- The Best Gift-

A One Piece Christmas fanfic by Digitaldreamer

Chapter Three: The Last-Minute Shopping Rush

Gah…I'm so tired and stressed out. So much work to do...

So…one hundred and eleven readers, and not many reviews…ah well, it's not about the reviews, though really, if you read this and leave a review it'd be nice.

Right…anyhoo. So my birthday party was yesterday even though my actually birthday isn't until the twenty-sixth…I had the time of my life! My boyfriend came and ah, things were grand…just, squee.

Yeah, it was fun.

So now here I am, one day before Christmas, trying to pull together two more chapters of this fic. Can I do it? I hope so.

I apologize, as this chapter isn't betaed because I didn't have time to find anyone. Gomen nasai!

---

"Luffy? Hey, Luffy! Come on, wake up!"

Luffy slowly opened his eyes, the blurry vision of Ace in his Santa hat with his beard askew coming into focus.

"Nii-chan? What happened?" He asked, blinking and sitting up. He glanced this way and that, looking horribly confused. "Where'd Smokey go?"

"Huh? Taisa?" Ace shrugged. "I dunno, I haven't seen him since the explosion."

"Oh. Okay." Luffy took his brother's hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet, glancing around to see where they were. He and Ace were standing in the middle of one of the main shopping streets in the town, though all the shopping seemed to have paused in favor of staring at the Santa Claus and strange boy whom had fallen from the sky.

"Mommy, its Santa!"

"No it's not, Dolly…j-just leave them alone."

After a few moments Luffy glanced back at Ace. "Where's Zoro?"

Ace shrugged once again. "No idea. I'm sure he's okay though, from what you've told me about him."

Luffy grinned. "Yeah, I'm sure he's fine!"

Ace grinned as well. "Right. Come on, let's get back to the square. I'm sure he's around here somewhere, and I need to get back to work." Luffy nodded, and the two began their trek to the town square.

After about fifteen minutes (these minutes involving things like Ace trying to keep Luffy off of any meat vendor that happened to come into his line of vision, Luffy trying to wake up Ace after he suddenly fell asleep in the middle of the street, and a rather interesting incident involving a fake reindeer, a star, and a lady who smelled of old cheese) the two finally made it to the square, where Chopper was attempting to calm soon to be mob of people who came to see Santa.

"WE WANNA SEE SANTA!"

"YEAH, WHERE IS HE?"

"H-he'll be a few more minutes!" Chopper squeaked nervously, waving his hooves. "H-how about another Christmas carol? Uh.. THE RED-NOSED-"

"BOOOOOOOOO! NO MORE SINGING! WE WANT SANTA!"

"SANTA! SANTA!"

"Um…um…"

Ace, whom had been watching the chaos, quickly adjusted his beard and costume before sneaking over. He then suddenly popped out from behind the sleigh with a loud "HO HO HO!", causing Chopper to scream and fall off the sleigh.

"H-here he is everyone! Santa!" Chopper called from the ground. The entire crowd cheered.

"YAAAAAAAAY! SANTA!"

"WE LOVE YOU SANTA!"

:"I WANT A PONY, SANTA!"

Ace just stood there, chuckling and waving. Chopper stood and waved as well, though after a few moments he glared at Ace.

"Where were you?" He demanded.

"Taisa was hard to shake off. We managed, though. Thanks for holding down the fort, Chopper." Ace explained out of the corner of his mouth.

Chopper blushed. "A-asshole! I didn't WANT to do it or anything! God, you jerk! Don't thank me!" However, even as he spoke, he was grinning and dancing his glee.

Luffy, meanwhile, was looking around at everything else in the square. There sure were a lot of shiny things, and lots of people, and OH, there was food over there! It was then that he remembered that he still had to buy all of his nakama presents, and now seemed to be the perfect time!

With this in mind, Luffy suddenly rushed over and grabbed Chopper. "CHOPPER! Come on! We have to go buy presents for people!" He declared.

"W-wha? Presents?" Chopper squeaked.

"Yup! We gotta make sure that we get everyone really good presents!" Luffy declared. "So we gotta go look now! Hahaha, this is gonna be so fun!"

