So, here it is! A lifetime later! I suck at writing! Absolutely dreadful at any sort of consistency which is ironic considering a lack of consistency is perhaps one of my biggest pet peeves. I hope you like it! If you don't… I'm not really sure, I just genuinely hope you enjoy this steaming pile of words I managed to bake together. Constructive criticism or thoughts would be so, so, so appreciated, thank you!
Monkey D. Rill sat on the edge of Captan Smoker's sizeable bed, a contemplative look etched on her features. Naked with a faint glisten of sweat covering her tanned, honey skin, her eyes continued to flicker over to the other naked figure, free of sweat and the need to shuffle. Instead he stretched across the bed, perfectly at ease with himself while she continued to quietly fidget.
"Can I help you?" Smoker eventually snapped when he caught her curious stare.
"Sorry," she replied.
"Right. Cut it out."
Rill turned away from him, only to glance back quickly again. "I will, but we need to establish some finite ground rules. Irreversible, unbreakable, concrete rules."
"Sounds like a pain in the ass," Smoker played on, snorting at her as he propped a cigar on his bottom lip.
Rill considered that permission to continue. "I haven't carefully reviewed the documentation I signed with Mariejois University but I'm inclined to suspect they have stricts views on fraternization with… clients."
"I'm not your client," he said. "It's not like you're fucking your professor."
Rill turned away, deciding that was a subject best left buried. "No, you certainly are not. I think it's safe to presume I wouldn't learn anything valuable under you."
Smoker looked at her as if she'd just slapped him, his eyes narrowed and unamused. Rill smiled in return. "That was a joke," she offered.
He eased up a bit, shaking his head as he took a long drag from the cigar. "You should tack on a warning with those."
"Says the man who's probably never laughed in his life."
"Har, har. Come back to bed."
Rill smiled at him over her shoulder. "About my rules… there's really only one rule."
"I get it," Smoker interrupted, running his thick fingers through his spiky, white peaks. He put out his cigar in the ashtray on the bedside table. "You want discretion. So do I, now would you come here?"
Rill broke from her hunched position on the edge of his bed, climbing over his legs and up his massive form until she could comfortably rest on his hips. His half-risen arousal prodded at the soft curls between her thighs, but Rill didn't take him inside of her. Instead she admired his petulant stare.
"There's no need to rush me," she said and braced her arms against his chest as she found a comfortable rhythm to rock into him. "Unless you're already getting tire-"
"Tired of your shit," he corrected, grabbing hold of her hips and tugging her forward, forcing her to crawl along his massive, contoured chest. A part of her envied how easily he ordered her around - how freely he unpeeled her and made her part of whatever fantasy was brewing in his thoughts. She wanted to do the same.
Smoker didn't stop urging her forward until she was directly over his mouth. He wasn't the first man to go down on her, but he was the first man to ever have her sit so intimately like this, where she could see the impatience in his eyes and the playful smirk before his mouth split apart for his tongue to emerge.
"Fuck," Rill moaned, her one hand slamming into the wall as he began to lick through her folds, finding nothing to grip onto but needing the support as she dropped against his mouth. Evidently, this couldn't be the first time Smoker held a woman at his mercy in such an open, visceral manner.
Her other hand fell into her hair, her fingers curling around her midnight strands as she began to rock against him, meeting his strokes with the same fevered tenacity.
Smoker gave no indication that he was planning to stop anytime soon. With one hand burrowed in her hip, the other slipped under her thigh, forcing her legs even further apart as his mouth hungrily sucked at her clit. He alternated between his energetic sucking and the tantalizing strokes of his tongue. Rill's moans came frequently and sharp, her breaths hitching and bottling until she released them in a throaty gasp. With one thigh pressed tightly against his face, the other was forced off to the side, allowing him room to change his direction at ease.
Her veins seemed to burst inside of her, filling her with eruptions of bliss and need - the harder she rocked against his face, the faster his mouth worked, until Rill could no longer concentrate on any pattern of strokes and teasing. She clamped harshly against him, a strangled sound crackling past her clenched teeth.
"Ahhh!" Crying out her frustration as he built her towards this enticing release, only to slow his work into a lazy, tormenting caress.
"Are you gonna cum for me?" he challenged, and chuckled when she clenched him with her thighs.
"Trying, fuck am I trying," she whispered back, knowing all too well that he was enjoying this game of stop and go.
