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petri808 · 3 years

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Inukag AU

As Inuyasha and Kagome cut through a park on their way back to the Higurashi home, they chatted casually, just winding down after a hearty lunch at a nearby cafe. The couple stayed to the pathways traversing the manicured park. It would be shorter to cut through the grass, but why the rush? It was a beautiful location, with a several different kinds of trees dotting the landscape to provide shade and lots of open space for all kinds of activities. Some picnicked, flew kites or played frisbee, they’d even passed a group doing Tai Chi. There were young families to older citizens enjoying the scenery. The couples conjoined hands and twined fingers swayed lazily back and forth between them. Despite the summer heat starting to rise in Tokyo, with blue skies and a gentle breeze brought in from the Pacific Ocean, it was a perfect day for a stroll.

While this journey towards normalcy hasn’t always been an easy one, the past couple of months have been the happiest so far. Ever since leaving the hospital Kagome’s felt better and better. There were even moments she’d made peace with the idea she may not regain her memories. Was it saddening yes, because she wouldn’t remember her job, friends, and other precious moments. But at the same time, she could always make new ones. Sango’s twins were still young. She could relearn her job, and best of all she had Inuyasha who’d she’d become attached to. Their steadily growing relationship was a budding romance regardless of their past history. Think about? Kagome had a chance to re-experience everything in a new way, through a new lens. Well… that’s what she told herself to justify the idea, and so far, it was working.

But there were strange moments starting to occur. Sometimes they were dreams of scenes Kagome didn’t recognize. That in of itself weren’t unusual because how often do dreams ever make complete sense? No, it was in the emotions that came with them. On several occasions Kagome would wake up with the distinct feeling these were not merely dreams but memories trying to break through. At other times, she couldn’t remember the dream, only the emotions she’d felt during them. Sometimes they were so intense, she’d wake up in tears or completely happy for no other reason. According to her neurologist, this was normal during the healing process, but unfortunately there was no true way to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

“Did I tell you I reached out to Ms. Tanaka the other day?” Kagome asked Inuyasha.

“Mmm, I don’t think so.”

“I called the office and spoke to her briefly about maybe getting lunch one day so she could tell me how things have been there. I may not know exactly what she’s talking about, but maybe it’ll jog my memories.”

Inuyasha lifted their conjoined hands and kissed the back of hers. “I think that’s a really good idea. You guys will have fun talking.”

“I think so too, she seemed very nic—…” Kagome’s voice trailed away as stopped dead in her tracks and her eyes shifted towards one of the parks trees. “Um, c-could we check out that tree?”

“Sure, whatever you want.” Inuyasha smiled knowingly.

It was like her feet gained a mind of their own as they carried her towards a large Sakura tree in the middle of a field. Just from looking at, there wasn’t anything special about the tree. Spring had long since passed and the blooms were no more. But Kagome felt a pull towards this one in particular as if she remembered something about it. What that was she had no idea. She let go of Inuyasha’s hand and reached out, touching the bark of the tree, and staring up at its massive girth. It looked old. Maybe there long before the park existed… maybe older than even the Edo period, who knew? It was just another green leafed tree, yet why was it stirring up a rush of emotions? Happy ones with butterflies dancing in her soul.

Slowly, she moved around the base of the tree like a surveyor mapping it out or searching for secrets only it could provide. And that’s when she saw it. Kagome’s breathing hitched as her eyes fell upon a carving in the wood, approximately five feet above the ground. There, a bit worn nonetheless was a heart encircling two names. “Kagome…” She read aloud, “& Inuyasha—

Oh, my Kami!” She gasped, both hands flying up to cover her mouth in shock. “H-How? When?”

At that moment, Inuyasha walked over, gazing at the words and running his hand over the carving while he spoke. “We carved this about two years ago.” He smiled, eyes crinkling, and growing moist as if reminiscing. “It was a late Saturday afternoon and after eating an early dinner at Genki Sukiyaki, we cut through this park to get to your house. But it started to rain, not very heavy, so we took shelter under this tree.” Inuyasha chuckled lightly. “I remember you being upset about your hair getting wet.” He finally looked to Kagome, placing a hand on her cheek. “You looked so beautiful and even though the weather was miserable, there was just something magical about it all. That’s when you asked me to carve this into the tree.”

“But how did I know to look for it?” Kagome was so confused. “I don’t remember any of that.”

“I have no idea how. But part of you must. Maybe, it’s a sign your memories are fighting to come through.”

The tears gathering in Kagome’s eyes, trickle down her cheeks as a blend of happiness and sadness. She wanted to be happy for such a beautiful memory but devastated that she couldn’t remember it. She wanted to be excited that maybe, just maybe it could be true that her memories were returning, yet she didn’t want to take the chance of a let-down. Inuyasha pulled her into a tight hug as she let go of the angsty emotions. “It’s not fair that I can’t remember! I want to remember!”

“Shhh,” Inuyasha who’s own tears begun to spill, did his best to soothe her with softened tones. “I want that too. It’s gonna get better baby. I think this really is your memories returning, we just have to believe.”

“It’s hard to do that sometimes…”

Inuyasha lifted her chin and swept his thumbs over her cheeks to dry them. “And if you don’t, we’re creating a whole new memory of this tree right now, an even more special one.”

Kagome sniffled. “You think so?”

He nodded his head and placed a gentle kiss on her whetted lips. “What do you think?” Inuyasha questioned with a soft smile. “How can we add to this memory?”

Kagome paused for a moment in thought. “We could add something beneath our names… like… mmm, forever in time?”

“Is that what you want?” She nodded yes. “Okay,” Inuyasha obliged.

He kissed her again then used his claw to slowly, meticulously carve the new words into the bark. It took a few minutes because he wanted to make sure it was easy to read and would last a long time. “I think this is definitely will better than the original memory.”

“Mmhmm, it’s a good one,” Kagome agreed. She felt a lot better now. “Thank you, Inuyasha for being so patient with me. It must be so frustrating.”

Inuyasha shook his head. “Not anymore. I’m not glad about the accident, but I’m cherishing all this time I’m spending with you. Kagome, I truly mean it when I say, this moment right here,” he took her hand. “It’s now one of the happiest moments you’ve ever given me. No matter what,” he smiled, “I’ll always love you, forever in time.”

She giggled. “Forever… I like the sound of that…”

After the incident at the park, Kagome brought it up with the neuropsychologist assigned to her case. The woman patiently sat in her chair as Kagome told her every little detail. What she felt, the emotions, her thoughts, and reactions. She also brought up the dreams she’d been having as well as small incidents that caused her to feel like it might be memories trying to come through.

“Like, just the other day,” Kagome explained. “Sango accompanied me to the hospital for my last physical check-up, but as we passed by the nursery, we decided to stop to look at the cute babies. Then out of nowhere I started to feel emotional, nothing bad, just happy as she talked about the birth of her twins. I mean, yeah it makes sense to feel happy at the time because we were having a good time, but it just felt different. I almost felt like crying. Why is that??”

The woman finished jotting down her notes before speaking. “It’s been about 5 months, correct, since you lost your memories?” Kagome nodded yes. “And according to your latest evaluations, your brain has healed quite nicely. It’s not uncommon at this point for triggers to manifest themselves.”

“I don’t understand…”

“The way long term memory retention works, our brains must process information and create new neurocircuitry, storage if you will once the information has been deemed necessary to keep in the long term. If not, our short term memories are discarded quickly. Of course, this is just a basic explanation and there’s more to it, but what studies have found is memories attached to an emotional event have a higher likelihood of being retained and will evoke a stronger response from us. Think of it like, these emotional memories are much more deeply attached to our psyches.”

“Oh— I think I understand.”

“Mmm,” the doctor hummed. “The park incident was attached to a very emotional moment in your life. So even though you couldn’t remember the event itself, the part of you that remembered the emotions surrounding it did and pushed you towards the tree. Also, the hospital, you mentioned being with your friend Sango and looking at babies. This is just a guess, but perhaps you were feeling the emotions you felt from the time she gave birth.”

As the doctors words were processed, moisture began to pool in Kagome’s eyes. Could it really be true?! Should she really allow herself to hope?! When Kagome finally responded, her voice cracked as it held back the tears. “D-Does this mean… I’m starting to get my memories back?”

“I would say, yes. Again, I cannot say one hundred percent certain, but what you are experiencing is a common one. Those that suffered from acute memory loss, don’t just wake up one day and suddenly they’ve all returned. It’s a gradual process, but once it begins it typically continues at a steady pace.”

“I-I don’t know what to say!” A few happy tears joined the smile on Kagome’s face.

“I suggest that you start writing down the times you feel something or think you’re remembering something and check them with your family and friends. If they confirm it, talk about it. That could help as well to bring more information and memories to the forefront— give your brain a little help to jog itself.”

“Thank you so much, doctor! I’ll definitely do that!”

The woman smiled, reaching over to pat Kagome’s hand before giving it a small squeeze. “You’re very welcome. I wish you all the luck in the world!”

#inukag #inuyasha #inukag au #kagome higurashi #inukag fan fic #inukag fan fiction #inuyasha x kagome #missing memories #ch 8 #petri808

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a3hihi · 3 years

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sun’s up 🐚

one shot

mer!omi fushimi/reader

word count: 1863

also on AO3!

Summary: You came to the beach to study the ocean, but you didn’t expect to get to know the locals this closely. Much less a local who shows up only as you dip under the water to look at coral. Much less a local who has a shark’s tail and fins, scars running up his body, and a bright smile, and oh no he’s attractive why is this happening to me.

———

“I think it’d be nice to hold you,” Omi chuckles. He pretends to not notice the blush blooming on your cheeks.

“Uh, sure,” you mumble wittily, swaying your ankles in the water, “What makes you think that?”

At dawn, the breeze is cool at the pier, but the wood under you is surprisingly warm. Luckily, you had your swimsuit on today, camera and notebook beside you to check on the sea life. As you stand up and reach for the ropes at your side, its bristles tickling your skin, you feel a strong hand close around your forearm.

“It’s alright, I’ve got you.”

Warm honey-toned eyes smile up at you, and you find yourself wanting to pass out right then and there.

“Easy does it.”

Omi helps you step down into the sea with him until you finally plop into his arms. You don’t know how to fall into the water with grace, exactly, but the merman seems to pay it no mind. To your relief, he laughs a little, eyes crinkled up in what you hope is delight.

As Omi keeps you in a firm hold, arms around your waist, you’re dangling in the water, motionless as the currents brush past your legs.

“You’re so cute,” he says, laughing quietly as your hands settle on his broad shoulders. Your mouth presses into a thin, wobbly line. There’s no way he’d say that unless you’d been seeing each other for a while, and you feel yourself blush harder.

“You haven’t answered my question,” you murmur, trying to avoid his gaze. To your horror, Omi softly cups your face and turns it to look at him.

It looks like he’s smiling to himself. You assume he is, because sharp teeth glint under his lips as he holds you close.

“I mean,” he starts, curiously bashful as he hoists you up so you’re face to face (earning an “oop!” from you). “Holding you just feels fun. I like it.”

“I don’t know how to process that, Omi.”

You came to the beach to study the ocean, but you didn’t expect to get to know the locals this closely. Much less a local who shows up only as you dip under the water to look at coral. Much less a local who has a shark’s tail and fins, scars running up his body, and a bright smile, and oh no he’s attractive why is this happening to me.

Needless to say, you’re not too sure how merfolk show affection.

“Aww, come on. Trust me a little bit?” Omi teases.

He takes a moment, working up the confidence to nuzzle your collar.

“I like having you close like this. I know you’re safe that way, you know?”

“Point taken,” you nod, “it’s calming.”

“Besides, it’ll help you study.”

“More like the opposite.” You’re about to laugh, but Omi takes your hand and presses his lips to it and now you want to burst. Looking up at him means seeing his torso, too, and that doesn’t help at all.

“Ah… we need to get you a shirt.” You mumble, hiding your face in his neck.

You feel his chest rumble to match his laugh.

“Yeah? What’s a shirt?”

Omi knows exactly what a shirt is.

You lightly smack his chest. His laugh bubbles out even more, even louder, making you laugh brightly in return.

“Omi, seriously.” You try to rasp something out while you catch your breath. Concern flits in his eyes as he peers at you, lifting you slightly above the water.

“I’m not drowning. It’s okay.” You pat his shoulder, your other hand resting on his cheek. The last thing you want right now is to startle him.

Waves lap at your legs as he melts into your touch. You’re glad he’s reassured, swiping your thumb at the scar on his chin.

The both of you settle there for a while, warming water curling around you.

“Sun’s up.”

As you get out of your daze, Omi beams at you, how you look in the light.

He’s not sure how humans react to seawater, but you mentioned something about skin wrinkling. He guesses you needed this special type of clothing to stay with him for longer, and he blushes at the thought. You also needed this weird ointment— sunscreen, he thinks you called it— that wasn’t too different from the lotions some of his fellow merfolk would use to stay smooth and avoid burning. He winces at the thought.

Omi never really paid attention to skincare and all, so he should probably take a page out of your book for this one. He tries not to smile, remembering how you’d remind him to take care of himself, marvelling at the scars he’d try to hide sometimes. It’s not like he could— at that point, after all he’d done, the lighter colored lines curved all around his body. And even if he thought his hands were too rough, you’d take them in yours, run your thumb across his knuckles.

Ultimately, he remembers the shock in your eyes, seeing him underwater. It’s not his first time seeing people from other than his species, but it was most probably yours— judging by how you spluttered and how he had to rescue you from sinking.

By the time you recovered on the shore, you had to let the truth about mermaids’ existence sink in, pun intended. The one in front of you was wide-eyed, not used to seeing a human up close— at least a human he wasn’t picking a fight with, which you would later learn was an old hobby of his. (Oops.)

You even remembered explaining what “research” was to him, watching his eyes widen as you asked to touch his tail, pointing out how much he could help with that. Obviously, you wouldn’t let any harm come to this new friend of yours, and you assured him that your crew wouldn’t either. You vibrated with excitement at how a fairytale creature was living and breathing right in front of you (and was really cute, but you wouldn’t tell him that just yet).

It was during that time of silent study that he tried hiding a cough, clutching his side, and you realized it was your turn to take care of your rescuer.

As the sand warmed beneath you both, you found yourselves meeting almost every day at the same spot. What started as introductions to each other’s worlds led to you learning about each other as people. Question and answer sessions turned into showing him human books and hearing his stories. If your third time washing your picnic mat was any indication, spending time there was suddenly a relief. At the same time, Omi’s friends teased his visiting the surface more often, packing shells he hoped were “someone’s favorite.”

That wasn’t his favorite part, though.

An especially bright ray of sunlight glares at you and you swat at the air, squirming.

Omi chuckles, and you hum in interest.

“What’s so funny, mister?”

He smiles down at you, raising a hand from carrying you to cup your cheek again. “Like I said, you’re really cute.”

The look on your face must also be funny to him, because his smile is wide, fully proud of what’s glinting under his lips. He murmurs your name, “I’m serious!”

“Ah, uh, thank you,” you sputter, feeling warmth in your cheeks and seeing him trying to stifle a laugh.

Being like this in his arms is convenient for him, apparently— he uses the opportunity to gather you in a tight embrace.

“This isn’t too tight, right?” You wrap your arms further around his neck, waving your head in a quiet no. At the warmth of his hug, you definitely needed the support.

“You too.”

“Huh?”

“I mean! You’re cute too!” You squeak, looking up at him. Big mistake— Omi softly presses his forehead on yours, nose almost bumping yours before he pulls away.

“Thank you.”

A beat passes, and you hear the ocean all over again.

“My favorite part was confessing, you know.”

It takes some time for you to close your mouth. “What?”

“Telling you I liked you. A lot. That was my favorite part of meeting you.” He shakes his head. “You’re my favorite human.”

You really wish you don’t look like a blown-up puffer fish right now.

“Itwasmyfavoriteparttoo!”

You snap your lips closed, and you frown at Omi’s easy, amused grin.

“Come again?”

“I liked it too! I couldn’t stop thinking about it!” You sound like you’re arguing, proving some point in a debate, and your voice shakes with laughter at that.

“Also thank you for holding me!” you yelp, and Omi gives his most recent smile for that morning. You hope you get to see it more from now on.

“Wouldn’t want you slipping.”

The fins in place of his ears flutter a bit. You’re about to ask what’s wrong but notice the warmth rising to the tan of his cheeks. Add flustering a merman to your list of achievements.

You feel yourself moving with him, realizing he’s gliding to the side. The tail under him shifts in the water as he plants you on a nearby rock.

“There’s a merman like me who sells potions nearby.”

You tilt your head, wondering where this was going.

“I think he can give me legs for a bit. Harmless, I swear,” he holds his hands up as you begin to protest.

“Gaining legs was never really a problem for us, I promise.” “I guess the stories I’ve heard weren’t the most accurate,” you say.

“That’s why you’re the scientist.”

The water is pleasant against your leg, cooling as it hits the rocks crusted with shells beneath you. Omi hoists himself up next to you, elbow bumping yours. The sea has his hair hang damp against his forehead, dark brown under the sun.

“Why are you doing this?” you whisper, voice fond like the crabs around you are listening in. “Is there no potion I can take? How do you know it’s safe?”

“Not that I’ve heard of.” He shrugs.

“Again, trust me a little.” There’s a glint of mischief in his eyes, and you squint. “Some of us already work on the shore, if I’m being honest.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, I’m not.”

Omi snickers as you gawk at him. Merfolk walking on legs, on land, crossing paths with unsuspecting people. At this rate, they could even be at the aquarium or in your crew.

“I’m not surprised,” you tease, crossing your arms. “One of my coworkers is suspiciously good at swimming.”

“Uh huh.”

Omi waves his tail in the water, pointed fin stirring up invisible lines around smaller fish. “I want to see you more.”

You scratch your nape. “I’ve always wanted to show you around the boardwalk. I think actually talking to people is a nice change of pace. You’d like the crafts they make up here,” you say, remembering the objects he’s tinkered around with underwater. He deserved better equipment.

“It’s a date.” He smiles.

You find yourself smiling back this time. “I’d like a date.”

You peck Omi’s cheek, and both of you feel the sun reach its peak.

#a3 fanfiction #omi fushimi #omi fushimi x reader #a3! omi #hihiwrites #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #a3! fanfic #a3! act! addict! actors!#quiche is ready

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vemuabhi · 3 years

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The New Year Special Chapter

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

ITS NEW YEAR ACCORDING TO MY TIME (IST)

Please take this long Chapter as a gift this new year everyone!

Pairing : Sanji X Reader

Word count : 7.4K (I know its long, sorry)

Summary : Reader, a member of Kidd pirates, when drunk meets Sanji of Straw hats and develops a crush instantly. They both drink together and thought of meeting the next day to go on a date. But Sanji forgets what ever happened between him and reader. Meanwhile Kidd and Luffy have a quarrel. What would happen next?

Warnings : Mention of alcohol, Angst, Long story, tried to make it gender neutral but it’s not so good, sorry for any mistakes.

Tagging : @yuiroha164 @vangooh-works @sanjis-simp

again sorry for tagging without permission. just ignore this if you want.

Happy New Year

We docked on an island one evening. Our captain Eustass Kidd as usual wanted to go to the bar as soon as we docked. We followed our captain into the bar and soon started to drink. My idiot best friend Heat and I were talking as our captain was picking a fight and killer was trying to stop him. The crew was having a lot of fun. Being a member of the Kidd pirates wasn’t easy but our captain, known for his ruthless nature, really cared for us, his crew very much.

It’s been a while since we started drinking and I really wanted to go out and explore. I excused myself from everyone else and opened the door and let myself out with a big alcohol bottle in my hand. The cool breeze felt so good on my flushed face. it was 10:30 and most people went home and who still remained were drunk or people of bars.

I was walking in some alleyway and I didn’t know where really I was heading. I took small sips from the bottle and headed forward. The place was almost dark except for the light from the stars and the moon, which I am thankful for, showed me the silhouette of a lean tall man at the end of the alley. The way the moonlight shone on his blond hair made him to look like a prince from where I was watching him. Being drunk I really thought he was a prince and walked towards him. As I approached him, he turned his face towards mine.

My (eye colour) orbs met his half opened sky crystal eyes. I never met such a beautiful man. His flushed pink cheeks, his smooth lips, his pale face, his straight nose, his sharp jaw, his silky blond hair covering his right side of face. This person was definitely a prince. His swirly brow was very unique. He smiled at me and I started to melt at that sight. My heart started to beat faster. I felt drawn to him instantly. As if it was Love at first sight.

“Excuse me sir, are you a prince?”, being the drunken ass, I asked without even thinking twice, but all I heard was laughing. Why was he laughing?

“I.. Im no prince milady/sir. Im just a Pirate cook.”, he said after he stopped laughing and continued, “Why? Am I that handsome, making you asked me that?”, he playfully asked, still his eyelids half closed, a pretty smile still dangling on his lips. His smile was contagious, making me smile also for some reason.

“Yes, you are. Didn’t anyone ever tell you?”, I replied honestly, his smile dropped and was replaced with a stunned expression. As he was too quiet I asked again, “What happened?”

“No.. Nothing. I was actually surprised that a beautiful person like you was thinking I was handsome, and top of that.. you even said that to me, so, I was kinda.. taken back.. thankyou so much”, he bit his lower lip and looked at the ground averting his eyes from mine.

“Heh.. so cute that you are trying to hide your blush”, I playfully teased him as he looked up again and pouted. We both giggled and I was getting sober. I thought I could talk to him in some other place. As I was about to ask him, I was interrupted with two other drunk people, crashed into the same alley where we both were standing and started to throw up. As if it was a reflex, the blond took my wrist and started to walk away from the alley. His warm hands felt so good on mine. I was sober now and could think.

“I think its better if we talk somewhere else.”, he turned to face me and smiled as he said that. ‘Oh god is he trying to kill me while he smiles like that?’, I thought to myself as we came to a nearby area with only trees and greenery and the beautiful clear sky decorated with stars. ‘Woah! So pretty’, I thought at the sight of the place.

“How did we end up in a place like this?”, he asked as I shrugged in response. He was still having the pink face and I guess he is getting sober now from all the walking. He turned back to look at me.

“Oh lord, I don’t think I can stand properly”, he said sitting on the green grass while he pulled my hand down as if he wanted me to sit beside him. ‘Damn adorable’, I thought as I sat beside him.

“Wanna share that with me?”, he politely asked me pointing at the alcohol bottle in my hand, still not letting go of my hand.

“You sure you wanna drink?”, I asked him again because it felt like he already drank a lot.

“Yeah… I usually don’t drink so much but for some reason I want to drink now.”, he says as he smirks at me and takes the bottle from my hand then he chugged half of the bottle and licked his smooth lips after... My eyes opened wide in surprise at his actions.

“I can’t believe you just did that.”, I said to him as he wiped the side of his mouth with his sleeve. ‘God he sure is hot’, I thought as he chuckled and placed the bottle down beside him.

“Its just that, I have zero luck with women and love… So if you are an imagination in my head appeared while I am being drunk, I would want you to stay a little longer. I don’t even know what I’m saying, I actually don’t even know if you are real or not. I’m wasted and I’m not able to think properly.”, he said as he laughed at the end. ‘Why did it feel like it was sad? And his words were showing how lonely he was. So beautiful yet so sad.’ I thought to myself and continued talking with him.

“That’s sad, well don’t worry, I’m sure I’m real... Or wait… what if you are my imagination!?”, I asked him with gasp as I placed my free hand on my chest, trying a dramatic effect to cheer him up. Luckily he chuckled and smiled back at me and said, “I am Sanji, I’m a Straw hat pirate and I’m the chef of our crew, so what about you”.

“I’m Y/N, a member of Kidd Pirates.”, I replied, ‘as if I could imagine such a handsome person’, I thought as I smiled at him.

“Y/N huh… such a cute name.”, he smirked at me.

“Do you tell this to everyone you meet?”, I chuckled at his words.

“…..Actually, if they talk long enough then I do.”, he let go of my hand then looked down not meeting my eyes and said, “I swoon over every girl in an attempt for making them fall in love with me. I am very desperate for love. If I wasn’t drunk, I’d swoon over you too in order to make you fall for me”, he said as he chuckled and continued, “I’m sure you must’ve been creeped out by now.”

“Oh! Well this breaks the stereotype of the pickup lines, but I do appreciate your honesty”, I replied. For some reason he somewhat has an effect on me.

“Woah.. you are the first person to say that.”, he said as he looked at me again and continued, “Ladies kinda… Hate me… But I can’t stop appreciating them whatever happens”, he smiled at me but I could see it was a sad one again. ‘How could this man not be loved by ladies? He is handsome’, I thought as I averted my eyes from him

“And… I’m not creeped out… you know.”, I blushed as slowly looked at him after I said this in order to look at his expression. He was looking at me seriously and spoke, “Please don’t be a Dream.”

I chuckled again as he was being so darn innocent. ‘So cute’, I thought as I looked at his pink cheeks and ocean eyes. He covered his face with his free hand and said, “Agh… you are the first person to call me handsome. I’m so happy”. We both giggled and I playfully asked him, “So, why are you a pirate Mr. Handsome?”

“There you go again..”, he smiled and continued, “OH! I... I want to find the All Blue that’s why I became a pirate.”, he sat up straight as he said that.

“All Blue?”, I asked him and he nodded his head and closed his eyes as if he was imagining the place then said, “All Blue is a place where we find all kinds of fishes and sea creatures from the four blues at one place. It’s very beautiful also and every chef’s dream come true.” He smiled happily as his eyes fluttered open. He noticed me staring at him and raised his curly eyebrow at me without dropping the smile.

“Ah… it’s just that… You are so passionate about it and your face lit up like a child when you were talking about All Blue. I’m sure it must be a beautiful place. I am sure a person who is so passionate about his dream would definitely find it.”, I said and he lets out a cute hum as he again take my hand in his.

“Thank you… thank you so much Y/N”, he thanked so sincerely that his eyes were showing appreciation towards me. We talked about a lot of things and it was so fun. It felt good and nice. The calm atmosphere and beautiful sky made it even more amazing. We both started sharing the remaining alcohol as we slowly started walking hands linked. Enjoying each other’s company was more important to us than to think where we were headed to.

As if it was a magical moment, we both started to make out in the middle of the silent street under the shiny stars. I don’t know how I could kiss a complete stranger but… it just felt so right. As if… we were meant to be. I know it sounds cheesy and cliché, but… it felt wonderful. He tasted like alcohol and somewhere I could also taste nicotine. I’m not complaining. It was amazing. We broke the kiss and stared into each other’s eyes for some time then chuckled. We both leaned our foreheads together and stayed for a while like that before we started walking hand in hand again. Being so happy we didn’t notice the person who saw us making out. Sanji’s eyes were trying hard to stay open. His steps became wobbly than compared to before. I could see the shore before us.

