"Dinner is ready!" Sanji called from the kitchen.

Luffy perked up. He had finished unpacking his stuff and was sitting on his bed, looking out of the window. He could have gone out onto the balcony if he had wanted to, but he was too tired. After the mention of food, however, Luffy jumped out of bed with all the energy of a toddler.

Running out of his room, he ran into Nami in the hall. Literally ran into her.

"Ow!" she said, crashing into the opposite wall and falling down on her butt. "Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry," Luffy said, and grabbed her elbow. He helped her up, and after making sure she was okay, his brain screamed, "FOOD" at him and he ran down the stairs.

Nami shook her head.

"Luffy run into you?" Zoro asked, coming up behind her.

She jumped, and then resumed walking. "Yeah," she said.

"Well, you better get used to it," he said. "Every time he's hungry and hears mention of food, he's just going to zoom out of his room."

"I'll keep that in mind," Nami said, walking down the stairs.

Downstairs, Usopp had put away the video games, at least for now, and was sitting at the kitchen table. Chopper was sitting next to him in the same spot he had been in when he was helping Sanji unpack the food.

Robin was sitting across from Chopper at the end of the table. Luffy, of course, was sitting at the seat closest to the food, making him look lonesome sitting by himself at the end of the table.

Zoro came in and sat across from him. Nami sat between Luffy and Robin.

There were two empty seats, one at the end, next to Chopper, and the other next to Robin and across from Usopp.

"Hey love-cook," Zoro said, "I'm hungry. Hurry up."

"Shut it, moss-head! Or you won't get any food." Sanji handed out steaming plates of food, giving the first two to Nami and Robin, naturally.

Luffy's mouth started watering, and drool started dripping out of the corner of his mouth.

Wordlessly, Zoro handed him a napkin, distracting Luffy long enough so that there wouldn't be a puddle underneath his chin.

Sanji handed Luffy his food, which was piled three times as high as everyone else's, and gave the last plate to Zoro, out of habit. Then he sat down next to Robin and began eating. Everyone else did as well.

Luffy, despite the fact that his plate had so much more food on it, consumed everything within a minute. "Saaaanjiiii," he begged. "I'm still hungry."

"Well, go get more food," he said. "But I'm watching you. Don't you dare take a bite over three more servings. Or I'll kick you."

Luffy whimpered quietly. Sanji's kicks hurt. He knew that from experience. "I won't."

He stood and walked over to the pot. There was a giant spoon sticking out of the top, so he grabbed that and put a bunch of food on his plate. Luffy put the spoon back in the pot and sat back down.

His next plate was gone within a minute as well, but this time Luffy was full. Well, as full as Luffy could get, anyway. He sat back and rubbed his belly.

Luffy never left the kitchen until everyone else was done eating, too, in case there were some extras he could eat.

"Hey Luffy…aren't you bored?" Usopp asked.

"Yeah, why?" Luffy swirled his fingers around the pattern on the tablecloth.

"Well, if you're bored, why do you sit at the table after you're done eating?" he put some food in his mouth.

Luffy grinned. "Because I want the extra food, of course."

Sanji shook his head. "You're not getting it."

Luffy pouted. "But it would save space in the garbage!"

"No. Only pigs eat the scraps." Sanji finished his food and stood.

Luffy looked at Sanji's plate. "But you ate the scraps," he said. "See? You're plate's empty."

Sanji looked at his plate, opened his mouth like he was about to say something, thought better of it, and walked over to the sink.

Luffy, deciding he would have the scraps whether Sanji wanted him to or not, spoke up. "Does anyone have any scraps they would like to give to their captain?" he asked.

"Luffy, I told you, you're not getting the scraps!" Sanji turned around from where he was doing the dishes.

"Sanji, you cannot tell me what to do. That's my job. And I'm the captain, so you have to listen to what I say. If I want the scraps, I can have the scraps. Got it?" he growled.

Zoro was trying his hardest not to laugh at Luffy's outburst. He could see that Nami was amused as well, as well as Chopper.

Robin, deciding to break the argument by siding with Luffy, said, "Here, Luffy. You can have my scraps." She handed him her plate.

Luffy stuck out his tongue at Sanji before taking the plate from Robin. "Thank you," he said.

