Many of my friends knew of this before hand, but for those who don't...
This chapter of Sanji's Cupcakes is the Christmas Special! YAY!
It actually adds some things to the plot… but not really.
Merry Christmas, Sarah. This is your present, hope you like it :)
Note: For some of you who may not know, the Author's note was edited to the new chapter 8…
Warning: Contains Lera/Zoro fluff and Sanji/Sarah fluff. Don't say I didn't warn you. And, please, no flames. This is really the only chapter where I'll have such pronounced fluff.
Sanji's Cupcakes
Chapter 9- "The Christmas Special, Yo!"
On the last cupcake of Sanji's Cupcakes…
The Gangster Crew and the Straw Hat Crew faced down Captain Stoner and, after a ridiculously long battle scene, defeated the Navy!
The two crews went off their separate ways afterwards, leaving behind Totoro Island and Captain Smoker to continue along their journey on the Grand Line.
Now, we join our favorite crew as they reach a new island!
Or is it a ho?
"Ho?" said Lera.
"Why are they so happy that there are hoes landing on the ship?" wondered Sarah.
Tracey looked from her book and sighed. "Might as well go and check it out… might really be a ho…"
Both Ler-hah and Sar-hah slid off of Sanji and Zoro. Sanji eagerly took Sarah's hand, the argument with Zoro forgotten, and dragged her out to the deck while Zoro, with a wide smirk, hoisted Lera up onto his back and carried her out piggy-back style so easily it looked as if she weighed nothing at all. Lera, grinning happily, wrapped her arms gently around his neck to keep her balance.
When the two of them emerged on deck, Luffy, Nami, and Tracey had already beaten them outside. The whole Straw Hat Crew was following Usopp's pointing hand. Off on the horizon loomed a large island, colored white. Already, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and the temperature was quickly dropping as the seconds passed.
The whole crew simultaneously shivered. Lera gritted her teeth, closing her eyes tightly as goose bumps rose up on her arms. "It's… friggin' cold!"
Sarah was suffering from the same effects, except her legs were freezing as well. Knee high socks were almost nothing compared to Lera's layer of pants and a skirt. "What the crap?"
Sanji quickly noted her distress and wrapped his arms tightly around her. "I'll keep you warm, Sarah-san!"
Sarah, with a shiver, pressed herself against the cook and nodded. "Thanks, Sanji."
Nami shivered as well, while Luffy and Usopp were turning into ice cubes behind her. "Alright, everyone get back below deck and get coats."
Usopp and Luffy dashed right past her. "US FIRST!"
Twenty minutes later, the Straw Hat crew emerged back on deck. Sarah and Lera were back in their original clothes, jeans and sweatshirts, while the rest of the crew had donned their coats. Tracey had to borrow Nami's coat, seeing as she herself didn't bring anything.
The Totoran witch frowned. "I don't like this coat."
Lera smirked, walking out on deck with her. "That's 'cause it's a ho coat."
"A what coat?"
Sarah, on the other side of Tracey, nodded wisely. "Yup, it's a ho coat."
Tracey was getting rather frustrated with the two. "What's a ho coat?"
The two girls blinked at each other for a moment before replying to Tracey. "Nami's coat."
"Is Nami a ho?" Tracey blinked, lifting her arm to examine one of the sleeves of the coat she was wearing.
Lera and Sarah nodded solemnly. "Yeah."
"Great…" Looking rather disgusted, the three girls finally made if to the deck.
Zolo, Sanji, Usopp, Luffy, and Nami were already there and the island was close as ever. Tracey approached the Navigator, looking over at the white blob of an island. "What's the island called?"
Nami looked up briefly at the witch, and then looked back out at sea. "I don't know. That island isn't really supposed to be there."
"Lovely." With a wry smirk, Tracey turned back to her two friends and shrugged,
Lera shrugged back. "Guess we'll find out when we land there."
Sarah beamed brightly. "It looks like fun. It's all covered in snow and stuff."
"Totally…" A thought suddenly came to Ler-hah. "Hey, do you think Zoro's gonna be fine? I mean, he might want to take off his shirt and think fur…"
"We'd better check, yeah." The two girls left Tracey alone, who in turn sat down and pulled out a notebook and started writing away, because there was probably no chance of her getting back her laptop from repair, she would have to write her stories manually.
Not that laptops existed in One Piece land.
Lera shuffled up to her favorite swordsman. She poked his shoulder gently. "Mr. Bushido?"
Zoro blinked, turning to look at the smiling faces of Lera and Sarah. "Yeah?"
"We have a question to ask you." Lera nodded, looking innocent.
The green-haired man stared blankly at them, waiting for the question.
Sarah couldn't help but blurt it out. "Are you going to take off your shirt today?"
As the girls started giggling hysterically, Zoro stared at them. "What?"
