FIC: Rose-Colored Boy (Top Gun, Iceman/Maverick, PG-13)
TITLE: Rose-Colored Boy
RATING: PG-13
FANDOMS: Top Gun
PAIRINGS: Pete "Maverick" Mitchell/Tom "Iceman" Kazansky
SUMMARY: That's how the world works. The world is black and white until you meet your soulmate, and then you see everything in color.
When Maverick Mitchell is very young, he asks his parents to tell him about the colors. They smile, and try to describe the depths of blue or the fiery strength of red, but it's like trying to describe a sonata to a deaf person.
"You won't really understand until you see them yourself, sport," his father says, and ruffles his hair.
Maverick pouts. He wants to see the colors now; he doesn't want to wait until he meets his soulmate. But that's how the world works. The world is black and white until you meet your soulmate, and then you see everything in color.
One day, Maverick is playing in his room when he hears his mother scream. He runs out to see what's wrong, and finds her on the kitchen floor, surrounded by shards of broken dishes, sobbing. A week later, men in uniforms come to deliver the news that Maverick's father has died in combat, but they already know. His mother's world went back to black and white the second her soulmate left it.
After that, Maverick never asks about the colors again. After that, everything changes. His mother crawls further and further into herself, and then she disappears altogether. Her funeral is dark; rain clouds smother the sun. He only remembers the black. His aunt and uncle take him in, and getting the fuck out of there becomes his number one objective. And he does. He joins the Navy as soon as they'll take him, and soon, flying is everything. He forgets about the colors.
He goes to TOPGUN expecting to come home with the trophy. He gets something else, instead. He's sitting in class the first day, listening to his SOs talk about the program, and he feels someone watching him. He turns around.
The first color Maverick sees is the color of Iceman Kazansky's eyes. He'll learn soon enough that they're iridescent, different colors from different angles, different colors depending on what he's wearing and his mood and how dark his skin is from the sun. But the first time he sees them, they're the color of the sky before a thunderstorm, a pale blue-grey. For a second, that's all Maverick can see, and then the world around him blooms into vibrant color, like some dormant part of him is waking up. Iceman looks at him, and he grins, and turning back to face their SOs is one of the hardest things Maverick's ever had to do in his life, but he does it.
When they're dismissed, Maverick walks up to Ice slowly. He's waiting for him near the back of the room, leaning against one of the chairs as the other students file out.
Maverick looks into his eyes. They're olive green now, and he feels the gaze so keenly it's like hands on his body.
"Hi," he says slowly. "I'm Maverick."
"Ice."
Maverick holds his hand out to shake, which seems strangely formal-he's his soulmate, for Christ's sake-but it's the first thing he thinks of. Ice takes his hand, but he doesn't shake it. He uses it to pull Maverick closer, so close he can see the slight blush spreading across Ice's golden brown cheeks.
"Hi," Ice says, in a way that sounds like it has extra meanings that Maverick doesn't know about.
Maverick swallows thickly. "I, um-you wanna go for a walk with me? I've always-I've always wanted to see red. You wanna go see red with me?"
Ice smiles, and he stands, moving even further into Maverick's space. Maverick can feel the heat coming off of him, can smell the clean, green note of his cologne, can see the gold flecks in his eyes.
"Sure," he says. "Lead the way."
Maverick's heart is beating a mile a minute. Ice takes his hand, and they walk out into a bright new world.