There was one question in my mind that if I ask him on a date when we are not this drunk, would he be okay? And worse…. would he even remember me? As Sanji took the last sip of the bottle, I was about to ask him but then… I was cut off by another voice.

“OYE SHIT COOK!”, shouted a man who was coming in our direction. He was sweating a lot and looked like he needed help. He came towards us and stood before Sanji. He had one eye, green hair and wore green robes. He was pretty muscular. His brows were furrowed and looked like he was very angry.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT FILTH? YOU LOST AGAIN?”, asked Sanji as they both glared at each other. The Green haired man’s gaze now fell on me. he looked at our linked hands and his eye widened as if he was shocked.

“Hey you! Who the hell are you?”, he asked me. his voice was deep and raspy. Making me shiver.

“I.. I am-”, I was cut off in mid-sentence by Sanji.

“DON’T BE SO RUDE YOU DIM WIT. The names Y/N, be respectful”, he answered.

“Ok.. but lets go. Luffy is asking for food.”, the green haired man said.

“No… not now. He needs to wait till breakfast.”, Sanji said and the man mumbled something and said, “ vice CAPTAIN ORDERS!. You need to come back.” In a serious tone. I felt like he had to go. I actually wanted to stay with him more but he had to go now… I left his hand and he looked at me with sadness. I smiled and said, “Go. We will go on a date tomorrow, only if you liked my company today. Okay?”, I asked him and all he did was smile as his eyes completely shut and he fell on me. I caught him and balanced him on myself. What the! He is sleeping now. But why whatever he does makes me think he is cute?

The green cussed as he had to take him back, but after I said that the shore is just a few meters away from here and pointed it straight ahead of us he flinched and gritted his teeth.

As he took one hand of sanji’s and placed it over his own shoulder and started walking with me having one hand of Sanji over my shoulder. We walked to shore and we could see a ship with some lion’s head which was Sanji’s and I handed him to the grumpy man and was about to go to my ship which was a bit away from this place, but the green haired man stopped me in my tracks, “Don’t you dare take advantage of him and hurt him.”, and he took Sanji to the ship. I was completely shocked at the words of the man. I snapped and yelled, “I WONT BECAUSE I ALREADY HAVE A CRUSH ON HIM”. I shouted as the man took Sanji back to the ship. He turned back and grinned at me and continued to take him into the ship, not even saying another word.

‘Seems like the Ero cook is going on a date huh’, he thought as he smirked, “Even though I had to witness that disgusting moment by accident’, he was now cringed at this own thought.

I stomped to my ship furious at the words that man said. Then I saw Heat and killer completely pissed at me.

“Oh! Look who’s back! After all the training and fight in the bar, this is what I needed today”, Sarcasm was on point for heat now.

“hahahe… i.. I’m back”, I said nervously to the both men who were also my best friends on this ship.

“You disappeared when we were fighting and you appear now. Do you even know how worried we were? It’s 2:45 am now for your information”, Killer said making me feel guilt. So… I was with Sanji for like… roughly 4 to 5 hours? Maybe? ‘Well, they weren’t wrong. If they disappear without telling me a word, I’d be worried about them’, I thought as I sighed and looked at them apologetically and said, “Sorry for worrying you guys.”

They both looked at each other and again at me. Killer sighed as Heat grunted. “Its fine. Don’t worry us like that again”, Heat said scratching the back of his neck as he dropped his frown.

“What were you doing? Where did you go?”, asked Killer not even thinking of letting go of it.

“Quick! Think of a lie and escape this”, said heat. ‘Welp. So there is someone who is still not okay with my apology’, I thought as I said, “I… thought of exploring the place and…”, I stopped in mid-sentence thinking about how I met him.

“And….”, Heat indicated me to go on.

I sighed and continued, “I met this guy and we hung out till now”, I pressed my lips as I ended my explanation.

There was dead silence which was really awkward. “Well, good talk”, I said and I started to leave but was stopped by Heat.

“Wait… you met a random guy, a total stranger, I assume he was also drunk and let me add this in, you were really drunk when it happened right!?”, he asked

“Yes.”, I answered

“Was there any chance that you were hallucinating? Because you are desperate for love so I can understand if you were hallucinating”, said killer. As I was about to protest, of course Heat had to step in and make me even more pissed.

Heat placed his hands on my shoulders and said, “You know we can totally understand if you say that you drank way too much and fell asleep under a tree till now. We won’t judge. Its totally fine if you tell the truth. You don’t have to tell fiction”, heat ended as he patted my head and let go of my shoulder. These guys… welp… they are my best friends. I know they don’t mean any ill and these type of comments were really fine between us. Especially Heat, when someone else other than the grumpy captain of course, even tried to insult me, he’d burn them. Like literally spit fire. He says he can only be the one person who can insult me. I don’t know if it’s a compliment or an insult.

“You know what, I give up. When I tell the truth you won’t believe. I hate you both”, I grunted

“Oh god! So it was true!”, Killer exclaimed as heat gasped.

“Yes you idiots! It’s true”, I said as they both laughed.

“Oh god… so... Do you like him or what? I didn’t think you were the type to go and hit on people”, Heat asked

“Welp… I guess… I… I have a crush on him. He was really fun to talk, we shared alcohol and he seemed like a gentle man. He never let go of my hand.”, I blushed at the last words as I placed my hands on my face.

Heat, that jerk murmured gross as Killer chuckled at my actions and asked, “So will you guys meet again or did you take Den-Den mushi numbers?”

“I actually told him to meet me tomorrow… i guess today”, I said as Killer awed in response but Heat being Heat said, “Good talk, now Kill me please”, in his way he is happy. Why is he even my best friend?

“Go and sleep for now. You need rest”, killer being the sweet heart said it but… Heat had to ruin that it by saying, “Yeah.. you must be very tired hanging out and drinking with a guy but we are totally okay after taking care of the crew, the fights of the captain, the repairs and damages, losing most of my sleep and also searching for certain someone. I’m totally fine.” Heat getting a friendly punch in the arm from me, with that I went to my room and slept.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

“Oye! Ero Cook!”, called Zoro as he entered the kitchen, noticing that Sanji was behaving like a usual day. It was as if he…… didn’t remember anything.

“What do you want Marimo?”, sanji replied as he was stirring the soup.

“Don’t you… have to get going?”, Zoro asked looking at the blond as he continued cooking.

Sanji turned to look at Zoro and said, “I will go soon. Taste this place’s cuisine”

“No.. No, that’s not what I was asking. I mean… you know… your plan for today. You need to go right?”, Zoro asked Sanji as the blond turned to cooking again.

“Ah! As I already bought food, my plan is to help Nami san and Robin chan to carry their bags as they both shop.”, Sanji grinned as he imagined both the girls in new clothes giving zoro chills then the blond turned to Zoro as he had a disgusted expression and said, “Why do you want to know about my plans? You creep!”.

“NO YOU IDIOT! I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR PLANS! DON’T CALL ME CREEPY YOU PERVERT”, shouted the swords man

“THEN WHY THE HELL WERE YOU ASKING ABOUT MY PLANS YOU JERK”, this time the cook shouted expecting a fight from Zoro, but to his surprise, the swords man neither shouted nor replied, instead he grunted and tapped his foot against the floor.

The curious cook asked, “Seriously, what do you want to say?”

Hearing this Zoro turned to Sanji and questioned, “Do you remember how drunk you got last night?”

This made the chef to think about yesterday. He tried a lot but it was all blurry and he couldn’t remember a single thing. He looked at Zoro but didn’t reply.

“Do you not remember anything?”, Zoro’s question was answered as Sanji gestured no. the cook was getting worried what had happened because he didn’t remember anything.

‘Agh! Why do I even care?’, the swords man thought as he cursed under his breath and continued, “Can you tell me how much you remembered?”. Sanji took a deep breath and narrated what he could remembered, from the time the crew went to the bar and drank as Luffy ate, then how Sanji started to feel like drinking more and more and that was it. Hearing this Zoro sighed. The last Zoro saw Sanji was he going out of the bar for fresh air. Sanji seemed like he was sober but now he knew he wasn’t.

“Don’t beat around the bush. Tell me what happened?”, Sanji turned off the stove and came towards Zoro.

Zoro looked into Sanji’s eyes and sighed as he answered, “You got drunk and met a person and I am pretty sure you had a great time because they asked to meet you today”

Hearing this Sanji’s eyes widened and he couldn’t believe what Zoro said.

“Look, I don’t have time for your lies and jokes”, Sanji said as he glared at the swords man

“I don’t have any reason to lie to you. If I wanted to I wouldn’t have told you and let you miss your little date”, Zoro sternly stated making Sanji to think this through. ‘Why couldn’t he remember? Was that true? For the first time in his life a person showed him affection and he didn’t even remember? And how did this marimo know about this? Who was that person? What was their name?’, all thoughts flodded Sanji’s mind making him feel guilty and terrible.

“I’m sorry for you but I too don’t know where you agreed to meet”, Zoro said as he placed his hand on the cook’s shoulder and continued, “From what I remember the name was Y/N and seemed pretty interested in you because they even shouted at me that they like you.”, after telling this Zoro left Sanji in the kitchen and went to train.

Sanji looked at Zoro and thought about the name, ‘Y/N’… no matter how much he tried he couldn’t figure out who the person was. Sanji knew Zoro wouldn’t joke about things like this. ‘Where was he supposed to meet Y/N? Who was Y/N?’, guilt was killing Sanji inside as he thought about the mystery person. He completed making the soup but still he didn’t remember Y/N.

Then he heard a loud shouting from outside. He headed out and saw that Luffy was shouting at a guy with a metallic arm and red hair. He had some members behind him as they were looking sketchy.

“Not again Luffy”, Sanji said to himself as he went near Luffy to see what the problem was.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

After I woke up, I put on my best clothes and got ready so that I could meet Sanji. I didn’t tell him where I’d meet him so I just thought of going towards his ship. Kidd wanted to explore the island today because he just drank yesterday and picked some fights.

There weren’t many people on the deck so I assumed they took off with Kidd. I got down the ship and started to walk towards Sanji’s ship. I was very nervous and my heart was beating fast. I took deep breaths whenever I felt like I was about to faint. I heard some noises and shouting as I got close to the place. Curious to see what was happening I increased my pace and saw that my crew was there… near Sanji’s ship. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw my captain shouting at the straw hat man which I was sure of was the Captain of Straw Hat Pirates as I made myself go to the front line.

My heart started to beat even faster when I saw Sanji and the rest of the straw hats looked like they were ready to take on if things got out of control. Heat, Wire and rest of us were also looking like they were ready for combat. ‘No… no… no…’, I thought to myself as I imagined how terrorising the battle would be if they fought.

I slowly took a step forward and started to go towards Sanji but I had to go past my captain if I want to meet him. I’m sure Kidd wouldn’t be focused on me because he is busy, so this was my chance. My crew were definitely shocked... But I had to… I had to talk to sanji one last time if this small fight breaks out into a war. I slowly walked and I passed my captain but shockingly he was now focused on me. He stopped shouting at Straw hat captain and stared at me with the other captain.

“EEEEKKKK Why is she/he coming towards us? LUFFY DO SOMETHING!”, shrieked a person with a long nose.

“But I don’t get any evil intent”, said Straw hat Luffy.

“Tsk, so you were a member of Kidd Pirates?”, said the green head swords man.

“OYE! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GOING”, shouted my captain as I stood before the blond man. I curled my fists into a ball and looked at him sternly. I knew if it was now or never. So I took deep breath and asked him, “Will you go on a date with me Sanji?”

My crew and the straw hat Crew Gasped at my words. I didn’t shout but as everyone was quiet they could hear it.

Sanji’s eyes wide opened as if he heard it for the first time and suddenly the green haired person said, “Oye cook! That’s Y/N!! I told you, you had a date today”.

“EHEEEEE!!! SANJI HAS A DATE!!!! I CANT BELIEVE THIS! IS THIS A JOKE?! EHEEEEEE”, Screamed the long nose guy, a big huge robot type guy and what I suppose was an animal?! What was this crew? There is even a freaking skeleton. Sanji told about his crew but I don’t remember their names correctly. Well… our crew also is weird. We have a masked guy whos face no one saw except for Kidd I believe and… Heat…. Yeah… I got used to them so I don’t find it weird anymore. But… We have Heat. This crew is weird as ours. That guy Heat spits fire. (Totally not insulting my best friend in my head)

“WHAT THE HELL? Y/N! THEY ARE OUR RIVALS FOR F*** SAKE. COME BACK!,” My captain shouted at me.

“CAPTAIN I JUST WANT TO GO ON A DATE! PLEASE I BEG YOU”, of course I’d never betray my captain nor go against his word. So, all I have got is let Killer help me and convince Kidd.

“EHEEE SO YOU WERE TELLING THE TRUTH! STILL AM NOT ABLE TO BELIEVE YOU GOT YOURSELF A DATE Y/N!”, totally not my best friend Heat insulting me in public. Let me just ignore him for now.

“What is a date? It seems fun! Can I also join”, this made everyone go silent as the straw hat captain laughed as he said it. Was he joking or plain innocent?

“OYE MUGIWARA! THIS IS NOT THE END! LETS SEE WHO WINS!”, grunted my captain

“OKAY! LETS START!”, Said the straw hat captain with full enthusiasm in his eyes.

“Oh No! PLEASE DON’T FIGHT, WE SHOULD NOT MAKE THIS A WAR”, I shouted this time only to be stared back with confusion and some face palmed at my actions. I looked at Heat who was covering his mouth holding his laugh in looking at me. ‘The hell? Why is that idiot laughing and why is Killer looking at me with a sorry aura’, since I can’t look at his face at least I can tell what he is feeling.

“Actually, they are not… fighting exactly”, this time it was the husky deep voice which I wanted to hear the most and heard now for the first time after a while. I turned back to look at Sanji as he said that. ‘What have I done?’ and next thing I know was the two captains in a restaurant, stuffing themselves up with food.

So… this was the fight that they had in mind. Heat was sitting beside me as I hung my face down as Heat tried to be nice for once and patted my head.

“Why are you being nice? Its not your style.”, I said not looking at heat as he gasped.

“What do you mean? I’m always nice”, heat questioned making me look up at him and laugh but the thing i did before made me hung my head down again.

“I am so stupid”, I said

“No... You just have bad luck when you think”, Heat said making me hit his shoulder because he just agreed in sarcasm. But I’d be lying if I said this didn’t feel normal between us.

“I thought the captains would fight a war and I’d never get a chance to ask Sanji out but… look at my position. I didn’t even get a reply from Sanji”, I complained to Heat.

But I as I still had my head down I didn’t notice the blue eyes which were watching me from the other side of restaurant.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

In the meantime, Sanji was talking to Robin as he stared at Y/N

“You should go and talk if you want to you know, looking like that at Y/N won’t do anything.”, Said the Raven beauty who noticed the upset look of Sanji.

“…But Robin chan, it’s just that… I don’t remember even a thing about Y/N”, admitted Sanji to Robin as he continued, “Still I don’t know why I feel like my heart is being crushed when I look at Y/N…. sitting with that weird blue hair guy. He never left even for a second.”

“You can know about Y/N again if you talk. Just go a date”, said the smart archaeologist.

Sanji grunted as he looked how Heat patted Y/N’s head and how Y/N looked at him and laughed.

The blond lit another cigarette and said, “I don’t know why I’m this nervous. I’ve never felt this nervous before when I tried to approach someone. I think its because… it’s the first person who openly showed affection to me, without even a small bit of hesitation.”, sanji paused in between as he looked at how Y/N playfully punched Heat’s shoulder. Sanji continued, “Tsk.. look at them. I don’t like it one bit.”

“So… basically you are jealous. Why not just say that you’d go on a date? I’m sure Y/N would be happy and don’t worry, we will take care of the situation with Luffy.”, said Robin as she continued to sip her coffee.

“Yeah… I guess you are right Robin chan. You know what… I’ll go and talk.”, declared Sanji as he got up from his seat. Robin did her classic giggle as she saw Sanji going towards his to be date.

‘Well I guess everyone is destined to meet someone’, thought Robin as Sanji made his way to Y/N’s table nervously.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

“Excuse me Y/N, can I talk to you for a moment”, said someone making me look up at them. ‘Oh god! Its Sanji!’, I exclaimed inside my head. Heat got up from his seat and made his way to where Killer was sitting. ‘What! Hea..Heat just went away?! But im scared’, I thought as I looked at the back of Heat as he left. I slowly looked at Sanji and saw he was nervous too but was still standing in his spot. ‘Why was he?! Oh god! Is he waiting for my permission?!’, My thoughts were exploding in my head as I tried to remained calm on the outside. Trying to hide my embarrassment.

“Please sit”, I gesture him to sit and he obliged. We didn’t talk for a good minute or two, ‘Was he not ready? Was I too forward? Is he trying to reject’, with all these thoughts in mind I spoke first breaking the silence.

“So… Sanji was that too forward of me to ask you like that in public? I apologise if-”

“NO Don’t”, My sentence was cut off in between by Sanji. He looked at me with what I can assume is guilt. And I understood why he was behaving like that.

“Oh… I understand. Its.. its ok if you want to reject me I-“

“Not that either”, he said as he took a deep breath and confessed, “Y/N-san, I must tell you this. I… I don’t remember what happened yesterday”, this made my eyes widen as I looked at him. ‘Then what about our time together? What about the deep thoughts we shared? What about… the kiss? Was it all gone?’, my heart sank

“I am sorry. But trust me, I tried… I really tried hard remembering you but… I couldn’t remember you. You can hate me if you want but-“

“Stop!”, this was my time to stop him in mid-sentence as I continued, “It’s ok. You can stop apologising now. It’s not your fault. We were just too drunk at that moment. I… am sorry for asking you out even though I am a stranger. You must’ve felt forced. You don’t have to feel guilty or sad. Its fine. You don’t have to go out with me. its ok. I can understand Sanji.”, I concluded my sentence with it as I got up to leave, I felt a hand grab my wrist making me turn back to look at.

“Please, wait. I’m sorry but, do you think, we can start over maybe? Will you go out with me Y/N? please”, he asked me with a pleading smile. Could I say no to those eyes and smile? No way.

“I’d… I’d like that. Okay lets go on a date.”, I answered as I smiled at him. He felt relieved and stood up and said, “Then would you like to get out of here? I know it’s a good restaurant but… with all those people staring at us would be awkward”

I looked around to see except for the straw hat captain and our captain, everyone were looking at us with huge grins.

“Yes please”, I say to Sanji as we both started to leave the place quickly but I had a sad feeling that my captain wouldn’t like it. I looked at him once.

“Y/N”, said Kidd stoping me from my tracks.

“Have fun”, did my captain just indirectly gave me permission?!

“Thankyou Captain”, I thanked my Red hair captain as he continued eating.

“Sanji”, this time it was Straw hat Luffy. ‘Was he also going to give permission for us?’, I was getting my hopes up.

Then he spoke, “Dinner should be meat”, making everyone sweat drop.

“Oh… Ok”, Sanji replied as he offered his hand to mine which I accepted and we exited the restaurant.

We both were a blushing mess as we walked around the place. He told me he’d swoon over ever lady he saw but he wasn’t doing that now… so I decided to ask, “Sanji, yesterday you told me you swooned around all the women but… why aren’t you doing that now?”

“What! I told you about that?”, he exclaimed as I giggled

“Yeah. You told me most of the things about yourself. Like what type of cigarettes you like, what genre you prefer for stories, what you did while you grew up at baratie and how you wait for your letters of them every time even if you never ever told anyone about it and that’s it”, I tell him as I smiled at him.

“I am so embarrassed.”, he closed his eyes and let his head down.

“What?! Only for this you are embarrassed? I didn’t even get to all the ways you tried to make Nami and Robin chan fall in love with you”, I teased him more as I continued, “Nami swan~ Robin chwan~”

He sighed and chuckled as he said, “Oh god! You almost know everything about me and I.. I know nothing about you.”, he said sadly as he again looked at me and pouted.

“Awww, you are so cute when you pout”, I said it without thinking even once. This time we both are not drunk and I said it to his face. ‘Oh how much you are right about me Heat’, I thought as I heard the Heat in my head say, ‘Told you so’… I slowly looked at sanji again and saw what a blushing mess he was. Even he had some blood coming out from his nose.

“Are you okay? I just complimented you, nothing more”, I said as I wiped out the blood from his nose with my hanky.

“I’m sorry. Its normal for this to happen to me. so don’t worry.”, he chuckled

We both went into a small café and started to talk. Mostly about me if I’m specific. ‘All embarrassing moments are okay as well as cute childhood incidents. But somethings are better unsaid’, I thought as I remembered how he hated his three brothers who bullied him.

As we exited the café with our hands linked together. ‘PDA is his speciality I guess’, I thought because how much I liked it. We hungout in the park, the nearby small zoo, shopping places even though we bought only some things and he insisted carrying the shopping bags. Instead making me have an ice-cream in my hand. He made sure one of his hand was always free because he wanted to hold my hand, which was adorable. It was evening by now and we were heading back to the shore.

“Y/N-san, can I ask you a question if you don’t mind”, Sanji questioned politely

“You don’t have to be so polite. Just ask. What is it?”, I said as I gave a gentle squeeze to his hand with mine. He blushed again and asked, “Why… Why did you go on a date with a person like me? I completely embarrassed myself in front of you, gave you a bad first impression with being so much drunk and on top of that I didn’t even remember you”, he asked as he looked at me.

“You think too low of yourself considering how handsome you are Sanji”, I said as I smiled at him. I made him to stop in his tracks and turned him towards me so he could see me clearly.

“I went out with you because I felt comfortable around you. I liked how sincere you would be if you ever fell in love. I liked how devoted you are to your friends, and the way you respect ladies. I like how you are trying to find love. But more than anything, I love how passionate you are about your dream of finding All Blue and with that deep passion, I know you’ll definitely find All Blue”, as if there was a snap Sanji pulled me towards him into the alleyway beside us.

Sanji closed the gap between my back and the wall as he leaned down. Knowing he was going to kiss me I closed my eyes. But… he didn’t kiss me. instead I heard a question, “Is it… is it ok if I kiss you?”, I opened my eyes and saw he was desperately holding himself back as he bit his bottom lip. Blood already started dripping from his nose. I chuckled as I wiped the blood again and said, “Yes”, and that what all he wanted to hear before his hungry lips met mine. I could feel the burning passion in the kiss. It was more intense because we both are totally aware of whats happening. It was so good and my knees were about to give away. The nicotine and caffeine taste was oddly refreshing and I loved it. Too bad it had to stop because we both needed air.

Sanji’s forehead was pressed against mine as we both looked into each other’s eyes. We both smiled as I again wiped the blood from Sanji’s nose, again… and again… no.. we now weren’t kissing. I was just wiping his nose.

“Please don’t make it more serious like on the mermaid island.”, I said to him as I worried.

“So you know that too”, he sighed and continued, “Please don’t hate me”, I chuckled at his words and continued to go towards the shore again.

“Woah… I did expect that you’d request permission for every single thing you do, I mean you didn’t do like this when you were drunk”, I said as I chuckled.

“We… We Kissed?!”, of course he didn’t knew it.

“Yeah and you were still a gentle man but, you didn’t ask permission like this when you were drunk”, I admitted as we both blushed.

“How the hell could I forget it?”, he huffed

“It’s fine. Just don’t forget this”, I chuckled

“Never ever. I promise”, he smiled again

After a while we reached the port. We turned to look at each other, reluctant to go separate ways.

“So… this is it.”, I said to him as I smiled sadly, not wanting to let go of his hand.

“I… I think so”, He said as he returned my smile to me.

“You have my Den-Den mushi number and I have yours. So can I expect some call dates… Only if you would like to.”, I asked Sanji as he bit his bottom lip in an attempt to not cry.

“Thanks. I… I’d like that”, he managed to say before he hugged me tight. Well, we won’t be able to meet for god knows how long. So I also hugged him tight and inhaled his scent, so I’d remember. His exotic perfume, lovely shampoo and of course, nicotine smell, which now would make me remember him more whenever I smell this kind.

“Like I already said, don’t come to my ship to drop me. I look bad if I cry”, I said trying not to cry and I heard, “No you would never look bad, but I don’t want to cry in front of you either.”

“If fate allows lets meet again”, I said and he hummed in return.

We broke the hug not wanting to but had to and kissed again and went the opposite ways, I turned around to look at him while he stayed still looking at me, until I was out of his sight. This action of his made me miss him even more.

I went to my room and ugly cried. I didn’t know why a guy, whom I met yesterday had this much effect on me. if it was a simple crush im sure without having any contact, I’d forget him. but I don’t want to… I want to remember him. I want to meet him again.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Sanji was hurt to see Y/N leave. He was now fixated. No one till now understood him and liked him even when knew all his flaws. He still complimented Robin chan and Nami as he got on the ship. Made amazing dinner and fed the crew as they left the island. Tried to remain as normal and happy as possible. Even boasted about how amazing the date was. But for the first time he asked to take Zoro’s shift to be as the lookout for night. As he was then alone and knew everyone was sleeping, he let out his feelings in the form of tears. He didn’t want it to end.

Sanji was very grateful to Y/N because of the idea of calls. He couldn’t bring himself asking that question thinking of all his insecurities. He smiled at all the moments of the date and promised himself to never forget Y/N again and would wait for them to meet again. As he was wiping his tears he heard his Den-Den mushi ring. He picked it up and heard, “Hey! I know its way too soon and also late but if you aren’t sleeping… wanna talk?”, he heard Y/N chuckle. He didn’t expect a call now. He thought of calling Y/N but was afraid that he would disturb.

“Yeah! Actually, I would love to talk”, he said as he sniffed and grinned.

THE END

Every one happy new year!

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apothecarinomicon · 3 years

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Spring week 4 part 3

After my hectic experience with the marshbloom, I decided to take a day for myself. Greenmoor isn’t anywhere near the ocean, but Meltwater Loch is big enough that I figured a day spent there could be considered a beach day. And after the couple of weeks I’d had, boy did I need a beach day.

But anyone who’s read this far ought to be familiar with my luck by now. There’s a lot to record, but I’ll try to get it down in order.

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It was a beautiful day—clear blue sky, warm air, and (at least when I first arrived) no one around at Meltwater Loch. I spread out a towel on the beach and laid down for a good session of sunbathing. I’ve never been one for tanning, but simply laying doing nothing while being warmed by the sun and cooled by the breeze felt absolutely decadent.

