Once Nana and the two engineers had left, Lexi stood and made her way over to the couch where she immediately plopped down and sprawled out with a groan. Deciding that sitting in the kitchen chair the whole time waiting for them to get home would be unnecessarily uncomfortable, Law followed her into the living room and took up the comfy loveseat next to the couch.
"Whhhhhyyyyy…" Lexi moaned loudly, holding onto her head against her painful headache. She sneezed again, causing her to groan out loud once more. Law glanced at her in amusement, chuckling under his breath. The act made him break into a fit of coughing once more.
"I hate being sick…" She pouted, grabbing the blanket Nana had draped over her shoulders and covering herself with it. She hid away from the pirate, hoping he would leave her alone and let her hurt in peace. If she was lucky maybe she'd fall asleep and the three would be back in no time. But, of course, he had a habit of not doing things as she wanted him to.
"Lexi-ya, there has to be something to keep ourselves occupied while they are gone." Law pried, not liking the thought of having nothing to do over an extended period of time. He hated doing nothing. It was a complete waste of his time.
"Hell if I know…" She mumbled. He frowned.
"I refuse to sit here and," Coughs racked through his body, "do nothing for hours." He said, watching as she reappeared from beneath the blanket with a scowl.
"Who am I, your nanny?" She accused.
"Essentially." He grinned, hoping to get a rise out of her. He expected her to try to hit him but she only narrowed her eyes. Mutely, she disappeared beneath the blanket once more, much to his chagrin. It was at these times that she seemed to know just how to frustrate him the most, and it was, well, frustrating how easily she seemed to do it all. Frowning once more, he crossed his arms. "Alright, I suppose I am sorry…" He mumbled.
Her head popped up over the edge. "You, apologizing? That's something I didn't expect." She laughed.
"Hmph." He grumbled, looking away.
"Fine, you convinced me. Alright, grab a coloring book or something. They're in the cabinet beneath the tv." She pointed to the tv stand and he raised an eyebrow.
"A coloring book? For children?"
"Yup. Or you could figure out how the dvd player works, which will probably take hours by the way, or you can come up with something else. There's not much to do around here honestly." Lexi concluded, massaging her temple with her thumbs in an effort to ward off her headache. Peaking beneath her lidded eyes, Lexi saw the pirate captain frowning in displeasure. Obviously he wasn't liking his available options for entertainment.
She could see the frustration in his eyes and imagine his thought process. Him? A feared pirate captain of the seas? Coloring in a child's coloring book with crayons? The nerve of Lexi for even mentioning it…
"I suppose the children's book will have to do." He grumbled angrily. Smirking a little, since she hadn't expected him to agree in the first place, Lexi got up from the couch and opened the cupboard. Grabbing the half-empty coloring pages book and the big box of crayons, she placed them both on the coffee table where they could reach. Law got up and sat down on the floor beside her as she opened the book.
"Pick a picture then." She flipped through several pages, some of which had meaningless scribbles across the entirety of the picture in various colors. Seeing his confused and slightly amused glances, she chuckled. "I babysit some of the closer neighbors sometimes so I let them color. Keeps them from getting into trouble."
Law nodded, slightly surprised that she was able to read his mind so easily. Perhaps he wasn't hiding his emotions as well as he'd thought. That would have to change. Shaking his head, he pointed to a cat wearing a pirate hat, looking through a periscope as it sailed on a small ship.
"Of course." Lexi chuckled, and Law glared in return.
"What?" She ripped out the page for him to use, placing it in front of him with the box of crayons.
"Of course you'd pick the pirate, is what I'm saying." She laughed, rifling through a few more pages before ripping one out of her own. It was a butterfly landing on a flower. They both had faces.
"Captain?" Came a quiet voice from atop the stairs. Looking up, the two sick ones saw Bepo descending the steps with a yawn. "How long did I sleep?"
"A while, Bepo. You looked exhausted." The pirate replied with a smirk. The bear almost never slept in, too concerned with Law's sleep habits to worry about getting enough sleep himself. It was good for the first mate to catch up on his rest.
"Oh, I see. What are you doing?" He asked, spotting the book and box of colored sticks on the table. Lexi smiled and held up one.
"We're coloring. Do you wanna join?" Cocking his head, he approached the table. Lowering his head to sniff the thing in her hand, he recoiled his nose at the weird smell.
"No thanks." He said, straightening up. Then, noticing that something wasn't right, he glanced around. "Where are Penguin and Shachi?"
"They went with Nana to get us medicine. They should only be a couple hours." Lexi looked back to her picture and began coloring the flower petals blue.
"Oh ok." The bear decided that he'd look for some food and wandered into the kitchen, leaving the two to their coloring.
"I bet I could make mine look better than yours." Lexi claimed, and Law raised an eyebrow. Hesitantly, he reached for a crayon and stared at his page.
