Admiral Graf Spee was walking through the hallways of the Hermione, heading for the mess hall, where Leviathan had told her to meet him. Upon turning the corner, she heard some voices coming from inside and came to a stop right beside the open door. Peeking her head inside, she noticed that one of the tables was occupied by four shipgirls: Le Malin, Le Triomphant, Javelin, and... Unicorn.
She looked down at her hands, and her confidence slowly started fading. She had already seen the effect that her claw-gauntlets had on the bashful carrier; the two had crossed each other a couple of times, and her attempts at saying hello were always met with shock and fright by the purple-haired shipgirl. She had gotten used to that kind of reaction by now, but it was still hard to deal with. The four of them seemed to be having so much fun chatting and eating the snacks left for them by Hermione that she didn't want to make things awkward by walking in on them without notice, so she just stood there by the door, out of sight, pondering what to do.
Until she was startled by a hand clasping her shoulder. She turned in a flash and was greeted by the imposing figure of Leviathan, looking down on her with a curious expression on his face.
"L-Leviathan? How long have you been there?" She was so distracted that she hadn't even heard him approach her.
"I just got here. What are you doing in the hallways, Spee? Why aren't you inside?" The male Kansen raised an eyebrow at her.
"I-I… You see…" she stammered, trying to fight back the embarrassment by fidgeting with her fingers, which would have been cute if she wasn't wearing what looked like torture devices on her hands.
Leviathan's brow furrowed at her hesitation. He stepped forward to peek inside the mess hall, taking note of the presence of the four oblivious Kansen, still chatting without a care in the world.
"I see…" he muttered, turning to face the shorter Kansen.
"Maybe we should find another place to talk, so we won't disturb them…"
"There's no need for that," Leviathan declared as he bent down on his knee to grab a hold of her wrists more easily. He brought her hands to eye level and focused on his Cube. A flash of light passed through his green eyes; it lasted only an instant, and before she could question it, she felt the metal of the contraptions lose their grip on her flesh and fall onto the floor with a loud clang.
"Who's there?" A voice rang from inside the mess hall, and the surprise at having her gauntlets removed in such a quick and painless way was immediately replaced by the dread of being caught eavesdropping.
Before she could react, Leviathan pushed her through the doorframe, and Spee found herself frozen in place and in plain sight, under the perplexed looks of the four shipgirls.
She looked back at him in panic, but the shipboy simply picked her claw gauntlets off the ground and looked at her with an unperturbed expression. "Don't be afraid," he whispered to her in an encouraging tone.
"Is something wrong?" Javelin addressed her, cocking her head to the side in confusion.
Spee snapped her head back to the four shipgirls, her heart pounding in her chest. She mustered all the courage she had and tried to put up a smile on her face.
"H-hello," she said, raising her now free hand to wave at them.
Leviathan lingered back long enough to hear Javelin invite Spee to join them, then walked away with a satisfied expression on his face.
Things didn't turn out quite as he expected when he invited Spee for a serious talk. The heavy cruiser had revealed her desire to overcome her shyness, and he felt compelled to help her in her endeavor, because that's what friends do, right? But before that, he wanted to address the issue of her rigging, and that's why he had told her to meet him in the mess hall, where at this hour no one would be there to bother them, and they'd have all the peace and quiet they needed to talk about such a sensitive matter. He wasn't expecting to find it occupied by the four shipgirls for a late-night snack, but even that was for the better, in his opinion. It was a great opportunity for her to break the ice, and that's why he did what he did.
After a few minutes of walking and crossing some of the other Kansen onboard, whom he greeted with a nod of his head, a haughty "Hey!" reached his ears from behind and he turned to see the short figure of a certain heavy cruiser tailing him from behind.
"What do you want, Deutschland?" Leviathan questioned her, fighting back the urge to roll his eyes.
Instead of replying, the shipgirl answered with another question. "What are you playing at, lowly animal?"
"What do you mean?" Leviathan blinked in confusion.
"My schwester, what are your intentions with her?" Deutschland raised her voice. "Spee told me you wanted to meet her, and now I see you walking around with her gauntlets in hand; explain yourself!"
