Franky was in the engine room of his ship, tinkering with-no, upgrading his cola converter so that it would be more efficient. It had only taken a couple of days of being a Straw Hat to learn that Nami-sis was very stingy with the ships money. Whatever, it didn't matter to him. All he had to do was make his baby even more super than before, a challenge that was worth undertaking.

And besides, from a certain point of view Nami-sis was right. They did have to spend a butt load of money feeding Luffy. Anything he could do to contribute would help out. As Franky had come to see over his short time as a Straw Hat, Nami was often somewhat reasonable with her monetary demands. She was greedy as hell and would do anything to make a quick buck, but always had the interests of the Straw Hats at heart. Okay, really deep at heart, but it was there none the less. Plus her punches hurt, a lot. Which was amazing because he was mostly metal.

As he worked he talked. It was almost a ritual to him, sharing his day with Sunny. While Franky had no intention of meeting the ship's Klabautermann, the very thought of his ship being in mortal peril made his blood boil, that didn't mean he couldn't feel the ship's spirit. And right now he was talking about his new family.

"Yeah, I bet Long Nose-bro's gonna freak out when I show him Mini Merry. You missed it; he put his whole heart into that little ship. I can just tell he's going to help keep you in super shape. 'Course, he's gotta be taught how too actually fix a ship…but he'll learn quick, I'm sure," Franky sat back and eyed his handy work with a critical eye. The big shipwright grinned and slapped his mechanical hand against the engine. Some pretty sturdy work right there, if he could say so himself.

Franky found a seat and opened a bottle of cola. He didn't often spend a whole lot of time thinking about the nature of his new crew, but there was something about tonight that made him stop and do just that. As he got to spend more and more time with the crazy Straw Hat Pirates the more he got the feel of the group dynamic. There was something that he could just feel in each and every one of his crewmates that set them apart from everyone else in the world. And in Franky's opinion, that was pretty super.

Usopp was easy to pick apart. The kid had a nervous energy that could be felt a mile away. But when push came to shove regarding something he truly cared about, Long Nose had the ability to get down and dirty with the best of them. He also could spin a pretty good tear jerker, not that Franky ever cried (although his allergies had a horrible tendency to act up during his stories). Usopp was a kid trying to learn how to be a man. Franky could sympathize, but the way he figured it he was well on his way after the whole Enies Lobby mess. He kinda reminded Franky of the younger members of the Franky Family, the kind of kid that could do really well with a mentor.

The reindeer-gorilla, Chopper was similar in his own way. He was the biggest kid of the group, apparently he was only fifteen or so in human years, but was a super doctor. The way he swung between naive awe and clinical efficiency was always good for a chuckle. Plus he let Franky give him dancing lessons. But Franky had seen the little dude in action, both during the fighting and the treatment of the injured after. Once he got past his initial freak out he had done everything in his power to keep everyone alive. And he had done a damn fine job of it. Franky knew that he had a deep compassion for every living being, and thinking about it too long made Franky tear up for some strange reason.

Franky swigged the rest of his cola and began Luffy-proofing his upgraded engine. Never had the cyborg known a more destructive and forceful personality, and considering how he spent his childhood that was quite the feat. But regardless of all the stupid stunts his captain did that just made him shake his his head and wonder 'how the hell did that just happen?' Franky couldn't forget the look that he gave to anyone who hurt his friends. The more the new shipwright followed Straw Hat the more he thought Tom would have approved. With a super don for emphasis.

Again Franky looked at his work, trying to think about any conceivable way anyone in the crew could possibly hurt his baby, all the while chatting with his ship about anything and nothing. While he knew his work would stand up to any normal catastrophe, and a whole bunch of abnormal ones too, Franky was resigned to the fact that one of his crewmates would probably mess it up somehow. He reluctantly put his tools away for the night, going through his mental checklist and giving everything one very last, final, exhaustive checkup. Then he went to his personal fridge that Luffy didn't know existed and pulled out the snack Sanji had prepared earlier. This time it was those little sissy sandwiches that looked about as filling as air, but somehow Curly Cook made satisfying. The man was like magic when it came to food.

At first Franky hadn't known what to make of the cook. To start, the man had an obsession with snazzy suits that made Franky cringe. Where was his sense of freedom? And the way Sanji obsessed over the girls gave him the heebie-jeebies. But when Franky had actually gotten him talking about potential changes to the kitchen the perv transformed. Gone was the short tempered man who insisted on arguing about everything with Zoro and in his place was a cook with a dream. And when Sanji had told Franky about All Blue he had gotten the same look that kids got when thinking about Christmas. Franky was looking forward to going there with Sunny. That was, if Curly didn't kill him for not eating his veggies first.

After going over everything, Franky made his way to the kitchen, because apparently not properly disposing of cola bottles and leaving plates out was a crime punishable by a quick kick to the face. On his way he saw Zoro, who was looking especially surly for some reason.

"Hey Bro! How's the weight room treating ya?" Zoro's face might have brightened for a nanosecond before returning to its more normal semi-frown.

"It's great, and just so you know, Luffy has is starting a captain mandated game of go fish right now."

