Theme: #02 – news; letter
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the fabulous, perfect, godlike characters that will make an appearance in this story as I am most definitely not Eiichiro Oda.

Notes: Yay, only 16 pages in Word this time. :D Did I improve or what? And thanks to all of you five reviewers. :3 I really appreciate it that you took the time to read all this and I really hope you will continue to follow this story until its end.

-- --

My Hungry Heart

TWO: Piece of Broken Glass

-- --

"Monkey, monkey, monkey … you're a good little monkey, right?"

"Pfft."

"Shut up, Luffy-san!" hissed Vivi casually at him and then fully consecrated herself back to the chimpanzee, who was still sitting in the tree with a large grin on his face, tossing her backpack about in big circles – it was astonishing that nothing fell out. Vivi forced a wobbly grin to her lips as she stretched out her arms for the animal. "Come on, monkey, monkey, monkey! Cute little monkey! Be a good little monkey!"

"Pfft," Luffy laughed once more, sitting cross-legged on his side of the clearing and picking his nose with his pinky. He grinned teasingly at the princess' back. "Doesn't work that way, eh?"

Vivi shot him a dangerous glare. "It'd maybe work better if you would help me, instead of sitting there all placid, picking your nose and everything!"

The captain flipped a bugger off his finger, laughing in superiority, and then triumphantly crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I'd really love to do just that," he smiled darkly. "But unfortunately, there's this line," he pointed at the uneven borderline, which the princess had drawn with a small stick in the sabulous ground earlier, "and if I cross it, I'll never become Pirate King."

Vivi's jaw dropped down in disbelief. This was simply unbelievable! Here was that brainless rubber captain, using her own methods against her! She had to admit, sometimes Luffy was smarter than anybody would guess – or he was just indeed stupid enough to actually believe that he would never become Pirate King if he crossed that line. In any case, the monkey, though he actually didn't understand a word, rejoiced. He hopped a perch upwards in ecstasy, and when he was there he jumped up and down, clapping his hands and bursting out laughing.

However, Vivi was on the brink of despair. "Monkey-chaaan," she said almost a little whiny-voiced in a final attempt to persuade the animal, "Please give me back my backpack?"

"Hm," Luffy suddenly launched out, cocking his head thoughtfully. "I could get your backpack back with a 'Gomu Gomu no Gimme That!' without having to cross the line…"

The princess instantly whirled around to him with an overhappy grin on her face, and gratefully clasped her hand together next to her face. "Luffy-san! You're the best! Please do that!"

"…but I don't feel like it."

Vivi watched dumbfounded and with a gaping mouth how the black-haired pirate flopped backwards on the sandy ground with a yawn, pulling his straw hat over his face. She indignantly blinked at him, or rather at his hat. "You…" she started completely taken by surprise. "You … don't feel like it!?"

A triumphantly grin flashed up from beneath his straw hat. "You know, I'm hungry, Vivi," he eventually yawned. "And when I'm hungry, I don't really feel like doing anything at all."

Now it was Vivi who couldn't surpress a triumphantly grin. "Oh, if it's just that," she chirped mellifluous and pointed up the tree where the monkey was sitting in, who slowly became rather bitchy since no one was paying any attention to him. "There are mangos growing on that tree, so just 'Gomu Gomu' yourself up there and go get a few. And while you're at it, get my backpack, too!"

"REALLY!?" exclaimed the captain, suddenly overjoyed, and instantly jumped to his feet, with a sparkling excitement in his eyes and a gigantic grin on his lips. But when reality snatched him back from his dream world and the line between them caught his eye, his face darkened to a crestfallen expression. "No. Impossible. I can't. The tree is on your side."

Vivi blinked in a mist. "So?"

"Everything on your side is yours," said Luffy as if it was general knowledge. "And the code says--"

"There is no code," interrupted the bluette in a befuddled murmur.

"--that I mustn't touch anything on your ground, just like you mustn't claim anything on my side of the line as yours," he defined expertly and then pointed to the right. "I wouldn't want you to warm yourself up at my campfire, so I can't eat your mangos either. That's just the way the code is."

The princess arched an eyebrow in irritation. Ah yes, the campfire. The great, holy campfire. Vivi had been completely flabbergasted, to say the least, when suddenly the awful smell of smoke had started to crawl up her nose about half an hour ago. After she had only concerned herself with the chimpanzee and the retrieving of her backpack, Luffy had probably gotten bored and so he had started to have a good look-around. That was probably when he had noticed the small package the monkey had thrown at him earlier and it turned out to be the package of matches that Nami had put into the backpacks of each of them, except Luffy ("You'd probably just go and spark the biggest forest fire in the history of our world!"), just in case. After he had inconspicuously gathered firewood and had lightened a match, his so dearly longed for campfire was finally ablaze – which only led to him intoning his camping-song from earlier once more. (The only thing missing was him undressing to his birthday suit, putting on one of those ridiculous feather crowns and dancing some kind of homage-dance around it; Vivi wouldn't have put it past him.)

In any case, Vivi was sure that the campfire wasn't anywhere near as holy to him as it seemed, she didn't even have to voice that there wasn't a code to begin with and that was exactly why the true reason for this little game of his was so obvious:

A mean, scheming and damn pigheaded tit-for-tat response.

She guessed that Luffy's stubbornness and his hunger had battled with each other, but in the end and as expected, his bullhead had won by a mile. However, his bullhead sure as hell wouldn't win here. Because Vivi's pighead was simply the stronger one!

"You," she said, supremely angry, "just made that up."

"Did not!" Luffy shot back indignantly.

