San Diego, 2016. Mav, marry us
"Mav," he says softly, like someone approaching a wounded animal, "Mav, honey, this is a misunderstanding. Yeah? Jake and I are not going to leave you."
Maverick reacts with a bitter, incredulous laugh.
"Don't be silly, Bradley. Of course you'll leave me. This relationship always had an expiration date. In four weeks, you will be given new assignments, on some aircraft carrier on the other side of the world."
"Many people have long-distance relationships," Jake retorts.
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Fandom: Top Gun (Movies)
Relationship: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell/Jake "Hangman" Seresin
Characters: Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, Jake "Hangman" Seresin, Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw
Additional Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Implied Mpreg
INDEX: https://palabraspulsares.blogspot.com/p/happy-together.html
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"I'll be out in a moment!" answers Mitchell from inside the house.
Bradley nods to himself and checks the time. They have plenty of time to get to the restaurant. He would have stayed there if it weren't for the sound of breaking glass and the "Damn!" followed by an unmistakable exclamation of pain.
"Mav!?"
Guided by the sound, Bradley runs to the bathroom attached to the master bedroom. Sure enough, Maverick is sitting on the toilet, putting a Band-Aid on his thigh while holding a disposable syringe between his lips. In front of him are a glass vial's remains and a dark blue puddle. Opposite, on the beautiful marble countertop of the bathroom, there is a small box with several vials filled with the same blue liquid from the floor and other accessories.
Bradley barely reads the label and feels an infinite sadness take his breath away. Maverick's surprised and guilty expression seems to confirm that... No, it can't be.
"What ?... What happened?"
"What does it look like? I'm clumsy, and I dropped a vial. Damm it! This thing is expensive."
Maverick puts the syringe in the trash, gets up to pull up his pants, carefully walks to the bathroom door, and looks at the stained floor from there. He grimaces.
"I'll clean that up later, or we'll be late."
"Mav," Bradley congratulates himself for the calmness he speaks. "What are those shots for?"
The captain looks surprised for a moment, but his green eyes quickly become friendly again. He goes to his bed to take the coat. He looks in the mirror to give his hair the final touch-ups.
"Come on, Brad," he says, looking at him through the mirror, "you know perfectly well that they are birth control shots."
Rooster opens and closes his mouth a few times, stunned.
"But why?"
Now Maverick turns to him with an annoyed face and replies in an irritated tone as if he were explaining something obvious.
"Because I can't afford to get pregnant, Bradley. Have you seen how I live?" He walks towards the living room, and his lover follows him, increasingly confused. "It would be quite problematic if he gave birth to a little Bradshaw, but a Seresin? Jake's family is rich. They have old money power. They could destroy my career if I refuse to give them the baby."
"Why do you say that? Jake wouldn't let anyone take his son."
"But Jake isn't going to be here, is he?"
Bradley blinks, increasingly confused. Clearly, they are talking about very different things. He needs a moment to collect his thoughts, but Maverick has other ideas.
"Look," he says in a tired tone as he puts on his shoes, "pretend you didn't see anything. OK? We only have four weeks left and I'm not going to ruin them. Come on, it's getting late for the restaurant."
"And why do we have only four weeks left?"
Jake's voice surprises them both. He must have gotten bored of waiting in the car and came to see what was delaying them.
The blonde is leaning against the door, arms crossed over his chest, in a casual pose, but Pete and Bradley already know him well enough to know that it's a pose. Jake is very upset. He fixes his green eyes on Maverick harshly.
"Come on, Pete. Tell me why you want to dump me, dump us," he gestures toward Bradley and himself. "in a month. How come we are not material for a long-term relationship?"
Mitchell looks at him with scared eyes and takes a step back. His face does a strange dance as various emotions appear and disappear from his features and eyes. Finally, he sticks out his chest and looks determinedly at them.
