Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw oneshots

Puffy Eyes - part 2

A/N: part 2 is out guys. This is absolutely going to be slow burn, but I will write other oneshots in between these, so you have something to read that's straight to it. Anyways, enjoy this. No warnings for this one.

Word Count: 2k

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The next time Rooster walked into the Hard Deck; he was 32 years old. He thought he hadn't aged much, although, the three pilots whom he hadn't seen since his Top Gun days would disagree. The first one he saw was her. Of course it was. She still had her hair dyed the cherry colour and was easy to spot in a crowd.

He saw Phoenix make a face that was a mixture of shock and happiness, clearly making Blade and Coyote turn around to see what, or who, she was looking at. When Coyote turned around, he grinned and started walking towards Rooster, Phoenix followed suit soon after, but Blade just stood and looked at him as if she'd seen a ghost.

Rooster was quickly engulfed in a hug when Phoenix and Coyote got to him, making him lose sight of Blade. When they were finished hugging, she was nowhere to be seen. He was slightly upset. He thought they would have put the silly hatred behind them by now, but clearly not. They were both back to the same way they were before the last time they saw each other.

He assumed she had gone to get herself a drink when she disappeared, but when he wandered over to the bar to get himself a drink, she wasn't there. At that point, he decided that if she was going to play their stupid game then he was as well, so he was going to spend the rest of his evening forgetting she was even there in the first place.

So, he got his beer and went off to introduce himself to the rest of the pilots that had been called back to Top Gun for this extremely important mission. He was introduced to Hangman by Phoenix, or as she called him, 'Bagman'. He was sure to find out later exactly why he was called that, but at that point, he just acknowledged the name and didn't worry himself about it. He also met Bob, Payback, and Fanboy. He was sure that he would talk to them more over the next however many weeks they would be training together. But for now, he thought he would have a little play on the old piano sitting in the middle of the room.

He sat down at the piano and Coyote and Phoenix started cheering and whistling. Everyone else just looked at him confused. He could only be identified as a pilot by the aviators sitting on the end of his nose. To everyone else, he just looked like a random man in a Hawaiian shirt sitting at a piano being cheered on to do something.

Yet, when he played the first four chords, everyone knew who he was.

"You shake my nerves, and you rattle my brain," he was already grinning when he got to the next four chords, "too much love drives a man insane" he had started bobbing his head to the music, "you broke my will, but what a thrill" then as if on cue, the whole bar started singing along with him, "goodness gracious great balls of fire."

What Rooster hadn't noticed was that whilst he was having the time of his life singing and playing the piano, Blade had walked in absolutely drenched and puffy eyed, but when his song was finished, he was quick to notice the red head of hair at the bar.

"Hey Blade, I didn't get a chance to say hi earlier," he was being genuine, but clearly, she didn't take it that way. She had been asking for a set of house keys from her mother to go and get changed out of her, now wet, clothes, and Rooster had not noticed Penny giving him looks that now was not the time to talk to her.

"Oh, piss off Rooster would you?" he was confused to say the least but looking at the state of her he realised maybe now was not the right time to reintroduce himself as a friend, "I am absolutely not in the mood for you mocking me so kindly fuck off."