Midori thoroughly enjoyed the following hours.
She had not just won a nice amount of money but also gained a new friend. A very talkative friend.

However she didn't really mind that Thatch had been chewing the blonde's ear of with his thoughtless chatter. He had after all blurted out everything about that Marco-got-himself-a-girlfriend-the-world-has-to-end-thing and when she said everything, she meant everything.

Marco by the way had still not left the ship which started to really worry her, since we were speaking of Marco here; A damn pirate and Philanderer who was hiding from a woman.
A very…uhm… worrisome woman- for the lack of better words.

If somebody had told her what Thatch told her just some hours ago, she would have laughed into his face, because something like that couldn't have been true, right?

Wrong.
She truly believed everything that Thatch told her about this unknown woman and Midori decided then and there that Marco deserved to be pitied.

Oh right! You don't know anything about her. Yet.
So let's sum it up a little.

The woman, the blonde haired man with the weird hairdo had described, was around twenty years old and gifted with outstanding good looks. All young man (Midori doubted that it were only the younger ones listening to Thatch's infatuated praising) had been smitten with her. That was until Marco came around and she fell in love with him. A thing that the 16 year old girl labeled as downright stupid. Honestly, Marco's reputation was anything but unknown.

All which the man told her after this –not without a shudder, you might add- changed her view completely. At first she had thought something of the lines 'That poor girl' and 'That bastard Marc!', now it sounded more like 'Poor Marco' and 'That crazy bitch'.
Midori had seen a lot of possessive and careful girlfriends, but this woman was already borderline obsessive and her fits of jealousy were unmatched be every single one the young woman herself had ever had the honor of witnessing or have you ever heard of a girlfriend lead the unfortunate chick away who had been hitting on her man and five minutes later she was running out the door crying and sobbing, in other words being a total wreck?

No, you haven't and so had Midori.
(The thought she could and up in the same position never crossed her mind though.)

Midori shuddered involuntarily.
She was definitely not keen on meeting that woman any time soon. Nevertheless the blonde felt like Thatch had not told her everything, if she interpreted those flashes of sadness in his eyes correctly.

She could have questioned him –he probably would have answered her, it had been is stake after all-, but Midori didn't. She had no right to ask him anything he didn't want to tell her, especially if his pride forced him to answer her –him being a good sport and all.
It would simply be unfair, so she let it slip.

Moreover she was just so content right no-

"Die." The blonde whispered coldly, as she felt a pair of arms sneak around her waist and draw her into a very familiar lap.

Marco only grinned at that.
He had far too much fun in teasing and getting –in his opinion- amusing reactions from the poor blonde. Particularly that embarrassed blush, he had received for filling her in on whose clothes she had been wearing on her first awake the aboard the Moby Dick , was is favorite so far.
Luckily Marco still didn't know that Midori had blushed, because she had thought his clothes smelled nice. Another thing that Midori would make sure, he never found out. Never ever.

"Missed me darling?"

'I am not allowed to kill him. I am not allowed to kill. I am not allowed…' were the only words repeated over and over again in her brain. Just a few seconds in his presence and her peace was irretrievably destroyed and…
Did that guy know anything about personal space?

Apparently not…

Midori sighed inwardly. Obviously she had to go along with it… well then…

"I sure did…" She smiled sweetly at him. "… but I missed the marine who knocked you over board back then a lot more."

The surrounding pirates gaped at her. Seemingly they had eavesdropped on them, although she didn't really mind, since they started laughing their asses off after the initial shock, so did Thatch. He was hitting his hand on the table not even trying to stifle his laughter.

Smirking triumphantly the blonde slid back into her chair.

A moment later she joined in the laughter herself. Why?
It wasn't that Marco looked unattractive in his dark blue hoodie –the hood pulled over his head- , it just proofed that he was indeed hiding and on top of that from his girlfriend. So damn ridiculous.

"And what's so funny fro you?" He asked angrily.

Midori stopped laughing and smirked again.

"I never expected you to be afraid of a woman."

His cheeks darkened a little and he turned to glare at Thatch heatedly (Midori could have sworn she saw a hint of the same sadness under Marco's anger, the same sadness Thatch had shown). He surely wanted to give Thatch a piece if his mind for revealing such an important piece of information, but he never got the chance. At the Moment he had opened his mouth something had shrieked loudly and thrown itself at him.

