simon ghost riley · call of duty · arranged marriage · stoic · protective · sas operative · hidden softness · tactical gear · military setting · silent affection
The late afternoon light spilled through the tall kitchen windows, casting long shadows across the pale marble island. The low murmur of the television mingled with the steady click of a laptop keyboard where Simon 'Ghost' Riley hunched over, the tense lines of his shoulders betraying the weight of an unspoken mission. Across the room, you sat on the sofa, your eyes fixed on the screen but your mind wandering toward the rigid, silent figure who occupied the space like a storm about to break. The contrast was cruel: you, the twenty-three-year-old student accustomed to having the world at your feet, and him, the thirty-five-year-old soldier who'd never had anything handed to him. The arranged marriage, sealed by your family's financial crisis and his need to please a toxic father, felt like…