Title: On the Ocean Blue
Written By: NikoArtagnan
Genre: Fantasy/Friendship/Adventure
Rating: T, will eventually go to M
Summary: An outcast from Earth is flung headfirst into a hostile, unforgiving world, and finds themselves tagging along with a very particular crew of misfit pirates, and the boy who wants to be the King of them all. But this isn't the world of One Piece you thought you knew, and there are terrible things lurking in the shadows...
Chapter-Specific Warnings: Domestic abuse, anger management issues, misogynistic slurs, the slave trade
Chapter Fifteen:
in regnum harenam (In the Kingdom of Sand)
-…"You look so handsome, Kel!" Agatha said, coming to a stop before her as Kelly entered the room, the redhead's nurse a few steps behind, looking amused. Kelly grinned abashedly, running a hand over the tailored suit she'd bought for the dance that Hollyoaks Psychiatric Hospital and Physical Rehabilitation Center was hosting. It sat easily on her shoulders, giving any who saw her the impression of brawny shoulders, a muscled waist, and about fifty less pounds. The undershirt was a deep plum color that supposedly "set off her ravishing eyes", or some such nonsense.
Her mother's stylist was a decidedly odd man, but he'd worked a virtual miracle.
"Ah, but you look as pretty as a picture, Aggie," she said, turning her attention to the girl decked out in a knee-length pink satin prom dress. "I'll be the envy of everyone here, with the prettiest girl in this entire place on my arm." Kelly bowed gallantly and offered the furiously blushing girl her arm. She didn't notice Aggie gripping a little too tight, or the star struck smile the younger girl sent her way.
They walked down the hallway, with Aggie chattering about all the preparations they'd had to do to get the hospital ready, and how excited everyone was. Kelly had been there for the early stages of the preparations, but she'd stopped coming when Nee-chan…
She bit her lip and fought back the dull, piercing agony. Was that a contradiction? Maybe, but that was the nature of the pain. Of the grief. Such sorrow.
But she'd gotten out of bed and had gotten all dressed up for the dance. They'd both worked so hard to give their friends at the Center the prom that most of them would never have the chance to have. Nee-chan had wanted her to go, so she'd went, even though it felt like there was a hole in her heart.
She breathed slowly and turned her head to Edward, Agatha's nurse, a tall Irishman with sandy blond hair and a barrel-like chest.
"It's good of ye to be here," he said in a quiet aside to her as he pulled open the door that would lead down to the cafeteria.
"Amber said I should," Kelly said, rubbing her nose.
"Kel!" A very familiar voice called from the hallway to their right. Three people approached, dressed to nines for the party.
Kelly stared and felt a newer emotion overshadow the grief. Something warm, like longing. Desire, maybe. She didn't know.
Henry and Lien stood there, a nurse behind them (Max, a skinny black man with gauged ears and a Loki-esque smile), smiling at her. Henry was resplendent in a dark white suit and blue undershirt that made his eyes shine like amethysts, and Lien, an iridescent dream in a floor length emerald green strapless gown that nipped into a tiny waist and seemed to flow out for miles.
The words strangled in her throat as she stared at them both.
She didn't even notice when Aggie sighed and said irritably "I can't even compete with those two in your eyes…"
Nurgleflurgle…
"Let me sleep."
Flurglenurgleflargh…
"Mother of God."
Flaaaaaaaaarghlenargleflurgh…
"Jesus H. Christ, fine!"
Kelly rolled out of bed (careful not to step on Shere or Gin, who were dead to the world) and quickly got dressed. She opened the door and ghosted down the hall to the kitchen.
Flurglemurglenargh…
"Shut up, god damn it," the Magus told her growling belly. "I'll fix you something, just be quiet before you wake up the whole ship, all right?"
Murgle…
It had been four days since they'd left Sakura Island, and like always, Kelly had risen long before the rising of the sun, though it had been hunger that had awoken her this time.
She usually ate as little as was physically possible for her to maintain her muscles and to have the energy to fight, a habit from years on the run and being unwilling to trust any food that came from hands other than her own or she hadn't tested with her own magic.
Her magic provided a great deal of the energy she needed, and it was often more than enough, but she hadn't eaten a thing since the food Kureha had given her on Drum.
