"Burgers?"

"Burgers," she repeated as if it was the perfectly rational thing to blurt out after a passionate round or two of sex.

I looked around the room, making sure I wasn't hallucinating or dreaming before returning my attention to Gangut. "Is this one of those rare things where the same word means something completely different depending on the language?" I ventured. "Is 'burgers' Russian slang for 'That was some great sex, Comrade!' or something?"

Her mirthful laughter filled the office as she shook her head. "It was glorious but no, Comrade. Burgers means burgers. As in, 'tonight, you will make us burgers'."

"Oh, I will, will I?" I grinned back, arching an eyebrow at her.

"Da," she confirmed with a tender kiss. "You are family now, and you have had so much of our culture, now I will share your culture. And since we do not have any 'baseball' or 'Mom' or 'apple pie', burgers will suffice."

"A bit stereotypical," I murmured. "I don't even like baseball."

"See? Burgers it is, then," she declared. "Do not worry, we will make a trip to ensure you have all the ingredients you need, Comrade. But first…" She craned her neck as she looked around the ruined office. "I think we need to straighten things up."

"Da," I wryly agreed. "And you may want to get new stockings, considering the old ones are a bit…torn."

Gangut reached back and felt around her thighs before she grimaced and made a disappointed noise. "Worse than I feared," she announced before she lifted her hips up and tried to pull down her skirt over the ripped garments. "I think I can hide them, as long as I do not kneel down or bend over."

"Alright," I nodded, running my hands along her sides. There was so much I wanted to discuss with her: us, this relationship, where it's going. But at the same time, we couldn't lie here half-naked discussing deeply personal matters. Someone was going to come around eventually, and this wasn't exactly a professional state to be found in. With a heavy sigh, I lifted my head up, capturing her lips in one last tender kiss. "Guess you better get going," I said, "I'll get dressed and start cleaning up."

Gangut smiled down at me, her crimson eyes sparkling. "Do not worry, Misha, I will not be gone long. And we will talk when I get back, I promise."

I felt no small rush of relief at that. In the back of my mind, I was worried Gangut was just diving into this blind. It was good to know she wanted to talk things over as well. "Thank you," I smiled back. "See you in a bit."

By the time Gangut had returned, I'd almost gotten the office completely straightened up. I was going through the last handful of papers when the door opened and she strolled through, looking rather refreshed.

"Still at work, Comrade?" she admonished playfully. "I thought you would have it done by now."

I gave her a wry grin as I sorted out the last few reports. "Yeah, well, I decided to grab a quick shower and a change of clothes since my place is in the building."

"I decided to do the same," she chuckled as she ran her gloved fingers along her desk, eyeing the vodka bottle. "Are you ready to have our talk now, Comrade?"

My heart rate spiked and I felt a sudden sense of anxiety wash over me, but I nodded all the same. Despite whatever fears I held, this was a conversation we absolutely needed to have. I grabbed my chair, dragged it out from behind my desk to the center of the room, and sat down. "Ready when you are."

Gangut smiled softly before she repeated my gesture, placing her chair in front of me before she sat down as well. "I know things were a bit…sudden…earlier today…"

That was putting it mildly.

"I was overcome with emotion, but in my haste, I did not think to ask for your opinion, Comrade," She sighed and glanced away, her hands reflexively clenching and unclenching. "Did you mean what you said last night?"

While I still thought it was far from the best time or place to confess my feelings for her, that did not mean they weren't true. "Every word."

The battleship let out a huge sigh of relief, and a broad smile returned to her face. "Good. Good. You know, when you blurted it out last night, it terrified me. I have had several partners throughout my life. Not many, but a few. When I brought up the Revolution, and my love for it, all of them backed off."

"So did I," I pointed out, not entirely certain where this was going.

"You did," she confirmed, "At first. But you are the only person to confess that you still had feelings for me afterward and that those feelings had only grown. I did not know how to react, how to process that. For most of the next morning, I still did not. Because I had felt it, too. Of course, I thought I would have to choose, you or the Revolyutsiya."

While I was fairly sure of the answer, I still felt like she was prompting me to ask the question. "So…what was your choice?"

She gave me a fatalistic shrug and a sheepish smile. "I could not decide, Comrade! I spent most of the morning wandering the base, desperately trying to find something that would tip the scales. But then I realized…I did not have to choose. It was remarkably freeing, and in my elation, I rushed here to tell you." She took a deep breath and let it out in a long exhalation. "Now that I have said your piece, what about you, Comrade?"

At first, I didn't have anything. Then a sudden, unwelcome thought entered my mind. "What about when I have to leave?" I asked softly, my voice barely above a whisper. "What do we do then?"

A look of shock crossed Gangut's face, and I realized she hadn't thought of it, either. "Why would you have to leave?" she asked, as if I'd suggested something that could never possibly happen.

"Because my job is the Commander of the Azur Lane, not just the Northern Parliament," I answered honestly. "I'm here temporarily. Nobody knows how long, and I'm hoping that we can keep this going for as long as possible, or maybe even make it permanent, but at the end of the day, if Naval HQ decides I'm needed back at the Eagle Union, I won't have a choice."

