His Angel, Her Hothead | Eustass Kid x reader

20

You were lucky no one noticed you.

The marines were too focused on your captain and everyone else who was still on the ship to realise your form which scaled the rocky foundations of the marine base.
Each step you took, you would get higher and higher up; your bag bouncing against your side with each motion.

From where you climbed, you could hear the sounds of both cannons and gunshots - obviously from both sides. You couldn't look back to check, you were already too far up to see anything properly and you were way more concerned with the outcome of your little break in. There was a good few yard between you and the top of the brown rocks which formed the bottom of the base; the metallic building on top of their structure. You had been in marine bases before, but there was something that told you this particular one was especially hard to get into.

The sound of sirens was deafening, making you wince ever so slightly as you pulled yourself to a stand against the metal outside walls. Only hours before, the weather had been almost perfect - but now a storm of some sort was beginning to brew off in the distance. From where you stood, the ships below looked like children's toys; each person onboard like ants within them.

"There's gotta be an opening somewhere..."

Surrounding the top of the building were marines: each loaded with a rifle as they looked down to the mess below. You were just hidden from their line of view, pressed flat against one of the walls. There were windows every two metres or so, meaning you could easily slip into one if it was open. You could hear the stomping layers of multiple footsteps running along the corridors; orders being shouted left and right as men rushed to defend the base.

Taking a few steps off to your left, you managed to see that a window not too far from where you stood was open. There was no sound coming from the inside corridor of that particular area as you came close enough to look in. The corridors were pretty scarce: no having anything too interesting and only having white walls and clean flooring.

The window was open just enough for someone small to slip into, so it was lucky that you weren't the biggest of people. With a tiny pull to try and get it to open as much as possible, you felt the latch click onto its widest setting before wiggling through. It took a few seconds for you to fit in, wedged between the frame and the latch as you pulled yourself up.

After you managed to get yourself through and your feet on the floor, you speedily darted across the width of the corridor and hid where the wall had an indent leading off to a door. Coming from down the hallway, you could make out the crescendoing noise of more people dashing to their position. Making sure you were properly hidden, you crouched low and pressed your back flush with the wall so no one could see you if they happened to come running from behind. You were right - a small group of lower down marines came past you. Each had a gun in hand and were making their way to the main entrance.

Once they had definitely passed, you made a break around the corner to where a doorway leading to a stairwell stood. If there was one thing you had learnt about marines, it was that the highest rank's office was always at the top.

It seemed like no one was going to be near the top, considering most of the troops were circling the foundations. Except the roof, of course. But you doubted anyone would come looking in the levels below due to what was going on. You were more than positive Kid was okay, and you were looking forward to making him proud. Being in the New World was tough going for most people, but you had discovered that you were doing well.

Getting to the last step, you had gone all the way up to the very top floor; minus the roof. Since the building was getting smaller each level, there weren't any corridors where you were. There was only one singular door which read "Vice Admiral" across the top. When you were in Paradise, you realised that most bases had, at most, a captain who controlled them. But unlike in the calmer waters, this side of the Grand Line had higher ranks displaying themselves at bases. With a vice admiral, you could never be too careful.

As you slowly pushed open the door, you definitely couldn't hear anyone inside. There was also no presence of anyone, but you could never be too careful. Sliding in with on hand rested on the bag you wore full of dials, you made a beeline towards the large desk situated right in the middle of the room. There had to be something of use kept there.

The office was extremely well kept: whichever vice admiral governed the outpost must've been well put together. The only thing you could see on the desk was piles of paper along with a den den mushi which sat sleeping next to a small lamp. Every light was off in the room, having no indication that someone had been in there. Although you had no issue getting in or going towards the desk, ready to file through the drawers, it did seem eerily quiet.

But unlike last time, you weren't going to lose and you wouldn't let anyone get the jump on you.

The top layers of draws consisted of just stationary and other files; mainly of the men inside the base and their medical and personal history. You had to rifle through every single one of the eight draws in the desk to find anything. Even then, you had begun to give up as nothing was showing. Pushing and shoving things off of the surface, you looked under each and every bit and wasn't able to find anything of interest.

You were convinced yourself that there was nothing to the desk, trying to make sure nothing was overlooked. That was all until your hands ran over something which felt like a pair of small hinges on one corner of the desk's top. As soon as you fiddled around a bit, you found a small hold which was just big enough for the top of your finger to fit through and lift up. Lo and behold, there was a small compartment which contained something you instantly recognised as your eyes went wide.

'Eternal pose?'

It was a strange object. Shaped like that of an hourglass but instead of the glass being indented like usual, it was a perfectly round sphere with a compass pin in its center. It was pretty old; the words unreadable in the light which you had as thick layers of dust fell on top of it. You narrowed your eyes, fruitlessly attempting to read the thing. Raising an arm, you went to go and clean off the dust when you heard something.

The sound of footsteps.

Of course, now and again you could hear footsteps coming from above as people run about on the roof, but this time the tap of shoes sounded like someone was ascending the stairs to the office. You tried to stay calm, shoving the eternal pose in your bag and making your way over to one of the windows.

Trying to make it in time, you began to take the lock off of the window so it would open. It seemed to have rusted a little, being difficult to prise open as it squeaked about. There were around three catches on each side but the top; being ones which you needed to click upwards to release the window.

The footsteps became louder and louder as the space between the incoming person and the door shortened. You had finally flung open the window wide enough to quickly dart through the gap, making sure you got all the way through. A smile erupted on your features as you triumphantly began to finish your escape through the window just as the door began to rattle. Jumping down to the next ledge metres below, something suddenly stopped you from moving.

When you first came into the office, you made sure to lock the door so no one could get in. But as the door began to twist and click about as if someone was close to opening it, you noticed your bag had caught on a large bolt which was coming loose in the window frame. You gritted your teeth: tugging at the bag and trying to get it unhooked from where it was caught. What worried you most, was the sound of the door finally clicking.

It was either ripping your bag or risk getting caught, and there was only one thing you could do.

Taking a massive tug, your bag came flying off of the bolt just as the door slammed open: taking the window with it and making it crash shut. There was a huge tearing sound which made you slightly cringe as you fell, just able to land properly on your feet against the foundations. It wasn't so much the bag now torn that was the issue, it was the dials which fell out and smashed against the floor - breaking into one million pieces. Each one of them came from your homeland and it wasn't easy to buy them in the blue sea. It made you want to cry, but it was lucky it wasn't all of them which broke.

There was no time to be sad, though. The sounds of both gunfire and cannons were still echoing in the cloudy dock area, the sight of your ship making you positive you could head back. It was all too lucky the pose didn't break, but you were still sad about the large majority of your dials breaking.

At least Kid would be happy with your find, if it ended up leading somewhere useful.

~~~

19.02.2021