A/N: I had so much fun writing this xD I was plotting the sequel of News Worthy when this idea just suddenly popped up in my head. Thought it would be fun to try. And this is my first time trying out a story in present tense.

WARNING:Slash. Yeah, that means boy/boy, okay?

You should know… although there are hints of the reader (that's you, darling!) x (insert name of character here), this is really a slash about Soap/Roach/Ghost, with you to bear witness. I'll add in Archer/Toad as well, lol, I've fallen in love with them together. Will contemplate other couples if requested.

Don't know how long it'll be. Maybe five chapters again, maybe shorter. Hell, I dunno. Depends on the feedback.

"You what?"

You stare at Seraph, jaw dropping and eyes widening, as she smiles cheekily and throws you a wink.

"I set you up with the one-four-one!" Seraph repeats, the excitement obvious in the giggle following her sentence. "It wasn't easy, so be grateful. Do you know how hard it was to get the general guy to agree not sending his task force out for any missions at all for a period of seven days? Hell, it was harder to get him permit an everyday girl into the base during that time. And that lucky girl is you!"

"You're joking," you say, laughing nervously.

"I'm dead serious," Seraph snaps. Then, her look of irritation transitions into a small smile. "Pack up. Your week with the Task Force 141 begins tomorrow."

She turns around to leave, but you grab her arm and stutter, "Wait, do the members know?"

"I think they do…I told the them they should expect a visitor," Seraph shrugs, and then flashes you a grin. "Once you're back, we're having a sleepover and you're going to tell me everything that happened in that base. I'm excited to know."

You remain silent for a few moments, and then Seraph giggles and begins to walk away. You watch, still a bit dumbfounded by disbelief, as the distance between you and your best friend increases.

Then, just to be sure, you called out, "So…this is really happening?"

Seraph glances over her shoulder. "Yes, you're going to spend the next seven days in a military haven full of hawt guy soldiers. Happy belated birthday!"

No reply comes out of your mouth and the surprise paralyzes you until Seraph finally recedes into the distance. Finally, you manage to get a hold of yourself, and release a long sigh. After wiping your face several times, you turn around and enter your home to get a bag and pack some clothes.

You're almost sure Seraph's playing some kind of prank, but that still doesn't stop you from packing up everything you would bring on a one week trip. As you check the items off the small list stored in your smartphone, your eyes glance at the time. It is about one in the afternoon, and you have no idea who is picking you up or how you're supposed to get to the base.

Just as you finished going through your list, Seraph's contact number appears on your phone. You answer the call and put the device to your ear.

"I'm dropping by to pick you up," she informs without saying any words of greeting. Then, with a smug chuckle, she asks, "Have everything you need for the trip? Don't forget your toothbrush…and the condoms."

A blush burns your cheeks. "Why the hell would I need to bring condoms?"

"Puh-lease honey, you know why," Seraph giggles again. You could almost feel her smirk through the line.

Before you can stammer a reply to save yourself from embarrassment, a soft honk sounded from outside your home. Pulling the curtains back, you find Seraph's car waiting and she ends the call when she sees you through the window, waving a hand. You sigh, shove the phone into your pocket and grab your bag before walking outside and locking the door behind you.

Throwing your luggage into the trunk, you move to the passenger seat and strap on the seatbelt. Seraph is giving you one of her cheeky grins that always annoy you, especially since she knows you're still a bit embarrassed from her earlier remark. However, she says nothing when you enter and steps on the pedal after the door closes.

"Seraph…I had a whole night to think about this trip," you start, glancing at your best friend from the corner of your eyes. She hums inquiringly, urging you to continue, though her gaze remains glued to the road. You continue, "Are you sure this isn't some joke? I mean—Task Force 141 from Modern Warfare 2 doesn't actually exist."

Both of you stop at a red traffic light and she looks at you as though you have two heads. "Girl, what the hell are you talking about? Modern Warfare 2? I've never heard of it."

"The game," you raise an eyebrow, frowning. "Don't act like you don't know, Seraph. All of those characters, the missions and stuff? You know I'm crazy for it."

