"Seriously?! He's ok?!" Nayla suddenly felt beyond wide awake.

Penguin grinned at her evident excitement. "Yeah, we just saw him on that broadcast they're doing in the public square. He's at the war." Her face fell a bit at that. "Sorry to hurry you Nayla-chan but we're in a rush, we're going to Marineford immediately. Do you want to come with?"

Thinking about it seriously for a moment, she honestly didn't want to go. The war had nothing to do with her and she had no interest in it. She just wanted to speak to Luffy, see that he was alright and to ask about the others before leaving the Grand Line altogether at her nearest opportunity.

Getting on board a pirate ship with men she barely knew and heading into a violent battle was pretty low on her list of things she wanted to do right then. Nayla also couldn't help but be suspicious of the sudden offer because of Law's earlier hint about hitching a ride with them and because of his behaviour last night...Was this just a trick of some kind? Why would Luffy even really be there?...No, Law would have dropped his hint and let her squirm over it for longer than just over an hour, he seemed pretty sadistic, so he probably wasn't making the Luffy part up...

"Wait, why are you guys going to the war?"

"Uh actually, we don't know. Captain hasn't filled us in on that yet." He said, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

Wondering if he really didn't know or if he was just lying to cover up whatever reason Law had to go there, Nayla began to think that maybe this really was just some kind of ploy...These men had saved her life though, were they really all that bad? Looking up at him she reached for and pushed back the brim of his hat a bit so that she could make clear eye contact.

"U-Um, Nayla-chan?" He asked unsurely, a little wide-eyed and flush-cheeked at the gesture.

"Penguin, if I come with you right now...will I be ok?"

He was completely taken aback by the question; he hadn't expected it at all. The truth was his captain had been sure she'd voluntarily accompany him back to the sub once she learnt they would be going to the same place Straw Hat was...but he had been ordered to physically subdue and drag her back if she refused. Though he'd been shocked by the latter part of the order, he wouldn't defy it if it came down to it...Which made him feel overwhelmingly guilty as he looked down at the small, worried-looking woman in front of him now who was basically asking him 'Can I trust you?'

It had become obvious to him last night that Law had a guarded interest in her. That was reaffirmed earlier when some of the other crewmembers had caught up to them in the public square, telling them that they had been delayed by their impromptu search for information on her at a bounty hunters' outpost on their way. Penguin didn't really know if she would be ok, he didn't really know what his captain wanted from her.

Looking away, he scratched the back of his neck again as he spoke. "Uh, well, it is a battlefield right now...We'll do our best though, we don't intend to get involved in the fight and turns out Jean Bart-he's our newest by the way, is pretty awesome at manoeuvring the ship around so I'm-"

Stopping his nervous babbling by pinching each of his cheeks, Nayla demanded his eye contact again by tilting his head back down. "Penguin, that's not what I'm asking and you know it. If I come with you right now, will I be ok?"

Gripping her wrists, he pulled her hands away from his face hesitantly. "Listen, Nayla-chan...I don't know what Captain wants with you but-" What was he thinking? He had complete faith in his captain. Although he may not know why he wanted Nayla on board he did know one thing for certain. "...Captain...isn't a bad man." Feeling reassurance in his own words as he spoke them aloud, he smiled sincerely at her, able to maintain eye contact easily as he spoke this time. "I wouldn't follow him otherwise."

Smiling slowly too, she felt a lot of her uncertainty eased by his honesty and confidence. "...Ok. Then yes, please, let me come along."

Grinning widely, Penguin was more than thankful she'd agreed to come willingly. "Alright! Grab your stuff, I'm guessing you won't be coming back here afterwards right?" He asked, looking around her room at her personal belongings and readjusting his hat.

"Ah yeah, I guess not. I've only been here a day and a half so I didn't unpack much, give me five seconds." Hurriedly making her way around the room, she stuffed the few items that'd had time to make it out of her suitcase back into it, opting to exchange the boots she had discarded near her bed for a faster to slip on pair of black flats instead. Quickly zipping her case closed, she rolled it behind her on its wheels towards the doorway where Penguin was still waiting.

"You can't be serious." He deadpanned.

"What?" She looked back at it nonchalantly, refusing to acknowledge the problem.

Taking the handle from her, Penguin pulled it upright from its slanted position. "Nayla-chan...it's practically taller than you are." He said, staring at the giant black thing towering beside her.

"Pfft, like that's difficult. Come on, let's go." She grabbed the handle from him and quickly rolled it down the hallway to the top of the staircase. "I'll just pay Baez before we leave, think you could...?" Trailing off, she indicated to the heavy item, asking if he'd bring it down with him.

