WHEN SKYE, KATIA, AND ROOSTER ARRIVED BACK AT THE BASE, THEY were happily met with high fives from their teammates. "deadzone is dead." skye joked, giving phoenix a fist bump. 

"good job out there." hangman said, making the trio go silent. 

"thanks." skye replied, dropping phoenix's hand and turning to look at the man. "let's see if you can do better." 

he tilted his head. "oh, i'm not going to say i'm better, i wouldn't want to hurt your feelings." 

skye chuckled. "don't worry, i don't get easily offended by lies." 

this made him laugh, chewing on the gum in his mouth. "may the best pilot get on the plaque." 

"and they will." she replied, turning to katia, who was next to her, before looking back to hangman. "and i can assure you, it's not gonna be you." 

rooster then moved to the other side of skye. "is there a problem here?" he asked, looking down at her.

skye's eyes remained focused on hangman, who was still smiling. "no, just reminding lieutenant seresin of the company he's in."

"and what company is that, lieutenant mitchell?" he asked, chewing his gum. 

"the future top two graduates at top gun, that's who." skye smiled. with that, she weaved her way through the crowd of people and to the locker rooms, changing out of her flight suit and into jean shorts and an ac/dc shirt. 

katia followed her, changing into more comfortable clothes. "i wonder what'll happen tomorrow."

"what do you mean?" skye asked, taking her hair out of its military style bun that it had to be in when she flew.

"deadzone said he might be switching out some of the teams." katia reminded her. "we might be one of those teams that gets switched."

skye nodded. "yeah. hopefully not, though. you, me, and rooster make a pretty good team."

"we always have." katia agreed. "hopefully we get to stay together, at least." 

they went back to their apartment, and they had been lounging around watching some show or other when they received a knock at the door. skye got up to get it and was surprised to see rooster. "hey, what's up?"

he shrugged, taking his sunglasses off. "i just wanted to see you. see how you're doing." a smile spread on his lips. "would you maybe want to go somewhere, do something?"

skye raised a brow, looking at katia over her shoulder. the blonde gave her an encouraging thumbs up before she turned back to rooster. "what kind of something and somewhere are you thinking?"

"we could just go on a drive. listen to your impeccable music taste, of course. i heard there's a new diner that opened up near the beach, we can go check it out." he suggested, and skye wondered if he'd been planning this for some time. 

she looked back at katia, who shook her head before the brunette could invite her. "i have a date with jake tonight, so i'm gonna have to sit this one out. you two should go, though."

skye didn't have any excuse to not go, and it wasn't like hanging out with rooster sounded like a bad idea. so, she smiled. "uh.. yeah, yeah that would be really fun." 

rooster flipped his keys in his hands as he led her out to his truck. "have you ever gone on a drive with me before?" he asked, putting his aviators back on. 

she shook her head, putting her own sunglasses onto her face as she hopped into the truck (which ended up being a whole feat of its own, considering how high it was from the ground). "no, i don't think i have. you're a safe driver, right?"

he laughed. "yes, i'm a safe driver." he checked his mirrors before pulling out of the driveway, moving towards the street. "you can connect to the bluetooth if you want, play something." 

skye nodded as she took her phone out. "which bluetooth is yours?"

"it's um.." he scratched his mustache with his thumb in embarrassment. "it's bdog rooster."

"bdog rooster?" she asked, a smirk spreading across her lips.

he shook his head. "because.. b as in bradley. and.. you know what, it's a long story." 

"we have time." she offered, connecting her spotify to the bluetooth. 

"it was a decision i made years ago, i probably should.. i should probably change it."

skye smiled. "you're blushing." she pointed out, looking at his face that had evidently reddened with embarrassment. 

"no i'm not." he replied, hoping his shades would cover enough of his face. 

she laughed. "whatever you say, bdog." 

skye pulled up a song, trying to be nonchalant about it as if it wasn't his favorite. by the first three notes on the piano, rooster's eyes lit up and he gasped, turning the volume up. "you shake my nerves and you rattle my brain." he sang along. "too much love drives a man insane. you broke my will," he turned to skye, "but what a thrill."

