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Ariun's tail swished behind her as she walked into his office. A small smile on her lips as she said, "The guys are setting up down in the galley."

He snorted softly, "They readily assume that I'm not going to head down there."

Ariun let out a soft laugh as she set the tray she was carrying down, "From what I've noticed, they actually had a chance of you not finding out until dinner."

"Why's that?" He felt slightly amused and annoyed.

"You stick to the same schedule," She explained as he picked up the coffee cup on the tray, "You're usually either in here or in your room unless you feel inclined to take a nap," He frowned as he realized that she was right, "The only times you differ is when we're getting close to an island, we're on an island, someone's injured, someone needs some kind of medical help for whatever reason, you need to speak to the navigators for some reason, or you're experimenting on something in your lab,"

The list while true made him wonder how the hell she knew, "How did you-"

"Shachi and the others told me," She shrugged her shoulders, "I asked them why they were so sure you wouldn't find out about the party,"

He pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, "I wish they would have followed my wishes."

Ariun asked a question that brought a smile to his face, "Would they be your crew if they did that all the time?"

He chuckled and had to agree with her. He took a sip of his coffee before asking, "Why did you tell on them?"

Ariun shrugged her shoulders as she took the tray off his desk once he picked what he wanted from it, "I just felt like it and I felt that you needed to know."

"And if you had felt that I didn't need to know?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I wouldn't have told you," She shrugged her shoulders and turned to leave the room, "Sometimes some information is best left unknown,"

She left the room with him staring after her. Another oddly wise thing for her to say. He shook it off and went back to the medical journal he had been looking at. He chalked it up to another interesting thing about her.

I leaned against the wall as everyone partied around me. I smiled faintly as I saw them enjoy themselves. I didn't twitch as Law spoke from next to me, "You seem amused."

"They're acting like idiots," I replied with a small giggle, "I suppose they're doing it because you aren't going to kill them, but still this amount of giddiness is rather..."

I trailed off and shook my head as Law finished my thought process, "Amusing."

I nodded my head and glanced at him. He had his regular smirk on his face, but fondness seemed to line his face. The darkness in those interesting eyes seemed to diminish. My smile widened slightly as I raised the cup in my hand to my lips and took a sip only to frown at it. Law seemed to notice and offered me a raised eyebrow. I placed my cup down on the table next to me as I answered his unasked question, "I dislike certain types of alcohol and bitter ale is one of them."

Law chuckled softly, "I suppose not everyone likes bitter things."

I shook my head lightly, "I prefer my things on the sweet side, but I do like bitter things sometimes."

"Oh?" He looked at me in amusement.

"That dear Captain is for me to know and for you to not," I murmured with a slightly wide grin making him chuckle.

Before he could speak, Maki came up and grabbed my hand, "Dance with me?"

I rolled my eyes, but allow him to pull me with him.

An hour passed and I noticed Law leaving. Wondering aloud, I asked, "Where is he going?"

"Captain doesn't really like parties," Shachi said after he downed another beer, "He usually leaves within an hour of being at a party,"

I nodded my head and put it out of my mind as I drank another cup of rum.

Law looked up as Ariun walked out onto the top deck, "What are you doing out here?"

"Too loud," She was carrying two cups, "I also thought you could use some company," She held out one of them, "Drink?"

He took it and noticed that it was rum. He took a sip of it as she walked over and sat down on the ground, "Why are you sitting down there?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "While my balance is pretty good at the moment, I don't want to take a chance that could result in me getting injured."

Hearing that logic, he nodded and took a seat next to her. He leaned back against the railing while saying, "Your bounty poster should show up soon."

"I suppose so," She shrugged her shoulders.

"You're not eager for it?" He asked after drinking some more of his rum.

"I don't really think it'll affect me," She replied after taking a sip of her drink, "I guess it'll be nice since it'll tell my caretakers that I'm alive and well,"

"Do you think they're still an active pirate crew?" He wondered aloud.

She nodded her head with a small laugh, "I'd think the world government would throw a world wide celebration if they were no longer pirates."

That immediatly caught his attention, he wondered just who the hell were these people prompting him to ask, "Who are your caretakers?"

She merely smiled mischievously at him, "Again that's for me to know and for you to find out dear captain."

He felt slightly frustrated at the not answer, but decided to let it be for now. It wasn't like finding out who they were would make any difference in his future plans. Ariun finished her drink and set the cup beside her before turning her back to him. She laid down with her head near his thighs and stared up at the stars. He stared at her in surprise for a few moments before asking, "What are you doing?"

