Chapter Ten | Red Hair, Straw Hat

As if by a miracle, Quinn had woken the morning after the party without headache nor hangover. Luffy had officially announced her joining the crew, and immediately upon hearing it she had Usopp jumping on her back and begging her to at least try to make him a pistol like hers, please! Sanji pretended to fall over, lovestruck, and Zoro patted her on the back and offered her a second, proper smile, after which he shoved a bottle of sake in her hands and demanded she catch up, dammit, you're a Straw Hat now. Nami had sidled up to her at some point in the night and waxed poetic about how glad she was not to be the only woman on the crew anymore, and then tried to snatch the sake out of her hands when Quinn wasn't looking, saying Zoro always manages to find the good stuff. C'mon, share!

Bunch of bloody maniacs.

After Nami, Zoro, and herself had sat down and passed around the bottle, the two of them teaching Quinn a drinking game that involved shouting Ping, Pong, Pang! one after another until someone fucked up and got tongue tied, then had to drink – things quickly got out of hand and, after that, the night had become a blur. Quinn could vaguely remember the Marines trying to crash the party and take the credit for Arlong's defeat, although for all she knew there could have just been a bellend in a white jacket who got mouthy with her at some point or another.

Regardless, the fact that she was fresh-faced and alert was a point towards this world doing something to her body. That, and how she had multiple bones broken just the other day and felt as though someone had given her a small dose the night before of Skelegro, what with how little she ached. Well, her ribs still stung, and her left arm was pretty limited when it came to mobility at the moment, but she should have been bedridden, not helping clean up around the village before they set off.

Reparo, Vulnera Sanentur, Aguamenti, Episkey, Accio, Finite, Revivify, Anapneo, Wingardium Leviosa-

She ran down the list of spells she could comfortably cast wandlessly, all of which were used for field work. Cleaning up after a fight, putting out fires, mending wounds, she'd hunkered down and done her best to not ride the long-worn coattails of unearned fame by learning as much as she could. Reparo, here of all places, was the most magical thing anyone she'd encountered thus far had seen. And why wouldn't that be the case, in a world of rubber men and mysterious figures made of fire? Or that clown Luffy had been telling her about who could split his body into pieces.

What was the most mundane (in her mind) spell in her repertoire looked to be the most useful, seeing as she'd been put to work not cleaning up, per se, but fixing wear and tear around the village that no one had been able to afford, what with Arlong's monthly extortions.

Not that it wasn't difficult, casting with a bloody sword of all things. All it did was serve to give her a reference point, something to better channel her magic via the familiarity of swishes, flicks, and twirls that had become muscle memory years ago. The way her magic worked here was… interesting. She'd finally taken the time to feel it out when casting, the battle of yesterday afternoon giving her a clue that the ambient magic around her was something she'd been reflexively drawing on. Quinn was immersed in it, and much like the vast ocean she was soon to wander, the magic in this place was just another layer on top of it. It hung like fog, seeping into every inch of soil and drop of water. It made the people of this world hardy, strong, and sometimes she could hear in Luffy's voice a kind of stalwart determination that made the magic in the air thrum in way of quiet acknowledgement.

Most of all, it was exhausting. At some point or another, she hoped to have a better foci of some sort made, either by her hand or another. A ring could work, something like those worn by mages to the east, in China or Korea. But until she happened across a reagent that answered to her own magic, sheer will would have to do in the meantime.

"Oi, Quinn, help me with these crates!" Usopp hollered at her, just as she was putting the finishing touches on Genzo's cabin.

"Be right there!" she shouted back, giving the cabin a once over before nodding at Genzo. "Your place should be good now."

"Should be? It looks brand new."

"I try my best."

"You've done plenty. Helping us save the village, putting it all back together… Bellemere would have loved all of you."

Quinn frowned. "Bellemere?"

"Nami's mother."

"Ah. I… take it she's no longer with us."

"Arlong," was all Genzo said in the way of explanation, and Quinn easily filled in the blanks. "She'll tell all of you that story soon, I'm sure. But, don't let me keep you any longer, looks like that friend of yours is about to keel over."

Glancing at Usopp, Quinn hummed a quiet affirmative. "I should help him. You take care, Genzo."

"You too!"

Jogging over to Usopp, Quinn twirled her wrist, levitating one of the crates off the small stack he was carrying and dropping it in her arms. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine," he gasped, cheeks puffed out as he caught his breath. "Can't you just… levitate all the supplies over to the Merry?"

