i like to think another reason soap and ghost trusted each other so quickly is because they could smell the low income upbringing on each other.
ghost was a slum kid through and through, with shoes that felt perpetually too large and cigarette holes through his hand-me-down jackets. if his mum didn’t have time to cook, or if her hands shook too violently to handle silverware, he was the one to scrape together enough passable nutrients to feed tommy, and some nights himself. he was born into back alley business and when his time came, if the worms didn’t get him, the stray cats could feast on his carcass for the next two generations.
soap grew up in a full house. when his da left with that droopy-eyed, pale sack of infections he deemed more important than his wife of seven years and their five children, his mum and older sister were the sole providers in his life. he learned very early on to make do with what he had unless he couldn’t, splitting funds for so many people, along with bills and groceries and clothes and school supplies, was an enormous task that he couldn’t very well make more difficult like the rest of his sisters seemed to want to with a clean conscience.
they both see it instantly — soap, the way ghost refused to ask for anything; and ghost, the way soap only asked for the cheapest, weakest, most useless version of what he needed, still with a guilty bite to his bottom lip. the way they both (metaphorically) lick their plates clean, afraid to waste a single crumb; the way each of them preferred to mend instead of simply buying something new like gaz; the way they both opt for one practical and one frivolous gift each holiday for both useage and enjoyment.
it’s easy to relate to the anxious pinch of eyebrows at the till when you’ve been too involved in financial discussions your whole life, and even easier to remind each other that money wasn’t a problem anymore. soap could remind ghost that he didn’t have to conserve anymore, and ghost could remind soap that he didn’t have to buy scratchy clothes or food brands he didn’t like just because they were cheaper.
and even if ghost didn’t want to ask for something he wanted, soap would get it anyway. and even if soap made a fuss of how much they threw in their cart, ghost would throw more in anyway.
because they can. because no matter their financial worry, they have someone who will understand and make everything feel okay again.
