Quality Cinema

Many friendships revolve around getting brunch, watching sports, or weekly game nights. For Smoker and Tashigi, it's watching "quality cinema".

Tashigi swept a lock of hair out of her eyes, gaze scanning from line to line of her report on ammunition stores. She glanced up at the wall clock opposite her desk. Only a few hours to go.

Well, that is if the mail arrived on time. Tashigi pursed her lips and looked back down at her report. She had just moved to the second page when a sharp rap on her office door made her look up. One of the newer transfers stepped into her office, a sack full of envelopes and packages swung over his shoulder. Her eyes lit up with excitement as he passed her a stack of envelopes and a small glass tank.

It was here!

She thanked him as he saluted and shut the door on his way out. Ignoring the other envelopes, Tashigi quickly set about examining the tank. Inside it, clinging to the side, was a small blue den den mushi. She smiled at it gently and opened the top of the tank.

The snail eyed her with mild suspicion as she reached in and pulled it out. She set it upon her desk, facing the wall and fiddled with it for a moment before it's eyes glowed and projected a recording onto the wall. A grin spread across her face as the title screen flashed by and she tapped the shell to stop the video.

She couldn't wait for tonight!

Tashigi fiddled with the fraying edge of one of the blue throw pillows on her couch. She kept glancing up at the clock, waiting for the knock at the door. He wasn't often late, and she hoped that his unexpected meeting with the other Admirals on Base hadn't run over. Smoker hated meetings, and hated when they ran overtime even more.

She leaned over, placing her chin in her hand as she looked out the window, breathing in the spring night air. The streetlights glowed a warm yellow and a few soldiers walked down her streets loudly discussing poker results. A tiny frown appeared on her face. They hadn't missed a week in a long time, not since the War.

The familiar thump thump on her door made a smile bloom across Tashigi's face as she leaped up and rushed over to open it. Smoker, an unlit cigar in his mouth, nodded at her, a bag of takeout in one hand, a six-pac of beer in the other as she let him into her apartment.

He smoked out of his boots, leaving them in the entryway as he placed the food down on her small kitchen table, snagging one of the beers he brought. "How was the meeting?" she asked as he flopped onto her couch with a sigh. She'd offered to attend it with him, but Smoker had waved her away, muttering that he would handle it. Really he meant that the other Vice Admirals would be more leery of his temper without her there.

"We'll have to increase patrols in between Mercau Island and Strike Isle, but I've spent enough of my off hours thinking about work," he grumbled.

She reached into the bag of food and let out a joy filled yelp. He'd stopped by her favorite noodle shop! She pulled out their food and brought it over, setting two bowls on her coffee table.

"Thank you for bringing dinner," she smiled at him gratefully, handing him a pair of chopsticks.

"It's my week to bring food," he shrugged.

"You didn't have to go all the way to the pier though, so thank you," Tashigi closed her eyes as she inhaled the glorious smell of her chashu ramen. Rich, warm broth with bamboo shoots, corn, an egg, and mushrooms. He knew her favorite order just like she knew that he always ordered the chicken katsu with extra sauce on the side.

"So, what have you got for tonight?" Smoker asked in-between bites. It took her a moment to respond as she nearly burned her tongue on the hot broth but after a second, she turned to look at him, an almost prideful expression on her face.

Tashigi tapped the snail on her table, "Tonight, we're watching Sea King vs. Lasercano." Her eyes glimmered with glee. Smoker blinked once, slowly, at her. "...This is gonna be awful," he said, a hint of dismay in his voice.

"Yes, yes it is," she grinned brightly, her eyes scrunching up from the force of her cheeks.

"Alright, let's do it then," he said, closing his eyes and feigning resignation. Tashigi pressed play on the den den mushi and leaned back against the couch. Within five minutes, Smoker let out a groan as the camera showed the bones of an ancient sea king found inside of a dormant volcano and a scientist saying dramatically "We've found it at last. With this...we can defeat Sea King and humanity will reign supreme once more!"

Tashigi snorted and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Do you think this one will be worse than Spider Queen: Aftershock?"

Smoker pressed a hand to his temple and took a sip of his beer. "I don't know if that's a high or low bar to surpass," he muttered and she laughed. Spider Queen: Aftershock had been the best awful movie they had yet to see. It had also been the first one that began this… well, the corner of Tashigi's lips quirked up, this tradition she supposed.

A warm feeling spread across her chest. Her posting before Loguetown had been a podunk island in the East Blue with a commander who thought she should have been a housewife instead of a soldier. Transferring to Loguetown had been a blessing though it hadn't seemed so at the beginning.

Desperate to prove herself, she followed every rule, every law, cut no corners, and was a straighter edge than Shigure. This did not work with Smoker. At all. They clashed at least once a week over something for six straight months. Unexpectedly, it was a ridiculous movie that brought them together.