Every few minutes he would devour her like she was this exquisite sample he couldn't consume fast enough, until she was on the edge of bursting with desire, and then his passion would recede. He'd lure her back down into a pleasant distraction and build her right back up to her threatening release. She could feel her frustration beginning to mount, the determination of seeking that finale he continued to deny her.
Reaching down to bury her fingers in his hair, Rill could no longer refuse the desperation coursing through her. "Stop. Don't stop," she rushed to correct. "Just please… stop fucking torturing me and let me-"
Her moan crept over her words, swallowing the last of her sentence. Tension locked in her legs as she began to writhe against him, so close to the sweet surrender of her bliss and as Smoker's lips wrapped around her clit, Rill came hard and fast, crying out his name as the balance threw her over the edge and drenched her in submission.
"You're a menace," she panted hoarsely, her eyes half closed as he gently guided her over to the side. She refused to meet his eyes as he leaned up on the bed - she could barely keep herself on her knees.
His hand went between her thighs, diving his fingers between her slick folds as his other hand lured her chin to meet his kiss of sweet vinegar and ash.
"Thanks for the snack. Now if you're ready… get on your stomach."
Smoker drifted to sleep first. They never discussed their sleeping arrangements together, but Rill collected her uniform from the floor, dressed quietly in the moonlight streaming through his unhinged porthole, and returned to the upper deck. The night staff paid her little mind as she wandered over to her secret hiding place behind the galley and planted her rear firmly on the platform jutting over the ocean. An impressive gust of wind could send her right into the sea, but Rill welcomed the threat. Her thoughts drifted between Luffy and Smoker, of the complications promising to surface should this continue.
She fought no guilt or shame for her impulsive rendezvous. Much like Law, it was simply another convenient distraction. When she worked for too long, when she committed her energies to an exhausting force like school or her brothers, the rest of her mind had a tendency to surrender to those goals. Rill would bury her mind in thoughts of nothing else, until she was desperate for a moment of lucidity, much like this.
Now, with her thoughts suspended from order, Rill thought back to the mermaid carcasses, the kraken's breath, the creature - allegedly a sea king - that had attacked her for hovering too close to its nest. There were strings stitching these events to one another, all emerging from a source she had yet to discover. The mermaids were vessels for the kraken's breath, not that she could prove the second had carried any but to assume he did at least generated a link for her to follow. And the creature that had attacked her - she couldn't see the claws that had sunk into her back, but they had poisoned her, left her with her dizzying aches and a plunging stomach. Even as she sat perfectly still, she could feel the threat of nausea warning her she would be sick shortly.
Neither Megalodon nor Vegapunk knew where kraken's breath came from. Typically it wasn't found in the confines of a corpse, but sold on the black market as an effective poison. If the Fishmen and merpeople were collecting it directly from krakens themselves… indeed, a revolutionary possibility.
Rill peered over the still waters and rose to her feet, deciding it was best to return to her room and feign sleep before her symptoms progressed. As she turned to enter the galley, a strange shadowed object appeared within her peripheral vision. Angling back, Rill made out the definitive shape of a ship maybe a few hundred yards away from their course. Immediately, her stomach tightened.
Hurrying out of the galley, Rill caught the arm of the nearest Marine and asked him for his monocular, relieved when he made no fuss and simply handed it over. Bringing the gold brass scope up to her eye, Rill leveled it until she could see the ship perfectly within her vision - and much like the night only a few weeks before, she could find no trace of life aboard the ship.
Frowning, Rill walked to the edge of the ship, leaning over the rail until it prodded into her chest. She surveyed the entire main deck, then the ratlines and the crow's nest. She glanced over the vast, white sails and the flapping flag - notably a civilian flag - but could not unveil a glimpse of life anywhere.
"Excuse me," she called out, waving to the Marine who lent her his monocular. He looked impatient as he approached her. "That ship out there-" she paused to indicate the ship some hundred yards from them - "seems to have no trace of life on board."
"It's possible it's a ghost ship," the Marine admitted as he glanced over the horizon.
"I thought so too. Shouldn't you investigate?" Rill asked.
"The Captain is pretty intent on this course. Did you see anything suspicious on board? Debris? Blood?"
Rill shook her head. She found no dark pools on the floor boards or even rips on the sails.
"This isn't the first one I've seen at night," Rill said, thinking back to the night the captain rescued her from her foolishness.
The Marine nodded. "Sometimes storms or even Sea Kings can take out entire crews."
