Chapter 5
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but Kyra was my idea.
She is strapped to a table, her small form unable to move as the man with the needle draws closer. She is crying; her body aches all over, she is so hungry it feels as though her stomach is a lead weight, and all she wants to do if run. Run or swim or fly away until she finds her mother and can sob into the arms of someone who loves her.
Why won't the magic help her? She needs it, but she can't make it do anything today. It's right there, right under her skin, but the only time she's been able to draw it out was when the man with the knife cut her leg down to the bone. She had screamed, and the magic came to help her. Now she screams again as the needle is jabbed into her flesh, as fire races through her veins and sets her body alight. She screams and screams, begging the magic to help her, but nothing happens.
Nothing is going to save her this time.
Kyra bolts upright with a shout, arms swinging at imaginary attackers. She is totally confused for a moment, forgetting where she is until she tumbles out of her bed and hits the floor in her room with a dull thud.
Right. Law's sub. Not the labs. She is on Law's sub, the windows are letting in the first rays of the dawn sun, and she is alone. No one is in her room; no one is about to inject her with poison or stab her in the leg or make her drink toxic chemicals. She's alone, relatively safe, and she just had a nightmare which is why her cheeks are coated with tears. She has no idea why her throat is so sore, but that hardly matters. Everything's perfectly fine.
A sharp, impatient knock on the door of her room has the shaken mage flinching from her position on the floor.
"Miss Kyra." The captain, sounding half asleep and more than a little irritated. "I will not ask again. Open the damn door now or I'm going to bust it down."
Kyra scrambles into the closest pair of pants as she hurries for the door, summoning her key to her hand and shoving it into the lock all in the same movement. She has forgotten that with people sleeping so close - as in right across the hall - it would have been a good idea to put up a soundproof shield around her bed before surrendering to her dreams each night. Too much time living alone has spoiled her to the drawbacks of living in close quarters with others.
The door unlocks and is immediately forced open, causing Kyra to step back or risk getting a black eye. Law strolls in, wearing only a pair of sleeping pants that cover a good portion of his feet with their length, and shoves the door closed behind him. He looks around the room for a moment, eyes lingering on the disheveled bedding, before fixing his gaze on the only other occupant of the chamber. Almost immediately his thin eyebrows attempt to hit his hairline.
"Are you crying?"
The flustered woman immediately brings up both hands to scrub furiously at her cheeks, extremely embarrassed. Caught with tears on her face by the ever-so-sarcastic Surgeon of Death; this would be the perfect time for lightning to mysteriously come through the ceiling of her room and kill her on the spot. Maybe once he leaves Kyra can suffocate herself with a pillow.
"No," she answers rather feebly to his question, looking everywhere but at her unamused guest.
"Don't lie to me." Shit; now Law is using his serious voice. The sorceress has noticed in the past couple of days that he only uses that voice when he is determined to get an answer even if he must pick apart your brain to extract it.
"Look, I had a nightmare, okay?" she snaps at her captain, in no mood to deal with him right now. "I'm not crying, really, it's just the aftereffects of a bad dream. Everything's fine."
Law takes a step towards her, his eyes narrowing when she automatically flinches slightly. "What, exactly, were you dreaming about that was distressing enough that I could hear you screaming from my room?"
Kyra deliberately pauses as though confused even as she bristles at his rude and personal question. "I don't...hmm. I don't really remember. I was just...scared of something."
This is a bald-faced lie, of course, but there is no way in hell she's going to tell anybody - much less this man - what her dreams consist of. That would involve the kind of heart-to-heart talks people only ever have with close friends or relatives or possibly significant others - and Law does not qualify in any of those categories. Kyra has no friends, and though her mother was still alive when she was cast from her home island as a child she is probably dead by now. There is no one in the world with whom Kyra would feel comfortable having a personal conversation.
Tattooed fingers close on her shoulder, jolting the witch into movement as she tries unsuccessfully to pull away.
