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The act of putting together a specialized team was common practice.
But putting one together for the sole protection of Earthrealm was a borderline science.
And then add on the idea of having a team made entirely from second-generation fighters, and things got a little more complicated.
It sounded good on paper.
It sounded good in theory, especially considering just how many of Earthrealm's original protectors had moved on to make their own families.
Those who had served in the Tournament, and had survived it, had plenty of knowledge to pass down.
And given the passing years, that knowledge had to go somewhere.
The end result was a group of above-average soldiers who had more than the necessary amount of skills to survive under any circumstances. Each soldier possessed their own specialized techniques that could keep them fighting, that could keep them alive, even under the harshest of testing. And while the tests were practiced and heavily supervised, it didn't diminish the promise that each of those soldiers showed.
So it went without saying that putting those same soldiers together would net even higher results.
In theory, anyways.
In practice however, putting together such a random group of people required a lot of work.
And in this case, it required far more than anyone could have predicted.
And it was only now, a few years after putting such a theory into practice, did Sonya feel like she was finally seeing a return on investing into such an ambitious idea. It wasn't exactly her first choice, but Cage had managed to sell her on the idea of putting Cassie on a team; and he had somehow managed to persuade not only Jax, but Hanzo, Kenshi, and Bo'Rai Cho into the idea as well.
Cage had been just ambitious about it, almost as much as the idea itself.
And at some point, it felt impossible to say no to it.
To Sonya, she recognized that the opportunity would give Cassie a role and force the girl to learn responsibilities and consequences.
Two things that had been difficult for the girl to learn growing up around Hollywood and money.
Jacqui knew well enough about responsibilities and consequences, but an opened structure would help the young Briggs to step out of her comfort zones. It would also help her become more firm and outspoken about her thoughts and ideas.
In a way, Sonya supposed she had dug her heels in at the idea of a new team because she could never not see herself as Earthrealm's main line of defense.
After spending decades as an Earthrealm protector, she never really saw herself as anything but that.
But with the passing years, she was only getting older, she was only getting slower.
She knew one day she would have to face the inevitable reality where she would need to step aside and allow the next generation to step forward.
And putting this team together was the first step in accepting that.
Some days, it was difficult to remember just how clueless the team had been when they had first been put together.
They excelled as a combined unit, and worked like cogs in the same machine without issue.
The young four could manage to impress even her with their level of skills and intertwining combat.
Other days though, it felt less like the next generation of Earthrealm protectors, and more like Sonya now had four children she had to take care of.
They were four, young adults who were all in various stages of their lives, and who all had various ways of just barely protecting themselves- let alone each other. While they had all ranked high under supervised testing, actually getting out into the real thing was a different story. Reality was quick to put things into perspective for them, and it showed where a lot of their weak points were.
It also showed just how resistant some of them were to change.
And how sometimes they would exploit each other's weaknesses for no reason other than to just do it.
Sonya was supposed to be their General, their commanding officer.
And she was.
But sometimes it hurt on a personal level to see them return from their missions in less-than-acceptable states.
Obviously, she would feel that way towards Cassie and Jacqui.
But Takeda and Kung Jin were a surprise.
Sonya didn't want to say that Takeda benefited from having a maternal presence in his life, but the young chujin seemed to lean that way from time to time. She didn't think she acted maternal around him, but she couldn't say that it wasn't out of the question either. It was a habit for her to check in on the team throughout the day, and she guessed that could be seen as being outside of the necessities of her job.
Or maybe it was because she had a habit of ordering them takeout after every expedition, especially if they were late on arrival.
It was bad enough she had everyone's pizza order memorized.
Whatever it was, Takeda tended to lean on her time and again, although he was quick to catch and correct himself on it.
Sonya pretended not to notice it.
For his sake.
Kung Jin, on the other hand, needed a stable presence who was firm, but rewarding.
He was skilled, there was no doubt there, but his instinct to resist and deflect was something that they both seemed to struggle with; which was something new Sonya had had to come to terms with about herself. Getting into arguments with the young Shaolin was both aggravating and enlightening in some ways, mostly in how strongly the man would defend his position on something.
It made her think that not a lot of people took his opinions or thoughts into consideration.
Kung Jin was a lot like Kung Lao in that respect, more so than anyone else would admit to the young Shaolin.
Sonya, of course, had no issues in telling him as much.
And Kung Jin seemed to appreciate the comparison.
"General Blade, can we be dismissed now?"
Sonya tried not to roll her eyes at the clearly impatient question.
