Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece

Start

"Ariun-ya," I turned towards Law with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes Law?" My fingers were twitching slightly at the looks I was being given by most of the males we past.

He was smirking slightly and somehow I knew it was because of the looks I was being give, "You are unused to the attention, are you not?"

The females were glaring at me as opposed to the males that were giving me heated looks that made my skin crawl. I offered Law a glare before returning my attention to the shops around us, "I'm used to being hated by almost everyone, so no. I am not."

Law chuckled as he walked beside me, "You believe yourself to be unattractive then?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't really care if they find me attractive. The stares are disconcerting."

"Perhaps if you get rid of your tail and ears they wouldn't stare," Law suggested making me snort.

"I'd rather not," I crossed my arms over my chest, "I prefer walking around like this and I'd rather not be caught off guard,"

"A defense then?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. While my hearing is better than average with my human ears, my leopard ears are much better," I loosened my tail from around my waist and let it swish behind me for a little, "My tail however increases my balance among other things,"

"Among other things?" He questioned as we reached a store selling what I needed.

"Law can we stop here?" Ariun asked as her hand gestured to the store beside them.

Law eyed the store before nodding as he noted the various arts and crafts supplies in the window. Ariun immediatly headed inside leaving him to follow after her. He found her already at the back of the store looking through various types of books. She seemed to find what she wanted rather quickly if the four rather thick looking books she picked up meant anything. She moved over to the writing utensils and began to look through them. Moving towards her, he asked, "What exactly are you looking for?"

"Things that last awhile," She didn't look up from the seemingly identical pencils she was holding up, "The higher quality things are usually the best, but sometimes they just don't last. Seeing as I don't know when I'll get another chance to get more supplies, I have to get the things that last a long time," She put one back and continued through the section, "Drawing to me is meditative and what my mind is naturally geared for. Once I start drawing, I become lost in the things I create. I can spend hours drawing and not realize the time," She let out a soft laugh and looked at him with a soft smile, "My boys will complain about me spending days on end just drawing nonsense since most of the time I don't know what I'm trying to draw until it's finished,"

Law watched as she moved past him towards another section and followed behind her. It was mind boggling to see someone that was like he was when it came to medical knowledge. He often heard the crew speak about how long he usually stays in his rooms just pouring over some medical book. Even if Ariun wasn't focused on medicine, it still felt oddly nice to find someone that held that much passion for something.

After finally leaving the arts and crafts store, Ariun was blushing as she carried three rather large bags, "Sorry about that Law."

He waved her off and started walking down the street again, "It's no trouble. We're going to make a stop back at the sub after we head to the book store."

"We're going to the book store?" He nodded and she grinned, "Sweet! I can see if they have any new books on plants,"

"Why?" He felt slightly confused as to why she would care about plants.

"I was a herbalist once remember," He nodded suddenly remembering that she had mentioned that at one point, "I know how to make useful salves and stuff out of plants to aid in healing,"

"Are you planning on doing that while you're on the sub?" He asked wonder just how she would acquire those plants, "You do realize that we'll be underwater most of the time,"

"I realized that, but we'll be stopping at diffrent islands," She grinned brightly, "I'll just make the salves using the time we're on those islands,"

"What makes you think we'll be on any of those island for a significant amount of time?" He felt both annoyed and intrigued.

Her grin turned sheepish and she ran a hand through her hair, "Well I know that we're heading to the Grandline and I've read books about how regular compasses were useless there," Her eyes narrowed slightly as she bit her lips in thought, "I've read that the reason for that is that each island has a specific magnetic field and those magnetic fields disrupt the compass somehow. You have to use a specific compass called a log-pose to get around or else you'll be a sitting duck with no way of knowing where you were," He was surprised at how much she knew, "With the log-pose, you'll be able to find out which island you'd want to go to. The only price of using one is that you'll need to stay at the island you landed at long enough for the log-pose to record that islands unique magnetic field. The length of time varies with each island, so the amount of time you have to stay will be diffrent," She looked at him and blushed slightly, "Uh...Sorry about that. I tend to talk a lot about things I'm interested in."

He already knew much of that information, but it surprised him that she did prompting him to ask, "Why learn all that?"

"Well it was interesting and my caretakers told me about it when saw the log-pose they had," She shrugged with a sheepish smile, "I was really interested in the places they traveled and read about those places since I wanted to leave the island,"

"Why didn't they take you?" He had to ask since it sounded like she really loved these people.

