Yes, you saw that right, a new chapter is here. And it's a long one.
Cheers to me?
It's the first time there's an actual fight (for Elynna) in this story. Fight scenes are hard, and I tried to make it so that she was strong enough to make it out alive on her own (and not too scared to move) with her capabilities and training (since she has been sparring with Zoro and Luffy for a few weeks now) without suddenly becoming some kind of overpowered, fearless ninja so... Please tell me what you think? I want to try and keep her evolution as realistic as possible.
ALSO, IMPORTANT (I think): there's a tiny spoiler about Sanji's past. Actually I don't even know if it qualifies as a spoiler, since it doesn't give away anything about the plot of the Whole Cake Island Arc, but it does give a vague idea of how a part of Sanji's family was. So yeah. Do with it what you want.
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.
Part One - Dive|rgence
ELEVEN
The feathers of their brittle dreams
makes their mind steel
and their heart fire
and gives them wings so big it covers the whole sky
While I stumble on the dusty, pathless ground
chained down by the dreamless chains of my limitations
and yet straining
to be worthy of grasping at the feathers
that fall with the strength of each sweep of their wings
and that my dirty, trembling, bloody hands dare to reach for
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"I mean, how is it fair that Nami gets the best food for free while we get second-rate stuff and have to pay for it?! I'm telling you, it's gender discrimination!"
Elynna snorts as she turns away from the group of neon green fishes she was observing (in her home world, she would assume they ate nuclear waste, but she'll give these the benefit of the doubt) to look at Usopp, who joined her outside for her post-lunch break.
"Now you know how women feel throughout their lives."
He rams his shoulder into hers, and she raises both hands in defense (it's kind of ruined by the smirk that pulls at her lips, aided by the weight of her mocking amusement).
"Just kidding. I bet that bookseller guy from your village was always going on about how you shouldn't cry or be scared if you wanted to become a real man -whatever that's supposed to mean."
"Actually, it was his wife."
"Really? Man, they make quite the pair. Poor kids."
"Nah, he's much better when she's not there. That's why I took notes on their shifts to only buy books when he or his assistant is manning the shop."
"I knew your talent for strategy came from somewhere."
They snicker.
"But if you really want a better price-quality ratio, you can always try to woo him like Nami."
He gapes, like his jaw can't quite bear the combined weight of his incredulity and his horror. She stares at the glass of water in his hands, and decides that she should try to time herself better next time and create the same reaction when he's drinking, because it will be hilarious -as long as she's not the one cleaning up the mess.
"No. No no no no no. Not everyone is a slut for both sides like you are."
She smiles, all the pleased satisfaction of someone receiving a compliment shining from behind her slightly crooked teeth (he thinks that it probably is a compliment in the mind of that weirdo).
"Sorry, I forgot you already had a girlf-"
He slaps his hand over her mouth, the momentum of his embarassment almost sending them crashing onto the deck, and throws panicked looks all around them to make sure they weren't overheard.
(The thought is absurd even in his head but he can't help but check twice that there's no one from his village who would just happen to be here and would go inform her
and oh god the potential misunderstandings,
and he hasn't found the right words yet, or the right gift or the right moment-
because he's too busy thinking about how he misses her-)
"It's not about that, you idiot!" He screeches, voice so high-pitched it's a whisper. "The only thing worse than imitating Nami was if you told me to act like you!"
She makes a sound from behind his hand that sounds like a haughty laugh but may just also be an offended wail, and pushes the appendage away from her mouth.
"Excuse me, communication is important."
"Yeah, well you're a bit too communicative."
They narrow their eyes at each other, and even Usopp's are more playful than annoyed now, his nose almost folded in two with how close their faces are.
Eventually they end up in stitches, and she knocks her shoulder into his more gently, slipping her legs out of the spaces between the rails where they were dangling and standing up to go back to the kitchen with a last wave of her hand.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
She enters the kitchen, and finds herself wondering if she somehow entered an alternative timeline or something similar.
(She hasn't believed wholeheartedly in something for quite a long time,
and at this point of her life she can probably be convinced that anything is possible and everything is fake.)
The usually lively kitchen has become tense, and even the sound of the knives against the chopping boards seems to have been sucked out of the room.
She winces, and flattens herself against the door.
She doesn't care about the damn contract. If these idiots start a fight now, she's getting out of here, because it's much more likely to turn ugly than funny.
Sanji is standing near the entrance that leads to the main room, hands in his pockets and eyes surveying each and every cook like the cool weight of a knife against the naked skin of their necks, blade flat but the potential of death a whisper in their ears.
"Let's make things clear. I don't care how much you dislike me. I don't care how much you complain to that damn geezer behind my back. As I already told him, I'm not leaving this restaurant until he's resting six feet under, and I will not accept any insult directed at my cooking. Understood?"
Silence.
Her mind pieces together the basics of what probably led to this, and she feels the strong urge to slam her head against the wall.
Of course someone as gruff as the Head Chef would try to anger Sanji into leaving the Baratie after witnessing the ceaseless (and loud) attempts of her own Captain to get him to join the crew, considering how pig-headedly loyal the younger cook is.
And of course the rest of the cooks followed.
(she's heard enough anecdotes by now to know that they've lived with Sanji for years, so of course they know about his dream, and of course they care that he's staying stuck here for that debt he's always talking about, that idiot-)
She normally doesn't have anything against the strong and silent type or whatever this is supposed to be called, but seriously…
Would it kill them to communicate properly, god fucking damnit?!
Because clearly, Sanji isn't getting the right message right now.
She closes her eyes and breathes in to collect her patience, then marches toward her work station with the last thought that if this mess lasts more than twenty-four hours, she will have to find in herself the courage that she absolutely does not have and go lecture her own boss about Healthy Relationships, because she is not going to work in that atmosphere for more than a day.
(She planned on never having children,
but somehow all the problems she wanted to avoid by doing that are still smacking her in the face.
She feels frankly betrayed, and adds it as another item to the growing list titled Why I'm Going To Punch Whoever Or Whatever Brought Me Here In The Face When I Finally Hunt Them Down
She prefers to not think too much about the possibility that it's just an accident, because that just lessens her chances of ever going back home)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
She did not think that she would need the info she has been gathering on Krieg in the last two days so soon.
But here she is, staring at the galleon floating closer to the back of the Baratie.
(It's huge,
looming over the floating restaurant that was already higher than the Merry like an elephant looming over a mouse
and it fits because it seems to be the commanding ship of a fleet of 5000 pirates
but all she can think at the moment is that its Commander probably made it that large to match his ego and the scale of his massacres and the nightmares he inspires in his victims
-or at least those who are still alive-
and it works)
The size of the ship is so arresting that it takes a moment for her heart to beat again and for her hands to stop shaking when her eyes take in the details rather than the silhouette.
