A/N: Insert usual disclaimer, save for any OCs and original plot.
Ally: Brownie points and cookies to any who can find the fandom reference and what the reference is to! Anyways, please enjoy this chapter! Onward my readers!
Inside the kitchen, following the conversation between Trafalgar Law, Captain of the Heart Pirates, and the cook of the crew, Hartebeest Marshal, Marshal started working on cleaning the dishes used at lunch after all but a few of the crew members had left the mess hall.
"Hey, Marshal, why are you so sure Rum'll stay on the sub?" Vlad asked, leaning against the counter.
"She's got the determination and the guts to defy the captain, and to keep trying until she succeeds." Marshal said, shrugging.
"So, basically, she's insane?" Shachi joked.
"That's certainly one way to look at it, Shachi." Marshal laughed. "Do you guys not want her to be a part of this crew?"
"We do, it's just..." Penguin started.
"...we can't exactly go against the Captain's orders without making him mad," Shachi finished for him.
"It's so fucking weird how you guys do that," Vlad muttered, eyeing the two of them, causing both of them to shrug at each other.
"I understand that one," Marshal replied, wiping his hands off on his pants and turning around to face the three of them.
"Anyway, it's also pretty weird that there is someone so willing to go against the Captain like she is, not to mention actually enjoys the thrill of doing it," Vlad said.
"It's sort of refreshing though, to see someone go against him. To be able to push his buttons, it's something that doesn't happen too often," Marshal said. "Plus, I wouldn't mind the help in the kitchen. She was a lot of help before, and she'd be a lot of help now."
"I'd like her to stay on. Plus she's pretty," Penguin said, swooning.
"She's rather interesting to talk to, as well," Vlad added.
"That she is," Marshal said, nodding in agreement.
"It's really too bad there's nothing we can do to help her without going against the Captain's orders," said Shachi as he sighed.
"She's going to sneak back on after we stop at the next island, isn't she?" Vlad asked, looking at Marshal, who seemed to know her a bit better than anyone else out of the crew.
"That seems to be her intention, so I wouldn't doubt it for one minute," Marshal said. "So...I'd like to propose something to the three of you."
"And what exactly would that be?" Shachi asked at the same time Penguin asked, "What is it?"
"Is it going to go against the Captain's orders about Rum?" Vlad asked cautiously.
"Um, not exactly..." Marshal said, rubbing the back of his head.
"And what do you mean by that?" Vlad followed up.
"What's this plan of yours?" Shachi was curious to know.
Marshal then walked over to the counter and leaned out, checking to make sure everyone was gone. After confirming no one was there, he turned back around. He looked at the three of them once again.
"Well, I was thinking that if—and only if—" Shachi let out a snort, making Marshal sent a look his way. "—Rum snuck back on to the ship we help her, in any way we can. Food, hiding places. Making sure she can stay as safe and as far away from the Captain for the most part. I think the Captain will catch on eventually, since he's a smart man, but it may not be right away that he'll find out. But that's only if you three are willing to help me, though," Marshal finished, looking at them each individually in the eyes.
"...Gee, what's the worst that can happen?" Vlad wondered with a hint of sarcasm.
"Captain may use us as guinea pigs for one of his experiments, at the very least," Shachi said rather nonchalantly.
"Yeah, or he may make us die a slow and painful death...or take our heads away..." Penguin added.
"...Well, let's hope he doesn't figure it out for a while, or, you know, doesn't figure out that we helped her out at all," Vlad gave in.
"Wait, you're willing to help, Vlad?!" Shachi exclaimed, turning to face him.
"Yes. She'd be a good addition to the crew. Trust me, if I didn't think she'd be worth it, I wouldn't risk my life to help her. Wouldn't you like her to join us, too?" answered Vlad.
"Well, yeah, of course… I think we all would..." Penguin muttered after Shachi didn't reply immediately.
"What's life without a little risk?" Vlad questioned with a smirk.
"Well... I guess I'm in, too," Penguin said.
"If Penguin's in, I better help too," Shachi decided after some more contemplation.
