Chapter Nine - Regret and Offerings
Edited: 12/2017
Posted: 11/2016
Riyo didn't remember falling asleep in Luffy's arms.
She didn't remember Luffy carrying her to her nest in the hold, or the crew coming down to clean up the mess, or restlessly sleeping with Luffy for the rest of the day because she refused to let go of his vest when he tried to leave.
She didn't remember anything until she woke late that evening and the captain told her.
She shooed him out the door when he tried to stay; Sanji was cooking supper-he didn't need too much motivation.
She listened to Zoro lifting weights, Sanji delivering a tray to Vivi in the girls' room, and the subdued tone in the kitchen while everyone else sat down to eat.
The crew drifted into silence as the night grew late.
Usopp was first on watch. Then Zoro. Sanji started bustling around the kitchen.
Riyo was awake for it all.
The next day when Riyo came up from her nest for breakfast shortly after Sanji called for breakfast the atmosphere was stiff, to say the least.
More for herself than the crew she had chosen to wear clothes, a vee neck black tunic shirt that fell nearly to her knees and was more of a short dress than anything. The weight of the cloth was a reminder she wasn't an animal. Not completely.
Conversation tapered away as she resolutely walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the far end of the table.
"Riyo is being weird," Luffy broke the quiet. "How can you be unseeable and see-able like that?"
She glanced up to stare at the wood grain of the table from where she had been staring at the wood grain of the floor. She followed a loop with her eyes.
She hadn't realized she had crept in silently, moving like she was avoiding a larger threat. It was a way to ghost in public, an instinct both natural and learned...and something she hadn't done since she was a hatchling in her first century.
"Sorry, Captain," she whispered into the table.
The awkward atmosphere was shattered when a plate of sea king bacon and perfectly scrambled eggs with a smattering of greens thunked down in front of her.
"Sorry for what?" Sanji said. "There's nothing to be ashamed of when you're being yourself."
Riyo made a mocking sound in her throat. "Even when being yourself means being a psychopathic, moralless monster?"
"Monsters are what make it on the Grand Line; isn't that what you told Chopper? They protect their family and keep their crew alive. Monsters survive. That power is something to be respected, not to be shamed."
"Sanji is right, Riyo," Chopper spoke up quietly. "Don't be ashamed of what you've survived. It brought you to us!"
She could feel Sanji's smug grin; she was still staring at the plate.
"Now eat up," the chef said. "You missed supper last night."
Riyo finally looked up to stare at Sanji's visible eyebrow. Her eye twitched.
"That was a private conversation," she said to his forehead.
He lit a cigarette. "It's a small ship. And you're not eating."
"Eat, Riyo!" Luffy threw in. "Food always makes it better!"
[Don't eat if don't want to.]
"Yeah," she mumbled in agreement at the petulant statement. "Can't make us."
There was the scuffle of wood on wood and Riyo tensed as she felt Nami coming over.
Riyo hadn't missed the fact that Zoro and Vivi were still conspicuously absent.
Nami sat down close enough to press her arm into Riyo's side; Riyo didn't realize how much she needed the contact until she felt the tension leaking from her back and shoulders as she leaned into her Theta's touch.
"One day at a time, Riyo. Things will work out. We're family-we forgive each other and make each other stronger for it," Nami said.
Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes and Riyo knew the feeling, she was haunted by it, and she was too much of a coward to give it a name even in her own mind or it would all be stolen away again.
"Zoro and Vivi are hiding. They're afraid of me."
"They're not-"
Riyo violently shook her head.
"Don't placate me. I can feel them. Vivi is terrified; she's hiding in the girls' cabin. Zoro is afraid of how little I tried but more than that he's ashamed of himself. He's training his body into the ground on the aft deck. Has been since last night."
She turned to bury her head in Nami's hair. She breathed in the scent of tangerines, paper, and sea wind for strength. Then she whispered the words like a dirty secret into Nami's neck, "I threw his katanas to the floor like he was a child with sticks, Theta."
Nami sighed and wrapped her in a one armed hug. "When it got really bad-when I couldn't stand one more minute with Arlong-I would turn to my maps and tell myself one more line," the navigator said softly; a secret for a secret. "One more line, one more current, one more coast. One more day." Nami picked up Riyo's hand, placed the fork from the plate Sanji had set down into her palm, and wrapped Riyo's fingers around it. "One day at a time, Riyo."