It's a miracle that thing is still floating, because at this point it's more of a shipwreck than an actual ship, wood scarred and sails shredded apart and hull gutted open.
She gulps and it's hard, the saliva suddenly too much for how tight and dry her throat is made by the fear.
She leans her elbows on her thighs and lets her face falls in the dark cradle of her hands, where she wrenches her eyes shut and closes her fists against them, as if to punch back all the thoughts and the fears and the nightmares (and the weaknesses and the shaking-) that hinder the clarity of her mind and the confidence of her body in its ability to make bruises explode and blood cry and bones break-
(punch them back where they won't ruin the reliability of her shoulders and her back for her crewmates
-nakama-
to lean on
This may have been caused by a natural disaster but yes,
you will have to face enemies who can deal that kind of damage.
You won't escape it.
But it's for later.
The opponent of the now is weaker than that.
And you wouldn't have followed him if he wasn't worth being the hero of a story that has been going on for years and still isn't finished
-he won't die.
She discovers that this part of the fight is not so different from dancing either.
And she's used to forgetting the audience and the voice in her head that screams about all the mistakes she might make until the sound is wrenching her stomach into her throat.
So she does it again.)
She sighs to chase out of her body all the remaining trembles, and gets to her feet.
Then she walks out of the kitchen to take a look at the main room, because staying alone isn't the best idea when they're about to be invaded by the strongest pirate crew of East Blue, weakened or not.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
She arrives just in time to see Gin enter, supporting the weight of a man two heads taller than him and almost twice as large.
She frowns, the corner of her mouth ticking at the sound of their footsteps.
It's too loud, and drums in her ears like metal clinking together.
Her eyes narrow at the way his clothes seem to be straining against his muscles even though his face looks like it has been drained of everything but skin and bones.
These aren't muscles.
He's wearing armour beneath his clothes.
… Which is a questionable fashion choice, but she's not going to point that out to a man who can still walk around with a goddamn armour in this state -although Gin is probably doing most of the walking and carrying right now.
The man just has the time to rasp out a few words that she doesn't hear but guesses are about food before he collapses on the floor.
Then things degenerate.
Gin suddenly finds it in himself to let go of his pride and beg for his Captain.
(and some people squirm in unease, eyes shifting everywhere but always coming back to these two men who are supposed to be fearsome but were brought on their knees by the heavy shadow of death draped across their shoulders and roiling in their stomachs)
Patty and most of the other employees and customers, on the other hand, are dead set on not giving the taller pirate anything, either as a retribution for his crimes or because they're convinced that he'll attack the restaurant as soon as he's back on his feet.
She's honest enough with herself to admit what she thinks: it would be better for her and the rest of the crew if Don Krieg and his men died -otherwise either he or her own Captain would probably drag all of them into a fight, but…
But.
Movement in the corner of her vision makes her look up and stare at Sanji's back as he enters the kitchen, probably to take some of the food they prepared for dinner.
She follows him inside, and closes the door behind her.
"I'm sorry, Elynna-san, but even for a beautiful lady like you I won't let that man starve." He announces quietly without looking at her as he puts the finishing touches to the meal.
She sighs, and grabs a bottle of the wine that was supposed to go with that particular meal, holding it out to him.
He stares at the hand she extends towards him, the surprise making him look like the boy he actually is rather than the elegant man he presents himself as.
"Don't look at me like that." She huffs. "Don Krieg and his men are no saints, and I doubt I would feel very sorry if they died, but I think there's a difference between being killed by a bullet in the head and being starved to death. I don't wish the latter on anyone."
He smiles a smile softer than she has ever seen on him, like those thin clouds that paint the sky a shade lighter instead of hiding it, and the way he takes the bottle from her hand is delicate like a whispered thank you.
"That being said…"
He almost yelps as she grabs him by the collar and drags him to her face, the abruptness of the movement almost making him knock the plate off the table.
His words of protest are cut off by his sudden lack of air before they even reach his mouth when he realises how close he is to the girl.
Her mouth is set in a line as grim as the silence before a battle, and in all the time she has been working by his side her eyes have never been that intense except for the times she was on stage.
"Listen, and listen to me well." She speaks, voice low and steely like an armoured hand closed around his wrist. "You can play the knight in shining armour as much as you want, I don't give a fuck. But don't play stupid when you're so smart and assume that they will return the favour. The honour you like so much means jack shit to someone like Krieg, and even if he swears up and down that he won't touch this restaurant, it means nothing. He's not called the King of Deceptions for fun. So. Giving him food does not mean that you have to lower your goddamn guard. Got it?"
She gives a tiny, firm shake when he fails to speak up after a few seconds.
"... I got it, Elynna-san." He eventually says with a small smile that she can't quite decipher.
She nods, satisfied, and releases him, allowing him to straighten up (she had to bring him down quite a bit to be able to look him in the eyes).
Then she reaches up to smooth the lines of his shirt that got bunched together in the grip of her fists, and puts the plate and bottle back into his hands.
He stares at her for a moment, and she nods, lips tracing something that is too shallow and too tense to be a smile but that breathes her approval into the air all the same.
Then she steps aside.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
For once, she does not appreciate the accelerated healing rate of this world's bodies (and the quality of Sanji's cooking), because Don Krieg recovers too much and too damn fast.
But Sanji jumps away from the man's attempt to tackle him with the full weight of his armoured body, and her grip on the railling of the stairs loosens enough that she can actually feel her fingers.
Her gaze slides towards where Gin is lying a floor below, and she frowns, still confused as to how the man managed to believe his Captain's promise to not damage the restaurant or its employees after working under his command, even if only for a short time.
She has only heard stories, but even she knows that a promise doesn't mean much coming from the mouth of someone who raises a white flag to attack other ships by surprises.
(No matter how much his utter lack of integrity repulses her for how it breaks those who do their best with the rules, she won't deny that she also finds it impressive and even likes it
Because it's kind of funny how humans lie so much and yet never think to use another flag than the one that fits the rules.)
Then Krieg yells out an order for food to be brought to his men, and Elynna's fingers tighten against the wooden railing in her grip again like it's her courage.
(her courage that is liquefying and sliding down her backbone, leaving her trembling and cold and weak-
This is nothing like Sea King's orders)
The cooks don't seem keen on obeying him, and even less on entertaining Sanji's idea of feeding anyone who needs it and worrying about the consequences after that (if ever), because they end up wrestling him to the ground while Patty fires a cannonball of all things at the pirate.
Apart from the clothes covering his armor and the entrance of the restaurant, there's not much that is damaged.
(She's still trying to wrap her head around the degree of resilience people have around here,
but the ringing in her ears and the frightened beat of her heart trying to ram its way out of her chest doesn't help.
