Ben looked at the steps down into the bilge, his mouth twisted into a grimace.
He heard something skitter behind him. He didn't look; it wasn't the first time he'd heard it on his way down here. Every time he tried to get a look at whatever it was, it would already be gone.
He took a deep breath and held it in his chest, then took his first step.
The bilge was eerily quiet. He'd been down here a couple of times already, when he'd been helping around the ship. Sanji sent him to fetch some salt once.
Those visits were unremarkable, this one was not. Ben immediately felt that he was being watched as he stepped off the stairs. The cold was much more bitter down here than up above. Not in the way the winter was cold, he knew, but rather the way the ocean was cold, pushed to an impossible extreme.
The air was damp and water dripped from the ceiling, pooling at his feet in a shallow puddle. He was definitely going to tattle about this when the others got back.
Barrels and crates adorned the room, some even stacked atop one another. There were plentiful places to hide, especially from a boy of lacking height as he was.
Ben released his held breath, stuck out his chest, and marched down the length of the ship's keel. He whipped his head this way and that, peering behind every wooden container.
Then there was just one place left. He jumped around and… nothing?
Suddenly, he felt quite silly.
Just as suddenly, someone tapped on his shoulder.
Ben slowly turned his head to look behind him. Again, nobody was there.
When he returned his head to its previous position, Tia was right there, sitting on the crate in front of him.
Ben did not let out a girlish squeak. It was a manly shout of terror, the manliest of all time!
"You found me," Tia tittered. "You know what that means?"
"I win?" Ben ventured a guess.
"It means it's your turn to hide~" Tia's almost pleasant giggle grew into a full blown witch's cackle.
Ben turned tail and ran.
…
After spending way too much time sailing with a bunch of smelly undead pirates, Cherry was quite glad to set her feet down on the grassy deck of the Thousand Sunny once more. She even took her shoes off to do it.
She took a moment to enjoy the feeling before she turned to Sanji and asked, "So why is there a young boy inside of your refrigerator?"
"What?" Naturally, this took Sanji completely off guard. "There isn't a…"
He glanced around, before his eyes stopped on the woman lounging on one of the patio chairs. "Er, Tia-san? Where's Ben?"
"Hiding in your… refrigerator," Tia seemed to taste the word as she said it. "I would assume."
Sanji rushed off to his kitchen, "How did he even unlock the damned thing???"
"So why is Ben hiding from you?" Cherry questioned Tia, then turned to Nami. "And who is Ben? And who is she?"
Tia shrugged. "Perhaps he is frightened of me. I am Dalma Tia."
"No you aren't," Cherry denied her instantly before once again looking to Nami.
"Uh, well… Ben is a cabin boy that Jinbe picked up in Tortuga with Luffy. Ben has apparently taken a liking to him. As for her, that's the name she gave us, so I don't know what to tell you. She came with the other ship," Nami kept shooting odd glances Tia's way.
"Are you saying that I am a liar?" Tia asked.
"Yes," Cherry answered, challenging her to deny it with her eyes. "You find that name repulsive. It is not your name."
Cherry was quite sure of that. The way that her inside roiled and rebelled when she heard the name was proof of her dislike of it.
The other 'woman' regarded her with interest. "You're right. I took the name from the original Dalma Tia… after I killed her."
Beyond the overly casual confession to murder, Cherry felt like there was a story there. Clearly she had some history with the true Dalma Tia, if she used the name despite her distaste for it. Probably spite, she reckoned.
"Uh-huh," Cherry replied. "Is she the one who stuffed you into that sack of meat and bones?"
Not-Tia guffawed at that. "She played a part in it, yes. Most of the others involved got their comeuppance eventually, too, when they came back around to old Dalma Tia for more magic."
"Just most, huh?" Cherry scratched her chin. "I guess it'd take me a hot minute to get my revenge if somebody put me into a crab shell. I reckon I'd get all of them, though."
"The last is still lingering around the mortal coil, so I haven't lost my chance yet," Not-Tia narrowed her eyes.
"How long have you been kicking it in the civilized world?" Cherry asked conversationally.
"Going on eight hundred years now, I suppose," Not-Tia answered. "It's been… difficult."
"I bet I know someone who could cheer you up," Cherry smiled.
"Oh? And who might that be?" Not-Tia raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"My darling princess, Takako, of course!" Cherry cheered, signaling the emergence of a beast of legend.
Not-Tia's eyes lit up at the sight of Cherry's precious girl!
…
"What the hell is that?!" Norrington shouted from the other ship.
…
"She's beautiful," Not-Tia marveled.
"Damn straight, she is!" Cherry concurred. "For some reason, hardly anyone else thinks so!"
"They must be blind," Not-Tia surmised. "Just look at this shade of blue! I've never seen a kraken like her; and she's so big and strong too!"
Takako poked a tentacle up onto the deck and Not-Tia took the chance to 'shake hands' with her. "It's wonderful to meet you."
"I told you that she'd cheer you up," Cherry said with a smug smile.
"You did, and you were correct," Not-Tia agreed. "The only kraken in this sea was bent to the will of the man who wronged me. It's been many years since I've had the pleasure of meeting one."
"Uh," Usopp chose that moment to speak up. "I think Luffy ate that one; I mean, if it really was the only one up here."
"Really?" Not-Tia hummed. "At least it is free in death. Such is the way of life in the ocean."
"Are you some kind of fish monster?" Luffy blurted out.
"Luffy! Don't be rude!" Nami chastised him.
"Yes," Not-Tia answered without offense.
"Is that other fish monster you made your baby then?" Luffy plowed onwards.
"Luffy!!!" Nami wasn't expecting her to answer in the affirmative, but it was still rude of him!
"In a fashion, I suppose it was," Not-Tia affirmed again.
"You don't have a problem with people eating your babies?!" Chopper was the one who asked this time.
"Why would I? Have you met many sea creatures that care much for their offspring? Some even eat them themselves," Not-Tia was clearly enjoying the disturbance she was causing with her answers. Cherry got the impression that, while she was just riling them up, she was also being truthful.