Pairing: Gen
Rating: T
Words: 3,389
One-shot
Genre: Humour
Time: Post-Thriller Bark (Yes, I finally caught up everyone. zomg.)
Disclaimer: I don't freakin own One Piece, get it through ya heads already.

A/N: My first time writing Franky and Brook. I just wanted to do something silly and fun. Inspired by listening to Michael Jackson's Thriller. It's okay, I think. I'm kinda happy with it, aside from the ending but, you get that. Thanks muchly to Flake for the feedback on this! I don't think I ended up fixing everything she said, but, I'll remember her critique for next time. i might not improve the story the critique is on, but i remember it for next time.
I know this is riddled with mistakes, though. So. DON'T POINT THEM OUT! Flamers will be bitch slapped.

Thriller Night

By Sunny

"AHHHH! Ghost!" Usopp screamed, hollering bloody murder. Who else would it have been? Sanji groaned and rolled over, snuggling back down to his pillow and fully intending to ignore the noise. After what had happened at Thriller Bark though, and now with a mannerless skeleton aboard, the chef wasn't ready to go back to sleep after hearing such a yell.

"Ghost!? Where!?" That was Chopper, first one to join Usopp in his panic attacks, the two of them now running around the room with footsteps that could easily have sounded like a heard of elephants.

"A ghost? Oh my! They are so scary!" Brook was next to join the two, his light footsteps not heard over the other two. All noise paused though as Usopp turned to the newest crew member with an odd look on his face.

"You're pretty freaky yourself, y'know!" he snapped before the three recommenced their stampede of moronity. Sanji rolled his eyes a little before sighing and sitting up, scratching at his mussed hair. What the hell was the time, even?

"Would you three shit heads SHUT UP!?" he snarled when he couldn't see any sign of a 'ghost' of any kind, but his anger went ignored as the captain got wind of the commotion.

"Ghoooost! So cool! Where, Usopp?" Luffy yodelled, next to add his noise to the group. The whole ship was going to be awake at this rate. The four now ran in circles, Usopp at the lead, Chopper hopping and skipping to try and keep up. Brook's long legs easily keping pace, while Luffy looked like a complete idiot as he tried to look for the ghost, run, and pull his shirt on at the same time. Obviously, any previous fear of ghosts, or memories of Perona's little minions at Thriller Bark had all but faded from the brat's mind. The chef glared at the four, but when they didn't burst into flame simply by his own wishes, he sighed heavily.

"Oi, shit head, the kids are awake." Sanji noised, looking down at the hammock below and then tapping the swordsman with his heel. Zoro snorted a little and cracked an eye open to look back at the chef in annoyance that wasn't directed at him for once.

"Apparently. I can't even sleep through this crap. Though I was trying my best." Zoro yawned and sat up, swinging his legs over the edge and watching the little group run in a continuous circle. Sanji had to snort at the crack, scratching his head again and dodging a pillow that was thrown from Franky's hammock. Apparently, the cyborg didn't like the whole idea of being woken in the middle of the night by elephants screaming about ghosts. Sanji picked the pillow up in a fit and threw it right back but grunted in sleepy annoyance when it completely missed it's target.

"Would you bros go back to sleep?" he growled before pausing, "Wait, a ghost? Who saw a ghost?"

"Usopp, apparently." Zoro replied for the cyborg's benefit. Much like Sanji, he tried the glaring method. If only looks could kill… Reaching up, the swordsman tugged on Sanji's foot until it was jerked away.

"What the hell, marimo?" the blonde snarled.

"Make em something to eat so they'll shut up and we can sleep again."

"YOU make them something, I'm not moving except perhaps to go and smoke before I kill them."

"GHOOOOST!"

"Painfully." Sanji's teeth ground together, his eye twitching slightly.

"Killing them sounds good, actually…" Zoro agreed with a horribly demon like smirk, eyes darkening dangerously. In the night, even though the darkness shielded most of the affect, Zoro still got the desired reaction. The 4 runners stopped and took one glance at the smirk, before deciding it was scarier than any ghost and beat it for the deck.

"Now they'll wake Nami-san and Robin-chan up, shit swordsman!" Sanji hissed and jumped down from his hammock, making sure to at least jostle the other around a bit. After the event with Kuma and everything that had conspired there, he wasn't game to do more than that at the moment. Stupid marimo.

