A/N: Here's the next chapter It's kinda weird (at least I think so), but I hope you won't mind... enjoy :D

I could hear something outside and instantly sat up, which made my room spin in front of my eyes. But I ignored the pain and jumped out of the bed, which made my head hurt even more. As my feet touched the ground it felt as if my legs would collapse beneath me, but I managed to stand up long enough to get to the window, where I leaned against the frame and looked out. It was late afternoon and a thick fog had embraced the whole city and made it difficult to see anything but the roof of the house across the road. Then I noticed something shiny beneath the window. I couldn't see what it was, but somebody was standing beside it. The person was nearly hidden completely in the mist, but I could faintly see an orange spot next to a green spot, and I figured it was Nami and Zoro yelling at each other that I could hear. What they were saying I couldn't hear though. The fog stole their words and only let their voices escape up to my window. I considered opening the window to see if I could then hear them, but remembering the last time I opened the window, I just let it go and sat down on the floor. It was cold even though I was dressed. First I thought it was because of the air coming in through the cracks between the window frame and the wall, but when I started to get chills running down my spine I knew it wasn't just because of the cool air. I tried to get up, but was interrupted, when I heard a voice very clear: "Pirates are coming!"

Puzzled I looked up to see a curly-haired boy bust into my room grinning from ear to ear. "Just lying!" he informed and laughed.

"Well, who'd believe you anyway?" I asked, "The pirates are already here… And you're one of them."

"Of course I'm one of them," he said with his head held high, "I'm the Great Captain Usopp!"

"I thought Luffy was the captain," I remarked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, he is, but…"

"But?"

"Oh never mind," he said and shrugged his shoulders.

Then he grinned and asked: "Have you ever heard about the time, when we fought of an entire pirate crew, just me, Nami, Zoro and Luffy?"

"No."

"It was early morning and I was standing alone at the end of a slope, which led to an innocent village," he started, but then got interrupted as Luffy came barging in.

"There you are!" he exclaimed grabbing Usopp by the wrist, "Sanji and Zoro are fighting! You've gotta come see it!"

And before Usopp could protest the captain had dragged him out the room. I could hear them run down the stairs and shortly afterwards the door to the house closed with a loud "bang".

Now I noticed the voices outside had changed. I got up and looked down on the road beneath me. The mist hadn't left yet, so everything was blurred, but I could see that somebody was moving quickly around a little down the street, because the fog was scattered and it couldn't gather again as a sword kept cutting through it. I could see the blade of the sword glitter in the silver moonlight, but every time it rushed down towards some other silhouette, it got cut of and was redrawn. I stood for a little while and just looked at how something black kept blocking the sword, before I noticed that Luffy and Usopp was standing behind, watching. Then I realised that what I was looking at had to be Zoro and Sanji fighting, and I started to wonder what Sanji was fighting with, and why they were fighting at all. "Go Zoro!!" I heard Luffy yell and saw him jump excited around on the ground.

I figured Usopp said something too, because he was slowly closing in on the two fighters, but I couldn't hear his voice. Then suddenly the fight stopped. Everything got quiet and I couldn't figure out what had happened, since I couldn't even see Sanji and Zoro anymore. Then a vague silhouette of Nami started to become visible. She was standing over the two men, who were now lying on the ground. "Knock it of you two!!" she yelled in an angry voice, "You're gonna wreck a house or something!"

I could still hear her yelling as I crossed my room and opened the door. When I closed the door behind me, her voice faded though. Instead I could hear my parents talk in the kitchen. I knew I shouldn't eavesdrop, but nevertheless I pressed my ear against the door to hear what they were talking about.

"…Can't be here!"

"But Sarah seems to like them."

"Sarah is a little kid; she doesn't understand the danger we are in, when we let them stay at our home!"

"They don't seem to be bad people…"

"You don't know that! You don't know if they'll turn around and kill you!"

"Well, I can't think of why they would do anything to us, we haven't done them anything bad."

"They're pirates! They don't need a reason!"

"You're overreacting…"

"What if they hurt Sarah?!"

"They wouldn't!"

"How do you know?! They could be trying to kill her right as we speak!"

"They wouldn't dare would they?"

"They're pirates!! They don't have a moral-codex!"

I quickly stepped away from the door and bit my lip. Why are they scared of the Straw Hats? Are pirates really that bad? But Nami said all pirates aren't bad, right?

The front door burst open and an inferno of black, green and yellow tumbled inside and smashed into the back of the staircase. For a moment I just starred at the pile of humans, but then Luffy stood up and brushed of his Straw Hat with a short laugh. Beneath him Zoro and Sanji were still fighting, but not that much anymore. They were only snaring at each other, while standing up. Zoro had two swords drawn and sheathed them again, while Sanji fixed his tie, which was hanging loose around his neck. "Hey shitty swordsman," Sanji said, still fixing his tie.

"Hmm?"

Zoro looked up, and I thought that maybe Sanji would say something nasty and they would start fighting again. But the cook simply asked: "How much've ya slept last night?"

"Three hours, why?"

A puzzled look on the swordsman's face made the cook smile, but he didn't comment it in any way and just answered the question: "Because you didn't hit as hard as usual."

