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It was three in the morning.
There was a conference at ten that Sonya needed to be present for.
And that was just accounting for the conference, that didn't include signing in or dealing with the warm-up work that would come before then. It also didn't include any last-minute meetings that were sure to come up- any last-minute changes to the script, or last-minute changes to how ordering would go. And if it was anything like the last conference she had partaken in, there was bound to be plenty of last-minute work to be done.
At best, she would need to show up at seven just to ensure everything had time to be taken care of.
She should be asleep.
But instead, here she was awake.
Here she was just sitting back down after taking a second visit to the ice machine at the end of the hallway.
And here she was tying the ice back up in a hotel hand towel, making herself a makeshift ice pack, so that she could hold it against Kenshi's right eye- all in hopes of reducing any and all potential swelling that might be occurring around it right now.
The hotel provided desk chair she was sitting in was certainly far less comfortable than it had felt before, when she had been catching up on some last-minute work. Then again, she was having to lean into him to keep the ice pack in place, with one hand also cradling the back of his head, so the arm of the chair was pressed against her ribs.
It would be more comfortable if she just stood, but she didn't feel like it.
"Would it help if I apologized?" Sonya asked. "Again."
"Would apologizing undo the swing?" Kenshi countered.
"No."
"Well, it would be nice to hear anyways," he replied.
Sonya watched as Kenshi moved a hand to ease the makeshift ice pack off for a moment, even though she had just put it back against his eye. She knew he wasn't a fan of the cold touch- and he had never been a fan of anything or anyone touching his face either, so this was a bit of a double whammy for him.
It did give her another look at the fresh wound though.
And despite getting ice on it as soon as she could, it was already swollen- which really said a lot about how hard the initial impact must've been.
She watched as Kenshi touched at the now-reddened skin, and she could see how puffy his skin was based on how it looked when his fingers touched it; she could see the subtle dip, the subtle concave when the slightest bit of pressure was applied to it.
Despite needing to keep injuries clean and free of unnecessary touching, Kenshi had a bad habit of feeling out his own injuries, despite any pain he might cause himself while doing so. Sonya could understand why he did it; if she was in his position, she was pretty certain that she would do the same. But sometimes he made it difficult for her to get things under control.
Like now.
"Stop touching it and let me ice it for longer than ten seconds," Sonya chided, as she pressed the cold hand towel back against his eye. "I swear you want this thing to look bad."
"Well, it's not my first black eye, and it won't be my last one- and it's not like it can damage my eye anymore than it already is," Kenshi remarked.
She hated when he used that excuse.
It wasn't like she could counter it- and he knew it.
"Yeah well, I caused this, so I get to fix it," she replied.
"And it's not often that you play nurse," Kenshi teased. "If I could ask you one question though."
Knowing him, it was going to be a helluva question.
And it was going to be a well-deserved question at that.
"Go for it," Sonya relented.
"Why the Hell were you swinging your arm so hard?"
And it was exactly what she thought it was.
"I wasn't- I didn't swing it on purpose," she corrected. "I was rolling over and I brought my arm over too fast, which wouldn't have been an issue if you weren't laying so close to me. And I didn't realize how close you were until it was too late."
She could still hear the solid impact of her arm hitting him dead in the eye.
It had been loud as fuck in the otherwise dead silence of the room.
"Why were you so close to me anyways?" Sonya asked.
"I didn't realize the bed had jurisdictions," Kenshi retorted. "We've shared beds before and you've never swung like that."
They had shared plenty of beds, more than just hotel beds.
Hell, they were sharing a bed back home as well.
Admittedly, she didn't often move around too much while she slept, but she had been restless and jet-lagged when they had gotten off the plane earlier. And she didn't do much to try and dispel either of those feelings; Hell, she even went straight back to working as soon as they had stepped into their hotel room, which had only made her even more restless.
And then she made Kenshi be the unfortunate victim of it.
Sonya let out a sigh and momentarily let her head dip against his shoulder. "I knew the room mix-up was a bad start. I should've at least argued for a roll-away bed or something- or at least a room with a pull-out couch."
It had been late when the two of them had checked in last night.
Late enough that she didn't even bother to check her ticket to see what kind of room had been reserved under her name.
And it wasn't until they had gotten to their assigned room did she realize that someone had put her name under a single Queen, rather than a double.
It wasn't uncommon for her and Kenshi to share the same hotel room; in fact, she usually had it set up as such. Because, despite Kenshi being one of the best Consultants that the Special Forces had, as well as her own right-hand man, most of the other Generals still just saw him at his basics- as a blind man.
And while Kenshi could hold his own under that argument, it tended to work out in both of their favors.
No one batted an eye over them sharing a room.
Most of the officers just assumed that she was helping him, that she was his guidance.
Which Kenshi was mostly okay with, but only because he liked to lean a little more on the whole 'needing her to guide him' thing when people were around; it was like a game to him, to see how far he could push it before she told him to knock it off.
Sonya always made sure that they had two beds though, even if they didn't use the second bed most of the time.
After all, it was all just for show.
As long as they didn't roughhouse too much, or get too loud, the shared space wasn't really a concern to anyone else.
But she had been too tired, too frustrated the night before to put up much of a fight over the wrong room.
One of the other Generals must've been swapped with her name somehow, and was probably just as confused over it as she was.
She would look into getting it corrected later, if time permitted.
The assumption of having more room than usual must've gotten into her head- hence thinking that she had moving space, that she had swinging space.
Neither her nor Kenshi were exactly the cuddling type, so there was usually plenty of space between them. She had tossed and rolled over more than enough times before with him next to her, all without incident. Even with the smaller beds they had shared.
The restless energy made the whole thing seem like a simple fluke.
"With a double, I at least would've been able to restrain your arm," Kenshi remarked- and then laughed when she pulled away from him. "Come on, give me this."
Sonya felt him reach up to take the makeshift ice pack from her, before he pulled himself from her grasp.
She watched as Kenshi leaned back into his chair at the freedom from her hands.
And then watched as he slumped down into it so he could lean his head back as well, letting his neck settle against the back of the chair.
Somewhere in-between, Sonya swore she heard him give a groan of relief.
Which meant that she wasn't the only one being hurt by a chair.
A notice that came true as she leaned back herself, and immediately felt the stiff pain from her ribs and arms.
"You should try to get some sleep," Kenshi spoke. "You got a busy day tomorrow and this isn't serious by any means."
"You say this like you're not going to be out with me tomorrow as well," Sonya reminded.
"I know, but I can fall asleep and no one will know," he replied. "Plus, you know- the blind man is getting a headache, let me find a quiet room to sit in so I don't become a bother."
Sonya caught herself laughing at his sarcastic would-be excuse.
Knowing him, and knowing how he knew how everyone thought of him, he could probably get away with it.
"God, can you imagine the looks I'm going to get?" she started, as she reached up to rub at her temple now. "Everyone just saw you tonight, and they saw you on the plane, and they're going to see you tomorrow. They're going to think I hit you."
"You did hit me."
Sonya started to speak, but stopped when she heard him laugh.
"Look, if we're both lucky, it won't be that big, and I'll be able to hide it underneath my blindfold," Kenshi continued. "That way, no one should be able to see it."
"Including you," she quipped.
He dropped the makeshift ice pack from his face and laughed again.
Sonya chuckled at his evident amusement before she pushed herself to her feet. "Alright, I'll take up on your generous offer and get back to bed," she spoke, as she moved a hand to squeeze his shoulder now. "Keep your distance when you join me later."
"You must be crazy if you think I'm getting back into that bed with you."