Work Text:
Benn sighed as he looked at his captain.
Shanks was much too stubborn for his own good and even losing an arm hadn't stopped him from doing whatever he wanted. The man wasn't even fully healed yet that he'd already gotten in trouble with the marines.
Well, at least they were still in paradise so the marines present here shouldn't be much of a problem.
He took out his weapon and readied himself for the upcoming battle, he'd get to take out his frustrations onto the people trying to apprehend them. He knew the red haired pirates weren't considered emperors yet, but they were so close to the title he couldn't understand why they were still getting chased by the government.
He looked at the sinking ship with satisfaction. It wasn't nearly enough but it would do for now. He placed his gun back on his belt, making sure to put the safety back on, and retreated back deeper into the ship, making sure to give orders to the rest of the crew to continue sailing after they'd looted the other ship. He'd taken it upon himself to lead the crew some more while Shanks healed to alleviate the responsibility on the other's shoulders.
He had almost made it to the inside of the ship when a blinding light shined from the middle of the deck. Benn turned around, alarmed, already taking his gun back into his hand, getting ready for a fight.
He wasn't expecting a marine vice admiral to be in these parts of the seas! Much less for one to make a move on them! He stared at the man who seemed much too comfortable on a pirate ship.
"Kizaru" Benn said.
They had crossed paths a few times but more often than not Shanks was the one to engage with him. He didn't know exactly how strong the other man was, but he knew he was strong enough to go head to head with his captain and he knew that fighting him on the ship would result in the destruction of it.
Kizaru lifted his hands in surrender, showing he wasn't on the ship with the intention to fight. Benn still wasn't lowering his weapon. Someone had to be guarded and most of the crew still seemed too baffled by his appearance to take their weapons out. He would have to make sure to ramp up their training for a while if they were letting an enemy surprise them for that long.
"What do you want?" He asked.
His question finally seemed to wake the frozen crew and many weapons were raised as one towards the vice admiral.
"Your crew sank the ship I was supposed to land on" The man pouted.
Pouted. Benn had a pouting vice admiral on his deck and had no idea how to handle it.
Shanks, who was usually telling them how to deal with a situation as crazy as this one, was out of order in the infirmary. Not that he would disturb him for something like that.
Benn sighed. "Can't you just fly wherever you were going?" He asks, slightly exasperated over the situation.
"Where's the fun in that?" Kizaru asked back, "I also seem to have dropped my log pose in the ocean when changing direction after you so rudely sank my landing space." The man admitted with a shrug.
Benn was exasperated. Even the most irresponsible crew member they had wouldn't be caught dead losing their log pose. Losing it meant death on the Grand Line after all.
Benn sighed again. He had the feeling he would regret his next words. "I guess we can take you to the next island we stop at then, or until we see a marine ship."
Benn knew he should have never even thought of giving the man a ride. It had been only two days and he was already ticking every single thing on Benn's list of annoyances. Not to mention he seemed to constantly be shadowing him while he went around his day and fulfilled his duties as first mate and acting captain.
He was retreating to his quarters at the end of another day when he finally had enough.
"Will you also be following me in my room?" He snapped.
Benn didn't know what kind of answer he expected but it certainly wasn't the vice admiral smiling easily and saying "Only if you want me to" in a suggestive voice. Benn took his gun and hit the man over the head. "IN YOUR DREAMS '' He yelled and slammed the door in the other's face.
Benn was trying to go by his day as he normally would. Unfortunately, the previous night's room comment had only succeeded in making him hyper aware of the other man's presence as he moved through the ship, always looking out of the corner of his eyes to see if the man was there.
At least the vice admiral wasn't following him like a lost puppy anymore. Although that meant he didn't know what the man was doing, which only served to make him more anxious. He was still a marine loose on the ship, and Benn didn't want to know what would happen if he were to find out about Shanks' injury.
Shanks not making an appearance on the ship must have already been suspicious, not to mention the state of his voice if the vice admiral was to use observation haki, which was unfortunately very likely.
He grumbled slightly in annoyance and stretched out his own observation to find the man. He headed towards him as soon as he recognised his voice, recognising him wasn't hard since every other voice on the vessel was one Benn was familiar with, so he only had to pick out the unfamiliar voice among the others.
He finally saw the offending yellow suit and quickened his pace at the scene he saw.
He knew some of the crew weren't happy with having the man on board, but he'd never expected some of the men to actively antagonize the man. He thought they at least had some survival instincts.
As it was, he found the man surrounded by some younger crew members, some who might have a bit too much confidence in their skills, insulting him and prodding him. Benn was surprised to notice the marine had not answered any of the insults and seemed rather undisturbed by his current situation.
Benn was finally about to close in on the altercation when one of the crew decided to push Kizaru.
The man hadn't resisted at all and was about to fall to the floor with the force of the push. He was wondering why he'd taken the push without fighting back when he caught the man by reflex.
Benn scolded his expression to avoid showing his embarrassment at the position they had landed themselves in. "Is this any way to treat a guest of this ship?" He scolded the crew in front of him.
He took note of which crew members it was and decided to give them a lecture on etiquette towards guests later. They gave rushed apologies before running off, clearly not wanting to be the victim of Benn's anger.
