Stepping back into the dark house, Senna tried to bring the peace of the night with herself inside, clinging to it like a lifeline. That's all she had at the moment.

With a sigh, she set the satellite phone back in her backpack, considering whether or not to tell König about it. It could be an important detail once it came to their rescue. But on the other hand, she would get into a disadvantage. He would have a working phone and she not. That was a big risk to admit to a total stranger.

But he saved her numerous times now, so she didn't know if they were strangers anymore. She knew close to nothing about him, she didn't doubt she would try her damn hardest to protect his life in return as well. It was a silent agreement, not needing any explanation from either party.

She's going to tell him, Senna decided. Maybe even tonight. It was a step towards mending their relationship, building back the broken bridge of their trust. He deserved that much after everything.

With a shaky hand, she smoothed back the hair that fell around her shoulders, having finally released from the braid. She twisted her long, dark hair into braids most of the time because the length made it inconvenient in most cases. And that's when she heard it.

The silence.

Her heart sank to her stomach as the worst thoughts surfaced inside her, her legs carrying her toward the place where she hoped to find him. She didn't want to lose him out of sight, she wasn't ready to just blindly trust him like that. He could be anywhere. Anything could've happened to him.

In a few steps, she crossed the small front room and noticed the same slight stream of light emitting from the bathroom. She halted in her steps and shifted her weight, trying to get a better glimpse inside, her pulse pumping erratically in her neck, making it hard to swallow. And that's when she saw him.

The half-way open door gave a pretty good view of him as he stood by the sink, slouching above it. The lamp on his left gave an alluring lightning to him, the soft light taking away all the sharp edges of the night that crept inside.

It was the first time she'd seen him so exposed, it felt wrong. But the woman was too mesmerized by what she saw to look away instantly.

The muscles on his back moved with every move like a monster underneath the deep sea. They rippled in the soft light, a beautiful dance of light and shadows dancing across his scarred skin. Numerous bruises tinted his fair skin in every shade; some were a sickly yellow with a green tint, and some had a blueish purple hue to them, only a few hours old. The biggest one looked the nastiest, a deep purple just above his left kidney, almost reaching his spine. Senna flinched just thinking about how badly they would hurt.

Slowly, the man straightened his back and as he rolled his shoulders back, a low groan escaped his lips. Her eyes trailed up along his spine, her tongue subconsciously darting out to wet her dry lips. Senna's dark gaze settled on a gash on his left shoulder, looking already cleaned up. The way he rolled his head from side to side to ease the tension in his neck made the muscles tense in his back before relaxing.

A sudden creak under her boot made Senna snap out of her trance. She didn't even register when she'd move closer. The otherwise mostly quiet noise was like a gunshot in the silence, making König's head snap towards the noise.

As the military man glanced behind his shoulder, he barely caught a glimpse of a shadow darting away, towards the staircase with barely any noise chasing after it. König narrowed his eyes at the small pathway outside the ajar door, moving slightly closer. But when he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, he simply shook his head, tiredly rubbing at his eye. He's been awake for far too long to believe everything his eyes saw.

With a sigh, König turned back around to tend to his wounds, his whole body already sore from the happenings of the days before. He was exhausted mentally and physically but his eyes were awake and his hand twitched toward his weapon at every noise. Being on high alert all the time was draining and he knew he couldn't go on like this for long. The man started to believe more strongly that the Urzik woman had nothing do to with the betrayal.

Even if she had, she'd have to be one hell of an actress. But as he thought back, it seemed impossible to fake the level of distress and trauma he saw in her eyes. Senna Hakim had eyes that could speak a thousand words with one look, and he liked to believe he understood every single one of them.

Meanwhile, Senna darted up the stairs with the speed of light, trying to get the image of König out of her mind. Her cheeks were set aflame as she shook her head like she could shake away the memory of him. The curve of his back, the strong arms, the lean body. But his body wasn't the most important thing that stuck to her mind like honey.

It was the fact that he had short dark hair and a nice side profile. But before she could make sure about the profile, she darted towards the darkness, hoping he didn't see her.

**

Senna couldn't keep her eyes off of him. And König could barely keep his eyes open.

She'd been watching him fight off the fatigue that clung to him like a second skin. His eyes fell shut for a few seconds only for him to shake himself awake and after a few blinks he tried to focus back on the map in front of him.

The pair sat on the ground of the bigger room upstairs, a lamp between them and all kinds of papers scattered around them.

Senna was trying her best to translate everything she could read and make little notes for future reference. There were a few pieces of paper from their previous Black Jackal hostages as well, pieces she didn't really have the heart to touch just yet.

Meanwhile, König copied everything from Jerico's map onto his own, adding a few details here and there to both of them on his own. Since he made notes in German, there was no way for Senna to know what he just wrote down but it seemed more like a reflex than an effort to keep secrets.

