This is perfect.
From now on, whatever happens, this left arm is proof that we're nakama.
Vivi rotated her arm absentmindedly observing the skin that no longer bore any trace of the ex that connected her to her friends. Has it truly been that long already? She wondered. She glanced down at the duck that was shamelessly fast asleep at her feet. A snot bubble was growing and contracting in time to his breathing. Her eyes wandered over his left wing, and she noted that it too was now completely unmarked.
It only made sense she supposed, it had already been a little over a month since the rebellion. The country was returning to its new normal and some semblance of order had since returned. With a stress on reconstruction, the capitol was back in pristine condition, bearing no trace of the former conflict. Cities across the country were bouncing back from the drought nicely as well.
As for the princess, she was taking a more active role in the Kingdom. joining her father in many of his daily duties.
There was only an hour left allotted to public grievances but it had been a slow day and there was likely not going to be another visitor.
Still, she waited silently in the chair next to her father's throne.
His posture remained strong as he watched the entrance doors. What a regal image he created. She straightened her back a little to mirror him.
A moment later, despite her previous prediction, the doors opened.
A rugged man and young woman in worn tunics made their way down the long hall of the throne room. Like everyone else who had sought an audience that day, they looked tired. Yet the man used all of his remaining strength to walk straight and appear presentable before his rulers. The woman was hunched and carrying a bundle in her arms with such maternal tenderness that it could only be a baby.
The guests had likely brushed down before entering the palace but some stubborn patches of sand still clung to their clothes. They had clearly traveled far and came here without a moment's delay. They were desperate, she observed. Especially to risk such a dangerous trip with an infant.
They fell to their knees and kneeled before the King and Princess.
"Your majesty." The man started.
"You may stand." The King granted.
"It has been some time since the rebellion." He stated. "My son is a soldier for the palace and has not returned home nor sent a single letter."
Vivi's breath caught as the ever familiar dread ate at her gut, this was the third family this week.
"My son is strong, much stronger than myself." The man said, "He stood resolute when his mother was ill and carried our family after her passing. He is well, I'm sure of it."
He gestured to the woman, "This is his wife and child."
The women unwrapped the bundle to reveal big brown eyes under a mop of thick black curls, the baby cooed in delight at the shining gold accessories adorning the crown princess. Vivi smiled at it tenderly.
"I know family does not typically make unscheduled visits during posting, but we only thought it right he meet his daughter." Again they bowed, "Please we beg you, she was born a week before the event and it doesn't seem our letters have reached him over the chaos. He might not even know that the birth already took place".
King Cobra lifted his hand and an attendant hurried over. "What is the soldier's name?" He asked the man.
"Ammon, your highness." Again he bowed.
"Go retrieve Ammon." The King ordered.
The little family beamed and thanked him repeatedly but Vivi remained still in fearing anticipation. She had a theory, but she hoped she was wrong.
They had waited in silence until the attendant returned. The mother and grandfather perked but Vivi had seen that look on the servant's face many times over and bowed her head as he silently informed her father.
King Cobra grimaced. "I apologize, although I know that simple words alone cannot undue the grief of this Kingdom." He said.
From there it went as always, from her seat she watched their faces contort in pain and horror as he informed them of the soldier's passing. He spoke of his bravery, and his role in saving the kingdom as they sunk into themselves, tears running freely down their faces.
Out of sight hidden in the folds of her robes, Vivi's hands shook as images of the rebellion flashed through her head. Of all the times she had been so close to drawing the carnage to an end before the battle closed. In any of those times how many people would had been saved if she had succeeded?
She could not allow for these emotions to cross her face. She kept her expression even as she slowly rose and moved to comfort the new widow. The child in her arms was confused, and entirely unaware of the weight of the news. Or of its implications.
She bent down and held the woman closely as she cried into her shoulder.
"What do I do?" She sobbed. "What do I do?"
Vivi held her away to look in her eyes with a mournful smile. "Survive. He fought for you, your child, and this country. Please honour your husband's memory, raise her with the love and compassion of two hearts."
The baby shrieked in glee as she tugged at the princess' necklace. The two visitors froze in horror but Vivi only smiled before reaching behind to unhook it and hand it to her.
"I with pray for your husband and that his sacrifice will have caused this country to grow stronger such that an event like this may never happen again" she said.
After the pair left to make their long journey back home, Ingram entered.
"Your highne-" He coughed into his fist and preformed his usual vocal exercises. "Your Highness, you are needed now in the boardroom to discuss matters with the Minister of Economics."
"Ah yes." He acknowledged. "Vivi, good work today."
Vivi smiled brightly, "Of course father, I am happy to service this kingdom."