She entered the kitchen and flipped on the light. Pausing, she looked around the room, struck with nostalgia, loneliness, and a powerful wave of homesickness.
-…"What's it do?" she asks, waving the whisk around with all the grace of a drunken bear. Her father laughs, and catches her hand before she knocks something over, and takesthe whisk.
Setting it in the bowl, he begins to move the whisk in a very fast circle, and to her amazed eyes, the cream inside begins to get light and fluffy.
"Taste it," her father says and spoons a little out. Kelly's eyes widens as her mouth closes over the spoonful, and the man cackles as her eyebrows shoot into her hairline.
"How'd you do that, daddy?" she asks excitedly, licking her lips to get the remnants of the meringue.
"You want to learn?"
"Yeah!" He looks at her for a long moment, then smiles, his vivid green eyes lighting up with joy.
"Well, my darling, come up here, and you'll help me pour the pie filling for starters." He pulls over one of the stools the surround the island in the middle of their enormous kitchen and sits her on it.
His hands firmly cupping hers, he helps her pour the mousse into the pan…-
Tears pricked at her eyes, and she knuckled them away as she moved to the sink.
She had to leave soon. She had to. Her parents…Gods, what were they thinking? Did they think she was dead? She was her parents' only child, the only child they were ever likely to ever have. She bit her lip, remembering what her mother had told her during one of her lowest moments-…"If you ever died, your papa and I would likely follow you soon after,"…-and shuddered. She always loved her parents, and even though she'd failed them so many times, she knew they loved her more than words could ever express.
What was her absence doing to them?
She missed the countless evenings spent in her mother's library, reading and re-reading her mother's thousands of books until her eyes blurred with her mother in the armchair beside her. She missed the hardwood floors she and her mother had worked to put in every room of their house, sweaty and bruised and swearing at each other when things went wrong and laughing after. She missed her dad's cinnamon pancakes that he made when she was feeling bad or down or ill, or even for no real reason at all. She missed the way he laughed when she made her sarcastic quips, or when she acted out her latest assignment from theater class.
Fuck. She missed them so, so, so much.
What about her friends? Did they think she'd run away?
Beth had just started to forgive her, too.
She closed her eyes, took several shuddering gulps of air, and then rolled back her sleeves so they wouldn't get in the way.
Pancakes would be a good thing for breakfast.
She smelled him before she heard him. Cigarette smoke, spices, human sweat, and something earthy that made her heart roll in her chest and an involuntary smile curve her lips.
"What the hell?"
She turned – thanking God her sleeves were pulled down – and grinned at a dumbstruck Sanji, who was watching her as though she'd grown another head. The stack of pancakes on the plate beside the stove was two feet high and growing.
"Pancakes," she told him.
"I can see that, you shitty bastard, but why?" The insult seemed almost fond.
She shrugged. "Because pancakes."
His eyebrow twitched. "But why did you make them? How did you make them? And why did you use my damned kitchen to make them?"
She paused, savoring the tang of frustration that tinted his scent. "…Pancakes," she finally said, and mentally crowed as Sanji flung his hands up to the ceiling in a gesture of Fuck it, I give up, and moved closer. He was about three inches shorter than her – speaking of which, she'd grown a lot past the normal height she'd had back home and she seemed to just keep on growing.
"Want some?" She asked, gesturing to the pile. "I made more than I could possibly eat."
She turned back to the stove as Sanji moved closer, nervous anticipation coiling in her gut. Sanji was going to eat her cooking, holy fuck. The master chef of the Straw Hats, one of the best goddamn cooks in all of the entire Grand Line, was going to eat her food. The cook she'd admired for years was going to eat her food.
Kelly thanked God that she'd always been such a stellar actor, because it was certainly coming in handy now, when she was on the verge of dropping to her knees and screeching SENPAI NOTICE MEEEEEE.
She still had her thrice-damned dignity, and she would hold onto it with all her strength.
It was so easy to make fun of Sanji – he was a female-obsessed, overly chivalrous, transphobic super pervert (and wasn't that a sentence for the ages) – but in this arena he was flawless. She'd tasted his food, after all. The man was a damned genius when it came to edibles.
It meant the world to have him try her cooking, especially a recipe that'd been passed to her from her own father.
