Chapter Seven - Living Human

Updated: 11/2017

Posted: 11/2016

Riyo had been in her human form for about a week now.

It was an adjustment for everyone.

Riyo had her instincts and some of Ryuko's memories and the Other's impressions of the crew to set the foundation of friendship and family.

The crew and more importantly her pit-aside from Luffy and barely Zoro-had no context for her outside her true form.

They were all nice enough, but carrying around and cuddling a lizard was different than doing the same with another human. Normal people didn't let random women sleep in their beds because they were cold, or jump on them for impromptu piggy back rides, or crawl into their laps with no warning because they wanted to feel safe.

Sanji wasn't included in those.

Riyo knew it would be an adjustment for everyone, but that didn't make her any more patient.

She had waited two decades to have a pit; silly human boundaries like personal space weren't going to stop her now.

They were Grand Line pirates. They'd get used to it.

Sanji was the first real issue that came up. As soon as Riyo changed from her true form to her human form-essentially whenever she grew boobs-he lost all sense.

They were clearing the winter climate of Drum. Ever since Kureha stuck her hag hook nose into Riyo's business and made everyone aware of her biology-including Chopper who kept harping on her to keep warm as if she wasn't more than aware of her own limitations-Sanji had been impossible to deal with.

He kept fluttering around her, offering hot chocolate, sweet treats, spiced teas, warm seafood broth, and everything else under the sun. It was polite for the first five minutes. After the 23rd-civil, she would add-"no" to the treats (a "no" that he ignored as against his "chivalrous code as a gentleman" and she had to "eat something, sweet Riyo-chan, to recover your strength"), Riyo had enough.

She was a 358 year old grown woman who had sailed to the end of the Grand Line and was still kicking. She could have snapped Sanji in half and ate him still screaming if she wanted to do it, promise to herself be damned.

Decided, Riyo stood up. They had all gathered for lunch in the kitchen out of the chill air. The lively conversation went trailed off around the table. Sanji even stopped mid-word in his description of a chocolate tort he was so graciously offering to make for her.

Nami frowned. As her Theta, Nami had the best sense of Riyo's emotions-even if it was still the barest sense at this point. "What's wrong, Riyo?"

"Riyo-swan, my dear?"

In answer she methodically removed her winter coat arm by arm, folded it, and placed it on the bench behind her. It was the only concession she had made for the cold to keep Chopper off her back.

She figured crawling into the lit oven may have been a little too soon for the crew.

"Hey, uh, what are you doing, Riyo?"

She glanced at Usopp but didn't stop. She stripped out of her shirt and pants (a borrowed outfit from Kureha made of thick wool and forced on her by a worried Nami). Her scales cascaded into place as fast as the fabric disappeared.

She let the outfit pool on the floor. She put her hands on her hips as she stood in the kitchen in nothing but her scales.

"Uh-uh na-na-na-na-ked…"

Yeah, she figured that would be the only thing to register with Sanji.

She turned sharply on her bare feet and walked out the galley door. She never bothered with underwear or bras even if she had skin on. They were too confining under the human clothes. Her scales kept her small breasts in place anyway as the natural armor never left her vital organs uncovered. Her lungs and primary heart were pretty damn vital ones, and they happened to live under her boobs when she was human.

"Riyo?"

"Riyo, what are you doing?"

She heard the crew calling her back; Luffy, then Nami again. She ignored them.

They all followed her out of the galley and onto the deck as she wanted.

The wind had a bitter bite to it, the sky full of deep gray clouds warning of snow.

The water below would be colder.

She stepped smoothly up on the railing of the Merry, balancing perfectly on the thin banister of wood for a frozen moment before she smirked over her shoulder at the stunned crew and let herself fall into the emptiness beyond.

It was like hitting a frozen pane of glass. She slid into her smallest form as the salty water closed over her head. The Change was seamless from air to sea.

