In the silence of the morning, it was hard not to think. Right now, Smoker was thinking about men. Not his men, not in particular, though they were the most immediate concern, but just men.
All of them.
Marines, pirates, nobodies. They were all equally dangerous from where he stood, elbows on the rail, adding smoke to the clouds of fog. Because he was also thinking about Tashigi and something Hina said the other day: "Remember, Smoker-kun: she's a woman."
What did it mean? Tashigi wasn't a woman. She was a soldier, and a decent one at that. Wasn't it as simple as that? None of this gender crap, just a bunch of people fighting the bad guys under the collective name of 'marines'?
One thing was for sure; it had been that simple yesterday, before Hina had opened her big mouth. But he couldn't stop thinking.
He put his hands in his coat pockets and headed below deck. Just to be sure.
Tashigi snapped to attention when her door was gently pried open. Only one person made a habit of entering without knocking at strange hours.
She breathed a private sigh of relief. She'd just barely put a shirt on.
"Sir?"
Smoker stared at his ensign hard. It was impossible to guess what he was thinking when he got a look like that in his eyes. Tashigi could only hope he hadn't somehow figured it out.
"At ease, Tashigi..."
Again, her tension escaped in the form of a grateful gust. She pushed Hina's bra under the bed with a swift sweep of the foot that she hoped hadn't caught his attention. But when he got a look like that, you could never tell what went unnoticed.
For a moment, it seemed he would leave. It was not at all unusual for him to interrupt her early morning without purpose - just why did it have to be this morning, of all the ones he could choose? - but she was premature in counting herself safe.
"Tch, Tashigi?..." Smoker stopped himself in the middle of pulling the door shut. A gloved hand searched the base of his neck for some inspiration, half scratching, half resting in a habitual position of defeat.
When Smoker looked back at the open, attentive face he felt a pang of guilt. How could he have doubted a soldier, and a damned good one at that?
"You know...Tashigi: just take care of yourself."
He fixed his hard stare on her again, but behind it was a rush of well-checked fondness.
Tashigi didn't notice though. Right now, she was thinking about women. One woman in particular, a woman who was currently in the facilty showers, probably looking terribly beautiful and using Smoker's soap.
She was also thinking of the bra under her bed and something its owner had said last night: "Smoker-kun just doesn't know what to do with a woman. Hina unlucky."
But Tashigi had been a soldier long enough to kill a blush when it counted.
"You don't have to worry about me, Sir!"
