THE NEXT MORNING, SKYE DIDN'T THINK THAT HER CONVERSATION WITH ICE HAD ACTUALLY HAPPENED. after all, there was no way that she had told iceman kazansky that she was in love with rooster before she'd admitted such a thing to rooster himself. 

skye knew how she felt about him, and she knew that it was genuine. but she was so terrified of getting into a relationship with someone that she'd known for as long as she'd known him. the chances of him rejecting her were too high for her liking.

what was worse than getting rejected, skye thought, was if they got into a relationship only for it to be much too awkward for them. what would happen then? they'd break up, but they wouldn't be able to go right back to being friends after admitting that they had feelings for each other. 

skye was an overthinker at heart, and was thinking about all of this as she lay on her back in her bed, clutching the sheets to her body. she reluctantly woke up as her phone alarm (which was aggressive bagpipes) sounded again. 

"you awake?" she heard, looking up to see katia walking into her room already fully dressed. "come on, get up. we have training again today. mav only has one day to go easy on us."

skye groaned as she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. "i know, i know."

reluctantly, she got onto her feet and got dressed and ready. she and katia rode their motorcycles side by side to the base, parking them outside in their normal spots. 

"mitchell and kazansky." maverick said as they walked in. "you're late."

skye smiled a little. "my apologies, captain." 

"since you're here late, you two can go first." he smiled.

his daughter's eyebrows raised, looking between him and the screen behind him. "what are we doing, sir?"

"the most difficult part of the mission." maverick replied. "you're going to pull up here in pairs for an inverted dive. a laser guided missile will drop on the uranium container. the second pair will make the same dive and then blow up the opened space. you'll then immediately go back up. you're pulling at least 9.5 g's." 

skye nodded, watching as the planes on the screen followed the pattern he described. "so.. it's like the death star?"

"pardon me?" her father chuckled, his arms behind his back.

"the death star. they have to explode the one part two get to the actual part they wanna explode. it's really poor engineering, actually, on emperor palatine's part. or whoever it was that.. that designed the death star." she replied.

maverick gave her a blank look. "okay, yeah, it's like star wars. did you not hear the 9.5 g's part?"

"piece of cake." she assured him, fist bumping katia. "when do we go?"

"gear up." he sighed, shaking his head fondly.

 the two women moved into their women's locker room to put their full flight suits and gear on. as skye was velcroing her jacket onto her body, she heard katia start talking to phoenix. she looked up with a smile, happy for her best friend. 

when skye had finished lacing up her shoes, she flung her bag over her shoulder and walked onto the tarmac. she made her way over to her jet, running her hand along the nose of it as one would do to a dog. 

"excited to work together again, mitchell?" she heard, looking over her shoulder to see rooster standing there with a smile. 

"am i your wingman today?" she replied, a smile spreading onto her lips as she took in his laid back posture. 

he nodded. "oh yeah. hangman, fanboy, and payback behind us."

"that's good. everyone else going tomorrow?"

"yep." he confirmed. his smile remained for a moment before he frowned in thought. "why were you late today?"

she shrugged. "we went to visit ice last night and got home late. think i overslept." 

this made him laugh. "of course you overslept."

"what's that supposed to mean, bradshaw?" she countered, looking over at katia as she jogged over to her. 

"see you up there." he smiled, pointing to the sky. 

when they were finally up in their jets, skye waited for rooster's instructions before following him up and into an inverted dive. she leveled her plane out before adjusting the laser with katia's help. 

"you got my laser, riot?" rooster asked.

she nodded. "yeah, yeah, we're on it." she then captured the target and sent the picture over to rooster.

"got it!" he said. "bombs away." he dropped his missile onto the target before immediately lifting up.

skye followed after him as katia turned around in her seat. "bullseye!" she cheered, making skye happily let out a whoop of excitement. she then refocused on the task at hand, which was trying not to black out.

she could feel her eyes growing heavy, but she snapped out of it, choosing to stay grounded by focusing on the pressure on her chest. rooster then leveled out in front of her, and she followed after him. 

hangman, fanboy, and payback had less luck with their missile, since hangman chose to shoot before receiving their laser guide. 

when the four jets got back at base, maverick congratulated them on their efforts and gave skye a pat on the back. 

"mitchell!" rooster called, a lopsided smile on his lips as she turned around. "wanna go get something to drink to celebrate our victory? kat and phe are coming too, think they're inviting bob and fanboy, maybe payback."

she chuckled. "some victory we had." 

"come on! we scored perfectly!" 

skye laughed, but nodded her head. "yeah, sure. let's go. hard deck?"

he nodded. "you know it. you need a ride?" 

"i can drive myself, bradshaw." she smirked, walking by his side to her motorcycle. "you stalking me or something, roost?" she asked, noticing that his truck was parked by her and katia's motorcycles. 

he chuckled. "which one of us got here late, my dear skye? it seems like you are the one that's stalking me."

she rolled her eyes. "you're something else, bradley bradshaw."

"yeah?" he countered, raising his brows. 

skye hadn't noticed until then just how close he'd gotten to her, and how his face was leaning down to look at hers. the look in his eyes was likely supposed to be jokingly intimidating, and she would've only smirked in response had the breath not been completely knocked out of her. she instead just stood there with her mouth slightly agape. 

"yeah." she replied after she'd regained herself, lowering her sunglasses onto her face and throwing a leg over her motorcycle. "see you in fifteen."

with that, she drove down the road, arriving at the bar at about the same time as phoenix and bob, who were driving together. fanboy and payback got there about a minute later, and the group of five walked in together. 

"if it isn't my favorite aviators." penny said, looking up to see them.

skye smiled. "hey, penny!"

"hey, lieutenant mitchell." 

