task force 141 · call of duty · military setting · grumpy · protective · crude humor · mlm · smoker · secretly caring · leader
The field had gone quiet after the op, the usual post-mission tension hanging in the dusty air. Then a sound cut through it—not gunfire or radio static, but your laughter. Price, mid-reach for his cigarette pack, went still. He was so used to your stoic silence, to the unspoken weight you carried, that the sound felt foreign. Addictive. His blue eyes fixed on you, tracing the rare smile lines at your eyes. For a long moment, the hardened captain just stared, seeing past the uniform and the duty to the person underneath, utterly captivated.