Chapter 1 The Strange Girl

The sky was growing dark as night fell and the little amount of light left revealed a girl, running for her life. If you saw her you wouldn't have been able to see what she wasrunning from, but she was running quickly all the same. Her bare feet clapped softly on the ground and the old cloak she was wearing flew out behind her. Her long brown hair flew about wildly as she ran down several old pathways towards the ocean before she could pull the hood up.

She was looking for a way, any way, to escape. It didn't matter where she went. Even if she was only delaying her death another day, she needed to get off of this island immediately. She stopped at the docks for only a moment before sneaking onto a ship nearby and hiding inside it almost immediately. Nobody saw her sneak onboard. Nobody saw her find a room below deck and hide in the corner behind a barrel. Nobody saw her shed her silent tears in the dark.

"Hey Luffy! Hurry up will ya? The log already set, see?" Nami held up her arm and pointed to the log-pose on her wrist.

"Geez Nami, I'm coming! I-" Luffy was cut off by some scary looking men who stormed the docks.

"Hey you two! You haven't seen anybody suspicious running around here have you?"

"No, why?" The men ignored Nami's question and began to look around for their target.

Sanji and Zoro rounded the corner, Sanji pulling Zoro by his arm angrily.

"Stop pulling me cheese-head!"

"Well maybe I wouldn't have to if you didn't get lost every time I took my eyes off of you, ya shitty swordsman!"

"Hey! Will you guys please just hurry it up?" Nami frowned as she pulled Luffy on board after her.

"Haii Nami-swannn~" Nami sighed in both exasperation and relief as they boarded the ship.

"Good, now let's go. I don't want to stay on this island any longer than I have to. Is everybody here?"

Nami looked around and located Zoro, Sanji and Luffy but didn't see the other two she knew had to be hiding somewhere.

"Ussop! Chopper! Where the heck are you guys?" Chopper rolled out of a room giggling.

"We're in here! Ussop was just telling me how he-" Everybody aside from Luffy tuned out. They didn't care for the long-nosed boy's tall tales.

The group set sail for the next island on their journey, completely unaware that they had a stowaway.

The girl who had been hiding groaned quietly. It had been five whole days since they had left the island. She had hoped they would have gotten somewhere land-based sooner than now. She stretched her limbs slightly while in her hiding place and stood up slowly. She almost tumbled from pure dizziness.

She hadn't eaten yet. It's not like she wasn't used to not getting much food, but not getting any at all made her feel rather sick. She would find a snack. She wasn't sure where she was or who she was with but she would prefer almost anything to not eating another day. Night had fallen and so she climbed up the ladder carefully from her hiding spot and opened the hatch above her head slowly to peek outside.

There was nobody in sight, but she didn't let her guard down. Who knows how many people could be hiding or sleeping in this ship? The girl pulled her hood up over her head and hid her appearance completely. Maybe if she was spotted, they wouldn't recognize her as a stranger right away… Yeah, because your average sailor wore a cloak around the ship for no reason.

Under normal circumstances she would have smelled the salt in the air and felt the wind on her skin. She would have simply reveled in the fact that she was free of all that held her prisoner before. Yet sadly this was not a normal time. She was too hungry to think straight. She could barely walk straight at that.

Maybe she had an amazing amount of luck or a heightened sense of smell due to her hunger, but the first room she tried was the kitchen. She closed the door almost silently behind her as she crept into the room. She looked around and was about to walk towards the fridge when a light clicked on, blinding her momentarily.

"Dammit Luffy how many times have I told you not to raid the kitchen!?" An angry voice came from the direction the light was turned on and the girl suddenly felt a sharp pain in her side.

She flew across the room and hit the wall. Hard. At least enough to crack the wall. All the breath was knocked out of her and she rolled over gasping and choking for breath. Her hood fell off revealing to the blonde in the room that she was not Luffy and that she was a very much a disoriented girl… whom the blonde had just kicked full out against the wall.

"Shit! Who the hell are you?" Sanji pulled on his hair as he rushed over to her side and tried to help her up. "I'm sorry; I thought you were someone else, I… Who are you?"

She didn't respond as she was trying, and failing, to hold her legs steadily underneath her. She finally managed to get into a chair with Sanji's help and dropped against the table. He sat across from her and tried to give her a smile, but he just couldn't. He was just too confused.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" The girl looked at him with sad deep green eyes that could have melted even the hardest heart in the world.

"C-can I please h-have something t-to eat?" She croaked desperately and he jumped in realization. With lightning speed he grabbed some bread and water and handed them to her.

