Title: On the Ocean Blue

Written By: NikoArtagnan

Genre: Fantasy/Friendship/Adventure

Rating: T, will eventually go to M

Summary: An outcast from Earth is flung headfirst into a hostile, unforgiving world, and finds themselves tagging along with a very particular crew of misfit pirates, and the boy who wants to be the King of them all. But this isn't the world of One Piece you thought you knew, and there are terrible things lurking in the shadows...

Chapter-Specific Warnings: Nothing major

Author's Notes: The remaining Straw Hats have some thoughts on our protagonist.

Chapter Twelve:

First Impressions, Part 2

ZORO

The first thing he thought when he got a good look at this Ciel Russo was DANGER. The thought was sudden and violent in its fury, and for all the other man wore a smile as easily as he wore his clothes, doted on his cats and Nami, Zoro did not trust him. At all.

It was the feeling he got from Mihawk - though not as intimidating - all over again, but now he's going to have to deal with it on his ship, around his crewmates, around his fucking captain, so sue him if that wasn't making him very happy. The feeling only increased even more after what happens at Whisky Peak. Zoro wasn't stupid, for all he was willing to enjoy some damn fine alcohol with the other man.

The dark man moved like a snake, struck like a snake, and was ten times stronger than even some of the most hardened mercenaries Zoro had ever met.

Why in the hell had a man as strong as that – a man who could have easily made himself first mate or even captain of any other pirate ship on the seas – choose their ship to travel into the Grand Line on? A man that strong – who even the money witch respected – could have had his pick of ships and he knew it.

So why the Merry Go?

Damn, he fucking hated mysteries.

His nose barely touching the snow, his legs held in a straight line high above him, Zoro let out a grunt of dissatisfaction. He turned his head a scant inch to see the mountain Luffy, the money witch, and dartboard brow – the dark man with them - would be ascending in the distance.

He wondered if the cook would be able to handle dealing with the dark man. Normally, he wouldn't have worried – even though he didn't like the cook, Zoro knew damn well he could handle himself – but Russo was obsessed with the blond man.

The green-haired man wasn't blind. He'd seen the way Russo treated the cook, equal parts viciously sadistic and wantonly sexual, teasing him, mocking his cooking, taking especial pleasure in beating the ever-living hell out of him. Usopp had commented once that Russo knew how to push the cook's buttons even better than Zoro could, and the swordsman had to agree.

Zoro and the cook were rivals, plain and simple. They could beat the shit out of each other, call each other every bad name in the book and then some, but in the end, even though neither would ever admit it to themselves (much less each other) they respected each other.

Russo did not. The dark man respected no one on the ship – except for the witch, who he'd lovingly cared for on their way to the island, and what the hell had that been about? – and took an inordinate amount of pleasure in playing with the blond man.

Zoro didn't mind men who were into other men (that would be a little hypocritical in his case, if that were true), but the way Russo treated the cook was…different. Dangerous. Like Russo was waiting for the chance to break the blond man into splinters and gleefully craft a broken plaything from what was left.

He knew perfectly well what men like that could do to the world around them. His fingers tightened in the snow as memories threatened to break his calm. He let his legs fall and stood up, rolling his shoulders. There was no use worrying about things that were out of his hands.

If the dark man tried anything with the cook, Zoro knew full well his captain would kill him.

And Zoro would be more than happy to help.

VIVI

Her Royal Highness, Princess Nefertari Vivi of Arabasta, has never before met a man quite like Ciel Russo. A man so darkly, unabashedly handsome, a man who didn't care she was a Princess, but still respected it.

'Well,' Vivi thought, lips still burning in remembrance of the kiss the man had given her several days before. 'Perhaps not respect.'

A heated flush rose over her cheeks, and the Princess was grateful for the chill of the landscape around them, as the blush went unnoticed. It had been her first kiss, and Vivi was pleased that such a man had been the one to take it.

She'd seen the man fight, like a sensuous coil of flowing energy, like a viper, dancing around its prey before it struck. Perhaps now she could truly appreciate why her father had fallen in love with her mother, who'd been a priestess and dancer of the Snake Goddess Ernutet. But after her mother had left the Order, she'd given up dancing for the duties required of Arabasta's Queen.

The stories of the beautiful Head Priestess's dances had been Vivi's childhood bedtime story of choice for years.

And when her mother had died, it had been those stories that had bridged the gap between grieving father and daughter.

-…Her father laughed, and it lightened the shadows in his eyes. "She was beautiful, her hair flying, her eyes full of power. The music was thrumming in my veins and the incense made my head fuzzy. The snakes danced to the music around her, until they matched her every move. The moon shone through the window behind her, full and bright. I had never seen a woman such as her in all my years and never have since.

Even as young as I was, no more than seventeen, moon-stupid with drink and excitement of the festival, I knew then she would be the woman I would marry." Her father leaned back against the wall and he smiled at her as she crawled into his arms. "I hope one day you may find one who you can love and who loves you as she and I did. It's a rare thing in this world."…-

Was this the way her father had felt?

