Gah... something to DO!

Chapter Two

That was ten years ago.

Kuina, or Kiwi as her pet name from her father, sat at the table in the kitchen while her mother cooked supper. The man of the house was out on another 'business trip' as they liked to call it when around people. They both knew his 'business trip' was him hunting down another bounty. To make sure he came back, Skie got him an eternal pose to the island they had lived on for seven years, September Island. Named such because the weather was usually the same like it was end of summer/beginning of fall weather.

"Kuina, would you please set the table for me." her mother told her. Not asked, told.

Kuina sighed and stood up and went over to the cabinets above the counter and got down five plates. One for her, her mother, and her siblings. The two twin boys, Rori and Zoro, and her little sister, Rika. Zoro and Rori were both nine, but Zoro was older than Rori by ten minutes, and Rika was seven. Kuina was fourteen, almost fifteen.

"When's dad getting back?" Kuina asked as she placed the plates at the table, then moved back to the counter to get the utensils and glasses.

"I don't know," Skie replied, "Hopefully soon. He's been gone for a week..." she trailed off, stopping what she was doing and gazing out the kitchen window above the sink down the path towards the town of September as if Zoro would appear walking up the beaten path with his swords at his hips like he always use to, but instead, she saw nothing but dust being kicked up by the breeze.

"I'm sure he's ok, mom." Kuina said, looking at her mother's concerned face that was in a trance.

It had been ten years since she, Zoro, and Kuina had left the Going Merry because Mihawk was after Kuina for some reason, but Kuina barely remembered that night. She being three when it happened. It was Ia who saved her, mostly, but it was also Ia's fault for getting her on the run in the first place, but then again, they didn't know! So she really can't blame Ia at all. But all she knew was that they haven't seen Mihawk since that night...

"Would you call them in now." Skie said, smiling guiltily at her daughter for having her do a job that was one of the worst in the world, calling in her little siblings.

Kuina sighed and opened the kitchen window, leaned over the sink and yelled, "ZORO, RORI, RIKA! SUUUUUUPPER!" and then slammed it shut and ran to the doorway to the living room as the three psychotic kids ran into the kitchen, bouncing around.

"Calm down!" Skie said, laughing, "Sit and I'll get the food!" she said and the children sat down, still chattering about, like birds.

Kuina rolled her eyes and sat down beside Rika. Her mother on her other side, placing down her big bowl of chicken and noodles sprinkled with various spices. A recipe she had gotten from Sanji before she left. As a parting gift, he had given her about a hundred of them, saying he had memorized them already and he didn't want her dying by Zoro's cooking ever.

Now Sanji was something Kuina remembered! She still sometimes referred to him as San-ee. She remembered Sanji's cooking, Nami's dresses, Usopp's drawings, Luffy's laughter, Chopper's band-aids, and Ia's playtime. She remembered the crew but she didn't remember why they left. Her mother kept saying it was because it was too dangerous for them to be out at sea, which was true, but not the whole thing.

"I won, Rori!" Rika shouted at her older brother and Rori smirked in Zoro's direction, and he also smirked and they said, "Nuh uh, Freka!"

"Don't call me that!" Rika shouted as Skie brought over the pitcher of water and told her boys to stop, only half-heartedly, since she was a bit distracted.

"Freka! Freka! Rika the Freaka!" they sing-songed, pointing at Rika who was starting to tear up a bit.

"Boys, stop." Skie said sternly, but the boys only continued until they heard a very stern and deep and loud, "Stop."

Everyone looked over at the small mud room that held the backdoor at the back corner of the kitchen and saw the green-haired large buff figure of their father, hanging his three swords on a hook beside all their coats and shucking off his boots to lay beside all their various shoes.

"Daddy!" Rika cried, tears falling from her face from the boys' taunting, and ran over to her father and he lifted her up into the air and caught her again and held her close. Kissing her caramel coloured hair.

"Hello, sweetheart!" he said as the boys ran over to greet their father.

