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thoraeth · 20 days

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Chapter 3 - Ceasefire

Ao3 link: Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3

words: 3600

Summary: Welcome aboard the Challenger, a ship from Egghead with a crazy weird logpose! While Ava and Buggy find a way to coexist peacefully, Romi and her crew are pressured by LabPhase.

Ava is compressed against spiky metal bits, stinging like a million needles on her skin.

She’s been enveloped in the clown’s coat the whole time, but now that the debris doesn't move anymore, she can get that ripped fabric out of her face.

They’re in a big empty room, whose likeness she’s never seen before: the floor is completely hidden by metal scraps while the walls, light colored, are covered in weird panels and glowing buttons. That horrible claw crane is still dangling from the ceiling as an orange light flashes through the room.

“Jester?”

Something’s still weighing on Ava's body. Looking down at her lap, she notices a shadow entangled in the coat. It's an arm, a single arm with a gloved hand.

The woman screams. Crawling back on her elbows, she scans the room again: many other pieces of the pirate are peeking out among the debris, scattered around. Her stomach is in knots.

“It…it shredded him…”

Ava manages to get up when two panels in the wall behind her slide open. The flashing light stops and three people enter the room chatting loudly. They're all wearing a gray coverall and heavy combat boots.

“Allen, Torres, check the crane report. We should have got everything back.”

“Who died and made you queen, Meg?”

A muscular woman jumps in the debris while a brown skinned guy makes faces at her. A fellow big man, bald and middle aged, is tapping with both hands on a glitching panel.

“Hey! What are you doing here?” the woman's voice echoes in the distance.

“Meg? Is everything okay?”

“Guys, we’ve got a stowaway!”

Running through the scraps, the trio is upon Ava, surrounding her.

“How did you sneak in, uh?”

“This can't be for real…” Ava’s staring at the arm on the ground, shocked.

“Ugh, gross! If I see blood, I'm out of here.” the brown skinned man backs off with a disgusted expression.

“Torres!” The other growls “Sorry for your loss, sweetheart.” He brings his face closer to the frightened clandestine, speaking with a gentle voice. “I'm doctor Allen Stein. How about we clean your cuts and talk about what happened?”

With the corner of her eye, Ava is watching Meg: a big burn crosses her face, half hidden behind white curls. The woman picks up Buggy's arm and observes it from different angles.

“Doc.” she calls out “Isn't it a little too clean in here?”

As Meg speaks, the lifeless arm begins to levitate. Suddenly legs, hands, arms, ears fly across the room and swirl rapidly around her body. The pieces fit together in a blue haired man who grabs her from the back, pointing a sharp rod at her throat.

“ ‘Evening ladies and gentlemen. Get me the fuck outta here and no one gets hurt.”

Torres can't believe his eyes. “Where’d that dirty clown come from?!”

“It must be Devil Fruit powers, watch out!”

The two men block Ava and take a step back, pulling out their guns.

“Put all weapons down, please!” the woman yells. “It’s just a misunderstanding!”

“Relax, lads. You can keep her all you want.” the pirate smirks bitterly.

“Buggy, no!”

“Shut up! It's all your fault, shark girl!”

“What? You broke the cannon!”

As the quarrel goes on, one word ignites a sudden exchange of glances among the crew members. Meg looks up, resisting the rod sinking in her neck.

“Oh” she says stiffly “you're the Emperor.”

“Flash and bones, baby: the star clown, the genius jester, Warlord, president of Cross Gild! You’d better drop me off before my men hunt you down!”

“I hope you're a good swimmer, then.” Allen frowns. “We entered the calm belt half an hour ago.”

Buggy rolls his eyes, chuckling “Pathetic bluff, doc. How could you losers navigate the belts?”

“Deck 4, open airlock.”

Torres’ voice echoes through the room and the orange light on the ceiling flashes again.

The wall next to them splits and opens up with a loud hiss, revealing the open sea. Even if a light rain is rippling the sea surface, no wind comes in, the air outside is dense and stifling.

Buggy pushes Meg away, his heart plunging in his chest while observing the gigantic silhouettes of Sea Kings roaming underwater.

