This was a hard chapter for me to write. I had so many things planned for this chapter but couldn't get through most of them without making you guys wait foreverrr. Which we all don't want. Thank you so much to these freaking awesome reviewers: the everchanging, UNICORNSPOORAINBOWS, Little Ai, mimi, Emz, Shima Namida, Laboons-BellyButton, Guest, Chuu112, YingYang21! :D
UNICORNSPOORAINBOWS: I like your name. I luuurrrveeee unicorns. And rainbows. And sparkles and stars and steak and, and. Okay I'll stop.
mimi: I wanna know Letha's secrets too! Good thing Detective Law is on his way! Thank you for your review :)
Shima Namida: Haha, Penguin and Shachi will get more screen time for sure! Courteous but demanding, I couldn't have put it better myself. It made perfect sense. I didn't even intend to have Peter in the story, but now I've got big plans for this little boy. Thanks for the encouragement!
Laboons-BellyButton: LOL Law's Yellow Submarine story, I would soooo change the story's name to that but I feel people would get confused. Haha love it. Thanks for the symbolism! I actually only put in flower meanings I thought were relevant, since there are just so many meanings to list for every plant. I'll keep your suggestion in mind! Thanks :D
Guest: I appreciate your thoughts! :D I think Letha is a pretty name too, shame about the meaning. I was hoping to make Law non-OOC, I can't say I'm entirely confident I'll do a good job throughout the story.I'm merely making an interpretation of what I think Law would or wouldn't do. So please help me along the way if I go astray!
YingYang21: Thanks for snapping me out of my indecision so I can post this chapter up. Needless to say I slapped myself out of a pouty fit.
Disclaimer: The world of One Piece was created by Oda.
Living life on the Grand Line meant that it was perfectly normal to have the occasional encounter with pirates. More so now, however, ever since Gol D. Roger thrust the lure of the ultimate treasure into the faces of several would be pirates two decades ago. This was the Great Age of Piracy, and those on the Grand Line can only hope the pirates they met were friendly.
Letha knew she had to be weary of pirates. However in her frustration of recent events, she had somehow plucked up the courage to show these Heart Pirates, and their evil captain, a mix of defiance and bad manners. How dare they think she'd let them walk all over her, like she was some kind of doormat that welcomed people like them into her house! No! She wanted to be a doormat that said 'Not Welcomed! Not at all!"
Actually- she'd rather not be a doormat in any situation.
But Letha had never been personally threatened by a pirate before, especially by a pirate like Trafalgar Law, and her bravery could only go so far. These men were cold blooded killers. Murderers. They have taken the life of somebody before, and that was nothing to ignore. The guts she had to glare at these pirates, she realized, could easily be torn from her body by said pirate. She did not want to be added to their list of victims.
So it was with much terror, and shame, that she had opened that door and let these pirates go down the next long flight of stone stairs into the basement. It was with much frustration that she followed after them, quiet and trembling.
Shouldn't she be the one leading? It was her house after all.
But she was weak, so she said nothing- and she hated herself for it. The independent owner of a florist shop. Twenty years of age. About to be married. Cowering because of a pirate doctor. Then she remembered she was supposed to be ninety or something and now she was awfully deflated because she had no idea what she was going to do about that.
The resounding echo of their footsteps on stone steps made Letha suddenly realize with horror that she was trapped in a long stairway with pirates. She was all alone and they could easily make do with the threat they gave her a couple minutes ago. Never mind that she as an elderly woman, these were pirates. What qualms would they have in killing an old woman?
Suddenly Letha was shivering again, and it wasn't because of the passage's chilly air.
They climbed down the stairs silently, not a word passed between the group as Letha's mind flew from thought to thought.
What am I going to do about my, er- my condition? What will mother think about it? How will I get back to normal before the wedding? How am I going to get these pirates out of my house? What would mother say or do in this situation? She'd be so upset with me when she found out I let pirates into the gardens- if she found out that is...