Vivi crossed her arms in front of her chest in superiority. "Oh really? So where did you get all that idiocy from then?"

"Just about everyone knows that! There are plenty of wars who were started just about that matter!" he explained completely convinced with an earnest expression. "The code is holy. Period."

The princess raised both her eyebrows, her look one of pure incredulity, but suddenly the scales fell from her eyes. "Did Usopp-san tell you that?"

Luffy's stare became observant. "And what if he did?"

Vivi sighed in exasperation, bringing a hand up to touch her forehead. "Okay, look," she said as calmly as possible. "Just forget the line for now, would you? I want my backpack and you want those mangos." After an insight, she added, "I promise I won't tell a soul that you violated the code."

Luffy doubtfully arched an eyebrow. "And what about my thesaurus?"

Vivi blinked. "Your what?"

"You drew the line because of my tarantulas," he repeated matter-of-factly.

In the meantime, the princess' stare became more and more one of completely and utter incomprehension. "What?"

Luffy glared in irritation. Seriously, was she really that slow on the uptake? "My transmitter," he repeated once more with force. "You said you were afraid of them or something. You know, my testicles."

Vivi flushed crimson in sudden bursts, her eyes widening in horror. "WHAT!"

"My TRE-"

"TESTOSTERONE!" interrupted the bluette in a scream, her voice all high-pitched of shock – the word testicles sounded both disgusting and wrong, particularly when coming from Luffy's mouth. "It's testosterone! Not thesaurus, not tarantulas, not transmitter and least of all testicles! TES-TOS-TE-RONE!"

Luffy furrowned his brows at her. "Jeez, you're complicated," he said bluntly. "You could've said that right from the beginning, you know."

Vivi gaped at him wordlessly for a while, her expression an odd mixture of blank horror and some sort of obscure sympathy. But then she decided to not dwell on it any further, because let's face it, it wouldn't make much sense to go and try to explain it to him anyway. "Gods, just forget it!" she said instead, completely stressed out. "Forget your testosterone, forget the code and forget the damn line! Look!" All of a sudden, her foot shot forward, obliterating the part of the line where the captain was standing. "There you go! The line is destroyed! And now get up there!"

The raven-haired pirate shot her one last defiant glare (maybe he felt that his camper-pride had been hurt somehow) and then sluggishly sauntered past her with a ducked position, hands buried in his pockets, while he muttered something to himself that sounded equivocally something like this, "Jeez, are all women like that? Why draw a line when she's just gonna wipe it away in the end anyway?"

Vivi rolled her eyes and turned around to him, but when she found him just standing there motionless and peeking up at the tree, she frowned in puzzlement. "What's the matter, Luffy-san? Will you please get my backpack now?"

"Um. I would."

"But?" she pressed out from gritted teeth.

"But the monkey's gone."

"Oh, so the monkey is--" Suddenly, she fully took in the meaning of those words and that was when her eyes widened in horror. "He's gone!?"

Luffy cluelessly shrugged his shoulders, offering her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Vivi."

The princess sank down to her knees in disbelief, staring heartstricken to the ground. "Not there… my backpack is gone… GONE… not good…" she murmured to herself in despair.

Luffy blinked in perplexity. "Hey," he said almost gently, before kneeling down to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. When she looked up, he offered her an encouraging grin. "It's not really that big a deal, right? I mean, I still have my backpack. Or was there something really important in yours?"

Vivi looked like she was on the brink of tears. "My full Pirate Lunch Box."

"WHAT!" Luffy straightened up in a flash, his expression one of rare fury. "YOU BASTARD-MONKEY, I'LL KICK YOUR ASS, DAMN IT!"

-- --

"These mangos taste weird," whinged Luffy, wrinkling his nose.

Vivi giggled quietly into her hand as she roasted her own slice of mango, neatly pierced with a considerably clean stick, over the captain's sacred campfire. (He had kindly allowed her to join him; probably because Vivi had threatened him with the fact that she would keep those mangos to herself, since the code clearly said they were hers.) So both midget lands had agreed on a truce for the time being, so that their stomachs could get the dinner (or rather their midnight snack?) they indeed deserved after the whole mess today. The day had been so straining, so exhausting that Vivi was barely able to hold her stick in a straight position, but she fought her way through it anyway. However, she couldn't see how Luffy was still as bright as a button. On the other hand, that was just the kind of person he was – a hyperactive live wire.

"Since when were you so picky, Luffy-san?" she teased with a grin.

Luffy boredly took a bite of his slice of mango, chewing halfheartedly on it. "Since that bastard of a monkey," he said almost a little whiny-voiced around a mouthful, "probably started munching Sanji's unique curry-rice-balls with that darned soft meat-stuffing right now. And I have to put up with these… these… fruits here. Just how am I supposed to recharge my batteries, completely without meat and all?"

Vivi offered him a compassionate smile. "I'm sorry," she said earnestly. "I should've kept a better eye on my backpack…"

Luffy blinked at her in puzllement, shaking his head then. "Nah, I should've just helped you right from the start," he said. "It's that stupid code's fault. I'm gonna have a word with Usopp tomorrow." He took another bite of his mango, indignantly furrowing his brows.

"I really shouldn't have drawn that line…" she murmured as she blew cold air to her own slice of mango.

"Yup, that's true," Luffy agreed bluntly, eliciting a quiet giggle from the princess, before he grabbed for a new slice of mango and put it over his stick. Yet a wide grin spread on his face as he held his mango into the fire. "At least, we get the true camping-feeling now. With a real campfire and the whole works."

Vivi grinned back. "So all this wasn't completely without use then," she giggled.

