Chapter Text
"Oi. Are you listening?"
Paulie crossed his eyes. Slowly, he brought Iceburg into focus, hands held out to hold an immense binder, lips drawn into a thin line, and a very disgruntled frown.
Shit!
“No, I’m here. I was just… ” Paulie ran a hand over his neck. Think quickly, Paulie. Invent!
"Lost in thought?" Iceburg suggested.
“No, of course not. Absolutely not. I ... I'm just a little tired, that's it. But I can go on. For real."
Iceburg's lips slightly pulled down and Paulie, feeling very unprofessional, instinctively broke into a cold sweat.
Iceburg seemed to study him for a few seconds. Then, he closed the folder with a sharp clack and placed it on his desk in a lightning-fast gesture that left Paulie more stunned than he already was. "It is not necessary," said the mayor, removing the glasses from his nose and inserting a rod in his shirt pocket. "In the end, there were only a few updates I had to inform you of."
Oh.
Sounds… strange .
Paulie scratched his chin. "Seriously?"
"Seriously," Iceburg dropped the weight of his body on the chair and, closing his eyes, placed an index finger in the space between his eyebrows. “Go and rest. It's late."
Paulie, quite surprised to have gotten away with it, got up and retrieved the jacket placed in bulk on the large sofa. He put it on slowly, almost expecting that at any moment Iceburg would stop him by telling him that he had changed his mind. But he didn't.
He approached his superior's chair, feeling a little guilty. As for tiredness, it wasn't like Iceburg was any better off than he was.
“What about you? How long has it been since you’ve last slept?"
Iceburg chuckled, "Don’t bother. I’ll do it soon. But first I need to inform our unknown benefactor of the sudden change of plans of the council. " He yawned. "He will be delighted."
“Sudden indeed. But honestly, it was about time," Paulie commented, more to himself than to the President, tapping his jacket pockets to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. The council's hesitation had gone on far too long in his humble opinion.
He walked wide strides towards the exit of the room. But once he crossed the threshold, he stopped.
Wait a minute. There's something wrong here. Why should he inform him?
He retraced his steps and stared at Iceburg suspiciously.
"Are you saying that the unanimous consent to proceed with the work that was obtained at the last meeting was his doing?"
Iceburg neither denied nor agreed. But a mellifluous smile spread across his face.
What did this guy ever do to convince them all? he thought . And above all, who the hell he is?
Paulie frowned further and continued to stare at Iceburg, hoping he would add some more information. But the mayor didn't elaborate and ignored him completely, letting out another loud yawn.
Paulie held back a grunt. It was bloody frustrating to be put in the dark when he had long understood that the president knew the identity of the benefactor of the council and deliberately wanted to conceal it. The respect he had for Iceburg prevented him from asking direct questions about the guy . However, at times he wondered if all this mystery was necessary.
“What the heck did he do? Did he threaten them?"
“Don't be silly, Paulie. There are means much more powerful than simple threats."
"Like?"
Iceburg showed him the back of his hand and rubbed his thumb with the other bent fingers.
Money? Paulie scratched the back of his neck. And why did he make a move now and not from the beginning? We would have saved a lot of time.
He let out a long sigh.
He could try wrapping his mind around this enigma all night, but with the practically non-existent information in his possession and Iceburg's selective silence, he would never figure it out.
He greeted the president with a nod and left the room, bitterly giving up.
With the back of his head and his arms resting on the Galley-la's poolside, Paulie absently watched the clouds across the sky, in a rare moment of relaxation.
Since he had become Vice-president, there had been very few opportunities to use the pool. Luckily, due to the implementation of the "Wall" that would take place within a week, the mayor had announced to all the employees of the company to celebrate the great event as they saw fit. And he leaped to make up for lost time and laze around the pool for the next six days.
He closed his eyes and let himself be lulled by the sound of the water flowing beside him. There was some cackle from some fellow punk - probably Lulu and some other dorks from Dock 1, because when did those idiots keep quiet? - but nothing that disturbed his inner peace.
It was as if the open contact with water canceled all sounds. Surrounding out and in his head.
"What a shameful man," a familiar female voice suddenly said, with a good dose of sarcasm, making him jump. “All that meat on display! It is men like you who are dangerous to society." The statement was followed by a big laugh that made several heads turn, including his own.