Despite how obviously hungry she was, before she ate she bowed her head to him in thanks and ate politely. He stared at her while she ate silently until he realized he was being rude. She took a small swallow of water and began to cough.

"T-thank you. I'm s-sorry…" Sanji frowned and looked at the solemn girl curiously.

"For what? Being hungry?" He shook his head. "Don't worry about it. But where did you come from? Did we pass some wreckage and not notice or something?" she shook her head slowly only to grab it because the motion hurt.

"I… I stowed away on the last island. I'm sorry, I thought if I could just get away from that island… I didn't plan to bother you… but I just got so hungry." She started to tear up and Sanji's heart shattered.

She had been here since the last island? That would mean she had been hiding with no food or water for days! How could nobody have noticed her? He was about to ask her something else when she began to cough violently and when she pulled back her hand she tried to hide it, but he caught the blood in it.

"You're hurt!" She let out a pained dry laugh.

"It happens." She tried to stand up but she wobbled and fell over onto the ground.

"Hey!" Sanji shoved himself back from the table, dropping his chair to the ground.

He ran over to her and she was out cold by the time he reached her. He checked her pulse and sighed in relief when he found it was still beating. He felt her head and winced when he realized how hot she was. He picked her up gently and kicked his door open. He held her unconscious form carefully as he ran to Chopper's door. He began to knock on it loudly.

"Chopper!" BANG. BANG. BANG. "Oi, Chopper it's an emergency!" The little reindeer who had been waking up slowly inside jolted at the word 'emergency.' He rushed to the door and swung it open to reveal an extremely worried Sanji holding a strange girl who seemed to be in need of immediate medical attention.

"Put her on that bed now! Carefully though, I don't know what's wrong with her." Chopper began to scurry around the room, gathering objects and turning on lights.

Sanji put her down gently on the bed and looked at her sadly as she had trouble breathing. Chopper put his stethoscope to her chest and began to measure her heart-rate and breathing.

"Sanji, can you tell me what happened?"

"I-I don't know! She came into my kitchen out of nowhere needing some food and water b-but I thought she was Luffy! I…" Sanji bit his lip. "I kicked her. I don't know what I'll do if, if-"

Chopper lifted his hoof to silence the flustered Sanji.

"Worrying about that now won't help. Thank you for telling me though. Do you know how long she was without water?"

"A-about five days at least." Chopper jumped.

"Five days?! Go get me some water! Fast!" Sanji nodded and ran from the room to get her some water.

Chopper felt her burning forehead and tried to sit her up slightly on some pillows. How did this girl get so bad? Did she just decide to wait until she was on the verge of death on purpose?

He shook his head. Now was not the time for speculation. Now was the time to be a doctor.

"Can you hear me?" The girl didn't respond and Chopper sighed. "Sanji where are you?" he muttered

"I'm back!" Sanji burst through the door with a glass of water and handed it to Chopper.

"Thank you." Chopper then put the glass to her lips and tilted it slowly to try and get her to drink.

Luckily, even though she was unconscious, she was able to swallow some before she coughed the rest up along with a small amount of blood. Chopper looked at Sanji seriously.

"Sanji I need you to sit here and hold her head up to help her breath okay? When you don't drink enough, the moisture leaves your lungs and you have trouble breathing. I'm going to make her some medicine." Sanji nodded and sat behind her, propping up her head on his side.

Sanji watched Chopper grind some ingredients into medicine and absent mindedly began to stroke some of the girl's hair. The soothing motion seemed to make her breaths calm down some and when he noticed he gave a weak smile. At least he was able to do something to help.

"We'll have to try to get her to swallow this. It would help if you could make some tea to dissolve it in. I can watch her here if you can do that." Sanji nodded slowly. "Thank you Sanji."

Chopper winced as he noticed the girl whimper in her sleep quietly. Probably subconsciously from the loss of contact. He tried to hold her hand but it didn't help her very much as her head occasionally jerked to the side during her heavy breathing fits. Sweat began to plaster her long hair to her face and Chopper tried to wipe some of it off with a cloth as she slept.

It was only a few minutes before Sanji returned, but it felt like hours. He handed the tea to Chopper who promptly stirred the medicine into it. Sanji quickly sat beside the bed and grabbed her hand worriedly.

"You know Chopper, it's partly my fault. If I just hadn't…" She twitched her fingers in his grasp as he tried to lean her upwards into a sitting position.

"You thought she was Luffy though right? He would have taken the hit fine and you know that. She was also very hungry and dehydrated, so it's really not all your fault." Chopper put the cup to her lips and sighed happily when she swallowed the liquid.

She began to shudder a few moments later and then calmed down considerably. She relaxed into the mattress and both boys sighed in relief.

