The downside of writing long chapters is that it takes a long time to edit... And this chapter is extra long. To make up for all the time it took me to write it?
... Ok, more because I got carried away lol.
And!
It (somewhat?) makes up for the emotional mess from the previous one. Aren't I nice?
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn't have to write fanfiction. Duh. Also, I don't own the picture. Should have said that earlier.
Part One - Dive|rgence
NINE
He wears his heart on his sleeve
hands coated in pride and dreams
there's anger and love mixed in his words
and hunger in his eyes
and oh, he is blinding
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Elynna hums tonelessly along with the Michael Jackson song that is being played at the lowest volume she can hear, alone in the girls' room. It turns out that she can still listen to the music she downloaded on her phone in this world, although she'll have to be careful, because she can only recharge it a limited amount of times with the portable battery that was somehow brought here.
(She also has to be careful because an encounter between her phone and Sea King without her supervision would probably be the last one for her phone.)
As the melody fades away with the end of the song, she breathes in, filling her lungs with air, stuffing them with more oxygen than she needs until she can feel the way her lungs are expanding and hitting their limit.
Like she has been doing for the past two weeks since they left Giuren.
After a nap with Zoro, Usopp's especially grand tales during dinner, and a night spent guarded by a fretting Nami on one side and a clinging Luffy on the other, she woke up with enough energy and a mind whole enough to go through Zoro's training, which eventually woke her up entirely (or at least, it's the best way she can describe it).
She still doesn't know what happened.
Was it a panic attack? She's never had one, or known someone who had one, has never been given specific information about what it entails either.
Was it some kind of delayed reaction to all the physical and psychological shocks she received since arriving in this world? She never really hit her limit before, so she has no idea.
Or did it have to do with another discrepancy between her mind and body?
Or even something else entirely, that she was ignorant of?
She doesn't know, and it makes her stomach constrict painfully when none of the others are there to distract her.
(Because what if it happens again in the middle of a fight?
Or when no one is there to bring her back to her crewmembers the next time around?
Or if the next time her crew members aren't enough to bring her back, to wake her up?
Would it drive her mad,
or would it take her back to her own world?
…
Should she try it?
The questions build up in the back of her mind and press down down down until she feels her teeth quake under their weight
while her mind spins round round round, unable to come up with the faintest ghost of a thought, leaving her fists tight with frustration and her mouth fuzzy with a dull fear that creeps through her every waking moment-
But she's still not enough of a fool -or desperate enough- to consciously put herself in that kind of state for such a flimsy hope, without any kind of proof. )
She's interrupted in her musings by a thundering noise that makes her heart jump painfully, and she curses, almost sure that this is the noise of a cannon. She quickly puts her phone away, and storms through the hallway to make her way outside.
Through the porthole on the door, she sees that everyone but her Captain is lounging on the deck without a care in the world, allowing her tension to subside and recede to the shadows in the back of her mind, ready to lunge again.
"Who's attacking us?" She casually asks as she walks up to the three others.
"No one. Well, Luffy is failing to attack a rock. Again." Zoro answers, not bothering to open his eyes, voice still rough with the remnants of the nap the cannonball woke him up from.
"Oi, Sea King! Don't attack first!" She calls out as she moves closer to where the younger boy is standing next to the cannon, staring disappointedly at the big rock still standing a few dozens of feet away.
"Uh? Why?"
"Because then you can't blame everything on the one who started the fight."
Nami snorts in approval.
"So I should wait for the rock to attack me first?"
"Yup."
The swordsman scoffs mockingly.
"You shouldn't laugh, Zoro. I once met a talking rock-"
"But I don't wanna be a coward!" The Captain protests with a confused frown and a stubborn pout.
"Coward is just a jealous word for smart." The red-haired woman sniffs haughtily.
"So what are we eating for lunch?" Elynna asks with a roll of her eyes before the navigator can be attacked by both the rubber man and the Three Swords Style user.
"I want meat!"
"You guys! Listen to me, damnit!"
Nami makes a tactical retreat to the kitchen with her female roommate, who goes to open the pantry, and releases a sigh.
"We're getting short on meat."
The 'again' goes unsaid.
"I wouldn't have guessed." Nami snarks, because she's the one who has taken care of the food supply in their previous stops.
Elynna closes the pantry and goes to plop herself down on the chair opposite to Nami's, arms crossed and head thrown back in thought.
"I like eating, but I can eat little if needed. Sea King would become unberarable though."
"He already is."
"-but I can't figure out how much food to take -especially meat," she goes on, lips twitching at the navigator's quip.
"You know what, maybe we should let him go a few days without meat. We'll have peace once he's too tired to do anything else than laze around."
"I'm pretty sure that counts as mistreatment."
Nami shrugs with a faux-serious expression.
"It's not like any Marine will sue you for mistreating a pirate."
Elynna finally looks back at the other girl, one finger pointed at her in consideration.
"True."
"Hey! What are you talking about?"
"Your lifetime employment as Grand Pantry Stealer. For free. Hit that rock yet?"
"I did." Usopp claims proudly as he follows Luffy into the room, Zoro closing the door behind him and going to sit against the wall.
"Yup! He tried to explain how to use the canon to me, but I didn't understand anything." The Captain laughed.
The four other people in the room exchange a glance.
No, really?
"Anyway, we've really got to take in someone to do that." Nami goes on, turning back to Elynna.
"Or play guard dog in front of the patry 24/7."
"Or both."
Elynna hums, images of tasteful passion and loud exaggeration cradled into beautiful hands crossing her mind.
"You're right, we're missing a nakama!" Luffy grins, seemingly already ready to throw a welcome party for the still-not-real newcomer.
"It is necessary for long voyages." Zoro approved without opening his eyes from his spot.
"And anyone would want to work in Merry's kitchen!" Usopp added, rubbing his nose with second-hand pride.
"Yeah, we totally need to find a musician!"
Zoro's eyes blink open in shock.
Elynna snorts, not expecting the words despite the fact that she definitely expects something stupid to come out of her Captain's mouth everytime he opens it by now.
"Are you dumb or stupid?! Did you even do any research on sailing?!"
"Why are you even asking the question?"
"Shut up Elynna, I still had hope!"
"And that's why I'm telling you I should be the Captain!"
"I vote for Usopp!"
"Nami, you traitor!"
"He's at least as susceptible to manipulation, but a bit smarter than you! Clearly the better choice!"
"Buuuuuuuut-"
"That's hardly an argument." Elynna retorts, because like hell she can't be the shit-stirrer of the group from time to time.
Zoro sighs, and closes his eyes again.
Unfortunately, the universe clearly doesn't give a damn about his nap, because a voice suddenly filters through the door.
Which means the person is probably screaming. And judging from the tone, they're not yelling compliments.
"Who's that?"
"Don't know, but you better give him a beating for mistreating the Merry." Usopp grumbles, already standing at the door and glaring at the damaged guardrail outside of it.
Luffy gives an earnest nod, and steps out, arm already winded back.
"Isn't he projecting his crush a bit too much on the ship?" Nami leans closer to her roommate, whispering intentionally loud enough to reach Usopp's ears, which suddenly get strangely warm.
"Well, as long as the ship doesn't appear in his fantasies…"
"Gosh, you're the worst." Nami giggles behind her hand.
"I can hear you!" The sharpshooter eventually barks when his entire face feels as warm as a kettle about to explode.
Both girls wave back with apologetic smiles, but by now he knows them enough to know that they certainly, absolutely, undoubtedly do not mean it.
(Even if he doesn't know why Nami's fingers clench around every coin like his own throat used to constrict around every lie of his father's return that he would tell his mother.
Even if he doesn't know why sometimes, when Elynna is still in the process of waking up or lost in her own mind, in those first few seconds where her eyes rest on him,
why he feels like a ghost, without substance, a world away from her.)
Noise from outside interrupts his thoughts, and the next second he slams the door open.
"Luffy! I told you to beat him up for the damage on Merry, not to damage Merry even more!"
