Commander's Rounds

Entry 36-1: Commander's Promise- Tea Break

Shinano's room was always relaxing, though the commander never really knew how much of it came from the room itself and how much came from its occupant. Still, being able to have tea here was a welcome respite from the difficulty of commanding the fleet. It was just him, a sleepy fox-woman, and the smell of fresh tea.

It wasn't a strange thing for him to go and visit her once in a while, so even though he wasn't entirely sure as to why he had come to visit today, he didn't really think too much about it. It was quite peaceful in here, and so he didn't feel like leaving, especially not before Shinano had served him.

In fact, it outright felt like it would be a bad idea to leave, probably because it would be some species of impolite.

Shinano's ears twitched a little as she worked on serving her guest. "Ah... Commander, I'm glad that you were able to make it... I had worried that I wouldn't be able to get ahold of you at a time like this..."

The commander was sitting at Shinano's kotatsu. One of the features of her room was that her bedroom actually had a fair variety of beds in them, but those didn't spill over to the rest of the floor space in her quarters, so there was still plenty of room to settle in. "I try to keep all the appointments that I can. Besides, you have been a great help since you have arrived. Every time we speak you have something useful to tell me."

"Ah... I only wish that I could offer more... But I do what I can to offer what I can, and make myself understood."

The commander watched Shinano prepare the tea. She hummed softly as she did so, and he couldn't help watching as her various tails lazily swished and rubbed around each other. It made sense that she would have some skill at this sort of thing, and not only because the Sakura considered her to be someone of importance- tea was something that could help with sleep, though he did wonder how much Shinano needed help with that, since it seemed to come so naturally to her.

"Ah... Commander. I apologize- this was on rather short notice, so I wasn't able to prepare much to go with the tea."

The commander shrugged. "Not every visit I have with you is really a formal one, so I'm fine with whatever you're able to manage." The commander watched and waited, and had a look around the room. She hadn't changed much about it since his last visit, though he did get a strange feeling from looking at the door to her room.

She then spoke up. "Ah... Well, I did want to talk to you, so I hope you're willing to stay for a while."

"That's not really a problem, I've got time." He took one more glance at the door. "Besides... For some reason, it feels like it would be a really bad idea to try to run out on you at a time like this."

A time like this.

Just what time was it anyway, and why was he even here?

He knew he visited Shinano every once in a while, and that he always had a good reason to do so, but he just couldn't figure out what reason he had to be visiting her this time. He closed his eyes and tried to remember, but he found himself in something of a haze.

But then the smell of her tea hit his nose, and he abandoned it for now. He was sure that it would come to him later- he wasn't the sort of person to forget things like this, especially when it came to the ships in the fleet. So, he was just going to have to sit here and share some quiet time with Shinano which wasn't exactly a curse.

It was then that she brought the tea to the kotatsu and sat down with him. The one thing he could be sure of is that this absolutely was Shinano- if this was some sort of Siren trick there were all sorts of things they would have gotten wrong about her. Even though Siren pawns might outwardly resemble the ships under his command, they never really got the behaviors quite right. So, the commander could at least be assured that he was with the actual Shinano, even if he wasn't entirely sure he was exactly in Shinano's room.