The first thing she noticed was the silence, the innate hum of the airship was gone. It had always been in the background and it wasn’t something that she noticed until it was gone. The Rocinante had made it back to port, barely...but they had made it.
Her mind was fuzzy on the details at the moment and a nasty headache pounded behind her eyes, the ringing in her eyes refused to cease. She knew there had been an explosion and the entire boarding team had been injured because of it. She took a controlled, deep breath and tried push through the last of the cloying darkness that still beckoned to her.
It was then she noticed the sounds of breathing, the slight stirring of her hair with each sound of an exhale. Her eyes opened slowly, tiredly glancing upwards and memory came rushing back to her. She recalled an exhausted and injured Mafrea stumbling into her little infirmary cubby, sitting beside her for a moment before telling her to move over if she could and he had climbed into the bed beside her.
She regarded his sleeping face in front of her, sharing her pillow and their faces only ilms apart. He looked so much younger when he slept, though he features still seemed slightly pinched from pain. She lifted a hand slowly, cupping the side of his face and her thumb traced over his brow lightly. When he didn’t stir, she leaned in and pressed her lips to his forehead, then shifted to settle more comfortably in his arms.
A memory tickled, slowly emerging from the haze of pain that had clouded her as they returned from the battlefield. Mafrea had been carrying her, cradling her carefully and supporting her neck. She remembered the air around him and him speaking, the remembered name he had called her caused her to smile now. She tucked her head beneath his chin and closed her eyes, that bubble of happiness persisting despite the physical pain and exhaustion that hovered at the edges. She drifted off, lulled by the overwhelming sense of safety and replaying the sound of his voice in her mind.