When Warspite stepped into the waiting room, and problem paused at the scene she found inside. Then she sighed, perhaps she should have expected something like this. Nagato was laid out across the couch, and Ark Royal was laid on top of her. Thankfully, they were both still fully dressed.
Ark Royal rose to her feet completely non-nonchalantly, as though Warspite had not just caught her en flagranté. Nagato also sprung to her feet a second later, her face flushed, and her eyes wide.
"T-This is..." she stuttered.
She chose to ignore Nagato's embarrasment, to focus on her old friend.
"Ark," she began. "Working hard I see."
"Merely striving to solidify international relations," Ark replied.
"Of course."
"May I help you with something?" Ark asked.
"I was just wondering if I could see the admiral?" Warspite answered.
The smirk that crossed Ark's face was not reassuring.
"Hoping for a taste of home?" she asked.
Warspite narrowed her eyes.
"I'm afraid my tastes have grown distinctly more … exotic," she replied.
Ark raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Instead she simply walked over to her desk, and pressed the button on the intercom.
"HMS Warspite is here to see you, admiral," she said, before turning back to Warspite. "Go on through."
Warspite took her deep breath to steady her nerves, before she gripped the handle of the door, and stepped across the threshold. The admiral was not behind his desk, he was standing beside it. She felt somewhat nostalgic at the sight of him, but it soon passed, to be a replaced with anger. It wasn't a burning anger, but a smouldering, creeping one.
"Warspite," he said, walking over to her.
"James," she replied.
The urge was to slap him across the face was strong, but she restrained herself. She may need to be a bit more diplomatic here.
"It's good to see you again," he said.
"Likewise," she replied, even thought it was anything but.
For a moment those cold, blue eyes bored into her, and she had to force herself to remember that whatever else he was, he was still a skilled intelligence officer; lies and deceit were his speciality.
"Yet you don't look too pleased," he said, eventually.
"Oh my," she replied. "Was I that obvious?"
"No," he answered. "I can just tell when a woman's pleased to see me."
He smiled, and once again she felt the desire to slap him.
"Drink?" he asked, and simultaneously pointing to a chair."
"No thank you," she said, and remained standing. "I shan't be staying that long."
"So I take it that you are not here to get reacquainted?"
She frowned, she knew better than to take that at face value.
"I'm afraid I've learned my lesson there," she said. "Being your acquaintance is dangerous, in more ways than one."
"Well, you always were an intelligent woman," he replied.
"Flattery will get you nowhere this time, James," she said.
"A shame," he said. "So why are you here?"
Warspite felt a brief moment of hesitation, which she quickly pushed aside. Half of her wished she had taken him up on that drink.
"It is about Kongou," she said.
"I believe I have already met her," he said.
Her stomach twisted a little just from hearing that.
"I would ask that you not do your usual thing with her," she said.
"And what is my usual thing?" he asked.
She withheld a sigh, she had almost forgotten just how infuriating he could be.
"James, please," she began. "She has suffered one heartbreak already recently."
There was silence, and the only thing she could hear was the ticking of the clock on the wall.
"Very magnanimous," he said eventually. "Are you sure you don't have some sort of ulterior motive?"
She almost squirmed under his gaze. It was true that she held certain … romantic affections, for Kongou. However, she wouldn't act on them right now, not with Kongou in her current state.
"I'm serious, admiral," she said, turning towards the door. "Leave her be."
With that she left the room, Once the door had clicked softly shut behind her she released a sigh, and gently massaged her temples.
"Did it not go well?"
Warspite opened her eyes, and saw Ark Royal sitting at her desk. Nagato was nowhere to be seen.
"Passably well," she replied. "I made my point, I hope."
She stepped over the edge or Ark's desk.
"And what of you?" she asked. "Miss Nagato seems to have vanished."
Ark's eyes drifted down towards her desk. It took Warspite a moment to understand what she was implying, but when she did she simply rolled her eyes. She knew Nagato better than to assume she would do something like that, at least, not so soon after first meeting them.
Ark giggled, even though her tease had failed to get a rise out of her.
"She and I agreed to meet later for drinks," she answered.
"To further foster relations between our nations, I trust?" Warspite asked.
"Among other things."
"Try not to break too many hearts," Warspite advised. "You wouldn't want to develop a reputation so soon after getting here."
"I'll take it under advisement," Ark responded.
Warspite was halfway down the corridor to the mess hall when a sudden thought occurred to her, and a chill ran down her spine. She may need to keep an eye on Ark Royal too, just in case she decided to set her sights on Kongou.