Sar-hah continued. "I mean, are you, like, gonna think fur or something?"
"And get in touch with your inner hot tub?" Lera added.
"And then, like, swim out too far into a forest?"
"'Cause you're a polar bear?"
Zoro didn't even have time to say anything, the girls kept going.
"Not offense, Zoro…" Lera said.
"But that was pretty stupid." said Sarah.
"I mean, c'mon… inner hot tub?"
"Maybe if you hadn't taken off your shirt, you would've been fine."
"Not that I minded." Lera quickly added, grinning.
"And then you wouldn't have had to steal some other guy's coat."
The look Zoro was giving them was pretty obvious. They had managed to confuse him completely. Lera saw this and quickly hugged him. "Don't worry, Zoro, I still heart you."
Sar-hah, laughing, went off to talk with Sanji, leaving Zoro and Lera alone.
The swordsman blinked, a slight tinge of pink coming to his cheeks. "Er… Lera…"
Before she could say anything else, the ship slowed and came to a stop as Usopp steered the ship into a small harbor on the island.
Monkey D. Luffy bounded forward. "YAY, WE'RE HERE, WE'RE HERE!"
Lera looked up. "Oh, good. Let's go." Grabbing Zoro's hand, she dragged him off the ship and onto the island. Sarah followed suit, taking Sanji's hand in hers and running after Ler-hah.
Tracey, Nami, Usopp, and Tracey were left on ship to blink after the retreating backs of the five crew members before they all shrugged and followed after them into the couple of feet snow path. Usopp decided to stay behind. He rubbed his nose, which was cold. "I'll stay behind to protect the ship, then…"
Bye, Usopp. Pfft.
On the other side of the Unknown Island, a certain Gangster crew had landed. Captain Joshu Wa Gorgy walked to the railing of his new ship, the Crow 2, Yo, Bish , and looking out at the island. "Looks like it's covered in some white shit."
Larissa raised an eyebrow, walked past him, carrying her med kit. "That's snow, you moron."
Opium moogrunted in agreement from across the ship.
Gorgy sighed and flicked back his hair, glaring at his ship's doctor. "I didn't ask you, did I?"
She shrugged and kept walking. "No, but you're still a moron."
The Captain growled and decided to go berate the other crew members. Mike was first. The crew member was playing around with his Miroku staff, twirling this way and that. As Gorgy stepped forward, Mike turned quickly and whapped the stuff right into Joshu.
"Ack." said the blue haired captain, stumbling off to the side. As he stumbled, he tumbled right into Marshmallow Kyle, who was back in a new Marshmallow suit. Joshu bounced right off the marshmallow goodness and teetered in a different direction. Into Emily-ly, who was reading Deathnote and drinking bottled water, not really paying attention. At least she wasn't high anymore.
As soon as Gorgy had stumbled into her, she jumped back. "Ew! Get off me!"
Joshu fell right over, groaning in pain and twitching. Opium quickly trotted over and stomped over him as well, moogrunting with pride before returning to napping. On top of Gorgy.
Kyle suddenly loomed over the comatose Joshu. "Were you bothering Emily-ly?"
"Grunt."
"Gah." With a sigh, Kyle simply whapped the captain with an empty water bottle and went back to sulking.
Marshmallow Kyle, on the other hand, trotted forward to poke the first mate. "Are we going to go on the island, or what?"
Emily-ly blinked and looked up. She had already gone back to eating and reading. She reached up a hand to fix the flower that was in her hair, her many bracelets on her wrists jingling. "Uh... yeah, I guess."
She looked over at Joshu, who was now gibbering and twitching. In his hands, he was clutching at a small furby that was weakly playing a little Irish punk ditty. Opium was sleeping peacefully, quite content that it was crushing his master's captain underneath its quite heavy bulk. Emily-ly sighed. It was a pity to have to wake Opium up, but they needed the Captain's non-existent wit and even less existent sense of direction to get anywhere on this snow-covered island.
Plus, since Joshu was currently out for the count, it was the first mate's job to get the crew on the island safely.
She cleared her throat importantly, putting away her bottle of water and her Deathnote book. "Marshmallow Kyle and Mike, wake up Opium, we're going on the island now."
Mike and M. Kyle blinked in distress, looking over at the slumbering koama. Mike walked forward first, extending the Miroku staff out at Emily-ly's pet while Kyle watched a small distance away, rather amused.
Opium, as soon as he felt the poke in his side, growled in a menacing sort of way, opening one eye.
"Ahh!" Mike yelled, backing away quickly.
M. Kyle took a brave step forward. Scampering up to the once again sleeping koama, he poked his head close to its ear before…
"WAH!" He screamed in a high voice. Opium awoke with a loud moogrunt of distress, jumping up and stomping all over Joshu again before realizing what had woken him up.
