A/N: Here, a series of short stories on the Sunny before they reach the first island.

Thanks in advance for all reviews.


Chapter Seven: Life aboard the Sunny- Part 1

It had only been a few days since Team Avatar had set out with the Straw Hats. Katara was thankful that she was able to have a real bath after so long, and was amazed by the fact that a pirate ship of all things would have orange trees, a lawn, and have such luxurious facilities like the kitchen, bathroom, and the bedrooms. She had been told that Franky built the ship, and she thought that his workmanship was very impressive.

Nami, Robin, and Momonosuke all were taking their baths as well, and Katara wouldn't have minded if Momonosuke wasn't there. She felt sure that the boy was a lecher, (she was sure she saw him smirking at Brook, Sanji, and his father at one point) but both Nami and Robin didn't notice or didn't care. After a long and relaxing bath, Katara put on the clothes that Nami said she could borrow. She had on a shirt that had some kind of odd name (criminal) and shorts.

Katara felt pitifully undersized compared to the other women on the boat, and she had also noticed Zuko, Aang, and Sokka try not to notice. She was thankful that more conservative clothing was available. She wondered why they wore such revealing clothing, and if perhaps it was normal for all women in this world to wear such things.

Everyone here had such strange clothing and names, although Kin'emon and Momonosuke had names and seemed to wear clothing that were both normal to her.

The guys had been given clothing as well that was more practical for everyday life on a ship.

Toph didn't really care about the dirt (a healthy coating of earth, she had called it) she was happy with just a change of clothes and food. Toph of course didn't notice Nami's or Robin's revealing outfits, and if she had, she likely wouldn't have cared. She also probably would have given Katara and the guys a hard time for noticing (or trying not to notice, in the guy's case).


Luffy stretched out his arms and grabbed the roof of the crow's nest, vaulting himself up to the top. He had managed to twist himself just right at the last minute, so that he went through one of the windows. Judging by the sound of crashing weights and Zoro's surprised yell, Luffy's presence wasn't expected

It was the first time that Aang and the others first saw Luffy truly stretch, and this new event added to the stockpile of surprises that Luffy kept piling on top of. First, this guy is the captain (who gets abused by a select few crew members), then he just looks at sea monsters and makes them run away, and now he stretches! This caused them to wonder what other surprises that there could be, and then to wonder why they should even be surprised in the first place anymore.

Zuko managed to find his tongue first, and pointed almost accusingly at the crow's nest where Luffy was, asking, "What was that?!" he looked to the other pirates as if demanding some sort of explanation.

"That's just Luffy; it's normal." Nami said, shrugging her shoulders.

"How is that normal?" Sokka questioned. Of course, there was Law, who had cut Pukje's head off without killing him, a talking reindeer who was a doctor, a huge guy who had machinery inside of him, a living skeleton with an afro… and here they were questioning the normalcy of Luffy stretching. They recalled when Toph had said that the movements of the person in the jungle weren't normal.

"You're the ones who can bend elements, and have connections with shitty Spirits…" Sanji pointed out, "… if anything, you're the weird ones."

The conversation was cut short by Luffy face-planting on the deck. Those unfamiliar with Luffy's abilities had released a surprised "Ah!" and then stared at Luffy unsure of what they should do. Luffy sat up and laughed, "Oh, hey guys."

"A-are you alright?" Katara asked slowly, after recovering from Luffy's face-plant.

"Yes," Luffy stood and brushed his hat off before placing it back on his head. "Why wouldn't I be?" (He then proceeded to start picking his nose)

"You just fell like thirty feet!" Sokka pointed out. "How could you be alright after something like that?"

"I ate the Gum-Gum Fruit, I'm a rubber man," to demonstrate this, Luffy grabbed both sides of his cheeks and pulled, stretching his face way beyond the capacity of what a normal person could do.

"Gum-Gum Fruit?" Aang asked, with a smile. He and Sokka started laughing at the faces Luffy was making, and then Katara couldn't help but join in as well. Zuko made a face as if he wasn't sure if he should be disgusted or impressed.

"We've never explained about Devil Fruits, have we?" Robin said, and she continued. "Basically, a Devil Fruit is a mystical fruit found in the world that can give the eater many different and varying kinds of strange and interesting abilities depending on the type and variation of the fruit itself."

Robin then motioned with her hand, and her limbs multiplied. "Luffy-kun, Law-kun, Brook-kun, Chopper-kun, Momonosuke-kun, Kin'emon-kun, and I are all Devil Fruit users. While we may gain some amazing, and very useful abilities, we are rendered unable to swim."

Katara then questioned, "Well if you live in a place that is surrounded by water like this" she motioned to the sea, "why eat one or set sail in the first place?"