That was a character trait that she really admired Luffy for. His merciless optimism. That guy managed to make something good even out of the most awkward situation, he transformed every misery into a tiny pebble that just haphazardly managed to sneak in his way and that he could easily kick away. Maybe he really did have more of a good leader in him than she had thought at first.

Yeah, maybe, she thought almost a little dreamily and took a pleasurably bite of her mango that didn't taste all that weird like he had made it out at all.

"OUCH!"

Vivi startled out of her world of thoughts in puzzlement and turned her head to Luffy, who clasped a hand over his mouth with narrowed eyes and his face wreathing in pain, cursing quietly to himself. She instantly asked in alarm, "What happened?"

"I burned myshelf on dad damn mango," he mumbled angryly into his fingers.

The princess sighed, a relieved smile on his face. She had alreay feared some sort of poisonous insect, the incident with Nami was still fresh in her mind. She giggled quietly. "Let me see, Luffy-san."

The captain held out his stick with the mango on it to her, a defiant expression on his face. "There. Look."

"Not the mango," laughed Vivi, pointing at the hand over his lips then. "I was talking about your mouth." Luffy blinked at her in silence for a while, until she rolled her eyes. "You gotta take your hand away for that, you know."

"I can'd," he mumbled and only pressed his hand firmer over his mouth. "It hurtsh do mush!"

Vivi rolled her eyes once more, but this time with a smile. "Don't be so touchy over a small burn-up, you dangerous pirate with a bounty of 30 million Berri," she teased wryly and grabbed for his hand, pulling it off his mouth rather easily after a few halfhearted little brawls. After the hand was out of the way, she cupped his head with both of her own hands to bring his face in a perfect position, so that she was able to examine his lips.

Nothing. Nada. Niente. Nichts. Rien.

Maybe it was a little reddened, but just if you looked really closely, rolled your eyes outside at first, then squinted your eyes and lastly strained every grain of your fantasy that you owned.

Vivi almost had to surpress a fit of laughter. "Luffy-san, there's absolutely nothing."

"But it still hurts!" he insisted vividly and added whiny-voiced, "Do something, Vivi!"

"What am I supposed to do?" she sighed, still observing his lips. "We don't have ice, nor water, nor anything else that could cool you."

Luffy sulked wordlessly to himself for a while and when he eventually opened his mouth again, he actually said, "So just kiss it better then."

Vivi couldn't believe her ears. In a flash, she let go of him so fast, it almost gave the impression that she was the one who had burned herself dangerously just now. She stared at him in complete agitation, her eyes wide. "Wh-what did you just say!?" she squeaked with a high-pitched voice after a few heartbeats of stunned silence.

Luffy frowned in bewilderment and brought his hand back up over his mouth. "What's with you? Makino always did that whenever I hit my knee or something," he mumbled in incomprehension. "It helps, you know."

"So what! You can't just go and ask a girl your age to 'kiss it better'!" snapped Vivi with flushed cheeks. "A kiss is something intimate and should only happen between people who truly love each other! It's something meaningful and something really important for a girl and… and…"

The captain arched a brow in confusion. "But we're nakama," he said forcefully. "So we love each other, right?"

Vivi flushed an even deeper shade of red. "That's certainly not the same kind of love that I am talking about!" she snapped in befuddlement. "I'm talking about true love, the one and only love between a man and a woman, a love that's stronger than anything else in the world!"

"But definitely not stronger than I," Luffy grinned proudly.

The princess glared furiously at him, grabbed for a piece of mango and banged the, as recently occured to her, cooling slice of fruit onto his mouth, roaring into his ear, "You're an ignorant idiot!"

Luffy sighed into the cooling mango in relief. "Thanks."

"That was no compliment," she hissed, but then rolled her eyes in realization. "Oh, you were refering to the mango." She waved it off, boredly bracing her head with her palm as she gave a yawn. "Don't mention it."

"Tired?" he murmured without looking at her when he heard her yawn.

"Mh-hmm…"

"Was a pretty exhausting day after all."

"Mh…"

"But tomorrow," grinned Luffy, "Tomorrow, we'll be back home, definitely."

"… mh…"

"Well," he laughed, scratching his cheek, "That means, you will have to wait a little until--"

Dumbfounded, Luffy paused in the middle of his sentence when he felt a sudden weight on his left shoulder. He glanced down in puzzlement and found himself looking directly at Vivi's skyblue head of hair. Her eyes were closed, her features were completely relaxed, exhaling even breath through her half-opened lips. Almost on its own, a soft smile crept to his face as he watched the princess sleep so peacefully and nestle up against his shoulder.

"Guess this day was much more exhausting for you than it was for me, eh?" he murmured quietly, his free hand reaching up to brush a blue strand of hair that was tickling her nose out of her face and behind her ear, then unconsciously grazing her cheek only with his finger tips, like a faint breeze, almost insensible… He quickly drew his hand back when he realized what exactly he was doing here and somewhat awkwardly ran a hand through his own hair, an unmistakable blush on his cheeks.

He stared into the campfire in embarrassment, happy that she didn't notice it or even worse, woke up because of it. She just kept sleeping, unfamiliary soundless, compared to his usual company at night and primarily the loudest sleeper on the face of earth, Zoro. Once again, he stole a peep down at Vivi from the corner of his eyes and again he just couldn't help but smile.

Sleep tight, Vivi.

He would do the night watch.

-- --

The next morning, Vivi woke up from the penetrating smell of stale smoke drifting from the extinguished campfire into her nose.