Skie walked over, smiling happily as she kissed her husband as Rika was in his arm and both boys were hanging off his neck on his back. Kuina smiled a little and decided to greet her father once her family was off of him.

"I always come at a good time, supper time!" Zoro said as he sat down beside Skie and on his other side, Little Zoro, who was only called Little Zoro when Big Zoro was around. Next to Little Zoro was Rori and on Rori's other side was Rika and on Rika's other side was Kuina and then it was back to Skie.

"I made your favourite." Skie said, smiling uncontrollably now as she spooned some of the food onto Big Zoro's plate, "I knew you'd be back today!" she said, kissing him and there was a chorus of "EWW!" from the three little kids, Kuina just chose not to look, but looked away, smirking at the "EWW!" for it was very funny when her father pretended to get mad and say, "You'll all be doing that some day, boys! Girls, never." Then the boys would say, "NO WAY!" and Kuina and her sister would say, "But why?" in a mocking whine. It always happened at supper!

"What are you, Ia?" Zoro asked once it was all over with for the bagillionth time.

"Nowhere near!" Skie said in an accusatory tone of voice, teasing him as usual.

"Who's Ia?" Rika asked, sitting on two big books that Skie had because she was still very small for her age, even if it was seven.

"She's a freak, like you!" Rori said, sneering.

"Yeah, you two would get along great!" Little Zoro called out after his brother. Even though Little Zoro is older, Rori was more in charge of him.

"Boys." Big Zoro growled and the boys shut up, they only really listened to Zoro, not really Skie.

"She's a Mind Bender. She can move things with her mind and she can read people's minds, too!" Skie said with an added air of mystery to add affect. She had to describe what she remembered of Ia, for she hadn't heard from or seen Ia in ten years. Yes, Ia did send her gift for their fifth anniversary, a block of wood with their names on it and on the other side the names of all the crew members. But after that, nothing. Nor from the crew, either. It's like they were never there.

"Ooo! Can I be a Mind Bender?" Rika asked excitedly, looking at both parents.

Big Zoro looked scared and Skie said, "I don't think Daddy would like that, sorry."

"Aww, but why, daddy?" Rika complained as the rest ate their noodles and chicken.

I-T-T-A-S-T-E-S-G-O-O-D

Later that night, Kuina was going to go downstairs for a midnight snack of the leftovers when she heard her parents talking in their bedroom. The door being open a crack. She usually wouldn't stop, but her name came up.

"I still can't believe that Kuina doesn't remember that night." she heard her father complain.

"Can you blame her, she was three!" she heard her mother reply.

"But she remembers a lot of things! She remembers the crew, the ship a bit..."

"Maybe it was so traumatic that she pushed it out of her mind?" Skie proposed.

"Mmm."

There was silence and Kuina was about to leave when her father spoke up again, "I heard something."

Kuina froze like a statue.

"Oh, what?"

"About the crew." he said as if he were trying to get her to guess something.

Kuina's heart started beating again.

"The crew!" her mother said, surprised. "What about!" she was getting excited.

"They're near."

"How near!"

"I don't know that, but I heard around that they were near and there were more than five of them!"

"Oh, new or kids?"

"Dunno."

"Do you know anything?" she sighed and Kuina heard a kiss and tried to block it out of her mind.

"I know how to come back, finally!"

"I taught that to you. It's a simple trick, Come Home!" Skie said, giggling.

"I'm not a dog." he said a bit grumpily, but Kuina could tell he was teasing... a little.

"I know you're not!"

There was silence and then she heard her mother, on a more serious and somber tone, "Did you hear anything about Mihawk?"

Now that name rang a bell very clearly for Kuina, but why?

"No." Zoro said and it sounded as bad as if he'd said, 'Yes.'

"Where is he?" Skie asked, not really to anybody.

"I don't know. I don't know." Zoro said and then she heard nothing after that.

Kuina wasn't hungry anymore, she walked slowly back to her room. It was a small room, but hey, at least it was hers!