"Because it's fun," Luffy said, as if that explained everything. "Besides, it's not like we have to worry about drowning or anything, Zoro and the others always save us."

"It makes things quite interesting," Robin replied, seemingly amused at Katara's question.

Toph seemed to take things in easier than the others; possibly because she was blind. She easily took others' word for it when they told her what was going on. She had to "see" for herself that Luffy could stretch, so she grabbed his cheek and pulled. Sure enough, it stretched and Toph let go in surprise, causing Luffy's cheek to snap back into place, which was something he found funny.

"Whoa…" she said, but she smiled. "That is cool."

"Devil Fruits are just one of the many mysteries of the sea. I suppose when you eat one, you simply have to hope for the best that you don't get a useless ability that you'll be stuck with for the rest of your life." Robin explained. "A scientist named Vegapunk even discovered a way to make objects "eat" a Devil Fruit. I've seen it two different times, although I honestly have no idea how the process is done."

Robin went on to explain the three different types of Devil Fruit and how they affected a person. The concept of Devil Fruits sounded fascinating. This caused many more questions to arise, but unfortunately Robin could only answer as best she could, as even her knowledge was limited. Aang also had to laugh at himself for thinking that Brook could be a type of Spirit when he first met him.

The powers of these fruits were amazing, and those powers seemed so limitless. Hearing about all of the abilities that the Straw Hats had come across in their adventures honestly made Aang and Sokka look forward to running into a Devil Fruit user (and hopefully whoever it was would be on their side).


After everyone had rested and recuperated, Usopp had the idea for Aang and Katara to help speed up the Sunny while sailing between islands. They would go back and forth for a while, off and on for a few hours in the day. They used airbending to fill the sails, or used waterbending to speed the boat along the waves, and sometimes both at the same time. The Straw Hats didn't seem to expect the two benders to constantly power their ship, and even encouraged them to rest.

Nami looked pretty satisfied with their work, as she checked the hour glass and her maps. They were making pretty good time.


Toph quietly sat at the table on deck across from… what was his name again? Tra-guy, was that it? And Brook was sitting at the table as well, drinking tea. How could Brook, a skeleton eat or drink anything for that matter? Her only reason for sitting here was because she had nothing else to do. Toph hated being on the ship, and even though Chopper gave her some medicine that helped settle her stomach, but that didn't get rid of the salty smell and the slow rocking of the ship. Plus, there was the fact that she felt trapped and truly blind without having the earth underneath her feet. She heard Sanji come up from her left, humming some sort of song.

"Here, Toph-chan," he said, and he placed a drink on the table in front of her, "Drink this; it'll help you feel better. I made it just for you~"

"Thanks," Toph said, as she heard him place another drink on the table across from her.

"Here you go, Law." Law… right, that was his name.

"Thank you, Black Leg-ya," Law said. He had such a strange way of speaking.

"You want anything Brook?" Sanji asked.

"I'm good with just the tea, thank you, Sanji-san." Brook replied.

Toph could hear everyone else around the ship going about their business. She could hear metal clinking together; that meant Zoro was exercising. Seriously, did that guy do anything other than sleep and work out? Sanji was back in the kitchen, preparing something else. A few minutes later, he briefly spoke to Nami and Katara, and then Robin. Usopp, Franky, and Sokka were talking about something, and the two pirates laughed at something while Sokka protested. Robin was talking to Aang, asking him about the Spirit World and other aspects of their world.

Katara and Nami were talking about something or other, Katara giggled at something Nami had said. "I'm not sure if I could do that!" Katara said. She sounded embarrassed.

Luffy and Chopper were laughing about something with Kin'emon and Momonosuke. She heard Luffy mention that he wanted Momonosuke to transform again (because he had thought of a really good game), whatever that means. Momonosuke protested, saying "I can't just do it whenever I want!"

There was a squabble or something, and suddenly the game had turned into tag, because the four were chasing each other and yelling. Toph took a sip of her drink. It was really good. A sudden feeling of relaxation came over her, and she indeed did feel much better. Something about the drink settled her anxiety.

Zuko was somewhere to the right of her, snoring softly. Of course he would be able to adjust the easiest out of all of them. He had what, spent three years or more of his life living on a boat? She then heard a loud crash, and Zuko was shouting, "What was that for?!"

"You're it!" Chopper said, and ran off. Zuko must have run after him, because Chopper was happily yelling, "He's after me!"

She heard Law sigh deeply, sounding irritated. She could tell by his breathing that he was in some pain. She knew that Pukje had hit him; maybe he was still recovering from that. Toph wasn't sure if Law minded the silence that was between them or if he even cared. He was a hard man to read, and when she heard him speak, he gave nothing away.

"…Are you alright?" Toph asked, unsure of what to say to the man.