Rill frowned and offered him his monocular back. "No, it's nothing like that. If you just take a look, it's almost as if everyone vanished."
At her behest, the Marine reluctantly scanned the horizon before bringing the monocular up to his eye, nodding as he looked through. After a moment, he put it away. "I can see it, but there's not much I can do without Captain Smoker's orders. And I'm not going to wake him from his sleep in the middle of the night over a matter that might not even be pressing. I see no signs of distress, doctor."
"I'm not a doctor," Rill corrected him, frustrated as she glanced back with her natural eyes. "Thank you for your time," she murmured, before deciding it wasn't a battle worth fighting. Her forehead was starting to drum with the threat of another headache, and all the standing was making her nauseous again.
Rill returned to her bunk, for once free of Nora, and slept for two and a half hours.
Smoker acted different around her. It was noticeable and terrible and Rill found herself admiring it more than she cared to admit. He was softer in his approach now, no longer consumed by disdainful grimaces and sharp barks. She couldn't ascertain whether his crew or hers took notice - and Rill could only hope they remained jovially ignorant - but she found the captain's temper vacant and his manners cordial. He was the same tangible force she discovered in the bathroom.
"Did you sleep well?" she asked him, keeping her voice lowered in case their conversation could be overheard. They were alone by the wheel, and while not even Tashigi hovered nearby, Rill wanted to maintain a cautious objective.
"I slept," he answered. Whatever that means. "You don't look like you did."
"A handful of hours," Rill admitted. "But I've never been one to sleep for very long."
Smoker nodded, though for his credit, he had already witnessed some of this. "I would've had another twenty minutes but we got some intel on the pirate I'm hunting."
Rill's heart felt discorded and punctured as she peered up at Smoker. She kept her face strained, unreadable, her tone absent of any enthusiasm or interest. "Oh. What sort of intel?"
"Strawhat and his crew apparently tore through a market over in Chantara. We're going to investigate."
"Tore through as in?"
"There were four deaths and 9 injured, nevermind all the property damage."
Rill frowned - she couldn't stop herself, it stole all of her resolve not to tell him that that didn't sound like Luffy at all. Smoker must have interpreted her frown as mortification because he never appeared angry or suspect.
"That's… terrible," she said flatly. Whatever was happening, no part of her believed Luffy could be involved. She knew her brother too well to believe in such an atrocity, and Luffy - her wonderful, exuberant, insatiable, gold-hearted brother was not a boy for butchery. Destruction of property? Certainly. Death? Impossible.
"It's surprising. He wasn't one for carnage back in Loguetown. Something's up, and I don't like it," he admitted to her.
Rill nodded, oddly relieved that the captain mimicked her reflections, despite his determination to cuff her brother. She dove for the available distraction, hoping to steer off topic. "I've never heard of Chantara - what's it like?"
Smoker accepted her bait. "It's an agricultural town, built on bamboo rafts and walkways. It's something else."
"I've never seen a city built on water. I'm intrigued," Rill said, offering up a small smile. Every conscious part of her hoped that Luffy had eluded authorities and returned to his voyage. She wanted to find the nearest Den Den Mushi and verify, but she knew nothing about Chantara and doubted she could get a hold of her brother without outting their kinship.
Hypher mentioned days before that he was listening in on the scanner - perhaps she could divulge and scrutinize something of value through that. Rill scanned the main deck, searching for her colleague and found no inkling of him anywhere.
"Sorry, it's time for me to get to work," she said to Smoker, who merely nodded.
As she descended the stairs that led into the main deck, a violent surge lunged the ship sideways. Rill crashed into the rail, her side splintering with pain but not even the railing could contain her as she flipped over it, falling towards the ocean. Rill saw the cerulean surface and closed her eyes, waiting for the salty spray to envelop her until something strong snaked around her waist. She groaned from her sudden suspension in the air, feeling the ache and bruises already developing around her ribs. It took what little focus she had to turn around, and Rill couldn't suppress her relief to see Smoker was the one who had caught her.
But not even he was the same. The lower half of his body had transformed into smoke, allowing him to arc over the edge of the ship and retrieve her. Rill had heard the whispers of Smoker's legend whilst on the ship but had never seen such an alteration in person before. Luffy's stretching ability never transformed parts of his body like this.
Smoker carefully brought her down onto the main deck, his eyes too rushed to remain on her as he watched the commotion on board. Panicked shouts engulfed them.
"What was that?"
"Did we hit a reef?"
"WE HIT SOMETHING, CAPTAIN!"
