Neither of us were willing to break eye contact first, the staring contest quickly becoming a test for the other. My own sea green eyes were fixed onto his dark grey ones, his body slowly leaning in as if to pressure me into looking away first. Just as the corner of my eyes began to tear up, someone came crashing into the stacked wooden crates that were placed further down the alleyway behind us. We both turned to see a large polar bear in an orange boiler suit, who seemed to be holding onto what looked like a nodachi, a long traditional sword I guessed to belong to Law.
"Captain! Umm... I'm sorry" The situation was so bizarre, it rendered me speechless, seeing this large fluffy creature mopping in anguish at what clearly was an accident. I looked up to the Heart pirate's captain, my eyebrow raised in question, waiting for an explanation to his comrade's strange behaviour. He waved off my questioning look with an exasperated glare, taking the initiative to introduce the polar bear to be his first mate and navigator. I nodded in understanding, turning back to see the polar bear glancing back with curiosity, though when he saw I noticed him, he quickly looked down and muttered another apology.
"Now, why are you hiding back here?" Upon Trafalgar's question, I turned back to the street to see the Celestial Dragon in the midst of shooting someone. I quickly hid behind the wall again, nudging the man towards the street.
"There's your answer" He moved forward to get a better look, his arm placed above my head so he could keep to the shadows in order to remain concealed, which brought his face uncomfortably close to my own. Leaning back against the wall to try and create some space between us, Trafalgar remained unaffected and watched the scene unfold nonchalantly.
Once the mess in the street began to clear up as the Celestial Dragon moved on, Trafalgar turned to face me again, though it seemed that he'd only just noticed my discomfort. He smirked before leaning closer, myself having to turn my head to the side so I wouldn't have to face his intimidating stare that he refused to move away.
"Trafalgar-san you're too close, please step back" I told him, still looking away from his piercing gaze. But all the twisted psycho did was lean further down, so his face was precariously near the crook of my neck.
"Am I making you uncomfortable?" I could easily picture his smug smile as his lips grazed over the base of my jaw, making me shiver and from the feel of his lips stretching out into an even bigger smirk, I knew he had noticed the effect he had on me. Frustrated with his lack of consideration to my boundaries, I turned to glare at him, hoping I could intimidate him to move away, but all he did was move closer, his face directly in line with my own as his body gently forced me to lean further into the wall behind me.
"Lana?!" I turn in shock at the familiar call, only to see Nami and Robin looking on with surprised, and borderline scandalised, expressions. Trafalgar didn't initially pay them any attention, but when he did turn to glance at them from the corner of his eyes, he seemed to acknowledge the fact that they were my own crewmates and leaned back a little.
"It seems that your crew-mates have found us. Until next time" He leaned down to place a short kiss on my cheek whilst placing my cap back on my head, the unexpected gesture throwing me off-guard and a red flush quickly brightening my face. Nami blushed with a hand covering her mouth, Robin only giggling at the scene quietly, both showing their shock at the pirate's boldness. As Law stepped aside, I hurriedly walked over to the girls, leaning heavily against Robin to hide my embarrassment and mortification at being caught in such a scandalous position.
"What was that?!" Nami giggled quietly whilst still blushing, gently waving her face to try and cool down her red cheeks. I shook my head stubbornly, refusing to answer such a question as I continued to hide my flushed face in Robin's shoulder. Robin only patted my head, but she too, was still giggling at the reminder, making my nudge her with my arm in indignation, wanting them to drop the subject. With the threat that they wouldn't let the incident slide so easily, the girls dragged me to continue in their shopping spree, which I decided to indulge them in, hoping that they would forget what happened just a moment ago.
As they browsed a clothes shop, Robin began explaining to Nami about the relationship that existed between Fishmen and humans upon seeing a few interactions that occurred during their experience on the Archipelago. Just as we were paying, Franky came bursting into the shop out of nowhere, scaring the living shit out of us.
We had been to enwrapped in what Robin had been saying to notice anything going on around us, and as it turned out, Keimi had been kidnapped, for a second time. When she'd been kidnapped the first time I didn't know, but this time she was taken by slave traders, who intended to sell her at one of the auction houses. Something I had distinctly warned them about, yet managed to happen anyway.
We followed Franky to where the others were situated, and after much searching and questioning of the kidnappers, we'd discovered that they had already sold her off to the auction house on Grove 1. I stayed back in search for Zoro and Luffy, seeing as we would need all the help we could get.
As the others ran off, I tried to activate my Observation Haki in hopes of being able to find the two idiots faster. What I didn't expect was to find Luffy and Zoro riding a fish?... And heading in my direction. Whilst the imagery was downright confusing, I looked up in a hurry to see exactly what I'd imagined I'd seen.
Luffy and Zoro riding a flying fish.
"Lana!! Get on!" At Luffy' shout, I only had time to scream in protest when Luffy's arm's stretch out to their abnormal length, wrapping tight around my waist and pulling me towards him at full speed. The speed at the development left me little time to make sense of what was happening, and just as I came to terms with the incoming crash that would no doubt occur at the speeds I was being yanked at, I'd crashed headfirst into Zoro, who had attempted to catch my flailing body.
