AUTHOR'S NOTE: Welcome to chapter one! This took way longer than I wanted it too, for various reasons, and I'm sorry for that! Updates should hopefully be coming either every Friday or every other Friday now, depending on how busy I am that week.

Also, if anyone is interested, I've posted a character profile for Meredith up on my deviantART page, a link to which is in my profile. With all that said... on with the fic! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ～*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Chapter One: Morning Comes in Light

Waking before dawn was a habit now, and one Meredith wasn't sure she wanted to shake. She enjoyed the quiet time to herself, to stretch and let her brain slowly catch up with the rest of her. On the other hand, the days after the nights where she stayed up late were harder to deal with. That day was one of those days. She felt sluggish and jaw-cracking yawns escaped her as she tugged on her clothes and padded downstairs to the inn's kitchen.

Peaches was already cooking breakfast for the guests, humming to herself as she flipped the eggs in her giant pan. Meredith smiled as she snagged a piece of slightly stale day-old bread and two sausages for her own breakfast. This, too, was routine now. Three months she'd been working and living at Peaches' inn while she slowly gathered enough money to head back to sea. The portly old woman was even more kind than Meredith had hoped, and it made adjusting to her new environment and the sudden loss of her family that much more bearable. It was almost too good to be true.

"I'm going down to the berry patches in a little bit, after I clean the dining room," she said as she munched on her sausage. "Would you like me to wake Nashi before I leave and take him with me, make sure he gets to school?"

A muffled giggle came from behind her. Meredith blinked owlishly as the door to a cabinet swung open and hit her in the backs of her legs. "'M already awake!"

She turned at the voice and smiled at the boy crawling out of his hiding spot with a pot on his head. Carefully, she leaned down and took the great metal thing off him. "So you are. In that case, do you feel like keeping me company while I clean?"

Nashi nodded and scrambled upright, bolting for the main room. Peaches shook her head fondly with a small chuckle. "Best be going after him, Freckles. Otherwise he'll be runnin' all up and down the halls."

Meredith nodded and scampered after him, pausing for half a moment at the closet to grab the cleaning supplies. Once they were in the dining room, Nashi clambered up onto the large, wooden buffet and sat with his chin resting on his hands. "Will you finish the story you started last night, Meredith? With the lady pirate and the pirate from the other crew?"

"Sure, Nashi," she said as she began to take the chairs off the round tables. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw three people come through the door and look around. "Where was I when we stopped?"

"The other pirate had got hurt! And the lady pirate's nakama said something mean about him."

She hummed thoughtfully as she quickly wiped off the table she was at and moves onto the next. The travelers (they had to be travelers, since she hadn't seen them in the three months she'd been on the island, and she was fairly certain she would remember a guy with green hair) sat at the table and two of them looked like they weren't listening to what Meredith was saying. One of them, one with a hat, was staring at her with an expression like Nashi's.

"That was a little mean of him, wasn't it? But they were rival pirate crews, so it was only to be expected that he didn't like the person he considered an enemy. But the lady pirate thought the way you did, little imp, and didn't like what her nakama said. She knew that the other pirate was a good man, even if he was technically their enemy, so she got up and left the bar."

"Why'd she leave?" Nashi asked.

"Because she was angry," Meredith continued, ignoring the feeling of stares at her back as she cleaned and told her story. She saw Peaches come out from the kitchen out of the corner of her eye and felt slightly relieved. Some of the attention would be off her while the customers were tended to. "She was so angry she didn't notice where she was walking until it was too late. Her feet had led her right to the docks where the other pirate's ship was anchored."

Nashi gasped dramatically, and one of the people who Peaches was serving large heapings of eggs made an interested noise right along with him. "Then what happened?"

"The other pirate's captain noticed her and asked if she wanted to come aboard to see how the injured man was doing," Meredith said with a twinkle in her eye. "And she did. When she got to his cabin, the pirate was surprised that she had risked danger by going aboard an enemy ship to see how he was doing."

Peaches chuckled and ruffled her son's hair as she moved back to the kitchen. "She must've been a very brave lady pirate."