She carried the same smile down the hallways and corridors of the palace. She nodded to the servants and chatted with Terracotta. It wasn't until she was back in her own bedroom and had shut the door behind her that she slumped back and fell to the floor in tears of frustration.
The war was over. She had stopped a revolution. So why did she feel so powerless? She couldn't help any of these people anymore.
Nefertati Vivi, despite her ripe age, had fully come to understand the true weight of a royal's responsibility. In the past few months she had seen more horrors than she could ever imagine. Friends gave their lives for her, Pirates bled for her and her people as well as dear friends were injured while she had stood helpless in the streets and watched the ground flood red with the colors of a rebellion she had not been fast enough to prevent.
She had also made one of the most difficult decisions she had ever had to make.
She had stayed behind.
Watching her friends disappear over the horizon, she had stayed on shore. She had stayed for the country she loved and who loved her in return. She had stayed for her people. She had stayed because it was her responsibility to do so.
Truly the choice was never hers to make in the first place, but that did not make it any less difficult.
She had learned very fast that real life wasn't like a story book. Stories end on a high note with the simple ending line "Peace was restored and they all lived happily ever after." Though a simple summation like that was a mockery to her people. To the soldiers and rebels who would someday become nothing more than a casualty number in Arabasta textbooks, and to the families who had lost everything.
She also now understood why the hero always vanishes into the sunset. Because after the battle is over, there is no place for them to belong anymore. Her home did not feel the same anymore, for the longer since the revolution, the more the paace returned to as it used to be. Everything was the same, yet she was not. She had been permanently re-molded by the countries struggles. She had fought for so long she had become a creature of war and adventure. A restless soul who although was docked in this country, had misplaced her anchor. After the pain and suffering,and the high risk gambles, a complacent lifestyle is impossible to return to. Yet for her country she would try.
She was determined to see her Country through every stage of its recovery. Thus why she had joined her father in listening to the peoples' grievances. With a warm and gentle smile like the one she wore today, she took each of their burdens on as her own.
Though sometimes, on days like today, when it was all simply too much to shoulder, the call of the sea was nearly overwhelming. The whole body of water was her siren, the song of its roaring waves enticing her to the Grand Line. Alone, she fought a silent battle.
Within herself at least, the war had never ended.
Hoof beats outside the palace's desert grounds as the soldiers trained transformed as they reached her window, becoming the gentle rumble of the ocean. The palace was not near the sea. Yet at night, sometimes when she dropped her guard, the bedroom would almost smell like sea salt no matter how much of her favorite perfumes she used to drown it out.
No one knew, and no one would understand anyway – that in some place in her heart, Vivi was still a pirate.
There was a knocking at the door and Vivi quickly rose to stand, hunching over her desk on the other side of the room to hide her flushed face and wet eyes. "You may enter." She called.
It was Terracotta, the large woman smiled, "Vivi-sama, you have a visitor. They're waiting in the hospitality room".
"I'll be right down." She said, still ducking her head.
The woman left and she wiped furiously at her face, trying to look presentable before making her way through the hallways and corridors to the room.
To be honest, her interest was peeked. She didn't really have anyone to visit her anymore. Not anyone she could think of anyway.
Opening the doors, her breath hitched at the sight of her unexpected visitor.
"Leader." She said in disbelief.
Kohza sat at one of the two main plush couches. One arm draped over the back to seem comfortable. Yet there was a stiffness to the way he sat that betrayed him.
"Vivi." He said.
She hadn't seen him since he had been shot by an undercover Baroques worker during the stand against Crocodile. He had returned home after the war to recover.
It was hard to find the right words.
"Have you been well?" She asked.
"Yeah." He responded. She sat on the couch adjacent to his, a servant immediately placed a cup of tea in front of her.
"How is Yuba?" She asked.
"Just fine." He responded gruffly. "No sand could ever beat it."
"You sound just like Toto-ojisan." She smiled.
There was silence.
She forced her smile to hold. "So what business do you have in the capitol today?"
"Your father summoned me actually. To talk to you."
She blinked. "Me? I apologize. I can't believe he would make you come all the way here for such a reason."
He sighed. "It's just as I told them."
"Pardon?" She asked.
"They're not stupid you know? They know something is upsetting you. For some reason they thought talking to me would help. Though I told them there wasn't anything I could do. In eleven years you haven't changed Vivi." He said.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"The day I left to Yuba… you were smiling as you saw us off." He said. "but then you went home and cried didn't you?"
She stiffened, unable to deny the accusations.
"You always think of everyone except yourself. The instant I saw you again I could see this never changed."
"I appreciate your concern, but I honestly am fine. The country has regained peace. It is all I could ever ask for." She smiled.
