Chapter 47: Stowaway

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The storm had finally cleared after two relentless days at sea, leaving the Going Merry bathed in golden sunlight. Lucas stretched out on his recliner like a contented cat, his muscles unwinding from the tension of constant vigilance. "If I never see another storm cloud again, it'll be too soon," he groaned, tilting his sunglasses to finally appreciate the blue sky.

Beside him, Usopp was performing an elaborate series of stretches that looked more like a bizarre dance. "You think that was bad? On my last voyage before joining you guys, we survived a hurricane that spun our ship three times before..."

"Nobody believes your stories, Usopp," Nami called from the helm without looking up from her charts. The navigator's orange hair caught the sunlight like polished copper as she made minute adjustments to their course.

Usopp's nose twitched in indignation. "It's 100% true! There were actually two hurricanes that collided and..."

A sudden snore cut through the conversation as Zoro face-planted onto the deck, his swords clattering beside him. The green-haired swordsman had been asleep before his body even hit the wooden planks.

Luffy burst out laughing. "Zoro can sleep anywhere! Even standing up!" He demonstrated by wobbling on his feet with his eyes closed, immediately crashing into the mast.

Sanji emerged from the galley carrying a tray of iced tea, expertly sidestepping his captain's flailing limbs. "If you idiots break anything before lunch, I'm feeding you to the seakings," he warned, distributing glasses with practiced grace.

Lucas caught his drink mid-air without looking. "Promises, promises," he smirked, taking a long sip. "Though I'd pay to see Luffy try to fight a seaking with his bare hands."

"REALLY?!" Luffy's head snapped up, eyes sparkling with excitement. "Where?! I wanna punch a seaking!" His rubbery arms began stretching toward the water until Nami's fist connected with his skull.

"No fighting random sea monsters!" she scolded. "We're low on medical supplies after your last 'friendly match' with that giant crab."

Usopp shuddered at the memory. "I still have nightmares about those pincers..."

The comfortable banter was interrupted by a sudden shadow passing overhead. Usopp scrambled for his telescope. "Whoa! Massive flock of seabirds at two o'clock! And I mean MASSIVE - like 'could-carve-out-a-man's-eyes-with-their-beaks' massive!"

Sanji's culinary instincts kicked in immediately. "Where there's birds, there's baitfish. And where there's baitfish..." He trailed off meaningfully.

Luffy's stomach roared like an angry lion. "BIG FISH MEANS BIG MEALS!" he concluded, already salivating.

Nami rolled her eyes. "Or it could mean a predator we don't want to..." But Luffy was already airborne, his arms stretching impossibly toward the distant flock.

"Gomu Gomu no... FISHING POLE!" The rubberman's hands disappeared into the swirling mass of wings and feathers.

Usopp adjusted his telescope nervously. "Uh... Luffy? I don't think what you caught is..."

The recoil came suddenly, Luffy's arms snapping back with terrifying speed. Sanji's eyes widened in slow-motion horror as he tracked the trajectory, straight toward the sleeping Zoro.

"Luffy you idiot don't...!"

THWACK!

The impact launched Zoro clean over the railing. There was a perfect moment of silence before the distant splash.

Lucas didn't even look up from his drink. "And the Darwin Award goes to Monkey D. Luffy," he deadpanned as Usopp screamed and scrambled for the life preserver.

Zoro surfaced sputtering seawater and curses. "I'LL SLICE YOU INTO SUSHI, YOU RUBBER-BRAINED MOTH....!"

"Language!" Nami snapped automatically, though her attention was already on the unconscious figure now sprawled across their deck. "Luffy... what exactly did you catch?"

The captain peered curiously at his accidental catch. "A mermaid?" He poked the girl's leg. "Where's her tail?"

Sanji's shoe connected with Luffy's face. "She's clearly human, you caveman!" The cook was already kneeling beside the girl with uncharacteristic gentleness, checking her pulse.

Lucas finally rose from his chair, stretching as he joined the huddle. "Well well, what do we have here?" His sharp eyes noted the girl's tattered but expensive-looking clothing, the calluses on her hands that spoke of hard work rather than combat. "Definitely not a mermaid. Possibly trouble."

Nami shot him a look. "You always assume the worst."

"And I'm usually right," Lucas countered with a grin, though he made no move to interfere as Sanji carefully lifted the stranger.

The cook was already halfway to the cabin when Luffy's stomach emitted another seismic growl. "Saaaanjiii... can we eat her?"

The collective facepalm was almost synchronized.

