A/N: Have y'all watched the live action?! It's so good! And Gear 5 was amazing too! August was quite the month for us :)
Disclaimer: I don't own this.
Something was hot. Something was burning hot, worse than the sun had ever been back in the sands of Alabasta, dry and too hot—Harley could breathe, but all she could inhale was smoke, and there seemed to be intense heat tickling her legs—then she opened her stinging eyes and realized the entire wax cake must have been engulfed in flame.
The second Harley could move her high-tops without wrecking them—which meant her shorts were partially destroyed—she launched herself from the melting wax to land on the grass with a roll. She popped back up at the end, her hair a disaster and falling out of its side-braid, and squinted around as she scrambled to her feet. She could feel the heat heavy behind her.
She found Vivi, Nami, Zoro, and Usopp together a few yards away. "Oh thank God," Harley blurted, and she jogged over to join them. "Are you guys—?"
Vivi turned and threw her arms around Harley in a hug. "Are you okay?"
"Uh, totally," said Harley, because she did feel quite a bit better than she probably should've, considering their previous situation. When Vivi released her, she took a step back to give the other girl a quick once-over. Vivi's skin and shirt were a little sooty and blackened and the hem of her shirt was tattered, but otherwise she seemed to be in decent shape. "You're—are you okay?"
"Uh-huh," Vivi confirmed.
Harley faced the other three. Nami had managed to lose her entire shirt and was standing there in her structured navy bra, and she held a wooden rod in one hand—she gave Harley a little wave—and Usopp was nearby, dried blood on his face and looking battered but determined. He grinned at Harley and she saluted him.
She found Zoro last, a couple of feet back. He was standing so casually Harley had to look at him twice: he had the same ash smeared on him as Vivi, Nami, and Harley did, but otherwise the only missing part of his clothing were the ends of his pants. Harley could still see dried blood on his lower calves, though at least the fire must have cauterized the wounds.
Zoro met her eye. For an instant Harley considered asking if she could buy him a drink—instead she managed to rein it in for once and said, "If we can find my bag, I have extra bandages."
"Sounds good," said Zoro as he rested a hand on the topmost sword at his hip.
"Good," announced a voice so loud it seemed to reverberate throughout the clearing. Harley whirled and had to crane her neck to look up and find the giant that had been covered in wax sitting up, cross-legged. He had an enormous dark blond beard and was outfitted in a horned helmet and matching prehistoric clothing. "You're all alive." The giant smiled grimly. "So now, it seems, two foes are left."
The Strawhats, the giant, and Vivi faced the jungle, and Harley looked out, too—but only for a few seconds. Afterward she started glancing around the clearing in search of her sling bag. She saw a few abandoned weapons here and there glinting in the grass, including her throwing knives and sheath. With those gathered and the sheath strapped back to her thigh, Harley resumed looking. She spotted an unconscious Miss Valentine shortly before she found her bag, slumped on the ground.
Harley hurried around Vivi and Zoro to reach her bag. She briefly kneeled to rummage through it and ensure her belongings were all still present and intact. Thank God, she thought as she checked her camera and realized it was in perfect working condition. With that ascertained, she dug a couple of rolls of crumpled beige bandages out of the bottom and felt around for clips.
She climbed to her feet and slung her bag over her shoulders. With that done she strolled back to rejoin Zoro. It seemed the conversation had continued while Harley had been distracted—when Harley stopped beside Zoro, he was in the middle of saying, "We could go out into the jungle and find them."
"I don't know about you," Usopp answered, his voice higher than usual with disbelief, "but I'm not really in the sort of shape to be going after a Wax Wax guy!"
"Yeah, you almost cut off your legs," said Nami to Zoro. "If anyone should be going it should be…" She turned, examining everyone in the clearing. "Ugh, none of us." She placed her hands on her hips. "Where the hell is Luffy?"
"I was actually wondering where the hell Sanji is," Harley piped up.
"No one ever knows," Zoro said to her. As he'd glanced toward her—and God, why was he even handsomer with the wilder soot-streaked hair and face—Harley offered him one of the rolls of bandages as well as a couple of clips. "Thanks."
"Want any help?"
"I've got it," said Zoro. He looked down to check the ground and then sat down, bringing his knees up and leaning over toward his calves—and as he started to unroll the bandages he abruptly looked back up at Harley. "You've gotta be used to doing that too, right?"
