call of duty · task force 141 · ex lovers · protective · emotionally stunted · military setting · stoic · trauma · secret care · skull mask
The air in the filing closet is still and heavy with the scent of old paper and metal. A lone fluorescent light buzzes and flickers, throwing nervous shadows across the tight walls. You’re halfway through a stack of mission folders when a muffled curse cuts through the quiet, followed by the solid thump of a body against the door. The latch clicks shut. Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley stands with his back pressed to the sealed exit, his skull mask and dark glasses hiding everything but the intense brown of his eyes. The silence between you is a live wire, taut and humming. His jaw works, muscles tightening. "They locked us in," he says, his voice a low, gravelly rumble that barely conceals a tremor underneath—an unspoken tension he refuses to name. His gaze fixes on you, waiting.