Pandoriamydear - Welcome To The Box

He really thought he could use the clout of this interview as a leverage to instrumentalise her against the people and especially women in his own country. He wanted to pit her against the women in Iran protesting for their freedom - and conceal the international solidarity from them. He wanted to show off his power and she said no.

maverick knows his pilots miss him because of the little things they share. the texts he gets and the pictures. always at random, sporadic and unprompted.

things like —

fanboy telling him they nailed a test run for a new mission because of the way mav taught them to fly.

you two would’ve done that all on your own. proud of you.

phoenix telling him she’s up for promotion and hoping he can make it to the ceremony since it’s his fault she’s gotten even better in the air.

you were always going to soar, phoenix. i’ll be there.

coyote telling him, not for the first time, how grateful he is that maverick knows the importance of getting everyone home alive.

nothing wrong with a little hope, right?

just. small things that make mav’s chest ache every time with something proud and fond and soft because he may not be flying for the navy anymore, but these kids are absolutely making sure he still feels like he is.

helpless

(Phoenix, as Hangman and Rooster's surrogate, has just given birth)

Rooster(holding their newborn): Oh my God, he's beautiful. Thank you so much.

Phoenix: I'm really happy for you guys.

Hangman: How do you feel?

Poenix: I'm tired.

Doctor: Well, you don't have that much time to relax. The other one will be along in a minute.

(all three at them freeze and stare at the doctor in shock)

Hangman: I...I'm sorry, WHO should be along in a WHAT NOW?!

Doctor: The next baby should be along in a minute.

Rooster: We only ordered one!

Doctor: You know it's twins, right?

Hangman: Oh, yeah! These are the faces of two people in the know!

they lost focus and had a consensual workplace relationship

“And nearly a quarter century after Top Gun, when Kilmer and Tom Cruise, by chance, attended the same Los Angeles Lakers game in 2009, they found themselves together again, shown split-screen on the Jumbotron, while Kenny Loggins’s “Danger Zone” played over the speakers.”

I will not be taking arguments about this. 

Sitting in front of a cake with 40 birthday candles on it, it's probably one of the weirdest experiences of Bradley's life. Not because he didn't think he was going to get forty, but because there were so many people around him singing and hugging him, passing him presents and taking photos of the event that it baffled him a little. Uncle Tom and Uncle Pete are there too, and that's another reason why his eyes are a little wet; he spent so much time being angry with them, and now they're here, on the other side of the table, drinking beers and laughing with the rest of the squad. At forty, Uncle Tom had been raising Bradley since 1988. He was married to Mav, and their little family was all they had to celebrate, and most of the men he called, calls, uncle were around the world. They are still around the world, but their presents and their birthday videos are there, and they will be around, in person, at least once a week. They, his uncles and his squadron, are his family now, and they're enough to not fit on his two hands when he counts them all. He makes Bradley's heart beat a little faster, and all he feels is happiness.

When he blows the candles, he wishes for another thousand birthdays like this.

(He falls asleep, drunk and exhausted, hugging Jake in the middle of the other twelve people, and Logan is hugging him. He knows his head and back won't thank him in the morning, but he's safe, and the blankets around him make it all warm and cozy. Bradley couldn't ask for a better birthday.)

Tell me a soft memory

At sixteen he used to tell wild stories about the scar on his cheek. Wild adventures he lived with wild people during a summer camp he was never part of it. But it was a good story and girls and boys spent hours listening him talk.

At twenty seven, fresh out of Annapolis the story got wilder and bigger than life. This time it was about a crush, a dogfight and saving his teammates before ejecting and marring his face forever for them. Seresin always laughed in the louder way possibile when he heard the story and always alway bought a shot to Machado because and even this night it got more adventurous Bradshaw! What's next?

At thirty eight, in the backyard of his dads' home and with every single person important in his life, new and old family, Rooster tells all another story. It's Fanboy who asks because he's curious as a fox and he needs to know the truth, so how did it Rooster got the scar on his cheek Mav?

It was actually a very funny story, wasn't it Slider? Ice asks, half laughing and half trying to stay serious. So funny, adds Mav, that Admiral Kerner lost his babysitting privileges for three whole months!

I had to do a PowerPoint to let him be back in the house it's Rooster's answer and I still have it around somewhere Baby Goose, I was so touched.

You cried like a five years old Kerner, stop bullshitting everybody! screams Hollywood from the other side of the garden. He did and, anyway, we left that two alone for a day, Ice was picking me up at the airport and when we got back that evening Baby Goose had this enormous bandage covering half of his face, there was blood everywhere in the bathroom and Ron's shirt was as bloody as his hands. This idiots tried to save a kitten but forgot none of them actually knew how to go up or down on a tree and the poor beast was probably scared out of his mind and attacked Bradley who lost his balance and fall out of the three with Ron following him and it y'know the blood wasn't even their but of a poor bird the cat left on the base of the tree.

Everybody is laughing and honestly this version of the story? Way better than anything Rooster could have every come out with.