A/N- At some point you guys are just gonna yell at me for making too many stories. Oh well! :D
Anyways, here's the gift fic for sillykar18! Thanks for giving me the idea, I'm excited to see where I can take this one! :P
Onwards!
"Baka! The sub's that way!" Penguin smacked his friend over the head, all the while carrying a bag of electrical parts and mechanical equipment for the next stretch of their voyage. Shachi rubbed his head.
"Ow! Don't hit me! And I know where we're going, baka!" The redhead walked with a determined step down the street he believed led back to the port, and ultimately their yellow submarine. The sun was beginning to set on the horizon, bathing the city in a pale orange and yellow light. The warmth made their boiler suits just a little uncomfortable, but not unbearable.
"Umm…ok. Maybe we are lost." He admitted after circling the fountain square for a third time that day. He scratched the back of his head, sheepishly smiling at his unamused friend.
"We've been walking for half an hour now. My legs are getting tired." Penguin complained, shifting his hold on the bag of stuff.
"You two look lost." A voice said behind them. They spun, eyeing the old woman cautiously. She was definitely not rich, that was for sure. Her frizzy white hair sprouted out from her head in all directions, and she smiled at them with a set of crooked and missing teeth. Her clothes were ragged, almost threadbare. The two exchanged a glance before nodding.
"Yeah, we could use some directions."
She laughed then, a scratchy and hollow sound that set their teeth on edge. "Oh my, this town can be quite a maze if you're not from around here. But nothing comes for free in this day and age, sonny."
Inwardly, they sighed. This wasn't the first time that day someone had tried haggling with them or attempting to sell them some sort of 'amazing deal.' She eyed them knowingly, as if waiting for them to refuse. Which they did.
"Sorry, granny. We aren't interested in anything." Penguin tried to say, but she merely laughed some more.
"Oh, dear. Not even a potion to make a beautiful woman fall in love with you?" Then, from within her jacket pocket, she produced a little pink vial. The two stopped, gazing at the potion in wonder.
"What is it?" Shachi asked in awe.
"It's Mama June's Instant Love-in-a-Bottle. It'll make anyone who drinks it instantly fall head over heels with the first person they lay eyes on. It truly is love at first sight!" She proclaimed, a proud smile on her face. She must have known the two engineers' natures just by looking at them, because the next moment they dropped the bags of stuff on the ground and went digging through their pockets for money.
"I have 203 beli." Shachi said, holding it all out in his hands. Penguin grabbed a wad of money and quickly counted it.
"187." She seemed to think about it for a moment but then flashed that crooked grin again.
"Done." Then, taking the money, she handed the little pink bottle to Shachi, who handled it as if it were made of gold. "Oh, and the port is that direction. Good luck, you two!" She called as she walked away, pointing down a road and counting out her newly-earned beli. The two mechanics shared one more glance before grabbing everything and rushing down towards the sub.
"Casper!" The two hollered, barging into the kitchen in a mass of limbs. The cook's brow rose at the commotion, and he deftly raised the saucepan he was using up over his head and out of the way of the flailing mechanics.
"You two had better have a good reason to be in my kitchen." He narrowed his eyes, scowling in irritation. His hand tightened on the wooden spoon he stirred in the pan. "Don't think I forgot what happened last time you barged in here without permission."
The two winced, remembering the chaos of flour and how long it had taken to clean the eggs of the walls. They glanced away nervously, seeing Summer giving them a confused stare from the opposite end of the room. She chopped vegetables and placed them in another pan to cook.
"Ah, well, you see…" Penguin rubbed the back of his neck. His cheeks went slightly red at the thought of what they planned to happen. Because of it, he was having a tough time making up an excuse. Then, Shachi brightened up.
"We're here to replace Summer-chan!" He offered, and Casper raised a brow in surprise.
"Replace her?" He looked over to the blonde would looked equally unsure. She shrugged, glancing back at the two engineers. "Why?"
"Because we thought she could use a break." He beamed. "She's been working so hard and we thought we could help her relax a little bit."