The water wasn't actually as cold as she had expected, but she knew she couldn't stay long in the chill. It was cold enough it would have made a human sluggish in minutes-unconscious in fifteen or less-but a short time would be fine in her larger form.

She Changed again into a medium form, something she hadn't done consciously since the Break.

She paused to get a sense for the larger body. Sea queens grew larger with age; 358 years old wasn't tiny. She still wasn't close to half her full size at three quarters of the length of Merry, but it did feel good to stretch a bit.

She felt the beast beside her as she sunk deeper into her mind to embrace a consciousness closer to her True Change.

[Stretch. Sea. Home.]

The Other rumbled, pushing up at her and the beast, and she built up their shields against it. It would not take this from her, the freedom of losing herself in the sea. It wanted control and it was not welcome. Not right now.

This was for her.

She swam lazy laps around the Merry, darting in and around the ship, her speed as natural as breathing beneath the waves despite her size. The only thing faster than a sea queen in the water was a mermaid.

She let the anger bleed away in the peace of the silence and solitude beneath the surface. It was nice to dive beneath the waves before shooting for the shadow of the ship, to trail in the Merry's wake as she cruised sure and strong on the currents.

Riyo watched the ship and kept her senses tuned into her pit. Nami really was an amazing navigator. Riyo would go so far as to say she was one of the best Riyo had ever seen on the Line, especially for being so young.

Riyo wasn't sure how long she had been under, probably no more than an hour, when her core body temperature began to drop noticeably. Time was up.

She dove deep into the water until the ship was a barely-there blur before shooting up.

Riyo shrank as she came closer to the surface. Large to small and into her hybrid form until she broke into air. The movement propelled her clear onto the deck.

She couldn't keep the grin off of her face where she dripped onto the wood. It really had been too long since she swam for the pure pleasure of it-even if it had started as a way to escape Sanji's fawning before she snapped his neck and upset Luffy.

The entire crew was there, everyone talking over one another in shock and amazement.

And then Sanji was bringing her a towel, trying to wrap it around her shoulders to dry her off.

Ridiculous. Sea queen scales were obviously waterproof.

Sanji's fingers brushed her shoulders as he mother henned her, and he was babbling on about her healing state, and...she snapped.

Riyo spun and kicked him hard enough he skipped across the deck twice, flipping ass over elbows before crashing through the kitchen door with the splintering sound of broken wood.

In the frozen stillness on the deck they could all hear Zoro's startled grunt from the galley as the two collided.

There was faint cursing and then Zoro laughing so hard from the galley he could barely breathe.

The immediate sounds of heavy shoes hitting hastily drawn swords wasn't surprising.

She sniffed. Her scales abruptly vibrated off the last of the clinging water droplets much like a dog shaking dry.

She settled the barely damp towel around her shoulders.

Everyone on deck lined up and held up their hands, fingers all open for a perfect 10 score.

Sanji learned to kindly get the hell out of her space from then on.

Riyo sighed as she stared across the waves from where she was lounging on the deck.

They were on their way to Alabasta thanks to Princess. They apparently picked up the girl somewhere along the holiday-themed-and-numbered bounty hunter portion of their journey and agreed to help her with a civil war brewing in her country.

That was a sentence she never thought she'd have to put together.

Riyo didn't particularly care about Princess. Princess wasn't pit and she wasn't crew and she was decidedly too naive if she thought they could stop a civil war. Riyo had half-assed listened to 10 minutes of her story and figured that much out.

Riyo had no interest in helping not-pit in such a pointless endeavor.

But Luffy had insisted they were going to help out, so they would tag along out of respect for their Alpha. She would show up and pretend to enjoy herself, but she didn't plan on lifting a finger.

[Do we have to?]

Yes.

{Yes.}

The beast grumbled to be denied in double.

For Riyo it was still disconcerting to hear the Other speaking so freely-and to be agreeing, no less.

