-1 The young captain of the Going Merry could admittedly say he wasn't enjoying his afternoon. Well, he would have, if he was conscious. Having just been tossed unceremoniously back on the deck of his ship in a helpless state, talking was the least of his worries. Decidedly, that spot was reserved for his first mate, who was MIAS(Missing In the Action of Sleeping).

His swordsman's disappearance coincided with the disappearance of Luffy's common sense, apparently. Not that he owned a substantial amount to begin with, mind you. Fear for his nakama merely made him even less discreet. Admittedly, Luffy's concern was enough to do something very, very rash. Every devil fruit user in the entirety of the world knew the one thing they are never supposed to do. Despite the fact he received reminders of this fact daily, the idiot of a captain had leapt inside the ocean in search of Zoro.

While he had still been conscious and under the water, there was no swordsman to be seen. He had struggled to stay awake, and had remained alert for two minutes, searching frantically for his friend. Those two minutes stretched into eons, and time held still. Nothing moved; well, except for the seaweed, the ocean, the fish, and ripples of light. However, those were expected to move, and were therefore of little consequence.

"LUFFY!" Ussop's voice roared, somewhere between panic and irritation. He, along with the rest of the crew, had formed a little circle around him. The privilege of slapping Luffy across the face belonged to the sniper alone, though. The abuse in question continued for a few seconds before the captain's eyes opened lethargically for one last impact.

"Moron!" was his first greeting, soon to be followed by synonyms all around the group. Five voices, he realized, five instead of six. With that, he shut his eyes against the sun, and asked a question lightheartedly.

"Hey… Who grabbed Zoro?"

Silence. Luffy thought he might have forgotten to open his mouth when asking, so the inquiry came again.

"Hey, who grabbed Zoro?"

With silence greeting his question once again, the rubber man felt his face fall. It seemed his crew had become a sort of 'mystery deaf'. How was he going to ask for meat if they couldn't hear him?

Hart the merman was very good at his job. He took much pride in his ability to harvest gems from the seafloor. It filled him with satisfaction to know that he was productive, and the constant praise from his human partner just made it better.

Today was an especially good day for the young fish-man. The basket Hart carried in his webbed white and brown-streaked hands was full. What had made this day very special though, was that his human had donned a wetsuit and oxygen to come with him, smiling all the way. She constantly pantomimed jokes to him, and let him know how much he was needed. It warmed his cold-blooded heart to see her.

Ever since he was a fingerling, he had always been singled out for his love of humans. It had led to him being disowned and abandoned before he was even twelve years of age. His race was proud, they had shouted at him. Superior! He sure as hell didn't feel superior when diminishing the other sentiment's worth. He did feel flatulent, though. Anger tended to make him gassy- a very unbecoming trait for a merman. Then again, he was never the pick of the crop.

Between his soft amber eyes and his glossy white coral hair, he had often been confused with the female specimen growing up. Of course, they got the idea when his legs split at the age of four. For a while, he was ridiculed by his peers. They mercilessly insulted him, ripping him in every way possible, but he was a man. He never shed a tear for them. At least, that's what he had told his demanding father at the time. He was born into the puffer family, and he was NOT going to disgrace it. He did, though. That was how he had found himself diving in the middle of the sea without forethought daily. Now, watching his human make some drastically funny movements with her beautiful split legs, he had to admit life was good.

When he stopped reminiscing though, he realized something was wrong. Her hands began moving urgently, pointing towards the ocean floor. It wasn't a happy gesture, either. His gills pricked up as a chill went through him on what he was going to see. To his relief, there was no giant monster below them. It was just green sea vegetation as far as his eyes could se-wait. His eyes fell on a spiked turtle. What was a spiked turtle doing in this area of the ocean? His human slapped her goggles with frustration, and then dived past the lionfish-man like a streak.

Unfocused eyes met the human woman as she alighted on the sea floor, holding her head from the pressure change. She shook visibly. The seemingly dead man looked fierce, even tangled in seaweed. His end had been untimely, and she felt a surge of pity rush through her. By the time Hart had sped down beside her, she had picked the poor soul's scarred body out of the seaweed, and looked at her merman companion pleadingly. The face that Hart gave back signified that this was not the first time the nonverbal request had been brought up.

"Fine…." he said, his deep voice clear underwater,"-we need to drop these off anyway." The jewels in his basket threatened to topple over any moment between the jostling and diving. They were their meal ticket, boat ticket, and all around everything ticket. Their livelihood.

"Come on." Hart said more calmly now, noticing that saltwater was building up inside of the human's goggles this time. Nodding, she handed over the unfortunate seafarer and grabbed onto her aquatic friend's back. After she was secure, and careful to keep his hair-ends away from her skin, his body rocketed off the bottom. He sped through the water like a torpedo, and he could feel his human tensing incredibly beside him. It was painful for her. Sometimes he felt sorry for the species. If only the green-haired sailor had been able to breathe underwater, he wouldn't have been given water-hearse duty.

It was only a couple more seconds before they broke the surface. The human female pulled of her diving gear to breathe deeply. Hart also realized that she was leaking over the stranger. Silly humans and their leaks…

"It's okay-" the fish man said, pulling his free arms out to hug the girl, only to be startled by a convulsion from the corpse. For someone with such a deep voice, the scream that resounded was quite high-pitched. Very high pitched, actually. Had glass been present, it would have stood no chance against the mighty sound of the cowardly diver.

The human cringed as if she had just been hit by a giant's toenail clippings. Even she, the ever present maiden-in-distress , didn't scream that loud. Especially when the thing that had occurred made her happy. It had surprised her, of course, but it made her happy nonetheless.

When Hart's chest finally stopped it's annoying need to go into extremely loud cardiac arrest, he too smiled a little bit. Making contact with his partner's blue eyes, they both started laughing. They could still save the man, and the human stopped leaking.