"There is a limit to what I will put up with. You're not going to blame me for our breaking. I won't..." He closes his eyes and sighs. When he looks at them again, it is evident that he is fighting to hold back the tears. "You don't have to pretend you want to keep this going, but don't do that, Jake. Don't hurt me for the sake of it."
"Hurt you?"
"Leave you?"
They look at each other bewildered. Jake quickly tears his eyes away and focuses on the patterns on the floor, desperate to hide his pain. He thought he had made it. That he could finally have a real family with Pete and Bradley. Not the one he left behind in Texas, cold and miserable, but one like the one Rooster told him about, kind and warm. It's true that they are not the most conventional item in the world: two alphas and one omega instead of a perfect trio of alpha, beta, and omega. Yes, Pete is… a little older than them, but they love each other, right?
After the Mission and the adrenaline, he and Bradley - who have been in and out irregularly for more than five years - understood that Pete was what they needed to achieve balance: a sweet and energetic omega, an aviator like them. They courted him for a month, and they've been living almost together for four months. Jake and Bradley are still in Bradshaw's old house out of pure formality, and today they were going to... Now, it turns out that Pete never believed in them. His throat closes with rage. Of the three of them, Maverick is the one he least expected to take their relationship lightly.
The blonde's hand goes to his jacket pocket, and Bradley smiles sadly, realizing what he has there. They had plans for tonight, but it is evident that life decided otherwise.
He looks back at Maverick, who has taken cover behind one of the armchairs in the room. He looks at them with a calculating expression and a bit of fear, as if he feared... being attacked?
"Mav," he says softly, like someone approaching a wounded animal, "Mav, honey, this is a misunderstanding. Yeah? Jake and I are not going to leave you."
Maverick reacts with a bitter, incredulous laugh.
"Don't be silly, Bradley. Of course you'll leave me. This relationship always had an expiration date. In four weeks, you will be given new assignments, on some aircraft carrier on the other side of the world."
"Many people have long-distance relationships," Jake retorts.
"Yes, sure. You will tell me you will call every week, but after three or four weeks, you will forget about the weekly call. You will start calling every fifteen days and then every three or four weeks. The conversations will be increasingly shorter and formal. When the docking date approaches, you will tell me that I don't need to go to greet you because you have plans with your friends from the squadron. You will arrive here two days before the end of your leave, to tell me that you have met someone who is young and you share..."
He doesn't consider it necessary to finish the idea. He just shrugs his shoulders.
"No! No! How can you think that we...? We want a future with you, Mav, a family." At the omega's incredulous expression, he turns to his partner. "Bradley, tell him!"
But Rooster isn't quick to make statements that Pete clearly won't believe. He mentally curses all of Pete's previous lovers for the umpteenth time, starting with Charlotte Blackwood, the alpha who almost made him lose his wings in 1987.
He and Jake acted with what they believed to be transparency and clarity, but they forgot the abuse their lover had suffered for decades, first in foster homes, then in the Navy. An omega pilot, surrounded by alphas, eager to "put him in his place." Ice protected his friend as best he could from the brass, but he couldn't safeguard his heart.
How many times has Pete lived this cycle? A mission, a romance during the mandatory break, and a breakup when they return to active duty. He left him too, didn't he?
Suddenly, the vials of blue liquid make sense.
"That's why you shot yourself with contraceptives in secret?" he asks with a wounded voice.
"You what?!" Jake turns red, and his hands start to shake. Bradley puts a hand on his shoulder and forces him to look at him.
"Jake, Jake! He's scared, Jake. Stop!"
"It's my body, it's my choice," and the way he enunciates it, hard, slow, tells them that this is not the first time he has to defend his body from...
Jake looks at Pete with wide eyes, and all his anger evaporates, leaving a frightened confusion.
"But we talked about this. We sat in this room and…we talked about stopping birth control."
Now it's Pete who looks at them surprised.
"No."
