A/N: btw, happy to introduce my (very female) cat Garfield as co-author, simply because we were cuddling while writing and her ear (which can swipe on the phone) produced a sentence that actually worked after correcting the gramma a bit.
--
Before they had entered the Sound, Zeitwächter had said "we can talk at the shrine again".
Then she had led them across the water, throwing petals into the water whenever they passed a wreck.
What she had not done was reveal that the old platform must have fallen to the sea as well until they stood in front of it.
The "shrine" now taking its place was definitely built by Zeitwächter herself: a simple little floating platform formed by nanomaterial and made to mimic rock with two sotoba-like grave markers out of the same material. They even carried an inscription and each of them rests of the flower wreaths of the past year.
Zeitwächter handed the wreaths over to Kongō with a striking smile that made her heart skip a beat and kneeled down to clean up, putting the seemingly fragile silver rings back on the sotobas so that they could slide down and join the others at the bottom.
"Why do you make them simulate natural rotting processes?", Kongō couldn't help but wonder.
"I come every year anyway. Besides, the less nanomaterial I have to keep in its form, the better."
If no one knew that the flowers weren't real then they couldn't boo Zeitwächter for letting them rot to take a certain strain off her processor – also, if they died a few months earlier in some years than normally, well, it must have been a bad batch, right?
Lazy even in honouring the dead, was a thought that came to mind, though.
Kongō looked at her flower wreath for a while and then altered it when she handed it off to her companion.
Zeitwächter didn't notice it, or mayhaps it just wasn't important enough for her to point out, but the blonde wanted to keep up the appearance for her.
Putting the wreaths down in front of the markers, the battleship even seemed to pray a bit before rising back up and cleaning off half-imaginary dust from her dress: "Ok, let's go, or is there something you want to do?"
"No."
"Kay!", she beamed, almost raising her voice above the whispered voices they were speaking in.
Zeitwächter rushed towards their ships, created a staircase out of hexagonal steps and held out her hand like a knight wanting to help their lord up.
Kongō accepted it as well as the hand going to her hip to unnecessarily steady her and walked up.
When they stepped on Kongō’s deck, a destroyer not of Fog origin appeared on the horizon, seemingly jolting as she noticed them.
That was the USS Kidd, skull flag flying in the wind.
"She must’ve slipped through the cracks you created", Zeitwächter mused.
A lot of ships had been taken out by Kongō when she went berserk, so it was no surprise that one or two ships slipped through until the holes were fixed by lighter units and the two or so carriers left.
"Most likely."
Back on Kidd, the alarm had been sounded and everyone went to battle stations, waiting for any kind of reaction from the black Fleet of Fog battleships in the distance.
Kidd and her crew had been ordered to do the yearly honouring for the victims of Ironbottom Sound.
"We have to use the chance", the big bosses had said, "before they fill up their ranks."
They acted like it was easy – and fair, they slipped through without trouble until now – but two whole battleships? God. Fucking. Damn it.
Surprise was clear on all crew members' faces when the two, who without a doubt had noticed the humans, distanced themselves.
Confused eyes slid over to the commanding officer, confusion on his face as well before signalling to the others to continue with caution.
Affirmating nods and other gestures moved through the ship, every man still highly focused, but they made it to the pitiful platform without further trouble.
Two assigned crewmembers disembarked Kidd, one of them holding a broad flower wreath so thick, that one could very well just put four candles in it and call it a christmas decoration.
Normally, the ceremony would be a greater event, but they couldn't do that now so everyone else simply gathered on the deck and watched.
The two walked up to the platform and stopped when they saw the writings on the sotoba and, what was even more shocking, the two freshly brought flower wreaths and obvious signs of the ones of the past years.
They looked at each other, surprise and an emotion they couldn't define clearly in their eyes, before one of them whipped out his phone, took a picture of the whole thing and the inscriptions on the gravemarkers.
"What are you doing?", his comrade and friend whispered as he put his own flower wreath down between the others.
"Your wife is Japanese, yeah? I'm gonna ask her to translate when I'm over next time."
Finishing their duty, the two returned to board Kidd, who turned back to land immediately.
When their families were having the next big dinner together, said wife merely confirmed that the Japanese words beside the English inscriptions were the same:
To you who fell like the stars.
To you who sunk like the sun.
--
"They’re gone."
"Mhm."
The Black Fleet had decided to stay under water – it was very hot this time in August and they both had black bodies, so the cool water offered a nice relief.
Kongō jumped down from her pagoda to land beside Zeitwächter and Churchgrim, the two lazily lying on her deck: "Seems like you won't have a job next year."
