Minori- within a short amount of time into his shift- had learned something obvious about how this evening would go. Most likely, it would be one of the slowest, most.... interesting shifts he'd had in some time.

The reason was simple- the girls and his new guests combined to make for an awkward, hard to handle situation for the somewhat awkward waiter. He'd grown used to handling admiration from the girls and those in the village were well aware that this situation wasn't by his choice. He'd also grown to handle the occasional sailor getting slightly frustrated that all of the female attention was on him. What he hadn't learned how to handle was open hostility.

"Minori-kun~"

"Minori-kun, why don't you sit down and eat with us?"

"Yeah, Minori-kun, you look tired! Take a break!"

"Ladies," Minori replied with what they'd long since dubbed his heart-stopping, polite smile. "I only arrived twenty minutes ago, I can't take a break just yet."

As he spoke, there was a clatter behind him. Even without looking, he had a feeling the blonde from the pirates' table was the cause. It was hard not to with the glower he'd recieved almost every time the girls flirted with him and ignored the pirate.

"Sanji, sit back down. He didn't do anything wrong."

"That bastard is blowing them off!"

His polite smile growing slightly strained, Minori excused himself from the girls' table and returned to the bar counter. As the bartender simply chuckled under his breath, Minori settled his serving tray on the surface and raised one hand to massage his temple.

"You've only been here twenty minutes, Minori-kun," the bartender teased.

His lips twitching upwards slightly, Minori dropped his hand.

"Don't remind me."

"Here, pretty-boy, take this over to the corner guy and get his order," the man replied, his amusement clear in his voice. "Who knows, maybe the girls will get tired of this game if you get busy."

As Minori plucked the glass from the counter, he glanced towards the far corner of the bar. Settled at the table that his boss had pointed out was a slender, auburn-haired man. His hair fell in shaggy, upkept strands around his face, his form draped in an oversized, black jacket. Shrugging off the uneasy feeling that swept through him at the sight, Minori crossed the floor and settled the glass down on the table.

"Hello, and welcome to Barry's Bar," he greeted. "Sorry it took me so long to get over here. Have you had a chance to look at our specials?"

"Specials?" the man questioned.

Relaxing slightly, Minori turned on his polite smile once again and gestured towards the board set up on the wall by the bar. At the same moment, a clatter caught his attention. Surprised, he glanced down, frowning a bit when he caught sight of a metal tag on the ground. Waving off the customer as he offered to get it, Minori bent down to pick up the tag. At the same moment, the stranger drew back his arm, knocking his cup from the table as well.

Minori simply blinked a few times as he found his head suddenly soaked and shards of glass coating the floor. His hands stung, but despite the blood that suddenly began to appear on his previously preistine hand, he found himself finding it difficult to care. Instead, his attention was drawn by the tag, something about it causing that uneasy feeling to return to his mind. The symbol on it

"I'm so sorry," the stranger imediately declared, grabbing Minori by the arm to help him up. "So sorry, I really didn't think...are you alright?"

"Oh, wow, is he okay?"

"Nami-swan!"

As Minori examined his glass coated hands, the girls' leapt to their feet.

"Minori-kun!"

"Minori-kun, you're bleeding!"

The bartender rounded the counter and ushered the girls back into their seats. At that same moment, Minori shook his head with his polite smile reappearing, although admittedly strained once again. Turning his eyes up towards the stranger, he pushed the sting from his mind.

"I'm fine, don't worry," he assured him. "I..."

Minori tailed off, smile faultering as the stranger's eyes focused on his face. Raising one of his admittedly crimson colored hands, his fingers brushed the side of his face then pulled away, eyes settling on the creamy powder that came away. Paling slightly, he imedatiely dropped his hand, offering the stranger a sheepish smile.

"Ah, sorry, you're surprised, aren't you? The scar draws attention so I cover it up. If you wouldn't mind moving to a different table... the glass, you understand..."

His lips twisting up, the stranger inclined his head in agreement just as the bartender reached them.

"Of course..."

____________________________

When Minori finally made his way back to his house, his bandaged hands where shoved in his pockets. One of them turned the metal tag over in his pocket guilt slightly pricking the back of his thoughts. As the night had continued, he'd completely forgotten to hand it back to the stranger who had left shortly after the whole incident. As such, by the time the bartender had shooed him out, insisting that he take the rest of the night off, Minori found himself toting it home with him.

His thoughts falling back to how familiar it had seemed, he drew the metal tag out, pausing near on of the lights bordering the small, back-road. The top of the metal tag had a hole cut through it, most likely Minori guessed giving space for something to be used to hang it from the neck or the like. The symbol was what had caught his attention, however. A simple set of three swords encased by a circle, each meeting at the hilt. There was something else etched into the back, but much like when he caught a glimpse of it earlier, Minori found it difficult to decipher. The swords and circle had been etched more deeply into the metal than whatever it was that was settled into the empty space.

Whatever it was, though, had Minori set on edge.

It wasn't until he'd started walking again, however, and had almost reached his house that it suddenly began to dawn. His thumb repeatedly rubbed over the shallow scratches between the swords. They felt... they felt like flowers. At the same time that the idea clicked in place, something else became obvious to Minori.

Fuyu hadn't greeted him.

The door was shut, so Fuyu wouldn't have been able to come outside... but she barked. She always barked.

Always.