Harley couldn't resist tilting her head and flashing him a flirty smile. "If I say no, will you help me?"
Zoro snorted. "No."
"Worth a shot," said Harley, and she proceeded to start wrapping her blackened palms and wrists back up with the use of her teeth. As she did she half-listened to the conjecture about Mr. 3 and his partner Miss Goldenweek continue.
When she finished with her second hand, she heard a familiar yell from somewhere in the jungle behind her. "Hey! Guys!"
"There he is," said Zoro, looking back over his shoulder.
Harley glanced back, too, and in a second Luffy and Karoo raced out of the trees and skidded to a stop in the clearing. "You guys are okay!" Luffy exclaimed with a huge grin. "Great!"
"What happened to you?" Nami asked him.
"Oh, I beat up Mr. 3, and this bird beat up the girl with the paint," said Luffy.
Zoro huffed what might have been another sarcastic laugh. "Problem solved."
"Yeah, but we still have to wait here a year for the Log Pose to reset," said Luffy—
And Harley flinched violently enough that she took a small step backward, the grass bending beneath her high-tops. "A year?!" echoed Nami and Zoro—Harley met Vivi's gaze and the two managed to have a silent conversation through a series of glances—
Which ended with Harley bursting aloud, "I don't care!" Everyone other than Vivi looked toward her in apparent surprise, and out of the corner of her eye, Harley saw Usopp pass Luffy his straw hat. "I'll—leave by myself if I have to!"
Nami pinched the bridge of her nose. "That's not how the Grand Line works."
"I don't care!" Harley snapped back. "I'm—I can't—"
Understanding dawned on Vivi's face, and she turned more toward Harley. "Saf called you, didn't she?"
Shit, thought Harley—she couldn't give Vivi the information Saf had provided her. Vivi was already close enough to a nervous breakdown, and she needed to be ready to return and take control of the entire kingdom back. Harley opened her mouth to answer and closed it again, and after a second she said, "I'm not waiting a year." With that she folded her arms. "I'll wait as long as it takes for me to personally build a raft."
Zoro sighed. "You're a Devil Fruit user. You shouldn't be out on the ocean alone."
"Especially without a navigator!" added Nami indignantly.
"Well, then, someone give me an alternative!" Harley fairly shrieked, making half the Strawhats jump.
As if in response, the blond giant burst into tears. The Strawhats, Vivi, Harley, and Karoo all faced him, surprised out of their argument, as he bawled to the sky. Harley, bewildered and still rankled at the idea of being stuck here for a fucking year, glanced down at Zoro for an explanation and nudged him with her high-top.
Zoro looked back up at her. "Oh, right," he said. "He and the other giant were in a duel for a hundred years, but Baroque Works interfered and now his friend, well." He gestured vaguely and Harley turned—she realized there was another giant past the first, but the second was out, unmoving on the ground.
"…yikes," said Harley, and she sighed. She lifted her newly rebandaged hands to rub her temples. This entire situation is a fucking mess, she thought. As the giant continued crying, his tears forming a veritable waterfall, Harley started pacing. She had to come up with a way out of this—anything. She refused to go home to find everyone she knew was gone.
Of course it was difficult to work out an answer to an unsolvable riddle when she couldn't stop thinking about the state of Alabasta as a whole, and what would happen if neither Vivi nor Harley managed to return. Igaram was already gone. Even if Harley called Saf—and even if Saf happened to answer—any information Harley provided would put Saf in mortal danger, and Saf wasn't much of a fighter.
"Goddammit," muttered Harley, and as she rounded on the heel of one sneaker she kicked at the dirt with the other. She caught sight of movement out of the corner of her eye and realized that not only was the other giant alive—enough to stumble away from the clearing with the still steadily melting wax, at least—the entire assortment was strolling into the trees. Harley tightened the strap of her bag and hurried to catch up, or at least to walk behind Zoro, who otherwise would have been last.
Harley mulled it over as she trailed after the rest of the group, avoiding stepping on tree roots and ducking beneath oversized fronds. No one had at any point in modern history managed to leave an island and reach the next without the use of a Log Pose. Unless the World Government had for some reason covered up a success story, but if one person had managed to do it, surely others would've as well.