Riyo mechanically turned to shovel a bite of eggs into her mouth, her mind programmed to listen to her Theta when her own emotions were too tangled to safely discern.
"We're nakama, Riyo. It'll work out," Usopp added.
Riyo swallowed. She knew the eggs were perfect but they tasted like dirt on her tongue and went down like gravel.
One day at a time. Forgiveness and family. It will all work out….Too bad Riyo could feel how much everyone wanted to believe their own words.
The day passed in a blur. Riyo stayed close to Nami on deck, never more than a few feet away.
She refused to change from human no matter how good the sun would feel on her scales.
She could easily admit to herself she was terrified of giving Ryuko or the Other any chance to become more prominent.
It was mid-afternoon when Riyo was woken from her groggy slouch on deck by a ping of recognition for their surroundings. She sat up from where she had been sitting against the railing by Nami's deck chair.
There was nothing but sea to the horizon all around them, but Riyo could navigate by the magnetic pulls and currents. This particular tug reminded her of a small cache she had stowed some years ago nearby. She kept little of her hoard in Paradise, so it wasn't a surprise she had forgotten about it.
It was as good an excuse as any to get off the boat for a while. And it would be perfect for her plan to win Nami over once and for all.
Riyo had forgotten all about this particular treasure-all of her hoards in Paradise were fuzzy on the contents-but it would be even better than the straight up gold she had been initially planning to give her Theta.
It was too perfect to pass up, in fact.
Riyo stood and stretched her cramped body. She leaned a hip on the railing next to where Nami had brought out a deck chair to sunbathe. Riyo couldn't stop a reluctant smile when she saw Chopper napping in the shade Nami cast, a small medical text opened over his face to block out the light.
Riyo tipped her own face back to bask in the humidity and sun, for a moment pretending everything was fine and Vivi wasn't still hiding in her room and Zoro had actually stopped for a break from the grueling weight training and exhausting katas in the last dozen hours.
"Riyo? Did you need something?"
Right. Nami was getting more adept at reading her. That meant their bond was coming along nicely, but it also meant Riyo couldn't fool her easily anymore.
"Yes. I'm going for a swim. I wanted to let you know I'll be under for a while, two or three hours tops."
Nami quirked an eyebrow at her over her sunglasses.
Riyo refused to let herself fidget.
Nami broke the silent battle of wills with a sigh as she pushed her sunglasses back up her nose.
"Do we need to anchor or can you find the Merry if we keep following the log pose?"
Riyo gave Nami a soft smile of thanks.
"I'll find it. I can feel the currents and sense the seasons and magnetic forces of everything nearby. How else would I navigate the Grand Line? I can't exactly keep checking a log pose every few minutes when I'm swimming on the sea floor," Riyo added with a small, reluctant smile.
Nami smiled back. "I'd tell you to be careful but I'm pretty sure it's more likely any thing in the sea should be careful of you."
That startled a bark of laughter out of Riyo as she grabbed her tunic and shrugged it off over her head and into Nami's lap in a quick jerk of movement.
"Yeah, you guys won't have to worry about anything while I'm down there." Riyo sat on the railing next to Nami, her feet dangling over the open water and scales and skin enjoying the direct warmth without the tunic in the way. "I'll have a surprise for you when I get back, too."
"I look forward to both!" Nami laughed.
Riyo dove beneath the waves. She swam down in human form until she couldn't take the pressure any longer-then she let herself Change in a way she hadn't consciously allowed in almost twenty years.
She grew. She grew and stretched and powered herself down through the bright water into the darker depths.
The guilt faded as she allowed herself to grow larger and larger the deeper she went. She finally settled onto the sandy sea floor some time later at a half Change.
It wasn't something she had been planning on, it simply seemed...right. Not to mention she needed to Change if she wanted to find Theta's treasure. As she had feared, it did bring the Other and Ryuko closer.
{Coward.}
Yes. Yes, she was.
She sighed, or at least what counted for a sigh, and enjoyed the cold water that washed through her gills. She spread out her senses a few hundred meteres around herself to observe the various bottom feeders making a wide berth around where she had sprawled in the sand. The sea was shallow here, only two or three thousand meters down, so there was nothing too obscure. It was far from the more than 10,000 meter trench she claimed as her own. It was deep enough and dark enough to spark her natural bioluminescence, however, lines lighting up between her scales in captivating whirls to entrance prey.
