Because Enemies Change
The candle flickered and the shadows danced across the pages. Coby picked up one document and tilted it more towards the light, squinting his eyes. He sighed and lay it back down gently, pushing up his round glasses and rubbing his eyes tiredly. He leant back in his seat and sighed, deep and long exhausted.
A smile tugged on his lips when he felt Helmeppo walk towards his direction.
Coby moved his head from side to side, causing it to pop and crack in several places, and sighed—content this time—before there was the knock on his door. "Coby? You awake?"
Coby hummed loudly as an answer, his smile widening. "Come inside, Helmeppo-san."
The door opened quietly and Helmeppo came inside, and Coby was mildly surprised when saw that he held a tray with the other hand, on top of it a plate of snacks, a thermos can and two mugs. He glanced back up at his friend's face, saw the sheepish (maybe a bit indulgent? A bit loving?) smile there and grinned gratefully.
Helmeppo walked over with sure and steady steps while Coby made some room for the tray and stacked the documents into piles. The tray was set down and there was already hot coffee pouring out of the thermos and into the mugs with trained ease.
Helmeppo passed him a mug—that Coby gratefully accepted—before he sat down in front of the desk and sipping from his own mug.
"All nighter?" Helmeppo asked, indicating at the documents and reports in between them.
Coby took a sip from his own mug and took a deep breath of the smell while staring out of the window. "Seems like it."
Helmeppo just hummed in response. From the corner of his eye, Coby saw his friend taking off his black sunglasses and placing them on top of the rim of his hat before taking a sheet of paper from a stack and starting to read it.
Coby frowned and looked at the blond, eyebrow raised. "...What are you doing?"
"Helping you," Helmeppo said bluntly and Coby had to smile when he saw all the little signs that gave his friend away.
But he said none of that and instead looked at Helmeppo and inclined his head, smile widening into a grin. "Thank you, Helmeppo-san."
"Don't get sentimental on me, brat," Helmeppo snapped irritably (or tried, anyway—Coby saw the pink on his cheeks one way or another). "I just don't want you to be s tired tomorrow that all the work will be left on me—now get your ass in gear and we might actually finish most of it before midnight."
Coby laughed and leant forwards in his chair, taking another sip from his coffee before taking the first sheet of paper; and, glancing at his friend and over his desk, he marveled how far he'd come and wondered to where he'd get.
But he pushed that thought away and focused on the paper in his hand and the curses in his ears and the candle flicker shadows over words and the coffee in his stomach warming his insides. He grinned to himself and glanced back at his friend, getting a glare for his trouble, before chuckling.
(Because it seemed like so long ago where he stood terrified in a dusty plain with the man who'd become Pirate King and the man who'd become the Strongest Swordsman one day, while he was held gunpoint by an enemy who would later turn into his best friend.)
It was funny how things had worked out, he thought briefly before getting back to reading his documents and reports.
.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.
Author Note:
Back from the holiday. Officially there are only five days left (crawls into a corner and sobs) before returning back to school. Yaaaay (total sarcasm).
Why did I write about Coby and Helmeppo? I don't know. I like Coby (after he got over that it's-all-impossible attitude and actually manned up and sucked it all up) and I like the new Helmeppo (the one who's not a little snotty-nosed asshole of a brat). Besides, Marines can have Nakamaship too.
But mostly it's because I have no inspiration and just read a fic about the two. And because of that, I'm going to include Extras like these where they're not Straw Hats, but still connected to them and still nakamaship-ish. Or maybe it's just a one-time-thing; depends all on the feedback and if you want more of things like that.
Thank you for reading and please review!