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happypopcornprincess · 2 years

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The Hating Game

Pictures 1, 3, and 4 are from interest, and picture 2 is from @parkjammys

Pairings - Joaquín Torres x Aviator!Reader (Enemies To Lovers)

Premise – The infamous rivalry between you and Joaquin Torres is well known on the base. He hates you and you hate him. After unlikely circumstances, you realize hating someone is disturbingly similar to falling in love with them

Warnings: Major Spoilers for The Hating Game Novel. (btw read the book it is too good <3) Strong language, suggestive language.

Note: I wrote this fic a long time before watching Top Gun: Maverick and I tried my best to make it as accurate as possible but I still apologize for any mistakes :) Torres's personality in this fic will be a mix of his series one and Joshua Templeman's from The Hating Game book.

Credits to Sally Throne for the original story of The Hating Game that inspired this fic. Some scenes will be exclusively from the novel, others I will spin my way. I do not own anything, this is my interpretation of the novel with MCU characters.

PS. it was requested anonymously a long time ago sorry it took so long for me to post this :')

Series Masterlist || My Main Masterlist || Send your requests here!

You tear the page and crumple it, throwing it on the floor in frustration.

This was not what you were expecting when you took the very debated decision to get a degree in Biology while on active duty. You had a time schedule for everything. But biology in high school was very different from advanced biology. There were topics you were unaware of that you had to study in a short period of time. You were now in a pothole of mounting deadlines and on-field duties as a lieutenant at the base. It was torture.

And your sworn enemy was not making it any easier.

Lt. Joaquin Torres was the highlight of the base. His practice rounds were impressive, his scores were excellent, and the people under his command were excellent. Oh, and he was also an Avenger. He was enrolled in the same course as you. They would all brag about how he completed all the assignments while performing all his duties.

When you first arrived on base, you were friendly with everyone, especially with officers under your rank. Your first encounter with him was when you were off duty, so you smiled and even offered a handshake, since you were both of the same rank. But he just stared at you and walked away.

This was in stark contrast to him, who was feared by everyone under him. Nothing escaped his notice; he was like a hawk. Including you.

The two of you were the most notorious rivals on the base. You don’t remember how it started. Maybe it was because he didn’t return your smile, or chose to ignore your existence even though your desks were beside each other. As if it were second nature, a subconscious comparison. There was competition in everything you did. Be it your duties as lieutenants, or sports, or academic valedictions, you were on each other’s throats. If someone saw you two together, they would run, not wanting to be caught in crossfire.

You got an earful from Captain Bexley from time to time. However, given the fact you two were top officers at the base, he couldn’t do anything more than scream at the two of you and give you extra hours. How either one of you was not deployed to a different base was beyond your understanding.

“Sup Y/N!” he rolls to your work desk on a rolling chair. You resist your urge to roll your eyes at him, to not stroke his ego for successfully disturbing you.

Your offices were in the same room, two desks alongside each other.

“I am studying. Unlike you, Torres” you say without looking at him. You continued to work as he glanced around your desk. It was a well-organized space, but far from his. His desk looked the same as it did a year ago, with no personal photos, or colorful things. Just a mosaic of very official, dark pastels.

You hear the crinkling sound of paper and a long sigh coming from him. “Haemodialysis. Interesting.” Your eyes grow wide as you look at him. “Stop digging through my stuff smartass.” You try to pry the piece of paper from him but he just rolls away.

“You know it’s not that complicated. I thought you were good at this, given the fact you’re a major nerd.”

“Well, I am trying my best.”

He gives you a smirk. “Yeah, okay” and gets back to work.

Asshole

“Can you be considerate for once in your entire life?” you ask him.

“No” he deadpanned.

He starts clicking his pen. You might be hallucinating it was Morse code, but this was Joaquin. He has taken lengths to make your life miserable, and right now, he was spelling "hot damn" in morse code. With his click pen.

“Stop it”

“What?”

“Stop… spelling stuff in morse code with your pen”

“I’m just clicking my pen” he looks at you with his adorable puppy eyes. It would work on any other woman, not you.

“Someday I’m actually going to haul something at you.”

“And that day would be the happiest day of my life because you’ll be suspended” he gives you a tight-lipped smile.

You return the same and try to go back to your work.

----/----/----

“Hello, my munchkin! How are you?" your mother’s cheery voice could be heard all over your empty apartment. Even after two years, the place is just as empty as when you first arrived. A bed, a sofa, some chairs, and a shit ton of books scattered all around the studio apartment. You plop down on the sofa holding your take-out dinner and balance your phone on the armrest.

“I am doing very well, how’s pop?” You ask stuffing food inside your mouth. Unlike others, you never grew out of calling your parents mummy and pops.

