**** DISCLAIMER-PLEASE READ- I wrote this with another author, Jesachi u/711995/Jesachi, a long time ago. This is a continuation of a One Piece Fan Fiction Series, which began with The Way of the Sword and Rose, s/7270558/1/The-Way-of-The-Sword-and-Rose. Unlike Zoro's story, we HAVE NO EDITED THIS STORY, and may never do so, but we felt we wanted to share the story with you anyways. Because this story was written as a role play between myself and Jesachi, the story continually switches perspectives between the two main characters. I hope this doesn't bother you, but I apologize if it does, but you HAVE BEEN WARNED.

This Story takes place many years after the conclusion of the One Piece Story Line, and continues on with the story of Rouge, Ace's daughter. Ace survives the Battle of Marineford in a roleplay we aren't ready to put up yet. His survival is not known to many people in the world, but he and his wife Mara have two lovely children, and this is the story of their eldest child, Rouge. It is, perhaps, my absolute favorite FanFiction that I have ever written, so...Please enjoy!********

Her dagger against his chin didn't even make him blink. Hell, if any weapon made him so much as think about yielding, he wouldn't be a very good marine.

But he liked the sentiment from her. Added to the whole seriousness of this topic.

"Can't say I like this situation, but let's just say my hands are tied," he held up his bound wrists, "So I might as well make the best of it. Doesn't mean I'm not going to punch you the second you untie me though. For this," he pointed to the yellowing bruise on his jaw, "And for knocking me out before and for kidnapping me."

She was trying to save her own family, hence why she kidnapped him. It was unceremonious, sure, but he could make an effort to let go of his anger for the time being, considering the circumstances. He knew, in the back of his mind that he could probably get her to let him go in just a few days by confessing now that he wasn't planning on telling anyone about her lineage. But like she said, he was kinda – in a perverse keep your enemies closer way – looking forward to getting to know her a little better too.

"Alright, so," he started, glancing around, "This jungle is uninhabited I'm assuming. What are you planning on doing for shelter here? And this," he nodded his head and waved his hands a little at his torso, "is just not acceptable for jungle weather. I hope you thought ahead to grab me some clothes or something…"

Her eyes flickered down to his body, taking in his cotton shorts, then looked back up at him with an amused smile. She pushed herself up to her feet and started walking around him, back towards the tree where she'd been watching him for the time being.

"As a matter of fact, I did have the forethought to bring you some things. Aren't I just a darling?" she disappeared into the foliage, and rustling could be heard as she moved the leaves of a low bush out of the way to retrieve the backpack she had stored there.

Retrieving it, she returned to the little clearing by the lagoon while digging around in its contents with her right hand. "Spoiling you, I am," she added as she pulled out a pair of shorts and a blue and green button-down shirt. She dropped these garments down in front of him, then pulled out a little bento box and an empty cup. She placed the box in front of him, placed a pair of chopsticks over the bundle, then moved to the lagoon to scoop up a cup full of fresh water. She placed this in front of him as well.

She placed the backpack a little ways away, by the edge of the lagoon, then turned to face him with a cheeky grin. "See? I'm not here to torture you. I'm even going to let you out of those ankle chains too...though not your hands. I don't trust you enough to give you your hands. I like my face the way it is and don't feel inclined to get slugged right this moment, thanks." She wrinkled her nose at him teasingly, then slipped a hand through her open vest and reached into her cleavage, fishing around under the bathing suit until she produced a key. Holding it up in triumph, she knelt down next to him and swiftly unlocked the chains from his feet. The metal snaked away from his ankles to pool on the moss below him. She snatched it up as she got to her feet, knowing better than to leave something with him that could be used as a weapon.

"There. Sorry about your hands, but you understand," she winked, then returned to her backpack and shoved the chains into it. She then proceeded to unload her own lunch onto the banks of the lagoon, fetched herself some water, then dug in to her bento box with relish in her eyes.

"So," she asked between mouthfuls of rice. "let's play a little game. A questions game, you could say. What made you become a marine?" as she spoke, she pointed her chopsticks at him to emphasize her words.

While he was glad that she did indeed, think ahead to get him something other than the sleep shorts to live in, he refrained from asking her exactly how he was going to get dressed with his hands tied indefinitely. The shorts wouldn't be a problem. The shirt… he just decided to live without it for a while.

Besides, she brought food and that was of utmost importance. He was starving.

She untied his feet and explained that he's hands stayed like they were for the sake of her pretty face staying the way it was – alright, he added the pretty part, but it was fact – and once she whipped the chain out of his grasp, he stretched his legs out with a grin.

"How did I become a marine?" he repeated her question as he awkwardly opened the bento and picked up the chopsticks, his left hand following his right like a shadow. He took a bite of rice as he thought about where to begin. It was a long story, really. Not just one thing inspired him. He filtered through the story in his head, deciding if there was anything about it that she could later use against him and decided that there wasn't. It was a harmless story, really. "It's kinda a long story," he began thoughtfully, "I was seven during the War of the Best, or the Whitebeard War as it's sometimes called, you know, the one where Ace died. My father was a soldier and we lived in Marineford. The war came, we evacuated and my father was KIA," he popped a sushi in his mouth, "Um, he was the main source of income in the house and our family sorta slipped through the cracks once we were refugee to Sabaody. I took over responsibility as the oldest and only boy and after years of stealing food to survive, I was caught by the local marines," he flashed the backs of his hands and made a tight fist. The white lines appeared sharply contrasted against his skin, "My hands were whipped and I was given a choice: chore boy or arrest and I chose chore boy. My family was secured that way through my stipend and I had something honest to do. I was ten years old," he shrugged.

He adjusted his hands and dropped a chopstick with a breathed curse, "My turn," he added as he picked it up and then mimicked her by pointing his chopsticks at her, "Tell me about your childhood. Are you close with the Straw Hats, being Luffy's niece or whatever?"

She regarded him speculatively as she munched on a piece of boiled seaweed. He'd once willingly broken the rules? But then he'd been caught...and taking his punishment had changed his life for the better. Interesting...It gave her a lot of insight into him.

She returned her chopsticks to her bento and delicately picked up a piece of sushi, the popped it into her mouth. She shifted her position until she could lay on her stomach, her booted feet in the air behind her and swinging absently as she chewed. Finally she swallowed, then tipped her head to the side as she fixed a wicked grin on him.

"Close doesn't even cover it. Uncle Luffy has been a part of my life sine I was two or three. He's the reason why I became a smuggler, actually. I wanted to be just like him, but I didn't have any drive to be a pirate. I just wanted my freedom, and that's something he always cherished is the freedom he has on the sea."

She popped another piece of sushi int her mouth, chewed, and swallowed. "As for the other Strawhats, I'm pretty tight with them too. Uncle Franky built by boat, and aunt Nami taut be how to be sneaky. They all taut me things," she added with a shrug of her slender shoulders, her eyes dancing with amusement as fond memories played through her mind. Memories of the time Luffy snuck her off her island for a short jaunt on his ship, and her father had nearly blown up the island in anger. Memories of the time Zoro had caught her sneaking a bottle of sake at Christmas when she was sixteen, and how he'd shown her how to drink.

She sighed, smiling fondly, then abruptly shook her head and took a sip of her water. "Anyways...enough about them. More about you." She turned her bright sapphire eyes back to him, and tapped her chopsticks against her lips musingly for a moment before she grinned and pointed them at him again. "Are you a mama's boy then? Still in touch with your mother and your sisters? Or sister? Or whatever you have for siblings...?"

He processed everything she said with an analytic mind. Someone else may have taken the story with a grain of salt, but he was actively seeking clues about her and any insight he could gather. Luffy being a part of her life since she was two confirmed that her age was 20, since Straw Hat disappeared for two years after the Whitebeard War. He knew just a little about her now, but for the future, he was going to pay closer attention to her, see which skills she acquired from the Straw Hat crew. Sneaky like Nami the Cat Burglar. A strong fist fighter like Luffy. Witty, perhaps from Nico Robin. He would look further into that.

Lukas took a sip of water and smirked when she asked about his mother. Knowles Angela was a soft, loving woman and he loved her fiercely; she was the woman who gave birth to him. But she wasn't the apple of his eye as far as his family went.

"Actually," he started, shifting to sit cross-legged, "My sisters are everything to me. Three little sisters. Rylee, Ashlynne and Gabriella…" he ticked them off his fingers as he went and grinned, "She was an accident." that little baby saved his mother's life. Lost with grief and trying to wrangle three young children by herself while her whole life fell apart, that baby was the one thing his mother just needed.

"I moved heaven and earth to make sure they had everything they could ever need. I remember starving at night just to make sure they all could eat. My mother could hardly find work and the odd jobs she managed were barely enough." Memories flooded his mind of trying to grow up with three little females in the house. His mother tacitly trying to explain the difference between boys and girls. Gabbi trying to pee standing up because 'that's how Lukey did it'. His mother and the two older girls crying when he left Sabaody at 13 years old to train at a different facility while Gabbi tutted at them like a disapproving hen. He smirked.

He waved his chopsticks at her, "Enough about family. It's depressing," he thought for a minute about what he really wanted to know. Sure, he did want to know about her family, but there probably wasn't much for her to tell really. Straw Hats, her mother and he could probably guess the rest.

He chewed the end of the wood for a moment in thought, "Tell me…" he started, then stopped to think again, "Tell me something personal about you. I now know about your family and childhood and your smuggling. Tell me something that makes Rouge Rouge."

His question gave her pause, her chopsticks poised in her mouth. She turned her eyes up from her bento box and over to him, studying him with slightly narrowed eyes as she considered what to say. The question felt rather more personal and intimate than the previous questions, and she wasn't sure if she was ready to go that far with him.

