#ghoaz

Ghost — Acts of service. Like I said, every one of the boys would like acts of service, but it’d mean the most to Simon— especially if you’re working off of his backstory from the comics.

Simon is a man who doesn’t trust anyone. He’s learned time and time again that the people closest to him could and would hurt him, or be used to hurt him. How someone presents themselves means nothing to him, and what they say to him means even less. In his experience people are rarely true to their word. As long as they’re competent he doesn’t care. He doesn’t let himself get attached.

Getting him to the point where he would realistically be comfortable enough to show affection outwardly in any capacity is going to be like pulling teeth.

What’s good to keep in mind is that Simon values consistency. Above all else, in a new relationship, he is waiting for the other shoe to drop— even if the other person has been around for a while, he never really gets over that. So the best way to handle that is just for it to never happen. For him to ever start being even in the ballpark of ‘affectionate,’ someone else is going to have to make the first move. (Or at least motivate him to try, he’d never go out looking for a deeper connection of his own volition otherwise.)

Price does this naturally, he’s long since gotten into the habit of taking care of his men. It’s his job to have a good sense of what’s going on with them, and how they’re holding up at all times. So, if after a rough mission, or around the colder months he notices Simon is starting to squirrel himself away, he’s going to bloody well do something about it; he’ll take it upon himself to bring Simon food from the mess if he notices he hasn’t been going as much as he should. The first few times Simon’s skeptical, of course, but eventually he figures it’s not in Price’s best interest to mess with his food, and tries it— he’ll at least have a few bites of anything Price brings him, even if he doesn’t like it, or if he does, he’ll eat the whole lot of it. Price notices what does and doesn’t get eaten, and takes care to bring something his lieutenant will actually finish. God knows the man needs it. Simon starts returning the favour on days Price is too buried under paperwork to pull away from it.

If he notices something’s up with Simon’s gear (broken, scuffed, bent, gotten so coated in blood it won’t ever come out), he’ll put in to have it replaced without being asked. Like hell is he sending any of his men out with faulty gear.

Initially Gaz does little acts of service to get on Simon’s good side— he’s not too sure what to think of his lieutenant, the man is very cold and closed off, giving little to nil away. It’s not that they have to be buddy buddy, but it’s common sense that a team that likes each other functions far more smoothly than one that doesn’t. So he starts simple, he figures out how Simon takes his tea (after a couple times watching him prepare it, he manages to memorize it) and the next time Gaz makes himself a cup, he makes some for Simon too. Again, like with Price, Simon is skeptical, and probably won’t drink it the first few times. Not that that deters Gaz— if anything it spurs him on. He’s a bit of a competitive bloke, and now it’s a matter of principle; he will get on Simon’s good side, damn it.

The third time, Gaz makes sure that Simon sees him make it, keeps his movements steady and measured, makes sure Simon can see his hands at all time while he does, makes once for Price as well, and when he brings it over, Simon simply accepts it with a nod, and watches as Price accepts his own cup barely managing a thanks before he starts drinking it, not even looking up from the report he was working on. After another moment or two, Simon pulls his balaclava over his nose, and starts to sip from it cautiously, but he does drink it.

From there, Gaz moves on to doing little things, like keeping extra smokes on him even while out on the field for Simon to bum one— and making sure he always has a working lighter. He also personally ensures that Simon’s knife oil ‘mysteriously’ never gets too low without another to replace it. He never says anything about it, just does it without a word.

It must be working well enough, he figures, when he goes into the armoury after training one day to clean his guns before the next op — passing Simon in the hallway on his way in without much thought — and his weapons are strangely already ready to go.

Soap helps Simon make his masks. With their work, Simon goes through a lot of them. He does his best to fix them when he can, but that’s not always possible. That, plus the fact Simon always likes to have extra, just in case, means he spends more time than he probably should making them.

Often this means on nights when he’s having trouble sleeping, and he’s already done as much paperwork as he can stomach, he finds himself hunched over in his bunk, working under the shitty glow of the lamp on his nightstand, and repeatedly jabbing himself with the little needle he managed to swipe from medical as he sews the skull plate onto a plain balaclava.

Soap doesn’t get involved until a mission where Simon breaks his arm.

