Soap’s ears pricked up as soon as he heard movement coming from the bedroom. He sat up from where he’d been stretched out on the sofa, chucking his sketch book onto the coffee table, freezing as he watched it hit his cup of tea, shoving towards the edge.

It stopped before it fell, so Soap was able to rescue it as he stood, emptying it into the sink of the kitchenette that had been tacked onto the back wall of the living room. He left the mug on the counter when he heard more noise from the bedroom, making himself hurry as he crossed the small safehouse to find out what was going on. He got there quickly, as the rest of the flat only consisted of a short corridor, with a bedroom on one side, and a bathroom-come-storage space on the other.

Soap opened the bedroom door to find Rudy sitting up and trying to get out of bed. Rudy squinted up at him as Soap crossed to the bedside, turning the lamp on and filling the room with its dim light. It was midday and blazing sun outside, but they’d kept the curtains closed to conceal their presence there while Rudy recovered.

“Soap?” Rudy coughed, hunching over as he tried to shove the blankets back from his lap. “What happened?”

“You got nicked. A knife, but nothing really serious.” Soap nodded to the gauze patch on Rudy’s thigh, as a voice in the back of his head wondered at what point he’d built a mental tier list for the severity of knife wounds. “We’re in one of your safehouses. How do you feel?”

“Fine.” Rudy sighed, poking the tape holding the patch down. “It… aches a little bit.”

“You had to have stitches.” Soap stood in front of Rudy as he swung his legs towards the edge of the bed, intent on at least trying to stop him from standing. “Alejandro told me to make sure that you get some rest.”

“I can rest in the living room.” Rudy pushed himself to sit on the edge of the bed, his feet hitting the floor as he held his hand out to Soap. “Give us a hand.”

Soap took it and pulled Rudy up onto his feet, catching him when Rudy staggered. “Easy.”

“Okay. Maybe, I do need to rest.” Rudy muttered, but leant on Soap, clearly intent on following through with his idea of resting on the sofa, rather than the bed.

Soap led the way, one of Rudy’s arms slung over his shoulder as the other grabbed onto the walls for support, trying to conceal how each step made his breath hitch, until Soap set him down on the sofa. Rudy groaned, quickly settling and snatching up the TV remote. He muttered something under his breath as he surfed through the channels, looking up when Soap handed him some painkillers. Soap waited for Rudy to take the meds before swapping the packet for a bottle of water and some crackers, tucking the painkillers back in the medical bag before he took his seat next to Rudy, picking up his sketchbook again.

“Thank you.” Rudy set the remote back on the table, having settled on a local news show despite Soap’s interruption, before leaning over to glance at Soap’s sketches. “You draw?”

“Yeah.” Soap showed him the sketch book, briefly flicking through the pages, mostly bearing variously finished and unfinished sketches of the other members of 141.

“Lots of Ghost in there…”

“Ha, ha.” Soap flipped to a blank page. “Would you rather I do you instead?”

“Sure.” Rudy got into a comfortable position, leaning back against the sofa cushions with his eyes trained on the TV screen. “Go ahead.”

Soap nodded, and put his pencil to paper. He sketched out his usual base, glancing up between his paper and Rodolfo frequently, filling in the core components of his profile, focusing on correcting his proportions before he started to do the details. He filled in Rudy’s eyebrows, showing how they pinched in the middle when he was deep in thought, how his face relaxed, lips curling up minutely in the corners when the news anchor made a joke, and laughter erupted from the TV. Soap sucked in a breath, trying to perfect the curl that appeared at the ends when Rudy’s hair fell down over his forehead, when he glanced up again to find Rudy watching him.

“Why are you so hot?” Rudy mumbled, tilting his head towards Soap.

“What?” Soap frowned, leaning up from his sketch book.

“You’re hot.” Rudy repeated, sitting up to face him.

“Not a question this time?” Soap leaned into him, laying his sketchbook aside.

Rudy shook his head. “No.”

Soap shuffled their bodies closer together. “Angling for a kiss?”

“A kiss… and maybe something more.” Rudy tilted his head in, nicking the kiss he was after.

