Cold As Ice

Love

Ice was punctually precise, as always, and so he entered the restaurant at exactly seven o'clock. As he had been the one who had reserved the place the day before, he told the waiter his name and the man brought him to a table at the corner of the restaurant. Ice had asked for a 'hidden' spot and he was pleased to see the restaurant delivered. The tiny table was wedged into a corner, with thin walls surrounding it, so you couldn't really see if there was somebody seated there. As homosexuality was still forbidden in the navy (as if you could forbid something like that, pff), they didn't want any snoopers today.

Ice took a seat and waited, knowing that the man he was waiting for almost always came a couple of minutes late. He was asked to wear something casual for the evening and so he had naturally had a silent breakdown while looking at his closet. At the end he had decided to go for a simple combination: jeans and a grey sweater, which was actually Mav's favorite sweater of Ice's because it had such a big 'snuggle capacity' as Maverick called it.

Ice was still not used to be able to snuggle up with someone, although he ended up with a small naval aviator in his arms on the couch or in bed almost every night. Lately they had progressed to sleeping without t-shirts and the skin-to-skin contact was heavenly.

"Hello, sorry for being late." Someone pulled him out of his thoughts and he felt a quick peck on his lips before Maverick took the seat in front of him. Oh yeah, that was a thing they did as well. Ever since their first one, which was actually on that faithful day on the carrier, they had stolen each other's lips more often and Ice loved it.

"You are actually perfectly on time: exactly two and a half minutes after the time we had agreed. That is your average." Ice said while he looked at his watch as he pretended to calculate that average (which he actually had in a notebook at home, but Maverick didn't need to know that).

Maverick shot him that signature big grin and Ice couldn't help but smile back. Maverick took of his aviators and hang them on the collar of his simple white T-shirt (it was actually quite cold outside, but Maverick being Maverick almost never wore sweaters). That way Ice could look into those beautiful eyes for a moment and that was exactly what he did.

"Enjoying the view?" Maverick asked and Ice agreed wholeheartedly, which elicited a light chuckle from the other man. They grabbed the menus and Ice pretended to look at it thoroughly. He had already picked a dish before he had booked the place (lasagna) when he had looked if Mav's secret favorite dish (spaghetti carbonara) was on the menu.

This was actually their first official date. The first month after Mav had returned to the carrier, they were kinda figuring their relationship out after Maverick had apologized a million times and Ice had forgiven him. Besides, on an aircraft carrier there wasn't that much opportunity for a private date. When on shore leave they also didn't do it, why, Ice wasn't sure. They had taken their relationship slowly upwards so it was more like the line between friendship and love blurred over time.

Despite them being cocky, young men, they had actually never made love together. Ice thought he would be frightened by that, or worried, but his relationship with Maverick felt so natural that he hadn't want to push things and frankly never had felt like he wanted it yet. Ice was just so happy where they were, officially boyfriends now (Maverick had actually kneeled before him a few days ago and asked if Ice wanted to be his boyfriend, to which Ice had of course said yes).

And Ice was warm. Maverick's constant closeness lingered on him even when they weren't together. Sometimes Ice did get his old worries by that, but Maverick was always quick to smore them (actually he slapped him on the back of his head before he kissed him, but that did the trick as well).

"I think I'll take the spaghetti carbonara," Maverick said as he put his menu down.

"Good choice," Ice said and he flashed a quick smile at the man in front of him. They waited a few minutes on the waiter by talking a bit about nothings. They had shore leave so most of the things they did was sleep-ins (or waking up at six and just refuse to get out of bed til ten) and just chilling in one of their houses. Ice had actually finished a book he had been reading for over three months by now and that apparently deserved a praise and Mav's feet brushing his.

Their feet stayed glued together during the whole meal and Ice had a pretty wonderful time. He was hesitant when Maverick had asked him to go on a date, because he found himself not the type of dates, but yeah, he enjoyed himself very much. Especially since they would be on a boat for a few months in a few days so it was nice to be able to do this now. And the beds were a bit too small on the boat for the two of them, so that was also a reason to love it here.

"We should ask for a bigger room," Maverick said suddenly, like he had heard Ice's thoughts.

"I would like a bigger bed actually," Ice smiled. Maverick sighed and rolled his eyes, but he nudged Ice's feet lovingly.

"No, we steal a spare bed from one of the mouse rooms (rooms nobody wanted because somehow, a colony of mice survived on the carrier and lived in these quarters) and make a bigger bed." Ice laughed but it was quite a good idea. That would make the nights at the carrier much better.

As a dessert Maverick had some ice cream, as it was shore leave so he was allowed something unhealthy (as if carbonara isn't unhealthy as well, but Ice didn't want to spoil the moment), but Ice stayed with a cup of coffee (and if somebody said that Ice stole a few spoons of ice from Maverick, that somebody would be lying).

"Did you like it?" Maverick said while he stepped on the motorcycle, which was still as scary as hell, but gave Ice the opportunity to cling to Maverick so he wasn't complaining.

"I loved it," Ice said and he stepped on the bike before laying his chin on top of Maverick's brown hair.

"Good." Maverick sighed softly as Ice clung closer and Ice decided it was time for the cheat card. Or that was how Carole called it when she had contacted him a month ago to give him the shovel talk (how the hell she knew Mav and him were a thing, he still didn't know) and apparently this cheat card. He brought his mouth to Mav's ear and whispered:

"Now, take me to bed and lose me forever."

And if the navy wasn't allowed to see what happened in the restaurant, they certainly weren't allowed to see what happened next.