Zoro grunted, obviously really not caring at the moment as he lay back down again. Tugging on his shoes, the chef stalked out, tapping a cigarette out and pushing it between his lips as he reached the deck. It was pitch black up top, only the stars for light as there was no moon. Vaguely, he could see four shapes running around the tree by the stairs that led up to the door to the kitchen.

"Oi!" he hissed under his breath when the four just ignored his presence. Nami-san and Robin-chan… tch… didn't these idiots understand!?

"Oh my gosh, a ghost ghost!" the four cried in unison and deciding that being a loud moron was not the right tactic for trying to NOT wake his precious lovelies up, he simply sighed and attempted to calm the homicidal tendencies creeping up in him.

"For God's sake…" the blonde muttered, lighting his cigarette and shaking his head a little. Why? Why did he put up with this bullshit? Really? Sighing, he began to make his way towards the group, but paused when an icy breath washed over the back of his neck. Shivering, he looked around for a second. Well… it was a chilly night, and there was a light breeze blowing, so… that must've been it. Yeah. Turning back to continue on his way, he squealed and jerked backward to land on his rump when a bone white face that was definitely NOT Brook's, appeared in front of him from nowhere.

It's black eyes shone with a strange, inner glow. While it's white body floated and drifted in the light breeze. It smiled, yes smiled, at the chef and then jerked down to touch him on the cheek. Screaming like a girl, Sanji scrambled across the grass and joined the other four in running around the tree, adding his voice to the chants of 'Oh my gosh, a ghost ghost!' that was accompanied by a jaunty little tune played by Brook. Now, a ghost was scary enough, sure, but the blonde remembered those adventures with Perona's 'hororo' ghosts, and he wasn't taking NO chances, damn it!

Zoro groaned heavily as he heard the ero cook's shrill screech. So. The bastard had seen the so called 'ghost' as well, eh? Greeeat. Eh, he'd dealt with them the last time this had happened. Chopper had had a nightmare or something, and had started them all up exactly like this, and he'd calmed them all down by telling them that there was nothing in the dark that's not there in the light. Now, it was Franky's turn, coz damn it, he was going back to sleep whether the other's liked it or not.

"Your turn to calm the children down, Franky." Zoro said, glancing over to where he could see the outline of the cyborg shaking his head. Hn. Someone should've really lit a lamp or something. Oh well.

"Fine, fine." Franky sighed, waving a huge hand and hopping out of his hammock.

"And put on pants before you go." Zoro frowned into his pillow.

"I was gonna!" the cyborg huffed a little before the sounds of his speedo snapping into place were heard (Zoro shuddered slightly and was actually glad that lamp hadn't been lit, thank you very much.) and then stomping sounds as Franky headed up to the deck to calm the midnight crazies down. Looking around, Franky sighed a little as he spotted the five running around the tree. How was he gonna handle this?

"Bros, bros, there's no ghost." he said, moving towards them in the dark and noting Sanji's dropped cigarette laying on the grass and still glowing. Picking it up, he flicked it overboard and then continued towards the five.

"B-b-but Usopp and Sanji saw it, Franky!" Chopper stuttered, his whole little body shaking a little.

"I did!" Usopp cried, before being nudged aside a little as Sanji nodded beside him. Here Franky was thinking the chef was one of the sane ones on this ship… scratch that, one of the saner ones. Like Robin, himself, Zoro… no, not Zoro, he was insane.

"What did it look like then?" He asked, feeling like he had suddenly become some form of father at the moment. He was gonna draw the line at reading them a bedtime story. Singing one however, that was different, he'd do that gladly.

"It had big black eyes!" Usopp voted.

"It was scary! Im scared out of my skin! I have no skin... SKULL JOKE! Yohohohoho!" Brooke added, but was shut down just as quickly when Sanji and the sniper snapped at him about how freaky he was.

"I-I believe Usopp!" Chopper put his two cents worth in, raising his hoof in the air and bouncing a little on the spot.

"And a misty, see through body!" Sanji finished. Shaking his head a little, Franky managed to find his way to a lamp and after a few seconds of fiddling and asking for a light from Sanji, he'd turned it on. A small pool of orangey coloured light flooded the area, revealing Nami's work desk and some parts Usopp had been tinkering with before going to bed.

"Bros, remember what Zoro said the other night? When Chopper had the nightmare?" Franky asked, turning to them with his large hands placed on his hips.

"There's nothing in the dark that's not there in the light." Luffy, Chopper, Brook and Usopp chorused in perfect sync. Sanji snorted in the background, shaking his head a little.

