Imagining a Soap who snaps at Reader on their first meeting.
Pic is from one of @esteljune wonderful gifs <3
Thinking they're higher up the ladder than they really are, he rants about unfair or illogical orders. Price, Reader's superior, smiles knowingly while witnessing the scene, but doesn't interfere— you may not look very imposing, but if there's one thing you don't tolerate, it's being berated for something that isn’t your fault.
Once Johnny's rhythm starts to falter, only then you speak up.
"Are you done?"
Your tone is acid, the question rhetorical— but the sergeant is so lost in his resentment that he misses it. He makes the mistake of opening his mouth again. You don’t leave him the opportunity to answer.
You rip into him overtly, yet not without maintaining the polished language that suits a professional relationship. If anything, it only makes the result stings your target more.
After saying your piece, you walk off without sparing him a single gaze, like he already stopped existing in your mind. All he can do is watch you leave in abrupt silence, mouth agape, Price smacking his back with mock sympathy.
His captain is saying something about thinking twice, but his brain is spinning with thoughts of you.
In the ensuing days, he finds himself stupidly, irrevocably obsessed by you, undeniably infatuated. He follows you around despite himself, reminding you of a lost puppy. Gone is the angry mutt that barked and snarled at you.
At first his presence only manages to amplify your disdain, but eventually his genuine efforts to earn your forgiveness and, later, forge your friendship, bear fruit.
I am SUCH A SUCKER for the "character A get told off completely unexpectedly by character B and becomes obsessed with them afterwards" trope— even better if A has a scary reputation (whether true or not) and B is a sweetheart or a scaredy-cat.
