Lilith woke up in a strange place. It wasn’t her room, it wasn’t Buggy’s room, and it certainly wasn’t any of the other rooms on the ship. So…that meant that she was on an island. Or at the very least a different ship.

She looked around the room and felt as though she was all alone. It unnerved her. She didn’t like to be alone. Especially in an unfamiliar place.

The cold floor on her feet felt heavenly. It wasn’t made of wood or stone; it felt too smooth to be. Marble, maybe? She’d never felt marble before, but a book she read once said that marble felt close to how the floor was feeling now.

Shaking her head and trying to focus on finding Buggy and the others, she managed to partially stand before the tubes and medical looking patches forced her back onto the bed.

Seeing the blood beginning to seep from where some of the tubes had once entered her skin, Lilith tried to frantically wipe away as much as she could. And in her frantic attempts to keep herself from bleeding out, a hand gripped her shoulder.

Her first reaction was a mix of stepping back and swinging a bloodied hand out in a desperate attempt to land a blow.

“Lilith, it’s okay. Here…” That was Buggy’s voice. As well as his hand tightly holding onto the hole in her arm. “Come on.” He led her to a counter with some medical supplies. It took a few minutes, but he managed to semi-professionally stitch her together.

‘Thank you, younger me for annoying the hell out of Crocus for at least this much. And this way I’ll save myself from another “medical expense”’ He made sure that he knew a little of everything before going off and becoming a Captain of his own crew.

Once Lilith was patched up, the two sat on some nearby stools and discussed what had happened to her.

“You’ve been out for a few weeks.” Relaxing as he calmly explained what had been going on. “We came to this island and got you to a doctor who said it was nothing to do with your health. Of course, that freaked us out.”

She nodded her head trying to take it all in. “For some reason, though, you wouldn’t wake up. So I did some thinking,” As well as some testing while you were still asleep. Not that I’d ever tell you that. Even if it was for your own good. “and-”

Buggy was cut off as Lilith was taken, again, by surprise when a small pair of arms wrapped around her. “I’m glad you’re ok.” Devlin. She should have known from the tiny arms alone.

The hug suddenly went from warm embrace to death grip. “Lilith,” the woman in question looked down. Devlin was smiling at her, she knew because she could feel the room become colder. It was the kind of smile that didn’t come close to reaching her eyes.

“Were you thinking something rude Lily?” Oh no. She only called Lilith ‘Lily’ when she was angry with her. Despite her paralyzing fear, she somehow managed to shake her head.

“Oh, ok! Then it’s great to have you back.” The danger had passed. Solomon took this moment to speak up. It seemed he had joined the reunion at some point. Though Buggy was the only one to have noticed the moment he did.

“It’s good to see you up and moving, Lils.” Solomon still felt out of place being with these Humans, despite giving Lilith a nickname. But they seemed to pay that no mind; understanding things from his perspective and moving past them.

It was disorienting to be around these types of Humans after suffering at the hands of those types of Humans. But he was adjusting quite well. Or at least he thought he was.

She gave him a smile and a nod before turning back to Buggy, who had waited for everyone to say their piece. “So, what I figured must have happened was that you were using your Observational Haki at the same time I was.”

She furrowed her brows in confusion. “Okay, how about this…you use your Haki to ‘see’ things around you, right?” She nodded. “Doing that, you need to expand your senses. Hear farther, smell better, and all that other good stuff.”

Devlin and Solomon were also listening closely. Buggy hadn’t said anything to them about Lilith’s Haki and Lilith barely spoke herself.

“What I think happened was that while your senses were heightened by your Haki, so was your sensitivity to Haki. Which is why when I used it to look for you, you were close enough to me for my Haki to overload your brain or whatever and do all this to you.”

It made sense. Everyone thought so. “Which means…” he took a step towards Lilith and pulled her into a hug. “It’s my fault Lilith. I’m sorry I hurt you. Even if I didn’t mean to.” He felt her slowly nod her head into his chest.

“Okay you guys, I think a drink is in order. To celebrate Lilith’s recovery and to punish Buggy for hurting Lilith by making him pay for our drinks!” Solomon smirked in agreement. He figured a drink would do him some good.

Lilith blushed at the attention, Devlin went off about some sort of bar she’d found a few hours ago, and Buggy merely sat back and watched his crew have an enjoyable time. He’d have had an enjoyable time as well if not for the fact that he was paying for this outing of theirs.

Even after growing up so much from who he used to be, Buggy still hated spending money he didn’t have to.

In fact, he hated spending money even more now that he’d spent a few thousand berries on the damn doctors. Buggy knew they were Berries worth spent…but he also knew that asshole doctor had ripped him off!

Three thousand Berries for a processing fee. What the hell was a processing fee!? The man was a great doctor, sure, but he charged up the ass for every little thing imaginable.

“You still upset about Dr. Fels giving you a bill?” Solomon found endless amounts of joy in Buggy’s frustration with the man. Buggy, however, wouldn’t give Solomon the satisfaction of knowing just how frustrated he was.

“Not at all.” However, the way he hissed the words out through his teeth told him otherwise. Devlin tried changing the subject, tired of seeing Solomon slowly drive Buggy to the edge.

“It’s just over here! They have this killer sandwich with, like, seven different types of meat in it. I’ve had like ten of them in the past hour.” She practically drooled in anticipation.

Buggy couldn’t help himself and took a good look at her. The girl was a glutton yet remained child sized. No excess or baby fat anywhere on her. ‘It must be a trait that D carriers share. No regular person could eat so much and remain so tiny.’

“Captain…” Not able to finish her sentence, Devlin watched as Buggy suddenly disappeared from sight. He knew the consequences of thinking along those lines but never understood how she knew.

“You said the restaurant was this way!?” Solomon, Devlin, and Lilith looked to their right and managed to catch a glimpse of their captain running aw- *ahem* making a strategic retreat from his first mate’s wrath.

“AH! I knew it! Buggy, get your ass back here!” Devlin was soon turning that same corner, leaving Solomon and Lilith to head towards the restaurant at a normal walking speed. Solomon growled,

“This sandwich better be the greatest thing I’ve ever tasted or those two will be less worried about each other and more worried about me.”

Lilith simply smiled and patted the large Fishman on the arm. He sighed, not wanting to vent too much to her “Let’s just go, huh?”

And off they went.