He chomped into a chicken drumstick boredly, one hand holding the hot piece of spicy meat with a napkin and his other arm holding up a brown paper bag filled with chicken wings and legs.
Plopping down onto one of the many benches lining the outskirts of the local park, the small boy let out a loud whine as he chewed vigorously, a look of severe frustration settling on his face.
He hadn't been able to find GrandLine University, even though he had gone searching for it for over days now, while checking out loads of other universities and colleges on the way. No one seemed to know where GrandLine actually was. It was annoying him to pieces.
"I wouldn't have taken this job if I'd known how long it was going to take,"
The boy grumbled through a mouthful of chicken, his eyes flittering across the stores across the road. He was going to be thirsty soon, and he wanted a jumbo soda if he could get one.
His eyes widened suddenly, and the drumstick dropped from his hand back into the paper bag. He hurriedly shoved his glasses up the bridge of his nose to ensure he had seen clearly, using a clean thumb to avoid greasing the lenses, and let out a groan.
"Of course! How could I be such a dunce?!!"
He complained out loud, and grabbing the paper bag full of chicken he jumped up and ran towards the small tourist stall on the pavement across the street.
Once he reached the stall, the boy asked the man eagerly for a map.
Brushing a few strands of her hair behind her neck, Kaya looked more closely at the papers in her head.
"A witness?"
Spearing a neatly sliced square of steak with his fork, Kurohadol held it elegantly above his plate, smiling demurely at the blonde actress.
"Yes. I just need your signature on that little dotted line there to confirm that I, manager of Feline Incorporates, have sworn to take full responsibility over Theodore Flint's land should he pass away under... unfortunate circumstances."
Kaya looked at it for a moment, feeling somewhat uneasy. She didn't know why, but Kurohadol had that effect on her. She always felt strangely inclined to feel suspicious of every move he made.
She knew for a fact that Feline Incorporates hadn't been going too well ever since one of their major providers had suddenly cut all contact between them. She had seen the stress piling on Kurohadol - he hadn't met her in ages, and she had been surprised to receive a call from him that morning. Merii had been delighted, oddly enough.
"It won't be long until he asks for your hand in marriage,"
Merii had said, weirdly elatedly as he helped Kaya into her jacket. She was hoping that would never, ever happen. Not only would it cause an uproar in the media - especially since he was a lot older than her -, but she also had no real intention to say yes. She didn't really have 'that sort' of feelings for Kurohadol.
They had met when she was quite young - Kurohadol had known Kaya's parents, and had met quite frequently with Kaya after they had died.
"I feel I owe it to them to ensure you are living well,"
Kurohadol had said. Kaya did not really think Kurohadol had any plans to give her a ring any time soon, by any rate; he treated her like a little girl. He had reached into his coat, making Kaya hold her breath and wonder... and then he'd pulled out several papers and a contract, much to her immense relief.
"It's awfully lucky that you've been given the responsibility for Theodore Flint's land,"
Kaya said carefully, refraining from adding, 'not to mention incredibly coincidental',
"Is there no hope for him?"
"Kaya,"
Kurohadol swallowed his piece of steak before looking at Kaya almost sternly, his voice taking on a tone an adult would take when correcting a child,
"Mr. Flint has been in a coma for six months, now. It pains me to say this, but it appears only a miracle would waken the old man. I sincerely wish for his well-being, but..."
There was a silence as Kurohadol let Kaya fill the blank for herself, and continued to serenely slice up his steak. The actress sipped her orange juice, thinking about the turnabout of events.
Kaya knew Mr. Flint because he was an infamous land tycoon around the area. He had written in his will that one particularly large piece of land should be handed to his son, but it was known that Augustus Flint had fled to some other place after being accused of drug trafficking. Augustus Flint had not been heard from for over a decade, and Theodore Flint was still in coma after a severe car-crash.
Theodore Flint's wife, Cheryl Maine, had given Kurohadol responsibility for the piece of land, as she knew her husband heavily trusted Kurohadol. Kaya couldn't help but think this was all too convenient for Kurohadol, whose company was in serious danger of collapsing altogether. Selling Flint's land would definitely save Feline Incorporates for over a year.