"Shopping? But what about Zoro?" Ace inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Luffy stopped in his tracks for a moment, thinking. "Well…I don't think that explosion hurt him, and since he's not with me now's the perfect time to get him something…do you think maybe if he comes here that you could tell him what I'm doing? Pleeeaaase Ace? I really wanna go shopping so I can get him the best present ever! Pleeeaaase?" He pleaded, shifting from foot to foot.

"Oh…alright. Just get moving! I have to get back to work! Good luck!" Ace grinned, waving as he got back onto the sleigh. As soon as this promise was made he turned back to the raging mob, forcing another belly laugh and waving for the kids to start coming up to sleigh.

"YOSH! It's alright! Come on Chopper, let's go! We're gonna find the best presents ever!" Luffy crowed, grabbing Chopper and dragging him through the town.

"Right! Best presents ever!" Chopper repeated, beaming.

---

Roronoa Zoro was not happy.

He was covered in snow, he had no idea where he was, and he'd lost Luffy!

"GODDAMNIT!" He growled, hands clenching into fists. A few passerby's shot him terrified looks and made a point of shuffling by faster than usual.

"Where could he be?" The swordsman continued as he stalked along the snow covered streets.

"SANTA!"

Zoro blinked, hearing this nearby cry. He glanced over to see a kid tugging his mothers arm. The woman sighed and shook her head. "Fine, we'll go see Santa. He's in the town square, come on." With that, she and her child began to walk down the street.

The town square? Maybe Luffy had wandered there…

With this in mind, Zoro followed the woman and child, trying his best to not make it seem like he was doing so.

"Mommy, that scary green-haired man is following us…"

"Just ignore him, sweetie."

Zoro paused, flinching. He hadn't wanted the kid to see him…

"But he's scary!"

"Sweetie…"

After a few more minutes of the boy's whining, the mother sighed and turned to Zoro. "Sir, why are you following us?" She demanded, carefully stepping in front of her child as if to shield him if the swordsman turned out to be dangerous.

Zoro blinked, then scratched his head, feeling like he'd been caught doing something bad. "Um…sorry…I heard that you were heading towards Town Square, and I need to go there as well. A friend of mine might be there, and I don't know how to get there so I…ah…followed you. Sorry." He muttered.

The woman stared at Zoro for a few moments before smiling and chuckling. "It's alright! Come on, we'll take you there."

Sighing with relief, Zoro sidled up next to the two of them and they continued their journey.

They traveled in silence for awhile, the boy casting shy glances towards the swordsman all the while. Finally, he spoke up.

"Why do you have three swords? You're like that pirate, Roronoa Zoro!"

"Ah…"

"Are you trying be like him? Because I can see why you'd wanna be like him, he's really cool!"

"Oh…is that so?"

"Yeah, he's awesome! Everyone else thinks he's scary, but I think he's really cool! And so his captain, Monkey D. Luffy! They're both so cool!"

Zoro just chuckled, shaking his head.

"I wonder where they are now…I wonder what pirates do on Christmas? I hope they have fun too….no one should be sad on Christmas."

Zoro smiled. "I'm sure they're have a good time."

The boy grinned. "Yeah!" His eyes then widened. "SANTA!" He cried, releasing his mother's hand and rushing into the town square, jumping up and down to try and see over peoples heads to get a good look at the sleigh in the center.

Zoro stood there, looking around. Where could Luffy be? He almost went right to looking, but he paused and turned towards the woman whom had led him there. "Thanks for leading me here." He said with a nod, before turning and beginning to walk away.

"You're welcome! Merry Christmas!" The woman called behind him, laughter in her voice.

The swordsman shook his head, smiling in spite of himself. People were so strange.

He then spotted Ace, sitting on the sleigh and chuckling. Frowning, Zoro rushed over to the sleigh. "ACE!" He called.

Ace looked over at Zoro. "Shhhhhh, it's Santa!" He hissed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Where's Luffy?" The swordsman demanded.

"Oh, he figured you'd be okay, so he and Chopper went shopping for Christmas presents. That's what he told me to tell you, anyway." Ace said with a shrug.

Zoro's eyes widened. "Shopping?" He cried. "But I have all their money! GAH!" With that, he charged down the street, shouting his crewmate's names.

"WAIT! You're going the wrong way!" Ace called, but Zoro was already too far away to hear him.

---

The farm where Christmas trees were sold on this particular island was beautiful. All of the trees were gorgeous and full, ranging from all sizes. All the trees sold at the shop that was run by the owner of the farm were hand-selected, and supposedly there wasn't a bad one in the bunch.

