An Encounter With The King

Emotional Book

I sighed quietly in annoyance. I'd been up for two damn hours and apparently no amount of snuggles from a sexy surgeon would help me get back to sleep. Was I comfortable? Sure. Relaxed? Totally. Tired? Extremely! Able to rest? Absolutely not. I lay there for a few more moments, hoping for sleep before giving up completely. I was up and the only way to get more sleep was to tire my brain out. How did I plan on doing that? Reading.
Carefully,I attempted to get out of bed only to have Law sleepily pull me back. I let out a quiet huff. Great. I'm stuck in bed. I pouted. And he's a light sleeper so I feel like if I were to try a flashlight to read with, I'd wake him up. It was then that I remembered a little glowing ball of adjustable light that Franky had built for me. I could adjust the brightness so that I could read and not wake the light sleeper currently attached to my waist.
Squirming around as best I could, I inched my way to the edge and pawed around under the bed until my hand brushed against a curve. Wrapping my fingers around it, I pulled up the little sphere. Turning it on, I was immediately blinded by a light as bright as day. I quickly shoved it under my pillow, terrified at the annoyed groan behind me.
Law shifted in his sleep, tightened his grip on me slightly and buried his face in my back, easily going back to sleep. I sighed in relief. Without removing the sphere from under my pillow, I adjusted the brightness until it was dim enough to be useful. Picking up Cell, I opened it to the page Law and I had left on. I frowned when I realised some of the pages were stuck together. Placing the orb in my mouth so it wouldn't roll away, I tried pulling the pages apart. I flinched when a rather noisy 'rriiip' sounded. I stared down at the page in horror. I ripped it.
When it'd dropped into the water that one time, the ink must've run, causing the pages to sick when it dried. Flipping through the pages, I saw the damage was much worse than I'd thought. Pages were glued together, ink was blotchy and the paper crumbled under even my gentle touch. Dejected that something so precious could come to such a condition under my watch, I curled protectively around my book, buried my face in my pillow, spit out the orb light and quietly sobbed my heartache. Slowly sinking into the lull of sleep, I was unaware that Law had been awakened by my cries and pulled me closer in an effort to comfort me.
The next morning, I woke up as sunlight streamed into the window and shown in my face. Uncurling from my rather cramped position, I stretched and gave a confused look to these red marks on my arms. Spotting the book next to where I'd been laying, guilt washed over me anew.
Sighing dejectedly, I cautiously unwrapped Law's arms from my waist, got out of bed and trudged to the dining hall for breakfast. Noticing I was up even before Sanji, I decided to make my own breakfast. I made a simple breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast. Sitting down, I started to eat only to realise I was too upset to eat. I groaned and put my head on the table. I knew I was going to get a lecture about this later, but I couldn't get myself to eat a proper breakfast.
Resigning myself to my fate, I quickly chomped a banana, downed a glass of water and left the dining hall. I wasn't worried about leaving the food. Luffy would probably have scarfed it down by the time I was done.
Climbing up to the crow's nest, I found Zoro sound asleep on the couch. I could only hope he'd go along with what I had planned and not rat me out to Law. I swear sometimes those two were in cahoots with each other. "Zoro," I whispered, poking him in the shoulder.
He didn't stir.
" Zoro," I whispered a little louder.
He groaned and opened his eye to glare at me. "What do you want, Jewel?" he growled, tiredly.
"Your help," I answered.
"With...?"
"I want you to spar with me, right now, outside of our normal training time."
"And why would I do that?"
"Because if you do, I'll buy you the best sake the next island has to offer."
"Are you serious?"
"Yep."
He sighed and stood up. "Alright, but don't expect me to go easy on you for this either," he agreed.
I grinned and got in a fighting stance. "I'm counting on it," I assured.
"Ugh!" I grunted as I hit the floor for the sixth time three hours later.
"Jewel, Zoro, what are you doing?" Fluffy asked, entering the crow's nest for training.
"Again," I demanded as I stood once again, ignoring Fluffy.
"No," Zoro denied.
"Why not?"
"You're done today. I'm not going to hurt you, hit the showers."
I scoffed before showing a forming bruise to my back where Zoro had kicked me earlier. "Like you haven't already," I pointed out. "Now come on, I'm not done with you yet."
He ignored me and turned to Fluffy for our regular training.
Annoyed, I charged at him only to have him grab my arm, pin it to my back and knock me to the floor. "Give up already. You lost, and you're in no condition to continue," Zoro instructed.
"I'm in perfect condition!" I argued. "I can easily keep going if you'd just listen!"
"Jewel, enough. I know why you are doing this. Something has upset you and you want to vent out your emotions."
I stiffened as he said that. He'd hit the nail on the head. Am I that see through? I wondered.
