The forest had a delicious sweet and salty smell filling the air with a gentle and soft touch of vegetables accompanying with a strong and numbing smell of meat and the smell lead directly to the tree house where the straw hats where making fort.
"Where the hell did that moss-head took my Robin-chwan to? If he dare to lay a finger in even one string of her hair I'll pulverize him." Sanji was, as always, cursing on the swordsman while cooking something on the mobile kitchen that Franky built to him so he could cook wherever he wanted when they were on a island.
"Hey, Sanji! Where is the food?!" Usopp was screaming while hitting his fork and knife on the table while Chopper was accompanying him on the background noise as his echo.
"What the heck do you guys think you are?! Just shut up and wait till I finish cooking!" Sanji as normal was lovely responding to his male friends.
"Sanji-san, the smell is really great." Nami that was asleep at the upper floor descended following the smell of the food made by the cook.
"It's almost done, Nami-swan. If you wish you can eat this appetizer while you wait for dinner." the blond cook said while handing over a plate with small pieces of seasoned and slightly fried meat.
"Hey Jerk! Why didn't you offer this for us too?!" Usopp was cursing at the cook as he was looking over the plate Sanji served Nami.
"Go make yourself if you want!" and as usual a fast and sweet answer from the cook to the male crew.
"Hmm ... that is a delicious smell we have here, Cook-san." Robin's voice caught Sanji's attention since he was wondering what happened to her and the swordsman.
As Sanji turned around to dance his way to the black-haired woman his face went pale and his blood frozen cold with the scene.
Robin and Zoro were holding hands side by side at the entrance. Robin was looking straight at everyone and Zoro was trying to avert their eyesight and imaging the reaction of the others.
"H-Hey moss head! What the heck do you think you are holding my Robin-chwan's hand for?!" Sanji that had just been revitalized by Chopper was screaming at the man holding Robin's hand.
"Shut up and listen, spiral eyebrow." Zoro glared at the blond guy while preparing to speak to the rest of the crew, though he couldn't mutter a single word.
Seeing as the man besides her couldn't bring himself to speak the news, Robin stepped in front.
"Well, this might be sudden and not the appropriated time, but ... We decided to have Luffy get us married as soon as we save him." Robin's usual poker face which allowed her to naturally hide her emotions was bright red with embarrassment.
The reaction through the crew was one and only ... mouth agape staring at the new couple of the straw hats.
"This can't be right ... the moss head marring my angel Robin-chwan ... just impossible ... impossible ... this is a bad dream, I know it is ..." Sanji was crying at the ground while bracing himself.
"Whaaaaa ... Chopper hurry up! We gotta start another treatment for Sanji! This time he went into full denial of reality!" Usopp and Chopper could be heard at the background screaming something about Sanji wishing to leave the real world or about him having found the All Blue next to the light in the end of the tunnel.
"Wo-Wow! That's super good news Robin! Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Nami was overly excited from receiving the news about the Swordsman and the Archaeologist getting married.
"Well, actually he just proposed me a little while ago before we got closer to the tree house." Robin was out of character blushing as she spoke to their friends.
"That's SUPER news Robin! I need to start creating a place on the Sunny for you two." Franky was already on his SUPER MODE thinking of how he would decorate the couple's room.
"Excuse me Robin-san but before you get married could you please let me see your pa-..." Brook was sent flying outside from the tree house with a combo attack of Nami's Kick and Zoro's sheathed katana.
"Hey Hey Robin! Do you guys think of having any children?" Usopp asked eagerly as if he was longing for some little punk to play with him like he did on his hometown.
"Well, actually ... " Robin didn't know how to break the second news about her being pregnant already, besides she probably couldn't bear all the emotions like she always did anymore.
"Robin is already pregnant and I think that we will have Luffy welcome a new member for the straw hats." Zoro broke his silence by the price of silencing everyone else on the room.
"Whaaaaaaaaatttt?!" the scream from everybody could be heard through the forest (aside from Brooke that actually got scared)
"Waaaaaa ... this world is too cruel to live on ... my angel ... Robin-chwan ... my angel was soiled ..." Sanji that was being treated by Chopper was now crying tears of blood like they were a fountain.
"Oh ... that's an evolution. From nosebleed-cook to eyebleed-cook." Zoro sarcastically replied to his friend mean comment while Chopper and Usopp were screaming something about a treatment for illusion breakdown and on a hurry to getting the blood packs they had on stock for Sanji's special sudden bleeding attack.
"Hey, hey Robin. Do you already knows if it's a boy or a girl?" Nami eagerly asked her friend about the sex of the baby, though she received a rather strange answer.
"It's obviously a boy/girl!" there seemed to have one simple though serious disagreement between the newly assumed couple which caught everyone's attention and raised a somewhat awkward feeling in the air, though as suddenly as the air got tensed it also got lighter with an outbreak of laugh among the crew.
"Come on guys! You aren't even got married yet and you are already fighting?" Nami barely managed to speak her mind while trying to suppress her laughs.
Cold ... Dark ... Solid Metal ... Clinking of Chains ... and the sound of water hitting on the ship.
Luffy was barely keeping his conscience just enough to not get caught off guard when someone comes in but not enough to gather any strength to break free of the sea stone chains holding him down.
"It looks like we got some chat time again, geezer's disciple. Shishishi." Luffy didn't even lift his head as he sensed the woman entering the room to switch guard.