Soap didn’t let him get away from it, reaching out to cup Rudy’s neck, before quickly pressing his arm against Rudy’s chest as he felt Rudy trying to move. “If you tear those stitches, Alejandro and Ghost will kill me.”

Rudy groaned, staring down at the gauze patch. “You’re right. Guess we have to take it easy, or something.”

“You don’t have to make it sound like it’s a bad thing.”

Rudy rolled his eyes and went back to kissing him, leaving Soap free to run his hand up Rudy’s thigh, moving it up to palm Rudy’s cock through his boxers, before delicately nudging the waistband aside and pushing his hand inside.

“How about I keep your cock warm in my ass?” Soap murmured.

Rudy groaned, rolling his hips up into Soap’s hand. “Sounds good.”

Soap rolled over onto back, quickly kicking off his joggers before helping Rudy crawl up on top of him, holding Rudy’s hips tight as Rudy nudged his cock into Soap’s hole. Rudy’s breath caught in his throat as he sunk into him, going deeper and deeper, until his hips knocked against Soap’s ass. Soap sighed blissfully once he was full, moving his hands up to Rudy’s shoulders, pulling him down to lie on top of him so Rudy would stay still, and Soap could run his hands through Rudy’s hair.

“What do you reckon Ghost and Alejandro are up to?” Rudy mumbled, trailing his fingers around in circles on Soap’s chest.

“Dunno.” Soap mumbled, happy and content with his ass full. “Probably fucking.”

Rudy laughed, his chest rumbling against Soap’s. “You reckon?”

“You never know. They might be.”

“Which one of them tops?”

“Mmmm…” Soap tapped his fingers on Rudy’s shoulder as he thought. “Alejandro.”

“You think?”

“Ghost likes a caring top.”

“Alejandro’s not caring.” Rudy snorted with laughter.

“I mean, attentive.” Soap yawned. “He knows what you need without being told, you know.”

Rudy nodded. “I do.”

Soap thought about it some more. “It would depend on his mood, though. Ghost isn’t always amenable to it.”

Rudy gasped in mock excitement. “What does he do then?”

“Doesn’t negotiate.” Soap murmured, squeezing Rudy tight. “He knows what’s good for you, and you’re going to take it without complaining.”

“Hmm… Alejandro would probably get on with that.”

“Really?” Soap was surprised.

“Yeah…” Rudy sighed. “He gets too… consumed with it all sometimes. When he’s like that, he likes to have someone else making all of the decisions, telling him that it’s all going to be okay.”

“Ghost does that quite well.”

“You’d know.”

“Heh.” Soap chuckled. “I would.”

Rudy groaned. “I’m sleepy.”

“So, sleep then. You need it.” Soap gently rubbed Rudy’s back, relief flooding through him as he watched Rudy’s eyes closed, his breath slowly evening out as Soap murmured wishes for sweet dreams into his ear.

It wasn’t long before Rudy had fallen back into a deep sleep, this time resting on Soap’s chest. Soap rolled his hips minutely, whispering Rudy’s name, before sighing softly and closing his eyes, too. He tilted his head back, timed his breaths to go along with Rudy’s slow ones, and before long, he was asleep, too.

Then, a hand, a gloved hand, was on his brow. Soap cracked his eyes open to find Ghost staring down at him.

“Hey, Johnny.” He whispered.

“Hey, LT.” Soap briefly glanced down at Rudy, making sure he was still asleep. He was, barely shifting against Soap as he breathed quietly.

“Where is…?” Alejandro appeared next, his words fading in his mouth when he saw Rudy lying with Soap. “Ah. Here.”

“I’ll go get ‘em a blanket.” Ghost was smiling under the mask as he turned away to do just that, letting Alejandro lean down to replace him.

“Hey Rudy…” Alejandro whispered, watching as Rudy wrinkled his nose in his sleep.

“He’s out like a light.” Soap murmured, struggling to raise his hand to check his watch for the time. “Has been since…”

Alejandro chuckled, brushing his hand over Soap’s forehead. “We get the idea. Go back to sleep, Soap.”

“Only if you treat Ghost nicely.” Soap mumbled, already drifting off.

Alejandro chuckled. “Sure, I will.”

“You’ll what?” Ghost asked, reappearing with a blanket, shaking it out before draping it down over the pair on the sofa.