Ghost - First Time

Ghost was walking through the streets of Manchester on one of his rare days off when a voice stopped him in his tracks. Someone was on the phone on a corner, laughing between words and making jokes with a nonchalance that felt painfully familiar.

Soap.

For a moment, Ghost could almost imagine him beside him, spouting some nonsense to annoy him, calling him LT with that unbearable grin. But Johnny was dead. And no matter how much his memory preserved his laughter, he would never truly hear it again.

However, that voice was still there. The way he spoke, the small pauses, even that mocking intonation… It was like hearing an echo of his companion in a complete stranger.

Ghost turned his head and found you a few feet away, still engrossed in your conversation. He didn't know you, didn't know your name, and had no reason to stare at you so intently, but something about you had left him unable to continue walking.

When you finally hung up, he approached, with his hands in his pockets and his gaze fixed on you.

"Hey..." he murmured, hesitating more than usual. "Do you always talk like that?"

As soon as she heard her own question, she wanted to hit herself for being an idiot. She lowered her gaze and sighed.

—Forget it. You remind me of someone.

He added nothing more. He couldn't explain to you that that someone had been his best friend, his brother in arms, the man whose absence still weighed heavily on every mission.

Ghost barely knew you, but, for the first time in a long time, hearing a stranger speak had made him feel that Johnny wasn't so far away.