I forgot I went through a fuckin giant Top Gun Maverick phase. Like I was obsessed with that movie and literally everything to do with it and the first one. But I found a few of the prompts I did on here so here you go!
They were lying in bed in the quiet hours of the morning, relishing in one another’s presence and just taking each other in. It was rare for them to get time like this with one another, Mav growing too antsy after an hour or two and needing to go do something while Rooster got called away for work or something.
But today was a day off for Rooster and he had managed to tire Mav out enough the night before to make him all soft and pliant. It was adorable and quite frankly, enough to make Bradley fall in love all over again.
So of course, Bradley being who he was had to go and ruin the quiet moment, curiosity and years of hearing the same thing over and over again eating away at his thoughts.
“Why did you pull my papers? You always told me I would be the greatest so why?” Maybe it was manipulative to ask now, when Maverick was sleep warm and still drifting between states of wakefulness with nowhere to truly run to. But Rooster had gone too long hearing the same excuse day in and day out.
“…. Do you remember when you told your mum that you were gonna apply and become a naval aviator?”
Bradley nodded, brow furrowed as he thought back on it. He was so excited to tell her, let her know that he’d be following in dad’s footsteps and that he was going to fly right by Maverick’s side and protect him. Same as his dad did.
But when he told her she got so… angry with him. She yelled at him and said he wasn’t allowed to become a pilot. Bradley - who was still a teenager at the time - couldn’t understand it any. Growing confused and hurt and yelling things he still regretted so many years down the track. He was so thankful that they weren’t his last words to her, so unbelievably thankful.
“She was terrified of losing you. After what happened with your dad she just couldn’t bear the thought of you having to go through the same thing. So… the day before she died she asked me to never let you fly.”
Rooster feels like all the air was pulled straight from his lungs, his shoulders feeling as if a weight had both been lifted and dumped onto them at the same time.
All those years of thinking he was never good enough. Thinking that Mav thought he’s wasn’t good enough to be by his side and fly with him. All of it gone like it never even existed.
But at the same time the fact that Mav had done it, even when he knew what it would do to Bradley and put up with everything Rooster had said and done to him over the years. Why?
“Why didn’t you tell me?” The words come out sounding raw and pained, voice choked in a way that Mav has only heard once in his lifetime. The sound makes him damn near whimper, hands coming up to cup Rooster’s face as he rests their foreheads together.
“I knew what pulling your papers would do. Knew that you’d hate me for it and I couldn’t… I could never bring Carole into it. I didn’t want you hating her after she had died just so I could save some face.”
Bradley feels angry with the admission. Not at Mav - never at Mav again now that he knew - but at what his mum had done. He could never hate her, he loved her far too much and it had been too long at this point. But he was still angry with what she had done.
What she’d inadvertently caused to happen between them when she’d be gone and none the wiser. Mav was the one still with him and she decided to do that when she was leaving him behind? It was unbelievable!
Maverick’s nose bumping against his pulls him from his thoughts, zoning back in to find the man looking at him with a pleading look.
“I know but please, don’t hate her like you did me. She just wanted what was best for you, I wanted what was best for you. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you like I did your dad, of being the only one left.”