Leaning his elbows onto the counter behind him in the small, stuffy, ground floor office, Law observed the walls around him with mild interest. There were large, tattered pin-boards hung up on each, filled with equally tatty looking bounty posters. So many of them in fact that there were dozens leaking off of the boards and onto the faded, blue paint of the room, making him wonder why they bothered with the pretence of using them to begin with if they were just going to pin posters onto the walls directly anyway.
Some had been up for a considerable length of time, the edges yellowed and torn and he assumed that many of the people depicted in them had already been caught or killed, judging by the large black and red 'X' pen marks across the faces. Though why they simply wouldn't remove them instead he didn't know; it was obvious they needed the wall space. Maybe they were kept up in triumph, as reminders or trophies.
Some of the posters however were crisp, white and freshly printed, partially obscuring the older ones that lay beneath, his own bounty poster being one of them. He smiled smugly at his own printed photo hanging front and centre amongst the other supernovas that had recently visited Sabaody, confident that no one would be taking a marker to it anytime soon.
"Hey Captain, this guy is saying they have no 'Nayla' on record." His crewmate called his attention back, referring to the heavily sweating bounty hunter behind the counter.
Law looked over his shoulder at the records and papers practically exploding out of the cabinets lining the wall behind the man, then back to him. "I suggest you look a little harder, Bounty Hunter-ya. I'd also like any information you have on any known female mercenaries for hire, regardless of name, age or alias."
"B-But I'm telling you we don't deal with mercenaries and there's no entry in the-"
"Look. Harder." The man gulped at the stone-cold tone of Law's voice and hurriedly returned to the cabinets behind him, desperately hoping he could produce something that would allow him to keep his limbs where they were. Though he didn't want to give up information on any fellow hunters, he'd be damned if he'd throw himself at Trafalgar Law, a polar bear and three Heart Pirates by himself to protect some woman he didn't even know.
Although Law didn't doubt what she had said last night, he was still a little bit sceptical about her name. Either way, if it was an alias then it was still possible she had handed in at least some bounties with it over the past few years. Bounty hunters had a notoriously good network of communication amongst each other, mediated by information outposts like this one. They were set up across hunting hotspots throughout the Grand Line to fulfil their need to spread new bounty information and relay freshly caught targets so as not to have people wasting their time hunting prey that had already been taken care of.
Nayla had made it clear to him last night that she wasn't willing to give up some of the information he wanted and it had been an inappropriate time and place to press her for it, but he had every intention of doing so alone that evening. About her odd tattoo, her strange blood work and about her relationship to Joker. There wasn't much time left for this coy game. The war was starting today and he would need to refocus on his own plans, not chasing down his own personal curiosities. Hopefully he'd find her connections to Doflamingo worth exploiting for his own gain and then she, and her oddities, could simply tie in neatly to his own main objectives. Law couldn't help the small grin that spread on his face at the thought.
It hadn't actually been his intention to dig into any bounty hunting she may have done in the past, there were hundreds if not thousands of female hunters and the chances of finding anything significant about her here, when she had already described it as not being her main profession, were slim. They had simply happened across this outpost on their way and he decided they may as well drop by for a quick 'enquiry.'
It had been his intention to try to look into which countries were currently experiencing a civil war instead, ones that recently had mercenaries called in. It had been her most recent job and female mercenaries were a far rarer breed, he should be able to narrow down on helpful information more quickly taking that route.
Tuning out the nervous fumbling of the panicked man behind him as his crewmembers yelled at him to hurry up, Law rest his head back to look at the ceiling and closed his eyes tiredly, the lack of sleep he had gotten last night due to his mind racing endlessly with all the possibilities that could come of this if he played his cards right.
The lively sounds of the street outside had Law blink his eyes open again and look out of the building through its open doorway at the crowds of people walking past. He scanned through the happy faces of citizens and the cocky grins of lesser pirates as they passed by. There was nothing of interest to focus on until his eyes stopped on the slip of glossy, bronze skin on toned legs that appeared and reappeared as people passed them by. Dragging his gaze up them in disbelief, he confirmed the familiar red tartan mini skirt, the same black tank top he had first seen her in and the same weapons on her hip. Law watched Nayla across the street look at the hotel in front of her for a moment before deciding to move on, deducing that she was most likely considering a prompt relocation even after he had warned her not to do so last night.