It's not a date, Rouge. He left it up to you so just chose something unimportant, she chastised herself in her head, looking back down at her bento box as she pulled out the last piece of sushi and popped it into her mouth. For some reason, this little questions game felt like a date of some kind, and Rouge had historically had a problem with getting close to men. She liked to keep her relationships casual, without getting too attached.

But this wasn't a date, not even close, and considering that she had that odd impression when her supposed "date" was handcuffed said terrible things about her. Jeeze, she obviously needed to get laid or something. She needed to get sex off the brain, especially where a marine is concerned.

"Alright, I'll tell you something about me, but that means you have to answer my questions too. Any question I ask." she added, emphasizing her statement by pointing her chopsticks at him and waving them threateningly. Finally she laid her chopsticks down across her empty bento and propped her chin up with the backs of her hands.

"Something that makes me me? Hmmm..." she moved her head from side to side as she thought about her question, and her kicking feet moved in tandem with her behind her. "Well, most people don't know this but I didn't happen upon my devil fruit accidentally. I always knew I wanted to eat the Dragon Dragon fruit, ever since I first heard it existed, because I wanted to have powers relating to fire, in honor of my father. So I hunted down this devil fruit, the first thing I did when I was out to sea on my own, and it took me one year to do it."

She grinned proudly, her eyes somewhat clouded with the memory fresh in her mind. Then she slipped one arm out of her vest and rolled over enough so that her back tattoo was visible to him. "Then I got this tattoo to memorialize the adventure. It was the first thing, other than food and stuff, that I spent the money I had earned on the open sea on."

She tilted her head so that she could look at him over her shoulder, her sapphire eyes dancing over the dragon figure. "So what about you, Marine? Tell me something that makes Lukas Lukas."

She slipped an arm out of her vest to give him a close up of her dragon tat again. It was beautifully intricate and solid black so much of the tattoo was done in shadows. Only two bright blue eyes peered like diamonds from her skin. Lukas scooted a little bit closer to her just to get a better look at it. It fit her so perfectly – completely suited to her personality in its shape and fluidity.

Her response sparked his curiosity right away. She went after the Dragon-Dragon fruit because of her father and his association to fire. But then…

"Why didn't you just go after the fire-fire fruit?" he interrupted but then she asked him her question and he stopped to think about his own answer. What made Lukas Lukas? He really had to think about that one and he eventually put down his chopsticks as he formulated his answer.

"I dislike the fact that it's expected of me to dress older and appear with my colleagues," he finally decided on, "Every other vice admiral is pushing forty and they don't have to dress up to appear old and wise whereas I need to wear a three-piece suit and a stern face to garner the same effect," he waved his chopstick towards the shirt and shorts she amiably packed for this unexpected vacation, "I'd much rather wear that."

Wearing suits was really something he only did when he needed to keep that façade of his rank, in spite of his age. Dressing his age offered only his lack of life experience and that was sometimes enough to make some of the older marines leery of his power. Dressing in suit aided to the menacing aura. Sure, he had power, but because of his age and rank, he always had to push a little harder.

It sucked sometimes.

He shrugged and picked up a few grains of rice as he mused over what to ask her. Drawing a blank over something productive to ask her at least, he went with, "What do you like to do with your spare time?"

Rouge deliberately ignored his question regarding the fire fire fruit. Everyone supposed that the devil fruit was now available, floating across the sea somewhere, but Rouge knew the truth, that it was still being used by Portgas D. Ace. Instead, she was much more interested by his confession about his clothing.

An amused and surprised smile spread across her lips and her eyes flickered up and down his body, from his casual shorts to his shirtless torso. Well, he certainly looked better in this outfit that his stuffy suit, that was for sure.

"I have to agree, you look far hunkier in those shorts that any suit, as far as I'm concerned," she grinned wickedly at him, pointedly letting her gaze drift down to his pecs. "You should get a nipple piercing. You're so ripped it would just add to your badassness. Flaunt it babe," she nodded in all seriousness.

She rolled over onto her back now, deftly removing her hat and placing it next to her as she did. She tilted her head back to continue conversing with him, and cocked one knee up, planting her booted foot in the moss. Her unzipped vest gaped to expose her taunt stomach.

"In my free time, which I don't get too much of, mind you...I like to read and learn different languages. Being multilingual is very good for my smuggling trade, and I like to excel at my work, if you couldn't tell." She grinned cheekily at him, wrinkling her freckled nose.

"You're turn. What did you get your little sister Gabriella for her last birthday?" Rouge tilted her head to the side, keeping him in her sights. She knew it must sound like an odd question, but the kind of gifts men got for their women told a lot about their character.

He gave her a stern look with a hint of humor in it by tilting his head down and cocking an eyebrow at her when she suggested 'nipple piercing'.

"You're out of your mind, sister," he told her before moving on to process her answer. Reading, huh? He was surprised. He just hadn't been expecting such an answer from her. Partying, drinking, sleeping maybe but certainly not reading. Or learning languages. The world wasn't filled with a huge diversity of languages and it was always pretty impressive to meet someone who has studied them.

"My sister?" he repeated. He thought for a moment and closed his now-empty bento. Gabriella was… Gabbi was different than the other three because she grew up scrapping from the get-go. Lukas, Rylee and Ashlynne remembered a time at Marineford when there was always enough food on the table, kids didn't share the same path to school as criminals and their clothing always kept them warm. Lukas had stepped up to the plate quickly at a young age to make sure that his sisters were taken care of. Rylee and Ashlynne, having once lived what he would graciously call a softer life, always had that sort of innocence and naïveté that life would go back to that.

Gabbi… did not. She grew right up in that rough neighbor and took to it like a flower takes to water and sunlight. She was a scrapper. She was a mean girl. She was a rough-around-the-edges tomboy. She wasn't soft and sensitive. She rarely cried.

"Gabbi turned 20 a few months ago," he grinned and shook his head, "I uh… I took some time off and helped her open a bar in the lower numbered mangroves. She's the only one who stayed on Sabaody with my mother. The other two moved away a few years ago. But Gabbi takes care of my mother and she really wanted something to keep the two of them going, other than me."

He shifted and stood and cracked his back the best he could trapped and bound like this. The motion emphasized the rippling muscles in his back and abdomen. Then, he dropped back to the ground and crossed his legs, "Your turn now. Favorite memory."

His answer surprised her, and she nodded slowly, her mouth pursed as she mused for a moment. So, he had a sister in the seedier parts of town on the archipelago...Interesting. She must be a tough kid to survive in that part of town, and considering the way this guy was a marine, she'd have to be extra tough to be straight and honest in such a lawless part of town. That, or this marine turned a blind eye to his family...Interesting.

She wondered if that was good news for her and their little situation. But the fact that he put so much effort and with such thought into his gift was truly touching. She was the eldest, so she'd always been the tough one, felt like the protector for her little brother, so she felt a connection to Lukas in that way.

She liked him more and more. Damn.

"Favorite memory? Hmmmm...The first time I got my ship. I had been bugging uncle Franky for years, saying that if he built me a safe enough ship, my...mother..would let me go off the island and explore the world. Well when I turned seventeen he finally did, and it was such a beautiful and amazing ship, I was so pumped. He rigged that thing up and down and gave it all the bells and whistles. It's made out of really strong, adam tree wood, so it can stand up to a lot of shit. The first time I rode the waves in my own vessel, I felt free, and that has always been my dream, to be free and able to go wherever I want and have adventures."

She grinned, tilting her head back to look at him with her eyes burning with pride. "My ship is one of those ships that every pirate, criminal, or marine would love to have, and I love that. My Uncle's the shit too, he's a freaking robot for sea's sake."

Rouge snorted with laughter and shook her head, looking up at the ever lightening sky with a sigh. She paused for a moment, considering her next move, then asked the question that she'd been wanting to ask for a while. It would be a determining factor in whether or not she believed he could protect her secret.

"Do you like me, Vice Admiral?" She murmured quietly, with a small, coy smile on her lips as if she expected him to lie or simply confess to hating criminals. A lot of people couldn't get over the criminal thing. A pity really, because she personally thought she was pretty awesome.

Oooh, that question was a doozy.

He stopped to consider that one. Did he like her? He couldn't even say that his automatic answer would be either way. He supposed that for his job, it would be social acceptable for him to say that he didn't like any criminals. But that wasn't the truth for him.

His own moral philosophy really stood that he was dispassionate about baddies. He didn't get emotionally attached to them in either extreme; like or hate. Getting emotionally invested into someone blinded you towards what was the right and just course of action. He resolved to have no bias.

He supposed he despised people who killed others for pleasure or raped women or trafficked children. Those types of crimes were unforgivable because they hurt others. Smuggling… that was different. She wasn't exactly hurting anyone. Ya, smuggling sort of killed the tax system on trading and ya, she brought illegal items to countries that banned them, but it was a life style and it wasn't physically causing others harm.

Lukas studied her for a moment, the way she was stretched out in the soft moss, her knees bent up and her vest opened to show the swath of stomach, indented from gravity and the line of her ribs. She was interesting, he decided. He could yield that what he did know about her he liked. Were she not of the criminal persuasion, she would be the type he'd like to get to know on a personal level. He owed her an honest answer at least.

"I don't like or dislike you right now," he replied, "You interest me, to say the least. I can't say I know enough about you to formulate an opinion either way," he smirked, a thought coming to him and he shook the chains on his wrists, "I suppose though, that the purpose of this whole charade is for you to make me like you. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that your very existence hinges on my opinion of your nature. If I like you, you get to stay a smuggler. If I don't, well, I already told you what would happen. So, Dragon, you tell me. What are you gonna do to get me to like you?"

