After the meeting Price contacted Lawell alone sans Alejandro as the colonel decided to pull rank to see what mess they, mostly Rudy, were getting into. Soap decided that a gym day was in order, so as to prepare for the upcoming mission, if he was able to get a few less than appropriate holds on Roach that's no one else's business but his.
"Oi, Soap! Don't you think that grapple might have been a bit too close to Roach's ass?" Gaz teased from the sidelines. Soap groaned outwardly. He had forgotten that Gaz had decided to tag along as well.
"Och, come on Gaz, don't you have a little preening to do rather than watch us spar?" Soap desperately wanted to get at least one or two more rounds with Roach in before he went through his regular weightlifting routine.
"Gaz is right, you did get a little too close to my ass." Roach came up from behind Soap startling him. Soap physically flinched away from the smaller man, immediately feeling guilty for everything that had happened in the past few minutes.
It was a regular spar with neither of them really getting the upper hand. Gaz was cheering and booing both of them from the sidelines, but all Soap was focused on was Roach. Being fae he was a slippery little thing, always slipping just out of reach or ducking under Soap's blows easily. After they traded a few blows Roach had apparently gotten a little cocky, charging Soap and ducking for his legs. Soap saw his opportunity to flip Roach grabbing his hips and rolling onto his side, quickly moving to pin the smaller under his weight. It was an honest mistake grabbing to far back from Roach's hips, a spur of the moment move that Soap had executed a few times when going against recruits who fought dirty, not considering that their opponent might have a knife.
Now that both Gaz and Roach had pointed it out Soap felt a small mix of shame and guilt rise up into his stomach. "Sorry, Roach. You are just a little smaller than some of the more unhumbled recruits though. Never really got that much practice flipping people that much bigger or smaller than me." Soap knew the excuses were bullshit, but it seemed to be good enough for Roach to let the whole thing go. Until a fist made its way into the little blubber Soap swore he kept from when he transformed.
"It's okay, now were even you have your blub and I have superior evasion skills. But really Soap, my height is what caused your hands to practically grope me?" Roach asked tilting his head to the side a little, the small movement almost sending Soap into a heart attack (at least to Soap that's what it felt like). Soap felt a little embarrassed by the accusation as it wasn't entirely inaccurate, he had aimed a little lower, but Roach had moved so fast that he had almost gotten a handful of Roach's ass, he had moved his hand up slightly before flipping them both, if not for appropriateness then for his sanity.
Roach was still standing there seemingly searching for an answer. "Nae, tried going a little lower for a better hold, but you got a bit too close too fast. Still my bad for aiming lower though."
"Alrighty then. I think I might go for a hike to cool down, maybe if you and Gaz go at it he might try and grab a little of you." It was odd Roach seemed almost disappointed in Soap's answer, as if he had expected something different. They did get closer after surviving Las Almas together, and Soap had developed some less than professional and holy thoughts and feelings for his fellow sergeant, but he hadn't considered Roach to reciprocate those same feelings. As Roach walked away he got a little suspicious, but he mostly chalked it up to almost breaking boundaries with Roach and fucking their friendship.
"Look man, I'm already with a couple someonelses. So grab some other sarges ass, y'know, like the one that just left." Gaz came up from behind him and slung an arm over his shoulder. Gaz had been dating both of the 141's foreign werewolf officers, Farah, and Alex, for about half a year now. And for the past six months had been the biggest ass about it to Soap. Bragging about how wonderful his partners were and how he had the confidence to confess to his crushes who had reciprocated greatly.
"What do you mean by that Garrick?" He scoffed shrugging Gaz's arm off, face flushing with embarrassment. Gaz had already known about Soap's little crush on Roach the three sergeants sharing a love of mischief forging a brotherly bond among them, nothing went unsaid by any of them without at least one of the others knowing about it. Soap had went to Gaz a few weeks before Gaz had gotten with Farah and Alex, confessing to him about his unprofessional feelings for Roach. In turn Gaz had told Soap about how he had fallen for both Farah and Alex even though they were in a relationship together.
Together they had talked through having feelings for coworkers and comrades. Gaz had even told Soap about what he had thought to be a crush on their technically former captain, Price, later realizing that it was really what he had thought his relationship with his father might have been like if he hadn't died in the SAS. Soap had said he felt the same about Price, the barely older man feeling like a father figure to most of the 141 and that hadn't changed even when they had joined SpecGru.
Then, after a few weeks of agonizing over Farah and Alex, Soap had suggested he go for it. The worst that could happen was no or getting in trouble with the others in SpecGru. To the surprise of both of them Farah and Alex had both reciprocated Gaz's feelings and they brought him into the relationship. It had of course been rocky for a month or two the scheduling and distance an obvious obstacle but had eventually figured out a system so that they all were happy, calling every night, sending the others gifts every week or so, and spending all of their time together when they were on base with each other or on leave.
"Tav, be honest with me, I already know you have feelings for our resident pest, why don't you just do what I did and fess up to him already." Gaz almost pleaded, "Seriously, it's like you said worst that could happen is that he says no."
In all honesty Soap wanted to do nothing more than run up to Roach and shower him with affection and adoration but for some reason he held back. He knew why though, it's not because of his religious trauma, though that might add to it, no it was because the last time he had tried to kiss another man he had run off to the 141. The other corporal, before Soap was promoted to sergeant and transferred to the task force, had shown an interest in Soap and Soap had immediately jumped at the chance also having a shared interest in his former fellow corporal. Of course they had eventually been found out after trying to keep it under wraps and his 'partner' had ratted him out for imposing on him first, spinning the story to make it seem like Soap had somehow forced him to be in a relationship. The only reason he wasn't kicked out was because of the lack of evidence and cohesion in the other corporal's story. Ever since Soap had hidden his crushes not wanting for those interrogations to happen again. EVER again