"Wha… are you kidding me?" she breathed, staring transfixed at the screen on her wall. Of course, the long dead sea king had been revived, and of course it went wrong. Smoker covered his face with the palm of his hand. "Wait...how does that even work? How can you...absorb the power of a volcano? Why?!"

Smoker turned to her and said "Why not?" completely dead pan.

"...Fair point, Sir," she laughed as he smirked at her. She grabbed a beer off the coffee table and cracked it open, the smell making her cringe. "Wow, this is low quality, even for you," she wrinkled her nose at him.

"Does this movie really deserve better?" he quipped as she swallowed a mouthful of truly low quality beer, the taste both skunky and like the urine from a certain species of equine. She wasn't a big drinker, but she could tell the difference between good alcohol and bad.

"No, but we do," she set her beer back down on the table, and tucked her feet under bottom.

"Maybe I'm just a masochist," Smoker grunted.

"You have to be, at least a little, to put up with this for as long as you have," Tashigi giggled.

"Or something. Could be I just like the company," he shrugged. She stared at him for a moment, then turned away, her cheeks burning just a little. It still surprised her sometimes that it was so easy between them, especially when she recalled the very first time they watched a movie together. Her lips curved up as she recalled how it began.

Their arguments had gotten so bad that she'd stormed out of Loguetown's headquarters and hunkered down in her tiny quarters. The knock on her door had been unexpected. She hadn't had an easy time making friends with the other soldiers. Being a stickler for rules, and a girl, had that kind of effect. She'd gotten up, opened the door and promptly closed it right in Smoker's face, more from shock than from anger. When she reopened it a second later, he'd looked so scary she nearly closed the door again.

Grudgingly, she'd let him in and closed the door. He'd looked far too large for her tiny quarters. She had felt so awkward and defensive as he looked around her quarters. The floral pattern blanket on her bed, the pink homemade tea cozy on the kettle. The big pile of Katana Magazine on her table and...the video snail, paused on a very strange scene in the "film" she was watching.

"Why, why did I agree to watch this…" Smoker sighed heavily as Tashigi clutched her sides with laughter as Sea King grabbed a boat and slam dunked it through the volcano's opening. She sucked in a big gulp of air, wiping the corner of her eyes and it struck her then that she never had asked him.

"Why did you agree to watch this with me, Smoker-san?" she asked, turning her eyes towards him and adjusting her glasses. He rubbed his chin and gave her a curious look. "You chose it, it's your week," he raised an eyebrow at her.

She made a noise and flushed. Right, he couldn't read her mind, though it felt like it sometimes. "Sorry, ah, I-I meant, um, this as in, um…" Tashigi gestured weakly with her hand as she trailed off. It felt silly to ask, now, years later, and what if the answer was... something that discolored her memories? "N-nevermind," she mumbled, focusing back on the screen. The pro-Sea King humans were now trying to lure Lasercano to a glacier to neutralize his magma powers.

Smoker was gazing at her, and she wished that he would stop. She knew that look. That look said he wasn't going to drop it. His voice was suddenly serious, which wasn't much different than his normal voice, but she could tell the difference. The way he set his jaw and how his amber eyes intensified. "You meant this as in why did I start watching these with you in general?" Okay, maybe he could read her mind. She opened her mouth, then closed it and nodded slowly.

"You remember how this started?" he crossed his arms, but had a fond quirk to his lips as he looked down at her coffee table, crossing his legs. Tashigi nodded again, looking down at her lap. She recalled that she had dug her fingernails into her palms to keep from fidgeting with the hem of her jacket. Just like she was doing now.

She glanced over at Smoker as he ran a hand through his hair, one of his tells that he was feeling awkward. He'd done the same thing back then, the first time she'd seen him not as the admirable hard ass commander who took down every pirate who dared dock, nor the lout who she'd watched nap in the middle of the workday, or lounge about at the seedier local bars. She had clashed with the latter, and seemed to grate on the nerves of the former with her clumsiness.

"I value cohesion in my command," Smoker quoted. A small smile appeared on Tashigi's face.

"I thought you were going to transfer me. I was so nervous I thought I was going to cry," she rubbed her palm with her thumb, not meeting Smoker's eyes.

"Yeah, though you looked me in the eyes. Ballsy, despite the tears," Smoker chuckled. She flushed.

"I was scared you were going to put me on some tiny island that I'd never get off of..." she said softly, looking at the screen once more. Lasercano had fallen into the trap on the glacier and Sea King was on his way through the water, but the scientist who created Lasercano had some kind of failsafe input into its genetic code that did something they had yet to reveal.

