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1.
Soap peered around the corner of the doorway, gun poised and ready to take out any enemies that might have been lurking inside the rundown building. Not seeing anyone, he carefully entered the room, sweeping the area before relaxing when he didn’t come across anyone else.
“Clear!” He shouted, pushing the night vision goggles he had been wearing up to sit on top of his helmet instead.
They were on another night mission, currently trying to hunt down the leader of an organised crime group that was smuggling illegal weaponry into the country. So far they hadn’t had any luck despite the intel they had received saying the target was currently holed up in the small abandoned base south of Berlin. They had taken out a number of members from the same group that had been patrolling the base or hiding away inside some of the other buildings but so far there had been no positive ID on the leader of the group.
The rest of the unit filed into the room behind him after he had declared it clear, spreading out throughout the lower floor of the building to look for any signs of their target. Ghost wandered over to Soap, gun lowered as he scanned the room they were in.
“You find anything Johnny?”
“Nothin’ yet. Sir. No sign of the target.”
They had been tracking this man for weeks, Soap really hoped they would be able to wrap it up soon.
“Well let's keep looking.” Ghost replied, moving towards the stairs on the opposite side of the room and raising his gun again as he did.
Soap followed behind him, also raising his gun.
“Moving to the second level!” Ghost shouted, then he looked behind him at Soap and nodded in the direction of upstairs, “Soap take the lead, I’ll cover you.” He added.
Soap moved past him, crouched slightly and stepping slowly to reduce the sound of his footsteps as he made his way up the stairs, making sure to always keep his gun aimed further up the stairs. Ghost followed behind him closely, making sure to keep a careful eye out.
Soap reached the top landing of the stairs which opened to a long hallway with a couple of doors leading off to the left, and a line of windows on the right.
He crept forward; there was still no sign of any occupants so far which seemed a little strange considering they had already run into enemies around other parts of the base. It put Soap on edge, something in his mind not sitting right.
Suddenly the sound of a rapid series of gunshots extremely close by rang out, right at the same time Soap felt a large hand grab a hold of the top of his tactical vest, roughly yanking him backwards behind Ghost who let go of his vest just as quickly as he had grabbed it and moved past him to the doorway Soap had been about to walk past. His finger moved to the trigger and unloaded a few rounds into the room, which was immediately followed by the familiar thump of a body hitting the ground.
“I think you just gave me whiplash.” Soap half-joked, letting out a breath. That had been a close call. Guess the building wasn’t abandoned after all.
“Heard him moving around inside. You’re lucky I’m here to save your life you idiot.”
“Aww so you do still care about me.”
Ghost let out a huff, choosing not to think too much about what Soap had actually said, “I just don’t wanna deal with the paperwork if you get shot under my command.”
Soap laughed lightly; he had learned how to read Ghost after all this time and knew he wasn’t serious. He actually did care, even if he didn’t show it much. He took a step forward and clapped a hand onto Ghost’s shoulder, “Thanks Lt.”
Ghost just grunted, moving off to check the other rooms along the hallway and clear the rest of the building. They still had a target to find.
2.
Soap readjusted the gun across his front, pulling slightly at one of the straps of the gun sling that held it in place.
They had been walking for what seemed like hours, and the dry heat of summer in Mexico was making all of his clothes stick uncomfortably to his skin. The weight of all his tactical gear just added to the discomfort.
They had been sent to meet up with Alejandro and the rest of Los Vaqueros for a joint mission, something about extracting some important documents regarding a potential strike from a high security facility. The mission had gone smoothly despite the high risk and now they just had to make their way back to the RV point a few clicks outside the area.
It was good to see Alejandro and Rudy again. They had worked together a number of times since the whole thing with Hassan and Las Almas and they had all grown close after all this time. Soap was even able to hold a basic conversation with the two in Spanish now, Alejandro taking any opportunity he could when they were together to teach him new words and phrases.
“Alejandro, how much further to the RV point hermano?” Soap called out.
Alejandro, who was a few feet in front of him talking in hushed Spanish with Rodolfo glanced back, “Not far now, just on the other side of that treeline.” He nodded his head towards a gathering of trees a few hundred metres in the distance.
“Getting tired already Johnny?” Ghost spoke up from where he had been following close behind him.
“You wish Lt.” Soap shot back, and he heard Ghost huff out a laugh.
