Ice had headed off on his trip to London and Maverick found his daggers rappidly appearing at the house.

"Daggers, I appreciate the company, but know I will survive if yall don't come over everyday. That is by no means me discouraging it, rather me making sure you know you can have lives." Maverick assured the Daggers as they piled on the couch four days after Ice had left.

Initially the trip was supposed to be a week and a half but it had been extended to two weeks with the potential to be as long as three weeks.

"Yes, but we get bored too." Fritz rolled his eyes as he threw himself down onto the couch.

"Yeah MavDad, you provide so much more entertainment than the dull walls of base." Hangman pointed out.

"Hey, several of those dull walls on base have my picture on them." Maverick feigned offense.

"And the walls here are covered in pictures of you." Yale pointed out.

"But not nearly as many pictures as the Hanger." Phoenix added.

"Plus, these walls and the hanger have our pictures everywhere too, minus each of our class photos." Coyote pointed out.

"Yeah, but there is a little favoritism, I see far more Brad squared photos." Phoenix said lightly hitting Rooster.

"Why did Hollywood have to tell you all that nickname?" Bradley shook his head.

"Would you rather Brad Brad?" Hangman teased.

"Hey, it's not my fault I only have baby pictures and kid picture of Baby Goose." Maverick pointed out. "Therefore I have more pictures of Bradley to be able to put up."

Maverick quickly regretted his words, though not really, as the Daggers rapidly pulled out their phones and started sending pictures of themselves prior to meeting Mav to the groupchat with Ice and Mav.

"No excuses now." Bob smirked.

"Expect more from where that came from when I hear back from my mom." Fanboy smirked.

Several Daggers seconded that statement.

"Alright, Ice and I will start printing them and putting them up when he gets back." Maverick agreed, secretly really excited.

---

Ice looked down at his phone between meetings to see hundred of notifications from the Dagger groupchat.

While is ice cold admiral face stayed up, he was internally wondering what in the world had happened, he hadn't even been gone a week yet.

He had to hold back a smile when he saw it was filled with pictures of the Daggers at varying ages and a text from Maverick directly.

Mav
The daggers complained that they didn't have as many pictures up as Baby Goose, so I said I didn't have as many pictures of them from different ages and well... We have a lot of pictures to print and put up now.

Ice replied quickly,

Ice
We are going to need to add a wing to the house just to fit the pictures.

Ice wasn't surprised to see how fast Mav replied.

Mav
Or another hanger...

Ice rolled his eyes internally, too many eyes on him to show it outwardly, Maverick didn't actually want another hanger, but it had become a fun joke.

Ice
Or we just dedicate a hall to them at Top Gun and fill it with these pictures.

Mav
NO! The daggers would never leave! They already said base was boring because their pictures weren't everywhere!

Ice
Then I suppose we will just make them fit in the house.

---

Maverick finished up another day of work, they had a hop this morning and a debrief on said hop followed by a lecture/lesson of sorts before being dismissed. Maverick had to do some paperwork before heading out. 

He walked towards Cyclones office to drop it off and then head home, where he was certain to find atleast one of his kids waiting.

"You know you like him Beau, as much as it pains you to admit it." Maverick heard Warlock say as he approached. He wasn't eavesdropping sound just carried really well in this hallway when the door was open. Which was helpful when Cyclone was chewing someone out, put fear into everyone else to not do what whoever Cyclone was chewing out do.

"He grew on me. I still can't believe Admiral Kazansky's advice worked."

"I can it makes sense, as wrong as it seemed."

"Convince Maverick you don't think he can do something and he will go above and beyond to prove he can." Cylone said. "Well he certainly did that, and all I had to do was give him a hard time and push him to think just that."

Maverick froze.

"I still don't like the giving him  a hard time thing."

"I wouldn't be shocked if this is the advice given to all the admirals to handle Maverick. It certainly worked."

"Atleast after the mission you stopped. Maverick really is a good guy, and pilot. You see how he is with the Daggers. I mean, we taught a few of them and we couldn't handle them the way he does, not even close."

"Don't make me like him too much Bates, he still is a pain, but I do hate to admit he is nowhere near as bad as he has been made out to be."

Maverick took the breath of silence to make his way into the office to bring in the paper work and head home.

"Admirals," Maverick greeted setting down the paperwork on Cyclones desk. "The paperwork from today."

"Admiral." They greet back, eyes comically wide, fearful of what parts of the discussion had been heard.

Maverick held it together as he made his way to his bike and left for home. Making sure not to take the scenic route as he just wanted to be home and away from eyes. Allow himself to proces what he had learned.

Maverick parked his bike in the garage before pressing the button for it to close.

Surprisingly there was not a Dagger parked outside, more than likely at the Hard Deck since it was Friday, but today he was okay with that. He need some time alone to think this all over.

