"I'm starving!" Luffy yelled out, to no one in particular.

"Just goes to show, Captain. If you gorge yourself one day, there will nothing to eat the next," Kia answered, not looking up from her sewing. She was determined to make herself a cross-body bag, smaller than Usopp's but very similar, to hold her things when going ashore.

"Gorge?" Chopper asked.

"It's another word for stuffing yourself," Usopp answered, and Kia smiled at him.

It had started innocently enough, with him explaining words she had used to Luffy, and now it was a little bit of a game; Kia trying to use new words that he hopefully didn't know, and he, always winning by knowing and explaining their meaning. She asked him once, and he said his mom used to read to him, helping him expand his vocabulary, and it became something the two bonded over.

"Oh," Chopper replied. "Well we certainly gorged ourselves yesterday, didn't we?"

"Well, we had to celebrate getting away from those marines," Luffy defended, and Kia chuckled.

"That's true, we did."

"You know Kia, you don't always have to agree with him," Nami complained, and she looked up.

"Well, he is the captain after all."

"Ugh," Nami said with a roll of her eyes. She didn't comment further, as they heard the whooshing and splash of a cannonball coming at them. Several looked behind to see a marine vessel trailing some distance behind them.

"Can we outrun them?" Usopp asked, and Nami nodded.

"They can't catch us, not with the wind we've got."

Usopp took her at her word, and continued to fish, even as Nami adjusted the ship's trajectory slightly to increase their speed. Kia looked around, noting that they had been dogged so frequently by the marines, that it hardly fazed anyone anymore.

Sanji hadn't even come out of the kitchen at the call, Zoro was still cleaning his swords, Robin was reading at her small table up on deck, and Chopper and Luffy were laying on deck alternatively asking Usopp if he had caught something yet, because they were starving. Even at the worst of times, these people were so much fun to be with.

Sanji walked out of the kitchen, holding a tray, and approached Robin with it. "Robin my love!" he called, "I have your tea, and a special snack I made just for you!"

"What?!" Luffy, Usopp and Chopper cried out, running for Sanji who held them at bay with a hand on Usopp's face, and a foot on Luffy's.

"You've been holding out on us!" Usopp yelled indignantly.

"Yeah, we're hungry too! Sanji, you meanie!" Chopper added

Luffy tried to say something Kia was sure, but with Sanji's foot in his face, no one could understand him. Robin solved the problem by having arms appear on Chopper and Luffy, and tickling them, causing them to roll around on the deck, laughing.

"Uh, hello!" Nami called out. "There are still marines behind us! This is no time for having fun!"

"We know," Zoro said back. "The cannonballs are so annoying."

"Nami!" Kia yelled back, before she could shout at Zoro. "Fog ahead!"

"Hmm," she mused. "Maybe we can use it to give the marines the slip, but it'll be tricky! Sanji! Hard to port!"

"Of course, Nami sweet!" he cooed, as he ran for the kitchen.

They followed Nami's directions, and were able to lose the marines in the fog, which had Luffy ready to celebrate again. But before anyone could inform him that there wasn't any food to have a feast, Usopp called out, "Island! Dead ahead!"

"Yeah!" Luffy cheered as he started salivating. "I hope there's food!"

"A new island, huh?" Zoro said as he stood up. "Should be fun."

"Kia! Let's go!" Luffy called out, and she looked back at her half finished bag.

"I'll stay and watch the Merry," she said, and Luffy pouted.

"What? Why? I'll protect you, just like I promised."

"I know Captain," she said with a smile. "I just have some things I need to finish up here. But you should go, have fun!"

Kia chuckled to herself as she watched the rest of the crew disembark. Little did they know, the surprise she had planned. It had started as a thought, when she and Chopper were creating everyone's medical records. She had realized how close Luffy's birthday was, we had just barely missed it. And Usopp's was only about a month before that, Sanji's a month before that, and Robin's a month before that. Plus, Nami's was about a month and a half away. True, her own was several months away, and Zoro's and Chopper's were at the end of the year, but still, she wanted to have a birthday party.

Who knew how many birthday parties any of her crew mates had ever gotten, having been raised in crazy circumstances, but instead of celebrating one, she decided they would celebrate them all, and have a great cake to go with it.

She knew she wasn't much of a cook, but she was a fairly decent baker. She definitely had a sweet tooth, and enjoyed making all sorts of confections back home. Kia had gone to Sanji days ago, and had gotten ingredients, saving them in a box with her name on it in the cupboard, which he thankfully left alone. Now, that she was alone on the ship, she could finish her preparations.

