Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Why’d he just do that? The second his teeth clashed together he regretted it, Maverick’s eyes widening in fear, shit, his eyes had changed hadn’t they? 

The second Mavericks eyes widened in fear they changed back to smug, grin splitting his face as the locker room door crashed open. 

“Maverick, Goose, get you butts out of that flight gear and up to Vipers office.” Jester snapped before turning to go to a separate part of the locker room. 

Thankful for the out, Iceman turned back to his own locker closing his eyes as he focused on staying in his human form. 

“What the hell was that?!” Slider hissed at him, he couldn’t have seen, he didn’t know his secret so just the situation in general? 

“He pisses me off,” Ice shrugged, hoping his voice sounded neutral and back to his always controlled persona, he couldn’t let the human get on his nerves, he wasn’t important enough to let him bother him that much, and yet he did. 

~

“What the hell was that Kazansky?!” Maverick snapped grabbing his shoulder and pushing them both through the bathroom door. 

“The hell was what?” Iceman leveled a cold stare at the shorter pilot, hoping the discomfort of being touched didn’t show on his face. 

“You know exactly what I’m talking about!” Maverick used his hold on the other’s shirt to press him against the wall behind the door. 

“Well, why don’t you spell it out for me huh? Better yet forget whatever it is your little pea brain is so focused on and leave me alone.” Umm no? He could guess sure but it had been days since they’d interacted more than glaring at each other in class, seriously of all the people here Maverick was by far the most annoying. 

“That’s rich coming from you,” Maverick scoffed, one hand still fisted in Ice’s shirt. 

“Get lost Mitchell,” Ice scoff back, pushing past him, maverick slammed him against the wall both hands on his shirt now. 

“Not till you tell me what the hell is going on!” Mav snapped slamming Ice against the wall to emphasize his point, strong for his size. 

Ice had enough of being manhandled by the smaller man and spun them so Maverick was now against the wall, Ice growled inches from the human’s face. 

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to boy.” Ice snarled, not even caring that his eyes and probably fangs had changed, his hand on Mav’s throat pulse pounding against his fingers. 

“We gonna fight or make out? ‘Cause I’m getting some real mixed signals here.” Maverick smirked, grin splitting his face even as fear clouded his eyes. 

“Leave me alone.” Ice over pronounced each word squeezing the man’s throat harder to get his point across, breath coming heavy as he fought to keep from actually hitting the human, who smelt really good for some reason that Ice wasn’t going to think about, nope not gonna happen. 

“Yeah, sure, man, sure.” Maverick gasped out against the hand still gripping his throat, a new emotion glinting in his eyes, they both stood there staring at each other for a few seconds, breathing heavy. 

“So uhh, you gonna let me go?” Maverick asked after they’d been staring at each other, Ice’s hand released some of the force on his windpipe but was still keeping him pinned against the bathroom wall. 

Ice snarled again glaring before pulling away from him and storming out of the room and through the busy bar ignoring Slider’s call to him and out on the road walking back to his quarters. 

~

“Dude what the hell is wrong with your pilot?” Maverick asked after he got back to their table where Goose, Slider and some of the others were hanging out. 

“There’s a reason we call him Iceman Mav, he’s got quite the frosty personality.” Goose laughed shoving Mav’s shoulder playfully. 

“He’s not so bad once you get to know him,” Slider shook his head in defense of the missing man, he’d been his RIO since they were just out of flight school, and class mates before that, some of the man’s quirks you didn’t try to understand you just went with. 

“Seems like the problem though, he doesn’t want to get to know anybody.” Maverick mused grabbing Goose’s beer and taking a drink making the mustached man squawk not unlike his call sign. 

“He’ll come around, it’s just gotta be at his pace, nobody else’s.” Slider reassured, Maverick scoffed highly doubting that he’d ever make that list.  

~ 

“Mitchell!” Iceman snapped just as Maverick opened his locker. 

“What? Can I not use the locker rooms now?” Maverick huffed not turning around to look at Iceman who was for sure glaring at him what with that tone of voice. Where was his undershirt? He could’ve sworn he’d left it folded on top of his boots like he always did… good think he had an extra one but still annoying. 

Maverick didn’t turn around to look at him, if he wanted to be left alone then that was what he was gonna do, so he was surprised when there was a shuddering of breath against his neck. 

“Why can’t I get you out of my head?” Ice’s voice was rough with confusion as his forehead landed softly on Maverick’s shoulder, nose pressed into his pulse, what the hell? 

“Good question seeing as you told me to get lost last time we spoke.” Maverick ignored the fact he didn’t immediately shove Ice off of him, but also what the fuck? 

“I’m sorry,” Ice whispered pulling away just as suddenly as he’d shown up, going back to his locker, they stood in silence for an awkward thirty seconds before the door swung open with a bunch of guys streaming in. 

“You’re really something huh Kazansky?” Maverick mused as he walked past to the showers, not expecting or getting a reply. 

~

“Alright seriously, which one of you assholes is stealing my clothes?! That’s the fourth undershirt this week! I’m the smallest one here I know ya’ll ain’t wearing ‘em!” Maverick slammed his locker shut, (that was maybe a little dramatic) and turned to the locker room as a whole. 

“Nobody’s taking you’re clothes short-stack settle down.” Slider scoffed. 

“Screw you Slider,” Goose shot back, always coming to his pilot’s defense. 

“Whatever Mother Goose, you keep watch for all your gosling’s clothes?” Maverick stopped paying attention to the banter when Ice refused to even look up at the squabbling RIOs, head tilted down and ears tinted pink, interesting. 

~

The next day in the locker room before hops, Maverick opened his locker to change and there the four shirts were, folded neatly with a typed note on top, one word, ‘sorry’. 

Ok that was definitely weird, but also not the weirdest thing that had ever happened in a locker room, either in the navy or in school, so with a shake of his head, Maverick went about getting changed. 

Chapter Text

It had been a long day, debrief went extra long cause Maverick pissed off Jester, again. So by the time Slider had pulled him to dinner and he’d finally managed to leave he was exhausted and late, which meant he only had ten minutes until he was supposed to be here. 

So Ice did what he always did when he got home, changed into some sweatpants and a t-shirt, washed his face, and because he tried to think ahead grabbed a glass of water and put it on his dresser before going back into the kitchen and digging out the bottle of vodka he kept in the pantry, gulping it until his lungs burned and he was gasping for breath before going back for another gulp before stashing it back and going to brush his teeth before he sat down on the couch with the study packet from today. 

By the time his car was in the driveway the vodka had made his mind pleasantly soft around the edges, maybe tonight wouldn’t be so bad… he had left the door unlocked so when the car door opened and shut he just turned the page, he didn’t want this to be happening and he wasn’t going to make it anything easier. 

Then it was the same push and pull it always was, except he was in a horrible mood and that meant Ice got scruffed so hard he started crying, which only added to the embarrassment of the whole situation, the knobs of the dresser jamming into his ribs and stomach as he was slammed against it, hands gripping the edges, cheek pressed against the top as tears trailed down his cheeks. 

It was almost over, it was almost over, it was almost over, it was almost over, it was almost over it was almost over, it was almost over, it was almost over, it was almost over. Fuck, it was over. 

“This life can all go away in a single phone call, do not test me.” And he was being scruffed again, humiliation made his cheeks flush red and hot as footsteps trailed back through the house before the only sound in his house other than the fridge were his shuddering cries. 

All his energy gone, (thanks to being scruffed twice in thirty minutes) Ice slid down to the floor, staying mostly however his limbs arranged themselves. His arms curling into his chest as he let himself break down, sobbing into his rough carpet. 

He cried until he felt like he couldn’t cry anymore and then he just laid there staring at nothing, well the corner of his room but he wasn’t paying attention to anything until his eyes locked onto his duffle, the shirt! Was that creepy if he comforted himself with it? Probably, but he was so far beyond caring right now that he grabbed the bag without even a second thought and pulled it open before grabbing the t-shirt. 

Whimpering he breathed in the scent of the human, letting the familiar scent calm him down, it brought more tears though as he cried that Maverick wasn’t actually here, (not that he really wanted him here but wolf thoughts.) So he cried and breathed in the human's scent until he fell asleep half naked, bruised and bloody on his bedroom floor, at least he wouldn’t have to wash his sheets tomorrow… 

Waking up, the ground had been an awful choice, absolutely awful, the only thing that made it even slightly better was the t-shirt that was clenched in his fist, well, this was embarrassing. He’d wash the shirt and bring it back to the locker room. With a sigh Ice drug himself to the shower hoping he could at least get ready in time so he wouldn’t be late to class, cause he still had homework to do, fuck.

~

“Why’d you do it?” Maverick asked, they were the only two in the gym right then and he needed to know.

“What?” Ice blinked at him, there’s no way he could know, right? 

“Why’d you take my dirty clothes?” He wasn’t even mad, not really just so insanely confused. Really? Playing dumb, seriously?

“What makes you think it was me?” Ice asked, not looking at him, he could not have this conversation right now, he was too hot from the extra clothes he was wearing to hide the bruises and he was sore and tired, just wanting to get this workout over with and back to his house to sulk and catch up on homework. 

“That,” Maverick paused, tilting his head in confusion, “everyone else tried to convince me they weren’t stolen, you didn’t even question it, just denied it was you, so why?” 

“I… I don’t know.” Ice shrugged not looking at the other man, there was no way he could actually say why he was taking the shirts since a large part of him didn’t even know, he wasn’t about to explain especially not after what he’d done with the newest one.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” This conversation was to make it less confusing, not more. 

“It means I don’t know why, ok, will you drop it?” Ice snapped, turning to face him finally. 

“Is it a sex thing?” Mav had to ask, even if he so didn’t want to know. 

“What? No! Why would you think that?” Ice balked at the idea, umm gross, seriously what was with this guy? 

“Cause you’re stealing my dirty undershirts out of my locker, kinda sounds like a sex thing.” Maverick shrugged letting the other off easy and not forcing eye contact, he wasn’t sure he could handle looking at Ice as he answered, regardless of the answer. 

“Fuck, it’s not a sex thing ok? I’m sorry, it won’t happen again now can we drop it? Please?” Ice begged, he wasn’t even sure what had come over him to prompt him to do so, he certainly didn’t want to talk about it and definitely not with Maverick. 

“Ok, ok, take it easy Ice, ‘kinda ironic how easily you get flustered considering the legend around your call sign.” Maverick grinned, still confused but having hatched a mildly devious plan. 

“At least I didn’t get mine from being unpredictable and dangerous.” Ice bit back, voice having none of the venom it had even weeks ago. 

In a mocking of the clash that had really set them off, Maverick snapped his teeth at Ice before grinning and starting for the showers, planning on leaving the t-shirt he’d worn for his workout in Ice’s locker, just to fuck with him. 

Chapter Text

“Pretend you’re talking to me.” Ice appeared at Maverick’s side in the bar. 

“What?” Maverick asked looking at Ice and then around the bar, what was going on. 

“Don’t look!” Ice elbowed him, “just pretend we’re talking.” He spoke signaling the bartender for two shots, paying for them. 

“Ok,” Maverick said slowing, “what are we talking about then?” He turned leaning on the bar, seriously what was with him? 

“I don’t know, something.” He threw back the first shot, handing Maverick the second pushing it into his hand when Mav hesitated. 

“Who’re you hiding from?” Mav smirked taking the shot, who shoots gin?! 

“Doesn’t matter,” Ice shook his head, pressing closer to the bar as someone passed behind them, pushing Ice into Maverick’s space. 

“You’re using me to hide from them I’d say it matters.” Maverick grinned, looking out at the crowd again, more subtly this time. 

“Forget it Mitchell,” Ice huffed shaking his head and starting to leave when Mav caught his wrist, Ice shot a glare at him. 

“Sorry, you don’t have to tell me, I just kinda want to know if this is gonna turn into a bar fight is all.” Mav let go of Ice’s wrist as soon as the other man paused glaring, hands held up placatingly. 

“Who do you take me for?” Ice raised an eyebrow, eyes narrowing.  

“I don’t know, we don't know each other, remember?” Maverick grinned, though it wasn’t really funny at this point, they’d had a handful of tense interactions and all he’d learned about the other was that Ice hated him, except for his sweaty shirts, apparently. 

“Right…” Ice sounded almost sheepish at the reminder that they weren’t friends, they barely knew each other, at most they were classmates, rivals. “Ready to head out?” He grinned at Mav like nothing was wrong, Maverick was going to get whiplash with this guy. 

“We just got here? Like twenty minutes ago dude,” Maverick blinked at him, they -the group of them- hadn’t even made it to getting dinner orders put in yet.  

“Yeah, I’m beat,” Ice shrugged like it was nothing, before he leaned closer, “If you want answers you’ll follow me.” He whispered before walking towards the door. 

Maverick rolled his eyes and probably against his better judgment, paid his tab and walked out of the bar, he tried to look around for Ice without making it look like he was looking, not seeing him he started walking through the parking lot towards base. 

“Way to be subtle about it.” Ice materialized at his shoulder as he was walking past an old muscle car, a 60’s something impala. 

“Mother- dude! You can’t keep sneaking up on me like that!” Mav -tried- not to yelp and he smacked Ice’s shoulder, seriously what was with this guy?! He’d better get some answers after this, before he got given a heart attack. 

“Sorry, sometimes I forget to make sure my footsteps are audible.” Ice shrugged looking slightly apologetic. 

“What even Ice, you’re not really navy are you? Marines? You’re a SEAL right? This is some top secret post?” Maverick threw out some crazier theories in hopes he get an answer to something. 

“What? No, it’s just-I’ve always had really light footsteps so unless I think about it my default is silence.” Iceman shrugged like it was a normal thing and yeah ok Maverick knew how to tell people apart by their footsteps, close doors without making a sound and make it look like he was sleeping when he wasn’t so…

“Ok, so do I get answers now or are we just gonna keep walking?” Mav asked after they’d been walking in silence for a good five minutes. 

“You ever hear ‘curiosity killed the cat’?” Ice asked shoving his hands into his pockets. 

“Yeah except it ends with ‘satisfaction brought it back.’ What’s really going on Ice?” He looked at the other man and despite Ice being taller than him he looked very small right now, seriously did something happen at the bar? 

“I don’t know if I’m making this situation more or less dangerous than it is by telling you but, fuck I don’t know anymore, I’m being blackmailed.” Iceman brought a hand up and scrubbed it over his face, “and you’re really good at getting out of crappy situations so I figured you’d know what to do.” He looked at Maverick when the other man stopped walking. 

“What?” Mav cocked his head to the side, what? Iceman blackmailed? With what? He was the golden boy, right? 

“I don’t know how he found out but he did and now, fuck Pete, if anyone finds out my whole life is ruined.” Ice started walking again in hopes Maverick would follow him, he did, jogging to catch up. 

“Hot Damn, what did you do?” Mav couldn’t help but laugh a little, this was not how he thought this was going to go, was Ice being dramatic? 

“I-nothing that’s the problem, it’s not something I did, it’s what I- I can’t, I shouldn’t have said anything.” Ice scraped his hair back, sounding more emotional than Maverick had ever heard him, ok now he was scared. 

“Hey hey, I’m sorry, but I’m gonna need more information Ice-Tom, you can trust me yeah, who is it? We can go talk to Viper.” Ok so this was real and serious, not that Ice struck him as someone to pull a prank like this but you never know. 

“He won’t believe me, this this guy he’s too high up you know, I’d get dishonorably discharged just for spreading rumors, that’s the problem, I’m stuck and I can’t- I can’t keep doing this.” Ice’s voice broke as he went on, shame at being so helpless eating at him, if he could call his family back home maybe they’d have an idea but he felt like even that was too risky, he didn’t want to put them in harms way. 

“Ok, I still need to know what he has on you and probably what he’s trying or getting you to do.” Maverick nodded, trying to think of things he could use. 

“Why’s that matter?” Ice snapped, fear not anger sharpening his tone.  

“Because whatever he’s using against you is probably how he’s most vulnerable too, so we can use it against him.” Maverick shrugged as Ice dug his key out of a jacket pocket and unlocked his door.

“No he’s not- its not the same, I can’t tell you, I can’t-“ Ice shook his head, no that wouldn’t work, how was he supposed to keep this all a secret and get Maverick to understand?  

“Hey, I’m gonna help get you out of this ok, but you have to tell me.” Maverick reassured as they stood in the living room. 

“Remember the first day of class we were in-between hops and I drank the water in the preflight room, got into that huge coughing fit?” Ice wouldn’t look at him as he spoke, this was it.

“Yes?” Maverick answered slowly, where was he going with this? 

“It was poisoned,” Ice whispered so quiet Maverick almost didn’t hear him. 

“What? But no-one else- I didn’t, what do you mean?” What, who poisons water in a Naval base? 

“It was something only people like me are sensitive too, and when I reacted to it he knew who to leverage.” Ice tried to ease the human into the idea, but by the look on his face he was just confusing him more. 

“I’m not understanding,” Maverick shook his head, what? 

“I think you knowing the whole truth is more dangerous,” This wasn’t going to work, it wasn’t worth the risk. 

“For you or me? What makes you think you get to make my decisions for me?” Maverick challenged. “Besides you already brought me in, I’m in danger whether I know or not, but if I know then I know how to respond to the situation better, right?” 

“I’m so fucked, ok,” Ice sighed pushing his hair back, “You can’t run, scream or tell anyone what I’m about to tell you, this is top top secret, ok?” Ice leveled Maverick with a glare that could probably freeze a person. 

“Ok, yeah I promise Tom,” Maverick nodded, he was really getting worried now, what could be so bad, and what was this (higher officer) doing?

“I’m so getting disowned if I ever make it back to my family,” Ice shook his head, rolling out his neck. 

Maverick stared confused at the comment as Ice seemed to be psyching himself up for something. And then there was a wolf, what the fuck? Ice was standing there and now there’s a wolf standing in his place, a full on brown wolf. What the fuck!? 

“What the fuck?!” Maverick yelped, stumbling back a few steps, his back against the door, “What the actual hell?” 

The wolf didn’t respond, (thankfully) except for spinning in a circle before sitting down, before turning back into Ice who was now crouching on the floor naked! 

“What the fuck?!” Maverick whispered as the naked human/not human grabbed a pair of shorts off the couch and pulled them on, grabbing a shirt next.  

“I figured that would be better than saying ‘I’m a werewolf’? But umm, I’m a werewolf, and that’s what he has on me, he put wolves-bane in the water to see if any of our class were wolves and I reacted to it.” Tom scratched the back of his neck, feeling very awkward and nervous, Maverick being the first and only person he’s ever willingly told. 

“I didn’t know that was a thing uhh so cool, but why or how can he hold that against you?” Maverick spoke after getting his breath back a little, still glued to the door. 

“Because a wolf is like 2 million dollars on the black market,” Ice shrugged with well, ice-cold detachment. 

“Well fuck,” Mav muttered, “so you can’t tell anyone that a superior officer is doing what exactly to you because you don’t want anyone to know you’re a mythical creature incase they also want to sell you on the blackmarket for an obscene amount of money, do I have that straight?” 

“Umm yeah,” Ice nodded, looking scared, Mav looked at him, really looked, Ice was thinner than at the start of training, eyes duller, dark circles under them. “I’m scared Pete if I don’t, it’s a hereditary thing if he doesn’t sell me out he’ll go after my family but I can’t keep doing it-“ Ice cut off with a, whimper? Ok, that was new. 

“Ok, hey, hey, we’ll figure something out ok,” Maverick pulled him into a hug because, well he had no idea why that felt like the right move and not something that would get his head torn off, Ice only whimpered again and hugged back curling so he fit around him. 

“Tom, what’s he doing?” Maverick really didn’t want to know but at this point he needed to, right? Ice shook his head, biting off a sob. 

“Ice, you can tell me, what’s he doing?” Maverick felt his voice soften the same way it did for when Bradley woke him up after a nightmare instead of his parents, Tom only cried harder in his arms. 

“I I can’t, just I can’t.” Ice mumbled trying to pull away from him, he could, he was stronger, but he was glad when Maverick didn’t let him go, even if being trapped made his heart rate spike. 

“The best and fastest way I can get you out of this is if I know all of what’s going on right? That’s why you came to me cause I can help, but I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on right?” Maverick shuffled them both to the couch, pulling Ice to sit down next to him while still letting them hug as they were, running his hand up and down Ice’s back. 

“He- he-“ Ice started and cut off growling but it sounded more frustrated than aggressive, “sex, ok? It’s for sex,” Ice’s voice grated out, all the anger and pain of the past few weeks coming to the surface as he finally said it out loud. 

“Oh Ice,” Mav sighed, holding him tighter, he had expected it from the way he’d been acting but it still wasn’t easy to hear.

“Don’t pity me, just just help me come up with a plan, I want to stay in the Navy, at Top Gun, just help me come up with a plan that doesn’t put my family at risk.” Ice spoke some of his fierceness back in his voice, even as he stayed curled into Maverick’s side.

“Ok,” Mav nodded, dreading this next question, “you don’t have to tell me details if you don’t want to but is there a routine or a schedule, like you meet every whatever for this much time, how does that part work?” 

“Why’s that matter?” Ice practically yelped, shrinking in on himself, why’s he want to know that!

“Because the best way I can think of right now is getting enough high ups to know about it that they can’t ignore it, then you can say something about blackmailing your family but not ever bringing the wolf aspect into it.” Maverick explained, was it a great idea, not really would it be enough to open an investigation, maybe… 

“‘Cause that’s not career suicide, I might as well walk up to Jester and say I’ve been cheating on my tests.” Ice grumbled, trying and failing to blink away tears. 

“You would need to get him to say it though, that he’s blackmailing you, but if you broke pattern it could tip him off, so if you didn’t argue with him at all and then suddenly tried to push back then he’d get suspicious, but if you did anyway then as long as they were close enough to hear it, then it could work.” 

“It changes, I guess, but every other day at least… time changes though, he’s subtle, sometimes after classes or before hops, end of lunch-“ Ice cut off, falling quiet and still, “Fuck, hide, go get out of here.” Ice pulled him off the couch and further into the small house out the back door through the kitchen. 

“Ice what?-“ Maverick started confused what was going on?

“He’s here, just go, I’ll see you tomorrow, just don’t let him see you.” Ice scrubbed the tears off his face as he spoke, his car was in the driveway now. “You can’t stop him, just figure out the plan ok? Thanks, Maverick.” Ice locked the door behind him, walking back into the kitchen and splashing water on his face. 

Maverick hid under the window against the wall so he couldn’t been seen not wanting to risk moving yet, either through the backyard or around the side of the house to be seen by whoever was coming in. 

“You weren’t supposed to leave the bar.” The new voice spoke after the door shut, footsteps echoed through the house as he came to the kitchen were Ice stood against the counter. Wait was that, no it couldn’t be, Talon? He was one of the administrative commanders that oversaw Top Gun, no wonder Iceman was so scared of him. 

“Didn’t feel up for the bar scene.” Ice replied, Maverick thought his voice had gone flat now, was that on purpose?

“Yeah? Or where you just trying to get out of our agreement?” Talon asked, Maverick wanted to move so he could see and make sure it was really him but he didn’t dare blow his cover and make this worse. Before he could actually decide to move or not Ice whimpered, the sound jarring against the quiet night, one for it’s pitch and two for it being a sound Maverick never thought the Iceman would make. 

“One call and you’re getting cut up for testing and medicine in Asia, one call and you’re the new lab rat for big Pharma, that what you want?” Talon sneered, Ice whimpered again, what was he doing to him?

“I wasn’t! I I just wanted to study before you came over, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Ice pleaded with him, he was always studying so it was believable enough, please let him get away with it. 

“Fine, get in the bedroom.” Feet hurried across the floor before the kitchen light was flicked off and the bedroom light came on, Maverick took that as his chance to slip around the side of the house and towards the street. 

Feeling overwhelmingly like he was abandoning Ice as he left towards his own home, but what was he supposed to do? Especially when Ice didn’t want help, not yet. Best thing he could do was come up with a plan to get him out of this safely and with some dignity intact. 