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
As Elynna observes their attacker's ill partner, she tries in vain to remember where she may have seen them before.
Nothing comes to mind.
She concludes that they're probably not important enough, at least in her sister's view, for her to mention their names.
Then again, maybe she doesn't remember them just because of the guy's washed-out eggplant complexion.
She leans on the side, towards Nami who is standing beside her.
She's only read about it in a few books of fiction happening at sea, but…
"Isn't that scurvy?"
"We should probably check, but-" The tangerine-haired girl crosses her arms with a sigh, eyebrow twitching in annoyance as Usopp and Luffy throw themselves as Yosaku's feet as if he were some kind of avenging god.
"Cut it out!"
She marches to the man lying on the deck, and crouches down to inspect his eyes and tongue. Zoro and Yosaku barely have the time to find a threat creative enough before she stands back up, entirely dismissing them in favour of barking orders at both Luffy and Usopp.
Elynna cocks her head on the side, leaning against the mast while Nami explains the cause of Johnny's state to his partner.
Who's the Captain of this crew again?
"Wow! Nami, you're like a doctor!" Luffy exclaims, looking away from the man whose mouth he's stuffing with green limes.
"I agree, and the Great Usopp's eyes are never wro- Luffy, you idiot, that's his nose!"
"Oops!"
"This has nothing to do with being a doctor! Anyone who wants to spend some time on the sea should know about that! Even Elynna knew, and she hadn't even considered being a pirate!"
"Come on, Rain. These guys are exceptional. Future Pirate King and all that stuff. Of course they don't do things like normal people."
Nami huffs.
"It's supposed to be a positive kind of exceptional."
"Ann can be our doctor then!" Luffy beams from his position on the ground.
This time it's Elynna's turn to cross her arms, like a shield to ward off any more responsibilities being placed upon her already curled in shoulders.
"Like hell I can. I barely know how to take care of basic wounds. I already told you to find a real doctor before getting yourself poisoned or seriously injured."
Also, she's pretty sure that the doctor of the crew is supposed to be the literal ball of fluff whose name she cannot remember.
She is so not going to take the risk of not getting that cuddle partner onboard.
Suddenly the previously-on-the-verge-of-death man jumps to his feet, sending the bucket Luffy and Usopp used to pour the lime juice in his mouth into the former's face.
Nami's sigh weighs in the air like static electricity from an incoming tempest as the two bounty hunters start dancing ridiculously and expressing their thanks in a clingy way that she does not appreciate while Luffy wails in the background, Usopp cackling mockingly beside him -until his Captain's blind flailing leads to him getting kicked in the face by Luffy's (somehow) naked foot.
"Enough!"
Silence.
Elynna whistles.
Zoro snorts with a mutter that sounds a bit too much like 'bossy witch'.
Nami glares at the both of them.
Elynna blows her a kiss.
The pirate thief promptly decides that she clearly has been too lenient with the First Mate recently.
(But she can't quite regret it,
not when she's still scared, sometimes, when she wakes up, that she will open her eyes to meet those of the dark-haired girl,
and that they will be wide open yet barely there,
that her body will be sinking into the bed, muscles lax without any energy, without any life, like a puppet without strings
a corpse without soul-
that her skin will be cold to the touch and her breath silent-)
She points an authoritative finger at Johnny.
"You. Sit the fuck down, you idiot, you don't recover from scurvy in the space of five minutes." She reaches up to massage her temples. "This is why we need a good cook. Managing food reserves at sea requires very specific knowledge in order to avoid issues like the scurvy."
"... So you're looking for a seafaring cook?" Johnny enquires softly between slightly laboured breaths as he does as told.
"Yeah, that's it! A seafaring cook!" Luffy repeats, the unknown term apparently enough to get him fired up.
Both bounty hunters exchange a glance.
"Then, as thanks for helping us, we'll show you the way to one of the best places in the world to find a sea chef! Although, I can't guarantee that you'll manage to convince one of them to leave the Baratie and join your crew…"
"Leave the convincing to Sea King. Charisma is probably the one Captain skill that he does have."
"Mean! I'm strong!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm the navigator, so let's go discuss the route to get there. None of these dumbasses will understand anything, anyway."
As Yosaku goes to follow Nami, he leans closer to Zoro, whispering a few words that make the swordsman's back go stiff with a tension that ripples through his muscles like a shark smelling blood.
Elynna can't see his face, but she's been training with him for a few weeks now, and so she's reminded of the rare times she pulled off moves interesting enough to surprise Zoro despite his experience.
Except it's much stronger now.
Whatever was said, it more than probably relates to his ambition as a swordsman.
She sighs, somehow feeling like he's probably going to go and create more nurse work for her than she feels capable of handling.
That bastard.
She's so gonna punch him in their next session.
If she can get close enough, that is.
…
The Baratie, uh?
She wonders if she should feel guilty that she remembers the name of a restaurant better than that of the two human beings who lead the way to it.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
That day, she dreams of a man with the face of an aristocrat and the eyes of a savage beast, with wings of black steel spreading behind his back like the doors to the Land of the Dead (their claws sinking into nearby souls to drag them in, but always hungry for moremoremore-).
His colours, as vivid as freshly-spilt blood, overwhelm almost entirely the washed-out shades of the man with red feet and hands clean of human blood.
When she emerges from the cold sea, her skin is clammy with hot terror and her breath is short like a prey that is done for, heavy fear skittering along its fraying muscles.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Elynna is just getting out of the shower after her training session when the voices of Yosaku and Johnny alert her to the fact that they have reached the restaurant they were talking about.
She almost falls flat on her face since they also startled her when she was in the middle of putting on her long pants of black cloth. Cheeks heated with embarassment despite the fact that no one is here to see her, she hurries to put on her white shirt, half-tucking it in her pants before she runs out of the bathroom, hopping on one foot as she tries to put on the blue flats Nami bought for her without falling again.
The other girl looks up when Elynna finally steps out on the deck, and gestures for her to come closer, reaching out to fasten a button she left open under her chest in her haste, before handing out one of her roommate's hair band that she took earlier, knowing the First Mate would probably end up being late.
Elynna flashes her a quick smile of thanks, before throwing as much hair as possible into a messy bun. It's still wet from her shower, so a ponytail would just weigh down her head and give her a headache.
Her eyes lock with their resident sniper's, who grins at her, eyes laughing as he silently mouthes something about her being late.
She presents him with her middle finger, blushing furiously.
(She is never late,
in fact, she's more the type to arrive half an hour in advance
-the idea of forcing people to wait for her making the air of every breath she takes feel like too much for her lungs.)
His grin morphs into something offended, but she is already turning away and whistling at the sight of the sea restaurant in front of them, whose vibe Usopp and Luffy clearly like considering how much they're raving about it.
"Guys." Zoro calls out, pointing towards another ship that is coming up beside the Merry.
A Marine ship.
She bites her tongue thoughtfully.
Considering how small the other ship is, there probably aren't many men inside, and probably not any who would give Zoro and Luffy much of a problem… But she'd rather avoid a confrontation if possible.
(If she can prevent her Captain from picking a fight by blurting out everything he thinks, and if the Marine in charge of this ship isn't one of those guys who are even more trigger happy than the outlaws they run after.
…
Her odds aren't looking good.)
"They're not gonna attack us, are they?" Usopp gulps anxiously.
A man with hair like lavender and fists laden in steel comes out on the deck as his question echoes between the other members of the Straw Hats.
"I am the Lieutnant of the Marines Headquarters known as 'Ironfist Fullbody'." The man states solemnly, raising a fist for emphasis.
Like she cares.
But she tucks the information inside her mind, just in case she needs it one day -even though she hasn't read anything about him since she came into this world.
"Who's your Captain? Name yourself."
"I'm Luffy. We just got our pirate flag." Said Captain immediately answers just as solemnly.
And right as Usopp moves to step forward, she tugs him to her by the back of his overalls, placing a hand over his mouth.
"Usopp." She says, hoping that the use of something other than his nickname for the first time in weeks will get his attention.
