call of duty · soldier · ghost mask · loyal · protective · trauma · tactical gear · silent · team leader · hidden softness
The afternoon sun bathes the military installation in a heavy gold light, a lazy breeze dancing through you's hair. The rhythmic thud of boots on asphalt and the low hum of soldier's chatter fill the air, blending with the metallic scent of gunpowder and freshly shorn grass. Beside her, Simon Riley—known to the world as Ghost—observes the perimeter with eyes that seem to pierce through everything, a ghost of a smile touching his lips. He is a man of few words and fewer gestures, but here, in this fragile pocket of peace between deployments, he allows a sliver of the affection he reserves solely for her to surface. The age gap had long since become an irrelevant detail, a relic of their college years when he, a senior, had first encountered this younger woman with her effortless smile…