Chapter Text

Not dropping everything to check on Ice the next morning in class was harder than he thought it would be, but that would cause even more suspicion, since as far as the rest of the school knew they still hated each other but something had changed yesterday and while Maverick wasn’t delusional enough to think they were friends or that Ice didn’t have his walls all the way up when they were in public it would probably be different if they had enough time alone. 

He would have to make sure he got to the locker room early enough to give him a new t-shirt today, he was due to add another one since he’d gotten the old one back yesterday. Was it a wolf thing? And why his t-shirts? Maverick didn’t ever see others in his locker… Maybe he’d get a real answer now that he knew, he’d have to ask. 

Ice was his usual calm ice cold persona in class, was that a good thing or a bad thing. Looking closer Maverick could see the reason he wore his sunglasses was to cover up his reddened eyes, how he kept shifting slightly, holding his shoulders stiffly, did he get any sleep last night? 

They were never alone for long enough, until somehow they were the last two in the locker room after the hop that day, maybe they’d been matching speed getting changed so they were ready at the same time, maybe not. 

“Don’t ask, Mitchell,” Ice groused, breaking the silence between them, still facing his locker. 

“I wasn’t goin-“ Maverick started, turning to him, had he been that transparent? 

“I can smell when people are lying you know, got a idea yet?” Ice turned around and leaned against his locker, arms crossed. 

“Umm, yeah, but it’s gonna take some planning, when it’s here-during the day- is it always the same room?” Maverick scratching at his neck, he could smell emotions? That was interesting. 

“No, but he usually tells me the time before where I’m supposed to be and when,” Ice shook his head, looking towards the door with worried eyes. 

“Ok, you get me the when and where and I’ll get them there,” Maverick nodded, yeah this could work. 

“How are you so sure they’ll care, he’s their friend, their boss, I’m just, me, how do you know they won’t just join in?” 

“I have to believe that not all people are bad Ice, otherwise the world is suffocating, I have to believe that good people still exist, but if you don’t want to do this then we won’t,” Maverick promised, to be honest that thought haunted him too, maybe he should test the waters a little before they did it for real. 

“I-I maybe I think I need to think about it,” Ice mumbled curling in on himself. 

“Tom?” Maverick asked softly not wanting to startle him, Ice jerked up to look at him anyway, “Do you want a hug?” He didn’t move as he asked so Ice knew if his answer was no that Maverick would respect it, but Ice nodded shakily moving closer to him, Maverick stepped closer but let Ice start the hug only wrapping his arms around him once Ice had. 

They stayed like that for a solid five minutes, Ice didn’t cry but his breath was shaky a few times, nose pressed into Mavericks pulse, even though the angle couldn’t have been comfortable because of their height difference. 

“If we do this, how’re you gonna get them to get there?” Ice mumbled after they’d let go, scrubbing a hand over his face. 

“I’ll think of something, maybe Hollywood will have caught his hair on fire,” Maverick joked grinning brightly to try lighten the mood. 

“You’re so weird, ah shit, Slider’s never gonna let me live it down if I’m late,” Ice glanced at his watch grabbing his jacket, “I’ll let you know I guess, see you later.” He very awkwardly mock punched Maverick’s shoulder in farewell. 

“See you round Ice,” Maverick waved going back to grab his own jacket before he went to meet up with Goose. 

~

“Alright man, what’s going on?” Goose asked throwing a French fry at Maverick. 

“Huh nothing, just tired.” Maverick lied trying to by time to decide whether or not to ask Goose’s advice. 

“Pete Maverick Mitchell I know you did not just lie to me, what’s going on?” Goose dropped the goofy attitude, something was wrong and it was bad for Maverick to not only be so distracted but to lie about it, if he wasn’t ready to talk he’d normally just say so, and this was not normally. 

“Hypothetically, if someone you knew was being blackmailed for sexual favors by their boss and the fall out of it could ruin the person’s life professionally but keep them alive would you tell someone even if the person wasn’t ready because of how it could blow up?” Maverick spat out before he could talk himself out of it, hoping he kept it vague enough that it wasn’t going to give any hints away as to who he was talking about.

“Holy shit Mav, what have you gotten yourself into man?” Goose sucked in a breathe through his teeth. 

“It’s hypothetical Goose,” Maverick tried, knowing neither of them believed him. 

“You said keep them alive, are they in emanate danger of death if you don’t tell someone right now?” Goose asked slowly, looking around the room suspiciously.

“Hypothetically, I don’t think so, but hypothetically this person is out of ideas and out of hope,” Maverick answered slowly, hoping this was the right choice, and he wouldn’t lose either Ice or Goose from this. 

“Pete, what are you wrapped up in?” Goose asked, looking more worried than Maverick’s ever seen him. 

“It’s not me, and it’s hypothetical.” Maverick was getting really tired of saying that word, maybe asking for advice was a bad idea. 

“Ok, umm in that case I’d try to encourage the person that telling someone was the best option and that whatever professional fallout that came about would blow over and it wouldn’t be worth their life.” Goose tried to think of what he’d say if he were truly in this situation, shit was he and he just didn’t know, Mav had always been a bad liar, so that begs the question who was really involved if Maverick wasn’t directly? 

Maverick groaned and dropped his head to the table in defeat, “I’d hoped you’d have something I haven’t thought of.” 

“Maverick, what’s going on?” Goose asked again, hand landing gently on Maverick's shoulder. 

“I’ve already told you way more than I have permission to tell you, and it’s hypothetical!” Maverick glared at his best friend, damn him and his being able to read him like an open book. 

“Ok, ok, just if you need help I’m here alright?” Goose squeezed his shoulder, Maverick nodded, “Good now eat before it gets cold, we’ve got an early start tomorrow.”

“Alright Mom,” Maverick smiled, sitting up and trying to eat, though it all just kinda made him want to hurl.

~

“Nope!” Maverick slammed his door shut, stumbling away from it, what the hell was he thinking?! Mav ran his hands through his hair trying to steady his breathing, what the hell. 

Taking another breath, Maverick walked the four steps back to the door, opening it just enough to slip through before shutting and locking it. 

“Mav? You good?” Goose called from his room. 

“Yeah! Night!” Maverick called back. 

“What the hell are you doing?! How’d you even get in here?” Maverick hissed at the giant wolf that was curled up on his bed, the wolf didn’t answer but for a whimper, blinking sadly at him. 

“Are you hurt? Either form? Shit does it transfer?” Rapid fire questions probably weren’t helpful but hey he wasn’t expecting a giant Ice wolf in his bedroom when he got back with Goose. 

The wolf-Ice- just started at him, too many questions for him to answer in this form and he wasn’t shifting back yet. 

“Ok, can you nod yes and shake your head for no?” Maverick asked, trying to figure out where to start, the wolf nodded slowly. 

“Good, are you hurt?” Maverick asked first, Ice shook his head, ok that was good. 

“I thought you said you were hanging out with Slider?” He got another nod, ok, so why was he here then? And as a wolf? 

Before he could think up another easy to answer yes or no question, Ice pushed a notepad towards him with his nose, umm ok. 

“I’m sorry I barged in, I couldn’t settle down and this was the only thing that felt safe, I’m sorry, I’ll leave before anyone sees me, I’m sorry.” 

“Ok, do you want another hug?” Maverick set the notepad down, and waited for Ice to make the first move like he had earlier, slowly the wolf nodded belly crawling across the bed towards him before sitting up, slowly Maverick wrapped the wolf in a hug, not moving fast incase he startled the animal, did he think more like a wolf? He had so many questions. 

“It’s gonna be alright Ice, it’ll be ok.” Maverick ran his hand gently over the wolf’s spine, only going as far down as to where his ribs ended not sure how much of his body Ice was comfortable having touched. Ice whined leaning against him heavily. 

“Easy, you’re gonna knock me over, hang on a sec,” Mav laughed softly, letting go of the wolf making him whine again before he was climbing onto the bed, laying down against the pillow before he opened his arms for Ice to come back. 

Ice belly crawled over to Maverick, whining softly as he laid down tucking his nose into Mav’s neck, Maverick smiled and wrapped his arms back around the wolf. 

“It’s gonna be ok Ice,” Maverick whispered against the wolf’s fur, fading into sleep. 

~

When Maverick woke up that morning Ice (both forms) was gone, and there was a new note on the pad. 

“Thank you, for not kicking me out last night.-X” 

And so started a day of confusing and conflicting interactions with Ice, he seemed to be actively avoiding and seeking him out, as though even he didn’t know what he wanted, sitting across from him at meals, but only talking to Goose or Slider, if he talked at all. 

Staring at him during class, then ignoring any sort of conversation Maverick tried to start in the halls, all of this to the bewilderment of both him and Goose and amusement of Slider. 

“I swear, he’s gotten stranger since the academy,” Goose shook his head as they walked towards the locker room to dress in flight suits as they always dressed in them for the class they’d have right before the hops. 

“Tell me about it,” Mav mumbled, opening his locker and yup, a clean folded t-shirt, he’d have to switch them after everyone else had left for class. 

~

Volleyball was always fun, why though had no-one told him it was volleyball because he was wearing jeans. And to proud to go change here Maverick was three games in, playing beach volleyball in jeans. 

“Boo! Switch the teams! See how well y’all communicate when it’s not the guy you’ve been flying with for the past decade!” Someone (Wolfman probably) yelled, ok decade was a little bit over exaggerated. 

The four looked at each other, “pilots vs. RIOs?” Goose challenged. 

“Oh hell yeah Mother Goose! We’ll wipe the floor with ‘em pilots!” Slider crowed grinning at Ice as he and Maverick switched sides. 

“Ready for this?” Ice asked spinning the ball on his finger, again, the show off. 

“As I’ll ever be,” Maverick grinned at the blonde before facing the net, and pushing his sunglasses up higher on his nose, ready for the serve. 

Surprisingly or perhaps not, they were decently matched this way, volleyball was designed to be rotated just as much as constant partners.

They were about halfway through the game In between plays when Ice threw his arm around Mav’s neck as they walked back towards the edge of the pit. 

“Next play, tomorrow, room 324, 1315, yeah? Then when Slid moves you dive for it, flick of the wrist is his tell.” Ice said in his ear, mumbling the information in between his warning about Slider. 

“Next play yup, I got you.” Maverick nodded grinning, hoping his confidence would help Ice know he was making a good decision, trusting him. 

Chapter Text

“Goose, you still up for helping me with something?” Maverick asked at lunch, it was just the two of them at this table today, maybe this was short notice but he didn’t want anyone else to know about it that didn’t need to.  

“What’s up?” Goose asked looking at Mav hesitantly. 

“Can you make sure a MP is here, at this time,” Maverick handed Goose a post it, with the room number and a time two minutes after the one Ice had given him, the timing would be the most important and hardest part to get right for this. If Talon even smelled a trap there’s no telling what he’d do to Ice. 

“Maverick, what’s going on?” Goose asked unfolding the note and reading it. 

“I can’t pull this off without some help and I don’t want to pull in Slider unless I have to.” Maverick shrugged, he really wanted to leave the other RIO out of it in hopes he was sticking close to Ice until Ice eventually gave him the slip. Maverick could see the other two across the Canteen, Ice was staring at the clock and Slider was rambling about something as he typically was, man was a real chatter box. 

“And what are you going to be doing while I’m convincing MPs to follow me to a what is this a conference room for what reason? How illegal is this plan and why are we helping ourselves get caught?” Goose asked, trying to get answers, this was so not good, he knew something was up after the dinner with Mav being so weird.

“We’re not doing anything wrong, I’m convincing other people to be there too, I can’t be both places at once and they both need to be there, just trust me and I’ll explain what I can soon, please?” Maverick begged, not above bribing his RIO with chore duty if that’s what it took. “You have to hide around the corner from the room till after two people go in it, ok? Its really important, please. Both people.” 

“Ok ok, jeez, don’t look at me like I just kicked your puppy, I’ll do it, I’m trusting you bro.” Goose said looking at the lock, they had ten minutes till the time Ice had told Maverick, “I’d better go track down my guy, might take me a few since I try and stay off their radar.” Goose stood note card in one hand and his tray in the other. 

“Thanks Goose, I owe you one, big time.” Maverick grinned at his RIO, before looking back over at the table with Ice and Slider, Ice was already gone, yup time to go. 

Quickly dropping his tray off, Maverick walked to were Viper and Jester were sitting having lunch with a few other higher ups, he quickly saluted, standing at attention. 

“At ease, Maverick, what’s going on?” Viper asked, looking up from the cross word puzzle he was doing. 

“Sir, I have been asked to bring a very serious and delicate matter to your attention, sir,”  Maverick started, hoping he didn’t have to explain himself fully here, he didn’t want the whole canteen to hear Ice’s business. 

“So?” Jester asked, 

“Sir, I believe it is best explained in private, and there’s only a short amount of time to do so in, I must insist we hurry, sir.” Maverick tried to keep his voice even but they still had a flight of stairs and half a hallway to walk down and not very long to do it in. 

Thankfully, they both seemed to understand that he was being serious, which for him was admittedly rare, and followed him out of the canteen and down the hall to the stairs. 

“Maverick, you gonna explain son?” Viper asked as they started climbing the stairs, it was now or never and if Ice was committed then he was. 

“There’s something you have to see first sir, please.” Maverick dodged the question, if they saw it first they’d be more likely to believe him, cause who knows what headspace Iceman was going to be in after this.

They reached the top of the stairs just as Talon was passing them curt hellos were exchanged before he went on his way and Maverick led the other two in the wrong direction until a door opened and shut, before holding his finger to his lips and pleading with his eyes to trust him, leading the two instructors down the hallway and stopping right next to the door. Goose and the two MPs were on the other side of the door. 

“I don’t think I can do this anymore,” Ice spoke up from inside, he sounded scared but determined. 

“We have twenty minutes till we’re both needed places, now is not the time to get cute with me.” Talon bit back, sounding even angrier than he did the other night, please let them have made the right decision. 

“No, I can’t do this anymore,” Ice said, footsteps walked to the door and the handle turned part way. 

“Do I need to remind you what happens if you resist me slut?” Talon snarled, Ice made that same horrible whimpering noise as the other night. 

“I can’t, please let me go,” his voice was unnaturally high, fear and pain, the door handle turned back to shut.  

“I’m not afraid to get you court marshaled, or should I call my guy that’s keeping tabs on your sister maybe its time for her to get into a car accident?” Interesting that the threats were human in nature today, did he use both to control Ice? It would make sense if he did. 

“No! Don’t, don’t hurt her, please.” Ice sounded desperate now, Maverick closed his eyes, hating sitting and doing nothing but he couldn’t do anything yet. Closing his eyes meant he was also ignoring Goose’s face of horror and shock, he couldn’t handle both right now.  

“Then kneel,” venom dripped from the demand, in only the way a higher rank could sound. 

Ice whimpered before there were the distinctive sounds of someone dropping to their knees, hard, like they didn’t care anymore or were being forced down, before clothing rustled and a zipper unfastened.  

“Heard enough?” Maverick mouthed looking at the MPs and instructors alike, they nodded, gesturing the four of them back before one gripped the door handle the other grabbed his handgun and nodded. 

The first MP pulled the door open while the second barged into the room sweeping with his weapon, the first following quickly after. 

“Hands on you head! Now!” 

“Let go of the Lieutenant!” 

From where Maverick was in the hallway he could see the two of them, Ice was knelt against the wall, so his toes and shoulders were pressed against it, which looked very uncomfortable and was throwing him off balance, which was what gave Talon the physical advantage. 

The wolf curled in on himself coughing as soon as the MPs disentangled the two, allowing for the adjustment of clothes before he was handcuffed. 

“Whatever he says, it’s a lie!” Talon snapped, glaring daggers at Ice. 

“Son, are you here under your own free will, ie you have not been coerced, threatened or otherwise felt as though it were a dire situation?” The MP on the left asked, crouching to help Ice stand up. 

“No sir, I’m not.” Ice shook his head, standing to his full height, voice scratchy but strong. 

“Alright then, we’ll be back in a few minutes to take statements, none of you go anywhere please.” The man on the right said before they walked Talon out of the room. 

Just as they were out of sight, Ice collapsed like his lines were cut, only the recent practice with diving in volleyball made it so Maverick actually caught him before Ice hit the floor, managing to keep him standing long enough to pull out one of the chairs and mostly set him in it. 

“It worked, it worked Mav, I can’t believe it worked.” Ice hugged around Maverick’s stomach, head buried in his chest, Maverick hugged him back hushing him gently as the others walked into the room awkwardly. 

“You want to explain what’s going on now, Maverick?” Viper asked as he and Jester sat down in some of the other chairs, Goose came to stand near Mav and Ice. 

“Ice came to me a few days ago and trusted me enough to tell me that he was being blackmailed and solicited by a commanding officer, we’ve spent the rest of the time trying to find a way to resolve the situation while keeping his career from imploding from such an accusation, we knew we needed proof and since the way of setting up meets was always the day before Ice was able to give me the time and place and I was able to pass that to Lt. Bradshaw who escorted the PMs and I brought you as well for more witnesses.” Maverick explained the short version of it while combing his hand through Ice’s hair soothingly, the man’s breathing hitching and shaky as he clung to the human. 

“That’s quite the story,” Jester mused, “How long has this been going on?” He leaned forward placing his elbows on his knees, his eye line indicating he wanted Ice to answer, Maverick gently tapped his shoulder as a cue. 

“Since the first week of Top Gun, sir.” Ice spoke, his voice strong even though his face was still hidden against Mav’s shirt. 

“There better not be any funny business between you boys now.” Jester said after a few minutes, seeming to otherwise accept that answer. 

“No sir,” Maverick stood at attention as best he could without letting go of Ice, “just looking out for my wingman, getting him back to the pattern safely, Sir.” 

“Good,” Viper nodded, “best you get control of yourself son, before the MPs get back.” His voice a mix of father, instructor, and commander as he spoke to Ice.

~

“We intervened before there was probably enough physical evidence for proper DNA match, you said this has been happening repeatedly, is there anything that you have that still has his DNA on it?” The taller MP -Greg- asked after he’d taken a swab of Ice’s mouth having come back from taking pictures of the bruises Talon had left. 

“Yeah, I’ve got something at home yeah,” Ice nodded, looking pale, “Would umm, would recordings help?” He just wanted to curl up some where dark and lick his wounds or better yet get in a jet and ignore all his problems. 

“You- yes they would help, without proper DNA evidence and even with multiple eye witnesses it’s still primarily your word against his, so yes any recordings would help.” Rick, the second MP answered, looking between Ice, Viper and Jester, “I’d suggest you get those quickly incase there’s a back up at the lab so we can keep this moving. Just bring them to the station when you get them.” 

“Agreed, you boys are dismissed from the rest of class today, get Slider if you need to,”  Viper nodded, dismissing the three younger men, they quickly left the room walking down the hall. 

“Ice-“ Goose started, before Iceman was leveling his famous glare at the RIO. 

“Don’t, ride along or don’t I don’t care, but don’t try to talk to me.” Ice cut him off, before walking faster hoping to get to the stairs before they caught up, he couldn’t do this right now, he just wanted to get home, except his house didn’t feel safe anymore, nothing did, except for, well that wasn’t a train of though he should go down. 

“Ice hold up!” Slider called, jogging to reach them when they reached the first floor, the other two having kept up just fine. “What’s going on man, class should’ve started 20 minutes ago and Viper and Jester aren’t there and the three of you weren’t there, wow, you good man?” Slider babbled, ignoring or not seeing Goose and Maverick making ‘cut it out’ motions at him. 

Ice huffed and kept walking not answering his RIO as Slider fell into line with them as they walked out of the building to the parking lot. 

“So, where we going?” Slider asked, ignoring the tense air of the car as Ice pulled out out of the lot and towards his base housing, maybe he should get a transfer to the BOQ, he wasn’t sure he could stay here anymore, he’d figure that out later though. 

Ice just turned the radio up, ignoring them all, Maverick huffed a laugh, yeah the other pilot had locked his walls up tight enough to survive a hurricane, and he wasn’t going to be letting them in any time soon, that was fine, for now it was fine. 

They sat in the driveway for a few minutes, Ice just staring at his house like it was going to explode or something before Maverick did the probably dumb thing of getting out of the car first and walked part way up the sidewalk. 

That seemed to kick Ice into gear and he left the car too, heading up the way, shoulders up to his ears and head down as he unlocked the door and they both went inside. 

“Seriously what did I miss?” Slider asked as they waited. 

“I’m asking myself the same thing,” Goose huffed a laugh that was void of humor.

~

“Tom,” Maverick started, not sure what reaction to expect as they were both stood in the living room, shoulder to shoulder, he wasn’t really expecting Ice to sob and crumple against him, clinging to him and sobbing. 

“You weren’t supposed to tell anyone else.” Ice sobbed, carefully Maverick brought his arms up and wrapped them around Ice. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I needed someone else to get all four of them there at the right time, but I didn’t tell him anything, he only knows what you told all of us, I’m sorry Ice.” He was, for the whole situation, for abandoning him the night Ice told him all of his secrets, for ignoring the strange behavior that was probably a call for help. 

Ice just whimpered gripping tighter to Mav’s shirt and burying his face in his neck. 

“You’re ok, you’re not alone anymore Ice, we’ve got your back.” Maverick soothed, tipping his head back to give the wolf more space at his neck for whatever it was wolves did but it was calming him down so Mav wasn’t going to argue. 

They stood there until sobs turn to cries and cries turned to sniffles and sniffles turned to slow breaths. 

“Come on,” Ice cleared his throat as he straightened up, walking through the house, stopping at the kitchen sick to splash water on his face and grabbed a stick of gum off the counter unwrapping it before popping it in his mouth on the way to the laundry room. Where he grabbed a grocery bag and stuffed a jumbled rag or towel from the hamper, Maverick couldn’t tell which, into it. Then he was rummaging through an old coffee can full of random junk pulling out three cassette tapes and one roll of film, putting them into the bag too. 

Then they moved to the bedroom, trying to be respectful as Ice changed out of his uniform into a fresh one, Maverick looked away, also trying not to noice too much about the other man’s room, until a familiar white undershirt caught his eye from where it was half sticking out of his otherwise perfectly made bed. 

“Uhh Ice?” He hedged, yeah this so wasn’t the time for this conversation but well curiosity meet cat. 

Ice grunted in question turning as he buttoned his shirt, Maverick had pulled the t-shirt free from the bedding it had been buried under. 

“I meant it, it’s not a sex thing, I don’t know why my brain’s decided that your scent is the same thing as safety, but a-after, and I was alone and and- anyway, it helped… just having something that smelt like safety, freedom.” Ice mumbled, cheeks heating in embarrassment, refusing to make eye contact with the human. 

“I’m not sure if that’s more sad or adorable,” Maverick smiled at him, unbuttoning his shirt and slipping off his current undershirt folding it and placing them both down on the pillow before doing his uniform shirt back up. Walking to the wolf who’d frozen shirt still half buttoned, he gently pushed Ice’s hands away and did the buttons for him before pulling him back into a hug. 

“You’re weird Mitchell,” Ice grumbled hugging back and burying his nose in Maverick’s neck. 

“Yeah well, I think it suits me,” Maverick grinned as they parted, Ice smiled back but it looked more like a grimace. 

“Come on lets get this over with, if I’m explaining this to them I need a lot more alcohol in my system than currently exists.” Ice grabbed the bag off the floor and walked through the house, Maverick hurried after him, shaking his head in bewilderment.  

“Got what we need then?” Goose asked as they opened the doors, climbing in. Ice only grunted, barely looking in the rearview mirror before he was backing out the driveway. 

“Yup, MP’s office, then the bar, right Ice?” Maverick nodded looking back at the two RIO’s who were very much squished into the back of the car, but the front seat was were Ice had put him so that’s where Mav was going to stay until otherwise stated. Ice grunted again, pulling his sunglasses down to cover his eyes. 

