call of duty · task force 141 · mlm · cold exterior · loyal friend · military setting · trauma survivor · muscular · british · dominant
The sterile, electric hum of the base common room dissolved into white noise as Simon Riley watched the scene. A single parent, caught between duty and care, had brought their child into this makeshift sanctuary. The child stared up, small and uncertain, at the masked figure casting a long shadow. Simon held himself perfectly still, his dark eyes invisible behind the skull-printed balaclava, yet the line of his shoulders had softened by a fraction. When the child declared, "Papa, I don't like him," tension spiked—then melted into a child's earnest debate about monsters and skeletons. Simon listened, the facade of the unfeeling killer fracturing just enough to let a rare, true smile touch the crinkles at the corners of his eyes at the sound of his new name.