Author's note:
Who would have thought that after not updating for god knows how long, watching Strong world as I fell asleep, listening to the one piece openings on a YouTube playlist, and talking over one piece cosplays with my boyfriend would result in me having inspiration to do some more writing! I own nothing except the members of the bear claw, Lily and Markus
"WH-what?" Annie asked him confused and surprised as she stared at him. Luffy grinned at her
"Join my Crew! You can stay with Sanji, help Brook with his music, it'll be perfect!" Luffy shouted excitedly Annie shook her head a bit
"Sorry I'm not a pirate." Annie said walking down from the stage "besides I'd hate to think I was stealing Brook's job."
"I was once on an entire ship of musicians a solo is nice a duet is a blessing!" Brook told her Annie frowned and shook her head a bit how could they even think she belonged on a ship? Annie had some secrets she didn't want found out and the last thing she needed was for them to find out. Everyone had their secrets but of course but Annie wanted hers to stay a secret for as long as possible.
"I told you Ann," Dracule said to her with a smile as he poured himself another glass of Sake "You'd fit right in."
"I can't be a pirate! You help the marines for god's sake!" Annie scolded him Dracule shrugged a bit and drank his sake
"But I'm still a pirate, besides you'll never have your dreams hanging in a bar like this." Dracule told her Annie scowled but she felt someone gingerly grab her hand and she looked up to see Sanji who had a smile on his face that could make Ice melt if he wanted it too.
"Please Annie?" he asked her softly Annie let out a deep sigh before she looked over at Terry, Susan and Tom.
"What do you guys think?" she asked them Terry grinned
"Get out of here!" Terry told her pointing to the door Tom nodded his agreement
"We can take care of ourselves here; you deserve to get as close to your dreams as you can." Tom told her Annie finally looked at Susan, Susan walked over and pulled her into a big hug
"If you let him get away and don't take this chance I'll find the biggest meanest shark I can and feed it your swords then you." Susan told her Annie laughed a bit at the threat and hugged her
"I'll write to you guys every day I promise!"
Luffy beamed at the answer
"So that's a yes?"
Annie grinned and nodded Luffy cheered loudly closely followed by the rest of the bar
"Start up the music Brook! Now we have two things to celebrate!" Luffy shouted and with that the music rang through long into the early hours of the morning when everyone went home, Luffy had passed out on the floor of the bar from drinking and eating so much.
"Should we take him to a room?" Annie asked from behind the bar where she was cleaning up, it was her and Sanji left now everyone else had gone up to bed. Sanji sat on one of the bar stools on the other side and looked down at Luffy listening to him snore for a little bit
"Nah just leave him there." Sanji said to her polishing another glass and setting it aside for the morning "I'll get him a blanket later, he'll either stay there till Tom kicks him out or he'll wander up to his room eventually."
Annie laughed and nodded a bit before she sat up on the bar to watch what he was doing for a bit they sat in a comfortable silence for a while the only sound was Luffy's snoring until Annie stood up and grabbed his arm pulling him a bit
"What?" Sanji asked her Annie just smiled at him
"Just come on," she told him pulling his arm again, Sanji laughed realizing she wasn't going to stop until he followed her, he put the glass down and followed her quickly. Annie went upstairs to her room stealing a blanket off her bed and climbing up out of her window
"Watch your step." She warned him Sanji was curious and followed her up she lead him up onto the roof and sat down Sanji looked up and saw what she wanted to show him. The Stars shown brilliantly over head and he smiled before joining her, Annie wrapped the blanket around the both of them and rested her head on his arm as she looked up at them
"They're beautiful," he told her putting his arm around her Annie simply nodded and closed her eyes with a content sigh.
"We'll be able to do this every night when we set out to sea in a couple of days." Sanji told her kissing the top of her head Annie again nodded just enjoying hearing him talk like he did it was cute.
Sanji smiled seeing her
"You're not looking,"
"I know, I just wanted to get away from Luffy's snoring and go somewhere we could be alone and not worry about someone interrupting you being cute." Annie told him Sanji laughed a bit and continued looking at the stars he could see how tired she was, of course anyone would be it had been a big adventure lately.
Annie was almost asleep when she felt Sanji tense up and opened her eyes she looked at him confused
"What's the matter?" she asked him she followed his gaze and she didn't need him to answer when she saw the familiar insignia that meant trouble for any pirate
"Marines."
"I'll go wake Lily." Annie said throwing the blanket off Sanji looked confused
"What?"
"She's wanted by the marines, don't ask me why she wears her old uniform it's confusing." Annie said before she climbed back inside, Sanji followed her close behind waking the rest of the crew as well. Lily got out of there the moment she found out and kissed her Grandson on the head
"I'll see you another day Luffy I promise." She said to him Luffy nodded
"be careful grandma!" he called before hurrying downstairs with his bag over his shoulder.
Tom was up and had the wine cellar open the crew was to hide down there until the Marines left. Sanji looked at Annie
"are you going to be alright?" he asked her Annie smiled
"I'm not a delicate little flower Sanji, trust me ok?" she asked he smiled though the concern was still obvious he kissed her hand before he hid in the cellar with the others
"Remember be quiet and if you see Terry's explosives don't touch them." Tom told them before he closed the door. Annie put a rug over it.