Seraph doesn't reply for a few minutes. You think she's too focused on her driving, but then you realize she's mulling over what you said. Then, she replies with an answer that just makes everything more confusing. "I don't know what's wrong with you—but you've been bugging me about Task Force 141 ever since you heard about them online, after they did a mission that got them on the news. You mentioned everything; how the men look too good to be true, how they're so pro at what they do, all that shit…but there was never a game."

She looks genuinely confused. You, on the other hand, are genuinely perplexed. 'Am I in some sort of dream?' you think, bewildered. Silence settles between you two as you decide not to argue the matter over.

Half an hour later, you find Seraph pulling up in front of the gate leading to a base.

"Here we are, the home of the one-four-one," she announces, grinning. Then, she looks you straight in the eyes and proceeds to explain, "Now then, while you were busy hallucinating about some kind of game that never existed, I did a few last-minute calls last night."

You nod slowly, unsure where the conversation is heading. An evil smile spreads across Seraph's face. "I set a few conditions, just for the sake of torturing you in your supposedly heavenly trip. First, you're under the guise of a girl interested in military lifestyle and training, so there is to be no word that your visit is for fun. Second is the best part for me; the soldiers aren't, in any way, allowed to flirt or get in bed with you. I created that just to know your and their reactions. Third is for safety…you don't have to tell them your name."

"Then, what will they call me?" you ask, frowning slightly.

"For the week, they're calling you Private, though you're not even a part of the military…" Seraph's sentence trails off and ends with a smug chuckle. "Alright, that's all. You can go get your bag out."

You exit the car and go to the trunk, pulling your bag out from the compartment. As you approach the gate, nervously taking in the aspects of the base, such as how everything screamed guys' territory, Seraph rolls down the window. She's talking to somebody on the phone, but doesn't take long, for she ends the call and waves a hand.

"Good luck," she smiles, and then explodes out in laughter. Perhaps it was the excitement getting to her, you don't know, but you glare at her anyway. She rolls up the window, still giggling, before driving away.

You stand still for a few minutes, watching suspiciously as her vehicle disappears down the road. You're almost sure a group of people are going to spawn out of nowhere and bombard you with water balloons, but nothing happens. The tenseness still fills up inside you, and just as you're about to turn around to face the gate, footsteps crunching against the gravel become audible to your hearing.

"You the girl who's visiting for the week?"

Instantly, you find out who it was that Seraph was talking to on the phone. Your heart skips a beat when the thick Scottish accent hits your ears. Glancing over your shoulder, you hardly believe your eyes when you see Soap standing behind the gate, an inquiring look on his face.

Holy shit. There's no doubt that's Soap. No mistaking that hair and accent.

"Erm—I guess I am," you reply nervously, averting eye contact and looking down at your feet.

"Alright, come on in."

The gate opens just wide enough for you to enter. You step pass it, fully aware that you're entering the Task Force 141 territory. Just the thought of it made you feel rather dizzy.

"I'm the captain of the task force," Soap begins. He doesn't know you already know.

At that moment, you gather the courage to look up. You flash him a small smile and sputtered, "Y-Yes, I know. Captain MacTavish…"

He arches a brow, surprised and rather suspicious, and you immediately realize what slipped pass your mouth. You look down and stammer, "S-Seraph told me."

"Seraph…so that's the name of the young lass, eh? The one who somehow persuaded Shepherd to give us a very well-earned one-week vacation." Soap's lips threaten to crack a smile.

"Yeah, Seraph somehow always gets her way," you smirk at the thought of her. "Talk about divine intervention when she managed to coerce the goddamn general…her name means 'angel', anyway."

Soap finally gives in, and a small smile plays on his face. "Seraph set up a few conditions. One of 'em is we aren't getting to call you by your actual name, so you'll be Private for the week."

You nod slowly as a sign of confirmation.

The captain turns around and begins walking towards the building in the center of the fenced compound. "Alright, Private, follow me. I'll show you your room and give you a quick tour of the base."

You close the door behind you with a heavy, tired sigh escaping your lips. Turning the lock, you look around the bedroom provided—the small, square chamber with bland white walls and grey carpet without any conjoining rooms, along with the classical furniture one usually finds in a bedroom.

"My men train every morning for a few hours, and sometimes some of them go for target practise around the evenings," you recall what Soap told you during the tour of the base. "If you'd like to watch for some first-hand experience, go ahead. If nobody's around, then just ask somebody and he'll be happy to demonstrate."

