Lucci!
Kaku desperately tried to deflect the rock that was going to fall onto the unconscious Lucci. When he did, he felt the sting of his fresh bloody wounds scattered all over his body. Another rock from the crumbling cave wall suddenly hit his head. Ignoring the pain, Kaku immediately carried the older man on his back while calling for Blueno.
The CP9 members were doing a mission, to annihilate this mysterious pirate group that always strangely got away from the marines. They weren't scared, they thought everything was going to run smoothly like usual, but even they can be wrong.
Kaku, Lucci, and Blueno, who coincidentally found the pirate ship inside a cave on the island were the only ones who engaged in battle with those pirates. The rest was still in town, gathering information.
The battle went weird, as Kaku can't really recall what the hell happened. He only remembered being tossed on the air by the captain of the pirate group, and Lucci-
Kaku doesn't what trick the pirates used, but Lucci suddenly froze in place, thus letting the pirate crooks to beat him up. When Lucci finally snapped out of whatever state he was in, he smashed the skull of one of the pirate crooks, catching them by surprise, but then he collapsed, just like that, on the ground. Meanwhile, Kaku was being beaten up by the captain of the pirates, until Blueno caught them by surprise with his Air Door, and effectively defeating the pirates one by one. When the captain of the pirates got beaten half to death by Blueno, he raged and punched hard on the wall of the cave, making it crumble abruptly.
"Blueno! Blueno!?" Kaku yelled.
"Here, Kaku," Blueno appeared beside him with his door and took Lucci from him.
Kaku's vision was extremely blurry, but he can still identify his immediate surroundings. He quickly stepped into Blueno's door, which led to the outside of the cave's entrance. He only got to see the rest of CP9's members running towards him for a few seconds, before losing consciousness.
...
…?
Kaku blinked. It's pitch black.
Where am I?
"YOYOOOII! Kaku! Kaku's awake!" a familiar voice shouted beside him.
"Kumadori? Where is this place?" Kaku asked.
"Yoooi! This is the marine base medical room, YOYOI!" Kumadori was loud as usual.
"Ah, what a relief," Kaku heard another familiar voice. It was Kalifa's.
"Oi! Stupid giraffe, you've been asleep for 4 days already! You look awful!" This time it's Jabura's.
But he still couldn't see anything.
"How can you even see me? It's so dark here," Kaku said.
Then, silence.
"W-what?" Jabura was the first one to process Kaku's words.
What?
Then it struck Kaku like a shitload ton of bricks.
"Chapa! Kaku is blind?" Fukuro asked in disbelief.
Lucci's head perked up hearing this. Kalifa nodded weakly to Fukuro. Lucci couldn't believe it.
"Is that true?" Lucci frowned deeply at Kalifa.
"The doctor said it's probably temporary, but it couldn't be confirmed," Kalifa explained, trying to keep her tone straight, but anyone could hear the sadness in her voice. Lucci immediately stood up from his seat and rushed to Kaku's treatment room. He slammed the door open.
Kaku's staring at the ceiling with blank eyes.
….with blind eyes.
"..Lucci?" Kaku said.
"Kaku," Lucci replied.
"Heh, hey there! Are you safe and sound?" Kaku chuckled. He sure hopes so.
"Yes," came the short answer.
"Good," Kaku's voice became noticeably weaker.
Lucci closed the door behind him, and sat beside the bed.
"The enemy used some kind of poison gas. It was really unprofessional of us not to notice," Lucci said, as if scolding himself.
"Hah, really? That explains why you suddenly froze and collapse, as I got paralyzed," Kaku tried to recall the hazy memories of him being beaten up.
"Is it because Blueno spent most of his time in his door dimension, that he wasn't much affected?" Kaku continued.
"Yes," Lucci answered briefly.
Neither of them said anything after that, letting the silence wash over them.
"Can you really not see anything?" Lucci said after a few moments.
"Yes, well, but the doctor said it's most likely caused by the shock, so it's temporary! Probably because of the rock that hit my head in the cave," Kaku tried to sound cheerful, but he was only greeted by more silence.
"Blueno said your head got hit by a rock while trying to protect me," Lucci said in a very deep, displeased voice.
Kaku was unsure of how to answer Lucci's statement.
"Uh.. well, yeah, I couldn't really dodge because my vision was blur-"
"So it's because of me," Lucci interrupted his words.
"Huh?" He didn't really get what Lucci meant.
"Your… blindness.. it's because of me," Lucci explained vaguely.
"What? Don't say that! Of course not!" Kaku really didn't want Lucci to interpret things like that.
But Lucci didn't say anything else.
"Lucci, it's not because of you. It's my own fault for not being more careful," Kaku looked worried. He wished he could see Lucci's face right now.
Lucci still stayed silent. Kaku didn't know what else to say.
"Go get some rest," Lucci finally spoke. Kaku opened his mouth to say something, but he immediately closed it again when he heard the door opening and closing, along with the disappearance of Lucci's presence. Kaku closed his eyes and held his unspoken words.
I wanted you to stay…
Dark.
I can't see anything.
Where am I? Where are the others?
Suddenly, I see a distant light.
I run towards it. There's someone there. He looks familiar...
"Lucci?" I call to the familiar figure.
As I get closer, I notice that he keeps getting more blurry.
"Lucci? Lucci!"
He finally spun his head to my direction.
I want to see his face, but it's too blurry…
Lucci spread his arms, as if waiting for me to embrace him.
I run faster. I want to hold him so much. Why is it that I feel like I miss him so much right now?
Tears began to flow from my eyes. I don't know why. I just..
I just want to hug him right now.
I open my arms. Finally, I can hold you-
But Lucci suddenly disappeared.
What?
What happened?
"Lucci? Lucci?! Lucci, where are you?!" I can't stop my tears from flowing. I look around, but there's no sign of him anywhere.
Lucci…
I want to see you.
I want to hold you.
So much…
Kaku gasped, abruptly waking up from his sleep. The nightmare he just had kept replaying in his head. The darkness was all he could see, and that didn't help at all.
He's scared.
What if he couldn't see anything anymore for the rest of his life?
What if he couldn't see Lucci anymore for the rest of his life?
Just like in his dream, tears started to flow from his blind eyes. He tried to hold it in, but it's no use. He sobbed. For him, everything felt so scary at the moment.
"Kaku," a very, very familiar voice spoke beside him.
Kaku was startled, caught off-guard by the voice he would recognize anywhere.
"L-Lucci?" Kaku stuttered in between his sobs.
"What's wrong?"
Kaku could feel Lucci's hand wiping his tears. Kaku couldn't bring himself to say anything. Lucci's touch was so warm..
Then the warmth enveloped his whole body. Lucci's tight embrace calmed Kaku down drastically.
"Don't cry," Lucci whispered into Kaku's ear.
Kaku could only slightly nod on Lucci's shoulder, hugging him back. Lucci kissed Kaku's neck softly, and nipped on it. Kaku let out a faint moan. Then Lucci pulled back, cupped Kaku's face, and gave him another kiss on his eye.
"You'll be fine," Lucci said in his low voice.
"Yeah," Kaku smiled, leaning on Lucci's shoulder.
He was scared, but now not anymore.
He lost the sight of Lucci, but not Lucci himself.
Lucci was still there with him.
And he will always be there.
Author's note:
Don't worry! Kaku regained his vision not long after that ^_^
I like this pairing so much I just cant help but make something for them UGHHHH _
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece nor its characters.
Please leave a review if you enjoyed the story c:
Thank you for reading! 3