"Alright, but once again, this is only if she sneaks back on, agreed?" Marshal confirmed with each of them, his eyes traveling over them one by one.
"Which she will, obviously," Vlad said.
"Let's hope the Captain doesn't find out about our plan to help her," said Penguin, sighing.
"Are we going to try and get anyone else involved in this scheme?" Shachi inquired.
" Maybe, but we should be cautious about who we bring in. Whoever we get involved with this would have to want Rum in the crew as much as we do. If any of you run into Rum, send her my way," Marshal said.
"Sure. She's probably wandered down to the engine room by now, so we can start searching there," Shachi said.
"Why would she be down there?" Vlad asked.
"That's where she was hiding out in the first place," Shachi explained. "She fell out and hit her head, which scared Penguin and I pretty badly. And then the thing happened."
"The thing?" Marshal asked, looking between Shachi and Penguin.
"It's how the Captain knows she's still on the ship. She went back into said hiding spot, and...well, fell out of it for a second time, but in front of him this time. That entire situation was fucked up and weird," Penguin explained.
"So what was the thing in the end?" Vlad asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Let's not talk about the thing, or even think about the thing," Shachi said, a small shudder going down his body.
"I agree with Shachi," Penguin said quietly.
"Alright then," Vlad said, eyeing the two engineers. "Anyway, I'm going to go try and get some sleep before I have to do any actual work. I'll talk to you guys later." After walking over to the exit, he took a left down the hall.
"I'm going to back to the engine room," Shachi said, looking at Penguin.
"I'll come along too. We'll talk to you later, Marshal," Penguin said.
"Alright, I'll talk to you guys later," Marshal said, watching them walk out of the kitchen area and head in the the same direction that Vlad had gone.
Rum POV
I let out a small sigh.
"I may get myself killed one of these days..." I muttered to myself. Sitting down against the wall, I started really looking around the engine room. I couldn't see very much from here, so I stood up and started wandering around the room. My eyes looking for the area that would hold the all tools used to repair the ship. My eyes landed on a mess of a table with little organization, but it soon became obvious that it was the table that held the tools needed to maintain a ship; especially a ship with an engine like this one. I started to grin as I walked over to the table.
"Hmm. If I was a screwdriver, where would I be?" I hummed to myself as I started shifting tools around, keeping my eyes open for a screwdriver.
"Ah ha!" I exclaimed, finding a small pile of screwdrivers of all sizes. My grin grew bigger as I counted at least a dozen screwdrivers. I started looking for a Phillips screwdriver. I found one rather quickly, identifiable by its blue handle. I tucked it away into the waistband of my shorts, thankful that my shirt covered the top half of my shorts, keeping it concealed.
I doubt they'll notice it missing for a while. Or even at all, considering just how many they had, I thought.
I walked back over to the wall and slid down to get into a sitting position. I let my head hit the wall with a small thud. I let out a sigh.
I was never good with people. Saké was always better than me. But...I could do this. I had to. For the sake of my life, for the main part. How to do it without pissing Law off too bad was the other part. I'd rather not die a slow and painful death at his hands.
"I've got this. I can...Gods, what am I trying to do," I moaned, burying my head into my hands.
"Are you talking to yourself, Rum?"
My head snapped up and my eyes fell onto Penguin and Shachi.
"Yeah, just a little bit," I said, holding my hand up with my forefinger and thumb about an inch apart to show approximately how much I'd been keeping only myself company.
"Isn't that a sign of insanity?" Shachi asked me.
"Maybe it would be, but only if I responded to myself," I said with a grin, making the two of them look at me with matching, rather exasperated expressions. It made me giggle a bit.
"...So, on a scale of one to ten, how mad and/or annoyed do you think TraLa is?"
I was looking at them through the corner of my eye to see how they would react to me calling their Captain "TraLa," and I've got to say, it was pretty priceless. I kept my expression as neutral as possible about it, though.
"T-Tra TraLa?!" Penguin stuttered out.
