Two Hearts

Not my Friend

Aisuru skipped through town, swinging her little woven basket gleefully. The town was so cute this early in the morning! Little chestnut houses, just waking up. The cobbled streets glittered like jewels under her feet, making her feel as though she were in some sort of strange treasury.

The people were mostly quiet, still groggy and tired. Aisuru felt no such tiredness as she made her way to the small cafe where she was supposed to meet Sam. There were no dogs to impede her travel this morning, so she made decently good time.

Law hadn't wanted her to go. He didn't say so directly, but he got a funny, almost guarded look when she mentioned that Sam wanted to see her again, soon. She thought she would have to beg permission, but Law had only handed her a small sack of bellies and asked her to bring back some fruit.

She wriggled in her seat, bouncing the basket between her feet. An elderly woman in a blue uniform came out of the shop and placed a menu in front of her with a smile. "Good morning, young lady. You must be Aisuru."

"Mmhhm!" she smiled, "I'm meeting Sam here."

"Sam's a good boy," the woman nodded sagely. The tight grey bun at the top of her head barely moved, "He certainly keeps me in business!" She laughed. Her watery blue eyes twinkled. "I'm the owner of this shop, and they call me Grama Grey. I could tell you a thing or two about Sam..."

"Grama, are you trying to scare away my friend here?" Sam pulled out a chair with a wink to Aisuru that made her stomach flutter.

She felt her cheeks warm at the word 'friend'. She was getting so many of them! And most of them were men. And they weren't accosting her. Or asking for anything she didn't want to give them. Was this what life was supposed to be like?

Grama Grey waved the notion aside with a withered old hand, "Never, never! Your friends keep my business running, after all. Breakfast is free, but you need to keep binging this pretty lady!"

"Aww..." Aisuru put her hands to her cheeks, trying to cool them.

"Oh, I will," Sam grinned, "don't worry. I'm sure I can win her heart."

Now she rolled her eyes. She didn't feel like telling him it was sort of a cheesy thing to say. Not to mention she didn't have a heart to give at the moment. Maybe Law would let her have it back? It wasn't like he wanted it, anyway.

"So, you say your captain can be pretty strict, right?"

Sam's smooth voice brought her back to the morning at hand. "Yeah, he can be, but it's kind of his job, you know?"

"Sure," he shrugged, "I mean, I guess he'd have to be. So what kind of people are on your ship? You said you'd tell me about them."

Aisuru nodded happily. "Yeah! Well, there's a cook who's obsessed with the color yellow. Seriously everything except her uniform is yellow... The walls of the cafeteria, the ceiling..."

"Sounds... Cheerful." He smirked.

More people started bustling around, and a low buzz of chatter became constant background noise. Still no dogs, though, so Aisuru stayed engaged in conversation.

"She can be, I guess. Then there are a couple of perverts, but they can be nice, too. Then there's a big scary guy who looks like a gorilla!" Talking about Jean was weird, because she hadn't really interacted with him much. He had the general body type of another man she wasn't fond of, and it sort of made her nervous... Not that she would ever tell him.

Sam laughed at the face she made. "A gorilla?"

"Yeah. He used to captain his own ship," she explained, "But my captain saved his life, so he joined the crew. Captain sometimes gets advice from him, since the gorilla is so much older."