Hmm...I'm not really sure how I feel about this chapter. I think it's pretty good. Some intense moments but I think that might be a little tooover dramatic. Oh well! On with the story!!!
Chapter 20
Vivi slowly opened her eyes. She gave a small yawn and looked at the bed,expecting to see Luffy's still figure. Instead, she found the bed empty. She was immediately alert. Her head jerked around, searching the room for any trace of him. All she found was an open window with a slight breeze blowing the curtains.
"He couldn't have..." Vivi thought. Then she noticed the bandages lying on the ground and the missing red vest. "He did!"
She stood up slowly, attempting not to panic. "He might have just gone to see his friends and didn't want to wake me. Yeah. I'll just ask the guard outside if he's seen him."
Vivi walked over and opened up the oak doors.
"Vivi-sama, it's good to see you." the guard said with a warm smile.
Vivi returned the smile, trying to appear unconcerned. "I have a question. Has anyone been through these doors in the last couple of hours?" she asked sweetly.
The guard frowned, deep in thought. "Well, I've been here since this morning and the only person who has come and gone was that orange haired woman." the guard replied. He knew better than to inquire the reason behind the princess' odd question. It wasn't his place.
"Thanks." Vivi said with a fake smile. "Could you do me a favor?"
"Sure." the guard replied.
"Make sure nobody goes in there, okay?" she said.
The guard shrugged indifferently. "Okay." he said. Once again, he was dying to know the reason behind the Vivi's strange behavior, and once again, he was to polite to ask.
"Thanks." Vivi said and then dashed off. "There's one last place he could be." she thought. "This is my last chance."
She snuck past the guest bedroom, not wishing to alarm the others just yet. Instead, she continued on until she reached the room that very few people knew about. It was the same room Luffy had found her in when he had first come to Alabasta about a week ago.
Inhaling sharply, she pushed open the door and entered the dark room. She shut the door quietly and then allowed her eyes a few minutes to adjust. When they did, she looked around until she saw what, or who, she was looking for.
"Don't scare me like that Luffy!" she said playfully. He didn't reply. She noticed he was sitting in a chair with his back to her. Thinking he hadn't heard her, she said louder, "Luffy!!!" Still no response and there was no way he hadn't heard her. "Luffy?" Frustrated, she decided to go over next to him.
"Stop." Luffy said before she was even half way to him. It wasn't commanding but Vivi still stopped.
"Luffy?" she asked. She was suddenly unsure what to do. "I came to-"
"Don't speak." he said. It was an almost monotone voice this time.
Vivi didn't speak. She wouldn't have known what to say anyway.
A painful moment of silence passed. Then, "I know why you came." Luffy said quietly.
Vivi stared at his back. She slowly sunk to her knees, helpless as of what to do.
"You might as well leave." Luffy said, still not looking at her.
There was a roll of thunder from outside and the room suddenly got darker as clouds filled the sky. The tense mood sunk even lower.
Vivi stood up and slowly moved over to a nereby table, avoiding Luffy. She quickly turned on a kerosene lamp. Luffy remained silent and she relaxed slightly. She slunk into a chair beside the table with the lamp and waited for him to speak again.
"I said you might as well leave." Luffy said, a little more coldly then the last time.
"I won't leave." she said, finally finding her voice. "Not until you tell me what you're doing."
Luffy gave a long sigh but refused to turn around. "If I tell you, will you go away?" he asked.
"It depends." Vivi replied.
Luffy shrugged indifferently but her reply must have satisfied him because he continued, "I'm getting ready to leave. I just needed some time to rest away from everyone. After this, I'm gone and you won't have to worry about me again."
Vivi felt her lip tremble. "Not now Luffy." she whispered, barely audible. Her voice trembled. "Not after all this. Not after I thought you were dead." she pleaded.
He shook his head sadly and turned to face her. "I can't." he said simply. But when he said it, the look in his eyes and the sadness in his voice broke Vivi's heart.