A smile subconsciously falls upon your lips as you remember how the members turned to look at you as you walked with Soap. And how you recognized some of them…Meat, Scarecrow, Royce…and one more guy who you didn't really recognize, but then realized it was Roach.

So that was how Roach looked like. Exactly like how fans thought of him.

You remember that Soap grunted when he learned everybody stopped their respective activities to stare after you.

"I should warn you, Private," he said, "that my men aren't completely sane or mature. That, and they haven't seen a girl around here for a long time, so be careful."

"I'll look for you if there's trouble…" you murmured in reply. "Besides, I don't think they'll defy the strict conditions of the one person who blessed them with some time off."

"That's true," Soap replied with a smirk.

'No flirting, no funny stuff,' you think to yourself, snapping out of your recollection of earlier events, as the subject of Seraph's three conditions pop up in your mind. For some reason, you let out a small laugh and collapse on the bed.

"Seraph, why must you do that to me?" you ask the ceiling, smile still plastered on your face. "To torture me…of course…so like a best friend."

Your eyes wander to the door, and for a few minutes, you contemplate on what to do. It was half past two and you have yet to eat lunch. Then again, despite being hungry, there's no denying you're rather bashful of heading out to a cafeteria full of men…probably just sitting in the corner, awkwardly trying to eat as everybody stares and whispers.

You bite your bottom lip as you sit up and throw your feet to the floor. You decide to change out of your current clothes into something that'll look reasonably okay on you. Then, just as you unlock and open the door, somebody walks by your room and stops as the door swings inward with a loud creak.

"Oh, who do we have here?" A friendly voice asks, the tone low and relatively alluring to your ears, but you've never heard it before in-game.

Your eyes meet with a pair of green ones, belonging to a handsome man with auburn hair and obviously American. You rack your brain trying to recognize who the hell you were staring at.

"I'm Christian, but call me Toad," he extends an arm, and you stare at it for a few seconds.

Oh. Oh. So this is Toad.

You bite the insides of your cheeks, hesitantly accepting his hand. Holy FUCK, you never expected him to look and sound like this.

"Where were you heading?" he asks.

"I—uh—cafeteria," you stammer, laughing slightly. "Haven't had lunch yet."

"I was about to go there, too," he smiles, and you avert your eyes to look anywhere but his face, in fear of squealing out like the little fangirl you are. "Mind if I accompany you?"

"Yeah, I'd like that," you nod, lips tugging upwards. 'This isn't flirting…it's better to go in and have somebody to talk to...'

You walk alongside him, mantaining a comfortable silence for the two minute walk down the hall leading to the canteen. As you walk past the open arch, it's half-packed with people already, yells and laughter mixing with conversations into an incoherent noise that one so normally hears in a cafeteria.

And then, the noise dies down and you could feel your heart pounding against your chest. They're staring again. Shit.

A blush tints your cheeks pink, and you know this because you can feel it. Toad looks down and notices your bashful expression, before laughing.

"Don't be shy, Private," he smirks. "They're always like this when they see a girl…be it a high-ranked officer of the military, or just a normal girl like you."

You follow after Toad as he takes the food, but you don't wait for him as he makes his way for a table, since you think he's about to head off with the others. You find a vacant table and set your tray down—and, to your surprise, Toad joins you.

You look at him, confused. "Aren't you going to go with Archer?"

Toad pauses. "How do you know Archer?"

You mentally slap yourself for letting another vital piece of information slip past your mouth. If you keep this up, you're bound to be suspected of being a spy. "Seraph told me," you answer, hoping he would buy it.

"Seraph? The girl who gave the force the week off?" Toad cocked an eyebrow and you nod. Then, he looks back down at his food, dismissing the subject and returning to the earlier topic. "Hmm…what's wrong with sitting down with you? Don't want you to be all awkward and lonely."

At that moment, Meat clamps a hand on Toad's shoulder and flashes you a grin. "Hey, Toad, what's this? Made friends with the girl and didn't bother to introduce her to me?"

"This is Meat," Toad says, briefly allowing a lopsided smirk on his face before biting into his sandwich.

