Laughter sounded through the gardens at the mansions back. Through the big window, she could see Tyler and Erica. What had started as a sparing session, quickly turned into Erica pushing Tyler into the pond. Him pulling her along and the two laying in the gras, wheezing and laughing.
Erica rolled onto her side and reached out to brush hair out of Tyler's face. Who made snapping motions with his mouth, chuckling at Erica who pulled her hand away and curled a little towards him. He rolled onto his own side and the two looked at each other for a long time. Like there was no one else, but them in that big brutal world. She could remember that feeling.
She chuckled softly, upon seeing him nearly light his coat, whilst trying to get his cigarette burning. He never spoke a word, not a single sound that escaped his lips, but the cheeky smiles and the know it all aura of his. Chuckling like that caused her head to dip a little forward, blonde strands free of the ponytail, swishing over her ear and into her vision. He reached his one free hand up, to brush the hair behind her ear, giving her that soft smile.
The window was slightly open, to let in the fresh air of summer's day. The breeze, that made the hot sun bearable for everyone involved. Making the curtains swish softly in the wind's movement. Her blue eyes, watched as Tyler pulled Erica up. Using a little bit too much strength, so she would inevitably fall against his chest. His arms sneaking around her waist, to hold her to his body.
A tenderness Tyler only held for Erica. Which did not mean, that he was rough in his actions with Pascal. On the contrary he was a gentleman, no comparison to his old self. When her father had brought him into the family and had introduced Tyler to her and Erica. But those looks he gave Erica, the lingering glances when she wasn't looking. His touch to her shoulder, the lips to her cheek. There were things she remembered all too well, watching those two.
"You tripped again didn't you?" she knelt down next to him and reached out to brush hair from his forehead. Which was to no avail, given that his hair was a mess underneath that hat of his. Sunglasses having fallen into his lap, he picked them up, letting them twirl in his long fingers. "Did you hurt yourself?" tilting her head to have a better look at his face. He shook his head and pulled out a notepad from his pocket to scribble down quickly /I'm fine.../, she smiled softly at him. "I'm glad.." the blush on his cheeks, was barely visible, as he just got up to his legs wobbling a hand on his shoulder and arm, to not give him any chance of tripping over thin air again.
Blinking herself out of her thoughts, she noticed that both had left the garden. Probably to get changed, or fool around some more. They weren't really subtile with that and not really good at playing secretive. What she did not expect were the two bursting into her room, like they were on high alert.
"You can't stay inside all day! It's unhealthy!" Erica exclaimed and took Pascal's right hand, while Tyler took her left. "Erica is right, you'll get sick" Tyler backed up, his girlfriend? His lover? Pascal would have to talk to the two, to find a thread in their situation. For now, she let them drag her out of the room, past servants and subordinates. Down the long staircase and out to the backyard. "See? It's beautiful out here" Erica let her hand drop and nodded towards Tyler. Who simply picked Pascal up, throwing her over his good shoulder and carrying her over to the seats by the pool. Setting her down gently on one of the seats.
A butler brought drinks to the pool's side and Pascal was pretty sure, it was Erica's idea of relaxing. It was just then that she noticed, the two had indeed changed into some swimwear, probably why they had her by the pool. Erica stretching her arms over her head, her skin tanned from the sun. There were a few scars, some Pascal knew and had tended to herself, some she didn't know of. Were from before her joining the family. The same went for Tyler, the new scar on his shoulder, was slightly raised and pink. And Pascal would never forget, that sometimes, she asked too much of those two.
Pascal leaned back in her seat and watched Tyler, with a mean gleam in his eye. Silently made his way over to Erica, pulled her up bridal style into his arms and jumped for the pool. Water sprayed everywhere, missed Pascal's legs by an inch, made the blonde laugh. When Erica dove up to dunk Tyler down, for having surprised her like that. Starting a war in the water, that neither seemed willing to lose.