"Rest assured, I have no bad intentions; we've become friends, and that's it. You should know that since you were shamelessly eavesdropping on us at the time. I just wanted to help her with these, like I've been meaning to do for a while now," Leviathan retorted, handing her the claw-shaped contraptions. "I was going to deliver them to your room, but since you are here, you can take them off my hands," he declared, dropping the devices into her arms.
"You… what?!" She looked at the claw gauntlets she was holding in disbelief. "She's been struggling with these things since… the beginning, and now you are saying that you were able to take them off just like that?"
"Yes, it's what I wanted to talk about with her, but we found out that our spot was already taken," Leviathan shrugged. "So I decided to postpone the explanation and limited myself to just remove them from her person."
"That doesn't make any sense. These things are part of her rigging; they came with her when she came to life. Putting them on and taking them off every time is a nightmare for her, and you just removed them like it was nothing?!" Her tone was borderline accusatory.
"And yet it makes total sense. Spee's always been very self-conscious about them, right? She must have been subconsciously rejecting them for a long time, and at some point, the link that bound them to her Cube must have started clashing with her own will, compromising her capability of summoning and dismissing them properly with the rest of her rigging," Leviathan explained. "I just needed to adjust myself to her Cube's wavelength; after that, removing them was as easy as slipping off a pair of socks."
Deutschland was having trouble processing his words; her mind blanked for a moment, and her expression darkened. Leviathan had solved the issue that had been afflicting her sister for years with a snap of his fingers. She should have been happy about it, and she was, deep down, but to her, it was like climbing a mountain only to find out halfway through that there was a cable car on the other side. It felt as if all the anguish and pain her sister went through over the years were worth nothing, and that genuinely upset her.
Or maybe she just couldn't accept that the one who solved the issue was him, of all people.
"We thought there was some kind of flaw in her Cube…" Deutschland muttered, clenching her sharp teeth and tightening her grip around the metal claws.
"Well, there isn't. Also, when you see her later, tell her that she still has to put them on by herself, but whenever she wants to take them off, she just needs to come and find me. I'll gladly do it for her," he stated.
A few seconds of silence followed his words; Deutschland was taking her time to consider his statement.
"No," the shipgirl sharply declared.
"Pardon?" Leviathan raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"I won't allow my beloved schwester to become dependent on someone like you. I'm her sister, so I'm the best suited for this task, but since I don't like the idea of being stuck with you longer than necessary, I'll give you another option," she said, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "You teach her how to do it herself, and I will tolerate your presence around her from now on."
Leviathan blinked in surprise. What a roundabout way to say that she was willing to accept his friendship with Spee. The only things missing were the blush and the "don't misunderstand, it's not like I'm grateful to you or anything," for her to go full tsundere.
"I was planning to do so since the beginning. It's only fair that she learns to be independent," Leviathan proclaimed. "If we are done now, I'll take my leave and go to sleep."
Deutschland scoffed at him. "Indeed, you are dismissed, lowly animal, but before you go, this is the only warning you'll be getting. If you hurt her in any way or form, I'll enjoy tearing you limb from limb, is that clear?"
"I'd be disappointed if you didn't," Leviathan waved her off as he started walking away from her.
Jean Bart was resting inside one of the ship's cabins, right next to Dunkerque. One of the bunks had been removed to make room for the weird contraption created by Emperor, in which the battlecruiser was still encased, still unconscious, and very much not out of danger yet. The contrivance looked like a transparent coffin and was letting off a light sheen that enveloped the body of the comatose shipgirl inside it in an ethereal cloth of light.
That entrancing glow was what made her remember the promise she had made to herself during the fight against the shipboy named Lenin, and Jean Bart was a lot of things but definitely not a liar. So now there she was, eyes closed, hands joined in front of her in a silent prayer. Her bandaged arm was still hurting, but it was in much better shape than before, so she managed to lean with both her elbows over the casket, albeit with a bit of discomfort.
Unfortunately, she had never been a fervent believer, and even in the past, when she still allowed Richelieu to drag her to church, prayers and stuff always flew over her head. Now she had nothing from which to draw inspiration for her plea, so she was just kneeling there, wishing with all her heart for her friend's recovery.
