Dr. Heart Stealer

Ch22: Fevered Loneliness

"You're being rather kind. This is quite unlike you, Sadao-ya," he said. The white-haired man shrugged.

"I can't deny it. A gentleman should treat a lady with respect. The fact that she is not of age, well, it just adds to the fact that I should treat her with kindness, Mr. Law," he said. Sadao left after his speech, leaving Law to his thoughts.

Law leaned against the chair's back, where he had been sitting while the two were leaving. He closed his eyes in thought and sighed.

Why had I felt a tinge of sadness when she called me creepy doctor, and called Sadao by his name?

Harmony walked through the maze-like halls of Law's submarine, looking for her room. With no luck of course. She stopped walking when Penguin and Shachi ran by in a panic, carrying something that was definitely broken, if the parts falling were anything to go by. If she had to hazard a guess, she would say it was the gun that had shattered in her hand.

"Shachi, Penguin!" she shouted, attempting to get their attention. The duo stopped and turned to face the young girl. She smiled at them sweetly. "Can either of you show me the way to where I'll be staying?" she asked. They nodded hurriedly and began to walk the direction that she had come from. Figures, she was going the wrong way all along. She began to follow the two men, who still were carried parts of the broken gun.

Harmony stopped next to a wide window. Penguin and Shachi stopped as well.

"Are you okay? What's wrong, why did you stop, Harmony?" they asked her in slight worry. She looked to them in puzzlement, then she pointed to the window she stopped in front of.

"The fish... They're so pretty. Tell me you've never stopped to admire them," she said with confusion lacing her voice. They shook their heads, they truly hadn't ever thought to do something as simplistic look at fish when their was so much important stuff to do. Checking the sub's engines, bringing Law his food, or preparing to dock on an unknown island. Harmony sighed and looked back to the window. "I've never seen this many fish in one place before, not even in a pet store... how can they not amaze you?" she asked in awe of the colorful fish staining the dark sea with all colors under the waves. An angler fish of impossible proportions swam by, illuminating the vibrant fish. She stared at the shimmering fish in wonder. Shachi and Penguin smiled at her as she pointed to shining fish after shining fish, exclaiming how cool or beautiful they were as they wriggled through the murky salt water. Harmony looked at the two men and once again asked them a question, that she had already asked.

"How can they not amaze you? Have you guys really not ever stopped by here to look at the fish?" she asked them, and once again they shook their heads.

"No, but I have heard that there are some weird fish out there," Penguin said. Harmony nodded in agreement.

~X~X~X~

what seemed like only minutes at the window, had really been an hour. So the men showing Harmony the way to her room had to drag her away from the window. Not without a fight on the girl's behalf first though. But with the suggestion (demand) of getting to wear Shachi's hat, she went along peacefully. Of course this little disagreement went on for ten minutes, as Shachi didn't really want to lose his precious hat to a young girl who could damage it. Especially when their seamstress was unavailable.

Although after that they were able to continue to Harmony's room without any other difficulty or distractions. When they finally reached her room, she thanked the two who guided her there politely. And, very reluctantly, gave Shachi his hat back.

She grabbed Penguin's sleeve, her head hung low. "Hey guys, is... is there any chance you could bring me my dinner later?" she asked meekly.

"Sure, I can understand you not wanting to be the only girl with a group of men," he responded with a smile. It earned him an elbow to his gut from Shachi.

"You just want to be alone in the same room as her, perv," Shachi whispered to him. Penguin only laughed at that comment.

She sat on her bed as the duo left her to her solitude. It really was one thing that she hated, being all alone. But right at that moment, well a few before when she had been heading back to her room, she noticed signs that she was sick. And she knew that could be a very dangerous thing when you were underwater, unable to get medical attention. She frowned and lied down on her large bed.

She coughed.

Loudly

Harmony continued to cough for a good five minutes. She put her cool arm over her forehead, it was burning hot. Harmony cursed to herself in complete fury.