Soap was sure the other man had to be hot as well, he was wearing even more layers than Soap, not to mention that damn mask was still as ever present.
“Dunno how you keep that mask on even in weather like this.”
“Used to it.”
Soap rolled his eyes. Stubborn dumbass.
He decided to try and push his luck, more out of boredom than anything else. “You could take it off?”
Ghost hummed, a stick breaking under his boot as he took another step through the yellowed grass, “Nice try Sergeant, not a fucking chance.”
Soap frowned. It was worth a try, it’s not like he was actually expecting Ghost to agree after all, especially during a mission.
Soap teased him about the mask a lot these days, getting some entertainment out of seeing what sort of responses he could get. It was never serious since he knew Ghost had his reasons and was generally more at ease leaving it on, and Ghost knew that. He knew Soap never actually expected or would demand him to take it off. Sometimes he’d return Soap’s teasing (he liked to insult Soap’s mohawk), other times he would just tell him to fuck off which the other man would just laugh off easily.
They were close to the RV point now, and Soap was itching to get back to base and hopefully take the coldest shower he could withstand to wash away all the stickiness he was currently feeling.
“How fast do you think we can get through debri-” Soap began to wonder out loud before he felt the toe of his boot catch on the edge of a thick root that had been sticking out of the ground, half hidden in the grass.
He let out a yell as he felt himself fall forward, hands dropping from where they had been loosely holding onto the front of his vest to try and catch himself so he didn’t land on his face. He waited, expecting to feel the impact of the hard ground and the promise of a bruise once they returned to base.
Instead of hitting the ground however, he felt Ghost’s hand shoot out and grab the collar of his vest like a cat being grabbed by the scruff of its neck, effectively stopping him from hitting the ground. Ghost pulled sharply to help him regain his footing, and Soap felt a solid shoulder behind him as he steadied himself.
“How the fuck have you not gotten yourself killed yet MacTavish?” Ghost scolded, and the loudness of the words made Soap realise just how close they were since Ghost had basically pulled Soap back into himself to save him.
Soap grinned and glanced up at the other man, “Maybe there’s just always someone big and strong around to save me?” He teased, and he could see the way Ghost’s eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched slightly under the mask.
“Maybe I should just let you fall on your face next time.” Ghost muttered, pointedly glancing away from where Soap was still smirking at him.
Suddenly Alejandro’s voice drifted over from where he and Rodolfo had gotten further ahead while Soap was making an idiot of himself, “Everything okay back there? Now’s not the time for cuddling.” He had one of those smiles on his face that he got whenever he began to make fun of someone, and sometimes Soap wanted to wipe it straight off his face.
Ghost said nothing in response, instead just jerking his hand away from Soap’s tac vest like he had been burned, not realising he had still been holding on to it the entire time, and stalked off past Soap in the direction of the RV point.
Soap just laughed and shot them a thumbs up, “All good here.”
Alejandro’s grin widened, and Soap noticed Rudy trying not to laugh beside him as Alejandro lightly elbowed the younger as they turned to keep walking.
“Let’s go Johnny!” Soap heard Ghost shout and he rolled his eyes before jogging after him, quickly closing the distance between them again.
“Coming Lt.”
3.
Soap watched as another droplet of water fell from the hole in the corner of the roof, dripping below into the slowly growing puddle accumulating on the already rotting floorboards of the abandoned house.
He had lost count about 100 drops ago, his boredom finally overriding everything else. The rain continued to beat down steadily outside the house, and Soap was at least thankful that was about the only leak in the building or this whole experience might have been even more insufferable.
They were currently hiding out in some old abandoned house in Iran, somewhere east of the capital. The whole one-four-one had meant to RV here after their mission, but so far Soap and Ghost were the only ones who had arrived.
It was supposed to be a simple hostage extraction. In and out, minimal conflict the intel had said. The intel was wrong though, instead landing them in a nasty firefight and no sign of the hostage.
Soap and Ghost had been on one team together, managing to retreat without any major injuries. They had gotten separated from the others at some point, and they hadn’t been able to reach them over comms either. He just hoped everyone was okay and would show up soon.
Soap readjusted, shifting his chin from one hand to the other on the table as his eyes drifted over to Ghost.
The other man was sitting on one of the old wooden chairs in the other corner of the room, eyes trained out the window trying to spot anything through the rain. They had set up the RV point far enough away that they should be safe from any enemies coming to look for them, but Soap knew Ghost wasn’t willing to take that risk.