She sat down on her bed and gazed out the window at the sea and how it sparkled under the moonlight. Moon... that rang a louder bell with the name Mihawk... stars, too. Ia! Food! Suddenly, it came back to her! That night! Clear as a whistle! Crashing through the window, what her parents' were wearing, hanging off that star orb light, falling with her mother, jumping, Ia hurt, Mihawk trying to kill her before they even got into the restaurant!

That's what Zoro was talking about not remembering! Now she did... and no wonder why she didn't, it was awful.

She laid down and fell asleep, dreaming of that night over and over again till she could say every word of it in her sleep, which was what she did.

When Big Zoro snuck out of his room to get some of those leftovers, he heard her muttering in her sleep, something she didn't normally do. He went down the hall and into her small room and heard what he always tried to forget, "Oh... hey! Arn't you suppose to be waiting till tonight to do that? Shut up, what are you doing here! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH KUINA?" Ia, then him, then Skie.

"Oh, Kiwi." he whispered as she continued to sleep. He gazed out the window, saddened by the fact that she remembered it now.

H-O-L-Y-C-R-A-P

The next morning, which was a Monday morning, the kids were all getting ready for school when Big Zoro came down and said, "Good morning!"

The four kids looked up at him, Kuina being the only one with Zoro's green hair. The rest of them, even the identical twins, had Skie's caramel coloured hair and Zoro's dark eyes, minus Rika, who had Skie's eyes, too. She looked like a little Skie most of the time, but when she was mad, they saw Zoro.

"Morning, dad." Kuina said as the boys said their good morning as well. Rika jumped up into his arms. Only Rika and Kuina had inherited Skie's jumping abilities.

"Morning, daddy!" she said brightly. Rika was just a ball of sunshine, she was! Always happy and perky and bright while her brothers were her dark clouds, making fun of her and teasing her meanly. Rika was always so much more happier when Big Zoro was around because he was the best at keeping the boys in check, next was Kuina, who was able to black mail and demean them like any good big sister could. Skie just pulled their ears till they'd shut up.

"What are you going to do today, Zoro?" Skie asked, going over and kissing him good morning, for he had been asleep when she had gotten up.

"Dunno yet. They got school?"

"Yes, why?"

"No reason, just didn't remember what day it was!"

"You have to settle down a bit, ok?" Skie said, smiling and placing a vat of sausage and bacon on the table, still in its frying pan. She managed to get some from the boys before they ate it all.

"Meh." Zoro said as he sat down with Rika on his knee. Kuina remembered when she was small and always sitting on her father's knee. She remembered when mama was pregnant with the twins, how huge she was! Kuina would always sit on Zoro's lap because mama's lap was already taken by the unborn twins who are now two menaces. Oh why couldn't she had had all sisters? Why?

Then when Little Zoro and Rori were finally born, mama was too busy with the boys and so was daddy, so Kuina was left to go to school and come home. It was when mama was pregnant again that she got daddy back to herself. Despite the smallness of Rika, Skie was again huge. The boys slept non stop and Kuina was seven and on her daddy's lap again! That's when he started calling her Kiwi, because he was so tired sometimes from handeling the boys and a giant pregnant beast with anger issues for the first time after being pregnant twice before, he didn't have the energy to call her Kuina. So Kiwi stuck. Kuina remembered Big Zoro always asking Skie why they were having child number four! Skie said it was because she needed another daughter, and she got it! Rika.

"Ok, you're going to be late for school! Go!" Skie yelled and ushered her children out the door, and instantly Little Zoro and Rori were off like a shot. Rika took Kuina's hand and they walked down the beaten path together.

Skie, watching them go down the path till the hill took them and she couldn't see them anymore, turned to Zoro, who was still eating, and asked, "Ok, really, what are you doing today?"

"I thought I might go search for the crew." he said, sitting back in his chair and Skie came and sat on his lap.

