A FEW WEEKS HAD PASSED, AND SKYE AND KATIA WERE ITCHING TO get back into their fighter jet. they'd spent the entirety of their recent work days analyzing and reading, and occasionally were lucky enough to take various tests and quizzes. "i think i know the entire book from memory by now." skye had groaned after taking a comprehension analysis on the f/a-18 manual. 

"this is a part of your graduating." panther had reminded her, laughing as she dramatically dropped her head onto her open book. 

between all of this petty work, skye was trying to contain all of the feelings she had for rooster. the man seemed hell bent on making this difficult for her, though, since he constantly invited her to hang out or get food. in fact, there were few days she could think of that she didn't spend by him. 

the first time he invited her to his house, it was because he had "too many condiments, too many pieces of bread, not enough mouths to feed", and therefore he had to give her a sandwich with all of his extra materials. 

she'd been focused on how surprisingly clean the entire house was when he spoke, pulling her out of her daze. "hm?" she asked, waiting for him to repeat his question. 

"do you and your dad.. do you guys talk often?"

she shrugged. "i mean, we're both so busy all the time. and we hate phone calls, so." 

rooster nodded in understanding, putting slices of cheese onto the sandwiches in front of him. "so where is he stationed now?" he looked between her and the food. 

"last i heard, he was still stationed in mojave. he's been getting shipped around pretty much everywhere since i left for the academy, though. and then every time he pisses someone off, ice convinces someone else to take a chance on him." she chuckled. "but he wants to stay in california until we graduate, i think." 

"when was the last time you saw him?"

skye hadn't really thought about it at all. "um.. honestly, i probably haven't seen him in person since i visited for his birthday last year." 

rooster frowned. "do you miss him?

"yeah. yeah, i do." she nodded. "he misses you, too. but kat and i are going to our annual christmas party next month, so i'm excited for that." 

he handed her a plate with a sandwich on it before moving to sit next to her. "you should give him a call." 

skye tilted her head for a moment in thought. "yeah, i'll do that." her heart twisted inside of her as she thought about the man next to her, who didn't have the luxury of calling his father anytime he missed him. 

but that had been a whole week ago, and nothing had really seemed to change. something about the game that she and rooster were playing was so agitating, and skye hated it. she had complained to katia about it, insisting that he was doing nothing but extending her humiliation and pain when he inevitably rejected her. 

"i don't think he's going to reject you." the blonde had insisted, washing the dishes.

"then why hasn't he said anything? or asked me out officially?" 

"because he's stupid?" katia shrugged. "or maybe he's just as afraid about this as you are." skye groaned at this. "look, maybe you'll just have to make the first move." 

"dear lord."

a couple of days after that conversation, it was time for them to finally get back to flying. "the dream team's all back together again." skye had said as she, katia, and rooster were teamed up on the new exercise. 

it was another simple task, which panther had insisted was to ease them back into flying now that they knew so much more information about their aircraft. they were supposed to target him and deadzone while following new parameters about the hard deck. easy enough.

"feels good to be back, baby." skye mumbled as she and katia increased their speed, heading after deadzone. "any sights on panther, rooster?" 

"i got nothin." he said, trying to follow after them while also looking out for the other admiral. 

skye and deadzone knew each other's flight techniques well enough at this point that it was next to impossible for either of them to surprise the other, and skye was beginning to get annoyed. "come on, come on." she made a sharp swerve around a mountain, and cursed as she lost sight of the admiral, who had evidently increased speed and flown out of view.

with katia's help, she relocated him on the other side of the mountain. skye did a flip in the air to avoid running into the side of it, letting out a series of curses.

"you good over there, riot?" she heard, looking up to see rooster gaining on panther.

"yeah, i'm good." 

"you don't sound good." he argued, and she could hear the worry in his voice.

she wanted to be flattered, but she was too focused. "well, i said i'm good." she replied, narrowly avoiding hitting the hard deck in her path back to deadzone. "what do you say we switch? you go for deadzone, we go for panther?" she barely let rooster reply before she was going after panther.

he was much more fun to get into midair fights with, and was much more of a cunning pilot. after pulling multiple tricks that she probably shouldn't have pulled (especially since the book she'd been studying had told her not to), skye had taken out panther. 

rooster soon after was finished with deadzone, and the group were all headed back to the base. skye followed katia out of their jet, taking her helmet off with a smile on her face. "we did it, again!" she said to katia, holding out a hand for their handshake. "bradley!" she called. he continued walking, holding his helmet in his hand. "rooster!" she called again, her brows furrowing. 

skye gave katia a look before jogging after rooster, who seemed to be ignoring her. 