It works, and he stops trying to squirm out of her grip.
"Hierarchy is as important among pirates as in the rest of society. Someone other than Sea King would have probably challenged you to a fight for the title of Captain by now. Maybe even a fight to the death. Or they would have just thrown you overboard for mutiny. How serious are you when you say all that stuff about being the Captain?"
He doesn't answer, but she doesn't expect him to, and releases her hold on him.
When she looks away, she finds that Zoro's grey eyes are on her. His smirk is no different than usual, but there's an edge of satisfaction at the corner of his mouth, and something like approval in the way the steel of his eyes is glinting.
It makes her look away.
(She doesn't avoid being the leader and making decisions for others just because it's hard for her, as someone who doesn't often have strong opinions.
She also doesn't like responsibility, and doesn't know how to handle attention -whether good or bad.)
Somehow, in the time it takes her to focus again on the situation at hand, both of Zoro's former colleagues have had the time to take a beating from the Lieutnant.
"Darling, stop wasting time, we have to get going." A blonde woman clad in a red cocktail dress giggles as she joins the Marine on the deck.
"So we do." The man nods, before turning back to them with yet another menacing show of his fist. "I'm on break today, and I just came here to eat, so consider yourselves lucky, small fries. The next time we cross paths will be your last."
"Didn't know being off-duty meant that you could take an official ship and a bunch of other Marines just to go on a date." Elynna mutters, making both Nami and Zoro scoff in amusement next to her.
She follows the navigator and goes to help the two bounty hunters, still lying on the deck. As she holds out a hand to Johnny to haul him up, Nami kneels beside them to pick up the sheets of paper spread on the deck.
"What are all these, Johnny?"
"Just bounty posters, Sister Nami. We can rake in the rewards by bringing them to the Marine Headqua-"
But Elynna has already stopped listening.
Instead, she watches as Nami's back goes stiff with all the emotions thrumming along her bones, watches as she presses her lips together like a dam that can hold in anything and everything.
(Like she wants to break her own teeth.)
Watches as her fists tighten around a bunch of posters, the crumpling of paper beneath her hands like a wail of despair and a whisper of violence.
Her own hand twitches at her side.
(But in the weeks they've known each other, Rain has yet to reach out to her about her nightmares or her dreams or her life outside of this ship.
She has yet to say clearly that she wants to stay on this ship.
Which isn't surprising, really. No matter the fact that they faced a lot together, a few weeks still isn't much time.
Elynna is not like Sea King, who always knows what to say or at least can give the impression that he does.
She doesn't know what it really means to be sad or angry or happy or in pain, cannot claim to understand anything of what she suspects her roommate to be going through, or how she must feel.
What if Rain doesn't trust her enough? -she wouldn't think of herself as someone reliable either- Or just doesn't want to? What if she just can't do anything to help someone who is becoming more and more important to her -because she doesn't know how? What if she makes a mistake, and ends up hurting the both of them?
She steals a look at the poster her... -friend?- is staring at, and feels something shift like a secret door inside of her.
The word goes round and round through her mind, like bubbles of air floating to the surface.
Until she can make out one word.
A word that isn't attached to any memory of her sister's voice.
A word that she shouldn't know.
Fish-man.)
In the end, her hand stays by her side.
"Guys! We have a problem!" The urgency in Usopp's voice brings her back to the situation at hand, and Nami out of her trance. "The bastard is aiming at us!"
"Leave it to me!" Luffy screams back.
And then he inflates himself, using the parts of the ship to counteract the momentum of a cannonball fired from this close, just in time to intercept it.
And then... his hand slips.
"Fuck me." Is all Elynna has the time to say before Zoro chokes, glaring furiously at her as the deflected cannonball crashes straight into the upper floor of the Baratie.
Nami facepalms next to her in exasperation.
"Luffy! You idiot!" She barks, putting him in an unforgiving chokehold.
"I'm sorryyyyyyyyy-" The supposedly highest-ranked member of their group wails in answer.
Elynna squints at the rowboat coming towards them.
Those guys sure look like cooks. Angry ones. That was fast.
"Time to do some damage control." She mutters to herself as she calls out to Nami, wiggling her fingers.
The red-haired girl follows her gaze to the incoming cooks and sighs, before handing her the pitiful rubber boy in her grip.
"Oh and, just in case they try to rip us off… How much do you think that kind of damage costs for repair?" She asks, looking away from the wobbling lips of her Captain as he pulls out his stupid(ly efficient) puppy eyes of his.
She can't rule out that possibility when she's going against a bunch of cooks who survived on the seas long enough to gain a solid reputation with all the pirates that come through these waters.
Nami blinks, before a slow, coy smile spreads over her face, delicate and deceiving like the lace of a spider web.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
When the two enraged cooks reach the Going Merry, Elynna is already standing at the rail, rubber boy in hand.
"You little brats! How dare you fire at our restaurant!" The oldest of the two shouts as soon as they are within hearing range.
The girl with hair like tangerine opens her mouth, ready to blame everything on that Fullbody guy, before her gaze is drawn to that of Zoro, who shakes his head silently, eyes shifting to his Captain and First Mate.
Her mouth snaps shut.
(She may not be in the crew, not really -not as long as she's not free, but she knows enough about pirates to understand that this is the kind of problem that should be solved by one of them.
Between Luffy's stubbornness and Elynna's common sense, the result will either be brilliant or catastrophic.)
"Actually, we weren't the ones who fired."
"Tch! You think I'm going to believe everything you say, pirate?! Keep your filthy mouth shut if you're only going to lie, you little bitch!"
"Hey…" Usopp begins with a frown before he is also stopped by Zoro.
Luffy's eyes switch from I'm Sowyyyy to I Really Really Feel Like Hitting You And I'm Too Dumb To Find A Reason To Hold Back.
Elynna smiles, polite and deaf to the insults.
"I don't believe that you'll find any sign of recent use, but if you would like to, one of you can always check our canons while my Captain and I have a talk with your superior."
Nami smirks vindictively at that. Her roommate might have less experience than her, but she can definitely be crafty.
She watches as the two cooks exchange a glance, seemingly taken aback by the formality of the First Mate.
(What have they dealt with up till now? Small fries?
The most dangerous pirates are those who can pretend to be nice and civil.
She would know. The ghost of his arm weighing on her shoulders like shackles hurts as much as the tattoo on her arm.
But now she has all the memories of the past weeks, tucked away in a corner of her tattered, branded heart, warm like a blanket rather than hot like fire-
what if some pirates can also be genuinely nice?)
Eventually, the younger cook steps onto the deck to check their cannons with Usopp while Elynna drags Luffy into the rowboat.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
By the time they reach the upper floor that was hit by the cannonball, Luffy is holding onto Elynna's arm for dear life, apparently feeling more and more guilty with each glaring cook they cross paths with.
Voices boom across the hallway as they close in on their destination.
"-Enough! Get back to work, all of you!"
"But- Sir! You're injur-"
"So? Is this reastaurant empty, perhaps?"
"No, but-"
"Then what are you waiting for?! The customer will come first until I'm dead!"
"Yeah, but you're dying-"
"Owner! We found the ones responsible for this!"
"I'm really sorr-"
"We already told you that we're not the ones who fired that cannonball." Elynna cuts across Luffy's excuses.
Honesty seems like the best attitude to adopt with someone like the owner of this restaurant -with how little of his personality that she could glimpse from his words. But apologising profusely from the get-go would be like taking all the blame, and giving such an assertive man that kind of leverage would just make everything more difficult for her. She's not the assertive type at all, after all, so she will need her Captain to be the assertive one, which means that she can't let him compromise his position by apologising like everything is his fault, whether it is or not.
(Especially since the only way she has dealt with making mistakes up till now is by apologising when people accuse her of something, often even before she's accused of doing anything bad in the first place.
A fault confessed is half-redressed and all that.
Accepting the blame is much easier, even when she is only partially guilty, or even not guilty at all. It means that those who are guilty know that they are lying, and there's too much despair cloying the inside of her throat and her eyes, and the resignation sits too heavily in her mouth -she doesn't have it in her to assume that they might stop lying if she speaks up.
