Knight of Stripes Chapter 2, an azur lane/碧蓝航线 fanfic

Part two – I'm a girl!

"Yeah, I know you are! But why are you here, like right now on a Sunday?" he says as I toss him a tea towel.

I try to avoid looking as he uses it to cover himself, my cheeks still hot and I say to him, "Oh so you know that I'm a girl, so why do you keep calling me bro?"

"That's not the point, right now why are you here?" he says again.

I point the spatula at him as I say, "So you know I'm a girl and you had the nerve to ask me about asking out a girl that is just like me?" He blinks at me a couple of times like he's trying to figure out what I'm talking about. I roll my eyes and add, "Alright, Baltimore isn't just like me, she has bigger boobs, brown hair, and yellow eyes. But we're both really into sports, we both really like helping others, and we're both kind of tomboy-ish, so, like, what the hell?"

He seems to find his voice as he asks, "What's got your panties in a bunch over this?"

I grip the spatula a little tighter as I take a step forward as I say to him, "Did you even notice that I did my hair, put on makeup, and painted my toes?" I see his cheeks get a little red and he avoids looking at me.

I move a little closer, putting down the spatula on the table as I bend forward a little place my hands on my bust as I lift it up a little to make it more clear I have something as I continue, "Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe I'd think you were going to asking me out?"

"Why the hell would I do that? You're like my best friend, almost like a little sister." He says.

I feel like I got punched in the gut. My eyes start to water and I start to run, pushing past him and out of his home. I don't know how long or how far I ran before I just fell to my knees on the beach. I lean forward and let the tears fall to the sand as I berate myself, "I'm so stupid. I just blew up my friendship with him because I just had to say something."

After a few minutes, I sit on my stern, folding my hands in my lap I look up at the sky before I rub my eyes with the back of my hands. That was when it sunk in that I don't have my cape or phone; I left them at his place. I don't want to go back there right now, but I know he'll take them into the office on Monday and I pick them up there, I just can't deal with him right now. After a while, I get myself up and walk home only to lock myself in my room and spend the rest of the day feeling sorry for myself in bed.

XXXX

On Monday I waited till my sisters headed off for their tasks for the day before I left my room and made my way to the command center. Once I got to the secretary's office I open the door and smile at Brooklyn who's working away behind the computer. She looks over to me and smiles before opening her desk drawer and taking out my cape and phone. I watch as she puts them on the desk as she says, "I can't believe you forgot these at the Commander's quarters, you must've been in a rush this morning."

I cross the room and put on my cape as I look off to the side and say, "I forgot them there yesterday actually."

"So you didn't spend the night? I would've figured you two to be close enough for that by now." She says to me as she leaned back in her chair.

I hide my mouth under my collar as I mumble, "We're not like that."

She gives me a sideways look as she says, "Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night."

My right fist balls as I say to her, "It's the truth, he's interested in Baltimore, not me! I'm like a little sister!"

Brooklyn looks stunned by that, after a moment she says to me, "What?"

I sigh and take a seat across from her and fill her in on what went down this weekend, as I got to how things shook out on Sunday morning, I see her lips compress before she says, "I know he's kind of dumb sometimes, but I think a lot of us thought you two were an item."

I find myself wiping my eyes again as I tell her, "After so long, I thought he'd be asking me, ya know? Only for him to ask me about someone that is so much like me and act surprised when I more or less tell him I'm interested."

She nods as she says, "It hurts. The humans often forget we've got feelings too."

I get the feeling she's talking about something else for a minute, so I ask her, "You know something about it?"

She nods and looks out the window before she sighs and tells me, "A couple of years ago, I was involved with a commander on the east coast. We were really moving towards something, we were more or less living together, and we'd tell each other that we loved each other. But then things happened and he got posted to the Sardegna Empire to be a representative from the Eagle Union to try and build bridges with them after the war. And he couldn't bring me with him, so to give him the freedom to grow on that assignment," She paused and I see a tear roll down her cheek, "I broke up with him."

I watch as she wipes her eyes before she looks back at me and smiles and says to me, "But the Commander isn't going anywhere right now, so give me a chance to talk to him, alright?"

I lean over and hug Brooklyn as I say to her, "Thanks Brooklyn, and I'm sorry to hear about your love life."

