Chapter Ten

(Nami Enters)

Birds of a Feather…

Summary: Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing. Kim discovers this when she's torn away from all she knows and thrust into a world where danger and death is an every day occurrence. Now she has to find away back to her family and there's only one way she can do that. Travel the Grandline in search of some answers.

Disclaimer: One Piece and its characters are copyright to Oda-sama and Funimation (plus all the other companies who have the rights, lucky bastards). OCs are copyright of me along with anything else the general public doesn't recognize, apart from certain characters that have been borrowed with explicit permission from the creators themselves.

Beta'd by Omicron the IceQueen (now, go give her praise and affection because she always reminds me to add stuff in!)

Sailing at sea was truly something to experience. Kim wasn't much help at first, what with her arm in a sling, but Zoro had begun to teach her the basics of sailing the ship– boat really– and taught her how to work the trimming so that she could direct the boat.

She wasn't allowed to steer the boat by herself, neither was Luffy, but he had a better idea of what he was doing than Kim did, and was only allowed to tie the ropes under Zoro's watchful eyes. Though they didn't follow Zoro's directions.

And sailing wasn't the only thing that Kim had to get used to.

In between the moments when her stomach refused to settle, seasickness was hell, she was asking and answering questions from Luffy and Zoro. The simple stuff like their respective dreams and home came first; Kim claimed that she was from a far off island that was far more advanced than anything they had ever seen, but she was lost and didn't know how to get home. After all, the last part was true and the best lies were shrouded by truth. Then the group question and answer session turned to other stuff like favorite colors (silver and gold for Kim, red for Luffy, and green for Zoro… of course their favorite colors were their color schemes), favorite foods and if they thought they were going to starve to death before they made it to land.

Which led them to now.

"I'm so hungry~!" Luffy groaned.

"Well, if you two had any navigational skills, we'd be on an island by now instead of starving on the sea!" Zoro growled. He had become extremely short tempered over the past week or so due to the lack of food.

However, Kim was in an even fouler mood. Her normally pleasant nature had gone down as her stomach emptied itself. She had spent her entire life knowing that food was only a room or two away, never worrying about starving or finding land in a world covered by water. Even though Zoro reminded her of Kaine, he didn't provide the same domestic security her older brother offered.

"Oi, don't drag me into this shit!" The girl snapped back, hand dragging across the surface of the ocean. Kim had gotten fed up with starvation and decided to use her good arm as sea king bait. Who cared if she lost an arm? She had another, albeit injured one. As long as she got some sea king for lunch, she didn't care. "I told you that I've never been off dry land before in my life. The one time I do get dragged away from home, I get shot and can't figure out how to get back! I didn't have time to learn navigational skills, what with fighting Marine and joining pirate crews!"

"Hey, hey!" Luffy said, grabbing Kim– she had stood up, ready to fight with Zoro– and pulling her back down to sit beside him. He didn't like it when his first mate and Chronicler – Kim's new title – fought without any humor. "Calm down, nee-chan! Zoro, don't pick on Kim when she's in a bad mood. She might push us both overboard."

"Tch," Kim scoffed [at what?], sitting back down and letting her fingers trail over the water once more. The chronicler glared at the water, wishing that she was back home with her brothers.

How were they taking her disappearance? Did Kaine get mad and break something? Or did he get really quiet and expressionless like he did when their mom and dad died? Ken probably kept up a strong front all day before going home and crying to Mike. Mike... He was her best friend back home, being the same age as Zoro. Would he be devastated? Kim didn't know.

Once Luffy was satisfied that she wasn't going to try and start another fight he turned to Zoro, "I've always just wandered around," the rubber boy explained, smiling slightly. "Besides, aren't you the same? Wandering around and catching pirates for their rewards?"

"I don't recall saying that I only lived off of rewards. I was searching for a man, that's why I left to the sea. I ran out of money and had to make a living somehow. Taking down pirates was the easiest thing. But, now I can't find my way back home..."

Kim and Luffy exchanged amused grins, but their thoughts were completely different as the girl spoke up first," 'Searching for a man?' Dude, you sound like my brother did before he started dating his boyfriend!"

"Shishishi! So, you're lost too?!" Luffy laughed, leaning forward to make a silly face at Zoro.

The swordsman went red with embarrassment and swiped at the younger teens. "Shut up idiots!"

Kim and Luffy fell over each other in a giggle fit, enjoying their crewmate's reaction to their teasing. It took them a few minutes to calm down and catch their breath, but it was a futile effort. They took one look at each other and burst out laughing again.

This shouldn't be that funny, Kim thought, clutching at her aching ribs. It must be the lack of food making me so crazy!

"Geez," Zoro groaned, kicking Kim in the shin. The brunette yelped as her hysterical mood was broken and the young woman lunged at Zoro, but didn't make it is as Kim was held back by Luffy. The swordsman pointedly ignored her half-hearted attempts to hit him back and continued with his complaints. "Stuck with a couple of teenagers that don't know how to navigate. Luffy, how do you expect to travel the Grandline like this? We need to hurry up and find someone with navigational skills!"

