24. attempting to find out if they are single/available
There was probably a more eloquent way to get John's glove off than intentionally dropping a toolbox on it.
"Bloody fucking Christ!" John yelled as the heavy metal box crashed onto his left hand.
"Oh fuck, John I am so sorry," Nikolai said, forcing an edge of panic and sincerity into his voice. The box wouldn't do more than bruise the man's hand but it would hurt like hell and that's what he was looking for. "Here, let me see that nothing broke,"
"Clumsy fucking--" John grumbled but he allowed the larger man to gently take his left hand and peel the glove off. Nik had met John Price two months ago and it had snowed every single day since their first meeting meaning that John had been wearing gloves non-fucking-stop since they had first met. Nice thick gloves to keep his big hands warm and to completely obscure any wedding ring. And Nik needed to know if he had a wedding ring.
John let out a hiss of pain and Nik made soothing noises earning him a slap on the arm but finally the glove came off. John's hand was big and red from the heat of the glove and the weight of the toolbox, it was warm and covered in curly hair, and it was free of any rings. Nik did a very good job of keeping his face neutral as he poked and prodded, nodding when John swore at him or hissed in pain.
"You should be fine," He said finally, "No broken bones, however," Nik said cupping John's hand between his and breathing on it to warm it up, "If you were planning to use it to jerk off," He looked up with a sly smile, "You will need some assistance with that,"
John turned beet red and later that night when Nik was cleaning up an exhausted John Price he would admit the punch in the gut had been worth it.
On Monday Roach went to put on his boots and pulled his foot out with a yell.
"Dude," Gaz yawned, giving him the best approximation of a scowl he could when it was six in the morning.
Roach signed sorry before reaching into the boot nervously and shivering when he closed his hand around something cold and hard and... he pulled out a tiny glass duck. He rolled his eyes.
Soap.
Soap had found out you could bulk order little bitty rubber ducks and now it was everyone's problem.
Well.
Everyone but specifically Roach and Ghost. Sure Gaz has found ducks in his dresser drawers and his pockets and sitting on his contact holder. Price had found them in all of his desk drawers, his hat, his secret cigar box everyone knew about, and in all of his pencil cups. But Ghost and Roach seemed to find them everywhere.
On Tuesday Ghost went to put on his mask and it took him much longer than it should have to notice little tiny lump on the very top of his head. When he pulled out the little duck he forced down a grudging smile even as he rolled his eyes. Crafty little fucker.
At breakfast he gave Johnny a thump on the back of the head and put the duck down beside his coffee. "Keep out of my mask."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Lt," Soap said, smiling as he took a bite out of his toast.
When Ghost went to get his food and make his tea there were two little ducks in with his favorite tea bags. When he turned back to glower at Johnny he was very busy spreading jam across his English muffin.
On Wednesday the Humvee Ghost and Roach were riding in was utterly infested with ducks. One in each cup holder, a handful in the glove compartment, at least ten scattered across the dashboard, and one in each seat. Roach went to lower the sun blocker a duck fell into his lap.
"This is getting bloody out of hand," Ghost muttered, collecting the ducks up.
Don't throw them away!
Under the mask Ghost felt himself blush. "Why not?" He asked, he hadn't been planning on it. He supposed he probably should, it didn't make any sense to give them back to Johnny only to be bothered with them again. He looked to Roach who was carefully collecting them and placing them in his pocket, even behind the goggles Ghost could tell the younger man was avoiding eye contact.
"You know he'll just cover our bunks with them if we give them back, right?"
Roach made a little humming noise behind his mask and held one of the ducks up to look at it more closely. Ghost stayed silent and watched. He could wait.
Roach finally deposited all the ducks in his pocket before signing in a way that made it clear he was mumbling, It's fun.
Ghost made sure his eye roll was as visible and audible as possible and ignored the little laugh behind Roach's mask. "Fun," He muttered, "Yeah tons of fun with these little fuckers." he shoved his share of the ducks into his pocket and started up the Humvee. Fun.
On Thursday they got bad information and Roach's bullet proof vest did its job but didn't stop four ribs from breaking.
On Friday Ghost took a knife to the hand that looked like extended leave.
On Saturday Soap put in a request for the exact same amount of time off as Roach and Ghost
And on Sunday Laswell reached out to them about a health spa hotel she was booking them all stays at.
The three room suite was perfect, Roach decided. He healed fast but his ribs were still tender and knowing that he had Ghost and Soap nearby if he needed them was a real weight off his mind. They each had a bathroom with a shower and toilet and sink but then they also had a massive private spa accessible by any of the three rooms. The heated pool was big enough that Ghost could swim laps if he wanted to and the view it offered was pretty damn spectacular.
"Should have brought your ducks." Ghost joked, clapping Soap on the back with his good hand.
"Aye," Soap said in a distracted way before they had all broken off into their separate rooms. Roach, for his part, was fucking exhausted. He fell asleep almost as soon as he hit the pillow. It was hours later when he woke up, the sun was low in the sky and he wondered if he could see the sun set from the spa. He started to sit up and let out a noise of surprise when... things fell off him. Roach scrambled for the light and when he turned it on he threw his head back and groaned. Ducks! Ducks, ducks, ducks! In the adjacent room he heard a string of swears from Ghost who must have also woken up in the same state. Roach sat up and climbed out of bed, careful of the ducks leading off the bed set in a very neat row leading to... Roach felt a funny kind of excitement in his chest as he followed the trail of ducks to the spa door. He had... well he had a hope he was going to find something on the other side of the door. Roach reached for the knob when his door was flung open and Ghost walked in. He looked around and huffed, "You too?" He asked, then looked to the door that Roach was standing next to, "Well let's see what the fucker wants I guess,"
Roach was fighting a grin as Ghost opened the door. How one of the smartest people Roach knew was able to miss such blatant signals was amazing.
The door whipped open and Soap, grinned up at the two of them. The sunset behind him set the sky on fire in streaks of orange and pink and red, it was beautiful, but Roach couldn't take his eyes off the naked man in the water smiling at the two of them.
"Hey," Soap said, swimming over to them, his gorgeous ass bobbing in the water as he did, "You followed the ducks."
Next to him Ghost let out a little 'oh', in the heated pool Soap smiled broadly, pushing his hair out of his face before reaching out and beckoning the two of them in.