"If you want to stay on my good side, Miss Kyra, I would recommend that you stop lying to me. You can't lie worth shit, so the continued dishonesty leads me to believe that you think I am stupid. I don't appreciate being constantly taken for a fool." If Kyra thought Law sounded irritable before, that is nothing compared to his tone now.
"Then stop asking me personal questions!" She throws up a shield, forcing the fingers to release her and pushing the pirate away at the same time. At the moment she doesn't care how much the man dislikes being lied to; she is still annoyed with him for getting her set up to be turned into a toddler yesterday, she just had a fucking flashback masquerading as a nightmare, and his little interrogation is pissing her off. Her past, her problems, the content of her dreams - none of that is any of Law's business unless she chooses to make it so, dammit!
Fuming now, the last of the fear left from her dream dissipating as the sunlight in her room slowly grows stronger, the mage stomps over to her satchel of clothing and yanks out a fresh outfit. Without another word to her captain - who stands where her shield pushed him and watches her every move through the chunks of ice he claims as eyes - Kyra marches into her private bathroom and slams the door, putting up a strong magical barrier around it so she can guarantee her privacy. As...touchy as the man seems to be, she wouldn't be all that surprised to learn that her captain is actually some kind of closet pervert. Therefore, being the only woman on this sub makes her his most likely target; so unless Kyra finds out that Law is actually a homosexual or in some kind of weird, sick relationship with the bear, every precaution is going to be taken to keep him at arm's length whenever possible.
When she walks out of the bathroom fifteen minutes later, freshly cleaned and dressed with her damp hair hanging loose to dry, the woman is pleased to see that Law is gone. Her bedroom door has been shut as well, the key still sticking out of the lock. Kyra flops back down on her bed, face buried in a pillow and hands fisted in the sheets. What a wonderful start to the day this has been; a nightmare, a fight with her captain, and a roaring headache right behind her eyes already. Perfect.
Once again the silence of the room is shattered by several knocks upon her door, dragging an irritated groan from the grumpy female.
"What?" she barks, not caring in the slightest if Law disapproves of her tone.
"...Um...Kyra? Are you going to...make breakfast again today?" Shit, it's the bear this time; Kyra's long-suppressed inner child curls up in a ball of shame for speaking so harshly to the giant walking teddy standing out in the hallway. Dragging herself from the bed, she opens her door and moodily follows Bepo into the galley. Law is already there, fully dressed but for his boots, sipping coffee with his feet propped on the edge of the table as he talks to two men sitting with him.
"...said they're going to show it from a couple of screens they're going to set up. Bet it draws a hell of a crowd," a man wearing a hat with the word 'Penguin' stamped across it is saying.
"Are we going to watch, Captain?" his companion asks, sporting a rather poofy green hat with a pink bill. The two look rather familiar; perhaps they were with their captain the day he bid on her in that auction house. Kyra tunes out Law's reply, trying to ignore the fact that Bepo is following her around the galley as she gathers the ingredients for breakfast. Cinnamon toast might help her still-volatile temper...
Once the toast is in the oven with a timer set and the excess supplies are put away, Kyra leans against the counter next to the oven, crosses her arms over her chest, and stares at the floor as though fascinated. In truth, she has felt Law's eyes on her from the moment she entered the room; staring at the floor is simply preferable to meeting his gaze. Plus she's pretty sure being ignored will irritate him, but that's just a bonus.
Booted feet attached to orange legs enter her line of vision. Kyra looks up at Bepo with a glare; didn't they have a little conversation about personal space just yesterday?
"What?"
The bear fidgets slightly, clicking his claws together with small snicks. "Did you have a nightmare earlier? I heard someone scream. It woke me up."
Kyra can practically feel Law's gaze intensify. She ignores him, lowering her head so that her eyes are back on the floor and dismissing Bepo with a gesture. "Leave me alone."
Bepo quickly retreats to the table, perhaps remembering what happened when he angered her yesterday. Kyra ignores the occupants of the room and waits for her breakfast to be complete, mentally listing all the ways she can think of to get away from Law for the day. She's not going to give him the chance to embarrass her again like he did with that pink haired bitch. She still needs to retrieve the clothes and money she removed from her former house, which means a trip to the lawless district and time off this sub. A small smile plays upon her lips at the thought.