“Wait MP’s office, what the hell’d I miss?” Slider demanded, sitting up to stick his head in-between the front seats. “Ice, what’s going on man?” 

“That’s why the bar’s next Sli, hold on.” Maverick pushed him back to sit properly, only slightly smug that Ice had chosen him and not his RIO since academy days, no he wasn’t still bitter about not being let into the academy due to his father, why’d you ask? 

“Alright small fry, alright.” Slider laughed, bouncing back against his seat, and with that the car fell into silence except for the radio. 

In between greasy bar food and copious amounts of shots, Ice told a edited to be human and non graphic version (he wasn’t there yet, sue him) of the last several weeks when they weren’t in class or in the air. 

By the time they stumbled out of the bar and towards the BOQ Maverick wasn’t sure how much of the evening any of them would remember, and since that had been at least Ice’s goal, he’d count it a success. 

Ice stuck close to Mav’s side as they headed to his room, Slider broke off to his apartment and Goose broke off to his room. Ice seemed to shift midair as soon as Maverick got his door shut, becoming a wolf and landing on the bed all at once, uniform falling to the ground. 

Mav laughed and changed into sleep pants before laying down and opening his arms for the wolf to come lay in if he wanted, Ice rumbled in his chest doing the weird belly crawl towards him and laid down, eyes already shut. 

“Sleep well Ice,” Maverick ran his hand over the soft fur of his head a few times before falling asleep as well. 

Chapter Text

Maverick’s alarm was not kind to their alcohol induced headaches when it rang the next morning. Mav tried to roll over and turn it off but was stuck, confusion as to why he couldn’t move made him peal his eyes open, coming nose to nose with a sleeping wolf, what the hell!? 

Right, Ice, the wolf was laying on his arm and that must be why he was stuck. Wiggling his arm free he rolled and turned off the screaming alarm. 

When he rolled back over he jolted as the wolf’s eyes were now open and watching him carefully. 

“Morning,” ugh why’d he drink so much last night? 

The wolf just looked at him, before rolling over with a huff and shifting back to human, in sweat pants? What the hell? 

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but where the hell did you’re pants come from?” Maverick asked, was he still drunk, maybe he was. 

“I don’t know, sometimes clothes just come back, sometimes they shred,” Ice rubbed his eyes, “Fuck, how much did you let me drink?” He groaned at the pressure behind his eyes, today was going to suck, for multiple reasons. 

“I’m not sure there was much ‘letting you’ drink as there was keeping you from drinking the entire bar.” Maverick shrugged looking at the ceiling as Goose’s alarm rang, they should get up if they wanted to get to the canteen before the rush. 

“That would be why I feel like shit then,” Ice huffed, sitting up, “sorry to crash your place.” Ice’s voice sounded small now, Mav looked over, his shoulders were up to his ears, curled into himself.

“Don’t mention it,” Maverick shrugged, it wasn’t that big a deal, at least to him, not the first time other guys stayed at his place when they were too drunk to get to theirs, first time he’d shared a bed with one though, why’d it feel automatic for Ice to have just followed him into his room instead of the couch? That wasn’t a road he should be going down right now. 

“I’m gonna go, see you at chow,” Ice mumbled getting up, grabbing his discarded uniform and leaving, pausing to slip on his boots at the front door before he was gone.  

Yup he was still made of ice, though Mav thought he could see some of the details that made up the sculpture that Ice was. Maverick shook his head as he drug himself through his morning routine, more or less stumbling through the halls with Goose to breakfast. 

Ok, at least Slider looked as bad as Maverick felt, that made him feel slightly less shitty as they all sat around a table looking green around the gills. 

“What the hell did you four get into?” Hollywood whistled as he sat down on the other side of Goose, intentionally dropping his tray to make extra noise. 

“Fuck off,” Slider glared, though there wasn’t any real heat to his words. 

“You hear Talon got locked up last night?” Somebody at the table across from them asked. 

“Yeah I heard he was blackmailing a Lieutenant,” Sundown called back, before looking around at who was near him before stage whispering, “for sex.” 

“Or was it the other way around?” Somebody else asked. 

Maverick looked at Ice, trying not to call attention to him, it wasn’t like the other man could have missed the conversation, it was happening right next to him for crying out loud. Ice sat still barely breathing as he pushed eggs around on his plate, pretending to ignore it. 

Maverick tapped his boot against Ice’s subtly, Ice glared at him, Mav just shrugged grinning. How else was he supposed to show that he had his back and not tip their hands that they not only knew about it but were the people involved in the whole thing. 

“Man, come on that’s not cool, don’t be spreading rumors around and making life harder,” Goose called to both tables, making the four of them, himself included cringe at the loud noise, yup, hops later were going to be fun. 

“Ahh Mother Goose to the rescue! Betcha you know who it is too?” The first guy -Nadder- called, making Ice move his glare from Maverick to Goose, this man was not subtle. 

Maverick tapped his boot again, hoping it conveyed ‘easy’ to the other pilot, Goose as much as he played around, wouldn’t do that. That’s one of the reason’s Maverick went to him for help with the plan, he knew Goose would keep the details to himself.   

“What about you Maverick this kinda trouble making seems right up your ally?” Hurl jeered, what was that even supposed to mean, Ice wasn’t looking for this it’s not like he intended to start this. 

“Nah man, I’m on my best behavior, don’t want Goose’s lady taking me out, you know.” Maverick grinned, trying to come up with something believable when his brain still felt like mush while also making sure none of the anger the comment stirred came through. 

“What do you think, Ice?” Wolfman asked, joining the conversation. 

“I don’t think it’s any of our business when we have better things to focus on.” Ice said his voice as flat and emotionless as his namesake, glare moving back to his eggs like they owed him money.

Thankfully that seemed to end the conversation as they focused on eating and getting to class, not having much time left after they wasted so much on feeding the rumor mill. 

~

“Iceman, a word,” Charlie called after they had all sat down for class, Maverick glanced back at Ice as he got up stiffly, ignoring his eyes and followed her out of the room, what was that about?  

“Ma’am?” Ice asked standing tall, she might not have been Navy but she was still an instructor here. 

“Viper and Jester thought this would be better coming from me, but there’s counseling on base, there’s no shame in talking about it.” Her voice was kind, and if Ice had the will power to make eye contact with her, they would be as well. It only served to make him feel worse, like a little kid getting bullied in school and getting pity comforted by the school nurse as she patched up his scrapes. 

“I’m fine ma’am.” Ice kept his voice flat, he didn’t want to talk to anyone about this especially someone who was going to put it into record. 

“Look, it’s not mandatory but you should take it into serious consideration, here’s the number to their office.” Charlie pressed a business card into Ice’s hand when he refused to take it. 

“Is that all Ma’am?” Ice asked, throat clicking as he swallowed, wanting to be almost anywhere but in this conversation.  

“Yes,” She gave him a sad smile, Ice only opened the door and held it for her, going directly to his seat when she passed him, folding the card into his notebook to throw out later as he didn’t want to be outright disrespectful and throw it away right here and now where she could see it. 

“What was that about?” Slider whispered, leaning closer to him, Ice just shrugged and opened his textbook to the page number that was written on the chalkboard, further ignoring Maverick’s concerned gaze. 

~

“Don’t you wonder what was on the tapes?” Ice whispered, they hadn’t talked in a while or moved from where Ice was curled against his side head on his chest Mav’s arms around him, and Mav had thought Ice was asleep, clearly not. 

“Do you want me to?” Maverick asked carefully, not moving in the darkness despite the instinct to turn on the lamp to help keep the darkness away, not unlike he did with Bradley’s nightmares. 

“I don’t know,” Ice whispered, tone listless, like he was trying to say something else with the phrase than what he actually was. 

“Tom, do you need me to ask you about it, do you need a push to talk about it?” Maverick hedged, please be the right thing to say, please? 

“I don’t know,” Ice mumbled against Mav’s chest, so yes. 

“Ok,” Maverick whispered, holding him closer, “what happened after I left that night?” He’s asking for Ice, Ice needs him to ask. 

“He had this thing about pressure points, since he couldn’t leave bruises-very often- he would pin my arm or scruff me till I couldn’t move-, sorry, it’s it’s just spinning and spinning in my head and I don’t know how to get out…” Ice started but then cut off apologizing so that wasn’t what he needed, ok. 

“I’m here, I’ll get you back on the ground, yeah?” Maverick reassured, stroking his hand up and down Ice’s spine, only going halfway down his ribs like he knew was safe. 

“I just wish my thoughts would just stop,” Ice let out a breathy whine, something Mav was learning was a wolf thing and he was the only person Ice relaxed this much around. 

“I know,” Maverick sighed, wishing he knew how to help more than just being here for him. 

“Make them stop?” Ice asked looking up at Mav, apparently Ice was so desperate for relief he was going to teach his pet human how to scruff him, cause that won’t backfire at all. 

“Show me how?” Because that request could be interpreted so many different ways Maverick didn’t want to take any chances, instead letting Ice take what he needed. 

Slowly Ice pulled Maverick’s hand to wrap around the back of his neck as he curled closer, nose pressed into Mav’s pulse. 

“Squeeze, hard.” Ice instructed letting go of Mav’s hand and curling his fist around Maverick’s shirt again. He thought he was ready for it, but even still he whimpered tensing before forcing himself to relax as it took hold. 

“Ice?” Mav sounded worried, his hand loosening, no no no, it wouldn’t stay yet! 

“No!” Ice yelped hand shooting out to keep Mav’s on his neck, “please?” 

“But I’m hurting you?” Because those sounds meant pain, they had to right? There wasn’t another explanation for those sounds to mean anything good. 

“It doesn’t, please?” Ice shook his head, whimpering against his skin, please understand. 

“Ok, ok Ice, easy,” Maverick gently started squeezing his neck again and tried not to panic when Ice cried out again, body tensing then going lax as he sniffled against his neck. 

“You’re ok, you’re ok Ice,” Mav hushed, leaning his head away to give the wolf more room at his neck, he still needed to ask about that but well, later. As he tried to keep steady firm pressure on his neck. After a few minutes Ice started, purring? Growling? That was new, he was relaxed against him like his limbs were made of jelly. 

“‘you ‘an le’ go ‘ow.” Ice slurred, curling even closer, practically on top of Maverick now. 

“You sure?” Mav hesitated, not wanting him to freak out like the first time, he really needed to ask some questions about this wolf stuff. Ice nodded continuing to purr/growl and was now licking at his neck, umm what? Slowly Mav released his grip on Ice’s neck letting his hand rest on the blond’s shoulder blade instead. 

“‘anks Mav,” Ice mumbled his breathing fading into sleep. 

With a soundly sleeping Ice on his chest Maverick quickly faded himself, the only thought on his mind being, What. The. Hell?

Chapter Text

“Hold up,” Mav caught Ice’s arm as he rolled away, ready to slip out to go back over to Slider and his place to change before class. 

“What?” Ice glared not fighting the hold Maverick had him caught in. 

“I have questions and I want answers.” Mav blurted and yeah he should’ve phrased that better as Ice’s face clouded. 

“Mav-“ Ice pulled out of Mavericks hold, not able to handle touch now.

“Not about that stuff, I’ll only ask if you need me to, about the wolf stuff.” Mav quickly cut him off, clarifying. 

“Oh, right, sorry, I probably should have explained, I just couldn’t last night and, I basically had you scruff me.” Ice untangled his not tangled dog tags as he spoke, not looking at maverick, uh what?

“Ok, I still don’t know what that means?” Maverick said slowly, like the same way you do a dog? What? 

“It like short circuits everything? Makes my brain stop and forces my body to relax-“ 

“Wait wait wait, you said he would scruff you and you had me do it? Now I’m confused and concerned Ice.” Mav stood up now, that word finally clicking into place from Ice’s ramblings last night, what?! 

“It’s both good and bad, it’s confusing, I was ok with it and knew what was gonna happen but it can be hurtful, used for punishment just as much as comfort. He did it to force submission, I asked you to for comfort, his caused pain, you helped me calm down.” Ice tried to explain, it was a really confusing thing, but it was also very intimate (even if it was a pack member using it as a reprimand) which was why it was such a betrayal when he did it. 

“I’m not sure I’m any less confused?” Mav had cocked his head to look at Ice in the gray dawn. 

“It is confusing, you didn’t do anything I wasn’t ok with I promise, now can we get ready so we don’t get in trouble? Please?” Ice asked, looking at the time, they were going to be late and since Ice wasn’t even supposed to be here since now he ‘technically’ lived with Slider in the other bedroom he had to go over there and change and he couldn’t afford any more drama. 

“Ok Ice ok, but I still have more questions.” Mav grinned at him. 

“You’re weird Mitchell,” Ice shook his head, walking out of the room. 

“You’re frosty Kazansky,” Mav replied following him out of the bedroom so he could brush his teeth.

“Mother Goose,” Ice greeted goose as he walked past, “see you at chow.” 

“Iceman,” Goose greeted slowly, dragging out his name looking between Ice and Mav, as Ice put on his flip flops and left. Goose scrubbed at his face with a sigh, “Mav, we gotta talk.” 

“About what?” Mav walked to the bathroom grabbing his toothbrush as Goose followed him. 

“Umm that?” Goose pointed to the door like it was obvious, “How many nights has that happened?” 

“Nothing happened, we were studying we fell asleep, end of.” Mav said around his toothbrush, really Goose? 

“With what text books?” That was an awful attempt at lying, even for Mav. “Dude, are you seriously pushing the limits after Jester warned you off?” Goose glared, or was Goose the only one who remembered Jester’s comment about fraternization? This was a horrible idea, and he had been around for a lot of Mav’s horrible ideas. 

“Nothing’s going on, if he’s having trouble sleeping he stays over, but nothing happens.” Nothing in the way that Goose is meaning happens, Ice freaks out if you touch his hand wrong, the man’s a minefield. 

“He’s our rival Mav, or have you forgotten why we’re at Top Gun?” He was glad they’d gotten close especially if it was helping Ice get over the blackmailing fiasco, but there were way too many things that could go wrong right now if they tried to change, well anything about their dynamic.  

“Of course I haven’t but I’d rather he doesn’t do something stupid and get us all killed cause he hasn’t slept in 48 or some shit.” Maverick replied, “He puts up a good front, but he’s spooked Goose, really spooked.” 

“I just don’t want to see you get in trouble or hurt, either of you.” Goose sighed, leaning on the doorway in defeat. 

“When have I ever gotten in trouble?” Maverick grinned at him, ok so like weekly but that’s not the point. 

“Do you actually want me to answer that?” Goose leveled him with a glare. 

“Not really, come on we’re gonna be late.” Mav laughed going back to his room to change. 

~

Somehow it was like Ice had heard the conversation between Mav and Goose, ignoring the both of them completely unless they were on the hop together and even then it was strictly as needed communications, no banter or goading each other on. 

It went the same for three more days Ice completely avoiding him, only talking to Slider and even then not as much as before. Alright, so they were back where they started, that was fine, weird but fine. 

It wasn’t till the fourth day and everyone but Ice was in the classroom, waiting for Viper to come in, which was weird since the man was never late. Ice was also never late, and that made Mav nervous. 

“Psst, Slider,” Mav hissed, getting the RIO to look at him, “Where’s your pilot?” Maverick asked worried, he’d never even come into a class room before him, so were was this guy? No he wasn’t supposed to care but he did and it bothered him. 

“No idea, we were supposed to meet up earlier but he didn’t show.” Slider hissed back, shrugging. 

“Maverick.” Viper called across the room before Maverick could fully process or reply to the RIO, instantly Mav was on his feet and heading towards him.

“Yes, sir.” Maverick stood at attention, what the hell did he do now? He could feel the stares of the others in the room on him. Mav didn’t even remember trying to do something…

“Come with me,” Viper turned and walked out of the room, having no clue what was going on Mav followed quickly behind him. 

“Um, sir?” Maverick hedged when they came to the locker rooms, what? If he was in trouble why were they at the locker rooms and not one of the offices? They hadn’t even had their hops yet today, only class work and he’d been well behaved, thank you very much. 

Viper just nodded to the door, “not sure there’s much I can do to explain this one son,” he pushed into the room not waiting for Maverick’s reply.

The first thing Maverick noticed with the crying, the second was Jester’s voice trying to soothe whoever was crying and that was only making it worse, looking once more at Viper Mav raced towards the sound which was the showers. 

“Ice come on son, you need to calm down.” Jester tried again as Maverick ran up beside him, and there Ice was crouched in the farthest shower bay in his uniform under the spray arms wrapped over his face, ok that was new. 

“Sir?” Maverick whispered, looking between the two instructors and the panicking Ice. 

“Your guess is as good as ours, he was in here when we came in, there’s only this.” Jester held up a notepad with a poorly scrawled ‘maverick’ on it, but that wasn’t the most concerning part. 

“Is that blood?” Mav gasped, looking back to Ice he couldn’t see any injuries from here but that didn’t mean anything, the note was definitely written in blood, what the hell? 

“I mean we didn’t lick it or anything, but yeah, probably,” Viper nodded crossing his arms. 

“Right,” Maverick nodded, pulling his boots off and padding softly across the shower floor in his socks, which any other time eww, “Tom? Ice?” Mav spoke when he was still out of arms reach from him not wanting to get hit. Ice whimpered something into his arm that Mav had no hope of understanding, not looking up. 

Carefully Maverick reached up and turned the water off, before moving to sit next to Ice with his back against the wall but not touching him. 

“Ok Ice, I’m gonna get you back on the ground, yeah, stay with me Ice,” slowly so his movements were clear if Ice could some how see him if he even had his eyes open. Maverick unbuttoned his uniform shirt taking it off and pulling off his undershirt, before pulling his uniform shirt back on just so it was out of the way. Carefully, so he didn’t actually touch Ice, Maverick gave him the undershirt, hoping to put it close enough he could smell it without feeling suffocated by it. 

Ice whimpered gripping the fabric with the hand that was closest to it bringing it closer and taking a deep breath, ok so that had been the right move, good. 

“That’s it, Ice come on down, good,” Maverick soothed as Ice kept taking in lung fulls of Mav’s scent through his cries. “That’s good, Ice, real good.” 

“Mav?” Ice whimpered after a few minutes, barely looking to look at him through bloodshot eyes. 

“I’m here,” Mav nodded, looking at him carefully, he still couldn’t see where Ice was hurt, maybe it had healed? How fast do wolves heal? 

“Mav,” Ice whimpered again, more tears pouring through as he practically launched himself at Mav. “Make it stop?” He sobbed curling up to fit against Maverick’s chest, face tucked into his neck and arms around his chest, shirt still clutched in his hand. 

“Ok, shh, how?” Maverick asked not wanting to do the wrong thing and make it worse, even if he was pretty sure Ice was asking to be scruffed again.  

“Like last time?” Ice sobbed, he was soaking wet and shaking in his arms, what happened? 

“Ok, ok, lets get you back into pattern now, it’s alright.” Maverick hushed, running his hand up and down Ice’s back a few times so he hopefully didn’t startle him too badly when he moved his hand to his neck. Ice cried out jerking away from him even as he held tighter around Mav’s ribs, so hoping for the best Maverick squeezed as hard as he could and keep it for a while, which was still almost as hard as he could without actually hurting Ice.

Ice whined going lax in his hold almost instantly, sobbing into his neck. 

“You’re ok, I’m not gonna leave my wingman, I got you Ice.” Maverick spoke after a few minutes, head tilted away for Ice to do his thing, as they listened to the water drip into the drain. Something shifted out of the corner of his eye and he looked up to see Jester and Viper looking at them curiously, oh well, nothing he could do about it right now. 

Getting Ice to settle was priority, it had to be, did wolves shift when they were stressed? See this was why they needed to have an actual talk about the wolf thing and not just random comments here or there, an actual full on conversation.

It took another ten or so minutes for Ice to stop crying and his breathing to regulate, Mav didn’t let up pressure and Ice didn’t ask him to, their instructors eventually left to go do something, make sure the others weren’t using jet fuel to flambé anything or anyone, probably, which meant they were alone. 

“Ice? Where are you bud, call the ball?” Maverick asked after a little while longer, paraphrasing the call out order they’d both heard countless times. 

“Three quarters ‘mile out, calling the ball,” Ice mumbled, wiggling a little like he was trying to wake up, “fuck.” 

“Ice?” Maverick asked, not moving as Ice kept wiggling, “when you’re ready I’ll let you go, you just have to tell me.” 

“No, please?” Ice whispered nuzzling into Mav’s neck further, he didn’t want to leave the bubble, there were questions outside and instructors he’d need to talk to and he just wanted a little bit more of this calm. 

“Easy, we’re good on fuel man, we can approach as many times as we need, I got you.” Maverick reassured, hoping no one was going to come in right now, not being able to see his watch but they had been in here long enough that some classes for sure would have been rotated by now. 

“Sorry,” Ice mumbled after a few more minutes pulling away from Maverick and wiping his face with his hands. 

“Don’t be,” Mav shook his head, “Ice, that note was written with blood, are you hurt?” He had to ask, even if the timing was awful. 

“Had split my lip, couldn’t find a pen,” Ice shrugged, (way to casual for the situation) gesturing at the scabbed over skin, it didn’t look bad and there wasn’t any other redness or bruising coming through which meant it probably hadn’t come from a strike, that was good.  

“How’d you spilt it?” Mav asked carefully, had some else split it, is that what set him off? He had to check, who else was in the locker rooms though? If Viper and Jester had found him like that there’s no telling who was responsible.

“I bit it? I think, I don’t know, I’m fine now.” Ice shrugged again, even as he was starting to shiver thanks to being in a soaking wet uniform and not pressed up against another body. 

“Ice-“ 

“I don’t know, ok?” Ice snapped, gripping the undershirt tighter in his fist, “I don’t know, and they’re gonna ask me about it and I don’t know what happened so I can’t answer their questions and I can’t- breathe-” Ice cut off voice going high and reedy with renewed panic. 

“Ok, ok Ice look at me? Hi, hey, there we go, it’s ok, you’re ok,” Maverick did the (probably) objectively stupid thing, ripping his dog tags over his head and jingling them to grab Ice’s attention so he didn’t have to make eye contact but he had something to focus on. Also not wanting to risk touching Ice, since that was a minefield when he wasn’t in a panic attack. 

It however, did work and Ice’s breathing calmed down again, watching as Maverick slowly swung his tags back and forth in time with his own slow breathing. 

“Good, ok, think you can move to the lockers so you can change out of those wet clothes, or do you still need some time?” Maverick asked after Ice blinked and sat up with a sigh. 

“Yeah,” Ice cleared his throat and stood, groaning, how long had he been on the hard tile of the showers? Also gross. 

“The fuck you leave your socks on for?” Ice mumbled as they walked into the dry side of the locker room, Maverick stooping to grab his boots on the way. 

“I have no idea.” Mav just shrugged, going to his own locker and stripping down, thankful he’d stashed a clean uniform in it, socks and all. 

“You steady Sailor?” Viper asked as the two of them walked out of the locker rooms minutes later, hair wet but no longer in soaking wet clothes. 

“Yes, sir.” Ice stood at attention, the two instructors were stood on either side of the door, like they were guarding it, had they kept other personnel out? 

“Good to hear it son,” Viper clapped Ice’s shoulder and started back towards the class rooms, right they were supposed to be in class right now. 

“Would’t have thought of that in a million years.” Jester clapped Maverick on the back as they fell in line towards the classroom, Maverick grinned, glad for once not to be getting yelled at. 

Chapter Text

It started by accident, it really had, what with using the dog tags to help focus Ice out of the panic attack, Mav started to notice whenever something chimed or someone was flipping their keys, a pen, the jingle of dog tags, anything really, how Ice would perk up and look at it before forcing his attention back to whatever he was doing. 

How he watched whenever someone threw something, muscles taut like he wanted to chase it. Then Goose and Slider had started playing table football in-between hops, and Ice was always watching it back and forth, back and forth. So, naturally, Maverick had scrounged up a tennis ball from somewhere and kept it in the preflight room, bouncing it or throwing it against the wall or into the air as he listened to the radio of whoever was currently on their hop. 