"Of course." He responded, somehow sounding like he didn't actually believe it in the slightest. He grimaced, glancing around the room and at the weary guards. "Still, I'm shocked they'd still let me in here, let alone within a thirty kilometer radius to the capitol city after what I did."
She hadn't even noticed until he mentioned it but some of the palace clearly agreed. The room was tense, the guards stood a little too ridged, prepared to jump to her rescue at a moment's notice.
"You may leave us." She dismissed.
The guards looked at her in disbelief. "B-but Vivi-sama."
"It is alright." She urged.
They had no choice but to comply with her orders and file out.
She turned her attention back to him, thinking now of what to say in response to his last statement. "Ah well…" She started to say but was at a loss for words when she realized she had no idea what to say to comfort him. The man across from her was nearly a stranger it seemed. There was a time when she had felt she could tell Kohza anything. Time truly was cruel. In eleven years' time, despite their promises…, is this how distant the Straw Hats would feel?
She didn't want this to be the fate of nakamaship. It couldn't be! Yet she had been with Kohza far longer than the amount of time she had spent on that little ship.
She eyed him closely looking for anything familiar in his expression.
He had become a man in their time apart. His soft childish facial features had hardened, and his nose that was awkward on a boy now made his face quite handsome. He carried himself with a degree of stoicism he hadn't had back in the days of the suna suna clan. His skin had tanned from desert labour and she could not even see the colour of his eyes behind his tinted sunglasses. The only feature that suggested he was who she had known him to be was the scar running down the side of his face.
She realized that she had gone silent a little too long during her assessment. "It, you…" She fumbled. "You did what you thought was the right thing. How could we punish the man who loves this country with all his heart?"
He shook his head. "Though in the end we were still in the wrong. We have much atoning to do."
"A-ah." Was all she could say.
At this point they had nothing to talk about. What was her father thinking in bringing him here? This had only made her worries and doubts more clear. Seeing him sitting silently in the room with her, she felt more lonely than she had in quite a while.
Why did it have to be this way? I had been so easy to become friends as kids, all it took was one…. Her own thoughts trailed off as she had a thought.
She knew that this was wishful thinking but, "Hey leader." She said. "Will you fight me?"
The first hint of some kind of expression crossed his face. Confusion. "Wha?"
"Fight me." She reasserted.
They stood out in the training grounds.
"Vivi…" His expression still looked like that of complete disbelief. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes." She said, "I want a rematch."
"I don't think this is such a good idea." He said. "We were evenly matched as kids but…"
She wasn't going to let him finish that thought. She lounged forward and attempted two swift kicks which he barely dodged by falling back. The attacks' strength was successfully conveyed though by the woosh of air above his head.
He just stared at her wide eyed.
"Are you afraid of losing leader?" She asked innocently.
Of course he would have underestimated her. He had no idea she spent the last couple years as a frontier agent or about the months she spent on the Straw Hat ship as a pirate. It was a national secret after all; that the royalty had any ties with the criminal world.
Kohza stood back up, now much wearier. He circled her at a distance like a boxer sizing up his opponent. He was taking her seriously now.
They exchanged blows for the next couple minutes, matching each other at every beat.
Finally seeing an opening the tired Vivi lunged for it without hesitation bringing him down to the ground, she straddled him tightly, holding him still between her thighs. His glasses flew off and he winced as they hit ground, him absorbing the impact of them both.
"How are you going to get out of this one?" She asked, trying her best not to pant.
He wasn't looking at her though. Reaching out beside him he simple said. "Ah."
"What?" She asked.
"Poison Scorpion." He said.
"Excuse me?" She asked.
Grabbing the creature in the dirt by the tail he brought it up between them.
As any sane person who grew up in the desert would do, Vivi screeched in surprise and fell back. Kohza sprung on her without a moment's delay bringing them to a complete role reversal. "Wait." He said inspecting the creature he was holding. "My bad, it just a lesser desert shrimp." He dropped the shimp and it burrowed back into the sand.
Vivi just looked up at him speechless. "The... the exact same trick..."
"Anyway…" He said. A second later he punched down at the ground next to her face with enough force for the sand to be kicked up into small cloud. "It's my win."
They stayed like that and she watched as his solemn expression melted into a boyish grin. Without those sunglasses his eyes shone the same blue she remembered seeing as a kid. For a moment all she could see was the face of her former leader. "I can't believe you fell for the same trick I pulled last time we fought." He said.
"Kohza?" She asked as if seeing him for the first time.
He flicked her forehead affectionately before rolling off of her to also lay on his back. "Who did you think I was?"
