Vetica rolled over, wrapping herself in soft cream sheets of linen. She groaned. Her head felt like it was bobbing up and down against the rocking of the Going Luffy. She blinked wearily. The sun was blinding as it streaked through the window of the cabin. In an adjacent room she could hear the muffled sounds of someone retching into some sort of bucket.
She clutched her head and sat up slowly, and, as she did, a cool breeze blew across her top. She wrapped her arms around herself. Skin contacted skin. Vetica's eyes grew wide. She didn't have her camisole on. She gasped and quickly lifted the sheets. Sure enough, she was completely naked and covered in weird bruises with a distinct wetness between her legs.
She stood and began wrapping the sheets around herself in a makeshift robe. She could only blearily remember the night before. She looked around the room, it seemed somewhat tidy and normal, maybe she was in one of the Barto-Club's extra cabins after all. Then she looked above the bed and felt her stomach roll. Mounted in a set of nine wooden picture frames were the wanted posters of the Straw Hat Pirates. That could only mean one thing.
She looked to the adjacent room as the sound of footsteps approached. Deep down she was praying that it was anyone but the one person she thought it was, but she was right. A bare foot stepped through the doorway as a naked Bartolomeo rounded the corner. The woman collapsed onto the bed. Bartolomeo stopped when he saw her, dropping his toothbrush on the ground.
The two stared at each other in disgust, shock, and silence.
It was all starting to come back to her now: the sake being poured; the laughter; her demanding to touch the man's abs; Rider trying to make her go to bed... They had been partying the night before to celebrate Bartolomeo's first bounty poster, 60,000,000 Belli for blowing up a major port. After six months of work and steady correspondence she felt like she should at least pay them a visit. She had brought the poster, and the crew insisted that she stay for some celebratory drinks. Her and Rider's transport had ditched them out of fear of the pirates anyways, so she had said "Why not." They insisted that she try the sake; she liked it, a bit too much. She had made Bartolomeo drink with her. Then pretty soon, much to the amusement of the crew, she began ordering the man around, demanding that he take his jacket off and dance with her. There was kissing; there was groping. After that the course could be easily guessed.
Vetica suddenly realized that she and Bartolomeo were still naked in the same room together. She took a deep breath.
"Where are my clothes?" She said, trying to keep her voice steady.
Bartolomeo just looked up in despair and collapsed, clearly just remembering what had gone on as well.
"Shit!" He exclaimed. "You are here-dabe!"
"Where the hell did you think I'd go!" She yelled. She cupped her face in her palms, and tried to keep from screaming. "Oh my god this can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening..."
"What do you mean?" The man asked, tears streaming down his face.
"You- me- we- we had...," she gasped, fighting the urge to barf. "We had sex... Oh god, We had sex. We had-!"
She clasped her hands over her mouth to keep herself from saying anymore. Her head was a raging river of emotions. She was beyond embarrassed. The panic on Bartolomeo's face wasn't helping. He seemed just as lost about the situation as she was, maybe even more so.
He was kneeling on the ground grasping his temples. Then he got up and went over to grab her shoulders.
"What do we do?" He asked, still crying and still naked.
Vetica pulled away from him, holding back tears of her own. She desperately looked around the room for her clothes and finally spotted them piled up in the corner. She made a mad dash for them, kicking the large man off of her legs. He collapsed on the edge of the bed and continued crying. She brought her hands back down; it was a bit easier to regain her strength with him acting so helpless.
"First, put some clothes on," she said, pointing to the other side of the room. She couldn't stand looking at his privates anymore, because every time she did all she could think of was... She shook her head. "And don't look; I'm going to change."
The man lifted his hands up in surrender, face still planted on the bed, and Vetica dropped the sheets from around her. As she pulled on her undergarments she heard a sniffle and the sound of rustling sheets.
"Did I do that-dabe?" She heard the man ask, his voice a little calmer than before.
She looked behind her, to see him staring at one of her bruises. She looked at the bruise more carefully and could see pronounced bite marks. She looked back up at him.
"Yeah, I'd say so," she said, a lot less angry than she thought she'd be at him. Then again, it was rather hard to be mad at someone who looked so miserable. She reached down and picked up her shirt. "I thought I told you not to look."
"Sorry," Bartolomeo said. "I didn't know you had a tattoo-dabe."
Vetica stopped. She looked down at her left arm for a moment before continuing to pull on her shirt. "So, you found my little secret."
"What is it?" He asked. His eyes were intense with curiosity.
"Scarab Beatles," she replied, trying to play it off as nonchalantly as possible. "They're supposed to be good luck in Alabasta."