"goodness gracious great balls of fire!" they both sang, and rooster smiled as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. 

the music was still playing when he pulled into the diner, and he reluctantly turned off the car in the middle of jukebox hero. after getting out of the truck, he moved to the other side to help skye out, which made her hope it had gotten dark enough outside to hide her blush. he walked by her side to the building, putting a hand on her back. 

when they walked inside, skye immediately loved the place. it screamed retro, what with its tile floors and neon signs. the booths were all red and turquoise, and she sat with rooster at one of the turquoise booths. "this is amazing." she said, watching as a smile spread to his face.

"i saw the pictures online and i thought it was somewhere you might like." he admitted, taking off his sunglasses. 

skye removed her aviators, looking up at the glass bottle light fixtures. "yeah, it's perfect." she told him, smiling as a woman brought them their menus. "thank you, by the way."

"for what?"

"for coming up with this, for taking me here. you're much more into spontaneous planning than i am." she said.

rooster laughed. "yeah, i gathered that." 

they sat waiting for their food to arrive, and they couldn't seem to stop laughing. everything skye said was funny to rooster, who seemed to always be in a positive mood when he was around her. no matter how serious he was when he was in the air, he was nearly always smiling around her. something about that made skye feel like she deserved to brag about it, deserved to tell everyone that she was the reason he was smiling. 

at some point she had been dying at something he'd said, and she regained her ability to speak, taking a drink of her dr. pepper. "when did you become so funny, rooster?"

he crinkled his nose. "i've always been funny." he defended. he paused for a moment before becoming more serious. "why do you keep calling me rooster?"

she gave him a look. "that's your name, isn't it?"

he shrugged. "i mean, yeah. up there." he pointed to the ceiling. "but you can call me bradley, you know? rooster feels.. formal." 

skye laughed. "okay, so which name am i allowed to call you at what time?" 

"rooster when we're flying, rooster when we're working, rooster when i'm being an arrogant son of a bitch."

"the notebook and harry styles reference, nice." 

he laughed but continued. "but for everyday.. everyday things, me just being me.. i don't know. something feels special about being called by your actual name when you're frequently just referred to by your callsign. right, skye?"

she almost stopped breathing, she thought, and then suddenly understood why he wanted her to call him by his first name. it did, in fact, feel much more personal. "yeah, okay. bradley it is, then."

bradley smiled as she said his name, taking a handful of fries from their shared platter. "see? now i can be back to being your bradley." 

her bradley. 

skye felt like her heart was doing flips in her chest as she heard him say it. if this was how katia felt about jake, she couldn't question why she wanted to be around him all the time. 

they soon were finished with their food, and rooster paid the full bill despite all of skye's protests and demands to let her pay for half of it. he drove her back to the apartment, humming along to the songs that she played. "you need to make me another playlist." he told her as he parked in the lot.

she looked over at him. "but making a playlist takes so much effort." she argued.

he laughed. "please, my dear skye, make me a new playlist."

skye rolled her eyes, but a smile spread across her face. "okay, my sweet bradley, i will make you a playlist."

she got out of the truck after thanking him one last time, and he watched to make sure she got inside the apartment safely before he drove away. 

"how did it go?" katia, who had just gotten back from her date, asked.

"it was good!" skye said, following the sound of katia's voice into the bathroom, where she was brushing her teeth. "how did your date go?"

she looked over at her. "oh, so was what you just went on not a date?"

"no."

katia laughed. "oh, my sweet, sweet, stupid skye." she shook her head, rinsing her mouth before answering the question. "it went good. he kissed me."

skye raised her brows. "so is that why you're brushing your teeth? trying to cleanse your mouth of the jake disease?"

she pushed her arm. "shut up. no, i'm just practicing basic hygiene." 

"or cleaning yourself of jake." 

"shut up."

"was it a good kiss?"

katia shrugged. "i mean it wasn't bad."

"that's not promising."

"it wasn't bad!" she repeated. "he was nice, though, so it was fine. and he asked for consent first, and-"

skye laughed. "yaas, bare minimum." 

katia shook her head. "it's gonna be really funny if you have to fly with him tomorrow." she said, a smile on her lips. "goodnight."

"night." skye replied. she washed her face and brushed her teeth after showering, and almost immediately fell asleep. 

the next morning, skye and katia arrived early. at least, early compared to when they typically arrived at the base. they stood with their arms folded, anxiously waiting for the admirals to tell them who they would be flying with. 

rooster arrived later than he typically did, and gave a nod in greeting to skye and katia before jogging over to them. "have they said anything yet?"