"Yeah, let us help you in the kitchen and Summer-chan can go wait in the mess deck."
Casper gave them a long, hard look. His eyes were still narrowed, and he regarded the engineers with caution. He knew they were up to something, but he couldn't figure out what. Usually they did everything they could to get closer to the blonde, not farther away. It didn't make sense.
Although, they could always be trying to sneak extra helpings of dinner. That could definitely be a possibility. Still. He glanced over at Summer.
"Hmm." He hummed a moment later, turning back to the task at hand. "Summer, lass, it's up to you. If you'd like the night off, just bring them up to speed on what to do." He replied gruffly, deciding that the matter was ultimately in the blonde's hands. He had to admit that she did deserve a break.
She paused a moment before placing the knife on the cutting board and taking off her apron with a relieved smile. She walked by and gave it to them. "Thanks guys. All you gotta do is chop those onions and then dice the meat. Have fun." She said, exiting the kitchen through the door.
They stood there, gazing at the apron with excitement. Their plan had worked! All they had to do now was figure out how to get her to drink the potion and all would be well. Though, they weren't quite sure how they'd-
"Oi! Get to it!" Casper demanded, causing them to jump before running over to the counter.
"Sorry!" They cried, taking up positions at the counter and began chopping the vegetables.
Law had been dozing off when Summer sat down in the seat across from him. He looked up in surprise, smirking in amusement. "Abandoning your job duties, I see?" He teased, and she set her head on the table with a contented sigh.
"Nope, Penguin and Shachi took over for me." At this, Law frowned. He hadn't been notified that they'd be taking his assistant cook's place. There'd been no reason to worry about the state of their evening meal, though now he was only hoping Casper could keep a close eye on those two.
Summer sighed again, sitting up and stretching her hands over her head. "It feels nice to relax for once." She said.
"Don't get used to it." Law replied with a grin. Summer shook her head. A girl could hope.
Somehow they managed to get through preparing dinner without breaking, damaging, destroying, burning, or ruining anything in the kitchen. It was no thanks to Casper's sharp eye, inspecting everything they did as they chopped vegetables and helped stir the stew in the pot.
As always, Casper prepared a fresh pot of coffee for the Captain, and he got out a mug to put it in. Setting it in front of the pot, he wandered off to finish turning off the burners and stirring the stew once more.
Shachi and Penguin approached the pot, watching as it slowly filled up with the dark colored liquid that their Captain was so partial to. They knew Summer enjoyed coffee as well, just not to the extreme that Law did. Penguin secretly grabbed another mug from the cupboard and set it beside Law's.
"Hey, Casper, we'll take Captain's coffee to him for you."
The cook only grunted in reply, too focused on dishing the food into bowls to really care if they brought him his coffee. He would have done it anyways, but figuring it was one less thing for him to do, he took the first two bowls of food out into the mess deck.
Left alone in the kitchen, they turned back to the pot, which finished brewing a moment later. Shachi took out the potion from his pocket, holding it out for a second. Now that he turned it every which way in the light of the kitchen, they could see an inscription on the back. It read:
Whomever ingests this potion will fall in love with the first person they see. The effects only last for 24 hours, but they get stronger as time goes by.
Ignoring the message on the back, Penguin poured both cups of coffee into the mugs. Then Shachi uncapped the top of the pink bottle and dumped the contents into one of them. The appearance didn't change, and they grinned. Good, the less suspicious it looked, the better. They didn't want Summer thinking something was up.
Penguin went to grab the mugs but Shachi stopped him. "Wait, I want to bring it out to them."
His friend frowned. "But I want to."
"Baka, the potion only works on one of us. It should be me!" He said, but Penguin crossed his arms.
"Says who?"
"Says me!" Shachi retorted. The two continued bickering about who should get to have the effects given to. Casper, who returned to the kitchen several times for more bowls of soup, elected to ignore the arguing mechanics standing by the coffee machine since he really would rather not have to deal with either of them.
