A Dragon's Priorities (A SaboxKoala story)

Part 14: Landing

The next day, early in the morning, Sabo and Koala stepped onto the Shark Submerge with Franky and Luffy to access the island via the cove.

"There are entrances to the island via the cove, but I'm not sure if we can fit. The one I picked out is strategic, since it leads us out into a forest where we have cover, but it's one of the smallest ways into or out of the cove." said Sabo doubtfully.

"If you want, I can chip off some of the rock around that area. SUUPEEERR EASY."

"I wouldn't try. The rock's formed from a combination of limestone and sea prism stone. Some kind of underwater volcano, I guess. Devil fruit users won't feel as weak as they would be when ordinary sea prism stone was on their bodies, but it'll still give them jelly legs."

About 5 minutes later, the water darkened as a signal they'd entered the cove. Franky surfaced the Shark Submerge and let Sabo and Koala out. This was as far as they could go with help from the Straw Hats. Luffy hugged Sabo tightly and made him promise to stay safe.

"You sure you don't want us helping?"

"We'll be fine, Luffy." He shot Koala a look, but more like one of those "Back me up here" looks. Luckily, she understood.

"I'll keep the idiot safe. Don't worry." Sabo's look changed from a thank you look to a "Really?" look. They thanked the both of them, and the Shark Submerge dived into the water, disappearing from their sight. Now it was just the two of them. Sabo's eyes darted around for the exit he had planned to use.

"Sabo."

He spun round to find Koala looking at him with a smile on her face.

"Don't immediately start working on the exit. We just got here. I'm sure you can take a second to rest on the sand. The sun's not even up, so we won't find the exit." she said, pointing at the dry sand on the ground, away from the rocky part of the floor and the walls. To be honest, Sabo could feel his legs giving way already, Reluctantly, he agreed.

Sitting himself down on the sand in the dim light of the cove, Sabo heaved a breath and took a moment to unwind. At that time he knew that there was no avoiding it. That question had to be put out, otherwise he may never get to. Likely because if he mentioned it in front of Luffy, then there's a good chance the whole world knew.

As much as Sabo enjoyed the silence, aided only by the dripping of water from stalactites above, he eventually had to break it.

"Koala, why did you kiss me that night? And yesterday?"

Koala stayed silent at the question. Sabo wasn't going to complain about it. She'd been through a lot in the last 3 days and he'd understand any reluctance to answer, even expecting no answer whatsoever. So you can imagine his surprise when he got one.

"I just wanted you to know how much I worried when you were gone. I honestly haven't been keeping myself steady, now that you've nearly died twice." Sabo scoffed slightly.

"I assure you, I've nearly died more than that many times."

"That's not really what I was aiming at. Look, I just want to spend more time with you." Neither of them could stop the blush at that moment. "You keep making me panic, like when you found out Imu existed. I thought you were dead, and I just- I snapped. I almost packed my stuff and went to whatever remained of Lulusia to find you."

Before Sabo could open his mouth to answer, Koala's blush stopped. Why? Because she noticed the smoke coming out from his hat.

"Sabo, is your hat on fire?"

Sabo was thinking about whether or not this was because of the blushing, when ALL of what she said processed through his brain. He sniffed the air and realized she was right. The goggles resting on his hat had caught some rays of sunlight, and projected it onto his hat. He got up and started patting his hat while it was still on his head, and Koala rushed over to the water, collected some in her hands, and splashed it on Sabo's hat.

The water did put out the fire, but Sabo's face just looked ticked off.

"You know that's still seawater, right?"

Koala realized it and gasped at her mistake.

"SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY-"

"Don't worry."

"But if the hat caught the sunlight, then that means..." They both looked right above their heads.

"IT'S THE EXIT!"

True enough, it was. And it also wasn't very tiny, either. They both climbed through it with minimal trouble, and took a deep breath of fresh air. Sabo decided to kick off the operation.

"Right. Finder's Sound, here we come."

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