Sanji followed her."Rose-swan," he called out," would you like anything to drink while you finish up?"

Rose could never resist his amazing culinary skills but she doubted that he knew what to make for a killer headache. Yes, Rose had a headache and it was awful." Unless you have something that could help with a headache," the dark haired female answered," I think I'm fine." Her head was pounding and the sun was too bright for her tastes. All she wanted to do was get inside as fast as possible but she also wanted to be polite to the blond. She just hoped that he would be quick with his response.

"I know just the thing," the curly eyebrowed cook replied, a large smile spreading on his face.

"I will most likely be in the aquarium bar but if not I will most likely be in the girl's quarters," the pirate princess informed the cook as she walked into the ship's interior.

When she walked into the dining area to get her papers, she noticed a certain blue haired cyborg sitting at her spot. He seemed to be looking at what Rose believed to be her current letter to Ace.

"Hey Franky," She greeted, trying to seem as casual as possible as she walked closer to him.

"Hey Roro," he replied not looking up from the paper.

"I thought we agreed way back when that only Iceburg can call me "Roro,"" the dark haired female noted, trying her hardest not to blush. It was a childish nickname that made Rose feel a little embarrassed when anyone but a certain shipwright called her that.

"We did, but in this case I think its only right," he answered, removing his reading glasses. He looked up at her with eyes that were evidently processing words that did not bode well for the dark haired female.

"What case? Unless you want me to call you "Blue Flamm" again you should explain," she glared back, knowing exactly which buttons to push to get what she wants from him. After all, he hated that nickname to the very pit of his robotic being. When his mouth became slightly agape at her "audacity", the dark haired female knew that she hit the right spot. Pleasure swelled in her chest, her headache now just a slight ebb.

"Hey. You promised that after that one time you wouldn't ever dare to call me that anymore," his tone was harsh and rather cold. Just like himself.

Sure Franky was cool now, but she knew him during his rebellious stage and sometimes it came out when he was with her.

"I know but now I can actually beat your ass," she retorted. No matter what, the pirate princess would not back down. She was, after all stronger than him. She had more resolve. There was also a little thing called "pride" that she had to deal with too.

"Ok fine. The only reason I say it is because you care a lot about your brother, who you weren't even familiar with until when you were,what, 10 years old? But you didn't even care the slightest bit about what Iceburg was up to. You never even wrote after Sabo's death, but as soon as you hear that Luffy was at Water 7 you decide to rush over from wherever you were at that moment and decide that you can just catch up on what happened over those years like nothing happened? As if you didn't miss almost 12 years of life with us. Is that fair? Don't we deserve something too?" he interrogated her, his cold demeanor becoming more evident with each word.

"What am I supposed to do about it? Haven't you thought about the fact that I was going through a hard time and I was in charge of comforting the other two after he died. I wasn't the selfish and rude one. I was trying to cope with something while helping others cope. Then when I had finally recovered Garp took me away and made me become a Marine. The schedule was so busy I had no moment to write. Sure, afterwards I could have visited but do you realize how hard it is to be a Commodore, Shichibukai and a Whitebeard Pirate at the same time? Do you think I wanted to just come without a warning and try to make up for the years missed in one day? No. I didn't. I honestly didn't but I had no choice." she answered, her voice laced with tears that she tried to keep hidden.

If another word even came out of that robot's mouth, the floodgates would open and she won't be able to hold them back. She would not allow the cyborg to see her like this, she would just be considered weak after all that she had just spouted. Just like she was when she was little.

"Rose, is everything ok?" a voice suddenly asked, interrupting their "conversation".

Turning around she found Sanji standing in the doorway. He was holding a tray with something on it but Rose had no time to pay attention to that. What really caught her attention was how calm he was about the situation in front of him. The pirate princess was convinced that the whole ship had heard the exchange of words. Why was he so calm?

"Yeah, its,"she practically ripped the paper from the cyborg's hands. She would not allow him to hold it any longer."Fine."

As she stormed out onto the deck, she heard the now rather gentle voice of the blue haired pervert,"Rose! Wait up! Look, I didn't mean what I said." She was surprised at the audacity of the male to act like he did not say those harsh words just moments before.

Whipping her head around she saw Franky gazing at her. A sorry look was playing on his stupid face.

" Yeah. Sure you didn't," she growled,"Just leave me alone, ok?" She could not stand seeing him anymore. She needed to go somewhere far away from the Thousand Sunny.

"If anyone asks, I am going out," she mumbled as she passed the now, rather alert swordsman. Zoro merely nodded in understanding as he returned to cleaning his swords.

Without another word, she jumped on to the Striker, which was attached to the boat by a mere string. In a way, even the rope was stronger than she was.

The Striker had been her brother's boat since before she could even think about having a plan to "legally" become a pirate. After Ace had jumped ship to go after a "rebellious" subordinate, the only way that the rest of the crew could find him was by that boat. When Rose and the rest of the Whitebeard pirates caught whiff of a battle between Ace and Blackbeard, they did the first thing that came to mind.

They went after him.

Of course, Ace, being an unpredictable ass as usual, was not there when they showed up, much to many Whitebeard pirates' displeasure. The abandoned hat and boat left behind by the missing second division commander did not bode well with anyone. So, in hopes to finding him faster, the large crew gave them both to Ace's one and only sister

Sailing off, she had no destination and could care less as long as she got away for a while. Closing her eyes, she focused on making the boat cruise just fast enough to whip her long hair around in the wind. After calming down a bit, she looked out into the vast ocean and sailed to childhood island she could reach first.

In a few weeks, she finally arrived in Water 7. On her way to the island, of course, there were many pleading calls over den den mushi from the rest of the crew to come back, but she knew she needed some away time from them. She loved her brother, but there were some things that were still too fresh in her mind. She could not deal with any words that Franky might throw at her again until the wounds had more time to heal.

As the dark haired female made her way towards the familiar shipwright docks, she passed various shops selling an array of goods ranging from small food markets to huge book stores and boutiques. All of it was too familiar and calming. She had a few bad memories her but after meeting Tom, they were much more pleasant. And pleasant was exactly what she needed right now.

Drifting further on, she heard the distant sound of what any newcomer would mistake for a stampede. The people who lived there knew exactly what was happening since they saw it every day. The so called "stampede" was actually a rather large, mixed crowd of debt collectors and fans of an old friend of hers.

Turning a few more corners, she heard the voices clearer and clearer. In a few, the sounds were pretty much beside her as the source of the commotion ran across a bridge as fast his feet could carry him.

Sighing, she parked the boat and jumped onto the cobblestone sidewalk just in time to meet the crowd.