WARZONE - König

19

body reference for Konig

Konig was first to exit the locker room, holding his dirty clothes in a small netted laundry bag, leaving his face revealed as even his hood was within the sack. He held it down by his side as he waited against the walls, the tank-top tight against his large torso and sweatpants riding up his ankles.

He looks around side-to-side, tapping his finger in his pocket as he nervously awaited Nadja to exit the locker room across the hall. With his foot propped against the wall, he looks down to his dirty wristwatch, watching the arm tick with every passing second. But just then, as he lets his focus fizz into the watch, the women's locker room door swings open. He looks up, his arm still raised as his eyes glare through his brows to Nadja as she exits, holding her laundry sack and passing a glance and a friendly smile his way before continuing down the hall.

He drops his arm, letting out a quiet huff as he watched her walk away with the laundry sack over her shoulder, but she comes to sudden halt before completely passing, turning to face him once more with a curious glare, her eyes locked into his as she makes slow approach, still walking with a slight limp.

Now standing only a few feet away, her eyes scan up and down his body, a person before her she didn't recognize, yet his eyes were ever-so familiar. Nadja stood frozen before him, her fellow comrade whom she had never seen without his sniper hood covering his face. For a moment, she couldn't believe that the man standing in front of her was who she called Konig.

He had always been a mysterious figure to her, and she'd grown used to only seeing his piercing blue eyes peering out from behind the hood. But now, as he stood before her without the hood with an awkward smile, she could see that his face was different than she had imagined.

Without the hood, Konig looked younger than her, his face almost boyish with a few lines beneath his eyes and a scar over the corner of his lip. He had short, sandy-blonde hair and a strong jawline that was accentuated by the shadow of a beard just growing in. It was strange to see him like this, and Nadja had to admit that she didn't recognize him.

But then he spoke, and his voice was unmistakable. It was the same quiet, gravelly voice that she had heard so many times before. And then, as she stepped closer with her curious eyes scanning him, she began to see the similarities between the man in front of her and the one she had known only by his blue eyes and thick accent.

The shape of his straight nose, the curve of his lips, the way his thick eyebrows knitted together when he was deep in thought—all of these things were familiar to her now, and as she examined him closer, she began to see Konig's face emerge from behind the sniper hood.

It was strange, she thought, how a simple piece of fabric could obscure so much of a person's identity. But now that she had seen Konig's face, she knew that she would never forget it. And though it was strange to see him like this, she felt a sense of comfort in knowing that the man she had trusted with her life and fought alongside was still the same person, even if his face was different than she had imagined.

"Are you okay?" Konig says, catching her attention. She looks away from his hair back into his eyes, giving him a kind smile as she steps closer.

"You look a lot kinder than I imagined." She replies, Konig pushing off the wall and walking closer, the pair standing awkwardly across one another in the hall.

Konig chuckles, looking down the hall as a few soldiers pass. "And how exactly did you imagine me?"

"You know... badly burned in an accident with the mask permanently melted to your face." She says with a smile, referencing a past conversation.