It's been a while since the last chapter, like, a week or something. Ahaha… ha… I'm sorry for the delay, I wish I had a reason but I've just procrastinated writing this chapter for a while. I may have gotten burnt out from writing three chapters in three days, I dunno. I'll probably start doing weekly updates, or at least there'll be gaps between updates, since I've started to write a chapter over several days rather than in just a few hours. I'll just get in to answering a review, and then I'll move on to the chapter.

RedDobrasil: Yes, they'll mostly be going in the same sequence since the East Blue, and to an extension the Paradise half of the Grand Line are mostly linear paths. The New World will probably see some deviation since Luffy's a lot more impulsive with his decisions in there. So, it'll probably be bouncing all over the place.

Anyways, onto the new chapter, and please leave reviews. I need something to read so I know if something's bad and if I'm going on the right track.

Chapter 4: The Floating Restaurant, Baratie!

Bonney could already feel her day would be along one as she was hearing the sounds of Luffy and their new crewmate bouncing around the ship. Her purple eyes fluttered open as she stood up to stretch herself out of the uncomfortable sleeping position. She had unceremoniously fell asleep against the railing of their new ship after a long night of painting their pirate flag with Luffy. That's right… They had a new ship. Bonney's mind had started roaming through her memories of the previous day.

They had made it on to a new island, after she and Luffy had complained about the lack of food on their boat, where they met a compulsive liar, named Usopp, with too long of a nose to be considered normal. It was almost like that fairy tale she heard told around her home village of the boy whose nose extended every time he told a lie, she mused. Moving her thoughts back on track, her mind wandered off to Luffy's fight with Captain Kuro, who had been masquerading as a butler in the mansion that… Usopp's friend? Maybe girlfriend? She didn't really know their relationship was progressing, but they ended up fighting his crew to save Usopp's village. In normal Luffy fashion, he'd asked -well, more like he and Zoro already decided it - Usopp to join his crew, she'd expected that much to happen since they first talked to each other. She hadn't expected Ussop's… friend-but-bordering-on-girlfriend to gift them a ship, they called it the Going Merry.

Bonney's purple orbs moved along the mast until they settle on their new masterpiece, the pirate flag of the Straw Hat Pirates. It was a rather simple design of a Jolly Roger except it's wearing the trademark straw hat associated with Luffy. Usopp had drawn the outline and left the flag for them to paint, what was supposed to be an hour of painting had extended into the late hours of the night as they both ended up fighting over paint and somehow painted each other more than the flag.

The pink haired girl is brought out of her thoughts by a particularly loud snore from Zoro. She sighed in exasperation, "Jeez, it's like the only thing he's done since joining is sleeping." Bonney walked over to his position and gave him a few well-placed kicks in the shin to wake him up. "Ow! What the hell is wrong with you, woman?!"

Ignoring the way he was talking to her, she took out a map and continued on like she'd done nothing wrong. "I need someone to keep us on course, so you just have to keep going north until you see a weird rock formation."

Through her eyelashes, she could spot him glaring daggers at her before speaking up. "And why the hell can't you get one of the other idiots to do this while I sleep?" Bonney sighed in frustration and put her hands on her hips.

"Because!"

"Because is not a valid reason, woman." Seeing that she would not win the argument this way, she pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to reason with the green-haired swordsman.

"Because… Luffy has the attention span of a goldfish and won't pay attention. And I don't trust Usopp to steer after he ran us into something the first time he tried!"

"Yeah? Well, what about you?" The swordsman countered, looking overly content with himself.

"I have to take a shower to wash all this paint off. Besides, the more time it takes us to get to the Grand Line… the more time it takes you to become the greatest swordsman." She grinned as she got his attention. Hook, line… and sinker.

"Fine." Zoro snatched the map out of her hands and walked to the helm. Bonney had paid no further mind to him, however, as her mind was focused on the shower she wanted to take.

She had no idea how big of a mistake she was making.

Bonney cursed her lack of forethought that led her to not buying any spare clothes while they were at Usopp's village. 'We even had the money to buy it after nabbing all of Kuro's treasure.' She focused on solving the problem, as her savior appeared through the steam of the shower room. On the other side of the room, laid an unused, relatively clean looking t-shirt. She thanked whatever God was watching her right now and put it on her after drying up. It was a tiny bit oversized, but that wasn't a problem for her. She looked over herself in the mirror, finally getting a look at what she was wearing. It was a dark blue t-shirt with the simple design of a black anchor on the front. Deciding to leave her stockings for later, she just slipped her normal shorts on along with her boots and exited the bathroom.