"I don't see anything!"
"Get below," Smoker ordered her quietly and released her waist. The smoke disappeared as it collected all at once to form his legs again.
Rill nodded, but she hadn't walked three steps before the ship soared sideways again. Rill fell right back into Smoker, who was strong enough to brace his feet and not slide backwards. His arm elongated into a stream of smoke, this time collecting four of his soldiers as they threatened to fall into the ocean. Rill could hear panicked shouts from below and realised some of the men had already fallen overboard.
"Alright, this is starting to piss me off," Smoker snarled. "HIT THE DECK!"
No one wasted time as the captain's voice bellowed above the frustrated chorus of his men. Even Rill dropped to her stomach and crawled across the floor, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever they had hit. She could hear the heavy booted feet of Marines charging up the stairs from the hull. Many of the soldiers yelled at them to hit the floor as they first came up, but the entire ship was shrouded in confusion and panic. Only Smoker seemed intent and focused - he manipulated the smoke to propel him above the ship, allowing him what Rill could only assume was better surveillance.
And then, they all saw it. A massive, teal tentacle, about as thick as a dinghy and long as a mast pole rose from the water, and slammed into the quarter deck, splintering the wood and severing the top of it off. Everyone gazed in horror as a massive head emerged from the water, accompanied by at least three more tentacles and flaring nostrils. Its pale suckers puckered before the tentacles slammed into the ship, hitting several soldiers and destroying more of the ship in the process. It was pandemonium at its fullest, and Rill could hardly convince her legs to stand as the ship veered sharply forward, towards the cephalopodic monster's open mouth of sharp, jagged teeth.
Smoker wasted no time engaging in combat. Other ground soldiers aimed their guns and fired at the beast, obviously not concerned that they would strike their captain as the bullets soared through him, as if he truly were nothing but smoke. Smoker retrieved his jitte from his back and stabbed the creature in one of its black, soulless eyes. The monster screamed its rage, a high pitched, wrangled sound that caused nearly half of the men to cover their ears. Smoker struck at it again and again, but even from her position, Rill could see on his face that his attacks failed to truly maim the monster.
Rising to her feet, Rill avoided the debris scattered across the deck and returned to the edge of the ship to help tie ropes for the fallen soldiers to climb aboard again. She remembered knots from when her grandfather taught her, and easily fastened five lines within a handful of minutes before another lunge from a tentacle swept her off her feet and collided her into the front of the ship. Her head drummed with pain, she had a heartbeat of pure ache resonating in her skull, but Rill didn't utter a sound as she fought to gather her senses. Stumbling back onto her feet and ignoring the blood that dripped down the side of her head, Rill tried to reach the stairs to the hull. Several soldiers surrounded their cannons now, aiming for the creature and firing without any fear that they would strike their leader.
A cannon ball soared through Smoker and dived right into the creature's side, igniting his furious scream. While Smoker's jitte had irritated it when it delved into its eye, Rill buckled to her knees at the pitch of its enraged wail.
The scream lasted seconds before Rill could lift her head again, watching as Smoker dropped his jitte and began delivering powerful blows to the creature, aiming at its eyes and head. The tentacles continued to constrict around the ship, pulling them toward its open maw, but its focus was solely on Smoker at this point. Realising that there was little else she could do, Rill ran for the stairs to the hull, ignoring the violent spasms along her skull and terrible nausea that threatened to send her back to her knees.
She took the stairs two at a time and ran to the laboratory room where she found her confused professors huddled around. Numerous beakers lay broken on the floor, strewn with many of their utensils and trays, but Rill ignored everything and ran to the locked storage cabinet where they kept many of their chemicals.
"RILL! What the hell is going on?" Isamu barked at her.
"There's a monster attacking the ship," Rill answered just as loudly as she began to gather key components for her cocktail. Another violent surge sent her falling into the cabinet, but Ril ignored her scrapes and bruises and stood back up again, determined to make her concoction before the monster swallowed them whole.
"Anything I can do to help?" Hypher shouted to her.
Rill shook her head - she moved over to the island in the centre of the room and laid out her chemicals before grabbing an unbroken beaker. "Grab me a cloth?" she shouted back.
She didn't see the smile that bloomed on her colleague's face, too distracted from pouring the ingredients and hoping that the molotov cocktail would work. She knew everyone realised her intent - no one crowded her as she worked, and she could already predict Isamu's warning before he even issued it.
