When Crowning made his way to the mess for breakfast, Jersey was already at a table working on what looked like her eight plate of syrup-drenched waffles. Which was strange considering Crowning liked to eat an early breakfast around six or seven, while Jersey was well-known as being all but incapable of forming a coherent sentence if you made her get up before noon.
Even stranger, the towering battleship was actually sitting up straight—more or less, she always had a
bit of a slouch to her—and shoveling down waffles with such vigor Crowning
swore there was a slight breeze from the displaced air. Normally when she got up this early, she slumped over in her chair and mewed pathetically in the hopes that her food would deliver itself to her mouth.
Stranger still was that Crowning
knew she didn't have a mission scheduled soon. That was the only reason he could imagine she'd get up this early for. Well… besides maybe a date, but that seemed even more improbable.
She didn't even notice his presence until he'd already gathered the fixings for his breakfast—oatmeal with a dash of brown sugar and cream with some fresh Washington apples. Even then it was a just a nod in his direction. Her mouth
was visibly bulging with waffles, but that hadn't stopped her before.
"Jersey," Crowning smiled at the big battleship but stopped before he got close. There was a time when the thought the amazonian warship was an impenetrable, unstoppable force. That was before he learned how terribly fragile she was anywhere
but on the waves.
"Doc," Jersey wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Her chipmunked cheeks squished in a smile that forced her into squints.
Crowning chuckled to himself. He did love her. Maybe not as… reverently as he had before. Maybe not even romantically anymore. But the battleship was more than a ship given form. She was funny, and brash, and sometimes even sweet. She had a
soul. She deserved to be protected and cherished, even as she protected everyone else. "You're up early."
"Fuch yuh," Jersey swallowed.
"It's barely seven."
"I repeat myself," Jersey flipped her middle finger and skewered a pile of waffles with her fork. "Actually, this is still my dinner."
"Mmm?" Crowning cocked an eyebrow, still standing a close but respectful distance away.
"I got in—" Jersey blinked. "Doc, siddown. I don't have fucking cooties or shit."
Crowning chuckled and did as he was asked. "Rabies perhaps?"
"I—" Jersey's eyes went wide as the waffles she was wolfing down. Her free hand clapped to her head so quickly the ringing sound of metal-on-metal chimed through the mostly-empty mess hall. "Oh fuck," she cursed, frantically shoving one of her uncontrollable little hair tufts back under her hat. "You saw
nothing."
Crowning made a show of zipping his mouth shut. Of course,
he thought the little tufts looked adorable.
"Anyway," Jersey said with a rather sharp crack to her rich contralto. "Uh, I got in really damn early this morning. I was real fucking hungry, so I had to eat before I could crash." She took another huge bite. "Akually—" she swallowed just enough to speak. "Uh,
actually, I had to read Shina down before I could eat. Poor girl was beat, but still wanted a bedtime story."
"And you put off dinner for that?" said Crowning. Somehow it didn't suprise him, although he was sure her choice of bedtime story might.
"Hell yeah," said Jersey, "Girl's precious as
fuck when she gets tired. Also, strong as hell. She kinda commandeered Hoel as a teddy bear."
"I'm sure Hoel didn't mind," said Crowning.
"She had no choice in the matter," said Jersey pointedly.
Crowning chuckled, and for a few minutes the two ate in silence. Or rather, they ate in silence accompanied by the syrupy slurping sounds of an Iowa-class battleship devouring waffles with all the gluttony of a quarter-million turbine-driven horses.
"I meant what I said, by the way," said Jersey at last.
"Hmm?"
"I…" Jersey blushed and muttered something under her breath. The only words Crowning caught were 'limey cunt.' "I don't have cooties."
"I figured as much," chuckled Crowning, unsure of where the Iowa was going.
"I mean…" Jersey shuffled awkwardly on her bench. "I'm horny as goddamn fuck all the time, and I haven't been laid fucking
once since I got back. I'm fucking
desperate to get some goddamn action 'tween my shafts, okay?"