She squeezes me back and says to me, "It's alright, it was my choice and I know I'll find someone new, eventually."

I let go of her and check my phone to see that the battery is dead as I say to her, "Thanks again Brooklyn, I'll catch up with you later."

Tucking my phone into a pocket on my skirt I head off to grab some break… lunch I guess by this point in time.

XXXX

After lunch, I was laying out on the grass on the cliff that overlooks the harbor. I really like Monday's lunch special, Polish Boys. There is just something about the kielbasa sausage that's been grilled then topped with coleslaw, fries, and barbeque sauce all on a soft bun… mmm!

Though I'll admit it was a little difficult to look at the sausage at first, I couldn't help but think about what I saw yesterday morning. I put a hand on my belly and sigh out happily at the full feeling as I try to put that image out of my mind.

After a while, I hear someone sit down beside me and I open an eye to see who it is. As soon as I see her hair, I know who it is. She puts her arms out behind her to prop herself up as she says, "I said no. I told him it'd feel like I was the other woman or like I was trying to steal him from you."

I sit up and blink at her a few times as I say, "But he's not into me Baltimore, he made that very clear to me yesterday."

She shakes her head and smiles at me before saying, "I don't think he knows what he wants. I met him for dinner last night and he called me Cleve, a few times."

I sigh and flop back onto my back as I give a sad laugh before I tell her, "Yeah, well, I kind of blew up that friendship I had with him yesterday." I pause and roll onto my side to look out at the water as I add, "I didn't want to poison the friendship I've got with you over my feelings for him. So I had no choice either I had to blow things up or make a move first, seems like I blew it up while trying to make a move."

Baltimore starts to laugh before she says, "I stopped by the command center to drop off a report from one of the patrol fleets, but Brooklyn wasn't at her desk, but I could hear her taking a round out of him from his office."

I perk up a little as I ask, "Really?"

"Yeah, I could hear them yelling at one another through the door as I left the report on her desk." She says to me.

I sit back up at look at her and she gives me a warm smile as she says, "Anyways, I thought you should know that I turned him down. I'll talk to you later Cleve."

She gets off the grass and waves to me as she starts heading back down the hill, when she was out of sight I lay back down, a smile on my face and I'm a little worried that I feel good at the idea that she turned him down. For now, though, I'm going to lay here and enjoy the afternoon sun.

XXXX

By the time I got home, I noticed that my sisters were out again, a blessing in disguise; it means I didn't have to talk to them about the last two days and how things have been a world of suck. I plug my phone in to let it charge up and not ten seconds later it starts letting me know I've got a ton of notifications. I give my phone about half an hour to build up a charge before I take it and start going through the messages.

I find I've got a frown on my face as I see I've got seven messages from the Commander. They seem to be ranging between asking me WTF? And I know you're still here, I can hear your phone!

Jerk.

I flop backward onto my bed as I start to scroll through the images on my phone of me and the Commander. As I look at them I come across one that I can totally see how one could think we were a couple. It was just after a basketball game we won against the team from Naval Base San Diego, he's holding me in the air by my hips, looking at me, just me. Whereas I've got my hands on his and I'm smiling at him. I remember that Helena had sent me this a day or two after that game. As I look at the picture, I start to think about what was going on around that time and I think it was around that time was when I stopped looking at the Commander as just my best friend.

I feel a tear roll down from my eyes, so I scroll along and find another one of me and him, it was from Halloween last year, I had this goofy grim reaper outfit, the cape had big yellow stars on it. But what draws my attention is how I'm pressing myself against him, both arms around his neck and my head just under his chin, his hands on my hips again.

I scroll along quickly, and I keep finding pictures of me and the Commander, looking like we are more than friends. I put my phone down with a heavy sigh and roll to my side and my phone trills, repeatedly. When I roll over and pick it up, I see that it's the Commander, phoning me. I hit ignore, I really don't want to talk to him right now, I don't need more rejection right now. And it rings again, and again I hit ignore. I keep doing this for close to an hour before I finally pick up and say before I hang up, "Take the hint."

When it rings again I roll my eyes and pick up and he speaks first, "Just meet me at the gym."

XXXX

When I get to the gym, I see him sitting on the bench outside; he's in shorts and a tank top. Damn the warm weather here, he looks amazing, like always. I force a smile on my face as I come over to him and say, "Well, I'm here."

