Returning with Korra after their impromptu date, Vahn couldn't help but notice that the children were playing on an obstacle course that had been erected behind the schoolhouse. It took up a lot of space and looked out of place next to the cozy-looking cottages, but seeing the children having fun as they played or simply sat together in their gym clothes warmed his heart.
"Wow, that takes me back..." remarked Korra, sporting a nostalgic smile of her own as she walked hand in hand with Vahn, her icy blue eyes focused on the children.
"Do you want to talk about it...?" asked Vahn. By then, Korra, her parents, and few others knew the truth of her world's origin, but there was much about her childhood that her animated series, comics, and movies didn't cover.
"Maybe some other time," responded Korra, nudging Vahn's shoulder with her own as she appended, "As I mentioned before, I'm planning to enjoy a loooong nap. You should go and take care of whatever you need to before this afternoon."
"Then that's what I'll do..." affirmed Vahn, stopping to caress the left side of Korra's face, causing her to nestle into his palm and stare at him with a faint smile and bedroom eyes before he leaned in for a chaste but lengthy kiss. Afterward, he remained where he was and watched her depart with a slow and relaxed saunter—his steely gaze focused on her full and round bottom until she turned to look back at him over her shoulder, punctuating the encounter with a smug smile and a playful wink...
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tnktnktnktnk
Entering what was intended to be his personal workshop and forge, Vahn was unsurprised to find a fairly muscular woman with pink hair fixed into a loose ponytail hammering away on a piece of heated metal. Bonney and a few others had dropped by earlier that morning to take a look around, but while most had departed, the attention-seeking pirate stayed behind and christened his workshop as her own.
"What are you making...?" asked Vahn, his gaze focused on Bonney's form and technique as she beat the heated metal into what he presumed to be an ingot, each strike producing flakes he had recently learned were called hammerscale. In place of more conventional clothing and a blacksmithing apron, she was modeling a black bikini top that appeared to be made from elastic leather, oversized metal gloves with a white fur inlay, black pants with belted straps at the ankles, fashionable steel-toes, and a leather half apron with multiple pouches for tools. Notably, as she had used her Devil Fruit to transform into a future version of herself who was a blacksmith, her usually fair white skin had a thorough tan, and her right shoulder was tattooed with a tribal pattern.
"Sit, watch, and wait," responded Bonney, her slightly pouty gaze fixed on the piece of metal she was working. Her transformation had given her the Skills [Discerning Eye(C)], [Blacksmith's Focus(C)], and [Smithing(B)], so while she was annoyed after waiting nearly five hours for Vahn to appear, it didn't affect the timing and accuracy of her hammerwork.
"Sure thing," responded Vahn, producing a stool for himself before sitting and watching Bonney's process like a student. He had a lot of knowledge regarding forging and techniques from various worlds, but it was his first time watching the process directly, leaving him in a slight daze as Bonney alternated between a tungsten sow block—used to shape the ingot—and an induction forge, used to reheat the metal to a workable state.
After seven minutes of relentless forging, Bonney managed to produce a tapered, perfectly rectangular cuboid.
Though it was knowledge he already possessed, Vahn listened attentively as Bonney, coated in sweat but breathing calmly, held up the ingot with her insulated gauntlet, her expression and tone flat as she explained, "We make the bottom wider than the top to make storage easier. And, unlike a cast ingot, hammer-forged ingots have a denser grain structure, increased fatigue resistance, and greater ductility. Casting has its advantages, but if they're intended for weapons and armor, forging is king."
Instead of waiting for Vahn's response, Bonney carried the ingot to a neat stack she had produced while waiting for him to arrive. Then, using a blue towel pulled from her Inventory, she wiped her face and, with her back to Vahn, hiked up her top to wipe her chest and toned abs. She was tempted to do so while facing him, but while she was fairly certain that Vahn would look away, the thought of him not doing so made her feel anxious.
Peering back over her left shoulder as she was finishing up wiping herself, Bonney was unsurprised, relieved, and annoyed to discover that Vahn had turned around atop his stool. It was what he should do, but since she had gone out of her way to wipe herself down in front of him, he owed it to her to steal a peek...
"I don't see what you're so bashful about," remarked Bonney, deliberating for a moment before fixing her top and contending, "It's not like this is my true form, and even if it was, you've bathed with thousands of girls around my age. I heard as much from the Sisters."
"You're right..." confirmed Vahn. "But most of the Sisters regard me as a father figure, and they hail from a culture where it's common for young and even teenage girls to bathe with their fathers or use public baths. A similar practice exists in your world, but you're not from the Wano Country or Zou."
"Does where I'm from even matter at this point...?" questioned Bonney, approaching Vahn from behind, hooking her arms around his neck and shoulders, and leaning against him as she proclaimed, "I will return to my world to help liberate it from those inbred pretenders, but my home is the Intertwining Dragon's Palace. And I know you've bathed with girls my age who don't view you as a father. Riko, for one..."
"I can't deny it," conceded Vahn, his eyes closed and voice calm as he asked, "But have you stopped to consider that I'm comfortable bathing with her because she understands boundaries? I would never ask you to change, Bonney, but your clingy, boundary-pushing behavior requires me to continuously establish new ones..."