"How long until she gets better?" Chopper shook his little head.

"I don't know Sanji. Maybe you should let her rest." Sanji stood slowly and let go of her hand but a second later she began to shiver again. She began to breathe rapid shallow breaths.

"Chopper! What's happening?!"

"She's hyperventilating! I-I don't know… I… T-try grabbing her hand again!" Sanji picked her hand up immediately and stroked gentle circles on the back of it with his thumb. She calmed down soon after and he sat next to her on the bed and looked at Chopper curiously.

"Chopper, what…"

"I'm not certain, but I think she's latched onto you." He frowned. "Normally this happens when a patient subconsciously recognizes a family member or a loved one they have known for a long time, and they feel the need to hold onto them… Are you sure you don't know her?"

"Positive."

"This is strange" he mused "I would have to ask you not to leave her side for as long as possible Sanji. I don't know what else to say. If you leave it might just kill her."

Sanji didn't know what to say to this either. It wasn't that he minded the company of pretty girls, but when they were unconscious it was a little different. Since he blamed himself it was also somewhat scary. He didn't like not knowing what to do. Sanji nodded in agreement, he would stay in place.

"I can do that much. I can try anyway. We don't know how long she'll be like this though, do we?" Chopper shook his head.

"I can give you another pillow if you need one. That is unless you aren't tired of course. Regardless, I need to go back to sleep. Wake me if anything happens okay?" Sanji nodded and accepted the pillow gratefully.

He lay down awkwardly beside her, still holding her hand gently. She coughed for a moment before calming and snuggling into the bed underneath her. It would have been adorable had she not been covered in sweat and stray tears.

The next morning running was heard loudly across the ship's deck. Sandals clacking across the floor and doors opening then slamming.

"Sanji?" Another door slammed "Sanji!" Luffy swung open the door to Chopper's room and was about to holler for Sanji when a large Chopper clapped his hand over Luffy's mouth.

"Shhh! You are going to wake up my patient!" Luffy tilted his head and looked at the bed where an unfamiliar girl lay next to Sanji, head moving occasionally in pain and sweating profusely.

"Ehh? Who's she? Is she alright?" Chopper shook his head.

"I don't know. Sanji brought her to me last night and she's very sick. I'll have to ask you not to bother them." Luffy pouted.

"But I'm huunnnnggggrrrrryyyyyy!"

"Shhh!" Chopper simply couldn't understand how someone could take 'Shhh' to mean 'make noise.' Sanji stirred in his sleep and sat up slowly.

"Hmm? Oh, Hi Luffy." Sanji looked down and blushed slightly when he realized he was still holding the girl's hand.

"Sanji! Make me breakfast!" Sanji sighed.

"Haii Haii. Just a second." He swung his legs off of the bed and let go the girl's hand gently.

Luffy grinned happily as Sanji walked towards the door but then stopped smiling when the girl began to twitch.

"Ne, Chopper? What's wrong with her?" Both Sanji and Chopper looked to her as she began to jerk her head from side to side and pant in shallow breaths.

Chopper waved his arms around wildly.

"Sanji!" Sanji practically jumped back onto the bed as he grabbed her into a small hug.

"Sorry. I'm sorry. Please calm down ok?" Her heart rate began to fall and her breathing became normal after a few moments. Sanji sighed. "I don't suppose this would work with anybody else?" Chopper shook his head.

"I highly doubt it. It's already odd enough that she picked one stranger, let alone another."

"Luffy," Sanji frowned "I can't leave this girl alone. You'll have to find something to eat yourself. I'm sorry."

"Wha? But-" Chopper began to push Luffy out of the room.

"You can tell everybody to stay out of here okay?" Luffy pouted.

"But I'm huuu-"

"We get it. You're hungry. Go get something to eat then!" Chopper closed the door and groaned.

"Chopper what are we going to do? I can't just sit here all day can I?"

"You might have to. I don't know how long she's going to be like this but we can hope it won't be too long."

Sanji leaned back in the bed and the girl began to cough. He moved her head so it was easier for her to breath and she choked for a moment before regaining her breath. He sighed as he sat and did nothing besides hold her and occasionally adjust her to help her breathing.

If she was awake he could be apologizing and asking her what her name was. If she was better he could be fawning over her like he did with all the ladies and it would be fun. If she was awake he wouldn't be quite so worried about her. Why did he have to hurt her? Why couldn't they have found her sooner? Why?

Well... I guess that's Chapter 1 then ^ ^

If it's worth continuing, let me know. If not, eh *shrugs shoulders* there's always better stuff to do with my time.