It is for Alpha, she explained. We will not engage, only ensure Princess keeps her fool head on her shoulders during the battle because we all know there's going to be one.

The Other snorted. {It is for power and blood and terror. All humans should tremble before us. All species should bow to us. The world has forgotten our power!}

The beast inched away from the Other's overbearing presence as its blood thirsty aura swept through their mind at the thought of subjugating the world to its will.

Riyo sighed deeper.

Glad to know things were still somewhat normal.

Sanji had been a problem before.

Nami and Chopper were a problem now.

The two had the most to adjust to with Riyo human-shaped again. As her Theta and Omega and with Ryuko's claim they were her go to for cuddles and comfort. Luffy and Zoro were for the Other-they were for outside defenses for the pit. Nami and Chopper were for internal comfort and health.

Nami was coming around, and Riyo had a plan to get her all the way there, but she was at a stalemate with Chopper.

The hatchling avoided her. Really avoided her, especially after the little temper tantrum with Sanji. It wasn't even subtle avoiding, although she didn't think the zoan knew subtle after living with Kureha for so long.

He was relatively normal, if tense, if there was someone else in the room. But as soon as they were alone he'd freeze. She would stare at him stare at her until either she moved away or he could find another exit from the room. He'd jog backwards away from her, never taking his eyes off of her.

He wouldn't speak, hardly even breathe, as he made his escape.

She'd laugh her ass off if it didn't make her hearts ache.

She knew Chopper would be more sensitive to her beast. Maybe kidnapping and cuddling him as Ryuko without any explanation for why was mildly traumatizing for him.

And then there was that moment after she first woke from somnum and tried to cuddle him herself, also forcibly, while shouting nonsense like an escaped mental patient….

Huh. These were not good first impressions.

But this had gone on for weeks, and Riyo had to do something.

The death glares she was starting to get from Nami and Zoro promised retribution, if nothing else.

Riyo made her move the next afternoon. They were less than a week out from Alabasta by Nami's calculations and she wanted this taken care of before they were in a battle scenario that may rely on the hatchling trusting them.

She dropped down into the boys' room with a purposeful thump when she could have been silent. The trap door shut behind her.

She had been waiting for Chopper to come into the room alone all day. He couldn't bolt for the door here because he had to climb the ladder to the deck that she was in front of. And if he happened to scream when she startled him by landing behind him no one heard as the hatch dropped into place.

Or more likely they heard and chose to ignore it to see how this played out.

"Chopper."

He was frozen with his backpack clutched in one...hoof...hand...paw? Whatever. His eyes were huge and the pupils were blown wide; she could visibly see his muscles tremble with how tight he held himself. He was poised to flee but she blocked the only exit.

She sighed before letting go of her human form and folding to the floor in her smallest change. They were far enough from Drum now that the weather had evened out and she could get away with only her scales for cover which meant she didn't have to worry about awkwardly crawling out of any shirts or dresses.

(Sanji had adjusted to the near-nudity as well as could be expected. After copious amounts of Zoro's jeering for his pervert ways and hourly doses of Riyo's "cognitive recalibration" where she bashed his thick skull they had made some decent progress with Sanji's innate need to throw himself at women.)

"Ee-chp!"

The strangled noise had her laughing-snorting and coughing with growling mixed in for this form-so hard she fell to her back, clawless paws waving in the air.

"Don't laugh at me, you bastard!"

Finally.

She tilted her head to look at Chopper upside down. Her tongue lulled from her mouth without her teeth to hold it in. She was going for cuddly and non threatening, or at least as much as she could. No teeth, no spikes, no claws, and in her smallest possible form belly-up. She was as helpless as a sea queen could get.

She gave Chopper a gummy smile.

His mouth was pulled in a pout and his little hooves were on his hips. How fucking adorable could he be?!

She tried the next step in her plan.

"I just want to talk, Chopper."

"I'm not afraid of you!" was the instant, indignant response.

