Chapter Text
The building was old, brick cracking and tiles stained. The four of them stood around a body, one of a man they’d just killed. He’d been dealing arms to an extremist group, using his pharmaceutical company as a cover. Now hopefully, with his cold body on the floor, he could do no more damage.
“Enemy KIA” Price called into his mic.
The response came crackling through the comms “Copy, bravo-six. Nice work. Make sure the site is clear, exfil in 20. Watcher out.”
The group made their way out of the basement, spreading out around the two upper floors of the building. Some of the rooms were storage, others appearing more like office spaces, and some as hospital rooms. Price stepped quietly into a long, thin storage room, with shelves lining the walls and a cold concrete floor. In front of him lay a child, not breathing, with blood pooled around their head.
“Bloody hell” he swore under his breath, before calling Ghost into the room. The man looked similarly (but less visibly) horrified. “Laswell’s asked us to burn the bodies.” he said, before gesturing at Ghost to pick up the corpse as he left the room.
Ghost slung the child’s body over his shoulder, only to hear a sharp inhale of breath as he did so. However, they had to get these bodies disposed of in 10 minutes, so he walked from the room nonetheless. As he carried the body downstairs, he no longer heard breathing, but could feel a heartbeat against his shoulder. The kid was alive.
Gaz emerged from the basement with the target’s corpse slung similarly over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at Ghost. “Didn’t hear any shots fired, mate, what’s this?” he asked, eyeing the other body.
“Kid was already dead.” Price answered for him, before Ghost could say otherwise. After determining the building was now clear, they left out the back, headed to a small safehouse within walking distance to dispose of the bodies. Ghost thought about saying something, but they might shoot the poor thing now, and he felt…bad. The kid hadn’t done anything wrong, he thought, shifting them in his arms to keep the blood from rushing to their head. He looked them over for wounds as they walked, and though their hair was matted and stuck together with blood, there were no visible wounds on their head.
Price eyed him as he set the kid down on the floor of the safehouse, and he knew he looked strange, placing a presumed-dead body in a sitting position. Nonetheless, as he heard Gaz and Soap joking in the background, he placed a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Hey, kiddo.” he said, gently as he could, and shook them slightly. “You’re good at playing dead, but you can’t fool us forever.”
Gaz and Soap turned, seemingly clueing into what was going on in the other corner of the room. The kid took a choked, somewhat desperate breath, blinking a few times to clear their vision.
“Cap’n, you said-” Soap started, before being cut off with a sharp “i know.”
Ghost remained focused on the kid, still knelt in front of them. “You don’t have any wounds, do ya?” he asked, still scanning their head for anything that could have caused so much blood. The kid shook their head without a word. I must be scaring ‘em he thought, beckoning Soap and Gaz over as he backed away. They were arguably the least outwardly threatening of the four, and he hoped the kid would be more comfortable with them.
Eventually, after some debate, they opted to bring the kid with them. They’d seen too much, now a liability. Nikolai picked the group up from the safehouse, raising an eyebrow at the unknown person but not saying anything. The kid, still yet to speak a word, spent the flight curled in the corner of the heli, watching the others move about. He looked frightened, and despite what they’d expected, he stuck close to Ghost.
Keo. The name the kid had mumbled out when Gaz had asked, looking akin to a deer in headlights. When they returned to base, Price took Keo to Laswell’s office, unsure how she’d react to them.
“John, care to tell me who this is?” Laswell greeted him from behind her desk. She’d closed her computer, and now was assessing the kid with her CIA-trained gaze.
“Kid we found at the site. Played dead and we- i -didn’t think he’d make it with that much blood loss.” he gestured at the blood matted thickly into the kid’s hair and dried across their cheek. Keo looked at the floor. “Turns out the blood’s not his.”
Laswell raised an eyebrow at Keo, prompting him to be the one to elaborate. “...’s from the storage. For testing. I don’t know whose it is” Laswell didn’t look satisfied, but it was enough for her report, so she wasn’t going to push it.
“He’s a liability, John." she said, frankly. “Unless you’d like to hold responsibility if he talks, I need to know who made the call not to shoot on sight.” she watched as Keo curled slightly more into himself, and sighed. “We aren’t going to kill you.”
Keo nodded, but still took another step back towards the door. Price looked to Laswell, then back at Keo. “You’re dismissed. Go find Ghost, kid.” He sounded tired. Just thinking about all the paperwork he’d have to do about this made him weary. Keo slipped away without a sound, back to wandering through the identical hallways of the base.
The kid was half-stumbling through the halls when Ghost found him, looking confused and exhausted. Keo approached him, mumbling something along the lines of “Laswell said to find you” Ghost nodded, giving the boy in front of him an appraising look. He looked tired, hair still matted with the same blood that was cracking along his right cheek. Otherwise, he looked unharmed.
