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It was the middle of the night, the base eerily silent and ungodly dark at this time of night. Of course, Ghost woke up to being shaken by none other than Mactavish and he already knew why he was there. "What." He muttered anyways, rolling to his side so his back was facing the sergeant, he was going to try and go back to sleep. He wasn't sure how long he was willing to do this routine, it disturbed his sleep too much and even Horangi noticed his new sleeping schedule. The man never pushed the subject though, likely due to König disturbing his schedule as well.
"I'm hungry, come on." Soap whined desperately, grabbing his shoulder and attempting to tug him out of bed in vain. Though after a while, Ghost allowed himself to be 'dragged' out of his warm bed and to his feet. He pitied the man but at the same time, this wasn't a healthy routine for either of them.
"This is the last time." He sighed, feeling Soap's hand leave him and he reached under his bed to grab the key, making a mental note to change its spot tomorrow.
"That's what you said last month." He pointed out in an almost teasing voice, excitedly bouncing on his feet as he followed Ghost outside of the room. Dating a lieutenant had its perks occasionally and Soap shamelessly used them as his advantage, though he knew it was going to come to an end when Price realized what they were doing. At least he had a few more weeks before he did. The old man was oblivious to a lot of things going on around the base.
The halls were freezing and it didn't help that the two men weren't wearing socks, a mistake on both of their parts but in Soap's defense, he was ravenous and could hardly think about the cold until now. The sweet promise of lemons had him all too excited, his entire body practically vibrating and might as well wake the entire base. Luckily, the dark was nothing to worry about as a few lights were still on, mainly for the night patrol but they have no doubt gone to bed already. Nobody can resist the temptation of sleep, a blissful escape from reality that Soap had ruined for Ghost for lemons.
The walk to the mess hall was short but unlocking the door was harder than it should've been, missing the keyhole twice before he was able to get it in. "Sleep still clouding yer mind, hm? Soap snickered, lightly patting his lieutenant's shoulder.
"Don't speak to me." He grumbled as he pushed the door open, letting Mactavish go before he followed behind and making sure to close the door behind him. The last thing either of them needed was some recruit or worse; König seeing them doing something they weren't supposed to.
Predictably, the large room was empty but he scanned the room just to be sure, he'd seen a cadet fall asleep here once before. He deemed it safe rather quickly and returned his attention back to Soap and watched him unfold one of the seats before disappearing somewhere into the kitchen. He was bitterly reminded of his recruit days, when he was the one setting up the mess hall for other soldiers before they awoke. Not his favorite memory but at least he wasn't the one doing it anymore. The few things that he enjoyed about being a higher rank was that he wasn't doing any more unnecessary tasks just because a sergeant or captain told him to.
Ghost was distracted by a whistle, making him turn his head to face Soap who was sitting at the table and holding two lemons instead of just the one. He was going to tell him the cooks were going to notice but just narrowed his eyes as Soap raised his hand in a suspicious manner. "What are you?-"
"Catch." Was the only warning he got before a sudden yellow object came flying at his face. He let out a shout and his hand raised in front of him, catching the lemon by accident but he didn't notice until after he stumbled backwards from the surprisingly strong force.
"Good job!" Soap grinned and gestured for him to sit next to him at the table, which he did only because of his stunned confusion. "You might like it, you should try it." He said, lightly poking him to add to his light jesting.
He just looked down at the item and let out a defeated sigh, he wasn't going to admit the flavor of those things made him heave like a cat coughing up a hairball so he was going to have to eat it. Soap's determination to make his life hell worked out for him either way in this case. "Fine, bring a knife?" He asked. It was a stupid question but he didn't bring anything with him but the key, maybe he should've but damn was he tired.
"Mhm! Always." He reached into his back pocket and revealed to him a pocket knife but Ghost could only focus on one thing, since when was he wearing sweatpants? He looked down, back up then down before reluctantly offering the lemon to him.
