"Oh, dear."

Atago glanced at the scene before her and picked out the most concerning thing.

He doesn't look so good.

Granted, neither did the little one who was dozing off on the table, but that was one thing and this was one thing more.

Shikikan was relatively calm on the outside, but she didn't miss how he chose this moment to shut his eyes, and how his eyebrows and the edges of his lips would twitch ever so slightly.

If she focused well enough, she could even hear him breathing deeply.

This wasn't too surprising. Laffey had a bad habit of falling asleep anywhere and anytime, and for someone who hasn't known her long-term like everyone else in the base, it could be a bit jarring, to say the least.

A bit jarring, a bit irritating… or maybe quite irritating.

It is rather unbecoming, after all. But at least she got the job done when it came down to it.

That's what really mattered, but it's not what he's thinking about.

He's probably feeling a little bit irritated that this girl who, more-or-less, is supposed to be considered military, is acting like a part of the military is the last thing she'd be.

They weren't military assets but he may have felt differently, between being assigned here by the military, having a military background and us being his subordinates.

Usually, when someone was subordinate to a military officer for a long period of time, it meant that they too were military.

But for anyone paying attention the truth was obvious: this wasn't really a military base.

Putting it coldly, it was a containment facility. Putting it warmly, it was home. It's both, though Atago prefers to think of it as the latter.

And they weren't soldiers, prisoners nor hunks of well-designed and beautifully built metal, but, well - people. More or less.

Maybe?

Anyway, the Commander was annoyed and it was her job to soothe him.

"Uh, Laffey? Hey."

Thankfully, just like that, all barely-visible signs of irritation were gone, replaced by a concerned visage and gentle words.

He was brushing her eyes up and down her slumped sleeping form.

"Is she okay? Did she not get enough sleep last night?"

"I don't think she really ever gets enough sleep," admitted Javelin.

Atago giggled.

"What!? Why not? Is she okay? Why isn't she getting 8 hours of rest every night!?"

The Commander straightened his back, perked his head, highered his voice, and in a concerned tone took a joke too seriously.

Atago giggled and thought something to herself.

"I'm sure that was a joke, Commander. I'm sure she gets more than 8 hours of sleep every night."

"Ah, is that so? Sorry." He frowned and drooped his head back down.

Javelin laughed into her hands. Ayanami tilted her head.

"Why do you look so down? Don't you think you're being a bit uptight? You should be looking more embarrassed."

"A-Ah. Is that so?" He laughed awkwardly, scratched his head and lowered his face.

It's as she says. That was embarrassing, but nothing to be sad over. Not worth a damper on the mood.

"You just look even sadder. Was it something I said?"

"Th-That was an embarrassed look."

Ayanami's eyes widened as if a lightbulb went off behind them.

"Ah. So that's how the Commander looks when he's embarrassed? I see, I see. I expected you to be a lot redder, but looking closely, there is a bit of redness there."

"Hey!"

"Yes?"

Atago smiled. His cheeks were slightly red if you look closely…

Nice one, Ayanami.

"Ayanami, please don't do anything that might make the Commander uncomfortable."

The girl looked disappointed but complied.

"Yes."

"There, there. Thanks for complying so easily."

Ayanami's downcast, disappointed look made her look precious.

Atago reached out and gave her a pat on the head.

"Yes. It's no problem."

"Ah. Looks like your cheeks are red now, Ayanami," Javelin said.

"Really!?"

"Yeah," she laughed.

Ayanami's blush, though barely noticeable at first, deepened when Javelin pointed that out.

Atago smiled to herself.

Nice one, Javelin.

Then she heard laughing that sounded nervous and took a peek at the Commander.

He was watching them go at it while scratching his head.

But he quickly regained his wits and went on the offensive.

"By the way, Ayanami, when was the first time you saw someone embarrassed?"

"Ah, I forgot. But if it's being embarrassed, those Royal Navy women are really good at them."

He tilted his head as if to say, good at being embarrassed…?

"Like what?" Atago said before he could.

"Well, their faces would redden a lot more than someone from, for example, Iron Blood."

Yeah. Iron Blood shipgirls don't show their embarrassment a lot, but that's good in its own way.

"Sometimes they'd even shriek."

"They'd shriek? Really? That sounds like behavior from an anime…"

"Yeah. Apparently that sort of thing happened once. Something about a hot spring and tea."