Opening the door, she let her eyes adjust to the sudden brightness and directed her legs to the swordsman currently manning the helm. "Well? Did you see it, Zoro?" The man in question squints his eyes and looks around for a moment. "Not… really."

"You're hopeless… I'll keep watch on the bow then." Bonney let out with a groan, resigning herself to walk over to the other side of the ship.

"Pink haired witch." Zoro muttered to himself, he could've been sleeping or training at this point.

"Huh? Did you say anything, Zoro-kun?" He felt a shiver going down his spine at her sickly-sweet tone, rapidly shaking his head in negation.

"I thought so~." Even with her back turned, Zoro could hear the smug grin in her voice. 'She really is a witch.'

It didn't take her long to spot the familiar figure of her captain, sitting on the figurehead of the Merry. Apparently, it became his favorite spot on the ship after he tried sitting there once. She shuddered as she remembered the first time he tried sitting there, it ended up with him falling into the water and dragging her along with him. If it wasn't for Zoro, they would've both drowned. Shaking her head, Bonney returned her focus to his seated form, she ran her eyes over his forearms. She was impressed honestly, looking at him now, you'd never say that he was in a fight. It was almost like all of his wounds had disappeared. She cleared her throat to get his attention.

Nothing.

Okay, maybe he hadn't heard her, so she cleared her throat louder.

Still nothing.

Okay, maybe she'd try a different approach. "Luffy?"

She could see him shifting, okay, that was progress at least.

"What's gotten you so down in the dumps?"

She didn't need to look at his face to know he was pouting, "I'm not down in the dumps."

She made a dismissive gesture with her hands, before mentally smacking herself. He couldn't even see her! An awkward silence had drifted between them, Bonney tried to look through her brain to find any conversation.

"Did you fix it?" Bonney's attention to the teen in front of her when she heard his voice cut through the silence.

Ah, right. Luffy's straw hat had been an unfortunate victim of Kuro's indiscriminate attack, which had yielded him the rage of the Straw Hat captain. He had looked so crestfallen after it happened that before she knew what was happening, she had volunteered to fix it.

"No… I'm almost done though, it should be fixed before nightfall." She articulated carefully, Bonney didn't need him to know that she didn't work on it yet.

"Okay! Thanks, Bonney!" The rubber teen's mood had improved considerably from what it was previously, he craned his head around to show his signature grin. Bonney inadvertently felt the corners of her lips twitch upwards and noted that his smile was very infectious. She carefully maneuvered her face so that her hair hid her smile. Confident that she now had complete control over her face, she looked back at Luffy only to find him blinking owlishly at her.

"What?"

"Why are you wearing my shirt?" Bonney's thoughts had slowed to a crawl. It actually made sense, it was a little oversized but not enough to be Zoro's. So that just left either Usopp or Luffy, honestly, she was glad it was Luffy because it would be much easier to deal with him.

She felt heat rise to her cheeks as she swallowed her pride told Luffy of her blunder. "I may or may not have forgotten to bring spare clothes and had to borrow your shirt after showering."

The confusion he felt was reflected on his face. "So… Did you forget or didn't you?" Apparently, she had to admit it and be direct if she wanted him to understand.

"I did." He made a noise of understanding and moved his head back to look out towards the sea.

"You don't… mind?" She had tentatively gotten the words out, afraid that he might say he minded.

"Huh? No, we're friends. You can take anything of mine that you need! Shishishi!" She felt her heart flutter at his admission of her being his friend. This guy… He really was too nice.

Bonney caught something out of the corner of her eye that sent alarm bells ringing in her head. 'He couldn't have…' She ran straight back to where the helm was, seeing the green-haired swordsman looking down at the map she gave him. She walked up behind him and stood up on the tips of her toes to look over his shoulder.

Oh no. The alarm bells were right. Apparently, giving it to Zoro had been the worst mistake of her life.

"Zoro… Who the hell, in their right mind, reads a map upside down?!" The swordsman in question had jumped away from her, his ears ringing.

"What the hell, woman?! Who yells in people's ears?!" Oh, he had the audacity to get mad at her? Halfway through her retort, she was cut off by their newest crew member, Usopp, yelling from the deck. "Oi, you guys! There's a marine ship on our portside!"

Shit. First Zoro got them lost, now there's a marine ship to boot. Why did this keep happening to her? Bonney and Zoro moved almost in synchronized motion, as they both vaulted over the railing to reach the deck.

"Oi, Bonney. Watch out!" Hearing Usopp's warning, Bonney looked up, seeing Luffy's arms stretch towards her until they grabbed her shoulders.