Accepting the blame is much less mentally draining than trying to prove that she's right or innocent, especially when she was never confronted with particularly serious situations.
But she can't do that here, because the weight of her Captain on her arm and the memory of Fang's nod when they left the Merry are like a reminder of the trust that they're putting in her to solve this, and if she doesn't…
Then they might think that she's not carrying her weight enough.
She would.)
So she keeps her back straight, laces her fingers with that of Luffy's to keep him from running off and doing something stupid, and stays standing in the room, rather than sitting down or kneeling like a child waiting to be scolded.
She doesn't laugh at how ridiculously tall the owner's coiffe is, but she doesn't frown at his injuries or his wooden leg either -he definitely looks like the type to hate others' pity.
(Instead she focuses on all the spite dripping from his harsh features and the hardness in his eyes, because she can't -won't- allow her will to fail her.
This isn't your world. People like him don't die from a measly cannonball.
So she compartimentalises, because being passionate about things can be a real pain sometimes, and there are already too many ridiculously passionate people on this crew.
Most of the time, she's too tired to really put in the effort anyway.
Passion drains the life out of her.)
"Ahhh!" Her Captain screams suddenly, eyes locked on the cook's wooden leg in horror. "You lost your foot because-"
"Of course not, Captain. They wouldn't have the time to take care of that kind of wound in the time we took to come here."
"And why did my employees bring you here if you aren't responsible, little lady?" The large man asks gruffly, chasing the other cooks out of the room despite their protests.
"I didn't say we aren't responsible Sir, I said we weren't the ones who fired. But we were involved in the incident. One of your current customers, Lieutnant Fullbody, fired his cannon at us without any provocation on our part. My Captain here," she says, tugging on the rubber boy's hand to place him in front of her, "intended to send the projectile back to them, but the momentum caused him to lose control, which is how you were hit."
"You're trying to tell me that this twerp can deflect cannonballs, lass?"
Elynna smiles again, and reaches with her free hand to stretch the skin of Luffy's cheek, who frowns at her in vague annoyance (maybe because of the way he feels her hand shake in his), but lets her do as she pleases as he leans back into her.
"Huh. Devil Fruit?"
"Devil Fruit, Sir."
"And what proof do I have that you're telling the truth?" He challenges.
"We're not lying." Luffy states, as easily as if he's being asked to say his name.
"None, Sir, but if we were trying to shift the blame on someone else, why would we choose a Marine officer, and ackowledge that we have a part in the incident? You can ask for Fullbody-san's version of the events, however."
"I have no interest in doing that. After all, you're outlaws, so it's a lot less annoying for me to make you pay for the damage than get involved with the Marines, even if that guy is at fault too."
"A sound reasoning, Sir." She agrees with a pleasant smile.
She watches him frown, and feels Luffy's stare bury into her skin -even he understands that she's basically conceding defeat.
(This is the first time in her life that she's trying to make someone else, and especially an adult, agree to change their opinion for hers.
She's not cut out for this.
She knows it.
She doesn't even have an opinion most of the time.
But she stole Fang's place, and even if it was to be able to stay with Sea King because she thought that it was her best bet, she has to live with it.
Besides, she's not entirely sure his answer would be any less brash than her Captain's in this situation -although in an entirely different way.
And Rain would be a better choice than her, but her shoulders are still curled under the weight of these invisible shackles of hers.
So she has to deal with this.
Somehow though, she still feels like she failed them, failed everyone.
It makes her want to get on her knees and apologise a hundred times more than the Head Chef's injuries.)
"Well, you put up a good fight, little girl. I believe you, but you guys will still be the ones to pay for all this." The man with the weird moustache decides with a vague gesture towards the gaping hole in the wall.
I believe you.
Her smile widens.
Part one of the plan done.
Time to cut their losses.
"We don't have any money." Luffy blurts out seriously.
"Don't worry about that. You'll just work here without pay for a year, and then I'll write off your debt."
"Su- One year?!" Her Captain exclaims, suddenly struggling against her hold to express how much he does not agree with that plan. "I'm not doing it! I've waited this long to become a pirate, I'm not waiting another year!"
"I'll have to stop you right here, Sir. If you hire him, he will probably raid your fridge and break all your tableware."
Luffy stops struggling, and the cook's eyes settle back on her.
"And what do you suggest we do, little lady?"
"First of all, since you believe me, the least you could do is try not to swindle more money out of us than you strictly need for your repairs." She begins, before taking out of her pocket the piece of paper on which Nami wrote the lowest price estimate for the repairs.
The chef's eyes narrow.
"Add ten thousand berries to that. I had a good painting hanging from that wall."
Her eyes flit to the ground, where bits of painted wood suggest that a frame may or may not have existed.
"Sure, Sir. But you were about to make us work for a full year. And I saved you from the Housework Curse. I'll add three thousand berries." She counter-offers with a ruffle of the Housework Curse's really, really soft hair.
At this point, his hair is the main reason she's trying not to disappoint her Captain's trust.
(It's a lie.)
"... Fine." The man eventually agrees grumpily with a hint of a smile. "And how do you suggest paying off your debt?"
"I guess that I can work as a waitress, but since my Captain is pressed for time, I'm thinking more about entertainment."
"... Entertainment?"
"Could I maybe have some paper?"
(It's the first time she writes something in Japanese.
She reminds herself that in the past month, the doubling in her mind has faded when it comes to words and phrases that she picked up on, and as she watches her hand move to write characters that she only makes sense of because of the whispers slithering in her veins like poison, she decides to learn this language as fast as possible, so that she can get rid of the ivy taking root inside her and crushingtighteningchoking-
because she can feel something crumble inside her as her mind fails to comprehend why what is supposed to be her body is moving like this-)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Zeff tugs on his moustache as he reads over the contract drafted by the girl. The language is formal enough, but it's quite clear that she doesn't have much experience with the professional world -if any.
And there's that sentence…
'The employed party commit themselves to remaining available for the employer, this until the debt is deemed paid off by the latter, under the terms of the present contract or others -if deemed agreeable by both parties.'
Why would the lass think that he might agree to change the terms of the contract, and be sure enough about it to include the possibility in the contract?
Well, he will have to agree to it for that clause to be of any use anyway, so it's not really a problem.
In the end, he signs the contract.
"So does that mean we win?" The brat asks.
"Um, we… weren't completely crushed?"
"Oh, okay! That's good!"
Zeff chuckles.
"No, I'll give this victory to you, lass. For how hopeless he is, your brat of a Captain is pretty lucky to have you."
"I know, right?!"
And shameless on top of it, Zeff thinks in amusement, watching as the older girl turns away from her Captain, ears distinctly redder than the rest of her skin.
Kids, these days…
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Elynna stumbles upon exiting her temporary employer's room as her Captain jumps onto her back, arms secured around her neck and legs winding around her waist.
"You could tell me before doing that, Sea King. We'll both end up on the floor someday." She sighs.
If he weighed as much as a normal person, she would dump him onto the ground, but since it's him, she places her arms under his knees so that he can swing his legs back and forth absently.
Luffy laughs.
"You were great, Ann!" He says instead, hitching himself higher on her back like the monkey he is to settle his chin on her head.
"... I guess it wasn't too bad for a first time, but I probably should have taken Rain with me. She's better at that kind of thing."
"No!" He rebukes loudly, and she can definitely hear the pout he's showing right now. "I say that you were great, so you were great! Captain's orders!"
"You didn't even give any order…"
Her voice trails off as they reach the stairs, eyes roaming through the restaurant below them until they settle on a head of blond hair and a fancy suit.
They're just in time to watch as the Marine Lieutnant they crossed paths with earlier calls out the blond man in a painfully obvious attempt to humiliate him, only to be humiliated himself.
"Ehhhhh… That blonde guy is cool!" Luffy whispers, leaning into her in an attempt to get closer to the scene.
"You got an eye for talent, Sea King."