“Did she?” he said, then nodded in the other direction, “come with me, then.”
Keo followed behind him until they reached what he assumed was the man’s quarters. He paused outside even as Ghost unlocked the door and entered.
“You can come in, y’know.” he said, “I'm not gonna hurt ya.” looking back at keo who was surveying the room. The boy then stepped in hesitantly.
Ghost’s room was fairly bare-bones, with only a bed, wardrobe, and desk. It didn’t look lived in at all, with the only item of his that was visible being a tightly zipped bag resting at the foot of the bed. Keo remained hovered around the doorway as Ghost laid some of his heavier gear onto the desk chair, before turning back to the kid.
“Let’s get this cleaned up, yeah?” he gestured to the blood. In all honesty, he had no idea how to deal with children, and he didn’t understand why Laswell had sent Keo to him. He hadn’t the faintest idea of how to comfort the obviously scared child, so he focused on what had to be done. Keo nodded after a long moment, following Ghost into the small bathroom. The boy fiddled anxiously with his fingers as Ghost explained that the showerhead was finicky, and not to rummage around in anything if he could help it. Quietly, he heard Keo thank him as he left the room, in search of clothes for the boy.
It took him quite a while to scavenge up something that would fit the kid, and the sound of running water had ceased. He left the clothes outside the door, letting Keo know before going back to his own tasks. In the end, he’d found a sweater Soap accidentally shrunk while they were on leave, and sweatpants that would absolutely be too big, but would do once hemmed or pinned.
Halfway through packing his clothes away again, keo emerged. “Thanks…” he said, now fiddling with the sleeves of the sweater. He’d had to roll up the pant legs quite a bit, but it worked well enough. The waves in keo’s hair were lessened due to the water, but still curled up around the edges.
“No problem,” Ghost replied, then paused, “did Laswell give you a place to stay for the night?”
“No..” Keo mumbled, “but I can…find somewhere. You’ve done so much for me already.”
Ghost paused at that. He hadn’t, really. Just the bare minimum. I must be making the kid uncomfortable, he thought. So he just nodded, and let Keo take a bag to put his things in before he left.
When Price entered the break room the next morning, exhausted and in desperate need of caffeine, he was met with the sight of the source of said exhaustion asleep on the couch. Thankfully, though, the kid wasn’t covered in blood anymore and had clean clothes. He shot upright as he heard the door open. Price watched as Keo attempted to stand, before toppling back onto the couch. stood up too fast, he thought. silly kid. He headed over to the kitchenette, loading the coffee maker while Keo watched him intently.
“What, never seen a coffee machine before, kid?” Price said, lightly as he could.
“No…i have seen one before, sir” Keo replied hesitantly. He looked wary, but not wholly uncomfortable. Maybe just a bit sleepy. They remained on the couch until Price was done making coffee, before asking “would the…lieutenant be awake? I need to return this…” as they tugged on the sweater lightly.
Price raised an eyebrow. “That sweater’s Ghost’s?” he asked, knowing there was no way that sweater would be able to fit a grown man.
“He said “johnny” accidentally shrunk it”’ Keo replied, vaguely afraid of price, as they currently were of all 141 members. While they wondered who “Johnny” was, it felt risky for them to ask. Maybe they were overthinking this.
The captain huffed out a slight laugh. “‘Couse he did.” He was surprised the man even kept it. “And yeah, I wager Ghost’s awake.” keo thanked him, folded the blanket they’d found, and slipped from the room.
Price remained there for a while, sipping his steaming coffee and thinking. The kid seemed cooperative enough, especially for someone who’d been picked up by their father’s murderers. Speaking of, he wondered, was the kid aware of that? He figured they had to have come to such a conclusion after seeing what they had, but if so, they hadn’t said anything. He idly wondered what would become of them until Soap came bursting into the room, complaining about some recruit.
Keo, after some trouble, found his way back to Ghost’s quarters unscathed and knocked hesitantly. He doesn't want you here, silly. You know you’re just an annoyance. The door opened after a moment, and the man behind it seemed surprised to see him. He stepped back from the door to let the kid in.
“I just wanted to return the clothes I borrowed…” keo said, tugging on the cuffs of the sweater. He felt bad. This man had done nothing but be kind to him, and yet he couldn’t look him in the eye.
“It’s alright. Keep ‘em.” the man replied, gesturing to the bag on the floor “you can leave your stuff here too, since Laswell seems to have decided you’ll be staying.”
Keo just nodded quietly, picking up the bag with his other clothes in it from the corner. He figured he’d find where the washing machines were somehow, not wanting to ask. Ghost watched him from where he stood, again feeling as if he must be scaring the kid. He wondered if he should ask price to let keo stay with Gaz or Johnny, lest he be on edge all the time.
Both of them were jolted out of their thoughts as price knocked on the open doorframe.
