Editor's Note: By order of the almighty author, who for the hundredth fucking time isn't me so stop PMing my account with your nitpicks: this is canon!

A Certain Lady Omake

By Harry Leferts

Arizona watched as the small girl circled around her trying to look as imperious as possible. Part of her was highly amused at the Admiral's daughter, and the other part was just confused. 'I must admit that she's rather... cute, I suppose is the word.'

Tilting her head, Arizona looked down as the girl looked up with her eyes narrowed. For several moments Jane stared at her before she nodded. "Inspection complete! So, daddy says that you're supposed to be the one watching me?" Slowly, Arizona nodded only to blink as Jane tilted her head to match Arizona's. "You don't talk much, do you Miss Arizona?"

With a slight smile, Arizona reached down and placed her hand on Jane's head. "I just did not feel like there was anything to say."

For a moment, Jane blinked before she looked up at Arizona and straightened. "Right! So, Lieutenant! Are you ready for your mission?"

Slightly curious at what the small girl had planned, Arizona played along a bit and gave her a salute. "Very well, I am ready for my mission."

The next words out of Jane's mouth caused Arizona to furrow her eyebrows. "Good! Let's go bake a cake!" Jane then paused and turned back to the battleship. "Um... what kind of cake do you like?"

Not having expected the question, Arizona blinked as she tried to think of an answer. "I..." After a few seconds, she tapped her chin in thought. "I've never exactly thought of it..."

Her hand was then grabbed by Jane and she was dragged toward the kitchen. "That's okay, we'll just have to find a recipe that you'll like." It wasn't until later that she realized just how funny it was that she, a battleship, was getting dragged around by an energetic young girl.

Mutsu poked her head into the Admiral's kitchen and had to keep from giggling at the cute sight that met her. There was Jane explaining how to put icing on a cake to Arizona. Said battleship had a cute apron on that Mutsu wondered about where it had come from. 'My, my, my...~'

Having no idea about her audience, Arizona was bent as she watched Jane put on some icing. Of course, she also missed the mischievous smile on the little girl's face. Then Jane swiped some icing with her finger and tapped Arizona on the nose. "Got you!"

Cross eyes, Arizona looked at the smear of icing before she narrowed her eyes. Before Jane could do anything, Arizona took some icing and poked Jane in the cheek. "Got you."

For several moments the two just stood there staring at each other before Jane burst out into laughter and Arizona smiled with a light giggle. Shaking her head, Mutsu moved out of sight and grinned. 'Told the Admiral that this would be good for Ari...'

Jane tried to ignore Arizona as the battleship cleaned off her face with a warm wet cloth to get the icing off. Meanwhile, the little girl was examining their cake with a thoughtful nod. "Looks good! But now we need something to drink while we eat our cake..." Scrunching up her nose in a way that caused Arizona to fight back a coo, being as it would not be dignified for a ship of her standing to do so, Jane looked around before she turned to the much taller shipgirl. "Miss Arizona, do you like hot chocolate?"

Blinking at the seemingly random question, Arizona frowned a bit. "I don't... don't like it. Is that what you would like to have? Some hot chocolate?" At the nod, she began to reach for a can of powdered cocoa. "Then I suppose that would be fine."

A moment later though, Jane grabbed Arizona's wrist and shook her head. "Nope! Not that stuff, Miss Arizona, let's make some!" Then she pointed up at one of the cupboards. "There's a bag of chocolate bar squares there... could you get it for me? You're... um, taller then me..."

Softly smiling, Arizona easily took out the bag of chocolate bar squares and held up it. "Is this what you want?"

Nodding, Jane grinned back. "Yup! Oh! And we need brown sugar and cinnamon! Those are up there as well... I'll go get the milk and stuff."

Curious, Arizona turned around and grabbed the items in question and Jane placed some milk on the countertop along with a cutting board, butter knife, and a saucepan. Picking up the butter knife, Arizona frowned a bit. "A butter knife?"

With a huff, Jane crossed her arms across her chest. "Daddy doesn't want me using the sharp knives." Shaking her head, Jane turned back to the cutting board and opened one of the wrapped squares. "Now, first we cut these into tiny pieces..."

As she watched and listened to Jane's instructions, Arizona frowned a bit as she realized that Jane hadn't mentioned her mother nor had she even seen said woman around the base. 'I wonder where she is...' Joining in, the two made quick work of the chocolate squares and Arizona turned on the stove burner as Jane asked. "What do we do now?"

There was a large smile on Jane's face as she took the saucepan and filled it with milk. "Now we heat up the milk before we can add in the chocolate..." Once they began to add it, Jane stirred it for a little bit and then passed the spoon to Arizona. "Here, you try."

For several seconds, Arizona blinked before she looked at the saucepan and began to stir the now bubbling brown liquid while Jane added some brown sugar and cinnamon to it. Neither of the two noticed Mutsu hiding around the corner recording them...

— | — | —

Sitting at the table with a large slice of the cake her and Jane had made with a mug of hot chocolate, with whipped cream on top as according to Jane you had to have whipped cream, Arizona picked up her fork. With a glance at Jane who was bouncing in anticipation, Arizona slowly took a bite sized piece and put it into her mouth. For several moments she chewed it before she stopped and Jane leaned forward. "Well?"

It was a slightly surprised Arizona who turned back to her. "It's... good." Taking a sip of the hot chocolate, Arizona licked the whipped cream on her lips and nodded. "And so is the hot chocolate."

Her eyes wide, Jane did the same thing before she closed her eyes and threw her hands into the air. "Then I pronounce our mission, a success!"

Softly smiling, Arizona turned back to her cake and continued to enjoy it as Jane chattered all sorts of things to her. Though the battleship did wonder exactly why it seemed to taste better then the ones she got in the mess.