Only the Good Die Young

***

"The only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win."

Miyamoto Musashi

***

Seresins are warriors.

Jake knows this.

Has known it since he took his first steps and said his first word. It's been passed down to him by every Seresin that came before.

Seresins fight, and they bring hell with them every time.

Jake will die fighting. Just like every other single member of his family.

He will die in uniform.

He will die saving someone.

He will not die on some stupid mission that shouldn't even be a mission because his fellow pilots COULD NOT KEEP THE FUCK UP.

He isn't going to let them burn into the ground because they're too scared to go fast.

He isn't going to go to a series of funerals in his dress whites and try not to cry in front of parents burying their children because their children couldn't pull the trigger in time.

He will drag them back alive even if he has to drag them kicking and screaming. 

And if he has to burn every bridge he has left with his cohort to do it, he will.

***

None of them can touch Maverick in the air. 

Jake comes the closest because he takes the most risks, and while he's only a hair away from getting Maverick a few times, it knocks him miles away from the rest of his cohort.

Javy warns him, tells him to cool it, that they have time. 

But they don't. 

Jake will get it right eventually. He knows he will. He was a handful of hours from surpassing Cole when he got called up for this, and it's only a matter of hours before he can take Maverick.

What Jake lacks in natural talent, he makes up for with hard work and determination.

Jordan's called him a motivational poster before.

But Jake can't figure out how to motivate the others. 

Bradley's got god knows what else going on. Jake's never seen him so distracted. The only time he looks at Jake and actually sees him is when he's so angry he loses control.

Natasha's fear has convinced her Jake's going to leave her hanging. He doesn't remember her being so susceptible to it before.

Bob just follows Natasha, and Jake wants to scream at him for that alone.

The others aren't as close to Jake's level, but they can all get there with enough time.

But Jake was born with a limited time frame, and he knows that sometimes there's just not enough minutes to make it work.

It makes him push harder, a slither of desperation coiled in his chest, squeezing his lungs so tightly he can barely breathe.

And they're not even a week in yet.

And it bothers him, on top of everything else, that Bradley's eyes keep skating right over him. Just like when they first met, before they managed to forge something like a friendship, and it all imploded because they were young and stupid.

They're older and wiser now. It shouldn't be so hard the second time around.

Jake's got a family, a great one and he's got people that will be by his side until the day he dies.

But he doesn't have someone.

He doesn't have someone the way Javy and Celia have each other. 

He doesn't have someone the way his parents had each other and Jordan had his girlfriend. 

He wants someone like that.

He wants it so bad that his last few choices of bedmates have not been the best, to say the least, and Javy had told him to keep it in his pants for a while. Until he could get his head on straight and stop looking for something real in a one-night stand with someone, he'd never be able to stand for more than an hour if they were both sober.

Javy had muttered something about not being Jake's Pepper Potts after he'd thrown the last hookup out, but Jake had been so hungover he doesn't actually remember the rest of the conversation or whatever it was that he agreed to that finally made Javy calm down.

Javy keeps hissing at him to remember what he promised whenever he thinks Jake is looking to hook up with someone new and Jake hasn't worked up the guts to admit he has no idea what it was. 

He probably gave Javy veto rights or something.

He needs to stop drinking for a while.

But it's so hard. At least the alcohol drowns out the loneliness and the little sparks of irrational jealousy when he sees the people he loves so happy with the people they love.

He doesn't like feeling like a horrible person for feeling like that.

***

When things finally start, for real, between Jake and Bradley, they start, rather fittingly, in the locker room at Top Gun.

Unknowingly echoing the start of something twenty years before that ended up being surprisingly influential in their lives.

***

Bradley is seething and sore when he finds Jake alone in the locker room.

Two hundred push-ups did nothing to flush the anger from his system, and Seresin had ripped into him in the air when he'd failed to lock on Mav.

Omaha and Harvard's teasing when he landed hadn't helped either.

Bradley is a roiling, boiling mess by the time the door slams shut behind him.

Seresin doesn't look any better. Slamming his locker shut so hard the door bounces back open and turns eyes so furious they're glittering on Bradley.

"Where the fuck were you up there, Bradshaw?"

"Trying to keep everyone alive, Seresin. What the fuck were you doing?"

"The only way you keep everyone alive is if you complete the mission!"

