Chapter Text
Reader pov
You woke up on your island with Yuki's furnace of a body purring against you and her white fur all over your face.
All in all, a normal way to wake up since you had washed up on a deserted island nearly a year ago, and almost immediately found an abandoned albino kitten that had turned out to be a female puma.
Being the incredibly original and imaginative person you were, you had very creatively called her Yuki, and soon the two of you became inseparable. You helped each other during hunts, you cuddled at night for warmth, and having a companion who may not speak but was still very intelligent turned out to be what allowed you to keep your mental health together.
Without her at your side, you were not sure you would have found the will to carry on and survive day after day on this deserted island, or stay sane. Now, after almost a year, she was not fully adult but getting pretty close to it, and could go from a killing machine to a purring fluffball in minutes, which you found absolutely adorable.
"Come on girl, let's go get breakfast and then see if anything has changed on the south beach," you cajoled her.
Your received a long stripe of her raspy tongue over your face, including some of your hair, and only then she moved from your makeshift bed and stretched like the little shit she was.
One hour later, you left the little hut you had built for yourself and Yuki near a forest and with a stream nearby. You had learned early on that staying near to a water source was essential, and being close to the forest, from which most of your gathering and hunting happened on top of where you could get wood for repairs and fire, was just as important.
You had made your home in the south of the island, and everyday, you went and explored one part of the island to gather food, resources, things to repair or improve your hut. Being a castaway meant days off were not something you could easily afford, even if you were trying your best to make sure to take time to rest.
But this day, as you arrived on the beach to see if the sea had brought anything unsual or possibly useful through the currents, you stopped and your eyes went wide.
Right in the middle of the small creek guarded by two cliffs reaching far into the sea, a ship was anchoring.
And not just a small fisherman boat, a real, big-ass, massive ship, with at least three masts that you could see, possibly a fourth one at the stern, a red figure head that looked pretty fierce and was maybe supposed to be a beast or dragon with its mouth open, and a lot of red paint decorating the sides.
Whoever owned this ship, they really fixated on that colour.
But then you noticed the jolly rogers topping every mast and you cursed before moving backward with Yuki following you.
"Damn it, pirates," you muttered once you were hidden by the foliage again. "First ship to dock in a year and it had to be pirates."
Yuki mewed sharply at your words, clearly picking up on your tension.
"Sorry Yuki, I know almost nothing about pirates. Hell, I wouldn't even recognise an Emperor's crew if they killed me and danced on my grave," you admitted ironically. "Let's just observe for a while, it's still early. They'll have to put a boat to sea if they want to come explore the island, we can wait to see what kind of people they are then."
Your friend chirped, then put her butt down and started licking her left paw. You snorted and then sat down as well with your back to a trunk. There was no point into standing when you could see that ship just as easily when you sat, and you would definitely not miss the noises and activity going on once those pirates would get on land.
Hours passed without the slightest hint of movement that was not the result of the wind and tide.
Then the sun went beyond the middle of the sky, and you felt truly confused and intrigued. Even if everyone on that ship was hungover or injured, you should have seen movement or heard noises by now.
It truly was weird.
"What's going on with that ship," you whispered.
Yuki mewed curiously next to you, and you put a hand in her fur to pet her gently along her spine, making her stretch and purr as a result.
"It's almost like it's a phantom ship, Yuki, nothing's happening on board," you explained.
But you could not stay and watch until something happened, you had your own survival to focus on, after all.
"Let's go hunting and collect some berries in the bushes next to the river," you declared and stood up. "We'll come back tomorrow to see if something changed."
And if nothing changed in three days, maybe you would take a risk and try to call out to the ship or maybe swim there. That vessel did not look like it was abandoned, but if nothing and no one moved on it, then it was worth investigating.
If only because you had no doubt there were a lot of things on it that you could use to make your life better.
-o-oOo-o-
Four days passed and nothing changed, despite coming back at different times of the morning, afternoon, or even evening.
So on the fifth day, after a lunch composed of grilled fish and wild asparagus, you decided to let your curiousity win and you decisively made your way to the beach when the tide was low.
The moment you stepped into the waves with the firm intention to swim until you reached the vessel, Yuki whined unhappily.
"Oh don't be a baby," you said with a roll of your eyes. "I know you can swim, so you either come with me or stay there and wait for me to come back."
You made your way further into the waves until you had to start swimming for real, and grinned when you heard a big splash behind you. Yuki might not be big on getting wet, but she hated being away from you even more.
