#Top Gun Maverick fanfic snippet

[tgmsunmontue]

Bradley: I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed to taking your name. Jake: *coughs* *splutters* Jake: What? Bradley: Wait. No. I can’t. Then my initials would be BS and that’s just… that’s not acceptable. Jake: Oh my god, they would be BS. You should totally take my name when we get married. Bradley: When? Jake: Well, I’ll get around to asking eventually. Bradley: Why do you get to do the asking? Jake: Because you're slow Rooster. Bradley: *drops to his knees* Bradley: *pulls out a ring* Bradley: Not this time.

[k9effect]

Maverick and Bradley go on vacation post-mission to make up for lost time

The steady drone of the aeroplane would have been enough to lull anyone to sleep, but here Bradley was, feeling like his skin was on fire.

He was trying to ignore Maverick in the window seat, dozing off next to him, looking unusually comfortable for someone who was asleep sitting upright with nothing but a neck pillow. Bradley was trying to focus on the movie he had put on, some heist movie. Something fast paced and chock full of action that would hopefully distract him. They had a long flight ahead of them and Bradley has never been the type who could fall asleep easily on planes. If it had just been a domestic flight over America, maybe he stood a chance, but there was something about flying over the ocean that always sent something deeply unkind creeping up his spine.

It wasn't that he had a fear of the ocean, he wouldn't go that far, but ever since he was young he had been lectured with the story of his father's death. The spin, the ejection, the ocean. It had always played into his dislike. It didn't help when he had gotten into the Navy and his father was a cautionary tale they told whenever they were doing ejection drills.

So yeah, he disliked the ocean.

He tried not to jump when they hit a patch of turbulence and Maverick, who had been leaning more and more his way as time went on, fell onto his shoulder.

The older man roused from his sleep, looking up to see Bradley staring down at him, fear flickering over Bradley's gaze for a split second. A blink and you'd miss it look.

Maverick frowned.

"Are you okay?"

Because of course he saw it. Even after all these years, Maverick could still pick up on the subtleties and intricacies that made up Bradley.

"Yea- yeah. I'm okay." Bradley nodded, shaking himself out of it.

Maverick sat up straight again, glancing out the window and spying the endless ocean. When he looked back at Bradley, there was understanding in his eyes.

"I think I'd feel better if I was at the stick…" Bradley joked, but it wasn't really a joke.

Maverick pulled the shade down, blocking the view of the ocean. "I know, kiddo."

Bradley felt his heart jump in his throat when Maverick settled back down onto his shoulder.

"What are you watching?" He asked gently.

It was obvious that he was trying to take Bradley's mind off of it all and Bradley was so grateful for him.

"Some dumb heist movie." Bradley sank down into his seat a bit more, his knees pressing up against the seat in front of him, trying to give Maverick more real estate on his shoulder.

"But you always hated heist movies." Maverick breathed out a sleepy laugh, shuffling his head to get comfortable.

"They're dumb and they're all the same story wrapped in different packaging." Bradley protested.

"Why'd you pick one then?" Maverick seemed quite amused.

"Figured it could keep my attention and distract me from the... everything, if I watched it out of spite." Bradley shrugged with one shoulder.

"Is it working?"

"Not really."

Bradley rested his cheek on top of Maverick's head, taking a breath and finally feeling his nerves calm a fraction. He had never been so glad to have Maverick back in his life.

It was going to be a long flight.

[ladywaffles]

fanfic writer interview

tagged by: @sluttyhenley thanks honey <3

what fandoms do you write in?

actively this year: top gun and the camelot rising trilogy

dormant fandoms that get 500 word spurts of Gobbets once per fiscal quarter: masters of the air, shadow and bone, mission: impossible (though this one will likely get More attention next year once m:i8 drops)

how many words have you published in 2024?

9,950. which is the lowest my word count has been in a While but it's mainly because i wrote a lot of drafts this year that i have yet to publish

what is your greatest achievement this year?

creatively, it is 100% starting The Care of the Flyer. i really do love how much love it gets from everyone, despite its intended audience being me and two tumbleweeds (who know exactly who they are). i'm very proud of how much research and Effort i put into it.

personally, it's the fact that i was the first person to publish a fic in a new ship tag.

what are your top three fics you've written this year?

conveniently, i have only published three fics this year. would you look at that.