Soap snatched it from his hand, remaining oblivious to his lover's distaste, and happily cut it into slices, lemon juice only slightly leaking into the table. "Y'think lemon juice would permanently stain clothes with its smell?" He asked, trying to avoid the juice from touching his ring with much difficulty. It would've been easier to take it off but he didn't want to hear Ghost poke fun at him for it.
The minutes went by as he stopped to think before shaking his head. "No, it just gets rid of colors so it helps with hard to remove stains on white fabric."
"Oh, of bloody course you have an answer to that. What do you not have an answer to?" The sergeant scoffed, shoving a lemon piece into his hands and glared at him but it lacked any heat, it was more playful than anything. Ghost gawped at the fruit, regret hitting him with full force now that he was too far in to change his mind. He reached up to lift his balaclava but only dug his nails into his skin and winced from the short lived pain. Okay, no balaclava. Not the smartest choice he's made tonight but he's about to make a worse one.
"You take forever." Soap complained when Ghost made no move to eat it, earning a heated glare in return. "Just sayin'." He murmured, looking off to the side but glancing over at him anyway. Ghost grew tired and decided to be mature about this by biting the bullet and biting off a large chunk of the lemon, he could immediately taste the citrus and part of the skin. Disgusting. He wanted to gag, maybe even vomit, but he restrained any sort of reaction that would make Soap giggle like some kid for days to come.
Though, it did not mean he brought his knee up and hit the table when he forced his throat to endure more than it needed, pain now blossoming in two parts of his body. He didn't allow himself to even peek at how Soap was reacting, he could only imagine the kinds of conclusions he may draw from this embarrassing – and pathetic – attempt to hide his true feelings about the cursed fruit.
"Simon?"
He scowled and turned away from his lover, trying to hide his watering eyes and prevent tears from escaping. He failed to hear the creaking of the seat next to him while he focused on swallowing the mushy fruit. He's ashamed, really, that he wasn't more mature about this like he normally was but it was so painfully difficult to say no to Soap. That's a problem, maybe.
Problems are to be solved another day. Or when they become impossible to ignore.
When he took a deep breath, his throat burned, being a permanent reminder of what would happen the next time he dared to chew off more than he could swallow in the literal sense. Turning back to where Soap should've been, he was greeted by a paper towel to the face. The light, brown paper almost floated to the floor before he grabbed it and wiped off any evidence of the lemon's effects from his face.
"Fuckin' idiot."
"Wanker."
Soap chuckled at that, "So polite." He muttered sarcastically as he fidgeted with his ring, his thumb caressing the engraved initials as carefully as he could. Relieved that the juice didn't come near the metal. "You clearly enjoyed that, should I bring lemons in for sex?"
He scoffed and shot him a glare that didn't even intimidate him into changing the subject, it just made him grin wider. "What? No."
"I could squeeze it on yer dick!" He offered giddily, delighted by the idea he accidentally gave himself, ignoring the half-horrified expression the man next to him had.
"No." Simon scowled, blood rushing to his face to tint it a light pink as he kicked Soap's ankle as hard as he could. Growing increasingly upset when all he did was laugh at the kick. "Do it to yourself you bloody idiot, I'm not allowing you to get that shit near me."
"Fine, fine. Maybe I could get Gaz to do it." He snickered, watching as Simon sighed in pity for Gaz but something about the man in front of Soap seemed off. His tongue appeared swollen and his gums looked redder than they should've been. "Lt?"
Simon hummed, trying to get the lemon taste out of his mouth with minor success when Soap spoke. "Do you have a citrus allergy?" He lifted a brow at that and shrugged.
"Probably. Had a pretty bad time when I ate grapefruit when I was six." He answered, amused when his lover's eyes went wide with realization and stood up to look down at him.
"Medbay, now." He demanded and Simon couldn't help but feel pleased as he stood up and was hardly surprised by Soap's sudden strength as he dragged him out of the mess hall.