"Having me beat you into the ground over and over again won't help you. You need a different way to vent," he continued. "As your Sensei, I'm telling you to stop training for today and hit the showers."
Sighing, I reluctantly agreed. After Zoro let me up, I waved to Fluffy and headed for the shower. In the bathroom, I sat in an ice bath to soothe my aching muscles and attempt to dispel the giant rain cloud hanging over my head.
After a while though, I figured it was useless as the cloud only seemed to get bigger as my thoughts wandered.
Sighing, I climbed out of the bath and headed for the shower. Unfortunately, on my way I was so lost in thought, I missed the bar of soap on the floor. Stepping on it with a wet foot, I was yanked out of my thoughts as I was thrown forward. Instinctively throwing my hands out in front of me, I cringed as sharp pain radiated from my right wrist. Carefully, I leaned against the wall and examined my wrist.
It didn't look bad, but it's possible something was wrong. Deciding I would have to look at it more later, I turned on the shower and attempted to stand. A twinge in my ankle made me look down and notice my left ankle was slightly red. Great, I thought in annoyance. not only did I possibly sprain my wrist, I also twisted my ankle. At least, I hope it's only twisted. Having two sprained joints isn't going to be good.
After I finished my shower and got dressed, I limped out of the bathroom and straight to the infirmary. On my way over, I noticed my wrist had swollen slightly. At that point, I knew something was wrong. Pausing outside the door, I listened in to see if anyone was in there. I really didn't feel like limping all around the ship to find either doctor. Hearing sounds from within, I opened the door. "Hey, Chopper, I need you to...oh, it's you," I corrected, seeing the Shichibukai instead of the reindeer.
"Jewel-ya, where have you been?" Law asked, turning from what looked like paperwork to look at me. Spotting my one-footed stance and cradled arm, his grey eyes narrowed in worry. "And what happened to you?" he asked.
I sighed, leaning on the doorframe. "Bit of a long story, can you help me? Please?" I asked. I had hoped I wouldn't run into Law until later. Yeah, I liked the guy, but sometimes he came off as the overprotective big brother. Not what I needed right now considering my mood.
"Come sit, I'll take care of you," he instructed.
Limping over, I carefully hoped onto the exam table.
"So, what happened?" Law asked as he began to examine my injures.
"I fell in the shower after training," I explained, wincing as he poked a particularly tender area on my wrist.
"Your muscles are a lot more tender than for a simple fall. What are you hiding?"
"Nothing, Law. I just-ow! I just don't want you to concern yourself about the rest."
"Don't you think I have the right to know as your doctor?"
"No. It's stupid."
He stopped examining my wrist and looked up at me. "Jewel-ya," he sighed.
Cheeks tinting pink, I looked down to avoid his gaze.
He placed a hand under my chin and tilted it up so I could look at him. "Tell me what happened," he said. Instead of the normal stern tone he used with me, I noticed he seemed more worried than upset.
Sighing, I explained. "I couldn't sleep last night so I decided to read a bit. When I saw the damage to the book, I was disappointed in myself for having allowed that to happen. Waking up this morning, I tried to keep a regular routine but I was too upset to eat properly so I ate what I could and asked Zoro to spar with me. Due to my emotional state, I got my butt handed to me pretty badly but I wasn't ready to stop. I felt like I needed the pounding to ease the guilt of ruining my book. After Zoro pinned me to the ground and easily pointed out my reason for doing what I was doing, he sent me to the showers. After soothing my aches in an ice bath, I went to shower and slipped on a bar of soap. When I finished, I came here."
It was quiet as Law stared down at my now bandaged wrist. It was sprained but luckily, my ankle was only twisted and would be fine in a few hours. Unable to stand the quiet anymore, I softly called his name.
"Your book," he began, gently placing his hand over mine. "Is that why you were crying last night?"
"You heard?"
He looked up, eyes locking with mine. "You were lying next to me, it was hard not to. I'd thought you were having a nightmare," he explained.
"Oh. No, just being silly over a dumb book."
"It's not silly, Jewel-ya. Books are your treasure. It's ok to get emotional over something precious to you. Tell you what, at the next island, I'll buy you another copy."
I shook my head. "No, Law, it's ok. I've read it before, I don't need to read it again," I protested.
"Maybe so, but I haven't," he reminded me.
I looked up at him at that, surprised. "You...you want to finish it?" I asked.
He nodded. "It's a very interesting story. However, I don't want to finish it without you."
"I've already read it."
"So? I enjoy reading with you. I'd like to continue."
For the first time all day, I smiled happily. "If you mean it, I'd love to finish with you." I commented.
He smiled softly in return. "I have no reason to lie, Jewel-ya. Now, let's get you to dinner." He picked me up and carried me to the dining hall. "Aye, captain!" I exclaimed, with a grin.