She sluggishly blinked through her half-closed eyelids and then cumbersomely rubbed over her eyes, until she realized that her head was resting on top of something warm and soft that gently rose and fell. When she eventually opened her eyes completely, turned her head to the left and tiredly peeked through her blue eyelashes, she recognized a bare chest and then Luffy's face. She needed a full minute of blinking to realize that she was lying with her head resting on his stomach and that the damn rubber captain was again shirtless.

Abruptly wide awake, she straightened up, her cheeks flushed and her eyes wide with shock, which served to make something flexible fall into her lap. She blinked down at her hands in bewilderment, realizing they were holding onto turquoise fabric. Wasn't that Luffy's shirt? Why had she been covered with it? And when did she fall asleep in the first place?

However, just one moment after, she became aware of the fact that she must have been cold, so she smiled down at the sleeping captain, who was lying on the sandy ground of the clearing with his arms and legs stretched away from his body, smacking his lips and scracthing his cheek in his sleep. She bend over him with a smirk, covering him with his shirt, but even though she had initially intended to straighten up right after, she remained over him for a bit longer. Looking at his peaceful face, quietly giggling at the small line of saliva dripping from his mouth, until her gaze eventually reached the scar beneath his left eye.

An odd place for a scar, thought Vivi.

Ever since their first meeting, she had always wondered where he had gotten that scar from, but never found the appropriate moment to ask him. Maybe it was a souvenir from a fight? From an ambush? Or was it from back when he was a kid and was playing too roughly? While she was pondering over it, she didn't even realize that her hand was moving to his face, feathery tracing the scar's shape with her fingers. She couldn't see why, but something about this scar was surprisingly fascinating in a very obscure way. Or maybe it was simply Luffy's face that was casting a spell over her…?

Before she could find out, he turned his head away from her and Vivi shrunk back in an upright position, fearing he might have woken up. But when she realized he was still asleep, the princess breathed a deep sigh of relief and glanced over at the campfire where the smoke was slowly starting to evaporate. The end of the camping-dream. She sighed with a small smile.

Now let's quickly find a way back to the ship, she thought as the first sunbeam tickled her face.

Suddenly, she paused in puzzlement. Hold on. First sunbeam?

Her face instantly brightened.

That's it!

-- --

"6 o'clock in the morning. I'm in hell and you guys are the devils."

"Would you quit your shitty whining, Usopp," hissed Sanji in irritation, calmly lighting himself a cigarette while Nami next to him was already impatiently shuffling her sandals on the beach sand and crossing her arms in front of her chest with a haphazard glare. "All of you morons, Nami-san of course excluded as she needs her sleep, should wake up earlier more often anyway. That way, you get to enjoy more of the refreshing daylight."

Usopp defiantly kicked a small pebble against the first tree trunk close to him, burrying his hands in his pockets. "I get it, I get it. I was just saying, why that early?" he complained. "I mean, 7 would've been totally sufficient, right?"

"Go thank our great Mister Vice Captain for this," Nami snarled sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Who is by the way the only one still not here. Morning, Chopper!" She blithely grinned and waved at the little reindeer, who was sluggishly scuffing from the Going Merry in their direction.

"Morning," murmured the doctor tiredly and offered them a perfect glance at his pharynx as he yawned. Perplexed, he looked around. "Where's Zoro?"

Instantly, all three heads whirled around to him with a look in their eyes that was capable of freezing the whole blood rushing through ones veins. "Not here yet."

"Hiieeek!" Chopper shrank away in fear, meeting the next best rock with his back. "I'm sorry that I asked!"

"I knew right from the start that the useless bozo was gonna oversleep!" Sanji snapped aggressively to himself, puffing on his cigarette like a lunatic bull. "It would've been an outstanding miracle if that guy was on his feet early for once anyways! That scumbag is actually indeed insolent enough to really believe that it would be alright to rob my angelic Nami-san of her well-deserved sleep, but placidly continue too sleep himself! That no-good piece of shit!"

"That's right, Sanji-kun!" cheered Nami in satisfaction. "Don't hold back on him! He deserves whatever insult comes to your mind!"

Usopp arched a brow in disbelief. "Since when were you approving of Sanji's and Zoro's fights?"

Nami scowled. "Since that idiot robbed me of my important beauty sleep! How dare he!"

"Beauty sleep wouldn't manage to fix you," Chopper joked teasingly.

Two hands, a male and a female one, grabbed for his cheeks and pulled. "What did you just say," growled Nami and Sanji in unison, glaring darkly.

"Hiieeek! Usopp! Help me!"

Usopp grimaced, shaking his head vigorously and raising his hands. "No way in hell! Those two are scary when it comes to insulting Nami!"

"Jeez, you guys are noisy."

Everyone without exception instantly shut up and turned their head into the direction of the voice in puzzlement, spotting a green head of hair surfacing from behind a rock and shortly after, a hand running through the same head of hair was following. With an annoyed expression, Zoro turned his head around to face his comrades and shot them his usual, morose glare.

"I'm trying to take a nap over here, you know."

"I'll show you a real long nap if you're so eager to take one, you caveman!" Nami yelled furiously and would have spontaneously let loose on the unimpressed swordsman if Usopp wouldn't have gotten a hold of her just in time. "Let go of me! I'll kill him for that stupid clueless expression he's giving us!"

"Calm down, Nami! It's not fair to punch someone who's just woken up!" said Usopp in an attempt to propitiate her.

"What punch!? I'm gonna tear him to pieces!"

Sanji gaped blankly at the self-proclaimed vice captain, pure shock written all over his face. "I thought you were a tussock growing on that rock the whole time."

Zoro scowled at him. "Hah?"