Letha let out a shaky breath, so many questions, too few answers. However Letha resolved to give these pirates want they wanted quickly so she could kick 'em out all the faster. Then she could get back to worrying about her other situation and what she was going to do about it.
Letha just wanted things to be normal again.
They had reached the bottom of the stairwell now and automatically Letha had hit the switch that lighted up the room on the other side of the thick oak doorway. Worrying in her thoughts, Letha had not noticed when the pirates had stopped. She collided with the solid wall that was Trafalgar Law.
"Whuh- oh. Sorry, um. Pirate...sir." She added the last bit with much effort. He made no answer.
Letha rubbed her head and noticed how tall the pirate was. Either that or she had shrunk when she was transformed into an old lady. She cast a curious look at the still pirates. The two she had called lackeys were frozen stiff with their jaws and eyes wide open in shock. Trafalgar Law, however, did not have a reaction at all. Unbeknownst to her, his eyes had widened not one millimeter... but two! Yes. Law was in awe.
"This... is your garden?" He asked her, still looking past the wide glass pane that separated the white tiled room they were in with the masses of green on the other side.
Letha whipped her head to look at what had them so transfixed in sudden worry. Was there something wrong with the gardens?
She quickly moved over to a set of controls on one end of the small glass room. Then she switched on the multiple monitors that surveyed the area. Light fixtures turned on one by one down the long facility on the other side of the glass wall in bright booms, making what Law and his crewmates were seeing all the more...well, more.
Large fans spun in the ceiling on the other side.
Ventilation, check.
Letha automatically set the controls to daylight time, and set a blue switch on.
Artificial sun, check. Watering system, check.
She glanced at the monitors again. Nothing seemed to be out of order. She typed in several long phrases into the keyboard and set the time and schedule for the water system to initiate in the different sections of the wide facility.
Behind her Penguin and Shachi had their faces and hands pressed against the glass panes of the control room with their mouths open, fogging up the glass and blocking a small portion of their view of the colorful garden of flowers surrounding the glass room. However it didn't cover the view of the forest line of fir trees and barberry bushes a distance away.
"This ain't a garden lady- it's a whole freaking greenhouse! A freaking huge greenhouse!" Shachi exclaimed. When a picture of a garden sprung into Shachi's mind, he had imagined something little. Something more tame and- did he mention little?
Penguin just opted to stare, and stare some more. He had expected a basement only a tad larger than the perimeter of the house above them. Instead, it was as if the Moby Dick could fit in there. The expanse of the room was no laughing matter. A person could get lost in that place the old lady called a garden.
Boy was this lady's definition of a garden wrong, Penguin thought.
Letha had just finished typing in the last commands. She watched the monitor screens for a moment. One screen started to have a small drizzle of rain watering down on a whole section of orchards. The other screens remained the same, in which there were video feeds on places in the underground garden warehouse such as a small mossy swamp, a lotus filled pond with an overlooking wooden bridge, a dark and dense jungle, and a couple of other small biomes.
Close beside Letha, Law was analyzing the monitors with interest, a wide curve on his lips. This was far more than he had expected. He was pleasantly surprised, and he would admit, shocked. Not a garden, but a greenhouse. A fully operational wide scale facility for plants. From what he had seen on the monitors, it contained plants of all shapes and sizes, not just flowers. Almost every plant he could think of, and many he could not recognize. All underneath the hill of Smithy's Florist. It was something no passerby could have expected. A sudden, and deep rumble came from Law then. He let out a low snicker that gradually turned into a chuckle, and then a full out laugh.
It brought the attention of his two crewmates who smiled at anything that made their captain so amused to laugh out loud. It startled Letha terribly, who accidentally pulled the sunlight lever to scorching desert sun in a section of plants that'd die from the exposure. She quickly pushed the lever back to cool sunlight for that section and she turned to stare at Law with wide, unsure eyes. She failed to see the hilarity in the situation. Letha watched him from the corner of her eyes wearily for a couple seconds more, before turning her attention back to the monitors and control panel.
