Chasing The Sun
chapter nine: beneath these scars
A/N: SIKE, HE'S HERE EARLY! I know Sabo has no votes at the moment but I love him, he's great, fight me. Next chapter I'm going to dabble into the One Piece cannon a bit more so I can get things moving along. Please prepare for cringe and heavy OOC moments.
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You had been calling Ace over the course of the past few months, glad Kuzan had been kind enough to sneak you a White Transponder Snail, making sure no one could overhear your conversations. It would be problematic if someone like Borsalino, who was known for having a Black Transponder Snail on him at all times, heard you talking to a notorious pirate, after all. You'd be either fired or incarcerated for that.
Though most of the talks with Ace were idle chat, you'd grown close - very good friends, you hoped you would see him in person again soon.
At one point, you were with a few of your subordinates, passing through a village called Wine Gray, and booked a hotel room for yourself and your crew, using some money from your own pocket. They'd been so happy, they were almost crying and you just laughed at them, telling them they had no need to thank you.
They were so devoted and loyal, and what you appreciated most was that it wasn't just because they thought you were attractive - they genuinely liked you for who you were and your mental and physical prowess. You treated them the best you could to repay them for their work, and that only built their respect. Mihawk would have shaken his head at you and told you you were too generous, but how could you not when they were like puppies, faithfully following their parent to the ends of the New World?
You had brought four with you - Salar, Cinth, Dasai and Bidan. They were the ones who held specific positions on your ship; navigator, lookout, doctor and cook respectively. Your right-hand man, Joon-K, had been injured recently and insisted you go ahead of him, so he was back at base recovering. You had a good total of about seventy men and women working under you, and you knew all of them very well, gladly calling them your friends - your family, you wanted to say, but you knew that term was off limits.
The whole first night, the five of you simply talked until your could hear the four's breathing even out as they fell asleep one-by-one, the sound fading into nothing but the crickets outside. You smiled softly, but found yourself unable to fall asleep. Again.
Your smile disappeared, slowly turning into a frown as your left hand trailed over to a thin scar on your right shoulder, finding a few more scattered here and there along your chest, the contact soothing you from physical tension you had no idea you had been in. You stared at the ceiling a few moments longer before sitting up and shifting so your legs were hanging over the side of the bed, gaze trailed to the ring on your finger.
You sighed through your nose and stood, feeling the chilly midnight breeze flowing through the door to the balcony Dasai had left slightly ajar to let in fresh air. You looked through the trunk containing your clothes and pulled out a simple white button down your black breeches, and slipped your Transponder Snail into one of your pockets. You redid the buckle on your boots before leaving through the balcony door and closing it behind you so your friends wouldn't get cold.
Rolling up the sleeves, you glanced at the ring around your finger before launching yourself over the side of the balcony and landing cleanly on the ground a few meters below, kicking up a small cloud of dust. The village was peaceful at night, you smiled a little, fondly recalling when Mihawk took you on walks around the castle when you couldn't sleep even if he himself was tired.
You patted the knife strapped to the left thigh of your pants fondly, remembering how he told you to bring a weapon, no matter where you were. You began a leisurely walk, simply enjoying the evening air, the scent of the sea brushing past you and filling your senses gently. A rare moment of relaxation, you breathed deeply, calming your nerves and slacking your body.
Several minutes passed, to nearly half an hour before you finally reached the beach, spotting your battleship a good distance away, but turned away from it, wanting to forget about your status as a Marine for the night. When your back was facing it, your eyes met with a pair of calm black, piercing into your own with an odd serenity.
You gazed at him, level-headed, before turning your body so you were fully facing him and glanced over his face, immediately recognizing him, but deciding not to mention this; you didn't know if he was there to eliminate you, after all.
"Can I help you?" you asked politely, and the man smiled softly, looking relieved you didn't react violently. You weren't the type to fight unless provoked.
"No, I simply saw what looked like a handsome ghost of pure white wandering around town, so I decided to get a better look," he replied with a lighthearted tone. You chuckled, realizing he was referring to your white hair and shirt, the two easiest things on your person to see in the dark. He took your easygoing response as some sort of permission and walked a little closer, but still a comfortable distance away. "You're Marine Captain 'Red Swan' [First Name], aren't you? I must admit, you're as striking as the rumors say."
You blushed softly, rubbing the nape of your neck with a bashful smile, waving him off with your other hand. "Please, I'm not that attractive."
