you know who it is

11:46 read the digital clock on your nightstand. It was always this time of night where you tossed and turned in your bed, unable to sleep. This seemed almost like a crucial part of your nightly ritual, you did your usual night time ritual of washing your face and brushing your teeth just to get into bed and stare at your ceiling in hopes of maybe, finally getting more than a few hours of sleep. No dice this night either. 

As you laid on your side, you closed your eyes to try once more and get some sleep. After what felt like forever of just laying there you rolled onto your back, frustrated. One more glance at the clock, 11:48, no fucking way. The red of the numbers proved strong, unchanging, mocking you. Your thoughts of anger were interrupted when your phone began to ring. Picking it up, you answered without a second thought, “Hello?”

“Who is this?” A mans scratchy voice spoke back.

“Not who you were trying to call,” you said as you hung up the phone. Downstairs you heard the floor creak. Your eyes closed and not even 10 seconds later the ringing broke the silence again. You sighed heavily. You checked the caller ID this time, Unknown. There was an uneasy feeling creeping into your stomach as you remembered about the murders that have happened recently. You answered.

“Listen, I don’t know what you’re playing at, but this isn’t funny,” your voice quivered.

“You’re going to listen to me if you know what’s good for you!” His voice roared back at you. You felt your eyes begin to well up with tears. You hung up. As you did you noticed the ghostly face in your hallway, watching you. 

Your hand flew up to your mouth to stop the scream that desperately wanted to come out. You ran for the window in your room. Your fingers tried to wedge the window up and to your despair it refused to even budge. “Fuck,” you whispered under your breath.  You could hear boots coming towards you as you frantically tried to open your window.

An arm wrapped around your stomach, ripping a scream from your throat. The silence from moments before was ripped apart as you elbowed your attacker in the side allowing your escape, your feet running as fast as they could out of the room and down the hall. Your mind raced with thoughts of everything you could do, all your possibilities. Of course, the one weekend you have the house to yourself is the night that the killer you’ve heard about in the news, but never wanted to believe was real, chooses you as his next victim. You practically flew down the stairs into the kitchen, hoping to find some sort of weapon. As your hands shook violently while opening drawers, you could hear heavy boots coming down the steps. You finally landed on a kitchen knife and hoped that was enough. You crept into your walk-in pantry as quietly as you could. You slide to the floor, hand over your mouth. Tears pooled onto your fingers. Boots began to sound closer and closer. Cabinets opened and slammed, each one making you jump and sob a little more.

After what felt like hours, silence. Your entire body was quivering. Was he finally gone? Did he give up? You stood as fast as your shaking legs would allow you. Your hand reached for the door knob. As you were about to grab it, it was ripped away from you. There stood the infamous Ghostface. Your mouth opened, but nothing came out. Your body wouldn’t allow you to scream before you felt a stab into your side. Your knife clattered to the floor. All you could let out was a whimper as you looked down at your shirt that was quickly becoming a dark red. The sight of your blood made you feel faint. The knife was ripped back out of you with a nasty squelch sound. This can’t be happening is all that ran through your head. Not even a second later your legs gave out and your eyes closed expecting to hit the floor with a heavy thud, but there was nothing. Your eyes fluttered open and there was that stupid screaming mask in your face. He caught you? Shouldn’t he have just let you go and stabbed you twenty times to ensure the kill? Him not killing you almost felt scarier, but you were in no shape to fight back. Pain rippled through your side as he put you over his shoulder. Your thoughts were getting fuzzier and fuzzier before they finally went blank.

-

Your consciousness was ripped back into you as you felt your back hit the mattress. A groan was the only thing that came out of you. The back of your knees were on the edge of the bed and the masked man stood directly in front of you. As you began to regain your thoughts, it was then that it hit you what you were wearing. All you had on was a a t-shirt and panties. Mentally, you began slapping yourself with regret. You could hear deep, heavy breathes that matched the heaving chest beneath the cloak he wore. You watched as his hands reached for the seam in the middle and tore it, the sound of velcro filling the room.  What was underneath took you by no surprise. He had black faux leather gloves, black jeans and a black button-up with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing muscular forearms. He was slender and not too tall… he seemed vaguely familiar to you, but you couldn’t put it together. Cold metal pulled you from your thoughts as your widened eyes looked down to see a knife pulling the side of your panties up before making a clean slice. He carefully repeated this action on the other side, leaving your heat exposed to the cold air. The Ghostface placed his knee on the edge of the bed before forcefully opening you up to him, watching your bottom half with intrigue. “Wh-what do you want with me?” squeaked out of your mouth. The mask looked at your face and tilted, almost as if to let you know that was a meaningless question to ask. You didn’t get the privilege of knowing that.

He placed his knife down before his hands gripped onto your waist and dragged your back further up the bed to make room for him to kneel. Your legs were place on top of his, leaving you open for him. As you watched his movements, any thought of fighting him left and your heat began to pulse, almost matching the pulse from the stab wound in your side which seemed to stop bleeding. He stabbed you, yet here you are becoming soaking wet for him. This man was doing something dangerous to you and you don’t even know who he is or what he even looks likes. A gloved hand reached up to your mouth. His thumb gently tugged on your bottom lip, rubbing it. The faux leather felt smooth against the soft skin. 

