Duality (Rena and Ruka (Andou and Oshida), Girls und Panzer)

Switching Things Up

After a short time everyone's food arrived and they had begun to eat, as they did both Rena and Ruka stubbornly refused to look up from their food. Their embarrassment preventing them from looking the boys opposite them in the eye.

(Rena in head) "What does he think he's on about?..." Rena thought to herself, various other mumblings following along in her head as she tried to push her embarrassment to the back of her mind.

(Ruka in head) "That lower class piece of..." Ruka grumbled to herself, feeling her mind cast back to him saying what he did to her.

"But why would he say it?..." She then whispered to herself, causing Rena to glance over in her direction slightly. She'd perked up a bit after hearing her co-commander's words and chuckled upon hearing it.

"Is something funny?" Marie then asked, noticing the two being strangely quiet since they'd both received their compliments.

"Not at all" Ruka responded, looking up from her plate for the first time since their food had arrived. Before looking back down she glanced over at Claude who had looked up at the same time and was nervously stealing glances in her direction.

Upon looking down she felt her expression soften upon realising that he was sincere about what he'd said before and that he was clearly nervous about it as well.

"I-I just realised I never thanked you Claude" She spoke, surprising everyone at the table who looked up to see her staring over at him. He let out a soft gasp and felt his heart rate shoot up as she looked back at her, noting her soft gaze into his eyes.

"So thank you for the compliment" She added with a smile, bowing her head slightly as she took another bite of her food.

Seeing Ruka thank Claude for what he'd said made Rena feel guilty for a moment. She realised that she hadn't thanked Adam for what he'd said to her even though she really wanted to.Marie watched from the end of the table with a smile as Rena's face contorted ever so slowly as she tried to work up the courage to speak.

After hearing Ruka thank Claude for his compliment, something that had taken much of the nervousness away from Claude in that moment and left him grinning like an idiot, Adam now felt as if Rena didn't care for his compliment at all. This caused his heart to sink as he feared that his words had basically fallen on deaf ears and that didn't have any feelings about it or him at all.

Marie also noticed this, as Adam's expression dropped to one of subtle sadness and melancholy. She felt sorry for him, knowing from both her long time spent with Rena and her current expression and conflict that she wanted to say something but didn't have the courage to.

(Marie in head) "I guess one out of two is a good start..." She thought with a sigh, looking up from her plate again just in time to see something quite interesting.

Ruka had also noticed both Rena and Adam's discomfort and felt like she had to do something, feeling sorry for Adam especially.

She bumped Rena's shoulder and turned towards her. As Rena looked over she watched as Ruka gestured towards Adam with her head. Rena thought for a moment before realising what she meant. Closing her eyes she nodded her head slightly to indicate she knew what Ruka meant.

Taking in a long breath Rena began to speak, "U-Um A-Adam I... I'm uh..."

Marie started to giggle as Rena stuttered, clearly flustered and nervous at the prospect of saying what she wanted to.

Surprised to hear her speaking all of a sudden and in such a way, Adam looked towards her and into her eyes with an expectant expression.

"T-Thank you f-for what you said, i-it really means a lot to me..." She spoke, looking back at him as the words flowed out before quickly lowering her head to hide her blushing face.

"Awwww~" Marie said with a cutesy tone as Adam too felt his face heat up. Despite this a smile had grown on both his and Rena's faces, the both of them being happy with the outcome.

---Timeskip---

After finishing their food the group left the café and began to walk towards a small park that was just across the street, or rather they were practically dragged there by Marie who said that she "Loved the view this time of year"

As they began to enter Ruka started to speak, "So Commander why are we-" She stopped however as she turned around and saw that Marie was jogging off while clutching her phone in her hand.

"I have to go do some stuff for a while, I'll catch up with all of you later!" She yelled back, winking slightly which caused both Adam and Claude to look at each other with surprised expressions.

Rena and Ruka then slowly turned back around towards the two boys, everyone fidgeting nervously without speaking.

Eventually, after gathering the courage Adam spoke.

"Um ah.. So R-Rena would you like to um..." He stuttered out, looking down at his shoes for a moment.

"G-Go for a walk... With m-me?..."

Rena's eyes went wide at his request, never having been asked to do anything like this by a guy before.

"Um I-I'd..." She stuttered back, letting out a surprised yell as Ruka shoved her from behind towards him.

"Woah!" He called out as she almost fell to the ground beside him, stopping only because he reached out and caught her hand.

She let out a nervous whimper as he pulled her to her feet, turning towards Ruka and yelling, "I was going to go anyway!"

This caused both Claude and Adam to chuckle as well as the latter loosing his nerves once again. "Go on then! Go for your 'walk'~" Ruka said with a teasing tone as the pair started to walk down the path before them.

As the went around a corner and out of view Ruka turned towards Claude who was nervously pacing on the spot, feeling that there was no way he'd have the courage to ask the same thing of Ruka as Adam did to Rena.

"Would you like to go for a walk too?..." Ruka then spoke, much to Claude's surprise.

"A-Ah yes! I-I'd love to!" He replied earnestly, causing her to giggle as they started to walk...