Happy Together 09

San Diego, June 20, 2016: Here's to your happiness

Summary:

Speeches at the wedding of Jake Seresin, Bradley Bradshaw, and Pete Mitchell.
1 Javier "Coyote" Machado
2 Natasha "Phoenix" Trace
3 Henry Neven-Wolfe

--------------------------------------------

Fandom: Top Gun (Movies)

Relationships: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell/Jake "Hangman" Seresin, Tom "Iceman" Kazansky/Ron "Slider" Kerner/Sarah Kazansky, Leonard "Wolfman" Wolfe/Rick "Hollywood" Neven

Characters: Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, Jake "Hangman" Seresin, Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, Javy "Coyote" Machado, Natasha "Phoenix" Trace, Leonard "Wolfman" Wolfe, Rick "Hollywood" Neven, Original Characters

Additional Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Implied Mpreg, depression, sexism, DADT, Homophobia, DADT Repeal, Grammarly is My Wingman

INDEX: https://palabraspulsares.blogspot.com/p/happy-together.html

--------------------------------------------

1 Javier “Coyote” Machado

 

It is a pleasure to be here, in this beautiful room, celebrating my best friend's wedding, my brother from another womb, Jake Seresin. It's about time! I mean, everyone knows you've been making eyes at Bradley since you noticed his...talent in Corpus Christi eight years ago. It's not worth talking about. On the other hand, your story with Maverick…

At the main table in the room, Jake's neck is starting to turn red.

-Let me tell you. It all started one afternoon during our second year at the Naval Academy. I was texting with my future wives in my room when Jake walked in with a determined step, looked at me with wide eyes, opened his arms, and said.

"I think I'm not gay."

I dropped the phone and rushed to the door, scared. I opened it very slowly. There was no one in the corridor. I closed it very carefully and said out loud.

"Of course you're not gay, Jake. Don't be ridiculous."

"I did one of those fake laughs, you know, like when the pastor makes a bad joke in the middle of the sermon. Yes, that one, Omaha, thank you very much. Now we know we shouldn't go to your church, back to that night at the Academy. I went to sit close to Jake so I could speak softly to him and remind him of the importance of discretion unless he wanted to be DADT-ed faster than a school cafeteria gets dirty when I noticed. He reeked of alcohol."

"Have you been drinking?"

He shrugged and sat on the bed.

"A tad. I'm just so happy, Javy. I have fallen in love with an omega."

"Uh-huh," I couldn't contain my skepticism.

"Jake was so, so gay in those days. Gay to listen to Britney Spears, Cher, and Michael Bolton to study." The room bursts into laughter. "Gay that his favorite movies were "Interview with the Vampire," "Brokeback Mountain," "The Producers," "Alphas Prefer Them Blondes," and the French original of "The Bird Cage." Jake covers his face with his hands, and Pete puts an affectionate hand on his shoulder with a mocking smile. "So gay he could argue for hours about the hidden symbolism in the Wachowski sisters' films."

"True, true," María José confirms while her shoulders convulse with laughter.

"See? My wives won't let me lie. I have a large family. So, of course, I have gay relatives, but I have never shared a room with a gay alpha. Believe me, I have never, ever been so afraid of saying the wrong thing about Brad Pitt's pecs. So I couldn't believe it. But, I told myself, stranger things have happened, for example, the new "Star Wars" movies."

"Let's hear it, Casanova. Who is the omega that has made you return to the right path?"

"He looks at me dreamily and pulls the fall 2006 "Marine Times" issue out of the messenger bag on his shoulder. On the cover, in full color and smiling... Do you remember who was on that cover?"

Now, it's Pete who feels his cheeks burning and focuses on the tablecloth's pattern in front of him. Suddenly, Patrick, Merlin's beta husband, lets out a moan that turns into laughter.

"And someone remembered it. Yes, it was Commander Pete Maverick Mitchell on the cover of the magazine that month, fresh from helping rescue Princess Meghan from the clutches of the Taliban.” He turns towards the main table. “I must admit, brother-in-law, you looked terrific. But this speech is not to comment on your incredible looks. It is to embarrass my brother. As I was saying, Jake is in seventh heaven. He falls into bed while I try to process this. Because… Well, it didn't seem reasonable to me that an almost twenty-year-old alpha would develop a crush on a celebrity like he was fourteen, no matter how heroic Pete was. I tried to reason."

