Summary: Roger is going the wrong way and Rayleigh told him so, but Rayleigh was the one who got himself stranded in the middle of the sea once by accidentally cutting his sails into shreds, so Roger wasn't quite inclined to listen. Because Roger is most definitely going the right way. Or, the Roger Pirates are looking for treasure and Roger stumbles upon the greatest treasure of all. (Hint: it's freckles and hibiscus and a lovely smile to match fierce, fierce spirit.)
Shira: welp here we go. Thank you for everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed! I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Next chapter: Portgas D. Rouge
"And I'm telling you, we're going the wrong way!"
Roger laughed in the face of his first mate. "No we're not, partner. Don't you trust me by now?"
Rayleigh threw his hands up in exasperation, knowing better than to argue with his captain. Roger chuckled as Rayleigh started muttering mutinously, and if Roger knew him at all, it would probably be multiple layers of insults and heckles any other captain would consider insubordination. Roger just hummed in response, ignoring him. He had never listened to him before anyway and he wasn't about to start now. He felt the grin slowly creeping back onto his face.
"I've got a good feeling about this."
They'd stumbled upon the place entirely by accident, a storm throwing them off course on their way to their fourth New World island (Roger blamed Rayleigh's luck for that one) and barely managed to steer the Jackson to weigh anchor by a tiny lump of land barely large enough to be called an island before they all fell over from exhaustion. Gallo, a barrel-chested New World native, had informed the crew in hushed tones of the fabled Axiom Isle, an unfindable land no log pointed to that was rumoured to house a legendary treasure that put even gold and priceless jewels to shame. His gobsmacked expression in the morning told Roger all he needed to know about what they'd just found (Roger took full credit for this one).
But still, Roger mused as he jumped over another set of stairs, the name certainly leaves something to be desired.
It wasn't two whole minutes from the moment they set foot on the island that Roger had realized the extent of the irony of its name. Because here, up was down, stones could splinter apart at any second while sand formed solid walls, trees could suffocate you, and gravity simply refused to cooperate. The Grand Line was well known for its habit of defying the law of physics but Axiom was on a whole other level.
"GAH!" Roger turned to find one of his cabin boys flailing about undignifiedly while his favorite brat, Shanks, laughed his head off at him. Roger's old straw hat was nearly falling off Shanks' head, he was laughing so hard. It seemed the large leaves of a tree floating by had smacked him right on the nose and refused to let go.
The captain grinned and Rayleigh hit him before he could join Shanks in snickering at Buggy's expense. Roger shot Rayleigh a mutinous look which was soundly ignored.
"Wing-san," Buggy whined. "Can't you just fly up and find a safer route to this damn treasure?"
Wing snorted and glared unamusedly at Roger's eager smile.
"Hilarious," she deadpanned. She still tugged the tree off of Buggy's face though.
"Aw, c'mon Bugs. You know Skypieans can't really fly with those wings."
"I know that, you fucking asshole! I'm not an idiot like you are!"
"'Course not." Shanks sounded agreeable enough but Buggy was definitely taking it the wrong way. No one paid any attention to thier bickering as Roger suddenly hung a sharp left.
"Oi captain!" His crew's yells of alarm were ignored in favor of the growing fire in front of him. Then, because he was curious, Roger stuck his hand into the fire.
"ROGER DAMMIT." Rayleigh quickly pulled him away from the fire while Roger observed his hand. It wasn't burnt. In fact, it hadn't felt hot at all. Hmm I wonder if... He whipped off his coat and fed it to the flames.
He smiled like the lunatic he knew he was even as the rest yelled in alarm. "Men! Take off your clothes!"
To Roger's surprise, Wing was the first one to pull off her shirt and toss it at her captain. Roger blinked at her and she grinned back wolfishly before turning back to the rest, clad in only a breastband wrapped tight around her chest with the slave mark on her back on full display.
"Well?" She snapped. "You heard the captain, you rotten little horse shits! Your clothes!"
Rayleigh laughed before shrugging off his own shirt and cloak and tossing it to Roger. The others immediately followed suit, and Roger felt his pride grow that not a single man had even taken a second to gawk at the proof of Wing's past. He felt even prouder to think he had given her her name when she'd admitted to not remembering her own before he'd recruited her into his crew.