"You'll be dismissed when I say you can be dismissed," she reminded, as she tapped her finger on the screen of her tablet, acting as though it would quicken the ongoing download. "If you had started your mission upload when you first got back to the plane, it would've been done by the time you had landed- and we all wouldn't be here waiting for it."
And they all wouldn't be here, crammed and standing around in her office either.
Three years doing this.
She figured, by now, they would've learned to upload their mission data as soon as it was possible for them to.
Over the top of her tablet, Sonya caught the four of them passing glances amongst one another.
And she braced herself for the inevitable argument that was brewing.
"You guys cannot blame me for it this time," Kung Jin started, throwing the first metaphorical punch. "I didn't spill or drop anything on the console this round."
"Yeah, but it was probably still damaged from the last time you did," Cassie retorted, falling easily for the trap.
"Bullshit. The engineers said everything was looked over before we took off this morning."
"They checked the engines, not the docking station, idiot-"
There was still a lot of work that needed to be done with the whole team energy.
Of all her years of working, solo or with a team, she had never seen a group of people so set on antagonizing one another.
Without violence, anyways.
"If you're going to fight, you can do it outside," Sonya interrupted, cutting into the argument before anyone else could join in. "That is not a means of dismissal, however, in case that needs to be said."
There was a collective groan between the two as she seemingly plundered what little hopes they had had in a makeshift early release.
"None of us hit submit on the upload, let's just accept it and leave it at that," Jacqui deflected.
Always the voice of reason, that one.
And a reminder that, somehow, between four adults, none of them could remember to upload a simple collection of combat data that would've made this entire situation avoidable.
Not to mention, it would've saved her a lot of time as well.
Sonya watched the tablet screen flicker as the file finally finished downloading on her end.
It had certainly taken long enough.
The four of them must've collected more data than she had anticipated they would from their expedition.
Which was more than likely not a good thing.
Turning towards her desk now, Sonya set her tablet down onto the circular receptor pad next to her. She watched as both the tablet and the pad lit up in sync as the data began to transfer between them. And it only took a few seconds for the transfer to complete before her desk projector toggled on soon after; and it began to project the recorded data onto holographic screens in front of her.
It was a bit of an advanced take on reading documentation.
And maybe even a splurge on her own behalf to have it here.
But what was the worth of technology if it wasn't used to its full potential?
Besides, it helped her cut down on paper, and that was more than enough to justify it.
Right off the bat, most of the documentation was just combat data and whatever else was collected during the team's dispatch. There wasn't usually much going on with it; it was the same type of data she collected from everyone- her and her own team included.
But Sonya wanted to know the ups-and-downs of what had happened while the team of four were out.
It helped her keep them in check as needed.
A knock at her office door unfortunately distracted her from the long-awaited debriefing.
Sonya looked behind her just as her office door was pushed open without waiting for her response.
Which was a bit annoying.
But the sight of Jax on the other side of it cooled her off.
"Cage needs you to sign off on approval for those rovers of his," Jax started, seemingly, or purposely, overlooking the team as he spoke to her directly. "He's getting anxious about it, so if you could put that at the top of your list for today, I'd appreciate it."
Given that Jax had come all the way out here to deliver an update from Cage, the movie star must've been wearing the man down with his incessant talking.
She could hear it in the man's exasperated tone as well.
"He knows where to find me," Sonya scoffed.
"You banned him from your office," Cassie reminded.
Right.
She did do that.
Fair enough then.
"I'll get to it before the end of the day, I just need to take care of this first," Sonya loosely assured, as she gestured to the team and waved the matter off.
"Someone forgot to hit the upload again, huh?" Jax remarked.
Sonya chuckled at the remark, and at the collective groan it inspired from the team.
"It doesn't even matter, she already has the file," Kung Jin retorted. "I don't see why we still need to be here."
"Because if I find something that I don't like, I need to be able to interrogate you over it," Sonya replied, as she turned her attention back to the holographic screens that were now piling together above her desk.
The data was outputting each file as its own page.
And while their interrealm expedition had been short, it was certainly looking like more than usual had been collected from it.
Sonya had a feeling that she would be interrogating them over something.
"Well if you're going to interrogate us, then you'll be happy to know that we were only called two slurs this time while we were in Outworld," the Shaolin remarked.
While that kind of information wasn't necessarily collected, sometimes it was taken into consideration if higher-than-necessary aggression levels were recorded from the team.
It was something Sonya had picked up pretty early on with her own team.