"Looking at the stars," She replied with a soft smile.

"Why?" He frowned since there really didn't seem to be a point in doing that.

"I haven't had the chance to do this in awhile," She replied in a soft tone, "I thought it'd be nice to do since the sky's really clear,"

"I suppose," It seemed that she could be slightly childish.

He was surprised when she asked, "Are you going to star gaze with me?"

"Why would I?" The thought was so bizarre that he had to repeat the question in his head twice before understanding what she was asking.

She giggled and turned her head to look at him, "Because it's relaxing and you seem like you need to relax a bit."

"If I wanted to relax, I would go and read a book," He replied with a snort.

"Reading is good for relaxing," She agreed with a shrug, "But star gazing allows your mind to rest. It's one of the things I do that allows me to sleep,"

He rolled his eyes and was about to tell her no, but the look in her eyes stopped him. It reminded him of the day back when she first joined the crew. Only this time, the kitten wasn't taking it's first steps, but rather, the kitten was sharing it's favorite thing in the world with another. Deciding to blame it on the alcohol, he moved forward and placed his cup down before laying down beside her. He placed his hands behind his head causing his hat to be pushed up a little. He finally spoke, "What now?"

"Look up at the stars," She giggled softly and raised her hand to gesture at them, "It's all you need to do,"

Hours later, he sat up as Ariun fell silent. The woman had been telling him stories about the constellations in the sky since she had admitted that she liked learning about myths and legends. He glanced down at her and found her eyes closed. He realized that she had fallen asleep prompting him to chuckle. He reached to his side and picked up his hat where he had laid it earlier. Placing it on his head, he stood up and looked down at her. He debated waking her up before deciding to let her sleep. He bent down and carefully picked her up before heading inside. He noticed with a bit of shock that she felt rather light in his arms. He carefully closed the door behind them and walked towards Ariun's room. As he walked, Ariun curled up closer to him and shifted until her head was on his shoulder. She let out a sleepy murmur of confusion that had him chuckling softly. He noticed as he walked down the steps that she smelled faintly of some type of flower, but couldn't pin down which. Whatever it was, he decided that it smelled fairly good. He reached Ariun's room and carefully opened the door so as to not wake her up. He walked inside and immediatly noticed that it was fairly neat with a few books laying around. He set her down on her bed and she immediatly curled up into a ball. Her tail and ears appeared to his slight surprise. He shook his head and turned to walk over to the door when he felt something soft wrap around his wrist. He looked down to see that it was her tail. He looked up and saw a pair of sleepy yellow eyes staring at him. He stared back for a few moments before saying, "Let go."

Ariun's tail tightened and tugged on his wrist. He reached down to make her release him only to find that her tail was wrapped too tightly. He pulled only for her to growl at him. With slightly narrowed eyes, he moved forward and the tail's grip slackened. When he moved back, it tightened once more. With a deep sigh and feeling too tired to really deal with this, he moved until he was at her bed side. He sat down on her bed and her tail released his wrist only to curl around his waist. Ariun's form pressed up against his and she purred softly as she rubbed her head against his chin. Finding some humor in this situation, he chuckled as she murmured, "Sleep."

She laid down and tugged at his waist. Deciding to tease the woman about this tomorrow, he laid down beside her. She curled up at his side and closed her eyes. He decided that he would end up punishing her as soon as possible and added this to reasons as to why. The only question is how to punish her.

I yawned as I came too and noticed that it was warmer than normal in my room. Deciding to sleep a bit longer, I cuddled closer to the source of the warmth. I froze as I heard a sleepy murmur and felt an arm tighten around my waist. I tried to figure out what happened last night only to come up empty since all I remember doing was falling asleep in the middle of telling Law some story. Wondering what the hell was going on, I opened my eyes and was met with the familiar scene of my ceiling. Frowning, I turned my head only to stop as I found myself face to chest with Law. His scent floated around me and god damn what a nice smell to wake up to. Shoving that thought down, I looked down to see that both of us were in our clothes from yesterday meaning that certain things hadn't happened. It was at that moment that I zeroed in on a familiar tail and what it was wrapped around. Realizing what happened, I mentally cursed myself for drinking more than I should have. I was happy to note that my head wasn't hurting which meant no hangover. I did a small mental happy dance at that only to stop when I felt Law move. Hearing his breathing change, I realized that he was about to wake up. Well shit this was going to be a fun morning.

End