Chapter 12

[Crew's POV]

"What do you mean you think there is a stowaway on the ship!" Samson was not pleased. He was pissed off because Rudy didn't inform him or anyone else, for that matter, earlier. "If you saw something, why didn't you tell us earlier? I thought you were smarter than this." Samson argued. Rudy was displeased by that argument." Excuse me if I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. The number of things we've seen here that stand out amongst the norm has been quite apparent. For all I knew, it was just the sun playing tricks on my eyes." Rudy and Samason would have continued arguing had Luffy not stepped in.

"Enough fighting, you two. There is a simple solution to this problem." The crew shouldn't have been shocked by what came out of his mouth, yet they were. "The only time you should fight over petty things like this is when it's over food." Once the crew heard what the captain said, they all just turned away from him and continued arguing.

"Hey, stop ignoring me, you jerks!"Luffy yelled, the others turning back towards him. Rudy snapped at Luffy. "You're too lax; you're not taking this as seriously as you should. If you want to help, start acting like a captain and taking action! Otherwise, someone else should lead," Rudy finished saying viciously.

After hearing Rudy's claims, Luffy's eyes were shadowed by his straw hat. The next thing he knew, he was punching Rudy in the face. Amanda stepped in, telling Luffy to calm down and reminding Rudy not to blame others. Mark suggested they find the last two members of the crew and search for a possible intruder. The conflict wasn't entirely resolved, and they would need to talk later.

"Ussop, Coby, get your asses down here."

[? POV]

Days earlier

Day 5

It was pitch black inside the cramped barrel she had chosen to hide in. The air was musty, and she tried to stifle the urge to cough. She prayed that she would go unnoticed as the ship continued its journey. "I could've sworn one of them saw me. Maybe they thought I was a rat or something and won't look too deep into it. I mean, who could have known that this ship was going to be given away?" she muttered to herself, her heart pounding in her chest.

Day 6

Things were going okay, or so she thought. "I guess that guy believed he was seeing things after all." She was going to have to find something to eat soon. Otherwise, she won't be able to fight back if she is discovered. When the night came, she would wander about below the deck, waiting for everyone to doze off. That night, she was nearly caught. "Mmjh food, I need food." She pondered who would need to eat this late into the night. "Are you serious? Just hurry up and leave." She said to herself in a hushed and panicked tone. Once the voices left, they were clear. "To damned close for comfort." She obtained the food and promptly headed back to her barrel.

Day 7

It's been smooth sailing the past couple of days. She hoped to continue to lay low once they landed on another island. She would definitely get away as quickly as possible. By the time evening came around, things went horribly wrong when she started to hear people searching through the barrels. 'The jig is up. I thought I could stay hidden a few more days.'

When she heard conflict on the deck, she thought, 'If only I had been more cautious. Well, it's time to act.'

"What are you doing on our ship?"

"Hey, I know you, aren't you that cat girl I defeated in Syrup Village?"

There were a lot of them. She wouldn't be able to remove them. She had to think of an answer fast. If she didn't, who knew what they would do? After all, she was an enemy pirate, even if she was seemingly worthless to the Black Cat Pirates and the brothers, who deemed her a pathetic wretch. So what if the last thing her parents said to her broke her heart? She would never show that. She would show them all how useful she could be. However, the first step in that is her responding to these pirates.

"I don't want any conflict," Maui said urgently, hoping to defuse the situation. "I just need passage to the next island, and then I'll be out of your hair." She couldn't help noticing the sympathy, or perhaps pity, in the gaze of the attractive young man. "I'll only speak to him if you require more answers," she added, pointing towards the man.

[Rex's POV]

Rex could see something in this woman's eyes. Perhaps she was longing for something. He wondered if, by chance, she was like him. The sheer stress he felt from her was palpable, hidden by a fake smile. He decided he wanted, no, he needed to make her smile. All he had to do was wait for an opportune moment, but for now, he had an interview. Although a bit of flirting wouldn't be a bad thing.

"What's going on? Why are you on our ship?" Rex asked while gazing towards her. "Feel free to take your time answering; we've got plenty of time."

"I didn't know this ship was going to be given away. After our battle, my brothers and I... I... I..." She paused. He could have sworn he had seen her eyes gloss over. "Things didn't end well for me. Can we just leave it there?" The break in her voice almost made him concede to the request. He, however, held his gaze strong.

