The Sky and the Stars - Tom and Sarah Kazansky

-1-

San Diego, California - 1986

The O Bar.

More like oh boy...

Sarah was a social person, she just wasn't a big fan of places like this: crawling with cocky men revved up by alcohol and out to find someone to spend the night with. But, as her supervisor had said, this would be a great place to meet everyone and really her only time to, for they were jumping right into training the next morning and on a tight schedule for the next five weeks.

However, at this rate, it was going to  be a long several weeks.

"Excuse me-" Sarah pushed past some men in uniform, already tipsy by the looks of it. She could feel their gazes trailing her as she went by. Just ignore them, just ignore them...

Okay, who to start with? She wasn't looking forward to conversing with any of these guys, but it was part of this job, this special job NASA had trusted her with. She  would do it, no matter what. 

Two men, a brunet and a taller blond, both in their white uniforms, were who her eyes landed on first during her initial scan of the crowded room. They seemed approachable enough. 

She arrived at their sides just in time to hear the blond say, "You live your life between your legs, Mav!"

She internally groaned - here goes!

"Hi there-" They both turned to face her upon hearing her voice, both straightening up when they saw her. It was all she could do to not roll her eyes right then and there in front of them, in plain view.  Instead she launched into her introduction, hopefully not giving them enough time to jump in. "I'm Sarah Coleman, I'm here on behalf of NASA and I'll be doing some intensive research with the people at Top Gun for the purpose of studying and analyzing aeronautics. I wanted to introduce myself and find out who I'll be working with since we'll be working closely together."

"How closely?" smirked the dark-haired shorter pilot.

Wrong choice of words on her part, clearly.

"That sounds nice, in fact, I'd like to hear more about this," he continued, still wearing that smirk. "Here, let me buy you a drink-"

"I'm not here to drink, I'm here to work," she shut him down. "So tell me, who do I have the pleasure of meeting?" Her tone was dry, but she kept talking, hoping to stop him from doing so. 

The blond chuckled and patted his friend on the shoulder.  "Maverick and Goose."

"First and last names please."

"Pete Mitchell." The brunet.

"Nick Bradshaw." The blond. 

She scribbled their names and callsigns down on her notepad.  "So nice to meet you both." She was just turning away when another uniformed man stepped into her path. 

"Hey-hey Slider!" said Goose, catching the man's arm. "I thought you wanted to be a pilot, man, what happened?"

"Goose, you're such a dickhead," the newcomer, Slider, responded. "Whose butt did you have to kiss to get here?"

"Well the list is long, but distinguished."

"Yeah, well, so is my johnson-"

"Okay!" she cried. "And that is my cue to get out of here so you all can have your dick talk-" She turned and just about slammed into the white uniform-clad chest of another one. Great, another one. God, they were everywhere. This place was just crawling with them. 

"Slider, don't tell me you're scaring away all the ladies again," the new guy, tall with dyed blond hair and sharp blue eyes, chuckled. "You need to work on your charms. Hey-hey Mother Goose!"

Yeah, she was out of there.

Unfortunately, the men were all standing in groups, packs of them. However, on the bright side, this made her list-taking faster. 

She was standing up at the bar trying to figure out how many names and callsigns she had taken down and how many she still had to do, when someone appeared right next to her. 

"Hey, you left before I could introduce myself - I hear you're taking down names." It was the tall pilot she had very nearly crashed into when trying to flee the conversation earlier. 

"Yeah, well, trying..."

"Well let me help you out: Tom Kazansky."

So far, he was the only who who had led with his name, not his callsign. She wrote this down. "Kazansky - Jewish?"

His grin split wider. "Yes Ma'am."

"Huh, me too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, Sarah Coleman."

"Well nice to meet you, Sarah Coleman."

They shook hands. "And what do they call you, Tom Kazansky?"

"Iceman."

"Iceman, okay.  And your friend from earlier? Slider, was it?"

"Yeah, Slider, my RIO. Ron Kerner."

As she was scribbling this new information down, music took over the bar chatter. 

"You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips

And there's no tenderness like before in your fingertips..."

Those two pilots from before - she checked her list - Maverick and Goose, were serenading a blonde woman who sat up at the bar counter. Well, it looked like Maverick was doing most of the serenading, and Goose was helping out. 

At first she thought maybe they knew the woman they were singing to, but it quickly became clear that she was just as shocked as everyone else. Maverick was clearly trying to woo her. Pretty soon, the whole bar, minus a few, were singing along.

"You lost that lovin' feelin'

Whoa, that lovin' feelin'

You lost that lovin' feelin'

Now it's gone, gone, gone, whoa-oh!"

"Yikes," winced Tom. 

Sarah shook her head at the whole spectacle, but chuckled.  "Oh boy..." Oh boy was right...

Some other pilots came up to Tom then, and Sarah decided to call it a night. She had met just about everyone, and it was honestly exhausting. 

She headed out and left the bar as the last notes of the song were thundering across the room, carried by everyone's voices in unison:

"Bring back that lovin' feelin'

Whoa, that lovin' feelin'

Bring back that lovin' feelin'

'Cause it's gone, gone, gone!"

(So I'm not exactly sure what the bar in the first movie is called but I've heard the O - please correct me or let me know if you know!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! :))