The Care of the Flyer

some kind of secret

tell me my story

what was your biggest pit of despair moment?

at some point around the end of october i realized that i had not written a Single Word in any project or silly little promptfill for almost 2 months, which was Not A Great Feeling. i then proceeded to not write anything until the end of november. oof.

what have you learned?

baby's first smut fic got published this year, so how to write smut is definitely a lesson i learned. i also did a lot of work in character motivations, since flight surgeon!maverick in Care of the Flyer is a much different mav than the mav we know from tg86/tgm. it really was a good exercise in examining what drives a protagonist (maverick) to do something, and how they would react to different circumstances (namely, iceman).

did you beta any fics? any faves you want to shout out?

i did! i beta'd for @starrybouquet on in for a penny, in for a pound, her fem!maverick AU. i also do a lot of spot betas for @twinkboimler in helping to restructure sentences, find intended meaning, etc.

what three fics have you read this year that you love?

to leave this all behind (halo round his head) is maybe everything i wanted from a crown of candy but did not get. lapin is far and away my favorite character in the campaign, and knowing that zac had thunder step prepared but didn't get to use it because of the death saves hurt my soul so bad. this was a soothing balm.

the last scene in when the time comes lived in my memory for weeks after i read it, and then i didn't bookmark it like a dummy. i spent the better part of the year trying to find it, only to run across it and rediscover how Good it is when i was hunting down recs for a friend like one of those truffle-sniffing pigs. it's such a beautiful What-If in such a (relatively) short fic. *chef's kiss*

long time followers of ladywaffles may be aware that yours truly is partially deaf, and learning ASL is a life goal of mine. the way that iceman and maverick prioritize learning it in A Good Landing (link) after ice's surgery and the realism in not having the words to explain yourself, despite knowing your own feelings? that's that good shit. also, i'm a sucker for a middle-aged (retirement aged) romance, so this fic checked a lot of my boxes.

what ideas are percolating for next year?

certainly the next part of The Care of the Flyer; i've already sent some snippets of maverick's pithy emails to the group chat, and they've been well received :)

i also want to return to camelot rising and For Real finish the WIPs i started when i was babysitting stinky microbes at my internship

(and also the top gun omegaverse AU that i've had in my brain since february 2023 what who said that)

who do you want to thank?

@twinkboimler for constantly putting up with my moaning about writing in between my complaints about [insert inane everyday topic here]

@sluttyhenley and @redbelles for letting me be the audience to the traveling show, and for letting me fling pasta of all kinds at them to figure out what's fun and funky to write

@starrybouquet for playing in the sandbox with me

tagging: @twinkboimler @redbelles @starrybouquet and you, dear reader, should you choose to accept your mission.

[merakiaes]

TL;DR - I have a lot of fanfiction-garbage and can't decide if it's worth donating in its poorly-edited, not-properly-written state, or if I should just throw it all out and let it rot in a landfill.

So, I have approximately 100k words worth of notes in my phone for fics for Top Gun: Maverick and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Like, we aren't even talking full fic skeletons/first drafts, it's just 100k words worth of dialogue snippets and vague and very badly spelled/messily worded outlines that I've thought of at random times throughout my days for the past month or two during which my brain has been in a hyperfixation sort of overdrive.

I'd say there's probably around a hundred separate fic ideas for each of the two fandoms noted above and I oh, so desperately want to post at least a few of them before my very limited hyperfixation span is exceeded, but I haven't written in so long and I'm hesitating because if I were to post one or more fics, they wouldn't be my usual thoroughly thought-out fics. A few longer ones would be a few thousand words at most, but most no more than a thousand or a few hundred, if even that, and I'd spend little to no time working on them beyond the absoloute neccessary (e.g. cleaning up my initial notes and adding some more content for the sake of structure) because I no longer have the energy needed to go into full writing mode and probably never will again. That being said, they'd be quick, sloppy and only meet the bare minimum requirements of even being considered fics - the notes in question look like they were created by someone repeatedly slamming their head on the keyboard so we really are talking bare minimum, with mostly dialogue and very little descriptive filling.

