Chapter Text
The clock was ticking down as the sun rose. Tashigi took a deep breath as she entered the office. They had agreed just a scant five hours before to try and get some sleep, because they would need to focus today. It was their last chance after all.
Smoker was already in his office, looking as tired as Tashigi felt. Sleeping had been easier said than done, but she had managed to get some. If the Navy was good for anything, it was training her how to sleep despite very stressful situations. Two warm mugs of coffee were sitting on the coffee table and she shot him a grateful smile before looking away quickly. Staring at him for long was too… too something . Her heart feel too fast and her stomach fluttery.
“Alright, we’re focusing on the successful curse breaks. There’s likely at least a few that might apply to us,” Smoker grunted, picking up the stack and dividing it between them. Tashigi nodded, sent a quick prayer to the energy bean gods for luck, then dove in.
She glanced through her portion of records. A curse broken by killing a sea king, nope. Curse broken by giving the witch their first born child. Tashigi blanched. Horrifying, and no. Curse broken by jumping in a pool at midnight under a full moon while wearing a hat made of clams. Yeah, no.
Seriously, what was with these things? Smoker made a noise on the other side of the couch and separated out one page. He looked a little… pink? No, she must be imagining it. Probably the heat from the coffee. Which, speaking of, she took a sip, refocusing. Curse broken by… feeding one another? That gave her pause and she read over it quickly, flipping to the book referenced.
A witch cursed a nobleman who was hoarding food in a famine to never be full until he found someone who loved him. In order to do so, he had to become a better person and fall in love with his fellow man. The curse was lifted when a local farmer boy broke bread with him and they quite literally fed one another. The circumstances were very different from theirs but the actual wording of the curse was similar enough to give Tashigi an idea.
There was that saying, that food was a love language. Encanta had lived the high life. Was it possible that to her, sharing in an indulgence was love? It was also something the two of them could actually do. Feed each other. She stared at the little illustration of the nobleman and farmer kissing surrounded by light.
Heat rose up in her cheeks, and she swallowed down a weird little noise of anxiety. They ate meals together all the time! This would be just like that. Totally. Yep. Her face feeling like it was on fire, Tashigi put the page in the possibilities pile.
“Fucking kidding me,” her commander, fellow marine and definitely not the man who currently occupied all of Tashigi’s thoughts in ways one might describe as “yearning with her girlish heart” muttered. She looked his way and caught his eye.
“Broke a curse with a frog army.”
“I have one with a hat made of clams.”
He closed his eyes as if he was in pain and a small laugh escaped her lips. The situation was dire yes, but hey, if she didn’t laugh she might cry. And she was so over crying. Twice in a week was too much!
“That’s it for my pile. Any luck?” he grumbled, lighting a cigar.
“Almost done…” Tashigi looked back at her pile. Another curse broken by extortion, another one by tricking the witch into eating haggis, another by making a hundred dresses and wearing them all at once… she shook her head and flipped to the last page.
This one was an account by a historian, and meticulously written with a lot of ephemera. She raised an eyebrow. Apparently, a witch cursed a woman who always lied to always tell the truth. That didn’t sound that bad to Tashigi until the examples showed up. Telling a nobleman he was ugly, telling a widow her husband had cheated on her, telling a child that they were stupid and would be forever, etc. The only way to break the curse was to fall in love with someone and confess. This was a problem because the woman had never really loved anyone because they always had some flaw that would drive her away. But eventually, she met another woman who didn’t mind that she always spoke her mind.
The final illustration was of the two women exchanging true words to one another and then embracing. Tashigi tilted her head. This was a curse about falling in love, just like theirs… and perhaps honesty to a woman like Encanta had been important. She lived a life of lies and trickery, which was no foundation for love. So perhaps to her warped point of view, cursing others to be honest about their feelings was nigh unbreakable!
She tapped her lips. All she would have to do was tell Smoker something true and honest that she liked about him. To his face. No biggie. Her hands began sweating and she almost discarded the whole idea.
But she didn’t, and moved the page into the options pile.
“Alright, I have two,” Tashigi said at last. Maybe with any luck, one of these would work. If not… Tashigi and Smoker’s eyes met. No, one of them had to work. They just had to.
A crowd of seagulls flew past the porthole window as Tashigi looked over his possible solution. Smoker stared at the opposite wall, cigars clenched between his teeth, arms crossed tightly. If he could kill that pirate again, he would. This entire thing was a farce, an insult, a humiliation.
