Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece

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Law watched as Maki took a seat on the bed while Kuro grabbed a chair. Both seemed slightly nervous, he could somewhat understand because of what he had heard about their past so far. Kuro took a deep breath as if to calm himself, "Okay, so where should we start?"

"What other problems does the ability cause Ariun-ya?" Law asked deciding to start it off simple for their benefit.

"Other than what you saw?" Kuro clarified and gained a nod from Law, "Maki?"

Maki rolled his eyes, "Normally, Ariun won't be that weak after using her ability, but it's been awhile since she actually used it and she went past what we assumed was her limit."

"Assumed?" Law frowned upon hearing that and wondered why they hadn't tested the ability out as much as possible.

"We've never really been able to test her ability," Maki explained with a small sigh, "Either due to problems with Storm's financial situation, us being busy, dealing with various people that hated Storm, and regular problems that pop up, we didn't have much time," Law felt a small amount of understanding, "We also didn't want to push her too hard lest her body give out,"

"I see and one hour is what you perceived as her limit without it causing much harm to her?" Law asked with some curiosity.

Maki nodded with a slight frown, "Yes. Another problem caused by her ability is a need to eat a lot. It apparently burns a lot of calories."

"Which explains why she's 24 pounds underweight," Law frowned deeply.

"Storm's body temperature plummets as you no doubt found," Law looked at Ariun and saw her shivering, "As you saw with her blood, the ability never truly shuts off which causes her body's natural body temperature to be lower than normal," Maki continued on, "Other than that, we've noticed that she falls asleep more often,"

"Which is a bonus if she hasn't slept in awhile," Kuro tossed in his two cents with a grin and got two glares in response, "Sorry. I'll keep the comments to myself,"

"Storm also becomes more...clingy I guess you could say," Maki grimaced while Law's eyebrow rose at the slightly disturbed tone of voice, "The reason being is that she is a cat and cat's dislike being cold, so..."

"So she's looking for a good heater," Kuro finished the thought with a laugh, "I guess she's going to spend more time with Bepo for the next few days once she wakes up,"

Law was in the middle of being amused as hell by that and annoyed. He came to a rather quick realization that Ariun might try to 'cling' to him as Maki put it as she had remarked that he was fairly warm. He decided to ask about that, "Ariun-ya has mentioned that I'm rather warm."

Kuro and Maki looked at him in surprise before Kuro started laughing loudly. He did so for awhile until Ariun groaned and muttered, "Kuro shut the hell up before I kick you where the sun don't fucking shine."

They all looked at her and Law chuckled. Maki shook his head before looking at Law, "Storm will likely go for either Bepo, you, or me. Devil fruit users are naturally more warm to the touch do to our abilities while Bepo's a bear and from what I've seen, bears are really warm."

Law nodded having come to that realization and asked, "Are there any other side effects?"

Maki frowned and opened his mouth only for Kuro to speak, "Yeah there's one more," The normally grinning and playful brunette looked grim making a shiver go up Law's spine, "If Storm uses that ability more than eight times a day, she will start to cough up blood. If that happens, she needs to stop immediatly," Law felt alarm go through him and ice seemed to lodge itself in his heart, "Storm's limit is eight times a day. If she does it anymore, her body will start to collapse."

Law saw the haunted look in Kuro's eyes and the surprised realization in Maki's. It seemed that Kuro had been the only one to know. Law asked the question that popped up before he even realized it was there, "How do you know?"

"Storm and I were getting into trouble like we usually did," Kuro explained as he seemed to pale, "We ended up going into a bunch of diffrent houses and stealing what took our fancy. Storm went in invisible first then I followed once she gave the all clear," Kuro's eyes seemed to glaze over, "We were looking for another house after stealing from seven others. We found this really fucking nice one and stored our shit in my room since we were nearby. Storm went inside like usual and did the whole check, but when she turned back, I saw blood on her lips and she was coughing," He grit his teeth, "Storm just played it off by saying that she bit her lip open," He shook his head and balled up his hands, "Fucking idiot me believed her. We ended up see a few other houses and did the same thing. It was getting worse. We got to three houses before she collapsed. She was coughing up so much blood,"

Law was surprised to see a tear run down the brunette's face. Kuro fell silent and Law sat there as Maki seemed to comfort the brunette. He grimaced as he realized just how much that ability took out of Ariun and that he should have asked these questions before even trying to add Ariun into his plans. He needed to find out more about Ariun's abilities and soon. Law spoke after a few minutes, "Is there anything else I need to know now?"

"Not that I know of," Maki answered and Kuro nodded in agreement.

"Will Ariun be able to move about freely tomorrow?" He asked since they would need her once they got inside the building.

"If she eats enough, she should be able to help us," Maki looked at him, "After that, she'll need a day or two to rest,"

Law nodded and turned to leave the room, "I thank you for informing me. Goodnight."

"Night Captain," The two replied and Law knew that neither would leave Ariun alone tonight.

After he informed those still in the living room and those that he passed on the way back up the stairs, Law went to bed. As he laid back to sleep, he found himself thinking of what had happened in the living room. God Ariun had been so pale. It had been like looking at a corpse or ghost rather than a living person. In fact, her hair and eyes seemed dull in comparison to the usual life that seemed to fill them. He looked at his hand and recalled how cold she had been. He couldn't even feel any body heat radiating off of her. He frowned deeply as the image of Ariun coughing up blood popped up in his mind. He pushed that away as a cold feeling seemed to settle on him. It felt immensely wrong for someone that made him remember his sister and Corazan to be like that. He growled to himself and pushed those thoughts away. He needed to sleep and be ready for what would happen tomorrow.

