Self Help Chapter 1, an azur lane/碧蓝航线 fanfic

Part One – DM's, Pizza, and a Late Night

My phone trilled for the hundredth time tonight, another DM requesting help with a personal problem. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to help, I mean it's not like we have anyone else around the base that can help with some of the mental or emotional problems we kansen can have or develop. I mean, boats with human-like bodies, thoughts, emotions, and all the sudden complexities of having human-like bodies, is it really any wonder why a lot of us develop some issues?

Speaking of issues, I've got my own share of them, I mean I look at my sister and I'm kind of envious that she can be so good at sports and avoid back pain by the end of the day. Like, I like tennis, but gosh when I try and play it, well if things get in motion, then things get in motion. Sometimes I'm surprised that we really are sisters at all. I go into the kitchenette we've got in our shared dorm, it's one of the perks to being stationed with a sister ship, we get roomed together. As I'm in the kitchenette I hear my phone trill, again. I guess I'm taking too long to get back to one of the five conversations I'm having tonight, still, at least Baltimore isn't here trying to get me out to some sporting event right now.

I grab a slice of pizza from the take out box and grab an oxi-cola before I flop back onto the couch and pick up my phone, and see that it's Intrepid, I sigh inwardly, she took the breakup so hard, even harder watching North Carolina head off with him in the end. Part of me is worried that she's spiraling again so I open the message in a hurry and breathe a sigh of relief; she's not spiraling this time, just a little sad. It'd been a hard year getting her back on her feet so to speak, she's probably my finest work in getting her back together.

We messaged back and forth for a while before she tells me she has to head off and try to do some star gazing, when she's gone I check my feed and see something that makes me sigh, my new base commander is running from one of the fox girls of the Sakura Empire, I keep warning him to stay away from them, but does he listen to me? No, no he doesn't…. I groan to myself and send him a DM to direct him to a safe spot I know about that the fox girls won't pester him, at least for a while. With that done I put my phone on charge since it's nearly out of battery power and I turn on the TV to see if there is anything good on before I let out a huge yawn. I watch for a little longer before my eyelids get heavy and I pass out on the couch.

XXXX

I'm woken up by something getting tossed onto my belly causing me to startle awake and groan. I start looking around the room and I see Baltimore standing there with her tennis bag on one shoulder and she says to me, "Come on, you said we'd play some tennis this morning."

I drop the object that landed on me to the floor to see it's my tennis bag and I ask, "Did you pack everything for me?"

"Yeah, even a towel so you can grab a shower after, we'll also grab a good breakfast on the way at the mess hall." She says to me.

Ugh, I don't feel like tennis today, might have something to do with a late night and a lot of pizza last night too. Besides I don't have a good sports bra to go along with this and my bikini top won't do squat to keep things in place, but I did promise Baltimore we'd play some today, ugh being the good little sister sucks sometimes.

I roll off the couch and grab my runners as I say, "Okay, but you don't get to judge what I have for breakfast."

"No promises, but you have something that will give you good energy today. And maybe not stay up so late." She says to me, pushing me out the door.

"It's not like I wanted to stay up late, I just ha-" I start to say before she says for me, "A lot to do on my help desk."

I sigh, it was true I was on that for a while last night, but I go a different route, "Alright, fair. But I also had to give Captain Nimitz directions to escape Amagi or was it, Akagi… Anyways and I got talking with Intrepid, she needed some help keeping her stuff together last night."

I watch as my sister takes a moment before she nods and asks, "How is she doing?"

I sigh and adjust the strap on my tennis bag as I say, "She's doing okay, getting back to her old self and doing things she likes, like star gazing."

Baltimore nods and looks over her shoulder at me as she says, "That's good, I felt kind of bad for her, it sucked how that shook out."

My older sister stops and brushes some hair behind an ear before she says to me, "I know I don't say it a lot, but you do a really good job helping others Brem, I just hope I don't need your help like that one day."

I smile at my sister and place an arm around her shoulders as I say, "And I hope you don't either. But I'm here if you need it."

Once we had gotten into the mess hall, the smell of bacon hit my nose and my belly made it clear that it wanted bacon. As I started to load up my plate with bacon, eggs, toast, and hash browns, my loving sister put down a grapefruit on my plate as she said, "You need fruit too."