Whatever, Harley thought as the group came out to what must have been one giant's base camp. She continued pacing as the Strawhats, Vivi, Karoo, and the giants settled down around the clearing and the sun arced higher in the sky overhead, warming Harley's messy hair. When she rounded on the heel of one high-top, however, Zoro, who had perched on the edge of a clean-cut stump, glanced at her again. "There's no point in worrying about it."
"I'm not worrying," Harley retorted. She saw Vivi look toward them and tried to focus on Zoro. He was watching with visible skepticism. "I'm trying to figure a way out of this mess."
"There isn't one," said Zoro flatly.
Harley glared back at him. "I'll make one."
Zoro lifted his hands in feigned surrender. "Good luck."
Harley rolled her eyes and resumed moving—
Only to slow again a few seconds later. Because it had somehow only just struck her, but—she, Vivi, Karoo, the giants, and the Strawhats were not the only people on Little Garden. Mr. 3, Miss Goldenweek, Mr. 5, and Miss Valentine had all been present. And she doubted any of them would disembark on an island each would be trapped on for a full year, which meant at least one of them had to have had an Eternal Pose—
Her thought was interrupted by an unholy shrieking. Harley jumped and whirled to find the source—aha! It seemed the long-lost cook had returned at last. "Nami, dear!" Sanji trilled as he emerged from the jungle. Vivi, Harley, Karoo, and the Strawhats all watched him approach. "Vivi, my love! Harley, sweetest!" Harley folded her arms, irritation already rising. "And all the rest of you!"
"Hey!" Luffy called back, cheerful. "Sanji!"
"You're all still okay!" Sanji cried. "I'm so happy—so happy!"
"Of course he's happy," snarled Usopp. "The big useless jerk! He shows up after we've taken care of everything!"
"Yeah, where the hell have you been?" Harley shouted to Sanji, who was drawing nearer every second. "Look!" She angrily gestured to her shorts and Zoro's bandaged legs. "My shorts got wrecked and have you seen his legs?!"
"It doesn't matter," said Zoro dismissively, and Harley gave him a glance of disbelief.
At the same time Sanji started, "Well—"
But he seemed to spot the two giants, because he was close enough that Harley could see his gaze lift from her to somewhere past her, and he yelped. "What the hell is going on?!" he yelled as he ran forward to shake one fist at the giants. "Is one of you guys Mr. 3?!"
Harley frowned as Nami said, "Wait. And just how do you know about Mr. 3, anyway?"
Sanji glanced from the giants to Nami. "Whoa, Nami! You look absolutely amazing in that outfit!"
Nami raised a fist and shouted, "Say that again!"
"Now, Nami," said Sanji, launching from licentious to patronizing in under a second as he slid out of his blazer. "If you stand around dressed like that all day, you'll catch cold." He strolled toward her to settle his blazer on her shoulders. "Here."
"Oh—thank you," said Nami, surprised.
"Sanji," said Harley sharply as he took a step away from Nami and toward a moss-covered log. "Where have you been?"
"A little busy," said Sanji as he took a seat on the log. "I just finished talking to that Mr. 0 guy over a Transponder Snail."
"Mr. 0?!" yelped Vivi and Harley.
"Yeah, that guy," confirmed Sanji far too calmly. "I was talking to him in this weird hideout place I found in the jungle. He thought I was some guy called Mr. 3, and I thought it would be a good idea to let him believe it. And since I had him on the line, I went ahead and told him that we were all dead."
Harley released a breath of relief as Vivi concluded, "So he thinks he doesn't have to send people after us anymore."
"So you're saying that we're finally free of people chasing us, now that we can't go anywhere anyway?!" Usopp wailed to the sky. "Oh, that's just perfect!"
"We can't go?" said Sanji. "Why, is there still something we need to take care of here?" He dug into his back pocket. "That's a real shame, after I managed to get a hold of this thing." He withdrew an Eternal Pose—that must have been to Alabasta.
As Vivi, Karoo, and the Strawhats gasped, Harley pressed one palm to her forehead. Thank God, she thought, and some of the tension left her shoulders. It must've been Mr. 3's. "Uh…what?" Sanji asked the group as a whole.
Luffy was the first to react. "An Eternal Pose to Alabasta! All right!" he yelled. "Now we can set sail!"
Vivi, Karoo, and most of the Strawhats started cheering. Harley lowered her hand and faced Sanji, who was still blinking, nonplussed. "Hey," Harley said to him, and he glanced up. "Sorry for yelling at you. Mostly."
"No worries," said Sanji. "And for the record, your shorts still look good."
