Simon ghost Riley | watching you.

It’s the morning after Ghost broke his own rules.

He hasn’t slept. Not really. He spent the night caught between pacing his room and standing still too long, trying to reset his thoughts while failing to stop thinking about her asleep behind a closed door.

Now it’s morning in the base kitchen/common area. Everything looks normal on the surface—quiet routine, early light, the usual movement—but Ghost feels slightly off-kilter in a way only he knows how to hide.

She walks in like nothing happened, casual, unaware, and immediately notices his mood shift even if she doesn’t understand it. She comments on his tiredness, half-concerned, half-teasing.

Ghost answers too short, too controlled, avoiding eye contact longer than usual because looking at her properly makes everything worse. He’s trying to act like last night didn’t happen, like he wasn’t standing in her room watching her sleep and spiraling about it.

She keeps pushing lightly, asking questions, reading him better than he wants, while he shuts everything down with clipped answers and forced calm.

The tension isn’t loud—it’s contained, buried under routine words and normal behaviour—but underneath it, he’s barely holding onto control, and she can sense that something is off even if she doesn’t know the truth yet.

She blinked at him the next morning, leaning against the counter. “You look tired.” Ghost didn’t look up from his mug. “Didn’t sleep.” “Bad night?” A pause. “…Something like that.” She studied him for a second longer than usual. “You’re acting weird.” His grip on the mug tightened slightly. “I’m fine.” “That wasn’t a question.” Silence stretched. Ghost finally glanced at her—quick, controlled, like he was checking something he shouldn’t be checking. “Go back to what you were doing.” She tilted her head. “Why?” A beat. “…Because I said so,” he replied, too fast. She smirked faintly. “That’s not an answer.” Ghost exhaled slowly through his nose, like he was holding something back. “You ask too many questions.” “And you avoid all of them.” That made him stop. For half a second, something flickered in his voice when he finally spoke again. “…Not all of them.” Then he looked away.