If she had an appetite she might have put in the effort to hunt, but all of the potential prey instinctively knew to keep clear with her aura bleeding around her while she brooded. There wasn't much point in hunting if her aura ran everything off as fast as she moved after it.
[Human needs to fix Beta.]
Riyo grumbled. The whole point of this was to take a break from figuring that out.
[Fix it.]
Don't you think I know it needs fixed? she snapped. How can I fix what we did? We shattered his confidence, ripped out his belief in himself to protect.
[Sorry. Scared. Wrong.] There was a short pause. [Fix it.]
Riyo vocalized a low rumble of anoyance and curled her neck away from the internal grief from the beast. A glimmer at her side caught her attention. She twisted her head to see it better.
A loose scale near her secondary heart. It wasn't too shocking after the many layers they had shed during somnum to see one. It was a bit odd it hadn't fallen out yet, however. She'd need to pry it-
{Idiot.}
The slow display of needle sharp teeth passed for a smile.
Yes...yes, she was.
With an attempt at an apology to Beta in mind, Riyo set about finding her cache for Nami. She remembered stowing it under the usual magnetic rock formation somewhere...near...there.
The rocks had shifted and fell over the years, but she was positive this was it. Her bioluminescence was barely enough to see. She relied on the sensitive whiskers around her snout and the high pitched keen of echolocation to map out the ground and guide her in the darkness as she moved.
She set about nosing through the stones, the thick armored scales and ridged protrusions protecting her face as she shoved boulders twice as big as Chopper's human point aside with strong neck muscles. She had front legs in her half-Change but the digits were webbed for maneuverability and not really designed for delicate tasks like digging. This form was meant for speed and agility in the water, with pelvic fins where her back legs would normally be found in a True Change.
After shifting the stones Riyo was able to shove aside the sand until she bumped the chest she had buried. She cleared the debris further with her snout until she could pull the chest free in her jaws. She rolled it onto her tongue; quicker that way.
She made the slow ascent back to the Merry. Either she had been under longer than she thought or they had caught a decent headwind. Either way, it was a good swim to catch up with the ship. Riyo enjoyed it for what it was, stretching muscles and senses she had ignored for too long. The worry and stress seemed to melt away as she lost herself in the feeling of the sea and the currents.
Riyo came up on the Merry slowly, reluctant to come back to what she had left. But the swim had given her space and time she needed, and with a clearer head and the starting plan of an apology for Zoro she was feeling better about her options.
Her good mood was frozen when she finally broke the surface to come face to face with a very tense crew all lined up on deck. The whole crew, including Vivi and Zoro, were on deck and poised for a fight.
"Al-bah?" she asked. Her voice came out far deeper than normal, reverberating across the deck even muffled by the chest.
Oh. Right. She could eat the Merry in two bites like this…and her aura was still slightly bleeding out.
She was surprised they hadn't instantly attacked her as soon as she surfaced.
She sunk down until only her eyes and facial ridges could be seen. It put her level with the railing even if the width of her head with the armor plating and ridges was almost the length of Merry. She rolled the chest to the tip of her tongue and leaned forward to gingerly set the waterlogged-and spit covered-wood on the deck in front of Nami.
She sunk back into the water and started to shrink back to human.
"Wait!" Luffy yelled. He came running over to the edge of the deck. "That's you, Riyo?"
She slowly moved back up until she could see the open deck.
She cast a shadow over the entire ship.
"Yes. Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," she rumbled out.
"Scared? The great Captain Usopp feels no fear! Especially not of ginormous, armored, horned, clawed, razor-sharp teeth-"
"Yes, yes. That's enough. We get it, Usopp." Nami stopped him with a fist to the skull.
He hit the deck with a thud; his legs had been shaking so bad they couldn't hold him after that hit.
Riyo purred in gratitude. "Thank you, Theta."
Vivi's growing tension at Usopp's attempt at humor had been awkward, even if Vivi had tried to hide it.
"You're so cool!" Luffy suddenly screamed, arms flinging out to grab one of her cheek protrusions and catapault himself at her face.
The shout was loud and sudden enough, the simultaneous burst of awe-amaze-wonder-joy over the deeper Alpha bond strong enough and jarring enough, Riyo actually startled.
