𝐖𝐈𝐃𝐎𝐖'𝐒 𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐄. | top gun

one - meet black widow.

"you've been called back to top gun!"

the simple phrase that had come out of pissing off an admiral had echoed in maverick's mind like a ringing bell. it echoed with him all the way into fightertown, feeling like a headache that was getting progressively, progressively worse the closer he got.

maverick was being as truthful as he could get whenever he told himself that he really wasn't ready to face his past. no matter how hard iceman fought to get him back to top gun, there was an annoying voice in the back of maverick's mind that forever screamed at him to get away.

and, after the bombshell that had been dropped on him, maverick swore that the little voice was now right in his eardrums. the briefing over the mission he'd be teaching was something he didn't mind, of all the things he was told, that was the least of his worries. what he knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep off for a long time, was one of the students that he'd be teaching. that, being the son of his old friend goose, rooster.

for the first time in a long time, maverick was rendered completely speechless. truly not knowing how to react over eventually having to teach goose's son. maverick knew iceman really fought for him to come back, but the face of the young man now etched into his mind, he knew would haunt him all the way through.

and now, there he sat, in the bar owned by a really good friend of his, penny, and her family. at first, he truly thought that his luck couldn't get any worse. but, unfortunately, that led to him jinxing himself on accident, whenever he got stuck buying drinks for everyone in the packed bar. things only continuing to go downhill from there, when rooster had suddenly walked into the building.

despite maverick's heart dropping all the way into his stomach, rooster thankfully didn't recognize him as he walked over to a particular group instead.

"rooster! fashionably late like usual." the only woman in the group, better known by her callsign of 'phoenix,' had called, rooster smiling as he gave her a small hug. upon rooster's appearance, the ego-centric, high strung pilot known as "hangman" had given a very obvious eye roll.

"slow, just like how you fly!" hangman jabs, causing rooster and phoenix to look at each other for a moment.

"yeah yeah yeah.." rooster responds, phoenix getting a very bright idea as she walks right over to the pool table, letting the stick stretch out far enough to where it hits hangman in the chest.

as hangman tries to fight back an absolute lewd of expletives, bob's mouth then drops to the floor whenever he notices a particular person walk in.

"holy shit.." bob suddenly comments. focus then suddenly shifts to one particular woman who had walked into the bar. she was a smaller, blonde woman, wearing a black military style vest and pants to match. everyone in the group had seemed to know who she was, everyone, of course, but rooster.

"who is that?" he asks, genuinely curious about the new face.

"leah metcalf, daughter of former top gun instructor viper." coyote answered, only intriguing rooster more.

"they call her the black widow, since she has as assassin like kill shot, and turns extremely deadly when it combat." bob responds, causing the attention to suddenly shift on him for a moment.

"don't wanna know how you know that." payback comments, causing a small burst of laughs to go through everyone.

"good thing i hate spiders." hangman rudely comments again, walking away as phoenix rolls her eyes. everyone began to get more curious about her; as instead of joining a particular group, she joined the stranger that was buying everyone's rounds, better known as maverick.

"i don't believe it, pete maverick mitchell!" she comments, which causes maverick to turn around. though he was slightly confused, he does light up almost immediately upon seeing leah.

"leah.." he responds, a smile on his face as the two share a hug.

"so, my dad tells me you'll be teaching a bunch of top gun graduates? god help them." leah asks, the two breaking away from their hug. a laugh escapes maverick, remembering how crazy he seemed the first time he told someone he wanted to be a top gun instructor.

"yep, what are you doing here through? i thought you were out in colorado with 463rd squadron?" maverick responds, genuinely curious as to what brought leah all the way back out to fightertown.

"same as you, almost, iceman begged me and my dad over me coming back. not teaching though, just learning." leah responds. from there, maverick wanted to try and piece together iceman's thought process over bringing them both back. but, came to the conclusion that he was only going to find himself down another rabbit hole.

"to be fair, you are one of the best pilots in the metcalf family after your dad. how is he, anyway?" maverick asks, leah smiling a little bit as she usually did when it came to talking about her father.

"he's doing good, still lives in the same old house. you should definitely come see him some time, i know he'd love to finally see you after so long." leah answers, the suggestion catching maverick's attention, especially since he didn't know that viper was still in the area.

"i definitely will." maverick responds. from there, the two go silent for a moment, before penny brings them both a beer.

"drinks are on pete tonight." penny comments, causing leah to look at maverick perplexed.

"don't ask." maverick simply answers, the two sharing a small laugh as the klink their drinks together and continue catching up. neither of them noticing a familiar face watching them, burning with curiosity.

"rooster!" phoenix calls, suddenly breaking his attention away from leah and maverick as she points to the now open piano. which, even with the curiosity burning in his mind, rooster ends up going towards. playing the melody to "great balls of fire," which, long story short, had gotten maverick, very comedically, thrown out of the bar that night.