He couldn't believe Ice would tell other admirals to purposefully show a distaste in him. To make it where he thought that they thought he couldn't do it. To tell them to tear him down,

Finally Maverick realized that none of these questions could be answered without talking to Ice, and while this wasn't a conversation he wanted to have on the phone on diferent continents; he also didn't want to put this conversation off for weeks and stew in it.

Mav looked at the time and saw that Ice should be waking up in a couple of hours.

So Maverick sent a simple message to Ice, one that Ice would immediatelly understand when he woke up. One he would know to call back asap for.

Ice was supposed to have a limited schedule for the Saturday, one of the reasons Maverick was willing to send the message for Ice to deal with when he woke up.

As mad as he was at his husband, he also didn't want to mess with his day for his job and make his meetings harder. Just like they didn't give each other bad news or things to think hard about before a mission or flight, with very few exceptions there. Note: Ice not telling Maverick about Bradley until after the test flight.

Maverick took a shower, ate a quick dinner of leftovers from the night before and then went to bed, his alarm set for about a half hour before Ice would wake up. 

---

Ice woke up to his alarm going off in his hotel room. He had a light schedule for the day and didn't have any meetings for a few hours and planned to get some work done early to stay ahead of schedule and hopefully get to leave sooner rather than later.

All thoughts of getting work done early ceased when he saw a text from his husband. More specifically a link to a song. 

The song being one that was very very very very rarely every pulled out for anything other than annoying him on occasion. However, in cases like this it was a signal of how royally ticked off Maverick was at Ice. It had been years since the song had been played for anythign other then teasing him. 

In this context though, he knew this wasn't teasing.

The link to 'Cold as Ice' by Foreigner stared up at him, as he quickly rolled recent events through his head trying to figure out what this was about. He couldn't think of anything as he pressed the video call button.

He barely heard a ring as the phone was answered and his husbands face appeared on his phone screen.

"You're cold as ice." Ice heard Maverick say through the phone, his voice coming far too close to matching Ice's ice cold admiral voice. A chill went through the Iceman himself at that tone.

"Maverick, I know I screwed up somehow for this, but I don't know how, so I need some context." Ice said, his voice shaky, in a way only Maverick could ever achieve.

"I went to turn in some paperwork to Cyclone earlier, when I heard an interesting conversation between himself and Warlock. You told Cylcone to make me think that he didn't think I could pull off the mission? You told him to give me a hard time? You told him to do that?" Maverick asked, his voice starting of icey and hard, but with each word his tone weaked until it was desparate to hear that those were all lies. That he had misunderstood or misheard something.

But the slight gasp of air followed by a sigh heard over the phone forced Maverick to realize it wasn't a misinterperatation. Along with the look on Ice's face, it said everything.

Maverick just stayed silent on the phone, silent tears running down his face.

"Tom, I want an explanation."

Ice winced once more. He was very rarely ever called 'Tom' by Maverick. Just as he rarely called Mav 'Pete'.

"I didn't want you to find out that way-"

"You didn't want me to find out that way, or you didn't want me to find out?"

Ice didn't answer, mainly because they both already knew the answer.

"I was trying to protect you. I was... I was-" Ice paused for a moment to collect his words. "I was about to send you to train a suicide mission. You've done some of your best work when someone doesn't think you can do it. You push to prove them wrong. You do your best no matter what, but I needed that push there. I needed to make sure you were able to do everything you could to get those kids home. To get Bradley home. Then You were going on the mission. I needed you to come home."

"Ice, I have spent most of my career being spit on and torn down by my superiors. I was Mitchell's son, I was the deserters son. I dealt with all of those people, because I knew I was worth more than that. That I didn't deserve it. Atleast I knew that after Goose convinced me. I deal with those admirals, those superiors. They don't actually know me, they are going of stories and rumors. I can handle those, but this, you told them to be push back, to question my every action, to tear me down, to not believe in me. You told them to. You, the person who I trust most in my life. My wingman. My husband. You told them to tear me down. You have spent hours reassuring me when a superior has torn me down that it wasn't true, that I was worth it, that I wasn't my father or my mother. Now you told someone to do that to me. For a mission. A mission I had decided had to have 3 miracles and no less. You thought I needed that push to make sure I did my best to not have my son killed? That is cold as ice Ice and you know it. If you didn't you would have told me."

Ice stayed silent processing the truths Maverick had just said.

"How many times?" Maverick asked, scared to know the answer.

"This is the only time." Ice said, his voice firm.

"The only time?"

"The only time."

"You know why I am mad?"

"I know why are furious with me."

"You know what you did wrong?"

Ice nodded.

"Do you regret it?"

That was the kicker.

