Desires of Men ~SEQUEL TO THE LIFE I LIVE~

The Underworld's Inconvenience

"Captain, are you sure this is a good idea? I don't trust them." Liam narrowed his eyes at the den den mushi connected to his captain. The snail rolled his eyes and sighed.

"These aren't the best of circumstances, but we must make do with what we have." Law's voice sounded tired, even more so than usual, probably from all the worry and plans that needed to be detailed. "Just help keep the others from starting a mutiny or something."

Liam gave a single, humorless laugh. "Why would we mutiny, Captain? I thought we were in this til the end."

"With Penguin-ya and Shachi-ya, you can never be sure." The snail gave a smirk, just like his captain. With a smirk of his own he laughed a little.

"True. Just be careful, Captain." WIth that, he hung up the snail phone and placed it back in its spot in the kitchen. Turning, he faced the rest of the crew.

"You hear that? No mutinies!" The crew snickered, then resumed their talk amongst themselves. Lunch soon finished but the men remained in their seats talking.

"Hey! Back to your duties!" Parker called, ushering everyone out the door and back to their stations. Naturally, the crew grumbled on their way out, but nonetheless they took their work very seriously and did so with dignity. When the room was cleared, Parker was the only one who remained in the mess deck with Liam.

"What do you think of all this?" Liam spread his arms wide, indicating the situation as a whole. He slumped down into the seat next to him and propped up his face with his hand. Being second in command while the captain was away was tougher than he thought.

"If Captain thinks this is a good idea, then I support it. I'm sure he knows what he's doing. After all, when has one of Captain's plans gone wrong?" Parker left the mess deck, along with Liam to sort through his own thoughts.

The silence was welcome and unnerving all at the same time. The silence scared him, honestly. It scared him because on this little submarine there was rarely silence. Someone was always talking up a storm or causing some sort of ruckus-normally Penguin and Shachi. The only real silent time onboard was when everyone was asleep.

Glancing out the porthole, Liam saw that the sun hadn't even started its downward path. The sky was clear, not a cloud in sight. It was unnatural, then, that the silence persisted so in the middle of the day. Completely unnatural.

'Summer,' He thought to himself, 'I should've done something back in the infirmary. I should've thought of something to protect you. I'm sorry I failed you.'

A noise behind him startled him out of his thoughts. Casper had finished in the kitchen and now entered the mess deck. He stopped when he saw the medic slumped over on the table.

"Liam, my lad, what's on your mind? You look just about as ragged as a dead fish." The phrase was odd to him, but he tried not to let his confusion show on his face.

"Are we sure teaming up with Kid will help us get Summer back?" Casper gazed past him, staring at something only he could see, then sighed wearily and took the seat next to him.

"Sometimes, when life is pushing at us to act, we have no way of knowing if our actions are in vain or not." The cook placed a calloused hand on the medic's shoulder, caused him to meet the older man's eyes. "When those times come, all we can do is have faith."

Casper's words were wise, but Liam still lowered his eyes. "And what if we want more than just faith to go on?"

Another tired sigh marked Casper's rise. He stretched his tired bones, wincing when they popped back into place. He looked into the medic's eyes intensely.

"Then you'd best be finding that faith within yourself. Most times, that's all we've got. Trust me when I say you'll be needing it."

~~~

"Tell me exactly how you found the seller in the paper." Law inquired, scanning the classified for any leads they could pursue. Kid laughed a little, causing the Heart pirate to look up at him.

"You don't find them, they tend to find you." The redhead propped his feet up on one of the tables of their kitchen. "Even when they allow themselves to be found, they ain't easy to find. Their messages are pretty crypted, when they choose to send them that way."

"What other ways do they communicate?" Kid shrugged.

"Newspapers, lower ranking men in their organizations, vivre cards, den den mushis, though since the Marines can tap the phone lines it's pretty uncommon." He took a swig of the sake bottle, frowning when he found it empty.

"How often do they show themselves, when they do initiate contact?" Nothing in the paper caught his eye so he put it down and eyed the empty coffee mug in front of him. He doubted Kid would offer to make another pot.

"Whenever they want to. They're keen on picking out the ones with real interest from the rest. Most of the time they just wait out the weak ones and then make contact." He rose and wandered over to the box of sake bottles, taking out three and seating himself once more.

"This system doesn't sound too reliable." Law commented, eyeing the bottles in amusement. Kid definitely wasn't a lightweight.

"That's how it is. The underworld doesn't work on convenience."

"Obviously..." Law rubbed his temple in frustration. This really wasn't getting him anywhere. And here he'd thought Kid would be a valuable resource.

"Look, I'm just telling you how it is. If you don't like it, that ain't my damn problem." Kid opened the second bottle and took a swig.

"What do you know about the man who was trying to buy Summer-ya?" Law figured if he couldn't find information of possible buyers, he could start with the original.

Kid shrugged once again, an action that was beginning to get on Law's nerves. "No idea who he was. They don't make it a habit of introducing themselves."

"Was there anything odd about him at all? Anything you could tell?" By this time Law had decided that as a strategist, Kid could be pretty thick-headed. He didn't strike him as the type of man to notice small, integral details vital to complicated plans such as Law's.

"What does it matter anyway? The only way I talked to the guy was through the ads." Law rubbed at his temple once again. He was starting to get a headache.

"The way a man talks or writes says a lot about him." Kid finished off the second bottle and quickly opened the third.

"Hmm...well, I'll remember that in the future." He said without enthusiasm, and Law sighed.

'Why did I agree to this?'

Summer's smiling face appeared in his mind then and he closed his eyes.

'Deal with this idiot just a little longer...'