When lunch was finished Rose goes into the girls' room to get ready for their departure. Once inside, she quickly changes from the clothes that she borrowed from Nami into the clean purple t-shirt and blue jeans that she came to this world in.
She neatly folds the clothes that she borrowed, places them in Nami's laundry bin , and takes a look in the mirror before she chuckles at the pizza slice logo on her t-shirt. She looks down at her worn out sneakers then changes out of them and into a pair of slim black slippers that she got in town. After she finishes changing, she takes a look at her small chest to see that something's missing and pulls her necklace out of her t-shirt with a smile. *Glad I won't need to worry about borrowing Nami's clothes anymore with the spares I got. I'd better get ready for the desert.*
She goes into her backpack and pulls out a long, blue, thin layered, hooded jacket with dark purple lines embroidered around the waistline and the edges of the jacket. She pulls on the long sleeves to allow the bottom of her jacket to brush the top of her feet.
She gives a small smile to her reflection before she starts securing the bottom button at her mid thigh and keeps going until she secures the final button at the top of her chest.
Once she pulls the silver chain of her necklace out of her jacket to let the red and black crystal hang on the outside of her clothes, Nami and Vivi walk inside and spot the jacket.
Vivi looks over Rose's new outfit with a smile. "I was just about to see if you needed clothes. The jacket looks good on you."
Rose smiles at the comment as she looks at their matching outfits. "Thanks, the dancer outfits look cute on you guys."
"Thank you." Vivi grins at the compliment before she goes to the desk then grabs a pen and paper to begin writing a letter.
"Sanji bought one for you too if you want." Nami says as she pulls out a red dancer outfit with the similar design to hers and Vivi's from her bag.
Rose widens her eyes at the cute outfit before she shakes her head with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I appreciate it, but I don't think I can accept a gift like that. It's too much. Besides, we're covering up for the desert anyway right?"
Nami widens her eyes at the refusal then sighs in disappointment and puts the outfit away. "Yea, we are. It's kind of a shame, but we gotta cover up to avoid getting sunburn. I just thought I'd let you know we have one for you too if you're interested. Did you get water for the trip?"
"Yea, I got a few containers of water, some spare clothes, food, and a couple of other supplies. How long will it take to get to Yuba from Erumalu Vivi?"
"A few days. The sooner we go there and find the rebel leader the better."
Rose slowly nods while she keeps a small smile on her face. "Yea, you're right… Hey, what are you writing anyway?"
"A letter to my father. I want to send Carue off on his own at a different spot in order for him to travel to the capital and deliver it to him."
"In that case, I'll go outside to see if there's a good place to dock coming up." Rose picks up her backpack and leaves the room just before her smile fades away from her train of thought. *Sorry Vivi, I'm gonna have to put the plan I had to get us through the desert faster on hold until after Yuba. The last thing I want is to make Ace and Luffy's time together shorter than it could be…*
She heads outside to the deck where she finds Zoro training by swinging a heavy weight with Chopper and Carue using the wind made from the strikes to cool themselves down.
She keeps a small frown on her face as she reaches the front railing and sits next to the figurehead. When she's secured on the railing she leans on Merry's head and starts twirling her finger around the chain of her necklace while she plans out her next course of action. *As long as I don't slow the group down, the time we go through the desert should be around the same as when I didn't show up in their lives. If I remember the anime version of Alabasta right, we're gonna get separated along the way. If I can make sure Luffy stays with Ace during the separation or vice versa then at least it'd be something.*
She lets go of her chain to pat Merry's head then looks around to see if there's a place to dock while Nami and Vivi walk outside. They walk up to the front of the ship where Rose is sitting and join her in their search for a place to dock.
Vivi is the first to spot a good place to dock down the river and points to it with the hand that's not holding her letter. "There's a good place to stop the ship."
Nami looks over the location then heads inside to get everyone outside. "I'll get the others to dock. Just hang on."
Vivi nods as she and Rose watch Nami walk inside and quickly bring the guys outside to dock the ship near a flat part of the terrain. When the ship has successfully stopped everyone but Ace and Zoro got off the ship to see Carue off while those two watched from the ship.