A pleased noise came from behind her, and she fought down the stupid grin that threatened to crack her face in half. Success!
"This is good, really good," Sanji said, sounding insultingly surprised. "Where'd you learn to make it?"
"My dad. He taught me everything he knew," Kelly said with a chuckle. "My first job was as a line cook in his restaurant," she said, noting his raised eyebrow.
"You worked in a restaurant?"
Kelly shrugged. "Ay, for a long while, too. Only stopped when…" She blinked.
Why had she stopped? She couldn't remember a singular incident that had prompted her stopping her work at Atop the Mountain.
…No, she could remember why she'd stopped working at the restaurant. At first she simply hadn't had the time as Amber had gotten sicker and sicker, and she'd fallen for Lien and Henry. And after all that...she'd spent her days alternating between the Center, her sister's bedside, and spending time with Beth and Alex.
Then she'd had her heart broken when Amber had died and then again when Lien had left and Henry leapt from that bridge.
It had taken Beth and Alex weeks to pull her out of the funk she'd sunk into, months before she could even enter a kitchen without bawling her eyes out. The grief of it had scoured her lungs and heart.
She looked down at the pancake in the skillet and breathed through her nose, the luster of cooking fading as she thought about the last time she'd cooked these pancakes.
-…She grunts as Mina's bare body collides with her back, warm breasts pressed tight up against her shoulder blades. Mina's arms curl around her neck as her ankles hooked around her thighs.
Kelly smirks, adjusting to the added weight with little trouble as she set the last pancake on the platter.
"Did you make me pancakes, love?" Mina's says, her voice smoky and soft from sleep.
"Of course I did, you crazy wench," Kelly says and cuts off a small piece to feed her, laughing as the blond woman groaned appreciatively at the taste.
"Oh, by the Gods, darling, you are master at cooking," she moans.
Kelly leaned back into her embrace.
"This day's starting out so well," she says with a laugh and Mina smiles against the skin of her neck…-
She set the pancake down on the platter and sighed, only to blink when Sanji rolled up his sleeves and nudged her aside.
"You really think Luffy's going to be content with just that? And we have a whole crew to feed beyond him," Sanji said. "If you were really a line cook, start frying up some bacon with the pancakes."
"And scrambled eggs?" She asked, going to the fridge, feeling the excitement return.
"Of course."
As even more delicious smells began to drift on the air and the two of them worked together as easily as she'd once done with her father, Kelly was struck by the thought that this was nice, even as she alternated between flirting outrageously with the blond and making fun of him while he swore at her, his cheeks reddening.
It really was.
She was awoken by a terrified scream that reverberated through her mind like a siren.
:MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA!:
She fell out of bed, crashing to the ground with a sickening thump, the blankets tangled around her legs, her jacket trapping her arms behind her back.
(Shere Khan, what-?) Gin had been flung off in her impromptu exodus from the bed, but he had heard the tigeress's scream as well, struggling to emerge from under the blankets. (Where are you?!)
:They're going feed me to the fish Mama! HELP!:
Forgoing shoes, stopping only to check that her scaly bits were adequately covered, she bolted out the door. By the time it cracked against the wood paneling that lined the hallway, she was already down the hallway, up the stairs, and rocketing through the kitchen.
The door that led to the deck flew open with an almighty crash, startling a shriek from Nami and Vivi. Kelly ran past them, barely throwing her hands out in time to catch herself from crashing into the railing.
Her head whipped around, searching, and promptly narrowed in on the two sitting over the railing, fishing rods in hand. Furious hissing and meowing came from over the side of the ship and-no.
They wouldn't fucking dare.
:MAMAAAAAAA!:
Everything went white. She was vaguely aware that the sound that came from her throat could just barely be classified as human, and that she was over the railing in a heartbeat. But after that?
She wasn't conscious of anything else until Zoro roared in her ear, "Stop!"
The order was like a bucket of ice being dumped over her head. She felt comprehension return gradually, in the realization of the wind whistling through the air, the paralyzing silence that held everyone in its grip, the fear-sweat tang coming from Usopp and Luffy, and the soft meow coming from the tied up cat laying on the deck, still attached to the two fishing poles. Zoro's arms were curled around her neck and waist like steel bands.