Commander gave a gentle laugh; a breath out of his nose, and he smiled.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Sounds wild. Like this one over here," he gestured to Laffey, who slept through all that.

Atago took the initiative to poke her cheek.

It wasn't enough to wake her up.

The Commander showed a concerned expression on his face.

Maybe he was thinking what might happen if she did that outside, but no one is willing to try anything on someone who can obliterate them like a warship can.

Besides, they probably wouldn't be interested anyway.

What kind of human man would want to mate with a ship girl?

We have armaments like they're extra limbs.

The Commander reached out and shook Laffey out of her slumber by her arm.

"Hm?" A yawn.

"Good morning."

"Please be careful. Something might happen to you, right?"

"Commander? Don't worry about it. I may look like this but I choose where to sleep."

Javelin's eyes shifted around and Ayanami blinked.

"I wouldn't sleep when it might endanger me or someone else."

"Really?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"Well, if you say so…"

After that she inhaled her food.

Maybe her body isn't willing to miss out on any time that can be spent sleeping so it makes sure that she doesn't waste any time eating.

"Have a good day, Commander," Javelin said.

Ayanami nodded and Laffey waved.

"Thanks, you three as well."

From his talk with Laffey until the end, he never stopped looking mildly concerned for them. His eyebrows were just a little bit furrowed as he ate.

Maybe it's because they noticed that the other three stayed quiet.

Were they guilty? Whether or not they felt that way, that was just who they were. It was fine. They had been fine before and they would continue being fine with the new Commander here.

But maybe the Commander didn't feel that way.

It's been noticeable for a long time now, but whenever he was on the job he would have a mildly tense body, like he was expecting something to go wrong any second.

That tension had only gotten mildly worse at this moment.

Maybe he could use some time off.

Having finished their food, they stood up from the table.

"Hey, Commander," Atago started.

"Yeah?" He turned his head to look at her.

"You remember a while ago, my siblings said that they were going to the mall, right?"

"Right." He nodded.

"I was planning to go this afternoon and I was wondering if you'd join us."

No surprise that she hadn't told him beforehand; the secretary didn't always need to be with the Commander. Just very often.

If he had any aversion to the idea he didn't show it.

But of course, he had aversion to the idea.

"I'd love to," he began, "but I have some more work stacked up for me today."

"I know it's probably presumptuous of me, but don't you think you could do that later? I saw it. It's only a few hours worth. We won't take the whole afternoon."

He looked hesitant and eyed the ceiling as if it would give him an answer.

"I don't know…"

Atago strided directly in front of him and made eye contact.

"Please?"

Her ears drooped.

"F… Fine. If you insist so much."

"Thanks! Let's go now." She beamed.

"Roger."


The two passed by many shipgirls, including a school of destroyers being chased by a certain Royal Navy ship and one upbeat "Hey Shikikan," which the Commander had been hearing every day since he first started working here. As always, he returned it with a polite greeting.

As he was absentmindedly pondering over how Atago would always smile whenever one of her fellows were doing something, something occurred to him.

Ah.

He was going on an outing, a little venture with Atago and all of her sisters.

Obvious things like slight anxiety and the anticipation of being seen with multiple beautiful women in public (despite him being a famous commander himself), he recalled.

And if he recalled correctly, though Choukai and Maya had gone to the city since morning, Takao had stayed behind to stay.

"Hey, what about your sister?"

"Hm?" She turned her head to meet his eyes. She was leading the way. "What about her? And which?"

Well, of course she wouldn't know what he meant specifically just from that. "Is Takao there already?"

"Ah. No, but we'll just meet her there."

She shuffled her pockets and pulled out something small and rectangular.

"I texted her, after all."

"A-Ah!"

It also occurred to him that he had failed to exchange numbers with his closest thing to a second-in-command.

That and missing the joke a while ago… He was underperforming today.

"Ah? What's wrong?"

Her facial expression and word choice were gentle. She looked puzzled.

Then she had the beginnings of a teasing smile on her face.

Then it disappeared, as if she thought of something funny but thought better of saying it.

Today so far has been full of blunders, so he should do what he has to do as directly and efficiently as possible, Shikikan thought.

"It just occurred to me that I don't have your number."

"Eh?" Her eyes widened and her cheeks reddened the slightest bit.

