The crew was exhausted, to say the least. Collecting a hundred pirate hearts was no easy task under normal circumstances, and they were certainly in unusual circumstances. They were pressed for time and they had to collect pirates with a relatively high bounty.

But they were almost done. Only one or pirate crews left to collect, depending on the size of the crew. Law wanted exactly a hundred hearts, just to make it creepier for the marines. That meant a few would either be spared, or would become his guinea pigs for whatever experiment he wanted to perform. It really depended on the age of the youngest crew members and how much evil they had done before. As Law had thought before, he would not do anything to children.

"Captain," Bepo said, voice slurred from the lack of sleep. "The radar picked up a signal. Confirmed to be a pirate ship."

Law nodded. "Get ready for…"

The man's words faltered at the disinterested looks on the faces of his crew, and the overly sluggish reaction time. In a corner of the room, he could see Penguin standing inside the freezer where he fell asleep—somebody please get his mechanic out before he got frostbite on his nose—and Shachi sleeping too close to the boiling kettle. When the white tiger and grizzly bear were the most alert living beings on his submarine, it meant that only the tiger and grizzly were ready for battle.

Law sighed. Perhaps they should skip the ship, and wait for the next one. But the moment he thought that, he dismissed it. They were on a tight schedule, and they had no idea when they would encounter another pirate ship. Yet, sending the sleep deprived crew into battle was sending them to their graves. They needed sleep.

"Surface. Everyone put in your earplugs," Lor mumbled, fighting back a yawn.

Law's lips pressed into a thin line when he noticed that it took almost fifteen whole seconds for the crew to stare blankly at her, blink, comprehend her words, and start moving. Being used to insomnia, he was almost fine with the lack of rest. His crew, on the other hand, had a regular schedule. A regular schedule that their quest was disrupting rather badly. As a doctor, he had the feeling that if they didn't get some sleep, they would lose consciousness, and then they would be stuck in bed for much too long.

Quickly, his eyes skimmed over the crew members, looking for those who were more alert than the rest. It seemed like he had no choice but to work them in shifts, and even though it would put more pressure on those working, at least they would be well rested in between. His eyes narrowed as he found that fewer were fit for duty than he expected.

The only thing he could do was pick out those who were even the slightest bit more alert, and divide the crew members into two based on their duties, so each shift would have someone to do any job that came up.

"Vulpes, Coyote, Penguin, Azarashi, Kuzuri, Otter, Albatross, and Ashika, go to sleep now. You have six hours," Law said, and almost smiled as half his crew stumbled out with small smiles, too tired to cheer like they wanted to. "Everyone else, keep working for those six hours, and you get fifteen hours of sleep afterwards. Lei-ya, make a lot of coffee."

She blinked uncomprehendingly for a moment, before she nodded, and moved to the kitchen, muttering, "Now where did I leave the tea bags?"

An eyebrow shot up as Law watched her meander through the kitchen she was more than familiar with, before her face finally lit up, and she opened the oven door to take out a box of tea bags. Next she grabbed a bag of coffee beans from the towel drawer.

…Maybe he should have sent her to get some sleep too.

Humming a random tune, she ground the beans and stuck them in the coffee machine, before setting to work brewing tea. Law nodded appreciatively. So even in this tired state she could tell that some people would want tea instead of coffee—

What in the world was she doing?!

"Lei-ya—" Law began.

But it was too late. She had poured the tea into the coffee, before distributing the mixture into mugs. Law's jaw unhinged. His face twisted in disgust. Red tea and coffee? Really? That was probably the most disgusting… Alright, so not the most disgusting. He could think of many things even worse—

Why was she adding milk and syrup to that?!

Law fought the urge to gag. And when Lor came up to him with two mugs, one for him and one for herself, he took it, but stared cautiously at the contents. He was not going to drink that strange mixture, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he wasn't in the mood for anything sweet. Still, Lorelei stood sipping her own mug, her head cocked at him. His eyes flicked to her face before returning to the cup. If he watched her expression for too long, he would cave in and drink. And he was not going to—

Oh. It didn't taste half bad. Quite good, in fact, especially coming from her lips. Law ran his tongue across her lower lip experimentally, trying to see if he could understand the taste, and get inside her mouth in the same move. Unfortunately, she didn't let him in, and moved back instead.

"Drink," she told him, gesturing to the steaming mug in his hands, and started walking away.

"Lei-ya, where are you—"

"Deck. I'll deal with the pirate crew, and you can take their hearts out when I'm done."

Law blinked. He had forgotten about that. Actually, he hadn't even noticed the sub surface. Almost groaning, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. Seemed like he was more tired than he originally thought.

Mere moments later, she reappeared next to him, looking even more haggard than when she left. Law stared at her for a moment. It was strange how love worked—your partner could look like a living corpse, and he would still be attracted to her, still feel his heartbeat increase when she was near. On the other hand, he knew he looked like a living corpse too.

He sighed and got to his feet, eyes widening slightly in shock as he stumbled, his head reeling and sending him off balance. Lorelei was beside him in a heartbeat, a hand on his arm to steady him. Law frowned.

"You should get some sleep," Lor said quietly. "I'll watch them."

"No."

"Law…"

"You need sleep like I do. I'm not going to bed without you," he replied stubbornly.

He could see her hesitate, her mind wavering at the temptation of blessed sleep. But she held firm. She shook her head. Law sighed. Of course she was as stubborn as him.

"I'll grab the hearts now," Law said. "Then we'll sleep."

It took a few hours. Law and Bepo kept wax in their ears to prevent any sounds from getting through, just in case Lorelei had to knock the captured crew out again. Law popped heart after heart out of chest cavities, placing them carefully in the sack Bepo held. The bag would later be labeled with the crew name and jolly roger, with specific bounty posters attached for the noteworthy crew members. The pirates themselves, however, would continue to roam the seas, but this time, they would be searching for their hearts rather than treasure. That was, of course, if the marines didn't do something to the hearts and cause the owners of the organs to drop dead.

Finally, their collection was complete. They had a hundred pirate hearts.

Although Law was hesitant to leave the sub under the watchful eyes of two animals that didn't speak human, the crew members he hadn't sent to bed were dead on their feet. Therefore, Law ordered them to submerge, Lorelei asked her pets to watch the submarine and the situation, and they all went to bed, leaving the hallways of the submarine devoid of human life forms.

"Goodnight," Lor said, pecking Law sweetly on the cheek.

"Night," Law replied, somehow finding the energy to smirk.

It took a few seconds for him to realize that, no, she should not go back to her room.

"Wait, Lei-ya—" Law began.

He forgot that he had taken all the appendages out of the bags to label, and…

Said girl walked straight out of her room with a deadpan expression on her face, not at all amused. "Law…"

"Lei-ya… I can explain…"

"Law, why are there a hundred pirate hearts on display in my room?"