Chasing a Ghost

Chapter Seven

You were becoming sick and tired of the cold.

The excitement of visiting Russia for the first time had officially drizzled away as you sat with your group huddled around a fire in the cold, harsh Russian wilderness. You'd packed all of your warmest materials, wrapped yourself up tight in your coat and an extra blanket, and sat as close to the fire as you could without burning yourself. Yet still your teeth insisted on chattering.

"This is ridiculous," you muttered to Soap who sat to your left, also facing the fire.

"Not too excited to be here anymore, are ya?" He responded. You could tell by the strain in his voice that he was freezing too, just not enough to tremble.

You glared at him from the edge of your eye, envious of his good spirits despite the atrocious weather.

He caught you giving him the evil eye and leaned in to you. "I'll snuggle with you, if you want." He winked.

"Oh, shut up Soap," you shot back at him, your evil eye worsening as you clenched the blanket tightly around your shoulders. You rolled your eyes so hard that they fell on Price and Ghost, whose conversation had seemingly ended. They were both looking at you and Johnny. Your cheeks burned and you made a mental note to admonish him for that later.

"You look like an ice pop," Price commented, puffs of vapor emanating from his mouth as he spoke.

"I'm on my way to becoming one soon," you chirped, lips obscured by the blanket.

You glanced over at Ghost in time to see him directing a look towards Soap. From the corner of your eye you saw Soap give a shrug, as if to say what?

You brushed it off, scooting even closer to the fire. "How am I going to shoot people when my hands are trembling like this?"

"We're hoping to not do much shooting," Price answered. "We want Maghrebi alive. Sounds like he's temporarily holed up with Vladislav's family or friends until he can figure out where to go next. Probably knows we raided his base a while back." He took a moment to breathe warm air onto his hands. "Hopefully we just flash our guns and scare the poor bastards into giving him up."

"Pah," Soap scoffed, gesturing over to Ghost. "With a face like that, I think we could scare just about anyone."

You giggled quietly into the blanket, glancing over at him once again. Somehow, the skull-faced mask didn't bother you at all. You still thought he looked cute most of the time, except when he was angry, or when he wore that air of "don't fuck with me right now" when he was focused on something.

He caught you watching him idly, making eye contact with you for an instant before looking into the fire. You resettled your eyes there with him, suddenly conscious of the fact that you were on his mind. You weren't sure how you knew that, but you could feel it in that look. You wondered absentmindedly what he was thinking about. The fire burned into your eyes as you gazed off into it, getting completely lost in thought. You shivered lightly in the blanket, remembering the last time you'd been alone with Ghost. You wished you could crawl into his lap right now, ask him to wrap his arms around you and keep you safe from the cold once again. Imagining that scenario had your heart thumping fast, considering where a situation like that could possibly lead off to. Your thoughts swam about, fantasizing about what would happen. You would crawl into his lap, give him your best doe eyes and ask him sweetly to wrap you up in another bear hug. You imagined yourself snuggling up into his chest, listening to it vibrate as he spoke to Soap and Price. Maybe at some point you'd look up at him and ask him for a kiss... then he would tug up the bottom of his mask, lean down, and gently place his lips on yours.

And suddenly, you snapped back to reality. You couldn't dare let him realize that you just spent the last 10 minutes or so daydreaming about him. Still, you couldn't help but wonder. What would his response be if you did ask him for a kiss...?