I knocked carefully on the door of Tirpitz's quarters, feeling just a little nervous. Recalling the blur of memories of the surreal dream sequence in her 'prison,' she seemed personable enough. When we finally had our conversation—her first conversation with someone else in some years, I'd noted—it looked to me that she just needed some time to process and melt the ice that had accumulated around her.

The door opened to reveal her in a simple gray shirt and black shorts. Her officer's hat was laid on the nightstand, along with her gloves. She'd presumably hung her coat in the wardrobe while the jacket and everything else was probably with Charybdis for laundry.

"Tirpitz, good afternoon," I greeted politely.

"Ah, Kapitän," she said, "Guten Abend. Please, come in."

"Thanks," I replied, shuffling in and taking a seat at a table next to the desk. "Apologies, were you about to turn in for a nap?" I asked, judging based on her wear.

"Ja," she chuckled. "But I can stay up a little longer. What are we discussing?"

"Well," I gestured around the room. "You're free! So there's that. I think that's a…that's a big one."

She caught on to the subtle joke and cocked her brows. "Yes, it is something to be back."

I hummed in agreement. "What was that place, actually? Where were you? Where were we?"

"I would tell you if I knew, Kapitän," she shook her head.

"Hm," I said thoughtfully. "Was it always like that? Do you remember what it was like when you were first locked in?"

Tirpitz stroked her chin for a moment as she sat on her bed, pondering. "If by like that, you mean the environment looking, feeling, and sounding the way you experienced it, then yes. I am not sure why, but that's what it was from the start."

Why would anyone make a landscape so peaceful a prison? "Fascinating," I replied. "Maybe it's in the sense of being too quiet that makes it prisonlike.

She shrugged. "Perhaps."

"Do you have a sense of the timescale? You were imprisoned for…how long?"

She shook her head. "Time was not allowed in that world. It felt like a single day repeating on and on, yet it still held that feeling of wasted time. I could still do different things throughout each day, but when there isn't anyone else around you…" Her expression grew forlorn. "You lose track of what happens around you."

I remained silent to let that hang in the air. "So, from the start, you were always a uh…" Princess? Dignitary? Someone who'd be dressed in a gown like that.

"I do not know for sure what or who I was supposed to be in that infinite world of nothingness. I never understood what I was doing. I only know that whatever I'd been doing, I was doing it alone," she replied. The pain in her tone was clear. "I was thinking about this just earlier when things finally got quiet enough. Maybe the Siren prison was more like an enhanced lucid dream in which one's deepest fear is realized again and again."

The thought sounded like it had some merit to it. I contemplated it in my head. "That makes more sense than what I said. And it definitely sounds more like a personal hell," I said bitterly. "Honestly, it's barbaric. How did you not—and I mean no offense, of course—go insane? I know I would've."

She sighed tiredly and let a little tear streak down her left cheek. "I'm used to it, Kapitän."

It was then that I jolted myself. What on earth am I doing? This person just got rescued from, in my own words, their personal hell. And I'm asking them what it was like. Goodness gracious, I admonished myself in my head.

Getting up, I stood next to Tirpitz and put a hand on her back. "Well, get used to something more this speed from now on," I affirmed her.

She looked up at me with a raised brow.

"You've got people with you now," I said. "Real ones. And they do care about you."

Tirpitz gave me a sad little laugh. "I appreciate it, Kapitän. Though I still cannot help but feel most conflicted about the one who may care about me the most."

It took me just a second to figure out what she was getting at. "Ah, right. Bismarck."

"Ja," she shook her head. Putting her elbows on her knees, she rested her face on her palms. "That will be an awkward conversation."

I nodded slowly. "Well, forgive me, but that is an arena I do not feel qualified to dabble in."

"I understand," she chuckled. "It's just nice to…have someone to tell this to."

