top gun: maverick imagines

an early grave || j. sersein

something about that scene was off
!!!warning: there is a panic attack towards the end of the chapter!!!

——

I was bar tending at the hard deck when a few of the aviators walked in. I recognized 2 of the 3, payback and hangman, but i didn't know the other one.

hangman walked up to the bar, placing his hands on it.

"hey beautiful." he said with a smirk looking down at me. damn was that man tall.

"hey jake." i say copying his stance with my hands on the bar. "what can i get ya?" i ask.

"can we get 3 coronas please?" i nod and walk over to the beer cooler that is placed under the bar. i pull out 3 and place them on the bar infront of him while he fumbles for his wallet.

"no no they're free, that guy disrespected penny." i smile pointing to the man sitting over at the bar.

"you want me to kick him out?" he says, his demeanor changing from cocky to serious as he shifts from his elbows to his hands. "no, no he's fine for right now, let me know if you need anything though." i say wiping the sweat from the bottles off the counter after he picked them up.

"alright well, come by on your break we can play a little pool." he says bending over the bar and kissing my cheek. i smile as he walks away towards the pool tables. when i turn around to talk to someone at the bar the door opens. in walks Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw. i sigh and shake my head before going back to talking to the customer.

——

It had been a while of the two just standing there and not acknowledging eachother.

"hey, your on break kid." penny says patting my back i nod and untie my apron and place it under the bar before walking over to my boyfriend and his friends.

"hey lana, you on break?" phoenix asks me as she stands next to me. we are both watching hangman try and make his next move at the pool table. "yup, i've got an hour tonight since i worked extra." i smile as jake sinks the last two striped balls into the pockets. he stands up smiling and walking over to phoenix and i.

"hey baby, you see that? i just won against phoenix." he says bending down to kiss my lips. i smile into the kiss and place my hand on his cheek.

"alright will you two stop it's getting gross." rooster says.

"it's not my fault you can't keep a girl to save your life." jake says and i look up at him giving him an 'are you kidding me?' look. he just shrugs and starts to reset the pool table.

"so rooster? you got this game? i mean we might as well start to play together since we're going to be flying together." jake says i roll him one of the purple balls from the pocket close to me. phoenix and i look at eachother silently questioning where this going.

"no hangman i wont be flying with you. your gonna leave me hanging like you left  slinger." oh no. slinger was jakes old flight pilot, he died on their first mission and jake only blames himself for it even though he had almost nothing to do with it. jake straightened his back standing up and threw the pool que on the table.

"jake..." i say quietly but he couldn't hear me. "are you seriously bringing up slinger right now?" jake huffs. the tension starts to rise as he inches closer to rooster.

"babe," i start but hangman stops me. "no hun it's ok," he says turning his attention to me for only a moment. even in that split few seconds he looked at me i could see the pain and hurt in his eyes, they were glassy and his face was pale.

"rooster don't ever speak of him ok? you don't know what it's like to lose someone like that." he says before pushing rooster out of the way and walking out to the beach. i follow him out as pheonix starts to yell at rooster about how idiotic and inconsiderate that was.

when i caught up to jake he was stopped at the edge of the water. the waves just barely about to touch his shoes. i can hear his heavy breathing. his hands were braced on his cheeks as he looked around frantically. i didn't even have to say anything he just knew. he turned around and i could see the tears coming out of his eyes. i hugged him and he squeezed me back.

"it's ok, just take a deep breath, your ok." i say rubbing on hand in his back and the other is tangled in his hair. his breathing starts to slow down as he takes shaking breaths. his grip loostens and i pull back so that i can see his face. i wipe the tears off his cheeks and reassure him that it wasn't his fault at all. he rests his head on my shoulder and hugs my waist as i run a hand through his hair and kiss the side of his head, though his breathing had calmed down he was still crying, i could feel the small wet marks being created on my shirt but i didn't care. i picked his head up again and took his hand.

"let's go for a walk so you can breath and calm down ok." he nods and squeezes my hand a little bit before walk towards the pier.

"lana, i just, i don't understand why i couldn't have helped him." he says looking out at the ocean.

"because then you would've died too, and you never would have met me or your friends and you wouldn't get to live life." i say leaning my head on his bicep. he shakes his head. "but why did he have to die." he says looking down at his shoes as the tears threaten to spill over again. i stand in front of him and hold his head.

"because we can't control those things. andrew died because he was doing what he thought was right even if it wasn't." i reassure him as he looks down into my eyes. "it wasn't right for rooster to bring that up and he knew that. he was trying to push your buttons and he pushed the wrong one." i say standing on my toes so that our faces are closer. he nods and leans down ever so slightly to peck my lips. his tears had stopped and he smiled as i kissed him again.

"i guess your right that i wouldn't have met you. that would really suck." he says after we pull away, i smile up at him. "i'm pretty amesome." i chuckle pecking his lips. "yea, you are." jake says kissing me, his arms snake around my back and mine around his neck. he picks me up just so my feet are off the ground and his back is straightened. i smile into the kiss knowing that he was somewhat ok now.

once my feet return to the ground i pull away from the kiss. "you want to go back or go home?" i ask. he thinks for a second before saying he wants to go back. i nod and kiss his cheek before we head back to the bar.

edited on 4/29/23