"Yeah sure, go ahead." He offered, closing her room door.

Smiling thankfully, she trotted down the stairs quickly to give the innkeeper the money she owed before leaving. Spotting him behind the bar as she made her way to the ground floor, she noticed that he seemed to have been looking up towards the staircase before she had even descended. Tilting her head, she silently questioned the cause of his wary expression, conveyed by the sternly knitted brows that crinkled his forehead and bald scalp.

"Saw that Heart-boy go up there, said he was a friend of yours. Was gonna go get my gun if either of you didn't come back down within the next five minutes."

Laughing at that and at his almost fatherly protectiveness, she reached for her money as she approached him, wondering if perhaps his behaviour stemmed from having a daughter of his own. "It seems like I'll be needing to leave a little sooner than I thought. I'm sorry it's so late in the afternoon, you probably won't have enough time to clean and re-rent my room today so I'll pay for tonight's stay as well." She offered, flicking through the wad of notes and handed him what she owed for her stay.

Taking them from her, he shook his head. "Nah, it's alright darling. Don't worry about that." He said, separating off the extra she had given and holding it out to her until she reluctantly took it back from him.

"Are you sure, Baez?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. You just worry about keeping that pretty little noggin of yours safe instead, alright?"

It had only been a day but she had already grown fond of the older man's kindly crow's feet and big bushy smile. "No pun intended?"

She smiled back at him as he chuckled, about to speak again before both turning towards the series of thumps coming from the staircase to their side, watching as Penguin stumbled nearly halfway down them before righting himself and clutching the runaway suitcase securely to his chest, panting heavily.

"Holy crap!"

Wincing, Nayla looked away guiltily. Seemed he had lifted it a little too close to the edge of the stairs not expecting the weight of it.

"Nayla-chan! What have you got in here?!" He asked, as he just about managed to get down the rest of the staircase without another stumble.

"Dead bodies." She deadpanned, watching as he slowly turned his head down to look at it with a slightly worried expression...The size was right. "I'm kidding Penguin, geez. Come on, your crew's waiting on us right?"

"Ah, yeah. You're right let's go."

Pursing her lips together in an attempt not to laugh, she watched in amusement as he wisely opted to wheel the suitcase towards the door instead of lifting it again. "Alright. Goodbye Baez, thank you so much for everything." She leaned over the bar to give the surprised man a big hug.

"That's ok darling, you take care. Come back to see me sometime, alright? I hope your next visit to Sabaody is a more pleasant one." He said giving her a brief hug back, ignoring the raised eyebrow his waitress gave him as she walked past to the kitchen door behind him.

"Yeah, I never did get to go to Sabaody Park...Maybe next time." She grinned, planting a big kiss on his cheek before scurrying away to catch up to Penguin waiting for her at the inn's entrance. "Come along, 'Heart-boy.'" She teased, grabbing his wrist.

Blushing beet red, Baez waved her off as she dragged a gaping Penguin out, chuckling to himself at the last look that had crossed the pirate's face as he got pulled away, the one that had said 'lucky bastard.'

Sighing, one of the other waitresses cleaning up a used table made her way over to the bar, offering him a clean rag and prompting him to look down at it in question. "What's this for?"

"For the big smooch mark you have on your cheek, you dolt." She said, still holding it out for him.

Laughing heartily he took and rubbed the cloth to his cheek, stopping momentarily to reach at the back of his collar to find the source of the odd scratching sensation on his neck. Furrowing his brows at the feel of the foreign object, he pulled his hand back to find he was clasping the full wad of cash Nayla had been holding before she left.

Wrapping his fingers impatiently on the white railing of the deck of his sub, Law looked through the trees in masked restlessness for signs of his last crewmember and Nayla's arrival.

"Captain, we're ready for submersion." Turning to glance at the man over his shoulder, he nodded his acknowledgement to him before he scurried back inside to return to his post.

Biting the inside of his cheek in thought, Law wondered if perhaps he had miscalculated something. Maybe Nayla hadn't been at the inn? Maybe Penguin had run into trouble on his way there by himself with all these rival crews still around? Maybe she was there but had refused to come? Had Penguin been unable to fulfil his orders if that were the case? No, Penguin would obey his orders...Maybe she had refused, he had attempted to subdue her and she was actually putting up a good fight? He hadn't been able to assess her full combat abilities yet but had sent Penguin in case things turned volatile because it was obvious she had a genuine sense of gratitude towards him. Law had seen that clearly on her face last night at the tavern...He hadn't chosen to send Shachi because he wasn't entirely sure she'd go easy on him for playing footsie with her, even though she had taken it with good-humour.

