Author's Note: What I should have mentioned in the last chapter, just to eliminate any possible confusion, is that this fiction is based on the subbed version of One Piece, so if names of places look different, then, yes, that's why :P On a side-note, I did a little revision to the first chapter. All at the end, and very minor—just added some description to alter the pace of the story to a more desirable speed. As for this chapter itself, I'm honestly not quite sure how well it came out, but comments, questions, and constructive criticism are always welcomed, loved, and greatly appreciated.

Reading Notes: In the story, three small dashes indicate a scene break. Long dashes which stretch from one end of the page to the other signal a time change, either from the present to a flashback or from a flashback back to the present.

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Click. Click. Click. Click.

It was the sound of shoes striding hurriedly across a pale marble floor. The steps were quick, but anxious. Each step was accented with anticipation, each resonated a full tone of marked apprehension. Yet down the corridor these steps bravely marched, never faltering, never hesitating, at least, until they reached the hallway's end.

There they experienced a slight pause. But this moment was brief, the owner of the shoes would decisively vouch, and was pardoned by the vigorous knock he gave to the large mahogany door looming terrifyingly before him.

"Come in" was the muted response from the opposite side of the door. He felt his hand come slowly around the gold colored handle as he simultaneously pushed the door inward. He let a foot slide in—there was no noise as his shoe came in contact with the plush, hand-woven Arabastian rug.

"Yes, Bishop. Is there something you wish to tell me?" The voice was soft, yet commanding, and tinged with fatigue.

Nefertari Vivi looked tiredly up from her writing desk littered with various court letters and town documents and observed the young palace guard standing near the entrance of the room. He was around her age—22—strong, confident, and foolhardy. He always meant well, but quite often he would forget the use of proper restraint. Vivi knew his type all her life. For a time she almost deluded herself into thinking she could live that way also.

The young guard felt his eyes grow wide. It was the first time he was given the chance to relay a message to the Princess, and he nearly choked from flattery by the fact that she actually knew his name. He had only been positioned in the palace for a few months, and this kind of occurrence wasn't common. All the more reason he would look back upon this moment shamefaced at the recollection of his immense stupidity.

He didn't waste a second of time, and burst out emphatically, "Princess, I'm sorry to disturb you from your work—but there's a man waiting outside the palace who simply refuses to leave until he's given permission to see you. We've told him how much work and strain you're under, but he won't listen—he simply says: 'Just let her know that I'm here, she'll let me in.'" The young guard reddened upon these words, and his hands rolled into two tight fists, "Can you believe such, such audacity? When we threatened to use non-verbal measures to remove him from the premises, he retorted that he didn't want to see us getting hurt! Princess, I've come here seeking your order. We haven't laid a finger on him—yet—but," and he kneeled to the ground, "please allow us to properly rid this nuisance."

Vivi gazed at the bowing boy with mixed feelings of alarm and amusement. All morning she had been entrenched in work, and when the guard had first knocked at her door, she had been thankful for the enforced recess. It would have been easy to just ask the guard to have the man seek an appointment if he truly wished to see her, but temptation made her curious and it only took a slight pause before the words simply slipped from her tongue, "And who is this man? What is his name?"

Bishop glanced up, making visible his frowning face. It was obvious the guest had not made the fondest impression on the guard, and he made this apparent as he spit out the answer, "He refers to himself as 'Mr. Prince.'" He scoffed, emphasizing the words with deliberate disdain, but Vivi didn't notice—all she heard were those two words and that was enough to send her into a panic. Her heart was rapidly hitting itself against her chest as warm blood rushed to her cheeks.

Immediately her face took on an expression of tiredness doubled as she delved into deep thought. This time it was the guard that didn't notice—

"I mean, did he really think me a fool to believe that? I told him I thought we wasn't being truthful and asked if he was really a court jester in disguise—because that would have been more plausible judging from his absurd answers to those ridiculous glasses he was wearing—but he wouldn't give up. He swore he was telling the truth. I—"

"Let him in."

The young guard stopped, completely dumbstruck. Had he heard correctly?

"Your Highness, did you just say to let him in…? Is that quite wise? He has the countenance of a sly rogue. This man could be dangerous—"

"No," she spoke firmly, all the while she was struggling to find her breath and remain composed at the same time. It took a few moments before she found that she would be able to speak without betraying her emotions, "You've never met him, but he's actually a close friend of mine—he's visited the palace a number of times in the past. I owe him and his friends my life—treat him with the same respect you would also treat me."

Bishop slowly rose from the place he was sitting, feeling as if he'd just been hit by a severe case of vertigo. He could only stutter stupidly, "P-Princess—forgive me. I'll do as you say at once."

He bowed low and quickly turned on his heel, leaving a trail of 'Clicks' to echo loudly through the corridor.

Vivi heaved a sigh and closed her eyes. She inhaled deeply as she battled to calm the turbulence in her mind and heart.

"So," she mused to herself, "he actually came back." Vivi felt her stomach involuntarily jump and placed the backside of her hand against her cheek. She frowned.

Still hot.

"A toast! To the crew of the 'Going Merry' and their infamous captain—the King of the Pirates!" Vivi stood, beaming, raising her glass.

There was a loud cheer and the dining room of the palace rose and fell with uproarious laughter—"Here, here!"—"Oi! I second!"—"I third!"—and the glasses around the table clinked merrily in convivial agreement.