Maybe that was why all the places where the trees were actually sold were picked completely clean.

Sanji and Usopp stood in the middle of the small, fenced in area atop the heavily trod upon snow, which was covered with pine needles and branches. There wasn't a tree to be seen.

"So…you're all sold out?" Usopp repeated, eyes wide.

"Sorry boys. We just sold the last one to some weird kid named 'Charlie Brown', and that one was pretty crappy." The store owner said, shaking his head.

"But…Nami-san said she wanted us to get the perfect tree! I cannot bare to deny my Nami-san of her perfect tree!" Sanji cried.

"She'll kill us if we don't bring back something! This is the last place in town! Don't you have anything?" Usopp asked. "Please, we're desperate here!"

The store owner stared at them for a moment before sighing and shaking his head. "Well…we do have one left…it's artificial, though, and you'll have to assemble it yourself." He said, gesturing to a large box sitting next to the shed.

"Well…I guess if it's our only option…" Usopp muttered, reaching into his pocket the money. "I guess we'll take it."

---

"That will be seven hundred belli, sir."

Zoro sighed, reaching into his pocket and forking over the money before taking the bag the shop owner handed him.

He'd been traversing the town for hours, but he had yet to actually find the rubber boy. Each shop he'd visited bore the unmistakable mark that he and Chopper had been there, but he had yet to see Luffy himself. Of course, each shop he visited made Zoro pay for whatever Luffy and Chopper had bought. Amazingly though, he hadn't had to pay for any damage caused by his captain yet.

After an hour or so of searching and paying for the gifts, Zoro had finally stopped being annoyed and decided to start actually shopping while he searched. He doubted that he would have time for shopping by the time he actually found the boy, anyway.

So far he'd managed to find something for Chopper and Usopp, and he found a book that he assumed would keep Robin and her damn oh-so-mysterious, knowing gaze away from him for awhile. He also bought something for Nami, hoping it would help pay off his debt to her, and he even broke down and bought a little something for that shitty love cook.

Now Zoro still had his rubber captain to find, but he was starting to hope he wouldn't actually find him until after he found a present for him.

But what should he get Luffy? The boy was easily amused, you'd think he wouldn't be all that hard to shop for! But Zoro didn't want to just get Luffy meat or anything like that, he wanted to try and get something special.

And so he found himself searching through a random gift shop, hoping to find something suitable. The swordsman would pick up some random nick nack and look it over, then shake his head and place it wherever he'd found it.

Nothing seemed like the right thing, for some reason.

It was then that he spotted it, sitting on a shelf in the very back of the store. It was a small, fuzzy plushie of a monkey with a tiny straw hat placed upon its head, the last one on the shelf.

Zoro stared at it, jaw dropping. It was perfect!

Someone in a dark jacket suddenly shuffled past him, heading for the plushie. Zoro's eyes widened as he watched the young man in a sleek jacket with perfectly combed, dark hair make his way towards the plushie.

The swordsman scowled, catching up with the man in several strides. He wasn't going to let this guy take Luffy's present!

The man glanced at Zoro, and his eyes narrowed as he began to pick up his pace. Zoro's eyes narrowed as well and he began to pick up his pace. The man responded by going even faster, so Zoro's response was to go even faster than that by breaking into a jog. Upon seeing this, the man broke into a run, Zoro following suit.

The two raced down the aisle, knocking aside last minute shoppers and nearly breaking a few displays, both going as fast as they could.

Zoro was pulling ahead, he reached for the toy…

And the man suddenly shoved him away. Zoro let out a cry, kicking out his leg and knocking away the other man. Both the swordsman and the other man slammed into the wall, causing the monkey to shake on it's shelf.

Zoro grunted, getting to his feet and glaring at the man, whom was rising as well. The two glared at each other for a minute, neither moving. Finally Zoro reached for the toy, as did the man, each grabbing an arm.

"I saw it first." Zoro growled, fixing a glare upon the man that was known to cause many fearsome warriors to pee their pants.

The man simply sneered back. "No, I believe I did. You can't have it, bastard, this is for my girlfriend."

"Yeah, well it's for my captain."

"Too bad, you can't have it."

"It's mine!"

"No, it's mine!"

The man reached over and shoved Zoro, whose upper lip curled as he reached for the katana at his side. He then paused before sliding it back. His opponent was unarmed and they were in a store, he would win this fight fair and square.