(Or maybe it's just the power of plot.)
They watch as the Marine throws a tantrum, and as the 'Assistant Head Chef' proceeds to thouroughly beat him up, Elynna finds herself wondering with distant amusement whether her lack of reaction is due to the amount of violent movies she watched or an inherent lack of empathy on her part.
(She blinks everytime the cook's foot comes down on the Marine and blood flies,
and every sound makes something twist in the back of her stomach,
but she feels no desire to help out the man.)
Then she notices the rest of their group standing at the entrance of the restaurant, and takes off towards the stairs to meet up with them.
"How did it go?" Zoro inquires once they are within hearing range.
"I'm working here to earn some money for the owner, but at least I managed to avoid Luffy slaving away for an entire year."
"That would probably be worse for the owner." Usopp shudders, remembering that one time he asked the rubber boy to take part in the cleaning for once, and he somehow got the boys' room almost flooded.
"Yeah, but then he would probably give us something even harder to do to get revenge."
"True. I definitely would." Nami approves.
"Figures." Zoro mutters, stepping away from the sharp elbow aimed at his ribs.
The conversation stops as their attention is drawn to the Marine Lieutnant from before, around whom more and more cooks are now gathering as the owner and another bald cook join the blonde one.
"Elynna-san?"
The dark-haired girl turns around, half-lidded eyes falling on another employee of the Baratie.
Who probably isn't an official cook, though, considering that he seems to be around twelve years old.
Then again, she most likely shouldn't think with the work standards and rules of her homeplace.
The boy squirms, and she realises that she's been staring.
"Yes?" She answers beltadedly, smile apologetic and stilted with discomfort.
"Ah, if you would please follow me…"
"Of course. Captain, get down."
Luffy complains, but obligingly slides down her back.
"Well, I'll meet up with you later. I have some things to prepare."
"What job are you doing, anyway? Waitress?" Usopp asks, realising that neither the Captain nor the First Mate gave them any details.
"Among other things, yes. Oh, and Rain?"
"Yeah?"
"If I need to, can I borrow some of your clothes?"
"Uh… Sure?"
"Thanks."
And without any further explanation, she sends them a quick smile and walks away behind the employee.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"Is this room adequate?"
She looks around.
There's plenty of space to move, and it's not too far from the dining room, just as she asked.
"It's perfect."
"The piano-"
She waves her hand dismissively, tempering the effect with a polite smile.
"There's no need for that. I have it all figured out. But thank you."
With a confused smile and a low bow, the boy closes the door.
She sighs, and gets to work, pushing the tight queasiness in her stomach in the back of her mind with practiced ease.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Considering the fact that there are no waiters in the restaurant -apparently they all ran away, Elynna is assigned the task of taking customers' orders and helping other cooks carry the plates.
Unfortunately.
Eventually, she drags herself to the table where her crewmates are sitting, notepad in hand.
"Have you made your choice?" She drawls blandly, voice toneless and drained.
She needs a damn break, and they're the only ones here who won't mind her incapability to muster pleasant politeness and colourless smiles.
"... You hate having to speak to so many people, don't you?" Zoro guesses.
She shoots him a half-hearted glare.
"This is hilarious." He snickers in response.
Fuck off, she mouths silently.
"You guys owe me so much for doing this."
"No way." Nami counters, crossing her arms in refusal. "I don't have anything to do with any of you until that debt is settled."
"Traitor." The swordsman scoffs.
This time he doesn't quite manage to avoid the elbow that slams into his ribs, and he sputters as the navigator turns back to her roommate with a pleasant smile.
"They made you do that?" She asks with a jerk of her head towards the stricter bun Elynna's hair is tied into and entirely done up buttons of her shirt.
"Apparently having my shoulder visible is enough to cause heart attacks around here." The temporary waitress shrugs with an exaggerated eyeroll, earning a sympathetic twist of the lips from Nami.
(She forces herself not to sigh, because it makes her even more consicous of how constrained the clothes are, or maybe it's all the people and the noise buzzing around her like a swarm of insects-)
Usopp explains that the blonde cook from earlier agreed to take some of the food from the Going Merry to cook them a free meal since they didn't have the money, and one glance to Nami, who bats her eyelashes coyly, is enough for Elynna to guess how the cook was convinced to do something like that.
(She wants to cackle, because that guy doesn't know that Rain is gay, and Rain has no idea how exaggeratedly lovesick he can act, and neither of them knows that they're going to be stuck on the same crew yet and oh, this is going to be hilarious-)
She walks away to hide the twitch of her lips, but at least the hilarity fizzling like sparkling water inside her makes it easier to behave like a proper employee of the service industry when she reaches the next table.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
The Straw Hat Pirates are munching on their starters while listening to one of Usopp's tales when their gazes are drawn to the kid who apparently serves as a guide for their First Mate.
He comes to a stop on one of the last steps of the stairs in the middle of the dining room, and clears his throat, conversations dying down around him.
"Ladies and gentlemen, dear customers. In order to make the wait more pleasant for you, we have prepared a short entertainment. As it is our first time trying out this service, we are looking forward to hearing your opinion, which we will of course take into account for our future decisions. Thank you."
He bows with flushed cheeks and a slight tremor in his thin voice, and is greeted by indulgent clapping from the customers before he scurries away.
At the same time, the lights dim in the rest of the room so that those who still have food in their plates can keep eating if they want to, while the curtains that were drawn earlier to cut off the furthest part of the room from the entrance open, revealing a makeshift stage made of blocks of wood fixed together.
Elynna is crouched down on it, head bowed down and dressed in a loose, thin-strapped black dress that Nami recognises as hers, the slits hiking higher up the shorter girl's legs and revealing the thin black shorts beneath.
And then the music begins.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Watching their First Mate dance is like discovering an alternative personality: so different, and yet not quite alien.
The girl with a smooth, unmarred face that tells little of her thoughts and even less of her emotions, stiffened into a mask of white wax over empty features, is replaced by a girl whose mask has melted all over her body with the heat of the intensity she exudes. She doesn't quite have an expression, but it's more arresting than her occasional meolodramatics, and splotches of colour are right there, floating just under the surface, waiting to be allowed to flow and flourish across her skin, heart and blood beating with the music that flutters through her.
(-her eyes are blurry and yet hungry,
looking at nothing and everything,
as if her eyes are following the melody, as if the rest of the world, the rest of the customers, as if they don't exist-)
The girl who shoots shameless and morbid comments with the same toneless voice she uses to speak of serious and inane matters alike is replaced by a strange bird, tittering on the stage, weightless and airy despite the thickness of her limbs and the muscles that they can see ripple beneath the white skin of her thighs, feathers turning into blades everytime the music takes flight towards higher notes as the smooth river of her movements turns sharp like the sound of broken twigs and crushed leaves.
When she freezes again and the music fades away, the silence has only a few seconds to occupy the space before Luffy jumps on the table with loud clapping and cheering (which are probably more embarassing than anything else considering how quick Elynna is to rush out of the room), joined by Usopp and Nami's whistles and the more subdued appreciation of the other spectators.
The three of them are almost vibrating in their seat with all the questions and comments buzzing around in their mind, leaving Zoro to deal with their excess of energy by pretending to not know them -something admittedly rather hard to do considering that he's sitting at the same table.
But their unofficial nurse doesn't come back into the dining room.
They understand why when the lights dim again and the curtains open anew.
This one is heavier, the music throbbing through the air like an old wound, the ethereal voice falling like a weight of lead in their stomach -they only recognise the words as English because they've asked Elynna to speak it often.
Her body moves along accordingly, the melody twisting her limbs as it would a puppet, faster and then slower, coiling and unraveling her, slamming her into the ground and throwing her into the air without any regard for the normal balance and flexibility of a human being.
(-body heaving with the lethargic, rolling, crushing weight of the music, tripping and dragging itself across the stage to get back up, back up, back in the air, again and again-)
She keeps spinning, round and round and round, fingers spread out like desperate claws trying in vain to catch onto something.
