Law watched, rather bemused as Katrina seemed to be squirming under his gaze before she clenched a hand by her side and a certain strength entered her eyes that caught Law's attention more so than the ruckus his crew was creating at the moment.
"I slept fine hun."
Katrina replied, however the slight tremor of his voice told him she wasn't being completely honest in her answer. This caused a frown to appear on Law's face as a dark look entered his eyes. The frown was replaced with a tight-lipped smile that held no warmth for the one he was looking at. None of which went unnoticed by his crew who all stopped to watch their captain, concerned as to what he was going to do next.
"Don't lie to me Miss Katrina."
Law warned in a voice that had made many a man shake with fear, but the only difference in Katrina was the slight trembling of her hands that she stopped by clenching them at her sides. It was clear to the dark doctor, that Miss Katrina was not a weak-willed individual. He didn't know much about her, technically speaking all he did know about her was her name and that she had been living at a brothel, but unbeknownst to her she was slowly gaining a bit of respect in the doctor's eyes.
"It wasn't a lie per se Captain Law. Compared to other times I've tried, I did sleep fine."
She said just as seriously, meeting his gaze easily with no signs of fear or concern for her well-being. This time, Law didn't sense she had lied to him and knew if she had Bepo would have told him. That being said, the new bit of information the brunette had just provided had now piqued the surgeon of death's interest. What exactly had caused her previous attempts to be less than 'fine'? Was there an illness she was suffering from that made sleep difficult? Insomnia perhaps? She showed no outward signs of any other cause that he could see without getting her in his infirmary again, something that Law had a feeling wouldn't be an easy feat. He did notice the slight bags beneath her eyes that made her statement ring with truth, but that just made Law wonder once more what kept the brunette from her sleep.
Silence followed, but neither Law nor Katrina looked away from each other. Law to see how long until he could make her squirm as before, and Katrina because she was trying to figure Law out. Their little staring contest didn't last long though when a rather loud growl was heard throughout the room. Law blinked once in surprise before smiling as he saw a blush appear on Katrina's face. She wasn't as good at hiding behind her mask as she thought herself to be.
"Are you hungry?"
Bepo asked, coming to stand beside Katrina who opened her mouth to protest when her stomach growled again, this time earning a chuckle from Law who ignored the glare that was sent his way.
"If you're hungry, I can cook you something."
The blonde haired girl from before said, coming to stand beside Bepo. Katrina looked her over and noticed she was wearing a beige colored tank top and baggy pants. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a side ponytail and her bangs were pinned out of the way of her chocolate colored eyes. Katrina noticed what looked like grease splotches here and there on the girl and wondered where they came from.
"NO!"
Came the collective response of just about everyone in the room and Katrina blinked in shocked confusion as the blonde turned and glared at everyone before starting an argument with the boy she'd previously force-fed.
Katrina silently stared at the commotion before slipping past the people standing around the room and walked into the kitchen area of the room they were all in. There were unidentifiable substances and stains on the counters, sink, and parts of the stove that made Katrina shudder before she opened the fridge to see what there was to work with. The people in the room were too busy arguing among themselves to even notice her as she cleaned off one of the counters and set out a carton of eggs, sausage, bacon, milk, a loaf of bread, and some seasonings she'd found lying around. She could hear some of the argument going on as she cleared off the stove and put two pans on the eyes. Part of her wondered why no one was paying more attention to her, given the fact she was a stranger aboard their ship and she could be there to attempt to collect the bounty on Law's head. Despite the laid-back demeanor everyone seemed to have, Katrina's instincts told her that everyone in the room would have no problem fighting to the death to protect the fuzzy-hatted man sitting at the end of the table with a cup of coffee in his hands.
"What do you mean I'd kill her!? My food isn't that bad!"
The blonde girl shouted at the boy in the blue and red hat who had at some point regained consciousness.
"You almost killed me with that...that concoction you force-fed me earlier!"
He shouted back and Katrina had to stifle a giggle at the man's choice of words. They accurately fit the substance the blonde had fed him earlier.
"Apparently I need to try harder next time then, since this time obviously didn't do the trick!"
She shouted and Katrina chuckled silently to herself as the argument continued while she made an egg batter and soaked a few pieces of bread in it as she started cooking the rest of the eggs. She tossed the empty egg carton in a pile of garbage in the corner that she'd try to clean up later if she had time. Her inner neat-freak wouldn't let her leave it, or the kitchen for that matter, in the state it was now. It would drive her insane.
"Her cooking is a lot better than yours Shachi."
The guy in the penguin hat said to the blue and red hatted boy, earning a smile from the blonde he just defended and a scowl from the one he'd called Shachi.
"Like yours is any better Penguin! At least mine doesn't try to crawl off the plate!"
Shachi shouted at Penguin and Katrina chuckled again as she set a couple pieces of bread in a pan as she scooped the scrambled eggs out onto a plate, rinsed the pan out, put fresh grease in it and pattied out some sausage before laying it in the pan after flipping the french toast over to cook evenly on both sides.
"That was only one time! And it's better than Bepo trying to cook fish! He has to be the only one in the world who can cook fish until it looks and tastes like leather!"
Penguin shouted and Katrina saw Bepo look at Penguin with a frown before pointing in Law's direction, who had been watching the whole scene in amusement.
"Better than the time captain cooked and the food dissolved through the pan before it even reached the table."
The polar bear said in his defense before looking away and apologizing at the look his captain sent him. Then they all started shouting and arguing over each other about this one time one of them tried cooking something or that other time when they'd had to evacuate because of the fumes when another had tried to cook.