"Gomu Gomu no… Switch!" In almost a blink of an eye, Luffy had barreled forward and she'd been thrown back to his position. She managed to regain her footing and pressed her heels into the ground to slow down. Bonney was about to reprimand Luffy for how he threw her like that when she saw a cannonball speeding to his new position.

"Gomu Gomu no Balloon!" She saw the cannonball impact his inflated body and then redirect, making contact with a… duck looking ship? She held back her reprimands and made a mental note to thank him for saving her life later. She moved her attention back to the marine ship, Luffy could keep redirecting their cannonballs, but their erratic paths wouldn't leave them with a stable counterattack. She grinned as she took note of something that would allow them to escape the marine ship's line of fire.

"Usopp, help me pull the sails up!" With a little difficult, both members had managed to pull the sails until they managed to stop. She smiled as she looked at the end product of her plan, they'd manage to stop right in time so a huge rock had separated them from the marine's line of fire.

"Damn, I didn't even get to fight anyone." Bonney ignored the words coming from the swordsman as she admired her handiwork. She was cut off by one of Luffy's arms shooting out to the hole in that… duck looking ship.

"What are you doing, Luffy? We still have to deal with the marines." She found herself agreeing with Usopp's sentiment, why would Luffy go over there now? What if they were hostile?

"Ah, but you have Zoro."

"It's not the same!"

Bonney could feel that Luffy and Usopp's conversation was going nowhere, so she walked up to her captain. "I'll come with you, you need someone to help you negotiate. And-" She didn't get to finish her sentence as the rubber teen's other arm had wrapped around her and they shot off to the other ship.

"Gomu Gomu no Rocket!"

They'd crossed over there in seconds, as they approached the hole, he retracted his other arm and threw Bonney slightly into the air, before catching her in a bridal style hold. They landed through the hole and Bonney had flipped out of his hold with the grace of a ballerina.

She was surveying the damage when Luffy's voice suddenly cut through the silence and almost made her jump out of her skin. "Who're you, old man?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" She whipped around to look at the person Luffy was talking to, her eyes moved over his form. He looked to be an elderly man, although his hair still appeared to be blonde, he also had a long moustache tied with blue ribbons at the end of it. Her purple orbs looked over the rest of his form, he was wearing a white chef outfit.

"I'm Luffy, the man who will become King of the Pirates!" Bonney resisted the urge to facepalm, he just has to say that. One day they'll meet someone who hates pirates and they'd attack him for it.

"King of the Pirates, eh? That's a lofty goal! I'm Zeff, the head chef of the Baratie." The man, Zeff, had finished off with a laugh.

"Sorry about the mess, old man. There was a cannonball and I accidentally made it fly over here! Shishishi." Bonney was caught between the feeling of frustration and amusement, he was just so… honest. It was a trait that didn't exist in most pirates, and she felt a sliver of admiration towards him for that.

"Oh? That means you'll have to pay for the mess you made." Bonney's brain kicked into overdrive as she mentally calculated the amount of treasure they had. They still needed supplies, and they couldn't waste all of it now.

"We have treasure to pay for that hole, it looks pretty small so it shouldn't be a problem."

Zeff laughed heartily at her statement. Bonney frowned in response, offended. She hadn't said anything funny, why was he laughing at her?

"Little miss, the money we make in one day would be a lot more than your treasure." Bonney was sure her confusion reflected on her face, how was he so sure they didn't have that much treasure?

"How do you know that?"

"We're in the East Blue, not many big shot pirates come around here. So, you're either a weak group of pirates or just starting out. And judging by your friend's enthusiasm to be King, you're just starting out." This guy was smart, he'd analyzed their crew in just one encounter.

"Alright, then how will we pay for this?" Refusing to show that she was impressed, Bonney crossed her arms and looked off to the side, trying to regain control of the conversation.

"I'm glad you asked, little miss. For your punishment, I'll have your friend work in the Baratie…" Bonney mulled over his words, that didn't sound so bad. With some persuasion, she could have Luffy work himself to the bone and they'd be out of there before nightfall. "…For one month!"

TO BE CONTINUED.

Fun fact about this chapter, I'd originally made it so that it covered Baratie and the first part of Arlong Park, but then I thought everything was moving too fast. So, I slowed it down until they got to Baratie and decided to flesh out to have some Bonney and Luffy interaction. I'd like you to review and tell me your thoughts about the chapter, please. Anyways, with that I'll see in the next chapter, which will hopefully come faster than this one did.