"So you were here all along?" asked Chopper in puzzlement just in time to prevent Zoro from dwelling on Sanji's unnecessary comment and thus a fight full of broken bones from erupting. "Why didn't you speak up until now?"

"Like I said, I was taking a nap," Zoro repeated monotonously.

"That was an unmistakable deathwish!" Nami roared furiously, but fortunately the sniper could get a hold of her again, before she could indeed tear the swordsman to pieces; nobody put it past her.

Zoro scratched the back of his head with a yawn, straightening up. "Oi, it's not my fault, okay?" he murmured. "You guys were taking so damn long that I thought I could doss down for some more."

Chopper blinked in confusion. "When did you get here?"

Zoro gave them a stare full of superior graveness. "At 5."

"WHAT!?"

"Nami-san, am I hallucinating?" whispered Sanji, leaning down to the navigator. "Did the shitty swordsman just really indicate that he was out here at 5 o'clock in the morning, which would mean that he woke up at approximately half past 4 to get dressed, take a shower--"

"Zoro doesn't take showers!" Chopper objected under his breath in shock.

"Okay, forget the shower. To get dressed, fullstop. Uh, question mark," murmured the cook, completely befuddled. "Did he just really say that?"

"He did, I heard it. Quite clearly even," whispered Nami back in equal disbelief. "We're witnessing the eighth World Wonder! We have to record this for ensuing ages! Usopp!"

"I'm at it," murmured Usopp in complete amazement, pulling out his scratchpad.

"I can hear you guys, you know," grunted Zoro in irritation. "Anyway, when you return to earth from your little trip into outer space, we could maybe turn to the topics that are actually important for a change. Like, for example, finding our captain."

"Don't forget Vivi-chan!"

"Whatever," grumbled the swordsman and turned around to face Nami. "Copied map?"

Nami glared wordlessly at him for a while, but eventually held up a rolled up piece of parchment and waved it about a little in irritation. "Of course finished!"

"Flare guns and smoke grenades?" asked Zoro, looking at Usopp.

The sniper tediously pulled forth his full and obviously very heavy bag, patting the fabric proudly. "Preapred and loaded, Sir," he grinned.

Zoro nodded in satisfaction. "The lunch boxes, ero-cook?" Shortly after the question was spoken, an aluminum box hit his head and then landed in his hands. The swordsman rubbed over the throbbing spot at his forehead in anger. "We'll slug that out later, jackass!"

"I sure wanna see that, you moldy piece of broccoli," snarled the cook, before his personalitly took a turn of approximately 180 degrees, kneeling down on one knee in front of Nami and offering her a corny, pink box. "Here is your Love Lunch Box, fair queen of my soul! Sweet rice balls of love and a refreshing fruits salat from the bottom of my heart!"

Nami gave him a saccharine smile. "Why, thank you very much, Sanji-kun."

"Yuck," Zoro commented shortly with a grimace and then turned around to the little reindeer. "You have your whole stuff with you, Chopper?"

"I have," said Chopper with a nod. "Bandages, pain killers, penicillin, suture material, stethoscope, rubber gloves, iodine… I just hope I'm not gonna need them."

"Maybe you will," Zoro instantly clarified with a bitter expression. "You should all prepare yourselves for the worst case scenario. Don't get carried away by false hopes, we may be already too late."

Chopper gulped, his big round eyes starting to fill with tears that he tried to keep from pouring out with might and main, while Sanji placed his hand on Nami's shoulder, who bit her lower lip in concern and looked at the ground. Usopp stared at the swordsman, who gravely looked aside, with wide eyes and an expression of pure shock.

"Y-you think…" began the sniper, his voice quavering. "You think… they're already dead?"

"Did you really have to say that!?" Sanji yelled furiously, while Nami next to him gave a choked gasp. "You idiot! As if Luffy would ever get himself killed in some pathetic jungle! Same goes for Vivi-chan!"

"I-I'm sorry," murmured Usopp, conscience-stricken.

Zoro turned away. "There's no use in standing here, picturing what might've happened to them in the meanwhile. We should just go and find out for ourselves." He made a few steps into the jungle. "Chopper, you're coming with me."

"He's right," said Nami surprisingly composed and smiled at Usopp as she walked past him. "We'll find them! And they'll be alive!"

Usopp grinned back. "I know!" With his head raised high, he followed Nami together with Sanji next to him and proudly thumped on his chest. "You're lucky to have the Great Captain Usopp-sama by your side! I've lead more people out of jungles than there are stars at the sky!"

"Oh, you don't say," Sanji murmured wryly, flipping his cigarette into the next best bush. "And I've been the head of countless rescue missions as a five years old."

Usopp arched a brow in doubt. "You're a lousy liar."

"Look who's talking!" snapped Sanji.

Nami massaged her temples in irritation. "Migraine."

-- --

When Luffy woke up, it wasn't thanks to the sun that was fervently and violently shining down on him, but rather to ice cold pearls of water pouring down onto his face. At first it were just a few, but the longer he kept his eyes closed, the more water poured down, until he finally opened his eyes and tiredly peeped upwards. He vaguely recognized blurred contours, a human silhouette and much, very much blue framing said figure like a veil. He needed to blink a few times until he spotted a cheerful grin and two hands pressing water out of blue hair directly onto him.

"Good morning, Luffy-san!"

Vivi beamed at him in a very good mood, straightened up again and threw her wet hair so full of verve over her shoulder that Luffy could hear them smack against her arm. With a gawky movement, he brought a hand up to wipe the water out of his face, eliciting a melodical giggle from her. When he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes then, he finally realized that it was morning – and instantly sat bolt upright.

