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“So,” Kay asked, a bright and dubiously innocent smile alighting her features, “Is it the legs, or the ass?”
Miho’s head whipped around, and Darjeeling could be heard choking on her tea. Kay reached over and started patting her girlfriend on the back without even looking away from the delightfully shocked and guilty face of Miho Nishizumi.
“I mean, in her case it’s clearly not the tits, but legs or ass could both work. I’m more about asses myself, but Darj here is a leg girl, at least when she’s not staring at my tits.”
Miho continued to stare at Kay with a look of pure confusion, which was of course immensely satisfying. Miho might be a lot more friendly than her sister, but she was still a Nishizumi and was quite unflappable… most of the time. To Kay, it was these little victories that really made it all worth it.
Not that it was that hard. Miho had brought it upon herself really; she shouldn’t be ogling her loader’s backside if she doesn’t want to be teased about it.
Kay, Darjeeling, and Miho were sitting at a table in the older couple’s favorite cafe, having lunch. Miho’s loader, whatshername (Yuki maybe?), had also been with them, but had just gotten up to go to the bathroom. Poor hopeless Miho hadn’t been able to help but watch her crewmate go, and Kay certainly wasn’t going to let that go…
“Well, go on then. Which is it?”
Miho opened and closed her mouth two or three times, either because she was searching for the correct response, or because her brain was currently functioning on about the same level as a fish’s.
“Oh c’mon Miho! We’re all lesbians here, you can tell us.”
After yet another moment without much change on Miho’s end, the young commander averted her gaze.
“Legs. I- I really love her legs.”
Kay smiled a big and, she hoped, supportive smile. And she could just feel that, next to her, Darjie had her own cute little supportive smile active, likely just barely visible above her teacup. Since they’d realized they were at the same university and had started dating, Kay had been learning to read Darjeeling so fast that it almost scared her. She knew she was falling, and fast, and she didn’t really have any experience to go on when it came to being in lo-
But this right now wasn’t about her and Darjie, it was about Miho and Yukka, or whatever the girl’s name was.
“Well go on. Tell your big sister all about it.”
Miho raised an eyebrow, the Nishizumi mask sliding firmly in place once more. “I already have a big sister.”
Kay just kept smiling. “Has Maho ever engaged in ‘girl talk’ with you before?”
“No.”
“Well, that’s because she hired me to do it for her!”
“Did she really?” Darjeeling interrupted.
“Of course not,” Kay said. “but I intend to lend her the service regardless.”
Miho muttered something under her breath about how with her sister, leasing it would be smarter, but Kay politely pretended not to hear.
“So, what’s going on? Do you like her? Are you secretly dating? Is she any good in bed?”
Darjeeling snorted in amusement, while Miho blushed a little.
“Nothing, not dating, not sleeping together.”
Kay’s grin widened. “You didn’t say whether or not you like her.”
Miho’s blush remained, but a resolve seemed to overcome her features, her brow furrowing slightly, and her eyes hardening.
“It doesn’t matter. It can never happen.”
Kay blinked.
“Of course it can happen, Miho. That girl is definitely into you, if the way her eyes gravitate towards you is any indication. You could probably even just ask her out without any fanfare, which I can say from experience is a lot easier than getting your team leader to sign off on firing a rose bouquet out of a 75mm gun.”
There. Some honest words of encouragement, and a fun anecdote (and true; they were finding rose petals around the tank hangar for months). That’s sure to cheer the girl up.
But instead, Miho just shook her head. “I appreciate the sentiment Kay, but it’s just not possible.”
Frowning, Kay opened her mouth to plead her case once more, but stopped when Miho’s face suddenly and inexplicably lit up. Miho stood up.
“I’m sorry to leave you so soon, but I want to check a couple of stores before it’s time to get back. Is that okay with you Yukari-san?”
Wait, what? Yukina wasn’t back from the bathroom yet-
“Of course Miss Nishizumi, anything for you.”
And there was Yukki, walking up from behind Miho. And that’s when it clicked into place once again. Kay had momentarily forgotten, with all the embarrassed blushing, and that was her mistake. She wasn’t just talking to her friend Miho, but to Miho Nishizumi .
Kay took in a quick scan of the room. Yep, definitely a Nishizumi.
The four girls shared some goodbyes, and then Miho and Yukari were on their way. Kay waited, watching closely to make sure that Miho was definitely out of sight first, and then let her head fall face first onto the table.
“That didn't work at all!”
“I think your recon was lacking dear.”
Kay huffed, and sat up partially, propping her head up on her hands. “Or at least my memory. She's so nice that I tend to forget that she’s a Nishizumi.”
Darjeeling raised an eyebrow, along with her teacup. “And what does her family have to do with this?”
Kay paused for a moment, as she tried to decide the best way to explain the Nishizumis. Perhaps an example?
“Have I ever told you about the first time I met a Nishizumi?”
The teacup didn’t move at all as Darjeeling shook her head. Kay always found that a little freaky.
“It was back in my first year. We had just lost handily to Kuromorimine and it’s a tradition that when Saunder’s loses, the commander goes over to the victors, and offers a congratulatory handshake. But getting Kuromorimine to accept that gesture was usually a bit of an ordeal, and our commander at the time didn’t really want to deal with it. So, she delegated it to me.