"I don't want to fight you, alright? I saw it first." He growled through gritted teeth.

"Too bad! It's mine, asshole!" With a yell, the man swung a fist at Zoro, whose gaze darkened.

"You leave me no choice, then…."

Meanwhile, Nami and Robin were wandering through the streets, both carrying several shopping bags. They had already gotten the decorations, which Robin had sent back to the ship using a few helping hands, and they were now busy doing Christmas shopping.

"Well, I'd say we got just about everyone, and at wonderfully low prices too!" Nami said, grinning.

"Yes, I would say we've done fairly well, Navigator-san." Robin said with a smile. "I just hope Cook-san doesn't get too excited when he discovers that we didbuy mistletoe…"

Nami shook her head. "As long as I don't get stuck under it with him." She declared, waving her hand.

Robin just chuckled.

"Hey…why is there a crowd around that store?" Nami wondered, suddenly stopping and pointing to the shop across the street, where a small crowd had gathered.

"I don't know, Navigator-san. Shall we investigate?"

"Of course."

With that, the two women made their way into that crowd.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

"Dang, he must really want that thing…"

"Who do you think is going to win?"

"My bet's on the green-haired guy."

"I dunno, the other guy's pretty hot too. Too bad he's taken…"

"You think maybe the other one's still single?"

"Dunno, he was talking about getting that plushie for someone…maybe he already has someone."

"Awwwwww, darn."

Nami frowned, tapping one women on her shoulder. "Um…excuse me? What's going on in there?"

The girl glanced over at Nami and gestured towards the store. "Two guys started fighting over some gift. Apparently it was the last one in the store."

It was then that a blur of green suddenly rushed through the parted crowd, yelling something like "IT'S MINE, DAMNIT!" This blur was followed by a yelling young man, whom was being restrained by the storeowner explaining that the other man had paid for the gift.

Both Nami and Robin glanced at each other.

"Was that…"

"…Swordsman-san?"

"…Nah. There's no way he'd be crazy enough to fight with someone over some plushie. Come on, let's get out of here." Nami said, waving her hand as the crowd began to disperse.

"Of course, Navigator-san."

---

"Oh, what about this?" Chopper asked, waving a pack of art supplies in front of Luffy's face. "Do you think Usopp would like it?"

Luffy looked at it for a moment before grinning and giving Chopper a thumbs up. "You bet!"

"YAY! Okay, I got everybody then! How about you?"

The rubber pirate frowned thoughtfully, counting off his crewmates in his head. "Everyone but Zoro!" He finally declared with a nod.

But…what should he get Zoro? He was completely stumped. Nothing in this shop seemed like anything the swordsman would like…but he just had to find the perfect gift for him! But he couldn't seem to find any sort of gift…

"Oh my, you look worried. What's wrong, cutie?" The girl at the counter asked, smiling slyly at him.

Luffy glanced up at the girl, then shook his head. "I can't think of anything to get for my friend…"

"Ohhh, your friend?" The girl asked.

"Yeah! He's my best friend in the whole world and he's been with me since forever! He's really strong and fun and just the best first mate I could ask for! I know I can count on him for anything…and he's really, really important to me, so I want to get him something special."

"Oh really…" The girl beamed, eyes twinkling. "Well, what does he like?"

"Um…swords and beer…and sleeping." Chopper piped up.

"That's….not much to go by." The girl frowned.

Luffy shook his head. "Nope…" He looked back at the shelves, eyes sweeping over its various items…but nothing seemed to be something Zoro would like…

"Oh, I know! How about this?" The girl chirped, pulling something shining and silvery from a shelf and holding it out. Luffy stared at it. It was seemingly simple silver chain, with a pendent shaped like three swords crossing each other. In front of all three of these was a thin strip of metal.

"What is it?" Luffy inquired, taking the necklace and blinking at it.

"It's a warriors charm. It's supposed to bring good luck in battle, and the blank part is the really special part! If the warrior ever finds someone who they love and carves that persons name onto the necklace, that person will be with them forever! Isn't it so romantic?" The girl cooed, clasping her hands together. "It's a very popular item."

Luffy stared at the necklace for a few moments. Well…it was a pretty cool idea. Maybe it worked for friends too? And the swords looked pretty neat. the boy beamed, taking the necklace. "It's perfect! I'll take it!"