Vivi smiled up in the direction of the sky. Perhaps not.

After all, Ciel was dangerous in a way her mother had never been – perhaps he was not an avowed pirate, but something darker, with blood on his hands and something broken in his eyes, a man who had probably taken a great deal of pleasure from a great deal many women. Ciel was the sort of man her father and Igar-

Vivi shuddered quietly, fingers biting into her palms, and buried the memory of her oldest and dearest friend deep in her own mind.

Her father certainly would not have approved of the dark-haired man.

Though it mattered little, in the scheme of things. She was a naïve princess trying to do the impossible, and Ciel Russo was not the sort of man who would ever find it in himself to make the sacrifices needed as a consort of Arabasta.

But for a while, Vivi could dream without guilt of wishing it was different.

MERRY

She breathed in, out, in, out. The Magic of the girl who was not just a girl made the ship who had not always been just a ship feel as though she was home again.

As though she was whole again.

She was not long for this world, she knew this, being a pirate ship guaranteed it, but she was glad she would have a sister to guide her into her final sleep when the time came. And the family she'd found was a good one.

Her exile would not be as awful as she had feared long ago.

Had the Gods taken pity on her? To give her comfort in her undeserved punishment?

Perhaps. She smiled as the snow fell from the sky.

The water curved around her hull, rocking her with the gentle musicality of the waves, and so she slept.

And so she dreamed.

LUFFY

The wind bit into his skin like a bear's claws, and he shuddered, but he kept his grip, even as the very mountain seemed to shake beneath his hands.

Nami felt like a bonfire on his back, and he could feel her trembling badly, unable to stop. He caught sight of Ciel climbing beside him, fingernails digging into the flat surface. Sanji was on his back like Nami was with Luffy.

Luffy normally liked snow and the cold – his home island hadn't been too big on the stuff, and it rarely came – because it usually meant building snowmen and hot chocolate. But now the cold was menacing and icy, making his body feel sluggish and stupid and the snow made the side of the mountain slippery.

His fingers slipped and panic whited out his thoughts – not for himself, he could survive the fall just fine, but for Nami, shit, shit, grab on, grab on-

A hand latched onto his wrist and kept him steady. He turned his head and saw Ciel watching him, clinging to the mountain with one hand.

"Slow and steady wins the race, Strawhat!" he yelled. "It won't do Nami or Sanji any good if we rush and fall off the mountain, ya got me?"

He nodded and latched back onto the side of the mountain.

There was something off about Ciel Russo, Luffy knew subconsciously, though his conscious mind could never fully make those thoughts coherent. Something broken in his eyes, something that would probably never heal back whole, and might never heal again. Luffy saw it when Ciel teased Sanji, whenever Ciel fought, and in those random times when Luffy caught sight of the sly, mocking, slightly sad smiles Ciel would be wearing when he thought he was alone.

It made a part of Luffy hurt and want to break things. Like when Nami had stabbed herself at that shitty shark's park, or when Usopp had tried to take on that cat-freak for Kaya, or when Sanji had been struck in the stomach so hard he coughed up blood, or when he'd heard the onion-head laugh about breaking his promise to Zoro.

His nakama were his most precious things, and when someone hurt them, nothing would stop him from returning the favor tenfold.

But who had hurt Ciel?

-"I had an older sister…" he heard Ciel say to Nami and Luffy could hear the tears in the older man's voice. "And I miss her very much." And for a moment he remembered top hat perched over blond hair and toothy smile and the air clogged in his throat…-

There was nothing visisble for Luffy to punch to make Ciel feel better, no physical obstacle he could remove so that the shadows in Ciel's eyes would go away. It annoyed the fuck out of him, like something itching at the back of his skull and he couldn't reach the itch, no matter how hard he tried.

The wind kicked up, and Luffy gritted his teeth even as his fingers lost their grip for a few paralyzing moments. But Ciel's hand latched around his wrist before he could slide further.

"Strawhat!" Ciel yelled over the sound of the roaring wind. "We ain't gonna make it up the mountain like this."

"What're we s-supposed to do then?" Luffy shouted. His fingers were numb, like the rest of him, and he knew the other man was telling the truth.

Ciel looked up to the sky, the wind picking up speed, trying to toss the four of them to the ground below. Then he began to work Sanji around with the hand not digging into the mountainside so that the unconscious blond man – with his arms still tied around the dark man's neck – rested on the knee pressed against the unforgiving stone. Then the man looked at Luffy, his eyes hard and determined.

"Luffy, grab onto my back!"

"Whaaaaat?" Luffy shrieked, even as his bloody fingers scrabbled against the stone.

Frustration entered Ciel's eyes, and he looked back up into the sky.

"I can get us up the mountain, but you have to trust me! There's a storm coming and we won't be able to hold on through it. We need to get up to the castle right now!" Ciel yelled.