"That spell is pretty much up or down only, at least the way I have a handle on it. I never needed to learn to use it another way without my wand."

"That sucks."

"It's not the end of the world. Good exercise, this," she said, tapping her chin on her crate. "We got any more supplies we need to bring in, or is this the last of it?"

"The last, and you have no idea how happy I am about that."

Quinn snorted, walking side by side with Usopp through the village to the shoreline. Luffy had somehow wrangled that giant sea cow into towing their ship down-river from the park, and Quinn didn't know if he'd somehow made friends with the damn thing or if it was just that scared of him. Saved them the trouble of doing it themselves, at least.

She jerked her chin in hello at the few people that waved as they passed by, and soon enough she could hear Zoro and Sanji shouting at each other as they loaded the supplies onto the ship.

"I can't lift that my ass! I'm stronger than you, you shitty cook!"

"That's because you're all brawn! And I said don't do it like that! Lift with your legs, not with your back! Did no one ever teach you that?"

"Do you think they'll ever stop fighting?" Usopp whispered out of the corner of his mouth, stifling a giggle.

"I can try and encourage them. Oi! You two!"

They whirled around at her shout, Zoro dropping the crates he was carrying on his foot and cursing up a storm. "Hello, Quinn my dear!" Sanji sang, waving at her.

"Do you two always have to fight?"

"Well, if it wasn't for him-" "-this asshole always yapping at me-"

All Quinn did was sigh, shouldering past Zoro onto the gangway. She realized stepping onto the deck that this was the first time she'd been on the Going Merry, and that she had no idea where to put the supplies. "Uh- where's the storage on this thing?"

"You mean the cargo hold?" Usopp asked, huffing as he came up behind her. "Follow me."

He turned towards the bow and led her to a small room underneath the raised forecastle, putting his crate in the corner, off to the side of a front-mounted cannon that poked out of a small hole beneath the figurehead. Quinn left her crate on top of his, and watched as Usopp took some rope and slung it over the stack, tying them snugly to the deck. She committed the knot to memory, and internally panicked at the realization that she had no idea how to help them sail this goddamn thing.

Usopp seemed to notice her expression, clicking his tongue. "You'll figure most of it out in a week or two. Nami says we have about that long to reach the next island."

"Good. I'm not much of a sailor. Really, I'm not a sailor at all, but I'll do my best to learn, and learn quickly."

"I give you a day and you'll already know more than Luffy."

"Think I might jump off the ship if I don't."

Chuckling, Usopp led them back out onto the deck. "Quick tour?"

"Sounds great."

"Alrighty, so dead ahead we've got another hold, same deal with the cannon. Stern and bow both have one, like you saw back there. We also have a cannon on the aftcastle, behind the little tangerine grove we just added to the ship."

"You don't say," Quinn muttered, just now noticing the throng of tangerine trees in front of the… rearmast? Mizzenmast, she told herself, able to remember that much from her one conversation with Viktor where he geeked out over Durmstrang's magical ship. She remembered him talking port and starboard and all the fancy nautical terms that didn't much apply to a magical ship of all things, but to this day she still couldn't remember what the damn ship's name was. "Good for staving off scurvy."

"Saves us some berry too. So, you see that bit of the ship the grove is on top of?" He pointed at the section just beneath the trees. "That's the galley, dining room, sitting room, whatever you wanna' call it. There's a little bit of everything in there, including the whipstaff. That's why the galley is basically all windows." Usopp then kicked his foot at a hatch on the aft side of the main-mast, right in the middle of the deck. "This here goes down to the men's quarters. And there's a gangway in that other storage room that heads to the women's."

He wandered over to the stairs that went up towards the galley and grove, smacking his fist against a door in the side of it. "Finally, bathroom's in here. It can get a bit annoying having to run up and down the ship after a rinse but there's only so much space on the Merry."

"It's fine. I love it. She's… cozy."

"See, normally people say cozy and they mean something else entirely."

"Not with me. Cozy is good," Quinn insisted, smiling at her new home as Zoro hauled in the last of the crates. "Guess you'll be literally showing me the ropes once we set out?"

"Either me or Nami, I think. She knows ships better than any of us."

"Speaking of, where the hell is she? And Luffy?"

"I'm here!" Luffy crowed, sticking his head out of the galley window and beaming at her. A wail escaped Sanji, and in an instant he was up there dragging Luffy out by the scruff of his shirt.

"Get away from the food, Luffy! That's for everyone!"

