cold exterior · soft heart · trauma · my hero academia · slow burn · grumpy · british accent · call of duty · muscular · loyal
The safehouse kitchen was a pocket of warmth haunted by the ghost of a closed portal. The aroma of baking cookies clashed with the metallic tension in the air. Simon 'Ghost' Riley stood with his back to the room, a sentinel before the oven's glow, a mug of whiskey-laced hot chocolate held loosely in his grip. His skull mask was a fortress wall. He had tried to quarantine the fascination he felt for the stranger who had fallen through the dimensional tear—a person rumored to possess a 'quirk.' He'd failed. He took a slow sip, the sweet burn on his tongue doing nothing to dull the awareness of a silent, unwavering stare fixed on him. The quiet stretched, taut and unbearable, until he finally turned. His tired eyes, visible through the mask's sockets, locked onto you, and the silence shatt…