Soap continued to stare at the man, examining him. He could see the tight lines of his shoulders, tense and on edge. He hadn’t taken a single moment to relax since they had gotten here. One of his gloved hands was resting on his thigh, fingers brushing the edge of the holster that held his handgun. The other hand was fiddling with one of the many knives he kept on him, spinning and flipping it between his fingers. Soap had always been a little impressed by the Lieutenant’s knife skills. Soap had tried to copy him a few times, but most of the time it just ended in more cuts on his fingers.
“Something on my face?” Ghost suddenly spoke up, taking a moment to look away from the window to meet Soap’s eyes across the room.
Shit. Ghost had caught him staring. “Just that ugly mask as usual.”
Ghost didn’t bother with a response besides a small huff, his gaze returning to the window.
“Do you think they’re okay Lt.?” Soap asked, and Ghost glanced at him again.
“Price always finds a way. Just gotta wait and see.” His voice didn’t give anything away, still remaining as even and unaffected as always, but Soap knew he was worried for the rest of the team as well. It was visible in the tense shoulders and the fiddling with the knife, in the way he had barely moved from that window since they had gotten here. Someone else might not have noticed the subtle signs, but Soap knew how to read Ghost pretty well by this point, having spent so much time around the man.
Soap sighed. He couldn’t sit around any longer, the boredom and anxiety starting to eat away at him. He stood up and walked over to where all his gear was piled in the corner, having abandoned it to ease some of the soreness that had been building up in his shoulders by the time they reached the house. He grabbed some supplies, shoving them into various pockets in his tactical vest before grabbing his gun and popping the mag out to check the ammo.
“What are you doing?” Ghost suddenly asked from across the room, having noticed Soap’s sudden movement.
“I can’t just keep sitting here and waiting not knowing if they’re okay or if they’re dead. I have to go out and look for them.”
He stood up, slinging the gun across his front and started to walk towards the door. The old chair Ghost had been sitting in creaked and Soap heard the heavy footfalls of boots hitting the wooden floor before he was roughly pulled backwards away from the door by his vest.
“You can’t just go running off into enemy territory by yourself.” Ghost growled, and Soap spun around to glare up at him.
“I can’t just sit here waiting either! What if something happened to them and they need us?”
Ghost grabbed the front of his vest instead, “You’re not thinking straight. It’s pouring rain and we’re dark in unknown territory. You’d just get yourself killed.”
“But-“
“JOHNNY.”
Soap’s jaw immediately clicked shut, stopping any more protests. It was rare for Ghost to truly yell like that at him. It was different than when he was just shouting commands on a mission.
Soap let out a sigh and let his body relax, defeated, his head falling forward until his forehead came to rest against Ghost’s chest. He felt the other man stiffen slightly under him at the sudden contact. He didn’t make any move to push Soap away though, just letting him stay there instead.
“I’m worried , Simon.” He murmured, closing his eyes, “The one-four-one is like family to me. I can’t lose them.”
He felt the vibrations through Ghost’s chest as he spoke, “They’ll pull through Johnny. We’ve been through worse.”
Soap felt Ghost’s hand gently let go of his vest and he lifted his head to look at him again. Ghost wasn’t looking at him, eyes avoiding Soap’s and instead focused on something invisible over his shoulder. Soap grinned suddenly. Had he managed to make the Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley flustered just from that simple moment of contact? Or maybe it had been Soap using his real name?
“Simon.” He called quietly, and the other man looked back at him, expression still unreadable under the mask, “What do you call somebody with no body and no nose?”
Ghost groaned, but waited for the awful punchline.
“Nobody knows.” Soap continued, grin widening as Ghost lightly pushed him away.
“That was awful, maybe I should’ve let you leave.”
Soap laughed lightly and patted Ghost’s shoulder as he walked past him to dump all his stuff back on the floor before settling back into the chair by the table he had previously been sitting in.
“You like me too much for that.”
Ghost rolled his eyes and walked over to another chair at the table near Soap, “Keep telling yourself that.”
4.
Soap yawned and dropped his pen down on the desk, moving to rub at his eyes with both hands.
He glanced at the clock in the corner of his computer screen, the numbers blinking back at him reading 2:36AM. It was late, he had been sitting here in the office for hours filling out paperwork for a recent mission.