Ice froze. He didn't know the answer to that one. On one hand, Maverick made it home, all the daggers made it home, but on the other he caused his husband pain. There was no sense playing the what if game on what would have happened had he not told Cyclone that.

"Ice, do you regret it?" Maverick repeated, a desprate tone sneaking into his voice.

"I- I don't know."

"Why don't you know?"

"I don't know what would have happened had I not done what I did. I wish I didn't hurt you, and I regret hurting you, but if it was the push that saved you..."

"Ice..." Maverick trailed off, not even sure what to say.

"I love you." Ice said softly, but there was no waver in his words.

"I love you too." Maverick replied. He would never not.

"I know I hurt you, and that I messed up, but if it saved you, I don't know if I can regret it. I regret that you were hurt, and that I caused it."

"We will never know the answer to that Ice, we can't play the what if game, you've told me that enough times."

"I know. I'm sorry that I hurt you."

"I'm sorry you did too."

"Will you forgive me for this?"

"Will you ever do it again?"

"No."

Ice was a man who despite popular belief did make mistakes, but he learned from them and usually did not make the same mistake twice.

"Ice, I need time.. and space."

"I know."

"We are talking about this more when you get home."

"I know."

"You can text me; I'll reply, but give me some space to think."

"Okay."

"I love you."

"I love you too." Ice replied before seeing the screen go black as Maverick hung up.

---

The daggers knew something was up on Monday when Maverick was not being well Maverick.

He had a good front going, but not a good enough one. Several of the Daggers had gone over Sunday to watch a movie and have dinner, and while everything was normal, it didn't seem normal. Something was off. There wasn't the usual life and light behind his eyes.

At first they brushed it off as missing Ice, but this seemed like something more. 

Even Cyclone and Warlock seemed wary at the moment, and that is what really tipped off the Daggers. 

Sure Cyclone had been a lot better since the mission, but it was almost like he was walking on eggshells around Maverick.

The Daggers finally reached out to Ice, who simply said he had messed up and he was handling it.

If that didn't worry them enough, then Maverick not being on base two day later, well that really scared them.

Cyclone just walked in and said he would be covering for the next few days, but gave no context.

"Maybe, he just went to London to see Ice?" Fanboy suggested.

"Maybe, but I feel like he would have told us." Bob said.

"Not if he went Maverick and decided on a whim in the middle of the night." Hangman pointed out.

"Bradley, any ideas?" Phoenix turned asked her best friend.

"I can text the Flyboys, but other than that, I don't know."

So text the flyboys he did, who texted Ice, who gave them a brief summary. Which lead to Merlin showing up to Ice and Maverick's house, key in hand.

"Mav?" Merlin yelled as he walked in.

Turning around he locked the door back and slipped his shoes off before making his way though the house. He saw a few bowls in the sink and the house was a little warmer than usual, but other than that nothing. He eventually made his way upstairs to Ice and Mav's bedroom, where he found Maverick burried under several layers of blankets laying in Ice's side of the bed.

"Mav?" Merlin asked softly as he approached his pilot.

"Merlin?" Maverick stirred.

Merlin walked up and saw Maverick's face flushed and pale.

"Mav are you okay?" Merlin asked pressing the back of his hand to Maverick forehead.

"I'm fine." Maverick mumbled out, pushing himself into a sitting position.

"No you are not, you are obviously sick." Merlin insisted.

"Fine, but I already went by base and doctors gave me medicine. Just got told to take it and rest. It's just a cold."

Merlin was impressed, Maverick went to Medbay, and was following doctors instructions, and there was no one there to make sure he did so...

"What are you doing here Merls? Not that I'm not happy to see you."

"The daggers got worried about you and Bradley texted the flyboys, and we texted Ice who told us about what happened. I came to check on you, not expecting to find you sick."

"Well, you found me."

"Burried under several layers of blankets." Merlin rolled his eyes as he texted the Flyboy groupchat that Maverick was alive.

"There your husband and the other flyboys have been told you are alive."

"Ice knew that, I've texted him back."

"Yeah, well, now someone has laid eyes on you."

"Yeah, well, atleast this gave me the time I wanted to sit and think."

"Ice didn't tell us much, just that he screwed up and you were taking time and space, you want to tell me about it?" Merlin offered.

"He told Cyclone to make me think that he didn't think I could pull off the mission and give me a hard time." Maverick summarized it.

"Ouch."

"Yea."

Maverick stayed silent as he pressed his leg against Merlin from where he sat on the edge of the bed.

"Want me to stay?"

"Do you want to stay?" Maverick asked.

And though Merlin already planned to stay, that made him determined to stay. Maverick was receding back into his old insecurities.

"I want to." Merlin assured.

Maverick nodded, a small smile on this face.