She stared at him until he wilted a bit. She twisted around to lay on her stomach, head pillowed on her front legs.

The sudden movement made him jump and he visibly flagged.

"OK, I'm afraid. I can't help it! I'm a prey animal and Usopp told me how you tried to eat him before I joined you guys and even Luffy and Zoro say how strong you are and you don't mean to do it but even if they can't feel it I can feel your aura even though you keep it suppressed and it scares me how much leaks out even though you control it because how strong are you really if it's still there and then that only makes me more frightened and it's all I can think about and my instincts are on alert and-"

It was like dam had broke as the words tumbled out. Riyo simply stared at him as he kept going until she had to interrupt or he was going to faint.

"Take a breath, Chopper."

He stopped abruptly to suck in a huge breath.

"Easy. There you go." She shook her head in exasperation. "Come here."

He hesitated a moment before creeping slowly next to her. When he was close enough she reached her tail out slowly to wrap around him, pulling him down until he was tucked into her side. He struggled for a moment before going limp with another shaky breath. She pointedly ignored the scent of nervous fear and wrapped herself around him.

"It's so easy to forget how young you all are. Usopp exaggerates. A lot."

Although Usopp was kind of being honest about the whole eating him thing….But Usopp wasn't a part of her pit. Chopper was her Omega even before Luffy had asked him to join the crew. He had been similar to Zoro. The beast and the Other had accepted him without a conscious choice on her part.

[Mine.]

"Oh shove it."

"Wha'?" Chopper eeped.

"Sorry, I didn't mean you. The beast, uh, Ryuko is very jealous of you and Nami. It likes to make it clear that you belong to it."

Chopper stared at her for a few seconds. "Are you sure you're okay? Doctorine gave me some great herb mixes that can help stabilize hormones if you're having issues with voices…"

Riyo laughed. " 'Issues with voices' is one way to put it. But trust me, it's nothing herbs or any medicine can fix. I made a choice to do something against the foundations of my species some decades ago and the cost was a fractured psyche. You get used to it. I sometimes-all three of us really-slip and speak out loud instead of in our head."

"...that is really not normal. Or clinically something I can ignore as your attending physician."

She shrugged. What could you do?

"It's a small cost for the chance to sail again with an Alpha and Captain like Luffy. With all of you as pit and crew. You know what I am."

He nodded. "Yeah, Nami said you're a sea queen, and Doctorine gave me the medical history she knew about you and some of her books she-isn't-supposed-to-have-but-don't-tell-her-I-told-you-that on sea queens. She said she's only one of two doctors who know how to treat you in the whole world, and the other one is retired. So Doctorine said I have to learn to take care of you if I want to achieve my dream of curing every disease."

"That's good, Chopper. I know you'll achieve your dream some day. And I knew you would be more sensitive to my beast when you joined the crew. Did Luffy and Zoro tell you how I have certain rules about who I let close to me?"

"Yeah, Luffy said that we're all your friends and you'd protect us all, but him and Zoro and Nami are extra special to you. Your instincts see them as part of your herd and you get super protective of them and only they are allowed to...touch you…."

She thrummed in pleasure as he finally realized she was using him as a cuddly teddy bear while they talked.

"Ah! Don't eat me!" He flailed around while he tried to escape her tail's grip around his waist.

She laughed again, nuzzling her cheek against his, scenting and marking him at the same time. He was too cute when he panicked.

[Mmmm, prey scent. But so cuddly!]

She nearly let her head thump onto the wooden floor in exasperation. They should not enjoy panicked struggling from their Theta this much.

Hatchling and our Omega, they thought back to the beast patiently.

"We are pit. You're my Omega, Chopper. The last piece of my inner pit."

[Missing the Sigma! Sigma being the Sigma soon.]

{Omega first, beast.}

[Want the Sigma!]

Shut up, both of you! I'm having a heart-to-heart here!

