A Certain Lady Part 2

By Old Iron

Fast Battleship Hiei heaved a sigh of relief as she exited the primary command staff building of Sasebo Combined Fleet Command headquarters, officially named Building CSHQ-01 and more commonly named Fort Doom. She really hated seeing that glare on Admiral Richardson's face. It was scary and unnerving and generally gave her the heebie-jeebies. At the very least it hadn't been directed at her this time.

"I wonder what happened this time." She crossed her arms and adopted a look of deep thought as she meandered towards the mess hall. "Hmm... Arizona was there. Maybe she stole his coffee again? He was reading something. Ahh! I'll worry about it later. I'm hungry!" It really wouldn't do her any good to spend too much time trying to figure out the latest source of her commander's foul mood. All she really cared about at the moment was the fact she wasn't the one under his horrifying glare. Well, that and refueling. Her night patrol with Mutsu and Combined Escort Detachment 75 had been painfully dull and left her with far less fuel than she liked running on.

She wasn't a carrier like Akagi, but she still had a healthy appetite.

A growl of near epic proportions made itself known as she walked. Hiei clutched her stomach in embarrassment before deciding to throw caution to the wind just seek out breakfast at flank speed.

"Halt sailor!"

"Whoah!" Just as she was getting up to speed, a voice called out and brought her to a near screeching stop. Hiei flailed her arms for a moment to regain her balance and avoid a what could have been a rather painful faceplant. Concrete wasn't a very good cushion.

She turned towards the direction of the voice and her startled expression turned into a wide grin. Hiei immediately adopted the most serious expression she could muster while snapping to attention with a salute even Nagato would be impressed by.

"Good morning Ensign Richardson! How are you this fine morning?" She retained her posture even as the ensign approached and began giving her and thorough looking-over. Some might break into a nervous sweat under the sudden scrutiny, but like her namesake, Hiei did not so much as twitch.

"Hungry. And I was hoping a nice lass like you would join me." Ensign Richardson spoke with an all too serious tone. "Well, sailor?"

"It would be an honor, sir! In fact, I was already on my way there." Hiei kept her blue eyes firmly focused on the slightly off-center cover adorning the nine-year-old's head, doing her very best to avoid eye contact. It was not easy at all. Especially considering just how hilariously out of place everything about the little girl was.

There was a sputtering sound as an aborted laugh managed to slip its way past the lips of the third, and thus far silent, member of the gathering. Jintsuu was trying her hardest to not give in to the giggles with very little success. Both Hiei and Ensign Richardson turned to look before locking eyes on one another and breaking into their own fits of laughter. It didn't take long before all three were caught up in the amusement completely.

"Commander on deck!" The ensign hollered out just long enough to give Hiei warning before leaping at the battleship who caught her with considerable ease.

Ensign Jane Sarah Richardson was an ensign in name only. Much like how other members of the service might play along with the make-believe world of someone's child imagining themselves as being a member of the service or even a superior officer, Jane's situation differed only in that the game had been going on for months. And that the members of the service she was playing with were warships from an era long since past. Her father happening to be the same admiral that nearly gave Hiei a heart attack.

"You slept well I bet. All full of energy." Hiei lifted the ensign up onto her shoulders with a grin and held her fast with a firm grip. A rather easy task even if she didn't have the ludicrous strength of a battleship. Jane was a slip of a girl and appropriately featherweight. Small hands gained purchase on her headgear as she steadied herself. "And I'm staaarving. No amount of burning spirit can substitute for a hot meal. Especially after running around at sea all night."

"I slept really good. And I'm reeealy hungry too." Jane pointed in the direction of the mess hall and gave a rallying cry that the battleship mimicked. "To food!"

"You slept well, Jane. Not 'good'." Jintsuu's soft voice sounded out, now having recovered from her bout of laughter. In her hands were a multitude of folders and papers bound together. Some of which looked ready to spill out onto the ground and make the light cruiser's morning more hectic than usual. She had come across Jane whilst on her way to the admiral's office and been swept up in the girl's morning routine of 'base inspection'. It was a day off from school so there was no need to worry about truancy officers.