"SANJI! FOOD!"

After that primal scream that roused a few tropical brids or maybe even because of that, Luffy noticed his environment, the extinguished campfire, the small clearing in the middle of the giant trees and that Sanji, much to his misfortune, wasn't anywhere near to serve breakfast. Suddenly, the captain looked like someone had punched him in the gut at full throttle. His shoulders gloomily sagged down as he lowered his head in grief.

"…no food…"

Vivi giggled quietly as she kneeled down to him and placed a soothing hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Luffy-san. Seems like you're going to have to put up with mangos for the time being," she said with an apologetic smile and Luffy nodded dolefully. But suddenly, the princess beamed again. "But!" she exclaimed cheerfully, straightened up once again and joyfully clapped her hands. "Instead I have good news and very good news for you! Which do you wanna hear first?"

The pirate glanced up at her in weariness and shrugged his shoulders, still tarnished because of his missing, protein-rich breakfast. "Dunno. The good one."

The princess grinned and pointed over her shoulder. "I found a small stream over there, right behind the third tree on the left," she explained proudly. "And now check out the best part about it: It's fresh water! We can finally restock our store of water!"

Luffy's face actually lightened up upon hearing that. "Hey! That's what I call good news!"

"Yes, yes, but hear out the very good news now!" exclaimed Vivi in pure excitement, a grin so large on her face that he was wondering why she wasn't jumping up and down, squealing in delight. "The sun," she proudly pointed ahead, "came up over there. That means that east is right that way!"

Luffy grinned at her. "Hey, that's cool!" he said and Vivi nodded cheerfully, but then he arched a brow in bewilderment. "Uh… but how exactly is that gonna help us?"

Vivi sighed, a smile on her face. "Moron. Don't you remember? When we went ashore yesterday, sun was rising right behind the Going Merry, right?"

"Uh… yeah? No? Yeah? Maybe?" Luffy answered irresolutely and then heedfully shrank back. "I don't remember, okay!" He arched a brow in doubt. "Is that a trick question?"

"It means that the ship is located to the east of our current location," explained Vivi without dwelling on his remarks. "So if we keep walking in that direction," she grabbed his head and turned it to the right, so that he was looking in said direction, "we'll get back to the ship in no time."

When he turned around to her again, his eyes were sparkling so much that she feared he would actually start to cry of joy. "Wow, Vivi! You're so freakin' awesome!" he exclaimed in all honesty. "You'd sure make some brilliant navigator, you know that?"

"That's… actually just general knowledge, Luffy-san." She gave a nervous laugh.

"So what're we waiting for?" grinned the captain, while he stretched his arms in all possible directions at lightning speed to collect every single mango that was lying about. He desperately tried to stuff as much mangos in his backpack as possible, but unfortunately, already the fifth one was the last one that fit in. "Let's get going, I'm ready!"

Vivi stopped in her tracks. "Don't you wanna have a wash at all?"

"Why?" He blinked in confusion. "I'm not even dirty."

"That's where we disagree. You reek of sweat and…" She waved about her hand a little as if she was trying to form a sentence, grimacing. "And something I can't define." Luffy sceptically raised his eyebrows and plucked his shirt up to sniffle at it, but before he could object her, the princess had already moved behind him and began to shove him into the direction of the streaming. "C'mon, go! You really need it badly!"

"I get it, I get it," he whined, trotting after Vivi, who lead the way.

While she stepped over a bush to leave the clearing, Luffy suddenly felt an ice cold chill in his back for some reason he was completely unaware of. It started in the tip of his toes and slowly crawled its way up to his roots of hair, until an unpleasant shiver overcame him. It was almost as if… No. Or was it? At least, he couldn't interpret that invidious, albeit familiar feeling as anything else, because he knew it way too well. And that gut feeling never deceived him before.

His hands balled to fists, he abruptly jerked to a halt, his eyebrows furrowed. And then, like a shot, he heedfully turned his head around to the direction he assumed the reason for that ice cold chill to be.

But there was nothing.

Absolutely nothing at all.

Luffy frowned in bewilderment and relaxed a little. What an odd thing. And he had been so sure, too. That feeling was unmistakable and his instict had sounded the alarm at full blast. Should his instict have fooled him for the very first time? Was it the jungle's fault? When he had gotten that right from Vivi's explanations yesterday (which he wouldn't bet on, since the last time he had listened to some intellectual stuff, he had only done that for his grandfather and his Fist of Love's sake), then it was an undeniable fact that people who lost their way in a jungle tend to imagine all kinds of absurd things. More often than not out of fear, but that was even more absurd than the most absurd hallucination that occured to him (and he came up with a lot of absurd things given the time) – he wasn't afraid after all, which made the whole thing even stranger.

"Luffy-san?" Vivi stared at him in puzzlement. "Is something wrong?"

Finally, he took his gaze off of that spot and forced his usual grin onto his face. "Nah, it's alright! Let's go!"

She smiled. "If you say so. This way!"

The captain nodded with a grin and followed her. While he was stepping over the bush, he peeped back to that spot from the corner of his eyes. Weird, he thought in bewilderment. I was so sure that somebody was staring at me. He shrugged his shoulders and blithely followed the princess to the streaming. Oh well, whatever!

And so he failed to see the pair of yellow eyes flashing up in the darkness of the jungle.

-- --

Huh?

Zoro abruptly jerked to a halt and wakefully whirled around. He furrowed his brows in concentration, listened into the distance and attentively stared at the road behind him. His pupils swiftly rolled to the left at first, then to the right, then he looked ahead again, the rest of his body was completely unmovable, like frozen.