Vivi points to the neatly folded letter in her hand so that Carue focuses his gaze on it. "I need you to head to Alubarna palace on your own and deliver this letter to my father. This letter holds everything about Crocodile's plans for this country. It will also assure him that I've returned to Alabasta safely with some friends. Can you do it?"
Carue quickly nods as he lifts one of his wings up to his head as if he's saluting her.
Vivi grins at her brave friend's attitude as she tucks the letter in Carue's green cloak then points to the small barrel of water that's hanging from his neck. "You need to drink your water with care when you're in the desert. Try not to drink too much at the beginning."
Carue nods with determination as he gets ready to start running.
"Good luck Carue!" Luffy says as he and the others grin at the duck as he runs off on his own into the desert.
Once the duck is far from their sights they get back on the boat to continue sailing on the river. After the ship starts moving, most of the others scatter around the ship to get ready for their next stop.
Rose goes back to the back of the ship and ungracefully flies up a few feet into the air. Once she's balanced on her wind, she starts trying to create wind blasts from her hands, but is only able to make a few breezes. She groans in frustration when she tries again and accidentally turns her arm into a strong gust of wind that sends her flying backwards from the force.
She crashes her back onto a crate and smashes it, then slowly gets up while she looks down at her arm. "What the-?!"
"Looks like you really are new to your abilities."
Rose quickly turns around to see Ace, who's wearing a black jacket with flames decorating the bottom edges, watching the show from the railing with an amused smirk on his face. "When did you eat your devil fruit?"
Rose quietly sighs as she rubs the back of her head nervously. "About a week ago. What about you? Luffy said you didn't have yours when you lived with him so it couldn't have been that long."
"I ate mine about two years ago."
"How long did it take for you to get control of your fire?"
"Longer than a week that's for sure. Your body needs time to adjust to your element before you can take full control of it."
She quirks an eyebrow at the advice. "Adjust my body to the element? What does that mean?"
"I'll tell you if you answer this. Why did you keep trying to get me to move my seat at the restaurant?"
Rose freezes at the question and opens her mouth to say something when Nami's voice starts ringing through the air. "HEY GUYS WE'RE APPROACHING A PLACE WHERE WE CAN DOCK NEAR ERUMALU! GET MOVING!"
The two logia users look out to the front deck to see some of the crewmembers coming outside in their jackets to get ready to dock.
Rose takes this opportunity to turn the conversation around. "Let's talk about that later. Maybe during a logia training session?"
Ace widens his eyes at the suggestion before his smirk returns to his face. "After you sent me flying, the last thing you're gonna want is for me to train you."
Rose chuckles at the challenge. "I didn't think you hold grudges for something like that, but I'll take my chances. Will you please teach me?"
Ace only shrugs before he walks away. "I'll think about it."
Rose watches him walk away with a look of surprise before she quietly sighs and walks to the front deck. *Should've expected that after pulling that Angel Beats gag on him. At least he didn't say no. Honestly, it would be pretty awesome to learn more about my powers from him.*
"Why are you wearing that Nami?!"
Rose comes out of her daze from Sanji's voice to find herself at the front deck where almost everyone is docking the boat.
She looks around to see Sanji finding Nami's dancer outfit covered in a white jacket with despair then he looks in horror to see Vivi wearing a purple jacket over her outfit. "You too?! What happened to the dancer outfits?!"
"In the desert any exposed skin will wind up terribly sun burnt so we need to cover up." Vivi says, which makes Sanji fall on the deck with a shadow of despair over his eyes.
"My beautiful dancers… I didn't even get to see Rose-chan in her outfit…" He rolls around the deck while he continues to wallow in his self pity.
Rose sweat drops at the display before she pulls her hood over her head, and goes to the railing. She looks down to see shadows swimming below the water's surface then realizes what's going to come next with a large smile. "Sweet!"
The others look at her in confusion before they follow her gaze to see that a group of grey seals with turtle shells on their backs are surfacing.