As it turns out, when she and the rest of them were younger, they were all a lot easier to piss off.
Which was probably a given, but not something she had realized back then.
So it was an obvious choice to apply the same observation to Cassie's team.
And so far, the results were pretty comparable.
"Three, technically," Takeda corrected.
"Cock-sucker isn't a slur, it's more of an insult."
Sonya knew she should reprimand the Shaolin for the remark, but she also knew that any given response to it would just elongate the engagement.
And the last thing she wanted to argue about right now was that.
As far as she was concerned, she did not need to know what might've provoked it, or if it had even been provoked.
So she pretended not to hear it.
She would see it in the documentation anyways.
"General Blade!"
A welcomed distraction in the form of yet another person interrupting her.
Sonya turned away from the screens once more and watched as Jax stepped aside from the doorway so that a new officer could step forward.
"Special Agent Takahashi's plane has landed," the officer spoke.
Usually she was excited to hear the news.
But not this time.
She waved the officer off.
"He's ahead of schedule, that's not like him," Sonya spoke, making the remark to herself.
She reached over and removed her tablet from the receptor pad, causing the holographic screens around her to power down.
"I'm putting this debriefing on hold for now."
"What?! Come on, is that really necessary?" Cassie objected.
It was only necessary to her.
But that was really all that mattered as far as she was concerned.
"I sent Kenshi out on a specialize expedition, and I need to check in and see how it went," Sonya replied, before she turned back to the exasperated, if not disappointed team. "And since I can't leave the four of you in here unsupervised, you're coming with me."
There was yet another collective groan between the four of them, but they followed her command as she shooed them out of her office.
And once more, the act just made her feel more like their mother than their commanding officer.
"This isn't going to take all day, is it?" Jax questioned, as he pulled her office door closed behind her.
"Kenshi's back early from something that he should not be back early from. I need to make sure that nothing went wrong," Sonya answered, and briefly at that. "I'll handle the approval paperwork when I get back, and I'll have it on Cage's desk before the end of the day. You can tell him that there's no sense in complaining to you about it any more, because it's in my hands now; that should get him off your back."
The man shook his head.
"You two have got to stop putting me in the middle of things," Jax remarked.
"If you prefer dealing with the kids' debriefing, you're more than welcome to take it over while I process the paperwork," she offered.
"I'll let Cage know that his little pet project has to wait until the end of the day," he replied instead.
Sonya chuckled as she watched Jax turn and head back across the base, no doubt making his way back to the mechanic's division.
But knowing Jax, he would probably stop at the canteen for a cup of coffee first, just to make Cage sweat for a little bit longer.
"Where did your dad even go, Takeda?" Cassie asked, as the four of them loitered by her office.
"I don't know. I think he might've mentioned something about Orderrealm earlier," Takeda answered with a partial shrug. "He didn't really say much other than that. I can't imagine what business he would have there, but I'm surprised they even let him in."
"Like I said, specialized expedition," Sonya interjected, as she turned back to the small team once more. "And while I will not confirm nor deny his presence in Orderrealm, I will say that I have some very strong ties I can pull with Hotaru. So it's never a matter on if he would let someone into Orderrealm, but rather when."
"I'd believe it," Kung Jin scoffed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jacqui questioned.
"I am not answering that in front of the General."
Sonya snorted to herself, and had to resist the urge to smack the back of the Shaolin's head when she moved past the group.
She continued moving away from her office and headed towards the landing strip just to the East of the base.
Given the time of day, and the amount of activity currently going on, she couldn't say that she was surprised that she didn't hear his plane land.
Kenshi was early, but his early arrival would net him quite the welcoming party.
It was unintentional, but he would probably enjoy the attention.
Sonya could hear the team chatting behind her as they walked, but she tried not to pay attention to the details of their conversation.
Whatever the four of them did off-hours was no business to her.
Or at least, she was trying to make it that way.
Cassie and Jacqui would head back to their place in military housing, and probably wait for Takeda and Kung Jin to join them later on.
The two boys were technically on loan, so once their business with the Special Forces was done, they had to report back to their respective clans before they could take off. Which seemed to be a waste of time, but neither Grandmaster Hanzo or Master Bo'Rai Cho were accepting of video calls; they both insisted that Takeda and Kung Jin return to give a face-to-face report.
Again, it wasn't her business, but it was certainly an upgrade to how things had been before.
Grandmaster Hanzo had originally been insistent on keeping Takeda on clan grounds whenever he wasn't needed for Special Forces work.