“Open,” a soft voice rang from the mask. You swear you could almost recognize it. You hesitated for a moment before parting your lips and leaving your mouth open for him. His thumb moved into your mouth and pressed down on your tongue. As if it was second nature, your lips closed, your tongue pressing back as you looked at him straight into where you assumed his eyes were. All you could hear from the man was a groan, barely audible. He watched you as you began to suck then after a few moments he slowly pulled back out. He placed his middle finger on your lip now.

“Bite.”

You obliged, biting the tip of his glove. His hand pulled out, revealing smooth, pale skin with slender fingers. His thumb placed itself on your bottom lip again, dragging it down as his hand continued on. You felt his cool touch linger on your cheek before his hand moved further down to your throat, squeezing lightly before he continued. He touched your breast, another squeeze. To your waist, hip, then finally to your most sensitive area of all. Your breath faltered. He massaged your inner thigh before cold fingers gently moved between your folds, collecting your wetness. You would every so often feel the tips of his two middle figures push into you, only to come out not even a second later. Your body jerked up, begging for more. He teased you in this way, never fully inserting his fingers, testing to see how much torture you could take. A whine came from you each time he never put more than a knuckle in. Did he enjoy seeing you writhe under his touch, desperate for more? You felt his thumb reach up for your clit, rubbing aggravating circles around it, yet never actually touching that bundle of nerves. Your hips to began to grind and jerk, searching for the friction that would put this torture to an end.

“Beg for it,” he said, joining your whines of frustration.

“What?” you said surprised. 

His voice became low, “Beg.” He stopped his hand, no longer providing any amount of pleasure. You whined even louder than before. You felt heat rush to your face at the noises that were coming from you. Fuck, what were you doing? He’s a killer. He’s murdered people you knew personally, he must be crazy if he thinks you’re going to- 

“Please.. please, I need this.” 

Another chuckle, “Oh yeah? What do you need?” His soft voice spoke again.

Your face became burning hot, your hand reached down and gripped his wrist, “I-I need you,” you carefully said, your throat feeling like it could catch at any moment. 

Once those words left your mouth, you heard a chuckle as he said “Mmm? What do you need me to do?” His thumb placed itself onto your clit, unmoving.

God, this felt embarrassing. “I want you to finger me,” you spoke bluntly. Your lower abdomen burned with desire for this man.

“Good girl.”

His fingers finally slipped into you, your wetness making it easy for him to pump them in and out. You felt yourself clench around his fingers, needy for more. Once he got a nice rhythm going he curved his fingers just right to perfectly massage your g-spot with each stroke. Once one moan escaped your lips, you couldn’t stop them from coming. Your grip on his wrist tightened, hips grinding into his hand. Another burst of pleasure started heating through you, his thumb had finally starting rubbing your clit. You tossed your head back onto the bed, moaning and gripping the sheets as you felt a knot begin to build in your stomach. With each stroke he made, the tighter that knot became. Your mind was losing all thoughts, only thinking of him as you got closer to your climax. He knew all the right places to touch you and he knew how to work them. You felt like you were at your limit, you practically screamed “I-I’m coming” between moans. Once those words left your lips, he pulled out from your heat and the grip you had on his wrist, leaving you empty and your heat gripping onto nothing. You whined as you propped yourself up onto your elbows and looked up at him in disbelief. You couldn’t see his face, but somehow you had a feeling he was smiling under there. 

“What happened?” You whined. No response. A knife suddenly pressed against your throat with just enough pressure for you to feel the sharp edge, if you moved at all you’d surely be sliced. Your widened eyes looked down to the knife then at him, just in time to see him stick his hand soaked in your juices underneath his mask. All you heard was a quiet sucking sound before his hand appeared again, clean. Fuck, did that turn you on. Just the idea of him tasting you made your head buzz with excitement. 

“Fuck, you taste good baby,” he said as he sat back and seemed to just stare at you, “It’s too bad I can’t taste you straight from the source.” 

He just yanked you from the edge of your climax and now he’s sweet-talking you? Only a sadistic man would do that, but its not like you have much say in the matter, the knife on your throat a constant reminder of that. The sound of a clinking belt pulled you back out of your thoughts, making you look down as he skillfully undid his belt with one hand. He quickly finished with his pants and pulled them open, his boxers pulled taut as his dick begged to come out. The sight of it made you gulp. Just from his bulge you could tell he was definitely the biggest you’ve seen. In just a moment, you were proven right as he pushed the hem of his boxers down, letting his member jump out and reveal itself to you. He had a dark pink head that was practically dripping with precum and twitching in anticipation. His hand gripped onto the head and gave it a gentle squeeze before he started stroking it at a tender pace. 

“Care you to help me out?”

Before you even got a chance to respond, his hand moved and you felt a pain rip through your side. He was pressing his hand onto your wound, breaking the barrier of clotted blood and letting the red ooze out. His hand was covered in your blood before he continued to stroke the head, lathering it in your blood. Once it was slick, he lined himself up with your entrance, pressing against it just before making entry. As he began to push himself in, you realized just how thick he was. There was a searing pain between your legs causing you to wince and grab onto his muscular arm, your nails digging into him. The knife to your throat pressed a little harder, threatening you not to move too much. A cry ripped out of your throat, your entire body tensed as he pushed in each excruciating inch until he was at his hilt. He slowly pulled himself back out before pushing back in at a barely faster pace than before. As your body got used to his size, pleasure began to replace pain and cries became moans. 