She began to cry silently. Why did she have to get sick again? It happens every other week, so it shouldn't surprise her, and yet, here she was, crying away at things that will never change. But really, why now of all times? Who knew what her kidnappers would do to her? Sure they had been rather kind so far, but of course she had only gotten that reaction from a few people, some were just down right evil. Especially that creepy doctor of a captain. They were under the salty blue waves right now because of him, and she was no where near thanking him for her earlier experience with the fish. Being underwater brought a whole new area to torture and murder. Rooms without any escape routes that flooded with water, drowning the victim, and having the loud roar of crashing waves to muffle any bloodcurdling screams made from experiments that the demonic doctor would dissect.

Her gory thoughts were tossed out of her head like a baseball from a pitcher's mitt, as another violent wave of scratchy coughs made their way up her throat.

"Why? Why? Why me? What did I do to deserve this?" she questioned bitterly, wanting to shout these words, but knowing they would be painful, and that someone would come for her, they would be forced to see her weak state. Something she loathed about herself, her weakness. She was furious with herself for being this way, so weak, so powerless, so frail, so... vulnerable. She hated it with a burning passion.

There was a knock at her temporary steel door.

"Hey, lil' girly! I have brought you your food!" a happy old voice said through her door.

"C-come in," she stuttered nervously. Hadn't she asked for Shachi and Penguin to bring her food? That certainly was nota voice belonging to either of them. A joyful man with a platter of food walked in. He had slicked back gray hair that could easily be mistaken for ash, his eyes were like pools of tropical water, a mustache that was strikingly similar silver was primed and groomed could be seen resting above his upper lip. He wore small spectacles with copper rims, and a white scarf draped around his shoulders despite the scorching heat of the submarine, besides those two articles of clothing, his outfit was identical to those of the other Heart Pirates. Although he was by far the oldest man she had seen on board the submarine. He gently set the platter on her lap, as if he was setting it on a fragile house of cards.

"My name is Masanori, I am one of the cooks on this submarine. It is a pleasure to see... meet you," he said, his kind smile still planted on his face.

She smiled up at the man and held her hand out to him. He was about to shake it when she put it to her mouth instead, so she wouldn't cough on him. A heavy cough decided to bless her with its presence right then. And in the company of an ally of the creepy doctor, too. His smile did a 180 turn on his face. He rushed to her side and tried to put his hand on her forehead, she just shied away from his touch and curled up into a little ball in yet another fit of coughs. The food spilled all over her bed as she curled up.

Masanori assumed the worst and ran out of her room lightning fast, most likely looking for Law. He scurried down the gray hall's long passageways, occasionally weaving past a crew member that hadn't seen him rushing towards them. Well he did until he crashed into Sadao. Masanori hopped to his feet and was about to run passed the man in front of him, but Sadao held his arm out preventing him from going anywhere but where he stood. Well he could go around, but it wasn't something that had stricken his one track mind.

"Where are you going?" Sadao asked him, his voice was like snow, calm and collected, but still able to freeze you in place.

"I'm going to find the captain, Harmony is sick and might be getting worse as we speak, so move, brat!" he told Sadao angrily. Sadao frowned and looked to him with deadly eyes.

"You go tell the captain to go to the infirmary, I will take Ms. Harmony there," he said. Sadao walked away wordlessly to get Harmony from her room, Masanori just watched him walk away. Sadao might be loyal to everyone on the crew, but never the newbies, they had to earn his trust. So just what has gotten into that boy's head to make him want to help Harmony? Masanori thought. He was taken out of his thoughts when Hiro smacked his back.

"Hey, old geezer! How is Harmony doing? Did she like the food?" he asked the older man. Masanori looked to him and shrugged.

"Don't know, she never ate it. I think she's sick," with those words exchanged Masanori took off like a bullet to resume his search for the ship's captain. Leaving Hiro's happy expression to slowly morph into a dumbstruck look. After that he began to panic. Words of how Harmony might have gotten sick passing his lips.

Well, let's just say that word travels fast through a submarine.

Word about her sickness had made it to Law before Masanori had even been close to his cabin.

