They first met when the cherry blossoms bloomed. In hindsight, it was quite the romantic setting, but at the time the Commander was slightly too preoccupied to be blinded by romance.
He was hoping for someone who was slightly less prone to drinking and sleeping than Laffey, and he supposed that he got her.
(He'd admit that he got a little caught up on the ears. So damned cute.)
"Pleased to meet you, Commander. I'm Kinugasa." She took a look around the lab where she was… born? Spawned?
"It's a pleasure- let me give you the tour."
At the docks, they saw her hull. Compared to Laffey and Cassin, she loomed over them terribly. She couldn't claim the title of largest, but she was most certainly a heavy cruiser.
"How many ships can you support, Commander?"
"In theory, hundreds, although we're nowhere near that at the moment. If they all showed up at once…"
"No infrastructure for it. Very bad," Kinugasa nodded, "Well, keep an eye out for my sister, alright? Her name's Aoba."
"I can't wait to meet her."
"And here's your room," he explained, pointing out the scarcely decorated two-bed room. They had space to spare, at the moment.
"Thank you, Commander. When's dinner?"
"Eighteen hundred hours in theory, practically any time you please in practice."
She frowned. "Whatever for?"
"Cassin and Laffey eat when they eat." He shrugged. "Both heavy sleepers. And then Long Island…"
"You need to have a firmer hand, Commander… I'll talk to them." She smiled.
To his surprise, Cassin, Laffey, and Long Island were all present and accounted for, although they looked a bit hassled.
"Hello, ladies."
"Evening, Commander." Kinugasa smiled, before clearing her throat. She was echoed by the others.
With a nod, Kinugasa rushed off, eventually returning with food, food that looked good enough to cheer everyone's spirits.
"Thank you, Kinugasa."
"It's my pleasure."
Kinugasa slotted herself into the role of secretary with ease. She liked to stay on top of stuff, liked a place for everything and everything in its proper place, all that. A cool head and a good sense of people's needs made her invaluable as the base grew.
And it wasn't all work! As more active girls showed up- the sort who would appreciate it- Kinugasa started some sort of… funny shipgirl sport.
He wasn't entirely sure how to describe it, other than that it required rigging to play properly, and the girls seemed to love it.
"All work and no play isn't any good," she said as she sent for more 'recreation equipment' in their requisition forms.
When he could, he'd come out to watch. It was remarkable, the girls shooting across the water and kicking up sprays of water as they did.
It wasn't entirely safe- he had caught a ball with his head on more than one occasion- but even that wasn't too bad. It meant Kinugasa would fret all over him.
(The girls almost seemed like spirits as they danced across the waves, something out of myth.)
It was in the summer's heat that he first met Kinugasa's sister, Aoba. Suddenly, the Commander understood where the mothering instinct came from. Despite her comparatively low oil requirements when compared to some of the monsters the port played host to, Aoba was quite high maintenance.
It was actually quite distressing in those early moments, as Kinugasa's sudden rearrangement of her schedule left his totally stilted. Admittedly, it was about time he got a second secretary, as the demands of paperwork grew more and more demanding… but no one else seemed to click quite as easily.
"Do you have any advice for would-be secretaries?"
"Work. Please, just work."
"Simple. To the point. I like it." Aoba had decided to turn a lunch with the three of them- him, her, and Kinugasa- into an impromptu interview.
"It's a simple job."
"Mhmm," Aoba nodded, scribbling away. "What's your taste in women?"
"... What?"
"What sort of girls do you like?"
He sent a questioning look Kinugasa's way, who looked more than a little mortified. "Aoba!" She hissed.
"What? It's a fair question, isn't it?"
"It'll get everyone in a tizzy, that's the problem."
"No comment," she hummed, scratching away. "Probably a good thing. I gotta stretch it out, you know?"
"Really?"
"You're interesting enough to fill a lot of papers." She shrugged.
"Or so you say…"
"Ugh. Cut it out with the faux humility, will ya?"
It was a fairly cool end to a moderately warm day, and the Commander decided to make his move.
Turning to Kinugasa, who was just polishing off a stack of paperwork, he made his play. "Would you like to take a walk on the beach later?"
"Sure," she smiled, "I'm glad to see you being proactive about exercise, Commander."
"That's… not exactly what I meant." He sighed.
She blinked, thinking for a couple of seconds. "Sure."
"Perfect."
"Do we really need an escort?"
"You're too important to be walking dark beaches alone, Commander."