It was a solo mission, just himself and Ghost. They had received intel that a mercenary group operating out of Utrecht had gotten ahold of some important documents, and they had been tasked with infiltrating a hideout and retrieving them.
The mission had gone smoothly, only a few enemies had been at the hideout so it was relatively easy for he and Ghost to slip inside, quickly remove any threats, and slip out again unnoticed.
They had flown back into the base in the early hours of that morning, immediately ushered into a debrief with Price and Laswell that seemed to go on for way longer than it should have for such a short mission, before Soap was finally allowed to collapse into his own bed. By that time the sun had started peeking over the horizon, the first rays of light spreading across the tarmac of the base.
However, with every solo mission came plenty of paperwork, which is what led Soap to his current situation.
The paperwork had always been one of the downsides of the job. Soap almost preferred being in the field instead of being stuck behind a desk for hours.
He picked up the pen he had dropped earlier and shuffled through some of the papers, finding the next page he needed to fill out, letting out another sigh as he began to write.
A few minutes later there was a soft knock on the door and Soap stopped and stared at the door, pen still gripped between his fingers. He glanced at the clock again, which now read 2:43AM. He wondered who was wandering around the base this late, he figured most of the personnel would be asleep by this time.
There was a slightly more forceful knock that broke Soap out of his thoughts and he called out for the other person to come in.
The door swung open and Ghost stepped across the threshold, meeting Soap’s gaze across the room. He had traded the usual military uniform for some more casual standard issue clothes, a pair of black sweatpants and a grey fitted t-shirt, both with a little SAS logo embroidered on the front.
“Ghost…” Soap breathed, “Surprised to see you awake this late.”
“Couldn’t sleep, was taking a walk around the base and saw the light from your office.” Ghost said as he made his way over to the desk, coming to lean against the edge of the smooth wood.
Soap threw his pen on top of the paperwork and leant back in the office chair, hands coming up to hang off his tac vest. He hadn’t even had time to go change out of his uniform.
“So you’re coming to check up on me now?” Soap spun in his chair to face Ghost, and the other man rolled his eyes.
“Maybe I am. Why are you up so late?” Ghost asked, crossing his arms across his chest, and Soap had to try his hardest to not let his eyes drift down to Ghost’s exposed arms. It was a rare sight, Ghost was almost always wearing multiple layers, and the shirt he was currently wearing was doing nothing to hide the strong muscle and scars from years of hard work in this field.
Soap refocused and waved a hand over the paperwork still scattered across his desk, “Paperwork. From last night’s mission.”
Ghost pushed himself off the desk and came around to Soap’s side, leaning over the side of his chair to look closer, and Soap was consciously aware of how close he was.
Ghost hummed before drawing back and looking down at Soap, “Looks boring as fuck.”
Soap laughed. “You’re not wrong Lt., but someone’s gotta do it right?”
Ghost looked over Soap, eyes roaming behind the mask. He looked like shit frankly, exhausted. Ghost wondered how much sleep he had actually had since their mission last night. He could see the tired lines in his shoulders that were slightly slumped against the chair, the dark bags under his eyes more prominent than ever in this late hour. He should be in their room, catching up on sleep before he passed out right here on his desk.
“Have you slept at all? You look awful Johnny.” Ghost asked, and Soap looked away somewhat awkwardly, suddenly avoiding meeting Ghost’s eyes.
“Don’t worry…got a few hours this morning after getting back in.”
Ghost stared hard at him for a few moments, weighing his options for a moment. If he just told Soap to get some sleep he was sure that the Scotsman would just argue, his stubbornness overtaking anything else.
Instead, Ghost decided it would be easier to just drag him back to their room, save the effort of arguing. He leant forward again, reaching out a hand to grab a hold of the front of Soap’s tac vest. Soap’s eyes snapped back to Ghost as he was hauled out of the office chair and was dragged in the direction of the front door.
“Wh- Ghost what are you-” Soap began to protest, trying (and failing) to get Ghost to stop as he was pulled along behind him across the base in the direction of their shared room.
“You need sleep, Johnny.” Ghost pointed out.
“But the paperwork. I need to finish it or Price’ll be on my ass about it!”
Ghost stopped suddenly and Soap nearly crashed into the back of him. The taller man turned to face him, still holding onto his vest.
