Hey, look who's not dead :D

I'm sorry about the delays on… pretty much every story. I'm trying to get back to write, and I really hope the next update won't take nearly a year. I'm so sorry for the long wait, I hope there's still someone around to read this.

Chapter 8

"That's it, that's our destination!" Vivi announced, pointing towards the coast of what remained of Erumalu. She had been trying hard not to think about crossing through this destroyed city since her arrival at Alabasta, and so far she had managed it thanks mostly to Luffy and Ace's constant chatter as they caught up. Now, however, seeing the dried-up land and the silhouettes of the abandoned buildings…

"They're back!" Usopp yelled from the crow's nest, and Vivi turned around, grateful for the newest distraction.

Sure enough, the blue bird that was Marco the Phoenix (and Vivi still hadn't wrapped her mind around the fact that she had met such powerful people so casually) was approaching the ship. Nami was riding on her back, looking far more comfortable there than she had been when they had left the ship, and Marco held two barrels of water on her talons while a large bag dangled from one of them.

Marco stopped a few feet above the deck, high enough to gently put the supplies down without destroying anything. Sanji was already on his way to take them to the rest of their provisions when Nami jumped down, Marco's bag hanging from her shoulder and a shopping bag in one hand. Marco transformed mid-air, and Vivi blinked in utter bewilderment when she realized Marco's functional shorts and shirt had been replaced by a danseuse outfit not unlike the ones Vivi herself and Nami wore, this one with the top in purple shades.

Sanji froze mid-movement, and Vivi didn't miss the fact that he took the chance to sneak a look at Marco's legs before the skirt settled around them once Marco had landed on her feet.

"What took you two so long?" Zoro asked in annoyance, and Vivi wanted to either cover her face with her hands or punch him. It was one thing to snap that at a crewmember, but this was Marco the Phoenix. Sure, she had seemed relaxed enough earlier, and Ace had been nothing but nice and easygoing so far, but you didn't snap at extremely dangerous people. Then again, these were the Strawhat Pirates, and Vivi really needed to start getting used to the fact that they just didn't care about basic things like tact and self-preservation.

"We weren't long, but we had to avoid the marines that someone," here Nami glared at Luffy, who was unaffected by it, "dragged here."

"Whatever," Zoro muttered, and started to move the supplies that Sanji had neglected in favor of staring at Marco.

Luffy laughed.

"But you got the food, right?"

Nami sighed.

"Not your food."

"What's with the clothes?" Ace asked suddenly, and he sounded a little off. Vivi turned to look at him and noticed that his eyes were more open than they had been before and he was… staring at Marco. His face wasn't so different from Sanji's, actually, except for the lack of a leer. There was a dusting of pink on his cheeks.

Vivi turned to look at Nami, her eyebrows slightly raised, and she caught sight of Marco shrugging. Marco took the shopping bag from Nami and threw it at Ace.

"Put that on, will you?" she said.

"Oh… okay," Ace agreed, still sounding a little off and still staring at Marco.

Nami returned Marco her bag, met Vivi's eyes, and smirked.

Oh.

Oh.

It took Usopp a grand total of ten seconds once the girls had returned to realize a very crucial fact. Marco the Phoenix was a woman. Now, that was obvious, it was impossible to miss, and it wasn't a problem. By itself. The problem came when you added it to the fact that Sanji was here. Sanji, who was staring at Marco in the same lecherous way he did with Nami and Vivi. Sanji was clearly seconds away from saying something very ill-advised. Nami would punch him for one of his comments, but for all Usopp knew Marco might kill him. Hell, she might kill more than only Sanji. Or Ace would do it (Usopp wasn't blind, and Ace was drooling too). They came from a very powerful crew with a very terrifying reputation. Hell, Usopp had followed Ace's career as a rookie in fascination just a few years ago, and for all he knew Marco was even stronger.

Usopp made a split-second decision: Sanji wasn't allowed anywhere near Marco.

His mind made, Usopp grabbed Sanji by the back of his coat and dragged him off to get the supplies ready for travel before Sanji snapped out of his perverted daze and could so much as open his mouth.

"Why is it black? You could've gotten me some colors," Ace whined half-heartedly, putting on the clothes that Marco had bought him, which were very similar to what Luffy and the other men in the crew were wearing.