"But I'm hungry," he whined, and that was when Quinn noticed the crumbs around his mouth.

She frowned. "Is this a regular thing with him?"

"Yes," everyone replied, Luffy pouting all the more.

"Okay, so- in the interest of none of us starving out here, I'm going to put some wards on the fridge. Unless… I'm guessing everyone has tried talking with him about stealing food?"

"Yup," came a second chorus.

"Can I try?"

"I mean, if anyone's gonna' get through to him when it comes to food, you have the best chance," Zoro grumbled. "Swirly brows over here hasn't fainted every time he meets a new woman since you talked to him."

"Shut it, Mosshead!"

Quinn ignored the childish squabbling, trying to wrap her head around Luffy's… unique way of thinking. How the hell could she convince a guy whose brain, as far as she could tell, revolved solely around friends, food, and fighting – in that order.

I'll figure it out tomorrow, she told herself. Wards first, talking later.

"There she is," Zoro said, finally having broken free of his spat with Sanji. Quinn followed his gaze and spotted Nami approaching the ship, a rapidly growing crowd of villagers standing around the docks to see her off. She could also see Johnny and Yosaku standing on the outskirts, looking a little out of place with the way they shuffled their feet, awkward, and the large swords strapped to their back. "Here comes our thief," he added, holding back a smile.

Luffy cleared his throat, none too subtly. "Navigator."

"Navigating thief."

"Thiefigator?" Usopp added.

"Set sail!" Nami shouted at them, startling the crew. She broke into a sprint, the crowd that had gathered at the docks complaining loudly.

"Is she really going to leave without a proper goodbye?"

"Did the party count?"

"Of course it didn't!"

Luffy's voice carried over all of theirs, "Lowering the sail!"

From above Quinn saw the mainsail unravel, the grinning mark of the Straw Hat pirates stretched across it. Right after Zoro swore, hauling the anchor up by hand and hanging it off the side of the ship. "Anchor aweigh! And next time wait until I say that, unless you wanna' tear the goddamn ship in half!"

Usopp, meanwhile, rushed into the galley, and she could hear him wrestling with the whipstaff, the ship slowly banking away from the dock as the sails snapped, catching the wind. While Quinn hauled the gangway back on deck, she watched Nami dodge through the crowd, a smirk creeping across her face as what looked like the entire village shouted at her, not noticing Nami's light fingers snatching wallets out of pockets and purses alike. Their eyes met and Nami grinned, taking a running jump towards the Merry and leaping nimbly onto the deck.

"Damnit, Nami!" Genzo roared, shaking his fist at her. "Not even a proper goodbye?"

"Does this count?" Nami asked, throwing the handful of wallets she'd stolen back into the crowd, tears in her eyes.

Nojiko cupped her hands around her mouth, unable to hide the laughter in her voice. "No good thief!"

"The best thief! And hey! Everyone!" Her throat bobbed, fingers clenching and unclenching. "Thank you! I love you!" Wiping the tears from her eyes, Nami waved as hard as she could, standing on her toes. "I'm gonna' miss all of you!"

"Straw Hat!" Genzo shouted, just as the sail was turned, full with the salty sea wind. "You make Nami cry and I'll kick your ass, you understand?"

"I promise I won't! Bye guys! Thanks for the food!" Luffy shouted back, his stretched arm waving frantically.

Quinn smiled, whistling a quiet tune to herself. She'd definitely made the right choice in joining this group of madmen who called themselves pirates.

-::-

"Welcome to the Straw Hats, properly this time," Nami said from the hammock next to hers.

After leaving the Conomi Islands things had been calm. The sea was gentle and the winds were enough to keep Quinn cool beneath the brightly shining sun. She already knew that whatever she'd found here, it was something special.

"Cheers," she yawned, the subtle sway of the Merry lulling her to sleep. "Happy to be here."

"So what did Luffy say you are? The crew Witch?"

Quinn laughed. "Yup. I still don't know what that means my job is, exactly, but I'm sure I'll figure it out."

"Shipwright? I saw you fixing up the village today."

"I know fuck all about ships. I can fix things if you point me at 'em, but I couldn't tell you what they're supposed to do."

"We'll have to get that sorted out quickly, then. You can't call yourself a pirate if you don't know anything about ships."

"Huh. I forgot about that. I'm a pirate now."

It was Nami's turn to laugh, the sound light, not the forced, grating giggle she'd made at the Baratie. "It's surprisingly easy to forget everyone here is a pirate. Doesn't feel like it, right?"