He doesn't look at me as he asks, "Can I see your phone?"

"Why?" I ask, holding onto my phone tightly.

"I want to see something, you can look at mine." He says holding out his phone towards me.

With a shrug, I hand him mine as I take his and ask, "What am I going to be looking for?"

"Just open it." He says as he unlocks my phone.

I open his phone and what I see is a picture of me, sitting at a little restaurant that was on the water, I was in a white top and blue shorts, I was leaning back over the chair with the stick from a Popsicle in my mouth. I remember that day, it was so hot, me and the Commander went into Pearl for a quick snack.

I swipe to the next picture and it's me again, smiling and winking at the camera, I was in that stage performance outfit pretending to be a drummer for a band I wanted to start, I just couldn't find anyone on base to join. That was one of the few times I wore a push-up bra to make myself look bigger up top. And those shorts, man were they tight, I was surprised I was even able to get them on or off.

I go to a third picture and it's me again, in a bikini top that's colored to look like the Eagle Union flag, I've got a baseball cap on with blue jean shorts and a skateboard. In it, I'm standing beside the Commander and he's got his own board in one hand and his other hand is on my hip.

I bite my lower lip and ask, "So why am I looking at pictures of me?"

He doesn't answer, rather I see that he's looking at that picture from the basketball game, I can see it on his face. It's hitting him now, that maybe we've been more than friends for a while now, that's when he says, "Brooklyn made me look at the pictures on my phone, and I saw that they were all of you or you and me." He paused before flipping to the one of me in the costume before he continues, "She said to me, that I wouldn't have just pictures like these if we were just friends."

I look back to the phone and swipe again to see a picture of me from a couple of weeks ago, I was at his place for movie night, I had a red top on with black shorts and I was drinking some cola from the can. It looks super intimate, but not in a sexual way, just something that I'd only let him see.

I close my eyes and hand his phone back to him as I say, "Yeah, well from what I've been hearing almost everyone on base thought we were a couple."

"Did you think that?" he asks me as he moves to more pictures of the two of us that suggests we are a whole lot closer.

"No," I start to say before I whisper, "but I kind of wanted to be."

He hands me my phone back as he takes his and pushes off of the bench and says, "Can I think on this?"

"Think on it?" I say as I move over to him and take his arm as I say it again, "Think on it!?"

He turns to look at me and my mouth just keeps running, "No one understands me like you do. I tell you things that I don't even tell my sisters! I know everything about you! When Columbia asked me questions that I knew the answers to, she said it was less like we were dating and more like we… we…"

"We're married?" he says to me.

I feel my cheeks get hot.

He rubs the back of his head as he says, "Brooklyn said the same thing to me today when she was yelling at me for being stupid."

I look off to the side as I mumble out, "You're the first person I think of when I roll out of bed and the last one I think about when I turn out the lights."

"If it was anyone but you, I wouldn't have been that embarrassed to be seen ass naked in my kitchen." He says to me, bringing my attention back to him. When my eyes were on him he looked me right in the eyes as he asked, "What do we do about this?"

"I don't know!" I say to him, my cheeks getting redder as I picture him naked again.

"That's why I need to think on this, Cleve. I don't know what to do either!" he says, pushing his arm to the side making me step closer.

The forward motion made me press against him, we were so close like this. I felt my body get up on the balls of my feet as my free hand touched the side of his face. My head tilted to the side on its own as his tilted to the other side, his lips touched mine and my mind went blank.

During the kiss, I felt his hands move to my hips and he lifted me off the ground, out of instinct I locked my legs around his waist. As soon as I had done that, his hands moved to my stern and he started to walk forwards, the kiss getting deeper by the minute. As soon as I felt my back go against the wall of the gym, one of his hands left my stern and went under my top to start caressing me, I broke the kiss and let out a sound of pleasure before I panted out, "You can't do this kind of stuff in public, Commander…"

"Sam. Call me Sam." He hoarsely whispers in my ear.

He keeps it up under my top and I moan out his name before I push his hand off of my bust. I then wrap my arms around his neck and look over his shoulders in both directions before I whisper to him, "Let me down and maybe we should go to your place to continue this?"

He sighs and lets me down as he says, "Fine."

XXXX

A/N: I know a short chapter 2, but it gets them where I want them to be.