Chapter Text
She held the wet coat close to her face, curled fabric brushing against flushed cheeks, droplets of water sliding down her frame, overwhelmingly drenching. Yet, she could not help but continue caressing fur with skin.
His scent was still there. He was still here.
He had to be there.
She was absorbed deeply, imagining the last time she saw his face, heard him laugh, touched his skin. So deeply infact she managed to ignore the person infront of her responsible for his death. When Zara got notified mid-fight by her friend Cloey that Kid's ship burst into pieces, she did not think twice to teleport over. Cloey was hysterically sobbing when she arrived. Apparently it seemed she was scouting out the area, searching for herbs to use in her scientific research when she saw them disappear. The whole ship, gone in an instant, ruined beyond repair. The only thing salvaged was his coat, washed upon shore.
Her and Kid haven't seen each other for a month, but were corresponding regularly. Cloey was also always close to him just to make sure that in case something bad were to happen, she'd be able to teleport over instantly.
She just spoke to him an hour ago. He was estatically telling her about almost having reached his dream.
There were no details, of course, their relationship built on mutual understanding to live and let live, but he trusted her enough to convide in her.
So much so, he allowed Cloey to stay close to them. Cloey was her anchor, where Cloey was, she was, what Cloey saw, she saw. She was tiny, unremarkably so, only pocket sized and looked just like her. A double, created after she ate her devil fruit. Cloey was unbelievably practical. Her strength as a broker unbeatable. And if she were to be killed, she'd just return to her flesh, take time to recuperate before splitting from Zara once again.
It was safe to say, she took precautions for those close to her heart.
And yet.
She had been too late.
It was too late.
He was gone.
And he was there. Him and his crew.
They saw her teleport. Her portal screeching, forcing cracks into the sky, splitting it open in a way that was unable to be ignored. Her emotions got the best of her. Like thunder she cracked into the space, right next to a babbling, snot faced, Cloey. Her split hair was dissheveled, face blotchy from the amount she cried. She not only cried for him, she cried for her. What Zara could not process, Cloey did. So to be comforting she put this snot faced brat in her breast pocket, close to her heart, while she explained what transpired and showed her what remained of him.
All that was left, she thought as she fell into his coat, was something she gifted him. She was curled into it, blank faced and exhausted in a way that locked her limbs together. No one would be able to take her away from him, she promised herself. No one could make her care enough to let go off him.
But there he was, reaching for her.
" Zara." His voice. His voice. His voice. It was him, he killed him. Vile, little rat.
How she could have ever liked him was beyond her. She thought him to be genuinely good. A pirate one should strive to be, a protector. The only thing this red haired devil was protecting was his pride. Even his hair was ugly. Kid's locks were so much more vibrant, full of life. His strands were flat and red. Bloody.
Her hands gripped at the fried edges of fur, squeezing water out as she looked up in the face of her former friend. He looked concerned, his crew close behind reflecting his feelings.
"Sweetheart-"
Rage. Boiling heat was bubbling, threatening to burst. Her blanket was ripped away from her sight and she was seeing clear again, eyes spitting fire, pupils constricting as she gazed upon his visage. Three scars over his eyes, gentle they wanted to appear, but she knew, she knew know they were anything but. She had a knife holstered on her thigh, she had several of them. Zara wanted to pierce him as deeply as he did her. She wanted to rip him apart and laugh in his face as the very last thing his eyes would perceive was her victory.
He stiffened, the hand that was reaching out to her withdrew. His crew tensed, some ready to pull out their guns, but he held up his hand, intercepting gently. This vile man. Her teeth were clenched tightly enough her gums were bleeding. She reached out and let go of his coat. In her rage she broke her promise. She let go off him and she pounced, weapon drawn.
He was wide open, unprotected, on purpose.
She knew him. She has watched him and everyone here for years. Dissected them in her analysis. Grew with them. And understood that while he had been her favourite character as a child, he was anything but what her fantasy of him has created.
She met him briefly when she first arrived, or better, got dropped into this land and got disappointed by just another boring man easily influenced by a pretty face.
He was smiling once their bodies met, her knife piercing the shoulder where his arm was missing. He was quiet when they fell on sand and his arm curled around her back, protectively.
