Hiei was wearing her exercise outfit which consisted of a singlet with her name, 比叡, on it along with exercise shorts and shoes, and she was heaving as she utilized her arms to perform pull-ups at the pull-up station while Kongou watched on silently from a bench, observing Hiei's exercise regime during her break.
They were at the indoor exercise grounds which was situated inland in order to protect its users from the elements, its thick roof providing its occupants protection from rain or shine.
Normally, Hiei would do this in order to impress Kongou whenever her elder sister observed her training sessions, but she surprised herself today by only focusing on improving herself for the sake of her teammates in order to protect them from whatever the Abyssals threw at them next.
Eventually, Hiei heard Kongou tell her something, pausing as she felt buckets of sweat trickle down her skin, her singlet clinging to her body and making it rather form-fitting as a result, but she ignored all these as Kongou left her seat and approached her with a towel and a water bottle in hand.
"Hiei. Let's take a break, you've been exercising for an hour straight."
Hiei thought about rejecting her sister's suggestion, but eventually acquiesced upon feeling her muscles burn up as she let go of her grip on the handlebar before nodding towards her sister, her short hair shaking wildly since she wasn't wearing her headdress and caused drops of sweat to hit the floor as she met her sister halfway.
"Yes, Onee-sama."
She gratefully accepted both the bottle of water and the towel as she wiped the sweat from her face, gulping down the cool water as she felt the soreness in her muscles become apparent after exerting herself for so long without activating her ship girl mode.
It was equally difficult for her to exercise with her ship girl mode on, but since her weight would increase drastically upon activating her ship girl mode, it would require a stronger pull-up station in order to support her weight, and that would require more resources to create them, resources they couldn't afford to spare.
She could hear Kongou's voice as she rubbed her face with her towel, Kongou sounding rather subdued since Hiei knew that her sister was energetic and spontaneous, but was also capable of being elegant and ladylike since she was created in Britain before being sent to Japan, and even insightful and profound in rare instances when she allowed herself to ponder about their true nature and their ultimate purpose in life.
"Let's sit down, Hiei. I want to talk to you about something."
Hiei nodded acceptingly, the two Kongou Sisters walking over to the bench as they sat themselves down, Hiei watching Kongou's face intently as she waited for her sister to begin the conversation, and Kongou didn't disappoint as she began.
"Hiei, I want you to know that I love you."
Hiei blinked as she processed her sister's words, before focusing her gaze on her sister and asking her to either repeat herself or elaborate on her words.
"I-I'm sorry, Onee-sama. I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean. Would you mind either repeating or explaining yourself?"
Kongou's smile stretched upon hearing that, and Hiei was slowly starting to piece things together in her mind as her heart sank, Kongou choosing to elaborate as she leaned in to make herself heard.
"Hiei, I stand by what I said, because if there's one thing I want you to take away from this conversation, it's that I will love you forever, because you are my sister, desu. I wish to talk to you about your love for me. The romantic kind."
Hiei swallowed the lump in her throat, looking away and suddenly feeling rather self-conscious about the sheen of sweat on her skin and her less-than-presentable state right now as her cheeks colored, stuttering in embarrassment.
"I-I don't know what you mean, Onee-sama."
While inwardly cursing, her thoughts running through her mind in a frenzy as she wondered about how Kongou found out about her romantic love for her own sister.
Damn. I thought I hid my love from Onee-sama well enough, so how…?
But her attention was drawn to Kongou's soft chuckle, and this wasn't the usual kind of hyperactive or lady-esque laugh which she was accustomed to, but was the kind which an adult would use in order to express their mirth when dealing with children and being amused by their antics, making Kongou sound her age since she was one of the oldest ship girls of World War 2.
"Oh, Hiei. I've noticed the way you look at me when you thought I wasn't looking, longing for me to return your love, yet understanding that my love for Admiral Haru is genuine and respecting my feelings. And for that, I thank you."
Kongou then scooted over in order to hug Hiei tightly, surprising her as she didn't want to blemish her sister's perfection in any way, gently attempting to pry herself away from Kongou as she exclaimed softly, "O-Onee-sama?! I'm still sweaty!"
But Kongou persisted, the headstrong personalities of both sisters surfacing as Hiei strangely found herself trying to get out of her sister's embrace while Kongou was equally obstinate in being close to her as she tightened her hug, Hiei eventually losing her balance as she called out upon feeling their center of gravity shift once Kongou leaned on her.