Punctuating his words, Vahn made a half-ram seal with his right hand and disappeared with a fwish, replaced by a large stuffed bear. Then, before Bonney could process the swap, he appeared behind her, placing a fluffy, snow-white jacket with [Comfortable Fit(B)] and [Thermal Regulation(C)] on her shoulders.
"You..." started Bonney, her brows furrowing deeply, but her words trailing off as bears happened to be her favorite animal, and the jacket Vahn had placed on her helped to cool her overheated body. With her stamina, she could forge for days, but that didn't mean she was impervious to the heat and buildup of fatigue.
"Listen closely, Bonney..." said Vahn, resting his hands on Bonney's firm and muscular shoulders and massaging the upper portion of her trapezius muscles as he stated, "I entered this place because I didn't want to miss watching you and the others grow, but that isn't my reason for being here. That reason is to spend some quality time with those I'm closest to and to improve myself. I can work alongside, train with, and even chaperone you on the occasional adventure, but if I'm going to be intimate with anyone, it will be with my wives and lovers."
Having eased the tension in Bonney's neck and shoulders from three and a half hours of frustration-fueled forging, Vahn retracted his hands, gently tousled her hair, and added, "That aside, your appearance and blacksmith ensemble is very striking. A loose ponytail suits you..."
"Haaaaaaa..."
Feeling exasperated, Bonney hung her head and exhaled loudly from her throat. At the same time, her body visibly deflated, veiled in a bright pink light that faded after she retrogressed to her true form. For the briefest of moments, she had thought that Vahn might make a move after placing his hands on her shoulders. His words contradicted this, but she hadn't been paying attention to what he was saying until he tousled her hair.
"Are you hungry...?" asked Vahn, producing a square-shaped dining table out of thin air as he already knew the answer. Bonney was always hungry, so as she watched him silently with a half-lidded pout, he produced many of her favorite dishes from the world of Toriko. This included a table-sized pizza made with cheese from the rich and fatty secretions of a CL21 Milk Whale, the mushroom-like growths of a CL39 King's Truffle, and a creamy, garlic-based white sauce.
"Everything you do pisses me off..." muttered Bonney, sitting atop the seat Vahn had prepared for her with furrowed brows, her lips pursed in a pouty grimace, and her eyes teary. She had a lot she wanted to say but couldn't find the words to express her conflicted emotions. Thus, even though she didn't mean it, she hung her head and muttered, "If you hadn't come here, things would have been much simpler for everyone..."
"But I am here, Bonney," responded Vahn, moving the table slightly so he could sit next to rather than across from Bonney. She took advantage of this to lean into his arm and rest her head against his shoulder, but he had expected her to do so the moment he sat down, his voice calm, deep, and steady as he expressed, "The only thing I'll apologize for is not being here from the very beginning. I had my reasons, but because of that, you're right that I've made things more complicated than they needed to be. For that, I apologize from the bottom of my heart..."
"Then help me with something..." muttered Bonney, her cheeks flushing as she confided, "All I really know is how to fight...since you're here now, tell me what I need to do to become someone who can stand beside and be useful to you. I don't want to be just another member of your harem..."
"You don't need to be useful to me to stand beside me, Bonney..." stated Vahn, wrapping his arm around Bonney, gently clasping her left shoulder, and kissing the top of her head before asserting, "I want you to be free to live and make decisions for yourself, knowing I will support you but never reliant on it. Relationships are a compromise between two people, bound by love, affection, and a multitude of other emotions. But no matter how close we become to others, we're ultimately independent existences. The things that make us happy and fulfilled evolve over time, so never change yourself to fit in and be useful to others. Just strive to be the best version of you..."
"You sound like an idiot..." muttered Bonney, closing her eyes and ignoring the intensifying growling of her stomach. Vahn's words had struck a chord with her, but they also felt like an empty platitude. They didn't provide her with any real direction, so she purposely waited for him to pick up his cup and take a drink before threatening, "If you don't tell me how to be useful to you, I'm going to transform into a version of myself who's super familiar with sex and stuff. If you think I'm aggressive now, wait and see..."
"..."
Though he was more than a little taken aback by Bonney's words, Vahn remained calm and set down his cup without performing a spit take. Then, in a markedly firmer tone, he stated, "Fine...if you insist, my suggestion is that you continue with what you're already doing. That includes spending time with your Party, increasing your parameters, and properly learning to forge. Your Devil Fruit ability is powerful and useful, but it's not a shortcut. Your best self at any given moment should be your present..."
"That's a marginally better answer..." conceded Bonney, removing her head from the side of Vahn's chest and materializing a fork and knife to begin eating. In the past, she almost always used her hands, but after a year of thinking about what she needed to change about herself to stand at the pinnacle of the Dragon's Pavilion, she determined she needed to be more ladylike. Not so much that she sacrificed her sex appeal, but enough to not embarrass herself if she met with leaders and representatives from other worlds...
Seeing Bonney carefully prepare a bite-sized piece of pizza for herself, Vahn was even more taken aback. He was also planning to use tableware, as each slice of pizza was nearly seventy centimeters long, but he never expected the infamously gluttonous Bonney, of all people, to hold herself back while eating. That, more than anything else, reinforced how serious she was about changing...
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