“Knock it off,” Ice snarled cornering him in the hall a few days after he’d started messing with him (and getting others to mess with him, a case of beer went a long way.) 

“Knock what off?” Mav grinned, only half pretending to not know what Ice was talking about. 

“You know exactly what Mitchell, you’re doing it on purpose, so knock it off!” Ice glared harder resisting the urge to pin the human against the wall. 

Ok, so maybe Maverick had a death wish, that would be the best explanation for why he did what he did next. 

“So you’re saying you don’t want to go to the dog park instead of the bar this Saturday?” Maverick grinned even as Ice spun him into the wall, his breath punching out of his chest at the force his back hit the wall, Ice’s hands fisted in his flight suit. 

“What the fuck’s your angle? Huh?” Ice sneered almost nose to nose with the human, he wasn’t going to let himself back into this situation, letting himself get tossed around like a toy at the whim of a human, no way.

“Easy Ice, I’m messing with you,” Maverick for some reason wasn’t freaked out by what was obviously a show of aggression and dominance, “unless that would actually help you not be so grouchy all the time.” Maverick tilted his head up, not breaking eye contact as Ice’s cheeks reddened. 

“So it would help, good to know.” He grinned, a plan already forming.  

“Cut it out Mitchell!” Ice growled, “You ever think there’s a reason I’ve only ever shown you that indoors? I’m not some golden retriever, I don’t even look like a shepherd, I look like a wild fucking animal and I’ll probably get shot if someone who actually has a sense of self preservation sees me!” 

“Ouch Ice, you wound me.” Mav hissed at the comment, "it transfers right? Then I’ll see you after hops for some football,” Maverick smirked and pushed Ice away from him, walking down the hallway and whistling to himself. 

“You’re an ass Mitchell!” Ice called hurrying after him, cause now they were going to be late. 

Maverick only spun around flipping him the double bird before spinning back around, continuing to the hanger. 

~

He would never admit it, especially to Maverick, but playing football with everybody after the hops had definitely taken the edge off and he felt a lot better after they’d all showered and were crowded around tables in the canteen later. The worst part was that Maverick seemed to notice too, kicking his boot and grinning that insane grin of his, Ice only rolled his eyes and ignored him focusing back on whatever Slider and Sundown were talking about, fishing, maybe? 

~

“Ice catch!” Was all the warning he got before there was an orange flying at his head, without thinking, Ice’s hand shot out to grab it, inches before it hit his ear. 

“Seriously again? You’re not getting this back!” Ice yelled glaring at the orange, seriously what was going on that was the fourth time this week and it was Tuesday? 

“What is with everyone?” Slider muttered glancing around, he had noticed it too. 

Ice just shrugged and started pealing the orange, he had no idea, sometimes it was fruit, other times is was tennis balls or other random things… wait tennis balls. 

“Fuck you Mitchell.” Ice glared at the human, he didn’t know how but it had to be something he’d done. 

“What? I didn’t do anything!” Maverick squawked, looking at Ice incredulously, why would he think that? 

“How’d you do it?” Ice glared, nostrils flaring slightly as he breathed in deeper, yeah Maverick was lying, big time. 

“Why does it have to be me?” Maverick tried, knowing it was hopeless as Ice kicked his shin, hard.  

“Because I know when you’re lying Mitchell, and you did it, so how?” Ice all but snarled at him, leaning over the table at him, Maverick grinned that infuriating grin and met his eyes with all the confidence he’d stored up in that 5' 7” frame of his. 

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” Mav grinned even wider if that was possible. 

“You understanding any of this?” Slider whispered to Goose who shook his head and pantomimed eating popcorn. 

“Screw you both you, were helping him weren’t you?” Ice glared at the RIOs as he sat back in his chair. 

“Helping with what I still don’t know what’s going on?” Slider sounded like an indigent cat. 

“I’m not gonna sit with you guys anymore, you suck.” Ice pouted, going back to peeling the orange. 

Maverick gasped gripping his heart in mock horror, “You wouldn’t! We’re your friends,” yes he was poking the bear (wolf), no he didn’t care, yes he was probably getting thrown (gently) against a wall/door later by said pissed off wolf, he also didn’t really care. 

“He’s my friend,” Ice pointed at Slider, “I still don’t know why I tolerate the two of you,” the glint in his eyes made it clear Ice was playing around even if his voice didn’t. 

“Hear that Goose, we’re tolerated, that’s some pretty high praise.” Maverick grinned at his RIO, kicking Ice’s shin much more gentle than Ice had kicked his earlier. 

“Ok guys, we’re gonna be late and hungry if we don’t get a move on.” Goose shook his head with a laugh, seriously they probably only had ten minutes left after all of their bickering.

When they were in the preflight room waiting their turn Maverick got his tennis ball out, seriously were did he hide that thing? Should he sniff it out one day and move it just to fuck with him as much as Mav was determined to fuck with him? Ice snatched it from him and sat at one side of the room, Maverick caught on and sat at the other, a shit eating grin plastered on his face. Damn it, it was a trap, of course it was. 

“You’re an ass Mitchell,” Ice rolled his eyes and tossed the human the ball, Mav only cackled catching it and throwing it back easily. 

“I feel like we missed something,” Hollywood shook his head as he looked between the pair of previously always fighting pilots. 

“Us too,” Goose and Slider grumbled at the same time, already into their table football. 

“Seriously, did they punch it out or something?” Wolfman mused, looking over his homework at them. 

“‘They’ can hear you, quite clearly.” Ice snarked, happily tossing the ball back at Mav, seriously screw him for thinking of this, he was way too happy now and he could smell how happy it was making Mav. 

“Yeah and maybe ‘they’ just wanted to confuse the ever living fuck out of you guys.” Mav quipped back, this shouldn’t be settling him too, right? Maybe it would help them communicate in the air, since that was still something they couldn’t seem to get a consistent handle on, the competition for TopGun was just too great to bridge whatever truce they’ve managed to build.

Chapter Text

“Ok, nope, I have questions you have answers, we’re doing this now before we get into a situation we can’t get out of.” It was Maverick’s turn to corner Ice, but hey they had plenty of free time and they were alone, which meant that Mav could get some wolf-y answers, finally! 

“Fine,” Ice drug out the word, “what do you want to know.” Ice put the NATOPS he was reading down, seriously who reads that in their free time? The answer was both of them, but that’s not the point, it was a Saturday?! 

“What happens on a full moon? Is it like the movies? Also you’re a real wolf- not like the movies, how much of your thought processes are the same? Can you eat chocolate? What about onions? Do you lick your paws or something then shift back and are like gross I can’t believe I did that?-“ 

“Mitchell shut it!” Ice tossed a pen at him, hitting Mav in the chest, “jeez one at a time, how do you come up with this stuff man, fuck!” Ice laughed running a hand through his hair. 

“Umm, alright, I shift on full moons but it’s not a murderous rampage I usually just want to play so it can get lonely, yes I look the same as a true wolf except I’m larger than most breeds or species. I have no idea? I’m still me but rely more on instinct I guess, I can but only in really small amounts or it makes me puke, Slider loves it cause he gets the chocolate rations I don’t eat, you’ve literally seen me eat onions, and I refuse to answer that.” Ice counted off the questions, for real how did Maverick come up with some of these?

“How fast can you heal?” Cause seriously the scab from when Ice had bit his lip during the panic attack lasted barely two days. 

“Slightly faster than the average person, but I have a better immune system so its hard for me to get sick, and a faster metabolism.” Ice shrugged, there wasn’t a way to measure that- that he was willing to do- and everybody healed at different rates anyway. 

“What do you do for full moons on deployment?” They were -more or less- trapped on aircraft carriers for months at a time, depending on their mission/deployment specs, how exactly did Ice hide being a wolf when surrounded by a small city? 

“Try to find someplace out of the way and hide.” That was his least favorite part of deployments when they were over full moons, as most were, when he couldn’t even shift on a full moon and smell the ocean since he usually found a storage closet that was as out of the way as possible to spend the night in. It was all just metal and stale air give or take chemicals. 

“How hasn’t Slider figured it out yet?” Mav mused, more to himself than to Ice, seriously it took Mav less than two months to not only figure out something was ‘off’ about Ice but to get him to tell him, and Slider had been with Ice for years.  

“No idea, probably cause he didn’t piss me off so badly I lost control and shifted on him like you did.” Ok so that might not have been the whole truth or even partly true, but that was the accepted answer of the situation between them, and that was what Ice was going to go with for as long as he could. 

“Rude, but fair,” Mav shrugged, yeah so that wasn’t one of his best moves, “So I did see something then?” He asked. 

“Technically there’s a half shift, where it’s just my eyes and fangs, so yes.” Ice shrugged, suddenly feeling off kilter. 

“Do you have a collection of dog toys?” Mav grinned, he didn’t remember seeing any but it would make sense that they were hidden.  

“No, that’s weird, I don’t have a dog.” Ice shook his head, he had a small box with his favorites from childhood at his parents house but he didn’t feel safe enough to travel/move around with one. 

“If you let yourself have some what would be your favorite?” Damn Maverick and his perceptiveness. 

“I’m not telling you that cause I don’t want to give your mischievous little brain any ideas.” Ice glared at him, even if he really did want to get one, it wasn’t worth the risk. 

“Oh come on, I wouldn’t do that.” Mav protested, weakly, but still. 

“Yes you would, its not happening.” Ice scoffed, ignoring the longing in his chest.  

“Fine, umm do you prefer cooked or raw meat?” Maverick changed the topic. 

“Of all the questions that’s what you go with? Depends on the form I’m in I guess? But even when it’s cooked I always get as rare as they’ll cook it.” He shrugged, more confused by Mav’s decision as to what questions to ask now than ever. 

“Huh, interesting.” Mav mused, he’d have to get him some steak or something. “Do you shift from anything other than you choosing or the moon? You mentioned the control thing earlier?” Was it a risk that any time he had a panic attack or other very emotional moment there would be an equally distraught wolf instead of the human? 

“Really intense emotions -good or bad- can make it harder to stay in this form yeah, but it’s not a trigger? I’m not sure how to explain it, like it gets so overwhelming that I have to feel it in both bodies to fully process it.” The closest he’d ever gotten was during that panic attack in the showers before Viper had managed to find Maverick. 

“Gotcha, should I get a crash course on calming a stressed out wolf you then?” Mav nodded, trying to absorb all of the information. 

“I don’t know, maybe?” Ice shrugged, “Ok, I’m not answering anything else until you answer something, give and take Mav.” Ice changed the topic. 

“Ok what?” Mav nodded, fair was fair after all.  

“At the bar- the time Goose introduced us, the dare, he said ‘carnal knowledge- of a lady this time’ what the hell was that about?” It had been driving him nuts since he’d heard it and while he could obviously guess, he wanted to know the real answer. 

“Oh fuck, you heard that?” Maverick fell back against the couch covering his face with his hands and groaning. 

“Yes, and saw your face when he said it, no more wolf answers till you answer that.” Ice grinned, knowing he probably looked like the cheshire cat, so there was a story behind it.

“Ok, fair is fair,” Mav groaned again, refusing to move from where he was laying, face covered. “I have like no memory of this but apparently we got so black out drunk on shore leave one time that we did that same stupid dare except I may or may not have gotten it on with a palm tree…” 

“Holy shit man, you what?” Ice burst out laughing, no way!

“I’m not repeating myself, mister ‘I lick my toes.’” Mav glared at him, even if he was smiling about it, it was one of those stories after all, they all had them, some were more illegal/crazy than others. 

Ice made a growling huff sound at the toe licking comment before they were both laughing hard enough they were sure to get a noice complaint. 

“Ok, why the shirts? Like I know what you told me last time, but why my shirts, why my scent? What the hell about me is anything but stress inducing?” Why was this question so far down the list, well save the best for last right, and hope it’s not a horrible idea.  

“Fuck, I wish I had answers man, I’m so confused,” Ice scrubbed a hand over his face, “like why the shirt, armpits have the most like concentrated scent, other than like underwear-if you start putting your fucking tightie-whities in my locker Maverick I swear I will kill you.” He leveled a glare at Mav that could freeze an already frozen glacier. 

“You’re the one who said it not me!” Mav laughed holding his hands up, though that did leave for some interesting ideas. 

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Ice glared at him. 

“Ok, ok I won’t, I might steal Slider’s and put ‘em in your locker though.” Mav grinned, oh this was going to be fun, which was what Ice was worried about. 

“Don’t.” Ice growled, moving before he could think about it and then he was straddling Mav’s lap, hand on his throat pinning him to the back of the couch, growling, noses almost touching. 

“Whoah, We gonna fight or make out, seriously, mixed signals, Ice.” Maverick grinned, tipping his head back to shift how Ice’s hand was around his throat, lowering it slightly so it was more comfortable. 

“What is it with you and that phrase?” Ice glared, not moving except for his thumb tracing up and down Mavericks pulse, feeling it jump, but there wasn’t any fear in his eyes. 

“What’s with you and choking me like this?” Maverick kept grinning, neither breaking eye contact as they stared each other down, the tension between them skyrocketing. 

Surprisingly, Ice was the one to break first, burying his face in Mav’s neck with a frustrated growl, hand moving to his shoulder instead of his throat. “Why’d my instincts pick you?” Ice groaned, what? 

“Ok rude.” Mav muttered, was he supposed to be insulted? He kinda felt like he should be… but he didn’t know why, not really. 

“It’s complicated…” Ice mumbled, voice small as he shifted to be curled into Mav’s lap instead of the threatening straddle he’d been in previously. 

“So what’s the simple version?” Mav asked, bringing his arms around to hug Ice, holding him gently. 

“No,” Ice shook his head whining, well that wasn’t good, what the hell was going on?

“Ice?” Maverick asked softly, all the humor from before gone and in its place, gentle concern. 

“If I explain it’ll change how things are and I can’t handle anymore changes right now.” Ice shook his head before licking at his pulse. 

“Ok,” Maverick whispered, closing his eyes as he stepped out on the proverbial limb, “Ice, palm trees aren’t the only thing I’ve flirted with other than woman.” 

Ice just whimpered and curled closer, so Maverick let it go and just held him as they sat in silence until it was time to go meet Goose, Carole, little Bradley and Slider for lunch.

Chapter Text

“Maverick!” Ice hissed, coming up to him at the bar throwing a glance back a the corner table they’d been camped out at. “What do I do with this?” He hissed again as the burette turned to look at him. 

“Huh? Oh you’ve got Baby Bird! Hey bud!” Maverick grinned when he turned and saw Bradley in Ice’s arms. 

“Mav!” Bradley grinned, giggling as Maverick tickled his before taking him out of Ice’s arms. 

“How’d you get so big?! You’re not gonna be a baby bird much longer!” Mav grinned ruffling the blond curls as he started walking back to the corner table, Bradley just giggled,  Goose playing the piano (only slightly off key) that was more on account of it probably hadn’t been kept up with the greatest, oh well though.  

The whole thing felt strangely normal to Ice, as though he couldn’t ever remember a time where he and Slider hadn’t spent afternoons camped out at a bar with Mav, Goose, Carole and Bradley. Slider and he had spent many a night with Goose but even that had felt different compared to this, it was as though they’d been friends all their lives instead of meeting weeks/hours ago. 

It was surreal almost spooky as Ice looked around the calm but happy dining room, eyes catching on the calendar, there it was, it was the full moon. It always made him feel nostalgic and clinging to every bit of ‘family’ he could, it was never like full moons with his family though, it couldn’t be. Not when it wasn’t safe to shift outside and not when no-one could know. Well Maverick knew, but it wasn’t like he could ask Mav to leave soon and for ‘no reason’. 

“I think I’m gonna go get caught up on homework and get to bed, I’m pretty tired.” Ice said standing, he was nostalgic now but soon he’d get restless enough that it would get pretty hard to pass off as normal. 

“So soon?” Carole asked, bouncing the toddler on her knee just as Slider crowed about him being a killjoy, Mav slapped Slider. 

“Well ma’am,” Ice put on his sunglasses and grinned, “there’s a reason I’m the best.” He grinned, throwing the (mostly well meant) barb out at the other pilot, Mav flipped him off after he checked to make sure Bradley nor Carole was looking. 

“See you tomorrow.” Ice waved before going to the bar to settle his tab, which was mostly just dinner and a few sodas having stopped after a single vodka tonic. 

Subconsciously he hadn’t wanted to drink tonight which makes sense with the full moon, he hated being a wolf and drunk, it was so hard to keep himself under control and not get kidnapped by animal-control since he’d probably end up outside doing something stupid. 

“Ice! Wait up!” Maverick called jogging towards him as Ice walked down the street, having caught a ride with Mav earlier, against his better judgement, Ice slowed down and let the other pilot catch up but didn’t start a conversation. 

“You ok?” Mav asked, he was still bouncy from running, the human seemed to only gain energy from working out or working up a sweat not lose it, it was kind of weird. 

“Just tired, go back to the bar,” Ice tried to shrug, hoping he sounded disinterested enough to convince the human but not enough that he worried him and made him follow him home. 

“Bullshit Ice, what’s going on?” Maverick scoffed, grabbing his arm as Ice sped up again, turning him to face the shorter pilot. 

“I’m tired, let it go yeah?” Ice shrugged his arm out of Mav’s hold walking towards the BOQ. 

“Ice-“ Maverick started again, seriously just let it go! 

“I’m fine ok, I’m fine,” Ice spun back to look at him, a little snappy, he wasn’t aggressive with the full moon but all his senses were dialed up to a twelve out of ten and it was a lot, so he was a little more short tempered than usual. 

“You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself of that not me,” Maverick shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets, looking only a little sheepish. 

“Why’d you have to be so damn perceptive? Even if I’m not I know how to ask for help and I didn’t so-“ Ice pinched the bridge of his nose, this was getting to be a lot, he just wanted to go to bed and hopefully sleep away the loneliness. 

“It’s the full moon, isn’t it? It’s starting?” Maverick looked up at the dark sky save for the moon (bright even though they were in the middle of town) and back at Ice with a raised eyebrow. 

“Screw you Mitchell.” Ice mumbled, a growl rumbling in his chest. Yeah he needed to get out of this conversation, he could feel the pull of the moon, which meant he had about an hour of fighting it off before he couldn’t anymore and he still had to get back on base, a good 20 minute walk from here.  

“Do you actually want to be alone?” Mav asked, starting to walk again, what? 

“What, yes, that’s what I’ve been saying, go away.” Ice sputtered, what else did ‘go away’ mean? Seriously? 

“Then convince me,” Mav shrugged as they walked down the quiet street. 

“What?” What was this human on about? 

“Tell me you want to be alone without lying and I’ll leave.” Mav shrugged kicking a rock out of the way and sounding way too casual for the conversation.  

“You’re an ass Mitchell,” Ice’s shoulders fell as he looked at the gravel they were walking over, why’d the human have to be so damn good at reading him. 

“Ok so you’re place or mine?” Maverick asked, grin in his voice at getting an honest answer out of the wolf. “Goose got a temp house on base while Carole and Baby Bird are here.” 

“Whatever,” Ice shrugged, he was still trying to process the conversation, it having not made a whole lot of sense, and now he was freaking out cause he got to have company, not to mention Maverick, on a full moon. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had someone to play with on a full moon, would the human freak out though? He’d only been around Ice’s wolf a few times and those were very still times. Well nothing like jumping into the deep end to find out, great. 

And that was how he ended up in Mavericks place 30ish minutes later, having been so lost in thought that he’d not even realized they were here until Maverick was putting a glass of water in his hands. 

“Figure you shouldn’t start the night dehydrated.” Mav smiled and walked back to the kitchenette humming to himself, umm ok. 

The human had a point, he always tried to ‘tank up’ before hiding himself away since he couldn’t open a water bottle with paws and bringing a bowl was way to conspicuous. He apparently didn’t have to worry about that tonight though, since having followed Mav into the kitchen there was a bowl of water on the floor and a second, with cut up flank steak? What the hell? 

“Were you planning this?” Ice glared -only a little- at Mav who was leaned against the counter looking casual. 

“Planning it, no. Prepared for it, yes.” Mav shrugged, drinking from his glass before setting it on the counter and picking up a, dog bone? 

“What the hell Mitchell?” Ice did glare this time, seriously? How was it the style he liked even!? 

“I had a little help from the pet store lady, told her this stray dog kept coming around my place and she suggested this one when I said you were a big breed maybe a husky- some sort of mix,” Maverick actually blushed looking sheepish. “I figured since I’m human I could more easily play it off as some sort of joke or prank than you could.” He shrugged not making eye contact. 

“I don’t know whether to think that’s sweet, creepy, or a combination…” Ice mumbled, the itch in his skin stronger and harder to ignore now, he rolled his shoulders and neck trying to put off the shift for a few more minutes, nervous, he’d never had a full moon with a human around before. 

“You don’t have to fight it Ice, go ahead.” Mav turned to the sink and started doing the few dishes to try and give the clearly uncomfortable wolf some privacy. 

“Umm, yeah, I’m, umm, yeah.” Ice mumbled, not quite sure what he was trying to say either as he set the mostly empty glass down and walked away towards the bathroom, figuring he’d better use it before he had a twelve hour stretch were that was pretty difficult. 

~

The excited wolf that came running back into the room a few minutes later was very different than the nervous pilot that had left it. Maverick smiled as the wolf whined at him wagging his tail and grinning? Rushing around the whole of the apartment sniffing everything there was to sniff before circling around Mav’s legs with whines and tippy tapping feet. 

“Ok, Ice, ok, tennis ball or bone?” Mav held both up for the wolf, they couldn’t get too crazy with a game of fetch since they didn’t want to get in trouble for noise but they should still be able to play for a little but before it was too late. Ice yipped nosing at Mav’s left hand with the tennis ball in it before skittering back and sitting, except he was too excited to actually sit still and was still tip-tapping his front paws. 

“Alright, Ice, get it boy.” Maverick knew better than to actually throw the ball and rolled it across the floor, sending Ice scrabbling after it, nails clacking against the flooring. 

Then it was almost endless rounds of fetch, for as long as Maverick could risk the sound of Ice running back and forth. Ice surprisingly, switched to being curled up with Mav and chewing on the bone fairly easily, Mav had been prepared to bribe him with more of the steak strips that he’d bought but hadn’t needed to. Ice was all but on top of him, as he insisted that Mav hold the bone as he chew at it, rumbling contently in his chest. 

They spent a few hours like that, Ice chewing on his bone, Mav holding it and half paying attention to the TV playing in the background, but mostly he was watching Ice, and the way he wasn’t trying to be anything else but himself right now, enjoying (if that was the right term) the full moon. 

Then they were going off to bed, though this part was starting to feel familiar as they curled up together, Ice purring and nuzzling at his chest. Mav hugged the wolf closer to him smiling. 

“Thank you for trusting me.” He whispered, not sure if Ice heard it or not as they both fell asleep, curled up together, wolf things safely tucked away so Goose wouldn’t see them in the morning incase he got back before either had woken up.

Chapter Text

“What’s that look for?” Mav asked as he and Goose walked up to the table for lunch, Ice looked like somebody switched his meatloaf with pine shavings, and yeah it wasn’t the greatest meal ever but it wasn’t that face worthy. 

“Nothing,” Ice said coughing and taking a drink of water, before picking at his creamed corn, ok that was weird.

Maverick didn’t think about it again till they were in his room later and Ice kept clearing his throat and cringing. 

“Ok seriously, what’s wrong?” Maverick asked, was he getting sick or something, what happened to it was hard for wolves to get sick? 

“It’s nothing,” Ice mumbled, voice rough, and broke off coughing, that wasn’t good, at all. 

“That is not nothing Ice, what’s wrong?” Mav closed his textbook, leveling the wolf with a ‘you’d better tell me’ glare. 

“I’ll be fine, wear off soon,” Ice shook his head, grabbing the water glass off the table and taking a sip, swallowing didn’t go as planned and he was coughing it up again. 