After a while of simply existing, I became aware of the sound of a bird calling above me. I cracked my eyes open and recognized the large forms of a pair of gull-drakes flying overhead. Gull-drakes are a strange hybrid, both reptilian and avian. Their torsos and wings are feathered, while their heads, tails, and talons are scaled. They do have beaks like gulls, but their tails are prehensile like their alleged draconic ancestors’. I say ‘alleged’ because no one knows how the hybrid gull-drake came into being. The sheer anatomy and scale discrepancy between the average seagull and the average dragon fossil (they were much larger in ancient times than the pocket-sized lizards we have today) seems to rule out any cross-breeding. Additionally, the typical combination of traits displayed by gull-drakes is too awkward and ungainly to be the result of natural selection. And yet, there have been records of the gull-drake’s existence for just about as long as there have been records—the third-oldest surviving written document, in fact, is a bestiary which includes them along dozens of other species, most of which are now extinct.

Nature is a strange thing.

Digressions aside, there was a reason this caught my attention. Gull-drakes are scavengers, and have been known to leave catches uneaten while they go out to hunt for more. It’s just an evolutionary quirk—they prefer to feast only once per day. This means that, as they leave their nests unattended, some other opportunistic creature could come by and steal their catch.

It’s easy to identify a gull-drake nest, too—they tend to be very large, and are often positioned balanced atop large, pointy rocks. If a gull-drake catches you stealing, though, it’ll chase you and squawk at you and try to peck you until you drop the stolen goods and flee. They’re not too smart, though, so hiding in nearby foliage (say, a patch of large ferns) will fool them easily.

All of this to say, I managed to get myself a shock fish without a rod, all while only getting chased a little ways by a jealous, stupid bird.

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As I returned to my towel, I heard an unusual sound—the put-put-put of a motor. Machinery of that kind is a fairly new invention, and unless you know how to make it, very expensive.

The woman driving the boat certainly looked like she knew how to make a motor. She was dwarven, with russet hair and a long beard, both held in thick braids. She was (as dwarves are) rather short—I'd estimate maybe one-and-a-fifth meters tall, and nearly as wide—with large hands and feet, and limbs thickly corded with muscle. She wore dark green coveralls and had a fairly heavy-duty fishing rod held in one hand so that it rested on her shoulder.

She shut the motor off as she neared and called out to me, asking if I was the village witch. I said that I was, and she told me that she was friends with my crocodilian patient. She thanked me for helping him, and said he would have been a goner without my potion-making skills. I demurred just a bit, saying I wasn't the only healer who helped him that day. She scoffed and dismissed my humility outright, saying that I might as well have been the only one—that without my care the village doctor wouldn't have been able to do anything.

She introduced herself as Janneth Hillhorn, and I told her my name in turn. She asked what I was doing out by Meltwater Loch and I told her I was taking a day off. She let me know that her cottage was just around the other side of the lake, near Glimmerwood Grove and right on the border of Blastfire Bog, and that I should feel free to stop in any time. I thanked her.

At this point, there was a tremor in the water. It couldn't have been an earthquake because the land wasn't shaking, but the water abruptly became much more active. Ocean-like waves crashed into the shore and Janneth held tight onto the sides of her boat, doing her best not to capsize. I would have been quite alarmed in her situation, but Janneth barely seemed preturbed. I asked something along the lines of "what the blight is going on?!" As the water settled, Janneth told me that this was a common occurence on Meltwater Loch, a quirk that—many said—was due to the emotions of its guardian sea-dragon, Bàs Bàta. I found this explanation rather silly, reminiscent of an old wives' tale. I'd never heard of a sea-dragon before, and given that the name ‘Bàs Bàta’ directly translated to "boat death," I figured it was just a local story told to frighten children and dismissed it out of hand.

Astute readers should be growing worried for me right about now.

Janneth offered to give me one of the fish she'd caught as a thanks for helping her friend. I initially refused, but she insisted. She looked through her basket and pulled out a dentist crab. The gel their claws produce is good for the mouth and plenty else besides, so I accepted and thanked her. She thanked me right back and said (perhaps jokingly?) not to run afoul of Bàs Bàta while I was out by the loch. I forced a laugh as she sped away.

Once she was out of sight, I collected some claw gel from the dentist crab and released it back into the water.

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There was another rumbling as I made my way back to the beach, and as it abated I saw something bob up to the surface of the water close to the shore. It presented itself, et cetera et cetera, I waded in to see what it was.

I scooped it out of the water and found myself holding a glass bottle, like the kind that rum or sweet wine would come in, sealed with a cork and containing a rolled-up sheet of paper. Of course, I opened it immediately. I found that the sheet inside wasn’t quite *paper,* but something more slippery—maybe made of seaweed? It did have writing on it, though. As I unfurled it, a few things that looked like pebbles fell out. I barely managed to catch them before they hit the surface of the water. I put them in my pocket for safe keeping.

The writing on the note was as follows, with no spelling changes by me:

Let it be known that I fink this whole exercise is stupid. And pointless. And probly meant as some kind of sick, twisted punishment. No one but little kids believe in terrafolk, so I don’t know why the instructress is making us do this.

Even if anyfing could live above the water, there’s no way its advanced enough to read. How would it get all the minerals it needs wivout processing the water?

But anyway. I guess I ave to fulfill the prompt.

Me name is Genoveva, I live in the I.S.A.C.S. (that's short for 'Isolated Sovereign Aquatic City-State, but we all just pronounce it like 'Isax") and I’m in the fifth year of me education. I hate me name. I wish I could ave somefing exotic like a John or a Steve or a Sarah, but I’m stuck wiv boring old Genoveva. If you’re somehow able to read this, that must mean you ave schools on the surface, too. Wat ar they like? Ar they as boring up there? We all ave to sit in a circle and listen to the instructress drone on and on and on.

I live wiv me merma and me perpa and me two baby brothers. Do you ave family? I've got loads of cousins too.

On the rubric it says I ave to include a small gift, so I'm putting some fossil fish scales in wiv this letter. I found em on me way to school this morning and there not of use to me, but I figure you probly don't ave fish on land so maybe scales ar valuable up there.

If you're inclined to write back (no pressure), you can just pop your note in the bottle and put it back into the water. It'll find its way to me—there's magic all around, don't you know.

Signed,

Genoveva Galbrait, 5th year

[An accessible version of this letter can be found here.]

The letter obviously has some pretty complex implications. An entire society under the surface of Meltwater Loch, entirely unaware of the world above the surface beyond fairy stories? What must life be like down there? What kind of society must they have? How do they supply food? Get rid of waste?

What resources might be available there that can't be found on the surface?

I decided that somehow I was going to find a way to visit ISACS, and learn everything I could about it. I bet that would impress the University of Arcbridge. I wasn't sure how I would breathe under the water for long enough, but I was determined to find a way.

Take your final guesses now what happened next.

That water-quaking started up again, this time stronger than before. Waves crashed against the beach where I stood, and I felt a great vibration in my chest and in my head.

And then, it broke the surface of the water.

Giant and blue-green and serpentine, Bàs Bàta rose up before me. A blighting sea-dragon, it stood straight up in the air at least twice as tall as my cottage—and that was just the part of its body I could see. Its head was shaped like the tip of an arrow, with three great spikes sprouting out of the back (the outer two longer than the middle one). It let loose another deep roar, dousing me in spittle. It thrashed about, causing great waves to crash onto the shore, and through my shock I realized its movements might be less characteristic of anger than of pain.

My suspicions were confirmed when it roared again: one of the fangs right near the front of its mouth was missing a chip, and had a great crack running nearly all the way up to the root. That had to hurt. I'd never treated a non-humanoid before—or, for that matter, a cracked tooth—but I realized even past the moral obligation to help, there was no way I could access the underwater city-state without calming Bàs Bàta down.

I found out later, after I'd scrambled away from the lake and sprinted back to the cottage, after wiping the saliva off of me and getting at least some of it in a bottle for potion use, that the saliva was actually a really useful ingredient in treating shattered teeth. As it turns out, it's a pretty strong painkiller. Unfortunately, I knew I'd need more than just that to make a cure, and with the sheer size of Bàs Bàta, I suspected I'd need to make more than one potion.

That will have to be a longer term project, then, because the events of my relaxation day have worn me out. I've got to get to bed. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

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spaced0lphin · 3 years

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Counting Stars

“Bailie is determined to count Jeff’s freckles.” - @virusq

This takes place post-TBMS, after the events of ME2 and before ME3.

The evening was blue with twilight. Humidity and the whine of cicadas spilled into the kitchen through the open patio door. Shepard was still out there, leaning on her arms and staring into the black pines. The opened letter on the table turned his stomach. An Alliance insignia showed through the envelope. In disgust, he turned it over face down. This was the thanks she got for spearheading the operation to save the known galaxy; a warning. The message was simple: Either show up in court voluntarily in a week, or be dragged there.

Joker's own eyes looked back at him, his image caught in the glass door. It felt weird, but also good to be out of Cerberus fatigues. Sometimes it seemed like his reflection looked a little wrong without them, but he remembered feeling like that after putting away his Alliance blues for the last time, too.

A bizarre, almost musical croaking from outside caught his attention. It wasn't familiar - but Shepard, in all her stormy silence, didn't seem bothered by it. Dusk was settling fast. It was weird, this place. It was some little house on the far outskirts of the city Shepard grew up in. The warm, familiar rumble of the engine was traded in for wind in the trees, birdsong in the day, and whatever spooky noises the damn woods conjured up at night. Joker did not like the woods. Being so close to so many trees, all growing at once in strange, chaotic angles - it was unnatural. It and the nearby ocean smelled nice, though.

His Omnitool glowed, displaying the time. Two hours ago, she'd opened the mail and stormed outside. He picked up the offending letter and slid off the chair, putting the paper out of sight. This whole house in a familiar place thing was meant to be a break, a reminder for Shepard of what she was fighting for. Instead, all she'd found was this insult. He thought about hurling it in the garbage. It just wasn't fair.

The curious sound came again, this time from somewhere a little closer. Shepard hadn't moved an inch, nor noticed his approach. Not even the rap of his knuckle against the glass door, half-open to where she'd flung it a couple hours earlier could steal her focus.

He cleared his throat. "Hey," he said gently. "What was that sound just now?"

At the sound of his voice, she lifted her head as if snapped out of a spell. Her eyes were red and she sniffed. She'd been crying. A pang of guilt shot through his chest. He should have known. All this time he was sat twiddling his thumbs at the table like an idiot waiting for orders, she was out here, crying her eyes out with only the trees and mosquitoes for company. He slid the patio door closed behind him and leaned on the bannister with her.

"Uh, noise?" she asked, her voice thick. "Just now?"

"Yeah. It sounded like… uh." He screwed up his throat. "G-Ghauck," he tried. She recoiled, making such a face at the awful sound coming out of him he couldn't help but laugh. To his relief, she cracked a small smile, too. "No, no, wait, wait, hold on…" He did his best mimicry of the odd call. "Ghaaaawk. Like that."

"That's a raven," she answered, wiping at her eyes. "I think your first try was maybe a raven getting eaten by something."

"Heh. Maybe, I mean I don't know what's out there in… in that," he said, gesturing to the deep blackness in front of them. The little yellow light covered in bouncing moths could only do so much to illuminate even the first layer of branches. "It's so much worse than space," he grumbled. "At least you can see in space. Here there's things. So many things, and they all run and swim and bite, and… fly." He paused. Shepard wasn't looking at him - but up, at the sky. She tapped her Omnitool briefly, then all the lights went out.

They waited for their eyes to adjust. Stars separated out from the blueish darkness above. They looked so different beneath miles of atmosphere. Little swirling black dots blotted a couple of them out in patterns as tons of bugs did their crazy dance high above.

"You've never heard a raven before?" she asked with another sniffle, the sound a little loud in the darkness. He thought about her voice, and all the times he'd heard her be strong. In the course of everything, she’d yelled, commanded, screamed for her life, even laughed in the face of death. But never, never ever once that he knew of, had she actually cried.

"No, I guess not," he said. In the gloom, Shepard's shape started to materialise. She had her face tipped up towards the half moon, eyes closed against its light. He wondered at what she must be thinking. He couldn't imagine why she hadn't ordered a shuttle to Vancouver five minutes ago. How seeing that letter waiting for her hadn't sent her direct to HQ to scream in their faces about their ignorance and injustice. His own rage about it boiled hot in the back of his mind like the surface of a star. It didn't take much to picture himself cracking a rib telling them where to shove their trial. How dare they threaten her after everything? Where were they all this time to demand accountability now? Suddenly, he understood why she had been staring into those dark trees.

As she let out long breath after long breath through her nose, it hit him like a ton of bricks. Shepard wasn't on a shuttle right now doing those things, because Shepard had run out of fight. She had nothing left. She had given them everything already, and still they wanted more. They wanted her freedom. He knew that feeling, and in answer to it his throat grew tight.

"Hey," he said, nudging her arm gently.

She opened her eyes. "I'm sorry, Jeff. You were saying. Did you need something?"

"…C'mere." He pulled her close, tucking her head to his chest. She was silent. Her back shuddered a little, so he enclosed her in his arms as best he could. He kissed and stroked her short clipped hair. She carried the scent of vanilla, the sea breeze and everything good about the galaxy.

Shepard broke like glass. The sound of her wordless sob made his throat knot up so bad it was almost hard to swallow. Everything she went through, he was right there with her. Physically in only a few cases, but always in her helmet. Every hard decision and breath held in hesitation was a memory he shared, too. His way of dealing with it all was not to think about it most of the time. Always, he tried to focus on the next thing, and to give her someplace else to be when she was with him. But as her tears seeped through onto his skin, he knew she didn’t have that luxury anymore. He wanted to tell her it was okay, except it wasn’t okay, not at all. He didn’t dare shush her, the last thing she needed was to be told to shove it all back down inside herself.

After a little while, it felt right to sway, like when he was held once himself, a long time ago. Eventually, her halting breaths steadied, and tears slowly stopped spreading the wet patch on his shirt. He lost track of how long they stayed like that. He would have stayed the whole night like that if he could, but his left thigh trembled. Always the weaker of the two, his left had more extensive work done to the weak bones, and the muscles fatigued quicker. Just balancing on one wasn't an option.

"Mm, yanno, I didn't realise the fact I never heard a raven before would upset you so much," he whispered in her ear as he rubbed at a knot between her shoulders. She shook again, and Joker's heart sank to the pit of his stomach. But a second or so later, her quiet laughter made him sigh with relief. "Yeah… Okay. Hey, I need to get off my feet."

Her fingers curled around his as she followed him back inside. There was some long couch thing in the obscenely picturesque living room, and that would do just fine. He moved several of the fifteen cushions people always fill couches up with onto the floor and eased himself down, gingerly putting pressure on the twitching muscle. She reached over and pressed at it too. He kept waiting for her to speak, to address what just happened somehow, but kneading the muscle in silence was all she would do.

“Been a while since you shaved your head,” he said, running his fingers through the fine growth. “You growing it out?”

She smiled and scratched his chin pleasantly through his beard. “The reason I left flight school used to have a thing for long hair,” she said quietly. “I’ve kept it shaved ever since.”

“Oh. Right.” He took a second to admire the half-inch of rich chestnut brown. “Hey, only grow it out if you want to. Y’know, luscious vid-star locks or not, doesn’t matter to me.”

The weight of her head lay against his shoulder. “I think it’s time.”

“Because that doesn’t sound ominous.”

She smiled softly. Even red eyed, pale-faced, and her face wet with tears, Shepard was always beautiful. Dabbing at her eyes again with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, she said, “I shaved it all off the same day I left flight school. It was… kind of a statement, back then.”

“Well. Whatever statement you’re making now, I’m listening,” he said. Her green eyes flicked from point to point, studying him. “Ah heh,” he added with a grin, “That sounded a lot less serious in my head. You know something I’ve always wanted to do, though?”

“What’s that?”

“This,” he said, and traced from her forehead down her cheek, as if tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Her arms slid around him. She sniffled, then grinned wide, in that way she always did before saying something stupid. “You say you don’t mind my hairstyle choices, but I’d dump you if you shaved.”

He laughed. “Listen, I’d dump me if I shaved.” He gave her a gentle squeeze. “I don’t actually have this killer jawline, it’s all just sculpted hair. I look like a yahg under this.”

She kissed his cheek. “You know, I’d never seen you in actual sunlight before today.”

“O-kay…? You say that as if I look different?”

“No, but stark light shows details, and I noticed something I never did before,” she said as she took his arm into her lap. “You’re covered in all these light freckles. The light from the displays washes them out and I’ve only ever seen you in dim light.”

“Uh… huh,” he puzzled. “There was that time your leg was all busted up and I took you to a café.”

“Yeah, but even in the day, the Citadel looks very different from Earth. Anyways. It reminded me of something from when I was very little.” Shepard turned his hand over and began drawing ticklish little circles in his palm. “My grandmother was a pretty interesting woman, from what I remember. She used to tell me that freckles were a kind of map,” she explained, squinting down at his skin in the darkness of the room. “She said they are a star chart, and they show a snapshot of the universe where a person’s soul was born.”

Joker lay his head back. Shepard’s little piecemeal memories of her family were always interesting, but very often bittersweet. If it had been anyone else’s anecdote, he might have made some kind of crack about such a sentimental idea, but as she curled up to his side, he couldn’t bring himself to wreck it for her.

“Well, let’s think,” he said. “I got a billion of these, all over, so clearly I’m from somewhere near Sagittarius. What about you, though?” It was hard to see much, but her skin tone looked smooth as ever. “I don’t think you have very many.”

“No. Just a handful, here and there. I remember wishing for a million of them, just like she had.”

“Ugh, you’re gonna give me a cavity,” he groaned. “Little baby Bailie at like five years old asking her gramma how to grow stars on her or something. It belongs in a cartoon.”

“Hard to tell, but I think you’ve got about sixty-seven right here… I need better light.”

“You’re… counting them?”

“I am,” she said. “It could be fun.”

“You have a weird idea of fun,” he said, shaking his head.

Her lips travelled up his arm, from his wrist to his shoulder. “Do I? I think our sensibilities might be closer than you think…” “Oh?” “I’ve been thinking.” “That usually ends in explosions somehow,” he said. She smiled softly. “I think... I want to spend these next six days finding out where you’re from.”

“How are you gonna do that by just counting ‘em?”

“Oh, Jeff. Don’t bring logic into this. Just go with it.”

“No I mean, wouldn’t you wanna cross-reference them with known star charts? I bet EDI could do that. Maybe she’d burn out a processor… Y’know, you might actually be right, that does sound kinda fun,” he said with a snicker.

“I don’t need to do that. I can use the star charts up here,” she said as she tapped her head. “See this little arrangement? Looks like the Five Sisters in the Aurean Expanse, kind of…”

“Wait, what? Really?” he asked. His forearm looked the same as it always did. Maybe there were five darker spots among them, but it was dubious at best.

“Oh, definitely,” she replied, never breaking his gaze as she kissed the spot.

“Pfft,” he said, before recognising the glint in her eye. “Oh. I mean, uh. Yeah, interesting. Y’know, with this first pass at it, maybe just take a look, and uh… mark anything you recognise? To look at. Again. Later.”

She moved fast when she needed a distraction. Her chilly fingers made him shiver in the best way as she slipped her hands up his shirt. He followed her lead and just lay back. Of all the stars to be counted, he figured he had a few lucky ones, himself.

#shoker #shoker pairing #tbmsfic #bailieshepard #bailie shepard #jeff joker moreau #hurt comfort #fluff #romance #this one was really emotional to write #i really needed this

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feminaexlux · 4 years

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Black Cats are Some Kind of Luck

Oh god this might just be a little bit of a crack fic but I had way too much fun writing this.

Rated M, probably? Iunno. LukaNoire!

∴

In most of the mornings Luka had in his life after toddlerhood he woke up alone in his bed. When Juleka was younger, maybe a toddler herself, she had dragged him out of his bed to hide under a blanket on the floor when she had nightmares. Anarka would find her babies in a tangled nest, since sleeping on the floor meant finding no monsters under the bed to very young imaginative minds.

This morning he woke up with… someone else snuggled next to him. Someone who looked a lot like Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

He hadn't gone to sleep that way. Pretty sure of that. He was and had been sober.

He had no idea what happened.

Gently he pried himself away from her, extricating himself carefully from her grasp. He took a quick look around his room and yep, this was his room in his flat that he shared with his best friend. His guitars were hung up against the walls, his music sheet paper was on his desk in random piles, his hoodie was thrown over his desk covering his laptop.

But it was Marinette. In his bed. Oh god, he thought, HOW was she here? Somewhere deep down inside of him he didn't find the idea of him waking up next to her unwelcome but… there was a natural progression to things. Sure, he'd been in love with her for years but she was Marinette Dupain-Cheng the up-and-coming fashion star and personal designer for Jagged Stone. He was just Luka. He hadn't ever given himself even the slimmest of chances when she was Marinette and she had her eyes on Adrien Agreste, the supermodel and son of Gabriel, who ran the most prominent design house in France. She was probably 2 standard deviations out of his league.

"Shit," he whispered to no one in particular. He checked himself over and double checked that he was sober and dressed (oh god we didn't… did we?). She was wearing her pajamas and it didn't look like they did anything so that wasn't going to cause an immediate meltdown. He should probably wake her up and… figure out what happened. He knelt by the edge of the bed and gently shook her by the shoulder. "Hey. Marinette?"

"Mnnng," she groaned, eyebrows furrowing as she frowned. She grabbed at his blankets and pulled them in toward her, then started opening her eyes. "Hi," she said, lazily smiling up at him. She must still have been waking up, but if she smiled like that to whoever she woke up next to he'd happily have them both go back to sleep just so they'd wake up together again.

"Do you know where you are?" He asked. Maybe there'd been an akuma attack and she got teleported here? He wasn't sure. "You're in my room. Do you remember how you got here?"

"Yeah," she yawned. "I cam--" Her eyes shot wide open mid-word and she slapped her hands over her mouth. "Th-there was an akuma!"

∴

Oh god, she almost said she came here on purpose, and not because she'd been high as a kite on whatever kitty hormones had coursed through her veins while she was Lady Noire.

Well, she couldn't blame it just on the kitty hormones. Regular hormones were bad enough. And if she was even more honest with herself she had wanted to wake up next to Luka Couffaine, the gentleman rocker, ever since she found herself thinking about blues more than greens, distressed more than clean and crisp, shy but warm laughter more than confused smiles.

So basically for a couple of years now.

She should have seen it coming. When she and Mister Bug decided to swap permanently she'd been informed by Plagg that should she choose it, she'd be able to tap into some latent powers with the side effect of being more like the animal the Miraculous represented. She didn't think it'd be a problem so she chose it. Cats just slept all the time. If she didn't have to worry about being Ladybug anymore she could afford more sleep, right?

What she didn't really account for (and she should have after a facepalm worthy moment where she realized Plagg had been teasing it all along) was the heat. Or whatever it was that made her way more… touch-oriented, and way less inhibited than usual.

She'd been alright with napping more often. She'd been alright about unconsciously licking her hands clean. It was convenient that she was the daughter of bakers and helped out making pastries. She was practically covered in flour and sugar all the time anyway (regardless, she always washed her hands after). She didn't have a tail to swish around whenever she was annoyed so nothing about her was more cat-like than usual. Though she was annoyed more often now that she thought about it.

The cat-ness also severely affected her sense of smell.

She wasn't alright with how good some people smelled, especially near her period. When she and Kagami were having a juice date Marinette legitimately drooled at how vibrantly citrusy the fencer was. Alya, Nino, and most of Kitty Section smelled pleasant. Her parents smelled… well, familiar, which was to be expected. Adrien also smelled familiar, which was unexpected.

Luka was the worst. She couldn't place the scent but she kept thinking of blueberries, sea salt, chocolate, ocean waves lapping at her feet, the warmth of a crackling bonfire with the cooling sea breeze, and how badly she wanted to curl herself around him and take in his everything. It wasn't just near her period. It was all the time.

It seemed like after the late-night/early-morning akuma attack she had nearly gone ahead and wrapped herself around him in her kitty hormone addled brain. God, he had smelled so good and her brain had still been fuzzy at the edges when he woke her up, but she had quickly gotten to her senses after he had looked a little panicked and she had noticed that she was detransformed.

She couldn't blame him for being panicked. If the situation was reversed she might have screamed and tossed him across the Seine.

"I'm… I'm so sorry, Luka," she said in her own panic. She looked off to the side and nervously played with the rose-gold ring on her right hand, wondering where Plagg had gone. She looked back at Luka when he blew out a relieved sigh.

"Hey, it was the akuma," he laughed. "You alright? Not hurt anywhere?"

"I'm alright, yeah," she answered, then suddenly frowned. Plagg, that little shit, what the hell was he doing? She found him laying on top of Luka's head, smiling a wide Cheshire cat smile.

"I don't know why the miraculous ladybugs didn't drop you off back home," Luka said, sounding like he was talking more to himself than to her. "Maybe it works differently for Mister Bug?"

Marinette could definitely fudge it and say that the Miraculous Ladybugs kinda… skipped her. "Haha, maybe I was too far from them?" Marinette forced a laugh.

Luka shrugged. "Still, I'm guessing you'd wanna go back home, right?"

Hmm, not really. And well, her ride back home was currently lounging in Luka's hair. She reached out a hand to try to catch Plagg but the kwami slipped out of her grasp. She ended up just… petting Luka. "Oh! S-sorry you had something in your hair," she said quickly, trying to cover up her embarrassment.

"Thanks?" He said, a deep blush rising up to his cheeks. He swept his hair back after Marinette reluctantly drew back her hand and for a long moment Marinette just stared. The younger Couffaines had a mild tendency to hide behind brightly colored bangs when they were feeling shy, but Luka had as much unconventional beauty packed in his features as Juleka did.

And Juleka could very well be a supermodel if she wanted.

"I'll give you a ride back on my bike. Is that alright?" He asked as his blush faded. He still looked a little nervous with his hand on the back of his neck.

"I'd love a ride," she said absently, another yawn overtaking her. Ugh, his bed was so warm and smelled so nice and she would most definitely like to ride him--ride with him, WITH him, WITH him. Yeah, she should go home now before she ruined everything.