The skirmishes of the past weeks have made her somewhat used to the sight of someone running at her with a blade in hand,
but she still struggles to keep her mind clear of the panic that never fails to fog it and slow it down into stiffened, petrified, deadly idiocy whenever she's facing the sound and speed of bullets and cannonballs)
Things go from bad to worse when the cooks rush at Krieg with their weapons, only to end up being shot down one after the other by the guns that are apparently also included in the Commander's armour.
Elynna isn't the cowering, sweaty mess of tears and trembling limbs that she was the first time she witnessed a similar scene, but it's a near thing.
Instead, she focuses on the man's words.
"You dare think that worms like you can defeat me, or even scratch me?! I'm the strongest!"
"The strongest of the weakest sea who didn't even last a month in the Grand Line before being annihilated. Woohoo." She mutters aloud a floor above while the pirate goes on about his body of steel and his fist of diamond.
His ego is probably the only thing that's really the strongest.
(So far, she has found, sarcasm is the best remedy against the fear that makes her mind stutter and stills her body and sets her blood alight with the urgency screaming at her to runawayrunawayrunaway
But in the corner of her heart that is not busy being the fucking coward that she is, she dares to strive for the day that she will be able to be a smartass to the face of those who fan the flames of that fear
and dares to hope that it won't make her quite as reckless as Sea King in the process)
Eventually, Krieg leaves to feed his men the food Zeff brought with a last threat towards her moron of a Captain (who of course just had to step in when the conversation veered towards who will be the King of Pirates) and the Head Chef -who is even more badass than she first thought.
Quickly, she goes to retrieve her backpack -and the medical supplies in it- in the room assigned to her to work on her dancing, and by the time she reaches the bottom of the stairs, all the cooks are screaming their renewed determination to defend the restaurant.
She taps the closest one on the shoulder, and motions for him to sit down and roll up his sleeve so that she can take a look at the wound that tainted the fabric red.
(If the food has the same effect on Krieg's men as it had on him, then they'll need all the help they can get
patching them up will also be an advantage for her own crewmates when their stupid Captain inevitably drags them all into this mess
and she gets to feel like a useful human being
It's a win-win really)
His nod is a mix of relief and gratefulness as he obeys, and her own shoulders relax when she sees that he was only grazed by a bullet.
"Are you all crazy? You should know how powerful the Don is by now! You need to run away, not prepare to fight!"
"Let me tell you something, Gin." Sanji speaks up in response, voice mild and cool, and she just knows that he's breathing out smoke and waving his cigarette in that infuriatingly classy way of his again. "As a cook, I feed anyone who is hungry, no matter how much of a lowlife they are. But when your crewmates come, their stomachs will be full, so… I won't have any mercy. Anyone who tries to take over this restaurant, even if it's you, I will kill them."
It should be absurd how rassuring it is to hear these words and know that someone badass is on her side, but at this point she'll take anything that can settle the residual nerves running under the skin of her hands, because her next patient has a bullet stuck in his thigh.
She patches up three other patients with her limited knowledge before Zoro's reaction to Gin's story of the Krieg Pirates' defeat in the Grand Line catches her attention.
Her sparring partner looks way too excited.
Like he would challenge Hawk-Eye Mihawk on the spot if the man showed up right now.
Probably like every fan of One Piece who is into males, her sister went through a phase where she fangirled heavily on the strongest swordsman of this world.
Elynna would know, her ears were one of the main victims of said fangirling.
So she knows that Zoro is getting way too ahead of himself here, and she wonders if she should try to find some other famous swordsmen once they're out of this mess to defuse a bit of her crewmate's apparently single-minded obsession.
"Man, the Grand Line sounds like such a cool place! I can't wait to go!"
"When will you get the word 'danger' through your thick skull?!" Usopp groans loudly, clearly exasperated with Luffy's entirely different point of view on the matter.
Elynna sighs, takes a hold of the metallic box in which she puts her tools.
And throws it at her Captain's head.
It doesn't hit him, but it doesn't knock out anyone else, and the rubber boy ends up falling off the table he's sitting on in surprise, so it's all fine really.
The cook she was taking care of gapes at her as she stands up, and when Luffy's face resurfaces from behind the table he pouts at her, one hand rubbing at his cheek even though she knows she didn't hurt him in the slightest.
"What was that for?!"
"You can get excited about our future near-death experiences all you want later. Just focus on the one that will involve Krieg for now. And just to be clear, I'm not asking you to come up with a plan, because that's not your style and you would probably fuck it up, but just… here."
He catches the notebook she throws at him with a curious blink of his big, dark eyes.
"What's that?"
"I've noted down all the weapons included in Krieg's armour, at least from what the testimonies I got. Do what you want with it. But if you don't want to read it because of some stupid honour thing, just give it to one of the cooks. They might need it."
She doesn't add that she also wrote a few things about some of Krieg's main crew members, because Gin is still in the room and by now she knows that considering his identity, he'll be loyal to his Captain first and foremost.
Instead she calls for those who are injured to come to her, and asks one of the cooks she already took care of (as much as she can, because she's useless-) to get some more medical supplies.
They only have an hour before the first shouts resonate from outside, bouncing against the walls of the dining room aggressively like hungry vultures.
And then they're drowned under a wave of silence and a tsunami of noises, wood groaning and waves crashing and men screaming-
"The main ship has been cut!"
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
There's only one thought rattling her mind inside her skull as she rushes outside.
Rain.
Luffy is already extending his arms to catch Yosaku and Johnny when she joins them.
"Bro, we're sorry-"
"Big Sis Nami, she-"
"She took your ship and ran away!"
Oh.
And then-
Something isn't right.
Something isn't right, because sure, the thief became somewhat subdued in the last few days, but this is too abrupt for how relaxed she looked sitting with all of them, for how genuine her laughter sounded-
(It's not just about how she feels like every minute Rain gets further away from them is making the sea of grey sludge within her rise and the pit of frightening, silent emptiness gape open further-)
"Johnny-san." She mumbles, the static inside her making her deaf to Usopp's voice lamenting the absence of Kaya's gift and Zoro's teeth gnashing around his anger and how it was a mistake to trust that woman and look away even for one moment-
"Big Sis Elynna?"
"You said she kept looking at a poster. Which one was it?"
"Why is that imp-"
"Which. One."
"... Arlong's, Big Sis."
She closes her eyes.
"What did you tell her?"
"... That he had been pretty quiet for a time but-" He pauses, and she can almost feel the confusion and uncertainty in the weight of his gaze. "We heard that he started rampaging again recently."
"Fuck." She swears quietly, because when she adds the despair in the way her roommate -her friend- clenches her hand around money and gems and the way her back curled under an invisible weight at the sight of that man's wanted poster…
If she adds all of that to the fact that Nami suddenly ran away with the bounty hunters' money as soon as she heard he was rampaging, then she can only see the worst-case scenario as the most probable one.
