Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece and characters.

A.N.: (Please read this first)

I am very aware that helicopters are not supposed to exist in the OP-verse, and Yes I knew Paulie can make a knot. This might seem OOC and A/U-to-the-max at first. But purposely I left everything quite unexplained at first; things will be explained rather soon.

1514, San Faldo, 10 minutes of hazardous running later

Luck was on his side. He was sure of it.

A few miles away from the base, the local Community had decided to organise a carnival. Including a richness of endless rows with stands. Everyone, young and old, from the city and probably also from neighbouring islands went to see this spectacle, for this was truly one of the things that San Faldo was famous for.

A boy of 15 years old would have no troubles merging into the crowd.

A boy with a bleeding wound on his right shoulder... Well, that kind of screamed 'Hello I'm actually a terrorist and I'm trying to hide'.

Paulie was tired when he arrived at the site from some bushes, having lost a lot of blood already. He had already disposed of his water resistant black suit, and was now simply dressed in jeans, shirt and sneakers.

His body begged him to rest and bandage his shoulder. He ignored this: his boss clearly stated he had to come back without causing any problems. Resting or getting medical attention were both a stupid and vulnerable thing to do.

Paulie made sure he stayed pretty much out of sight by hiding behind crates and cages and empty stands. Until he saw some unknowing blonde girl throw her plain-looking jacket on a few crated in a spur of anger and after that stomping off yelling obscene things to some other guy. Obviously, the girl did not find back her jacket.

Feeling much better to walk around in a girl's jacket than without, Paulie put on the jacket to cover up his wound. The fabric was thick enough to not get soaked with blood, Paulie was grateful for that. Now he only needed to straighten his walk to come across as a regular and very-normal teenager. Perfect.

When Paulie came across a stand which sold tiny pancakes, he reached into the right pocket of his stolen jacket, and actually found a few leftover berries. It would look strange if he was all alone at the carnival without participating to the events. He wanted to blend into the crowd as much as possible, so he would just have to pretend he was having fun until most of these locals would return home. He would then also walk towards the town with others, knowing that once he got near the docs, a lone fisherman's boat would be ready to take him back to Water7.

"One share of tiny pancakes, please." Paulie asked decently, complete with the Local's Accent, when it was his turn. He ignored his shoulder completely, and even gave the girl behind the stall a bit of extra money. Just because he could.

"Here you go." Paulie received a small plastic plate with still steaming tiny pancakes, together with a plastic fork and a napkin. Paulie smiled politely and continued his lonely stroll across the terrain. He blended in perfectly.

When he stuck the third tiny pancake in his mouth, he looked up to the sky. Above him, he could see quite a few helicopters passing by over the carnival's site, most of them geared with searching lights. The whole forest around the site was probably being combed out, but they would never find him off course.

He nibbled on the fourth tiny pancake. Hmm, maybe he should try and see if there was anything fun to do while being here. He could obviously not participate with one of the many games on the terrain because of his shoulder, but he could still watch a show or something.

A fifth tiny pancake disappeared in his mouth. He saw that most people were heading towards the big tent in the middle of all the festivities. But they had obviously bought a ticket beforehand. Fuck. The capitalism is nothing nowadays. To organize something for free was, of course, not fashionable anymore.

Then Paulie could better head back to the stalls. A sixth tiny pancake disappeared. Only three left now. Even though he was supposed to have gotten ten. All these people here were so greedy.

At one of the more crowded stalls, Paulie immediately blended into the crowd. It seemed that there was some commotion at the shooting range. Maybe because you could win huge teddy bears. Of maybe because someone kept on hitting the mark without paying attention to his growing pile of prizes. Or maybe because there was a whole horde of little girls staring at the pile in the knowledge they would probably get one of the prizes sooner or later.

A seventh tiny pancake disappeared. The boy had stopped shooting now and was checking his prizes. With a satisfied gesture of his arm the swarm of little girl were allowed to run to the pile to grab a stuffed animal.

Paulie ate his second last tiny pancake. The crowd was already spreading again, most of them heading towards the big tent. Well, there went his luck. Even though Paulie had still a few berries left in the pocket of the stolen jacket, he knew for sure it was never be enough to buy himself a ticket to watch the main show.

"Would you like to shoot at well?" A voice from behind him suddenly asked. Great. Now Paulie was the only one who had stayed next to the shooting range, the boy behind the counter probably thought he wanted to shoot.

"I can't." Paulie dryly lied. Even though he felt his right shoulder pulsing with a throbbing pain, he could still shoot. He was left-handed, and really did not need petty things like support to aim well.

"Then you might want to go to tonight's show, or else people might start to think you're hiding something."

Fucker. He was even worse than the macho brat who was bringing joy to those little girls.

"And what if I was?" Paulie scrutinized his last tiny pancake. Maybe he should have bought a larger plate...

"Then I judged you correctly from the start."

"You know, fuck you. You're all talk-talk." Paulie turned around and eyed the boy behind the stall for the first time (finally realizing that the boy must have had a terrible youth, because really, what was up with the nose?!), and gave him the finger, "I'm out of here."

