Chapter 4 Linger:::
Spade now knows words. He knows "Momma", "Sea", "Sake", and "You".
Always, it seems he says "You" in such an accusing tone. It's directed to random villagers too, who know, but keep quiet about his heritage. He points his tiny two and a half-year-old finger at strangers while glaring and hollers very loudly: "you!" Spade never quite finishes his sentence after that but the villagers quiver in their boots at the fearsome red head. He's meant for greatness, that boy.
Makino is not as amused. She always picks him up and dishes out apologies to the strangers, but what she doesn't see is that Spade glares at them from behind her shoulder; from behind or inside her seaweed hair purply eyes look at them accusingly. The strangers always see him from behind his blinds and run away from the confused mother and devil child. As do the children of those adults, then after some time, the entire village. The red headed boy with a black beanie and a glaring face yes, yes, quiver in fear.
Makino can understand why Spade knows the words "you", "Sake" and "momma", but "Sea"? She has never taught him the word or mentioned it before- it hurt to much. So how?
She's putting on his favorite beanie when he dashes out of her reach and out into the town market. Spade always does this now a days, always the rebellious two year old. Was it strange that he went through the stage so early? Makino doesn't falter, and dashes out of the ghost town bar her establishment has become and chases him around the town, through the market, and the jungle until she catches up to him.
He found his way to her secret cove.
It's hidden from the village, and its small with a tiny private beach complimented by beautiful plants surrounding it. It has the cleanest of sands, the purest of salt waters. It's beautiful. It's her beach, her private coveted sea. Well, not just hers. She has't been here since that day a year ago, her "relaxing" getaway. It's much brighter now, a sunnier day that did the beach justice with it's bright view.
Her sons voice is loud and confident with his back to her.
"Sea." He says.
She freezes and is about to ask him where he learned that word or how he found this place, "he's only two!" she exclaims internally and makes her way to him when the water brushes against her toes making her stop alongside him. It's the lightest of touches- feathery- almost like coaxing pet that she dimly remembers from a thick, scarred skinned hand. The water is warm today, Makino thinks. It takes her back, though. It's more then enough to take her back.
"What are you doing here, my mermaid?"
Shanks stands in the jungle clearing, right at the entrance of Makino's secret cove, staring at her stark naked in the ocean. The one day she affords a break he comes and finds her. Makino flushes pink and tosses from her position in order to cover her parts. She can hear Shanks laughing at her attempts- he's already seen everything. Makino never heard the "my mermaid" in his sentence. Not till much later.
"Makino, dearest how ever did you find this place?"
After forcing him to turn his back to her, Makino gets dressed quickly. Except, Shanks peaks and smiles to himself at the damp, pale skin he sees. He asks her that and her only reply was that when she was a teenager, she went on an adventure. It was the first and last adventure she had, but she found this beautiful secret place she often comes to as a means of escape. Shanks only smiles and wonders since she found such a beautiful place, why not adventure more to find even more pretty places? With him? He doesn't ask her this though, because she turns around and leaps back into the water. She wears only her undergarment when she calls to him, feeling courageous, "Come on in Shanks, the waters great!" Shanks bites down his argument of the water always being great, however at his view: a pale girl, with wet wavy hair clinging to her curvy hips, his argument is forgotten all together as he rushes in to join her.
"Hello, Seaweed girl! Lets go to our cove!"
Shanks only hand grips her hip and guides her away from her route to the bar. He gives her this look like 'the chores can wait' and they disappear into the jungles clearings, to their cove. Makino makes at face at her nicknames. They are always slightly insulting, and whatever happened to 'mermaid girl'? When they are deep enough into the jungle and hidden completely by the trees, Shanks leans down and kisses her lips, hard. Makino has dreamed of this so many times that when it happens, she isn't surprised. After a few minutes of hot and heavy kisses, Shanks leans back to smile at her, catch his breath, and come back to his new home on her light pink lips. It was like she was giving him air; like the common tale of mermaids saving drowning sailors whose air had left them the deeper they fell in the bottomless blues. She grows slightly worried at his harsh kisses and wonders what Shanks is drowning in. But then he leaves her lips and kisses her neck fervently, leaving a blazing trail on her milky flesh, and Makino realizes that it is her gasping for air.
"Makino, I love you"
She doesn't remember a time without that pirate of a man. Makino does not recall a day where her head wasn't filled with him, where heavy footsteps didn't remind her of him. Shanks chases her through the jungle to their cove, always they go to their cove when he visits, and when the tress dart in their path, they swiftly move around them- this is her home, she knows her way around . His constant chin stubble scratches against her soft chin and face, and checks, and neck, and she loves it. It scratches in the best of ways, and later when they go back to the bar before opening, as they lie in bed with candle wicks flickering around them; it scratches in the best of places. In the middle of their passion, after deciding to not open the bar tonight (his crew can wait till tomorrow, he can't Shanks reasoned), Shanks says heavenly words that send Makino spiraling. Toes clenching, back arching, she does not return the words to him.
"I've found you, my darling!"
