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nuvoleincielo · 3 years ago

Text

Hangman to the rescue!

I loved this so much.

Saviour - Jake “Hangman” Seresin

xReader

Summary: Someone won’t take a hint and need a fake boyfriend to ward them off? Hangman’s got you covered.

Warnings: alcohol, unwanted advancements (nothing major - just a douchebag), swearing.

Note: 2.6k - AHHHH I started drafting this after I saw TGM a couple of weeks ago and I finally got it all out of my head and into a doc. As per all my fics, it’s self indulgent and I have no regrets. My first TGM fic!! Let’s goooo!

“I need a drink!” you called over the music. Your friends were one too many drinks deep to properly understand what you were saying but nodded at you anyway, grabbing each other's hands and jumping up and down out of time with the song, dancing apparently.

You couldn’t help but laugh at how uncoordinated they were in their drunken state as you turned to head back to the bar, weaving through the sea of dancing bodies.

Finally making it to the bar you waited patiently for Penny to get to you, taking the chance to observe your surroundings. For whatever reason, The Hard Deck was extra busy tonight. There were the local-regulars, the Navy aviator-regulars, curious beach-goers wanting to catch a glimpse of said aviators, and if the matching tuxedo print t-shirts were anything to go by - a bachelor party.

“God, sorry about that,” Penny’s voice broke your train of thought, “another coke and raspberry?”

You grinned in confirmation, “No rush! Serve those guys first. Just when you get a sec, Pen.”

It was your turn to be the sober driver of your friend group which honestly, you had no issue with. Sometimes it was fun just to stand back and watch your friends go wild. The lack of a hangover the next day was just a nice bonus.

Your attention was pulled back to the bar as Penny placed your drink in front of you, “Anything else?”

“I’m good. Thanks, Pen,” you handed over your card to pay, “Any idea why it’s so busy tonight?”

She huffed out a laugh and shrugged a shoulder, “Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe people enjoyed that show on the beach earlier.”

You shot a puzzled look her way, “What show?”

“You missed a good one, hon. Bunch of pilots playing football on the beach. The onlookers were very pleased.”

“Were you one of those onlookers by any chance?” She rolled her eyes at your smirk and handed your card back.

“Shut up and drink your drink.”

Choosing to catch your breath and stay away from the dance floor for the time being, you took the chance to capture some less than complimentary photos and videos of your friends to use on upcoming birthdays.

Giggling at their drunken dance moves you failed to notice someone slide onto the barstool next to you. It wasn’t until you turned back to take a sip of your drink that you caught sight of a brunet in a tuxedo-print shirt shooting you a confident smirk.

You gave a brief smile and moved your attention back to the dance floor.

The man next to you cleared his throat lightly, “Hi.”

Your eyes shot around the bar until you clicked he was talking to you, again you gave him the briefest of smiles, a grimace almost, and a nod in greeting.

“I’m Dylan.” His smirk grew into a grin.

You offered your name as a short reply and took another sip, diverting your eyes.

While you kept your eyes on your drink you felt him move closer, arm brushing yours on the bar top. You retracted your arm right away.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

Eyes flitted from your drink to him and back again pointedly, “Um, I’m good… thanks.”

Dylan shrugged and took a swig of his beer, “You from around here?”

Actively trying to hold back your eyeroll you nodded, “I am.”

Take the hint, dude.

You turned your back to the guy and let your eyes drag across the crowd, trying to locate your friends, clocking the gaze of a couple of people you recognised as pilots while doing so.

“Not very talkative are you?”

You shut your eyes in an attempt to calm yourself.

“Come on, sweetheart. Join me for a drink.” He pushed.

“No thanks, I’m here with someone.”

Now would be a great time for your friends to make an appearance.

“Then why’re you sitting at the bar by yourself?” Dylan leaned closer as he asked the question, you felt yourself lean backwards on instinct.

“Not exactly a crime, is it?”

He chuckled lowly, “You’ve got jokes. Tell me another.”

You sighed and looked him in the eye, “I don’t want to be rude but I really am here with someone.”

Technically not a lie.

Dylan smirked, “Easy, sweetheart. I’m just talking to a pretty woman. Nothin’ wrong with that.”

“Please… don’t.”

“Don’t what? Talk to you?”

Before you could think of a reply you felt an arm move around your back to support your weight as you leaned so far back in your seat you were almost falling out. Your eyes shot from the brunet in front of you to the blond man who now flanked your side, recognising him as one of the guys who had caught your eye not two minutes earlier.

“This guy bothering you, darlin’?” His question was directed at you but his gaze didn’t leave Dylan’s.

