The Betrayed Commander and The Abandoned Tsundere (Azur Lane: Origins 1)

Chapter 11: Massage

A/N: The chapter cover doesn't want to work so I'll put one in later if I remember to.

Sora, having nothing else to do, was having a morning walk around the base. This made him feel really old. Having leg issues also made him feel really old. Anyway, the commander was walking around the base when he stumbled across Admiral Hipper (no prizes for guessing because most of you probably know where this story is going). She was sitting at the docks, her legs dangling over the edge. Sora decided to join her.

'So, what are you doing here this early on a late autumn morning?'

'Exposing myself to the slightly cold morning air for no reason. How about you?'

'I'm just walking around and trying to not feel like an old person.' Hipper laughed a little. The two of them sat in silence and both had the same warm feeling in their chest as Hipper did in chapter 3, if I remember correctly. Sora, having never felt this before, shrugged it off as a consequence of sitting in the sun. Hipper, however, began to think about this feeling, as this was (probably) the second time she had felt it.

A/N: At precisely this moment, I decided to check back to see if I added something, which I did, and discovered that Sora and Hipper experienced the warm feeling a few chapters ago. Time for a quick rewrite! (Sarcastic tone) Yaaay...

'I'm just walking around and trying to not feel like an old person.' Hipper laughed a little. The two of them sat in silence and both of them experienced the same warm feeling that they did in chapter 9. Sora decided that this feeling wasn't just random, as he had only experienced it around Hipper (HA HA! This man isn't extremely D E N S E like other protagonists!). Admiral Hipper, on the other hand, had started to have suspicions about said feeling, which ended up with her blushing profusely and hugging a pillow tightly to her face in the middle of the night.

For the next few days, Hipper gradually went from occasionally having the warm feeling in her chest around Sora to experiencing it every time they encountered each other. However, Sora only felt said feeling more often, not every time he was near Hipper.

Within another few days, Admiral Hipper felt the warm, happy feeling every single time she saw Sora and Sora began to feel it whenever he was near Hipper. Some of the other shipgirls noticed this and when asked why they were smiling, responded with a sloppily formed on the spot excuse of some kind.

It had been a week since Akagi and Akuma had been captured and interrogated when one early winter morning, Sora was enjoying reading books (definitely not manga) and watching TV (definitely not anime) when he tried to get up for a drink but fell straight back onto his bed. The commander's leg wouldn't move. Well, it would move at his hip like it normally did but his knee joined was locked up.

This must be the tensed muscles the doctor was talking about, thought Sora. He pondered on what move he should make and decided on calling Hipper to his room.

'What's wrong, Sora?' she asked as she walked into the commander's room.

'It's my leg. The muscles have finally tensed.' Sora blushed slightly. 'S-so please c-could you massage my leg?'

Why did that sound so innocent and so lewd at the same time?  wondered Hipper as she walked over to the side of Sora's bed. 'Where have the muscles tensed?' she inquired (yes, I know, a big fancy word that isn't 'asked').

'Around my knee,' Sora responded and he gestured to a chair in the corner of the room. 'You can drag that over if you want to.'

Hipper nodded and walked to the chair. 'How bad is it?' she (my brain is trying so hard to come up with a synonym for 'asked' that isn't 'inquired) asked as she pulled the chair over to the side of Sora's bed.

'I tried to get up to find something to drink but as soon as I stood up I fell down.' Admiral Hipper tried very hard to not laugh as she imagined Sora standing up only to fall onto his bed.

The commander moved over, closer to the side of the bed. Unfortunately, this wasn't very successful because the fall had caused every muscle in his leg from just above his knee down to his foot to tense up. To avoid an awkward situation, Hipper dragged the rest of Sora's leg to the edge of the bed by his foot.

'I've never done this before so I don't know how good I am,' Hipper said, somehow still calm.

'Alright, go ahead.' The warm feeling that both of them had in their chest making the situation slightly awkward, Hipper placed her hands just above Sora's knee. Unfortunately for Sora, Hipper's hands were cold, which makes sense because it was winter, so he had to deal with cold hands massaging his leg.

Hipper actually ended up being pretty good at massages and Sora's leg was back to normal in no time. This allowed the commander to finally get the drink that he had desired for since before the massage. After the commander left his room to find a drink, Hipper returned to the common room where she was talking to Bismarck. Before she left the room, however, Hipper caught a glance of a shelving unit she hadn't previously noticed. It appeared to be full of anime and manga.

A certain Ironblood cruiser learned something about her commander that day.