The oven timer chimes beside her, signaling that the four cookie sheets of toast are ready. She pulls them out of the oven and sends plates flying for the table, using a spatula to move the food from the cookie sheets to a large platter. Turning with platter in hand, she pauses upon seeing the stunned looks being sent her way by the two men in the weird hats.
"What?" Kyra grumbles irritably as she marches over and sets the platter down in the middle of the table. The magician then moves around the table to the empty place on Law's right, which is where she decides to sit. She'd prefer the seat one chair further from the doctor, but the bear took it; she wonders for a moment if he did that on purpose before discarding that idea. Bepo is already borderline terrified of her; he wouldn't purposely risk pissing her off.
Penguin Hat gapes at her as though unable to believe that she even has to ask. "You - you just made the plate float! Across the room!"
"No shit." Kyra helps herself to a rather large stack of toast, biting into a piece somewhat more ferociously than neccessary.
"What do you mean 'no shit'?" Poofy Hat demands, holding up his plate as though offering evidence of her deed. "How the hell did you do that?"
His question is ignored as the piece of bitten toast is gnawed upon again. Kyra pauses with her mouth full and waves a hand towards the coffee pot, which soars gracefully over and sets itself to the right of her plate so that it rests between herself and Law. Another flick of the wrist brinks a mug, which the girl soon fills with java from the pot and gulps down. Law is busy helping himself to his own modest pile of toast, while Bepo seems to be sulking at the lack of meat.
"You two have names?" she asks casually, holding her hot coffee in both hands and inhaling deeply.
"Sachi."
"Penguin."
This last catches Kyra's attention; she sets her coffee down and fixes her gaze on the speaker, eyes narrowed in disbelief. "Your name is Penguin?"
The man nods in the affirmative. "Thanks for breakfast. Are you the new crew member Captain told us about?"
Kyra shoots an inquiring glance at said captain, who continues eating with a little grin on his face. "What did he tell you?"
"Captain says you were the one that blew up all those auction house guards the day we were there." Penguin shudders, his face taking on a faintly green complexion for a moment. "I got somebody's guts spewed all over my hat. Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of this hat? Anyway, Captain says you killed something like a hundred Marines before running off, and that when he met up with you again you killed some other Marine in front of him. He said that's why you're joining the crew, 'cause the Navy and World Government and all think you're already a member."
"He said you threatened to kill us if we tried to come on to you," Sachi interrupts, looking at her rather intensely from across the table and beneath the pink bill of his cap. "Was that true?"
The mage eyes the man warily, her magic welling up in preparation should it be needed. "Yeah."
Sachi seems to deflate, reminding Kyra of a balloon losing all of its air. "Man. We finally get a hottie on board and she shoots us all down right out of the box. That's so unfair."
Kyra, who has again picked up her cup and taken a sip, inhales wrong at his words and begins coughing harshly. Hottie? Did that guy just call her...?
A strong hand slaps her firmly in between her shoulder blades, quickly helping to bring her coughing to a halt. Eyes watering slightly, she casts a glance at the smugly chipper face of Law, still trying to process Sachi's words and wondering at the same time just what the hell is so goddam funny that the pirate captains' eyes are practically roaring with laughter.
"Slow down, Miss Kyra," is all the captain says, going back to his own meal once he's satisfied the sorceress isn't going to choke to death. "There's no rush."
"Are you going to come with us?"
Kyra directs her attention back to Penguin, silently wondering why in the world any mother would name her child that. "Come where?"
It is Law who answers her, bringing her reluctant eyes back to him. "We'll be going back onshore to watch the execution of Firefist Ace tomorrow. The Navy is going to broadcast it live via Den Den Mushi. You're coming."