"But why not?!" Vivi blurted out.
He looked at the floor. "I've done things that I can never take back. I almost killed two people. I did kill one person. I've hurt my friends. My nakama. And I hurt you Vivi." Luffy said. "This...this isn't me. But now I can't take it back so the best thing for me to do is just leave and dissappear from everyone's life. I don't deserve you. I don't deserve happiness. I've become a monster and I don't want to hurt anyone else." He reached his hand out and dropped something on the ground. It landed with a clatter about ten feet in front of Vivi. It was a dagger.
"Please don't Luffy. Don't leave. If you leave, that will be worse than anything you've done! You've done some bad things but you can be forgiven! Just don't go!!!" Vivi cried desperately.
"See that dagger?" Luffy asked. Vivi looked down at it. "That's what almost killed your father and that other guy. And it was me who used it. I almost killed someone with that."
A tear dropped to the floor before Vivi even realized she was crying. She knew that Luffy was going to leave, no matter what she said, and it hurt. "Can you atleast say goodbye?" she asked. "And promise me something? Come back when you're ready."
He shook his head sadly. "I can't promise that." he said. He stood up and turned to face the balcony. Without looking back, he began walking toward the balcony. Each step seemed to echo in Vivi's ears. The moment it took for him to reach the glass doors was an eternity that would forever be burned into Vivi's memory.
As he pulled back the curtains and began to open the doors that lead into the pouring rain outside, Vivi cried, "LUFFY!!!!!!!!!" The shrill cry hung in the air between them until he slowly turned around, one hand still on the door. Vivi gazed into his eyes. "Please. Just say goodbye." she begged through her tears.
"I'm sorry Vivi." he said and then he was gone. His bare feet sloshed through the rain on the balcony before disappearing over it's edge.
"Luffy..." she said, barely breathing. The whole thing seemed too unreal. Coming out of her state of shock, Vivi jumped to her feet and ran toward the open doors. She ran out onto the balcony and looked over it's edge. The rain had picked up speed and it was making vision hard. When she didn't see anything, she sunk to her knees and didn't get up. She wouldn't have even if she could have. Her tears mixed with the rain as she stared at the spot where he had last stood. She reached out her hand, hoping to grasp something that simply wasn't there. Her tears soon turned into sobs that shook her entire body.
As she cried, she suddenly felt a gentle hand rest on her shoulder. Vivi looked up to see a man with shaggy hair standing over her wearing a large grin. "Aren't you getting wet out here?" he asked.
Vivi stared at him in disbelief. She sniffled a little and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. "Kohza?" she asked uncertainly.
He smiled at her. "Come on inside where it's dry. Then you can tell me what's wrong." he said.
She nodded, to dumbstruck to speak. He helped her up and they went inside where he led her to a cozy chair.
"I'll be right back." he said and walked out of the doors. When he returned he was carrying a tray with two steaming mugs on top of it. He set it on the table next to Vivi and then sat in the floor next to her. "Here." he said, handing her one of the mugs.
She took it from him, glad for the warmth. She brought it to her lips and took a sip of the liquid, discovering it to be hot cocoa in the process. "So," she finally said, "What are you doing here? The last time I saw you in Nanohana, you were being dragged away to some unknown prison."
Kohza shrugged. "Just a little misunderstanding." he replied as he took a sip of his cocoa. "Anyway, I came back here after I heard what happened. I wanted to make sure you guys were okay."
"Thanks. I'm glad you did." Vivi replied. "You always seem to show up when I need someone to talk to or to help me with something, even since we were kids."
Kohza shrugged once again. This was followed by a short intermission where both just sipped their cocoa and listened to the rain. Finally, Kohza broke the silence. "So, I've told you what I've been doing. It's only fair that you tell me what's wrong with you now."
Vivi stared into her almost empty mug for a moment before speaking. "It's a long story." she said.
"I have time." Kohza retorted.
