"Ow…" Beth mumbled, clutching her throbbing head with one hand. There was a lump where it hurt the most, but she had no recollection of where it had come from. She sat up, dangling her legs over the bed and-
Wait, a bed? Hadn't she been at the auction house before? Was she back at the mansion? A quick glance dashed those thoughts. Wherever she was, it was entirely made of wood.
The bed she sat on had loose springs and a few pushed up into her rear uncomfortably, but it helped to wake her up. The room was small, not a whole lot bigger than her closet at the palace. Across the room stood a large chest, not overly decorated but trimmed in painted gold.
There was a small window to her right and she slid off the bed covers to go look. It was set at her perfect height, and she peered out the small bit of glass.
Outside was nothing but the ocean, the waves lapping against the wood of the ship. A ship! That's where she was. And then suddenly all the events of the day before came down on her at once. The auction house, Saint Charloss being punched into the wall behind him, the bomb collar…
Her hands flew to her neck, relishing the feel of bare skin and not a large metal disk. It felt amazing! A wide smile broke out on her face and she spun in a circle. A contented sigh escaped her lips.
Footsteps above her broke her train of thought and she glanced up quizzically. Finding the door on her left, she slowly opened it. The hinges squealed in protest loudly and she instinctively shushed them to be quiet.
'I just shushed an inanimate object...' She thought to herself embarrassingly. Closing it behind her with as much noise, she found herself in a branching hallway. On the left was more rooms, on the right were a set of stairs leading upwards. Taking the right, she ascended the steps with careful quietness. Somewhere up above, voices came into her range of hearing.
"...probably look for those who stayed behind." A male voice said. Another snorted in reply.
"Yeah well, he's got other things to worry about right now." Beth climbed the last step and faced a door. Presumably, it led outside to the top deck. Though, she wasn't altogether sure. She'd never been on a pirate ship.
With a dry swallow, she took the knob and pushed outward.
"Like what?"
"Like Whitebeard for one. He's got the whole world's attention right now. It's not like the Marines can just ignore him." The voice were louder now and she found a little more courage. She stepped through the gap in the door and peered outside.
The top deck of a ship came into view, and across the way the pirates she'd met earlier lounged around the railings, lazily drinking from bottles. If they were pirates, then that was probably sake.
They hadn't noticed her yet, but the masked man was facing her. Though if he had, he hadn't indicated she was there.
"Whitebeard's on his way out, I tell ya. There's a new era coming on, and us Supernovas are the center of it." The captain said, throwing back his head and drinking from the bottle. Beth summoned the last of her courage and walked full onto the deck.
Instantly, the men looked up at her. The captain's back was still to her, but she watched as the scarecrow one nudged his shoulder.
"So, you're awake." He called behind him, turning to face her. She got a sudden feeling of shyness and looked to her feet.
"Y-yeah…" Clasping her hands behind her back, she waited for them to say something.
"Well, we're all hungry. Get to making our lunch." He said, draining the last of the bottle of sake. She was confused for a moment.
"...Me?" She asked, pointing to herself. He rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, you. Why do you think I took that collar off? You're the cook now so get to it."
She stood, fixed in place from surprise. How did this happen? A slave to the World Nobles one day and a cook for a pirate ship the next…
"Well?" The captain prompted. She stuttered under the stares of the men.
"Umm...I don't...know where anything is...so...what am I…?" The scarecrow-looking one jumped down from the wooden railing and walked towards her.
"I'll show you." He didn't appear very happy about it, but Beth would take what she could get.
"Thank you." She muttered. He only grunted in response.
Following him back down below deck, he took her past the room she had woken up in, she thought, and down where the rest of the doors were. It turned out there was another hall branching off from the end of that one, and this one was where the kitchen was.
It wasn't fancy at all. Inside were wooden benches and two tables. Behind those, a door was set into the corner of the wall. The man pointed over to it.
"That's the kitchen. Everything's in there. I assume you know what everything is in a kitchen?" She nodded, and she thought he would leave after that but instead he eyed her curiously.
"What is it?" He asked. She frowned.
"What's what?" He sighed and rolled his eyes, pointing towards her.
"You look like you want to ask me something." Her face cleared.
"Oh! Yeah, umm...how many people are on this ship?" He crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame.
"Just us four. Well, five now with you here." She frowned again. Didn't pirate ships usually have 30 or more men? How could these guys even run the ship?
"Ok…" She headed towards the door but his words stopped her.