Law's delighted laughter died down. He took his hat off and ran a hand over his short dark hair, making it more disheveled, before setting his furry white hat back on his head.
And now he's realized what had bothered him when he had first sighted upon Smithy's Florist. He knew now what it was that was so strange about it. Smithy's Florist was so very normal, on the surface. So utterly... forgettable. The shop was like any other one he had seen on the island with its dark oak walls, gray shingled rooftop, and single stone chimney. It was like many of the other dwellings that doubled as a home and store on the island, and even on some other islands Law and his crew had chanced upon. No person could have imagined the extent of what was underneath the humble abode. It was like every other shop in which it screamed "Normal! Forgettable! Nothing to see here!"
Except here, there was an inconsistency. When Law had inquired around the town for a place that sold herbs, the townsfolk had all pointed towards the flower shop up the hill. One had even said "Every plant you could possibly want is up there. Never mind the flowers." Which was strange since all Law had seen was the small garden full of flowers. It was enough to make him suspicious.
"I would assume this is the control room?" Law asked the busy woman pressing buttons and pulling levers.
Letha jumped. "Ye-yes," she croaked in response to Law's question, "This glass room is the control room. It separates us from the gardens and allows me to operate the facility without having to step out of the room, unless I need to harvest plants for customers. In which case..."
Letha stepped aside and pulled on a white lab coat and sturdy leather gloves. She kicked off the slippers she had on and pulled on a pair of leather boots. Lastly, she put on lab goggles over her eyes and a pale blue surgical mask over her mouth.
An inconspicuous smile appeared over Law's lips as he watched the small withered woman adjust her goggles. The small garden had sprouted his suspicions, but it was the woman that made him all the more curious. Law now knew what it was about this old woman he couldn't place. She wasn't the slightest memorable, just like her shop. So very average, without a second glance, but placed in this absurd setting it was a different matter entirely. It was almost scary.
Law gave Letha a conspicuous eyebrow raised look concerning her new gear that Letha interpreted correctly. Through the mask she wore came a muffled "Just in case," which left Law to wonder fleetingly what warranted 'Just in case.' Letha unhooked one side of her mask to let it dangle from an ear.
In whole, Law thought she looked like a withered and old, deranged mad scientist. But Law did have a soft spot for mad people. He was a mad doctor after all. He watched her proceed with new interest and decided to invest his time into uncovering her secrets.
The old woman made everything off to be perfectly normal. Watching her move around the control room, it seemed as if she had done this her whole life, and hadn't a concept of what was considered normal by standards. The fact of the matter was, Law concluded, this woman was the source of this place's peculiarity.
"Pirate. What type of medicine do you intend to make?" Letha asked him resignedly. Her skittishness subsiding with her resignation. She figured since they were already here, and she might as well hurry in getting them what they wanted. "We have plenty of medicinal plants like chamomile for colds and red poppies if you wish to make morphine- or opium, if you like that stuff." She said dryly. "Poppies are also great in tea," and she gave him a pointed look "...for insomnia." Letha didn't miss the shadows under his eyes.
He stared at her, the corners of his lips tilting slightly. "Worry for a pirate? How very kind of you madam."
Letha frowned. "I assure you, I am not kind. Not to pirates. Now, please tell me what medicinal plants you need." She didn't like the look he was giving her. It was like his eyes were boring into hers, trying to find all her secrets, but she only had one, and that one she intended to keep with her until she turned into fertilizer. She resisted the urge to look away, not wanting to look weak.
Letha hoped he wasn't thinking about killing her. It'd be just the thing to have her pathetic life end in the basement of her home. Just in case, she took a small step back and hoped he didn't notice. She tried to make it look natural by adjusting her boots. It was also an excuse to lose eye contact.
Unfortunately, Law noticed her little tactic. Dark amusement flickered in his eyes, though Letha did not see it.