In between slaps of skin, you were able to hear a metal clatter on the floor as the pressure lifted from your throat. He had tossed his knife, now using both hands to grip onto your hips as he slammed himself in and out of you. With each thrust of his hips, his length rubbed perfectly against your g-spot before hitting your cervix. This was a new feeling for you, you’ve never felt so much pleasure in pain like this. It was invigorating. Your eyes stared at the mask who’s gaze kept switching between your face and your pussy. His body movements became more untamed, you could hear him grunting with each thrust. Before you knew it, his hand left your hip and ripped the mask off his face. 

Your mouth was agape as you let out a moan and clenched tighter around him. The man that was inside you was none other than Charlier Walker. Your eyes darted around taking in all his features. His panting mouth, the hair sticking to his forehead. This was the president of the cinema club, you had even attended the Stab-a-thon and couldn’t keep your eyes off of him then. After that party you were so worked up that you went home with some other guy in the club, but who you really wanted was him. There was no way you were taking your eyes off of him now that you had him. 

As soon as you finished that thought, his lips crashed onto yours. Hungry, his mouth was hungry as his tongue explored your mouth and yours explored his. Your hands moved up into his hair and as your fingers became tangled, you felt his palm gently grip your throat and squeeze. His thrusts became more rapid and sloppy, there was a knot growing in your stomach. You could feel yourself getting closer. You pulled out of the kiss and started panting. “I-I’m gonna cum..”, you said as loudly as you could. His grasp on your throat tightened as his other hand started rubbing your clit.

“Finish for me, baby,” he said in a pleading voice. As soon as those words hit, you felt pleasure rip through your body. You grasped at his arms as you lost control, twitching. In the midst of your climax, you could feel a warm sensation shoot into you as he let out a loud groan and dropped onto you.

Panting, he pulled out and you could feel his seed slowly dribble onto your thighs. He gave you one last kiss before letting go of your throat and falling onto the beg next to you. Your gaze slowly moving to him, you said “I can’t believe it’s you,” surprise in your voice, “I’m glad it’s you.” 

He leaned over and brushed the hair out of your face, “I’ve been trying to protect you, that’s why I haven’t seen you till tonight.” He gave you a gentle kiss on the forehead. You felt heat across your face, why were you suddenly so nervous?

“I’ve always watched you from afar, not wanting any harm to befall you. You may not have realized it, but I was always there with you,” a sinister smile crept across his face, “Even when you went home with whats-his-name, I was with you. Watching you. I wanted you too.” The warm feeling you had before turned cold. Images started flooding your mind as you connected the dots. The morning after you slept with that guy, he was found dead. You remember thinking how lucky you were that left that same night. 

“Wh-who were you protecting me from..?” Your veins were turning to ice. 

Ignoring you, he continued, “I knew I wanted to see you one of these nights, but I don’t have the same confidence like I do in the costume. That’s when I knew how I’d finally have you.” 

Your eyes started darting around the room. Under his stare you no longer felt wanted, you felt like prey. “I-I won’t tell anyone I swear..”

------------------------

“Let me make it up to you…” you heard in your ear, Simons gentle breath warm against your skin. His proximity to you made you feel dizzy and you were trying to calm your mind down when suddenly you felt soft, warm lips on your neck. He left kisses going down your neck before reaching the neckline of your shirt, you didn’t even notice his swift hands remove it before you felt his lips practically crash back down onto your skin. He ran his rough hands up and down your side, resting on your hips and massaging every so often. His kisses turned to gentle nibbles as he reached your breast, the feeling of his teeth on your skin made you let out small moans. Your hands gripped his broad shoulders after he finally took your nipple into his mouth and began to gently suck and swirl around the bud; meanwhile, his hand that originally was on your hip moved up to massage your other breast so that both were being attended to properly.

After a beat Simon pulled back and started to guide you back, back until you felt the soft bed behind you. You looked at his face, noticing he didn’t have his mask on at all. You were finally able to see just how handsome he was, even if his features seemed blurry (why were they blurry?). You sat and laid back onto the bed. Once you did so Simon practically jumped back onto you almost as if you two were magnets. His mouth returned to your nipple, but this time his hand slipped into your panties and began to gently prod your folds. His fingers made their way up and down, exploring, taking all of you in before finally settling on your clit. It was there where he made small, tight circles. Your head began to buzz with excitement as he seemingly worked his magic. Something about the calluses, or maybe how big his fingers are, just made it feel so good, you bit your lip to try and stifle a moan, but to no avail. He had seized the opportunity to move his mouth back to yours and take you in, to taste you. Your tongues pressed against each other, wanting to savor everything for as long as you could. 

The pressure on your clit suddenly lifted causing you to make a small whine. He smirked into the kiss before saying, “No whining, ok, baby?” You weren’t pleased with the sudden departure of the pleasure you were feeling moments before, but you begrudgingly nodded in understanding. His smirk never ceased as his knee moved in between your legs and started to push them apart. He pulled back from you once more and looked down at your heat, “You’re so wet already,” he looked at you with a loving gaze as he trailed his fingers up your slit again through your panties. His words made your face burn up, “You see what you do to me, Simon?”

