My good girl (One Piece Fanfic)

Friendly Game

"What? Feeling unlucky?"

The street wasn't particularly full of life that night, probably because almost all merchant ships had left early in the morning, some lights flickering rather strategically at some corners and alleys and walls, casting shadows over buildings and doors and people that took advantage of the natural cover before sneaking onto their own business with only one or two noticing they were even there, and the only places that pretty much broke the silence the still atmosphere had were the bars. Loud laughter, cheering and toasting buzzed in the air, and the size of such a place made it easy to understand just why a town of a decent size found itself close to being deserted at that hour of the night- Maybe, that was the reason why her eyes had followed the a handful of the few passerbys through the bar's window, because in that town no one without something to take care of would be walking around instead of settling themselves in their own house or somewhere else to drink.

But in reality, what had caught her attention was their uniforms.

The brown pants, the blank shirts with long sleeves, the mainly dull colored fabrics wrapped around their necks, the mask one of them wore. Those were the characteristics of the very same people she had been avoiding all week right and left with an unmatchable intensity, and had it not been for the fact that she still had work to do on that island that couldn't very well be handled somewhere else, the woman would have been gone long ago. So all that was left to do was hide and run around like a mouse, watching her back even more than usual, and stare at their slightly familiar faces from afar- The fact that her face was more than known by them didn't seem to help. When they stepped away from the shadows and ran under the deem light of a corner and the boxes they carried came into view, she was left with no doubt that it was a matter of weapons and that she had to get the hell out of there as soon as it was possible.

But for the time being, the woman blinked and glanced at whoever had spoken. The man sitting across from her, holding playing cards with a pretty design of dots, stared at her face and the cards she herself was holding. The group surrounding them snickered, not even trying to hide their smirks when she didn't say a thing, and truth to be told they would have laughed even more had she answered- Actually, she didn't feel as lucky that night.

Nevertheless, it was work she was talking about.

"Call" Their faces probably dropped even before the word left her mouth, their eyes following the example when she laid the cards for the whole world to see, the perfectly arrange sequence staring right back at them with undeniable finality, and no amount of alcohol in anyone's system was enough to make her cards revelation any less painful. The man sitting across from her groaned, but to his credit didn't do anything besides placing his own cards against the wooden surface of the table with maybe a little bit more strength that necessary, accepting the outcome of the game even before she officially announced her move- She suspected he even signed in defeat even before she said anything, but because there was something like 'clients confidentiality' that people generally liked to keep on most things, the woman only nodded at him, a thin smile accompanying the gesture "Royal Straight Flush"

The name had different reactions. For example, some of the people sitting on other tables or standing by the section of the bar close to them that had stared at most of the game against their better judgement, cheered silently and raised a glass in her direction- Those were the ones that had seen it happen before, or that were drunk enough to toast at everything. Some others fidgeted on their seats and inched somewhere far from the place- Those were the ones that didn't want to be involved in the kind of fight that broke if a sore loser happened to make himself noticed. And finally, some took out their weapons, growled and readied themselves to start screaming at her- Those were the members of the crew whose captain sat on the other side of the table, a frown now set on his features.