Iron Pyrite Chapter 2, an azur lane/碧蓝航线 fanfic

Part Two – Come with me

It'd been a couple of weeks since the Kommandant had helped me after I twisted my ankle, and well we had fallen into our usual habits almost immediately… still it was nice to know he could be nice when he wanted to be.

In my garden I sat on a chair and took my boot off and put my ankle up to redress the bandage on it, this was so stupid… sometimes I hate having a human-like body, it can be so weak sometimes… not to mention with this kind of damage, my hull has a mobility problem; one of the screws isn't turning at full power nor is the rudder shifting correctly. I sigh it was so dumb, this body gets hurt and the hull suffers effects, my hull gets damage and this body suffers for it… I swear whoever came up with that idea should be dragged out, shot, and pissed on.

I wince as I rock my foot forwards and back, it's getting better, but not there yet. There is a knock at my door and I call out to whoever it is, "You'll have to open it, I'm not hobbling over there…"

The door pops open as I look over my shoulder to see a head of silver hair, blue eyes, and a bust line that could rival Eugen's, I sigh inwardly and ask, "What's up Mainz?"

She smiles at me as she crosses the room to put down a to-go cup of coffee beside me and asks, "How is your ankle today?"

I sigh and slip my boot back on before drinking some of the coffee as I tell her, "Getting better, thanks for the coffee."

She smiles at me, truth be told as much as I love Eugen, I like Mainz more… if only because she doesn't tease me. She rests against the table I'm at and fidgets with her hands as she asks, "Hipper, since you are not fit for action right now, have you thought about possibly taking a term of service in the secretary pool?"

I start coughing and choking on the coffee she brought me as I shake my head before I tell her, "That's a bad idea…"

Tilting her head at me and blinking those blue eyes of hers she asks, "Why though? The Kommandant was perfectly nice to me when I was there…"

Yeah, because you have enough personal floatation to never sink…

Once I've stopped coughing and choking on my coffee I fill her in on the difficulties between me and the Kommandant, and she fixes me with this look that sends a shiver down my spine as she tells me while handing me a note, "Then consider it an order."

I blink a couple of times, she didn't outrank me in the Iron Blood, she's a light cruiser… if only because of her armament and I'm a heavy cruiser! I flip open the note and see that it is indeed written orders signed by both Herrin Bismarck and Herrin Tirpitz… damn. I don't want to work closely with him… not if I can help it.

I read the note a second time and see that I had been put into the pool two weeks ago and that my rotation was starting tomorrow, goddamn it!

I sigh and look down as I say, "Thanks for letting me know about this Mainz…"

She smiles and puts a hand on my shoulder as she says, "No problem, try to enjoy it… there are perks to being the secretary."

Rolling my eyes I sigh and nod, "Yeah… still it sucks."

She laughs and pats my shoulder before she leaves, telling me, "I'll keep watch for you tomorrow morning so that I can report to Herrin Bismarck that you arrived as ordered."

"I'll be there. Hey, are we still on for drinks later?" I ask in a defeated tone.

She nods again and asks, "D you mind if I invite Odin and Roon as well?"

I sigh inwardly, Odin was fine but Roon scared the hell out of me, despite that, I nod and say, "Looking forward to it."

Once she's gone I lean back and hang my head over the back of my chair and groan out, loudly, "This sucks!"

XXXX

The next morning I hobble my way to the office and I see Mainz standing by the door to the secretarial office, her arms folded under her bust, one foot against the wall, her eyes were closed. But as soon as I got close she pushed herself off the wall and said, "Good, you followed orders. I'll be sure to pass this along to Herrin Bismarck."

With that, she heads off down the hall and I make my way into the office and take a seat at the desk, turn on the computer and enter my log-in information. I have to admit the chair in here is actually really, really comfortable…

I just let out a relaxed sigh as I open the e-mail inbox and notice the massive pile of correspondence, dating back almost two weeks of unopened or un-forwarded e-mails, back when that pink-haired sea cow was here… I start going through it, tossing junk, reading through, and sending things that actually need his attention to him.

I pinch the bridge of my nose, I can't understand why it was left to sit so long, as I sigh and keep going and I hear the door open. Looking up from the screen I see the Kommandant, the surprise at seeing me here all over his face. He stops and leans back to look at the door, almost like he's wondering if he might have gone to the wrong place. I sigh and snap at him, "What are you looking at, idiot?"

He closes the door behind him and shrugs as he taunts me, "A little kid that shouldn't be behind a desk like that."