Once she had finished pulling on her skirt she went back over to the edge of the bed and sat.
"Back when I was covering the civil war," she continued. Bartolomeo's eyes were transfixed on her. "I got shot. Bullet went right through my arm. I was lucky though. It didn't hit anything too important."
The large man slowly lifted up a hand to stroke her arm, where her tattoo hid. His fingers were light and gentle. It made woman briefly shudder until she looked over at him to see his still clearly exposed butt cheeks.
She violently pulled away and hit him. "Put your damn clothes on!"
After he was fully dressed the two sat on the bed side by side. Vetica was furiously writing notes on the pad of paper she had found in her shirt pocket. Bartolomeo just watched her, expectantly. Once she had filled up the page she ripped it off of the pad and handed it to him. The green haired man read it quickly.
"That's what the plan is," the young woman stated. "It's the perfect compromise. I get a promotion and medical attention, and you get a higher bounty."
Bartolomeo nodded slowly. Vetica could tell that he was thinking it over. Then he folded up the piece of paper and stuck it in his pocket.
"Sounds fine," he answered, giving another few nods.
The woman then pulled another piece of paper from her chest pocket and ripped it in half, one of which she handed to him.
"Also, this is my Vivre Card," she said. "That way you can find me if I need you for anything."
The man looked down at the this piece of paper, which lightly tugged in her direction. Then he looked back up at her. He was grinning in his usual creepy way.
"Vetica-senpai wants me to be able to find her-dabe!" He squealed.
The woman rolled her eyes and stood up, stashing the other half of the card.
"It helps my story if you're some creep who has sworn to track me until he decides to kill me," she said, before flashing a wild grin. "'Cannibal' Bartolomeo."
The two then exited the cabin to the whoops and catcalls of the Barto-Club crew. Rider stood across the way, hands clenched into fists. Vetica could distinctly see hatred in the usually calm man's eyes. Bartolomeo grabbed her arm, just as they discussed, and threw it up in the air.
"Men," The captain bellowed. "I have raped the reporter woman-dabe!"
The ship fell eerily silent. The crew's faces of joy had turned to faces of confusion. The only thing that could be heard was the footsteps of Rider as he charged forward.
"You Bastard!" The brown-haired man screamed, aiming a punch at Bartolomeo's face.
Bartolomeo leaned backwards, easily avoiding the punch. He then balled up his fist and punched Rider in the gut so that the man crumpled to the floor. Once on the ground he gave him a few more kicks for good measure. Then the captain pointed at several gawking crew men on the helm.
"Set course for the next Island," he ordered. Then he turned to his most trusted crewmate Gambia and tossed Vetica towards him. "And take the reporters to the storeroom-dabe."
The skinny, tattooed man handled her gingerly as they transported her and Rider down below deck. His facial expression was solemn, like he wanted to apologize for something. It was painful for Vetica to look at, so she just focused on the floor.
Rider did not look at Vetica for a full hour while they were in the storeroom, and, when he finally did, the look on his face made the young woman feel an immense weight. The silence was excruciating.
"Is it true?" The man finally asked.
Vetica looked down. She had lied to Rider over the years about a lot of different things, but this was one thing she knew she could not.
"No," she said simply.
The man's breath caught in the dark. Then he looked up wide eyed, and began to scoot towards her. "Then... you didn't-"
Vetica shied away from him. The amount of relief on his face just made her feel even worse. "We did."
The man stopped. The air in the room grew heavy again as the young woman could feel her friends rage rebuild. She gulped and wiped the tears, that were threatening to escape from her eyes. As far as her memory told her, she had enjoyed it, but the way the man was looking at her overwhelmed any happiness she might have felt with Bartolomeo at the time.
"That son of a bitch," Rider whispered. His breath was quaking. "I left for less than three minutes, and, when I got back, you were gone... I asked if you had left with him. They swore you hadn't. But then I heard you..."
Vetica's eyes grew wide; she could tell her friend was crying. The guilt and regret of what she had put him through was forming a knot the size of a whale in her gut. How could she have been so stupid? She should have known that much sake was a bad idea, but she had been carried away by the moment and infectious optimism of the crew. Another moment of silence passed between them.
"This was my idea," she said, forcing herself to smile. "I told him to say that."
"What are you talking about?" the man said.
"This. Us being here," she explained. "They are going to ask us to help set up a broadcast when we reach the next island."
Rider was staring at her, either dumbstruck or horrified. Whichever way, it didn't matter to Vetica; she had a big picture to worry about.
"Why?" the man gasped.
"Because I'm going to make a Star Rookie," she whispered.