FicWad

One Week Later

"Captain? Are you in there?" Bepo gently tapped on the door to Law's quarters, unsurprised that there was no answer from within. He balanced a tray of dinner in one hand easily. "Captain, you need to eat something or you won't-"

The door suddenly swung open, causing Bepo to take a step back in surprise. There stood Law; no hat, the circles under his eyes darker than usual, and drooping eyes. Obviously he hadn't looked in a mirror in several days...or showered. He stood there staring at Bepo silently.

Bepo wasn't sure what to say. "Captain?" He asked meekly. He'd never seen his friend in such a state before.

"Tell Casper-ya that I will not eat until I find where Eustass-ya is heading." He moved to close the door once more but stopped. "Don't bother me until I've finished my research."

"But-"

"That's an order."

Bepo flinched at the force of the door slamming, almost dropping the tray in his hand. Steadying it once more, he stared at the door in unease. The silence was deafening, stirring in him a sadness his regular bouts of depression could never produce. Never had his friend been in such a state before, nor had he ever brushed him off in such a manner. He'd always been considerate and kind, but this was something entirely different.

Bepo sighed, turning to go back to the kitchen. Law hadn't come out from his room in a week, not since Summer was kidnapped by their rival pirate crew. He even refused to eat his meals, and Bepo wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Captain…" He murmured.

Summer swayed in her chair, determined to stay awake despite her exhaustion.

'You've endured worse.' She told herself. A week without food is nothing compared to what I've experienced before.'

Her stomach grumbled loudly at the thought of food and she groaned in pain. The organ had been protesting violently since the second day of her stay. Nothing she tried worked against her hunger.

In front of her the door opened, blinding her once again that day. Looking away, it wasn't until the person was forcing her chin up to meet his eyes did she realize who it was.

"Enjoying yourself?" Kid plied, smirking wolfishly into her pale face. Her outward appearance had taken a steep decline since her capture. Her skin felt dry and itchy, pale from lack of sunlight, and her muscles were tight and sore from inactivity.

"Immensely." She ground out, fighting the urge to bite his thumb that rested on her lip. She jerked her head away from his grasp, huffing in annoyance when he grabbed it again.

"Just be grateful we haven't tortured you. I mean, the guy before you had it way worse. You should've seen him after we were done asking questions." He laughed humorlessly, ignoring the fact that Summer once again intentionally neglected to ask what he was talking about.

"How much longer?" She asked, skipping the useless banter. Finally, he let go and paced in front of her chair.

"About another week. The coordinates weren't very clear, so give or take a few days. Then we'll be rich and you'll be hauled away to wherever your buyer wants to take you."

"Sounds fabulous." Her monotone response made him turn.

"Do you mind if I ask a personal question?" He asked in fake apprehension.

"Yes, actually, I do."

"Why is it that you joined that Surgeon bastard's crew anyway?" He continued, ignoring her previous statement. She wasn't surprised, slowly getting used to the way Kid did things around here. From observation and almost daily interaction, he didn't care what his actions did to others, much less how they would feel about it.

"I really think that's none of your damn business." She took a deep breath, terrified that simply carrying on a conversation was enough to wear her out at this point. How much had she declined in just a week?

Kid placed his hands behind his back, walking to and fro in front of her. "Oh, but I think it is. You see, your 'captain,'" He said, signalling quotation marks for the word captain, "He is my enemy. Therefore, I need information on his plans and movements. And you are my ticket to that information." He pointed at her.

"If you think I'm gonna sell out my crew simply for my own safety, then you're a bigger dumbass than I thought." His face darkened.

"Need I remind you that your life is in my hands." He said lowly. She smirked.

"No, my life is in my buyer's hands, and that means that as long as the offer stands, you can't kill me." He bared his teeth in frustration and sent a hand flying across her face. The blow snapped her head to the right. Summer momentarily lost her breath from the force of it.

His hand squeezed her jaw once again, this time with a deadly grip. She whimpered from how strong his fingers around her chin was, a little intimidated by the pure hatred that filled his eyes. When he spoke, it was the most serious she had heard him talk. Almost too low to hear, he leaned in until she could feel his hot breath from every word. "I might not be able to make you dead, but I can bring you pretty fucking close."

He spun on his heel, opening the door and slamming it shut. Face still stinging from the blow, Summer's eyes reflexively shed a few tears.

'I want to go back home...'

'/Where are you?' /Law thought for the thousandth time, scanning through page after page of newspaper and bounty reports. His desk and bed were covered in haphazard stacks of paper, leaving no room for him to sleep or work efficiently but at this point he could care less.

'Where did you take her?'

Crumpling up the front page of that day's paper, he tossed it somewhere behind him. Going back to the map on the wall he gazed at what he had so far.

A chart graphing every island that the Kid Pirates had landed on in the Grand Line stared back at him, mocking his disheveled appearance and scattered mental state.

'What do you want with her?'