My lips compress into a thin line while my nostrils flare outward; if only he wasn't such a dick… he looks good but that personality of his… ugh! I flick my hair as I tell him, "Well if your sea cow that had been here before me had done her job correctly, rather than whatever or whoever she was doing, maybe I wouldn't have had to go through two weeks' worth of correspondence!"

He crosses the room and gets into my personal space as he says back, "Bremerton isn't a sea cow."

I make an irritated noise as I say, "Really? Because she looked udderly ridiculous with her tits hanging out like that whenever I came up here."

For a split second I can see that he's fighting the urge to laugh, looks like he has a sense of humor after all. He takes a moment to get himself centered before changing the subject, "How is your ankle?"

I sigh and sip my coffee before I tell him, "Better, but it's not like you care."

He shrugs, taking his own cup and heading into his office as he tells me, "Maybe I do, and maybe I don't."

When his door closes I'm left confused and speechless. I mean we fight and argue whenever we are within five feet of each other! Why the hell would he give a rat's ass about how I'm doing? Damn him for making me wonder about this now!

Turning my attention back to the tasks at hand I try to clean up this mess I got left with, grumbling the entire time. Time seemed to fly by and I look up to see it's almost time for lunch, stretching with one arm way up high, puffing out my chest in the process I hear the door to his office open and he sticks his head out, sees me and says, "Hipper, did you get bigger?"

I look down and notice that because of the angle I'm at, you can actually see my bust line through my uniform. My eyebrow twitches as I snap at him, "Leave it to a degenerieren like you to only notice I'm a woman when you can see my boobs from the side!"

He blinks at me a couple of times and says, "That's a new insult…"

I roll my green eyes and stop stretching before I push myself out of my desk and start to hobble to the door as I snap back, "I'm surprised you noticed at all. I'm going to get something to eat… I'll be back in half an hour."

He comes out of his office and opens the door for me as he says, "I'll come with you, it's lunchtime after all and I got to eat too."

I give him a sideways glance; he's got to be up to something… I shrug and say to him, "Do what you want, but don't sit near me."

He laughs at me and says, "Why? Worried that someone might think we're on a date or something?"

I feel my cheeks get hot and he piles on more, "You do?! That's hilarious!"

"Dummkopf!" I holler at him and shove him a little as I hobble down the hallway to the mess hall. From behind me I can hear him still laughing as he follows along.

XXXX

Once I'm in the lineup I see that today seems to be a Sakura Empire bento lunch special. I roll my eyes and sigh inwardly, it's not bad food, it can be rather tasty sometimes, but it's never that filling… Almost as bad as Eastern Radiance cuisine and how it leaves you hungry an hour later.

Once I've got my box and some water I take a seat at the far end of the mess hall and open my bento box, it seems I have some kind of meat and vegetable mixture with some kind of dark sauce over rice, some fried vegetables in a light batter with a dark sauce for dipping and a couple of rolls of rice with what I think is fish in it, and next to that is a green paste of some kind. I take my fork and put one tine in the paste and take a taste of it… Oh, that is spicy!

I try the dark sauce and find it to be a whole lot milder and very salty; giving a shrug I try dipping one of the rice rolls in it and popping it in my mouth, not so bad. I'm just about to do that to the second one when he sits down across from me… Really? Out of everywhere else you could sit, you chose here?

Looking around quickly I see that everyone seems to be looking in my direction, just what I wanted… wonderful… I put one arm elbow down and try to hide my face from view, this is so embarrassing… maybe I can get him to go away…

Turning my attention to his lunch I see that it's the same as mine, a smirk hits my lips and I say to him, "You shouldn't try the green paste…"

I catch it in his eyes, it looks like he took that as a challenge and he puts a bunch of it on his fork and shoves it in his mouth! I start laughing as his eyes start to tear up and he reaches for his water to gulp it down. I lean back in my chair and keep laughing at him, after he's almost drowned himself with his water he pants out, "You did that on purpose!"

That just makes me laugh harder while I point at him and say, "I said you shouldn't try the green paste."

His cheeks go red, I'm not sure if it is due to the paste or embarrassment, but this is too funny! After a moment he tries to hide his face behind an arm and hand as he whispers across the table at me, "Fine, but can you stop laughing at me?"

"Why, it's all in good fun Kommandant." I snipe at him like he had at me a few weeks ago.

