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Julia had been working TOPGUN Miramar as a secretary for the last few years, so she wasn’t exactly unaware of the shenanigans that the aviators got up to. Why, just last week she’d watched Admiral Simpson glowering at a flyer on the communal message board. She hadn’t been able to make out all the words before he’d pulled it down, but given the fluorescent color scheme and the clipart of a wine glass, it was probably some kind of after-hours gathering that would have been better advertised over text message where it wasn’t subjected to prying upper echelon eyes.
And now that Captain Mitchell, better known as Maverick, was on base for an extended period of time (people were whispering that as soon as he fully recovered from the mission, he’d be handed a full-time offer for the next class – whether he’d accept it was another matter entirely), Julia saw a lot more mischief in her future.
She could only tell herself that she’d be on the opposite end of base from him, in the admin offices, for most of the work day. Not that she minded. There was something to say about the rhythmic nature of her corner of offices, save the random panicked assistants running around. And it certainly helped that Bernie “Hondo” Coleman had occupied an office in her wing for his time on base (which was similarly suspect), because he somehow managed to calm down most of the panicked assistants that made it to his office. Julia had a suspicion most of them were from Maverick, if the way Hondo sighed and rubbed his temple each time meant anything. Often he followed them back from wherever they’d come, too, and would only return to the offices a few hours later.
Well, all that to say, Julia wasn’t surprised when a few flowers were delivered to Hondo’s office one morning. The courier didn’t deliver any card or anything with them, so she had nothing to report back up the gossip chain, but she didn’t mind. Hondo was a nice man, and usually had a smile for her. He’d once filled the candy bowl she kept on the edge of her desk when he noticed it running low, so as far as she was concerned, the flowers were just the cosmic scales rebalancing by offering him something nice in return.
And then the next day, three more flowers were delivered. It was easy enough for him to slide them into the same vase as the other few from the day before, and she caught him smiling softly at them a few times in a lull in his day.
It was only when a new bouquet arrived the day after that that Julia thought she had better find out what was going on. There was nothing on the base calendar, so she pulled up Hondo’s file, but his birthday was also months away. They could be some kind of early countdown, but Julia heavily doubted that, especially as a new bundle arrived the next day. This one, the fourth bouquet, was much larger, and it was spacious enough that Julia knew this could be her chance to figure out what was going on. She noticed that Hondo didn’t have anything to put these in, so she pulled pens out of her cup and stood to make her way to his office door.
“Hondo?” she asked, knocking softly on the doorframe. “Is this a bad time?”
Hondo turned around to look at her, and she laughed when she saw he’d been contemplating the flowers arranged on his desk with a frown.
“Will this help?” She held out her offering, and his face melted in gratitude.
“Thank you, Julia. I was starting to think I’d just have to…as my nephew would say…”rawdog” this next bouquet.”
They chuckled a little as he arranged the bouquet into the cup as a vase, and then she helped him pick a good place to display them that wouldn’t encroach too much on the other flowers. As she was fluffing them absently, she thought it might be the time to ask. “Can I…who are these from, Hondo?”
He laughed. “I should have known you’d all be curious. They’re from my partner. Our five-year anniversary is coming up next week, and…well my partner can be somewhat overzealous about things like this.”
Julia laughed, mentally noting the gender-neutral term. “That’s cute.”
“Yeah…Well, it’s only going to get worse from here. They’re really into these kinds of milestones.”
“Congratulations, though! What’s the date? Maybe we can get you some kind of party.”
“Nah, you don’t need to do that. We’ve already got dinner plans, so as long as I can still use my office through this jungle, we’ll be perfectly settled. Just…maybe I’ll need more donations to hold the rest of the gifts.”
Julia grinned, leaving his office with a promise to rally the troops, as it were.
He didn’t need to be worried, though, because the next day found a nice selection of chocolates delivered to his office. He was kind enough to share a couple with her, in thanks for the cup, but it only made her more curious as to what the next days would bring. She was excited to come to work, which made her feel a little bad, since it was at Hondo’s expense, but the visits from the courier were becoming a favorite.
