#how to adopt young adults 101 (icemav edition)

[pollyna]

dear pollyna, please keep in mind that im writing this request, mindful and aware, that you have your own life to live. that’s why i’m begging you (kindly though and totally ok if you cant) to please continue writing your ‘how to adopt young adults 101 icemav edition’ 😭😭😭 i’ve been rereading the ones that you’ve wrote multiple times now and i need more from you cause you write them amazingly well. the way you write them, it made me smile and giggle to myself, kicking and punching the air (whenever appropriate). that’s how great your idea & writing is! however, if you cant write them, i totally understand and respect that 🫡

Dear anon,

Without knowing you read in my mind, just the other day, someone liked a post of that series and brought me back to last summer and to realise I actually promised I was going to finish them because I have maybe 4/5 daggers left out! I'm so happy each instalment made you laugh because they were pretty funny to write honestly, and I'm still laughing along when I catch them in my notifications! So, I can't promise it's going to be something that's gonna happen soon but I'm 100% going to get back to them, their silly adventures and at least complete the one that were left behind!

[pollyna]

Au where Jake doesn't only take Bradley or the Dagger squad down in Texas but Ice and Mav too because he wants his parents to meet the people that chose to adopt him when his own biological parents could barely stand him. "See? These people who had no business in caring about me or what I like or even just liking me decided I was worth it. Me. Not my name. Not my callsign or the number of airborne kills. Me. For myself." Jake would like to scream or even just point out to them, over dinner, but Mav blocking his dad from filling his glass with beer speaks louder than he could ever do.

[pollyna]

Mav: Fuck you!

Ice: No. Take it back.

Mav: Sorry what?

Ice: I said take it back.

Mav: What?

Ice: You kiss me with that mouth so take it back or you aren't going to kiss me for nine days. Seven because of the letters (F-U-C-K-Y-O-U) and an additional two for the space between fuck and you and the exclamation point.

Mav: You aren't making any sense!

Ice: Are you going to take it back or what?!

Mav: Fuck, sure! Nine days without kissing you? Are you crazy?!

*Mav kisses Ice and leave the room*

Ice *looking at the Daggers*: and this kids is how you win an argument.

[pollyna]

Phoenix is the first one to text to him because someone has to do something and everyone else is too scared to even think about that. It's a simple Admiral Kazansky, sir, this is Lieutenant Natasha Trace, callsign Phoenix, I'm sorry to bother but- and he's writing back the second the message is sent: What has he done this time? You know what, don't tell me. I'm already in the car.

The entire class feels like living in an alternative reality when Admiral Kazansky actually walks in to the class not even three minutes after the message, watches Captain Maverick and Vice Admiral Simspon with one of if legendary looks, and solve the situation without having to speak a single world. Simpson is profusely apologising because he shouldn't have made all that road for nothing and Maverick is watching the Admiral, right in the eyes, as if another different conversation taking place happening in the classroom.

The Vice Admiral is still talking and apologising when the Admiral just gives him his shoulder because yes, thank you Cyclone. You're dismissed and walking towards her. Thank you Lieutenant and Mav should by you a drink next time he's at the O-Club. She hopes her grama is watching over her because only her intervention could save her after she opens her mouth and instead of saying It was only my duty she says You should buy me a drink, Admiral. Oh fuck, now she is really really dead, she won't ever find another job, she'll have to change her name and find somewher- but Admiral Kazansky is laughing, in a strangley gently way, looking between her and Maverick. Yeah, yeah maybe I should.

And so Phoenix finds herself sitting down in their usual booth at the O-Club, Bob at her left and Admiral fuckin' Kazansky at her right, exchanging stories about Captain Mitchell and all the times he had to intervene to save his sorry sorry ass. All while Captain Maverick orders drinks and steal foods from Admiral Kazansky's plate.

[pollyna]

The very first dad thing Iceman does after having acquired eleven new children is putting a picture of everyone of his desk and one of the whole family on the wall.

(It's always a fun conversation when new people come around and he has to explain that yes that's his family, yes he has twelve grown up kids, yes he is married to Rare Admiral Mitchell now and no, he always was married to Rare Admiral Mitchell, even when he was a Captain.)