“The kid needs a psych eval.” he told Ghost, “brass’ orders, ‘s out of my hands.”
“Why am I the one taking care of him?” the other man asked pointedly. “You know I'm not cut out for this, Price.”
Price sighed heavily. “The sergeants already share the barracks. I’ve got my hands full, Laswell can’t take him, so that leaves you. Plus, he likes you.”
Ghost paused for a moment. Price knew nothing, he hadn’t seen how the kid acted around him. “No he doesn’t, you know that. Don’t try and guilt me into this.”
They argued back and forth for the better part of 45 minutes, with Price reminding him that he was the one who decided to keep Keo alive. The captain was the one to leave, (but not before making more than a few heated promises to come back to this later) for a debrief.
Ghost sighed heavily, looking in the direction Price left as he wondered what his next move should be. To his horror, when he turned, he was faced with the reality that Keo had absolutely heard everything both of them had said, and he’d likely ruined whatever trust the kid had in him. Keo was curled against the wall, back pressed up against the dark wood of the dresser. His head was lulled slightly, but his eyes were open and watching Ghost in a somewhat listless manner. The more Ghost looked, the more sick he felt. At an age younger than Keo’s, he’d sworn to never become his father. Maybe there was no escape from the burden of his last name. Nonetheless, he found himself kneeling to the kid’s level.
“Im sorry…” keo mumbled, not facing Ghost even as his eyes tracked the man’s every move.
“You don’t gotta be sorry.” he replied, finding himself at a loss for what to say. What does one say when they’ve broken something in an attempt to fix it? What was there to say? He was sure Keo felt that he didn’t like them now. He really, truly hoped the kid would move on, grow up elsewhere and never have to think of their time in a military base again. Would never have to think about him again. But part of him knew that wouldn’t be possible. Keo shifted closer to the wall.
“I’m not gonna hurt you,” Ghost reminded him, as gently as he could.
Silently, Keo willed himself to choke back the lump in his throat. “I know.” he replied, “...you think I'm scared of you. I’m…not. You seem…kind. To me.” maybe he was willing it to be true. It felt like that, anyway, because he was scared. And yet he wanted so desperately for this man to be good to him, to trust that his kind- albeit sad -eyes did indeed reflect his soul.
“Yeah?” the man raised an eyebrow, caught off guard. He tried to keep his tone soft. “You don’t have to lie, kid.” keo just hummed slightly in response, still not looking at Ghost, who sighed. “We’ll look for a better place for you to stay. A…foster family of sorts, if you want that.”
Keo looked at him then, head still resting against the wall. “But you can’t send me back home.” he said, sounding resigned to some fate he hadn’t let anyone else in on.
Ghost nodded shortly. He felt bad for the kid, being torn from his home and into military life through no fault of his own, but there was nothing he could do. And Keo was trusting him, maybe foolishly so. It endeared him and broke his heart all at once, knowing the kid saw something in him that wasn’t really there. (or maybe it was, buried under the fear of becoming his father.) He only hoped it wouldn’t hurt keo too badly to find out he was wrong. That everything around Ghost died, that the only light left in him was that given by others.
Keo didn’t like how Ghost looked at him. Not because it made him uncomfortable, but because the man looked so damn guilty. For what, he wasn’t sure, and didn’t think he’d be allowed to ask.
“Who is “Johnny”?” he asked instead, because he was curious, and the words leaving his mouth before he’d really processed them. Maybe it was for the best though. He couldn’t handle seeing the guilt in Ghost's eyes any longer, and he smiled last time he mentioned the other man.
Ghost looked a little caught off guard at the question, but Keo could see the corners of his eyes crinkle a little bit. “You’re curious about Johnny, huh?” he started, shifting to be more comfortable on the floor next to the kid. “He’s the scot who was with us earlier; The bastard with the mohawk.” Despite his words, there was affection clear in his voice.
“D’you know the rest of the team yet?” Ghost then asked, and when Keo shook his head he continued. “The captain- man i was…arguing with earlier -his name is Price. Gaz is the one who was with Soap earlier. tall, with black curly hair? Usually has a hat. Nikolai was the pilot of the heli we were in.”
Keo nodded slightly, matching the names to faces as best he could. One thing confused him though, “...who’s Soap?” he asked, silently judging the man’s name.
“That’s Johnny. Most people call him Soap, but I'm sure you could get away with callin’ him whatever. He’s fond of kids.” Ghost told him, his eyes crinkling slightly in lieu of a visible smirk. Keo nodded, and the two sat in relative silence for the next moments.
He startled slightly when Ghost finally stood, flinching back against the wall. He felt bad as the man apologized, unsure how to tell him that it was only surprise and not fear causing him to react like that. So he just looked at Ghost quietly, watching the man pick up his phone and slot it into one of his many pockets.