“Yeah no, tell me what’s going on or I’m taking you to the medics.” Maverick tried to sound calm as he took the cup from Ice so he didn’t drop it, he rubbed Ice’s back gently, letting him cough, the wolf was curled in on himself with the force of it. 

“No!” Ice yelped, “No medic, I’m fine.” He forced himself to swallow before grabbing the note pad that was on the table and scribbling something, handing it to Mav. 

“Meatloaf had wolves-bane in it, it’ll wear off by tomorrow, it just sucks for now, I’m fine.”

“Tom! Why didn’t you say anything earlier?!” Maverick gasped, glaring at him, Ice leveled a glare right back, snatching the notepad back. 

“Yeah let me just out myself as non human surrounded humans, that’ll go well, seriously Mav? There’s nothing to do but let it wear off anyway, I’m fine.”  

“Yeah ok, good point, there’s nothing to do? Really?” Mav asked sighing when Ice shook his head. 

“I’ll be fine Mav,” 

This wasn’t the first time this had happened and wouldn’t be the last, it was just another reminder that he wasn’t human and that was fine, it was just irritating but this small an amount would only last a little while and it was like having a sore throat, it was painful but he could still function. It was way better than when he had got Ice with the water that had stayed around for days.  

“Wait when he poisoned the water did it last a while too?” Mav asked worried now, how common was it to get exposed and then just have to put up with it? Wouldn’t someone have come up with a remedy by now? 

“Yes, I’m fine, ok?” 

Maverick, though hesitant to believe him, let the conversation drop when Ice shifted and curled up on what had quickly become ‘his’ side of the bed, eyes closed. 

~

Ice was, in fact not fine, a forty-five minute nap later and the wolf was waking up coughing and wheezing. 

“I’ll be right back, shift will you?” Mav told the still coughing wolf not waiting for an answer before leaving the room, Goose on the couch doing his own homework. 

“Everything ok? Ice doesn’t sound good.” Goose asked looking up from his textbook. 

“Lunch had something he’s allergic to and he’s too stubborn to go to medical!” Mav shrugged calling it louder to make sure Ice could hear him. That wolves didn’t have something to counter act wolfsbane was ridiculous, there had to be enough of them that there’s a solution someones come up with, right? 

Goose huffed a knowing laugh, since Mav was the same way and went back to reading, Maverick opened cupboards and moved things around till he found what he was looking for, and going back to his room with the random arm full of things. 

Ice was sat crosslegged on the bed, a blanket pulled over his shoulders, Mav huffed a laugh as Ice scowled at him as he set the arm full of items on his desk.  

“Eat this,” Maverick said turning to hand Ice a spoon full of honey. 

Ice did slowly, licking the thick substance off the spoon gingerly, where was he going with this? 

“Ok, now drink this.” Maverick handed Ice a mug of coffee, with very little liquid in it, Ice raised an eyebrow, cringing at the strength it was made.

“It slows you’re heart rate as well as burns, right? Caffeine will bring it back up.” Mav shrugged, taking the honey spoon back and adding another dollop to it. 

Wrinkling his nose Ice threw back the ‘coffee’ it was more instant coffee sludge than an actual drink, which put him in another coughing fit, making him glare at Mav, why was this human insistent on torturing him? He just wanted to sleep. 

“Get your breath,” Mav handed Ice a glass of water next, way too calm for for trying to kill (save) him. 

“Where’d you come up with this shit?” Ice wheezed against his better judgment, sipping the water which was thankfully helping to get rid of the motor oil (coffee) in his mouth. 

“We have a book on poisons, I looked it up.” Maverick shrugged, handing Ice the spoon of honey again, Ice took it, rolling his eyes. 

“It doesn’t work like that.” Ice mumbled, obediently licking at the honey when Mav glared pointedly at him. 

“Do you feel better?” Mav quirked a brow at the stubborn wolf, Ice paused mid lick of the spoon tilting his head in confusion. 

“Yesss? What the hell?” Ice said slowly, thinking about it, what the fuck?

“Good, now finish your spoon and I’ll let you go back to sleep.” Mav smiled, trying not to bounce up and down from how excited he was that this had actually worked. 

“You’re so weird Mitchell.” Ice muttered around the spoon, even if it came back later the amount of relief this wacko method gave him was enough to do it again. 

“Takes one to know one Kazansky.” Mav grinned. 

Chapter Text

“Hi?” Maverick couldn't help the smile at the pressure on his shoulder, Ice huffed not moving from where he’d plastered himself along Mav’s back, forehead resting on Mav’s shoulder. 

“You alright?” Mav got straight to the point since the locker room was going to be filled with the others soon. 

“No,” Ice’s body was full of tension were it was pressed against Mav’s back, what had happened in the fifteen minutes they’d been in separate places? 

“Ice, what’s going on?” Mav asked he could hear the others coming down to hall now, it was the end of the day and everyone was ready to get food and have a break. 

“Just come to mine after chow yeah?” Ice said before disappearing back across the room. 

Maverick was struck by the loss of Ice against him as the others poured into the room, thankful he was facing his locker so he had time to school his face back to neutral. 

Quick showers and meal later (during which Ice wasn’t visible in the hall) Maverick was finally stood outside of the wolf’s shared quarters. The door swung open before he could even raise his fist to knock. 

As soon as the lock clicked Ice was plastered to him, face in his neck with a high pitched whine. 

“Hello to you too,” Mav wrapped his arms around Ice as the wolf nuzzled closer, tongue laving at Mav’s skin. 

They stood like that in the entry way for a long time, at the angle Mav was holding a shaking Ice to him, he couldn’t see his watch, but he let the wolf try and settle himself down before asking questions. 

“Lets go sit down and you can tell me what this is all about yeah?” Mav spoke after another few minutes, slowly stepping away from the door and pushing/guiding Ice back into the living room, not surprised when Ice tucked his bigger frame around Mav on the couch never once lifting his face from his neck. 

“Hearing was today,” Ice whispered, voice sounding numb, “lawyer’s supposed to call soon and I, I didn’t wanna be alone.” He curled even closer to Maverick as he spoke. 

“Ok, I’ve got you,” Mav hushed holding him tighter, was it really? He knew they were all doing statements and recordings in between classes but he’d apparently forgotten about the date. How had Ice managed to keep it together all day? 

“I’m scared Pete,” Ice whispered curling closer. 

“That’s ok, ‘cause I’m not, I’ve got you.” Worried, yes, scared no, but all Mav could do right now was wait and see where the pieces fell before he started to pick them up. 

“How’re you so- calm about stuff?” Ice asked. 

“I’ve been on your side of waiting for the phone call or the letter, hell most the time I was running before they even picked up the phone, only person I could trust was me, I fly like I’ve had to live Ice.” Mav ran his hand up and down Ice’s spine as he spoke, there was a lot of baggage in that answer and he silently hoped he didn’t have to unpack anymore of it right now, he wasn’t sure he could keep both of them calm if he had to fight off both of their demons. 

Fortunately or not so much, the phone rang before Ice could ask anything else, he whimpered going stiff before prying himself away and towards the phone, one hand firmly around Mav’s bringing him with. 

“Lieutenant Kazansky speaking?” Ice spoke, his voice back to being numb, eyes closed, Maverick pressed close hugging him tightly. 

The hand Ice was gripping him with was almost painfully tight, as the person on the other end of the line spoke, Mav could only catch the occasional word and his tone of voice. Detached and professional, ‘lawyer-ish’ if that was even a tone of voice Mav was going with it was. 

Ice replied a few times, but Maverick focused on running his free hand up and down Ice’s back, trying to keep his breathing pattern somewhat normal.

“Yes, thank you sir,” Ice mumbled before hanging up the phone and falling to the floor, taking Mav with him, burying his face back in mav’s neck with thready cries. 

“Shh, breath Tom, just breath,” Maverick gathered the sobbing wolf into his arms and leaned against the wall, as best he could with they’re size difference. 

“He-He’s gone, g-got the- the max, I never have to see him again, I’m free Mav, I’m free.” Ice stuttered through sobs, somehow clinging even tighter to the human. 

“You did it Ice,” Mav grinned even as Ice sobbed curling closer, “You did it.” 

Slowly Ice calmed down, cries to sniffles and then they were just quietly sitting on the floor, which was fine. Mav had been in weirder or more uncomfortable positions for way longer than they’d be spending here he was sure. 

“Ice, call the ball?” Mav started wanting to know where Ice’s head was at some time later. 

“Winds are good, I’m calling it.” Ice nodded, doing his ‘wake up wiggle’ as Mav named it and taking a forced deep breath. 

“Good, it’s almost 2100, Slider coming back tonight?” Mav asked, Ice was still wiggling and was licking at his neck again, both good signs to Ice’s mental state being on the mend. 

“Yeah, he’s on his way,” Ice hummed, not seeming in much of a rush to get out of the position they were in, well ok then. 

“And how-“ Mav started not even sure he wanted to know, was it a wolf thing or was Slider just really punctual? 

“‘His footsteps, he’s climbing the stairs 2 floors below us.” Ice shrugged, like it was no big thing. 

“How sensitive is your hearing? Cause damn.” Mav laughed softly, he knew the walls in this place were thin but hot damn. 

“Very.” Ice chuckled, he’d be able to get used to most things, glad hearing protection was mandatory in places and wearing it as much as possible even when it wasn’t but it didn’t change the fact that some things were just loud, plain and simple. His RIO’s footsteps were a great example, even if the giant of a man had some excuse, what with his massive feet. 

“Ok, want me to leave or are we passing it off as studying, or does he know the call was today?” Mav asked, figuring they shouldn’t be caught sitting on the floor like this, since it’d just cause so many questions that Ice for sure wasn’t in the headspace to answer. 

“No, I didn’t tell him it was today, thank you for this,” Ice untangled himself from Mav, not wanting to acknowledge the reason why he’d asked Mav instead of his long time RIO and friend to be here. 

“Of course, what else are wingmen for?” Maverick smiled, Ice smiled back as they got up from the floor and flopped onto the couch (carefully since it was an awful couch) and grabbed random homework to make it look semi normal for when Slider would come inside. 

Chapter Text

Things were going too smoothly, Mav had managed to not piss anyone off for a few days and they (the class) were all getting along, there wasn’t anything but good natured barbs and competition. Needless to say Maverick was slightly worried as things were going almost too smoothly and while he wasn’t thrilled with his reputation of trouble maker the trouble just found him after all. 

All this to say Maverick was on edge waiting for the chaos to start. And boy was it not going to disappoint. 

“That was insane! You’ve gotta be part machine man!” Hollywood laughed slapping Ice on the shoulder, the sound wet and loud with both of them having just got out of the showers and still wet, water dripping from their hair. 

The whole room froze when Ice stilled at the contact, breath stuttering in his chest, shit. 

“Ice you good man?” Slider asked first, reaching for his pilot’s shoulder. 

“Sli don’t,” Maverick snapped, voice as low as he could without it being a whisper, Slider froze hand mid air. 

“Holly let go and back up, slowly.” Mav instructed, walking to Ice’s locker and carefully moving around the frozen wolf to get the things he’d need. Hollywood (thankfully) did as he asked, slowly and confusedly letting Ice go. 

“Go about your business guys,” Mav spared a quick look up at the silent locker room, everyone worriedly looking at them, but he couldn’t deal with that right now, he had to keep Ice from spiraling. 

“Ice, what’s your position, call out?” Maverick spoke quietly, stretching to loop Ice’s zip up hoodie over his shoulders and pulling the hood up over his head to shield him. 

“Mav?” Ice mumbled, the word more of a sound than an actual word, he was deep in it then, ok how to not make this worse? 

“I’ve got you, sit down,” Mavinstructed gently pressing him down only touching him over the fabric of the sweatshirt. 

“Mav,” Ice looked up voice breaking and tears in his eyes as his vision glazed over as he reached for the human. 

“I’ve got you, easy.” Mav gripped Ice’s shoulder and stepped back as the wolf lurched forward trying to burry his face in Mav’s bare stomach, Ice whimpered at the distance, touch, or both. “I know but that’ll just freak you out more Ice.” He tried to soothe, they were both still only in towels (other than the hoodie) letting the panicking wolf touch more skin would probably only make this worse, but he couldn’t just leave him to change. 

“Goose, hand me the undershirt that’s crumpled up in my locker.” Mav asked, holding out the hand that wasn’t corralling the wolf. 

“You want me to what?” Goose hissed raising an eyebrow at his pilot, what did he just ask? 

“The shirt Goose, please?” Mav tried to keep his voice from sounding stressed, not wanting to freak out the wolf even more as he made grabby hands at the mustached man. 

Goose thankfully, did as asked and handed the dirty shirt over with a look that said we are so talking about this later. 

“Here Ice,” Mav gently pressed the shirt into Ice’s hands guiding them up to his face, “I’m gonna get dressed, 20 seconds ok, then I’ll be back, find my heartbeat yeah? I’ve got you.” Mav spoke softly to him, taking his hand off Ice’s shoulder even as the wolf whined, forcing himself to ignore it as he walked back to his locker and started throwing on his civvies. 

“Mav?” Ice’s voice was only slightly muffled by the shirt, voice thick with tears and panic. 

“I’ve got your six, breath Ice.” Maverick shook his dog tags harshly as he pulled his shirt over his head to help the wolf know where he was, as soon as he got the shirt pulled on, Mav threw his leg over the bench, jeans creasing and digging into his skin a little as he sat down, pulling Ice into his chest now that there was a barrier between their skin. 

“You’re ok, just breathe Ice, breathe.” He hushed as Ice all but bursted into tears at the contact, dropping the undershirt to cling to Mav’s chest. 

“Mav-“ Ice cut off whining, whole body shaking hard enough he’d probably fall off the bench if it weren’t for Maverick holding him up. 

“I know, breath,” Maverick hushed, tipping his head to give Ice more room at his throat, which let him see all the guys shocked and confused faces, right, as far as the others knew they didn’t speak unless they had too, oh well. 

“What the fuck Mav?” Slider hissed, looking just as scared as he was shocked, Ice had never once showed this type of emotion, not even at the bar weeks ago. 

Maverick shook his head glaring at slider even as he hushed Ice when he whined. “You’re ok, you’re ok, Ice?” He hushes, carefully moving one hand to hold near his neck, asking permission to hold, Ice nods a desperate sound coming out of his chest even as he tried to hold it back. 

“Alright Ice, alright.” He soothed, gently moving his hand to squeeze around Ice’s neck, hidden inside the hoodie. Mav braced himself for the broken sound Ice made at the contact, his body going lax seconds after, even as his sobs continued, tears soaking the collar of Mav’s shirt. 

“What the hell Mitchell?!” Slider glared, crossing his arms and leaning against his locker, Goose doing the same across the way, though Goose was only confused and worried instead of near irate as Slider seemed to be. The others seemed to have listened to Maverick though, changing and getting out of there, good at least they only had to explain it to them right away. 

“I’m not getting into it right now Sli- shh it’s ok, he’s not mad, just worried, shh.” Maverick broke off when Ice whimpered, trying to pull away, Mav held him close, gentle but firm, Ice was safe here.

“Seriously, what the hell?” Slider glared harder, even as Ice settled down again. 

“Just go to the Mess and we’ll met you after he settles alright?” Mav tried, he could tell how embarrassed Ice was underneath all the panic, and having an audience was not helping him calm down. 

“Not happening,” Slider deadpanned. 

“Fine, than sit somewhere and shut up, you’re stressing him out more.” Mav said looking over at Goose with pleading eyes for him to help corral the other RIO, Goose had gone full concerned dad mode and was standing by ready to help, he nodded once and moved to pull Slider somewhere else in the locker room behind them. 

Mav could hear Goose whispering that they’d done something like this right after the arrest was made and that he’d make sure Mav explained. 

Well maybe Maverick would explain, depends what Ice explained, really. Mav ran the hand he didn’t have around the wolf’s neck up and down his back gently, humming the first song that popped into his head, Dream On by Aerosmith for some reason.

  Fifteen-ish minutes later and Ice was doing his wake up wiggles so Mav slowly started to release the pressure he had on his neck, “Easy, don’t rush it.” He chides when Ice whines breathing heavy like during maneuvers to clear his head. 

“Fuck,” Ice muttered against Mav’s skin, now just hiding from embarrassment.

“It’s alright Ice, not something you can control.” Maverick eased them apart slowly, Ice blinked harshly at the bright lights, “better?” 

Ice nodded blinking and wiggling a little more before scrubbing his hands over his face, disrupting the hoodie and letting it fall from his shoulders. 

“Good, get dressed, I’m gonna go find where our idiots wandered off to,” Maverick smiled standing and dismounting the bench before turning to go around to the other side of the locker room. 

“Mav?” 

“Yeah Ice?” He paused at the corner, looking back. 

“Thanks,” Ice whispered, shy but sure as he stood in front of his locker. 

“Anytime.” Maverick grinned before turning the corner. 

~

“You gonna explain at least some of what happened or am I gonna have to get you shitfaced so we can actually have a conversation?” Slider asked in the blunt way he did well anything really, straight shooter that one. 

“What do you want to know? I freaked out, Mav’s caught it before knows how to get me back, end of.” Ice tried to sound neutral, but he mainly just sounded tired and embarrassed. 

“Ok but I’m still confused as to why Maverick in the first place, you two hated each other?” Slider ran a hand through his hair, spiking it up from where it had dried flat. 

“If you can figure that out please tell us, neither of us know.” Maverick answered this time, knowing Ice wasn’t going to answer it, Ice won’t even tell him why it’s Mav. 

“How can neither of you know?” Goose spoke, looking confused even as he raised an eyebrow at Mav, shit, Maverick shook his head begging his RIO to let it go, it wasn’t like that. 

“I don’t know why ok, it just is. Can you just ask your questions so I can go bury myself alive from the embarrassment, I think this is worse than when Jester and Viper found me.” Ice mumbled, only realizing the two RIOs hadn’t know about that last part when their jaws basically fell onto the table. 

“Come again?” Goose managed not to squawk, (just barely). 

“What the fuck?” Slider glared, “what else have you not told me? Fuck man!” 

“Umm,” Ice curled his shoulders in, hoodie hunched over his shoulders even with the warmth of the room. 

“That day Ice was late and Viper called me out, was cause something happened- none of us know so don’t ask- and Ice had asked for me, they never said anything cause we got a handle on it, it’s not affecting his coursework or flying.” Maverick took over when Ice looked at him, eyes pleading and nervous. 

“Ok,” Goose said thoughtfully, “but it is affecting your sleep, right, what happens after TOPGUN and the four of us go back to our separate deployments?” 

“I sleep fine.” Ice shrugged, Goose just leveled him the ‘unimpressed dad glare’. “I don’t know, I’ll burn that bridge when I get there,” Ice glared, what exactly was Goose trying to say. 

“Alright so what do I do?” Slider asked after a few seconds, the three stared at him, what?

“What?” Maverick asked, where’d the topic go? 

“If something like that happens and you’re not around, or we are on separate deployments, it’s the navy random guys slapping your back in the locker rooms is an occupational hazard.” Slider shrugged, ok yeah he had a point. 

“Umm, I don’t know, I’m usually pretty out of it so I’m not sure what all he does, touch is pretty hit or miss and I don’t want to talk about it- asking will probably make it worse-, what do you do Mav?” Ice shrugs, looking confused now. 

“I don’t know? Same thing I did with Cougar, just talk you down till you’re back in pattern, give you something to focus on, if touch is ok you like to be held but not restrained- only upper arms and upper back. You like to be able to feel or hear my heartbeat, if not I try to make sure you can hear my breathing or like swinging my tags in rhythm so you can follow it. Just look at what’s going on, and respond as needed.” Maverick tried to explain, completely leaving out the scruffing thing, since there was no way to explain that without explaining everything and that wasn’t something he was doing 1, in public and 2, without Ice starting it. 

“That’s another thing what hell was up with the shirt?” Goose snapped his fingers as he remembered. 

“What?” Ice tilted his head in confusion. 

“Was the only way I could get you to let go long enough for me to get dressed so I didn’t make it worse.” Maverick shrugged, leaving the comment short enough to not give anything away to the other two humans but enough that the wolf understood, when did he get so comfortable lying to Goose? Maybe since it was only out of protection, still that wasn’t a good thing, in the long run. 

“Oh, right, I’m really sensitive to smell, my brain decided that Mav was a safe person, spacial awareness is really blurry? I guess, so his cologne or whatever it was made it so I didn’t think I was alone.” Ice shrugged, making it sound a lot less creepy that it was the first time he’d explained it to Mav, or maybe that was just because he had more context for it. 

“That doesn’t really explain why you’d want a sweaty undershirt shoved against your face but sure I guess if it helps…” Slider spoke slowly, like he didn’t believe that was all there was to it. 

“Anybody else want to do something embarrassing? I’m done for the day.” Ice grumbles stabbing at his (not poisoned) meatloaf, and with that they moved on to talking about sports and the dumb thing Chipper did in the last hop. 

Chapter Text

“Umm hi?” Maverick grunted as Ice laid down on top of him, arm’s wrapping around his ribs as Ice put his head down on his chest with a grunting huff.

“I don’t actually know what that means you know, I just guess.” Maverick set his hand on Ice’s head, fingers threading through the longer hairs on top as the man buried his face into his armpit, what the hell man? 

“Means I’m fucking done with my fucking brain.” Ice muttered, wiggling closer, yeah he knew how weird this was, he knew that didn’t make it easier to stop it, and it didn’t make the urge to mouth and lick at his skin and hair till all the deodorant was gone and the only thing left was Maverick any easier to ignore. 

“O…K, but if you start licking my armpit I’m flicking your nose,” of all the days Mav chose to wear a cut off after hops to study in, was the day Ice decided to stick his entire face in his armpit, what was his life?  

Ice made a noise that was a cross between a growl and a whimper, yup, he didn’t know what that one meant either. 

“You want to talk about it?” Mav asked putting the arm that he had been holding awkwardly raised as to not crush Ice’s head behind his own (head) resting it on the back of the couch and settling into this only slightly ridiculous situation. 

“Not really,” Ice muttered, debating how serious Mav was about the nose flicking and if he was willing to risk it. He knew he should talk about it, that would be the smart thing to do, other than run as far away from this situation as possible, did they have any assignments in the north pole and how could he get one? 

“Do you need to talk about it?” Maverick tried a different approach, starting to card through Ice’s hair as he spoke. 

“Probably,” Ice sighed. 

“I didn’t want it you know,” Ice whispered after a few more minutes of quiet between the two of them, save for their breathing. 

“Ice?” Maverick whispered, those words felt like ice water getting dumped on him, what was he referring to? 

“It’s not something that like, it’s not a choice,” Ice went on, ignoring Maverick, he had to if he was going to actually say the whole thing, the thing that would change everything, but he couldn’t keep ignoring it, that much he knew for sure. 

“I’m not sure I’m understanding Ice?” 

“Have you ever given any thought to soulmates?” 

“Not really? Seems too fairytale for my messed up life.” Where was he going with this? 

“I’m a werewolf Maverick, welcome to the fairytale.” Ice groused, why was this so hard? 

“I’m not following.” Mav slowly shook his head, what? 

“Wolves get -some would say blessed, I’m going with cursed- with soulmates, basically my instincts went ‘yup that asshole, he’s the one.’ And well here we are.” Ice explained, the words sounded grating to his own ears. 

“Negative ghost-rider, go around again?” Maverick asked eyebrows furrowed, cause what? 

Ice groaned sitting up enough to look Maverick in the eye, “somewhere somehow the stars thought it’d be funny to set us up, so our choices are fuck and figure the rest out or go to opposite sides of the world and hope either or both of us don’t die from broken heart syndrome.” Ice blinked harshly as he spoke, it was way brighter out here than in Mav’s armpit, go figure.

“Yeah, you lost me, it sounded like you said we’re supposed to shack up?” Mav deadpanned raising a brow at him, was he fucking for real right now? 

“That’s cause I did.” Ice could feel how red his face was, this was literally the stupidest situation-not to mention position- they could be in. 