(It involves ransom and emotional manipulation and people Rain loves
and a little girl who has been running around and smiling and stealing and putting herself in danger for who knows how long-
For a moment she wants to fall to her knees and break and shatter because it feels like her chest is going to be ripped right open with the bubble of tears and silent screams that is swelling swelling swelling-
But it's not her pain, not her weight, and Rain has been carrying it for years perhaps already, so she's not going to cave either
Because she might be good at giving up before even trying in life, but she's also pretty good at keeping herself going
she's been doing it even though she already thought in primary school that the mad, mad world she used to live in would probably kill her before she even made it to fifty-)
"Wait! I can still see the Merry!" Luffy exclaims, and the sound of his voice is enough to jolt her shoulders into straightening themselves up with more determination than she can gather alone. "Yosaku, Johnny! You still have your ship, right?"
"Yes?"
"Guys, you go after Nami! I'll stay here to deal with the debt we still owe that old man."
"Just let it go, Luffy. If that woman runs away like that, there's no point in forcing her to stay."
"But the ship is important-" Usopp protests before she can open her mouth to explain that this isn't about forcing her to stay, it's about how she's being forced to leave.
"I want Nami as my navigator, and no one else! I can't become the King of Pirates without her, so we're going after her!" Luffy cuts him off anyway.
And that's that.
Zoro caves in, and the three of them are about to jump into his former colleagues' boat when a few words make the swordsman freeze and Elynna curse in her own mind, because couldn't he wait five fucking minutes, goddamnit-
"Don Krieg, it's him! The man who destroyed our fleet followed us!"
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
She's too busy realising that the guy deflected bullets that she can't even see to notice that Zoro has already jumped over to the remains of Krieg's boat.
(You know someone is badass when they do that as easy as breathing and destroy a whole damn fleet to kill some time
Now she understands her sister's fangirling)
The thought does not even make her lips twitch, because as far as she's concerned that idiot is letting his pride get away from him and he's going to get needlessly hurt while Nami and the Merry disappear from their sight-
(She's not asking him to abandom his dream, damnit
just to realise that it's too soon yet and that this isn't going to be a duel but a one-sided massacre-
to stop before he pulls a Krieg and convinces himself that being the strongest in the weakest part of the world means anything in front of this man whose sword is painted darker than black with how many lives he's taken)
Zoro doesn't stop.
She takes a step forward.
And then steps back, even before Luffy's hand closes around her forearm in a silent warning.
Because no matter how much she doesn't understand (not really) and it makes her want to rage and slap her crewmate in the face, she's known him for long enough (not as a character of paper and ink but as a person of blood and heart and dreams-) to know that stupid code of honour of his.
To know that if she steps in and stops him he will hate her.
(and she's too selfish and too scared and too alone to bear even the thought of that happening)
So she closes her hand around her Captain's, and forces herself to watch, to keep her eyes open, to witness Zoro's three blades lose against a small knife, to witness him lose his cool against the towering, unmovable mountain of steel of Hawk-Eye's strength.
(His technique unraveling around the heat of the anger that makes his strikes echo dissonantly in her ears,
clashing with the memories of the unyielding control with which he wielded his body and his blades together during their spars.)
Luffy lets go of her hand (the hand he has been clenching between his fingers just as tight as she has been his) to drag Yosaku and Johnny by the back of their clothes when their temper gets ahead of them.
Her Captain brings them to their knees on the deck to keep them still, and she stands behind him to press down on his shoulders, because each and every one of his muscles seems to be straining against his will to respect Zoro's unsaid wishes, and she needs to ground herself in something real like the warmth of his skin (and the taste of blood in her mouth) to do the same.
It ends first with that tiny, mocking knife in Zoro's chest, and for a moment she allows herself to let most of her weight fall on Luffy's shoulders, so much of herself focused on the blood seeping out of that wound (and everything, what little she can do to stop it) that there's not even enough left to scream or cry.
Then it ends a second time with two swords in pieces and a mark of the strongest sword in the world on her crewmate's chest, and she wrenches herself back, rolling onto her toes, waiting (begging-) for the signal to come.
And then it ends a third time with another slash of Hawk-Eye in Zoro's body and will (but a sword that can't bend will eventually break, so she can only hope that he will learn to bend and never be that stupid again) because the both of them are clearly crazy-
He falls.
And she jumps.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Just bringing Zoro back to the surface makes her muscles tremble, because she's probably carrying all his idiocy on top of it, so she shakes Johnny's shirt when he joins her and doesn't stop yelling-
She tells him to help her bring the unconscious imbecile back to their boat, and sends Yosaku to get back his sword before it can sink any further, because she had to let go of it at some point to be able to reach the surface before running out of air.
Usopp hauls them up on the ship with shaking hands but arms stronger than she ever noticed, and then runs to get her bag and some clean water when she asks for them.
When Yosaku finally gets back to them a few seconds later, he finds Elynna straddling the hips of his former colleague, one hand bunched in the collar of his white shirt made transparent red by the blood and water weighing it down and the other in the air.
Then she slaps Zoro across the face.
The bounty hunter lets go of the sword on the spot, and then yelps when it falls on his foot.
"What the hell, woman-" Zoro rasps out a cough instead of the yell he was aiming for, the long, wavy strands of his First Mate's dark hair painting wet strokes on his skin (like tears) as she moves to cut open his shirt with her knife and clean his wounds.
"Just checking you're still alive."
He doesn't know if he wants to snort or slap her back or do something to show her he's alive or tell her that she's the one who pulled that shit first so she doesn't get to look at him like that-
But in the end he doesn't have to choose, because the voice of that man (his goal) reaches his ears, startingly clear despite the pain that makes everything else foggy.
(eyes blind and ears deaf and skin numb with the blood pouring out of him-)
"It is much too early to die for you, Roronoa Zoro. My name is Dracule Mihawk. Learn to know the world. Learn to know yourself. No matter how much time it takes you, I will be waiting at the top of the world for you to surpass me and my sword."
"Zoro! Are you alright?!" The voice of his Captain reaches him, just as clear (because the promise he made to him is his goal too).
He blinks up at the mess of black and white above him that he knows is Elynna.
"Katana." He gasps out past the red that is throbbing behind his eyelids and in his throat and everywhere.
The distant sensation of cool hands and a cooler compress wiping out the blood and the salt that make his nerves wither and burn all at once pauses.
And then he feels the familiar weight of a white hilt (another promise to another friend) in his hand and long, chubby fingers closing his own fingers around the hilt, the faint pressure falling away as he clenches his grip tighter and raises the sword towards the sky.
