A/N: Yo! So I'm going back through this story and editing some things. I'm changing the way Aela looks as well as her devil fruit power. Before she had the Shield Shield fruit, and now she has the Energy Energy fruit, basically making it so she's able to transfer and manipulate her energy. She can still create shields, but I wanted her power to be able to grow and be more versatile. If you're reading this for the first time, welcome! If you've already read this, I'm sorry! You might wanna go back and read it to make sure that some things are still the same. I'll be editing this gradually, so I'll make sure to make note of which chapters I've edited already and which I haven't.

Please enjoy!

edited February 18, 2021

"Zoro-nii you said it wouldn't take long to get to the next town!" I whined, trying to resist the urge to stomp my foot. "It took forever!" "Stop whining," he grunted. He was sitting cross legged in the boat, head reclined back and eyes closed. "I'm so hungry! Laaaand!" I cried triumphantly, reaching over the edge of the boat and shoving my hands in the water, trying and failing to push the boat ever faster towards land. My eyes grew big as we got closer and I began chanting.

"Land..land..land...laaaandd! Food food foooood!"

"Oi!" Zoro shouted suddenly. I got over excited as I usually did, and tried to jump out of the boat a little too soon, planting face first into the sand. I popped right back up though, and thrust my pointer finger into the air triumphantly. "Land!" I shouted for the final time, and made to take off towards the road that would hopefully lead us to a town.

"Aela!" I heard behind me, and suddenly my progress forward was jolted to a stop. I looked back towards my brother with a whine, my feet continuing to move but my body unable to. "Zorrrroooo-niiiii!" I whined, pulling on my shirt that he'd grabbed on to. "Let go!" I pinched his hand but it was to no avail, as Zoro just rolled his eyes and pulled me closer so I was forced to face him.

"Meet me at the town bar in an hour, and don't eat too many sweets. Stay out of trouble," he grunted again, and I quickly nodded. "K Zo-Zo," I agreed, and he sighed, making me grin. He hated that name.

My brother and I quickly parted ways and I made my way into town. The first place I was stopping? A sweet shop of course. I hummed to myself as I passed a variety of stores, smiling at the vendors sweetly. "Yay!" I cried, finally setting my eyes on a small bakery. My stomach growled just thinking about the awesomny goodness inside, and I rubbed my hands together in excitement before running towards the store.

"Sweets!" I shouted, bursting my way inside. There was a lady at the counter that jolted a bit as I did this, but then quickly continued what she was doing, muttering something about 'dumb kids..'

My mouth began watering looking at all of the treats piled on for display and I slid back and forth from end to end, muttering to myself. "Which one should I get? The strawberry pie looks amazing but that triple chocolate cake looks perfect! Are those cookies?!" I yanked on my hair in distress, but finally, a solution popped into my head and I smiled, eyes lighting up.

"Excuse me," I cleared my throat politely in front of the shop woman, and she gave me a dry look. "Yes?" "I'd like to get three slices of your triple chocolate cake, a dozen of your peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, and one slice of strawberry pie. Please." I ended, remembering my manners. The woman's eyes went wide, but she nodded and quickly gathered up my order.

I smiled in content as I walked down the road through the town, holding my bag of sweets in one hand and finishing off my fifth cookie in the other. I made my way to the bar, humming a song that had been stuck in my head for a while. I finally found the bar after getting lost three or four times, and asking an older couple for directions (sense of direction was definitely hereditary in this case). Making my way inside the bar, I walked over to the front counter, automatically taking in my surroundings as I did so, and was taught to do by my brother.

I got a few weird looks but was mostly ignored and sat down on a bar stool right as the bartender made her way towards me. "Hello!" she greeted cheerily, and I smiled, watching a little girl come up beside her with a notebook in her hand. "What can we get for you?" I thought about ordering food but was still pretty hyped up on sweets. "I don't really want anything right now. I'm actually waiting for someone. Has a man carrying three swords made his way through here yet?"

The woman stiffened a bit then, which I noticed, and in turn my eyes sharpened. I retained my relaxed smile and facade though, hoping that it would calm her nerves. The little girl, her daughter I'm presuming, spoke up then. "We saw him! He came to the bar and was really nice to me. He saved me from Helmoppo's pet wolf." "His pet wolf, huh?" I confirmed, rubbing my forehead. And he told me to stay out of trouble… I thought to myself wearily.

"Ye-huh!" the little girl replied excitedly. "I'm afraid the man you're looking for has been arrested," the woman spoke up then, and I looked up sharply. "What?" I questioned, and I saw her tense even more. "I'm sorry," I apologized immediately, feeling guilty. "I didn't mean to scare you. That man is my brother and I'm just worried about him. Can you tell me what happened after the wolf incident?"

