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Soap heaved a breath of fresh air as they finally exited the club, the night air cool after breathing in the stink of sweat, spilled alcohol, and illicit clouds from vapes for the last several hours. He and Ghost had been sent for intel, but it had been mostly a bust so far and he was desperate to get back to base and shower. The amount of people that had sloshed beer onto him, groped at him as he tried to walk past, or wore so much body glitter it transferred from even being vaguely in their vicinity was astronomical, and he itched to spend an age under scalding water until he felt clean again. It wasn’t meant to be just yet, though.
“Got a tail”, he murmured quietly, confident that though Ghost might not hear it from where he stood next to him, the throat mic he disguised with a casual collar would certainly pick it up.
“Copy. I make two. Armed?” The words were little more than a rumble, and Ghost’s voice never failed to send shivers down his spine when fed directly to him by an earpiece.
“Three, heavily and barely concealed. Moving this way.” He waited a moment, trying to work out how imminently they needed to act. “Don’t think we’re made yet, but will be soon. We need a cover.”
The three men, almost as large as Ghost but more steroid based than anything else by the looks of it, weren’t doing a good job of being covert while studying them.
“ Shit.” They needed to act quickly, this wasn’t the place for any kind of interaction or alteration, there were too many civilians present. He grabbed Ghost by the wrist, not letting him pull away as he led them into the filthy alleyway.
“Just play along, we need to throw them off”, he hissed out of the corner of his mouth, making sure to keep his movements languid. He added a stumble as he pulled Ghost into him, attempting to tune out his disgust at the filth laying around as he leant back on the wall, trying to get Ghost to cover him.
“Soap, what the fuck-“
“I don’t want to hear any more sounds from you unless they’re of your fake pleasure. You need to go with it so they move on.” He slid his arms around Ghost’s neck, trying to cover the mask he wore on his lower face. Ghost let himself be pulled in, bracing one arm on the wall, one leg sliding between Soap’s as he angled his head down, leaning close enough to make it look like their lips could touch.
He could feel Ghost’s breath in hot huffs filtering through the mask, caressing his face. They were too close. It was too intimate. He didn’t dare make eye contact, trying to quiet his own breaths.
The smell of Ghost, whatever divine cologne he wore, drowned out the stink of the overflowing waste bins and extraction fans from the next door take out place, and instead had Soap drowning in the dizzying, overwhelming, delicious notes of spice and earthy musk. It had him wanting to bite down on the broad shoulder hiding him from view, and the deep breath he took to attempt to steady himself only made it worse.
He shut his eyes, shifting restlessly, not noticing the hand holding the back of Ghost’s neck gripping tight as he tried to ground himself. Ghost was so tantalisingly close, and he didn’t dare think about all of the muscle and heat pressed against him - they were so tight together and interlocked that Ghost was certain to notice any ‘predicament’ he got himself into right now.
Ghost pulled back a few precious inches and the sudden cold air had him shivering. “I think they’ve gone.”
It took Soap a few seconds to pull himself back to the present, swallowing hard to make sure his voice didn’t come out as wrecked as he felt.
“Oh- good.”
“You couldn’t have picked something else as our cover?” The indignation in Ghost’s voice was like a bucket of cold water thrown over him.
“There was no time for anything else! What would you have done? Fake a fight? There was no time, it would have been too suspicious. And besides, ‘making out’ is almost certain to make them uncomfortable and move on.” His voice was hard.
“It made me uncomfortable! You couldn’t have run it past me, maybe?”
He swallowed the hurt - he had no right to be hurt right now, but couldn’t stop himself from pushing back, defensiveness prickling at the back of his neck.
“What, is it really that disgusting for you to be close to another bloke?” Soap’s voice was thick with scorn.
“What-?” Ghost blinked, taking a half step back. “Are you really that fucking thick, you think that’s my problem? You do know I like men, right?”
Surprise washed over Soap as he ran back through any hints in his mind. Before he could respond, Price radioed in.
