A Love Triangle? (Essex, Azur Lane)

A Day out

"So how's your food you two?", the Commander asked as he began to chop up his meal before him and eat it shortly after it arrived.

"Very nice", Enterprise answered shortly with a smile as she continued to eat.

"Yeah! It's really good!", Essex added in an upbeat tone.

"That's good, I'm glad to hear it", he responded, noting with a chuckle to himself that Essex had ordered the exact same thing as Enterprise.

"How's yours Commander?", Essex then asked.

"It's really good, I haven't tried this dish at this place before so I'm glad I did"

"I was thinking about trying that one, but Senpai had this one I wanted to try it myself as well...", Essex spoke with a slight pout as Enterprise looked away bashfully.

"Would you like to try this one then?", The Commander then asked as he held out his fork with a bit of his dish on the end of it towards Essex.

Seeing this Enterprise looked back towards the pair, looking on with a surprised and curious expression as she glanced between the two.

Essex gasped at the Commanders question and action. Starting by tentatively reaching her hand forward a bit towards the fork before jerking it back and sitting motionless for a moment. Seeing this, a confused expression formed on the Commanders face and he opened his mouth to speak before he was cut of by Essex lurching forward quickly. She closed her eyes and pulled the small morsel of food off the fork with her teeth before pulling back as her face began to turn red.

"Is it good?", the Commander asked with a tentative expression and tone.

"Y-Yes! V-Very nice thank you!", She quickly responded, keeping her eyes clamped shut as she tried to hide her embarrassment.

Enterprise couldn't help but giggle loudly as she took another bite of her food, glancing between Essex and the Commander repeatedly once again in order to see their reactions to each others actions.

Seeing this, the Commander chuckled to himself as well. Taking a moment to look at Essex as she slowly opened her eyes and pouted slightly again. He gave her a smile as his eyes met hers and she responded with a smile of her own. As the pair quickly looked away yet again they all continued to eat their food...

---Timeskip---

After they finished their food the trio headed off back towards the base to finish up work for the day back at the Commander's office. Just as they reached the threshold of the base Enterprise started to veer away from the other two a bit.

"I need to go and do an inventory on the bases supplies for your weekly report Commander, you two can head back to the office and I'll meet you there later", she spoke with a smile as she departed.

"Alright, thanks Enterprise!", The Commander yelled as she began to jog away. Receiving a wave over her head in response.

"Senpai...", Essex muttered softly under her breath.

"Sorry?", The Commander asked swiftly.

"N-Nothing!"

"Alright, shall we get going?"

"Yeah, lets", Essex answered before taking one last glance in the direction Enterprise had left in before jogging for a moment to keep up with the Commander.

"So you enjoyed our meal today?", he asked as he noted her catching up with him via a slight glance over his shoulder.

"Definitely, and as usual I love spending time with you and Enterprise"

"Well I'm glad to hear it, I really enjoy spending time with you as well", the Commander responded with a smile.

Essex gasped quietly at his words and blushed lightly as they continued their walk. As they reached the building in which the Commander's office was in, the pair stopped for a moment to look at the small notice board near the entrance to the building.

"Anything interesting happening that you see Essex?"

"Not that I can-", Essex started, stopping as she saw a particular flyer in one corner of the board which the Commander hadn't noticed.

She leaned forward a bit to examine it further before reaching forward to take it off the wall.

"What's that you're looking at Essex?", The Commander asked as he saw her interest.

"N-Nothing I u-um...", Essex stuttered as she quickly retorted and looked away bashfully. The Commander then glanced past her towards the notice board and saw what she'd been looking at.

"Interesting, I didn't know that we were hosting this event at all. Though I guess Command is too busy with other things to warn us I suppose", The Commander spoke as he took one final glance at the small piece of paper before walking away.

Surprised by his words Essex paused for a moment before running to catch up with him once again.

"Commander! W-What uh... D-Do you think about that?... J-Just out of c-curiosity!", Essex stuttered out loudly as they continued their walk to the office.

"I suppose it could be fun, it depends though I suppose"

"Depends on what?", she asked with a curious expression.

"N-Never mind...", The Commander them murmured, increasing his pace by a bit to get ahead of Essex to hide his face from her...