He snorts at me, taking his lunch and leaving my table and me alone, mission accomplished. I follow him with my green eyes as he makes his way to another table, full of sea cows that all welcome him over and fawn over him… I almost feel… no, I don't care… he's just a jerk that likes to be around torpedo bulges.

When I get back to the secretary office I see that his door is open and I can hear him talking to someone, I lean around the side of the door frame and see him cornered by one of the nine-tailed fox-girls from the Sakura Empire; it's one of the ones with brown fur. Whatever, not my problem…

I just settle into my desk as I hear him sigh and say, "Akagi, how many times do I have to say it, the answer is no."

Oh? This could be interesting, I lean my chair back to listen in a little better, "Akagi thinks Shikikan-sama keeps the insects he does because he misses Akagi's bosom…"

I roll my eyes at the words of that one, then why the hell am I here?

I get my answer when the Kommandant says, "Akagi, I like to give everyone a fair shake at the secretary position."

But it was what Akagi said next that made me laugh so hard that I made my chair fall over, "Akagi loves you so Shikikan-sama, so much so that I would not mind if you partook of me in front of all the others… if only to make my position clear to all of the others."

With the thump of me crashing to the floor, I hear them come to my office, Akagi looking furious, her hair up, tails flicking back and forth until she sees me and relaxes as she says, "Oh, it is only a destroyer, I have nothing to worry from someone with that figure."

You… you…

I get off of the floor and hobble over to her, hands on my hips as I shoot back, "Take a hint you dumme Schlampe in der Hitze! He's not interested!"

Akagi pushes her bust into me as she takes on a dangerous tone, "Big words for someone so small…"

From behind me, I hear the icy tone of Odin, "Careful Akagi, you wouldn't want to draw the ire of the Iron Blood, now would you?"

I look over my shoulder with one eye to see Odin, Eugen, and Mainz, I feel the edges of my lips curl up as I pat Akagi on a shoulder and say as sweetly as I can, "Everything is fine Odin, Akagi was just leaving."

The fox looked at the collection behind me and made a face like she weighed if it was worth starting a fight here and now before she patted the side of my cheek and said in an oddly pleasant tone, "Right, I was just leaving…"

She paused to look at the Kommandant as she added, "I will see you later Shikikan-sama."

I noticed the Kommandant shudder a little at that. Huh, guess there is something that bothers him. Once she's gone, Odin hands me a stack of papers while Eugen and Mainz stand at the door, watching both directions of the hall. After I take the papers from her, Eugen asks, "You going to be okay Hipper? Akagi can be trouble…"

Putting the papers on my desk I tell my sister, "I'll be fine, besides if I really do get into trouble I know you'll be there."

The three of them leave shortly after that and I give the papers a quick scan seeing that they are the reports from their deployment, I sigh and head into his office with them. Once I get in there I see the Kommandant lean around the side of his desk and let out a breath as he says, "Oh, it's only you."

Only me? What the hell does that mean? Rolling my eyes my hands go to my hips and I snipe, "And just what the hell do you mean by that?"

He sighs and settles fully back in his chair and smiles at me as he says, "That' you're not Akagi."

Crossing my arms across my chest I stalk over and slam down the reports from Odin as I tell him, "Well if you'd keep your dick out of the sea cows, you wouldn't have a problem!"

He blinks those blue eyes at me, and tilts his head off to the side as he says, "I haven't slept with anyone here."

I tilt my head up and back to look at him through half-open eyes as I dig a little, "You mean, not in the office…"

He shakes his head and restates, "No, I mean what I said, the way I said it."

Huh… maybe I miss judged him a little.

"Then why do you surround yourself with them?" I ask.

He sighs and starts to look at the papers as he says, "It's not by choice."

I turn and head back to my desk as I think about this new information, I figured for sure he'd have been conducting boarding actions whenever he could…

XXXX

Once the clock strikes eighteen hundred I sign out of the computer and stretch before I get out from behind my desk the door to his office opens, but he doesn't come out… I rub the back of my head as I tell him, "She didn't come back."

"Oh thank god!" I hear him call and he steps out of his office.

I reach into my drawer and pop open the can of oxy-cola I had in there, putting my feet up on the desk and ask, "So, why are you so scared of Akagi?"

To my surprise he takes a seat across from me, leaning forward, resting his hands between his legs, and sighs out, "She thinks I belong to her."

I shake my can to the side a little and say, "Why's that? Did you stick it in her?"

He laughs and shakes his head before saying to me, "The opposite, I keep telling her no."