"Yes." confirms Bradley. "Five weeks ago. We told you that our last blood tests had come back clean, that we wanted to stop using condoms. You were there," he points to the sofa, "with your feet on top of my thighs. You thought about it a little and said it was okay. Jake and I have been waiting for you to tell us you're pregnant for two weeks."
Pete looks at the sofa, his eyes clouding a little as he remembers, and then he turns to the alphas again.
"No, it wasn't like that. You told me that you wanted to stop using condoms because you were clean. Okay, I know alphas like the fantasy of watching cum drip out of their omega's pussy."
"That's disgusting," Jake interrupts with a wrinkled nose.
"Well, you seem to have enjoyed a lot lately," Mav replies accusingly.
"Because I thought we were making a baby!" the blonde replies, raising his arms.
"A baby? Are you out of your mind? I'm almost sixty!"
"You're fifty-five," Bradley cuts in, "with a body that many people who are twenty years younger would want."
"It does not matter. Nobody wants to have a baby with me."
"We want."
Pete looks at each of them and swallows dry. Something like hope stirs in his heart, but he ignores it. He is the oldest among the three; he has to be the voice of reason.
"It's okay to have an affair, but two promising officers like you can't marry me. I'm not convenient, you understand? I'm an omega captain, problematic and without political value now that Ice..." Pete holds back a sob, that still hurts too much. "Besides, I would be a disaster as a dad. You know it, Bradley!"
He slowly shakes his head.
"I think you would be the best dad in the world."
"Especially since any baby we create will have like an eighty percent chance of wanting to fly," Jake adds.
"Yes, you won't... you won't do what my mother did, Pete."
"Oh, Brad!" Pete crosses the room in three strides and hugs him.
That was hard. One of the most difficult conversations between them: what was the real reason Pete had to withdrawn Bradley's application from the Academy. There was a lot of shouting, crying, mutual requests for forgiveness. Jake was there to mediate. He stopped them from going to blows at one point. That day, Pete understood those two were a package deal. That the tingle he felt when listening to Hangman's Texan accent was directly related to the undeniable tension between Rooster and him every time they were in the same room.
Mav takes an intense sniff from his neck and feels tenderness overcome him.
"No," he whispers in Brad's ear, "I would never do that to my offspring." He painfully steps away from his lover. "That's probably why no one stays with me. I don't have enough paternal instinct."
"That's bullshit, and you know it." Jake spits. "You're looking for excuses."
"I'm protecting you, Jake." Pete takes one more step back and hugs himself. "I'm a liability, and it's better that you let me go now than realize in five or ten years."
"You are not a liability! How can you say that? You are a wonderful person! You are brave, intelligent, generous, determined. You are everything we have missed for years and we are not going to let you go."
"You won't do it." Mav says with a sad, definitive voice. "The Navy will. Your leave ends in four weeks. You will leave and I will stay here. It is always like that. At least now I have my hangar in the desert," he finishes sarcastically.
Jake feels his heart breaks. He looks at Bradley with imploring, desperate eyes. Rooster purses his lips, nods, and turns decisively toward Pete.
"No, it won't be like that. It's not public yet, but the DoD wants to keep the Daggers as a permanent squad. They are going to station us on North Island."
Mav blinks, confused.
"Even if they send us to an aircraft carrier on the other side of the world," Jake continues, "Bradley and I won't give up."
He takes the gift they planned to give him at the restaurant out of his jacket pocket and puts it on the coffee table in front of Pete.
"What's…?"
Maverick looks at the little diamond-shaped black velvet box with a poorly concealed surprise. It just can't be. This can't be happening.
For fifteen years, he has been convincing himself that this was impossible. Bradley found out what he had done and broke up with him. That beautiful, unconventional little thing that had barely emerged between them—an alpha just out of adolescence, shy, fascinated by a mature omega, oscillating between paternal and fraternal roles—died before being born. Bradley is the only alpha with whom Pete ever had anything resembling a stable life.
