My American dream (Kay × reader)

Chapter 4: Rivalry and love

Multiple days later Kay and Franklin were back at the tankery club for some exercises. Carl spent more time with Kay over the days in between since last time. Franklin isolated himself a bit since then thinking he wouldn't deserve Kay due to him being very insecure and shy. He started to question a lot of things after what had happened. He also thought about Kay a lot, and Carl...


He just didn't want to interact with Carl anymore or be forced to be in the same place as Kay and him at the same time. He had a bad gut feeling about him...


But this day he had to interact with both Carl and Kay again due to the Senshado team. He was waiting at the main gate for Kay again. He was looking down at the ground slightly leaning to a wall being deep in thought.


"Hey!" He heard a familiar cheery voice and smiled shyly. He glanced over at Kay and smiled as she hugged him and hugged her back. "Hey there..." He said, rubbing her back. "Hey... I've noticed you waiting... and you looked kinda down, is everything alright?" She asked. "Yeah... I-It's nothing..." He replied shyly. Kay sighed.


"Just know... I'm always here for ya okay?" She said. "Of course.... thank you for being there..." Frank replied smiling and gave her a brief pat to the head. She blushed lightly to what he giggled. She's really cute when she's like this... He thought to himself.


"Let's go then!" She said in her usual cheery tone causing Frank to chuckle before they walked in. Kay of course greeted everyone upon entering while Frank just walked after her shyly.


"Him again?" "You noticed as well...seems the commander is in love" "Giggles So it would seem..." He overheard the quiet conversation of two. "Hey new guy! How's it being with the commander?" One of them yelled over at him to which he just blushed. "Oh shut up Alisa!" Kay replied to her, crossing her arms and looking away. Alisa laughed.


"Why don't you finally kiss? Were all waiting" She added, teasing Kay. Both Kay and Franklin blushed to that. "See? You can't hide it forever..." She said after letting out a giggle. "Oh w-will you s-shut up..." Kay replied. "Oh leave her, the two will find together eventually just watch and enjoy..." Naomi said smirking. "Alright, maybe that joke was to personal...heh... sorry" Alisa responded. "W-Whatever..." Kay brushed it off, still blushing.


"Why would she go for him... what does he have..." A familiar voice said out of no where. It was Carl in the background commenting, while leaning to his tank casually as he always did.


This, once again hit him and he looked away trying to brush it off. "At least I'm not that jerk..." He muttered to himself. "I'm not a jerk... just stating the obvious... Kay won't ever like you..." He replied coldly. "Oh shut up Carl he's got a point! A-And he isn't too b-bad" Kay said loudly causing Frank to turn around and look over to them.


"Awww... look, she's defending him, how cute.." He said and patted her head. She instantly brushed his arm off blushing. "H-Hey stop it!" She practically yelled. "Oh c'mon... we both know you like it" He said smirking. Franklin balled his fists in disgust.


"N-Not when you do that!" She replied. "Oh let me guess.... only when your boyfriend Frank does that you enjoy it? Fine.... you'll see who's the better guy..." He replied boldly. 

"Leave her alone!" Frank yelled. Everybody in the room was staring at them. "And if not?" Carl asked teasing. "That's it! Leave him alone, why don't you prepare for today's exercise?" Kay yelled. He sighed. "Fine ma'am...." He replied jokingly and got up.


Kay then walked over to Franklin and hugged him gently, even if everyone was watching. "J-Just don't listen to h-him..." She said. Franklin slowly wrapped his arms around her. "H-He's just another jerk...... I-I do l-like you, ignore him..." She said as she began to blush. Frank smiled and gently stroked her head. "O-Of course.... I-Is this better?" He replied patting her head softly. She nodded shyly.


He leaned in a bit more. "I l-like you v-very much too y-you know?" He whispered into her ear and blushed. She gasped lightly and hugged him tighter. A single tear ran down his face. Does that mean she loves me?  He thought to himself.


"A-Anyways, we've got to get going... you w-will be my gunner today" She said slowly parting from the hug. "Yes!" He cheered in response causing Kay to giggle. They then went off to get to their M4 Sherman.