And the next moment, the feeling was gone.

Huh!?

"Zoro?" Chopper glanced up at him in bewilderment. "What's the matter?"

For a few heartbeats, the swordsman only stared into the jungle in doubt, but then his eyes narrowed and he shook his head, barely visibly, but with a heedful expression. "Nothing," he answered and turned around. "Just the jungle."

Chopper gulped and walked after him with short, albeit swift steps to catch up with Zoro, who had brought quite a gap between them with his large steps. "What's up with the jungle?"

"Ants," Zoro replied matter-of-factly, making the doctor stop in his tracks, "in a labyrinth. Copared to this jungle, we're nothing but pathetic ants in a giant labyrinth."

Chopper chuckled nervously. "You talk like an old man."

But it almost seemed like the vice captain was ignoring his remark completely. "Chopper, you need to engrain our way and keep your eyes peeled," he said gravely. "We mustn't stop being on our guard. Or else, we'll never get out of this jungle again."

"Y-yeah," agreed the little doctor bravely. "Jungles are like labyrinths. Got that."

"It's particularly this jungle. This jungle is different from the others."

Chopper looked up in puzzlement, an expression on his face that clearly displayed a mixture of sorrow, fear and confusion. "What do you mean?"

Zoro frowned. "We were in Little Garden where dinosaurs and giants were living. But even though those are true monsters that most people only know from history books and legends, my gut feeling didn't react to them. Not at all." Although he was feeling unease inside of him for some reason, his face and voice didn't suggest any of that. "The aura wasn't there. The aura that this jungle emits… Little Garden didn't have it in the slightest."

"A-aura?" stuttered Chopper, feeling queasy.

"I don't know what kind of monsters lurk here," he murmured in concern, his face darkened, his palms were already moist. "And I really don't wanna scare you or anything, but…"

But…

Chopper gulped once more and almost didn't dare to ask. "B-but…?"

"But dinosaurs and giants," said Zoro, "are like a fart in a hurricane compared to what's walking abroad here. I feel it."

I feel it deep down in my guts.

"Pray that Luffy and Vivi are still alive, Chopper."

-- --

"The true root of the stench," proclaimed Vivi with a grimace as she held up the turquoise shirt with two fingers and an almost disgusted expression, "is this shirt."

Luffy glared defiantly at her from the corner of his eyes, while he washed his hands in the crystal clear fresh water of the small streaming. "Look who's talking," he growled. "I bet you don't smell all that good either!"

"What was that!" snapped the princess indignantly with swelled, albeit flushed cheeks, while she dipped his shirt deeply into the water to get rid of the bothersome stench. "You can't tell a girl such an incredibly nasty, bold, insolent, mean thing right into the face, you insensitive klutz!"

"Why not? You can tell me something like that after all," murmured Luffy as if it was general knowledge. "So why can't I tell you that, too? Boys and girls, that's the same thing, really. People are people. And when they stink, they stink."

"But I don't stink!" snapped Vivi. "You stink!"

"It'd be pretty weird if pirates wouldn't stink, anyway," he said almost proudly. "All pirates stink."

She gave a triumphant smirk. "Sanji-san is a pirate, but he never stinks."

"If you and Nami wouldn't be there, then he would!" claimed Luffy cast-iron, albeit (probably) wrongly.

Realizing that she couldn't come up with a matching answer, her mouth snapped shut wordlessly and she looked aside, angry at his victory, murmuring, "Why the sudden talk about stench anyway?"

"Whoa! Look at this, Vivi!" exclaimed the captain, suddenly in a perfectly good mood, with a large grin on his face and eyes sparkling so much that it was almost dazzling. He proudly held up a green, transparent stone as though it was the greatest trophy on the face of earth. "A jewel! I found a jewel!"

Vivi blinked at the green something in his hand in silence for a while, but then she shook her head with a smile. "That's not a jewel, Luffy-san," she said. "It's a piece broken of glass, smoothed by the salt in the ocean. Those may be pretty, but unfortunately, they're also totally worthless."

The captain placed a hand over his heart in relief. "Thank goodness!" he exclaimed and instantly stuffed the piece of broken glass in his pocket. "Then Nami's not gonna take it away from me. Hehehe." While Vivi quietly giggled at this, Luffy blithely added, "So that means we're not the only people on this island, right?"

The princess instantly silenced down, her eyes wide. "E-eh?"

"Well, only bottles have green glass. And what're animals supposed to do with bottles?" explained Luffy in his own weird and for once sense making kind of way. But suddenly, his eyes began to gleam. "Whoa! Or do you think there are mystery animals on this island who drink out of bottles? That'd be so freakin' cool!"

"No, no, that piece of glass probably came from the oce--" She paused in the middle of her sentence, her eyes widening in disbelief. "Oh my God! This is fresh water! That glass couldn't have possibly come from the ocean!"

"Yup, yup, impossible," Luffy agreed with a grin. Probably just for the sake of having said it, rather than indeed knowing that it was impossible.

"You know what that means, Luffy-san?" exclaimed Vivi in pure excitement, grasping for his shoulders. "There's maybe someone else except us! Maybe there's even a village on this island! A whole town! Just a few steps from here!"

Luffy's grin grew only larger. "Yup! Exactly!"

"We're saved! And it's all thanks to you and that piece of glass!" The princess was so happy that she looked like she was on the brink of bursting into tears of joy. "All we have to do is follow the streaming upwards!"

"All right! So let's go! To the meat!" proclaimed the captain determinedly, straightening up.

