WHEN SKYE WOKE UP, EVERY MUSCLE IN HER ENTIRE BODY FELT SORE. SHE'D WORKED OUT UNTIL SHE'D BEEN FORCED TO PASS OUT ASLEEP. oddly enough, working out was a common pastime of hers when she was bored. working out destressed her just as much then as it had during her years in college, and so she found herself lifting weights and running around on her treadmill all throughout the night.
first, of course, she'd cried in katia's arms for about an hour. not much talking passed between them in this time, though, since the brunette was nothing short of the word heartbroken.
she had finally mustered up all of her courage and had confessed her feelings towards the man she loved, only for him to turn her down. skye had never in her life felt so dumb. she'd been so confident that he felt the same way she did, only for him to apologize to her.
she decided that that was reason enough to work out until 3 am.
when she finally pulled herself out of bed, she was already putting on her flight suit and braiding her hair. she pinned the two braids up into a sort of ring around her head that she liked to call princess leia in empire strikes back.
once she was fully dressed and ready to go, she wordlessly climbed into the car next to katia. the blonde had been watching her best friend get ready, hoping that she was doing okay even though she knew full well that she wasn't. she would've offered to talk to rooster if she hadn't known without asking that the answer would be no. skye wouldn't want her to get involved.
skye and katia arrived in their normal parking spot, and the brunette climbed out of the car immediately. "hey!" katia called after her. "you don't have to be in a good mood today, ri, but you do have to talk to me." she said, watching as skye turned back around.
"i'm sorry. i just.. i.."
"i get it." katia nodded. "you don't need to talk about what happened. we just need to keep communicating with each other, okay?"
skye nodded, letting out a sigh. "yeah, okay. i'm sorry."
"you're good." katia replied, throwing her arm over her best friend's shoulder and walking with her to the room where all of their fellow pilots stood. "now let's go kick some ass."
"you got it." she smiled.
when they walked into the pilot filled room, skye was immediately eye to eye with rooster's familiar flight suit patches. she and katia were quick to divert their gazes and move to their respective seats at the front of the room, successfully avoiding all of their fellow aviators.
everyone else slowly moved to their seats, and skye had her gaze on the front of the room with her chin resting on her hand. she could see rooster looking at her out of the corner of his eye, but she pretended not to.
"good morning, aviators." maverick smiled when everyone had made it to their seats. today, we're going to revisit dogfighting. those of you who didn't get to work on the sharp pull up will do so tomorrow, don't worry." he then smiled at phoenix, who had begun to furrow her brows.
"sir, why are we not just completing the exercise from yesterday?" she wondered aloud.
he didn't seem to have an immediate answer for this. "i have been given some orders about what i've been calling coffin corner. we think that there may be more saams than what you were originally briefed."
skye looked to katia. that wasn't a good sign for anybody. "how many, sir?" she then piqued.
"we currently think there will be more than ten." he replied, his smile fading. "because of this, you all should be better versed in dog fighting. the only pilots to affectively pass this exercise before were riot and havoc, so everyone else has a goal to strive for."
it was then that maverick's face resumed its typical smirk, proud of his daughter and of the other girl he'd watched grow up. he then clapped his hands together, dismissing everyone to get their gear.
skye and katia grabbed everything they needed before heading to the other demonstration room, looking at the screen inside to see the grouping assignments. just skye's luck, she and katia were paired with rooster for the exercise. "damnit." she said under her breath, sending a look to katia that said 'help'.
when they got in the air, the entire atmosphere was extremely awkward. skye wasn't saying anything to rooster, nor was he saying anything to her. she was stubborn, and he looked guilty about something.
"where do we think he's gonna come from?" rooster asked after a minute or so of silence.
skye shrugged, but didn't verbally reply. katia was in the back seat, sort of looking between the two of them to see who would be the first to talk next.
"little quiet over here, huh?" maverick's voice then sounded, and skye looked down at her radar to see that he'd moved to hover behind her while she was distracted. "fight's on."
she immediately broke left, and luckily rooster knew her well enough to break right without any instruction. both jets flew around for a minute, trying to get maverick off of them. he chose to follow after his daughter, and she grunted as she pulled her plane up, moving into an inverted dive to escape him.
"are you going to call for help from your wingman?" he asked, moving to follow after her. "he's over there, but he could easily move into gun or missile range and help you."
skye clenched her jaw, making a sharp turn before immediately pulling up and then turning to the other side, making a barrel roll. "i don't need help." she spoke through her teeth.
"you sure about that?" katia asked, putting a hand on the canopy as she turned to look at maverick. "he's still on us. where the hell are you, rooster?"
"that's a kill." maverick said, watching as skye leveled her plane out, cursing. "no push ups today, you got lucky, riot."
she dropped her head in disappointment, letting out a heavy sigh. "i'm sorry, hav." she mumbled, feeling katia reach through the equipment between them to pat her shoulder.
they wordlessly arrived back at base, and skye took her helmet off and put a hand on her head. she was mad at herself. she had let her feelings get the best of her, and had been too stubborn to just ask for help. this was the first exercise she and katia had failed since arriving back at the top gun program. she'd blown the entire exercise.