Kaya's eyes drifted over the parchment the contract had been printed upon. Below the text declaring that, should Theodore Conrad Flint pass away under any unfortunate circumstance before being able to change section 3 of his will, Kurohadol Krow should receive all responsibility concerning all 10,523 acres of Storm land. Below the chunk of text, there were four dotted lines below.
Ian Milton, the person who had written and approved of the contract, had a small, squarish signature. Next to it was Kurohadol Krow's very italic and very neat signature. Below Milton's signature was Cheryl Maine's loopy sign as 'first witness'. The one aside Cheryl Maine's signature was a blank dotted line for 'second witness'.
She knew that witnesses were usually people unrelated to the contract in general. They were truly just people to confirm that the contract had been created. She had thought she was too young to be a witness, but apparently, anyone could be. Cheryl Maine was probably a witness out of convenience. Kurohadol had played the cassette tape onto which he had recorded the creation of the contract - twice. She just needed to sign it.
She didn't want to, for some reason. Something about the whole thing seemed to fall too perfectly into place. A lot of things fell perfectly into place for Kurohadol, actually. She didn't like it. But Kaya had always felt sort of in debt to this poised man before her - he had really tried to make an effort in helping Kaya to become a successful actress. He had been the one to introduce her to 'Amber Signs', one of her most successful serials, after all... signing this contract was one of the least things she could do on her path to repay him.
Picking up the fountain pen he had offered her, she unscrewed the cap, and pressed the nib onto the parchment. The black ink glistened as she wrote out her signature quickly, capped the pen and almost threw the pen back at him. She felt very uncomfortable all of the sudden.
"Thank you, dear,"
He said with a smile, lifting the glasses up the bridge of his nose with an upturned palm, and Kaya looked away uneasily. That particular gesture always made Kaya feel weirded out.
She missed the satisfied glint he held in his eyes.
Tucking a pencil behind his ear, Usopp tapped the left side of his notebook with an index finger.
"So this would be a rough timeline, right?"
He asked the group. Nami wagged a finger, correcting,
"Nope. It would actually be a chronological order of events. Not a timeline."
"Whatever,"
Zoro said with a roll of his eyes,
"Same thing."
"No it's not."
Nami said, frowning.
"Sure it is."
"A timeline has intervals of time, while this has no relation to the passage of time at all. We don't know the time!"
"I do. It's 12:20, according to my watch."
Zoro said, grinning as Nami's temple bulged with a nerve of pure annoyance. He was promptly decked by Sanji.
"Just listen to the lady! She knows more than you would ever know,"
The model snapped, then smiled in a dopey manner at Nami.
"Isn't that right, my sweet?"
Zoro snorted, then quickly covered it with a cough and a slurp of his third soda. Something twisted deep in Nami painfully, and she involuntarily scowled. The scowl wiped the smile off Sanji's face, and realising what she had done, Nami quickly covered her expression with one that was impassive and asked Usopp,
"So how does it go now?"
Had it not been Nami and any other girl, Sanji would have felt just irritated at himself, wondering what hadn't been appealing enough about himself, but with Nami... he didn't feel irked at himself or her, but actually... he felt hurt. He never let himself grow close a girl for fear of paparazzi and emotional conflict, yet here he was, stinging from Nami's frostiness. She didn't act that way to Usopp or Zoro, which seriously undermined himself.
Sanji shook it off, knowing he had kept an eye on Nami for quite a while, but seeing Nami with that hairstyle today made him feel a lot more inclined to be closer to her. He wasn't entirely sure what their relationship had been like, but that scowl hadn't looked very familiar to him. He bored his eyes into Nami for a few moments, but she refused to turn her head.
"Well,"
Usopp began, unaware of the exchange between Sanji and Nami, and flicking the pencil out from behind his ear he circled the notations on the left side of the paper.
"The earliest memory we can recall is when Zoro and Nami comes to my village to save it from a bunch of pirates. We were given a ship, right?"
"Yep. I remember that lamb thing on the head of the ship."
