More Than Human

Chapter 3: Bedtime Gossip

Soap and Ghost had been on the Los Vaqueros base for about a week now. Soap had taken a liking to Colonel Alejandro Vargas and his second in command Rodolfo Parra. Ghost found himself also amiable with them. Mostly due to Soap's attitude toward them.

MacTavish's happy energy was infectious, and it made Ghost's mouth water and his teeth ache.

Annoying.

Yeah. That was it.

Then Phillip Graves with Shadow Company came to their aid. They were quite helpful and eager to hunt down Hassan. Unfortunately, Hassan was extremely unhelpful when they tried to get information from him. They had to turn him loose anyway. Soap was frustrated. And Alejandro was downright furious. Rodolfo hadn't been in the man's presence, and they got the sense that Alejandro meant to keep it that way.

They determined that they would seek out the leader of the local crime syndicate, El Sin Nombre. The had narrowed down their base of operations and planned on going out the next evening.

The night before, Ghost and Soap were in their shared room on base. Ghost had been reading, and Soap was sitting up writing in his journal. Ghost's attention was drawn when Soap snapped his little book shut and slid it under his pillow, flopping down onto the mattress with a huff. He saw the man roll over to face him from his periphery.

"Hey LT?"

Ghost lifted his head and slowly turned to face him, "Yes, MacTavish?"

"Do you... um..." Soap nervously picked at his sheet for a moment, "Rudy and Alejandro, aye?"

"Yes?"

"Well, do you think..." Soap seemed to think hard about whether he should ask this or not before finally spitting it out, "D'they seem human to you?"

Ghost furrowed his brow. A strange question. Particularly as neither of them had brought up their own species with the other. Ghost wasn't sure if he should answer, but he felt strangely compelled by Soap's bright innocent eyes.

"Not particularly." Ghost admitted.

Soap seemed to relax all of his muscles. As if Ghost had just made him feel far less crazy than he had. "I knew it! I knew they did't. The vibes, right?"

Ghost nodded a bit with a hum, "A strange pair that."

And then, in unison, they both muttered, "And their smell."

They both snapped their heads up to look at each other.

"You can smell them?" They once again said together.

Ghost narrowed his eyes, "Stop that."

"Imnae the one doin that!" Soap argued, "And in any case, Rudy smells like... the beach?"

Ghost hummed in agreement, "And Alejandro's like some sort of animal. Like hay, a farm maybe?"

"Goat."

Ghost was momentarily taken aback by the confidence with which Soap said it.

"Goat?"

Soap nodded eagerly, "Yeah. Goat."

They fell into a thoughtful silence for a moment Soap spoke up again, maybe a touch sheepishly, "You smell nice."

Ghost didn't respond, just looked at him. Frankly, he didn't know what to say to that. Before he could come up with a proper response, Soap was shrinking back a bit.

"Sorry. I'm stupid. I can never keep my mouth shut. No filter is what my mother always told me. I'll just go to sleep. I'm gonna shut up now. Goodnight Ghost."

Then he rolled over and faced away from Ghost.

Ghost leaned over and flipped off his lamp, unable to help the quiet, "Goodnight Soap." That slipped past his lips.

He breathed deep before rolling away from the man. Getting one last taste of his scent. Making it the last thing he would taste.