Coming Out of Her Shell (Darjeeling, Girls und Panzer)

Preparations

Authors Note: The image above is the property of 'sugimoto isao' Danbooru.

After having a somewhat good nights sleep James awoke with a yawn as he prepared for the day...

---Timeskip: Rosehip and Assam POV---

"A meeting?" She asked with a confused expression, "Oooh, a 'meeting', haha I get it~" Rosehip mused, emphasizing the word meeting as she laughed slightly at Assam's idea.

"I'll go tell him then!" Rosehip announced as she quickly ran off, causing Assam to chuckle to herself at her eagerness.

---Timeskip: James and Rosehip POV---

"So why am I coming again?"

"Because uh... W-We want to hear your input on the strategy for our upcoming match in a couple of days!" Rosehip responded to James' question, not having thought through a proper excuse for him to be coming yet.

"Assam just told me that she wants to set up a meeting tomorrow for you and Darjeeling to discuss tactics" Rosehip added with a smirk, giggling as James' face turned to one of confusion."Why are we doing that?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"Because we want you and Darjeeling to be able to spend time together~" Rosehip then answered with a proud smile and closed eyes, an expression which was quickly replaced with on of regret...

"W-What?" James asked shakily.

"Uh.... Hehehe~" Rosehip chuckled unconvincingly, rubbing the back of her neck as she realised she may have said to much.

"N-Nothing~"

---Timeskip: No One POV---

After James had left yesterday Darjeeling had not been able to stop thinking about the things he had said to her, and how he made her feel. She may have lost her composure, a first for her, but he didn't mind, and he even comforted her when she thought she'd ruined everything.

She was now enjoying breakfast with Orange Pekoe.

"Quite an eventful day yesterday" Orange Pekoe said with a smile as she looked over at Darjeeling.

"Indeed, very enlightening..."

A confused expression then covered Orange Pekoe's face, she didn't know of Darjeeling and James' conversation up on deck, and assumed that Darjeeling would still be anxious and angry at Rosehip. However she seemed quite the opposite, she seemed just as normal, maybe even happier than normal.

"Hey Darjeeling..." Rosehip said with a somber expression on her face as she jogged into the room. "I... I'm sorry! I shouldn't have taken it as far as I did..."

Darjeeling turned to face her and got up from her seat. "It's okay Rosehip..." she responded calmly.

"R-Really? I-I thought you'd still be mad at me..."

"Not at all, in fact I want to thank you... Although I didn't want to admit it at first, I... I guess I do have feelings for him..."

Upon hearing this, Orange Pekoe and Rosehip formed wide smiles on their faces.

"That's great" Orange Pekoe said with a smile, "I'm happy for you"

"At least you can admit it now, that's half the battle after all" Rosehip said with a chuckle as she placed her hand on Darjeeling's shoulder...

Assam then entered the room with a smile on her face when she saw that Darjeeling and Rosehip had obviously made up.

"Well Rosehip, how did it go?" she asked, causing Rosehip to perk up.

"Oh yeah! It went fine, in the end he said he'd come"

"That's good" Assam replied, as Orange Pekoe and Darjeeling watched on with confused expressions.

"What's happening?" Darjeeling asked.

"We told James to come to tomorrows strategy meeting so he could spend some time with you~" Rosehip responded with a joyful expression, much to Darjeeling's dismay.

"You did what?!" Darjeeling responded with a very out of character yell, causing the three others to burst out laughing.

---Timeskip---

"It does sound good I suppose..." Darjeeling said in response after the others explained everything.

(Darjeeling in head) "I guess I would like to spend more time with him..."

"It'll be a good first date for you two~" Rosehip mused with a smirk.

"It w-won't be a date Rosehip" Darjeeling responded, feeling herself stutter slightly from the small amount of nerves that were starting to form within her...

---Timeskip: Darjeeling POV---

Darjeeling was sound asleep before she was awoke by violent knocking on her door. She quickly rose to her feet and opened it quickly...

As she did, Rosehip and Assam hurried into the room.

"What are you two doing?" Darjeeling asked with a confused expression.

"We're here to get you ready for your date~" Rosehip said with a laugh as she opened Darjeeling's wardrobe.

"W-What?!"

"We're here to help you get ready for your day with James~" Assam added as she and Rosehip began debating which clothes Darjeeling should wear...

"I... uhg... I-It's not a date!" Darjeeling yelled as she let herself fall back onto her bed.

"Come on, admit you want to go on a date with him~" Rosehip said as she turned to Darjeeling.

"I..."

"It's only us, you can be honest" Assam added.

"You're... You're right, both of you. I... I would like to actually..."

Rosehip squealed in glee once she heard this and yelled out "Whooo, I never expected to hear you say that commander!"

"Well Rosehip... I-I'm working on being more expressive~" Darjeeling said with a smile as she remembered what James had said to her the day before...

---Timeskip---

After about an hour long debate between Assam and Rosehip about what she should wear, Darjeeling ended up settling the argument by choosing her own clothing...

She had choose to wear her Tankery uniform, after all it was supposed to be a strategy meeting. Although her real reasoning was that she felt a lot more comfortable in her uniform, and it gave her some desperately needed confidence to commit to spending a day with James.

Although she felt closer to him after what had happened the day before, she was still nervous about her feelings for him. She felt that despite what he had said, there was no way that he would ever reciprocate her feelings.This led to a great amount of anxiety washing over her as she walked to the meeting...