"I know," agreed Harley, and a hint of sincere amusement turned up one corner of Sanji's mouth.
Vivi ran over to throw her arms around Sanji. "Thank you, Sanji!" she cried. Harley stepped aside to give the two more space. "I was getting really worried—thank you!"
"No problem," said Sanji, audibly flustered. "It was all my pleasure. I'm just glad I could make you happy, Vivi."
Harley glanced away from them to squint back out toward the trees, impatience already setting in. She managed to keep any complaints to herself, however, over the ensuing half hour, during which time the Strawhats, Vivi, Karoo, and Harley returned to the ship anchored in the river. Once there, Nami offered to let both Vivi and Harley borrow clothes again.
When Nami had changed into another gold miniskirt and tugged on a short-sleeved blue sweater, she trotted upstairs. "I'll see if we can get going!" she said as she did, and she was gone.
Vivi had already pulled a purple sweatshirt on—and Harley, as she sorted through Nami's offerings, felt Vivi's eyes on her. "So?" said Vivi after a second. "Are you going to tell me what Saf said?"
"I am not," said Harley as she decided against a black tank top.
She could almost hear Vivi grind her teeth. "Is anyone we know dead?"
"Not that I'm aware of."
"Fine," said Vivi, and she released a breath. Her voice was cool as she continued, "I'm going upstairs."
With that she left, too, her footsteps audible against the scuffed hardwood. Harley waited until she'd been gone for a second before she let herself lean over, bracing her hands against Nami's comforter, and closed her eyes. She breathed for a minute, doing her utmost not to think about her father or her brother.
We'll make it, Harley promised herself. We're going to make it.
After another minute, Harley opened her eyes, rolled her shoulders back, and straightened to resume sorting through Nami's available clothes. She ultimately chose a dusky pink miniskirt that turned into a micromini as soon as she wriggled into it and a peach-and-white striped crop top. As soon as Harley had her high-tops and black denim jacket on, she took the stairs to the still-disorganized storage room two at a time and strode through it.
As she drew nearer to the deck, however, she heard Zoro's voice from somewhere outside. "See?! I told you mine was bigger than yours! I win!"
Harley laughed, startled, as she stepped out onto the main deck, into the afternoon sunshine. A quick glance around revealed Nami near the galley, Luffy at the wooden railing, and Vivi, Karoo, and Usopp on the forecastle deck. She followed the sound of Sanji's voice to where Luffy was leaning over and staring at the shore. "You should look closer! My lizard is much bigger!"
The conversation without context was only worsening—Harley found the two were still fighting over their stupid hunting contest. The same T-rex and triceratops from earlier had been laid out and both boys were standing on their respective kills as they shouted at each other. "What?! Are you blind or something?!" retorted Zoro. "My rhino is obviously so much bigger than your stupid lizard is!"
"It doesn't really matter," chirped Luffy, somehow content to watch the two of them argue. "They both look yummy."
"Just shut up, Luffy!" Zoro and Sanji chorused back. Not even a second later the fight recommenced.
Harley watched the two. She had no idea what it was that seemed to irritate them both about each other—though considering Zoro's generally easygoing if sarcastic attitude and Sanji's constant monologuing it might've just been personalities clashing—but this was a waste of time. She opened her mouth to tell them, but Nami beat her to the punch. "Children, how long are you going to fight? We don't need all of it anyway! Just cut up what we do need so we can get out of here already!"
"Right!" cheered Sanji instantly. "Of course, Nami!"
Zoro, however, turned back. "Hey, Usopp! Would you tell him that I'm clearly the winner?!"
"Nah, I really don't care," said Usopp.
"Can't you just agree it's a tie?" offered Vivi with exasperation.
"I don't believe in ties," snapped Zoro. "I fight to win."
"I'll tell you who won," Harley interrupted. Both Zoro and Sanji faced her, and she regarded them with scathing disdain. "Usopp did, because he's not even interested in your stupid measuring contest. He has nothing to prove."
"Yeah!" agreed Usopp. "I think?"
Zoro scowled up at Harley, who glared back, silently daring him to try and argue. With visible irritation, he turned around, placing a hand on one of the sword hilts at his waist.
"Wait!" said Sanji, who unlike Zoro had not picked up what Harley had put down. "Why don't you come down here—"
"You're making it worse, dumbass!" Zoro barked at him.