"Oh no," Vivi said resolutely, pulling him down by his pants. "First you finish your washing. I really don't wanna smell any more sweat today."

Luffy swelled his cheeks in offence. "No fair." But he still sat down unresistant, let his feet dangle in the water and dipped his hands into the liquid once more. From the corners of his eyes, he could see Vivi smile in satisfaction, while she was washing his shirt and he was spreading the water on his arms. But then he paused in puzzlement and watched her with an astonished smile, how she was washing the shirt like she never did anything else in the rest of her life. "Wow, that's really funny."

Vivi looked up. "Hm? What's funny?"

"Well, the way you do that," he explained, pointing at her activity with his shirt. "And just everything. Somehow, you're nothing like what I always pictured a princess to be." She raised her brows with a bewildered smile and Luffy laughed bashfully, scratching his cheek. "I mean, everyone's got that special image of a princess in his head after listening to all those fairy tales as a toddler. No clue about housework, flashy, talks weird, reserved and everything…"

"And I'm not like that," she concluded with a smirk.

Luffy shook his head, grinning. "Not at all. You're really cool." His grin grew a little larger. "Well, there's maybe one thing you have in common with those princesses I always imagined."

Vivi raised her brows in curiosity. "Really? What is it?"

He bashfully gazed at the water. "You're all…" Vivi listened intently, but the last word disappeard in the ripple of water as Luffy dunked his whole head inside. When he came up again and grinned at her with soaking wet hair, Vivi could only gape at him in utter incomprehension. "But that's about it, really."

"Hey! Wait a second!" said the princess. "I didn't catch the last word! We're all what?"

Luffy stuck his tongue out at her. "Tough luck. I don't feel like repeating it."

"I don't care! Tell me!" Vivi demanded persistently.

"Nope."

"Tell me!"

"Nope."

"TELL ME!"

"Pfft," he laughed. "You're really nothing like a princess at all."

Vivi blushed in shame, she probably took it as some kind of insult. Moping, she splashed water into his face with one hand, ashamedly looking aside. "Tch," she growled. "I was active as an agent in a merciless, thoroughly evil organization for two years. I would've totally blew my cover if I acted like some spoilt princess."

"Excuses, nothing but excuses," Luffy grinned teasingly. "I bet you were always like that and came to blows with boys and everything."

She was instantly and inevitably reminded of her time with the Suna Clan and blinked at the captain in surprise. Her anger evaporated and was replaced by a melancholic smile. "Maybe," she quietly said. "And maybe not." When she saw Luffy's grin that instantly conveyed to her that he knew very well that the latter was the case, she turned her head away in indignation. "Don't give me that grin, I'm still mad at you for not telling me what you said!"

"Huh?" The captain pounded against his ear with a palm and a blank look to squeeze the non existent water out of his other ear. "Did you say something? I think there's water in my ear."

"Liar!" Vivi snapped indignantly and glared at him, while Luffy innocently, albeit definitely triumphantly whistled a song through his teeth that he probably came up with by himself (Vivi could tell because the tunes were the most wrong ones she ever heard). When she looked back at the, now clean, shirt in her hands, a small smile crept to her lips. She dragged the fabric out of the water and while she squeezed it out and thereby thought back at when she woke up covered with the the shirt, she could not keep herself from blushing. "Um… b-by the way…"

Luffy looked up. "Hm?" The next moment, his soaking wet shirt landed on top of his head. He plucked it from his face in bewilderment and arched a brow when he saw the blushing princess bashfully playing with her fingers.

"I… wanted to say…" she stammered awkwardly. "Th-thanks… for covering me with your shirt when I was cold at night."

A grin crept to his lips. "Heh. You're welcome."

"I'll…go get our stuff."

Vivi quickly arose and turned on her heels, but before she could leave, Luffy grabbed for her wrist. She turned around to him in puzzlement and right in that moment, he pulled her down at her hand, so that she was forced to bend down to him. And when she saw that serious look in his eyes, that damn rare serious look, the same serious look he had when he told Miss All Sunday to get lost, the same look he had when he apologized to the villagers of Drum, the same look he had when he suggested yesterday to find a place to sleep, her heart skipped a beat.

"Luffy-san…?"

"Wait," he murmured and smiled. "Before you go…"

Vivi gulped and felt heat rising to her cheeks. "Wh-what?"

All of a sudden, his smile turned into a mischievous grin and before she knew what was happening or could even see it remotely coming, the pirate began shaking his head with might and main like a stray dog to get rid of the unnecessary water in his fur, excuse me, hair – and of course, everything landed directly in Vivi's face.

"H-hey! HEY!" shouted the princess indignantly, vainly trying to jerk herself free. "What in the world are you doing!?"

Bursting out laughing, Luffy stopped shaking his head and gave a teasing grin, his hair looking like exploded. "Revenge," he said and let go of her wirst. "For the wake-up call."

Filled with indignation, the princess' jaw dropped down. She gaped wordlessly at him for a while, but after she had wiped the water from her face with one hand, she pushed the captain at his shoulders and with all strength she could find in herself backwards straight into the stream. In satisfaction and thoroughly gleeful, she registered the loud splash when Luffy met with the water, patting off her hands with a smirk before she turned away, her head held high.

"Hurry up, Luffy-san! The sooner we get going, the faster we'll find other humans!" she called over her shoulder.

Meanwhile, Luffy coughed up some water while he sat up and thanked God that fresh water did not rob him off his strength like sea water did. He scowled at the back of the princess until she was gone. "She really doesn't have much in common with those other princesses," he murmured to himself, supremely offended. "She's totally different."

But she was as cute as them. Somehow.

To Be Continued...