"Hey, look who it is! The man who shot down enemy pilots!" Wolfman cheered when Ice slumped on the bench beside him with a plate with something that must resemble food in hand. He was not in the mood for eating, as, even after a full night of sleep and a day with doing nothing but sitting in a debrief room, he still felt like he would fall asleep immediately if he closed his eyes right now.

"You could've handled them yourself, man," Ice said with a tiny smile. Now that the Top Gun program had finished, he felt himself relax more with the men that were his adversaries just a few days ago.

"They were shot down and could enjoy the show from the water, Ice," Slider huffed when he plonked his plate in front of Ice's, making the table tremble.

"Hey, the water was freezing!" Hollywood whined and everyone burst into laughs. Even Iceman chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Someone entered the conversation before dropping on the bench next to Ice. He was so close! Ice could feel Maverick's body heat radiating of him and he froze from shock (luckily not literally) but relaxed when Maverick just grabbed his fork and delved into the potato salad that Ice had just been poking around for the past minutes.

"How can you eat thát?" Ice asked in disgust as Maverick kept shoving food into his mouth. He had just begun his beans and quickly swallowed his forkful to answer.

"Being the best of the best requires food, Ice," Maverick said and he winked to Ice, which made the blonde's heart do funny things when he heard the abbreviation, but Ice huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Do you need a reminder who won the Top Gun trophy, Mitchell?" Maverick looked at him with sparkling eyes, but his tone was surprisingly fond:

"Ok, Ice, you are not so bad yourself." He then bumped his shoulder jovially, which made a soft warmness spread through Ice's arm. Ice huffed but smiled at the smaller man.

"Sorry, but what is happening?" Hollywood broke the silence and Ice and Maverick turned their heads at the same time to watch the other man, who was looking at them with a frown. Hollywood looked at Wolfman who shrugged and hold up his hands to say that he didn't know. Hollywood turned to Slider beside him who just gave a blank glance. It was Maverick however who broke the silence.

"What is happening? Can't I be friendly with my wingman?" Maverick put down his fork and slung an arm around Ice's shoulder, pulling him closer. Ice froze at first but not as bad as the first time. Maverick seemed so at ease with Ice so close that Ice saw Slider sending him a confused look.

"Well, since you two gave the vibe of wanting to kill each other for the last month, I guess I was just surprised," Hollywood took his defeat, but Maverick went through with it.

"Oh, I certainly wanted to kill him a couple of times, but he isn't so bad at all actually. Aren't you?" Maverick directed the last bit directly to Ice by turning his head. Ice could actually feel Maverick's hot breath on his cheek.

"I am actually very bad. At pool," Ice joked and he saw Slider nodding enthusiastically before diving into a story to Hollywood and Wolfman about Ice's failed pool adventures in flight school. Mav was still watching Ice and grinned. His gaze shifted from Ice's eyes to a little bit higher and a mischievous spark burned in his eyes. He moved his other hand slowly.

"Don't you dare touch my hair, Mav," Ice said, trying to be serious, but he knew Mav would do it anyway so it came out less intimidating than he thought. A few moments later his hair got completely fluffed and made a complete mess, but Ice didn't really care. He took his revanche on Maverick immediately afterwards by ruffling the brunette's hair, but when he pulled his hand away, he couldn't prevent his fingers from lingering on Mav's very hot skin. Mav closed his eyes for a split second and leaned into the touch, but the moment got broken by a loud laugh from Hollywood, which made them startle and quickly shuffle apart. Ice felt his cheeks getting less cold (which meant he was blushing, dammit) and furiously tried to will the fuzzy feeling in his chest away while he ate his dinner.

Ice felt a little lightheaded, but he blamed the adrenaline from the previous day for that. For that and whatever else happened with Maverick mere minutes ago. Ice walked back to his little compartment and fell onto the bed, thoroughly confused, but still a little warm from Maverick's fire. He curled up into a ball, clutching the sheets, and fell into a deep sleep.

The next few days they had nothing to do, because they had to formally sign in for the posts on the Enterprise and other carriers and that took a few days so Ice felt himself relax a bit. He still didn't know what to do with Maverick, but he was at least not feeling as awful as before whenever Maverick interacted with him. He actually quite liked the joking banter and playful touches (oh, did Maverick touch Ice a lot) but was still worried he liked the man just because the warmth that he could gave him.

One evening, he decided that he would take matters into his own hands; he decided not to ask Slider for advice or even think about it more because he was sure he would bail out of his plan immediately if he did. So a few minutes later, he stood before the door of Mav's compartment. He laid his hands on the door but didn't knock yet. He took a deep breath and shook his head. He didn't really know what to say to the man inside, but he knew he wanted to say something so he could clear his head for once and for all.

He knocked thrice, knocking the ice of the door, which had formed there a few seconds ago. The door opened suspiciously quick after the knocks, but not fully, as Maverick was looking at him with hesitation.

"Hey, Mav. Ehm, can I come in?" Ice stumbled and while he mentally hit his head against a wall, Mav nodded once and opened the door further. He went to sit on the bed and gestured Ice to sit next to him as there wasn't any other furniture in the little room. Ice slid next to Maverick; his words frozen in his mouth. Maverick just stared at him patiently, seemingly without anger or without questioning what Ice did here. Ice took a breath a few times, but still couldn't speak.

"Ice, whatever you're going to say, it's ok," Maverick murmured and Ice nodded before he finally found his voice again.

"I'm sorry," he said, getting a lifted eyebrow from Maverick.

"I have always been so cold," continued Ice which made Maverick's eyebrow disappear into his wild hair.

"I have been born with a lower body temperature and therefore I have always felt cold. My skin temperature is actually worse," Ice said while he averted his gaze and opted to stare to the ground instead. He had only once told this to anyone before but he thought Maverick should know now as well.

