"Oi! wake up, wouldn't you? Your sister's looking for you."
A stern yet motherly voice woke Zuikaku from her slumber. Even before her eyes were fully opened, Zuikaku recognized it as belonging to the experimental ship Yuubari. Groggy and confused from the sight of unfamiliar ceiling, Zuikaku didn't immediately wake up, but stayed in her awkward sleeping position, on the bed perpendicular to the intended posture, for half a minute before asking;
"Damn, how long was I asleep?"
"Slightly more than 12 hours, give or take." Another voice, Zuikaku recognized as Enterprise's, answered. "Good morning, Crane."
"Mmph, morning."
Zuikaku wasn't exactly feeling her best at that moment. 12 hours sleep meant she didn't take her bath, which felt absolutely contrarian to her identity as a Japanese. To put it into a description of how she was feeling at the time, imagine going through an entire day of military boot camp through salted mud and then going straight to bed. It felt...sticky.
Her awkward sleeping position also did not benefit her chance of not being a hunchback when she grows older. That is, if kanmusu could age in the first place. The research division was still looking into that, alongside little tidbits like if they could get pregnant or not. Zuikaku had heard that they're making great progress on the latter, using volunteer kanmusu and a system called 'provisional marriage', though it hadn't been introduced to her base yet so Zuikaku didn't know exactly how that worked.
"Your sister was really worried when you didn't come back to your room by late evening. She raised quite a fuss." Zuikaku could hear the irritation in Yuubari's voice, even when her own eyes refusing to stay opened. "Demanding a search party and everything. Really, you should apologize to her."
The feeling of guilt weighed her down even more, and now Zuikaku found it even harder to get off from the bed.
"Sorry, didn't know what happened. Must've been more tired than I thought."
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." Zuikaku could hear Yuubari sniffing the air. "and I would suggest doing it while you're not smelling like a spoilt meat."
"Well, to be fair to her a lot of things happened yesterday." defended Enterprise.
"Thanks, E."
"You're welcome, Crane."
When Zuikaku finally managed to open her eyes long enough, she saw Yuubari's green haired head tilting.
"Wait a minute...Crane? E? you two were already that close?"
"Nah." Zuikaku groaned. "We both just found it easier...phonetically."
"Yeah, our names are just not that easy to pronounce in our respective tongue."
If Yuubari was about to comment on that fact, she held it back. Zuikaku wondered if Enterprise was aware of the cultural significance of using people's first names or nicknames in Japan. Well, if she did then she probably wouldn't care, based on Zuikaku's assessment of her personality thus far.
"In any case, you should take a bath first. You stench." Yuubari prompted.
"Really?I don't think she smells that bad." commented Enterprise, sniffing the air. "In fact, I actually kind of like her smell."
That one comment jump-started Zuikaku's consciousness. Her sleepiness immediately went away. But still, for some reason, she decided not to immediately wake up, but instead to grab a pillow and hide her face under it.
"She kinda smells of teak. I like it."
Did she even realize how weird that sounded?
"Really? She just smells of sweat to me."
When Zuikaku was sure her face was not visibly blushing, she removed the pillow from her face and rise into a seated position, with not little amount of creaking from her joints.
"I think I'm just going to take my bath." she declared, trying to sound as calm as possible.
"That would be for the best, yes. Talking about bath..." Yuubari switched her attention towards Enterprise. "You sure you will be okay by yourself? Don't need help with re-bandaging and other stuff?"
"No, I'll be fine. Not my first time doing first aid."
It took a while for Zuikaku to understand what the two ships were talking about until she noticed the small basin on the floor filled with steaming water and a towel wipe submerged at the bottom of it. Also, scattered around the foot of Enterprise's bed there were a bunch of boxes labeled as medical supplies. There was also a portable curtain tucked near the far side of the bed.
"Just spread the green salve thinly across the burns, and the clear one on the bruises. Don't use too much. And if any of your wounds open again don't hesitate to call for help. It's a bit hard to see, but there are actually buzzers near the head of all the beds here."
"Found it." Confirmed enterprise after rummaging slightly around the top side of her bed.
"If you need some privacy just use the curtain. Your spare clothes are in that bag over there.". Yuubari pointed at a bag located amongst the scattered medical containers.