 “This all because of me? I’m honored,” He chuckled as his finger continued to trail up and down before leaving once more to grab the hem of your panties. You watched him carefully as he began to take your panties off. Once the one piece of clothing protecting your heat was gone, Simon moved his gaze back down to your heat, he licked his lips. His fingers went back to your pussy, this time he gently inserted two fingers and began slowly pumping them.  You bit your lip and spread your legs more for him, wanting all you could get of him. His fingers began to spread your pussy part in a scissoring motion, almost as if preparing you for something. 

Once he was satisfied with his work, he moved off the bed and began to unbuckle his pants, the clinking of his belt filling the air. There was an obvious bulge already protruding through his jeans, which made you nervous about what was to come. He pulled his underwear and pants off all in one go, revealing a glistening baby pink head to a thick shaft with a vein running down its side. This is what he’s been preparing you for? Your mind started to race, there was no way that thing could fit in you. He noticed your surprised face and let out a deep chuckle, “I’ll be gentle, my love..”

A knock on your door made you shoot up in bed. You drearily looked around, then rubbing your eyes you said, “Who is it?” 

Soap’s voice came through the door, “It’s Soap. Price called a meeting for 141, it’s about the Hassan mission.”

Goddamnit. What a horrible time for another mission briefing. What time is it anyways? You look at the clock on your nightstand. Shit, its 7:00am. You better get up, it was already past your usual wake up time. Body still full of sleep, you dragged yourself out of bed and quickly changed, finishing with your boots and tying them. You fixed your hair briefly after looking in the mirror and seeing what a mess you were. You then left the sanctuary and made your way to the main admin building where all meetings were held.

There was a slight breeze you could feel against your skin and even though the sun was out, you still felt coldness bite at you. You could hear rounds firing off in the distance coming from the practice range. Finally approaching the admin building, you saw a person about to walk in before you. Of course, it was Simon. He had taken a quick glance over his shoulder, and upon seeing you he took a step back and held the door open. What a gentleman. His eyes never left your figure as you approached.

Seeing him reminded of what you were experiencing not even 15 minutes ago. Heat rose to your cheeks, “Good morning, lieutenant.”

He gave a brief nod, “Morning.”

Both pairs of boots made loud, echoing footsteps as you walked down the linoleum hallway. You had to stop yourself from getting nervous while being under his deep stare, especially due to your previous encounter a few nights ago. He hadn’t talked to you much since then, but you could tell by his lingering looks that he definitely hadn’t forgotten or moved on either. The dream that you had definitely wasn’t helping your case and you hoped he’d be none the wiser to what was going on inside your mind. You finally reached the meeting room door and opened it. Everyone else was already in there waiting, meaning everyone watched as Simon held the door open for you once more. You quickly moved to your unassigned, assigned seat next to Soap and Simon made his way over to the last seat at the table, which of course was the one next to you. Now, with everyone seated Price began, “Good morning, everyone.”

Everyone in the room said good morning back to him, everyone included TF-141 along with Alejandro and his people. Price continued, “To begin, we have finally pinpointed Hassan to arrive at these coordinates in exactly one month from now,” the screen behind him zoomed into Mexico, showing some spot in the desert in the middle of the country, “Yes, the timeline has now moved up, so we will be arriving on his doorstep sooner than expected.”

At the news of the mission being pushed up, there were a few sighs. You were grateful that you were finally getting back to your old self, otherwise you would’ve had to sit on the side lines which isn’t why you chose this career path. You liked the idea of seeing some action. Maybe some training wouldn’t hurt since you’ve been lacking on that front since coming back to base. 

“The way this will work is we will have two teams to surround the building he will be held in, one on each side. There will be five people to a team, each working to eliminate all hostiles in the building and the surrounding area,” as he spoke, there were images projected onto a screen behind him. It showed maps and outlines of how everything was gonna go down. Next thing he talked about was who was going to be on what team. He would be leading Alpha team and Ghost would be leading Bravo.

“The teams will be split up as follows: Alpha team will be myself, Gaz, Alejandro, and Rodolfo. Bravo team will be Ghost, Soap,” as your callsign name left his mouth, out of the corner of your eye you could see Ghost take a small glance at you, it seemed only noticeable to you. “Each team will also have soldiers from Los Vaqueros who haven’t been chosen at this point in time.”

Price got more serious, with a slight grimace on his he continued, “This mission will be overseen by U.S. Secretary of Defense Palcon instead of General Shepherd. That’s all the details I’ve been given thus far and I’ll update you all as needed.”

After a beat of silence, Price finished with, “Alright, that’s all for now, go enjoy your day.”

Everyone stood up and started filing out of the room. Price made a face that didn’t quite sit right with you, he seemed almost uneasy. Once some of the last people were out, you approached the Captain and asked him, “Hey, is everything ok? I saw you make a face before mentioning Palcon.”

“Oh, yeah, it’s nothing really, it’s just..,” he paused, “I wasn’t given as many details as I’d usually have, it just makes me uneasy.”

“Because of Palcon?”