Luffy looks at the sea creatures in confusion. "What's with the turtles?"
"Aren't they seals?" Usopp asks, but Vivi quickly shakes her head at both of their guesses.
"Those are kung fu dugongs!"
One of the kung fu dugongs barks at them with a smirk on his face while raising his flippers at them.
Chopper listens closely to the dugong's calls then translates for the crew. "He says if you wanna dock here then you have to beat me first you big wimps."
Usopp smirks at the challenge as he steps onto the railing. "Nobody calls me a coward and gets away it!"
Vivi widens her eyes when Usopp jumps off the ship. "Usopp, wait!"
Before Usopp's feet can touch the ground he was picked up by a gust of wind. The others turn to Rose to see her staring at the animals, as if she's not doing anything, while her wind brings Usopp back onto the ship and sets him down in front of Vivi.
"Kung Fu Dugongs are really strong. We can't just charge at them." Vivi says while most of the others nod in understanding. However, while everyone was distracted by the lecture Luffy got off the ship and defeated the dugong that was goading them.
"They're not that tough!"
Vivi looks at to shore in shock to see the dugong lying on the ground with multiple bumps on his head. "Winning's bad too!"
The dugong quickly recovers then bows to Luffy who's confused at the gesture. He becomes even more confused when the animal raises his head and looks at him with stars in his eyes.
Sanji quirks an eyebrow at his behavior. "What's he doing?"
"It's a kung fu dugong law that the one who loses in a fight will become the winner's pupil."
Zoro hums in interest at the law. "So they're all martial artists then." He points to the twenty kung fu dugongs that have Luffy surrounded.
Vivi looks at the large group in shock. "HOW DID YOU GET SO MANY?!"
Luffy ignores her shock and gets in a stance to start his martial arts lesson. "Alright, repeat after me! Go like this!" He throws a punch causing them to follow. "Now this!" He throws a punch with his other hand while his pupils follow their master's action.
Nami watches Luffy continuing his lesson then face palms at the display. "Ugh forget it… Zoro, while they're distracted get the anchor down."
He nods as he and the rest of the guys finish docking the ship.
Rose looks at the martial arts class and giggles before she goes into her backpack to get a small purple camera out and takes a picture of the dugongs. She uses her wind to lift herself up and fly off the ship so that she's facing the goat figurehead. She backs away to get the Going Merry in full view for the camera before she takes a picture.
Usopp looks at the flying girl curiously before he goes to the front to the ship. "What are you doing?"
Rose flies up to the railing and pets Merry's head with a soft smile. "Just taking a picture of Merry before we go. I can get you a copy when I get the it developed if you want."
Usopp widens his eyes at the offer before he nods with a large smile. "That would be great, thanks."
"No problem." She watches him walk off the ship then pats Merry on the head one more time while she speaks under her breath. "Thank you for everything Merry. I can't tell you how awesome it's been to sail with you."
The wind that's holding her up starts fading, so she quickly blows wind out of her mouth to keep herself floating long enough to grab onto the railing and flip over it to land on her back. She chuckles at her clumsy landing before she gets up and joins the others off the ship just after Luffy finishes his martial arts lesson.
"Alright, let's go to Yuba!" Luffy says with a carefree smile.
Zoro twitches an eyebrow as he stares at Luffy's martial arts pupils who are standing behind Luffy. "Hold on, we're bringing them with us?!"
Nami scowls at the idea. "We can't take them with us Luffy."
"The dugongs can't survive in the desert. They need to stay here." Vivi says, but when she and Nami see two of the kung fu dugongs grab onto Luffy's legs and start whining for him to stay their wills start to falter.
*So cute…* Nami and Vivi go to the side to whisper to one another.
"I don't know why but I feel like we're being mean…" Nami says causing Vivi to sadly nod.
"Me too, what should we do here?"
"I got an idea!" Chopper says as he digs through his bag then pulls out a piece of meat and waves it to the dugongs. "You guys can have this if you stay here."
The dugongs perk up at the bribe and rush over to him with no sign of stopping. Chopper screams in fright when they're about to tackle him, but Rose picks him up with her wind so that he can drop the meat while he narrowly dodges the eager dugongs.