"I get it," I said, smiling subconsciously as thoughts of Howe wandered into my head. "And hey," I got down on my knees so we could look each other in eye. "However anything goes, consider yourself a part of this task force. We'll be right here for you."

She nodded slowly. "Fascinating how everything unfolds. Your sister gets compromised. You become entrapped, powerless, and helpless, for the third time in your miserable existence. And then a team consisting of people who should be at each other's throats come together and dig you out of it."

I chuckled. "People can plan, be driven apart. We can strategize and scheme. But time and circumstance will always be one step ahead."

"Indeed."

We sat in silence as I shifted position to get more comfortable on the floor.

"Kapitän," she said.

"Hm?"

"May I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"I might be a…an outlier, as it were, in this little family you seem to have," she lamented. "Are you sure you'd—"

Sensing where she was going, I swiftly redirected her flow, "Hang on, hang on. What are you saying?"

She sighed and scrunched her face awkwardly. "Well, I'm Bismarck's sister. People see me as an 'ice queen,' you could say. I'm not very good at associating. I might bring the mood down in a room."

My expression remained unchanged. "…And?"

That made her train of thought hiccup. "And…well…"

I chuckled and tried to channel the most McConnell energy I could muster. "Look, we're all outliers around here. Everybody here has something about them that they think makes them weird, strange, or unapproachable, or this and that. But, I'll tell you how groups like this end up working out."

Tirpitz cocked a brow in anticipation.

"Everybody here also has somebody to lean on," I finished. "I'm sure you remember what I said at the train station."

She exhaled and smiled thinly. "'You'll never be lonely again.' And I quote."

"Yeah," I nodded. "That doesn't mean I'll literally be sticking around with you personally every day, that's kind of creepy," I quipped, "but I mean that promise in general. People around here will look out for you. And you can absolutely find someone to lean on. I…speak from experience."

Her eyes narrowed, and I sensed some cheekiness coming in. "Let me guess. Miss Howe?"

"Wow, are you a detective or something?" I retorted sarcastically.

Seemingly for the first time in far too long a time, Tirpitz cracked a proper laugh. After a moment to collect herself, she nodded and smiled at me. "Danke, Kapitän. For this conversation. It is nice having someone to talk to again."

"Of course," I grinned back. Then, I thought of the perfect thing to tie our chat off with. "Question. How do you feel about music?"

She tilted her head slightly at the change of topic but took it in stride. "I find myself hankering for it occasionally."

"Alright," I said. "Have you heard of the Beatles?"

"Familiar," she nodded.

"Right," I replied, looking at the desk and spotting a laptop conveniently laid on top of it. "Okay, here we go. I'll leave you with something to listen to. How about it?"

She evaluated before replying, "Sure."

"Cool," I said, hoping the laptop didn't have a password. Fortunately, it didn't, and I was able to pull the song up. "Alright, that's on there. Go ahead and click the play button when you wanna give it a go."

"Understood," she nodded. "Danke."

"You are very welcome," I replied politely before heading for the door. "I'll see you at supper! Take of yourself."

"Jawohl, Kapitän. See you."


After supper, it was that time again to start work on the mission report. This was the big one, being the paper that directly pertained to and detailed the completion of the mission objectives. That said, it would be especially handy to have a second set of eyes on it so it could be completed promptly and with quality.

Unfortunately, Howe was running a little late.

After spending ten minutes getting the outlines and such sorted, I decided to go find her. Thankfully as we were on the same boat, it didn't take very long.

I had barely even gotten to the stairwell for the bridge when I spotted her sitting on the deck, beside one of the massive gun turrets. Shrugging, I walked up to her and sat.

"Oh! Hey, James," she greeted, scooching over to make room.

"Hey," I replied, getting myself comfortable on the deck's surface. Unfortunately, she hadn't thought to place chairs around. "I was looking for you. We need to work on the mission rep, remember?"

"Ah," she nodded, clearly not wanting to work on the report. "Right."

