Dragon's Heart [One Piece]

Chapter Ten

~Dragon's POV~

Lily had an aversion to bedrest though I did notice while she was injured she slept like the dead. When she'd awoken she acted like nothing happened and was full of energy once again. She was such a strange girl. Though, no matter how hard I tried, I found myself being drawn in by her. Everything about her was enticing and hypnotic. Perhaps my father wasn't too far off in his assumptions, Lily had bewitched me.

Construction was going well on our new base of operations. We had the foundation laid and most of the building put together. It was livable. We'd gained many new operatives thanks to Lily. She had the strangest crazy quality that made people want to follow her. If she had any interest in being a leader, she could take the world by storm. Many called her the Queen of the Pirates, though she did nothing to earn the title, it was out of sheer respect for those who met her and wished to follow her. Lily was too free of a spirit to be tied down by such a title.

"Where's your cute little bride, Dragon?" Ivankov asked curiously upon his return. When he wasn't here helping me with the new base of operations or formulating our plans for the future, he was at his home island Kamabakka Kingdom.

"She's supposed to be resting but my guess is she's playing with the children somewhere." I shrugged as Ivankov looked to the newspaper atop my desk. It was open to an article released by the World Government concerning Lily. They were making her a top priority target wanting to capture her for public execution.

As if on cue, Lily burst through our temporary meeting room with a plethora of children at her heels all of them laughing and squealing obnoxiously as they ran around the room like mad. Ivankov and the few operatives in the room with me scrambled to secure maps and documents as Lily and the children scrambled about in an intense game of tag.

"Lily, can you please find somewhere else to ignore the doctor's orders and play with the children?" I sighed as I lifted a map off a table as two small boys leapt atop it in an attempt to escape Lily who appeared to be it.

Her summery green eyes flooded with mischief and she flipped over the heads of the two boys atop the table landing swiftly beside me. I didn't have a moment to react before she tackled me to the floor causing the map to go flying.

"Tag! You're it!" She grinned from atop my stomach.

"Seems like an intense game of tag." Ivankov snickered as he managed to catch the map I'd dropped.

"Lily, we are not playing tag, we have things to d-."

"No tag backs." She stuck her tongue out at me childishly before flipping to her feet and turning to the children with an exaggerated squeal, "RUN AWAY FROM THE EVIL DRAGON!"

The children all squealed loudly and ran out of the room screaming and shrieking in laughter. Lily scrambled after them with a giggle and paused in the doorway as she realized I was making no attempt to chase after them.

"I had a feeling you were going to be a sourpuss." Mischief danced in her summery gaze. She held up a small leather-bound book, it was one of my journals with notes of priority missions we needed to get to that I was going to go over in our meeting now that Ivankov had arrived. "So, you're not getting this back until you play tag with us."

"Lily! Give it back, I don't have time for games."

"Make time." She placed her hands on her hips and fixed me with a stern look.