(but it has already vanished into thin air,
and no matter how fast, how madly she spins spins spins,
no matter how high she throws her body in the air,
her broken wings can never carry her quite far enough)
Where before she seemed to glide over the stage for all the noise she made, now her feet and her whole body thump against the floor like the last, booming beats of a dying heart as the hypnotic rasps of the music fade.
And in the end,
she…
f
a
l
l
s
.
She doesn't get back up.
When the curtains close she's still lying on the ground, like a wingless bird and a stringless puppet.
It takes longer for the trance to end and the applause to start this time around.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Elynna is fastening the last button of her shirt when she hears the stampeding outside of her room. She barely has the time to step away from the door before it is slammed open and Usopp stumbles in.
He rights himself up after a few seconds of dangerous wobbling, and the next moment his long nose almost pokes her cheek with how close he's standing to her.
"You."
"... I have a name, you know. I hope that you didn't forget it." She raises a teasing brow, lips barely tilted up in amusement, but as the words slip past her lips she feels another pit of unknown open itself inside her mind.
(She's not supposed to be here -a fake character in a fictional world.
What if one day, this world resets itself to erase her presence?)
"And I hope that you didn't forget that the title of official liar of the crew is supposed to go to me." The sharpshooter goes on as if she didn't speak, leaning in closer to her until she can hardly see anything else than his honestly creepily focused eyes.
"No? Why are we talking about this?"
The door slams against the wall.
Again.
Usopp is rudely pushed aside and trips against a table leg that sends him sprawling on the floor.
Without a sign of regret, Nami grips Elynna's shoulders and shakes her furiously.
"You!"
Elynna sighs.
At this point, she might as well give up.
"Me."
"'I took a few dancing classes' my ass! You don't become that good with just a few classes!"
"It's not my fault that you interpreted it as a few individual sessions rather than classes in several styles…" She mumbles half-heartedly.
She receives a deadpan stare that somehow manages to convey the meaning of 'don't fuck with me, you were supposed to be the one person in this group of weirdos that I didn't feel like hitting on a daily basis'.
This time it's Usopp's turn to push Nami out of the way, opening his mouth to (probably) shout something out, but he's cut off by Luffy's own scream as the smaller boy enters the room like a cannonball to throw himself at his First Mate, only seeing his other crew member at the last moment.
The resulting three-man heap lets out a loud groan that Luffy, that goddamn rubber boy, laughs away.
"Ann! This was so so so so great! Well it was a bit too slow -but it was great!"
His arms are gesticulating in the air, as if the loudness of his voice and the brightness of his smile aren't enough to use up the sheer amount of admiration and joy the experience brought him (and maybe because if she really is like Ace, then she probably doesn't know how to take a compliment, so he has to get her used to it fast).
"You should be asking how she even managed some of these moves, you know. It gave me the creeps." Nami huffs as she brushes dust off her clothes with a dark glare towards Usopp that promises some equally Dark, Elaborate and Costly (for him) Revenge.
Usopp twitches, and wisely does not move from his position on the floor, not piping up even when Elynna pushes him off her unceremoniously.
"Why? She didn't do anything weird."
"... Of course a rubber freak like you would say that."
"It's only now that you noticed? You're pretty slow, Nami."
Nami lunges at the straw-hatted boy with a screech.
And that's when Zoro steps inside the room, and promptly questions his decision to stick with this crew.
Clearly, the lack of food and long exposure to the sun were getting to him when he met them.
His gaze settles on the chubby girl who is idly watching the roughhousing going on, clapping lazily along and not lifting a finger at the cries for help from her Captain.
Yosaku's words about the man he's searching for have made him distracted since the previous day, restless excitement scurrying on the edge of his nerves and making his blood simmer, a tight knot of the pressure he put on himself keeping him awake through the night.
Still, for these few minutes during which his First Mate was on stage, the constant scenarios running through his mind took a back seat.
And it wasn't just because of the weird music.
He doesn't know much about dance, but he can tell that she's good.
Now he understands why, during a spar -though pummeling session is more like it- with Luffy, she asked the boy to stop giving her advice on how to fight.
He understands why, following that, progressively, the rhythm of her moves started to be off compared to the one he would set, why she started adding movements that would probably be deemed as unnecessary to her sequences, why he started being unable to recognise a pattern in her moves.
Why the stiff unfamiliarity of her first attempts at fighting eventually turned into something that curled and flowed playfully around him like a river around a rock, chipping at his defenses slowly -into something that now makes her getting some good hits in a regular occurrence.
She invented her own style, by bending her dancing into something used to fight, something unpredictable because she is constantly improvising, something that will only get more dangerous with experience.
And it works.
"Sorry if it was too slow, but I didn't have a lot of time to come up with a choreography, so making it slow meant I had more time to focus on each movement."
Nami looks up from her so-called leader who is still flailing in her chokehold.
"Uh? You came up with both in just a few hours?"
"No, just the second. The first one was mostly copied from someone else's work I saw."
Luffy eventually manages to crawl away as his captor's attention moves away from him.
"And you managed to remember it until today?"
Elynna snorts.
"My memory is not that good. I used a recording."
And so saying, she brandishes her phone.
There's a second of silence, and then Usopp throws himself at her, taking a hold of her wrists to bring the object closer to his face, until his nose is almost smashed against it.
"What's this? What does it do?! Is that what you used for your music too?! No, wait, recording sound and image isn't the same as just sound… How is it supposed to work…"
He keeps mumbling to himself even as she firmly pushes his face away, and by then Luffy has half-climbed over his sniper's back to inspect the small, thin object.
"It comes from my island. We call it a phone. Originally, it's a tool for long distance communication, but they added other functions over the years, including sound and image recording. I can only use a few of them right now, though, because it needs a certain type of infrastructure to work fully, and a certain type of energy that I can't produce on my own. Which means," she insists on the words with a heavy stare towards both boys until their attention is back on her, "that I can only use it for a certain amount of time before it'll be useless. It's also a pretty complex and fragile object that I would have no idea how to repair should anything happen, so no taking it apart or fooling around with it. Otherwise, I'll probably be in a bad mood for at least a few days. Got that?"
Both Luffy and Usopp nod furiously.
The last time Elynna was in a bad mood, her eyes were so dim she may as well have been dead, and it took her hours to open her mouth and speak more than a dozen of words.
They don't want to see that again -don't want to be the cause of that.
Ever.
The chubby girl nods with a satisfied smile.
"Good. Then, I guess I can show you how it works."
The next moment both boys are almost draped over her back in their enthusiasm, and Zoro rolls his eyes because damnit, it's her job to reign in their Captain -or any member of the crew- when they're being too much, so why isn't she saying anything?
Then he thinks about how she's been using him as a mattress for most of the last month, and sighs at the realisation that he's probably the only one with a sense of shame in this damn room.
"Hmmm…" Elynna scrolls through the list of titles she downloaded pensively. "You said you wanted something more dynamic, right Sea King?"
Luffy jumps up and down excitedly like a bunny high on nuclear energy.
She takes that as a yes.
"You don't have to dance, you know." Nami calls out from the chair on which she's lounging, observing the four members of the crew with amusement in her smile and bitter longing in her heart (she feels like a spectator, like an intruder, and yet she hates the fact that they're not treating her as such -it makes things so much harder that she feels like her body is being torn apart at the seams). "You must be pretty tired between your performance and your job."
Luffy glares at her with a not-so-discreet finger put across his lips in the universal sign for please shut your mouth, you're saying something stupid right now, and Usopp would probably do the same if he wasn't busy fanboying over Elynna's manipulations of her weird… thingy.
The navigator sticks out her tongue in retaliation.
She's the one who's caring for Elynna's health, so she obviously has the high moral ground here.
(Not that it has anything to do with the fact that exhaustion seems to be her roommate's default state.)
The other girl waves a dismissive hand without looking up from her phone.
"It's okay, it's okay. I can't leave my Captain unsatisfied, right?"