And the thing is, Jake is probably right, and if Bradley wasn't already angry and hurting for reasons that have nothing to do with Jake and a little one that does, he'd be willing to admit it.

"No one's going to make it to the mission if they die in training."

"You don't get better if you don't push, Roo. They're not ready, and they have to be."

"None of us are ready, you included Hangman."

"I know."

And that, more than anything, takes the wind out of Bradley's sails. He can see it as Jake gathers himself and pushes the anger aside.

"How do you do that?"

"Do what, Bradshaw?"

He looks confused, which is an interesting look on the man who is easily the most confident person Bradley's ever met.

"How do you push it aside? The anger."

Because Bradley didn't notice it before, back when they were in training, but he's seen it this past week.

Jake's just as angry as he is.

He just has no idea about what.

Bradley's never met someone else as angry as he is, but Jake clearly has a better handle on it than Bradley's ever managed.

"What do you mean how? You just do, Bradshaw. There's work to be done, and it gets in the way."

And Bradley can't help but laugh., although it's a slightly desperate laugh that makes Seresin look vaguely concerned.

Bradley collapses onto the bench with his head in his hands, and an uneasy Seresin takes a seat next to him, and the words spill out before Bradley can stop them.

"No matter what I do, I'm just so angry."

"I don't remember you being angry in training."

"I was. Natasha helped me deal with it. It was practically her second job." He winces, "Part of why we didn't last after…everything."

Hangman's face closes off, but Bradley grabs his arm before he can leave.

"Neither of us ever believed it was you. Or Javy."

"Really?"

"Yeah, could never figure out where the damn rumors came from. About you guys or about us. You're not that kind of asshole, Jake."

Jake actually relaxes a bit after that.

"I don't…man, I just, when I think about the end goal, what we have to do, it's easy to push the anger aside because I know it doesn't help."

"God, you don't have like a breathing exercise or something? Visualization?"

Jake collapses into laughter, and Bradley follows suit.

"How California of you, Rooster."

"Fuck off."

"Maybe you need to talk to somebody about it? A professional?"

"Yeah, Nat says the same thing. I just…don't like sharing myself with strangers."

Which makes sense, because Jake remembers how hard it was to get Bradshaw to open up about anything personal in training. 

"I can understand that." Jake offers. "I mean, if you talked to Trace about it before…"

"She would, just don't know if it's good to have another person distracted by the same problem."

"Girlfriend? Boyfriend? Anything?"

"No, I was talking with a girl for a while, seemed like it was going that way, but…"

"But?"

"I got the orders here. Figured there was no point in starting something right before I left."

"Pretty sure if you really wanted it, that wouldn't have stopped you."

"Fair enough."

"Shit, sorry."

"No." And it comes out without intention or purpose. "I'm sorry."

Jake looks confused, which doesn't happen often, but Bradley's too distracted to feel smug.

"For that night in the bar."

"Not interested is not interested, Bradshaw. Don't worry about it."

Except Jake's still feeling the burn from that.

And Bradley's still feeling the guilt.

And now they're both angry and exhausted and frustrated.

"It wasn't that I wasn't interested."

"Oh?"

"Shut the fuck up. You know you're attractive."

"So, I wasn't completely crazy thinking you were flirting back?"

"No, but I wasn't in a great place. Nat and I were still figuring things out, and I had…family things going on. I was a fucking mess."

"Was?"

"Watch it, Seresin."

"But you did want me."

"I can literally see your ego growing."

"Can't take it back now, Bradshaw."

"Yes, you fucker, I wanted you. Jesus. Happy now?"

"Very. Too bad you don't still want me. We could have helped each other out."

"Who says I don't?"

And that makes Jake stop and stare. 

He'd never entertained the idea that Bradley might still be interested years later. 

"Didn't realize you were that competitive, Rooster."

And Bradley absolutely does not have a poker face because his entire face starts to turn pink.

"No one's as competitive as you, Hangman. I'm just comfortable with myself."

"How comfortable?"

"Enough to know I'm not in a good place for a relationship."

"You never are. Relax, I'm on a relationship time out. Javy threatened to lock me in a closet if I tried for one right now."

"Doesn't have to be a relationship. I wouldn't mind something distracting. Just for a little while."

"I'm game. If you can think you can handle it."

"I'm more worried about you, Seresin. You were the one who wanted a relationship before."

"You were the one who's wanted me all this time. I think it's safe to say we've both grown up since then."

