Not very Halloweeny yet, you say? Maybe you should look better ;)

Enjoy the third chapter!

Chapter 3

Twisting and turning, Smoker lay in his bed. It was four in the morning and he had barely gotten any sleep yet. Again.

He cursed loudly. What the fuck was wrong with him? He constantly lay awake, and when he did fall asleep, it was full of nightmares and he woke with a start shortly after it. All in all, he might have gotten three quarters of an hour of sleep, maybe a full hour, but Smoker doubted it. And every time he woke up, he had a feeling as if someone was watching him, but that was probably just a side effect from the nightmares.

He stared angrily at the ceiling. He just wanted to sleep peacefully, dammit! And even if it was very tempting to go to the bathroom and get another sleeping pill, he didn't want to do that. It seemed like his problem only got worse, instead of fade away, as he got used to his new apartment, so Smoker didn't expect it to get better any time soon. Taking a sleeping pill every night… well, that wasn't really his thing. He had always been a bit careful with taking medication, even if it were light pills like these.

But well, not sleeping wasn't an option either. Smoker turned on the light and shielded his eyes for a moment, before he looked around the room, just to make sure there really wasn't someone stalking him and staring at him. He looked at the window too, but no one could see through them, as his curtains blocked the view. Should he check behind them anyway? Smoker thought about it for a moment, but then decided against it. It would only feed his paranoia. He shouldn't be so silly.

Instead, he picked up the book on his nightstand and continued reading where he had left off. It was an entertaining, though not very realistic, detective and it effectively distracted his thoughts from his sleeping problem or any other problem he might have been stressing about.

One time, however, he could have sworn he saw a shadow move from the corner of his eyes, but when he looked around, there was still nothing or no one to be found. He shook his head and read a few more pages, before his eyes fell shut and he could finally get a few hours of sleep.

"You look terrible," Hina commented as she walked past his desk, that Monday.

Smoker glared at her with tired eyes. "Tell me something I don't know."

She stopped to give him her full attention. "Everything alright? No problems at home, have you? With your partner?"

It was silent for a moment in which Hina seemed to realize something. "You don't have a wife or anything, do you?"

"He doesn't," Tashigi commented to Smoker's annoyance. He could answer for himself perfectly well, after all. Still, she continued to meddle in their conversation. "Are you still having problems with sleeping?"

"Yes," he answered grumpily. "But nothing bad enough that it will keep me from doing my job."

Hina looked at him for a second as if she didn't fully believe him, but then shrugged. "Alright, that's good to hear. Back to work then," she said and walked on towards her own office.

Tashigi left her desk to return a few moments later with two hot cups of coffee and put one down next to Smoker's computer. He forced his lips into a smile. "Thanks."

"So you haven't even slept one night straight?" she asked him, while seating herself on her chair again.

"Nope." He didn't really feel like talking about it, since it frustrated him to no end that he couldn't do anything to change it. Still, he thought about it some more and realized something. "The weird thing is, I do think I slept fairly well the first two, three nights."

"You could have been exhausted from moving all your stuff, those days," Tashigi suggested.

Smoker shrugged. "Maybe."

"Have you talked to a doctor or anyone yet?"

He looked skeptically at her. "A doctor?" He shook his head. "It isn't that bad yet."

"Are you sure?" she looked worried at him. "How much sleep did you get last night?"

Again, he shrugged. "About four hours."

"And the night before?"

"Something like that too." Smoker gave her an annoyed look. "Should we move to the interrogation room or are you done?"

Tashigi moved her gaze towards her computer screen. "I'm sorry, I'm just trying to help."

He took a sip of his coffee and the look on his face softened a bit. "I know. But I'm fine."

He walked towards his car that was parked on the parking lot in front of his flat. He asked himself if it was still save to drive, since he had had another very short night of sleep and he couldn't always focus very well on what he was doing anymore. But he still needed to get to work. Being tired wasn't nearly a good reason not to go. Besides, Smoker would be bored to death if he had to stay home all day and couldn't sleep anyway.

In a flash, he saw a bit of black move past him and immediately Smoker turned around. "Portgas!" he shouted and the boy who was nearing the flat, slowed down a bit. "You still owe me an explanation."

