The boys love April Fool's.
Whenever they are able to spend the day on base, an all out war breaks out.
Price will only do something small yet incredibly irritating to Simon. Only Simon.
Such as taking all of the skull masks and balaclavas he has and leaving only the plain black ones. Annoying, but not a hindrance. Or one year, Price switched out Ghost's sugar for his tea with a different kind of sugar. Ghost, with a surprisingly strong sense of taste, noticed the change immediately, but continued to down the rest of his tea out of spite when he made eye contact with the captain. Another time, Price had carefully taken one sock from every match, forcing Ghost to wear mismatched socks. Did it piss him off? Yes. Was it dangerous? No, actually, because all Ghost did was take his hats and hide them for a few days.
He's learned Gaz is extremely petty and will accomplish things he didn't think were possible. It scares Price, the things Gaz gets away with. He knows the sergeant uses those good looks of his, but he's also now confident the man isn't above committing war crimes for revenge.
He knows Soap lacks restraint when it comes to pranks, and after last year's... mishap... he's not willing to face that again. He can sometimes smell the burning hair when he's been up for too long.
But Simon is such an easy target, and his retaliations are just and equal to the crime.
The real reason Simon is so laidback when it comes to April Fool's pranks between the members of the 141 is rather simple, and sad. He's never felt such camaraderie before, and he loves feeling like he's finally at home. He doesn't mind getting roped into the shenanigans because he knows it's a sign of love and trust, especially from Price and Soap. He also knows Gaz hardly ever messes with him these days, as one year he heard the sergeant muttering "you're no fun" when Ghost simply laughed off the elaborate trap Gaz had set for him.
Soap's large family had traditions when it came to April Fool's Day. They were always harmless, or at least that's what he and his siblings led their parents to believe. They had the quiet agreement that anything goes so long as Mom and Dad stay clueless about their little war.
In other words, Soap never learned limits in a prank war, and combine his intelligence with his penchant for chaos, and something is bound to explode by the end of the day.
Gaz is just... petty. And not like a little, or harmfully. Just... like the one year he didn't like when Nik jokingly gifted him a trophy that said "Worst Passenger Ever" after his fifth fall from some type of aircraft. So, in retaliation, he bought a sticker book of over a thousand stickers and hid them all over the inside of Nik's beloved helicopter. Everyone is still too afraid to ask Gaz how he managed to have so much time alone with the copter and not get caught.
The only time Price ever pranked Gaz for April Fool's was the first April Fool's the boys were having as a team. Price had simply taken all of the chargers and taken all of the batteries out of Gaz's battery-powered clocks, which resulted in Gaz waking up to an unknown time. He spent the better half of the day in a foul mood (he asked Soap to fix his watch, which wasn't a good idea and he should have known).
As revenge, he pulled the classic "move everything in Price's office over by an inch." And by everything, it was everything that had the ability to move over an inch. For stuff in his drawers that couldn't move? He switched them around. The bottom drawer no longer had extra office supplies, it was the important stuff that should have been in the top drawer. But the top drawer was something else, and Price spent about thirty minutes looking for a new pen before storming out of his office in a rage and marching down to Gaz's quarters.
Gaz agreed to put everything back if Price told him his birthday. The blackmailing was expert level, the captain had to admit.
What they hadn't expected was that this year, Price had an assistant.
No, not Nik.
Nik is banned from base on April Fool's Day after the one year he got involved.
No, what the boys hadn't expected was Bailey to offer her help. They hadn't expected the captain's sweet daughter to be so... bloodthirsty.
It was the only time she ever was excited to be back on base. She stayed hidden most of the day, carrying out her father's wishes from the smallest nooks and crannies.
They knew something was up after the first couple of harmless pranks. A water bottle disappearing from the bench mid workout. Things being moved around when their backs were turned. The sound of Price calling for them around the corner, only for him to not be there, and when they find him, he claims to have never called. At one point Soap was bombarded by a hailstorm of bouncy balls from unknown origin. All, and yes all, of Ghost's masks/balaclavas were missing. Not that he minded, he often went without it while on base, but it was still irritating. Gaz woke up with all of his clocks in his room, and came back to them all missing. Fun.
These were all things Price would do, or has done, so they hadn't thought much of it.
It was finally when they were all in Price's office that they realized he couldn't possibly be behind these. He was listening to them complain about the day so far, as he kept them all too busy to get at each other. As they complained, he quietly and calmly put everything on his desk away, leaving the top of the desk completely bare. None of them noticed, or if they did, they didn't care to comment, probably because of the casual confidence he did that with.
He watched with a straight face as a ceiling panel above them opened up. He couldn't stop the smile as a large bucket was tipped out of the opening, and cold water spilled out right on top of them. It was incredible, the screaming in unison as the water landed on Ghost's head and falling down onto the sergeants on either side of him.
Price claims his tears of laughter were actually from how beautiful the scene was. The boys were cursing up a storm, shaking off excess water like dogs and making rude finger gestures towards their captain. He was laughing so hard it sent him into a coughing fit, and the boys quickly realized they could hear laughter coming from the ceiling as well.
Gaz was the first to notice and look up at Price's little accomplice. She gave him a big grin, a little snort of laughter accompanying. Gaz just shook his head, shocked and also a bit disappointed. There's NO way he's ever going to get revenge on this trickster.
Ghost and Soap look up at the same time as Bailey snorts again, and they quickly drop any anger. Soap sticks his tongue out at her as Ghost glares at Price, who was still laughing. Ghost helps her down from the ceiling (after she accidentally dropped the plastic bucket onto Soap's head), and she goes bouncing over to her dad. They high five, both still chuckling, and her smile making her cheeks hurt.
As the three walked back to their respective quarters to change into dry clothes, their missing possessions safe in their arms, they couldn't help but laugh.
"She looked so devious, the little traitor." Gaz had said with a fond laugh.
"It was nice to hear her laughing that hard. Guess I'm okay with being the butt of the joke if it makes her happy." Ghost had added.
"Aye, a father has to bond with his kid somehow." Soap had said, and the conversation left at that.
Back in Price's office, Price sat with Bailey, a happy smile on both their faces as she called Nik to share what happened.
Yeah, she was starting to really like it here.
