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Chapter 9 – Lazy afternoon

The Fiat G.12C was gently approaching the runway in the Pescaran base.

"Finally home… Now I'll go and ask Yosh… Uggghhhhh… She's training with that Ferrara lady now…" Toshiro sighed heavily.

"Come on, Toshiro. You'll manage a day or two without Miyafuji." Minna tried to cheer him up.

"I suppose so… I had to stuff my longing for Yoshika under the proverbial rug while I was Africa, but I don't know if I can manage to do it now…"

"Longing huh?" Minna asked with a sly smile. "So did you…"

"No… The only woman I had in my life in that way was Shirley, and it was a one-time thing. Although she still harbors feelings for me…"

"She does?" Minna asked surprised.

"Isn't it normal? She had her first time with me. When we; that is me, Francesca and Shirley slept in one bed the two nights before all of you came, she would sleep in some weird positions on me. She looked sad when I mentioned that we wouldn't sleep in one bed after Yoshika would arrive…"

"Well… If that is the case, I should also confess something… I still feel some fuzzy feeling towards you, Toshiro." Minna said with a little blush, which turned into a wry smile. "And you, Mio, what do you feel towards Toshiro?"

"Me?! I… Well… Don't ask me about such crap! A warrior doesn't need love to thrive!" She shouted with her face all crimson.

"Maybe…" Toshiro said silently. "But all the feats I did were from my love to Yoshika. It gave me godly strength, sometimes literally. Maybe you should find a man, huh, Mio?"

"Idiot…" Mio puffed her cheeks and turned around.

Minna giggled slightly, and at the same time, the plane touched down on the runway.

"Hey, Toshiro, what's that bulge under your shirt?" Minna suddenly said.

"Something for Trude, I wonder if she will accept this little present."

"You really care about your friends…"

The plane taxied on the runway, and one of the pilots got out of the cockpit. He opened the door, and the big loading hatch in the roof of the plane.

"Hmmm… How are we going to unload all shit stuff?" Mio asked.

"I have an idea, but Toshiro probably already came with a similar one, right?" Minna asked with a cute smile.

"If you thought about using me and Trude and just throwing out all the stuff on the runway, then yes."

Minna giggled, because it was exactly what she thought of.

Toshiro looked out of the plane, and saw Trude waiting in the hangar door for them. He reeled her in with a gesture. As she got before him, she asked "What's up, Toshiro?"

"First, I would want to give you something…" Toshiro started pulling out the chocolate and cocoa from under his shirt. "I know its waaaaay too late, but I didn't have the occasion to meet you. Happy birthday, Trudy."

"Aw Toshiro… Thanks." She said visibly surprised. "But you probably have some job for me, right?"

"Yeah. I'll throw the stuff out of the plane through the roof, and you catch it on the runway."

"Sounds fair. What did you procure?"

"A radar, a ton of munitions and half a ton of taters."

"Oh, potatoes! We were already low on them to begin with. I'll make you everyone some Kartoffelpuffern (potato cakes) since you were so nice to me, heehee…"

"Good things come back to you as I see… Okay, let's get done with the job. Just watch out for Erica, she'll probably hover around us once she sniffs out chocolate."

"Hah, true!"

Toshiro placed Trude in a good distance besides the plane. He also hired Minna and Mio as coordinators. He grabbed the big radar device, and lifted it over his head. Mio patted Minna's back, who in turn asked Trude if she's ready. Toshiro heard the answer, but Mio confirmed.

"Okay then… Heave… HO!"

He threw the radar out of the plane in a high arc. After a second he heard a grunt, and two seconds later he heard the radar being placed on the runway. The next thing he threw out of was a big radar antenna. Then he started throwing out the potato sacks, twenty-five sacks, twenty kilograms each. Since the ammo wasn't as forgiving when it came to kinetic energy, everyone including Minna and Mio took out the ammo out of the plane with their own hands.

After everything was on the runway, the pilot bid them farewell, and the plane went its way.

"Now, we have to lug this crap around into the base…" Toshiro sighed.

"Brooooooooo!" A shout pierced the air.

Everyone looked at the direction of the loud sound, and saw the happy Erica running towards them.

"Whatcha brought for me, bro?" Erica asked with hope in her eyes.

"Spuds." Toshiro answered indifferently.

"Aww… No sweets… But Kartoffeln (potatoes) will also do, if Trudy will make us potato cakes."

"Yeah, yeah… I promised Toshiro I'll make them for dinner today."