For a second, she thought of taking a leaf out of her sister's book, quite literally, but she'd be damned if she allowed Richelieu to see her like this; she would never give her the satisfaction of seeing her imploring for anything of any kind from anyone.
As if on cue, the door opened with a loud creak, and the Cardinal herself entered the cabin. Richelieu stopped in her tracks at seeing Jean Bart, of all people, on her knees next to their friend, hands joined, and fingers intertwined in supplication.
"Jean, are you…?" She trailed off in disbelief.
The Vichya battleship sprang to her feet and shot a glare at her sister, her face flushed red. "Fucking hell, Richelieu! You are supposed to knock on the goddamn door!"
"First, language. Second, were you praying for Dunkerque? That's so nice of you, Jean. It makes me so happy," the Cardinal said with glee in her eyes. "I was thinking of doing the same before going to bed; do you mind if I join you?"
"You can do whatever you want, just be quick, I want to go to bed," Jean grumbled, moving for the door.
"Wait, soeur, it's good to see that you are finally mending your way. If you wish to speak about it, or anything for that matter, I'm willing to lend an ear," Richelieu offered with a genuine smile.
In an instant, the embarrassment at being caught was replaced by irritation, which added to the pain in her arm, and the stress of the latest events made Jean Bart snap at her sister.
"Listen well, soeur. Forget what you saw, pretend you didn't see me, I don't care, just don't drag me into your bullshit," she growled.
Richelieu wasn't expecting to be shut down so harshly; shock and outrage came to adorn her face, leaving her speechless as anger began rousing inside her.
"My bul-what?! Jean, how dare you?! I was trying to be nice; why are you being so rude?" she exclaimed.
"You can spare me your sanctimonious kindness; I have no use for it!" Jean Bart retorted angrily.
"What is wrong with you tonight? You are even more insufferable than usual! Do you hate so much the idea of spending some time with your sister?!"
"Me? What is wrong with you?! You never cared about what I had to say, and now you feel the need to act nice just because you caught me in prayer once! Is my importance to you defined only by how much church service I do?!"
"That's not true, and you know it!"
"You never gave me reason to believe otherwise!"
"Knock knock, ladies. Is this a bad time?"
The two women paused their altercation and turned to glare at the intruder. Emperor was leaning with his back over the doorframe, arms crossed, with an amused smile adorning his lips.
"No, no, don't mind me; I'll finish my business quickly and be on my way," the shipboy declared as he made to move toward Dunkerque, only to find his path blocked by a very annoyed Jean Bart.
"And what do you think you are doing here?" She glowered at him.
"Just checking in on her before going to bed," Emperor shrugged, pointing at the unconscious woman with a nod of his head.
"Monsieur Emperor, we appreciate the thought, but that doesn't give you permission to barge into a lady's room uninvited or listen in on a private conversation," Richelieu flatly stated with an exasperated tone of voice.
"The door was open, Cardinal, and you two weren't exactly being subtle with your arguing. It was inevitable, if you ask me," Emperor retorted, and Richelieu pursed her lips in irritation before trying to regain her composure with a deep breath.
"Do forgive me, monsieur Emperor; I let my emotions get the better of me and showed you an unsightly display," she declared. "On that note, allow me to express my gratitude for what you are doing for our comrade. Without you, she would have already left us."
"It's nothing, really. There's no way I'd ignore someone in need of help," Emperor waved off her concern, then he shot a glare at the other battleship. "Unlike a certain someone."
Jean didn't react to the barb; instead, she just stood there, holding his gaze. "Just do what you have to do and then scram, Goldilocks."
"Jean, do not offend our benefactor," Richelieu reprimanded her with a flat tone.
The Vichya battleship moved to the side without uttering a word, allowing the carrier to approach the battlecruiser.
"Let's see how you are holding up…" Emperor mused as he bent down on one knee next to the casket.
Jean scoffed at him. "She's clearly not in good shape, if you can't tell just by looking at her."
"I wasn't talking about Dunkerque; I was talking about my polyhedron," Emperor flatly retorted as he reached for the glassy surface of the contraption. "I've been keeping it active for almost two days, and to put it bluntly, I'm exhausted. I came here only to check if my weariness was affecting its capability of keeping your comrade alive in any way, but it seems I was stressing over nothing."
Gratitude and relief washed over the two women, although Jean Bart made sure to hide it pretty well. She couldn't show any weakness in front of Emperor since the shipboy was still upset with her, but she was still quite perplexed by his behavior. He was actually doing his best to help them with Dunkerque; either he was genuinely concerned about the battlecruiser, which she doubted, or he was just doing it to get back at her, highlighting her own failure by saving her friend when she couldn't help his brother. She was still upset with herself for letting Observer escape with the other shipboy, but she was sure she had made the right call that time; the alternative was risking for Le Malin and Le Triomphant to be taken away with him, and she would have never allowed it.
Emperor stood up on his feet again, helping himself with the stool next to him, letting out a breath of fatigue. His energy was almost completely depleted, and without a way to restore it quickly, he'd be able to keep his polyhedron active only for a few more hours, enough to reach Azur Lane if he didn't exert himself further.
Noticing his weary expression, Richelieu felt compelled to ask him, "Monsieur Emperor, is there anything we can do to soothe your fatigue?"
"Cardinal, please don't say things that could be easily misunderstood by a man at this hour of the night," Emperor joked, sending a sultry grin at the woman, and Richelieu averted her gaze from him in embarrassment as Jean Bart coughed in her hand, trying to hide the mirth that was coming to her lips.
"Now, before I take my leave and you two go back to your argument, will you listen to what I have to say?"
"What is it this time?"
Emperor took Jean's annoyed tone as a sign to go ahead and let out a self-deprecating smile. "I'd appreciate it if you could take some advice from someone with a lot of experience in sibling quarrels and who has lost many of them."
The two women frowned in confusion. Was he talking about the quarrels or…?
"We are all Kansen here, and we understand war better than anyone else. A happy ending and a bright future are all but guaranteed; we are all perfectly aware of this, and yet every day we risk our lives to fight an enemy we barely understand. What I'm trying to say is…" he paused to let out a tired sigh, subtly brushing his covered left wrist with his right hand. "Never go to sleep holding a grudge; you might wake up the next day and find out that you lost the chance to put it right with that person forever. Trust me, you don't want the last memory with a loved one to be a fight."
Silence fell into the room as the shipgirls pondered his words.
"Now, if you'll excuse me," Emperor tipped his imaginary hat to the two women and left the room, bidding them goodnight and making sure to close the door behind him.
Leviathan opened the door of the cabin he shared with Emperor and stepped inside. He would have loved to visit August for the night, but there were two problems with that. First, his lover shared her cabin with Bismarck, and it would be improper for them to ask the Iron Blood flagship to step outside just so they could fool around. Second, they were inside the hull of another Kansen, and any kind of "recreational" activity would be detected by the owner of the vessel.
"Are you asleep, brother?" He asked as he closed the door behind him. The room was dark, and he could barely make out the features of the furnishings inside.
It became even darker when he felt a pair of delicate hands covering his eyes from behind and the sensation of a soft body pressing against his back.
"Your brother isn't here, darling," a soft and sensual voice caressed his eardrums, eliciting a shiver to go down his spine. "I asked him to give us some space, and he gladly accepted~"
A smile appeared on Leviathan's lips, and he moved his hand up to caress August's cheek, whose face was leaning over his shoulder to whisper into his ear.
"What about your roommate? Does she know about this escapade?" Leviathan asked with a bit of mirth in his tone.
"Of course she does," August moved to his other ear. "You should have seen her face when I asked her if she wanted to join us~"
Another shudder ran through his body, accompanied by his heart making a flip at the insinuation. He knew how bold August could be at times, but he wasn't sure if she had the gall to say something so daring to her flagship, so he couldn't tell if she was just pulling his leg or otherwise.
He slowly turned around and wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing their bodies together, taking in her beauty. She had forgone her usual outfit and was wearing a white camisole over a black bra and black stockings. The silky texture of the fabric was so thin that he could feel every curve of her body pressing into his.
"I saw Graf Spee in the mess hall earlier; she was hanging out with the other little ones," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I thought you said you had some business with her."
