Missy

Yo ho ho who the hell are you?

I don't own One Piece. If I did, it would be the bare bones of what it is today. SKULL JOKE!

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Your days had been pretty calm since that escape. Well, calm in the sense that it was filled with the regular shenanigans that happened just by being around your crew. Like this moment now where you were wringing ink from your hair as Mello tugged the final clingy octopus free from your arm with his beak. "Wow those damn octopuses were a lot of work."

"Then-" Mello spat out the octopus onto the growing pile next to nyou- "why did you suggest to do something like that?"

"Because in the moment all I was thinking was how I really wanted to be dunked into a freezing tank of water if that would get you to stop lecturing me about octopus conjugation."

"But strictly speaking I am correct! The correct conjugation of octopus into the plural is 'octopodes', or the more common 'octopuses', instead of... Haaah." He let out a long sigh, the cold burst of water having seemingly mollified him a little. Especially as he looked at the numerous dark sucker bruises as they faded from your skin. "I... am truly sorry. I do realise that I can come on a bit strong sometimes, and I will try my hardest to change that."

"Daww." Softening a bit you reached out to scratch the top of his break, something you had been doing more often now that he was more, uh, 'animalistic' than he used to be. "It's okay. I know you mean well. Just maybe try to take a hint next time. We always can set aside some time if you want to teach me stuff if you want."

The sheen of his blade glimmered in the light, "Really? You would do that?"

"Well sure." You gave him an easy smile, "We do share a body after all. It's taken me a bit to realise it, but we should at least try to coexist. Since I did take that a little far. Would you be willing to relax up on this stuff in that case?"

"I will try. In any case," he turned back to the large pile of asphyxiating octopuses/octopi/octopodes/whatever-the-hell-they're-called. "I personally thought that went rather well. Even if it was ruined by someone-" He glowered towards where Luffy was picking something from his ear- "deciding that it was a good idea to start punching us in the water."

"It all went black," Luffy said simply. "And Nami said that you'd gotten attacked."

Well you would've thought that he had a little more faith that you could deal with a few octopuses, but fine. It was fine! All completely fine.

"Why didn't you dodge it anyways."

"Funnily enough it's quite hard to see in inky water," you hissed.

Mello patted you sympathetically on the shoulder.

"Oi! Guys!" You all glanced up at the sound of Zoro's voice coming through the overhead speakers from the crow's nest. "Something's floating on the water."

"Huh?" Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp rushed to the side railing to get a better look. "Where?"

Raising your arm, Mello tugged you halfway up the rigging to give you a better look over the horizon line. It didn't take that long to find. After a few seconds of blocking the sun's glare from your eyes, the barrel was quite obvious. Something certainly helped by the bright flag sticking from the top.

"Almost too eye catching, don't you think?" Mello hummed.

"I dunno-" you squinted more in an effort to make out the writing on the flag- "it seems like an offering to a god, from what I can read."