"Onee-sama. I'm losing my balance…"
As they both tumbled onto the floor, Hiei feeling a strong sense of deja-vu as Kongou was lying atop her and almost looked as if she tackled Hiei to the floor, what with her arms wrapped around her suggestively as Kongou's face was pressed into Hiei's bosom.
The both of them blushed in unison, separating themselves from each other and furiously patting themselves down as Hiei sat herself down in a seiza position, while Kongou chose to seat herself down in a ladylike manner as she folded her legs with her right leg underneath her left thigh and her left leg sticking out to the left.
A pregnant pause hung over them for a while, the two of them choosing to use this time to cool down and compose themselves before pretending that the previous incident never happened, Kongou glossing over that incident awkwardly as she continued, the both of them staring straight forward with straightened backs and flushed cheeks as they conversed, unable to meet each other's gaze lest they be reminded of that unintentionally intimate moment.
"A-Anyway. As I said, Hiei. I want to thank you for understanding."
Hiei's gaze lowered as her expression drooped, since deep down, she already knew that things would eventually come to this as she understood the relationship between Admiral Haru, Kongou and herself.
She had always tried her best not to interfere with Kongou's relationship with Admiral Haru, but she knew that she always wanted to believe that she had a chance to win Kongou's heart by sweeping her Onee-sama off her feet with her charm.
But reality set in as she slowly realized that this was no different from a child's wish upon a shooting star, and Kongou's Burning Love for their Admiral was romantic, while her love for Hiei was sisterly love.
Kongou continued, both of them looking away as they found that this was the best way to share their true feelings with each other, and Hiei could hear the regret in her sister's voice for not being able to reciprocate her romantic feelings.
"I'd like to take this time to talk to you about our relationship, and how I'm sorry I can't love you in a romantic sense. I'm sorry."
Hiei closed her eyes, already expecting this ever since Kongou announced her relationship with Admiral Haru, and while she was genuinely happy that her sister was able to find happiness with someone who truly loved her, she knew that in terms of romance, Hiei never stood a chance.
"I've always known that you loved me as more than a sister, and even though I wished to share my love with you and Admiral Haru much like how Admiral Haru loves so many ship girls at once, I want to be honest with you, Hiei. You're my sister, and I don't wish to lead you on by keeping our relationship vague and not addressing your romantic love for me despite being your elder sister."
Kongou was now addressing her as an equal, and was now acting in such a mature manner, Hiei barely registered the fact that Kongou had dropped her "desu" verbal tic in order to get her point across without destroying the mood.
"Hiei, you've been around for a while now, and I can see it in your eyes that you're working hard to protect your fleet, instead of trying to impress me like you always did in previous training sessions."
Hiei choked on her own spit upon hearing that, coughing into her fist as Kongou giggled and waited for her to catch her breath and clear her throat before speaking again.
"I always noted that you pushed yourself even harder while in my presence, and I remained silent in regards to your admittedly adorable attempts to impress me. But today, I could feel that even though I was here, I was simply an afterthought in your mind as you focused on your fleet while you strove to improve yourself. And don't get me wrong, I'm actually happy that this was the case…"
Hiei turned to face Kongou as she feared that Kongou would be miffed after realizing that she was ignored, but Kongou's face was instead glad, almost proud of her, the words coming out of her mouth matching her expression as she continued.
"I was always afraid that I would be the center of your universe forever, and that would mean that no one else would matter as much as I did to you. But you now have stronger enemies to face, and other ship girls whom you want to protect. I could see it in your eyes that you were thinking of protecting the 1st Fleet and us, the Kongou Sisters in that order, right?"
Hiei nodded, unsure of how she was to feel about putting her teammates before her sisters, but Kongou sounded approving of this as she elaborated on how a Kongou-Class battleship should be like.
"That's great. I daresay that from now on, when you reunite with your fleet when you've fully recovered, you will likely spend more time with them than with us, and you may be understandably worried about being more concerned about them than about us, but that's to be expected. We're the Kongou Sisters, and you can depend on us to take care of ourselves. But the 1st Fleet is newly formed in comparison to the other established fleets, and it's natural for you to worry about them."
Hiei exhaled upon agreeing with Kongou's perspective, and realized that while she could depend on her sisters to defend themselves in times of crises, she was hesitant to say the same for the 1st Fleet, even though they had a lot of potential and could do so much better given enough time and effort.
The downside was that they were still inexperienced, and she knew that she had to become stronger in order to protect them from the Abyssals, without suffocating them with her protectiveness and allowing them to develop their abilities on their own and learn to trust them like she did her sisters.
But Hiei and Kongou had to settle the last thing which tied them to the past, in order for her to focus on the future while fully understanding where she stood in regards to her teammates and sisters.