[pollyna]

Out of all the Dagger squadron Callie is the one who knows Admiral Kazansky the longer and, even before Top Gun, she was already eating at his table one every seven days. Just without Maverick around, even if she knew he was married. After every piece just fits where it should.

She was twenty-seven when an imposing dude, a Lieutenant Commander, asked her to be the attache during a conference with some Chinese delegation. Callie had accepted so fast she almost fell out of the chair for the enthusiasm and the Lieutenant had left her room laughing under his breath because oh this kid. In the end she had to do very little because Admiral Kazansky knew exactly what to say and how to say without her help, but he offered her a job because he knew her knowledge was going to be useful sooner than later. Callie had worked for two whole years with the man, in briefings, war rooms she theoretically wasn't supposed to be, over breakfast at the Admiral house with other ten people and over dinner in gala she hated but not how much the Admiral did. She worked for him and with him, learning as much as she could, translating during the Admiral's bad days when his fingers where as fast and hard as the things he would have liked to say but couldn't. When she got called in Top Gun, for the first time, she was barely thirty and the Admiral had hugged her and said you're for the skies not for boring politics. After it was a deployment after another, flying, flying and flying a little more, always to be the best alone and with her WSO.

The second time around Top Gun the Admiral wasn't around to say goodbye or to hug her but he sent a mail with enough big words in it to let Callie understand how important the mission was.

So, when at the end of it all, the squadron starts going around the Admiral, please Callie call me Tom or Iceman at which she answered just if you start calling me Halo Admiral, and the Captain's house she remembers where most things are and she starts making breakfast most of the mornings they stay over to sleep and Bradley himself looks a little lost the first time he has to find a cup in the immensity of the kitchen cupboard. Everybody looks at her like she grown a third head but Mav puts a photos of a younger Admiral and Halo in their whites, in front of the ONU's building. She was the second kid before every single on of you, Bradley excluded the Captain says a shirt two size to big over his pj's pants and Ice hugging his wrist. Fitz almost burns a stack of pancakes, Harvard's glass shatters on the ground and Phoenix murmurs to Bob holy shit I need that photo you see how cute Halo was.

That was a day Tom signs and Halo laughs because yes, yes that was a day she answers before going back to cutting the fruits and ignoring the one hundred questions they all have.

(The weirdest person to be around is Maverick, at the end of the day, because she knows the Admiral but his husband is the wild card. But, in the end, they bond over on too many breakfasts and all the crazy and wild things Tom did for Pete when he was searching for a present for his birthday.)

[pollyna]

Fanboy's brain has a thing, it's not a thing hijo it's ADHD you have to take this once a day and it's going to get a little easier, that doesn't really work well with the other thing he has, jeez 'Boy it's fucking insomnia man not an immunosuppressive disease!, and sometimes it results in waking up at ass hours because the bed is too hot, too cold, he's thinking about the new weapons specs and he has to prepare the dessert because Captain Mitchell has invited them all for the 4th of July's barbecue at his house.

How early is it he doesn't know but Payback is still asleep on the couch, why he's even sleeping on the couch?, but it's a matter of a second split though before he's thinking about how much flour, sugar and vanilla he has to use to make his favourite cake. He's going to put the cake in the oven when he realises that he didn't turn on the oven and if he does it's going to wake Pay and a tired Reuben is a pain in the ass he doesn't want to have today. So maybe, he could take it to Captain Mitchell home and use his oven.

It's seems like the most logical plane of execution all the way down to his superior's home, five streets by his temporary quarters. He rings the bell once, twice and he and his uncooked cake are a second away to turn around and sit on the porch, to wait maybe half an hour before trying again, when someone who is definitly not Captian Mitchell opens the door. The man on the other side is too tall to be Maverick, his hair are too light to and his eyes are blue. Definitly not Maverick but wait he know this face he's-

"Admiral Kazansky sir, I'm sorry to wake you up. I was searching for Captain Mitchell home, I probably end up-"

"Lieutenant Garcia at ease please, it's six in the morning, it's not a little to early to visit your captain?"