Not that that's a merited reaction though. No reason to look so embarrassed. Come on. If you look embarrassed I'll be embarrassed too!

Shaking off irrelevant thoughts, Shikikan went straight to the point.

"We should have each others' numbers in case of an emergency, or in case I need some work for you to do."

Atago's face tightened and relaxed. "Ah, so that's what it was. Of course, Commander. Let's exchange numbers."

Good. If she straightens up, I won't have to feel flustered.

If his cheek got so much as a little red, it might be a repeat of the episode a while ago with Ayanami.

Then he'd only get redder and the teasing would only get worse in response, leading to a vicious cycle that he had to avoid at all costs.

His train of thought stopped in its tracks when Atago took out her phone and got right next to him.

Sniff, sniff.

He did that discreetly on reflex. In the battlefield, after all, he had a habit of smelling whenever something new could be smelled so that he could determine whatever it was.

Plus, the sensation of using one's nose was pretty nice.

Atago didn't seem to think so.

"H-Ha!?"

Her eyes widened dramatically, her ears stood on end, and her long hair tried to fly.

"Ah. Sorry."

While noticing all these little things about her, Shikikan reflected. He calculated.

He had already slightly lost his composure a while ago so he wasn't going to lose his composure now no matter what was to come.

"It's just a reflex," he waved his hand. "I didn't mean to be creepy or anything. I'm sorry."

"I-"

"Anyway."

He was about to say something to distract her by making her do something else like let's get going, but he realized that what they had to do involved them getting close to one another.

Not particularly close, mind you, just close enough to smell.

No matter what, he can't get flustered and he can't redden.

"Sorry again."

Her ears drooped and her eyes narrowed as she held her phone protectively against herself, but she relaxed.

"I-It's fine. You just caught me by surprise. Here's my number."

He ignored the scent of her perfume as she closed in on him.

She had already fished out her phone and opened the line app on it. That left him to do the same, which he didn't do earlier because he was too busy-

Calm.

"Yeah. Okay, here."

He did the same in no time, and they exchanged numbers.

That's what he'd have liked to happen, but he had misplaced the line app on his phone, so he had to resort to the search bar.

In the miniscule amount of time it took to do that, a party of white-haired shipgirls - a fleet, if you will - passed by them.

"Oh? What's this? Exchanging numbers," one of them with a red strand in her white hair called out.

Don't blush, don't blush. Don't think about blushing or you might blush.

"Just now? Isn't it a bit late for that," called the same one. It was a familiar voice but he hadn't turned his head towards it yet to identify.

Breathe.

He turned his head from his phone towards them, made eye contact, and spoke clearly.

"Girls, hello. Mind if I ask you where you're going?"

Nice posturing and deflect.

"We're going to hit the town. You're a bit red, though, so you might want to get checked up. Maybe you have a fever," sung the one with the red strand, Prinz Eugen, if he recalled correctly.

"Prinz, that's the Commander. Don't be stupid," said one with blonde hair.

Thanks, blondie. I'll be sure to remember your name next time I see you in the database.

"Ah. Sorry." Prinz Eugen looked uncharacteristically sad from that.

"Come on, you two. We mustn't waste time," said a tall one with platinum-blonde hair.

A united and orderly chorus of "Yes, ma'am" rang out from them, sharply reminding the Commander of his younger military days.

"And Prinz. We're not hitting the town. We're hitting the battlefield. We must give this the respect it deserves."

Hearing that, Eugen sobered and schooled her expression expertly. "Yes, ma'am."

"Let's go."

"Goodbye, everyone," he was echoed by Atago.

Another harmonious chorus of formal goodbyes rang out as they continued on their way.

Phew.

What was that?

"Did you get my number, Atago?" He turned his eyes towards his secretary ship who was strangely quiet throughout most of the conversation. Even now she didn't make eye contact with him.

"Y-Yes. Let's continue on our way."

"Roger. Let's go."


The city was full of tall skyscrapers and people in the streets like water in the sea. When a traffic light shone green for pedestrians, the people crossing would look like a horde of rhinos.

They got a few looks here and there but nobody was willing to risk being caught staring at a world-class general (stuck babysitting) and one of those mysterious shipgirls, though some did stare at Atago anyway.