As soon as he turned around, his field of vision was occupied by Nami, who was sticking her tongue out, clearly making fun of him. There goes my peace and quiet , he thought sorely, looking at her from the bottom up, letting out a sigh that was halfway exasperated, halfway troubled.
"Very funny," he replied dryly. Then, in a slightly more conciliatory tone, he added: "Did you really have to disturb other people’s peace?"
"Why? Did you miss me?" Nami winked at him.
Paulie clicked his tongue and changed position, sulking.
"I’m joking," she added. The small splash of water that hit him as Nami's legs materialized beside him confirmed that the girl had sat on the edge, and had not dived, as he feared. Instinctively, he backed away anyway.
"So? What did you do during my long absence? You got bored, didn't you?" He heard her saying.
There’s no time to get bored here at Water Seven. Not even when you want to be.
"Far from it," he replied, carefully placing his arm over the edge of the pool, making a huge effort to look at her eyes and not focus on other areas that the girl insisted on keeping recklessly exposed. "The navy had come to make their usual reconnaissance tour..." his gaze changed to an accusing glare, "And in a hurry, Iceburg and I had to hide the drawings, the books, the sextant and all the suspicious and vaguely incriminating objects that you, as naïve as you are, left on display on your desk as if it was nothing."
Nami looked at him casually, clearly not giving a damn about the danger they had faced for her. She couldn’t care less, this little-
"Well, did they discover you?" she asked, matter of factly, with an irritating serenity.
An eyebrow rose almost to his hairline. “No, but certainly not because of you . If Captain Jango had even glimpsed one of your- "
"Wait, wait," she cut him off. Her eyes widened. “Did you say Jango? Captain Jango ?"
Paulie nodded quietly, puzzled, not quite understanding what was wrong with the marine's name.
"I can't believe it," she said, shaking her head and giggling to herself.
The perplexity painted on Paulie's face intensified. They had been one step away from blowing her cover and she was laughing. What the hell…?
The pirate caught his eye and, sensing that her reaction needed context to be fully understood, since her current behavior didn't make any sense, she cleared her throat. She took a lock of fake hair and put it behind her ear, gazing at him.
“Jango, or ‘Double-Crosser Jango’, was a pirate before. Captain Kuro’s first mate. And he was one of the very first opponents my crew faced. That’s why I remember him very well." She tilted her head, her gaze now turned into the distance. "I didn't know he joined the navy."
Paulie greeted that revelation with a gaping, incredulous mouth.
Jango… a pirate?
Sure, the marine was an unusual type. Very very unusual. And not just for the flashy clothes and the shuffling walk. He was really weird inside . He had decreed it from the first moment he met him. But never in his life could he have suspected his recent past as a pirate.
"Well well, the world is a small place, isn't it?" She said with an open smile.
Small indeed , he supposed, pulling his wet hair back.
"It seems like a century has gone by since then," she continued, sinuously moving her long, uncovered, shameful, and extremely distracting legs underwater slowly and so casually that he should find neither captivating nor mesmerizing.
Nevertheless...
Mentally calling himself an idiot, he immediately looked away and put even more distance between himself and the woman.
"Where are you going?"
Paulie ignored the question and kept his gaze in the opposite direction of the cat burglar. Only then did he notice the unnatural silence that reigned in the pool and took care to really observe his surroundings. All the people who just a few minutes ago were relaxing and screaming at them were petrified and looking in their direction.
No , he realized, glimpsing at them one by one. They weren't looking in their direction. They were looking in her direction. He could sense their hungry gazes, alert at her every move.
"I think you should leave," he snapped suddenly in a whisper.
“And why on earth? What did I do? And anyway you have no answer-"
"You're putting on a show." He did, abruptly, and with an eloquent gesture, he invited her to take a look around her to ascertain the point.
She did so and when she too saw the precarious situation she was in, instead of cutting the rope without attracting further attention, as any other person in her circumstances would do, she did something enormously reckless that left him breathless: she grinned at his companions with that ridiculous enticing smile of her and waved at them with false naivety, knowing perfectly well the effect she would arouse.
