A/N: Set pre-Nami's sickness post Little Garden. I'm probably gonna edit this later : ' )

Big thanks to the guest reviewer who went through all the chaps! You warm my heart~

Fire and Ice

It's only hours after Little Garden but Vivi decides that it's time the straw hats understand what they've gotten themselves into. She can't have them going in unprepared, they'd lose, they'd die, her country would die…

She won't let that happen.

She might not have much but if they're really going to save her country then she needs to give them the same scraps of information that she has. After all, people are paid to be tight lipped in Baroque Works (and if money doesn't work then Crocodile has other methods). Things like the battle strategies of the other number agents, or who runs the resistance in Alabasta, or who Crocodile is, at least to the people… She needs to help them prepare.

"'Prepare' me by telling me more about how the weather here works, that way we can get there as fast as you need." Nami waves her off when she brings it up. "And we can escape when it all starts falling apart."

"Alabasta won't fall," Vivi insists and Nami blinks at her for a moment before laughing.

"Not Alabasta, just, whatever we get going." She tries to explain. "I don't remember the last time we weren't running when we left some place." She waves off Vivi's confusion, "You'll understand after a while."

Vivi sighs, even Nami, undoubtedly the most rational of the crew isn't very concerned about the situation, at least not now, when they are safe under the guise of Sanji-kun's false report. She's really starting to wonder if she was right to ask this crew for their help. Not that she had many choices...

"Sorry Vivi," Nami apologizes absently as a twitch in the log pose needle distracts her. "Uh, if you want to talk about fighting go find Zoro or Luffy."

But when she comes to stand over the swordsman, asleep on deck, he hardly stirs.

"Mr. Bushido," She starts, "I was hoping that we could talk about the group that is threatening Alabasta-"

Zoro interrupts her with a snore.

It's likely best if she talks to the captain first anyhow.

Vivi finds him hiding in a shadow on deck. His limbs are splayed out around him in an almost artful display of his impressive array of scrapes. She can tell he's not asleep because he's not snoring, but his eyes are closed and he's breathing softly, like he's trying to pass it off.

"Luffy!" He bolts upright, eyes wide and on guard, not the 'there's an enemy threatening me' kind of on guard but the, 'someone just caught me doing something I shouldn't be doing' kind of on guard- that is, heavy defense mode. Her intended question fades from her lips. Can she talk to him for a moment? No. "What are you doing?"

"Napping!" He blurts and Vivi crosses her arms. He'd unbuttoned his shirt for his nap and now it's practically falling off. She doesn't think it's a coincidence that beneath it his shoulders are an ugly shade of red and look a little bit shiny… sunburn?

"You're napping, really? You usually sleep with Mr. Bushido in the sunshine."

He shrugs, "I was getting hot so I moved."

It's interesting how well he's lying this time around, but it's still not well enough. He's dropped back onto the ground and is grumbling to himself about her interruption, not paying much attention to if hse's really listening or not. She takes the opportunity to crouch down beside him and pinch his arm which is stretched out near her foot, he tenses at her touch and bites his lip. She's closer now, and she's touched him, and suddenly she can tell. They glare at each other.

"You're burned!" she accuses while he slaps her hand away with a slight hiss. "What happened that you got so badly burned! Look at this," She reaches forward and lifts his arm, all around his arms and the back side of his legs are puffy and bright red, she's amazed she missed it until now. "It's everywhere! Why didn't you tell someone?"

"They're only first degree." He's looking away now and Vivi can hardly believe it, who does this to themselves? Why let yourself suffer?

"Come on," She straightens and holds out her hands for him to grab. He looks at her carefully, one of the first times she's seen him even seem wary, before he takes the offered help and she pulls him to his feet. "We've got to get you fixed up."

He ducks his head beneath the straw hat and leans back against the wall. Gingerly, she notes, like the pressure hurts his skin. "I don't need fixing, I'm fine."

"Don't give me that, if you're going to fight against Crocodile then you need to be in the best condition you can be. You can't hope to fight him and win with those burns. You can hardly move! We'll ask Nami for some salve, I'll draw some water…" She pauses, trying to think of a way to convince him to go with it. "We can do it outside if you want."

He's downright suspicious now but she's not going to give him a choice on this one. He has to take care of himself, otherwise who will 'take care' of Crocodile?