It seemed that the option of treating shipgirls as more beautiful women was becoming more and more popular by the day.

But even then, she was with a military general.

On a more primal note, she was with a man. So he didn't see many people staring after all.

"Where are we meeting them," he asked Atago, who was on her phone looking on the map.

"A fast food branch not far from here."

"What brand?"

"McDoonalds. Seems that they're having lunch there."

"Roger that."

"Hey." She turned to face him.

"Yes?"

"Why do you, um, say roger outside of work?"

The Commander quirked an eyebrow.

"It's just how I prefer to say yes sometimes. Why?"

"There's no reason. But I don't think it's normal. Like, if you see movies, they only use that in a military setting."

It would make sense that shipgirls would get their sense of normality from popular media first and others second.

They don't really have others to interact with after all.

Shikikan deadpanned. "We are in a military setti- I'm from a military setting, rather."

He coughed awkwardly. Lame to mess up right after a deadpan.

Thankfully, Atago giggled. That was good because it meant she wasn't mad. She turned her head back forwards so that neither of them would do anything stupid like run into a pole.

"Hey," she called while facing forwards.

"Yes?"

"If you don't mind me asking, what's the difference? Between your station here and your other… er… ventures…"

"Assignments."

"Assignments in the military."

A bit of a heavy question. Very easy to see why she seemed more careful than usual.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine. There's not much to talk about. In my past military assignments I'd just be given tasks like taking this point and escorting these guys. Do you know what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, more or less. Thanks for answering."

"No problem."

He noticed how, from the back, though he couldn't see her facial expressions, her ears gave off enough expression to compensate for that. They kept twitching and bouncing and fluffing.

Maybe she wanted to ask something more but was hesitating.

"Something on your mind?"

"Ah! Well, sorry to impose so much, but if you really don't mind me asking, then… do you prefer your post in the military or here?"

Ah. That was a bit of a tough question.

Well, between where he is now and where he was in the past, which would he like more?

"Here. I like things better here and now," he smiled with open teeth.

A pang of regret was felt in his heart.

"Ah. Is that so," she said softly.

Her ears were no longer twitching and bouncing around. Instead they were dormant, tame, and facing down, as if disappointed.

The air, as if on cue, felt a bit colder.

They walked in silence for the rest of the way.

Whether or not that silence was comfortable was anyone's guess.


"Come on, Maya. You should eat more," moaned Choukai from across the table as she attempted to spoon-feed her sister.

"Hm? What?" Ears flicked up and down as the white-haired younger sister took her phone out of her face and faced her sibling directly.

"Come on. Eat more."

"...No."

"Why not? Come on…"

Choukai was poking and prodding at Maya to eat more food.

As a sort of black sheep(or white cat if you'd prefer) in the family, Maya had a lot of differences between her and her siblings.

While they would default to a food place, she would default to a clothes store.

While they were hot and warm in their attitudes, she was cold.

While they had black long hair, she had white short hair.

How or why these differences came to be none of them knew, but one thing was for certain.

Choukai, ever caring as she was, would never stand for her sister to be excluded.

So she tried to get her to fit in with things as much as she'd allow.

In this case, that meant feeding her more.

"Come on…"

Right now, her face looked like a saggy angry marshmallow trying to coerce her.

So Maya did the only thing that was appropriate. She reached out and pinched her sister's cheeks.

"Oomf!"

"Sister I'm fine. Besides, if I eat more…"

She snuck another hand next to the table and poked Choukai's side.

"I might get fatter, like you and Atago."

Takao wasn't on that list because of her sheer dedication to her training.

But now, Choukai looked like a very angry marshmallow indeed with teary eyes.

"Maya~! How could you say that!"

She pouted.

"Anyway, I'm fine. I don't need any more food because I am not hungry anymore."

"Hmph," Choukai crossed her arms and turned her head away.

"But…"

"Hm, yes? But?"

She was on her again like a wolf on sheep.

"Thanks for the concern."

Maya smiled at her dear sister.

"Aw~! You're welcome any time, sis," she beamed back.

Because no matter how different they were or how many disagreements they had, they were siblings.

They only had each other.

"Hello, good afternoon," rang a deep voice.

Choukai and Maya both turned their heads to the voice. The figure of the Commander was right there, with their older sister, Atago, by his side, standing a few inches shorter than him. The height difference made them look nice side-by-side.