Paulie, alarmed and too shocked by Nami's reaction to coming up with anything vaguely logical that could fix the problem, just admonished her with a stern frown. Meanwhile, a trail of cheers, heart eyes, and incoherent screams rippled from where the two of them stood and a line of people was making its way to their poolside.
"What?" she said, giving him an amused look.
“You think it's appropriate to act like that with a bounty on your head?"
"My my, how tense you are! Relax a little." Then, she muttered, "There’s nothing to worry about. I have the situation under control."
He grunted. He wasn't so convinced. He looked from the girl to the line of approaching carpenters.
The wig and hat Nami wore were different enough from her real hair and her usual look to fool the naïve, but the clever ones? What would happen if the employees who witnessed the events that took place seven years earlier recognized her? It was one thing if Lulu, Tilestone, or even Zambai with his old gang could identify her. Those were people he trusted. But what about the others? Would they spy? Would they remain silent and pretend nothing happened?
There were too many unknowns to consider. And it was not in Paulie's power to resolve the unpredictable plot represented by the pirate's presence at Water Seven. Still, he couldn't help but worry.
In the incessant buzz of the inn that Kiwi and Mozu had been running for years, Paulie, sitting at the counter, gave yet another furtive glance at the group behind him before draining the third beer of the evening in one gulp.
Better stop here, he pondered, setting the empty mug in a corner and gesturing to the employee behind the counter to take it back. I have to be lucid if something happens.
But he had been there for a while and he hadn't noticed any suspicious attitudes. Which of course meant nothing. The current quiet did not guarantee that there wouldn't be a storm of epic proportions in the immediate future. So it was always good to stay alert and avoid distractions.
He tilted his chair at an angle that gave him a better view of what was happening at the nearby table and openly observed the group of carpenters who had followed Nami from the Galley-la pool.
For more than half an hour the group, consisting of a dozen people, had been busy laughing coarsely at one of the side tables while they were challenging each other by drinking shots and counting improbable stories. Judging by the number of shot glasses in front of the pirate - seventeen , he noted, raising his eyebrows - at least she was winning the first challenge. It was more difficult, given the general turmoil, to understand who was ahead in the second challenge. But he didn't care. They were having fun and the general atmosphere was relaxed, and it was more than he had hoped for. As risky as it had been for the navigator to propose to go out and have a good time in some club with the employees of Galley-la, he had to admit that at least until then, nothing had happened. She seemed to really be ‘in control of the situation’. He could breathe a sigh of relief.
"Why don't you join them?," came a high-pitched voice to his left.
Paulie gave the lady a sideways look before focusing again on the group in front of him.
"Next time maybe." He tilted his head slightly, noting, from the less receptive movements and from the eyelids that were struggling to stay open, that the amount of alcohol that Nami had consumed in the evening was starting to take effect. Bad sign. Bad horrible sign . "Today I'm not in the mood."
"That’s a shame." Kokoro continued, swinging a glass of wine between her fingers. “Even the most serious and inflexible people sometimes need entertainment. Otherwise, they burst. "
"I entertain myself a lot," Paulie answered reflexively, keeping his gaze on the pirate. “Just not today.”
She may have self-control that many men will envy, but she has just crossed her threshold. She will collapse shortly. I feel that.
"Growing good money after bad is not entertainment, but sheer thoughtlessness, Paulie. Even a definitely-not monster of virtue as myself can tell you that."
Paulie opened his mouth, a smug retort on the tip of his tongue, but at last, he thought better of it and closed it again.
"Good point, old woman."
“Ahr, ahr. You're very welcome." Kokoro said, tilting the glass of wine as a way of thanks.
Paulie took advantage of the end of the conversation to take a closer look at the inn's other patrons - fellow civilians whom he knew by sight, mostly - looking for any person who was suspicious or who seemed to have identified the face of the navigator, but even then he found none.
His eyes returned to Nami.
He focused on her vivid and shiny eyes, a few steps away from her drunk oblivion. On the open, animated, and contagious laugh of her, which had the power to illuminate the entire room, obscuring all the other customers. Her boisterous exuberance and her natural ability to draw people to her.
He dwelt on all that and then...
And then he realized what he was doing and looked away. But in doing so he made eye contact with Kokoro, who was now looking at him with a knowing grin.
