Garden party

Standing in front of a mirror doing up a bowtie, my eyes drift up to the handwritten and handmade invitation to Unicorn's first garden party. Honestly, it took some skill to make the card in the shape of a unicorn, with a rainbow-colored mane and tail, on some level I wondered if each card had been customized for each person that had gotten one. The only thing about it that had made me a little less than hot to trot about it was being told to dress up in fancy clothes, but not uniforms.

Standing upright and adjusting the bottom corners of the jacket I reminded myself, "This is important to her development as a person, she's not just a weapon, she's a kid too, and she should be allowed to be a kid sometimes." Taking the invitation off of my mirror, I head out my door and off to multipurpose field three, as the instructions say.

XXXX

I'm not sure what I expected, but I know it wasn't this. The entire field had been set up with tables, arbors, fabric tents, flower beds, flower pots, rainbow streamers, and a white picket fence complete with a little podium and a gate behind it.

I let out a whistle of surprise, "A lot of work went into turning this field into this, way, way more than if just Unicorn did all of this."

Turning my attention to the podium, I see that Unicron has put her stuffed unicorn in a little tuxedo and placed it as the maitre d', such a kid thing to do. Getting close to the gate behind the podium, I jumped back in a state of shock when the unicorn moved, putting its hooves on the podium and tilted its head towards me, then pointed at the book on the podium.

Really?

Sticking my left hand inside my jacket I take out the invitation and hand it over to the unicorn, I watch as it opens the invitation with its horn, while one hoof runs down the book, taps on the book, then closes the invitation nudging it towards me.

Picking my invitation off of the podium, the unicorn got off of the chair it had been on and walked over to the gate, using its horn to lift the latch and then open the gate, leading me through the first arbor and into one of the tents and I understood that this was more than just Unicorn doing this, I saw Sirius, Dido, Hermione all three of them working the tables, bringing tea and cakes. It looked like the entire fleet that wasn't on duty was here today, and now I felt a little bad for having Rodney, Leander, and Foxhound out on the current patrol.

Looking around a little more, I spotted Unicorn dressed in a purple sundress, her hair tied back into a ponytail that had been done up to be cascading curls with a little purple hat on her head, in one hand with her pinky out, she was sipping from a tea cup with what looked like a cucumber sandwich on her plate. Seated beside her was the unmistakable form of Illustrious, a dark blue and black dress hugged her every curve, exposing her bust and somehow making it seem larger than it already was, her hair was tied back with a blue and black lace set of ribbons, her hands in dark blue gloves holding a teacup, again with her pinky finger out, and I could just see one of her legs in these thin black stockings. She seemed to sense I was looking in her direction and her blue eyes landed on me, full of warmth and shining brightly only to look away to Unicorn who must've said something.

My lack of motion must've caught the attention of the stuffed… robotic maybe, unicorn that was leading me around, as it had turned around and was tugging on my pants, looking down I sigh, "Okay, okay."

The unicorn lets go of my pants and leads me over to the table with Illustrious and Unicorn, just as I pull out my chair, Unicorn puts her teacup down, turns to look at me, and with a degree of confidence I hadn't come to expect out of her, even with the blush and stumble at the start, she was still clear with her words, "Th… thank you for coming to my tea party, Captain Fox."

Smiling at Unicorn, I bow my head to her, "Thank you for the invite, Unicorn, and I hope everything is going as well as you had hoped it to."

The poor girl went bright red and hurried back to her chair, her tea taking her full attention. Illustrious smiled at her, like a proud sister or proud parent, leaning forward a little she patted Unicorn on the shoulder, "You did very well, Unicorn, I am so proud of you." She paused to address me, "Captain, do enjoy the tea and snacks, you will find that they rejuvenate both the body and the mind."

Picking up the teacup that was in front of me and taking a sip, I find that it was a very nice black tea, not too overpowering. Next, I try one of the sandwiches, a light herbal cream cheese with the cucumbers and a lack of crusts on the soft white bread was a nice treat. Looking around I notice most of the girls here seem to be really dressed up, but most importantly, they were having a good time, I felt a smile on my face at seeing this. "Captain Fox, is the tea and food good?" mumbled Unicorn, taking my attention off of the girls having a good time.

"Very good, thank you." I replied automatically.

Illustrious looked to Unicorn as she put her tea cup down and suggested, "Unicorn, perhaps you should check with some of the other guests."

"Oh! Yes, I'll be right back big sister!" Unicorn chirped, I was surprised to hear that out of her, she was always so quiet.

Illustrious watched her go to the next table, smiling as she watched while addressing me, "Captain, I know I mentioned to you previously, about the lack of freedom of movement we had at our last posting, but this warms my heart to see Unicorn coming out of her shell, thank you for that."

Sipping more of my tea, and thinking back to what I was going over in my quarters, "I was just thinking about this before, actually, that Unicorn, like all of you ladies, are so much more than just what you were designed to be. That it is a shame how so many miss that, and I'm more than happy to let Unicorn be a kid when she needs to be."

"You have mentioned children before, Captain, is that one of the dreams you have?" Illustrious asks me.

Putting my cup down and sighing, "It is, but the longer things go on, the further and further away that dream seems. I'm more or less at the point where I need to accept that some of the younger kansen are going to be as close as I'm going to get to children."

Illustrious sips her tea and appraises me with her blue eyes before reaching across the table to pat my arm, "I am sure you will find the right person for you soon, Captain."

Patting her hand with my free one I sigh, "I hope so."

Anything more that was going to be said was stalled out when Unicorn returned and took Illustrious by the arm as she said, "Come big sister, it's time for some games."

"Yes, of course." Illustrious said so warmly to Unicorn as she stood and looked back at me as she added, "I am sure of it, Captain Fox."

While the two of them started to walk away, Unicorn looked back at me, her purple-blue eyes narrowing at me for a split second then she gave all of her attention to Illustrious. This left me wondering just what their relationship is really like, the more I see of it, the less sister-like it seems and the more mother-daughter-like it looks.

XXXX

XXXX

Walking back to my quarters, my bowtie undone along with the buttons on my shirt, my jacket hanging under my left arm, I looked up at the sun shining down as I sighed, "Would it be so bad, if I just accepted that the kansen are as close as I'm going to get?"

I knew no answer would come, at least in theory, in practice, however…

A thump of bare feet landing on concrete made me jump and spin around to see a woman in a thin, very thin, white flowing open robe that used a gold band to keep herself from spilling out of it, her blond hair flowing over her shoulders, while her hands were behind her as she leaned forward, grinning at me as she asked, "Going to get to what, Captain?"

Going by her figure alone I knew she was one of the illustrious sisters, and it took me a moment to place her name, aside from that one meeting, I hadn't really dealt with them a lot, "Something personal, Victorious."

"Oh! That's always the good stuff!" she chirps and starts to bounce on the balls of her bare feet, "I know some good stuff too, wanna trade info?"

Raising an eyebrow and shaking my head, "Not really."

She wiggles her eyebrows up and down while taking on a suggestive tone, "But it's super juicy about Lu… Illustrious."

Now I was curious, what was Victorious about to call her?

Opening my mouth to give in, only to close it and decide against it, "No, I don't think I will, Victorious."

She folds her arms under her bust and pouts, "Fine, I'll keep this about Lusty to myself then."

Lusty?

"Whoa, hold up, Lusty?" My curiosity getting the better of me.

She gives me this sly look and winks, "We all have nicknames, Captain."

Hanging my head as the words slip out, "Fine, what is the info?"

Victorious leans in to whisper in my ear, "I once heard Illustrious state that you seemed to match your name, being quite the fox."

Blinking a couple of times, I give her a sideways look, "That could mean anything, Victorious."

She shrugs and states, "Now you need to give me something, Captain."

Damn it.

"Fine, you know how I was in a complicated relationship with a kansen before you came to this port?" I ask, when she nods, I close my eyes and sigh, "Implacable."

"No! She's like, the cousin to us!" Victorious chirps with her arms under her chin, leaning forward as she asks, "Who knew?"

"Well, I and Implacable for starters, but Javelin knew as well." I sigh while looking off to the side as I add, "And I miss having someone I'm close with, even if what I thought was closeness wasn't what I thought it was."

She steps back and taps her chin before nodding as she then spins and starts to skip away saying over her shoulder, "Good trade!"

"Where are you going?" I call after her.

"I gotta tell Lusty this!" she chirps and picks up her pace.

"No!" I yelp and start to give chase.

We ran through the entire base, only coming to a stop as I watched her dash into the dormitory complex, knowing I cannot follow in there. Bending at my hips to rest my hands on my knees, I'm a little worried about how this might bite me in the ass when the First Sea Lord arrives.

Standing upright again, I wince and wheeze a little, these girls are fast when they want to be, Victorious leans opens the door and leans out to yell at me, "Vickky, Formi or Lumbering, and Dommie, that's the rest of us, Captain!"

"I'm not heavy!" I hear Formidable yelling from inside, "It wasn't my fault my hull launched itself!"

Even I had to laugh at that, it was anything but ladylike to hear Formidable yell like that. When I go to retort, she closed the door again to the share dorm space for the Illustrious sisters and Unicorn. Running a hand through my hair, nothing I can do about this now, but head home and try to relax the rest of my day away.

XXXX

XXXX