"A-Ah. Hello, Shikikan. I'm surprised to see you here," Choukai started.

"Good afternoon, Shikikan."

"Good afternoon, you two." He acknowledged them with a nod.

"Hey, you two! Takao's not here yet so let's just wait here for her," Atago beamed, bright as always, as they took their seats.

It was a good thing that her sisters had taken a table for all of them.

"Won't you two get food? Are you guys still hungry?" Choukai asked.

Maya eyed her sharply.

"No need. We already ate at base," said Atago.

"Ah. But that doesn't necessarily mean you're not hungry anymore!"

"Choukai, the base has a buffet," Maya pointed out.

Choukai didn't show any signs of hearing that but a breath through her nose.

It didn't look like Maya could stop her.

"All I'm saying is that you two should help yourselves if you feel like it."

"Thank you. I will if I feel like it."

"Look at you. Thanks," Atago beamed even brighter at the figure of her kind little sister.

Then she pinched her cheek like a mother, but Shikikan pretended not to see(or think) that.

"Well?" started Maya. "Not to be rude, sir," she said to the Commander, "But why is he here?" she said to her sister.

"Ah. The Commander seemed a bit tense today, so I decided that he could use some time off."

"Ah. Is that so? Alright." Maya and Choukai nodded, having accepted the explanation.

"Yes," said Shikikan. "Anyway, what are we going to do after this?"

"We'll see a movie then go to the clothes store for Maya," said the eldest sister.

Maya seemed surprised.

"Ah… I told you guys we don't have to…" though she wasn't fooling anyone with how her ears stood up on end when she heard "clothes store". In fact, even if she didn't have those ears one could still see her eyes shining.

She wasn't going to convince anyone like that.

"It's fine. We can get some for the Commander, too, if you want," Atago turned to him in the middle of saying that.

"Sure…" He replied dubiously.

The provisional planner, Atago, clapped her hands together and said, "Great! Sounds like a plan."

Choukai was watching the exchange quietly.

Conveniently, Takao arrived right then, looked around and declared,

"Greetings. Shall we go see the movie? We have 15 minutes before it starts."


"What a masterpiece…!"

Takao exclaimed as she was still wiping tears from her eyes.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. This feeling of not knowing what's going on but still being greatly entertained… as expected of this director. I'll look forward to his next works," said Maya, who probably felt like a critic just from watching a few videos on YourTube.

"The anticipation, the fear, the excitement, it all combined to give a truly and purely fulfilling ending," Choukai said many things while really not saying much.

"The main couple was very cute. How precious…" Atago went right to the point and turned to the man beside her.

"How did you like it, Commander?"

"I couldn't really follow the plot very closely, but it was good, I guess. Nice and cute, like romances should be," he intoned though he didn't have much to say about the topic.

"Ah. I agree with you that it is very important for a romance to be cute, but there has to be tension as well, doesn't there? Like, for example, when they don't know if the other party will reject them, and when they don't know if their circumstances will allow them to be together, I think it's the best."

"Ah, is that so… I agree…" 'I guess' went unsaid.

The other Takao sisters were whispering something to each other.

He hadn't pegged her for a romantic. But was she a romantic just for liking romance…? No, he couldn't take that assumption. He should just think of her as someone who likes romance films.

"So, what else did you like about the film?"

"Well… It had a solid plot. But of course more than that, the characters were very cute so I liked it very much."

"I see. You love cute characters?"

"Yes."

That suits her, he thought. She was always beaming at her fellow shipgirls whenever they did something cute, especially when they showed that they loved each other in an obvious way that they didn't think was obvious.

"What about the Commander?"

"Yeah, I'd say the same. Though I don't really get the appeal…"

That romance movie made Shikikan feel a variety of emotions that he wasn't sure he welcomed. They felt strange and confusing.

But it was overall enjoyable, so he liked it.

"Well, shall we go now?" Atago took the lead again as the eldest sister.

"Where to," asked Takao.

"The clothes shop."


"Do you wanna try out different dresses?"

"Eh? What about you?"

"I'm fine. I don't need a dress."

"Now, don't be like that~. If we're all wearing dresses, so are you."

"Nice, nice, nice, ni~ce..."

Maya was muttering something to herself repeatedly in different tones as her eyes roamed their targets.