(the sky that is as far away as the strength he needs to accomplish his goal
but not unreachable
and he will never
give up
will never
lose again
he
Promises
You alright with that, Pirate King?)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"And you, young lady? Do you wish to fight me too?"
His gaze on her (on the knife in her hand that is cutting the thread of the first closed wound, but there are two others and too much blood running away-) is like a razor sharp blade grazing her throat, but she's too focused on the bloody mess under her hands to really register it.
"I'm afraid that not everyone who carries a blade wants to become a swordsman, Mihawk-san. And unlike my two crewmates, I have an actual instinct of self-preservation. So I'll just admire your technique from afar and steal some of it, if you don't mind."
She doesn't wait for his answer. That's as much of her attention as she's willing to give him at the moment, no matter how badass and hot he is, and only to ensure that he won't kill her when she has the heartbeat of her crewmate in her hands.
(But it doesn't mean that she's spewing bullshit,
because seeing him redirect bullets,
hearing a sword with strength only is not a strong sword coming out of this man's lips
it planted a seed in her mind that is still hidden beneath the dirt of her fear-induced focus on her current task
but it's there
and she'll make sure that it blooms)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
She stares down at Zoro, still bleeding (but still breathing), and the line of fog where Nami disappeared.
Then she stares at Luffy, who is about to fight.
(about to be hurt, she's sure of it,
and so close to the sea he can die-
because he's not the King of Pirates yet, but he's clearly the King of Reckless Idiots, and his second in command is barely alive after his own fight)
To some extent she knows (her mind will never forget where it comes from) that they won't die here, but still she finds herself hesitating, unsure of where she should go and who needs her most.
(Because she has no place here.)
"Elynna."
Her eyes meet Usopp's, and in that moment she feels like the only coward of this crew.
"I have your book on medical techniques, and Yosaku and Johnny are used to sword injuries. We can handle this. You stay with Luffy. That dumbass will probably need you. We can't leave him here with no brain, right?"
He's right.
Her brand of healing or theirs, it won't change much with how far from an actual doctor she is. Besides, Usopp is good with his hands.
The only thing she can do is clean a wound, sew it shut and dress it. None of them faints at the sight of blood, so they can do it just as well, if not better.
She breathes in, and takes his hand.
"Right. And Hawk?"
"Yeah?"
"No matter what, don't forget. Rain hates Arlong."
"Who is-"
"You'll understand."
She squeezes his hand, glances at Zoro again (not for the last time, because it isn't-), and jumps out of the boat to swim back to the Baratie.
"What are you doing, Ann? I can handle that guy, you know." Luffy frowns in confusion as he hoists her up on the deck.
"I know." She pats his shoulder so he uncoils his extended arm from her waist. "But since you'll go all out even in the middle of the ocean, I'm just here to make sure that you don't die stupidly."
He grins.
She turns to Zeff.
"Boss."
"Lass?"
"The fourth clause."
'The employed party commits 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 -deemed agreeable by both parties.'
"Did you predict that?"
"No. I just know that my Captain ends up in trouble wherever he goes."
The former pirate snorts.
"Do as you want."
"Huh?" Luffy squints as his eyes bounce between the two of them, before he pokes insistently at his First Mate's cheek for answers. "What are you talking about?"
"We're talking about how if we help to beat up these guys, he'll settle our debt."
His grin widens, and he whoops aloud before glomping her.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Taking advantage of the fact that their opponents are busy being surprised (or weirded out, or fawning over in the case of her Captain) by the large platforms of wood that Sanji orders to bring up from underwater on both sides of the Baratie so as to avoid a battle in the restaurant, Elynna steps on it with the other cooks and, standing behind a group of them, leans back against the wooden railing.
Then she clothes her eyes, and focuses on the sound and touch of air passing through her body and sunshine on her skin, until every petal of her consciousness is folded back into herself.
(This is just like dancing.
She doesn't have to strike down everyone here, only has to survive.
She's not alone.
She has been getting beaten into the hard wood of the Merry's deck by Fang and Sea King for weeks,
has been getting stronger and faster and more resilient and better everytime they struck her down,
This is just like dancing.
She doesn't need to pay attention to these pirates' sneer that try to hammer down the stable lucidity of her mind, only to the way their muscles move,
doesn't need to listen to the words they spew that aim to chain her down in her own fear, only to listen for the sharp song of a sword aimed for her back,
doesn't need the toxic fear seeping from their laugh and inside her veins, just her own fear that already whispers in her blood everything she needs to know to get out alive,
She just needs to
focus.)
A sudden rise in volume makes her breathe in sharp one last time, and she opens her eyes, body tipping forward to run.
She follows right behind a cook that she's pretty sure she did not have the time to patch up, and when the giant fork he uses as weapon is blocked and the pirate pushes him away forcefully enough that he stumbles, she reaches out for the shoulder of his uniform, abruptly pulling him backwards.
It brings him back just enough to avoid the pirate's counter attack, and she uses the momentum of the cook's fall to swing her legs in the air.
Her heel smashes in the face of the pirate, who clearly didn't see her coming.
(She's learnt to use everything she can to compensate for her weakness in the face of someone stronger than her, and surprise is one of those things.)
Giving herself an added push with the hand that is still gripping the cook's shirt, she hoists herself up higher in the air, keeping her body straight as it spins in the air on itself.
The pirate she ends up above thrust his sword tip first towards her, but Zoro has rammed his sheath in her stomach enough times in similar scenarios for her to learn her lesson.
So she parts her leg, one foot landing on his wrist and the other on the shoulder of the same arm, before falling into a split.
Her momentum added to the push of her legs in two different directions is enough to at least dislocate his shoulder going by the sound -and his scream, and he falls to the ground, taking her with him.
She rolls to a stand as soon as he's done serving as her cushion, and is greeted by a gun being smashed into her cheekbone.
(She falls, and it feels like bone shattering and white splinsters needling their way through her flesh with white-hot iron tips,
but she has received enough hits by now to know that it's just in her head,
just her mind still convinced that her body should be more fragile, that every blow should be more painful,
she has received enough hits that her vision goes starry and painful and alive
rather than black and I should be dead)
She stops her fall forwards with her hand and swings her legs up into a handstand, knees hooking over the shoulder of a pirate who was rushing to finish her off on the way down.
Then she heaves the rest of her body up, thighs cutting off his airways enough that he loses his focus so that she can smash the heel of her hand against his nose, her other arm raised to parry the slash of another man's sword.
(The sound of bone crunching and the feel of the gritty mess of red and white beneath her hand still makes her mouth want to twist around the bitter taste of a sorry that she only half-means
and her stomach quakes with the scent of the pain she is dealing
But her mind has already moved on to the next threat and the next move, satisfied but not thrilled.
