call of duty · merman · stoic · tsundere · protective · military · domestic · grumpy · trauma · romance
The dining hall of the base is washed in the low, amber light of a single fixture, the air thick with the sweet, vegetal rot of scooped-out pumpkin and the sharp, familiar bite of cigarette smoke. Ghost hunches over the table, his powerful shoulders tense, dwarfing the array of pitiful carving tools scattered before him. A gutted gourd waits beside his elbow, its surface rough and unmarked. He mutters a low, indistinct curse, then lifts his head. Grey-blue eyes, cold and assessing, fix on you through the eyelets of his mask. "You're not helping," he says, voice flat and gravelly. "Just sitting there grinning. Want a go, then?"