There weren't always other children for Jane to play with, so she had gravitated towards the shipgirls who were almost constantly running about doing something or another. The battleships especially drew her attention. It did make sense, really. Mutsu especially had a knack for interacting with little ones and Hiei had energy to spare for virtually anything a rambunctious group of children could throw at her. Arizona was... Arizona was... steady. Like a security blanket. Jintsuu couldn't really put it any other way. And it wasn't like the American warship was forthcoming with explanations either.

"Oh, lighten up a bit Jintsuu. You going to join us?" Hiei smiled before twirling about, much to Jane's amusement. "Mutsu's probably debriefing the Admiral right now and Arizona was in there too. I think she stole his coffee again. He had one of those super angry glares going." She shuddered slightly.

"Hehehe. Ari's always taking daddy's coffee." Jane giggled while Jintsuu sighed in resignation at the statement.

Going almost hand in hand with the seemingly unending consumption of caffienated beverages, Arizona had resorted to various measures to ensure she was properly wired up and awake at all times. The measures employed had resulted in Admiral Richardson's morning brew almost always being mostly or completely drained by the time he reached the pot. Thus often forcing him to make more while existing in a state not too dissimilar to a zombie.

Jintsuu idly wondered if the obsession with coffee was a Western thing. Or caffienated drinks to be more specific. She'd seen plenty of Japanese people enjoy such beverages, but in her mind it never really compared to the near slavish devotion she saw demonstrated in particular by the Americans. The armed forces seemed to have their own branch-specific rituals related to coffee and she rarely saw any serviceman without a cup, canteen, or thermos filled to the brim with the black liquid. Especially in the morning. And if Arizona and the rumors about the other American warships were any indication, battleships were particularly devoted.

The fact that Kongou was born in England and showed a comparable fanaticism for black tea made her worry for Hiei. And the rest of the fast battleships for that matter.

"Daddy makes the best coffee in the world." She leaned over and whispered conspiratorially to Hiei. Whispered in the sense that anyone nearby could hear her. "Ari even said so!" Well, more accurately, Arizona had said she preferred the admiral's coffee to the stuff she could find around base. But to Jane that was close enough to being the best in the world.

"If she said so, then it must be true." Hiei laughed before gesturing to Jintsuu, breaking the girl out of her thoughts. "Come on. Breakfast is more fun with more people. And then we can brag to the admiral how he keeps missing out." She wished that her sisters, Kongou in particular, would have been able to join them, but they had their own missions to take care of. She'd have to make sure she made up for everything they missed.

"Certainly. I'm rather hungry myself." Jintsuu chuckled softly. "And we'll drag him out of his cave one of these days." The Admiral had an unfortunate tendency to skive off breakfast, or eat it in bar form on the way to his post. Neither really lent themselves well to him spending quality time with his child in her opinion. Or with the girls under his command for that matter. She'd heard some of the other admirals in charge of shipgirl fleets went out of their way to make some time to get to know them a bit better.

The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force was still adjusting to the new challenges brought on by the massive number of unknowns and new discoveries that came with the onset of the Abyssal War. Certainly not helping was the resource crunch. But one thing that many commanders had realized was that it was much harder to treat a shipgirl like a regular soldier. After all, not many soldiers were warships from the early half of the 20th century made flesh.

Still, flimsy excuses for Admiral Richardson aside, she really ought to find a way to drag him away from his desk more frequently. As his secretary it was her duty to help her commanding officer and find ways to keep him from being buried in work. Whether that be through paperwork or confiscating those historical fiction books of his. Jintsuu wanted to put a hand to her head in sorrowful exasperation. They were a bit too much of a distraction and she knew quite well how the time could fly if you weren't paying attention. And he seemed to have a never ending supply of them.

But she'd worry about that after she had a full tank.

"Then lets get some grub." Hiei turned towards the direction of the mess and raised a fist to the sky. "Breakfast Corps! All ahead flank!" Both Jane and Jintsuu raised their hands to match the battleship, the former sounding off with a far more energetic voice than the latter.

U/N: This was actually written awhile ago but I totally forgot to upload it so... oops?