TOP GUN: BACK TO MY ROOTS

THE HARD DECK

it had been about 5 years since he left, you were 19 now, he would have been 21 last month, yes you still know and acknowledge his birthday
as you woke up that morning you realized you had work,
"das i really think you should come in some time, i think you would really like it" you worked as a waitress at the hard deck, you weren't twenty one so you couldn't consume alcohol but you were 19 so you could serve it
"i don't know kiddo bars aren't really my thing"
you just looked at him blankly
"yeah, okay, maybe not anymore, but don't act like i haven't heard stories of the famous drunken pilot maverick, and don't think i forgot how you met my mother!" i yelled the last part as i was walking out the door
when i got to the bar i could hear laughter before i even went inside
"hey penny, busy night?"
"for a Thursday? yeah, but then again when is it not busy?"
you laughed when you heard someone call your name, it was one of your regulars, it looked like he had already opened a tab, based on all the empty glasses he had around him and his buddies, as you bent down to grab some whiskey from under the counter you heard someone yell
"damn Y/N got some cake!"
immediately you stood up and reached for the bell, you let go of the rope when you saw who it was: hangman.
"whoa easy there kid it's just me" he said with a smile
"well hello to you too jake, how long have you been here? and you have got to stop calling me kid!"
you and jake had formed a rather ironic friendship, you were complete opposites and disagreed on just about everything, the only matching quality, you both loved to argue and prove your point.
"about 30 minuets, and no, never, if you were a pilot your call sign would totally be kid, am i right boys" he said turning to two other pilots
"oh yeah definitely" it was coyote and someone else, you didn't know coyote very well but you got along just fine
"oh come on you too coyote,  and i don't think i've met you yet" you said turning to the other pilot
"oh no, i'm lieutenant sanchez"
"callsign, payback" jake interrupted
"well payback, my name is Y/N and contrary to popular believe, some of the pilots here call me
fawkes" you said as you were wiping down the tables, your dad had come up with that and you had  told jake and then he told coyote and it kinnda just stuck, none of the pilots knew who your dad was, and you liked it that way, you didn't want to be the famous mavericks kid you just wanted to be Y/N, the kid of the group, the badass, the fawkes, the rest of the night was pretty easy once you finished up you headed out of the bar and went to walk to your car until you heard hangman calling your name
"hey fawkes, you think you can give me a ride?" he yelled, he was very obviously drunk, "i'm sorry but i know how much you hate it when i drive drunk" it was true you usually took away his keys but this time you had forgotten
"alright hangboy get in" you said unlocking your car
"thank you kiddo" he said before basically blacking out, how the heck were you gonna get him home, as you pulled up to his house you tried to wake him up but ended up having very little progress, you were able to get an arm around your shoulders and pull him out of the car, you lifted and were pretty strong but you couldn't exactly carry 200 pounds of dead weight, and the man fell onto the concrete, so you did the only reasonable thing you could think of, you got a water bottle out of the car and dumped it on him, and heck it actually worked
"hey!? what the fuck! this is my new jacket ahhhhg" he said thrashing his hands around
"jake, your drunk, go inside, go to bed" you said as if talking to a child or a dog
"hmmm okay MOM!" he said getting up, you expected him to walk inside but instead he threw his arms around you, the hog took you by surprise, it wasn't the first time you had hugged him, but it was the first time you hugged him when he wasn't sober, jake wasn't a mean drunk but he wasn't a nice one either, his ego grew ten times when he was drunk so this was uncharted territory.
"thank you Y/N it means a lot me , you mean a lot to me, not like i  a weird romantic sexual way, i mean i would be DOWN but like, your like a sister to me" he said as he used you as support
"a sister you would duck?" you said raising an eyebrow
"ew not when you say that gross, im going inside and to bed and we can both forget this conversation happened" he said as he turned and walked inside, you drove home in quietness, you liked a nice quiet drive at night, when you got home you noticed that your dads bike was gone, which meant that he wasn't home, but what did surprise you is that bradley's bedroom light was on, that was weird.