“I think you should meet our Captain, jester.” the woman suggests, massaging her neck.

The crew proceeds to escort Buggy and Ava out of the warehouse, through narrow corridors and steep stairs. The clown is quietly observing the place as they go: “That’s crazy! You can talk to the ship and it does things on its own. These shitheads do have something on their hands… I wonder if there's any gizmo I could steal.” He swallows nervously “At least I wouldn't return to Perona empty handed.”

The group stops in front of a wall with a glowing disk where Meg places her hand. Again, two panels activate, splitting and sliding open.

“Romi, we have guests.”

The woman leads the way through an extremely messy workroom, where the stowaways are fascinated by unknown machinery lying on a large counter. All around, glowing texts and shapes are glitching on the walls.

“What is that!” Ava gasps under her breath. A sleek device is cabled to a platform; it has a beat-up hollow wheel in the front and its lucid shell is heavily scratched. With a raspy voice, a dark skinned woman stands up behind the vehicle.

“If it's another stooge from Lab Phase, I swear…” She adjusts a pair of round eyeglasses in her wavy hair, still focused on her reparations.

Meg clears her throat: “He’s Buggy the clown, one of the Four Emperors. Him and the girl got caught in the crane.” The scarred woman walks up to the platform and whispers “Remember that talk we had before leaving Egghead? All those pictures and bounties?”

“What would you suggest?” the captain asks in a low voice.

“Diplomacy.”

Romi grabs a greasy towel, eying the intruders: Buggy the Emperor doesn't look that threatening in his messed up face paint and striped shirt; same goes for his blonde companion who wouldn't even sustain eye contact. The captain gets closer with a dim smile on her face. “What a privilege for us, Yonko. Welcome aboard the Challenger.”

“How kind.” Buggy replies, his voice flat “As much as I’d love to play tea party, Ma’am, I need you to take me back where you dug me up.”

“On 0348? No prob, it'll take a couple weeks.”

“Come again?”

“It’s our best outcome, so far: fifteen days to complete a lap of the Grand Line.”

The pirate laughs, confused. “You know you can literally turn the ship around, right?”

“No you can't, if the ship's the Challenger. Once we enter the belts, the Algopose decides where and when we stop next. It has to work its magic or we get lost for good.”

Buggy strokes his forehead, inhaling deeply. “A ship from the future that doesn't steer…” He can't decide whether to scream or cry his eyes out. “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” he says in a low voice.

“It has its flaws, I give you that.”

“How about Karai Bari, then? How many decades to get there?”

“Let me check with JoyJoey. In the meanwhile, I think you should get some rest.”

Romi heads for the workroom’s exit, signaling everyone to follow her.

As she leads her crew and guests down a metal staircase, the clanging of their steps resounds all around, along with her voice. “You’ll like it in here. Some details aren't top-tier yet, but my ship has nothing to envy to that pretentious junk from Lab Phase.”

They turn into a wide corridor, evenly lit by tall lighted arches. Left and right, numbered panels tower over them.

“What’s Lab Phase?” Ava timidly asks.

Romi’s voice gets snarly. “Vegapunk’s lab, the cradle of the future…actually a bunch of old farts with gov money.”

“And weapons.” Buggy adds. “You guys do weapons too?”

The Captain picks up the pace.

“I refuse. Everybody wants to be the next professor V. and what’s come of it? Wooden ships still sink at Reverse Mountain but, oi, we’ve got the Pacifistas!”

Romi stops in front of a door and slaps the digital circle to reveal a bedroom.

“Stay as long as you need. It’s JoyJoey’s room but he never lefts the cockpit.”

Buggy stomps in first, taking a good look at the space. “Wow…gray, grates and weird stuff. Again.” he thinks, raising his eyebrows “What's with this dullness?”

He stops in front of a hexagonal niche and throws himself on the mattress placed inside.

Buggy is quite surprised: a cheerful crowd of shapes fills the hidden space around the bed. Small paper drawings are glued on the walls, in a chaotic whirlwind of colors. A smile lights up the clown's face.