Zoro shrugged his shoulders and turned to Luffy asking: "Why'd you join the fight?"

"It looked like fun!" the boy exclaimed and his crewmates sighed and smiled.

I just watched them and thought by myself: How can they be dangerous? They're a little violent, but they don't seem like they'd ever hurt somebody, who can't take it. They're not bad people, are they?

"Oh, Sarah!"

I got ripped out of my thoughts as Luffy yelled my name and ran over towards me. I was standing in the middle of the floor and suddenly realized that I didn't have anything to support me. Just as the black-haired boy came close to me I started to feel dizzy and grabbed his arm to keep myself on my feet. This didn't help much though, as I still fell, because his arm just stretched, so I hit the floor still holding his arm. "What happened?" I asked very confused staring at Luffys arm.

"Oh, I've completely forgotten to tell you!" he exclaimed, "I'm a rubber-human!"

For a little while I just looked at him, but then I nodded and pulled myself from the floor again. Automatically Luffys arm withdraw and took its normal size again. "So you're like the doctor and that black-haired woman, right?" I asked and got a nod as an answer.

"Well, except for the fact that we've eaten different Devils fruits," he said.

"I figured that."

With that I walked to the foot of the staircase and sat down on the first stair. I wanted to ask if my parents were right, but was afraid of the answer I would get, so I didn't say anything. Instead I looked down on my hands, lying folded on my knees. I felt a hand on my head and looked up. Luffy was standing in front of me with his innocent look on his face. "Are something bothering you?" he asked and I hesitated a little before I nodded, deciding to ask all my silent questions.

The Straw Hat sat down beside me on the stair and looked at me. "You seem worried," he said.

"I am, I guess," I answered, while not looking at him.

"You know, you shouldn't be," he commented, "Kids shouldn't worry."

I smiled a bit, feeling sad in my heart. He was right, I shouldn't worry, but I couldn't help it. I had always been thinking too much, worrying about everyone around me. "So what's the problem, eh kid?"

I looked up and met Zoros eyes. He was standing with his arms folded and an emotionless expression on his face. "If you've got a problem, tell us," he said.

"Yeah, pirates are good at fixing problems," Sanji remarked, "They never make it worse."

I could sense his sarcasm and laughed. "Don't worry, you won't make it worse," I answered and looked down at my hands again, "I'm just afraid they won't let you stay in this house."

"What d'ya mean?" Luffy asked with a baffled voice.

"My parents won't let you stay," I told, "They think you're gonna hurt me, or something like that."

"We'd never hurt a kid!"

I glanced at Luffy to see his bewildered expression, but then I looked up at the ceiling and asked in a casual voice: "Aren't pirates supposed to kill even women and children?"

"Some pirates are like that, but we're not," the captain answered.

"You would've fought the townspeople if they hadn't let you stay, wouldn't you?"

"Probably, since we wouldn't have a choice."

"Would you have killed them?"

"If they tried to kill us, yeah."

"Then aren't you like every other pirate, who kills innocent people and children?"

"You're not innocent if you choose to fight."

For a while everything was quiet and I could hear my parents talk in the kitchen, yet I couldn't hear their words. Zoro apparently could, because he suddenly raised his eyebrow and asked: "Do I seriously look like someone who would rape children?"

This made Sanji laugh out loud and Luffy couldn't help but giggle. "Seriously people!"

Zoro himself was smiling a bit, "Could you imagine me doing something like that?"

"Zoro doing anything with a female is just unimaginable!" Sanji exclaimed, still laughing.

"Why shouldn't they think that?" I asked without a trace of a smile on my face.

This silenced the pirates and Zoro gravely said: "If any of us would want to hurt you, we could, but we haven't done anything at all. Isn't that a sign that we're not bad people?"

I shrugged my shoulders with an indifferent look on my face. "We can't know if you suddenly change, can we?"

"For heavens sake! Luffy saved your life, and now you're questioning us if we're bad people?!"

Zoro seemed to have lost his temper and I smiled a bit. This Sanji noticed, and he asked me: "Why are you asking these absurd questions? You actually want us to get upset and hurt you?"

I didn't answer, but got up from my place on the staircase. Then I silently climbed the stairs and opened the door to my room.

Am I trying to get myself killed? Why'd I say all that, when I don't mean it? I guess I'm just too tired of not being able to do anything, and now I'm trying to get myself killed, but that's just stupid, isn't it? Wasn't I supposed to be strong, like Luffy said some time ago? And I'm probably going to die of this disease anyway, so why rush death? It's not like they would actually hurt me, at least I don't think so.

I sat down on the floor with my back against the closed door. I could hear the voices in the hall, but their words were blurred, so I couldn't figure out what they were saying. It amazed me that my parents hadn't heard us in the hall and had come out to check on me, but they had been too focused on their discussion. "What'll happen now?" I asked myself as I heard somebody coming up the stairs.

A/N: Hope you liked it xD Next chapter (I hope) is coming up sometime next week.. but I'm not sure if I'll get it done that fast, since I'm not started on it yet... but I'll do my best