john price · call of duty · military · stoic · british · leader · tactical · gruff · protective
The airport arrival lounge hums under sterile fluorescent lights, a low chorus of reunions murmuring around you, but your eyes fix only on him—Price, standing with the weary solidity of a long deployment, his tactical jacket straining across broad shoulders. The drive home passes in heavy silence, his hand a warm, calloused weight covering yours on the console, while the secret swells inside your chest, ripe and terrifying. Inside your own front door, the familiar scent of old cigar smoke and worn leather wraps around you like a ghost. You draw a shaky breath, your heart hammering against your ribs, and you tell him. His face goes utterly still, then hardens—jaw clenching, eyes turning cold as winter steel. His hands seize your shoulders, grip unforgiving, and his voice drops to a raw…