"Don't light that thing until you're about to throw it," he said and handed her the desired cloth. Rill stuffed it through the top and ran out the door, taking careful measure to hold it out in front of her and instantly dropping to the floor the moment she felt the ship start to sway again. It took her only a minute to return to the deck - the creature had screamed again during this time and she knew more of the ship was breaking, but Smoker didn't lessen his blows until she screamed up to him.
"SMOKER! TAKE THIS!"
She stood near the back of the ship, her arm extended as she held up the molotov cocktail and waited for Smoker to notice her. He did - his hearing was exceptional - and though Rill wasn't sure she could throw very far, she took aim and sent it barreling his way, relieved when he easily caught it with the aid of his smoke. She needn't explain anything to him - he pulled his lighter from his pocket, lit the cloth, and ordered everyone to hit the deck. Rill rolled onto her stomach once more and heard the force of the blast as the chemicals ignited into a powerful blaze. She lifted her head and saw the creature immersed in flame, screaming and thrashing wildly. It's tentacles released the ship and it veered backward, away from them, before submerging into the wild. As quickly as the creature had appeared, it retreated back into the bright blue ocean.
Rill awoke alone in Smoker's bed. She could smell the smoke and ash embedded in his sheets, as well as a familiar, more lively aroma of smoke in the air. When she turned around, she found Smoker. He was sucking back on two fat cigars and wearing only a grey pair of briefs. She swallowed the sight of his rippled abdomen, his long thick arms bulging with muscle and strength. He was watching her too, an expressionless stare on his face as she leaned up on the bed and with rubbed at her sleep-matted eye.
"Good evening, captain," she greeted quietly, after glancing out the window and realising it was dusk.
"Smoker," he corrected her. "I let women who stand naked in my tub call me Smoker."
She smiled then, battling the urge to wince as her face throbbed with pain.
"How long have you been awake?" she asked.
"Twenty minutes give or take," he replied. "You snore when you sleep."
She laughed then. "You should hear my brothers," she remarked before she realised her error. "They sound like a pair of raging beasts!"
"How many brothers?" he asked. She didn't meet his eyes, but she could tell from the casualty of his tone that he suspected nothing.
"Three," she answered honestly. "One died when we were children."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
Rill shrugged. "It was a very long time ago." She could recall what Sabo looked like, how she felt around him, but she could no longer hear his voice in her head.
"Do you have any siblings?" she inquired curiously, desperate to distract herself.
Smoker shook his head. "No. Folks are dead, too. It's just me."
Just him. Smoker, the man who fought sea monsters toe to toe and had no one to call his own. She smiled at him, realising in the last few days alone it had become easier to like him.
"I take it our reinforcements have yet to arrive?"
"In about another hour. We've told them to err on the side of caution. Don't know if that thing is dead or not."
Rill nodded. "That creature shouldn't have noticed us. The seastone should have prevented this attack."
"It didn't react at all to the seastone," Smoker said.
"It's not a Sea King, then," Rill said, and realised this was not the first time she had spoken such words in a matter of days.
"We were on a calm belt, it could've-"
Rill shook her head. "There are a number of varieties of Sea Kings, and I've studied all of them. That wasn't a Sea King, Smoker. I'm sure of it."
Smoker leaned forward in his chair and nodded. Rill couldn't help but smile again at his small gesture of agreement.
"I should probably leave before people start wondering where I am," she murmured. "Thank you for letting me sleep in your bed - it was much more comfortable than the crew bunks."
"I'll be heading out too. If I don't keep an eye on the crew, they're gonna start panicking. I don't have time to correct every idiot's mistake while we're stranded," he said.
He stood up and threw on some pants as she carefully crawled out from under the sheets. Rill suffered a terrible gash to the side of her head that was neatly dressed and stitched thanks to Nora's expert hands. Her head pounded softly then vibrantly then gently again - all in a cycle she could hardly attune to, and Rill noticed how sluggish and weak she felt standing up again. She thought a few hours of rest would negate the worst effects of whatever neurotoxin currently streamed through her, but the attack only aggravated it.
"Take care of yourself," he said to her as she wobbled out of the room. Rill merely waved back at him. She crept through the hallway and threw herself back into the commotion of chatter and busying bodies as everyone tried to stay afloat and wait for their rescue to arrive. The ship was in no condition to get them to Chantara, so Smoker had contacted reinforcements to come down from Iokra to pick up the crew.