“Maybe, it’s just the sudden change of leadership is strange. Nothing for you to worry about though, go on with your day.”

You didn’t feel very reassured that everything was actually okay on that end, but prying wouldn’t help if he wasn’t willing to share. You gave a smile and said, “Yes, sir.” You left the room and moved down the hallway towards the buildings entrance. You have the rest of the day free, and if everything were to go right you’d have the whole day to yourself just to train. Might be a good idea to get some breakfast first though. Leaving the building you decided it was best to head to the mess hall and get something quick before going to the firing range.

-

The menu seemed to have good pickings this morning, they had all the usuals: pancakes, waffles, sausage, bacon, and even chilaquiles. You decided just to get your favorite fruit for now. Easy, light breakfast. There was no one in the cafeteria that you knew personally, so you figured it’d be a better idea to just take your food outside and enjoy the fresh air for once.

As you slowly made your way to the firing range you would every so often take a bite. Once you had reached the entrance, you threw away whatever was left and wiped your hands off. You felt sort of nervous, you hadn’t needed to train in so long and it felt awkward not having anyone to actually train with. You figured you could just use your typical M4 and hit a few targets. How hard could it be? 

It was a lot harder than you remember it being. You’d miss your shots after turning quick corners, you wouldn’t see a target in time. You definitely had your work cut out for you if you were going to be ready in a month. Who knew just taking a month off to recover would leave you drowning. It was hours of trying to tag the moving targets and you definitely were improving, almost as if it was muscle memory. 

“You need to be quicker than that.”

You whipped your head around to where you heard the voice, except there wasn’t anyone there. Goosebumps creeped up your arm. You turned back around and there looming in front of you was Simon. It felt like you could’ve jumped out of your skin from the scare he gave you. 

“I’ll get there,” you said in a quiet tone, “I’m just out of practice is all.”

“Yeah, really out of practice,” he said gruffly before looking at the target you had shot just before he showed up. You had hit the left shoulder of the piece of metal shaped to look like a human torso and head. He’s judging you now?

“I’m not that bad, I’d like to see you get injured and come back as if you were brand new.”

He looked back at you now, that same tenderness in his eyes now that was there a few nights ago. “I’ll help you.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“Sure I do, how’s your hand to hand?”

You let you a loud exhale, “Shit, even worse than my aim probably.”

“We’ll work on that then,” you could see the corner of his eyes crease as if he was smiling, “If you’ve got the time, we could head out to one of the fields on base.”

“I’d like that,” you said smiling. You had always enjoyed watching Simon perform takedowns on enemies. He was so swift and tactical about it, it was admirable. Maybe he could actually teach you a thing or two.

-

The two of you had already been going at it for a few hours, only practicing face to face and you were in the middle of taking a break from all bouts you’d been doing. Sitting on the grass was comfortable enough, you were beat from Simon being almost impossible to take down. You took a swig of your water before looking over to him, he hadn’t taken his eyes off of you the entire time. The sudden eye contact made him look away and stand up.

 “You ready for an attack from behind?” Your face turned warmer at the thought of you both in such a close position.

“Of course.”

He moved behind you, so close you could lightly feel him against your back. You gave a quick nod and immediately he wrapped his arm around your neck just loose enough to let you breathe and another arm tightly around your waist. You struggled to try and pull his arm off of you to no avail. You then elbowed him in his ribs, this loosened his grip around you, giving you a big enough window to drop out of his arms and go to sweep his legs. Unluckily though, he stood like a mountain so your leg simply hit his ankles doing nothing to sway him. You looked up at him as you stood up.

“You loosened your grip on purpose, you could’ve at least let me drop you just once,” you said with disappoint in your tone. You pouted at him, he patted your shoulder.

“You’ll need to really earn that one,” he said. He checked his watch, “Shit, it's late,” he huffed, “Lets do one more bout and call it a day.”

“Sounds good,” you said as you stood in front of him and put your balled up fists in front of your face, ready to take him on. You were tired of losing to this mountain so you’re gonna try something new. Would it make you get hurt? Possibly. Would he get hurt? He’s probably 200 pounds of pure muscle, you won’t hurt him. You took a few steps back, still in a defense position. You gave a nod to signal the start of the bout. He took half a step forward when you ran towards him at full speed just so you could jump at the right moment to grab onto him with your legs on his waist and your hands on the back of his neck. The momentum of this jump caused him to fall onto his back leaving you both in the dirt.

He let out a big Huff! Your eyes met and you could see  when he grabbed your waist and flipped you so that you traded places. You weren’t sure if it was possible for him to seem bigger than he already was, but being in this position proved otherwise. He leaned down so that his steady breath was brushing against your ear. His voice felt hot on your cheek.

“You think you’re smart huh?” His head tilted down, his masked mouth brushing against your neck, “Too bad you’re in way over your head.” He sat up. He was still straddling your hips as he looked down on you, it felt like you were just a tiny bug in his point of view. 

----------------------------

Price called you and the rest of task force 141 into a meeting room to go over the details of the plan that’s a few months out, just like Soap said. It was sort of cut and paste, Hassan will be hiding somewhere with the Las Almas cartel and you’ll show up knocking at their door. Everyone was paying close attention, but your mind kept drifting to other matters.