Gentle. He was so gentle. Hate him. I hate him.
Their noses were touching. Zara dragged herself closer, almost ripped his white shirt apart and glared at him. He needed to feel what she was feeling. She needed him to know. She looked into his eyes and they softened.
The shouts of his crew were forgotten, almost blended into the background, her focus solely on him, until someone wanted to drag her off and he commanded them to stop.
The arms on her limbs retreated, her knife remained buried, if anything it buried deeper.
"Zara" she growled, "if I would have known he meant that much to you, I would have never touched him quite like this."
Quite like this, he said. Liar.
He was a goddamn liar. What he meant to say was even if he knew, he would have not stopped his attack. It did not matter.
Their friendship did not matter.
She dragged herself closer and bit into his throat. His veins pulsed around her teeth. He groaned and ripped her backwards by her hair. The strength he possessed she always envied. Even know she was too weak to damage him. The skin around her bite barely gave in, he was unhurt and unmarked.
The fingers clenched into his shirt tightened and she got closer, breath right next to his ear.
"I want to rip you apart, cut open your belly and pull out all the squishy parts and use them as my scarf. I want to reach into your rib cage, hold your heart, rip it out and eat it." The last part was said with such ferocity, she suprised not only him.
However she imagined him to react, it was not like this.
His grin was bright, expression coated by a deep heat that confused her. Dark pools of lava were bubbling behind his pupils, threatening to burst.
Coward. He was still hiding behind his glass mask of gentleness.
"What a love confession."
She stiffened, disgust openly visible and scrambled frantically backwards. She stopped once her hands found fur instead of sand and looked down at the last remains of the love of her life.
She wrapped it around her feverishly, having almost forgotten the comforting smell in her rage and took a deep breath.
A squelch and the knife that was in him was removed.
" Is it poisoned?" Shanks pondered as he observed how the hilt that had been formerly black, now a deep red, was pulsing beneath his fingers.
"No." She sighed as she felt Cloey fuse back into her body. She needed rest.
"Curious."
Zara looked up and could barely suppress a flinch, when his hand reached out. In her suprise, the air that left through her teeth whistled and made it sound like she was hissing.
He sighed, exasperated and put the knife back into her holster. Just for a second his fingers grazed their way from her upper thigh down to her knee and squeezed as he got back up.
But it was enough. Far too much. Her body whipped to the side and she vomited.
She could feel the devil's eyes on her but could not turn away until her stomach was empty and she was wheezing. Zara did not want to dirty the fur by getting her vomit on it. She needed it clean and full of his scent forever. She spit out the rest of what was left and buried herself deeper into the coat, looking up.
Shank's expression seemed guarded. He conversed with Ben in words too fast for her brain to register.
Regardless, she did not want to stay for whatever they had planned. Like a baby fawn, her legs buckled beneath her after only a few steps taken.
As if she weighed nothing and before she could fall flat on her face, he swept her off her feet into his arm and pressed her face to his neck. The coat she had gripped tightly enough it remained around her body like a protective shell.
Salt and fire tickled her nose. Like a forest fire being swallowed by a hurricane. Disgusting. He smelled disgusting, it turned her stomach.
She bit him with the intention of breaking skin. He was moving without missing a step as his fingers ran through her strands.
His chest was rumbling, he was humming.
She hated him so much. As soon as he was asleep she was going to cut him into little pieces and devour him.
It was not as easy as she had thought. Once they'd reached the Red Force, Shanks had put her into a room and shackled her to a bed. She tried to resist, she did, but he was too strong. The moment he sensed her resistance with observation haki he knocked her out cold. Zara foolishly believed he'd let his guard down by her silent behaviour, but he was the ultimate liar. Of course he'd easily figure it out.
Here she was, at the mercy of a monster.
"Do you hate me?" He asked, toying with the ends of her hair in a curious murmur.
"The moment you look away, I will stab you in your back and rip out your spine and use it to choke you to death until you shit yourself and everyone will see the real you."
He laughed, eyes crinkling.
"I cannot wait" he leaned forward into her space and kissed her nose affectionately.
She was going to skin him.