Chopper blinks in surprise at his flight as he's pulled towards the crew then smiles at the freckled girl. "Thanks Rose."
"Don't mention it." Rose gently sets the reindeer down while Sanji gives the dugongs half of the crew's rations in order to make sure that they don't follow them.
After every dugong gets something to eat, they see off the humans with tears in their eyes as they wave their new friends goodbye.
Luffy looks back at his pupils with a large grin as he waves back to them while walking away. "See ya! Enjoy the food!"
Nami frowns at her captain's over excitement. "Don't get so excited, don't you understand the situation we're in now?"
Luffy looks at Nami in confusion as they keep walking. "They said they wanted to come with us. What's the big deal?"
"We don't have enough resources to keep them all, moron. Honestly, I have no idea what we would've done if Chopper didn't persuade them."
"Yea, they kept saying 'we'll follow you to the ends of the earth master!'" Chopper says while Sanji takes a cigarette box from his pocket to take a stick out.
"And now we've lost half of our food supply."
Ace quietly sighs while he turns to the chef and lights his cigarette for him. "He's the best at causing trouble."
"That's for sure." Sanji takes a drag from his cigarette while the rest of the group continues to the desert on foot.
Vivi keeps looking ahead as they walk then widens her eyes when a town comes into view. When they get to the border, Vivi stops in her tracks to take in the remains of the deserted town that's half buried in the sand and looks like it hasn't been inhabited by people for years.
The others stop right after her and take a look at the barren town.
"Is this Yuba?" Zoro asks.
Vivi doesn't take her eyes off the village when she answers him. "No, this is Erumalu. It used to be known as the City of Green…"
Luffy looks at the town in confusion. "The City of Green?"
Vivi slowly nods before she turns to the crowd. "This town is just an example of what Baroque Works has done to this country… And what the people of Alabasta are going through… We should keep going..."
The others nod as they follow her throughout the town while everyone looks around at the town's abandoned buildings.
Rose keeps a scowl on her face as she stares at the broken buildings while he keeps up with the others. *Crocodile really is a merciless ass. The sooner Luffy beats him up the better.*
"It really is a ghost town now." Ace says while Vivi slowly nods.
"It's true, however up until recently this was a thriving city full of greenery. Rain was always scarce, but even so the city was always able to manage by saving every bit of water that they managed to collect. But, for three years now not a single drop of rain has fallen in this country..."
Usopp widens his eyes at this. "It hasn't rained here for three years?!"
Zoro quirks an eyebrow before he looks back at the direction of the river. "Still, what about the river we just crossed? Couldn't they have collected water from there?"
"The answer to that is up ahead." Vivi says as she leads the group through the town and continues explaining her country's situation to them. "Never in the history of Alabasta was rain this scarce here. However, there was one place where rain fell more than usual. Alubarna, the capital where the king's palace resides… The people called it the King's Miracle. Then a while back, a delivery that was supposed to be given to my father broke down in a port town and everyone discovered that it was dance powder."
Chopper tilts his head in confusion. "Dance powder? What's that?"
Nami strokes her chin in thought as she remembers what she's heard about the powder. "It's a powder that summons rain clouds by burning the powder to create a misty smoke that rises into the sky then creates artificial rain."
Usopp blinks at the explanation. "Wouldn't something like that be perfect for this country though?"
Nami shakes her head. "It's true that it can benefit this country, but there's a big catch. When you use this powder the smoke takes the clouds that could turn into rain clouds for neighboring places. It's basically stealing the rain from neighboring places. Because of that the World Government placed a ban on dance powder."
Luffy looks at her in shock before he narrows his eyes at Vivi. "Wait a minute! Then your dad's the bad guy here!"
Sanji quickly starts kicking Luffy on the head. "No, you idiot! He was obviously framed by Baroque Works! Vivi-chan's father wouldn't do such a thing!"
Vivi quietly sighs at the argument. "Of course my father had nothing to do with it. But at the same time a massive amount of dance powder was found inside the palace."