“The Captain will understand.”
Soap examined the other man. It was still hard to read the other man’s expressions underneath the mask, but if Soap looked hard enough he could see the small amount of worry that bled through still, that was visible in his eyes and the way he unconsciously avoided holding eye contact with Soap for too long at a time.
There was no point in trying to argue with Ghost, Soap was stubborn, but Ghost was even more stubborn and about the only person who could outdo him in that aspect.
Soap sighed, “Okay Simon.” He reached up to gently pat the tattooed arm still holding onto his vest, “Only if you get some sleep too though.”
Ghost just grunted in response, but finally let go of Soap’s vest now that he was sure Soap wouldn’t try to run away on him. He turned and continued in the direction of their shared room, and Soap smiled to himself before jogging after him, quickly catching up and falling into step beside him.
5.
Soap readjusted his position slightly, bringing one knee up towards his chest to ease the ache of being in the same position for so long. He was laying on his front on the edge of a high rise, his sniper rifle propped up in front of him and aimed at the window of another building across from him.
They were on a stake out, waiting for their target. Intel had said the person they were after was the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation who was using the company as a front for a human trafficking scheme. Their mission was relatively simple; wait for the target, take them out quickly and cleanly, then exfil.
They hadn’t been told what time the target would be showing up, just that they would be showing up in their office at some point. Soap had been on lookout for a few hours now, and it was well into the deep hours of the night but there was still no sign.
His body was numb from laying here for so long, but he couldn’t just take a break in case he missed his mark. Soap sighed and leant down slightly, bringing his eye up to the scope of the rifle and peering down into the target’s office. Still nothing.
He pulled away from the scope again and instead looked over his shoulder at Ghost, who was leaning against one of the air conditioning units on the roof. He was mostly hidden in the shadows, swathed in black from head to toe. He was fiddling with one of the straps on his thighs, a finger hooked under the edge and aimlessly running it back and forth as he stared out at the lights of the city below them.
He had been mostly silent since they had arrived here, only saying a handful of words to Soap the entire time. Soap wondered what was going through his mind, if he was just as bored as Soap currently was. He was sure standing around for hours on end with nothing to do would be enough to make even Ghost bored.
As if sensing Soap’s lingering gaze, Ghost turned his head slightly to meet his eyes across the roof. It was too dark for Soap to read anything on his face or in his eyes, even behind the mask.
Soap broke their eye contact first, turning his eyes back to the building and checking through his scope again. The office across the street was still empty. Soap really hoped their target would show up soon.
The sound of heavy boots hitting the concrete as they drew closer reached Soap’s ears, and he looked up as they stopped beside him. Ghost was standing there, looking down at him with his rifle slung across his back.
“What’s up Lt.?”
“You should take a break, Johnny.” Ghost said as he crouched down beside him.
Soap adjusted his position again and tapped a finger against the side of the trigger guard of the rifle, “ ‘m fine, don’t worry about me.” He mumbled.
Ghost didn’t say anything for a moment, and Soap could sense he was considering whether to retort with some poorly concealed, snarky lie about not being worried or to reply seriously.
“You’ve been watching for hours, take a break. I’ll take over for a while.” Ghost tried again, and Soap shook his head.
“I said it’s fine sir.”
Ghost made a noise that almost sounded like a growl and gritted his teeth, standing up again, “God dammit Johnny, stop being a stubborn asshole and go. Don’t make me pull rank, Sergeant.”
When Soap made no move to get up from where he was lying, Ghost huffed and reached down, grabbing the rifle from in front of Soap and slinging it over his shoulder as the other man let out an indignant yell at the action.
Ghost then reached down again and grabbed a firm hold of the back of Soap’s tac vest, hauling him up onto his feet.
“Ghost what the fuck are you doing-!“
“You didn’t listen to me.” Ghost grunted as he started to drag a struggling Soap towards the air conditioning unit he had been leaning against previously.
As much as Soap wished, he couldn’t hope to overpower the bigger man. He was strong and stubborn, but Ghost was 10x more so. He still struggled though, just to give him a hard time and more out of annoyance than anything.
Once they reached the spot on the other side of the roof, Ghost let go of Soap’s vest and moved his hand to his shoulder instead, applying pressure until Soap sat down. He took the rifle off his shoulder and leant it against the unit next to Soap.
