Waking up, Aden was confused. He knew he dreamt something, but just couldn't recall what. Deciding to ignore it, as it was just a dream, he splashed some water on his face to wake up. No there was no water container. He just pulled water from the air.
Walking outside to the main deck, Aden spotted Robin already there. Sitting in a woven chair placed near the starboard side railing, reading a book. An extra left arm was holding a cup of tea she occasionally sipped from.
"Good morning, Doc." Aden called out to her as he stretched with a groan.
"Good morning to you as well, Captain." she replied, not even lifting her eyes from the book.
"What are you reading?" he asked as he got closer, leaning on a railing slightly behind her and to her left.
"Just brushing up on my medical knowledge. Just like a scalpel, the mind needs to be kept sharp." she answered calmly, showing him the title of the book.
"1000+1 Medicinal Herbs and Molds." he read the title outloud. "Sounds rather useful." he admitted.
"It is. Though some of them are out of my reach." she sighed, genuinely upset about the fact.
"Why?"
"They are rather hard to find. And even harder to get, so nobody really sells them. And they cannot be grown artificially. For example this one." Robin flipped through the book until she landed on a drawn picture of a plant. It was dark blue, shaped like a broccoli, and a small sidenote said 'Slimy'.
"Excitatio Arbor ..The Tree of Awakening. Only can be found deep under the sea. In cracks in rock, or in underwater caves. It is described as faintly glowing a pale yellow.
And smells like rotten eggs when pulled out of the water. When dried, crushed and heavily diluted, it has revitalizing effects. Gives an energy boost, basically. In it's raw state, it is highly toxic if consumed. Safe to touch though." she finished telling him about the plant. As she read about it, he was leaning further and further towards her, to read over her shoulder. To the point their faces were practically next to each other.
"So, it can be found only under the sea? Want me to go take a look around down below?" Aden offered, still reading the page.
She turned to answer him, only to realize he was so close. She knew he leant over her shoulder to read the page, just not that he was that close.
"Robin?" Aden called out to her as she did not answer.
"Yes. Yes, please. That would be very helpful. It can aid in healing injuries, so..."
"...so it would come in handy." he finished for her.
"Exactly." she said with a sigh of relief. It would seem he did not realize what he did.
Although she would be lying, if she said she minded him being that close.
"Where did that come from?" she admonished herself in her mind. Her captain may be attractive to her, and he may have chosen to shoulder her curse. She talked to him about it not too long ago, when they were outside one night. But she was no blushing maiden to fall for a Prince Charming. Aden was a good candidate though, she had to admit.
As her thoughts churned, she heard a splash behind her. Aden went to look for the herb it seems.
.
"What the hell were you thinking, ya moron!?" Aden admonished himself in his mind as he propelled himself deeper underwater, leaving a trail of disturbed water behind.
"Getting this close to her? You're lucky she didn't stab you.... But then again...she didn't seem to mind too much...maybe...NO! Too soon, too many unknowns, barely know each other." he continued to fire in his own mind.
Finally reaching the bottom, Aden began to search every crack, crevice, pit or cavern he found, while keeping pace with the ship above.
After a couple minutes, thinking he should head back up to replenish air, he saw a tiny string of bubbles rising from nearby. Choosing to look around for a moment he spotted a hole that seemed to go rather deep. And through his ability he could feel a huge, air-filled cavern deeper down .
Choosing to risk it, he dove into the tunnel.
After maybe fifty meters of going straight down, the tunnel began to curve, first going horizontal and after a bit turning upwards.
The tunnel opened up to what seemed like a rather huge lake. The tunnel opening was near one of the shores underwater. Exiting the tunnel, Aden saw the surface of said lake. Swimming upwards, he was glad his gambit paid off. He was running out of air. So when he breached the surface, he instinctively took a deep breath, instantly freezing in surprise. The air was cool and fresh, not stale and smelling of mold as he expected.
Looking around a bit, he spotted the reason why. In the lake, he saw a bunch of pinkish-colored coral tubes. They were releasing bubbles that popped when they reached the ceiling of the cavern.
"Huh. This is interesting. No wonder there is so much air here. These seem to pull oxygen from the water, producing breathable air." Aden mused, looking around, only now realizing he could actually see.
There was a couple patches of broccoli shaped plants glowing yellow.
"Well would you look at that? I found some. Better not take all of it, though." Aden mused outloud, not wanting to destroy the cave's ecosystem.
There were different colored mushrooms glowing on the cavern's walls, lichen and moss hanging from the ceiling and a bunch of creepy crawlies, creepily crawling over the walls.
Seeing all that, Aden pulled a small bag from the pouch at his belt and got to collecting the herb Robin wanted, being careful to keep the bag underwater as be did. Something about rotten eggs if he remembered correctly.
.
Meanwhile back on the ship, Buggy and Nojiko woke up and sat at the table for some quick breakfast.
"Hey....have you seen captain?" Buggy asked with a yawn.
"I just woke up, same as you." Nojiko replied, stifling her own yawn.
"So that's a no?"
"That's a no."
"He went tor a swim." Robin suddenly said from near the door, coming to join them with her own breakfast.
"What!?" "What do you mean a swim!?" Nojiko and Buggy askedy no longer tired.