At least, that had been the plan. They had gone down to the garage and chatted lightly after getting geared up one after the other, both more than thankful that Luka's roommate was dead asleep in the other room. The ride was smooth and relatively short so she hadn't been thinking about how she wanted to feel him under her the whole time, no, not at all. He parked nearby as her housing complex had like, no available spaces, and walked the block and a half to her apartment with her so she could get out of the borrowed gear without going barefoot in her pajamas.

As he was heading out with the spare gear over his arms, she stopped him. "Thanks for getting me home and… for everything. I'm… I'm glad I didn't end up anywhere else," Marinette said with a shy smile. She got up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

"No problem," he said slowly, mostly surprised with a blush creeping over his face. "See you later?"

She had a giant yawn escape her after she closed the door and started walking back to her bedroom. Plagg zipped out of her pajama pants pocket to float in front of her. "Yanno you kissed him on the mouth, right?" he snickered.

∴

Luka slowly leaned forward and rested his head against her door. Had she just kissed him? Had she just kissed him and he said "see you later" like a dumbass? He tried to stifle a groan and pressed his head harder into the door when the door swung open away from him with surprising speed. Three things worked against him as he tried to recover from stumbling forward: being caught off guard, his arms already carrying stuff that made him unbalanced, and gravity.

Good thing Marinette was there to break his fall. The bad thing was Marinette had some really amazing reflexes and honed self-defense skills because she guided his momentum into throwing him onto the floor, landing him on his back. She gasped, covering her mouth with her hands after realizing what she had done. "Oh my god! Luka are you okay?!"

"Don't know," he said, blinking up at the ceiling. He'd been dressed for the slide but definitely felt hit by a truck after she'd kissed him. "Probably," he said after a beat. "Was that an accident?"

"… Yeah, I don't usually throw you to the ground?" Marinette replied, confused.

"No, you kissed me."

She made a couple of noises that sounded like abortive starts at sentences. "I… guess I don't usually do that either," she ultimately sighed, pressing one delicate hand to her very red cheeks. She knelt down next to him and brushed his hair away from his eyes. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'll be okay if you kiss me again," he said, thinking he'd be able to get away with ha, just kidding if she wasn't into it but desperately hoping she would be. Something in her expression shifted and he almost felt his soul leave his body. He started propping himself up by his hands looking for the gear that got flung aside when he was pulled up the rest of the way to sitting by his jacket collar.

He got hit by another metaphorical truck. She pressed her lips to his, which was pretty great by itself but then it got more and intense and open and she unbuttoned his collar and zipped down his jacket. The temperature of the room instantly got stifling and he was sure part of his brain melted.

She pulled back a bit and they got a few breaths of air. He should have used that time to ask Can this be an every day thing but then she licked her lips and all coherent thoughts evaporated. He didn't notice that she successfully tugged his jacket off. Didn't feel it when he got pushed back down. Did notice when she sat on his lap and leaned forward to kiss him hard over and over again. He only heard the faintest buzz of his phone that had almost been drowned out by her tiny, breathy moans, and that had only sunk in and registered after she sat back up and growled at it.

She picked it up and nearly threw it against her couch except she caught a glimpse of something and said "Goddamn it."

It wasn't his finest moment. "Huh?"

"Akuma. Sorry, Luka!" She took his hands off of her ass and jumped up. Somehow she hauled him up to his feet and pushed him out the still opened door, pressing his jacket and phone into his hands. "I'll get the rest of the stuff to you later okay? I'm so sorry!"

"Wait. Hold on, what--" She cut him off by kissing him again, which was a surprisingly effective tactic.

"I'll meet you for lunch, but for now I gotta g--hide! Be safe! Sorry!" Then the door slammed shut.

The phone buzzed in his hand and he took a look at the notifications. They were all from his roommate, the bastard.

Just now Di © K: Hope ur ok where ever the fuck u r

One minute ago Di © K: Shit akuma

Two minutes ago Di © K: Oi whered u go

Three minutes ago Di © K: ? Di © K: Lulu Di © K: Heeeeey Di © K: Hey

… Didn't the whole thing with akumas mean he should have stayed indoors? With her?

He wasn't sure he could sit on his bike comfortably for the next little while anyway.

∴

Mister Bug swore almost every other akuma was some damned mind-control wizard. Of course it had to be one of those today, and of course today Lady Noire was especially pissed off so she was slightly more reckless than usual. Which was saying something, as Mister Bug had seen her go on a rampage not 8 hours ago and that had been one of the quickest akuma fights he'd ever seen. Seen and not participated in, as he'd been left nothing but cleanup.

Heatstroke or whatever had literally thrown the akumatized object at Lady Noire's feet after she had beaten and clawed the shit out of him. He was cowering in the relative security of a dumpster bin when Mister Bug found him.

She must have really loved her sleep. It'd been maybe 2am?

This latest akuma called herself the Directator. She'd been managing a movie set and of course something had gone wrong early in the day. So Hawky gave her the power to truly direct everything to her heart's desire or similar bullshit like that. Mister Bug and Lady Noire took maybe a few minutes to try to figure things out when Lady Noire skipped straight to the attack phase, beating Directator with the director's chair.

He should have noticed that she was ready to pounce when Lady Noire's ears were angled back and her electric green tail was whipping back and forth in a threatening fashion. She'd been way more actual-cat-like than he ever was as Chat Noir.

Directator panicked and commanded Lady Noire to 1) stop attacking her, 2) put the director's chair down gently, 3) be a nice kitty, 4) take off and go.

Mister Bug spent the next few minutes chasing after Lady Noire. When he finally caught up with her and stopped her, she put up her hands. He sighed with relief that she still wanted to work with him. He'd been relieved all up until she started slapping him with those hands and he fell back in surprise. She took off again.

It looked like she was heading in a particular direction so, after deciding to stay back a bit, Mister Bug trailed after her to see where she ended up. He didn't have to wait too long until she stopped running across the rooftops and dropped down to street level, where she seemed to chat up a dude in full riding gear next to a motorcycle. The next thing he saw was Lady Noire taking motorcycle guy by the waist and using her baton to propel them both to the roof of the tallest nearby building.

Maybe he should… do something about that? Especially since it seemed like Motorcycle Guy was screaming out a "what the fuuuuck".

Mister Bug went after them and found Motorcycle Guy sitting against the raised ledge of the building with Lady Noire curled up against him, sitting on his lap. Adrien coughed to hide and try to suppress his laughter. Motorcycle Guy raised his visor (oh hey, it was Luka) and asked "What's going on?"

Before Mister Bug could answer Lady Noire leapt up and stamped her foot in front of Adrien. "No! He's mine! Leave us alone!!" she hissed.

"I'm what?" Luka said incredulously.

Mister Bug backed up a few steps to placate her. "Yeah, okay," he chuckled. "You're being a nice kitty, right?"

She huffed and crossed her arms. "I'm always nice."

"You're right. So the nice kitty will let me talk to her friend for a minute, right? 'Cause you're such a nice Lady Noire?"

"Only a minute," she said unhappily. She was pouting.

"Great!" Mister Bug said cheerfully. He walked over to Luka and contemplated what to do on the way.

∴

(Just a bit earlier)

Where had Marinette disappeared to? Luka had knocked several times after she shut him out but she didn't answer. He pressed his ear against the door to see if he could hear anything but it was dead silent on the other side. She wouldn't have made out with him and thrown him out like this and ghosted him… would she? It didn't seem like a Marinette thing. Not that he was an expert in all things Marinette… one day he'd like to see if she'd let him become one though.

He had loitered around her place for probably 20 minutes trying to convince himself to not break in and find out what happened. He'd have to respect her privacy and he did, really, but the last akuma attack magically teleported her to his someone else's bed and his thoughts were slowly spiraling into dangerous territory, where he imagined her ending up in Adrien's bed and her realizing she had better people than Luka to roll around under the bedcovers with.

Be cool, man, he thought at himself. Not going to help anyone if he suffered a mental breakdown. There might be a non-zero chance that she ended up back at his place? Okay that seemed too optimistic but… he should probably let his flatmate know he was fine and that he was heading back anyway.

He walked out to his bike after putting his jacket back on and unlocked the rear seat off to get to his helmet. He'd been ready to get back on the bike and ride off when he heard more than saw someone plunk down next to him. He turned and Lady Noire was looking directly at him. "Hi Luka," she said. "I need you."

"For the akuma?" He asked. Maybe he needed to be Viperion again? "Okay?" She rushed in and threw him over her shoulder, then they were a hundred meters in the air. "What the fuck?!"

He got plopped down against the ledge of the building and then she sat curled up on him. It might have been his imagination but… she was purring? This was… not making any sense at all. Luka saw Mister Bug land on the roof and the spotted hero managed to get Lady Noire off of him for a minute.

Mister Bug walked over and sighed before talking with Luka. That was a bad sign. "I'm sorry to have to ask this, but could you… stay with her until I can deal with this akuma? I just needed to know she's safe and in one place."

"… What?"

"Mind control akuma. Lady Noire's been hit with some weird commands." Mister Bug paused and looked thoughtful. "Hmm, I don't know, actually. Seems like she's just doing whatever she wants to outside of being ordered to leave the scene."

"Can't you fix that? Or… maybe get me out of here?"

"It'll be fixed after I deal with the akuma. I don't know if you noticed but Kitty here has been pretty extreme recently. Might be safer for everyone, including both me and you, if she's here and not ordered to Cataclysm anyone or anything." Mister Bug dropped his voice to a whisper. "Never thought she'd be a loose cannon. She might just attack me again so I'm not going to tempt fate if she just wants to hang out with you." Mister Bug shrugged at Luka. "Hey, greater good and all that. I promise I'll fix this as soon as I can. Take care of her, alright?"

"Hey wait--" "Bug out!"

Mister Bug up and left them. Shit. Lady Noire came walking back and looked over the edge of the building to make sure Mister Bug was gone. She sat back down next to Luka. "Okay, good, it's just us!" she beamed, hugging him.

"Uh," Luka started uncomfortably. "Not… to try to make things any weirder, but… could you get off of me?"

She pulled back, looking hurt. "You don't like me?"

"I… don't know who you are. I mean as a person, not a superhero." Luka tried to say that gently enough to not set her off. "I might like you if I got to know you?" He backtracked, feeling unsure. "But I mean, I'm just not great with the touching. I'm… into someone and it feels wrong to have someone else be this close."

Her ears flattened out to the side. "Who's that?" she asked, half sad and half… bitter? He felt like he just waded into turbulent waters. He didn't want to throw anyone under the Lady Noire murder bus, least of all Marinette.

"I'll tell you if you stay here," he compromised, hoping that he didn't just sign any death warrants. "Besides, you know her already. She usually chases after you."

"Alya?!" Lady Noire was shocked.

"No, Marinette? She always runs out to--"

"But I'm Marinette."

"… You. You're Marinette? Marinette Du--"

"Dupain-Cheng, yeah. That's me."

Oh. "… I thought you weren't supposed to tell anyone who you were?"

She snorted. "I can do whatever I want!" She leaned in closer. "So does this mean I can touch you again?"

∴

It was just a few moments shy of Mister Bug letting the ladybugs set everything back to normal, so he ignored the notification on his yo-yo from Lady Noire. He checked it after and saw one line: "Taking Luka home now! ;)" Oh boy. Well, she should be relatively okay now. Luka would be fine.

Hopefully…

∴

Lady Noire started whining and that whine turned into a full blown scream in the middle of dropping from the roof, just as the Miraculous Cure worked its magic over her. Luckily she still landed softly enough while she held onto Luka, so it wasn't that she had lost control or anything. She immediately jumped away from him after setting him on his feet.

"Oh my god I am so, so, so, so sorry Luka," she cried, covering her entirely red face with her hands.

"Thank god you're back to normal," Luka sighed, leaning back against the building.

"Any chance you could forget all that?" Lady Noire asked nervously, dropping her hands back to fiddle with her baton. She looked like she wanted to leave Earth as soon as she possibly could.

All that included him taking his helmet off, her crawling back into his lap and grinding herself against him, her ripping apart his jacket and shirt (they were fixed now), peppering him with kisses and tiny bites everywhere, and doing all of this while she was Marinette Dupain-Cheng underneath it all. He did his best to keep up and reciprocate but she was superpowered. She barely let him breathe but he survived. And he'd enjoyed it. He had enjoyed the hell out of it. But at the same time he had gotten thoroughly overwhelmed.

He didn't want to forget all that, but… "I can if you want me to," he sighed. She'd been mind-controlled, after all. "It was all the akuma, right?" Too bad. "What… about earlier?"

She opened her mouth to reply but inhaled too quickly and started coughing. "Um, I…" She coughed again. "Er. Um…" She bit her lip and looked down, muttering something to herself.

∴

Goddamn it, Plagg. Plagg had mentally kicked her and the voice in her head said "Cat's already outta the bag, toots, you've been wanting to mount that guy for-e-ver. Don't you dare take it back." It startled her enough to cause her to choke on air.

"Um, I… Er. Um…" She kicked at the ground. She wanted this. She wanted this. No mind-influencing akuma had told her to kiss him, that had been completely her. "No, don't… don't forget anything. I wanted all that," she sighed. "It was all me."

He raised his helmet visor to get a better look at her. "Are you sure?"

She nodded and looked back up at him. "I'm sure. I… kinda want to continue, too?"

It sounded like he choked. "I… wouldn't mind that."

She glanced back at her apartment a few blocks away. "See you in a few?"

∴

(Some time later)

Luka hadn't completely gotten used to waking up with someone else in bed. He wasn't sure if he ever would, since every time he woke up next to Marinette it'd been nothing short of amazing and he'd felt like he was dreaming but no, she was actually there.

Occasionally he'd have to deal with waking up in the middle of the night because she'd leave for patrol, or had come back from it to snuggle back into his arms. It wasn't really a problem because they were together in the morning.

He didn't really miss waking up alone.

#lukanette endgame #luka couffaine #marinette dupain cheng #lady noire #mister bug #fxl fic #lukanette #endgame lukanette

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echoes-of-the-clockwork · 3 years

Text

Book One: Gold (Prompto x Reader) Chapter XIV

After stopping at Leirity Seaside and Spelcray Haven, the group makes it to Cape Caem. Iris departs from the party and heads into the house to see Talcott. While the boys spoke with Cindy, (Y/n) wandered off towards the cliffs. She admired the beautiful view of the ocean with the lighthouse at her back. She inhaled deeply, the salty sea breeze bringing her a semblance of peace. The gentle breeze also cooled her heated skin. She stretched her arms towards the sky with a hum of content. "This place really is nice."

Glancing across the surface of the glistening ocean, (Y/n)'s peace of mind was shattered by Callyx. Unconsciously, she raises a hand and presses it against the back of her neck. Her smile was vanquished by a melancholic frown. Although hidden by her clothes, she felt as if she could feel the one thing that connected her to the empire-the barcode. Unlike Prompto, hers was located on the back of her neck. She knew the truth behind his existence, but he didn't. Nor did he know the truth behind hers.

"Hey!"

(Y/n) was startled from her thoughts when she heard Prompto yelling. She turned around and watched him run towards her. "Hey, I thought you'd be with the others."

"Why would I be when my favorite person is missing?" He asked with a smile. She wanted to smile, but her dark thoughts kept her from doing so. Of course, Prompto could tell she wasn't cheerful as usual. "Y'know, frowny faces aren't allowed here. The view is way too beautiful. What's wrong, (Y/n)?"

She looked away from him. "Dark thoughts, that's all. I thought I had managed to push them aside, but they keep resurfacing."

"Are these "dark thoughts" because of Callyx?"

She nodded her head weakly. "Yeah..."

"You listen to me anytime I need to talk and always know how to cheer me up. Whenever I needed a shoulder to cry on, you were there. You're the reason I've come this far and think I'm actually a worthy person and not just some waste of space. I just want to let you know I'm here for you just like you are for me, and I'm not going anywhere, okay?" Prompto reaches out and takes her hand in his, squeezing it gently.

(Y/n) could feel the sting of tears forming from his kindness. She bit her bottom lip to keep the tears at bay. She couldn't even bring herself to look at him in fear she'd begin crying. All she could do was squeeze his hand in return. "Thank you, Prompto, but I'm afraid this is something I can't share with you just yet."

Prompto didn't want to force her to do anything and respected her decision. "Well, when you're ready, I'll be here."

The guardian inhaled a shaky breath. She managed to turn and look at him, but the thing she was trying to not do happens. The tears she's been holding back spring free and cascade down her cheeks. Before she could even attempt to wipe them away, Prompto was already on it. His hands cradled her cheeks, using his thumbs to wipe away the tears. He was taken aback at her sudden tears and couldn't help but worry. "H-Hey, it's okay. Please don't cry, (Y/n)."

"I'm sorry, Prom," she sniffled.

"Don't apologize, silly." Prompto presses his forehead against hers with a warm smile. He wipes her tears away for a little longer before slipping his arms around her smaller frame and hugging her gently. She didn't hesitate to reciprocate the hug and wrap her arms around his torso. They remained in each other's arms until they heard Noctis shouting their names. Prompto pecked her on the forehead before grabbing her hand and rejoining Noctis and the others.

Once back with the others, Ignis explained how they learned where to find the mythril to repair the boat from Talcott. Their next destination would be the Vesperpool. As they were about to make their way into the house, Gladio stopped them. "So yeah, gonna have to ask you to handle this boat business without me."

Prompto gaped in shock. "Say wha?"

"Got some business of my own to deal with," the shield vaguely responded.

Noctis knew Gladio all too well and didn't try to change his mind. "Do your thing. Not like we could stop you anyway."

"You know me too well." He walked past the three boys and came to a stop beside (Y/n). He patted her on the shoulder. "Keep these guys in shape while I'm gone, short stuff."

She smirked in amusement. "You can count on me. Take care of yourself, Gladio."

"Don't have to tell me twice. See ya 'round." With that, the shield left.

<-------------<<<<<

Several days later, everyone minus Gladio was in the Regalia. Noctis was driving, Prompto was in the passenger's seat, and Ignis and (Y/n) were sitting in the backseat. The strategist recognized their surroundings from their earlier expedition in the area. "The waterfall cave was right around here."

"That means the lake should be somewhere north of here," Prompto said.

"Be wary, though-where we go, the empire seems to follow."

"Which means we might see Callyx again..." The marksman muttered with a slightly angry undertone.

"You hate the guy that much?" Noctis asked.

"Yeah, I do!" Prompto sat up in his seat with a huff of annoyance. "He hurt my beautiful goddess!"

(Y/n) chuckled slightly at his reasoning. "Trust me, I made sure he felt some pain before I left."

Eventually, they pull up to a tunnel whose gate had previously been locked. It opens and allows them passage. Prompto was puzzled at the entire thing. "Wait-what happened to "under imperial lockdown"?"

"They all but turned the key and left the gates open for us-as if awaiting our arrival," Ignis commented.

"And if anyone's waiting for us, I bet it's those guys," the sharpshooter grumbled.

"Chancellor Izunia and Callyx."

"Can't complain as long as they let us in," Noctis said.

"Who's to say they'll let us out? Not to mention we're a man down. Would that the marshal were with us," the advisor stated.

"But we have (Y/n) now!" Prompto chanted. "And whatever happened to that guy?"

"As I understand it, he's put his tomb raiding on hold to help the hunters take care of some troublesome beasts."

"No rest for "the immortal"," the prince said.

(Y/n) was curious to ask about Cor since she's only heard a few things about him from Prompto, but her train of thought was derailed when Noctis slammed on brakes. She braced herself as the car swerved from the harsh braking, her nails digging into the leather of the seat. Wondering why he made a harsh stop, she looked up to see an imperial blockade consisting of an MA Veles and imperial troopers.

"No way through," Noctis mumbled.

"So they give us access to the Vesperpool, but still intend to stop us by setting up other blockades," (Y/n) stated as she got out of the car.

"Yeah, it totally doesn't make any sense," Prompto commented. "But what do you expect from the empire?"

"Good point," Noctis said.

Once everyone was out of the car, they summoned their weapons. Ignis, wielding his daggers, warned his companions. "We must be doubly cautious."

"Right. No Gladio, no room for error."

Even without Gladio's presence, the battle went smoothly. They were able to easily dispose of the imperial forces and continue down the road. This time, Ignis was behind the wheel. Noctis, even with (Y/n) in the backseat with him, was able to spread out. "I could get used to havin' all this room back here. Too bad Gladio isn't as small as (Y/n)."

"It is quite cozy back here without him," the guardian said, stretching her arms into the air as her (h/c) locks were tousled by the wind.

Prompto glanced into the backseat at his best friend and girlfriend. "I'll let the big guy know you guys said so."

After a few more minutes of driving, Ignis parks the Regalia near the Vesperpool. Everyone exits the vehicle and heads into the nearby swampland in search of the ruins they heard about from Talcott. Down the trail, they spotted two familiar cars. One was red and the other was black.

"Oh, great..." (Y/n) groaned.

As they come near the ruins, they find Ardyn and Callyx waiting for them. The female spirit smirked in satisfaction seeing her fellow guardian's right eye was foggy. The skin around it was pink and puffy from where she burnt him. The boys also noticed the man's maimed eye. Prompto leant over and whispered to the golden-eyed spirit. "You did that to him?"

"Yeah. He deserved it," (Y/n) replied.

"Damn..." Noctis mumbled at seeing the damage.

Ardyn addressed the group as they made their way over to him and Callyx. "Gentlemen." He then took off his hat and bowed in (Y/n)'s direction. "And lady. What a pleasant surprise."

Prompto glanced between the two men with a groan. "Ugh! Told you they'd be waiting!"

"With my imperial friends, no less."

"Splendid," Ignis rhetorically retorted.

The chancellor quickly tried to assuage their concern. "But fear not-I'll put in a good word. Well, come along, then." He turns and begins walking toward the ruins. Callyx, on the other hand, didn't budge. He glared at the girl with his only remaining eye. He took a few steps towards her, but was stopped by Ardyn. "Do behave yourself, dear friend."

Callyx gritted his teeth, clenching his fists tightly. "If I could, I'd rip into your flesh again, right here and right now."

(Y/n) wasn't afraid of the man and stood her ground. "Did you not learn your lesson the first time? Guess you didn't and now don't wanna keep your left eye. I don't mind burning it like I did your right one."

"Why you little-!"

"Callyx," Ardyn gently called out in warning.

The male guardian reluctantly backed away with a snarl. He turned his back to his fellow spirit and followed after the chancellor.

Ardyn smiled at the group as Callyx took the lead towards the ruins. "I do apologize for his unruly behavior." He adjusted his hat and walked alongside his spiky-haired companion. "Now then, don't stray too far, lest you get left behind. And surely you'd rather avoid unnecessary scuffles, seeing as you're now a quartet. Oh, dear. Touchy subject?"

"One we won't discuss with you," Ignis quipped rather harshly.

"Then let's discuss why you're here. Hmm.... It can't be archaeology... Mythril, perhaps?"

"This guy's reading our thoughts!" Prompto gasped.

"Mythril-it's a precious resource. We can't just let anyone get their hands on it," Ardyn claimed.

"But you'll help us get ours on it, right?" Noctis asked.

"I never said that!"

"Of course you didn't," Prompto muttered.

"Where is the fun in that?" The chancellor questioned. "I thought you'd rather dig it up yourselves."

"We'll make you all do the damned dirty work yourselves. You're capable enough even with one person missing," Callyx sneered.

(Y/n) couldn't hold her snarky remark at bay. "Oh, so you won't dirty your hands for mythril, but you're fine with killing your own people. Nice to know."

"You're making it very difficult to not kill you," Callyx growled.

"You won't because your tail wags for your master."

"So does yours," he retorts.

"But mine doesn't keep me on a short leash and actually trusts me."

Callyx's self control shattered. He reached out to grab the girl, but his arm was grabbed by her and she twisted his arm behind his back. Using her foot, she kicked the bend of one of his legs and forced him to a single knee. He grunted in pain as he struggled against her, but his current position made it difficult.

The guardians' argument didn't go unnoticed. The boys and Ardyn had watched the entire thing unfold. The chancellor was smirking in amusement while the others were shocked. The auburn-haired man strolled over with a chuckle. "As I believe this is a suiting punishment for Callyx, I do beg of you to release him, my dear. His punishment will come at a later date, I assure you."

(Y/n) glared at the chancellor before releasing Callyx. The male spirit got to his feet, rolling his shoulder and trying to ease the pain. "Damn you..."

She crossed her arms with a victorious grin. "Run along, kitty. Your master's tugging on your leash."

Without another word, Callyx walked away. Prompto watched the emerald-eyed guardian stalk away, clearly consumed by anger. He then looked over at his spirit with an astonished expression. "Wow, (Y/n). I've never seen you so angry before."

"I'm not someone who usually is easily angered," she sighed. "But Callyx just grinds my gears. Knowing he's willingly working for the empire and killing our people is what irks me the most."

"By that display, I do believe we won't be needing Gladio's assistance for this endeavor," Ignis said.

Noctis glanced at Callyx's retreating form before looking over at the golden-eyed girl. "I thought you were gonna break his arm."

"Oh, trust me, I wanted to. I already broke it once, but I'll gladly do it again," she responded. "Guardians are more resilient than humans and our injuries heal quicker, but it seems Callyx is still experiencing issues with his arm after I broke it at the fort."

"Indeed, he is," Ardyn sighed. "You did quite a number on him, my dear. The poor man was brought back to me with his eye singed and arm shattered."

"And you're not mad?" She inquired.

"Of course not. Callyx fought and lost. Tis a mere outcome of battle."

Hearing Ardyn's confession, (Y/n) felt a tinge of sorrow for Callyx. The chancellor wasn't saddened if the man was injured in battle. He doesn't care for him like Prompto does her. She shook her head, ridding herself of the thoughts. "Putting all this aside, aren't we here for mythril?"

He tipped his hat with a faint smile. "Right this way."

They continued to follow Ardyn down the trail until they reached the ruins. Outside the entrance to the ancient structure stood the woman they had fought against at Fort Vaullery. Beside her were two imperial officers.

Ardyn turns to Noctis and the others. "Fear not-I'll be but a moment." He walks over to the woman and begins to speak with her.

Prompto looked over at his best friend. "A moment doing what?"

Noctis shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me."

(Y/n) looked around at the number of imperials were stationed in the area. She could feel their eyes on her as their grips on their weapons tightened. She grimaced at the unsafe feeling she was experiencing. She was the conduit, the spirit the empire was seeking to kill. Now she was standing in the middle of an imperial hornet nest, afraid she'd stir the insects and wind up dead. "I'm not so sure I should be here..."

The prince glared at the imperial troopers who were eyeing the spirit. "Nah, it's fine. If they really wanted to kill you, I'm pretty sure they'd already done it."