You swam in a measured breaststroke rhythm, feeling once more extremely grateful for not being a Devil Fruit user, and after a few minutes, you reached the ship.
Which was when you realised you had completely forgotten to think about a way to get up there once you would be next to it.
I'm an idiot.
Yuki did not have your problem, and you watched your puma friend use her claws to climb up the wooden surface like one of the trees in the forest. She did not appear to have any difficulty, and you had no doubt her motivation came from the perspective of getting out of the sea as quickly as possible.
So you stayed there until she was up and jumped above the railing, and you tried your best to remind yourself that even she was not fully adult yet, Yuki was a puma and a big girl who could handle herself. She would jump back overboard if she was facing a kind of danger she could not destroy with her claws and fangs.
In a matter of minutes, you saw your white furry friend but both paws back on the railing with a rope in her mouth and she threw it down, which made you smirk proudly once you tested whether it could handle your weight.
Damn you were proud of how well trained she was now. Totally worth the dozens of frustrating hours spent teaching her how to do basic stuff.
You grabbed the rope with both hands and used it to climb with your feet on the wood until you reached the railing as well. It was a good thing that living a castaway life had done wonders on your physical shape, because that ship was stupidly big.
Still, you pushed yourself above the railing until you could pass your legs over it and get on deck, then you whistled impressively.
That ship was not just massive, but also very obviously cared for and well-used.
"Well damn," you said with an appreciative smile on your lips. "She's a beauty."
Yuki chirped next to you, as if to remind you that you were still both drenched in seawater from your swim and she did not like it one bit. You smirked and crouched to take her head between your hands and scratch her under the ears.
"Oh, someone doesn't like to be wet, mmh ?" you teased your friend. "How about this, we're going to explore this ship to see if anyone alive is still aboard, and after that we're going to be very rude guests and help ourselves to their showers and get all the salt out, how does that sound ?"
Your white puma purred happily at the massage and scratches you were giving her, and you decided to take it as an agreement.
At least until she stopped abruptly and turned her head to your right in order to flash her teeth warningly at… absolutely nothing. Which made you blink and then frown, but you had learned quickly to always trust your friend's senses.
"What's up Yuki ? You felt something ?" you asked seriously and turned around with your hand reaching for the knife at your belt.
But she kept staring for a few seconds without making a sound, her tail swinging back and forth, until she seemed to relax and sat back down on her butt.
"Alright, I've got no idea what that was about," you chuckled, then got an idea and grinned. "Wait, are you seeing ghosts ? Because I really thought I'd be the first out of us two to lose my marbles and start having hallucinations !"
But still, you decided the circumstances were unusual enough for you to use a little decorum just in case. After all, a phantom ship full of ghosts would hardly be the weirdest thing to have ever existed in the world. So you bowed politely, even if it meant your hair and tank top spilled more water on the deck.
Oh well, it was the intention that counted.
"Greetings, pirate ghosts of this ship, it's a pleasure to be there. My name's Y/N, I've been stranded on this island about a year ago after the ship I was on sank. My age is a very ungentlemanly thing to ask so I won't tell you, my blood type is F, I used to be an accountant but I've always been curious to see the world, my favourite colour changes every two months, and I absolutely hate blueberries," you introduced yourself playfully, then pointed to your furry puma who was still sitting and being just as drenched in seawater as you were. "This beautiful lady is Yuki, she's an albino puma and still a teenager, I found her the day after I washed up on the shore and we've been staying together since then."
For good measure, you gave her a few pats on the head with a smile.
"I hope you won't mind us making ourselves at home on this ship, when you've been away from civilisation as long as I have, you'd kill for warm water and soap," you chuckled, then felt a spark of hope as well. "Oh fuck, if there's booze and books on this ship I'm going to be the happiest woman in the world."
You were not too surprised that only a salty breeze making the sails flap a bit answered you, so you smiled and decided to explore this vessel.
"Alright, we've been polite enough Yuki, now let's go explore this ship."
Your puma first shook the some of the seawater out of her fur, but still fell into step as you walked around the deck first, taking note of all the crates, ropes, tables, and even palm trees staying there for some reason. Then, you pushed a door to go see what the inward workings of the vessel were like. Maybe see if you would finally find someone alive, or hell, even dead.
Because a ship in such good shape and so obviously taken care of but so completely empty of any human presence truly was a strange thing.
Three hours later, you stepped outside of a warm shower with a mostly clean shirt held at the waist by a red sash, both borrowed in the Captain's quarters – you were pretty sure he was not going to miss them – and no underwear since the shirt was long enough to cover you until mid-thigh. You had used the opportunity of having access to soap to wash all your clothes, and no boxer or brief you had found in any room or chest was going to fit you.