“Exfil in five, get to the RV point ASAP.”
“Copy, Cap.” Ghost didn’t even give him a second glance as he turned away, striding out of the dark smothering them.
—
They made it through debrief, but only barely. Ghost could feel Soap growing more and more restless, more and more tense throughout the conversation with Price, and the second they were dismissed he bolted from the room.
Ghost followed, not happy to let this sit heavy between them. He quickly caught up, dragging Soap into a (thankfully empty) training room.
“What?”, Soap practically spat at him, moving to stand as far away as possible.
“What is it, Soap?”
“Don’t know what you mean.” He tried to feign indifference, but Ghost saw straight through it in the defensive way he held himself.
“What do you want to say to me? I can tell you’re bottling something up, I’m not leaving it. We still have to work together, so get whatever it is out of your system.”
“Is it everyone that you can’t stand being near then?”
He didn’t expect that. He was expecting some comment or question about him not being straight, but not that.
“What do you mean?” Caution crept into his tone.
“Actually, I know it’s not. You have no problem with Price or Gaz getting in your personal space, so it must be me. Right?”
“Yes, Soap. It’s you.” Soap jerked, nothing but hurt to be read in his body language and Ghost realised how poorly he’d worded that. “No-“
Soap was spinning away before he could finish speaking, and Ghost acted on instinct. He moved, grabbing Soap’s shoulder and pushing him into the wall hard, pinning him in with his body. It was only once he’d done it that he realised it was identical to their position in that disgusting alley behind the club that had gotten them into this mess in the first place.
He spoke quickly before Soap could act on the violence he could see brewing in his eyes.
“It is you, it’s the effect you have on me. I said I was uncomfortable, but it’s only because I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. Because being in this position with you makes me go out of my fucking mind, Johnny.” All sense and reasoning went out of his brain, and he pressed closer. “Having you like this makes me act like I’m a fucking teenager with no self control, and you should not have to deal with me pressing my hard on into you when we’re on a mission. I am not willing to put your safety at risk like that, and I should not put you in that position as your lieutenant.” He was breathing hard by the time he finished, forcing himself to loosen his grip and ease back enough for Soap to move and escape if he wanted to.
And he did move, but not to escape. One hand wrapped tight around the back of his neck, the other sliding around his waist and Ghost let himself be pulled back in without any resistance.
“Johnny-“
“Please, LT.” Soap’s gaze was sincere, pleading as he worried his lower lip between his teeth. Ghost didn’t think he could ever resist that puppy dog stare, those blue eyes that had mesmerised him for so long. He pulled his mask off all the way, dropping it on the floor in his haste to get his hands back on Soap, pulling him impossibly closer by the harness around his hips until he was practically sat on Ghost’s thigh.
They crashed together in a kiss that was all teeth and tongue and spit, absolutely no finesse but they’d been restrained for far too long and it was exactly what they needed in that moment. Soap let out a stream of breathy sighs and whimpers and moans that Ghost caught in his mouth, relishing in them as he encouraged Soap to rock on his thigh.
“Can’t”, Soap groaned as he pulled away a little. Ghost was not deterred and continued kissing, licking, and biting his way across Soap’s jaw and throat. “Not walking back across base with cum stained jeans, Ghost, please.” And God if he didn’t want to hear more of those broken pleas.
“As you asked so nicely…”, he grinned into Soap’s neck, sucking and biting one more mark there before pulling back. He knew he must look just as depraved and wrecked as Soap, chest heaving, lips swollen, hair mussed up. “Back to your quarters then, Sergeant.”
“You coming with me?”
His grin was vicious. “No escape for you, sweetheart. Maybe if you beg I’ll let you off easy, but you’re going to end up in cum stained jeans regardless.”
“Oh?” Soap arched a brow, but the hunger was clear in his face. “Are you sure you aren’t going to be the one begging?”
“Ah, that’s the joy of it, Johnny… who said it had to be just one of us?”