He had already been short on masks beforehand, but after how roughed up he had gotten, he was down to his plain, skull print balaclava. Even with a broken arm, Simon wouldn’t ask for help, instead trying his best (and failing) to do everything one handed. By the time he gets a quarter of one done, with ample aid of alternating between cursing it out, and his own arm, Soap finds him; popping in after hearing him carrying on from the hallway as he was walking back to his own quarters. After ample ribbing, Soap invites himself in, and sits down next to Simon, taking the incorrectly threaded needle away from Simon before he can cause further damage, and finishing it with some huffed orders from Simon over his shoulder while he worked. After that Soap kept coming back to help him make more until his arm healed, and occasionally made more for him even after the fact. He even started keeping a spare mask in with his own gear, just in case.

Words of Affirmation. Hearing he's good at what he does is nothing new to Ghost, it's something that doesn't carry much weight for him anymore, he knows he's good, he doesn't need the external confirmation to affirm that. What sticks with him the most isn't praise for what he does in the field, as Ghost, but off of it, as Simon; complements about the way he makes tea, whispered genuine assurances in between slow kisses (especially when paired with gentle touches to his scars, he's so used to be handled/treated roughly that anyone being soft with him, when he ebbs past the instinctive urge to be suspicious, makes his heart twist and ache in a way that he's hesitant to get to stop), all that good stuff.

What also sticks with him is when someone indulges him, say, going along with his shite jokes, teases him back, banters with him— he's used to people shying away from him, or outright absolutely shitting bricks just because they're in his presence.

This is what I mean by a sort of modified version of words of affirmation, just carrying on with Simon, basically, otherwise known as turning towards a bid for affection. Super cool behaviour, btw, totally recommend looking into it if you're interested at all by human social behaviours (which, if you've gotten far enough into this to read this, I'm just going to take a wild guess that you do, there's a short article about it here if you want just a working understanding of it).

Receiving Gifts. Honestly, Ghost would accept pretty much anything anyone gives him, as long as he cares about them. Once Soap handed him a small pebble as a (sort-of-not-really) joke, and told him with a straight face that he was giving it to him because the rock reminded him of Simon. There was a sort of bemused flicker in Simon's eyes, but he took it with a wordless nod. It now lives in his TAC vest, and he takes it on every mission he goes on (when he can't sleep either on base or during an op, he'll take it out and smooth his thumb over it). One time he thought he lost it, and felt a sense of dread pressing down on his sternum until he found it again (it had fallen to the floor when he was changing out of his gear, he now keeps it in its own pocket that can velcro shut).

Gaz — Words of affirmation. Kyle always has something to prove to himself, is always pushing to do more, to do better. He’s still quite young, only a year older than Soap, and goes about his days trying to prove without a shadow of a doubt that he’s more than earned his spot as a member of the 141. Of course he knows he’s good, Price wouldn’t have picked him for the team if he wasn’t; but he knows that even with how good he is, he’s still has a long way to go.

With how hard he tries, it’s assuring every once in a while to have his efforts affirmed.

Soap like usual, is the most open and giving with his assurances. Never one to shy away from telling Kyle that something he had done was, ‘pure brilliant, mate,’ or anything of the sort. He’s also most likely to hype Kyle up when he needs it, or just generally carry on with him. He helps Kyle get out of his own head, and Kyle often does the same in turn; it’s pretty obvious when Soap gets caught up in his thoughts, he gets quiet, and it’s obvious just by looking at his eyes that he’s not overly present. Often Kyle will gently corral him to someplace quiet, and slowly work him back out of his head with a low voice and silly chit chat. If it’s a mission that went particularly bad, Kyle will wrap his arms around Soap’s shoulders, and murmur soft assurances against his temple as his hands stroke over Soap's shoulders or down the back of his neck.

Soap is also likely to be the first one to use any sort of pet name with Kyle— at first only teasingly, but it quickly morphs into a habit. Most people don’t acknowledge it anymore — once a private tried to make a crack about it, but got such a dirty/unimpressed look from Soap and Gaz that they shut up rather quickly (the silent hard glare from Ghost who happened to be talking to Price behind the pair also probably had something to do with it too).