Ace widens his eyes at this. "They even had people working in the palace?"
Vivi slowly nods when they reach a dried up river. "This was a canal that used to bring water in from the Sandora River. It was also destroyed. With the canal gone the City of Green couldn't secure water for the town any longer. The people continued to wait, but rain never came…"
The others stare softly at the long ditch that used to be a canal softly as they keep following Vivi while listening to Vivi's story.
"Ever since the dance powder inciden,t the people's distrust in the king grew by the day. Then the fighting began. In order to escape, the exhausted people abandoned the city to search for other oases to call home. Then…"
Vivi stopped walking causing the others to follow as she finished her tale. "The City of Green withered away…"
Rose and Nami soften their faces at the sadness in Vivi's voice, when she spoke about the end result of the town, while the others stare at her with their eyes shadowed from their hoods and hats.
They quickly snap out of it when a strong gust of wind blows throughout the city.
Nami quickly turns to Rose while she covers her eyes from the flying sand. "Quit it with the wind Rose!"
Rose raises her hands defensively while she keeps her eyes shut. "This isn't me! It's the city's wind currents!"
The wind starts growing weak enough to stop sand from flying around, but keeps going while Chopper looks at Rose in confusion. "Really?"
Rose nods when a small sandstorm blows towards the crew.
"Hang on!" Ace says as he and the rest of the group brace themselves for the flying sand that blew past them. The sandstorm was only strong enough to blow sand onto them before it blew past the group and continued its way through the city.
Everyone looks back the blowing sandstorm in confusion as it continues its course through the town.
"What the hell was that about?" Usopp asks while the others just stare at the departing sandstorm.
Rose shrugs as she looks around then widens her eyes when she sees a large bundled up cloth lying on the ground fifteen feet ahead. "Is that a person?!"
The others look at the bundle in shock then they all run towards the person.
"People are still here?!" Vivi asks until they get close enough to see that the person is already dead and is nothing more than a pile of bones wrapped in a grey cloak.
The others look at the skeleton in utter shock except for Vivi who kneels down in front of the skeleton.
The princess gently picks up the skull with trembling hands and stares at it with pure sadness in her eyes. "What did my father…? What did the citizens of this country ever do to deserve this? Everyone worked hard to live on this island in peace and yet Crocodile destroyed their lives as if they were nothing..."
Luffy, Usopp, Rose, and Sanji remain silent to her crying as they drop their bags, walk over to a nearby building, and vent out their fury on the abandoned building until it crumbles into a pile of rubble.
The others watch the collapsing building in a mixture of amusement, annoyance and surprise.
"Geez, they're all kids…" Zoro says as he and most of the others watch the four of them start marching back after they destroyed the building.
Before they came back Ace crouched down on the ground and started digging a small hole in the sand with his hands. "We can bury the skeleton here."
Vivi slow nods as she gently lays the dead person's remains into the hole. She fills the hole with sand then places a stick that was laying into the pile of sand to serve as a tombstone.
"Vivi, let's get moving. We need to go to Yuba right?" Luffy says as he and the others catch up to them.
Vivi nods as she stands up and starts leading the way again. "Yes, that's where we need to go."
Everyone quietly follows her as they leave the abandoned city and journey onwards through the sandy landscape.
After walking through the long desert for what seemed like hours, the sweltering heat starts getting to some of the crew members.
"Ugh, so hot… The sweat won't even come out..." Luffy whines as he walks with the support of a walking stick along with Usopp.
Rose quietly sighs as she keeps walking, while she feels unaffected by the heat, and starts trying to create a breeze for the crew but nothing's happening. *Come on, work with me. At least turn my arm into wind again.*
Nami groans at her captain's whining while she fans herself with her hand. "Quit moaning so much Luffy, you're only tiring yourself out."
He doesn't pay attention as he keeps walking along with the others, except for Chopper who's lying on the back of a sled with Zoro dragging it.
"This hot weather is too much… I'm better off with the cold weather..." Chopper says as he stays lying down on the sled.
