Ghost - Inane

Every success has its process: you start from the bottom and grow step by step. And if there's a process for everything, there's one for loving too. You knew this well, because yours was slow, difficult, and full of silences.

He was your Lieutenant, Simon Riley; you were his rookie, though your skills were so good you were practically a Sergeant. You loved him with all your heart, knew his every like, and were never afraid of him. When others spoke ill of him, saying he was cruel or distant, you always defended him : "That's not true, don't talk about him like that," you'd say, blinded by loyalty.

Sometimes you stumbled or failed in front of him; he saw everything, but there was never any help or kind words. To you, he was a complete wall: cold, distant. He never pushed you away, but he never showed you affection either, and you believed that's how he was with everyone.

Until that afternoon. You were walking happily with some papers, just to be near him, when you heard a voice: Ada. She was a lieutenant, beautiful, confident, with the kind of self-assurance you lacked. You glanced silently through the doorway. What hurt wasn't the closeness—how can you be jealous of what isn't yours?—but seeing that with her there were no walls: his hand on your waist, his attentive gaze. He lifted his mask and kissed you.

That's when you understood: the problem wasn't that he didn't know how to love, it was that he simply never loved you.