"skye?" the small blonde's head poked out of a corner of the bar, peering out behind her mother.

skye's smile immediately widened as she caught sight of her. "amelia?"

amelia ran out of the bar, opening her arms as an invitation for a hug. skye embraced her, picking her up off of the ground to spin her around. "i was hoping i'd get to see you! mom said you were in town again."

"for the rest of the week." she confirmed, setting her back down. "what have you been up to?"

"school." amelia shrugged, a smile on her lips. 

skye nodded. "fair enough. it's been forever, how are you doing, kid?"

"much better now that you're here! i've missed you."

amelia and skye had met long ago when maverick had, at one point, reunited with penny. skye was much older than amelia, and had immediately seen her as a little sister. skye must've been about sixteen at the time, because she remembered amelia completely idolizing her and asking her questions about high school. 

skye had been, honestly, bored out of her mind during that time because katia was with her father. she missed her best friend, and had been kind of moping around without her. that ended when she met amelia, though, who she offered to play games with and watch movies with.

she hadn't gotten to see the girl in years, though, but frequently would send her postcards and photos while she was in various tourist attractions or gift shops. she'd even occasionally send amelia playlists or outfit ideas from pinterest, if she thought about it. 

"i've missed you, too, 'melia." she replied, pulling her back into a hug. 

"did you hear about what happened with your dad?" amelia asked, her face scrunching up.

skye's brows furrowed as she glanced over at penny before looking back at her daughter. "uh.. no?" 

"he was spending the night with my mom. i caught him going out of the window."

her eyebrows shot up. "no fucking way."

"yes fucking way." amelia deadpanned, and the cuss word sounded completely wrong coming from her lips. "do you think they're gonna date again?"

skye shrugged her shoulders. "beats me. i haven't really talked to him in a while."

amelia tilted her head in confusion. "why? he's training you for the mission, i thought."

"yeah, he is. i've just.." she trailed off as rooster walked in, her eyes immediately locking with his. he smiled and lifted his hand in a wave, moving over to her. "i've been preoccupied."

"no way." amelia said, looking between skye and rooster. "you and rooster? no way."

she shrugged again. "what do you mean?"

"are you guys.."

"no, no." 

penny, who had only been listening to the last part of the conversation, leaned over. "not yet." she smiled.

skye shot her a death glare before looking back at rooster, who was then standing there with his hand on her back. "hey, ladies. what's goin' on?"

"nothing." all three of them said in unison, though penny and amelia were smiling and skye looked mortified. 

he smiled. "okay.. my usual, please." he said to penny, who handed him a beer. "thank you." 

"i'll talk to you about it later." skye said to amelia, both of them pointing at each other as she walked backwards with her drink, heading over to the pool table where her fellow aviators were chatting. 

"look who finally decided to join us." phoenix joked, looking over at skye. 

"sup, guys." she smiled, orchestrating her hand shake with katia, who had just arrived. "any super intriguing conversation topics so far?" 

fanboy shrugged. "not really."

"everyone's just.. anxious about the mission." phoenix explained.

skye nodded. "gotcha."

"i'm not anxious about the mission." fanboy defended himself. 

"yes you are." katia deadpanned. 

"well, you know, guys," rooster said, taking a sip of his drink, "nothing settles nerves better than music, right?" he looked down at skye. "you thinking what i'm thinking?"

"what, that you're annoying? yeah." 

he chuckled, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the piano. "give me song recommendations."

skye gave him a look. "you're the one who suggested this!"

"i suggested playing music, i never said i knew what music!" he replied, laughing again. "okay, give me a song." 

"shut up and dance, walk the moon." she said immediately.

it was rooster's turn to give her an incredulous look. "really?"

"you wanted a song!" she laughed. "that's a song!"

he chuckled. "okay, okay. i don't know how to play it." 

"figure it out!"

he messed around on the piano for a bit before he found something close to the actual chords. "oh, don't you dare look back. just keep your eyes on me. i said 'you're holding back', she said:"

"shut up and dance with me!" skye smiled.

rooster chuckled again. "this woman is my destiny, she said 'oo, shut up ad dance with me'."

he played the song haphazardly until they both couldn't sing through their laughter. they played a couple more songs just for fun before skye got up from the piano. "i should head home, we have an early start tomorrow."

rooster nodded. "okay, yeah. yeah, good idea. i should head back, too." 

she smiled. "i'll see you tomorrow."

"tomorrow!" he smiled back. 

skye grabbed katia, who was also ready to go home. they both bid farewell to everyone before going outside and getting onto their motorcycles.

the entire ride back, skye's mind couldn't stop swirling. she was still thinking about her conversation with ice, about how she had finally admitted that she loved rooster. she was then thinking about the man himself, and about how he smiled at her. about how he sang with her, how he kept eye contact with her as he attempted to play the piano.

she thought about how close he'd been to her. about when she'd been at his birthday party, and had had to leave him. she thought about the night that she'd held him close to her as he sobbed into her shoulder, about how her heart ached seeing him upset. 

he'd been running through her mind all day, and she couldn't keep ignoring it anymore. she knew how she felt, and he deserved to know, too. 

when they arrived back at their house, skye sat on the sofa with her keys still in her hands. it was already dark outside, and there was no reason for her to be going out again. but she still had her shoes on, and she'd been anxiously tapping her feet on the ground for about five minutes, her mind still running rampant. 

"fuck it." she said to no one but herself. "i'll be back."

katia looked up, her brows furrowed in confusion. "okay, see you?"

skye got back  onto her motorcycle and pulled out of the driveway before speeding down the road, feeling the welcome breeze blow through her hair. her mind was still going crazy with all of her current thoughts and ideas as she drove. in less than five minutes, though, she was at rooster's house.

with a deep (and admittedly shaky) breath, she lifted her hand and wrapped her knuckle on the door.