An Old Cliche:
the desert's rose
Chapter 06 - Midnight Parade
-1st Performance: Yakimochi-
By: L.R. Pelgina
beta read by: Starfirehime
We pretend not to realize how we really feel
And suddenly, we fall in love
-- Let Me Be With You; Chobits
Authors Note: HELLO AGAIN! And again sorry for this being a bit late, but I DID warn you quys last week! This chapter is a little short as well, but that'll happen every once-in-awhile. Thank you everyone for reviewing, I'd tell you all that individually but apparently we're not allowed reviewer responses in our stories any more! However I would like to thank the new reveiwers for doing just that and to say: I got a lot more angry reveiws from ZoroxVivi fans than I did SanjixNami fans like I figured...weird. But I DID warn you guys about that too, but it's all to move Nami along... That's IT! I sware! The next couple of chapters of this are going to be pretty SanjixNami heavy, but hang in there other couple fans! I have stuff cooking up for the others too! Thank you all so much and review please!
Disclaimer: Besides the villians I create I don't own any of this! I don't want Oda-sensei to get me for copyrights.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO THE PRINCESS?" Kohza yelled suddenly finding his breath.
Vivi, all-of-a-sudden realized just what had happened, and sat up in a hurry. She covered her mouth, shocked at what she had just done, and with Sanji none-the-less! Sanji however didn't seem as upset, his lips were still puckered and there were hearts in his eyes and hearts lying all around him. That was until Kohza came up and shook it all out of him.
"I ASKED YOU WHAT THE HECK YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE DOING!" He said shaking a woozy Sanji.
Everyone was silent, until Luffy started whistling, mocking what had just happened. But even Luffy stopped whistling when everyone turned to look at him and Kohza shot him an angry glare.
"Sanji-san," Vivi began and even the woozy Sanji was able to look at her, "I never thought that my first kiss would taste like nicotine..." she trailed off.
This really ticked Kohza off and he was about to yell again when Chopper interrupted the tension in the air.
"VIVI! YOUR HAND?" Chopper yelled and immediately ran to her aid.
Kohza let go of Sanji, more concerned over Vivi's health then the man who had violated her mouth, and even Usoppu and Luffy came over to see what was wrong. A few people however where still to shocked to realize that Chopper was now tending Vivi's wound, i.e. Zoro and Nami.
Zoro could have sworn he had never been so pissed as this moment in his entire life. He had literally wanted to go over there and cut Sanji to tiny bits. Which worried him. Sure he had thought of cutting Sanji up before, but never had he actually reached for his sword with the actual intention to do so. What in the hell was going on with him?
Nami wasn't feeling much better. She felt as though she had been hit in the chest with a blunt object. The muscles around her heart tightened painfully as unintentional jealousy seared through her veins. But one question plagued her mind as she thought all this. Why did she even care? It wasn't like she liked Sanji or anything, right? ...Right?
"This going to need stitches," Chopper scolded Vivi.
"What a minute! Your telling me the talking tanuki is a doctor?" Kohza said.
"I'M A REINDEER!" Chopper shouted, insulted at Kohza's assumption of the wrong animal.
"Toni-kun is a wonderful doctor from the Drum Kingdom," Vivi explained, "He's a reindeer that ate the Hito-hito fruit."
"I thought it was weird that there was a talking animal on the boat. I thought I had gotten a bit too much sun." Kohza sniggered.
Vivi giggled, "That's an odd thing to say being from Alabasta," she said as Chopper finished up with her hand.
"I know. I thought the same thing," Kohza laughed lightly.
CLICK!
Suddenly the floor started rising up on it's own and Usoppu moved his finger away from what had once been an unpressed button, "Oops," he muttered.
"USOPPU!" Everyone yelled at him (except for Luffy of course who was laughing in excitement).
Zoro and Nami were both happy for the interruption as well. Nami because the sudden shock of movement had moved Sanji away from Vivi and closer to her (not that she was jealous of course), and Zoro because it broke the little "mood" that Kohza and Vivi had started sharing. That was until Kohza put his arms around her to brace Vivi on the moving floor.
Zoro let out a low growl deep in his throat and then the floor stopped.
"What now?" Usoppu asked shaking.
"I'll bet we have to pick the right door out," Robin said.
"Not more tricks!" Usoppu whined.
"Oh, come on. You got us out of the last one just fine. Besides this could be the last trick." Kohza encouraged.
"Yeah, or this could just be one huge labyrinth that we'll never find our way out of. We should be careful," Sanji said, tearing down Usoppu's sudden security.
"It would seem that way," Vivi added as Kohza helped her up.
"Lets go through this door then!" Luffy shouted heading for the door that looked best to him.
"WAIT!" Everyone shouted but to no avail. Their cries fell on deaf ears as Luffy slowly opened the door to reveal...
The first room that they had all started in.
"What the hell..." Kohza said astonished.
Luffy and Robin looked over the edge of the door, the floor was still gone and the compartment where the treasure should have been was empty. Except for...
"I see something over there, it looks like a piece of paper," Robin said.
"I'll get it!" Luffy offered and began one of his stretching maneuvers when Robin stopped him.
"Captain, that compartment is made out of marinestone." Robin pointed out.