Rouge rolled over onto her stomach abruptly and pinned him with an expression that was half miffed and half amused. She perked one elegant brow, then propped her chin up on her hand as her feet started swinging slowly behind her again. Her other arm lay across the moss in front of her breasts, and she lightly drummed her fingers against the ground in mild irritation.

"I don't need to do anything to get anyone to like me. Frankly, I'm offended that you would think I would change who I am just to get you to like me," Rouge said with a little shrug of her slender shoulders. She didn't look very offended, but she was half teasing him, and the smile that played at the edges of her lips told him that she wasn't put off by his question, despite her words. "I just be myself and if someone doesn't like me, then fuck them. Their loss, really. I'm not changing who I am for someone else. Besides, why would someone like me try to get you to like me? It's obvious that you're already hooked on me, even if you won't admit it."

Rouge grinned and winked at him, her eyes twinkling with wicked amusement from behind loose curls that had fallen from her half-assed attempt at a bun. She pushed herself up from her prone position and dusted herself off as she got comfortable in a cross-legged seated position. Shifting to lean back against a nearby tree, she linked her fingers together behind her head and tilted her head back.

"Though I suppose I understand your misgivings about someone who tied you up and brought you to a deserted island for an indefinite period of time..." she mused thoughtfully, studying his arms and his wrists where he was still bound by chains. "And since I'm still afraid for my unique facial features, I'm going to keep those shackles on you for a little while longer. Consider it a compliment, actually!" Her grin got wider, her nose wrinkling as her gaze flickered back up to his face. "It means that I'm intimidated by you, since most other people I wouldn't even bother with the cuffs since I'm clearly capable of handling myself. You, on the other hand...well, let's just say I respect your strengths."

Her gaze slid away from him and her face turned towards the pool of water as she considered her next words, then said, "So is there a lady out there who can claim you as her man, Mr. Knowles?" she finally asked, her grin turning sly as she regarded him from her periphery. Seducing him into not revealing her identity was not above her, and she certainly could use that as blackmail if she ever did get him in her bed, but she would not seduce a man who belonged to another. For some reason the idea that he might have a girlfriend or a wife out there took all the fun out of her interactions with him. She found she enjoyed flirting with him; it was like a game between them.

He froze for a half of a heartbeat when she asked her question. He didn't mind sharing about his job or his family because he loved both and when you loved something, you talked about it. Plus, he didn't have an ounce of fear that she was the type of person to use those things against him. He gave a metal shrug; he'd just kill her if she did.

Romance though… that was starting to get too personal for him. It wouldn't be such a debate to talk about if he didn't have it, if he was just a simple marine with those occasional flings and that was the end of it. That was the problem though; he had something worth writing home about, so to speak.

Or he did.

"I had a fiancée once," he settled with, "But the stress of being attached to a travelling marine was too much for her in the end and we broke it off." He kept his voice blasé because frankly, he'd made peace with it after two years. He didn't like to trudge through the slop of old memories like that. Perhaps he'd feel differently about it if he hadn't been the one kicked to the curb with his heart stomped all over. He'd reverted back to his pre-Heather state of mind about women to cope; carefree and relaxed with zero commitment. It was a zone he liked to stay in.

He stopped to think about a question for her and inevitably, he was distracted by the memories that bombarded him. For the one whole year he'd been stationed at her island, he'd been convinced that Heather was his soul mate. She was so glamorous and spunky with a slight devil-may-care attitude. Not unlike Rouge, but a little less seductive than the Dragon. Heather just loved life and people and he'd been completely magnetized to her. She was a bit of a flight risk and he could say that that was how their relationship got started; she'd come to find him when she was upset over something and they'd sparked.

He should have known right there that that was going to be the problem later.

"Same question," he turned the table back on her, "Though, you don't seem like the type that'd want to get attached, because of your freedom and your secret…"\

His answer surprised her, and she found her gaze studying him a little more intently because of it. He'd been willing to be married, once. That spoke to his character, meant that he was a reliable man, capable of committing himself to a woman.

The idea made her stomach twist with discomfort. While she was all for seducing a man to get her way, she balked at serious relationships and at anything beyond the physical with the men she chose to sleep with. She didn't intend for anything like that where vice admiral Knowles was concerned, but the fact that he was a marrying type made her nervous. Emotions and attachments made seduction a hell of a lot more complicated.

Rouge sighed mentally. She'd just have to be extra careful with how she handled herself with this man. Which seemed to be the general trend of things regarding him; he made her think carefully about her every move. If she did decided that seduction was her best route to getting her way, she'd just have to make it plain that she wasn't the marrying type.

"Very astute of you, Lukas," Rouge finally answered him, deliberately using his first name in an attempt to become more familiar and comfortable with him. "I do not have a lady out there...nor a man, for that matter," she teased, referring to the fact that he'd redirected her answer to her when she'd specifically asked about ladies. "I don't like to get tied down, you could say, though I do like to have my fun." She grinned at that, her eyes darkening wickedly as she twirled a strand of hair around her fingers. "I've never met a guy who even made me think about getting serious, to be honest."

Somehow, she'd let this little question game become more personal than she'd originally intended. She'd been aiming for a little insight into his character, and was getting far more than she'd set out for. Part of her was thrilled by the new information, the continued advancement of their game of cat and mouse, but another part of her was uneasy by getting so close to a marine.

For her next question, she tried to think of something more pertinent to her mission. Considering he would be marooned with her for some time, there were some questions she would need the answers to, and she might as well ask them now. "Do you have any food allergies? And not that I can promise anything, but do you have any favorite foods?"

He gave her a brief once over and chose not to voice his option that it would be a complete and utter waste for her to be into women. Though, he couldn't deny that the very image of her getting hot and heavy with a mysterious woman in his mind didn't seem like a terrible option, so long as he could watch. Maybe participate…

No. No, he couldn't afford to think so actively about the Dragon that way. She was and always would be his enemy. She was sexy as all hell, but that was the end of it. Fantasies led to longing and longing led to action and action led to consequence.

Her next question seemed so normal that at first he was startled and didn't immediately answer. This little back and forth exchange had gotten so personal before he'd realized. At first, it seemed as though she just was looking for a little bit of insight about him and he went along with it, hoping also to gain a little intel about her. And he had, that was for sure. But the abrupt change in the line of interrogation had just brought to the forefront how intimate their conversation had progress.

"I don't like vegetables," he told her, "Odd, I know, but this physique was built on meat and starch," he gave her a wicked grin, "And my favorite food is coffee. Not a food, I know," he shrugged. He was a total mess in the morning if he didn't get his daily fix of caffeine. In fact, he was mildly surprised that he was functioning even remotely now. Then again, getting kidnapped and waking up on a deserted island with your enemy had its own 'staying awake' properties.

He had a sneaky feeling he wasn't going to sleep well for a long time.

"So what's the plan?" he asked her, "Are we camping romantically under the stars or you have some shelter?"

The slight tension she didn't even know she felt eased out of her shoulders when their conversation returned to a more normal topic. An amused smile flitted over her lips and she shook her head in bemusement at him. "You sound like a lot of men I know, actually. Well, this being an island, there's no way for you to avoid vegetables, but fortunately for you, I ALSO love meat."

Feeling like their little question game was over, Rouge pushed herself up to her feet and dusted herself off. She scooped up her backpack and slowly walked past Lukas as she rummaged through the contents of the black canvas bag. "And this is a deserted island, my friend...if I had shelters littered all over, it wouldn't stay very deserted for long. Don't worry though, it's nice and toasty on the island so I'm not worried about you freezing that nice ass of yours."

Shen cast him a teasing grin as she past him, then kept going until she stood at the very edge of the small clearing, between two large trees. From the backpack she pulled out a tightly folded length of canvas. Dropping the backpack, she tightened her fingers around the hem of the canvas, then shook it out until it became apparent that it was a hammock. She started rigging the hammock up between the two trees, her fingers working fast.

"You'll be staying by this lagoon. It's safer for you here, and the only source of fresh water. You'll be fine, there aren't any wild beasts that someone like you shouldn't be able to take care of with your hands tied behind your back," she glanced at him over her shoulder as she worked and wrinkled her nose in laughter at her words, her eyes flickering over the cuffs around his wrists.

"And as much as the idea of a romantic night under the stars sounds sinfully appealing, I don't quite trust you enough to close my eyes around you." she chuckled and finished up the last of her knots before she stepped back to admire her handiwork. The hammock hung securely between the trees, swaying in the light breeze that rustled the leaves of the trees. With a nod of satisfaction, she bent down, rummaged through her backpack once more, and withdrew a folded blanket. She then shook it out and laid it over the hammock.

"There, that will be nice and comfortable for you, I promise. I'll be sleeping in a similar set up on a different part of the island." She turned back to pin him with narrowed eyes, holding up her index finger to wiggle at him. "And don't even think about trying to find me in the middle of the night. The more you cooperate, the better food you will be provided with."

She reached behind her to replace her hat on top of her unruly hair, then crossed her arms over her chest and continued to smily coyly at him from under the wide brim. "Just think of this like an extended vacation. You have a beautiful lagoon to go swimming in, plenty of sunshine and relaxation to be had, and plenty of fresh fruit to make cocktails!" Her grin turned playful, and she hoisted the now-empty backpack over her shoulder. "I know the handcuffs aren't a lot of fun, but if I feel good about you I'll have them off faster than you know!" She paused to shift her gaze from his face to the cuffs and back again. "I'm going to go get myself settled now, but I'll be back soon, I promise. Is there anything I can get you before I go?" she tilted her head to the side as she regarded him.

After she set up a hammock for him and disappeared, he waited a few heartbeats until his Haki told him she wasn't on top of him anymore and he went to work. Like he was going to sit here and cooperate. Please. He was a vice admiral for a reason and that meant he wasn't going to sit around idly and wait for her to release him like he was some pet she couldn't quite decide what to do with.

