can I…?” You trailed off, voice shaky.
“Yeah, come on down, baby.”
With Jake’s help, you started to lower yourself down on him. His tip breached past your folds and you both gasped at the feeling.
“F-Fuck sweetheart, you’re so warm…”
The stretch was heavenly as you continued to slowly go down, taking more of him inside you.
“Jake, ngh— oh my god.”
Feeling him run against your sensitive walls was making your legs weak.
“Baby, ah— relax a bit for me, yeah ? You’re squeezing me so fucking hard—“
“‘M sorry, you just feel so good.” You whimpered.
When you fully sat down on him, you were practically shaking, pussy desperately fluttering around him. Taking the time to adjust to his size, you tried to breathe through it. You felt so completely full, in the best way.
Jake seemed as overwhelmed as you, his hands gripping your thighs.
“You feel perfect, sweetheart…” he praised, his thumb moving to trace languid circles on your clit which made you jolt slightly.
You wish you would have been able to warn Jake, but you weren’t even aware of it yourself. It only took one more pass of his thumb over your clit for your body to entirely lock up upon the pleasure washing over you.
Your orgasm took you by surprise as you hunched over him, shaking with the force of it and pussy helplessly clenching around him.
“Oh God— Ah fuck !”
Jake’s eyes widened out for a second before letting his hands run all over your thighs, ass and chest, coaxing you through it.
“Let it all out, sweetheart. Shit— you’re doing so good for me sweet girl, such a good girl, God you’re creaming all over me…”
Hunched over him, violent tremors passed through you as you were completely helpless to the pleasure holding you hostage. The knowledge that you were that close to him and that there was no physically possible way for you two to be closer than the position you were in right now was making your fall over the edge that much powerful.
“You’re inside me,” you finally said looking down at where you two were connected when the peak of your pleasure let place to static white noise.
Jake looked up at you so reverently you genuinely thought this moment would be the death of you, and you caught yourself thinking it wouldn’t be such a bad way to leave this world.
“Yes I am,” he agreed, voice strained but so worshipful, “and you feel so perfect, sweet girl, you’re perfect. Feels like you were fucking made for me.” He breathed out, palm going to rest against your stomach, pressing down lightly to feel himself inside of you.
You let out a small moan as you placed a hand on top of his, “I think I was.”
In one swift movement, Jake sat up to bring his lips to yours, pouring every single one of his feelings for you into it, and God did you feel it. When you both pulled back to get air, he rested his forehead against yours, your breaths mingling together.
“Do you feel like you can move, or are you a bit tired ?” Jake asked you gently after a minute.
Slowly testing your strength, you tried lifting yourself a bit and were immediately met with the reality of your quivering thighs. Your sensitivity was through the roof and your stamina had been taken out by your three prior orgasms.
“Yeah, sorry I don’t think this position is gonna do it…”
“It’s okay, baby. I’m gonna take good care of you,” he said, voice low and husky.
With all the care in the world, and all the while staying seated inside your warmth, he flipped you so that you were now comfortably resting against the pillows while he was hovering above you.
“You comfy ?” He asked, his nose fondly nudging yours.
“Yes,” you breathed out, “so comfortable, thank you.”
Jake let out a small chuckle while his hips slowly began to grind into yours, “love how polite you are, such a sweet little thing, aren’t you ?”
Your response was only a drawn moan at the feeling of his cock rubbing inside your walls. A slow grind that had his neat patch of pubic air perfectly rub on your clit, it was divine.
“Ah— Oh Jake you feel so— Ngh fuck…”
“Yeah tell me baby, how do I feel ?” he prompted.
“Good, so good, so fucking good..” you rambled, already lost in the pleasure he was providing you.
“Yeah that’s it,” he praised, putting back one of his hand on your stomach and pressing down, “you feel me ? I’m right here, right here baby, so fucking deep inside you…”
A cried left your throat as his hips gained a bit more strength in their movement. You were desperate to keep holding his gaze but you were unable to refrain your eyes from rolling to the back of your head. Your nails were digging into his skin, raking all over his shoulders and back which Jake let out a blissful hiss at. Your hands kept going lower and lower, almost making his back arch. Eventually, you reached his ass and cupped his cheeks, and Jake let out a chuckle through his string of moans of your name.
“That’s right, I forgot you had a thing about my ass.”
“You looked very good today,” you huffed out in a whimper.
Jake let out a groan.
“Yeah ? You were checking me out, darlin’ ?” He asked, Texan drawl dripping from his tongue like hot honey, brain too focused on you to try and conceal it anymore, “I knew you were, that’s why I walked up in front you on the tarmac this morning…”
Squeezing his ass in response, you hid your face in the crook of his neck.
“Don’t be embarrassed now, I’m flattered, baby, really.”
He angled his hips slightly, and his tip hit a spot you didn’t even know existed in you, sending white, hot pleasure in your veins.
“Jake— ohmygod, right there, right there, fuck—“
“Look at me, sweetheart.”