Merlin nodded and went to Maverick's side of the bed and sat next to him.

Maverick opened up a little more about the Ice situation, seemingly glad to have someone to talk it through with.

"Want to watch something?"

"You know the show." Maverick smirked.

Merlin laughed as he opened Netflix.

Soon the opening to 'Merlin' was playing.

When the show came out the Flyboys messed with Merlin to finally watch it, just to mess with him, but instead irionically enough it became Merlin's favorite show. And for several of the other flyboys it also made it high up on their favorites.

Maverick leaned up against Merlin's side, with Ice's pillow clutched to his chest.

"You good if I give the Daggers an update?"

"Don't mention the Ice thing, they don't know."

"They know something is up, but not what. Ice told them he messed up, but was handling it. But you not being on base really worried them."

"You know, you still haven't met the kids yet."

"I haven't, and I would like to be able to rub it in to Viper that I met them before him."

"Well how could I deny you that."

Merlin smirked as he rubbed Mavericks back a few times as he cleared his roughed up throat.

"I'll text Bradley and let him know to tell the others you are sick."

Maverick nodded and they continued the show, though seconds later Bradley replied.

"The daggers want to know if they can come over."

"Yea, it's not contagious or anything and it would be nice to see them. I do miss them." Merlin heard the unspoke 'and Ice' of that sentence.

So, Merlin texted Bradley who said most of the Daggers would be over shortly.

Along with that, Merlin texted Ice directly.

Merlin
Maverick is sick. Just a cold. He even went to medbay without being prompted.

Ice
I should have known something more was up. I though this irregular answers was just him keeping his space and taking time.

Merlin
The kids are coming over. He misses you though, he is laying on you side of the bed and has been hugging your pillow.

Ice
He has always been clingy when he was sick or hurt. It's good that the daggers are coming over, they will make sure he does not run low on affection.

Merlin
What am I? Chop liver? He has been leaning up against me for the past 2 episodes of Merlin.

Ice
Yes, but the kids will just add to that affection.

Merlin
Alright fair

Ice
How is he otherwise?

Merlin
Still upset I think, but I think he is doing much better with it. I think he just finally wants in settled in person. He hasn't called you a Clotpole yet atleast.

Ice
You're watching Merlin.

Merlin
You guys can't give me a hard time if you guys are the ones to have forced me to watch it at first. Not my fault I actually like it.

Ice
Thank you Merlin

---

The daggers soon came piling into the house and then piling into the bed, only half of them were there for now but the other half would be joining soon. Though when the other half showed up they were definetly going to have to move this the the living room.

"Dad," Bradley greeted softly walking in and taking a spot right next to Maverick.

"Hey Baby Goose." Maverick greeted, his voice not quiet right from his sore throat, but the affection was still heard.

"Hey MavDad, you feelin' any better?" Hangman greeted, just a step behind Bradley, which as he hugged each Merlin did make a face of 'that's him isn't it?', Maverick just gave a knowing smirk.

"What no greeting for your uncle Merlin?" Merline feigned offense.

"I've missed you to Uncle Merls."

"So, is this one of the flyboys we haven't met yet?" Hangman asked and Phoenix and Bob walked in followed by Fanboy and Payback.

"In fact I am one of the flyboys, I was Mav's RIO after Top Gun."

Soon the Daggers were piled onto the bed in various strang positions, all having contact with Mav in some way. 

Bradley leaned up against his side, Jake halfway on Bradley with his legs over Mavericks,Phoenix and Bob each laying across their legs, Fanboy and Payback sitting infront of Merlin leaned diagonally against Mav. 

At one point Merlin had to get up to use the bathroom, and when he came back he made sure to sneak out his phone to get a picture.

Phoenix got up when Maverick acknowledged finally that he was hungry and made him some chicken noodle soup, it was at that point the rest of the Daggers arrived so everyone moved into the living room and took over the couches as they did most movie nights.

.

.

.

.

Alright, it's been a bit, but here is another chapter! Loosely based off 2 headcanons from RandomlyYours In Other Words, Hold my Hand on AO3. Definetly go check out their story too! (permission was given by them to give my own spin on the headcanons) This chapter was mostly planned and then I read one of the chapters and was like "this, this is what I was missing!" headcanons being that mav sends Cold as Ice to Ice when he is royally ticked and the other being that Ice told Cyclone to be hard on Mav to get him to do his best.

Also now Merlin has arrived! So we have added another flyboy! Also I am a HUGE BBC Merlin fan. So I had to throw that in and make it a headcanon.

Hope you all enjoyed! Let me know your thoughts, requests and ideas! I love hearing from yall! I won't be writing for atleast another week, but hopefully towards the beginning of next week I will write the next part.

Any theories as to what is to come?