“You really are a stubborn bastard Simon Riley.” Soap gritted out, glaring up at the Lieutenant.
Ghost crouched down in front of him again, “Damn right I am. I’ve gotta be looking after your dumb ass.” He patted Soap’s knee with a gloved hand, and Soap suddenly realised just how close they were as he glanced down at the hand as it drew away from his knee.
“Fine, go or you’ll miss our target and then we’ll never hear the end of it from Price.” Soap ran a hand through his hair and looked somewhat awkwardly away from Ghost, who was still staring directly at him, “Don’t wanna be stuck on this roof any longer than I have to be.”
He heard Ghost huff out a laugh as he stood up again and walked over to the spot on the edge of the roof, quickly positioning his own rifle and laying down in a similar position to the one Soap had been in earlier.
Only when Soap was sure Ghost was completely focused on the building across the street did he let out a long breath, staring at the other man’s wide back.
He tore his eyes away after a minute and leant his head back against the cool metal of the air conditioning unit and closed his eyes. He readjusted his vest with one hand, fixing how it had been skewed slightly from Ghost dragging him around with it.
‘ He’s gonna drive me insane one of these days…’ Soap thought to himself as he let himself drift off, the exhaustion of focusing on one thing for so long finally catching up to him.
An unknown amount of time later the sound of a silenced gunshot reached Soap’s ears, rousing him from the edge of sleep and he opened his eyes and immediately looked over at Ghost.
The other man had stood up, throwing his rifle over his shoulder and making his way over to where Soap was sitting as he spoke into his comms.
“This is Bravo 0-7, target eliminated. Requesting immediate exfil.”
The comms crackled, the reply unintelligible to Soap with the distance but it was safe to assume it had been a confirmation.
“Mission complete?” Soap asked as Ghost stopped in front of him.
“Mission complete. Exfil is a few minutes out.”
Soap nodded and climbed to his feet, grabbing his rifle from beside him and listening out for the telltale sounds of the helicopter sent to pick them up.
Finally Soap could get off this god forsaken roof and go sleep in his own comfortable bed back at the base.
He stretched his stiff joints, a few of them popping and cracking, and let out a yawn. A few little while later he spotted the chopper flying towards the building, watching as it landed carefully on the opposite side of the roof in front of them.
Ghost began walking over to it and Soap quickly jogged after him, climbing inside and taking a seat on one side while Ghost sat on the other side.
As Soap buckled himself in he heard Ghost’s voice come through his headset, yelling to still be heard over the whir of the blades and the engine of the helicopter, “Johnny! Why didn’t the skeleton climb the mountain?”
Soap groaned back through the comms, “Can you put me back on that roof now?”
He could pick up the amusement in Ghost’s voice as he replied, “It didn’t have the guts.”
Soap glared at him from across the chopper and flipped him off and while Ghost’s eyes didn’t betray any emotion, Soap knew he was smirking to himself under the mask. He couldn’t help but smile slightly to himself as well.
Simon Riley was definitely gonna drive him insane.
+1
Soap looked down at his tac vest, readjusting it on his body and pulling one of the Velcro straps on the side tighter.
He had noticed lately just how often Ghost had been using it to shove and pull him around. He had done it again this morning as they were sparring in the training yard, practising their hand to hand and demonstrating to some newer recruits.
Ghost had been demonstrating a takedown manoeuvre, hooking one of his legs around Soap’s to bring it out from underneath him while using a shoulder to shove him onto his back. As soon as he had finished demonstrating, rather than offering Soap a hand up he had simply grabbed Soap by the front of his vest and hauled him to his feet.
He had to try his best to not lose his composure in front of all the rookies or he’d never live it down. However he had to admit every time it happened lately, it made something in his gut twist. He was always so consciously aware of how close they were whenever Ghost grabbed him, how Ghost’s hand had started to linger more and more each time. Now Soap wondered if there was something else behind it.
He and Ghost had grown close ever since Las Almas, spending a lot of time together nowadays. Somehow Soap had gotten Ghost to trust him and broken down some of the walls the other man had built up. He’d go as far as calling them friends. Ghost even trusted him enough to sometimes go without his mask when they were alone in their room.
Soap had to admit his own feelings for Ghost went a little beyond friendship by this point. He had realised a while ago, after the whole Las Almas debacle, after Ghost had helped him get through the city alone and then saved his life in Chicago. He had no idea if Ghost felt anything similar towards him, he wasn’t sure if Ghost was even capable of liking someone that way. He seemed so shut off from everyone, it had taken Soap a while to get to where they were now.
