Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. I only own Yami.
Author's note: "nani" = "huh"
Chapter 11: Walking Through the Storm
Ace sighed, still half-asleep. It was so comfortable, the ground was soft, the sun didn't bother him and the girl sleeping beside him smelled nice. He was at peace.
He groaned lowly and nuzzled his nose deeper inside the girl's hair, embracing her tightly and huddling his body up against her back. This smell just mesmerised him, it made him dull and sleepy and wanting to never let her go again. The feeling of her back pressed up against his chest, the feeling of her rear against his morning wood …
Wait a moment …!
He opened his eyes. And was in speechless terror.
It wasn't just any girl that slept so (hopefully!) soundly next to him. It was Yami, and if she realised what he was doing just now (or what a certain part of him was doing just now), days, no, years of mocking were warranted to him. Or worse, she would think that she could abuse the chance of the situation and come up with the next "Now's-a-good-time-to-sleep-with-you" thing.
He tensed as he suddenly heard movements behind his back. The girls were awaking! Okay, what they would think if they found him here was one thing. If they woke her up and she found him here, and especially that way, that would be the worst case ever. It was already bad enough that he still felt kind of dull and just wanted to lie there and press up against her even more, her body just felt so go– No, shut the fuck up! he mentally yelled at himself and listened to the other tent inhabitants.
Please be quiet, please be quiet … He didn't turn around, firstly because he didn't want to wake Yami, and secondly because the other two would perhaps leave them both alone and fucking be quiet if they thought them both sleeping.
Vivi yawned. "Nani?" she asked and he knew she looked at him in that very second. He just hoped she wouldn't scream or something … but no. There was silence for a few seconds, then he heard her standing up and praised the princess for her good manners. She got out of the tent. He relaxed again and then slowly began unwrapping his arms – which was not that easy because one of them was stuck under her head.
"Hmmm …" she moaned in her sleep and he went rigid again. Besides, another part of him seemed to be rather pleased with the noises she made, oh fuck. There just had to be a way to get away from this …
"Luffy! Throw that creature away, it's dangerous!"
Fuck, fuck, fuck! Damn, Luffy!
Yami stirred in his arms, which made her behind press up even more against his, umm, special situation. He looked at her with wide eyes, but she didn't wake up, thank you so much. Even Nami just slept on, she must have been used to so much yelling in the morning, considering who her crewmates were.
His left arm was already removed. But the right one, still under her head, was going to be difficult …
"Get away with that crap!" someone called in a high pitch. He could tell that it was Usopp, but that didn't really matter now.
Argh!
"Hmmmh?" Yami murmured and let out a small sigh.
She was already half-awake, and he had to take action now. In one swift movement, he pulled his arm out from under her head and pushed her away with so much force as he could mobilise so early in the morning – and with that freaking dullness still all around his body.
She flew a few metres away, rolling over the sandy ground to the tent's fabric wall where she finally came to a halt.
… Okay, perhaps that was too much.
She rose to her knees, all the while coughing and wiping the sand off her face. Then she stared at him, still looking drowsy and with a cute wrinkled-from-sleep face, her hair tousled from sleep. Her voice, however, was not so cute at that moment as she started to yell at him. "HEY! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?"
He really felt guilty at that moment. But even more, he was relieved that she hadn't noticed his … umm … condition. Not yet.
"Sorry," he said ruefully and made a concerned face. "I guess I might have overreacted …"
She grumbled something while still trying to get the sand off. "Asshole cowboy."
He decided it would be better to go out before she could really notice something. With quite a bit of absurd satisfaction, he noticed his ascendency from 'idiot cowboy' to 'asshole cowboy'.
Luffy, Chopper, Usopp and Vivi were already outside, all with a worried expression (all but Luffy) and looking into the same direction.
"Something is approaching …" Chopper said while standing on a rock.
"Nani?" Luffy asked and cocked his head to the left.
"What … what is that?" Usopp muttered.
Ace went some steps ahead and looked at the thing that came up straight in their direction. He narrowed his eyes. "Oh. That looks quite like a storm."
The thing was greyish, it was high and looked like a giant pillar, and it approached incredibly fast. Was it …
"OH! FAST NOW! TAKE SHELTER BEHIND THE ROCKS!" Vivi suddenly yelled.
"Nani? What?" Luffy asked dumbfounded.
"THAT'S … THAT'S A SANDSTORM!"
Ace looked at it while shadowing his eyes with his hand, and yup, it was just what he suspected. A large tornado out of sand … "Uh-oh …"
The boys and Vivi did as the girl had told them, but Ace was undecided. He turned and looked back at the tents. What about the others, they were still sleeping, and even Yami who was awake now wouldn't have enough time to take shelter …
"Holy crap! What's that?" the very object of his thinking cried out as she appeared in the tent's entrance. With wide eyes, she stared at the tornado now almost there. The whole world seemed to fly upwards, and Ace stood in the middle of it all, looking at her. Damn, that's not enough time for her … and everybody else in the tents …
Just then, with one last glance at him, he saw her closing her eyes, and the tattoos came back to her face – one split second before she was nothing more than a black shape.