The man in his arms cleared his throat and straightened up, using Benn's shoulder to do so. They stood next to each other, a strange tension permeating the air.
"You could have defended yourself." Benn said. "We wouldn't hold it against you." He looked into the other man's eyes. "We do have standards for how we treat our guests here. Even the marine kind."
Well, they'd never gotten a marine guest before, but there was a first for everything and Benn didn't see a reason why he should be treated any differently. A guest was just that, a guest.
"It wasn't worth it." Kizaru shrugged. "However, I will keep that in mind for the future."
Benn nodded and started heading off towards the deck. He turned around, watching the man with a raised eyebrow. "Are you coming or are you just going to stand around all day?"
Another week had gone by since Benn had let Kizaru stay on their ship. Benn was happy to realize that letting the marine on their ship had been slightly advantageous. Especially one with the devil fruit Kizaru had.
A few ambitious pirates had decided to attack their ship, being taken care of by a single powered kick from Kizaru. Seeing the expression on the pirates' faces when they realized they'd been attacked back by a marine instead of pirates had also been one Benn commemorated to memory. Shanks would be sad to learn he'd missed it.
He was still eager to lose some of the tension weighting on the ship.
It was impossible to truly relax with a vice admiral around. Their navigator had assured him it would take at most a few days to reach the next island.
He was really looking forward to getting the ship back and not having to babysit a marine. He had tried asking Lucky Roux or Yasopp to keep an eye on the man, but they'd both denied him, telling him he was his responsibility since he'd taken him on board.
Yet, as annoyed as he was at having the other man around at all times appart from at night, he couldn't deny he had grown on him. Even his terrible terrible yellow suit had wormed its way into his heart.
They'd been having a surprisingly uneventful day for the Grandline and Benn was on edge. They didn't HAVE uneventful days. Not this crew. Well, they still had a vice admiral on board so maybe uneventful wasn't the right word.
Either way, the ship had been sailing with good wind for a few hours and they would be arriving at their destination soon. The island had already been spotted over the horizon and Benn couldn't be happier about it.
Unfortunately for Benn, the peacefulness would be interrupted by cannon fire from a marine ship. This was, unfortunately, slightly more difficult to navigate than the pirate attacks they'd encountered before. He looked back at Kizaru, wondering if the man would attack them if they were to fire at the other ship.
He was about to give the order to fire the cannons when he heard a voice coming from the marine ship.
"Release the hostage, you pirates!" The voice screamed.
"Hostage?” Benn questioned, he looked around to figure out who could be considered a hostage when his eyes landed on the now familiar yellow suit.
Benn couldn't help the laugh that escaped him.
He was doubled over laughing at the marines. Kizaru's terrible acting wasn't helping either. He was standing in the middle of the deck, his pout making an appearance again as he held his hands up, saying in the most monotone voice Benn had heard him talk the whole time they'd been together "Oh no, please help me, the pirates have taken me hostage on their ship."
Benn found the whole situation hilarious. Did the marines have no faith in their own vice admirals? How would they even manage to not only defeat Kizaru but keep him restrained on the ship? Especially when the man was simply standing in the middle of it, clearly unrestrained. And he was hard to miss with his yellow suit harassing the eyes of anyone who dared look at it.
He finally sobered up when a cannonball hit slightly too close to the ship for his comfort. He quickly directed the crew so they would orient the ship away and avoid any future fire. The marine vice admiral was still simply standing on deck, not moving more than he had to.
Benn was distracted commanding the crew and watching the marine and didn't see the second marine ship and the cannonball heading straight for him before it was too late. He hadn't messed up in years. He knew he wouldn't have time to draw out his weapon and fire at it before it would hit him.
His eyes were wide open as he accepted his fate, death by cannonball would be slightly embarrassing, but it could be worse. He saw a flash of light before his eyes, forcing them closed. He heard the cannonball explode and felt his body be thrown back by the force of it.
He never hit the deck, instead landing in two arms encircling him and a body as a cushion.
He looked down at the man under him. The man who’d saved him and made sure he hadn’t gotten any injuries. His yellow suit now slightly singed from the explosion. He seemed uninjured at least. Still, The marine vice admiral had saved him, the first mate of the red haired pirates, in front of a ship full of marines.
Everything was silent for a few moments, everyone simply staring at the pair. Benn coughed as he reddened and looked away. Kizaru simply looked away and whistled as if he hadn’t done anything.
Benn saw as the marines started screaming in outrage, running around their ship, screaming about den den mushis and setting sail. The ship was far away before they registered what was happening.
They only realized the full extent of what really happened the next day, as they were finally about to dock, when Benn paid the news coo for the newspaper.
He looked at the newspaper and paled slightly, wordlessly handing it over to Kizaru, who was standing next to him as he read.
On the front page was written: “VICE ADMIRAL KIZARU BETRAYS MARINES AND JOINS RED HAIRED PIRATES!” Along with a bounty poster for said man.
They looked at eachother wordlessly for a long moment.
Kizaru looked back down at his own bounty poster and then back up at Benn. He looked around and with a sheepish expression said,
“Oops.”