Long Live Ironblood: Wilting Rose

Home Sweet Home

"So are we still in the Sakura Empire docks?" The commander asks.

"We headed home." Bismarck replies as the two head out to see none other than Eugen, Hipper, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Z23, Köln, Roon and Friedrich waiting for them.

"Phew! It's good to see you two back!" Z23 says. "We were worried that we'd have to start taking orders from Tirpitz!"

"You make that sound like a bad thing." Tirpitz replies. "Anyways, good to see you two doing well."

"Oh my child!" Friedrich calls out as she hugs the commander, unintentionally burying him in her chest. "I'm so glad to see that you're alive and well!"

"Child?!" The Ironbloods ask.

"Friedrich?! What are you doing?!" The commander asks. "Please let me go!"

"Oh, sorry about that..." Friedrich replies as she lets go of the commander. "I got a little carried away..."

"Yeah... It's fine." The commander says. "Let's just pretend we never heard that." And the girls unanimously agree as the commander and Bismarck head back to his office. As he and the others were with the Sakura Empire no paperwork had been sent to him, but the commander noticed something that had been put on his desk. "My karabiner? How did this get here?"

"I would have to assume they found it while cleaning your office." Bismarck replies. "Not even I knew where that was beforehand."

"I'm just glad they found it because I forgot where it was as well." The commander chuckles as he aims with the rifle and pretends to shoot it. "Now that I've got my rigging though, this is literally just decoration now."

"Who knows? It could come in handy one day." Bismarck replies. "Do you keep that loaded?"

"No, not really. If you want to try using this yourself ammo's in there." The commander says, pointing to a small compartment.

"Good to know." Bismarck chuckles before she realizes that she's staring intently at the commander.

"Um... Is there something you want to say? You look like you wanna say something." The commander asks.

"Huh?!" Bismarck asks, suddenly snapping back to reality. "Oh um... It was... Uhhhhhhhhh nothing! Yeah I was just staring off into space... Sorry."

"Oh no it's alright." The commander replies, stuttering for some reason. "I just noticed, that's all. No need to panic."

"Alright." Bismarck replies, wiping off a drop of sweat on her forehead. That's when she looks at the commander and realizes that he looks somewhat flustered.

"So... Bismarck..." The commander says. "What do you say to... You know, spending time alone... Just the two of us?"

"Wait... You mean... Like..." Bismarck trails off. "Oh my god is this really happening?!" She asks in her head.

"Yeah... Like... A date?" The commander finally stutters out. "God that was hard to get out..." He mumbles in his head.

"Yeah um... Sure... That sounds nice." Bismarck replies, her face going red as a tomato.

"So would some time tomorrow be nice?" The commander asks, trying to hide his equally deep blush.

"No... How about this day?" Bismarck asks, marking the calendar. "I don't think... We'll be expecting much."

"Sure, that sounds good." The commander replies. "I... I'm looking forward to it."

"You are? Oh that's nice." Bismarck says, but before they can get even more flustered Tirpitz walks into the office with a large stack of papers, and the sound of them being put on the desk snaps them back into reality.

"Sorry if I'm intruding." Tirpitz says. "Did I just hear something about a date?" She adds with a sly grin on her face.

"Tirpitz!" Bismarck whimpers. "Why do you have that look on your face?!"

"W-Were you listening the whole time?!" The commander asks.

"Just enough to hear that part." Tirpitz giggles. "Treat my schwester well."

"O-Of course." The commander replies as he and Bismarck look at the stack of papers that Tirpitz left for them. "Well, guess we don't have much else to do but work on that."

"Yeah." Bismarck says. "I'll take half."

"You go right on ahead." The commander replies.