The infirmary, a few hours later. After saving Laura from her nightmare, Cairbre woke up. He wasn't in pain and so he stood up from his bed and looked at the other person in the room, Chifuyu Orimura. Laura had already been dealt with, the Valkyrie Trace system being easy to remove from her personal unit.

"Cairbre, I wanted to thank you for that. I just have one question: how did you know that would work?" asked Chifuyu.

"Well, I knew that a single shot would overwhelm her and cause more chaos. But a shot depends on speed as well. A slow shot at high speed does damage all the same. I needed to put all my energy into the shot, thus I had to have the others speed me up." He replied.

Once he'd said that, he got up and started for the door, to which Chifuyu made one comment to him more.

"Keep an eye on Laura, will you?"

(TIMESKIP)

It was the morning of the fifth day, and Cairbre had just gotten to class. The little thing with saving Laura from herself had spread around a bit, prompting a lot of girls to go up to him and very awkwardly flirt with him. He didn't mind the flirting, to each their own. But being surrounded by at least two dozen potentially horny IS pilots did some harm to his ego, in a way. He wasn't the kind who would fancy two dozen or more women and so he largely ignored all of them as he arrived in his homeroom.

No sooner had his somewhat plump Irish arse sat on the chair had he noticed the love letters. Twelve love letters. He was no flirt, but twelve?! In barely a week?! Something had to be done, so he decided to call them out. Grinning slightly, he held all the love letters and confessions in his hands before proceeding to the front of the room to call them out.

"Right, I've seen all these letters in my desk and I think it fair I call it all out. I will fall for whoever I feel like. Besides, if you want me I like a girl who up and says it, not via a letter. Catch yourselves on." He stated, opening them all and getting ready to read them all out loud.

"Okay, we have these… love letter, love letter, very sexually heavy love letter, someone wanting my arse, a… horrifyingly detailed and oddly accurate drawing of my arse, love letter, love letter, love poem, love poem, extremely long lo…" he stated.

At the end, there was a loud crashing sound. Cairbre turned to face the daw and saw Laura coming towards him, in her full IS. Shielding himself slightly, he was surprised when she grabbed his shirt and the next thing he felt, rather than fear… it was lips. Her lips. Laura's lips. She was kissing him, no doubt. Her lips were firm, yet soft enough to be perfectly fine and delicate.

In that moment, if an outsider were to hear the room, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The faces of all the girls were open with shock. The crush of a majority of them was being kissed and the man didn't put up a fight and seemed to be enjoying it.

Once a few tender moments had passed, Laura broke the kiss and made an announcement to him, looking sternly at him with the eyepatch covering her golden eye. Cairbre found that cute on her. Practical and cute.

"Now, I have decided that I am going to make you my bride! That is final and I will not accept any objections from you!" stated Laura, looking at the man she wanted as her bride. Sure, she used the wrong word, but that wasn't the issue.

Bride? Me? I mean, she is my type. Wow, I didn't get to have a look yesterday, but I like that. I know sweet fuck all about her, so I'll play ball, if we break in off, my fault. He pondered, before making his response.

"Fine, but if you want a white wedding, don't expect me to wear a ten thousand euro dress." he replied, looking at her and waiting for her to at least fold her IS away or go change. What he was not expecting was Laura to pick him up, hold him bridal style and fly him to her room in the arms of her and her unit.

Once they were in her room, Laura put the blushing Cairbre on her bed and deactivated her IS, it stowing as the holster on her right leg. He was already smitten with her, in a way. He liked her directness and yet knew little about her, so he wasn't quite ready to say he loved her.

"What was all that about, aye? You made yourself look like a hallion. Now, this bride thing. I know feck all of you. You know nothing about me. I don't care if we skip for this but you've just got me curious. Tell me about yourself. As for me, I'll tell you what you want to know." He stated.

For the next hour, he learned of her life in the military from birth and her rank as Second Lieutenant and commander of Schwarzer Hase. He liked her being in charge of people, it made him feel a bit warm and fuzzy. She learned of his upbringing, with tough parents who disciplined him and made him happy to follow orders if he agreed to them. He learned that in matters of love, she was near clueless but he figured that she knew she was in love with him. She learned of his unfailing loyalties to what he believed in and to those dear to him, like she'd expect to see in an elite soldier. He learned that as a commander, she was strict and unforgiving, which made him like her a bit more. She learned that one of the things he was glad about with the shift to a more female-dominated world was that he liked dominant women who didn't mind roughing him a little bit. He learned, via slouching a little bit, that she could indeed excite him and make him feel better by barking an order. This led to her learning that if she got him trained a little bit more, he wouldn't mind being under her as her bride and fighter as he immediately straightened up and uttered a quick apology. He had the mind of a tactician and the body of a good IS pilot, all he needed was some good discipline and he'd be utterly perfect.

"Laura," he began. "I want to offer you something. I will teach you and train you in love if you train me to be what you want me to be as a bride and a subordinate. I'll be feckin' ruthless at it, but I expect the same in return."

This puzzled Laura. On one hand, he was agreeing to teaching her love. But on the other, he was offering to be under her command. She liked his spirit, his force of life, but here he was saying that he wanted her to lead him. Right, she was going to do it. It was not so objectionable for a man to defer to his wife, his commander.

"Very well, my bride. I will get changed, we will walk back to class and you will say you are under my command. That is final, no objections." Laura said.

"Understood. Want me to wait outside or would it please my Commander to be watched and told how stunning she is?" asked Cairbre.