Did he want to earn her trust? Sure, it would make his way off this god-forsaken island easier. At the same time, trust compromised their position as enemies. And frankly, her threat of death and disbowelment didn't faze him at all. He knew that he wasn't going to say anything to his superiors because he enjoyed his battle of wills with her. But he wasn't content to just sit here and wait for her judgment either. He needed to check things out for himself.

He changed into the cargo shorts she'd left him and after mulling over the shirt for a little bit and glancing at his bound wrists, he decided that he needed to be done with these. He'd keep them on around her, let her have that false sense of security he needed to permanently get these suckers removed, but when he was alone, it was just going to be a bitch.

With bare feet on the soft jungle floor, he moved like a wraith until he found exactly what he was looking for. A plant with an oil in the stem. It took some work, but he was able to coat his hands and wrists and wriggle out of those chains like a pro. Alright, so he lost some skin, but what was the first layer of skin really, in trade for freedom?

Oh, it was beautiful feeling. Lukas stretched his shoulders and twisted his shoulders around. So much better. He was feeling cramped with those bulky things on.

Back at the lagoon, he tossed the chain in the hammock, covered it with blankets, washed his face and tossed water on his head to scrub his scalp. His hair dried straight up as he pulled the button down on.

He was trained in reconnaissance. Part of his training had been to learn to survive on what he had at hand. And it wasn't much. Training usually offered him a knife, but this afternoon, he had nothing but his hands and whatever tools nature provided. In reality, he didn't need much. It wasn't like he was gonna kill her in her sleep. He just wanted to know what he was getting into. Recon. Observation. That was it.

Evening came and went and she came to bring him something to eat. He wrapped the chains around his wrists expertly and peeled his shirt off to give the appearance that he was still contained. As soon as she left him again, they were off again.

He waited for the night life to come out and darkness to set in before he left the vicinity of the little lagoon. He'd done some thinking during the day. If this was her island like she'd said, this must be one of her cache islands. If that was the case, then she had to have a base somewhere. Maybe not a house or anything, but a camp, hidden somewhere near water, but not too close she could fall in, in a valley or a cave. Somewhere easily accessible to her and easily defendable.

His Haki was a huge asset to him because he could sense her across the island and it acted like a compass to tracking her. He moved like a shadow, the ground absorbing the sound of his footfalls. It didn't take him long to find where she was. Bingo.

The island had a natural up slope into the middle in a type of mountain-like land shape. It wasn't nearly as tall as a mountain, but it had distinct cliffs and slopes and it was such cliff face that he encountered. She was near here. In the dark, it was hard to gauge, but he assumed that she could be somewhere high enough up on the cliff face that no one could stumble upon it and as she had the added advantage of flight, she could access it easily.

Lukas turned in a silent circle and scanned the area. The woods ended sharply to a grassy clearing expanse that went right up to the edge of the cliff. It was perfect to see people coming if he was correct in thinking she'd set up her base in the cliff face somewhere. He stuck to the woods for cover. His goal wasn't to encounter her tonight; only to see what he was working with here.

The rest of the day passed in relative relaxation. Rouge spent some of her time spying on the vice admiral, studying him in hopes to understand him better. The more she got to know him, the more she didn't want to have to kill the guy. Part of her wondered if she should go to her family to figure out what she should do, but another part of her cringed at the idea of turning to them for a problem she created.

After all, if she hadn't put herself out there with this marine, he might never have figured out what her lineage is. She had deliberately bated him, deliberately invited him to keep chasing her. She'd been cocky and bored, and now she had a true dilemma on her hands.

Watching him, she'd decided that he was a very relaxed marine considering he'd just been kidnapped by a criminal and taken to a deserted island for an indefinite amount of time. She couldn't decide what that said about him, but she hoped it was a good thing.

For the rest of the day, Rouge worked on the necklace she was making for her cousin for the girl's birthday. Using the knife she carried at her waist, she slowly carved bits of shell, then strung them on a cord in a patterned order. She finished just after darkness had set, and put away her materials in the dim light of the lamp that illuminated the interior of the cave.

Once everything was in its proper place, she blew out the lamp and headed for the entrance of the cave. Rouge would be sleeping outside in a hammock she'd set up at the top of the cliff because she preferred sleeping out under the open sky. She only slept in the cave in bad weather or in fear of discovery, when ships got too close to her island when she was on it.

The entrance of the cave was on a sheer cliff face, easy for her to get to with her gift a flight. The entrance was partially concealed by vines and bushes that hung down the side of the cliff and obscured half of the opening. She used these for cover now as she peered out into the night. She always checked to see if anyone was nearby before entering or leaving the cave because she coveted the secrecy of it so highly.

At first she detected nothing, and had been about to step out onto the thin ledge when suddenly her keen eyes detected movement in the woods below. She froze, and narrowed her gaze to the nearby vicinity as she scanned.

There.

She blinked, then a slow smile curled up the edges of her lips and a soft chuckle slipped free. Clever clever marine. He'd found her lair and he'd gotten free of his chains. She'd been suspicious regarding the chains because sometime during her spying, she'd thought she'd seen him without them this afternoon, but she'd been far away and it had been difficult to tell. Now she knew for sure.

What should she do with him? She wondered if she should sleep in her cave while he was on the island. Though she fiercely loved her freedom of movement, she had to be mindful of the fact that she wasn't exactly on a vacation with the guy.

In the end, she decided that honesty was always the best thing for any situation like this. Rouge replaced her hat on her head, shook out her hair, and shifted into her half dragon form. Taking two steps to the edge of the ledge, she briefly glanced down to the boulders and bushes that awaited her below, then plunged from the ledge like a professional diver, her arms splaying wide before shifting in front of her.

Knowing that Lukas was watching, Rouge let herself fall further than she normally would, her wings curled in tight to her body, her tail streaming out behind her like a curving river. When she was a few yards from the ground, her wings suddenly snapped open, caught on the air, and her body soared off course from the dive.

She beat her wings fiercely, and shot into the darkness so fast that she blurred. She reclaimed some of her lost altitude, acting as if she hadn't noticed that her kidnapped victim was nearby, then veered and disappeared into the trees of the forest in which he was hiding.

She landed lightly on a branch, high in a tree, and pulled her wings in tight to her body. Using her tail for extra balance, Rouge sprinted through the treetops soundlessly, bounding from one tree to the next as she made her way back towards where she'd last seen Lukas. Her wings gently cupped the air with every leap, and her tail compensated for her body as she moved, and so she made utterly no sound as she travelled. When she found him, she maneuvered herself to a tree that was behind him, and silently drew her dagger from her belt.

She didn't hesitate and dropped right out of the tree and directly behind him. Faster than she could blink, her arms flashed out, one going around his neck to hold the dagger to his throat, and the other went to his wrist, holding it firmly and away from his body. Simultaneously, her tail whipped out from behind her and the dextrous tip wound itself around his other wrist, forcing both of his arms to be held slightly away from his body. The restraints were less to disarm him and more as a cautionary indicated if he decided to do something nasty.

Her half dragon body was pressed against his back and her breath tickled his neck as she chuckled next to his ear. "My my, you're a quick one...Have you come to slit my throat in my sleep? Or maybe you were just getting the lay of the land so that you could more easily tie me up tomorrow night? I see you've already free these talented hands of yours..." She murmured in an amused, light voice, almost teasing in its cadence. The knife wasn't pressed against his skin but held loosely, almost jovially. She tightened the arm she held around his neck and shoulders, rising up on her tiptoes and pulling him even harder against her front as she attempted to peer around to his face. She grinned, her eyes twinkling wickedly, and added, "I didn't realize you were so interested in bedtime play with me."

The movement was so quick in his mind's eye that he didn't even bother to keep up with it. Part of him held fast to the belief that if she wanted him dead, she would have done it already. The other part of him, well, he was confident in his ability to get away from her if she intended to do him harm.

As it was, she didn't and he felt one hand slip that predictable knife against his throat while the other grabbed his wrist and something else grabbed his other wrist. He flickered his eyes and even in the dark shadows, there was the unmistakable glint of dragon scales. Clearly, he wasn't the only thing that could go bump in the night.

Her hold on him was loose and posed little challenge for him as he flicked his wrist out of her hand hold and spun around. In the same movement, he reached out and curled his hand around the nape of her neck and pulled her in close to him so that their bodies were dangerously close to touching, so much so that every breath in and out of his lungs had his chest brushing against her breasts. Her knife was still against the skin of his neck and just as the last time she held him at knife-point, he was unconcerned by it.

"Let me remind you of something, sister," he started, a little grin pulling up the edges of his lips, "I am a vice admiral. Not only that, but I did it in half the time my colleagues have. And I didn't just shake hands to get there," his tone suggested pure factual information rather than boastful, "There are only four people in the entire military organization that don't fear me for all the right reasons. No amount of chain is gonna restrain me."

His emotional state was pretty screwy. Normally, he was a even-keeled kinda guy. But between being kidnapped, knocked out, tied up and all by her, she was making him feel things that he wasn't used to feeling all the time. Anger and undignified, excitement at the constant push-and-pull they played at and god help him, she even turned him on in that sinful, forbidden fruit kind of way. And anxious because he knew he shouldn't be feeling like this.

Lukas chose not to question his actions in the moment though and made a conscious decision to reflect on this moment later.

"I came to spy on you, see where you were, maybe find out what you were up to because I like to keep my enemies closer," he said that last bit in a whispered growl, his face mere inches away from hers. He twisted a curl around his fingers at the nape of her neck, "You caught me unawares because I let you. But I assure you, if we were fighting on equal ground, brawn against brawn…"

For a single, brief, scalding moment, he tugged her flush against him, her skin against his and leaned down to breathe right in her ear, "I would own you"

Then, he pushed away from her, detangling from her grip and the space cleared his head a little bit. She made him feel a little dizzy, "Don't bother sleeping with one eye open, baby," he raised a hand in farewell, "I won't be back tonight."

