Two Birds On a Wire

Chapter 4

"There's nothing on the radar that I can see."

"Okay."

The jet seems like it floats in the air, like it's not making a move at all. But in reality, it's flying pretty fast and moving pretty far.

"Merlin, you see anything?"

Taps can be heard across the way. "Nothing." He replies.

Maverick and Goose, and their wingman, Cougar and Merlin, were doing a lookout when a dot appeared onto the radar. There was only a single green circle, no trailer or other bogey's. They alerted the ship, but they hadn't seen anything on their screens. They thought it was just a malfunction, maybe picking up their wingmen, but they had to double check just to be sure.

"Are you sure you don't see anything?"

"No. It says he's right there but there's nothing."

Maverick craned his neck around, looking behind him through the glass. He splits the throttles, turning the jet around. He flies by, past where Goose said the bogey was on the radar. There's nothing.

He furrowed his brows and turned back around.

His wingman takes a look below them as Mav searches up above. The think there's something and prepare themselves, but it was a bird passing through. Maverick sighed.

"Sorry, Mav, but there's nothing out here." Merlin says.

Maverick furrows his brows and takes another look around. He wasn't about to give up. Maybe it is a malfunction, but how can you be certain? Even after checking for over an hour?

"I'm doing one last look." He states.

"Maverick, we were just told to report back to the carrier." Goose says, watching the other jet take off towards home.

"I'm not leaving until I find out what's going on." He declared, ducking his head and looking around.

It started spitting on the windshield. Tiny drops of it speckled the glass. It wasn't heavy. It was light, delicate drops. Tiny and soft. Dark clouds churned across the sky, overcoming the light blues from only hours before. It cast a shadow over the jet, everything seeming to grow a little darker more and more. Maverick watched each and every one of the specks with a look, his lip pouting out ever so slightly. He blinked, his eyes trailing down as he watched the two droplets, racing down faster and faster, growing bigger than they were a few seconds that had been.

"C'mon, Mav, it's looking a little too dark out here-" He stops as the thunder rumbles, the thick, fluffy, soft edged clouds lighting up. "See. That's a sign there's nothing out here. It's time to go home."

"Goose, just because it's raining doesn't mean we can stop looking. It's not even hard drops. It's just spitting."

"Maverick, I know that. But we've already been told to get back to the carrier."

The dark haired furrowed his brows, locking his jaw. He looked up from the joystick to the sky ahead. He sighed and tilted the stick to the left, angling the jet back towards the way home.

As the two departed from the jet, their wingmen already inside, Maverick walked over to the edge of the ship. He sighed, folding his arms. Goose walks up next to him, passing him and standing opposite of him.

"You okay?"

"Yeah... Yeah, it just makes me mad that we never found that guy." He sighs again, unfolding his arms and slapping them down, dangling.

"Yeah." Goose says. He looks out to the water as they pass through the slow and calm waves. It's whispering to them softly, splashing around. Maverick isn't paying attention to it though. His eyes are set planted on the ground of the runway. Goose, is looking out to the water. The open seas of nothingness. The nothingness in the skyline around them. It's blue on the ground, and a light blue-grey above them and around with a soft purple tint. Goose grins. Then, he looks up and over to Maverick.

"Hey, wanna know what I like to do?"

Maverick perks his head up. "What?"

Goose smiles and turns back to the ocean, cups his hands around his mouth, yelling out to the sea, "Great balls of fire!"

Maverick starts to chuckle. "I'm sure the water enjoyed that." He says, crossing his arms and looking at Goose.

He turns back around to face Maverick, still smiling. "Of course it did. It's fun."

Maverick gives a nod.

"Go on, say something to it." He gestures with a swing of his hand.

Maverick looks out for a second before shaking his head. "No, I'm good." He takes a step back.

"Whaaat?" He drawls out. "Why not?"

"I'm not talking to the sea, Goose."

Funny enough, especially to the taller figure, the waves soon splash onto the deck. It misses Goose by a long shot, but it rises to meet the tips of Maverick's boots by an inch. He takes another step back. The waves repeat it's taunt, only this time missing. Maverick, being the stubborn child he is, sticks his tounge out at it. Goose chuckles. "Oh, you shouldn't have done that." He says.

"Oh, yeah?" Maverick taunts. "What? Is it going to bite me, next?"

Goose raises his brows, looking downwards. "I don't know," He turns his head. "It might."

Maverick scoffs, rolling his eyes. "Sure."

"C'mon, just say something to it."

"Something to it."

The bluntness of his words sets off the waves again. It misses for the second time.

"Haha."

"You better knock it off."

"Goose, I'm not gonna say anything to the water. It's just water."

"If you say so. Because it's most definitely getting back at you for not talking."

"It's just water!"

"Come on, Mav, just one little thing." Goose pleads.

Maverick rolls his eyes again. He takes a step forward and the waves seem to clam down. Goose gives a small grin, debating on whether or not to say "I told you so". But if he does that, Maverick would probably back away.

Maverick drops his arms down to his sides, sighing. He looks off to his left, then back to the water. "I feel the need," He prompts.

"The need for speed!" Goose joins in with him as they yell out to the water, chorusing their echo.

It sends the two into a laughing fit, like little children, smiles on their face, lighting everything up. The ocean seems to enjoy it too, splashing about, but never rising up to the ship's ground surface.

"There, you happy?" Maverick says after their laughter dies out. His smile was still visible though. And so was the enjoyment.

Goose grins. "Most definitely."

Maverick rolls his eyes as the two turn away from the water. Maverick gives a small smirk as they walk away, but the ocean knows. So what does it do?

It waves it's goodbye, sizing up the dark haired with one last soaking splash.