Top Gun: You Can Be My Wingman (Maverick X Reader)

The End (For Now)

Unsurprisingly, a light drizzle of icy rain falls on us as we stand silently together, the weather matching the mood as it usually does in movies, like some sort of pathetic fallacy an English teacher would love to analyse. It's the kind of rain that manages to soak into your clothes, no matter how thick they are, or how protected from the elements you are, chilling us to the bone, though neither of us are shivering, our minds too preoccupied for that. Above us, the overcast sky shows no current sign of brightening or clearing, only seeming to darken as the time passes by.

By now, the carefully engraved head stones have turned a darker shade of their original colour, the rain having stained the material as the hours have worn on, the lone flowers we've placed at their feet dripping clear droplets of water onto the fresh grass beneath them. We bought ones that correlate to their helmets - one red, one white for Goose, one blue, one yellow for Arrow - feeling it only makes sense that we did, though the small bunches of petals seem almost insignificant against the hard backdrops they lean against.

"How has it only been seven months? It feels like it happened years ago." I muse out loud, voice cracking with emotion, "But then, it also feels like it happened yesterday."

"It does." Pete responds from beside me, his eyes clouded with grief and longing to see his best friend again.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a single tear rolling down his cheek, the pilot obviously trying his hardest to keep his emotions at bay, though he knows that I don't mind if he shows them. Instinctually, my hand tightens around his, leaning over to rest my head against his shoulder, closing my eyes to block out the sight of the gravestones adorned with my friends' names, my mind having already memorized the words embossed on the smooth surfaces, the names reminding me of old grief and memories I'd rather forget.

A sob wrenches itself from my throat as my mind suddenly brings up an unwanted fact I'd done my best to ignore, tears spilling over my cheeks as heartwrenching pain accompanies the bought. In response to this, Pete rests his own head on mine, his arm moving to wrap around my shoulders, pulling me into him to reassure me, unlacing our fingers to do so, sniffing audibly in order to contain his emotion.

"I never even checked if they recovered his body." I manage to force out of my cold lips, anger and disgust at myself surging through me at the confession. Surprisingly, Pete doesn't pull away or try to look me in the eye, though I still have them closed. Opening them, I return my gaze to the gravestones resting a couple of feet away from us, instantly tracing over the words "Matthew "Arrow" Fletcher" as I recall his face, sad nostalgia welling up in me at the memories I have with him.

"I'm pretty sure they did. You gave them instructions to do so, remember?" The pilot reminds me, rubbing my arm comfortingly, his voice still unsteady.

"Yeah, I guess."

For a few more minutes, we remain silent, my eyes pursuing a droplet of rain as it flows down the smooth surface of the gravestone, my jaw tightening again at the barrage of memories that replay in my head: Matthew and I first flying together back in pilot school, our excitement when we first got into Top Gun, the two of us immediately heading out to celebrate as soon as we are dismissed by our old commander. We'd drunk far too much, and had woken up the next morning with killer hangovers, but our moods never dampened, thanks to our excitement at the prospect of becoming one of the elite. I never thought I'd graduate without him; we'd always assumed that we'd spend the rest of our military years flying together, becoming gradually better, until we were able to teach at Miramar, where we'd give the candidates a run for their money.

At the thought, a dry laugh escapes my lips remembering his encouraging words the month before he died:

"There's no way we'll fail, because there's no way that anyone in this room can do better than us. We're the dream team, remember?"