Usopp pants from the heat before he turns to Chopper. "That's because of all that fur. Just take off the animal suit…"
A vein pops on Chopper's forehead as he stands up and transforms into heavy point. "What was that you jerk?! Don't make fun of reindeer!"
Usopp jump backs in fright from the sudden transformation. "AAH! YETI!"
Zoro twitches an eyebrow from the argument. "Chopper, don't turn big or else I won't pull you."
Chopper ignores his warning as he yells as Usopp. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A YETI BIG NOSE?!"
Usopp gets in a stance to pretend he's not afraid. "What was that?! I'll have you know that my nose can-"
"Shut up, just turn back already." Zoro pushes Chopper's head down to force him to transform back into brain point.
Sanji looks over at Vivi and Rose, who aren't acting bothered by the heat at all, curiously. "You two don't seem to mind the heat."
Vivi nods with a small smile. "I was born and raised here, so it doesn't bother me that much."
Rose shrugs as she keeps struggling to create a breeze for the crew. "It's always been easier for me to get cold than to get hot. My wind might be helping too."
She keeps struggling with her abilities until she manages to blow a breeze on the crew while she keeps up with their pace. "Does this feel any better?"
Nami feels the breeze brush through her sweaty skin then nods. "A little, can you make it colder?"
She focuses on the wind she's making as she tries to make it colder. "Any colder?"
Ace feels the breeze blow on him only to feel that it's the same as before, so he shakes his head. "Nope, still the same."
Rose sighs as she loses her focus which makes her wind disperse. "I see, I'll work on it."
She keeps up with the others while she tries to find a way to make her wind cold. *Ok, I know my wind changes temperatures from my emotions, but which one creates cold? From what the others said, anger makes my wind almost as hot as this heat and warm winds come from happiness… In that case, maybe cold's the opposite of that...*
She quietly sighs at the thought of what emotion she to make cold air as she keeps walking. *I'll experiment on this later...*
"Ugh, so hot…" Luffy says as he looks down at the barrel of water that's strapped over his shoulder.
Nami looks at Luffy, and knows what he's thinking, then sighs at his behavior. "Alright, go ahead Luffy, but just one mouthful."
Luffy grab the straw for the barrel and starts filling his mouth with water to the point where his cheeks start stretching.
Nami sees what he's doing and whacks him on the head. "Don't drink so much!"
"Hey, I should go next!" Usopp says.
"No way, I'm next!" Sanji says as he, Usopp and Luffy fight for the barrel until Nami whacks them on the head.
"SHUT UP ALREADY!"
"Please don't fight guys, you're only wasting your strength." Vivi says, and makes the ones who were fighting break it up, before they continue walking through the desert for the rest of the day.
When the sun began to set in the horizon, everyone decided that now would be a good time to set up camp for the night.
After helping the others set up the tents, Rose looks around at the empty, desert, landscape then drops her bag and starts walking away from the camp site. "I'm gonna go find some firewood."
The others nod as she walks off on her own and starts collecting as many dry sticks as she can find. When she's far enough to see the campsite as something small, she puts her pile of sticks down in order to experiment on her abilities.
*Ok, so if happiness creates warm winds then sadness might be what makes my wind cold… As long as I'm alone it's worth a shot...* She softly frowns at the idea of making herself sad as she grabs one of the long sticks from her pile, stands it against a small rock, and takes a few steps back.
She takes a deep breath then creates a small breeze towards the stick.
*Sadness huh? Something really sad… "Mom, dad, don't just lie there! Get up, I know you can hear me!"* The brunette deeply frowns when the memory of how she felt the day her parents died when she was ten years old starts coming back to her. Her eyes stay shadowed under her bangs as she remembers how lost and alone she felt when she saw the bodies of her only family lying under, blood stained, hospital blankets, and showing no signs of life. She doesn't even notice her wind getting stronger when she recalls how she cried, screamed, shook them and did anything else she could think of to wake them up. But, she quickly learned that day that there was no way to wake up the dead.
She snaps out of it to the sound of her sticks hitting each other then sees that her wind is blowing all around her. She widens her eyes at how it's strong enough to start sending her sticks flying before she cancels out her power.