"The thought hadn't crossed my mind," Smoker grunted. Tashigi smiled at him, warmth settling between her shoulder blades as she recalled the surprised look on his face, the way his eyebrows jumped high on his forehead before doing a 180 and scrunching in confusion. He'd held up a hand when she went to ask him why he wasn't transferring her.

"I value cohesion in my command, but I value someone who isn't afraid to speak up more, even if we disagree," she repeated softly. Smoker gazed at her, his eyebrows raised just a bit before the corner of his lips quirked up.

"Your face when I suggested we needed to find a way to work together was pretty good," Smoker closed his eyes and shook his head with a chuckle.

"So was yours when I suggested bonding activities," Tashigi rolled her eyes. The noise he had made still brought a smile to her face. That was when it happened. He'd made a face at the mere suggestion of "bonding activities", looked away from her and at the wall she was projecting her movie onto instead.

"That was when I made the mistake of asking what the hell you were watching," Smoker rumbled. They looked at each other for a moment before an utterly absurd noise drew their attention back to the movie.

Lasercano was powering up, and the sound effect for it was somewhere between a motorcycle revving and a dinosaur roar. The camera shook as if the ground was shaking. Tashigi giggled.

The absurd movie they were watching now wasn't too different from what she had been in the middle of when Smoker knocked on her door. She had paused Spider Queen: Aftershock on a shot of a terrible looking spider in the middle of shoving a few of its legs up through the earth above as humans on the surface ran around screaming. The main male action lead held onto what looked like a giant squirt gun which was pointed at the sky.

"I'm not sure what was worse, the movie itself, or you trying to explain it to me," Smoker took a sip of his beer, the skunky taste apparently having no effect on him. Tashigi wasn't sure whether to be jealous of his lack of taste or concerned.

She gazed at him, taking in the relaxed droop of his shoulders, the slight way his eyes were crinkled at the corners. He wasn't scary to her anymore, it was almost impossible to see how he ever could have been. But she had been intimidated by him back then, so much so that she still wasn't sure what possessed her to ask him if he wanted to sit down in her crappy office chair and watch it with her.

And she was even less sure of why he'd shrugged and done just that.

"So...um, why did you agree to… uh, my invitation?" She fiddled with the edge of her throw pillow. Smoker glanced at her and opened his mouth but let out a choked snort instead. The failsafe had been triggered in Lasercano just as Sea King got the upperhand in the battle. Said failsafe gave him the power to turn as hard as rock, demonstrated by turning a gray color with badly textured lines to look like "rock". Tashigi shoved her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter which was more at Smoker's incredulous expression than the movie antics.

After a moment of Smoker muttering something along the lines of "that's not how magma works" under his breath, he turned back to answer her question. This time she met his eyes, nervous butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. "I had a hunch," he muttered in his typical gravelly fashion. Tashigi stared at him. A hunch? That was it?

She looked back down at her lap, biting the inside of her bottom lip, feeling like something was deflating in her chest. Smoker let out a sigh and she could see him rub the back of his neck. "Look, Tashigi, despite how many brain cells I have killed watching these awful…" he gestured at the screen where the scientists trying to help Sea King were now trying to figure out how Sea King could damage solid rock.

"Masterpieces?" she suggested helpfully.

"That's a word for it," he said, giving her a look. A tiny grin formed on her lips. "...This is the highlight of my week, Tashigi," he finished, looking resolutely at the screen, the tops of his cheeks turning a slight pink. A soft feeling enveloped her, spreading outwards from her chest. She smiled brightly at him before looking away.

Right at that moment, the scientists had solved the problem. Their solution made her mouth drop open. They gave Sea King a giant sword. "Y-you can't just use a sword like that!" she cried out as Smoker laughed. She glared at him then glared at the screen as Sea King proceeded to use the sword as one would use a club.

"Seems effective to me, maybe you should try it," Smoker smirked at her as she rounded on him. "I doubt he could use a sword properly with no training anyway," she mumbled, making a face and ignoring Smoker's shit eating grin. With the weapon, Sea King was finally able to defeat Lasercano.

The credits began rolling. "So, what are you picking for next week, Smoker-san?" Tashigi asked as he got to his feet, helping her clean up her coffee table.

"They made a sequel to Spider Queen: Aftershock," he paused as she gasped. "Named it Spider Queen: Tidalwave," he finished with a groan as she squealed.

This was the highlight of her week too, and she hoped they never stopped.

Notes:

Yes, I did watch Godzilla vs. King Kong. It was fun. You all do not want to know how many bad movies I have watched, but by far my favorite is Avalanche Sharks. It's very very bad, 100% recommend.
Anyway, I really wanted to write something lighthearted with lots of dialogue and this happened. I might...do a long fic with them watching movies together.

Let me know what you think!

As always, thank you for reading and you can find me on twitter at buggyisbest!