Nami said with a smile, the familiarity warming her as small flitters of a faintly outlined wooden carving of a smiling lamb passing her mind. Usopp nodded, satisfied, and pressing the pencil down, he dragged the lead across from the first circle to the next chunk of notes and drew a second circle around it.
"Then we arrive at Sanji's restaurant, the Baratie. Nami ditches us,"
The girl in mention winced, but the engineer continued on as though she hadn't,
"So Zoro, Sanji and I reach Kokoyashi village. Nami is at Arlong Park. After a bunch of exchange, which we don't really know of--"
"Hang on a minute,"
Sanji interrupted. Usopp looked up in surprise, and the blonde slightly uncomfortably to his room-mate. Zoro blinked.
"What?"
"Remember what we talked about yesterday? About just *how* we got Nami-san back?"
Zoro frowned before raising his eyebrows as he remembered.
"Oh, right. Yeah. We think we were fighters from our ship or something."
"Fighters?"
Nami repeated, her brows creased just slightly as she tried to think about why this was affecting her.
"Yeah. I mean... we discussed how... uh, he can suddenly whack real well with sticks,"
The model jabbed a thumb to Zoro, who scowled at his choice of phrase,
"And I can suddenly kick like hell."
"What do you mean?"
Usopp asked, still slightly confused but probing because the idea struck a chord in him.
"Uhm, some time on Friday, GLU had a dinner dance. A bunch of idiots drove in on motorbikes--"
"Oh yeah! I heard of that from the newspapers! Why didn't you tell me, Nami?"
Usopp complained. Zoro and Nami remembered their brunch together the previous morning, and automatically exchanged glances. Then they shrugged simultaneously.
"It didn't seem very important."
Zoro said nonchalantly. Nami, on the other hand, didn't say anything; she hadn't said a word about it because she didn't want to lie about herself not getting hurt. However, because Usopp might get all horrified and faint at the bruises plainly visible on her forehead and her arm, she'd artfully hidden the ugly splotches with shirt sleeves and her fringe. She sub-conciously ran her fingertips through the orange strands at her forehead, bringing herself to Sanji's attention unintentionally.
"Is your head all right?"
The blonde asked, remembering the faintly green tinge on the lump at her temple, and trying very hard not to succumb to the flare of anger in him at the memory of the stupid red-nosed freak. Nami visibly cringed as Usopp and Zoro both stared at her.
"What does he mean?"
Usopp asked, and Nami shook her head quickly. However, the motion made her wince in pain, and she mentally slapped herself for being so stupid.
"You got banged up by those gangsters?"
Zoro asked, only the tiniest hint of concern lacing his words. She groaned.
"Yes, I did, okay? I was being incredibly stupid. They came wielding metal bars and I went wielding glitter. It's my own fault any--"
"No it's not!!"
Sanji's voice cut in with an indignant cry,
"No one treats any lady like that, no matter what their excuse!"
Nami rolled her eyes, and opened her mouth to retort, when to her surprise Usopp leant over and lifted the locks of tangerine hair hiding the swollen bruise. It was now a mauvish blue, and Usopp flinched at the sight of it. She was so surprised at the sudden action it took her several moments before she realised he was revealing her bruise and thwacked his arm away.
"Nami, he's right. That's terrible. You should've reported it."
Usopp said with a deep frown. She scowled.
"Sure. 'I got a big bruise. Those big bad boys are such meanies. Wah, wah.' Fat lot of good that would do."
"That's true in some ways, but it does look pretty nasty."
Zoro said, scratching the back of his head as an expression of hesitance settled on his face,
"Those bastards really messed up our uni auditorium, but I never knew they hurt the students."
Nami realised she was turning pink at the genuinely concerned attention she was receiving from people who usually didn't express their concerns... and also, the fact that she just wasn't plain used to that sort of attention. She hastily drank her juice in effort to lower the temperature at her cheeks.
"And you should see what they did to her arm!"
Sanji cried dramatically, causing Nami to splutter and choke during mid-swallow as Zoro and Usopp stared at her incredulously.
"They hurt your arm, too?"
Usopp said, turning pale with worry, while the green-head frowned slightly as he remarked,
"Damn. What did you do to them?"