"Oh, you guys are waiting for me? Let me put this stuff away and I'll play the most super game of go fish you've ever seen!" Franky would have struck a pose, but there wasn't quite enough room in the hallway.

"Actually I was looking for the witch and Robin. Love Cook says they're in the library, but I think they might be hiding 'cause I can't find them anywhere."

"Dude, you realize we're not even close to the library right? Do you need me to show you around the ship again, because I'd be happ-" Zoro cut off Franky with a wave of the hand and a grunt. He must be especially upset because his training time was interrupted or something.

"You know, on second thought, I'll get the girls. Why don't you go back on deck and tell the others to get set up. We'll be there in a couple minutes, okay?" Zoro grunted again before going back on deck. Franky watched and made sure he was headed the right way before taking a detour to the library.

Chuckling to himself, Franky just had to shake his head at how serious Zoro was all the time. Everything the swordsman did was with the same amount of dedicated focus. It's what made him such a good fighter, and it almost seemed strange that he put up with such a care free captain. But Zoro did put up with Luffy's antics, and put that amazing dedication of his towards protecting the crew. He was almost like an older brother, considering it his job to keep everybody safe. And it didn't escape Franky's attention that during his first storm as a Straw Hat Chopper had attached himself to Zoro's head. And Zoro had let him, with a certain amount of manly stoicism that you didn't see very often. Franky knew that when it came to the Straw Hats Zoro was all bark and no (or at least very little) bite.

Franky entered the library (the amazing, super library that he had built, thank you very much!), and the two girls were indeed there. Robin seemed to be reorganizing the shelves with her Devil Fruit (a power that Franky could never, ever look at the same way again), and Nami had several books open and was taking notes of some kind. They both looked up briefly and murmured some sort of greeting before returning to their tasks.

"Sword-bro said it's go fish night, everyone's playing," Franky announced. With a long suffering sigh, Nami closed her books and got up.

"Figures, I wondered what all the noise was about," Nami said as she left the room, followed by some mutterings about placing bets and increased debt. Franky couldn't help but gulp; the girl had pretty much cleared him out the one time he had played poker with her, and if Zoro was anything to go by he did not want to get into debt at all. Franky entered into the library where Robin was continuing to put books in their proper places.

"Got quite a few books there Nico," Franky said, in what he hoped was a nonchalant voice. He snuck a quick peek at the notes Nami had been working on, which were what appeared to be complicated navigational charts. Franky considered himself a man of the ocean, and even he couldn't make head or tail of them. Damn that girl was talented.

"Not really," Robin replied. Sunny's library was defiantly bigger than Merry's. There were several shelves with nothing on them, but Franky figured that wouldn't last long.

After a few more seconds, all the extra hands disappeared in a poof of petals. Why her power did that, Franky had no idea, but it kinda looked cool. Robin paused and picked one book off of the shelves before turning and facing him.

"Shall we?" She asked with a small smile. Out of all the Straw Hats, she was one of the more difficult ones for Franky to read. He supposed she acted all mysterious and crap on purpose, and she was so quiet that sometimes he forgot she was in the same room. But if he had learned anything about Enies Lobby it was that still waters often run deep. Just because she didn't act like a typical Straw Hat didn't mean that she didn't belong. It just proved Luffy was better at looking past the surface of things to see what was underneath.

"I'm ready whenever you are. Hey, what do ya got there? You're not going to read and play cards at the same time are you?" Not to say she couldn't do just that. In fact, she could cheat as much as she wanted with no one the wiser. Damn Devil Fruit, how un-super.

"It's a legend about a tin man on a quest to find a heart. It's really quite engaging."

"Are you trying to imply something, Nico Robin? Because, I tell you, I'm the most super cyborg there is on the Grand Line!" Franky exclaimed, glad that there was room in the library for him to strike his signature pose.

"Oh not at all," she said hastily, "In fact, you're probably the most empathetic person I know."

"I'm what?"

"Empathetic. You feel other people's emotions with them. It's an admiral trait, really," and with that, she left the library, book in hand.

Franky paused before following her. Empathetic, huh? He kinda liked the sound of that, not that he'd ever really cry with anybody or anything. The best shipwrights out there knew the personality of the vessels that they were working on. It was a super thing, to be able to share the good and bad with his family.

And the Straw Hats were defiantly family. A super, awesome, crazy family that liked breaking the rules and declaring war just for the sake of one another. It was a different sort of group, not at all like the family he had left at Water Seven, but family none the less.

"Franky, come on! Everyone is playing go fish tonight, captain's orders!" Luffy bellowed from the deck, with shouts of agreement behind him. Franky grinned, did a little dance, and ran to meet them. But before he left the library he couldn't help but shout,

"SUPER!"

AN: This was really super hard for me to write, Franky's just such an energetic dude you wouldn't think that it's in his character to sit and think about things. This went through a couple of rewrites before the image of Franky talking to his ship like Usopp used to do with Merry crossed my mind. Still not 100% happy, but eh. And in other news my Internet was broken, but it's fixed now. Obviously.

Thanks to everyone who responded to chapter one, you all made my first experience in the world of fanfiction a positive one. Now let's see if I can keep it up…