Red Lake | Ghost & König [II]

chapter 2

The airport was bustling with people.

You blew out cold air, stressed and overwhelmed by the swarms of people trying to board their flights and moving past security so early in the morning. The large windows of the enormous airport building allowed warm sunlight to filter through them. You tapped your foot impatiently as you waited in line for security.

Austria was merely an hour way, so you didn't bring much on your person. Your mind drifted to the boys as you waited. Merde, they were so frustrating. It's been such an adjustment living with them like normal people. Being out of the military field with König and Ghost has been hard, and you can tell they've both been struggling, Kilgore more so. You were fine, enjoying being away from all the chaos, away from German Special Forces, away from the Task Force, but Simon was always restless, like he needed to get up and do something, and Kilgore was always so... jumpy, like something was going to surprise him at any moment.

You loved them both, though, and you would die for them in a heartbeat, but that doesn't mean things are perfect. No, they're far less than even decent. Your apartment was shitty, you worked at the post office and Simon and Kilgore both worked blue collar. Income was average, so you all could afford to go out on dates, some all together, others separate with just you and Kilgore or you and Simon, and you could afford good clothes and food and such. But you all had nights where you had to sit down and meet and manage your finances together, ensuring all needs were met and all bills and taxes were paid.

But you loved them. And that's what mattered. It was hell, but it was with them. Your sex life was active with them both, and they treated you with respect and often brought you gifts after work (they came home much later than you), like chocolates and roses and other bouquets of flowers you couldn't even name. They treated you beyond well despite the situations you often found yourselves in, and you had the audacity to get angry with them for caring about you.

You hardly noticed as the security guard at the airport called you to come up next. You went through security, slipping off your shoes and allowing them to take your bag.

Your shoulders slumped with guilt as you kept your eyes fixated on the ground. You mentally cursed yourself. How shitty of a person could you be to treat them both like an inconvenience to you for wanting you to be safe? After everything that happened last year, after all that insanity with Hassan and the missiles and Hofmann and Graves and the Task Force and all that shit, of course they'd want to make sure you didn't go alone back to the same place that all that shit occurred in the first place.

Simon was being completely and utterly reasonable, and you forced yourself to pretend like you didn't acknowledge that. If there's one thing you were, it was stubborn, and you weren't about to admit that maybe you did need a little protection if you were traveling to Austria alone. Even if it just was to visit your parents, who you hadn't seen since all of that happened, it probably would have been a lot smarter to not go alone.

But it was too late for that now. You sighed shakily out of your nostrils, mind troubled as you approached the plane once finished with security, your eyes glazed over with frustrated and hurt tears. You touched the outside of the plane for good luck and boarded it.

✦

The flight was short, as you predicted, and before you knew it you were in Austria in a taxi to your childhood home.

The taxi driver was an overweight man with a bushy beard and mustache and balding brown hair. He was curt with you when you told him where you wanted to go from Vienna, but you cut him some slack. You had had a hard day too, so you understood if some people just felt like being a bitch sometimes.