Chapter 14: Study Session

The couples' server walked back to the kitchen entrance, meeting an employee she was friends with carrying a tray of appetizers to one of her assigned tables. "Kahori-san!" she grinned. You'll never guess what I just walked in on in Room One!"

"More juicy gossip, Masayo-san?" Kahori giggled. "Let's hear it!"

"The young lady in there was teasing her cute guy with her cigarette, and he tried hiding his... shall we say... rather substantial turn-on under a napkin. Something tells me they'll be having lots of fun tonight!"

"I've seen that before. And a lot more, too. There's this blonde girl I've served a few times this year, who always wears a red bow in her hair. You wouldn't believe the things she does to turn her guy on!"

"Hontou? Tell me all about it after you drop off those appetizers, ok?"

"Hai. But we'll need to talk somewhere private. If the manager overhears what I'm saying, I could lose my job!"

Masayo laughed as she entered the kitchen and stepped over to the coffee machine, "I love working here!"

. . . . .

At that same moment, at a low rectangular table inside the Hikawa Jinja in Tokyo's Minato ward, the blonde in question breathed a deep sigh as she reluctantly opened her chemistry textbook.

"Something wrong?" Rei asked the unhappy girl.

"I miss my love muffin so much."

"You'll see Taro again tomorrow. At least for a couple of hours." Seated at one end of the study table, Rei also flipped open her copy of the book. "You really should learn how to be more patient, Minako-chan."

"Hmph! That's easy for you to say, Rei-chan! You never have to wait even one day to be intimate with Yuuichirou. You're so lucky!"

"Patience is a virtue, Minako-chan" Ami murmured from her usual spot across the table from the blonde, where she sat close beside her fiancee.

"And you and your lover boy have it even better than she does, Ami-chan! Your mother always works late during the week, so you two have even more freedom than Rei and Yuuichirou do. Always acting like you're already married, staying up half the night making crazy-wild love-love together until the crows come home! While I'm stuck sleeping alone in a cold empty bed without my Taro to pleasure me. Life isn't fair!"

"Crows?" Makoto muttered.

"Minako-chan, what my Ryo-kun and I do together in my bedroom at night is a very personal matter!" the blue-haired girl blushed.

"Deal with it, Minako-chan" her future sister-in-law grumbled. "I miss my Yuji too, you know." The tall brunette mused, "I wonder how the week is going so far for our Ooarai friends?"

"I'll tell you exactly how it's going, Mako-chan. A lot better than it is for you and me tonight, that's for sure!" Minako glared evilly at her chemistry book. "What chapter are we on?"

"Twelve."

"Twelve?" Usagi blurted from behind a large half-empty bag of shrimp-flavored chips. "Ohh! Here I am, wasting my valuable time reading chapter eleven twice!"

"Baka" the miko snickered. "We covered that section last week. Have you been sitting in class in a coma again, Usagi-chan?"

"Shut up, Rei-chan!" Usagi scowled, "You know something? The thing I miss most of all about Sensha-do is that I can't hear you always picking on me over the noise of our tank's engine."

"And that's another thing!" Minako continued her rant. "I love driving my Panzer, but when we're in the other dimension, I can't be intimate with my Taro! Why can't I enjoy both pleasures?"

"Both at the same time, knowing you" Makoto chuckled. She laughed, "There's a scary thought!"

"I want to drive my Panzer hard during the day, and drive my stud muffin even harder at night! That isn't too much for a girl to ask for, is it?"

"Minako-chan, try to think of your situation this way" Ami offered. "You know you'll be with Taro every weekend, but Miho and our Anglerfish friends don't have that luxury with their boyfriends. The last day they'll share together here is bound to be a very sad occasion, knowing their school ships will only occasionally be in port at the same time."

"Hai. It will" the blonde admitted, her frown growing deeper. "I wish there was some way they could spend a lot more time together in their dimension." She nudged Usagi with her elbow. "That's where future you comes in, Usagi-chan. You have to bring our happy couples back to Nerima as often as you possibly can. We need to keep their passion alive!"

"I know. I'll do my best, Minako-chan." She grumbled, "Having the girls and boys on separate school ships is a really bad idea. Even worse than my Mamo-chan always being so tied up at his evil university!"