Kim shrugged Luffy's grip off to sit down, vowing silently to get revenge on Zoro; while at the same time as the younger man sat down beside his Chronicler he counted off on his fingers, "And a cook and a musician..."

"A shipwright and a doctor would be useful as well, necessary if you think about it." The brunette teen sighed, laying back and staring at the clouds.

"Let's start with a navigator for now." Zoro grunted, settled down for a nap and his other two crewmembers exchanged a look of utter boredom that could so easily grip teenage minds.

"...wanna cloud watch?" Kim suggested desperately. The black haired boy hummed in agreement and lay down beside her. "Elephant," Kim began, pointing out a cloud that reminded her of Disney's Dumbo. It even had a little hat on its head. Funny that she saw a circus elephant when they were getting ready to run into clown pirates.

"Tanuki." Luffy continued as his point at a cloud that looked like a raccoon dog. Kim blinked in confusion for a moment before she remembered what a tanuki was. Wait, if tanuki were rarely seen, why did everyone think Chopper looked like one? That would be something to ask about later.

"Dog."

"Bird!"

"Eh?! That's a real bird!" Kim exclaimed, her eyes widening with surprise.

Luffy squinted at it curiously, "...let's eat it." The rubber boy suggested, a grin spreading across his face.

"How're we going to catch it?" Kim wondered curiously, trying to remember why the bird was so important. Hunger clouded her mind, making her think of how tasty the bird would be rather than what it meant to the story line.

Luffy pulled his arms back, tensing all his muscles and looked at the bird with a calculating gaze. Suddenly, he released all the tension at once, throwing his arms forward like he was pitching a pair of baseballs from both hands. "I'll go get it! Gomu Gomu no... Roketto!"

Kim watched with alarm as Luffy launched himself at it, realization hitting her the moment the Devil Fruit user left her side. "Shit! That bird's going to carry him off! Zoro! Wake up dammit!" She punched him in the stomach, successfully getting her revenge for the kick to her shin and startling him awake.

"Ooff!" Zoro grunted, his eyes shooting open with a pained expression flitting across his face.

Kim didn't waste a second and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him violently, "Luffy's being carried off by a giant bird!" The girl turned and pointed up at the avian that was already flying away with their captain.

"What?!" The swordsman jerked up, one hand going instinctively to his swords while the other grabbed the collar of Kim's T-shirt. The brunette flinched back and craned her neck away from the swordsman, who had just invaded her personal space. She didn't mind having her face so close to someone else as long as she was the one initiating the movement. When other people did it, she just got nervous. "Why?!"

"I'll explain later when we have the time! We've got to catch up to them before Luffy becomes bird food!"

"Dammit!" Zoro shouted, shoving her out of the way. He flopped down into the middle of the boat and snatched up the oars, sending the flat end into the water with a splash, getting water all over the both of them, and then began rowing madly after their captain. Kim stood shakily, trying to adjust to the movement of the boat, and clutched at the mast, her eyes locked firmly on the bird's disappearing figure. Zoro's irritated mood only worsened when Kim told him about the three shipwrecked men that were just ahead of them, begging for help. "Stranded people at a time like this? Dammit!"

"We don't have time to stop!" Kim yelled at the men in the water.

"Jump on if you can!" Zoro bellowed, glancing over his shoulder at the trio of soaked pirates. The swordsman looked incredibly annoyed with everything at the moment and Kim remained silent, not wanting to further his bad mood. The three stranded pirates shouted in surprise, but latched onto the speeding boat as it passed by.

"Wow, I didn't think that they'd make it!" Kim exclaimed, tensing in preparation of the attempted attack to come.

"Their climbing skills aren't too bad," Zoro chuckled, looking back to make sure they were still following Luffy and the bird.

The Buggy pirates jumped to their feet shouted at the teens for trying to run them over with their boat. Kim exchanged a bemused look with Zoro as the pirates went about their rant, the brunette surprised by the anger the men were showed. Zoro shrugged silently, not knowing what to tell her. Eventually, the trio of Buggy pirates shook off their irritation and pulled out sabers and knives, pointing their weapons at the teenagers, attempting to radiate intimidation. "Stop the boat! You're in the territory of Buggy the Clown!" the leader of the three ordered, pointing his sword at Kim, aiming for the weakest seeming. The brunette offered him an unimpressed look, annoyed by the fact that she was being threatened.

"What?" Zoro growled, his light gray eyes flashing.

Two minutes later after a severe beating from the pair of Straw Hat pirates (mainly Zoro since Kim's arm was useless, but she got a few good kicks in!) the three men sat at the front of the boat covered in bruises and being forced to row after Luffy and the bird.

"We didn't know that you two were 'Pirate Hunter' Zoro and his friend! We're really sorry..." they apologized. Kim felt a stab of irritation that Zoro got a title while she was just his 'friend'. She knew though that it wasn't his fault, he was a little famous while Kim had only been in this world long enough to meet a handful of people.

"You made us lose sight of our friend!" Kim scolded, glaring at them with the same intensity Zoro was. The Buggy pirates cowered beneath their combined intimidation. Kim wasn't extremely powerful like Zoro or Luffy, but she was smart and had been trained by one of the best: her big brother!