She didn't have money to buy presents, so she had drawn everyone a picture, using the times when she had been on watch, and when she couldn't sleep to work on them in secret. She had a few finishing touches, but they were mostly done. When the others left, she rubbed her hands together in excitement, and got to work.

She later thought it had been a good thing they had practically run out of food, because now there was plenty of room in the fridge for her cakes. Halfway through the mixing process, she had decided to make individual cakes for each of them, rather than one large one to share. The image of Luffy scarfing the whole thing in one gulp had her worried, so the plan changed. Now she had six small cakes and one large one in the fridge cooling, while she whipped up some frosting.

There had been a couple of close calls, where she had almost been caught as different members of the crew came to visit and tell of their exploits with an old man named Zenny. It was sad that he was so close to dying, and she completely understood that the crew wanted to stay and make his last days comfortable.

However, three days in, Kia had had enough of the waiting. She had done every possible chore she could think of aboard the Merry, and needed to stretch her legs. She climbed down the ladder, and made her way up the trail, not going far before she ran into Zoro.

"Hey Zoro," she called, and he turned from his training.

"Thought it would take some sort of miracle to get you off that ship," he said sarcastically, and she bristled.

"I'm not scared or anything," Kia defended herself. "I just like being there."

"Uh-huh," he replied, not at all convinced.

"Besides, I'm a trouble magnet," she said, a little more quietly, but he just gave her a look.

"Not any more than our captain is."

Kia looked around, wanting to change the conversation. "Uh, so what's taking so long? I thought you guys said we would only be here for a day or two."

"Yeah, we did."

"Zoro, it's been three days already," she pointed out, which had him standing up, looking at her in surprise.

"You sure?" he asked, and she nodded. "Hmm, all right then, I'll go get the others. We don't want to spend forever tending to the old man."

"Okay then, see you back on the Merry," she said and turned back. Zoro shook his head at her, wondering if she would ever just tell them what worried her, and headed back up the hill.

As Kia got back to the shore, she was startled to see a Marine ship in the cove. When did that get here? she thought as she backed up, determined to hide. It didn't do any good, as she was surrounded quickly by the marines that had already come ashore.

Up on the deck of the marine's ship, Kia was tied tightly and gagged. She tried wiggling out of the ropes, moving her wrists and arms to try to make some leeway, but to no avail. The only good news was that the marines were ignoring her, but she couldn't blame them. She knew she wasn't any sort of worry for them.

The sergeant, a complete tool named Minchy, was notified once the rest of the pirate crew came to the shore, and he walked forward to speak to them, yelling to them about how they were free to go, and he was only here to inspect the island. Kia could hear Usopp agree and run off to gather their supplies, and she shook her head, wishing she could yell loud enough that they could hear her.

"You're not the boss of me! I'll leave when I'm good and ready!" Luffy's voice came clearly across the water, and Kia grinned as best she could being gagged, at the anger on Minchy's face. She listened as Nami accused him of lying, and heard the gasps as the fog finally burned away in the morning sun, and the crew could see the ships that were hiding behind Minchy's, waiting for his signal.

"Hold it right there, or the long nose gets it!" someone yelled, and Kia started scooting closer to the edge of the deck, wanting to see what was happening.

"Sorry guys, they got the drop on me," Usopp said, and she heard Chopper yell out.

"You dirty creeps!"

Kia could still hear voices, but since they weren't shouting, she couldn't hear what they were saying, and as she kept scooting closer, Minchy finally saw her, and gave a kick that she barely dodged by rolling to the side. The marines all around her came forward, pointing their guns at the shore.

"Big deal! I can handle bullets!" she heard Luffy shout.

"But we can't!" Nami yelled back angrily.

"Ha ha!" Minchy laughed. "I'll get the treasure of Zenny the moneylender, the heads of the Straw Hats, and all the credit, once I send you to hell!"

He moved, so that his men could fire, but a loud cracking sound stopped everyone where they stood. Sliding down the top of the mountain, was a ship, following the path all the way to the shore and into the water.

Luffy shouted, "Yay old goat man!" followed by, "Don't encourage him!" from some of the others.

"Be careful old man! He's after your treasure!" Usopp shouted.