"Perhaps the chancellor is the reason they remain inactive," Ignis speculated.

She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. "I just hope we get this mythril as quick as possible..."

Just then, Ardyn calls out to them. "All clear! Go ahead."

The group approaches the woman, who was eyeing them closely. "So, you're the "new recruits" they sent over for "special training." Nice cover, runaway prince."

"Thanks," Prompto replied.

Noctis groaned at how casual the blonde was being. "Oh, c'mon!"

The woman shook her head with a sigh. "At ease, "recruits." There's nothing in it for this ex-mercenary to turn you in."

"Well that's a surprise," (Y/n) muttered.

This caught the ex-mercenary's attention. "Good thing because your name and the prince's are on the empire's list. The very top, I might add." She took a few steps towards the girl and examined her appearance. "But I know I'm already gonna like you, firefly."

The guardian blinked in surprise. "Why's that?"

"You're the one who fried Callyx's eye. If you hadn't done it, I would've. Bastard's been a thorn in my side for a while now." She patted her on the shoulder, grinning. "I look forward to working with you, firefly."

(Y/n) glances up at the sky, noticing the sun was beginning to set. "Then let's get this show on the road."

Her grinned widened. "Took the words right out of my mouth. Let's get moving, "recruits"."

Seeing the group had become acquainted with the ex-mercenary, Ardyn chimed in. "I trust you'll be civil. Commodore Aranea Highwind, I leave them to you."

Aranea puts on her helmet and guides the group towards the entrance of the ruins. As they trudged through the shallow water, Prompto noticed the strange design of the ruins. "What kind of place was this? Any idea, Ignis?"

Ignis was also intrigued by the ancient structure, but he had no answers for the blonde. "None."

"Gee, I wonder what happened to the locals."

"Why not head inside and look for 'em?" Aranea suggested.

"I'm not so sure if we want to find the locals," (Y/n) said. "Who knows if they're hostile or peaceful."

"Guess we'll figure out the hard way if there are any locals," Noctis spoke up.

When the sun set behind the horizon and the moon rose into the sky, the entrance to Steyliff Grove was open. As they entered the ruins, (Y/n) took note of the design. She ran a hand across the wall. "Hey, Prom. Don't these ruins look a lot like the ones we hid in a while back?"

Prompto also analyzed the structure of the ruins. His eyes widen when he too saw the similarities. "Oh, yeah!"

"You must be talking about Costlemark Tower," Aranea voiced. "Place is crawling with daemons and has the same strange mechanism that prevents anyone from entering during the day."

The marksman glanced over at the ex-mercenary. "Does that mean this place is gonna be crawling with daemons too?"

"Most likely."

"Oh, yay..."

Previous Chapter || Next Chapter || Masterlist

#ffxv #ffxv x reader #final fantasy xv #final fantasy xv x reader #prompto argentum #prompto x reader #prompto argentum x reader

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grahammasurian · 3 years

Text

Dumping Your Responsibility.

The dumpster outside my apartment building was completely overflowed. The truck missed a couple weeks for some reason and people just kept piling their shit on top regardless.

“My sin will be forgiven, the next sinner will go to hell!”

This came into my head whenever I thought of the garbage situation. I considered myself 99% innocent since I didn’t use the dumpster during these couple weeks. Unfortunately when disaster happens it doesn’t care how much you were involved, all it sees is your darkness.

What I could have done was call up our landlord. Maybe I didn’t add directly to the trash pile but I still could have brought attention to it. Unfortunately my mind gave me a great reason for not calling him, a wonderful why even bother type of belief. These curses will kill you but they provide immense relief.

He lives someplace nicer and keeps his back turned on this building, so if I don’t tell him anything he’ll keep believing whatever fantasy he’s living. Whenever I bring up something for him to look at he puts it off or conveniently forgets about it, can’t say I blame him. I'd love to do the same sometimes and then feel guilty about it for the rest of my life. It’s hard to convince myself that a life of eternal guilt is worse than a life of hard work. Maybe the simple solution is to just disregard the guilt and make everyone despise me, though I can’t say that seems like a good long term strategy.

I guess everyone likes to avoid responsibility too, don’t get me wrong I get it, because man it sure feels good to not take anything seriously, just sit back and relax through life, I’ll lay down in my bed and fold into a quarter circle. Pull my knees up to my chest and gently hold myself, like swinging in the breeze floating along to somewhere better.

Eventually some birds had a war over the trash that was at this point spilling everywhere, old food, old clothes, plastic shit, maybe real shit. It was a disaster but seemed to be an appropriate punishment for us. I watched a seagull pull apart a bag for 30 minutes, something about the completely boring and ordinary scene held a power over me. I imagined this feeling of our civilizations being consumed again by nature, it’s easy to forget that nature is constantly trying to integrate us more effectively. Integration with an ocean with a mysterious intention.

We could have salvaged things there, rescued some of our dignity and just accepted responsibility for what we did by not doing. I sat some nights debating whether or not I should just go out there and clean up everything alone. I didn’t mind the day, but at night I just loved how things seemed to come to life inside me. There was a power that I didn’t have access to during the day.

I decided it wasn’t worth cleaning up, after all I don’t really care what these people think of me, unless they express it to me. Plus I felt like I fit in better with my environment as a lazy drifter. When I run into the people that live here occasionally there is enough willpower on all our parts to say “Hi” and then move on our way. The two people that live under me, man and wife, maybe around late 50’s early 60’s always give me a glimpse into a possible future. The guy looks like his soul has been sucked out and not in a good way. It scares me for a moment and I tell myself I’ll keep it in mind but my actions don’t change.

The next week after the missed pickup and our experiment with apathy, something happened.

It was 12:33 AM, I was laying down in my bed with the window open, listening to the wind and feeling the slight breeze on my skin. Sometimes I’d lay there for hours listening to music or in silence, using drugs of course. The sounds of the night combined with distant sounds of the city created the backdrop for the worlds I explored in my mind. I break away from the atmosphere and write some ideas down in some form then go back to my mind.

I heard a familiar sound, the mother of this girl screaming in that resentful kind of way. Whenever someone talks that way to me my stomach gets sick, I see this person is using me to escape from something. You know instantly that this isn’t about you anymore, it's about them.

I hated the way this mother yelled at her daughter, I didn’t have kids of my own but I didn’t mind them, I generally see children as innocent beings until they gain awareness. When they become aware they turn into wood, hopefully they make it through and become real but many don’t. Some play as the twisted craftsmen, shaping the world with design. Night after night I’d hear this poor girl being molded into something that will make her unhappy for the rest of her life.

Even though it’s hard to feel connected with darkness, you still elicit feelings for things of the night. You react more on principle and not bigger picture at night, this mother was injecting venom deep into the mind of her daughter. Like a jackass I sat there each night it happened and listened to it like music.

Being man enough to walk down there one day and call her out on her shitty behavior was always in the back of my mind, but then I would think some more and figure what difference would it make? Sometimes I snap out of my delusions and wake up, I see who I am from up here.

Just look for the right words.

It didn’t happen every time but sometimes this warped girl would dash outside, slamming doors and shouting behind her. Most times I’d hear her small steps pace around or walk down out of earshot then eventually I’d hear her again coming from the other side of the building, maybe doing two or three laps like that before cooling off and gaining enough strength to go back. She feels like she just wants to give up but chooses to continue to face that fate which shows just how much courage she had.

This night the young girl made her usual escape, something about the scene caught my attention. Normally I just ignored it for the most part, but tonight I felt worried for her and listened to see if she was okay.

The shriek of her screaming scared me sober. That kind of pitch that you can only get when you feel real terror.

Confusion at night amplifies fear to a level that can go beyond anything you’ve ever felt. Sometimes hearing a loud noise randomly in the middle of the night only to realize it was something conspicuous is an interesting moment of tension and release of tension. When you listen to death it creates tension that doesn’t go away unless you force it to release.

I couldn’t see much but the sounds made up for the rest, I looked on in horror as this poor unfortunate girl came running towards the front door to come back inside. She must have forgotten to prop it open a little this time like she usually did. The door was shut, she couldn’t escape through there and it was the only chance she had time to try.

This whole thing happened so fast it was as if my mind refused to think about what I was seeing, this bear that must have smelled some food nearby came across her instead.

Hearing someone produce screams that come from a dangerous place, sends a painful shock through you. It would have been nice if I was one of those people that got off on that kind of thing but unfortunately I had to deal with the feelings of misery, dread, sadness, fear, anger, all at once.

A little bit slower than what should have been immediate there was incredible energy from all around, people coming out and making noise, not too many but enough for me to be impressed.

The general sentiment at the time was:

“Oh My God!” A big fat lady wearing a shaggy blue sweater screeched out. There were many other intense shouts, deflated yelps, sobbing murmurs, all mixing together slowly creating the atmosphere for a tremendously horrific scene.

All these half awake people, semi-disconnected souls felt something deep down within them for once. For the first time in decades some of these hopeless people felt alive, they acted without thought calling back to our primate ancestors. They witnessed a driving force, without realizing the lesson unfortunately.

Some of the people approached the girl to try and attempt some kind of help and others stayed away, accepting the situation or too afraid to know how bad it really was.

Some sobs were heard throughout the night as people came and went, voices that sounded defeated, voices that sounded ready to give up and heavy with guilt.

“Emily! No!” The mother cried. Obviously still drunk. Obviously deluded into thinking her daughter is anywhere close to alive.

“Please baby I’m so sorry! Please wake up baby!”

I had great disdain for this mother, but at that moment I felt bad for her. This woman made mistakes and in the end all it causes is suffering.

They came for her daughter, whisked her away into the abyss forever. Black cloaks riding into the stars on their skeletal horses. I wasn’t sure whether or not the constant beating I was hearing was a drum or my heart. We summoned these demons with our ritual, the choices we made were acts of incantation that brought forth monsters with the power to possess mortals, the possession was the final step in ensuring resurrection lest one of us snap out of the hypnosis and rescue the rest from the gaze of Medusa.

Then some downcast EMT workers took away her body, from the low looks and words after immediately coming upon the scene it was clear that hope didn’t exist anymore. I never saw the aftermath personally, where the actual attack happened was obscured to me by the awning over the door. Sometimes imagination makes things worse.

The mother followed her daughter into the darkness 3 weeks later.

#creative writing #short story #tale #journal #writeblr

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sanktnikolais · 4 years

Text

Six Degrees of Separation

A/N: Because focusing on one work is my weakness and my mind wouldn't let me write my current one if I didn't take this off of it. I am: a mess. HAHKLHASFD. Also because it’s my birthday today and I want to give you guys something before the day ends so have this from me uwu

Word count: 2260

AO3

A long time ago, the Little Palace had welcomed a young, raven-haired squaller. She was nine when her guardian accompanied her to the capital to train as a soldier for the Second Army.

Her training had started that same day, and after only a year, the young Squaller was the best among the other students in her class. At ten, she had already made a great impression of herself to the instructors and the older Grisha. It pleased her, somehow, knowing that she was better than most, as she had spent her childhood trying to please her mother who never batted an eye to her achievements in her former classes.

Maybe it was also her confidence that made her reprimand another student. Or so she had thought.

It was during a recess when the young Squaller had gone to the Little Palace’s gardens, trying to etch the scenery in her head so she could draw it in her letters that she sent to her aunt every week. The garden was peaceful at noon, the soft breeze rustling the leaves and wafting the scent of various flowers nearby.

She had gone a bit further into the gardens when she heard a sound of a wood splintering and breaking.

“Oh, no.”

The young Squaller looked to her right just in time to see the branch of a tree fall down, followed by a clatter of notebooks. She looked up, and was surprised to see a boy with golden curls trying to get down from his place in the tree high above ground.

“Be careful—” she tried to say, but stopped abruptly when the boy’s foot slipped from a dent in the bark. She whipped a hand out to whip a draft of wind to cushion his fall. It was a bit of a clumsy summon as it took her by surprise, and the boy landed on the ground with a loud oof.

The young Squaller ran towards the boy, who was slowly sitting up while rubbing his shoulder. He had a wince on his face as his other arm started to gather his scattered notebooks.

“What were you doing up there?” the young Squaller demanded, hands resting on her hips. The boy looked up at her, and she was startled by his hazel eyes. She was sure she hadn’t seen anyone with such light-colored eyes before. She bent down to help the boy in collecting his things. “That was dangerous, even for boys like you.”

The boy gave her a grin, which quickly turned into a grimace when he’d moved his arm a bit rashly. “Yes, I think I’m quite aware of that. It’s cool. What you did with your powers, I mean,” he said, waving his hand in the air in weird gestures. He stood up in his full height, and the young Squaller noticed that he wasn’t that much taller than her. “A bit uncontrolled, I noticed.”

It sparked an irritation in the young Squaller, and she shoved the few notebooks she had helped get from the ground to the boy’s hands. “A thank you would be nice,” she said sharply.

“My apologies,” the boy said, arranging his notebooks in a clean stack. At least he did look apologetic. He grinned again, that all-too confident grin that brought out the vibrancy of his eyes. “Thank you, dear extraordinary Squaller.”

“Just don’t be an idiot next time.”

She had expected the boy to look offended or mad, but all he did was laugh lightly and nod. “Of course. I will take note of that. I must go.”

“Sure. Whatever.” The young Squaller waved a dismissive hand to the boy, who laughed and winked at her in return. He turned and limped across the garden, whistling a tune that sounded broken and off, and then he disappeared behind a thick brush that led to the courtyard.

She was about to leave as well, but a flash of white caught her eyes. There was a piece of paper left on the ground. She bent over to pick it up. On the expanse of the material was a rough sketch of what she could guess as a ship, and at the top right corner was a messy scrawl of “Kingfisher”.

The young Squaller looked at the direction the boy had disappeared to, silently wondering who he was. She had never seen him in the Little Palace before, so he might be a new student. It explained his sudden exit when she saw him.

With a shrug, the young Squaller folded the paper and tucked it inside her pocket. She would give it back the next time she saw him.

It was several days later when she saw him again, but this time, he stayed down on the ground and was resting his back on the tree bark, hands busy scribbling on his notebook. She approached him, paper in hand, and stopped at least a few feet away.

The boy stopped writing and looked up, a smile appearing on his lips when he saw her. “Hello,” he said.

“You left this in the grass when you fell,” the Young squaller said, giving the folded paper to the boy, who took it rather enthusiastically.

“Saints, thank you!” he exclaimed when he finally unfolded it, eyes brightening up. Then the boy seemed to notice his own outburst and shook himself. He gave her a sheepish smile. “Thank you, really. I thought I lost it.”

The young Squaller smiled back. “So, you’re fond of ships?”

The boy averted his eyes and looked back down to his notebook, his ears turning all shades of red. “Weird, I know, but—”

“Who says it’s weird? I think it’s actually cool.” The young Squaller sat next to the boy, who looked really surprised.

“You do?”

“Sure. They go against the waves of rough seas and oceans but still manage to float upright.”

The boy laughed lightly. “That is a nice way to say it,” he said. “But I’m thinking of something different with this.” He gestured to the paper. Then he leaned his head a bit closer, as if he was going to tell a secret, and whispered, “What if they flew?”

The young Squaller drew back in surprise. “No way.”

“Yes way.” The boy opened his notebook and showed the young Squaller his other sketches and ideas.

“That’s impossible.”

“I prefer improbable.”

It was the start of the friendship between the young Squaller and the boy with golden curls for the next few months, even though they barely see each other. It would sometimes stretch at least two weeks before they saw each other again by the same tree in the garden. Usually, it was the boy who kept their conversation going, telling the young Squaller all about the ideas he had in mind while she just listened to him.

It brought a bit of escapism from the exhaustion of the lessons in the Little Palace, and she appreciated the rare times she met the boy with remarkable ideas, until she looked forward to seeing him almost everyday.

But these rare meetings suddenly stopped when the boy didn’t show up at the same spot in the next few days The few days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months. The boy never showed up again.

The young Squaller had been disappointed at first, but she knew better than let herself get sad over the sudden disappearance of the boy. And by the time she had entirely stopped expecting him to show up, she realized that it was a good thing they never knew each other’s names. The boy had never bothered asking for hers, so she didn’t try to ask for his.

Maybe they had never been friends at all.

It would be nine years later when the young Squaller saw the boy again, but she had long since forgotten the short time they knew each other from the palace gardens.

***

The silence hung heavily in the air. The redhead privateer levelled her challenging glare with an amused look, and for the nth time in the past few days, Zoya had the urge to punch it off his face.

“Who are you, really?” she repeated her previous question that remained unanswered. “And stop telling me you’re a mere privateer in the seas, because I am most certain you are not just someone.”

Sturmhond gave a hearty laugh. “But it is what I am, dear Zoya,” he said, grinning his blinding smile. For a moment, there was something familiar radiating around him, a resemblance of a past memory. “Though you are quite right when you said I’m not just someone.”

Zoya narrowed her eyes. “Elaborate, then.”

“I’m actually a close friend to the prince.”

His statement surprised her. But then she remembered his words to her when he got her out of the university. It only made her more suspicious of this pirate that was casually standing in front of her like he didn’t have to care for anything.

“Is that why you have eyes on him at the university in Ketterdam?” she demanded, stepping closer to the privateer, but the redhead didn’t as much budge from his place like Zoya expected him to.

“A good friend doesn’t leave a friend to fend for himself in an unknown territory.” Sturmhond waved a hand in the air. “Especially when he’s the second prince.”

“If you’re a good friend, you wouldn’t have left there without making sure no threat was to come at him when the stadwatch realized that a Ravkan soldier had been identified hiding among the crowd.” She shook her head. “You should stop being an idiot for once.”

Sturmhond went silent at that, which satisfied Zoya in a way she couldn’t quite place. There was something triumphant when something had finally made the privateer shut up. She lifted her chin in a silent challenge, expecting Sturmhond to back down. But he didn’t.

�� He gave her a dashing grin instead.

“Ah, there she is,” Sturmhond said, shrugging his coat tighter around himself. “Now I know why you were the one sent to handle the rescue mission in Ketterdam.” Then his expression softened, and he regarded her with obvious respect in his eyes. “I’m sure the Second Army commander would appreciate you returning safely.”

Zoya’s anger flared. The rescue mission had been a complete failure. If the privateer’s compliments held such underlying slurs, then she would’ve been pleased to have insults said directly to her.

“You’re really that confident to get past the patrols on Os Kervo?” she said. She shook her head. “Without anyone to confirm your identity, getting past those patrols would be impossible.”

Sturmhond shrugged, the calm and easy expression back to his face. He looked confident enough for himself. “I prefer improbable.”

Something in Zoya’s mind clicked, and she was left gaping at the privateer, who only winked at her before brushing past her. She was sure she had heard that line before, but wasn’t sure when or where. The thought continued to trouble her, so she whirled around to face the retreating privateer.

“Hey,” she called out, “have we met before?”

Sturmhond stopped and turned halfway, his expression inquisitive. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know, dear Zoya. But maybe I’m just that handsome.” He nodded, giving her a lopsided smile. “Get some rest. It’s still a week before we get to Os Kervo.”

Then he was off, whistling an off-key tune that stayed in Zoya’s mind for the rest of the night.

***

When Sturmhond had returned to his quarters below deck, he closed the door behind him and leaned against it. A laugh escaped from him, and he shook his head. His suspicions were confirmed. What were the chances of meeting her again? He wasn’t the one to believe in fate.

But this certain moment was making him consider.

He shrugged off his coat and went to the desk at the opposite side of the room, hanging the garment on the back of his chair. Reaching a hand over the drawer, Sturmhond opened it and took the old, worn out notebook at the very bottom of the stack.

A wave of nostalgia hit him, making him smile. This was where he had spent most of his late nights growing up, sketching the ideas he’d come up with when the sound of gunfire and explosion were too much for him to be able to sleep.

Sturmhond sat down on the chair as he opened the notebook, seeing the mess that were his scrawls and drawings, mixing with each other in a series of lines and curves. He turned the page. An old paper was wedged in between the pages, the edges torn from ages of handling. But one look at it, he knew exactly what it was.

The sloppy handwriting of ‘Kingfisher’ on the top right corner was already fading, but it was still readable. He remembered how he had panicked the night he fell from that tree, the thought of losing his greatest idea almost making him cry. But then a certain Squaller had returned it to him after a few days, with her stoic face and firm voice, and Sturmhond knew he was forever thankful to her for giving it back to him.

Because he was able to make the idea come to life and set out to the seas on it now.

“Who would’ve thought I’d see you again, dear extraordinary Squaller,” he murmured to the page.

For the first time in a long while, Sturmhond felt a real smile appear on his face. *** A/N: This is a rough excerpt from another probable multi-chapter I accidentally made. Idk when I'd write and post the full one, but we'll see. HEHE.

#zoyalai #zoya nazyalensky #nikolai lanstov #king of scars #kos #my writing #um okay idk this slapped my mind #and i have to write it #askdhfhasdflad #have this tho ;-;

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kittymsmithwritesstuff · 4 years

Text

Commission: Surprises

A Valorant commission for @sr-023! Was fun to write. :3

If you’re interested in commissions you can find my prices here: (x)

Tags: fluff, humor, light angst, people cooking together. Platonic Viper/Jett getting to know each other a little bit more in the kitchen.

Word count: 2413

-----

“Oh my God, you cook?”

Viper without her mask gave way to several emotions Jett forgot she was capable of. Like amusement. “Yes. And I eat, too.”

“Wow! I never would have guessed. I thought you subsisted on like, diluted snake venom and children’s tears.”

Viper rolled her eyes, peeling a potato in one smooth movement, leaving a curl of peel to fall into a bowl. “It was Breach’s turn to cook. I don’t know about you, but snake venom is far more palatable than lutefisk.”

Jett couldn’t tell if she was kidding or not. “You’re just secretly a sweetheart.”

Viper twirled the knife in her hand and pointed it at Jett, mouth a hard line. “Don’t push it.”

Jett shrugged it off smoothly, hoping she didn’t see the stutter of nerves in her shoulders. She looked over the kitchen island-thawed meat, potatoes, green beans that looked like they must have come from a garden, except there weren’t any gardens on the compound that she knew of so...beans-of-mysterious-origin. And all of it in huger quantities than needed to feed the compound. How very American.

And there was Viper in the middle of all of it. Peeling potato after potato in a silent kitchen, a bowl filling with impeccable ribbons. She wondered where she might have learned to peel a potato like that. Like, that totally wasn’t a master poisoner skill, right? It was like a housewife or a hobby cook that was…really into peeling potatoes. Given she was usually taken with annoying Viper, and Viper in turn was taken with threatening her life with any method that violated the Geneva Convention, the fact she hadn’t already kicked her out must have meant she was in an unusually gregarious mood.

And maybe Jett was in her own kind of mood from witnessing the phenomenon of the great mighty Viper being distinctly un-snakelike. She glanced at all the food again, rocking from heel to toe. “Can I help?”

“Yes.”

“Great! How?”

“By leaving until I’m done.”

Jett rolled her eyes, coming to the other side of the island, out of stabbing distance. “C’mon, please?”

Viper stopped mid peel, nicking the skin so it fell, unfinished. She looked at it like it had cut in front of her in line, but it was too public to make a scene. Her eyes flicked up to Jett, who spread her palms over her heart. “I’m good with knives!”

Viper looked from her to the meat, then back again. She sniffed. “You may cut the beef into steaks, if you insist. Inch and a half.”

She almost buzzed, throwing one of her knives up to hover beside her and quickly washing her hands. She wasn’t super into cooking usually, but it was kind of like getting to see the lions actually up and wandering around at the zoo instead of just sitting there and waiting for their next meal. Very aware of the eyes on her, she grabbed her knife from the air, adjusted the meat on the cutting board, and slowly started cutting down into it, trying to channel every lesson her dad ever gave her in the kitchen, all of which she’d ignored so she could go back to doing literally anything else.

Evidently, she wasn’t channeling them very well, as there was soon a knife clattering over the counter toward her. She jumped, half expected to get stabbed, but the knife rested a foot away. She looked up at Viper, who looked absolutely pained. “Use…use an actual knife.”

“This is a knife?”

“It’s a throwing knife. The blade is five inches at best. That is a chef’s knife.” She went back to the potatoes, though somehow Jett still felt her eyes on her. Maybe she had false eyespots like a moth and her real eyes were on her forehead. She palmed the handle, tilting the blade so it glinted in the stark kitchen light, then lined it up and finished cutting the steak-smooth, easy, like butter. She looked over at Viper.

“Good,” she said. She was still peeling potatoes. How many potatoes were there? “Set it on the plate. Use the seasoning there. Not too much.”

Jett snorted, setting the meat aside and using her meat-juice covered hand on the unlabled spice shaker. “Yeah okay, Mom.”

There was another nick, a potato peel falling half done. Jett could see her muscles tense-her whole body, in fact, went rigid, but as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone, and the knife was steadily scraping against the potato again. She could have imagined it. This was Viper after all, the same woman that once “accidentally” bumped her into a poison pit because Jett had been “annoying”.

And yet…

She shrugged, flipping and seasoning the other side of the steak, apparently to her cooking neighbors satisfaction, and then went ahead and cut the next steak, seasoning and flipping it, leaving bloody lines on the seasoning bottle until she realized just how unsanitary that probably was, and got the idea to clean it, then grab a paper towel and fold it over a few times, wrap the bottle and tape it. Viper raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think I’ve seen you do something so smart.”

Smart? She just called her smart? Sure, it was backhanded, but she’d never heard her call anybody smart. Especially not her. She threw on a British accent as she said, “don’t need anymore bloody spice shakers, huh?”

She hummed. But it could have been a laugh. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a British person sound like that.”

“Phoenix said if I ever try to do the accent in his presence again he’ll set me on fire.”

“As is his right.”

Jett snorted, returning to her cutting and seasoning. “You’re not…wrong.”

Viper finally finished her unholy pile of starch and set up two pots of water to boil the approximate 230,000 potatoes, give or take a half dozen. Jett finished her own job and set the steaks up on pans to broil, Viper taking over from there and telling her to “get the beans ready”. Considering she’d only ever eaten green beans straight from the can at 2am this was a bit of a difficult task. Difficult, unfamiliar tasks tended to make her nervous. But Jett wasn’t about to be shown up by some beans.

So she confidently put the burner on high, grabbed a handful and dropped them in the water once it was boiling, thus splashing water over burners, herself, countertop and floor, sending up a grand sizzling equitable to the sounds of demon laughter bubbling up from hell. She yipped, jumping away, in doing so smashing into Viper, who almost slipped on the water, caught herself on the counter and flicked the gas off.

