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Law exited the shower, a towel wrapped around himself as he checked on the woman he had fucked. Surprisingly, the lights were on and she was cleaning up the blood with rubber gloves, alcohol spray, and a large rag. Two more rags were already in the trash with the disposed condom. She turned back to him as he entered with a satisfied smile on her lips. "Nice tattoos, handsome. I'll be out of your way in a bit."

She turned back to the wall, scrubbing as she continued, "That was honestly some of the best sex I've every had. Seriously. If you ever want another round, just let me know. I've left my number on the stand."

Law crossed his arms and leaned against the wall near his sword, appreciating the view. She hadn't bothered with clothes yet. The one advantage to this woman, as opposed to his seer, was the fact that the marks remained after he was done. Even in the dark, he did damn good work.

He really shouldn't say one advantage. At least this woman was cleaning up her mess without sass, without him asking, and she didn't leave him in a messy pile of feelings.

Actually, looking at the view, Law almost regretted the shower. He could certainly go another round, although he doubted the woman could say the same. She stood, finished with the cleaning as she tossed the rag and gloves into the trash. It was clear that her legs were still shaky, and her eyes were glazed over from post orgasmic bliss.

"… Need a shower?"

The woman flashed a grin. "Nah. The blood scares muggers away. I'll clean up when I get home. If I shower I doubt I'd end up leaving, and neither of us want that."

Law nodded, the barest hint of a grin tugging at his lips. He pushed off the wall, grabbing a pair of pants to wear to sleep while she dressed in her own clothes, clearly stiff and wincing in pain. After a moment, she looked at him and pointed to the window. "You think they'd catch me if I go out that way?"

Law shrugged. She hummed in thought, before she made up her mind and opened the door to the hallway, closing it behind her with a quick "Thank you," and wink.

Even if he had been distracted by images of Is, Law wondered if he would call on this woman again. She had been more fun than the usual one night stand. Then again, Law didn't even know her name.

Law grabbed a book to read, turning off the main lights but leaving a bedside lamp on, glancing at the slip of paper with her number and name — Scarlett. Law almost snorted. A redhead named Scarlett who enjoyed fucking while covered in her own blood. How appropriate. He relaxed on the bed, beginning to flip through the pages of the book he was reading and trying to not concentrate on his growing anxiety.

Is hadn't knocked on the door while he'd been in the shower, had she? Or on the wall while he was fucking?

He wanted to groan, and forced himself to focus on the book in front of him. He was going to relax, and enjoy his night in a bed away from the seer. This would be a great transition for them. When they got back to the sub, if all went well, she'd have her own room and Law could squash his muddled feelings of attachment. In the meantime, he'd read his book for an hour or two, and then sleep for a few hours before he began his work.

He had already scoped out possible candidates on the island. There were several names on the island worth a decent enough amount to catch his eye, but not currently anyone near his level of bounty. Most of them had gone to the New World to try their hand at becoming the next Emperor of the Sea. He would start with a few of the collections in the early morning hours, grabbing a few hearts from the bottom of the barrel before getting the bigger ticket items the next morning. Thus, he needed to sleep and wake up at an early hour, which meant that it would be easier if the seer weren't in his bed, anyway.

After realizing he'd read the same page multiple times in a row, he shut the book with an audible snap and decided he would try for an early bedtime. He set the clock to wake him up in a few hours, and then turned off the bedside lamp and tried to will himself to sleep.

It didn't work. Instead, he tossed and turned in the bed, never quite achieving ultimate levels of comfort. Every noise, every creak could be a potential enemy sneaking up on him or his crew. After about an hour, he sat up from his bed with a groan, deciding that if he wasn't going to sleep he might as well get started on his collection. He turned off the alarm, slipped on his shoes and a t-shirt, not bothering with socks or his hat, and grabbed his sword on his way out.

—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—

Isabelle couldn't sleep.

After another few rounds with the brunette, she had sent the woman away, stolen Shachi's top blanket (dumping it in her own laundry in her room) and returned his key to the front desk. Somehow, she managed to avoid her Captain and crew mates, and had made it back to her room. She thanked the stars in the sky that the hinges on her door were well oiled — her Captain's senses were too sharp to have missed it otherwise, and even with her clothes on, Is could smell the sex on herself.

Actually, she was quite proud that she had somehow managed everything she had left the bar to do. For the first time, she thanked the visions she was gifted with. She had known Shachi was too drunk and party-focused to return to the inn at a reasonable hour, and her Captain too wrapped up in his own… activities to notice her own.

She sighed. She had managed to find two sets of pajamas while she was out with Bepo, choosing to sleep in basic, black shorts and a tank top rather than full pants like her Captain. Once she was in her own bed with a door that locked on the sub, she had considered just dropping the pajamas all together — especially if it got as hot as it was in the room now.

