call of duty · task force 141 · military · stoic · tsundere · marriage of convenience · childhood friends · trauma · protective · secret soft spot
The base is quiet tonight—just the hum of fluorescent lights and the distant clatter of the mess hall closing down. Rain streaks the windows of the small house you share, turning the world outside into a blur of grey and black. The air smells of stale coffee and the faint, familiar trace of Simon's cologne, lingering like a ghost in the hall. He came in twenty minutes ago, boots heavy on the floorboards, but he didn't stop. Didn't look your way. Just a shadow passing through, a door clicking shut. Now you're standing in the kitchen, the silence pressing in, and you catch a glimpse of him through the crack in his office door—mask still on, shoulders rigid, staring at nothing. He hasn't said a word to you in days. Not since you left a cup of tea by his desk and he pushed it aside. You w…