He was right; she really did have bad luck at evading him it would seem. Chuckling to himself, he watched her walk out of view of the open doorway, though his laughter was stopped short as he watched the men who were trailing not far behind her, with unsavoury intentions no doubt.
It would seem that what the swordsman had said about her outside the auction house had also been right; she really did seem to attract trouble. Sighing heavily, he pushed off of the counter and made his way to the door. The crewmembers that had been keenly following his gaze out of the doorway to see what had caught their captain's humour watched him as he started to take his leave.
"Uh, Captain?" Bepo called after him.
"I'll meet you at the public square when you're done here." Was all he said as he stepped back outside into the sunshine, slinging his nodachi into place on his shoulder and leaving them to wonder what he was up to.
Nayla had been up and down every dock of the archipelago all day with no success; everything was at a standstill. No ships were moving except for the privately owned, emergency or naval ones. The admiral's visit coupled by the execution today had people on edge, too worried about the proximity of these waters to Marineford and the swarm of pirate ships said to be in the area for the upcoming war.
She had already intended on spending today searching for her means of transportation but there was now a sense of urgency built up behind it. The image of that sinister look on Trafalgar Law's face as he had bid his cryptic farewell to her last night replaying in her mind.
Gritting her teeth in annoyance, she trudged on in defeat. She had checked every district, even the lawless ones, even the marine ones - though she hadn't wanted to approach them in particular. What good was being on a marine ship in waters chock-full of Whitebeard-supporting pirates? But she had figured her chances of survival out there may be better than her chances with whatever it was Law seemed to have in mind for her. He had reacted strangely to the mention of her former employer and had asked about her tattoo last night, she needed to get out of there fast.
The marines had wanted to help her, they really did. She had sold the terrified-helpless-woman-being-stalked-by-a-psycho-pirate act beautifully. It hadn't really been difficult, it was pretty much true, but they simply had no ships to spare; full demand of their forces was required at Marineford today.
Refocusing on the road in front of her as she glimpsed the unusual, native architecture up ahead, Nayla gazed at the buildings in awe of the amazing bubble-structured hotels in the area. They were beautiful and very inviting, she'd never seen anything like them before. Although she had grown quite fond of Baez's treatment of her, if she was going to be stuck on Sabaody for a while then maybe it would be wise to pack up her things and try one of these hotels, find a new place to stay. 'Again,' she thought bitterly, pinching the bridge of her nose in irritation, not knowing whether to credit the oncoming headache to her pirate problem, travel situation or recovering head injury.
Freezing in horror as she felt an all too recognizable tug; she barely had a second to remove her hand from her face to glance down at her weapon for confirmation before she had made an abrupt and unintended turn to her right to slam into a warm, bare, chuckling mass of muscle.
"Well well, look who it is! We really should stop meeting like this." She craned her head up to look into the wild, amber eyes of Eustass Kid as he leant down, lecherous grin in place.
Wincing at the jolt of pain across her scalp she opened her mouth for a retort but was interrupted by the sight of a familiar, long, black sheath entering her vision and wedging itself between her chest and his before it literally pried her from him. She felt a hand tangle itself in her hair at the back of her head as she was turned around and pulled face first into an even more familiar hoodie, her annoyed frown at her manhandling meeting the sneering smiley.
"Agreed, you really should stop meeting like this, Eustass-ya." Law lifted her locks out of the way to reveal the metallic staples, silencing the angry comeback on the tip of the other captain's tongue as he looked at them and halted his magnetism immediately.
"Whoa, what happened to the chick? That's a nasty gash." He leant forward to look at it more closely before Law abruptly allowed her hair to fall back into place over it.
"Nothing that concerns you." He curtly replied, smirking at the other man's perturbed scowl at his action.
Having given up trying to push her face away from Law's chest against the grip he had on the back of her head, Nayla sighed into the fabric of his hoodie and let her arms fall limply to her sides. 'Cannot. Believe. I'm being used as a prop. In a territoral pissing match. Between fucking. Pirates.'
