Commander's Rounds

Gaiden entry 26.4: Runaway Franz

It was late at night, and Admiral Hipper was grumpy.

Not just her general sour air, but for very specific reasons. The other bed in the room was empty, when Prinz Eugen should definitely have been filling it. There was no telling where Eugen was or what she was doing, and while the largest possibility was that she was out drinking, Hipper wanted to at least know about that sort of thing.

Hipper rolled over on her back. Of course Eugen would do something like this when the commander was gone. He was one of like, two people who took her side sometimes.

It was then that Eugen came back in, obviously after having a few. "Well, hello, my sister~"

Hipper sat up and grumped instantly. "And it's about time you came back. It's really late, you know!"

Eugen smiled. "Don't think I never know the hour of the day. Is it really so far?"

Hipper sighed. "It's so late I'm surprised you didn't crash somewhere else."

"Crash?" Eugen shook her head. "How could I ever crash, when there's a perfect landing strip waiting at home?"

Hipper didn't even fume- she boiled over. Blowing off steam was no longer enough for her to deal with her sister. "Over two years! Over two years of nothing but this! You're going to have to find someone else to torment from now on, because I'm done with this, and I'm done with you!" Hipper flipped over her covers and got out of bed to storm out.

And then she realized she was still in her nightclothes, which wouldn't do- if she was going to storm out in a huff, she was going to do it properly, so she got dressed nice and neat, did her hair into her twin-tails, and then stormed out in a huff to stew somewhere on her own.

Hipper marched away into the night, lit only by the various lamps, getting as far away from the Iron Blood dorms as her feet could take her until she found herself a tree she could slump under.

And once she was settled there, a thought came to her:

What was I thinking?

Sure she had made a big show of storming out, but she missed some steps about what to do after- anger was a powerful fuel, but a terrible pilot. She didn't know where to go, and she couldn't go back without looking like an idiot, so she took the quick way out and now ended up with zero options that were apparent to her. It was such a stupid move that Hipper wanted to tear her own hair out over painting herself into a corner with no way to deal with what she just said and did.

"Aaagh! Is this why angst is a German word?!"

So Hipper just sat there for a while, but her attention was caught by someone carrying a lantern around- she did know that this was the preferred hour of certain ships, but she didn't think she'd actually see it herself. Because she liked to sleep at reasonable hours.

Still, there was Shinano. The fox shuttered her lantern as she looked at Hipper with her dream-like gaze for some time.

Hipper blinked. "What?"

Shinano seemed to snap out of it. "Ah... It's Admiral Hipper..."

"Even though I'd rather be anyone else, yeah."

Shinano gave a nod, and held out a hand. "...Sleep?"

"That's not going to happen!" Hipper hugged her knees to her chest. "Right now I'm so angry that if you threw me in a swimming pool, the whole thing would boil over. There's no way I'm getting to sleep."

"Ah..." Was Shinano's only reply, at least for a few moments. "...I can help..."

"I doubt it. I mean, you can try, but you're not getting anywhere." She curled in on herself. "Give it your best shot, and then leave me alone."