Marshmallow Kyle saw a pair of gleaming black eyes glaring at him. He screaming loudly and ran off, right off the ship and onto the island. He didn't stop there, though. He kept going.
Emily-ly looked up. She had been busy coaxing her poisonous frogs into their bag and looked up just in time to see Kyle disappear in the forest that surrounded the whole island. "Urgh… Marshmallow Kyle!"
She straightened, pulling the bag roughly onto her shoulders and glaring around at the rest of the crew. Opium was sitting on Joshu's head, looking pleased, while Larissa and Kyle were just blinking. Mike was in a state of shock, staring off in the direction where M. Kyle had run off to.
The First Mate cleared her throat importantly. "Right… let's go on the island, and make sure Marshy Kyle doesn't kill himself."
Larissa pointed at their still unconscious and trampled captain. "What about him?"
Emily-ly stared down thoughtfully at Captain Gorgy before shrugging in a non-caring sort of way. "Leave him."
" Kay!" The crew replied happily, quite grateful that they would be leaving their violent Captain behind. With that, the Gangster Crew set off into the island, following M. Kyle's tracks.
Larissa sighed, watching them go. "I'll just stay here, make sure Joshu doesn't kill anyone…"
Lera and Sarah were tromping along through the snow cheerfully next to each other, giggling about how they had gotten to hold Sanji's and Zoro's hand, while Sanji and Zoro themselves were arguing behind them.
"You should've seen Zoro blush, Ler-hah…"
"Hehe, he was blushing?"
"Don't make me take that stupid bandana and stuff it down your throat, moss head."
"I'd like to see you try, curly eyebrow."
"Yeah, he was blushing! I never thought he could do that… that is, I never saw him do that on the show…"
"Maybe we missed an episode…"
"Are you saying I won't?"
"Is that a threat?"
"SQUEE!"
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
Meanwhile, Luffy was bounding along through the snowy stuff ahead of the group, laughing loudly. Tracey was walking next to Nami and discussing the stories Tracey had written.
It was just at that moment that Lera looked at her watch. It had the date on it and the date read…
"Hey, Sarah, guess what?"
"What?" she blinked, shivering slightly. As they were walking, it seemed to get colder.
"It's Christmas!" Lera eagerly shoved the watch in Sarah's face. After a minute of Sarah and Lera squeaking in excitement, the hyper moment subsided.
"So, are we going to celebrate it? Seems kinda good, since we're on a winter island…"
"Crap yes!" Sarah punched the air, grinning.
In honor of the holiday, the girls burst into song. Zoro and Sanji were still arguing behind them.
(Like Jingle Bells)
"One Piece land, One Piece land,
Usopp is a freak!
We heart love cooks and sash men,
Their hair is natural green, hey!
"One Piece land, One Piece land,
Usopp is a freak!
We heart love cooks and sash men,
Their hair is natural green!"
"I don't even see how your hair is natural green. What'd you do, eat leaves when you
were a baby?"
"What? Leaves are delicious!"
"Sailing in the sea
Chased by Captain Stoner,
Not to mention Commies
Wapohl ate my mother!
Nami is a ho…
Monkey D. likes meat…
But Roronoa and Sanji-san
Are our favorite cupcake treats! Oh!"
"And you can't take my apple!"
"Why would I want to? I bet you poisoned it with your bleached hair!"
"It's natural, thank you!"
"What'd you do, eat bleach when you were a baby?"
"One Piece land, One Piece land,
Usopp is a freak!
We heart love cooks and sash men,
Their hair is natural green, hey!
One Piece land, One Piece land,
Usopp is a freak!
We heart love cooks and sash men,
Their hair is natural green!"
"Why don't you go eat bleach?"
"You first!"
"No way! I gotta protect Sarah-san!"
"And who said I wanted to leave Lera defenseless?"
"Now we're on the Grand Line
Looking for the One Piece
Maybe it's a penny…
Who knows, Gold Roger's crazy!
We know Puma's hawt…
He doesn't have a shirt on…
But forever, we will heart
The Sanji and the Zoro! Oh!"
"My warning still stands, moss head!"
"Do I care? I can still beat you, eyebrow face!"
"One Piece land, One Piece land,
Usopp is a freak!
We heart love cooks and sash men,
Their hair is natural green, hey!
One Piece land, One Piece land,
Usopp is a freak!
We heart love cooks and sash men,
Their haaaair iiiis naaaaatural greeeeeeeeeeeen! Hey!"
"WOULD YOU ALL SHUT UP!" Nami yelled, red in the face with annoyance.
Sanji lowered his eyes. "Sorry, Nami-san."
The two girls fell silent as well, but they had finished their song anyway.
"WOAH! HEY, GUYS, YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!" Luffy's voice rang out in the awkward silence. The crew scurried forward to emerge out of the forest. It opened up into a large valley bordered by mountains and more forest. In the middle of the valley was a large, snow covered village.