"Oi, Trafalgar, don't make the mistake of thinking we're on good terms just because we fought together a few ti-" Seeing that this would soon become an unproductive and prolonged squabble, Killer tapped him on the shoulder from behind.
"Captain, we need to get going, it'll start soon." Reluctantly nodding in understanding at him, Kid levelled a glare at Law one last time before continuing his way down the street.
"Watch that attitude of yours, Trafalgar. I'm guessing I'll see you where I'm headed." Taking his leave, he tossed a hand back in a lazy gesture of dismissal over his shoulder.
"Most likely...Gropey Goth Pirate-ya." Kid looked back over his shoulder in confusion before narrowing his eyes at Law only turning his attention back to the road in front of him when Killer placed a hand on his shoulder to settle him down.
"Mou meammy mare mm maphffer." The quiet, muffled speech against his chest brought Law's focus back to the woman he was currently smothering against it, releasing the hand on the back of her head to allow her to pull away.
Taking a deep breath of relief, she shot him a venomous death glare...which would have been difficult for him to take seriously on any given day but considering her pout, tussled hair and flushed cheeks it had made it even less possible.
"What was that Nayla-ya?" The laughter evident in his voice.
"You really are a fucking stalker!" She bit back angrily, trying to smooth out the hair he had just thoroughly messed up and ignoring the people on the street that had turned to look at them as she yelled.
"Now now, there was no need to add in the potty mouth." Stopping the hand in her hair, she narrowed her eyes at him as she realised he had understood her perfectly well the first time if he was mock-scolding her for her language the second.
Chuckling at her expression, he replaced his nodachi to his shoulder, inwardly confirming that her hair was as soft as it looked and needing to put a conscious effort into halting thoughts of what other circumstances he might enjoy grabbing a handful of it from behind from crossing his mind.
"Actually Nayla-ya, had you been paying more attention to your surroundings, as an injured young woman by herself in a dangerous area should-" He raised a brow pointedly at her. "-then you would have noticed that every pirate on the archipelago is going this way." Looking around at his prompt, she belatedly realised that he was right; the streets were full of shady, strong-looking pirates all heading in the same direction Eustass had gone in. She'd been so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she hadn't been paying enough attention to notice.
"Careful, that almost sounded like you cared." She bitterly remarked, more annoyed at her own obliviousness than at him, as he placed his hand back into his pocket, smiling at her lazily as she spoke again. "...Why is everyone headed that way?"
"They're going to broadcast the execution today in the public square of the district next to this one." He tilted his head back slightly to assess the look of disgust on her face from under the brim of his hat more closely. "I take it you're not going?"
"Of course not. Why would anyone purposely broadcast someone's death like that, sick...and why would you want to watch it?"
"I don't. I'm more interested in watching the war. Its participants, its survivors and its outcome will be important for me and my crew."
Reluctantly admitting his sensibility and admirable diligence in keeping his crew one step ahead and safe, she took in his neutral, relaxed posture. She had always thought pirates to be more carefree and reckless overall but Law appeared to be a smart, calculating man under the guise of a laid-back, arrogant one.
Her quiet admiration of him was soon halted as Law closed the space between them in a short step. He had expected her to back away and having to hold her in place but was mildly impressed when she didn't. Although his proximity obviously made her a little anxious she stood her ground, clearly wary of his intentions but maintaining his eye contact with defiance.
Law leant his face in closely to hers with a small smile, speaking lowly in his dulcet tone. "Were you planning on going somewhere, Nayla-ya?"
"None of your damn business." She hissed, refusing to allow his intimidation. Wondering how long he had been watching her, she immediately crossed off the possibility of staying at the hotel she had just looked at a few minutes ago in her head and wondered how else she could find a way off of Sabaody.
Seeming to enjoy the flare in her temper, his smile grew a little, ignoring what she said as he responded to what she had really been thinking in that moment instead. "It'll be difficult to do, the waters around here will be dangerous for some time. Unless you can find a private vessel with a strong crew on board you'll be enjoying this archipelago for a while yet."
Law knew she would see his unsubtle hint but it didn't matter, the idea being planted in her head of him being able to provide her a way off the island was all he needed for now. If things unravelled as he wanted them, she would come to him willingly and he would by then have the option to accept or decline based on the information he found out about her.
