The Marionette

Chapter 15: To Trust A Pirate

What felt like a thousand eyes landed on you as you entered an eerily silent dining room, the only thing you could hear was a fast pulse emanating through your ears. In the center of the room sat a long, wooden table with a few plates full of various breakfast items, along with a few crew members cladded in their white jumpsuits. You anxiously gulped while standing absolutely frozen, your mind drawing a blank as to what to say while you felt the blood drain from your face. You never did do well in social situations anyways, you always had Viola or Baby Five do the talking for you. You counted around six crew members aside from Bepo and Law who stood on either side of you, both eagerly waiting for you to say something. Although you got the feeling that Law was more keen on you embarrassing yourself than anything else.

You bit the inside of your cheek hard while scratching the back of your neck, your eyes sweeping over the faces of everyone who peered at you with interest. "I just tried to kill your captain," you stiffly introduced yourself, "but now I'm here so..." you trailed off with a hint of uncertainty. You glanced over to Law who looked back with a bit of shock at your deadpan approach. "Also," you hurriedly added sensing that he didn't like your choice of words, "I'm part of the crew now," you said with a forced laugh.

The room remained silent which caused you to only sweat more as you tugged on the collar of your tank top, your stomach twisting into knots at the way the tension grew. "Good enough for me, welcome!" A voice cheered which caused you to shift your attention to a young man sporting a black cap with the name Penguin proudly displayed on it. Soon after, a few more "welcome aboard" was passed along followed by clapping. You couldn't believe it, you were expecting at least a little push back, but they didn't even question it.

"What did I tell you?" Law sighed beside you as he adjusted his hat, "too trusting." He began to walk past you, but paused with a sly smirk as he looked at you through the corner of his eye, "they won't hold back questions, by the way." He then proceeded to take a seat at the table, your stomach only tightening more at the thought of exposing every little dirty detail about yourself as you sat beside him.

The moment your butt hit the bench, a flurry of whispers began to fill the room which caused your shoulders to stiffen while you pretended not to hear your name being murmured. "So who did you work for?" The first question immediately had you internally groaning as you looked towards the same person who you could only assume was named Penguin.

"Doflamingo," you answered unenthused, "an assassin in case if that was going to be your next question." Your answer caused a little bit of stir as Bepo gave you an encouraging pat on the back, the feeling causing a little discomfort.

"So like Germa Double Six?" Another crew mate chimed in with shoulder length brown hair and a blue hat which covered his eyes.

"Please," Law said after taking a bite out of his onigiri and swallowing, "Germa Double Six is more high tech, hers..." he said with a smirk. "More-"

"Old fashioned," you cut him off from saying much more, in case he was going to insult your family's name. "My father didn't exactly agree with their technology," you said defensively while crossing your arms over your chest.

"That's one way to put it," Law said in amusement while taking another bite.

You could feel your chest heat up at the sound of his snickering, your hands balling into fists in your lap as you shot him daggers. "I didn't realize you were so invested in Germa," you said with a huff while looking away in annoyance.

"I'm not," he casually responded while taking a sip from a small, green glass that was on the table, "read the comics as everyone else did." You knew what he was talking about, but you never got a chance to read any of it.