She may have her reservations when it comes to violence for pleasure
But this is violence for survival
She has no qualms about it
doesn't remember ever being hopeful enough in the face of human beings to waste her limited energy on feeling repulsed by it)
Zoro didn't really teach her hand-to-hand fighting, but her Captain gave her plenty of tips since apparently, bonding also includes dragging him to lie down with her on the deck and point out all the parts that hurt the most and break the easiest on the drawings of the human body in the anatomy book she bought.
(She ended up learning more ways to kill and hurt than to heal from it)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Casually kicking a man aside, Sanji pauses to look for the one woman on their side (and probably of this entire battle), since her dumbass of a Captain clearly has no idea of how to treat women, considering that he already ran off on his own to deal with Krieg.
(It infuriates him how stupid both he and that swordsman are,
charging at anyone who's in the way of their dream, even when it's someone so much stronger than them that it should blind them from their path and their goal with fear
when they can beat them, can keep their lives if they turn around now and come back stronger
It infuriates him even more that he can tell the small sun warming him from between his collarbones is one of respect and admiration
and that there's the voice of a child that has woken up green with envy and still hollering -too loud- about the All Blue at the bottom of his mind
-and it's climbing the wall of the dark pit he pushed it in himself)
When his eyes finally zero in on her, he stares, leg absently swinging lower and to the side to break the ribs of another imbecile.
He knows that she hasn't been a pirate for long and was never a criminal before, because he asked her about her life.
(and the bits and pieces she let slip were painfully normal and happy-
so why is she here,
she has no place here where her blood will be spilt and her eyes will be lined red with tears)
Even from here he sees bruises blooming under her skin and red streaks drawn over it, but he can't quite bring himself to go help her.
Not because of the bunch of fools surrounding him who think they can take him down when they're only a warm-up at best.
But because despite the suffering painted all over the white, blank sheet of her body, she looks nothing like the naive girl she should be, barely out of childhood and knowing nothing of the world.
(all the ways it wears you down until it grates at your bones and then
stiches you up all wrong to better pick again at all the cracks
until you're just blood and tears and pain)
Her body keeps weaving and arching and rolling between fists and swords like all the attacks that are connecting are just part of a choreography that is all planned out in her head already, and everyone else is so deaf to the music her body is waltzing and stopping with that bullets only graze her at best, unable for all their speed to match her rhythm.
And when she comes closer to him he sees that her face is wiped clean of anything but a distant kind of focus made sharp in her eyes by the natural fear of any living being when their life is threatened.
(She reminds him of a girl with eyes blue just like his
who worked and bled herself to be colder and harder than any of them to survive
but who was the only one to cry for him rather than laugh at him
A girl he was always too weak to help and protect
but who never asked for him to do so in the first place)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
When Elynna suddenly turns around to find herself almost getting cooked on the spot by the mere heat of the flames that were lit by some idiot who somehow found the only way to wear pearls in a ridiculous manner (but he's probably strong even though he looks like a clown, that bastard-), she decides that she is done.
She grabs two cooks whose pants and toque respectively are on fire, kicks a third one who is rolling around trying to get rid of his shirt headfirst into the sea, and follows after him with his two colleagues in hand.
The sea water will probably irritate their skin further, but it's better than being burned alive in her humble opinion.
When the three cooks emerge next to her, they swim back to the platform to help one of their friends who is more severely singed, leaving her to look around and assess the situation to see where she can be useful after ensuring that her Captain is still alive and kicking.
She frowns as she realises that her and the cooks are outnumbered, that's for sure, but Krieg said he had about a hundred men left alive, and no matter how she looks at it there are not a hundred men around them.
So where are they?
"Fuck."
Swiftly, she swims towards the three cooks she took with her a few minutes before, and when she reaches them she presses down on the shoulder of two of them.
"What- Oh, it's you." One of them sighs in relief once he turns around.
"Lower yourself, damnit. It's not because the platform is on fucking fire that no one can see you when half of your face is above the edge." She hisses in answer, and they all obey with a startled blink, if only because they're taken aback by her sudden change in attitude.
(There's no time for niceties when every word may be your last
she thinks of it as an upside rather than a downside
she only likes niceties when it's a rassuring and predictable shield in social relationships
it's useless here)
"What do you want? We have to go back and help the others! Sanji and your Captain are-"
"Look at this." She interrupts the maroon-haired cook with a jab of her finger.
They follow her gaze, and curse at the sight of a group of pirates climbing out of the water and on the platform on the other side of the restaurant.
"Shit! We're already tied down on this side, how are we supposed to-"
"We don't need many people."
Mark, the blond cook with freckles all over his face who worked the most as a waiter with her, raises a questioning brow.
"Do you still have that weird thing Patty used to shoot a cannon ball at Krieg?"
They all exchange a glance, and smirk.
"I'll go find Patty and take it. You guys occupy them for a few minutes."
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
She hauls herself onto the platform and turns around to help a cook whose right arm was pierced through with a bullet, taking advantage of the fact that the Krieg Pirates haven't noticed them yet.
The cook places a knee over the platform, and even before he opens his mouth she knows by the sudden paleness of his face what is happening.
She steps back, and the bullet coming from her side embeds itself into the deck as she rams her back into the chest of the man coming at her from behind, both of his hands gripping the axe he raised in the air.
Another cook throws himself on the back of the man with the guns, and she leaves him to it, stomping her heel down hard on the foot of the pirate she's still pressed against.
Then she reaches up, grabs his wrists and slams them down against her rising knee.
He grunts, but doesn't let go, reorienting the blade of his axe towards her face instead, so she smashes her skull against his chin.
(She doesn't know who it's most painful for, because with the disadvantage of her stupid brain it feels like slamming her head against a wall.)
He releases his grip on his weapon, but then she hears a scream that is her only warning before another sword stabs him through his side, slashing deeply into the flesh between her ribs at the same time.
She topples forward with a gasp as her skin splits open to welcome invisible, slicing fire, and her vision turns blurry with tears and darker with all the dark, red blood that is running out of her veins and damnit, she forgot that these guys don't like each other as much as she loves her crewmates-
(Shit.
She loves them.
Not likes them.
Loves them.
...
Fucking hell.)
A hand grabs her wrist, tugging her forward so that she doesn't end up flattened against the deck by the other pirate who has lost consciousness.
"Hey, show girl, you alright?"
Right. The battle.
(bleeding, she needs to stop the bleeding-)
Panting, she asks for his apron and uses it to compress her wound, wincing at the salty water the fabric is drenched in and that makes the pain in her side sparkle and her sight dizzy.
She gives a firm shake of her head to clear it.
"Still alive, but I think I'll stick with you."
"No problem. I could use a partner."
She steps in front of him, avoiding blow after strike with as little movement as she can just like Zoro told her a few days before, her temporary partner sneaking around while their opponent is working themselves up to knock them out or incapacitate them with a sword he picked up.