Her smile had all but died, and her eyes unfocused as she tried to find some solution that would make things work. "What if I came with you?"

"If you wanted to," I quickly answered. "I'd love to have you with me, and I think your boundless enthusiasm would be a good showing for both the Northern Parliament and the Revolution. But…" I hesitated, certain of her answer. "...would you be happy?"

After doing some soul-searching, she eventually shook her head. "I do not know. Perhaps? I think I would miss my comrades terribly, though."

"I think so, too," I agreed as I leaned back in the chair and let out a long sigh. "Sadly, I don't think we'll have an answer today. Or even a plan." I reached out and grabbed her hands as I looked deeply into her eyes. "But I promise you this: I will never stop working on a way to stay here. No matter how long it takes, no matter what it takes, I will come back one day and I will never leave again."

Tears well up in Gangut's eyes as her hands tighten around my own. "I…I will hold you to that, Misha," she whispers, a shaky smile on her face. "Thank you."

We leaned in, our lips meeting in a gentle kiss that broke before things got heated again. As we leaned back, I could see her smile had grown more confident. "Enough maudlin talk, Comrade. If we do not know how much time we have, then we must make the most of every moment!"

"That's my girl," I grinned until she shot up from her chair, yanking me upright with her.

"To the store!" she declared. "Now, at long last, you will teach me your secret burger recipe!"

The store wasn't too different from the local grocery marts I'd grown up with, except everything was in Russian. Even with the language barrier, it had been fairly easy to find the basics: ground beef, lettuce, tomato, onions, sliced pickles, cheese. We even managed to find a bag of frozen french fries. However, in the case of the cheese, we had to use cheddar as American cheese was unsurprisingly unavailable.

"All that's left are the buns and the spices," I announced after finishing inspecting the contents of our shopping basket.

"The buns are right over here, Comrade," Gangut helpfully pointed out, then gave me a mischievous grin. "At least, the ones that I have not squeezed yet."

"Gangut!" I exclaimed, feeling the blood rushing to my face as she let out a hearty laugh.

"Do not worry, Comrade," she chuckled, "Your buns are safe. For now."

"Oh, I feel so much better," I sardonically replied. "Although I suppose one of us had to make the bun joke."

"Indeed."

Much to my surprise, they had hamburger buns, or, at least, what appeared to be hamburger buns.

"Potato buns?" Gangut inquired as I inspected the package.

I looked up and gave her a quizzical look. "Huh?"

"Those are potato buns, Comrade," she repeated, pointing at the bread in my hands. "Do you use potato buns for hamburgers?"

I looked down at the buns again, which, to my eyes and hands, looked like what I'd use back home. "Well, no," I answered. "Normally we'd use hamburger buns. But these feel and look just like them, sooo…I guess we could use these. Unless you see something here that's actually labeled 'hamburger buns'."

Her crimson eyes scanned the selection of bread before she slowly shook her head. "I do not see anything labeled like that, Comrade."

"Potato buns it is, then," I said as I tossed the package into the basket. "All that's left now is spices."

Gangut swiftly linked her arm in mine. "This way," she stated as she led me through the aisles.

We came to a stop at a surprisingly large collection of spices, all of them labeled in Russian. "Alright," I said as I looked at the array of seasonings. "We've got salt and pepper back home."

"And paprika," she added.

"And paprika," I confirmed. "We'll need…garlic powder."

Gangut scanned the shelves until she found it, quickly snatching it up and depositing it into the basket. "Got it."

"Thank you," I nodded to her. "Now all we need is cumin."

"What?"

"Cumin," I repeated. "It's a brown spice, gives things a smoky flavor. Not sure if it has a different name in Russian."

"I have never heard of-ah!" She reached out and plucked a container off of the shelf. "Here it is. Although I do not know why we could not just use paprika."

"Paprika's a bit sweeter, and I use cumin strictly for the smoky, earthy flavor when I'm cooking burgers indoors."

Gangut fixed me with a perplexed stare. "Why do you say indoors? Do you make this sort of thing when you are camping, Comrade? It seems very complicated for camp food."

"No, no," I smiled and shook my head. "In summer, or even spring or fall if the weather holds, people back in the Eagle Union would have cookouts where you use an outdoor grill to make burgers, barbeque, that sort of thing. Cooking over an open flame gives the food a smoky quality that's really good. Obviously, I don't want to do that here, in the middle of winter, so cumin is a substitute."

She seemed to ponder my words for a few seconds before she gave me a hopeful look. "Do you think we could try something like that?"

"Absolutely," I smiled warmly. "I'd love to. We'd need to get a grill and the right kind of wood, but shouldn't be too hard to get things put together by the time spring rolls around."

"I look forward to it with bated breath, Comrade."

I grinned but didn't say anything. Then, after a moment's thought, I looked up at her and asked, "By the way, since…ah…being intimate is back as a way to build stamina, does that mean polar bear swims are off the table?"