"You're just gonna leave us so soon after getting back after ten days of hunting down that bounty?" she said in an accusatory tone. If it was ten years earlier and they didn't have children they would have been gone at the first hint of the crew. But after having four children and living in the same place for years had really slowed them both down.

"Should I or shouldn't I?" Zoro asked.

"If it means you two stop acting like you're in a brothel when a guest is around, I'd say yeah!" someone called from the doorway that led to the mudroom, which was about two and a half square feet.

Both Skie and Zoro looked up and saw a tall woman standing there with long brown hair and big brown eyes. She was wearing a pair of black cargo shorts, black flipflops and a bright red tanktop.

"IA!" Skie screamed and ran up and off her husband to hug her best friend.

They hugged each other like sisters after a long time away.

"Hello, Ia." Zoro said bitterly.

"Good morning, Zoro!"

Seeing Ia again was reliving the Going Merry. Waking up to Nami and Sanji arguing about wedding colours, Usopp and Luffy fighting over the last piece of sausage, Chopper falling out of his seat, and Ia and Skie tittering about nothing, really.

"Where's everybody else?" Skie asked excitedly as she and Ia sat down at the table.

"Well, they're still back at the ship, not knowing where I am or where your guyses's house is! I found out cuz I'm awesome!"

Zoro coughed loudly at this and Ia shot him a glare and went back to telling her story, "Ok, much has changed since you guys left. First, I got married a year and a half after you guys left, but my husband," she took a pause, "passed a year after the wedding. He was a marine and they executed him for marrying a Pirate." Ia said, blinking a lot.

"Oh, Ia, I'm sorry." Skie said slowly.

"Thanks. But, before he died, I had our daughter. Her name is India. She's almost ten."

"So are our boys, Zoro and Rori, they're nine." Skie said.

"You have twins? But, continuing, Sanji and Nami eventually married... two years ago," she added bitterly, clearly annoyed, "And they have an eight-year-old boy named Cress." Ia said.

"They named him Cress? Ok. Wait... he's eight?" Skie asked.

"Yep! The night he was... well... let's just say that I'm surprised they only have one kid by all the arguments they have!" she said, smiling in that grossed out way.

"Ew." Zoro and Skie said together.

"Oh shut up! You guys have three!"

"Actually four." Zoro said.

"Really!" Ia yelled.

"Yeah, twins, Zoro and Rori, and then our girl, Rika. Rika is seven."

"Oh! Very close, huh! I guess they'll all meet sooner or later and hopefully they'll all get along!"

The two nodded and Ia sighed.

"What is it?"

"Have you heard anything about Mihawk?" Ia asked in a quite voice.

"No." Zoro said and Skie shook her head.

"Well, you remember how Chopper said I fractured my skull back... you know, and he said that it might impair my powers a bit?"

"Yeah?" Skie replied.

"Well, it didn't do that, it jogged something in my brain or something like that and now I catch glimpses of the future."

"Wait- so you're a Telepathic Telekinesis Psycho?" Zoro asked, interjecting loudly.

"Telepathic Telekinesis Psychic!" Ia enunciated loudly, spitting when enunciating.

"So... what's this got to do with anything?"

"Well... I saw Mihawk... and his weird-o partner, and they were near. Near enough that I could see them, but far enough away that I can't read their minds yet. But I heard a snipit of their conversation, they were talking about getting you guys back... why? I don't know... what did you guys do to him?"

"He was just after Zoro and he now knows that it's easier to get to Kuina then to me. Ever since I kinda pushed him off a cliff, he's been wanting to get us both back, and Kuina's the easiest target. Thank God he doesn't know about the boys or Rika." Skie said, looking frightfully towards her husband, who took her hand which was resting on the table.

"Oh. But, do know, that your little cottage here might not be the safest place for her or any of them for soon. I had that vision two days ago while we were an island away. I felt them to be behind us somewhere, so they must be tracking us maybe? I don't know."

"Ok." Skie said, looking at the table.

"You ok, Skie?" Ia asked, looking at her with her big brown eyes.

"Yeah... of course."

End of Chapter Two.