The wine cellar was dark, thankfully Robin had brought a flash light, and any other form of light would have been too dangerous. From where the crew was they could hear everything going on upstairs. For a long time it was quiet. Maybe Sanji had just over reacted that was until he heard the door to the bar slam open.
"Was that really necessary?" Susan asked yawning Sanji found a crack in the floor where he could see if he stood on one of the wine barrels. His vision was limited with the crack but he could see the Marine and he could see Annie sitting at a table looking bored
"Awful late for you people to be doing business," the marine commented looking over the four. Annie shrugged
"We had a lot of business; my brother was in town and brought a few friends to visit." Annie said to him "We're closed now actually we're just finishing up the cleaning so we can be ready by tomorrow morning." Annie told him the way she could tell him something like that and not show a sign of lying was a little intimidating, at least when Usopp lied you could figure out he was lying.
The marine glared at her
"Annie Mihawk right?" he asked her Annie raised a brow at him leaning back against her chair she folded her arms over her chest.
"Yes," she said slowly Sanji got a sinking feeling in his stomach he didn't like how the man addressed her or the grin on his face
"We hear you're setting out for piracy." The marine said the room was silent for a moment before Annie laughed at him
"Me? A pirate?" Annie asked him "I considered it the other day when shiki was threatening the place but once we did your job for you but only considered to save the place." Annie informed him before she stood up she stacked the chair on the table before she turned to the marine once more
"That can't be the only reason you're here though."
"I'm afraid not, we got word of pirates here in town. The Golden lion and the Straw hat pirates." The marine told her
Susan stepped in then, moving between Annie and the marine, the way he had been speaking was like he was interrogating Annie and Susan liked it about as much as Sanji did despite not seeing how he reacted.
"We'll be sure to keep our eyes out for then and let you know Shiki and his boys left a few days ago after Dracule destroyed the ship but we haven't seen the straw hats." Susan told him. Tom walked out from behind the bar yawning himself
"Now if you boys will excuse us we have had a long day, we'd like to get some sleep if you're alright with that." Tom said to him the Marine glared and looked from each of the ones there before he nodded
"We got a tip that you're harboring the straw hats, do you mind if we do a room check?" He asked Tom shrugged
"Go crazy, but don't go in room 32, Dracule is asleep and the last person who woke him up from his beauty sleep had their ship destroyed as well as most of their armada." Tom warned him before he headed upstairs again Susan and Terry close behind but Annie stayed where she was. She glared at the marine as he and his friends followed Tom, Susan and Terry. It was about an hour before they came scrambling down as Dracule followed glaring at them murderously
Tom was behind him
"I told you not to go into room 32," Tom said with a laugh as they all scrambled out of the tavern and into the night. The sun was starting to come up now, the pinkish glow on the horizon was getting up into the sky as Tom let the straw hats out of the wine cellar
"They'll be watching the place." Dracule told them all "You'll have to be sneaky if you want to make it out of here unnoticed."
Luffy laughed and gave a big grin
"Why do we have to go unnoticed?" he asked them the crew simply smiled along with their captain it was obvious that something devious was going to happen.
Annie finished packing her bag and said her good byes to her friends strapping her swords to her hips and throwing the bag over her shoulder before she looked to Sanji and the gang she smiled
"Ready?" she asked Sanji laughed a bit
"Try to keep up alright angel?" he asked her before she climbed out the window the ground below Terry had flares all set up, in only a few hours they had set out an entire plan
"Light it up!" Annie called down Terry nodded before she lit the fuse with that the crew, arming the roof tops of multiple pubs and buildings took off at a run all armed with what they could carry and racing for their ship.
Dracule stood on the ground below waiting when he saw his sister take off with Sanji he smiled
"If that bastard ever hurts her I'll kill him." Tom told him Dracule smiled a little bit
"Get in line." Dracule told him before the two took off at a run behind the straw hats they found the marines still searching the town
"Up there on the roof tops!" Tom shouted pointing to Robin as she leapt over Dracule's head on the rooftop.
The marines took off only to hear the loud explosions of the flares and fireworks didn't help at all that they were aimed at the marines! The marines had to dodge the fireworks as the straw hats took off running; Dracule nearly got hit with a couple too which was NOT part of the plan. He was going to kill Terry later.
"You think Terry used enough explosives?" Zoro shouted over to Nami as the two kept running Nami shook her head
"She's a pyromaniac did you expect anything less?" Nami asked her as she kept running; having to jump over a firework that nearly missed her. The plan was to have them all leave from separate places in town so no one could figure out where they had been hiding and blame one person for hiding them. Including the tavern, having Dracule chase them was just a bonus to prove the innocence of the Bear claw and to make sure that they knew that his sister was no longer one of this town. When Nami and Zoro arrived on the ship they wasted no time getting ready to shove off when everyone was finally on the ship.
Luffy and Usopp arrived next and started helping to, Franky and Brooke in close pursuit and then Robin and Chopper. Finally joined by Sanji and Annie by the time the marines caught up with Dracule the Straw hats were already to far ahead for them to catch.
"Why did you let them escape?" The marine shouted Dracule glared causing a chill to go down the Man's spine
"Don't think I don't remember who woke me up last night."