Vivi retook her seat at the head of the table, elated beyond words. It had been two years since she had last seen the dear group of privateers. They were still the same, she noted warmly, secretly observing them as she sipped from her cup. She watched them bicker over the entrées, reminding them from time to time that there was plenty more in the kitchen, and listened to tall tales concocted by a certain long-nosed crew member. She stifled a giggle as she spotted straight ahead of her the very same King of the Pirates who overcame the life-threatening dangers of the Grand Line shove ten or fifteen dishes of whole meats into his mouth.

She scanned her lively surroundings where she caught Nami's gaze. Vivi sent a smile that read, 'I'm glad that you're all back.' The navigator returned the look with a knowing grin and a wink, 'Glad we're back too.'

And all through the evening, up till the fringes of the night the revels continued. Vivi listened as they enthusiastically shared their stories of adventure, stories of how they narrowly scraped by Death's cold clutches, stories of the many asses that were kicked along the way. She laughed with them and marveled in the outrageous tales, ignoring the nagging and discomforting pang she would receive every now and then in her chest, but now, with everyone knocked out and gone to bed, she finally allowed herself to frown.

She had seen the light in their eyes and if that beloved captain of theirs hadn't have said, "Vivi! If only you were there!"—she may have been fine.

She knew full well that this feeling was only fleeting—that tomorrow would make it but a distant memory. But at the moment, she sat in her room, knees drawn close to her chin, and lolled in the bittersweet aftertaste from that night's gaieties.

Then she heard it.

A faint 'Click. Click. Click' coming from hall.

She was surprised; she thought everyone had fallen asleep. Vivi crept over to the door—shifting her weight carefully so that the floor might not creak beneath her—and pressed her ear against it.

'Who could it be?' she wondered. She strained her hearing for a clue or indication.

But she wasn't left wondering for long, for a moment later the 'Clicks' had stopped and upon her door came a soft rapping.

It was enough to throw Vivi back in alarm, clutching the part of her night dress that was closest to her heart.

"Vivi-chan? Are you awake?" the voice was low and hushed, but immediately recognizable. She waited for the frantic beating of her heart to subside before she reached out her hand and opened the door.

It was dark, but the large pane glass window, naked because its scarlet red curtains had been drawn back, allowed a pale blanket of moonlight to drape over the two figures.

He was still in his evening attire—a blue pinstripe collared shirt and a slim black tie all tucked underneath a classic black suite. In two years he hadn't much changed, Vivi noted. True, his face had become slightly more defined—jaw line, cheek bones becoming accenuated—and she wondered if the cigarettes he constantly smoked were the cause of it. But he was still the charmer he'd always been—she could tell by his smile and the flickering glint and gleam of his eyes. They had always made her feel as if they knew more than they should, and it wasn't any different now.

"I hate to disturb you, Vivi-chan," he began apologetically, "especially if it means compromising any of your beauty sleep… But I had to come and say 'thank you'—on behalf of the crew—for how you handled greeting Robin-chan today." His eyes smiled genially, shining with delight, "It meant a lot to us, and I know it meant a lot to Robin-chan, as well."

Vivi paused, growing more somber as she recalled the event of seeing the raven haired women again, this time as a real ally, "I was glad to do it. Father had told me what she had done with the Poneglyph. Besides," and her face grew more serious as it drifted away from his gaze, "I had forgiven her a long time ago… After all, living with hate isn't really living, is it?"

Sanji's eyes widened as he took in her words and their meaning. He looked away himself with a slight frown, "No, it's not."

They stood there for in the flood of moonlight—both looking off into some distant horizon, both swimming in their own seas of thought.

After some time, she finally spoke up. "Sanji-san… Do you think it would have been selfish of me if I had…" she steered off track with a slight pause, afraid of what she had just spoken, but forced herself to return and finish the sentence, "…if I had decided to come and travel with all of you?"

He shot her an expression of bewilderment, unsure from where the question had originated. It took a few moments until he finally understood what she was referring to and once he did, his look immediately softened.

Once again his gaze gained a distant feel, "I think… it was selfish of us to actually expect you to come." He paused, musing as he collected his thought before continuing, "But there's no use regretting over past decisions…You know, nothing would have made me happier if you had chosen to come with us," and he caught her gaze purposely so that she could feel the veracity of that statement through the candor in his eyes, "But, you had responsibilities that we didn't. We each have our own paths to follow and our own destinies to play out—you and me both, Vivi-chan."

Vivi stared at him with astonished eyes, not knowing how to respond.

She mentally realized what he said was true, although inside her something wasn't satisfied. Something made the air tighten around her with a feeling of suffocating moroseness.

She looked at him to see if he felt it, too, but soon discovered that she was all alone. And so a draft of wind blew between them, making her feel all the more certain that all they would share was that brief moment in time which was now faraway in the past.

'But, I suppose that's just the way it was supposed to be,' she told herself, 'I should just be glad it even happened at all.' And this reasoning satisfied her. She smiled genuinely.

She would be content.

And that's what Vivi had decided on as she bid Sanji good night and they both began to walk in opposite directions; little did Vivi know that Destiny had other plans, and their paths would become entwined together once again.

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Author's Note: Weeeell, wasn't much, I know, but please be patient :P Thank you for reading, and I hoped you enjoyed.