"It suddenly struck me that I don't even know the name of our host. You know mine, though you've been calling me 'Pirate' for a while. Surely a kind woman such as yourself has more manners than this? ...I am your customer, after all." He took a sly step forward, like a cat intimidating a gray little mouse. "You injure me," he said in a serious tone, bringing a hand up to his heart.
Letha swallowed and took an involuntary step back, weary of the distance between them. However she set her expression. Letha refused to be made a fool of.
"A customer- but also a pirate. As you have recently reminded me. And I am not kind." She replied in a squeak, yet she took a small step forward, redeeming a portion of her pride and earning her an imperceptible smirk from the pirate captain. Defiant blue-gray eyes covered by goggles glared up into cool gray ones shadowed under a furry hat. Unreadable, yet surely mocking.
"I didn't think pirates like you had any manners or feelings to care of what other's thought of you anyways."
"...Pirates like me?" Law raised a brow and shrugged slightly, slowly walking around her once, twice, in a lazy drawl. Letha whipped her head left and right, unwilling to let him out of her sight. Penguin and Shachi were in front of the monitors, paying barely a beri of attention to them. The captain knew what he was doing.
"You would be surprised," Law said. "Pirates care enough about what others think of them in order to receive their bounties. What we do, and how we do it, we always have our enemies, and you civilians, in mind." He stopped in front of her and leaned forward with a wide smile on his face. She refused to budge, standing stock still and glaring straight ahead pass the glass panels in an attempt to keep from shaking.
He whispered in her ear, "Pirates are all about sending a message."
Letha couldn't stop the shiver that was sent down her spine. She pushed him back with her wrinkled hands. Law merely took a step back as a result of the weak shove. He placed his hands in his pockets and stared at her with increasing amusement that Letha could finally see.
He was just playing with her. The polite bastard. He could have just forced her to do whatever he wanted, he could have just made due on his threat and take what he desired, but no. Letha realized this was the kind of man Trafalgar Law was. He was like a sly cat that preferred to play with his food, taking his sweet time to enjoy the entertainment before- before whatever came next.
"What is it you want from me?" She angrily yelled at him, so very frustrated and tired- and it was still early in the morning. What holy entity did she piss off to deserve this? This teasing, and these pirates. Letha didn't hate pirates- fear, yes. Hate? No. Not until now. She wondered if there was a queue of more pirates just waiting to make a mess of her life. At least she could cross Bonney and Law off.
Law gave her another polite (clearly sadistic) smile and stated simply "Just herbs, and an answer to all my questions."
"Fine!" Letha snarled, and thought now was the time to get these pirates their plants and throw them out of her life.
While Law deliberated, she reached into her lab pockets and practically threw a cough mask towards Law who caught it with a hand. She took rushed steps towards the other two pirates to give them theirs (both of which asked whether they'd get goggles too), and proceeded to quickly usher them out the glass door separating them from the green facility on the other side. One could barely make Bepo depressed in the time she took to shove those pirates out the control room.
Almost instantly the group was hit with a fresh wave of a floral and woody aroma. If they strained their ears, they could hear the sound of pitter-pattering and rushing water further inside the extensive facility. Yet the spinning of the large fans framed in the lighted ceiling above them overpowered the sound of water.
Already Letha was speed walking down the path between the flower garden, passing by a gathering of orange lilies.
She intended to get their plants quickly, at least that's what she hoped, but Law grabbed her arm to stop her in her tracks.
Shachi and Penguin were jogging to catch up while trying to look everywhere at once in the large flower garden they were in.
"There's no need to rush madam. You said you'll answer my questions, and I have one for you now." Letha gave him the meanest glare she had ever given anyone in her simple life. The effect was just a more scrunched up version of her creased face. "It's a simple question really," he chuckled lowly, which sounded quite devious to Letha. She knew there was no way out of this, and like all other things she knew she could not prevent happen to her... Letha sighed heavily. It seemed she was doomed to the resigned life.
She jerked her arm away from him and gestured for him to continue as they passed a flowering bush of yellow forsythia. "What, pray tell, is your question?"