"Kid can be pretty bad at being nice, but he's not that bad a guy. Just get to know him a little." It almost sounded like he was apologizing for the captain's behavior.
"Kid is the captain?" She asked, and he nodded. "Well, what's your name?"
"Heat." She nodded and gave a little smile.
"I'd better start on lunch then, huh?" He only nodded silently and left the room. His footsteps took him back down the hall they had come.
Beth sighed and took a hair band from her uniform pocket. Tying up her hair, she pushed inside the kitchen. Suddenly she stopped.
Inside was a mess. Dirty dishes littered the counters and filled the sink. Cupboards were left open, revealing the sparse amount of ingredients inside. The pantry was wide open, an empty box of crackers left lying on one of the shelves.
"Oh, man…" She muttered, letting out a long breath. "This is gonna take a while."
Heat walked back over to his nakama. Kid watched him, obviously wanting to ask him something. He waited for the captain to say what was on his mind.
"Did you get her name?" He asked, twirling a piece of metal in his hands.
"No." Kid only hummed in response.
"Hopefully she can cook well and not give us food poisoning." Wire commented.
"That was one time!" Heat said heatedly. Wire only shrugged.
"It could've happened again." Kid only laughed at the two as they bickered and yelled.
Beth scrubbed the counters with the unlabeled cleaner she found in a cupboard somewhere. The only reason she opted on using it was because it smelled like a cleaner and lathered like soap. Who knew what it really was, but it supposedly sanitized the surfaces.
For the amount of dishes there were, she cleaned and dried them quickly. In all, it took 20 minutes for her to make the kitchen look presentable again. After everything was cleaned and sanitary, she rifled through the pantry for things to make a dish to serve five people.
The pantry was sorely lacking, having very little flour and sugar left and only a few types of herbs. They didn't have any sort of meat in the cold storage, and only a handful of dried vegetables. Even for a kitchen as low as a pirate kitchen should have more ingredients than this.
"Hmm...what to make…" She gazed at the small amount of ingredients before her and went through all the simple things she knew how to make. One recipe came to mind, but she needed one more ingredient.
"Bouillon cubes...bouillon cubes...where are you?" She muttered to herself, pushing empty boxes out of her way. "Ah! Here." It took four cupboards to find them, and even then, there were only two or three left in the container.
Finding a big soup pot, she filled it with water from the tap and placed it on the stove. It took a few tried before it would light properly but before long she had boiling water which she placed the cubes in.
While that dissolved into the water, she chopped the vegetables into bite-size pieces. Throwing them all in the pot, she fished out a wooden spoon in a drawer and stirred it all together. A heavenly aroma soon wafted through the kitchen and Beth smiled proudly down at her work. Before long, a rich vegetable stew bubbled in the pot.
Turning off the stove, she took out five bowls from the freshly-cleaned batch of dishes and served it out evenly. It made just enough to serve the five of them and leave nothing left. Washing her hands one more time, she undid her hair and pushed out through the door.
To her surprise, the men were already sitting around one of the tables and looked up at her entrance.
"Is it ready?" Kid asked, and she nodded mutely. Turning back into the kitchen, she got out the spoons and passed out the bowls of food. Immediately, they dug into the food. While they tucked in, she went back into the kitchen and washed out the pot she used to cook with.
When she emerged with her own bowl, the men were still seated around the table. One glance confirmed that they had eaten everything in their bowls. In fact, they looked licked clean.
"Is there more?" The bigger one asked. He never looked to have any expression on his face. Even though his voice sounded hopeful, he looked completely indifferent.
"Umm...no, sorry. That was it." Beth said. The rest of them looked a little disappointed, though looking as if they tried to hide it. They rose and began leaving the room. The captain lagged behind a little. Once the rest had left, leaving her and the captain alone, he turned to her.
"After you eat, scrub the top deck." She nodded mutely and he followed the others out.
Slowly, she ate her stew in silence. Her mind was turning rapidly, going over everything that had happened to her in the past 24 hours. Wait...what day was it? Was the auction yesterday? Heat nor Kid said anything. As far as she was concerned, it could be a week in advance.
And now her situation was so much different from before...But essentially, she was playing the same role. She was pretty sure the captain considered her a slave. Nothing but a servant to clean the ship and cook them meals. But to be perfectly honest…
She didn't mind. As long as she was away from that hideous Celestial Dragon and his relatives, she could care less what happened at this point. The absence of the bomb collar was all the reassurance she needed to know her life had gotten a lot better.
The only unpredictable force in this whole thing was the red-headed captain.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