“Ugh, he still hasn't cleaned this mess.” Romi leans inside the bed niche, reaching for a squared button.

A portion of the wall rolls up and natural light fills the room.

“JoyJoey’s our navigator” the woman says “The only one who gets to have a window here. You’re two lucky bastards!” she bursts out laughing.

Buggy sits up “Two? Oh no, Ma’am, I don’t share.”

“This is a small ship. It's either here or top deck, if you fancy the Belts at night.”

“Am I going to sleep on the floor?” Ava presses Romi.

“Hey, chill out! We've got bed modules.”

“Well then, take that module and shove it in one of your rooms.” Buggy growls "Ladies should go with ladies.”

“And strangers with strangers! You're not going anywhere until I trust you two.” Romi quickly reaches her crew, half hidden outside the room. She stretches a fake smile and presses her hand on the wall. The panels close, followed by a steamy noise.

Ava runs to the door, randomly hitting its surface with her palms.

“This is all your fault.” the pirate hisses behind her. “You’re always in my way and it's complete chaos, one bullshit after the other! You got me into this mess and I don’t know how to get out of it!”

As the words come out of Buggy's mouth, his voice gets shrill.

“Do you even understand how fucked I am? If those two find out I’m not at the camp they’ll think I’ve run off!”

“So what?” Ava snaps “You’ve run off! Call your pirate army and…I don't know, kill them. What can they do to you?”

“They own me.”

The two remain still, frowning at each other.

“I owe Sir Fucking Crocodile millions of Berry and the only reason I’m alive is that I’ll have to take a bullet for him if things go south!” the pirate’s face is altered by a desperate grin “I just wanted to forget about my shitty life for a day or two. Now I'm a dead man walking.”

“I’m truly sorry, Buggy. But again, this is not my fault.” Ava’s voice is shaky. “You made things worse by damaging that cannon.”

“Why am I even talking to you?! Get out of my sight!”

“Sure, you only want to talk when I'm useful… Like an hour ago, on that beach.”

Buggy raises his blue eyes towards Ava. “It was a polite chat to kill time.”

“And it was nice, can we stick to that?”

“No. They made us marry, but I can choose not to like you.”

“Ok, so what did I do to you? I was forced into that ring like you, I’m miserable as you are miserable and yet I’ve been nothing but kind.”

“Oh, the hypocrisy! You didn't want to be killed, that's all.”

“That too, yes!” Ava yells, her green eyes open wide. “For the first time I was my own person and I thought it would be great, however I'm still sleeping on the floor and constantly being yelled at…No matter how far I go, I'm still stuck.”

The atmosphere within the room turns sad. Ava tries to hold back tears, her eyes reddened.

“Still stuck.” Buggy echoes, sitting on the bed again. He rests his head on his palms and lets go of a long puff: “Even if I wiped you all out, it would be me and the Sea Kings anyway. I guess I'd better not waste my energy and find a way to handle this mess.”

One of his hands flies towards Ava. The woman’s eyes light up as his dirty fingers take her hand and firmly shake it.

“Now. The only way I can survive Croc and Mihawk is with information; a lot of information. A slave with information is worth more than a Yonko, I'll tell you that much.”

“So you're a slave now?” Ava sighs, sitting on the floor next to the pirate.

“Do you think slaves only come with a skin mark? Buckle up for the real world, babe.” Buggy smirks. “Anyway. During these two weeks I have to squeeze out the science gang and I expect your full collaboration, Ava.”

The woman looks up to the clown’s crazed glance, worried.

“…within my heart

Daisy, Daisy

planted one day by a glancing dart…”

The bright sky of the Belts reflects on a large hexagonal mirror, a translucent surface hiding a tidy bed. Ava is zipping up her gray coverall and leans forward to check a pimple on her forehead. “Enough with the singing, jester, it's time to go!” she chuckles.

Her roommate’s image appears in the mirror: Buggy is untangling his wet hair, shaking the dripping brush towards Ava with a childish grin. She pushes him away and jumps on the messy bed next to the window.

“I’ll miss this a little.” she thinks, tying up her boot's laces.