I was about to protest, but she hadn't outwardly judge what I wanted to eat, but she had a point. I had eaten junk last night and I needed to start today off right, but ugh! I don't want grapefruit!

We just sat down and started to tuck into our meals when my ears pick up footfalls of someone that sounds like they had a rough night. I turn my head to see our current base commander, Captain James Nimitz. I'll admit he's attractive, tall, green eyes with light brown hair that I'd like to run my fingers through… mmm! But I watched what happened to Intrepid, saw her get in over her head and have the world come crashing down around her for it, I'm not about to make the same mistakes.

I was so lost in looking at him that caused my sister to say, "You're starting to drool."

That gets me out of my daze and I feel my cheeks get hot and I check to see if I did actually start to drool, thankfully not yet. I turn my attention to Baltimore as I say, "Am not!"

I hear his foot steppes getting closer, from behind me just before I hear his voice, it was smooth in my ears as he said, "Thanks for the tips last night, I managed to escape with my shirt intact."

I lean back in my chair to smile at him as I say, "No problem, but seriously Commander, you should stay away from Akagi, she can be a bit touchy."

I catch him looking down my top and I frown a little. I know they're big, I know that men seem to like looking at them, but I'm more than just some torpedo bulges! I say to him, with a slightly sharper tone than I intended, "Hey! My eyes are up here."

I catch him blush, and I can't help finding it cute, but damn it! There is so much more to me than these things! I see him rub the back of his head as his eyes come up and he apologizes for looking. I sigh inwardly, not that I hated the idea of him looking, but well… have some discretion or permission first!

I was about to say something to him when he excused himself and continued to an empty table while my sister poked me with her foot and teased, "Don't pull an Intrepid."

I roll my eyes and finish up my breakfast before I say to her, "Yeah, yeah. Let's get to the court then."

XXXX

The little green ball was coming right towards me I pick my moment and give it a two-handed swing, except my racket misses the connection because I swung too early and now I'm in a bad posi- "OW!" I cry out as I felt the ball impact my bust on the left side.

I drop to my knees holding that side of my bust, I'm all but in tears with how much that hurt! I hear the ball bounce on the ground as I look to my left and see it rolling away towards the net. I feel my sister's hand on my shoulder as she asks, "Bremmy, are you okay?"

"No, you got me right in the boob!" I snap back at her.

After a moment I start to rub the side of my boob where the ball hit me while I look off to my left and feel my cheek gets hot when my eyes land on the legs of Captain Nimitz who must be out for a morning run. I look up and see that he's blushing while looking in my direction, when we make eye contact he coughs into a hand and keeps going. With a heavy groan before I moan out to my sister, "Now that I'm all sweaty and gross, I just wanna hit the showers and flop around on Juustagram, just to hide from this embarrassment!"

From beside me, I can hear Baltimore starting to laugh as she puts my water bottle down beside me as she says, "Well done, I think you gave him an eye full there."

I sigh and roll my eyes while I push myself off the ground and say, "I'm going to the showers!"

Grabbing my kit I head into the locker room and toss my bag on the bench, getting out my shampoo, soap, a second towel, washcloth, razor, and shaving gel, just of the off chance something needs trimming up. Tossing my tennis outfit on the bench I step into the shower stall and let the hot water wash over me. As the water runs down me, I look down and think about how based on the images I see online I'm clearly attractive by human standard and I wonder why when Captain Nimitz looks at me he's only looking at my bugles?

Then I start to wonder if he only sees me as a delivery system for said bugles? I'd seen message boards where women would complain about how boys only looked at them that way. I lift my bugles and let them fall back down before I wash under them and keep thinking about, why should it be my problem, I mean I was made this way, why should I feel bad about it?

I'm not going to let myself feel bad about this, besides I start in the office tomorrow, I'll see how things go with Captain Nimitz and make adjustments as needed then. I lean my head against the wall of the stall and sigh I don't want to get in over my head as Intrepid did with Commander Fletcher.

I slap my cheeks to get me out of this headspace before I turn off the shower and start getting dressed in my red bikini top and black cut-off shorts. As I do up the belt on my shorts I wonder if Intrepid would be up for a shopping trip, I really need to get a good sports bra and maybe some darker colored tennis wear that won't go see-through on me.

