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Adrift Chapter 1 : Ocean
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
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post Chapter 1079 and Episode 1112.
His crew is gone. His ship, his home, is gone. Kidd is lost at sea, set adrift both literally and figuratively. At least he's not alone.
His head was pounding and he felt like he was going to vomit. The sun beat down on his face, the sea salt thick in the air, the waves uneasy under him. They were not violent, however, they were pitching much more than they should, and Eustass Kidd jerked awake in a panic.
Nothing but the ocean met his gaze.
He was laying on his back on wet wooden boards, head turned as he stared out into the open water. He was weighted down by a heavy pressure on his chest, and could feel warm water lapping around his bared legs, hanging listless into the water. He struggled to pull his feet up and out of the water to try and clear his head but he seemed pinned in place, body refusing to follow the most basic of orders he gave it. Each breath fought him on every inhale, and the blue ocean swam in and out of focus before him.
He lay there, numb, floating, left at mercy of the sea. He could do little more than just be. Just exist until at last the thumping in his head quieted until he could only hear his heart beat in time with the waves. Until the world stopped spinning hazily when he opened his eyes. It hurt to breath, he felt like he was burning, overheating, being smothered. He tried again to move, grunting in pain, finally rolling his shoulders and forcing his head to turn, neck feeling like it was made of broken glass. He couldn't move much more than that, but finally got his head working enough to look around.
A moribund Killer was pressed against his chest, Kidd's own water logged coat over them in turn. Killer's lower body was still in the water, one harsh wave away from being swept away to the depths. The only thing keeping them both above surface as it was were a couple few boards lashed between three barrels, bobbing along. The makeshift raft was perilous, held together only through it's inexplicably meticulous rope work.
The ocean still drained not just his strength, but his mental clarity, it took more effort than Kidd would of liked to get him and Killer out of the water, gasping for breath as he managed to get a footing on one barrel and push himself further along the boards. If he had the strength he may have screamed in pain and aggravation as he did, a fist full of Killer's jeans and belt dragging the man up with him as he pulled them out of the ocean. Instead he was left choking off whimpers as his ribs complained and his vision dimmed. His head fell back against the warped broken boards once again, and Kidd stared up at the blue, blue sky.
He thought he heard someone calling for him, a faint childlike "Captain?" whispered on the breeze before he dropped off into darkness once more.
It was much hotter when he drifted back awake. Between the sun, Killer and his coat, Kidd was sweating and panting when he woke up again. He was careful not to fling his coat into the water as he drug it off them, before propping himself up on his one arm. There was a scrape of pain across his chest when he did, something new from the deep burning pain within that came with each breath. Killer slumped against him.
"Hey, Partner?" Kidd grumbled, but his second remained unmoving. Burning more energy then he had to spare, Kidd manage to drag himself over until he was propped up against one of the barrels, used his thighs to drag Killer with him. His ribs screamed with the movement, lungs burning. Once settled, certain his weight wouldn't displace the boards and drown them both, Kidd pulled Killer close, rolling his oldest friend into his arm so he check on him. "Killer?"
Killer's mask had been shattered - far worse then Hawkin's had left it - half of his bruised and bloody face exposed to the air. The edges had been digging into Kidd chest, a collection of ragged gouges across his sternum. The faux-fruit Killer'd eaten at Wano left his lax face smiling softly, and Kidd bit back an ugly feeling at what had once been one of his favourite sights. Killer did not respond to Kidd's prodding, and sitting under the brutal sun, Kidd carefully rolled Killer back in place, hiding his exposed face between them once again.
They'd been rescued from the water, but to what end. They were drifting, at the mercy of the current, burning under an unrelenting sun. They had no water, no food, and no way to steer. Maybe when Killer woke up, they could use Kidd's coat as a sail... no. They were as good as dead, just bidding their time until they, too, ineluctably joined the rest of their crew.
Kidd let his head fall back against the barrel, eyes closed into the sun. His hand toyed with the ragged locks of Killer's tangled hair. No. They survived this long, Kidd was not going to just throw in the towel. First step was to get as out of the sun as they could, and wait out the hottest part of the day. He just needed to clear his head - he'd figure something out. He'd get them out of this. This wouldn't be the end to their story.
Catching one corner of his coat between the far barrel and his bare heel, Kidd fastened a cover with it as best as he could, propping his elbow up on the barrel behind him to catch the shoulder of the coat in his fist above his head. It was not going to be a pleasant position to be in for any given amount of time, but the shade was already a marked improvement.
As the sun beat down on them, Kidd ineludibly drifted off again.
