Law's Crush

Law looked at the giant standing next to the docked Thousand Sunny and sighed in exasperation. "What kind of trouble have they gotten into now?"

He had rather enjoyed the brief escape from his stressful life while it lasted. He supposed that it was already somewhat of a miracle that he was able to get a few hours of relaxation whilst traveling with the Straw Hat Pirates. They were troublemakers by nature; if they didn't go looking for trouble, then trouble would come knocking on their front door soon enough.

Well, worst case scenario he has to chop up a giant. Easy enough to do for some no name guy who happens to be really big.

So he leisurely walked over to the ship, seemingly paying no mind to the giant guarding it.

"Evening." Law said as he made to walk past him.

"Have a good evening, valued guest," the giant responded politely, making no moves to stop him.

Law cast a final sidelong glance at the giant before hopping aboard the ship. He noted Cabernet's presence on the deck and asked "Are the others back yet?"

"They're busy. Cherry said they probably won't come back tonight," Cabernet responded, carefully pushing a block out of a tower of wooden blocks, then gently placing it atop the tower.

Cabernet looked him in the eye and had a reluctant expression on her face, like she had something to say but didn't want to say it.

Law raised an eyebrow at her. "What is it?"

"... Nothing." Cabernet turned back to her game. Merry was delicately prodding one of the blocks with remarkable dexterity for a sheep.

Law rolled his eyes. It felt like a time a girlfriend of his was mad at him but refused to elaborate on why. Of course, Cabernet wasn't even close to being his girlfriend, so he was inclined to ignore it. Except that Cabernet was ironically one of the more grounded members of the Straw Hats, despite actually being a ship with a devil fruit. As such, she was very easy to chat with without having a brain aneurysm.

"*Sigh* What's wrong…?" Law spoke, trying and failing to keep the reluctance out of his voice.

"Nothing is wrong." Cabernet reached for a block on her turn and knocked over the whole tower.

"Bah!" Merry bleated victoriously.

"There's no need for rude language." Cabernet puffed up her cheeks at the sheep, who just gave her a smug smile.

"There's apparently something bothering you and I'd rather not leave the matter, whatever it is, to stew," Law said.

Cabernet narrowed her eyes at him and he thought 'Here it comes. Some illogical reason to be annoyed with me. Women…'

"Fine. If you want to hear it so badly…" Cabernet huffed. "Cherry told me to tell you…"

Cabernet paused, visibly cringing. Law had a bad feeling.

"... She told me to tell you that if you were a "smokin' hot babe", then she'd be totally into you." Cabernet took a breath. "However, since you're a man, you'll have to be satisfied with being just friends… no matter how much you're "totally in love with her." Are you happy now?"

Merry was making an odd sound that gave the impression of laughter.

Law stood there frozen. By the time he had come to his senses, the tower of wooden blocks had been reset and a new game began.

"Um, thank you for telling me. I don't think I would have the social skills to handle it if she had said that to me in person…" Law said bluntly.

Cabernet spared him a look and a small smile. "Just be careful to steer clear until she sobers up."

A moment passed in semi-comfortable silence.

"For the record, if I didn't already have a girlfriend then I'd totally be into you. You're a handsome boy." Cabernet said, causing Law to freeze again. "So don't feel down cause you got rejected. I'm sure there's a nice guy or gal out there for you!"

It took Law a moment to realize that Cabernet had completely misunderstood the situation, and had taken pity on him. Blushing in embarrassment, he quickly denied, "I'm not IN LOVE with Cherry! …And I don't have any trouble with the ladies, either!"

"Oh you don't, do you? You spent so long on Punk Hazard in close quarters with Monet and never made a move no matter how she flirted with you." Caesar smirked at him.

"Monet was my enemy!" Law defended himself.

"It's okay, Law. There's no shame in being a virgin at your age… SHURORORORO!" Caesar couldn't keep a straight face for more than a couple seconds. "ACK?!"

Caesar's head went flying from his shoulders before getting switched into Law's hand, at his mercy.

"Would you like to see the inside of a toilet from a brand new perspective?" Law asked with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"I'm sorry- I'm sorry- I'm SORRY! Anything but that!" Caesar frantically backtracked.

Law looked at Cabernet. Seeing the innocent tilt of her head, he couldn't be mad at her. There was no way she was teasing him on purpose.

Then he remembered how she had said he was a "handsome boy" and had to retreat below deck to hide his blush, tossing Caesar's head to the lawn like a litterbug tosses trash.

…

"What in the world does she even mean?" Raise Max spoke to himself.

Cherry had sent him out of the room 'on a mission' after they finished talking with Sabo and Koala over the den den mushi. Those two were going to put together a more subtle plan for extracting him since he was semi-free to move around now. Then Cherry had forcibly 'done his hair' by which she meant putting a bunch of random braids in with pink ribbons and making him look ridiculous. From the way she snickered at him, she definitely did so on purpose too.

Anyways, the "mission" she had him on was to "Find me a big ol' putty tat with widdle beady eyes~!" He had asked her if she meant a house cat, but she denied and said something large like a lion.

He was on the casino floor now and security was nowhere in sight, so they apparently knew what he was doing. Cherry had made sure they were near the small group of den den mushi bugs when she gave him the command for precisely that purpose.

"Where on this ship am I supposed to find a lion with beady eyes?" He asked himself with a sigh.

"Hm?" a man nearby turned to look at him at his words. He was dressed in a pink suit and sunglasses on his lion-like face.

""..."" They stared at each other for a moment.

"Um, do you happen to be acquainted with a Harpin D. Cherry?" Raise Max asked hesitantly.

Pekoms lowered his sunglasses, revealing a pair of cute, beady eyes as they narrowed at him. "Who's asking?"

'Ah, this is definitely what, or I guess who she wanted me to find and bring to her…' Raise Max realized. He did his best to put on a professional air and said, "Miss Harpin would like to meet you in her V.I.P. suite, if that is amenable to you."

'Nailed it!' Raise Max felt inexplicably proud of himself.