Chopper

Chopper blinked several times as he stared at the scene before him. Some of the people noticed him, but didn't say anything. They didn't really react to him or the winged monkey being there at all. They all had cinnamon color skin and black hair. "Some kind of circus, I guess."

His eyes landed on one of the of the circus workers. It was a young boy who looked about ten or eleven years old. He was struggling to pack up wooden boxes into the back of a wagon. His forehead was covered in sweat, his cinnamon color cheeks were flushed and he was breathing hard.

Another circus worker walked by with a box in his arms. He shoved the box into the wagon and narrowed his eyebrows at the boy. "Hurry up, brat. We don't have all day."

"I know," The boy replied as he lifted up a box. He started to walk towards the back of the wagon. As he lifted the box to the wagon it caught on the edge. The box tipped out of his hands. Both the boy and the box fell to the ground. Instead of helping him, the surrounding workers just laughed at the boy and walked off.

"Oh my gosh!" Chopper ran over to the kid. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," The boy huffed as he tried to stand up.

"No, you're not," Chopper said, checking the boy's forehead. "You have a fever."

"It's okay," The boy stood up and started to pick up the box again. "I'm use to it."

When the boy tried to put the box in the wagon it began to fall again. Chopper assumed his human form and grabbed the box, shoving it into the wagon. The boy looked at him with confusion and seemed to not care about Chopper's transformation. "W-Why are you helping me?"

"Because you're sick and I'm a doctor. You just rest. I'll take care of this. You're just putting these boxes in the back here, right?" Chopper asked. The boy nodded and sat down on the ground. With in a few minutes Chopper had all the boxes loaded up in the wagon. He turned back to the boy who looked like he was about to fall asleep. "Where do you ride? In the wagon too?"

"That one over there is mine," He pointed to a small nearby hut on wheels. Chopper picked the boy up and carried him over to the hut wagon. The monkey followed as Chopper stepped inside. He laid the boy down on the small bed inside and began to examine him.

"Hey, Ahote! You inside?" A female voice called out before opening the door to the hut. A woman, dressed like a gypsy, poked her head in. She had cinnamon color skin and black hair as well. "Uh, who are you? New recruit, eh? Whatever, just as long as you do your job. We're getting ready to take off. Good to see you're all set."

"Wait a minute! I'm not a new recruit!" Chopper protested but the woman closed the door. He got up to go after the woman but the wagon jolted forward. They were already on the move. He had no choice but to stay put and tend to his new patient.

He began to get a bit frustrated when his medicine wasn't helping the boy. Then a thought hit him. Whoever this kid was, he wasn't human. And he'd been using human medicine on him. "Maybe Elemental medicine will work on him."

Chopper opened his bag again and pulled out the medicine he got from Madam Healer. He gave the kid some and sat back to wait to see if anything changed. Thirty minutes later, the kid settled down into a peaceful sleep. Chopper sighed. "I'm so glad it worked. And I'm also glad that I studied under Madam Healer before leaving Luminous."

While the kid slept, Chopper took the time to look around the small room. Other than the small bed the kid was sleeping on, it had three boxes in the room. They looked like they were placed together to for a makeshift table and chairs. There was a small lantern handing on the wall for when it got dark.

There was one small window in one of the sides of the hut. The window was just big enough for a person to poke their head out of it. Chopper, back to his smaller form, sat down on one of the smaller boxed. He was going to watch out the window to pass time. But there was a map on the table that caught his attention. As he looked at it, it remind him of his actual mission. "That's right. I'm supposed to be looking for that shard thing."

Just then the monkey chirped and formed a holographic map for him. Chopper studied the holographic map then glanced back over at the map laying on the table. The layout of the maps were very similar. He rubbed his chin. "I think this troop is heading in the same direction as I'm apparently going. Guess I just have to wait. The shard looks like it's about four or five days from here, if I'm reading this thing right."

He turned his attention out the window. "I hope the others are all right. And I hope they don't have to fight. Or at least not fight anyone that's very tough. I won't be able to help them if they get injured. I wonder how Neo's doing. She must be so worried, being all alone. That creep! He better not hurt her!"

A couple hours later it started to get dark so Chopper had to light the lantern. He checked on his patient. The kid was still sleeping peacefully. A little bit after that the wagon train pulled to a stop. The woman from before came back and opened the door. "I'll have the grub done in a few minutes. He's in bed?"

"He's sick," Chopper informed her.

"Ah," She nodded, but she really didn't seem concerned about him. "He's been sluggish for a few days now."

"Don't you people have a doctor with you?" Chopper asked as he followed after her when she walked away.

"Doctor? What's a doctor?" She asked.

"Someone who helps those who are sick?" Chopper gave her a confused glance.

"Oh, you mean an expert. No, we don't have one of those traveling with us," She informed him while she started a fire and began to prepare their meal.

