Soap is the only one that Ghost will touch willingly. Even though Johnny never makes a show of it, acting as if it’s not even happening, even when he’s melting inside.
Simon’s hand around the back of his neck, guiding him through doorways, keeping him on track. Fingers pressing gently when he’d notice him slipping during stressful situations.
His palm on the small of his back during briefings. Nails sometimes scratching idly over cotton, sending quiet shivers up Soaps spine.
The same hand sometimes resting on his thigh, inching to rest on the inner portion when the man was overly restless. Ghost would always give a gentle squeeze as if to say “I’ve got you.”
Letting the smaller man rest his head on his shoulder and sleep when they had to be wheels up at 0300. Never showing any emotion towards the others, even though they knew, Ghost just didn’t realize it.
Or rather, he pretended to not notice Gaz’s stupid grin when Johnny would melt against his side; fingers sometimes clutching at his vest. Or the huff Price would let out when the Scot would whine when the plane jostled too much and disturbed their position.
Fingers brushing over Soaps wrist when passing gear. This was their favorite ritual. Ghost checking Johnnys gear over even when the man had triple checked himself. Soap doing so in return because that’s just how they operate. It made the Scott’s heart tighten because of how much he knew Ghost cared.
All of these instances made Johnny melt into Simon’s touch. Forcing the man to become pliant during moments of rage or frustration. Not because Johnny had to but because Ghost just calmed him that much.
Regardless of how long Ghost has been dating or married to someone, I feel that he needs his own room. He needs to be able to have a space that is entirely his that he can go into and shut and lock the door when he needs to.
It’s probably multipurpose. Doubles as an extra bedroom and maybe an office/workroom. But the point is that it’s his, entirely.
Ghost has his good days and his bad days, and his bad days can be downright awful. And even though he can recognize that nothing tangible has changed; his partner(s) aren’t anymore annoying than usual, their habits haven’t horrifically changed from one day to the next, they aren’t louder or more invasive. It really is just him. But that doesn’t change the fact that he finds himself itching for an argument, feels his skin crawl at being perceived, finds irritation in things that normally would be brushed off with a huff and a roll of his eyes.
It helps to know that he can go into this bedroom and shut the door. That he controls every aspect of this room. It’s organized and cleaned to his exact standards. Everything is where he wants it to be. That when he feels overwhelmed and his words can’t be anything but harsh and grating, he can lock the door and come down from there, and his partner(s) know to wait until he’s ready.
Even beyond that, some nights Simon can’t sleep with someone beside him. He wakes up and his mind makes him think he’s in a different place and time. And regardless of how much his partner(s) love him, he knows it can be tiring dealing with his multiple night terrors. And truthfully, sometimes when he wakes up he doesn’t want the doting, he just wants to lay there in silence until it goes away.
But I also think there’s a certain intimacy of it. When Ghost invites you into this space he’s created for himself, wants you to lay there with him or sit on his bed while he works. That you know him well enough to catch his tells. When the door is propped open he’s inviting you to come investigate what he’s doing, that even though it’s his room he keeps a spare throw across his bed for when you come to keep him company.
I saw this post about ghost having lost some of his teeth from over time and for some reason I thought of the exact opposite thing.
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It all started out with Soap’s notice of Simon’s oddly sharp canines.
Soap overtime has gotten very few glimpses of ghosts face, especially when they’re still finding grounding with each other after meeting. The first time Soap sees ghost without his mask, Ghost doesn’t speak. The next time he takes it off and he does speak, but Soap is too caught up in awe to even think there’s something different about ghost.
He doesn’t notice them until their first kiss. The kiss itself was uncoordinated yet so passionate- all tongue and teeth- given their far too many close calls on this last mission.
It’s Soap letting out a small hiss as his tongue feels as though it had been pricked. Any thought soap had about whatever just pricked his tongue left the atmosphere as Ghost made a soft noise in the back of his throat. The sound had been so vulnerable yet so Simon. It had Soap practically melting for the man.
It wasn’t until the next time he had seen ghost maskless that Simon smiled after something Soap said.
At first he was blinded by the beauty of the man in front of him, how could he not? What with the sun from outside the window shining on Simon’s pale skin, his light freckles being illuminated by the warm hue.
But there, in that perfectly crooked smile, were the ever sharp canines. As pointed as a spear and as white as a cloud.
Now Soap isn’t stupid, quite contrary really. But after this observation, some other things about ghost seemed to be connected.
How Simon had these almost inhuman canines.
How Simon was always pale and dressed to the nines- all in dark, grim clothes- to never be touched by the golden sun above them unless it was indirectly- like through a window.
How Simon was always frigid to the touch.
How Simon rarely ever ate with the rest of the task force.
Even on missions, Simon would just disappear sometimes, eventually coming back with far more blood than he had before.
At first, Soap had thought Ghost had just run into some altercations- which he probably did. At least that was soaps previous thought before he stumbled upon ghost as they were clearing a building. The man was hovering over the enemies body, blood dripping from his mouth that becomes soon to be wiped away by the Brit’s sleeve. Simon had explained that he had lost his gun in the fight, and as a quick resort before the man could call for back up, he had bitten him.
Simon hadn’t seemed proud of the action. Johnny didn’t push, but he certainly filed that thought into the back of his head.
Now, Soap isn’t saying his boyfriend is a vampire per se, but he would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about it- especially after that.
At first Soap tried something simple, just to test out this silly little thought.
On a recon mission, soap had picked up a small but sturdy stick and sharpened the end slightly with his pocket knife, making a stake. He simply pocketed the thing and went on his way.
When he got back to base he went to ghosts room to ‘show it’ to him.
“Hey L.T, got you a gift.” Ghost had looked up from his desk and looked at Soap, who then looked at the makeshift stake. Simon had just looked at it for a moment and nodded, putting his hand out to take the offering then giving soap a masked kiss on the cheek.
Soap paused for a moment at the lack of reaction towards the stake- at least the lack of a negative reaction. The man simply accepted it…though really Simon is probably used to the odd gifts by now- (given the growing collection of rocks on ghost’s shelves gifted to him by Soap.)
Soap had simply nodded and gave a “of course, Si.”
The next thing Soap had tried was garlic. He waited until they were both on leave and he made some simply spaghetti with garlic. Now he didn’t actually put the garlic in. If his “suspicions” were correct and Ghost was a vampire, he’s not about to poison his boyfriend.
Once again, Simon made no reaction to the garlic as Johnny was cutting it, despite the garlic letting out a potent smell. Simon had simply moved to wrap his arms around Johnny’s waist and rested his head on the Scot’s shoulder, his eyes closed. Perfectly golden eyelash’s fluttering.
By the time they finished eating Soap simply accepted that ghost wasn’t a vampire. Not that he actually thought Simon was- that would be just silly- but whatever experiment he was conducting came to be a failure. Not that he minded much.
Little did Soap know that Ghost was very thankful that Johnny didn’t put the garlic in, given that he is, in fact, a vampire.
Anyway this was just a fun idea that I had that became a lot longer than I expected. I might do something more with this, I might not. We’ll seeee.
There’s no way Simon “Ghost” Riley has a full set of teeth. He’s been captured and tortured how many times??
He’s missing an incisor, a cai
should i watch a playthrough of mw2 orrrr should i wait until i can buy it to have my own personal experience of it. totally not bc i’m in love with all the rebooted characters and would like to write fics 🥸