"Why don't you swim, too?" her blonde hair was plastered to her face and scalp. Wet strands swimming in the water, where they were too long to stick to shoulder and head. /Can't swim/ he held up the paper and she tilted her head. "Want me to teach you?" she asked again, her arms folded on the edge of the pool, holding her up. /Nah, too clumsy for that.../ he wrote again and held up. She nodded, watched as he pulled out his lighter and lit his cigarette only for his coat to catch fire. With wide eyes the blonde watched as he stumbled forward, his coat on fire and fell right next to her in the pool. A laugh escaping her lips, watching him. Until she realized he couldn't swim and the pool was quite deep at the point where he had fallen in head first.
Diving after him the blonde hooked her arm underneath his and pulled him along with her, his clothes heavy as they were soaked. Especially the slightly charred feather coat he was wearing. When she reached the edge she tried pushing him over the edge, which took three tries and for her to dive right underneath him, to push from below. Before he was on the grassy ground around the pool. And she jumped out of the water with a swift move, hauling herself over the edge. And checked on him, his coughing though signaling he hadn't been under water for too long. "Wow you really are clumsy..." he simply tried to swat at her, instead of using his soggy notebook.
"Pascal?" Erica was swimming towards the edge, her blonde hair plastered to her head, a few strands curling up from being atop the water. She shook her head and gave the other blonde her full attention. "You spaced out.." she commented and let herself be kept up by her legs swimming. Tyler was swimming laps now and took a turn, to come up right next to Erica. "You do that a lot lately..."
She tilted her head from side to side, thinking about how to answer. It wasn't that their happiness was necessarily making her sad or space out. And while she thought a lot about her past, it was a rather good feeling. Well not entirely good, but well somewhat good. "I just had to think about a few things..." she smiled at the two and decided it was enough of making them worry about her. Taking off her top and her jeans. The blonde jumped into the pool, wearing her bikini underneath. In the summer heat she had long learned to wear it underneath.
They swam for a while, enjoying the water and the sun. Deciding to call it quits, they got out of the pool and went to their respective rooms to have a shower and change into dry clothes. Dinner would be ready by then and with growling stomachs, the swim fun had been at an end very quickly.
Erica and Tyler were quick eaters, which sometimes made Pascal worry. They could choke on their food, or even throw up, which she always made sure to look after. Although they were both older than her, the blonde felt like she had to take care of them. The blonde girl excused herself first, followed right up by Tyler. Which left Pascal eating the rest of her dinner alone, wondering what the two were up to. They usually didn't run off like that, they always waited and chatted with her.
Her father smiled at her as he picked her up, and sat her on his shoulders. Her blonde pigtails bouncing, as she held onto her daddy's head. "Where are we going?" she asked, "We're going to pick someone up. He's going to live with us..." he told her and she nodded. Daddy picked up a lot of people to live with them. Not all she understood, some were hurt and some were sad. But they all fitted perfectly to her daddy and her mommy. And they were all nice to her anyway. When they reached the car outside, a tall guy climbed out, tripped over his own feet and landed on his back in front of them. "Pascal... meet Corazon. He's going to stay with us..." her dad gave a gruff chuckle and while he held her with one hand on her leg up on his shoulders, he pulled the boy up to his feet. He waved and looked away a little embarrassed. "Hi!" she waved at the boy and smiled brightly. He simply waved back and pulled out a notepad to write on, held it up for her to read. /Hi/
Pascal thanked the young maid, who hurried to clean up the table. She always told them to not hurry so much, but they usually tended to ignore her. She firmly believed, that they thought her to be joking. But she wasn't, if it had been her? She wouldn't even have maids. But a lot of them needed the job, were paid well for their work and could live in the big mansion. So she couldn't bring it over herself to fire the staff. Especially when she liked them and learned their names to thank them properly on christmas and easter.
Walking down the hallway towards her room, she stopped midway to look out the window. The night was cloudless, stars sparkling, full moon out at full pride. Her fingers tracing over the now cool window's glass. Her sigh was deep and a little bit sad. Not that she didn't enjoy her life, with her friends, her work and her family. It was just that ever since the happenings from ten years ago, her heart felt this hole she couldn't fill.