"Please do not ever call the Captain that ever again, and never, ever call him that to his face. And for doing what you did, I would say around a high twelve," Shachi warned me.
"Aaaah, why shouldn't I call him that?" I whined.
"He would more than likely kill you. How he'd decide on doing it, I wouldn't even want to begin to guess about," said Penguin.
"You guys are no fun." I pouted.
"It's a good thing, too! We don't want the Captain to kill you!" Penguin said rather loudly.
"Aaaah, ain't that sweet of you!" I said with a grin, patting his cheeks even though only the lower half of his face was visible. I may not have been able to see the upper half of his face, but if I could've, I'm pretty sure there would have been a pretty visible eye twitch going on there.
"You have to be insane. Completely and utterly insane," Shachi said, shaking his head with some tone of amazement in his voice. I think it was more of a horror-related amazement though.
"Insane is a rather harsh term to use," I said as I giggled. Both of the boys let out a groan.
"Why don't you go see Marshal!" Penguin said a little loudly.
"Yes, yes, go bug him instead," Shachi agreed, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the door.
"Do you guys not want to enjoy more of my company?" I asked, letting Shachi pull me towards the door.
"Oh, no, we enjoy your company. But Marshal mentioned something about wanting to talk you," he said. He stopped pulling me after we reached the door.
"Yeah, he did! Now why don't you two go swap recipes or something?" Penguin suggested, pushing me out of the engine room.
"Alright, alright...I get the hint," I mumbled, looking at the closed door behind me. I turned and walked away from the engine room, heading towards the flight of stairs that would take me up to the deck with the mess hall and kitchen.
At the very least, I'm pretty sure I managed to push their buttons by calling Law but that horrible nickname, I thought as I climbed the stairs. I headed directly for the mess hall, since it was rather close to the stairs. I finally walked into the mess hall and looked around, but I didn't see Marshal.
"Marshal?" I called out. "You here?"
Then I saw Marshal stick his head out of the kitchen area.
"Hey, Rum, glad to see Penguin and Shachi sent you!" He grinned.
"Yeah, they did. They also mentioned something about trading recipes," I said, shaking my head with a smile.
"Really?" He grinned again.
"Yeah, but I'm not too fond of trading recipes, though. I guess, though, since you actually know how to cook, I'd be willing to trade a few of my recipes with you," I said, walking over to one of the tables and sitting down. Marshal walked out of the kitchen. I motioned to the seat across from me. "Care to join me?"
"Sure, why not? I'm honored you'd be willing to share with me," he said while sitting down across from me. We had a small staring contest, just holding each other's eyes.
Breaking the silence, Marshal finally spoke. "I don't think it's come up, and I don't think I've asked you this yet, but why are you so determined to join the Heart Pirates?" he asked me.
"I hadn't really given much thought to it before. I mean, I'm assuming you meant outside of the fact I could annoy Law?"
"Yes, outside of being able to annoy Law." He smiled.
I hummed, thinking over what he had asked.
"I guess it's because it's a major unknown for me. Not knowing what'll happen. The whole 'not knowing,' for once, what my fate is. Exploring and having adventures," I answered.
"You could have joined another crew. Or you could have started a crew with your sister. You had other options, so why choose this crew?" he questioned, readjusting himself.
"I don't want to be a leader, and I certainly don't want to work under my sister. I may not act like it, especially not in front of Law, but I do have a lot of respect for him. I would have no problem working under him at all. That's not something I would say lightly, either. There aren't many people who've impressed me to the point I'd be willing to work under them," I said looking over his shoulder at the wall.
"So that was it, after all? Why aren't you willing to work under others?" he further interrogated me.
"Apparently, I have authority issues," I replied with a shrug, a smirk tugging at my face.
"Why am I not surprised by that?" He chuckled. "So you must see something in the Captain if you're willing to forgo your authority issues for him. What is it that you see?"
"Yeah, I do. But it isn't just what I see him, but I what I see in the others of this crew, as well. I see the respect that you and the others have for him. It's the good kind of respect, and that's kind of hard to see and find."
