Sleepover

                                    

                                          
Hey hey, I'm back from my holidays, and ready to get back to work! Unfortunately, this here story is reaching its end (more or less), but do not fret, since I have a sequel planned, hehehe...
I hope you enjoy!




                          
"Shigure Michael, step forward." 
                          
To Michael, that call came very unexpected. He took a few seconds to process the fact that Maho was actually talking to him. Only when Ren nudged him in the side did he wake up and step forward, curious as to why he'd been summoned.
                          
"In Kuromorimine we have a strong belief in meritocracy. Your performance has always been outstanding, even from your first days here. Is there anybody who thinks Shigure Michael is not a good Commander?" 
                          
Silence. 
                          
"Good. Then you will have the choice to make an "upgrade", let's say. You deserved to get rid of your relatively weak Panzer IV and move on to something more powerful." 
                          
Michael, upon hearing the word "upgrade", widened his eyes and stood straight. He was very interested. And he would have loved to get rid of his Panzer IV, even if he'd had the time of his life in it.
                          
"Your choices are as follows: you can have a Panther or a tank destroyer." Maho explained. 
                          
"Kommandant, I'd like the Panther." Michael answered, without thinking about it for a second. He could have chosen a tank destroyer, and that would have, in truth, been his first choice, but first of all he would have loved to have some fun in one of the German big cats.
                          
"Good. The tank is ready in the shed. You do need to repaint it, so I'd suggest you get started if you want to finish soon enough."  
                          
Michael, still a bit incredulous, nodded and thanked Maho profusely, then he took his crew members to the shed. When the 5 got there, they found their new tank ready to be painted. It just sat there, the hull and turret colored with an old and rusty tint of grey. The 5 also found different cans of paint to work with. They started by going to the Panzer IV and taking the flag and bushes they'd used. As they took a look around, they found a lot of spare track links laying around, and decided to keep them to use them as extra armor once the paint would have dried. They spent the whole day painting their new tank: in the end, they chose a light brown and green waves pattern. The platoon number was still red, but it was on the hatch in the back of the turret, and it was pretty small: R19. 
                          
They all waited for the pain to dry patiently, and eventually fell asleep. In the morning, as the paint dried, they stuck the extra tracks all around the turret of the tank, except for the back hatch, and they also put some extra ones on the front armor plate. They then nailed Kuromorimine's flag on the roof and took a look at their work.
                          
"It looks so damn cool…" Michael muttered. He was regretting not having chosen a Panther from the start. After a nice chat with his friends, he excused himself to go and take a walk around the area. He needed some time to think on his own, and to stretch his legs as well.
                          
Exiting the zone of Kuromorimine's HQ, he finally set his eyes up at the sky and saw it was completely covered by dark and thick clouds: he obviously did two plus two and figured it would rain soon. 
                          
At some point, as he was happily walking around, hands in his pockets and not thinking about his problems, he ran into Miho. She noticed him and stopped, not wanting their eyes to meet. 
                          
"Miho? Are you okay?" Michael asked, not getting any kind of answer. He was starting to feel fed up with her recent behavior, not because it made him angry, but because she didn't look like she wanted to be helped.
                          
"Yes, I'm fine." Miho replied, her voice emptied of any feelings. Hearing her speaking in such a way felt like a stab to the heart for Michael, who was used to the happy and playful side of Miho.