“Pops just came back from the farm. Harvest is looking good this year, we got forty new people to visit. After your placard idea, there have been a lot of visitors here.” Her knowing smile graced your screen.

You grew up in a small town, on an orange farm. It was your life. When you left for the Air Force, you requested everyone in your small town to take care of your parents, and their farm. They saw you grow into a capable young woman, and after you left, you sent many placard ideas requesting the local shops to have on display. And every time a passing visitor stopped there, they were convinced the orange farm was worth a visit. And it was. A stroll through your orange grove under blue skies, with the smell of ripe oranges aglow in the air, could soothe any troubled mind.

“I miss you.” You say as you remember yourself running through them as a child, hiding from your parents and playing hide and seek.

“Aww baby,” your mother’s eyes glossed over, “I miss you too. Everyone in town does.” You felt like crying. Nostalgia got the upper hand over you today. Your pops appeared on the screen before you both started crying.

“Y/N!!!” he shouted through. His shirt still had dirt on it but he had a wide grin on his face. "How is my favorite lieutenant?”

“Pops!” you screamed with the same excitement, “I’m doing just fine, how are you?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. I heard your mummy making you cry and I came to the rescue.” You laughed as your mother poked him with her finger and he kissed her forehead. 25 years and they were still in love as they were in their teens.

“So, is that Torres guy still bothering you? Do I have to roll up to your base with my tractor to intimidate him?”

You rolled your eyes at his mention. You’ve told your parents about him, how every day is a death match between you both for survival.

“Nah, it’s nothing I can’t handle.” You shrugged.

“What did he do today?”

“Tried to teach me how to study, I shut him up.” You said, not mentioning the fact you were, indeed, in dire need of help. And too proud to admit.

“That’s my girl!” Pops shouted through the phone. Your mummy flinched and looked at him, “You don’t have to shout every time, she can hear you perfectly.” Your pop gave her a look, but she continued unbothered.

“You know from the way I see it; He might be into you.” Your mom smirked. You almost choked on your food as you heard it.

“Torres? Joaquin Torres? Never in a million years.”

“What? He could.”

“The only thing Joaquin feels for me is pure hatred and repulsion. So do I”

“Do you?” You were surely taken aback by the question. Why was your mother asking you this?

“What?” you sit straighter on the couch.

"Of all your colleagues, you talk about him the most. Even though I have never met him, I feel like I know him."

“Wha…” you were at a loss of words as to what to say.

“Okay baby, I have to go now. Had to make dinner. Goodnight love!” she blows kisses at you and you catch it. After you repeat the same, she ends the call.

That night, lying awake, you think about what your mother told you. Do you like him?

You never got to figure out why he is constantly enraged by your presence, trying to sabotage you at any given moment. Sometimes you wanted to physically fight him to wipe that smug smile off his really handsome face. He has a cute face, you know that. You have seen the way the girls throw themselves at him. He can be quite charming when he wants, not with you though. Never with you.

----/----/----

You stare at your screen in disbelief.

B- In advanced human anatomy. The main fucking subject of your entire course. Your scores in other subjects were fine, but this was bad. You studied so hard for the online mid-terms. You did everything you could and this was the result? Could you even get a degree in Biology? You've always dreamed of studying biology. Although you would receive a handsome pension for your service in the air force, you still needed to find a job.

It was too late to realize you were crying while looking at your screen as your office door opened. You glance towards it to see Joaquin standing in the doorway, looking at you. You quickly wipe your tears. If your low scores weren’t enough, you had to face Mr. flawless in the face as everyone cheered for his obviously high scores.

“Y/N, I-“

“Don’t” you reply. You look at him to see a frown forming on his face like he was thinking of the best comeback.

“I know you got better grades than me Torres, and as much as I would love to spar with you. I’m not in the mood.”

“No, I just-“

But you don’t give him a chance to talk, as you were already on your way out of the office. “I know what you’re about to say. You’re better than me, smarter than me. I get it. Don’t rub it in my face.” Your voice breaks unintentionally, “Not today, Please.”

You storm out of your shared office.

---/---/---

The Next Day

You were halfway through your fourth lap on the field, or was it your fifth? You didn’t know as you were busy listening to AC/DC blasting in your ears. You were out of breath at this point but you didn’t want to stop. After crying yourself to sleep and running through all the scenarios of how your parents are going to react to your career choices in five years’ time, you needed a good run to clear your mind.

You hear a faint voice above the loud music in your ears, like someone was calling you. You take off your iPods and turn to see a figure running toward you.

“Lieutenant Y/L/N!” you hear the familiar voice coming nearer.

You groan audibly when you see him. Standing in front of you, Joaquin leans down and puts his hands on his knees.

“What are you- are you a superhero?” he asked in between breaths, “You just ran 800-meters in 2 minutes- oh god!” he huffs out.

