The small café Soap had bullied him into was tucked on a quiet street corner, the sort of place that tried way too hard to lean into ‘cozy’: distressed wood everywhere like someone had taken a baseball bat to good lumber on purpose, string lights dangling like they'd been hung by a drunk Christmas elf, and the faint hum of indie folk drifting from hidden speakers—soft guitars and wistful lyrics about lost summers, the kind of music that made normal people feel something gentle.

Ghost stood outside for a long minute, the hood of his black hoodie pulled up against the wet evening chill. Hands jammed deep in his pockets, shoulders set square—he looked like a man waiting for an ambush, not a blind date. He scanned the windows, clocking exits, patrons, the layout, out of pure habit. Then he pushed through the door.

A little bell jingled overhead, bright and stupidly cheerful, like it was mocking him. The smell rolled over him immediately: roasted coffee gone slightly burnt at the edges, sugar, cinnamon, the faint undercurrent of something yeasty and warm that made his stomach twist in a way that wasn't entirely hunger. He moved to the furthest corner booth, back flat against the wall, because old instincts died hard and stupid places like this didn't change the math. Tactical advantage in a civilian café. Christ.

He'd ditched the full skull mask for the night—small mercies—but kept the black tactical balaclava pulled up over the lower half of his face, beanie tugged low. The rest was standard issue: black Henley stretched tight across his shoulders, cargo trousers, boots that had seen worse nights than this. He looked exactly like what he was: a man who belonged in shadows and kill houses, not sipping overpriced coffee under fairy lights.

And he definitely looked out of place. Around him the place was filled by mostly young patrons: uni students hunched over laptops, a couple sharing a slice of carrot cake, a girl in oversized headphones sketching in a notebook. Laughter bubbled up from a table near the window, easy and careless. Phones glowed, conversations overlapped in soft bursts. Normal life moving around him like water around a stone.

It hit him then slowly, the way a bad memory sometimes did on those nights where sleep won’t come. He was thirty-seven—middle of it, creeping toward late—and sitting here felt like stepping into someone else's photograph. These kids were half his age, maybe less, living in a world where the worst thing that happened on the week was a bad grade or a late train. He spent his days in places where the bad of a week might mean blood on concrete, where "getting out there" meant infil under cover of night, not coffee dates arranged by a grinning Scotsman who thought emotional blackmail was friendship.

How long had it been since he’d simply occupied space like this? Soap—still a kid in his head—had shoved him out here like it could be a simple act. Like he could just walk back into normal life the way some walked out of a kill house. As if the quiet didn’t feel louder than gunfire sometimes.

The thought had barely settled when a young waitress approached—early twenties, apron tied neat, notepad already flipped open, smile automatic and bright.

“Hi! Welcome in. Can I get you started with anything? We’ve got fresh lattes, or if you’re after something simple, our Americanos are pretty solid.”

Her voice was light, the kind that expected an answer and didn’t linger on silences. Ghost’s eyes flicked up to her, flat and assessing.

“Black Americano,” he said, low and rough. “No milk. No sugar.”

She nodded, jotting it down without missing a beat. “Coming right up. Anything to eat? The cinnamon rolls just came out of the oven—”

“No.”

She blinked once, the smile faltering only a fraction before she recovered. “Okay, just the coffee then. Won’t be a minute.”

She turned and walked away, hips swaying to the indie folk still drifting overhead. Ghost watched her go, then let his gaze drift back to the window. Rain starting to speckle the glass now, smearing the streetlights outside into soft halos.

He'd been sitting twelve minutes by the wall clock. Gloved fingers drummed a slow, uneven rhythm on the scarred Formica—nothing like a proper cadence, just restless noise to keep the silence from pressing in too close. The Americano arrived shortly after, steaming in a simple white mug, strong and bitter, untouched after the first scalding sip.

Soap was a dead man walking. That was the simple truth of it. The bastard had cornered him after the last debrief, all grins and that relentless Scottish cheer, insisting the lieutenant needed to "get out there" like Ghost was some stray dog that'd been cooped up too long. Ghost had said no. Five times, maybe six. Soap just kept smiling that shit-eating smile until he'd dropped the hammer: arrangements already made, poor sod would be stood up, wouldn't that be rude? Emotional blackmail wrapped in plaid. Effective, in the most irritating way possible.

So here Simon was. In a too-bright café pretending to be cozy. On a date.

The door opened again. A quick gust of damp street air slipped in, carrying the distant mutter of traffic and the smell of rain on concrete. Ghost's eyes tracked the newcomer without moving his head an inch. His date. Of course.

He didn't wave like some civilian trying to be friendly. He simply lifted one gloved hand in a single, curt signal. Over here. No smile. No warmth. This was a transaction, a brief unpleasantness to be endured, and then he could go back to owing Soap a broken jaw.

“Riley,” he said when the figure reached the table, his voice low and rough, the way it always came out when he had to use words instead of silence.

No first name. He didn’t think of himself as Simon much anymore. That name belonged to a different life, one buried under graves and bad memories, the one that had died screaming long before the mask ever went on. The cold and untouchable persona of Ghost was the armor he wore, welded on tight; but Soap had dragged him out, without the full kit, without the skull staring back from the mirror, and forced the old name to surface like a body rising in shallow water. Simon Riley, sitting in a booth like a regular bloke, waiting for this person—{{user}}—who didn’t know what they were walking into. It felt wrong. Like peeling off layers he’d spent years welding shut. Every laugh from the uni kids, every clink of mugs, every soft strum of guitar overhead reminded him: this wasn’t his world anymore. He’d chosen the shadows so Simon could stay dead. Yet here he was, resurrecting the ghost of the man for one stupid, forced evening.