Smokeless War - One Piece

(23)

At my mouth full of chicken and/or, whatever meat filled the delicious mystery stew I'd gotten from the other ship's chef, Sam bursted out laughing and almost dropped the colorful drink he'd brought me.

"Okay you can stop laughing now." I rolled my eyes, a poorly concealed smile only making him laugh more.

"I'm sorry, m'lady. I just, you're always so graceful like an angel. Never seen you so messy before, even at dinner time!" He chortled before laughing aloud again and finally took a deep breath. "Okay okay, I'm calm."

But he'd been too late, I only eyed him with distrust and a pout at how much he'd laughed.

"Look I promise this'll make up for it! Here, look at this." He handed me the drink as if to distract me and after eyeing him suspiciously, it worked. The blue was so pretty, and the mini umbrella looked so cute I could only look at it with fascination. "So um, we don't really have a name for it but it's coconut flavored (I think) and the alcohol.."

He reached into his pocket and grabbed a little vial of a blood red substance and handed it to me to which I opened it a took a little whiff.

"Here look, you just.." He poured another vial in his own cup and the blood went into the blue drink like blood in water. "We sometimes call it a 'shark attack', cause it's..hey don't sip it like that!"

He stopped me after I'd taken a sip of it instead of putting it in the drink immediately.

"What? It looked cool." I chuckled at his reaction before grimacing at the taste. "Okay, now I'll do it."

Watching the red mix into the fruity drink captivated me and I moved it to look through the lantern light, the colors swirling together pacifying me like a child. Sipping his drink and watching me, Sam stole a lot of potatoes off my plate before I finally caught him in the act and sent him away only to have him come back like a boomerang.

I now eyed him with more distrust before I got to tasting the drink.

Taking a tentative sip of the drink, I marveled at how good the fruit, which was definitely not just coconut, dispelled the flavor of the alcohol and I almost drank the rest right away before having a little self control.

"Terrible boy, look what you've done! I actually do like this." I mused slowly while he chuckled at my words.

"What type of thank you is that!" He complained before attempting to take the now purple drink back, almost getting a hold of it before I held it away from him and sipped out of a small straw.

"I'll thank you," I replied, downing the rest of the drink and stabbing my last roasted potato. "When you get me another."

And I continued to make him get more until I almost slurred my words and my overflowing plate was almost empty, sitting on the deck contentedly all the while without having to refill my cup on my own.

"You put up with a lot! Don't you have people missing you though? What about your crew mates?" I inquired barely able to focus on my words while tapping Sam's knee as he sat next to me.

"Nah, well...I live with em, I don't have any regrets spending more time away from them." He replied after a moment with a small chuckle, his gaze on my hand. "You're a nice calm compared to them.."

"Your sis? Where she at?" I asked after a moment, drinking the last drop to a cup I'd lost count of, Sam sweat dropping at the stomping coming from behind me.

"You scalawags! How dare you drink without me! Premarital drinking alone, just the two of ya?" She growled and shook me, her hands on my shoulders and I stopped her before she shook all my food and drinks out of me too. "You should be ashamed!"

"I'm sorry, Mara, I really am, but you said you'd spike her drink or something if I took my eyes off of her!" Sam complained and his eyes widened at the last of my drink before I successfully downed it, a relieved look on his face at last.

"Fine, you win this time." She narrowed her eyes and sat down next to us, a big bowl of punch in her arms. "On another note, would ya like some punch, Mae?"

"Oy! No! Do not give her that!"

"What's the harm, Sammy?" I asked rhetorically, already drinking out of the ladle. "Wow this is good too."

"Aye, lord save us." Sam put his hands together and kneeled on the deck, as Samara cackled whilst filling my cup up and he pinched her cheeks hard to get her to stop.

"Okay! Okay! Ouch." She rubbed the painful marks and reluctantly set the bowl of punch back at the food bar, Sam shaking his head at her antics.

"Mae, er, would you maybe like to..?"

He looked up though, to find me gone before searching for me wildly and even recruiting Samara for the search to no avail, for I'd wandered off and found a nice quiet edge of the ship to try and ease the throbbing in my head.

Blinking sleepily, I rubbed my eyes to try and get the fatigue out of them before someone materialized in front of me with a bottle in hand.

"Ah, so you met old pops? Yeah, he's a real cool fellow isn't he?" Orion laughed bitterly and leaned forward. "I think he thinks you're pretty."

Without opening my eyes I nodded a little, yawning and holding onto the rail as I stood up. His words finally sank in though and I almost choked on my saliva.

"You're full of it, Percy." I murmured after a moment, shaking my head at the thought. Not sure how I couldn't remember Orion but remembered Mihawk saying 'Perseus' so clearly.

I opened my mouth to speak again before he set an arm on the rail behind me as if to trap me in an embrace that gave me a terrible sense of deja vu. Looking up at him, I met instead of his dark and usually bitter eyes, he gave me a look full of sorrow.

"I'm so sorry, O..Orion..?" I frowned at his expression, backing up from him until my back met the rail. "Did I do something?"

"No, no, I'm sorry I promised I wouldn't do this to you again and I..she used to call me that. When she wasn't crazy." He murmured softly, his head down. Then he did something that made me terrified, something I was so very used to before I worked with Mihawk.

"You're drunk..maybe you should try to sober up." I suggested before my own hiccup almost interrupted my sentence.

Even after I said that though, he downed the rest of a whiskey bottle without another word, shattering the bottle on the deck as he tossed it carelessly. As he grabbed my jawline, I did find myself trapped between the ocean and him, my fuzzy mind registering a cold feeling because it was so..horribly familiar.

Fear had me in a trance and I could only stand still as the darkness stretched over me before I shoved him away to no avail and found myself falling off backwards, right into the dark sea.

I couldn't hold in a terrified shriek because now I knew for sure with no one to save me I would succumb easily to those depths.

Sea sprayed across my face and clenched my eyes shut in wait for the dark sea to consume me before I landed in someone else's embrace, their clothes whipping in my face as we steadily landed back on the dock and I held on tightly to his sleeve.

A very displeased frown on his face, Mihawk stood with frightening commandment of the air around him. If Orion hadn't bothered to listen him before, maybe he would now.

Figure shrouded in darkness, Orion stood before us and I hid my face in Mihawk's shirt after a moment, not wanting to even look at him anymore. Even in a drunk stupor, I felt his actions had shook me more than I knew.

In a strange moment of silence, I found I couldn't stop the tremor in my hands.

"Leave Kuraigana. I have no use for you now." He stated in a scarily calm voice I recognized vaguely as white hot anger before he calmly set me down, a warning very clearly stated.

"I don't make it a habit of repeating myself."