Chapter 35: Interest

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When you woke up in the morning inside a pirate ship you had joined just yesterday, what shocked you the most wasn't the fact that your room's door was fixed but how well you had actually slept.

You stared at your eyes in front of the mirror, not used to seeing a reflection without dark circles. A hesitant hand reached for your throat as you stared at its reflection. You gulped, feeling a stinging sensation at the back of your throat. It hurt?

You could have stayed a bit more staring in wonder at the state of your skin. Nevertheless, filling your stomach sounded much more enjoyable than staying here and eyeing yourself like a narcissist. Looking at your eyes one last time, you walked to exit the room, keen to eat breakfast and congratulate your brain that had come up with the greatest idea yesterday.

You smiled with glee, once again remembering the plan you had put into motion yesterday. The doorknob moved underneath your hand as you opened the door distractedly, but before you could exit your newly claimed bedroom your eyes landed on the hinges of the door. They had been placed where they belonged. Back on the wall. The lashes of your eyes fluttered from your slow blinks.

The door was broken yesterday.

You shook your head from left to right, moving your head to dissipate the memory of yesterday's events from your head. Black hair.

Too close.

You pushed the door open, closing the bedroom's walls to the outside with a bang and walking away from the now repaired wall.

It was no longer crooked. You did not turn around to check though, opting to head to the dining hall in silence.

Your room's lingering heat dissipated around you across the cold ship.

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The hall was just as noisy as yesterday, but the noise made it all the more familiar to you. Today you hadn't gotten lost on your way here.

Was that something you could congratulate though?

You scoffed in irritation at yourself, causing someone next to you to look at you questioningly.

Without paying attention to the pirate, you piled a plate with some food, dodging drinks and plates flying around in the room and trying not to step on any mysterious stains on the floor. For some reasons you didn't feel that hungry now, cringing as you viewed the mess.

Giving up on filling your plate with food, your eyes scanned the room, trying to find a place to sit. Just when you started to walk, wriggling around the people all headed in different directions, you felt the gazes of multiplied eyes on you. You raised your head, still in an eccentric position from your attempts to move around people, and stopped.

Ah...

You stood up straight and exhaled, meeting the eyes of Marco who was eyeing you expectedly. You noted that the same people from yesterday's dinner had assembled on the table you were staring at.

Were they waiting for you to join?

Your eyes landed on a certain black haired pirate. He seemed tired, eating his food as though he could fall asleep any moment. But still energetic enough to slap away the sneaky hands that were trying to reach for his food.

A scowl took over your face as you took a step back unconsciously, not meeting Marco's gaze but rather putting your attention into scanning for an empty table and failing miserably. You prayed for a reason to stay away from that table.

-"Oof-" A sudden voice emerged from your back as you collided with another body. You turned around in haste and stuttered out and apology, only to stop:

-"Don't worry about it! I was just looking for you anyway." Teach spoke up, staring down at you with excitement.

You paused, too confused to put on a fake smile. You hadn't moved at all in the last minute. Had he bumped into you on purpose?

-"Were you looking for a place to sit?" Teach spoke up before you could respond. You narrowed your eyes. Yes, he was definitely seeking you out. "We can sit together if you want. I can't leave a fellow friend sitting alone." He spoke up again with a glint in his eyes. It was as though he was analyzing you-

You put on a fake smile and raised your head.

You couldn't display weakness now.

-"Actually I was invited to sit on that table over there." your hand pointed towards the place where Ace, Marco and the others were sitting. Blackbeard glimpsed at the table you had pointed towards and turned back to look at you with a smile. Your bravery faltered at the sight, flashbacks of the same smile in the battlefield filled your head.

-"Then I'll join you guys." Teach continued, seemingly unfazed with the change in plans.

-"O-of course."

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You were glad you hadn't gotten much to eat since it felt as though you would throw it all up in a matter of seconds. You looked around the table which was plagued by the aftermath of drinking, populated with people going through all sorts of effects of a hangover.

You looked over at Ace, who was on the farther side of the table, the opposite direction of you, situated right next to Blackbeard. You scowled out of reflex even though you knew they were only sitting so close because of you. Out of the 2 empty seats on the table you had chosen the one farthest away from Ace. You sighed.

Out of nowhere Ace met your gaze with a bold glance. You looked back without reacting, both of you seemed comically indifferent.

You wouldn't let him get to you, you couldn't. Not after allowing him to see your weaknesses yesterday. You turned back glancing at your breakfast with disinterest. You wanted to curse the faith that kept making your eyes meet, the same faith that had brought you together.

Abruptly a cough engulfed your body, cutting the silence of the table like a knife. The more you tried to control it, the more it kept growing, burning your insides and slicing your throat in two.

-"Woah, you okay there?" Thatch asked, placing a glass of water in front of you. You accepted the water with gratitude. However, your gratitude turned into sorrow once you realized the water did nothing to ease the pain in your throat. Your face contorted into one of agitation. It felt as though your insides were burning.

-"Thank you Thatch. I'm okay. Had trouble swallowing my food." you replied, hoping your lie would keep him off your back. You held your stomach out of reflex. The burning sensation felt familiar, you knew it did. Marco and Thatch looked at each other, noticing something was off even through your best efforts.