"NO, WE CAN'T EAT PEOPLE!" Usopp shrieked, waving his arms like a distressed squid.

Luffy looked genuinely puzzled. "Why not?"

As the debate devolved into chaos around him, Lucas kept his eyes on the unconscious girl. Something about her presence felt... significant. Like the calm before another storm. But for now, he simply adjusted his sunglasses and followed the others inside, already anticipating Sanji's cooking more than whatever complications their accidental passenger might bring.

The cabin's warm lantern light flickered across the unconscious girl's face as Sanji laid her gently on the couch. Nami immediately took charge, pressing the back of her hand to the girl's forehead. "No fever, but she's dehydrated," she observed, her navigator's instincts shifting seamlessly into caregiver mode.

Usopp hovered nervously at the periphery, wringing his hat in his hands. "You don't think she's... you know... dangerous? Maybe she's got one of those sleeping sicknesses where she'll wake up as a zombie or..."

"Stop scaring yourself, Usopp," Lucas chuckled, leaning against the doorframe. "Though she does have the calluses of someone who's handled weapons before." He pointed to her hands with his chin. "See those marks? That's from rope work, either sailing or climbing."

Sanji's eyebrow arched as he lit a fresh cigarette. "Since when did you become a detective?"

"Since always," Lucas smirked, tapping his temple. "Observation skills keep you alive in this world."

The girl stirred suddenly, her eyelids fluttering like wounded butterflies. A collective breath held as six pairs of eyes focused on her. When her eyes finally opened, wide and wary like a cornered animal, she took in the strange faces looming over her with visible panic.

"Shouldn't you introduce yourselves before asking for my name?" she managed, her voice hoarse but carrying an unexpected edge of defiance.

Nami's professional smile softened into something more genuine. "Fair enough." She gestured around the cabin. "I'm Nami, the navigator. The smoking chef is Sanji. The grumpy lump in the corner is Zoro..."

"Who you calling lump, witch?" Zoro grumbled without opening his eyes.

"...the dramatic one by the door is Usopp," Nami continued, ignoring the interruption. "The guy leaning there looking too cool for his own good is Lucas. And this..."

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy!" their captain announced, popping up suddenly inches from the girl's face, his grin stretching ear to ear. "Future King of the Pirates!"

The effect was instantaneous. The girl's breath hitched, her body tensing like a coiled spring. "P-PIRATES?!" Her voice cracked with terror as she scrambled backward, knocking over a stack of Nami's carefully organized charts.

Lucas watched with detached amusement as chaos unfolded, Usopp yelping about valuable maps, Nami's eye twitching with mounting rage, Sanji trying to calm everyone while simultaneously keeping Luffy at bay.

"Luffy," Lucas interjected calmly, "what exactly is our plan here?" He gestured to the panicking girl. "We're days from the Grand Line, not running a ferry service."

Luffy scratched his head, his face the picture of innocent confusion. "Hmm... Let's figure that out tomorrow." His attention immediately shifted as his stomach emitted a growl loud enough to startle the girl. "Sanjiii, I'm starving! Can we eat now?"

Food, as always, took precedence over everything else, including mysterious stowaways.

The girl Apis, Lucas recalled from his fragmented memories—had pressed herself into the farthest corner of the couch, her eyes darting between them like she was calculating escape routes. Lucas studied her with quiet intensity. The way her fingers twitched toward her missing weapon, the subtle shift of her weight ready for action, this was no damsel in distress.

"Kid," Lucas said, deliberately keeping his voice low and non-threatening, "contrary to popular belief, we're not the kind of pirates who kidnap girls for fun." He smirked. "Too much paperwork."

Apis didn't relax, but her gaze lingered on him a second longer than the others. "Pirates who aren't bad?" she echoed skeptically, her voice laced with enough sarcasm to impress even Sanji. "That's a new one."

Dinner became an awkward affair. Sanji outdid himself as usual, seared tuna steaks with citrus glaze, roasted vegetables from their Loguetown supplies, and fresh-baked bread that filled the cabin with comforting aromas. Yet Apis refused every offered plate, despite her stomach's audible protests.

"Your pride's louder than your hunger," Lucas observed between bites, earning a glare that could melt steel.

Luffy, of course, noticed none of this tension. "MORE MEAT!" he demanded, mouth already full, reaching across the table toward Apis's untouched portion.

Sanji's ladle came down on Luffy's knuckles with practiced precision. "Manners, shitty captain." He turned to Apis with uncharacteristic gentleness. "You really should eat. Won't do anyone any good if you faint from hunger."

