Page 40 of The Queen's Denial

The first time Chi and I sleep in a bed together isn’t exactly the way I’d expect to sleep in a bed with someone else. Not that I would know. I’ve never actually shared a bed with anyone before.

I always expected to hate this. I figured we’d be hitting each other with elbows, knees, and feet, accidentally smacking each other and shit. Chi is a lot stronger than she looks too, so an elbow to the face could really fucking hurt. But none of this happens. It’s like those stupid fucking songs that talk about how perfectly you fit together.

I can’t turn on my side because of the surgery done on my abdomen a couple of days ago, but even with all the wires sticking out of me, her chin finds a place right between the crook of my neck and my shoulder. Her body connects with my side so perfectly and softly, and she somehow falls asleep before I do. Her breath on my neck gets me hard, even despite the pain and the drugs, and I’m irrationally proud of myself for that.

I fall asleep a few minutes after she does, but we are unceremoniously awakened from our nap by Miller’s stupid voice not long after.

“You gotta be fucking kidding me.”

Chi startles awake, and even just that small movement against my side makes my breath catch as she pulls my bandage. Maybe letting her lie next to me wasn’t the brightest idea, but I’d do it again anyway.

When she sees that our intruder is a doctor, she seems to write him off as no threat because she looks at me without a second glance at him. “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry, Andy. Are you okay? I told you this was a bad idea—”

“Oh, so it was your idea to have someone lie on top of you in a hospital bed after multiple surgeries, huh?” Miller is annoyed, I can tell, even through that stone mask of indifference he wears all the time. “Really not the brightest fucking idea you’ve ever had. One wrong move and those stitches holding your insides together could rip open.”

“That’s gross.” Chi looks faintly disgusted but directs it toward me instead of the doctor. “Andy, why would you let me lie here with you?”

I roll my eyes and level them at Miller. “We’re going to need something more comfortable than a rickety old metal chair in here, then. Another cot or something. She’s not leaving, and I’m not allowing you fuckers to put your hands on her again. She’ll leave with me when I’m ready. I’m the only one taking her out of here.”

Miller laughs. “You can’t lift anything over ten pounds for four to eight weeks. But what do I know? I’m just a fucking doctor.”

“Barely,” I say with a laugh that turns into a grunt when I feel pinching in my stomach.

“No one is lifting me. You’re not drugging me again. That made me feel really gross, and it’s just… fucking rude.”

I can’t stop chuckling at Chi’s offended tone, and I get another side full of pain as I do. “We can put the blindfold and noise-canceling headphones on her.”

“Didn’t work for the last guy. They counted their footsteps, and we had to wipe out an entire platoon of Russian soldiers.”

“Oh, well Andy just killed a bunch of Russian soldiers the other day!” Chi says, looking between us as if she’s part of some inside joke. Even her misunderstanding of the situation is funny and cute.

“He’s talking about Russians working for the Russian government. Not the mob.”

She looks around in confusion. “So… what is this, some kind of military hospital?”

Miller looks at me sternly, and I look at Chi in turn. “Chi, stop asking questions. Especially if you want to walk out of here instead of being carted out in a fucking wheelbarrow.”

She looks slightly affronted, then dejected, but she stops talking.

“You assholes owe me. She’s with me, Miller. You can trust her.”

“It’s not her I’m worried about,” he says, taking her arm. She goes to protest, but after he flashes the blood pressure cuff at her, she relaxes. I guess even here on a top-secret military base, he still has someone to answer to and has to make sure she’s okay, being Chichi Yan and all. It makes me feel a little better. “I’m worried about anyone she might offend after she steps into the role of all-powerful Yakuza queen.”

Her eyes narrow. “Did those guys tell you that? I probably shouldn’t have even said anything.”

“Chi, it’s best to assume they know everything about you already,” I say as softly as I can. She’s the one who came here, against what I’m sure was good advice not to, but I know she’s freaked out.

The fact that she’ll be the Yakuza queen soon isn’t exactly confidential knowledge. I’d bet half the American government, and even more of the Japanese government, know it’s going to happen. At this point, many of the crime organizations in the world simply run parallel to the governments, intersecting occasionally, but trying not to step on each other’s toes.

Miller finishes taking her blood pressure, and she lies back on the bed. “We’re gonna need a cot in here,” he yells out through the open door. “It’s not going to be nice, by any means, but it’s something to lie down on that won’t possibly kill your boyfriend,” he says to Chi.

The most beautiful redness I’ve ever seen suddenly blooms across her face as she scoffs. “We’re not—I mean—”

“She’s in denial,” I say to Miller as he walks over to check my IV.

“I really don’t give a shit, guys. It was just a turn of speech,” he says, writing a few notes on his clipboard. “You need more painkillers, Scutari, or are you good for a while?”

“Fuck painkillers. But probably in an hour or so,” I say, testing my range of movement and finding quickly that it’s far more uncomfortable than it was when I fell asleep.

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