Technically, she supposed, she had slept. Twice. But glancing over at her clock, they had been short naps rather than the rest she really needed. She rolled over again, groaning. Her fingers twitched and her limbs felt too full of energy for someone who had just had multiple intense orgasms. It just hadn't been enough; she was craving something else that she didn't understand.

She sat up quickly, heart beating fast as the nightmares danced across her eyes, nightmares of blood, fire, and rage. Again, at her feet was the boy again, still crying for the mother that was clearly not coming back.

Is frowned, trying to push away the intense swell of emotion. She drew her knees in close, watching the little boy carefully.

Everything else she could identify in one way or another. But this boy… he continued to be an unidentifiable mystery. Suddenly, a man appeared on the boy's bed, pulling the boy into his lap and calming the tears. The man had intricate arm tattoos that Is almost reached out to touch — unlike her Captain's tribal tattoos, these were colored portraits of the stars and ocean that started at his wrists and weaved their way up before disappearing beneath the man's sleeves. She had never seen anything like it. In fact, it seemed almost impossible with the little she had seen of tattoos in the last few days. Tattoos were basic shapes and solid colors, not intricate paintings that danced across someone's skin.

The man was also crying.

Isabelle caught a sob in her throat before throwing off her covers, standing quickly and almost running away from the scene in front of her. It didn't make sense. These were two unidentified people that had lost a mother and wife, sure — but she saw blood and fire and genocide. Nothing else left her with the same grief.

A shower. She needed a shower.

The images followed her to the bathroom as she stripped. She counted slowly, focusing on everything around her and naming objects in the room that were real as she turned on the water and stepped into the stream. It helped a little. The images went fuzzy, and she was able to concentrate on cleaning herself.

To be honest, she still smelled like sex. She had been afraid to wake her Captain before, but she no longer cared so long as the water washed the images away. She mechanically scrubbed the smell off of her skin with a brush, not quite realizing that she was scratching off her skin until it bled. It wasn't until the crimson began to flow down the drain that she stopped. She leaned against the tiled wall, watching the patterns as the blood swirled with the soap and water, dancing on the bottom of the tub. She breathed evenly, allowing herself to be entranced by the vibrant color of red as the visions of the man and his son finally faded.

Then the first sob hit her. She sat in the tub, allowing the stream to wash away everything as the ache in her heart hurt more than any injury she could remember.

She knew that she should have knocked on the adjoining wall. But a surge of hatred as intense as the grief left her a helpless victim to her own emotions. She took the brush and scrubbed on her arm until it bled, continuing to scrub the open wound as the bristles dug into her flesh.

It didn't hurt.

—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—

Law returned to his room using his powers to teleport himself past the guards, surprised to hear the shower going in the room next to his. He wondered if he should check on Is, but decided he needed his own shower instead. He was covered in blood.

He had managed to collect nine of the thirteen hearts he needed in the last two hours, and placed them on the bathroom counter. Each one had the name carved carefully into the side; not enough to kill the owner, just enough to cause discomfort and be a label. He had been lucky, he supposed. Several of his targets had formed some sort of alliance and were all in the same place. The guards had been easy enough to pick off, which explained the blood. The ones he took hearts from he cut up with his powers and hid the parts in a crate. If he was lucky, they would remain hidden until he left the island — at which point, they were close enough to the dock that he would uses his powers to place the crate on the dock as they left.

The hearts were no good to him if the men died, after all.

He figured he should get some extra hearts just in case a few of them did. This was Tortuga, after all.

After his shower, he pulled on a new pair of pants and collapsed into bed. He had purposely exhausted himself, much as he used to in order to sleep at night. He waited for sleep to finally claim him, satisfied with the work he had accomplished.

The sounds of the shower next door stopped, and Law tried to take comfort in the fact that she did not knock on the adjoining wall. Clearly, she was doing just fine without him.

That thought bothered him more than he cared to admit.

It still took a while, but Law eventually fell into a fitful sleep, exhausted by the unfamiliar emotions that seemed to burn in his very soul.

—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—/—

A knock sounded at the door, waking Is. She blinked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as her headache raged behind them. For a moment, she wondered if she should pull out her own eyeballs to claw directly at the pain behind them, but the knock sounded again, more insistently this time. She sat up with a groan, pulling up the covers and swinging her legs off the bed before stumbling over to the door. She peered through the peephole, and smiled lightly, opening the door to reveal Samei and a large tray of breakfast.

"Hey! I, uh, thought you might be hungry." The boy blushed at her outfit, as she was clearly not wearing a bra.

She smiled at him, stepping back and gesturing him into the room. He walked in awkwardly as she shut the door, locked it and then walked over to sit on the bed. She patted the spot next to her, and Samei put the tray on the bed, stubbornly looking at the tray rather than the woman in front of him.