"That's a good name for it" Makoto grinned. "The Evil University of Tokyo. Sounds like something Beryl would be the headmistress of."

"Well it is!" the odango-haired girl whined. "I hate that horrible place!"

"We know" Rei glared at her. "You tell us that a million times a day."

"I wonder how long it'll be until we're back at Ooarai?" Makoto pondered. "I miss Sensha-do." The brunette caught everyone's attention when she added, "Miho told me something the other day that I forgot to mention. The people who run Japan's Sensha-do program are concerned that there isn't enough cross-training happening in any of the schools. So next time we're out practicing in our tanks, the commanders are supposed to experiment with changing up their crew assignments, giving everyone a chance to try something they've never done before."

Minako stared at her in stunned shock. "Nani? Forget it, Mako-chan! I'm our Panzer's official driver and I'm staying right there where I belong! In the driver's seat!"

"It's just temporary, Minako-chan. Don't get your hair in a knot."

Ami looked up from her textbook. "Have you decided on our new crew positions, Mako-chan? I must admit I thoroughly enjoy being our gunner, but it's always good to learn a new skill."

"I was thinking of giving you the radio operator's job, Ami-chan. You already did some driving our first week at Ooarai. Minako can be our loader, and I'd like to try my hand at gunnery."

Rei immediately shook her head. "That won't work, Mako-chan. In fact, it'll be a complete disaster!" She grumbled, "If I drive, Usagi will be our Panzer's commander. Which means she'll have us buried up to the top of our turret in a swamp, or hopelessly lost in a forest, or something even worse. And if I take your place..." the miko shuddered, "Odango atama over there will be our driver. At least we won't have to worry about losing a skirmish, because it'll take our Panzer the entire day just to arrive at the battlefield. Assuming we get there at all."

"Rei is right, Mako-chan!" Usagi gasped. "I don't know the first thing about how to change gears or use a clutch! And steering with those control sticks looks awfully complicated!"

"Does anyone have a better idea?" the brunette asked.

"I do!" Minako blurted, raising her hand. "Make me the temporary commander, Mako-chan!" She giggled, "I'll look so good standing in your turret thingy, with my beautiful long blonde hair flowing gracefully in the breeze as we charge into battle!"

"You?" Rei exclaimed. "Making important life-or-death decisions in the heat of combat? Great. Our tank will be knocked out of action in two minutes flat. On second thought, make that one minute. And if Usagi is driving our Panzer, we'll be crawling into battle, not charging. Like a turtle with three broken legs."

Ami giggled at Rei's gloomy prediction. "You may consider giving Usagi my job, Mako-chan."

"I already thought about that, Ami-chan. I don't think Miho will be too happy if Usagi panics when the shells start flying and she starts randomly blasting the other tanks on our side."

"Assuming she can hit them" Rei scoffed. "That's highly unlikely, unless they park directly in front of our gun. And she'll probably still miss."

"Be quiet, Miserable-chan! Ohh! You made me drop a chip on the floor! I can't eat that now!"

Makoto told her distraught odango-haired friend, "You're going to have to learn how to drive our Panzer, Usagi-chan." She shrugged, "If Minako can do it, it can't be that hard."

"Hmph!" Minako scowled. "I make driving a tank look easy because I'm so incredibly talented at it! Just like everything else I do!"

Yuuichirou pushed open the room's sliding door and grinned as he strolled up to the table, "Hino-sensei was kind enough to give me a five minute break, so I thought I'd check up on your study session. How's it going?"

"Not well, after what I just heard" his fiancee muttered. "Luna team is doomed."

. . . . .

In the midst of the other dancing couples in the living room, Nishizumi Miho pressed herself wantonly against her boyfriend's warm, well-toned body as they slowly swayed to the music. "It'll soon be our second night together, my darling" she purred in his ear. "I can't wait to make love with you again."

"Yukari and Ryoto can't wait either" Yusei chuckled. "They've already gone upstairs."

"Oh, that's right! Yukari has her room back tonight. I'm sure the other couples can work out their sofa sleeping arrangements without my help, so... um... shall we, lover?"

"Definitely, my sweet." Yusei smiled at the brown-haired girl in his embrace. "I thought you'd never ask."

. . . . .