ℳ𝒾𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓁𝑒 𝒩𝓊𝓂𝒷𝑒𝓇 𝒯𝒽𝓇𝑒𝑒 | Top Gun Maverick

Chapter 8: Funeral

Emily was in her room, fixing her uniform In front of the mirror. She wanted everything to be flawless, she knew how much Iceman liked perfection and she wanted to honour that.
She had noticed Rooster's reflection as he stood behind her. His uniform was also flawless.

"Ready to go?" He asked gently as he hugged her from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist. She melted into his arms, taking a minute to pull herself together.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm ready."

They headed outside and towards his car, he opened the passenger seat for her with a stupidly cute smile on his face.

"Milady" he gestured for her to get in, she smiled at him and obliged. He closed the door after her and walked towards the driver's seat.

The ride was silent. He didn't try to comfort Emily or even talk to her because he knew she just wanted to be left alone. It wasn't because she was mad at him or didn't want to see him. She just didn't know how to deal with feelings, she hides away when she feels like crying and smiles through the pain when she's around people. But this time she didn't feel like smiling or faking it.

When they finally got to the graveyard she was greeted by Sarah, she offered Emily a sad smile, hugged her quickly and left to greet the other people. Most of them were in uniform.

"Snow!" She heard Phoenix shout from behind her. Emily turned around and greeted her, she pulled her into a tight hug.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered to her before the rest of the group arrived. They all hugged Emily, trying to somehow comfort her. It was nice that people showed that they cared but the empty feeling inside of her was too big to be filled with hugs.

"Heya, Snowie." Hangman showed up. He looked around and noticed that the group was staring. "Mind if we get some space?"

"Yes." Rooster deadpanned.

"Come on, let's go." Phoenix dragged him away along with the rest of them but she knew he was eyeing them up from afar.

"Hangman, can we please not do this today-" She was caught off guard when his arms wrapped around her. Out of all the people hugging her today, this was the strangest and yet the warmest one. She was stiff, not knowing what to do at first but she eventually warmed into it.

"I'm sorry about your dad." He pulled away and walked away. Emily was too speechless to say anything.

"Wait! Hangman!" She shouted after him, still glued to the spot. He turned around waiting for her to say something. "Thank you," she said with a warm, genuine smile. He smiled back and left and Emily followed a bit behind him. Soon enough they were all gathered by the coffin.

It was black and shiny, with an American flag on top of it. And then there it was, a big picture of him. It wasn't her first funeral but seeing the coffin there and the thought of him inside it made her want to throw up. She wanted him to be next to her, telling her that everything would be alright, but instead, she was only reminded by the fact that he will be under the ground forever, and he will never come back. This was the moment she realised that this was reality, it was not a bad dream.

Sarah and her family were the closest to it, Maverick was there next to them. Then behind them, there were about 6, long rows of aviators. Emily, Rooster and the rest were in the first row.

The funeral started, and six soldiers took the flag off the coffin and folded it. Then other soldiers fired in the air. The gunshots rang in Emily's ears. Cyclone then approached Sarah and handed the flag to her, giving her a salute. He looked at Snow-white in the crowd and gave her a slight nod as a way to say his condolences, she nodded back at him. When he moved aside, she saw Maverick, he was standing at the foot of the coffin with the aviator's pin in his hand. He placed it on top of the it and then slammed his fist onto it, making sure the pin would stay on that coffin.

Maverick saluted him for the last time and then looked at Emily, still holding his hand upon his forehead. She could see the tear forming in his eyes, she was trying her hardest to not do the same. She had to be strong. She looked up to the sky to see four planes fly above them, and one of them flew higher and faster than the others, leaving the rest behind, symbolising Iceman's plane leaving his wingmen and the people that had loved him and admired him forever.
Holding back the tears felt like an impossible task for Em, her breath shuddered. Rooster noticed and subtly took her hand in his, providing her with some comfort. She took a deep breath and held his hand tight to prevent her from crying.