"Put some back into it!" Zoro snapped. "If we don't find our friend you three will be in for it…" The trio let out a sequence of girlish whimpers and Kim shared a smirk with Zoro, who looked pleased with the fear he was putting into the other pirates' hearts.

"So what happened to you guys?" Kim asked, allowing the conversation to drift away from Luffy for the moment.

The Buggy pirates jumped on the chance to tell their story. Kim and Zoro listened impassively as they spoke of Nami and how she had tricked them into boarding her little rowboat while she stole theirs. Kim was unimpressed with them, wondering how one teenage girl could outwit a trio of grown men. Zoro, however, was impressed by the red head's ability to predict the actions of a sudden storm so easily.

"She must be something special!" The green hair man whistled, leaning back.

Kim rolled her eyes and sat down beside him, curling up to his side. "I'm going to sleep until we get there." she sighed, closing her eyes. "Wake me up when we get wherever it is we're going."

Zoro grunted in acknowledgement and turned back to the Buggy pirates so he could hear about their 'great and terrible' captain: Buggy the Clown. However, throughout all the bragging the trio of men did about their captain (fangirling was a more appropriate word), he remained aware of Kim's heat seeping into his side. It was surprising, really, that she had so much confidence in him after knowing him for such a short time. No one had ever done that before, except for Luffy and his sensei. Zoro didn't know what possessed people to be so trusting, he trusted very few people himself and was a skeptic in the utmost sense, so it was unusual for him. The swordsman shifted so that Kim was mostly hidden to the other men and watched them carefully. If someone placed their trust in him so easily, it was his obligation to protect that trust.

A/N: Guh, we're moving into one of those arcs I hate the most. The Buggy Arc. Which is weird because I'm like, in love with Buggy. I love that man, despite the fact he's a clown. But Caesar Clown pisses me off, even though he kind of reminds me of Buggy. But he does have the cutest expressions… Anyways, since we're getting close to that 100 review mark, I want to say that I'll write a one-shot for that 100th reviewer.

Fun Fact: Tomorrow is my Mom's homecoming and I get to get out of class early:D S'gonna be fun~!

QotC: Who's your favorite bad guy?

Answer: My favorite pairing is SanjixUsopp. No joke. But I like Usopp x any of the original 5 Straw Hats, Kaya, and Perona. I like UsoppJ Ooooh, you know what would be cool? SanjixUsoppxKaya! Blonds and Usopp~

Poll update! Luffy 23, Sanji 20, Ace 17, Zoro 14, Akane and ZoSanZo 3, and Usopp 1. Looks like Luffy is on his way to victory~ The poll will probably be closed around Alabasta or just before the Marineford War. These two require a decision to be made so, yeah.

SBS!

Thanks for Favoriting and Alerting: LilyAllycia, angelrider13, Firetrail, MinotaurKing, Tough chick, Seachell13, skipbeataddict, blackphoenixx, and Pandawasmyballpen.

Miki Naomi: South? Where do you live? Yeah, I thought so too. The personalities match. Almost wrecking has made me never want to drive again. I hate driving *shudders* It didn't help that my sideview mirror got torn off by someone grazing the car when he was pulling out of the parking lot at the fair on Monday. I'm not meant to be on the road!

Blazeflower: Thank you:) Seems like it'll be a LuffyxOC story if he keeps up first place.

angelrider13: Thanks:) It always makes me happy when people like Kim. I'm kind of torn about Ace. His death is important to the story, but I don't want him to die either...

hesmus: Thank you:3

Nightwish01: Haha, thanks!:) Sexy cook indeed \(/V/)\

10th Squad 3rd Seat: Thanks!

thakidisbac: Thank you:) Sorry about the plans, but those are secret~ (sometimes, even to me... which is bad) Thanks!

Pesephone-De-Nae: I'm trying my best not to make her a damsel in distress, so I'm hoping that won't happen.

skipbeataddict: Ah, thank you! *blushes and dances like Chopper* Feel free to message me if you ever want any tips~! Though, most of what makes this story great is my wonderful beta telling me what to improve on.

Okumura hikari (Guest): Thanks! Ace it is!

yonet-chan: She did, didn't she? It's like she's become weaker over the course of the time skip. Koby x Rika? I've never thought of that. That's actually very cute:) And thanks!

UNICORNSPOORRAINBOWS: Thanks!

Shiningheart of ThunderClan: Can I just say how much I love your name? Seriously. I love ThunderClan and just about anything to do with it, though I'm a bit biased to WindClan (and Crowfeather). But, now I'm rambling. Sorry. I can't seem to stop myself from making scenes between her and LuffyXD It's too much fun! Oh yes, her interaction with Chopper is something I look forward to:) Hm, I've pretty much finished off the Buggy Arc already, so there's not much room for any teasing on Kim's part, but if you give me some ideas, I could make a one-shot...

Kine X: Haha, I do that a lotXD She does, but I want to wait a while before I introduce her powers this time and do it gradually instead of all at once. She'll have to learn this time instead of simply understanding what to do. Thanks for the review!