"I didn't do anything. And darn it, I'm fine!! I'm not on a death-bed or something! Go on, Zoro, about your little fighter theory bit,"
She snapped more angrily than normal, her cheeks flushed pink. Usopp immediately knew this was not a topic to pursue, and threw Zoro a Look that told him that. Sanji opened his mouth, his brows creased in concern as he seemed prepared to say something otherwise, but a swift kick from Usopp zipped his lips together. Usopp ignored the glare the model shot him.
"It's just that we probably fought to get Nami back. That Arlong guy, in particular."
An excruciating pain seared at Zoro's chest for just a split second, and he bent down with a small sound of discontent. Then the pain disappeared as abruptly as it had come. His movement broke the anger building in Nami, and she along with the rest gave him a look of surprise.
"Ouch. Something hurt there for a second,"
Zoro muttered, running a hand through his hair, then quickly shook his head and continued,
"So our crew composed of fighters, too."
"Of course! The lady needed bodyguards,"
Said Sanji dreamily as he gazed at Nami. She shifted uncomfortably, her chest suddenly feeling quite tight.
"Oh, there was that festival thing after we fought,"
Usopp said excitedly as a flurry of bright lights, star-lit skies, dishes of food and colourfully-clothed people dancing flashed before his eyes, sounds of music and cheerful chatter and laughter sifting through his ears,
"I remember! And I was singing-- all for Captain Usopp! Captain Usopp!"
The other three stared as the engineer's eyes glazed over as he momentarily got caught up in his own delight at his own name.
"Right,"
Zoro said, rolling his eyes,
"But there wasn't nearly enough beer."
"There were plenty of ladies,"
Sanji said, eyes shining, then he leaned over and grasped Nami's hands both resting at the table-top into both of his own, startling her. He gazed into her eyes with the air of a love-sick puppy as he said in a reassuring voice,
"But none of them could've ever amounted to you, Nami-san!"
The moment the model's warm hands closed around her own, Nami's chest contracted to a point it hurt her ribs, her heart clenching and something deep inside her twisting with a sharp jerk. A searing hot pain erupted in her chest and in her head, throbbing in time to her tight and quite suddenly audible heartbeats. Her heartbeats were the only thing she could hear.
She tried to look at him properly, wanting to tear her hands away, but she felt disjointed and un-coordinated. She could see his bright eyes and his cheerful smile, seemingly unfazed by all the negative signs she had been sending him all day. The image grew hazy and blurred; she could see another layer overlaying him, the same love-sick gaze with the same sappy smile, only his eyebrows were curled...
The pains intensified and her head pounded; her eyes narrowed as she tried to see clearly, but she could almost hear the rushing blood in her veins throbbing painfully as her chest felt as though something was tearing apart within--
She threw his hands back at him almost savagely, earning a startled, wide-eyed look from all three people on the table. Standing up abruptly and breathing dischordantly, Nami grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder roughly.
"I've-- suddenly re--membered s-some--thing. R-right. L-later."
Then she spun on her heel and stalked away, but a few steps away from the table, Nami broke into a run. She desperately wanted the pain clouding her chest and her mind to subside, and hoping that distancing herself from him would allow her the peace.
The three at the table looked quite stunned at the sudden outburst, though Zoro and Usopp looked more bewildered than Sanji's completely gob-smacked expression. Then, with only a flash of determination crossing his face as a warning, Sanji jumped up and ran around the table and after her.
Usopp and Zoro blinked, wondering what on earth had just happened. Then they shrugged, and the engineer spoke out loud as he wrote,
"Right, then. 'Zoro... plus... Sanji... fighters.' And next..."
A/N: You people are the best!! *huggles tightly* Thanks for bearing with me until now! ;_; I've been a real slacker, lately... I mean, I was having severe writer's depression as a whole, but now I've been picked up again by God. So yes. I hope you all don't hate me for being so incredibly inconsiderate lately with my schedule... But thanks for sticking with me until now. ^.^ Thank you! Thank you again!
Go and have a jolly good 2003, folks! ^.^*