The raven head turned around and smiled that annoying smile of his. "Guess what, I owe you exactly nothing."

Smoker quickly walked towards him and since Ace kept looking at him, the boy could only slowly walk back and soon hit the wall with his back. Smoker crossed the distance that was left between them within seconds and grabbed the guy's arm. "Tell me how you escaped and we might leave some minor details out of our investigation, so your punishment might be a little lighter."

Ace chuckled. "I'm not the least worried about any form of punishment. After all, I didn't do anything."

"The investigation has already proven that it's arson. You were seen by three people. I would change my mind about that if I were you," Smoker said.

"I didn't escape." Ace smiled and suddenly, he stood a few feet left of where the older man had been holding him.

Smoker looked confused from his hand, that was still in the position of holding an arm, to the guy standing next to him. He hadn't even felt or seen him move. "How did you do that?" He turned towards the arson suspect and now grabbed both his arms.

"Do what, Smoker?" Ace said innocently. And at that moment he slipped out of his grip, as if he just glided through his fingers, as if they were made of nothing more than clouds.

Smoker frowned and got his hands on the boy again, this time holding his shoulders. Again Ace got out of his hold, as if it was never there to begin with.

Smoker began to panic. What was happening? Why couldn't he hold a little kid like him? How could he escape every time again?

Suddenly, something else worried him too. A smell like something was burning reached his nose and he looked around to see what it was, only to find small flames licking at Ace's skin.

"Watch out, you're on fire!" he tried to warn the boy.

But Ace just smiled at him. "Smoker?"

How could he not be affected by the flames?

"Smoker!"

Smoker's eyes snapped open. What was happening? Where was he? Where had Ace gone to?

In the darkness, he finally recognized his own living room. And next to the couch where he lay on, stood a dark figure, he couldn't make out more than a shadow at first.

"Smoker, are you alright?" the shadow asked.

Smoker connected the voice with his vision that slowly got accustomed to the dark. "Izo? Yeah, I'm fi..." That was when all his senses finally kicked in and the burning smell was all too clear to him. "Shit!" He sprang up and ran to the kitchen. He had been making himself a late night snack and just lay down for a second. He must had fallen asleep and his food had been left alone all that time.

When he'd reached the kitchen, it was clear that he hadn't been asleep for only five minutes. There was a thick cloud of smoke blurring his already barely present vision. Smoker searched for the light above the counter. Fortunately for him, the light needed some time to warm up, so he wasn't blinded by it.

He turned down the stove immediately and looked at the contains of the pan. A few black remains were left of his late-night snack. He was lucky it hadn't burst into flames.

"Were you cooking something?" Izo asked him from the shadows at the kitchen door. "I smelled something wrong, so I decided to take a look to see if everything was okay."

"Yeah, I was cooking," Smoker answered, still a little confused. "But I guess I fell asleep."

Izo chuckled. "Your cooking style reminds me of Ace's."

The white haired man frowned. He didn't like to be compared to that pyromaniac kid. "It was an incident." He put the pan into the sink, when he realized something else was off. He turned to face his neighbor. "How did you get in?"

Izo smiled mysteriously, even if the man was barely visible from where he white haired man was standing. "I know a few tricks."

Smoker raised his eyebrows. "That's probably not the best thing to tell a cop."

Even though Izo's face was half hidden in the darkness of his apartment, Smoker could see the slightly challenging look in his eyes. "I'll take my chances with that."

Smoker couldn't help it when the corner of his mouth curled up. "As long as you only break in to help people…"

"You never know," his neighbor said teasingly.

Smoker felt his heart speed up a little. The tone of Izo's voice, implying a mysterious and possibly bad side of him, did things to his body that it really shouldn't.

He took a few steps towards the man in the door opening, noticing how his breathing had become heavier. "I can try to find out."

Izo smirked. "Oh, are you going to interrogate me, officer Smoker?"

"If I didn't know any better, I would say you'd like that," Smoker tried to keep this weird feeling in his body under control. Well, it wasn't that weird, in fact, he was well aware of what it meant, but he was not sure he wanted these feelings in connection to his neighbor.

