His massive jaws chomped away happily at a large piece of rock candy, his thick lips spreading into an ear-to-ear grin.
"I'm all right with tha',"
He said through the mouthful of candy, spraying Kent with little bits of flecks. He wiped it away disgustedly, but refrained from commenting as he nervously watched the faint light filtering into the garage reflect off the five long blades that Krow experimentally moved with one hand and carressed with the other.
"Are the rest of you prepared to agree? For I am not a patient man,"
He said softly. Arlong snorted.
"Whatever. As long as we get the money, I don't care!"
His tuneless laughter made Buggy cringe and pressed his hands to his bandaged head, but even so he grinned excitedly, his red nose seeming to glow as he said eagerly,
"So the money's promised, is it?"
"Augustus Flint has been located."
Gin said lowly, and Waporu smirked, wiping his mouth as he tossed the rock candy in the general direction of Kent.
"That does it. I think we're all in, eh?"
Krieg's eyes glittered as he watched each leader carefully nod their heads in consent. A grin slowly widened across his lips.
"Excellent. All plans run..."
His eyes glittered maliciously as his voice heightened in excitement,
"...for Saturday."
He looked just as she'd remembered him, and she found her throat tightening as he settled down in front of her, running a hand through his silvery hair. He stuck a cigarette down into the ash tray near the menus, and lit up another one. Tashigi scowled despite her nervousness.
"I thought I told you to quit?"
She snapped, glowering. He snorted, expelling a puff of smoke as he did so.
"I'll don't care if I die smoking, remember?"
He said, rolling his eyes as he leant back in his chair. She sighed, finding her own muscles relaxing. There had always been a strange tendency between them; when he was tense, Tashigi tensed up, and when he was relaxed, so was she. Strangely enough, Zoro could be as relaxed as he pleased yet Tashigi could still be urgent and panicky...
'Don't think of that cabbage head now,'
She thought to herself irritably, and crossing her arms looked at the young man in front of her, currently craning his neck about in search for a waitress. And, as it usually did when she studied his squarish jaw and hairless brows, her vision swam into another...
"Tashigi! You idiot, stop gawking at that sword and come to order!"
"Y-yes, sir! Do you want something to drink or something? It is awfully hot--"
"NO!! JUST GET YOUR BUTT UP HERE, YOU IDIOT!!"
"Oi, miss! Some iced tea!"
Smoker hollered.
"Why'd you want to meet?"
Tashigi asked dully, pointedly ignoring the images flitting past her eyes. She had grown too accumstomed to such 'visions' to care much now. He turned his hawk-like gaze to the black-haired girl quietly sitting in front of him, looking at her with piercing intensity. She sometimes wondered how he did that.
"You feeling alright?"
He asked gruffly, just the slightest hint of concern edging his voice. She nodded slowly, but stopped at his glare, and the nod turned into a strange diagonal shake of the head.
"What's wrong?"
When she didn't reply, Smoker continued,
"It's not by any chance about-- well, about all the alternative universe thing, is it? Because-- that's precisely why I wanted to meet today."
"What?!"
She exclaimed.
"You're the only one I told about stuff about that to. And...."
He pushed himself back a bit from the coffee table and gazed out the window, his eyes narrowing slightly as he murmured,
"...It just feels like the 'vibes' are getting stronger. Like something's going to-- well, happen."
Her voice caught in her throat as her eyes widened. She'd just met someone with the same idea as Smoker. Did this mean she was supposed to tell him--?
"I was wondering if you were feeling anything yet."
He said seriously. She considered running away from the cafe for a split second-- she had never been good at lying to anyone, let alone to Smoker's lie-detecting eyes. But he would probably kick her on the way out to stop her from going. Not that he was violent-- he just got stubborn when he wanted things his way. Sighing, Tashigi took a sip of water.
"Well... there has been one thing..."
She murmured, and Smoker lifted his brows up expectantly.
"We won't do it again! We won't!"
