Erwin shut the door to the small house she and the other history team members lived in and hurriedly carried her bags up to her room on the second level. She didn't bother putting them away somewhere, she simply put them on the floor for now and set about trying to locate her sewing kit.
Military uniforms of the 20th century onwards frequently had patches and emblems of various kinds sewn on them so Erwin had bought her own sewing kit to enable her to do it herself without her mother's assistance.
She searched through her closet for the small basket that held her sewing kit, but it was such a mess. Clothes were were hanging from virtually everywhere they could be hung, some were simply stuffed into tight spaces when she had run out of coat hangers.
The shelves inside were overflowing with military related items. Everything from knives, to replica guns, non-functional of course; and multiple pairs of marching boots. She suddenly realized that she didn't have any room in her closet to put any of her new purchases.
"Guess I'll have to make room later." She mumbled to herself. "Aha!" She found the small wicker sewing kit tucked on the second highest shelf. She stood up on the tips of her toes to try and reach it, and cursed herself for being as short as she was. 'Even though I'm more or less average', she thought to herself.
Her fingers brushed the handle, she was so close. Just a little closer. Suddenly her chest bumped into something on one of the lower shelves, starting a cascade of falling and tumbling items that swamped over her like an avalanche.
Erwin fell onto her rear, half buried in the items that had fallen off the shelves. "Great, another mess I have to deal with today." The silver lining to the mess was that her sewing kit had fallen as well, bringing it within easy reach.
She grabbed the small wicker basket by the handle and stood up, letting all the items tumble off of her. She would clean up the mess later.
She hurried downstairs and set the kit on the table, then went to the closet where they kept their crafting supplies. They all made outfits from their respective time periods so rather than keep all the supplies to themselves, it was more efficient and less expensive to pool their resources. Right now, Erwin was looking for the package of materials they had bought from the local shops. She knew it had what she needed.
"Found it." She said with a triumphant grin. She pulled out a clear plastic package full of large rectangles of coloured fabric, the top one being a bright pink; exactly what she needed. The package also contained a handful of patterns that could be used to cut out the shapes she needed.
She set it down next to the sewing kit and sat down to begin the process of making this gift for Yukari. It was already past lunch and in her mind she needed to finish by dinner time, but as she started taking supplies out of the sewing kit she started to remember an important fact: she was terrible at sewing.
Her mother always took up the task of sewing things onto her uniforms because Erwin would always end up just stabbing herself multiple times with the sewing needle, and spending so much time getting band-aids that she would never finish. Horrified by what her daughter was doing to herself, her mother always insisted that she be the one to sew everything.
Things hadn't changed much since entering high school either, since both Oryou and Caesar were excellent seamstresses and happy to help their friend out rather than letting her puncture her skin over and over. But they weren't here, and Erwin couldn't wait for them to get back.
'It's okay', she told herself. 'I'm older now and much more able. I'm sure I can make a simple patch.'
She opened the package of fabrics and put the pink material off to the side and then reached back in to extracting the patterns. She sifted through them until she found exactly what she was looking for: the pattern to make an anglerfish just like the one emblazoned on their Panzer IV G.
The patterns were drawn onto cardboard which she would first cut out and then use as a kind of stencil to cut the patterns out of the fabric. There were no real instructions, just the image of the pink anglerfish on the package. Still, it didn't look too hard; fairly simple in fact. She could do this.
She took the scissors out of the sewing kit and began to carefully cut the into it. This would be the simple part and despite the care she took in cutting the stencils out as accurately as possible, she finished in a fairly short time. She then used them to cut out the shapes from the fabric, a process that was a bit more difficult but still manageable. Now came the more difficult part.
First, Erwin switch off her phone to ensure no distractions at crucial moments; then she took a spool of pink thread from the sewing kit, a colour she had never used before, and with great care, picked up one of the sewing needles. Now she had to try to literally thread the needle, a task that was difficult for many people but with her difficulty with minute hand movements, it was a real struggle.
Erwin cursed several times under her breath and took precious minutes to try and get the thread through the tiny eye of the needle. Eventually she resorted to putting the needle down at the edge of the table to keep it steady and then after several more tries, managed to thread it at last.