"Heehee, yay! The two best things you can do in the kitchen are potato cakes and Eisbein! Oh…" Erica sniffed around. "Is that…"

The heads of both Trude and Erica wandered to the cocoa and chocolate lying on a canister of 50 mm APCR shells. Erica shot forward, but Trude pushed her back, and grabbed the goods herself.

"Waaah, Trudy! Give me some chocolate! I haven't eaten anything sweat since last Monday!"

"Help us do the lifting, and you'll get some." Trude said with a firm voice.

"You are mean…"

"Honest pay for honest work, Hartmann." The intransigent Trude said.

"Broooo… Tell Trudy to give me some chocolate…" Erica said on the verge of tears.

"You heard her." He said relentlessly.

"Fuck… Okay, okay, I'll help… Sheesh… Slave drivers…" Erica mumbled, grabbed a crate with ammo belts and went off.

"Well, Toshiro, will you get the radar?" Trude asked.

"Hmmm…" He pondered for a few seconds, and remembered something. "Oh hell no! After lugging around that piano for Erica's decoration, I promised myself that if I ever outrank you, I'll force you to carry around a truck on your back."

"Still holding a grudge against me for that little thing? Doh well, fine, I'll carry the radar. Just help me load it on my back."

Trude crouched with her back to Toshiro. He took the big and heavy radar device, and placed it on Trude's back. She grabbed it with her hands, and went forward.

"That was petty, you know?" Minna said.

"I know. But I also promised myself to teach her how to drive safely someday."

"Ohoho that will be something to watch." Minna laughed. "At least take the antenna, okay?"

"Sure, I'm not that much of a son of a bitch…"

Toshiro took the antenna, and followed Trude.

"I hope you're not mad at me, Trude." Toshiro said after catching up to her.

"No… I remembered the whole situation just now, and I was really behaving like a cunt back then. So this evens thing out, right?"

"Yeah, don't sweat it. And watch those steps, some are chipped."

"Sure, sure."

"Heeeey, Toshirooo!" The melodic voice of Shirley sounded from down the stairs.

He turned around and asked "Sup, Shirley?"

"Some new electronics? Oh, can I do the installations?! Pleeeeaaase!" She asked him with an imploring face.

"Okay, okay… Come on."

"Whoopee! I'll just fetch some cables and tools!"

"Just take the cable that came with the radar. It's a special one that is both used for powering the antenna and low voltage signal transmission."

Shirley ran off quickly to the hangar.

"That Liberion… Always so lively and eager…" Trude said.

"Why do you actually call her Liberion?"

"Oh… Well..."

"It's a matter of feelings, huh? A simple Shirley can't come out of your mouth, because you feel superior to her?"

"Yes…" She sighed.

"Then call her Elwyn. You'll piss her off, but call her by a name at the same time."

"Hah! You know, you gave me the best advice yet! Thanks!"

"Haha… Okay, go forward, only a few steps left."

Trude entered the war room, and placed the radar near the radio rack.

"Whew… Well, that's that." She said. "Anything else you want me to do?"

"No, that's all. Thanks, Trudy."

"Oh don't call me Trudy like Hartmann does… It sounds infantile…"

"As you wish… Trudy…"

"Ugh… If you weren't the Kaisers son and my superior…"

"Hey, you punched me in the gut earlier, although you knew who my uncle was…"

"That was different…" She pouted with red cheeks. "I didn't know you were my superior and… You know…"

"Yes, Trude, I know… Go now, give Erica some of that chocolate, or she'll pout and fuss all week..."

"She's such a child sometimes… She could be a Captain already, but she is so damn lazy…. Uhhhhrrr… And she started doing a mess in her room again…"

"You know… I have connections…"

"Oh no you don't! She has to earn a promotion the usual way! She would flip if she were promoted! Not to mention I can now impose orders on her thanks to the fact that she has a lower rank…"

"Valid point…"

Trude went out of the room, and a minute after she left, Shirley came in, loaded with cables and tools. She dropped everything she carried on the floor and asked, "So, what are we hooking up?"

"A radar. I think I'll have to mount the antenna on the rooftop. Since the windows here are too small, I'll have to do some acrobatics, and go through my room. Just attach a very long cable, and I'll be going."

"Sure thing!"

She took the biggest spool of cable, and attached one end to the radar antenna. She took a big hammer and humongous nails.

"You know how to use these, right?" Shirley asked with a wry smile.

"Well enough to knock out stupid ideas out of your head, heheh…"

"Okay, okay, go on that roof already, smartass..."