"Six in the- Oh, oh sir I-"

"Come Lieutenant, let's have breakfast and maybe by then you'll have found your words back. Captain Mitchell is still asleep, probably will be for another hour or so. It's that a cake?" he asks walking around the house in what Mickey now realises being pajamas pants and a grey t-shirt.

The next hour it's like living in another universe where Admiral Kazansy, call me Ice or even Tom there's no Admiral when I'm home, put his cake in the oven, makes him breakfast and close both eyes and ignore all the photos he's taking. Fanboy has to record this, for posterity, his own sanity and to sent them out to group chat because Admiral Thomas fucking Iceman Kazansky is making him breakfast and he's cheeks are red as a tomatoes because his voice is just smooth and perfect and, for once, Mickey wants just to listen to him talking and to not say a word. When he was in seventh grade Mickey wrote an essay about the Navy, the pilots and wanting to be just like Iceman and when he was sixteen the admiration evolved in a crush and it helped him undertake he wasn't straight, at all.

One of yours lost his clock this morning Mav he says looking over his shoulder to a very sleepy captain. At least this one just lost the clock and not his mind Ice he answers before smiling at Mickey, just a couple of hours earlier, eh Lieutenant? But his answer get lost in Captain Mitchell kissing Admiral Kazansky on the mouth before whispering Good morning babe.

Click, another pic, for posterity, himself and his sanity. He fall in another universe, for sure.

[pollyna]

During the first day in the TOPGUN program Bob looses: his glass, his way to class at least twice, Phoenix and his patience because of fucking Hangman and even more fucking Vice Admiral Cyclone. It's quarter past nine and he's sure he's in the right place this time but the class is empty and his phone isn't working. What a shitty shitty day to start the program of his dreams. The only other occupant of the space is sitting a couple of rows in from of him and his jacket has four stars on the shoulder. Admiral Kazansky? he murmurs and if the class was full no one would have heard him but his luck run out all together that day. Lieutenant Floyd, I see your pilot forgot to pass you the memo. Class will start tomorrow, one of the brasses is still out of town and apparently time isn't the essence for them.

Great, great, fucking great. Nat will hear him, oh if she will, the moment he can find her. No sir, she didn't.

At least I'm not the only one who's walking around in this hell of a place, Admiral Kazansky's smiles at him, getting on his feet and now Bob gets why the always describe him as tall and impotent as the world. I was waiting for Captain Mitchell for lunch but he's late, as usual. Would you like to take his place? I assure you the place as the best chicken wings of the state. Or at least that's what Mav says.

Bob is looking at him, seriously considering if the Admiral is joking or not but apparently the man inviting him, him on all the bases, for breakfast because Captain Mitchell is late. I would really like that sir.

The restaurant is nice and homey but everyone is looking at them because they have on their uniforms but but Admiral Kazansky's face is impossibile too read, he seems almost unbothered by every single other leaving form there. Captain Mitchell is sitting at the table and Bob is five second to say it's not a problem if he's not invited anymore, he can find somewhere else to g-

Lieutenant do you know half of the class is searching for you around the base? Captain Mitchell asks, looking away from his menu. He's going to say he's sorry when the two men start laughing like the other has just said the joke of the century. Holy shit Ice, you should have seeing them, all desperately trying to not let me know they didn't know where Lieutenant Floyd was. Best thirty minutes of today! Don't worry, Ice wrote me the moment he saw you. It was funny to see everyone desperate tho, they actually worked together, it was a good exercise.

Bob spends two hours eating chicken wings, talking with people who probably wouldn't even know he existed if it wasn't for the program and got to taste one of the best pecan pie ever done by someone who's not his dad. After, when the get back at the base, Natasha jumps on him, frantically asking questions and he finds himself engulfed in a group hug because they thought they lost him in the middle of the desert and everyone is sorry for a reason or another. When he finally gets to talk they all watch him like some sort of new person because he has gossip and gossip is golden, expecially when it comes to Capitans and Admirals.