Ghost was standing so close to you that you could practically feel the heat radiating off of him. It had been two weeks since you first arrived back onto the Los Vaqueros base in Mexico and Ghost has yet to say more than a few measly words to you. It was starting to become really annoying. It was like you had become the ghost in some ironic way.

“Any questions?” Price said as he took a quick scan of the room. No one moved or said anything. With a slight nod of his head he continued, “Alright, well as we get closer to the mission date, details may start to change. If they do I’ll do another debrief. Dismissed.” Everyone said a quick “Yes, sir” before filing out of the room.

Ghost had quickly made his way out of the room, but with a few ‘excuse me’s, you caught up to him. “Hey, Simo-”

He quickly cut you off by saying “Lieutenant.” His large steps made it practically impossible for you to keep up. 

Rolling your eyes at his comment, you went to speak, but not before almost tripping over your own feet from moving so fast just to stay at his pace, “Fuck! Lieutenant,” you said, “Can you please stop for a second?” With a deep sigh he abruptly stopped just before he reached the doors to exit the building and turned towards you, causing you to run straight into his chest.

Suddenly nervous from bumping into him and the way his eyes were just peering straight into your soul now, you took a few steps back and quietly said, “Why have you been avoiding me?” His stature and how he loomed over you made you regret even deciding to confront him on this. Was it immature? Foolish? His eyes were so relentless, the black around them definitely didn’t help that.

“I haven’t been,” his voice grew gruffer. Was he mad at you? Obviously he had been since he couldn’t seem to scrounge together enough time to visit you, especially after what you went through. It was hard to have seen the people under your command explode in front of you. It was harder now that the person you thought would understand your pain wasn’t there for you at all. 

“Then why didn’t you visit me at the hospital? Or even say anything to me since I’ve gotten back onto base?”

He didn’t say anything, he just stared at you. He was really starting to piss you off. There were boots approaching from behind you. The loud thumping of them seemed so distant, your head pounded with frustration and you could only focus on how cold Ghosts eyes were. The sudden touch of a hand on your shoulder took you by surprise. 

Your slight jump made Soaps hand pull back, you were the first to break the eye contact you and Ghost shared as you turned to look at Soap who seemed unaffected by the growing tension that he had interrupted. Looking between both of you he said, “Sorry to interrupt, but Gaz was talking about doing something for lunch together,” he said. When no one said anything he continued, “Would you two like to join?”

“No,” Ghost quickly replied and turned, pushing the double doors open to leave the hallway you had been in for what seemed like an eternity. Shit. Realizing you didn’t get the answer you needed, you turned to Soap and said, “I’ll be there, just give me a few minutes,” before flashing him a quick smile and pushing the double doors open.

After doing a quick jog to catch up to Ghost once again, you felt the anger of his non response bubbling inside you. Not thinking, you shoved his shoulder and practically shouted, “What the fuck is your problem?” Your shove did nothing to him except cause an annoyance. 

He swung around to face you, “My problem is that you never know when to quit!” he replied in the same tone you used on him. Fuck, he was scary. His eyes seemed to flash red and his voice was deeper than you were used to. You immediately regretted the way you approached this the second time around. 

Annoyingly, you could feel the prickle of tears. You refused to look this weak in front of him. There was a sinking feeling making it’s way into your chest. You gave him one last look, tears almost ready to fall now, and turned around back the way you came. You refused to look back at him as you wiped your eyes with the back of your hand.

-

This lunch idea that Gaz had wasn’t as bad as you thought it was going to be. It was just you, Gaz, and Soap sitting in the dining facility on base, eating the just okay food that was offered. Compared to what you’ve seen from mess halls before, you were just grateful it wasn’t mush and actually recognizable. 

Soap said your last name after swallowing a mouthful of food, “What was happening between you and Ghost earlier?” 

Your face grew warm, and you didn’t know if it was from anger or embarrassment. You didn’t want anyone to know how easily Ghost could sway your emotions, especially not Soap or Gaz. Yeah, you were close with them, but you still didn’t like to come across as anything other than tough. You had worked very hard to get to this point, and it definitely wasn’t by putting the feelings you had for a member of your team on full display for everyone to say. “Oh, it was nothing, just wanted to ask him what kind of eyeliner he used,” you said with the straightest face you could muster. Gaz and Soap shared a look before they began to laugh. You couldn’t back your laughter either. This is definitely what you needed after the headache that he-who-must-not-be-named put you through.

“Wonder if the commissary on base keeps it in stock just for him,” Gaz said between his spurts of laughter.

You guys talked, cracked jokes, and laughed for who knows how long. You sure as hell didn’t until you looked down at the digital watch on your wrist, “Oh shit, it’s late!” It was 5:30. Okay sure, it wasn’t that late, but you had been there awhile. You decided it was time to call it quits and head back to your room in the dormitories. You said your goodbyes to Soap and Gaz before leaving the hall.

The air was cool against your face and the sky was slowly starting to turn that light violet color that happens right before sunset. As you walked, the shadows of the buildings began to grow and grow. It was getting dark quicker than you expected and you felt like you were being watched. 

Your pace quickened as you saw the building that housed the teams rooms. Once you had left Soap and Gaz, that sinking feeling settled back into your chest. You felt so dumb after confronting Ghost. What right did you really have to do that? 

