Chapter Text
Bradley has always been more loose-lipped than most, saying whatever comes to his mind without a second thought. His mom always told him it’s just another part of the way he wears his feelings so low on his sleeve. It’s worse when he is tired, his filter becoming even harder to control when sleep still clouds his mind because despite being called Rooster he doesn’t always perform well in the young hours of the morning.
Which is exactly why he finds himself in the most awkward situation imaginable.
Jake is standing in his kitchen holding a cereal bowl and looking at him with eyes blown wide in surprise. Bradley’s previous words, “move in with me”, hang heavy in the air.
“What?” Jake breathes back quietly in response.
It’s been a good morning, Jake woke Bradley up with his mouth and the gentle glow of the morning sun made Jake’s hair and skin shine like gold as he padded around Bradley’s kitchen in a worn UT shirt and boxer shorts. But suddenly Bradley doesn’t feel so good anymore.
“I — uh, just thought that since, you know, most of your stuff is here and so are you more often than not, you would maybe want to… move in?” Bradley rubs a hand insecurely on the back of his neck and the ball of anxiety in his stomach is growing heavier by the minute.
“I just want you around like all the time, kind of. And I have this entire house with room for us to grow, so” he’s beginning to ramble now, his filter is almost completely non existent and he’s digging himself into a deeper hole trying to stave off the rejection that is probably coming, “I mean we’ve been together long enough I just thought—“
But then Jake interrupts him with a smile, getting up into Bradley’s space, slapping a hand over Bradley’s mouth to silence his rambling and says “yes” like it is the easiest decision in the world. Secretly, Bradley hopes that it is.
Bradley’s eyebrows shoot up in joyful surprise and Jake lets his hand fall away from Bradley’s face, “wait, really?”
Jake smiles brightly, the light from the window above the sink hitting him just right and the sun glimmers in his green eyes, warming Bradley up and making the pit of anxiety in his stomach loosen, “yes, Bradley. I want to move in with you.”
And Bradley suddenly can’t breathe with how relieved he is, how happy he is, because this man is going to be living with him. Living with him in a house that will be theirs instead of just his dead mother’s home. A home where they can grow and love and be loved together.
“Oh thank fucking god”, Bradley breathes in relief and he picks Jake up into his arms, slamming their lips together. He hefts Jake up onto the counter with a small squawk of surprise from the younger man and keeps smiling into the kiss.
“I don’t think I could ever imagine my home without you in it” Bradley confesses into the quiet sliver of space between them.
Jake smiles gently, “you won’t ever have to”. He pulls away slightly with that signature smirk on his face and continues, “unless you keep making it a habit to leave your dirty laundry all over because then you’re living permanently outside”.
Bradley pinches him in the side in response, laughing at the way Jake swats him in the back of the head, “sounds about fair to me, sweetheart”.
A few weeks later Jake is moving into Bradley’s house with help from the rest of their squadron, Maverick, and Ice. Jake has limited belongings, the result of moving from posting to posting and a shitty childhood he says, they have his stuff moved in pretty quickly. But the team decides that their house needs a little TLC before they can officially conclude this as a successful move-in.
“I don’t want to change too much, though” Bradley says, insecure, and looks to Mav who nods in understanding. This house still thrums with memories of Bradley’s childhood and is the last thing connecting him to his mom. “The floral reading chair is staying,” Bradley says definitively. His mother loved that chair.
“That’s okay, son”, Mav says, clapping him on the shoulder in support, “We’ll just do some stuff here and there to give you boys a fresh start. Nothing major.”
That’s how Jake and Bradley find themselves silently fighting over the instruction manual of a new IKEA coffee table. Maverick and Ice are putting away new dining sets in the kitchen cupboards and Bradley can hear Ice making fun of Maverick for not putting anything on the top shelf because “Ice, you asshole, I can’t reach that high” .
Bob and Natasha are finishing a fresh coat of paint in the kitchen, Fanboy and Payback are hanging up new curtains because according to Fanboy, “Rooster, you can’t have black curtains in your living room, you just can’t. I feel like I’m walking into a dingy nightclub in downtown Pensacola whenever I come over” , and Coyote is framing some miscellaneous photos of the couple and their friends and family in the hallway.
Just as Bradley has the intrusive thought to lean over and choke out his boyfriend because how could he have possibly put the table legs on upside down, Coyote comes out from the hallway calling his name. He is holding an old cigar box with a thick layer of dust on it, “I found this in the attic behind a box of coats, I think you’re gonna want to see it” and holds it out for Rooster.
