Imagine: Jackalope hybrid Ghost.
Except…nobody knows he’s a jackalope hybrid, because Roba sawed off his antlers. Everyone thinks Ghost is just a regular rabbit hybrid. Not even his captain, Price, knows.
Ghost doesn’t tell a soul what had happened to him all those years ago. Sure, Price knows he had been tortured, and Ghost has some nasty scars, but he wears the mask anyway, so it’s not as if they’re visible.
It had taken Ghost some time to get used to the lack of weight on his head after he killed Roba and escaped, for the stumps to stop leaking blood, and for the pain to fade. It left him feeling unbalanced and strange, but that wasn’t the worst part.
No, the worst part was the shame. He had been proud of his antlers, loved keeping them clean and polished, loved the way they looked, loved that they could be dangerous if he wanted them to be.
He started wearing the mask just to make sure nobody would ever glimpse the small stumps left on his head, hidden in his blonde hair, as well as to hide the deep Glasgow smile he had been given.
He doesn’t tell Soap about his lack of antlers, even when they grow closer, even when Ghost finally pulls his mask off his head and over his long brown ears to kiss Soap for the first time. The dog hybrid’s tail had been wagging madly when they parted.
Then, Soap, his hand on his cheek, had moved up to pet his ears, much too close to the stumps. Ghost had ducked away, and Soap’s tail had slowed, disheartened. Soap had attributed his skittishness to typical rabbit nature, and Ghost let him think that. Afterwards, Ghost had grown his hair out even longer, just to make absolutely sure that it covered the stumps on the rare occasion he took off his mask.
Soap was one of the only people he took the mask off for, but he was also the person Ghost definitely didn’t want finding out about his antlers. It was a risky game he played.
Sometimes, it took a slight strain on their relationship. Ghost is extremely testy about Soap touching his ears and hair, as it’s much too close to the stumps he’s trying to conceal. When they have sex, Ghost doesn’t let Soap too close to his hair, and he had once nearly bitten Soap’s dick off during a blowjob when Soap’s hand had instinctively gone for the blonde locks. He prefers to initiate contact, and usually doesn’t cuddle much with Soap or hug him, despite the other hybrid’s clear longing for physical contact.
It’s not that Ghost doesn’t want to, he just can’t. He can’t let Soap know. What would he think?
Soap doesn’t find out until years after they met. They’re sharing Ghost’s bed in his private quarters—the perks of being a lieutenant. Ghost is tired, having come home from a mission just hours earlier, and he’s drifting off next to Soap, not paying attention until absentminded fingers card through his hair. He flinches awake and scrambles into a sitting position, but it’s too late.
Soap had felt one of the stumps.
“What’s that?” Soap asks, worried and startled by Ghost’s sudden reaction. He sits up as well.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ghost deflects. He wants to be upset that Soap had touched him, but he knows Soap didn’t mean it in a bad way, knows Soap would never purposely hurt or upset him. Despite that, his chest burns with a hot, deep shame, and he isn’t sure if he wants to run or punch Soap’s teeth in.
He doesn’t do either. He freezes. He hasn’t done that in ages.
“You didn’t get hurt on the mission, did you?” Soap asks, leveling him with a searching gaze.
“No,” Ghost says. Soap is much too close, so close that he can probably see the microexpressions that tell him that Ghost is hiding something.
“Liar,” Soap says softly, and he reaches his hand up.
Ghost’s large ears flatten, and he feels that fear he thought he had trained out of himself so long ago rise in him when Soap’s hand meets his hair. He stiffens, wanting to push Soap away but knowing the sergeant never drops something if he thinks it’s important, and that he’ll just be delaying the inevitable discovery.
Soap’s hand finds one of the stumps, and his fingertips brush across the hard, flattened surface. His expression changes from slight worry, to confusion, and then to sadness, his own ears drooping slightly.
“Simon,” he says, “Are they—?”
“They’re antlers,” Ghost admits quietly. “Were antlers.”
Soap is silent for a moment. He lowers his hand.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Soap finally asks. Not accusing, exactly, just concerned, maybe a little hurt.
“I didn’t tell anybody,” Ghost replies.
“Oh, Si,” Soap whispers, taking his hand and squeezing it. “You could’ve. It doesn’t change anything.”
Ghost hadn’t slept for the rest of the night, and had fled the room before Soap woke up. He had avoided Soap for days, and when Soap finally caught him, Ghost had refused to take off his mask. It took some time before he felt confident enough to remove it, safe enough to let Soap near his head.
Soap apologized. He apologized again when Ghost accepted the original apology. Ghost accepted that one, too. He’s not overly upset with Soap, just mortified. But his fear of Soap being upset, mocking him, or being judgmental was unfounded, as Soap treats him nearly the same as before. Soap doesn’t ask him any questions about the stumps, nor does he tell anyone else about them.
He realizes that now that Soap knows, now that he’s not holding the stress of hiding it, it feels…nice. It’s a relief. It’s a relief to let Soap cuddle him and nuzzle into his hair without having to push him away, and it’s a relief to not have to lie to the person closest to him.
Ghost feels safer than he has in a long, long time.
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