"He is totally out of your league."

"No, no. It says there that we have many things in common," He had that face of total conviction that only drunk people have. "Like we are pilots, and we like bikes. That's my cue."

"It also says that he is dear friend of Tom Iceman Kazansky," because I had also read the article, why deny it.

"Yeah. So?"

"So? That's code for one of two things, dummy, lover, or sworn brother. Either way, Kazansky will send your ass to Antarctica if you look at Maverick for more than five seconds. That is in the remote scenario in which you cross his path because…"

"But I couldn't continue explaining everything wrong with his crush because he had fallen asleep. You know that drunks fall asleep like that, suddenly. So Jake was sleeping around, and I was worried. The next morning, he didn't remember anything. I thought that would be it that he would forget about it. But two years later, we're at flight school in Corpus Christi, and Jake sets his sights on Bradley Bradshaw. His face was a poem. I thought, hell, maybe it would have been better if he had made a shrine to Maverick and written him letters with little hearts painted on them. The rest, as we know, is history. It turns out that Jake is a lucky guy who made eyes at Rooster and Maverick and lived to tell the tale."

"So, Bradley?"

"Yeah?" answers the alpha.

"If you break my brother's heart, I'll kill you."

"And Maverick?"

"Yeah?"

"If my brother makes you suffer, just let me know. We're from Texas, we know how to dispose of a body."

"Javi!" Jake complains between hiccups of laughter. "You're supposed to be my brother."

"Shut up, Jake! You married a legend. Deal with it. Take good care of that omega, he's the best thing that will happen to you in your life." Javier turns to the hall. "So I raise my glass to them on the first toast of the night. Let's celebrate Jake Seresin, Bradley Bradshaw, and Pete Mitchell. May their union be long, prosperous, and fertile. Cheers!"

 

2 Natasha “Phoenix” Trace

 

"I'm going to be brief because I've never been good with words."

"Bradley and I have been friends since flight school in Corpus Christi. He was a big, muscular, grumbling alpha. I was a small, wiry, mouthy omega. A match made in heaven. Our interactions mainly consisted of pointing out our mistakes in the form of taunts, competing in the air, and eating lots and lots of junk food while watching movies starring Tom Cruise." She pauses and points his thumb at Pete. "Now I understand why." The audience laughs. "That somewhat complicated relationship made other people believe that they could... I'm not going to say seduce us because the truth is everything was very unpleasant, but something like trapping us. So suddenly, Bradley was defending me from bold alphas, and I defended him from omegas seeking advancement in the Navy while working horizontally. If you all catch my meaning?"

"Needless to say, neither he nor I were interested, but these were the days of DADT. Explaining it was not an option. So we decided to start holding hands while bitching each other, so people would think we were a slightly toxic couple looking for a beta. It was the ideal cover because we were already fighting, and we knew each other as well as a grumpy old couple, right, Rooster?"

Bradley nods with an amused expression.

"Of course, there was one person we never fooled, Jake Seresin. As soon as Jake and Brad locked eyes in Corpus Christi, I knew his shadow would follow us to the end of the world. You should have seen how much and how Brad talked about Jake. He talked about his comments in class, how he spoke with the mechanics team, his way of getting on the plane, and even his way of eating. It was all fodder for Rooster to complain about. It didn't stop when they sent us to different squads. Brad followed the gossip and kept up to date with Hangman's exploits. It was endless. It was obsessive. It was unbearable. I swear, Brad, the closest you came to dying was not during our mission last November, but that weekend in March 2010, when we learned that Jake had shot down an enemy plane. He couldn't stop talking!"

"It annoyed me for two reasons."

"The first. I soon realized that his much-vaunted concern for Hangman's misdeeds was nothing more than sexual tension. But Jake is an alpha, and we were tied by hand and foot. Rooster, what you did to me bordered on sadism. You took advantage of my mandatory silence to use me as a captive audience for your sublimated sexual fantasies. You owe me an apology!"