They all come closer to inspect and Rooster looks at Coyote questioningly before opening it and gasping at its contents. Inside the box are dozens of Polaroids. The colors have faded a bit and the edges are yellowed with age but the photo on top of the stack is very clearly a picture of Maverick and his dad, arms wrapped around each other and posing goofily in front of an F-14 while flipping off the camera.
Jake is by his side in an instant, a gentle touch on his arm to break him from his shock. It must show on his face because everyone is looking at him imploringly.
“What’s in the box, baby?” Jake asks, curious.
“I think” he starts quietly, “I think these are my dad's”. He can hear a sharp breath of intake from Maverick and Ice next to him who both move in to look closer. Bradley pulls out the stack of Polaroids from the box with shaky hands and spreads them out on the truly awfully made coffee table.
Everyone moves to the ground to inspect the pictures but they let Maverick, Ice, and Bradley look closest first. This is their history after all. Maverick is gently running his thumb over a picture of Carol, Goose, and baby Bradley that Goose took in the bathroom mirror of their Top Gun housing and Bradley can hear his breathing pick up.
“I can’t believe these have been in the attic all this time. I thought they got lost when we had to move out all of your dad’s stuff”, his voice is heavy with grief and longing.
Ice moves in to comfort his husband and his voice is fond, “Your dad loved his Polaroids, Bradley. He carried that damn camera everywhere. Always said he needed to show his son what a great time he was having”.
Bradley feels more tears well up in his eyes as he looks to the men who helped raise him. They seem just as affected by this, maybe even more. It serves as a painful reminder that Ice and Mav lost someone Bradley will never truly get to know. But these Polaroids are a tangible representation of who Goose is, what his personality was like, and what he cared about most. That quells the pain in Bradley’s heart of not knowing his father just a little bit.
“Oh my god is that you Maverick?” Jake asks laughingly, “what a little twink you used to be!”. Maverick swats at him playfully and looks at the picture of a much younger version of himself striking a pose in his 80s dress whites.
Natasha picks up a picture to inspect it closely, “holy shit, it’s the admiral”. She holds it out to show everyone a picture of a sexy young Iceman with frosted tips smoking a cigarette on a dimly lit balcony.
Payback whistles lowly, “damn the admiral was hot” and Ice levels him with a stare.
“Still is hot, Fitch” Maverick corrects with a laugh and Ice pinches his husband playfully in his side.
“Bradley, is this you?” Bob holds up a picture of a little blonde boy in a cowboy hat holding a toy airplane and smiling so bright at the camera with missing baby teeth. Oh, and there is his mom. Right beside him in the picture looking so different than he remembers her, before the cancer slowly stole away her beauty and spirit.
Bradley takes the picture and gently touches her face in the picture, “yeah and that’s my mom” he whispered. Jake moves closer to him then, “she was so beautiful”.
“Yeah”, Bradley gives him a wistful smile, “she really was”.
The picture that Coyote pulls out from under the stack has him guffawing in shock, “oh my… you crazy son of a bitch Mav! Y’all look at this!”. The picture in question was taken from the backseat of an F-14 flying inverted above an enemy MiG and in the cockpit of the plane there was Maverick, flipping off the enemy pilot while making direct eye contact with him.
Ice gasps loudly, “this is the photo you were talking about in class! When you were trying to charm your way into Charlie’s pants” and Maverick flushes red at that memory.
“We all thought it was bullshit because supposedly MiGs weren’t able to complete an inverted dive”, Ice looks to the younger pilots who are listening closely, “Him and Goose told our instructors they were ‘keeping up with foreign relations’”.
Everyone erupts into loud laughs because, yeah, sounds like Maverick alright.
“Jesus Christ…” Natasha laughs, “no wonder these were locked away, if the brass ever got a hold of any of these pictures it would be an instant demotion”.
“Yeah, especially this one” Jake holds up a picture of a young Maverick and Iceman smiling intimately at each other over a shared plate of french fries. Maverick had his signature glimmering smile on and Iceman was smirking at him, their heads bowed closely together like Ice had just told Maverick the funniest secret he had ever heard.
Mav and Ice take the picture and inspect it closely, “hmm… maybe we weren’t as secretive as we thought” Maverick says jokingly.
“Yeah, you think” Ice says blandly to his husband but his eyes are shimmering with humor.
