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“It doesn’t get easier, does it?” Soap’s voice carries through the hanger. Normally the silence is a relief, but both men are in the same state. Their ears still ring and adrenaline still thrums in their veins. After it all, the silence is stifling. Simon is familiar with the feeling, welcomes it some nights, but Soap looks rattled sitting across from him. Their jobs are never easy. No man escapes war unscathed. Mind, body, and soul cannot escape whole. Despite it all, Johnny is the closest he has seen to someone untouched. Optimistic, a good sense of humor, pride. It figures that things would go wrong on Simon’s watch. Maybe he’s cursed in some way.
“No.” he says simply. No antagonism. No friendly jabs. Everything is still a little too raw for that. He’s not about to dig his thumb into whatever emotional wounds Soap has. Not at the moment, at least. They can take jabs at each other when the hurt has numbed. His side aches. Soap’s knee aches, he can tell. Crow said he couldn’t do anything about that until they’re back on safe ground, but who knows when that will be.
Johnny is the first to crack under the silence. It’s not surprising, nor can Ghost blame him. The Sergeant spent three hours bouncing his leg and now he’s run out of things to distract himself with. Three hours fidgeting like something was unsettled within him.
It’s coming. In 3.
Soap checks his knee brace
Soap checks his holsters
The Sergeant’s head raises slowly and their eyes meet. Quirking a brow is useless, considering Soap can’t see his face, but Simon does it out of habit. The balaclava they were wearing showed facial movements much more than his mask does. They hold gazes for a moment before, predictably, Soap looks away first. His hand finds the back of his neck to rub there nervously.
“Say it.”
“You okay?” Of course. Of course the first words out of Soap’s mouth in 20 minutes are him being concerned.
“Better than you, at any rate.” To his credit, Soap doesn’t react to that; “It will fade, eventually. The feeling you can’t trust anyone.” Ghost watches the other man shift, the brief flashes of emotion on his face before Soap shakes his head.
“I have you.” The words are delicate. Their relationship is in strange territory now. They’ve been through hell already. There’s no breaking whatever the hell they have forged.
“That you do, Johnny. That you do…”