Over those days, she has grown fond of the clown’s weird songs. She'd often slow down in the morning, listening to him humming with his hair slit back and his face still clean.

“Room, Mirror off.” Buggy exclaims. The reflections fade away and the hexagon goes back to a bed module. Throwing a piece of charcoal on the floor, the pirate exits the room, his face covered in intricate black shapes.

“So, how are we feeling?” Ava asks, walking with him under the light arches.

“I don’t know. I hope our little present will please my colleagues enough to keep my head close to the rest.”

“It’s more than enough; that nose of yours will still be attached to your face tomorrow.” the woman winks at him.

“No shit.” Buggy fakes a grunt “Luckily, you're good at science ‘cause you'd make a horrible comedian.”

“You mean I can't apply for your circus?”

“Of course you can. CEO of Den Dens’ maintenance, right away!”

They enter the lunchroom smirking as the challenger’s crew is eating breakfast around a long metal table, arms chaotically mingling over full plates.

“You two!” Romi shouts “Thank god the jester’s getting off this ship today, I’m fed up with your nightly chats! What’s with sharing your whole life’s stories at 4am? People need to sleep!”

“Sorry Romi.” Ava says quietly, pouring herself the last drop of tea.

“Oh, c’mon Buggy.” the Captain continues. “Stop it.”

The pirate mutters through his full cheeks “I told you a million times, mind your business.” He’s eating with his hands, seated on the table with his legs spread. As usual, Ava sits behind him, hidden from the rest of the crew. After some time, though, Buggy feels a light touch on his arm: Ava's whispering to him to let go. The blue haired man sits properly and drags his chair. “I did what I could, she's on her own now.” he thinks, cracking a smile.

“So…what do I do with Lab Phase? They called again.” Meg is urging Romi who’s aggressively munching on her breakfast.

“Those Assholes!” the Captain shouts “Five years of research: no questions, no money. We sink half a cannon and it's three calls a day!”

“It might get into the wrong hands; they do have a point.” Allen objects.

“Tsk. They’re just scared they’ll no longer be the ones running the game.”

Torres waves his spoon, spitting cornflakes as he speaks: “I think we kinda leveled the field. If pirates and marines have the same tech, they’re…even?”

“Commoners will appreciate the fair play, no doubt.” Meg snaps, scathing.

“Guys, really, I can’t do this.” Romi’s voice gets weak, her face pale and drawn.

“Tell Lab Phase we won’t go search for it. Our funds are running out and the drifter is still unusable. I…I can’t sacrifice all of this on a fucking weapon.”

The Captain stands up abruptly. “Yonko, ready to disembark in four hours.” She cuts the conversation short and storms out of the lunchroom.

The atmosphere among the crew has gotten heavy, so Ava leads Buggy out. The two are walking through Deck 2, chatting and joking, when orange flashing lights go off throughout the ship.

A low rumble rises, growing and growing below the hull and the Challenger begins to roll: slowly tilting left and right, the floors become unsteady and random objects come tumbling down from the rooms.

“Shit!” Buggy holds Ava up. “Out of the Belts already?!” he mouths in the middle of the deafening noise. Clinging to his floating hand, the woman cries out: “It's the Algopose! We're early!”

Amidst that chaos, a familiar voice croaks from above: “Initiate safety protocol, remote commands are not responding.” All of Romi’s distress is coming out of the speakers. “Lab 2 is top priority. Ava, take Buggy to Lab 3 immediately.”

Ava visibly gaps. She moves quickly, sliding and falling. The jester presses his hand against her back, guiding her away from slamming into the walls when a new wave hits.

They run past Romi’s lab, where Meg and Torres are securing all the gimmicks, then Ava stops in front of a second door. As its panels slide open, Buggy cannot believe his eyes.

It’s a chemistry lab. Powders, burners, beakers, flasks everywhere. “It’s… beautiful.” the pirate thinks, gawping.

Ava’s cries for help harshly bring him back to reality: all those shiny objects are rolling and flying off their shelves, shattering on the floor in thousands of pieces.