Soap had come to terms with never acting on his feelings, content with just staying friends and not potentially ruining all his hard work. However, because of everything, he was reconsidering.
Making up his mind, Soap decided to at least ask Ghost about the vest thing. Maybe it was all just a coincidence and Ghost hadn’t even realised he was doing it so often.
Ghost wasn’t in their shared room, and Soap wasn’t sure where to find the other man. He tended to hide himself around the base whenever they weren’t on a mission, and sometimes tracking him down was a mission in itself.
Soap wandered around the base, checking a few places. There was no sign of Ghost in the training grounds or at the shooting range. He passed Captain Price at one point and tried to ask but apparently he hadn’t seen Ghost anywhere either, and wished Soap luck trying to find him.
Soap decided to try the office next, it seemed unlikely but he was beginning to run out of ideas.
He strode across the base until he arrived in front of the office. He took a moment to steel himself before knocking quickly.
He shuffled awkwardly as he waited to see if anyone came to the door, staring down at his boots.
A few seconds later Soap heard the door rattle before it swung open, and to his surprise it was Ghost standing in the doorway.
Ghost almost looked surprised to see Soap standing at the door, not expecting him to have come looking for him
“Got a moment?” Soap asked, and without really waiting for an answer he pushed past Ghost, walking into the office. Ghost closed the door and turned to look curiously at him, “Soap what are you-“
“Can I ask you something?” Soap cut him off, and he could see the confusion in Ghost’s eyes under the mask.
When Ghost nodded in response, Soap continued, “Why have you been grabbing me by the vest so much lately?”
He noticed Ghost stiffen at the question, and when he didn’t respond after a while Soap spoke up again.
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed? This morning at training? Also that time in Mexico with Alejandro and Rudy? Or that mission in Germany?”
Ghost crossed his arms as he stared hard at Soap, “I was saving your life.” He said, like it was the most simple thing in the world.
“Okay…what about our last mission on that roof? Or even that night in the office after Utrecht? Don’t think I was in much danger those times.” Soap challenged.
Ghost didn’t say anything, and Soap could see his jaw grit beneath the mask as he thought of how to respond after being put on the spot so suddenly.
After a few more moments, all the while under Soap’s scrutinising gaze, Ghost sighed and took a step closer, “I worry about you, Johnny. But you’re such a stubborn bastard it’s hard to make you listen to me so I figured force was the best way.”
Soap was stunned hearing Ghost actually admit he was worried about him. He didn’t think he had ever heard Ghost talk about his feelings so openly.
Soap was silent for too long, and Ghost started to feel awkward at the words that had just come out of his own mouth, “For fuck’s sake, say somethin’” He bit out.
Soap took a purposeful step forward, closing any of the distance that had just been between them, “You’re an idiot, Simon Riley.” He murmured as he reached a hand out and grabbed a hold of the collar of Ghost’s tac vest, roughly pulling him down to press his lips against the fabric of the mask where Ghost's own lips would be.
It was only a few seconds before Ghost pulled back, and Soap worried for a moment that he had gone too far. But Ghost simply yanked his mask off, not even giving Soap enough time to take in the sight of his exposed face before Ghost was roughly grabbing his vest and pulling him back in to kiss him properly.
Soap let out a small noise of surprise which was quickly swallowed by the kiss. It only lasted a few seconds despite it seeming forever to Soap, who had to blink away the fuzziness in his head as they parted.
They both stood there for a moment, still awkwardly gripping at each other’s vests and staring at one another until Soap broke the silence.
“So…didn’t know you liked to play rough sir?”
Ghost immediately shoved him away, rolling his eyes and turning away as Soap started laughing loudly at him. Without his mask on, Soap could see the red that had tinged the tips of Ghost’s ears and the bridge of his nose, and he realised he had actually made the other man blush . Seeing Ghost unable to hide any of his emotions behind the mask, to be this fully exposed to Soap left him feeling awestruck.
Soap walked back over to him and gently pulled the mask from where it was gripped tightly between Ghost’s fingers, before reaching up to carefully slide it back over his head with a mischievous lilt in his voice.
“Don’t worry Simon, you can shove me around whenever ya like.”