"Making what worse?!"
"Just hurry up, you two!" Nami outright screamed from near the galley.
This had the effect that Harley's attempt at insulting the boys had not, because Zoro and Sanji leapt to follow Nami's orders at once. Harley was suitably impressed, and while the two boys cut up their kills and carted the required meat onboard, and then as the Strawhats dashed around unfurling sails and raising the anchor, she opted to stand with Nami near the galley.
At last the ship creaked into motion, the wind gathering in the sails and pushing it forward. When Vivi headed up to the forecastle deck near the figurehead, Harley joined her, leaning against the railing with one hip. "Hey!" Luffy shouted, pointing forward. "Look at that, it's the giants! They must've come down here to say goodbye!"
Harley had to crane her neck to find the two enormous men on either side of the end of the river, where it flowed back into the sea. As she watched them, silhouetted against the blue afternoon sky while their long cloaks fluttered in the wind, they gave what sounded like vague advice or instructions to Luffy.
"What was that about?" Zoro asked.
"I don't get it," said Usopp. "What'd they say?"
"No matter what happens, we just go straight!" said Luffy with a determined nod.
Within minutes, with the assistance of the gusting wind—which ensured Harley untangled her escaping hair to pull it into her thousandth messy side-braid—the ship was passing between the giants and swaying out to the ocean, the salty air already heavier and refreshingly cooler. Harley leaned over further to reach a better view of the sea ahead.
She realized with a start it seemed to be—contorting, almost, an unusual massive circle rising from the depths. Harley's eyes widened as she saw flashes of white and red, then two round eyes and a gaping mouth. "Look!" yelped Nami, who was watching it, too. "Ahead!"
It must've been a Sea King: and it was far bigger than anything on Little Garden. As the Stawhats batted around what to do—and from the sound of it determined they needed to follow the giants' advice and continue sailing straight—Harley grasped the railing beside her. She couldn't even think of anything to do here but pray they would make it to the other side of this fish.
Harley's breath caught in her throat as the ship moved forward, Luffy clambering up onto the figurehead as everyone else onboard tried to argue with Luffy's decision to sail straight—except Zoro, who was leaning against the wall beside the galley with one leg propped up, looking far too casual for the situation—
Her heart thrummed against her sternum as the ship rocked into the enormous fish's open mouth. In seconds its mouth had closed again, covering them all in such complete darkness that Harley gripped the railing tighter. "Uh, Vivi—?" she started.
"I'm here!" said Vivi at once. "Not that it means much considering we've already been—"
Immense, colorful light started to pulse through the blackness—the red and blue combined overhead, swirling together to blast an enormous hole through the Sea King with an explosion that hurt Harley's ears and hurled the entire Strawhat ship into the bright ocean air—
Saltwater splashed onboard with the tunnel of a wave that the light had created, and Harley watched, mesmerized, as the deep blue surface of the sea passed beneath them faster than she could've imagined. She could feel the sun warming the top of her head again, and as the Strawhat ship came down and landed with a big splash, she released a breath of relief.
Harley relaxed against the railing for a while, feeling the sea spray on her face. When she straightened at last and glanced back, she realized the Strawhats had moved around again, Luffy and Usopp chanting about the giants and their homeland Elbaf, Nami sitting down against main mast, and both Sanji and Zoro out of sight. Karoo ran around near the two energetic boys and Vivi briefly kneeled beside Nami to, from what Harley could see, accept the Eternal Pose to Alabasta.
For a second Harley furrowed her eyebrows, studying Nami. Her pale, freckly skin seemed to be glistening with sweat even at this distance, but it wasn't that hot out, and on the ocean it was even breezier. She wondered if there might've been some feverish side-effect from briefly being encased in wax—though she and Vivi didn't seem affected.
Harley considered approaching, but Vivi was talking with Nami in a low voice and seemed to have it under control. With that in mind Harley turned on her heel to consider the door to the galley. Although neither the T-rex nor the triceratops had looked particularly tasty, both sounded better than nothing.
As a result Harley crossed the ship to reach the galley. When she entered, she had to squint as her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light. Sanji was delicately arranging pastries on a platter. "Hey," Harley started.
"Ah, Harley, my dear!" cried Sanji, delighted to see her. Harley couldn't resist half-grinning back. The boy might have been kind of an idiot, but his joy was infectious. "What is it? Are you hungry? You could take any of the pastries I've set out on the table, or you could take a sampling of these—"
Harley glanced over to find Sanji had managed to produce and set out quite an arrayment of pastries. "Uh, how fast do you move?"
