The adventures of the young engineer and Prinz Eugen Volume 2.

No. 8 Chapter 6

When the engineer returned to his shared room he was somewhere in between excited and exhausted. Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day no matter what. But he did feel off not seeing Prinz Eugen all day. Knowing she was around, but not actually seeing her felt weird, especially since he had the sensation that she was around or rather that he was watched. He could not tell what it was but it felt almost like he had developed some sort of 6th sense for her presence or lack thereof. Shrugging, he unlocked his dorm room door to find the cruiser sitting on her bed. "Good evening." He greeted her. "Good evening." She greeted him back. "How was your day?" She asked with apparent disinterest. The engineer immediately picked up on her casualness. Deciding to not be willing to play her game he decided to call her out on it. "What are you hiding?" He asked her. "If I was going to tell you, it would not be fun." She countered, but also admitted that he was right to pick up on her charade. "I suppose nothing can convince you to change your mind on that matter?" He asked in the slim hope of getting a result. "You should know better." She answered, destroying that shimmer of hope. "Alright. So what have you been up to all day?" He asked her. "I have been doing my things, met the commander of the base and some other delegates and so on." She answered the question. But the engineer knew that she was only giving him the answers that would service his questions but not actually answering them. "We are really down to formalities, are we?" He asked her. "You were the one that suggested it in the first place." She countered. "It feels weird and unsatisfactory in this way to be honest." He admitted. "It does, but for now we will keep up this game to drive the point home." Prinz Eugen added. That answer, the engineer knew, was a genuine one since her tone had lost its hollow casualness and was replaced with a tone that implied significant meaning. The fact that the cruiser gave a part of her intentions away made the engineer understand immediately that what she was doing was part of her plan. But he also knew that he would most likely not get any more out of the cruiser. "Thank you." He answered her instead, to which he earned a knowing smirk from the Hipper class cruiser.

"What are your plans for tomorrow?" He asked her. "Attending the race and hoping that you will somehow grind out a win for us." Prinz Eugen explained. "Afterwards we will be attending the formal dinner and party." She added. "You will be my companion for that matter since I think it will be of advantage to offset the Royal Navy and Iris, especially since you seem to do well with the Eagle Union." She elaborated. "I will tell you more on the need to know basis, just make sure you pick up on what you know during the evening." She informed him before returning to reading a book she had placed next to her on the bed.

The silence that now established itself between the two gave the engineer the cue that there would probably little the two would have reason to talk for. Instead the engineer decided to get ready for bed.
After he had finished his preparations to find rest in the world of dreams, he was surprised to see that the cruiser had changed positions. She no longer sat on her bed and read, but rather upright on the side of it, her feet planted on the floor. Not paying it too much attention, he decided to just go and find rest. He went to his bed and turned himself in under the blanket. "Do have a good night's rest." He wished the cruiser before trying to find his own.

He was disrupted in that effort just minutes into the attempt to enter the realm of dreams by a silent but gradual impact of weight on his matrace behind him and shortly after he felt the lower back of the cruiser against his own. Prinz Eugen had sat down on the rim of his bed with her back to his. His body stiffened up as every muscle in his back strained involuntarily, he opened his eyes and pulled away from the indirect physical contact and glanced over his shoulder. The cruiser had dimed down the lights and continued reading now on his bed's rim. "Can I help you?" He asked uncomfortably. "Not at all." The cruiser answered without looking up. "I just realized that I had to catch up on a lot of close personal contact with you. Not to mention now that your work day is over we can have our personal friendship take over" She smirked a devious smile while leaning further back and re-established contact, rubbing her back through the blanket on the lower back of the engineer. The latter was frozen in indecisiveness and tried to control his trembling and urge to jump up and get space in between them. He was unable to make a decision for a couple of moments before winning the inner fight so that he was able to withstand his urge to pull away. Instead he allowed himself to breathe again after having held his breath. His exhaling sounded more like groan. "Am I that annoying?" She continued to tease him. "Just please don't make it a hugging session." He pleaded defeatedly.
The engineer did not expect the cruiser to become more personal in terms of contact after the rather cold way the two had been interacting recently. But he also knew by now that it was a way of showing her affection to others to seek their close proximity. The only other person he knew, the cruiser would seek longer close contact too was her sister, Admiral Hipper. He knew therefore that it was her way of trying to convey her caring for others, even though it mostly ended in her teasing them and embarrassing them. Hoping it would not come to that the engineer closed his eyes again and tried to drift off to sleep, although he struggled to maintain his composure knowing that the Shipgirl was so close to him. Eventually he found his way into blessed sleep after all, even though there his specters awaited him once more.

The next morning the engineer was already up and about in his borrowed biking outfit, getting ready for the race that was due to start in less than two hours. The cruiser had returned to her bed and the engineer had seen her sleeping in her bed for the entire time he was awake this morning. He decided to let her rest some more and only prepared her breakfast, knowing that she would not have time to get any when she would wake up half an hour before she had to attend the official festivities as well. He was not able to make much with what he had and the limited tools he had found in the small kitchen setup of their dorm room, but it was enough for a couple of well made sandwiches. He left them on a plate for her and a piece of paper on which he told her that the Sandwiches were for her. Afterwards he left their room to hurry to Essex's dorm to hitch a ride to the race track. On the way there he could not shake the thought he had about last night's interaction and the weird dreams he had.