With that, he took off through the forest without a sound, the shadows swallowing him up.

Rouge watched him go, a scowl darkening her normally cheerful features, and told her heart to stop beating so erratically. Her cheeks were a ruddy red and her eyes were darkened to a deep midnight blue.

When her ears could detect him no longer, she let out a sigh and her scowl dissolved into rueful smile as she shook her head. Well, he certainly knew how to push her buttons, so to speak. His aggression and sheer confidence in his own ability was downright sexy. Just the memory of his rumbly voice sent a shiver down her spine, and she had to laugh at herself. She was acting like a teenager all over again, and over a marine to boot.

Relax. You have a mission here, remember? You just want what you can't have, she told herself soberly, forcing herself to start scowling more seriously again, and started walking towards the edge of the jungle, towards her cliffs.

Just because I have a mission doesn't mean I can't have fun doing it, she retorted back to herself, letting out a rather unlady-like snort at her own insanity. She often had these arguments in her head, a tug-o-war between her more responsible, put-together side and her more wicked, irresponsible and spontaneous side.

That was when she decided she was going to try and seduce him. She wanted to see if he was just as confident in bed as he was with his fighting skills. She grinned, pausing as she cleared the forest, spread her wings, and leapt up into the night, winging her way towards the barely discernible entrance to her cache.

Not only would it be fun to seduce him, but if she actually succeeded she would have something to hold against him. Sleeping with a criminal was not something a vice admiral should do, and it might help her cause. He might keep his mouth shut if he knew his position was at stake.

Rouge landed softly on the floor of the cave, her wings folding into her back and then vanishing altogether as she shifted back to her all human form. And if you fail? a part of her wondered, intrigued by how little reaction she'd gotten from him so far when most men ended up drooling over her.

She paused to consider the idea that he might not want her at all. The idea seemed silly, but then she shook her head and her own conceitedness and sighed. It was worth a shot either way. If she failed, she was no worse off than she had been before.

The back of the cave had a small pallet set up, with a side table holding a wooden cup and a candle. Rouge headed there now, having decided that for tonight, at least, she would sleep in the cave and safely out of harm from her adversary. She changed into a loose shirt that had once been her fathers, then slipped under the covers with a barely constrained yawn.

Tomorrow, she would test the waters with him, and take things slow. After all, they had all the time in the world...

With a small smile, Rouge fell asleep.

Half an ocean away, on an island known as Water Seven, two men met in the shadowy room of a local inn. Outside the door stood four men, two bearing the colors of the Lawash Smuggling Corporation, and the other two dressed in fine clothing of obvious wealth.

Both parties were now enemies and rivals of the Black Bull Smuggling ring.

Inside the room, Don de Maccello tilted his head back imperiously, then held out his bejeweled hand and shook hands with the other man. This man, sitting across the table from the Don, was slender, tall, a lanky individual with dark coloring and pale skin. His black eyes glittered gleefully as he spread his hands out, and said, "It's good to see you again! I look forward to seeing the fruits of our last discussion, Maccello..."

His grin turned a little dark, and he tilted his head forward, shadows sliding over his eyes. He was Mario Lawash, the head of the smuggling ring in competition with the Black Bull's ring.

Don de Maccello closed his eyes briefly, reached up, and rubbed his temple in a slow massage. "Well..." he drawled, opening his eyes now and gazing up at Lawash with regret and anger in his eyes. "She got away from me. She had someone to free her, and then Vice Admiral Knowles started waving his authority in the city...it turned into a sticky situation."

The slender man nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing slightly. The Don started sweating, but nothing on his face betrayed the anxiety he felt. Mario Lawash was a powerful man, not only in his business but in physical strength, and it was well known. The Don also had power, but most of it was in his small army of highly trained men.

"Unfortunate. Well. We will just have to try again then, shan't we?" Lawash finally murmured with a resigned sigh.

"Well, it appears that Vice Admiral Knowles has gone missing, and the Dragon Smuggler has also gone to ground. Both of those individuals are out of the picture for now, as far as my network can detect..." The Don offered speculatively.

"Interesting. Well, my informants have told me of a small meeting of a few of the Twelve in a few weeks to discuss a quadrant of their territory. We will strike at that meeting, and take down as many of the Twelve as we can. They are the pillar of power for the Bull, and once we take them out, that bastard's smuggling will be crippled. You will be given those females you specified, and I will gain monopoly of the smuggling trade over much of the Grand Line." Lawash's expression slowly turned more pleased, until a smug grin curved his lips upwards.

The Don mirrored his grin with one of his own. "Excellent. With our combined forces, we are sure to succeed."

"Agreed. We will talk strategy over the next few weeks. Prepare your men. The Twelve are very strong individuals. I won't tolerate failure," Lawash warned, his eyes severe. The Don blanched, then steeled his eyes and nodded.

Sleep eluded him that night. Part of it stemmed from anxiety; the last time he slept, he'd been kidnapped and held hostage on a god-forsaken island. The rest… well, he had a pretty firm grasp on what Rouge's body felt like pressed against his.

He'd been too long without a woman, he decided. Work made for a cold, bitter bedmate. It had been quite some time since he shared his sheets with a warm body. Especially as warm and lush as the Dragon.

He shouldn't even be fancying these thoughts. Sleeping with a criminal was about as faux pas as matching stripes and polka dots together. Not only that, but sleeping with a criminal he planned to arrest was socially unacceptable. No, it was work suicide. His whole career would be over. It would be a conflict of interest.

He couldn't afford to lose control around her. She might have to trust him to let him leave this island, but he couldn't allow himself to trust her. There was a reason why his bed had been empty for so long was that he found he was having attachment issues. The few women he'd had in between Heather and now it had just been bad. He'd been too romantically weak-willed, he supposed. 'On the rebound' was the colloquial term for it.

So even if Rouge wasn't a world-class criminal, he shouldn't be thinking about bedding her at all. Or rather what it would be like to bed her. If he dropped his guard at all… she was too easy to like. He already kinda begrudgingly liked her.

With the sun dappling through the dense foliage, he realized he'd been up all night, fortifying himself against the Dragon's feminine charms. He rolled out of his hammock and landed on the ground in a push up position. After all, this physique didn't maintain itself. A couple of reps of that and he found the nearest, sturdiest branch to curl his knees around and crunched his body up to touch his elbows to his knees, giving his stomach muscles a good burn. That was just the warm up. After that, he found the coast of the island and jogged around the perimeter. It was a good jaunt, a solid five miles at least. He did it twice; it wasn't easy in some parts. By the time he made it back to the lagoon, he'd worked up a decent sweat and that water was looking better and better. It wasn't very big or very deep, probably the size of a swimming pool and if he had to guess, six or eight feet in the very middle. He could see the bottom to say the least. And a ten or so foot waterfall off to the left pounded gently into the water. It was perfect.

He took a step towards the calm, clear water before he stopped and considered his very meager belongings. Including the shorts he was kidnapped in, that brought his total clothes total to two pairs of shorts, a shirt, two pairs of boxers, no shoes or socks and a little bag of essentials i.e. soap, toothbrush, razor, etc. Even though he was a hostage, he wasn't allowed to go Neanderthal apparently.

His conclusion; he didn't have much. So there was no way he was going into that water and soaking the only clothes he had.

Naked it was. And if he had an audience, then she was getting a show. After all, she tended to always be watching him, like he was some exhibit animal.

Rouge had been aware of the vice admiral when he'd made his run past her cave. She'd decided to let herself sleep in a little. In fact, she likely would have slept till lunch time if she hadn't heard Lukas' pounding feet in the sand. She got her love of sleep from her father, who almost always had to be dragged out of bed by her mother.

Blinking blearily against the bright sunlight that filtered through the entrance of the cave, Rouge peered out to see the marine in the distance, running parallel to the ocean. The island was largely conical in shape, with a so-far inactive volcano at the center. The water that collected from the top of the peak collected together and formed two streams, one that fed the small pool of water at the base of the cliff on the other side of the mountain from her, where Lukas' hammock had been set up, and another which trickled down a gully between her own cliff and an adjacent one. Both water courses eventually drained to the ocean, but the basin created by the waterfall near Lukas' camp allowed the water to collect to a depth of seven or eight feet, not that she'd ever gone that far, since she'd drown.

There were several cliff faces ringing the slopes of the volcano, and hers and Lukas' were almost directly opposite of one another. The jungle covered most of the island save for the very top, where there was a shallow crater from the last eruption. Around the perimeter of the island was a sandy beach, save for in three locations where craggy rocks and boulders jut out from the mountain and met with the sea, creating large cresting waves in rough weather.

If Lukas was running the perimeter of the island, then he'd be in for some climbing too.

Shrugging her slender shoulders, Rouge stretched her arms over her head and cracked her neck with a languid yawn. She had her own ways of training and working out, and they were much more fun than a boring jog around the island. Usually she got her music playing and went all out, but today she decided to take it easy and did a series of stretched and crunches. Her routine was quick, because she wanted to finish before Lukas. Three quarters of the way through her routine, she'd heard him pass by the cave again, meaning he was doing another perimeter run.

Perfect.

Once she'd finished, Rouge slipped on her swimsuit, pulled on her shorts, secured her dagger, then pulled on her boots and her hat. She headed for the cave mouth when she remembered that she probably should provide some food for the man. With a sigh, she turned back and hurried to put some provisions in a sack together. She threw in some bread, cheese, and cuts of salted ham. After a moment of hesitation, she then threw in a small pad of paper and a pen, because she didn't want him to be too bored during his time here when she couldn't be entertaining.