"Do what outside?"

"The ice bath, of course." The look on his face is something between incredulity and despair.

"No way! A bath isn't going to make me feel better, a bath will make me feel…" He considered for a moment, lip curling at the thought, "Icky! And tired."

"It'll also cool you off." He pouts but she ignores it. "Luffy, you've got burns all over the place, it'd be easier to do a bath than making all of the ice packs. Cooling off is the first step to soothing a burn. You have a lot of burns to soothe and we don't have much time before we get to Alabasta." Still, he shakes his head adamantly and she crosses her arms. "It won't be for long."

"Don't care, they don't hurt that much."

"What, enough for you to take a bath?"

"Yeah."

She frowns at him and he glares right back, he's not giving in but she can tell that he really is hurting, he's holding his arms away from his body and when he moves it's an uncomfortable shift. She still can't figure out where he got them from. Little Garden is the only option, but she, Nami, and Zoro were the only ones in the fire, where had he gotten burnt…?

"These are from Usopp-san!" She snaps her fingers at the realization and he winces, deflates. "When he burned Miss Goldenweek's mark off your shirt!"

"Shh!" He's at her side in a flash, herding her into the corner with him. "You can't say it so loud, Usopp will hear!"

"Usopp-san…" She stops and stares at him, wide eyed, "You don't want Usopp-san to know he burned you?" Luffy hesitates and then nods carefully.

"They don't hurt that much, really, but Usopp will feel really bad about it. He's already upset because he had to set you guys on fire…"

Vivi is a little happy about that (it was one of the worst orchestrated rescues she's ever seen) but she also understands why he did what he did, and she recognizes why Usopp would feel even worse for burning Luffy so badly.

Still.

"It doesn't matter," She straightens her shoulders and finds her princess persona rising to give the orders. "You need to do something about them." Though maybe doing it on deck wouldn't be as appealing to him as she'd thought. If he didn't want Usopp to see that he was burned then it'd be better if they went inside, somewhere that Usopp would have no idea anything had ever happened.

Luffy has already got his mouth open, and she can tell by the look in his eye that she's got an angry retort coming her way, so she interrupts him quickly. "I'm sure Nami-san will allow us to use her room for this occasion."

Luffy looks at her for a moment, clearly trying to process the shift in the situation.

"...It's your room too ya know." He finally settles on.

Vivi shrugs, takes his hand, and pulls him toward the hatch to head below deck.

"For a little while, yes, I know."

Vivi shakes the second, and final, bag of ice into the bathtub, the cubes float merrily along the tiny waves that are made and clack against the sides.

Luffy glares hatefully at the tub from across the room.

When Vivi had first pushed Luffy into the room Nami had been all too eager to get him back out, but Vivi's clipped explanation and a closer inspection of her captain had Nami scolding him fiercely while Vivi fetched the ice.

Now he's standing in his jean shorts, arms held carefully away from his sides as Nami lectures, pacing around the room.

"What was the first thing we did to Zoro after we got back to the ship?" Nami asks again and Luffy grumbles for a moment before answering.

"Bandaged his ankles."

"After that,"

"... put the green paste on his hands."

"And his back and his arms and his legs," Nami grumbled. "But yes, and that's what Vivi and I did too, put on burn salve. If we had enough ice all three of us would have put ice on our burns but we didn't so we just put on salve."

"But if I put that stuff on Usopp'll be able to tell!"

"Which is why we're using all of this ice for you,"

"I don't need any of this stuff!"

Nami frowns at him and grabs his wrist, when she stretches out his arm the skin around his shoulders and under arms goes taught and the red shines.

Luffy bites his lip.

"Don't hurt him, Nami," Vivi scolds, "He was just worried about Usopp."

"You haven't been around him as much as I have Vivi," Nami growls, "He really needs to learn how to worry about himself. This is getting old."

Vivi frowns at her but doesn't say anything, just waves Luffy over to the tub. He glances at Vivi doubtfully and she nods him forward. With a low groan he slips off his sandals and steps over the rim. The moment his foot touches the surface he pulls it back out, "It's cold!"

"It's supposed to be, get in!" Nami comes over and pushes him down, his gasp is delayed by about ten seconds as he begins to shiver and his teeth chatter.

"I-it's-s-s-s really c-c-cold-d," he glares at them, "and they st-till hurt-t!"

