An Old Cliche:

the desert's rose

Chapter 07 - Cosmic Night Run

-2nd Performance: Setsunasa-

By: L.R. Pelgina

beta read by: Starfirehime

Hey, it's disgusting, isn't it?

Even if I chase you, you won't come

Tears fill up my eyes, and I can't run anymore

Maybe it's jealousy... I'm s-a-d...!

-- Lonely in Gorgeous; Paradise Kiss

Authors Note: I know, I know! For those of you entirely caught up with the One Piece manga this island sounds just the opposite of Enies Lobby. You know the "always sunny" island. But I swear it has no significance that way. I had actually planned this island before I caught up to the manga like this. By the way, I don't think I ever made it clear were this was to be placed, this story is to happen AFTER Aokiji (obviously) but BEFORE Water 7. Otherwise I would have to write in the extra nakama wouldn't I? I'll bet it's Paulie...or maybe Franky. Although Paulie would make more sense as he FIXS boats and Franky takes them APART! Then there's the fact that I like Paulie better! OH! And sorry this took so long, moving took more out of me then I thought it would. But now I haven't got my cable hooked up yet so it seems I'm gonna have a lot more time to update! PLUS! I have a few one-shots planned out for all my favorite couples so look forward to that as well!

Disclaimer: Besides the villains I create I don't own any of this! I don't want Oda-sensei to get me for copyrights.

In the midst of the party the Luffy Pirates found themselves in a tavern. Luffy was hungry after all. They all sat at a large table in the corner of the tavern which was so crowded it was hard to keep ones conversations to ones self.

Although Vivi no longer sat as far as she could from Robin, she was still nervous while around her and so placed herself in between Zoro and Kohza. Nami, however, had taken a page from Vivi's book, so-to-speak, and sat as far away from the person with whom she was mad. Sanji. Of course the poor man hadn't the slightest idea that she was angry and was completely oblivious to the fact that she was avoiding him despite his persistent attempts to get her attention.

"How odd. To have the entire island covered in darkness all the time," Vivi said off-handedly to Kohza who nodded in return.

"But I suppose that's coming from two people who see the sun a lot," Kohza reasoned.

"We're not in the dark all the time," a tall man with spiked white hair and a child-like arrogant demeanor said from the table behind them, "there's actually a funny reason why we're in the dark all the time,"

"Mayonaka, the island cast in eternal shadow," Robin said and smirked.

The man nodded, "That's right! There's a mountain that's too far away to see from here but it's SOOO huge that we're cast in it's shadow all day, at least until about noon, but then we only have it tell it sets. Which gives us a total of about 6 hours sunlight a day," he said.

"Doesn't that bug the citizens? To be cast in shadow and darkness for so long? I mean you must have a lot of troubles with growing plants?" Kohza asked.

The man just looked back in surprise.

"He's a BIG activist were we come from," Vivi explained quickly.

"He sounds like he should be the king or something," the man said then laughed.

"You could say THAT again!" Vivi said and she and Kohza joined him in his laughter.

Zoro growled under his breath.

"No, we're all used to the darkness by now. And we don't have any problem with the plant life around here," the man smirked, "Beside the shadow uh...suits our princess quite well..."

Sanji suddenly perked up, "Princess?" he said.

Now it was Nami's turn to growl under her breath.

"My name is Gare, by-the-way. How long you guys here for?" Gare asked.

Everyone turned and looked at Nami who looked at their Rouge Pose, "However long it'll take this to record the island's magnetism... Or until we find an Eternal Pose to Insula," she replied shrugging.

The man was silent for a moment, and then stood suddenly, "You people are heading to Insula?" he demanded.

Zoro, Sanji, and Kohza instantly tensed up, ready for a fight should this man wish to cause one (Luffy would normally have joined them, but somebody had eaten his as well as everyone else's fill and was now unconscious on the floor).

Gare suddenly seemed to realize himself and sat back down in a hurry, "Sorry, someone I know went to Insula," he explained as if it excused his rude behavior.

The boys slowly untensed themselves and continued what they had been doing before.