"nope." skye said, anxiously picking at her fingers. she figured there was no way that all three of them would end up flying together, and honestly she knew that was probably for the best. if she wanted to become the best pilot she could, she would have to be able to fly with different people.

"today, there will only be one group of selected pilots in the air. your mission will be to target both deadzone and myself, and to, of course, communicate with your team." the other admiral, panther, explained. "today's team will be riot and havoc," the girls fist bumped each other, "with hangman as your wingman." 

skye's eyes shot up, and she could practically feel rooster tense up on the other side of her. "shit." she groaned, looking over at hangman, who was smirking. 

"the rest of you are to stay at base and listen in to their comms. dismissed." 

"absolutely not." katia said when panther walked away. "no way are we flying with hangman."

"on a communication mission?" skye shook her head. "we're doomed."

rooster frowned. "hey," he soothed, putting a hand on skye's shoulder, "you both got this. don't let him get to your heads." 

skye nodded. "we'll try our best."

they were up in the air in no time, and skye was feeling a bit better about the exercise. after all, it wasn't much harder than what they'd done the day prior with rooster. the only new obstacle was panther, who was an even better pilot than deadzone. 

"we need to stay on the same page." skye said, scanning the clouds for any sign of either admiral. "do either of you have sights on them?"

katia shifted behind her. "no, i don't see anybody."

almost as soon as she spoke, panther sped on the side of their plane, making skye laugh. "okay, hangman, what's the plan?" she asked.

she didn't really need to look to see that he'd already flown away, and was seemingly attempting to take panther down on his own. skye cursed under her breath, moving to try to find deadzone. 

"this is going great so far." katia piqued from behind her.

skye nodded. "yep, really, really great." she rounded the corner of one of the mountains, almost running into hangman. "care to explain what the fuck that was about?" she asked.

he laughed, which only made her blood boil. who did he think he was? 

she moved the plane to the left of him, now on her way after panther. when she had gotten somewhat close to him, something changed in one of the controls on her right, and she furrowed her brows before noticing that there was some sort of error in her targeting system. "oh, fuck me." she mumbled. 

"is that an order, lieutenant?" hangman asked. 

skye could only imagine what rooster's reaction was back at home. "you wish." she heard katia reply, but skye only lifted a hand, slowly lowering her fingers until all but one were down. 

"what's happening over there, riot?" she heard deadzone ask.

"i'm making sure he understands signals." skye told him. "i'm giving hangman the bird." she now would have paid to see rooster's reaction. 

panther stifled a laugh. "okay, riot. focus on the exercise." 

she nodded, taking a deep breath before moving to get away from deadzone, who had begun to move behind her and katia. "hangman, now would be a really great time to be helpful." she said, swerving through the sky and spinning, all in an attempt to dodge the admiral behind her. 

hangman lined up a shot with deadzone, who was now out of the exercise. he then moved up and around skye and katia, and skye had barely blinked before she saw him in front of her. 

"oh, look who decided to show up?" she asked sarcastically. she was too annoyed with him to notice the disturbance in the atmosphere around his plane. she instead kept flying, attempting to move around him to get to panther, who hangman was attempting to go for. 

she was so preoccupied with moving around him that she hadn't paid attention to much else. she, of course, wasn't focused on the wake turbulence that she should've noticed, and would've noticed if she hadn't been so dead set on beating him. 

"riot." she heard behind her. "skye." 

"what?"

katia cleared her throat. "uh.. i think we just lost an engine." 

skye couldn't even think of a response before everything on the control panel in front of her turned red. "shit shit shit." she mumbled. the plane was still in the air, but the engine had undoubtedly suffered some sort of flameout on its right side. "starboard's out." she said. "i think we can still try to land it before it-"

she was about to say the they could maybe save the plane before it started to spin out, but then it had begun spinning. skye cursed, trying to fumble with the buttons in front of her. "extinguishing right engine. extinguishing-" 

"riot, you can't save it." she heard a nervous panther say. "you have to eject. now!" 

skye gave one more attempt before she cursed again. "shit! i'm gonna open the canopy, kat, eject now." 

katia effortlessly ejected from the plane, her parachute activating without any issue. skye, however, was having some sort of issue with the ejection handle by her feet. she pulled at it, feeling the plane continue to spin around. 

"shit, shit."

"riot, you have to eject now!" 

and then everything on the radio went silent.