“Lab 3, lock in place!” Ava orders, tinkering with a touch panel and hitting it with the palm of her hand. A number of boxes go back to their position, retained by an invisible force, while others are grasped by Buggy, his limbs moving frantically around the room.

As hours go by, the ominous rumble of the sea seems to quiet and the floor tilting gets gentler. Exhausted, Ava and Buggy slide down a wall, surrounded by glass splinters.

“These people are out of their fucking mind!” the pirate shouts “We could explode!”

“On normal days…it’s all locked up…” Ava wheezes

“Why did they send you? You need someone who knows how to handle this stuff!”

“No one here knows.” Ava replies. “I mean, from what I saw, Romi knows a little, but not nearly enough to help with the Drifter.”

“Is that why Captain Four Eyes was crying into her breakfast?”

“Yup. Last tests didn't go well…It keeps shutting down. Didn't make it past the lab’s doors.”

“I could have helped! There must be something useful here.”

“You could? It’s a pity you did nothing but sleep and eat the whole time, then.”

“Like this and this, or that” Buggy’s finger is pointing at colored liquids and powders around the lab. “Mix together and…boom! Whatever that thing is, they're gonna fish it out of the East Blue!” he sneers.

“That's not the point, Doctor Vegaclown!

Where did you learn all this, though?”

“I loved to do experiments as a kid, back on the Oro Jackson… A lifetime ago.” Buggy smiles while twirling some glass tubes around his fingers. “How do you think I made my Muggy bombs, uh? You don’t need books to make those beauties!”

Ava laughs heartily, as the pirate turns into a rambling child, jabbering on and on about his favorite topic. As Buggy lets himself go, a warm feeling makes its way through Ava's chest. What a shame he had to go back to his Yonko life.

“Hey, Bug, since you're good with chemistry.” Ava looks down “You should find a way to read someone's blood, to check where they’re from.”

“What does it even mean?”

“If you’d test Meara…you'd be a slave with a hell of a leverage. Crocodile won't touch you again.”

“I see.” The pirate frowns.

During their nightly chats, Ava told him about her relatives and Meara’s cruelty to all of them. “But this? What's with Read’s blood now?” he thinks.

“Also, if you keep your head…make something again.” the woman flushes. “It must be nice to be around you when you’re that happy.”

Buggy stares at Ava, looking for a funny, witty remark, but nothing comes to mind. He definitely is unhappy, through and through. Still, he has to admit her words have given him some sort of hopeful, nostalgic feelings; as if there were a small shard of himself, buried deep inside, that isn't completely dead.

Romi’s voice echoes from the speakers: “Attention, crew. We entered the Grand Line in the middle of a storm. Again. But no losses this round, so…good job. Buggy, come to the cockpit, we're one hour away from Karai Bari.”

“It's time.” The pirate gets up, his hands in his pockets. “All in all, it was fun. Sorry for being a shitty husband but I'm sure you'll do great with the science gang.”

As he walks out, a deep uneasiness jolts through Ava's chest. Words escape her lips, louder that she'd like them to be: “I’ll miss our chats at night. Take care, Buggy.”

#buggy the clown #one piece buggy #one piece #one piece fanfiction #grand line challengers #buggy fanfiction #long fanfic #ao3 fanfic #ao3 writer #buggy the genius jester #buggy x oc

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thoraeth · 29 days

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A/N: 850 words, gn!reader. You're the personal assistant of the weirdest punk band in the Grand Line and today you're having a breakdown. Unfortunately, Buggy has no intentions of leaving you alone.

[One Piece punk band AU/ modern AU]

Cut out for the job

The door slams closed. You kick your sneakers away, enjoying the silence of your hotel room.

You haven't been able to catch your breath all day: Mr. Trafalgar called at 6 am because Ace was held at the police station; third time this month. Then it was Barto's turn. He needed your opinion on a nice gift for his nana, but kept arguing that your ideas were stupid. Franky gave you a migraine, shouting left and right during the band's weekly meeting and Buggy…oh, Buggy. He was insufferable these days: snappy, needy, tense, constantly asking you to fetch him stuff, to take him places.

You’re starting to feel like you’re never enough, drowning in this chaotic routine.