"With that hat? Fat chance."

"You're insulting orange again?"

"It's not my fault I like purple better," Marco replied with a shrug, and Ace's eyes slid to the skimpy purple top Marco was wearing. He knew that had been her intention when Marco smirked. "Anyway, I'll be wearing a coat to the desert too. Average people would get burnt otherwise," Marco explained, and she opened her bag.

"We're not average people," Ace pointed out.

"So? I wanted the outfit," Marco said, pulling out of her bag a bundle of equally purple fabric. "It could be… fun, later, don't you think?" she added with a smirk.

Ace felt himself blush.

"Don't say that where my brother can hear," he hissed, but Luffy was distracted by Vivi handing him his own coat.

Ace laughed when Sanji pretty much despaired upon learning that the girls would be wearing coats of their own, but things soon turned serious.

Ace hadn't asked what they wanted to do in the desert, other than some details about Luffy's insistence on picking a fight with Crocodile, but as they approached the coast, Vivi —who happened to be the country's princess— explained her intention to stop the civil war brewing in Alabasta.

Ace was left both impressed and a little worried. She had admirable intentions, but stopping a civil war was no small thing.

And Luffy had landed himself in the middle of it. Of course he had.

Luffy had picked a fight with a bunch of kung fu dugongs. Marco knew about them, she had been to Alabasta a few times in the past, and she spent a good five minutes laughing while Chopper —the animal whose species Marco still hadn't identified— bartered part of the crew's food away to convince the dugongs to stay behind instead of following Luffy into the desert. She'd also had to kick Ace to the ground to stop him from showing off by fighting the dugongs himself.

"I think we'll be sharing our food after all," Marco told Ace, who was still pouting on the ground.

Ace's pout grew.

"It's Luffy's fault he lost his food."

Marco crouched down next to him and poked his cheek.

"Oh, come on, don't pretend you're not a doting older brother. You'd give him your meat if he so much as made puppy eyes at you."

"Okay, we can go," Chopper announced after handing the dugongs over half of the Strawhats' food.

They left Erumalu in a somber mood. Vivi had explained the circumstances that had started the unrest and rebellion at Alabasta, Crocodile's plan which had worked smoothly up until now, and even Luffy had grown serious listening to her words.

As they advanced, however, the mood lightened.

It soon became obvious that Chopper, with the fur all over his body, was in no way suited to the desert climate, and grew exhausted in under half an hour of walking.

"I could carry you," Marco offered, dropping to her knees in front of Chopper.

Chopper shook his head with obvious effort. He was panting as if he'd run across the country or something.

"Don't want to bother you," he said.

"It's not a bother. I'm immune to the weather," Marco said with a smile that Ace had long since dubbed her older sister smile, "and I don't get tired."

"You don't?" Luffy asked in surprise, and Ace could've sworn his eyes brightened. "Let's fly!" He yelled suddenly, and Zoro punched him before Ace could.

"Don't be an idiot," Zoro muttered, and Ace chuckled. Luffy really had found himself a nice crew.

Chopper didn't need any more convincing, and Marco picked him up before they continued on their march through the desert. Ace didn't miss the comments Sanji, the crew's cook, muttered under his breath. He found it hilarious. It was clear Sanji liked women far too much, and some of the crew members seemed to have made it their mission to keep him away from Marco.

Ace wanted to laugh at it.

Someone else might have been in danger if they got too perverted with Marco, but Ace was pretty sure she wouldn't do more than kick Sanji halfway to Yuba. He was a member of Luffy's crew, and Luffy was default family to the Whitebeard Pirates.

Ace didn't share this information.

Marco had forgotten how fun early rookie adventures could be. She had her stories, of course, and the crews that joined the Whitebeard Pirates shared theirs, but living through one was an entirely different question.

She didn't offer any help past carrying Chopper. She had a bag of food strapped to her back, and Ace was carrying their water, but Luffy had lost a game and was forced to carry all of the Strawhats' supplies. Which was stupid, unnecessary and hilarious.

"Oh, stop whining," Ace jabbed. "You won't be able to beat Crocodile if you can't even pull that."

Predictably, that started a fight between them. Which was the tenth physical fight that'd broken out since they had started to walk, much to Princess Vivi's exasperation and annoyance.