Finally, several minutes later, they battled it out in a rock paper scissors competition. Penguin won, and Shachi crossed his arms with a pout.
"Fine, but promise you'll tell Summer-chan to love me too." Penguin grinned.
"Fine." He turned to the counter, his hands reaching for the mugs. Then, he hesitated. "Um…which one did we put the stuff in?"
"…" Shachi stared at the two identical mugs in thought, suddenly unable to remember which one they'd poured the bottle in. He leaned in and sniffed both drinks but couldn't sense a difference in either one. "Um…"
"This isn't good." Penguin admitted. They stared at the mugs for a long time, deciding to pick one of them with another rock paper scissors battle.
"I still don't understand how you can drink as much coffee as you do." Summer said, lounging on her side of the table as she ate the soup. For being half made by the two clueless engineers, it wasn't too bad. She suspected Casper didn't allow them to have too-crucial of roles in preparing it. Law grinned easily back at her.
"I'm used to it." Was all he said. Suddenly, Shachi and Penguin approached, with Penguin holding two mugs in his hands. They shook slightly.
"H-here's your coffee, Captain. And we got one for you too, Summer-chan." He set the mugs down on the counter with a shaky voice. Summer thought they were just nervous if the food came out ok.
"Great job with the food guys, it tastes great!" She smiled, reaching for the mug and bringing it to her lips. Shachi and Penguin stared at her intensely, which didn't go unnoticed by Law. The Captain, utterly confused, glanced at Summer too, simply out of curiosity of what they were trying to look for. Unconsciously, he took a sip of his own coffee.
Summer swallowed a large gulp, wincing at the taste. "Uh, how much sugar did you put in this? It's super sweet." She said hesitantly.
"Ah, maybe we added too much." Shachi apologized, intentionally leaving out the part where they tried covering up any aftertaste the potion may have had with the sweetness of sugar.
She shrugged it off. "It's alright though. Don't worry about it." She turned to Law, who frowned down at his mug intensely. Just a minute ago he'd been fine. Summer raised a brow at his sudden change in mood. "Law? You alright?"
He glanced up, locking eyes with the blonde. Something passed across his eyes, but she couldn't be sure of what it was. Her frown deepened when he carefully set the mug down and leaned closer to her face.
He gently lifted her chin a fraction of an inch, staring into her face. "You have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen." He muttered.
Speechless, Summer blinked a few times to make sure this wasn't some strange dream or something. When it became apparent that nothing would happen, she cleared her throat.
"Umm…what?" She laughed a little, staring at her Captain in uncertainty.
"How could I have missed such pristine beauty before?" He continued, stroking her cheek gingerly with his thumb. "You must be sent from heaven."
Summer's expression turned very very concerned. This was not Law. Trafalgar Law did not say such things to anyone, let alone her. Something wasn't right, and she turned to the two engineers, who both had looks of horror on their faces. Her eyes narrowed.
"What did you two do?" They looked everywhere but at her.
"Well, you see…" Penguin scratched the back of his neck, staring at the ground.
"We kinda…well…" Shachi wrung his hands behind his back. But the attentions of the confused Captain got her attention once more.
"I could get lost in those eyes." Law muttered dreamily, leaning in just a little bit closer, until there were only a couple inches between the two of them. Summer immediately took her hand and pushed the Captain's face away.
"Whatever you two did, you are so going to pay for it." Summer scowled, sending them scurrying back into the kitchen. With a deep sigh, Summer watched as Law recovered from being pushed away and reached from her hands.
"Such soft and delicate hands, as well." He said with a small smile. Rolling her eyes, she stood and pulled at his arm.
"Come on, let's see if we can fix you." She said, hauling him off towards the infirmary. He followed obediently, more than eager to go wherever the beautiful blonde woman took him.
A/N- So, Shachi and Penguin have messed it up again. *Deep sigh* Ah, when will these two ever learn? :)
Leave me a review and let me know what you thought! I'd really like to hear what you think about the opening! :D
See you in the next chapter!