It wasn't audible, though.

Her sisters were decked out in beautiful dresses, with Choukai being blue, Takao red, and Atago white.

She herself was in a black dress.

Then she had the Shikikan wear a simple tuxedo.

Maya smiled. "You guys look good."

"Thanks, you too," beamed her eldest sister.

"Now, now. Let's take a picture, then we can go browsing if there's anything we wanna buy. Hey, excuse me, Sir," the Commander said so as he got someone to take their picture.

From left to right, they were loosely arranged youngest to eldest: Choukai before Maya because she didn't want her to be at the very edge, then Takao, Atago, and the Commander.

"Thank you, Sir."

"You're welcome, please have a good day with those beautiful ladies."

The employee who had taken their picture smiled, gave a small bow and left.

"Hm. Quite good service they have here, that they'd bow," chimed Atago.

"Yeah."

He left out his thought that he could've been doing that because the customer this time was him.

It wouldn't really accomplish anything if he said it.

"Anyway, let's meet back here when we're finished. I'll be right back."

Saying that, the Commander changed back into his normal clothes and went off to browse the shelves.

The section he was in was filled with jackets, hoodies and sweaters.

There were some with famous brands like Bike.

There were some with pictures printed on them.

There were some with text on them. One notable one said "Oppai" with a picture of what looked to be man-boobs.

But what caught his eye was a hoodie that said "I 3 Azur Lane".

He drew closer to it, picked it up and started inspecting it.

But as he was feeling the fabric, he felt a presence behind him.

Then everything went dark.

"Who~ is~ it~?"

Years of military training kicked in and he gripped the hands over his eyes, incapacitated them and got a good look at his attacker.

At least, he would've if the hands even budged. It was like they were made of steel…

"Ah, Commander!? Sorry!" Atago let go of her hold on his eyes just as he was starting to struggle.

"Oh, it's just you, Atago. Sorry, you scared me." She didn't look any worse for wear in her uniform. Her cheeks were just a little bit flushed, probably because of the struggle he put her in.

"M-Me too. It was inappropriate of me."

"Don't worry about it. I'm the one who overreacted."

"No, it was my fault. I'm really sorry." He wasn't going to let someone else take the blame.

"You're still too tense, Commander."

Ah, that's true, isn't it.

He scratched his head and faced down. "Sorry about that."

"No need to apologize. Look, you're doing it again. See what you're doing?"

He looked up at her.

"You keep apologizing for something that's no big deal." She looked away. "Maybe it's not. Maybe you're taking it too seriously."

Ah. Is that the case?

Sure he had been acting with mainly the best interests of others at heart, but maybe he had been acting too hard.

"Then thank you." He looked into her eyes.

Atago smiled. "You're welcome. Have you picked something?" She eyed the hoodie that he had put down.

"Yeah. Let's go."

He didn't fail to notice Takao, Choukai and Maya peeking from behind a shelf sending them strange looks. But he put what Atago said to him in practice and decided that it probably wasn't a big deal.


The sun was setting as they walked back to the base, painting the sky in oranges and dark blues. Atago was walking with the rest of her sisters a bit behind the Commander. He was in the front.

Today had been a bit of a mess. He embarrassed himself twice in a row.

But maybe that was okay.

Maybe the mere fact that he counted it was already him taking things too seriously. Maybe he should just live and learn from his mistakes. That sounded good.

As long as no one kicks me for my mistakes I should be good.

Atago scurried over and approached him.

"Hey, Commander. This is a bit sudden, but I have a question."

"Sure." He was already being less tense.

"A while ago you asked if Laffey was getting 8 hours of sleep, right? What was that all about?"

"Ah. My mother always used to tell me that everyone should be getting 8 hours of sleep every night."

"Ah, really? It's 8? I thought it was 6."

"Well, it's 8. If you're not getting 8, you should be getting 8 hours of sleep."

Atago hummed and nodded to herself.

"That makes sense. Okay, let's continue."

"Yeah. We'll have to do the work that we'd postponed now," he said.

"It's not many hours of work, I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Don't let your guard down."

She nodded. "Yes sir," she said. It didn't seem that her being relaxed negatively impacted her resolution. Maybe he could learn a thing or two from her.

He was only beginning to adjust to his new life here, and he wasn't sure how long he'd stay, so he might as well get used to it.