"Shit marimo would know, he's scarier than any ghost." he grumped a little. Now the light was on, the blonde was a lot more braver than before. Ghost? Pah. If he could deal with marimo, he could deal with some stupid ghosts.

"Right. So. What are you all going to do now?" Franky asked. The group sighed in unison.

"Go back to bed." they chorused again.

"Yohoho…" Brook added a little sadly onto the end. Nodding, the cyborg smiled a little at them all before blinking almost stupidly as the lamp blew out. The sea breeze up here wasn't that strong. Much like Sanji had felt, an icy breath passed over the back of his neck, making his hair stand on end and his skin tingle.

"Brook bro, was that you…?"

"Yoho…? I'm over here, Franky-san." Brooke's voice called, "Is someone there with you?"

"Is it Nami-san?" Sanji asked.

"Is it meat?" Luffy put in, before grunting as he fell over what must've been Sanji's leg, for the chef yelped like a child and then cursed and swore as he pulled the brat to his feet again.

"Watch where you're going!"

"Sanjiii, it's dark, I can't!" Luffy replied before huffing a little, "Ahh… this is boring. I wanna see this ghost."

"So you can be reborn as a clam?" Usopp put in, having heard the story from others. Chopper, Brook and Sanji all laughed as Luffy whined in an obvious pout.

"It's a ghost!" Franky yelped randomly, jerking forward as the icy breath repeated again, this time in his ear. Unfortunately, his large arms were… well rather large, and as he flailed, he whacked Luffy and Sanji into the nearest wall. There was the splintering crack of wood, and then Luffy's laughter mingled with Sanji's cursing. Usopp groaned and Franky laughed nervously, while Brook commented in the background about how dangerous a black ship could be.

Chopper squealed and ran in a circle, yelling for a doctor before realising a second too late that he couldn't see, and ran into the tree. Franky shifted a little, before feeling his way to the same lamp as before, and relighting it, sighing in relief as light flooded the area once again, and no ghost was to be found. Luffy and Sanji peeked out from the wall, while Brook was helping poor Chopper to his feet.

While Chopper was a reindeer and part animal and therefore had better night sense, his human side must've cancelled that out a little, for though it was obvious he had better night vision than the rest of the crew, he still hadn't seen the tree before hitting it. A large lump was forming on the poor thing's head and his eyes were watering slightly.

"See…? This proves it… there's no-" Franky began but was cut off as a sudden, loud shriek caught his attention. Nami was standing on the stairs, pointing at a silvery white shape that was drifting just beside the rope ladder that led up to the crow's nest.

"Nami-san!" Sanji called happily, "We're sorry to have woken you up. These morons were panicking and I came up here to settle them down. Might I say you…" his voice trailed off in the background as Luffy shook his head a little and hopped out of the hole, brushing himself off as he stood straight again.

"You were panicking too, Sanji." the captain stated with a grin before moving towards the ghost and peering at it carefully.

"It's not one of Perona's." Franky muttered, moving up alongside the younger boy. Luffy shook his head and grinned at the ghost.

"Hi. What're you doing on our ship?" he asked.

"Does that matter right now, Luffy!?" Nami hissed, hurrying down the steps and moving to stand beside and almost behind Franky's large form, "What I want to know is, when is it leaving."

"Aw, don't be so cold, Nami." Luffy chuckled, moving another step towards the ghost and holding out a hand as if to shake it's… arm… things. Wisps? Whatever they were. Didn't look like it even had hands, really. The ghost just stared at Luffy with it's blank eyes, not moving from it's position or even seeming to acknowledge anyone else's presence.

"… Is it stupid?" the captain asked before yelping as Sanji appeared from nowhere and bashed him over the head with a foot.

"One! You woke Nami-san up! Two! Don't insult creepy floating ghost people! Three! You. Woke. Nami. San. Up!" he hissed, bashing Luffy out of the picture. Brook stepped up next, offering a polite bow to the creature.

"Good evening, ghost-san." he offered, before looking up again, "Might I ask what you're doing on the ship, and if you would go away?"

"Skeleton-bro, don't be so unkind." Franky noised, tugging the newest crew member back, but making no move to approach the thing himself. The crew lapsed into silence, the ghost simply floating there, while they all stared at it. Really. This was quite uneventful.

