Bare
"If we don't go to the mountain, we can't see the doctor," Luffy said, staring straight at Nami as he hovered over her dazed form. "Let's go hiking."
"Don't be stupid!" Sanji exclaimed. "You're gonna take Nami-san on a hike?" Danni stayed silent, looking out the window and up at the mountain, tugging the panda beanie she was wearing (Luffy had given it to her) down slightly, shadowing her eyes.
"It's okay. I can carry her," Luffy responded seriously, staring at them blankly.
Vivi gaped at him and shouted, "But it can make her worse!"
Luffy frowned at her, "What? I'll take her to the doctor, and then she'll get better soon." Danni moved over to Nami's side, brushing the younger girl's hair back and away from her sweaty forehead, frowning in concern. She ignored the one sided arguing between Vivi and Luffy, rubbing soothing circles across Nami's bare forehead with her thumbs.
Nami laughed suddenly, and Danni scooted over as Luffy instantly made his way over. "I'll leave it to you now, captain," the navigator said, holding a hand up weakly.
Luffy grinned and clapped their hands together, much gentler than he would have normally, "That's right! Just trust me!"
Danni smiled when Nami caught her eye, and then said, "I'll be going with you, Luffy." Her captain grinned at her and nodded in acceptance to the statement. He wasn't going to object, because he wanted her to see the doctor too, even though Nami was more immediate.
Pretend
"Luffy, give me Sanji," Danni said quietly, ignoring the rapidly growing pain in her chest. Luffy stared at her with narrowed eyes, and she stared back determinedly. Finally, he nodded and handed the blonde over to her. She grunted at the weight, but swiftly tied the blonde to her back, before following her captain up.
She ignored the pain in her chest and the fact that her fingers were becoming raw and bleeding, pretending it didn't exist. She would make it to the top. She had too. She didn't want her nakama to die. She wouldn't let that happen. Gritting her teeth she dug her fingers and toes into the mountain and continued to climb.
Energy
"My, my," Danni chuckled, sitting up in bed slowly. "Everyone has so much energy for being injured." Luffy laughed from where he was sitting on a stool next to her bed. Danni smiled back in response, before she gently heaved herself up and onto the edge of the bed.
"I got us a new crewmember!" Luffy exclaimed happily. "He's a doctor!" Before Danni could respond, the door opened and a fuzzy face appeared around the door. "Chopper! Come meet our Gunner!" Luffy cheered, stretching his arms out and grabbing the reindeer, who shouted and struggled as he was pulled in.
Danni smiled at the reindeer, "It's nice to meet you, Doctor Chopper." Chopper frowned at her, ceasing his struggling. He clambered up onto the bed next to her and stared at her intensely.
"You're sick," he stated. Danni gave a sad smile in reply. He frowned and pulled out a stethoscope before proceeding to do an in depth examination. Luffy stayed silent, watching with a for once serious face. "I can't cure it, but I can extend your life for a few more years. Right now, you only have about 4 and half years left," Chopper finally said as he sat back, finished with his examination.
Danni sighed, rubbing the back of her neck, "I knew that trip through the snow had shaved some time off." Luffy frowned at that, and Chopper was rifling through his medical bag, before he pulled out a bottle filled with a bright red liquid.
"You'll have to take a tablespoon of this every six months," Chopper said sternly, pressing the bottle in the woman's hand. "It won't cure you, but it will help strengthen your body and combat the disease, adding a few more years to your life. The more often you overwork your body, the more often you'll have to take it."
Danni smiled and hugged the reindeer, "Thank you, Doctor Chopper, but can you do me a favor?" She let go of the blushing doctor and looked him in the eye. "Don't let the other's know I'm sick? I want them to have fond memories of me, not ones where they're constantly worrying when I'm going to die. Right now, only Luffy, Zoro, and you know I'm sick. I'd like to keep it that way."
Chopper frowned and glanced over at Luffy, who nodded, and the reindeer locked gazes with the Gunner and nodded firmly, "I will do as you ask."
Disaster
"So tie them on tight," Zoro instructed as he tied the knot around his left wrist. "Our enemies have plenty of mysteries."
Vivi smirked as she tied the bandage around Nami's forearm, "I see." Danni stayed silent as she tied her own bandage around her wrist, watching Chopper tie Luffy's around his wrist as well from the corner of her eye. She hadn't been on deck when Mr. 2 had shown up and done his stuff, but Luffy didn't seem too worried about the problem.
However, Danni had come to expect disaster wherever her captain went.
"As long as we can see these, we don't need to doubt one another," Nami said, her own smirk pulling her lips.
Sanji furrowed his brow as he tied the knot off with his teeth, and asked, "Does he really look like us that much? When he does his Mane Mane fruit thing?"
Usopp shook his head, waving his hands around, "He doesn't look like us, he is us." When Sanji growled something about not being interested in Okamas, the sharpshooter added with a grin, "Too bad, you really should have seen it!"