"Very quickly," chirped Sanji. "But I started these before I left the ship to find all of you." He flashed Harley a bright smile and swept up the platter in front of him. "Now if you'll excuse me, my darling, I must deliver these to Nami and Vivi."
"Have fun," said Harley, and as Sanji fairly twirled out the galley door she strolled over to sit at the wooden table. Nice, she thought with sincerity as she plucked up an iced éclair to eat it.
She was two pastries in when the door to the galley slammed open and in charged chaos of the highest proportion. Harley panicked and grabbed handfuls of pastry as Luffy, Usopp, and Karoo crammed around the table to snatch for pastries themselves, the two boys half-arguing with each other as they did and soon involving Harley in the rapid conversation.
As Harley had always spent her mealtimes with the other household staff in the kitchens, mired in chaos and shouting and occasional food fights, she soon relaxed more than she'd thought possible since her conversation with Saf. It wasn't until Sanji had returned and the pastries were gone that she was unceremoniously yanked back to the present.
"Hey, everyone!" shouted Vivi distinctly from somewhere out on the deck. "Come quick!"
Harley was the first to the door—she slammed it open and was out bracing her hands against the railing in seconds. From what she could see Vivi was kneeling over Nami, who must have collapsed to the deck. "Nami has an awful fever!" Vivi called.
Sanji shrieked and ran down there. Luffy, Usopp, and Karoo followed, but Harley remained at the railing above, half-wondering if someone should keep an eye on their course while Nami was out for the count. She rolled her jaw as she watched the five below hover over Nami. Without a navigator, she thought, they might as well have left Little Garden without an Eternal Pose.
She tried to stay out of the way as much as possible as the boys brought Nami to the girls' room and Vivi hurried down with them. The only interaction Harley had with the entire group was when Vivi paused to hold up the Eternal Pose. "Watch this," she ordered, and she tossed it up to Harley, who snatched it out of the air. Then Vivi was gone, her footsteps already fading.
Alone on the deck, Harley studied the glass ball and the shuddering needle within. She glanced from the Pose out to the ocean, churning with calm waves as far as the eye could see, sparkling with the afternoon sunlight. She didn't know anything about navigation.
She heard bootsteps from back near the ladder to the tangerine trees and Zoro strode around the corner of the galley. Harley glanced over—he must've been in the middle of working out, because not only was he gleaming with sweat, he was just tugging his shirt back down over his abs with one hand and still had a weight in the other. Oh my God?! "What's going on?" Zoro asked as he halted a polite distance from her.
"Nami's sick," said Harley. She let herself stare at Zoro for another second, that jawline, those chiseled features—then she faced forward again. "She has some sort of fever."
"Damn."
"Yeah."
Zoro waited a moment as the ship swayed. He hopped up to sit on the railing, a little closer to Harley. He crossed his legs beneath him and proceeded to do bicep curls with his weight. "I guess we're navigating, then."
"I hope you're better at it than I am."
Zoro shrugged. "Guess we'll see."
Comforting, thought Harley dryly. She tugged at the end of her wispy side-braid and looked back at the Eternal Pose. As the sun glinted off the glass, she snuck another look at Zoro. The wind was ruffling his hair and the three earrings in his left ear, and she was sure she could smell the salt of sweat on him, but it wasn't even bad. Of course the sea air might have contributed to such a conclusion—
Zoro glanced at Harley. "What?"
Despite the gravity of the situation Harley couldn't resist this time. "Can I buy you a drink?"
Zoro tilted his head a little as he tried not to laugh, a dimple starting to appear in one cheek. "You're gonna be as bad as the cook, aren't you?"
"Are you telling me that Sanji regularly tries to convince you to sleep with him?"
That made Zoro laugh out loud, and the sound was cute, a little barking. "Shut up," he said to her with a hint of audible affection that made her smile. Then he tilted his head again, indicating the deck below. "Why aren't you with the others?"
Harley shrugged. "I'm not the best with bedside manner." She glanced forward to watch the sails flutter in the sea wind, and she lifted the Eternal Pose to study it. "Not to sound like an idiot, but what is this supposed to look like?"
She held it up and Zoro leaned down to examine it. "No idea," he concluded. He sat back and pointed with his free hand. "We're supposed to go straight, though."