She laughed silently as they fought to get their breath back to normal. She hadn't had that sort of exercise since the rebellion. She figured it was the same for Kohza since he was recover-
She froze "I completely forgot!" She sat up and turned to Kohza urgently. "Your wounds!" she exclaimed. She had grown too accustomed to her friends' freak recovery times, but Kohza was a regular human. Something like this so soon after could open them back up.
"They're fine." He said.
"Are you sure? You were shot!" She said. The image of a white flag falling to the ground was burned into her memory. She remembered the sight of his body recoiling at the impact of each piercing bullet.
"It's fine" he reasserted. "They don't hurt one bit."
She gave him a skeptical look before lightly flicking a spot on his left shoulder. He coughed in surprise. "Well they do if you do that!" He scolded.
She lightly traced the spot she had irritated and he closed his eyes. "Don't worry about me Vivi, the worst of it is over. The battle's done. I have all the time in the world to recover."
"I'm glad you didn't die." She said.
Apparently this was getting to be much too heavy a topic for him.
"Oh, a cloud." He said.
She blinked, and then looked up. "Yes. I suppose it is."
A single fluffy cloud was passing overhead in an otherwise completely blue sky. It had a long journey to make as it continued to cross the desert. She shrugged and lay back down next to him to watch it pass.
It moved very slowly.
"You can do iiiiit cloud." She called out lethargically
"Dump a load in Yuba while you're at it." He said.
They looked at each other, then grinned.
She brought her hands up on either side of her mouth, "Fight on little cloud!" She called with more vigor.
"Half way there! Keep going!" He called.
"I believe in you!" She added.
They paused at the sounds of many footsteps. The soldiers were returning and passing through the grounds on their way to the palace. The pair stayed completely frozen.
"Oi." Said a younger soldier in disbelief. "Isn't that the princess and the rebel leader laying over there?" The others looked over curiously.
Their captain glanced over, "Seems to be."
The young soldier couldn't seem to believe such a neutral response. "But captain. The rebel leader." The soldier urged.
"Son, as someone who has worked for the royal family for over twenty years, let me give you some advice: Discard all common sense and just take what you see as fact." He said.
"Y-yes." The younger man said. "But… why were they yelling at a cloud?"
The pair's faces turned strawberry red as they waited for the crowd to just leave.
When they were gone, Kohza finally turned to her. "Vivi…" He said. "I don't know what's wrong. Or why I was called here, and I know you're not ready to say."
She gave him a sad smile. It was true, she wasn't. Even if she was, she doubted he who had never been out to sea would understand.
"Just know I'll always be here for you." He kept a fixed gaze with her. "I'm strong right? If you ever feel scared or threatened, you can call me at any time and I'll come running." He shook his head as if to edit his previous statement, "Even if you're just feeling down or alone. I'd cross the dessert every day for you."
"I couldn't ask you to you do that!" She said.
"You don't have to." He said.
She just sighed and then grinned, "Careful, a girl might get the wrong idea."
He blinked in surprise. She fought to hide her embarrassment at such a brazen joke. Then, he laughed. A hearty laugh straight from the chest. "You're still just as cheeky too! You're exactly the same!"
"I don't feel the same." She said quietly and his laughter immediately stopped.
"Ah, I'm sorry." He said. As a man who had also been to hell and back, he of all people understood. "We are the same people, but also forever different."
She nodded.
He stood up. "I have to get back to Yuba." He said.
He seemed to notice the disappointment in her face. "Don't worry, I wasn't lying before. I'll be back whenever you need me… maybe even before."
"But why would you go so far?" She asked.
He looked genuinely surprised. "Because we're…." He fished for the term he had heard her say in her coming of age speech, "Nakama."
"Do you really still see me as such?" She asked. "After so long?"
A hand came down and ruffled her hair. Really, quite an indignant thing to do to a princess. "Of course, we laughed together, fought together, ate together. In a year's time, eleven years' time, or even in a hundred years. A bond like that doesn't sever."
"Nakama is forever." She smiled to herself.
"Yeah." He said.
She beamed at him and he helped her stand. "Even if we're apart. We won't be apart! Since we'll always be nakama!"
He smiled to himself and began to leave.
"Oh." She said and he turned back, "All the same, come back soon. Let's not go another eleven years."
"Of course." He said. "But you better come see Yuba when it's done it's renovations."
"Of course." She smiled.
Hey, Umbreonix here.
Ahhh, I just reawatched the Arabasta arc a couple weeks ago and I'm in love with Vivi/Kohza all over again... Mind there's like, zero romance in this fic as much as it pains me to say. I wanna ship them so bad! Arg!
Still this was surprisingly hard to write, I've never done a One Piece fic before, it's shocking how different it feels to try out different fandoms. Anyway, hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading.