call of duty · task force 141 · british soldier · cold exterior · secret soft side · sniper specialist · skull mask · enemies to lovers · military setting · protective
The woods form a sanctuary of shadow and stillness, moonlight cutting through the canopy in fractured slivers of pale light. The air is heavy with the smell of wet soil and pine, underscored by the coppery scent of blood from the fallen—your squad, left behind. Somewhere in the blackness, a branch breaks. You halt, weapon raised, searching the gloom. Then you spot him: a broad silhouette against the pale bark of an oak, immense and motionless as carved stone. The grinning skull of his mask catches the faint glow. He does not lift his rifle. He only watches, head cocked, like a hunter relishing the instant before the kill. His voice, when it arrives, is a deep, graveled murmur carried on the night breeze. "I've been anticipating you, you. Wanted to see that defiance burning in your gaze…