A Little R&R [open]

[Victoria Locke]

Pleasantly hot sunshine and cloudless sky had blessed the Spa Shelter today. As usual, all sorts of people were enjoying the lighter side of life the way that suited them the best. Faint breeze caressed scantily-clad sunbathers, swimmers were having friendly competitions in the long pools and hot springs had drawn a colorful crowd of people. In the middle of all this lively chaos, a dark-haired woman with a chocolate-brown skin walked alone, dodging and quietly observing the passing people. She was clutching a white towel tightly against her chest and avoiding eye contact. Luckily, her simple, black one-piece didn’t draw too much unwanted attention to her shapely body. Attention was the last thing she wanted.

As a faint, insecure blush on her cheeks revealed, the woman in question, Victoria Locke, would’ve rather been anywhere else right now. To say that the Marine woman was out of her element in a place like this would’ve been a huge understatement. She was used to handling strict orders and rugged comrades, not admiring glances and handsome servants. It didn’t matter that people were incredibly nice or that her swimsuit was far more modest than what many other women wore. Each time she felt someone set their eyes on her, the blush got bit brighter. Without her weapons, she felt awkward... defenseless... completely nude... Why did she even come here?

Well... Because it had been an order.

The past few weeks had been going well for her, bit too well in fact. One of her superiors had gotten the idea that she deserved a vacation after the successful mission on Baratie. Of course, the little fact that she hadn’t taken any days off for a whole year and the medical report warning about increased risk of stress related conditions, whatever that meant, might’ve also had something to do with it. Those lousy doctors couldn’t tell the difference between stress and just being bit tired even if... Anyway... She had been ordered to take a weeklong break and go somewhere nice. That’s how she had ended up arriving to the Spa Shelter, the only vacation spot she knew.

While walking past some sunbathers, her eyes wandered towards the hot springs. Hot water for her stiff back and shoulders seemed really good right now. Perhaps she could start from there and then get a nice massage... Before she could dream any further, she smacked right into someone chest-first and staggered backwards. Unfortunately, the floor was slippery and she fell painfully on her elbow. "Ow!" After recovering from the impact, she scampered into an awkward sitting position with an uncharacteristically girly gasp. "Aah, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying enough attention..." By now, her face was practically glowing crimson and eyes quickly darted to the floor before she even got a good look of the person. How could she be so careless and clumsy?

Perhaps she did really need a little Rest and Relaxation...

[Abroxas Morgen]

North blue for Abroxas was always one of the more Calmer parts of the sea's probably not for most but for him it was absolutely beautiful one place he put his duties aside to get a little R&R as the ship was approaching what his crew looked at as a Bath house they all looked back at him as he looked back at them. Abroxas had given as simple smirk as his yellow hue's looked from them to the bath house in an angst to get into that warm loving water, he had to give it to himself even though he was One of the Three Great Powers and a Beast-Folk his muscles needed some attention as did his body. His body could break just as easily as anyone else; as a horn sounded making sure any smaller ships made way towards a port not too far from the bath house they drew an unwanted attention. However, this could have been on purpose to warn any pirates that Marines were in town and to behave. As they made port and let down their anchor as well as the bridge Abroxas Stepped from the Ship Followed by Nadare; His first mate was caring with him his handy dandy sniper rifle.

As they made their way into town followed with a few of the crew he left a few behind to guard the ship; They were an elite crew and handling some meager pirates shouldn't be too bad. Streets cleared the road to make way for the Admiral it was all too rare; Maybe even once in a blue moon that many of the villagers of North Blue got to lay their eyes on an Admiral. And even more Rare going to their famous bath house.

As he hit the edge of town and on the hill laid the bath house he stopped for a moment and just stopped to take a gander at it; Last he could recall he had come here almost five years ago and the last time he had arrived Pirates thought it was a good idea to take the initiative and ambush him. It was a mistake they regretted, As Abroxas began to walk again and finally make his way to the steps he recalled on the past events of his life to now and if the events that happened had not happened..Well he would never have come this far at all; Abroxas opened the door and the man at the Desk gasped quite loudly, he looked over to where the hot springs were and saw a girl had bumped into someone else; Having glanced back at Nadare he spoke only once, "Keep an eye on him, make sure he causes no trouble." he said as he looked back to the man behind the desk.

The man behind the desk quickly handed him bath towels and guided them to their private hot spring as the half of his crew that came along jumped in and relaxed he decided to make his way back to Nadare who had been watching her like a Hawk, "Nothing has happened so far, Admiral." He whispered just loud enough for Abroxas to hear. Abroxas placed his left on Nadare's right shoulder and replied, "I'll handle it from here, join the others and relax yourself." Nadare nodded before taking one more look at them one more time then walking off.

Nadare wasn't actually one person who always took the word 'relax' as a good form of stress relief, he was just as serious as Abroxas and believed in what Abroxas was doing; As Abroxas about to make his way towards one of the local hot springs he decided to make his way towards the woman, "Excuse me, Are you alright?" he asked as he moved past the man she had apparently bumped into and had knelt down offering his right hand to her. She looked oddly familiar but he guess this was the opening to his conversation.

[Victoria Locke]

During moments like these, Victoria wished she could’ve just vanished on the spot. This wouldn’t have been half as bad if she at least had her beloved uniform on, but with a just swimsuit on she didn’t feel like her usual, cold and confident self. Luckily, someone stepped in to interrupt her unpleasant thoughts with a kind question. The helpful soul even offered to help her up. Hesitating briefly, she took the hand and slowly got up. "Thank you..." The blush was slowly fading away as she managed to calm down. "I’m okay... It was my fault anyway..." Finally, she took her eyes off the floor just enough to focus on the person in front of her.

...Well, on his big feet at least.

