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The ring of the doorbell awoke Maverick from the dead sleep he had fallen into on the couch. A groan left his lips as he propped himself up on his elbows, coughing off to the side so heavily that spots flickered in the corners of his vision.
Maverick hoped a quick nap would make him feel better, yet now he felt the familiar soreness encroaching on his throat while congestion steadily dripped down the back. Breath rattled in his lungs after the accompanying cough, a constant buzz ever present in his sinuses. He felt ten times worse than when he first fell asleep and he felt a knot in his stomach at the realization of what today was.
The doorbell went off once more, followed by incessant knocking. Soft voices could be heard behind the door and Maverick recognized them immediately as Bradley Bradshaw and his mother, Carole. He could hear Carole chiding Bradley before he could break the door down in excitement.
The pilot finally forced himself to his full height, groaning audibly as he rolled his body off the couch. Standing brought on a wave of dizziness, the ground threatening to tilt from under him. He spread his feet wider to keep himself from falling, one hand drawn over his face as he shuffled his way to the front door.
“Don’t smudge the windows, hun,” Carole chided gently from outside the stained glass door.
“I see him,” Bradley exclaimed.
Maverick couldn’t help but smile when he heard Bradley’s voice. There was no one else that could bring out that smile from him anymore, except maybe Ice. There was just something about the kid’s unfiltered affection and excitement that always brought Maverick out of whatever slump he was in. If only the same could be said for whatever fog was swarming around his mind.
Swallowing yet another cough, Maverick unlocked the front door and swung it open, almost immediately knocked off his feet as Bradley hared forward. He wrapped his arms around Maverick’s middle and held the Naval pilot tightly.
“Give him some space, kiddo,” Carole began with an affectionate sigh.
Maverick waved her off. “It’s not a problem. C’mere, kiddo.” Stiffly he reached down and scooped Bradley up, lifting him into the air and holding him close. For seven the kid was fairly small and lanky, reminding Maverick to try and coax as many calories into the kid as possible, which would be easy with Ice’s baking skills.
“Hey, Mav,” Carole greeted, pulling Maverick in for a hug. “Is Ice home?”
“He’s out running some errands before our surprise tonight.”
After careful consideration, Ice and Maverick decided to take Bradley to his first drive-in theater experience. They were always talking about taking him, but when the opportunity presented itself, neither one could believe their luck. Carole had earnestly agreed and while Bradley was none the wiser, the adults couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when he realized what they were doing that evening.
“Ah, well give him my love and thank him for me for all this. I’m guessing he didn’t think all this came with this.” Carole leaned forward and tickled Bradley’s side, causing the kid to squeal in Maverick’s grasp. Maverick briefly struggled to hold Bradley as he squirmed around and set him down beside him, the boy a bundle of giggles beside him. “You alright, Mav? You look a little off.”
The last thing that Maverick wanted was for Carole to clock him. She had been looking forward to this work retreat for months and Maverick’s shitty immune system wasn’t about to ruin this for her.
“I’m fine,” he reassured, flashing a million dollar smile. “Just can’t wait to get this party started.”
Carole still appeared unconvinced, though she didn’t argue, merely handed over Bradley’s overnight bag and backpack. She pulled Bradley in close and kissed the top of his head. “Be good for Uncle Mav and Uncle Ice. Do you understand me, young man?”
“Yes, mom,” Bradley giggled, hugging her back.
Carole eyed him fondly, brushing back his hair. With one last hug and kiss she waved farewell and disappeared down the front steps, the front door closing behind her.
“Alright, what do you want to do first,” Maverick asked the kid as he set his things on the stairs to be brought up to the guest bedroom later.
Bradley pointed to the living room, practically bouncing on his heels. “Can we play Mario?”
Secretly, Maverick was relieved Bradley decided to pick an indoor activity where Maverick hardly had to concentrate. The idea of running outside may just send him into a frenzy. He could spend the next few hours in front of the TV with Bradley.
“Sure, pal. Go and set it up. I’ll be right there.”