XXXX

"Come on, Intrepid!" I call to my friend as I tease her about doing the bubble tea challenge again, it'd been so long since we last did this.

"Don't you remember what happened the last time I did that? I had to toss that shirt after." She says to me, holding her drink by the lid as we walked around the town, we each had a bag from the lingerie shop in hand, mine having some good sports bras in it, and a new bikini, my red one was getting a bit ragged after all.

I sigh and gesture to a bench before taking a seat and resting the back of my head on the back of the bench and I ask, "How are you doing, anyway? I know you keep telling me, that you're good, but come on, this is me tell me the truth."

Intrepid sighs and leans forward, brushing back a pigtail over her shoulder as she says, "Mostly. I'm just starting to get into a good headspace again. And at least I'm not second-guessing myself if I made the right choice in not answering Austin that day."

Well, that's good to know, I've been worried about Intrepid all year, I watch as she sips from her drink before saying to me, "Though I miss the sex."

I blink a few times and sit upright as I think about what she had just said to me, to buy some time I sit forward similarly and sip from my own drink and ask her, "Hey, I'm starting a rotation in the office tomorrow, any tips?"

Intrepid gives me a sideways glance and say, "Yeah, don't let your friend send you gifs of people having sex, that was so awkward!"

I can't help it, I start to laugh and she joins me, bumping shoulders with me as I say, "Please don't do that to me, I've apologized for that so many time already."

She laughs again and says, "I'll try to avoid it. But do try to avoid a short skirt, otherwise, the Captain might see up it if you try to get something out of the fridge."

I can't help but snicker about that, I remember her mortified text about her mole being seen by Commander Fletcher. Intrepid looks and me as she sighs and says to me, "Really, I was so embarrassed about that and you're still going to laugh about it?"

Sitting back up, I stretch my arms out across the back on the bench and look up at the sky before I ask, "How did you know that Commander Fletcher was into you?"

She sighs and sits back against the back of the bench, crossing her knees and sipping from her drink, "When I made out with him, why?"

I shrug before saying to her, "Captain Nimitz keeps looking at my bugles when he's in proximity to me."

"If they were any bigger, you'd disrupt the tidal flow." She teases me with a smirk.

I make a noise of mock shock and hurt before folding my arms under them as I say, "It's not my fault, I was made this way."

Intrepid stretches her arms way up above her head as she says, "I know, but I can still tease you about it. Besides, I kind of wonder why you came out this way, I mean when you look at me, I slot in well enough among my sisters… you and Baltimore couldn't be more different."

Letting out a sigh I nod, it was true, my sister was so athletic and as humans would say, a tomboy, me? Well, sports are not my wheelhouse, but make-up, fashion, and being there when people need me, that's all me. After a moment I look to Intrepid as I say, "You're right, but facts are, she is my sister and she's been teasing me about Captain Nimitz lately."

Intrepid took a sip of her drink before asking, "Teasing you how?"

Shrugging I tell her about this morning, how she thought I was starting to drool while looking at him and my unintentional flashing of him due to my white tennis wear, that one got a laugh out of Intrepid at least. After a little bit Intrepid shrugs and says to me, "I don't think there is anything there; I think Baltimore is reading into something too much."

"Thank you! I told her I was up way too late last night, chatting with you and directing the Captain to a place to hide from Akagi." I say before sipping from my drink.

Intrepid gets off the bench and gives me this playful smirk as she says, "Come on, we should grab some dinner so you can get an early night and find something well and truly slutty to wear for the Captain tomorrow."

"Intrepid!" I protest getting to my feet and adding, "Not you too?"

Intrepid laughs, hard, at me and starts to walk down the road to a café, leaving me to catch up.

XXXX

My alarm goes off so early and I reach around to the nightstand to find my phone to shut it off, ugh, I hate Mondays. When I strip down to start getting ready for the day, I see that my legs need a good shave so I grab my shave gel and razor before stepping into the shower. Once I'm in there and gotten all lathered up, I start trimming up all the spots that need trimming, legs, armpits, and a sensitive area, that one keeps some hair, but just trimmed up to look good… not that I have anyone I want to see that right now.