"The second. We know that Jake Seresin is an asshole, and every time we met, he acted like one. Sauntering in front of us, speaking softly in Coyote's ear, his gaze always a second longer than normal, his green eyes just a little more intense when they passed over Brad. You provoked him, I know."

"I must admit, Jake, I also found it funny that you were always aware of Brad's presence, even though you're famous for your disdain for other people. When we walked into any place you were, you noticed it. It doesn't matter if you were talking to someone else, if the music was playing, or if your back was turned. You will straighten a little, and your neck will suddenly stretch. Bradley Bradshaw was the sun, and Jake Seresin was the vainest sunflower in the United States Navy."

"On September 20, 2011, the repeal of DADT became official. We were in Rome. Coincidentally, so do you. As soon as I saw you enter the bar with Machado and two other marines, I said to myself, "Finally, damn it. Brad will get him out of his system." I was so naive!"

"Rooster and Hangman, separately, were a thorn in my side. After that night they spent together? They were a fucking pain in the ass, worse than if you were hit with a missile. Now, the diatribes alternated poetry about Jake's attributes and endless complaints about his emotional distance. Any hint that he could, I don't know, talk about his feelings with the damn alpha? They were rejected with a mixture of panic and blushes worthy of someone with the emotional maturity of thirteen years. At least from that moment on, I had Coyote to share the suffering. I cried on his shoulder because of my best friend's stupidity. He cried on my shoulder because of the imbecility of his."

"So we come to last November when we were summoned to North Island for a very, very secret mission, which everyone in this room knows about but which we cannot talk about. In any case, the mission is not what is important, but the mission instructor. As soon as Maverick passed us by, Rooster's face changed. I was surprised because it was the expression and attitude that only Hangman had provoked until then. A few rows ahead, I noticed Seresin had dropped his eternal wooden toothpick from his mouth and was staring shamelessly at the captain's bottom. When they flew against Maverick for the first time? I've never seen them so out of it!"

"At the same time, as an interested viewer, I was amazed at the level of stubbornness to which denial can lead. The entire squad could see how well they complemented each other on the ground and in the air. They fit perfectly with each other and were too dumb to realize it. It would have been romantic if it weren't for the fact that we were risking our lives, and no one needed additional drama. So I admit, when they embraced on the deck of the USS Roosevelt, I breathed a sigh of relief because they were alive, but also because I saw my friend's inner walls break."

"That hardness, that darkness that had been with you, Bradley, since we crossed paths in Corpus Christi and prevented you from accepting everything Jake could give you, finally gave way. I owe it to Maverick and Hangman to open your chest and put your heart in the sun. For that, I will be indebted to you both all my life."

"This is the second toast of the night. Let's celebrate Bradley Bradshaw, Pete Mitchell, and Jake Seresin. May you never lack fire, may you never doubt your spouses, and may fear never dim your eyes. Cheers!"

 

3 Henry Neven-Wolfe

 

“I want to share two stories, one starring Pete and Bradley and the other with Bradley and Jake. Although this is the third speech, I want to clarify that I did not coordinate what I would say with Javier Machado or Natasha Trace. It's just that these three are... How did you say Phoenix?”

"A pain in the ass worse than if you were hit with a missile?"

Henry can barely contain his laughter.

"No, the other thing."

"Ah. That they fit perfectly with each other and were too dumb to realize it?"

"Yes, that. Well, the first story."

Henry bites his lower lip and gives Maverick a sheepish look. Then he takes a deep breath and turns towards the ballroom with a determined expression.

“At the end of May 1993, Grant, my oldest son, was two years old, and Dinah was three months old. Rick and Leonard had spent two weeks with me after the birth and had returned to their posts… somewhere." He stares at his beta. "Don't tell me where Wolf! That's not what's important. The important thing is that I was alone. For the younger ones, this was before cell phones, so my husbands called me every two weeks when it was their turn on the ship rotation. Ice, Slider, and Mav were on another ship together, so Pete would talk to Carole when they called San Diego and use his assigned phone time to call me. One day at the end of May, Pete calls and asks me, you know, the usual.”

