Eat Your Heart Out (Smoker X Reader)

One Step Closer

"I've got something!" You practically slammed the door to Smoker's apartment open.

There was a wild look in your eyes, a mix of excitement and worry. You had found a lot of information to work off of but it was unsettling information. You had to act fast now that you had an idea of who would be next.

"You look like shit." Smoker growled from the balcony. He had the door to it open and wisps of smoke were floating into the place.

"Don't care. I found something important."

"Good, we can work on it more tomorrow." He said. "It's late and I'm tired."

"You can call it a day then, I've got work to do." You pulled your PC out of its bag and set yourself up on the living room floor, in front of the couch. All the searching earlier had you feeling grimy and you weren't about to sit on the clean furniture.

"It can wait (Y/n). Get back to it tomorrow."

"No it can't wait." You frowned at your computer. He wasn't going to stop you now. Not with one particular piece of information bothering you so much.

"Unless it's life or death, you shouldn't be overdoing it." He came inside and towered over you, arms crossed and a heavy scowl on his face.

"Well it is life or death." You stared him down or up you guess. It was a bad angle.

"What's that supposed to mean?" That piqued his interest.

Smoker sat on the couch and moved closer until his leg bumped your shoulder and you could smell cherry smoke on his breath as he leaned in.

"I found some papers at Gambia's home. They were hidden in a drawer with a false bottom."

You motioned for your bag. It was closer to him than you. He handed it over and you fished through it until you found the papers and handed them over to him.

"Some of it made no sense to me until I started thinking things over."

"Okay...." He went through the papers slowly.

"Now what do you notice about the names?"

"The first few are all Bartolomeo's victims." You could see the second he made the same connection you did earlier. "The rest are future victims."

"Exactly."

"But that doesn't mean we have to rush this. We can sleep on this and come back to it in the morning, see what we can do for the rest of the people on this list."

"Nope, we are on a strict time limit. Check out the other paper, the slip."

His brows furrowed as he looked it over. At the same time, you were pulling up some other information you'd put together when you'd first started this investigation.

"They're dates."

"Right." You handed him the laptop once you had what you wanted pulled up. "Dates that coincide with the deaths of the victims."

You had a spreadsheet labeling the different deceased names, method of death, and the dates. They matched the ones on the slip. The worst part was the next one was tomorrow's date.

"Oh shit." Smoker ran a hand through his hair, pushing a few strands out of the careful styling. "We need to call Akainu. This is our chance."

"The sooner the better. If we can't catch him tomorrow night we're going to have another death on our hands."

"He's scheduled his killings." Smoker marvelled out loud. "And each one happens sooner than the last."

It was true. They started out about two weeks apart but Bartolomeo was shaving off a bit of time with every kill. This wasn't just food, it was a game for him.