Price, in the beginning, pretty exclusively only praises Kyle while they’re in the field, often pairing it with a quick clap or pat to his shoulder before they have to keep moving; it pretty much always gives Kyle enough of a second wind to push through and finish up the op, even if he was basically dead on his feet beforehand. As they get closer though, it gradually slips into more and more of their conversations. He'll complement Kyle on how he handles himself during training exercises, or how he works the rookies when he's in charge of them, until it becomes second nature.

Eventually it gets to a point where he becomes so comfortable that he unintentionally calls Kyle love one day. At first Price doesn't even seem to notice that he's done it, doesn't even cause him to look up from the briefing he's going over, it just slips into place at the end of his sentence like it's always been there, settling comfortably between what he just said, and the words that follow. It's only once he asks Kyle a question, only to receive no answer, does he look up. After a pause that's just long enough for Price to realize what he just did, and begin to try to apologize— Kyle clears his throat softly and waves his hand dismissively, as if physically brushing off Price's fretting, assuring him that he didn't mind.

It takes a while before Price does it again, but it too eventually becomes a habit, though it's one he saves for when there's no one else around.

Ghost obviously would be much more reserved with any praise he hands out— though that just makes it feel more special, since if he bothered to say it, he really means it. The first time he ever praises Kyle is on the field for a quick choice he made when they were under fire and backed into a corner, giving them enough time to reposition. It was short, succinct, nothing more than a 'Good call, nicely done, Sargent,' and it catches Kyle off guard so bad he thought he misheard Ghost because his ears were still ringing from the stunner that had thrown moments before; after a second or so he manages to shake it off and keep moving though. If Ghost had noticed, he didn’t comment on it (he probably did, but had much more pressing things to focus on, to be fair).

The first time Kyle complements Ghost is during a rough mission, they’re both pretty run through, and it slips past his lips without much thought (by then he had gotten far too used to the easy words that were traded back and forth between Soap and himself, and he was practically running on fumes) it was just the sort of absentminded observation that he typically wouldn't bother vocalizing, mixed with a lazy sort of joke, something about how under the light of the setting sun, Ghost was rather easy on the eyes. Not like it wasn't true, something about the soft glow of oranges and pinks eased some of the harshness typically present in the lines of Ghost's body and what was visible of his face. They both just look at each other for a long moment, before Ghost snuffs his cigarette out on his boot and buries the spent stub under a bit of loose soil. He sends Kyle off to get some sleep, grunting out something or other about taking first watch for the night, no longer looking at the man. Kyle was tired enough that he didn't put up a fuss, simply turning heel and walking away. He sleeps through the entire night, only waking up when Ghost nudges him to get up so they can keep moving.

It takes a while for it to feel more natural, and Ghost never praises Gaz as much as Soap or even Price, but the brief words or looks of approval flow between them more easily as time goes on.

Physical Touch. Gaz is just as physcially affectionate as Soap, and often indulges him because of it (read Soap's section: here, if you haven't already) but is much more subtle about it most of the time. Often he'll end up leaning against the people he cares about, just sidling up to them wordlessly and pressing his shoulder against theirs, or even resting his head against them if he's feeling particularly drained. He's also prone to quick bursts of touch, resting his hand against their back as he guides them out of the way so he can move past in a hurry, before missions he'll go up and briefly check their gear, pulling at straps and buckles to make sure everything is resting as it should, before drawing back into his own space, etc.

When he can get away with it, he has no problem curling up against someone either. If he has his mind set on Ghost, he does eye the man up like a stray alley cat for a while beforehand, and gradually scoots his way closer over the course of a few minutes, Ghost notices of course, but rarely acknowledges it with more than a glance. With Price he'll just outright lean against his side, and more often than not Price will automatically wrap his arm around Kyle's waist or drape it over his shoulders, drawing him closer. When it comes to Soap, Kyle usually just drops himself right into his lap, which usually spurs a round of rough-housing until they're tangled around each other and worn out, then they typically just settle like that, not bothering to move or adjust to get more comfortable; it's only when someone else wants to sit down too, do they move at all.

Quality Time. With how fast-paced his life is, any sort of time he manages to get with the people he cares about is something Gaz appreciates dearly. He savours any little stolen moment he can get, whether that be during downtime on an op, around base, or when the team will slip off for an evening to mill around a bar or even just picking up something from the shops.