“Young and eager as I was, I happily went over to the Kuromorimine camp, and asked for their commander. I was very nearly laughed off, and then told I should speak to their second-in-command instead. So I walked up to fifteen-year-old Maho Nishizumi, who was standing next to a Panther, stuck out my hand, and congratulated her on a hard-fought game.
“Maho opened her mouth to respond, stopped, and then thrust her hand out to the side. A Kuromorimine student had just walked around the corner of the tank you see, and apparently Maho needed to talk to her. So she grabbed the poor girl by the collar, forcibly pulled her close, barked an order into her face, and then threw the girl away again. And she did all of this without ever breaking eye contact with me.”
Darjeeling smiled softly. “The infamous Nishizumi sixth sense.”
Kay matched the grin. “Yep. Of course, it’s not an actual sense. It seems to mostly be good situational awareness, that they’ve honed into an instinct.”
“It’s the greatest advantage of the Nishizumis.” Supplied the anglophile.
“But it’s born of their greatest weakness.” Kay said, losing her own smile. Darjeeling appeared surprised by that claim, and turned to direct her full attention at Kay.
“The Nishizumis are controlled by an all-consuming paranoia. They fear defeat with all of their being, and that fear and paranoia seeps into all aspects of their life; tankery, eating at a cafe, and even their relationships. So they put their all into making sure they can see everything, so that they are never caught off guard, so that they have the best chance of winning.”
Kay sighed.
“And to think, I had thought that Miho was able to send her sister packing because she didn’t have that fear.”
Kay’s girlfriend continued to look at her, clearly waiting for more.
“Miho picked this table, right? Look around the room. From where she was sitting, Miho was looking at the entrance constantly, and could check the emergency exits with a quick turn of her head. And I’m also pretty sure-” Kay turned her head to look behind them, and then pointed, ”yeah, we can see the bathroom doors reflected in that window there. I’ve seen Maho pick seats the same way.”
Darjeeling craned her head back and forth to see for herself, and Kay turned to look out the window while she did.
“Consciously or otherwise, Miho still feels a need to see everything going on around her, even when she’s just having lunch with friends. She’s still afraid, just like her Mom and her sister. And she won’t even consider getting with Yunna- or whatever her name was, as long as she’s scared.”
Kay was busy gazing wistfully into the distance at this point, imagining the world where Miho wasn’t afraid, and she could finally prove to Darjeeling that double dates could be fun. So she didn’t notice Darjeeling taking time to mull over what she’d said, and was caught totally off guard by her girlfriend’s response.
“I don’t think that’s it Luv.”
Kay turned her head and raised both her eyebrows. “Oh?”
“Or at least not all of it anyway. Don’t mistake me dear, I’m sure there’s a lot of truth to your theory. But I think the real problem is with their current relationship.”
Kay cocked her head. “You wanna explain that?”
Now it was Darjeeling’s turn to pause and articulate.
“Have I ever told you that I used to have a, minor, crush on Orange Pekoe?”
Kay let out a hardy laugh and smiled at her girlfriend.
“Darjie, you’re still in love with Pekoe.” Kay knew that Darjeeling tried really hard to not talk about Pekoe, worrying needlessly that she would make Kay jealous. But Kay was a big girl; she could laugh about this. “It’s a good thing she’s straight, because there’s no way you woulda gotten with me if you coulda had her.”
Kay didn’t receive the smile she’d been fishing for in response. Instead, Darjeeling cringed quite visibly, and turned away from her.
“That’s the thing Kay; I could have had her.”
Darjeeling had, for years now, thrown her all into emulating the idealized image of a British officer. She’d stood up straight, calm and rational, never visibly acknowledging the high explosives flying by her head, and never spilling a drop of tea. Prying smiles out of her was almost as fun as stunning the Nishizumis.
Kay was sure she hadn’t even seen Darjeeling look quite as small and defeated as she did now
“Last year, Pekoe came to school one day and announced that she had a boyfriend now. I was devastated. Now, I think I am rather good at hiding my emotions, but Pekoe could always see right through me, so she knew I was devastated. I guess she finally put together what my feelings were that day, because when I got to my dorm that night, I found her in my bed, in only lingerie.”
Kay's eyes nearly popped out of her head.
“I can still remember that conversation, word for word.
‘Pekoe, what’s all this?’
‘I’m here for you Darjeeling. You can finally have me the way you always wanted.’
‘But, aren’t you straight Pekoe?’
‘I am.’
‘And what about your boyfriend? Don’t you like him?’
‘I do.’
‘Then why are you doing this?’
‘Because this is what you want Darjeeling, and I would do anything for you.’ “
Now it was Darjeeling who was staring out the window, and Kay who was left processing. Her mouth hung open, but, as she thought it through, she slowly closed it. Because, actually, it did kind of make sense somehow. Kay wrapped an arm around the waist of her anglophile, pulling her close in an attempt to offer some comfort.
“Pekoe is totally devoted to you, and would sacrifice anything for you.”
Darjeeling sighed.
“Yes, but she wasn’t in love with me.” That statement was left to hang in the air for a moment, giving them both time to accept it.
“And that-” She turned around to face Kay now. “is the problem Miho is facing. She knows that if she wants Yukari, she can have her. The question is, does Yukari want to be had?”