coldairballoons
Fandoms
Recent works
-
Tags
Summary
Pete Mitchell was never meant to stay in one place. He’d abandoned that hope before he knew the word ‘abandonment’, watching as his ma and dad moved from place to place with each deployment, each flight, each new base his family would settle into before something inevitably shifted. And being grounded in Fightertown, USA, with the roar of distant jets and the smell of salt mocking him, did nothing to soothe the homesickness he felt for the air.
So, he drove.
Series
- Part 1 of hitting the road
-
Tags
Summary
No matter how intertwined their stories were, Ice knew that the solitude was inevitable. It was just how they worked; Tom Kazansky was focused on the future, prepared to forge ahead and carve the trail that he’d laid out over years. Pete Mitchell was running from ghosts and shadows and expectation, hacking at the path before him and making it his own before he was inevitably caught, inevitably chained down, inevitably forced to ignore his inertia and landlocked.
Or, Tom Kazansky, learning to not be alone.
Series
- Part 2 of hitting the road
-
Tags
Summary
“I need to talk to you.” Ice’s voicemail from earlier that afternoon had been cryptic, but didn’t promise any danger. Come to think of it, Pete should have been expecting some sort of imminent, world-shifting news. Ice wouldn’t have dared leave a message like that in any other scenario. “Call me back when you can.”
Or, Pete Mitchell's navigation of a world where Tom Kazansky is dying.
-
Thumbs by coldairballoons
Fandoms: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins
16 Feb 2025
Tags
Summary
"Pa called."
Coriolanus has always known about the tension between Sejanus and his father. He's not prepared to see it firsthand.
(Title from "Thumbs" by Lucy Dacus)
-
Tags
Summary
A missing scene from Pulp Musicals Episode 2: The Brick Satellite.
Title drawn from "Shifts (Reprise)" from The Ghosts of Antikythera by Matt Dahan.
Recent series
-
Summary
Pete Mitchell isn’t known to stay in one place. He’s flighty, constantly moving, and knows that nothing will ever stay forever.
Tom Kazansky is, it turns out, the opposite. He’s used to plans, and knows when and how things will turn out.
Of course they have to go on a road trip together.
- Words:
- 6,745
- Works:
- 2
- Bookmarks:
- 3
Recent bookmarks
-
I Talk Real Slow, And Speak Real Low (Hoping She'll Lean Into Me) by ghoullovinbutch
Fandoms: Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary (2026), Iron Lung (2026)
01 Jul 2026
Tags
Summary
Simone has been in education as a paraprofessional for years at this point. He's gotten used to the routine. That includes summer work like summer school, crosswalk, painting classrooms, and doing other menial tasks for staff on campus for some extra money over break. So when some hotshot new teacher shows up and tells admin that his and Ava's help isn't needed to paint their room, robbing both of extra work hours, he's a little annoyed. Unfortunately, it's hard to stay mad at someone when they're one of the few teachers to understand your work. Maybe she wouldn't be the worst clueless newbie to stroll through the gates.
Doctor Rylee Grace has finally earned their teaching credentials, and the upcoming year will be her first as a solo eighth grade science teacher. Pro?: she finally has her own classroom she can decorate and set up as she wants. Con?: they appear to have rubbed some of the staff the wrong way. Pro?: one of the paras is cute and kind and also butch (and just her type). Con?: said para is completely oblivious to the effect he has on Rylee. His friend, however, seems to not like her much.
Or: Butch para Simone and the bad butch he pulled by being very smart, very competent, and not very bright.
Bookmarked by coldairballoons
23 Jun 2026
-
take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while by Bartonfink
Fandoms: Top Gun: Maverick (2020)
26 Jun 2022
Tags
Summary
when there’s nothing left to burn, we have to set ourselves on fire.
things reach a fever pitch between jake and bradley.
Series
- Part 3 of red, white and blue all over
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 11,525
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 65
- Kudos:
- 1,011
- Bookmarks:
- 129
- Hits:
- 9,973
Bookmarked by coldairballoons
07 Jun 2026
-
Tags
Summary
“You’re gonna be late,” Bradley says.
“I have three minutes,” Jake just says, eyebrows scrunching as non-regulation fringe falls over his forehead.
“Are we gonna use them?” Bradley asks, gaze flicking to Jake’s mouth as it curls into a winsome grin.
“Well, we’re sure as hell not gonna waste them, Bradshaw.”
Bookmarked by coldairballoons
31 May 2026
-
where nothing bleeds by interstellarisms
Fandoms: Iron Lung (2026), Project Hail Mary (2026), Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
10 Apr 2026
Tags
Summary
Simon didn’t expect his savior to be exactly his type.
What a welcome sight. Even if this stupidly handsome man ends up being evil, or working for the C.O.I, at least he’d die looking at something good.
or
Grace and Rocky find Simon's ship floating in deep space on their way to Erid.
UPDATE: This fic has been peer reviewed by a NASA engineer who has approved of the science!
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 26,829
- Chapters:
- 10/10
- Comments:
- 2,077
- Kudos:
- 23,925
- Bookmarks:
- 5,249
- Hits:
- 276,843
Bookmarked by coldairballoons
29 May 2026
-
Conditions of Absolute Reality by StarlingDust for shealwaysreads (onereader)
Fandoms: Top Gun (Movies)
01 Jan 2026
Tags
Summary
The moment they’d bundled Bradley into the medical bay and the heady cocktail of elation and relief and pride had quieted its song in his bloodstream, a strange sense of detachment had descended on him. Two weeks later, it still hasn’t lifted. Bradley feels like he’s been watching the world from behind a thick pane of frosted glass—everything muffled and faraway and just beyond his reach.
If anything, the nightmares are a relief, because at least they feel real.
Maybe it’s his mind trying to protect itself from the trauma. Maybe the bailout rattled his brain harder than anyone realised. Maybe, he thinks, letting his head fall to one side to catch a glimpse of the unfamiliar landscape peeking through the gap in the curtains, it’s just the surreality of everything that’s come after. Like ending up here, in Jake Seresin's childhood home.
Bookmarked by coldairballoons
27 May 2026