Candy Land - The Beginnings of an Overarching Plot
It's a little late but it's also long so... hopefully that makes up for it!
“Stay still,” Wendy called sternly as she looked over the boy’s body, paying more attention to the rubbery feel of his skin than to the boy himself.
The rubber man pouted. “But I’m hungry!”
“Yeah, he’s hungry,” the pirate’s companion, Vincent, repeated as he clung to the test sub—er, participant. Every once in a while he shared a weary glance with the biologist. It was almost cute, how worried he was, but he looked uneasy and Koala knew that they’d have to get him to leave before the real testing started. But that could wait.
“You can eat later,” the revolutionary interrupted with a smile.
That seemed to snap her partner out of her observation of the boy, Luffy’s, ability. “Oh right. Emily’s friend is making lunch, isn’t he?”
Koala nodded and her roommate shrugged, going back to poking and pulling the stretchy skin of the one sitting in front of her, muttering her observations. The revolutionary turned her attention from the ramblings of her partner to the blond crouched in the far corner of the room, heaving a sigh. He’d been there for… how long now? In any case, it didn’t look like he wanted to be bothered. She would bother him though, just because, but she would at least wait until Wendy was too preoccupied with the boy to care what she was doing.
…Actually, that would probably be soon, considering she was already absorbed in her work. Koala had to laugh at the look of concentration on her face. Well, Wendy hadn’t seen a devil fruit user before and she was big on solving mysteries, so perhaps it was expected.
Before the biologist could get too engrossed in the abnormalities of the rubber boy’s skin the door opened, revealing a tall redhead who dwarfed the already petite brunette walking in beside him. She recognized them both, though not very; the girl, Emily, was a friend of Wendy’s and the man to her right was… her friend? Lover? She wasn’t really sure at that point. She had only moved in with Wendy recently and hadn’t had much interaction with them yet.
“You started without us?” Emily asked as she approached her friend, a bag in hand.
Immediately Wendy’s head shot up and she was pulled from her muttering to look at the girl. “Em. Emily. Look at this.” She pulled at his cheek, watching as the skin stretched much further than should be possible. “Em, this is amazing. Look.”
“I’m looking, I’m looking,” she replied with a grin, eyes falling on the other boy still tightly clinging to Luffy’s arm. Her grin faded just a bit and she nodded to her redheaded companion who stepped further into the room. “Hey, Vince,” she greeted.
“Vincent,” the boy corrected.
“Right, Vincent.” Apparently he didn’t care for the nickname. Emily threw her thumb over her shoulder, pointing at the door. “Wanna come with me to get milkshakes while they take care of this?”
The way the boy squeezed his partner’s hand was admittedly kind of cute.
Koala giggled when she saw Emily nudge the biologist with her foot.
“Oh, right. I’m going to take a blood sample,” Wendy declared, “so you might want to step out for a bit.”
He nodded, turning to the pirate. “You be okay?”
Luffy grinned and gave an energetic nod, “Yep! And Sabo’s here,” Koala was surprised he noticed, with how quiet his brother had been, “but I’m hungry…”
“Don’t worry about it, kid,” Thatch piped up, “I got ya covered. I’ll make a huge spread tonight.”
“Really? Great! Shishishi!”
Giving his hand one final squeeze, Vincent followed his friend out of the room, leaving Wendy to pull out her syringe and start.
Thatch approached the two revolutionaries, leaning back against the wall as he watched Luffy stare at the needle going into his arm, blinking his owlish eyes and asking the poor biologist a million and one questions. She answered to the best of her ability but, as the interrogation continued on, Koala could see her patience slowly waning.
“So,” the rubber boy finally concluded, “it’s a mystery needle?”
“Oh dear…” she muttered with a sigh, leading her roommate to smile.
Koala glanced down at her blond associate, ignoring the fact that he was huddled on the laboratory floor. They’d been apart for… how long had it been? Five months? She’d been on a mission up until she arrived on that island and, to be honest, she’d forgotten to contact him. Dragon had her on standby—for what, she wasn’t sure—and she hadn’t even thought to call Sabo in what felt like forever. She blamed Wendy for that; she’d been a bit of a… distraction as of late. But, as the man was sitting there beside her, sulking over whatever it was he was upset about, she decided maybe she should make up for lost time.
“I said stay still,” she heard Wendy repeat.
“So that’s Ace’s brother, huh?” She looked up at Thatch, seeing that his eyes were focused on the raven-haired boy seated across the room.
Ace… Ace… Wasn’t that…?
Ah. She remembered. How long had it been since his execution?
Turning towards her fellow revolutionary, she nodded. “So is he.”