***

They have not, and A LOT of people will tell them so weeks later when they find out.

***

"Everything that happens outside the bedroom stays outside it."

"Agreed. And anything that happens in the bedroom stays inside."

"Don't tell Machado."

"Don't tell anyone."

"Deal. My place?"

"Wouldn't someplace off base be better?"

"I have a place off-base."

"Since when?"

"Since I was four. Don't share it around."

"Not my place."

They took a breath then and shared a long look.

"We can be adults about this."

"I can be an adult about anything, Bradshaw. Can you?"

"I think it's safe to say I'm the more mature one out of the two of us."

"Sure, you're not just going senile in your old age?"

"You're working your way up to a spanking, Seresin."

"Bring it on, Bradshaw."

***

They are absolutely not adult enough, but they figure that out later, and at their wedding years after, Javy covers it gleefully, in explicit detail.

***

Tom Kazansky has a long history in the Navy, and not all of it is tangled up with his history with Pete Mitchell.

That's a lot of it, obviously, because Pete is an incredibly important part of Tom's life, professionally and personally. But they were both years in when they first met, and they've spent years apart in the decades since, deployments and missions and punishments, in Pete's case (Tom has never suffered one of those no matter what Pete says), taking precedence over their relationship. Especially after Bradley left and there was no child for them to pretend to raise to keep them in the same place.

Their love has never wavered, but they've put enough work in that the separations don't hurt their relationship anymore.

It was during one of those separations that Tom met Davey Seresin. Not long after Top Gun and the Carl Vinson. Pete and Tom were wingmen for sure, but they were still figuring out their personal relationship, and between both of their insecurities and outside influences that they hadn't learned to deal with yet, they were on and off. Hot and cold. 

It drove their close friends up the wall. Slider mainly. Carole thought it was hilarious, always so confident they'd figure it out.

They'd been off at the time. Tom had been deployed to the North Atlantic in what remains to this day, the coldest period of his entire life. And not just because Pete wasn't there when Tom was just starting to get used to having a furnace sharing his bed.

Their rotation had been during the winter, and while the top of the world was beautiful, it was also cold in a way Tom had never experienced before. It settled in his bones and even years later, just thinking about it makes him shiver.

He'd spent the entire deployment wrapped in so many layers he looked like the monster from Ghostbusters, and he'd meet Davey Seresin one morning in the mess, and they'd bonded by commiserating over how fucking cold it was. 

Davey had a wingman from Wisconsin who spent most of his time laughing at all the Southern boys who weren't used to the cold. He'd walk around in a tee shirt in single-digit weather just to make a point.

He was a great guy, aside from that.

But Tom preferred Davey, who wasn't afraid to sit close to share body heat and talked about his wife and his kids, all seven Jesus (Tom's never even been in a room with that many kids), and the Seresin Ranch so vividly that Tom could picture it in his head.

Tom's never had any interest in country life or visiting a ranch of any kind, but the way Davey talked about it made him want to see what the endless sky looked like from the ground.

Davey Seresin was a good guy. So good, in fact, that Ice had spent the first few weeks of the deployment suspicious of the man that no one couldn't provoke to anger or annoyance.

There were a few times when Tom thought it was coming when Davey would still and frown, but he always shook it off with a small smile and shrug.

Tom has never been that calm or that in control. Not even after decades of practice.

He and Pete still get into screaming matches from time to time, but it's as much a part of them as their Navy careers.

He never even heard Davey Seresin raise his voice.

And he wasn't that impressed by his flying on those first few patrols either, but he came to value it over the following weeks. Davey was reliable, did things by the books, and always would, so Ice always knew where he was and what he was doing without Davey having to tell him.

When you were in a leadership position in the military, men like that were the single most valuable commodity. 

For all Pete's brilliant improvisation, and Ice will always pick him to be on his wing, he knows Pete and has spent years learning him.

He could fly just as well with Davey after six weeks.

To each their own, Davey had shrugged when Ice told him. And because he was just that good of a person, he'd insisted Pete had his own value, that he must have been worth a lot if someone like Ice was interested.

Don't worry. I won't tell him you said I'm the better wingman when I meet him.

Oh, I told him over the phone yesterday.

And Davey had laughed so hard he'd nearly fallen off the chair.

You waited in line for a phone for an hour to tell him that?

