#Implied slider Mav friendship. They just never said it aloud

[aki-draws-things]

For the sake of me writing more and more and MORE angst. 🙂🙂 I present you the fic I will most likely NEVER write because this wip just caused me anxiety... 😂 No, honestly.. If anyone wants to take this plot Tribble for themselves amd go ahead and make the most painfully heartbreaking thing ever, be my guest. I'd read it, but not sure I'll ever write more than little wips...

Enjoy...

(@miii-chaaan i said I was writing pain... I wrote pain. That's perhaps a little too much pain.)

Married Icemav, but at one point Mav is deadly sure his husband is cheating, disappearing for days, being unusually silent, not telling him where he goes, who he sees, only answering as "it's classified" over and over. He never doubted him, not like that, but now he does and damn, that hurts so much.

So he throws himself into tests and flying and everything to keep his mind away from that as long as possible.

Things just keep getting worse, though, ice receives calls at any given hour, he leaves in the dead of the night without explanation, throwing clothes on so fast, hell, even half tripping over the chair, waking Mav up. He's tempted of following, he wants to know, he wants to understand what ended wrong between them, making Ice take such a decision of cheating so blatantly. But he doesn't, because he still wants to trust him, somehow. Because something in the back of his mind tells him that Ice still loves him, and he must have valid reasons for acting that way.

Besides, Ice still is his guardian angel, keeping him out of bigger and bigger troubles with other admirals, so he must still love his husband, right?

Until he's called back at top gun, and Ice is not answering a single text he sent for a couple of days on a row, and now Mav is worried. Did something happen to him? Is he sick? Or just so damn busy? So busy not to text him? Not even a little good morning? Or goodnight? Nothing?

Well, Ice shows up at top gun too, in full uniform, but with disheveled hair and red eyes, like he spent the whole flight there crying his eyes out and just barely managed to stop. It's a sight Mav absolutely hates as he runs up to him, checks him all over, hands brushing over his face and cheeks and the dam just breaks again, and they both slid on the tarmac in front of the little daggers, and a shocked Mav too. But Ice, oh, he just can't stop sobbing so hard, so loud, so fucking desperate.

"how? How did you do it, Pete?" Mav can hear between the sobs, and he'd be damned if that doesn't break his heart despite not understanding. "when Carole passed?"

What? What about her? Ice knew well how he made it after, he was there, he stood at his side, he held him as he cried, as he lost the one who was like a sister to him. Ice knew, why was he asking now? "when goose--"

He chokes on his words, trembles, breaks into a louder sob and maybe, maybe Mav understands now, not completely, not everything, just a little little bit. But he has no answers for him, all he can do is kneel there and hold his admiral so tight, so close, until he will be ready to tell him.

At the funeral ice can't get out a single word, he should give a speech, as the higher rank between them, as the best friend. He should be the one saying a couple of words to remember Slider because he was his RIO, and they've been glued to each other since forever. But he can't.

Mav calls him the best RIO he ever flew with after Goose. One who deserved the world. The sky. Everything. One who stayed by Ice's side through everything, who looked at him with so much pride that made him, Ice husband, feel jealous. Mav is, in the end, the first to punch the wings on the coffin, even though they never called each other friends, it was left unspoken, but it was real. A pilot and his RIO, like ice and Slider. Like him and Goose.

Ice still doesn't tell him everything, just that he was there, holding his hand as life slipped away, further and further, like Mav did with Carole, just the same. And he's sorry, for not telling him, for keeping it a secret, but that's what Ron asked him to, not wanting Mav to know, because it would be too painful for him. Too much.

There's a will left, nothing official, a letter, old-fashioned, that gets delivered to Mav a couple days later, from Slider, in a crooked handwriting, trembling, and damn, it's almost painful to read it too.

"make it alright." it says, and Mav knows he's talking about Rooster, still looking out for him, still being who baby Goose called Uncle Sli. "once more, I leave my pilot in your care, he'll need you, more than ever."

But he needed you too, Ron. Mav finds himself thinking as he reads through.

"be good to him, understand him. Stay with him when he'll try to push you away, he will, I know that stubborn cat our Admiral is. Fly with him. Fly him to the sky. And when night comes show him the way back home."

He knew those words, Mav thought, holding the letter close to his chest. He nodded to the empty room, like answering a silent plea.

"I wish we had more time, Slide..."

He muttered before reading the final lines and break into a choked laughter.

"wish we had more time, Pete. It had been a honor flying with you. Until next time."

#Character death #Top gun fanfic idea #Icemav #ron slider kerner #Tom iceman kazansky #pete maverick mitchell #Off screen mention of cancer #But it's not ice. Ice is well and alive and a bit broken now #Implied slider Mav friendship. They just never said it aloud #And slide didn't want to have him sad too so he asked ice to keep it a secret #And Mav misunderstand everything. For a little at least #That wip is a free plot Tribble. Take it if you wish #Top gun angst #Aki writes