“Like right now? Cause I’m not sure how well that’s gonna work out.” Between Ice being so jumpy (since you know being blackmailed and sexually abused will do that to you) not to mention they’d get into trouble if they were ever caught, it was a horrible plan for them to get down to knocking boots right now. 

“No, not right now, just like at some point in the nearish future.” 

“Good, cause both of us have some things to work on before we do that, probably.” 

“Yeah…” Ice trailed off, looking down at Mav’s dog tags resting in the center of his chest, “I’m sorry.” He whispered, he meant it, he didn’t ask for this either, he knew he was for all intents and purposes ruining Mav’s life, if he told Ice to leave right now, he wouldn’t even think twice before going and begging Viper and Jester to let him drop out and transfer to some no name boat in the middle of no where. 

“Hey, look at me,” Mav’s voice was gentle, the one he used when he was calming Ice down, he waited till Ice made eye contact with him, “Is it gonna take some getting used to, yeah, but you said earlier that you don’t get a say in it either, right? So we’ll figure it out, together? Wingmen in the air and on the ground.” 

“Do you get all your lines out of a chick's dating magazine?” Ice scowled, looking back down at Mav’s dog tags, the human’s kind and -somehow- understanding gaze too much. 

“Alright smooth talker, your version of flirting seems to be stealing dirty clothes and huffing my armpits so I’m not sure I’m gonna take criticism in my flirting technique.” Maverick laughed when Ice ducked back down into his armpit growling lowly. 

“Who says I’m flirting?” Ice grumbled halfheartedly, looking back up at Mav. 

“Ok then where’s your stash of dirty laundry from the others, hmm?” Mav grinned, knowing he had Ice with this, but it was just so fun to push his buttons, not to mention easy to get the wolf riled up. 

Ice only growled louder at him trying to decide if that was worth a verbal response or not when keys jingled in the door, Ice scrambled off of Mav as the human sat up to give him room, both quickly grabbing whatever study material they could find as Goose and Slider walked in, hoping they looked casual. 

“Reading it the normal way around too easy there short stack?” Slider asked laughing as he set down the bag of take out before dropping into an arm chair, what? 

“Screw you Slider,” Mav huffed as he dramatically dropped the upside-down NATOPS onto the coffee table. 

“You boys alright?” Goose asked as he came in, two steps behind Slider. 

“‘Of course,” Ice flashed a perfect grin at Goose, “Why wouldn’t we be?” He stretched one arm out on the back of the couch, as if he hadn’t just confessed his heart and soul not even five minutes ago. 

“They’re getting stranger, right?” Slider looked between them and then at Goose. 

“Definitely,” Goose grinned shaking his head and letting it go, Mav would tell him one way or another soon enough, regardless of what he attempted Mav couldn’t ever hide from Goose for long. 

Chapter Text

“Seriously man, what’s going on?” Goose demanded, they were alone tonight and it was the perfect opportunity to get some answers, though Carole would have been helpful too, she was busy with some of the other wives doing something. 

“With what?” Yes Mav knew he was side stepping, he knew exactly what Goose was asking but what was he supposed to say ‘yeah I know we were told off but like werewolf stuff ya know?’ That’ll go well. 

“Really Mav?” Goose raised a brow at him, frowning, he didn’t like being lied to, especially by his best friend. 

“I don’t know ok,” Maverick ran a hand over his face, “Seriously there’s, I don’t know how to explain it but what you’re worried about isn’t happening on purpose, we both know the risks of it, that’s not something Ice can even think about right now I mean the trial just finished.” 

“‘Not on purpose’ so it is happening? Mav you know how risky that is!” Goose stood up and paced back and forth, yeah he didn’t care good ahead man but his opinion most likely wasn’t shared among the COs or their other pilots and RIOs, it was just a bad idea in general. 

“I just told you I did!” Maverick snapped, of course he know how bad of an idea this was, it was one thing as a drunken fling on shore leave a whole other thing to intentionally engage with someone in your unit. 

“Ok then if you both know how stupid it is why are you doing it? I don’t want to see you two get hurt Mav.” Goose sighed sitting back down and looking at his friend, his brother. 

“It’s not something that, I can’t explain ok, yes we know how bad it could end up, but as far as anyone else is concerned we’re friends, is it weird since we basically hated each other not even a full two months ago, yes.” Maverick wanted so desperately to tell him about the world he’d unknowingly stepped into, but he couldn’t. Not without telling Ice first, without permission to give proof, and that wasn’t something he could ask the wolf right now. 

“As far as I’m concerned he trusted me to help get him out of the blackmail shit and still trusts me to handle the fallout of it. What he thinks you’d have to ask him, I’m a safe person that doesn’t have the years of history and the shame of being weak tied to me like if he went to Slider or you or one of the others. And if something is happening we know better than to act on it, for many reasons, I may be reckless but I’m not an idiot.” Maverick still didn’t know what to think of the whole situation and the soulmates, was that really a thing? He supposed so if they were actually getting along. 

“Mav,” Goose started, “just promise me you’ll be careful?” He sighed, pulling the young pilot into a hug. 

“Always,” Mav laughed hugging him back. 

“I call best man,” Goose grinned messing up Mav’s hair.

“Shut up.” He groused, eyes grinning. 

~

“It’s so fucking awkward now…” Ice scrubbed a hand through his mostly still wet hair, they’d just gotten back to their rooms to study after the gym and subsequent showers. 

“Has anyone said anything?” Mav asked letting his bag fall to the ground and kicked it into the corner. 

“No! That’s the point, no one’s said anything but I can hear all the unasked questions and worry and it’s driving me nuts!” Ice groaned sitting on Mav’s bed, it wasn’t supposed to be so hard, pretending that the other day hadn’t happened but now everyone -especially Hollywood- was avoiding him like the plague. 

“Ok, do you want to tell them?” Maverick asked, hoping he sounded causal, he probably didn’t though, just his luck. 

“Fuck no! Maybe? I don’t know!” Ice shot up from the bed and started pacing the small room, “I think about it and it makes me want to puke, but it’s making them antsy and they don’t trust me anymore…” he trailed off looking hopefully to the human, what was he supposed to do? 

“Ok,” Maverick nodded, hoping he wasn’t about to be punched, “Slider, Goose! Get in here!” He hollered. 

“The fuck are you doing?!” Ice hissed getting in Mav’s face, eyes portraying how scared he was. 

“Asking the only other two people who know the truth for advice.” Maverick answered, resisting the urge to touch Ice, but didn’t give any ground either, Ice’s posturing meant he needed Mav to take the lead on this and help him so he would, scared angry wolf in his face and all. 

“What’s up?” Slider asked as he and Goose walked into the room. 

“What’s wrong?” Goose asked, looking  every inch the worried dad he was. 

“Nothing,” Ice turned to glare at them before turning back to Maverick, “Don’t you fuckin-“ he started.  

“Ice needs to tell the boys something cause the stress of nothing is bothering him but he doesn’t know what? Advice? Also notice I said ‘needs’ not ‘wants’ he wants nothing to do with this situation.” Maverick spoke not breaking eye contact with Ice. 

“Maverick I swear I’m gonna kill you.” Ice all but snarled, even as Mav caught the slightest release of tension in his shoulders, the slightest drop that he probably wouldn’t have seen if Ice wasn’t almost chest to chest with him. 

“No you won’t.” Mav said calmly, keeping the smirk off his face as he stayed calm (shocking for him) and not rising to Ice’s challenge call. He knew it was fake and Ice was just scared and that’s how he acted to try and keep control of the situation and himself.  

“O…K…” Slider looked between them, “What all do you need them to know?” 

“I don’t know, fuck, I never should’ve said anything,” Ice sat -collapsed- into the desk chair, covering his face with his hands. 

“Alright, well what if we made it sound like something from one of your previous deployments? They’d have no reason to question that since the only thing you said was Mav’s name?” Goose suggested, raising an eyebrow at the high pitched sound Ice made, Maverick shook his head moving to lean on the desk next to Ice, ok then. 

“How is that going to make them less nervous?” Ice glared at Goose, dropping his hands from his face. 

“Hey, easy man,” Maverick chided, Goose was just trying to help and even if they technically had known each other longer, Goose definitely couldn’t read Ice the same way. 

“Ok, we could tell them an abbreviated version of the truth?” Slider shrugged, leaning against the doorframe, the bedroom was to small for this many people, in this fashion.  

“Fuck no!” Ice snapped jumping up, what the hell?! “Forget it, I’m not doing this.” He shook his head pacing, he couldn’t breathe.

“Ice! Tom, hey, relax,” Mav tried to get his attention, not liking how his- well everything changed just slightly, a new type of tension rippling through him, was he going to shift? That wouldn’t be good. 

“Don’t fucking tell me to relax Mitchell.” Ice spun on him, well shit. 

“No, relax Ice, unless you want to tell them that too.” Mav whispered, voice quiet but firm, looking into his eyes, yeah they were different now. 

“Fuck,” Ice gripped at his hair again, squeezing his eyes shut, it looked like he couldn’t decide whether to curl into himself or look up at the ceiling. 

“Ok come here,” Maverick pushed Ice back to the desk chair making him sit down before hugging him, Ice’s face buried in his chest. 

“Screw you,” Ice grumbled, wrapping his arms around Mavericks stomach and nuzzling into his t-shirt. 

“Yeah yeah, breathe a minute will you?” Mav grinned, scratching at Ice’s scalp with the hand that was closest. 

“How the hell’d you figure out how to handle him so fast?” Slider muttered shaking his head, not even he could redirect or calm the Iceman down that fast. 

“It’s a gift, back to brainstorming?” Mav asked, hushing Ice when he whined, pressing closer to him. 

“Uhh, sure, well, the truth is out, PTSD is out, playing it off is definitely out, I’m not seeing another option?” Slider listed off, well that’s helpful. 

“Unfortunately, Slider has a point, I think the best bet to keep your sanity -whats left of it- and dignity is to tell the truth, that you just got out of a bad situation and you’re not ok with unexpected touch.” Goose spoke, he’d never been in a situation like this before, even all the crap he’d dealt with since meeting Maverick while it wasn’t better necessarily it was vastly different. 

“No! I’m not weak, I- no that, they’ll just twist it to be something that it wasn’t.” Ice snapped, but his voice cracked and he just sounded scared, great.  

“No-one’s saying that Ice, you were being blackmailed, physically you may have had a choice but you did what you did to keep your family safe, anyone who rubs two braincells together can see that.” Slider spoke gently but firmly, hoping his pilot could understand that no-one who knew him would think that. 

“We’re not trying to tell you what to do either, it’s your choice, you want to pretend it never happened and let it blow over, we’ll roll with it, whatever you want Ice.” Mav reassured as Ice shook in his arms, it wasn’t quite visible but he was trembling. 

“I don’t know.” Ice mumbled, shaking his head slightly. 

“That’s ok, we’ll follow your lead, it’s alright.” Maverick smoothed Ice’s hair down where he’d spiked it up as he spoke. 

“Ok, well, if we’re still meeting everybody at the O club lets get our homework done so we can relax this weekend yeah?” Goose clapped his hands before going back to were he’d gotten his books halfway out of his bag, Slider following, so that was that. 

“They’ve got a point, come on,” Mav smiled as Ice whined gripping harder, “yeah yeah I’ll still hold you, you big teddy bear.” With only a little prompting after that they flopped on the bed to get started on the day’s packets. 

Chapter Text

“You gonna drink the whole bar again?” Slider joked as they walked into the O-Club a few hours later, Ice groaned at the memory of the hangover that night had left. 

“Not happening,” Ice elbowed Slider in the ribs, ok that might have been petty but whatever. 

“We gonna go sit with the boys?” Goose asked, waving when Chipper and Sundown waved them over. 

“I’m good with it, you guys?” Mav shrugged, stepping into Ice’s space subtly when the wolf stiffened. 

“Sure,” Ice spoke with his detached tone, shoulders stiff and posture Navy perfect, yup he was hiding behind that perfect Iceman persona, Mav couldn’t blame him though, not in the slightest. 

“Hurry up slow pokes!!” Wolfman hollered from the corner, earning a smack to the back of the head from Hollywood. They certainly were a pair, Mav would give them that. 

“Well, that’s our cue,” Goose grinned and walked towards the bar, Slider following easily.

“You need out just let me know and I’ll make a scene or something so you can slip out,” Maverick whispered as they followed behind their RIOs, he knew Ice could hear him over the sort of crowded bar and he didn’t miss the small nod he got as Ice’s shoulders dropped just slightly. When had he got so good at reading his body language? When did they actually listen to each other? Shit, maybe Goose was right, would it be the same way in the air? He doubted it, it was like they were different people in the air. 

“Maverick!” Goose flicked his head. 

“What the hell man?” Mav flinched away from his RIO rubbing is temple, “What was that for?” He looked at the three laughing and a bored looking old man bar tending. 

“You’re getting carded Dolly Daydream.” Slider burst out in another fit laughter, really? 

“Again? Here,” Maverick pulled his wallet out and showed his ID, hoping the dark lighting was enough to hide his blush (it wasn’t), as he then accepted the beer. 

“Sorry son, rules are rules and you don’t look a day over sixteen.” The bartender looked only slightly sympathetic. 

“Thanks,” Maverick muttered, shoving his wallet into his pocket as they started for the table, “at least it gave you dickheads something to laugh about.” He grumbled glaring at their snickering. 

“So-sorry Mav, he’s right though you do look a lot younger than you are.” Goose wiped away tears of laugher as they finally reached the corner table. 

“What’s got you all in stitches?” Hollywood asked, one arm thrown over Wolfman’s shoulders. 

“Mav got carded,” Slider gasped out, still laughing, 

“Yeah, alright screw you.” Maverick shoved Slider, though with their size difference it did absolutely nothing but make him laugh harder. 

“That’s awesome,” Chipper grinned like an idiot as the four of them sat down. 

“Yeah yeah laugh it up, whatever.” Mav glared, taking a pull of the beer in his hand, yeah he was the youngest here, so what? 

“Anybody else think they’d be doing more math then in flight school for this gig?” Chipper asked, making them all groan. 

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Slider grumbled, taking a pull of his own drink. 

“Oh shut it Sli, everyone knows you’re a weirdo and actually enjoy math.” Ice grinned, teasing his RIO was at least something comfortable that he knew how to do even on the worst of days. 

“Right back at you, ya nerd.” Slider threw back, they’d long ago given up fighting the fact they were nerds trapped in jock bodies. 

“Ice, about the other day, I’m sorry for whatever I started or, yeah, I’m sorry.” Hollywood apologized as they fell into a lull, the conversations around them swallowing their quiet. 

“Don’t worry about it man, those adrenaline crashes make me really spacey sometimes, we’re good, no harm done.” Ice smiled at the human with a shrug, please just go with it. 

“Not that I don’t believe you or anything but-“ Hollywood started. 

“That’s fucking bullshit if I’ve ever heard it man, if you can’t or don’t want to tell us that’s fine but just say so, don’t lie to us man, thought you respected us more than that.” Wolfman cut his pilot off, it was one thing to want to be private about your issues but when they affected them all, the decent thing was to not lie about it. 

“You’re right,” Ice rubbed a hand over his face, “You’re right, and I do respect you guys, but I’m not sure I’m ready to get into all the details of it either, but main point is I’m fine, err I have a handle on it and I’m coping I just don’t really do well with unexpected touch right now.” Ice spoke looking at the middle of the table in front of them, that way he didn’t have to look anyone them in the eye. 

“Ok, but someone knows what’s going on right? Maverick, since you called for him? Slider? Someone you’ll talk to?” Chipper asked, sounding concerned. 

“I know, yes,” Mav nodded, pealing at the label on his beer bottle, “And unless it’s emergent or Ice says so I’m sworn to secrecy.” He gave them a pointed look, he wasn’t breaking Ice’s trust like that not unless he absolutely had too.  

“Ok then, that’s that,” Hollywood nodded sitting back in his seat, “Anything we should know that you’re ready to tell us?” 

“Nah, just the unexpected contact thing,” Ice shrugged, finally some tension bleeding out of his shoulders.

“On that note,” Wolfman starts making Hollywood groan, “What’s with people throwing stuff at you?” He ignored Hollywood smacking him to try and get him to stop talking. 

“We were paid not to ask questions!” Sundown hissed from the other side of the table. 

“Yes, Maverick, do tell what is with people throwing random shit at me?” Ice turned his famous glare onto the other pilot.  

“It’s ahh, classified,” Maverick grinned, meeting the glare and daring Ice to challenge him, besides there was no way to explain it without letting the wolf thing slip. 

“Bullshit!” Wolfman tossed a peanut at them, Ice catching it mid air not breaking eye contact with Mav. 

“Nope I’m serious, ask Viper,” Mav bluffed, knowing the ridiculousness of the situation would most likely keep them from actually asking Viper what was going on. “Some tactical thing about improving reflexes.” He went on knowing better than to give too many details, but he had to give a few. 

"Ok, but why just Ice?” Slider asked, he and Goose still had no idea what was going on with it. 

“You’d have to ask him, I don’t know.” Mav shrugged, turning back to the table when Ice’s eyebrow twitched, yup he was getting slammed into a wall later, oh goody.

“I don’t appreciate it,” Ice glared, despite knowing there wasn’t really much he could do since the whole base had started doing it, and begrudgingly he had to admit that it settled some of his instincts, he’d never tell Maverick or anyone else that though. 

“Alright, alright, another round?” Goose asked breaking some of the awkward air around them, getting no complaints he drug Slider off to help carry things. 

Chapter Text

“How are they?” Iceman stood as soon as Viper walked into the waiting room where Ice, slider and a few of the others were waiting to hear news after the crash, all they knew was that the rescue chopper had brought them back. 

“Maverick’s resting mostly just exposure, Goose is pretty banged up, concussion and a busted collarbone few dislocations among other things.” Viper cleared his throat Viper said with a sigh, putting his hat back on. 

Ice sighed scrubbing a hand over his face. That was good, it could have been worse, they all knew the risks even in training that anytime they went up they might not come down. But knowing it and having to think of one or both of their classmates coming back in body bags for hours and hours were two different beasts. 

“Go home boys, get some rest, we’ll have it posted if there’s class tomorrow.” Viper said before he left the waiting room. 

That, no, what? Ice felt like he was going to pass out, he couldn’t leave them here, alone, without pack, when had the two humans become pack? He didn’t know, but Maverick was his mate (begrudgingly) and that meant that Goose was pack too, right?

Ice had no idea how he got to Maverick’s room the nurse’s reminder of him being sedated ringing in his head as he collapsed in the chair next to the bed.

“Fuck Mav, you scared the shit outta me man,” Iceman whispered, grabbing the human’s smaller hand in his careful of the IV in his arm brought it closer so he could press a kiss to the skin of his wrist, inhaling what scent was available on his wrist to settle himself. Mav’s heartbeat was strong and steady under the thin skin, further calming him. 

~

“Where’s Maverick?” Goose asked, eyes distant and glassy, before pinching shut despite the dark room. 

“He’s fine, don’t worry about him, you’re the one that got banged up and should be resting.” Slider scolded gently, they’d called Carole but she was still stuck in traffic. 

“No, he- you gotta listen to me,” Goose started again pausing like words were hard to find, “He don’t do well with hospitals, they knocked him out in the chopper I ‘member that much, but soon he’s awake boy’s gonna go ape shit so, either get us roomed together or make sure he’s not alone when he wakes.” He gripped Slider’s hand harder as he spoke, Slider nodded. 

“Ok, I’ll go tell Ice and see about the room, don’t go anywhere.” Slider nodded, worried about the serious tone The RIO was using, standing to go tell Ice. 

“‘M serious Sli, he’s gonna go nuts, real nuts.” Goose mumbled, eyes slipping shut as the taller RIO let the room. 

“Ma’am,” Slider stopped at the nurses desk before he went to Mav’s room they were only across the room from each other but that wasn’t going to be enough for them if what Goose was saying was true, and he had a bad feeling that it wasn’t even the half of it. 

“Can I help you?” The nurse asked, looking up from the clipboard in her hands. 

“Is there any way LT.s Mitchell and Bradshaw can be moved to room together?” Slider asked in his most charming voice without seeming flirty, the ring on her finger clearly saying that wouldn’t be appreciated. 

“The psychotic break and the head trauma? Not a chance, that’s not good for either of them.” The nurse shook her head, putting down the clipboard and reaching for a file. 

“But Ma’am they’re Pilot and RIO and just got out of a crash together I think it’d do ‘em good to be near each other when they woke up proper.” Slider tried to explain more. 

“I’ll let the doctor know, but unless he gives the go ahead we can’t move two patients together, they’ll just have to deal with it until then.” The nurse spoke with a caring dismissiveness as she walked away towards one of the other rooms. 

Slider scrubbed a hand over his face and went to the room Maverick was still unconscious in, Ice waiting nervously beside him. 

“Hey, how’s Goose?” Ice looked over as Slider came in, easing the door shut. 

“Resting, worried about Mav, how’s the pipsqueak?” Slider walked closer to stand next to the foot of the bed. 

“Still out, they musta gave him quite the cocktail.” Iceman shrugged, pealing his eyes away to look at his RIO, hoping the other man would ignore how red he knew his eyes were. 

“Goose was telling me that he was gonna flip his shit when he woke up, said it’d be best if they were roomed together so I talked to the nurse and she said they couldn’t move them without doc’s orders,” Slider summed up looking at the pilot who was way too still, Maverick was never still, some part of him always moving, for him to be so still was beyond creepy. 

“I figured that,” Ice nodded, the scent of panic and distress on the human was almost think enough for Ice to gag on, though he didn’t really expect anything less, they’d been waiting for rescue for hours, and then separated. Not that it was the nurses fault, there was probably some SOP they had to go with unless told otherwise by someone who could make those decisions, and unfortunately Slider nor Ice were one of those. 

“He said that if they wouldn’t let them room together than he shouldn’t wake up alone.” Slider went on, though he couldn’t see Ice leaving Mav alone, those two had gotten unusually close despite the obvious rivalry that was still in the air between them, maybe because of that. 

“I won’t let him.” Ice gripped the sleeping man’s hand harder, “We shouldn’t let Goose be alone too long either though,” he looked back up at his best friend, they had finally managed to relax a little from the stress of it all, and now they were bone tired and coming up on some pretty awful adrenaline crashes. 

“I’m going right back, promised I’d give you the SITREP after I tried to get ‘em moved together.” Slider clapped Ice on the shoulder before tapping Maverick’s foot beneath the blanket before leaving the room and crossing back to Goose. 

“Fuck Pete, you’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days.” Iceman muttered, folding himself further into the uncomfortable chair to wait for the human to wake up, the nurse that checked on him earlier said that it was wearing off and he’d wake up in the next little bit depending on how tired he was.

It was another thirty minutes or so before Maverick started moving around, waking up, Ice moved from the chair to sit sideways on the bed, not knowing what exactly Goose had meant by ‘going ape shit’ since that could admittedly mean a lot of different things. 

“It’s ok Mav, it’s alright just breathe.” Ice soothed, running his hands over Mav’s face, hair and neck, desperately scenting the human. 

Green eyes flickered open darting all around the room as Mav gasped fighting to sit up. 

“Goose!” Maverick’s eyes weren’t seeing anything that was in front of him as he cried out for his RIO. 

“Goose is ok, Slider’s with him, it’s alright, breathe Mav.” Ice gently but firmly held Mav against the bed by his shoulders when he tried to sit up. 

“N-No Goose! Nick!” Mav thrashed, breathing coming in short huffs as he fought Ice, “let me go!” 

“Mav! Mav, breathe! He has a concussion so he’s in a dark room, they couldn’t keep you together, but he’s safe I promise, calm down.” Ice tried to reassure as he pulled the struggling human into a hug, would he feel trapped? Was he going to be ok with touch? What’s Mav’s history with hospitals? What’s behind the panic? All the questions Ice didn’t have time for as Maverick fought his hold, crying out. 