-"Take care of yourself." Thatch replied, not sounding convinced.

-"What happened to your door yesterday by the way? I heard that they had to fix it early in the morning." Marco continued. You stopped eating, stealing a glance at Ace who did not react. Leaving you to deal with the issue. 

-"O-oh, I- I just opened the door a little too hard yesterday..." you clumsily replied. Even you could tell your answer sounded weird.

In the corner of your eyes you could see Ace smirking slightly, heightening your embarrassment even more. Marco let it go with a simple 'be more careful next time' and allowed you to recollect yourself. You couldn't help but cover your face, too embarrassed to hide your humiliation.

-"How did everyone get so close to the new girl before I could introduce myself? I asked if she wanted to sit with me but she said she was invited here!" Teach suddenly spoke up loudly, cutting the loud conversation between Thatch and Ace, banging his hands energetically against the table. You froze, your fork halting mid-air. "Man, so disappointing! I'm always so late to the party" he continued.

Your breath hitched. Had he noticed your lie? Or was he trying to figure out whether you were telling the truth or not?

Of course they hadn't invited you, you weren't close enough for that with anyone here. Thatch and Marco looked at each other again, confused with what Teach was saying. You gulped, calling for your powers for the chance of things escalating.

Did Blackbeard remember you? What were his intentions?  You eyed the cup in his hand and wondered whether you should make it splash across face.

-"I told her to sit next to me." Ace suddenly spoke up, placing his mug on the table with a thud. "Yesterday I ran into her and said you better come find me tomorrow." He continued leisurely.

-"Got a problem with it?" he asked, his tone taking on a harsher tone.

Blackbeard's hefty laugh filled the table.

-"Of course not Commander Ace! I'm just excited to meet our new recruit, ya know?" He said, patting Ace on the back harshly. Ace laughed along, his imposing aura disappearing in seconds, replaced by a carefree atmosphere. You gulped, allowing your body to relax and freeing the restraint in your muscles.

As they continued to joke around, you turned towards Thatch, putting your plan into action.

-"Thatch you said you were leaving on a mission today right?"

-"Yeah?"

-"Would it be a problem if I joined along?"

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Ace gulped down another piece of chicken all the while chugging some apple juice and slapping Marco's hands that were trying to sneak some food from his plate.

-"I heard the new girl is joining Thatch and Teach for their mission?" Marco stated, biting off a piece of the apple he had stolen from Ace's plate. It sounded more like he was questioning the actuality of the statement. Ace raised his eyebrows in question, his mouth filled with too much food to express any sort of response. He hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and it was dinner now. He was too hungry to care about anything else.

He gulped down his food in one move and chucked some water, turning towards Marco to get a better view.

-"Getting into action, is she?" he said jokingly, slapping Marco's hand that was trying to steal some toast off his plate. Marco took his hand back, taking another bite out of the apple.

-"You know, it feels as though you guys are close to each other." Marco cooly continued, giving up his pursuit on Ace's plate, content with the apple in his hands. "I bet she likes you." he added, smirking knowingly towards Ace.

-"Is that so?" Ace answered back, seeming uninterested with the conversation, instead simply taking the apple from Marco's hand and throwing it across the hall with a gleeful snicker.

-"Come on..." Marco complained, searching wistfully for his lost apple as someone could be heard shouting across the hall for whoever threw the apple. "With how many people are interested in you, I can't believe you haven't shown any interest back to at least one of them." Marco continued, managing to steal the toast Ace had been buttering during their conversation. Ace put down his knife with exasperation, annoyed at Marco for stealing his food and the conversation he had started.

-"You know I'm really not interested. I'd rather not-" Ace stopped. I'd rather not continue this lineage. He frowned in annoyance.

-"Either way, I'm honestly not interested. Okay?" Ace finished, looking at the dark clouds that had formed across the sky through the window. Marco took a bite out of the toast in his hands, understanding that Ace was done with the conversation.

They continued eating their food in silence, until the event that would be the talk of the next two days took place seconds later.

-"Hey, new girl! Are you alright?!" A shout rang across the chaotic dining hall, causing all the others to fall into silence. Ace quickly turned towards the noise, searching for the cause of the sudden outburst.

Marco dropped his toast on the table as both of them stood up to see the girl on the ground, being held by Thatch in an attempt to halt her fall.

-"Call the nurses!" Thatch's shout rang out.

A pool of blood could be seen oozing out of her mouth.

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Hello! Did I make you guys wait? Sorry for that.

I read all your comments on the last chapter..And I would just like to say that I have the most wholesome readers ever. You guys literally rock. I literally loved reading your comments, you guys are so nice...

I'm still going through some stuff so I can't really go and say everything is better than ever but I'm happy the people reading my story are so kind. I thank you for that.

Anyways, did you like the chapter.

Question= Did your favorite chapter change or is it still the same?

Sorry I might ask this question from time to time, I just really like to know what each chapter people like the most, so don't get annoyed when I ask this again haha

Anyways hope you enjoyed and see you in the next chapterz bye

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