They take out four guys and Elynna is getting tired, breathing ragged and split like her skin when they hear the signal everyone agreed on.
"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"
The backdoor of the restaurant bursts open, Mark stepping aside to reveal Patty, ready to fire another cannonball with a scream that is just as loud as the detonation of the weapon.
But the cooks have already all ran to the edge of the platform or jumped back into the water as soon as they heard the words, leaving the pirates standing in the middle of the platform with their eyes bulging.
Gandalf looked a lot cooler than that, but oh well. There's a limit to how dignified you can look with a gun shaped like a lobster.
Somehow, she finds herself laughing her ass off as the platform explodes, and the cook next to her swims away warily.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Their little group is standing dripping in the restaurant to catch their breath when the cook who looks like a mad scientist runs inside, carrying the Head Chef with him.
"Guys, don't go out no matter what!"
"What? Why? What's happe-"
"That crazy bastard is going to use poison gas to execute his Commander!"
"But the others-"
"They've already jumped into the sea- Hey! Show girl!"
She honestly does not know where she finds the strength to run out of the building when she could barely stand on her feet a few seconds before.
(Or rather, she does.
She knows -fuck- that she loves the boy that is brighter and louder than anyone else even though he should be just paper
the boy who isn't immune to poison and who can't swim
She knows that it's easier to be the one to go than the one left behind, that she's never particularly liked or disliked being alive before
So she'll do anything,
anything
so that he can stay alive to keep being so stupidly bright and loud
Because he's the main character of this world and she's nothing-)
She's blinded by the sun and her pain when she comes out, and so she shouts even before her eyes find him, kneeling on the deck and frantically looking for a way out.
"Sea King! Take a deep breath!"
He doesn't even hesitate, and when she tackles him into the sea, mouth open half to sob out the spear of white-hot thunder that shreds her side apart on impact and half to take air for herself, his rubber cheeks are already ballooned beyond human limits.
She clenches her teeth to keep in the scream and the air that want to escape her grasp when they hit the water, focusing instead on keeping Luffy's mouth shut because his muscles are already slacking, and she shakes him, her other hand reaching to take a hold of his jaw and force him to look at her, to stay awake-
They stay like this, staring into each other's eyes to forget the water pushingpushingpushing and setting their lungs on suffocating fire, until stiffled noise reaches her ears and she propels the both of them up.
When her hand finally touches the edge of the platform and she tugs her Captain to it, she sags forward until her forehead thumps against the sun-heated wood, as if what little energy she has left is flowing away from her skin like water evaporating under the sun.
"Ann?"
Luffy's voice is a far-away whisper as it reaches through her thick hair to caress her ear, made soft with worry, and it takes the heat of his hand on her back to remember that she's the one he's talking to.
She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.
Her bones feel so heavy it's like lead is pressing down inside her entire body, and her skin hurts like it has been rubbed raw all over, salt and fire thrown into her blood.
A tiniest nod is the best thing she can offer to him, and her brain is so slow and her mind so tired that she doesn't even know what she means by it.
There's a pause, and then he hoists her up in his arms from his place on the platform, taking a few steps before lying her back down.
She's too tired and everything hurts too much for anything more than a whimper to escape her as he moves her.
The heat of the sun doesn't even compete with the warmth of his hand ruffling her hair and dropping his treasured hat on it, or the warmth of his voice.
"You did good. Take a nap. I'll beat this guy and be right back."
Air filters into her lungs, slowly weaving its way through the cracks of the red, burning weight of stone in her chest.
"I know." She whispers.
(The last sound she hears is that strange laughter of his,
and suddenly she finds one last remnant of energy in a corner of her heart
to tighten her fingers around the rim of his hat and make sure to not lose it
and open her eyes just enough to watch him fight and hurt and win)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Sanji only realises that he's kept his mouth open for an embarassingly long time when he closes it and realises that his cigarette isn't here anymore, and that he has to swallow several times because his mouth is too dry.
That kid…
That kid won.
(He won with his fragile, fragile dream cradled under his arm
and the shadow of death grinning wide behind him, an arm already slung over his shoulders,
won despite the metal piercing through him and the fire making his skin crackle and the gaping mouth of the sea below his feet
He still won)
"I told you."
He looks up at the damn geezer, who is watching him with that stupid warmth that no one else sees and that he doesn't deserve, but that still makes the ground firmer under his feet somehow.
"No matter how many weapons and men Krieg has, he can't beat the spear of conviction that comes from this boy's guts."
Conviction.
It's another word he hasn't given attention to in a long, long time (has locked at the very bottom of his own mind along with the child and his too naive smile).
Just like 'dream'.
"I happen to know another brat who has stifled this spear for a very foolish reason."
Sanji frowns, and lights another cigarette to chase away the whispers of the child longing for recognition along with the first cloud of smoke.
"What are you doing still standing there?"
"Huh?"
"Those with Devil Fruits are hated by the sea. That little brat ain't gonna swim back on his own."
His cigarette bounces against the deck in silence.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Sanji swims further, heart beating more frantically than it ever has in years.
And then he sees them.
He didn't see it because he thought she was out cold, but Elynna jumped into the water before he did, and she's swimming up, her second hand clenched into her Captain's red shirt.
(and she may not have told him about any dream of her own,
but there's just as much conviction in her grip as there is in the gaze of the boy she's holding on and carrying up or that of that stupid swordsman
and despite the pain and the fatigue that strain the lines of her face taut she keeps going)
Her hair swishes around her, almost indistinguishable from the sea with what little light he sees, and her white face looks like the ghost of a second moon.
Her eyes lock onto his, dark and half-closed and not quite there like she did not even come here consciously, and she stretches her hand towards him.
He grasps it and wraps an arm around her, legs already batting away the water to bring them back to the sun.
(Towards the voice of the child that is screaming now,
screaming out the fire he kept guarding all these years.)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"Sanji-san."
He focuses on getting his breath back, because a few of his ribs are still pretty much broken.
"Yes?"
"Wake me up in ten minutes? I'll have to take care of my Captain."
His shoulders tense as he tries to calculate how much time the kid spent underwater when he's clearly no better than an anchor (one that needs to breathe).
"But he's-"
"Sleeping."
He stops.
Listens.
"... That little shit."
She laughs.
It's raspy with pained coughs and cold exhaustion (no woman should ever sound like that, like his mother did when her smile was warm but her laugh a whisper and her body so insubstantial she could only stay in bed), but it's beautiful like the quiet blue of the sky and the warmth of the wooden walls of the restaurant (intact) and the laughter of the other cooks around them (alive).
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Luffy sits up so abruptly with a scream so loud that Elynna almost falls out of her chair and her heart out of her chest.
He stops.
Blinks.
And screams again.