“Let go! Let me go damn it! Let me go!” Mav screamed arching to try and throw Ice and therefore himself onto the floor. 

“Maverick! Relax!” Ice pinned him to the bed, “You need to calm down.” He tried to reason, cringing at the volume Mav’s next scream for Goose was. 

Before Iceman could think of anything else to do, a nurse ran in with a syringe. 

“No, give me a minute to get through to him, please?” Ice shook his head at her, she sighed but nodded, going back to stand by the door. 

“Pete, listen to me yeah?” Ice paused, pulling him back into a hug, ignoring how Mav was hitting at his ribs in the panic. 

“Nick’s fine, he’s safe, you both are, but you keep screaming and they’ll put you out again and you won’t be able to see him for a long while ok, so breathe for me and calm down, right show the nice nurse that you can calm down yeah?” Ice whispered to him, going out on a limb and moving his left hand up to Mav’s neck scruffing gently, not enough to hurt since humans and wolves were different in that respect but enough maybe it would help. 

“Match my breathing Mav, that’s it, it’s ok, you’re both ok, you made it out, you’re alive, you’re both alive, just breathe.” Ice whispered holding the crying man to him, Mav sobbed gripping his flight suit and curling into him. Exhausted but terrified sobs scraping out of him, but they were quieter, no longer screams.

Ice smiled a little as the nurse retreated slowly after a few minutes as he kept mumbling to the pilot, just loud enough to cover up his purr. 

“Fuckin’ hate hospitals,” Maverick mumbled after a while, before taking a page out of Ice’s book and licking Iceman’s neck nuzzling closer as he cried.  

“I noticed,” Ice murmured, rubbing his thumb up and down Mav’s pulse point gently, “but you’re ok, you’re safe, I’ve got you.” He nosed against Mav’s ear as he spoke, glad the shades were drawn so they didn’t have to be too careful about what they were doing and could actually calm down they way they needed to. 

“Wannaseehim.” Mav mumbled, not pulling away far enough for his words to actually be understandable, before he was licking at Ice’s neck again. 

“I know, if you can calm down the rest of the way I’ll work it out with the nurse ok?” Ice bargained with a slightly more reasonable Mav, who was still crying pretty heavily. 

“Not sure I can calm down till I see him,” Mav shook his head, wiggling all over, was that he Ice did? Huh… 

“You don’t have to all the way, just enough the nurses’ll actually let you see him,” Ice reasoned, breathing slow and steady to help guide Mav’s body into doing the same, if he could get the human’s nervous system to calm he could get his mind to calm down. 

“He’s really ok?” Mav asked after a few minutes, voice soft and scared all of the anger and fire having bleed out of it. 

“Yeah, a little banged up but he’s alright.” Ice reassured, ‘a little banged up’ might be oversimplifying it but going into detail right now wasn’t a good idea, so he kept it simple. 

“Ok,” Mav nodded tension flooding out of him as he collapsed further against Ice’s chest, if only theirselves from a few months ago could see them now, they’d never believe it.

Ice hugged the human tighter as he calmed, purr rumbling through his chest as Mav’s crying slowed and finally stopped. 

Chapter Text

“Whoah easy small fry!” Slider hissed as Mav tore into Goose’s room a few hours later Ice hot on his heels. 

“Goose,” Mav whispered ignoring the older taller RIO and collapsing -carefully- against Goose’s uninjured side, “Fuck I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry Nick,” he sobbed into the rough sheets. 

“Wasn’t your fault Mav,” Goose clumsy put his hand in his pilot’s hair, the one that wasn’t in a cast anyway. 

“Yes it was, I’m so sorry, I I should’ve-“ Mav shook his head sobbing. 

“No, listen, we were all making decisions we probably shouldn’t have, none of us could have planned that. It’s not on you, it’s not on Ice, it just happened.” Goose said, looking at each of them in turn, gaze lingering on Ice as he slumped into the chair next to Slider with another of those high pitched sounds he made. 

“It’s my fault, I’m sorry Goose,” Ice apologized, looking very uncomfortable. 

“Did you hear nothing that I just said? No-one’s at fault, it happened, we’re ok.” Goose shook his head as fast as he dared with the dizziness that was still just as strong as it had been when he woke up, but that was supposed to be normal, yay… 

“But-“ Ice started. 

“No buts, we made it, lets just focus on that for now, ok? We can deal with the rest later when we’re out of the hospital.” Goose cut him off gently.

~

“Alright, visiting hours are over boys, you’ve got to get going, and you LT. Mitchell need to get back to your own room.” The nurse, Mary, said coming in and starting to mess with Goose’s IV bag. 

“But Ma’am-“ Maverick started, gripping Goose’s hand tighter, breath already picking up. 

“No buts, I’ll get the doctor to knock you out again if that’s what it takes to keep you in bed,” she shook her head, having no patience for his antics, “the four of you need rest, that means in your own rooms and beds, you can come back tomorrow, now get going.” She looked pointedly at them when no one moved. 

“Come on, Mav,” Ice prodded him gently at the glare of the nurse, “we’ll be back tomorrow Goose, get some rest.” Ice squeezed Goose’s good shoulder, before moving when Maverick hugged him. 

“Call if you need me,” Maverick whispered, hoping the nurse couldn’t hear him. 

“Get some sleep Mav,” Goose hugged him back, shooting a glance at Ice. 

“I’ll make sure Carole and Baby bird are settled,” Slider went with the same shoulder squeeze Ice had, they had left after a while to find somewhere for the toddler to run himself out after it was clear that Goose wasn’t in any danger.  

“Thanks man,” Goose smiled, as they started to walk out. 

Ice had pulled Maverick under his arm and was very much so herding him back to his room. 

“But, Ice-“ Maverick started, trying to pull away from him, back to Goose’s side. 

“No buts Mav, she’s right you need to sleep,” Ice held him tighter, as he took him into his room, pushing him towards the bed. “Get comfy.” Ice swung the door shut before unzipping his flight suit and pulling his shirt off. 

“Uhh Ice?” Mav hedged, looking at the other pilot with wide eyes, as he glanced back and forth towards the door, even as he did as told and got settled in bed.

“Relax.” Iceman tossed the polo shirt onto the bed before pulling his flight suit back on properly, the rough material quickly reminding him why he wore actual shirts and not just thin undershirts. “I have a feeling you’re not gonna be able to stay settled down once I leave, this’ll help, hopefully.” He said just as a different nurse knocked and came in, her badge said Tonya. 

“Keep it short and sweet boys, visiting hours are over.” She said, checking and re-hooking Maverick’s IV up to a fresh bag of fluids. 

“I’ll bring you and Goose clean clothes in the morning, try not to get on the nurses’ nerves so much they smother you with a pillow or something.” Ice smiled trying to hide how nervous he was about leaving, every instinct he had was screaming to stay, to not leave his human alone were he didn’t feel safe.  

“Can’t get outta here tomorrow if I get caught misbehaving right?” Mav smiled back, it didn’t reach his eyes and he could tell by Ice’s small jerky aborted movements that the wolf could smell how worried he was about being left alone. 

“Definitely not,” Ice messed up Mav’s hair before he turned to leave. 

“Ice!” Mav called as he got to the door. 

“Yeah?” Iceman turned only halfway hoping his face would stay the schooled calm he needed them to so he didn’t get them both in trouble. 

“Thanks, for today, thanks.” Maverick said, not looking at him as played with the buttons of the polo, it was better that way, no matter how much they wanted to see the emotions in each others eyes. 

“Sure thing, get some rest Mav.” Ice grinned as much as he dared, but it felt more like a  grimace before he was walking out of the room and meeting Slider who had been waiting for him in the hall and going back to their quarters. 

~

Ten hours, he could handle ten hours in the hospital, alone. He’d done it before and it was fine, it would be fine, it had to be. Goose was near by and safe, he was resting and he couldn’t rest if Maverick did something stupid and caused a scene, ok be good and rest so Goose can rest, that means no escaping to go find Carole or Ice, sleep, right. 

Maverick wasn’t going to acknowledge how fast he caved and brought the shirt Ice left with him to his face as he lay in the bed, the faded but still there scent of cologne or aftershave, sweat, and slightly ‘wolfy’ scent that was just Ice. 

Mav hadn’t realized he knew that much about the different parts of Ice’s scent nor that it would be as comforting it was until just then. Ok, so, maybe the other man had a point with this scent thing. Though Mav had first realized it when he woke up earlier, so maybe now he was just admitting it to himself.  

Sleep, that was the mission, to sleep, Mav scrunched the shirt up so he could breathe but not smell the sterile hospital cleaner scent and closed his eyes only for sleek grey fins to flood his vision, eyes popping back open as he sat up, nope, sleep wasn’t happening. 

He still felt like he was floating and any other day he would enjoy that feeling, it was so close to the weightless he felt in the air, the phantoms of waves rocking him to sleep, but not this time. His hands were shaking. 

“LT, you’re not supposed to be up.” The nurse at the desk scolded when he peaked his head out of the door shuffling towards her, careful not to pull the IV line tight. 

“I know, um, could I get another blanket? I’m still really cold?” He asked sheepishly even as he tried not to sound too pathetic, but if it would help? Well its not like his pride was in great shape after today anyway. 

“Alright, but then you’re laying down and not giving me issues, right?” She asked as she stood and went to the supply closet in the corner, pulling out a blanket, her badge said her name was Freya, pretty. 

“Yes Ma’am, thank you Ma’am,” he answered as he took the blanket and dutifully climbed back into bed. 

“Get some rest honey,” she smiled before going back the desks and continuing to write in her charts. 

Maverick doubted that he’d actually get any rest while he spread out the second blanket but he would at least lay down since he hurt all over from ejecting and then half treading water for hours. Maybe he could use the soreness that escaped the pain meds they’d given him as a way to stay in the moment he mused as he pressed Ice’s shirt to his face again, maybe sleep wouldn’t be that hard. 

~

“No! Goose!” Maverick shot up waking up just before the sharks’ jaws clamped down, eyes looking around the room tinged in blue grey, where was he? Before he could figure it out he was lurching out of the bed gagging and throwing up into the trashcan. 

“LT? Are you alright?” Freya’s voice echoed through the haze, well this was embarrassing, nothing better than somebody walking in on you puking. 

Maverick shrugged, gagging again at the memory of salt water and blood maybe even the real taste of it but with stomach acid mixed in. 

“Oh honey, alright lets get you back in bed now.” She handed him a cup of water after he’d finished throwing up, Maverick took it gratefully, rinsing his mouth and spitting the water into the trashcan before taking a few small sips from it. 

Wanting to protest but not able to find the words to, Mav let her coax him back into the bed, accepting the thermometer when she put it under his tongue. 

“Alright, you’re temperature’s normal, how’re you feeling, nauseous?” She asked starting to take his vitals. 

“Shaky I guess, I’m ok now.” Maverick shrugged again, he really hoped he could still be discharged in, he glanced at the clock on the wall, six hours? 

“You called for someone as you woke? Someone you’re close with?” She asked, still taking his blood pressure now. 

“Goose, or Nick, my RIO, we were in the crash together, he’s across the way.” Maverick nodded, shivering slightly as images of the nightmare flashed through his mind again, only parts of it were his imagination though. 

“Ahh yes, you’re vitals are slightly elevated, I’m gonna give you something to help you sleep and we’ll see how you’re feeling in the morning.” She said already walking to the med cart in the hall. 

“I’m really ok Ma’am, I didn’t mean to worry you.” Mav protested weakly as she came back with a syringe and alcohol wipe. 

“Yes well, it’s far to early for you to be awake and you need to rest and based on all of the tossing and turning you’re not resting like you should.” She spoke as she cleaned the hub of the IV line and pushed the sedative. “You’re both fine and will be out before you know it, so rest.” She smiled before leaving the room again. 

Maverick gripped at the shirt again worried that the sedative would make the nightmares worse before he was falling through the blackness and into a dreamless sleep. 

~

“No ma’am, it doesn’t hurt,” Maverick spoke, what?   

“Yes I’m sure, can I go now?” Mav asked as the nurse, Mary? Prodded at bright purple bruising on his ribs.  

“And where do you think you’re going?” Ice asked leaning against the door as Maverick attempted to sweet talk the nurse into letting him go. 

“Ice! She won’t let me go see Goose!” Mav looked over at him, turning so fast it made Ice wince. 

“And neither am I, yet, you sure he didn’t break anything Ma’am?” Ice stepped fully into the room bag of clothes in hand, Carole already taking Goose his set though they might not let him out of the gown yet. 

“Yes we’re sure, there’s just heavy bruising from the harness, why does this look like a bite mark?” She held Mav’s arm and looked pointedly at a bruise with some scraped bloody parts, that most certainly looked like a bite mark but it was bigger than any Ice had ever seen. 

“Cause sharks were tryin’ use us as chew toys, can I please go see my brother now?” Mav shrugged making desperate grabby hands at the clothes Ice brought. 

“Back up what? What sharks Mav?” Iceman handed the pilot his clothes only so he didn’t hurt himself falling out of bed trying to grab for them. 

“I don’t know, sharks,” Mav shrugged pulling his shirt on, “I didn’t get a no so I’m going,” he pulled on the jeans and started across the room and towards Goose’s, Ice and Mary hot on his heels. 

“Maverick, you aren’t getting out of answering that what the hell do you mean sharks?” Ice asked as they walked, Mav just ignored him slipping quietly into the still dim room, though it was anything but empty Bradley was laying on Goose’s good side while Carole sat in the chair and they were talking quietly. 

Ice could see Maverick’s shoulders drop from around his ears at the sight. 

“Hey,” he tapped Goose’s foot as he walked to the other side of the bed and curled into the chair. 

“Hey yourself, heard you gave the night nurse a wonderful time.” Goose smiled at him, though his eyes were concerned beneath the discomfort from the headache the meds weren’t doing much but to take the edge off of. 

“Eh, you know me, I hate for people to think I’m boring.” Mav shrugged, ignoring the glare Ice was giving him. 

“Ok my list is up to two questions now, what do you mean sharks and what happened last night?” Ice said sitting in the chair next to Mav, what was going on? 

“Wait sharks? What sharks?” Carole asked looking even more worried now, thanks Ice. 

“I think it might have been a dolphin, it was really hard to tell, it swam around us for a little bit before leaving,” Mav tried to sound casual hating lying but what was he supposed to tell them? He spent close to four hours trying to keep a swarm of sharks from eating them as they froze waiting for the chopper? That’d go over well. 

“Ok,” Ice drug out the word, great they were talking about that later, “what happened last night then?” He asked, because that was so much less embarrassing. 

“Woke up and puked at like two in the morning, and she put me out, made waking up this morning fun.” Maverick shrugged, not wanting to admit the only way he didn’t totally lose his mind this morning was he still had Ice’s shirt, though the scent on it had faded almost all the way, but it was still enough. 

“Uh huh, sure,” Ice raised a brow skeptically, please just let it go? He did not have the bandwidth to have this conversation right now.  

“I’m fine, I just don’t like hospitals, I’m fine.” He said even as Ice pulled him into a hug, collapsing into him, ok so maybe he wasn’t fine, but he had to be if he was getting out of here. 

“Mav, you’re an awful liar,” Goose signed with a sad smile, looking down at Bradley who was calmly curled into his side.

Thankfully they didn’t make him explain anymore right then, choosing to talk about random things or sit in silence before the nurses again kicked them out for Goose to get some rest, (Carole and Bradley excluded from that.) Which meant that Mav could go home since he’d also been discharged from the hospital with strict orders to rest.

~

“Are you gonna tell me or do I have to pry answers out of you?” Ice asked as they walked into Mav and Goose’s quarters, Maverick walked to the kitchenette, grabbing a glass of water just for something to do as Ice leaned against the doorframe.

“What do you want to know?” Mav sighed, leaning against the counter, he knew this was coming, wanted it and didn’t in equal measure, very glad Ice had waited to ask him till they were alone. 

“Everything? What happened out there, why you hate hospitals so much, why you were talking about sharks, what happened last night and before I got back, how’re you’re really feeling not just what you said to get out of there, everything.” Ice asked looking worried, it was everything the wolf could do to wait with the questions till they were alone and they could be honest with each other. 

“Ok,” Mav nodded, scrubbing his hair back before he walked to the couch sitting down and waiting for Ice to do the same. “I’ve spent way to much time in hospitals, as a patient and as the loved one, they’re just a lot to deal with- all the memories.” He started with the older wounds that were more healed and less likely to start bleeding again as Ice folded around him, Mav’s back to his chest arms over his shoulders, like a harness, comforting. 

“After my parents, well I spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital as I went through the foster system, got put in it a few more times in college and flight school, but I had Goose then, but whenever I’m alone for too long- I got left by more than one foster family at the hospital, they’d say they’re going out for something and just never come back and I’d get shipped off somewhere else. Goose always sweet-talked the nurses into letting him stay overnight with me.” Nope the old wounds were still bleeding, this was going to suck. 

Iceman didn’t say anything yet, just held Mav tighter, nuzzling at his hair. 

“It was cold, the water was so cold my hands were shaking so bad it took me forever to even find Goose’s pulse, he wasn’t responding to anything and there was a lot of blood, mine his I don’t know, we train for that sort of thing but it’s so different in the training pools than in the ocean.” Mav paused shuddering even in the warm hold if the wolf. 

“Mav?” Ice prompted when the human stilled, remembering something. 

“There were so many of them, they were so fast and it was all I could do to keep Goose’s head above the water even with the raft, the waves were big, deep troughs that would throw us off just after I’d get us on again and then they’d be circling and bumping us and grabbing us in their mouths. I can still feel them brushing against me…” Maverick trailed off, it shouldn’t have bothered him right? He dealt with life or death situations all the time and had come out the other side just fine why was now different?

  “Wait, biting at you, you were out there with a bunch of sharks?” Ice mumbled not sure why he felt surprised it was the ocean after all, he hugged Maverick tighter, the horror that had faded at them being safe coming back with a vengeance at the images his mind was giving him. 

“Yeah, bruise on my arm was a smaller one got real curious and I couldn’t get it off without letting go of Goose-“ 

“A smaller one?! Mav that’s your whole forearm!” Don’t overreact, don’t overreact, how was he supposed to react?! 

“See why I didn’t want to tell Carole?” Mav tried to smile but he knew it was a grimace. 

“Does Goose know?” Ice asked, nuzzling his neck, the human’s scent was as relaxed as he was stressed, so that was something at least. 

“I don’t know, by the time the chopper got there I was swinging at anything that moved, I think I might’ve given the diver a black eye, it’s all really blurry, I think Goose was talking in the chopper but then they knocked me out so he must’ve woke up a some point.” Mav shrugged, he hoped Goose didn’t know honestly that was probably the longest three hours in his life and he didn’t know if it would be better for Goose to remember them with him or not. 

“I’m so fucking sorry Mav, it’s all my fault.” Ice squeezed his eyes shut against the tears he didn’t have any right shedding, not when this whole mess was his fault. 

“No, it’s not you’re fault, I fucked up, it’s on me, I was too close to you, I let the competition cloud my judgement-“ Maverick shook his head.

“Bullshit! I should’ve listened to you, it’s on me,” Ice cut him off, this whole competition was messing with their heads. 

“No it’s not-“ Mav turned to glare at Ice, his bruised ribs protesting the movement. 

“Yes it is!” Ice insisted, tears welling up in his eyes. 

“Blaming ourselves isn’t productive,” Mav sighed, hating that Ice was crying, even if he felt like crying too. 

“No it’s not, and the board of inquiry will look at everything, still feels like its my fault though,” Ice agreed, sniffling. 

“Feels like mine,” Mav nodded, wresting a hand free to wipe Ice’s tears away. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more scared in a jet, and I’ve been in some real shitty situations, but watching you and the only thing I could do was call it in, fuck, I don’t think I took a full breath till I was by your hospital bed.” Ice whispered, scared to break the silence as they moved around so Maverick was laying on top of him, head settled on his collar bone and face tucked into his neck. 

“Me neither,” Mav whispered, wrapping his arms around Ice’s chest, curling closer to him when Ice whimpered holding tighter, even if it hurt his ribs Mav wasn’t gonna say anything, finally feeling safe.

Chapter Text

“What are you doing?” Ice asked as Maverick was doing up the last button on his uniform shirt. Iceman had stopped by after changing to check on him to find Maverick getting ready. 

“Getting ready for class?” Technically he was excused from class today but he wasn’t just going to sit around especially when Goose made him promise to stay in the program after it was clear that he’d be grounded until he’d healed. 

“You were excused from class today.” Ice raised an eyebrow at him curiously. 

“I don’t want to fall behind.” Maverick shrugged, trying to sound casual, he was pretty sure he didn’t. 

“Mav-“ Ice starts before cutting himself off as Mav glares at him, yeah he wasn’t hitting the mark on the casual thing, not even the target. 

“I might be grounded but I can still go to class,” Maverick insisted crossing his arms.

“You should be resting,” Ice argued, would he listen just this once? Though it’d probably make Ice feel better if he could keep an actual eye on him all day, so there was that. They’d been almost attached at the hip since Mav had been released from the hospital yesterday. 

“I’m gonna go crazy if I just sit here all day, I’m fine, it’s just class.” Mav promised, please let him get out of his head for a while, he needed to think about something else other than the crash and Goose (who was getting out of the hospital soon) and the damn sharks, please don’t let him keep thinking about the sharks.  

“Mav-“ Ice started one more time to protest, turning quickly to follow Mav out of the bedroom. 

“I’m fine, come on, don’t wanna be late.” And with that the two of them met up with Slider in the hall, were they stalking him now? 

“Hey Short-stack,” Slider greeted falling into step with them was they walked down the hallway. 

“I’m not even that short.” Maverick grumbled even if he knew it was a lost cause since yeah, he was that short. 

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” Ice grinned, well at least getting ribbed by these two was normal. 

“Screw you Kazansky,” Mav grinned right back at him, eyebrow lifted in challenge knowing they couldn’t say anything else about they’re unique sleeping arrangements without risking being overheard. 

“You wish Mitchell.” Ice grinned snapping his teeth, except he meant it very differently than the first time he did it all those weeks ago. 

“You two need to get a leave pass and a hotel room ASAP.” Slider groaned dramatically, umm what?! Ice and Mav looked at the RIO with shocked confusion because what? 

“Seriously? You two are so painfully obvious it’s getting embarrassing.” He grinned at the two of them before glancing around, “‘sides this means I win the bet with Goose.”

“What bet?” Hollywood asked as he and Wolfman joined up with them in the line to Mess, Iceman and Mav groaned. 

“On whether or not Mav was gonna get the nurses’ numbers.” Slider patted Mav on the head since he wasn’t going to risk hurting him by the more intense but friendly headlock he wanted to put the younger man in. 

“Yeah cause puking my guts out at dark O’thirty is a real chick magnet.” Mav grumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets. 

“What? I thought it was just cold exposer they was treating you for?” Wolfman asked, looking worried, ok maybe Ice was right and staying home today was a good idea, then he wouldn’t have to talk about it. 

“That’s what the chart said, I don’t know man,” Maverick hoped he sounded unbothered and if he didn’t they’d pretend he did, or at the very least leave it lie.  

“But you’re good then?” Hollywood asked still looking worried. 

“Yeah, sore as shit but I’m fine.” Mav nodded, he was fine and even if he wasn’t he was going to pretend because that was his only option. 

“You and I have very different-“ Ice started glaring at Maverick, eyes concerned. 

“Do not even finish that sentence, you and him have the exact same fucking definition of ‘fine’.” Slider cut him off, wagging a finger at him with a friendly glare. They went through the line grabbing breakfast before getting to ‘their’ table without much fuss. 

“Also what the fuck is that?” Wolfman asked grabbing Mav’s wrist from across the table and holding his arm up the bruise/bite on full display. 

“Some people call it an arm.” Maverick deadpanned, wincing when Wolfman poked at the bruise. 

“Those are teeth marks, you were out there with sharks huh? No wonder you were swinging at the diver, shit man,” Hollywood leaned closer stopping Wolf’s poking, and getting the RIO to let go completely.  