And perhaps because it's so much less sarcastic than it would usually be, or perhaps because her smile is less of a smirk and more like silent laughter, but the teasing feels so much lighter, so much happier than the comments she usually dishes out, and Nami finds herself nodding along with Usopp when Luffy approves with a loud "Right!".
"Ah, found it."
She shoos both boys away, puts the phone on a table close-by, and presses on it before running to the space she put into place before when she worked on her choreography.
This time the music rolls over their shoulders and down their arms and backs with shivers in their wake that somehow make them want to get up or jump or just move. The voice and the percussion roll and curl and vibrate under their skull and their skin, the electricity running along their nerves like a shot of unadulterated life.
And Elynna…
The colours that were blooming under her skin on stage are now bursting forth like fireworks with each stuttering movement and aggressive jump, and despite the way her body bends under her will her shoulders are somehow thrown back with pride, eyes so direct and their darkness so much more intense than usual it feels like a shouted challenge and an inviting burst of obscenely loud laughter all at the same time.
And despite how short it is, somehow Luffy is clapping and laughing as if he's trying to use up as much energy as Elynna is consuming, and Nami has put two fingers in her mouth to whistle her appreciation, and Usopp's hands are thumping against the ground in front of his crossed legs to the rhythm while Zoro is unconsciously tapping his fingers along against his biceps, until he realises it and straightens up, hoping to all the gods he heard of that no one saw-
Nami smirks, pretty and sparkling and mocking.
Fuck.
He's done for.
Meanwhile, Luffy decides then and there that he wants his First Mate to dance at least once a day, even if only because it makes her smile so bright and her eyes so alive.
The whirlwind of praises that follows the short performance is interrupted by a knock at the door.
It's the blonde chef they saw beat up the Marine that morning.
"Elynna-san, your meal has been prepared, if you would follow me." He announces with a bow, eyes flitting adoringly to the tangerine-haired navigator.
"A meal? I didn't know."
He straightens up, a hand coming up to elegantly take his cigarette out of his mouth in a refined arc. He exhales a mouthful of smoke.
"It wasn't planned, but we would like to thank you for your performance this evening. We received very positive feedback from our customers."
The dark-haired girl throws a glance at her Captain, whose eyes are alight with curious interest and staring at the chef.
She sighs, and ruffles his hair just for the sake of the fluffy feeling under her hand (and if something feels similar somwhere in her chest, well, she doesn't have to let the others know about it).
"See you later, guys."
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Elynna knows that she probably looks ridiculously silly, following the blonde cook with a pep in her step and a giddy smile that makes her lips twitch.
At that moment though, she doesn't really care, because the leftover energy of the music and the dance is like literal sunshine in her body.
She feels high on pure energy, and she wonders if this is how Luffy feels all day long. It feels like her body is making her fly instead of pressing her down and dragging her into the ground.
(But it's not the worst drug out there,
and she's a lazy piece of shit,
so it's not like she's gonna do anything about that particular addiction anytime soon.)
She didn't realise how much she missed dancing in the violent whirlpool of events that followed her arrival in this world.
Training with Zoro and Luffy feels good, but it's not the same.
Dancing to happy songs makes her body even lighter, even if only for a time.
(Shoulders looser, smile easier, laughter louder
and the world behind her eyelids so much brighter.)
Dancing to darker tunes allows her to shake off the cobwebs of filth and torn shrouds laid delicately across every thought and memory, even if only for a time.
(Taken away by the flow of the music that leaves her mind clear and lucid,
capable of looking at the future and seeing a dream there.)
And hell, she needs that.
Probably needed it since she was first dumped here.
For the first time, she doesn't feel like her mind will shift out of her body at any moment.
Doesn't feel like any path she takes will only result in failure -for everyone and because of her.
She feels…
Good.
The cook -she doesn't actually remember his name from the series- stops in front of a door, and she does her best to suppress the grin on her lips into something less childish.
She has a job to do after all. Luffy only seems vaguely interested in him for the moment, and while her presence might not change anything, it might also change everything. She's pretty sure that both his fighting and cooking capabilities will be necessary for the crew (he's made for them after all, she's the only intruder here), so just in case, she should probably get some info to keep Luffy's attention on him.
(It's the first time she's actively trying to engage with the timeline,
and she can only hope that she'll be able to walk the line between trying to help and being patronising without too many missteps.)
The door opens to show a small but cozy room that is obviously meant to be reserved by customers who want to have their meal in a more intimate atmosphere.
The warm lights of the chandelier that cascade down from the roof cast a golden light over the handmade, decorated tableware and ripples on the polished surface of the dark wood the furniture is made of.
There are comfortable looking armchairs and sofas placed at the back of the room for after-meal discussions or if children leave the table during the meal, and flowers arranged into a bouquet on the table.
It's…
romantic.
Not even her ex-boyfriend brought her to a meal like this.
It wasn't -isn't- his style, nor hers.
The sight is gorgeous, but she fidgets on her feet, feeling an expectation to be kind and considerate -perhaps because of the clichés she associates with this kind of setting.
Except, she's neither kind nor considerate.
The unfamiliarity makes her shy, suddenly, and a bit uneasy, shoulders hunching slightly inwards and fingers twisting together.
But she's still too drunk on the music that keeps playing in her body and the buzzing through her limbs that rolls over her nerves to the beat, so the feeling is not entirely unpleasant, and she feels more like giggling than cringing.
And when she looks up at the cook (Sanji, his name is Sanji) he is staring at her with the kind of intense adoration that would definitely put her off (especially if you add the puffing) if she didn't see him do the same to just about every female between eighteen and thirty-five throughout the evening.
"Is the setting to your liking, Elynna-san?"
"I'm not really used to it, but it's very pretty." She eventually settles for.
For a moment, she fears that he's going to faint under the praise.
"The cook who shot down that Marine guy was more my type, though."
He blinks, and she chuckles as she watches him straighten up, one hand tugging at his costume to rid it of any crease, before he elegantly gestures her inside and guides her to one of the two seats, filling her sculpted glass with water when she indicates that she doesn't drink alcohol.
He sits down in the opposite seat, and watches as she brings her fork to her mouth in anticipation.
"Is it to your convenience? I don't know what your favourite food is, so I had to improvise something."
She chews slowly, letting the warmth of the melting fish roll around her mouth in a way that brings a shiver of delight down her back.
"It's… very, very good. I could cry." She jokes with a chuckle.
(It's not really a joke, though, because it reminds her of the last meal she shared with her family in a restaurant,
the last meal she shared with them at all.
But she's still in a good enough mood that the leftover taste when she swallows is that of hope rather than bitter resignation,
and in her mind the memory is tinted with the warm halo of gentle nostalgia rather than longing.)
"Some of our customers did cry after your last performance." Sanji retorts with a slight smile. His lips are twitching and his voice is a bit too loud, visibly straining to not crank up the decibels to his usual level when praising (or generally talking to) women. "It was splendid."
Now she feels like her vocabulary is lacking. She'll have to do better next time.
And unless there is a major change, she should have plenty of next times.
"It's mostly hard work, I didn't have a specific talent for it when I started." She shrugs, and covers an awkward laugh with another forkful of grilled vegetables.
How is she supposed to deal with compliments again?
"What about you? How long have you been learning to cook?"
"Elynna-san! I'm so honoured to receive your interest!"
She rolls her eyes at the extravagant reaction, but she can't help but laugh, secure in the knowledge that he's probably no different from the Sanji she knows, which means that he may be pushy but would never force himself onto a woman (although he should probably learn to back down when he can see that he's making someone uncomfortable).
He tells her about how he has been here since childhood, and slips in a few anecdotes about how Zeff added an exercise for his legs on top of his basic regimen for every little mistake he made when she asks him how he got this good in both cooking and fighting. Then he tells her about the shenanigans he and the other cooks got up to to try and woo female customers or sabotage others' attemps, as well as the punishments Zeff dealt out after them -like eating an entire serving of the extra-spicy meal he brought back the recipe of from one of the islands he visited.