Katrina stifled her laughter as best she could as she finished cooking and cut everything off. She set everything on the clean counter and looked up to see the blonde girl trying to strangle Shachi while Penguin shouted at her to leave his friend alone. Bepo had a dark cloud hanging over his head and mumbling out repeatedly apologize and Law was in the middle of threatening to force-feed acidic insects that would slowly devour a person's insides to the next person that commented on his cooking and Katrina couldn't hold in her laughter anymore, making everyone freeze and look over at her. The looks on all of their faces was too much and Katrina had to hold her sides as she doubled over in laughter.
The Heart Pirates all fell silent at the sound of laughter and turned to see Katrina standing in the kitchen laughing as she held her sides.
"What's so funny?"
Bepo asked and they saw Katrina lift her head to look at them.
"All of you."
She said with a smile as she tried to get her laughter under control. Looks of confusion were passed around as Law looked at Katrina.
"I'm glad you find our arguments amusing Miss Katrina."
He said, and even Katrina could hear the sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"Oh, I didn't mean any harm in it hun."
She said, sobering up from her laughing fit when she realized she was most likely upsetting the pirate captain sitting across the room from her. She supposed she would be upset too if someone laughed at her and her crew when they were known to be heartless criminals, despite the pirate crew's name.
"Let's eat. You're all hungry right?"
Katrina suggested, in an attempt to change the subject and get some of the attention away from herself. She missed the look that passed over Law's face at her unintended order. The members of the crew noticed the change in their captain and all took a collective step back until it finally registered with them that there was food on the counter. Actually edible food.
Katrina let out a girly squeal when the counter was suddenly swamped by pirates all trying to get something to eat without making it all fall to the floor. Katrina grabbed her food and some for Law, who hadn't moved from his seat, and eased past the other pirates fighting with one another over a piece of bacon and walked over to Law, placing the plate of food down in front of him and sitting beside him. When she noticed he wasn't eating she looked at him confused.
"Aren't you hungry? I didn't poison it."
She said before taking a bite of his eggs to prove it. When he still made no move to eat she sighed.
"Gods your stubborn, eat."
She said with a frown and in less than a second she found herself pushed back in her seat with a tanned hand around her throat and Law glaring at her.
"Don't order me around."
He said in a deathly calm voice that scared the shit out of Katrina. She noticed the others had all stopped stuffing their faces and were watching their captain to see what he'd do next.
Law had been as shocked as the rest of his crew when laughter suddenly filled the galley and was even more surprised to see it coming from Katrina. He'd forgotten she was there when arguing with his crew. Not exactly the smartest of moments in his life, but he sensed no ill-will from the brunette and had allowed himself to relax. When he heard his first mate ask what was so funny Law was less than pleased that she had found his crew's dilemma amusing and said as much, though he wasn't truly bothered by it. When she'd said to come eat, he glared at her for the order, whether intended or not. Before he could do anything, his crew ran towards the counter and attacked the food there like dying men, making Katrina squeal and earning a chuckle from him.
He watched as Katrina slowly eased past his crew as they fought among themselves for food and blinked in surprise when he saw her carrying two plates of food. She set one down in front of him before sitting beside him. He didn't touch any of it, even though it looked and smelled really tempting.
"Aren't you hungry? I didn't poison it."
She said and stole a bit of his food and ate it to prove it, but still he didn't move to eat it. He couldn't understand why she had cooked all this for his crew. He didn't know anything about her other than the fact she helped Bepo, was living in a brothel, had almost been raped by her boss, and apparently had trouble sleeping. What made her so comfortable to make breakfast aboard a notorious pirate ship and laugh without a care in the world? He was seriously contemplating forcing her back to his infirmary and running some tests to check her mental state when she spoke again.
"Gods your stubborn, eat."
She said and Law pushed her back in her seat with his hand wrapped around her neck, glaring at her before she could even blink.
"Don't order me around."
He said darkly and felt the eyes of his crew on him, but he didn't care. No one ordered him around. He was the captain, not her. He was the one to give orders and have them followed.
Law felt Katrina swallow against the hand he had around her throat and tightened his grip just slightly before pulling back, reclining back in his chair and starting to eat, ignoring the looks his crew was sending him.
Katrina rubbed her neck from where Law had grabbed her and glared at the pirate captain beside her.
Who the fuck pissed in his coffee?
She wondered before going back to her food.
The awkward silence stretched on and Katrina wondered how much longer it'd last before someone broke it. She didn't have to wait much longer.
"Where did you learn to cook?"
Penguin asked as he moved to sit beside her, Shachi sitting on her other side.
"I've traveled."
She said simply, not wishing to tell them about where she learned to cook or the past that was attached with it. She wasn't even sure how long she was welcome aboard this ship, the only one who knew that was the captain. As she finished her food and looked back towards Law, Katrina frowned to find him gone, two pieces of french toast remaining on his plate untouched.
"Captain doesn't like bread."
Shachi answered one of her unspoken questions before snagging the food for himself.
"Or being told what to do."
Penguin added before slinging his arm around Katrina's shoulders.
"I'm Penguin by the way, and the brunette beside you is Shachi."
Katrina looked at Penguin and Shachi before smiling in greeting.
"My name's Katrina."
Katrina said before turning to look at the blonde girl from earlier to see her glaring at her.
"And you are?"
Katrina asked, ignoring the girl's hateful look.
"Nikkicha, I'm the mechanic."
The blonde said and Katrina blinked in surprise, though that did explain the grease stains on her clothes. It wasn't very often you met a female aboard a pirate ship, let alone as a mechanic.
"Shachi and Penguin are the navigators."
Nikkicha continued and Katrina opened her mouth to ask about Bepo's position when the blonde spoke again.
"Stay away from Penguin, he's mine."
She warned with a hateful glare before getting to her feet, grabbing Penguin by the back of his boiler suit, and walking off, dragging Penguin behind her. Katrina blinked in surprise a couple of times before smiling. These pirates certainly were something else.