Bradley darted into the living room, leaving Maverick to sink in on himself. His hands rested on his knees and he coughed forcefully, hoping that would dislodge the tickle. It did no such thing, instead causing his nose to begin to run. A wrist pressed hard against his leaking nose as he made a beeline for the bathroom on the first floor.
Maverick stepped in and closed the door, reaching for a generous amount of tissues from a box on the edge of the counter. Clamping them firmly over the lower half of his face, he blew hard until his ears popped. It may have loosened some of the congestion, but the buzz from earlier turned into an all out burn, one that Maverick wasn’t able to stop.
“Hrsh’Shoo!” Maverick pitched back forward into the tissues and blew his nose again, temples throbbing. The congestion was just beginning to settle thick in his sinuses and he could tell this was about to become one hell of a cold. “Hrsh’Sh’Shoo!”
“Bless you!”
Maverick almost jumped out of his skin when he heard his husband’s voice around the corner, various bags in hand. He offered the kind smile that he always flashed when he saw Maverick, though the smile immediately turned into a concerned frown as he approached. “You okay?”
Before Maverick could answer, a shrill of glee sounded as Bradley raced down the hallway and slammed hard into Ice’s legs. “Uncle Ice! Are you going to play Mario with us?”
“Mario,” Ice echoed fondly, sidestepping so he didn’t accidentally strike Bradley in the head with the plastic bags he carried in his arms. “Is that what you two are up to?”
Bradley nodded eagerly. “Yeah! I’m waiting for Uncle Mav to turn on the TV.”
Maverick forced a smile on his face as he padded up behind Bradley and ruffled his hair. “Let me help Uncle Ice put away these groceries away and I’ll come and play, okay?”
“Okay.” Bradley gave Ice one more tight squeeze before launching himself back down the hall in the living room. Maverick shook his head in amusement and reached forward to take one of the bags from Ice. Ice faintly held onto the bag, meeting Maverick’s gaze questioningly. Maverick only managed to meet his husband’s gaze briefly before looking away, the lump forming in his throat unable to be dislodged by a simple swallow.
Ice said nothing as he disappeared with a majority of the bags into the kitchen with Maverick bringing up the rear, struggling not to cough against his shoulder. Ice would clock him far sooner than either Carole or Bradley and would call him out on it more too.
By the time they reached the kitchen, Ice was already making quick work of organizing the items that belonged in the fridge. Maverick looked into his bag to find various bags of candy and crunchy snacks that would pair well with their drive-in plans that evening.
“I have this,” Ice called over his shoulder. “Better get back to Bradley before he figures out how to turn on the system himself.”
Stifling a sigh, Maverick backtracked out of the room. He was thankful that Ice didn’t press the matter, nor call him out on it, though he doubted that would last long. He easily slipped out of Ice’s line of sight and took off back towards the living room to find Bradley sitting cross legged in front of the TV, holding the Atari controller despite the TV being switched off.
Maverick grasped the remote, perched on the edge of the coffee table, switching through the input with ease. The setup was relatively easy and he had been meaning to teach Bradley how to do this on his own. When the screen for Mario loaded, Bradley handed Maverick his own controller and scrambled up on the couch beside his uncle, head rested on his shoulder as Maverick selected a level for them to play.
Try as he might, Maverick couldn’t concentrate. His throat felt like it had been rubbed raw by sandpaper, his nose alternating between running like a faucet and becoming so clogged that he felt like he was drowning in his own mucus. Pressure started to build behind his eyes, threatening to leak from the corners. Between jumps on the game, Maverick continued to swipe the back of his hand under his nose to keep the running at bay. Unfortunately, that produced less than desirable results.
“HrshSH’Shoo!” The first sneeze snuck up on him without any hitching of breath to warn him. He hardly managed to curl in on himself away from Bradley, breath coming in a frantic gasps as he geared up for the next one that he knew would be accompanying the first. “HRsh’Shoo!”
Bradley jumped beside him, frowning when his concentration wavered and he accidentally landed on a crab. “Awe, Uncle Mav,” he complained.