[pollyna]

Javy is considering killing Hangman for so long he doesn't remember the first time he actually thought about it. He love his best friend and they're going to be bond for life, on earth just as in the sky, but if he has to hear another world about Bradley Rooster Fucking Bradshaw he's going to loose it. And, if he's going to loose his head he will make sure that Jake looses his too. But not metaphorically.

He can't go back home because Phoniex is there with Bob, Jake and Rooster, Fanboy is somewhere with 'Pay and maybe he could get himself a stiff drink and drown his headache in that? And then go back home to sleep and be ready for another forty minutes long rant offered by his best friend over pancake for breakfast.

He finds a spot where to park himself for at least half an hour and he's going to order a beer, money already in his hand when someone else's pays Penny for him. This one is on me Lieutenant, you deserve a little distraction by the Bradshaw-Seresin drama. God only knows we all do. He studied the maneuvers of this man, who's now sitting at his right, every year in school. He didn't just studied them he wrote a thesis about aerodynamics and physics because one doesn't go and becomes a four stars Admiral playing nice and all by the book. He has a copy of said thesis in his bedroom, waiting to find this man and making him sign it, and maybe read it too. This man is offering him a drink because he knows about the Bradshaw-Seresin drama. This man. Admiral Thomas James Kazansy, callsign Ice -freakin'-man knows about the drama.

Do you know about that too, sir? he asks taking a sip of his beer because he needs to find his voice again or he won't be able to say another word.

Pete doesn't talk about anything else. Over breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snacks. Sometimes I have to put on airphones so I don't have to hear him. Oh, oh this is going to be good. Javy can already feel the headache dissipates itself, the beer is cold in his hand and he's talking with his hero about something as unimportant as a love drama.

By the time the bar closes off it's already 2 am and Captain Mitchell is there to take Admiral Kazansky's home. They drunk enough beers and a particularly strong whisky he almost doesn't feel embarrassed when the Admiral tries to shake his hand and Javy hugs him. Thank you for tonight sir, I'm going to find the way to pay you back for all the drinks.

No need for that Lieutenant, but you could do something for me. Mav told me you wrote a thesis about some of my manouvers and I would like to read it, if it's possibile.

Maybe, and he says maybe, he's not going to kill Jake afterall, just mhayem him a little bit. Before he takes his thesis to Admiral Tom Iceman Kazansky, who he's just spend the night drinking with.

I think you broke him Ice, Captain Mitchell says. What do you say Coyote, leave your thesis by my office tomorrow morning and I will make sure to deliver it to him?

Ye-yes sir, it would be acceptable sir. Thank you again for tonight, sir. Goodnight, sirs. he stumbles a little, with his words and his feet, before they both disappeare around the corner.

He's going to wake up Jake and he's going to tell him everything and he's going do the same tomorrow too, until Jake will pray him to stop and he will tell him the same story again, for a little longer. So he will finally know what he has felt over the last two weeks.

(Babe I think you broke one of my students tonight Mav whispers while walking home.

Eh, you have another eleven of them, you'll live he answers before stopping in the middle of the road to kiss him sweetly.)

[pollyna]

He is drinking his third shot when he realises that fuck it, if he could graduate from Harvard, becoming a doctor and a fucking excellent pilot, the 1% of the 1%, he could surley master the courage to go and talk with Admiral Kazansky. He has to talk with the man, not ask him for a date because he isn't Fritz. Frizt could go there and ask the man without having half of the alcohol Harvard has in his body now. He's not drunk, he swear. He just need a little liquid courage. Oh honey, you can go and talk to the man, he isn't going to eat you Penny says, filling his glass one more time. This is the last one of the night, so you go there before Mav comes around and swips him out before everyone's eyes. Okay, okay he can do it. Thanks Penny he says drinking until the last drop of his vodka.

He's half way the bar when Captain Mitchell slides on the booth, just on the right side of the Admiral and kisses him. Nope, so not gonna happen to night, sorry, he tried at least? he tries to convince himself when a hand drags him back towards the booth. So Harvard, my dear husband is asking himself when you would have find the courage to come and talk to him or if he had to make the first move to come to you. Now kid, you have to now that Iceman does the first move only with me or when he wants to get someone to disappear Mav says with a conspiratorial look at his husband so what about you sit your ass down son? I'd hate to loose another pilot so soon.

