Finding Peace After War

It was late April 2002 when the ship pulled in and it marked the end of Amanda's first tour. She was glad to be back in San Diego, but she had lots of fond memories of this trip and what it would mean for the rest of her life. She packed a backpack with a few items as she planned on staying at a hotel for the next two weeks, except for when she would have duty. She, like the rest of the females in berthing, changed from their uniforms and put on civilian clothes to go out on liberty.

Some of the girls were going on leave so they had more to pack and were taking up a lot of passageway space so Amanda had to stay towards the back of the group, but still managed to make do with the girls talking about what they were going to do while on leave or just their days of liberty. Amanda knew only what she was going to do with today and then play it by ear for the next couple after that as she would have to come back to the ship for duty.

"Amanda, what are you doing today?" asked one of Amanda's new friends.

"Oh, Melody, I'm just going to go to my room and finally get some rest instead of having to worry about watch or equipment breaking down. Yourself?"

"I'm going home, hit up a few clubs. I had fun overseas, but I'll be glad to be back home. There are some good men there."

"I'm sure there are."

Amanda had first met Melody before hitting Hong Kong. They were acquaintances in berthing, but thought it would be okay to get a two bedroom suite. Then she knew Melody only as CS2 Byers but really wanted to know the young woman better so that she could have a friend on the ship and not just shipmates. She hoped that once this month was over that the two of them could hit the town together and who knows maybe even become roommates.

"Liberty call," a male voice said over the intercom system and the girls stampede through the door and head up the two flights of stairs. On the second deck, some of the males start to head out too, making it harder for them all to start their trip up to the quarterdeck. Amanda was worried about the items in her pack getting smashed or broken, but all she knew was that she had to get off this ship as soon as possible.

When she got up to the main level she watched as one by one the officer of the deck saluted each member of the crew to go ashore and knew that soon it would be her turn. She took her pack off to reach into the smaller pouch to get her wallet out so she wouldn't have to fish it out when it was her turn to request permission.

She stopped and saluted the flag and then turned to the officer of the deck, whom she recognized as a chief from some other division. "Permission to go ashore?" she asked as she held up her ID.

"Permission granted," he said, returning both of her salutes.

As she crossed the gangplank she had a huge smile on her face and remembered the day that she signed up for that hotel room with Melody. It was, after all, that day that brought this current excitement to her now and ultimately led to her to her purchase. Her car was still back home in Arizona, so she would have to rely on public transportation until she went home in a couple of weeks. There was a trolley station just outside the gate, so she was glad that soon she'd be able to sit down as it was a long walk from the pier to the gate.

When she got to the station, she saw people not just from her ship, but from others as well. She looked around at them all, especially the men as she liked to look at them and maybe use them in her fantasies later. She sat down and placed her backpack next to her and waited for the trolley. Butterflies filled her stomach as she waited for the red trolley to show up. She didn't know why she was nervous as it wasn't like she was meeting someone or going to a shady part of San Diego; she was just going to go to a hotel room by herself for the next couple of days.

Two guys came towards her. She recognized one of them from her division, but the other guy she didn't know.

"Hey there, ET3 Prescott, I'd like you to meet my friend Ryan. He and I went to school together."

She reached her hand out. "It's Amanda. Nice to meet you, Ryan." She looked both men over. She knew ET2 Thornton already and has thought of him multiple times while in the shower or in her rack, but she'd never let him know that. ET2, or how his friends called him Aaron, had short blonde hair and deep blue eyes. He liked to work out on the weight deck and loved to wear shorts and tank tops while he did so, allowing his muscular body to be seen by any who walked by. Amanda would sometimes just make trips across the weight deck just to watch him lift weights. Ryan on the other hand looked like he hit the weight deck as well, but he had his form well-concealed by his jeans and long-sleeved shirt. She admired Ryan's brown eyes and dark hair. She had short black hair too, only hers was able to go a bit longer than Ryan's. "Well, I'm glad to see that it's possible to keep friends here as long as you two have."

"Yeah, it's possible. Didn't you make friends on this last pac?"

"Yeah, but I'm guessing she's on a flight right now going to Michigan."