"I'm fine," he sounded somewhat annoyed.

"Toph! You wanna play tag with us? Tra-guy is boring and won't do it. How about you, Brook?" Luffy said.

"I'm fine," Brook answered. "I'd rather sit here and enjoy the downtime, yo, ho, ho, ho!"

"You're seriously asking the blind girl to play tag?" Toph asked, somewhat indignantly. But she continued, casually saying, "I want to play, but it doesn't really seem fair. You guys can see, but I can't. If I'm going to play, we'll have to play Blind Tag. It simple; you guys each have to wear blindfolds, and we have to find each other by following each other's voices. You can talk about whatever you want. I'll be It, and look for you guys."

"Okay!"

After the blindfolds were on, Luffy, Chopper, and Momonosuke started wondering around the deck.

"I wonder when we'll reach the next island~" Luffy said in a sing-song voice. "I want to eat meat when I get there~"

"This would probably be good training for a warrior," Momonosuke said.

"I've never done anything like this before," Chopper stated, "Toph, are you looking for us?"

"Yes," Toph took a sip of her drink. "It's a challenge, but I can manage."

She heard Zuko sit down next to her. He must've realized that he'd unwittingly been pulled into their earlier game of tag, and had given up. "What are they doing?"

"Blind Tag," Toph whispered. "They think I'm looking for them."

"Hey, Toph" Chopper said, "Are you getting any closer to catching us?"

"Pretty close," Toph said, finally finishing her drink. She lay back on the seat and relaxed. "You guys are doing great."

Law did a strange-sounding cough.

"Are you alright?" Zuko asked.

"I'm fine," Law said, and his voice sounded just a bit off. He cleared his throat, and said in a serious tone, "It's nothing. I'm fine."

Toph believed that was a laugh. Maybe Law wasn't such a hard guy to get through to after all.


Sokka had worked for hours on this particular sketch, and when he done, he presented it to Franky and Usopp.

Franky studied the picture, and flipped it around so that he could view it at every angle, and then had to give up and ask, "So, is this a kind of fish?"

"It's an air glider!" Sokka defended, "It's for Aang. His got left back at home. He can use this to fly."

"I thought it was an insect," Usopp added, looking at the drawing again. Sokka made a face at him. "It's an air glider."

"I suppose I can make it," Franky said, scratching his head. "And when I'm through, it'll be super!"

With Sokka able to explain the basics of what the glider needed, Franky and Usopp worked together to build a glider any Airbender would be proud of. (Along with a few of Franky's personal modifications, of course). When it was finished, Franky grinned and Usopp wiped his brow.

"This is perfect!" Sokka said. "You guys are the best!"

They presented the glider to Aang, who admired it. The staff had Aang's name carved into it, and the wings were red and had Franky's star logo. Franky pointed to a ball-shape that was near the base of the staff and explained, "There's a wind-dial in there, to activate it you just have to twist the handle here forward with your hand, and you'll go super-fast."

"Thanks guys," Aang said, smiling. "This really means a lot."

"It was nothing!" Usopp insisted, scratching his head. "Well, try it out!" He wanted to see Aang fly.
Aang took his stance, and took off to the sky.

"Whoah!" Franky said as he adjusted his sunglasses so that he could watch Aang.

"I wish I could fly like that!" Luffy shouted with excitement when he saw him.

"So cool~!" Chopper said with his eyes wide and sparkling.

Nami watched as the Airbender flew around the sky and smiled. "That most certainly could be useful in the future," she said to herself.

Everyone else watched with mild curiosity, as Aang laughed and flew in circles above the ship.

"Activate the wind-dial!" Franky called.

"Like this?" Aang said to himself, and gave the handle of his glider a twist. The sudden burst of speed was unexpected, and Aang went flying off way ahead of the ship, screaming the entire way.

"Super success!" Franky said proudly, striking his pose.

"Success!" Sokka said, laughing as he did the same pose.

"I hope he doesn't get lost," Usopp remarked, using his goggles to try and see where Aang went.

There wasn't really much need for concern, because Aang was able to loop his way back easily once he got the hang of the power and speed that the glider had. As Aang flew, he looked out at the vastness of the ocean. Strangely, the ocean back home seemed so small compared to this. A few miles away, Aang saw what he believed to be giant dolphins of some kind, and he was fascinated by them. The creatures of this world were so strange.

Aang flew over the ship for a few minutes, seemingly lost in his thoughts but he looped around a few more times before landing on the deck.

"This is amazing," Aang admired the staff before folding the wings in back into place. "Thanks again,"

"Sure thing," Franky said, with a smile that showed he was very satisfied with their work.

"It was something that the great Usopp-sama didn't mind doing," Usopp said proudly.


A/N:Part two is coming soon :3