Law had been in the infirmary by the time that Sadao had gotten there with Harmony coughing and sneezing. Sadao had set Harmony onto one of the cold hospital bed that always gave her chills. When Law began to walk over to her, she curled into a ball in fear. She hated doctors. She was around them often, because of her weak immune system, but they always seemed to be giving her shots, and hurting her arm with the blood pressure cuff. The pirate captain stopped when she did this, well he stopped when he heard a sniffle.

"Please don't hurt me," she whispered while curling up even more. Law chuckled, then smirked.

"Why ever would I hurt a child?" he asked calmly, earning a snort from Sadao. Harmony glared at his steely gray eyes.

"Because you are a doctor, all doctors are mean," she said seriously. Law shrugged and continued to walk over towards her, now, shaking form. "And if you are not lying, even though you are, you are the Surgeon of Death, that doesn't do much to calm my fears." Law stopped, and his smirk turned into a light frown.

"Even as a child you have a loud mouth. You need to learn to control it, it might just be your downfall in the future," he told her wisely. She just glared at him, Sadao laughed lightly, grabbing her attention. Using the distraction of her attention, Law gently put his hand on her forehead. His fingers were cold like snow against her searing hot forehead. He took his hand off of her forehead, and reached into his lab coat that he always wore when he was in the infirmary, he pulled out a thermometer.

"Open your mouth," he demanded. She hesitantly opened her mouth for him to put the thermometer inside. When it was under her tongue she clamped her mouth shut. The numbers on the device kept rising before stopping, and making little beeping sounds, at 40 C. He removed the beeping thermometer from her mouth and handed it to Sadao, as if telling him to clean it while he worked. The white-haired man took it and walked towards a sink.

Harmony glared at him as he took off his stethoscope from his neck and put the earpieces into his ears. He moved the stethoscope to her back and listened to her heartbeat. He put the stethoscope back around his neck and sighed.

"There, that wasn't so hard. Now was it?" he asked calmly. "You have a fever, but nothing too serious. You'll get better with a day's worth of bed rest." law told her, she shrugged.

"That's what everyone says... of course there's nothing stopping this from happening again," she said to no one in particular. Law looked at her, his eyes shining in confusion.

"What do you mean? I don't like dealing with sick nakama," he said sternly. She shrugged.

"I have a weak immune system, I get sick from the simplest things. If I were to guess, I would say a bucket of cold water would do the trick," she said with a sigh that turned into a cough. Then a fit of heavy coughing, followed by labored breathing.

"Don't speak, it will only worsen your throat. I'll make sure that Hiro prepares you soup only," he mumbled the last part to himself, as if he was making a mental note. Harmony supplied him with a look of disbelief.

"What? Aren't I supposed to get ice cream and popsicles? Even if you are trying to make my life hell while I'm abroad your submarine, shouldn't I get tasty, cold, sugary sweets?" she asked with a scraggly voice, he glared at her.

"The soup will be better for you. If Hiro and Masanori decide to make ice cream for dessert for the whole crew, you may have some. But otherwise you will be eating soup," he informed her. She frowned at his words and huffed, turning her head away from him.

~X~two days later~X~

The Heart Pirates had surfaced on the way to their next destination, Sunny Shot Island, for some much needed air. Harmony was much better by this time, so she was allowed to go up onto the deck. Sure she hated the fact that she was no where near land, and couldn't use that to her advantage, but this would be the perfect way to obtain part of her revenge plan. She hadn't told anyone, but she was sure a few caught on to what she was planning. Carrying a bucket a quarter her size was gaining her some side stares, but she paid them no mind. For her mind was set on one thing: filling the bucket with cold salty sea water.

She could practically smell the revenge brewing. And that was one sweet aroma she loved.

When the bucket was filled two thirds of the way, and starting to be heavier than her arms could handle without spilling, she took her bucket to the galley doors. She walked inside to the kitchen to find Hiro. He was about twenty, his hair was brown like chocolate and sat messily sat atop his head as if he had not bothered to brush it, his eyes was slowly cooking caramel, they boiled with kindness but they would simmer mischievously. Hiro was always the one to plan the pranks others would perform in his stead. And because of this he was never caught, he never had the evidence pointing his way, despite what his crew mates might say.