"I'm fine," Apis insisted through clenched teeth, though her hands trembled slightly in her lap.

Nami sighed, pushing her own half-finished plate toward the girl. "Look, we're not going to poison you. If we wanted you dead, we could've just left you in the ocean."

The blunt statement made Apis flinch, but something in Nami's pragmatic tone seemed to get through. Hesitantly, she picked up a bread roll, nibbling at it like a suspicious squirrel. The moment the flavor hit her tongue, her eyes widened almost comically.

Sanji smirked around his cigarette. "Told you."

As the meal continued, Lucas noted how Apis's posture gradually uncoiled, just slightly when Luffy launched into a dramatic retelling of their battle with Captain Kuro (embellished with far more explosions and heroic last stands than actually occurred). Her lips even twitched when Usopp tried to one-up the story with an even more outrageous fabrication.

By the time the lanterns burned low and the crew began retiring for the night, Apis remained at the table, now picking clean the bones of her third helping. Lucas caught the way her eyes lingered on each crew member calculating, assessing before she finally allowed herself to be shown to a makeshift bed in the storage room.

"Keep an eye on her," Nami murmured to Lucas as they parted ways for the night.

Lucas merely smiled, adjusting his sunglasses. "Wasn't planning on sleeping anyway."

Later That Night, the Going Merry creaked gently in the calm seas, her timbers whispering old secrets. Apis lay perfectly still in the darkness, counting the minutes until the ship fell completely silent. When the last muffled snore (undoubtedly Luffy's) faded into the night, she slipped from her blankets with practiced silence.

Her bare feet made no sound on the wooden planks as she crept toward the galley. Every sense remained hyper-alert, the smell of polished wood and dried herbs, the faint taste of salt in the air, the distant lap of waves against the hull. Her stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, making her freeze.

"Stupid," she muttered to herself. "Should've eaten more at dinner." The admission rankled, but that cook's food had been... exceptional. Not that she'd ever say that out loud.

Two steps into the galley, a faint click sounded beneath her foot. Apis had just enough time to think Trap! before—

SNAP!

She yelped instinctively, covering her head as something whipped through the air above her. But no net dropped, no cage enclosed her. Just silence.

The lantern flared to life suddenly, revealing Sanji leaning against the doorway, cigarette smoke curling around his face. "Knew it. You again, Lu..." He blinked, taking in Apis's frozen form. "Oh. It's you."

A thunderous CLANG echoed through the ship as Luffy got caught in Sanji's anti-thief mechanism just outside. The cook didn't even flinch, his gaze locked on Apis as she stood there, caught like a child with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Hungry?" Sanji asked, as if finding stowaways raiding his kitchen at midnight was perfectly normal.

Apis's pride warred with her hunger for exactly three seconds before her stomach answered for her with an embarrassingly loud growl.

Sanji's smirk could have lit up the room without the lantern. Without another word, he pushed off the doorway and moved to the stove. Within minutes, the galley filled with the mouthwatering aroma of garlic and herbs. Apis watched, mesmerized, as the cook worked his magic, knives flashing, pans sizzling, all with the effortless grace of a master.

Two plates materialized on the table one heaping portion for Luffy (still tangled in his net outside, whining pitifully), and a more modest but perfectly arranged meal for Apis.

Sanji gestured with his cigarette. "Sit. Eat."

Apis hesitated, eyeing the food like it might bite back. "Why are you..."

"If you don't eat it," Sanji interrupted, nodding toward the doorway where Luffy's rubbery arm was already stretching toward the plate, "he will."

That did it. Apis practically dove for the table, clutching the plate protectively. The first bite of garlic butter shrimp melted on her tongue, and against her will, a small, blissful sigh escaped her.

Sanji's smirk softened into something almost genuine. "Good, right?"

Apis stubbornly kept her expression neutral, but her traitorous eyes sparkled. "It's... adequate."

The cook threw back his head and laughed, a rich, unexpected sound that seemed to startle them both. "Adequate," he repeated, shaking his head. "I'll take that as high praise."

Against all odds, Apis felt the ghost of a smile tug at her lips. As she ate under the cook's watchful eye, listening to Luffy's muffled complaints from the hallway, a treacherous thought wormed its way into her mind: 'These pirates... they're nothing like I expected.'

...

T/N: Thanks for the support from: Lam Sha, Black Widow, Hamza Masfar, Lord Of the Mysteries, Andrew, Jiri Stehule, trey hill, Agustin Monti, Tightless, Impulsionimulsion.