The look she gave Jett could have boiled the ocean.

“Get out.” She said. Low, dangerous, like the buzz of a rattlesnake’s tail.

Jett scurried backward, tapping her hip to count how many of her knives she still had on her as her calf knocked against a chair at one of the circular dining tables in the room. She sat in it, not entirely sure as to why. Probably because Viper hadn’t straight up killed her, and she had the self-preservation instincts of that rat from Ratatouille.

She watched from her seat, how she moved around the kitchen as if on a breeze, smoothly following the curve of the wind, twirling between the meat and the potatoes, setting up the beans by gently placing them into the pot (which, in hindsight, was definitely common sense that Jett…apparently didn’t possess). The beautiful potato skins were tossed in one large bowl and covered with water, then a timer was set. It felt like watching an artist, spawning a question in her head.

Viper saw her staring and glowered. “Why are you still here?”

Her feet fidgeted, and she clasped her fingers together to avoid tugging at her hair, like her Mom had taught her. Better to look pensive than apprehensive. “Were you a chef?”

Viper stared, glower softening to a neutral expression tilting towards surprise. She glanced back towards the kitchen, slowly crossing her arms under her chest. “Why would you ask that?”

“Well, cooking is like, a form of chemistry, right?” She pulled the only fact she’d ever retained from Home Ec out of her ass, hoping and praying it worked, cause otherwise she was probably going to be banished from the room…and maybe dinner. Man, she really hoped she wasn’t banned from dinner.

Thankfully, the wind blew in some luck. “I was a double major at University of Washington. Culinary Arts and Chemistry.”

She let herself smile, just a bit. “So, you’re good with knives, too.”

“You could say so.” She was eyeing her, and instead of sitting in the chair across from her, she leaned against the nearby wall. “Did you have any training with your knives?”

Jett was surprised she’d bothered to ask. “I taught myself. Since I was a kid.” She leaned back and swung her hand casually, swirling a knife into the air to illustrate her point. “My mom wanted me to go to college but, like, I can control wind with my mind, so that sounded kind of lame.”

Viper cocked her head to the side. “So, your powers, it’s all mental manipulation?”

Jett shrugged slightly. “I mean, mostly. I also gotta like, move my hands and legs and stuff. But I mostly just think about it. Or don’t-like it’s natural now, like walking or breathing.”

“Fascinating,” she said with a thoughtful tone, returning to the food. Somewhat hesitant, Jett joined her, at a respectful distance. She stabbed the potatoes, and apparently that meant something because she drained them immediately after, chucked in some butter and started sprinkling some salt and pepper and beating the living shit out of them with a hand mixer. She noticed Jett standing and nodded toward the sink. “Make yourself useful and drain the potato skins. Toss them in the bowl with olive oil and the spice mix and put them on a pan in the oven.”

She blinked, then shrugged and slipped around her. Now that she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to get speared through, or find her way into another poison pit, she decided she…sort of liked working with Viper in the kitchen. She was rude but she also was sort of…normal? As normal as she was capable of being? She did as directed, coating the skins until they looked unhealthy and chuckling as she threw in the spices. “Y’know, I probably should have asked if this was poisoned before I put it on.”

Viper huffed, turning off the mixer with a click. “Please, not everything I do involves poison. I wasn’t born with, with tubocurarine dripping from my fingertips, hell I wasn’t like this, I was made into it.”

She tossed everything in the oven. Jett paused, gripping her arms, trying to seem casual. She’d heard a few throwaway comments before, they all had, but right now she thought, perhaps, if she phrased it right, she could ask certain questions without sounding (and being) a total dick. “What’s tubocurarine?”

“A neurotoxin, first used for poison arrows and later to keep muscles relaxed during surgery. It would paralyze you for a couple hours, basically.”

“Oh, interesting.” She bit her lip, digging her nails into her skin. “Hey, you don’t have to say anything but, can I, can I ask who?”

Viper paused, turning slowly to look down her nose at her. She was, again, reminded of the other woman’s venomous namesake. “Excuse me?”

“Who, uh…made you, uh,” in fear of phrasing it wrong, Jett gestured vaguely at Viper, who narrowed her eyes.

The air was heavy, but it wasn’t boiling like with the beans. It wasn’t even rumbling. It was contemplative, quiet, even a little sad. Like a waveless ocean. “I don’t know.” She said finally.

Jett blinked. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I mean I don’t know.” She shrugged smoothly, though she was visibly tense. Like when I called her mom¸ Jett thought, a stone sinking in her stomach. “My family, my friends, myself-it all was taken from me. And I don’t have faces or names to put it to.”

Her shoulders dropped. “Shit.”

Viper let out a very uncharacteristic snort, pulling the steaks and potato skins from the oven. “That’s about the best way to describe it. Perhaps in some ways it’s my fault, I didn’t fight it as much as I should have…” she stopped, staring at the steaks and then shaking her head, taking a deep breath. “Though if I ever do find out who, they’ll wish they’d killed me. Anyway,” she gave Jett a sidelong glance. “Now you. Venice.”

A bolt of anxiety speared through her being and she gripped the strap of her tank top reflexively. “I-I didn’t do it.”

“A floating city and a wind radiant found at its base? Please.”

She pursed her lips. “I. Didn’t. Do. It.”

She turned slightly, furrowing her brow, eyes darting over her face as she began to move the steaks to a plate. “You’re serious.”

“Yeah.” She looked at her feet. “I was there when it started cracking, and I used my powers to jump off and landed on some chunk that hadn’t come up with the rest of the island. Some guy got me on his phone camera. Nobody believed me when I said I had nothing to do with it. And if I’m being honest with myself, they probably never will.” She sighed and forced herself to look up, braced for the pity, or the accusation-you’re bad at lying, she’d say, like so many others.

But in place of either, there was a slight, slight smile. “Guess we have more in common than I thought, Jett.”

---

Everyone was very thankful to not have to try and find the politest way to refuse Breach’s lye-soaked cod. Jett saying she helped also reassured everyone that the food didn’t contain Viper’s latest experiment. At least, that was until Viper was noticeably not eating, glancing around the tables, sipping only her water as the members of Valorant gradually stopped chewing, some digging into their potatoes, Breach eyeing his steak suspiciously. Jett glanced around and suddenly choked, falling off her chair.

Phoenix screamed, scrambling backward over his chair, the others quickly beginning to scoot away until Jett sat up again, grinning.

“Gotcha,” Viper said, smiling over her glass.

#fluff #humor #light angst #cooking together #viper valorant #jett valorant #valorant #writing commission #commissions open

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eralisse · 3 years

Text

Brothers Conflict: Passion Pink - Kaname route - Main Scene 9 - Vacation Day 2

It has been a very long time since I last posted anything. I had left the Brothers Conflict fandom and then recently came back, and then restarted playing Passion Pink and Kaname’s route (since I never finished it before). So I guess I’ll start off with a scene translation.

This is the second day of the Asahina family’s summer vacation, when everyone goes out searching for Wataru. I very recently got my hands on the light novels, and I can safely say that the game has more dialogue lines in the identical segments. (The novel has more narration around the dialogue.)

Brothers Conflict Translations Index

Main Scene 9: Vacation Day 2

August 12 (Thursday)

Juli: Today’s the second day of the family vacation, isn’t it?

Ema: Yeah. I’m going to enjoy it wholeheartedly!

Juli: What do you plan to do today, Chi?

Ema: First, I think I’ll head to the ocean. What will you do, Juli?

Juli: I’m still sleepy, so I’ll be at the cottage. Be careful out there.

Ema: Yeah, will do. Anyway, I’m off.

---

(Mm, the sea breeze certainly feels nice.)

Masaomi: Hey!

Ema: Masaomi-san… What’s going on, you seem panicked?

Masaomi: Have you seen Wataru?

Ema: Hm? Wataru-chan? No, I haven’t seen him… Um… What’s happened with Wataru-chan?

Masaomi: The truth is, I haven’t seen him in a while.

Ema: Oh!? Since when?

Masaomi: He had breakfast with everyone. But, after that…

Ema: Oh no, he couldn’t have gone to the ocean by himself…!?

Masaomi: No, we come here every year, and he’s been told strongly to play only in the shallows, so I think he should be alright from that…

Ema: …

Masaomi: … Sorry, I’ve made you anxious.

Ema: No. Anyway, let’s split up and search! [**1]

Masaomi: Yes, thank you.

---

Kaname: What’s up? Has something happened?

Ema: It seems like Wataru-chan hasn’t been seen in a while… Just now, I was talking with Masaomi-san about splitting up and searching.

Kaname: ...! Got it. We’ll work with you. Azusa, go back to the cottage, and tell Kyo-nii and Iori about this. Tsubaki, go give a shout to Subaru and Yuusuke, then Rui.

Azusa: Understood.

Tsubaki: Alright.

(What should I do…?)

[Choice: Search the boardwalk]

Ema: If I recall correctly, there’s a boardwalk nearby, right? I’ll go look over there!

Kaname: No… You should go back to the cottage.

Ema: What…? Why!?

Kaname: There was a forecast for rain in the afternoon, and also, you’re not familiar with the surroundings?

Ema: But! When everyone else is searching together, for me to sit around waiting, I can’t do that! Because… Because Wataru-chan is my little brother!

Kaname: …

Ema: …

Kaname: *sigh*... Fine. In exchange, you’re coming with me. We’ll search the boardwalk together.

Ema: Okay!

---

Ema: Wataru-chan!

Kaname: Wataru--!

(Wataru-chan… In this rain, where did you go…?)

Ema: … Achoo!

Kaname: Imouto-chan. You okay?

Ema: Y-yes…

Kaname: The rain got heavier than before, hasn’t it? Don’t force yourself.

Ema: I-I’m fine…! A-achoo!

Kaname: Being this soaked, and sneezing like that… How is that “fine”?

Ema: … I’m fine! Until we find Wataru-chan, I’m not going back!

Kaname: … For crying out loud, you… You’re more stubborn than I expected.

Ema: Hm…?

[Kaname wraps an arm around Ema.]

(He… he’s hugging me…!?)

Ema: K-Kaname-san…?

Kaname: … As I thought, your body is completely chilled…

Ema: …!

(The strength of his arm around me, his body temperature, my heart is pounding from them… This pounding… Kaname-san is my brother, so why is this feeling…) [**2]

Kaname: … Thank you. Even though it’s gotten like this, you’re still searching for Wataru frantically.

Ema: Th-that’s because Wataru-chan is my little brother…!

Kaname: Yeah, that’s true. But you know. To me, you are my precious little sister. That’s why, I don’t want you to force yourself. …Got it?

(Th-that’s…)

Ukyo: Kaname!!

(That voice was Ukyo-san!? Oh, I accidentally shook off Kaname-san’s arm…)

Ukyo: I see you’ve searched all the way over here.

Kaname: Has something happened, Kyo-nii?

Ukyo: Yes. Wataru’s been found. Everyone’s already returned to the cottage, so you two should also hurry and warm up inside. You must be frozen from the rain, aren’t you?

Kaname: Ahh, he’s been found, that’s good.

(... Even though Kaname-san is acting like nothing has happened, I’m still a bit embarrassed, and can’t look at him…)

Ukyo: … Ema-san? Your face seems a little red… Oh no, you haven’t gotten a fever from the rain…?

Ema: I- I’m fine! Anyway, let’s hurry back to the cottage!!

Ukyo: Is that so? Then let’s be off.

(... During the time I didn’t know where Wataru-chan was, my heart was pounding from Kaname-san… and I was somewhat insensitive… But…)

---

Wataru: … I’m really sorry.

Masaomi: Yes, but it’s good that you’re not hurt and nothing bad happened to you.

Kaname:Well? What were you doing and where?

Iori: He was playing hide-and-seek with her pet, and fell asleep.

Tsubaki: Oiii, you. You’re a kid, so don’t be wandering off as you please all by yourself, yeah?

Ema: It’s okay, Tsubaki-san.

Wataru: … Hmph.

Azusa: … Wataru?

Wataru: I’m not a kid anymore.

Tsubaki: Playing hide-and-seek and falling asleep, you’re definitely still a kid.

Wataru: … That’s not true.

Ukyo: But everybody got frantic and was searching for you, you know? Do you understand that?

Wataru: … Yes, I’m sorry.

Ukyo: Since you’ve caused everyone such trouble, I’ll definitely be getting help from you for dinner preparations, right?

Wataru: …!! Y-yes!!

(Ukyo-san’s punishment looks strict… Wataru-chan, you can do it!)

---

Ema: Ah…! Subaru-san. The jacket I borrowed yesterday got soaked, so I’ll return it to you after I do laundry. After you went to the trouble of lending it to me, sorry about that. [*1]

Subaru: Ahh... It’s fine. You must be tired from today. Take a break.

(Oh, I don’t think Subaru-san has ever been so kind before…?)

Ema: Still, I must apologize… Ah, if it’s alright, I’ll wash your wet clothes as well? Here, please undress!

Subaru: Wha-!? S-stop…

Wataru: Onee-chan? Isn’t taking off clothes for having fun at night?

Ema: … Ehhh!!??

Kaname: *snigger*

Subaru: Y-you! What on earth just came out of Wataru’s mouth…!

Ema: You’ve got it wrong! That wasn’t me, I didn’t say anything…!! [**3]

Kamame: Ahahahaha!

Ema: KA-NA-ME-SAN…!

Kaname: Aha, ahaha! Sorry, but it’s just so funny…!

Ema: … You’re laughing too much.

(Argh, that Kaname…!)

Kaname: Haha! Imouto-chan, you can leave the laundry for today. Take it easy together with us?

(Even though a lot of things happened today… it was good to be able to work together with everyone. I hope tomorrow is another good day!)

----------------

Notes:

1. The “No” has a “Don’t worry about it“ connotation.

2. Where I have “heart is pounding”, the text is “doki doki”. So the connotation has more nervous/butterflies in stomach/blushing/etc in it.

3. ”I didn’t say anything” is more like “I didn’t say anything to teach Wataru that.”

In the last section, Wataru is quoting what Kaname said during the previous vacation day, when Ema changes to her swimsuit, but Subaru objects and gives her his jacket. In Kaname’s route, and in the novel, Kaname asks what’s up with the (ugly) jacket and tries to take it off her/persuade her to take it off. Wataru asks why he’s trying to take off her jacket, and Kaname responds with something like “Ah, right. Undressing is for after the kids go to bed. Then we can have some nighttime fun!”. The novel dialogue stops right after Ema says that she didn’t say anything, and Kaname is absent in that scene. Personally, I think the game closes the loop on this scene a lot better.

4. In the scene with Kaname and Ema out in the rain, I had the translation as Kaname hugging Ema with one arm, because I assumed they would need to keep moving. (There’s no plurals; it’s just the character for “arm” but could mean either “arm” or “arms” and is not specific.) However, the novel has a picture of them full-stop, face-to-face hugging. Really, you two? Wataru could be drowning for all you know-- KEEP MOVING. Although, I suppose given Kaname’s line about not wanting her to push herself too hard, it also makes sense for them to stop?

5. When Kaname is taking charge of the search efforts, Ema has slightly more to say here than in the novel. Here, she’s like “what kind of person do you think I am to sit around while you’re all looking for Wataru”. But in the book, all she says is “Because Wataru is my brother.” Then, in both versions, the two have a staring contest that Kaname concedes. I like the game dialogue better, but Ema’s strong front is a bit ruined in the following sequence.

6. Another change is that in the game, it’s Ukyo who finds them in the rain. But in the novel, it’s Tsubaki, and he literally only says two things: “Kana-nii!” and “We found Wataru!”. None of Ukyo’s mothering.

----------------

Comments:

Is this fandom still alive? Not that there were that many fans of Kaname that I could tell... He’s still best boi/man, great character, and the only reason I’m revisiting this fandom. I wish there was more fan fiction/art for him... *sigh*

Lastly, from the various discussions I’ve read over the years, there doesn’t seem to be a clear reason for why Kaname falls in love with her? My thought is that he falls in love with her during this sequence, when she goes out of her way to go look for Wataru. To those of you a little more familiar with the novels, the most important thing to Kaname is his family. In the following scene, when Kaname and Ema take a walk on the beach, Kaname has a line that translates to “Today, you so desperately searched for Wataru... If anything ever happens to you, I’ll come save you. Thank you (for what you did today). That a girl like you is my sister, I think is truly great.”

#brothers conflict #passion pink #main scene #translation #asahina kaname #kaname asahina

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tackyink · 4 years

Text

Still holding onto the hope of running out of steam soon so I can work on other fics. In any case, this has a title now. It’s Degrees of Separation.

I hate this chapter solely because in my mind it was supposed to be one, then it got long and turned into two awkward chapters, and by splitting them I was left with this thing in which nothing happens. Why would you want to read this? I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to read it, even though I did. Repeatedly. To edit out all the typos I’m sure I’ve left in. I’m going to put a Golden Sun stream on the background, play Animal Crossing and drown my frustration in Coca Cola. It’s been a long week.

One last detour before Sabaody. Alex is bored, the Heart Pirates reenter the scene, and Law has an “if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions” moment.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

— — — — — — — —

Chapter 3

There was a storm.

Alex didn’t know if it was related to the Aqua Laguna that the ship had set out to avoid or it was simply one of the Grand Line’s meteorological whims, but two days after departure, the noon sky went so dark it was like a moonless night had come down early, the winds picked up, and the waves started to beat against the ship’s hull in an uneven rhythm.

The crew was all over the place, trying to steer the ship and reef the sails as they ushered the passengers inside to keep them from falling overboard. Alex had been caught in bad weather travelling before, but never to this extent. She had a hard time thinking of anything scarier than being at the mercy of a windy sea. Nowhere to run, nothing to do except wait and pray that the waters would take pity on you and let you live another day. Alex wasn’t the praying sort, so while she waited below deck with a group of people as scared as she was, if not more, she couldn’t even do that.

The nervous chatter of the passengers and the parents’ attempts to console their children were muffled by the deafening sounds of the wind, the waves, the creaking wood, and the crew’s rushed footsteps on the deck.

Alex stood the entire time in front of a porthole in the dining hall where they had gathered. It helped with the seasickness from the violent rocking of ship, it was better than to look at the other people, and, ironically, storms were her favorite kind of weather. She wondered what would be worse if they sunk, getting caught on deck and risking being swallowed by the ocean, or waiting for the insides of the ship to become a water tomb. For a long time, or at least it seemed like it, that was the main thought that repeated in her mind, until the possibility of dying felt so remote that she wasn’t even registering. Like when you picked a word and turned it around in your mouth and mind so many times that it lost all meaning. Of course she couldn’t die there. She had never done so before, so why start now?

It was absurd, but it helped. And it turned out to be right, too.

After a while, the storm subsided, and an hour later, the crew let them out on deck again. The ship wasn’t intact, but they hadn’t lost anybody, and that was as much as one could ask for when dealing with an angry sea.

In the end, there was only one major inconvenience: due to the damage, the ship had to change its course in order to dock somewhere safe to undergo repairs.

❦

Her hair had gotten longer to the point of annoyance. The tips brushed her shoulders already; long enough to get in her face whenever it wanted, but too short to tie it in a decent ponytail. Sure, she could have done it anyway, but she was vain and would have rather dealt with the hassle than solve the problem in an aesthetically suboptimal way.

The sunspots on the left side of her face were getting more noticeable, as were the dark circles under her eyes and the shy wrinkles that were attempting to come out. For someone who could spend so much time picking her appearance apart in front of a mirror, she didn’t look particularly healthy or well put together. She supposed that was part of the appeal, in a masochistic way: to find as many faults as she could, and invent some if needed.

Applying concealer under her eyes and red lipstick just for the sake of having some color on her face, she thought she needed to find herself a headband and a healthier pastime posthaste. Porta Bella was a quaint town, but there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment, and she’d had only her thoughts for company for too long.

She had been stuck there for two weeks. After narrowly avoiding disaster, the ship had been moored in the harbor for several days, and by the time it was fit enough to sail, the captain decided to go back to Water 7 to have proper repairs done. The passengers had been given the choice to remain in Porta Bella and find another ship, or to return to Water 7 with the crew. Going back wasn’t an option for Alex when Sabaody was so close that it felt like she could have seen it if she climbed on a tall tree, she didn’t trust a half-baked repair job to keep her safe, and, most importantly, someone had tried to kill Iceburg and Enies Lobby had kind of blown up in the following days of her departure from Water 7.

She didn’t want to think that the tracksuit shipwright had something to do with it, but the conspiracy theorist in her told her that it was totally his fault. That nose? Could totally be used as a murder weapon and nobody would be none the wiser.

The few passengers aside from Alex who had decided to stay in Porta Bella were already gone, leaving the inn she was staying at delightfully empty, but also making her wonder if she had messed up by not taking the first random ship that would let her sail away from there.

The island was small, so much so that Porta Bella was the only town in it, and much of it was empty. For many years there had been a migratory tendency pushing young people from nearby islands to the Sabaody Archipelago, and this one seemed to have fallen victim to it, too. The moderately long recording time of the Log Pose didn’t play in its favor, either. Five days and a half was a long time to wait when the Red Line was only a couple of days away, so not many ships stopped there. An abandoned watchtower in the outskirts of town was the only other notable location.

She left her inn room that morning, picking up a tea to go, and hoping that a good slap of early morning breeze in the face would wake her up.

Every day since she arrived, she went to the port to look for any newly arrived ships and talk to the sailors. Every time, if there was a new one at all, she was told that there were reports of increased slaver activity in those waters, and that they were headed anywhere but the Sabaody Archipelago until Marine HQ got its shit together and stopped the kidnapping crews sailing rampant. Given that the Marines must have been scrambling to recover from the loss of Enies Lobby, nobody thought they were going to get on the case anytime soon.

These series of unfortunate coincidences didn’t surprise her. Her life was often comprised of really small strokes of bad luck that were nothing more than inconvenience on their own, but that added up to really grate on her nerves. This was business as usual, so she just had to keep trying. The temporary finish line was only a stone’s throw away.

Not that human trafficking stopped at any point of the year, but she hadn’t taken into account the seasonal opening of the archipelago’s biggest auction. Thinking that not even the schedule of the Human Auctioning House had changed during her time away gave her a twisted sense of familiarity. That son of a bitch kept finding novel ways to fuck her over without even being aware of her existence. It had to be a gift, for sure.

As she walked to the half empty docks, she hoped that that was the day she lucked out. She had already decided that, if she couldn’t find a direct ship to Sabaody in the following three days, she’d take the roundabout way and sail to a bigger island with, hopefully, a wider variety of ships. She would go completely broke in the process (and there she found the thing that was as terrifying as being caught in a storm at open sea), but one had to crack eggs to make an omelette.

Ten minutes and an empty cup of tea into her stroll, she stopped in front the single newly arrived ship and thought that maybe she hadn’t lucked out, but that sure as hell life was full of weird coincidences. Because there were few submarines sailing the Grand Line, even fewer painted yellow, and she guessed that only one with that particular Jolly Roger plastered on it. Her wish of seeing it up close had been granted when she least expected it, and it didn’t disappoint. It had a curious design, half ship and half submarine. A shipmarine.

Feeling revitalized by the pun, she craned her neck and got on her tiptoes to accomplish nothing at all. She couldn’t see any of the pirates on the deck, at least from where she was standing, and what else was she supposed to do, walk closer to find a friendly face and say hi like a functioning human being would? Yeah, no. She simply stood there and stared like a creep.

The paint job of the thing was hypnotic, and she didn’t mean it as a compliment. It looked like the idea of a man who thought the peak of design was making his vehicle look like a wasp with a decal of the word ‘DEATH’ instead of stripes to look extra edgy. And okay, they were pirates, pirates killed people, it was something that came with the job – but plastering it over the ship like that was a little heavy handed, and she didn’t have any doubts as to which guy with matching tattoos had come up with those brilliant design choices. Come to think of it, wasn’t there a song about a yellow submarine? The one from those singers her mom liked when she was young… Maybe the captain was a fan, too. Maybe they sung it on board. She laughed at the thought.

It didn’t leave her indifferent, that was for sure, and that could count as a compliment, since she had seen a ton of ships throughout her life. Props to Trafalgar Law for standing out among the crowd.

If the pirates weren’t around at the moment, it had to mean they were inside of the ship or already out in town. It was early still, but she was sure it was a matter of time until she ran into them – the town was pretty small, around a hundred, counting sailors, on a good day, news travelled fast, and these guys didn’t dress unassumingly.

With that in mind, she kept an eye out for familiar faces and resumed her unfruitful rounds around the port. Another day, another set of rejections. She tossed her paper cup in a trash can and made her way to the coffee shop where she always had the second tea of the day, sometimes even the third, if she was feeling particularly down about her current predicament.

She placed her order at the counter and waited for it. The owner, a balding middle aged man whose name she didn’t know but who had started to get chatty after she showed up a few days in a row, tried to strike up a conversation while he heated the water. “Did you hear? A pirate crew arrived in town last night.”

Alex wasn’t much for conversation in the mornings, and usually her replies to his attempts were rather apathetic, but the owner had struck gold with this particular topic. “I just saw the ship,” she repeated. “Have they done anything?”

“Not yet,” he replied with the clear implication that they soon would. “But it’s a Supernova’s crew, from what I’ve heard. Their captain’s a scary guy – how do they call him…?”

She had mixed feelings about that. She’d seen scary first hand, and in her experience it came in the shape of kidnapping crews, bubble helmets, or suits and fedoras. And ultimately, it was the fedoras’ fault she was in that coffee shop in the first place.

“Surgeon of Death,” she replied. There was no doubt that with that price on his head he was a walking danger, but after their first encounter, she had a feeling he was more the selective type than the let’s wreck everything in our path kind of guy. Not that his list of attributed crimes would lead anybody to think that. “Do you have trouble with pirates often? Being close to Sabaody and all.”

“Sometimes, but they usually go to more interesting places. It used to be as easy as calling the garrison to get rid of ‘em, but with Marineford so close it’s no wonder no one wants to be here any longer.”

“There used to be Marines here?”

“Yes, at the watchtower in the outskirts, but they left after some of the rooftop caved in. Building’s condemned now. A pity, ‘cause the watchtower’s been there forever, and they’ve let it fall apart.”

“That’s a shame,” she said. “How old’s the tower?”

The water started boiling then, and he turned around to remove it from the fire and make her drink. “Tale goes that it’s old as the stone entrance, but who knows,” he said with his back turned to her. “It’s not like we have any experts to come check.” He slid her the drink over the counter. “In case, try to avoid those guys. A woman traveling alone is an easy target for criminals.”

