Chapter eleven

"Bye!"

Kino turned and waved as Kioko jumped up and down, waving at her new friends. It was crowded on the street that morning, and both Kino and Hayami had to weave their way through the large number of people. Through the gaps in the crowd they saw Yuki pull her daughter inside, turning to wave briefly, before closing the door.

The two walked slowly, watching as the crowd grew thicker and thicker. It was still the early morning hours, but already it was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. The storm had lasted most of the pervious night, only beginning to dull in the earliest stages of the morning. Yuki had insisted that they stay the night, and had been a very good host as the night went on.

Eventually, the harbor that Blue Six was stationed in came into view and they picked up their pace, hoping to get back quickly before the regular morning crew noticed their absence. They changed out of the clothes Yuki gave them and quickly slipped into they're preferred jumpsuits. Hayami turned around, having sat with his back to Kino to get his boots on, and found Kino hopping on one foot, attempting to tie her laces with one hand as the other held a toothbrush. He'd seen her attempts to multi-task in the past, and slowly counted to five.

He laughed as she lost her balance and landed hard on the ground. She glared.

He waited until his laughter had died down to small chuckles. Kino had taken advantage of the solid ground to tie both her boots, and then moved to brush her teeth. Hayami followed.

It soon became a war to see who reach the sink first and rinse the toothpaste out of their mouths. Hayami pushed Kino out of the way, laying his hand on her shoulder and giving her a little shove. She ended up sitting in her bathtub; her toothbrush hanging out if her closed mouth as she looked up and glared hard. Standing up, she knocked him away using her shoulder. Despite all this, they were laughing and chuckling together as they did so.

Kino grabbed a watch from her bedside table and slipped it onto her slim wrist. Hayami came up behind her slowly, taking a quick moment from the rush to wrap his arms around her. She relaxed quickly, and he softly pressed his lips to her cheek. She smiled, before taking a look at her watch. Thus the rush began again.

They made it to the cafeteria in a few minutes, and paused outside to compose themselves before walking in. Over the past few weeks a group had been started, and they all ate they're meals together. One the left of the table there was Shiro, Shidora, and Freeda. One the right side Alessandro sat in front of his fiancé, with two empty spaces beside him. Occasionally Howan or Iga would join them, but that morning it seemed they were alone.

The entire group looked up at them as they made they're way to they're seats. Freeda grinned.

"Why are you two so late?" she questioned slyly, smirking.

Kino shrugged. "We met up in the hall. I slept passed my alarm. I was up late last night."

They made they're way to their seats and sat down, casting a greeting to everyone.

"What were you doing that kept you up so late?" this time it was Shiro grinning. Kino knew what she was implying, but simply gave her friend a clueless look and shrugged.

"Going over the schematics for the upgrades to the Granpus that Iga sent me. Hopefully with the new engine system we're installing, we'll be able to move up to 40KTs on the surface, as opposed to the normal 30KT."

Everyone's face fell at this. Most of them knew Kino was a terrible liar, but the techno-babble told them that she was telling the truth. Hayami leaned over to her.

"Where'd you come up with that?" he whispered.

"No clue." She whispered back.

"New engine system?" Shidora questioned, raising an eyebrow as he handed Kino an apple for her to snack on. She took a bite and nodded.

"Yep. It's a shame we can't install one for Blue Six's main engines."

"What do you mean?"

Kino looked up from her apple. "Blue Six only moves at about 15 klicks per hour above the surface. If we could upgrade it, we might be able to double that speed. But it would take months, even years, to do an upgrade that huge. And while we still have some resistance out there, there's no way Blue Six can be out of service that long."

Shidora made a noise of understanding. Shiro let out a low whistle, taking a bite from her breakfast; left over Chinese.

"Any chance there'll be some upgrades on the Fire Arm systems?" she asked, her voice muffled from the food being stuffed in it. Freeda reached behind Shidora and gave her a small shove at her rude manners. Kino smirked at them.

"I don't really know for sure. Right now we're more concerned with the Granpus systems because those are the ones that are going to be taking most of the damage for the next couple of weeks."

She nodded, and turned back to her food. Freeda turned to Alessandro and began to chat with him while Shidora simply sat there, not moving. Kino returned her attention to her apple. Hayami leaned on his elbow, boredom beginning to set in.

"Hand me that wrench," the muffled command caused Hayami to pull himself out of his thoughts. Grumbling something out, he grabbed the metal tool and placed it in his partner's outstretched hand. After a second, Kino handed the wrench back to him. "Not that one!"

"Well, you should be more specific than "that" wrench." He retorted, snatching up the other wrench and handing it to her.

The top half of her body was hidden underneath the large mass of the Granpus as she worked. Kino gave him a swift kick, her foot connecting with his leg. He chuckled, and caught her foot as it was pulling back. She struggled with him for a moment, before sliding out from under the Granpus and glaring at him. He chuckled, watching her. She had a small streak of grease sliding down her cheek, and combined with the glare, she looked almost comical.

Shaking her head at him, she turned back to the Granpus.

"Did you see the look on Shiro's face when I told her about the engines?" Kino asked, her attention still mostly on her work.

Hayami chuckled again, and moved so that he was sitting beside whatever part of her was visible. He heard her grunt at a particularly difficult point, which was soon followed by a rather loud curse. Sliding out from under it, she sat up and grabbed a rag to whip her hands, the whole time glaring at anything that dared to move.