Without thinking twice about it, you looked up from his neck, your eyes diving into his jade ones, half lidded with pupils dilated, he was looking so intensely at you. Jake picked up the pace a bit, cock hitting right on that spot with every single thrust and you were fighting yourself to keep your eyes on him.
“Where is your vibrator ?” He asked, a bit breathless but hips keeping steady.
The question took a minute to register in your mind, “what for ?”
Jake grinned, the front of his golden hair sticking to his forehead from the sweat, “what do you think, baby ? I wanna use it on your pretty little clit.”
The perspective of having anything other than Jake’s skin touch you felt wrong. He was warm above you, loud, alive, him. The idea of having the cold silicone on you repulsed you.
“I don’t want the vibrator,” you said quickly, “I want you, just you.”
His languid rhythm faltered for a second as he let out a long, guttural moan, before resuming his pace.
“Jesus, darlin’, you can’t just say shit like that…”
Two of his fingers moved down your body and reached up your swollen and puffy clit, tracing slow circles on it.
“I’m right here, right here, baby, just me.”
Crying out, you held on tighter to him, the added stimulation was bringing you closer to your fourth high of the night.
Jake’s face was so close to yours both of your breaths were mingling together, strings of curses and moans leaving both of you. The sensation of his length inside of you, hitting that sensitive spot inside of you combined with the pressure on your clit was driving you crazy, your legs went to wrap around his waist, squeezing him without meaning to.
“You feel amazing, pussy sucking in me so fucking good,” he moaned against your lips, “you’re so perfect, sweet girl…”
You clenched so hard at his words it was impossible for him to move for a few seconds.
“Ohhh baby, you like that huh, ? Like when I tell you how perfect you are for me ? My sweet, sweet girl…” his lips left a tender kiss on your forehead.
The pet name alone was making you see stars, and you could feel your orgasm starting to build from very deep within your guts.
“I like when you call me that,” you whimpered.
“Call you what ? Sweet girl ? Is that what has you clenching your tight little pussy ‘round me ?”
“Yes— fuck, ‘m so close Jake, please don’t stop, ‘m so so close…”
“‘M not stopping, sweet girl, ‘m gonna make you feel so fucking good, wanna feel you cum around me so bad…” he moaned.
“Are— are you close too ? Wanna cum with you.”
“Fuck,” he groaned as you felt his cock twitch inside you, “yeah, I am, shit—“
With every thrust, his chest was rubbing against your sensitive nipples. Your pussy was throbbing, leaking down Jake’s cock and onto your sheets. The room was filled with the obscene noises of your slick getting pushed in and out of you by Jake, and with both of your breathless moans. It all felt too much, in the best way possible. Your toes curled and you could feel in your bones that the waves of pleasure would submerge you miore violently than ever before.
“Jake,” you caught his attention, desperate to let him know, “Jake— fuck, I’m gonna cum, cum with me please, please, Jake—“ you were practically incoherent, but he understood every word, he never once changed his pace, keeping that delicious rhythm that was seconds away from tipping you over the edge.
“‘M right here with you, go ahead, cum for me sweet girl, ‘m right behind you, promise, cum for me, you’ve been so good…”
That was it.
With a noise that you didn’t know you were capable of making, you came apart beneath Jake. The force of your orgasm crashing onto you almost took your breath away. The pleasure locked all your muscles in place, rendering you completely helpless, you couldn’t do anything but cry out Jake’s name on repeat as you felt your body elevate to another dimension.
“That’s it, sweet girl, yeah— Ngh fuck !”
It didn’t take look for Jake to follow behind you. Your pussy was clenching sporadically around him, locking him in place and leaking all over his cock.
Right as you felt him twitch inside of you, your hands went up to cup his face, forcing him to look at you while he came. You wanted — no, needed to see him. As soon as his eyes met yours and with a few weakened out thrusts, he emptied himself in the condom with a long, drawn out moan. You could see that his eyes desperately wanted to fall closed to focus on the sensation of his release but he forced himself to keep them on you.
Mouth opened, eyes at the limit of rolling to the back of his head and eyebrows scrunched up…
He looked beautiful.
Seeing him like that only prolonged your own high.
It felt never ending. But eventually, after what had felt like eternity, Jake dropped carefully on top of you, completely spent.
“Jesus… I never came like that,” he exhaled in a small, amazed and tired chuckle.
His head was buried in the crook of your neck, breathing heavily on your skin. One of your hands automatically moved to his hair, tenderly passing your fingers through his golden locks, which he let out a blissful sigh at.
Your release left you with a sense of floating that felt like lying on a cloud. As you were trying to catch your breath and get it back to normal, you suddenly felt your heart clench. Without understanding why, your throat started to close up and your eyes to tear up. Feeling a sense of panic at your sudden and inexplicable distress, you tried to keep the tears from running down your cheeks. But it was useless. God, what was happening to you ? You felt good, great, perfect even, so what the fuck had gotten into you ?
Trying to understand where this was coming from and why the tears were now falling freely down your flushed cheeks, you let out an involuntary sob. Jake immediately looked up from where he was nudged against your neck, and his tired eyes immediately widened when they saw your face. Very gently, he pulled out of you.