He, Trafalgar Law, Supernova and member of the Worst Generation, was about to color in a children's book. If word got out his reputation would be completely obliterated in an instant.
Lexi was concentrating on shading the stem of the flower in with green, making the edges much darker in contrast to the middle. Obviously she hadn't noticed his inner turmoil at the thought of such a juvenile pastime. Glancing back at his own page, he started marking the boat with brown, trying not to think too much about what exactly he was doing.
'At least it's something to do…' He thought with a sigh.
"Keep an eye out for a store called Walmart." Nana said, squinting at the road in front of her. The sun shined rather brightly and made it difficult to see. The light bounced off of the shining cars and straight into her eyes, blinding her and causing spots in the back of her lids.
"What's it called again?" Penguin asked, searching the left side of the street critically.
"Walmart!" She responded louder so they could hear. "It should be up here somewhere."
"Hmm…" There was a big building with a big lit up sign on the front. "Walgreens…is that it? Walgreens?" Shachi pointed to the right where a building with a strange blue bucket with stars on the sign stood. Nana swung her gaze over, but shook her head with a sigh.
"No, we're looking for a massive building that says Walmart on it. Can't miss it." She reassured, slowing to a stop at the red light. The two in the back shared a glance before shrugging. They weren't sure exactly what this 'Walmart' looked like but they'd keep looking.
Besides, tagging along on this adventure would allow them to see more of Lexi's world. There was still so much to learn and experience, and just by riding in the truck they saw new and exciting things.
"Nana, what're those?" Shachi asked, pointing to the lights in front of them. Nana looked back and followed the line of where he was looking.
"Those are the traffic lights, young man. They direct traffic. When they turn red, you stop. Green is go." The older woman shook her head in amazement. "Hell, you Greeks don't seem to have a lot of first world country technology, do ya?"
"Uh…yeah." Penguin agreed as he glanced to the side, remembering that the Captain had insisted they keep up the charade for Nana's sake.
"What about those?" Penguin indicated the strange looking orange things along the road.
"Those are traffic cones. They tell you where you can and can't go." The light turned green and Nana stepped on the gas a little harder than needed. They jerked forwards after the car in front of them accelerated first.
"There are so many confusing things here." Shachi held his head in his hand from the overwhelming things around the truck. "So many new things."
"You'll get used to it, don't worry." Nana reassured with a chuckled, evening out her speed as they continued.
"There it is!" Penguin finally exclaimed, jabbing his finger at the window pane. There, a huge building with the name 'Walmart' across the top in white letter sat wedged at the edge of the road and the intersection. "It's on the right."
"Hold onto your seats boys!" Nana called, veering suddenly into the right lane and turning on her blinker in one go.
"AH!" They screamed. The force of the move sent both men sharply to the left, causing Shachi to go headfirst into the window and Penguin to lose his breath.
A car behind them honked as Nana cut them off, and she turned right onto the new road before blinkering left. "Whew, almost missed the turn. Good thing you spotted that, young man!"
"Yeah, good thing…" Penguin muttered, adjusting his hat as Shachi held onto his head in pain. He'd smacked the glass pretty hard and there was sure to be a bruise when all was said and done.
Nana cruised them through the sea of cars until she found a parking spot further from the building. "We're here!" She called, taking out the keys and opening the door. The two pirates followed a little less enthusiastically. As much as they were excited to see what other things a store could hold, they weren't sure they would survive the trip.
"See? I'm the better colorer." Lexi determined, glancing between both pictures with a smirk.
"Any self-appointed judge would say that." Law pointed out, crossing his arms. In all honesty he thought he'd done a decent job illustrating the page. It was accurate and within the lines. "We need a neutral party to decide without bias."
"Fine, grumpy. Bepo! Will you come here?" She called before the Captain got the chance to retort her less-than-appealing nickname for him. Law frowned, eyes flitting to the kitchen as the bear emerged with have a leftover chicken leg in his mouth.
"What is it?" He asked. Lexi grabbed both pages and held them up.
"Which one do you think is better?"
Bepo glanced between the pages. The pirate cat was accurate, with real colors and there weren't any strokes outside of the lines. Even the water was colored in different shades of blue. Then, the other one showed a multicolored butterfly landing on a blue flower. There were a couple tiny flowers added in around the big one, and a dainty little sun drawn in the upper left side.
Mutely, he pointed to the butterfly.
"Ha! Told you." Lexi bragged, placing them back on the table with a smirk. Law glared at the offending cat, disappointed it hadn't been deemed the better drawing. He was supposed to be the best at all he did. This was unacceptable.
"I challenge you to a rematch then." The pirate said, reaching for the coloring book once more. It seemed Lexi was more than willing to comply if the smirk was anything to go by.
"Fine, but be prepared to have your ass handed to you a second time." She taunted. He smirked. She was certainly a competitive person, an aspect he was thoroughly enjoying. Much as he didn't care to admit it.