It's been so long since I wrote that I don't know if that's even something that is worth posting. I desperately want to post something because I could really use the lift-up of reconnecting with the fanfic-community, but I've become so damn insecure about my writing and I am totally overthinking it.

So, please, grant an out-of-practice fanfiction-writer some clarity by voting on the poll provided below, so that I can make up my mind on whether or not it is worth it. Honesty is more appreciated than coddling, you will not hurt my meow meow feelings, I promise.

(I might post them, I might not. I just want some clarity in case I decide to do so bc I am a dependent little bitch who needs the opinions of others before I do literally anything in life.)

[lambourngb]

fanfic origin story

I was tagged by @ravens-words - thank you! 💖 [Quick aside: Everyone should go read EJ’s new hangster kidfic right now!!! If you like Top Gun Maverick at all ]

What was your first fandom (reading and/or writing)? Reading: X-Files was my first fandom. I was actually a Mulder/Scully shipper in season 1 - Paula Graves “12 Degrees of Separation” that I found on a USENET server, before getting into Mulder/Krycek on a mailing list.

Writing: I posted Smallville Clark/Lex as my first posted stories… but I wrote a ton of unposted, cringy self-insert Mercedes Lackey fanfic when I was 12 and 13. I was a horse-girl, so obviously I had to write about an OC with lavender eyes and their own talking horse.  I was on a Mercedes Lackey fan page for a while, but obvious she was very anti-fanfic so I thought I was a weirdo for a very long time, breaking the law and writing my own stories of Valdemar

What was the first story you ever wrote?

Finished and posted? “Lessons in Compassion” set after the pilot of Smallville.

Ever? When I was 10 I started writing a novel called “Kentucky Bound” where a girl goes to a horse auction and picks out a yearling that ends up winning the Kentucky Derby. I wrote out OC horses, characters, margins of victory in my outline and probably hand wrote about 25 pages before I got blocked, lol.

What's a piece of advice you would give your younger fic writing self?

You can finish a story. It takes focus and discipline but it’s possible.

What's an early fandom interaction that stuck with you (be it a nice comment, a friend you made, a fic that got a lot of feedback)?

@ninswhimsy : It’s all her fault, lol. We bonded over the show during season 1 hiatus and had a lot of fun chatting and sending each other snippets. I’m enormously thankful our friendship survived past the show.

The other early fandom joy was writing and publishing “Last Years Wishes” - It still gets a lot of love and hits, and I’m very touched by that.

Post a sentence or two from an older fic and a sentence or two from a newer one (if you want)

I’m still trying to get back into a writing frame of mind - real life is extremely busy and stressful. I’ve played with the idea of being “retired” for a lot of reasons, but right now that feels like giving up, and I don’t really want to do that.

Newer: - from the next story in my “Trying” universe:

Michael didn’t bother with browsing the old People magazine in the waiting room, his nerves were wound far too tight to engage with the props provided by the clinic to fight against the boredom of waiting that came hand-in-hand with every medical appointment. Alex, having had more than his fair share of doctor visits, had warned him that “appointments” were closer to “approximations”, and that they should expect to wait long past their time. Case in point, Alex was idly scrolling through his phone completely accustomed to the routine. Michael did his best not to fidget in place, while keeping his eyes trained on the closed door of the doctor’s office in anticipation of their name being called. An hour had already gone by, along with the hour drive to the clinic from Roswell; it was shaping up to be an expensive afternoon of lost work time for Michael. Only the importance of why they were there had kept him from walking out in annoyance.

It was time for their state-mandated physicals, required by law, for their fostering license.

