Yeah, spend time together...Like this will entertain me...

Barely fifteen minutes after entering the room, Doflamingo had fallen asleep on his chaise lounge, leaving me to putter around doing nothing. It had been five hours now, and I had already read several magazines, the morning paper, had three drinks, attempted a headstand and plucked all the loose feathers from his coat.

I was used to being bored, but it didn't make it any less frustrating. Now, I was just watching my future husband as he slept, taking note of the sweat beading across his exposed neck. The book that he had placed open over his face twitched a bit, and his breathing had gotten heavier.

No doubt he was having another nightmare.

There had been several instances where I had witnessed this, and each time it hurt to watch. It didn't feel right seeing such a composed man in that kind of state. Standing up from my place on the ground, I moved closer, crouching by his side and tapping his arm.

I hadn't expected him to shoot up as violently as he did, gasping for breath as the book tumbled to the floor. One hand grasped his chest, and the other had flown to my wrist. His grip was tight, nearly bruising, but I didn't dare speak up about it.

He had removed his glasses before falling asleep, and seeing the pure fear in his eyes made my chest ache. With my free hand, I cautiously reached to brush his cheek, hoping to calm him down and bring him back to reality.
"Hey...Doffy, it's okay...You just had a bad dream..." I whispered, choking out a yelp when he yanked me up into his lap, arms curling around me in a vice grip.

The thundering of his heart could have bruised me, and his sweat made him feel clammy, but I still kept my cool.
"It's...okay..." He repeated part of what I had said in a hoarse voice, and I wasn't sure whether he was fully awake. Most other times he just played it off as nothing. "Don't leave...Promise...I can't...cope...if..."

"I won't, Doffy. I promise." I hushed him in my softest voice, urging him to lay back down with a careful push. He did, but he brought me down with him, much to my dismay.
"Stay." He demanded, but it sounded so weak.
"I will." I responded.
"You can't leave."

"I won't."

"I'll die."

"Good thing I'm not leaving then, huh?"

Once upon a time I had wanted to leave him, but things had changed. As I grew, I realised the lengths he would go to to keep me safe. The way he acted like the real him around me, and only me. There was no way his love for me was fake, and I told myself that over and over, every day. Every single waking moment of every day.

I stayed trapped against his chest for the longest time, ear to his chest, hearing it slow back to a regular, relaxed rate, and then remained even longer. That's what wives did, wasn't it? Look after their husbands, and vice versa?

Once I noticed the sky changing hue from the window, I carefully escaped his arms, taking a moment to look at his peaceful, sleeping face. He looked like a different man without those shades, and I think I preferred it.

Sighing, I leaned in and pressed a kiss to his slightly parted lips before leaving the room. I still wanted time to myself, out of the palace, so I decided he owed me that much, especially after sleeping through our one on one time.

After a quick pit stop in my room to gather my coin purse, I made sure to stay out of sight as I took the one route nobody else knew of. Besides Violet, of course, who had been the one to show me. Even Doflamingo himself wasn't aware of the secret tunnels and passages all around the palace, and I was glad that was the case.

Getting into the garden was easy enough. I was allowed there, and the guards weren't exactly smart enough to catch on that it was what I always did when I snuck out. When I was positive they were all ignoring me, I slipped into one of the passages and slid down the pully rope, praying it wouldn't wear through my tights.

Once I made sure it hadn't, I was off, smiling to myself, happy to have a bit of freedom. There was no way Doflamingo would be happy about it, but that was a price I was willing to pay. Always had, always would be. I made my way to the closest district, glad to find that most of the stalls were still very much open and trading.

"Oh my, Princess (Y/N)! Wait, or should I say Queen? I'm not sure! Either way, to what do I owe such a pleasure?!" A portly woman standing behind a stall gushed over my presence, and it took a lot not to show my discomfort.
"Just (Y/N) is fine...I'd like some of your dried fruit, please. Twenty berries worth, if you don't mind?"

I couldn't understand why the people of Dressrosa got so flustered around me. I was no different to them, and I really tried to make that known. Still, nothing ever changed.
"Hey," A little boy, sat upon a crate a bit further back, called out to me. "Ain't you marrying the king?" Before I could answer, the woman whipped around and swatted at him.
"You don't speak to royalty like that! Apologise!"

I'll never get used to this...