“Sorry, kiddo,” Maverick apologized through a harsh cough. He patted Bradley’s shoulder with one hand, the other clamped over his flared nostrils. “Start the next one without me. I’ll be right back.”
Bradley didn’t complain as he resumed the game on his own while Maverick made a beeline back to the bathroom, nearly tripping over his feet in the process. One hand gripped the knob hard, unlocking it with ease with the other already outstretched to the tissue box. A greedy handful clamped over his face to blow, softly at first in an effort to keep his location unknown.
It didn’t take long for the sound of laughter to greet his ears, briefly distracting him from his plight. Ice’s voice rose up in time with the laughter, the realization that Bradley wasn’t sitting by himself allowing Maverick the time to deal with his nose with a few more productive blows.
Instead of making him feel better, the meager expulsion of congestion let him susceptible to the hollow coughs that thumped through his chest. If he was hoping this to be allergies or perhaps something in the air, he was sorely mistaken. These two sneezes certainly had done him in and he pleaded with the universe that he would make it through the weekend without anyone noticing.
Maverick splashed some water on his face, washed his hands, and closed the door quietly behind him. He was quick to find that Ice had taken his place, controller gripped tight in his hands as he raced Bradley through the game. Bradley stood a mere meter from the TV, body leaning one way and then the next as though that would impact his avatar on the game as well.
“The turtle! The turtle!” Bradley yanked on the joystick to send Mario racing across the screen before pulling back to leap onto the next row.
“I see it,” Ice called back, leaping over the turtle with ease.
Bradley cheered once more before turning when he realized that Maverick returned. “Uncle Mav, Uncle Ice is the best at this! You have to see!”
“I do see,” Maverick rasped, the twinge in his throat consuming his voice. “You two are doing better than I ever do.”
Eyebrow raised, Ice motioned to the hallway with a single look. “How about you start getting everything ready for tonight while I school this kid in Atari?”
Maverick opened his mouth to protest, but Ice’s all too familiar cold hard stare shut him down quickly. He lowered his head in defeat, limbs dragging as he disappeared once more from the living room. Logic reminded him that Ice was giving him an out to compose himself, though it didn’t feel that way.
He snagged Bradley’s bags on his way up the stairs, creating a mental note of everything that they would need. Pillows and blankets would be the main thing, along with their snacks. A change of clothes wasn’t a bad idea if he knew how dirty Bradley could become, especially if they needed to tire him out before the movies by running around the open field the drive-in was next to. A football or baseball might be helpful if the running about on its own didn’t do it. Bradley’s beloved stuffed rabbit couldn’t be forgotten either as it was one of the last things that Goose gave him when he left for Top Gun Academy.
Maverick dropped Bradley’s bags in the guest room, already done up for his arrival. He briefly considered grabbing Bradley’s pajamas when a wave of exhaustion struck him so hard that he felt himself sag against the wall. The unyielding dizziness was far too much to contend with, and it took all of his strength to hover against the wall on his way back to the master bedroom.
The mattress in sight, Maverick collapsed forward, face smothered in the waiting pillow. Ice would probably scold him later for not even bothering to turn down the covers before laying down, but right now he couldn’t be bothered. The exhaustion that he felt couldn’t be understated in the slightest and despite the various things that he knew he had to get ready, his eyes slipped closed and the world tentatively slipped away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hon? Mav? Maverick?”
A cool hand on his shoulders, sure and determined, shook Maverick awake. He let out a brief inhale that turned into a rattling cough as the congestion shifted on his way to sit up. A fuzzy figure loomed in front of him, his eyes blinking deliberately until the man finally encroached into his full focus.
“Hey, hotshot,” the soothing voice of Ice whispered, blunt nails trailing over Maverick’s scalp. “Bradley and I were beginning to think you fell down a pipe.”
“Hmmm a pipe,” Maverick mumbled, voice raw and forced.
Ice grinned. “You got that kid hooked on Mario. Next he’s going to tell you he wants to be a plumber.”
Maverick’s shoulders tensed, weight pressed against his elbows as he attempted to sit up. Immediately the room tilted and he flopped back down, eyes squeezed shut and lungs spasming with harsh coughs. Despite knowing the look he would receive, he pulled the pillow close against his face and coughed so hard that bursts of light sprang across his eyes.