"What-what does that mean?" The small, hopeful voice nearly broke her heart and dragged her out of her head.

"Being my Omega means you take care of the pit physically, Chopper. You heal us and put us back together when we have to fight to protect each other. You keep us healthy. You're our doctor as much as the crew's."

"Really?!" he squealed, excited at the thought. "I'm a good doctor. Doctorine taught me lots! I can take care of everyone! But...you don't think it's weird to have a talking reindeer doctor with a blue nose in your special herd?"

[The Sigma! Maybe the Sigma for Sigma soon!]

She snarled at the beast's interruption before shoving it behind its mental door.

"Oh."

She came back to the outside world to the bitter scent of crushed hope.

Chopper had definitely gotten the wrong idea.

She remembered the self-disgust, loneliness, and resentment in his little body. His own kind turned on him. Humans shunned him.

'I'm a monster! No one likes me! Go away, stupid humans!' rang in her ears. A memory from the beast because the bitch liked to throw their own words in their face when they were sulking and locked up.

Riyo had said very much the same to Roger when he asked her to join him-only with a lot more teeth to back it up.

She sighed. "No, no, no. Not you, Chopper, I was yelling at Ryuko. The beast can get a one-track mind and got stuck off topic on something completely not related," she emphasized to the beast.

It huffed back and ignored her.

She squeezed Chopper tighter to her side and rubbed her cheek to his. He was so young. He didn't deserve to know the world's hatred already. Not from the reindeer and not from humans. He didn't deserve a broken sea queen who couldn't even keep her shit straight long enough to comfort him, but all of them had been dealt a hand they had to learn to deal with. Riyo would make sure she did everything in her power to let Chopper know he was loved as he was.

"Chopper, you are the best doctor I have ever met, including Kureha. I know that old hag taught you everything you need to know and then some. Oh hush, I can say that when I'm older than her," Riyo said before he could say something in defense of the hag. "You are perfect as you are, blue nose and devil fruit and all."

Riyo stopped to collect her thoughts. She purred lowly as she enjoyed the time cuddling her Omega without the fear to cloud the air. It took her a few minutes to find the words she wanted.

"I'm a monster that pretends to be human, Chopper. You're a special reindeer who was given an amazing gift with your devil fruit. Zoro is inhumanly strong; no one should be able to lose as much blood as he does and still stay conscious. Luffy is an idiot; I've seen him win fights by Will alone because he doesn't know how to quit. Sanji can kick hard enough to knockout ship-size sea kings and cooks like a god. Nami is a preternatural weather wizard and Usopp can shoot the wing off a fly from a hundred yards away. You are an unparalleled doctor, now only one of three people in the world who can treat sea queens. On the Grand Line and on this crew, normal is what's weird. Normal means you'll be dead because you can't protect yourself or your crew. You're perfect as you are, hatchling, and I'm proud to call you our Omega, Chopper."

"Re-really?" he blubbered out, snot and tears clumping his fur.

She simply thrummed in response, a vibration that shook both their bodies as she wrapped herself tighter around his warm fur, snot and all. He clutched at her tail and snuggled tighter against her.

"You are our Omega. I will protect you with everything I have. Because you are not a monster, not on this crew and not to me. You deserve to dream. You deserve to be happy and loved and free. This is home, Chopper. We're family."

Chopper sniffled more as Riyo held him tight against her.

Riyo wasn't sure when she started singing. The song was vocal as much as it was emotion given sound. It was a sea queen's song of voice and aura. Comforting, crooning voice for a hatchling strengthened by subvocal vibrations and an aura of calm and peace and acceptance.

It was the hum and shift of ocean floors, the age-old heartbeat of waves against the shore, the womb-like darkness of the deep sea, the night breeze's kiss against the water's surface, the safety and stillness of underground ocean caves.

They fell asleep curled together, lulled by the sound of the song and the brush of the waves against the Merry's hull.