“Yes, I know,” she replied, putting a few belis in the counter and taking the cup by the handle. “Thanks.”

She chose to sit on the terrace, next to the railing that separated it from the sidewalk, to have a good view of the street. She was in a sort of commercial district, if a main street with a dozen of shops could be called that. Most people who stopped at the island had to pass by sooner or later, so it was the busiest place in town. Not so early, though. It wasn’t opening hours yet.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched like a hawk the man who was monopolizing the only issue of the World Economic Journal and snatched it as soon as he got up to leave, so fast that it turned the heads of the other two people on the terrace.

News of the assault of Enies Lobby had been filling pages for a week already, and that day wasn’t an exception. The Straw Hat Pirates had done the unthinkable, and while in other circumstances Alex might have been watching the situation with amusement from afar, she was also pretty annoyed at them, because their stunt no doubt played into the poor supervision in the waters near Sabaody. On the other hand, she hoped that this also meant that neither Marines nor Cipher Pol would be very invested in finding her in the near future if she ended up a suspect.

She was also a little worried about Iceburg’s condition, but the newspapers hadn’t reported his death, so she had to assume he had recovered from the attempt on his life.

She skimmed over the usual columns prattling about the lack of security at sea and how worrying it was that a whole new generation of rookies with astronomical bounties were about to set foot in the Sabaody Archipelago at the same time. She didn’t think having a handful extra menaces sailing around mattered anymore, considering the state of the world at large, but the pearl-clutching sold newspapers, and she wondered about her sense of self-preservation when she realized with disappointment that, at the rate she was moving, she was going to miss the Supernova meetup in Sabaody. Her curiosity was going to bite her in the ass one day, she thought, before remembering that it already had, and that was the exact reason she was in her current position.

She skim read a few pages looking for interesting headlines, getting to the less important news that didn’t warrant spreads, editorials and pictures that took up half the page, and paled when she read the contents of an unassuming text box.

An unfortunate accident in the island of Harlun had blown up the local library while it was undergoing renovations. Nobody had been hurt, said the write-up, but the building had been destroyed in the ensuing fire and an investigation was still ongoing to determine what had happened. At least she guessed that the last part of the article said so, because she choked on her tea as she read it and spit some of it on the paper, making the ink run.

It couldn’t be a coincidence. Well, it technically could be, but no way she was buying that. The real question was if they’d be able to link the Poneglyph to her, and considering she that she was the person who spent the most time in the archive and she had conveniently left right before construction work took place, she had a pretty good chance to win that lottery. Oh, God, what if her coworkers mentioned that she used to go to the archive on Sundays, alone?

Her first impulse was to bang her head on the table and hide it between her arms, but the surface was sticky, so she ended up regretting it immediately. Instead, she put her elbows on the table, and covered her face with her hands. Her heart was beating loudly and her mind was running wild thinking of possible courses of action. She was on a timer. Getting to Sabaody as soon as possible was a necessity now. If there was a place she could hide, ironically, it was there.

“I see life’s treating you well.”

Alex’s heart tried to leap out of her mouth when she heard someone talk to her from so up close, but one of the perks of being born with a stick up her ass was that she only tensed up when she was startled, so she saved herself the embarrassment of yelping or jumping on her chair. She removed the hands from her face to look at the person, and the sight of a spotted furry hat and a yellow and black hoodie punched her in the eyes.

“Oh, hello,” she said, feeling more relaxed when she realized it was the Surgeon of Death leaning against the balustrade, not law enforcement. Her life had taken a turn for the surreal in a very short time, had it not?

His smirk faltered. “You aren’t surprised?”

“Saw your ship,” she said with some difficulty, and she drank some tea to swallowed the knot that had formed in her throat. Of all the times for him to appear... “Town’s small, we had to run into each other.”

“Hm.”

If she exerted a bit of imagination, she’d say he looked a bit disappointed. Why would he? No idea, but it was funny to think he was, and she was in dire need of funny.

He asked, “What are you doing here? This is far from your island.”

Farther than he knew, she almost said, but that was a can of worms and not relevant in the situation at hand. Feeling too overwhelmed to give long explanations, she handed him the newspaper open by the page she’d been reading. Talking could happen once she arranged her own thoughts, and only then.

“That’s…” He took it from her hands and read for a few seconds. An inscrutable expression gradually morphed into a look of pure indignation. “What’s the meaning of this?”

She was taken aback by the unexpected display of emotion. It was odd to see him react so strongly to something that didn’t concern him. “It isn’t that surprising, considering—”

“How is it not?” He retorted, annoyed. “Sora can’t lose against these weaklings!”

She stared at him in confusion. “What?” she blurted out, realizing afterwards that he was talking about the comic strip at the bottom of the page. And to be fair, she was going to tell him to look further up when the meaning of his words sunk in, but then she was the one leaning over the railing to look at the paper he was holding. “Wait, really? That’s impossible!”

“That’s what I’m saying!”

Upon reading the message under the strip, she complained, “On break until next month?” She sat back on the chair, mumbling, “I don’t even know if I’ll be alive next month,” before taking a sip of tea.

“Summer vacation cliffhanger,” he replied. “And you still haven’t told me what you’re doing here.”

“Read the news above.”

He looked at the paper again, and his eyes widened the smallest fraction as recognition dawned. That reaction was more appropriate. “Do you think it was…?”

“I’m sure of it. It’s too much of a coincidence.”

“Are you wanted now?”

“I don’t know. They have reason to suspect I knew it was there.” And she added with a bit of humor that she wasn’t really feeling, “If I get a bounty, I’ll say it was your fault.”

“I don’t think that’s going to do you any service.” A smirk returned to grace his features as he passed her the newspaper back. He was clearly amused by her misfortune, and that was the only good thing that had come out of it. “What do you plan to do?”

Alex let out a long exhale through her nose. She wanted to say that there was no plan, but there always was. Planning was something she did obsessively. “I need to get to Sabaody as soon as possible.” It was the only option. She could have elaborated, but again, she didn’t feel like it. Too early, too stunned to talk about serious stuff. Reality hadn’t fully sunk in. “You’re on Sora’s side? Really?”

He frowned at her. He did a lot of frowning, she thought. He was going to get wrinkles young. “Of course I am.”

“But he’s a Marine,” she said, a smile growing on her face despite herself. “Aren’t you one of the bad guys?”

“The Germa are vile,” he retorted, and perhaps realizing he was getting too much into the conversation, he went back to the other, much less fun topic. “Sabaody’s going to be full of Marines in no time, though.”

She was internally screaming, but it came out as a drawn out sigh. “Thanks to you, no doubt.”

“The merit isn’t all mine.”

“I know. You lot have been all over the news for weeks.” He looked awfully self-satisfied when she said that. “I guess you’ll be heading straight there after this place?”

“That’s the plan if there aren’t any stops in between. By the way, do you know how long until the Log Pose sets?”

“Five days, ten hours and twenty-six minutes,” she said blandly, repeating the number she had been told by several people when she first arrived to Porta Bella. It made her miserable, so of course she wasn’t going to forget it anytime soon.

“And the seconds?”

It took her way longer than necessary to realize he was messing with her. “Oh, fuck off.” She returned her attention to the newspaper so she didn’t have to look at his stupid face while he thought he was so funny. “Fishman Island’s right around the corner. Try not to drown.”

“We have a submarine.” He sounded amused still. Alex couldn’t tell if annoying her gave him that much joy or if he was having an exceptionally good day. He was pretty cranky for a while back in Duster Town, but now that she recalled, his mood seemed to improve every time he got one over her. “I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

“Regular submarines can’t reach Fishman Island.”

He frowned again. “Why not?”

“It’s too deep. They can’t endure the water pressure.”

She could sense the levity from moments ago was gone by the way his jaw set. “But we heard ships can traverse the Red Line through an underwater route.”

“That’s why you go to Sabaody first.” She was exerting a considerable effort to give these really boring explanations that no one was going to thank her for. “You find yourself a good coating engineer to put a resin bubble around your ship and that’ll protect it.”

He seemed to study this new information from several angles before he spoke. “That’s good to know.”

“You’re welcome.”

He gave her a pointed look, but didn’t say anything about the jab. “Is it easy to find one?”

“There’s an entire section of the archipelago dedicated to it. It’s going to cost you, though. And depending on who you choose, there’ll be a waiting list.”

“Really?”

“Good coating engineers are few and far in between, and nobody wants to find out someone did a half-assed job on their sheep five kilometers underwater.”

“That’s…” He made a meditative pause. “…Reasonable.”

“I thought you were going to say something completely different.”

“It sucks too.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. Her life would be so much easier if one didn’t have to jump through thirty hoops to cross that chunk of rock. “In a hurry to get to the New World?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to, either, because she was busy contemplating a new idea that had sprung in her mind. One that she’d rather avoid if she had other options left, and she wouldn’t know until a few days passed, but... this coincidence could prove to be useful yet.

“What?” He looked at her with suspicion.

“Nothing.” And just to get on his nerves a little, she added. “Yet.”

He fixed his gaze on her face, most likely gauging her intentions. Alex was incapable of looking at people in the eye, but she was good at faking it and not flinching under pressure, so she stared back.

“Do I want to ask?”

“I don’t know. Follow your instincts.”

To her surprise, he dropped it and took a step back from the railing. “I need to go back to the sub and see if the others are up already.”

Good. “For someone with a target so big on you, you wander a lot without them.”

“I like taking walks alone,” he said, like he didn’t think much of it. Like he could not fathom how he of all people could possibly be in danger from anybody else. “See you around?”

Was that a wish, a threat, or a pleasantry? “Without a doubt,” she replied, not bothering to hide the tedium in her voice. Damn empty town and damn slavers. “This town isn’t big enough for the two of us.”

She could have sworn he smiled a little at that, but Law shoved his hands in his pockets and made his leave too fast to see.

He was far enough that he wouldn’t hear her if she spoke in a normal volume when she remembered something important, so she resorted to raising her voice before the Heart crew did something they could regret. “Go to the Old Brewery if you don’t want to die! The Silver Fountain serves piss for drinks!”

He turned to look at her with the same curiosity back when she’d told him weapons weren’t allowed in the library, but this time he nodded in acknowledgement before making his exit.

The other customers on the terrace stared at her warily, but honestly, she couldn’t bring herself to feel bad for them even when the owner immediately came out to ask if she was okay and if the scary surgeon had said anything bad to her. At least something interesting was happening.

❦

Alex had a love-hate relationship with heights.

She inevitably got queasy when she was somewhere high up that didn’t have barriers or anything she could hold onto, but that didn’t stop her from going up there, anyway. It was like a very stupid magnetic pull that one day would end with her skull split open.

(It was the wind and the view. She knew that. It was also one of the few options she had to feel taller than most people.

But mostly the wind.)

The stone arch at the entrance of the town that gave Porta Bella its name was surrounded by the remains of a stone wall. First century, she guessed by the roughness of the stone blocks and the bit of mortar she scraped from between when she inspected it for the first time. It was easily over two meters, and only because the topmost part had fallen off. The blocks that hadn’t been taken away for use in newer constructions were still next to the wall, inviting anyone who’d dare to step on them to use them to climb.

She knew she wasn’t the only idiot who had felt the temptation, because the stone was worn from use. She’d also seen kids running at the top of the wall and no one had tried to stop them, and there were worse ways to channel all the nervous energy she had from reading that newspaper article.

She wasn’t a very proficient climber, but the blocks were positioned in such a way that getting to the top was easy as pie. No doubts someone had moved them for that exact purpose. When she was high enough, she threw a leg over the wall, then the other one, and sat facing the harbor.

The wind was nice up there.

She wouldn’t stand on the wall for all the money in the world and getting down was going to be an ordeal, but that was a problem for the Alex of the future.

That day had woken up to four ships in the harbor, counting the pirates’ submarine. Two would go away at the end of the week. The third was leaving that night. No vessels on the horizon.

She sighed. If the pirates were on an adventure, they sure had the shittiest of lucks docking only in the most boring islands the sea could offer.

With nothing better to do at the moment, and trying to delay as much as possible the moment she’d regret climbing that high, she moved towards the shadow of the arch without lifting her butt from the stone and rested her back against it.

She was at a loss. Sailing further away from the Sabaody Archipelago was counterproductive, but so was staying in the same island for too long, since she had no means of protecting herself if something happened. Then again, if she ended up broke before she got to Sabaody, she’d have to stay in whatever island she was to earn money to keep travelling.

All the options sucked. Maybe she needed to sleep on it to see what the lesser evil was. She had, after all, a few days to make a decision.

She looked at the sea, tinted dark green by her sunglasses, in what she assumed was Sabaody’s direction. So close, yet so far away. The skies were clear and the water calm, and though there weren’t any sailors to be found in the harbor, she could see the shadow of a couple of fishing boats in the distance. Wasn’t there a song that went like that? I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay, wastin' time…

She hummed, looking at nowhere in particular and letting her thoughts drift with the waves.

❦

She knew better than to cut through the lawless areas alone when it was getting late, so she had no one else to fault when she split from her group of classmates after spending their free day in Sabaody Park. It was only her and her stupid pride that didn’t allow her to admit that she didn’t think this was a great idea and that she didn’t want to go back to her room alone.

She broke into a sprint as soon as she heard the smallest rustle behind her, and that advantage proved to be essential, because someone started chasing after her. It sounded like more than one person, but she didn’t have time to look or tell how many sets of footsteps were behind her – she just ran like her life depended on it in the direction of the bridge that connected to the next grove, hoping that there would be other people there, and then—

—then she saw an open bar, a lone building in an even lonelier grove.

She rushed inside it, gasping for air so hard that she couldn’t speak, no matter how much she tried to explain to the bartender why she had barged in like that.

It wasn’t necessary.

“Don’t worry, dear, they’ve been hanging around these parts for a while,” she said, leading her to a chair with a gentle hair. “You’re safe here.” Her warm black eyes turned to someone else, and though Alex had trouble focusing on what was going on, she saw an old man with long white hair. “Why don’t you go take out the trash, Ray? They’ve driven off my clientele enough.”

“Sure,” the man replied, getting up from his stool and going outside.

Alex thought it was a horrible idea to send an old man to fight off a kidnapping crew, but that was because she didn’t know these people yet.

“Don’t worry about him. Here,” the woman gave her a glass of water. “Name’s Shakky. Rest all you need.”

❦

Footsteps approached. She shut up immediately.

“I like that song.”

Singing helped when she had too much anxious energy. It was probably related to breathing control. She had stopped anxiety attacks in the making like that sometimes.

It didn’t help at all when someone had been listening in and she hadn’t noticed.

“Oh. Thanks. Um, hi.”

“Hi,” Bepo said smiling. “I heard from Captain you were here.”

Even though she was sitting on top of the wall, Bepo’s head went past it. If he stood on his tiptoes, he could have rested his head on her legs. On one hand, it was a little aggravating that she had to climb so high up only to be marginally taller than him. On the other, Alex was filled with the urge to scratch his ears.

“Yeah, I’m stuck waiting for a ship,” she told him. “Ideally, you wouldn’t have found me here.”

“Oh? Where are you going?”

“Sabaody.”

“Isn’t that very close? How come you haven’t found a ship?”

“There’s kidnapping crews infesting the waters. You know what those are?”

“Uh… isn’t it in the name?”

Alex blinked. “Right. Don’t mind me.”

He fell into thought for a few seconds. “Why are they kidnapping people?”

“To sell. They get auctioned in the archipelago.”

Bepo frowned. “I see.”

“Hey, don’t worry,” she said, smiling for his sake. “Nothing’s going to happen to your crew. You’re strong.”

He beamed with pride. “Yeah, we are! We’ve been training for years to come here!”

Alex mirrored his expression without thinking. “Your Captain said you’ve been friends since you were kids. Did you—”

“Bepo!” Someone called out. “What are you doing?”

“Ah, sorry!” Bepo said, turning around to see the newcomer. “I was catching up…”

A woman with curly hair and a severe expression walked up to them, hands on her hips, and she looked a little confused when she laid eyes on Alex. She was struggling to place her. “Have we seen each other…?”

“On passing. I’m the Duster Town dumbass that opened the library for your Captain.”

“Oh, yeah, now that you mention it—” The confusion was back. “Isn’t this place a little too far from there?”

“I’m running away from justice.” She didn’t offer further explanation.

Bepo didn’t need it. “So are we!”

A barely contained laugh made it past the woman’s lips. “Oh well, if you’re a fellow criminal…” She extended a hand towards Alex. “Name’s Ikkaku. What did you do, keep too many books past the return date?”

“I wish.” She shook her hand. “Alex.”

“So that’s your name?” Bepo asked.

She turned her attention towards the bear. “I never told you?”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Wow, I am rude,” she said to herself. “Anyway, hope you’re ready to take it easy, because you have five long days ahead of you.”

Ikkaku groaned. “I don’t mind, but some of the guys get so jittery after a couple days on land. I don’t suppose there’s a very active nightlife in this place?”

“Actually, there are two taverns in the entire town.”

“Oh, that sounds like something to keep ‘em busy.”

“I don’t think you want to go to one of them, though.” She wondered if the captain was going to pass the message or they would come to regret their choices. “There’s also an abandoned Marine outpost right outside of town, if they don’t want to be drunk 24/7.”

“Might be worth checking out, but I’m pretty sure they’ll take the ale.”

“Can’t blame them.” She was tempted to drown her sorrows in alcohol, and she barely ever drank.

She took a look around the desolate harbor, the small houses and the half-fallen wall with a disappointed look. “Well…” she began, “Bepo, we need you for the crates. He’s been waiting and he’s cranky enough already after—”

“Ah! Sorry!” He said, bowing at her and looking more upset than the comment would suggest. Maybe they didn’t treat him as well in the sub as she had assumed. When he turned to Alex, he also bowed repeatedly. “I’m really sorry, but I need to go!”

“Sure, no problem!” she said, making an effort to sound lively. She felt so fake when she did that. So customer servicey. “See you!”

As the pirates left, she tried to look at them in a different light. While it wasn’t too difficult to believe they would be mistreating the mink of the crew, even if they hadn’t been unkind while she was watching. He seemed shy. Maybe that was all there was to it? But the reaction seemed a little extreme. She would pay closer attention from then on.

❦

Her privileged observation point let Alex see a lot of things that day. She saw more of the crew coming and going, though they didn’t seem to recognize her, she watched one of the docked ships depart, and she met a cat that tried to get food from her, but after a good back scratch realized she didn’t have anything else to offer and walked away, leaving a lonesome Alex staring at the hand she’d used to pet it, wondering how many parasites it had come in contact with.

She immediately went back to the inn to wash her hands and get dinner.

The rest of the evening was spent looking at her Poneglyph folder and her mostly blank notebook. She had carried with her the transcript of the stone and copied some documentation from the library that could prove useful in deciphering it, but she wasn’t making any headway yet. Very little was known about the ancient language, even less was published, and she wasn’t a cryptographer. So far, she had identified what she thought were punctuation signs separating sentences and one of the names in the text.

In her years working in Harlun, she had seen centuries old coins from a currency before belis, and some of them had the legend around the rim written in different languages. Meaning, she knew how to write the name of the island in that ancient language. That was about it. She had a feeling the script wasn’t pure phonetic, either, and that wasn’t something she could attempt to tackle without cross-referencing.

Porta Bella was a nice place to spend a short vacation, sure, but it was impossible to find any books that might help. She had tried. The local bookstore only carried best sellers, and she would have bought that vampire novel that was getting so popular if money wasn’t so tight and she had space in her bag, but as things were, she had to fight frustration and boredom alone.

She had to face the fact that she wasn’t going to do anything useful that night, either. She took off her reading glasses, thinking that trying to sleep sounded like the best idea. Maybe next morning she’d finally have some good luck and find a ship that wouldn’t carry her too far from the Red Line.

❦

Too early for words, and wearing a flannel shirt as a jacket because it had gotten windy, she strode out of the inn with her paper cup and a new challenge. She had thought herself immune to monotony before this, but she had clearly overestimated her brain’s capability to get distracted by anything.

Instead of walking to the docks following the main road, like every morning, she made for the wall again. Stepping on the fallen rock, she reached up with her left hand to the top of the wall and placed the paper cup as far as she could from her, and then she climbed up like the previous day. Well, she tried to, because for some reason early in the morning she didn’t have a lot of hand strength, and she felt a stabbing pain in one of her knees when she stretched her leg to reach the wall.

It took two tries and the fear of having lost her first morning tea, but she got where she wanted.

Cross-legged, she sat on the wall and took sips of her drink while inspecting the docks. No new ships in sight. That time there was someone walking on one of the submarine’s decks, but she couldn’t make out their face, and she didn’t know most of the crew anyway.

The wind had driven all the clouds away, and the dark shadow on the horizon reminded her of how close she had been to getting to the New World before she had to reconsider the entire strategy.

She was about to sigh, but she sensed someone near her vicinity even before she heard the crunch of gravel, so she kept it to herself and looked over her shoulder.

That silly hat was becoming a familiar sight. Trafalgar Law looked up at her from a reasonable distance, having just noticed her. Please don’t get any closer, please—

He changed course and went towards Alex, who didn’t bother to hide how little she appreciated the company less than an hour after waking up.

“Morning walk?” she asked, or grunted, depending on who you asked.

“Yeah,” he replied, annoyingly awake. “What are you doing there?”

“Wasting time.”

Someone with a little more tact, or at least who cared about having it, would have taken a hint and left, but this was not the case. “I want to hear more about Sabaody.”

Oh, she wasn’t nearly awake enough for this, but she made an effort to not be outright rude. “Okay,” she relented. “But you ask me questions, I don’t want to think.”

That was good enough for him, it seemed. With irritating ease, and without having to step on the fallen stone, he boosted himself up against the wall and climbed it in a matter of seconds.

Something caught his attention when he looked up, and he stood up on the stone like the concepts of acrophobia and losing one’s balance were but a faraway ping in his radar. Alex’s mood was souring by the second, granted, a likely thing to happen at that hour. It wasn’t personal.

“Is that…?”

She turned to look in the same direction he was.

“Yeah. Red Line.”

“I didn’t think it was so close.”

“It’s a few days away still. It’s just that big.” She thought of the times she’d been at the base. It was impossible to see the top from its bottom. And, considering what lay up there, perhaps it was for the better. “You saw it from the other side, I guess?” North Blue was adjacent to the New World. In a sense, both of them were from the same side of the Line. How weird to think that they had anything in common.

“Yeah. We entered the Grand Line through Reverse Mountain.”

Expected, but incomprehensible to her unless he had a death wish. “Ships sink there every day. What do you want so bad that you’d risk that?”

“Wasn’t I the one asking the questions?” he shot back.

She gave him a deadpan look, then looked at the cup between her hands. It wasn’t doing much to drive away the numbness of her fingers. How many people had gone out to sea since the Great Age of Piracy began and failed because they bit more than they could chew? And they weren’t the only ones dying. For every decent man that got a ship and called himself a captain, there were ten whose only interest was pillaging villages and getting rich. Was that massive chain reaction what Gold Roger had intended with its final speech? Had it been a final fuck you to world order, or was there something else behind it?

She had contradicting thoughts about it. Roger’s last words had unarguably made the world worse, but…

Well.

The guy had been a badass. Even she wasn’t immune to seeing that. With every new pirate crew that sailed to Reverse Mountain to test its fortune, he kept proving how much bigger than life he had been. Twenty years down the line, he had become as much of a legend as the tales of gods from islands in the sky. The kind of legacy a regular person only dreams of having.

He said, I will never die.

He had been more right than he knew.

She looked at Trafalgar with renewed curiosity. “Are you trying to become Pirate King too?”

He didn’t give a clear answer, despite how easy of a question it was. “What if I am?”

It wasn’t a no. A straight yes would get many pirates laughed out of town even in a place like the Grand Line. There wasn’t a lot of room for romantic ideas of piracy when civilians lived in fear of black flags showing up one day at the port and taking away everything they had.

“Just curious.” She wasn’t feeling articulate enough to explain where she was going to herself, much less him. “Nothing wrong with dreaming big.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt like she had called herself out. Where was she going? After Sabaody, after crossing the Red Line, after getting to her hometown? Those were only checkpoints. But where was her purpose? Inside the bag she had in her room at the inn, or somewhere else?

An awkward silence stretched along with the horizon. For some reason, he decided not to press her for answers and sat down. A small mercy for Alex’s neck.

“After the Log Pose sets, it will point to Fishman Island. How do we get to Sabaody first?”

It was a relief to be able to give an answer she didn’t have to think about. “It should be visible when you’re close enough to the Red Line. It looks like a random cluster of trees popped up in the middle of the ocean.”

“That’s it? Is it safe to dock anywhere?”

“Mostly. The archipelago is made up of 80 groves. 60 to 69 house a Marine garrison, and that’s where the ferries to Marineford and Mary Geoise leave from, so you don’t want to be there. Other than that…” She had to strain to remember the range of numbers. “20 to 29 is the only lawless area open to sea, so you know Marines won’t go there, but since no one’s keeping watch, the competition might try to sabotage you. I don’t know, I never had to worry about that sort of thing.”

“I’m not afraid of other crews,” he said with that devil may care attitude that got pirates killed left and right. “We haven’t come this far without knowing how to defend our ship.”

She wasn’t going to argue his point. “I’m just saying what I know. You do you.” But she took note to keep her opinions to herself, lest he had the urge to express how full of himself he was again.

He looked at her like he was trying to figure out what sort of hidden meaning her noncommittal response held, but little did he know that behind the sleepy façade her prevailing thought was it’s too early for this shit.

“You said you spent some time in the archipelago.” It wasn’t worded like a question, but it was a way to probe for info. She supposed that she would have wanted to know the credentials of her sources, had she been in his position.

She hummed. “I lived there a few years.”

Taking a sip from the cup, she returned her attention towards the outline in the horizon. It had been a constant part of the scenery back then, always peeking out from behind the trees and buildings of the groves closest to the shore. A grim reminder, on one hand, of those who lived above the peasants, but at the same time, Sabaody had been… fun. There was always something happening. Moderately dangerous, but always entertaining. She had forgotten how that felt after the years of routine in Duster Town.

A question brought her out of her thoughts. “Are you from this area?”

“Oh, no,” she said, surprised that he had even entertained the idea. “No, I got a scholarship to study in one of the World Government’s academies. I’m from the other side of the Red Line.”

“From the New World?” He said with surprise, and mulled over this new piece of information until it fit satisfactorily in whatever picture of her he had constructed in his mind. “So that’s where the accent’s from.”

It was unexpected comment after unexpected comment. “Excuse me?” she replied in an incredulous tone. “You are the one with a heavy accent.”