Sighing, she continued, "My brothers and I weren't always pirates before everything. We were raised to become merchants. Growing up as the last child already set me behind, and it didn't help that I was so unnoticeable that my parents hated me for that. After my parents died, my brothers made sure to use that to their advantage. Sending me to steal things and plant other things on whoever wronged them. For a long time, I was okay with it. I'm their sister, after all. Then when we went out to sea, things went to shit."

Rex was stunned. She was so much like him. " Don't say anymore. I understand. I had a rough childhood, and my parents didn't want me either. I had to resort to stealing so I could survive. A while after that, a certain representative came to scout me." Rex took a moment to think back to everything he's been through. "They turned me into a living weapon to dispatch all their enemies. Whatever they asked of me, I did no questions asked. I had to find out the hard way that my family didn't want me. They quite literally sold me for a quick buck."

"How did you deal with the pain?" Miau asked, pondering what Rex had told her. There was a certain mutual tension radiating within the room. "Part of me never did." Not expecting that question, Rex looked away, thinking of his regrets and composing himself.

"On to the following question," Rex started asking, hoping to avoid the topic as quickly as possible. God, he hoped so for both their sakes.

[Crew POV]

After Rex left for the interrogation, Coby said, "While he is chatting with our guest, why don't we get back to what we were talking about before all this happened? " The others gave them affirmations, Giving Coby the chance to tell Luffy the news. Once he did, Luffy was ecstatic and made his next goal apparent.

"Alright, it's time we find a cook. Any ideas on where we could find one." It wasn't anyone on his crew that spoke up. It was the girl Rex was questioning, much to everyone's shock. "Damn, that was quick," Amanda said.

"An excellent place to go would be the Baratie." Luffy stared at her with what his crew would learn to be his 'I'm going to ask something stupid, face.'

"Join my crew." The simple three words made half his crew cry, and the other half wanted to throttle him.

"Luffy, what could you gain from having her join the crew? I mean seriously, man," Mark shouted at Luffy, hoping to make it make sense. Luffy's reply, "She knows where food is." made everyone fall flat on their faces.

"Luffy, she was our enemy a couple of weeks ago. She's not a good person," Ussop said while cowering behind Zoro. The green-haired swordsman nodded in agreement with Ussop."Just think about this."

Nami made her opinion known by knocking him over with a punch, straddling, and choking him. "You idiot, she will betray us all. Did your guardians teach you nothing growing up?" Coby went over and got her off of Luffy. He could have sworn he saw Nami blushing afterward.

"Nami, calm down. There is more to this than we can readily see. I'm positive of that." He then looked to his captain and asked, "Isn't that right, Luffy?" If Luffy picking his nose was meant to lower his confidence, it worked. Luffy's response snapped him out of that train of thought, however.

"Hey, what's your name, cat lady?" Luffy asked, awaiting a response. "My name is Miau."

"Great, are you a bad person?" he asked, completely tripping her off. She responded, "Umm, I don't think I am. Maybe I'm a bit flirtatious ." Miau finished looking towards Rex, taking note of his blush.

Luffy's idiotic nature was going to get them into so much trouble Zoro knew; Mark knew it, hell his whole crew knew, so when he glanced over with that cheesy ass grin of his and said, "See, guys, she's nice after all." Nearly everyone wanted to rage quit. They wouldn't, but the temptation was certainly there.

The crew eventually settled down. It would be decided if Miau would join later or if she even wanted to join in the first place. After a few hours, they finally reached the Baratie. Then, a marine ship pulled up beside them. Coming onto their deck, a pink-haired man spoke when he saw their jolly roger. "Hmm, pirates, huh? Who is the captain of this vessel?" He saw a boy with a straw hat come forward, but what surprised him was the person behind him shaking. "Coby?"

He was distracted when the woman he was with approached and kissed him. "Honey, what's going on," she asked. When he looked away, Coby scampered behind The Going Merry's main mast. "We don't want to be late to our reservation, dear?"

"Don't worry, just thought I saw Coby for a moment."

Responding to the Marine's question, Luffy shouted, " I'm the captain. We just made our Jolley rogger not too long ago." Ussop, in his shadow, felt the need to repeat after Luffy but claimed he was the captain. Everyone ignored this.

A/N: Who is Fullbody to Coby, what is their connection I wonder, stay tuned. (:

A/N: Sorry for the long chapter and my delay in making this. If I'm being real, I'm trying to improvise a lot of this off my head. So, when I get new ideas, I feel like I need to find a way to fit them into my old plans. I can only promise this won't end until we're somewhere in the Grand Line. From there, we will see if I continue. Have a blessed day.