His statement caused Laura to blush slightly and start to change into her uniform in front of Cairbre. To his credit, he did like her body and her figure, and spent the whole time she was changing praising how powerful her body was. And there was something she deeply liked about being called Commander by him, something deep and correct.

Once fully changed, she looked at him and began walking out of the room, Cairbre following close behind. They had tomorrow off, so he had a plan to get to know her a bit more. Luckily, this plan could be explained in a way she'd understand.

"Laura, aside from calling me your bride, do you actually know anything about love or what it entails?" Cairbre asked.

"Not entirely, but Clarissa in my unit is teaching me from her shojo manga." She replied.

Jesus. She's feckin clueless. Cairbre pondered. "Love, well… how do I put it… love is like a war, where you as a part of a relationship have to battle the affections for the other person. You have to do things that will gain affection from the other person, whilst they fight to gain affection from you. Now, we have a day off tomorrow, so I want to go shopping with you. What do you say, my wonderful and adorable Commander?"

Laura was at this point, more understanding. Love is a battle, that way of explaining it worked to her. But what of desire, of want? Of affection, sure, she knew what it was. But the why and how? No, that was not the case. As for the shopping? Well, she'd entertain him and permit it. Plus, she got to spend time with him.

"Very well, we will go shopping. It is not so objectionable that I will spend time with my bride." Laura replied.

"Figured you'd say that. You want me to be the one to tell them we're in a relationship of sorts now? Also, want me to carry you to your seat?" replied Cairbre.

Laura blushed and simply nodded as they reached the classroom doors, Cairbre picking her up and holding her in his arms as they walked in together. He got a lot of looks of envy and disappointed lustfulness as he sat her down at her desk, kissing her hand gently before heading back to his own. The other girls in the class had assumed that whatever she did had made him more manly than ever.

"Mr. Lynch, care to explain why you went off with her and skipped an hour and a half of lessons?" Chifuyu asked, as she was royally pissed off by the antics of Cairbre and Laura.

"Aye, well I went off to her room, we talked craic about our lives and what we wanted and now I'm in love and I have a wonderful German commander that I trust and want to follow. If you have a problem with it, fine. But I made my choice, and I like it." Cairbre replied, causing everyone's mouths bar his and Laura's to drop to the floor. He'd just admitted that he liked Laura telling him what to do and he was proud of it! This was no secret anymore.

"Now, if you'll excuse me Ms. Orimura, I'd like to sit beside my darling Commander from now on." He continued.

The rest of the day continued as normally as it could. Having moved to sit beside Laura, Cairbre just got on with lessons as normally, aside from Laura chastising him for poor posture once or twice, that he corrected immediately. Nothing particularly abnormal happened within, particularly when Cairbre walked with Laura beside him and the two holding hands when the pair approached the final class of the day, Music. This was the bit she didn't know he'd shine at.

The music teacher began the lesson by asking the girls (and Cairbre) to think of something they might be able to sing. This was a dilemma, as there was only one or two that he knew of that spoke to him from home. And no, he was not going to do anything Nadine Coyle was famous for. Arse. I'll have to do the feckin Dana one. What's Laura gonna do?

"Laura, any clue for yours?" he whispered into her ear, calmly. Laura was just as stuck on it but had to think of something.

"Nein. But I want to do something German." She replied calmly.

"Feck, alright… um… what about that one from Nena? 99 Luftballons I think it's called. Whatever it is, I can't really do anything about Derry because it's all Troubles shit or by feckin Loyalists. If I did a loyalist song, I'd be betraying my people and Cecelia would get her knickers wet. So I'm doing something by Dana or someone else, depends on what I feel like." He replied, causing Laura to nod slightly and chuckle lightly. Luckily, Cecelia was on the other side of the room, having disastrous luck plugging a speaker into a keyboard and microphone for everyone to use. If she'd heard him slagging her off, well… he wouldn't have a problem with verbally cutting her down to size.

First up was Charlotte, who did a pleasant little number on the piano but didn't sing. Then, Houki, who sounded perfectly decent bar the piano, which she completely failed at. Then went a few of their other classmates, with varying competencies. Cecelia came and went… you know that awful shrill noise when nails run down a chalkboard? That's best to describe her voice when singing. Laura went second-to-last, with some interesting results. She had taken Cairbre's advice and done the song he suggested, and roughly pulled it off. Technically, it wasn't that hard of a song to do as she didn't need to hold a note for that long. Cairbre found her singing voice cute and generally inoffensive so he smiled at her the whole time, which caused her to blush. Then once he'd done his and finished off the period, he returned to Laura's side.

"How'd I do, my lovely Commander?" he asked, wrapping a hand around her shoulder as they walked from it, towards his dorm room. "Also, heads up, I'm moving in. Can't have my beloved getting lonely at any time."

"You were interesting, Cairbre. Your voice is quite deep when you sing and it is not a bad thing." Laura replied. Once they had reached his room, it didn't take long for him to pack and explain he was moving in with Laura to Houki. Actually, she was glad as there were no possibilities of him walking in on her again.

Grabbing his bags and walking over, Cairbre was imagining some of the fun the pair of them could have. Laura, in some other outfit, barking orders at him when he was completely nude. Her training him to do things to her that she liked. General stuff like that… god, it turned him on~!

Next chapter: Cairbre gets more confident, Laura learns what being the dominant in a relationship feels like and Cairbre learns a lot more about Laura than he already knows.