The woman nodded in understanding. "I understand your concern," she said, and pulled her daughter closer to her. Her eyes filled with tears then and she sniffed, "After he saved my daughter from the wolf, your brother made a deal with Helmoppo. He agreed to be arrested if only they would leave my daughter be. He made a deal with him about lasting one month at the marine base without food or water. I'm so sorry," she finished. "Don't be sorry," I waved her off, and she gaped. "How can you say that?"

"It's not like it's a death wish or anything," I assured her. "Zoro's tough. He'll be fine." I'll make sure of it, I said to myself.

Zoro was older than me by 3 years. He was 19, I was 16. He was of course, stupidly over protective, and that had a lot to do with the fact that he practically raised me. We had some of the same physical characteristics, and if it wasn't obvious we were siblings due to physical qualities, once you got to know us, it definitely became more obvious. I'm more bubbly than brother of course, but that's not saying much. He's not exactly the friendliest guy in the seas.

I was short at 5 foot 2 inches; Zoro was tall...well, tall-er, coming in at around 5 foot 11. I came up to his shoulders, on a good day. He was muscular, with broad shoulders; I was curvy and built compactly; I was skinnier than I wanted to be, and aimed to tone my muscles up a bit more. Zoro had lightly tanned skin, which I had as well, but I definitely burned much easier than he did. I resembled a lobster when I got too much sun, he just darkened up more.

While Zoro and I both have green hair, the shading was different thanks to eating my devil fruit. My mint green hair had several streaks of white going through it. It reached about shoulder length. Bangs swept across my forehead and rested in between my eyes. Zoro had forced me to cut them in the past as the longer length caused me to move them out of the way every 30 seconds, interrupting our training and causing me to become distracted. I had several scars as a result of those distractions, so I made sure to cut them myself when they became too long.

Our eyes were the biggest distinction between the two of us. Zoro had dark brown eyes which darken into almost black when he gets angry. I too, previously had brown eyes, until my devil fruit lightened those up as well. My brown eyes became a very light blue, with a constant ring of white around the iris.

Unlike my brother, I have no piercings, but I do have a tattoo on my left calf muscle of a compass with blue and purple watercolors surrounding it. I got it last year for my 15th birthday, and it's my favorite feature. I've got a bitchin' case of tattoo fever right now though. My skin felt as though it was literally itching for new ink.

Although Zoro was older than me, I was just as protective towards him as he was of me. We really only had each other growing up, and grew ridiculously close because of that. I looked out for him, he looked out for me. It would never change.

"Thank you so much for the information," I said getting up from my seat and bowing towards the woman and her daughter. I turned around to leave the bar, but was stopped by the woman grabbing my arm. "Wait," she said, and I turned towards her curiously. "If you don't have anywhere to stay tonight, as a thank you for your brother saving my daughter, we would be humbled if you chose to stay in our spare room upstairs."

I smiled at her brightly. "That's very kind of you. I'll gladly take up your offer," she smiled in relief, but her smile dropped a bit as I continued. "On one condition." "Yes?" she said, hesitant. "If I'm going to be staying here I need to at least earn my keep. I'm an awesome server!" I said brightly, giving her a thumbs up. The woman went to argue but then stopped, obviously sensing my stubbornness. "Well," she began, "we are actually short staffed. I suppose that would be alright," she nodded.

"Awesome!" I shouted, giving her a double thumbs up. Her daughter giggled and I threw her a wink. "Before all of that though, I need to go find my idiot brother." "I understand. Please be careful," she said in a motherly tone. "I'll be fine," I confirmed, touched by her concern.

Suddenly, I felt a tug on my shirt and looked down to see the little girl peering up at me. "Tell your oni-chan I said thank you for rescuing me," she said in a sweet voice, and I grinned towards her, kneeling down to her level. "Absolutely!" I said, and reached into my bag for my sweets.

Her eyes lit up when I pulled out a cookie, and she immediately snatched it out of my hand, making me burst into laughter, and causing her mother to gasp. "Rika! Don't be so rude!" she scolded. "It's fine!" I said, still giggling. "What do you say?" her mother said, nudging her daughter.

"Fank fu," the little girl, Rika said, smiling at me through a mouthful of cookie. "You're very welcome!" I replied, ruffling her hair before standing up to my full height again. "I'll be back soon. I'm just going to see what's going on with my brother and this Helmeppo guy. Bye for now!" I waved, and left the store in search of the marine base for my idiot brother.

till next time!