"Don't worry, they're too stubborn to drop dead," Marco told her, and she had to force herself to keep her smile in place when she realized the exact words she'd used.

Jokes about dying had been common in the crew, but now, after Thatch…

"That's not very reassuring," Vivi said with an exasperated smile, thankfully cutting through Marco's thoughts.

"Do you want me to stop them, then?" Marco offered, and she raised a leg for emphasis.

Next to her, Nami rolled her eyes.

"Don't bother. They'll be at it in again ten minutes anyway."

At that exact moment, Usopp spotted a set of rocks and Luffy disentangled himself from Ace and took off at a dead run with the supplies. Vivi had promised that they could eat at the next rocks they found.

"See? He's fine," Marco said with amusement.

Nami snorted.

Some birds had tricked Luffy and stolen the supplies from him.

Yes, it sounded ridiculous, but that was exactly what'd happened.

"Don't laugh too much or I'll share stories," Marco told Ace between chuckles, and he pouted.

"Oh, come on," he complained. "I haven't gotten such a good chance in three years." Which, granted, didn't mean much given that Ace hadn't seen Luffy in three years.

Damn, he'd missed Luffy's antics.

And the idiot had taken off after the birds in an attempt to retrieve the stolen supplies. Ace would be worried if he didn't know that Marco could track him down.

That was, of course, until he heard a very loud rumbling. Ace turned in the direction Luffy had run off to, and saw him fleeing from a fucking giant lizard. With a camel.

Sighing, Ace turned his arms to fire and prepared to aim.

"Wait," Marco told him, and raised an arm to put it before Ace.

"What?" Ace asked, exasperated.

Marco gestured with her head, and Ace saw Zoro and Sanji rush off towards Luffy and the lizard.

"Let's see how they handle it."

Desert lizard was very tasty.

Ace was laughing, complimenting Luffy on finding such a promising crew while they had their improvised meal. They still had the two barrels of water that Marco had bought, though Nami was policing it with her fists ready to punch whoever drank too much —namely, Luffy.

After the meal, they focused on the recently-arrived camel.

The camel was a rude and perverted beast, according to all the men, who only agreed to let women ride him. Marco waved off the idea and it was Vivi and Nami who settled on the camel, who Nami named Eyelashes for some reason.

Marco thought they'd had enough distractions with the dugongs, the birds and the lizard, and she was wrong. Obviously.

Not even ten minutes after they'd resumed their trip, as they followed Eyelashes' pace (who was going far too fast for people on foot), Ace and Luffy began to have hallucinations.

They had eaten a poisonous cactus along with the lizard.

Marco rolled her eyes, set Chopper down, and knocked the two of them unconscious with a kick, much to everyone else's pained grimaces. He let Zoro and Sanji drag them across the sand, and bent down to pick Chopper up again.

"Tell me that thing doesn't have lasting effects," she asked Chopper, even though she guessed his lack of panic was answer enough.

"No. They should be fine in a couple hours."

"Good," Marco said, and rolled her eyes. "I hope that teaches them not to eat random things they find."

"Doubtful," Usopp muttered. Marco had to agree.

The excitement was far from over. They ran into what had to be every single monster in the Alabasta desert, and Zoro and Sanji took care of them until Ace and Luffy woke up. Then, as though they were offended by the time lost to unconsciousness, it was the two of them who beat up the creatures they encountered. They made a competition out of it and everything. Usopp kept tally of the blows and time it took each of them to beat a monster, and much to Luffy's annoyance he'd lost every single time.

Eventually, night fell around them. Chopper was delighted by the cold the desert night brought with it, but no other member of the Strawhats seemed any more pleased by it than they'd been by the day's extreme heat.

However, there was something to be done about the cold, and after some pestering Ace agreed to remove his coat and set his entire upper body on fire to give them some heat.

It was hilarious to see everybody, even Eyelashes, huddled up around Ace as they advanced.

Eventually, Yuba appeared on the horizon.

Yuba, that was being ravaged by a sandstorm.

To be continued

Okay, so here I mainly went through the canon shenanigans in the manga. I'm using them as a way for Marco and Ace to get to know the crew. I hope it wasn't too boring.