“For Christ’s sake Joaquin it’s five in the morning. Can I have some peace and quiet?" You turn to continue your lap but he steps in front of you.

“Lieutenant Y/L/N will you listen-“

“Oh, cut the crap what do you want?” you shout in frustration.

He stops and raises his eyebrows. You realize how rude you sound. You were angry and frustrated with everyone and everything. You, the person who wrote your bio textbook, and mostly, Joaquin. But in a second, all that anger was about to turn into confusion.

“I need your help.”

You subconsciously tilt your head. Were you dreaming?

“What?” you blurt out.

He rolls his eyes and grimaces, “Y/N, I need your help.” He repeats.

Lt. Joaquin Torres, the golden boy of the base, your nemesis… was standing in front of you in sports shots and a t-shirt, asking for your help. You stare at him for a whole minute. You can’t wrap your mind around this. And you reach an obvious conclusion

“Is this a joke?” you finally ask.

He looks at the sky as if begging for patience to bear you.

What. A. Dick.

“Yeah Y/N. This is a joke. I woke up at 4 in the morning, ran through the living quarters and the airstrip to find you on the field running laps like a bloody Olympian. For a joke.” He rests his hands on his hips.

“Well, you did scramble up my flashcards minutes before my welcome speech to-“

“Who makes flashcards for a rookie’s speech?” he cries out.

“Oh, so you’re telling me you didn’t practice the Top Gun quote in front of your mirror?” you deadpan.

He opens his mouth and then closes it. You caught him red-handed.

"Yeah." You give him a tight-lipped smile as you prepare to run again, but he steps in front of you. Yet again.

“Y/N, would you please listen to me for a minute?” he says, raising his eyebrows and looking at you with his imposing, beautiful brown eyes.

“This isn’t a Disney movie Torres don’t give me that look I’ll punch you.”

“Wow, you would kick it with Sargent Barnes” he mutters under his breath. Before you could react, he continued, “okay, so you know how we have the training evaluation coming up in three weeks?”

“Yeah.”

“And you know how the rookies are scared shitless of me?”

“Oh, they hate you.”

“Yeah, I just, I think there is no way we can have both our teams ready by three weeks, like, they don’t know shit and it just makes me sad. Your team is very competent in fieldwork and air drills but I believe they need a bit of work there-”

“Hey!”

“-and mine is great in air drills but lazy during fieldwork. So…”

“So?”

“So, I suggest a truce between us. We forget our differences for three weeks, work together and train them so that we don’t get an earful from Captain Bexley when they die halfway through the evaluation.”

As much as you wanted to scream no on his face and walk away to boss music playing in the background, he was right. You knew Captain Bexley. You don’t make a mistake in front of him, because that man just needs one convincing reason to scream at you.

You had twenty-four airmen fresh out of the academy assigned in teams of twelve to both of you. They were ardent but inexperienced. His team was lacking behind in fieldwork. Yours were better than his, but they were behind on air drills. Just like you were, in academics.

An idea forms in your head.

“Okay,” you reply.

“Really?” he asked you, puzzled.

“Yeah, but I want something in return.”

“Something in return? I’m not negotiating here Y/N. Captain Bexley will chew us out when those idiots won’t be able to-”

“I want you to tutor me. In biology” You cut him off.

“Oh,” he replies. You see his features soften.

The rest of the day you sat in silence after returning to your cabin after crying in the bathroom. For the first time in a long time, Joaquin didn’t say anything to you for eight whole hours.

“Look, I can’t believe I’m saying this, you are an expert in biology. You have tremendous knowledge in that field and I really need help. I somehow convinced myself last night I would unenroll from the course but we both know that’s a terrible idea. We have three semesters left and I have to get my grades up. So, I want- I need you to get me through biology.” You plead.

He stands in his place for a while, looking at you with his big brown eyes, in curiosity or confusion. You couldn’t tell “Okay. Sure. "Why not," he responds with a smile.

“Good”

“Great!” he raises his eyebrows, “let’s start today, partner” and he runs backward, facing you.

“I’m not your partner!” you shout but he just gives his iconic smirk and runs away.

---/---/---

Four weeks later

“Haemodialysis vs Peritoneal Dialysis” he looks at you above the flashcards he held in his hands. You were sitting across from him.

“In hemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine, and returned to your body by tubes that connect you to the machine. In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter.” You reply in one breath.

He switches the cards,"lactic acid”

“Lactic acid is mainly produced in muscle cells and red blood cells. It forms when the body breaks down carbohydrates to use for energy when oxygen levels are low. Happens mostly during intense exercise.”

He tries to keep a poker face, but you catch a glimpse of a smirk from behind the flashcards.

Since your truce in the field, you both have successfully completed one month in two years without getting into a flying match. This was the first highlight of the base.