She goes to the stick she had standing against the rock and grabs it. When she feels that it cooled down from her mood breeze, she sighs with a frown from the confirmation. "Looks like it worked..."
"That cold air really was you?!"
Rose widens her eyes to Luffy's voice and turns around to see him running up to her with stars in his eyes.
She takes a step back from the excited captain in shock and drops the stick. "How long have you been here?!"
"I got here just before you stopped your wind. You were taking too long, so I came out to get you."
She rubs the back of her head sheepishly while she stares at her feet. "My bad, I was getting some more practice in."
"Don't worry about it, that cold wind you made was awesome. Your wind changes because of what you're feeling right? What makes your wind cold?"
She softly frowns at the memory she dug up to make her wind cold, before she picks up her pile of sticks, and puts on a smile. "Now where's the fun in telling you? You can either figure it out now or we can go get these to Sanji so that he can start cooking. Your choice."
Luffy widens his eyes at the choices before he stretches his arms at two different rocks ahead to get ready to slingshot himself towards the direction of the camp. "Alright, let's get some food!"
Rose widens her eyes when she finds herself in between Luffy's arms and runs to get out of his way, but it was too late as he catapults himself to the camp with Rose in his arms.
The wind girl looks at him in shock before she groans while her face heats up. "Dammit Luffy, I could've flown us there!"
"But this is faster!"
"What?! There's no way your gum gum rocket's faster than my-!" She stops herself when they crash onto one of the tents, flatten it, and land on top of Ace who was relaxing inside.
The others look at the pair in shock as they find the tent completely flat except for a lump that's moving around from under them and trying to get out.
"WHAT THE HELL?! LUFFY, I KNOW YOU'RE BEHIND THIS DAMMIT!" Ace continues yelling profanities while he squirms his way out of what's left of the tent to see Luffy standing up with his arms still around a blushing Rose.
The freckled man calms down and raises an eyebrow at Rose's flustered reaction to being held by his little brother as he watches her wiggle out of Luffy's embrace. *What the?*
He looks at her curiously while Luffy looks around the crowd and waves at them. "Hey guys, what's up? Oh yea Sanji, we got the sticks so let's-" He's cut off with a whack to the head courtesy of Nami.
"WHAT THE HELL LUFFY?! DON'T CRASH INTO THE TENT!"
Luffy rubs the new bump on his head while he chuckles. "Sorry about that, but we got the sticks!"
"You mean Rose-chan got the sticks. Thank you very much Rose-chwan~!" Sanji takes the sticks from her with hearts in his eyes while Rose ignores his swooning with a grin.
"No problem." She helps Vivi and Usopp fix the tent while the rest of the crew gets the fire and food ready just when the sun has finished setting.
As the night sky grew darker, the cold air came along with it to make almost everyone to start shivering by the fire as they enjoy their meals.
"Why is it so cold Vivi?" Nami asks as she and Vivi rub their arms to keep themselves warm.
"With nothing to block out the temperature, the desert's scorching hot during the day, but the temperature falls below freezing at night."
Rose finishes her meal and starts shivering from the chilly night, so she digs into her backpack until she pulls out a large, light green, slightly thick, sheet from the bag, and wraps herself in it. *Much better, I'm really impressed with how cold it is out here.*
"Wow, the stars are really pretty."
Rose snaps out of her daze to Chopper's voice then turns to her left to see him looking up at the starry sky in awe.
She softly grins at his excitement as she follows his gaze up to the beautiful night sky. "It's your first time seeing this many?"
Chopper eagerly nods. "Yea, Drum Island's skies are always covered with thick clouds, so I've never seen this many before. It's really amazing."
Rose giggles at his excitement while she keeps her purple eyes on the stars. "I know what you mean. You can easily see both the dippers from here."
Chopper blinks at the constellation names before he looks at her in confusion. "Dippers?"
She nods as she searches the northern sky for the constellations. "Yea, they're a group of stars in the sky that form a pattern to look like dippers. It's summer right? Then that means the Big Dipper should be on the high part of the northern sky right there."