With that done I wrap a fluffy towel around myself and get started on my make-up, looking at my collection of lip-gloss I decided on a nice pink that goes well with my hair and eyes before getting everything else done. Popping my lips to make sure that everything is evenly distributed, I go about getting dressed, checking my phone I see that it's going to be a hot one again today, so I go with a bikini top and a short white and grey top and my cut off shorts.

As I'm leaving the apartment I see that Baltimore's shoes and boots are still here, so I know she is likely still sleeping, ugh this sucks. I quietly close the door and make my way down to the mess hall to grab something quick before getting into the office.

XXXX

Walking into the secretarial office a blast of cool air hits me and I groan, they've got good A/C up here it seems. Fan-freaking-tastic… I picked the wrong thing to wear today. I look down and see that, yup, they are going to be drawing more attention than normal it seems, guess I'll keep my coat on then.

I store my packed lunch in the fridge and get some coffee going in the coffee maker before I sit at my desk and fire up the computer. As I wait for t to warm up, I get a DM from Intrepid and I lean the office chair back against the wall and center the phone in front of my face to see what she sent me. I laugh when I see it's the same gif I had sent to her last year when she started in the office. I close the screen and put my phone down on the desk just as I hear the office door open and in walks the Captain, and for a second I'm lost in those green pools he has for eyes.

He gives me this warm, goofy-looking smile as he says, "Good morning, Bremerton, did you sleep well?"

It took me a moment to process that he was talking to me and I instinctively preened myself by adjusting my pig-tails as I say, "Good morning, Sir, I did. How about you?"

He nodded and said, "Mostly, had some issues at the docks last night that needed my attention. I'm kind of surprised I made it in on time."

I was about to say something when he picked up a file folder out of my inbox and opened it before giving off a relaxed sounding sigh and said, "Oh good, looks like a lite duty day, perfect."

My head tilts to the side and I ask, "Do they happen a lot?"

He shakes his head before taking a seat across from me and says, "Not as often as I'd like. Since it looks to be the way it is today, I'm okay with you running your help desk from the office today, just make sure what work needs to get done, gets done first, okay?"

I nod and agree to those conditions; really, it works out well for me. I do some light office work and then get to hang out on social media all day, awesome!

XXXX

The day flew by so fast before I knew it I saw that the clock struck seventeen hundred and I go about shutting down the office. As the computer shuts down I knock on his office door and I wait for him to permit me to enter. Once I've got it, I open the door slowly and see him hard at work still, looking over reports, and a pen in his hand that he is tapping on the top of his head. In front of him, I can see that cup of coffee I brought him two hours ago, likely cold by now. Behind him, I can see the sun starting to dip below the horizon and I say, "Captain, it's after seventeen hundred."

He nods before pinching his brow and saying, "I know, but I've still got a ton of stuff to do, you can head off if you want."

I was about to do just that, but I can just tell he's stressing out; I sigh to myself and walk around behind him and ask, "Would a shoulder rub help?"

He gives a half laugh and says, "Sure, why not. It couldn't make anything worse."

As I start to work his muscles in his shoulders he sighs and I ask, "What's got ya so worked up, Sir?"

He lets out another sigh and says, "I had heard that this posting would be challenging, I just never knew how challenging it'd be."

I tilt my head to the side and ask, "How so?"

He yawns a little, before reaching for and sipping some cold coffee and says, "Boats that look like girls. I've never been good at dealing with girls, and now I'm outnumbered by them here and they have guns, airplanes, and torpedoes that they can shoot at me if I do the wrong thing."

I laugh and work his shoulders a little harder as I say to him, "Fair enough, but you know, each of us is different, and you can talk to us like we're people. We've got feelings, hopes, fears, and dreams, too."

He nods as and says, "So I've been figuring out, and some of you have some serious mental issues too."

I sigh and stop rubbing his shoulders and sit across from him, folding my arms under my bust as I say, "Yeah. And some of have been hurt in the past, not just physically either."

He leans back in his chair, thinking for a moment before he asks, "You're talking about Intrepid, right?"

I nod before I say, "Yeah, that whole thing with Commander Fletcher messed with her, bad."

After a moment he asked me, "I'm going to order in some dinner from the kitchens, do you want to stay and walk me through it?"

I shrug and say, "Sure, could you order me…"

XXXX

A/N: End of Chapter One. Getting into Bremerton's headspace is kind of a fun exercise and it should be interesting to see how this one goes.