Fortunately, Black Order had collected enough supplies from the Moving Island before it jumped and disappeared. It was unfortunate that they couldn't hunt any food, but what kind of animal would dare live on the very shell of the giant turtle? There were a few scratches done by the dinosaur turtle (Bookman himself cried for 8 minutes straight before taking a bucketful of tree sap and a wet sponge) but the animal didn't do any permanent damage at the end.
After all the commotion and whatnot, Black Order was up and ready for action. Lavi watched closely as his crew were bustling about, their dinner left unattended for now as more jovial activities (i.e drinking, dancing) took charge on the open deck.
"Lavi?" A small voice whispered from below Lavi.
Lavi jerked back in surprise, but then laughed in happiness as he saw the little merman hanging by the edge with a tired smile. Without thinking of the consequences (as per usual when it came to Captain Lavi), Lavi carried the shock merman up and hugged the living daylights out of him, "Allen! You're alright! Me feared the worst when the wave came out of nowhere n' ye disappeared!"
"I'm fine, Lavi. Please let me down now," Allen gripped Lavi's broad shoulders tightly, afraid that he was to be dropped to solid ground.
"Aye, Cap! Yer should let 'im down before ya drop him like a sack of potatoes!" Komui said, lifting his mug of beer as a greeting to the now-dizzy Allen.
Lavi didn't let go of his best friend, however. Only opted to carry him bridal-style and sat at the ship's railing. A dangerous position, but Lavi relished on danger every day. He stuck out his tongue in childish defiance to his almost drunk First Mate.
"Lavi.. I want to apologize about your encounter with Old Man," Allen said, trying to adjust himself in Lavi's arms, "He wasn't supposed to be in this area at all, you see... And when I asked him why, all he said was something had scared him away from his usual place and he wasn't going to go back there anytime soon because of that,"
Lavi creased his eyebrows, chewing on Allen's explanation, "Something scared him? What kind of thing has the ability to scare such a huge creature like him? A giant squid? Whale shark?"
Allen shook his head, sending little droplets to Lavi's shirt, "squids and other predators know better than to mess with Old Man. And whale sharks are solitude beings. They're grumpy and territorial in nature, but they would never harm another sentient being like Old Man,"
A piping voice entered the conversation, "Yer call the Moving Island as Old Man?! Haha Now I've seen everything!" Reever, the ship chef came with two new mugs, the alcoholic contents threatened to spill out from its containment.
Lavi gently placed Allen on top of the railing beside him, and took the 2 mugs from the woozy chef. Allen sniffed at the mug tentatively before scrunching up his nose in disgust, "you actually enjoy drinking this?"
Lavi smiled as he put one of the mugs onto a passing platter, and he drank from his own mug heartily before stating the obvious, "We're pirates-" before Allen could retaliate, Lavi snapped his fingers, "-Ah yes, that reminds me; I've got a surprise for you. Wait here,"
"Where else can I go?" Allen sighed, emphasizing his pointed question with a flip of his merman tail. Lavi jumped down and ran down the stairs. He came out nearly a half minute later with a treasure chest as large as Noise himself. And that was saying something!
"Erm... Lavi? You know I'm not interested in human gold, right?" Allen twitched his tail curiously; looking at the rusty red chest like it offended him somehow.
The (not drunken half) crew was curious as to why their Captain had carried the whale-ton chest to be presented to the merman. Lavi reveled on the attention and he smiled triumphantly, "Ah, Allen! But this is no simple chest! Feast yer eyes on this!"
Lavi kicked open the chest and inside was water. Filled almost to the brim with it. The crew looked on with a confused look, but Allen himself had already caught on what his best friend was trying to do, "Lavi. I'm no pet. If you think I'll get into that-"
"No! Nonononononono, Allen! Yer words wound me heart!" Lavi mockingly placed his hands at his chest, "It's to help you stay here longer! See, it's sea water!"
Allen begrudgingly allowed Lavi to carry him into the chest. Allen had to admit; it was a relief to breath normally in his home element rather than the dry air. Although the chest was a bit snug, Allen saw that Lavi had padded the insides with some sort of human-made material that stopped his delicate body from getting scratched or injured. Allen let out a sigh of relaxation as he buried comfortably inside the chest that miraculously was as long and big as his own body.
"Yer like it?" Lavi leaned to the side, smiling cockily.
Allen blew bubbles at naughty Lavi, "Yes, yes. But I can't stay for long in this water too. Contained sea water can only give me so much of air before it runs out,"
"ALLEN!" Lenalee came out of nowhere and hugged the merman, "Thank you for saving me, you cute cuddly thing!"