"You wouldn't happen to know where we could get an Eternal Pose for Insula do you?" Kohza asked suddenly, "I mean if you know someone who went there……"

But Kohza didn't get to finish his sentence because Gare stood again and excused himself in a hurry, leaving some of the Mugiwaradan clueless as to what had just happened. The Mugiwaradan was clueless in any case.

"He knows who has an Eternal Pose or otherwise has one himself," Kohza said out-of-the-blue.

"What makes you say that?" Sanji asked.

"Because he left as soon as Sideburns mentioned it," Zoro added in, "That means he's hiding something. So he either knows about a pose or otherwise works for this prince bastard himself,"

Sanji shot Zoro a glare from across the table, "Well I'm sorry if I didn't make a living hunting down crooks," he spat then suddenly turned sweet, "AH! Vivi-chwan I hope this bad Prince doesn't make me, your Mr. Prince look bad," he mused and took her hands from across the table.

Vivi laughed nervously obviously uncomfortable while Zoro and Kohza both had their hands on their swords within seconds, without even realizing it, but it was Nami who interrupted Sanji's little love-love mood. She stood up suddenly and slammed her hands down on the table so loudly even Luffy woke up and snapped to attention. Her bangs covered her eyes but Vivi could see that she was shaking.

"W—what are we doing waiting around her for then," she choked out through her teeth still keeping her face concealed, "Let's go check him out then,"

And with that Nami ran out of the restaurant.

"Nami-san," Vivi called after her and stood up to go find her but Zoro stopped her by gently grabbing her arm.

"Leave this to 'Mr. Prince' " he said.

God, he hated helping out in things like this but sometimes for the sake peace on the boat (i.e. for the sake of his state of mind) it had to be done, even if he had to help.

Of course Zoro didn't have to say anything for Sanji to go after Nami, he was up before she even hit the door, but he DID have to do something in order to keep Vivi from going to help.

Vivi of course being the worrier that she was took one last long look at the door before listening to Zoro and sat back down.

"How long are you going to hold on to her?" Kohza said bitterly then turned and gave Zoro just as bad a look.

Zoro looked at his hand and realized he hadn't taken it off Vivi's soft skin……uh, he meant,…in any case hadn't taken his hand off her arm yet. Zoro snatched his hand away quickly, embarrassed.

Everyone else (i.e. NOT Zoro, Kohza or Vivi) shifted in their seats, uncomfortable from the thickening tension.

"So, what ARE we going to do about this Gare and an Eternal Pose to Insula?" Usoppu said enthusiastically to try and rid the air from the tensing moment.

"Shouldn't the princess at least have one?" Robin asked without looking up from her book as one of her extra hands turned the page.

"What makes you think –" Kohza began but was interrupted by Vivi.

"She's RIGHT!" Vivi shouted, "Mayonaka is an ally of Alabasta and Insula! We trade often….or we used to before the draught…… So we have eternal poses for Insula and Mayonaka in Alabasta so Mayonaka should have one for Alabasta and Insula! I can't believe I forgot that!" Vivi exclaimed, "But…how did you know –"

"Crocodile made sure I investigated Alabasta very carefully," Robin replied turning another page.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

So much for clearing the air.

Vivi fell silent again, her earlier happy mood now shot down, and Kohza shot Robin a dirty look in response. Of course Robin didn't see it, she still hadn't looked up from her book.

"So – we just go up to this princess and ask her for the eternal pose," Chopper tried his hand at clearing the air.

"I don't think we'll just be able to waltz up there and ask for the pose," Usoppu said, "Not without telling them who Vivi is anyway,"

"AND they ARE allies with Insula as well as Alabasta, so we can't tell them who Vivi is in case they are working with Horatius," Kohza said and Vivi shivered a little at the mention of his name.

"So it's go in and take it by force then? What say you Captain?" Zoro said and looked at Luffy who had remained surprisingly silent this entire time.

Luffy just smiled widely, "Let's go see!" he said and the remaining Luffy Pirates stood, Vivi paid….., and then left to go find an eternal pose to Insula.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Just a few more inches and Sanji would be caught up with Nami….. Sanji reached out to grab her arm as he approached her, to try and stop her to get her attention, but when he touched her to get her attention she whirled around and yanked her arm out of his grasp, and Sanji was shocked to see….that she was crying….