"If this is what being a pirate always meant, I'd get why people loved the stories so much."

"Well, Luffy's going to be the Pirate King, right?" She could hear the smile in Nami's voice and how she meant every word. "They're going to be writing stories about us some day. I hope they're the good kind. The fun kind. The ones that make kids want to pick up a stick and a newspaper hat and play pretend."

"I'd read those," Quinn mumbled, slowly nodding off. "Th'sound great."

The faint sound of Nami's laughter was the last thing she heard before she fell asleep, swaying softly in her hammock.

-::-

The next day and a half were spent following Nami and Usopp around the ship as they packed Quinn's brain with all the information she needed to make her way around the ship. She kept her eyes and ears peeled the whole time, her attention wholly dedicated to the lessons so she wouldn't be flat footed should they get caught in a storm, or if another ship tried to attack theirs.

Her brain felt a little numb from the sheer complexity of it all, a hundred and one different names for the ways she could use a rope alone, but being able to throw herself into it kept her mind from other, more distressing matters that she'd rather not dwell on. At least she got to spend her free time working on something she loved. Wards. She'd so far drafted out an array that, if applied properly, would make it so that Luffy and Luffy alone would be turned away from the fridge when he went to raid the thing and no one else was in the galley. Unless someone was actively watching Luffy and had given him permission to go into the fridge, he'd get turned around. She'd based it on the way that a muggle repelling charm made someone forget what they were doing and where they were headed, and so far it looked more than promising.

It would probably take her another week until she had a perfect array on her hands, but in the meantime a few sigils inked into the inside of the fridge kept Luffy from stealing any food unless he was properly determined.

What surprised her, though, was how easily she fell into step with the Straw Hats, every single member of the crew welcoming her as if she'd always been one of them. Even Zoro, who knew she was keeping secrets, had no problem treating her as one of their own the instant she set foot on the deck of the Merry. She didn't know he was capable of joking and laughing as much as he did, but the soft side of the crew's swordsman and first mate was offered freely to those who called the Merry home.

Honestly, it looked like every member of the crew had a screw loose. Even Nami had gone from tense, combative, and more than a little rude to being as relaxed as can be. Hell, when she wasn't showing Quinn the figurative and literal ropes, she was kicking back in the shade of her own personal tangerine grove, sipping on drinks. It was like all her worries had drifted away on the stiff breeze that, somehow, she always kept them ahead of. Nami's ability to feel out the change in air pressure, to taste the humidity on the wind, was a magic all on its own.

Quinn was currently practicing knots, sat cross legged on the forecastle and constantly tying and unraveling a length of rope. As she did, she watched Usopp tinker with the wide range of ammunition he had in his arsenal, as well as worked on a draft of a weapon he'd cooked up for Nami. Below, Zoro was lifting weights, Luffy sitting atop the bar and smiling proudly at his swordsman. Sanji was off cooking something painfully delicious, and when Quinn asked him if he wanted help with prep he insisted she 'Focus on sailing first. After that, I'd love to have a helper in the kitchen.'

There was a bird-call above, something that sounded vaguely like a seagull but just off enough to be different. A News Coo swooped over the ship, taking a sharp turn when Nami whistled for it to come down. Deciding to relax for a moment, Quinn set the rope aside and leaned against the rail, shutting her eyes and enjoying the gentle sway of the ship. They'd had excellent weather so far, and she was going to enjoy it as much as she could.

It didn't seem her shut-eye would last long, as about a minute after Nami had bought the paper her loud exclamation of "Oh, shit!" had rang loudly across the entire ship, everyone turning to see what she'd read.

Instead of saying anything else, Nami came down from her perch in the grove and nudged Luffy off of his seat, Zoro grumbling about his training being interrupted. "You guys have to see this," she announced, taking a page out of the centre of the newspaper and shoving it in Luffy's hands. "You've got a bounty."

"What!" Luffy stared at the paper in his hands with awe, mouth hanging open. He scanned the page, bringing it closer and closer to his face, before he threw his arms in the air and whooped loudly. "Yeah! I got a bounty!"

"Luffy, do you not understand how serious this is? And Quinn, you better read this too."

"Shit," she muttered, standing up. "Have I got one as well?"

"Yes and no?" Nami met her halfway, passing another sheet to Quinn as she wandered down the stairs. "Take a look for yourself."

She put a finger on the page and traced the text, a frustrated laugh bubbling in her throat as what she was reading was quickly made clear.

