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There was bound to be trouble tonight. Ikkaku knew it the second the Kid Pirates marched through the tavern door. Honestly, she was surprised an all-out brawl hadn’t already happened. The two crews had run into each other a few times already on the Grand Line, and so far, the longest the two rookie captains had managed to go without a fight was twenty-eight minutes and thirty-two seconds. Penguin had timed it.
It was a record she doubted would be broken tonight; ten minutes in and Law was happily throwing shade from his table and Kid’s retorts were getting pissier by the second.
Sighing, Ikkaku quickly downed her pint of beer, physically and mentally preparing herself to vacate her place at the bar and abandon her fantasy of a nice, relaxing evening out. She’d even gotten gussied up, forgoing the boiler suit in favor of a tight skirt, tall boots, and a crop top. What a waste.
As she set down her mug, a large, lightly tanned hand smoothly but firmly set down some belli beside it while a low, quiet voice informed the bartender, “Another for the lady, and I’ll have the same. With a straw, though.”
A pleasant shiver ran down Ikkaku’s back at the low, familiar timbre. The man it belonged to had starred in her wet dreams since their hot, steamy night together over a month ago. It was another instance of their crews running into each other, this time hunting down the treasure rumored to be hidden deep in the island’s jungle. However, the massive, ravenous reptiles that called the jungle home had attacked at the same time a massive monsoon hit, scattering the crews in the chaos. By pure luck, Ikkaku and Killer had ended up holed up in the same cave, soaked to the bone and more than a little banged up.
She’d admittedly been leery of the dangerous first mate, but much to her surprise he’d been a perfect gentleman; helping her fashion a splint for her sprained ankle, starting a meagre fire to try to dry off their clothes, and just generally going out of his way to show she had nothing to fear from him. He’d even removed his mask in a show of trust. Over several hours suspicion turned to acceptance, which turned to small talk, which finally morphed into flirting.
By nightfall, after a purred comment about sharing body heat, he was fucking her torturously slow, rasping filthy compliments in her ear, ignoring her pleas for him to speed up and fuck her harder; she could tell from the way he gripped her hips that he was holding himself back for the sake of not jostling her injured leg. When she’d woken up the next morning, she found him dressed and preparing a quick breakfast for them, his mask once more in place as he announced they’d better be getting back to their respective ships.
Now, he was at the bar beside her, ordering her a drink. Ikkaku hadn’t expected that. She’d figured she was just another notch in his belt, like he was hers, and they’d have no further interaction beyond trying to kill each other at their captains’ command.
“Shouldn’t you be making sure Kid doesn’t have an aneurysm?” she asked, forcing herself to sound casual. Normally, she wouldn’t have any trouble talking to a past one-night stand, but those people usually weren’t the first mate on an enemy ship.
“Heat and Wire can keep him in check for a few minutes,” Killer replied, tone neutral as beige wallpaper as he stuck the little bendy straw through one of the holes in his mask. “Though, that wouldn’t be a problem if Trafalgar didn’t insist on winding him up.”
“Kid gets wound up by the mere fact that Law exists,” she countered as she accepted her fresh beer from the bartender.
He turned to face her, leaning his hip against the bar as he sipped his drink. “True. Suppose it’s lucky that Kid’s in a good mood. His bounty went up again; otherwise he’d be even more eager for a fight.”
She scowled slightly at that. He was right; the new wanted posters had come with the day’s News Coo, and Kid’s was nearly thirty thousand belli higher than Law’s now. “Bounties aren’t everything,” she insisted with a stubborn pout. “Law can still kick Kid’s ass.”
“Are you seriously playing the ‘my captain can beat up your captain’ game?” he asked, head tilting slightly to the side.
A pink blush spread across her cheeks at his callout. Gods, it sounded so childish when he put it like that. “You’re oddly talkative tonight,” she stated, changing the subject in hopes of salvaging her dignity.
“Something wrong with polite conversation?”
“Just trying to figure out your end goal, here.”
“Well, why does a man usually buy a beautiful woman booze?”
Her blush darkened despite herself. She’d usually be immune to such comments, but the purr in his throat instantly took her back to that night and the way he’d told her how damn good she felt around him as he drove her over the edge for the second time. Beneath the lip of the bar, she rubbed her thighs together. “Lookin’ to get into my pants again?” Honestly, she secretly hoped so. Now that she wasn’t injured, she’d love to find out just how much Killer had been holding back.
One muscular forearm rested across the back of her seat as he leaned in just the slightest bit. “Wouldn’t say no, but mostly wanted to check on you.”
Ah. Of course. He was there to make sure there hadn’t been any consequences to their tryst. Disappointing, but understandable.
“You didn’t get me pregnant or anything,” she assured. One of the benefits of having a genius doctor for a captain meant that she was on one of the best birth controls known to man. The downside was that, if Killer had accidentally knocked her up, there was no way in hell she would have stood a chance at hiding it from Law. Gods, the hell that would have broken loose if she were carrying the Massacre Soldier baby…
His broad shoulders shook slightly, and Ikkaku was shocked to find Killer was holding back laughter. “Good to hear, though I was gonna open by asking about your ankle,” he finally said, mirth tinting his usually deadpan voice.
Man, this just wasn’t her night, was it? She was usually so much smoother. Clearing her throat and taking a sip of beer to regain her composure, she replied, “The ankle’s fine. Nothing worse than a light sprain. Honestly, Law was more concerned with the finger-shaped bruises on my ass.”
She got a smug sense of satisfaction when Killer choked on his drink. That reaction almost made up for the absolute grilling she had gotten from her captain over precisely how she might have received such marks.
