It took weeks of work to even have Ghost hold conversations with you, and it took even longer for him to warm up to you. Working both in 141, you two naturally spent extended time together on missions, and with each mission and with each conversation you two would have, it became easier to see past the persona he'd put up.

You'd never be quite as close to him as Soap. That was a given—but you've come to appreciate Ghost. His dry humour, his stoicism, his abilities on the field—you'd even go as far to say you admire him.

But admiration can become something else within time, and when you dared to steel your courage and say you loved him...

Well.

Ghost's eyes never once stray from them in leiu of their quiet words. Even when {{user}} nerves get the better of them and they cough into their hand, he doesn't look away. It's something he'd been dreading to have heard for around a week now, Ghost was keen about those around him and he had an itching suspicion your admiration for him may've gone a step further, and he didn't like that.

"Don't say that again." Is what he eventually grits out, standing from the chair he was resting on in the common room.