She saw Sabo flinch at that—apparently he was listening—and the cook raised an eyebrow. The blond curled into himself further, the memory just as scarring as it was before, over a year to the date. Perhaps she could have been a little more tactful, admittedly.
“Ace didn’t mention he had two brothers…”
“Because he didn’t,” Sabo piped up, raising his head from his lap to stare absently at the white floor. Both turned to him, ignoring the fascinated sounds of Wendy as she shuffled about the lab looking for something. “Ace… he thought I was dead. That’s what Lu said.”
Koala and Thatch shared a look, not entirely sure how to respond to that. But, after a stretch of silence and Luffy asking “What does this thing do?” followed by protesting yelps from a stressed cellular biologist—they really should go help her out—she decided to crouch down beside him.
“Is that why you’re upset?”
At first she didn’t think he would answer. But then he heaved a heavy sigh, swiping a gloved hand through his blond strands. “No, Luffy already gave me a good punch for that. It’s…”
“What?” she pressed.
He groaned, dropping his head into his lap. “My Angel left me…”
She blinked. “What?”
“My little Caramilk…” She’d never seen him switch nicknames so fast. He rarely got names right the first time, or the second—it took about two years before he got Koala’s correct, before then taking to calling her Panda quite adamantly—but usually he stuck with one incorrect title for at least a little while. Just who was he talking about? “I told her about my involvement in the revolution, and when I got home…”
“She cleared out?” Thatch questioned, a half-smirk gracing his features as he threw his hands behind his head.
With yet another sigh, the blond nodded, leading Thatch to suppress a chuckle. Just who were they talking about? They didn’t seem to know one another…
Half an hour passed when they were finally ready to leave. It seemed Wendy’s curiosity was sated—for the moment—and they readied to head to the hotel Emily and Thatch had been staying at the past few nights; apparently Thatch had planned a feast. Koala had to goad Sabo off the floor to get him to follow. Whatever was upsetting him, whoever this ‘Caramilk’ was, it was serious. She’d never seen him like that and, considering how long they’d known each other, it was more than a little worrying. Only promises of getting to speak with his brother were enough to get him to budge from his place on the laboratory floor.
…Correction: they were ready to leave, Wendy not so much. She’d just taken a tissue sample of the poor boy’s skin, to which he complained not of the sample itself but of his yet-to-be-sated hunger, and proceeded to take a swab of the inside of his cheek.
“C’mon, Wallaby,” she began with a light tug to Wendy’s forearm, “we’re ready to go.”
“But I just thought of something else,” the biologist protested as she added the swab to her collection.
“Don’t you have enough data?” the revolutionary questioned, the smile never leaving her face.
“You can never have enough data! Just let me—” Her words halted and face flushed when she felt lips gently press against her cheek. “…Oh dear.”
Koala giggled, slipping her hand into her roommate’s and tugging her away from the rubber boy. She complied readily compared to before, though her eyes were still lingering on the devil fruit user behind them.
They opened the door and Luffy hopped to his feet, Vincent and Emily waiting on the other side. The boy rushed the pirate, handing his half-drank milkshake off to his companion as he looked the test subje—participant over worriedly. “You alright?”
Luffy grinned with a nod. “Mm! Can we eat now? I’m hungry.”
Vincent immediately latched onto his partner as though letting him go meant certain death, pressing himself tightly to the rubber man’s chest. “Yes, we’ll eat.”
“Tonight we feast!” Emily exclaimed, probably the most enthusiastic of the bunch (Wendy had mentioned that she wasn’t a good cook and Thatch was, so Koala suspected that was the reason) and spun on her heel.
Giving Sabo a small nudge and head-nod towards his brother, Koala watched him hesitantly approach the boy. She remembered hearing stories of his childhood so many times… it was obvious he missed his brothers. Now one was dead, but Luffy was still there. To hell with what Dragon wanted; he needed this. Hadn’t they been separated long enough?
Nodding in approval, she wrapped her arm around Wendy’s shoulders in a half-hug and squeezed, trailing leisurely behind the group.
…At least, until they somehow ended up in the hotel’s basement and she found Wendy pushing the poor rubber boy into the pool.
“I’m sure the inability to swim is all in his head,” she stated as she watched him flail, shocked when he didn’t rise to the surface.
“Ah, Luffy!” Vincent cried, a sudden onset of panic evident in his breathing as he looked around for how to help. “Oh nononono I can’t swim oh crap uh—”
A splash broke his panic and moments later Wendy was pulling herself and a gasping pirate from the water. “I,” she started breathily, “I thought it was psychological.”
“It’s not!” Vincent exclaimed as he wrapped his arms protectively around Luffy’s shoulders.
“Just one more—”
“NO!”
“But I have to replicate the study!”