She went to the laboratory, their one room that had survived. Their two bunk rooms were scraps of wood and debris now; inside she found all of her professors and Hypher seated around the island.
"Isamu just went looking for you, couldn't find you anywhere," Hypher told her as she plopped down onto a stool.
"Sorry. I only woke up a few minutes ago - I came as soon as I could see straight enough."
"Well, it doesn't appear that you have a concussion, though I'm concerned about your headaches," Dr. Megalodon said.
Rill tried not to meet Hypher's levelled look and failed.
"The nausea is getting better," she lied, and wiped at the small layer of sweat sticking to her forehead.
"Let's hope you're on the mend now, Miss Monkey."
Rill absently corrected him - "it's Miss Rill" - and suddenly remembered what awaited her in Chantara. She glanced over at Hypher, barely paying attention to what the professors were exclaiming until she realised they were trying to get her attention.
"You're certain that it wasn't a Sea King attack?" Isamu cornered her. She could detect the skepticism in his tone let alone his concerned expression.
Rill shook her head. "I'm certain it wasn't any Sea King recorded by mankind," she said.
"There's over six hundred species of Sea Kings, Rill, and many of them have cephalopod characteristics."
"I agree with you," Rill said. "But none of them are immune to the effects of seastone. This beast knew exactly what it was targeting, unlike Sea Kings that would either not notice the ship or have some means of hesitation. And ignoring its behaviour altogether, it's characteristics don't match with any known Sea King."
A part of her withheld the information that was floating near the tip of her tongue. She recognized the absurdity of it without needing to mention it aloud. Her professors appeared doubtful as she spoke, and in a matter of a minute, Rill stopped trying. She didn't have the fight in her today, the energy to prove herself to those who weren't inclined to listen. She turned to Hypher and when his eyes finally met hers, gestured towards the door. The two of them excused their professors and went to Rill's private spot behind the galley.
"Something tells me you have a hunch," Hypher said once they were alone and walking up the stairs.
"I think it was a lesser form of a kraken," she told him bluntly.
His eyes widened. "A kraken hasn't been seen in hundreds of years, Rill."
She didn't disagree with him but merely nodded. "When my brothers and I lived in Foosha Village, my grandfather sent me Archibald's '590 Species and Habitats of Sea Kings Around the Globe'. I read it over and over. It was one of my favourite text books because Luffy absolutely adored the illustrations of Sea Kings. He wanted to fight them all, so he would practice - I would describe their predatory routines and Luffy would battle pretend Sea Kings. I know know them all, Hypher. Every single one."
"Show off," he said.
"Hypher."
He stuck his tongue out at her and shrugged. "So it's not discovered yet, maybe. Possibly." But Hypher didn't sound certain of his resolve.
"A kraken isn't a mythical beast, it's an extinct one. What if past scientists were wrong?" She continued to press.
"Then why has there been no recovery or contact until now?"
"How do you know there hasn't? We all nearly died today. Smoker was incredible, he was so strong dealing blow after blow yet he had such little effect on this monster. I'm telling you, Hypher - it wasn't ordinary. The molotov cocktail worked, it drove it off, but without it I'm certain we would have died."
Hypher was quiet for several minutes as they made the rest of their journey to Rill's secluded spot. They sat on the platform and allowed their legs to hang and swing from the edge of the ship.
"I don't know," he finally managed to piece together. "I don't know, it sounds incredible… I mean, if it's real, you have your doctoral thesis right there. But you're sick, Rill. Your observations don't hold the same weight as, say, me. Or the professors. You have headaches, you can barely walk on your feet, and I know you sleep for a couple hours a night before calling it quits. You're not at your normal capability and as much as I'm here to cheer you on… I don't know if we can trust your word on this."
She watched him closely, struggling to find the words to defend herself, but Hypher's pitying gaze left her cold and silent.
"I think your brain is playing tricks on you right now. Give yourself a few days to heal. Feel better, and then come back to this. There's no rush, Rill. We're not going anywhere."
His words were probably meant to come across as endearing but Rill found him painfully patronizing. She turned away from him to watch the ocean, absently nodding her head if only to end the discussion altogether.
Not even Hypher believed her.
Hey guys, hoped you like it! Again, I apologise for the fact that this - once again - took forever. It's hard to write. I'm still looking for a beta-reader if anyone is interested! I could really use the help. I've also started a new writing tumblr, so if you want to chat you can find me as persephica on tumblr. Writing and One Piece and fanfiction, the trifecta of Good Things.