"Sometimes, a big brother is better than a superhero." ~Unknown
An hour before they set anchor on the shores of Erumalu, Vivi had Nami stop the ship on a different shore and sent Carue off. What she sent the duck with was a handwritten letter explaining everything about the agency, what happened to Igaram, and her new friends. It was only a matter of time before the king sees his daughter's letter and reacts, but Vivi could only hope it will get to him soon before it's too late.
Now, depending on the duck to cross the desert and deliver the message safely, the crew sets out on their own stretch of hot sand. Sadly, when they made it into Erumalu, not far off the coast, they were not met with "the land of green" as Vivi described it. Everything was covered in sand, everything was dry, and cracked, and crumbling in on itself. It was a wonder that some structures were still standing - but barely.
Vivi explained the three year long drought to the group and how her father was accused of causing it with a green powder called Dance Powder - but Minette couldn't concentrate on anything but the sand no matter how hard she tried to listen. Before they left the ship, Vivi had the young girl put on a heavy cloak over her overalls just like her and Nami - saying the sun was too much in the part they were walking through. The weight of the cape added onto her survival backpack, and the disconcerting feeling of the sand sliding between her toes every time she took a step was more overbearing than the heat.
Walkin through Erumalu, the wind picked up, echoing off the buildings is such a way the once beautiful city of luscious greenery sounded like it was weeping - desperate for anyone's help. When they were walking through, listening to the city's mournful tune, Minette stepped down on the sand, only to be shocked with vibrations echoing back to her - but then cracked under her weight.
Stopping in what seemed to be the middle of the city, Minette sat and started digging.
"What's wrong?" Usopp asked.
"Something's here," Minette said.
"Do you think it's treasure?" Nami smiled.
"She's not a metal detector!" Usopp yelled.
"I wouldn't be surprised," Vivi said. "Erumalu was a very rich city."
The rest of the group walked over, Chopper helping her dig, and everyone grew silent as Minette lifted a human skull out of its shallow grave. The skull was thin - having eroded from the sand and the wind rubbing against it constantly - but the place Minette stepped on it was unmistakable from the large hole on the left temple.
Minette looked up to see everyone's mournful expressions, but Vivi was almost brought to tears. Carefully, Minette placed the delicate skull back in the sand and reburied it.
Standing again, Minette took Vivi's hand as they continued on their way. "I'm sorry," she muttered.
The princes squeezed her hand and flashed the girl a sad smile. "At least he has someone to remember him now."
As they walked on, Minette fell a lot, tumbled down sand dunes, and lost her footing on tall peaks. Zoro tried to hold her up through most of it - grabbing the handle of her backpack and pulling her to her feet before she could face plant. Eventually, Minette just told him to stop trying. He was exerting too much energy pulling Chopper on a makeshift sled and trying to keep up with the group. But after Minette did more falling than walking in a few feet, Sanji simply picked up the young girl, positioned her in between his back and his backpack and carried on. He made Usopp carry her backpack so she could fit.
Minette felt as though she were riding in one of those baby straps new mothers use when they go shopping but she didn't complain. Being carried beat walking in hot sand and falling every step.
Adjusting the straps, Sanji looked over his shoulder. "Everything alright back there? You comfortable?"
Despite her internal temperature going up because of the hot backpack and Sanji's own heat, Minette was other wise very comfortable and didn't even have to hold on. Unfortunately, the position gave her no room to look over Sanji's shoulders like a normal piggyback ride would.
Being forced to sit forward and press her cheek against Sanji's shoulder blades, Minette relaxed with a sigh. "Yeah."
"Not too warm?"
As hot as it was, Minette didn't want to complain in fear he'll move and ruin her comfortable position. She shook her head with a hum.
Ace was walking beside them, having helped with situating Minette on his back, and chuckled. "You look like you could go for a nap, kid." Ace lifted the hood of her cloak to cover her head and shade her eyes from the sun.
"I can!" Usopp yelled from behind, making Minette giggle.
"Yeah," Sanji's voice reverberated through his back, sounding hollow in the ear pressed against his spine. In a way, feeling the vibration soothed her after hours of not being able to feel anything. Sanji continued. "We're just walking now, no need to keep an eye on things while we're all awake."
Zoro walked on the other side of Ace to be in her line of sight. She could hear Chopper's sleigh being pulled through the sand as he walked along. "You haven't slept in a while," Zoro stated. "Two or three nights now."
"Since Drum Kingdom," Nami confirmed from the front of the group.
Ace gasped, "You kiddin me? Do you just not trust these people of something?"
Minette giggled, refusing to let the real reason show.
"We'll be alright, Shrimp," Zoro said. "Just take a nap. We'll wake ya up when the sun goes down if that makes ya feel better."
Minette smiled from under her hood, but she was reluctant to close her eyes. Nightmares plague her dreams but it's even worse when she realizes that they were at some point reality. She wants to fill the holes, she really does, but she's afraid of what she'll find.
"Mouse?" Sanji voice echoed through his back, soother her worries and stress once again. "You wake?"