You finally reached the door to your room and entered. The familiar space let you relax at least a little bit. You untied your boots and kicked them off before sitting on your bed, letting out a deep sigh. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. With a groan, you got up and opened it to see who’d be bothering you. 

Unexpectedly, you were met with a skull mask. Your eyes hardened as you met his stare. “What?” you said coldly.

Ghost cleared his throat, “May I come in?” Your brain was screaming at you to say no and tell him to fuck off, but you just couldn’t pull yourself to do it. There was something in his eyes that made you cave. With a nod, you stepped aside letting him squeeze past you. He didn’t have his usual plate vest, the millions of straps he always had on, or his gloves, just his grey jacket, jeans, and boots.

Closing the door behind him, you asked, “What did you come here for?”

“I…” he looked down at his hands, “I wanted to.. apologize for what I said earlier.”

An apology from Mr. Tough Guy? You crossed your arms over your chest, “Get on with it then.”

Clearing his throat once more, his gaze moved up to your eyes and said, “I’m sorry for what I said earlier, it’s just that..,” He fell silent.

Your patience being test, “It’s just that what?” You said in the calmest voice you could muster up.

He took a step closer to you, “It’s just that I’ve never had feelings like this before except for when I was a school boy,” his eyes softened, “I feel this incessant need to protect you, be there for you,” another step. “You being hurt made me feel somehow responsible for what happened.”

You couldn’t believe the words that were coming from the mask, “What..?”

Step. “I couldn’t bare to see you in that hospital bed, hurt from something I could’ve at least tried to prevent,” one last step before you were practically touching, “These feelings scared me and I knew I shouldn’t have been feeling them, which is why I’ve been so cold to you.”

You were at a loss for words. “Simon, you must know that there was nothing you could’ve done to stop it,”

He shook his head, “I should’ve been there with you, there were so many variables I could’ve changed, but…I didn’t. I hated the dark feeling it gave me just thinking about it all, thinking about you hurt.”

“I.. I don’t know what to say,” you were looking up at him, he stood so tall over you. It was ironic to think about this huge man being so open towards you. “What are you trying to tell me?”

Your first name rolled so easily off his tongue, “I have feelings for you.”

You felt your face grow hot, your heart beating so loud you started to think maybe he could hear it. You had always imagined him admitting his feelings to you, but he was so stoic and nonchalant you never thought he would actually do it, “So do I, Simon,” The lump in your throat made it hard to speak those words. 

He placed his large hands on your waist. He leaned his head down so that his mouth was next to your neck, “You don’t know how long I’ve thought about you,” His hot breath tickled as he spoke. Your arms reached up for his shoulders, leaving more space for him to pull you closer to him. “Have you thought about me in the same way?”

You desperately wanted to tell him that ever since you joined 141 you’ve wanted this, you just always thought it wasn’t going to happen. “Yes, I have,” was all you could manage to say without revealing too much about just how deeply you felt for him. You wanted to kiss him so badly, or just even to feel his skin against yours. You reached up for the hem of his sun-bleached mask, moving to pull it up. With one swift motion he grabbed your hands and pulled away from you. 

“No, don’t do that,” his eyes were so tender, they almost seemed hurt that you tried to remove the thing that gave him his anonymity.

“Why? Are you ugly under there?” You joked, hoping to ease the tension of your boundary crossing. He let out a chuckle.

“Quite the opposite,” you could hear the smirk in the way he said it. What a cheeky bastard. With that boundary understood now, he closed the distance between you two once more. This time his hand slipped under your shirt and rested on the small of your back, his hand felt cool against your warm skin. 

“I couldn’t stand the terrible feeling I got from seeing the way you were upset with me, especially after I snapped at you,” His free hand caressed your cheek as his thumb brushed against your bottom lip, gently pulling it down, “I hadn’t realized just how much I was hurting you,” his hand began to move down your side, stopping at the hem of your pants and gently pushing in, “Let me make it up to you..”, you could feel his calloused fingers against your skin and he finally moved into your panties. You could feel your heat pulse with anticipation.

A knock came at the door, followed by the doorknob turning. Shit. Ghosts head whipped towards the door as he quickly pulled away from you. The room turned cold.

When the door opened, it was Soap. He looked between you two and raised an eyebrow, “Whats going on here?” Without a word, Ghost moved past Soap in the doorway, looking over his shoulder at you just before he left your sight. Soap had watched Ghost leave too, but now he was looking at you, still expecting an answer. 

Your face flushed, still experiencing the warm feelings Ghost gave you, you cleared your throat and said, “It was nothing.” Soap narrowed his eyes as if he didn’t fully believe you, but he continued anyways, “Just wanted to say goodnight before I headed off to bed.”

You gave him a small smile and said, “Well, goodnight.”

------------------------

“Bravo 0-3, what’s your teams status?” you hear through your headset. It’s the leader of Alpha team. It’s Commander Price. You’re currently in Mexico on a rescue mission to save the Secretary of Defense John P. Palcon from Hassan, and you just watched a missile head exactly to where your team was. The three men under your command were gone in an instant and you were lucky to be far enough away to only receive the throwback. 

“All of my soldiers are down, sir,” you speak into comms drearily, the ringing in your ears yet to die down.