She glares broodingly into her coffee, wondering if there's any way to circumvent that little order. She has no desire to watch the scum running the world murder some pirate just to piss off some other pirate. This whole execution is just a giant excuse to give the Navy yet another chance to off Whitebeard, whatever the official justifications may be. If Kyra were a normal civilian she'd be wondering if the higher-ups have bothered to consider how many grunts are going to get killed because of their decision. Since she isn't a civilian, and has a pretty good idea of how the minds behind the Navy command work, she knows that such senseless death will merely be brushed off as 'heroic sacrifice to a just cause'. More like sheep blindly following their shepherds to slaughter.
Aside from which, Kyra finds it rather pathetic that the entire Navy is apparently needed to kill one man, even if he is the legendary Whitebeard.
Wolfing down the last of her toast, Kyra banishes the plate to the sink with a wave before draining her mug of coffee and repeating the gesture. She stands, edging around the unhappy bear even as Law also gets to his feet.
"Don't run off just yet, Miss Kyra. Someone else can clean up; I want you in the infirmary for right now."
Joy.
The magical menace grudgingly follows the diabolical doctor to his domain, unable to stop from cringing when he shuts the door of the room behind her. The medical, sterile air of the place presses upon her heavily. Law motions for her to sit on one of the terrifically uncomfortable beds, which she reluctantly does.
"I want to perform a physical. Take off your shirt."
Kyra gapes at him, sure that she's heard him wrong. "Excuse me?"
"Your shirt. Take it off", he repeats with his back to her, rummaging around in a drawer. "I'm assuming you're wearing one of the brassieres I provided?"
Okay, maybe she didn't hear that wrong the first time. "I don't need a physical. The magic in my body acts like a natural check against diseases. I've never been sick before a day in my life. This is pointless."
Law hooks a stethoscope around his neck before turning to her, grinning slightly in apparent amusement with a syringe in one hand. "There's no need to be embarrassed, Miss Kyra. If you'll remember, I've already seen you completely topless."
Kyra barely registers his words; her entire world has momentarily shrunk down to the needle in the surgeon's hand. For a horrifying second, she is far away from Law's ship; bound to a cold metal table, screaming for someone to help her, screaming as needle after needle pierces her flesh and syringe after syringe is emptied into her bloodstream. She's helpless, she wants to die, why can't she just die so the pain will go away?
"...need to take deep breaths, Miss Kyra. Everything is fine. I have you; you need to calm down and match your breathing to mine, alright? Deep breaths...everything is going to be fine...you're safe with me..."
The trembling sorceress gradually becomes aware that someone has wrapped their arms gently around her torso. A strong chest is pressed firmly against her quivering back, taking deep, slow breaths in contrast to the ragged gasps of air Kyra is sucking in. A voice is speaking low and calm in her ear; she strains to figure out what it is saying.
"Just calm down and come back to yourself, Miss Kyra. Can you feel the way I'm breathing? I want you to breathe as I do. Do you know where you are? You are safe...you are on my submarine, in my infirmary, and no one is going to hurt you here. Come back from wherever it is you've gone; come back to my ship. Match your breathing with mine...that's it...good. Slow, deep breaths..."
"...No needles," she gasps out; that's important for some reason, she needs to tell the voice now before it disappears. "No needles. No needles."
"It's only a flu vaccination, Miss Kyra. Every member of the crew is required -"
"NO!" the panicking girl shouts, throwing out a shield to protect herself and the gentle arms from the voice. "NO NEEDLES! NO MORE NEEDLES! THEY HURT, IT BURNS, I JUST WANT TO DIE! JUST KILL ME, PLEASE, NO MORE NEEDLES!"
The arms around her tighten slightly; she wishes she could bury her face in the chest pressed against her back and hide from the voice.
"Alright, Miss Kyra. No needles, then. Just calm down...match your breathing with mine again...that's it, good girl...you're doing fine now...everything is going to be alright..."
Kyra presses her shivering form deeper into the comforting frame behind her and wills the voice's words to be correct, cold tears slipping silently down her cheeks.