Kay and Franklin climbed inside their tank and then drove to the training grounds amongst other M4 variants with almost the entire team. Franklin didn't look at Kay or talk with her the entire drive still being at what happened in the garage with his mind. He just checked on the gun and told the gunner to load.


Eventually he got his mind off and concentrated on being the gunner and what ranges or distances he was about to fire at, instead of what else was going on in his head...


When they finally arrived all tanks approached the shooting range with targets on distances from only 100 up to 800 meters. All tanks immediately got into their firing positions. Kay had ordered a shooting exercise for the day, and every team would take part in it. Multiple hundreds of tank shells and multiple thousands of machine gun rounds would be fired that day, and that only for training purposes. 




As Kay's M4 Sherman tank got in position, Franklin already readied himself and the 75mm gun was loaded and prepared. Saunders used old unused tank wrecks for their targeting practice. 
"Get us that target in 100m out of our way!" Kay yelled. "Yes ma'am!" Franklin yelled back and aimed before taking the shot.


"Target disabled!" He yelled as the target got hit. They continued to train to fire on all sorts of targets and trained to shoot on the move over the entire live firing exercise. Frank tried his best the entire time and followed Kay's orders as good as he could.


~Timeskip~


After they had returned all tanks were parked back at their designated parking spots in the tankery garages. Franklin and Kay were some of the first to leave their tanks. They sat down with a few of the others as all teams held discussions and reports on their performances.


"You did pretty poor back there, or at least I was better then you..." Franklin heard one familiar cold voice from behind him... Will this guy ever shut up and leave me alone? He thought to himself. "Shut up..." He replied silently. "What was that? Sorry I don't speak bad gunner" Carl responded and chuckled. "Listen here..." Frank said as he turned around and was surprised as he saw more then one person...


It was Carl and apparently a few other boys that he had never seen. He took a step back. "Oh no am I scaring you? Oh I'm so sorry!" Carl said and laughed at him. He walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Listen kid, you aint getting her that's no secret so move on will you? And also improve on your targeting skills... my poor eyes..." He said as he turned around again.


Franklin didn't understand, he hit his targets and wasn't even slow. He hated people like Carl, who just picked on others for their amusement due to personal... "experiences"....


"With your reaction time... chuckles I think were losing next match if YOU are Kay's gunner..." Carl added teasingly. Frank looked down as the memories came back again... But then, he heard another familiar voice, one that he was more then happy to hear...


"Leave him alone! He did pretty good, I don't know where your problem is..." Kay said loudly as she came in between the both of them and faced Carl with crossed arms. Carl opened his mouth to respond but Kay cut in. "That is an order! Now leave to whatever you have to do..." She said.


After they had left Kay turned around and hugged him tightly. Frank was about to open his mouth to talk but also cut off by Kay. "Shhhh.... d-don't talk..." She said clinging to him. He wrapped his arms around her as well. He heard her sobbing lightly and looked down at her. "K-Kay?"


"J-Just shut up!" She said not looking at him. He patted her head softly as tears started to form in his eyes as well. "J-Just ignore him and e-everything he says...o-okay?" She asked wiping away tears and looked up to him. They just stayed like this for a while until both eventually calmed down.


"Kay..." Franklin began. "Frank...I'm sorry but we've g-got to go..." Kay said changing topics as they parted. "R-Right school ends in a few minutes..." He muttered in response to which Kay just nodded in approval. They then walked out of the tank storage.


They walked to the school's front gates and Kay leaned her head on his shoulder causing him to blush briefly. At the gates she looked around if anyone was around causing Frank to wonder why she suddenly behaved like this. 


"S-See you tomorrow then..." She said and opened her arms to hug him. He chuckled and hugged her as she hugged him as well. She then, to his absolute surprise...


...kisses him on the cheek. Franklin blushed heavily and gasped lightly as his heart skipped a beat. "S-See you Frank!" She said before she walked off quickly while Franklin was still standing there not believing what happened.


He eventually smiled shyly and walked away slowly lightly trembling after taking some deep breaths. Does that mean she loves me? He thought to himself on the way back home while smiling brightly.


He kept his happy expression on the entire way home and when he entered his apartment and dropped into his bed. It distracted him from Carl and all other problems, he was just happy for the moment as he slowly drifted off to sleep after he came home from school.