kai 🧼💀

still by far one of my favorite pieces in this fandom 🥺🥺🥺 (i am 100% biased and i do not care)

and johnny smiles, a softness in his gaze as he goes to the tips of his toes and presses their foreheads together. the scars create a unique texture, a reminder of the pain simon has gone through.

"i never stopped."

a moment of weakness presses a lump forward in simon's throat, the vulnerability burning uncomfortably. it squeezes out like its been fighting a great battle, finally rattling out from simon's mouth in a shaky tumble.

"do you still love me?"
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"oh, simon," johnny breathes, his hands cradling that scarred face. it's gnarled and twisted in grotesque ways, and soap can even see the man's teeth through the gap in his lips. his nose is bent at an awkward angle, and by all definitions-

simon is ugly.
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ghost wants to refuse at first. he knows exactly who soap is.

(he's not sure he wants to reopen that chapter in his book, not when it ended so painfully)

but he does, because he never *was* able to tell johnny no.
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the way he calls soap *johnny*.

when everything is said and done, and they're back at home, soap approaches ghost with a single demand:

"take it off."
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when ghost guides soap through the bloody nightmare of that destroyed town, soap gets more and more of that itching feeling that ghost is someone he's met before.

the way he talks, the way he offers comfort without making soap seem incompetent.
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eventually soap joins the 141. he doesn't recognize ghost, though the lt's voice *does* sound vaguely familiar.

then there's the missiles, and he's entirely too distracted to think about the swirling, painful memories that a stranger's eyes seems to bring about.
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ghost has never met johnny. he isn't in love with him. he wouldn't do anything for the man that he wouldn't do for any other soldier on the field. there's nothing there.

(he tries to convince himself of that time and time again)

(it's never anything but failure)
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but we all know how this story goes.

vernon.

roba.

...

ghost.
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one day simon asks johnny that, should anything happen to him-

"would you still love me? even when i'm no longer young and beautiful?" he laughs, but johnny knows he's serious.

as if johnny could ever exist as anything other than madly in love with man he lay next to. +

au where soap and ghost meet before they're soap and ghost

johnny and simon get together because let's face it- they're *made* for each other

their lives go on. they're happy and content even though life is anything but stable or reliable. unexpected deployments and all that.
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