He supposed it was true. If the Sirens just came out of nowhere while he was alone, his goose would be thoroughly cooked. Still… he wished that there wasn't a gaggle of destroyers overlooking their… date? Time together? Whatever.
"I think your collar's a little messed up."
"You're not going to fix it?"
She smiled. "This is just between us, right?"
"Right."
Kinugasa generally liked things in their place. Tidiness and neatness, of course, but also a grander delineation between work and pleasure. (He didn't just want to be her boss.)
They walked side by side, and he tried to work up the courage to execute. He had already handled the first few hurdles… but he kept on letting himself get distracted.
One of the more interesting features of the island was a mountain. It was some ways from the port, practically a day trip, but it certainly added to the island's beauty, illuminated by the moonlight.
"The moon is beautiful, isn't it?" He tried to make any sort of small talk.
Kinugasa giggled.
"What?"
"Don't let Kinugasa hear you say that. It's got a bit of an… implication, in Japanese."
"What…?"
Kinugasa smiled. "Well, someone might think you were confessing. You know, romantically. We wouldn't want any misunderstandings."
He gulped. "I didn't know that. But…"
"But?"
"It's what I wanted to say, I suppose."
"Oh. I'm, uh- glad you got that off your chest, Commander." Kinugasa fidgeted with her hands. "Are you sure you don't want someone less… overbearing?"
"I invited you out here, didn't I?" He took a step closer…
(He pretended not to hear any hollering or whistling from the destroyers.)
After a bit longer on the beach, they walked back to the Sakura dorms with their hands interlinked. Neither of them dared to do much more as he escorted her back to her room. Well, perhaps it was the other way around.
"Commander, you're looking a little pale…"
"Just… will Aoba be fine with this?"
"Of course she will!" Kinugasa reassured him, "She's got a good heart, you know."
"Right."
"What's that supposed to mean, Commander?"
"Do you really have to call me Commander in private?"
She flushed. "That's a little bold… I mean, we've barely started!"
They chatted a bit more before they ended up in front of a certain door. Thankfully, they hadn't bumped into anyone along the way. (Well, the destroyers already knew, but he could hope.) Kinugasa pulled out a key and went inside.
"Aoba! You have a commission tomorrow! You can't be up this late!"
"Bold words, you hypocrite!" Aoba cried, "What were you doing out?"
Kinugasa clammed up, and Aoba smirked, ready to interrogate her sister-
"You really should get some sleep, Aoba. Tomorrow's going to be rough."
She looked at him and then looked at Kinugasa and spent a moment processing before a grin spread across her face. Kinugasa's look was full of dread. "Aoba if you start another article now I will force you into bed-"
As they neared Halloween, Kinugasa got the scare of her life from a ghost. To be more specific, a Grey Ghost. Not Pensacola, though. Big E herself, freshly made and magnificent in her glory.
He had seen this pattern of behavior before, of course, the frequently uncomfortable relationship between the sinker and the sunk. Sometimes it was strangely intimate, sometimes hateful… it depended on the ship. He hadn't really thought about it when it came to Kinugasa.
It was supposed to be a fairly normal construction, all things considered; when the blue light of the wisdom cube faded, he saw a wave of white hair, and heard an introduction: "I am the Yorktown Class aircraft carrier, Enterprise…"
He usually tried to pay attention to these spiels- they were very good at showing what exactly a shipgirl thought was most important about herself- but he heard a sort of squeak and turned to his side.
Kinugasa's ears were flat, back against her head, and her expression was positively ghastly. (It was the same look Aoba got when she first bumped into Helena. The confident journalist couldn't have properly introduced herself for all the money in the world.)
"Commander?" Enterprise asked.
"Sorry. Kinugasa's just a little spooked, that's all. You know, with your… histories…"
Enterprise took a moment to think, and the Commander realized- with some heat- that Kinugasa was just one of seventy-one sunk to Enterprise. "It's good to see you as an ally, not an enemy."
And that was that. She began to talk with the Commander about where she would be staying and what her duties would be, but he just couldn't give her the tour and usual spiel right now. As quickly as he could manage, he passed her off to Long Island, who seemed more than a little intimidated at the prospect of guiding Enterprise around.
(Enterprise was put off and a bit confused by the Commander's… standoffishness, at least until he practically swept Kinugasa up into an embrace, whispering into her ear. That… explained things, even if it felt unprofessional for her taste.)
Seeing Enterprise had impacted Kinugasa, obviously. There were the obvious bad memories, of course, but it seemed that Kinugasa grew bolder in the face of her old doom. More determined to live.
