To Be Loved // Masters of the Air

1: Beginning to Everything

It had been 1943, the time where everything had been in shambles. Who knew you would push yourself to the limit, letting yourself make the decision to join the Air Force and become one of the first few women to join the army that wasn't Nurse Corps. Having been one of the many gunners to operate the machine guns on aircrafts whenever missions were at hand, you made your way through the ranks.

It was different alright. Way more work than what you were used to, and joining the 100th Bomb Group showed you that. The Bomb group worked you to the bone, but you made friends along the way.

Now you found yourself walking to the mess-hall for a late night dinner, right after another hard-working but useless mission. Sometimes you felt like the army put you on these so they could simply say they'd been doing something in war. You hadn't lost any men this round, which you'd been thankful for every single time.

With the men in view sitting on the benches of the dining room, your gaze immediately drifts to your friends. You watch as Harry Crosby waves to you with a grin on his face, the one which was always eager and in his happiest moments, sat beside a man who we all nicknamed Bubbles. John Brady sat on the left of Curtis Biddick, leaving you an open space to sit on the right of him.

When you decide to head to their table, you couldn't help but peer at someone else's. Gale, more known as Buck Cleven to the men, was a charming pilot who you knew cared for you all more than he let on, but tried to show it to the best of his ability. He always had something to prove, which told you he was really who he'd shown he was.

John, Bucky Egan on the other hand was a charismatic leader who would never stop until he knew his fellow airmen were safe, his party-boy antics being quite the opposite of Buck, but he went along with it like they were a package deal.

And they had been.

The eyes of yours catch notice as you watch Egan ramble into conversation about an oncoming mission, hands in the air with a drink on the table. You couldn't help but watch their conversation with a soft smile.

Buck's eyes would shine as he flashed his signature grin, a sight that's hard to not love when he nodded along to Egan. Egan had this mischievous gaze 24/7 which was another sight worth beholding, and it had been hard to look away from in general.

With your stomach rumbling like a mad man though, you finally cast your looks somewhere else, the smile still playing on your lips.

Yet it's like they'd noticed someone watching them, Egan glancing around once he finishes before coming into view of you starting to walk to the line to get a plate. He seemed to catch you instantly from afar and he called out to you with a cheeky smile growing on his lips.
"How's my favorite gunner?"

Even when you didn't talk with them much, you couldn't stop your heart from leaping in your chest every time they interacted with you. 
"Favorite?" You question with a confused expression on your face as you cross your arms. He chuckles to himself a bit as he nods towards you.

"Of course. No one can shoot better than you, or have prettier eyes." When he scans the room for a second before turning back to you, you notice he tried looking around the area to see if anyone else had heard him.

If this was his way of trying to flirt, it wasn't working on you very well despite your heart telling you differently. You wanted to have some fun though. You knew about his way of life around the base, how he drank to have fun while he got with other girls. But you decided to play along with his antics to feel like he won, something that would shake him up a bit.

Stepping forward as you plant your arms on the table with your chin in your hand, you hold your eyes towards him, throwing up a smirk as you mutter under your breath. Your face is only inches from his.
"Oh? You know..."

Being that close to Bucky as you let your sentence trail off, you catch a whiff of smokes and leather, the scent somehow enticing as you take notice of his lips slightly apart from being this close to him, staring into your eyes. With that said, he doesn't notice how he seems to breathe heavily, his breathing coming out in shudders.

"You're going to have to try harder if you want to get me in bed."

The act you held vanished as you stepped back from their table, a sweet yet fake gleam playing on your face. His expression drops right off of the bat, the cockyness of your statement pouring gasoline on a fire.

Bucky's jaw slacks as his eyes narrow at you in disbelief for a moment or two. However, beside him Buck snorts in laughter upon hearing what you said, making Bucky shoot a glare over at his best friend.

You couldn't help but bark out a laugh of your own, giving a wave as you walk away from them both to sit next to your friends. Hearing another snicker from behind you, you knew it had been Cleven for the way Egan had been mumbling under his breath with only him to hear it.
"Man, what I would give to be a machine-gun. That way she can handle my trigger any day."

You hadn't heard him, but Buck sure as hell did. Buck couldn't help but give in, joining him.

"I call dibs on her."
His reply was low as his eyes couldn't help but watch as you focused your attention to a story Biddick was telling you, how your shoulders moved which meant you had been laughing along.

Egan blinks in surprise, shaking his head towards his best-buddy. "Over my dead body."

Who knew this one interaction would spark many more, giving your heart away.