The next day, instead of the regular courier, Maverick himself showed up. She had to imagine it was after he’d intercepted the courier going the same way, because he was carrying at least six manila folders with him, presumably for Hondo’s signature. Along with the folders, he was carrying an honest-to-god flower wreath, which Hondo accepted with the world’s longest sigh.
“Now what am I supposed to do with this, Mav?”
Maverick laughed, shrugging. “Don’t shoot the messenger! How am I supposed to know? Wow,” he said, peeking over Hondo’s shoulder. “You weren’t kidding, it looks like a whole shop in here. You think about pawning them off to the others?”
“No,” Hondo said. “I wouldn’t do that. Besides, Stevens has pollen allergies. Might be better to keep everything in my office as much as possible.”
“Oh,” Maverick said, with an inclination of his head in agreement. “Fair enough. So. Where do you think this one will go? Also, I’ve got the forms on the new training plans for you to go over and sign.”
“Why on earth do I have purview over that, Mav?”
Julia couldn’t see him, but she could picture the cheeky smirk on his face. “Well. Just trying to keep you in the loop. Besides, if there’s stress on the planes, you would know if I’m about to break them, right? And if the maintenance techs are going to get mad at me?”
“I’d think that at this point, you’d know that pretty well for yourself, wouldn’t you Maverick?” Hondo said, crossing his arms.
“Fine,” Maverick folded, drawing out the word. “I just wanted to see your office with all the flowers, okay? Sue me. Also, I knew I’d made the right choice when I saw the flower wreath making its way to your office, and then I had to see your face.”
“And?”
“And…I’m putting off a meeting with Cyclone, yeah.”
Hondo sighed. “Give it here.”
Maverick handed over the wreath gleefully, and they made their way into the office, closing the door behind them, presumably to attach the wreath. Julia grinned down to her keyboard, deleting the words she’d just typed in an email and starting over. Hondo sure had his work cut out for him, being friends with Maverick. But she couldn’t deny the entertainment value.
The weekend came, bringing with it an escape from the office antics, but when she returned on Monday it was to an early delivery of flowers, this time in three pots left by the door of Hondo’s office as if to purposefully impede him from entering until he cleared them.
Hondo, out of what Julia imagined was a little bit of spite, left them there, simply stepping over the bushes each time he needed to get into his office. It made her giggle a little, and the next time he walked by her desk, she pushed the candy bowl meaningfully in his direction. “Your partner has a sense of humor, huh?”
He sighed. “You have no idea.”
Admiral Bates made his way into their wing later that day, staring bemusedly at the wall of flowers in front of Hondo’s office. “What happened here, Coleman?”
“You don’t want to know, sir. Just step over them and come in,” Hondo called.
Bates shrugged. “Alright.” He closed the door behind them, the flowers fluttering in its wake.
Finally, Wednesday arrived, which was when Julia had determined was their anniversary. The flowers wondrously ceased, Hondo’s partner having presumably seen reason or having given him something in person today. The flowers from the first two days about a week ago had started rotting yesterday, so they’d been thrown out, and Hondo had moved the three pots into his office to line his desk, so the only flowers left were the third bouquet, the wreath (that Julia hadn’t seen since the day it’d been delivered, and the pots. The chocolates also were long gone, but yesterday he’d brought in a batch of homemade cookies that had been passed around the wing, so were also gone.
Hondo looked relieved when he walked in to find nothing waiting for him, and he exchanged a conspiratorial smile with Julia on his way in.
“Finally free?” she asked.
“Don’t jinx it, but it would sure seem that way.”
“I’ll knock on wood for you.”
“Thanks. I’ll need it.”
He was bogged down in meetings that day, which made sense when she checked the calendar and saw he was listed as unavailable all of Thursday. Around 3 in the afternoon, he emerged only to fortify himself with a couple candies and a quick lap to the printer to collect his papers, and then returned to his office. He didn’t emerge again until it was about time to head out, when Julia was also in the middle of powering down her station.
