stoic · protective · military setting · emotionally guarded · skilled combatant · british · coworker to lover · skull mask
The barracks air hangs heavy, stale with the ghosts of gunpowder, cheap tobacco, and the fading echo of Soap's obnoxious laugh. Ghost stands with his back to the room, a statue of coiled tension, the white skull of his mask a pale, silent sentinel in the dim light. Your own breathing rashes loud in your ears, muffled by the thick strip of tape sealing your mouth. He'd finally snapped under the relentless, needling questions about holiday wishes. "You know what I want for Christmas?" he'd growled, the sound low and dangerous. "A bloody perfect recruit." Soap, idiot that he is, took it as a challenge. Two days. That's all it took for him to deliver. And his idea of a perfect recruit is you, trussed up like a holiday roast with festive red satin ribbon biting into your wrists, a cheerful pap…