Harvard has to be very pale because another pilot? Oh god, he's going to die. Did Admiral Kazansky really- oh for chrissake Pete, let the man sit and have another drink before he has a heart attack. And then Harvard is sitting down without realising because Maverick is sneaky and he should have known better than to just trust the man. There's a beer already in front of himself and so, lieutenant what was all that fret? If it wasn't for the uniform, and that I hand picked you, I would have asked Penny to escort you out or that you were trying to flirt with me. the Adrmial says after a long minute of silence and Harvard is really trying to not choke on his own beer. It's-i'm not Fitz sir, I was trying to find the moment to come here and talk to you, sir. Everyone else did it and I didn't like to be left out of the loop, sir.

Uhuh, you're one of the kids I haven't seen around the house yet. But here you're, you can speak and introduce yourself the man is positively trying not to laugh and Captain Mitchell is stuffing is mouth of peanuts because he wants to be serious. He's going to say something, he really is, because his mouth is opening and closing and the beer bottle is slowly but steadley becoming lighter and still, not a single sentence is out.

Admiral Kazansky is looking at him, Captain Mitchell is looking at him, hell Penny is looking at him behind the bar but still, silence.

Did Mav ever told you what he did to piss Admiral Cane that much? the Admiral asks, looking back at his husband who's already trying to escape the story behind the question. But no sir, he didn't and so it begins.

Penny has to send them all out because she has to close the bar but the Admiral, call me Iceman, is still going on and on about this or that thing that Mav did or sharing randomly old gossip about other Admirals and Harvard's jaw is aching for how much he's laughin. It's 3 am and he has to go to sleep because in four hours they are going to have another loop to do and he needs to sleep but he really doesn't want to leave them. Now he gets why everyone is always around their house and why Halo decided to work with this particular Admiral years ago.

Do you prefer waffles or pancake Lieutenant? the Admiral asks, after exchanging their goodbyes.

Pancakes with a side of fruit salad, sir he answers, confused by the question. The last person who was interested in his breakfast habits was Yale and that's a particular story that involves a burn pan he doesn't want to think about right now. As it, it happend just two mornings ago and most of their clothes are still smelling like smoke.

Another on your side than, Mav. We will be expecting you on Sunday morning, it's going to be a brunch, all the squadron and the hopes are less alcohol in the mimosas than last time the Admiral announces before walking away, a half asleep Maverick on his side and Penny looking at them by her car.

Sunday morning. Perfect. Now he just has to find the strength to wake up at seven for the rest of the week. Easy peasy. And he can finally tell Fitz he talked to the man and take Yale with him so maybe, maybe, is boyfriend is going to learn how to cook once and for all.

[pollyna]

It takes almost three week to Hangman to realise who Captain Mitchell actually is. It doesn't help that Roo-Rooster is around 24/7 and he has to compete with him for this mission and Phoenix is giving him the shoulder because he doesn't know when to shut the fuck up and Bob was just there, wrong place and wrong time. It could have been Coyote or Fanboy, he would have said the same thing, he swears. But then, four and half days before the actual mission, when all seem lost and Jack is a moment away from taking his plane and just leave the motherfucking TOPGUN and everyone in the group altogether, Admiral Thomas Kazansky walks in, uniform and stars all in the right places, and quotes Shakespeare while Cyclone is explaining, again, the parameter of the mission.

Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war he says and Jack is back to the summer of his fifteenth birthday, in a new house in a different side of the country, putting away his old shirts in new wardrobes and an empty house for the day of his birthday. He remembers too of two men and a kid, of his age, coming around with a cake and the same then-blond man inviting him for dinner, even when he didn't know him or what day it was. He remembers that that's the first memory he has of Bradley and Maverick and of a man he always heard being called uncle Tom all the time. And he remembers him telling that sentence everytime they did something they shouldn't or wouldn't want to do, like science or math homework, and always him, blonde and constantly smiling, taking them to baseball practice until the day of his deployment, two months shy he's own dad's transfer to Palo Alto. When he met Bradley again asking about his uncles was the last important thing to do, not after all that years apart and not after how much Bradley has grown. But now Uncle Tom is there, less blonde and but still smiling in the same way watching his subordinate giving him space to come and talk in his place.

