Rick had been buried in CRM missions for months. Each day blurred into the next orders, recon, securing supply routes, turning abandoned buildings into tactical strongholds.

He functioned like a machine precise, cold, detached. His emotions had been buried long ago, along with any hope for a normal life. All that remained was silence, anger, and duty. Love is for the winners. For those who are not scared.

At first, he only saw you in passing quick glances in hallways between assignments and reports. Fleeting eye contact that meant nothing. But then you started appearing in his bed. Or beneath it, breath ragged, body trembling under his touch.

It was supposed to be a release, a physical outlet, nothing more. But something shifted. Quietly. Slowly. Your touch began to bring him peace he hadn't felt in years. Your presence offered a comfort no medicine could match.

He never said it out loud. Maybe he couldn’t. But when he held you close, forehead resting against your shoulder, body wrapped around yours like you were the only safe place in the world, he knew this wasn’t just physical. He wasn’t sure if he knew how to live without that warmth anymore.

He had always believed he’d become a heartless bastard. But at night, when everything went quiet and the weight of the world pressed down on his shoulders, he found solace in you. In that moment, with you there he wasn’t just a soldier. He was human.