Their caseworker, Ms. Patel, or Aimee as she had allowed them once it had become clear how serious they were in becoming foster parents, had maintained that the medical report was merely a formality for men of their age. It was designed to weed out applicants with particular health issues that would impede their ability to keep up with an active child. Despite Alex’s prompting for specifics, she did not provide any concrete examples of what was considered disqualifying on a health exam. Probably out of a worry that her speculation could be considered discriminatory.

The exam was promised to be thorough but not invasive, a general physical of vital signs without any accompanying blood work. That was meant to be comforting to them, but Michael, had barely slept during the last week out of worry.

Liz and Kyle had both reassured him that a basic physical would not reveal him to be an alien to anyone, his biological differences were mainly clear in his blood work or through an ultrasound of his organs. Not even the fact he had managed to pass through the foster system as a child without detection was enough to calm his anxieties, mainly because he had suspicions about Jim Valenti’s intervention. It was a risk to have a doctor study him, and for the first time since Michael realized he would be the subject of a federal background check, he worried over if the prospect of being a parent was worth it.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish Kyle was here,” Michael murmured to Alex with a ghost of humor. They had both listed Kyle as a character reference in their application, not realizing at the time it would disqualify him from being the physician who performed the medical evaluation on Michael.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish Isobel was here,” Alex whispered back, before reaching to hold Michael’s hand.

Michael rolled his eyes at Alex, having long figured out that his sister and his husband enjoyed playing up their animosity for each other, out of some childish tug of war over who loved Michael the most. They seemed to get a particular enjoyment out of sniping at each other, a contest over who managed the best quip or blistering observation, Alex and Maria often teaming up against Isobel and Liz at gatherings, while Michael, Max, and Kyle quietly placed bets on who won.

“I can do the same things she can,” he reminded Alex, tapping his forehead in emphasis. If a doctor did happen to do a double-take on their readings of Michael, he was prepared to slip inside their mind to block or erase that knowledge. As badly as he wanted a child, revealing himself as an alien was not part of the plan.

“I know you can, but I also know you don’t like to.” ***

OLDER: And from these hands (let you go free) - my ringmaker fic:

“That was why you changed that summer,” Alex said, mostly to himself with a quiet devastation. His gaze was faraway, sitting only a few feet from Michael and yet fifteen years away from him all at the same time. “I thought it was me. My dad attacked you because of me, and suddenly you weren’t going to college anymore. I did that to you, I thought I had ruined your life-”

“Never.” He squeezed Alex’s hand hard, horrified at the very thought. “You were the one good thing I had back then. You made me believe there was a place for me here. I probably leaned too much on that, too much on you, when we were teenagers. And that wasn’t fair to you.”

“I wish I had known what you were going through.”

“I couldn’t tell you.”  

“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?” Alex asked him wryly, still laser sharp in his observations. “We didn’t exactly talk much back then.”

Michael acknowledged the point with a wince. In so many ways he was still the kid with the trash bag suitcases, he had moved from one place to another, never able to claim anything as his own, but once he was an adult and finally free to make his own home, he held onto everything. People, when they let him, and the memories, when they didn’t. Most importantly, he kept the truth about what was behind his feelings, guarded jealously behind his lips. Those truths, the pain he had experienced, the hardships of never feeling like he had a home; those were his. There was a question that had haunted him, what if he gave them up, what if he shared them, and it was for nothing? What if no one cared? That was a worse prospect to him than moving from house to house with a black garbage bag as his luggage.

***

That was fun, and a much better reason to log back onto tumblr, lol.

[merlinsbudgiesmugglers]

Thanks for the tag @celestemagnoliathewriter!

3 ships: 1. Hinny (see next answer). 2. Remadora - currently rereading OOTP with the TTB Server bookclub and I'm loving the little snippets of Remadora that we get. 3. Tedromeda - They just gripped me last year and I don't know if I'm finished with them yet.

First ever ship: I have a very specific memory of being in primary school, and it would have had to have been around year 2 when I first got the Harry Potter books. My best friend had just read CoS (which she read first for some reason) and we were having a very long discussion about Ron and Hermione because I thought they would end up together but she was a Harmione fan and I remember, very clearly, saying 'Harry and Hermione won't get married! He is going to marry Ginny!'