“That’s definitely in your chest. I should probably make a call to Savant and see if he would mind doing a house call.”
“No.” A rush of determination quaked through him, Maverick’s legs stretched out just enough that he was able to use the momentum to pull himself up into a seated position. “The movie.”
Ice’s eyes widened in shock. “The movie? Mav, you’re hardly in any condition to sit up, let alone go to the drive-in.”
“Ice—“
“Go two seconds without coughing up a lung and maybe I’ll reconsider,” Ice interrupted dryly, tone one that didn’t offer much argument.
Defiance, burning bright like the fever Maverick was no doubt sporting, briefly overwhelmed him. His jaw set in determination, and just when he was about to tell Ice ‘I told you so’ his sinuses decided to betray him faster than his lungs could.
“Hrsh’Sho’Shoo! HrHS’Sh’Shoo!”
Ice jumped at the harshness of the sneezes that scraped against his husband’s throat, leaving Maverick’s entire face pounding due to the pressure. He moaned and teetered off to the side, lower half of his face buried under his t-shirt, unwilling to drop it even for a moment.
Almost immediately a handkerchief was nudged against Maverick’s opposite hand. Grumbling to himself, he took the offered cloth and settled for rubbing his nose dry, fearful that blowing would send his ears ringing as dizziness was already something he was contending with.
“Bless you,” Ice murmured. “I think I rest my case, hotshot.”
Maverick dropped the collar of his shirt from his face, head shaking desperately. “You don’t understand, I promised!” A crack cut off the remainder of his sentence, Maverick’s head bowed against his chest as he coughed into the handkerchief. The bed dipped beside him as Ice took up a seat beside him, eyes aglow in concern. “I promised him.”
Heart breaking in his chest, Ice didn’t hesitate to encase Maverick in a tight hug. Maverick’s body tensed against it briefly before seeming to melt into his husband’s sure embrace. Tears burned in the corners of his Maverick’s eyes, to which he would blame the fever later if Ice questioned him on it. Ice would never dream of holding anything over the smaller pilot, especially when he was in that state, but it was still a lingering fear from Maverick’s childhood that they were forced to contend with.
“I know that you did.” Ice’s voice was strong, soft, and with that deep rumble that Maverick had come to expect when experiencing a heart-to-heart. “And he will understand why you can’t. Besides, who says that he’s not going to go?”
Maverick tipped his head in confusion, still pressed against Ice’s chest. “W-What?”
Ice pulled away enough to ensure that Maverick was looking directly at him. “Once I know you’re not going to hack up a lung here, I’ll take him.”
“You?”
“Don’t act so surprised,” Ice joked, head butted against Maverick’s shoulder. “I’m his uncle too, you know. I’m just as capable of spending time with him without you.”
“You would do that for me?”
“I would do that for both of you,” Ice corrected. Despite Maverick being one of the smartest men that he knew, he could certainly be dense at the best of times. “Here’s what is going to happen: I’m going to take Bradley to the drive-in and you’re going to rest here with plenty of soup and tea. We’ll see how you’re feeling in the morning and that will determine who I have to get involved. Does that sound like a deal?”
“HrSh’Shoo! Hrsh’Shoo!”
“I’m glad we’re in agreement.” Ice slid off the bed easily, wrist catching on the edge of his nightstand. He rummaged about until his fingers enclosed on another cloth handkerchief, setting it aside for later. Maverick was the only man that he knew that actually seemed to sneeze more when he had the flu than a simple cold. It would be something amusing he would point out if not for the emotional turmoil Maverick was clearly struggling with.
Maverick honked his nose in the handkerchief as it was now practically dripping. Heaviness settled on his face until it felt like he was pumped full of cement. “Ugh,” he groaned, a hand coming to rub at the side of his face, only exacerbating the horrible thickness he felt through his sinus cavity.