"My hat! Where is my hat?! Oh man, I can't lose it-"
With a sigh, she slams said hat atop his hair.
"Ah. Thanks, Ann."
"You're welcome, Sea King." She relaxes her grip on his skull as he tones down the decibels. "Stay still for a moment, would you? I have to check some of your bandages."
She sits on the edge of his bed, leaning towards his left shoulder that was pierced through in a not-so-clean way during the battle.
"... Captain."
"Uh?"
"I said 'stay still'."
"I am still!"
"No you're not."
He huffs, and stops fidgeting.
For approximately thirty seconds.
She sighs again, and flicks him in the forehead.
"Hey!"
"Stay still and you'll get a hug."
He straightens suddenly and leans forward, until his forehead is a breath away from hers.
"Really?!"
"Yes, yes."
He leans back, eyes shining in anticipation and smile satisfied, and stays still until the end of his check-up, at which point she stands up to throw away the bandages she replaced.
When she turns around she almost yelps, because her Captain followed her and is standing just in front of her now, smile still there and eyes fixated on her, like a child waiting in front of the fireplace for Father Christmas and his gifts.
She rolls her eyes.
He's just a bit shorter than her, and so when she steps even closer to him and curls her arms around his waist, fingers pressing slightly as they slip against his shirt, she barely has to bend down to lean her chin on his shoulder.
He flings his arms around her shoulders with a grin so loud she can hear it, can see it even without her eyes. His heart thumps loudly against her chest and she tightens her hold on him, pressing her face against the juncture of his neck to keep the stupid tears that have no place in her eyes from falling.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"... Ann?" He calls out, frowning when he feels her tremble against him.
He tries to step back to look at her face, but she steps forward again and squeezes him against her, so he stops.
"It's fine." She mumbles, quiet and just a tiny bit shaky. "I was just… scared."
She chuckles, but it's wet and fragile like tears.
She's so close that her voice vibrates through his bones and his heart before it reaches his ears, and he presses his lips together, holding her tighter and pressing himself closer until he can't tell whose heartbeat is his and whose warmth is hers.
(because he can't help her get better by beating someone up
it would be so much simpler-)
But he's so proud that the girl he chose is covered in as much bandages as him, was as much of a pirate as him in all the ways that count even though she spent eighteen years living without knowing the searingly cold, hard dizziness of fearing for your life.
He's so happy she chose to give him something this warm and this real rather than the fleeting touches from before, those that were good but only left him wondering how much better it would be if she stopped hiding behind the walls she built by stepping further inside herself rather than towards the world, towards others, towards him-
And he loves that even though she was scared for him the same way he looked for her whenever he could during the fight, she told him I know when he said he would win, just like when she disappeared he knew in his gut that she would come back.
Loves that even though she was scared for him she's not asking him not to do that again, because she knows that he can't promise that if he wants to reach his dream.
(it's like warm water filling his stomach up to his throat, and he's never been less scared of drowning)
But he's worried too, because he remembers how scared he was the first times he bled and ached and bawled his eyes out after a fight with some thugs in Grey Terminal or a scuffle with a predator from the forest.
(But his First Mate is doing none of it, just quivering against him until he can't feel it anymore
It only makes him frown more, because he knows that one day the quivers will lead to an explosion rather than silence)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Neither of them let go until Sanji enters with some food and Elynna straightens up, arms falling to her sides-
Luffy jumps to wrap his legs around her waist.
She stares down at him.
He grins.
"What the fuck."
"Shishishishi! I'm not finished, so I'm not letting you go!"
"That's not how you treat a lady, dumbass!"
Sanji's foot slams against his face and sends him flying over the bed and into the wall.
"Your meal, Elynna-san. I hope it will suit your tastes. It's still early, but you stayed up most of the night. You need to eat something."
"Thank you, Sanji-san. I'm sure it will be as delicious as ever. Nice kick, by the way."
"The pleasure is all mine, if I can help a beautiful woman such as yourself!" He swoons on the spot with a silly grin, and she wonders absently if he's going to start flying with delight alone.
"Ann, you traitor!"
"Whoops. Guess that's my signal to escape." She comments with a wave of her fingers.
He waves back with a smile that looks much more dumb than he actually is, before turning around and kicking her Captain in the face again, screaming the beginning of what sounds like a lecture on How To Talk To A Woman Properly.
It's probably doomed to exit the rubber boy's brain as swiftly as it enters.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"Hey! Show girl! Your Captain is leaving!"
Gazing up from the cover of a book on how to distinguish poisonous from edible mushrooms, she waves back at Mark to show that she heard him, and bends down to pick up her rucksack.
Zeff allowed her to refill her stocks of medical supplies in the restaurant's infirmary, since the cooks will have to go to an island to repair the damage on the ship anyway, and then let her browse the shelves of his small bookcase for anything that may interest her.
It's mainly filled with books related to cooking, but she pockets one about the greatest swordsmen and swords in known history with his authorisation, and walks out of the room to join Luffy on the deck, where to her surprise Yosaku is waiting with him.
She says nothing and simply climbs into the boat, sitting down with her back pressed against the wall of the cabin and watching as Sanji comes out of the restaurant and walks towards them in silence.
That is not a surprise.
Then Zeff calls out to him, and suddenly the silence breaks into sniffled insults and tearful threats and 'I'll miss you's.
She looks away, and closes her eyes.
(Behind her eyelids are other faces,
faces that are just as much part of her heart as these cooks are for Sanji
but she didn't get to say goodbye or I'll miss you
and her heartbeat stumbles in her chest, because a part of it is missing and still with them
and the band-aid she slapped on it can't work as a crutch
or keep the blood from seeping for much longer)
The boat drifts away, and she locks the rattling doors inside her as tight as she can.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Elynna is going to make Usopp start cursing like a sailor at some point lol.
Don't hesitate if you have any question about how Elynna's body functions or her capabilities/feelings/thoughts, because I'm not always sure I explain it well and I don't want to confuse anyone.
Sorry for those who might have wanted me to write a more detailed account of Sanji and Luffy's fights, but I frankly didn't think I would be able to do it justice, and Elynna was acting rather independently, since she's not strong enough (for now) to do anything else than being a burden and/or getting herself killed against big shots like Gin/Pearl/Krieg (well, she might be able to win with strategy, but she doesn't have the confidence to actually go against them right now).
I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, Zoro hits the height of reckless stupidity in like the whole series when he fights Mihawk. Just saying.
Anyway, I still don't know if Nami's arc will be in one or two chapters, because I've written just about all of it and it's like 20,000 words long (yes, I got carried away), but I'm not sure there's really a good place to cut it. Still thinking about it. I'm gonna wait before editing that monster anyway, so I'll just, uh, see you then.
Take care.
*awkwardly walks out of the screen*