Now it wasn't really something I thought about much until OOTP came out and that's when I started reading Hinny fanfic, and then when HBP was released I was a very happy Hinny shipper.

Last song: El Tango de Roxanne - Moulin Rouge (Movie)

Last movie: Maverick - I put off watching it because I'm such a huge fan of the original Top Gun, but it was so much better than any of my expectations

Currently reading: Re-reading The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels - Highly recommend!

Currently watching: Rewatching That 70s Show

Currently consuming: Nothing, deciding what I'm going to have for dinner

Currently craving: Chicken Schnitzel and Chips (my friend just sent me a picture of the pub feed she's having for dinner)

Tagging: @turanga4 @lanaturnergetup @hinnyfied @starlingflight @artemisia-black (sorry if you've been tagged already!)

[alidravana]

2, 5, and 16 for the asks please 🙃

Apologies for the delay in response!

2. Will you participate in any fandom exchanges or fic challenges, etc? 

Absolutely - these are one of my favourite parts to writing! So far I have signed up for the 911 Lone Star Big Bang (doing the smaller 10K option though), a Top Gun Maverick Big Bang (also the mini option), and I'm hoping to complete a few fills for Febuwhump.

5. Which WIP is first on your list to complete this year? Will you post a snippet?

I've been debating this back and forth. My big crossover for Call of Duty is high on the list, but so is a handful of other WIPs. Gotta finish them all?

More Hesh/Kick is definitely high priority though, so here's a snippet:

Stepping into the room, he quietly closed the door behind him and turned to see Kick waiting, lounging back on his bed.  

Hesh simply stared, drinking in his fill of the handsome man in front of him.  His gaze lingered on Kick’s bare chest, well, bare except the tattoo that curled around the top of his hip bone and travelled along the side of his body.  His eyes wandered up to Kick’s face, and he could feel his cheeks warm as Kick’s eyes peered into his own, a smirk growing on the older man’s face.

“Are you going to stare all day, or do you plan to come over and kiss me?”  Kick asked, his smile widening.  

Hesh knew he was blushing at this point, but took the necessary steps forward, sliding back into bed next to Kick.  “Can’t blame a guy for staring now can you?” Hesh teased back, proud that he didn’t stutter over his words. 

16. Do you have that one fanfic that you wrote a ton for, ages ago, but never posted? Will this be the year, come hell or high water, that it WILL get finished and posted?

Yes? Hopefully? My big crossover currently has 22k written for it, and I think I'm only halfway through. I keep debating on starting to post it/waiting to finish it, but I'm going to keep writing words in the meantime.

Please feel free to ask me more questions from the list!

[cup-noodle]

3, 5, 6, 8, 13, and 18 for the fanfic new year asks!

Alright let's go, thanks for the ask!! It got long so I put it under the cut

3. Do you anticipate writing for a new fandom this year? Which one?

Honestly, I probably will! I've only put out two fics and one original work so far, so there's a good chance of getting attacked by a fic idea for something else and writing it. Currently I've been back in the Top Gun: Maverick brainrot so it might be that!

5. Which WIP is first on your list to complete this year? Will you post a snippet?

You probably guessed this one but I'm hoping to wrap up Project Jade sometime this year (probably in summer), it's been the one I've been working on for over a year now. Although some shorter fics might happen before that if inspiration strikes. For a snippet, you can have this one from a later chapter:

Her eyes flitted over to the closet door. Inside, underneath her box of winter shoes, lay hidden the files. Had she known how much hell those pieces of paper would raise for them, she never would have opened her mouth in that hallway. Never.

They'd decided keeping the files close and secret was the best plan of action for the moment. They didn't know what else to do but hold on to them and wait until an opportunity to do some real damage presented itself - that's why they were waiting.

That's what Freya kept telling herself, anyways. That's and what she and Oscar had agreed on. But in truth, there was another thing at play. She knew what kind of power those files possessed, and she was scared shitless. They had seen first-hand the ramifications of interfering with the wrong people, and she wanted nothing more than to forget about it all. To stop worrying about who was going to drop dead next. But it couldn't be nearly that simple.