The Roger Pirates all watched in awe as their clothes shimmered with a red glow, the cloth having absorbed all the "fire" inside the seams. Roger laughed in delight while his men relaxed one by one.
"Well isn't this amazing, partner! I certainly hope the rest of the New World proves to be just as interesting!"
Rayleigh sniffed as he picked up his cloak to examine it.
"Anywhere is plenty interesting so long as you're there, captain," he said calmly. "Well, I suppose we can come back once our clothes have 'dried', eh Roger?"
"Yeah." Roger was already moving ahead. "I think we're getting close."
Ten minutes and multiple indestructible walls of clouds later, the pirates we're finally nearing the middle of the island. Surprisingly enough, the perfectly circular patch of land was made up of a completely normal forest. Trees towered over them while firmly rooted in the ground, birds weren't poisonous fanged monsters, and water and fire and wood and steel all had the same effect they had in every other part of the world.
Roger was smacking vines away from his face when a voice stopped him in his tracks.
"Now what are you fine, fine gentlemen doing on a day like this on a forbidden island?"
Roger looked up. And up and up and up. Because at what must be the pinpoint middle of the island stood a large, proud oak, branches reaching up to touch the clouds in the sky. And there, on one of its branches stood a single woman.
Her white dress whipped in the wind as she looked down at Roger. His booming laugh echoed around them as Rayleigh replied for them, tone mild. "We're pirates, miss. No offense meant, but we don't exactly care about what is or isn't forbidden."
Her laugh echoed much like Roger's, wild and free and viciously happy, as she jumped to the ground nimbly, hair barely ruffled by the height. Roger grinned as she landed in front of him. "And I suppose you're allowed to be here then, girlie?"
Her eyes flashed in something like anger and on a lesser woman, her expression might be called a sneer. As it was, she made it look simply like the amused smile of a queen at the expense of the idiotic scrambling of those not quite to her level. "My name is Portgas D. Rouge. Not 'miss', not 'girlie'. Rouge."
Roger sketched a mocking bow. She smirked and responded with a curtsy.
"Besides," she continued after studying the half naked Roger Pirates with thinly veiled laughter. "I'm here for a reason."
"Oh? And what reason might that be, Rouge-san?"
She turned around and laid a hand on the trunk of the massive tree before replying. "I heard there was a flower here."
"A flower?" Shanks had pushed his way to the front, curious to see this woman who faced his captain down without fear. "Do you mean the treasure?"
"No, I mean a flower," Rouge replied with a laugh. She stepped a little to the side to show them a single stem of a flower shimmering iridescently in the fading light. Then, with a single smooth movement, she plucked the flower already placed in her hair—hibiscus, Roger thought—and tucked it swiftly into place between Shanks' ear and vibrant red hair.
Rouge never saw Shanks sputtering incoherently, blushing red as a beet. She had instantly turned her attention to the strange flower after flashing Shanks a dazzling smile, kneeling before it and cupping it in her hands almost reverently. She plucked it with gentle fingers and an even gentler smile before placing it where the hibiscus had been before, placing a hand on the trunk once more and murmuring softly to herself, a contented look on her face. She looked almost as though she was praying.
"So do you reckon that flower thing is the treasure, then? Looks like there's something more to it than just being a plant." Rayleigh's voice is low enough that only Roger can hear, but Roger's not paying attention.
He hums a bit as a distracted reply, eyes fixed on Rouge as she rose to her feet and turned just as the jeering and catcalls of how adorable Shanks looked rose to a deafening din. Shanks was screeching denials but his face was as red as his hair and the flower at this point, and Buggy was calling him out on it gleefully. Rouge slid closer to Shanks and put a hand on his shoulder, laughter in her eyes as she assured him that he did indeed look quite dashing with her flower.
Rayleigh watched his captain's bright eyes and Rouge's knowing smirk as they watched each other warily across the span of a heartbeat and a world changing chasm, and the first mate of the Roger Pirates turned to their men with a long-suffering sigh and a resigned shake of his head.
"Alright, you damned idiots, that's enough! Since we've figured out the way here, let's go get our clothes first and come back to scope for anything of value."
The crew cheered as they surged back the way they came. Rayleigh followed, glancing back only once to watch as Roger and Rouge stood frozen across from each other, still.
"Besides," he murmured softly to himself. "Look's like Roger's found his treasure after all."