Haggle
Characters: Penguin. Rating: K. Warnings: None
Penguin looked down at the handful of coins in his hand dubiously, before stuffing them in his pocket and glancing around at the market before him. He was alone, Law's mysterious illness keeping him bedbound and Shachi left with him to make sure he didn't die – although Penguin was uncertain there was really much they could do if he did take a turn for the worse. Bepo, too distinctive for this part of the world, was as usual confined to the Tang when they made landfall, which left Penguin with the sole responsibility of shopping.
He'd never used coins to exchange for goods before.
Sure, Law had had both him and Shachi shadowing him for several weeks by this point, showing them how to barter and haggle with beri, but he hadn't reached the point of letting them handle the coins themselves rather than observing. Ideally, Penguin would have waited for Law to get over this latest bout of illness, but they were running low on food and medicine and with no way of knowing how long Law would be out of action for, he'd been left with no choice.
The coins pressed against his leg through the fabric, the knowledge of their presence burning into Penguin's mind. He wasn't particularly fond of the currency, not after hearing demands for money so many years ago, buried underneath his mother's cooling body. The treasury the village head had started scrambling to amass after that day had always been for emergencies, he'd said. No-one needed to ask to know that he meant other pirate attacks – a bribe to persuade them to leave them alone, with any luck. It had yet to be used, the Barrels Pirates more interested in trading with them than razing the village to the ground and slaughtering its inhabitants, but it didn't change the way that Penguin associated the coins solely with pirates.
Then again, he thought with no small amount of irony, he and Shachi were pirates now, too. Even if they'd never stoop to terrorising villages for it, they needed a steady supply of beri in order to survive. He hadn't understood that immediately, when an aghast Law attempted to teach them about the monetary system as though he'd known it all his life – he had, Penguin had realised. To Law, trading services for goods was the alien concept.
However, Penguin had to learn it now, and with no Law to guide him he had nothing but his own judgement to go on as he bit the proverbial bullet and approached the first stand, which offered vegetables. They didn't need many of those, well aware that they would spoil quickly, but they still needed some – something about scurvy, Law had said when they'd asked why, and he'd painted a terrifying enough picture of the disease that they never complained about their vegetables again (well, Shachi was picky but at least he'd eat some).
"How much?" he asked the vendor, gesturing at a pile of carrots. The price he received sounded more or less like what he'd seen Law pay so he didn't bother attempting to haggle, unsure on the etiquette and not wanting to offend the first vendor he approached in case that alienated all of them and he was left unable to get anything. It took him an embarrassing length of time to count out the correct coins, feeling eyes watching him intensely as he did so and feeling like the word target had just been painted on his back.
Dialling his senses up to a higher alert, he made sure to put the leftover coins in a more secure pocket, which would at least dissuade any casual pickpockets that had marked him as easy prey before heading deeper into the market, spotting a vendor for medicinal herbs. The ones he'd seen they were low on were present, and he asked again for the price.
This time, the quote he was given was outrageous, and he scowled, crossing his arms firmly – across the entrance to the pocket where he could still feel the coins – realising his earlier mistake in just accepting the price as standard. Now the vendors had him marked as easy money.
"I know I can get those elsewhere for half the price," he retorted, feelings of nostalgia washing over him as he counter-offered at a price far lower. The scowl on the vendor's face confirmed that they'd been attempting to extort him, but he responded back and Penguin found himself falling into the easy rhythm of negotiating a fair price.
There was no reason for him to have been so worried, he realised as he walked away with the herbs, having paid a much fairer price for them than the original quote. What he had to offer was different – coins, rather than fish – but it was no different to when he'd haggled with the tanner over how many fish his leather was worth back on Swallow Island.
For the first time, Penguin realised that the pirate life was one he could handle, after all.
Thanks for reading!
Tsari