Running a hand through her blonde locks, she noticed that she quite couldn't cause they were in a pony tail. Taking it out, the blonde shook her hair a little to get it kind of sorted out. Smoothing the tops out, with both hand she looked up, to see her reflection in the mirrored window in front of her. Feeling her heart sink, at the image that was looking back at her, despite the try of a smile on her lips.
Why do you wear your hair in a ponytail?/ she tilted her head at the question and reached out with her own hand to touch her hair. Despite the ponytail, it reached the midst of her back. "It's convenient? Doesn't get in my eyes, or hinder me in a fight I guess..." he nodded at the answer and wrote on his notepad again /But I bet it'd look better out of the ponytail/ giving her a smirk he held it up. "Well I am not meant to look good, but be effective..." she replied chuckling. Reaching her own hand out she let it hoover over his head. "You take off the hat, I take down the hair..." she told him. He scrunched his nose up and shrugged his shoulders.
Taking down his hat, blonde unruly hair was to be seen. Which made him actually look way younger than he was and kind of cute. While he used the moment of her observation, to pull her hair out of the ponytail. Watching as long blonde strands spilled over her shoulders and down her chest to stop at her waist. She couldn't see his eyes,because he was wearing the sunglasses again. But she knew he was staring, which had her take two steps back. "What..." the blonde snapped, looking away embarrassed and dropped the hat in his lap. /Nothing/ he held up and just shrugged his shoulders again.
Pascal reached her room, with her hair out if it's usual ponytail, taking off her blazer to let it rest on the chair nearby the door. Just to stop dead in her tracks and look at the two, who were sitting on her bed. Not unusual to have Tyler and Erica curled up on her bed, and talking. Because ever since she had added them to the family, there had been good and particularly bad days. Sometimes one of the two would have nightmares, wouldn't want to be alone. And sometimes they came together, when the mission had been really bad, when they needed reassurance that everything was fine.
This time though, the two were talking and Erica was holding something in her hand. That made Pascal's skin pale and her hands shake at her side. The thing she had put away, ever since the happenings from ten years ago. The item she hadn't been able to bring herself to throw away. That fabric was bunched in one of Erica's hands as she was talking to Tyler, turning though when she heard Pascal enter the room and smiled at her. "We found this in your drawer! We didn't know you did cute..." she said.
The hat was red and more like a scull cap, with two tendrils hanging down from each side, that were ending in two hearts. Her lips were tightly pressed and she wanted to yell at Erica, for having gone through her things. But the blonde couldn't have known what the hat meant to her, not with the things having been way before her time. Much like Tyler couldn't have known. And when Erica's remark hit her ears, she lost all tension in her body, sighed deeply. "I don't do cute... It belonged to someone I knew..."
Erica looked at the hat like it had burned her hand, while Tyler sat up more straight. It was like the tension that had left her, was now with the two and she felt sorry for that. It wasn't their fault by any means and things had just happened. Maybe it was time to explain to the two, after all she always said 'Family is the most important' would do her good to hold onto that.
Pascal walked over to the two and sat down on the edge of the bed, pulled her legs next to her. She picked the hat out of Erica's hands and gave it a long fond stare. Before she took a deep breath and leaned up to ruffle both her friend's hair. "It was before you two came to the family, so it's no wonder you don't know about him."
Erica's pout vanished upon the words of her friend and she knew that the story was still hurting the younger blonde. But she didn't want to re-open the wound, looked helplessly at Tyler who shrugged his shoulders a tiny bit. "You don't have to say anything, if it hurts too much..." he said."It's okay, it's time anyway that I tell you two. We're family after all, since I know about you..."
They moved to sit a bit more comfortable, Pascal leaned against the headboard, Tyler on her right side, Erica on her left. She let her hands run through Tyler's and Erica's hair, it was more to calm her than them. "I was six when Corazon came to my family the first. He was a few years older than me. And already so tall, that you had to look up to see him..." the smile that played on her lips, was soft and held all the love she used to have for him.