They gave him, for even a year, one of the most happy moments of his life and would like to give this man, who is now still talking and wearing a wedding ring, a minute long hug and maybe vent a bit because this mission is so important and he remembers to well how he used to vent to Uncle Tom when school was too much, his home was too empty and Bradley a little too pretty to not look at him. Maybe, maybe if he can have a patience he can still talk to him, during his office hours, and maybe he will still have that tea, the one that used to calm him in every situation, and solve half of his current problems. Just like he used to.

[pollyna]

Fritz is going to pass in history as the only person who got to do the most improbable and embrassing thing and to take Admiral Kazansky down with him. The man who's he worships the ground he walk on and who's been his greatest crush since when Bradely showed him a picture of his uncles back when he was ten years old. Frizt has a thing for older man and an even bigger things for Thomas Kazansky.

So when it happens and said Admiral ends up on him, face at least than once centimetre away, he feels like heaven has opened his door for him and only him. He takes to feel like that for almost two entire minutes before everyone and their staff manager is shouting and taking Admiral Kazansky away from his chest. He misses him already.

They're gonna talk about this at his wedding and during his eulogy, years from now, because it was so awsome. Not the part where he tripped in front of all the people he could have tripped in front of but, y'know, the following part was actually so awsome.

Phoenix is at his right, Roo at his left and Vice Admiral Cyclone is patting Admiral Kazansky everywhere to see if it's okay. And the Admiral is laughing, full blown scale laugh. Simpson check the kid, I'm alright, and try to not made his life impossible. It wasn't his fault. Fitz is looking at this man, a couple of steps from him, standing up, straightening his uniform and coming towards him with his end out to help him on his feet and he can't find a single word to say to him if not I'm so sorry Admiral.

Think nothing of it ki-Lieutenant, you probably saved me from hours of long boring speeches. Let's get your ribs checked, I'm not as lit as I was thirty years ago.

People are going to talk about this day yes, at his wedding and at his funeral, as the day he tripped, took down Admiral Kazansky with him and then Admiral Kazansky himself took him, with an arm around his shoulder to the doctor. Ah, fuck them and their eating together with the Admiral, he got the preferential treatment and the man is hugging him! Or at least he's giving half of a hug. Fritz isn't pitchy.

(Captain Mitchell is sitting on one that blue and really uncomfortable hospital chairs, when Fritz finishes with the doctor. He's looking at him without really been looking at him and, the moment the Admiral is out of the room too, Maverick is on his feet.

I get held back once because of paperwork and you fall on one of my students! And worst of all they call me telling me you were in an accident and at the hospital, Frizt know he isn't quiet screaming but he feels like the man had quiet a scare, maybe he should intervene to say it wasn't the Admiral's fault? But worst of it all Iceman no one, and I say no one, not even Rooster that little traitor, filmed it. Now I'll have to leave with the idea of what it happened without having hard proof of you being clumsy once in a while.

Oh, that's and interesting turn of events, maybe someone should fetch him pop corn if they're going to be there for a little longer? But then they are both laughing, and Maverick is gently moving the Admiral's face to check if everything's okay before kissing his nose. You're allowed to have this kind of fun without me, got it Kazansy?

Yeah, whatever makes you sleep at night Mav he answers sweetly before kissing him on the lips, once and then a second time. Yep, Fritz is gonna need popcorn, ASAP.)

((In the next two days the Admiral comes around during class to check if he's really okay and if he feels like flying or not. Frizt would very much like to inform this man that he's already personally flying without the need of a plane, thank you very much sir.))

[pollyna]

Reuben would like to know why, who did this, did they find the whole process funny? He was having such a good day and he would have laughed it off if it wasn't for all the paper he has to fill to correct the callsign on his plane and how not so much time he has to do it. Thirty-two minutes before Cyclone leaves for the day and thirty minutes to actually fill all the informations, on a triple copy. With every single informations to fill the exact spot, without grammar mistakes or else Cyclone is going to ignore the request and sent him out, in three days time, with Reuben Paycheck Fitch on the side of his plane. And seriously, Paycheck?! Back in Annapoils they used to forget and e in his name but never once someone printed Paycheck instead that Payback.