“And what’s your status?”, he said. Fuck. What did he say? You can’t focus on a goddamn thing, your head hurts. Hell, your everything hurts.

He was practically yelling your last name into the comms now, “How copy?!”

You’re try to get a hold onto your surroundings, but everything’s coming up fuzzy. Your vision is dimming. Your last name is the last thing you hear.

-

When you finally came to after god knows how long, you could see a helicopter in the distance and were moving towards it. You weren’t walking though, not in your condition. It was Lieutenant Simon “Ghost” Riley who had you in a fireman’s carry.

“Wh…what happened?” you quietly spoke as you tried to lift your head to view more of your surroundings.

Captain John Price sped up his walk so that he was in your field of view, “Finally awake, eh? We had heard the explosion from the other side of the compound,” he yelled over the loudening sound of the helicopters blades, “We made our way over and saw you laying on the ground unconscious.”

“Save your energy, kid, you’ll need it for the ride home.” you heard Ghost say. As you gained full conscious, you also became fully aware of just how much everything hurt. Your head, joints, and muscles were all screaming at you. 

You felt Ghost put you down on a cot inside the helicopter. It might just be better to sleep for now and get details later.

-

You woke up once more, this time in a bed. With one scan of the room, it was obvious that you were at a treatment facility. Only odd thing about the room was the huge figure sitting in the corner of the room. They hadn’t noticed you were awake. Who was it? 

You blinked a few times, heart beginning to swell as it took more and more resemblance of Ghost. You sat up rather quickly, causing pain to shoot through your torso, but you had to know. You rubbed your eyes hoping to get a better view of him. Only to find it wasn’t him. It was a nurse who had come in to check your vitals. Noticing you were awake finally she spoke, “Good evening! How are you feeling? Any nausea?”

Disappointment made its way into your mind. You slowly shook your head as you looked to the door, “No. No nausea.”

The nurse followed your gaze, then looked back at you. “Well, you’re probably still exhausted from what you went through. Please get more rest and call if you need anything.” 

You gave her a gentle smile and watched as she left the room. You turned back to the corner you thought he was in. You laid back down and closed your eyes, hoping sleep would take over before your tears could surface.

-

The next day, you could barely eat anything. Your stomach seemed to be in knots, you were at an all time low. In the afternoon, Sergeant John “Soap” Mactavish visited you.

“How’re you feeling lass? You took quite the injury back there,” he sounded worried for you.

You gave him your best smile as a hope of some reassurance, “Feeling a lot better than I did in field,” your attention turned to your IV drip, “They probably have me on some strong shit.”

He chuckled as he pulled up a chair next to your bed, “Well whatever they have you on hopefully, it’ll get you back to good as new in no time.”

Hearing that, you decided to give him a scare and make a move to get out of bed, but his hand was quickly placed on your shoulder to keep you down, he looked taken aback. You let out a laugh and said, “What? You said I’d be good as new in no time.”

He laughed with you before sitting back down in his chair.

You always liked Soap. He was a good person to have by your side, you sure as hell wouldn’t want him on the enemy side. “You guys miss me yet?”

He looked down at his hands, “Everyone does.”

Your mind instantly went to Ghost. You liked him the most out of everyone on task force 141. He was a good friend and an even better soldier. 

After hearing only the blowing AC, you decided to speak, “How has everyone been?”

“They’ve been doing as well as they could be, we managed to rescue Palcon, but couldn’t get Hassan,” he looked you in the eyes now, “They’re making a new plan for a few months from now.”

“Hopefully I’ll be good to go by then.”You looked out your window, all you could see was sky. “What about Ghost?”

Soap pursed his lips before saying, “He’s been distant, not talking much unless he’s spoken to,” he chuckled, “Which isn’t too out of the ordinary for him, but it’s different now.”

-

Soap had left after an hour or two of you two talking about various things, not just the mission. He figured it was best to keep your mind off of what happened and what you witnessed.

It had been a week since the incident, you had suffered a concussion and a few broken ribs along with some minor burns that would definitely not scar, at least according to the doctor. Your thoughts often wandered to Ghost. You didn’t have much to do other than think or mindlessly watch the shitty television in your room. 

Why had he not visited you? Everyone else has, even Laswell.

You pushed him out of your mind. Maybe he only thought of you as a squadmate and nothing more. Maybe he didn’t feel close to you like you did with him.

-

You took a huge breath of fresh air, freedom from that stuffy room at last. A smile spread across your face as you picked up your bag with a small wince. A car was pulling around to pick you up and take you back to base. Of course, it was soap who was saddled with this duty. He got out and hurried to grab your bags, throwing them in the back of the car. It wasn’t a long drive back to base. You climbed into the passenger seat and looked out of the window as Soap got back in and the hospital left your view. 

-

Around 20 minutes later, you were asked for your ID at the gate and soon after you pulled into the base, you saw the rest of your team.

Price and Gaz were standing on the edge of the sidewalk waiting for the car to pull up, while there was a tall masked figured looming distantly behind them. When you stepped out, Gaz instantly gave you a hug as gently as he could. There was still a slight throbbing in your side. You shook hands with Price when your gaze turned to where Ghost had been. Your eyes met for a moment before he took a step back and left.