"Sit there for a couple minutes," Nami orders and Vivi reaches a hand in and splashes water up to his chest.

"When you're done we're going to put salve on your shoulders," Vivi tells him as she runs a wet washcloth along his shoulders; they go rigid at her words.

"But Usopp-"

"None anywhere else, just where they'll be covered by your shirt," Vivi promises. He grumbles unintelligibly and fixes his gaze on some point in the distance, steadfastly ignoring the both of them.

At first Luffy maintains his stoic position while Nami idly splashes water around the tub in half hearted attempts to make him laugh, but slowly he begins to wilt and tip to the side. Nami catches his shoulder and holds him straight.

"S-sorry," he murmurs as his eyes droop and the two women exchange glances.

"It's the water," Vivi whispers, "Still water weakens devil fruit users whether it's sea water or not."

"I didn't know that," Nami gasps, turning on Luffy, "Why didn't you tell us that?"

She slaps his arm and he whines before sinking into the water another inch. She grinds her teeth before grabbing a towel from behind her.

"Alright, that's good," Nami announces, flapping it out and holding it up. Luffy glances up at her and blinks slowly, like he doesn't know what the towel is for. She sighs "You can get out now."

Luffy nods weakly and tries to get to his feet, his shorts drip water as he stands and wobbles in place, Vivi steadies him with a light hand on his shoulder.

When they eventually get him bundled into a towel and give him the salve to rub in he's moody but aware, and as he slathers green goop onto his shoulders Nami holds out her hand for Vivi to shake.

"Good job Vivi, if you hadn't noticed who knows how long it would have taken us to get them taken care of. You're officially an honorary straw hat if you can detect when he's hiding an injury and successfully get him to take care of it. Congratulations."

Bashfully, Vivi takes the hand and shakes, a small smile appearing as Luffy mutters childish insults about the both of them.

"I'm not putting any on my arms," He holds the tub out for Nami to take back. "They're not burned that bad."

"We already told you you didn't have to." Vivi takes the tub and Luffy shrugs.

"Alright," Nami decides. "I guess you're done." She doesn't look happy about it. "Next time you get hurt tell us okay? Don't make us go figure it out." He hums noncommittally and she steps on his foot. "I'm serious!" He glares at her and she plops down in the other chair, holding his knee and looking him straight in the eye. "Usopp wouldn't like to hear that he burned you, but I promise, he would be a lot more upset if he knew that he hurt you and then you kept hurting because you didn't want to hurt him. Do you understand? We'd all feel like that, so don't go hiding stuff like this. Alright?"

He tears himself free of her gaze and looks at his hands, twiddling his thumbs in his lap. "Yeah, Nami, I get it." He smiles at Vivi, probably because he thinks she's less likely to hit him. "I'll be more careful."

"Then get going." She sits back and tosses his shirt at his face. He laughs and catches it, sliding it on easily and disappearing out the door before Vivi can blink. The both of them smile for a second as a loud crash resounds from above deck.

"Feeling better already," Vivi notes happily but Nami flops backward onto her bed, groaning.

"He's such a liar," She rubs her temples, short hair splayed around her head like an orange halo.

"I don't know, I think he meant it." Vivi tries.

"Like I said, you don't know him. Of course he means it now, you'd really be able to tell if he was trying to lie," A smile glows on her face for an instant but it withers quickly. "The problem is that he'll forget. To him that stuff doesn't matter, he doesn't think about it, that's why it's our job to keep track of it for him." She sighs again and stands up. "I think I'm going to take a nap, he's such a headache…" A yell comes from above deck and Nami's shoulders tense. "Nevermind, storm coming." She follows Luffy's example and heads out but Vivi stands for just a minute more, thinking about pirate captains that endure pain rather than hurt their crew's feelings and navigators that hit people when they want them to get better.

It's a strange crew that she's become an honorary member of.

AN: I'm gonna try to edit and update one of my other fics, What Makes a Monster, because I really like it but it needs a touch up. It's got some similar themes to this collection but it's longer than the usual shot and technically Chopper centric but it's got enough Luffy to qualify haha. It also fits chronologically roght after this chapter. Anyway, keep an eye out for that and then the update for this collection with the first of a bajillion Alabasta focused shots. Srsly, there are so many for Alabasta.

Thanks for reading please let me know what you think : )