"Finally." She grumbled. It had taken her more than ten minutes just to thread the needle, and that had been the easy part. Now she actually had to sew the pieces of her craft together, and this was usually the part that involved a lot of frustration, swearing and band-aids.
Tentatively Erwin lined the two large pink pieces together that would form the main body of the pink anglerfish, remembering at the last minute to place the piece that would be the fish's lure between the two pieces.
She was able to pierce the fabric with the needle without any real trouble and then tried to go through the other way.
"Ouch!" Erwin dropped the fish and flicked her hand painfully. She stared at her index finger which was now leaking blood from the tiny hole she had poked in it. She let out a heavy sigh and stood up. "I better get the band-aids."
The sun cast long shadows as it began to set, now low enough on the horizon that the street lights began to switch on. Sat on the grass in the shadow of one of the nearby buildings, Yukari stared at her phone with a somber expression. The display on her phone showed her contact list, almost all of it consisting of the tankery team members, and she had reached the end of that list almost an hour ago.
Yukari let out a sigh and rested her head in her hands, her elbows propped onto her legs. She had phoned every member of the tankery team she could sans the Rabbit team and others she already knew weren't available - which was most of them - and had come up more or less empty.
The Anteaters were at something called a 'smash tournament', The Mallard team had politely refused to disclose their location, although Yukari had noted that the background noise sounded very similar to the noise during her call to to the Anteaters.
Yukari admittedly hadn't dared to call the Turtle team; she felt that would be even more awkward. Not only were they her seniors, but they were also the student council. Yukari wasn't that lonely. Hippo team comprised most of her friends outside of Anglerfish, but they were all quite busy.
Oryou had a marriage meeting, which was a surprise but Yukari had managed to avoid making any comments before politely hanging up. Saemonza was with her family visiting Kyoto and Caesar was also visiting family. The background during the call had sounded very festive and busy. She had mentioned that Erwin might be available if she was back from her shopping trip, but for some reason, Yukari hadn't been able to reach her.
It had been as fruitless as she had anticipated. Nobody she had been able to contact was available, either visiting family or on some kind of trip. She had thought about phoning her fellow Anglers just to touch base with them but decided it would be rude to call them and interrupt whatever it was they were doing.
She imagined Lady Nishizumi was busy bonding with her sister, trying to repair the bridge between them that had been damaged during Miho's entry into high school tankery. It warmed her heart knowing they were repairing the relationship but Yukari's current loneliness prevented her from being as happy about it as she could be, and she chided herself for it.
Her mother would be so disappointed, that no guests would be coming. She seemed happy cooking, believing that she would be able to meet and talk with more of her daughter's friends, but it didn't look like that would be happening tonight, but it would at least stave off her own feelings of awkwardness; even so, she felt like she had failed her mother.
The sound of running in the otherwise quiet street caught her attention. She looked in the direction of the noise and to her amazement she saw Erwin running down the sidewalk. What was she doing here?
Yukari was suddenly torn. Should she wave; make her presence known? Should she invite her to dinner here now in person? The thought brought a grimace to her face. Having to invite someone over the phone had been awkward and difficult enough for her, asking someone in person was even worse.
Erwin was almost past her now, still running at a good trot, and Yukari wondered what for and where she was going. Should she really just ask her?
Erwin was past her now, her quick pace taking her rapidly away, and Yukari felt the loneliness from earlier gnaw at her insides. Well, there was no harm in just talking to her was it? Sure she didn't want to delay her to wherever she was going but maybe she could help.
Summoning all of her courage, Yukari stood up and raised her hand. "Ms. Erwin!" The blonde abruptly stopped and turned to her direction. In the fast approaching darkness Yukari couldn't see her expression clearly, but the way she jogged over seemed to indicate that she wasn't in too much of a hurry to chat a little bit.
"Ah, Gu-Guderian" Erwin panted. "G-good to see you."
"And you as well Ms. Erwin."
