Best laid plans

Okay, I had a plan of attack now, if I wanted to get to know Illustrious a bit better and find out what Indomitable had said to her to make her blush on the beach like that, I had to take on my greatest challenge; getting on Unicorn's good side.

Adjusting my loose shirt as I take a breath to center myself, I then knock on the completed dorm complex for the Illustrious sisters and Unicorn. Stepping back from the door two steps, now I just had to wait, I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew it needed to seem like her idea and get her to enjoy spending time around me, then I could turn my attention to Illustrious.

When no answer came, I knocked a second time, I knew Illustrious wasn't on patrol today, nor was Unicorn, and it was early enough in the day that I should be able to catch them before they got on doing anything.

After a heartbeat, I heard the door unlock and when it opened, my mouth dropped open and my eyes went wide. Standing inside the door, with her hair soaking wet, to match the water droplets on her soft skin, wrapped in a damp-looking towel, was Illustrious, a second into the two of us facing one another like this she started to glow pink as she squeaked and stuttered, "C…Captain Fox! W… h… oh my, I seem to be in a compromised state." She stepped back behind the door and leaned her head around the side, looking down at the ground as she asked, "What brings you by, Captain Fox?"

Rubbing my right arm and looking off to the side, "I was, well, uh… I was wondering if Unicorn was free for the day?"

Illustrious gives me a soft smile, her eyes were the same warmth they always showed towards me, but the disappointment in her voice said otherwise, "I am sorry, Captain Fox, but she is out for the day with Javelin."

Damn.

Bobbing my head up and down I turn and start to walk away as I say, "That's fine, I'll try again some other time. Sorry to have interrupted your shower or bath, Illustrious."

Just as my left foot touched the walkway, Illustrious spoke up, "I am free for the day, however, Captain Fox."

Turning around I see she's standing in the doorway, the edges of the towel visible right now and I understand exactly how it's staying in place right now, she notices I'm looking in her direction right now and she starts to take on a full body blush as she states with a shaky voice, "That is, if you wish to spend the day with me. I would just need a few moments to get dressed; you would be welcome to wait inside."

I quickly debate this very thing in my head, I mean I would very much like to get to know Illustrious, I had just planned on getting Unicorn on board with it first. I see Illustrious starting to fidget with her hands and I know I'm taking too long on my answer, with a confident and warm smile I turn and approach her with a kind tone in my voice, "That sounds like a lovely idea."

Her full body blush turns brighter and she adjusts some of her loose hair, while backing out of the door frame, simply reinforcing the idea that her towel was only covering her front. Closing the door behind me, Illustrious backs up to a corner, and smiles warmly at me as she says, "I will just need a few moments to find something to wear, Captain Fox." She then turns, careful to keep her hair covering her rear as she says over her shoulder and winks in the mirror that was in the hall, "No peeking, Captain Fox."

Putting my hands up, and looking to the mirror to look her in the eyes, I defend myself, "Wouldn't dream of it." For a split second, I see a bit of a frown on her features, just before I hear wet footfalls and a door open before shutting.

I wonder if she wanted me to peek.

Shrugging to myself I took off my shoes and started to look around the common room of this dorm unit. There is a large soft-looking couch in the center, and a fancy-looking loveseat with white and blue striped fabric, framed in dark stained oak along with gold accents; this chair just screamed Indomitable to me. In the corner, I saw a great big bean bag chair beside an old stereo with an old record player and a giant set of headphones and old records scattered around the bean bag chair. Moving over to the glass-topped coffee table in front of the couch, I see a collection of magazines, lifting a couple I see some rather run-of-the-mill stuff, fashion, and social interest, but buried at the bottom, I'm surprised to see something with the words, 'How to drive him WILD!' written across the cover and covering intertwined hands against some sheets in large bold letters, left little to the imagination as to the content of that article within it. Putting the magazines back and covering that one, I keep looking around, squatting down beside the albums on the floor beside the bean bag chair. Whoever these are, they've got good taste, lots of Iron Maiden, looking up at the turn table, I see a sleeve for a record and I pick it up and can't help but say, "Nice, Powerslave."

"Be careful with that, Captain Fox, Formidable spent a lot of time and effort tracking down that original vinyl copy." I hear Illustrious say to me.

Putting the sleeve back I turn to see her standing in the hall, in a light blue knee-length skirt with dark blue flowers printed on it, a black fabric belt around her waist tied in a simple knot that lead up to a white button-up top, that was off the shoulders and showed ample cleavage, with a wide black strap going over each shoulder. Her hair was in her usual style two pigtails in front, held together with white lilies and black fabric, behind her head, she had her hair loosely held back with a blue and silver clip stylized to look like a large butterfly.

I swallowed hard, she looked amazing and I kind of wondered how she managed to get so put together so quickly.

Moving her arms to softly squish her bust together, she smiled shyly at me as she asked, "I take it that you like the outfit, Captain Fox?"

I reached up and tugged on the collar of my shirt as I said, "You… wow."

She blushed brightly and fiddled with her long white hair as she mumbled, "Thank you. Shall we head out?"

Right.

Nodding and moving to the door, I get my shoes on while she slips on these heeled sandals with white straps. From my kneeling position, I look at Illustrious just as she leans forward, to put on her next sandal and with a squeak of surprise she starts to go forward. My world went black as I felt softness envelope my face and my nose filled with the scent of lilies.

At this rate, I think I'm going to like the smell of lilies.

There was a stomping sound, followed by a giggle and Illustrious stands upright as she says, "Oh my, Captain, it would seem you ended up providing me with a buffer to the floor."

Looking past her mounds, I saw the twinkle of amusement in her blue eyes and again I started to wonder how much of the clumsiness is an act and how much is real. Standing up I smile at her and reach for the door as I ask, "Ready to go?"

Her smile was so warm; I just kind of want to see more of it.

Illustrious picks up a brown leather purse, puts the strap over her left shoulder and waited for me to open the door, and asks, "What did you have in mind for today, Captain?"

I shrug and laugh, "No idea, but I'm sure I'll figure out something."

To my surprise, she linked her right arm around my left and said, "Then this will be an interesting date."

Date?

I blink a couple of times and look to my left, noticing that I'm taller than she is and from here I can see down her top into the valley between the snow-covered peaks and I ask, "Is this a date?"

She looks up at me, her blue eyes wide while making a dismissive gesture with her left hand, "Did I say something wrong? Is this not a date in time?"

Nice save.

Looking at our linked arms I ask, "And this?"

"For stability when I go down the stairs, Captain Fox." She answers quickly, a little too quickly, almost like she had that prepared. When I give her a sideways look, she just smiles and tugs my arm a little and at the same time squishes it against her bust while adding, "Due be gentle, Captain, this will be my first time in the care of a man during an outing, after all."

Yeah, this is a date.

Not what I was planning on for today, but I'm not against it either, so, let's see how this goes.

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With little cups of ice cream in hand, we both sat down on a grassy hill, overlooking the harbor from outside the base fence. Illustrious sat beside me, her knees together and legs pointed off to the side, a perfect lady-like pose. She takes a little scoop of her vanilla ice cream on the little wooden spoon, slipping it between her soft lips, her blue eyes close and she sighs, "Oh how I miss gelato."

Taking a scoop of my chocolate I ask, "Where did you find gelato and what's the difference?"

She giggles, "For starters, Captain, gelato has less air making it much denser, it also uses more milk than cream giving it a lower fat content, which makes the flavor stronger. And to finish that off, it is often served warmer, leaving it much silkier in texture."

"Okay, and to the other part of my question?" I ask taking another scoop.

Illustrious took another scoop but had a faraway look when she said "It may have been a prize that I took after conducting a night raid against Taranto in the Sardegna Empire. It may surprise you, Captain, but I do have a talent for conducting surprise night raids."

With a raised eyebrow I ask, "Really?"

Her cheeks went bright pink and she waved her hands from side to side as she stuttered, "O…oh my, no, I… I did not mean it like that!" she paused and hid her mouth behind her cup of ice cream and mumbled, "But is that something that interests you, Captain?"

"Well, uh…" I try to pause looking for a good way to answer her question while my cheeks are hot, with a cough I mumble, "I'm not opposed to that, but well, um, I'd rather not be surprised by it."

"I see." She whispers with a shy smile while placing another scoop between her soft lips.

"Big sister!" Unicorn's voice rang out from behind us.

In unison we both turned to see Unicorn in a white sundress walking with Javelin, who was in shorts and a tee shirt, carrying some bags. In many, many ways Javelin infuriates me, but in times like this, I know she's got my back, in all things. Her green eyes looked at me and Illustrious, and she grabbed Unicorn by the arm and whispered something to her, Unicorn's eyes went wide, then narrowed at me and she hurried over, launching herself against Illustrious' back, resting her chin on Illustrious' right shoulder, asking, "What are you doing, Big Sister?"

Illustrious gave me a warm smile, if a little sad as she said, "Having a good time with Captain Fox, how was your shopping trip?"

"It was great! Javelin showed me all kinds of neat things, and I found some really nice stuff to buy too, let's go home and I can show it to you." Unicorn chirps at Illustrious.

Illustrious looks at her ice cream, then to me, I can almost tell what's going on in her mind, she offers Unicorn her ice cream as she says, "I would very much like to see it, but later? I am in the middle of something with Captain Fox."

If looks could kill, I would be dead, a thousand times over right now, as soon as Illustrious said that, the glare I got from Unicorn was enough to bore through the armor belt of a KGV class, her lips compressed and she was about to say something, when Javelin came to my rescue, getting her attention as she asks, "Uni, you said that there was another store you wanted to check out, right? Let's go do that and leave these two be." Unicorn looked torn, and Javelin sweetened the pot, "I'll even take you to the secret ice cream place."

That somehow did the trick, Unicorn let go of Illustrious and started to follow Javelin, only pausing to look back at me and Illustrious, the worry clear on her face and I understood, this really was what I thought it was, Unicorn was afraid of losing Illustrious to me. I close my eyes and sigh, "It's alright, Illustrious, if you'd like to go with Unicorn, I'll understand."

Illustrious looks over her shoulder at Unicorn, then down at her ice cream before shaking her head as she whispered, "I am going to be a little selfish and do something I want today." She paused and smiled at me, "I am rather content, right here with you, Captain Fox."

With a smile on my face, I turn to look back out at the harbor as I agree, "As am I, spending today with you, Illustrious."

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When we returned to her dormitory, I could see Unicorn in the window, watching the path like a hawk, when she saw the two of us, she dashed out of the window. Illustrious smiled at me as she said, "It would seem that today is at an end, Captain Fox."

Nodding, "It is, I'll have to thank Javelin later for what she did."

Illustrious smiled and brushed some of her hair behind an ear as she looked down and said, "As will I, still" she paused just long enough for me to feel something soft press against my cheek, just as the door opened and I saw the look of horror on Unicorn, just as Illustrious whispered, "I had a wonderful time, Captain Fox."

I'm so dead.

Reaching out I touch her hand and smile at Illustrious, "So did I, perhaps the next time we are both off duty we should try this again."

Illustrious blushes brightly looks down and whispers, "I would like that."

Letting go of her hand, I smile at her and say in my regular voice, "Then it's a date."

Unicorn clearly heard that her lips compress, her eyes narrow at me and she stamps her foot, snorting, Illustrious looked up and winked, "Then it is a date, then."

Before I can say anything she's turned and headed up the stair to Unicorn, and started to guide her into the dorm, pausing to smile at me over her shoulder before shutting the door. Turning on my heels, I start to walk back to my quarters as I say, "Yeah, this was totally a date."

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