"It's a good thing you know better, then," Izo said and Smoker would swear he saw him wink. "Well, I should leave you, now I know that you're okay. You seemed to be in need of some sleep." Izo stepped out of the little light that reached him, almost merging completely with the darkness.

"Yeah." Even though Smoker was a little sad Izo had broken the spell between them, he was still tired as fuck. "You're right about that." He followed his neighbor to the door, admiring him for the fact that he didn't bump into anything while he walked through a pinch black apartment that he had never been in, before.

They wished each other good night and Smoker locked the door as soon as he'd closed it again. He didn't want to give bad-willing sneak-ins a chance.

He filled the sink with hot water, so that the remains of food would be easier removed in the morning. He was not gonna clean that anymore, tonight.

After the sink was filled, he put out the light and went to bed. Once the sheets covered him, he gave himself some time to think about it all. Or more specific, about his neighbor. Did he really like Izo? Well, there had obviously been some sort of tension between them and Smoker couldn't deny that he found him at least a little attractive…

He frowned. Why was he even thinking about it? Did it matter? He wasn't going swoon all over his neighbor if he decided he liked him, and if he mistook this attraction for something that it wasn't… well, either way, it didn't matter. He would see how things would turn out. His main focus would still be on his job, at least the coming weeks.

"Smoker, Tashigi, will you come to Hina's office for a moment?" the station chief called out from the door of said office, the next day.

The two partners looked at each other, both not knowing what this was about, but also not hesitating to comply. They stepped into Hina's office a few seconds later, the pink haired woman already sitting behind her desk again. Tashigi closed the door behind them, getting her sleeve caught between it at first, but succeeding a second time.

"What's the matter?" Smoker asked with a bad feeling in his stomach. It was still his second week here, after all. Maybe they weren't satisfied with the work he had delivered? No, he couldn't imagine that.

"Hina got a phone call from the front desk, just now," their boss began to speak. "Our most important witness in the arson case wants to withdraw."

"What?! Why?" Tashigi asked disbelieving.

"He told Coby, the receptionist, that he didn't want to be the reason that some innocent guy got locked away. He said he was drunk that afternoon and was sure he had mistaken some random bystander as a 'suspicious looking guy'. Since he was drunk, he said, everyone looked a bit suspicious."

"You've got to be kidding me," Smoker said, annoyance and frustration evident in his voice. "Was that the one who had seen his face?" Only one of the three witnesses could describe the arsonist's face, the others had seen him from a greater distance.

Hina nodded. "Hina's afraid so. Coby tried to convince him that the description he gave and the person he had identified matched with the one the other witnesses had seen, but he was still sure he had been mistaken." She sighed. "We can't force the man, but even so, we still have the other two witnesses, which must be enough to convince the judge, together with the results of the arson investigation."

"It'd better be enough," Smoker said. "I'll personally make either Portgas confess or get that witness back, if it's not enough."

"Now now, no need to scare the man even more. Coby said he seemed stressed out and scared of every unusual sound or movement around him, but when Coby asked the man, he said he just hadn't been sleeping very well lately."

Sounds familiar, Smoker commented in the privacy of his mind. Maybe this town caused insomnia if you stayed here too long. "Do you think Portgas is threatening him?"

"How could he know who the witness is, though?" Tashigi brought up.

"Well, the witness had seen Portgas' face, so maybe Portgas had seen his face as well," Smoker said. "It isn't that hard to find out where someone lives." This town wasn't that big, after all.

Hina nodded. "Could be. But he didn't say anything that could point towards that."

"We could talk to him," Tashigi opted.

Hina slowly nodded again. "That's fine, as long as you don't scare him any more. We're here to protect the people after all."

"Don't worry, we won't." Tashigi almost saluted when she said that.

The two of them were dismissed after that and immediately went to the witness' home. After ringing the bell two times, the door was finally opened just enough to let the person inside peek through it to see who was standing on his porch.

"Mister Pagaya?" Tashigi asked carefully and with her sweetest voice. They had agreed to let her do the talking, at least at first, since Smoker scared people too easily with the vibe he gave off – or so his partner said. Smoker wasn't too happy with that, but agreed nonetheless. He guessed at least she wasn't even able to scare anyone. "We would like to speak with you just a little more."