"Just Erwin please." Yukari had been having difficulty speaking to other informally, even those she considered close friends. It was a habit she was trying to get out of but it was tough after years of having nobody she was so familiar with that she could be on a first name basis with. Then she noticed the state of Erwin's hands, her fingers were covered in bandages. What had she been doing?
"Are you in trouble?" Yukari asked worriedly but trying not to pry too much. "You seem to be in a hurry." Erwin smiled at her sheepishly.
"I might have been. Um, I was actually on the way to your house to see you." This gave Yukari pause. See her? What kind of business would Erwin have with her at this time of year, and why didn't she simply phone her?
"Was there something wrong with your phone?" She asked, trying not to sound rude. "I tried calling you earlier but I only got your voicemail." The blonde looked away, looking slightly ashamed.
"Yeah well… I turned my phone off. I didn't want any distractions while I made it." Now Yukari had to ask the obvious question.
"Made what?"
Erwin reached into her jacket pocket and withdrew a small round object, tentatively handing it over to Yukari. "H-happy birthday Guderian."
Yukari stared at the little object, carefully taking it with both hands. It was the Anglerfish emblem, the same as on their tank, sewn onto a black circle made of a much stiffer material. "Is this a… unit patch?" She asked in disbelief?
Erwin blushed slightly, suddenly looking rather embarrassed. "Y-yeah… I made it myself." Yukari now understood how Erwin earned those bandages.
"Seems like it was quite a battle." The blonde's face reddened further.
"Y-yeah it was."
Yukari smiled. "Well I… I appreciate it very much Mi- uh, Erwin. Don't worry, I don't mind it being late if that's what you're worried about." Erwin stared at her horrified.
"Wh-what? Late?"
Yukari blinked in confusion. "Y-yeah, my birthday was more than two weeks ago on the sixth. To be honest I'm surprised anyone knew at all. I… I never told anyone I don't think."
Erwin's mouth hung partly open, dumbfounded at this revelation. "But the- the Rabbit team- those packages."
"Ah those were for Ms. Takebe. Her birthday is coming up on Friday, the 22nd. The Rabbit Team is throwing a party for her and asked me to hide the presents." Erwin's face went full on red, totally embarrassed at her colossal error. She let out a cry of frustration and grabbed her head.
"Ah I can't believe it! How could I have screwed up so much! Not only did I think I almost missed your birthday, I actually did!"
"P-please don't blame yourself!" Yukari insisted. "I didn't want to make a fuss so I never told anyone my birthday was coming up. I uh.. I don't really like… the idea of… " Yukari's voice trailed off before she collected her thoughts again and restarted. "I just don't like being the centre of attention."
Erwin managed to calm down and compose herself a little, but she still wasn't able to look Yukari in the eye. "W-well I'm glad you like the patch. Sorry it's so late."
Yukari smiled. "Yes, I do like it. Even if it's late it's nice to know someone thought of me. I'll treasure it."
"I'm glad."
The two girls stood there for a moment, a long awkward silence between them as neither really knew what to say or wondered if it was appropriate to separate now but Yukari started thinking that maybe she could invite Erwin to dinner after all. It was just one person, enough that she wouldn't feel overwhelmed, and bringing someone would help alleviate her mother's concerns and hopefully any disappointment as well. It would be nice to have someone over for dinner at least once in her life right?
"Say" She began. "My mother wanted me to invite a few friends to dinner, but I couldn't get anyone to come. So…. would you be willing to have dinner with me and my family?"
Erwin blinked and tilted her head slightly before looking in the direction of Yukari's home, just down the street and then back at her. "Really? Uh… well, I suppose so; since you invited me. I don't have anyone or anything to get back to at home so I'm free."
Yukari beamned. "Good! Mom should be about finished by the time we get there." She bowed. "We'll be happy to have you for dinner."
Erwin chuckled and bowed in return. "I'll be in your care."
Wow eh? 2 chapters in such a short amount of time. Of course they're much shorter than the chapters I usually write for other stories which are usually between 5,000 to 8,500 words. Hopefully I can keep this up so you all don't have to wait the usual eternity you normally do.