So she closed the notebook, threw a pillow onto the floor next to Oscar with his laptop, and took a seat. "Alright, what now?"

"You're the green chicken," he hurried to explain, pointing at the avatar of a neon green hen with a comically large knife in its beak. "You have the arrows to move, Q for attack, and- Hey, stop laughing! This is deadly serious," he chided, but she couldn't help but crack up too as they locked eyes. As far as distractions went, this would do just fine.

6. Which yet-to-be-started fic is first on your list?

Like I said I've been thinking about Top Gun: Maverick a lot and I've got a pretty detailed idea for a 5+1 fic about Mav and Rooster over the course of the kid's life. More specifically it's five moments when Mav has to parent Bradley after Goose's death and has no idea what he's doing, and then one time when he knows exactly what to do (at the end of the movie, unsurprisingly).

8. Is there a story idea in your mental vault that you’ve never been brave enough to try writing? Is this the year? Can you tell us about it?

At some point I'd really love to try writing something more dystopian or apocalyptic (or post-apocalyptic), I adore those kind of settings. I have some vague ideas but nothing concrete yet, and honestly I doubt anything's gonna happen this year cause I already have a big project on my hands. Hopefully sometime in the future though!

13. Aside from fanfic, are there any other fan works you’d like to try creating? Fanart, or fanvids, gifsets, or podfic? 

I occasionally do some drawing and fanart, so I'd love to do more of that if I have time. Learning how to draw people has been a pain in the ass but getting better at drawing characters is the current goal. Gotta do my blorbos justice.

18. Do you typically post multi-chapters as you write, or finish it all and then start posting? Would you like to change your posting method?

I've done one two-parter and one longer multi-chapter thing, and for both I did something in between. I like to have a fair amount written for the whole thing before posting anything, and then I write the missing bits and edit chapter by chapter as I go. It does result in pretty inconsistent posting but I'm a sucker for feedback and wanting to post it helps with motivation, so I'm sticking with it for the moment.

[boasamishipper]

Fanfic day meme: 2, 11, 13, 15

2. What is your favorite snippet of dialogue?

“I also heard you roasted Captain America. That’s what the kids are calling it these days, right?” (there’s a raging fire in my heart tonight, Top Gun/MCU)

11. What’s a fanfic idea you haven’t done yet?

i haven’t done a fake dating au yet, but i’d really like to someday!

13. Do you have a favorite character to write for?

i love writing finn from the star wars sequel trilogy - he’s just so good and brave and kind and his backstory is absolutely fascinating, i’m so livid canon never gave him the respect he deserved. i also love writing iceman kazansky from top gun (there are so many emotions behind the wall of Ice Cold No Mistakes, and he’s got a biting wit that is so much fun to write), and tony stark from the mcu - his voice is very hard to get right, but trying is half the fun lol.

15. Give us a snippet of something from your WiPs!

The kid’s not the drunk teenager she’d expected; from the looks of it, he’s in his early twenties and as sober as they come. He’s handsome, with short dark hair and a nice leather jacket and a smile that’s half cocky, half apologetic, and a true stunner of a motorcycle that’s parked at the curb. (Sandy sold hers years ago, and Rach drives a Toyota, and if she weren’t so irritated at the fact that she’s working at two thirty in the morning, she’d ask if she could go outside and give the bike a proper look.)

He wanders the shop for a few minutes, touching the flower petals with a look of intense curiosity, and Sandy pulls her bathrobe (Rach’s, technically) tighter around her, refusing to feel self-conscious when he looks her way. “So,” she says, putting on her Customer Service voice like a pair of well-worn shoes. “Looking for anything in particular?” (Peony For Your Thoughts, Top Gun, Maverick/Charlie, Maverick/Iceman, Outsider POV)

[tgmsunmontue]

Bradley looks at the notification on his phone. 

Delivered. 

Like hell it's been delivered. 

On top of all the boxes around him he's hungry and tired and now grumpy that his food delivery is not actually delivered.