"I didn't fall in love with him at first. But saw him more of a clumsy brother, much like everyone else Dad had brought into the family..." she said and kept her hands running through their hair. "He fell down almost every time, never steady on his legs. And when he turned sixteen he took up smoking... burned his coat every damn time lighting that thing..." there were thousands of memories, of her trying to save his coat and life, by dumping water over the flames
She couldn't help the small chuckle, that passed her lips upon the memory of Corazon and the burning feather coat. "His style was more on the weird side, if I could describe it in one word? He looked like he belonged to a circus, more than to a mafia. He had a feather coat, much like many feather-boas taped together. He wore that ridiculous heart patterned shirt and the skinny jeans. That heart shaped hat you just held and sunglasses. His lips always painted in a clown like smile and below his eye it was some weird pattern. I think he did it to piss off my dad at first, just to gauge his reaction. Or not... who knows..."
Erica tried to imagine the man, but came up with something weird and shapeless. While Tyler simply listened to his boss-/friend, his hand coming up to find Erica's and hold. "I'll show you a picture later..." Erica looked up, just to check if Pascal was still alright, not seeing the other cry. She let her head fall back into Pascal's lap and held Tyler's hand tightly in her grip.
"Corazon... he was one of a kind, he didn't talk at all, but wrote everything down no his notepad. He couldn't swim and once nearly drowned. We spent the good amount of 12 years together. When things fell apart and I was left without mom, dad and Corazon..." she sighed and leaned back with her head. Resting against the headboard and looking up to the ceiling. "Corazon's real name was Rosinante and he was the little brother of Doflamingo..." she felt the two tense right underneath her hands.
They had just saved her from the other, who had tried to kidnap her. After of course having tried to blackmail her into joining their families. He would never let her be, not as long as both of them were alive. "I didn't know that he worked for my dad, to act as a double spy for him. Fooling Doflamingo into being in his family, while he was reporting to my dad." her eyes were distant recalling the final day, where everything blew up in their faces.
"During the time Corazon was at our home, he also reported to Doflamingo, to hold up the act. He hated what his brother had become, wanted to stop his madness... He met a little boy in Doflamingo's group. A boy who was ill, back then there was no cure to help him. He was destined to die in three years time. But the funny thing about Corazon... is that if he likes you? He would do anything for you..." she sighed, "He left our family and kidnapped the boy to save his life... he told my dad and my dad gave him the means to leave the country. There was someone in England... a doctor that worked with my family who said he could save Law's life..."
Erica sat up to look at Pascal who let her hand slip away from her hair, Tyler following suit, the two didn't want their best friend to feel so sad. Or well by now she was more like a little sister to the two of them. "When he arrived in England, the doctor was indeed capable to extract the virus and find an antiserum... But Law didn't want to return to Doflamingo by then, having spent plenty of time with Corazon... I don't know the real deal with the two. Since Corazon didn't tell me anything, but that Law was special and needed to be protected. Whatever the deal with Law was, Doflamingo had an informant in England who told him about Corazon and well..."
She licked her lips, held her hands in her lap and closed her eyes to recall it better. To not start crying in front of the two, because she felt like she wanted to. "Doflamingo found them... or well he found Corazon, Law was long gone by then... I really don't know where" she bit her lip, took the deep breath through her nose and opened her blue eyes. "Corazon couldn't shoot Doflamingo... I know that, that he would have never done it... but that day, someone came with the news to my father. He had been shot in England and found dead..."
Erica hugged Pascal's waist and snuggled into her side to give her comfort. While Tyler pulled her to his side with Erica, to hold both, after all he was the guy here. "A week after that mother and father were killed and I was found the next leader of the family. I can't prove that it had been the Donquixotes... since mafia always has enemies... but I have this feeling, that he knew of Corazon's betrayal..." she leaned against Tyler and Erica. "I was in love with him and... I couldn't protect him... I swore to never let that happen again, that's why I'm so strict with plans, or am sure to be capable enough to protect both of you..." Erica sighed. "Did you ever tell him?" she asked.