She breathed unsteadily, and snarled "Get the fuck off me, Roronoa."
"You back?" He asked instead of letting her go. Fury spiked down her spine.
She slammed her heel into the green-haired man's Achilles' Heel, and with a grunt, he loosened his grip enough for her to slip free. Her hair slipped over her shoulders as she knelt and quickly untied the rope wrapped around Shere Khan's middle. She picked up the trembling cat and cradled her to her chest.
"Sheesh, Ciel, why're you so angry? We were just trying to get some food!" Luffy protested, and there was another feeling that replaced the quiet, like the air itself had gasped.
Kelly turned and looked the straw-hatted boy directly in the eyes. She was pleased to see him recoil.
"It is only because you two are complete and utter fucking morons that I have not killed you. So do yourself a favor, boy, and shut the fuck up before I decide otherwise," she said as calmly as she could manage.
Then she turned on her heel and walked back to the upper deck, Chopper practically leaping off the ship to get out of her way.
The Magus could feel nine pairs of eyes fixed on her back as she went, gently soothing the shaking cat in her arms.
As she walked by Vivi (who instinctively flinched) and Nami, she said quietly, dully "Let me know when we arrive at Arabasta, please. I'll be in my room."
When she was back in her room, she set Shere Khan on the bed beside Gin, who immediately started purring and washing the shaking tiger's ears, then sat with a thump.
"Shit," she whispered to herself, resting her head in her hands..
What was she doing? Had she lost all of the sense in her brain? She'd forbidden Shere Khan and Gin both from taking their adult forms without her permission, and it had nearly gotten Shere eaten.
Her hands curled into fists, and in that moment she hated Luffy like nothing else. The arrogant, piggish, selfish little boy hadn't even thought once about using her baby girl as bait. Hadn't she been clear that her cats were off limits? Hadn't she been clear before that she loved her cats beyond anything else?
But, then again, Vivi loved Carue, and yet Luffy and Usopp hadn't even blinked before using the princess's pet as bait in the anime, had they?
She breathed slowly, trying to dispel the raw anger that had blanked the world out, and lay on her side so she could stroke Gin and Shere both.
:Love you, Mama: The tiger said sleepily.
"You two," she said, and two pairs of feline eyes looked up at her, even as she stared at the runic symbol on the wall that denoted absolute silence. Her hand moved automatically, stroking both cats as she spoke.
"If something like that happens again, defend yourselves. I don't care what you must do, who you must maul, but if Daemon or human alike ever tries something of that nature with you, you have my wholehearted permission to rip them apart," she said, coldly calm now.
"Even if it's one of the Straw Hats, Mistress?" Gin asked, watching her with unreadable eyes.
She paused, then gently scratched under Shere's chin.
"Especially if it's one of the Straw Hats," she said, eyes distant. "You are my only true friends in this thrice-cursed world. The Straw Hats are just a pirate crew I've temporarily shacked up with. If it comes down to a choice between you or them, you two will win every time."
I can never forget that, she thought, as the smell of sulfur eventually wafted past her nose.
-…she screeched as she scrambled away from the advancing tigers, swearing at Gin in every language she knew…The tiger cub was soft and warm in her arms, and looked up at her with such trusting eyes...they curled up on either side of her, enormous bodies shielding her tired one from the harsh winter night, and gratefully she slept…they cradled her between them as she wailed her grief to the heavens, rocking her gently as she cursed God for taking away the only person who'd ever loved her…-
She'd wandered off to find some clothes – not trusting Sanji in the slightest to pick something out - and had promised to meet up with the rest of the Straw Hats later. She'd half expected Nami to insist she stay behind for fear Mr. 3 would spot her, but surprisingly no protest had come from the orange-haired beauty.
Kelly looked up at the sun and sighed, Gin and Shere asleep in the Sack. (They could sleep in the bag, in a sort of stasis, protected from all harm, whenever they wished.) Her dark mood had exhausted them as much as it exhausted herself.
The entire crew (even Luffy) had been on tenterhooks around her ever since they'd reached Arabasta. She couldn't blame them, of course. She'd turned her fury on them, shown just how easily she could kill any one of them, including their captain…small wonder they feared her.
Even Chopper had flinched when she'd passed him.