"When he woke up, he saw me reading a book about herbs. Asking about it, i gave him an example of one. Since we are on the sea, i thought why not show him an underwater herb. He then offered to look for some, and after my agreement, just jumped in the water without a word." Robin explained, leaving out the 'weird' part. She still had to decide how she felt about it. While not opposed to a relationship, it was way too soon. They barely knew each other.
"So he went to look for the thing....Of course he did." Nojiko just facepalmed and returned to her food.
"Classic..." Buggy just laughed a bit.
.
"Okay, time to head back u... Of course it was too easy. " Aden thought to himself only to notice a large shadow in the distance.
As it got closer, it revealed a hundred meter long, snake-like beast with a face of a crow. It's beak was filled with sharp teeth, it's eyes glowing a silvery colour. Upon closer inspection, Aden noticed it had a bunch of small fins layed flat against it's body.
"Those things look useless for swimming, but rather sharp. Offensive tool. Biggest weapon, it's beak. Probable main style of attack, head-first charge. If the attack misses, fins extend to catch the prey of guard. Best approach, attack first, attempt obliteration." Aden rapid fires in his mind as he got ready for the attack.
As the beast began it's charge, Aden sparked a little, absorbing the charge again.
While this did make it harder to hold the air compressed around him, it was not a big deal.
Building up the charge within him, he waited for the beast to attack.
It did just a few seconds later. It moved so fast, the water around it had trouble getting out of the way, shown by lines of sea foam forming around it. With its beak wide open, revealing a secondary mouth full of razor sharp teeth, it charged at what it saw as prey.
As it was maybe it's own body-length away from Aden, he released the lightning charge he was building up.
The strike followed a mostly straight line, with some discharge 'branching out' a bit. But the beast still got struck with the full force of Aden's attack. As the attack landed, the electricity traveled down the beast's body in a spiraling arc, and when it reached it's tail, a web of electric charge zapped back to it's head in an instant, scorching a criss-crossing pattern into it's flesh.
In the wake of the lightning and around the beast, the water flash-boiled, bubbles forming and floating upwards.
As Aden just floated there, waiting, the beast veered to the side, missing him completely. It's eyes loosing their glow, beak hanging loosely open and blood trailing behind it.
Dead.
"...Well...That was interesting..." Aden thought, slightly out of breath. Both because it took more energy to focus his attention in two directions, and because his air was running out. Best get a move on, he thought.
.
"What the hell is happening?!" Buggy shouted, wide-eyed and pointing to the sea surface not too far away.
The water began to bubble and foam, releasing rather large amounts of steam, making it's best impression of an over-boiling pot.
"*sigh* Thousand Belli says it is our captain's doing." Robin bet the others, with only Nojiko taking the bet. Buggy knew better than engage in a fool's bet.
A few moments later, Aden burst out of the water in an impressive display of force. As he flew into the air, the others could swear they heard a desperate inhale of sweet, fresh oxygen. Nojiko tossed a coin to Robin, who caught it without looking.
Landing on the deck, after drying himself off with his air ability, Aden revealed the bag, causing the others, besides Robin to recoil in disgust.
"Rotten eggs anyone?" Aden quipped with a grin, knowing perfectly well why they took a step back. Though he was also scrunching his nose.
"You found it?" Robin approached, not bothered by the smell. In her line of work, she smelled much worse things.
"Yep." Aden said popping the P "Found a nice cavern full of it, though i only took about half. Ecosystem and all that." he explained.
Robin was surprised, hearing that he cared enough to allow the ecosystem to remain.
This sparked a sudden improvement in her opinion of him. She may be a cold-blooded killer, but she cares about nature, among other things, such as history and medicine.
"Here you go. I would offer to help with preparing those, but i have zero medicinal knowledge, so i'd just get in the way."
Aden said, scratching behind his neck, a bit miffed about not being able to help.
"Certainly. But even if you did have some knowledge of medicine, i would not let you help. Processing this herb is rather tricky, contrary to the simple description i gave you.
Either way i must do it myself. Someone else could get it wrong." she explained as she took the bag from him.
"Makes sense." Aden admitted, nodding his head.
"But thank you for getting those. It may not seem like it, but it means to me more than you realize." she thanked him, and in a moment of boldness, gave him a very quick peck on the cheek as she passed him on her way to her little science corner below deck.
".....i'm welc.. i mean. You're welcome.." Aden glitched, getting a giggle from Robin.
Buggy, who was the first to shake off the surprise chose to be childish.
"~Aden and Robin, sitting in a tree-EEEEEEEEEGGHHH!!!! *CRASH!*"
Buggy began to sing, only to be blasted head first into the mast by a powerful gust of wind, possibly causing some brain damage.
"Don't." was all that Aden said. The tone he used, left no room for any nonsense. It was the tone he used when the storm approaches.
Standing there, looking at the doorway where Robin disappeared, Aden was contemplating. It would seem the herb holds some sentimental value to her. Nto his business, though.
Whhat he focused on, however, was that his heartrate picked up, and he still felt the touch of her lips on his cheek, even as fleeting as it was.
As he sat down at the bow, a crow-faced snake monster floated to the surface behind the ship, belly up. The scorched pattern still smoking.
(Here we go again. A bit of a daily life look. I tried to play around with the idea of romantic stuff brewing in this one. No idea if i did it right, as i never ever did something like this before. Hope you enjoyed anyway. )