"Yeah," I said. Silence hung in the air for five seconds before it was clear to me that work would have to wait. My eyes wandered up to the inky night sky above, and I finally realized what she'd been staring at. "Holy…"

"Mm," she hummed softly. "Gorgeous, isn't it?"

I couldn't even muster a noise in response, my jaw still drooping at the sight above. "I've never seen stars this clear before. That is…"

"Me too," she tittered. "Something else, isn't it? We aren't used to seeing that over in old England because of the lights and weather and everything muddling it up."

True to Howe's point, the inky black sky was undisturbed by pesky city illumination, allowing it to proudly display its countless stars from white to yellow to blue. A faint glow emanated through everything and dispersed magnificently on the celestial canvas, each star representing the grand design of the universe in a truly awe-inspiring way.

Shaking my head, I only gave a disbelieving laugh. "The things you fail to notice when work fogs your mind…"

Howe giggled gently. I heard some shuffling sounds, and then a weight against my side. She rested her head on my shoulder and exhaled in contentment.

I looked at her fondly, then up at the sky. "Look at the stars. Just look at them. They're brilliant."

"Yeah," Howe tittered. "Look at the stars."

My brain took a second to process what we were saying. "Ah, man," I laughed, "That's just too perfect, isn't it? Look at the stars," I lapsed into the lyrics. "Look how they shine for you…"

From beside me, Howe suddenly sat up and looked at me wide-eyed.

I stared back at her. "What? Did I sing that wrong," I chuckled.

"No, no, no, you…" She slowly started grinning. "You nailed it. Do you sing?"

I shrugged simply. "Yeah, I took lessons for a music elective. Came in handy whenever I had to back up the vocalist on a performance. Sometimes it was my brother, other times it'd be another person they'd signed on for the night. It's good fun!"

"I can imagine!" Howe giggled, getting herself giddier by the second. "Go on!"

I shook my head bashfully but obliged. "I came along, I wrote a song for you," I sang, getting into it a little more with Howe's encouragement. My lips started creasing irresistibly into a grin as she sat and listened. "And all the things you do. And it was called 'Yellow.'

"So then I took my turn," I continued, "Oh, what a thing to've done. And it was all yellow…"

My head nodded to the beat and my foot provided the rhythm for Howe to keep track. To my delight, she caught the time and backed me up right along for the chorus. Cooing her voice to play the second vocalist, I smiled at her and went on with it.

"Your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones"

Howe shifted her voice accordingly.

"Turn into something beautiful. And you know, you know I love you so." We both looked at the ground, nodding our heads in time, "…You know I love you so."

Deciding to cap it there, I started clapping and nodding, giggling all the way. "Hey, you sounded pretty good yourself!"

"Ah," Howe giggled as she put a hand on her chest, "thank you, thank you!"

We let the succeeding silence give us a break as we recollected our thoughts.

Howe started stirring again before I could say something else. "Hnngh, I'm gonna miss you after this, James!"

"What?" I chuckled. "What's that mean?"

She tilted her head and pulled her legs in to hug them. "You know! We don't really know what your next assignment's gonna be after this. You're not exactly an Azur Lane officer or anything. So…"

"Ah," I nodded understandingly.

"Yeah! We should keep in touch somehow," she chirped, playing at my arm as animatedly as ever.

My heart did a little skip as I remembered she'd brought up a handful of ideas back at the wreck that I had unfortunately been too engrossed in the mission to pay attention to. "Well, you mentioned that back at the island. And I would miss you, too. Mind pitching them back at me?"

She paused, holding up a finger. "…Well, the only things I could come up with were grabbing each other's number and socials, and that would be that…"

Chuckling, I nodded. "Alright, alright, we could totally do that. But I'm thinking we need something more solid," I quipped.

"Okay," she tittered. "What do you have in mind?"

