#and so much more than his traditional fandom role as maverick wrangler

[princesssarcastia]

here, in honor of my newfound freedom, have a snippet from the big top gun fic i'm working on.

in which yeah, chief warrant officer bernie "hondo" coleman is falling a little bit in love with captain pete "maverick" mitchell. what of it?

It’s always Hondo, too, whenever Maverick talks to him.  He’s very careful to keep it to Chief Warrant Officer Coleman whenever they’re forced to stand on ceremony—mainly, whenever the brass from NAWCWD and beyond come sniffing at the multi-billion-dollar project.  Always giving him the respect he’s due. But when it’s just the Darkstar crew, he makes a point to call Bernie Hondo.  Remember what Hondo said; that’s a great point, Hondo; Hondo, would you pass me that schematic.  Eventually, the more susceptible engineers, the non-military ones, start calling him Hondo, too.   Not quite understanding what it means but wanting in on the comradery.  And when Bernie doesn’t object, the ones who know better start doing it.  He looks up one day and realizes his crew hasn’t referred to him by anything other than his callsign, the thing he thought he’d left behind in the desert and deep blue waters in the Persian Gulf, in weeks. A necessary sacrifice at the time if he wanted to keep going in the Navy.  Unfair, but necessary.  And here Maverick is, giving it back to him.  Looking up at him from across the drawing board with those big fucking eyes like he knows exactly what Bernie’s thinking, and exactly what it means to Bernie.  To Hondo.  It stalls his breath in his lungs for three heartbeats too long, but when he finally lets it out, Hondo gives him a slow, bobbing nod in thanks.  Of course Maverick knows what it means.  You don’t see anyone walking around calling him Pete.