"How did they get Luffy's picture and not mine?"

There was a short blurb underneath a witness sketch that vaguely resembled her, if she tilted the page just so, asking for information on a 'crazed' and 'dangerous, red-haired woman traveling with Monkey D. Luffy, who had killed a Marine Lieutenant in cold blood.

"I don't know," Nami answered. "But they're going to get a picture of you sooner or later, or, they're going to take a picture of me!" She stomped her foot, jabbing a finger at the page. "I can't go around with that kind of bounty on my head! I'm a thief. I'm a navigator! I'm not a damn fighter!"

"That's what you're mad about?"

"Of course!"

Zoro snorted and set down his weights, casting an amused glance Luffy's way as the Captain and Usopp jumped around, holding Luffy's bounty aloft. Sanji was sitting on the stairs, smiling openly at the show those two were putting on.

"I still can't believe you shot that guy," Zoro said, raising an eyebrow at her. "You said you weren't going to… what was it? Go in guns blazing?"

"Yeah, yeah. Hilarious. The asshole threatened me because I mentioned Arlong's crew, and when they said Nami was a very dangerous pirate I called them corrupt. He started brandishing his rifle, saying they were going to arrest me. All that."

"And then you shot him."

"Yeah. I was… still pretty furious about what happened at the Baratie," Quinn admitted.

"You shot him for me?" Nami asked.

"Nojiko was going to run out there and try to stall them. I told her to help you instead."

"That's… one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me."

"So, you're not mad?"

"I am. Very mad, but I can forgive you for saving Cocoyashi." She jabbed her thumb at Luffy, who had gone back to staring at his bounty poster in awe. Quinn would have to stick it to the fridge with a magnet later. "Just like I can forgive this idiot for stalking me across half the East Blue."

"Who's an idiot?" Luffy blurted, looking up from his bounty in confusion.

Nami just sighed. "Alright, well… it was to be expected. I'm sure all of us will have a bounty at some point-"

"Even me!?" Usopp gasped.

"Of course you will! You're a pirate."

"Yeah but I'm not a pirate like these guys," he argued, pointing at Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and then herself. "They're the scary ones."

Sanji looked both offended and proud. "Scary?"

"Scary," Usopp repeated.

Slowly, Sanji nodded. "I can do scary."

Folding up the sheet and tucking it in her pocket, Quinn clapped her hands. "Well, what's done is done. I've been wanted before, so it's not like this is a new experience for me."

"You've been wanted before?"

"Briefly, back home." Zoro gave her a look, and Quinn's lips thinned out into a straight line.

He stared at her, and Quinn bit her lip. Her sudden silence gave Nami pause, and even Usopp glanced over to her and frowned.

Gaze flitting back and forth, Quinn was torn. She was accepted into the Straw Hats and god, being here for so little time and already finding friends in some of the most honest people she'd ever met meant more than she was willing to admit. And that, right there, was precisely the issue.

Five years of keeping everything pushed down. Keeping her mouth shut. Avoiding the Prophet's poison pen and the constantly watching eyes of Ministry officials had made her distrusting to a fault - the exact opposite of her newfound Captain. She arrived here in shock, a magical wind pushing her into an impromptu, interdimensional skydiving session that resulted in the scariest person she'd ever seen cutting a ship in half, solely because he was curious to see if she'd dodge it. Then Quinn trusted Marines that had shot a cannon at her (stupid, stupid!) when she never even trusted her own co-workers, and they were all considered the best of the best, not rank and file Hit-Wizards. That ended up in her being starved, shackled in sea-stone which, now that she thought about it, she still hadn't checked to see if she could swim or not – and when she finally ground out to Gin that she was from another world, he quickly identified the one thing that gave her any semblance of security and made damn certain it exploded in her face.

So, yes, it was no small wonder she was reluctant to discuss the fact that she was from another world, and would you like to know more?

"I… I'll talk about it another time, alright?"

Zoro held the stare for a moment before he shrugged at Quinn, unconcerned, which made her sigh quietly, shoulders sagging in relief.

"Thanks for not pressing. It's just- it's very complicated."

Luffy was the one to speak up, his faint smile wholly trusting. "Tell us when you wanna' tell us. Or don't. That's okay too," he chirped, before once more turning his attention back to the poster in his hands. "Do you think I could get this in a… what's the thing you put pictures in?"

"A picture frame?"

"Yeah!"

Quinn laughed. "I'm sure Usopp could make one in a flash."