The Chemicals Between Us (One Piece: Eustass Kid x OC)

An Unwilling Attraction to the Unsuspecting:

The Kid Pirates had been at sea now for two days. The crew devised a spying schedule to better observe the Professor, ensuring less people were exhausted in the morning. She was interesting to watch, but most of the pirates felt that this was really unnecessary. Jam invented stuff. Exactly what, they didn't know, but she had yet to do anything to anyone. And some of the things she made turned out to be medicine for Quincy and Pomp to use.

"She's been sketching out something for ages. Looks like a metal box with buttons. What do you suppose it does?" Compo asked, squinting at the Den-Den Mushi image.

His other two companions only shrugged. Compo, Mosh, and Emma were on spy duty tonight sitting together in the lounge.

"This is boring. I don't want to watch a nerd make junk. I don't even like watching the Captain build robots. The only good parts are when she backs that thang up," Emma grumbled, crossing her arms across her chest. Waste of my time. It's been days and all she's done is make medicine like the Captain asked, set up her space properly, and work on weird doohickey's.

Mosh snorted. "Yer such a perv."

The woman donned a lecherous grin. "You say that like it's a bad thing. And anyway, it's not like I'm the only one. Boss's eyes are glued to it."

"We shouldn't talk about that. Boss wouldn't appreciate it," Compo said seriously.

"Yeah yeah." Suddenly her eyes lit up, a devious thought entering her mind. "You know I don't think the little gremlin even notices how hard his eyes follow her. Every time she comes out to eat, his eyes stray over to where she is. Only time he glances away is when he thinks Killer is watching," the woman sang out, enjoying the gossip.

"I'm sure it's not that bad," replied Mosh, rolling his eyes.

"The hell it ain't! He dropped food yesterday when she was giggling with Dive over something. Don't know how he missed that big ass mouth of his but he managed. And don't get me started on Hip."

"She's being moody again?"

Emma dramatically threw her head back. "IT'S AWFUL! She complains morning, noon, and night. Her and Joplin. I've done told them both that when Kid wants something he goes all out to get it. If he desired either of them, he'd have already done something about it."

"Didn't they you know..." Compo asked, making rude gestures with his hands, blushing as he did so.

The slender woman giggled. "Oh, they fucked once, years ago when Kid was in a bad place after Victoria died. Hip comes from the same island as Kid and bears a remarkable resemblance to Victoria. Bitch even keeps her hair short in the same hairstyle as Vicky had. It's a tad bit creepy, honestly."

The two men turned to her, intrigued by her story. Sighing, she continued, "It was the first year anniversary of her death and Hip was babying boss while he was drinking like a fish. We all know how emotional the big lug gets when he drinks. Of course they fucked. He even accidently called her Vicky during the deed! But hell, she put herself in that position. After that Kid felt weird I guess and told her to pretend the whole fiasco never happened."

Mosh whistled, "That's rough." Hip's really pretty; can't believe Kid just turns her down like that.

Emma sucked in her teeth. "Don't feel bad for her. Hip does it to herself. It's not like she was taken advantage of. Kid was the one drunk."

"You'd think looking like Victoria would make Kid want her," Compo added.

Emma wagged her finger in the muscular man's face. "But that's the thing. Hip may look like Vicky but their personalities are completely different. It's why it doesn't work. Plus I think the boss wanted to move on and not dwell on the past. He can't be with someone who reminds him of a dead girl."