Robin smiled at him. "No problem."

"You can have my scraps, too," Chopper said.

Luffy took his with a grin.

One at a time, the whole crew gave Luffy their leftovers.

Sanji stared, his face turning redder and redder with every person who gave Luffy food. He stalked up to Luffy, about to take the food away from him, when Luffy swallowed it all in one gulp.

Sanji snatched the plates away. "That's the last time you'll be doing that," he growled.

Zoro laughed, not able to hold it in anymore. His laughing was like setting off a bomb. Everyone else started laughing as well, including Luffy.

A tic began forming over Sanji's brow. His breathing became more strained, and his body began shaking. Finally, he exploded.

"GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN!" he exploded, waving his fists wildly.

Snickering, everyone left the kitchen, leaving Sanji to clean up.

While cleaning, he had an idea. He would set a trap for Luffy, so the next time he tried coming into the kitchen at night to steal food, he would be trapped.

Sanji snickered. This was going to be fun.

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Hey, Zoro!" Luffy said, walking into his room.

Zoro was sprawled out on the bed, snoring.

Luffy rolled his eyes and jumped on his first mate, preventing him from reaching his swords.

"GET OFF ME!" Zoro roared, trying to force Luffy off of his chest. He swung a fist at Luffy's head.

Luffy, laughing, jumped off of Zoro and danced away.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

"I came in here to discuss tactics with you, but you were asleep, and it's only 7:30. So I decided I needed to wake you up, and I didn't want to get my head chopped off in the process."

Tactics? What's he talking about? Zoro thought. Out loud, he said, "Oh, so that's why you blocked me from reaching my swords."

Luffy tilted his head to one side, confused. Zoro should have already figured that out. He was a master swordsman, after all. In the end he decided that Zoro was using that as cover for not knowing what "tactics" Luffy was talking about. He grinned.

"So, let's talk tactics," he said.

"Okay," Zoro answered.

"You go first."

Zoro's eye twitched. "I don't know what you're talking about," he admitted.

"Ha! I know! I was just playing with you, that's all!" Luffy laughed. "The tactics I was talking about was for how to get revenge on Nami and Robin for the luggage thing."

Zoro's eyes widened. "Oh."

"Yeah, so, do you want to talk about your ideas with me or are you going to be all like, 'GET OUT OF MY ROOM I CAN DO IT MYSELF'?

"GET OUT OF MY ROOM I CAN DO IT MYSELF!" Zoro roared.

Luffy left Zoro's room, the door slamming behind him. "Well, that answers that question," he muttered.

Suddenly, he saw Chopper coming up the stairs.

"What do you want, little dude?" Luffy asked.

"I just wanted to talk to Zoro…" he Chopper saw Luffy standing outside Zoro's closed door. "He slammed the door on you, didn't he?"

"Yeah, but I was just playing with him. I bet he'd talk to you." Luffy walked over to the doorway of his room.

"You think so?" Chopper raised his hoof, ready to knock. But before he could, the door opened.

Zoro was coming out of his room to go down to the kitchen and get some food, and he almost tripped over Chopper. But he stopped himself just in time.

"Whoa!" Zoro said.

"Hey, Zoro!" Chopper replied, completely oblivious to the fact that he had almost been tripped over, since he had been looking at Luffy.

"What's up?" he leaned against the side of the doorway.

"Can…can I come in? There's something I'd like to talk to you about."

"Does Sanji have cancer?" Luffy blurted out. "Because that would be, oh so cool! And I could have all the food I want!"

Zoro glared at Luffy. "You are not in this conversation, for one thing, and another thing, if Sanji did have cancer, he would be too weak to cook food in the first place. So get lost!"

Luffy frowned. "Whatever," he said, going into his room and closing the door.

Chopper frowned, uncomfortable. He didn't like it when his captain and the first mate argued, even if most of the time it was all in fun.

"Come in," Zoro said, taking a breath.

Chopper followed Zoro, shutting the door behind him. He took the chair at the computer desk and turned it around to face him while Zoro stretched out on the bed.

"I had another dream," he confessed.

"Really?" Zoro said, sitting up. "It's been awhile."

"Well, actually, I had this dream earlier today while we were still driving here. I fell asleep in the van." He twiddled his thumbs (well, hooves in this case).