Luffy was looking ecstatic. "A village! People! C'mon!" Without another word, he started running down the hill that lead to civilization.
Tracey raised an eyebrow. "Should I subdue him?"
Nami sighed. "By all means, please do."
The medical witch made a brief motion with her hand. Within seconds, a mini-tornado was carrying the hyper Captain of the Going Merry back up to the rest of the group. Luffy had even managed to forget about the village and instead was babbling about the small tornado, which dumped him in front of Tracey and disappeared. Terry and Prat popped up out of nowhere and lifted Luffy off of the ground, somehow wrapping their little handle things around his arms. They stayed there, keeping the rubber boy in place. He was gaping at the toaster minions before catching Nami's eye.
"Let's all go to the village together…"
Luffy, somehow, managed to see it was a lost battle and nodded. "Okay, together!"
So, together, in all togetherness, the Straw Hat Crew went down to the village. Together.
And, yes, together they walked into the village. Sarah sighed in relief. "Good, regular people. No more friggin' bat people… vampire… things."
Lera smirked. "No more onions."
"Shut up…"
A friendly villager, wrapped in winter clothing, came forward, grinning. "Hey, are you visitors?"
Nami stepped forward. "Yes, we are. Where are we?"
The villagers grin spread to a broad smile. "You are on Penguin Island, in the village of Caffeine, ruled by the oh so wise master Andyroo."
Lera blinked. "Where are the penguins?"
Nami laughed nervously and changed the subject. "Could we please speak to your leader? We need to get directions for the next island and stock up on supplies again."
Lera, however, would not be deterred from the subject. "But where are the penguins?"
Sarah was happy to join in. "Yeah, where are the penguins?"
"They are on the other side of the island, I'm afraid." The villager smiled at them.
"Oh."
"And I will gladly lead you all to the great Andyroo. Please, follow me."
So, with that, the Straw Hat Crew was led through Caffeine Village on the island of Penguin Island. Where the penguins were on the wrong side.
And, it just so happens, the penguins were on the side where the Gangster Crew was.
And penguins don't like to be called piles of furby shit, apparently.
"WHY THE CRAP DID YOU HAVE TO TALK TO IT?" Emily-ly screamed at Marshmallow Kyle.
"GAH, I'M SORRY!" He yelled, already missing a few chunks of 'mallow out of his suit.
Earlier, they had caught up to M. Kyle, who had accidentally run into a tree. They then proceeded to walk through the snow-covered forest. It was then they noticed that there were penguins. Everywhere. And Marshmallow Kyle accidentally tripped over one (it's obviously not his day), and proceeded to call it "You stupid pile of furby shit!"
Now, the poor innocent penguin was already rather sad that it had had a boy in a marshmallow suit fall onto it, but, to add insult to injury, the human had proceeded to yell and curse at it. After a few waddles of fury, it squeaked and, in an instant, hundreds of the tuxedoed animals began flopping out of nowhere, looking rather angry.
"Oh, shi-" M. Kyle began, but then Mike grabbed him by the arm and, as a group, the Gangster Crew began running. Which is where we see them now.
Everyone point and laugh at them.
Go ahead; I'll give you a minute.
…
Yeah, ok. Moving on…
"I SWEAR, IF I DIE FROM PENGUINS…" The first mate threatened, dodging around trees and Opium sprinted behind her.
"Look, I'm sorry, ok? Stop yelling." Marshy Kyle reasoned, nearly tripping over a bush as he got snagged on a branch.
"I'll help you!" Nate jumped out of nowhere, but was quickly run over by waddling penguins and died. No one noticed and continued running.
Sorry, though. Nate's dead already. Merry Christmas, Nate.
Mike was silently sprinting in panic, while Kyle was in the back, occasionally resisting the urge to turn and just kill all of the penguins. He knew Emily-ly wouldn't like lots of dead things on her hands. So he kept running. Along with everyone else.
Just when it seemed like they were about to overwhelmed by the furious creatures, the The Crow 2 Yo, Bish Crew burst out of the forest, tripped, and, together, started rolling down a hill, The penguins stopped, squeaking angrily at them before turning and waddling back into the forest, muttering in penguin-language.
The hill, conveniently enough, happened to lead into Caffeine Village.
"Did I tell you? My panties have loosened."
Lera, Tracey, and Sarah were laughing loudly while Nami was still struggling to communicate with the village leader, Andyroo. She hadn't made much progress.
The leader was about the same age as the whole Straw Hat Crew. Vivid, stunning blue eyes peered out at them past bright red curls of hair. He had on a long-sleeve shirt that said "Pants are so overrated" on it, and he gave off the impression of being blissfully cheerful all the time.
This, of course, was not the case. He was just slightly high.
