So so, amnesia Soap who doesn’t remember a large chunk of his childhood. Maybe even up to his early teens. Doesn’t remember that he met Ghost when they were kids and that it was the best summer of his entire life.
As adults, Soap meets Ghost for the first time…as far as he
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knows. Ghost, of course, recognizes Soap immediately. He replays those memories of the cute little Scottish boy he’d met during the few occasions he allows himself to reminisce.
When Soap acts like he doesn’t know Ghost at all, it hurts just a little bit, but it’s been years,
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right? Maybe that summer wasn’t as memorable for Soap as it was for Ghost. That’s fine. Really. It’s /fine/.
Ghost tries to keep his distance the way he does with everyone he’s ever met but Soap worms his way in despite Ghost’s best efforts. It’s almost exactly the same as
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when they were younger, the way a young Johnny had seen a young Simon sitting alone in the park with bruises on his arms and instead of asking about them or poking fun, he simply tugged on Simon’s wrist gently and asked him to play.
Soap likes Ghost immediately. He’s an odd
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guy, definitely, and the way he stares is heavy on Soap’s skin, but there’s this itch in the back of his head that makes him feel like he’s known Ghost for a lot longer than he has. It’s not an unfamiliar feeling, there’s been odd moments of deja vu ever since the incident that
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caused his memory loss, so he doesn’t think about it too deeply, just prefers to live in the moment and appreciate the relationship he has with Ghost.
Finally, while taking a break after returning from an assignment that took several months, they’re outside smoking together,
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trading w cigarette back and forth. Soap asks about Ghost’s childhood and it makes the bigger man freeze.
“Ah, sorry sorry. I know that’s a tough question. Shouldn’t have asked.” Soap backtracks, and Ghost is quite for a while. There’s slight tension between them but nothing to
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make either of them leave. Ghost breathes out a thick cloud of smoke.
“Not great. Abusive dad, a mom who couldn’t do anything to protect herself, and a younger brother who would do anything to not be the target so he shoved the attention onto me instead.”
It’s Soap’s turn to
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be quiet and Ghost doesn’t blame him. It’s probably not the answer he thought he’d get.
“I’m sorry, Si.”
Ghost shrugs. “It’s fine. They’re all dead now.” He blows out another lungful of smoke and turns to look at Soap. “What about you?”
Soap gives him a wry smile. “Wish I
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knew.”
Ghost’s eyes go wide. “What?”
It’s Soap’s turn to shrug and he turns to look up at the sky rather than meet Ghost’s eyes. “Was involved in a real bad accident in my teen years. Anything about my life just,” he waves his free hand in the air, “vanished into nothing.
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Forgot everything and not a single thing’s come back to me ever since.”
“Johnny…” Ghost chokes out. It makes sense, suddenly. Why Soap never joins in when the team gets into one of their reminiscing moods, why he always asks questions instead of sharing his own stories even
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when given any other opportunity to talk their ears off, he takes it without hesitation. It also makes sense why when he saw Ghost, he’d looked at him like he was a stranger. Ghost feels something heavy in his gut.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that. We’ve both had a rough time,
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LT. Just happy we’re both here in the present, yeah?” Ghost nods because he can’t do or say anything else. When Soap smiles, it’s genuine and warm. The sergeant pats him on his shoulder. “Glad you agree.”
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@NotAloneLover
I might write another part or two! there might be an argument before things are fully resolved, though 😅
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