I put on my dress uniform and got ready for the party. I’d been able to nap a little after the shift was done so I’d regained quite a bit of energy.

When I left my cabin I almost ran into the Commander, but she managed to jump out of the way right in time. She had apparently been trying to fix her beret just when I walked out.

“Hey there, Luna. You’re looking good today.” She smiled, even though she’d seen me in my dress uniform before.

I shook my head, trying to hold back a blush. “Do you need help with that?”

“If you would. I’ve been trying to get it right but for some reason I just can’t, even with a mirror.” She handed her beret over to me.

“Can you bend your knees a little.”

“Sure thing.” She bent her knees a bit so I could reach her head a little bit better. It took me just thirty seconds to put on her beret just right.

“There you go… Lauren.”

“Thanks a lot.” She smiled and got up again. “Tying a tie is way easier.” She waited for me to step along with her towards our destination.

“Don’t we just have clip-ons?”

“Yeah, that’s the point.” She laughed.

Her humor was so dry… but I couldn’t help but giggle a little.

We arrived at the officer lounge and found Doctor Winter standing at the bar, talking with Ensign Yuigahama, both of them in their dress uniforms as well.

“Look who we have here.” Eva immediately noticed us as we walked in. The talk we had recently was still incredibly fresh in my mind, so it did make me quite a bit more on-guard around her.

“The guests will be arriving shortly.” Yuki smiled.

“Is Gunny going to come later?” Lauren asked.

“Probably.” Eva nodded. “He’s going to start the party with the marines first, if I had to guess.”

“Mhmm.” Lauren nodded as well. “We should not forget to show our faces there as well, Luna. That’d look pretty bad.”

“I don’t think she’s the one who will need reminding, Lauren.” Eva winked. “Just try to stay off the alcohol for a bit.” Having said that, Eva handed over a glass of soda to Lauren, who didn’t look terribly pleased but drank from it nonetheless. “Just moderate it a little.”

“I will.” Lauren nodded and took a small cocktail sausage from nearby, dipped it in some ketchup and ate it whole.

“Ah, looks like I’m the first one here.” A male voice came from behind.

“Oh, Goddess, not that guy…” Lauren’s face immediately soured, but she put on a smile when she turned around. “Ah, Grayson. I was already fearing you might not come.”

“I wouldn’t want to miss this party for the life of me, Commander.” Grayson smirked. “Hey, but call me Mike, we are amongst friends here, aren’t we?”

“I’ll think about that, Lieutenant.” Lauren definitely went more formal purely out of spite. But it looked like Grayson had fun yanking the Commander’s chain.

Eva chuckled, while Yuki just looked on in relative shock.

“Do you want something to drink, Luna?” Eva asked while Grayson and Lauren were still at each other's throats.

“Just a bit of lemonade, please.” I nodded.

“Alright.” She smiled, quickly walked behind the counter and got me a glass.

“Thank you.”

In the meantime, more people had started to arrive like Lieutenant Zu and McAllister. They came to say hi to us before heading to the corner of the room to take up a seat together. And a couple of minutes later when some other scientists arrived, the Commander and Grayson finally stopped their little fight as Grayson joined them instead.

“You really don’t like that person, Commander?” Yuki asked.

Lauren sighed. “The guy is brilliant, but such a pain in the ass. I’ve not liked him from the moment they introduced him to me six months ago.” She took her glass of soda back up and drank from it. “Can’t I just add a little bit of rum to this?”

“Not yet.” Eva smiled and put her hand on Lauren’s shoulder.

“Spoilsport.” Lauren chuckled and emptied her glass.

Over the course of the next half hour, most of the party goers had arrived, including some of the Dokazuuk. Most of them stayed at the sidelines, eating the food that was familiar to them, although the most daring amongst them did try to participate in some of the simpler party games. Lauren started playing with them and dragging them along the room as well. I think she was doing a pretty good job at making them feel part of the whole party.