Damn good idea … he thought as he was carried away by the sandstorm.
She stared at the tornado of sand as it crashed right into idiot cowboy. She wanted to yell at him to transform into fire, but the noise of the tornado drowned out everything. Well, if he didn't think about something as easy as that, it was his own fault.
Being a shadow was strange. Her Devil Fruit powers allowed her to hear, feel, and see everything – she could even talk if she wanted to. And she felt the whole power of the sandstorm raging through her form, she felt every single grain of sand piercing through her shadow figure. It didn't hurt, but it was so weird.
She couldn't see any of the others, so as she was indeed able to walk through the storm for the wind could carry away everything but a shadow, she decided to look after them. She moved to the right where she had seen Luffy, Usopp, Chopper and Vivi taking shelter behind the rocks, and they were still there, clinging to them desperately. They were well, she noticed with relief. Next to look at was Nami who had been still in the tent, as well as Zoro and Sanji … who probably had been asleep. The tents were already blown away, and she couldn't see any of them, which made her worried.
I just hope they're well, too …
Ace was the one she worried about least of all, for she knew he was strong and would survive it without a doubt. She moved to where the tents had been and looked up; there was grey fabric whirling around with the sand somewhere, but the three missing members of the Straw Hat Crew were still nowhere to be seen, so she moved into the opposite direction. She almost bumped into Ace – had she had a body at that time.
She was surprised that he was still standing, bent by the wind at that, but still standing, his hands clenched to fists and crossed in front of his face so as to protect it from the sharp grains of sand. He had his eyes closed, so he couldn't see her, but she made her way to his side and hesitantly put a hand on his shoulder. Of course he couldn't feel it, and it was a stupid and futile action, but she just felt like it now, even if it didn't have any effect on him.
She couldn't help but feel impressed by his strength.
His hat was long since dangling at nothing but the string that held it, wrapped around his neck, and it caught the wind like a kite. It looked rather suffocating …
At the moment the hat's string decided to rip, the whole man toppled over, straight through Yami's shadow body. She gasped at the strange feeling, even if it wasn't the first time someone did that. She looked after him as he disappeared in the whirlwind of sand.
After what seemed like an eternity, the storm calmed down, and the sun shone brightly. Yami was relieved to be able to transform back to her normal form, for it was difficult to hold it up that long – she had to admit her stupid cold got in her way once more. Yet, she didn't allow herself to rest but walked around instead, looking for the crew and the fire user.
The first thing she found was his hat. With a half-hearted smile, she took it up. Of course the ridiculous item had to survive the sandstorm. Of course the most unimportant thing of all was well and looked as healthy as a hat could look. She brushed the sand off, then continued her search.
Some metres away, she saw a dark-blue piece of cloth – Vivi! She hurried up to her and started digging the princess out. As she was halfway through, she started to stir and soon, she was free and sat up, coughing the sand out.
"Thank … you …" she croaked hoarsely.
Yami was glad that she was alive and relatively well, but she had to find the others. "Let's go on searching, you're the first I could find …"
The princess nodded and they split up to look in different directions, the hat still in Yami's hands. As she was about to look on, suddenly the ground under her feet started to shake dangerously.
Crap, another sand trap!
But no …
"Gyaaaaa!" Ace exclaimed as he sat up. After shaking his head violently, he looked around. "Nani? Nani?"
He just found Yami laying on the ground at his feet and scratched his head. "Hey, whatcha doing there?" he asked confused.
She stood up and brushed the sand off her cloak, then lifted her face and shook her head, smiling. "Apparently I stood on you …" she stated happily.
He frowned. "That's not nice. Standing on people is really not nice, you know … oh, you've got my hat!" His face lit up immediately as he stood up and took his orange treasure from her hands. She rolled her eyes, but he didn't care.
"I see you're just so incredibly glad to see me unharmed …" she smirked.
He looked up at her again. "Oh. No, not really. I saw you getting into a shadow, remember? So I'm not very surprised to see you're okay. I just assumed it." He hadn't had the slightest worry about her from that time on, he knew she could manage things like this. She was the Lady of the Shadows, and it needed more than a lousy sandstorm to wipe her out. But, on reflection, perhaps he could indeed have been worried. She could still be sick, and not at the peak of her powers …
She cut him off as she nodded. "Unimportant. Let's look on. Oh, by the way," she asked, "why didn't you use your powers?"
"I don't think the sand would have gone straight through me like it did with you," he replied. "Perhaps it would've carried me off for lack of weight …"
"You could have tried."
"To risk losing my footing? No, thanks."
By the time they went on, the others had already broken through the desert's sandy surface, and they were relieved to see them all alive and well, even the three from the tents.
"Hey, that came suddenly …" Zoro said and brushed the sand off his clothes.
Sanji agreed while helping Nami to stand up. "I just slept so soundly …"
After recollecting their luggage, the group marched on.
Author's note: hahaha, did you like the way he woke up? I did xD And when watching the anime again, I laughed so hard when he just sat up with a yell after being buried by a sandstorm ...
