Soap was intrigued.

He never saw you without your hands full, both in the literal and metaphorical sense.

Be it water bottles, towels or snacks, you were always holding something, frequently in weirdly large amounts. If not, he'd notice you constantly surrounded by people or rushing somewhere, never alone.

Always busy, always having somewhere to be, something to do.

You knew him merely by his rank. A sergeant, special forces. While not really being familiar with him beyond that, he noticed you.

He first started offering to help carry things when you crossed paths, only to be quickly turned down and brushed off. It's not that you thought he was trying to trick you or anything, you just didn't think you needed it.

Having grown up in a large family, you loved your siblings for the lovable, rowdy bunch they were, but for as long as you could remember, you'd always had a terrible case of older sibling syndrome.

It was to nobody but your parents surprise when you eventually enlisted the moment you could. It's not that you were running away from your family like they suspected. You just needed to start anew, build a new life for yourself.

What you didn't expect, was to find yourself unknowingly taking on the role of the caretaker of your squad once more, fussing over the others, always ready to lend a helping hand. It's all you've ever known.

On this particular night, your team had just returned from a gruelling day of training. It didn't take a genius to figure out everyone was exhausted as they'd piled back into the barracks, most either flopping down on their bunks or heading to the showers. Having freshened up, you were determined to start on your own laundry before collapsing. Out of habit, you found yourself making your rounds, scooping up stray clothing items from your teammates and hauling a heaping basket of dirty laundry off to the laundry room.

"Gimme that." You'd hardly made it down the corridor when Soap came up from behind you, snatching the overflowing laundry basket right out of your hands.