"So nobody wanted to touch me. I actually had given up any physical human contact, but-" Ice took a deep breath but kept staring at the ground.

"When I touched you, I felt warm for the first time in my life. When you stared at me, I could feel your gaze warming me, so I irritated you and pushed your buttons just to get your attention. When your plane went spinning to the ground, I was so afraid I would lose that warmth that I-" Ice's breath stopped and he shut his eyes. He felt the pressure building into his eyes that hadn't felt in a long time and whimpered, because it hurt.

He felt Maverick shifting closer and pushing his side against Ice's as to give support and Ice was happy that he would feel Maverick's warmth for the last time before Maverick would certainly want Ice out of his life when Ice would finish the next sentence.

"I didn't even care about Goose that day. When I heard he was dead I, I-" Ice shoulders jerked once and he felt the pressure behind his eyes exploding, making him see vibrant yellows and purples behind his eyelids. He felt two drops leaving his eyes and leaving a trail on his cheeks before freezing and dropping to the ground. Hitting it with a dull tok. His eyelashes felt heavy from the ice that had formed on them, but Ice was desperate to finish his sentence.

"I was happy it wasn't you because that meant I could use you more. Just for my own benefit. I'm so sorry," Ice whispered when he felt that Maverick pulled him into a hug. It was silent for a while, while Ice regained his posture and Maverick was supposedly thinking.

"Ice," Maverick said softly and Ice willed himself to look up. It took more effort than it should've taken but he managed to open his eyes.

"You didn't use me, I wanted your attention as much as you wanted mine," he said and when Ice wanted to protest, Maverick quickly continued.

"I have been born with a temperature hotter than average. I have always been too hot, but you cool me down," Mav blurted and Ice's mouth fell slightly ajar before he closed it quickly, hoping that Mav hadn't noticed. That actually explained why Maverick didn't shy away from Ice and actually relished the touches. Ice hadn't dared to think about the why and how of it all before, he just had enjoyed the physical contact while it lasted.

"And I have some malfunctions that make me burn things under certain circumstances, but I don't even really understand how that works so I guess I can't tell you about that," Maverick smiled. Ice huffed, but smiled weakly although he was still feeling like he was on the brink of squeezing out another drop of blood.

"Yeah, I've got some freezing problems as you see," Ice joked but the pressure under his eyes started to swell again. Ice closed his eyes and groaned at the pain. Suddenly he felt a soft pressure on his eyelids which brought a redeeming warmth. Ice felt the pressure behind his eyes decrease and he blinked a few times. Maverick was now cupping his cheeks carefully and for the first time in his life, Ice felt a real tear stream down his skin. Ice sighed and after Maverick had let go, he buried his face in the other's man's hair, sniffling quietly while a few other tears escaped.

"Thank you," he whispered.

"Ice, I see that you regret what you did, or think you did so I don't resent you for that." Maverick looked Ice in the eyes.

"I'm worried that I only like you because you are hot," Ice blurted out before he didn't dare anymore. Maverick chuckled because of the wordplay but seemingly understood what Ice meant. He shifted out of the embrace and for a moment Ice feared he would leave, but all Maverick did was cross his legs under him and turn towards Ice while extending his hand.

"Well, why don't we pretend we don't know each other so you can get to know me with a clean slate. See if you would like me if I was just a normal person?" Maverick proposed and Ice shook his hand tentatively.

"Hello, my name is Pete Mitchell and I am a naval aviator just graduated from Top Gun," Ice chuckled and introduced himself as well.

They slid into a conversation about everything and nothing. Ice came to know Maverick liked his coffee with a bit of milk, that his secret wish was to have a house with a pool in the backyard (which was an adorable little dream for someone named Maverick) and that he had once burned a painting on the wall of the living room accidently while he was younger but that that hadn't really mattered because it happened to be a painting both of his parents secretly hated but thought the other liked. Maverick smiled by that story, his eyes sparkling happily and his cheeks a bit flushed from all the talking.

Ice told Mav about his family, his sister, the dog he still missed sometimes when he saw other dogs who looked like her (which made Maverick laugh and joke about Iceman being not so Icy after all) and he even told the story of when he had saved a cat from drowning by freezing the water around it, a story he had never really told anybody but was still proud about. Ice had tried a few times afterwards to freeze things by will, but he had never succeeded and given up a few months later.

At the end they were somehow shifted to the headboard of the bed, Maverick sitting upright while Ice was slumped against him. Maverick was playing with Ice's hair while he talked which made Ice's eyelids slowly flutter close. A few minutes later he felt himself drifting into a warm sleep.

Ice woke up alone but comfortable. He noticed he was still in Maverick's bed but Maverick was nowhere to be seen. The bed was actually stone cold and Ice frowned. When he walked to the cafeteria (after making sure no one saw him leaving the wrong compartment) an uneasy feeling filled his chest. He grabbed some food and sat down with the other's, who were joking and talking jovially. Ice couldn't join the conversation however, because the uneasy feeling was still there. Slider looked at him with a worried gaze.

"Something up?" Slider asked and Ice shook his head. There wasn't really something wrong, just something not right.

"Where is Maverick?" Ice asked absentminded to no one in particular but it was Wolfman who answered.

"Haven't you heard? He left a few minutes ago to grab his stuff. He's transferring to Top Gun to become a teacher, a shame really, to lose such a good pilot, but if that is what he wanted he-" Ice dropped his cutlery in shock. He stared at Wolfman with big eyes and when the reality of his words came crashing in, he stumbled upright before storming out of the cafeteria.

Maybe he could get Maverick and speak him out of his plans because Ice knew one thing: he was not letting Maverick go a second time.