He smiled lopsidedly. "Well, I think you ought to look in a mirror a little more often then," he joked and you laughed lightly into your hand again. "I would introduce myself, but I'm assuming you already know who I am."
You held the elbow of your right arm with your left hand, the fingers of your right hand touching your shoulder, shifting your weight to one leg. "Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army, Sabo, with a bounty of six-hundred million and then some. I'm sure Mister Sengoku wouldn't give me the end of it if I were on duty when saying this, but I must admit it's an honor to meet someone like you."
Sabo seemed pleasantly surprised by your genuine words and his smile widened into a grin. "Oh please, the honor's mine. I've been wanting to meet you for a long time - word travels fast in the Army, especially if someone's taken in a lot of our men without a hitch, without resistance. I can see why now that I see you in person."
"Flattery's wonderful, but if you're trying to win me over I think you're going to have to try harder," you said playfully, and your hand cupped your cheek as you gave him a confident smile, a borderline smirk. Sabo took a few steps closer, only a foot away now and you realized that he was much taller than you had expected - you were up to his nose, about.
"Is that a challenge, Captain...?" He had a look in his eyes as he gazed down at you, eager and curious. You tilted your head every-so-slightly, chuckling airily as his face grew closer to yours, slowly but surely.
"Take it how you want," you replied, placing your hand on his chest and pushing him away just as his nose almost touched yours. "You're one of the bolder men I've met, but I can't say I dislike it. I honestly took you for the shyer type at first, but it looks like I was wrong."
"Believe me, I usually am," Sabo shrugs at your words, standing up straight with his hands behind his back. "I'm just...excited to meet you for the first time."
"I see," your voice was laced with mild amusement. "I would ask you what you're doing here, but that's not for me to know, so I won't."
"Awfully honorable of you," the corner of his lips twitched upwards, before he offered his arm. "Care for a walk?"
"Of course," you held onto the sleeve of his shirt (his signature hat and coat were nowhere to be seen), and the two of you sauntered along the docks at a calm pace. The silence was comfortable, already feeling so familiar with each other. There was a certain playfulness between the two of you, jokingly flirting, but knowing that surely nothing would come out of this.
Eventually the two of you reached the end of the docks and hopped down onto the sand of the beach, and stopped just before the water. You slipped your arm from his and Sabo looked down at you questioningly, but stopped himself when he saw you taking off your shoes. Straightening back up and stepped forward into the waves. You stood still for a few seconds, at peace, before turning around and smiled at him apologetically, remembering his presence.
"Sorry, I don't many opportunities to sea the ocean without worrying about my crew or subordinates. It's...nice to see it in this context," Sabo watched your expression with interest as it turned distant when your eyes trained to the ocean, reflecting the moon high in the sky.
"Don't worry about it," he replied kindly. "I think I'll join you," he pulled his boots off without much effort before you could respond and held his hand out and it took you a moment before you got the hint and gave him your shoes with a soft 'thanks.' He nodded, before placing both pairs a safe distance from the tides, then rolling up his pants enough and walking into the salty blue, and standing beside you.
Silence reigned until you tapped his arm and pointed upwards. "A falling star."
Sabo blinked, following your gaze and managing to spot it before it disappeared. "...I haven't seen one in a long time."
"Really? You don't look up at the night sky often?" you asked him, looking a little surprised, and frowned when he shook his head. "Do you know the constellations?"
"Vaguely," he confessed, and you sighed with a small smile, before reaching out and grabbing his wrist, pulling him closer so you could guide his gaze with your finger.
"Well get ready, Sir Sabo," you said with a joking tone, "You're going to be here for a long time - I'm going to teach you all the constellations. The sky is just our view of an infinite world, it's beautiful and mysterious beyond comparison. You should get to know it."
Sabo said nothing, watching your face adopt a fascinated and engrossed look as you began to point up at the night sky, your words going in one ear and going out the other. He just smiled stupidly, and it widened when you didn't notice it.
Yes, he was definitely glad he got to meet you in person.
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A/N: I think I'm going a bit fast here but I want to get as much information in each chapter as possible, but not make the chapters themselves too long. The chapters are only highlighting the most important things about Reader's relationship with the others, so count on Marineford coming up in the not-so-far future.
There's some puns in the names of Reader's subordinates; "Dasai" (ダサい) means something is sucky or unfashionable, meant to be ironic because he's one of the smartest in Reader's Marine unit, I took Bidan from "bidanshi" (美男子), which is a term used for a beautiful or good-looking male.