"Depends entirely on how fast your bestie has a coming to God meeting with Flagship Command."
She snorted: "Maybe you're my "bestie"?"
Zeitwächter had her legs crossed, arms pillowing her head and a pleased smile playing on her lips: "Alright, then Iona is your sister-in-soul, Maya your bestie and I'm your wife."
Kongō rolled her eyes, amused.
A red eye slit open and peeked out from under purple hair: "I didn't hear a "no"."
"Awfully flirty today", the blonde walked away to sit by the piano.
"That's still not a "no"!", was called from behind her.
Sure, but also no "yes", so Zeitwächter mentally decided on "fiancée" and stuck her tongue out.
"Kon-chama~, I do nothing except my hobbies every day every year, I hope you weren't having expectations for exciting things~"
Churchgrim yapped as if confirming, then stretched only to curl into a ball again.
Kongō leaned back on the piano until she was practically laying on it and looked up at the rays reaching through the surface: "I've had enough excitement for a while."
She heard Zeitwächter stretch and roll to a side: "Fair. I wanted to show you the world though…"
"I don't need to see the world."
Zeitwächter pouted: "Kon-chama… at least ask things about it, will you?"
That actually made her laugh. It was a dirty laugh, maybe even an evil one, but it was honest and beautiful.
The blonde hummed: "What do you want me to ask? Why is the sky blue?"
"The atmosphere filters out a certain amount of light and that's why you're an ass."
She laughed again. It might actually become Zeitwächter’s new favourite sound.
"Alright, Kon-chama, then let me ask something: what's your favourite book?"
"I don’t have one. What is yours?"
An evil smile graced her dark features, so full of hidden intent that it actually made Kongō sit back up and regret her question.
"Allow me", she paused, "to introduce you to the world of danmei."
Oh no.
Well, five hours later, the fast battleship put down a book that had been practically forced into her hands, took a deep breath, blinked and said: "Well, that was painful."
"Right!?", Zeitwächter had busied herself with drawing and the devouring of snacks she sometimes had to fight against Churchgrim's thick skull for, "that woman is such a good author but my poor fucking heart."
Kongō waved the snacks over and traded the book against them: "Thanks. Actual question concerning the world: what happens if you put marmalade into tea?"
The other blinked at her, brows furrowed: "I… suppose it becomes fruitier and sweeter?"
Right, it must be a weird question without context.
To add to that, it had nothing to do with their earlier topic and thus did not really help with the confusion.
So, the blonde said: "Apologies, I just remembered that question and had to ask it."
She had never been able to give Maya an answer to her question, before she had started dramatically monologuing while the heavy cruiser had silently been dying away on a sugar overdose in the background.
It had been kind of funny, looking back on it, but… it also hurt.
However, Zeitwächter's issue lay at another place: "No, it’s fine, I just don't drink tea, so I don’t know."
"You don't drink tea?"
"N-no? I rather drink something that doesn't hurt me?"
Kongō gave her the blankest of stares: "You have to wait for it to cool down."
Zeitwächter threw an unamused you-don't-say stare back: "It hurts my head, you brat."
"I'm older than you."
"You can still be a brat."
"How does your head hurt when you drink tea?"
The battleship crossed her arms, like a teacher about to spit out some kind of ultimate life advice and wisdom, and looked down at the other from a nose held high: "I refer to it as hereditary migraines. When the tea isn't hot anymore, my head hurts, so I can only drink it when it's still scalding and essentially tastes like hot water."
Kongō's head fell into her hand in mimicry of a facepalm – it felt like she was getting her own migraine here: "...Allow me to guess, it's "hereditary" because Vanisher and Parasite have them too?"
That was no secret, in fact, since the two liked to whine about it to everyone.
"Yep."
"What do you want me to say to that?"
"You can call me an idiot if you wish."
Well then: "You're an idiot."
"And you're cute~"
Kongō blinked about 300 times. What…?
Zeitwächter nodded: "I mean look at you, having just finished a cute little romance novel, a bag of crisps on your lap – you're sitting here like a real teen and I think that's cute. "
It might have been absurd, but when Kongō glanced down at her lap she could only think: Did we read the same book!?
Her friend (or whatever, really), misinterpreted that: "Ah! Don’t get me wrong! I like your more serious personality too – like it's really cool and hella epic!"
""Hella epic?"
"Yeah! Oh, you're also really beautiful."
Kongō could still only stare and try to make sense of the tingling in her gut.
It wasn’t really a tingling, more like an… uncomfortable churning? But not exactly in a bad way just… strange? Maybe because it was new? If she needed to breathe it would have made that a bit more difficult too…
"...I'll be a bit more serious then."
"Eh!?"