She stayed silent, picking up his steady breathing and heart beat. She found her eyes closed, content with his natural scent of nicotine and sweat as his circulatory and respiratory lulled her in a trance.
She felt the hood of her cloak lift before falling back over her eyes. "She's out cold," Ace said.
"To think she was tired enough to just fall asleep sitting like that," Nami chuckled.
"Poor thing," Vivi giggled.
"Sanji," Luffy groaned, "I wanna nap too!"
"Then nap on Usopp!"
"NO WAY!"
As they walked along, Sanji's soothing rhythm lulled the young girl in and out of sleep. She'd pick up on incoherent conversations here and there before being pulled back to drifting. It wasn't enough to make her fall asleep, just empty her mind of nothing else but Sanji's heartbeats. As the sun started going down, so did the temperature. The drastic change made Minette grateful that the warm backpack and Sanji's being provided a comforting hug as the group dragged on for a few more hours.
Then, when she was conscious enough to understand their words, Minette listened to a conversation between Sanji and Ace.
"So the kid's your look out."
"Yeah. Stays up all night looking out for our asses."
"Does she at least sleep during the day?"
"No. The moss brain over there does everyone's far share of nap time on the deck."
"I can understand why she's so tired now if she never sleeps. The sun and the heat probably drained all the energy keeping her awake."
"As true as that might be, Mouse doesn't sleep just for that one reason." Sanji hesitated, then: "When we first rescued her, she had terrible nightmares; and, aside from Drum Island, I haven't seen her sleep sense. I think she's afraid of going to sleep and rewatching all the hell she's been through."
"If it's not too personal - what happened?"
"Well, if you're here to protect her from cannibals, then you must have an idea, right?"
"Unfortunately."
"Don't wander too far, Minnie. Stay where I can see you."
"Okay. Oh! Hey, Mom - er, Robin… I-I didn't mean..."
"It's quite alright, my dear. Let's just not forget how beautiful your mother truly was."
"Mommy was a warrior!"
"That's right. She was so brave and strong and smart. I'm sorry I can't be her, Minnie, but I'll try to be a warrior just as great as her."
As Minette slept, huddled against Sanji's back to keep warm, the group set up camp for the night. Sanji tried moving around to help pitch tens, and collect whatever dry twigs they could find, but he soon found moving around with a hundred pounds weighing on his spine close to impossible - hell, he couldn't even set up his cooking station without help. He didn't want to wake her, she seemed to be having a good dream or just a nice rest without any, plus she was also keeping him warm as the subtle breeze grew chilly - but he won't be able to do anything until she wake up.
With a sigh, Sanji turned to Vivi, Nami, and Ace sitting around the fire - the boys were running corse around camp. "Nami-swan," Sanji cooed, standing in front of her. "Do you mind giving me a hand?" He turned to the side, flashing the three with Minette's sleeping face. Her hand in a fist, resting in front of her face, on Sanji's shoulder blade, and hiding the fact that she was drooling on his thick cloak. The warm glow of the fire illuminated her freckles a darker shade contrasting nicely with her sun pink cheeks and nose.
"Oh my gosh," Vivi gasped, hiding her bright smile behind her hands. "She's even more adorable while she's sleeping."
"I haven't seen her make this sweet face in a while," Nami awed.
"Luffy always wanted a cute little sister," Ace chuckled. "Now I see why."
"I would keep her here all night," Sanji sighed, "But I can't cook with her on my back."
"I hear you," Nami nodded. Standing along with Ace and Vivi, they prepared to remove the sleeping girl from the cook - preferably without waking her. Sanji bent over, taking all the weight on his upper body instead of his legs, giving Vivi and Ace a chance to lift the backpack. Backpack removed, Minette visibly shivered and she moaned in displeasure that more than half of her warmth was now gone.
Nami picked up the young girl and held her flush to her chest. Before she could shiver again, Nami sat and wrapped her in the folds of her cloak. "She is out cold," Nami chuckled.
"I would be too if I was awake for three days straight," Ace snorted, plopping himself down once more.
Vivi sat beside Nami, brushing stray hair from Minette's face. "I can only imagine what she was like when she was even younger than this."
When Sanji started dinner and the smell of cooking meat filled the air, Luffy's impatient manner was the thing to wake the girl. Groaning, Minette's slew of hazy, happy dreams came to nothing but darkness. She shifted, a squishy surface she was laying against. For a moment, she thought she was still laying on Sanji, but the heartbeats were different and so was the breathing. Not to mention she couldn't feel any vibration as Sanji yelled at Luffy.
Shifting, Minette pushed away, gentle hands against her back, keeping hr sitting up right. Looking up, Minette saw Nami smiling down at her. She returned the smile and nestled back into her warmth.
"Good evening, Mouse," Nami chuckled. "Did you have a nice rest?"
Minette only nodded, still waking up.
"You woke up just in time," Sanji laughed. "Food's done."
If Minette wasn't wake then, she sure as hell was awake now when Luffy's blood curdling scream of excitement filled the air. Minette ignored the the boys fighting over the food though, turning around on Nami's lap so she could eat easier and thanked Sanji for the food he handed down.