Securing the back to her pack, she headed out. Hopefully, even with her delay, she'd be at the lagoon before he was done his workout and could take a little splash in the shallow part and get all clean. She took the shortcut to the lagoon, leaping upwards instead of gliding down when she excited her cave. She flew over the peak, then drifted down to the small clearing of trees at the edge of the cliff. Following the stream to where it crested over the cliff and tumbled down in the small waterfall, Rouge was forced to backdraft hurriedly when she caught sight of Lukas.

She landed silently on the top of the cliff, her wings folding across her back. How did he get back so fast? He must be a faster runner than she'd given him credit for...Scowling in annoyance, since now she wouldn't be able to enjoy the lagoon in her own quiet relaxation, Rouge crept towards the edge and peered over.

What she saw made her jaw drop and her eyes widen. Lukas was butt-ass naked, wading into the water. Without his clothes, his whole body was covered with thick ropes of muscles under tawny, tanned skin. He was almost as impressive as her Uncle Zoro, though she'd never seen him naked.

Wow. Her mind was in a state of shock as she just stared at him openly. Last night she'd decided she was going to try to seduce him to get her way, or at least gain leverage over him, and now that she saw what she was going to be working with, she was really looking forward to it. He was damn sexy. She licked her lips and grinned wickedly. Oh yes, this would be a lot of fun.

Rouge shifted her position so that her belly was on the ground and her arms were folded in front of her, hanging slightly off the edge of the cliff. Her wings were still curled across her back, and her slitted eyes glittered with heat and amusement as she gazed down at him, the tiny points of her fangs evident as she continued to grin. "Are you enjoying the water, marine?" Rouge called, perking a brow at him and tilting her head to the side. Thought she was a fair distance away, she let her eyes deliberately soak him in again, and her grin widened. "Because I sure am enjoying the show. This is far more entertaining than my usual morning shower."

He was hip-deep in the water of the lagoon and had just splashed a scoopful of water on his head when he sensed her presence and snapped his eyes around. Her voice came a second later and his gaze landed on her, draped seemingly precarious on the edge of the ledge above the waterfall. She wasn't so far away that he couldn't tell that she was in her half form; her tail flickered in and out of sight and her eyes were that strange hybrid of human blue and cat-like slits.

He quirked a brow at her and didn't even bother to disguise the fact that he was naked. When one lived in the military as long as he did, nudity was the least of your troubles. Besides, the water was up to his hips so the goods were obscured at best.

"Living vicariously?" he replied, draping his hands over his hips, "Bet you miss swimming in the water."

Seeing her, this time in the daylight, made her seem more real than last night as if in the dark, she was some forbidden dream. But with the sun glinting off her scales and her hat lending contrasting shadows to her face, she returned to that wicked, clever criminal he simply enjoyed chasing. And brought him back to his current predicament of being her hostage.

"So, tell me, Dragon," he continued, "What are two lonely souls like us going to do with our time? Surely you have some form of entertainment here on this island. Are checkers your style or are you more of a 'hide and go seek' kinda gal?" he wasn't sure if he wanted to spend more time with her or not. More time with her meant that she would trust him faster, but it prolonged his exposure to her which was not gonna be good for him. On the other hand, alone time would give him space to think of his own clever ways of getting off this island without her help.

Laughter bubbled up and Rouge tossed her head back in amusement. When her eyes refocused on him, they were dancing with mirth and tiny fangs glinted in the morning sunlight. She reached up a hand to pop her hat off her head, letting it slide back across her shoulders. "I just love your sass, marine. I've never known a hostage to be so very friendly and well adapted to their situation."

All throughout her interactions with this marine, she'd felt that calm surprise by how casual and even friendly their encounters went. All of her previous run-ins with the law had usually resulted in nothing but bad tempers on the part of the marines. Was it just his personality and hers that meshed well together, despite being on opposite sides of the line of justice? Or perhaps was he just trying to get her to trust him as quickly as possible so that he could be free of her island?

If that was the case, could she ever really trust him?

The idea made her insides squirm uncomfortably. Was all of her effort going to go to waste? Would she just have to kill him anyways?

No. She reminded herself, and let her eyes flicker away from his distant face and down over his broad shoulders. The way he casually draped his hands over his hips, with a seemingly complete lack of modesty, was devastatingly appealing to her. Remember that even if you can't trust him, you can get him to sleep with you, then hold that over his head. It would ruin his career, maybe even get him some jail time. Her smile slowly turned more suggestive. This was definitely going to be enjoyable. So long as she kept herself on guard around him and reminded him that she was his only way off the island, she could have her fun. Why not? She was stuck here with him anyways.

Rouge pushed herself up from the edge of the cliff, then used her feet to push herself forward and straight off the ledge. Her wings snapped open, scooping up a current of air and sending her gliding effortlessly down to the edge of the water next to the cliff face. "Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of ways to entertain ourself here Lukas. And plenty of positions, too," Rouge added with her eyes innocently wide and her smile barely constrained at the overtly obvious statement. She casually shrugged out of the small backpack and removed her hat and dagger, then lightly dropped them on the moss away from the water.

"Seriously babe, you're on a deserted tropical island with a chick who happens to be a notorious smuggler. I have all of the provisions needed for a beach party and more. And if checkers are your thing, then I can make it happen," she winked at him, then promptly reached up, untied her bathing suit, and let the garments drop to the moss along with the rest of her things.

Rouge had about as much modesty as her Uncle Franky did. Her mother had always had a thing for sunbathing naked on the beach, and Rouge had always gone with her. Add the influences of her crazy Uncles and almost-always-shirtless father, and Rouge had learned to love her body shamelessly. Now that didn't mean she flaunted herself nude in public, but given the current circumstances, she wasn't going to be shy. Her body was banging and deserved to be admired, as far as she was concerned.

Letting her hair fall down around her shoulders in waves, Rouge stepped towards the water. The waterfall fell down the ledge along the cliff face by where she stood, and beat down on several boulders rocks that littered the edges of the small lagoon. One such boulder was fairly level on the top and featured a light spray of water across the smooth surface. She stepped onto that rock now, and became dotted with droplets as the mist covered her body. She may be a devil fruit user, but light showers were definitely possible and essential for keeping herself nice and clean. She tossed a smirk over her shoulder as him as she started lathering soap into her hair.

"Sure I miss swimming, but now I get to fly, and trust me, it's way better than swimming." She grinned and turned her face up into the spray.

The whole family was out lounging on the beach and that meant the whole family. It was like a scene from the good ole days when the Straw Hats would take little breaks on deserted islands during their pirating days, except, well, there was the addition of a few extra members.

Luffy and Zoro were creating a gigantic sand castle with the help of a couple of children; Zoro's twin 10-year-old girls Khaleesi and Ameera and Luffy's own 11-year old Bellemere. Sanji was fixing a barbeque as usual, assisted by his daughter Cerise – she was a mystery, literally, showed up in an adorable bundle on his doorstep with a note that said: Your fault and no signature – the girls were sunbathing and the rest of the crew; Usopp, Franky, Chopper, Brook were in deep into a volleyball game.

And… one family member was missing. Because he was out in the ocean, riding the old Waver.

Monkey D. Ace, namesake to his uncle, was a spitting image of his father. The same dark hair that hung into his eyes and curled around his cheeks, the same dark gray eyes, similar body structure – though his sire was made of rubber and therefore naturally more lithe – and same wide smile. The only difference was that his grin was filled with mischief and deviance.

Because he was his mother's son through and through.

His childhood had been filled with every sort of skill that his father's nakama could impart on him. As he grew older, only a few had stuck. Certainly, he was adequate at everything from guns to hand-to-hand, but his real passion came in the form of troublemaking, navigation and surprisingly music and swordsmanship. Now, at 15-years-old and the oldest of the Straw Hat 2nd Gen minus his cousin Rouge, he supposed that his skill with the blade stemmed from the fact that his Uncle Zoro lacked a son to beat the shit out of and low and behold, Luffy manages to produce one.

In fact, there was a real serious lack of boys in this family, so he figured he'd been screwed all along.

The sea sprayed his face and he laughed, letting out a holler of victory as he tunneled right through a monster wave and soaked himself right down to the skin. Franky had tinkered with the Waver for him – without his mother's permission and boy, had she been irate over it – and he was the first one to get to test out the new gigs in it.

He turned the Waver back towards shore and opened the throttle, testing out the speed and tracking it on the meter nestled in the middle of the handle bars. 55 knots… 60 knots…

He ground that sucker into the sand and propelled himself out of the water and onto the beach at a whopping 79 knots per hour. He heard his mother shriek as he hit the brakes too hard and flew over the handle bars, landing in some beach brush. A cacophony of laughs and screeches met him and he grinned as he detangled himself from the bushes.

"RAION!" Nami shrieked, rushing over to him and pulling him out of the bushes and brushing him off, "You are gonna kill yourself doing that!"

Raion – his nickname as a child stemmed from his mother calling him her 'little lion' – kissed her cheek, "Don't worry, I got it, Mother."

Luffy laughed from the sand castle where they were burying Belle under it, "He's fine, Nami!"

She nodded and brushed Raion's hair off his forehead, "How was the Waver?" she asked.

He nodded and gave her a thumbs up, "Choice."

She made a point; he was rather relaxed for a hostage situation. Maybe it was because he could adapt so well, but he had a feeling it had more or less to do with the fact that he had no reason to fear her. He was confident in his ability to take her on if he had to. And he didn't feel like his life was in any danger with her anyway. So that lent to his overall calm demeanor.

"A beach party would be a perfect opportunity to organize my escape. I'm sure I could commandeer a boat and be out of your hair…" he said, running his hands up and down his arms with a little water, getting off the last of the suds on him.