Law sits at his desk, flipping through the pages of a medical journal from several years ago. Books litter the floor around the desk; he has been searching for over an hour. Miss Kyra has gone off to Saboady to collect some personal items, accompanied by Bepo. The surgeon is determined to find what he is looking for before the woman and her fluffy bodyguard return.
Ah. There it is...
Trypanophobia.
Trypanophobia is the extreme fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles. It is occassionally referred to as aichmophobia, belonephobia, or enetophobia, names that are technically incorrect because they simply denote a fear of "pin/needles" and do not refer to the medical aspect of trypanophobia.
Trypanophobia is a term that is rarely used among medical professionals. In the World Government Library of Medicine's medical journal articles, the term trypanophobia cannot be found, although the library contains several journal articles referencing needle phobia. The name that is in common usage is simply needle phobia.
Although trypanophobia is defined simply as an extreme fear of medically related shots/injections, it appears in several varieties...
Law skims the article, looking for the specific variety that best suits Miss Kyra's earlier panic attack in his infirmary. He wants to know as much about this phobia as possible; perhaps through it he can learn more about his mysterious magician.
He knows that he's found his answer as soon as he reads it:
Associative
Associative trypanophobia is the second most common type, affecting thirty percent of needle phobics. This type of trypanophobia is the classic specific phobia in with a traumatic event such as an extremely painful medical procedure, or witnessing a family member or friend undergo such, causes the patient to associate all procedures involving needles with the original negative experience.
This form of trypanophobia causes symptoms that are primarily psychological in nature, such as extreme unexplained anxiety, insomnia, preoccupation with the coming procedure and panic attacks.
Treatments that are effective for this form of trypanophobia include cognitive therapy, hypnosis, and/or the administration of anti-anxiety medications.
Bingo.
Anxiety: Miss Kyra had drooped like a wilting flower when Law ordered her to the infirmary after breakfast and dragged her feet like a child all the way there. That would also cover the preoccupation with the coming procedure; it had been crystal clear that the girl was not been looking forward to whatever her captain had planned for her in that room.
Insomnia. Law's grey eyes narrow at this point; had Miss Kyra not woken up in the dawn hours screaming? He isn't a psychologist, but he knows enough about the field to know that extreme nightmares can be a cause of insomnia. The dreamer simply refuses to sleep for fear of what horrors await them in their subconscious.
Panic attacks. Well, that one is definitely spot on. Miss Kyra had gone white as a sheet when she saw that syringe in Law's hand He doubts she is aware of this, but her blue eyes had momentarily gone pitch black - everything from her iris to her sclera - and the syringe in question had jerked from Law's hands to explode in a shower of glass. The girl began hyperventilating, trembling like a leaf all the while. Law quickly realized what was happening and sought to rectify the problem. He had gone around behind Miss Kyra and wrapped his arms gently around her upper body, careful not to be forceful in the hopes that her magic would not attack him to protect her. The Dark Doctor had held his patient to his chest and talked calmly for half an hour before she gave any kind of response to his words. For a while there he had worried that she would simply pass out from inadequate air supply. It had taken another half hour after that to get her breathing and her heart rate completely back to normal, wrapped up with her in what he is fairly sure was a protective bubble of her powers. She had left with Bepo shortly after, fleeing the sub as if the hounds of hell dogged her every footstep.
Law closes his book and leans back in his chair, hands cradling the back of his head. So Miss Kyra has an extreme phobia of medical needles due to a past traumatic event. She had seen him approaching her with a syringe and panicked. She had been afraid of entering the infirmary because of past damage to her psyche and will likely react the same way in the future. She might very well be suffering recurring nightmares of whatever event sparked the phobia in the first place. He wonders if that might be why she screwed with the lock on her door so that his key no longer works and makes a mental note to talk to one of his mechanics sometime soon.
The girl is simply bursting with interesting surprises.
Frowning in thought, Law closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. If he tries hard enough, he can almost still smell Miss Kyra's personal scent.
