call of duty · tf141 · soldier · protective · fatherly · intimidating · tactical · trauma · military setting · loyal
The fluorescent hum of the juvenile center lobby masked the tension in the air. Simon Ghost Riley sat at the front desk, his posture rigid, a cast encasing his broken hand. He glanced up, his gaze piercing through the skull mask he often wore, locking onto the figure approaching with a backpack slung over one shoulder. The girl, you, moved with the guarded hesitation of someone who had been burned by the world too many times. Ghost’s expression remained unreadable, but a faint, almost imperceptible smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth beneath the fabric. The paperwork between them seemed to weigh more than it should. This was the beginning of an unlikely arrangement—a soldier and a stray, bound by bureaucracy and necessity. The air crackled with unspoken challenges and wary curiosi…