Luckily, Kenshi had convinced the Grandmaster to ease up on that idea.
In this line of work, Takeda would need a wider view on what exactly was going on around Earthrealm, and he would need to keep up with the ongoing situations with the Special Forces.
Which was a stark contrast to how Hanzo seemingly preferred to hole himself up whenever possible.
But given the man's background, not many people could blame the Grandmaster for wanting to be isolated.
Having Takeda around however, with a widening view of the world, and with growing knowledge of what was going on, appeared to be slowly breaking Hanzo out of his self-made hole.
Now whether or not that was a good thing, Sonya hadn't decided on yet.
Thankfully, there was something else to break her thoughts from it.
The five of them were nearing the landing strip now, but she could already spot Kenshi ahead of them.
He was already out and past the gate, and was steadily making his way towards them.
Sonya wasn't surprised that he had already gotten off, and away, from the plane.
Despite how often she put him in the air, Kenshi absolutely hated flying.
Given the distance between them, and knowing the man, Kenshi had more than likely already picked up on their presence by now.
He was definitely back ahead of schedule, and given that Orderrealm did not like being off schedule, Sonya was a little concerned about his return. Hotaru had known ahead of time that Kenshi would be going in her place, so the man knew not to expect her; but she wondered now if Hotaru still didn't quite get the memo.
She highly doubted Hotaru would have forgotten about the change though.
Which is what pointed her to the option that something must've happened during their meeting.
"Should I be concerned?" Sonya asked, once Kenshi was close enough.
He didn't answer.
And she wondered if his head was so wound up from the flight that he simply didn't hear her.
He tended to be like that post-air.
Kenshi drew closer to her though, and eventually he reached a hand out once he was close enough.
But before Sonya even had a chance to do anything with it, he continued moving forward, and eventually slipped his hand, as well as his arm, underneath her left arm, before he hooked it across her back.
Kenshi pulled her in and Sonya felt his lips against her own as he pulled her into a kiss now.
And a very firm one at that.
But brisk just the same as he pulled away quickly after.
"I love you, but never send me to Orderrealm again," Kenshi spoke.
And just as soon as he had gotten himself on her, he pulled away and continued on past her, moving on like nothing had happened.
It had been a blur of movement.
Sonya didn't even know how to react, let alone respond as she found herself still trying to catch up on what had happened.
For a moment, she questioned if Kenshi had actually kissed her or not.
And if it wasn't for the lingering warmth on her lips, she might've said he hadn't.
"Damn, what's his tongue game like, Mama B?"
Sonya heard the collective sound of three people hitting one person simultaneously.
And she didn't have to look to know who had gotten struck.
She gave herself a few seconds to recollect, before she turned around and faced the team of four who were still standing behind her.
Three of them had mixed expressions of disbelief and shock.
And Kung Jin was rubbing a palm against his right arm.
"You're dismissed," Sonya started. "We can talk about your findings tomorrow morning when you arrive."
"OH, I don't think so," Cassie objected, quick to catch on to her equally quick dismissal. "You think we're just going to let that one slide? I mean, what- WHAT was that exactly?!"
"Man, what's your debriefing with Takeda's dad going to look like?" Kung Jin interjected, clearly making himself vulnerable to another beating, it seemed.
"For your sake, I'm going to ignore that," Sonya retorted. "Now the four of you are dismissed- and I won't be repeating myself on that. Not unless you prefer to stay behind and run laps instead."
She departed back to her office before any of them had a chance to object again.
She knew that Kenshi would likely need to decompress before he was of any use in a conversation.
But once he did, he would seek her out.
And she would certainly be waiting for him.
Cassie and her team had been her main focus for that morning.
Once they departed, ahead of schedule at that, her own schedule lightened up to some degree.
Sonya made sure to pass off on approval for Cage's rovers first, and passed the reports off to be delivered later that afternoon.
If anything, she could at least assure that the rest of Jax's day would be peaceful.
Someone's day had to be.
Once that was done with, she went back to focusing on the data that the team had brought back. And while there had been a lot of data collected, for the most part there wasn't much substance to any of it. Or at least, nothing that was out of the ordinary for them.
It seemed like the extra data was just from a wrong turn the team had taken that ended up deviating them off-path for about an hour.
Despite all of the GPS devices she equipped them with to make such a case avoidable.
As far as she could tell from the reports though, Outworld was showing no changes from the last observation.
Hopeful thinking, but it seemed like the realm had finally stabilized a bit.
Also no one tried to directly kill the team this time.