“Hey, hey Y/N are you okay ? Did I hurt you ?” He sat up, giving you space from him.
“No I’m alright, I’m fine, I swear,” you tried to explain through the sobs that you couldn’t contain, “I— I don’t know what’s happening—“
Jake’s face melted right then and there and he seemed to understand in seconds what you couldn’t, he wasted no time to take you into his arms, holding you close.
“Shh, shh, You’re okay, Y/N, it’s alright. It’s just the hormones crashing down, you’re okay.”
Chocking up on a cry, you held onto him tighter than what was probably comfortable for him, but he said nothing of it. He only rocked you gently, continuing to shush you softly.
“I’m sorry—“ you hiccuped into his shoulder, “I don’t know what’s happening—“
“You’re all good, sweet girl, shh shh, you’re okay I promise.”
When the sobs calmed down, he slowly pulled away from you, if only to take a good look at your reddened eyes and tear stained cheeks.
“‘M sorry…” you said in a low voice, ashamed of having ruined such a blissful moment.
“You have nothing to apologize for, sweetheart,” he assured in a gentle voice while brushing a sweaty strand of her behind your ear, “you’re all good. Crying after sex is completely normal, it can happen after big orgasms. It’s all your hormones crashing down at once, it can cause some people to get emotional. Nothing embarrassing.”
Sniffling a bit and wiping your eyes, you almost broke down again at his gentle explanation. You wrapped your arms around him again, needing the comfort and safety of his arms in your fragile emotional state.
“Thank you.” You exhaled, leaving a tender and grateful kiss in the crook of his neck.
One of his hand was cupping your head while the other was adoringly rubbing your back.
“No need to thank me, baby, it’s normal.”
Both of you stayed like that for what felt like forever. Embraced by each other, in a comfortable silence that was only disturbed by the sound of your relaxed breaths. Naked both in body and in feelings, you thought that this might be what heaven felt like.
Jake’s voice eventually broke the peace, “you need to go pee, sweetheart.”
“Jake, what the fuck ?” You pulled back in a stunned laugh to look at him.
“Don’t look so offended, I don’t want you to get a UTI, I’m thoughtful,” he said in a mock, overly sweet voice.
“Yeah, right,” you scoffed, playfully slapping his chest.
Jake laughed and quickly stole a kiss that had you giggling.
“Instead of worrying about my genital hygiene, why don’t you worry about yourself first ?” You teasingly asked, pointing to his softening cock, still trapped in the used condom.
He’d been so focused on calming and reassuring you that he’d forgot to throw out the condom.
“Ah fuck, that’s disgusting,” he grimaced before taking it off and tying it up, “where’s your bathroom ?”
“Right outside on the left.”
You watched him get up in all his naked glory, eyes inevitably trailing down…
“Did you leave scratch marks on my ass ?” He asked without even turning around.
“A little,” you giggled, hearing him laugh as he disappeared inside the bathroom.
He quickly came back after getting rid of the condom, he stopped a minute by the door, eyes raking over your naked form.
Letting a yawn, you met his gaze with a fond smile.
“I’m gonna take a shower before bed, do…” you cleared your throat, “do you wanna join me ?”
The smile that broke out on Jake’s face was nothing short of dazzling, “that’d be my greatest pleasure.”
In three big and quick strides, he reached you and without warning he lifted you up bridal style. You let out a squeal in surprise.
“I can walk you know,” you said in a laugh.
“With how hard you just came on my dick ? I don’t think so, sweetheart, sorry.”
You made a mock undignified noise, “I’ll let it slide, just this once, Seresin.”
“And i’m back to last name basis.”
“I can think of a few ways to get back to first name, if you’re interested.” You said, your voice instinctively dropping to a sultry tone you didn’t think you were capable of.
“Oh yeah ?” Jake inquired, voice matching yours as he started to walk towards the bathroom, “I’m more than interested, sweet girl.” He said, head dropping down to leave kisses all over your neck.
Letting another squeal, it was impossible for you to conceal your fit of pleased giggles.
You didn’t think you had ever felt anymore at peace than in this very moment. And watching Jake turn on the shower, that’s when you really understood.
Pleasure is no shame. It never should have been. And you knew that with Jake by your side, it never would be again.
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Author’s note : OMG guys I felt like this fic was never ending😭 but I am so happy and so proud to finally present you the final part of Pleasure Is No Shame. The support on this series has been insane and I’m so grateful.
This fic started as the most self indulgent premise ever, and I’m so glad so many of you took pleasure in reading it ! I put my blood, sweat and tears into it and I sincerely hope you enjoyed that last part ! Thank you to everyone who liked, commented, reblogged or even just read this series, it means a lot and I think it will always have a special place in my heart !
Also I never planned for it to actually be that long so I’m sorry if it ended up being boring, don’t hesitate to tell me if it was too long !
Next thing I’m gonna try to work on is 8-pool meltdown part 2 !💞