“We’re just talking,” Dylan shifted his eyes to you, “aren’t we, sweetheart?”

So lost in what was happening you couldn’t find your voice.

“Do me a favour, and stop talking to my girl.”

Your head tilted up to stare at the blond in surprise, he tilted his head down to you, as if you could read his mind, just go with it.

You relaxed slightly against him and nodded lightly, giving him the go-ahead. At your nod, the blond moved his hand from where he had a hold on the edge of the bar top to rest lightly on your bicep, thumb rubbing gently against your skin.

“Your girl?”

“My girl,” the blond confirmed, “problem?”

Dylan held his hands up in mock defence, “She didn’t say anything about a boyfriend, man. Maybe you should keep a tighter leash on her.”

The grip on your arm tightened ever so slightly.

“You should go now.”

The brunet smirked at the blond’s sneer, “I’m just here getting a drink. It’s a public bar.”

“It’s a Navy bar,” Penny interrupted from behind the counter, “everything okay here, Hangman?”

Hangman?

“We’re good, Penny,” so the blond was Hangman? “He was just leaving.”

Dylan looked from Hangman, to Penny, to you and rolled his eyes, “Whatever, man. Your bitch, your problem.”

You felt the man next to you tense and start to move closer to the stranger, shooting your hand to his chest to stop his movements. His eyes dropped to yours and you shook your head, “Please don’t. It’s not worth it.”

Hangman’s jaw tensed as he studied your face, nodding finally.

“Penny, my dear,” he called over his shoulder, eyes still locked on the dark-haired man, “How about giving that bell a quick ring?”

Penny smirked and winked at you as she stepped back and rang the bell, resulting in the bar erupting in cheers. At the strangers' confused expression Hangman took the liberty to point at the sign behind the bar, beer still in hand, “You disrespect a lady, you buy a round. For everyone.”

Clocking Dylan’s angry glare you discreetly moved in closer to your saviour, who in turn tightened his grip on you and continued to stare the man down.

“Not only have you disrespected a lady, you disrespected my lady. Time for you to walk on back to your pals.” Hangman made a shooing motion with his free hand.

Deciding to not dig himself further into the hole he’d found himself in, Dylan rolled his eyes, mumbled a, ‘Whatever’, and walked back to the bachelor party, choosing instead to glare at you from afar.

“Prick.”

You almost jumped in fright at the sound, suddenly remembering that you weren’t alone. Slipping out of Hangman’s hold you braced yourself back against the bar and looked up at the blond waiting a beat before breathing out, “Thank you.”

His green eyes snapped from glaring across the bar down to meet yours, now full of concern, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” you nodded slightly, “yeah, I’m good. Seriously, thank you for that. You didn’t need to.”

“Guy needs to learn to take a hint,” his eyes dragged over your face as if he was looking for any sign of harm, “are you here by yourself?”

You shook your head, “I’m um, I’m with my friends,” you turned and pointed vaguely to the corner of the bar that had been claimed as a dance floor by anyone drunk enough, “They’re just… preoccupied.”

Trust your friends to choose that exact moment to start attempting the ‘sprinkler’ dance move. You dragged your hand over your face, giggling in embarrassment, “Jesus Christ.”

The blond chuckled behind you, “Preoccupied is one word for it,” he watched them for a moment longer, “You’re gonna be here a while,” your gaze moved back to him as he spoke, “C’mon.”

He handed you your drink from the bar before placing his hand lightly on your back, giving you a light push to get you to follow his lead.

You were grateful for his hand on your back, keeping you grounded as you followed him through the crowd, mind still on the interaction that had just occurred. Hangman led you to a table in the back corner of the bar, out of sight of the bachelor party crew.

Sliding into the seat opposite him you let out the breath you’d been holding in for what felt like forever.

“You okay?” He checked again. Smiling in response you nodded.

“I'm good. Thank you. Again.”

He tipped his head in acknowledgement.

“So… you’re in the Navy?” You prompted, trying to save you both from an awkward silence.

His face split into a grin and nodded, “Am I that obvious?”

“You’ve got the whole,” you gestured vaguely around his face, “clean cut, slicked back hair, officer thing going on. And Hangman doesn’t exactly sound like a run-of-the-mill nickname.”

He tipped his beer bottle at you accusingly, “You’re very observant.”

“What do you do? Within the Navy, I mean.”

“Naval aviator, ma’am. I fly the planes.”

Your eyes brightened, “Pilot, huh? Must be a nice view up there.”

His eyes locked with yours, “It sure is something.”

Jesus Christ.

You busied yourself by taking a sip from your glass, “So do you have a name, or do I keep calling you… Hangman.”