You can almost hear your mother's voice in your head: “Are you really throwing your life away to follow a band of idiots?!” Well, in your defense, being a band’s personal assistant was supposed to be fun. But now? Here you are, tired, sad and underpaid, living in yet another horrible hotel room. Maybe you're not cut out for this job.

Your phone glows up, a text from Buggy. “It's 11 pm for fuck's sake!” you shout, throwing the buzzing device on the sofa.

Buggy has been doing it for weeks: every night he sends you tons of messages for the most trivial stuff. He’s lost his mascara, bought ten pairs of shoes, whines about his paycheck. A bratty, pushy attitude he’s never had before.

In fact, the two of you used to have the most interesting conversations and a special chemistry that made you feel some type of way more than once. Like that night, backstage. The glances, the gentle touching while you helped him get dressed…you can still feel the goosebumps on your skin.

You pick up your phone, puffing at the crowd of notifications.

[Hey, you still up? Listen, face paint is running out, I’m thinking cherry 3.2 this time but I’m not sure if 1 or 2 cans.

Heyyyy are you ignoring me?? 👺😭 You sleeping already?]

[Oi Bug, can we discuss this tomorrow? It's way past my working hours.]

[...ok.]

[Today's been rough, I really need to unwind 🥲]

[ Wanna hang out? A little fun will make you feel better.]

[ Thanks but I’m done with work, see you tomorrow!]

[seen 00:15 AM]

[Buggy? You ok?]

[seen 00:50 AM]

“Shit. He's upset now.” You whisper, your eyes and mouth wide open “What if he gets me fired?”

You feel low-key furious: you shouldn't be punished for setting boundaries. If he’s playing the cocky boss during the day, you can play that game too and clock out at night. Screw him.

The sudden sound of the doorbell makes you jump out of your skin. “Hey it's me.” A familiar voice comes from outside the door, muffled.

Stomping to the peephole, you see Buggy. He’s nervously thinkering with his blue hair, pacing back and forth in the duck hoodie you got him for his birthday.

“Are you serious?” You ask, opening up.

“I know, I’m sorry. Just five minutes and I'll be gone.”

Buggy's not wearing his piercings and face paint; he looks serious, a bit scared. His ice blue eyes stare at you in silence and all your anger seems to melt away as he sits on the sofa.

“I need to talk to you.”

“Am I fired…?”

“What? No!” He shrieks, outraged. “Just sit, please.”

The second you're next to him, Buggy focuses on his boots, hands twitching on his knees.

“I-I know I've been a bit of an asshole lately.” He stutters. “I drove you crazy asking tons of stuff and…”

“You’re being a pain in the ass. Yes.”

“I’m sorry. I was just trying to spend more time with you but I messed up.” Buggy side-eyes you, his face red and flustered.

“I think I like you. A lot.”

Those words make your heart race so fast you can barely breathe.

He continues: “I tried to write to you, but every time… I couldn't say it the way I wanted.”

“Is that why you kept texting me for hours every night?!” you snap, breaking your silence.

Buggy jumps back in his seat “I didn't realize I was bothering you! I've always enjoyed our silly chats. But I'll stop, I got it now. We're just colleagues.”

You burst out laughing. Buggy leans towards you, shouting things you can't hear over the joy exploding in your chest.

He's about to get up, distraught, when you reach for his neck and pull him towards you, pressing your lips on his. Still a bit surprised, Buggy melts into your kiss, holding you so tight it almost hurts.

“For a second I thought I didn't want this job anymore.” You chuckle in between kisses.

“I’ll ask Trafalgar to give you a raise, then.”

“He's gonna fire us both when he knows about this.”

You dive your back into the sofa, pressed under Buggy’s weight. As he kisses and laughs into your neck, you remember why you decided to follow this band of idiots in the first place: there’s no other place in the world where you’ve felt more alive.

#nevermind the blorbos #one piece fanfiction #band au #buggy the clown #buggy fic #buggy fanfiction #buggy x you #buggy x reader #one piece buggy #barto club #bartolomeo one piece #ace one piece #trafalgar law #franky one piece

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