"There are different kinds of respect?"
"Oh, sure there are. There's usually some sort of respect that goes hand-in-hand with most emotions. Except for distrust and obviously disrespect, of course. Emotions and respect often go together," I explained. "Respect is usually easy to see."
"You've put some thought into this whole respect thing, haven't you?" he murmured, mulling over what I'd just said himself.
"Oh, you have no idea. Respect is a fickle thing, my friend," I said.
"You are one interesting person, Rum," he said, shaking his head with a grin.
"I get that a lot. But thank you, I do try my best." I grinned back.
And with that, we fell into a comfortable silence.
"I just realized something. No one on this crew really knows anything about you. Outside of your name and who your sister is, at least," he said, breaking the silence again.
"Well, no one has ever asked me anything about myself," I said, shrugging.
"Really?" he asked, sounding rather surprised.
"Yeah. I mean, I may not give some information up, but I will answer questions if I'm ever asked any," I said.
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen. How old are you?" I asked back.
"Thirty-seven. When's your birthday?" He asked.
"October thirty-first. When's yours?" I asked in return.
"July twenty-sixth. Favorite food?" He asked.
"Spaghetti. What's yours?" I replied.
"Waffles," he said, which caused me to crack up.
"What's so funny about that?" he demanded, sounding kind of insulted.
"I always thought it'd be some kind of meat! I mean, have you seen yourself?" I exclaimed, laughing. He was a rather tall and bulky guy, after all.
"Nothing can top waffles, lady, nothing at all," he retorted moodily.
"Gee, I dunno, I always thought french toast was the best," I taunted, trying to draw out a reaction
"Pfffft, as if," he said, looking at me amusedly.
Eh. "Are you the oldest on the crew?" I asked, continuing the question exchange.
"Yeah, I am. The youngest on the crew would be Jonah."
"How old is he?" I asked.
"He's eighteen. If we counted just people on the ship and not the crew, you'd take that position from him," Marshal replied
"What does he do on the ship?" I asked.
"He helps Bepo with the navigation," he informed me.
"So that's what Bepo does!" I said with amazement.
"Yeah, you didn't know that?" he asked confusedly.
"No, not at all! I mean, I kinda figured he did something else other than being the first mate. I just didn't know what. And I was too lazy to ask, to be honest." That got a chuckle out of him.
"What about your parents?" he asked. I hesitated and frowned at the question. Marshal tried to retract his question, saying, "You don't have to answer if you don't—"
"It's not that big of a deal," I said, sighing. "It's just...I don't really know or remember them. Hell, I don't even know if they're dead or alive. I have some memories, but they're faint. Saké remembers more about them than I do. And on top of that, even if theywere alive, I have no idea where to even begin looking for them."
"Seems like a rather bad hand was dealt to you," he commented.
"I have to make the best with what I have. And I have done that so far. What about your parents?" I asked.
"My mom's alive and kicking, but my dad died a few years back," he explained to me.
"I see." I breathed out. I let out a yawn soon after that. "Boy, is this day catching up to me, or what?"
"Why don't you head to bed? It's getting late," Marshal suggested.
"Yeah, I'm going to do that. Can we leave this conversation between us?" I asked.
"I can do that. Now go to bed," he said.
"Aye, sir," I said with a small salute, getting up from the table and walking out the door. "Night, Marsh," I called over my shoulder.
"Night, kiddo. See you tomorrow," he replied.
I let my feet carry me from the the mess hall towards the room that I stayed at when I first boarded the ship. Once I reached the door, I opened it and walked towards the bed. I pulled the screwdriver out of my shorts and grinned.
"It could always be more sonic," I mumbled and slid it under the pillow on the bed, then fell on top of the covers and slowly drifted off, my last thoughts being I should get my things from the engine room tomorrow.
So I'm not sure when Saké's next chapter will be done, I forgot to have Myki start it when I was over at her house last but I am going to try and get back over soon and pester the hell out of her to get it done.
Please read and review!
Also as always an amazing shout out to out beta Mon Esprit Libre!