Ice pulled back the covers that were tucked under Maverick’s hip, folding it back towards the corner. “Go ahead and change into something comfortable. I’ll get Bradley ready and be back with some meds. Call if you need anything.”
Maverick was about to point out that he wouldn’t be able to call even if he wanted to, but Ice was already out the door before Maverick could protest.
This was definitely wasn’t the evening that Maverick had planned and he was sickened at the thought of how Bradley would react.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A soft creak caused Maverick’s eye to open, breathing heavily from his open mouth. The covers were pulled up halfway over his face so that only his eyes were visible, though heavily obstructed by the pillow his head was on. He swallowed around the roughness in his throat as he heard the soft patter of footsteps approaching.
“Uncle Mav,” a soft voice whispered harshly. “Are you awake?”
The only response Maverick could give was a groan, face twisting off to the opposite wall as he heard the boy approach. “Is Ice with you, pal?”
Bradley stopped dead in his tracks, arms falling down by his sides. “No,” he confessed.
“Then you probably shouldn’t be in here,” Maverick rasped with another resounding cough. “Uncle Maverick doesn’t feel very well.”
“I know.” There was some more scuffling before Maverick felt the bed dip beside him. He kept his lips pressed in a tight line, still faced as far away from the boy as possible. He doubted that Ice would’ve let him in if he knew that Bradley was here. The kid was stubborn just like his father and Maverick was in no condition to order him out the room. Besides, he was just concerned and Maverick couldn’t fault him for that.
“M’sorry about this, kiddo. I promise I’ll make it up to you. You gotta go, Bradley. I don’t want to get you sick.”
Maverick attempted to swallow the next volley of coughs that left him shaking against his pillow. A harsh gasp concluded the fit and he felt himself curl further in on himself, breathing harshly through an open mouth.
Bradley grew quiet, yet he didn’t leave. Instead Maverick felt something soft and slightly weighed brush against his partially exposed shoulder. It was soft, yet worn with years of much love. A long ear draped over his arm as the item slumped against him as he tried to turn to catch sight of what exactly Bradley dropped.
“I think you need him more than me tonight,” Bradley told him full of glee.
Maverick hardly had time to react to the fact that Bradley had set his most prized passion beside him. He tried not to breathe too close to it, fearful that his germs would infect it. Before he could say anything, the door creaked open once more as Ice stepped through.
“Honey, what are you doing in here,” Ice questioned as he bustled to Bradley’s side, took him by the shoulders, and steered him back towards the door.
Bradley pointed to his stuffed bunny on the corner of Maverick’s bed. “I thought Uncle Mav needed Bunny more than me!”
Ice stopped briefly in his tracks, a wry smile on his face that Bradley couldn’t see. He brushed his hand over Bradley’s head to ruffle his hair, causing the young boy to laugh. “That was very thoughtful of you, but you have to let me know before you come in here, alright? We have to let Uncle Mav rest.”
“Okay, Uncle Ice.”
“Go ahead and grab your coat. I’ll be right down for the movie.” Ice nudged Bradley forward and the boy darted out of the room without a second thought, leaving Ice briefly alone in the room with Maverick. He crept back over to the bed and sat down beside Bradley’s bunny. “We can wash it before you tell me to take it away. I think that Brad may be onto something.”
The only answer Maverick managed was a deep mumble, unwilling to so much as touch the thing. Ice doubted that it would last no matter what tough guy act Maverick was attempting to portray. That would be something to unpack later when Maverick didn’t feel like death reincarnate.
“Tea and soup are downstairs if you want more and you can take more decongestants around 9. I don’t think we’ll be home too much past 11 depending on how much the kid actually is invested in these movies.” Ice rested his hand on what he assumed was Maverick’s hip and gave it a squeeze. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” Maverick mumbled around an exhausted cough.
With that Ice left the sick man alone to wrangle the excited elementary schooler downstairs.
Once Ice left, Maverick found himself rolling back onto his side, cheek brushing against the stuffed rabbit’s side. He felt himself reaching for it and holding it close to his chest, swearing that he could smell a hint of Goose through his clogged sinuses that still lingered on it. Maybe Bradley truly had been onto something after all.