Hold My Hand - A Rooster Fanfiction (Top Gun)

CHAPTER 1: NOTHING'S GONNA STOP US NOW.

You know that popular saying about how a child is like the little version of their parents?! That's exactly the saying that followed me my whole life. In other circumstances I would feel as haunted as the Scooby Doo gang in an abandoned house, but this was different.
My father's reputation in the Navy followed me since the first day of recruitment. It could be a blessing or a curse, depending on the way you would face it.
I always look at the cup as half full; I treated the way I act as ambitious, brave and eloquent; I was fearless enough to do the most dangerous moves even during training and simulations, that's exactly what made the higher positions keep an eye on me from the beginning.
This and the little incident that made my superior see my cup as totally empty, he was done for good.

*2 Days Before...*

The day started more ordinary than ever. The outside lights went in even tho the window shutter was, well, shut; the building engineer noises were at its maximum as usual, which always made half of the people there mad - the other half always so tired that just the loud alarm could wake them up.
Even before 5AM you could hear some of the team guys running outside, this due to the fact they lost some bet at the pub the day before. This, if you ask me, is way worse than being punished by a superior - at least to me.

Getting ready wasn't that fight anymore, not as much as it was in my first year as a navy soldier. At that time I would always receive warnings about my bad posture and how messy I was. Sorry for this, but it sucked so much!
But after almost 3 years, everything became easier, as far as possible.
It hadn't taken longer than half an hour to finally be going downstairs to meet the others of the team. Breakfast was as fast as a lighting in the sky, but at least we had the privilege of it.

The way to where everyone - or at least most of them - was going was really peaceful, almost everyone was really quiet in the mornings; the nights of sleep weren't enough to recover the whole energy we spent throughout the day. Yet we were always awake in time - I mean, we had to.
We didn't even dare to really talk in the corridors, the only thing anyone had the courage to say was "good morning" or any variant of this.
We could say I was kinda late since I haven't met any of my group mates on the way, so when I arrived I still had to look for them or simply sit alone and wait until they found me.

The cafeteria was full of the most variety of faces, the youngers were the most sleepy - as expected -, while the olders looking always tired of everything. Me and my usual team were in the middle of this: not so young, so already used to the early hours of the day; and not so old, so we enjoyed being there, always excited for the next mission.
We are normally a team of 6 during the practices, the last two months had been the same - it all changed from time to time, since the "enemies" would learn our vicious moves and strategies. But it was always the same 2 partners in every "mission".
The training team set us all up in the first semester of the first year, hardly ever they changed their choices. That's how I met my best friend: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw.
But how we met wasn't the interesting part, what we discovered after was: his dad and mine were best friends and, actually, partners in missions. And with this I also discovered that Brad hates my dad. Guess life isn't a strawberry, if you know what it means.

I had just sat down with one banana, half of a piece of bread and a cup of milk when someone finally arrived.
- Your disposition surprises me, you're such an inspiration - I said to Bradley in a provocative way as he arrived from the worst-morning-run, all sweaty and heavy breathing.
- Shut up... - he tried his best to answer after taking some air.

As you may have guessed, Brad was part of the guys who lost the bet. It was some billiard game the night before, and he almost won, but the other one was luckier.

- Ouch, that hurts! - I faked an offended reaction, smiling right after - Sit down, I'll pick your tray.
- What a gentle girl - he teased as I made a little reverence while distancing myself from the table; I stopped for a moment just to warn him:
- Don't you dare to eat any of my stuff. - He raised his hands in surrender, so I continued my way.