the hoof of the soaring dragon | ONE PIECE (discontinued)

Chapter 8 *

The morning sun filtered through the window, the faint light creating shadows in the room. Akira was curled up on her bed with an empty gaze. After her last nightmare, sleep had not returned. She had spent the rest of the night recalling the same memories...

She put her head between her legs, focusing on the crew's footsteps. It was much more agitated than the previous day, probably due to the preparation of their departure.

She was so focused on the steps that she had not notices the arrival of the apprehensive boy. "Akira ?" he attempted once more.

Her head shot up, facing her was Gaal with his hand full of two plates. Following her gaze, he addressed her questioning look "I thought you might get lonely here, so why not eat together... if that's alright with you" his eyes immediately averting her gaze.

She felt bad. The boy was definitely nervous around her surely as the result of the event on their first encounter. Could she blame him though? Poor him, she had rejected all her panic on him. She put on a smile, trying to ease him so he didn't worry about her. It was maybe fake yet it was enough to fool anybody... at least she thought it was.

Indeed, she didn't take into account the general look of exhaustion on her face: the hair sticking up all over the place, the dark circles encompassing her eyes, even the hoarseness in her voice failed her as she spoke "Of course, Gaal. That nice of you"

She cleared her throat, trying to keep the smile up but realized it was too late when she met his gaze. The pity in his eyes confirmed her suspicions.

Gaal didn't move, taking in the sight of her weariness. Deciding to not comment on it, he mirrored her smile and put her meal on the desk. Taking a chair, he quickly took a sit "I'm sorry but I will not be able to stay around too much, they will need me, we are about to sail. Don't worry though Vance will come later."

Touched by his endeavor to move on, she decided to play along and stated, "Don't worry about me, I'm sure you all are busy and I'm doing fine here."

They started to eat in silence, the only sound being the occasional shouts from outside.

"You proposed to eat together only to stay silent: such a genius, really a genius" Gaal reprimanded himself. Looking around, he scrunched his face at the blandness of the room: the wall matching the floor, matching the celling; the lack of decorations; the typical white bed. "I know Luke likes to keep it simple, but a touch of color wouldn't hurt" his eyes came back to her form, sitting on her bed with her eye boring on her plate "It must get boring here."

"Do you have any hobbies?" Akira only looked up from her plate and tilted her head. Noticing her confusion, he clarified "I mean it must get boring to just sit on your bed all day. Is there anything you like? I can maybe bring it to you"

What did she like? She rested her hand on her chin, she was actually contemplating her response. During the last years, taking her own decisions wasn't possible, so enjoying an activity didn't cross her mind. What did she miss? "I like..." she rubbed her chin before meeting his gaze "I like reading"

Being done with her answer, she went back to her breakfast, leaving Gaal to now think. "Books... I believe we have quite the collection in the library. Do you have a favorite kind?"

"Not really, I just read what I can get." She placed her forks on her empty plate.

"Oh," he chuckled and let out without thinking "You will get along with Tenshi then."

"Tenshi?"

Getting up Gaal, started to clean up "He is my mentor... I mean it's been months since I got here but he still helps me from time. He was with me when we found you: tall, slim, dark skin and black hair?"