automatic stop, bradley bradshaw

seventeen.

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.