"No, no! It's fine! Actually, I prefer talking without being too formal!" I insisted, leaning on the wooden counter of the stall and giving them both a smile. "Yep, I sure am, buddy." The lady seemed hesitant to discontinue reprimanding the kid, but went back to packing my purchase.

"But isn't he like eighty feet tall? What if he squashes you?" I couldn't help but snort at that, having to cover my mouth.
"Ten feet, actually, but he's usually pretty mindful of the height difference around me so I'm not too worried." I chuckled, beaming when the woman handed the paper bag over to me.

"It's on the house, P...(Y/N)...." She quickly corrected herself, but I still pulled out my coin purse.
"Nope, I'm allergic to not paying. Here, keep the change." Instead of pulling out coins, I pulled out a few notes, likely a few hundred berries or so, before quickly taking off with a wave over my shoulder.

Money wasn't important to me, and they'd have more use for it than I would. When I heard the woman calling after me, I set off in a sprint, headed towards my favourite place in the country.

Flower Hill was as quiet as it was beautiful, and at such an hour it was unlikely that many people, if any at all, would be around up there. It was the perfect place to just relax and breathe.

Situating myself under the lone tree, I made myself comfortable and began snacking on my dried fruit, taking a mental note to return to buy more at some point.
"I wish I could share these with you..."

I felt the cool whisps of something appearing by my side, but there was no response. I was used to it. It had been a few years since I realised I could call on him, after all.

On my fifteenth birthday, I had been gifted something by Doflamingo. A Devil Fruit, to be precise. He had called it the Spectre Spectre Fruit, and expressed his wishes for me to eat it. Of course, I had done what he had asked, but it tasted rancid.

Rather quickly I discovered that I could manifest people. People who were no longer with us. People who I had seen die. The first I had ever accidentally called upon was an old man who had collapsed way back when we had lived on Spider Miles. It had been a terrifying experience, having him appear by my side late that night, but eventually I came to understand my new power.

The people I manifested couldn't talk, nor were they truly the ghosts of the dead. Just what I remembered them to look like. The strangest thing about them though was that they could touch, and be touched. I couldn't quite think of a way to describe how they felt. Just...cold. Nothing close to how a human felt.

They could fight, as I had found out during a training session with Diamante, which I thought was both cool and messed up. I essentially had my own deceased army at my beck and call. From what I discovered, and from what Doflamingo had found out with a bit of outsourced research, was that the stronger the person, the more damage the 'ghosts' could take before disappearing. I could always call on them again, but only after a few hours.

When they were damaged, I got damaged too, but I only took a percentage of what they did. I found that out the hard way when one of the gladiators decapitated one of them, and I ended up with a sore neck for the next few days.

"How about I eat them on your behalf, okay?" Turning, I looked up at the man I had conjured, a sad ache swelling in my chest. He just looked back at me with a soft smile, his arm resting against mine and sending a chill through my body. "You always did try and convince me to pick healthier snacks, didn't you, Cora..?"

Corazon was the one person I had never used in a fight, and I never wanted to if I could avoid it. When I realised I could call on him, I made sure I hid that fact from Doflamingo. I didn't want to upset him in any way, because I knew how he felt about him. Still, he was, and always had been, my safe place.

Whenever I could get out on my own, I liked to sit with him, telling him about this and that, just like I would have if he had still been alive. It had been so long since I had heard his voice, I couldn't even remember it anymore. Honestly, I couldn't even remember seeing him die, and I was glad about that.

"So, Doffy and I are getting married. No idea when, but he seems to wanna do it as soon as possible." I started talking as I usually did, catching him up as though he was the real man, with a memory and a heart. "Pretty sure he wants me to wear white. I don't really wanna look like a doily, but I probably don't have a choice. Do you think this is too soon?"

When I turned to him, I willed him in my mind to shake his head, and he did just that. It was my way of telling myself that everything was fine, how it was supposed to be. Heaving a sigh, I flopped to the side, resting all my weight on his chilled form.
"Yeah...you're right. What else can I do, anyway?"

"Oh, I dunno...You could come along with me, instead?"

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***OwO? Who dis?

^^It physically hurt me to type that.

I haven't even met Corazon yet and I'd die for him 🥺 Tall baby.

I found out my daughter's dad went missing earlier today (He was located) so I wanted to distract myself from the stress residue. He hasn't contacted us in over 4 months and we only talk about visitation stuff, but I still majorly panicked.

Anyway, who do y'all think just showed up?

Next Time: You're Coming With Me***