𝐇𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐘 • ʳᵒᵇᵉʳᵗ ᶠˡᵒʸᵈ

prologue !

"welcome to top gun, lieutenant levitt."

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after getting situated on the base, jasmine wasted no time in finding her way to the hard deck. it wasn't difficult, she had always found herself there on her saturday nights with her peers at top gun until she graduated.

jasmine had joined the navy straight out of high school, did a few rotations, went to college and graduated as valedictorian with a bachelors in psychology, served for a few more years, and then ended up at top gun.

she walked to the hard deck, pointing out the changes within the town since she had last been there. it had been a while, and the perfectionist in her wanted to go up to all the crooked signs and fix them, but she knew that if she got started, she would never be able to stop.

the hard deck was home to citizens and navels alike, and like always, she could spot the colony of tan from a mile away within split seconds. playing pool. god almighty.

some things just never changed.

she snuck up behind a man, singing, "oh, ruby !" he turned around, looking for anybody at his eye level, "alright, who—" then, he saw her. "my god, if it isn't jasmine !"

reuben 'payback' fitch picked her up in a hug, and she let out a loud cackle. "i missed you !" she yelled, a country accent taking over her voice as she got spun around. "i missed you too, honey !" "my, my, are my eyes deceivin' me, or is that honey levitt upon my horizon?" the girl twirled around at the mocking country accent to see her singular favorite person on this earth.

natasha 'phoenix' trace.

"oh, my god ! natasha !" she ran to her friend, who captured her into a tight hug.

natasha and jasmine served together in washington when jasmine first began at the navy for a couple years until jasmine was relocated to hawaii, where she served with reuben and mickey for two years before she left for top gun and served over in north island. natasha was a few years older than her, so jasmine saw natasha as her mentor and older sister.

"oh, i missed you, sweet pea." "is that nickname ever gonna stop, phoenix?" jasmine asked in exasperation. during her time in the navy, she always had a variety of nicknames, arranging from sweet pea to a variation of her real name, like jazzy.

"hate to break it to you, honey, but i don't think that's gonna happen." natasha rubbed her back supportingly, "i'll go get you a drink. win for me." she stabbed the man standing behind her as she shot one last time, before natasha handed jasmine the pool stick and the black girl groaned, and walked off to the bar.

she recognized him as a guy natasha had talked about once or twice. brad 'rooster' bradshaw.

"hey, roost." jasmine smirked, continuing to play after her friend. "and who might you be?" he asked, recovering from the pain and putting his hands on the edge of the pool table and leaning forward to catch a better look at her.

she shot the yellow ball into the left pocket before standing up and making eye contact with him, "lieutenant jasmine levitt." "lieutenant." he greeted her, holding a hand out to shake. never impolite, she shook. he had never heard of her.

then, she shot three more balls into the pockets.

bob, standing to the side at a different pool table, had heard of her. god, she was ingrained in his head.