Now it was him who got caught off guard. “That’s not true,” he retorted. He looked like he was trying to determine if she was pulling his leg.

“Yes it is,” she insisted. “Everybody has an accent. You and your crew have that typical northern one that sounds like you’re about to shank the person you’re saying hello to.”

For a moment, she thought he had offended him to the point of silence. Just for a moment, because he didn’t take long to counter with, “You sound like you’re trying to whisper through a megaphone.”

She snorted with laughter as soon as the words sunk in. It was true that she spoke in a low voice most of the time. “If that isn’t the best description of Dressrosan I’ve heard—”

She felt an immediate change in atmosphere, like an electric current shooting through the air, and shut up as a precaution.

Trafalgar has tensed up all of a sudden and was staring at her like she had grown a second head, like she was trying to set her on fire with a glare, or both. “What did you say?”

She found herself tensing up in return, even though she didn’t know what she had done. But when a dangerous guy scowled at you like that, survival instincts kicked in. Goodbye sleepiness, and welcome life danger. “Um… Dressrosan?” She eyed him warily. “My mother tongue?”

His eyes grew wider, but other than that, his expression didn’t change much. “You’re from Dressrosa?”

She suddenly understood. It wasn’t the first time she got odd reactions when she said where she was from, but it had been a while. “Oh, right.” She sighed. “You’ve heard of the whole Doflamingo thing.”

Or… maybe she was wrong. He seemed a little out of it, like he was looking past her at… who knew what was in his head.

After a few seconds without a reply, she deemed it safe to speak. “Did I say anything wrong?”

“…No. I was just surprised.” After that, he seemed to go back to normal, though his voice sounded a little strained. He was still tense. “It’s a long way there.”

Suspicious. Did he know someone from there? “It’s not so much the distance as having the Red Line in the way. Getting permission to cross it takes time.” And she figured that she had run out of it.

“How’s the country?” He asked in a way that tried to sound casual, and maybe, maybe would have worked if he hadn’t made clear already that he had a particular interest in it. “Being ruled by pirates and all.”

She made a disgruntled sound. She had signed up to answer questions about the Sabaody Archipelago, not Dressrosa. There was a reason why she hadn’t been home in ages. “It’s doing fine. Better than fine, in fact. Economy is booming. People are happy.” She delivered each sentence in a quick, clipped tone. “It pisses me off.”

“Why?”

Because she always had to be the odd one out, she thought. And this guy wasn’t getting the message that she didn’t want to talk about it. “Doflamingo doesn’t deserve that kind of credit. He and his crew should go back to the hole they crawled out of.”

He huffed. “North Blue’s had enough of him already.”

Animosity was dripping from his words, and that made her feel a little less displeased and a lot more interested in what he had to say. He could’ve seen firsthand the repercussions of Doflamingo’s actions there.

“That’s true.” She didn’t know much about the specifics, but there was a reason the North Blue was considered the most dangerous out of the four cardinal seas. “I guess he did a number there before he moved onto the Grand Line.”

“You don’t sound very fond of him either.”

Look at that, a flat out admission of having feelings about someone.

“He’s scum,” she said with more venom than she had meant to. “He dethroned the king only to take over himself, reinstated gladiator fights to death, and he has a trafficking empire. The Human Auctioning House in Sabaody displays his Jolly Roger openly. But he’s a Warlord. As long as money keeps flowing and the Celestial Dragons can buy new pets, nobody seems to care.”

“And you do? You say your country’s doing well.”

She didn’t know whether to reply honestly or not. He was trying to dig deeper than she was comfortable with answering, but she was on a roll already. “Dressrosa used to be a very poor country. I’m not blaming the people who have a better life now, but I don’t think you can build anything stable from corruption. Someone will topple Doflamingo one day, and the country will go down with him.” Her tone was increasingly becoming more determined. “And when the time comes, I hope they get rid of kings once and for all.”

“You lost me at that last part.”

“Monarchy is an obsolete form of government. How’s the world going to get rid of the Celestial Dragons if we can’t even get rid of the pests at home?”

He stared at her blankly, and that was when she realized she had talked too much and looked away from him. Ah, to be a life form capable of fusing with granite and dying in the spot…

She heard a short, muffled laugh, and glanced at him. Great, a pirate making fun of her was exactly what she needed to start her day.

“Can’t say I took you for an anarchist.” He was smirking.

“What part of ‘fuck the government’ was unclear?” she replied, still avoiding to look at him. “The more time you spend near Mary Geoise, the more you realize everything has to burn down. Then there are the Marines.” A lost cause. “It’s even their combined fault that I’m stuck here.”

“What do you mean?” He sounded relaxed again. It was like he hadn’t been acting like a weirdo through the entire conversation about Dressrosa. “Aren’t you just waiting for a ship?”

She took a long breath in preparation to give the same explanation she’d been getting every time she spoke to a newly arrived sailor. “Kidnapping crews are infesting the waters ahead. Normal ships don’t want to go near Sabaody because there’s going to be a human auction next week. Marines aren’t helping because the government benefits from the slave trade, and I assume the Enies Lobby debacle has hit them hard. I already told Bepo you don’t have to worry about it, though. They only attack pirates if they think they’re weaklings.” And trying to change the subject to something that didn’t force her to wallow in her misery, she asked, “How much was it already, Mr. Supernova?”

He looked awfully satisfied with his title. “It’s not Trafalgar anymore?”

“I’ve always liked stars.” And speaking of Bepo, she remembered something from their conversation the day before. “By the way, I don’t think I introduced myself. I’m—”

“Bepo told me. I like Librarian-ya better.”

She had an urge to fling what was left of her tea at him, but she held back at the expense of looking away and letting a strained smile show. Not worth the loss of beverage. It wasn’t going to stop him from being an early morning smartass.

The silence that ensued this time didn’t feel as uncomfortable as before, but that bar was so low, it might as well have been underground.

#degrees of separation #tried to post this draft from mobile and the formatting imploded #why is tumblr so

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gumnut-logic · 4 years

Text

When the World Goes Boom (Part 5)

Okay, this chapter was a challenge and involved lots of whiny Nutty throwing hissy fits. It is also over twice the size of any of the previous parts.

Spoilers & Warnings: Spoilers for season three, angst, 3931 words

Many thanks to @scribbles97 and @i-am-chidorixblossom for putting up with my crazy and reading this at random moments.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five

I hope you enjoy it ::hugs::

-o-o-o-

Alan was exhausted after his dressings change, but to be honest, he was ever so happy to see Gordon regardless.

Virgil ruffled his hair and said something about grabbing coffee and going back to see Scott, and left him with his aquanaut brother.

It wasn’t exactly relief he felt at the change of brothers. He loved Virgil, but things were different with Gordon. He had to act less grown up and could be more the kid he sometimes felt like. Gordon never really grew up, so Alan felt less pressure to be the adult.

And besides Gordon was his big brother.

As Virgil had pushed his hoverbed out of the consultation room, they had picked up their security. Jeremy was hanging with Virgil today.

Alan had Brie.

He liked the tiny security specialist. She had a nice smile and was barely tall enough to look him in the eye. Something that was refreshing for a youngest who had to look up at almost every other member of his family.

Except for Gordon, but he was special. Not that he would ever mention that.

On the other hand, Brie may be small, but he had the strongest impression she was quite capable of removing his head from his body with her bare hands. Occasionally Kayo would run the personal team through sparring matches, always an interesting spectator sport for the brothers, each cheering their favourite. Brie had managed to outsmart even the older expert, Jeremy. And she looked good doing it.

Not that Alan would ever admit that little opinion.

Her soft smile at him was cute, though.

Gordon, of course, had Iz with him.

Iz was scary. She hid in the shadows more often than not. Her nose ring, short purple hair and stoic appearance was intimidating. Yes, he had thought the word. Intimidating.

Gordon thought she was groovy.

Alan thought Gordon spent too much time with his retro junk and needed a vocabulary transplant.

But, in any case, both women were highly competent and came with a Kayo stamp of approval.

“Hey, Gords, can we go out into the garden?” He really didn’t want to go back into that room. Seeing Scott upset just hurt. He tried to not show how much it freaked him out, but right now? He was too tired to face it.

“Sure, Allie.” Auckland City Hospital sat next to some extensive gardens and while it wasn’t necessarily encouraged, patients and rebellious Tracys often went out there to escape the sterile corridors and reconnect to the world around them. One advantage of living on an island in the middle of the Pacific was the constant contact with the ocean and its ecosystem. For Gordon it was simply sighting the ocean in the distance that helped. For Alan it was less clear but all the Tracys, if hospitalised ended up out here at some point.

Scott had once had to chase a half delirious Virgil out onto the grass.

It gave security grey hair, but that’s why they were so well paid.

The corridors were stark as with any hospital. Alan let his eyes skip from sign to sign as the fluorescent lights flickered overhead. Windows into other worlds slid past.

At one point his eyes landed on a set of open doors with a radiation symbol blaringly decorating the wall beside it.

Radiology.

Alan blinked.

Had he been here? Something felt wrong. “Gords, can we stop a moment?”

“What? Sure?” His brother looked at the doors. “Why? Feel like getting your innards scanned?”

Alan frowned and ignored him. There was something about that radiation sign. “Have I been here?”

Gordon frowned a little. “Not this time. The medscanners told us enough. Scott has though. For his concussion.” A pause as Alan continued to stare at the gaping doors. “You came here for your broken arm when you were twelve. Remember that?”

Vague. “Yeah.” Maybe that was it. It had been a nasty break and hurt like hell. Not a happy memory. “That must be it.” A man exited the department and the doors closed. More warning signs appeared.

Alan frowned more.

“You okay?”

“Hmm.” Alan shook himself. He needed to get out of this building. It was driving him bonkers. “Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”

“Sure.” But there was a subtle worry in his brother’s voice.

Gordon pushed him out into the sun and Alan closed his eyes against its brightness, but revelled in its warmth.

Of course, it wasn’t as warm as home, but the rustling of a nearby palm tree was reassuringly familiar.

“I’m going to find some shade to park you under. No need to risk that fragile skin of yours with a sunburn.”

Alan scrunched up his face. “I’m not fragile.”

Gordon snorted, but continued to push him easily down the laneway towards the gardens. Security bracketed them. Iz, spoke into her comm quietly. Waitemata Harbour came into view in the distance with Rangitoto looming over everything.

The breeze tickled Alan’s hair.

His brother found them a tree with a view and parked them, brakes secured. “How’s that?”

“Great. Thanks, Gordy.”

Gordon dumped himself on the end of Alan’s bed and a silence fell as Alan let the outside world wash away the antiseptic smells clinging to him.

“How are you feeling?” Gordon’s question was quiet.

“I’m okay. Got me on the good stuff.” He opened his eyes to find his brother’s concerned gaze corrupted by just a hint of a smile. “Don’t worry. One advantage of that procedure is they dose me up and as long as you don’t prod me, I can’t feel a thing.” He threw his own smile into the pot, desperate to remove that worry off his big bro’s face.

Of course, that prompted Gordon to poke his foot with one finger. Repeatedly.

Alan rolled his eyes. “How is everyone?” He hadn’t meant to ask, but it came out without thought. Probably because it was foremost in thought.

Gordon shrugged. “Okay. Virgil has gone all motherhen. John has disappeared into the office. I have no idea what he is doing in there. The media is starting to calm down, so I guess that is part of it, but Eos is snarly and defensive.”

“Eos always snarls at you. And you know why.”

“Not my fault she can’t take a joke.”

Alan smirked. Gordon was going have to rethink pranking John in the future. His watchdog didn’t take nicely to any threat to her father, marshmallow or not.

“How about Dad?”

“Well, you’ve seen him. Shell shocked are the words I’d use. You talk to him at all?”

Alan shook his head just a little. To be honest, he didn’t know what to say. His dad looked lost, almost fearful. While he loved him dearly, really…he still didn’t know his Dad as well as he wanted too. While the man offered comfort, it was awkward and hesitant and Alan was hesitant in return.

The familiarity of his brothers was just a relief.

There was so much guilt in there.

“This sucks.” Alan’s voice was desolate.

“Totally.”

“I just wish Scotty would get better. I hate seeing him like that.” It was horrifying. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him cry before.” His voice had gotten small.

“I have.”

Alan looked up at his brother. “What? When?”

“After the Zero X. Virgil found him in Dad’s office. I don’t think they knew I was there and I wasn’t there for long.” Gordon’s eyes dropped to the grass. “But this is different. He will get better, Allie.”

“God, I hope so.”

His train of thought was interrupted as Brie approached from the right. “Mr Gordon, Mr Alan, Kayo has requested you return to the room. There has been an incident.”

Alan immediately sat up straighter. “What happened? Is everyone okay?” Gordon slipped off the end of the bed and moved to the head, already disengaging the brakes.

“A threat has been made against the Tracy family and we have been requested to move you to a more secure location.”

A threat? Alan reached for his comms and realised that he wasn’t wearing any having been reduced to a hospital gown for his procedure. “I need my comms.”

Gordon’s eyes darted to him. “You do. Brie, make sure Alan gets his comms. If there is a security issue, he needs to be connected to the network.”

“Yes, Mr Gordon.”

“Kill the ‘Mister’, Brie. You know me better than that.”

“I most certainly do, Mr Gordon.”

“What?”

Iz swept in, expression stony and professional, and they were moving back towards the hospital.

As they passed radiology, Alan once again stared at the signs on the doors. The doors were closed, but something still stirred in his gut.

Something he couldn’t quite grasp.

-o-o-o-

Her eldest grandson clung to her as if he was a six-year-old again.

She couldn’t help but cling to him in return. It was disturbing to see the usually strong and emotionally private man so vulnerable.

“C’mon, Scotty, talk to me.”

Another rough indrawn breath and he slowly pulled away. Exhausted, red-rimmed blue eyes stared up at her, almost pleading. “Tell me, Alan’s okay.”

“Alan is okay, honey. He has a couple of nasty burns, but he will heal.”

“That’s what Dad said.”

“Of course, that’s what your father said, because it’s the truth.”

Something flickered in those eyes. Voice faint and dry. “I don’t know what is the truth anymore.” Scott fell back against his pillows with a hopeless sigh.

Sally reached out and stroked his hair. “Be kind to yourself, honey. You were injured, give your body a chance to heal.

“He called me for help, Grandma.”

She frowned. “Who?”

“Alan.”

“When?”

“Before the explosion. I remember his voice. He needed me and I wasn’t there.”

This was new. She sat down on the edge of the bed, but didn’t stop her ministrations. “Are you sure?

The anguish returned. “I don’t know, Grandma. I just keep hearing him.” Both hands came up and covered his face.

“Shh, shh, shh, honey. It’s okay.” His hair needed a wash, the strands stiff from old product and sweat. She didn’t stop stroking.

“Alan was hurt.”

“Yes, he was. But he is going to be fine.”

“H-He called me for help, but I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t help him, Grandma.” Wet, blue eyes widened. “Why couldn’t I help him?”

“You had three people under your care, Scott.”

“But Alan-“

“Alan is going to be okay.”

It wasn’t enough. Her grandson’s brow crinkled in anguish. “He’s my littlest brother, Grandma. Why couldn’t I help him?”

Whatever answer she was going to give him was interrupted by an urgent knock on the door. Before either of them could acknowledge it, Kayo stuck her head in. “Sorry to interrupt.” Her eyes widened at the sight of her big brother. “We have a problem.”

-o-o-o-

It took Virgil far too many seconds to put the likely scenario together in his head. A sign of how tired he actually was.

Lemaire continued to babble until the reporter gave up and cut him off. The ‘projector switched to an advertisement and the café settled down with only one or two people eyeing Virgil and his father with curious frowns.

“Who was that?”

Virgil’s tone was derogatory enough to smear the man’s name into the carpet with his boot. “Repeat customer. Unfortunately, his wealth is inversely proportional to his intelligence.” His father frowned, no doubt at Virgil’s disrespect. “He’s very rich, Dad.”

“But why is he threatening us?”

“That I need to find out.” Though he had his suspicions. This was not the place to discuss them. “We need to head back to the room.”

His father stood up. “Agreed.”

There were still eyes on them. Jez and Gerry’s gazes were like laser beams sweeping the room. Virgil sighed and stood.

They made their way quickly back to the room. Encountering Alan and Gordon in the hallway, Virgil assisted Gordon in manoeuvring Alan’s bed back through the door. To Virgil’s relief, Scott was actually sitting up in bed. He appeared drawn and tired, but he was awake.

Scott’s eyes tracked Alan from the moment he entered the room.

Alan just grinned and waved like he was on a float in a Christmas parade.

Kayo was fidgety. Not that the average person would notice, but Virgil was family and the stoic security officer was literally vibrating on the spot under her calm façade.

They got Alan settled and the entire family arrayed around the room, except for one obvious omission.

Virgil yanked out his phone and sent a priority call to his missing brother. “John, what did you do?”

John’s hologram was dressed in that godawful shirt Virgil wanted to burn. The only reason he hadn’t was because it was tailored to provide gravity support to the astronaut when he was on Earth, the piping providing both sensory output and pressure adjustments as needed.

But it was the last time Virgil was ever going to let his brother choose a colour, ugh.

“Tracy Industries bought Oxy-Baker.”

His father, who had been standing behind Virgil, stepped forward. “Why would you do that?”

Holographic turquoise eyes flashed. “We have history, Dad. The safety systems built into Oxy-Baker reclamation systems are atrocious. This was the fourth time we almost lost an operative to this business. We need to put an end to it.”

The tension emanating off his father was extreme. “Why now?”

John’s eyes flickered to Scott and back. “Why not? When Scott is incapacitated, his Tracy Industries responsibilities fall to me. I saw an opportunity, I took it.”

His father’s eyes shot to Virgil, and yes, Virgil felt guilt regarding that, but Tracy Industries was safer in John’s hands than his, and besides, when Scott was incapacitated, Virgil usually had his hands full with his brothers and International Rescue.

“You’ve created an incident that could have been avoided.”

“There is no incident, Dad. The job is done. We now own Oxy-Baker and can work to fix its many problems.” John obviously considered the problem solved.

His father most certainly did not. “I’m coming home and we will discuss this.”

John froze. “Dad?”

But their father’s expression was firm. “I will speak to you when I get home.”

“Yes, father.”

The respect in John’s tone was there, but it wasn’t. Before their Dad could respond, he blinked out.

Grey eyes frowned.

Oh shit.

The room was silent for a moment, each of the boys staring up at their father, waiting to see what would happen next.

“Dad, John knows what he is doing.”

Those grey eyes flickered to Virgil. “I’m sure he does.” But the sincerity wasn’t there.

Shit.

It had been a long time since he had seen his father angry, but apparently that time was up. “Dad, read the mission reports. There is ample reason for John’s response.”

“Perhaps, but not without discussing it first.”

“I trust him.” The words were parched and tired, but they came from Scott. For the first time those blue eyes, despite being bloodshot and weary, were clear. “I trust John to do what needs to be done.”

Their father continued to frown, but a flash of vulnerability and uncertainty crossed his expression before it once again firmed. “I will discuss it with John.”

“Jeff?” Virgil jumped. He had forgotten his grandmother was in the room. “You need sleep. We are going home.” She stood up off Scott’s bed and brushed her fingers against his cheek. “You feel better, Scotty, you hear me?”

His hand gently took hers and squeezed. “Yes, Grandma.”

She leant over and kissed his forehead, before moving around the end of his bed and doing the same to Alan. A squeeze of Gordon’s hand and a hand on Virgil’s shoulder and she was opening the door. “Jeff?”

Virgil looked up at his father and discovered exhaustion itself. Quietly. “You need sleep, Dad.”

“I’m fine, Virgil.” The snarl in those words had Virgil stepping back.

“Jeff.” Grandma’s tone was firm as was her frown.

Their father nodded once, his eyes darting to each of his boys before he turned and left.

The door closed quietly behind him.

“Shit.” It was an exhaled breath from Gordon as he stared at the door. “Dad’s pissed.”

“Dad is exhausted.” Virgil’s tone was just as firm as Grandma’s.

“You better warn John.” Scott’s voice was still dry and Virgil took those few extra steps closer to his bedside, taking the space left by his grandmother.

A quick comm to John and his exasperated response bounced about the room. “Lemaire was asking for it.”

Virgil’s tone was reassuring. “I’m not the one you’ll have to convince. It was Dad’s business. We should have thought of how he would react.”

John’s sigh was just as tired as any of the Tracys. “Eos has killed the newsfeed. Damage control is in place. Lemaire is still an idiot. He just made it easier with all his chest puffing and grandstanding.” A pause. “Scott?”

Virgil tilted the holoreceiver in his big brother’s direction. “Yes, John?”

John visibly relaxed at the sight of the prone pilot. “Good to see you.”

Scott managed a small smile. “Same. You keeping the execs on their toes?”

A smirk. “Always. You know they love me.”

That smile widened. “Like a case of shingles.” A sigh. “Dad will understand.”

“I hope so.”

“Batten down the hatches.”

“FAB.”

John blinked out and once again the room fell silent. Scott lost the smile and once again fell to tired and wan. “Scott, how about we go out for a little sunshine.”

Kayo immediately started. “Virgil, security-“

He held up a hand. “Task us with as many officers as you like. Scott has been in here for days.”

“Virgil-“

“Okay.” Scott’s voice cut off the both of them and sudden touch of elation in those bloodshot eyes was enough to cancel out the minor risk involved.

Virgil turned to Kayo. “We won’t go far.”

She glared. “No, you won’t because, I’m going with you.”

He shrugged. “Fine. We’ll enjoy your company.” And before any further protest could arise, He undocked Scott’s hoverbed and pushed it towards the exit. A glance in Kayo’s direction, which prompted another glare from his sister, and she opened the door, while simultaneously speaking over her comms.

He arched an eyebrow as both Jez and Iz appeared in the hallway as Virgil and Scott emerged from the room.

“You’re going to pay for this one, Virg.” There was a touch of amusement in Scott’s tired voice.

Virgil grinned. “It’s worth it.”

-o-o-o-

Alan stared as the door shut behind his brothers and sister, leaving the room suddenly empty except for Gordon and himself.

“Well, that was entertaining.” Gordon resumed his perch on the end of Alan’s bed.

Alan didn’t answer him.

“You okay?”

“Hmm?”

“Dad and John will work it out, don’t worry.”

Alan ignored him and hit his comms. “Eos, you there?”

“Yes, Alan, how are you feeling?”

“Getting better. Hey, could you please send the mission report and recordings to my tablet?”

“Are you sure? Mrs Tracy would be upset if you are tiring yourself out.” There was proof of intelligence for you, respect for Grandma. Or it could just be a survival instinct.

Now Gordon was frowning at him.

“I’m good, Eos, I just need to check by memories against what actually happened. Call it a data check.”

“Oh, okay, sending now.”

His tablet on the bedtable pinged and he grabbed it.

“Allie, whatcha doing?”

“I remember something.”

Gordon’s eyes widened. “What?”

“I’m not sure. It’s vague and it’s bugging me.” He pulled up the reports. John’s neat English bouncing off the screen, explaining the lead up to the explosion and the resultant rescue of his brothers. He pulled up the comm records and listened to the bounce back between himself and Scott just before the explosion. It was extremely odd to hear himself saying words he didn’t remember. Alan helped his brother secure the three rescuees and then returned to the habitat for one last reconnaissance in order to declare the site clear.

His last transmission was “Scott! I need-“ The signal cut as Thunderbird Five’s sensors registered the explosion.

Alan frowned, something stirring in his gut. It felt wrong. Something was wrong. Without saying a thing, he pulled the full sensor logs from Five. He tracked his position and Scott’s position. The rescuees trailed out behind his brother. They were the only lifesigns on sensors.

He watched himself stop not far from the fuel tanks, the distance that had nearly taken his life. Why did he stop? The signal went out to Scott. “Scott! I need-“ And the eruption of heat was blinding.

“What did I need?”

He jumped as he realised Gordon was standing right next to him, staring over his shoulder. “Alan? Talk to me.”

“I...I remember a radiation symbol. You know, the same one on the radiology doors. The fuel tanks were carbon-based fuels, not radioactive. But I remember that symbol.” His finger poked the tablet and the recording replayed. “What did I need?”

“Take a deep breath, Allie.”

Alan frowned at his brother. “I’m fine. It means something, I just don’t know what.”

Gordon reached over and poked the tablet a couple of times. “Check out what the station was stocking. Those reclamation plants pull all sorts of things out of old junk.”

“I already checked. They had space for radioactive materials. Most of the older satellites were nuclear powered. But their storage bins were recorded as empty. John checked that before we even arrived on site in case we needed to take precautions.”

Gordon sat on the bed beside him, his frown getting deeper by the moment. A tap of his comms. “Eos?”

“Yes, Gort?”

Gordon groaned.

Alan snorted. The names changed each time and each time was always amusing. Gordon was going to regret that joke for a lifetime.

“I’m not in the mood, Eos. This is serious.”

“Yes, Thunderbird Fork.”

“Gah. Eos, I said I’m sorry.”

“You said this was important, Gork.”

“Can you please give us a rundown on the supply and delivery runs to and from Oxy-Baker Reclamation Station 094 leading up to the incident.”

“Most certainly, Pork.”

Alan couldn’t help the grin as the data rolled onto his tablet. Three pages in it became obvious that there was a data error.

“These numbers don’t match.” Alan was glaring at the tables. “The carbon-based fuel capacity is to be expected, but they haven’t had a pickup for either their radioactive materials or precious metals in two weeks and yet both storage crates register nothing.”

“Maybe they had a dip in processing. Eos? Can we access their reclamation intake rate?”

“One moment, Mork.”

Alan grinned again. “Ork, ork, ork!”

He was rewarded by a scuff up the back of his head.

“Hey, injured here.”

Eos ignored their by-play. “According to their records, there was no dip in processing or change in product salvage. In fact, they recently broke down one of the earlier military reconnaissance satellites just this week. Definitely nuclear powered. Those statistics are incorrect.”

Alan stared at the numbers and fought his memory, begging it to give him more. The sick feeling in his gut got worse. “I think something happened, Gordy.”

A hand landed on his good shoulder and squeezed. He looked up at his brother and found concern in those russet brown eyes. “Allie?”

But he knew Gordon knew the answer before he said it.

“I don’t think the explosion was an accident.”

-o-o-o-

End Part Five

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds fanfiction #thunderbirds #Alan Tracy #Gordon Tracy #Virgil Tracy #Jeff Tracy #Grandma Tracy #sally tracy #John Tracy #Scott Tracy

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