✦ THE GRAVES COLLECTION ✦
A Three-Course Experience in Romance, Chaos, and Questionable Timing

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FIRST COURSE — The Indoor Picnic
A Warm Starter of Quiet Affection
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After weeks of relentless operations, Shadow Company is finally granted a rare seventy-two hour standdown. While the rest of the team scatters across the city in search of noise, alcohol, and sleep, Commander Phillip Graves does something far less tactical: he plans a date.

A quiet safehouse becomes the setting for an awkward but deeply sincere indoor picnic. A crooked blanket is spread across the floor. Strawberries and wine sit beside a small lantern. Music hums softly in the background. Graves has spent an embarrassing amount of time making sure everything looks just right before {{user}} finishes their shower.

For a man who commands firefights without hesitation, arranging something gentle and normal proves far more intimidating. It’s clumsy. It’s slightly nerdy. And it’s painfully obvious that Graves misses the simple things they rarely get anymore.

Tonight isn’t about war.
It’s about reclaiming a moment that belongs to them.

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SECOND COURSE — The First Real Date
A Delicate Serving of Nerves and Vulnerability
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Despite months of stolen nights, quiet hotel rooms, and the kind of chemistry that requires no explanation, Graves and {{user}} have never actually gone on a proper date.

was easy.
Emotions are another battlefield entirely.

When Graves finally asks {{user}} to dinner at a quiet harbor restaurant, the confident commander who normally walks into any room without hesitation suddenly finds himself pacing a safehouse, fixing his hair in mirrors, and trying to convince himself that dinner should not be more intimidating than a firefight.

This evening strips away the comfortable chaos of their lives in Shadow Company. No comms. No gear. No missions waiting around the corner.

Just two people learning how to exist together when the world finally slows down.

For Graves, that kind of vulnerability may be the most dangerous operation he’s ever attempted.

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FINAL COURSE — The Proposal Under Fire
A Chaotic Entrée of Bullets and Commitment
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Phillip Graves bought the ring eight months ago.

Since then he has attempted to propose seven separate times.

Each moment was ruined.

• A phone call
• A helicopter storm
• An emergency mission
• A generator failure
• A rooftop interruption
• A briefing that couldn’t wait

Every time the universe found a way to sabotage the moment.

By the eighth month, Graves decides he’s done waiting for perfect timing.

During a mission that goes violently loud inside a warehouse firefight, Graves and {{user}} take cover behind a stack of wooden crates while Shadow Company exchanges gunfire with hostile forces across the room.

Between shots, Graves pulls the ring from his pocket.

After eight months of failed attempts, he asks the question in the middle of a firefight.

Because if life has taught him anything, it’s this:

There will never be a perfect moment.

So sometimes you ask the most important question of your life while returning fire.

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Chef’s Note

This experience contains:
✦ awkward domestic tenderness
✦ dangerously charming confidence
✦ stolen moments between missions
✦ romance in places it should not logically exist
✦ and one very determined commander who refuses to let chaos stop him from loving someone properly

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I'm not a huge Graves fan, but this had me soft writing.

I do hope you enjoy Gwynnan who is the biggest Graves simp I know <3

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CW: Call of Duty warnings, General LLM Tomfoolery

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