1 - Crocodile and Yvonne

Yvonne bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to feel blood in her mouth.
Yes - yes, this was some difficult news to take. It was true that she had mourned her husband's passing, and she had thankfully moved on - and her grief and sadness had dwindled with time. Right now, all she could feel was anger, and bitterness. If there was something Isaia - kind, good-natured Isaia - hadn't deserved was to die by the hands of the very colleagues and institution he trusted so much.

She took a couple of seconds to register Crocodile's words - her gaze had fallen upon their slowly boiling food once she had gotten his silent confirmation. "Most pirates do what they do in the daylight, at least", she finally replied in a murmur, still not looking at him. "At this point I'm afraid there's more honesty and less hypocrisy in your ranks than among mine." She pressed her lips together. She should have questioned this earlier on, really. She wondered how many more dirty secrets had been swept under the rug for the sake of appearing as the righteous ones, how many things she hadn't been aware of.
How many red flags she had more or less consciously ignored.
Gods, that made her skin crawl with disgust.

Yvonne huffed, finally lifting her gaze from the fire - a little, bitter smile on her lips. "Well, I did say most pirates, didn't I", she observed, a playful lilt in her voice. It died out soon, however, and she sighed again. "Don't be mistaken - I've never thought there were only righteous people among the Marine's ranks, that would be preposterous. I'm well aware that the world is mostly made of shades of grey more than blacks and whites. Unlike certain people, who think they've got it all figured out", she added with a sharper tone, glaring down at an innocent piece of burnt wood. Fleet Admiral Akainu wasn't keen on compromising his absolute definition of justice.

Yvonne silently nodded her thanks at Crocodile for passing her a plate and started to absently pluck at her food. She didn't really have that much of an appetite (who would after getting those news, honestly), but she forced herself to eat anyway. She sighed again, resting her dish at her side. 

"I don't know", she admitted, reaching for her water bottle. "I doubt there's much I can do about it. Whoever was behind Isaia's murder is probably someone well protected, maybe higher in the spheres of power. If they could silence everyone involved, I'm sure they have many ways to stop me from getting to the bottom of this story as well." 

She drank in silence, put the bottle back. Mindlessly pushed her hair behind her ear before reaching for her dish again. "On the other hand, the possibility that I could as well be working under them makes my blood boil and my stomach turn on itself."

Yvonne threw him a questioning glance, and a little smile. "Why, would you help me in that case? And what would be in it for you?", she asked lightly.

Then she hummed thoughtfully, silently pondering over the implicit question in Crocodile's words.
Well - nothing wrong with saying the truth, she supposed. It wasn't as if she was trying to hide anything, after all. "I could tell you some tearful story about me only wanting to keep up with my husband's good work and name - but I'm afraid that would be a gross lie", she admitted candidly. "Surely I thought defending civillians against pirate attacks was noble and good, but I joined the ranks of the Marine when Isaia died for two reasons, all quite selfish - leave behind a rather controlling family, and get my hands around the neck of whoever had made me a widow so prematurely. Possibly rid them of their heads." She had supposed it had been some pirates at the time, obviously.

For how casually polite she sounded about all this, he could guess that this conspiracy had wronged her a lot - even if perhaps more out of anger for passing off as stupid and gullible more than anything else.

Yvonne scoffed. "You make it sound so easy", she muttered, cleaning off her plate of the last traces of food. "Let's pretend for a second that I manage to pull off this little revenge spree of mine - that I'd have to get through on my own, of course. That I get to leave unscathed, by some sort of miracle. What, then? As ready as I can be to take risks and draw blood... for as entertaining that would be, as you just implied I'd be a fugitive for the rest of my life - with nowhere to go and no one to turn to." She threw him a little smile. "You're a clever man, Crocodile. I'm sure you can see how something like this would be bound to result in my demise."

She hoped so, at least - she would have hated to pass off as a coward, for as much as she liked to think she wouldn't be affected by his opinion of her.

Yvonne let out a little laugh herself. "Of course - I'm sure everyone will scramble to give a former Marine a spot on board of their ships. I can already see a line forming", she commented lightly. She gazed into the fire again, her expression morphing again into a thoughtful one. "Well. I guess there will be enough time for me to think carefully about my next step anyway. Since I currently find myself on a forced vacation", she added, ironically making a little gesture with one hand towards the jungle. "I might as well profit off of it and reorganize."