Sanji had never really seen Nami cry before; not without knowing the purpose anyway. The first and only time he had seen Nami in tears was at Arlong Park, when all of the things she had worked so hard for in life where about to be crushed. He really didn't know what to do with a crying Nami to be quite honest. She was always such a strong girl, she mostly tried to keep her emotions inside so as not to hinder anyone else.

"Nami-sa—"

"DON'T TOUCH ME! Just…DON'T touch me." Nami shouted.

Sanji didn't know what to say to that, but tried anyway, "Nami-san, what's wrong?" he asked taking a step towards her.

Nami snorted, "Like you care," she spat, wiping the tears away from her eyes with the back of her hands.

What was going on with Nami-san all of a sudden?

"Na—"

"JUST……go back to Robin-chwan and Vivi-chwan…. You seem to prefer princess anyway. Don't you? Mr. Prince?"

Ok. Now he was REALLY confused.

"Nami-san what is this all about?" Sanji insisted, since when did his fawning over other women bug her so much? He'd always done it… And usually she didn't seem to like the attention he gave her!

Nami ignored his question and had turned around and started walking ahead of him again, but Sanji wasn't going to let her get away that easy.

He caught up with her within two or three steps and grabbed her arm again and whirled her around himself, "NAMI-SAN" he yelled on the brink of frustration.

She yanked her arm out of his hand and the tears started again.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" She screamed, "LEAVE ME ALONE! I HATE YOU!"

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

The remaining Mugiwaradan + Kohza now stood at the bottom of a very large mansion. The island being sort of modern day and kind of small they had all figured they wouldn't run into an actual castle.

They had found out the whereabouts of the castle rather easily. According to the villagers she used to welcome visitors from the village quite regularly but had just suddenly stopped recently. It was quite mysterious they all insisted. Now the only question was whether or not to knock.

"Can I help you?" A tall man with dull spiked back red hair asked. He was quite tall and had a rather gentle demeanor about him, but looked like someone who could talk you out of your most prized possession if he wanted it enough, "My name is Taso and I'm in charge of the princess' affairs. Did you need to see her for something?"

"We came to see about –" Vivi began but Taso interrupted her.

"You people aren't from around here, are you?" He demanded.

Kohza took a step forward to stand in front of Vivi, "We're from Insula," he lied, "We're lost and looking for a way home! We know that Mayonaka is allied with Insula and were wondering if the princess had an eternal pose to there that we might have."

"Your ALL from Insula," Taso asked rising an eyebrow.

"Yes!" Kohza said before anyone else got the chance to say the contrary.

"Well then," Taso said and opened the door they were wondering about knocking on, "Go right in,"

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Sanji was shell-shocked. What had he done to deserve Nami's hate?

But he didn't get the time to think on it. Someone was coming with the intent of attacking them, and fast. And they were heading for Nami first.

"Did you hear me?" Nami shouted, "I said I HATE you," Nami insisted and then Sanji pushed her.

She landed on the ground about 6 feet away from him with a thud and was about to beret Sanji for his insensitivity when something that looked like a large tree landed where she had been standing only seconds before and Sanji was standing now. Dust and dirt flew up everywhere, covering her in a shower of sand.

"SANJI-KUN!" She shouted when the tree laughed.

And as the dust settled that's when she realized that the tree had a face! It was Gare!

"You won't mind if I kill him then, if you hate him so much" Gare said to Nami.

I want to gather up the stardust

and throw them at you

Why do you care?

You can't love anyone but yourself...

Maybe it's heartbreak... For real...!

-- Lonely in Gorgeous; Paradise Kiss

Authors Note pt.2: Thanks so much for reading. Review and let me know what you think! Thanks again. The next chapter will be a song-fic and be VERY SanjixNami heavy! Let's just say there's some confessions made... - Anyway if you want to try and find the song I'll give you a running head start! The song is by Crystal Kay and is called Namida ga Afuretemo. Oh, and yes, the princess' right hand man's names ARE Taso & Gare… which together makes Tasogare which means Twilight. And yes, I did it on purpose… For anyone that noticed. The next update will be up Dec.24th (CHOPPERS B-DAY) and this SHOULD be up in time! Or otherwise it'll come sooner! Otanoshimini!