"If you want..." Everyone turned to look at Vivi as she spoke, "I can go and get it if you like," Vivi said quietly walking up behind Luffy and Robin alone.
True. She was still nervous around Miss AllSunday, but she had heard what Zoro had said about her and she felt better knowing she wasn't the only one who had to try and learn to trust her.
Luffy (despite appearance can read people rather well I think) understood this as a sign that she was going to give Robin a chance and smiled at her broadly, "All right Vivi! IKE!" he shouted excited now.
Vivi smiled in return, nodded and got out her peacock slashers when Zoro grabbed her hand to stop her. Everyone fell silent again and Zoro could feel the air tense around him. He could even see Kohza reach for his sword. Ignoring this he took Vivi's slashers from her and ripped off thee holder for her pinky in one fluid motion.
Luffy watched in silence knowing that if he had done this Zoro would have done the same. The two had an odd sort of trusting of each other that way, one always knew the other was up to something. Which is why Luffy stopped anyone that tried to make a move to stop Zoro.
Vivi however didn't understand him that well yet, "Mr. Bushido?" Vivi shouted, shocked.
Zoro ripped off a piece of leather from the strap that held his swords, he had more on the boat so he could replace it, but carrying his swords wouldn't cause him to nearly lose half a hand.
"Relax," Zoro said and began attaching the piece of leather to where the pinky handle had once been on Vivi's peacock slashers, "I'm giving you a new handle to grip onto in order to swing yourself across, so you don't end up with this again," he grabbed Vivi's bandaged and stitched up hand to prove his point.
Vivi laughed meagerly at herself, was she really that easy to read?
Zoro returned Vivi's peacock slasher to her and she stood at the door's edge and prepared herself to swing across. She found a good pipe-like pole and the ceiling and extended her new-and-improved slashers around it, then swung across the gap with ease. When she got to the paper she picked it up carefully in case it was rigged as well, when she felt it wasn't then she swung back and cautiously handed it to Robin, who laughed right after reading it.
"What's it say?" Luffy asked.
"It says 'The greatest treasure in the world, is your nakama'," Robin read.
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Brutus Horatius smirked at the hunchman that had just delievered the news, "I thought that man was a pirate," he said, "After he took off that bandana in front of me I though he looked familiar."
"Shall we pursue them your highness?" the hunchman asked.
"No, I know from the look on that pirate that they'll come for me, but we will send out some surprises for them along the way. Send in Wolf." he said.
The henchman bowed then did as he was told.
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On the boat Nami was in one of her "untouchable" moods. The crap that had happened with Sanji and Vivi's ki--. Well, never mind about that! There was no treasure on that GOD DAMNED boat to begin with so all had been for naught! And of course it didn't seem to bother anybody else! In fact Luffy had found the little note to be quite amusing. She had been so mad she even sat outside the little ring of people that were deciding what to with Vivi's current problem with that prince bastard. Of course she had said she wanted to keep Robin company (who had sat out probably due to the fact that it may make Vivi nervous), but that would work out anyway, as Robin probably wouldn't talk to her much anyway, mood or not.
"So, what do you want to do Vivi? Do you want us to take you back to Alabasta?" Sanji asked.
Vivi suddenly turned her attention to the ground, "Eh, but for you guys to have come so far on the grand line only to have to turn around again..." she trailed off, "It would probably be best to drop me off at the next island and wait for Iguram and the others to come pick me up from Alabasta," she answered.
"Luffy?" Sanji called, "What do you think?"
"What's all this 'going back' nonesense!" Luffy said, and Zoro smiled knowing Luffy was thinking the same thing as him, "Didn't Vivi come back to be a pirate?"
Or maybe he wasn't!
"DID YOU EVEN LISTEN TO OUR STORY!" Vivi, Zoro, and Kohza shouted.
"Is it really best for her to go BACK to Alabasta right now?" Usoppu interrupted.
"My thoughts exactly," Sanji said.
"But Pell created a distraction for us so we could get her back!" Kohza protested.
"No! He created one so we could get away," Zoro corrected.
"But now they're going to be looking for us out in the open water, everywhere basically EXCEPT Alabasta," Kozha retalated.
"That's alright," Luffy said, "We'll just kick there butts!"
"It's up to Vivi in the end," Sanji reasoned andeveryone turned to look at her.
There was a short silence that seemed to take forever when Zoro couldn't stand it anymore, "Vivi! All I have to do is kick this Brutus Horatius' butt, right?" he said mimiking the thing Luffy had said over and over on the way to fight Crocidile.
Vivi smiled and nodded, "On to Insula!" she said standing up, "And whatever islands we have to cross to get there!"
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It suddenly became dark when they reached the next islands a few days later. There was an odd group of people having a party of some sort in the dark when they. The island was called Mayonaka and the Mugiwaradan had come just in time for their Midnight Parade that they had every year around this time. And so the Luffy Pirates all joined in on the thing they did second best, PARTY! (The first is fighting for those who are curious).
Authors Note pt.2: Thanks so much for reading. Review and let me know what you think! Thanks again. Sorry it was so short too! Next update will be on will either be on Thurs Dec 8th or Monday Dec 12th as I am moving this weekend, maybe on Saturday in between the two but probably not... Anyway...Otanoshimini!