There was no helping the fond smile spreading across Meredith's face. "She was. And when the pirate asked why she'd come visited him, she said it was because she was worried about him. When he asked why she was worried, she had a harder time answering. She knew the answer, but she was scared to say it."

She flipped the chairs down off of the last table and began cleaning it. It was with a slight bit of amusement that she noticed she had Nashi and the traveler's rapt attention still, even though she was across the dining room by now. "Did she say it?"

"She did. After a moment she told him she was worried because she knew he was a good man, and because even though they were enemies, she'd somehow fallen in love with him." Meredith stood up, planted her hands on her hips, and grinned at Nashi. "And then the pirate kissed her! Because he was in love with her too."

"Ewwww!" The boy's nose scrunched up and he stuck out his tongue. "That's gross."

Laughing, Meredith walked back over to Nashi. "You'll think differently someday. And it may be gross to you, but it's a good thing it happened. You know why?"

"Why?"

She poked him on the nose before she continued. "Because that's a true story, and the lady pirate was my mother. If it weren't for her falling in love with the other pirate, I wouldn't be here to tell you this story. Now come on, off you get. You've got to wash your face before you go to school."

Nashi hopped down off the buffet and Meredith began to wipe it down, finally giving the travelers more than a few sideways glances. "Welcome to the Crusty Barnacle Inn," she said, giving them a polite smile. "I'm not sure if she mentioned, but Peaches is the only one working this morning after I'm done with this. So if you need anything, give a shout. She'll be sure to come out and get you whatever you need."

With that part of her job done, she ducked her head and went into the back. A quick wash of her hands, and she was going out the inn's back door, basket in hand as she headed outside the village. As much as she liked Nashi and was happy to indulge him whenever he wanted some kind of wild adventure story, talking about her family always left an ache behind her ribcage. Three months of quiet routine had done a great deal to assuage the grief and shock that came from being separated from her family and the tragedy that had surrounded being Thrown. A morning spent picking berries for the night's desserts was just what she needed to settle her thoughts.

Kneeling in the briar, careful of the thorns and sharp plant bits, Meredith got to work. It was best, she found, to do something like this in the early morning when school and work were just getting into the swing of the day. Any later and she ran the risk of being out unprotected when the sun was at its zenith. She already seemed to have a permanent pink sunburn beneath the freckles on her nose. She didn't need anymore skin getting harmed because she wasn't smart about her work.

About an hour after she started, her basket was half full of ripe, juicy blackberries and raspberries. Another hour, maybe a little more, and she would be done with this part of her day, she mused. She looked up and around, and promptly re-thought that timeline. The young man with the hat from the in was walking towards her, curious expression on his face.

"I'm Luffy," he said without preamble, once he got close enough to Meredith for conversation. "Who are you?"

Meredith blinked in surprise and confusion. "Meredith. Why do you want to know?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he crouched down by her and grinned a grin that seemed too wide to be humanly possible. "Are you a pirate, Meredith?"

"... No. I'm a cleaning lady and a dance teacher," she said. There was a pause and she went back to picking berries as she talked. "I'll ask again, why do you want to know?"

And yet again, he didn't answer her question. "Do you want to be a pirate, like your parents?"

Irritation swelled in her, but she shoved it down and away. The corner of her lips twitched slightly and her voice was a little tight as she answered, the only indications that her temper was rising. "Not particularly. Is there a point to all these questions?"

"I think you should join my crew!" There went the impossibly large grin again. Meredith stopped what she was doing and stared at him, mouth parted in disbelief. "The old lady with the food said you were saving money so you could go to sea. Come with me and you'll be there!"

"Why?" she asked incredulously.

Luffy tilted his head to the side, puzzled. "Why what?"

"Why would you ask someone you hardly know, that you've barely even talked to, to join your pirate crew?" she elaborated. "For all you know, I could be a terrible person who would stab you in the back and take everything that's yours for myself the second you gave me the opportunity to do it."

As he adjusted his straw hat on his head, Luffy laughed. "You wouldn't do that. You know good pirates. Good pirates don't do that."

The simplicity of the statement and how sure Luffy seemed of himself made Meredith feel absolutely bewildered. Her mother had told her stories of the crews her parents had belonged to before she was born, and they were good pirates, like Luffy said. They were pirates with a moral code, only out for adventure. She shook her head and turned back to the bushes.