She ground her teeth, fighting the sting of tears. Suck it the fuck up, Lewis! She ordered herself. You've made your damned bed, and now you get to lie in it, so don't be complaining about the rocks under it.
She turned down an alley, and paused, seeing three enormous men standing over a smaller figure on the ground. The men were interchangeable with any low-life thug one could find on the more "civilized" islands in any part of this world – tall, muscular, tanned, heavily tattooed, and bristling with weapons that dripped blood. Two guards lay dead around them.
But it was the woman on the ground, a tiny, squat woman, covered in bruises, who drew her attention. She was dressed like any well-to-do merchant, her robes a pleasing and light combination of silks and linens that flattered what curves she had. The brutes had ripped what jewels had adorned her off long ago – Kelly could see the raw spots on her arms and holes in the cloth where'd they ripped bracelets and rings from her flesh and clothes alike.
She sighed and made to walk away. The greed of humans was never-ending.
"You stupid old bitch, thinking you could walk around here like us humans!"
Kelly's head snapped up. What?
"We'll fetch a fine price on the slave market for a woman with wings, even if it's an old bag like you," the middle one, with a ring dangling from his nose, said with a leer.
The one closest to her grabbed the woman by her arm in a painful grip and hauled her off the ground. As the elderly woman yelled in pain, Kelly could see a faint edge of light gold feathers on her arm, and tasted the even fainter scent of Magic that clung to the woman, gentling the foul taint of money-greed, something rotten, and sweat that was the men's smell.
Well, she thought, with a sudden thrill of bloodlust. This is perfect! I needed to spill some blood, and what better way to do that than by killing some stupid humans?
She smiled cruelly.
The humans never saw her coming.
The woman (who refused to tell her why she was living so close to humans) was named Aveline, which Kelly thought meant little bird.
Fitting, for the gray haired woman had the energy of a tiny bird herself, constantly flitting about her shop, cheerfully chattering at Kelly, who sat in her underclothes in the back of her shop, comfortable in her partial nakedness as she could only be with another Magi.
"Oooh, you must try this on!" Aveline "Call me Ave, dearie!" cooed, handing her a pile of cloth.
Kelly grinned. "Amici mei, my friend, I can't wear these. I'll need hardy clothes, ones that can survive a long trek through the desert, and cover every inch of my skin. I'm walking with humans, and pirates at that. I'll need the covering."
Ave pouted. "You have a point…well, if you try this on and let me take a picture for future reference, I'll give you a full set of desert gear for no charge!"
Kelly blinked, then sighed. "All right, fine, hand it here."
Ave cheered, and promptly handed the girl the clothes. "Now, go change, so I can take a quick sketch of you! You're so beautiful, and your scales! So gorgeous."
"I have to leave soon, amici," Kelly gently reminded the woman, trying not to blush at the compliments. Ave tutted at her.
"Yes, yes, I'm well aware, dear. I've a deft hand with a pencil, though and it'll not take more than a few minutes." She shooed the other Magi behind a large screen. "I'll be out in the front when you're done!"
Kelly sighed, cursing her affection for older ladies, and stepped behind the screen. She laid the robes over a stand and eyed them critically.
The robes consisted of a floor-length, sleeveless, scoop-necked, flowing underrobe made of a soft, dyed cotton the color of an ocean, with bands of white and green embroideries at the hem and neck, drawing attention to the shadow between the wearer's breasts. It was girted at the waist with a belt of gold cloth sewn with the same green embroideries. Over it went a sheer silk overrobe the same color and length as the dress, with long, wide sleeves embroidered at the hems, collar, and cuffs the same as the dress.
She let her hair fall down her back, free of her normal braid, and slipped the golden cuffs over her wrists, reveling in the feel of the fine jewelry against her skin, then tied her mass of hair back with the golden band. She left the slippers off her feet, enjoying the feel of the polished wood beneath her callused soles.
The silk made such a pleasing sound against the floor that she indulged herself, spinning about to hear that utterly decadent sound again.
"Mama!" Shere and Gin had come out of the Sack she'd sat on a chair by the wall. Shere's eyes were bright. "Mama, you're beautiful!"
She laughed – well, it was more like a giggle, which she swore always happened to a person in skirts. It had been many years since she'd had the time or notion to do such a thing.
