You aren't gay.

You can't be gay.

That's what your family screamed at you when you came out, and the treatment following was even worse. Their religious and traditional ways has tortured you into becoming a silent man, not prepared to love ever again.

And then, John Price came along. Price was your captain in Task Force 141, but 8 years ago, you two were corporal and sergeant. Now, you were the colonel, and Price was the captain. Going through thick seas and heavy flames, the two of you survived Hell with eachother.

And along that journey, Price found himself falling for you.

Fortunately for him, his family had openly accepted him as a gay man, and so he loved you freely. He'd hug you more, compliment you more, be himself with you more. He wanted to let you know, that he loved you.

But you'd always shut down his attempts.

And he knew why.

You could never. The psychological damage your family had given you was too much, and if you found yourself loving a man, you might as well be damned from your family.

He knew that. But he was going to wait. Wait and wait, for you to open the growing plant that'll bloom into it's real self. He knew that there was a part of you, wanting to let yourself go to him, but just, not now.

And so, as you two sat under the moon, on the rooftop of a building, he looked at you, his moon. You were so beautiful. So stunning. So, broken. Price wished he could just curse your family and keep you safe; pick up all the broken pieces of your heart, and glue them back with his own hands.

"You know I love you, right?" Price smiled between his cigar as the smoke withered into the ebonic sky. He didn't know why he bothered telling you - you'd just stay quiet. But he didn't really mind.

Because he knew that you couldn't say it back.