"Oh, no, I've withdrawn as a witness, I don't have anything to tell you that could possibly help you," the man said softly, still not showing much more than ten inches of his home.

"Still, would it be okay if we talked to you a little more, inside?" Tashigi pressed. "I promise nothing will happen to you if you just talk with us. We're here to protect you after all," she quoted Hina.

The man, who was half hidden behind his own beard, looked from the one police officer to the other and then cast a look down the street, before he opened the door some more to let them in. "Well, if you really have to…" he stepped aside, but closed the door immediately behind them.

"Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?" Pagaya offered.

"That's very kind of you, but that won't be necessary," Tashigi replied even before Smoker could accept the extra cup of coffee. Well, he would just let it pass, this time.

They sat down at the dinner table and Tashigi smiled friendly at Pagaya. "Could you tell us precisely why you have withdrawn as a witness?"

"I already explained that to the pink haired officer," the man said, seemingly tired of the prospect of explaining everything another time.

Smoker rubbed his eyes to get rid of his own tiredness before he spoke. "Well, yes, you said you were drunk at the time?" Really, this man didn't seem like the type to get drunk in the middle of the day, but then again, looks could be deceiving.

"Yes, yes, I'm ashamed to admit so, but I was." The man looked down to study the table.

"But, mister Pagaya, I'm pretty sure you still have seen the right guy doing the wrong thing," Tashigi said. "You confirmed that the person we caught, was indeed the one you had seen. Besides, your description matches the one of the other witnesses. They have only seen someone walking away from the fire to a motorcycle, but they were almost sure it was the one we captured as well."

"Then why isn't he still locked up?" the man asked immediately.

Smoker and Tashigi exchanged a look. It was obvious something was wrong here. First, the man knew Portgas wasn't in his cell anymore and second, he stopped denying that he had seen the right man. Smoker cleared his throat. "We can't keep people at the station for longer than six hours, unless they confess or form an immediate danger for society. But you are obviously lying to us, mister Pagaya. What is the real reason you withdrew? Has the suspect come to you to threaten you?" Smoker asked, not really in the mood to waste too much time. "Or your daughter, perhaps?"

The man looked around anxiously. "Does he know I have a daughter?"

Tashigi placed her hand reassuring on top of his. "Not as far as we know." She cast a slightly annoyed look at Smoker.

The white haired man ignored her and continued, "Mister Pagaya, if he's threatening you, you have to tell us, or we won't be able to do anything about it."

The older man shook his head. "You can't do anything about it… he's not threatening me."

"Sir, I might not be psychologist, but I'm not blind either. And it wouldn't be the first time I come across a case of this sort." Why couldn't the guy just tell them? Smoker was getting a little tired of this game.

"Smoker!" Tashigi said, almost angrily.

"I'm sorry…" Pagaya said quietly. "I just want a night of sleep again. I stick to my story. I was drunk and I didn't see anything and I just want to sleep again."

"Is it really bothering you that much that you can't sleep because of it?" the woman asked sympathizing.

"Yes! I don't get any sleep. He's haunting me every night." Pagaya sounded quite desperate and even Smoker began to believe they wouldn't be getting him back as a witness.

"But if you won't testify against him, he might get away with it," Tashigi tried one last time. "So being a witness might give you some peace of mind."

"No," the man answered. "I didn't see anything of importance. Please leave."

Smoker sighed, but stood up, followed by his partner. "Alright. Just remember you can always call us, may you change your mind."

~ bonus ~

"… so I don't think he'll be a problem anymore. Now, I'll only have to find out if they've got any more…" The last words didn't reach the older man's active thoughts, as they were currently somewhere else.

Until the freckled man snapped his fingers in front of his face. "Hello, someone home?" he asked annoyed.

"I'm sorry," his brother said, smiling apologetic. "I was somewhere else with my mind for a moment. What were you saying?"

The younger man grinned and gave him an all-knowing look. "So… who is it?"

TBC.

(Don't forget to review, please ^^)