The Sacred and Profane, I'm still sticking to your commission, but since I've never really written romance before, I'm sort of working up the nerve to actually get off my ass and write.
Until then, to assure you I'm not dead, have some Pell-Chaka friendship!
Chaka lay in his bed, thinking. A lot had happened of late. Princess Vivi came back, with those Straw Hat Pirates. At first Chaka was skeptical about them, with them being pirates and all, but they proved themselves to be way beyond normal pirates and worth any praise they were given. They took on the elite of Baroque Works! They -he- took down Crocodile. Matters in Arabasta were still a mess, but it was being cleaned up now. Everything would be fine….
If it weren't for the death of Chaka's best friend.
Why did Pell have to die? Of course, he saved the entire city and all its inhabitants; Pell was always one to act noble. But why did it have to be Pell? Why not….
Chaka sighed. He couldn't think of anyone to substitute Pell, no matter how much he cared for him. He probably would have felt awful if it were Igaram too, or heaven forbid; Princess Vivi.
But for Pell to die, just like that… it wasn't fair. He'd have liked to see the kids running the streets, and he'd have loved to see Vivi smile again, and hear her speech. How proud Pell would have been.
Coming to the conclusion that he wasn't about to get sleep anytime soon (and that he'd probably lose control of himself if he just stayed motionless in the dark) Chaka got outside for a walk.
His mind subconsciously traveled to when he'd met Pell.
Both of them were signed as the Princess's personal guards, as well as the protectors of the king, the palace, the land. Chaka, being wary by nature, doubted Pell had what it took to be a guardian when he first saw him. Sure, he was a nice kid, but a bit eccentric. White face, purple paint like tears? What was up with that?
It wasn't until a few weeks later, when they were carefully watching Vivi play, and saw the way how Pell looked at her; not as a bodyguard, but as a big brother of sorts, that Chaka deemed Pell well worthy of being one of Arabasta's guardians.
Chaka paused in his walk when he smelled the fragrance of withered flowers and leaves, and sandalwood. The trail of his thoughts had lead him into the cemetery, right where Pell's grave stood.
Chaka's eyes narrowed as he absorbed every detail, every glitch of all that was left of his best friend.
They never found the body. Suddenly, Chaka noticed that the flowers he'd deliver to Pell's grave were gone. Everyone had helped pick a flower into the wand, but Chaka knew Pell's favorite flowers. It was a knowledge he was proud of having, and he didn't feel like sharing it with anyone else, so he had snuck a few of them into the wand, straight in the middle.
Pell would have liked that; he liked symmetry.
Chaka heard a rustle to his left, and saw a cloaked figure holding this exact wand, as if it were its own property. "Hey! Leave those flowers be! You can't just take flowers from someone else's grave, that's disrespectful!" Chaka shouted at the man, who didn't seem at all upset about being discovered.
"So they were for me?"
Chaka was about to retort that no, they were not his, and he should put them back where they belonged before Chaka made him, but then he realized just what voice that was.
Gentle, quiet, yet always cheerful. He wouldn't forget in a million years.
"They're beautiful, Chaka. Crocuses are my favorite, but of course you knew that."
The man pulled off the hood, revealing a very dirty and beat-up face, but unmistakably the same mature and calm face that Chaka had come to cherish.
"….Pell." It wasn't exactly a question or a statement, more like Chaka was voicing his thoughts to see how they sounded on his lips. They sounded…right.
"Pell!" Chaka tried again, and this time Pell smiled back, one of his barely-there-but-still-so-dazzling smiles. "Good to be back, old friend."
Chaka, a poised warrior, the strong and silent protector of Arabasta who put his duty above all else, couldn't stay still any longer and threw himself at his long lost, and found, friend.
Pell, the honorable falcon, the noble guardian of the desert land and all it's inhabitants, squeezed back as hard as he could, relishing the fact that he was, in fact, home.
Where he belonged.
Writers of FanFiction, Y U NO write more about Pell? He's an awesome character! I'm also disappointed of the lack of Kaku. I'll write him as soon as I actually watch Water 7 arc.
For some reason, when I searched for Pell stories, most of the ones I got were about Luffy and Ace, but in the tags it said Luffy/Pell. Why? How can you confuse those two together?