"What do you do then when someone gets sick?" Chopper asked.

"Usually the places we stop in have at least one expert," She replied then looked at him questioningly. "Exactly who are you? You should know all of this if you've been traveling with us."

"Actually I'm not really traveling with you. I just arrived today," Chopper said.

"That new, huh?" She shook her head with a smile. "Master must be getting desperate if he's hiring people who know nothing about us."

"I'm not…," Chopper started to tell her the truth, but his voice trailed off when he caught a glimpse at the monkey beside him. He remembered the rules that Pendulum had set for them and decided it was best not to say anything at all. So he pretended to have really joined them. "Sorry for my ignorance about your business, I am definitely new here."

"Don't worry about it. You'll do fine once you get into the swing of things," She smiled at him. "I'm Viona."

"I'm Chopper," Chopper sat down and watched Viona cook. She ended up making something that looked like grey grits. And it tasted as bad as it looked. He ate it anyway then took a bowl of the stuff inside to his patient. When Chopper returned inside of the hut, the boy was awake. "You're awake. How do you feel?"

"Tired," Ahote replied. He turned his head and looked at Chopper. "Who are you? I've never seen you before."

"My name's Chopper," Chopper said as he stood near the bedside. "I'm a doc-uh-expert. I've treated you. You should be feeling better in a few days. Would you like something to eat? Although I'm not sure this is really going to be healthy for you in your condition."

"Nothing Viona cooks is ever healthy," Ahote chuckled. "I'm not hungry anyway. I think I'm just going to sleep."

"That's a good idea. We can talk later," Chopper said, the boy closed his eyes.

…

Neo sighed to herself as she listened to Velocity reading her another book. It was another romance one. The little sprite seemed to have a fascination with them. She didn't really mind. She was glad that Velocity was gracious enough to read to her. It passed time. Even though it kept bringing her memories of Law. This one was reminding her of when she got sick after he had come back home. It was the first day after getting over whatever bug she had caught…

"Never leave me again," Neo said as she kissed Law's lips. Her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. She had glomped onto him earlier that morning like a child who'd lost their favorite toy and recently found it. So he's spent the entire day carrying her around while she showered him with kisses. She only released him when she absolutely had too. Other than that she remained attached to him.

"I'm never leaving you again," Law replied, kissing her back. The two were so lost in their own little world that they hardly noticed the crew's snickers or teasing comments. Of course Penguin was there as a buffer to make sure the crew didn't over step their boundaries in teasing the lovestruck couple.

"And you'll always be with me," Neo said, kissing him again.

"I'll always be with you," Law walked into the galley. He sat her down on the counter, but she didn't unwrap herself from him. He kissed her multiple times, on her lips, neck, cheeks, forehead, making her giggle all while reaching for a cup. Without taking his attention, or kisses, from her he filled up the cup with water. "Love, you can kiss me as much as you want, for as long as you want. But we have been kissing for three hours straight and I need water."

She reluctantly stopped kissing him and pouted. He chuckled at her cute pout before downing three cups of water. He filled the cup up again and handed it to her. "And you need water too."

She chugged the water down, placed the cup back on the counter then placed her lips back on his.

"Ah, so you two do remember how to breath independently," Shachi teased. He was sitting at the table. His chin resting in the palm of his hand while tapping his finger against his chin. He had watched this entire scene from the second Neo and Law came into the galley. "I was beginning to wonder. Are you two ever going to release each other? Or stop kissing?"

"Are you ever going to release me?" Neo asked between kisses.

"Never," Law replied with more kisses.

"Are you going to stop kissing me?" Neo asked with even more kisses.

"Never," Neo squealed happily before giving Law a rewarding deep, heated kiss.

"You two are starting to make me queazy," Shachi adjusted his hat and headed out of the galley. "I think I'm going to go repeatedly clean the sub from top to bottom, inside and out, until you two get over this. Or until you get a room and stay there until you're over this."

Law hummed into another kiss as he picked Neo back up off the counter. "Where're we going now?"

"To our room," Law said and the two smiled into their next kiss. "It is a good suggestion."

…Neo sighed and curled into herself. She wished she could kiss Law right now.

…

Mei: Thanks. I tried to be as unique as possible. These chapters have actually been a pain to write, but they've came out so well. (Maybe that's why that other girl's story is bothering me so much. I put so much effort into Neo's story I just 'feel' ripped off.) And I made sure to keep in mind all of the OP characters personality traits, personal skills and fighting abilities. I didn't want them to go somewhere where their abilities turned out to be useless. That would have made for terrible chapters and they'd never be able to get their shards, leaving them stuck there forever. And that certainly couldn't happen. :)

PuddyKatz: O.O Seriously, how do you keep reading my mind? HOW do you do it?! I've actually been thinking about doing short stories for Neo and Law. One shots for them would be fun.

Apple Bloom: Thanks! :)