Of course.

Since Slider was long past willing to play therapist for Pete and Tom's relationship, Davey took up listening for those cold months at the top of the world. More insightful than Tom had been expecting, and it had made him endlessly curious about the woman Davey had married. 

She's fire, Ice. Sharp and hot and all-consuming. I don't think I'll ever love another. The kids all take after her, thank god.

It had seemed intimidating and slightly unhealthy then, but Tom had come to realize over the years that it was the best kind.

Intoxicating but comforting at the same time. 

There was something to be said for having another person so wrapped up in your life.

Twenty years later and it had carried Tom and Pete through to now, and he wonders if it would have been enough to carry Davey and his wife through the years.

If Davey hadn't died so young and left her to raise seven young children with nothing but their father's ghost.

For a while there, Tom had seen Davey hovering in the corner whenever he looked at Bradley. The small smile and the joy the other man had taken in fatherhood helped to buffer Tom's general uneasiness with the idea of being responsible for raising another person and helping them become a useful adult. 

They'd only been two weeks from returning home when it happened.

The brass had called it a routine patrol, with the tiny caveat to check the level of Russian air defense in the area.

There were rumors they were building a new polar base despite an agreement with the US not to, and the bean counters wanted proof before they started making under-the-table threats.

They'd sent them out to pick a fight.

And they had.

To this day, the entire deployment was classified, and Tom had never even told Pete what happened.

They'd crossed into Russian airspace just after seven in the morning and scouted out the rumored base, confirming its existence, before turning back at seven twenty-nine.

Everything would have been fucked for them if the Russian planes had caught up to them while they were still in Russian airspace because how would they have explained four US warplanes so deep into Russian territory?

Unfortunately, they'd caught them ten miles into international airspace. 

Airspace the US was legally allowed to be in.

So, the Russian attack was an unprovoked act of war, and Tom, Davey, and their wingman were cleared to engage with full force.

Tom brought the first one down and Davey the second.

They lost one wingman to engine trouble, and Tom had refused to allow him to return to the ship unescorted, so it had been Tom and Davey alone against three Migs that suddenly became six.

They'd shot out Tom's engine as he got the second missile off, and the ship was too far away to linger, and Slider had been screaming in his ear as they lost fuel that they couldn't die now, not when he and Pete were finally figuring their shit out, and Ron could live in peace.

Davey Seresin had ordered him back to the ship, overriding Ice, who'd been in command of the patrol. 

Ice had hesitated because leading five Russian Migs to the ship wasn't going to end well for anyone, but, as Ice learned, there was a reason Davey Seresin didn't lose control.

Didn't lose his temper.

Why he was always so relaxed and unwilling to fight?

Because once he did….

Well, his callsign made sense after that.

You're the last-minute addition, right? Welcome aboard. You need anything, let me know. It's going to be cold as fuck, and I brought plenty of extra socks.

Thanks, Tom Kazansky, Iceman.

Davey Seresin, callsign Have Mercy.

Because Davey Seresin certainly didn't have any for you.

The Russians got him in the end because no matter how skilled you were, five to one-was never going to end any other way.

But Davey Seresin took all five of them with him. Two missiles, 600 rounds, and a final terrifying suicide charge in the span of fifteen minutes that cleared the air for Ice and the others to make it back to the ship safely.

Even Slider had fallen silent in awe, and neither of them had said a word as they'd limped back and landed on fumes. 

All the Captain could say was 'Jesus Christ' and approve Ice's request to go out with a ground crew and find what they could.

Davey had told Ice that all Seresins go home to Texas in the end.

It seemed like the least any of them could do, and they managed to send Mary Seresin a couple of pounds of burned debris.

She'd sent a note of thanks back through the Casualty Assistance Office.

Thank you for what was left. It means a great deal to our children to be able to visit him and know part of him is really there. 

All Seresins come home in the end.

Mary Seresin

Ice still has the note and takes it out with the only photograph he has of Davey from the keepsake box he keeps locked away in his office.

It's of all of them, really. All the pilots from that chilly deployment gathered on deck as the ship set out, and he was so caught up studying the faces long gone that he doesn't hear Pete sneak up behind him until his chin is resting on Tom's shoulder.

"Who's that?"

"Davey Seresin."