"Hello, Private," Meat winks at you. "You don't seem like you mind having us here, so—" he turns around towards the cafeteria. "Hey, guys, who wants to sit with the girl over here?"

Your eyes widen slightly as the crowd surrounding you starts to increase. So many familiar faces and names huddle at your table, each member giving each other brotherly grins and exchanging witty remarks, those who had no space to sit stood by the side of the table.

You haven't even taken a bite of your sandwich. How could you? Especially when out of all people to sit next to you, it just had to be Roach.

Finally, you brave yourself to tuck into the meal. You can hardly taste anything! Not with the guys surrounding you!

Remaining silent, you listen to their conversation about movies and games. They don't disturb you, probably because they know you're eating, but the flattered feeling wouldn't leave your chest. Despite the fact you're not involved in their talk, they're still there anyway, for one reason—and that reason is you. That just makes you feel all jittery inside.

Halfway through your sandwich, another voice shouts over the laughs of the men crowding you. "Hey, what the bloody hell is happening here? Move back, you muppets! Give our visitor some air!"

'Give our visitor some air'? As the crowd backs away just enough to reveal the owner of the voice, you suddenly forget how to breathe.

Oh fuck. It was none other than the lieutenant himself.

Simon "Ghost" Riley.

'Holy SHET—asdfghjkl,' your thoughts scramble in your head, and you nearly choke on your sandwich at the sight of him. 'Keep calm, keep calm, keep calm…'

"She looks a bit stiffer now that we've backed off," Ozone pointed out with a small smile, arching an eyebrow at his superior.

In your head, you curse at yourself for looking so paralyzed, and immediately lean forward to take a bit of food into your mouth. As you chew, Ghost countered, "She looks fine to me. Don't suffocate her. Give her space."

Then, he added in with a hint of importance. "Remember the second condition, lads. No funny stuff."

"Well, that rule sucks!" Meat whined. A small uproar came from the crowd, supporting him. "We never get any girls around here and when we finally have one, we couldn't even flirt or anything! Not like she'll be okay to do anything serious!"

Blood rushes to your cheeks and you look down, hoping the blush isn't visible. Oh, you'd be more than willing to do anything 'serious', it just depends on who it is…you'd do Ghost, for instance.

'What the fuck am I thinking?' you felt like digging your nails into your face.

A chuckle from Roach sends tingles down your spine. "Meat—dude, she's beet red. Why did you have to say that?"

You can't see him, but you can hear Meat sputter, "W-Wait, really? I'm sorry, Private! Didn't mean to embarrass you—"

"Shut it, Meat," Ghost snaps. "You'll embarrass her further if you keep talking."

"Private, huh?" Roach raises an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, forgot the third condition is that we can't know her actual name. Whoever set up these rules must be a weird person."

A laugh forces its way out of your mouth and a genuine smile spreads across your red-tinted face at the mention of Seraph. You remind yourself this is all happening because of her….but damn her stupid rules!

"She's here to watch us train, as you idiots may already know," Ghost starts. You look up quietly, stealing a glimpse of his skull balaclava and dark-tinted glasses. Averting your eyes when he turned to you, he continues, "We'll be training tomorrow morning, so you can come to the training grounds at that time. Maybe the captain already informed you."

"Oh, Archer and I are doing some target practise this evening," Toad volunteers cheerfully.

Ghost nods. "Alright. Private, you can follow them later, if you want."

You nod your head and subconsiously smile as your thoughts wander off to Archer. Now that you think about it, Archer has yet to show up in the mob of men surrounding you. Soap is missing too, but you consider it normal. You wonder how Archer looks like, his personality and his voice…

Then your thoughts wander back to Seraph. 'Should I be happy or angry with her?'

A/N: Good question to ask yourself. I'm evil for setting up those rules, and those men are going to strictly follow them. Would you be happy or angry with me? MUAHAHAHHA xD

If the reaction in there was not what you would have done/thought, do tell me! I'd love to hear how you'd handle the situation above. I tried imagining myself in 'Private's place to bring out the best possible reaction…

Oh! And to Boopem for the lovely review on Armadale Bay Beach: I'll take your request into consideration, and thanks for supporting! :3

Please leave a review! :)