Whichever pirate crew used to sail on this ship, you were almost entirely sure it had been exclusively composed of men.
But while you had found countless evidence of very recent human presence aboard, you had not met so much as a single person – alive or dead – in all your exploration. And that left you puzzled. It almost looked like the whole pirate crew had just… vanished. No traces of fight, no corpses, and even the anchor had been dropped properly in the creek.
Still, they were not there and you were not about to pass out on the chance to help yourself to a hearty dinner and even the absolute luxury that was sleeping in an actual bed again.
Some might argue it was too dangerous, that maybe you had somehow missed all the pirates leaving the ship and they would come back anytime, but the temptation of a real cooked meal and a mattress was just too strong for you to resist.
So you went back on deck with your clean clothes and hung them up on the racks that were clearly made for that, the sleeves on the shirt turned up so they would not fall over your hands. Whoever the Captain had been, the man was tall and broad, and you almost felt like you were floating in his shirt.
"Wonder what it'd feel like to be held by a guy so much bigger than me," you hummed aloud after adjusting the clothe over your left shoulder.
Talking aloud was a habit you had taken after a few weeks of being on this island. It made you felt more like you had conversations with Yuki instead of being alone in your head.
You felt another breeze behind you, but then Yuki chirped and stepped at your side, her fur still a bit wet from her own shower but clearly in better shape now that it was no longer dripping seawater.
"Yeah, we're staying here tonight," you answered her with a smile, then hung your pretty ripped pants that you might finally get a chance to patch up, and turned around with a hand on her back. "Come on, let's get to the kitchen and see what I can do with what's still good to use."
It did not take long before you found yourself with a bowl of beef stew over rice in the galley, a tankard of delicious ale next to it, a book on Devil Fruits that you had taken from the infirmary, and Yuki who was very enthusiastically eating a consequent piece of meat that might be coming from a sea king or really big fish.
Whoever the cook of the ship had been, he had a rather unique way to store everything, but it was still pretty neatly arranged. You had gone for the perishable goods in the fridge first, then checked the pantry and massive cold storage room.
If you played your cards right and spent your next couple days cooking, you might be able to save almost all the ingredients before they went bad, and freeze a lot of meals that would go a long way to feed you for the weeks to come.
You had mostly planned all that while cooking, and once you finally got to eat, you almost moaned in contentment at your food and drink.
"That's the best meal I've had in a year," you sighed happily.
Yuki did not answer, but she looked happy with her own dinner and so you just smiled before flipping another page. You did not even truly care about Devil Fruits, but the simple pleasure of reading a book was something you had missed tremendously since the cruising ship you were on had sunk.
Besides, some of them were really convoluted, and you were curious enough to enjoy the new information.
"There's really no limit to how weird these things can get, huh," you commented after reading the description of a Devil Fruit said to allow its user to make smoothies out of people.
Although you had no intention to ever eat one of those fruits yourself. Something that would both take away your ability to swim and make you a target for either pirates or human traffickers was not something you wished to eat, thank you very much. Even cool or weird powers would not change that.
You finished your bowl and washed it along the tankard, cutlery, and the basin you had used for Yuki's meat, then found yourself yawning. Your puma yawned too a second later and you realised after walking on deck that it had gotten later than you had anticipated.
The stars were already filling up the sky, and no one had come back from the island, which seemed to confirm the crew has truly disappeared and however that might have come to be, you were on phantom ship.
"Alright then, let's call it a night," you said calmly. "Come on Yuki, we're stealing the Captain's bed."
She made one of her questioning meows, and you grinned.
"Because it's the biggest one and it means you won't smother me in my sleep, you big baby," you replied teasingly, then remembered what you had seen of the Captain's quarters and grimaced. "I'm just going to put on clean sheets first, because I think he hasn't changed them in at least a year."
Another meow.
"Oh I know you don't see the difference because you're not used to it, but I assure you, the patch of sail we use in the hut is cleaner than his bedsheets," you affirmed, then made your way back to the Captain's quarters.
One change of sheets later and Yuki already making herself at home on the bed after sniffing it to identify the unfamiliar scents, you shrugged to yourself and took off both the shirt and sash covering you. There was no one to see you naked there, after all, and even if someone came back, you had put your knife on the bedside table and Yuki was next to you.
The moan that escaped past your lips when you slipped under the cover and your body melted on the plushy mattress was probably porn-worthy, but you did not care either.