A slight earthquake shook Junyou out of her inebriated state, experiencing the touch of soft hands on her warm shoulders as the world slowly came into focus in her mind.
Peeking out with barely-opened eyes, she could barely make a pair of greenish twin-tails flowing down her assailant's hair, and Junyou eventually woke up from the gentle shaking that she was subjected to at the hands of the Shoukaku-Class carrier, Junyou drunkenly waving her hands at her in order to get her to stop.
Craning her neck to take in her surroundings, she could make out the distinct golden winged headdress and miko uniform of the Kongou-Class battleship who was seated beside her, head tucked in, eyes closed and arms crossed as Hiei slept soundly.
Zuikaku softly whispered while looking down at the hungover light carrier, who was lying on her bed and half naked from last night's drinking session.
"Good afternoon, Junyou-san. Time to wake up."
Junyou stirred, wondering what was up with the polite and soft tone that Zuikaku used to address her.
Not that Zuikaku was exactly polite, but she was known to be somewhat lax with the way she treated people she knew.
She gently shook the carrier's hands off of her shoulder while feeling a breeze down her unbuttoned red shirt and her non-existent hakama (she still had her underwear on; It'd be a disaster if she didn't), and groggily got up as she breathed in the humid afternoon air inside her room, thankfully aired by the open door that led outside despite the air conditioner being turned on, Junyou looking at her own room as Zuikaku gave her some space to move.
Her room was relatively neat compared to the dump that she lived in before she was drafted into the 1st Fleet as almost everything was now in its proper place.
She could make out her alcohol-stained white blouse and hakama on the floor as Zuikaku picked the former up with the tip of her index fingers and thumbs, folding it delicately as she placed it on a nearby drawer.
A few beer bottles littered her bed as some of the liquor had seeped into the bedsheets, pillow covers and even into her hair.
She shook her head slowly, accepting Zuikaku's extended arm as the light carrier tried to remember what happened yesterday.
The last thing she remembered was Hiei trying to convince her not to drink who-knows how-many bottles before everything became a mix of sweat, liquor and joyous shouting in her memory bank, all of it from her.
She guessed that it was Hiei who carried her back into her room, undressed her so that she wouldn't sleep with wet and sticky clothes that were drenched in her own sweat and covered her with a blanket so that she wouldn't catch a cold.
She even went so far as to accompany her in her sleep instead of leaving her be and returning to her room and back into the company her sisters.
She mentally thanked Hiei for looking out for her before she caught a whiff of her own body odor and dry heaved, exclaiming.
"Geez, how much did I drink last night in order to smell this bad?"
Zuikaku shrugged, nonchalantly remarking.
"I dunno. I manually overrode and turned off my sense of smell before coming in here, because I predicted that the room would smell pretty bad because of you."
To which Junyou cringed and commented about the extreme move that Zuikaku made in order to avoid breathing in her body odor and the stench of alcohol, already undressing as she turned on the toilet light and stumbled drunkenly into the toilet to relieve herself and take a shower.
"Wow man, rub in some more about how much I reek, why don't you. And while you're at it, grab some salt and pour it in, you little brat."
The water started running, and Junyou's muffled voice could be heard through the door, causing Hiei's sleep to be disturbed as she breathed in softly and jerked her head in response to Junyou's voice, before her body relaxed and she resumed her beauty sleep.
"So, I suppose this visit isn't simply a courtesy call just to make lill' ol' auntie Junyou feel loved, right?"
Zuikaku made a noise in agreement, helping the light carrier make her bed as a show of courtesy by trying to free the crumpled blanket in order to fold it up neatly.
She called out to Junyou in a way that wouldn't immediately wake the sleeping battleship in the room.
"Well, I have a favor to ask of you, and it's about my relationship with Kaga-san."
Junyou then asked.
"Well, why ask me for advice? There're more than enough dependable ship girls and carriers in the Yokosuka Naval Base to listen to your problems."
Zuikaku, after airing and folding the blanket, moved on to lightly beating and fluffing Junyou's pillow without taking a whiff of the odor that permeated the pillow, looking away as she justified her decision to confide in the drunkard of a light carrier.
"Well, this is something that I'd like to keep contained amongst us bird-carriers. I want to take the next step in establishing the possibility of a relationship with Kaga-san. But if it blows up in my face, I'd like to keep the fallout contained, if that made any sense. But at the same time, I'd also like to recruit as many people as possible to improve my chances of success."
Zuikaku heard the running water from the shower head stop, but her enhanced sense of hearing picked up slight squeaks, which meant that Junyou was likely using the shampoo dispenser.
So Zuikaku made herself comfortable on Junyou's bed, waiting for Junyou to prepare herself to face the second half of the day.
"No, no, I get it. You don't want everyone to know of a relationship that failed to develop, and result in a mass misunderstanding that might essentially spread throughout the entire base and make things uncomfortable between you and Kaga. And besides, not a lot of people outside of us bird-carriers know about your crush, which means that you don't have to reveal your crush to anyone who doesn't already know about it. But then, I really hope that you have someone on our little Team Cupid other than a drunkard of a light carrier that has no experience in love or other related matters."
Zuikaku huffed, revealing the carriers whom she was going to recruit and the reason why she couldn't ask the other carriers for help.
"Akagi-san and Shoukaku-nee are naturally on the planning committee as well as you, Soryu, Hiryu and Chitose-san.
I wanted to get everyone's help to ensure the highest chance of success. Amagi-san and Houshou-san both admitted to being rather archaic when it comes to matters like love and were unable to help in planning, but expressed interest in helping out in other ways. Shouhou is out on a sortie while Zuihou and Ryuujou admitted about being rather uninformed about such matters, and Unryuu, no matter how thoughtful she can be, is still rather air-headed and also uninformed about such things, even less so than the light carriers. Together, I suppose we can form some of planning committee for the 'date' of sorts…"
Junyou resumed her shower, the water running again as the light carrier picked up on the tone of the carrier that belied her seemingly low confidence in her own ability to win over the heart of the Kaga-Class carrier.
"Going by your tone, I'm guessing that you don't have much confidence in yourself and the date despite having an entire team of carriers and light carriers supporting you. And I'm warning you, that sounds a lot like the attitude of a defeatist, and almost like you're setting yourself up for failure."
Hiei quietly breathed in as she was still sound asleep, Zuikaku shooting her a look and making sure that she was indeed asleep before continuing, looking down at her feet in uncertainty.
"Well, it's just that I can't tell what Kaga-san is thinking, since her expression is almost always set to default 'stone-cold hit-man'. I can't tell if she's happy, sad, interested in me, or really just views me as a nuisance by her comments. And if this plan to get into a relationship does work, I can't help but worry if I can understand her well enough to know what she's feeling if she's the kind to always put on a poker face."
But Junyou was quick to rebut with a point of her own, pointing out.
"But Akagi can help you with that, right?
Being the one who spends the most amount of time with Kaga, she'd know how Kaga would behave and can teach you to look out for cues to clue you in on Kaga's emotions. Add Soryu and Hiryu into the mix, both of them close friends and former students of Kaga, and you've got yourself a pretty solid team that can tell you what you need to know about Kaga, so why worry?"
Zuikaku narrowed her eyes tiredly, exhaling through her slight smile as she took comfort in Junyou's reassuring words, nodding.
"I suppose you're right."
"Well, then. Where're we going to meet the rest of the gang to plan out your step-by-step relationship plans?"
Zuikaku shifted about, scratching her cheek abashedly.
"Well, about that…"