"It seems you are still keeping yourself together." the woman came closer to the sea stone cage and as she got closer a sweet fragrance invaded Luffy's sense of smell.
"Shishishi ... I guess it isn't that bad being here after all." the boy lifted his head giving the woman his trademark toothy grin.
"You really are Garp grandson, huh." The woman crouched in front of him and placed a plate of food ... actually it was a plate full of Sea King barbecued meat.
The boy didn't waste a single second trying to bite down all the food in front of him, though he couldn't reach it nor with his hands nor his mouth since he couldn't use his Gomu Gomu no Mi power due to the Sea Stone and was chained to the wall.
"Aww, that's not fair! Can't you set me free just to eat?" the boy was sulking as he couldn't take even one bite and the woman was laughing her lungs out while holding her stomach.
"Hey! Stop laughing already and free me!" Luffy was already losing his cool for not being able to eat a huge pile of meat right in front of him.
"You know that is something I can't do, don't you?" the woman was suppressing her laugh as best as she could.
She entered the cage with the plate sitting right in front of him which made him stop staring at her for a minute without muttering a single word ... just staring, as if she reminded him of someone.
"Are you sure you should be entering the cage of a vicious and dangerous pirate, Miss Marine?" he still couldn't remember exactly who she reminded him of.
"Just say Aah!" Luffy opened his mouth in reflex of her lifting the juicy piece of meat in front of him.
"Oh, I almost forgot that I still didn't introduced myself." the marine woman lifted another piece of meat in front of Luffy that was just chewing his meat and listening to the woman.
"Yeah, last time when you was going to introduce yourself the other guard came in." the man was now really curious and paying attention at the woman since she stopped feeding him, though his eyes were still directed to the meat.
Another piece of meat was put in front of him but now not close enough for him to bite it from her, which made a rather hilarious scene since he was desperately stretching his neck to reach it.
"I'm Portgas D. Amber." the piece of meat he finally managed to get from hear fell from his mouth that was wide open as he stared at the woman's face as if she was something supernatural.
"Portg-Portgas D. ? H-How can that be? Ace was the only child between Roger and Rouge, wasn't he?" Luffy's eyes had a little tear in the corner while his face was expressing a mix of confusion and surprise.
"Oops, don't get me wrong. I'm not Ace's sister nor Aunt Rouge daughter." the woman stood from the place she was in while dusting her clothes and preparing to assume her guard position.
"Well, I can't say I'm entirely unrelated to him though. You could say that I'm his cousin since my father was Rouge's brother, but that's enough chat for now. If I don't get to work soon and someone find out that I'm slacking off, Fleet-Admiral Akainu might want to send me off somewhere far away from the Marine HQ." She left the cage locking it once again.
"By the way, they don't know who I really am thanks to your grandfather so ... keep it a secret please." she was now on her guard position standing with her back to the cage and looking directly at the door.
"Shishishi, It looks like grandpa succeeded at least once into making one of our family turn into a marine." Luffy leaned on the wall looking at the ceiling while images of Ace and he being trained by Garp, though it was mostly both getting beaten down by the old man.
As if the room suddenly got warm and comfortable and the sound of the clinking of the chains turned into a lullaby, Luffy slowly closed his eyes letting his mind relax and his body release the stress that has been built since the fight with Akainu the other day.
"How long?" Luffy asked Amber with the last bit of conscience he was keeping.
"2 days till we get to Impel Down and 5 inside there to wait the preparation at least." Luffy lowered his head while thoughts of his friends came to his mind along with the image of Ace being pierced through the chest by Sakazuki.
"7 more huh. Good night." the Captain calmed his breathing letting his conscience escape from his grasp and fall asleep.
Few hours passed since the boy fell asleep and the ship seemed to head to its destination without any problem.
"Still in here?" Luffy's voice was low and tired even after some sleep.
"It's almost time for someone to change guard, probably." Amber responded without looking at him.
"Can I ask you a favor?"
"..."
"Contact my crew. I'm pretty sure that Princess Shirahoshi from Fishman Island should still have a Den Den Mush that connects to ours."
"Are you sure that you should be revealing secrets about your crew or the people that have had contact with you?"
"Shishishi ... Don't stop nor look back." as his words left his mouth the door opened meaning that it was already time to switch guards.
Though unexpectedly the marine that entered the room was wearing a floral shirt covered with the typical marine attire with Justice engraved on its back and was clearly pissed off.
"F-Fleet-Admiral Akainu!" the marine woman hardened her posture as the man entered the room.
"Release you Haki, Straw hat. It's me you wanted, wasn't me? I'm already here." a really angry tone could be felt on the man's voice.
"Shishishi ... thanks for attending to my request."
"You can leave already, marine!" Amber run outside as the man's order reached her and for her surprise all of the other marines were on the floor, apparently the only people left conscious at the moment would be her and the two me inside the ship.
'Even weakened by the Sea stone handcuffs he managed to take this many down.' she couldn't help but feel a chill running down her spine as the image of the toothy grinning boy with an incredible dark shadow under him came to her mind.
"Stronger the light, stronger the darkness." were the first words that she could mutter outside.
A/N: *-* I love you all and thanks for the reviews :D they were really appreciated since it was a good feedback to know how I was writing the story (also to keep me from publishing mistakes).
Also, look forward for the next chapter (though it might take a month since I'll try to update 2 chapter from Between Keys and Flames before I update another one from Save the Captain).