"Fine." Vivi said, defeated. "Do you want it from the beginning? Or do you want to know what happened once I left Nanohana?"
"The beginning." Kohza replied.
And so, she told him the whole thing, from the beginning. She started with Luffy's promise eight years ago all the way up to where he left. Kohza sat there, listening and not interrupting. He just let her talk and that helped more than anything.
When she finished, Vivi felt a little bit better. Her mug of cocoa had long since been emptied. "Thanks for listening to me babble." Vivi said with a warm smile.
"Anytime." Kohza said. He stood up. "I'll take your mug to the kitchen if you want. Then, we can go downstairs. I'm sure Terracotta-san has cooked something delicious for you and the rest of your friends."
"Is it that late?!" Vivi asked incredulously. "I've been talking so long. I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Now come on!" Kohza said. He grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the room and into the hall.
"But Kohza-" she started to protest but he sped up and she was forced to run just to keep up. "Kohza!" she tried again but in vain.
"Wait here." he said as he stopped in front of the kitchen door. He took her mug and disappeared inside.
Vivi stood, staring at the door. Things were moving way too fast for her and she just wanted to sit and think for awhile. But of course, that was impossible because Kohza burst out of the kitchen and they were off again.
"Your friends are waiting." Kohza said as they arrived at the double doors. He pushed her through and there was no turning back.
"Vivi-chan!!!! We've missed you my sweet!" Sanji cried. He had just come out of the swinging kitchen doors and was carrying a plate. His eye turned to a heart and he did his odd dance over toward her.
"Sanji!" Nami cried and he immediately focused his attention to her.
"Nami-sswwaaaannn!!!!" he swooned.
"Ugh." Nami sighed. Then she turned to Vivi. "It's good to see you Vivi. We were worried about you."
"So does this mean Luffy's awake?" Chopper asked.
The room fell silent. Everyone had been trying to avoid the touchy subject but now it hung above them like a thunder cloud.
Vivi's smile faded.
"I don't think that was the best timing doctor-san." Robin said calmly, unaffected by the awkward situation.
"It's okay." Vivi finally said and everyone relaxed. She took an empty seat next to Nami with Kohza beside her. The mood immediately lightened and the feast began as Terracotta came out with plates of food.
As they were eating, Nami noticed how quiet Vivi was. "Hey Vivi, you okay?" she asked.
"Huh? Oh, me? I'm fine." Vivi lied.
"Um hm." Nami replied, clearly not convinced in the least. "So, what's really up?"
"You'll find out in a minute." Vivi replied. She had made up her mind to break the news to everyone after their wonderful celebration.
Soon after, Terracotta and some of her assistants came to collect the dishes. When Terracotta saw Vivi's plate had been hardly touched, she shot the princess a questioning look but took the plate anyway.
When they were gone, Vivi stood up and walked to the head of the table. Kohza, who quickly figured out what she was doing, gave her a reasuring smile. Eventually, everyone fell silent as they noticed Vivi standing at the head of the table.
She swallowed, attempting to remove the lump in her throat that hindered her from speaking. She looked at the curious faces of her friends and then spoke. "I have an announcement to make. It concerns Luffy." she said.
"Uh oh. This can't be good! She was acting weird all of dinner so it must be bad." Nami thought, suddenly concerned.
"Is Luffy...dead?" thought Chopper nervously.
"Luffy. What have you done now?" Zoro thought.
Sanji lit another cigerette.
Robin looked at Vivi with an amused smile.
Franky and Usopp looked up from the discussion they had been having and instantly gave Vivi their full attention.
Vivi hung her head before continuing, to ashamed to look at her friends. She didn't know why she was. It wasn't her fault, it was Luffy's. Still, she felt partially responsible. "He's...gone." she finally said.
Okay okay! I know that Kohza was a little out of character there if you only go by the anime/manga. But, in One Piece, he was against Vivi. When they are friends, I pictured them having an older brother/sister relationship. That's just me though.