"Sure…" I say in a way that makes it clear I don't buy it.

He leans back in the chair, looking back to his office as he tells me, "That's the worst part about this assignment. Aside from you, the younger kansen, and a few others, most of the kansen here are interested in something I don't want to give."

"Bull shit." I say to him, sipping from the can before I add, "I saw you at lunch, the way you seemed so relaxed around Bremerton, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Honolulu… You like the attention of sea cows."

He sighs again and asks me, "Their body types seem to really bug you, why is that?"

I choke on my drink and cough a few times before I snap, "None of your business."

He shrugs and gets out of the chair, stopping at the door he says, "You know, not every guy likes big breasts."

I'm stunned by that one; I honestly have no idea how to respond to that one. I sit there for a while before I finish my can and ask out loud, "What the hell does that mean?!"

Getting out from my desk I toss the can into the bin and hobble back to my flat, once I'm in I see Eugen in shorts and a tank top, can of beer in hand, scrolling through juustagram. I make my way over and flop down on the couch, kicking off my boots and redressing the bandage on my left ankle. Just as I get that done I feel something cold touch my right cheek and I squeak out in shock and surprise before I look over and see a cold can of beer.

Taking the can I pop it open and ask Eugen, "Did you know the Kommandant hasn't… you know…"

She nods and sips more of her can before telling me, "I knew he turned me down. I figured it was due to Akagi being so possessive."

I shake my head and drink more before I let her know, "He said something really strange when he left the office today. He said something about not every guy liking big boobs… what the hell do you think that means?"

Eugen shrugs and leans against me, poking my cheek with a finger, I can smell the beer on her breath as she suggests to me, "Maybe he's into your kind of body…"

I snort out, "Yeah, right."

Slamming back the rest of my can, I head into the kitchenette we've got and made a quick dinner before turning in for the night, I want to get an early start and stop by my garden in the morning.

XXXX

When I get up in the morning it was nice to see that Eugen actually slept in her own room last night and not in the living room, still, I had slept like crap all night, my mind kept wondering if the reason why I always fought with the Kommandant was that maybe he liked me.

Yeah… that'll be the day I see a manjuu fly…

Once I get into the office, I get my stuff stowed in the drawers and fire up the computer, while that's going to get the coffee maker going and wait. Once I've got my coffee I start going through the e-mail just as the Kommandant comes in the office, he's looking at his phone, likely checking juustagram I bet.

I click on one of the messages, this one from the Royal Navy and I see it's an invitation to the next gala at the end of the month, junk, not like I'd be going anyways…

The Kommandant stops halfway through my office and calls out, loudly, "Son of a bitch!"

Turning his attention to me, he says, "I am so screwed."

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

"Have you not seen the e-mails? There is a Royal Gala this month… do you know what that means?" he asks me.

I shrug and tease, "You mean the sea cows are going to be throwing themselves at you more than normal?"

He sighs and hangs his head as he says, "Yeah."

I shrug, not my problem and I say back, "Poor you… big breasted woman want to touch you all night long…"

He sighs again and asks something that sends me for a loop, "Do you have a nice dress?"

I almost spit out the coffee I'm drinking as I ask back, "Were you dropped on your head as a child?"

He shakes his head and tells me, "This is a perk of being the secretary, you get the first crack at going to these with me."

I snort, I'm sure he's having a go at me with this so I snap back, "You can't stand me, why the hell would you subject yourself to a full evening with me… you must be touched in the head…"

He shakes his head again, putting both hands down on the desk, looking me in the eyes as he says, "I'm serious. Do you have a nice dress?"

I feel my breath getting caught in my throat, yeah, I had a few of them, I had ordered them online after searching for those dresses in my magazine, but I couldn't admit to that! Not to him of all people!

Folding my arms across my chest I give him a sideways glance as I say with a slight smirk, "You could always go with Akagi…"

He shutters at that, running a hand down his face before he clenches his teeth and asks, "Hipper, would you like to go to the Royal Gala as my date?"

Wait, what? He's got to be joking… Why the hell would he ask me this?! We can't stand each other, on a good day!

Then he said those words, which put me in a fog, "Please Hipper, please be my date."

I was shocked at how numb those words made me; I slowly nodded my head up and down. Was he really asking me to go to this thing as his date?

XXXX

A/N: Chapter two done. I'm thankful for the kind words with my take on Hipper, and that my goal of making her seem justified in her actions came across both clearly and cleanly. I figured she would need to be understandable if not likeable for this story to work.