Crowning almost choked on his oatmeal. "Um…"
"Look," Jersey put one of her monstrously strong hands on his. "I know we're not a thing anymore. And if you want to say no, I won't hold it against you in the least. I'm… sure I can find
someonewho wants some of this amazing American Ass." The battleship paused for a moment. "That sounded
really fucking arrogant, didn't it?"
Crowning shrugged in the affirmative. To tell the truth, it barely even registered compared to her usual air of playfully arrogant smugness.
"Anyway," Jersey shook her head. "Just… after all the shit we've been through— the shit
Iput you through, figured I should at least
offer. Okay now I'm done."
Crowning steepled his fingers for a moment. He'd be lying if he said he didn't have any interest in taking the battleship to bed. He'd be surprised if there was any straight man who
wouldn't want to see the Iowa's magnificent figure in its raw, unclothed beauty. She was, quite objectively,
gorgeous.
But she was also his friend. And she was, in her own words, desprate. To take advantage of that… it just wasn't right. And he wasn't just any straight man. "No. Jersey, I… no."
For a moment Jersey was silent. Then she breathed a huge sigh of relief and smiled. "Okay, I… Yeah. Okay. I didn't really expect… I just had to ask, you know?"
Crowning nodded, idly thinking back to the days where grading a particularly interesting paper would be the most exciting point of his day.
"It's 'cause you're into Kirishima, isn't it?" said Jersey.
"What?" Crowning blinked. "No."
Jersey narrowed those terrifyingly blue eyes of hers. "No it's not because of Kirishima?" she asked. "Or no, you're not into Kirishima?"
"No, it's—" Crowning coughed, caught off guard. "Kirishima and I are just friends."
"Fucking
why though?" asked Jersey. "Have you seen her ass in that miniskirt? Mini-dess is hot as
shit."
"Jersey, we—"
"Deny it," said Jersey. "Fucking
deny it, bitch."
Crowning closed his mouth.
"That's what I thought," said Jersey with a smirk. "Besides, she's a total fucking nerd and she's got the short-hair/glasses thing…" the battleship trailed off with a whistle.
Crowning had to agree with her on that one, although he at least kept it to himself.
"It's a miracle you haven't railed the kessen out of her kantai yet," said Jersey, giggling at her own stupid joke. "Look, if you want I could go see if she's interested."
"Jersey, you really don't have to—"
"No." Jersey planted a finger on his nose and pushed him back into his seat. "When you've got the libido of a battleship, not getting properly fucked
sucks. I have fucking
sufferedfor months because of this shit.
No one else."
"I have no choice in this, do I?" said Crowning.
"Actually, yeah," said Jersey. "Look me square in the eye and tell me you don't wanna bang the littlest Konogu."
"I…" Crowning locked eyes with the Iowa's icy glare. "I… you're right."
"HA!" Jersey cackled.
"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"
"Briefly," said Jersey. "But then you'll be too deep in inexplicably British-themed heaven to care."
—|—|—
Meanwhile on the Gulf Coast, it was three AM and battlecruiser Saratoga was slowly melting into bedding. Well, maybe not really, but that's what it felt like. She'd stripped every piece of clothing—save for a thick black scrunchy valiantly struggling to keep her bushy ponytail under control and her little red neckerchief—but it hadn't really helped. Every inch of the cruiser's sunkissed skin was coated with a thick film of sweat, and she could barely tell where her body ended and the muggy Louisiana air began.
She'd experienced heat before. She'd served in the subtropical waters of the Pacific, and even had two brief but intimate encounters with man-made suns that'd left her with a permanent but
slightly uneven tan. But she'd never experienced such an all-encompassing, sweat-inducing, totally
draining heat like this.
Maybe it was because all those other times she hadn't had a body. Or… she
had, but it'd been made of steel instead of shapely girl. Maybe it was related to crossroads. The radiation had changed her somehow, made her less tolerant to heat. Maybe it even made
hera heater, her tummy
had become prime destroyer-cuddling territory recently.