We would have fallen right off the flying fish and plummeted to the ground had it not been for Zoro keeping us on. Groaning, I looked down to find myself face to face with Zoro, precariously thrown over his lap as he gazed at me with a surprised expression. I quickly clambered off him, turning to Luffy who had the nerve to laugh at what he'd just caused.
"LUFFY! YOU IDIOT! THINK BEFORE YOU ACT!" I shrieked, which only earned me a half-hearted apology as he continued to rub his head and laugh.
"Sorry, sorry" He faced forward and ordered the fish rider to speed up. I turned to Zoro to apologise for the mess, but it seemed he was still shocked at what had happened, remaining motionless with a blank expression. I crawled closer to him so the wind wouldn't throw me off, helping to sit up so he could have a better bearing on the moving creature we were stuck on.
"I'm sorry about that. You know what Luffy's like" I sighed with a glare thrown at the carefree idiot, who only threw a sheepish smile in response at my complaint. Zoro only nodded before looking away, trying to hide a faint shade of red that coloured his cheeks, with a mumbled 'it's fine'.
Just when I was about to ask him if he was alright, we hear Luffy yelling at the fish rider to 'smash right into the wall', making both Zoro and I to whip our heads towards Luffy, screaming in protest at his order. It really made no difference, as we were sent crashing right through the auction house wall in a cloud of rubble and dust.
Third Person's POV
Once the brown cloud of dust cleared, everyone could only look on with hanging jaws and astonishment as the Straw Hat captain Luffy and two of his crew-mates emerged from the mess they had made upon their entrance. The female with short golden brown hair grabbed Luffy by his shirt and shook him vigorously, clear to the onlookers that she was trying to beat some sense into the fool.
"You fucking moron! What did I just tell you!?" Zoro, the moss haired swordsman, just stood there with anger marks popping out on his forehead as the brunette scolded their captain. It seemed that the three realized why they were there in the first place, and their attention went to the large stage where a large fish bowl was placed, and inside was the distraught mermaid.
Luffy rushed forward to save Keimi, but was quickly halted by Hachi, who restrained the man before he could do anything that would possibly worsen the situation. Hachi having forced to keep Luffy back, exposed his multiple arms to the onlooking public, making it apparent to the whole auction house that he was a fishman, something he had been trying to hide. The fact that everyone began to panic at the sight, proved that the rift between fishmen and humans still held strong.
Through the chaos that ensued, a single gunshot rang, silencing everyone as the attention was turned to the prancing raven haired noble, who was boasting about having shot a fishmen. Hachi having collapsed from the wound, burned rage within the Straw hats who'd witnessed the scene, with despair evident from Keimi, who was still trapped inside the water-filled bowl and the explosive collar wrapped around her neck.
Luffy began to ascend the stairs, his expression twisted with rage as he approached the gloating noble. His advance was stopped by the fallen fishman, begging Luffy to not go through with what he had in-mind. Instead, Luffy brushed his warning off and continued to make his way to the Celestial Dragon, who was beginning to notice the change in atmosphere, finally seeing how serious Luffy was in attacking him. His approach was once again stopped, but this time not by the fishman, but by the Straw Hat strategist.
Lana's POV
"Luffy you do know what you're getting yourself into right?" I questioned him in a low voice, my hand gripping his clenched fist. Luffy didn't even spare me a glance, his eyes trained on the now quiet noble, who snobbishly glared down at us, clearly believing himself to be above the rest of us.
"Lana, move" He removed his hand from grip and made to walk past me, but I raised a wall of water between the two, halting his movements at the sight of the makeshift barrier. Gasps of surprise rose up from the onlookers, the power strange to witness even for the Grand Line, but I paid no heed to them, my focus solely on our Captain who was about to make a life changing decision, for both himself and his crew.
"You harm this pig and there's no undoing it. Do you understand that? Not only for you, but for the entire crew" He only nodded, though this time, looked me in the eye to show his understanding. I knew from that look that he had his mind set, and their was no changing it.
I sighed and lowered the barrier with a flick of my wrist; turning to flop onto the seat beside me as I waved Luffy off.
"Then there's no stopping you. Go raise hell" I looked to him with a smirk, and he turned walking up to the noble, and without a moments hesitation, smashed his fist into the pig-headed noble's face.
The moment Luffy's hand came into contact with the Celestial Dragon, that was where the line was drawn for us.
There was no going back from here on out.
---------------------------
I felt like this chapter was a bit rushed but nevertheless a chapter has been uploaded. Don't forget to comment and say whatever you want. Thanks for being patient and I hope to post more.
As a side-note, if any of you are Haikyuu!! fans, I'm thinking of writing a fanfic for that and seeing as season 3 is coming out I couldn't help myself. So I want you guy's opinions on that and we'll go from there :)