[Date written: April 28th, 2016. And yes, this is an AU where Aoi is a Marine, while Basil is a pirate captain. Also, the picture in the multimedia is one I found in the internet which reminded me of the two (Although Aoi wouldn't be caught dead wearing something that revealing XD). It's a picture of the characters Katarina and Garen from the online game, League of Legends.]

If Only | One Piece AU

It wasn't exactly a normal occurence to see her in a bar this early in the evening.

If Hanazono Tsubaki was to be brutally honest, seeing her adoptive sister - Aoi - sitting at the bar beside a brown-haired male she obviously didn't know, made her wonder if the redhead had catapulted off the deep end or was just plain drunk. She was leaning more towards the latter option, as much as she didn't want to admit it to herself.

Out of the two, it was usually Tsubaki who got into trouble, and Aoi was the one to pull her out of whatever scrape she had done. Aoi was the one to be trusted with setting her straight when she went on a coldblooded rampage due to an insult directed at the two of them or at their distasteful jobs.

Truth be told, Aoi took her older sister responsibilities a bit too far at times, but that was only because she worried about the young blonde more often than not ever since they met.

Ever since she freed the girl from those rotten slave traders.

So if all that evidence still wasn't enough to prove what she was seeing wrong, then... Boy, had the world turned a hundred-and-eighty-degrees or what?

"Stop messing with me, you bastard," Aoi hissed, an unnatural crimson tinge to her usually pallid cheeks as her eyes glared at the brunette seated right next to her. And by right next to her, Tsubaki meant precariously close to the redhead.

The boy - who looked like he might be a year or so older than the belligerent girl - merely laughed, slinging an arm around the redhead's shoulders. "I'm not messin' with ya." He grinned, even as her cheeks flushed an even darker shade.

As Tsubaki watched, Aoi narrowed her eyes, shoving him away. "Right. Like I'm supposed to believe that a girl with a scar like this-" she gestured to the white, almost ghastly laceration by her left eye, "-would still be considered beautiful. Or any worthless compliments, rather."

He reached up, shifting her scarlet bangs out of her eyes. "Ya keep degrading yourself, Riding Hood." He chuckled as the female hissed at him to - and here the rather amused blonde quoted, word for word - "Shut the hell up."

The boy chuckled. "You're as red as your hair, Riding Hood!"

Aoi slapped him on the arm, her cheeks - indeed - flaring a very prominent shade of crimson, much like the color of her own fiery hair. "Shut up, Leafy!" She all but snarled, averting her gaze from the male in embarrassment.

Tsubaki just then decided that things had gone on long enough - if she'd waited for a few minutes more, she was sure to drag the volatile redhead back to the inn complaining of a dreadful hangover - and tapped her adoptive sister's shoulder. "Aoi, we should go." She uttered calmly, flicking a glance to the brunette she had - undoubtedly - been flirting with. (Though it seemed to be rather one-sided, in the blonde's opinion; Aoi couldn't - for the life of her - even flirt with anyone. She was sure to turn beet red in all her embarrassment if she ever tried.)

The boy looked up, a mischievous glimmer in his green eyes. "See ya when I see ya, Riding Hood!" He chuckled, waving a hand as the redhead rolled her eyes at him, flicking his forehead as she passed.

"I told you not to call me that, Leafy."

As they left the bar, Aoi looked up at the night skies; stars twinkling like dewdrops of silver cast across the dark expanse. She sighed heavily, casting a glance at the door of the pub, before falling into step with her adoptive sister.

"You like him, don't you?" Tsubaki said out of the blue, glancing at the redhead out of her peripheral vision.

Aoi very nearly tripped over her own feet, red dusting her cheeks. "Maybe. Maybe not." She looked down at the silver ring dangling from her necklace, tugging at it with a hand before she let it fall back into her shirt. "It's too soon to tell."

"You mean it's too soon as you haven't moved on from Shu." The blonde corrected, gazing out at the waves crashing against the pier.

She stiffened, before a slow, saddened smile spread across her lips. "Maybe that's true." She agreed half-heartedly, a drawn-out exhale escaping her lips.

"If only things were different.. If only I'd met Basil before all this happened with Shu.. Then maybe.. Just maybe.. I could say that I'd finally met someone who can understand me somehow."

"But things don't always go as you want them to."

"That's why I said 'if only'. Because it's too hard to expect for it to be how you want it to be when you know it can't happen."

-To be continued?

VolarFinch How did I do?

Peace out,
Zoe