The old woman had just caught him staring. Damn it!
Caught off guard, Paulie said the first thing that came to mind.
"It's not what you think."
The raised eyebrow that Kokoro gave him in response to his pathetic attempt at a proper retort spoke volumes about how much she believed him. "No, you say?"
Paulie's ears were on fire, but at least he had the decency not to make any more excuses. Nor to say anything else, in all honesty.
He remained in a contrite and resigned silence for the rest of the evening.
‘ Control of the situation’. Sure , Paulie thought with irony as he took the keys from his pocket and opened the door of his house, dragging Nami inside, who was now almost completely collapsed on his shoulders. He went into his room and placed her as gently as possible on his bed. He hoped that the contact with the mattress would induce her to rest, but unfortunately this was not the case. She laid still only for a moment and in a matter of a few seconds, she wriggled and wrinkled his immaculate sheets, babbling nonsense.
He looked at her uncomfortably, his hand rubbing his forehead and hiding part of his face.
It was a bad idea to bring her here. What the hell was I thinking?
The real problem was that the alternative to bring her to his house was to let her wander unsupervised through the streets and canals to reach Franky's base at the other end of the city. And that was not an option, given the girl's current state of intoxication. Sure, he could have given some of the other carpenters at the inn the task to take her there, but since they were no better off than her in terms of the amount of alcohol in the body - and that, frankly, Paulie only trusted of what he saw - he had resigned himself to sit through that annoyance too and had carried her to his house like a sack of potatoes. But he was already regretting his decision.
And now? What should I do?
He looked in the direction of the supplies, brooding.
While Nami kept twisting and turning from side to side of the bed, continuing to whisper incomprehensible words, Paulie opened the doors of his wardrobe and other shelves in search of a blanket that could cover her. His house, being quite dated and facing north, had the unfortunate characteristic of being slow to give off heat, and although he had grown accustomed to that characteristic having lived there for more than a decade, his host obviously wouldn't be. So, to spare her the inconvenience of waking up cold the next morning, as well as with an inevitable post-hangover headache, the least he could do was offer her something that could warm her up during the night.
Not that the aforementioned guest would ever remember such courtesy , as she was drunk out of her mind. But whatever. He did have manners and wasn’t, in fact, the troglodyte she claimed him to be.
When he finally found the blanket he was looking for and turned around, Paulie was startled enough to find Nami standing in front of him, her eyes and lips half-open.
Oh, shit .
"There," he told her, panicked, practically throwing the blanket at her, which she surprisingly grabbed with only a slight lack of coordination. "For the night," he added since from her puzzled gaze she didn't seem to have grasped the function of the thrown object.
Nami looked at the blanket for a few more seconds, then he brought it close to her face to give it a deep sniff.
Interpreting that last gesture was not easy. Paulie tried an "I may not have used that in a while, so if you want a cleaner one I might—"
But she shook her head. “It smells good,” she mumbled, smiling oddly at the blanket and burying her head on its surface.
Paulie looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Now she is acting weird. Great.
"Oh, before I forget ..." He filled a glass from the kitchen with water and handed it to her. “Drink it all. Then go to sleep."
Just like a few minutes before, Nami took a while to record his words, but in the end, after looking suspiciously at the glass, she emptied it in small sips and gave it back to him.
She looked at him with her mouth ajar, blinking her eyes every few seconds, as if she was waiting for something.
Paulie, puzzled, turned his back to her, to put the glass back where he had found it. For a moment, he had thought she was going to ask him where she was, but he quickly let it go, as it was unlikely she had realized she wasn't in a familiar environment. The silence lasting far too long was proof enough.
His thoughts froze when he sensed her hand catching his wrist.
He turned his head and looked at Nami’s brilliant amber eyes, which were trying their best not to lose their focus.
“Thanks,” she uttered softly, drawing small circles on his arm. Perhaps unconsciously.
Paulie felt a chill in the space where she was touching him. He swallowed, suddenly aware that they were alone, two feet apart, in his bedroom.
He didn't know what she was thanking him for, but he answered nonetheless.
"I couldn't leave you there alone," he told her in a whisper, tense as if he had just revealed an unspeakable secret.
