Soap's Section
Main post & Ghost, Price, and Gaz’s parts: here
Soap — Physical touch, words of affirmation, acts of service, and to a much lesser extent, quality time.
Soap — Physical touch. In general Johnny is just a physically affectionate person, always clapping people on the shoulder, or slinging his arm around them when he’s particularly chuffed and/or making a joke. But when he likes someone? He will find any and all excuses to touch them (even if it’s a bit apparent what he’s doing). He’ll help wipe blood off their gear or help them adjust it, will ruffle their hair or shove them/play fight with them when they’re both in a good mood, will drape himself over them in the common room or in the helo after a mission if they let him, if they’re sitting next to each other, he’ll press his leg or foot against theirs, etc. Also, their personal space will become his personal space too, he’ll always be right next to them if he can help it.
I feel Gaz would be the most indulgent with him about it right from the get go, if they’re bored they’re not afraid to rough house with each other. It’ll start innocuously enough, they’ll just be standing or sitting next to each other, not doing much of anything, then they’ll catch each other’s eye, maybe only for a moment or two, before one is tackling the other, or they’re suddenly grabbing at each other and grappling— loud and boisterously; picture two cats sitting next to each other, before abruptly beating the shit out of each other (except even though they’re rough, they never purposefully do any damage to each other. Gaz accidentally broke Johnny’s nose once, and after they got over being stunned, Gaz started apologizing profusely and fussing while Johnny intermittently laughed and groaned. Gaz refused to play fight at all for a while after that, until Johnny managed to coax him back into it).
When they’re relaxing, they have no qualms with basically being on top of each other. They just get exponentially worse the closer and more comfortable they get to each other.
Price would be indulgent with Johnny, but a bit less so. He nips any attempt at rough housing in the bud pretty early on with a huff and a light push on Johnny shoulder; he’s ‘too old fer tha’ sort of shit, MacTavish,’ apparently. If Johnny happens to be getting a bit too riled up with someone else however, and looks like he’s itching to pick a fight that Price knows isn’t going to go well for him, Price will rest a hand on his shoulder to keep him from escalating things, just squeezing the muscle under his hand firmly, and giving Johnny a look out of the corner of his eyes. (If Price isn’t around, Gaz will do the same. Honestly, Gaz is the impulse control of the 141— though they all usually rope each other into their antics.)
Obviously a Captain can’t layabout with his Sargent hanging off him all the time, but he’ll still pat Johnny on the shoulder from time to time, or if they’re alone he’ll rest a hand at Johnny’s waist, at the small of his back, or on his knee; just any sort of light, gentle contact that assures Johnny of his presence. And well, if the lad wants to lean back against the wall of the helo, draping his legs over Price’s lap so he can sit sideways in his seat and sleep after a gruelling mission, who is Price to tell him no? He’ll usually let out a soft huff, and rest a hand over Johnny’s ankles through his boots. What’s a little more grime on his trousers in the grand scheme of things?
Ghost would be the most… Complex about it, I feel. And depending on the vibes you’re going for, I feel like how open he is to touch would shift. But if you’re going for realism he would be extremely touch adverse, especially after first meeting Johnny. (He’s built for slow burn, I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules.) Every time Johnny touches him, he’s the first to break the contact, he’ll either brush Johnny off immediately, pull back, or move further away. Johnny may be a bit goofy, but he’s not stupid, he’d pick up on this rather quickly, and he’d draw back, he’d do his best to kind of muddle out where Ghost’s boundaries are (because god knows that man isn’t telling him properly himself) and do his best to stay within them. He’s still Johnny though, so if Ghost is in a — relatively — good mood, he’ll push his luck with small touches, brushing their shoulders together, asking Ghost to pass him something and letting their fingers graze, etc. When Ghost starts to warm up to Johnny, he starts being more open to his little touches, and Johnny keeps pushing his luck more and more.
Once Ghost is properly used to him though? Absolutely insufferable, wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to catch them loosely hooking their fingers together during a briefing, or Ghost slipping his hand into Johnny’s back pocket just for the sake of making sure he stays close, napping on the common room couch with their legs tangled together, etc. Just generally being absolutely sickening (/affectionately) with each other.
Words of affirmation. This is mostly borne from the OG Soap’s journal. (Personally I like to HC that Johnny keeps one like Captian MacTavish, so.) I feel like Johnny can get super in his head once a mission is over, picking apart anything that went cockeyed and trying to figure out what he could do better, he can get kind of self deprecating about it, especially if something went particularly bad.
Because of that, Soap soaks up praise like he’s starved for it, no matter how often he actually receives it. Any sort of praise he gets for something (his form during a workout, how he preformed on a mission, etc) he will instantly puff up and start boasting like a proud bird, won’t let it go for the rest of the day, or maybe even for the week, whatever. He knows he’s good (which is why he puts so much pressure on himself to maintain an unrealistic standard) after all.
If it’s from someone he likes/cares about? It’s… different. The closer he is to them, the less likely he is to boast about it (unless they praise him in front of someone else, have to keep up appearances, you know). Their praise means more to him because he puts more weight into their opinion of him, he wants them to be proud/happy/pleased/whatever with him. He’s more likely to keep whatever it is they said to him to himself (or at the very most write it in his journal). Something for him to think about in his rare downtime, or when he’s alone, like taking out something delicate and precious that has to be cradled in the palms of his hands, that always makes a little pleased smile pull at his lips.
Quality time. Soap still loves quality time, don’t get me wrong, there’s just aspects he doesn’t like as much. I don’t think parallel play would be something he overly enjoys, he’d much rather be actively doing something with the people he likes, whether that’s just going down to the shops to buy groceries, grappling with each other, popping out for a smoke, etc— rather than simply existing in the same space. If that’s something his partner needs from time to time (say Price, who just needs some quiet to properly decompress or Ghost, who, as much as they cling to each other, will always need his alone time) he’s more than willing to accommodate it. But given the choice, Johnny will always rather be actively doing something with the people he cares about.
