Chapter Text
“My love for you is vast enough to swallow the biggest of ships whole. Until you have tasted a love deeper than my own, your hunger shall never be satiated. Although you may find sweetness in the taste of the lips, flesh, and bodily fluids of a select few - it will prove fleeting. The tongue shall lose its sharp edge and dull into ash as your appetite wears on its soul. Only by tasting the one who your heart and stomach favor in earnest shall you be free once again,” the ghostly figure lulled as her fingers cupped his cheek.
“Goodbye, my sweet sun,’ she whispered as Nika felt the shadow of a breeze caress his lips. He gasped as he awoke in a start. He clutched his chest as his heartbeat drummed at a rapid tempo.
Breathe, he conducted to himself - patting a rubbery hand up and down against his chest. Da da da. Da da da. Just breathe. She is no longer here to hurt you, he reminded himself.
Yet she was. In every way that mattered. Every day her silent presence gnawed at his stomach as the ghost of her song like voice wormed its way through his ears and buried itself beneath the soil of his very bones.
It didn’t matter how hard he banged his head against any surface. It didn’t matter how far his fingers snaked their way throughout the canals of his ears to get rid of the piercing sound scratching its insides every second of the day. It didn’t matter how much he ate to fill the bottomless pit that was his stomach. She was permanently etched into his very being.
Nika traced the edge of his large chest scar as his red eyes adjusted to his surroundings. He tried to focus on anything but the clawing at his stomach. He had fallen asleep upon the rough wooden floor boards of his fortress in the trees. It was his favorite place to get away from the prying looks of others and eat in peace without as much shame as he did whenever he lost control amongst the presence of many livestock and the sweet sent of a few passerby’s. He still wasn’t used to the body of the prince whose body he inhabited. Monkey D. Luffy was his name. It was still an adjustment as the body was still getting used to the properties of the rubbery body he himself had once had.
Right now, he was in control of this body. Whenever Luffy became fatigued by his hunger (which was most days now), Nika would regain control of the body.
Yesterday had been a disaster as he snuck into a house in a nearby village and raided their pantry. It didn’t help that he picked up a sweet honey scent deep within the house that sent him on a rampage.
He winced at the memory of the young man’s arrow piercing his left shoulder. The condition that plagued him was steadily progressing by the day. Meat no longer tasted savory when he bit into it. He could add all the barbecue sauce and seasonings he could but it still tasted as bland and uneventful as water. There was barely anything he could taste nowadays except honey, strawberries, and tangerines. The house had loads of handpicked strawberries inside and he could not resist the temptation.
Before he had known it he found himself stuffing his mouth with them faster than he could breathe. As he scoured their floor for even a crumb, he heard the slow creaking of a door as delicate foot steps made their way into the house. He began panicking frantically until that decadent honey scent hit his nose and moving at the speed of a tiger hunting its prey as his eyes glowed. Only the arrow from the boy of the young woman’s brother (or lover, he couldn’t tell) had brought him back to his senses as he stared in horror at the frightened young woman shaking in the corner of her defiled living room. The sofa was split in half due to his body using it as a spring board and his sharp teeth had torn through her coffee table as he had lunged towards her.
I’m a monster, he thought as his mind was pulled back to the present through the sound of feet carelessly snapping twigs. He peered down from the vantage point in his fortress and spotted a white uniform with a blue anchor.
He clicked his tongue. The royal navy.
It was only a matter of time before the forces of Luffy’s grandfather, Garp the Dawn King, found them. As soon as his condition started worsening, he began ordering the guards to keep the young prince in his room. It had been a few weeks since they had made their escape from the palace. They had been as careful as they could, which was a task in and of itself, to remain under the radar so grandpa couldn’t find him. But he knew that after yesterday’s incident, it was only a matter of time before he found his location. He had to act quickly or else he and Luffy may never feel the sun dancing upon their skin again.
Nika stretched his arm a distance away outside the window and propelled himself forward as he began swinging rapidly from tree to tree. If he could just make it to the harbor, he could find a ship and leave this place for good.
He was moving so fast within the trees he barely noticed the beautiful young woman with shoulder length her the color of a tangerine perched on a tree branch with her arrow aimed at a deer she had her eyes set on. He smelt her first before he saw her. She smelled like a tangerine wrapped in chocolate. Nika found it to be heavenly. Her rich brown eyes locked with his as he lost his baring on the tree up ahead and crashed into the bark, which sent him tumbling down until his head hit the bed of grass below.
His vision became blurry as he heard the sound of heavy feet rushing in his direction as the sun slowly began to fade from view and his world became dark.