- - -

Paulie scowled and turned left again. These hallways were proving to rival the twists and turns of Water 7's darkest alleys. At least they were labelled.

"This is ridiculous," Paulie muttered to himself. He'd gone out for a smoke just a moment ago, so why was he now so irrationally lost? Paulie prided himself on his good directional sense, but skills are only as good as they're used and rarely did Paulie get the opportunity to lose himself in empty castle halls.

Buried in his thoughts, Paulie walked into a wall.

"Sorry," Paulie muttered distractedly, shaking his head to clear his thoughts of north-northeast and hypocritical road maps.

"Just look where you're going next time," the wall replied.

"Right," Paulie said before hesitating. "What?"

Looking over his shoulder, Paulie noticed the wall was actually a man, who was currently walking away. "Oi! Hold on a second!"

The man stopped and frowned as Paulie walked over to him. "What do you want?"

"Do you know where the dining hall is?" Paulie asked. The man eyed him from under shaded glasses, and Paulie frowned. "Well?"

"You just passed it," he said.

Paulie could feel the heat rising against his face. "Oh."

"Go back the way you came, turn right, right again, and you should be there," the man said.

"Right, thanks," Paulie muttered as he turned and began to walk away again.

Paulie hesitated after a few strides and stopped to think. Had it been his right or the man's?

---

Paulie frowned, hanging another right and walking down the hall. He sighed in relief; there was a door at the end of the hall that looked different than the others. Yet, as he made his way closer, the door seemed much too small and much too subtle to be an entrance to a dining hall. He hoped he wasn't lost again.

Paulie turned the doorknob and pushed gently, opening the door halfway. He leaned his head in and looked around. There was nothing in the room save for a small table, large window and beautiful woman.

Wait...

"Excuse me," Paulie said, opening the door another foot and taking a step into the room. The woman turned from the window to look at him with bright blue eyes to match her long hair. Paulie gave the room another sweep before asking, "I think I'm lost. Do you know where the dining room is?"

The woman smiled, eyes cast away and out the window for a fraction before turning back to him. "Yes. Do you want me to show you?"

"If you don't mind," Paulie agreed sheepishly. He frowned faintly and took another step into the room, eyeing the window she had taken another look out of, hoping he wasn't being too rude. "What do you keep looking at?"

The woman turned back to the window with a smile once more and Paulie took it as a sign that he hadn't said anything too stupid. Those filthy women in Water 7 were liars about his etiquette. He walked over to stand next to her chair and could only whisper, "Wow."

"You can almost see the entire city from up here," she said. "I think it's beautiful."

Paulie had to agree with her; the scenery was breathtaking with the sun setting low just before it dropped out of sight and night would envelop the city in all shades of black. Street lamps were lit as people wandered about in the lazy heat. It reminded him of Water 7 in a way, how he could see everyone and everything going on with a single rooftop glance. He smiled. "It looks just like my hometown, except without all the water."

"You're not from here, then?" the woman asked, looking him over. "I've never seen you around before."

"Er, yeah," Paulie admitted. "I'm Paulie. I'm here with-"

"Vivi-sama!" a voice boomed and Paulie felt a hand clamp over his shoulder. He looked up into a giant face connected to a giant body and suddenly wished it was Tilestone so he could shout at someone for the sudden intrusion, surprising the hell out of him.

"Hello, Igaram," the woman said. "Is dinner ready?"

"Ah- Yes. Everyone is waiting."

Paulie was fairly sure that his eyes were bulging by now. Vivi-sama...?

"You'll be working to build a gift for the princess, Vivi-chan."

"Ah! Y-You're Vivi?" Paulie shouted, his brain kicking into overdrive and losing control of his mouth. "You're the princess?"

Vivi nodded. "Yes. You said you were Paulie, right? What brings you to Alabasta?"

"Er..." On the one hand, Paulie could lie and possibly say something impressive, but on the other hand, he might (or would definitely) get caught lying to royalty and look like even more of an idiot. "I've been... hired by Kaku to build you a present for the serenation."

"Coronation," Vivi corrected with a small smile.

"Right," Paulie agreed, forcing his blood to stop being so red and showing up so easily beneath his cheeks. "I hope you're not insulted or anything, having an outsider make your se-coronation gift." Okay, mouth. Shut up now. "I like your skirt by the way." Shit. "It's very..." Long. "Pretty."

Vivi laughed and Paulie's knees were in danger of collapsing. "Don't worry, it's tradition for someone outside of the royal family to build gifts for someone inside the family." She looked down at her lap and looked back up with a grin. "It's one of my favourites."

"Oh," Paulie said and couldn't think of any embarrassing moment of his twenty-something life being worse than this moment right now.

The hand moved and Paulie jumped back to reality, turning to stare again at the man still looming above him.

"Vivi-sama, dinner is still waiting."

"Oh, of course," Vivi nodded and stood up, smoothing her skirt down before turning and smiling at the two of the standing at the doorway. "Shall we go, then? You didn't know where the dining room was, right Paulie? Would you still like me to show you?"

"Y-Yeah. Thanks."

---

Paulie found the two near the center of the table, quietly drinking. At least they weren't fighting and the room wasn't bloodied. He couldn't tell whether they were angry or not at first glance, he had never been good at reading emotions, but the wary glances from all over the room at the man with midnight hair and refined qualities told him Lucci's Evil Aura was ready to flare up at the smallest of mishaps.

"You're late," Lucci noted when Paulie slipped into the empty seat by his right.

Paulie braced himself for a death-by-butter-knife that never came and felt a little stupid for it. These guys are too smart to make a scene in public. He grabbed his own fork and muttered, "I sort of got lost and met Vivi-san in the process."

"Perhaps we should send Hattori with you next time," Lucci drawled before taking another long sip of wine. "It seems you do need a babysitter after all."

Paulie clenched his fists, opening his mouth to retort, but was cut off by Kaku's cheerful voice.

"I wasn't aware that you trusted Hattori with anyone but yourself. As far as I know, pets usually take after their masters."

Lucci eyed him with a vague expression and Paulie could almost see the tension between them. Lucci set his glass down. "Yes, of course, how foolish of me. My apologies, your grace."

Paulie watched the argument warily, along with a handful of other guests, thanking every God he'd ever heard of that he wasn't seated between them but rather across the table when Kaku bristled at the title. Paulie guessed Lucci was referring to a past conversation, and when Kaku smiled again Paulie was willing to bet a large sum of money that the apocalypse was coming any minute now. He knew from personal experience that holding back during a fight would only leader to an even bigger explosion down the road.

Deciding to try and ignore the immense pressure weighing over them, Paulie turned to the food now being served in front of him. Paulie stabbed a steamed broccoli head and took a bite. With something this delicious to distract him, maybe he could get a few moment of peace.

Mmm, blissful ignorance never tasted so good.

- - -

AN: Okay so this had to be one of the hardest chapters to write, even if it was solely because of that bloody scene at the end. I have no grasp of politics and feel an argument between these two would be so much more cutthroat and subtle then I could ever dream of writing up on paper. Just, you know, FYI.