"Really?" There's a childish amount of glee in his voice as he leans in to look closer. Ice never told him what happened, but he mentioned Davey over the phone a few times, and Pete had known what the lack of an introduction after the deployment meant without asking.

And Tom was more than willing to trust Pete with classified information, but what happened to Davey was so eerily similar to Pete's father that Tom's always been terrified of what could come of it.

He's selfish that way.

"Christ, Hangman's practically his clone."

"Yeah, Davey wasn't much older than Jake is now."

"Does he fly like him?"

"Hard to tell. Not in training for sure."

"Jake took the Top Gun trophy when he went through. You said Davey failed out?"

"He was gentle. Too gentle. Unless you got him in a fight."

And really, it speaks to how much they've both grown since they met that Pete's not immediately pushing buttons to find out what Tom's clearly holding back.

It makes it easier to say.

"He saved my life."

And Pete stiffened. He always does when Tom mentions things that have almost killed him.

"You never told me that."

"It's classified."

"Tom…." There's a warning there. Pete's temper bubbles because there aren't a lot of things that honestly make him angry, but Tom not mentioning when he gets hurt is one of them.

They have a deal, you see, because their relationship matters, and being honest with each other matters.

The deal is: they always tell each other when something happens, whether the individual thinks it's important or not. The person it happened to doesn't get to decide if it's important or not. It's served them well, and to be fair, Pete is much better at it than Tom.

Pete has no problem admitting he did something stupid or dangerous after the fact (it's warning Tom beforehand that he's shit at). He called Ice before he called Cain when he made it out of the Darkstar crash.

Tom has a much harder time, and he's fully aware that it's his own fear of failure that causes it. Ice doesn't like admitting weakness. Admitting he wasn't good enough to get out on his own, no matter how many times Pete yells that he's not alone and he can't think that way, Christ, Ice!

Pete looks shaken by the time Tom's finished with his story.

Which means Pete is deeply shaken because normally, he can hide it better.

The similarities to his own father are obvious, and so is the fact that Pete has struggled with it his entire life. So much love and pride tied up with loneliness and resentment. 

"Jesus, six?"

"Eight total."

"Not helping, Ice."

It takes Pete a moment to gather himself.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want…." And he trailed off because anything he can think to say is actually horribly insulting because when comes down to it, it was Tom not thinking Pete could handle it, and that wasn't Tom's choice to make.

"My dad."

And god, Tom loves this man because Pete got it without Tom having to say, and it might be the easy way out, but Tom's a coward at heart. Scared of failure. Scared of hurting the people he loves.

"Christ, Tom."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't-Jesus, don't apologize. It's terrifying."

And then they're laughing because they've been together so long, know each other so well that they already know everything the other was struggling to say, and Pete's always been more forgiving than he should be.

"God, did they at least get-"

"No." 

Because the Seresins got exactly what Pete and his mother got, a thank you, and a flag and nothing else, Mary Seresin had known better than to ask.

Jake may have finagled information later after he joined, but there's no way to know for sure without asking.

Ice has suspicions based on his reaction in the briefing, but it could also be a child's absolute faith in a parent who died when they were young. It depends a lot on who Jake Seresin is, and Ice doesn't know him well enough to say yet.

But he thinks even though he's afraid to say it out loud, he thinks Jake Seresin could be very good for Bradley Bradshaw.

As soon as they both grow up and get their heads out of their asses. It'll probably take a few more years, just based on where Bradley is now. 

Ice doesn't think he's changed so drastically since the last time Ice saw him that his guess is that far off.

Pete agrees. Bradley's still so angry and still so hurt, it's hard to tell who he'll be if he ever manages to most past it, and he'll have to if he ever wants to have a healthy relationship.

There's a reason children are meant to bury their parents, not the other way around.

It's not his story to share, so Tom won't say anything about Seresin to anyone else, at least not as long as there's another option.

Pete will spill the beans, though. He won't say it out loud, but he's a kind man. He can't overlook a child struck by the same tragedy he was, and Bradley will notice.

Once he's paying enough attention to look.

Tom and Pete messed up, and they both know it, but they've both learned over the intervening years that an apology forced on someone is not an apology. 

Until Bradley's ready to listen, Pete can beg, and Tom can help from the shadows, but nothing will fix anything.

Bradley has always been settled. And not always in a good way.