Another hour later, Lauren came to me. “Now that everything is going well here, want to go and check the other party site with me?”

“Sure.” I nodded. And together we left the room.

“We’ll be right back.” The Commander called out to Yuki and Eva, the latter of which gave us a thumbs up.

A short trip through the ship later we arrived at the party where the biggest part of the NCO’s and privates were having their party. It was definitely a lot ‘wilder’ than the one we were holding in the officer lounge. A lot more dancing was going on and while that was happening another group was doing this strange game with a horizontal bar.

“What are they doing?” I asked the Commander.

“That?” She had to come close to me to be able to talk over the music. She pointed towards the bar.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“It’s a dance called ‘Limbo’. Don’t you know it?”

“It wasn’t really a thing where I lived…”

“Right.” Lauren gave me yet another nod. “The purpose is that you need to dance under the bar, without having it drop. Every time everyone has passed underneath, they will lower the bar.”

“Isn’t it hard?”

“Oh yeah, I completely suck at it.” She laughed. “Want to give it a try?”

“I’m not sure…”

“C’mon, it’ll be fun!” She signaled me along.

A couple of the marines who had been standing near the limbo dance had also noticed us and waved me over too. “Hey XO! Join us!”

“Alright then.” I hesitantly agreed.

The marines reset the height of the pole so we could start from the beginning. At the start we could basically just walk underneath the pole without any issues. Although some people did say I had to loosen up a little bit more and actually dance a bit.

As the dance went on, the pole came down lower and lower. To my big surprise I wasn’t even the first one to get eliminated from the game. That honor went to Corporal Jones who slipped and fell on her but.

“Ouch, better luck next time, Corporal.” The Commander laughed and pulled Jones up with her arm.

“Thanks ma’am.”

Lauren then proceeded to get under the bar quite easily. I just mimicked what she did and got underneath it too.

The bar continued lowering.

Lauren stood in front of it as it was her turn, but she shook her head. “No way I can get under that.”

“Try it, Commander!” The soldiers around us started cheering her on even louder.

“Alright, alright.” She chuckled and gave her beret to me. “Here, can you hold on to this for me?”

I nodded. “Definitely.”

She then started dancing and got really low, but sadly for her, not low enough as she touched the bar and it fell off.

“Almost.” Lauren smiled and came over to me to reclaim her beret. In the meantime the others put the pole back where it should be. “Let’s see how low you can go.”

I gave her beret back and gave her yet another nod. After which I tried my luck at this weird, yet strangely, fun ritual. But it also proved to be too low for me.

“Ah, good try though, especially for your first time.” The Commander offered me a hand as well to pull me off the floor. I gladly accepted.

“Thank you.”

“Woohoo! Go XO!” The marines cheered me on, even though I lost.

“It was really fun, guys. But I think it’s time for us to go back now.” Lauren told the excited party-goers.

“Already?” It was Gunny’s voice that came from the crowd behind us.

“Gunny? You were here?” Lauren’s face brightened up even more. “Why didn’t you join us.”

“It was more fun watching you all enjoy yourselves.” Gunny smiled and gave a glass of beer to the Commander.

“Ey, thanks, you always think of me, don’t you.” Lauren smiled brightly and took a sip from the glass of beer.

“And a soda for the LC.” Gunny handed me a glass of cola.

“Thank you.”

“Looks like everyone’s been enjoying the party.” The Commander looked around while talking to Gunny.

“Everyone is incredibly happy with it. Tensions were running a bit high so this is definitely what we needed.”

The Commander nodded.

“I hope you two are enjoying yourselves as well. You’ve both worked really hard too.”

“Definitely.” Lauren nodded once more. “You too, right, Luna?”

“Mhmm. It’s been fun.”

“Good. Make sure that you take plenty of time for yourselves.” Gunnery Sergeant Taylor said.

“We definitely will.” Lauren replied, I just nodded along with a slight blush on my face.