"I'll look down this aisle, you two look down that one." She pointed to the one on the left for them, holding up a piece of paper. This is what the medicine is called, it should be in a small blue bottle." She explained, giving them both a pat on the shoulder before sending them on their way. A moment later she disappeared behind the shelf.
"Uhh…" They said, walking down the aisle and looking at all the various bottles and boxes of medicine surrounding them. There was an old man staring at a box of something green and paid them no mind. Other than that, they were alone.
"There are so many different kinds." Shachi whispered, picking up a box with a blue label. Is this one it?" He showed it to his friend who frowned.
"Hmm…it's called…viagra." Penguin checked the paper, comparing the names. "Nope, not that one." They put it back where it belonged, walking further down the line and inspecting the multiple medications.
"This is gonna take forever…" Shachi moaned, and the two of them sighed deeply. They hadn't thought there'd be so much of a variety of everything. Some of the names were too complicated for them to pronounce.
"I wish Captain were here. He'd know which one. Maybe." Shachi concluded, glancing at something so foreign sounding he was convinced that his world didn't have anything like it.
Up and down the aisle they went, searching for whatever the correct medicine was. The old man had left and in his place was a young woman looking over two different bottles to compare the price or ingredients. She gave the two a strange look at their confused whispers but promptly returned to her own business.
"Advil?" Shachi asked, and Penguin shook his head after double checking. They found several medicines with blue labels and it wasn't until one almost at the end of the aisle that they found the right one.
"Here it is!" Penguin exclaimed, holding up the correct bottle. "We must have passed it ten times or something." High-fiving each other in victory, they went around the side to find the older woman.
"Nana, we found-" They stopped, glancing around in confusion. The white-haired woman was nowhere to be seen. A woman with her young daughter stood nearby and gripped her child tighter as the two men froze and stared into the distance creepily. The two in question didn't notice, too distracted by the lack of Lexi's relative to care about what was going on.
"Umm…where is she?" Shachi asked, turning his head several directions trying to find her.
"No idea." Penguin answered, arms going slack as he realized. "We lost Lexi-chan's grandmother." With a sigh, Shachi nodded.
"Yup."
"I don't know about you but I'm getting kind of bored with this." Lexi admitted, finished the last touches on a new drawing. This one displayed a playground set with a giraffe and a lion swinging on the swings. A monkey was sliding down the colored-red slide.
Law nodded, eagerly putting away the blue crayon he was using to color in the sky to a picture of a house. Much as coloring had passed the time, he wasn't enthused on continuing it for too much longer.
"Hmm…" She muttered, putting away the book and box of crayons. Rifling through the cupboard some more, she closed it with a shake of her head. "Not much else to do down here."
"What about something on your laptop?" Law suggested, remembering how entertaining the device had been before. He'd found out so much just from an hour or two of searching. At this, she brightened up.
"Oh, good idea. I've got just the thing." Her expression turned to one of mischief as she quickly went upstairs to retrieve her laptop. Law took the opportunity to stretch his back. Sitting on the floor with a hunched back wasn't doing him any favors, and his spine realigned itself with several painful pops. The ache lasted for awhile afterwards.
A few minutes later, she descended the stairs holding several pillows under her arms. He frowned, not quite sure what she was up to. Smiling brightly, and sneezing promptly, she tossed the pillows onto the ground.
"We're going to build a fort." She explained, turning once again. Curious, Law followed her into her room where she began stripping the bed of the blankets.
"A fort?" He questioned.
"Yup. What, you've never built a blanket fort before?"
He shook his head and she chucked some balled-up blankets at him, which he caught just in time to prevent them from hitting him in the face. With a laugh she grabbed a few of her own.
"That's tragic. Guess I'll have to show you how." She sang in amusement, trudging out of the room with her arms full of bedding. With both confusion and curiosity mounting, he followed her back downstairs.
They tossed the remaining materials onto the floor, then Lexi grabbed the biggest blanket they had and handed him a corner. "Grab on and pull."
Doing as he was instructed, they stretched out the blanket and draped it over the couch, dragging the loveseat beside it to cover the third side. Once that was done, they tucked the edges under the couch cushions so it would hold.
Standing back a little, Lexi inspected their work so far. "Hmm…we'll need something to weigh down the part that'll be on top of the coffee table." Glancing around, she found a basket of folded clothes that Nana had forgotten to put away.
"Ok, drag the table over there and put the blanket on top." She ordered. Law was starting to get an idea for what she was trying to do, and did as he was told. After the blanket was pulled tight, she placed the basket on top to hold it down. Luckily it was heavy enough to not budge.
The whole thing created a small little crawlspace beneath the blanket, just enough room for two people if they were laying down. But it was much more open than Law had imagined it to be.
"Are we done?" Law asked, and Lexi laughed, grabbing another blanket.
"Nowhere near!"
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