Is felt a small flutter in her heart. Unlike with her Captain, being with Samei was easy. The emotions were light and fluffy, easy on her soul without overbearing it. She rubbed her temple as she ate hungrily.

"… Are you okay, Is?"

She paused as she chewed, wondering if she should be truthful or not. At the earnest look in his eyes and the genuine concern in his voice, she shook her head.

"Slept badly," she said simply around the bite of oatmeal in her mouth.

The boy nodded solemnly, looking around slowly as she continued to eat. "Does… it have something to do with Captain?"

Is frowned as she took another bit. Did it?

She stretched her fingers in front of her face, watching them twitch slightly. This feeling of need that had not been satisfied last night, that kept her from sleeping, and the nightmares that woke her… did it have to do with her Captain? It had certainly never happened when in his bed.

She glanced up into the wide, brown eyes of Samei, and smiled at the sincere expression. She swallowed before she spoke, "Just nightmares, is all."

He seemed to accept the answer. "Well… if Captain's ever not available, all you have to do is ask." He sat up straight and puffed out his chest. "I may not look it, but I'm pretty good at chasing nightmares away."

Isabelle giggled, swallowing another bit before she spoke, "Aw, Samei, are you offering to sleep with me?"

He blushed, gulped, and rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, no! No, no, no… Just, uh, how does, uh, Captain chase them away?"

She smiled at him with a too-innocent look. "He sleeps with me."

Is enjoyed Samei's sputtering as she purposely took several large bites of muffin, letting him stew over the shock for a moment. The blush was reaching the roots of his scalp now, and the lighthearted teasing was a gentle reprieve from heaviness of the previous night.

Not as good as sex, but good enough, she supposed.

She spoke again, "Just sleeping, nothing sexual. He's actually quite a gentleman about it — insists on wearing a shirt and everything."

Judging by the disbelieving look on Samei's face, this was not normal Captain behavior. Is frowned, remembering everything she knew about the man. He definitely didn't act like a gentleman around most people unless he wanted something. The teasing, the clear dislike of the situation… the gentle concern in his eyes when he asked her how she was feeling…

It was out of character, she realized with a start.

She ignored the thought and it's implications in favor of asking Samei about how his night went. As she asked, there was a satisfied smile tugging on the corner of his lips that told her everything. She threw a pillow at him, laughing, and teasing him about his choice in partners. He laughed and they gossiped together about the previous night's events as Is continued to eat her breakfast of muffins, oatmeal, fruits and a large glass of milk. Apparently Shachi had never slept in his room because him and Penguin got invited to an orgy. The mechanics unfortunately passed out before they could participate. Their partners (those assigned to them who remained sober) had no such qualms.

When she finished, Samei told her that he had been given some money to help restock the medical supplies — the bazaar in the area was known for having everything, and he wanted to stock up on some of the more rare or unconventional materials that they hadn't gotten the day before. Is agreed, stripping in front of him as he hid his face with a sputtered complaint and a blush. She dressed in a clean uniform of the crew, putting her dirty clothes in her bag. She doubted she would ever get tired of teasing the blush onto the young man's face.

It was still relatively early, and Samei was hesitating at the door, staring at the opposite wall before they left.

"Should we wake Captain? James was supposed to join us, but he's still really hungover. He was purging when I checked on him."

Is thought for a moment, looking at the wall as she thought. She had no bad feelings, no trepidation, and even as she concentrated on the visions nothing suggested that they would be in any danger. She trusted her instincts and flashed a smile at Samei.

"Nah. Besides, I don't think he slept until late. He was… ah… indisposed. And then beheading people."

Samei rose his brows in appreciation before pouting a bit. "Damnit, Captain has all the fun…"

Is laughed. "Don't worry, you have plenty of fun in the future."

He grinned at her. "Really? That reminds me… baby girl, right? What kind of mother are we talking about here?"

Isabelle winked as they stepped into the hallway and locked the door behind them. "Only the best kind."

"Oh come on, Is. Why can't you just tell me something, anything? Maybe a name?"

Isabelle shook her head as they started down the stairs. "It's not like they just appear with names over their heads, you know. Sometimes I know the name and sometimes I don't."

"… Ah… I guess… well, hair color then?"

Isabelle smiled softly. "Samei, I can't tell you. I will say that it will come swiftly and unexpectedly."

He groaned as they exited the inn. "You know, as useful as it is to have you around as a personal danger sniffer, it would be nice if you were a bit less vague."

She punched him lightly on the arm, and he rubbed the spot lightly while keeping an eye on their surroundings. She huffed before she said, "Ain't my fault."

He frowned lightly, confused. "What do you mean?"