She was very distracting, doing whatever she was doing on the mossy rock near the waterfall and he tried to keep his eyes averted, but as soon as the bathing suit top came off, his eyebrows went to war with his hairline. It was right on the tip of his tongue to ask her what the hell she was thinking, but he sucked it back when she shimmied out of her shorts and bathing suit bottom and hopped lithely to the rock nearest the waterfall that offered a light spray of water.

Oh man. She was total trouble for him. He had a hell of an imagination, for sure, so seeing her in tiny little bikinis and shortie shorts didn't leave much left over for him to visualize. But the shock factor came into play at seeing her completely naked, even as his brain tried to keep up with the image burned into his retinas.

She turned her back to him and he took a huge, silent intake of breath as his neurons took a step back from the situation and his body went from completely tense to somewhat… less… tense. It was the first time that he was seeing her hair down, minus the strands that sometimes came free from the knot in the back of her head. Dark, so black they were nearly blue waves and ringlets twisted down her spine until the very ends played peek-a-boo with her tailbone. He suddenly wondered what it would feel like to run his fingers through it.

Oh boy. Out. He needed to be away from her. A-SAP.

Lukas turned tail and waded out of the water. It didn't matter that he was dripping wet; he scooped up his shorts to put them on. He was clean now; no sense being in the water anymore, especially naked and within a 50 mile radius of that little sex kitten under the waterfall.

The subtle swishing of the water alerted Rouge that Lukas was moving. It was a surprise, really, because she'd been expecting some kind of remark about her lack of modesty, some kind of jab at her crude criminal ways, and had a line of comebacks ready in her head. But instead her showering was met with...silence.

Was this a good thing, or a bad thing?

Not wanting to miss what his expression looked like-an important factor if she really intended to seduce him, since the way a man reacted to their first time seeing a woman nude said a lot-Rouge stepped back and around to get a peek. What she got was mostly his back, but with the water sluicing down his spin and over his very lean buttocks, it was quite the sight. It was enough to take her breath away, really. He had a fantastic body and seeing it up close was a treat.

Unfortunately, the combination of turning hurriedly to get a look at his face and the butterflies in her stomach at seeing his naked backside made it hard to pay attention to where she was stepping. As she put weight down on the foot she'd shifted positions with, she found that she'd miscalculated and placed it half off the rock she was standing on. The result?

A surprised squeak that sounded like a strangled curse came from her as she lost her footing on the slippery edge of the rock. She didn't have time to pull out her wings before she splashed ungracefully into the lagoon with her arms flailing in a failed attempt to right her balance. Though the lagoon was not very deep, she was an anchor and the moment the water closed over her head, she was lost.

All of her strength was suddenly sapped out of her and her futile struggling ceased. Bubbles danced in front of her eyes as she blinked under the water, cursing vehemently in her head. How could she be so stupid and fall in like that? She was part dragon, she should have excellent balance, but dammit, she'd been distracted.

Fuck fuck fuck... she closed her eyes tightly as tried to force her laden arms to move. She didn't have time to be embarrassed yet; she was too preoccupied by the idea of not drowning. Would the marine bother saving her? Probably not...

He had his shorts up over his hips when he heard the strangled curse and whipped around just in time to see Rouge go splashing into the water, arms flailing and just a quick slip of skin.

He couldn't help himself. His hands stopped on the button/fly on his shorts and he stared as she splashed around in the water. It was kinda funny and he grinned. She was always so balanced and poised.

"Nice fall. You know, for a dragon you're not very…" his laughed died right on his face as the splashing stopped and bubbles issued from the exact spot where she fell in.

And it hit him. Dragon meant Zoan fruit. Zoan fruit was a devil fruit. Devil fruit people couldn't swim…

Lukas swore and started back into the water just as another brief thought crossed his mind and he stuttered on taking that next step. She was his kidnapper, holding him against his will here on this god-forsaken island. So what if she drown? If she was dead, he'd be free. Alright, alright, so he balked at openly standing by while she suffered a horrible suffocation, knowing that he was standing on the shore, unwilling to help her. But what was the hurt of letting her get unconscious for a little while so that he could have the freedom to brainstorm his way out of this jungle.

He charged into the water, throwing out all his thoughts and going right on military instinct; leave no one behind. The lagoon wasn't very deep, but she slipped right into the deepest part and it was a solid eight feet. She was at the very bottom. He dove straight from the shallows into the water. He was a good swimmer. As a non-devil fruit user of his particular station, swimming was actually one of his strong suits.

She was sitting at the bottom of the lagoon among the weeds, eyes closed tightly, face pinched like she was concentrating hard. Naked, sitting among the vegetation with her hair fanning out around her and she could have been a nymph or some other underwater siren. He pushed it out of his mind and grabbed her by her arm right underneath her shoulder and kicked off the bottom of the lagoon to shoot for the surface.

He shook his head and blinked the water out of his eyes when they surfaced and he dragged her to the shore or at least to where he could touch.

"You alright?" he asked her, holding her upright as the water sloshed around her hips.

As Rouge sank to the relatively shallow bottom of the lagoon, a litany of curses streamed through her sluggish mind. If the water hadn't been sucking the energy right out of her, she probably would have been thrashing around out of pure disgust at her own folly. She was a goddamn dragon! With near cat-like balance! And one peek at a man's-albeit tasty-ass and she'd gone headfirst into the water from a shower she'd used countless times before.

She supposed that she had never been distracted during her shower before, since she was almost always alone on this island. Very few people outside of her family knew of its existence.

Not only that, but there was a good chance she wasn't going to be saved. This was the perfect opportunity for the marine to get rid of his kidnapper and try to figure a way off the island. Even if she had more access to transportation than him, she was still his kidnapper. Why would he save a criminal like her anyways?

Another string of sluggish curses ran across her brain. She was so fucked. And worse, she was dying in the most embarrassing way possible. She would much rather meet her end doing something awesome instead of making a fool of herself.

Suddenly, just as her lungs started to burn, a hand clamped down on her arm and she was hauled upwards. Her eyes flashed open in surprise, because the only person that could be was Lukas. Her heart jumped in her chest and hope flared through her. He was going to save her!

As her head broke the surface of the water, her gasp was loud and full of unspoken relief. Despite the fact that she could now breathe, she was still mostly in the water, so as he started dragging her towards the shore, she could do nothing but hang limply from his grip and try to recover herself. She was dizzy and lightheaded in addition to the physical weakness that weighed her limbs down like lead.

He pulled her up by her arms and asked if she was alright, and for a moment she could only blink up at him between the wet strands of hair that fell across her face. She was still hip-deep in the water, so she was still being affected and out of an instinct to survive, her hands shot up to weakly grip his wrists, incase he decided to let her go and drown for real this time. Her eyes seemed extra large and blue compared to her relatively pale skin and midnight locks, and for a moment she almost looked innocent.

Then she wrinkled her nose, her freckles stark against her pallor, and grimaced at him as best she could when she really felt like a wet noodle, still hip-deep. "Well, I am now that I'm not underwater, that's for sure...I'll live, so long as you get me out of here." Her voice was gruffer than normal, but she managed to keep a somewhat amused tone. It occurred to her then-now that her life wasn't in eminent danger-that she was as naked as the day she was born and less than a foot from an almost-naked Lukas. Being naked so close to him did absolutely nothing to make her feel bashful because she had practically no modesty to speak of, but that wasn't what popped into her mind first. Her eyes reflexively flickered down, over his tawny and bare chest and down to where the water lapped at the hem of his shorts.

When she looked up at him again, there was a new heat in her eyes and a little more color had seeped into her face, most especially around her cheeks and lips. Her lips slowly curved up into a smile, and before she could help herself, she looked down to his lips, set into such a serious line, which was appropriate given the circumstances but also damn sexy. "If I had known you'd actually save my life and we'd end up in this position, I might have jumped in willingly," she finally murmured, huskiness replacing the gruffness in her voice. Though she was one-hundred precent seriously, her eyes danced in a teasing manner.

She looked a little like a drowned cat; her curls were nearly completely straightened and curving very gently against her face and shoulders, clinging to her arms and – thankfully – her breasts. Some were even stuck to him. Even though she was upright and breathing fresh air, she squeezed his wrists hard and he found he was supporting much of her weight, like she was unwilling or unable to stay up alone. Her eyes seemed almost too big for her face like luminous orbs that she stared at him with in utter surprise at first then her expression slipped seamlessly from astonishment to downright trouble once again. She crinkled her nose and she was back to that sassy, sinfully sexy criminal he someone was unable to elude no matter how hard he tried.

It was almost as if the harder he tried to get away from her, the more he found himself mixed up with her again.

A flippant comment came out of her, naturally, and his brain took a step back to think about what she'd said. Well. There was no denying that aside from the whole rescue part, this was a damning situation for them to be in, all practically pressed together with nothing but a pair of cargo shorts separating them from being skin to skin.

And he didn't miss the way she undressed him with her eyes… not there was much to undress really. She looked like… like she was about to eat him alive.

He reallllllly needed to get away from her before his mind starting reasoning out why he should let her.

"I don't recommend willingly tossing yourself in water at the sight of a naked man. Damsel in distress doesn't look good on you," he grinned back at her, taking a stab as to why she could have possibly falling off the rock and using humor as his saving grace against her, "Now, come here."

He dragged her the rest of the way out of the water until she was capable of stumbling along after him and right to wear he dumped his shirt earlier. Being diligent about not getting too close a look at her, especially because her hair was starting to dry and curl, he flipped the shirt over her shoulders and closed it around her. It offered barely enough visual barrier, coming just underneath the curve of her ass. He wondered if just seeing a tease of skin was helping or hindering his cause.

She should have been embarrassed by his comment, or at least feel an inkling of shame for doing something as stupid as falling into water at the sight of a naked man, but honestly, his sass only brought a wide grin to her face.