"Yes, but I decided to put it off for a later time. Seemed like a good opportunity for her to break through her shell," Leviathan said as the two lulled themselves into each other's arms. "Also, it seems Deutschland is starting to accept the idea of having me around you all, albeit not entirely."
"Don't fret; she'll come around eventually," August reassured him. "Really though, you are going the extra mile just to help them with their plight. When I told you about their troubles, I didn't expect you to take it at heart so much."
"Liar. Deep down, you were hoping for that," he stated, his voice devoid of any accusation.
"Perhaps…" she smiled before leaning in.
Their lips met with fervor as his hands started wandering around her form, caressing her shoulders, and moving down her back, delicately drawing patterns on her silky-smooth skin under the fabric of her nightwear. She was happy to reciprocate, her dainty fingers moving to undress him, first unclasping his black and red cape from his shoulders, then unbuttoning his uniform.
"That girl, Hermione, she will notice for sure," Leviathan said when they both paused to catch their breath.
"The maid won't mind; she knows her place,"August replied before resuming their apnea.
Their kissing grew deeper and sloppier by the second, until Leviathan's hand moved to cop a good feel of her butt, making her shudder under his touch. He paused in surprise upon realizing that she wasn't wearing any bottoms.
A wicked smile made its way to his lips. "Did you walk all the way here like this, schlampe?" He whispered into her ear as he started tracing his fingers over her slit, eliciting a gasp from the woman when his digits parted her lips. "What would the others say if they saw you like this?" He went deeper into her folds with his fingers, taking a step forward and slowly pushing her backward.
August had to hold onto his shoulders lest her legs gave away under his ministrations. Once her back hit the wall, she began grinding her groin into his hand, trying to ride the wave of pleasure that was coming to swallow her. Encouraged by her moans and groans, Leviathan pressed her against the wall, her chest squishing into his torso, and he started picking up speed with his fingering.
August tightened her grip on him and buried her face into his shoulder, her breathing increasing its pace and her moaning slowly reaching a peak. Then she was sent over the edge when his fingers brushed a particularly sensitive spot inside her walls.
She slumped into his arms, panting. Leviathan brought her chin up with his other hand, locking eyes with her. She was gazing up at him with eyes full of adoration and an elated look on her face, unable to utter a single word. The way she looked at him was a huge turn-on, and he couldn't get enough of it. He loved seeing her squirm and writhe in pleasure under his touch, and he was looking forward to seeing more of it that night.
From that moment on, restraint was thrown out the window. He lifted her up from her butt and slammed her into the door, eliciting a yelp from the woman, who instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck for support. Now that she had a secure grip on him, Leviathan was free to reach between his legs, freeing his member from the constraint of his pants' fabric. He aligned himself with her entrance and slammed into her folds, her slick snatch smoothly welcoming him inside and her walls clamping down on him in a tight, wet embrace.
He took her like that, standing, holding her up by her buttocks, repeatedly plunging into her depths as she clung to him for dear life, moaning loudly into his ear all the while. Her moans mixed with his grunts of effort, the sound of their flesh slapping, and the screech caused by the strain the hinges of the door were put under.
Someone sleeping in the closest cabins could hear them, and the owner of the vessel would definitely sense them, but they didn't care. They were so lost in their throes of passion and pleasure that the only thing they could think of was, "Let them hear it."
Speaking of pleasure, Leviathan was about to reach his limit. He felt release slowly rising from his loins as his deep thrusts were slowly getting shorter and quicker, and August's was about to reach her own peak once again. Her orgasm hit her first; she let out one last shrill of pleasure as the heat spreading through her body from her core made her quiver in bliss so intensely that she almost lost her grip on him with her legs. Her inner walls clamping down on him like a vice was the last straw for his strained member, and he groaned loudly in the crook of her neck as he sprayed her insides with the white of his spunk in buckets.
Panting in exertion and satisfaction, Leviathan moved toward the bed, with August still in his arms, so that he could put her down for some cuddle time. Once he made sure she was comfortable on the bunk, he went to lie next to her, and she turned on her side to face him.
"Mein Gott, you came so much, my familiar. Were you so eager to impregnate the womb of your mistress?" August teased him as he embraced her with one arm.