Sometimes, when she misses Shanks dearly, she goes to their secret cove alone She sits on the surf in her flattering once piece (or sometimes, in her birthday suit) and thinks of the man who must be on a ship that rocks on the waves before her, somewhere. Then, suddenly, she feels a hand encase her hips, sliding over her tummy. She hears a gruff whisper in her ear, feels a path of hot sweet kisses on her neck and she knows he really does love her. Her overanalyzing has gotten her nowhere- his chin stubble, his smile, his eyes- they scream true. They tickle each other in the sand, in the most innocent of ways, and they lay there in the sand, the setting sun their natural light. Shanks asks her if she wants to swim with him in the sea. Makino knows better then to accept or openly decline, so she distracts him with promises of the bar closing early- of alone time together. Shanks barely notices, while staring at Makino's pink lips and bright purple eyes, that she did not reply to his previous offer of spending time in the sea.
"I love you too, Shanks."
This is the last thing she recalls ever saying to him. It was in the dead of night with the curtains drawn and Shanks snoring loudly next to her in bed. The candles are dying out and she holds her breath after saying the words. The sheets rustle next to her, and though she's known she's loved him for a long time, and she's been wanting to say it, she doesn't exactly want him to know that she loves him tremendously. But he does because he turns around to face her, in all his naked glory, and flashes the biggest wolfish grin at her that she's ever seen from him. She blushes under his intense gaze, and the candle flickers out. He moves on her, then in her, and towards the end of it all, after their once calmed down heart and clean skin becomes stricken and sheen again, he whispers in her ear: "I know."
"..."
Their last goodbye, that Makino did not know would be their last, was a silent exchange equipped with an unknowing blissful smile and a lying gaze. The sea cove they always came back too, where he found her all alone once, where he asked her of life and love and books and everything else in between and beyond, was not returned to until eight months later, after Ace's end, that time alone (kind of). Their secret cove, where he confessed his love, where he chased after her heart, and where she gave it too him still lived and breathed the sea and them; the combination of the two people- sea and land, bubbly liquid and sand shores.
She gave him her heart so willingly.
So fully. He knew though, that he wouldn't be back in a very long time. Makino believed so fervently that he would be back with her soon, though.
"Makino" Shanks says.
His voice echoes in her brain, and in her tummy and every place in her body, almost like he's calling to her.
Makino doesn't realize that she's been staring at the sea for many minutes now. Spade is tugging on her dress that has gone into the water with her, now wet with sea water from the hem up to her knees. Makino was walking in, further and deeper in the water as the memories assaulted her. She looked as if she was in a trance and only when her son tugged hard enough, yelled loud enough, did it break.
"Momma!"
Snapping back to look down at her son, she notices that he looks very worried. She regains herself and grabs his hand, and whispers very quietly,
"I love this cove, sweetie. Its our secret sea now, and every sea needs a name! What should we call it, Spade?" Makino says this to disract her sons fear and to silently put her own at bay.
Spade looks confused, but excited at the prospect of a secret special place for only the two of them.
Now, Spade only knows a few words.
"Sake Sea!"
Makino quirks her brow at the name, but smiles down at him and lifts him into her arms and she makes her way to the sandy beach. Somehow, it feels like the sea is trying to tug Spade back to its depths with ever with-drawl of tide, but Makino trudges up the shore regardless of the pull of the waves. "Not yet" Makino whispers in a quiet voice, that even her son who is steadied in her arms can not hear.
"Sake Sea it is." Makino says, smiling with an unrecognizable ghosting in her light pink lips.
Makino comes back the next day with Spade in one arm and beach swimming gear in the other. He's only two, but he's a natural. He's a quick learner too, learning to swim in only a few weeks. Soon he's three and as a birthday present, Makino closes the bar and goes to the beach with him, before going back home for a surprise party delivered by a few town members, the Mayor included.
On his birthday, Spade gets a big chocolate cake for breakfeast. Then, the two head down to their Sake Sea. He plunges into the water with his floaty secured around his tummy. He likes the shark inner tube so, he uses that to sit, or lay in when he's not swimming around the ocean freely.
Makino sits and watches his red hair bob on the ocean waves. She often only watches when they come to their secret cove because whenever she touches the water there, and only there, she gets a flash flood of memories that tickle her brain and send her heart through a meat grinder. She will always love Shanks, but she is not fond of the painful reminders lately. Today is no different; Makino's pale milky skinned shape is seen lounging lazily in the shaded portion of the small beach. One day the memories will be a blessing, not a curse. Not such a tantalizing curse. Makino tries to push the memories away, but watching her son's red hair shinning with the sun, she thinks of Shanks anyway.
"I love you" she fears his words will always be an echo. An echo that will always (and does so right now) resound through her heart. Those heavenly words spoken by Shanks are recalled in the light that bounces off her three-year-old's red hair, in the new blood that flows through Spade's fresh tangled veins.
Makino never did find out how Spade learned the word "Sea".
A/N::: Have you ever had the problem where you re-read your story a bunch of times then say "alright i can post this" then after you post it you re-read it in all it's official glory and see all the easy, completely obvious mistakes you made. Then you wish you could just re-do the whole damn thing? So, I'm not being mean here- just saying- yes i do see i spelled that, or this wrong. Sorry!(in advance&for the past)
Chapter five is being difficult, but i might get it out in a week or so. Oh, and by the way, someone asked me about Shanks, and... i don't want to tell you! And... Well.. He will be around at some point but the story is wayyy more centered around Makino and her son. Another reminder: this is a drabble/oneshot-y kind of fic stringed together as a full/shortish story. Also, i said this previously, but be prepared i will be skipping time soon!