Lt. Taylor (Swift) Grace has known Bradley (Rooster) Bradshaw since they were just two years old. They had done everything together since, she even moved herself back four years when Rooster's papers were pulled out of nowhere in the academy. But, w...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Rooster," Maverick calls. I look up at Rooster, but he keeps walking.
"Bradley," This time I stop but Bradley just keeps walking "Lieutenant Bradshaw," shouts Maverick to which Bradley finally stops. I rub his arm and give him a slight smile of reassurance before headed to my jet.
"What in the world is up with you two?" Phoenix asks me while she preps her jet.
"I'm not quite sure," I answer "It's been like relationship level comfortable for the past few days, he even kissed the top of my head while we were hugging goodbye last night."
"AWWWW!" Natasha says way too loudly, making Bob and Fanboy look our way. I quickly shushed her before continuing.
"And he texted me this morning calling me sunshine, which you saw of course, but he said he wanted to hang out just the two of us tonight after getting coffee." I finished right before Rooster walked back over to the jet on my other side, looking extremely pissed but most of all, hurt.
"You okay, Roost?" I ask low enough for only him to hear it.
" No, I'm not," he snaps back paining me that Maverick had upset him.
"Look," he says seeing his words stung a little "I'm really sorry I'm just upset with Mav right now. I promise to tell you later, ok?"
"It's ok, bubba. Focus on not getting hurt up there, ok?"
"Only for you," he responds making the both of us laugh.
"Good morning, aviators. This is your captain speaking." Maverick says through the headsets.
"Welcome, to basic fighting maneuvers. As briefed, today's exercise is dogfighting. Guns only, no missiles, we do not go below the hard deck of 500 feet."
"How about we put some skin in the game?" Coyote offers. Maverick can kick all of our asses in a heartbeat. This is going to be a long day.
"What are you thinking?"
"If you get shot 200 push ups."
"That's a lot of push ups."
"That's kind of the point isn't it?" Maverick chuckles at this and then takes off.
" Alright, catch me if you can," He challenges steering his jet right into the gap between mine and Rooster's, causing us to have to branch off in different directions, therefore isolating ourselves.
"Holy shit!!" Bradley starts.
Coyote was sent back almost immediately, shortly followed by Payback to do their 200 push ups.
Rooster and I maneuvered well through the air, communicating flawlessly. That was, until Maverick went inverted and almost shot me causing me to dive lower suddenly almost breaking the hard deck. I pulled up quickly, Making sure I was out of Mav's range.
"You good, sunshine?" Rooster just called me sunshine through the comms instead of my callsign.
"Yeah, I'm go- ROOSTER look out!! Mav's hot on your tail!!" I shout suddenly.
"Oh no you don't!" Bradley yells pulling them both into a downward spiral, headed straight for the ground.
"Rooster, I'm warning you pull out," Maverick states calmly.
"Never! If your'e smart enough you'll be the first to pull out," Rooster firmly states.
1000 feet
" Rooster, We both know I can recover better from below the hard deck. Don't get yourself killed," Mav says more firmly this time.
600 feet
"Rooster...Rooster!" Maverick warns yelling this time.
450 feet
"BRADLEY!! Pull up damn it!!" I yell causing him to listen to me, but as soon as he pulls up he's locked in on.
"You're dead, Rooster. Report back to Hondo for your push ups. As for you Swift, you were the last one remaining, so you are exempt from your push ups. You may return home."
When I get back on the ground I see Bob and Phoenix finishing their last few push ups. Rooster had just started.
I sat criss-crossed on the ground in the shade of the jet encouraging Bradley until he hit 200, but he didn't stop there, even after Hondo and I yelled at him to stop it was no use, he had already powered through ten of the extra twenty he assigned himself. After Hondo left, Rooster collapsed on the runway, breathing extremely heavily with a few tears streaming out of his eyes. I pull him my and hug him.
"You push yourself too hard sometimes," I mumbled into his shoulder as we sat there.
"Not unless I'm mad. Maverick could've killed me today. One more reason to be mad at him."
"Okay your stubbornness contributed to that. If I would not have told you to pull up you would've killed yourself," I respond to which he sighs and says 'I'm sorry'. "You don't have to be sorry," I tell him " Now come on let's go get some Chick-fil-A and hang out at my place. We can talk about this later," I say trying to pull him up off the pavement.
Laughing he stands up on his own and puts his arm around my shoulder. "Let's jet." He says as we walk down the runway towards his motorcycle.