“We… we have to dance?” Came Tashigi’s voice, barely above a whisper. He drummed his fingers on his arm, nodding curtly. He doubted Encanta gave a single shit about dancing but the wording of the curse was nearly fucking identical to theirs. And that couple had broken it by dancing together and by doing so, they had fallen in love.
Insane. Completely fucking insane.
“Okay… but um…” Tashigi was pointedly not looking at him. “I don’t know how to dance. Two uh, two left feet as they say…” She was looking at the floor, her face red.
“We’ll take it slow,” he muttered. She nodded. Neither of them moved.
“Should, should we get music? There’s a snail in the mess.” He almost wanted to say no. All the local channels this island would have on offer would be opera or… love songs. But the idea of trying to twirl around like morons without music was equally bad. So Smoker nodded and Tashigi jumped to her feet and practically fled from the room.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. He’d barely gotten a goddamn lick of sleep last night because he kept replaying in his head the way Tashigi had looked when she nearly fell on him. Her cheeks pink, lips slightly open. Her hand on his chest. He’d been able to wrap his whole hand around her wrist, but he could feel the strength there under her skin. Muscles trained from years of needing to perform precise and fast movements.
And then… her fingers in his hair, gentle and warm. Her breath on the back of his neck as she carefully turned his head left and right. He must have been insane for letting her cut his hair when he knew full well it would weigh so heavily on his mind like that! But he couldn’t help himself. She was Tashigi, and seeing her smile had been worth it.
And now he was supposed to dance with her. Slowly. Not some disco bullcrap like what Hina’s idiots were into.
The curse might not be the thing to kill him.
“Got it!” Tashigi said, returning. Her voice was higher than normal and she was tugging at the hem of her shirt, a pink button up with little polka dot flowers. “I guess we should get started, no time to lose right?” She laughed nervously.
He nodded stiffly, getting to his feet. He was a Vice Admiral. A soldier of the Navy. A little dancing wouldn’t kill him.
Tashigi fiddled with the snail with far more focus than needed, the mushi beginning to sweat from her intense eye contact. After a few minutes, some slow piano music started playing. She looked over at him for confirmation and he shrugged. It would work.
Slowly, Tashigi turned around and they stared at one another from across the room. “So… now what?” she asked and Smoker took it back. A little dancing might kill him. He put out his cigars in the ashtray, and held out his hand towards her.
She bit her lip and slowly took it. All his nerve endings in his palm launched into overdrive. A little clammy, but no sand like the beach, which was a very helpful thought. This time there was nothing to distract themselves from the fact that her hand was warm in his. And that it was just the two of them standing in a room with soft music playing.
He swallowed. “Put your other hand here,” he murmured and grasped her other wrist to place it on his shoulder. Tashigi was staring straight ahead, her face so red Smoker wondered if it was healthy. “Watch my feet.” the words came out of his mouth like lead, and thus proceeded the most awkward moment of his life up until that point.
Punk Hazard not withstanding, but now was NOT the time to be remembering her body that way!
They went through the simple box step, which truthfully was the only dance Smoker knew how to do. Hina had used him as a practice partner when Kujaku hadn’t been available back in basic. Tashigi might as well have been cement, with how stiff she was. And yet, still she managed to step on his feet.
“S-sorry Smoker-san,” she squeaked. If this was going to work, she needed to move. Dancing only counted as dancing if they were both in sync. Probably. He was just spitballing but the fucking fable had described the dance as “fluid and like their two bodies were one, two halves of a whole, completing each other’s steps without thought.”
No fucking pressure.
“Tashigi, relax.”
“I’m trying,” she whimpered. “It’s just–! It’s…” she suddenly let go of him and stepped back. Her face while pink also looked vaguely anguished, which was a weird expression for her to wear. Was being this close to him really that bad?
“That bad huh?” he muttered.
That seemed to distract her from whatever thoughts were running around in her head as she blinked. “What? No, I mean yes, I mean no, you’re fine, you’re not fine, I mean you are, but that’s not–!” Tashigi let out a little hissing scream and clamped her mouth shut.
He had no idea what to make of that entire comment. The snail started playing something sharp and jazzy. Not quite the speed they were looking for. He stepped over to fiddle with it, glaring as he flipped past not one, not two, but FIVE opera channels until he found something a little bit like slow jazz.
