I had always hated being woken up.

Back home, I always had to be dragged out of bed by the ankles, down onto the floor, sheets and all. I didn't like going to sleep, but once I was, I didn't want to wake up until I was good and ready.

But being woken up by a kick to the gut? That was a little worse.

"Ow..." I coughed and wheezed, drips of my spit and bile leaking through the bandanna covering my mouth. Kid was towering over my, much more awake than he had been the night before. That certainly wasn't a good sign.

"Wake up, you little prick!" He barked, throwing a fistful of crumpled papers over my head. "What the fuck is this?! You trying to make a fool out of me?!" They were the wanted posters I had doodled on before I had climbed aboard.

Using the wall to pull myself up with my functional wrist, I picked one up and held it out, so it was right beside his head in my eyes.
"Yeah...don't grow a moustache, man. You can't pull it off."

With another kick to my stomach, I thought I'd end up with a permanent imprint of his boot. It hit a lot harder now that the wall was stopping me from falling over.
"I'm gonna make you wish you were never born, boy!"

Ow. My poor tum tum...

It was insane, actively antagonising Eustass Kid, but if I was going to meet my maker anyway, why couldn't I have a little fun before I went?
"Wh..what else are you gonna make me wish f..for..? Ooo, can it be my own private island? O..or maybe one of those funky fur coats like you-"

This time, he seized my throat in a vice grip, dragging me up the wall, making doubly sure it would hurt as much as possible. Loose nails scraped and shredded through my coat and skin, and his painted fingernails hooked into my neck like talons.

"You really don't know when to shut up, do ya, you piece of shit?!" Oh, he was mad mad now. Nearly foaming at the painted mouth.
"I told you he was insufferable." Killer sighed from the doorway to the cell, arms folded across his chest.

Rude. True, but rude.

"First, I'm gonna rip your teeth out, one by one. Who knows? Maybe I'll make a nice necklace out of 'em?" Kid's lips stretched into a devious grin, which told me he wasn't joking. "Then, maybe I'll scalp you, cut your pissy little prick off, stuff it down your throat...Y'know, starting off slow before we get to the good stuff..."

Killer hadn't been exaggerating when he had said Kid was sick, but hey, I could admire sadism. At least he had a creative streak.
"Can you stuff it into my eye socket instead? Down the throat is a little overdone, don't you think?"

I made a pretty good ragdoll, I realised, when Kid threw me across the room, smashing me against the wall. I landed on my broken wrist, and holding in my cries of pain made me want to puke.

My hat had flown off when he had thrown me, and I winced when Kid stepped right on top of it on his way over to me. His big dumb boot squished it well and good.
"I'm gonna tie you down!"

He kicked me in the chest.

"Force-feed you a bucket full of knuts and bolts!"

He kicked me in the stomach.

"And I'm gonna tear them right out of you, ripping you apart from the inside out!"

He kicked me in the crotch.

Still, I only let a few strained groans and grunts out. It hurt, immensely, but my lack of reaction was pissing him off. He was the type to thrive off of somebody begging him for their life, and I wasn't about to give him that satisfaction.

"Th..that's more like it, bud! Way...more interesting..!" I wheezed, already preparing myself for another strike. Instead, his stupid boot came down upon my head, twisting my cheek into the floor.
"Kid, you're gonna end up killing him before you even get started at this rate." Killer pointed out, earning himself a click of the tongue.
"Tch, I know what I'm doing! He isn't dying until I've got him screaming for mercy!"

Nope. Not on my watch. I'm not begging for shit.

"Putta putta putta! Putta putta putta!"

Shit.

Muffled, coming from just outside the cell door, my bag was calling out, rustling slightly and stealing the attention of my captors.
"Killer, crush it." Kid ordered, but the moment the blond moved to do as he was told, I frantically pushed against Kid's boot.

"W..wait! Don't..!" I cried out, completely contradicting my earlier thoughts. This seemed to intrigue the pirate punk, who gave me just a fraction of room to lift my head up.
"Why the fuck shouldn't he?" He asked pointedly, realising it was something important to me. An unintentional ace up his sleeve.

"I..it'll be my brother...If you're gonna kill me, then...at least let me talk to him one more time...He's n..nowhere near here, so even if I t..told him I was in deep shit he couldn't help me..."

I was being completely honest with them. My brother was the only person who could call that transponder snail, and the only person I really cared about. Me disappearing off the face of the earth without so much as a hint as to why would destroy him.

"He's just a kid, Kid. Why not just give him a final request?" To my surprise, Killer backed me up, and after a few moments the captain stepped back completely.
"One minute. Only cuz I'm still waiting on the knuts and bolts..." He growled, eyeing Killer as he approached with my transponder snail, kneeling down and pulling the receiver to answer.

"Took you long enough! I've been trying to get ahold of you since last week! What the hell have you been doing?!"

