"This smells delicious!" he gaped as he stepped into the galley, fidgeting with the yellow bandana tied a bit too tightly above his brow.

"You say that every day." Helmeppo yawned, stretching his arm across his chest.

"Because it's true!" he countered for the sake of tradition.

"Yeah.." his friend admitted, "yeah, it is."

Making a beeline through the half-dead marines who had dominated the center of the room, the two made their way to the end of the counter along the back, each grabbing one of the plastic trays stacked at the end.

Their selection of food was… a little intimidating, if Coby was being honest with himself. He knew from experience that everything offered was well-worth trying, yet he also knew that attempting to do so was a plan doomed to fail; there were always at least three main dishes, and the sides were innumerable. It was the largest selection of food he'd ever had to choose from, and it was some of the best food as well.

While Helmeppo dove right in, Coby gave himself a moment to take in what he was looking at. Cheesy scrambled eggs, hash browns that appeared to have some sort of spice mixed in, french toast, some sort of thick, red, saucy concoction filled with whole mushrooms… He'd never seen the last before. Perhaps he would-

A slender, brown arm draped itself over his shoulders, and Coby only barely had to resist the urge to scream.

"You're getting better." his assailant said while the blond snickered, "This time, you only jumped one mile into the air."

"Isra-san!" Coby whined crossly, shrugging the man off him, "When will you stop this?"

Isra said nothing in response, punching him in the shoulder with a grin that made his answer apparent nonetheless.

"Wait a moment." Helmeppo said, eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion, "What are you doing out of the kitchen during breakfast?"

"Ah, Garp took me off breakfast today, said I should make a list of everything we have left in storage, and everything I'd like to get." he said with a huff.

Weird.

"W-wouldn't this normally please you?" Coby asked with a small amount of apprehension, "I mean, you get to personally decide what gets bought."

"Not really," Isra sighed, "I mean, you're right about the deciding, but I usually end up choosing anyway."

When both Helmeppo and Coby stared blankly, he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Lists aren't really my thing." the cook explained, "I usually just get what I feel like getting at the time, and I know our crew enough to guess the amounts, so this is pretty much a wasted morning. The only thing I can really think of beforehand for this place is salt."

"Salt?" he asked innocently, and his friend's eyes lit up. Helmeppo picked up his half-full dish, and scurried away all but frantically. Coby idly took notice of his own plate's distinct lack of foodstuffs, and started plopping select items onto his plate.

"Every year this huge-ass wave comes crashing down on the lower half of the city we're going to, and when everything dries up, there's all this salt left over!" Isra hummed excitedly, "And it just so happens that we're showing up within a week of it, so the rooftops should be caked!"

"A wave overtakes the city?" the petty officer asked mildly, throwing some jam packets onto the tray.

"Yeah, every year. Everyone in the lower half has really good sealing all over their buildings, and they all just go uphill for the night. It's hardly a big deal to them." Isra shrugged noncommittally, nudging Coby towards the drink station.

"Wow." Coby said as he picked up his tray, moving in the direction his friend wanted.

It wasn't long ago that he would have gasped in horror, he mused as he picked up a giant thermos of near-boiling water, pouring into a mug supplied by the other.

"I can't believe I'm used to this." he muttered, plopping a bag of green tea into the mug.

"Used to what?"

He squinted at his friend incredulously, "Giant waves crashing on top of cities full of people who see it as everyday life?"

"That's hardly a big deal though…" Isra said carefully, filling a glass with chocolate milk.

"Hey, you were born on the Grand Line." Coby said, rolling his eyes.

"So was a pretty large chunk of the world." he said, "Statistically speaking, my experiences count as average just as much as someone from East Blue."

"Nu-uh," Coby whined as they both made their way towards the table Helmeppo had chosen a couple minutes before, "The Grand Line makes up like, twenty percent tops. That does not create a world-wide statistical average."

"Neither does East Blue though! I know, you're probably thinking about all the 'Blues, but they're all vastly different. Like in North Blue, things are pretty much like here, but with meaner people and what you would call sensible weather."

"What do you mean what I call sensible weather? In East Blue the weather can be explained using a thing we like to call science, which I think makes it like, certifiably sensible." he said as the two of them sat down.

"Dear God, no!" Helmeppo, who coby had chosen to sit across from, pleaded.

"You don't even know what we're talking about!" Isra hissed, sipping angrily at his milk.

"I don't need to, I know it's some dumb, pointless fight using obnoxious words because you two get some kick out of sounding like assholes, and it is too early for that." Helmeppo said, sticking out his tongue.

"Says the guy who terrorized a town with a wolf and used his father as a way to blackmail the others into putting up with it." Isra said with a smug grin, and Coby had to laugh.

"Will you guys let that go already?" Helmeppo wailed, planting his face firmly onto the table.

"Never." Coby and Isra said in unison.

ooooo

It was when he glanced up after his thousandth rep that the speck that had been creeping up on the horizon for a nice, long while had transformed into a very clear cone.

"Land ho!" Zoro shouted, not bothering to look down from the crow's nest; the Vice Admiral's shouted (and strangely angry) excitement was enough to be sure the entire ship would be well aware within the next moment.

Sometime during the next hundred reps (he was focusing on his arms today-overall a fairly normal workout), the ropes leading up to the

"Since I know you weren't listening to Garp's spiel on deck, I'll fill you in." his guest announced as he took a seat on the bench beside Zoro's spot on the floor.

There was a moment of silence before he looked up at the dark haired man questioningly, "Well?"

"Just making sure you were actually gonna listen." he shrugged, "Anyway, Garp's gonna take a pretty large group out with him for some mystery task, you're on that group, and then we're all pretty much free to do whatever we see fit for the next few days."

"Ok. When's Garp leaving?" he grunted, setting his dumbbells onto the floor beside him. .

"After we get settled down, so you've got a few minutes. That's only part of what I came up here for though. I was wondering if you'd be willing to come help me with some shit afterwards."

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the slender man, who held his hands out in front of himself defensively.

"C'mon Roronoa, don't be like that. This isn't something awful, we're just gonna get salt."

"Hey, I didn't agree to it yet!" he growled frustratedly, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"You always do though!" Isra huffed, taking about the same posture, "Look, we can sneak some extra booze in if that'll make this part go faster. We can hide it with the salt since I'm the only one who'll ever go that far into the store room."

"Maybe." he caved in, "There'd better be some white rice in my near future though."

"You're so boring." the cook said, though his words held little weight.

"Grilled sea king too. And don't forget the ale. And the booze stash you promised."

"Yeah, yeah." Isra chuckled, "I know what you like."

ooooo

A/N

So here it is folks: the replacement for the first chapter of this story. I still have no beta reader, so feel free to point out errors if you see any. I also may update this chapter later if I see anything I want to change myself, but it shouldn't be anything terribly large.

I'd also like to ask whether or not you have any input on whether or not I bring in Auntie's Family (remember Michael and Hoichael?) into the story. It definitely wouldn't be one of the major plot points, but I could see their inclusion being cute.

Anyways, feel very encouraged to review! There's nothing quite like having others comment on your writing.