It was not a good idea to startle a half-Changed sea queen.
Her deep blue scales flashed a bright pattern of purple and orange. She reared back, the Merry rocking dangerously far in the sudden displacement of her bulk. There were shouts as everyone stumbled when the deck rocked damn near sideways.
Chopper slid off the far rail, hitting the water with a small splash everyone else missed.
Riyo trumpeted in distress, making everyone clap their hands to their ears even as the tried to hang on to what they could. Her tail swung under the boat to catch Chopper's quickly sinking body. She grabbed the Merry's railing at the same time to keep the caravel from capsizing in the churning water.
When it was all said and done, Riyo was left towering over the Merry, one clawed hand engulfing the entire front half of the ship like a rubber ducky in the tub, and holding a dripping reindeer coughing up water and wrapped in a frilled-fin coil at the very tip of her tail.
"Shishishishishi!"
The laughter started small and then grew and grew as Luffy looked at them all.
Then Nami, Usopp, and Sanji were laughing, and even Zoro and Vivi were smiling.
Luffy's joy bubbled up along the Alpha bond like fine wine. Happiness, love, laughter. It spilled over from Luffy and into her own chest.
She had never felt anything like that from a pit bond before.
She could only revel in the feeling and stare at the tiny, tiny body containing so much emotion inside he shared so freely with those he loved. Monkey D. Luffy was so much more than what he seemed.
But he would always be her Alpha before anything.
Some time later Riyo was back in her human form with the rest of the crew. After the initial shock everyone was more impressed with her size than anything else. Once Sanji suggested a snack after the scare it had been a flurry of questions from the crew.
"Riyo, is that the largest you get?"
She shook her head as she tore into a plate of crab. She ripped a leg off and began snapping through it, swallowing the shell and all.
Turns out she was ravenous after missing so many meals and making a half-Change.
Usopp and Chopper were watching her in open fascination as Sanji kept adding whole crabs to the top of the plate...and whole crabs kept disappearing.
"That was what I call a half-Change. Half the size of my True Change-my full Change. It's meant for speed and maneuverability more than anything. I needed to let off some energy."
"Half?!"
She glanced at Nami's shocked face in confusion.
"Sea queens grow roughly one to two meters for every year of life on average. We have the uncommon growth spurt here and there where we might add three or more meters but that's the exception," she explained. "My full Change is way more armored; it's meant for battle. It's rare to see an adult sea queen in a True Change as it takes a lot of energy. We usually have to be pretty pissed off since the half-Change is enough for most threats at my age."
She could see everyone doing the rough math.
"...so how old are you, Riyo?" Chopper finally asked slowly.
Riyo shifted marginally away from the sudden gleam of science in his eyes.
"358."
Nami spit out the lemonade she had been drinking.
"What?!" everyone yelled.
"I never mentioned that?" Riyo asked.
[Huh. Thought we had.]
{Morons.}
"Shishishishishishi! So Riyo, can you poop as a dragon?"
"Idiot!" everyone yelled.
Riyo basked in the bubble of happy warmth from her Alpha bond in the middle of all the chaos.
She crunched down on another leg.
Maybe things would work out after all.
With everyone was dry and fed they couldn't keep Nami from the chest on deck anymore.
Riyo watched amusedly as Nami, Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper all tried to open the chest for nearly fifteen minutes before their ideas got too ridiculous to be safe anymore.
"Here," she shooed them back. "I got it."
Riyo grabbed the rusted lock she was pretty sure about ten different species had moved into and yanked with a little push of haki to snap the metal from the chest.
Nami looked like a kid who had Christmas come early.
As soon as the lock was clear the navigator shoved Usopp out of the way to open the lid. Sea water spilled out along with a couple fish but the water couldn't hide the dull glimmer inside.
Gold. Jewels. Coins and jewelry. Nami was running her hands through it all with beli signs in her eyes.
"Treasure!" Chopper shouted excitedly, his hooves pressed to his face with glee.
"Treasure!" Luffy and Usopp yelled...although Usopp's was a bit smothered by the deck in his face.
Sanji had wandered over a few minutes ago and took a peek into the chest himself. "Well, that might be enough to restock and feed you bottomless pits at Alabasta."