"How is everything going?"

“I was sitting on the bed, and we had a mirror just to the right of it. I raised my eyes and saw myself. I had dark circles under my eyes, chapped lips, my hair was a mess, my pregnancy belly still hadn't gone away, and I realized I hadn't showered in three days. Something broke inside me and I couldn't keep lying like I had been lying to my husbands and my friend for months. I started to sob.”

"Henry?" Pete insisted.

"This is horrible." I finally confessed. "I can't take it anymore. I'm alone in this new house. It's the kind of district that you can only see your neighbors with a telescope, so I can't ask anyone for help. And I can't hire a babysitter because we have a mortgage on the house. And I know, I know I told Rick and Leo I could do it, but I don't think I can, Pete. The kids are never asleep at the same time, Dinah is always hanging on to me, and Grant is jealous. They cry so much. I can't call my mommy because she is busy with my father, who is dying of cancer. I can't call Sarah because her baby is one year old. I can't take it anymore, Pete."

“I don't know how many things I vomited on that call. There couldn't have been many because the Navy only allowed calls of up to seven minutes. I don't know. Pete didn't interrupt me. He didn't try to reason with me. He didn't try to give me solutions from the other side of the world. He just listened. When the warning beep sounded that they were going to disconnect the call, he told me.”

"Hold on a little longer, Henry. I know you can hold on a little longer."

I swallowed my snot, wiped my tears with the back of my hand, and said.

"Yes, of course, I can hold on a little longer."

“The call ended. Honestly, I didn't think much of it. I thought, hold on a little longer meant to hold on for another week. Put one foot in front of the other. We are omegas, we were made to serve and suffer.”

“Five days later, there was a knock on my door at eight in the morning. I went to answer it cursing, with Dinah in my arms and Grant staggering behind me. Because who the hell could it be if I hadn't scheduled any deliveries. Grant greatly expanded his vocabulary in those months. I hope it helped you when you entered the Academy, darling! I open the door and find Pete Maverick Mitchell, smiling, with a backpack on his back, little Bradley Bradshaw in one hand and a suitcase in the other.”

"What…? What are you doing here?"

He smiled at me with that smile of his that lit up a stadium.

"I brought Bradley to meet his cousins."

"We came to spend the summer with you, Uncle Henry!" Bradley announced very enthusiastically.

Henry turns to the head table, his eyes welling with tears.

"Do you remember that summer in Austin, Brad?"

The alpha nods, perplexed, and looks askance at his husband, who continues with his eyes fixed on the tablecloth and an embarrassed expression. Yes, he remembers that summer. It was, without a doubt, one of the best summers of his life.

He was nine years old. Pete showed up at the house the same day he finished school. He was a child, he didn't know what argument Mav used with Carole, only that during dinner he received an invitation to spend the summer at the new house of his uncle Henry - an omega almost as cute as Pete - and his cousins. It seemed like the best adventure, and they were on a plane to Austin the next day. After they arrived, he realized he was supposed to babysit Grant, which seemed even better. He could prove to Maverick that he knew how to be a father!

He had no idea that… Henry's voice brings him back to the present.

"So Pete and Bradley arrived and, like it was a game, saved my life. It is neither a metaphor nor hyperbole. I've never told you this before, Mav, but I was like this," he raises his left hand with the index and thumb extended, an inch between the fingers, "like this to become another number on the list of omegas that, how they said in those years? They didn't have the endurance to deal with their babies and chose the easy way out. As if postpartum depression and suicide were our fault. As if the isolation to which society subjected us was our choice."

The room is silent. Many people, mostly omegas and betas, nod gravely. Several try to hide their tears or stifle their sobs with napkins.

"We did not talk about the real reason then nor later. Honestly, no one in our family had the words. We didn't know anything about mental health or structural gender inequality. We were just living it. You didn't think you just did as usual. When Tom, Ron, and Sarah's second baby was born the next year, you were coincidentally in some sort of problem and grounded for three months. Three years later, when Nessy, the second of Merlin, Erik, and Jacob, was born, you managed to be something of the assistant of who knows what at the Academy and went to stay with them. I could see the pattern. I could see that for a decade you sacrificed the advancement of your military career for the omegas of this clan, but I was... I don't know, too spineless? To tell Viper to his face that it wasn't enough that we could eat at the table with our husbands and talk without asking permission. That being stuck at the rank of lieutenant commander was not your fault, but his. So this is what I have left, Pete, to tell all the people who have gathered to celebrate you how wonderful, how brave and generous you have been all your life."