He was about to reply with a proper comeback to the kinky pillow talk, but a sudden thought crossed his mind. He chastised himself for not asking about it sooner, but he figured there wasn't a better time to do so than now.
"August, can shipgirls get pregnant?" He asked her with a serious tone.
His question threw her off for a second before she remembered his circumstances. There were no female Kansen in his world, so it was normal for him to make such an inquiry.
"Unfortunately not, my dear. The Cubes gave us life, but they didn't allow us to bring new ones into this world," she somberly replied as a sad glint passed through her eyes.
Feeling guilty for bringing down the mood and not knowing exactly what to say to comfort her, Leviathan leaned in to brush her lips with his. It was a sweet, and tender peck, completely different from the messy and lustful kisses they had been exchanging during their intercourse.
"Sorry for asking; that was insensitive of me," he apologized as he brushed her cheek with his fingers.
"Fret not, darling. It's something all of us have come to terms with for a long time now," she reassured him, leaning into his soothing touch. "Why the sudden question, though? Did my musings awaken something within you?"
His lips quirked up in a smile at her words. "Just curiosity. At first, they thought we were infertile too, but then it turned out that our sperm is just incompatible with human wombs. That's why, in our world, for Kansen-human relationships, there never was any need to worry about sudden pregnancies," he explained, then his expression darkened all of a sudden. "Not that there were many of those relationships in the first place. We've been kept segregated from humans for a long time before the foundation of our Azur Lane, and even then, it was rare that we'd have the chance to interact with them."
"You didn't tell me much about it, my familiar; it must have been hard for you."
"Ja, many of our comrades died early because of the way we were treated. I consider myself blessed since both my real brothers are still alive and well. Emperor and the others, though… they weren't that lucky."
This time, it was her turn to comfort him. She moved closer to lock lips with him again, but this time, the kiss lasted far longer. Their hands, which had been resting idly for the past few minutes, started moving again to explore their bodies, igniting the fire of their desire once more.
But before they could go further than that, a sudden thought crossed August's mind—something she hadn't considered up until that moment, when Leviathan made that unexpected question. It was as if a light bulb had gone off in her head, and she stiffened in his arms.
For a second, the shipboy was confused by her freezing on him like that, and soon, his confusion turned into concern as the shipgirl propped herself up on the bed without uttering a word.
"August, what is it? Are you feeling sick?" He asked her as he sat on the bunk next to her.
"My dear, did you say that your seed is incompatible with human wombs?" She brought a hand to her chin, frowning as she racked her brain.
"Ja, at least that's what we've been told by our researchers back home. Where are you going with this?"
"I told you that we can't get pregnant, but it's not like we've been deemed sterile. Our wombs are strong and ripe; it's just that human seed was never able to germinate inside them," as August spoke, a spark of hope and uncertainty flickered to life behind her gaze. "Perhaps it is also…" she trailed off with her musings as Leviathan connected the dots.
They locked eyes once again; her bemused look met his green eyes, which widened in understanding. To them, it was like they had gazed upon each other for the first time.
Not a single word needed to be said. The two lunged at each other like feral beasts; the lust that had taken over them wasn't dictated just by the desire they had for one another but by some kind of primal instinct.
August and Leviathan fought for dominance, but the shipboy managed to overpower her almost immediately. He caught her by the wrists and slammed her supine onto the mattress, placing himself between her legs. She didn't put up any resistance; on the contrary, she locked her legs around his waist as she panted in arousal and anticipation.
"Darling… aah… hurry up…"
He didn't need to be told twice.
Hermione was having trouble sleeping.
Being inside her own vessel gave her knowledge of the exact position and movement of every individual aboard it but didn't allow her to tell them apart. Though she didn't need to guess to recognize the identity of the couple performing acts of debauchery inside one of her compartments.
How did she know what they were doing if she couldn't see or hear them? Well, she could feel it. The temperature of the room rising a few too many degrees, the rhythmic thumping of bodies against the metal of the cabin, the echoing of their lust-filled voices vibrating through the walls…
Isolating a single section of her vessel from her mind was impossible, so she had two other options. The first was to go give them a piece of her mind, but she wasn't the type to get so worked over such a matter; if Sheffield were there in her place, she would have probably done so without thinking twice, adding one of her snarky remarks to the side. The second was ignoring them, which was exactly what she had been trying to do since the beginning… and failing miserably at it.