It is a new experience for the pirate, holding a woman close like that for such an extended period of time. Sure, he's had his fair share of women; he is a good looking man who can make a person eat out of the palm of his hand with the right tone of voice. But sex is not the same thing; after sex he rises, dresses, pays and leaves. He does not cuddle, which is the closest word he can get to what he did today with Miss Kyra. He had held the woman in his arms, her back against his chest and his hands on either of her hips for the better part of an hour; what else was that if not cuddling?
She smells like iron and lavender and woman, a strange yet pleasant combination.
The sound of the door across the hall opening and closing draws Law out of his thoughts. Seconds later there is a soft knock upon his own cabin before it also opens, Bepo's furry white head peeking into the room.
"Come in, Bepo."
The bear does so, shutting the door behind him. Doctor and bear regard each other silently for a minute before Law sighs, standing from his desk chair and approaching his first mate. "What's wrong, Bepo?"
"You should know that Kyra smells wrong, Captain," Bepo promptly blurts out. Brow furrowing, Law moves to sit on his bed and indicates that Bepo should take the vacated chair. The pirate has a feeling this is going to take a few minutes.
"What do you mean she 'smells wrong'?" he asks calmly.
"Kyra smells sad and scared and angry, Captain. Well, she always smells sad, even at the auction house or when you brought her back here the other day; but she didn't used to smell angry. She didn't smell like that yesterday until you brought her back after she got turned into a cub. But today it smells worse, and she's been like that since before breakfast. She smells salty, like she's been crying, and there's something off about her personal scent. She smells like...like..." Bepo flounders for a moment, obviously trying to put his thoughts into words his captain will understand. "Fish."
One thin black eyebrow slowly rises up Law's forehead. "Miss Kyra smells of fish?"
"Yes, Captain. Like fish right before you eat them."
This does nothing to clear the man's confusion. He has not noticed anything like fish in Miss Kyra's scent, and considering how long he had his nose buried in her hair earlier he's fairly certain he wouldn't have missed that. "You're saying that Miss Kyra smells like dead fish?"
The furry head shakes emphatically back and forth. "No, Captain. She smells like fish before you eat them, not after. Like she's cornered with nowhere to go."
Ah. So Bepo is referring to how a live fish smells just before being consumed by a hungry bear in nature. That explains a great deal. "I see."
"That's not good, Captain. Sometimes fish do stupid thing right before you eat them, because of how scared they are. Is Kyra going to do something stupid? I don't understand why she's so afraid. Is it me?" The bear hangs his head suddenly, thoroughly miserable at the thought that he might be the cause of the problem. "I'm sorry."
"Don't worry, Bepo. I'm sure it's not because of you. I'll keep an eye on Miss Kyra and you can help me make sure she doesn't do anything...stupid. But don't crowd her," he warns sternly, pinning his first mate in place with a look. "I'd say Miss Kyra is more like a wounded predator than easy food, and she's liable to strike out at you if you push too hard. Don't forget that she can be dangerous when she wants to be, Bepo."
"Yes, Captain."
"Good. You can go."
Bepo ambles out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Law stretches out on his bed, hands folded on his stomach and a harsh frown tugging at his lips. So Miss Kyra is sad and afraid, is she? The anger he expects: she's been forced to join a pirate crew by circumstances beyond her control and their little stroll yesterday - amusing as it was for him - had pissed her off. But what, exactly, is the girl so afraid of? Law would chalk it up to the fiasco earlier, but Bepo had said she smelled like that since before breakfast. What else does this newest crewmate fear?
And why does she constantly smell of tears?
The Heart Pirate captain drifts off as he ponders these questions, napping lightly in the solitude of his chamber.
He is jolted from his slumber several hours later by the sound of shattering pottery, a crash, and shouts. Bounding off his bed, Law snatches up his nodachi and swiftly exits the room, long strides carrying him quickly towards the noise. He does not come to a stop until he reaches the entrance to the galley, and then only because he is surprised by what he sees.
Miss Kyra is standing by the oven, cocooned in a protective bubble and standing over the ship's teapot. Pieces of a mug surround her feet, along with murky brown water and a soggy tea bag. She is fairly pressing herself against the oven, her hands wrapped so tightly around the bar used to swing open the door that her knuckles are stark white. A look of absolute fury paints her face red at the cheeks, a rage beyond anything Law has seen from her so far in their rather short acquaintance.