She collected her bag quickly, so they could walk out together (and so that she could get the details she was missing). “So,” she prodded. “Where are you going for dinner?”
“There’s a nice Italian place that my partner likes. It’s usually out of our way whenever we’re on the way out to the Mojave for the weekend, but it’ll be nice tonight while we’re still around.”
“What’s in the Mojave?”
“His plane.”
Julia just hummed, as if it was commonplace for someone to own a whole plane and store it in the desert.
“We might hit Vegas this weekend though, some friends are insisting on us celebrating. We’ll see.”
“That sounds nice.”
“What about you?”
“Tonight? I’ve got some leftovers I need to make my way through. Call my mom. Watch some TV. We’ll see.”
“Fair enough,” Hondo said, and they walked in companionable silence until they made it to the parking lot. There, waiting for them, was Maverick on his signature bike. Nearly everyone who’d worked on base for long enough had seen or heard the thing, and certain members of personnel tended to go the other way when they heard it coming. Not that Julia would name any names.
Hondo just sighed as Maverick beamed at them. “Alright, Hondo? Ready?”
“If you insist,” he answered, tightening the straps of his backpack as he approached the bike. “Have a good night, Julia,” he said as he took Mav’s offered hand to straddle the back.
“Thank you,” she answered, a beat late as Mav spun around to kiss Hondo’s cheek in greeting and offer him a helmet that matched the one in his lap. The puzzle pieces abruptly fell together. “Have a nice dinner, you two.”
Maverick grinned. “Oh, he told you about that?”
“Of course he did. I’m his favorite coworker,” she grinned, catching back up to the speed of the banter.
Maverick barked a laugh as he pulled his helmet on. “You must be the one with the candy bowl. Thanks for helping him through my shenanigans.”
“It takes a village,” Hondo groused through his own visor. “Okay, come on. I want to change before dinner, and Julia’s got her own plans to get to.”
In response, Maverick just grinned, revving the engine and making Hondo’s arms tighten around his middle. He snapped his visor shut and tossed off a salute in Julia’s direction as Hondo nodded at her, and then the bike peeled out of the parking lot with a squeal of tires.
She just watched as they made it to the gate guard and then the bike rumbled off into the night, chuckling a little to herself. Trust Hondo, the most steady guy she knew, to find someone like Maverick. And for five years, huh? Really made you think.
She was still chuckling as she settled into her car and pulled out of the lot at a more reasonable pace.
“Did you really have to send that many flowers?” Hondo asked as they settled into the couch after dinner, each at least ten pounds heavier from the amount of pasta and wine they’d consumed.
Mav giggled, settling his head into Hondo’s lap, legs stretching the length of the couch. “I mean, it was funny. You have to admit that it was funny.”
“It was an attack on the poor base couriers is what it was. I don’t even want to think about the trips it took them for those pots.”
“Oh, I did those.”
Hondo grumbled. “Of course you did. Alright, how many trips did it take you?”
“Only two, excuse you! One pot per arm and then a solo. And it was so worth it for the way Warlock came to my office after your meeting just to stare at me. He didn’t even say anything, just stood there. He was trying to make me sweat and feel bad but it didn’t work. Plus! Five years! That’s not nothing, come on.”
“Five years,” Hondo mused. “Time sure flies.”
“And last year we were still in the middle of nowhere, so delivery fees were way too expensive. Had to take advantage this year.”
Hondo chuckled, leaning down to press a kiss to Mav’s forehead, making the other man close his eyes and hum happily. “Well, what do you think about the next five?”
“I’m ready if you are.”
They both grinned. “Then let’s do it.”
“Wow, what a romantic declaration of love,” Mav teased. “‘Let’s do it’? You could deign to sound more excited.”
“Oh, shut up, Pete.” Hondo said, and did the work for him, even if he’d be complaining about the awkward angle on his back the next morning.