FicWad

"Hya!" Summer shouted as she swung the sword at the leather dummy, driving the sharp blade deep into the bound support. It hit with a satisfying thunk and stuck to the post. With a grin, she yanked back the blade and flicked it to the side. At a glance, the strike wasn't much, but to her it was perfect. Right where she had wanted to aim it. Her arm swung the blade up once more, but was stopped by a loud shout to her left.

"No, you gotta put more force behind it, baka!" Turning her head, she saw Shachi once again yelling at Penguin. The two were in the middle of their own training, facing each other with swords. Smirking, she wiped at the sweat dripping down her forehead with her sleeve and walked over to the wall to sit down, placing the sword against the wall next to her. She'd been at it for hours and now decided she deserved a break.

"What are you talking about? That last attack was perfect!" Shachi snorted in disbelief.

"Yeah, perfectly terrible." Penguin bared his teeth, the only thing you could really see of his face. Summer always wondered what it was with this crew and hats, but she didn't say anything about it. In all honesty, it was kinda cute.

The two continued to talk smack, and Summer's attention drifted to the post she had been hacking away at for the past two hours. It was well and truly mottled with sword strikes. The red cloth she had attached to the middle, her target, had been cut free from the post from the constant attacks against it, and Summer smiled to herself in satisfaction.

'I'm getting better, little by little.' Closing her eyes, her thoughts sobered her pleased feeling. 'Soon, I'll be able to kill you, Viper. I can feel it coming.'

More yelling made her open her eyes, bringing her out of her thoughts. She once again noticed the two friends arguing, still trash talking each other and actually forgetting what they were supposed to be doing: loud antics made her roll her eyes.

"There's no way you could beat me with those arm muscles." Penguin shouted, pointed towards the other engineer's arms.

"Well, you fight like a girl!" Shachi yelled back, but then immediately turned to Summer nervously. "No offense, Summer-chan. You fight awesome."

Taking a swig of water from her bottle with a low chuckle, she waved it off good-naturedly. Shachi sent a smile of his own, but was shoved by Penguin.

"Well, why don't you keep your eyes on your opponent, baka! Rule number one of sword fighting!"

"Then bring it on, baka!"

"Get ready to lose, baka!"

"Guys!" Summer shouted, bringing the attention to herself. She laughed at their bewildered expressions, as if they had forgotten she was even in the room. Pushing to her feet, she grabbed the practice sword and walked over to them.

"Don't you think you should get back to actually practicing instead of standing here yelling at each other?" She asked with a chuckle. The two looked decidedly abashed, and gave their shoulders a small pat." We all get into it, but we gotta get better, you know?"

"Right…" They muttered. Finally taking up defensive positions, Summer left them to their sparring. She set the sword back on the rack and pushed open the training room door. The cooler air outside chilled the sweat that clung to her skin, and a shiver ran down her back.

Glancing around, she took a whiff under her arms and grimaced. She seriously stank, no thanks to the hours of practice. Quickly turning around, she made her next destination the showers.

No one passed Summer by in the hallway, to which she was thankful. She didn't think any of the others would have wanted to get a sniff of her like this. Stopping by her room first for fresh clothes, she wrinkled her nose every time she got a whiff of herself.

Entering the large bathroom, she spotted the towels on the laundry rack and grabbed one. One sniff confirmed that it was clean, and she headed towards the farthest stall. She silently, begrudgingly, thanked Law for designating this stall only to her. That way, she wouldn't have any shower fiasco she had so feared when first joining the crew. She guessed even Law knew a girl had to have her privacy.

Sliding the curtain shut, she began undressing, placing her clothing in a small compartment in the wall which had a door on it to prevent her stuff from getting wet. It felt amazing to get the sweat-caked tank top and pants off of her, and she quickly closed the little compartment door after placing the towel in as well.

Steam rose up through the stall as the water hit the perfect temperature and she let the stream cascade down her face and body. She kneaded shampoo through her long locks, massaging her scalp with her narrow fingers gently.