Fanboy, of course, instantly starts squealing with excitement “oh my god you guys were so cute and young and in love and defying all odds by being together when you weren’t allowed to, I love it” he finishes wistfully, hand on his chest, and dropping back in his chair dramatically like he’d just watched the most romantic film of all time.
The older couple both shake their heads at the younger pilots who are cooing about how cute they used to be. They still are cute, damn it!
Bradley, while loving this bonding moment, was becoming a bit overwhelmed. How had he gone his entire life without seeing these? The box holding the pictures was so nondescript he had to assume his mom just put it in another pile of stuff and it got lost during their one of many spring cleanings.
Dozens of Polaroids of his dad, his mom, Mav, Uncle Ice, and him never having been seen before. There were only two people in the world he really wanted to look at these with. Probably sensing his growing sadness, Phoenix gives the rest of the team a look and she begins picking up her stuff.
“We are, uh, gonna let you guys have some alone time. Everything should be finished except for the clean up”. She moved over to give Bradley a kiss on the cheek and he smiled at the feeling of his best friend, “call us if you need anything”.
After more pats on the back and warm goodbyes, Jake, Bradley, Mav and Ice were left alone in the living room.
“You okay, darlin’?” Jake asks Bradley quietly. Bradley looks up into his green eyes shining with worry and Bradley feels himself soften a bit. “Yeah sweetheart”, he said roughly, “I’m okay. I just… I need to go through these alone with Mav and Ice I think. I never even knew these pictures existed until now” he said sadly, looking down at the photo in his hands.
Jake nods with understanding and leans over to give his boyfriend a kiss, “okay baby, I’ll put some coffee on. Take as long as you need”.
Bradley smiled at Jake, always so patient and giving when it comes to giving Bradley his space. He caught his boyfriend’s wrist gently as Jake started to move away, “I love you” he said simply, like the easiest reminder in the world.
“Love you too, darlin’” and he left for the kitchen leaving Bradley alone with Mav, Ice, and all their untamed ghosts.
It’s been a long road for the three of them, repairing their damaged relationship. Bradley is still angry some days and Maverick is still wracked with guilt on others, serving as a constant reminder that they still have a long way to go. But looking at these pictures of his parents and the people they loved, the people who still love him, everything feels okay again. Like maybe this is just what they need to put their past to rest.
“Mav” Bradley starts, “tell me the story about this one” and pushes at a picture of Maverick hanging upside down from the rafters of a Top Gun instruction room with Ice on the ground clearly yelling at him.
“Yeah, Bee. How about we tell you the stories of them all?” Maverick looks at him intently and Bradley can hear his silent question, let me be honest with you let me tell you everything. And Bradley nods back at him, scooting closer to Mav on the couch, “Yeah I would like that”.
Bradley, Maverick, and Ice talk late into the night laughing over coffee at most stories and crying a bit at others. Jake joins them later when Bradley motions for him to sit next to him on the couch. They watch with entwined hands and smiles on their faces as Mav and Ice act out one of the pictures to the best of their memory. It's a good night and Bradley hugs his parents tight before they leave. If he and Mav hold on to each other a little tighter and longer that night in his and Jake’s doorway, nobody says anything.
After they leave, Bradley and Jake begin cleaning up the house. They throw away empty paint cans and Bradley finishes putting together the coffee table because he decided Jake is permanently banned from building Ikea furniture ever again. It is way late in the night at this point, Bradley is both emotionally and physically exhausted from the day but he looks around his home with a smile.
There is fresh paint on the walls, new white curtains billowing in the ocean breeze, pictures of everyone he cares about lining the walls, Jake’s collection of trinkets from his deployments on his mother’s old bookshelf, two pairs of workboots by the door, and most importantly there is Jake. Jake, who is hilarious and sweet and mean and kind all at once. Jake who is shockingly kind and understanding beneath his hard exterior and who loves him no matter what, even when the ghosts of Bradley’s past come pounding on their door.
No longer does Bradley feel stifled in his childhood home with the constant reminder of all he has grieved and lost. Everything feels both new and old at the same time and it is exactly how he pictured it. He moves over to his boyfriend who seems to have fallen asleep in the old floral armchair and kisses Jake gently on the forehead to wake him. Jake’s green eyes flutter open with a soft hum in his throat and Bradley smiles down at him, “Come on, sweetheart. Let's go to bed”.