It was fun.
"Why, thank you, darling!" she chirped. Then she grinned at Gin.
"Your thoughts, my friend?" she asked the silent cat. He watched her with dark eyes.
"Exceptional, dominai moro, my Lord," he whispered. She stared down at him, wondering where the new title had come from. There was something like reverence in his eyes, something that made her turn away in embarrassment.
She ghosted out, the cats following along.
"I have to admit, I've never even heard of-Oh, dearie, how splendid!" Ave had cut herself off with her exclamation of delight as she emerged into the front room and looked to the left.
Kelly's heart leapt into her throat as she spotted the tall man standing in front of the table where Ave took care of the money exchanges, holding a very familiar wanted poster in his hand.
He wore a pair of worn black culottes, belted around his trim waist by an orange belt, a pair of sturdy, short, black leather boots. Atop a head of shaggy black hair was a familiar orange panama hat with a band of dark red beads wrapped around the base that matched the beads around his neck.
But Kelly's attention was focused on tattoo visible on the man's arm. In curvy writing were four letters, an A, an S crossed out by an X, then a C and finally an E.
"Hello there," Portgas D. Ace said, his eyes flicking up and down her body in blatant male appreciation, his lips curved up into the smile that had always made her heart thump unsteadily in her chest.
"Hello to yourself," she returned, her voice a husky rasp in the still air in the shop. She vaguely noticed Ave sketching at the table, eyes focused.
"Okay, now, get closer!" Ave commanded, and leapt off the chair. With surprising strength, she hauled the two closer. Kelly held out a hand to stop from ramming into Ace's chest, and gasped as her bare skin connected with his chest.
There was a flash of something, like a jolt of electricity that shot through their connected flesh, only ten times hotter, ten times more visceral than any bolt of lightning. Kelly gasped with shock and arousal, looking a scant inch up into eyes that had darkened with harsh, wild lust. Her nipples had tightened to the point of pain, and she felt an unbearable warmth between her legs. His hand curved around her waist, pulling her close, so that there was barely a hand's-span of space between the two of them.
The electricity bound them together for several, aching moments, the two of them unable and unwilling to move from the other.
"Excellent!" Ave's cry broke the spell, and slowly the two parted. "Oh, you two make such a wonderful couple! This will make an amazing portrait!"
Kelly only barely noticed the elderly woman's words, eyes still on the Devil Fruit user. She nodded vaguely when the woman said she would get together some clothes appropriate for fighting and traveling the desert. She was only really conscious of the dark-eye man's hand still pressed against her waist, feeling it as though there were no clothes between it and her flesh.
"Who are you?" Ace's hoarse voice asked, and she laughed, a slow and soft roll of sound. She took the man's hand off her waist and pressed it against her cheek.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" she asked the man.
She realized, as Ace chuckled and a very familiar warmth tugged at her gut, that she'd just fallen very, very hard for a dead man walking.
Wonderful. Wasn't that just her lot?
She gagged, struggling not to throw up for the pain as she pulled the blanket tighter around herself.
Cecelia nuzzled her where she lay on the bed, body aching from the beating. It was agonizing for her Familiar, to be unable to come to her aid during the punishments her Master beat into her bones whenever she did something wrong.
"I'm sorry, my darling," she said shakily, stroking the black scales. "I'm sorry you have to feel my pain."
"It's not right," the dragon grumbled, furious. "He shouldn't beat you. He's your husband and you're the mother of his heir! He shouldn't hurt you at all."
She rested her feverish forehead against the crook of the dragon's neck.
"It's all right, Cece," she whispered. "He has every right."
"No he doesn't," Cecelia said petulantly.
"Mother!" She heard the quick patter of her son's feet across the wood floor, and managed to turn herself to her side. The little blond boy knelt beside her, eyes wide.
"My heart, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Auntie B?" she asked, dragging his gaze away from her visible bruises.
"He did this, didn't he?" The boy asked.
"Darling…"
The boy shuddered with fury. "Why does he always hurt you, Mama? Why is Father so mean?"
She reached up a hand and pulled him close, feeling the first of many sobs shake his frail shoulders.
"Why is Father such a monster?" he whispered into her neck.
Like always, she had no answer.