There was a dull roaring in the air, Luffy realized, and he nodded. He quickly clambered onto Ciel's back, looping his arms around the other man's neck, reveling in the warmth that seeped into his exposed skin. He'd given his coat to Nami – she needed it – but hadn't realized how cold he was.

He heard Ciel whispering something under his breath, something that sounded like a fervent prayer as he tucked an arm around Sanji and held him close.

Then Ciel pressed his feet against the stone and leapt off.

Luffy felt the bottom of his stomach drop out and a rush of excitement pound through his body.

I don't know why Zoro doesn't trust him, he thought for a moment, the scream of excitement and the instinctive "AAAAAAAGH!" strangling in his throat.

Ciel's definitely our nakama.

CHOPPER

There were four people resting on the snow – a blond man and an orange-haired woman who were both unconscious, a black-haired boy who looked like he would soon be joining them, and a long-haired man (who also smelled like a woman, and not human at all) who was struggling upright, stinking of exhaustion and fatigue.

No wonder, Chopper thought, since the man had carried all three of his companions up through the storm, stepping on the air like it was ground. Was it some sort of Devil Fruit? How could someone do something like that?

Doctorine had paled when she'd seen the long-haired man(?), and gone to his side, pressing her fingers against his forehead. The man immediately went limp, and she went back to the other three. She passed a cursory gaze over the black-haired boy and lightly pressed her fingers against the blond haired man's back. Then she turned to the woman and pressed her fingers against her forehead, only to hiss in shock and yank her fingers back.

"Chopper, we'll need to get the girl inside right now," she said quietly, and if Chopper hadn't known his teacher better, he could have sworn she sounded worried. "She'll die in less than two days if we don't get her started on an antibody regimen. Then we'll deal with the blondie – five cracked vertebrae and at least seven broken ribs. And heat up a barrel of water and throw that one in it," she said, pointing at the boy wearing the red shirt. "What the hell was he thinking, being out in this weather with no coat?"

As Chopper picked up the blond man and the woman (and she felt like a fire in his arms, radiating staggering waves of heat), Doctorine made to haul the other two over her shoulders, but stopped as the boy grabbed her shoulder. Chopper could see the ice-blue of his lips, bloodied fingers and face even as he struggled to hold onto Doctorine's arms.

Chopper stared. How was he still conscious? The level of hypothermia his body was experiencing should have killed him, and at the very least should have shut his body down into a purely defensive coma.

"M-my friends…" he slurred, trying to keep his eyes opened and focused on Doctorine's face. "My friends…"

He couldn't completely read the expression on Doctorine's face, but he saw something in her eyes that just might have been amusement, or even sympathy.

"We'll take care of your friends," she said, and the boy promptly fainted. Doctorine shook her head wryly and picked him up

"But what will we do with him, Doctorine?" he asked, gesturing to the man slung over her shoulder.

Something amused passed over her face for the briefest of moments before she shook her head. "We'll put he-him somewhere private," she said. "If we give him a flat surface and some warmth for a few hours, he should heal quickly." The two of them began walking back towards the castle door as fast as they dared with their patients.

But then Chopper saw the long-haired man's exposed arm – the sleeve pushed back by the awkward position he was in – and felt his eyes widen. Glittering faintly in the light reflected off the snow were silvery blue scales.

"Remember what I told you, Chopper?" Doctorine said, and her eyes were cold. She'd seen the scales too. "I'll put him in a room away from the others, so they don't see it."

"Wouldn't they know?" Chopper asked. "I mean, the kid called them his friends, didn't he?"

Doctorine laughed as they entered the castle, and it was a little sad.

"Chopper, I doubt he's told them. You know how humanity responds to his kind. Would they be so willing to accept him then if they learned he was a snake? If they knew he was a monster?"

"B-But he just carried them all up a mountain!" Chopper protested as the two of them worked in tandem to care for the patients. "I think they'd be grateful for that much at least."

Doctorine sighed, her eyes tired in a way he'd never seen before.

"Very rarely do humans ever do things that sound reasonable to the rest of the world. And what's reason and sanity and gratitude worth when you can be sold for worth hundreds of millions of beri on the slave market?" There was that awful thing in Doctorine's eyes now, bitter and cynical and tired. He'd seen it only a few times before in his years with her.

She rubbed her wrists, then shook her head.

"Take that one into the room down the hall, near your workroom, Chopper," Doctorine said as she turned back to the orange-haired woman. "Then I'll need you back here to assist me with the surgery for blondie here."

Chopper quickly gathered the long-haired Snake into his arms and trotted down the hallway. As he nudged open the door, he looked down at the creature in his arms.

"You're kind of like me and Doctorine, then," he said and found himself smiling.

He set the long-haired Snake on the bed and tucked the blankets up around his chin in a gesture he remembered well from his years with Hirulik-

Chopper rubbed his eyes furiously. "Well, you don't have to be worried. We're all monsters here," he told the unconscious figure in the bed.

There was no reply, but Chopper still smiled, wondering if the other monster would be friendly. If the two of them could be friends.

That would be nice.