His violent departure left him devastated, to the point that Sarah, Ron, and Tom had to take him home. It was the stability of the trio that allowed him to slowly overcome depression. Until he is moderately functional. Then, Ice sent him to Iraq, commanding the first squadron in Navy history with three omega aviators. The responsibility stopped him from committing suicide.
Admiral Iceman Kazansky's latest scheme was to bring them together, and Pete will never be able to thank his friend enough. But from the first day he realized he was being courted, he was sure this was his last chance. He didn't care about the certainty that it would end in five months. That's how it works, right? Nobody stays with him, everyone... leaves... his parents, Nick, Carole, Charlie, Tom, Bradley himself.
This is his life.
Or was it?
Because the little box is there, on the coffee table. He doesn't have to open it to know it contains three rings. A promise of marriage. Could it be that…?
"No, don't cry love," Jake implores.
He touches his face, surprised. He feels his cheeks wet.
"I don't understand," he stammers.
He takes a step back, and his legs collide with something. He feels it with his hand, recognizes the sofa, and lets himself fall in it.
"It's not..." He tries to control his breathing, which has turned into nervous gasps. "I don't... You said that no one would ever..."
"I said it," Bradley agrees, kneeling next to him and putting his arms around his waist. "I was a hurt child and I said a lot of wrong things that I soon regretted. Please forgive me, Pete, and accept me."
"And take me to keep him in line," Jake asks, kneeling on her other side while he takes his hands and kisses them.
Pete smiles while still crying.
"When you put it like that, you have a solid argument, Seresin."
Jake takes the little box and opens it. Pete holds his breath. The rings are beautiful and discreet, with the stones recessed into the circumference so they don't rub or snag on anything. The sparkle on his ring is a shade that ranges between pink and orange. Yes, his boys wouldn't give him an omega-colored diamond; it's too predictable. This is a padparadscha sapphire.
"How...?"
"You talked about that stone when I first asked you if you would marry me."
"You were eight years old, Brad. I said it to set an impossible goal and get you out of my back."
"Well, you knew that I´m persistent. I just needed a boyfriend with money to achieve it."
"Ah! Because that's what I am now? The guy with the money?"
Bradley leans in for a brief kiss.
"You are cute too."
Pete caresses his jaw with his thumb.
"And you have other… abilities."
The blonde blushes smiles and clears his throat.
"Do you like the other two rings?"
Pete takes his alphas' rings. The traditional blue has a deep tone, with almost invisible lines of gold. Lapis lazuli is a somewhat surprising choice from them.
"So you went for the classics?"
Jake shrugs.
"You can take the boy out of Texas, but not Texas out of the boy."
Pete caresses the polished surfaces and recognizes the metal.
"Did you steal a piece of plane?"
Now, it's Bradley who smiles slyly.
"Technically, we brought it from enemy territory, so we can keep some rivets. At least Cyclone accepted the argument."
"Simpson? Is Beau so eager to get rid of me that he let you steal Navy property? Who are you and what did you do with my Bradley?"
"What did you do?, you mean. You complete me, well," he extends a hand toward Jake, "complete us."
Pete gives them a sheepish smile and sighs.
"Okay, I accept, I will be your omega."
"A wise decision, Mr. Mitchell," Jake says, beaming, and falls back on the floor.
"Well, it's too late for the restaurant. Shall we order pizza?" -Bradley proposes.
"No."
The finality of the denial makes both alphas look at him in surprise.
"I have to watch my diet. We are trying to make a baby, right?"
Bradley massages the bridge of his nose.
"I know where this is going," he moans.
Jake claps his hands a couple of times.
"Lieutenant Bradshaw, the kitchen awaits you."
"Okay," he gets up from the ground and heads inside the house, "but you're both going to pay for this."
"You will be long and pleasantly rewarded," Pete purrs in his most seductive voice.
INDEX: https://palabraspulsares.blogspot.com/p/happy-together.html
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