hiding

Story time (trauma addition)

Alexia leaned against the door frame, looking into the room, her hair still damp from the shower. She hated to admit it, but the bed did look tempting, she was exhausted. Marco looked up from his pile of papers and gave her an acknowledging smile.

"I was beginning to think you had gotten lost yoi." He smirked.

"No... I just had something I needed to debate in my head before coming here." Alexia laughed lightly.

"Oh, what might that be?" He leaned back in his chair; his eyes filled with curiosity.

"About... trusting you." She looked at her fingers as they fidgeted nervously with the hem of her shirt, "I'm not ready to join, I can't bring myself to do that," Marco nodded his head in understanding, his face serious now, "But I'll talk, to you that is. Only if you keep it between us."

"Of course, yoi." He smiled encouragingly.

Alexia made her way over to sit on the bed, crossing her legs. She stared down at her lap for a while, before looking up at Marco, trying to figure out where to begin.

"You promise you won't say anything to anyone?"

"I promise Lexi."

"You're the only person that will know this, besides what Whitebeard seems to know." Alexia swallowed before continuing, "My name is Kaikura D. Alexia, I'm from an Island near the North Blue called Risamone. It's an island that is under the control of the marines, made up of Naval bases and outposts. My mother was a Marine, with the rank of Ensign. My father was a pirate, belonging to some low-ranking crew. They had met each other just before she had joined the Marines and fell in love, they managed to remain a secret, despite having my older brother and me. The Marines found out shortly after I was born. They demoted my mom to Petty Officer and forced her to marry a lieutenant of their choice, one they felt would keep her in line. He was a drunk, and very abusive. He would beat my mother and I senseless. One day my brother grew tired of it, tried to fight back. My stepfather ended up killing him, very brutally. My mom couldn't handle the grief and ended up killing herself. Which left me. The Marines couldn't exactly execute a child just because her father was a pirate. An adult sure, but the public frowns upon child killing. So... they settled into forcing me into an arranged marriage to an Admiral."

"Wait what?!" Marco gapped at her, disgusted, "You married? To an Admiral?!"

"Maybe if you'd let me finish!" Alexia laughed, "I was supposed to be married to an Admiral. Just like child executions though, the majority of the public frowns upon child marriage. So, at the age of nine they forced me into an arranged marriage contract stating I would marry an Admiral when I became eighteen. They only needed a guardian's consent, which was technically my stepfather, who would do anything to please his superiors."

"Who were you arranged to marry?"

"Akainu..."

"Your joking." Marco spat, "Please tell me your joking." Alexia just looked down at her lap, refusing to answer, "He's one of the cruelest Admirals to exist! Not only that but he's at least thirty times your age...and you were nine! That's disgusting!"

"As long as the public sees their most loyal and honorable Admiral, taking the hand of a commoner who lived her life as an orphan, they don't care. It's romantic in their eyes." Alexia rolled her eyes, "And let me just state for the record, he is as much of a corrupt asshole to everyone just as much as he is to pirates. I spent the majority of the time training."

"Training?"

"Training how to be the perfect wife, how to appear when out in public, when to speak and when to not, how to be a hostess, how to keep quarters cleaned, all the things you would imagine snobby noble women have to learn. Then there were the doctors..." Alexia furrowed her brows before continuing, "First it was just to make sure I would be able to give him children..."

"That's fucking sick yoi." Marco looked extremely disgusted.

"You don't have to tell me that, I know from experience." Alexia looked as if she was about to gag herself, "And they never tell you, but the procedures they do for that, are extremely painful, no pain meds given. Then they turned to studying my blood, was there really a connection between pirates' blood and my personality and such. Then it became how much pain I could with stand, what types of psychological torture could I handle. If I wasn't being a guinea pig, I was expected to be at parties, where Akainu basically passed me off to his friends for anything they wanted. He didn't care what they did to me as long as they didn't completely rape me. As long as his friends were satisfied, he was satisfied. He was honestly just as abusive if not worse, as my stepfather was. I'd get beat for anything, if I accidentally spoke out of turn, if I wore a shirt he didn't like, if his tea wasn't the right temperature, literally anything he felt like. The punishments would range from just a few hits, to water boarding, to cigarettes on my skin and choking. As long as what he did could be hidden, it was acceptable. It was the week before I was supposed to marry him, and I made up my mind. I was going to make a run for it. And if for some reason I couldn't escape, I would kill myself. There was no way I would marry him, I'd rather die."