Hiei closed her eyes, inhaling deeply and centering herself in her mind in order to sort out her thoughts before opening her eyes in order to look forward, speaking from the heart about how she felt about this.
"I will admit, Onee-sama. I've been dreading this conversation back in the day, shortly after your announcement regarding your relationship with the Admiral and before the formation of my fleet. And back then, I always hoped that this illusion of me convincing myself that I could win your heart back would last forever, and I wanted to become stronger in order to make it a reality. But looking back at the past me, I suppose I was like a child receiving Christmas presents and believed that Santa existed, but I then hit a certain age where I slowly began to suspect that Santa didn't really exist, but secretly wanted to believe in it for a little longer before reality set in."
Kongou snickered upon hearing her analogy, but Hiei couldn't help but also smile after hearing her sister's amused giggle, trying to remark in a serious tone about how apt the analogy really was.
"It's true, Onee-sama. As hopeless as it seemed for a fairy tale to come true, I wanted to indulge myself for a little while longer and pine for your affections from the sidelines. But I understand that by stating that your love for me will likely never become romantic, I suppose it hurts, but…"
Hiei exhaled again, her heart hurting a little, but not exactly the kind of pain which dug at her heart and made her feel bitter at the world.
It was the kind of pain which accompanied awaking from a pleasant dream, and finding that reality just wasn't the same as your dream-world, no matter how hard you worked to make that dream a reality.
And it was because deep down, you always knew that the dream was impossibly sweet such that when you realize that it will never come true, it temporarily leaves a sour taste in her heart.
"Well, it's not just pain. I also feel disappointed, like I could have done something different to win your heart. But I suppose that was the point."
Hiei turned to look at her sister, realization dawning upon her as her expression softened and she expressed her understanding of Kongou's reasons behind talking to her right now.
"I suppose if you never explicitly state that your love for me will only be sisterly, I would have maintained this wishful thinking in the back of my mind until the end of time. And even though I'm disappointed, I suppose it's the answer I deserved to hear all this time."
Kongou's eyes widened, before closing as she nodded slowly while speaking in a grateful tone, looking extremely glad that this conversation went rather well.
"I'm glad, Hiei. I did this because I didn't want to hurt you any more than necessary, and even though I am your elder sister, Hiei, I must thank you for being so understanding, desu."
She bowed towards Hiei while still seated, causing Hiei to become rather embarrassed at how her sister was expressing her gratitude in a manner which Hiei rarely saw outside of a handful of people who had done everything to deserve such a genuine expression of thanks.
But Kongou's expression drooped again, looking forward as she shared with Hiei how everything was going down the crapper with the Battle of Sagami-nada Sea coming up at roughly the end of May, and anything ahead of that was an incoming storm which they had almost no way of predicting what would come next.
"I'm glad that you're training so hard, because I've heard things about the Abyssals, and all of them unsettle me, Hiei. The Battle of Sagami-nada Sea is just the beginning, since I understand that The Flying Dutchman destroyed your fleet…"
Hiei's eyes widened slightly as she felt a chill run down her spine upon remembering how the Abyssal aviation battleship destroyed them at Mikura Jima Island.
And even though she hunched a little and brought her shoulders in due to fright, she found that Kongou leaned on her in order to provide some warmth so that she wouldn't feel alone, Hiei reluctantly allowing her elder sister to do so since she was still sweating a little.
Kongou continued,
" … but I'm glad that you're using this experience to fuel your desire to become stronger, because I think that whatever's coming next certainly requires us to become stronger if we're to even survive, desu. And that uncertainty is part of the reason why I wanted to talk to you today."
Hiei lowered her gaze as she now understood why her sister wanted to talk to her about her unresolved feelings regarding Kongou, since they may never get the chance to do so when shit hit the fan and they were too busy dealing with the Abyssals to be able to talk like this again.
Kongou's hair tickled Hiei's drying skin as she rested her head on her bare shoulder, Hiei hearing the tiredness in her sister's voice after worrying about and preparing for what was to come, remarking.
"I can't guarantee that I can protect you or get the chance to talk to you like this again, Hiei. But I want you to know that no matter what happens, I love you anyway, desu."
Hiei stayed silent, but deeply appreciated how her sister went so far to take the initiative to talk to her about her feelings, since she wanted Hiei to focus all of her attention on what was important and not be distracted by the small details.
She didn't want to disappoint her sisters, but more importantly for her, she also didn't want to disappoint the 1st Fleet, a second wind stirring within her to motivate her to do better.