There he is, the motherfucker with the big tits.
Smoker.
Standing before them like a sin reincarnate, thick muscles bulging on the confine of his cotton shirt and chest peeking out of his white collar - as if luring her to come closer, a silent promise of something heavenly underneath the tangle sheets.
White hair, usually slick back with scented oil, is now a mess. Silver locks dangled on his sight, some longer and some not. It suits him in an odd way, it makes him look younger almost, more human and less of soldier who's ready to face head first on a raging war.
The white heavy coat he always wore now gone, his leaned broad shoulder now in full display for the onlookers and passerby. He looks downright sinful, like a forbidden apple in the middle of a heavenly garden and like Eve, she almost wanted to indulge herself on the sweetness of his flesh.
"My, my, my. Dont you look dashing in this fine morning, captain smoker?" She greeted him with a bright smile, widening when the man released a annoyed huff. She almost believed it if it weren't for his red ears.
"Shut your mouth, Y/n"
"Not unless you kiss it"
She almost thought the wild man would blow a fuse on how red he had gotten.
"You damn woman" he had muttered, quickly turning his head away from her view. Cheeks flushed and utterly flustered. It was odd how much she affects him, but she wouldnt complain...Its always a sight to see such a strong man turning into a mess with a single tease.
"Im Just teasin' you" she raised both of her hands in mock surrender, lips split wide in a sickening grin.
"Couldn't help myself, you just look so adorable with a blush on your pretty face"
If he weren't a devil fruit user, smoker would have thrown himself on the raging sea. Let the waves swallow him whole and take the breath of his lungs to the point of no return.
No one had ever called him pretty, but then again no one had even dared to tease him in such way. He's not quiet sure if he likes it, its beyond anything he had felt before nor experince, it was humiliating to feel the flustered blush spreading on his skin or the way his heart beat so loudly on his ears, but some sick pathethic part of him craved it all the same, basked on it, yearns for it, couldnt help but suck all the attention she has been giving him like a pitiful dog deprived of any good thing.
"Must you always be this annoying?" He had asked, pretending to be irritated even if he's anything but.
"I thought I was being friendly" she stated with a chuckled, teeth peeking out her lips.
"Tell me, hows the geezer? Still alive I hope?"
"Galien?" He had asked with a small scoffed, grey smoke swriling on the morning air. "He misses you, but I doubt he'll tell you that"
The woman across him gave a smile, all sad and yearning. "Yeah I doubt he will, I..missed him too actually"
She breathed in a sigh "havent talk to him these past few weeks, I've been busy"
'Busy being miserable about a past life she barely remembers' she had thought.
"So I've heard, you even passed out on the street didnt you?" Strong voice hand turned colder, heavier and deep. Thick tabaco squirming underneath the weight of his own clenching teeth. "Let a filthy pirate took care of you"
"I didnt 'let' him exactly, crocodile was just the one who found me" tho she did let him fed her dinner, but what smoker doesnt know wouldn't hurt him. "And he was kind to me, god knows if it was anyone else I would have been dead by now"
Smoker wanted to tell her that she shouldn't worry about that because he wouldn't let anyone touch a single strand of her hair, let alone put their filthy fucking fingers on her skin but he can't and he's not entirely sure if he can protect her like the way he wants, she was far too stubborn to stay by his side, to play the damsel in distress and let him be her knight, she will have none that, unless smoker locked her up in a tall tower like one of those princess he had read about when he was a kid, he wonder if isolation and feeling the same cold walls would make her yearn for him the same way he yearns for her?
"I was surprised you weren't" Smoker replied, eyes hard on the early morning sun. "The moment I got the news I was expecting to find your rotting corpse floating on the sea"
"Wow, didnt it occured to you that I can protect myself?"
"Not to him you can't" Crocodile may be kind on her own opinion but he's still a pirate, and pirates are known for their violence and brutality, to get what they want until their dying breath. And y/n, no matter how hard she appeared to be, no matter how brave nor strong - still stood no chance againts a logia, specially one that has the experience and strength that Crocodile has.
"Your faith in me is truly heartwarming, cancer stick"
Of course Y/n knew she cant exactly fight nor outrun Crocodile if it comes to a situation where he wanted to kill her and harvest her organs, she may be an idiot sometimes but she know what she's capable of and killing a logia or even hurting one is not exactly one of them. She's not luffy, she doesnt have the power of friendship or whatever the fuck that's been fueling him to kill every guy on his sight no matter how strong they were, she's just a regular person in a not so regular world, she's in a great disadvantage by just being there - in a place that shouldnt exist - she wasnt used to all this.
"Can you blame me? I havent exactly seen you in a fight before" Said the man, exhaling a thick of grey smoke.