He looked up as footsteps came down the stairs and found Ariun walking down them. She was gripping the railing and stopping every few steps. He realized what was most likely going to occur and stood up from his seat. He made it to the stairs just as Ariun missed a step and began to fall. He caught her and immediatly frowned at how cold she felt. While not the ice cold from yesterday, she was still colder than she should have been. Ariun looked at him in sleepy disbelief, "Law?"

"Ariun-ya you should be more careful walking down stairs," He commented while noticing that she seemed to be moving closer to him.

"I'm normally really balanced," She defended herself and it was true she could.

Law chuckled and found the small pout she gave rather cute. He pushed that thought aside and decided to tease her, "Yet, you once again fell into my arms."

"The first time you caught me," She blushed and was relieved to see some of her usual color returning.

"Hm True," He agreed and she looked around with a slight frown, "What's wrong?"

"Where are Buck and Bepo?" She looked at him with slight confusion, "Aren't those two usually up by now?"

He chuckled and shook his head while moving over to the couch he had claimed a few days ago, "It's around 6: 30 in the morning Ariun-ya. Buck and Bepo are normally up around 8."

"I woke up at 6:30?!" Her eyes widened comically making him chuckle, "Oi! It's not funny!"

He set Ariun down and sat next to her as he commented, "I find the expression of disbelief on your face amusing."

She rolled her eyes while grumbling, "Yeah. Of course you'd find that fucking amusing," He chuckled while noticing her leaning into his side and found that he didn't mind it all that much even as her tail curled around his waist, "What are you doing up so early?"

He contemplated how to answer that as he absentmindedly scratched behind one of her ears. On the one hand, he could admit that he dreamed of finding Ariun coughing up blood with the pink bastard using his ability to hold him back. On the other hand, he could just blame his insomnia while ignoring the existence of that dream as it was a recurring nightmare. Deciding what to do, he said, "I have insomnia remember."

Ariun hummed and nodded while seemingly trying to burrow into his side without noticing, "Oh right. Forgot about that."

He chuckled and was surprised to find Ariun transforming into her leopard form. She curled up against him while laying her head in his lap and seemed to fall asleep. He laughed quietly and returned his attention to the book he had brought down to read until the crew was awake.

I groaned softly as I slowly woke up and opened my eyes to see Buck chuckling. Bepo walked down the stairs and I lazily waved my tail at the bear. I was tempted to stay curl up with whatever was providing the amazing amount of heat, but my stomach growling convinced me to do otherwise. I stretched out a bit and yawned softly only to purr at the feeling of someone scratching behind my ears. I easily recognized Law's sent and realized that he was the one doing it. Surprisingly enough, I wasn't angry at him for doing it and really wished for him to continue doing it, but unfortunately my stomach had other ideas. With a low sigh, I pulled away from Law and jumped off the couch I had been curled up on. I stretched out fully and shifting back, "Morning you two."

"Mornin' Darlin'," Buck replied with a chuckling, "Have a good nap?"

"Yup," I turned my head to look at Law, "You are a really good pillow,"

Law looked at me in amusement, "I haven't heard that one before."

"Well now you have," I yawned softly.

I was surprised when Bepo walked over to me and hugged me. I stiffened before hugging the bear and almost sighed at how warm he was. I found myself rubbing my cheek against his. He pulled away from me after a few moments and said, "I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Thanks Sweetie," I was marginally surprised at the nickname that came out of my mouth before reasoning that he was just too cute to not have one, "I feel better too though I really could use some food,"

"Let's wake the others up an get some grub," Buck announced.

Once everyone was up, we all began to eat breakfast. As per usual with my power, I found myself consuming more than usual. The crew seemed to be both slightly worried and amused, but largely ignored how much I was eating and the fact it was mostly meat. After breakfast, Law made a few announcements including, "We'll be staying on the island for the rest of the day though we'll get our ship from the hanger and place it at the docks. We will proceed with the plan tonight and leave under the cover of night understand?"

"Aye Captain!" Everyone said before heading about their business.

Sometime after breakfast, I found myself looking for Law while munching on an apple. I found him in his room and he looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "Ariun-ya is there something wrong?"

"No I just wanted to tell you that I'm heading to the local sweetshop," I informed him while wondering what I did to make him think every time I approached him something was wrong.

"May I ask why?" He looked rather amused, "You don't seem to be the fan of candy,"

"It's not that I'm not a fan of it, I just never really ate it when I was young," I admitted while leaning against the doorframe, "I'm going to the local sweetshop to grab some snacks and stuff," I finished off my apple and tossed the core into the nearby garbage can while pulling another one out of my jacket pocket, "The sugar will help me recover my energy faster and help me tonight,"

Law seemed surprised for some reason, "You're actually willingly giving information about your ability."

I rolled my eyes with a small huff though a stab of guilt hit me. I offered him a sheepish smile after a few minutes, "Sorry about not informing you about this stuff before. You need to understand that we've never really had someone want to know this stuff unless they were trying to use me," I ran a hand through my hair, "I don't really know what you actually need or want to know. I'll try to tell you stuff if I think of it, but it's somewhat ingrained inside of me to not."

Law was silent for a few moments before sighing, "I understand what you're saying and I'll try not to get frustrated if things happen," He gave me a warm smile that caught me off guard and made me feel warm inside for some reason, "I guess we both have things we need to learn."

"I guess so," I giggled and shook my head, "Want me to pick anything up for you?"

"I'll go with you since I wish to visit the bookstore again," He replied making me want to grin.

It seemed that he wasn't going to be cold again and that relieved me more than I would admit.

End