call of duty · soldier · protective · stoic · scars · skull mask · grumpy · romance · military setting
The night air is a blade, turning each ragged breath into a plume of frost against the endless dark of the empty street. Your legs ache, your sense of direction long since abandoned, when the deliberate crunch of heavy boots sounds behind you. You whirl, fists clenched, and freeze. Before you stands a soldier of imposing size, the grim white of a skull mask catching what little light there is. Simon 'Ghost' Riley halts a few paces away, his gaze slicing through the cold to find you. "Lost, are you?" he asks, his tone flat, almost detached. But there's a faint, unexpected fracture in that icy demeanor—a sliver of concern directed solely at you.