Revenge was also one of his strong suits, so she had wanted his help.

Harmony had met Hiro when she was still sick, he had been appointed to bring her meals to her, and she had deemed him a more trustworthy captor. So she had asked him for the plan against Mikio.

Their plan was simple: place the bucket above the galley door, then wait patiently like a snake watching his prey. They had stationed Sadao outside the door to keep others away. When Mikio came, he was to simply leave, like he was leaving the galley. They all had mini den den mushis just in case something went wrong.

Sadao spotted Mikio walking down the halls from the right. He nudged the door slightly, to make him look like he was just leaving the galley. As he walked away another pair of foot steps were added to Mikio's and his own. Sadao spared a glance back to Mikio.

Law.

It was Law who was walking next to Mikio!

Why him of all people? That was the question that traveled through Sadao's mind. He took the mini den den mushi from his pocket and put it to his mouth.

"Mr. Law's coming," Sadao said through the den den mushi. Panicked words were heard from the other end. He laughed silently and continued on his way to anywhere but there. The further the way from the galley the better.

~X~With Hiro and Harmony~X~

"What do you mean?! Why didn't you tell us sooner?!" Hiro yelled through the den den mushi. Harmony sat next to him and sipped on her tea, provided by Hiro. As Hiro continued to yell, oblivious to any noise that wasn't his voice, the sound of a bucket falling to the ground was heard. As well as water falling and light cursing.

"Hey! I think we hit Mikio!" she exclaimed excitedly. Harmony ran out of the galley and to the cafeteria, wanting to see the look on Mikio's face.

Law was there drenched with water, his face contorted in rage. Mikio was next to him only a little bit of the water had splashed him, so he was fine. But Law, being a devil fruit user, looked angry and tired. Not a good mix when you're the one having to confront him. Mikio was snickering from a distance as he had retreated into the hallway to avoid harm.

"Hm… Sorry about that creepy doctor, that was meant for Mikio. Why did you come in first?" she asked him. He glared at her, and she quivered in fear.

"I was coming to get a cup of coffee to calm my nerves about a child being on my submarine. Why did you have a bucket of water ready to dump on my head?" he barked. She cowered, as Law continued to glare at her.

"I'm sorry, creepy doctor! it was meant for Mikio! I-I'll make you a cup of coffee in return! Just don't dissect me!" she screeched. He smirked as she ran off to go make him a cup of coffee. Hiro walked out of the galley. He motioned for Law to follow him. So the captain did.

Hiro lead Law into the galley where Harmony was running around trying to make coffee, and not doing too great a job of it. The galley was a mess. The surgeon was shocked to see how horrible she was at cooking. Not even cooking, putting coffee grounds into a coffee maker. There were coffee grounds surrounding the coffee maker and there was too much water inside of it. It was not going to end well. Then there was the creamer. It was spilled and not quite inside the cup. The sugar was no better, a fifth of the sugar jar's contents were on the floor.

And Harmony stood in the midst of it all. Hiro leaned over to Law.

"Don't you remember that Jake said that she couldn't cook?"

~X~X~X~

~X~X~X~

A/N: I enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you like it. I'm fifteen days late... Roughly... Depending on your country... I'm sorry! I hope I don't get dissected by Law for this... And I have recently gone back and read through my chapters of old... I really and am thankful for all of you who made it through my old horrible, horrible writing. I really am. I am impressed that anyone even continued to read my story. I know that I should go back and fix everything, but it wouldn't reflect how far I've come anymore. So I'm not going to do that (and if I wanted to change anything it could mess with the plot thus far anyways). So I went back and fixed various errors I found in this chapter... I don't like apple. I posted this chapter from an iPad originally, and it just did weird things to the font and the size. It was just terrible. Until next time, keep being awesome!