"Where you heading?" Aaron asked.

"I'm going to a hotel."

"Yeah, Ryan and I are just going to get our cars out of the storage and then get to our apartment."

"You guys roommates?"

"Yeah, and we make good money since we both get BAH. You should come by sometime when we have divisional barbecues."

"I'd like that." She smiled.

The trolley showed up and everyone boarded it. Amanda was lucky to have a seat on the trolley as her trip would be a long one. After talking with the two men, her nerves calmed down a bit, even though she knew there was nothing to be nervous about. Ryan and Aaron got off after a couple of stops. Her mind began to wonder about what she'd like those two men to do to her.

Amanda was just 22 years old and lived with her mom in Arizona. She loved life there and had a few boyfriends during her time there as well. Then she'd gotten this call for adventure and decided to join the United States Navy, see the world and expand her horizons. After just one tour she already felt that her life was changing from the woman she had been in Arizona. She'd been to other states, and countries. She'd tried new foods and knew that when she got back to Arizona she'd definitely see the world a little differently than she had before she joined. She'd also felt her sexuality change too over these past couple of years too. When she was 19 she'd lost her virginity to a farmhand that worked a farm next door to her home. Amanda had watched him all that summer and fantasized about him. She'd even talked and gotten to know him better when she'd sit in his car and drink a soda. He'd been closer to her than any boyfriend she'd had before or since. Before his time on the farm was done, she had invited him to her room where they kissed and had sex. It was exactly the way she'd always imagined her first time being, as well as every other time after that. But after joining the Navy she had heard so much more about costumes, role-play, and more. These new things began to fill her fantasies as well and her time thinking of Jerry the farmhand changed as well, as she was sure he wouldn't be into the things she was finding that she was into. It wasn't like either of them expected that relationship to last, and by the next summer he'd already had another girl. She didn't become a total slut because of this. She still wanted to be in a relationship before she'd have sex, until then it was just fantasy.

The trolley showed up at her stop, announcing Rio Vista as she pushed the button to open the doors. She put her pack on her back as she stepped out onto the platform and began her short trek to her room. Since she was thinking of Jerry, she thought about how much like Ryan he looked. Both of them had tan skin and dark hair and eyes. Maybe she had a type, but she was also attracted to Aaron. She gave a sigh as she remembered the first time she saw Aaron.

She arrived at her hotel's front desk. "You have a reservation for Prescott?"

The woman behind the desk typed in a few things at her keyboard. "Yes, you'll be in room 303," she said, passing a key card to Amanda. "Just take the elevator to my right and go up to the third floor. It will be the quickest route."

Amanda followed the woman's instructions and followed the sign to room 303. She slid her card in the slot and turned the handle to open the door. The room was nothing fancy: a full sized bed to her left and a dresser with a mirror to her right. A TV sat next to the dresser and there were nightstands on both sides of the bed, complete with lamps. The bathroom had white tile and was a bathtub/shower combo, which is common in hotel rooms.

She put her bag onto the bed and began laying out her items. At the top of the bag was a brown cardboard box that she placed on the nightstand on the left side of the bed. Next there was a white t-shirt that had been neatly folded in her pack and that she now placed on the left side pillow. A couple of bras and pairs of panties followed, all of them plain, white cotton. Then she pulled out her black and white combination cover which she admired before placing it on the bed. Her white blouse looked like it could use a hot iron on it, but probably the rest of the uniform in the bag would need the same thing. Lastly, she unpacked her black slacks and jacket, with her medals still pinned to it from earlier in the day.

Amanda opened the closet, and pulled out the ironing board and took the iron into the bathroom so she could fill it up with water. She placed the iron on the board and plugged it in, waiting for it to warm up so she could iron her uniform. She removed the cover from the bed and placed it on the dresser, looking herself in the mirror. Who was this woman before her, and what brought her here to this room to do this action that she has thought about since that one night in Hong Kong? Maybe it had been brewing in her even before that.

************

Her plane touched down in Japan; she was going to have to catch a COD flight from the navel base nearby. She grabbed her backpack from the overhead compartment and followed the group out of the plane.