I smiled sadly as I thought about the ones that saved me and I murmured softly, "A child has no place among pirates. They would only get hurt and killed," I giggled softly as I remembered their words, "They didn't want me to get hurt on the sea and as a young zoan user the danger was so much worse, so they left me."

My thoughts went to the life I could have lived as Law asked, "Didn't they know what you faced on that island?"

"Yeah, but they found some people that didn't hate me," I sighed softly and pushed those thoughts away, "I really owe them a lot and I got to see them again when I was 14,"

"Why?" I grinned softly.

"The old man that gave me my tattooing job had been apart of their crew," I explained as I remembered seeing them, "They were dropping him off since he had decided to set up shop there. They stayed for a week, but it was nice catching up with them,"

I got lost in my memories as Law stopped asking questions.

While they were in the book store, Law decided to pick up a few books on his female crew members zoan form. He wouldn't be a good captain if Ariun got hurt in her leopard form and he couldn't help her. Once he got the books he wanted, he went to find Ariun. He found her in a section that definitely wasn't about plants. He watched her giggle softly and murmur something under her breath that vaguely sounded like a name. Chuckling, he got to see Ariun blush and fumble with the book as he drawled out, "This isn't the plant section."

"I got bored," She let out a nervous laugh.

"And your mind went to the gutter?" He asked finding her reaction to him finding her in the section amusing.

Huffing and crossing her arms over her chest, she snorted, "I was looking for some novels to pass the time. I happen to enjoy reading a good romance novel with a decent plot. The sex scenes are just a plus."

"I see," He wondered why he was stuck with a perverted crew, "And that book?"

"I've read it a few times before," She put it away before grabbing a stack of books from one of the nearby tables, "You finished?"

"Yes," He eyed the stack as he noticed that there were books about things that didn't sound like plants or trashy romance novels, "I know about the romance novels and the plants, but why get the other things?"

She shrugged as they walked over to the counter, "I like to read a variety of things-"

"Ariun," The clerk cut her off, "Snow D. Ariun?"

"Lex?" Ariun's eyes were wide, "Holy shit you got huge!"

"Eyup," The clerk's sea green eyes lit up, "Dad wanted me to become a marine, so I've been training,"

Law noticed that Ariun looked slightly uncomfortable talking to the man. Deciding to help her out, he spoke, "Ariun-ya you two know each other?"

I almost let out a sigh as Law spoke up and Lex's eyes were no longer on me. However, I frowned as Lex's eyes narrowed as he looked at Law. Why would he do that? I mean sure Law's a pirate and he want's to be a marine, but the look in his eyes was uncalled for. I answered Law deciding to hurry this up, "Yeah he used to live on the island until his Dad decided to become a Marine."

"Dad's going to be happy to see you," Lex turned his attention to me, "Why don't you come here after my shift is over and I can take you home with me. Mom'll be happy to see you as well,"

I opened my mouth to politely decline when Law spoke, "Mr. Lex was it," Lex nodded with narrowed eyes, "Ariun-ya is not going to have the time as we are on a tight scheduled."

"Who the hell are you? Her boyfriend? She can do what she wants," Lex glared at him before smiling at me, "How about it?"

"Sorry Lex, but he's right. We don't have the time," I apologized, "Mind ringing us out?"

"If you're sure," He grumbled softly.

Once we left, I offered Law a sheepish smile, "Sorry about that Law. I never expected him to be here."

"It alright," I sighed in relief as we started making our way back to the sub, "What's your relationship?"

"We were friends I guess," I shrugged slightly, "He left around five years ago and we haven't spoken since," I sighed softly, "I didn't really know him that well other than his parents being some of the few adults that didn't hate me on sight,"

"He seemed really interested in you," Law commented and I rolled my eyes.

"I went out with him on one date, but that's it," I shuddered as I remembered the disaster that had been, "Why do you even care?"

"It seems interesting," I rolled my eyes, "Did it end in disaster?"

"Yeah," I wondered how he could guess, "We had nothing in common other than the fact I liked books and his mom owned a store of them," I reached up and ran a hand through my hair, "It was awkward,"

"He still seems interested in you," Law was smirking making me want to hit him for some bizarre reason.

I rolled my eyes, "And I'm interested in plants, but you don't see me wanting to date one."

Law chuckled as we reached the sub, "Meet me out here in ten minutes, I want to get away from this island as soon as possible."

End