Lazily, Minette ate her meatless curry; laughed at Luffy's and Usopp's antics; and relaxed with the rest of the group. Standing, Minette stretched and sat in between Zoro and Sanji in the sand. She diffused their soon-to-be fight and looked up to the sky.
She giggled as their hostility grew relaxed as they started eating again. "Thank you for letting me sleep."
"The pervert didn't want to wake you up," Zoro muttered through a mouth full of food.
"Hey! I wanted her to get the most out of her sleep. Who knows when the next time will be that she'll rest like that again?"
Before they could start fighting, Minette said, "I had a dream about my mom."
They grew stiff and quiet, their gaze landing on her face. The others laughter not matching the mood shift across the fire pit.
"Yeah?" Zoro muttered.
Minette nodded with a smile, her gaze still on the stars.
"Are you… alright?" Sanji asked.
Minette sighed. "My mom and I were walking in a forest, making flower crowns. I was… embarrassed about something, maybe the flowers, but she was beautiful." She looked to Sanji. "You would've liked her a lot. Very, very pretty."
In secret, Minette was talking about Robin. In her dream - memory rather - she seemed to have aged older than when they had first met. Maybe four or five, giving her time to adjust to the fact that Robin and her imaginary sister were the only ones left. Robin did a good job of shielding her from the truth, and protecting her from harm's way. In away, Robin informally adopted the young girl, took her in and helped her find food and shelter and didn't mind the accidental slip of the tongue when Minette would call her Mom - if anything, it brought her more joy. But what upsets her more than anything now, is the fact that Robin and her are enemies now and soon enough, they're going to have to fight. In Luffy's way of thinking, there can only be one winner - she just hopes that whoever loses won't take their win so graciously.
Minette blinked from her thoughts, and smiled to the stars again. "She was very kind… I don't think she knew what was wrong with that island when she dropped me off."
I hope she didn't.
"Dropped you off?" Zoro questioned.
Minette frowned and looked into the fire. "In truth… I've been on the run before I was even on the run." She hadn't noticed all noise had died down until she heard snoring. Looking up and through the flames, she found everyone sleeping but them. Standing and walking off, Minette called over her shoulder, "Get some rest. I'll keep watch."
Without another word, Minette sat just outside the light of fire and laid on the sand. She folded her hands behind her back and looked up to the stars. The sand was still warm from the blazing evening sun but not as burning as before. Feeling disconnected still wasn't a familiar concept but this only gives her other sense a chance to prove themselves. Through the wind, she could hear Sanji and Zoro mutter to one another. Their voices too low to be coherent but she can hear them and that was good enough. When the finally seemed to settle down, all was quiet and peaceful but the snoring. If anything, Minette will be able to hear someone coming at least.
The sand shushed with each shuffled step towards her but she didn't bother with looking up to see who it was. She expected it to be Zoro at the least, the swordsman normally the one to visit her during her last night watch, but she also wasn't surprised with it was Ace who laid beside her.
"Hey, kid," Ace groaned as he laid back and relax.
She nodded. "Hey."
"You know," he said, "I was sent to protect you, but you seem to have a lot of people here who care about you. Kinda feels like they're protecting me from getting near you at times."
Minette smiled. "That's just them, I guess."
"No. I think it's because you're you. Sometimes people don't know they need something until they have it." Ace sighed, "Or what they had until they lost it."
Minette frowned.
"Look, kid, I don't really know what I'm doing over here instead of sleeping by the fire, but I feel like I need to reassure you."
"Reassure me?"
"I can tell you don't trust me, not entirely just like the swordsman, but let me just tell you I'm going to do everything in my power to protect you if we run into the Dahmer Pirates while we're here. If the others aren't around and it's just you and I fighting back to back - I'll be there every step of the way.
"Now, I don't expect the bandana to flash for me when you need help, but I will be there as soon as you call for me. Remember Luffy in the restaurant when you screamed? Just scream like that again if you're alone and scared and I'll be right by your side in a flash, got it, kid? In a flash."
Minette was quiet, then: "I know you were sent here to do this, but why do you want to so badly?"
"Well," Ace chuckled. "Luffy is my little brother, and you're his little sister, which makes us brother and sister, too. So just like with Luffy, I'll do everything in my power to protect you."
She giggled. "I guess that makes sense."
"Listen here, kid, and listen good. We may have not grown up together, hell we just met, but being Luffy's sister means protecting him and his dream just as he protects yours. And being my sister means dealing with our shit and not getting frustrated."
"It's okay," Minette giggled. "I promise to look out for him."
"You see, Luffy doesn't just pick people to be family like he does with his crew. We've been through many setbacks, lost our brother when we were just kids. You have to earn your way into our family, and in Luffy's eyes, you have; but as it goes for me, I haven't see what you can do just yet. Prove to me that you can be our little sister."
Minette shifted, looking to the side and meeting Ace's gaze, a smile flashed across her freckled cheeks illuminated by the stars. "Is that a challenge?"
