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Cabaji stared out over the sea toward the tiny dot of land coming ever closer as he absently dug the point of his knife under his nail. Just far enough to clean out the dirt.
It had been a hell of an eventful couple of years and nothing seemed to make that clearer than the unapproachable island that was fast approaching.
“Cabaji!! Cabbage, my number one guy! Holding up alright?”
The bladesman jolted when he heard his captain's voice, but managed to avoid cutting himself in his surprise as he turned and saluted instead.
"Captain," he greeted, pushing his hair out of his face. "Was just wondering if we're going to get up on the island at all."
Was he holding up alright? Were any of them? Cabaji wondered if his captain was alright, thrust ever higher into further and further echelons of danger. The careless days of harassing small islands and pocketing minor treasures seemed far away.
“We’d better!” the captain snorted as he floated over, his feet running to catch up. “If they dragged us along just to watch I’m gonna give them a piece of my mind as Supreme Leader of Cross Guild!”
"Yeah, captain, I know ya will." He huffed a chuckle and put the knife away. Cabaji was of course one of the inner circle who knew that Buggy wasn't exactly really in charge. But still. "Make sure to let me help if it comes to it."
“You know it.” Buggy grinned as he leaned against the railing of the ship with a raspy chuckle. “Like hell I’d let my best guys rot away on the ship.”
Cabaji leaned until he was shoulder to shoulder with him. He pushed his hair out of his face. It was nice to hear, but these days his captain's flattery felt a little hollow. "Yeah? Not gonna lie, Captain– I'm starting to feel a little outclassed these days."
“Outclassed?” Buggy turned his head to face him with a crinkle of his red nose. “...out here in the New World??”
"I mean, yeah? A little?" He frowned, glancing over at the door that led below deck where he knew Buggy had probably left Sir Crocodile and Hawk-Eyes muttering over strategy. "Surrounded by all these famous warlords and devil fruit users, and haki masters. A guy could start to feel pretty penny ante."
“Not gonna lie to you, Cabaji.” Buggy huffed. “I’ve been feeling out of my depth from the fuckin’ start. There’s a reason I wanted to spend another decade preparing with you guys before we hit the New World. I wanted to bum around paradise for a while until we were ready but..”
"But we really got thrown in the deep end and told to swim, huh? Uh. No offense." Cabaji ribbed him with his elbow, with the hint of a smile. Teasing the captain a little– as long as it wasn't about the wrong things– was a right he'd earned in the years sailing with him.
Buggy snickered and elbowed him back. “Yeah, we sure did pal. But you know what? We keep fuckin’ swimming. Metaphorically, I mean. We’ll never reach the One Piece if we just sit around thinkin’ about how we’re not good enough compared to the freaks of the New World. We’re freaks too! Even if you don’t got a devil fruit or nothin’.”
"Thanks, cap. I'm doing my best, you know? I keep wondering if there's some way I can do better to keep up. We've got so many guys now, and I don't want to be just a face in the crowd." He chuckled slightly, still thinking of the old days with fondness. "I'm used to being one of your star performers."
“And you’re gonna stay that way, Cab!” Buggy punched his shoulder with a grin. “hell, if you want an edge— we’ll find one! Seastone! Haki! Hell, I’ll find you a devil fruit that doesn’t suck if ya want. Just stay in my crew.”
It was a conversation they'd had before Cabaji hadn't made any indication that he was going to leave. But still. Still. He knew Buggy was worried. Maybe rightly worried that at some point Cabaji and the rest were going to feel so far in over their heads there was nothing to do but leave or die.
"I promise, I promise. Maybe though… I mean I'd be tempted," he admitted. Hastily he clarified, "About the edge, I mean, not leaving."
Buggy looped an arm around him and pulled him closer. “You’re a damn fine acrobat, Cab. the best I’ve ever met. You hold your own alright against these bastards…but I get it. We’re talking Emperors and Admirals out here. If you feel like you need an edge, I’ll getcha one. That’s how important you and Moji are to me.”
Cabaji flushed as the captain pulled him closer. It wasn't like he minded Buggy being close– the opposite, really. If it was just their crew he wouldn't give it a second thought. But he worried if they were caught like that around such bigshots that someone would hold it over their heads.
Or worse, make fun of the captain.
"I know, cap," he mumbled. "That's not the question."
Buggy looked out over the sea, his expression unreadable under the grease paint for a moment before he shook Cabaji’s shoulder with a wide grin. “So what is?”
"I don't know," he said, leaning on the captain and staring out along with him, back at the spot he'd been focused on before. "I guess I'm worried about letting you down? Making you look bad? It already sucks that the big shots are taking advantage of you. Not a huge fan of the way Mr. Croc thinks he can order your crew around."
“He’s kind of a smug bastard like that, ain’t he?” Cabaji couldn’t miss the way he quickly looked over his shoulder before he said it. “I think he’s just used to giving orders, you know? It don’t make it better, per say….”
He shrugged “we just gotta keep proving them wrong, right? You haven’t let me down yet, Cabaji. I mean it when I say you’re onna my best men. Who else has been with me since the damn start?”
Cabaji shook his head thinking about it. "Just me and Mohji, cap. Everybody else…"
Everybody else had slowly gone off their own way over the intervening couple of years. For a few of them that own way had even unfortunately been in the ground. But mostly they'd just scattered to the four winds. Now it was the captain and the two of them– and grudgingly he included Alvida and Galdino– and the rabble who'd come to join Buggy's delivery. Now Cross Guild.
“Exactly. Everyone else left. And I can’t blame ‘em, of course…I mean. We’re on to bigger and better things. They couldn’t handle it? Then they left. But you and Mohji. You guys have always stuck by my side no matter how bad it got.” He grinned. “that means somethin’ right?”
He smiled back, shaking his head.
"Yeah, cap. It sure means something. No doubt about that."
Some days he thought it meant that he was stupid. Or suicidal. But in the end, he was pretty sure he was just that attached to his captain. They had always been the underdogs. The showmen. Buggy's ragtag band of misfits and miscreants. Even after so much had changed, he still wanted to be there. He still wanted to be standing beside his.
He just wanted to be enough.
Buggy chuckled, his paint not quite hiding the dark circles under his eyes as he leaned there squinting at the island ahead with an arm around him. He turned his grin towards Cabaji.
“We’re going to flashily change the world, right? And you’re one of the flashiest guys I know. You want a boost, I’ll force Hawk Eyes to give you some haki lessons. I’ll grab Doflamingo by the fucking lapels and shake a devil fruit out of him. But you haven’t let me down yet.” He laughed. “You’re still kicking ass, all these years later!”
He grinned bashfully and rubbed the back of his neck. "You're gonna make me blush, cap. Alright, alright, you talked me up. I know you'll cook up something so I can keep up in this New World. Shoulder to shoulder with you, just like this."
With one tacit glance backward, he finally put his arm around the captain in return.
Buggy grinned widely as he squeezed him tightly to his shoulder with a loud laugh, pointing towards the island.
“Damn right, Cab! Shoulder to fuckin’ shoulder we’re gonna flashilly take the New World…the World GOVERNMENT by storm! Starting with these damn Marines! Captain’s promise!”
"I'll hold you to that, captain," he chuckled. He rested his head against Buggy's. "I'm looking forward to it."