@msdoctorette continued from here
Mikail shifted when the woman took her seat beside him, ready to stand if it was needed--he was well aware that his bulk could make public spaces a bit more difficult to share. If the woman seemed squashed, at all, between his shoulder and the other side of the bench, he would move.
Evidently, she found the arrangement rather comfortable--or, more likely he thought, she was too weary to notice, and after only a few seconds of sharing the bench Mikail felt the lady’s head thump against his shoulder. He glanced down, held back a chuckle that might have jostled her, and continued, unperturbed, to read through the commission he’d received for his next job.
Fifteen minutes later--or more, Mikail hadn’t been paying close attention--the train rattled into view and the lady startled. Her expression, and exclamation, made it clear that dozing had been unintentional. With another chuckle, low and deep, Mikail made a gesture of dismissal and shrugged his broad shoulders.
“You haven’t missed the train,” he said, glancing towards the iron beast puffing to a stop just ahead. “And you haven’t bothered me, either. I’ve suffered the same affliction in my turn.”
Late nights up working on a drawing--except it was generally less appreciated when someone of his size fell asleep on a stranger.
“You must be some sort of academic--no one else develops bad sleep habits like we do.”