Satisfied with the look of deliberation on her face, he turned to leave. "I'll be sure to give my crew your regards." He gave her one last sly grin over his shoulder before walking in the same direction Eustass had gone in not long ago.
Growing more and more irritated as she watched his casual saunter away, she peeled her annoyed glare from his back, deciding to return to the inn and practically stomping on her way. 'That guy really has some nerve...kinda glad I didn't get my staples embedded into my skull though.' Nayla found herself feeling reluctant gratefulness, yet again, towards the man as it dawned on her that he had just openly confronted Eustass and his crew alone on her behalf. Was he confident they wouldn't attack or confident that he could handle all of them?
Making sure to pay more attention as she should have been doing in her current condition to begin with, Nayla noticed that besides the peculiar looking pirate crews, excitedly chatting citizens and even their children were all heading towards the public square to watch people die. She could feel her face contorting into a look of revulsion as she took in their laughter and practical glee as they moved past her. Despite her occupation, she lamented the fact that people have viewed the death and suffering of others as entertainment for as long as humanity has even existed, the only thing that has ever changed about that was the format of it. 'Vile.'
Mind wandering back to the scent of detergent from Law's hoodie, she realised then that it was the same as the top she was currently wearing, so he had in fact had it washed for her. Although she wanted the thought to just stop at unwillingly acknowledging his considerate gesture, it easily sped straight past that and into how she could smell the faint scent of his body wash through the fibres of his top from that close and how firm and warm his chest underneath it had felt. She had been right in assuming he was nothing but lean physique under there, the edges of his defined muscles had been easy to feel against her cheeks when he had pressed her against him.
Finding herself rubbing her forehead in frustration at her own traitorous thoughts, she wondered if the action might massage the unwanted ones away. 'Dammit, why are all the hot ones crazy or gay?'
Nayla sighed tiredly, she had pushed herself a bit today. Having done so much walking, she was starting to feel her headache and fatigue return full force, especially under the relentless sunlight of the afternoon. Deciding that some more pain medication, fresh, fragrant sheets, warm, soft blankets, forgetting her troubles and napping to her heart's content to wake up refreshed and tranquil in time for a delicious dinner sounded like exactly what she needed right now to calm her irked nerves.
...
It really was a shame that no more than an hour later she was jolted out of a dead sleep by the heavy thumping on her bedroom door.
Groaning, she rolled over, trying to hold onto the soothing remnants of her sleepiness so that she could resume her peaceful nap. Knowing that none of the waitresses from downstairs had fists that could produce such a heavy sound, Nayla assumed that it was probably Baez making sure she was ok. Surprisingly, the guy was actually quite a big softy and had taken to checking in on her once in a while if things were quiet downstairs, concerned that she was staying alone in a room with no one else to do so when she had recently suffered a bad head injury.
"I'm still alive Baez, don't worry." She called, expecting to hear his usual chuckle as he walked back down the hallway to resume his duties downstairs. Instead she just heard another persistent knock on the door; sitting up slightly, she narrowed her eyes at it as if the wood might heed her warning to shut the fuck up.
"Um, Nayla-chan? It's me, Penguin...From last night?" Her irritation settled somewhat as she thought about how unnecessary it was for him to have felt the need to add the last part of that sentence - as if meeting a guy called 'Penguin' was easily forgotten or that she knew more than one man with that name.
Sighing and tossing her blanket aside, she quickly wiped the smudges of her eye make-up from the corner of her eyes as she passed the mirror to the front door. Too sleepy to spend the energy to contemplate what the man may want with her, she opened it, happy for him to do all the work and simply tell her.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Were you asleep?" The pirate took in her dishevelled clothing and sleepy eyes, absent-mindedly wondering if she only owned miniskirts as he took in her attire.
"It's ok, Penguin." She yawned looking up at him. How far back she had to crane her neck to do so brought his attention to how she was even tinnier than usual without her boots on.
"Ah, well, Captain sent me." Nayla leant against the doorway, figuring as much already and crossing her arms patiently, waiting for him to continue. "We're leaving right now, he said you'd probably want to come. We're going to go see Straw Hat."