Isabelle paused, looking at necklaces in a booth before she answered slowly. "I… I actually don't think I'm physically capable of giving specifics." He tugged lightly on her arm, handing her an apple he had purchased for her and distracting her momentarily from different shops as they continued down the road. She took a bite of the apple, chewing as she tried to word it. "It's like… when I try, I just end up forgetting what I saw."

He watched her carefully, before putting an arm around her shoulders and squeezing gently. She looked up into his smiling face as he said, "I'm sure I'll forgive you, somehow."

She laughed again, and he continued, "You're a lot stronger than I am. I don't think I could deal with what you do and come out sane."

"Technically, I don't think I am sane."

He waved a hand in front of her face dismissively. "Not the point. My point is… I-I think you're great the way you are."

He was blushing again, eyes focusing on their surroundings. Is realized that he was steering her shoulders to keep her from bumping into someone, and felt a surge of gratitude. She leaned into his hold and whispered her thanks with a contented smile.

She was happy. Her Captain may chase away the visions, but this was a different kind of comfort. Samei clearly cared for her deeply, without expecting anything in return. Their relationship the past few days had already developed into a loving, supportive friendship that eased her troubles from her mind as much as her Captain caused them. She frowned lightly, before pushing away a confused mess of emotions that made no sense.

They continued through the bazaar, food appearing in front of her face as she finished whatever she had eaten, his arms steering her from booth to booth. At one point, a pair of sun glasses appeared in front of her face, and he smiled gently at her. She took them with a delighted squeal, realizing that this had been the best day of her life so far. As the glasses tinted the bright area around her, even the violent images that plagued her mind couldn't bring her down.

After a few hours, they began trudging the way back to the inn, Samei's eyes focused on their surroundings and laughing at a ridiculous pun Is had come up with. Something dashed across her view of the street, and she stopped. She watched it as the sadness crept it's way back into her heart.

It was the little boy.

"Here, Is, try this." Samei handed her an ice cream cone, but she didn't take it. She stared at it, breathing hitched as tears started on their own. The sight of the cone had triggered the unexplained grief from the night before. Her eyes were drawn back back to the side as the boy cried on the ground, bullied by other children. Samei faded to the background as he called her, touching her shoulder and trying to call her back to him.

The children were jeering at the boy, telling him his mother abandoned him because he was worthless and stupid. The boy cried, calling them liars even as he clearly believed them.

There was a sudden pain in her skull that brought her back. Colors brightened as the glasses clattered to the ground, and she realized something was on her face. She reached up, touching the wet, sticky substance on her cheek as it dripped down her chin. She pulled back her hand, her eyes slowly focusing on the gooey, pink substance. Something was pressing against her her body, and she put her hands up to touch it.

She frowned, trying to focus in on her surroundings, but finding it hard to. It was too loud. She recognized Samei leaning on her heavily.

"Samei, what are you doing?" She shook the young man gently, trying to wake him. He didn't move, so she gripped his shoulders and tried to gently push him off of her.

"Samei, are you okay? Did you faint?"

Something pressed itself out of her skull, and clattered to the street beneath her feet with a delicate clink. Samei's knees buckled, and she wrapped her arms around his chest, catching him as he fell. His head rolled back.

She was dreaming. She had to be. This was a nightmare.

But it wasn't. This was real. She couldn't see through this.

"Hey… Samei… Samei… Wake up…"

Her voice broke with each word as she fell her her knees, cradling the young man's body. His face was no longer recognizable, his skull having exploded outwards and leaving a chunk of blood, bone, and mashed eye matter.

This wasn't real. It couldn't be. She had seen his family. He had a family. He had a daughter. She had watched him deliver her.

This couldn't be real.

What wasn't left on his face was now coating hers. She realized that the wetness was blood and bits of brain. Vaguely, she realized it had been a high caliber bullet at close range.

It wasn't real, though. It couldn't be.

He had a daughter.

She'd seen it.

She was never wrong. Never.

Vaguely, there were sensations in her body, but she couldn't recognize them. They had to be fake. They weren't real.

If she held him, just continued to hold him, he would pop up with a joke and a blush. Any moment now, his face would be reformed and he would hand her some food and scold her over the blood he now had to clean up. He was always so clean. He would twitch every time she dropped crumbs on the floor. She had even caught him eying her that morning as crumbs from the muffins littered the bed before she cleaned them up.

Yeah, that was it. He was going to pop up.

Any moment now.

Something jerked his body, and her vision went red for a moment. No, no, he couldn't go. If he left… If he left her, then how would he wake up?

So she held tighter with one arm, grabbing the thing that had touch his body with all the strength she could muster until it pulled away.

They would not take him. Samei was hers. Nothing else mattered. If she held him for long enough, he would wake up and it would all be a dream.

See? She was floating. You only float in dreams. She buried her head in what remained of Samei's neck, concentrating on the sole belief that it was a dream, and that it wasn't real.

Nothing was.