That actually startled a small laugh out of the blonde. "Oh I did... and he fell down the main staircase..." it made Tyler wince, because he had fallen down those stairs once too and it was all but pleasant. "Although he was working undercover for dad and he could be perfectly serious? His clumsiness wasn't an act..." she said and found it in herself to smile a tiny bit.
It was three months, after she had told Erica and Tyler about Corazon. Working on the papers she had to finish, for their informant and then there were the deals she had to handle with the Donquixotes. While she hated them, a peace treaty was of value for both sides. Especially when Doflamingo, still wanted her to either be dead or part of his family.
She let her head thump against the tables top polished wood. Letting out the biggest frustrated sigh, she had ever let out. When someone's deep voice said "You could seriously damage your brain with that..." her head shooting up, her hand instinctively go for the gun underneath her jacket. There in front of her stood a dark haired man, he was wearing a pullover and jeans. On top of his head was a hat that was white and had some black dots. His hair just slightly visible at the side and a black goatee like beard adorning his face. He had pierced ears and grey piercing eyes. "Who are you?" she asked.
"I was dragged here by an overly convincing blonde girl and I think the dude was her boyfriend. They kidnapped me and brought me on a flight, to get me here..." he said and lifted a hand to take off his hat and run his other hand through his hair. Showing the tattoos on his hands and knuckles. "Excuse you?", "I'm Trafalgar D. Water Law..." he said and her eyes went wide, blinking at him. "I guess you are the girl Cora-san kept talking about...", "Corazon..." she sank back into the chair, all the strength leave her body.
He took the seat in front of her and tilted his head looking her up and down. She was slightly older than him, which was no surprise. Given that it was ten years ago he had been ten and saved by the man she had loved. "You are pretty..." he commented and she rolled her eyes at him, which actually made both smile. "You grew up nicely though... the photo he showed me was a murderous little child, with scary eyes..." he grumbles something along the lines of 'idiot Cora-san'.
"So Erica and Tyler found you and dragged you here?" she asked him and he nodded, his hands folded on his leg,that was up on his other one. "They said that it is important to you, to see me..." he seemed to know exactly what the two meant. That she needed to see the boy that Corazon had saved, the one he had died for. Just to know, that it was for something worthy. "You're...", "A doctor... I was already learning to be one, when he took me away from Doflamingo... I then finished my studies and became one in England..." she nodded.
The wooden door was closed and since the room was soundproof, neither Tyler nor Erica could tell what was being said in the office. But they sincerely hoped that their sister would find peace now. Knowing that the man Corazon died for, was actually someone who was saving lives. Or that's what they hoped, since he was a doctor. They looked at each other and smiled softly, before Tyler leaned forward to place a soft kiss on Erica's lips. He couldn't imagine a day without her anymore, he didn't want to know what it would feel like. To not have her around anymore.
Parting from the kiss, the two walked off to do their daily duties and announce to the chef in the kitchen, that they were having a party. After all it was somewhat a small family reunion of some weird sorts right? And the two liked to party a lot, like a super lot, with the amount of alcohol and awesome food.
If they could have been able to hear past the thick wooden doors, they would have heard laughter. A woman and a man's laughter to be precise, exchanging stories about a person they loved. A clumsy man with a big heart, who was weird in his own way. But all the more important to each of their lives, having saved them in a way, no one would probably ever do again. And while Law looked at the older woman in front of him and listened to the current situation, after exchanging stories of Rosinante. He swore, he'd finish the dream of his life-savior. To stop the madness that was Donquixote Doflamingo and his family. And why not align with a woman, who seemed to have the same drive to that one finish line.
And what if Pascal later drank and laughed with her family, if they shared food with Law and drinks. If they got to know Law's medical team and got along nicely. What if late at night, she looked at the hat and smiled softly. Tracing the lines of fabric, with her finger. A drunken smile on her lips, curling up to a ball on her bed. And thinking to herself that maybe, maybe the hole in her chest could be closed. Not in the same way, not as much as it had been ripped. But a little, day by day.