Which was always a plus.
There were plenty of recorded insults though.
And the two slurs Kung Jin had mentioned beforehand.
To his credit, both of them were entirely unprovoked.
Sonya was tempted to just message the team and let them know that a debriefing wasn't necessary any longer, especially now that she knew there wasn't much to discuss. But she had a feeling they would just see that dismissal as some sort of admission of guilt. Or that she was trying to keep them from coming back tomorrow and questioning her on her own situation.
Either way, she knew the forecast was calling for a shit storm tomorrow.
Because it was certainly causing a shit storm for her right now.
Even now, a couple hours after the whole ordeal, Sonya still couldn't wrap her head around why Kenshi would make such an scene.
Especially in front of the team, especially in front of Cassie and Takeda.
And especially when he knew damn well that neither of them had even broached the subject with the kids yet.
Just as the thought crossed her mind, Sonya heard the sound of her office door opening without so much as a knock.
And when she looked up, she watched as Kenshi stepped in.
The timing of her thoughts were impeccable sometimes.
"I'll give you ten seconds," Sonya offered, as she leaned back in her chair, and stifled the urge to go across her desk at him.
"I'm going to need more than that," Kenshi replied. "Although I probably could've made it work earlier."
Given how out of it he was before, she highly doubted it.
"Let's talk business first," she started. "At least tell me if something went wrong in Orderrealm. I know how Hotaru is- and you coming back early is not a good sign."
Kenshi closed her door behind him first, before he held his hands up like he was trying to calm her down.
"Our meeting went fine," he assured. "Or rather, it was going fine until there was an emergency midway through it. It had something to do with their water effigy or whatever it is they call it. Either way, Hotaru cut our meeting short due to that and had me escorted out of the realm. Apparently I don't have enough clearance to view whatever effigy, or entity that it was, so it was better for me to leave."
Sonya felt a chill run through her body at the remark.
Unlike Kenshi, she did have clearance to see it.
And it was the one instance where she wished she didn't.
How a realm as perfect and beautiful as Seido could harbor such a thing was beyond her.
It made her glad that Orderrealm tended to stay out of interrealm conflict.
"You don't want to see it," Sonya replied. "Did everything get covered before then at least?"
"I believe so. The business end was taken care of before we were interrupted," Kenshi answered. "Unfortunately, we didn't get to cover your requests for examining Seido technology, but Hotaru said that he would get into contact with you next week."
It was unfortunate that that topic didn't get broached on, but she would take the rest.
At the very least it was one worry down.
It had taken her a long time to get into contact with Seido and convince Hotaru of an amiable partnership.
And it had taken her even longer to gain access to Seido itself.
Sonya wasn't willing to risk even the slightest chance of losing all of her work.
Perhaps from here on, it would just be her reporting.
"I still stand by what I said before, however," Kenshi continued. "Do not send me back to that place."
As it was with him, it was like he was reading her mind.
But true to fact, he had mentioned that earlier.
"What's your reasoning?" Sonya questioned.
"The realm is very quiet, which was nice at first, but it went downhill very quickly," he started. "It was like there was this constant white noise no matter where we went, whether we were inside or outside. It started off very low and then progressed to this persistent humming sound that, while it never got very loud, it never changed frequencies either. It felt like it was right in the middle of my head."
Sonya couldn't say that she had ever picked up on a white noise before.
She knew that Seido was quiet, even eerily so, but never to that degree.
But given Kenshi's sensitive hearing, she wasn't surprised that he had picked up on something like that.
She wondered if it had anything to do with their water entity acting up.
Maybe the noise was coming from it.
"I've been physically tortured before, but that place was worse," Kenshi finished.
Well, if the point hadn't already been driven home, that certainly would've done it.
He didn't like to bring that memory up on his own.
"I understand," Sonya assured. "I'll make a note of it. But seeing as I've been trying to handle Seido personally, I don't think this will be an issue in the future. I'll wait to hear back from Hotaru when he reaches out again, and ensure that my scheduling can make time for him. I appreciate you standing in for me, even though it sounds like the visit would've been a wash with or without me there."
"I don't know, I feel like Hotaru would've let you tag along," he remarked.
Hotaru more than likely would have, whether she wanted to or not.
She watched as Kenshi finally approached her desk, now clearing the office space between them.
"But let's drop the act. I can't keep staying on my best behavior around here; I did enough of that in Seido."
Kenshi didn't like how professional she was sounding around him.
Especially when it was just the two of them.
He never did like the solo General act, despite decades of dealing with it.