"MARCOOOO!"

"What the hell…?" Marco and Midori said at the same time.

Really, there was nothing that could have described the scene taking place at their table better.

A young woman had literally thrones herself at Marco. Long hazelnut brown hair fell in soft waves around her slender frame reaching her midriff. Grass green eyes radiated happiness.
Very beautiful indeed- Midori couldn't deny that-, but damn… This was the most ridiculous situation she'd ever seen in her whole life.

She was cuddling Marco to death or at least attempting it.

The blonde couldn't help but stare and grin. Strangely she was the only one who found this unbelievable. Looked like she was doing that on a regular basis. It was the first time she felt honestly sorry for Marco who was desperately trying to breath. Yet he didn't once try to push her off.

'So there really is a deeper meaning to this whole relationship-thing, still I should just keep out of it. It's their problem after all.' She thought watching them calmly.

Suddenly she heard an unfamiliar voice begging frantically. A female voice.

'Stop it! Please! You'll only hurt yourself further!'

Midori's look flickered briefly over everybody around her. Then she locked eyes with another pair. For a short moment she stared in the turquoise orbs of a wolf. It, no, she – the voice had been female after all, Midori reminded herself- appeared to be so helpless and worried. Somehow those feelings took hold of her own mind…

Only then the wolf turned back to the brown-haired woman and the strange feelings vanished.

'What in God's name was that?'

Before she could think about it more, a voice broke the blonde out of her thoughts.

"Who are you?" The green-eyed woman was watching her.

"I am Midori."
She said offering her a smile hoping that she wouldn't be caught up in one of those fits of jealousy. Her evening had started out so well after all…

Midori silently endured those green eyes scrutinizing her. There was no need to get worked up over nothing. She was no threat to her and Marco's ehm… relationship (Midori just couldn't adjust to the thought of Marco being in a real relationship. That just didn't do!).
As soon as her Opposite would realize that she could enjoy the rest of the evening. So she hoped, that is.

After a while of utter silence the blonde was tempted to express her growing annoyance with a sigh. She never got that far though, because the woman spoke up.

"Do you have an affair with Marco?"

'Blunt, aren't we?' The dark-eyed girl mused slightly baffled and though about an adequate answer like…
…"Let me think… Not in this life?"
…"Hell. No! Am I stupid of what?"
…"Not in his wildest fantasies"
In the end she used none of those sentences. In fact she was not able to utter a single word. Let's be dead honest, who could have said anything coherent, when they were laughing their asses off.
Right, no one.

Oh and no, Midori did not just loose her mind. She plainly couldn't help her amusement.
To her a woman so bluntly voicing something like that in front of whole crowd of frown man, of pirates, and her boyfriend was priceless. Especially then when said men were completely caught of guard themselves.

The blonde wiped some tears out of the corner of her eyes and gazed back at brunette.

"Never." She said breathlessly.

In a flash something knocked the last bit of air out of her lungs and hugged her.

"I think I like you~" The 'something' exclaimed now sitting on Midori's lap. "The name's Ai, by the way."

She smiled brightly at the blonde who looked dazed by the lack of oxygen. After that Ai jumped up, said goodbye to Marco and dragged the other female away, the wolf from before following close behind. She didn't stop walking until they reached the bar on the other side of the room and boy was that room huge.

She pushed Midori down on a barstool, afterwards she slipped behind the bar.

"Okay… what do ya want? It's on the house." She winked at Midori.

"Rum then, please."

Ai whirled around and went searching for a bottle of rum along with a mug.
Dark eyes never left her bustling form. Midori found this whole situation very suspicious. Not merely because it was very unlikely for the brunette to suddenly dismiss the thought of Midori being a threat- it didn't fit in Thatch's description- and apart from that they were currently at the furthest corner away from Marco of the whole room. The fact that they were also very secluded only fueled her suspicion.
Seemed like her 'ordeal' was not over yet.

With a thump a mug was set down in front of her and the blonde smiled politely. Her eyes glanced up from the mug to Ai's smiling face.

"You know that there was no need to drag me away?"

It was an rhetorical question and they both knew it. The brunette's face fell.

"I meant it, when I said I was not after him, and just to get him off of me, this whole act was useless. I know that and so do you. He is and, as far as I am informed, always was a philanderer. Either you can accept that and live with it or do the both of you a favor and leave him alone."

