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It started out of nowhere. The two of them had strictly stuck to referring to each other by their aliases, first or last names, or rank. Never anything else.
At least, nothing else until Soap’s mind seemed to change suddenly.
It was after they were done in the shooting range and in Soap’s room polishing their guns (or in Ghost’s case, polishing and sharpening knives) the sergeant asked Ghost to hand him the handgun that was closer to the masked man.
“Thank you, darling.” The pet name was said casually as if it were normal, but it was like a flashbang to Ghost.
When Soap got no reply (he wasn’t sure what he was expecting, to be honest) he looked up and over to Ghost who was just staring at him, eyes wide and knife loose in his hand.
“You okay there, Lt?”
The lieutenant didn’t know how to answer. He couldn’t answer, he could only feel his face slowly heating up and suddenly becoming more and more thankful that he wore a mask. After a moment of the two staring at each other, Ghost slowly nodded and turned back to the knife he had been polishing.
—
The next time it happened, Soap and Ghost were both in the canteen eating a late lunch, the rest of the 141 having already eaten.
They were silent, eating the mush that the base called food. Merely enjoying each other’s presence in silence, at least, that’s what Ghost thought before Soap suddenly began to speak.
“Did you get much sleep last night, Simon?”
Ghost had been in the middle of taking a bite and merely shrugged, followed by a grunt once he swallowed his bite.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Soap set down his spoon full of mush and turned to slightly look at his partner, “you need to get more sleep, Love.”
It just so happens that at that moment Ghost had been taking another bite and inhaled some of his food when the pet name left Soap’s mouth.
The silent canteen was filled with coughing coming from Ghost and thumping from where Soap was hitting Ghost’s back to try to help.
After making sure that Ghost was no longer in the process of choking to death on his lunch, Soap took a moment to look at the bit of Ghost’s face that was showing. The mask was pulled up to a bit above his nose in order to give him plenty of room to eat without making a mess.
The mask being pulled up meant that John could clearly see how red Ghost’s face was getting.
Ghost blushes at pet names. A grin made its way onto his face at the realization, a plan already formulating in his mind.
He had to get Ghost to blush again, to blush without his mask on.
—
Ghost was going to kill Soap, he decided. Maybe between the fourth and fifth ribs, or the throat? Yeah, that sounded nice. It’d at least get the sergeant to stop making Ghost want to hide his red face, even with his mask on.
It was like Soap had a completely different personality change, at least towards him. Without fail, the man used some form of pet name on Ghost at least twice a day. And, without fail, Ghost would blush every single fucking time.
The first and second times, Ghost thought that maybe one of the others in the 141 had done some sort of dare, but then it continued .
“Hon’, can you grab me a new pen, this one is almost out and I need to focus on my mission report.”
A sigh followed by Soap grabbing Ghost and rolling him over on Soap’s bunk to be cuddled by Soap, “C’mon, darlin’, it’s cold and you’re warm.”
“Love, what are you doing up at,” a glance to the clock, ”three in the morning? You need to sleep.” Followed by Ghost being dragged back to bed.
Simon wasn’t sure how much more he could handle, his face was close to becoming permanently red because of Johnny. One of, if not the most feared members of the 141 was about to be brought down because of pet names .
Ghost groaned into his hands as he sat at his desk. Soap was going to be the death of him. The same man that was causing him so much stress was sitting behind him drawing in a journal, looking up when he heard the groan.
“Love, are you okay?”
No response, only a groan along with a (thankfully hidden) bright red face. Why couldn’t he leave the pet names behind for just one day.
Soap set his journal aside, turning to look at his partner. “Lt? Are you okay?”
The lieutenant turned to Soap, his hands falling away from his face. “Johnny?”
“Yeah?”
“Shut the fuck up.”
The mock offended face he got in return almost made him forgive the man.
Almost
.
—
They were sitting in Ghost’s room when it finally happened. Ghost had gone to take a shower and Soap was left to sit on the older’s bed and wait for him to finish.
With the free time he had, he thought back to the past month or so. He’s been constantly using pet names on Ghost, and his reactions never failed to amuse Soap. His favorite time was when Ghost had run into a wall after Soap called him ‘gorgeous’. He almost wished he had a camera to record it. The Ghost running into a wall, it would be a great piece of blackmail. Unfortunately (Or fortunately), Soap loved Ghost too much to do such a thing to him. For now, at least.
He had other pet names stocked up and ready to use, he was just waiting for the perfect time to use them. His favorites to use, however, were ‘love’ and ‘darling’. They got the best reactions out of Ghost.
Soap was torn from his thoughts by the water shutting off. A minute later Soap’s mouth went almost impossibly dry and his eyes went wide when his partner walked out of the connected bathroom.
The lieutenant was only in a pair of sweatpants, shirt off and most importantly, his mask was off. Blond hair was wet and slicked back, a few pieces falling into his face and his eyes, Soap could stare at them all day if he got the chance. Bright blue eyes that popped whenever he wore his black face paint under his mask, but were still just as bright without it.
Soap’s face was steadily growing red as he looked Ghost up and down, not even bothering to hide that he was staring.
He was gorgeous.
Ghost froze from where he was walking toward his dresser, face going bright red to match Soap’s red face.
Any confusion was quickly replaced with slight embarrassment and realization. He had said that out loud, apparently.
Any embarrassment quickly left Soap as he realized that he could fully see Ghost’s unmasked face as he blushed. It was even better than he had imagined.
God, he was beautiful. The blush just made his already perfect face even better to look at, how did he get so lucky?
He stood up and made his way toward the man. “Ghost-
Simon
, I love you so fuckin’ much.”
Simon’s face got almost impossibly redder at the declaration and he moved to cover his face, only to be stopped when John grabbed his wrists, shoving them back down to Ghost’s side and putting his own hands on Ghost’s face instead.
“It’s true,” He moved to kiss the corner of Simon’s lips, “I love you so fuckin’ much.”
Ghost’s eyes which were previously blown wide in shock, lowered into what Soap would call a love-filled gaze before he leaned down to properly kiss Soap.
“I love you too, you fuckin’ sap,” was muttered against the Scotsman's lips before giving Soap one more kiss and then pulling away, “Though, if you don’t stop with the pet names you’ll be sleeping in your own bunk.”
Soap just rolled his eyes and pulled Simon back down for another kiss. The pet names would not be stopping anytime soon, especially when he could get his partner to look like this.