Lt. Sadie 'Casper' Perez walked into the Hard Deck after being called back to Top Gun for a dangerous mission, only to be met with a glare from another Top Gun pilot. Will the hate between them bloom into something more? (Hangman x OC)
When Sadie woke up the next morning Hangman was gone. She tried to ignore the disappointed feeling settling in her stomach. It's just physical attraction, she repeated in her head, trying to sound convincing. There was nothing more between them. Still she found herself searching for him.
The door to his room was pulled shut and when Sadie knocked she heard no sounds coming from inside. Downstairs Coyote was sitting alone at the table eating breakfast. Sadie headed into the kitchen, digging through the fridge for something to eat when movement from outside the window drew her attention. On the deck, Hangman stood across from Rooster, and the two appeared to be deep in conversation. Sadie watched as Hangman offered his hand to Rooster. Rooster stood looking deeply into the other man's face before he reached his own hand out, shaking Hangman's.
When they turned to come inside, Sadie tried to busy herself with cooking, suddenly feeling awkward that she had intruded on what should have been a private moment. She didn't looked as they entered the room, focusing intently on washing a bowl in the sink instead. Hangman came up behind her, grabbing the washed dishes to dry and put away. Sadie felt her heart skip a beat, but when she turned to look at him he simply nodded in greeting before turning to converse with Coyote. Sadie cursed her stupid feeling that dropped heavily in her stomach and again had to remind herself that having feelings for her teammate was not part of the deal.
A chime from all of their phones caused the four to look at each other in confusion. Looking down at her screen Sadie saw a message from Maverick that the others must have gotten as well. They were to meet him at the beach instead of on base this morning. Sadie looked at the others, unsure of why there was a sudden change in location, but she shrugged. Any excuse to not have to sit as Maverick made them watch the replays of themselves failing the training exercise again today.
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Pulling up to the beach, Sadie could see Phoenix, Fanboy, and Bob already congregating around Maverick. She grabbed her bag from her backseat and made her way over to the group. The sun was already warm on her face even though it was still morning, so she tossed her sweater to the ground, leaving her in her sports bra and shorts.
After everyone had arrived, Maverick held up two footballs, tossing one to Sadie and one to Hangman. Sadie watched as the ball spiralled in the air, landing perfectly in Hangman's muscled arms. She was so distracted that the football that was thrown in her direction hit her in the chest and bounced out of her arms. Luckily no one was paying too close of attention to her because Maverick had started talking.
"Today we're playing football. Dogfight football," he announced. "There will be two teams, you'll be playing offence and defence at the same time. The only rules are don't hurt each other and have fun."
Sadie cheered in delight along with the rest of the team. She and Hangman took turns drafting people to their sides until everyone had been chosen, then they set up on either side of the beach, waiting for Hondo to blow his whistle. When the play started Sadie scanned the swarm of people looking for someone to throw to. Spying Phoenix sprinting down the beach, she called out, tossing the football to the other woman just before she was knocked into the sand by Bob. He looked mortified as he helped her up from the ground, stammering out an apology about how he hadn't meant to tackle her, but she just laughed it off.
She did manage to return the favour as he tried to run by during the next play by diving for him catching his foot as he ran by. He fell to the ground with a groan, causing the football to bounce across the sand right into Fanboy's arms. She cheered loudly as her teammate scored a touchdown. As the game continued the pilots started playing dirtier. Hangman picked Sadie up, throwing her over his shoulder carrying her and the football she was holding to his end zone to score a point, and Coyote tackled Payback to the ground holding him down to prevent him from helping.
They continued playing for hours, as more and more sand accumulated in Sadie's hair and under her clothes. She could feel the heat coming off from her skin where she had gotten a sunburn and could feel the soreness in her muscles already, but the team continued to play, having too much fun to care about anything else.
Fanboy helped Sadie who was holding the football onto his back, giving her a piggyback ride to victory as they barrelled through the other team to the end zone. They ran and jumped into a chest bump to celebrate the point allowing Hangman the perfect opportunity to throw the ball to Bob. He ran, grin wide on his face, all the way across the beach. Rooster ran over, lifting Bob up onto his shoulders as everyone gathered around cheering his name.
Maverick waved them all off, dismissing them for the day, meaning that they could finally crack open the beers they had brought with them and enjoy some down time in the sun and sand.
