✔ᵉⁿᵍˡⁱˢʰ Starscream [Top Gun Maverick]✔

24

The time at sea passed faster than Kim had previously assumed, from the pure feeling. Beforehand, they had been told how long the journey would take, but often, there was a clear difference between the true and perceived time. As also here. And all that mattered, at least to the recruits, was of course, who would it be? Who would Maverick pick?

"All good?" inquired Kim, leaning against the open door to Mitchell's cabin while the captain looked absently out the window, "You already know."

"Is that so?" retorted Pete, but Kim had to start smirking and walked thoughtfully to the bed where the captain was sitting, "No matter what I decide, it will be wrong."

"What's wrong or right anyway? This, is not a blunt quizzing of knowledge," a thing Kim had never understood, because it didn't take long for what was memorized to be forgotten, and again, the hours of learning didn't possess any added value, "It's about what you saw in each one of these child-heads over the last few weeks. What does who have that the other doesn't? I have an envelope with a piece of paper in it. There are five names on that piece of paper. They're the ones I think you'll pick. My dad wouldn't have picked any of them in the end, completely regardless of whether they were among the best of the best."

"He didn't want to fly with me that day either," at the time Ice had voiced his concerns about his condition, but they were denied, Mitchell recalled, now holding out his hand to Kim, "This time tomorrow, we'll be on our way home again. Just be surprised if they become the ones you think. Who would you take?"

"You fly, not me. It's your decision and yours alone," a confident and at the same time, 'it comes as it comes anyway' gasp escaped Kim as she took Mitchell's hand, "If I say anything now, it might affect your decision. It always does, because the thought is there now. Consciously, as unconsciously. Who brings on their own, without having learned it in the last few weeks, what you're looking for? You still have time."

'Next time I go shopping, I'd buy tea instead of coffee. And then the next time you go shopping, do you take coffee as usual or do you take tea. And if you take tea, the question is, why did you actually take it?'

Before Kim left, she put her arms around the pilot's neck, closed her eyes as she squeezed him, and let him go, nodding. Probably Pete would have preferred that he not be the one to decide which of the recruits would be sent to a possible death. I don't think anyone would want to be given such a task.

•●•

In twenty-four hours it was over. And then, there may or may not have been any deaths. Then, moreover, the question was answered whether the last few weeks had been worth it.

"What are you doing here?", irritated Kim stopped, who after entering her cabin, saw Jake sitting at the small table.

"My last night on earth, I don't want to spend alone," someone sounded optimistic though, which didn't sit well with Jake, who had looked directly at the door when it was heard and now stood up to walk over to Kim, "No one can say if we'll survive the mission, so I'm here."

"Since when so sentimental?", Kim skipped over a certain outstanding fact, and gave the door a shove, which fell shut moments later, "You're not the type."

"How do you know what kind of guy I am?" the blond countered, waiting for Kim to join him, "We haven't even known each other that long. The few days. And the few hours we've spent together say what about me?"

"You're arrogant, quite self-absorbed, your ego is unhealthily large, add to that that you're very smug and if that, wouldn't be enough...." but Jake lifted Kim up with a jerk, causing her to immediately put her arms around his neck to keep from falling because this, pretty much came out of nowhere.

"Tell me something new," unimpressed with this, Jake set the brown-haired girl down on the bed and sat down with her in the aftermath, "So, what are your plans for tonight?"

Not how Kim had actually envisioned the night going.

•●•

Who will it be? The question of all questions.

'He was an honor to fly with you. Each and every one of you is among the best of the best. This is a very special mission. That's what my decision is based on and nothing else.'

The two Foxtrot teams consisted of Payback and Fanboy, and Phoenix and Bob. Hit number one and two. All that was missing was Mitchell's wingman. And that one was Rooster. Sunk. The rest formed the alert squadrons for a possible support g mission.