Life As A Commander

Chapter 48: Hugs

NONE POV

It was just a normal morning at the port. Shops were opening, the streets were filling up with ship girls. Within the commanders residence was Acro with a sleeping Ayanami next to him in bed. He has obvious bags under his eyes and his hair was also a mess to go along with his exhausted look. 

"Geez, didn't think that Ayanami would play until morning." He yawned. "Damn, we didn't even clean up the consoles." 

Acro began to clean up the game consoles that were left on the floor along with the many bottles of soda and food. After finishing cleaning, he began to make breakfast and when he finished making and eating the food, he left a bit of food in the fridge for Ayanami to have when she wakes up. 

As for Acro, he made his way to the training area to sharpen his skills with different sparring opponents. On that day his sparring partner was the one and only Admiral Graf Spee. As soon as Spee saw the bags under Acro's eyes, she new that he was very much tired and unfit for training like this.

"Acro?" 

"Yeah, what's up Spee?" 

"You should be resting...Trust me, it's not good to be like this in the long run."

"Please, just one match. I'll rest for the rest of the day." He pleaded.

"Fine, just one match." Spee replied as she summoned her bladed gauntlets along with her riggings.

"Thanks." Acro soon followed by summoning his own bladed gauntlets.

ONE SPARRING MATCH LATER

The match ended with Acro being completely destroyed. 

"See what I mean? Your movements are sluggish and too easy to predict." Spee said as she helped Acro up.

"Fine, fine. I'll rest." He relented. 

"Great. You want to have a chat?" Spee sat down at a bench on the side-lines of the training area.

"About what?"

"Will I be able to hug the people close to me?" She said in a melancholic tone.

"Yeah, I mean you aren't wearing your gauntlets all the time, so you should be fine." 

"When I was a kid, I would always wear my gauntlets I thought they were cool...Everywhere I went, I would always take my gauntlets along with me."

"I think that-"

"One day in the second grade, I heard some of my classmates talk about me."

YEARS EARLIER

A young Spee was just about to puck up some papers she left behind but then she heard the talking of her classmates in their classroom. She just barely opened the classroom doors to see who it was. There were two young girls who were chatting up a storm.

"Spee?"

"You know. That weird girl in our class with the sharp glove things?"

"Ooh, yeah that girl."

"I dare you to hug her."

The other girl recoiled at her dare. "Eww. I don't want to hug her. She's gonna stab me in the back with those sharp glove things. Plus, she's so weird. I heard if you hug her you get a parasite that makes your heart feel weird when you are around her."

"C'mon, I'll buy you candy if you do it."

"Fine...But only if you give me lots of candy."

"Okay but you have to do it first."