艦これ#Iowa & Warspite
When Iowa went back to her room, she saw Warspite knitting on the sofa.
It was late August and the high temperature outside made her sweat constantly. As for her wife who was sitting on the sofa and enjoying the comfortable breeze from the air conditioner, she was busy knitting a sweater.
Iowa thought what Warspite was doing was out of season, "Won’t it be too early to prepare the Christmas sweaters?”
“I don’t think so. Javelin and Rodney will join us soon, this winter will be very busy.”
Warspite mentally counted the number of people.
There would be nine British Ships in the base this winter and even though she could finish two sweaters in a month, she still needed to continue knitting until December.
“Aw, that sounds great.” Iowa said with a warm smile as she went into the bathroom, took a towel and wiped the sweat away.
“A busy winter sounds great?” Warspite asked.
“I mean, you won’t feel lonely anymore.”
Warspite stopped knitting in confusion, “Do I look lonely?”
She was the first British ship in this base, but she never realized she was lonely.
“You used to drink tea by yourself in the lounge, do you remember that? When I saw you, I always felt that you were lonely.”
"Ah, so you asked me to make tea for you..."
Warspite suddenly realized the reason now.
Few years ago, when this American ship who was always drinking coke asked her for tea, she thought Iowa was trying to play a trick on her.
“Time flies, we have been here for a long long time.” Iowa said.
It has been many years since she came here and at first, she was the only one, and then, many American ships joined her.
This made her happy and she knew Warspite would have the same feeling as her.
“Don’t worry about it, Iowa, you will always be the youngest one of us.”
Wondering if Iowa was worried about her age, Warspite tried to comfort her.
But she soon realized that something was wrong when Iowa started to read out their birthday, and counted their ages on her fingers.
“Well, a eighty-one year old young grandma? And you are one hundred and—”
Warspite picked up a ball of wool and threw it at Iowa to get her to stop what she was going to say, "Stop talking about it, or I will take off the stars on your sweater.”
Unfortunately she failed since the young American battleship easily caught it with one hand.
“I’m just kidding." Iowa said with a smile, "And it doesn’t matter, I’ll always love you no matter how old you are!"
She put the ball of wool back onto the sofa, then gave a kiss to Warspite.
"You are far too good at this, Iowa."
Warspite felt that Iowa was too skilled at calming and coaxing her in every way.
"That’s because you love it, I’ll do it for you.”
The smooth talker sat down on the sofa, holding her British battleship in her arms.
Warspite put the unfinished sweater in her hands down as she knew she couldn’t knit it anymore tonight.
“All right. What color do you want for your sweater?"
“Well, if you asked me five years ago, I'd probably tell you I want navy with white decoration.” Iowa whispered, putting her palms on Warspite’s cheeks.
“What about now?” Warspite asked as she held her breath.
The smell of Iowa almost made her lose control and she wanted to hear the answer before something happened.
Iowa touched the eyebrow of her British battleship, “This is my favorite blue now. The blue in your eyes, is that okay?”
“Sure.”
Actually, Warspite didn’t think it was a suitable color for the one whose clothes were often stained by beer or coke, but she would knit a new sweater for Iowa every year, so it doesn’t really matter.
She could make Iowa be her color, forever and ever.
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「現在就開始準備聖誕毛衣不會太早了嗎？」愛荷華滿頭大汗地回到房間，發現沃絲派特悠哉地坐在沙發上，一邊吹冷氣一邊打毛線。
「不會啊，Javelin和Rodney都要來了，今年冬天會很忙呢！」沃絲派特在腦中快速計算，以英國艦目前的人數來看，就算她半個月能打好一件毛衣，恐怕還是要一路忙到聖誕節了。
「太好了呢。」愛荷華笑了起來，到浴室洗了條毛巾把自己身上的汗水擦乾。
「嗯？」
「這樣妳就不會寂寞了啊。」
「我看起來很寂寞嗎？」沃絲派特困惑地停下手，她的確是第一個來到這裡的英國艦，但她可不記得自己有因此顯露過這種情緒。
「妳以前不是很常自己坐在交誼廳喝茶嗎？我每次都覺得妳看起來好像很寂寞。」
「啊，所以妳才問我能不能泡茶給妳喝？」沃絲派特恍然大悟，把可樂當水喝的美國戰艦忽然向她討紅茶那時，她還一度以為對方是想嘲弄自己。
「可能吧，沒想到時間過得這麼快，我們現在已經是這個鎮守府的元老級戰艦啦。」愛荷華感慨地說，她來到這裡也過了好幾年，美國艦的歡迎會一次比一次熱鬧，或許再過不久她們就得去借最大間的會議室才能容納所有人了。
「別擔心，用下水日來算的話，妳永遠都是最年輕的那一個。」沃絲派特本來想安慰愛荷華，沒想到對方卻唸出她們下水的年份，還舉起手指開始計算。
「81歲的年輕老奶奶？這樣的話妳就是一百一十──」
「Stop！不准算，不然我就把妳毛衣上的星星拆掉！」沃絲派特撈起一捲毛線扔向愛荷華，被年輕的美國戰艦用一隻手輕鬆接住。
「Just kidding. 不管妳幾歲我都很愛妳啊，有什麼關係。」愛荷華笑嘻嘻地說，把那捲毛線放回沙發，順道給了沃絲派特一個吻。
「哼，就妳最會說。」
「誰叫妳喜歡聽，我當然要說啊。」油嘴滑舌的美國戰艦擠進沙發，摟住了她的英國戰艦。
「那妳的毛衣要什麼顏色？」沃絲派特把手裡的半成品放到一旁，曉得自己今晚沒辦法再有任何進度了。
「如果妳是在五年前問我，我會說我想要海軍藍，最好還要有白色的襯線。」愛荷華輕聲說著，大手貼上了沃絲派特的臉頰。
「那現在呢？」沃絲派特屏住呼吸，愛荷華身上的氣味令她近乎淪陷，她想在那之前記下對方的答案。
「我現在最喜歡的藍色是這種，」愛荷華用拇指撫過英國戰艦的眉梢，「妳眼睛的這種藍，可以嗎？」
「Sure.」沃絲派特本來想告訴愛荷華，這顏色對太常把可樂或啤酒沾到身上的人來說實在不太適合，但有什麼關係呢？反正她每年都會送她一件毛衣，她可以永遠永遠，讓這個人一直都是她的顏色。
〈完〉
日常放閃的戰艦美英組，是在畫這張圖之前寫的小段子
因為這個小短篇，活動期間撈到了Javelin，可喜可賀
英文版由Pinx協助修正，她替這張圖寫了後續的小故事
Thank Pinx for helping me to edit the English version, and here is a small piece written by Pinx for this drawing.
The Colour Of Her