She found out where to get her sea bag and as she stood there waiting she saw a group of young women standing around wearing what appeared to be school girl uniforms. She had heard about men having a fetish for that type of thing while she was in tech school, but never expected to see women around like that in public. What made them do it? Did it excite them to wear it just as much as it did for men to see them wear it? She'd never viewed the pictures online of women wearing the uniforms and the men enjoying the women in them, so she wondered what was so sexy about the plaid skirts that went down to their knees and their long-sleeved, button-up blouses. Their knee-high socks and black dress shoes didn't seem to add anything to it either. What was wrong with the lacy teddies that she'd seen in many underwear ads as she grew up?

As she looked at the group she thought about wearing it herself: a man slowly unbuttoning her blouse and revealing her cleavage, his mouth kissing around her exposed breasts as his hands lifted up her skirt so he could feel her underwear-clad ass. She soon felt herself get wet at these thoughts but knew she had to get her bag and get to the base. She quickly picked up her sea bag and headed to the cabs.

She placed her bags in the trunk and got in the back as the man drove her to the base. She was still thinking of the man touching her in that uniform when it finally occurred to her: she loved the idea of being undressed by a man and loved him touching her. When she was with Jerry she undressed herself for him and put on a show to excite him. She loved to strip, but to do it slower than just pulling a shirt up over your head and dropping your shorts to show off a lacy bra and thong combo to a farmhand sounded so much better. She thought back to all the things that she owned and her dress blue uniform popped into her mind as the thing she'd love to strip out of and have stripped off of her.

**********

The iron was hot enough and the dark-haired, green-eyed girl looking at her through the mirror broke her gaze and went to the bed to start ironing her uniform out. Amanda took great pride in getting every wrinkle out of the blouse and pants. The jacket didn't have too many and she really didn't want to remove those medals that she had just put on only hours ago. She took a wooden hanger from the closet, hung the items on it and went to the bathroom to draw her a warm bath.

The bath water roared when she turned it on, adjusting the knobs to find the appropriate temperature for her bath. Once she felt that she found it she lowered the drain plug, watching as the tub started filling with the warm water. Some light steam started to fog the mirror, but she didn't care about that now. All she wanted to do was just get in that tub and relax her cares away.

She looked at herself in the mirror, steam pouring over her and out the open door into the hotel room. She pulled up her lavender colored t-shirt, and looked at her pale white belly before she raised it up higher to show off her cotton bra-covered breasts. As she stood there in the mirror she remembered her first time and being so vulnerable to Jerry, but the look in his eyes had said trust, if not love, so she went further by removing her jeans. Here in the mirror, though, that look was not there so maybe she should just get undressed like she was going to take a bath or shower, like she did many times back home. The idea of stripping slowly was a turn on for her, though but maybe this just wasn't the time or place.

Amanda took off her tennis shoes and socks, throwing them onto the tile floor. Feeling the cold tile against her bare feet felt wonderful since during her time on ship her bare feet weren't to touch anything. She unbuttoned her jeans and saw the white panties as the zipper lowered, then she pushed the denim past her thighs and let them fall to her feet. She stepped out of them and headed to the tub to turn the water off. She ran her fingers over the surface of the water and it still felt warm to her. She went to the bedroom, took her razor and shave cream from her backpack and took them to the bathroom where she placed them on the side of the tub. She looked down at her legs and saw the black stubble that had been growing there since they left Australia.

She reached around behind her back and removed her cotton bra from her firm round breasts, looking down at them as they parted with the constraint removed. She put the bra on the floor and then removed her cotton panties leaving them on the floor near the tub. One at a time she put her feet into the tub slowly so that she wouldn't slip and she'd be able to lower herself more into the water, letting it cover her nude body. She lowered her head into the water and let her short black hair get wet in the water so that she could remove the grime that the ship's showers may have put in her hair. She closed her eyes and began to relax, letting the bath wash her cares away.

