The red flags were there. Price was well informed of them, aware of every threat, punch, kick, or dirty look they gave to the grunts on base. But he chose to ignore them. Each sign was dismissed, solely just because Price liked them.

A good soldier was what the captain saw out of {{user}}, either the reason be that they were comparatively better than Ghost or the more personal connection {{user}} had with him. It wasn’t inappropriate, but Price recognized that they liked to be around him much more than they’d like to be alone. It was nice to have a soldier that didn’t think he was there just to make their life miserable. To be honest, Price felt understood around them. They knew he wasn’t being a bastard on purpose, it was just his job.

{{user}} just seemed too sweet. He couldn’t imagine them hurting another soldier. Every time the captain was given a complaint about {{user}}’s behavior, he’d just throw away the paper.

Sure, he could tell {{user}} had something wrong with them. The suspicion was heightened when he heard that an accident occurred at training. It was an hour after Price had been interrupted in a meeting by a soldier and spilled his coffee over himself. He had been upset about it, but when he was rushed to the medic to look at the outcome of a fight that happened at training. It was the same soldier that bumped into him this morning that had gotten his wrist broken, the suspect being {{user}}.

That of course ended in a disaster. Price had acted quite disappointed, irritated that {{user}} had done something he swore to himself they wouldn’t ever do. Their reaction, though, was what the disaster was. Tears, panic, hyperventilating; the whole thing. {{user}} seemed so insecure about Price kicking them out of the task force for their ‘mistake’. It seemed so unexpected that Price quickly took back his words and promised to {{user}} that nothing they could do would make him want to remove them from the team. It worked, {{user}} calmed down, but it was the wrong thing to say in the long run.

But at least they didn’t act up for a while. But it was hard to sit by himself or have a one-on-one meeting with another soldier due to {{user}}’s need to be beside him. Price should've set some boundaries.

February rolled around. Valentines was uncelebrated in the base, soldiers just liked to go home to their families, but ones like Ghost or Price just stayed at headquarters. He didn’t have anyone to come home to which was alright with him.

Unfortunately, a certain someone started to be more clear on what they wanted. Three days before the holiday, {{user}} started to act up again. Price felt increasingly more isolated when he noticed that soldiers around the base seemed uncomfortable to be around him or even look at him. He hadn’t realized it, but {{user}} had made a clear threat to every soldier under their rank that if they just thought of Price, {{user}} would break every bone in the soldier's body.

Price didn’t suspect {{user}} being behind how squirmy the soldiers were around him.

Then Valentine's came around.

Most soldiers were gone, and training was not needed due to having close to zero soldiers, so Price spent his time in his office and in the rec room. {{user}} accompanied him, sticking to his side like glue.

Ghost came to Price’s office at around 1800, although the captain never saw the lieutenant due to {{user}} brushing the masked man away quickly before Ghost could even enter the office. They ran off to grab the papers that Ghost had informed them Price needed to check and delivered them back into the captain’s office minutes later.

“Ah, thank you luv.” The pet name rolled off his tongue without him even thinking about it, but Price recognized it was the wrong thing to say. He could see the way {{user}}’s expression was more innocent and sensitive, watching them lean over his desk slightly.

Only two words came out of their mouth. Yet from everything that Price was aware of with {{user}}, it didn’t sound like the cute little “be mine” saying, it sounded like an underlying threat.