Or maybe it was just some deep Cajun magic in the muggy Louisiana air that sapped her turbo-electric energy. Whatever the cause, Sara was too exuasted to do anything but stare at the impassively glowing lights of her bedside clock. Even falling asleep was too much effort for the overheating warship to manage.
Hey! It was three-oh-one now!
Sara used that momentous occasion as justification to roll onto her back. Her breasts audibly peeled from the sweat-soaked sheet she'd been laying on, but it was nice to get some airflow over her massive stack, even that air
was brutally hot.
"Oh my god," Sara forced a wet breath through her throat. It was
so hot, and she knew she wasn't going to get any sleep tonight. She was starting to think it wasn't worth trying in the first place.
Of course… her shower was just down the hall…
The former carrier closed her eyes. Just thinking about nice cool water splashing against her skin made her smile. One of the greatest pleasures of being a girl was taking nice cool showers.
Finally, Sara found the energy to pull herself to her feet. Her shower caddy—a bucket in the shape of her old hull with a handle where her stack had been, courtesy of Alaska and Atago—was just across the room, and finding a clean towel only took a moment.
Sara hastily tucked her towel around herself and padded down the hall to the showers. Everyone else was either on patrol or asleep at this hour, so she'd have the whole complex to herself. She picked her favorite stall, and turned the water as cold as it could get.
"O-oh~" A moan of pure ecstatic bliss crossed her lips as sweat was blasted aside by cool, clean water with just a hint of salt. She slowly slid to her knees and closed her eyes, letting the water pound down against her head and run down her face in soothing rivers.
Mmm… showers were
definitely the best part about being a girl.
Sara stayed in the shower for almost an hour before her stomach started to rumble. As a capital ship, she was in a constant state of being kinda hungry. But this was different, a deep rumbling need in her tummy demanding to be sated. Luckily, Sara was based in Louisiana, and those Cajuns knew things about food that mere mortals could only dream of.
The battle-cruiser shut off the water and quickly dried herself off. She was hungry, but it wouldn't do to go prancing around the mess naked like she was fresh off the slip, so she made a detour to her room first.
It was too hot too wear much, so she settled on an airy white sundress. No need for a bra, even if she could've tolerated that much fabric on her bare skin in this heat, her long sixteens were study enough to keep their shape without external support.
After adjusting her neckerchief until it was
just so, Sara took off for the mess hall. Breakfast proper hadn't been served yet, but there was a constant buffet area set up for hungry shipgirls just getting back from patrol, so Sara was able to build herself a hearty pre-breakfast of bacon, sausage, biscuits, corn bread, pancakes, and lots of blueberries.
But when Sara went to find a table, something caught her eye. There was a small gaming lounge in the corner of the mess. It'd started when Alaska smuggled in Cameron's gamecube so she could play Mario Cart with him. But over time, more and more systems and games had been left for bored shipgirls to play with.
Of course, the mere existence of the gaming area wasn't enough to catch her attention. But someone had left one of the televisions on. A beautiful blue sky speckled with clouds scrolled by to the sound of pleasingly baroque strings while a banner proudly displayed "Skies of Arcadia." Below that, a pulsing message invited her to 'press play.'
"Hmm," Sara munched on a hunk of cornbread. "Don't mind if I do." It took her a moment to find the right controller, but once she did she was hooked. She'd been so focused on learning how to be a surface warship, she'd forgotten the sheer joy of flying. And not just flying, but being a
pirate of the air!
Sara was so enthralled, she almost forgot to eat. She
did forget to keep track of time. She was still sitting cross-legged in front of the TV, eyes glued to her characters when Alaska walked in with a yawn.
The large cruiser was dressed in her pajamas with her stuffed Washington plushie tucked under her arm. Under normal circumstances, she'd have made a direct course to the cereal and poured herself a bowl of fruity pebbles before the destroyers got to it and broke the machine. But she stopped when she noticed what the busty former-carrier was doing.
With a tiny smile, Alaska fished a notebook out of her pocket and scribbled something in it. A notebook labeled in her trademark messy printing 'Operation: Get Mom Laid."