"S..sorry, Paulie." I chuckled, trying to keep the pain out of my tone. "I misplaced my snail. How have you been? Built me my very own ship yet?"

My big brother, Paulie, was a shipwright. The vice president of Water 7's Galley-La, to be precise, after a horrific ordeal with some ex-coworkers not too long ago.

It was just like him to get stressed by my absence, and I felt sick to my stomach knowing that he'd never get the chance to see me again, let alone speak to me. He'd never get closure.

"I told you, when you show me the money, I'll build you the best damn ship you'll ever see. Why do you sound like you swallowed a frog? Your voice is all deep and messed up. Don't tell me you're sick?"

Shrinking under the hardened gazes of my captor, I cleared my throat, my voice coming out a few octaves higher when I began speaking again.
"No, n..not sick, just tired..." I replied, catching sight of Kid shifting a bit closer in the reflection of my snail's tiny eye shield that matched Paulie's. "I, uh, I just had a few drinks last night and haven't been up long..."

The snail rolled its eyes, telling me Paulie was doing the same on his end.
"Don't tell me you've been partying this whole time?! (Y/N), you need to be more careful! At least tell me you were dressed appropriately! I won't have creepy old perverts drooling over my little sister!"

Well, now I was doubly screwed. So much for my tough guy act. Now they knew my name, and Kid knew that he no longer had a choice in where he stuffed my schlong, because I didn't even have one to stuff anywhere.

"I promise, Pauls. I picked out the skimpiest bikini, perfect for the skeezy bar full of middle-aged degenerates I went to." I joked weakly, getting emotional when Paulie's voice spluttered through the snail.

"I, you, wha-! (Y/N), I swear, you're gonna give me a heart attack...There are some horrible men out there, and I don't want you to get hurt...Joking or not, you need to be careful, because I'm not there to protect you..."

It was too late for that, but I would never even dream of letting him know. Killer's hand had tightened around my snail, and I feared he would crush it before I finished the call. My time was running out, and I still had more I wanted to say.

"I know...H..hey, Paulie?" My voice softened, and I scooted a little closer, as though it really were him. "You know I love you, right? I...gotta go, but tell ma and pa I love them too, and give Iceberg a nice big slap on the ass for me, yeah?"

"I love you too, you damn brat. I'm not touching my boss' ass, though. Make sure to give me a call soon, alright? Better yet, come back here and visit. Never thought I'd say it, but I miss you picking all the crap out of my pockets."

Squeezing my eyes shut, I nodded even though he couldn't see me, blowing out the urge to tell him the truth in a long puff of air.
"I promise...Bye, Pauls."

"Bye, (Y/N). Love yo-"

Killer ended the call before he had fully finished, and I just sat there as he stood up, not wanting to look either of them in the eye in that moment. I had been doing so well, too, laughing in the face of danger. It was the worst of luck that my one weakness had cut it short.

"Kid, I think maybe-" Killer started to speak, but I stopped listening when I was grabbed by the arm and shoved back up against the wall, feet dangling well above the ground.

Large hand grabbing the front of my clothes, Kid tore it all away. Coat, shirt, and the binder underneath, exposing what had already been confirmed by my brother's words. I was too proud to cover myself up, but that didn't mean I wasn't mortified. I was still a woman after all, and having two hulking male pirates seeing my bare breasts was less than ideal.

Kid's eyes merely glanced to my chest before they were burning into my own, teeth showing in a vicious, twisted snarl, his breath hot and stifling against my face.
"Kid, calm down. Step out, cool off, revisit." Killer dared to tug at his captain's arm, trying to reason with him.

It seemed to work, as Kid made an angry, throaty noise before releasing me, letting me drop down to the floor before stalking out of the cell and up the stairs, leaving me alone with Killer.

Why does me being a girl always change things..?

I flinched as something dropped down over me, and I looked up to find that Killer had removed his shirt, offering me a chance at decency. Silently, I curled it around myself, not yet prepared to deal with sliding it over my broken wrist.

"What? Just because I've got a vagina you're gonna treat me different? That's more insulting than having my mythical dick shoved through my eye..." I muttered bitterly, trying to pinpoint exactly where the man's eyes were behind his helmet.

"Personally, I don't like beating on women. Kid isn't above that, though. Don't think you're getting out of anything just because I threw you a bone." He replied stoically, turning to leave me in my pitiful, half dressed state.

"Insert boner joke here!" I called out after him, knowing I ticked him off with my poor excuse of comedy when he slammed the cell door shut. Once he had gone, I shuffled over to my squashed hat, picking it up and trying to unflatten it with a few meagre shakes.

Dammit...Things couldn't get any worse...Thanks, Paulie...

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***I just really love Paulie, so I had to give him a role.

Made him a snail 💙💛

Next Time: Pissing Contest***