He was hard to rile up as a child, which was good. Was a laid-back teenager with typical teenage angst, but between Carole and his dad and the danger of Mav and Ice's jobs, he was content to listen and value the little things instead of running headfirst into the unknown like so many of his peers, which was amazing.

It's why the explosion that came over the letter shocked both Pete and Tom. Left them both too stunned and off-balance to push for the conversation they should have right after it happened.

They gave Bradley too much time by himself, and Bradley's never been good on his own. So few people are. They gave him so much time he learned to rip up his own roots and take his settledness somewhere else, and now he's had years to dig in, and every day, another root grows, entrenching him so deep and far away from them that it'll take an extinction level event to get him to look back their way now.

And Tom suspects that Jake Seresin might just be that extinction event.

If they don't destroy each other first.

***

Meanwhile, while all of Tom and Pete's vague future plans for Bradley's possible happiness begin to take shape, the two people they're focused around cheerfully throw all caution out the window.

To be fair, it's a toss-up if they're pushing those plans further away or moving them up by a matter of years.

Because the two men who were hurt little boys not that long ago both have reservations, they won't say out loud. 

Years-long interest generally means impossible to meet expectations. 

They probably won't want to do it again. 

All Bradley can imagine with Jake is fast, fast, fast, and all Jake can imagine about Bradley is slow, slow, slow. They're both intense, and two intense people don't always equal a fun level of intensity in the bedroom.

They've both been down that road before.

And run back screaming the other way.

So, Bradley's a lot nervous when Jake makes it to his house, and Jake's a lot nervous when he parks outside, but neither of them is willing to say anything. 

They're committed because they're both stubborn fools (everyone else's words), so Jake swans in, all bravado and teeth, and promptly trips over the entranceway when Bradley blurts out that he's never done this with a guy before because he HAD to get it out.

There's an awkward beat where they stare at each other, both of them surprised by Bradley's words and Jake's cautious:

"Have you changed your mind?"

And Bradley's sure:

"No, just wanted to be upfront."

And then it's just relieved laughter and Jake limping (an exaggeration, Bradley insists) the rest of the way inside.

"It's all good, baby chick. I'll show you the ropes."

"Oh god, please don't say that again."

"Yeah, that came out way weirder than I expected."

"No callsigns or last names in the bedroom."

"How romantic, Bradley."

And there was no way Jake hadn't clocked that shudder, but Bradley pinned him to the wall and leaned in for a kiss before he could say something.

"Bradley. Bradley. Bradley."

"Fucker."

"What are you, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman? Kiss me again, asshole."

And then they'd stumbled their way to Bradley's childhood bedroom, laughing when Jake tried to maneuver them into the closet, and Bradley tripped trying to walk them backward to the actual bedroom.

And then Jake had laughed so hard Bradley had shoved him onto the bed to stop him when he saw the sheets Bradley had forgotten to change.

"Childhood bedroom, huh, Bradshaw?"

"Shut. Up. There's no way you didn't have a set either."

"Mine were spaceships and planets."

"Liar. How fucking tight are your pants? Jesus, can you even breathe?"

"Did you just tear my jeans? What are you, the Hulk?"

"You don't want to make me angry, Jake."

"I've been making you angry since the day we met, Bradley. You don't scare me."

Jake hadn't been any gentler with Bradley's clothes, and by the time they were naked and distracted by the heat of one another's skin, they were in pieces on the floor.

"Lemme go first, Bradley. I'll show you how it's done." 

And then he'd kissed Bradley so thoroughly he didn't even notice Jake roll them over until all Bradley could feel with the smooth sheets at his back and warm miles of muscle along his front.

It was a heady thing to be able to hold as tightly as he wanted and be held back just as strongly. 

And then it's just heat heat, heat, and moans and laughing because they can't stop egging one another on even as Bradley's gasping and Jake's gloating, and then Bradley just has to pay him back, and it turns out there's a natural push-pull between them that's enough to make Bradley's vision white out and Jake bite down hard enough to draw blood on Bradley's shoulder. 

They're both too exhausted to get up by the end of it. 

A delightful feeling of jelly limbs and terrific relaxation and warmth that's enough to make them both reluctant to leave the bed before the sun rises. 

"So tomorrow-"

"Still in the bedroom, Bradshaw."

"Such a fucking Princess."

But it doesn't stop them from curling up around one another as they fall asleep.

And they're both thinking: There are so many ways this could end, but they're not all bad…

Right?

~tbc~