Toshiro stuck the hammer behind his belt, put the nails in his pocket and took the antenna with the cable up to his room. While he was there, he stashed away his cap and medals, and changed his uniform to the short-sleeved version. He jumped from his balcony over to the roof of the war room.

"Hmmm… Most unfortunate placement…"

Toshiro jumped over to the roof of the room that was in a mirrored position to the war room. He placed the antenna on the northeast corner of the roof.

"There… Now we'll only have a blind spot of about ninety degrees from the west to the south…"

Toshiro carefully pulled the cable, jumping from roof to roof. He jumped on the windowsill behind the radar unit, and knocked on the window. Shirley appeared from behind the machine, and opened the window. Toshiro crawled in with the cable and passed it on to Shirley. She affixed it to the radar.

"Okay, now you can move it against the wall." Shirley said.

Toshiro pushed it where Shirley wanted.

"So, is it working?"

"Flip the switch."

Toshiro pressed the "ON" button, and the screen on the radar lit up with a green hue. A line moved in a circle, synchronized with the rotating antenna.

"OOOH! Works!" Shirley cheered. "Another job well done!"

"Yeah, good job, Shirley." Toshiro said and turned off the radar. "Time to go to the hangar, Trude is doing potato cakes today."

"Oh, really? Haven't ate those in some time… But Barkhorn cooking… Meh…"

"Hey, she made a good Eisbein back in Britannia…"

"One swallow does not make a summer, Toshiro… Want to go out to dinner with me?" Shirley giggled.

"Most certainly, Madame." Toshiro said and laughed.

Toshiro walked down with Shirley to the hangar. There they saw Mio, Minna, Lucchini, Sanya and Eila behind the table. Trude and Erica were peeling and grating potatoes near the kitchen.

"Why are you all waiting at the table like that, huh?" Toshiro asked.

"Trude making potato cakes is a sight as rare as a blue moon." Minna joked

Yeah right, heheheh…

"Back in Britannia she made them only once or twice a year, so you should feel lucky, Toshiro." She continued.

"Then maybe I should go watch and look as they do it, huh?"

"You probably should. Miyafuji should be spoiled by your cooking sometimes, if you want to go serious on her…" Minna giggled.

All the girls threw him sly smiles. Except for Sanya, who didn't catch it apparently.

As Toshiro approached the kitchen duo, Trude said, "Okay, Hartmann that should be enough. Now start a fire in the kitchen."

"Okay…" She said with a tired voice.

"Sup?" Toshiro greeted Trude.

"Oh, Toshiro. Want to learn how to make potato cakes for Miyafuji?"

"Why do you all think I want to do it?!"

"Heheh… Anyway, Hartmann did the first part, meaning grating potatoes. Now I have to add eggs, garlic, onions, half a cup of flour and some pepper."

"Proceed then, I'll be watching."

Trude started adding all the ingredients, and mixed them together by hand.

There's something casual about Trude making a meal… She looks like a typical Bavarian housewife, making dinner for her Schatz after he returned from a hard working day at the brewery…

"Toshiro… Why are you looking at me like that?" She stopped her mixing.

"I was just thinking how skilled you are…." Toshiro lied.

"Well, I always made these for Chris…" She blushed.

"No wonder you're putting so much heart into it…"

Trude blushed even further, and started mixing the ingredients with increased intensity.

"Trudy, the fire is up." Erica said after a minute.

"Okay. Put a pan on the fire and pour some oil on it."

"How much would some be?" She asked.

"Two centimeters, no more."

"Okay…"

Erica did what she was told, and in the meantime, Trude started shaping the potato cakes.

"You shouldn't make them too thin, or they'll burn, or too thick, or they'll take long to fry and soak up too much oil." Trude explained calmly.

Aliens abducted Trude and switched her personality!

After a few minutes, Erica said "Trudy, the oil is probably good already."

"And I just finished. Okay, time to fry this…"

She took a portion of the cakes and placed them on the pan. They started sizzling. Toshiro watched as they got slightly brown on the sides, and then Trude started flipping them. On the fried sized, they looked all brown and crispy. After a while she pulled the ready potato cakes of the pan onto a plate.

"Here, Toshiro, take one first. I would probably sprinkle them with powdered sugar normally, but we don't have such commodities…"

Toshiro waved his hand over the cakes a bit, and took one of them, blowing on it to cool it off. He took a bite.

"Mmmmmmhmmm… Good! Really good!" He shouted and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth. "Dewishius!"

"Haha! I knew you'd like it! Eat the rest on this plate, their just for you."

"Thanks, Trude."

Toshiro took the plate, and sat at the table, bearing the ravenous looks of the rest. When he was down to the last cake, he threw the plate with a slight spin to Erica, who had a look similar to the twins back in Dover. She caught it and looked at Toshiro surprised.

"I already see that you want that chocolate from Trude. Eat something that's actual food before…"

"Heehee, is it that obvious?"

A collective "Yes" sounded across the table.

Erica could only laugh dryly.

After everyone ate their meal, people dispersed around the base. Toshiro went to his room and sat on his balcony. He looked at the radar antenna.

How many times will that antenna send signals that will make the radar go 'ping'…? How many times will I have to go into battle…? How many times will Yoshika have to fight…? Ehhhh… Beats being some mechanic though…

Toshiro went down to the office, and unsurprisingly, found Minna there.

"Hey, Minna, why don't we do some paperwork, so Trude can have some use from that archive, huh?"

"I was just about to go to you and propose the same thing, heehee."

And so, they say down and worked. Toshiro had to prepare a report about issuing the temporary ID's, about acquiring supplies, about their trip to Sicily, about the current state of their supplies etc. Minna explained that since it's a Monday, it's the best time to do it.

Toshiro didn't even notice when it got dark outside, because the sly Yuki progressively modified his vision sensitivity. Which got him blinded by the light Minna turned on.

"Heehee, sorry…"

"Arrrrrggghhh… Minna, this is really pain inducing… I was sitting in this chair for what, five hours straight? My ass hurts, my back hurts, my hand hurts, my eyes hurt…"

"Heh… Toshiro, you will get used to it. And only Mondays will be so tiresome, since we will do an all week summary and such. Come on, supper is probably ready."

"Yeah…"

They went down, and found out that Trude could also make sandwiches, although of rather feeble quality.

Still, food is food…

Surprisingly, she made everyone some hot cocoa.

When asked about it she responded, "I should share with everyone, that's what a True Karlslander Soldier should do."

After supper, Toshiro went to his room, but not alone.

"Well, Trude, get undressed then."

"Just like that?"

"Well, I'll be watching you through the course of the whole bath, what difference does it make?"

"What's right is right…"

She began undressing, unveiling her toned body and not-so-small breasts. She climbed into the super-hot water, as she ordered for it to be.

"Aaaaah!" She moaned as she sat in the tub.

"Gods, Trude… Do you all have to moan around in my bath?"

"Heh…"

"So, what will it be? Backrub, hair wash, foot rub, or should I just fuck you in the tub?"

She immediately covered her vital parts with her hands and shouted, "WHAT?!"

"I'm kidding, Yuki would kill me."

"Oh… Well, a backrub and hair wash will do…"

She relaxed and laid back, as Toshiro massaged her.

"That was great…" Trude said as he finished.

"I imagine… Now, I'll have to undo those hairbands of yours."

"Oh, I'll do it myself."

She untied the hairbands on both her pigtails, letting the long hair fall freely on her back. Toshiro washed her hair, and Trude climbed out of the bath. As she dried herself, she said "Thank you, Toshiro. I'm feel bad about chasing you in Britannia back then… I reacted like some stuck up virgin…"

"You weren't the only one, Trude. To a bystander it must have looked hilarious. Me running around with my meat flapping all around, and the three of you, also naked, running behind me screaming bloody murder."

"It probably did… Well, good night, Toshiro."

"Good night, Trude."

After she got out, Toshiro sat on the balcony, and suddenly his door burst open. Shirley and Lucchini ran into the room like possessed.

"What the hell is this supposed to mean?" Toshiro asked.

"We came to sleep with you!" Shirley shouted.

"You must be joking…"

"Nope!" Francesca said.

"But…" Toshiro tried to protest, but was quickly silenced.

"Hey, it's not like we're committing adultery here..." Shirley reasoned.

"But you chose to sleep WHILE Yoshika is off-base…"

"Oh, well… Nobody needs to know…"

"Let them… I sense you need some female warmth during the night."

"When did you get so pragmatic, huh?"

"Lately."

"Okay…"

"Then come on you two, let's sleep together."

"Yay!" Both cheered and threw Toshiro on the bed.

Francesca killed the lights, and they went to sleep together, With Shirley on his left, and Francesca on his right.

Somehow I feel that this is not the way I'll wake up in the morning…

And if you want to praise/rant about my story, please leave a signed review, so we can continue via PM's. Seriously, I don't bite. Unless provoked :]