"I don't want to be a pirate," she said quietly, "And I can't be a pirate. I'm going out to sea to serve my own purposes. I have to find my family."

The grass beside her shifted as Luffy stood back up. He gave her a serious and contemplative look that seemed strange on his face, before he smiled again. "You'll come with."

Frowning suddenly, Meredith stood and pulled her basket onto her arm. "You don't get to decide things like that for other people," she said coldly. There was a pause, and then she added, voice softer, "If you'll excuse me, I have other things I need to be doing," before turning on her heel and walking away. The kid had nerve, she'd give him that. But that attitude was something else. Who talked about good people and then acted so presumptuous? It was, if she was being honest with herself, mildly infuriating.

As she walked away, Meredith peered into her basket and resisted the urge to sigh. There weren't enough berries yet, but going back to the briar would feel like admitting defeat. (Defeat of what, she didn't know, but that's what it felt like.) She ran through her day's schedule in her head, and a wry smile came to her face. There was an hour or so later in the day she'd have free to pick more berries, but the sun would be high. Peeling skin for a few days would be the price she paid for her pride.

It would be worth it, she thought as she walked back into town. The kids were playing outside the school building and a few stopped their games to wave at her and cry, "Miss Meredith! Miss Meredith!" She smiled and waved back.

One little girl ran up to the edge of the school's yard with a toothy smile. "Miss Meredith, I've been practicing all my steps for Thursday!" she said proudly. "I'll show you an' then you'll teach me some new ones, right?"

Meredith laughed and nodded. "Of course, Ume. Make sure you wear one of your swishy skirts, alright? We'll do some twirls."

Ume's delighted face as she sprinted back to her classmates brought warm feelings. It was with a lighter step than a few minutes previous that Meredith continued her walk. Her mind turned from pirates to dance steps as she thought up a lesson plan for Thursday. The girls would want to twirl and the boys would want something difficult—they always did.

A cold hand gripping her wrist pulled Meredith from her thoughts, even as she herself was pulled into a shadowed alleyway and shoved against a wall. A hand clamped over her mouth before she could scream. The basket of berries dropped from suddenly nerveless fingers and onto the cobblestones. A few of them tumbled out of the wicker. A muffled, choked whimper peeled its way out of Meredith's throat as she stared at the man in front of her.

He smirked and cocked his head to the side. "Shush, little dragon. And stop looking so startled. You had to know we'd be coming after you eventually to make sure the job was done right," he murmured, voice smooth as honey. "That is why Ken was so close to you when we all were Thrown."

His hand moved from her mouth to her other wrist, holding her in place. "C-Corbin..." Sudden, unexpected fear kept Meredith from saying more right away.

"That's my name, lady," Corbin said. His smirk turned into a wicked grin. "My, your pulse is racing. Nervous?"

The question snapped Meredith's mind back to the present. Fury rose up in her as she wiped the shocked look off her face and replaced it with a scowl. "No. You don't have any weapons. Unless you're planning on drawing a crowd, you're not going to off me right now." Which meant she could still run. Maybe find a way to defend herself so she didn't lose her life. Maybe if she had to get into a fight, she could take him down with her.

Corbin laughed. "Oh, I'm not planning on killing you, little dragon. Not yet." He leaned in until his lips were right next to her ear. "I think I want to play a bit first. Run wherever you like, lady. It won't be far enough to keep me from chasing you."

As suddenly as he had gotten in her space, he was out of it. He let go of her wrists and stepped back, running a hand through his dark blonde hair. "The thrill of the hunt is one of my favorite things, you know," he chirped. His hands brushed over his immaculately embroidered shirt and the raven crest on it as he walked backwards out of the alley. "Oh, and Strand? Make sure you wear your house's symbol. Quentin is looking forward to the ravens and lions laying the dragon low." And with that he was gone.

Meredith stood leaning against the wall for another long moment. Her heart hammered in her chest and she had to swallow down the wave of panic that threatened to rise up in her. She wasn't the only one to survive the storm. This should have been reassuring, but it was anything but. Her routines and her life here was coming to an end sooner than she thought it would. She had known everything was too good to be true.