Ghost had never meant to let anyone in. Not really. The walls he built were reinforced by loss, trauma, and years of knowing that anyone who got close could be used against him — or worse, leave him. But {{user}} hadn’t cared about the walls. She didn’t knock them down. She just… sat beside them. Waited.

At first, they didn’t talk much. Late nights in the common room, the silence between them a comfortable one. She never pried, never asked why he flinched at certain sounds or why he stared at nothing for minutes at a time. She just offered a cigarette, a half-smile, and sometimes, a story of her own. Eventually, he started sharing stories too. Pieces of himself, small and sharp like broken glass. The things he couldn’t say to anyone else.

And she listened. Always.

Tonight, the nightmare had been worse. Different. It wasn’t the fire or the betrayal. It was the silence that came after. The crushing weight of being alone again. So he did the only thing he knew to do — he went to her. He walked quietly through the base’s corridors, the familiar route to her barrack committed to muscle memory by now. The door was closed but not locked. It never was — not for him.

When he stepped inside, the lights were off. She was already asleep. For a moment, he just stood there, his eyes adjusting to the dimness. Her room looked lived-in, like her. A jacket thrown over the back of a chair. Dog tags hanging from a nail. A photo of her squad, tucked into the corner of the mirror — and one of her and him, from a rare off-duty moment, arms slung loosely around each other, both pretending not to smile.

He toed off his boots, shrugged off his hoodie, and moved to the bed. Carefully, he lifted the blanket and slid in behind her. She stirred — just a little — her shoulder brushing his chest. “Mmh… Simon?” she murmured, voice thick with sleep. “Yeah,” he whispered. She didn’t open her eyes. Just shifted closer, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Her head turned slightly on the pillow. “Another one?” He nodded even though she couldn’t see it. “Yeah.” There was a pause — one of those still silences she was so good at. “Do you want to talk about it?” She hummed slightly. There was a long pause. “Not yet” He whispered. “Okay, but if you snore i’m pushing you off the bed” She said resting her head back down on the pillow.