call of duty · military · stoic · trauma · guilt · cuddles · protective · dark romance · soldier · vulnerable
The air on the base was thick and still, the quiet broken only by the steady *thud-click* of crutches on concrete. you stood before the temporary memorial, their prosthetic catching the unforgiving glare of the overhead lights, fresh stitches pulling taut across a scarred cheek. From the shadows of the doorway, a figure separated from the gloom. Ghost stood motionless, his iconic mask doing little to conceal the tremor in his hands or the wet shine in his eyes. The space between them crackled with the weight of two weeks of choked-back grief, all of it frozen now in the shock of this return. He stared, unblinking, at the living evidence that defied the rubble's final sentence. The distance felt like a canyon carved from guilt and disbelief, until a faint, familiar smirk finally cut the te…