the life aquatic with trafalgar law

What was this now? The captain serving the navigator? For shame! Seeing Law walk in with a tray in his hands of which the contents were admittedly not for him but for Bepo made the bear himself colour his cheeks pink. It goes without saying he felt sorry for making the captain serve him breakfast, and he had not made Law do it at all! It felt like it, that’s all.

“Captain! You shouldn’t hav– ” Bepo’s arms, an instant ago moving in a panicked frenzy, stopped as the sentence was cut short. Wouldn’t Law be offended if his lovely surprise was met with a protest? Talk about adding insult to injury!

“I mean, sorry, I mean… Thank you, it looks fantastic.”

Admittedly, there was nothing fantastic about a plate of veggies and you had to reckon this even if you were a big fan of produce. If anything, should it resemble anything, Law’s culinary efforts resembled a mound of mush fairly taking the shape of a heart. At least it could be recognised as such and not as a crooked, crippled circle. It was abstract art in edible form.

Alas, Bepo’s taste was more willing than refined, so though he could see how each element of this dish had been cut into its own shape, no repeats, the bear could not fully appreciate the beauty or the expertise a cook would need with a knife to make so artistic a composition. Captain sure had taken his time in the kitchen, that’s for sure, if he had done more than peeling potatoes and that was saying something, considering Bepo hardly saw Law cheerfully warming his belly against the stove.

If Law said he wanted to practice his technique with a knife, Bepo believed him. If Law said the reason for his doing so had to do with the lack of deceased bodies with which to practice, Bepo believed him… though he had personally not seen any of those around to begin with. He gulped at the thought, hoping he never would, either.

“A nap would be nice, thank you.” By the way he spoke, you would have thought Law was doing Bepo a favour instead of the reverse being true. Not even for a second did Bepo see the meal as payment for his personal pillow services.

Bepo made his large behind as comfortable as possible on the floorboards, grabbed the tray with both paws and lifted it to his mouth. A bear ought not be asked to make use of human-y things such as a fork or spoon.

At the first taste of fish, Bepo discovered he was hungry indeed, and this hunger served as a great boost to wolf down Law’s messy cuisine. The vegetables tasted delicious against his tongue, too, for his mink mother had always insisted on the ingestion of healthy greens along with fresh fish.

When he was done eating, the navigator cleaned the tray with a couple of flicks of his tongue, wiped his dark mouth on his bright sleeve and hung his head as if to show Law how ready for nap time he was. Maybe it was the food, maybe it was his undying eagerness to please the captain but Bepo did feel sleepy.

“Yes…” His paw moved in circles over his belly, rubbing it to satisfaction, much to Bepo’s ignorance. “Very nice indeed.”

Yes?

I don’t even know how to begin answering this because it’s too kind and nothing I might say can live up to it! I am honoured that, of all people, you remembered to send this to me when we don’t even talk because that just speaks loads of how nice you are! I am not sure I deserve it but saying so would be insulting, so... THANK YOU SO MUCH! HAVE A BEPO HUG!

Bepo’s first, sweet, naïve thought was that the grey-faced person had to be a little silly to think him a dog when he was obviously a bear. Had the stranger mistaken Bepo for your old Arctic dweller, the mink would have felt insulted, not quite because polar bears were bad, you see, but because it would be a blow to his mink pride being identified as a common animal.

As the mistake was not in race but in both race and species altogether, Bepo was forced to conclude there had to be something wrong either with this person’s sight or their capacity to think. Captain might have something to say about it, a professional analysis should the problem reside in this person’s skull or physical brain rather than their mind - Captain did not make for the best therapist with that selective hearing of his.

There was no way Bepo could take offence if the problem was medical, just like he could not help the stranger with a clinical approach. Poor Bepo did not even understand the implication of the expression “lap dog”, though he would be able to grasp its context should Law himself use it in reference to a third party. Captain made things so easy!

Should he send for Law?

“I’m sorry but… are you feeling well?” Bepo’s acute sense of smell detected no traces of alcohol in the anonymous person’s breath or skin. “Are you having trouble seeing things? I’m a bear. Not a big dog.”

Bepo was unsure what the nonny meant by that. There was a handful of reasons why someone like Bepo could be seen as a target, his lack of self-assurance being only one of them. Why, it wasn’t even the main reason at that, not when the mink’s sheer size already made him easy to spot, hard to miss.

Then, there was his mink condition, which should come before the specifics of his personality. Apparently, and speaking in broad terms, humans tended to find ‘non-human’ as enough a reason to turn one into a target. Though not currently in contact with his tribe back in Zou, Bepo knew many fellow minks would agree, even those with more outgoing personalities - extroverted or introverted, social or feral, nothing mattered to people whose policy was that of ‘shoot first, ask later’, and questioning seldomly happened.

Bepo’s timidness did not make it top of the list in the ‘whys’ for him getting bullied. Which did not take any bit of value from nonny’s observation, of course!

Lifting his paw to his ear, the polar mink scratched its inside and blinked before voicing his answer. 

“That’s just the way I am; there’s nothing wrong with that. Besides” he promptly added with a chuckle “I have my friends”

The navigator of the crew also doubled up as its official worrier. It was always Bepo the one who would concern himself with possible dangers, shake head or paws in a frantic way at the mention of bad people or bad places. Yet, in spite of this trait, he was also brave enough to fight for his crew with fast-as-lightning kicks and the Heart Pirates would return the favour by shielding the mink’s heart.