The second is both your teams absolutely nailed it in the evaluation. Every single one of them passed with flying colors. The idea of merging your teams and training them together has given you excellent results. Apart from you two guiding them, and helping them as much as you can, the team members have been helping each other out too.

The third highlight was a secret between the two of you.

You got a shocking A+ in Human Anatomy and Ecology Mock Test after Joaquin started tutoring you. You would sit together in the common room after duty hours and ‘study the shit out of those damn textbooks’ (he actually said that on the first day). Despite your beliefs, he didn't shame you for your low grades. He helped you to understand the topics better, and even though you some tricks to make exam notes so that you can fit a whole topic on one page, without missing out all the important stuff for revision. You couldn’t thank him enough. This was a huge step up from what you were doing mere weeks ago.

You earned some suspicious glances from your colleagues but everyone was too exhausted to be caught up in your drama that they just avoided you altogether.

You have gotten quite close in just a few days. Turns out he is not a ruthless vampire who loves to suck the life out of everyone. He was quite tolerable when you get to know him. And he loved Power Rangers.

Instead of fighting each other, you fought over defending your favorite Power Rangers. You couldn’t stop laughing when he made a whole PowerPoint presentation on why Power Rangers SPD is the best one out of them all.

“They did the whole true-leader-vs-chosen-leader-of-the-rangers-plot thing way better than Samurai.”

“Okay but you have to admit the best plot twist had to be Tenaya 7 being Dillon’s sister in RPM.”

“I saw that coming from a mile away”

“No! you didn’t!”

For those who didn’t know, people would think you were friends if they saw you together.

“That… Was amazing. 29/30 Y/N” he says handing you the flashcards.

"Gracias" you take them.

“Oh, someone’s been learning Spanish.” He cocked his eyebrows.

And you felt it again. Your heart beating faster. The sudden heat on your face, like your blood, was ready to burst out of your system.

This happened a lot since you started to study together. He actually changed his schedule for you. The schedule that had been on his desk in a laminated sheet for 2 years, pristine and untouched, now had a mark between 6-8 PM marked 'Study'. He also had a strange annotation system in his diary that you still had to decode.

“Yeah- I... um, I knew Spanish, it was actually, my High School elective." You smiled nervously.

Why the fuck were you stammering!!!

“Nerd,” he says under his breath.

“Oh, what did you do in high school?” you narrowed your eyes.

“I played basketball and slept through history, like a normal person.”

“Jock,” you say under your breath.

And he laughed.

If someone asked you to swear in your life that you never saw him laugh, you would do it. Because he never laughed. You either earned an irritating smirk from him when he got you in trouble or a tight-lipped sarcastic smile.

Despite that, the sound of his laugh had you speechless. It was charming to describe, but it was also stunningly beautiful. His eyes crinkled as he threw his head back, and his voice was... sweet?

“Okay, enough of this, let’s wrap up and continue on Sunday.” He says as he stands up from his chair.

“Wait. Sunday? Why? We have like six more topics to cover and the mock test is on Friday. We have to- “

“Oh my god Y/N, take a breather! It’s Saturday.” He taps your head with a pencil.

“And I’m heading to an arcade bar downtown. You know, to live the glory days of my youth so I don’t turn into Captain Bexley?” Saying so he starts closing the textbooks.

“Oh. Okay,” you say as you start packing your stuff. You see him pause for a second from the corner of your eyes like he was thinking something, and he says, “You should come.” You jerk up your head at his invitation.

“Me?” you ask him with wide eyes.

“Yeah, I mean, why not. You need a break from all this. It might help you get your mind off of the Mock Test. And we still haven’t celebrated the victory of our collaboration”

Since when has Joaquin Torres of all people started to invite you out to have drinks with him?

“And I promise we will be back to our apartments by 11 so you can go back to your mundane life on Sunday.” He says as he slides his bag onto his shoulder. “You in?”

You get up and grab your things. You can’t remember the last time you went out by yourself. This might take your mind off of things.

"Okay, let's do this." You say.

“Cool” he walks away to the exit door, but as he’s about to leave, he turns and smiles at you.

“See you tomorrow,” he says and he walks away.

Now that you have seen his smile twice in one day, you cannot get over it. He looked so, so soft. He looked like a character from a romance novel with the crinkles around his eyes and the way his hair fell over his forehead. How would it feel if you run your fingers through them? As he holds you closer by your waist kissing your-

Wait.

Was Joaquin Torres… Handsome?

---/---/---

Part Two || Series Masterlist

A/N Hope you all like it I kind of went all in with this request I had no idea how this would turn out. Do reblog, like, and comment how you like this fic. Feel free to suggest and request your ideas right here-

Requests are open! Feel free to request anything.

---/---/---

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