Well - it had been actual years, since her last holiday. If a formative meeting on some tropical archipelago could even be defined as such. The hotel had been nice, though.

Yvonne held back a smile. "Oh, as if only a servant would see this as a moment of respite", she commented. "I'm a woman of many responsibilities, I barely have time for anything that's not tied to my duties. But I'm fairly surprised that you of all people would know what a holiday even is. I remember you as a man who likes to keep everything under control, even what should be uncontrollable. I didn't think that would leave you much time to rest, or learn words such as holiday or vacation." Yes, maybe she was teasing him. A little bit.

"I'm quite positive your crew would disagree with you on that." Well, maybe they were the ones taking a holiday right now, who knows. Yvonne didn't bother to hide her smirk this time, looking at him as she leant back a little bit on her makeshift seat. "But sure, then. Whatever you say, Sir", she answered gently - and just a tiny bit condescendingly.
She took a deep breath, the humidity of the place starting to get to her a little. She felt it stick to her skin along with her sweat and she wiped it off her forehead with the back of her hand, a little fastidiously. "We should move soon", she murmured. "This place is truly horrid."

Yvonne didn't protest too much when Crocodile seemed to keep on wanting them to go further on - she was a soldier after all, and she was used to fatigue. And to be ordered to march onwards with little to no pauses.

This didn't mean she had to like it, and she didn't spare him her tight-lipped glares when he told her to keep on walking more for the umpteenth time.

When they finally reached another clearing, and it had become way too dark for them keep walking without risking to trip over the trees or meet some wild animals, Yvonne stubbornly stopped on her tracks and refused to go any further. "We'll have to stop here and camp for the night, for as much as neither of us likes it", she simply said, crossing her arms on her chest. The temperature had dropped as the night fell, and the wetness of the air didn't make it any better.

"And I think I'm having a déjà vu to one hour and a half ago, when you said the exact same thing and when we could still see where we were putting our feet", Yvonne answered flatly, mindlessly rubbing her arms with her hands. The cold was making her feel irritable. She sighed, trying to adopt a less argumentative demeanor - if she wanted to collaborate with Crocodile, she needed to appeal to his practical sense. "It will get better with a fire", she added, almost reading his mind. "If the temperature dropped like this even in this tree-made cocoon we're in, I don't even want to imagine how it must feel like if we get any closer to the sea." At least here they were repaired from the wind.

Besides, how do you even put up two tents in the sand? 

One tent-

Yvonne didn't even have the time to say "Good" or "Thank you" before Crocodile had marched off to find wood for their fire. She drew in a sharp breath and did not roll her eyes, for as tempting as it was.

If anything because she was quite sure he could have, in fact, walked for a longer time still without tiring himself out too much and just leave her behind - and instead, he had given in. And she felt sincerely grateful for that. 

So grateful that she didn't even argue about the fact that she had just been ordered around again, and started instead to undo their bags to retrieve the tents as she had been told. If it hadn't been him, she would have probably and purposedly sat around without doing anything, purely out of spite.

After delimiting the space for what would have become their firepit, she located the best spots to set up the tents, where the ground was firmer, and diligently got to work, wanting to be done before Crocodile came back. The first tent was settled quickly and easily enough - because Yvonne was nothing but efficient. Even those who didn't like her usually had to recognize that to her.

Then she went on counting the poles for the second tent.
And she counted them again.
And another time.
And she looked in every other one of their bags, multiple times, each time more franctic than the other. And then proceeded to helplessly stare at them for a full minute.

When Crocodile would come back, he'd find her still standing in front of their undone bags, with the most unamused expression he'd probably ever seen on her face and a hand insistently rubbing against her forehead. A telltale sign of an incoming headache.

Yvonne had kept her very still position as Crocodile came back to their little camp with dried wood and started the fire. She slowly ran her hand over her face, resting her palm over her mouth - not answering to his inquire. Not right away, at least.

Then, she turned around to look at him, as if she'd just met him for the first time and was just now realizing that he was there at all. Her expression was unreadable. Careful, even. "The other tent is useless", she finally stated. "It can't be built."

Not exactly the best way to break the news, but how else was she supposed to say it?

Yvonne took a step aside and made space for Crocodile to check the parts of the tent for himself, nervously pushing back her hair before crossing her arms back on her chest. "I mean exactly what I said - it can't be built", she repeated. "There is one single pole instead of three, and it misses two pickets out of four. It's completely unusable."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. Gods, was she tired.