Y/n's resist the urge to tell him the time when she killed a sea king with a single punch, how she could use Haki like a fucking pro that he, a Marine captain, cant even do.
But she didnt, only offered her a sad exaggerated pout that completely contrasts to the harshness of her eyes. There's power in Underestimation, she thought. After all, there is no greater strategy than a hidden blade.
"You wound me, truly. Maybe one of these days you will let me save you from the scary hands of the pirates you seems to loath so much and then you will finally realized that I wasnt as helpless as you thought I was" she replied, hiding a smile when she remember the time Doflamingo plummet him into the ground, all bruised up and closed to dying.
"But until then, stay out of trouble. Better yet, stay away from the pirates"
"And who would you rather have me stick on? The marines? Garp? You?"
He briefly picture Y/n running around the compound and following him like a pup, all smiles and sharp smirks. Well wouldn't that be something?
"I certainly wouldnt mind having you around me" is what he wanted to say, what he will say if only he was a much bolder man, if only his heart weren't aching on how fast it has been beating. But Smoker settles for a simple lie "No, stick to anyone but me"
Y/n gave a smirk, as if knowing something he didn't - maybe she knows how much he yearns for her, how he seems to think about her at every waking moments - maybe she knows and maybe she doesn't. Some part of smoker wanted her to know, to understand, to figure out how fucking desperate he is to hold her in his arms, safe and warm and everything she will ever need because smoker is getting tired on lying to her like this, pretending like he wasnt affected at every twitch of her lips and every bat of her eye, he cant keep saying things he doesnt mean when all he wanted to do is kiss her as sweet and as harsh as her beauty.
"Whatever you say, Cap" she shrugged her shoulder, chuckling under her breath before looking at Xenon - a person he didnt even notice.
Its equally outrageous as it is hilarious that whenever she's with him he seems to cant think nor see anything but her.
Smoker watched as she talked to her assistant, asking things he cant quiet give a fuck about, to entrance on her beauty and how her eyes seems to glimmer underneath the morning sun.
She looks beautiful, heavenly, seemingly out of this world, like a fallen angel with clipped wings and broken bones - beautiful and yet tragic. An angel born within smoke and filth, with sweet lips and harsh eyes, she's equally as beautiful as she is wild, rough hands littered with old scars and yet they hold and reach with a gentleness that you wouldn't expect to come on someone like her, she reeks of oil and metal, she reeks of salt air and grease, she smells like everything that a lady shouldnt and yet Smoker remained captivated.
They are times when he thought romance and anything that accompanies it were too out of his reach, things like love isnt exactly a good thing on someone like him, family is a luxary a soldier cannot afford specially when he spend half of his time fighting with his life on his hands and counting the days where he can still stand.
He's a murderer, a criminal, he's no better than a damn pirate - the only difference they have is that he's killing under the name of justice, but what is justice in a world where murder comes easy as a blinking an eye?
Smoker isnt a saint, he never was and never will. His hands are stained with blood, body filthy with sins and shoulder heavy with regret - his routines are simple, nights are meant for guilt, to ponder over the list of people he had killed and days are spend on adding another body on the pile of his list.
Contrary to popular belief, Smoker doesnt enjoy fighting, going to wars while the people who gives them orders sat peacefully on their own home, playing with their children and fucking their wife while them, the soldier, were dropping like flies and shedding their blood on a fight they weren't even sure they understand.
"Pull the anchors and lower the sail!" Smoker had barked on his men, tabaco almost splitting on the tightness of his teeth. His emotion had gone sour, dark thoughts contaminating his once joyous mood.
"Come you two" not even glancing on their direction before he had turned around and started heading for the ship, a frown on his brows and hands clenching behind his back.
"Let us sail to lounge town before Vice Admiral Garp woke up, he will most definitely come with us and I cant deal with his shit today..or any other day if I'm being honest"
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A day had passed since they went out on the Sea and according to smoker it will take 2 and a half days to travel to lounge town.
Life at the ocean wasnt exactly as joyous as everybody thought it will be, her nights were spent shivering under a thin itchy blanket and morning was spent laying half dead on the floor hoping she wouldn't die on a heat stroke.
It was boring, terribly so, specially when Xeno wasnt always there with her because he is, after all, a Marine soldier, and he has duty to fulfill. So she spent most of her time with Smoker, and smoker isnt exactly a very fun guy, Y/n thinks the poor stiff captain havent experince a laugh since the day he was born, he's all about justice and strength and fight and obsessing over his hair and how many push up he can do in an hour.
It was ridiculous.
But now, well...
