Waves Of Desire

chapter 2

Buggy started shaking a bit, seeing Crocodile smirking. "U-useful? How so? I mean, there's nothing in there that either of you would want to know, really!" he said, trying to mask the fear in his voice as he stared into crocodile's eyes as they stared back cold, stern, and full of disgust towards him.

"You have the papers of where those strawhats were last seen at, don't you?" Mihawk said, interrupting their stare down and breaking them both back to reality.

"Well, of course I do; I have multiple copies of it even if you're so interested in it all of a sudden," Buggy said, somewhat snipping at him before catching himself and quickly closing his mouth. Mihawk glared at Buggy before huffing, taking the papers, and shoving them into Buggy's arms.
"Find them," crocodile said before dropping buggy hard onto the ground.

"Fine... but what do you even need with these papers anyway?" he said quickly, getting up and wincing at the pain coming from his tailbone, trying his best to ignore it as he started shuffling through the papers, putting aside the ones that they had asked of him into a neat pile.

"You're going to go to the island they were last seen at and get whatever you can that might be useful to us; those papers of yours might help you out," crocodile said, picking up the small stack buggy made and handing half of it to mihawk to look through.

"What?! But we've already been to that damn island three times already, and there's nothing there," Buggy practically yelled out before catching himself and covering his mouth, trembling slightly as he stared up at crocodile.

"And you'll go there until you die unless you find something of use to me. You got that jester?" Crocodile snapped at Buggy, getting in his face making Buggy fall back against the wall, trembling more as he quickly nodded his head yes.

"Y-yes! Yes, I g-got it!" he said quickly. "I-I'll have maybell set course to the island immediately, I promise!" he said about to leave the room as mihawk looked up and lifted a hand-stopping buggy before he got to the door.

"I will," he said bluntly, heading out of the room and closing the door behind him as he left, ensuring Buggy didn't head out with him. Buggy let out a small and quiet sigh of relief, one that mihawk was gone and two that he wasn't to be the one to tell maybell to head back to the island again.

"Well then, clown, now that it's just us, let's get this straight so your dense mind can hopefully memorize all this; you are to go to that island, find something useful, if not multiple things useful, and bring back the information to us or better yet just send maybell to us with it so we can figure out how to proceed next got that?" he said a low growl coming out at the end as he glared down daggers at buggy wanting this interaction over with as quick as possible hating to have already needed to come to buggy for assistance in something that should've been an easy task.

"Y-yes crocodile sir I-I understan-!" buggy started, also wanting this over with before a loud yell had cut them off.

"WHAT?!" a somewhat raspy but silk woman's voice had yelled out on the deck. "No way! Look, mihawk, I'll go along with whatever you tell me to, but no way I'm not setting us to course for that damn island again; all it does is upset buggy and leave us empty-handed, so there's no point!" she stated a bit too loudly for mihawks liking but said it so firmly and with such conviction behind it he could care less making buggy and crocodile come out to see what was the issue.

"I know, maybell, but I'm asking you to one last time; alright look, just trust Crocodile and me on this," mihawk said, looking down at maybell, the woman in a puffy jester outfit with a drink and cookie in each her hands much too big for her stature especially considering she was the size of an average two to three year old right now. Maybell stared back into Mihawk's eyes, not breaking contact before sighing and relenting to him. A puff of smoke appeared, where she was dissipating quickly. Now, being the height she normally was, rubbing the bridge or nose between her fingers in annoyance and frustration, her face reading more of dismay and worry.

"Alright... but only because you asked me to get that. If nothing comes up there, I'm putting that island on a 'never go to again' list, alright?" she said before putting the cookie in her mouth and quickly swallowing it whole.

"Thank you," mihawk said rather curtly, but Buggy could hear the slightest bit of gratitude and maybe a tinge of kindness in those words, making him furrow his brows slightly.

"Of course, maybells got that dope all tied in her webs hell so much so he's got her sigil perfect for her, not so much me, but I'm also glad she does. She's gotten me out of trouble with both of these brutes before I owe her more than she thinks I do," Buggy thought to himself before letting out a deep breath and putting on a smile. "Well then, since everything is sorted and settled, you two should head out. We've got everything under control and will get you all the information about the bratty strawhats you could ever want!" he declared proudly, hoping it was enough to mask his uncertainty and fear. Crocodile and mihawk both glare at Buggy, annoyed at him for letting out even a single order towards them.

"I guess so; remember though, clown, if this goes wrong, I won't be forgiving this time," Crocodile said while mihawk carved out crocodiles sigil on the wall "I'll make sure this time you don't fuck up miserably and die permanently got that," he said taking his cigar out of his mouth before heading through the sigil mihawk giving buggy a final glare and huff before following crocodile close behind the marking soon after burning away the wall entirely back to normal.

"Care to explain this one this time?" maybell asked, heading up to the ship's wheel and starting to correct their course. Buggy followed behind her and leaned against the railing next to her.

"I'm not sure myself. I'm just glad they finally left; we're going to search every inch of that damn island when we get there though I don't think you can sweet talk me out of the punishment if we fail this time..." he said while fiddling with the holes in his shirt that crocodiles hook had left.

"No, probably not, and alright, well, be there in no time; we'll need all the time we can get to go through it, but if nothing does come up, instead of handing you to Croc or mihawk, I'm turning you to the marines" a sternness in each of maybells words making buggy pause for just a tiny moment.

"Wait, what?!" buggy yelled, knowing maybell has said some wild things before but wasn't expecting this of her. "What do you mean 'to the marines'? Are you insane?!" he kept yelling, the worry and confusion seeping through practically drowning his words.

"They'll kill you if I send you to them, but the Marines will put you back into prison; which one do you think you'd survive?!" maybell yelled back, turning her head to face him and glaring at him, finally snapping at her captain something she hated doing but knew it was necessary to this time she could see the shock but also the betrayal in buggy's expression but mostly in his eyes she knew her captain was an emotional one. Still, she knew his true feelings would always speak through his eyes. "I know what I'm doing, trust me, alright," she said in a calmer tone, softening her expression to mimic that of a worried parent to their upset child. Buggy stared back at her, slowly starting to shake, knowing she was right. No matter how hard he tried, he didn't want to believe it; she was right like usual.

"Alright... thank you," he said, dropping his head and staring at the floor.

"Of course, look, it will be a bit before we get there, alright? How about you go and get whatever you need ready, then rest?" she said, turning back to face where they were heading.

"Alright," he said, standing back up straight and heading back down to his room, letting out a slight growl, seeing his papers now in a mess cause of crocodile and mihawk. He picked everything up, reorganizing everything, keeping the documents that had the latest info about the strawhats out to go over again and set them down on his bed before making a small bag of essentials he'd need, setting it to the side before laying on his bed, looking at the papers in his hands reading through them slowly drifting to sleep snoring out quietly his dream being a good one this time something different than the ever-present nightmares he's been having for months on end now, the dream slowly starting to morph.