"It's all yours, Nami," Riyo said with a small smile next to the navigator who still hadn't stopped running her hands through the salt water soaked hoard. "But there's something inside that I really wanted you to have. It's part of a set that was crafted for some World prat to show off. I 'acquired' it before it could be delivered."
Riyo leaned over and dug into the metal and water. They'd need to drain that…and there it was. She pulled it out carefully. It dripped onto the deck as she held it out to her Theta.
It was a meticulously carved, thin bronze branch. The leaves and bark were green and brown from the aged patina, making them look even more realistic. Hanging from the branch were four perfect tangerines in gold, crafted to look so lifelike they seemed ready to drop off the branch at any moment.
"Riyo...I don't even know what to say," Nami looked floored. "I-Thank you, Riyo. I'll keep this in my personal collection."
Nami held the piece delicately, as if cradling a child. Eh, for her it might be. Her emotions were a bit disturbing right now…
Emotions?
[Theta needs alone time with the shinies.]
No shit she did. Riyo knew Nami had a tic when it came to treasure but that was a whole level of kink Riyo did not want to know about.
It did bring up the question of how she was feeling it at all. Riyo thought her Alpha bond had been an exception after what happened yesterday. Riyo had never felt real emotions from her pit before. The bond shouldn't work like that. The bond was meant for protection; it should only be triggered by fear-intense fear that meant her pit needed immediate help.
This was so much more. Happiness, excitement, joy...desire.
Ugh.
Riyo did not want to think of what Nami would be doing in her 'alone time' later tonight.
"I have caches all over the sea floor, Nami. Not as many in Paradise though, which is why I had forgotten about this one until we got close to it. Most of my main hoards are in the New World."
Nami turned slowly from looking at her gift.
"Hoards as in plural?"
Riyo shivered. It wasn't the tone, as terrifying as the robotic delivery was. It was the sudden aura. Nami practically radiated obsessive attention; stalker-level attention.
"I kind of collect treasure myself," Riyo hedged, carefully putting Sanji between herself and Nami. It put her slightly closer to Vivi, who was sitting near the mast and watching them in utter bemusement, but that was far better than the old stink of fear from this morning. Riyo was fairly positive Nami had spoken to the Princess while she was swimming. "It's sort of instinctual to collect shiny things, and then I got a lot from when I was with the Roger pirates. I have been collecting for over 350 years. It adds up over time, so I had to expand out into underwater cave systems around my territory to store it all."
"Exactly, and I mean exactly, how much are we talking?"
Nami's voice was scarily...normal, for all of the sheer aura flooding the small group.
"Well, if we tried to collect it all, it's enough to sink the Merry a few times over…"
There was a thud.
"Nami?!"
"Ah, we need a doctor!"
"YOU ARE THE DOCTOR!"
When Nami woke up from her dead faint an hour later, she came staggering out on deck from the girls' room and went right to Riyo.
Riyo sat up from where she was lounging on the warm wood in the sun and smiled at Nami before the redhead dropped into her lap, grabbed her face in both hands, and kissed her dead on the lips.
"I think I love you."
Riyo stared at her. Her cheeks were still squished between Nami's hands.
[Want the Sigma,] the beast grumbled. [Dumb Theta.]
Not what she means.
She hoped.
"I'm shorry, but I don' shwing dat way?"
Nami dropped her hands to hug Riyo's face to her chest.
"It can be platonic. You don't even have to do anything but bring me your treasure as we come by it."
"I…" Riyo turned her head so she could breathe. "Okay? That seems rather one-sided in your favor?"
"Oh, I'm happy to reward you. You can cuddle me any time you want, day or night in any size or form, no questions asked."
"Deal."
[No brainer! Yes!]
Riyo looked up as Chopper ran off to a convulsing Sanji. The chef had stepped out of the galley right as Nami kissed her.
They may have broken him.
Luffy happened to be standing on deck, as well as Vivi.
"What is wrong with this crew?" Vivi threw up her hands and went to go check on Sanji.
"Shishishishi, Nami and Riyo are funny."
Riyo pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose.
At least they were making improvements with Vivi. Riyo hadn't missed that burst of amusement before Princess walked off.
One day at a time, huh.
Riyo grinned when she heard Sanji rambling incoherently about mermaids and elephant tuna while Chopper gave him a blood transfusion for his chronic nosebleed. The chef would be fine.
Two days to Alabasta. A new day to apologize to Zoro.