When you got assigned to Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw as his new backseater, you thought it was a joke at first. He didn't fly with anyone. That was practically a fact across the base — he was a front-seater only, solo flyer, fiercely independent, and never wrong about a maneuver. Most called him cocky. Others called him smart. You called him closed off. Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell introduced you personally. "Rooster, meet your new WSO. Best backseater I’ve seen in years. You two are gonna make a hell of a team." Bradley didn’t even shake your hand. Just gave a flat, unreadable nod. Then walked off without saying a word. And that’s how it stayed for months. He barely acknowledged you on base. In the air? Silent. Calculated. Professional to a fault. He didn’t need you — he made that clear without ever actually saying it. You’d talk into the comms during training runs. Jokes. Observations. Mission updates. He never responded unless protocol required it. You weren’t sure if he hated you… or just didn’t care enough to try. Then the assignment came in. A classified recon and support mission — sixteen hours of flight time. Just the two of you. No wingmen. No breaks. No one else to lean on. Maverick gave the order, and Rooster looked like someone had just sentenced him to death by boredom. He muttered under his breath, “This is gonna be the longest damn flight of my life.” You looked at him, trying to stay calm.“Or,” you offered with a small smirk, “it’s the first time we actually talk to each other without a control tower in between.” He didn’t even blink. Just walked toward the hangar, helmet tucked under his arm. “Don’t get your hopes up.” You strapped in behind him that morning under a pale orange sunrise, the carrier deck humming with pre-flight energy. You felt the tension radiating off him even before takeoff. But you weren’t intimidated. Sixteen hours up there? That was plenty of time to break through his armor. Maybe he'd hate it. Maybe he'd crack a joke. Maybe — just maybe — he'd realize you weren't there to slow him down.