She finds the Big Dipper high in the sky and points to it then points to the Little Dipper over at the upper right of the constellation. "And over there you'll find the Little Dipper close by."
Chopper looks up at the constellation then smiles in excitement. "Wow, that's amazing!"
Usopp hugs his knees right next to Chopper on the other side, but doesn't look at the stars with them. "It's too cold to be looking at the stars…"
Chopper turns to him with a small smile. "Cold weather doesn't bother me."
Usopp grabs onto Chopper and nuzzles into his cheek. "That's because you're so warm!"
Chopper pushes his face away and tries to get out of his embrace. "Get away!"
The long nosed man shakes his head. "I can't help that you're so fluffy."
Chopper angrily transforms into heavy point. "QUIT MAKING FUN OF REINDEER!"
"AAH! YETI!" Usopp jumps back in surprise while Zoro, who was sitting with his back to Chopper the whole time, turns to him.
"Don't turn big, we need your warmth."
"Yea!" Luffy runs in and wraps his arms around Chopper who changed back into brain point along with Usopp. "So warm."
Rose swallows her giggles at the adorable sight as she watches Zoro join the boys in cuddling the small reindeer for warmth while Chopper tries to get out of their embrace. She takes the sheet off to move away from the group hug to get a picture when a rubber arm suddenly stretches around her waist, and pulls her into the huddle.
"You're warm too Rose." Luffy says as he, Zoro, and Usopp wrap their arms around her along with Chopper.
"What the?! Hey!" Rose's face heats up from being embraced by the guys as she tries to get away along with Chopper but the warm air blowing out of her from her embarrassment, that's almost as hot as when she's angry, makes them want her to stay in their puppy pile.
Sanji growls at the scuffle as he starts walking over to kick the guys. "Get off of-"
Nami whacks him on the head to shut him up. "Shut up, they're not hurting her!"
Rose keeps blushing in embarrassment from the boys' embrace while her warm wind stops blowing, but gives up on trying to escape because of how warm she is in the huddle. She looks at her abandoned sheet and uses her wind to toss it to Nami. "You can use that to warm yourself up if you want."
Nami blinks down at the large sheet before she grins at her. "Thanks Rose."
Rose nods before she wraps her arms around Chopper and forces herself to sleep along with the others.
Ace sits to the side and looks at his brother's group hug with a small grin when Vivi walks up next to him. "It must be really surprising."
Ace quirks an eyebrow at her comment. "What do you mean?"
"I mean with Luffy, I was surprised too at first. Luffy doesn't act like how a regular captain does. Like how this afternoon a simple drink of water started a big fight."
Ace grins at the memory of watching his little brother fighting his crewmates over the water while Vivi continues.
"But you know, the longer I've been with them, the more I've come to understand them. They treat each other more like friends than just crewmates."
Ace chuckles at the analysis. "That's just how Luffy does things."
Vivi looks at him in surprise as he continues. "He hasn't changed since he was a kid. Despite how he is, people seem to be drawn to him. He's always had that charm about him."
She looks over at Luffy before she rubs the back of her head sheepishly. "Right, you probably already knew."
He nods as he softly grins at his sleeping brother. "He and I do go way back. Still, thank you."
"Huh?"
"You were worried that I was concerned right?"
Vivi nods with a soft grin. "Yes, but it doesn't look like I need to worry after all. Thank you for listening, good night."
He waves her off as he watches her go over to Nami to share the sheet with her, so they can cuddle together for warmth.
Ace doesn't go to bed yet as he grins at the sleeping crew he's travelling with. When he sees Rose's face, he stops and loses his smile as he remember's her blushing from Luffy's hug. *Is she interested in my little brother or is she just shy? I still don't know if her sending me flying was all an accident or not either... Dammit, she's getting more confusing by the minute… A logia training session might be a good idea after all...*
He nods to the plan to find out the truth about the the suspicious girl as he goes into a tent to rest for the night, and await the next part of their journey through the desert.
TO BE CONTINUED