The food would have solved his hunger problem. It might not have unpacked everything, or given him a shot of much needed caffeine but it would have stopped his stomach grumbling.

There's a knock at the door and oh, god, it might actually be the food!

Ho opens the door and the guy standing there is holding a bag of food and looking Bradley up and down.

"Pad Thai, Jungle curry, fish cakes and spring rolls?"

"Uh, yeah. That's me. Are you the delivery guy?"

If he is Bradley might find himself ordering from the same place regardless of how the food tastes. The guy is... attractive doesn't even start.

"No. I'm your neighbor. And delivery guy stand in... Name's Jake."

"Bradley."

"You moving in?"

"Yeah. The boxes give it away?"

"Yeah. Little bit."

[tgmsunmontue]

Bradley who runs away and joins the circus. It's just pure luck that the circus is actually in town, and it's not a circus with animals, more of a Cirque du Soleil with training wheels.

So he ends up as a crew member, and he's strong and able, very willing to follow instructions. It's whole different lifestyle from the regimented military he'd been thinking was going to be his life, but he leans into it.

The trapeze artists find him watching and ask him if he wants to try, and sure, why the hell not right? Plus he's tall and got strong arms so some of the gymnasts also start getting him to work out with him. His flexibility improves and his skills on the trapeze do as well.

Also he's exposed to a whole range of sexualities and genders which he'd never really considered before, so it's an awakening of another sort and there's plenty of experience and learning opportunities there as well.

He soaks it all in like a sponge.

In ~10 years Jake is taking his sisters to see Cirque du Soleil while he's home on leave and a certain performer catches his eye. So he goes back for every available show and he becomes a little bit of a fan and learns his name etc. But he's not that much of a creeper to actually approach Bradley, so just leaves it.

Then he's in a coffee shop, waiting for his order, and then the Barista calls out "Bradley Bradshaw" and hell no, there is no way... But there he is, no makeup or sparkly costume but somehow looking like a fucking wet dream and Jake manages to look all cool and suave by tripping over his own feet and spilling his coffee all down Bradley Bradshaw's pants.

[tgmsunmontue]

Brought to you by my drive home (and because I saw this post on my dash today), where I imagined Jake and Bradley in a “not quite a Grease AU”, put putting on the play Grease with a queer bent (community group raining money type thing), with Sandy being played by Jake. Javy was meant to be playing Danny, except then he breaks his leg and they’re scrambling to find a guy who is happy singing and dancing (and GOOD at it) and also playing the romantic love interest to a guy.

In walks Bradley Bradshaw.

People are grateful the show can go on.

Bradley and Jake have antagonistic behaviours, but obviously it’s UST and they’re getting closer to the full-dress rehearsal and actually having to kiss on stage in front of everyone, and Jake’s been making snide little remarks about Bradley not committing to the bit. (Yes, he wouldn't mind locking lips with him...)

Cue them finally singing “You’re the one that I want” and kissing at the end of the song and then… they continue kissing and then –

“Guys, it’s the dress rehearsal. There are going to be kids in the audience. Keep it in your pants.”

Drama because it's community productions and humans and unresolved sexual tension...

@blackbeanie7437 this is what I was thinking of for Q fyi... 😅

[k9effect]

I'm writing a Rooster character study fic and it's legitimately the most heart breaking, gut wrenching thing I've ever written. I've been so close to crying so many times and I'm not even finished with the second chapter.

It's based on the idea of what would have happened if Bradley hadn't gone back for Maverick and how he would have dealt with that grief and guilt of Mav getting killed in action.

[wilddreamprincess]

Smoooth go readdd!!

Bradley: I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed to taking your name. Jake: *coughs* *splutters* Jake: What? Bradley: Wait. No. I can’t. Then my initials would be BS and that’s just… that’s not acceptable. Jake: Oh my god, they would be BS. You should totally take my name when we get married. Bradley: When? Jake: Well, I’ll get around to asking eventually. Bradley: Why do you get to do the asking? Jake: Because you're slow Rooster. Bradley: *drops to his knees* Bradley: *pulls out a ring* Bradley: Not this time.