ONE PIECE

I'll Be There For You

CHAPTER ONE

Straw Hat Surprise

"Who are you?"

"What?"

"Somebody turn a Goddam light on!"

"I can't see!"

"WELL TURN A LIGHT ON!"

Chaos. Pure, chaos.

A hand reached up and turned on the light switch.

Luffy, Zolo, Nami, Usopp and Sanji stood there, facing a girl who had her hand still frozen on the light switch. She was short, about 5'0", with dark brown hair and wide, shocked hazel eyes.

Sanji was the first to move. "Such a beautiful woman!" He cried, rushing up to her and taking her hands in his. She just stood there, motionless. It was like she was a statue.

"You scared the hell out of her, you baka!" Zolo cried, slapping Sanji on the back of the head, and dragging him away from the frozen girl.

Nami looked around them, and murmured: "I've never seen a room like this before…" She looked at the wide-screen TV. "What is..?"

"Here!" Luffy cried, and pushed the button that turned the TV 'ON'.

The girl with brown hair was watching the TV. She knew what time it was. She knew exactly what was going to happen, and so she dived at the wall, and turned the power off.

The Straw Hat crew looked at her like she was crazy.

"What did you do that for?" Luffy asked her, pouting as she stood up awkwardly.

That was close, too close. I know they only just got here, but if they found out they were in a TV show here…shit! My manga! Oh well, who reads anyway? (Good thing Captain Kuro's not here…)

"I…" The girl began and, just then, a sound made them all turn towards the door.

A black cat was standing at the doorway to the room, hissing. It's blood red eyes were fixed on Luffy and, quite suddenly, it pounced.

"Yikes!!" Luffy cried, darting out of the way, but the cat managed to clamp onto his arms, digging in razor sharp teeth and claws. "Get it off get it off get it off!!!" Luffy shouted.

Thank God my parents aren't home, oh yeah, they're NEVER home…

"KYO!" The girl shouted.

The cat immediately let go of Luffy, dropping harmlessly to the floor on all fours, and then walking silently across to his mistress.

"Kyo, if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times – don't attack people!" The girl said, and then picked up her cat. To Luffy she said: "I'm sorry. Kyo seems to have been watching C…" She bit her tongue and trailed off. She had been about to comment on how Kyo was starting to act like a certain pirate captain with claws, but that would have been a bad way to start things off here. Instead she said: "My name's Emma-Jane – or EJ, actually." She blushed a little bit as Sanji's hearts reappeared, but all she said was: "Stop it Sanji, it's very unusual."

"How so?" He asked her.

"Because…" She broke off, and then her face took on a reserved look. "Just because, okay."

"You will always be beautiful in my eyes!" Sanji declared, and EJ groaned. But Zolo, who was looking at her eyes, saw a slight trace of happiness in there.

There was no doubting it, this girl didn't mind Sanji's antics, yet still she shunned them away, claiming them unusual, at least towards her.

"So, where are we?" Nami suddenly asked. She didn't feel like she had been here before, and what was a TV!?

"Perth, Australia, of course." EJ replied automatically, glancing around her room carefully.

Her large One Piece poster had, thankfully, fallen off her wall, dragging at least three other posters down with it. Her manga was tucked away in her bookcase next to countless other mangas including Fushigi Yugi and Gravitation. And her Luffy doll, which she had received with One Piece volume one, was under her bed, where it had fallen just that morning as she rushed out the house to TAFE.

There were no traces at all of the fact that THESE GUYS WERE CHARACTERS IN A TV SHOW AND MANGA!!!!

EJ sighed, and then her breath hitched in her throat. "Miss Emma-Jane?" Called a man's voice.

"Oh no!" EJ gasped. "It's Jed!"

"Who's Jed?" Luffy wanted to know, as EJ's eyes darted to her bathroom door, and she began to push the members of the Straw Hat crew towards it.

"He's my…" EJ sighed. "He's my butler, and he will freak out if he finds five strange people in my room, four of whom are guys!"

Usopp finally spoke up. "He's…your butler?" He asked, and EJ knew EXATCTLY what Usopp was thinking. Usopp probably has issues with butlers, and this was going to bad enough as it was.

"Not now!" EJ hissed, pushing them all into the bathroom and closing the door, just as Jed walked in.

His resemblance to Captain Kuro was scary. They could have been brothers or something. EJ could swear she heard Usopp gasp, and knew he was watching through the key-hole.

"Is everything alright up here, Miss Emma-Jane?" Jed asked her, in his calm voice.

"Sure Jed, why wouldn't it be?" EJ rambled. "Just fine, nothing wrong, everything's great, okay?"

Kyo meowed in a sarcastic way. EJ glared at him.

"Okay…" Jed paused, and then turned to leave. At last he said: "Oh, and Miss Emma-Jane?"

"Hmm?"

"Your parents won't be coming home for another two days now…I'm sorry." He finished awkwardly, and then left.

As soon as the door had shut, the Straw Hat crew piled out of the bathroom.

"He reminds me of Kuro!" Usopp said, shuddering.

"Not necessarily a bad thing." EJ said flatly. She had turned, and wouldn't look at anyone except Kyo.

"Yes it is!" Usopp cried. "Kuro's a bastard! He's an…"

"Evil genius?" EJ said bluntly. "Who tried to kill someone for peace of mind? Yeah, that's it, well sometimes…" She turned around suddenly, and they all saw how bright her eyes were, and red-rimmed. "Jed's the closest thing to a family I've got. My…" She stopped talking again. 'Okay, look, you guys just got here, I just got back from a full day of tests, and I'm tired!"

Kyo meowed pointedly.

"What's up with the cat?" Zolo asked her.

"He wants to go out." EJ said immediately.

"How did you know that?" Luffy wanted to know.

"Intuition." She replied.

"I'll take the cat out for you." Nami said, walking towards the door. "Ummm…where's the..?"

"Just walk straight down the hall until you reach the stairs and go down," EJ told her, opening the door for her. "Then you'll see a double glass door, that leads outside. Just watch out for Jed, but you're a thief, you'll be fine…"

"Okay." Nami smiled, and Kyo followed her almost snootily out of the room.

"That cat's weird." Luffy commented, sitting down on the dark blue carpet.

EJ rounded on him. "You take that back!" She exclaimed.

"Why?" Luffy wanted to know. "It's true, isn't it?"

"No!" EJ cried, throwing her hands up. The Straw Hat crew had just appeared in her bedroom and they were the most difficult bunch to contend with! "He's just…had a hard life…" EJ paused, and then added softly: "Like me…"

"You?" Zolo rolled his eyes. "You live in a house with two stories and you have a butler and your room is…well, I dunno." He glared at her, and she cringed. "How can you say that's a hard life?"

"It wasn't always like this." EJ said calmly, as Nami and Kyo returned. "I've had to suffer a lot for other people's mistakes, and I…" She broke off, as Nami was shaking. "Nami?"

And Nami uttered the two most dreaded words, although not the ones EJ would have liked to have heard, although they put her on edge.

"Arlong's here."

MEG: OMIGOSH!! A cliffie!! Sorry, but I'll try to update soon!!