"We promith, Uthopp! Thith time we'll leave it alone, we promith!"
"You just concentrate on growing that tooth back,"
Kaya giggled from behind a hand as she watched Usopp stumble down the stone steps before the Matilda Charity House, looking harrassed two kids trailed after him, clinging onto his trousers.
"Let GO!"
The engineer bellowed,
"I'm HUNGRY, I'd like to have LUNCH--"
"--Would you like to eat it with me?"
Kaya asked brightly as she stepped out from aside the lamp-post. Usopp's irritated exterior dropped as his jaw did.
"Kaya? Are you-- are you allowed to--?"
She smiled at his surprise, pleased at the fact he had managed to recognise her even with her purple tints and her hair tucked under a cap. The kids let go of Usopp's legs and looked up at the blond girl curiously. Then they giggled as they ran up the steps.
"Later, Uthopp!"
One of them called out as they laughed and returned to the orphanage. Usopp shot after them a scowl before he walked up to Kaya with an apologetic grin.
"I thought your manager didn't let you out that easily,"
He said. Kaya smiled brightly.
"Merii doesn't! I was supposed to go straight home from a photo-shoot at Horlock's Street, but I decided I'm going to skive off a magazine interview tonight."
"You're going to worry him like that."
Usopp said with a sweatdrop. She glanced at him from behind her tints, seeing that somehow a frazzled-looking strand of hair had managed to stick up from his ponytail to stand up at the back. He blinked in surprise as she burst out laughing.
"You're mighty cheerful today,"
He said sounding delighted. She felt herself glow at his delight, somehow greatly happy that he was. He took her arm cheerfully as he asked in a mock-formal voice,
"Where shall I escort you today, ma'am?"
"Anywhere you want to, sir,"
She said, and he tapped the end of his long nose as he declared,
"I do believe burgers are in line of delicacies these days. It's also about the only affordable amount of money I've got to treat the both of us, but I assure you that is only coincidence."
Kaya smiled warmly as she held his arm more closely to her.
"That sounds fine. What were you doing in the MCH today?"
He started, then began to shake his head with a long-suffering sigh.
"You won't believe this,"
Usopp said, still shaking his head,
"But some kids messed up the wiring for an electric fan with a glass of milk and some cookie crumbs, and the next thing I know is a nightmare on Earth. Kids getting caught on an extra hyper fan whirling around at the speed of sound, Mrs. Ella fainting from running around in circles in attempts to retrieve them..."
Usopp's face split into a grin as Kaya burst into a fit of giggles.
Wiping tears angrily from her eyes, Nami huffed as she flopping onto her bed. Damn it! Damn that idiotic rubber captain of hers!
'No Nami,'
She thought to herself quickly, stricken by her line of thinking,
'No-- not your captain, remember? Your past life's captain. There's no need to take part in the madness starting to stir up. I don't have to apply myself, I don't--'
"Nami-san! I'll protect your oranges for you, no matter what!"
Nami blinked. What had been a pillow and tear-stained sheets moments ago had somehow morphed into wooden planks. As she looked around upwards, she found herself having to squint out bright sunlight relentlessly burning into her lids and highlighting the black-clad chef happily waving to her from aside a large collection of orange trees. The sun filtered through his blonde hair and somehow managed to brighten his cheerful and pleased smile even further.
She felt her own mouth move and speak words she did not command. As his name rolled out of her mouth in three syllables, a happy sort of flush filled his cheeks as he swooned at her. The corners of her lips lifted in a warm smile at the sight of him jumping around, swatting away Luffy's hands away from the oranges.
"Why, of course! Anything for the loveliest treasure of all Blues!"
His voice held a strange echo as he flashed a cheesy grin at her before literally attacking the captain. She heard herself chuckle, and felt herself feel lighter and happier-- happy in the fact that she knew that these people would always be here for her, and she finally had a rock to rely on, an anchor which she would not betray...
CRASH.
The next thing she knew, she was blinking rain out of her eyes as thunder crashed and rolled as sheets of rain pelted relentlessly onto the deck and soaking her to the skin with an icy coldness.
Her eyes flickered from cruel amber eyes to her hands. They were soaked in blood, and as she made a movement as though to try and wipe the crimson off her shirt, she found her clothes had been stained with the same irremovable red.
Then her view swerved up again, snapping her head up in shock as through the thick blanket of rainwater and whipping winds smothering her, she saw a thick beam of bright-blue-white, pulsating a terrifying aura as it shot towards her at an immeasurable speed--
Lightning flashed, illuminating the skies and the moment as his hands pressed onto her back and shoulder and gently curled fingers around her wet skin in a greatly protective hold. Before she could scream or even look in his direction, he had pushed her out of the way with all of his might. Her eyes widened as he smiled at her.
He was smiling at her. As though in choppy slow motion, she saw his smile brightly through the rain as though he were emitting a sort of light. Then it grew to a painfully bright extent, forcing her eyelids shut. But his smile was embedded into her eyes, and she found herself screaming out his name for all she was worth, a desperate and horrified plea weaving into her voice as she shrieked.
"Nami-san?"
Her eyes opened to see him looking at her eagerly as he shoved a plate of sugar cookies under her nose, a waft of the deliciously warm scent meeting her senses-- but she was crying. Why was he still smiling at her? Wasn't he angry? He'd died in her place. She was sure she'd hate anyone who'd make her die. Anyone who should have died. Wouldn't she?
But what if it was your choice?
The question an inner-voice probed at sounded sickening to her. Why would she choose to do something so-- so painfully sacrificing? She was a back-stabber, acceptable for partners and friends but-- to give your life was just-- stupid, wasn't it...?
She watched the cook chatter to Zoro and Usopp about the amount of salt in rice-balls as he sat rather comfortably on Luffy's back, as to prevent him from eating up the last of their meat stock, feeling helplessly lost. He glanced at her with a sweet smile, and the soft glow of the sun on the deck abruptly plunged into stormy grey as inky waves crashed into the ship, the splattering rain not enough to block out that same, sweet smile as he gave himself for her--
--and just the day before, when they'd talked rather mindlessly about classes as they ate the cookies he'd offered, she saw the same boyish lilt in his talk and constant smiles, the same eagerness--
And again she was stumbling around the deck as the rain poured down, pouring into her own voice a deep fear she had not wanted to come true, a reckless rage seeping into her blood as confusion overcame her in a tide-- and visions of his concern back at Drum Island, of his excited yelp as she accepted an offer of a drink from him, of his happiness of just being near her enveloped her eyes despite the heavy rain.
"Why did you do it?"
She whispered confusedly as she saw him serve food on the ship as he mused out loud about his dreams,
"Why would you want to give everything you had for one person? Why would you do it for me?"
But his smiles didn't do anything to console her, and she felt the same reckless anger gush into her like a boiling poison.
"Why?!"
The sound of a load of cans tumbling onto the ground shattered the visions of pain in front of her eyes, and she heard a voice exclaim,
"Nami?!"
She turned her eyes to her friend, and realised she was on the floor, her face covered with a thick sheen of tears. Vivi bent down and grabbed her shoulders, giving her a hard shake as she cried out anxiously in effort to take Nami away from her unfocused grasp,
"What's wrong? What's wrong?!"
And her blue-haired friend's face dissolved into a blonde man's face as he asked her worriedly, not knowing she hadn't been making a face at the food but at Luffy eating like a starved elephant, and her laughing at his needless concern--
"Is something wrong?! Tell me, Nami!! Are you feeling all right?"
But Nami didn't hear Vivi's voice at all -- she felt hands on her shoulders, remembered--
"Is something wrong, Nami-san? You-- you don't seem very-- are you feeling all right?"
And he hadn't been angry. No, he still wasn't angry at her for ripping his life and dreams away at her expense. She tried to hammer boards to shield herself from his burning gaze of genuine concern, but all he did was thrust himself in the way so she ended up embedding nails into him instead. His eyes reached for her as he gave a small sweet smile.
But even then... she hadn't been telling the truth at all, and she felt her tears dribble past her chin as she heard her spite-filled words,
"Like you really like me-- as though you really freaking care-- I find you repulsive. I hate you."
She choked. That wasn't right-- that wasn't right at all. He was supposed to be the one who hated her. Her hands gripped her head, trying to rid herself of the powerful headache threatening to tear her brain apart as she tried to understand...
She began to cry in earnest as she felt her throat constrict tightly at the thought of herself eating so calmly with him. How could she? How could she do this to him? He had sacrificed himself completely without question, and she had torn herself away to spare herself from the pain. Her hand clamped over her mouth as she realised with a shock how disgustingly selfish she had been--
I find you repulsive. I hate you.
She didn't. Nami realised with a jolt who those words, the words that had come from the heart -- her soul -- had really been directed to.
"Nami-san?"
She blinked, more tears spilling over as her hazel eyes lifted to meet Sanji's shocked ones from the open dorm door, cans of soda littering the floor around his feet. And she felt it again. The deep knife-stabs at her chest, the searing pain that seemed to resonate from the centre of her brain. The building disgust, anger and horror finally crashed open a dam as he made one move towards her, that damn familiar concern imprinted on his face.
Nami let out a blood-curdling scream that stopped Sanji in his tracks, freezing Vivi's actions as she was pouring water into a glass, two Koi tablets in her other hand. The glass tipped and the water splattered over the table and floor as Nami grabbed Vivi's arm roughly and pushed her angrily out of the door. Startled, Vivi let out a cry of protest, but Nami slammed a fist into Sanji's ribcage hard enough to send him stumbling back into Vivi, effectively pushing them out of the dorm.
"Nami!!"
"Nami-san?!!"
The door slammed in their faces as Nami rested her head into her palms as she let out choked sobs into her fists.
"Nami-san? Please-- please let us through!"
The door-handle jangled as he said desperately,
"Kale said it would be difficult-- you have to let us help! You--"
Another heart-stopping scream cut his voice off shortly, punctuated with the sound of breaking glass and ceramic material, a clatter sounding as text-books fell in a tumble to the floor from Nami sweeping them off her desk, the lamp following next as she continued her ruthless throwing of belongings around.
Unable to stand the pain any longer, Vivi turned on her heel and left the floor. Sanji had never seen her look so white, nor had he ever seen so many tears leaking past her cheeks.
The model hammered at the door, calling out the navigator's name, but was only responded with the crashing of glass and mugs and the occasional out-burst of frustratedly angered screams.
It was nearly two hours later when Nami forced her shaky legs to stand from the desk, kick her way through the mass of broken glass and ripped papers cluttering the floor and pull the door open. There was no one there, and there was an odd mix of rushing relief and seeping disappointment that flooded her mind. But as she started to shut the door, she noticed something dangling from the handle.
Sliding it off, she found a small package in tissue-paper. Unwrapping it she found several soft muffins decorated with strawberries and icing.
She stood still for a long time with the door half open and the package cradled in her hands, tears silently coursing past already stained cheeks.
A/N: I have a feeling the chapters are going to get a bit longer... I'd like to get the plot moving along, as I'm sure you'll be somewhat ecstatic to hear. Uhm, HURRAH!!! D I'm two days early in my update! ^_^ The next update plan: same day, Tuesday the 22nd. Whaaa? You say. Er, I've got to return to school on Wednesday, see. ESF is a little weird in scheduling. If this SARS thing continues any longer..... *sighs* I had something planned for today, but I apologise - I won't be able to bring it out to the open any time soon. T-T Gomen! I hope it'll be up and going by Sunday... *bows to readers* thank you for standing my awful writing until now... T-T* You guys are the best. *hugs all reviewers*