Sanji was getting bored with this crap and in a fit of grumpy rage at them all standing around doing nothing, he ran forward and attempted to kick the thing. However… ghost's are not known for being solid objects, and the chef's foot simply went straight through it. There was a splash as Sanji hit the water and an evil cackle was heard as Zoro, who had just walked up the stairs to finally get off his lazy ass to do something, saw the best wake up scene ever.

"Crap cook." He commented, glancing over the side as Chopper and Usopp rushed to throw a ladder down to the blonde. The ghost disappeared, and just as Sanji made it to the top of the ladder and back onto the ship, thanking the two at the same time, the light went out again. A high pitched scream that could only be Nami, echoed out and then went abruptly silent, followed by a door slamming somewhere and the ship creaking oddly.

"Nami!" Luffy yelled, quickly followed by Sanji, Usopp and Chopper.

"I've got him! I've got the ghost!" Franky cried, a loud thump and scratching around indicating he'd tackled it.

"That's ME you idiot!" Zoro yelled back, giving the larger cyborg a nasty elbow to the forehead and getting himself free.

"Our chef's foot went straight through the ghost, Franky-san." Brook commented in the background, "Yohoho, that was quite funny though."

"Oh shut up, crap skeleton!" Sanji snarled, "Nami-san's missing! We must find her!"

"It's madness…" Usopp muttered, shaking his head a little to himself as he listened to Zoro and Sanji start up a usual fight, while Franky tried to break it up and Luffy just laughed like it was the funniest joke ever. Once he'd gotten bored of the two trying to hit each other in the dark, he whined that the ghost was gone and he'd really wanted to meet it and find out if it wanted to be part of the crew. Zoro and Sanji stopped their fight, and along with Brook, yelled at Luffy that no such thing as freaky as a ghost was going to be part of this crew.

"We have a skeleton." Usopp pointed out bluntly, and all noise ceased.

"True." the rest of them echoed.

"Yohoho!" Brook added in and they all fell silent again, muttering about how they were either sleepy, terrified or hungry. Three guesses as to who the hungry crack came from. Sanji sighed heavily.

"Seeing as we're all awake anyway, and if Nami-san's awake, then Robin-chan is too, so I have failed my gentleman's code!" he cried, biting his shirt.

"Oh shut up and go cook something before Luffy starts gnawing on the tree." Zoro snorted, shaking his head.

"Ah?"

"Too late." Franky added, pointing to where a shadow could be seen, indeed, gnawing on the tree.

"That's not me! I don't eat wood!" Luffy huffed from the background. The other's blinked a little.

"Is… everyone here. Chopper?" Sanji called.

"I-I'm here!"

"Zoro?"

"I'm here."

"Franky?"

"I'm… here as well."

"Brook?"

"Yohoho…?"

"…Usopp…?"

"Y-y-yes…?"

"We're all here…" Sanji finished after his roll call.

"No shit…" Zoro muttered, but it lacked conviction. The movement of the thing on the tree… was creeping even him out.

"Then… what's that on the tree…?" Chopper whimpered, moving to hide behind the chef's legs. The small group moved together and began creeping towards the oddly moving shape. It looked like a tangle of something, the closer they got. It growled suddenly, making the group jerk to a frightened halt, before they started forward again.

"GYAAAAH!" it cried in a horrifying voice, leaping from the tree at the same time as light flooded the area, revealing a shaky image of a large, frightening face with bright red eyes and purple skin. Screaming like a group of teenage girls, the group fell over themselves and bolted back to the men's cabin instead, each diving into their hammocks and hoping that once the night was over, everyone would both forget this and that ghost wouldn't return.

---

Nami snuck out from her hiding place behind one of the large trees, spinning her clima-tact around in a large twirl before chuckling and winking. Robin stepped out from the nearest door to Nami, peeking around in the soft light and chuckling as well.

"That worked quit well, navigator-san." She said quietly, pulling off the mask and purple clothing she was wearing. Nami nodded happily to her partner in crime.

"That'll teach them not to wake us up in the middle of the night… Usopp and his 'ghost' sightings." she snorted, shaking her head a little.

"Ah. That cold air tactic and mirage ability were used quite well." Robin congratulated Nami as they headed back for the girl's cabin.

"It wouldn't have worked without your devil fruit power, Robin." Nami shared the compliments equally. This whole thing of the men keeping them up at night, due to silly flights of fancy, hopefully, had now been put to an end. For tonight anyway.

A/N: Yeah, whatevs. Robin and Nami are evil.