Or maybe it was some other reason. He wasn't going to complain about her getting more affectionate. In his humble and unbiased opinion, she was one of the most marvelous women on base.
At first, he was kind of weird about the ears, fascinated in a completely unsubtle way. Suffice it to say that he was mortified when he realized how uncomfortable his fixation on the ears made her. Even now, while it wasn't verboten or anything, she preferred his attentions to be directed elsewhere.
(She certainly wasn't lacking in those departments, mind.)
Once, after pulling back from a kiss, she remarked: "Your stubble is coming in thick, Commander."
"It is?" He mused, his hand brushing against hers as he went for a feel. "I guess I'll shave…" He almost made to stand, but Kinugasa didn't budge.
"Not now."
"Not now?" He asked.
"Well…" Kinugasa blushed, "I like it. You can shave tomorrow morning, right?" In the office, she might have found stubble unprofessional, but here…?
"I certainly can… if you call me Avery."
Kinugasa sighed, but there was a smile on her face. "Stay with me, Avery."
"Of course… Kin."
A week before Halloween- and the party that they were planning- they had a slightly smaller celebration, although one he didn't consider any less important: Kinugasa's launch day. Aoba's had been earlier, in September, and Kinugasa basically took the reins on that…
"It's literally following directions, Aoba. It shouldn't be that hard."
"You say that."
"I was helping my mother bake before I knew how to read the directions. I think you can manage."
There was a moment of silence as the Commander engaged the buttercream in battle before Aoba cursed.
"Dammit, got some eggshell in the bowl."
"Try again."
…
"Dammit!"
Aoba did eventually get the hang of baking, and the final product was one cake of questionable quality, slathered in enough frosting to hopefully cover up any flaws in its construction. It was nothing compared to what Kinugasa had prepared for her sister, but it was the fruit of their efforts.
It was carefully plated, and the Commander and Aoba began their fraught journey to the Sakura dorms. Any chance at subtlety was, of course, doomed.
"Is that cake, Commander?" Mutsuki gasped, circling around his legs and desperately craning her neck to catch a peak. Aoba pulled her away before he could trip over the girl, thank goodness.
"It's Kinugasa's cake, Mutsuki."
"Do you think big sis will let me have some? She never gives me sweets."
"Because you eat too many, Mutsuki."
Thankfully, they didn't accrue too many hangers-on as they went.
(He ignored Akagi's positively withering glare. It had long since lost its sting, what with the number of shipgirls who had his back.)
After passing by the dorm that had once been Aoba's private darkroom- now possessed by the perpetually bright and cheery (or perhaps cherry?) Hanazuki- they reached the one that Kinugasa and Aoba lived in. It still amazed him how the dorms had filled…
Aoba knocked at the door, and after a moment or two, there was a faint reply: "Come in!" With that, the small party practically flooded into the room.
There was a flash of surprise on Kinugasa's face, which rapidly turned into a blush as she became the center of attention. Aoba was practically stuck to her sister like glue, while Furutaka chattered away, showering her… half-sister? Sure. Showering her half-sister with attention. Kako was doing much the same, in her own way.
Meanwhile, the Commander meted out slices of cake, all of moderate, similar sizes. Kinugasa would accept nothing less. (Mutsuki's portion was thinner still.)
Taking a plate, he snuck up to Kinugasa's side, planting a kiss on her cheek as he placed the cake before her. "For you, Kin."
Kako rolled her eyes and whispered something that sounded suspiciously like "Really?" Aoba elbowed her.
"Thank you all." Kinugasa smiled and took a bite of cake… before her face scrunched up.
"Kin?"
"Too sweet. Way too sweet."
"It's the Commander's fault," Aoba said, immediately.
"Is it, now? I'm pretty sure you were the one who doesn't know how to bake."
"Kinugasa, he's bullying me."
"Really, though… thank you."
Aoba flushed with pride. Pride that lasted until she realized the cake was only suitable for Mutsuki's consumption, but pride regardless.
That wasn't the end of the hustle and bustle, considering that Halloween had crept up on them. Outfits, lights, enough pumpkins to keep a large farm in business…
Their budget for luxuries was genuinely jaw-dropping, enough lucre for silly costumes and fine food even as the Sirens made the sea lanes fraught with risk.
As secretary, Kinugasa had no small part in the planning, perhaps even more than him. She was the one stressing a comparatively healthy pumpkin option before the others ran roughshod over her. Still, she didn't really have any hard feelings. "They're having fun, right? We all need to let loose a little."
Aoba got a collection of horror stories and spooky rumors out the door just before Halloween and proceeded to crash ingloriously upon her sister's couch.
The Commander knew this because he was also crashing at Kinugasa's place, hoping to avoid the hustle and bustle. It would be nice to just avoid any notice…
(He had suggested that Kinugasa might stay in his room, but she had nixed that very swiftly. For some reason, imposing on the space of her commanding officer was a bridge too far, like they weren't already fraternizing to the wildest degree.)
"I figured you'd be telling me to get out there, Kin."
"Spending time with the girls is important, but you need to look after yourself. Your leisure time is your leisure time."
"Our leisure time."
"Right," Kinugasa replied, looking to the side, where Aoba still dozed.
"All tuckered out. Your sister's remarkable."
"Remarkably bad at looking after herself."
"She's been getting better."
"You don't live with her."
"I mean, I visit so often-"
"You don't practically live here, and you shouldn't give anyone that impression," Kinugasa answered before he could even finish his sentence.
"I don't see what pretending really does, Kin. It's not a secret."
"There are appearances to maintain-"
"In the private though?" He purred, leaning in…
"Get a room." Aoba groaned.
"Really, you should just stop by my room. It'd make things less complicated."
"Are you saying I'm a complication?" Aoba had apparently recovered enough to snark.
"Yes."
Their Christmas together was equally subdued. Partying with the whole base would mean having to avoid the pursuits of shipgirls with too much boldness and too little clothing…. Sure, he wasn't a total hermit or anything- Kinugasa had already given him that lecture- but he liked things a little more private.
Still, he was quite the star on base. He got a lot of chocolate that Valentine's Day, far more than he could ever reasonably eat. Kinugasa's chocolate was first, of course, and not just because she said it was healthier than the rest. But of course, even if he didn't eat the mountains of chocolate he received, he had to pay the piper…
"I feel like this would only give Akagi the wrong idea." He said, moving yet another bag of sugar into its proper position.
"Would you prefer that everyone on the base but her get chocolate?"
He shivered. "No."
"You can't just single someone out like that."
"Uhm," he cleared his throat. "I was thinking of making you an extra portion."
"If you do it in private…"
Kinugasa did help him make chocolates for White Day, although she had to suffer through no small number of sweetness-related puns.
He looked up from the acquisition form again. A quarter past three, really? Ten past seemed entire ages ago.
There was a sigh. "Let me handle it, your Excellency. You're not getting any work done like this."
In other circumstances, he might have argued, but London was right. He was in a total state and barely managed to thank London before he was out the door and headed towards the docks, weaving between the motley mix of Bulins and manjuus that served as their stevedores and mechanics.
Despite it being a fairly routine mission, he damn near collapsed with relief when he saw the lines of Kinugasa's hull. She had insisted he avoid any signs of favoritism (although some girls would have considered getting commissions a bigger sign of favoritism than being spared them) and as such Kinugasa went out to sea.
His joy was dampened when he saw that Kinugasa was being helped along by her sister, white gauze wrapped around her left leg. Just barely, he managed to reign himself in and do a few final checks with Pennsylvania before rushing to Kinugasa.
Before she could launch into a well-deserved warning about him skipping his work to see her, he swept her off her feet. To make sure she wouldn't aggravate her injury, of course. No other reason.
"Commander!" She hissed, her face turning red as the other shipgirls watched.
"Can't have you hurting yourself."
"Akashi already checked me out, you know."
"Let me have this."
She rolled her eyes, but let him carry on. It was a bit of a change of pace, being the one fretted over, but it wasn't entirely bad, necessarily…
Kinugasa typically smiled on him having lunch with Aoba, mostly because it meant that Aoba was actually eating lunch and taking time off.
"So… what exactly is the story behind Kinugasa's name?" He asked Aoba.
"It's a mountain near Kyoto."
"Alright, how did the mountain get its name?"
She sighed and spent a couple of moments thinking. "So, the story is that this emperor wants to see a snow-capped mountain in summer."
"Sure."
"And they- his aides or whatever- can't exactly make it snow, so they do the next best thing: they cover the mountain in silk."
"Really? It'd cost a fortune."
"Emperor, remember?" Aoba shook her chopsticks vaguely, "So that's the name- covered in silk. Kinukake. From there, it's a hop to Kinugasa, which is a silk umbrella."
"Kinugasa in white silk…" he muttered. It was a rather pleasing image, even if he had grown a touch too fond of the serafuku. There was a horribly dopey smile on his face.
"Oh, do I hear wedding bells?"
"You do." Aoba gaped at him. "Now, you'll keep a lid on it until I surprise your sister, right?"
"Of course." She nodded frantically. "Oh, I'll have to get Gridley to take photos, and I could call up Oriani… don't worry, Commander. This'll be the best wedding issue ever!"
(Aoba teaming up with Oriani? Signs and wonders.)
Still, he wasn't sure if he could necessarily trust the secret to stay hidden for long… he'd have to move fast.
The base's (Sakura) shrine was always soothing, but even sweet incense and pooling water couldn't completely bury his worries about the schedule. He trusted Aoba, sure, but it was a supremely juicy piece of information.
Admittedly, he felt a bit bad about the prospect of barging in and ruining whatever shrine business was going on, but Fusou didn't seem to be occupied with anything more than sweeping as he approached. (It seemed a bit below her station, unless it happened to be some particularly mystical sort of cleaning.)
She smiled gently as he approached. "Commander. Did you need something?"
"Can I not come for the sheer joy of it? The serenity?"
"You haven't before, milord." Fusou's lips curled up.
"Right. Well, I don't know much about this stuff…" he gestured vaguely at the shrine. "So I need your help."
"Whatever you need."
"Could you arrange a Shinto wedding?"
Fusou was silent for a moment before she smiled brilliantly. "You and Kinugasa?"
"Of course."
"I did not want to presume."
"Sure. Now, I was wondering if you could do me another favor."
"Another?" She laughed. "I could never begin to repay all you've done for me, Commander…"
"Well…" he shifted slightly, "if you wouldn't mind, could you help me round up some of the other battleships?"
"What are you planning, Commander?"
"You see…"
It had taken more than a bit of finagling, honestly. Making sure that it was safe- not like there were any civvies on Azur Lane's private island, but it was good to check- and getting his hands on a simply stupid quantity of required supplies…
It was kind of a tremendous waste, but that was the point. A massive, wasteful, over-the-top gesture that would require a lot of things going right…
He checked his watch again.
"Do you need to be somewhere, Commander?" Kinugasa asked, concern on her face. "I thought I had cleared your schedule…"
"That's not it." He tried to reassure her, knowing he only had to wait a while longer.
"You have been getting enough sleep recently, right?"
"Sure." He hadn't, not really, but…
"Commander…"
Before she could give him a well-deserved chastisement about his sleep schedule, there was the distant roar of a cannon. Then another.
"Commander-"
"Just an exercise." He reassured her, turning towards the great mountain that loomed above the beach…
To see a shell burst against it, letting out massive clouds of white smoke. That was just the first of a wave, an endless deluge of shells coming from every direction- or, more specifically, from the directions of the four fleets he had arranged around the island.
It had taken no small number of commissions to afford this many smoke shells, although most of the battleships proved more than willing to collaborate when he explained the gist of his plans. (And not just because they'd get to shoot a lot of shells.)
The end result wasn't quite the snow-capped look he was going for, as the smoke didn't settle quickly, but the sight was still marvelous, the mountain mired in 'clouds' painted by the setting sun. A few trees peaked through the dense cover, but they had a lot of dreadfully accurate battleships, and a lot of shells, so those were swiftly covered up.
(He'd probably have to stop them later, but they were having their fun, and he had a slightly bigger priority at the moment.)
He turned to Kinugasa, who was staring at the mountain with confusion. "I couldn't get my hands on that much white silk… but hey, it almost looks snowy, right?"
After a moment, Kinugasa smiled at him, and he felt richer than any emperor. Her smile got even brighter when he pulled out the ring.
"Kako asked if you proposed because you got me pregnant, you know."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Will I ever get through to that woman?"
"That woman is my sister, Avery."
"Sorry. It's just…"
"She's slow to warm up to people, I know."
The Commander thought for a few moments, gazing at the ceiling. "Can shipgirls even get pregnant?"
Kinugasa recognized the tone and could see where he was going, but…. "I'm not sure…"
"Would you like to do some testing?"
A very warm thanks to AdmiralFluffy and the other excellent folks on his discord server, who helped a bit with the possibility of the smokescreen bit at the end. Go check out his discord, it's fun.
If you notice a particular focus on holidays/seasons, that's because this story was separated into seasonal chunks at first, the overall title being something like "Winter's White Silk". Still, I found keeping things on a tight timeline a little restrictive. Such is life.