"But that's because I don't think pants should exist." He added with a grin.
Everything that he said made Lera, Sarah, and Tracey go into new waves of laughter. Nami was getting aggravated, while Zoro and Sanji were getting increasingly disturbed. Luffy was the only one who could understand what exactly the red-head was saying.
The Navigator decided to try again. "Er… so… are we allowed to stay in your village for a while and restock?"
"Only of you PWN me at sporkage."
"Only if I what?" Nami stared.
"But I want to go to Taco Bell first."
"Where?"
"But I have to take a shower first, and that means I need to get naked."
"You… what?"
"And then I might go to bed, and I'm sure you want to come with me." He continued to speak, grinning.
"Er.. not really…"
"Aw, please? Don't you wuv me? I'll give you mono…"
Lera and Sarah quickly raised their hands. "WE WUV YOU, ANDYROO!"
Tracey was too busy laughing to reply.
Sanji and Zoro gaped at the girls. "YOU DO?"
Andyroo, on the other hand, jumping up and started dancing. "Yey!"
The girls went back to laughing and Nami decided to try one more time. "So we can stay?"
The red-head nodded, sitting back down and pulling out a Mountain Dew. "Sure. As long as you don't wear pants and you wuv me."
Nami raised an eyebrow, but Andyroo continued.
"By the way, we have a holiday thingie today. Something about Christmas or something. You can celebrate that if you want. I'm going to go loosen my panties." And with that, Andyroo left.
Sighing, the Navigator headed back to her crew. The two guys, excluding Luffy, were torn whether to laugh or to throw up, while the other three girls who stumbled forward to complete the crew were still giggling. Luffy blinked at them, but Nami quickly took up the position of leader. "Ok, well…"
"Excuse me, would you like me to show you where you can stay?" A small penguin waddled up to them, looking up curiously.
Lera gasped. "A talking penguin!"
The creature nodded. "I'm Andyroo's pet. Call me Garske."
Sarah bounded forward and huggled the penguin. "SQUEE! KAWAII!"
As the animal wriggled around in protest, Sanji gently pulled Garske away from Sarah and put him down.
Nami nodded. "Yes, we would, actually."
Looking slightly ruffled, Garske cast the rather downcast Sarah a fearful look before waving a flipper. "Follow me."
With that, the Straw Hat crew followed after the waddling penguin. As they followed him through the Andyroo's main building, back outside and down the road, Sarah and Lera were whispering softly. They both looked rather distressed.
"I don't know what to get Sanji for Christmas…"
"And I have no idea what to get Zoro!"
Everyone else was listening to Garske, who was explaining the concept of Christmas.
Zoro frowned. "What am I going to get Lera…?"
Sanji was thinking the same thing. "Oh no, what am I to get my dear Sarah-san?"
Luffy, on the other hand… "Oh boy! Turkey!"
Tracey walked along next to Lera, trying vainly to continue writing her story whilst moving. She was rather successful, but it took up all her attention and she didn't even pay attention to anyone else.
As they walked, Luffy spotted something before everyone else. He was quick to point it out. "Hey, guys, what's that?"
Zoro frowned, peering off into the distance. "They look familiar…"
Nami ran forward slightly, almost stepping on Garske as he did so. "It's the Gangster Crew again!"
Lera blinked. "With Captain Gorgy?"
"And the koama!" Sarah squealed.
Garske stopped and pointed a flipper at a large house. "Here is where you can stay. Enjoy." With that, he waddled away as fast as he could. He didn't want to be hugged by Sarah again.
It was just in time, too. Emily-ly, M. Kyle, Mike, Kyle, and Opium stumbled down the street. They stopped as soon as Emily-ly spotted The Straw Hat Crew. She blinked. "Oh, great…"
The two enemy crews approached each other cautiously. Mike and M. Kyle grinned, waving at Sarh-hah and Ler-hah, both of whom waved back.
The First Mate, Emily-ly, nodded to Nami and Luffy. "What are you doing here?"
"I was about to ask you the same question." Nami replied.
"We're walking." Emily-ly said.
"And running away from penguins." Mike added, but cringed slightly when the pissed off Emily-ly shot him a dark look. Kyle whacked Mike upside the head, his expression not changing in the least.
"Cool! We were just talking to a penguin!" Luffy cried.
There was uncomfortable silence in the group before Lera took a step forward to stand between Emily-ly and Nami. "Do you guys, uh… want to celebrate Christmas with us?"
Emily-ly turned her attention to Lera. "What?"
"Er... Christmas... y'know... this holiday where you give everyone presents… drink hot chocolate, eat stuff…"
Sarah nodded. "You tell 'em, Ler-hah."
Eagerly raising his hand, Mike said, "I've heard of that! Oh my god, it's soooo much fun! Can we celebrate it with them, Emily-ly? Can we?"
M. Kyle jumped around. "Yeah, can we?"
Emily-ly looked back at her crew. Kyle looked indifferent, as did Opium. It was Mike and M. Kyle who seemed really eager to celebrate the holiday.
Nami gaped in shock at Lera while Luffy jumped up, going to dance with Mike and Marshmallow Kyle. "That's a great idea!"
Zoro grinned. "Yeah, I'm ok with that."
Sanji looked over at Sarah. "If Sarah wants to, so do I."
Tracey blinked, finally speaking after a long time. "What's going on?"
"We're celebrating Christmas with the Gangster Crew!" Sarah replied.
"Oh… cool."
The rest of the day was spent preparing for the present opening planned for the evening. When both crews had walked into the house, they found an already decorated Christmas tree, plenty of food for a Christmas dinner, and enough rooms for everyone. Then they all set to work to get presents for all.
As they wandered around town, asking for help from the villagers, and visiting shops to buy presents, it began to snow.
Luckily for Lera and Sarah and the Gangster Crew, they had found real winter coats in the house and now tromped around town in them, contentedly warm.
The two friends, giggling and hiding the presents they had bought for Sanji and Zoro in their coats, dashed into their house to begin wrapping presents.
Time flew and, soon enough, it was getting dark. Both crews stumbled into their temporary home. Lera and Sarah were the first there, sitting in armchair. It was a rather comforting setting. The Christmas tree already boasted some presents beneath its branches. Around the tree was a large couch and many armchairs and warmth was flooding throughout the entire room from a large fireplace. Stripping down to their regular clothes, The Gangster Crew and the Straw Hat Crew filed into the room, creating piles of presents for everyone.
It seemed that only Mike, Lera, Sarah, and Tracey were the only ones actually familiar with Christmas. Sarah blinked around at them all. "What're you waiting for? Let's open our presents!"
With squeals, Lera and Sarah pounced upon their pile of gifts, excitedly ripping away wrapping paper.
Taking the two girls' cue, everyone else set upon their presents as well.
"Oh, snap, this is awesome! Thanks, Tracey!"
"Duuuuuude!"
"Well, this is… interesting…"
"THANK YOU, NAMI!"
For about half an hour, the only sounds were joyful thank you's and the noisy ripping of paper. By the end, the whole gang sat around, content with their piles of presents.
Lera and Sarah were the happiest. This had been their first Christmas in One Piece land. So far, Lera had gotten a new pirate hat from Luffy, a skirt from Nami, and a box of regular cupcakes from Sanji. From the Gangster Crew side of the spectrum, Mike had given Lera a card, a pack of M&M cookies from Emily-ly, a case of Mountain Dew from Marshmallow Kyle, and a new Juvenile Orion book from Tracey. The only presents she had left to open were from Sarah and Zoro. She opened Sarah's first.
"SQUEE!" Lera held three framed pictures. One was of Lera and Sarah in One Piece land, another of Lera glomping Zoro, and the last was a picture of everyone they had met together in a group pictures. Sarah had drawn them herself with her drawing skillz. "Thank youuuu!" She happily hugged her Noo-Noo.
Zoro blinked, looking up from a new set of bandanas Sarah had given him. "What?"
Lera grinned, hiding the glomping picture. "Oh, just some pictures…"
Sarah beamed. "I knew you'd like them."
Sarah was surrounded by presents as well. She had gotten a new pair of commando boots from Nami, also a pirate hat from Luffy, and a new drawing pad from Zoro. From the Gangster Crew, Sarah had gotten a card from Mike, cookies from Emily-ly, Junior Mints from Marshmallow Kyle. She had also gotten rock candy from Tracey. Now, she too only had Lera's and Sanji's present left.
She ripped open her last of two gifts, which happened to be from Lera.
"SQUEE! THANK YOU, LER-HAH!" Her present turned out to be a thick wad of papers, a collection of stories written by Lera about Sanji, One Piece land, their adventures so far, etc…
"What'd you get?" Sanji asked, holding a new frying pan he had received from Lera.
"Stories." Sarah happily hugged her poopaw.
"Your welcome, Sar-hah." Lera laughed.
So now, the only presents left for Lera and Sarah were from Zoro and Sanji, which was likewise from Zoro and Sanji, who only had presents left from Lera and Sarah.
Zoro took his present. "I'll go first."
Lera watched breathlessly as he opened his present, then grinned as Zoro chuckled with pleasure. It was a new winter coat, not the long girly one Zoro had before, and inside the coat was a case with three new sheaths for his swords. "Thanks, Lera." He smirked over at her and Lera giggled. "No problem."
"I'll go next." Sanji volunteered. He pulled out his present from under the tree and Sarah squeaked. His present turned out to be…
He stood, holding out the apron in front of him. It was covered with hearts and in big words on the front it said "Kiss the Love Cook." Sanji grinned at Sarah, tying the apron on. "Thank you, my love."
Sarah quickly jumped up, giving him a hug. "No problem, Sanji!" She quickly took the command on his apron to heart and kissed him briefly on the cheek. Sanji's eye turned into a pink heart and his own heart popped out of his chest. Sarah squealed before getting pulled back to sit by Lera. "We still need to open our presents, you poopaw…"
"Oh… right…" Sarah glanced up at her favorite cook, who still looked dazed.
Lera opened her present from Zoro. It was a new dagger, along with a sword keeping case, including polisher, sharpening tool, and hilt cleaner. Ler-hah gasped. "Thanks, Zoro!" She leaned across her pile of presents to hug Zoro in thanks.
"My turn!" Sarah took her gift and hurriedly tore it open. "Sanji… wow!"
She held out a huge cake in the shape of a heart with Sanji hugging Sarah drawn in icing on the top. "It looks delicious!"
Sarah and Lera briefly leaned against each other, grinning. "Tell I ate it all… tell her it was delicious!"
As they laughed, Sanji beamed and took the cake. "I'll set it on the table and we'll have it after our dinner."
Everyone rose from their positions, heading into the large dining room where the table had been laid out by, of course, Sanji. It had everything, from turkey, to mashed potatoes, to cranberry juice. Everything. Everyone gratefully took their seats and began to eat. About half-way through, there was sudden crash and everyone jumped out of their seats to see Joshu Wa Gorgy stomp in, looking furious, cold, and covered in snow. "You… jackasses…"
Lera blinked. "It's Gorgy!"
Emily-ly sighed, going to sit back down. "Oh, crap…"
"EMILY-LY!" Joshu yelled angrily, storming forward, to find Kyle blocking his way. "You won't touch Emily-ly…"
"What makes you think you can stop me?" Gorgy growled, narrowing his eyes at the bodyguard from Brown-Noo-Noo island.
"Because I'm her bodyguard, and it's my job to protect her." Kyle replied simply, staring coldly at him.
The festive feeling in the house disappeared. Lera and Sarah, however, wouldn't stand for it. They jumped forward. "RAH!"
Something buzzed and there was a rush of air. Then something went "Boom" and a thick purple haze covered everything. For a moment, everything was confusion, but then the haze faded to reveal the two girls standing and looking a bit dazed. Somehow, Captain Gorgy and Kyle were now in cages, unconscious.
Lera recovered quickly and sheathed her swords. "Good. And stay there."
Sarah snapped her fingers, sending out a small shock to each guy purely out of spite. "Yeah, bish."
Satisfied, the two girls went back to eating. Everyone else stared at them for a moment before shrugging and returning to their food as well.
It was only around twelve that everyone decided to go to bed. With yawns and waves, both crew members stumbled off to their rooms. Sarah and Sanji hugged briefly before going into their separate rooms, which happened to be next to each other. Zoro, however, didn't. He didn't feel like going to bed just yet. Pulling on his new coat he had received from Lera, he snuck out of the house silently and went to a walk through the town, the snow still falling. However, his feet soon led him out of the village completely and into an open field nearby.
As Zoro walked out into the open field, he spotted a dark figure in the snow. He frowned, striding forward to see who it was, then finally recognized the curly hair. It was Lera. Smiling, he took the last steps and sat down next to her in the snow. "Didn't expect to see you out here." It seemed that he wasn't the only one who wasn't that sleepy.
Lera grinned. She had been looking up, watching the snow softly fall on the already formed white blanket. Now her brown-green eyes had gone to Zoro, reflecting the falling flakes. "Yeah, well…"
"Aren't you cold?" He asked, not really cold himself. He was quite comfortable in his long winter coat, but he knew from experience that simply sitting still in a foot of snow wasn't pleasant.
The girl herself was in a black, thick coat, and she looked cheerful. Her hair glistened from the melted snow, as did her eyes. For some reason, Zoro couldn't take his eyes off of them… he barely even heard her reply.
"No, I'm fine."
Shaking off the odd feelings, he looked up at the sky as well. "So why aren't you inside with the others?"
Lera went back to staring out the darkened night. "I don't know. It's just that… this is my favorite type of weather and time of day." Her voice was soft and hushed, as if she was frightened to disturb the peaceful silence around them. "The middle of the night, when gentle snow is falling slowly to the ground in a soft silence. It's really nice." She smiled fondly, moving her arms back to prop herself up and get a better view of looking up at the dark, cloudy sky. She seemed oddly calm and thoughtful, which meant she hadn't had sugar in a while.
The green-haired man smiled. "You're right… I never realized how… comforting it is."
"Sometimes people take simple things for granted, I guess." Lera shrugged, glancing briefly at him.
