The Tiger ( One Piece - Eustass Kid )

9: Day By Day

Nine: Day By Day

Word count: 1403

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Kid's POV

~Flash Back~

I ran past the town and all its naïve and innocent citizens who don't know the pain that real people go through and ran straight into the forest without looking behind or forward, just at my feet pounding onto the arid dirt and dried grass, my hot tears not nearly enough to quench the thirst of draught that bestowed upon the landscape.

But soon I ran into the forest, the thick and dark vegetation abundant in moisture and fertilization, I took in the dark maliciousness and the eerie morbidity of it all

I clutched Hana's dagger in my hand that I had 'borrowed' from her this morning

My eyes narrowed as I heard the settled footfall of an unknown creature and the snap of a twig as an elegantly placed movement coming towards me.

I threw the dagger with all my capacity in the direction of the movement, and yet... I couldn't hear it hit, the sounds of anguish and pain; suffering and travail.

It's as if someone has stopped the flawlessly aimed dagger at an unimaginable speed.

"If you're going to throw knives at everything that moves you might want a better blade, maybe not as blunt?" A calm and ghostly voice sounded and a boy around my juvenile age of thirteen came out of the cryptic shadows.

He was devastatingly thin and had ragged clothes hanging limply from his body.

His rugged and unkempt blonde hair concealed his eyes.

"You look distressed," he noticed with an incline of his head as he shifted his book from one arm to another.

"What do you want?" "Usually before asking such questions one reveals a name." I squinted my eyes at him as he sat on the plush and rich forest floor.

"Well I'll guess I will go first, I'm Killer," "Killer?" I furrowed my brow in puzzlement at the unrealistic name. "I was abandoned as a child and never knew my name, the people in my village gave me the name Killer... For the amount of people I slaughtered." My eyes widened in surprise but his face remained stoic.

For it was only now I noticed two oddly curved knives concealed behind his back... Scythes?

"My name is Kid, Eustass Kid..." "You look upset Eustass kun," he observed yet remained monotonous.

"Oi why do you care? Who do you think you are asking me all this?!" I snarled but once again he remained unfazed.

"I saw you at the docks, you were shouting to your friend right? They took her away huh?" My hand tightened around my invention of a mechanical heart. "Shut up! Shut the fuck up...! What the fuck do you know? Did you follow me here or something?" "Yes I did, I thought you might do something stupid." "Why do you care?" I glared at him and he stood up once more but only to move to another more shady spot to sit in.

"I don't," "then why...? Ugh I don't even care!" "What is her name?" "Ehh?" "That girl at the docks," "Garden D. Hana, she is my best friend." "How unfortunate..." "Hey listen what the hell are you still doing here? Piss off!" "Hey Eustass kun? Let's be friends."

~End Of Flash Back~

"Killer," I grabbed the arm of the veiled destruction pirate.

"Why were you in there? I forbid you to enter her room without my permission!" "Of course captain... You should go in there; you're her best friend after all, best friends don't do what you did, but maybe if you make it up to her somehow Hana will forgive you." "How? Wait... What?" "You seriously think I didn't know? All you did was talk about her until our mid-teens, then it was like you forgot about her completely." He walked off and I looked at the door handle, pondering whether I should open it and disclose all things between her and I.

No, lets stay friends.

No, a captain never associates a crewmember in a relationship.

Just forget it ever happened.

Lets just stay together and never get separated, lets fight out battles side by side, let me kiss your lips full of warmth to heal my wounded body as its covered in icy cold layers.

"Tiger," I opened the door deciding on my answer for now but immediately regretted not knocking.

She was hunched over her dresser crying and sobbing to herself all alone... By herself, herself...

"GET OUT!" She screamed throwing a glass vase at me but I dodged and ran a hand through my hair realizing this is not going to be easy.

"I said... GET OUT EUSTASS 'BASTARD' KID!" She screamed and she turned around, I saw her tear streaked face and the object she was hunched over...

My heart.

I was so wrong, forgive me, it took me forever to realize but now I know I am nothing without you....

The words struggled to leave my throat as she continued to throw things at me, but I didn't reflect them, I just stood in broken silence taking the abuse, deserving every last moment of torture

All I could think about is the pain I went through, but her pain must've been twenty times harder... Being captured by slave traders, sailing all the way to the New World by herself, she had to survive on her own at such a young age...

She held up a knife and looked at me, I thought she was going to try and cut me but instead she drew the knife to her shoulder and stabbed herself, intentionally, deliberately, whatever words you choose to use, she wanted to feel the pain.

"Tiger!" I shouted and pulled the knife out and she gave a shout of pain and fell to the floor.

I ran into her bathroom and grabbed bandages and disinfectant.

I cleaned her wound and we sat side by side on the floor, slumped against each other and the wall, wounded and beaten.

"I wanted to tell you..." I got out and she stood up for a minute then sat back down next to me, my hear in her hands, pressed up against her chest.

"Go on..." She said in a raspy voice, most likely from all the shouting.

"I'm sorry, I'm such a fool all I could feel was my pain and I was so blindsided by it I forgot about yours, I don't want to let you go again and I wont be satisfied with just knowing you're here, I want to fight with you and I want to live life with you, I refuse to live day by day wondering what could be more and what could be complete." "Like when we were little?" "Yeah, except I could never do this back then..." I kissed her lips tasting her like she was my last salvation, she moved forward pressing herself against me and I felt my- no, our heart between us.

"When they took you I lost all the good within me and all I could see was darkness, you were the one that kept me light, yet even now you too have changed..." "Kid... I-" "we all got taken by the darkness and kept there with no hope of seeing that light again." I closed my eyes and swallowed, she put my hand against my cheek and stroked my pale skin.

"I don't want to see the light when I see that you are shrouded in the dark, if you're here I'm no longer afraid of the dark, in fact I like the dark..." She leant her forehead against mine and closed her eyes along with me.

Like the tides my heart is broken

Like the wind my heart is shaking

Like the smoke my love faded away

It never erases like a tattoo

I sigh deeply and the ground shakes

My heart is full of dust