"Then please give back the jacket of my older sister before you leave." Oh. He didn't expect that one. His last tiny pancake fell on the ground because in a moment of shock. Damn it, fucker.

"This is my jacket." Paulie hated to lie at this moment, but he really didn't want to inform the weird looking boy in front of him that his shoulder was bleeding quite a lot and Paulie just didn't want to draw attention at the moment.

".. Your name is Kalifa as well?"

".. Huh?"

"At least say 'yes'. On the backside of the jacket you're wearing I once ironed her name in graffiti letters. They're small letters, but they're there, you know."

Fuck.

"Well, good to know." Paulie coolly answered, not thinking a singe moment to actually give back the jacket, "I'll give it back the next time."

He turned around and kicked his tiny pancake in the direction of the nearest trash can. Then he calmly started his way towards the exit. Maybe people wouldn't really notice him already leaving the festival.. He could always make up the excuse that he was being harassed by the boy with the square nose behind the-

"I would like to ask you to please give back my sister's jacket."

Fucker. The bastard boy was suddenly standing in front of him.

"It's just a jacket." Paulie countered back.

"The keys of my sister are in the breast pocket."

Paulie eyed the boy for a long moment, before lifting his left hand to feel inside the breast pocket of the Kaila-jacket. Keys, a candy wrapper... Gross, he could have back both.

"Here. Now get lost." He dropped the keys and the candy wrapper unceremoniously on the ground right before the bastard boy's feet, and continued his walk. If he wanted to catch any transport off the bloody island he would have to hurry.

And suddenly, everything was happening too rapidly.

"Don't mock me!" Paulie received the danger behind those words only too late. A hand reached out and grabbed his left shoulder and refused to let go. But Paulie didn't coincidentally just blow up an entire base.

He tried pulling free out of the grasp of the other teen, but the other resisted. He was no match for Paulie though. Paulie pulled with little more force, and for a moment he floated through the air, away from that bastard teen. He looked around, and was just about to kiss the wall. And not a second too late Paulie twisted his right shoulder and arm in such a fashion that his shoulder exactly hit a stuck out nail. Paulie felt oddly satisfied that he could still accommodate his eye this well in twilight.

At least Paulie had an excuse now, for all that blood on the inside of the stupid jacket.

Paulie did notice now that he was getting light headed however, as his wound started to bleed even heavier. Some people gathered around him rapidly, mainly because the bastard teen had practically screamed at him earlier. Quickly! Paulie had to think of something fast, because he could also see the blond girl, the true owner of the jacket, entering the crowd.

Perhaps Paulie could bluff and act his way out of this one?.. Yeah, Paulie did not see any other option than to make up an act, mostly because he felt ready to pass out. He did loose quite some blood..

Paulie waited until the sister of the bastard boy was close enough to see, before Paulie pushed himself away from the wall with a lot of effort. The nail which was sticking out the wall came free from Paulie's shoulder. A wave of disbelief was uttered by the crowd, and the bastard boy was suddenly not trying to be brave anymore, and took a few steps back, visibly shocked.

Paulie looked at his shoulder like he only noticed now that he was wounded, and only now saw that the jacket was colouring redder and redder with his blood. Then he looked up at the bastard boy, and they stared at each other for a moment, before Paulie suddenly started yelling.

"How could you!" Paulie's voice shook a little bit, which made the act look even more real.

"I mean, okay, you drop my food on the ground," Paulie pointed at the abandoned tiny pancake a few feet away. His audience looked to the pancake as well. Then the audience looked at the bastard boy with disapproving looks. Good, "I mean, I'm sorry that I like boys and not girls, okay! And-.. And I misinterpreted you, okay. I mean, you told me I had a nice smile.. And when I offered you one of my pancakes, I mean, I really didn't mind it that much that you just threw it away!"

Paulie paused. His voice was shaking badly now, and some people had probably noticed by now. The bastard boy had not said a word as of yet, too shocked to grasp the lie that Paulie was weaving to explain the situation. The rest of the crowd was sympathizing with Paulie, who kept on making up a lie.

"I don't get it! Then you give my this jacket to make it up," Paulie looked straight into the eyes of the sister of the bastard boy, who was still looking shocked, "I mean, not every guy gives a jacket to someone else, you know.. And then you find out you left the keys in the pocket, you accuse me of stealing!"

The bastard boy now probably figured out that he was being played with. Dimwit.

But there was no time left to make up something better. His boss would lynch him for this rather weak excuse and weak reasoning, but Paulie had to improvise and he was losing his consiousness. Paulie saw black spots everywhere, and knew from plenty of experience that he was about to black out completely due to blood loss. Paulie dropped to his knees, while his wound kept on bleeding.

It was time for the Grande finale. Hopefully people wouldn't immediately call the Marines.

"And I still don't know your name.." Paulie looked at the bastard boy with unfocused eyes, and then fainted.