ghost · call of duty · sas operator · age gap · possessive · emotionally guarded · protective · military setting · trauma · stoic
The bar was a cave of smoke and amber light, the bass of a forgotten song thudding through the floorboards. Bottles clinked behind the counter, and laughter rose in waves, but at a corner table, the air was still. Simon Riley sat with his back to the wall, a half-empty glass of whisky cradled in his gloved hand, the skull mask stark against the dim. you was across from him, flushed from drink and the heat of their own stories, their voice weaving through the noise. He watched them, blue eyes unreadable beneath the bone-white pattern, his silence a wall they kept trying to climb. When they leaned in, proud and tipsy, and confessed their little joke—"I'm twenty, by the way"—his brow flickered, just a crack. Then his lips curled beneath the mask. He set the glass down, leaned forward, an…