You excitedly bang your hands on the table as you're ranting to your friend, who just sits there with a smirk on his face. You don't know why he finds it that amusing. Doesn't everyone have a crush?

His eyes light up as you keep gushing over the Spartan.

"I can only imagine what his face would look like; handsome no doubt." You stare off dreamily.

You sigh, "I wish I could meet him."

John shrugs, "Maybe one day you will."

You pout and then rest your head on your now crossed arms that rest on the table. You let out a puff, "My job doesn't allow me to be in combat. We always direct from up here." You gesture to the ship.

John continues eating his sandwich, which by the way, looks much more appetizing than the food on your plate. You wonder where he got the delicious looking food. In fact, you just now realize that John's food always seems to be gourmet, and much better than yours. You mentally shake your head, thinking it doesn't matter and you go back to thinking of your crush that you're never going to meet.

John reassures you again, "You never know when a special mission will come up anyways. They can always pull you into combat under special circumstances."

You hum, still bummed about your current position and reply, "Yeah, I guess."

You and John finish up your lunches then go your separate ways.

---

About a week later, you're being pulled into a conference room with your team and upper management. It's odd because usually upper management doesn't attend team meetings like this, so you figure something is happening or about to.

Your guess is right when your boss, Davidson, starts the meeting.

"Thank you all for being here today, we have been assigned to a special mission, which we will be deployed to planet Concord, where an outer human colony resides."

Davidson continues her assessment of the colony's climate and the reason for your team going.

"We will be assisting a covert operation, lead by the Spartans, specifically Blue Team. But this will require a ground operation team, so that is why we are being deployed with the Spartans."

Your stomach erupts with butterflies. Blue Team? You immediately know who's on that team and it's hard for you to contain your excitement.

Davidson continues with her presentation, but you find it hard to focus. However, you do catch that the reason for this covert mission is that there's been alien chatter in the quadrant Concord is in. It's unclear whether the Covenant has found the human colony or not. It is also sometimes hard to communicate with the outer colonies since they are a long way from Reach.

Your thoughts drift away again. Your first mission! You're itching with anticipation.

---

The day has come where you leave for Concord. you have been so busy the past week that you haven't had a chance to see your friend John and share the exciting new. Oh well, you think. I'll catch up with him once I'm back.

Travel to the outer colonies takes about a day or so from Reach and before you know it, you've reached Concord. You were hoping to catch a glimpse of the Spartans on the ship, but you guess your luck ran out because you didn't see a single one.

It was decided that you all would land on the outskirts of the region Corsica. This region had a dense population and would be a prime spot for the Covenant to attack.

You finally see the Spartans emerge from the ship, but they are already in their armor.

You all get to work in setting up your outpost, and surprisingly, the Spartans help with a lot of the set up.

Huh, guess they aren't better than that.

Once your networks are up and running, you and your team immediately get to work on analyzing the different comms channels for any chatter that isn't your own. The Spartans have left to search the perimeter and scout the area.

Day one and two, nothing happens. You're not picking anything up on the networks and Blue Team hasn't reported seeing anything.

However, on day three, things start to get interesting.

You just had your morning coffee when you hear it. it was so brief,. but you would recognize Sangheili anywhere. You immediately notify your team and Blue Team. You really hadn't had any interaction with the Spartans, but now they stand before you, waiting to hear your report.

You stand tall and say, "This morning at 0600 hours, we picked up Sangheili chatter. We only caught a snippet of it before they switched to another channel, but we could make out "Concord" from the discussion."

Master Chief is the first to ask a question, "Is it safe to assume they are on Concord?"

You clear your throat and respond, "While, we cannot confirm that they are on the planet, we can confirm that they know of its existence, and therefore, know the location of it."

You see Master Chief nod, his orange-yellow visor glinting in the morning sun. "Okay, what is our mission?"

This is where Davidson steps up to explain the game plan, now that there is credible intelligence that the Covenant know about Concord. FLEETCOM has been preparing for this for years, but its still surreal putting the procedures into place.

However, before Davidson can report on the procedures, a large blast hits near your outpost. You shriek and crouch down, covering your head with your hands. Another blast deposits close to the outpost, but with this blast, you can feel the warmth from the plasma. Covenant.

The outpost erupts into chaos and you snap back to reality, ready to follow your attack procedures that you know so well. But before you can stand, a green hand reaches down to you. You take it without any thought. It's only when the hand pull you up that you are face to face with Chief.

