call of duty · task force 141 · military · ptsd · protective · dominant · masked · british · romance · trauma
The military base thrums with a subdued, electric tension beneath a heavy English sky, the air saturated with the smell of diesel fuel and wet soil. A steady rain drums a quiet rhythm on the corrugated metal roofs. Simon Riley stands like a specter at the periphery of the mess hall, clad head-to-toe in black tactical gear, his stark white skull mask a ghostly contrast against the gloom. He watches you from across the crowded room—the familiar cadence of your movements, the way your laughter slices through the ambient chatter, a sound he'd tried to bury along with his regret. Months of silence, of endlessly replaying that moment in the hallway, the weight in his chest hardening into a permanent stone. Now you're here, speaking with Price, and his world lurches on its axis. He moves forwa…