The Marine blinked and fell silent. Slowly, her eyes inched upwards, widening a bit with each detail she saw. It was a clear mix of fear and awe. When her gaze finally reached the face of the massive figure, she almost fell backwards again from sheer surprise. Just barely staying upright, she could only utter a quiet, shaky comment. "You are... Admiral Akashishi..." Naturally, she recognized the beast of a man immediately. It would’ve been shameful for any Marine not to know about such an important person. She was just having hard time believing that out of all the places in these vast seas, one of the legendary Admirals would come here.

After an awkward moment of silent staring, Victoria finally snapped back to reality. For her, standing in front of a superior officer meant one simple thing. She suddenly straightened her back, clicked her heels together and saluted the Admiral. "It is a great honor to meet you, sir!" As soon as she got the bit too well-honed reflex out of her system, she squeaked and clamped her mouth shut with both hands. Well... That... Had actually been quite a lot louder than she had intended... Pretty much every confused soul in the vicinity had turned around to stare at her. The Marine woman could already feel the crimson blush burning on her cheeks again.

Victoria quickly knelt down to pick up the towel she had dropped and squeezed it against her chest, much like child clinging onto a stuffed toy. She lowered her gaze and a shadow from her hair hid her eyes. "I am sorry for bothering you, sir... Please forgive me, sir..." Her quiet tone was brimming with painfully obvious self-loathing. In her mind, this was unforgivable. How could she waste the Admiral’s precious time with such foolishness? Simply unforgivable... After the apologies, she remained quiet and still, expecting to get reprimanded or at least told to get lost. Even though she wasn’t on duty, this man was still her superior and she wasn’t going anywhere until he gave her the permission.

[Abroxas Morgen]

Abroxas had caught himself in a stare for a moment, having blinked twice or even three times to how formal she had gotten in his presence; yeah it was to be expected but it was their time off Abroxas didn't care about rank here, everyone was on an equal level he could agree enough to that..Well everyone aside from his crew, Abroxas caught her hand before it could salute him and he smiled gently, "It's alright, rank doesn't matter here; I am here to relax, same as you." he let her hand go and laughed some before walking past her and heading to one of the local hot springs. He had heard her let out a little 'Eep!' which made him stop and turn back, apparently she had dropped her towel and felt quite embarrassed about it; Abroxas blinked a few more times before letting out an amused chuckle. It seemed as if she was trying to hard which she didn't have to impress Abroxas with Behavior superiority behavement and an assorted other things it was a place to relax and she had apparently earned it if she was here.

As Abroxas walked behind a walk he had changed quickly having placed his clothes in one of a few select secretive locations that only he knew about as he made his way into the scorching water he let out a relaxed sigh as he dunked his head under the natural liquid. The feeling of dunking his head into the water was something more of a ritual for him; This water made him feel at home most of the time and always relaxed him as he opened his eye lids he looked to the sky in silence thinking about days long past before long his eyes wandered back down to the water then to his crew to see what they were doing. It seemed as if they were all having a conversation, well all of them except for Nadare. He was never much of a speaker the only one's he spoke to was the doctor and Abroxas and often the crew when orders needed to be given.

As his eyes drifted from the crew to the Marine woman he was simply checking to see if she was fine having put on such a show that literally the whole spa knew who he was had been something of an amusement to Abroxas and it seemed as if Nadare was keeping an eye on her and the man she bumped into to make sure that they didn't make trouble. With that Abroxas turned around and enjoy his bath, it was going to be a good day.

[Victoria Locke]

Much to Victoria’s clear surprise, the Admiral didn’t say a single bad word about her foolish blunder. While she personally disagreed with the notion of rank sometimes not mattering, she remained quiet and only nodded in response. This was unusual. Most of the time, she got yelled at until her superiors lost interest. At least in those cases, she knew what to do. Now, she was just left standing there like an idiot until she understood that the Admiral really had no intention of berating her. With the embarrassing situation cleared, Victoria slinked off to the hot springs like she had originally planned. This time, she took extra care not to bump into anyone else.

Few minutes later, the awkward woman found an empty hot spring section bit further away from all the action, out of people’s way she figured. There was still a clear view in and out of the area, but it wasn’t like anyone would ogle at her here. ...Right? Folding her towel onto the stones, Victoria glanced around once more to check she wasn’t accidentally stealing someone else’s spot. She then carefully slipped into the steaming water, gasping at the sudden rush of enjoyable heat. The sensation soon spread through her body, slowly relaxing her muscles and washing the anxiety away. It was such a rare and wonderful feeling.

Mmm... She could’ve gotten used to this...

While idly watching the other people mingle and chatter, Victoria thoughts eventually wandered onto the Admiral and that comment about rank. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that the kind-hearted man had simply been too forgiving. Rank always mattered, especially in this case. He was a powerful and just soul, practically a living legend, while she was just an average Marine, barely high enough in ranks to wear a personalized uniform. The difference between them and her was clear as crystal. Victoria let out a sad sigh, closed her eyes and sunk bit deeper into the warm water. Perhaps it was just her fate to be a trigger-happy nobody.

Luckily, the Marine woman didn’t have much time to dwell in depressing thoughts as a more pressing problem entered her mind. Her shoulders were unbearably stiff, slowly starting to ache, probably because she was always carrying her weapons and so much ammo around. In fact, soaking in the pleasant heat made her realize just how tense she had kept herself all the time, never really allowing herself proper rest. She tried to gently massage her neck and back, but couldn’t quite reach any of the sweet spots. After a while of futile squirming, she just gave up and splashed her hands back into the water with mild frustration. The depressing thoughts made a quick return as quiet mutters.

"Some Marine I am... Can’t even take care of my aching body... Pathetic..."