You take a step back, and mutter a thanks under your breath. Chief nods slightly, and then says, "You need a weapon."

Oh right, we're under attack. He leads you to the armory and you thank him again before he leaves you to get ready. you meet your team back at command and then you are split into groups to engage the Covenant. Each Spartan takes a squadron of soldiers, and lucky you, you're in Chief's unit.

You all disperse out to your combat areas, and you're immediately met with grunt troops. Easy enough you think.

You watch Chief ahead of you, easily taking out the grunts while you and your squadron take out the weakened ones. You see him take out his sniper and easily pick off the Jackals that were hiding up in the rock formations.

Strangely enough, it gets quiet after that, and you hear through your comms from the other units that combat has paused for them as well.

Chief runs back to your unit and says, "Let's climb up those rocks to get to higher ground. I'm sure that wasn't the last of the Covenant troops."

You all hike up the steep hill littered in rock formations until you reach the top. It does provide a good advantage, but you're also hoping for some rest.

You see the rest of your unit start to sit, drink water, and assess any injuries, so you decide to do the same. You luckily remained unscathed, and when you're drinking your water, Chief comes up to sit beside you and before you can say anything, he starts to take off his helmet.

You must being seeing things, because you are met with the familiar face of your friend John.

"I'm sorry, I must be seeing things, because what the fuck?!"

John, your friend John, sits besides you in a fucking Spartan suit, none other than the Master Chief himself.

"Guilty," he responds. He tries to give you a small smile, but all he is met with is a glare.

You're still shell-shocked and you are trying not to cause a scene in front of everyone, but seriously, what the actual fuck?

"Are you fucking serious? Why didn't you tell me?" You're honestly more hurt that he didn't tell you, than the fact that for almost the entirety of your friendship you've been gushing to him about your crush on, well, HIM.

Before he can get a word out though, you say, "What strings did you pull for me to be here?"

He just says, "Don't worry about it." you feel steam coming out of your ears.

Of course. Of course. It's all coming together now.

"Was this even a real mission?" your voice raises.

"Of course it was! We did just fight the Covenant, no?"

You hate to admit it but he makes a good point.

He gives you a small shrug, "I may have pulled a few strings to get your team assigned-" he looks over to you and you give him your hardest glare. You cross your arms, and shift your position so you're facing him head on.

"-but you and your team were well over-qualified! So it worked out anyways."

"WHY?!" You throw your hands up in the air, now feeling the embarrassment of your confession you've one too many times admitted.

"Look, Y/N," He places his gloved hand on your shoulder and you fight the urge to smack it away.

"i don't know if you noticed but everywhere I go, people just gawk at me and don't even treat me as a human. So, when I'm out of my armor, I feel a certain freedom I don't usually feel. And when I met you, well, I wanted to keep feeling that."

His thumb starts to rub circles into your shoulder.

"I was going to tell you, I was. But I started loving the feeling of just being normal, and you always provided that space for me. I'm sorry."

You sigh at his explanation, and while you're still mad at him, you do understand his point of view.

"You weren't creeped out by my crush, borderline obsession, with you?" You can't even look at him when you ask this and instead train your eyes to Concord's two moons up in the sky.

"Y/N, look at me." You do.

He smiles at you, the creases by his eyes crinkling and says, "I thought it was endearing, okay?"

"Ugh, you must get that all the time from women though, as you literally just said." You bring up your hands and rub your face and you feel your cheeks warm.

"Well, they aren't you."

"What?" You must have heard him wrong and you look at him to catch any kind of lie in his confession. But a small smile still rests on his lips and his eyes are still looking into yours with honesty.

He brings his hand that was on your shoulder to rest on your jaw, his thumb now stroking your cheek. You imagined the texture of his techsuit to be rougher, but you find his hand feels like silk against your skin.

"You mean to tell me you didn't know?"

You roll your eyes, "No, I did not know that my friend John of six months liked me. Clearly I don't pick up on things easily." You gesture between the two of you.

"Mhmm, then I'll have to do better." John closes the space between you and captures your lips with his. You kiss him back and rest your hand on top of his that still lies on your jaw.

You pull away for a brief second, "Wait! Now I understand why you have so much better food than me. You ass!" You smack his shoulder.

He shuts you up with another kiss.

---

You're so engrossed in all things John that you fail to notice that Kelly and her squadron met up with yours.

You have an audience behind you and you don't even notice it. Kelly mutters, "About time. He wouldn't shut up about her."