"Do you still stand by kissing me in front of everyone?" Sonya questioned, figuring this was the one opening she had to break the topic out.
And even with the blindfold on, she knew how to pick out his surprised expression.
Although even if she didn't, the momentary silence that followed would've sold it anyways.
"Define everyone," Kenshi slowly replied.
"The kids," she remarked. "All four of-"
Sonya took a pause as something struck her mid-sentence, before she continued.
"You didn't realize they were there, did you?"
"At that point in time, it had been... quite a day for me; I can't say that I was exactly paying attention to my surroundings," Kenshi admitted. "I figured they would have already been gone by then. They were scheduled for an early flight out, weren't they?"
"They had just gotten back actually and were on their way off base," Sonya answered. "If you hadn't returned early, you would've missed them entirely."
She could see the familiar wrinkles across his brow that gave away that he was thinking.
That he was probably contemplating all of his choices from that day.
And that he was probably thinking back on just how abrupt his actions had been earlier.
He was more than likely seeing where his blind spots had been.
Pun intended.
"It's fine, I'll handle the situation," Kenshi assured.
Despite the offer of having one less thing on her plate, Sonya didn't like the serious tone his voice had suddenly taken on.
She also didn't like just how easily he seemed to have come upon a solution to this ordeal.
"And just how do you plan on doing that?" Sonya pressed.
"I'll just tell the kids that I'm planning on asking you to marry me."
They had spend decades together.
They knew each other inside and out, figuratively and literally to some degree.
They knew each other in as many ways as was humanly possible to know someone.
And yet, no amount of experience could have braced her for that kind of response.
"And then once the shock wears off, I'll admit that I was just kidding, and they'll completely forget about the kiss," Kenshi finished.
Sonya couldn't tell if she wanted to laugh or choose violence for a response.
Fingers moved to pinch the space between her eyes as she sunk down into her chair.
And despite the conflict of response, Sonya heard herself laugh first.
"You are not enacting emotional warfare on the kids," she chided. "Besides, I would end your life before you even had a chance to do so."
"You can't deny that it would work as a suitable distraction," he replied.
Of course it would work.
But the mayhem it would invoke would be equivalent to them blowing their own foot off.
"You know what, I take it back- I'll handle this," Sonya asserted, as she pushed herself forward and straightened up in her chair. "I have to do damage control anyways. Jacqui messaged me a few hours after they had left and apparently Takeda brought this little incident up with Grandmaster Hanzo. I don't know what exactly Takeda said, but apparently Hanzo told him that he was already aware of the situation. So now Takeda's upset at the both of you, and apparently Cassie is just foaming at the mouth over me. So it sounds like it's real fun over there."
Sonya could only imagine just how much Kung Jin was probably enjoying the drama.
He was either antagonizing Takeda and Cassie over it and making it worse.
Or he was bitching about it because now their time-off was more or less ruined.
"Hanzo really can't be trusted, can he?" Kenshi retorted.
Sonya didn't bother to ask whether or not he had mentioned anything about them to Hanzo.
But given the response, Kenshi must've slipped up at some point.
"Apparently not," Sonya replied. "It sounds like something the two of you will have to work out."
She pushed herself to her feet and immediately followed it with a full body stretch.
And the stretch alone brought emphasis to just how long she had been sitting down.
She had skipped out on her evening work-out just so she would be easier for Kenshi to find.
"You're more trouble than you're worth sometimes," Sonya remarked, as she moved to step out from around her desk now. "I swear, it feels like every day I have to find another reason to keep you around."
"And yet, you keep finding these reasons to keep me around," Kenshi reminded.
That she did.
Stepping around to the front of her desk now, Sonya watched as he gradually turned himself to track her movement, and inevitably turned to face her now. And despite the issues he had caused earlier, that were still ongoing now, she admittedly couldn't help but feel just a sliver of relief from his actions.
They had been looking for a time and place to break the ice about their relationship.
And while what had happened earlier was far from being the perfect time or place, it did break the ice.
It also introduced them without either of them having to think about it.
Which was probably for the best.
With careful planning, and rehearsed lines, they could figure out how to sweep it under the rug, of course.
But Hell, they were both too old to be playing games.
"You know, the kids are out of the house now," Sonya poised, as she moved up next to him now. "How about you recreate that kiss of yours?"
She caught the subtle twitch that ran across his lips in response.
"Is this your way of telling me that this will be the last time I'll get to do it?" Kenshi asked.
"I'm still debating on that."