(She particularly likes the one about teenage Sanji who spent a night baking a cake for a regular customer's daughter, and how another cook started a fight -about cucumber and peanut butter- for the only purpose of having the cake smashed by something or someone, which eventually degenerated into a general brawl where the cooks threw kitchen knives at each other because apparently that's more acceptable than throwing food according to a cook's morals.
Well, it is true that one can wash blood off a knife, but it doesn't really work with a tomato.)
Even though it all paints him as a womanising brat, he somehow makes it charming enough to make her laugh, and she promptly corrects her image of him in her mind. The guy is smart, the kind of smart that can probably rival Nami's craftiness -except speaking with the navigator and having functioning braincells is probably an oxymoron for him.
(Honestly, she's not any better sometimes.)
Then the dessert arrives, and she. Just. Melts.
"Wow, Sanji-san. Wow." She breathes out, sagging into her chair and slowing down her eating speed even more to be sure to savour the treat.
Okay, so her vocabulary is regressing rather than improving, but she can totally be excused.
And clearly the one she's praising doesn't mind because he nearly swoons off his chair.
Evidently, she now has a very personal interest in making sure that Sanji becomes the crew's cook because damn.
"Please make sure not to give me desserts to serve tomorrow. I can't guarantee they'll make it safely to the intended customer."
"Don't worry, I'll make sure that old geezer doesn't hold you responsible for it. He's already holding you and Nami-san back when you were just passing through -although I'm very glad to be able to see your beauty for a bit longer."
She ignores the fact that he totally glossed over the other members of the crew, and smiles.
An opportunity.
"Oh, we would have probably stayed for more than a meal anyway."
He raises an elegantly swirling eyebrow and pauses in his eating.
"Really?"
She hums.
"We came here because our Captain loves food, so he wanted a cook from the best restaurant to take in his crew."
Sanji leans back in his chair at that, lighting a cigarette once he gets her authorisation, and breathes out a cloud of smoke pensively in a way that looks, frankly, unfairly elegant, his hair looking like gold-weaved silk under the candlelights.
"I wouldn't say that we're the best restaurant in the world. That shitty cook is probably taking our rating down a few pegs."
She snorts.
"And probably no one will want to leave this restaurant anyway." He adds on.
She tilts her head on the side with a curious blink of her eyes.
"So you want to spend your life here?"
He stares at her as he breathes in another drag of his cigarette, and this time the light blue of his eyes looks less like a lovesick puppy and more like Zoro trying to assess her next move during one of their spars.
"Why are you asking me that?"
"Because you're the one I'm talking to, and you're one of the youngest here."
"... I still haven't paid my debt to that shitty geezer, so I don't intend to leave anytime soon."
Loyalty, then. And a sense of responsibility.
...
Frankly, they probably need someone like that on the crew. The second one is clearly lacking.
She watches him stub out his cigarette in the ashtray of dark blue glass in silence.
"And when your debt will be paid, is there anywhere you want to go? Or do you want to take up the restaurant once Zeff-san retires?"
It's like dark clouds fraying into threads of white cotton candy to let the rays of the sun pass. His gaze isn't piercing anymore, and he's not trying to contain his flirty extravagance under wraps of cool elegance.
Instead he lights up, hands moving through the air like birds flying free, voice lilting on a rollercoaster of leftover childish excitement, and the cold blue of his eyes is made warm by the passion that burns there.
He looks like he has more ambition in his pinkie than she has in her entire body, and it suits him pretty well.
"All kinds of fishes in the same ocean? But don't different species need different environments?"
"That's why it's so miraculous!" He exclaims in return, hands reaching as far as they can as if to show her exactly how much of a miracle the All Blue is.
(She thinks that it doesn't hold a candle to the fact that she's sitting here and listening to him, that if she leans forward and places her palm against his she will feel the warmth of another living being.
For once, the thought tastes of awe rather than sarcastic despair.)
Their food is long finished now, and so once his voice dies down, she takes another moment to bask in the lull of the fullness in her stomach and the warmth of the room, before she gets to her feet to gather the dishes.
He's quick to stop her, though, and she eventually lets it go, feeling distinctly like she failed her parents and all the manners they drilled into her over the years.
"Well, as thanks for the food, I'll tell you this: my Captain is interested in you, and he's persistent, so you should probably prepare yourself for a full-on assault."
There's also the fact that she's about to give Sea King information that will probably make him even more interested, but he doesn't need to know that.
"I'm so touched to see you concerned for me, Elynna-san! But worry not, I'm quite persistent myself!"
She vaguely wonders if Sanji is immune to puppy eyes and conjunctivitis-inducing smiles, and if she should take a bet on this or not.
In the end, she wishes him good luck and, as she walks back to the Sunny, decides that she should probably start looking for a new nickname.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Luffy is waiting for her on the deck when she comes back, leaning on the railing.
He beams when he notices her, and even in the dark it shines.
"How was it?"
"Very good."
"Really?" He laughs as she comes to a stop beside him.
"Yup. The food was top-notch, and Sanji is smart. Pretty funny too, and loyal."
Luffy hums in delight as his eyes follow the moon's gleam on a bunch of seaweed that slowly spins and weaves between the currents below them. He knew that weird cook was strong, but he wasn't sure up till now what kind of guy he really was.
The fact that his First Mate noticed and acted to get the information he wanted makes giddy, pleased self-satisfaction (he chose well) bubble in his stomach like hot chocolate, and he laughs.
"You like him too then?"
She chuckles, and he thinks that he should throw a party if only to celebrate how familiarly the sound is now curling around his ears, like a lazy, tamed animal.
"Yeah. If you go for him, I approve your choice, Sea King. I'll let you learn more by yourself. Have you talked with the others yet?"
"Uhhhh… Nami noticed and told me she was okay with him because she can get him to carry her bags anytime."
"Figures." She snorts, but when he takes a glimpse at her face her grin is fond.
He thinks it's pretty weird, the way her tone and words don't match her face.
But he likes weirdos, so it's alright.
"I'll ask Zoro and Usopp!"
"You better wait for tomorrow. If you wake them up for that, I'm pretty sure they won't be cooperative."
"Ah, You're right. Good night, Ann!"
She faces him more fully.
Hesitates.
And smiles, soft and warm and just as fond as before as she reaches out to ruffle his hair carefully so as to not knock off his hat.
"G'night, Sea King."
He pouts, because he anticipated a hug (but he'll just have to work harder for that).
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
When Elynna enters her room, Nami is already sleeping, facing the wall and -of course- hogging all the blankets.
But as she changes into her night clothes and prepares to go to bed, her eyes keep coming back to the girl facing away from her, and despite the fact that the navigator has been behaving as usual, she can't help but feel like she's been distant since they arrived at the restaurant.
She slips beneath the covers and worms her way closer through the layers of blankets, until she rests her forehead between the shoulder blades of the taller girl, and one of her hands comes to pinch Nami's nightshirt between two fingers.
(A reminder of her presence and a whispered plea to stay,
because screaming or holding on any tighter would feel intrusive,
and she doesn't have the guts to go any further.
So she hopes,
and places a piece of her heart between their bodies
to be cradled or crushed.)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
So. It's not the best, but it's happier, ok? Must count for something.
Sanji is (surprisingly) a pain to watch. For me, anyway. Hope I didn't mess him up too much. I'll strive to get better in the future.
In case you're interested, here are the links for the dance videos I used as inspiration for the three snippets. (The song of the second one is especially fitting for Elynna.) Tell me in the comments if it doesn't work and you still want to see!
P.S.: add the youtube address before any of them ^^
watch?v=DdlKZ3EZx6k&list=PLBPTyr5BEnlLYAZqwaMhA19_6qMdBvYgo&index=66
watch?v=-FaqoJBO6XM&list=PLBPTyr5BEnlLYAZqwaMhA19_6qMdBvYgo&index=69
watch?v=GJmPXpel2IA&list=PLBPTyr5BEnlL2gdFSR1jc71hxBaVE0aOc&index=232
Thank you to all the new (and not new) followers and for all the comments, and see you whenever I can manage a new chapter!