Kia, on her side, tried to move out of the way, but was kicked a few times as the marines rushed by her. She huddled at the railing off to the side, hoping that she could avoid getting hurt. She looked up as a movement caught her eye, seeing Luffy's hands grab onto the rigging, and she felt a surge of happiness. Not a moment later, as she heard his battle cry coming closer, a marine sliced through the rope with his sword, and the cry was cut off with a loud thump from the front of the ship.

Luffy's in the water! Kia thought desperately. She tried with renewed energy to get out of the ropes around me, thrashing around in desperation. She could only hope that someone was going after Luffy, hoping that Zoro or Sanji had seen him fall.

Nami, Sanji, Chopper and Usopp ran for the Merry, and pulled up the anchor as quickly as they could.

"Bring her around!" Nami yelled as she ran downstairs yelling for Kia.

Chopper stood up on the railing, as Usopp readied the cannon, yelling, "Hurry! Hurry!" before Sanji reached up to grab him and put him back on the deck.

"We know, we'll get there soon," Sanji replied as he lit a cigarette, the Merry heading straight for the other ships.

"Did we hit something?" Usopp asked, and the other two shrugged.

"Guys!" Nami yelled breathlessly as she reached the top deck. "I can't find Kia!"

"What?!"

Minchy grabbed onto Kia's braided hair, and started dragging her across the deck. She scuttled after him, using her legs as fast as she could to avoid having all her hair pulled out.

"Now Zenny," Minchy said to the old man he stood in front of. "Tell me the truth- or this girl will die, and then so will you."

Kia's eyes went wide as he pulled out his sword and pointed it at her head, and she stared at the old man pleadingly.

"You may not believe it, but I'm broke," the man replied in defeat. "I treasure my life, and my friends! I don't have two coins to rub together!" The defeat had come and gone, and he smiled triumphantly at Minchy.

"Fine, have it your way," he said as he raised his sword up. Something flew at him, striking him in the face, causing him to whirl around, and the two captives followed to see who it was.

"It seems I broke your abacus," Robin said with a smirk. "I'm sorry."

"You think you can defy the marines?!" Minchy sneered as goats started running up from the hold.

At the same time, the Merry came up and bumped into the ship, causing everyone to fall over. Sanji, Usopp, and Chopper all jumped over to the marine ship.

"Old man!" Chopper called. "I'm here to help you!"

"I almost died!" the man complained.

Usopp and Sanji both ran toward Kia, but she saw Sanji veer off as he spotted Robin.

"Are you okay?" they both asked each of the girls.

"Yes, I'm fine," Robin answered and Kia nodded.

Usopp untied her, and removed the gag from her mouth. Kia was so happy to be free, she jumped him, giving him a huge hug. "Thank you Usopp! Thank you, thank you!"

Robin giggled at Sanji's depressed form, since he realized that could have been him getting hugged, if he had only gone to Kia instead.

"Robin! So this is where you've been!" Nami said as she tied up Minchy. She looked over at Zenny, "Old man, are you okay?"

"Yeah, but are they okay?" he replied, and the crew followed his look, seeing Zoro and Luffy, soaked and hurt, panting on the deck.

"Zoro! You saved Luffy!" Kia called out, running over as they sat up. "How'd you get that bump?" she asked, seeing a huge knot on his head.

"Someone, hit me with a ship!" he yelled at Usopp, who flinched.

"Luffy!" Kia cried happily as he sat up, looking all right, just wet. "I was so scared when those marines grabbed me! It's all my fault! I'm so sorry I got caught!"

"What."

Luffy looked angrily over at Minchy, adjusting his hat, and looking at the sergeant. "You grabbed my little sister?"

"Your… your sister?!" Minchy squeaked.

Luffy picked him up by the ropes around him, and said, "Be sure to tell your friends, that we're waiting for them!" He reared back his other arm, ready to send him sailing through the air.

"A little higher on the aim, Luffy!" Usopp called out from the crow's nest, where he had gone to get a better view of where the marine ships were.

"Thanks! Gum gum… Pistol!"

"Good form… nice trajectory!" Usopp called down.

"What was that? Your little sister?" Kia asked him wryly. "I'm fairly certain I'm older than you."

"Well, yeah, but you're new to being a pirate, so you're like… the whole crew's little sister!" he said with a grin, and everyone else just shrugged and ran with it, as usual.

Kia smiled, "it's a nice thought," she replied.

Chopper bandaged Zoro and Robin's heads, and gave Kia some ointment for the rope burns she had. As the crew sailed away from the island, Luffy yelled out to Zenny, that they would see him out on the seas.