"Great! I'll ring it up, and that art set while I'm at it!" The girl said, taking the necklace. After ringing that up, she took the art set Chopper was holding and began working on that.

"Luffy? Chopper?"

Both Luffy and Chopper blinked in surprise, turning around to see Zoro standing there, holding several bags and looking a bit frazzled.

"ZORO!" Luffy cried, rushing over to wrap his arms around the swordsman. "There you are! I was getting kind of worried that you wouldn't find us!" He said with a laugh.

"Uh…yeah…" Zoro felt his face grow hot at the close contact and something warm stir in his chest, but ignored it. He gently pushed Luffy away. "Don't run off like that again, alright?" He said sternly.

Luffy laughed again. "Don't worry, I won't."

"Yay, Zoro's here!" Chopper cheered, jumping up and down.

The girl at the counter cleared her throat, trying to get the boys attention. "Here, that'll be two hundred belli." She said, holding out a small bag. Luffy took it, then glanced towards Zoro.

"Um…I don't have any money." He said, scratching his head.

"Which was why you shouldn't have run off." Zoro muttered, digging into his pocket and pulling out the last of the money Nami had given him. He counted it off before handing it to the cashier, thankful that they had enough.

"Thank you!" The girl chirped. "Have a Merry Christmas!"

"You too!" Luffy and Chopper chirped merrily as they stepped out of the store.

"Phew! Finally done!" Chopper said with a sigh.

"Yosh! It's snowing again!" Luffy cried, dropping his bags onto the side walk and rushing out into the street, arms spread wide. Zoro opened his mouth to call the boy back, but stopped, shaking his head as Chopper ran after him.

The swordsman simply stood and watched as Luffy stood there in the drifting snow.. His tongue stuck out to catch the falling snowflakes, though more got caught in his black hair, which ruffled in the wind. His nose and cheeks were tinted pink in the chilly air, his breath coming out in puffs as he gazed up at the sky, his smile brighter than the shining white snow. It was there that one could see the kind of innocent purity one rarely saw in the world anymore, the kind purity that even rivaled the freshly fallen snow.

Zoro couldn't help but think that he'd never seen a more wonderful sight. In spite of himself, he was smiling once again.

"Luffy! Chopper! Zoro!" Nami's yell suddenly broke through the moment, causing Zoro to snap out of it and shake his head. Where had that come from?

"Nami!" Luffy spun around, grinning. "It's snowing!"

"Yes, yes, great. Come on, we're heading back to the ship!" The navigator stated as she walked up to them with Robin close behind.

"Did you get all your shopping done, Swordsman-san?" She asked as she stepped up to him, her eyes twinkling.

Zoro rolled his eyes. "I did."

"Oh, that's good."

"Come on, grab the bags, we're going!" Nami called again, beckoning for everyone to follow her. "God, it's a good thing we found you three, even with Chopper we probably still wouldn't see you again until New Years…"

---

Shanks groaned, collapsing into a wooden bench. Hours upon hours of searching, and still no Luffy…where could he be? He'd seen all the signs of the boy being around, but he still hadn't seen the boy!

It was then that a horrible, horrible thought struck the red-haired pirate captain. What if he couldn't find the boy until AFTER Christmas? What if he was stuck like this until next year? In fact…what if Christmas was canceled, but he was still stuck like this?

Shanks twitched at the thought. He would not let that happen!

He whipped out his wand and began shaking it furiously. "You teleported me before! Take me to Luffy now! I don't wanna be stuck like this forever!"

The wand suddenly clicked, and then a cool, mechanical female voice came from it. "We're sorry, but your time for the 'teleportation service' has run out! Please deposit twenty-five belli for the next five minutes!"

Shanks stared at the wand for several seconds before cursing and throwing the thing to the ground.

"Stupid wand!"

---

To Be Continued…

Pwhew! I'm tired, but that was a lot of fun to write! I do hope you all enjoyed that as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please, if you read this and enjoyed it, do tell me! I really love reviews, they're one of the best gifts anyone could give me!

So please, review!

Next Chapter: The Straw Hats have faced untold dangers, fought life and death battles, and had countless adventures…but can they handle the challenge of decorating their own ship? Is Luffy right? Will this be the Best Christmas ever? Will Shanks ever manage his task? Find out in the last chapter of The Best Gift!