She lifted her left leg from the water, hearing the sound of the water's surface tension breaking. She opened her eyes and pumped some of the gel into her hand, rubbing it over the leg. She pressed her foot against the wall and leaned forward to make sure she covered the whole calf. She took her razor and ran it from near her ankle up to her knee, making sure to wash the razor in the tub before taking it back to her leg to remove more of her stubble. She did this till her left calf was hairless then moved to her right, duplicating what she did before. She then stood up so that she could get around her thighs and bikini area She lathered up and moved the razor around her thighs making sure that she got a good clean shave on them; she liked having smooth legs and pussy.

She put the cream over the course hair above and around her pussy lips and then stroked the razor over herself very gently, she didn't want to be bare, nor she didn't think many men would; she just wanted a cleaner look. The feeling of the razor going over her sensitive skin was highly erotic to her. Would she let a lover do this for her, she questioned herself, as she began to feel more arousal sweep over her naked wet body, she knew the answer was yes, but only if there was a huge amount of trust in their relationship, more than the trust she held with Jerry.

She placed her razor down on the edge of the tub and allowed the water to go down the drain taking with it the foam, hair and dirt from her body. She grabbed a towel from off of the rack and dried her self off. She looked at herself in the mirror again and noticed her trimmed pussy, how the slit was more visible between her silken thighs. She continued to towel off as she once again wondered who this beautiful woman looking back at her was as it didn't feel like she was that girl back in Arizona.

"Back in Arizona," she thought. "I would have never though about uniforms for anything sexual and I wouldn't have made that purchase in the box. Who have I become, or who am I becoming?" She put her hands on the sink in order to stare down the naked woman in the mirror, but then found that it was her very familiar face staring back.

She entered the room and put on a fresh bra and pair of panties as well as a crisp white t-shirt. She went into the closet and removed her dress blue uniform. She removed the jacket from the hanger and placed it on the bed. She took the blouse off the hanger next, she slowly unbuttoning it and thinking about Aaron doing that to her. She placed it over herself and buttoned it back up quicker than she unbuttoned it. She took the slacks off the hanger and put them on her legs. Feeling the fabric against her freshly-shaven legs felt so much better than it did this morning. She put on the little black tie under her collar and threw on the jacket. She hadn't brought her dress socks and shoes because she really didn't care about that part of the uniform. Then she finally put on the cover. She smiled at herself in the mirror and then stood back near the bed to get a better look at herself in this uniform.

"I should take a picture of this," she thought. But what would she do with a picture like that? She had a picture of her in this uniform taken for the ship's cruise book. She took the tie off and began to un-button her blouse, feeling the smooth plastic between her thumb and forefinger as she slid each one through the button hole. She'd look down toward her breasts then up toward herself, smiling slyly in the mirror. This is what she liked. This is what needed a picture. Maybe someday she'd share it with a boyfriend, or Aaron. She waited till her cleavage became framed between the two sides of the shirt before turning back to her pack and grabbing her small digital camera. She snapped a few pictures of this uniform style, then she unbuttoned the blouse the rest of the way in order to take a few more pictures.

She was really regretting putting the bra on, as it was going to keep her lover from gazing at her beautiful breasts while placed between the pure white cotton of the blouse, which would cause the blush from her chest and the dark brown of her nipples to pop more. She did like standing there in the mirror with her hands on her hips, pulling back the dark jacket and white blouse, wishing she also had a photographer now as well. This wasn't totally about turning someone else on as much as it was about turning herself on, but thinking of someone else like Aaron would most certainly help.

Amanda thought about his hands on her bare belly slowly rising up to her shoulders to remove the jacket and blouse, and slide them off her arms. She had to use her own hands to do this, but still thinking of his masculine hands helped. She reached around behind her back and removed her bra, lowering the cotton cups slowly to feel the fabric against her bare breasts. She stared into the mirror watching as they became more exposed. She closed her eyes to allow the sensations to pour over her, thinking of exposing them to Aaron. She stood there topless and dropped the garment to her feet. She rubbed her breasts, feeling the brown nipples flick under her hands. It wasn't like she'd never touched herself this way before, but she never wanted her breast to be overlooked by any lover, especially herself. Jerry didn't; he worshiped and sucked them and rubbed them, watching as her mouth opened to draw in deeper breaths as her skin became more sensitive to even the air around her.