"Got it. Thanks." Said Enterprise with a polite smile.
"Well, then, if we're done here," proclaimed Yuubari while puffing her chest slightly. "I have other things to do."
Yuubari took one step towards the door before she immediately stopped.
"Oh right. One more thing. Zuikaku?"
"What?"
"You might want to just take a quick bath, a shower, maybe. Overheard from Ooyodo that the admiral might be calling for you soon."
Zuikaku raised an eyebrow, and she noticed that Enterprise did, too.
"Why?" Zuikaku asked.
"Well, the submarines had just come back from their scouting mission an hour ago, and apparently they brought good news."
Zuikaku took a quick glance at Enterprise, and as expected, the American carrier barely able to hide her smile.
"I also have noticed that logistic has been awfully busy. Another mission might be imminent, so you probably want to hurry."
"I see." Zuikaku nodded. "Thanks for the info."
"You're welcome. Now, I really need to go."
And with that, Yuubari hauled herself out of the dry dock, leaving Zuikaku and Enterprise alone.
"Thank goodness, huh?" Zuikaku smiled at Enterprise.
"Y...yeah."
Zuikaku noticed that Enterprise was looking down, once again hiding her red eyes under her bang.
"Aww, please don't cry." Zuikaku teased.
"W...what?" Enterprise stuttered, clearly holding back a sob. "I'm not..." Enterprise raised a hand to her face and started wiping her eyes.
"Hey, it's okay." Placated Zuikaku. "Take your time. Anyway, I really need to take a bath. I feel like a slug."
Zuikaku was about to stand up when Enterprise grabbed her by the sleeve. Zuikaku turned back, and was suddenly faced with a pair of big, tearful red eyes looking up at her from below.
"Hey, Crane, if you're going to the admiral's office, could I come with you too?" Requested Enterprise with a soft voice, almost like a child begging their parent for toys.
"I..." Zuikaku mulled. "I don't know. I'm sure the admiral would prefer for you to just sleep and heal up."
"I'm fine. And I need to know what's going on, or the tension is going to drive me crazy." Enterprise's voice went higher an octave, now she really sounded like a child. "Please?"
Enterprise expression turned into something that really should only be allowed for a destroyer.
"I...Okay."
Zuikaku found herself agreeing almost on reflex. Using that kind of expression on her was just cheating, dammit!
"But don't push yourself, alright?"
"Of course."
Enterprise finally let go of Zuikaku's sleeve. Her face seemed to have calmed down a little.
"Well, then I guess I should prepare too."
"Prepare? Prepare for whaa..."
Zuikaku last word was elongated as her tongue suddenly froze in her mouth.
Because...well, there's no roundabout way to say it, but to just state that Enterprise had just taken her top off.
Enterprise still had her bandages covering most of her torso, so by any means, Zuikaku shouldn't be as flustered as she was.
But she was.
"I'm going to take my bath quickly. I still have to re-wrap my bandages." stated Enterprise as she started tugging on her bandages.
"I...wha...?" Zuikaku froze up. Her entire fairy crew froze up. There's no doctrine known to her to deal with this particular situation.
"Hmm? Crane? You okay? You didn't catch a cold, did you? Last night was rather chilly."
Enterprise leaned forward and grabbed Zuikaku by the hand.
"Hmm. You're pretty warm. Maybe you need a check up."
Zuikaku's fairy captain was the first to wake up from her daze, who immediately karate-chopped the helmsman, which bitch-slapped the speed crank so hard backwards that the officer in charge of the engine room drop-kicked the chief engineer, who elbow-dropped the head stoker to set the engine to IMMEDIATE RETREAT.
"Right... I might do that." said Zuikaku, as calm as possible when her heart was about to spectacularly blow up.
As soon as Enterprise let go of her hand, Zuikaku immediately made an 180-degree turn, and head to the exit.
"See you later, E." Said Zuikaku, merely on reflex politeness.
"Later, Crane." Enterprise might had waved, but Zuikaku didn't plan to stick around to look.
The last thing Zuikaku saw before she slammed the door was Enterprise reaching towards the portable curtain.
You should've done that the first time, you silly carrier!