A Ghost Encounter: My Time with Simon "Ghost" Riley

Part Sixty-Six: Trepidation

SMACK!

Ow, ow, ow...

Despite us being in a relationship Ghost does not hold back during training. He just got done body-slamming me into the sparring mat.

"Next," Ghost calls out to Gaz and puts his hand out for me to take it.

It doesn't help that everyone is watching either.

All of Task Force 141 is training and we're each going head-to-head with Ghost until we can beat him.

So far the only people who have beaten him are Captain Price, naturally, and König. They beat him on their first tries too.

Soap and Laswell have tried twice and Gaz has tried once. This is my third time trying...

I limp my way over to the bench where everyone is sitting and I place myself next to König.

"Are vu halright?" König asks, concern swirling within his big puppy dog eyes.

"Haha...yeah, I'm alright." I give him a warm smile. "Thanks for asking."

SMACK!

I swear I just heard one of Gaz's bones crack...

"How are you so good at combat?" I ask König.

"Next!" Ghost calls out in the distance for Laswell.

"I'm a lot bigger zan vu are und I haffe had lots of practice," König tells me.

His accent is surprisingly adorable and I can't help but let out a soft giggle.

SMACK!

Holy shit. Laswell beat Ghost on her third try. Nice!

"That's true." I pause, then smirk. "Maybe you can teach me some of your tricks?"

"Of courze." I can tell he's smiling underneath his sniper hood.

"Thank y-"

"Roberts!" Ghost cuts me off. "Done chitchatting? Get your ass over here!"

Ughhhhh.

I sluggishly make my way over to Ghost on the mat.

"How about you take it easy on me." I furrow my brows.

"Makarov won't take it easy on you," Ghost says matter-of-factly.

Fair enough.

"Alright, you're right." I throw my hands up. "Let's start."

In a matter of seconds, Ghost lunges towards me, aiming for my waist, but I manage to barely dodge it. I turn back around to find he's already lunging toward me again. Ghost and I continued like this for a few more minutes, but like before, he overpowered me.

Goddamit!

Maybe Price was right. Maybe I'm not ready to take on Makarov.

Gaz couldn't beat Ghost again either but Soap managed to take Ghost down on his third try.

I lost again, and again, and again.

I swear he's going much harder on me than he is with everyone else.

Gaz had eventually managed to beat Ghost and now I'm the only loser who still hasn't beaten him.

"You're all dismissed," Ghost says to everyone sitting on the bench (so everyone but me).

How embarrassing.

Everyone leaves the training room, yet Price approaches Ghost and me on the mat.

"Maybe you should call it for today," Price clears his throat, raising his brows at Ghost.