Gangut, my beautiful, darling Gangut, simply smiled down at me, laughed softly, and answered, "Oh, my dear, sweet, Comrade…no."

Back at my apartment, I got to work showing Gangut the ancient family secret to making burgers. She'd managed to procure a small griddle and an air fryer, which would help with both the fries and burgers. But first, the seasoning.

"So what you wanna do," I began as I placed a small bowl between the two of us, "is get your seasoning mix together. For that, we're gonna use salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cumin." As I spoke, I added each of the spices into the bowl, until I felt I had enough of each. "Now, we go ahead and get it all mixed up…and voila! We have our burger mix. All we have to do now is just pour it over the ground beef and get it mixed in."

Gangut looked around for something before giving up and asking. "With what, Comrade?"

"With these," I grinned, holding up my hands before diving into the ground beef. "It's a bit messy, but it's the best way to make sure everything gets evenly distributed."

"How do you know when it is ready?"

"Eyeball it," I answered as I continued to knead the seasoning into the meat. "You'll also feel it. That should do it." I tore off a chunk of ground beef and held it up under the light for her to study. "See? All the little flecks there?"

She leaned in close before nodding. "Ah, I see it now, Comrade. Very interesting. Could one use different spices if they wished?"

"Absolutely," I smiled as I began dividing up the ground beef into individual chunks. "That's the great thing about burgers. You can use all sorts of seasonings, toppings, buns. I've seen people put over-easy eggs on their burgers, avocados on their burgers, burgers with pretzel buns, you name it. But if we're going with the classic Eagle Union cheeseburger, it's ground beef, a very simple seasoning mix, cheddar or American cheese, on a hamburger bun with ketchup, mustard, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, and onions."

"Is that what you normally have?"

I shook my head. "Nah, normally I don't have onions or tomatoes on mine. Tomatoes can be too messy and I'm not a huge fan of raw onions."

"I see…" she said thoughtfully. "Should I put the french fries in now?"

I glanced at the assembled proto-patties and nodded. "Yeah, should be done just in time."

She tossed the fries into the air fryer, hit a few buttons, and the machine hummed to life. "Done!"

I smiled and gave her a beefy thumbs-up before I turned to wash my hands. "Excellent! Almost done prepping the patties on my end. Just eyeballing it for tonight, but if you want to be really specific, you can always use a scale to weigh out each patty."

Gangut stared at the spheres of beef I had fashioned, then looked back to me. "But they are in little balls, not patties."

"Correct," I said as I sprayed non-stick onto the griddle. "But observe." I put two of the spheres on the griddle with tongs and, using a spatula, pressed down on them until they had taken the patty shape.

Gangut let out an excited gasp as I worked the grill. "Such an interesting technique, Comrade! But if I may make a request?"

"Of course," I beamed.

She hesitated for a second before asking, in the cutest possible way, "Can you…how do you say…'make mine a double'?"

I grinned and nodded. "Double patty for the lady, coming right up!"

I added an extra patty to the grill, waiting for just the right time before flipping all three over. After placing a slice of cheese on each one, I gestured over at the empty metal bowl sitting on the counter. "Could you hand me that real quick?"

Gangut dutifully passed the bowl over to me. "I've been wondering what this was for all night."

"You're finally about to find out," I winked as I took a spoon and poured out a few droplets of water next to one of the patties, quickly covering it with the metal bowl. After a few seconds, I lifted the bowl to reveal the cheese, perfectly melted over the patty, much to Gangut's delight.

"How does that work?" she asked as I repeated the process with the other two patties.

"Bowl traps the steam which in turn melts the cheese," I explained. "And you have to use metal because, well…nobody wants plastic, glass can shatter, and wood burns."

"Valid reasons, Comrade."

By then, I was certain the burgers were done, so I grabbed the plates and asked, "Gangut, if you don't mind grabbing the buns for-ack!" I shot her a dirty look. "The potato buns."

A playful grin was on her face as she reached for the correct buns this time. "Oh, I am terribly sorry, Comrade. You're just so cute when you're cooking."

"Mhm." As she turned to grab the buns, I decided one good turn deserved another, so I grabbed her buns.

"Misha!" she exclaimed, giggling as she playfully swatted at my hand.

"Turnabout is fair play," I countered.

With our burgers assembled, and the fries finally cooked, we took our meals into the dining room. As we sat down, I waited for Gangut to try hers first, wondering how she would react.

Almost as soon as she took her first bite, her ruby eyes went wide and she let out a low moan around her cheeseburger. Fortunately, she did chew and swallow before spouting her praises. "Comrade," she practically moaned, "It's so delicious! So juicy! I love it!"

"Do you have a new favorite meal?" I grinned over at her.

"I do not think you will ever be able to overcome the love of makarony po Flotski I have," she answered, "But this is very close. Thank you for sharing it with me."

"And thank you for being here with me to share it," I smiled and raised my glass. "To new loves."

"To new loves!"

A/N-Ah, everything's going well. Downright SWIMMINGLY, wouldn't you say? Until next time, fair winds and following seas!