As he started dragging her out of the water, finally allowing some energy to seep back into her, she said, "You're right, it's definitely not my thing, but like I always said...I'll try anything once." The smile on her face turned wicked and her eyes glinted with teasing heat as they came to a stop on the mossy bank where he'd left the rest of his clothes. Still feeling a little drained from the lagoon, she just stood there as he picked up at shirt.

It was probably the lingering effects of the water that made her brain unable to connect the dots with what he was about to do with his shirt. Forget that her own clothing was only yards away, he straight-up did the gentleman thing and put his shirt around her sopping shoulders. The gesture was such a surprise, especially considering that the majority of dudes she hung around were definitely not gentlemen, that she continued to remain stock still.

Her eyes flickered downwards as she absently pulled the lapels together, mostly for his benefit rather than her own, and when she looked back up at him there was a strange softening in her blue eyes. A gentled expression, yes, but also a heated one. Even though she knew this absolutely wasn't, for some reason this moment struck her like a date. A date gone horrible wrong and yet still thoroughly enjoyable.

They were still facing each other, standing a mere two feet apart, and Rouge took an involuntary step forward. Her gaze dropped from his green one to his lips, still moist from the water he'd just dragged her out of. The unmistakable urge to kiss this man rose up in her chest so suddenly and strongly that she forgot that he was a marine, forgot even that she had planned to seduce him in the first place. She was acting on pure instinct, bolstered by his gentlemanly gesture with the shirt, as she tilted her head back and to the side. She leaned up into him, closing the gap between them to a mere half a foot. She was moving slowly, as if in a trance, and indeed his very presence seemed to have put a spell on her from the beginning.

If he were to mentally step back from this bizarre relationship he was having with the Dragon Smuggler, he'd be hard pressed to deny that there wasn't something there. At every turn, they were thrust together by chance and circumstance. He'd even once gone as far to let the thought cross his mind that she was his criminal. He may or may not have admitted something like that around the time he concluded that turning her in as Portgas D. Rouge would fuck over this cat-and-mouse chase they had.

Keep your friends closeenemies closer

Where was the line? It seemed like he was, for the first time in his life probably, having a hard time distinguishing just where the outlaw in her dropped off and the woman began. It was a constant struggle between trying to censor his relationship with her and cave to her and crush his mouth over hers. It was so hard because he couldn't ever pin down exactly where she stood. She just exuded so much sexuality that she was the reason he blurred that line between business and pleasure. She seemed to find the two interchangeable.

It just made this very confusing for him.

Her eyes did that flicker thing again where they moved from his eyes down and all that succeeded in doing was making his nerve-endings hyper aware of the lack of space between them. And she immediately compromised what little breathing room he had by closing the gap. She had to tip her head back to keep looking up at him and on reflex, he tilted his own head back to compensate.

He knew this position. He'd been on the receiving end enough times to feel it coming on and for a moment, he was frozen as he went through the mental juggle. Business, pleasurebusiness, pleasure

His business side won out and he took a step back from her with a breath and ruffled his hands through his hair, spraying her with water and successfully both breaking the moment and drying his scalp, "Be careful, Dragon," he said, purposely using her 'stage name' to create that distance between them mentally and for his own sanity, "or I might think you were trying to compromise me."

As droplets of his hair speckled on her face, she wrinkled her nose at him again and sighed, then sexual tension leaving her body in a rush as the moment was lost. Still, despite the step back he took, she'd seen the indecision in his eyes. She'd seen him hesitate...and that was all she needed.

It told her that even if he was resisting...he did want her.

A smile curved her lips and she shrugged her shoulders, turning away from him. She started for her own clothes, aware that she was putting a little more strut to her step than usual and grinning unabashedly at it. Luckily her back was to him and hid the way her smile looked like a patient cat after letting the mouse go free.

"And if I am? You've got a hot bod and this little game between us totally flips my switches...Then you go and save me?"

Her hands flipped out to the sides as she gave another little shrug. "What's a girl to do but swoon at your feet? Besides...I'm pretty sure you would enjoy me in a compromising position, especially if it involves you."

This time she let him see her sassy grin that she tossed over her shoulder. Simultaneously, she arrived near her clothing and shrugged out of his shirt, letting the material billow to the ground around her feet. Moving unhurriedly, she leaned down to pick up her garments and started putting them on, pulling her mass of hair over one shoulder as she did.

"Thank you, by the way...for saving my life." Her voice lost it's teasing tone and became more serious, unusual for her. She turned her face to look at him, and all traces of humor were gone from her delicate features. "I don't take things like that lightly...Nor do I forget them."

She let her eyes linger on him for a moment before she leaned down to pick up the backpack she'd brought with her. She tossed it towards him, then settled her hands on her hips. "I've brought you some more food, a few other little nicknacks, and also a pad of paper and pen, just in case you run out of things to do and feel like doodling me a nice picture." Her grin was back now, her white teeth flashing as she pulled her hair up into its customary messy bun.

The next few days passed in relative quiet. He decided that it was kinda a relief, just to have a little space from her. His brain needed the break. Everything about her just screamed sex; every action, the swish of her hips, the crinkle of her nose. Her sass was going to be the end of him because every word out of her sinful mouth was a sexual innuendo or a double entendre. It just kept him on constant alert, his body running on high as it felt like his every waking moment was spent thinking about her. It was nice to focus on other things during the day than her and he filled his time with his morning workout, scoping the island a little bit and occasionally, she would show up with a gourmet lunch and a board game and they'd play checkers or Go or Mah-jong.

It was during these clips of game play that he found he learned the most about her. Sure, he'd learned plenty during their first back-and-forth when he'd first woken up in the jungle, but that was almost scripted in comparison to what he learned over a game of checkers. And what they talked about didn't result in the other analyzing the information to see if there was any way to use it against them later.

He learned that she and her mother were very close to the Straw Hats, visiting constantly and staying in very close communication. He learned that she was the oldest of the Mugiwara 2nd Gen, with Monkey D. Ace second. He learned that she was insanely good at checkers. She enjoyed sunbathing naked. And the most important and dangerous thing he learned about her was that despite every other word out of her mouth was about sex, behind that sassy, cheeky façade, it was easy to make her laugh.

He wondered that if they each had been dealt a different card in life, she would be someone he might have tried to go out with. And that was so very bad.

Most of the time however, he was alone with his thoughts. And when his workout was over and board games were won, he took advantage of that pad of paper she'd left him and started making a map of the island. Now, he was no navigator or mapmaker; he hired people to do that for him, but he was a complete dolt either. He started with the coastline, marking where it was hard to walk over, where the rocks were, where boats and ships could feasibly dock. He penciled in Rouge's mountain cliff cave, or at least right around where he thought it was near the coast. He drew the lagoon and the river and the non-active volcano crater.

But mapping didn't hold his attention for long. He wished that he had a gun or something to tinker around with, but he wasn't allowed a knife to whittle wood, let along something with speeding projectiles. He settled with doodling guns and parts and making extravagant weapons on paper.

The morning of the third day, he rolled out of his hammock for his morning jaunt. He was, frankly, starting to get some more sleep now. For the first two nights or so, he'd been on edge all night. Something about being kidnapped in your sleep right from your bed had damaging side-effects. But now, he was just starting to be able to sleep soundly without jerking awake and ready to kill someone at every sound. After all, he firmly believed that if she wanted him dead, him and Davy Jones would have already been having tea at the bottom of the ocean by now.

Since their arrival on the island, Rouge had been doing only minor workouts and training to keep her skills sharp. Part of it was out of laziness, but another part stemmed from the fact that she had been reluctant to put herself in such a compromising position while on the same turf as a potential enemy. But as the days had passed, she found it became more and more difficult to keep herself on guard around him. He seemed less and less like an enemy marine and more and more like a new friend.

She'd come to enjoy the time they spent together, especially when they were just playing checkers or another game and trading information about one another. She'd learned quite a bit about him, his dear mother, and his even dearer sisters. From the way he talked, she decided he would fit in well with her community of friends and family, if he weren't a marine, of course.

It made her wonder if liking him had anything to do with trusting him. Was he just playing her? Only time would tell.

Regardless, this morning she'd decided it was time for a full-blown workout. Her attire stayed the same, but her hair was now braided down her back in a long, thick cord that reached to the small of her back. Putting all of her necessary equipment into another backpack, she headed for the beach.

It was a sunny morning, with barely a cloud in the sky, and somewhat cooler than it had been of late. Perfect. As she finished her stretching routine, Rouge set up a small black box that had been a gift from her Uncle Franky. It was a music player, with recordings of different songs from both her uncle Brook and other artists she favored. She adjusted the volume toggle to as loud as it possibly went, then picked up the two weights she'd brought with her. Small in size, they each weighed fifty pounds.

Using her toe, she turned on the music, and a pumping beat soared into the air around her. A grin played at the edges of her lips, and she hefted the weights up as she moved away from the little black box.

Thus began what her father affectionately referred to as her boogie workout. Combining acrobatic routines from her aunt Tikka with boxing and kicking moves taught to her by her uncles Luffy and Sanji, Rouge began to dance. She'd found, a long time ago, that if she had music and dancing as a motivator, she could workout for hours. At first it had just been dancing, but then her family had started pitching in and showing her how she could combine her dancing with a training routine to sharpen her fighting skills. Her father, ever keen on ensuring his baby girl could defend herself, had loved the idea and had even joined her a couple of times. The dancing and music gave her the energy to repeat the various techniques over and over and over, often in different positions or in various combinations until her body remember the moves on its own.

With a grin on her face and her eyes dancing with robust energy, she kicked, punched, twirled, lunged, spun, and leapt her way into a dance routine to pounding rap and hip hop tunes.