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The 141 task force was finally catching a break after a long and dreadful mission that lasted more than two weeks.
When retreating back to England, everyone (except Price) was complaining about the awful weather since their mission had been located somewhere in the southern hemisphere where it was hot and sunny; nonetheless, ignoring everyone’s "bickering", Price declared that everybody needed some well-deserved rest before they’d get a call back for their next task; as Soap had mentally predicted, they only had a day to truly rest, but anything worked to be honest, especially when the sofa in the living room was brightly smiling at him.
Gaz was the first one to leave, as he mentioned visiting some relatives that lived conveniently close, then Captain Price, who excused himself by saying he was meeting up with an old friend (unsurprisingly to Soap, it was Nikolai), which left both Ghost and Soap alone. Since their "time off" was unexpectedly announced, neither really had any sort of pre-prepared plans, and so both silently decided to take care of their base for the rest of the day…
Silence filled the entire house.
Soap never truly realised that he and Ghost have been talking about anything and everything so much lately that he couldn’t think of a single notable conversation topic—not needed apparently, as the taller man broke the ice:
"Fancy a cup of tea, sergeant?"
Soap will definitely throw all of the lieutenant’s tea one of these days, he’s sure… alas, ‘now’s not the time’ he thinks.
"Scotch is the only thing I’ll put in my mouth tonight, LT, sorry to disappoint~"
Well, that surely didn’t have a double meaning. Soap didn’t intend it to, though after exactly .5 seconds of rethinking and refiltering his words, he decided that surely sounded way better in his head.
Ghost just rolled his eyes and walked into the kitchen to prepare his tea, seemingly unbothered by the Scot’s words. It’s good that both are total idiots and don’t overthink words, right? Soap thought so too, though he couldn’t help but imagine Gaz calling him out (again) for how stupidly kinky that sounded… after Ghost’s tea, Gaz’s precious cap was next. He’ll just have to wait for the perfect moment to arrive, and that’s when he’ll strike. John was so delighted with his plan that he failed to notice the large man holding an absurdly small tea cup staring at him, looking sort of amused? Well, as best as the mask could divulge anyway.
"Feeling jolly, Johnny?"
"Wouldn’t you like to know, eh, LT?"
"Move your arse a bit; it’s not your sofa, y’know?"
"Sharing is caring, I guess; I’ll warn you, the game’s shite; you’re better off going to sleep than endure this jobby excuse of a football game."
"Mhm, will do my best then; not sure I can leave you all alone to fend for yourself just yet, Johnny"
Why the hell must he always have such an aggravated tone whenever he pronounces his name? He could die in this very moment and still never get over the tone. It sounds almost fond, like a term of endearment, almost? John wasn’t sure; he’s never sure when things involve Ghost because he’s just so Ghost about everything. And now he’s overthinking and overcomplicating things again, but what wakes him up to reality is the larger man rubbing his fingers dangerously close to his thighs. Soap concludes that his lieutenant is definitely bullying right now. Which is ultimately wrong.
"Need something, LT?" John engages, trying very hard not to seem like he’s implying anything. Cause he’s not. Just curious, yeah.
"Remote control. I can't stand watching this anymore…"
"Right, uh, here-" John sighs a little, reminding the others of his words about the game from before.
Silence. Again. They’ve been fine being alone before? Why was this so painfully different? Soap couldn’t figure it out.
After around half an hour or so, Ghost finally settled on a film he figured both he and Soap would enjoy.
During the time Simon was searching for a fitting channel, Soap couldn’t stop thinking about why it was suddenly so hard to talk to this man, his colleague, his friend? He’s overthinking everything again, and he hates it, he hates it because he sees how laid-back and relaxed Ghost is. This cheeky bastard’s always been like this. He sighs deeply, grabbing the other’s attention for a split second and staring a bit too much at the Scot.
"Like what yer seeing, LT?"
"Piss off, you’re sighing too hard for me to not notice, Jesus Johnny" Simon delivered before continuing.
"Whatever makes you sleep better at night, Si"
Did he really call him "Si"? He never told him not to, I suppose… It just rolled off his tongue?? But it’s definitely not something Soap frequently calls Ghost, so he’ll definitely be taken by surprise for sure.
"Don’t think I can sleep with you all over me, Sergeant."
"Touché"
"What was this? a flirting session??" Soap wondered, though he admired the boldness in Simon’s statement, cause Soap was sure he could keep Ghost awake all night with some dafty old jokes of his.
✦
Time passed, and soap fell asleep. Ghost’s idea of "entertaining films" was unfortunately not shared with the Scot, which the other picked up pretty quickly after hearing him lightly snore.
Ghost was never good at conversing, so the entire situation didn’t bother him at all, quite frankly, Soap sleeping meant that he could watch his movie in peace, with no auxiliary sounds perturbing this ‘oh-so-beautiful’ moment he had going on for him. Or that’s what he thought at least.
He should’ve been more than happy that no one was bothering him, but ironically enough, everything felt unexplainably dull without John’s constant comments about the characters on screen. He never realised that he enjoyed them. I mean, no one likes it when people are talking over your favourite movies, but if he really thought about it, maybe it wasn’t so bad, or at least he didn’t mind it when Soap did it. He wasn’t yet sure about others since he'd never really been that close with others before Price decided to recruit him for the 141 task force.
Where was he even going with this? He had no clue what to do next—about anything, in fact. The film seemed to not be as exciting as he thought it’d be, so he switched his focus to the now-asleep Sergeant that was comically laid on the sofa in such a manner that Ghost only partook one third of the pretty large object.
Simon found that staring at the other might just become extremely weird if he were to wake up, so he frowned at the thought, got up (trying hard not to wake up the latter), brought a ridiculously large blanket from a closet, and did the most logical thing anyone would do in his situation: he wrapped himself in it. Then looked at John, who had stopped snoring in the meantime but had the dorkiest smile Ghost had ever seen. He looked at his blanket, then back at John. He covered the Scot as best as he could and then scavenged for another film to watch.
Ghost fell asleep in less than 5 minutes.
✦
When Gaz and Price got back to the base the next day, they found two very much still asleep Ghost and Soap, in the living room. Wrapped both in a very soft-looking blanket.
"Are we interrupting anything, Cap?" Gaz whispered, amused. He’s never gonna stop teasing Soap about this now.
"I think it’s best we eat breakfast in the city today, Gaz"
"Didn’t you say Laswell already told you our next op?"
"We’ll buy them something as well, yeah?"
Gaz smiled, chuckling a little. "Alright, sir."
THE END.