Peaceful Horizon

Waking Up
“I can’t believe this,” Tabart spat, throwing his hands up in frustration, and the newspaper with it. It had only been three days since Tabart was saved by Admiral Ralph from the clutches of the Xros Pirates, at the expense of Foxpack’s own life, and between escaping there and arriving upon Coachella, the media had detailed their events and updated their bounties. Though, yet again, Tabart found his bounty exponentially increased, and somehow, he had been made to be the forerunner, if not the supposed leader of the Four Horseman, a term that referred exclusively to himself, Draco D. Damon, Fukuoka Soren, and Apu—all who he thought were much more talented than him in terms of combat, and pretty much everything else. “I-I didn’t even do that much!” he cried frustratingly. “It was all Damon and everyone else! All I did was stand there, holy shit won’t these people give me a break.”

However, among all, there was a distinct detail that the newspaper mentioned; his ties to the Dressrosan Royal Family. The detail itself spelled trouble. Now, every Bounty hunter would be even more on their asses to capture someone who had ties to the royalty of one of the twenty original kingdoms. But, for Tabart, what he really feared was the Royal family’s influence, and with this, it had been told that they not only were keeping tabs on him but may even actively know where he was. After all, since they had declared for his bounty to be changed from dead to simply Alive, it implied that they were quite active in their pursuit of him, and since the idea was incredibly smart, he could only conclude it was an idea proposed by Judas, the guy who found him the first time and the guy who continued to be a thorn in his ass.

Tabart leaned back onto the couch, putting his hand over his face exhaustingly. “I had thought this was all a joke when you told me all this you know?”

"I really did think it was a misprint, or maybe they got you mixed up with someone else." Frida insisted, cradling an infant in her arms as she walked over to where Tabart sat.

It had been what seemed like a great time since Frida and Tabart had last seen eachother; over nine months, by the very least, as proven by the presence of their child. The baby looked strikingly like Frida, with hazel eyes and stark white hair. However, it did seem to have Tabart's personality just from the capabilities that it has displayed thus far. As she hugged the baby to her body, Frida silently worried about the safety of the infant after the update on Tabart's bounty before reading the paper once more of Tabart's shoulder.

I wish that was the case,” Tabart replied, turning his head towards Frida. “The bounty isn’t really the issue though; it’s that they told the world that I’m connected to the Dressrosan parliament, which means people will eventually find out, if they don’t know already, that I’m Niu’s son. Which means more people will try and take…well, us home,” Tabart continued, nodding towards James. “Now since I have a son, it means Niu suddenly cares a lot more about our lives, his, mine, and yours. Our lives really wouldn’t be ours anymore, especially since she probably had plans to marry me off to some princess of some foreign land or something.” Tabart smiled suddenly.

“But, no worries. I won’t let us get captured ever. We’re going to live our lives the way we want them, and we’re going to be around to watch James grow up.”

Frida hadn't even thought of what Niu would do. She hated the woman with a passion, with her trying to marry off Tabart being the least of her crimes against humanity. "I suppose I hadn't even considered Niu..." She admitted before looking down at James, who had quickly drifted asleep in her arms. A sudden smile slipped onto her face and she shrugged slightly before speaking, "Royalty sorta reminds me of something I might've neglected to tell you about little James here... his name isn't just James... it's James Edward William Cavalon the Third..." Frida managed to get out before bursting into a giggle from Tabart's expression.

Tabart looked at Frida confusedly. "F-Frida! I don't know how I'm going to remember all that! Edward James, Cavalon the Third William Longinus? Shit, I messed up again didn't I? Oh boy, I got no idea how I'm going do that."

"Don't worry about it, you can just call him James!" Frida giggled more but quickly stifled it, fearing that she would wake James. She waited carefully to see if the child stirred, but he did not. Apparently, however, she did wake someone, as the floor in the nearby hallway creaked under their weight.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH?!" A scream had been heard from the room where Soren and one of the others stood.

Indeed, the creaking continued as the steps got heavier and louder, almost as if whoever woke up were hurrying. A blue blurr appeared from one of the doors, covered with black pants and many bandages through his body, and stood just in front of a mirror. Mirror which reflected his blue skin and large figure.

Seeing his appearance in the mirror, he only screamed, "NAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Eyes widening. This was the aforementioned Draco D. Damon, whose appearance had been changed ever since his meeting with Reach, one of the Xros Pirates' Four Gospels, back at Bedina.

Damon turned around as he finished, noticing the other people in the room, specially James, whom he looked softly at, "Cute," He smiled, but that soon got wiped from his face, as his eyes wandered higher and noticed Frida. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" His lips curved down, almost as if Damon knew her from somewhere.