She set with her legs crossed and her chin propped in her hand, looking through her lashes at him. The woman pursed her lips to hide an amused smile as she watched him cross out a word the second time. But it looked like he didn't manage to write it down the way he intended the third time, either as he let the pen fall on the floor. With a sigh, König rubbed his eyes and let his head rest against his arm for a second.

"You should rest," Senna suggested, his head snapping up at the sound of her voice. She gave him a sympathetic smile when their gaze met. "Your eyes look exhausted.."

"I'm supposed to help," he gestured towards the maps, tiredness making his accent pop a little more than usual.

"You helped enough. I'll finish it, don't worry about it," Senna reached forward and pulled the maps in front of her, glancing over his work.

She noticed how half of the notes on his map were in English, but he probably switched to his native language midway due to tiredness. Still, she smiled at his effort. It meant a lot he didn't try to shut her out completely, at least not directly. Even after their little incident downstairs.

She waited hours for him to mention anything. Maybe yell at her or threatened her for seeing him, but he didn't do anything. Nothing seemed to change from his side. For Senna, a lot of things changed but she didn't want to mention anything until he did. She didn't want to make things more awkward between them, most definitely she didn't want to make him uncomfortable. After all, she didn't see his face... Only parts of it. But even those parts were blurry and dark in her mind, she could barely recall anything.

And she preferred it that way. She didn't want to see his face until he felt comfortable showing it. But the images of his body surfaced in her memory again, making her face flush. The woman only hoped he wouldn't notice.

But no matter how exhausted the man was, König remained in his seat and let his tired gaze hang on Senna's face. For a few long, silent seconds, the two of them just looked into each other's eyes, no words needed for the two of them.

It was almost ridiculous how naturally it came for them to read each other. The soft warm light between them soothed over Senna's features, taking away all the sharp angles and distress from her face. There were only her dark eyes left with the softest little smile tugging at her lips. Even though König was tired and his eyelids almost got glued down with every blink, he just wanted a moment to appreciate the only beautiful thing that was left in this desert.

"Go on," her voice was barely above a whisper, the softness of it wrapping around his shoulders like a warm blanket. "I'll take overwatch."

Being too tired to argue, König only nodded and got up from the ground. Rolling his head to the side, he cracked his neck with a small pop as he headed to the other side of the small conjoined room. There was a smaller space closed off as some kind of closet in the back of the open space, but there was an unspoken agreement between the soldiers to stick together.

Senna thought he stuck around because it would be easier to notice if she would pull a Shadow Company on him. König liked to think she stuck around to feel a little more protected.

It only took four and a half minutes for König to be out. The days of exhaustion paired with the sleep technique most soldiers were taught knocked him out faster than she could finish reading the current page she was working on. For a few seconds, she let her eyes wander over his body, lying perfectly still in the darker corner. He was sleeping on his back with one of his arms tucked under his head as a makeshift pillow. A solemn smile stretched across her face, a sinking feeling pulling her heart towards her stomach.

She was exhausted as well. To be honest, the woman had no idea how she managed to stay awake still. Then, her gaze wandered to the maps in front of her. To Jerico's map, stained with his blood. Blood from her hands.

Senna inhaled sharply, suddenly remembering this was the first night without Jerico. Without the other part of her soul. It felt like she just lost a limb – this was so unnatural. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Just like it wasn't supposed to happen for the KorTac member and the ULF second-in-command to be the sole survivors of their mission.

Shutting down the triggering memories and stopping the bloody images from resurfacing, Senna lightly cleared her throat and pulled her backpack over to herself. She positioned the bag so it would shield the beam of light away from König's sleeping form.

"At least one of us should get some sleep," the woman whispered to herself as she turned back toward the stack of papers littered around her.

Trying to feel useful again, she decided to finish what König started, copying the maps onto each other. She added two more interest points to it: the calculated point where she thought the Black Jackals' hideout would be and the extraction point. She was the only one possessing the knowledge about their future extraction point, but Senna thought it was best to share it with König. There was no telling what the future held for her or even if she'd make it that far.

Her best bet was to keep him alive long enough to carry the mission to success. The Urzik woman could sense that the Austrian still had some thoughts about her but she was ready to prove herself. Maybe she shouldn't. Maybe she's just overthinking everything again. But it was better to have multiple plans than none.

Because the only thing Senna was sure about was the past. The rest was an abyss of mystery to her. One that she could only hope to get out of alive.

_________________________________________

me posting? wow who would've thought

thank you for everyone that messaged me, i love you with my whole being <3  your words pushed me to get this chapter done, so, thank you!! it's not the longest but i hope you enjoyed it, even though it was more of a filler.

i appreciate you and you're amazing. never forget that <3