One Piece and its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda. Dominica belongs to me.
He flitted in and out of consciousness several times after that. He could see long pale blonde hair, pale skin, something white and fluffy, hear a voice that belonged to no man but a woman. That was new.
"I'm doing what I can, stop whining!" Who was whining? Was it him? He couldn't hear anything but her voice. "Get out, no I mean it get out- oh fine stay then!" She sounded angry. Was she angry at him for escaping? He had never seen her before so she must be new to the facility. When he next woke up he was alone, there were no voices, no people but the sun shone through the window he noticed before he fell unconscious again.
When he yet again woke up he expected to stare at the white ceiling in the infirmary in the facility where he was kept but while the roof was indeed white the room was not. It was painted a dark purple. The bed was soft, not thin and hard like the ones at the infirmary and he wondered where he was for not even the bed in his cell was this comfortable.
"About time you woke up." He turned his head and stared at the woman who sat on the bed he was resting on. He set tired grey eyes on her and before he could ask who she was or where he was she began to talk again.
"You have three broken ribs and many bruised ones, a concussion, a deep cut over your right eye which swelled up and first degrees of frostbite on your hands so I'm not gonna ask how you're feeling because I know you feel like crap." The boy blinked at the woman, wondering what she was talking about. Why did she tell him about his injuries? They had never done that before at the facility. They merely patched him up and then sent him to his room. The lack of a response from the boy caused the woman to frown.
"Are you actually conscious now?" She fished out a tiny flashlight and flashed his eyes. He flinched.
"Well, both you and your eyes respond so I'll take that as a yes. You ain't deaf are you?" The boy shook his head and her frown eased up a bit. "Can you talk?" Again the boy nodded and ner frown deepened yet again.
"You didn't understand a thing I said did you? You're just a brat after all." The boy shook his head then and opened his mouth.
"I understand… The ribs… They must have been damaged when the man kicked me, the swelling in my eye was because of the punch and the concussion is probably a result from me crashing into the tree. The frostbite is the result of me going outside without proper clothes." He quickly looked at his lap as the woman gaped at him, fearing he had done something wrong. While this was knowledge that had been drilled into his head at the facility he had still talked back at her, something she hadn't allowed him to do. She was surely going to punish him for speaking out of turn and he closed his eyes in fright before she chuckled.
"Well ain't that a surprise. You're a smart kid. Then it was probably you who patched up Bepo." The boy tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Bepo?" She pointed at the other side of the bed and the boy turned to look at what she was pointing at and his eyes widened in surprise. Not far from him the little polar bear he had helped lay, sleeping.
"Ah!"
"Thought so." The woman chuckled. "The cub came pawing at my door earlier and urged me to follow him. I saw the bandage and wondered what the hell was wrong."
"Is he yours?" The boy mumbled in envy, hands twitching, wanting to bury themselves in the white fur and the woman stared before shaking her head. "Nah, he's just a cub I found a few weeks ago, all alone in the woods. The poor thing was starving so I took him back home and nourished him. Now he thinks I'm his mother or something and won't leave." She muttered the last part but didn't sound all that mad, the boy thought.
"What's your name kid?" The boy turned his head quickly back to the woman and felt dizziness and nausea welling up in him as he fell backwards. The woman was quick though and caught him, gently laying him down.
"Oy, take it easy now." She quickly pulled forth a bucket she had kept close to the bed and let the boy empty his stomach in it. She stared at the content before frowning at the boy. "That wasn't much." She had expected a lot more but it seemed like there was no content in the boy's stomach at all. The boy panted heavily and screwed his eyes shut to escape the illusion of the room and woman twisting and turning. He didn't want to throw up again, it felt horrible to lose what little contents he had in his stomach and he was tired still. The woman spoke and he froze, terror filling his entire being.
"Go back to sleep kid." She said, realizing she wouldn't get any answers from him for a while. The boy suddenly seemed to tense and he stared at her, frightened. She wondered where the fear suddenly appeared from but she pulled the covers up to his chin, ignoring his flinch.
"I'll get you something to eat when you wake up." This didn't seem to reassure the boy so she glanced at the cub sleeping beside him. She walked around the bed and pushed the sleeping cub closer to the child. "Bepo will keep you company while I'm gone." Hearing this finally caused the boy to relax and he reached out with one of his hands, burying it in the warm fur, as his eyes fluttered close.
'The kid is exhausted, which is actually pretty understandable. He's too thin though.' She thought as she examined him again. His cheeks were hollowed in, there were dark circles around his eyes and when she had been patching him up while he was unconscious she had noticed a few scars and a lot of bruises, some old, some of them new. His wrists were like twigs and she could see his ribs through his skin. How those legs had managed to support him at all surprised her.
'Well… I promised him food, didn't I?' She thought as she grabbed her hat and sword and sauntered out of the cabin in which she lived and down into the village not far from her home.
The boy woke up to something wet repeatedly brushing over his cheek and opened them to see the cub licking him. He blinked as the cub yapped happily and licked him again.
"Awake again?" He turned his head towards the door to see the blonde-haired woman lean against the door frame with her arms crossed across her chest. She was wearing a coat and a white, fuzzy, brown spotted hat on her head with melting snow on it showing she had just been outside.
"Hungry?" His stomach answered for him and he hit it while clenching his teeth but screamed as he felt the pain from his broken and bruised ribs. "Hey, hey! What are you doing?" The woman exclaimed as she gripped his wrists to stop him from hurting himself further, snow falling off her hat and raining down on him.
"I'm sorry, I'm not hungry, I swear I'm not hungry!" The boy struggled madly and she frowned. "Calm down." Immediately he went still and her frown deepened.
"What's so bad about being hungry?" She questioned as she stared at him. "I'm just lying in bed. I don't deserve food if I don't work, do I?" He asked and she sighed while letting go of his wrists. The boy pulled the hands to his chest before suddenly there was a light slap on the back of his head.
"Idiot!" His hands flew to his head to cover the spot she had hit and stared at the woman with wide and fearful eyes while her own teal ones narrowed. "You need to eat, especially since you're hurt! And you're as thin as a twig, that's unhealthy! Now shut up and wait here, aye!" The boy nodded quickly as the woman stormed out of the room. The bear tilted its head, as if it didn't understand what was wrong, before it licked at the boy's hand and yapped again. The boy stared at the cub and felt the corners of his mouth twitch upward but as he heard the woman rummage around outside he pulled the covers up to his chest.
It didn't take long before the woman returned with some broth that she told him to carefully sip at. He was malnourished and if he wasn't careful he would do more damage to himself. The boy nodded and grabbed the spoon but flinched as he burned himself.
"Too hot?" He nodded and gazed up at her fearfully as she took the spoon from him. He knew she would tell him to deal with it and force it down his throat, he just knew it, and therefore it was a big surprise when she blew on the broth to cool it before holding the spoon up to him.
"Better?" He tasted and found that he wasn't burning his tongue anymore and nodded. She grinned then and fed him the rest of the bowl. The warm food made him drowsy and he wanted to sleep again so he leaned back against the pillows as she put down the bowl.
"Watch over him, Bepo." She told the bear which curled up by the boy's side, nodding its head as if it understood what she said before she pulled the blanket up to the boy's chin and moved to leave the room.
"Who are you?" The drowsy voice made its way to her ears and she glanced at the boy. "Dominica. Now, go to sleep brat." She wondered if the boy had even heard what she had said, since his eyes were already closed and his breathing even, but she didn't contemplate it for long. She simply assumed that he would ask again when he woke up. Standing in the threshold to the room she turned off the light in the room and closed the door silently behind her.