“So he—”
“I told him you must have given them to me when you hauled me up over your shoulder so we could run away from the giant lizard that was chasing us,” she said with a smirk. There was no way Law had actually bought her excuse, but there wasn’t much he could do beyond scowl and assign her extra chores as punishment for fraternizing with the enemy.
After all, he’d slept with X Drake—both before and after the Marine’s career change. Who was he to lecture her about fraternizing with the enemy?
Ikkaku watched Killer’s broad shoulders slump in relief. “Kid doesn’t know, either, and I ain’t telling. He’d either use it as ammunition to rile Trafalgar up, or kidnap you in some misguided show of friendship. Neither seemed particularly respectful towards you.”
“Thanks,” she said softly, hiding her smile behind the rim of her mug. She was pleasantly surprised to realize she hadn’t even entertained the thought that he’d brag about banging her to his buddies. He just…didn’t seem the type. And the fact that he’d kept quiet partially to protect her reputation was oddly heartwarming. “Law’s…protective, so I can’t imagine either scenario going in your favor.”
“Would sure as hell get tonight’s brawl started early.” He glanced over his shoulder at the two bickering captains before looking up at the clock over the bar. “Nineteen minutes, forty-seven seconds. Think they’ll beat their record?”
“They just might,” she giggled. So, the Kid Pirates timed their fights, too, huh? “Unless something happens to set one of them off.”
“Like what?”
“Like Law noticing you talking to me.”
“He’d get mad over us talking? I’m not even touching you,” he said, drumming his fingers pointedly against the back of her chair. It was true; though he was close enough for her to feel the heat radiating off him, no part of his body was making contact with hers.
“Just because I fibbed about where those bruises came from doesn’t mean he believed it for a second.”
“How’d he even see them, anyway?” he huffed, and Ikkaku could imagine his eyes had narrowed critically behind the mask. “Do you really need to strip down to your skivvies for him to treat a sprained ankle?”
Elbows rested on the bar top as her fingers linked, creating a nice little spot where she could demurely rest her chin. Dark eyelashes fluttered up at him as she answered with a charming smirk, “Killer, I’m a woman. An insanely hot one, at that, who tends to make a habit of mouthing off to dangerous people. You think that my captain wouldn’t be just a teensy bit paranoid about something having happened to me after realizing I’d spent the night alone in the jungle with a dangerous man like you?”
The hand on her chair shifted to teasingly trail along the exposed skin of her lower back. Ikkaku shivered at the sensation of rough callouses gently dancing along her sensitive spine, and she had to bite her lip to hold back a moan as his fingers pinched the end of one of her curls and gave a sharp tug. One of the few rough actions he’d allowed himself to indulge in had been hair pulling once he’d realized how much she loved it.
Her thighs rubbed together again, and this time he caught the action if his harsh inhalation was anything to go by.
His voice had a hot, rough edge to it as he replied, “I think he’d be even more paranoid if you, say, decided to leave the bar with me to spend the night in my quarters.”
Oh. Oh, that was a tempting offer. That night in the jungle had been good, but Ikkaku knew it was just a taste of what the masked man could offer. She was sure he’d leave delicious new bruises all over her smooth skin, and maybe he’d even let her take the reigns for a while. The only problems was she knew Law wouldn’t approve and would likely Scan the whole island for her if he realized she was gone. He could forgive her for sleeping with the enemy once, but twice? That was pushing her luck.
Her theory was proven as she found herself encased in a blue bubble, and in a blink, she was at her captain’s side, her chair at the bar occupied by his empty mug.
“Killer-ya,” Law drawled, scowling at the masked pirate out of the corner of his eye, shifting his nodachi so it lay pointedly between him and his female subordinate, “it’s not nice to bother a lady when she’d drinking.”
“He wasn’t bothering me, Law,” Ikkaku griped, irritated not just by the cockblock, but the fact that he’d drawn the whole tavern’s attention. “We were just talking.”
“His hand was on your ass.”
“It was on my back!”
“This time,” he growled under his breath.
Before Ikkaku could retort or smack him upside the head, Kid decided to butt in. “Killer, were you seriously lookin’ to bang the Heart chick?” he sniggered, eyeing the woman deviously. The way his smirk widened at Law’s glare foretold trouble. “You know, now that she’s outta that ugly uniform and actually dressed like a woman, I can’t say I blame you.”
“Watch it, Eustass-ya,” Law said lowly, his relaxed posture and mocking tone from the beginning of the night having evaporated like raindrops in the desert.
Sensing the tides had turned, Kid ignored him to address Ikkaku. “Tell ya what, girly; how about I buy you for the night? As a gift for my first mate.”
Dark eyes widened at his audacity before the mechanic snorted, jutting out her hip. “If a guy needs his buddy to buy him a woman, I’d say that’s a pretty good indicator that he’s shit in bed.”
She mentally apologized to Killer, though by the way she could see his shoulders quietly shaking out of the corner of her eye, he’d found her barbed retort more amusing than insulting.
After all, he’d given her three orgasms in one night while holding back. If anything, she should be paying him.
Kid, of course, was far less entertained, his sarcastic smile morphing into an angry frown. “Listen sweet cheeks, you’d be lucky to take Killer’s dick.”
“Speaking from experience, Eustass-ya?” Law asked, teeth flashing with sadistic delight.
“Oh, you little—”
At twenty-seven minutes and fifty-one seconds, the two captains finally began fighting for real, metal and body parts flying as their crews grabbed whatever makeshift weapons they could to join the fray.
As Ikkaku smashed a chair over Wire’s back, she caught Killer’s eye.
The Massacre Soldier’s mask kept her from seeing his expression, but from his casual shrug, she suspected there were no hard feelings between them for either the fight or lack of having a second go. She graced him with a saucy grin, even as they both turned to aid their captains.
Ah well. Perhaps some other time. Anything was possible on the Grand Line, after all.
End.