She was lying prone on her bed, panting slightly, with her face buried into her pillow and her hand plunged into her undies, fingering herself.
It all started right after she finished her duties and retired into her room, with a strange feeling notifying her of the "activity" that was taking place inside that cursed cabin. She recognized it immediately and decided to ignore it, hoping it would just disappear in the back of her mind.
But no matter how much she tried, she couldn't take her mind off of it.
The brain can't comprehend the negative. If you tell a person to not think about something, the first thing their brain does is picture that something in their mind, and it was exactly what was happening with her; the more she thought about ignoring it, the more she was made aware of it by her senses.
She didn't remember when, but at some point, she surrendered to her curiosity and started voluntarily focusing her attention on said feeling, and before she realized it, her hand had made its way toward her navel first, and inside her underwear next.
And now there she was, pleasuring herself while essentially spying on the guests aboard her ship.
"I'm such a dirty maid."
She was so entranced by her self-love that she didn't notice the presence of another person approaching her cabin until she heard the knock on the door.
"Hermione, are you sleeping?"
She froze in fear; it was Emperor.
She stumbled up on her feet, quickly composing herself and smoothing her white nightwear before scurrying to open the door.
"What can I do for you, Master?" She asked with the steadiest tone of voice she could muster as she curtsied to him with a smile.
The shipboy was taken aback for a second at seeing her in deshabille. On any other occasion, he would have made some kind of flirty remark, but his mind was too tired for that, so he just cleared his throat and made his request.
"Sorry for waking you up, but is there an empty cabin I could use? Leviathan is a bit… busy tonight, and I didn't want to get in his way," he asked in a pleading tone.
"Of course, Master," she said. "I'll lead you to a suitable room." She started walking away immediately, and he followed behind her.
As they traversed the insides of her hull, Emperor felt that something was off. Hermione was a bit stiffer than usual, in both attitude and posture. Whenever they were alone and silence fell over them, it was always of the comfortable kind, but this time, for some reason, it was rather awkward.
Maybe she was embarrassed because of her state of dress? Or annoyed because he interrupted her more than deserved rest?
"I didn't want to disturb you, so I've been trying to enter a random room, but they are all sealed-close. I had no choice but to come and find you," he tried to fill the silence.
"Don't worry about it, Master. I understand," she brushed off his concern.
"I still feel bad about it. You're always working so hard, and now that everyone is using your hull as a means of transport, your workload's increased even more."
"It's all part of a maid's duty, Master."
After walking for a couple minutes and over a few already occupied cabins, they came to a stop in front of another one. Hermione opened the door for him and stepped aside.
"Here's your room for the night, Master. I hope it is of your liking." She was about to gesture toward the interior of the cabin with her right hand, but she quickly retracted it, folding both her hands in front of her lap, a bit lower than she usually did, in an attempt to hide the spot where her love juices had smeared her white dress. She had been walking straight and avoided facing him the entire time for that exact reason; she couldn't let herself slip right at the last moment.
If Emperor noticed, he didn't show it. With a grateful smile, the shipboy approached the entrance of the room, but instead of stepping inside, he stopped right in front of the maid. She almost flinched at his proximity and outright panicked when he grabbed her right hand, the same hand she had been pleasuring herself with a mere few minutes ago.
"Thank you, Hermione. I know that sometimes I'm quite a handful to deal with, and I don't say this quite as many times as I should, but I appreciate everything you do, and I'm glad you're the one chosen to be my personal maid." With a bright smile, the shipboy bowed his head and brought her hand up to his lips to plant a kiss on her digits.
Hermione's brain short-circuited for a second, and the maid was left speechless. Her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped in a very unladylike manner.
Wishing her good night, the shipboy dismissed himself and disappeared inside the cabin, closing the door behind him, leaving the poor maid with her face flushed red and her heart racing.
AN: Fluff, angst, smut… this looks more like an AO3 tag list. It's a shame that FF doesn't have the same feature.
Next Chapter: Long-Awaited Reunion