He couldn't believe himself. He seriously couldn't believe that he held back and refused to kiss the boy. Why couldn't he just quickly peck him on the lips and hustle away with a satisfied smile on his face? Why couldn't he just pull him in and give him a long 'see you later' kiss?

He doesn't like me. His thought process wavered. He began to slow down to a regular jog which soon turned into a slow walk. He stopped and dropped the bag. He doesn't like me. Get that shit in your head and remember it well. Stop…But he did promise that he'd wait. He promised he'd wait for a real answer. Usopp had never said outright recently that he didn't like him; he just faltered in his speech and got all embarrassed it appeared. Maybe he just became impatient? Which would mean there's a chance? At the same time, he could be rejected…again. This wasn't the time to be pondering on such things. He had to help his captain and bring him back to the Sunny. They had to hurry and escape this damn island before whatever the hell ships came up and caused more trouble for them. He stopped when coming to the fallen tree.

"AGGGHHH!" Luffy? Sanji began running to the left, towards Luffy, towards the beast, towards their battle. He hurried, the bag was like a handicap, slowing him down and causing him to kick the back of it while he ran since it was so huge. Coming to the 'battle' ground, Sanji stopped, seeing Luffy standing just before two huge paws. "I win! And I get to take whatever I want, you stupid kangaroo!" He already took care of it. Sanji took this time to catch his breath. He leaned forward and huffed, pulling out his cigarettes and coughing. Luffy turned, grinning wildly.

He rushed over to the cook and bent forward to get a look at his face.

"Sanji! Whatcha doin' here?"

"Came looking for you."

"Where are the others?"

"My group got…back," he coughed in between words and shoved one of the cigarettes in his mouth. The other was basically done with, so he batted it on his leg and stamped it out on the ground. "There are some ships coming our way so we… gotta get going. I came back to find you guys and let you know. But Usopp and Robin were the only two I saw and they told me what your dumbass was doing." He growled, stressing the last part. Luffy just stood up straight and giggled.

"Shi shi~ the kangaroo didn't give me any of its meat fruit! So I took some by force."

"Idiot, you don't just take shit away from someone or something if they had it first!"

"But we're pirates! We're allowed to do that!"

"Oi. Never mind, let's just go, okay?" The blond cracked his neck a few times and turned to leave.

"Hold on! I still gotta get the meat fruits!" Luffy called and hurried over to the fallen beast. He climbed up the humongous padded feet and into the pouch. Sanji groaned, having to wait on this kid to seriously collect all the meat fruits he could find. Luckily, Luffy was pretty quick. He jumped from the monster's pouch, hopping off its feet and onto the ground. He had about six or seven red fruits bundled up close to his chest. He held them tightly; making sure none would fall beneath him and roll off in some odd direction. Luffy gave Sanji a smirk, signaling his readiness.

The two began running down the path Sanji had come from. The cook led the way, his captain following right after. It came to mind that neither of them knew how long it had been since the island had revolved. Sanji knew that it didn't take long for him to spot Luffy, and the few extra minutes it took for the straw hat to grab the few additional fruits weren't much either, so they had pretty good time to make it back to the ship.

"Sanji, what's that?" Luffy yelled, pointing diagonally to the left. Sanji followed the direction he pointed in and found a few dark shapes bundled up just beyond a few trees not too far from them. He squinted, careful not to lose focus on where he was going. He had to slow down some to get a better look without his vision being jogged up and down from the running. He noticed a few elongated ears that shot up vertically—he had the feeling they were rabbit ears. Some 'heads' seemed big and rounder than the few below. Bodies much longer stood out more than the darker, smaller shadows. Out stretched arms, or what seemed like paws, were up in the air or flailing to the sides. A series of moans, chirps, barks, and growls all mixed together, making the noises sound like an offbeat orchestra. They weren't human, of course, so they had to be the animal inhabitants.

"Animals, Luffy. Those are the creatures that live here." Luckily we didn't run into them head-on. Otherwise we'd be dealing with a lot more shit than now. Predictable Luffy would've set a small war between the Straw Hats and the Fruit Island animals if they had come across these critters before the big one before. Sanji mentally thanked whatever higher power there was out there that watched over them for this time. Even though Luffy was fixed on the group of animals to the side of them, he at least kept running forward—though Sanji had to pull him into the right direction seeing that the idiot almost crashed into a tree. The cluster of creatures disappeared as they came to shore; the Sunny was still in place. Good, no ships in sight. Luffy was first to charge onto the deck and rest his findings next to one of the huge sacks. He grinned when the rest of the crew had greeted him. Sanji jumped onto the railing and hopped down onto the grass, happy to be back.

"Great, now we can finally set sail!" Franky said, heading off to set the sails. Luffy laughed and pointed to Nami.

"Where do we go next?" He asked, knowing he'd get a straight answer. The navigator looked down at the log pose and studied it. She grumbled and tilted her head till finally the pose was set.

"We'll be heading to the right, going out east and then pushing back to north once we depart. What's the news on the ships, Franky?" The shipwright had vanished into the lower parts of the Sunny to refuel the cola barrels. She shook her head and looked up at the lookout tower and shouted to whoever was up there. "HEY! WHAT'S THE NEWS ON THE RANDOM SHIPS' COURSE?"

Zoro poked his head out the window and cupped his ear. Nami yelled louder, repeating what she had just said. The swordsman slipped back inside and examined the perimeter. The ships from earlier were a tad bit closer, but moving at a slow rate. They had barely become visible, even through a pair of binoculars.

"The ships aren't too close. We got time to set out without rushing." He spoke through the microphone installed within the crow's nest. That was good news.

"Okay, everyone, let's get out of here!"