𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂, bradley rooster bradshaw

004 ━ choco shakes and spicy wings

CHAPTER FOUR
━━━ i'm stepping to you toe-to-toe,
i should be scared,
honey, maybe so
but i ain't worried 'bout it right now

Ice Dines was filled that night.

Sage left base and immediately went to her diner. Penny was there with Thalia as the Hard Deck was half an hour away from opening for that night. She used the instructors locker room at TOPGUN to change beforehand, and now she was simply in a white tank top and jeans. Thalia was busy taking orders and serving, while Sage made herself busy with making the beverages.

From where she was hidden behind the counter, she could see some of the aviators taking a seat outside on the deck. Hangman, Phoenix, Coyote, Fanboy and Payback were there; looking like they were saving a few seats. Thalia took their orders, sending the list to the kitchen and Sage got started on their drinks.

She would have been out back in the kitchen cooking the meals instead, but today she wasn't in the right mind to be playing with fire. Instead, she took to the simple task of shaking up some milkshakes or fruit punches out front. She ripped the list from the string it was clipped to, and let herself chuckle at their orders. Thalia had a habit of adding little notes if she had time of which order went to which person at the table. Here, she wrote it all down:

minty punch - pretty lady
watermelon juice - coyote?
chilled tea - fan boy
choco shakes - the other two

Sage grinned, putting the paper on the tray as she placed the drinks on it as well. She knew just from the side notes that Thalia definitely chatted them up. She walked out from behind the counter and to the front, and now she could hear their conversation vaguely.

"You know she burned in?" Phoenix asked the men. "Heard it was horrible."

"Isn't she like... I don't know," Fanboy shrugged, struggling to find the right words and Hangman simply beat him to it:

"Crippled?"

Sage flinched. She could feel her palms sweating as they were placed on the counter. She was only glad she had her back faced to them, hoping they hadn't noticed her.

They quickly hushed Hangman down, but the man seemed unbothered.

"A crash that bad should've killed her. The woman's invincible," he said nonchalantly. "But she is handicapped in some way, why else is she just grounded instead of teaching us in the sky with Mav?"

He was right. But not flying was her choice. Cyclone and Warlock made it clear that she could fly if she wanted to since she was fit for flight despite her circumstances. But she chose to let her ghosts haunt her instead of fighting them off.

"She's one hell of a pilot though," Coyote chimed in. "Heard all about Snake back when I was in TOPGUN, she flies like a snake moving in grass."

"Yet that didn't save her or her wingman," Hangman sighed.

Sage clenched her jaw, closing her eyes shut. She gripped onto the tray and fixed her posture, keeping her chin up and expression light and open. She was still the owner of the diner, just serving her customers. With one deep breath, she turned around and headed for the deck.

"Freshen up aviators," she announced her presence, making them all jolt up. "It's been a day."

She nonchalantly served their drinks, each of their orders to each specific pilot. As she set the last chocolate milkshake down in front of Hangman, she coolly added: