9063a. "I actually got applauded when I went to the commissary for lunch today...weird." - Admiral Goto
9063b. "K-Kongo-san...the stamina of a fast battleship is truly impressive!" - a blushing Fubuki
9063c. "Dess! Arigato, Bucky!" - Kongo, accepting the compliment though she has no idea what it's for
Yokosuka, Japan - Early morning
There's silence on the PA system, before a quiet crackling of old vinyl about to play, and then the slow languid opening bars of a rather risqué track. 'I've been really trying baby, trying to hold back this feeling for so long...' For what had to be the thirty-seventh time in the last three or four days, Marvin Gaye's slow-dance masterpiece found itself being piped through the speakers for every ship girl in Yokosuka to hear, and while the fact that it was playing at two-hour intervals was unusual enough, it shouldn't have given rise to the kind of word-of-mouth slowly filtering through the kanmusu population stationed there.
"Goodness, they're going at it again now aren't they?" Houshou let out a longsuffering sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose as she looked up at the window of Admiral Goto's office. "He's going to land himself in the hospital at this rate..." "Eh? What do you mean by that?" Evidently Fubuki had not gotten word of the speculations trickling down Yokosuka's metaphorical grapevine, and Houshou looked distinctly uncomfortable as the destroyer who was also Goto's second in command (next to the secretary ship) made her way towards the mother of all carriers, a confused expression on her face. "Ah, it's... it's nothing to concern yourself with Fubuki. Just something I heard from somebody else..."
"Huh. I must have missed out on the memo for some reason or another. What exactly did you hear, Houshou-sama?" A raised brow quirked in the carrier's direction, and Houshou looked like she was trying to hold something in - something that might not be suitable for destroyers' ears - before she finally spoke up. "It was two days ago, when I was passing by the summoning chamber. Have you been introduced to that new batch of kanmusu we had at the time?" Fubuki shook her head. "Not yet, no." "Well, suffice to say," Houshou began, "that I overheard one of the cruisers explaining what that song meant during their debriefing. It seems to be the new song that plays whenever Kongou and Admiral Goto decide to have some... time alone with each other."
For a moment there was only confused silence, a befuddled expression on Fubuki's face. Then the realization hit her like an artillery shell and she went red as a cherry faster than Iowa could say 'Oh my God'. "So that means..." The so-called mother of modern destroyers (though she preferred not to think of herself that way thanks to Captain Admiral Darren's trolling tendencies from months/years prior) covered her mouth as she looked up to the window of Admiral Goto's office, trying quite hard to exorcise the mental image that threatened to invade her mind's eye. "Every two hours? Such... such endurance from the admiral!"
Mid-morning
As it so happened, Kongou was later sighted leaving Goto's office within a half hour of another loop of Let's Get It On, fresh from a briefing on future operations slated for the coming September. "Kongou-san! Incredible!" "Wh-" A very confused fast battleship was met with the sight of Fubuki hurtling down the hallway towards her, awed admiration in her eyes as she skidded to a halt in front of Kongou... and then bowed, much to the latter's incredulity. "K-Kongou-san..." Why was Fubuki - was she blushing? "The stamina of a fast battleship... it's truly impressive!" Confused and not being quite sure what she was being complimented for, Kongou at least had the presence of mind to take it with the good grace of her English heritage. "Dess! Arigato, Bucky!"
Noon
Admiral Goto, it had to be said, was of significantly sterner stuff than was commonly assumed. Being the first of his colleagues to command a fleet of shipgirls meant he'd been dealing with their antics the longest, and while this meant his days were usually more stressful than not, and that his sanity was oftentimes frayed and his nerves frequently frazzled, it also made him relatively resistant to going absolutely bonkers the way Colombo and Briggs had done. That still didn't prepare him for the surprise of being greeted with a sitting ovation from his shipgirls when he went to the commissary for lunch, and Goto couldn't help but feel a rush of affection for his crazy (but usually well-meaning) fleet in the wake of this seeming outburst of admiral appreciation, unusual though it was.
And then Akebono spoke up. "You shitty admiral! How are your fragile geezer hips not shattered by now like the time Kongou-san thought you were going to get replaced?" Goto's response was a flat "What", eyes turning to the destroyer famed for cussing him out. "You heard me! Or have your ears become so shitty from all the daytime yasen you get up to in your office?" "Daytime ya- what no, no that's not what I spend my time in my office doing." The Admiral's brows furrowed, eyes narrowing as his gaze swept the mess hall. "Where exactly did you hear that from?"
As soon as he was informed of the rumor, the color of Goto's face settled somewhere between vanilla and strawberry pudding, and he called his secretary ship over to have a hushed conversation with her. "Ooyodo-san. Whoever started this rumor, I want them found today, before the whole fleet starts thinking I'm some sort of addicted satyriastic stallion."
Evening
"Haaaaa, I thought they'd never stop..." After the lengthy process of tracking down the perpetrator and rounding up all the new summons to correct the wrong impression of the admiral said rumor had given them, Goto was looking forward to what rest he could get in his quarters that night. The trouble was, when he opened the door, there was someone else in his room.
"Hey, teitoku~" That sentence was punctuated by the admiral shutting the door behind him. Whether it was her mastery over the in-between space or her use of the vents as passageways, Kongou was currently lying on Goto's bed, dressed in a salacious manner that shall remain undescribed for reasons, with a sultry look on her face and a record player on the bedside table. "...You found out about the gossip too didn't you?" the admiral asked, a foreboding feeling that he knew where this was going. And then the record player began to play that song, and this time, it was Kongou singing.
"I've been really trying baby... trying to hold back this feeling for so long..." Was it her attempt to romance him for the night or her way of consoling him for the stress those insinuations had caused him? Either way, Admiral Goto was smitten - that she had gone to such lengths to lighten up the end of his day was immensely endearing to him. Making sure the door was locked before advancing on his beloved battleship, he thought to himself, Just this once, I think I can let the rumors be true.