Perhaps We'll Meet Another Day

Gratitude

In the restlessness of sleep, Lexi frowned. Something...someone...whatever it was...had woken her. One second she was caught up in her fitful and strange dreams of comforting spotted hats, wailing babies that left her guilt-ridden, and the groaning of undead. The next, well...the sensation of something digging around her jacket pocket became more and more distinguishable by the second.

"Hurry up!" A hushed male voice urged, somewhere further away. He sounded almost panicked, worried. As if he had anything to worry about, considering she was the one being robbed.

"Shh!" Came the quieter, more feminine response directly above her. Whoever was rummaging around her pocket by the sound of it. Lexi thought about snapping her eyes open just to startle them, but who knew how that would end. Probably not well.

Resisting the urge to tense up or sigh, Lexi waited until she felt the woman above her reach over to the other hoodie pocket. The distinct feeling of someone bending over her body to reach for something was strong, and in an instant, Lexi opened her eyes, grabbed the woman's arms and rolled them over away from the man.

"Nami!" The other one cried, a dark-skinned man with a distinctively long nose. That was all the impression she could get before being preoccupied by her current hostage.

"Shit!" The woman cried, orange hair flying around her face in a flurry of motion as Lexi planted her back to the wall, gripping the flailing woman across her shoulders and holding her knife to her throat. Her free hand took hold of the woman's wrist and pinned it behind her, discouraging from any sort of retaliation. Predictably, her male companion held her own rifle, no doubt picked up from the corner where she'd left it, in his hands, pointed shakily at the two of them.

"Put the gun down and she won't get hurt!" Lexi demanded, pressing the knife a little more insistently against the woman's neck, more for her own benefit than anything. If they believed she'd do something then the likelihood of them retaliating lessened just a bit. The woman trembled in her hold, but otherwise didn't speak. She couldn't see her face, but by the looks of the man's own facial expressions, she must have been mouthing something to him.

"Who are you?" She demanded, eyes piercing those of the man before her. He swallowed thickly.

"U-Usopp. I'm Usopp. And that's Nami." He added as an afterthought, realizing she was probably referring to both of them. "We're...we're thieves..." He admitted, seeing no other way to phrase it. They'd been caught in the act so really, there was no point in denying the obvious.

"'I'd rather not kill either one of you, so put the gun down." Lexi reiterated when Usopp still made no move. He gulped, eyes wide as they flicked back and forth between the women. Then, seeing no way to gain an upper hand, he nodded slowly and crouched on the ground.

"Alright, alright! Just...don't hurt her." He pleaded, gently placing the rifle onto the ground at his feet and standing to back away a bit. Lexi nodded, not feeling quite as nervous with the rifle put away. Still, now wasn't the time to let her guard down. Releasing Nami's wrist, Lexi reached into her holster and pulled her pistol out, undoing the safety with a click.

The orange-haired woman gasped a little as the brunette pointed her weapon at Usopp across the room. Lexi sighed and eased up a little on the knife. "Empty your pockets of what you took." She ordered Nami, eyes never leaving the dark-skinned man.

Reluctantly she did so, dropping the few things that had been stolen from Lexi's person. Once that was done, she waited a few seconds, just to be sure. "Everything." Lexi said again, not believing her. Nami sighed gently and finally dug out the two boxes of matches from her pocket and added that to the pile of things she'd snatched.