He turned back around, and Tashigi seemed to have gathered herself together. “I’m sorry. About, um, me. I…” she fiddled with her shirt. “I’ve never really danced with anyone before, and if this is the way to break the curse, we have to be, well, um… on the same page and I just… I don’t want to let you down.” The last part came out in a low voice, her eyes looking down at the floor.
“You won’t,” he stated, calm taking over him. She was one of his men and his job was to lead her on the right path. Everything else aside, that’s what it came down to. “You never do.” He took her hand.
“There’s a first time for everything,” she mumbled, but placed her other hand back on his shoulder.
“Like dancing?” his other hand slid down to her waist, and slowly they turned. This time she didn’t seem so stiff. Unsure, but better.
“I guess it’s a little like using a sword,” she spoke up on their second time around. He disagreed, completely. This was nothing like using his jitte, and a jitte wasn’t THAT different from a sword.
“Too bad the curse can’t be broken with a spar,” he sighed. They would have broken it day one if that was the case.
“Oh that would have been so easy, I think I would have broken it in the first match!” Her arms relaxed more into their position. Of course she’d relax if she was thinking about swords. That should have been his first move.
“If it’s supposed to be in sync like this, would have taken a few more bouts than that.” He almost smirked at the way her eyes narrowed.
“Maybe, but only because you always do something sneaky!”
“Pirates don’t follow the rules in a real fight,” he shrugged as she rolled her eyes. This was an old argument they’d had a thousand times. She complained about him being underhanded, he told her to deal with it and she learned how to toss him on his ass anyway. They spun slowly, Tashigi warming up, her feet sure now, just like in a fight.
She took the lead now, concentrating on matching him, getting the timing down. It was a simple dance, but that didn’t mean it didn’t require focus. Like sparring, their moves here were connected. She had to step back when he stepped forward, she had to let go of his arm when he moved to twirl her. He had to pivot when she slid forward.
“Good,” he said as she completed a twirl smoothly.
“W-what?” she squeaked, missing a step and falling into him. They both froze. She looked up slowly, their eyes meeting, her hand in his, closer to him now than she’d ever been.
A saxophone bleated loudly from the snail and they sprang apart. The back of his neck burned as he moved to shut the snail up.
“H-how about we take a break and t-try one of the other ones?” Tashigi squeaked.
“Yeah.”
It was midday as they sat down on the couch, an array of food on the coffee table. The records hadn’t specified the food besides bread, and it was lunch time, so two birds with one stone right? At least, that had been Tashigi’s reasoning, well half of it. The other half was because she couldn’t imagine just sitting there and shoving a piece of bread into Smoker’s mouth.
Tashigi eyed the spread of food on the table. They had both agreed that if intention was part of the curse breaking, then Encanta wouldn’t have just gone for the cheap stuff. No simple bread and broccoli. No, instead they had spent an hour on market street, buying expensive fish and meat and chocolates.
“Okay, so in the tale, they literally, um, p-put food in each other’s mouths and uh, it works.” Tashigi winced as she said it. Smoker was looking at the coffee table spread with an expression she had only seen on his face after the Alabasta fiasco.
“Guess we should start with the pricey shit,” he muttered. She agreed, then spent a few minutes cutting things into small enough pieces to… well. Put in each other’s mouths. Was it too early for the curse to kill her?
She picked up a piece of expensive tuna with chopsticks, Smoker mirroring her. “So, um, s-same time?” she asked.
“On three,” He nodded.
Tashigi gulped, willing her hand to stop trembling. The appendage was not listening. God she was going to drop it and then have to grab another, and then what if she dropped that one? Would she have to use her fingers to hold it? Because if she couldn’t use chopsticks, then a fork was out of the picture too and that–
“One.” Tashigi jabbed forward and the tuna squished against Smoker’s lips then plopped into his lap.
“I said on three ,” her commander barked.
“Yeah a countdown from three so we go on one!” Her face felt hot enough to roast sashimi on.
“No, a countdown up to three!” He picked up the tuna and plopped it on the table. “Let’s just, do it again. A countdown up to three this time!”
She picked up a chocolate this time, the tuna had betrayed her. Better to go with a tried and true, like chocolate. It was only as they looked at one another again that her brain helpfully informed her that they would be feeding each other chocolates which was something lovers did.
So when Smoker said three, she nearly missed it and didn’t open her mouth in time while she poked him in the cheek with hers. They stared at one another before a giggle left her mouth. Then another, and another until she was full on laughing. “This is so ridiculous!” she wheezed. What was even funnier was that they were trying to do this in the first place!