It's 4.55 when Payback, not 'check as he reminds himself, runs into Vice Admiral Cyclone's office and he finds the man isn't there anymore. Oh god no, he never leaves before 4.59 why today of all days he's already gone. He's runied, everyone in the sky will call him Paycheck and they're going to invent stupid jokes, he can already see them, Hangman and Coyote putting money on the best one because that's the type of people they are, and the Navy is never, ever, going to give him another important job and he'll have to switch to commercial and die of fucking bordroom flying big slowly white things with cryin' babies on and he will actually die before he's 50 because he will start eating stupid and really unhealthy food. He's goin-

Lieutenant there's something I can do for you or you're going to spend the next two minutes on the door? the voice comes from his right and Admiral Kazansky is like a vision and Pay swears he never saw a more beautiful human being until that moment. Sir, I was searching for Vice Admiral Cyclone, sir. Someone printed by callsign all wrong and I don't want to fly with something as cheap as Paycheck on my plane, sir.

Admiral Kazansky looks like a minute away to laugh it off but then do you have all the documents right? I will personally see that the mistake is correct before your flight. They never lost their humor, I see.

Who never lost his humor sir? Pay' finds himself asking, a little more relaxed because if Admiral Kazansy had said they're going to fix it it's going to happen. This man is the law around there and no one wants to make him sad or angry or even just slightly unhappy. Back in Miramar, it was in 1989, we had this two pilots with similar callsigns and Maverick had to go around them for weeks before they finally printed the right names on the planes. Captain Mitchell was half a step away to just paint the write one himself.

Pay' can see it happening in front if his eyes, because that's the kind of man Captain Mitchell is, so if in three days they don't solve the problem I can ask Captain Mitchell to do it with a brush and a can of black? Oh, he really said that out loud? Oh man, why can't he shout up sometimes, it was going to so well! He's a little jealous of his 'mates because they all have stories about Admiral Kazansky's help and 'Boy has photos of the man preparing him breakfast but he had to say-

Oh, I would pay to see that happen. But please restrain yourself to actually ask him to do that or by tomorrow I'll have to explain why someone else had to process all this docs for no reason.

Do you think he would? he finds asking, again. Who would do what? new voice asks from behind his back. Admiral you know we're already late and Chip' hates when people aren't where they are supposed to be by the time they are. Chop chop my love, whatever problem Payback has Cyclone can solve it tomorrow morning.

And apparently now even him can be part of that slice of alternative universe 'Boy talked him about, where Captain Mitchell calls Admiral Kazansy my love and frets because they have to go and he's still talking about people being somewhere, caressing his cheek and your stubble is making you very hot, i'll be sad tomorrow morning when you'll have to shave it away and so we'll have to make the best of it, before tomorrow morning. Uh, now Reuben is sure his own cheeks are red because it's all very domestic, he's going trought a little dry spell and the stubble made Admiral Kazansky a little hotter than usual. He finds himself retrieving in the most silently way he can, letting the two men immerse in their world. It's 5.30 and if he hurries he can get home and have enough time to change and see what the rest of group is going to go for the night and maybe share his own story with Iceman, because now he has one!

Two and half days later Reuben finds his callsign fixed on his plane and a little note fro Admiral Kazansky who hopes they did an okay work and invited him and everyone else around for lunch, a week from that day. Apparently people incompetence can have it's use, sometimes.

[pollyna]

hello pollyna! was just wondering if you are going to continue the ‘how to adopt young adult 101 icemav edition’ series? i love that series of yours so much!

Hi anon! 🌸

I have all the intention of finishing all twelve and then some but re-reading some parts I realised it was all food based situation or they were starting to look a little too similar one to another so I'm trying to get new ideas to write something 'fresh' for the 4/5 daggers left behind!

I'm really happy you like them, they're one of my own favourite pieces!