Not waiting for Ai's reaction she grabbed her mug, stood up and walked away.
She hoped that her words would have at least a small impact on the woman. She would only end up heartbroken, if she kept up this relationship with Marco.

'Hopefully she makes up her mind soon or she's gonna fall deep…'
It never crossed her mind that she had agreed with wolf from before…

Midori sighed.

'I should worry about my own problems. This is theirs not mine.'

The blonde went all the way back to Marco and Thatch who chatted vividly with each other, until she placed the mug next to Marco. Both men looked at her with interest written all over their faces.

"Ah… Midori! Still alive?" Thatch asked amusedly.

He only received a blank look, while she grabbed her backpack- the money safely stowed away inside.

"Is our little girl afraid of Ai?" Marco smirked at her.

At this moment Midori felt searing anger spread through her body. An Anger she could swear was not wholly her own, because, even though she was angry at Marco for taking Ai's love for him so lightly, she was still not that furious.
Taking a deep breath to will her mind to calm down, she closed her eyes.

'Feelin' like going crazy, aren't ya?'
The bemused sounding voice resounded in her head and Midori tried her best to stay unaffected. Whatever was happening in her head (Maybe she was loosing her mind), was not improving her situation and would have to wait until later.

Another deep breath.

The blond opened her eyes again and sighed.

"No and goodnight." The answer was inadvertently chilly. She didn't care.

Without even giving one of them the chance to respond- she was doing that a lot these days- she spun on her heels and left the tavern.
The first thing she had to do now was to get a hold of her and then search for a decent inn. Midori didn't feel like going back to the ship tonight and if the pirates had a problem with that, she wouldn't give a shit. Fortunately she won enough money from Thatch to stay a week in hotels or inns.
Furthermore she recognized another thing that needed to be researched…
Ai hadn't been the only one with a wolf by her side, in fact all the inhabitants of the island had wolves with them; all varying in age just like their owners.
What really got to her, though, was that she heard the she-wolf back then. As far as the blonde could recall the situation the wolf hadn't made a single noise which led her to the conclusion that she had heard its thoughts and there was also this other voice… had it been a wolf too?
Maybe this whole thing was related to this bond she is supposed to have with a devilfruit? (She was pretty sure that she had been the only one hearing it.)
So… was she a Zoan-type then?

"Why do these things always happen to me? AHHHH!" Midori asked loudly groaning at the slowly forming headache.
"This is so not. my. day!"

Sighing (Another habit she was growing accustomed to these days) she made her way through the busy streets searching for a decent inn. I took her a while, but finally she found one called 'Dark Moon'.
Okay, the name didn't sound that heartwarming, the atmosphere, however, was calming and the inn was set a bit more secluded then others, she'd come by.

Entering she went straight for the counter. The young man behind it was currently lost in his daydreams.

"Hello."

That snapped the man out of hid daze and made him look up.

"Uhm… hi…" He said scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

"I'd like to book a room for a night or two." The blonde asked with a smile. The poor guy was already feeling uncomfortable; he didn't deserve any more humiliation, as small as it may be. Besides her mood was nearly back to normal and she was far from being mean let alone angry like less than an hour ago.

"Uhmmm… Do you want to pay now or…?"

"I'll pay later, if that's fine. I am not sure yet how long I am going to stay, you see."

He nodded wordlessly and gave her the key. The blonde chuckled at his shyness.
After wishing him a good night Midori looked for her room. She opened the door going straight for the bed. Tiredly the girl slumped down the energy draining unusually fast from her body. She expected it though.
Whitebeard had said that this bond came with quite a bunch of side effects, for example exhaustion. That on the other hand brought her to new realizations. She could hear the wolves because of the devilfruit she was bonded to and she had to learn to control it. Randomly having mood swings and hearing things she didn't even want to hear, which both exhausted her greatly, wouldn't do in the future.
The Grandline was far too dangerous to forgive such a weakness.

Without recognizing it Midori drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

Hah! I am done and did definitely update faster this time! :D
I really hope you like this chapter and will review just as much as the last time (13 reviews I am really happy ^_^!)
I'd appreciate it very much too, if you could inform me, if I made any major mistakes.
Thank you~