“I can’t believe you missed not once, but twice,” Smoker shook his head and she laughed harder. He rolled his eyes as she tried to get herself under control, and he took that moment to dart forward and put the chocolate in her mouth.
She froze mid giggle, before quickly darting forward to do the same, except she’d forgotten the chopsticks, the tips of her fingers brushing his lips. They stared at one another, eyes locked as her heart beat pounded in her ears. His thumb brushed along her chin, and the chocolate melted on her tongue.
Except it was spicy jelly inside. She coughed, Smoker making a face as he chewed his, neither of them looking at one another.
“Yeah, that’s a bust,” Smoker muttered a few minutes later. Tashigi agreed. Neither of them said a word as they finished lunch.
“So in the fable, they told each other a truth about how they feel about the other,” Tashigi was double checking the book. If this wasn’t it, they would have to go back to the drawing board, and with only six or so hours before they found out what the “gone” part of the curse meant.
“Any specific topic?” Smoker asked. He was sitting at his desk, feet up as he looked over the scant new bits of information HQ had sent over on Encanta herself. Unfortunately the only new thing they learned was that she appeared to have been the type of woman who had had many rich husbands who mysteriously died right after the wedding.
Love to a person like that was not really fathomable to either her or Smoker.
“Hm, not exactly, but something like… like a sincere, from the heart, um, c-compliment, or t-truth. I guess it doesn’t have to be g-good,” Tashigi stuttered out. This seemed less embarrassing than the food debacle, but telling Smoker something so deeply personal that she appreciated about him made her hands sweat.
“Who the hell falls in love with someone who tells them something fucking awful they think of them?” Smoker shook his head.
Tashigi bit her lip, then asked the truly hard question. “Who goes first?”
Neither of them volunteered.
“You’re the one who found it.”
Her mouth dropped open to splutter “You’re a higher rank!”
“What’s that got to do with anything?!” There was a pink flush across Smoker’s cheeks that made her mouth go dry. “Just go, the sooner we get this over with, the better.”
She made a face but couldn’t think of a rational and sane response over the childish “But it’s embarrassing!” whining in her head.
“Okay… um,” she was off to a strong start. She felt so small and out of her depth at that moment, looking at him sitting at his desk with his nice eyes on her and waiting. Her mind went blank, absolutely and utterly blank. Unexpectedly, Smoker swiveled his chair around, back to her.
“Thought it might make it easier…” he grumbled in response to the confused sound that came out of her mouth. She blinked, then a soft smile appeared on her lips. That was something she liked. That even though he was tough as nails on the outside, at the end of the day, he was kind and wanted to support her as best he could.
“I… it means a lot that after everything we’ve had thrown at us, even this ,” she gestured at the books, the reports, the entire curse magilla, “That when it seems like, like everything is confusing or strange or scary…” Tashigi stopped, something too hot and tight in her chest. She waited for it to ease before finding her voice again. “You’re always there, with me every step of the way. And I… I don’t really know what I’d do without you.” She swallowed tightly, heart beating hard, like she’d just run from one end of the ship to the other. Tashigi turned around, just the act of looking at the back of him at his desk was too much.
This had better work she fucking swore .
She stiffened, hearing his chair turn around. A moment passed, the sound of a violinist playing on the pier drifting muffled through the window.
“...You make me want to be a better man,” his voice washed over her, like the wind in her hair when she swung Shigure. “The world is not a nice place. If it's not pirates being shit, then it's the government. But either way, you still find a way to be kind and do the right thing.” The floor of the office was turning blurry even though her glasses were on. “Stupid crap like pride doesn’t get in your way. Our men don’t follow me, they follow you. And I would know. Because–” She could hear him sweep his hand through his hair with an exasperated sigh. “I do too…”
A silence descended on them both as she turned around, her eyes watering. His cheeks were pink all the way to the tips of his ears, his arms crossed over his chest like he was expecting a blow. She stepped forward, one step, two, three… until she stood across from him, only the desk between them.
“Thank you, Smoker-san,” she whispered. Their eyes met. He was getting closer, so was she, the whole world fading but this moment right n–
A seagull screeched at the top of its lungs right outside the window, another seagull fighting it for a bag of chips.