Pete is crying silently. Jake and Bradley hug him and rest their heads on the omega's shoulders with identical proud smiles. Henry snorts and shifts his stance.

"And that was the summer of 1993. We jumped twenty years in time. It's June 2013 and Bradley brings home Jake Seresin," he pauses dramatically, "his friend."

Several sarcastic laughs are heard around the room.

"I won't lie. I loved Jake from the first time I saw him. He's handsome, he's witty, he knows how to improvise. That Sunday, I learned that we not only shared a Texas accent but also a love of good barbecue, meat chili, and kolaches. He is good with children and, something he mentioned casually, a bike lover. From my husbands, I knew he was just as crazy as Maverick inside a plane. Hum, I thought, this is the alpha I was looking for. Because, yes, I'm an old-fashioned omega in some ways. I owe my life to Pete. The least I could do was get him a good husband. Jake is the alpha, I told myself. Above all, he will be able to keep up with Pete because he is younger. We all know that Pete is," pauses, "very energetic."

Pete coughs, embarrassed again. Their husbands nod, laughing.

"Squeeze them god, Mav," someone shouts.

"I was very proud of my analysis, and I told Rick and Leonard about it as we were having a glass of wine in the kitchen that night. Wouldn't it be great if Pete and Jake met at one of the many events the Navy has? Wouldn't they be a good couple? And then… I stop because they were exchanging glances. You know, those looks that are half commiseration and half astonishment, when you realize that one person in the group hasn't heard about the gossip that everyone already knows. Finally, Rick sighs and says."

"Honey, Jake is gay."

"Oh!" was all I managed to say.

I reanalyzed our interactions over that weekend and felt a little cheated, but I stayed positive. So I said.

"Is that why Brad brought him home? He doesn't have many friends within the Navy because they know he's gay? Brad is such a sweet boy! Truly, that child turned out so good and brave."

The room bursts into laughter again. Jake and Brad exchange looks of shock and amusement.

"I shut up again because my husbands were staring... again. Rick said to Leo with his eyes, tell him. Leo responded, no, you tell him. They did that go and back three or four times. I swear, it was like watching a tennis match. Finally, Leo takes a breath and drops the second bomb on me."

"Henry, Bradley is gay."

I almost fell out of my chair.

"What!? How is Brad gay?" I know I looked like an idiot, but that was too much. "Since when?"

There, Rick began to look at me with a bit of distrust.

"Since he was born, I suppose."

"Henry," Leo told me very softly, "you know he was born that way, right?"

Bradley was gay. Bradley had told the family that he was gay, and had I missed the memo? Then I realized.

"Are Bradley and Jake dating?" I asked very slowly.

My husbands exchanged panicked glances and cringed. They had realized it, too.

"Bradley brought a boyfriend home for the first time, and we gave him macaroni and cheese?!"

"I wanted to hit my forehead on the table. What an affront! For the Trinity. Jake," Henry turns to look at his new nephew, his severe face and tense lips an absolute contrast to the laughter that fills the room. "I swear it wasn't my fault, and those two," he points his arm at their husbands. "They slept on the couch for a week, for their foolery!"

The omega waits for the laughter to calm down a bit before speaking again.

"Anyway, you three didn't need a meddling omega. You were destined for each other, and not even all the power of the Navy could keep you apart. Please, family and friends, stand up. Let's make the third toast of the night to seal this unusual triangle, perfect in itself. Let's celebrate Pete Mitchell, Jake Seresin, and Bradley Bradshaw. May you never lack fire, may you never doubt your spouses, may fear never dim your eyes, and may your union be long, prosperous, and fertile. Cheers!"

"Cheers!" roars the room.

 

INDEX: https://palabraspulsares.blogspot.com/p/happy-together.html