Allen flailed his hands as Lenalee's body nearly fall into the water, "Y-you're welcome, Lenalee. Please be careful, you're going to fall,"
Lenalee stood by at Lavi's side as the two watched Allen turn on his side and splash around to get a better feel of his new container. Allen stretched and realized that the chest can only hold only 3 quarters of his tail. The caudal fun flapped at the empty air, but Allen wasn't too worried about that. "Ah, Lenalee! I forgot; here-" Allen took out a diamond necklace out of nowhere, "-I believe this belongs to you,"
"My necklace!" Lenalee gasped in awe, and thanked the merman profusely.
By then, the Black Order crew was curious of Allen and came closer to take a sneak peek at the merman. Miranda tried to touch Allen's tempting tail, but Allen flinched away quickly as if the medic's hands were made out of molten lava.
"Sorry, but merfolk's tails are very sensitive to touch," Allen apologized humbly, trying to tuck in his large tail.
"So how come Lavi gets to touch it?" Lenalee pointed out, drinking from her mug with a knowing look.
"T-that's because Lavi is different. He's my best friend!" Allen stuttered, his face gone as red as a tropical flowerfish.
Allen wasn't the only one with a blushing face. Lavi looked away and he pulled his signature headband downwards as an effort to hide his growing red face, "T-Thanks, Allen. You're mine too," The two didn't make we contact with anyone for a while, the solid ground below them suddenly became their sole attention.
Gods, can they get any cuter?! Lenalee screamed inside her head. The possessive statement wasn't ignored by the crew, and they laughed away the night at the shy duo.
That was how it went for many days.
Since Allen was an honorary crew member, Allen had no need to sneak around during the evenings. So, Allen came by at random hours during the late afternoon just to kill time. Sometimes, Allen came bearing large fish or hard-pressurized jewels as gifts. In his comfortable chest, he would spend his time watching the crew doing their usual pirate-ty business. He would learn about human culture and the land walkers, about how plants grow differently on solid soil and where land walkers would sell or buy materials for daily living. But most of the time, Allen was taught new words such as "Scavengerprat" or "syphilitic puppy killin' slimey bastitch" and the crew insisted that the innocent merman use those words on the Captain himself. Needless to say, the crew had a torturous time scraping barnacles from the bottom of the ship for a week without breakfast.
Ah, but after all that jazz and laughter, the crew instinctively knew that night time was 'Allen and Lavi' time. After dinner, the crew would either pack up and sleep in their hammock or spend the night drinking and dancing to Lenalee's tunes.
But their Captain wouldn't join them. Not while Allen was on board. The two would hole up in their normal dark corner just as they had did before all the secrecy and they would talk in whispers like they were afraid of getting caught. Lavi sat next to the chest with his arms holding his head, talking softly to an equally soft merman until his arms and mouth could bear no more. It was their time, their moment; the crew knew better than to disturb the duo. (Not unless they wanted to go without food for days and wake up tied upside down by their big toes as shark bait)
"-and that's how we find our way around the ocean," Lavi waved a dramatic hand over the night sky that was painted black and splattered with white stars and shadowy clouds.
Allen looked upwards following Lavi's hand, "doesn't the Moon scare you? Bookman says that you humans believe that if you stare at the Moon too long, your soul will get captured,"
Lavi chuckled at his best friend's naivety and ran his fingers in Allen's wet hair, "T'is true there. There're lots of stories about the evil moon and wicked nights... But I for one don't believe in all these stuff," Lavi smiled happily, "I think the moon is wonderful! And beautiful!"
Allen looked as if Lavi had just offered him the moon itself. The merman's smile was so bright; Lavi thought that the very stars should be jealous of it! The tail wagged gleefully while the chest water swirled at the fast movements.
Suddenly, the ship shook from side to side. Massive waves splashed onto the ship's open deck and cries of shock were heard. The ship rocked again, causing some barrels to fall and the cannons to groan in their places.
The wave knocked the wind out of Black Order so hard, it made Allen's chest to topple over and splurge the sea water all over the wet deck. Allen's body trembled at the sudden loss of water and before he knew what had happened to him, thin water whips came out from the sea and curled around his waist.
"LAVI!" Allen cried, trying to separate himself from the whips. But they were too strong! Within moments, Allen felt himself being lifted up into the air and departed into the gaping ocean below.
"ALLEEEEEN!" Lavi cursed, shouting for everyone to hear the cry of pain.
Oh look, another cliffhanger!
Haha I'm so evil, but hey, it what makes the story more interesting, neh? I mean, Lavi has to work hard for his lovely relationship with our cute Allen ^^ I read all your comments first thing in the morning, so your words really made my day a lot! Love them, treasure them like precious jewels they are! Here, I shall quote Tony Stark on this: "You complete me!" (psst, I'm a Superhusbands shipper hehe)
"syphilitic puppy killin' slimey bastitch" is given to me by the awesome serialsushi *throws confetti* I have no idea where you came up with this curse, but I can imagine adorable Allen cursing like that hahaha