Ghost knows a secret.
Soap cannot handle terms of endearment. He guesses the other man must not be as used to it growing up, but he’s noticed that when Price absentmindedly calls him “pet” , the split second where Johnny’s breath catches, eyes widening ever so slightly as his brain short circuits is an adorable sight. It’s only a second of course, and he just stares off into the distance later when no one’s watching, processing the past few seconds after he talks to Price.
Or when Gaz asked if anybody had a sticky note and Soap without hesitation pulled one out of his bag. Gaz just responds with a quick “thanks darling” before taking the note and scribbling furiously on it. He gets to see the look again, the subtle freeze he does, the rapid blinks and wide eyes, along with the smile he’s fighting off slowly forming which the latter doesn’t notice. There’s not a lot of things that catch Johnny MacTavish off-guard, so seeing something so casual just throw him off with that look on his face is something Ghost considers priceless.
So he tries it himself. After a mission, when everyone’s at a bar and the volumes so loud you can barely hear what the others saying, he looks at Johnny whose carrying their drinks, and takes the drink the other man extends with a “Thanks, love.”
The glorious red flush is reward enough, Soap caught so speechless he actually stammers, stammers for a response while his hands fumble, eyes refusing to meet his. And he notices afterwards how Johnny keeps mouthing that word to himself, over and over again, bit of the earlier blush creeping back over his neck. He swears Johnny lets out a sound, burying his head in his hands while his hands grip the Mohawk.
He thinks he quite likes this little secret Soap keeps.
