With her sweetened breath [ONE PIECE]

22 - FREEDOM

Her lips trembled and her eyes watered, right..right how could she forgot? She's just a kid, just a kid. And yet- and yet..

"Talk to me alright? I-i, gods i know i aint good with words but I can listen yeah? I can listen good, specially to you" he took a deep breath "you're, youre my kid. My kid. even if I ain't your father i can't bear to see you like this and-"

Y/n hugged him.

She hugged him so tight that not even the strongest breeze tonight could make him cold.

She hold him the same way she wanted to be hold, the same way she desperately and utterly wanted to hold him ever since her first day. Like he would leave his grasp like everything on her life did, like he would turn into ashes and be one with the wind. She hold him like she would loose him.

"Oh darling.." He cooed before squeezing her tight, palm on the back of her head and pushing her to the crook of his neck. He smells like home, like leather and wood and the salty scent of the sea. He cradle her so close, caressing her hair and whispering sweet things on her ears that made her heart clenched.

She sobbed, lungs aching on the force and eyes could barely keep open from the tears that keeps flowing. How long has it been since she cried like this? How long has it been since she let herself out and just do whatever she wanted to do without thinking of what will happen the next it was done? She cried and cried and cried, pour her old guilt and past regret and let it drip and soak his shirt.

She thought about everyone and everything on her life, her mother and her sweet smile, her father with his loud laugh and warm embrace, the friends she had left behind, the memories that are now buried somewhere in time, the old wars and the future ones, her old lives and the current one. She thought about it all, from Eren's emerald eyes that turn duller through time and to Erwin's dream that had fueled the pyre of many. She thought about the regret and loneliness and despair, of guilt and anger and sadness that eats her old self away through every second and how no one had even asked or bothered to see if she was okay. How freedom was the only thing the little dove wants - a thing that should be given to anyone that lives and yet seems so hard to reach then.

"Sail" galien then whispered.

"W-what?"

"Sail.." He gripped her tighter "sail to the sea and dont look back"

She get out of his hold with agape mouth and cheeks stained with tears.
"W-what? What the hell are you saying?!"

Galien hold her cheeks and wiped her tears with a sad smile "go start your adventure, you dont belong here"

She slapped his hand away "are you fucking kicking me out?! In this time?! I just woke up!"

The old inventor laughed before shaking his head, eyes half lided with sadness. "I could never kick you out, you know that y/n. But you don't belong here..."

"And I belong out there?! To the sea surrounded by millions of fish that would eat me alive?!"

"No, darling" he smiled and it made her chest felt so so tight. "You belong out there because you deserve to be free."

Free..

Free...

You deserve to be free..

Her lips trembled once again, her throat closing up with another sob.

Here he is, a man who took care of her ever since her feet meet the land, giving her shelter and care without anything in return and now offering her freedom with a smile that could make her heart withered in pain. Offering her something that many had died and buried, all she had to do is take it, take it because she can reach it, because it's right infront of her, she can have it without any blood shed and  without any war, she can capture it with her own hands unlike the little dove, she can have it and yet-and yet why does it hurt?