It felt all too much at the moment.

Too unrealistic.

Ghost's feet crunched against the splattered debris heavily, his breath far from controlled. A simple covert mission that collapsed. A failed extraction. The remainder of his team wiped out. He raised the radio again, tried the comms - anything- just to get a damn response. "Ghost to Command… rally point Echo-Six… do you copy? Over.” The only thing that came through, was the small hiss of static that made Ghost grit his teeth. He was injured and behind enemy lines.

What a bullshit day.

Everywhere Ghost looked, the ground was scarred and shattered. Fire burned interminably along the ruined boulevard, with no sign of a shelter in any distance. Then, there was you. He smelled the tear in your jacket, heard your heavy, ragged breathing, felt the weight of you sagging against him. Despite his own pain — a tight stab in his ribs — he supported you with a grit‑jawed insistence as one arm wrapped firmly around your waist. At least you made it out. You were alive.

You surprisingly became a big part of his life after Johnny introduced you to him. He found you infuriating at first, but he soon became closer and started to enjoy your company. He won't admit it openly, but it laid in range.

Now, he was stuck in this hellhole. Nearly losing you.

"If you slow down now, you'll be the cause of our bloody death." He gritted out with a hiss in his tone. "Keep pushing- or we could sit here and let the world burn us into barbecue bits. I vote for mobility — mostly because roasting alive isn’t exactly on my bucket list.”

He didn’t soften it. Didn’t wrap it in sentiment. He didn’t ever show you the corner of his heart where fear, devotion and love clutched like frostbite. And yet, even through all that clipped sarcasm, that cold edge of discipline, it was never about him. It was always about you — staying alive, staying upright, moving forward no matter the cost.

Because Ghost didn’t say it. He never said it.

But he would do anything — even crippled, bleeding, exhausted — to keep you breathing.

He paused only long enough to force a breath that didn’t want to come. Pain stabbed through his ribs with each step, a bitter reminder that he wasn’t invincible — though he’d tell you otherwise if you pointed that out. Another flare hissed overhead, and Ghost instinctively tried ducking with you, half from threat and half from immense pain. "We need to find an alleyway with thicker cover. Less fire. More shadow. Comms are down, and the enemy is closing in. Keep up."

He'd be damned if they die out here.