I sat in the dark room, silently like a spider. Everyone else had gone to sleep, so they would be ready for this morning. "I am bored out of my damn mind," I said aloud, quietly, as not to wake the girls.

Hakone was snuggled in-between Anne and Diane on the bed. The Heavy Cruiser, for a change, was absolutely dwarfed by the two as they wrapped their arms around her from either side, snoring quietly.

I wonder if anyone else is awake?

I got up from my chair, and silently tip-toed my way up to the Kanmusu's shared room, I opened the door.

Chitose was asleep, curled around her pillow as she mumbled to herself, Lao was in the bed across from her, tossing and turning somewhat violently.

"Chiyoda, stop it tickles..."

I turned to look at Chitose again, as the Tender giggled stupidly to herself, clutching the pillow against her chest tighter.

"Stop... ganging up on me." She pouted, honestly pouted in her sleep.

"I guess they're dead to the world, too, might as well see if-" my thoughts were cut off as Lao woke up with a gasp, jerking up to sit ramrod straight in her bed. She just breathed for a minute, heavy breaths filling the room.

"...You alright?"

The Frigate froze as she noticed me in the room. "W-Wha? Georgia?" She lowered her voice as Chitose turned in her bed, "What the hell are you doing in here?!"

I shrugged as I made my way over to the foot of her bed, "Can't sleep, literally unable to. So I thought I'd see if anyone else was awake to talk to."

Lao had scooted back on her bed till her back touched the headrest. "W-Well I was just going to get up anyway, I... wasn't having a good rest regardless."

"Bad dreams?"

Lao nodded hesitantly, "Yeah, now step back, would you? Over the foot of my bed like that you look like a sleep-paralysis demon."

I blinked as I stepped back, "I'm not that scary."

"Clearly you haven't looked at yourself in the mirror. You're a Submarine that's as large as most Cruisers."

"But I have little noodle arms! I barely come up to your chin!"

"That's your humanoid form though! I'm talking about your ship form!"

We both winced, as Chitose tossed in her bed again, both of us freezing until she let out another soft snore.

"...B-But that's forbidden love.."

I gestured towards the door, Lao nodded.

...

Lao gulped down a glass of water from the bathroom greedily as I sat back down.

"Isn't drinking water a big nono for ships?" I asked quizzically.

Lao looked at me, then to the glass in her hands, before she shrugged, "Only if it goes down the wrong hole."

Fair enough, I nodded the point to her as she sat down across from me, "Anyway, on that whole 'ship-form' thing, yeah I can't see those."

"What? But everyone can! Well, except humans of course."

I shrugged, "To me, you look like a blond girl with metal bits stuck on, and when I look inside other ships, I see machinery in spaces they shouldn't be able to fit in."

"Inside other- what?"

"You think I stitched Anne together without having to look into some of the stumps?"

Lao shuddered, "Urg, you're not doing anything to disprove the paralysis monster theory, saying things like that."

"Well you're moving, so I'm obviously not a paralysis monster." I wittily retorted.

"Yeah, it's worse, you're one that doesn't go away with the paralysis."

I snorted, and we fell into a contented silence. It couldn't last long, obviously, and I opened my fat mouth.

"So, what kinda nightmares you having?"

She looked sharply at me, "The 'none of your damn business' kind."

I raised my hands in surrender, "Sheesh, just asking, you were rolling around like something was bothering you."

"You could say that, yeah." Lao leaned back, letting a long breath out. "I-I'm scared of fire, alright?"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, back when we were retreating from Can Tho, about a year back. I was with the rearguard when we were hit by MK-47's" She glanced at my confused face, "Napalm, launched by aircraft that somehow managed to get through my amazing screen ofthree god-damn bi-planes."

I winced, "That must have smarted."

Lao scoffed, "I got coated in it, didn't really feel the heat, but felt like I was being smothered, couldn't breathe." She sucked in a shaky breath, "I had to wipe the jelly out of my eyes to even see, and damn if I wish I hadint. There were twenty-three men that had been close enough to be in the blast radius with me."

I swallowed, "Fuck." I said succinctly.

"Yeah, fuck."

"...So how'd you get out?"

Lao looked at me, seeming to relax a little, "How do you think? I ran, I ran till I was out of the blast zone, then kept running like a human-torch till I found the nearest dirt pile to roll around in to wipe off the napalm and smother it. I almost asphyxiated before I managed it." She took another gulp of water from her glass, "So yeah, I dream about it sometimes."

I got up and started towards her.

Pham narrowed her eyes at me, leaning back a bit, "What are you doing?"

I put out my arms, "Hug."

"Hey, you stay the heck away from me with your hugs of death, I know what those teeth are capable of."

"Come oooon! You just poured your heart out and it was so freakin' sad I HAVE to hug you!" I caught up to her in a small burst of speed as she stumbled back, wrapping my arms around her.

"Noo! Get away!" She tried to pry me off with her piddly 3,000'ish tonnes of displacement.

My 17,000ish tonnes laughed at her efforts, "Nope! You did this to yourself! Accept your fate!" I hugged harder-

The door to the Kanmusu's shared room opened, and a bleary-eyed Chitose stumbled out, we froze in our struggle, arms twined together in what probably looked like an embrace.

Chitose walked right past us, heading towards the bathroom with nary a glance in our direction until she reached for the door handle, she stopped in the doorway, before looking back. Seeing us locked together, she simply rubbed at her eyes with a yawn.

"Hauaaaam! Must still be dreaming..."

She went into the bathroom and closed the door.