"Because that's what the giants said?"
"No, because that's what Nami said."
Harley trusted Nami more than the two giants she'd never interacted with, and she shifted aside a little to give Zoro more personal space. She watched the needle, still quivering, and tried to think about any basic navigation she'd been forced to study a decade ago. No one had expected her to need the knowledge, though, and no one had tried to make sure it sank in.
She heard the door to the storage room below creak open and found, to her surprise, Nami emerging. The other girl rounded the banister and mounted the stairs to ascend to the balcony where Harley stood and Zoro sat, and she held out her hand. "Let me see that."
Harley passed it back to her. "Are you—?"
"You should talk to Vivi," said Nami. There was still an unusual amount of sweat glistening on her forehead, and Harley winced. "She knows about the defection."
That made Harley flinch, startled—and without a question she hurried around Nami and down the stairs, her heartbeat tripling as she did. She couldn't even imagine what was going through Vivi's mind and she could only pray that the princess was handling this better than Harley suspected she would. You gotta keep it together, Vivi, Harley thought as she marched into the storage room and to the trapdoor. For all our sakes.
She set her jaw and swung the trapdoor upward. Harley descended the steps down into the girls' room to find Vivi perched on the edge of Nami's bed, a newspaper clutched in her pale fists, and Sanji, Usopp, Luffy, and Karoo all watching with varied degrees of sympathy.
Harley hadn't been joking—she had horrible bedside manner. As a result she decided the safest option was to stop and clear her throat.
Sanji glanced back at her and gave her that same sympathetic look. Before Harley could do more than register that it was kind of irritating, prickling her skin and warming her face, Zoro's baritone drifted down from the deck. "Everyone, get your asses out here!"
The boys and Karoo exchanged surprised glances and raced up the steps and out into the storage room. Usopp was last and he let the trapdoor clap shut behind him. Their absence left a ringing silence that had Harley shoving her hands into the pockets of her denim jacket. "Uh," she started, though she still didn't know what the hell to say.
"This is what Saf told you," said Vivi without looking at her. She was still staring at the newspaper and looked liable to tear it in two. "That half the royal army has defected."
Harley winced. "Yeah."
"And you thought I wouldn't need to know?" Vivi demanded, slapping the newspaper down beside her and trapping it beneath one hand. She shot a glare at Harley, her face flushed. There was a hint of betrayal in her voice that made Harley swallow. "You have to tell me this kind of thing! I need to know what we're dealing with!"
"How does knowing this help?" Harley couldn't help but ask back. "I was trying to make sure you could focus—"
"On what?! Taking our country back from Crocodile?" Vivi crumpled the newspaper in her hand. "This is only more motivation to do that!"
Harley and Vivi stared at each other for a long second—and the ship rocked noticeably beneath them. Harley had to grasp for Nami's desk to maintain her balance and both of them glanced around in vague confusion before looking back at each other. "Listen," said Vivi, already more composed. "You have to trust me. I can take care of myself."
"I—know," said Harley more defensively than she'd intended.
"Then act like it," returned Vivi, and Harley had no choice but to nod. Vivi sighed and ran her free hand over her pale blue ponytail. "I'm going upstairs to tell them we have to find a doctor for Nami before we continue to Alabasta."
As she stood Harley said, "What?"
"We need a navigator, and she's seriously ill," said Vivi shortly. "Don't bother trying to change my mind."
Harley opened her mouth to counter that she wasn't sure she'd been planning on arguing, but Vivi gave her a withering glance and strode past her to the stairs. As her footsteps retreated and the trapdoor audibly opened and slammed shut, Harley walked over to pluck up the crumpled newspaper. She unfolded it and tried to find whichever article had announced the defection.
It provided scant details and Harley found nothing new or of interest. She flipped the paper over and found it was dated two days prior. Was Nami keeping it in here? Harley wondered. Why? Was she trying to make sure Vivi didn't freak out, too?
Harley had to admit—it must've been annoying for multiple people to assume Vivi couldn't handle updates on her own country. She drew in a breath and released it. Vivi might have been sixteen to Harley's twenty, and she might have been paired with Mr. 9 while Harley was with Mr. 6, but she was tougher than she seemed. She had to be.
Well, that's that, then, thought Harley, and she tossed the newspaper back onto the bed before heading upstairs herself.
