A Fairy's Tale (Eustass Kid X OC) (ORIGINAL)

Chapter 24: A Child's Cry For Help

When they got to the deck, the atmosphere was thick with an awkward tension. The men were shifting uncomfortably, each of them looking everywhere but at Kai. Kid gave everyone a weird look as he approached the girl.

"Fuck, it's tense out here," The captain snickered. "The hell did you do to 'em, pipsqueak?"

Kai shrugged. "It's not my fault your buddies are afraid of..." she grinned, "...Kids."

"It's not our fault you're so damn creep-" Heat stopped and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Wait... Was that a pun?"

"Tsh, whatever," Kid rolled his eyes. "You think the flea factory will be cool with me sitting there?" He asked, motioning to the space on the deck in front of Kai.

"I think so. Sorry about that, she's just protective."

Kid grunted as he sat and began laying out the schematics for his arm in front of her. Kai scooted forward to look at them intently for about a minute before initiating a conversation that consisted of a mixture of English and jumbles of esoteric jargon that was impossible to understand. Everyone else was simply confounded, not only by the language, but by the fact that this child had managed to capture Kid's attention and respect so quickly.

Kid eventually sat back with a loud laugh and a wide grin. "God, finally, someone who speaks fuckin' English!"

"Is... that what that was?" Mohican muttered uncertainly to Heat.

"I dunno. Listening to that was like trying to read Captain's handwriting."

Kid sent a middle finger and a sharp glare in their direction. "Go suck a screw, dipshits, some of us actually read books." He turned back to Kai. "So? You think that's doable?"

"Definitely. Soon as your end of the deal is done, I can have that finished for you in... I'd say two days, max," she nodded confidently.

"Hell yeah."

Killer stepped forward then with a hand in the air. "Okay, no. Pause. I'm gonna stop both of you Kids right there. You two still haven't told us exactly what 'Our end of the deal,' is," he put finger quotations around the phrase.

"Yeah, and from the way you've been talking, it's some dangerous shit," Heat cocked an eyebrow at Kid. "You gonna fill us in, Captain?"

"Oh yeah. Forgot about that..." The redhead muttered absently to the deck as he began gathering the scattered papers.

"YOU FORGOT?!"

Kid flinched and dropped the blueprints with a clatter at his men's unison shout.

"You made a deal without actually making the deal?!" Heat exclaimed.

"She already told us we'd be up against a metric fuck-ton of people. What if she wants us to fight a warlord or some shit? What then?" Mohican was agitated, more so than Loklynn had ever seen him.

"Kind of an essential step there, captain..." Killer added, sounding more amused than anything.

Wire just let out a frustrated grunt from under the hand he slapped over his face.

"Calm the fuck down, all of you!" Kid shouted. The men stiffened under Kid's authoritative snarl. "Buncha pussies, what's your problem? Whatever the fuck it is, we'll deal with it! Don't forget who the fucking captain is on this ship!"

"The problem," Killer stepped forward, "is our numbers. After we fought..." he paused and shook his head, "it's only been a little under a year since then. We haven't had a chance to build the crew back up yet. You have four men at your disposal, Kid. Four. Plus a recovering girl, a child, and a dog. And that's versus... how many did you say...?" He turned to Kai, who seemed to shy away from his masked stare.