She nodded and smiled with gratitude, still with that unfocused look.
They both stayed still and quiet for a while.
Then, with slight disappointment on Paulie's part, Nami suddenly sat down on her bed, wrapping the blanket over her shoulders like a long cloak. She lay down on her side and closed her eyes, unexpectedly falling asleep.
He stared at her for more than a minute, expecting that she would wake up, or that she would move. Anything, really; but the girl seemed to have collapsed once and for all. And although the news would normally have made him jump for joy, what Paulie felt in that instant and up to the moment he closed his eyes over the uncomfortable sofa in the mini-living room was just a deep and persistent sense of dissatisfaction.
"You haven't told me what I'm doing at your house yet," Nami said, elbows on the table and eyes half-closed, vigorously rubbing her temples in front of a steaming cup of tea.
On the other side of the table in his miserable kitchen, Paulie tried to hold off, but the girl, thanks to the hangover headache, was particularly insistent, as well as irritable.
He traced the curve of the handle of her coffee cup with his thumb.
The truth was that he wasn't avoiding answering her out of sheer meanness, but because he wanted to forget all the facts connected with the night before. Remembering them would have meant reliving the sensations he felt, and with that recognizing why he felt them, and he much preferred to ignore everything and go on his way rather than acknowledge that .
However, it was also true that the pirate really seemed to have no idea of how she got to his place. So, he truly did owe her an explanation. But he would be vague. Very vague .
He looked away from the cup and met her gaze.
"Do you remember anything?"
She shook her head. "Zero. I blacked out. "
And there it was again, in the pit of his stomach, that irritating, unpleasant, and unwanted feeling of deep disappointment. He tried to ignore that too.
"Well? Why that face? Did I do something wrong?"
He cursed himself mentally. He would have to work on controlling his facial expression if his exterior was so revealing.
He quickly ran a hand across his forehead. “Actually, no. You were surprisingly... good."
"What does that mean?”
He swallowed his coffee in one gulp. “It means you were uncharacteristically calm. Almost a paradox that when you get drunk you are like that, while when you are not you behave like a ticking time bomb."
“Um…” she mulled over, mouth shut, her hands still on her temples. After a minute she took her hands off to wrap them around the cup, but her frown poorly hid a migraine still in progress.
She sipped her tea calmly, while she was enlightened about the circumstances that had brought her there. As predetermined, he gave her a general explanation that seemed to suit her.
Thinking he had gotten away with it without arousing the slightest suspicion, he let out a sigh of relief.
"So I didn't throw myself at you?"
Unprepared for that sudden question, Paulie had no other way to reply than with stunned silence.
"No?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
He kept his silence and gawked intently at her, almost not believing his ears. How does this insolent person ask such questions as if nothing’s wrong?
He should have gotten used to her sudden exits, but each time she managed to surprise him. And seldom positively.
"Oh, God. Yes?"
"No!" He shouted. He immediately regretted doing so, because Nami flinched at the volume of his voice.
Fortunately, she relaxed after not long. “Ah, that’s good. Now that I’m thinking about it, I still had all my clothes on when I woke up,” she asserted, coolly. Then she sighed and looked out the window.
Disoriented by the girl's tone, which appeared anything but relieved, Paulie settled back in his chair and retrieved his lighter and cigar from his pocket, seeking reassurance. Its intense, aromatic aroma filled his lungs, and by the second puff, he felt better.
"Do you always ask these kinds of questions when you get drunk?"
"No." Then, without taking her gaze from the window, she added. "I rarely get drunk."
"I have a hard time believing it."
"Oh really? Then let me rephrase. I’m aware of my limits and I rarely get to the point of overcoming them. When I'm high I know I'm more cheerful and unrestrained than usual, but I have no idea what happens when I'm completely drunk." She gave him a serious gaze. “Do you believe me now ?”
Paulie inhaled the smoke from the cigar and exhaled. His lips twitched into a fine line.
Her answer, which only partially explained why she had asked that question, wasn't satisfying at all. But it was enough for now.
They finished their breakfast chatting about this and that and went down the stairs.
Afterwards, they took opposite directions. Nami to Franky's old base, Paulie to the Galley-la headquarters.