"Okay," Zoro said. "So what happened?"

"Well…" he paused. "Buggy got to our old beach house."

"He did what?"

"Yeah, he got there, and then he went through it to see if he could find any evidence that we had lived there."

"So, he knew we were there," Zoro mused. "Do you know why he wanted to find evidence?"

"Unfortunately, yeah," Chopper said. "He wanted to find proof that we had lived there because he's trying to get us in jail for the crimes we committed years ago."

Zoro sighed. "Well, I hope he didn't find anything. Did he?"

Chopper swallowed. "Yes."

Zoro just stared. "What was it?" he asked, even though he had a feeling he already knew.

"You're not going to be happy about this, but…it was your lucky pen."

Zoro's eye twitched. "The one that had my name on it…"

Chopper nodded.

"GOD DARNIT!" Zoro exploded. He got up off of his bed and began pacing. "I knew I should have packed that."

"He also found something else," Chopper said, trying to help. "Just one thing wouldn't have been enough to convince the police. But he found something else too."

Zoro stopped pacing. "What was it?"

"Sanji's toothbrush."

Zoro sighed angrily and made an irritated noise. "This is going to end up in a fight," he muttered.

Chopper thought for a minute. "Yeah, probably," he said. "But I have an idea for you to be on the winning side."

"What's that?"

"Well, I overheard Sanji saying he was going to set up a trap in the kitchen for Luffy tonight and…" he trailed off.

Zoro snapped his fingers. "If I got into the trap instead, since I can go through the kitchen as a shortcut to the backyard, then he'll be at fault! You're a genius, Chopper!"

Chopper grinned, embarrassed. "By the way, I never finished telling you about my dream."

"There was more?" Zoro sat down on his bed, excited energy coursing through his veins.

"Yeah. After he found out that we had lived there, he turned in the evidence to the police. And also, since he thinks that they'll take longer to get here than he will, he's headed here as well."

"But how does he know where we are now?" Zoro asked, confused.

"Well, I don't understand exactly, but what I did get was that Buggy just, sniffed the evidence and it told him where we were."

Zoro raised an eyebrow. "A new power?" he wondered.

"Oh! And one more thing. When Buggy, uh, gave up who he was and disguised himself, I guess, his Chop-Chop powers disappeared. He doesn't have them anymore."

Zoro stared at Chopper. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I didn't think that was possible."

"Me neither, but unless the dreams are lying, which I hope they're not, then it's true. And, I figured out a way to know whether my dreams were in the present or the future."

"What's that?"

"Well, I left my electronic calendar there, hidden of course, and since I can control where I go in my dreams sometimes, I go there and look at what the date is."

"Did you do it this time?" Zoro asked.

"Yeah. It happens in a week."

"A week…hmm. I have an idea. Do you think, if we sent Luffy back there to get his car and tell him to stop at the house and get a few things, do you think we can prevent that from happening?"

Chopper's eyes lit up. "I never thought of that!" he exclaimed. He took out his notebook and hurriedly did some equations. "If he leaves tomorrow morning at sunrise, and moves as fast as he can, then he could be back in three days!"

Zoro nodded. "You should go tell him."

"Okay," Chopper said, standing. "And you go get yourself stuck in Sanji's trap later."

"I will," he said.

Chopper walked over to the door and opened it. Turning one last time, he winked. "Hope the trap's not too uncomfortable," he said. Then he left, closing the door behind him gently with a barely audible click.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Chopper knocked on Luffy's door.

"Who is it?" Luffy asked.

"Chopper."

"Come in."

Chopper opened the door and went inside. He closed the door behind him.

"What do you want?" Luffy sat up from where he was laying on the floor, staring out the window.

"I have a favor to ask of you." Chopper began explaining his idea, repeating things sometimes because he was so excited.

When Chopper was finally done, Luffy thought a moment, did some calculations in his head, (or whatever passes for calculations in his head, anyway) and stood.

"No."


Ha! Bet you never saw that coming! I actually came up with the idea of Buggy losing his Chop-Chop powers a while ago, but couldn't figure out how to incorporate it into the storyline. Well, problem solved! Heh heh. Now what should happen next...? Hmm. I gotta think about that little conundrum.