Closing her eyes, she tilted her head back in bliss and allowed her mind to wander.

Unfortunately for her.

'/There's nothing between Kat-ya and I.' /Law's face, so close to hers, jumped it's way into her head and she forced her eyes open as soon as it came.

'No! Baka, Summer, Baka!' She rubbed at her face in hopes of snapping herself out of this ridiculous mood she was in. Whatever this was, it was pissing her off. Taking even breaths, she analyzed what exactly she was feeling, deciding it was better if she knew what this was than to push it away immediately.

One thing popped into her head instantly: she wanted to kiss him again. To say her lips ached for it would be an understatement. It was almost a pain at that moment, brought about by the stupid image of her captain so close. It was so vivid in her mind, she could almost feel his warm breath against her face as he leaned in, could almost feel his heart beat in tandem with her own, could nearly see his gray eyes staring into her violet ones.

"Dammit…" She muttered aloud as she placed her head against the tiled wall, realizing she'd been daydreaming, standing there unmoving as the water continued to rain down on her body. She even forgot she hadn't washed out the shampoo yet, and now brought her hair under the water to rinse it out.

Through the pattering of water, Summer heard the bathroom door open and then close, meaning someone had entered. She waited a few seconds before hearing another shower head turn on.

Quickly finishing with conditioner, she rinsed it out as well and turned off the faucet. The soft fabric was wonderful against her wet, heated skin. Putting on the soft, cotton shirt and shorts was even better. Throwing her hair up in the wrapped towel, she grabbed her dirty clothes and opened the shower curtain.

Whoever had entered was still washing up, but she left before she unpleasantly found out who. The trip back to her room was uneventful, and she threw her clothes into her hamper in the corner.

"Ahh…" Summer let out a contented sigh and threw herself onto her bed. Arms spread out on either side of her and hair fanned out around her head, she stared up at the ceiling.

Once again, the scene from the infirmary rose to prominence in her mind and she shut her eyes in frustration. Obviously this wasn't going to go away anytime soon. So what was she supposed to do?

'/Go with it.' /The back part of her brain said, and it seemed to echo back and forth across her mind until it felt like it would explode. Too tired to tell it to shut up, she fell asleep.

Law turned the last page of the third medical textbook that day, leaning back in his chair with a groan. He rubbed at his eyes, wishing for the thousandth time that he wasn't so severely an insomniac. The days lacking sleep was really starting to take its toll, mentally and physically. He'd had to read whole pages of the book several times when his mind started to drift into thinking absolutely nothing.

Glancing at the empty coffee cup that sat on his desk, he wisely chose not to get up and ask Casper to start the fourth pot of coffee that day. Getting up, he stalked slowly over to his bed and all but toppled onto the sheets.

'Just an hour...' He told himself. An hour of rest and then one more book.' The silence lulled him into a deeper and deeper rest, and his mind had almost shut off completely, granting him that sweet…

Purururu...purururururu...pururururu…

Opening his eyes, he stared up at the ceiling for a moment, cursing whatever it was that just had to come up at that moment. He was pretty sure karma disliked him very much, because she sure wasn't giving him any leeway. For a moment, he just listened to the ringing, debating whether it was worth answering. Caution won out in the end. With a sigh, he lifted himself off the bed and picked up the den den mushi on the desk.

Purururu...purururu...gatcha.

"Report." He said, not realizing just how tired he sounded, unconsciously rubbing at his eyes again.

"Captain, the following ship has changed its pattern and is now slowly gaining on us." He picked up his hat and placed it on his head, before grabbing his nodachi that leaned on the wall.

"How long until they overtake us?" There was a pause before Jean Bart answered in a confident tone.

"An hour at most."

"Keep an eye on them, and give me a fifteen minute warning. I expect we'll need to be prepared for a fight." He said.

"Aye, Captain." The ex-captain hung up the line and Law did the same. With a longing glance towards his bed, he quickly pushed out of his darkened quarters. He would rest after this was all over.