Frowning mildly at the latter as it reignited annoyance, it was soon quelled by the distant approach of one of the island's native, bubble-based taxis heading towards his vessel rapidly, the voices coming from atop it as they pulled up to the gangplank already audible.

"But...Nayla-chan, it's your stuff."

"It was your decision not to carry it, I was happy to come on foot."

"There was no way I could carry it all this way..."

"Well, I'm sorry, I didn't know we'd be taking a taxi. I handed all my cash to Baez on the way out. I have more but it's buried in my suitcase right now." She said as she hopped off the large bubble to the grass.

Sighing, the pirate unzipped the top of his boilersuit midway as he hopped down from the taxi too, reaching in and pulling out a brown, leather wallet.

"Aww come on Penguin...I'll make it up to you, don't worry." She said, openly inspecting the navy blue wife-beater exposed by his partially unzipped uniform.

Gulping quietly at the somewhat sultry tone the latter part of that sentence had taken, he nervously handed the driver a few notes before stuffing his wallet back where it came from and zipping his suit up hurriedly with flushed cheeks. Giggling at his bashfulness she wondered to herself how such an obvious pervert could be so shy at the same time.

"Nayla-ya." Looking up at him from the ground, she had almost forgotten Law would be there in all the hurry and excitement. "I take it you're responsible for holding us up?" He asked, eyeing Penguin as he pulled the heavy suitcase from within the taxi's bubble to the ground with a loud thud. The pallid-looking taxi driver taking off the second it hit the grass after recognising, in horror, who had spoken from atop the deck.

Raising a brow at the man's erratic, speedy driving as he pulled away, she looked back up at Law again. "What? No, I-god damn, this thing is cool!" She exclaimed, only now just taking in the full sight of the large sub he was standing on. It hadn't been her intention to say it out loud; she knew the man could really do without the ego stroke.

Saying nothing but sparing a smug look at the comment, Law stepped aside from the top of the gangplank for Penguin who had hurried up it in his desperation to get the suitcase back onto a surface he could roll it across. Letting it down onto the wooden floorboards with a satisfying thunk and a sigh of relief, he wiped his brow with the back of his hand.

"I'll roll this in for you Nayla-chan." He called, waving down at her from the deck.

"Get on board, we need to go." Law said, gesturing for her to start walking up the gangplank as well, not missing the look of reassurance she sought from Penguin before he disappeared into the sub with her suitcase trailing behind him.

Carefully and slowly, she began walking up the wood, watching her footing on the unfamiliar thing as she crossed the short expanse of ocean below her. She couldn't help the anxiety she suddenly felt nor the start of the heavy pounding of her heart, especially when she decided to give the 'DEATH' emblazoned onto the side of the sub a tentative side-glance from her position halfway up to the deck.

It almost felt like she was walking the plank rather than walking a gangplank, though she imagined she'd have more of a chance in shark-infested water than with Law. She wondered if she really was walking to her death, if she was making a terrible mistake by being there and if she should just turn around and run as fast as she could in the opposite direction...She stopped when she saw a tattooed hand reach down in front of her face.

Rarely, people have the overwhelming sense that they are in the middle of experiencing a moment that they can feel they are breathing in and recording every minute detail of, knowing that it will be a moment that they will remember vividly for the rest of their lives. It was right then that Nayla was experiencing just that as she looked up at Law.

From this angle, the soft, afternoon sunlight that was coming from behind him was giving his outline a surreal-looking glow and gently shadowed his features. A small breeze caressed the fabric of his hoodie and the finer fibres of his hat then, eliciting a soft clink of the glinting metal in his ears. The fragrance of fresh, sea air and foliage mixed with the pleasant scent of his aftershave as the breeze passed him and touched her. His smile was softer, lacking the usual edge of mockery as he reached out to grab the hand she had unconsciously started to lift up to meet his. The firmness and warmth of his grip relaying his reassurance to her silently as he helped her up the rest of the way to him.

The second her feet touched the deck of his sub for the first time, she knew intuitively that this would be a life-changing moment and wondered if he had felt it too as she looked from them back to his eyes. Just as he had the first time they'd made eye contact, he captured her gaze so fully, but this time there was no air of danger to him.

Of all of it, of all the picture perfect details she would remember about this moment, Nayla knew she would remember the tone of his voice and the words he said to her then the most.

"Welcome aboard, Nayla."