A/N: Okay, this chapter is normal-sized!... I think.. Well, it's not that short at least... XD.. So, I'm hoping I'll get back on track and write the last couple of chapters really soon, but for now I'm seriously sick, so I'm not gonna write that much in the following week, at least.. sorry you guys..

This chapter is dedicated to Spellcaster Hikaru, TrunksgirlBlaze27, MKLlim and all my other reviewers! Without you, I would never ever have written more than one chapter of this!! Thanks so much

I was tired, my head was aching, I was freezing and I had a high fever. "I've gotta be dying!"

"Not yet," an answer sounded and I looked up to see Chopper standing at my bed with a worried look on his face.

"I was right then, I'm gonna die?"

"Not if I can figure out what's wrong with you," the doctor answered me.

"What are the chances of you finding out before it's too late?"

"Who knows, but I've gotta try."

"Can't you just let me rest in peace or something like that?"

I felt disheartened and just wanted to go back to sleep and never wake up. Then I wouldn't have to worry, and I wouldn't be the source of others worries. "My dream is to be able to cure every sickness in the world, so I can't let you die!" the reindeer exclaimed, and somehow I wasn't surprised to hear that.

"Does every pirate live for a dream?" I asked, while starring up in the ceiling.

"Doesn't everybody live for some dream?" the doctor asked instead of answering and I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't."

"Really?"

"What could one in my position ever dream of accomplishing?"

I didn't get an answer. Instead Chopper began taking my temperature and I just laid still in my bed until I got bored and asked: "Why did you even become a pirate? Just to reach your dream?"

"My mentor taught me about pirates and the Jolly Roger, which makes everything possible. If you just believe in it you can reach any dream under a Jolly Roger flag! That's why I became a pirate."

"Stupid…"

"No it's not! It's true!"

"Yeah right, you can just do anything you want as a pirate. But you hurt other people! Kill others! That's not nice!"

"We don't kill people. Only if they attack us, but then it's their own fault!"

"It's still stupid!" I said raising my voice a bit too much, so that the words echoed in my head for several minutes.

"We haven't done anything here, have we?"

"No…"

I hesitated and looked down on my closed fists, "But I don't know anything about what you've done on the islands before mine."

"Well, why do you care about it? I'm trying to help you, ya know, we all are!"

"You are?"

"Well, Luffy commanded us to help you out, since you two are friends, but we would have helped anyway."

"You would?" I asked sceptically and the reindeer nodded.

"We are not the pirates you imagine. We don't live to plunder every person we meet on our way. We live to fulfil our goals!"

"But…"

I stopped and found that I didn't know what to say. I couldn't question it. "You should tell that to the citizens. Then they wouldn't doubt you," I said instead.

"They probably wouldn't believe a freak like me, and they probably wouldn't believe my friends, since we are pirates," Chopper answered with a sad smile, "But we don't care anyway, because we are pirates and we only need each other. It doesn't matter what the world says!"

"You guys really are cool!" I exclaimed.

"You think so?" the reindeer asked and I grinned.

Then the door shut open and Luffy came running inside yelling: "Of course we're cool! We're pirates!!"

"You moron!"

Nami punched him in the head and he fell to the floor. "I told you not to eavesdrop!" she yelled, while Luffy got up again and adjusted his straw hat.

He just laughed at her and asked: "But shouldn't you listen when somebody says you're cool?"

"No!"

"Really?"

Nami didn't answer, but sighed deeply and turned to Chopper asking: "Where's Usopp?"

The reindeer shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I think he said something about finding eggs."

"Damnit! I need him to look at my staff. It's acting a little weird, and he's gotta fix it," the navigator mumbled and marched out the door again.

"Why did you become a pirate, Luffy?" I asked and the Straw Hat looked at me and grinned.

"When I was little Shanks gave me this straw hat, and I swore that I would give it back to him, when I become a great pirate and find One Piece!"

"Who's Shanks?"

"One of the greatest pirates sailing the seas!" Luffy exclaimed with shining eyes, "He taught me about a pirate's life before I became a pirate, and he saved me from a big Sea King!"

"How?"

"It's a looong story, but he lost his left arm to the monster!" Luffy told.

"He lost his arm to save you?"

"Yeah! And that's when I realised how dangerous a pirate's life really is, because every day you put your life on a line to protect yourself and your friends, but it's worth it!"

I couldn't help but listen when Luffy went on: "I wanted to join Shanks' crew, but he told me that I couldn't because I was too little, and at first I just thought he was being stupid, but it's really not a kid's game to sail on Grand Line! We nearly lost Nami once, because we didn't have a doctor at the time, but then Chopper and his mentor saved her life! And we were about to be blown into pieces once, when we helped the princess of Alabasta saving her kingdom!"

"A princess?! Cool!"

"Yeah, she was really cool, and we all wanted her to stay with us, but she couldn't because she needed to stay with her people."

"So she was in your crew?"

I stared at him with big eyes, and he laughed loudly. "Yeah! She was really great, and her country is really lucky to have her as a princess! She risked her life to save her land, just like a real pirate! 'Cause a pirate can't be a real pirate if he doesn't risk his life for his friends, and his dream!"

With this a silence fell upon us for a minute or so. Then Luffy suddenly grabbed my arm and dragged me across the room to the door. "Wait! What are you…?!"

He turned to look at me and a big smile covered his face. "Just wait and see!"

And with that he tore the door open and ran down the stairs as fast as he could while I was trying not to stumble and fall, but it was hard because he was running so fast and my body was weak and tired. I could hear Chopper yelling after us, but his voice got blurred, so I couldn't catch the words. The front door got slammed behind us and Luffy turned to the right. I knew where the street headed, which made me wonder why he was running that way. We weren't far from the end of the city, and the street we were on, the main street, was leading to the entrance of the city. It would only take a couple of minutes if we kept running this fast, but I knew my body wouldn't last that long. Already now I could hear my heart ponder heavily and I had a hard time catching my breath. Then when Luffy made a sudden turn to the left, my foot slipped and I couldn't keep my balance. Seeing the road close in on me I thought for a moment that I would maybe hit it head first and die, but I never collided with the stone. Realising this, I opened my eyes. At some point I had shut them and I was biting my lip too, I noticed. Arms were wrapped around me and I looked down to meet a smiling face. "Got ya."

Luffy was lying on the road beneath me, holding me in his arms. His face was scratched and bleeding a bit, but he didn't seem to be aware of it. "You okay?" he asked and now looked a bit worried, "You're kinda pale."

I shook my head. "I'm fine, but… you're bleeding."

"Oh, don't worry. It's just some bruises, they don't hurt at all!" he said as he stood.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!"

He was still holding me and I wondered if he wasn't going to put me down again. Then he laughed a bit and said: "If you're okay, then we'd better get going, before Nami finds out what I'm doing!"

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"You'll see, you'll see," he replied in a sneaky voice and then started running again, holding me tight against his body, so I wouldn't fall again.

A/N: See you around for the next chapter, hopefully