Law kept a leisurely pace next to her and asked her his first question.
"Who are you?"
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"...Bula bula bula bula. Bula bula bula bula. Bula bula bula bula..."
"..."
"Bula bula bula bula. Bula bula bula bula. Bu-"
A boot clad foot slammed onto the desk, scaring the blue den den mushi into hiding inside his yellow spotted green shell.
"Shut up!" Snapped the shiny black afro-haired man reclining in his chair. His hair looked like a waxed bowling ball. He dragged a hand down his tired looking face. He rubbed his jaw line and yawned, scratching his chin, which had the word 'MARINE' tattooed across it.
A woman standing near him sighed. She chided, "Berry Good, you can't just tell a den den mushi to shut up. It'll just-"
The blue den den mushi slowly peeked his head out of his shell, "...Bula bula bula bula. Bula bula bula bula..."
The ensign stacking papers frowned. "See? You should pick it up. What if it's important?"
The captain gave the girl a tired glare. "How many times do I have to tell you ensign? That's Captain Very Good* to you. Sheesh, no respect." He yawned again. "It's probably some civilian claiming no-name pirates are stealing his cabbages. Again." He rolled his eyes, but the burly man reached over for the den den mushi anyways. "Not a single note worthy pirate lately," he said, but he wasn't complaining. A nap sounded good at the moment.
"Bula bula bula bula. Bula bula- Gachak!"
Captain Very Good growled into the receiver, "What?" He reclined back into his chair and set his feet back onto the wooden desk. His ensign tsked at his manners.
A shrill and desperate voice could be heard on the other end. Very Good frowned at the hysteric den den mushi.
"Right. I didn't hear a thing you said. Calm down and tell me again."
The den den mushi took a second to relax a tiny notch.
"My fiancee! She's- She's- My fiancee!"
"Okay. Your fiancee... kudos to you kid." Very Good nodded. Then, "What makes you think I care about your fiancee?" He shouted angrily into the receiver, spittle flying out to rain on the twitching den den mushi.
Then the voice on the other end sounded dreamy. The blue snail imitated a stupid grin.
"She's sooo pretty."
"What? She's pretty?" The ensign half expected him to slam the receiver down, but instead "...How pretty?" Very Good asked seriously.
She dropped her jaw. How she wished she was placed on Captain Hina's ship instead. This idiot... and he wonders why she didn't respect him as much.
"Really pretty."
"I see, I see. You're one lucky kid eh? Wish I had me a girl..."
The voice on the other end grew frantic then. "But pirates! T-There are pirates... and a bear... and, and-" He yelped in pain. A sound of shuffling and huffing could be heard, then an exasperated sigh. The blue snail's dreamy demeanor changed into one of annoyance.
"-Good lord, boy. Man up! Sir, my niece is being held hostage by pirates. The boy-" a cry in the background claims he's a man "-says it's the Heart Pirates. Please come quickly to Primavera Island! My sister will kill me if something happens to her!"
Very Good slowly sat up from his lazy position. "The Heart Pirates?" His expression grew serious. "We'll be there shortly."
"Gachak!" He slammed the receiver down, and the blue den den mushi retreated back into his yellow spotted shell for sleep.
He grinned at the ensign, "We've got a big fish. Tell the navigator, full speed ahead towards Primavera Island, I want to be there in an hour!"
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Boy, Law doesn't let up. That sexy jerk. Ohh lucky, lucky Letha. Hahaha. XD
Lotus- Life, new beginnings and the possibility of people growing to change into something beautiful
Fir- Evaluation, time
Barberry- Hot temperament
Chamomile- Energy in adversity
Forsythia- Anticipation
Orange Lilies- Disdain, hatred, pride
*Captain Very Good is actually a real character in the world of One Piece, he only appeared in a short time during the Enie's Lobby Arc. I decided he needed some more love.
Once again, please review and tell me how I'm doing, what you think, or what character's you guys would like to see appear in the story! Bepo hugs for everyone! :D