Zoro turned his full attention to Lera, then moved a tad closer. She didn't seem to notice, and he took the opportunity to ask… "Are you sure you're not cold?"
"I guess I'm a bit chilly…" She admitted. Zoro didn't need any more urging. Lera blinked as she felt an arm slide around her waist gently and a sudden warmth press against her side. It was Zoro, who was now holding her close. Blushing, she lowered her eyes. "Zoro…"
"Shh. You're ruining the silence." Was his reply, and she could even sense his grin through it.
With a bright smile, Lera shifted closer and leaned against him, snuggling into his side and feeling herself getting warmer already. She hadn't really wanted to admit it at the time… but she was freezing.
"Thanks, Zolo." She whispered softly, feeling a blush creeping into her cheeks as she grinned sheepishly.
The two of them contentedly sat the rest of the night together, watching the snow fall. As soon as Lera had slipped from her perch and flopped right into Zoro's lap, asleep, did Zoro take the cue to pick up the girl and walk back to the house. He gently placed her on her bed in her room, next to Sarah's. He pulled her winter coat off and fondly laid a few warm blankets over her. With a smile, Lera shifted a little before finding a comfortable position and sighing.
Zoro found that he didn't want to go to his own room. Instead, he pulled up a chair and sat next to Lera's bed. Now tired himself, he quickly dozed off.
Just before the arrival of the sword wielding pair, Sarah had woken up screaming.
"SANJI, THE HOMOSEXUAL BUTTERFLIES ARE STEALING MY VIRGINITY! AGAIN! AND…"
The rest of her words had dissolved into gibberish by the time the blonde burst into her room. "Sarah?"
"Huh?" Sarah blinked, becoming aware that she was awake. Sanji walked forward, sitting down on the bed next to Sarah. "Is everything alright, my love?"
The girl blinked, nodding slightly and brushing her hair out of her eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine…" She looked up to see Sanji looked at her in concern.
"Was it a nightmare?"
She hesitated for a moment, not wanting to say, and then nodded. "Yes."
"What was it about?"
Sarah looked away. "It was about… me and Lera leaving… to go back home. And I'd never see you again, Sanji! It was really bad…" She almost looked tearful as she said so.
Sanji quickly pulled her into a tight hug. "It's alright, Sarah-san… you know I'll never let that happen, I'll always be there."
She sniffed slightly and quickly hugged him back. "I hope so, Sanji…"
"I know so. I'm never gonna leave you, Sarah." The cook replied in all seriousness, resting his chin gently on the top of Sarah's head.
Sarah sighed and squeaked slightly. "I heart you, Sanji."
Sanji smiled slightly but only said, "Go to sleep, Sarah, I'll make sure you don't have anymore nightmares."
"Ok…" Sarah, with one last sniffle, lay back down on her pillow and turned over to face Sanji, closing her eyes. Sanji gently took her hand and watched Sarah fall asleep.
"I heart you too, Sarah…" He said softly, long after she had gone back to sleep.
The next morning, Sarah had awoken, remembering perfectly what had happened that night. Sanji, of course, wasn't there. Yawning, she shuffled out of her room in her pajamas over to Lera's room. She stopped in the doorway, her eyes wide.
"LERA, WHY IS ZORO IN YOUR BED?"
"Huh? What?" Lera blinked, sitting up and blinking blearily at Sarah, then looked to her left. Indeed, there was Zoro, sleeping on top of the covers. Little did they know that when Zoro had fallen asleep, he had fallen out of his chair onto the bed, then automatically shifted himself and pulled his legs up on the bed as well.
Lera quickly stumbled out of bed and, grabbing her book bag with clothes to change into, ran out of the room with Sarah, leaving Zoro all by himself.
Sarah stopped once they were back in her room, poking her friend. "What the crap was he doing in your room?"
"Er… actually, I don't know…" She pulled out her jeans and shirt from her bag. "All I remember it being outside and watching the snow fall. I guess I fell asleep and Zoro brought be back…"
Sar-hah's eyes widened in horror. "What were you doing outside?"
"I told you… watching the snow fall…" Lera replied, blinking, then noticing that her friend looked skeptical. "Seriously!"
"Hmph.."
Both of the girls decided that it was better not to say anything about their experience with Sanji and Zoro. Instead, they went to change into regular clothes and headed down to breakfast, already back to giggling about how they had put Gorgy and Kyle in cages.
ZOMG, FLUFF!
What will our crew do now, with Christmas over?
I have no idea!
Find out next time on... Sanji's Cupcakes!
Holy crap, 20 pages. Isn't that scary? This is the longest chapter so far.
Hope you like it. I dunno. Took me almost a whole day to type and I have a headache. 'Cause fluff is … fluffin' hard to type. Which is why it's only going to be in this chapter, considering this is a present for Sar-hah!
So merry Christmas and all that. Woot.