Maelstrom

Chapter 18

Mihawk's POV

You truly hadn't been prepared for the white haired, golden eyed woman on board your rival's ship. She was sprawled out on deck, speaking to Shanks, throwing insults and quips at him charmingly. He seemed to take it in stride, and if you were to guess from the familiarity of their postures, you'd say they had known one another a long time.

""Oi, Red, I was busy, what do you need this time?" Her voice drawls out, low and husky, strangely pleasant to listen to.

"Well kid, looks like you're awake again." Red Hair replies to the strange woman, and chuckles as he helps her stand to her feet.

"Yeah, yeah. What's the deal? Something happened?" She replies, stretching her limbs, waiting for his reply.

"Well not particularly, just figured you'd want to meet one of my friends." Red Hair says, and pauses for a moment before continuing.

"Ah, you know since you never heard of my name before I doubt you'd have heard of his, but just try not to do anything too rash okay kid?" he reprimanded the woman as she scowled at him before baring her teeth into a wide grin.

"Roger that Captain, I'll do my best to impress."

What a fiery attitude that one had on her.

You let out a low laugh before straightening.

She approaches the right side of the ship, looking down at you.

You wait for her to recognize your signature raft, to run to hide behind Red Hair but you don't expect for her to lean off the side of the ship and call out to you.

""Oi! Coffin boy, why don't you hop on up and we can chat?" You look up at the white haired woman, was she jesting?

Red Hair sighs exasperatedly as he shakes his head.

"Alright kid, this one's all yours, don't say I didn't warn ya." His voice is low and resigned to let his crewmate handle this situation on her own.

Since when did Red Hair travel with a woman anyways?

You always thought his crew was a ragtag team of skilled individuals but you hadn't heard of this one before.

"Red! You can't be friends with a ghost! They'll haunt you and steal all your meat!" The feminine voice calls out in a faux whisper, her eyes widened in comical fear.

You smirk. Ah, well maybe she was just a bit thick. Even if she was a tad thick, once she saw you and undoubtedly recognize you, hopefully the young woman would stay out of the way. Like any and all other sensible worms had done before her. Yes, she should be no different even if she was lacking in smarts and rather slow on the uptake.

"That's really rather offensive. I'm a regular man just like anyone else, but I don't believe I've met you yet." You reply, voice low and dripping with mock charm.

You're waiting for the woman to turn around and flee like all others have done, a feeling of boredom creeping upon you. Wasn't there anything exciting for you out here anymore? Anything out of the ordinary? A challenge? Anything at all?

Nay, likely not.

You fix your gaze back towards the white-haired woman, awaiting the prompted response of fear-induced panic and frantic fleeing.

What you didn't expect was to hear a light feminine gasp followed by an appreciative appraisal.

You could feel the hot burning gaze of golden eyes, slowly assessing each plane, angle and contour of your frame.