Swallowing thickly, Minori paused in the middle of the path that lead to his doorway. Even in the dark, he could make out the fact that his door was hanging slightly open. Releasing the metal tag in his pocket, he gripped the slender switch-blade stored in his other pocket. Even as he touched the cool metal, a sick feeling settled in his stomach. He hadn't even opened it yet his hand shook.

The only thing that enabled Minori to pick the blade up every morning and put it in his pocket was a strange sense of self-preservation. He couldn't help it, as strange as the idea seemed to him, he couldn't help it. After years of fighting, even with the uneasy, sick feeling a weapon gave him, he couldn't leave home without it. Just the idea of cutting into something with it, of seeing blood pool up beneath something he had wielded was enough to make him pause where he stood, breath picking up to an alarming rate. Closing his eyes, he paused, forcing himself to calm down.

It was probably nothing. An unsettling evening combined with the strange metal tag had him worked up. It was nothing.

"Fuyu?"

It was when Minori reached his front door that he froze.

Cut into the front door was the symbol he'd been attempting to make out between the swords. A triangle of three-starred leaves meeting at the tips of their stems enclosed by a circle. The one on his door lacked the swords, but he didn't have to think hard to understand why.

The memory was startlingly clear.

"Why's everyone so scared, niichan? It's the day 'Touchan get's crowned!"

"It's that."

Minori's bother paused, drawing attention to a door that everyone was pointedly avoiding coming near. Scratched into the front was the royal-seal, something that even at a young age, Minori could recognize at a glance.

"You've heard the saying, haven't you?"

Even as he stared at his door, Minori found the words touching his lips, almost unconciously.

"A note at night, a noose in sight. A sword at night, the muzzle's best. A crest, one night's rest."

Minori couldn't bring himself to touch the door.

"Fuyu?"

His voice cracked, his trembling fingers releasing the switch blade despite his best intentions. When not a sound reached his ears the invisible ties holding him in place seemed to break. Minori spung foreward, tearing the door open. Instantly, he stopped, eyes settling on the crumpled form in the center of his sitting room.

"... Fuyu?"

When the dog didn't move, Minori's trembling figure seemed to give out beneath him. A loud crack filled the air as his knees collided with the hardwood floor. His hands wrapped around the back of his neck, his harsh breaths struggling to be pulled in as quickly as his body demanded them. For a moment, that was the only sound that filled the room. His thoughts panicked, struggling to pull the attack under control. As well aware as he was that the only solution was to slow his breathing, that he couldn't actually die from a panick attack, there was no cutting it off instantly.

He could only focus on the fact that he couldn't breath.

That liquid coating the floor... the crumpled form...

The harsh breaths dissolved into sobs.

"Fuyu."

____________________________

Minori wasn't certain how long it was, but eventually, he managed to drag himself from the floor. He dragged the shovel from where it was buried in the closet. His mother had been fond of fresh vegtables, the earth outside the house was soft from the rather regular douse of rain the area received. Almost mechanically, he dug. He dug until his hands quiet trembling, until he could breath and be certain that he wouldn't dissolve into another round of panicked breathing.

Then he forced himself to cover Fuyu's crumpled frame with an old blanket and move her to the grave. It wasn't until the earth had been returned to the hole that he paused, his vision blurring. Rubbing rapidly at his eyes with the backs of his hands, he drew up his next course of action in his mind. Time had proved one thing to him- he couldn't sit still. He wasn't that type. He might have hated it, but it wouldn't happen. No matter how much of a mess he'd become over the years- he couldn't give up without a fight.

The hunters gave their prey a night to run.

Minori would make them regret that.

Back inside his house, he grabbed the bag of apples from the counter and his already packed bag of clothing from beneath his bed. Always be ready to run, that had been one of his rules for several years. His escape route had always been the same as well.

Find the first avalible ship and bargin his way on. If he couldn't do that, he'd sneak on. Getting kicked out on the next island was better than being at home when the hunters showed. Even getting killed... it was better than getting caught.

The king's hunters were the boogyman of her home island. A case that brought them out had never ended with a body that could be used for an open-cascet funeral. That was if there were any family members left when the hunters were finished.

As soon as he'd tossed his bag over his shoulder and stepped back out of the house, Minori's eyes settled on the mound decorating his yard. His mouth went dry, red-eyes stinging. The left-over pain from his bandaged hands was nothing compared to what flashed through him at that moment. In the time since his mother had died... Fuyu had been his family. He'd found her as a pup abandoned at the docks. Some ship had decided that having an animal on the Grand Line was more trouble than it was worth.

Fuyu was gone without warning and he didn't even have time to pause and soak that in.

Down at the docks, his eyes skimmed over the ships. There were only two in place and as he studied them for a moment he realized that choosing the wrong one could very well mean he wasn't escaping but running directly into the line-of-fire. When his eyes flickered over the flags his mind recalled the group from the bar earlier.

One of the ships was flying a flag with a straw hat just like the kid who'd consumed probably double his weight in food.

Hiking his bag over his shoulder and making sure that no one could see him, he started for the ship with the hat.

Hopefully he'd be able to hide-out until the next time they'd landed.

Just this once, Minori wanted to be the one with the luck.

A/N: I realized something... Minori is probably like... my most calm, slightly break-down probable, politest character I have... he's a total prince charming if you removed the truamatic past and the not being a prince sort...