Y/n think she will rather watch Smoker do sit ups and glare at her for 4 hours rather than fighting a bunch of pirates who smells like dead fish.
But when did she ever get what she wants?
So now she's here, jaw clenched and quiet frankly, terrifed, on the sight that was presented across her.
A pirate ship was blocking their path, brown and violent it was with glimmering cannons that hurts her eyes and a proud clean sail dancing on the wind.
A man, with a muscle as big as it can get and a smirk that could kill an innocent man stood on its front, leaning on a pillar with greedy eyes and yellow teeth. Behind him were his men, some tall and some short, some thin and some not. Each of them held a sword, glimmering like a deathly promise under the glare of the harsh sun, they were looking at them like a desperate beast, teeth out and reeking with death and blood lust. As if the mere thought of fighting them, piercing their blade on their flesh and shattering the bones that hold them together was something they had been yearning for the moment they were born.
Smoker stood by her side, proud and lean. A thick tabaco hanging between his teeth and dull eyes now stuck in a glare that could make even the devil shake on his knees.
On his hand was his weapon, beautiful it was, smooth even to the tip and seems to glint with an intent to capture and to kill.
She remember working on it on the past but had never really got the time to finished it, it was all Galien's job and yet she couldn't help the feeling of pride swelling on her chest as she saw it hanging between his palm.
"Stay close to me" Smoker had muttered, dark and heavy. He leaned on to her, subtly moving closely.
"Marines eh?" The captain, she assumed, spoke with a shit eating grin. He leaned away from the pillar and stalked forward, brave and fierce even with guns drew to his head. "Never thought we would encounter one of ya' in our journey, and Captain Smoker nonetheless"
"Looks like today isnt your lucky day" Smoker stated, eyes narrowed and stuck on every twitch of the pirate's limb, no matter how little and how subtle.
"Oh we'll see!" He had laughed then, thick brown heavy coat, filled with holes and stained with dried blood and dirt, shook at every sound of his mouth. "You lot may be a soldier of the goverment but we both know there's no justice in the sea do we?"
"Of course you would say that, you're a criminal"
"And you're not?" He titled his head in a mocking curiosity, a single gold tooth shining as he gave a far larger grin.
"The only thing that separates you from us is that white uniform you wear, take that off and what are you? A filth murderer" Smoker's jaw clenched "just. like. us" The man had laughed, loud and obnoxious and everything he hates yet his previous words float thickly, dangling like a meat, like a noose in a tree, they were far too true, far too real.
Y/n could not deny that the pirate was right. In a world were power and money was the crown, Murder came almost as easy as breathing. It was ironic, how the marines who swore to protect the people were the one who's killing them. Wether it be by choice or a simple casualty, killing a civilian is inevitable amidst war and mourning about them weren't exactly a priority - when it had happened the first time then maybe, but as the time goes by and years were fleeting away like ashes in a burning paper - so was their empathy and regret.
There are no black and white on war, no good or bad. Both suffer the same and both were stained with blood and sins, hands made only to kill and to hunt, born only to fight and to destroy. No matter what you fight for, no matter how noble and how kind, you cannot escape death, be it you or others, be it by your hands or the chaos you caused.
Y/n gulped the vile rising on her throat, memories of her time in a life so long ago came into her mind.
Right, she was a soldier too...
Had experience what is to loose and to gain only to loose it again. To kill and to mourn, then to kill and to kill again.
She was, no, is, a murder, just like the rest of them.
And somehow, the thought of killing the man who stood across them with gold teeth and irritating smile, came easy.
What was she even terrified of? Why was she so worried? She had fought before, had killed before, she wasnt new to the taste of blood on her tounge and the delicious sound of breaking bones, nor to the euphoric feeling of the slowing heartbeat underneath her palm.
Killing him would be so easy, she could put her hand on his throat and crush the bone underneath. It would be so so easy. She could had him on his back, whimpering as she dug on his skull, scooping his eyes and fingering his brain. It would be so so easy. Of course it will be filthy, blood isnt exactly an easy stain to get rid off but all of it would be worth it once she saw his useless life leave his once glimmering eyes.
Because after all, there's nothing more addicting than taking someone life.
Nothing.
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Late update, again. Sorry about that, writer's block is a hard thing to go through.
Anyways, in this chapter I decided to write a more realistic aspect on the battle between the marines and the pirate. And how the goverment isnt exactly all sunshine and rainbows, and how there's a thin line that separates the marines to the pirates.
They're not all saints basically, but we already knew that right? And yet somehow that topic isnt really discussed enough. Luffy might be a happy guy but he is, still, a murder and a criminal, not saying he wasnt kind or a good person, just saying he isnt innocent.
Anyway, please vote! It means alot :)