The idea for the whole thing was to try to calculate the most probable island that they would go to next, but it was getting nowhere. There had been no news reports over the last few days as to their whereabouts. So they were keeping low to avoid detection.

'What have you done to her?'

Running a hand through his greasy and wild hair, he groaned aloud. His body was achy all over from sitting in his chair for several days without standing. He caught a whiff of his own scent and grimaced. He really needed a shower but he was too distracted with work to step away from it.

'Come back...'

Why had all this happened? What was going on? He tugged at his hair in frustration, gritting his teeth in pain when his headache roared back to life for the hundredth time that day. He really needed sleep but even if he tried all that he got was fitful dreams. Those dreams were all the same: Summer, hurt and confused being dragged away by Kid who laughed mockingly at Law's inability to save her.

'Why does it hurt so much?'

The worst pain, even worse than the physical exhaustion, was the emotional one. His heart ached, that was the only way to describe it. No, it burned. The fire that was his regret and anger raged within his chest and he could find no solution to fix it. The fact that her absence affected him to this extent was frightening, he was unhappy to admit. So many terrifying scenarios raced through his tortured mind and none of them were of any help at that moment.

'What have you done to me?'

He'd known that his feelings for Summer had grown stronger and stronger as time progressed. He'd known that whatever this was-love, lust, or something else entirely-was completely foreign ground for him and that he had no idea what to expect out of it. Never did he think losing her like this would hurt this much.

'For once in your life...'

He let out a breath, releasing his grip on his head because the pain from his nails digging into his skin finally began to register in his consciousness. How low had he come, the fearsome Supernova of North Blue, to become this emotionally ruined over a woman.

'Admit it...'

He'd always told himself he wasn't capable of love, always been convinced that the seas were his true love, the thrill of evading those that pursued him, the calculated plans that fell into place so perfectly...Those were what he longed for.

And then she had stepped into his life and turned everything on its side. Her wit and humor had kept him interested, enough to where he would naturally seek her company. She was smart, sharing her knowledge of the world and graciously respecting that she didn't know it all...in her own way.

She treated his crew with love and respect, something that impressed on him immensely. She could laugh and joke with the men with ease, not afraid to give or take a challenge when the time arose.

God, he was getting so damned s/entimental./ What would Corazon have said about all of this? He shook his head. He couldn't just will these feelings to go away, he'd already tried and failed.

"Damn it all…" He muttered, unable to stop himself from a small grin that he couldn't quite explain.

'You love her...'

Kid took a long swig from the bottle of sake, gazing out into the ocean. The sun was just beginning to set and the waves were calm. Up ahead, a storm was brewing, slowly approaching them and gaining in momentum. But they wouldn't need to worry about that until at least tomorrow morning.

Footsteps approached him from behind, but he didn't turn around. Soon enough, Killer came up alongside his captain, joining his thoughtful gaze out to sea.

"Any information?" He asked to break the silence. Kid belched, taking another sip of sake.

"Nah, she's too smart for that. She won't give in, no matter how much you torture her."

"Mmm…" Killer hummed, not sounding disappointed in any way.

The two resumed their watch, leaving each other to their own thoughts. Slowly, the bottle of sake was consumed, until Kid produced another from his coat and began on that. It took less than ten minutes for his captain to get drunk, and even less time for him to start thinking aloud.

"Have you taken a good look at that girl lately?" He slurred, hand on his chin thoughtfully. Killer glanced at his drunk companion and shook his head.

"She's a looker, that one. A nice ass, too." He took another swig of the bottle, though Killer doubted it was necessary at this point. "Wonder if she'd be good in the sack. I gotta admit, that Surgeon bastard is a lucky son-of-a-bitch. I mean, who wouldn't want a front row view of that rack every day?"

Killer sighed but remained silent. Sometimes his captain said such ridiculous things.

Pururururu...purururu...gatcha.

"This is Commander Mona aboard the vessel Phoenix, who is speaking?"

"Mona...such a beautiful name...I believe it means 'Noble One' in Irish-" She sighed, rolling her eyes in annoyance just from the sound of his voice.

"Commander Leon, to what do I owe the pleasure?" She faked a pleasantly surprised tone, grounding her teeth all the while.

"Yes, I have a report to give to you. Information on the Heart Pirates, is that right?" Her eyes widened and she reflexively leaned forward in her chair.

"You have information?"

"We had a run-in with the Heart Pirates just a few days ago, about sixty kilometers off the coast of Dikti Island. How unfortunate that you weren't able to view the sunset over the mountains in the distance, it was-"

"What direction were they heading?" She asked impatiently, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen. She wrote down Dikti Island, sixty miles off coast and waited for more.

"Ah, I believe they turned towards the southwest. The most beautiful cultural island is in that direction, with a lovely-"

"Thank you, Commander. You've been a tremendous help." She promptly hung up the phone, sighing in relief that it hadn't been too painful. She could only take so much of his definitions of beauty.