I took a deep breath to control my nerves and calm my heart down. Then I looked at her and teetered my head back and forth before finally working it out of my mouth to say, "Maybe we should try a…quick date? When we arrive? You know…"

Her face lit up, eyes growing wide.

"I mean, if you're up for it, of course," I mumbled, completely fumbling the words.

"Yes!" She yelped, grabbing my arm and rocking the both of us back and forth. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!"

The heat on my face subsided as I laughed it off and attempted to calm her down by putting an arm around her shoulders. When she nuzzled my neck, we both stilled and sat in peace. I soon concluded that the silence and sensation of sitting under the stars and having Howe with me was an unbelievably tranquil sanctuary. I couldn't remember the last time I felt so calm on the inside.

"You know," she piped up. I shifted my head a little to let her know I was listening. "When this first started and you walked into that briefing room, I…wasn't so sure what Admiral Theodore was getting at when he called you a 'very skilled officer.'"

"Mm. I suppose I'm not exactly very well known outside of my usual circle," I chuckled.

She giggled back. "I mean, you just seemed like a very…how do I say this without being mean? Average. Like a very calm, run-of-the-mill officer. And yeah, you know, we don't exactly have very theatric stories or epic tales to tell. At least, when you compare what Monarch and Commander McConnell have experienced."

"Yeah," I chuckled. "I think that's kind of a good thing, though. Living a somewhat 'normal' life, despite all the wackiness that's happened is a blessing I'd count."

"And I would agree," she responded immediately. "I definitely agree. But, in spite of that…or no, maybe because of it…"

I waited in anticipation as she constructed her thoughts into sentences.

"…We got to spend quite a bit of time with, as you might imagine, nothing but each other and our thoughts. And I think that allowed something quite special to happen."

Smiling warmly, I pulled her close and nodded. "What would that be?"

She giggled. "Well, there was a lot of talking. A lot. Through that, I made some friends, and I got a peek beyond the average, cool & collected, run-of-the-mill officer. And I found out that you're actually really sweet! You're smart, but you're not cold, either. It's like," she gestured with her hands, "you just haven't mastered how to articulate yourself emotionally yet. But that means you also come across meek and gentle."

Though I felt myself blush, none of the usual panic was there. "I…I see."

Howe cooed, shuffling to pull herself in even more. "I've never been one to be indirect, so I'll just say it." Lifting her head off me and putting our faces inches apart, she looked at me with sparkling emerald eyes and a soft, purposeful gaze. Speaking softly, she said, "I adore you, James. And…I don't know if I can wait until that date to find out if you feel the same."

I cracked a thin smirk and looked to the calm waters before gazing back at her. "So, what would you do if I said I do?"

She immediately snickered. "Well, I'd probably break one of your ribs."

"Well, then," I laughed, "don't break my ribs, but…I do. So…"

Before I knew it, she'd squeezed the air out of my chest.

"Oof!" I blurted. "Wow!"

Laughing at full volume, she finally broke the hug and fiddled her hair with a hand. "Yeah, I should probably warn you…I'm a bit of a hugger."

"A bit, yeah," I said snappily, massaging my sides.

After laughing along, she recollected herself and looked up at the stars. "So…you said you'd miss me, too?"

I smiled. "Yeah! The rock upon which I stand, right?"

She looked back at me with raised brows. I returned her gaze similarly, breathing deeply and shuffling to set my legs straight and support myself with my arms.

"We somehow came across each other just in the nick of time before I think I'd have sunk myself in my own mental hurricane," I said.

I narrowed my eyes a little and felt a blush as my next sentence cobbled itself in my head. "You…took good care of me. And the rest of the fleet, too, with Charybdis," I added. "I've noticed how the group's dynamic has changed since we were assembled."

Howe grinned and started swaying back and forth again.

"I remember those first few days." Cringing at the…awkward start the group had gotten off to, I chuckled disbelievingly at myself. "Our first supper together, we talked about 'work,' right?" I snickered.