He chuckled at your uncertainty, “Something wrong with my callsign?”

Immediately shaking your head you backtracked, “No! No. It’s a great… callsign. I just feel Iike I shouldn’t be calling you that… is that normal? For a normal person to use your callsigns? And by ‘normal people’, I mean ya’know… not Navy people.”

His eyes didn’t leave yours as he smiled at your obvious fumbling, “Lieutenant Jake Seresin at your service, ma’am.”

You shook his outstretched hand and told him your name in return, “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lieutenant.”

“Pleasure’s all mine, darlin’.”

God that smile.

“You uh, you don’t have to sit here with me you know. Go back to your Navy friends. I’m good. Promise.”

He leaned back in his chair and smiled softly at you, “You telling me to leave?”

“Um no… I’m just… I don’t-“

Jake interrupted your rambling, “If it’s alright with you, ma’am, I think I’d like to stay. You know, to ward off any more unwanted attention.”

The heat in your cheeks was bound to be obvious and you ducked your head in an attempt to hide your shy smile, “Sure. That’s… that’s absolutely fine.”

You learnt a lot about the man in front of you as you shared a drink, and then another. He was a Texas native, had only ever wanted to be a pilot, had an older sister, loved 70’s and 80’s rock over any other music,

“Post Malone? No. If it’s not Phil Collins I don’t want it.”

He was well travelled,

“If you go to one place in your lifetime… make it Italy.”

Was apparently incredible at darts,

“I swear to God! Hand over my eyes, three in a row, bullseye every time.”

Was not the most humble of men,

“Someone’s got to be the best, right?”

“You’re very sure of yourself.”

“Nothing’ wrong with a little confidence, darlin’”

And he was enjoying his time in San Diego,

“It’s nice here, you know? The sun, the sea, the views from the sky. It has a way of growing on you.”

For every question you asked him, he had fired one right back at you.

Where did you grow up? What’s your favourite food? What’s your least favourite thing about your job? Cats or dogs? Tell me this, tell me that.

He was an incredibly interesting man.

“You have lived one hell of a life, Jake.”

He smiled fondly at you, “Still got a long way to go.”

The flow of your conversation was interrupted by your two now very drunk friends collapsing into the spare seats at your table and grabbing you dramatically.

“We’ve been looking for you everywhere! Are you gonna sleep with this guy?” She eyed a very amused Jake and leant closer to you, not whispering at all, “He’s hot!”

Your eyes flicked between your friends and Jake rapidly, very much embarrassed, “Okay time to call it a night I think.”

You sunk back the last of your soda, grimacing at the tickle down your throat before you clapped your hands at your friends who were blatantly checking out your company, “Let’s go! Taxi’s leaving.”

Apparently they had indulged themselves a little too much this evening and struggled to walk in a straight line, resulting in you carrying the weight of one and Jake, ever the gentleman, allowing the other to lean on him for support as you led them out of the bar.

“Looks like you’re in for a fun night.” He laughed as you both struggled towards your car.

“They’ll owe me for next time. That’s for sure.” You managed to unlock your car and less than gracefully shove your friend in the passenger seat. Jake followed suit with your friend in the backseat, however with his advantage in strength, his dislodgement was a lot more coordinated.

You spoke over your shoulder as you rounded the car to the driver’s side, “Thank you for tonight. For everything. That guy, the company and,” you gestured to the mess that was your friends, “this.”

He chuckled and took a step closer to you, “Happy to help.”

The two of you stared at each other quietly, sharing a soft smile before the banging on a car window interrupted the moment. Apparently your friends wanted to go, and wanted to go now.

“I should go.” You pointed your thumb over your shoulder to your car.

Jake nodded in agreement, “Can I,” he cleared his throat, “I apologise if I’m out of line, but can I see you again?”

You felt a grin make its way over your face as the heat once again returned to your cheeks. Nodding shyly you held his eye contact, “Yeah. That’d be great.”

Smiling his megawatt smile in your direction he handed you his phone and you typed out a message to send to yourself.

90’s RnB trumps 80’s rock.

He rolled his eyes when he saw what you’d typed out, “It most certainly does not.”

You shrugged innocently, “Agree to disagree.”

Gaining a surge of confidence you rose up to place a sweet kiss on the pilot’s cheek, pulling back almost as quickly, “I guess I’ll be seeing you, Lieutenant.”

You relished in the way he was lost for words, “Yeah, you will.”

Giving him one last smile you turned and hopped into the driver’s seat, waving at him through the window and driving away.

Watching him watch you through the rearview mirror.

#top gun:maverick #jake seresin #jake seresin x reader #hangman x reader #fic rec #jake hangman seresin

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