"don't take it so serious, ri." she heard, looking over her shoulder to see katia. "it's okay. i get that your mind is on something completely different right now."
skye forced a small smile. "thanks, man." she gave her best friend a small fist bump before moving to the nearby building. she walked inside and pretended to look around for a minute before just making her way down the hallway in front of her.
she knew that there was nothing of significance in the building, just an array of various photos and pilot memorabilia. nonetheless, she roamed the hall in search of nothing but silence.
the brunette eventually made her way to an opening in the hall; a room full of the miniature models of the planes that were used for demonstration. she picked up one of the demonstration sticks of the f-35, spinning it around in between two of her fingers. her attention then moved to the photos on the wall.
skye eyed the displays of the past renowned top gun graduating classes, dating all the way back to the start of the program in 1969. she squatted down to look at the photo of her class those years before, smiling slightly as she took in the sight of her, katia, and rooster all standing together. only a few rows away from their photo was one with all three of their fathers standing similarly stoic.
she always thought it was funny how maverick squinted in every photo that he wasn't wearing his aviators in. skye would often poke fun at her father for that, and he would always laugh with his nose slightly scrunching, unable to say that she was wrong about it.
after she'd finished looking at the photos, skye found herself frustrated again. she'd absolutely blown the exercise today. even if katia wasn't upset about it, skye was. she was supposed to be helping make the team better, not dragging everyone down by failing an exercise.
she sat on the floor by some of the model planes, letting her head drop onto her knees. the silence in the room was enough for her to get sucked into, and she could hear her small sniffle (and even the smallest shuffle of her feet) echoing throughout the space.
it was the very echo that alerted her that someone was coming down the hallway. skye immediately got to her feet, only to ease up when she saw it was someone in a flight suit. it wasn't the person she expected it to be, though. in fact, he wasn't even on the list.
"hey, riot." hangman said, his eyes narrowing in confusion. "what're you doing back here?"
"just looking at these, uh.. these great models." she lied.
he nodded, though his expression gave away that he knew she wasn't telling the truth. "uh huh. i heard about your exercise's success.. or lack thereof."
skye rolled her eyes, sinking back down to her comfortable spot on the floor. "look, if you're gonna mock me, or berate me for messing up, you can just leave."
"i actually was going to make sure you were okay." he said, watching as her gaze shot back up. the confusion was evident in her face as she took in his words. "you don't normally fly like that. i didn't know if something had happened."
hangman then sat criss crossed on the floor in front of skye, who was still sitting with her legs bent, her elbows resting on them. she didn't say anything, so he decided it was safe to continue.
"and you and.. you and bradshaw. you guys normally work pretty well together. at least, you normally talk to each other." he chuckled slightly, his accent coming out heavily. "i know it's not my business, i guess i was just wondering if something had happened between you two."
skye let out an unimpressed chuckle. "you're right, it's not your business."
he nodded. "figured you'd say that." silence fell over the two for a moment before he looked away from the photos on the wall and back to her. "thought you two were like.. destined to be together, or something?"
she raised a brow, laughing dryly as she looked down at her hands. "he didn't seem to see things that way."
hangman then seemed to piece things together, and his jaw dropped slightly. "he what? what did he say to you?"
"i really don't want to talk about it." skye replied, pulling her legs closer to her chest.
surprisingly, he didn't press her on it. "you know, about the exercise today.. i wouldn't stress about it." he said after a moment. "you're still the best pilot we have here. other than me, of course." he smirked.
skye's eyes narrowed at his comment, but her lips upturned into a smirk of her own. "was that a compliment i just heard, seresin?"
"did i just hear you call me something other than bagman or jakeass?" he countered.
she genuinely laughed. "i won't tell about yours if you don't tell about mine."
"deal." hangman smiled at her. they held eye contact for a moment, and skye wondered how the hell she'd gotten into this situation. she was sitting there laughing with hangman, of all people. "you know, i think you and me are pretty similar, mitchell."
her brows furrowed. "how do you mean?"
"we both know what we want, and we both go for it." he explained. "and we're also what some would call cocky and overconfident." he joked. "part of that is what makes us such good pilots, but i know in my case it doesn't always.. make me a joy to be around."
she chuckled. "you could say that again."
his jaw dropped in mock offense. "hey, i'm trying to be serious here!" he laughed. "i guess i just.. i want to say that i know that. i know i haven't been.. the best person to have with you both times at top gun. and i'm sorry for that."
"and for the time you almost killed me?" she countered, raising a brow.
hangman nodded. "and for that, too, that wasn't cool." he seemed to be thinking about what he wanted to say next. "i hope we can be on better terms, though, seriously. i want to try to.. do some self improvement."
she raised her brows, a small smirk coming to her lips. "oh, yeah?"
"yeah, i'm gonna try, anyway." he chuckled.
they were in silence for another moment before skye cleared her throat. "thank you, by the way." she said.
his head tilted to the side. "for what?"
"for not being an asshole right now." skye replied, watching as he chuckled again. "you're not too bad, hangman."
this made him smile. "you sure you didn't hit your head or something? it almost sounds like we're becoming friends here." he teased.
she laughed. "i still have two more in air kills than you do, buddy, let's not get ahead of ourselves."
"there it is." hangman said. they sat there for another minute before he stood, extending a hand to help her up. she accepted, though she didn't make him do any work and merely pulled herself up from his hand. "do you wanna see what all the inferior pilots are up to?"
skye narrowed her eyes even though she knew he was being sarcastic. "my fantastic backseater is still out there, you know."
"yeah, she's pretty damn good."
"and don't you forget it." she warned, raising her brows as a small smile played on her lips.
he held his hands up in his defense, following her out of the small building they were in. skye was still wondering how on earth any of that had just happened when she got to the door. she could see rooster in the distance, his jaw clenching slightly at the sight of hangman holding the door open for her.
but, for once, she didn't care about what he had to say or what he thought about it. in fact, rooster bradshaw, for the first time in a long time, was the furthest thing from her mind.
a/n: hey besties!! i know it took me a long time to update, but here's a look into what life has been this past week :)
(further pictures on my instagram @/hollywillow_64)
so that's why i haven't updated anyway thank you for reading ily