"Yeah," she grinned. "It was fine, but at the time, I think everyone could tell we didn't really have much to small talk about."

"Exactly," I snapped my fingers. "And then I went and decided to have those conversations with people, and—I assume you went and did the same—and we ended up being well-met enough to pull that absurd escape earlier," I laughed triumphantly.

She giggled likewise. "Yeah, that's fair! I did not think it would work all that well, to be honest."

I feigned a betrayed look. "What? But you were the one who said to trust me!"

She swatted my arm playfully. "It's called sarcasm, hon."

"Right, right," I shook my head, smirking all the same. "But, in all seriousness. I don't know if I would've gotten nearly so involved with everyone the way I did…if you hadn't made me feel as comfortable as you did."

"Well, I'm glad you feel that way," she grinned. "But credit where it's due. A lot of the reason why we got so knit together is thanks to you taking the initiative in the first place, building this no-holds-barred emotional atmosphere."

I furrowed my brows. "No-holds-barred…?"

Howe rolled her eyes and said, "Look! You let people divulge to you some of their deepest struggles. As a result, they felt safe and didn't feel the need to be so…plastic around each other." Gesturing to herself, she continued, "I never would've thought Prinz Eugen would be a friend of mine, and here we are!"

"Ah," I nodded, pointing my finger. "I suppose so, yeah. Thanks."

"Sure!" She chirped. "In a strange twist, if we really think about it…that ends up making you the most approachable one here."

Laughing, I waved that off politely. "No, no. That accolade still duly goes to you." As she giggled, I added, "And this here, see? This is what I mean. The rock upon which I stand. You're always coming in to support, it's awesome!" I shook my head, saying, "I can only really do my best to be the same for you."

"And I'm sure you will," she replied assuredly.

I nodded with gratitude and looked back out at the sea. Howe seemed to take the cue, shifting her gaze up to the sky again. Her eyes glittered under the stars, and I wondered just when we could end this war so I could settle down with her.

It took a second for my brain to process what it had just thought. Settling down with her implies marriage, boy!

I felt my cheeks heat up, and I swiftly put a hand over my face to cover it. Thankfully, Howe didn't seem to notice.

Then again…marriage doesn't sound so bad.

…Ahem. Anyway!

Clapping my hands together to get her attention, I sat up and moved to be ready to stand. "Now, then. Unfortunately," I said as she looked at me, "we have papers to prepare."

She groaned while I stood up. "Ugh, man…" I chuckled fondly as she shuffled around to get her legs underneath her. "Alright, then."

I reached out so she could grab my hand.

She looked at it for just a second before smiling brightly and gripping it. In one smooth motion, we were both on our feet.

"Let's get to it?"

"Yeah!" She replied. "Lead the way, Buttercup."

I smiled to myself as we walked to our 'office.'


It was maybe an hour into drafting the concluding remarks when Howe stretched her arms and piped up. "Hey, James."

Without looking up from writing, I prompted, "Mm?"

"We never got to do that cooking lesson, did we?" She asked.

Pausing, I nodded and smiled thinly. "No, I don't think we did." Swiveling the chair around, I asked, "Why?"

She shrugged and grinned. "How's about we do something tomorrow, after lunch?"

"Ah," I replied, "So I collect constituent updates in the morning, we convene for lunch, and then whip something up together for a dessert at supper?"

"Yeah!" She chirped.

Chuckling, I said, "Sure."

She clapped her hands excitedly. "Yay!"

I smiled before returning to my laptop, making sure to look as focused on the work as I could be so she wouldn't get too sidetracked. Yet, I couldn't help a little layer of excitement for tomorrow beneath my calm, work-mode façade.


A/N: Dam, that's a three-week chapter gap. Whoops! Got caught up with life (ehem college etc.) so I had trouble keeping with the schedule. Hope you didn't mind too much and enjoyed this chapter. Till the next one!

Jarvis