Until Next Time / Jake Seresin x Reader

part three

"I didn't know she was smoking hot," he replied and this was clearly the wrong thing to say based on the way Bradley's eyes widened. "If I were trying to get in her pants I wouldn't do it through a letter. I just wanted to say sorry and offer my condolences for what happened."

"It's not your job to comfort her-" Bradley started but cut himself off, realizing if you were here to witness this one-sided pissing contest you'd be incredibly annoyed. You could stand up for yourself and you never needed him to step in for you, despite how often he tried. If you were mad, you would have handed it by yourself. "Just... she said something about adopting another pilot so clearly she doesn't mind. She's my best friend, dude. If you pull anything I'm not the only one you'll have to answer to, Phoenix will have your ass too."

"Not gonna pull anything," Jake replied. "She really wasn't mad?"

"You haven't opened yours?" Jake shook his head. "This isn't my problem," he said as he let out a humorless laugh. "Find out for yourself, and if you write her back I don't want to hear about it."

"Message received," Jake said as he held his hands up in surrender, picking up his letter and ripping it open. His eyes quickly scanned the page, unable to keep from smiling as he read. You were surprisingly cool about everything, and even answered all of his questions which he was honestly not expecting. He laughed at some parts, just as he had with the first one, and he quickly grabbed pen and paper to write his reply which Bradley rolled his eyes at from the top bunk.

Dear Raven,

Thank you for being so cool about the letter thing - Rooster was not as cool but that's to be expected. He doesn't seem happy about this new arrangement but hey, when am I not pissing him off? I have to admit, like you I didn't really get the whole letter thing but now that I'm actively sending and receiving them from someone who isn't my mother I get it. In such a digital world it's kind of cool to get to know someone like this.

Why am I not surprised he tried to play the whole thing off? Did he really think you were stupid enough to buy that? Good riddance. I'm glad it seems the whole thing is over and that you got your shoes back. I have to know what these bad boys look like if you spent that much on them - I will admit I find the entire notion of spending almost a grand on a pair of shoes insane but I'm willing to hear you out.

New York seems cool enough, I'd definitely like to visit someday but you're braver than I am to actually live there. It just seems so bright and noisy. I grew up on a farm and you probably have more people a stone's throw from your apartment than were in my whole town. Where did you go to college? It definitely does seem like the place to be if you're creative - maybe that's why I never got the draw... I am the furthest thing from creative there is. I attempted to join my school's drama program when I was a teenager and the stories from that time will not be given as freely as the pantsing story.

I don't know why I'm bummed you don't have any family drama to report. Does your mom really want you and Rooster together that badly? I guess it's harder for the older generations to grasp the whole guys and girls being just friends thing but she has to know you can do a hell of a lot better than Bradshaw. I watched him choke on a green bean yesterday, which I'm still trying to figure out. My baby niece does better with solid foods than he does.

Harmless or not, I really did feel bad, and thank you for not thinking I'm a jackass for it. The squad will say what they will but I was raised right, and if my mother knew I read someone's private mail and didn't apologize I'd spend my next trip home sleeping in the barn. You should go out to San Diego - I know Phoenix loves you and she never says anything but I know she'd like having another girl around. We used to have Halo but she had to go back to her old squad after the mission that brought Dagger together. And, vague as they both may be about you, the rest of the squad does want to meet the mysterious Raven. I'm only a little bitter I'll be in the middle of an ocean when that happens. Also, definitely a blanket statement for Fanboy - he can talk all things nerdy until he's blue in the face.

I can forgive you for saying we weren't friends because it's true. Rooster and I do things very differently and there's a few missions in our history where I can admit I was kind of a dick towards him. Phoenix is great and you love her, so your judge of character can't be too bad, and I have no intention of giving Rooster any more wins so at least with you I will continue to be on my best behavior. Unfortunately, he's got great taste in friends - it's very cool of you to adopt another aviator and I'm definitely going to keep writing you if you're not sick of me yet.

I wish I had something fun or interesting to leave you with about this deployment but frankly there is nothing exciting going on out here. I guess I saw a whale in the ocean when I was landing this morning, but I was a little preoccupied so I couldn't really enjoy it. You said Rooster doesn't tell you much about this stuff, but if you're interested in it I'd be happy to tell you whatever you want.

Also, I stole a little peek at the article you included in Rooster's care package when he was showering and I don't know what you're talking about. It wasn't boring at all and I actually learned something so give yourself some credit. I really enjoyed it.

Until next time,

Jake

As he put the pen down he found himself feeling disappointed by the fact that it would probably be a week or so until he got your reply. He hadn't ever experienced this - he would just go through his deployments and disappear into his own head as much as he could to try and keep himself sharp and entertained but he was finding that with the new promise of communication from you he didn't need to... he could think about you, figure out new questions to ask or new things to tell you and he decided if you were serious about continuing to write he would share more in his next letter, and ask you more questions, and for the first time since he boarded this ship he didn't dread rolling over and trying to sleep.