Neil, the burly and somewhat crude ship's cook, is hiding behind the overturned dinner table, a lump the size of an egg sprouting from his forehead even as blood runs from his clearly broken nose. His beanie, which he is rarely seen without, is on the floor behind him. And in between the two is Bepo, crouching in a classic kung fu pose with his back to Miss Kyra and as close to her as the shield will allow, claws at the ready and his lethally sharp teeth bared in a snarl.
"Captain!" the cook yells, spotting Law lingering in the doorway. "Captain, watch it, Sachi brought another one of his whores on board and she's a freak! Don't get too close to her! And she brainwashed Bepo!"
Law does not miss the way his female crewmate flinches at the word 'freak'. Pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and pointer finger, the pirate captain lets out an irritated sigh. Neil is an excellent cook, and his bloodlust is a match for just about anyone else's on this sub, but his brainpower leaves much to be desired.
"Bepo." The snarling bear turns his head to look at his captain, not relaxing his pose in the slightest. "Tell me what happened, please."
"Kyra was just making some tea, Captain. Neil came in and said bad things to her, and then he touched her and tried to kiss her but she threw him away. The scared smell is worse, Captain, and the angry smell."
"Neil." Law's voice is deceptively mild. "Did you lay hands on your crewmate after I specifically ordered you all not to mess with her?"
The color slowly drains from Neil's face as he cautiously peeks over the table in Miss Kyra's direction. The sorceress tenses at his gaze, and Bepo - quiet, shy, fluffy Bepo who won't say boo to a goose unless ordered to do so by Law - lets out a hair-raising growl of warning.
"B-b-but... she's the newbie?" Neil gasps, his jaw hanging open in surprised shock. "I didn't know, Captain, I swear! I thought she was with Sachi, you know he brings women on board all the time -"
"Enough." One word and Neil immediately stops talking, looking terrified. "Go wait for me in the infirmary. I'll be there shortly to reset your nose."
The cook snatches up his fallen hat and bolts past Law without a word. Bepo stays tensed in the same spot until the man's back is no longer in sight. Turning, the bear directs his version of a concerned look at the woman he has just protected.
"He's gone now. Are you okay?"
Miss Kyra mutely nods her head, letting her sheild disappear and waving her hand sharply through the air. The overturned table rights itself; the chairs displaced by its former violent repositioning are returned where they belong. The shattered mug mends itself and lands in the sink, while the teapot flies back to sit on the stove. Miss Kyra then grabs a dish towel from the nearby counter, squats down, and begins furiously mopping up her spilled tea, tossing the teabag in the direction of the galley's trashcan. Law slowly walks over and crouches down near her, eyes attempting to penetrate the curtain of hair hanging in front of her face.
"Where did he touch you?" he asks, his voice low but serious so that she will understand that he wants an answer.
"He came in and started flirting with me," Miss Kyra replies, refusing to raise her head and continuing to push her towel furiously across the floor. "He got pissy when I ignored him, said Sachi ought to pick his women better and asked me how the sex was. I kept ignoring him, so he came over here when I was pouring myself a cup of tea and pressed up against my ass. Grabbed me by the hips and turned me around, tried to kiss me. I flung him across the room. Bepo knew who he was, so I figured he was one of yours and that you wouldn't appreciate it if I killed him."
At this she finally looks up, and Law is faintly surprised that her eyes are still blue rather than that ominous black from earlier. "One chance is all I'm giving. If he does that again I'll kill him, your opinion be damned."
"Understood. I'll talk to him; he won't bother you again. You can expect an apology for his behavior first thing in the morning."
"Fuck his apology."
Law does not reply to this last retort. He stands up, turns and, after gesturing to Bepo to stay with Miss Kyra, stalks from the room.
He has a cook to discipline.
A/N: Please review. Beta'd by Tomas the Betrayer.