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

No. 8 Chapter 8

Walking into their shared room the engineer immediately started to get himself out of the motorcycle uniform. "Could you hand me a glass of water as a chaser for the pain medication?" He asked the cruiser while slowly sitting down on the ground to get his boots off. Prinz Eugen nodded and walked over to the engineer's bed where he had placed the painkillers on. The engineer's eyes inadvertently followed Prinz Eugen and the latter seemed to forget what he was doing. Only when the cruiser turned around and looked at him with a questioning expression did he realize that he was staring. "It seems that my outfit choice did everything it was supposed to do." The cruiser teased while a smile formed on her lips. The engineer quickly returned to the task at hand and pulled off his socks. While Prinz Eugen walked over to him. "Here you go." She said while crouching down to the level of the engineer and handing him the glass and a peeled out pill. The engineer grabbed both, placed the pill on his tongue, swallowed and emptied the glass of water afterwards. "Thank you." He answered her afterwards and the two started to look at eachother again until the engineer started wrinkling his eyebrows. "Why did you dress the way you did?" He asked her. "Well, I thought I made things up to you by being your Grid-girl, to support and encourage you." She answered. The engineer looked at her perplexed. "You did not look into what a Grid-girl is, did you?" He asked her. Before the cruiser could answer the engineer stood up and walked towards the bathroom. "It does not matter." He continued. "I appreciated the gesture and effort." He added. "But please, before you do such things next time look up what you are going to participate in." He warned her while he started to try to look at his injury in the bathroom mirror. "How am I supposed to clean that up alone?" He mumbled to himself while he looked at the mess of blood crusted hair on his head. "I could help." Prinz Eugen interrupted his examination. "I would rather test out Hippers patience limits than to enter a shower with you." He quickly replied. "That hurt." Prinz Eugen answered with played outrage at the statement. "To think that you thought it would be that easy to share a shower with me." She continued and pulled the situation around to tease the engineer once more. "I was going to offer to help you wash your hair over the basin of course." She explained. "But if that is too personal for you, I can leave you alone and listen to your cursing when you pull at your strings or rub soap into the wound." She added. The engineer had turned to her and looked her straight in the eyes. "Are you genuine with your offer? You are not going to mess around or...." He swallowed the last part of his question without breaking eye contact. "I wouldn't have offered my help if it was not genuine." She answered.

The engineer shrugged after what felt like a minute of full deliberation and an uneasy staring match with the cruiser. "It would certainly be easier." He admitted. "Alright, let's get going then." The cruiser agreed. The engineer nodded after sighing heavily and kneeled down in front of the bathtub after taking his undershirt off. "Are you going to shower in your trousers?" The cruiser asked him with a smile. "No. But I won't be undressing in front of you." He explained while grabbing the showerhead and handing it to her before leaning over the rim of the bathtub so that his shoulders and head were above the inside.
Prinz Eugen took the showerhead in her hand and opened the tap. She held the head into the bathtub and placed a finger into the fountain of water coming out of it to check the temperature. While she waited for the water to warm up to a pleasant temperature, she observed her engineer. The way he was leaning over the rim of the bathtub made it look like had passed out after a night of drinking. He had closed his eyes and the bright blue of his irises was hidden behind the closed lids. Except for his messed up and blood stained short brown hair and the developing bruise on his temple he looked quite peaceful and his facial expressions relaxed. His outstretched neck leading into the sportive upper chest and a pair of shoulders that showed signs of regular demanding work and some bruises from the crash. But what caught the cruiser's attention was something she had never seen before. On the engineer's upper left arm, where a short sleeved shirt sleeve would still cover the shoulder and upper arm, she spotted ink. Her engineer had a tattoo. It was the anchor and sprocket wheel, the emblem of the engineers of the Ironblood navy. What fascinated her were the additions to it. It had not just the white and black ensign of the Ironblood navy to its left and the coat of arms of the naval school the engineer had attended in the center of the sprocket wheel and anchor. But what stood out the most to her though was the fact that the flag right of the emblem was not again the ensign of the ironblood navy but the blue St. Andrews cross of the navy of the Northern Parliament. That matter alone made the cruisers mind racing. But what stood out even more to her was the fact that below the anchor was a stylised head band that the sailors wore around their caps to show on what ship they served. The engineer had one of these bands below the anchor. It had letters on them. Those spelled her name.
Perplexed, the cruiser only snapped back out of her astonishment, when the engineer opened his eyes and looked at her. "I think you wasted enough water. It should be boiling by now." He teased her. Prinz Eugen reacted immediately. "I was not sure how warm you would like the water to be." She explained while realizing that for human standards the water coming from the showerhead was uncomfortably hot. Turning down the amount of hot water she cooled the water down to a pleasant warmth before slowly rinsing off the engineer's head, paying attention to not get any water directly onto the freshly stitched injury. Instead she grabbed a washing cloth and carefully wiped the dried blood around the stitches off the engineer's head. Only now did she realize that the engineer was holding his breath and that he was apparently straining every muscle to contain a trembling in his body. The cruiser wondered if it was because she had hurt his injury when she wiped it clean or if it was because of her having contact with him. She had realized that her young engineer had avoided every form of direct physical contact with her and other Shipgirls as much as he could. He refused to shake hands or directly touch her or others, not to mention refusing to be touched by them. She had first tried out her limits when she had sat down onto his bed and leaned against his back. She knew from previous interactions how he would stiffen up from discomfort due to her teasing but how he had normally relaxed. But the last time was different, he had not relaxed and she recalled having felt his trembles then as well. She guessed that it had become a way of protecting himself from potential harm. It saddened her to see that her young engineer had seemingly become afraid of her in that regard. She beagan soaping his head and making sure not to get any into the injuries while she thought about the issue. What stood out to her, when she thought about it, was that her engineer had tried to pull away from her last night, but had after first attempting to do so relented from going through with his action. She guessed he had accepted his fate since he could not refuse her strength. The fact that he had reached for her hand when he was sown together in the ambulance also indicated that he had apparently not fully accepted that every form of physical contact to a Shipgirl would lead to potentially immediate injury. So it seemed to her that despite his safety mechanism and experience he was not fully committed to it and seemed to still trust her somewhat.
She rinsed the engineer's head off one last time and checked that all his hair and scalp was cleaned of blood, sweat and dirt before closing the showerheads tab and placing it into the bathtub. "All done." She announced. "And your head is still in one piece, more or less." She teased the engineer about his reservations. The latter stood up and seemingly tried to look up to his eyebrows as if he could see his own head before bringing his attention back to her. "Thank you very much for your help and care." He thanked her and a slight smile of happiness and embarrassment was to be found on the engineer's face. Prinz Eugen cheered in her insides about that fact but kept her normal expression on the outside. "No problem. I will leave you to wash the rest of your body by yourself. Or do you need my help for other parts as well?" She teased him before leaving the bathroom and a flustered engineer behind. The cruiser walked out, her mind assessing all the new things she had just learned about her old friend whom she thought to be an open book to her.

The engineer watched the cruiser in her grid-girl outfit leave the bathroom until she closed the door. "I will be going for a stroll so you can have your time getting yourself cleaned. I will be back in an hour to get changed. Be done by that." She informed him through the closed bathroom door. The engineer did not need to answer since he heard the closing of the dorm room door right afterwards. He was not sure what to make of the situation that had just played out. It seemed to him that the cruiser was taken back by something. But he could not tell by what. Either way he was sure to set up for a good amount of shower thoughts and philosophy now. He started to unbutton his motorcycle trousers and got ready to get the rest of his body cleaned off grime, sweat and dirt.