"Now that we know he's among the enemy, we can't allow for any careless individual actions!" Zoro said, bumping his fist against his own bandaged arm. Danni cocked an eyebrow and wondered just who Zoro was talking about in that specific remark.
Shaking her head, she headed over to where Chopper was asking Usopp what he should do, and the teen was no doubt giving some odd answer to the poor reindeer. "-away from any enemies you can't beat! Just do your best!" the sharpshooter was saying, clenching his fists up in front of him and baring his teeth.
Sanji scoffed, "You're just telling that to yourself!" Carue let out a quack of agreement.
"What I can do...," Chopper repeated, before nodding firmly. "Got it!"
Danni shook her head and bopped both sniper and doctor on the heads lightly. "Trust in your nakama to pick up the slack of what you can't do, brats," Danni said, raising an eyebrow at the both of them pointedly. Usopp blushed and chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck, while Chopper blinked up at her in astonishment.
"Okay!" Luffy suddenly exclaimed, jumping to the middle of the deck with a wide smile and holding his left arm out, fist clenched. "Whatever happens from now on, this left arm..." Everyone joined him in a tight circle, holding their left fists out (or hoof and wing for Chopper and Carue respectively). "Is proof of our friendship!"
Blush
"What did you get from your brother?"
Luffy shrugged, "I don't know. It's a scrap of paper." He handed both paper and hat over to Nami, along with a sewing needle and thread.
"What does it mean?"
Luffy shrugged again, "I dunno, but Ace told me to hold onto it, so I'm gonna hold onto it! So sew it in there tight!"
Nami nodded and started sewing the paper into Luffy's hat with a muttered, "Behind the ribbon...got'cha." Danni shifted uncomfortably next to her captain, biting her cheek to refrain from throwing herself at Sanji and strangling the blonde chef. So far, Luffy hadn't even noticed what the girl's were wearing, but Danni had the suspicion that the boy was asexual and completely not interested, unlike certain other perverted members of the crew. She knew she should have gone with the cook when he went to get their clothes to blend in.
Nami handed the hat back to her captain, and the teen plopped it on his head with a large grin, "Thanks, Nami! Now I don't have to worry about it! I'll never lose it."
Usopp looked at his captain with a raised eyebrow, "How do you know that?" The question was ignored, and Vivi came out, holding a pile of neatly folded clothes in her arms.
She smiled and held them out to Luffy, "Wear this, Luffy-san!"
Luffy blinked at her in confusion, "Huh? Why? It's hot!" Danni scowled at the reminder, tugging on the thick rope of braid that was her hair irritably.
Vivi smiled patiently and explained, "You wear it because it's hot. The desert gets over 50 C, so you'll get sunburned if your skin is exposed."
Luffy looked even more confused as he glanced first at Vivi, then at Nami, and then finally Danni, who had her arms crossed in front of herself defensively, showing a lot more skin then the boy had ever seen since he met her. "Why are your clothes so skimpy then?" he asked, a flash of concern crossing his face.
Danni's cheeks flushed in a bright red blush, squirming in place as her captain kept staring at her. Blatantly. It wasn't in a sexualized way at all; he was just genuinely confused at the amount of skin she was showing. Normally, the only skin you saw were her shoulders, arms, neck and face. Everything else was covered by her clothes. "We're going to wear coats, too," Nami explained, staring at Luffy and Danni in amusement, though she wondered why the older woman was so embarrassed.
She looked good in the outfit with her trim waist and large hips. Along with her naturally pale skin, and dark locks, she looked rather exotic in the deep red and purple dancer outfit. The glimpses caught of her legs were striking, especially when you caught a flash of the tattoo on her upper thigh.
Said view was shown clearly when Sanji yelled, eyes bulging, "What!? You're gonna wear those!?" and Danni's face darkened before she lashed out with her leg and slammed it into the perverted cook's stomach.
Back
Danni's hand gripped the back of Zoro's jacket before she even realized what she was doing. Her fingers tightened, even when the swordsman turned to her with a questioning look. She shook her head, lips pursed together tightly and brow furrowed deeply. Zoro looked at her with narrowed eyes, before he tugged her forward, unlatching her fingers in the process.
She looked at him in faint confusion, trying to fight the sudden pit in her stomach and the way the world was tilted slightly. "Sleep, woman," Zoro grunted, returning to his lifting of the camel on his sword. "And stop your worrying."
Danni didn't say anything, as she curled around her rifle and slumped against the swordsman's side. She didn't fall asleep though, merely closing her eyes and listening to Usopp's crazy stories he was telling Chopper. Luffy would be fine. He just had to be.
The thought didn't stop the sickening feeling she was getting in the pit of her stomach and the sense that something terribly wrong had just happened.
xxx
FOXGEISHA: Well, Drum Island is short, as because of the mountain climb, Danni was pretty much out of commission the entire time, but yeah. I decided to split the rest of the Alabasta arc into two chapters (this one and the next one), especially since I'm having a few issues with Danni's fight. Oh well, anyways, there's a link to what Danni looks like in the dancer outfit, so if you want, go check it out!