"What is it?"

She shook her head. "The Air Tank. It's busted. Really busted. Non-fixable busted. We're gonna have to order a new one. And that'll take at least a month to come what with all the back-up issues."

"Back-up issues?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow.

She nodded. "Yeah. Since the end of the war, parts for the Blue Fleet are in hot demand. Some idiot, it seems, decided it would a brilliant idea to stop checking the parts for safety defects before shipping them out to increase profit. Last week, one of the mini-subs for Blue Three failed on a test-drive. Almost killed both its pilots.

"Since that happened, every part from that company is having to be checked and re-checked. And the owner of the company is having to go through each and every purchase and sort 'em out based on date. The ones that were shipped before being checked have to be replaced."

He nodded, wondering for a brief moment where she got this type of information. Standing up, she stretched; arching her back as far as it would go without cracking. Content that she wouldn't pull anything, she cleaned up her tools quickly and headed for the door.

"I need a shower…" she groaned out, obviously uncomfortable. Hayami chuckled, before taking advantage of the lack of an audience, wrapping his arms around her from behind. She chuckled, resting her head on his shoulder. They stood like that for a few minutes, simply enjoying each other's company, before Kino pulled away and left, pausing at the door briefly to poke her head through and motion for him to follow.

"Kino! Open this damn door!"

"Freeda, please! It's late. We can do this in the morning."

"Shut up, Shiro. Kino!"

There was a muffled groan from behind the door, before the door opened a crack, revealing a very drowsy Kino wearing only and oversized shirt. Blinking a few times, the red head brought up one sleeve and rubbed her eyes.

"Freeda? Shiro? What is it?"

"Get dressed. We're going shopping."

Kino paused for a minute, before blinking again and closing the door in their faces. Freeda's face turned a bright red color, and Shiro groaned, before covering her ears.

"KINO! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!"

This yell caused several people to stop what they were doing to look at her. Even Shiro's eyes were wide at the volume of the yell. After a few minutes, Kino opened the door a crack again, cradling her head in her hand.

"Jesus Christ, Freeda! Did you have to yell so loud?"

Freeda simply crossed her arms. "Get Dressed."

Kino rolled her eyes. "Can't we do this tomorrow?"

"It is tomorrow." Shiro stated, holding out her watch for Kino to see. It read 2 AM.

Kino's eyes widened at this, before glaring at Freeda. "It's two in the morning and you're telling me we're going SHOPPING!"

Freeda nodded. "We have to go get our dresses for the party!"

Kino groaned. "That's at the end of the month."

"It's in three days!"

"That's plenty of time."

"Please Kino!"

Kino blinked, surprised by Freeda's tone. It wasn't the usual pushy and tough tone she was used to hearing; it was pleading. The look in Freeda's eyes was different, too. Sighing softly, she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Tell you what, okay? We go out and have some coffee, and then talk."

Freeda nodded, sighing.

Kino closed her door and went straight to her closet; ignoring the odd look Hayami was giving her. Slipping into a pair of jeans and over-sized T-shirt, she glanced at him and smiled. She was tired, that was for sure, and would have loved to go lay down and sleep for another couple of hours. But something was wrong with Freeda, and she really needed to find out what.

"I'll be back in a while."

With that said, she left.

The small café was practically empty, along with the streets. But it was open late, and they had drinks with caffeine in them, so Kino was happy. The girls took a seat at one of the tables outside, enjoying the warm night air while they waited for their drinks. It was quiet out. Only the soft chirp of the crickets around them managed to break the silence.

Kino was getting more and more worried about Freeda with each passing second. She seemed depressed, and quiet. She had never seen her friend like this. Freeda had always been resilient, always bouncing back no matter what. What ever it was that was making her this way, it was big.

Shiro was just as clueless as Kino was, and just as worried. She kicked her feet, chewing the inside of her lip and tugging at the fabric of her cap, which she always wore. She couldn't help but fidget, trying to figure out what was bothering her friend.

Finally, the coffee arrived, and Kino eagerly took a sip, making a face at the taste but enjoying the wake-up.

"Okay, Freeda. Spill. What's wrong?" she demanded.

Freeda looked away, blinking slowly and sadly. Kino grew impatient quickly.

"Freeda, just say it! It can't be that bad!" After a few sips of her own cup, Shiro was fairly confident that she could handle whatever Freeda threw her way. She was awake, and ready for anything.

She was wrong.

Freeda took a deep breath. "It's Alessandro… he broke off the engagement."

Author's Notes: Booya! I finally finished this chapter. This one was hard to do. I had trouble thinking up what should happen next. And for those of you asking: No, this does not mean that the story has a plot now. Still pointless fluff XD

Also, for those of you who like Alessandro, you're probably going to hate me for the next few chapters. He's not going to be a good guy. But please, please, please stick with the story. It'll get better, I promise!

Oh, right. The measurements I used for the Granpus and Blue Six speeds (the original ones) I got from Blue Submarine No. 6 RPG Project. I do all my research for the story there. (Yes, I do research for this story. The last thing I need is to give out incorrect information!) For those of you who don't know military slang or don't know what they stand for:

KTs: Knots

Klicks: Kilometers

And yay! I've got two new reviewers! (Not counting my beloved Imouto-chan.) And double yay! Fanfiction. net finally released a hit counter! So I can know how many people check out the story without reviews!

Please Review anyway, though. It really encourages me.

Graywords-girl♥