“Was that there the other day?” Slider asked looking worried and glancing at Ice.  

“Yeah, they had it wrapped, I’ve got a few more I’m sure y’all’ll see later,” Mav waggled his eyebrows and hoping he sounded normal and not like he wanted to throw up, Ice cocked his head at that, right he forgot to mention this wasn’t the only bite, it was the worst one but not the only once that bruised. 

“Ok, we’re reevaluating the meaning of the phrase ‘I’m fine’ and potentially your decision making paradigm since you should be resting.” Slider pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Iceman catch!” 

Ice just barely got his hand out in time to catch the tennis ball that had come hurdling through the room, turning to shoot a glare in the direction it had come from before turning his glare onto a snickering Maverick. 

“I will get you back for this, someday somehow, just you wait.” Ice glared harder as everyone ‘ohhh’ed’ around them. 

“That a threat or a promise?” Mav grinned back putting his sausage patty on Ice’s plate as a peace offering, even if Ice thought they were way overcooked, (everything was in his option) but protein was protein to a wolf. 

Ice just huffed and went back to stabbing at his eggs, grumbling to himself even as his boot came to rest on top of Mav’s. Maverick grinned taking a sip of coffee as Hollywood and Wolfman started in on something. 

Chapter Text

“Well gentlemen, looks as though you’ll still be flying with us,” Viper clapped Maverick and Iceman on the backs as they all left the courtroom. 

“Yes sir,” Mav and Ice replied in sync. 

“See you tomorrow for class and hops then,” Viper nodded and veered off towards his office. 

“Did they have to make these things out of polyester? It’s so fucking itchy.” 

Maverick looked at Ice out of the corner of his eye in shock, stumbling a little. 

“Ice?” He looked at the man walking next to him, he hadn’t said anything but then how’d he hear him? What was going on? 

Iceman looked over at him wide-eyed, ok, that was worrying. 

“Nothing, come on,” he schooled his features and walked with the same confident stride he walked everywhere with except his pace was decidedly hurried now. “Fuck fuck fuck, how’d I forget to- fuck!” 

What was happening? Maverick started walking faster matching Ice’s pace as they walked through the halls and towards the BOQ. 

“Ice? What’s going on?” Mav asked again as they practically ran up the stairs to their floor, they were supposed to meet up with Goose (who had escaped bedrest and house arrest -Carole- by the width of his mustache) and Slider after the trial ended. 

“Just- come on,” Ice shook his head again, shoulders stiff with tension as they went. 

Seriously, what was going on? There was now a pretty steady stream of cursing and screaming in Ice’s voice except that no-one they walked by noticed nor did his voice echo off the stairwell walls, his jaw wasn’t moving, so how the hell was Maverick hearing it?! 

“Whoah what’s chasing you?” Slider asked as they burst into Mav and Goose’s quarters.

“Nothing.” Ice said flatly grabbing Mav’s hand and pulling him towards his bedroom. 

“We’ll be right back,” Mav said awkwardly as he followed Ice, not that he had much choice, closing the door behind him. 

“Ok what the hell is going on?” Mav asked, watching as Ice scraped a hand through his hair and turned to face him. 

“I forgot, with everything going on I forgot-fuck I didn’t think it was really a thing till now, and I forgot about it.” Ice shook his head, leaning against the desk. 

“Forgot what Ice?” Mav asked gently, even as he was overwhelmed by the second set of thoughts in his head, a second set of emotions overtop of his own.

“Telepathy,” Ice looked up at Maverick, who’s eyebrows raised in surprise, “that we’d develop a telepathic bond, we’d be able to hear and feel each other’s thoughts and emotions.” He explained barely above a whisper. 

“O…K… didn’t know that was a thing but cool, is it always gonna be so I don’t know loud?” Mav blinked, that was a new one, but werewolves were real so why not? Telepathy wasn’t that crazy when he occasionally shared a bed with a man that could turn into a wolf with a breath, so sure why not. 

“Uhh yeah, yeah it’ll settle we’ll be able to control it, won’t be a flood anymore just a stream we can walk into and out of at will.” Ice nodded, reaching for the human, Mav crossed the space in a stride and hugged him tightly. 

“We’ll be ok Ice,” He whispered as the wolf buried his face into Mav’s neck grumbling unhappily at the high collar of his dress whites. 

“I’m sorry,” Ice whispered, holding Maverick tightly and still nosing at his collar. 

“Don’t be, besides maybe this’ll make it so I can finally get a handle on understanding you’re wolf sounds,” Mav grinned, though this did make it more complicated for planning pranks against Ice, oh well. 

“We should change and go back out,” Ice mumbled after a few minutes pulling away as he did so. 

“Yeah,” Mav sighed, pulling Ice back to him and rubbing their noses together gently since neither of them were ready for full kissing yet. Before they were pulling away to throw some civvies on, Ice from his stash that had moved to Mav’s drawer. 

~

“Sorry I can’t be your RIO right now little brother,” Goose hugged Mav close with his free arm, the other strapped to his chest so the bones could heal. They’d just finished telling them the details of the trial, how neither pilot was found to be at fault and it was seen as accidental and they were both cleared for flight/duty. 

“Gonna be weird without you jabbering my ears off,” Maverick grinned hoping he hid how uncomfortable he felt at the idea that he’d be flying without him, but he couldn’t trick Ice, who’s own concern burst bright over his own worry, but what were they supposed to do? 

“Oh hush, you do plenty of jabbering yourself,” Goose grinned, hiding his worry behind his smile, they’d find out tomorrow who he’d get paired with but it was a well excepted fact that Maverick was a hard pilot to read since he was so out of box and unpredictable and that meant being a RIO that could match him took just as much spontaneity. 

“Switching around isn’t that big a deal, it’s why we have all the standardized jargon so we can when we need to.” Slider shrugged, yeah Ice was his pilot and they were brothers, joined at the hip, but he’d fly with someone else if he had too, had helped a lot of younger pilots get comfortable in the sky before him and Ice paired up fully. 

“Easy for you to say,” Mav mumbled, it would be fine, it would have to be fine, he just had to make it to graduation and then a few weeks after that and Goose would hopefully be cleared and it would be fine. 

“What’s that mean?” Ice was looking- and feeling- even more worried, but since they didn’t have any sort of handle on the bond yet he couldn’t start trying to find out what Mav meant himself. 

“It doesn’t usually go well when I get paired up with other RIOs, there’s a reason Goose and I have been together since flight school.” Maverick tried to sound casual but he knew he didn’t, especially since he was still half curled into Goose’s uninjured side. 

“That answered nothing Short-stack.” Slider shook his head looking concerned now and glancing at his pilot for any hints, Ice shrugged. 

“Most people can’t speak ‘Maverick’ add that to the shit with his last name and you get a lot of people who would rather put him in the hospital than try and learn who he is.” Goose answered after a few minutes when Mav refused to look at them or speak. 

“Shit man,” Slider whistled, “So what is the deal with your father?” Yes, bad timing, but there really was never going to be a good time to bring up Duke Mitchell. 

“Don’t know, but he wasn’t a traitor that’s for damn sure.” Maverick glared shrugging, it didn’t bother him, ok, it really fucking bothered him. 

~

It was terrifying and exhilarating to be back in the cockpit, mostly terrifying. He had gotten paired up with Sundown for this hop, wasn’t a bad guy even if they didn’t really know each other all that much. But it was all wrong, he was sweating bullets the moment he finished his flight check and strapped into the seat, triple checking the pins for the seat eject system. 

Maybe it was because his thoughts were racing like they usually didn’t in the air, or because Sundown was such a different personality as a RIO than Goose or because he still had Ice’s thoughts and emotions on full blast in his head, whatever the reason he froze. 

The maneuver was easy, he knew it was, could see how easy it would all be in his head but the second he tried to do anything all he could think and feel was the free fall of the flat spin, how he’d gotten pinned forward, how the canopy had stalled and Goose barely made it out without being killed from slamming into it. How they’d spent hours in freezing water surrounded by sharks waiting on the SaR chopper to get them. 

So he didn’t engage, Sundown kept on him about it and he could hear Jester over comms getting on him too, but he couldn’t do it, pulling off.

By the time they were back on the tarmac and Sundown had grabbed him and he’d yelled something he can’t even remember before storming off he couldn’t breathe, practically running to the locker rooms to shower and change, just wanting to get out of there, to go apologize to Goose that he couldn’t do it without him, that he was done.

“Maverick,” Ice said softly standing leaned against Goose’s locker, Mav couldn’t reply though, head in his hands as he tried to remember how to breathe. 

“Pete, breathe,” Ice spoke softly sitting beside him and wrapping an arm around Mav’s shoulders, “Breathe.” 

“Can’t,” Mav gasped turning into Ice, pressing his face against Ice’s neck, one hand gripping the front of his flight suit. 

“Match mine, it’s ok, I’ve got you, I’ve got you.” Ice spoke in a gentle tone as he started purring, hoping it would calm Maverick down like it had in the hospital, arms wrapped around him hiding him from the empty room.

“I can’t do this, without him, I don’t know how,” Mav gasped out, hoping Ice could figure out what he meant since not even he knew. 

“Goose’ll be back before you know it, it was your first flight back, it’d be rough on anyone, it’s ok.” Ice reassured, all of Mav’s thoughts and emotions were flooding into his brain, doubt, guilt and fear being the loudest voices.  

Mav just shook his head breath hitching, hands gripping at Ice tighter, tears starting to fall. 

“Breathe, it’s ok, I know it doesn’t feel like it but it is, it’ll get easier I promise, just breathe.” Ice hushed as he turned them so they were sitting chest to chest pressing against each other to try and get Mav to mirror his breathing, right hand coming up to gently squeeze Mav’s neck. 

“It’s ok Mav, it’s alright, it’s alright.” Ice whispered as Maverick gasped out sobs, he had to stay calm, if he couldn’t then it’d just be a feedback loop of negativity that would make it even harder for Mav to calm down. “Breathe, I’m here, I’ve got you, it’s alright, I’ve got you Pete.” He kept whispering and purring and holding him close, hoping he wasn’t making it worse as his human cried.

Fifteen minutes later and Mav’s tears were soft sniffles and his breathing had evened out, he didn’t seem in any rush to move and Ice was in no rush to let him go. 

“Baby boy, Puppy,” Ice whispered into Mav’s hair after a few more minutes, releasing his right hand round around Mav’s neck slowly, “hey, hi, come back to me there you go, there you are.” He spoke smiling softly as Maverick sat up blinking against the bright lights as he refused to let go fully, hands still clenched around Ice’s flight suit, right, he’d never showered after his hop. 

“Did you call me ‘baby boy’?” Mav mumbled, using one hand to wipe his face. 

“I figured ‘prince of chaos’ might not be totally appreciated at the moment.” Ice grinned, moving his right hand to cup Mav’s cheek, thumbing away the drying tears. 

“What was that snow queen story? I should start calling you that, or ‘grandfather frost’.” Mav grinned eyes fluttering as he leaned into Ice’s hand. 

“Nahh, mine's better.” Ice grinned, if Mav wanted to leave what happened alone right now that was fine, they’d talk about it later if they needed to, so he didn’t fight the subject change. “If we’re still meeting them all at the cafe we’d better get cleaned up and over there.” He looked at the clock on the wall, even if he was loath to burst the bubble they were in right now. 

“Yeah alright,” Maverick sighed and nuzzled into Ice’s hand a little further before pulling away. 

“Alright, you good? I’m gonna grab a shower, be back in a few.” Ice stood and grabbed his stuff from his locker when Mav nodded, he was so very tempted to kiss him before walking off but knew that would be a horrible idea. They might be alone but they were never truly alone in the locker rooms and they were already pushing the envelope with the way they calmed each other down. Still the flicker of surprise and warmth he got from Maverick as he walked away made it seem as though he wasn’t the only one thinking that. 

Chapter Text

“Alright Short-stack, just a walk in the park, come on now, let’s get him.” Slider’s voice came over the comms, calm as ever, how did he get talked into this? Well ok, he wasn’t really talked into it since ‘it’s called orders son.’ Was what was said as an end of the discussion an hour earlier when he protested the change. 

“No good, it’s no good Sli,” Mav shook his head, pressure on his lungs that had nothing to do with the speed they were going. It wasn’t right, none of it was.

“Two miles out, 3 O’clock, let’s get him,” Slider’s voice came again, “come on Mav turn and burn.” He urged turning one of his many dials and hoping Maverick wasn’t going to freeze on him. 

“It’s no good Sli,” Mav mumbled again even as he moved to intercept the plane, careening around the mountain, breath forced out of his lungs at the change in G’s.

“We’re good Mav, we’re good.” Slider encouraged hands moving over his control panel as he looked out for Jester. 

“It’s all good Mav, just keep breathing you’ve got it.” A clear thought from Ice flittered through his mind, all gentle confidence, ice cold and assured. Maverick shook his head again as he barrel rolled to avoid Jester. 

“Shit man, warning next time!” Slider yelped as they looped around to follow the A4. “Come on let’s get him!” 

They flew back and forth across the sky, dodging and taking passes at each other, Maverick knew Jester was playing with him, not taking the shot and trying to get him to engage but it wasn’t working every time he got an opportunity he was back in the flat spin. They went on far longer than a normal hop before Jester finally got tone putting them out of their misery. 

“Good try Mav,” Slider tried to encourage as they flew back to base, Maverick didn't acknowledge him, what was he supposed supposed to say? He failed and all of them knew it, why had he let Goose talk him out of quitting last night? Now he really understood what Cougar felt like…

“You’ll get it, just gotta try again,” Ice spoke louder than the rest of his thoughts, how was he doing that? Maverick needed to figure that out, but now was not the time, he grit his teeth and focused on getting back to the landing zone. 

Maverick had no clue how he got the plane on the ground, didn’t remember any of it, and that’s what sucked, he wanted to be in the sky, needed to be, used to be the only place he felt as though he belonged was in the air, and now. Now it was like even the sky didn’t want him.

“Maverick! Pete! Come on man, look at me!” Slider was in his face, large hands gripping his shoulders. 

“Sli?” Mav blinked the sweat out of his eyes, what was going on again? 

“Yeah, stay with me Mav, do you need medical?” Slider asked, looking worried. 

“Ice?” Mav mumbled, looking around, were they still on the tarmac? What the hell? 

“Ok but we gotta hurry he’s gonna head up soon,” Slider looked around, he had to find him and fast he was supposed to go up with Mav and the go right back up with Ice. Maverick leaned into Slider’s side as he walked them across the flight line over to Ice who was doing his preflight checks. 

“What the hell Sli?” Ice grunted catching the younger pilot as he launched himself into his arms. “Easy Baby boy, I got you.” 

“He’s freaking out, and I gotta piss if I’m headed back up with you.” Slider shrugged, starting to walk back to the locker rooms, planning on grabbing one of the other guys to herd Maverick since neither of them would be able to soon. Screw his older brother instincts, really. 

“Ice,” Maverick whispered, gripping him tightly, he felt so untethered like he was going to float away, it was awful and he wasn’t sure what to do about it but cling tighter.

“Breathe, you did good Mav, it’s alright, just breathe.” Ice was glad the the noise of the flight line gave him the excuse to be so close to Mav’s ear as he spoke, knowing the closeness would settle him, even as he glanced around for anyone watching. 

“I can’t do it Ice, I’m done.” Maverick shook his head, willing himself not to cry, he couldn’t cry. 

“Don’t say that, hey look at me?” Ice pulled away from him, Mav looked up eyes squinted against the sun. “Don’t quit yet, I’ll go in with you but I don’t have time yet, wait till I get back ok?” Ice bargained, even as Maverick shook his head. 

“I can’t Ice,” Mav shook his head harder, not even sure which part he was protesting. 

“Just wait till I get back ok, wait till after the adrenaline crash, you’ll be able to think and say things better, promise me?” Ice insisted, trying to keep him from doing something he’d regret, even if he wanted to quit and still did later he should do it with a clear head. 

“Ok, promise.” Mav nodded, folding himself back into Ice, he could wait that was fine, he was still doing it, he had to.

“Thank you,” Ice hugged him again, not liking how shaky the smaller man was, “Slider’s back, stay with Hollywood till I get back ok?” Ice whispered squeezing Maverick tighter to him before letting go with a grin. “It’ll be alright.” 

“Be careful,” Maverick whispered taking a shuddering breath and nodding, stepping back to be shoulder to shoulder with Hollywood AKA his babysitter, apparently. 

“I’m always careful.” Ice grinned again, trying to soothe the human’s worry. 

“Come on Mav,” Hollywood started prodding him to go inside, since Iceman and Slider needed to finish their checks and get in the air before Jester got on them about being late. “We’ll catch you in a bit!” He called back to them. 

Maverick let himself be led inside, still feeling untethered, going about everything on autopilot. Before he sat down in a chair in the ready room with a homework packet, not paying attention to anything but the radio and comms.

~

“You still want to quit?” Ice asked as they left the classroom after the debriefs from the hops today, Mav looked like a kicked puppy the whole time the instructors were picking his apart. Which was fair, it was all in all a train wreck, but it was better than the one with Sundown (no hate to the RIO himself), that debrief had been downright painful to sit through. 

“No, but what choice do I have? I can’t do that shit again, at least if I turn in my wings now I get to keep some of my pride.” Maverick shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked to Vipers office, Iceman trailing next to him. 

“It wasn’t that bad,” Ice tried to reassure, they both knew he was lying though. 

“My first hop ever was better than that Ice,” Maverick glanced sideways at him as he knocked on Viper’s door. 

“Come on in boys,” the older man called, like he was expecting them. 

“Sir,” Maverick said as he and Ice stood at attention. 

“So I hear you want to quit, that true son?” Viper asked, his voice that gentle authoritative tone. 

“I don’t see what other choice I have sir.” Maverick said looking at a picture frame on the wall behind Viper. 

“Well you keep going and graduate, or you quit,” Viper smoothed a finger over his mustache, “You’re a great pilot Maverick, so much like you’re father, if you can get back in the sky you’ll go far, but you can’t keep second guessing everything you do up there, learn, evaluate and apply what you learned, but don’t second guess.” He leaned forward and steepled his fingers on the desk. 

What was he even supposed to say to that? There were weeks left, he just stood there in the oppressive silence, waiting for an answer to fall out of the sky, an answer he wasn’t going to get. 

“Give it another hop, then decide.” Viper said opening a file from the pile on his desk, it being a sign that the conversation was over from his point of view, so Maverick and Ice left the room quietly. 

“Well that was something.” Ice huffed a laugh after they’d gotten a ways down the hallway, needing to break the silence. 

“What the hell am I supposed to do now?” Mav muttered, looking up at the ceiling of the elevator as they road it down. 

“Well, we’ve got a bunch of homework to catch up on, then the boys wanted to go out for dinner, figured I’d get dragged along and if I’m forced to go so are you.” Ice shrugged as they started for the BOQ building.  

“That’s not what I meant.” Maverick glared at the taller man as they walked, Ice only grinned back at him, knocking their shoulders together. 

~

“If I stare at equations any longer my eyes are going to combust.” Maverick groaned tossing his pile of worksheets onto the side table and rubbing his eyes, he was good in school but he’d been staring at the packets for well over two hours straight and his brain felt like a wet noodle. 

“That’s not how eyes work Mitchell,” Ice grimaced, probably at the image of seared eyeballs. 

“How would you know? Chipper’s right, I swear I haven’t done this much math since flight school.” Mav would have glared but his eyes hurt too much, ok that was more exaggerated but still, point is he was done. 

“Ok mr. Drama what else do you want to do?” Ice put his packet down too, he could also use a break, the equations and words starting to swim together. He straightened his back out for the first time in too long twisting to each side in his criss crossed seat to stretch the aching muscles, spine popping loudly. 

“That’s LT. Drama to you-“ Mav scolded, reaching his hands above his head to stretch, desperately trying to keep a straight face, only made harder when Ice glared at him mid stretch so he was looking back at him from under his elbow. 

“We’re the same rank dumbass,” Ice glared harder, straightening back up, was he so bored he was trying to start a fight, seriously? And was Ice bored enough to go along with it? 

“So?” Mav raised an eyebrow, he was playing with fire, but this time he knew were that line between warmth and scorching was. 

Ice growled more or less pouncing on the human, hand around his throat as he held Mav’s head to the wall careful not to slam it. 

Maverick grinned his widest grin at him not flinching when Ice kept growling as they stared each other down. 

“You planned that.” Ice glared harder, putting just enough pressure into his hand to make it unavoidably known on Mav’s throat. 

“Worked didn’t it?” Maverick smirked, tilting his head up and shifting Ice’s grip to lay against the flat of it, thumb on his pulse.  

“What’s your game?” Ice asked, only now realizing how close they were, noses almost touching.

Maverick just smiled resting one hand on Ice’s hip the other on his thigh, just resting not holding him before he leaned up and pressed his lips to Ice’s. 

They were still staring at each other, lips pressed and frozen together in a stale mate, Ice was the first to move again, eyes flittering closed as he melted against Mav kissing back hungrily. 

Maverick’s own eyes slipped closed as he let Ice set the pace, the wolf pressed against him. Kissing and sharing breath until they had no more breath to share. 

Ice pulled away with a breathless sound, burying his face in Mav’s throat, replacing his hand that now gripped Mav’s shoulder. Maverick smoothed his thumb in circles against Ice’s hip not sure how to read the sudden tension in Ice’s shoulders as he nuzzled and licked at his neck. 

“Ice, I can’t read your scent and all I’m getting from your thoughts is ‘ahhh’ so you gotta tell me what you’re feeling, yeah?” Mav whispered after a few minutes of them just holding each other. 

“Easier said than done Mav,” Ice mumbled licking Maverick’s pulse point, scent bursting over his tongue, bright with nerves and pleasure, singed at the edges with concern. Like biting too far into an orange the bright, sweet fruit and bitter pith all at once. 

“Fair but they’re just words Sweetheart, it’s our relationship and that means it’s our rules nobody else’s. This isn’t traditional so there aren’t traditional expectations, you want something or don’t want something all you have to do is say so. Expressing a boundary isn’t going to make me upset, what will is if you don’t tell me and I cross it and hurt you, ok?” Mav whispered keeping his voice as gentle as possible, thumb still rubbing gentle circles. 

“I don’t know if I have any or what they are, I don’t know,” Ice mumbled, ok that might not be totally true but, could he even ask that? 

“Ice? Tell me Baby, it’s ok.” Mav prompted gently, concerned at the shame that flashed across the bond. 

“You can’t scruff me, when we’re- not even a little, I don’t know about like pulse points or throat but I know that much, you can’t.” He rushed out, feeling his voice go thready with panic, great. 

“Oh Baby-“ Mav broke off when Ice growled lowly. 

“Still don’t want pity Mitchell.” He emphasized his point by nipping at Mav’s neck. 

“Its not, it’s horror,” he hissed at the sting Ice’s teeth left though he instantly licked the skin in apology whining. “Ice, I’m gonna move my arm to hug you,” Mav said before he lifted the hand that was on his thigh, wrapping it around his shoulders, hand far away from his neck. 

“And I’m going to put this out there, unless It’s an emergency that I think it’s the only way to help I will always ask and get your permission before I scruff you, hell, if you said never to again I wouldn’t.” Mav went on when Ice just whimpered, feelings of fear, shame and embarrassment flooding the bond. 

“Can we go back to kissing now?” Ice grumbled after a little while of just breathing, letting the promise hang in the air. 

“Sure, can you promise me something though?” Mav grinned, hoping this would lighten the heavy air, Ice made a rumbling noise, curious. “You gotta tell me if you were just licking your toes before we kiss, just so I can be prepa- ahhh!” He broke off when Ice started tickling his sides laughing, they tipped over as Mav squirmed. 

“I don’t lick my toes!” Ice laughed bumping their noses together as Maverick kept laughing, Ice pulled back to lick a stripe up from Mav’s neck to just under his eye before kissing him again.