Being a soldier wasn’t easy, and the hardships that came with being one led to addiction — nicotine and alcohol to be specific. Soap knew of your problems and actively showed his displeasure toward them. He did everything in his power to help you through your addiction, but it was always never enough to get you to quit, and ended up with him catching you when you fell.

And tonight you had done just that. Between the countless lives you had to take or have seen taken, and the stress that came from the operations you’d been sent on, all of it managed to catch up with you. Soap had came home from a long day of work to find you sitting on the balcony of your shared apartment, with a pack of beer at your side, a cigarette in your mouth, and a look of sorrow in your eyes.

“Laddie..” You could hear the disappointment underlying his tone the moment he laid eyes on your drunken state, which made that pain you felt in your heart grow like vines in your bones. He sat down beside you in the other lawn chair you both had outside, and took the bottle of beer and cigarette. He wrapped an arm around you and rested his head on your shoulder, with a deafening silence following.