Tashigi nearly fell backward in her haste to back away from the desk, not looking at him. Her heart was pounding so hard she felt dizzy. It took her a moment to get her composure and as she did, Smoker was looking down at his palm.
The number 1 sat there still, mocking them.
Just a half hour left before midnight. Smoker stood in the crows nest, staring at the sea. The stars were bright and twinkling, the waves reflecting them like a mirror. A few ships sailed on in the night, little lights like fireflies. This was it, they had no god damned time left.
The last six hours had flown by in a flurry of failed attempts from juggling to tossing an entire bag of beri over the side of the ship. All the ways to break a curse in the books that they could try. Nothing.
He’d even thought about calling Hina. But he’d rather she think he went out heroically than like this. She’d never let him live it down. A breeze ruffled his hair, the smell of salt and flowers and life in the air. Fuck he’d miss this.
Steps on the ladder, climbing up to join him. Tashigi leaned on the railing next to him, neither of them saying anything, just appreciating the view. “I um, I wrote a letter for Lieutenant Commander Puck with instructions…If, if we don’t…” she trailed off. He nodded. He hadn’t given up yet, but it was smart to be prepared.
“Smoker-san, I… I’m sorry. Really.” Tashigi whispered, her voice thick. “I really, I really am–” she put her face in her hands. He clenched his hands into fists. He was furious that he couldn’t kill Encanta again.
“What do you think we’ll turn into?” he asked suddenly.
“W-what?” Tashigi sniffled.
“The curse. They always fucking turn into something.” Or die, but hey he could be an optimist, here at the end.
“Oh no, I hope it’s not a frog,” Tashigi wiped the back of her eyes.
“What about a horse?”
“Better, but I think I’d rather be a sword,” she gave him a watery smile. That tracked. The familiarity gave him comfort. She looked pretty despite the tears, her hair blending into the sky, lamplight reflecting in her eyes. “I can’t believe we tried all of that and still…” she bit her lip.
He nodded. Fairy tales were supposed to have happy endings, at least the ones for kids. Which were the ones that mattered. All those illustrations of frogs turning back into princes after their true love's kiss, or the princess waking up upon her true love's first kiss, or the ones they had tried too. That’s what all the images showed. Two people kissing for their happily ever after.
Something poked at him, like having a word on the tip of his tongue. Encanta and trickery, love and intention. Back to his loophole theory… and Tashigi’s point about hard work and effort.
“You know something, Smoker-san?” Tashigi said suddenly. He refocused on her. “Out of everything, everything in the whole world, more than the sea, and justice, more even than Shigure…” she smiled at him. “Out of all of it, what I will miss most is that I won’t get to spend more time with you.”
Fuck it. What did he have to lose?
“Tashigi,” her name left his mouth. And as the clock sped toward midnight, seconds ticking down, Smoker pulled her toward him, cupped her face with his palm and pressed his lips against hers.
There was a flash of light, a warm sensation then–!
They were still standing in the crows nest, the breeze catching in their hair. Her lips soft if a little chapped on his. He blinked, so did she. They separated, Tashigi still pressed against him to look down at her palm.
It was clear. No number. Smoker turned his hand over. No number, just his skin.
“Did… did we just break the curse?” Tashigi breathed. They looked at each other, then with a delighted joyful cry, Tashigi threw herself at him, arms wrapping around his neck, breathless laugh in his ear before she caught his lips with hers again.
When they broke apart, Tashigi was staring at him in a way that made him feel like if he could just have this moment for the rest of his life, he could kick it happily. Then her eyebrows furrowed slightly. “Wait, does… does this mean we’re… we’re in love?” she stared at him in wonder.
“Dunno for sure,” he answered honestly, thinking about Encanta and intention and the general concept of uncertainty. “But, we have all the time in the world to figure it out.”
Tashigi smiled, leaned forward and the rest of the world disappeared except for the feeling of her in his arms and his lips on hers.
Epilogue
Puru puru puru
Smoker glanced up from his spot on his couch, where he’d been relaxing. Something he wanted to a lot of after the week he’d had. He drifted his hand over to his desk to pick up the snail.
“Smoker-kun,” came Hina’s voice. He went still. “How did you manage to spend over 80 million beri in a week?” She asked. One, how the hell had she found out? Two, fuck he still had to return all that crap he’d bought. Tashigi appeared in the doorway to his office, giving him a bright smile.
“Sorry Hina, later. I’ve got a date.” He hung up and got to his feet. The two of them left the office, hand in hand.