"hey, we got him right?" she said, a smile still on her face as she caught up to him. 

when he turned to look at her, rooster didn't look amused. "you're too dangerous up there." he accused.

her brows furrowed. "excuse me?"

"what makes you a good pilot is exactly what makes you dangerous. you don't abide by the rules." he said.

skye almost took a step back. "where is this coming from? why are you acting like you're mad at me all of a sudden?" 

"because i'm annoyed." he said. "i'm tired of you doing these dangerous stunts all the time, it stresses me out, skye!" 

"what are you even talking about? today, i flew the exact same way i've always flown, bradley! the only time i was even close to getting hurt was when hangman screwed me and katia over, you know that." 

"but what happens when something happens? when it isn't just hangman's fault, and you do something that gets you hurt?" he demanded, his brows furrowed in anger.

skye scoffed. "so is this about me being a bad pilot, then?"

"that's not what i said."

"that's what you're implying, though! you don't trust me enough to let me do shit up there." 

he nodded. "yeah. i don't want you doing shit up there that will end up with you or kat hurt, that makes me a bad person, right?" 

she rolled her eyes. "wow, real mature." she looked away for a moment before looking back at him. "and don't think for a second that it's easy for me to go up there with katia there. every single time i fly, i hope nothing happens to her. every single time, i think about what my dad went through. and that's why i know what i'm doing. just because i'm a woman, or whatever, doesn't mean i-"

he shook his head. "you're not even listening to me." 

"i'm listening to you! but i'm not being dangerous, i'm just flying my fucking plane, what do you want from me, bradshaw?" 

skye was beyond confused. she had no idea why he was upset with her, since just hours before he'd been laughing with her and making plans to hang out just like always. hours before all of this, he was still her best friend. and now he was upset with her for, what, being a pilot? something she'd been as long as she could even care to remember? 

"i want you to not end up dead somewhere." rooster deadpanned. "you're gonna get yourself killed, and i can't stick around and watch that." 

he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving her standing there with nothing but questions. 

"what was that?" katia, who had seen him storm off, asked. 

skye shook her head. "i have no idea." she was silent the entire ride back to their apartment, and she was about to lock herself in her room when katia stopped her.

"what did he say?" it was more of a demand than a direct question. 

the brunette slumped into a chair. "he thinks i'm too dangerous."

"what?"

"he doesn't trust me to fly a plane. he thinks i'm gonna get us killed." 

katia's brows furrowed. "what did he say, exactly?" 

"that i'm going to do something that's gonna get us hurt." skye replied, looking at her hands. 

katia thought about this for a moment. "and you think that means he doesn't trust you?"

"what else could it mean? he thinks i'm a shitty pilot, and-"

"did he ever say that?" katia countered, giving her a knowing look. "he's worried about your safety, but yeah.. of course he is. i don't think he's gotten over how afraid he was of you- of us- dying. but.. i mean, it's deeper than that." 

skye bit her lip. "what are you saying?"

"his dad was going through the top gun program when he died. just being here has to put rooster on edge, not to mention the fact that you did almost have the exact same scenario happen to you. and if i may be honest, i think he's not ever been able to fully process losing goose. i mean, hell, my dad still feels guilty for it being his jet wash that killed him." katia said. "and i don't know if any of them will ever recover or fully heal from that experience. but rooster doesn't have anyone else he cares for like he cares about you. and i think he can only trust you so much without being afraid of losing you just like he lost the other person he cared about most."

skye gave her a blank look. "kat, when did you become so fuckin smart about this stuff?"

she shrugged. "i've been listening to podcasts."

"you don't say." skye thought for a moment. "well, i have to go talk to him, right?" 

"yeah, obviously." katia agreed. 

skye let her head drop into her hands. "i can't believe i acted like it was a personal attack. he probably feels so shitty and he was just trying to look out for me, in his own way."

"don't tell me that, go tell him that!" katia said, throwing her motorcycle keys at her. 

skye nodded. "okay, okay, i'm going."