For the first time in a while, the crew's journey has been going on without a hitch as everyone continues travelling through the blistering heat. From time to time throughout the day, Rose manages to create a small gust of wind from her body to help keep the crew cool.
After the fifth gust of wind she creates, she stops herself and looks down at Chopper who's riding on the sled Zoro's dragging. "How are you holding up doc?"
He gives her a hoof's up while he stays on the sled. "I'll be ok, thanks for the wind. It's been helping."
"Anytime." She softly grins at him as she keeps walking.
Luffy though isn't satisfied, because the wind isn't cooled, so he turns to her with pleading eyes. "Can you make your wind colder like bef-?"
He was cut off by a kick to the head by Sanji. "Don't complain when she's helping us idiot!"
Luffy rubs his head while Rose chuckles. "Sorry Luffy, but it's easier to make my wind like this."
"Aww, ok..." Luffy accepts the excuse as they keep going.
Rose grins at how things are going as she looks up at the afternoon sky. She's glad things are going smoothly, but she doesn't want to risk making cold wind again. If they find out what emotion makes it, they'll only worry about her.At the very least, what she's doing now is a good start.
She keeps a small grin on her face at the fact that she's being useful as they keep walking.
"How much longer until we reach Yuba?" Usopp asks as he uses a walking stick to keep himself from collapsing.
Vivi looks through the map, as she's riding on Eyelashes' back, to figure out the length of their journey. "If we keep going at this rate, we should be there by nightfall."
Luffy groans at this as he's straggling behind. "Seriously? That'll take forever..."
Rose pauses at the complaint, when she remembers the plan she made to help everyone go through the desert faster, and mentally scolds herself for forgetting. Now that Ace's gone, now's the best time for it!
She stops walking and digs through her bag to get what she needs.
Nami looks back, to see that Rose's stopped walking, and looks at her in confusion. "What are you doing Rose?"
"Getting ready for an experiment I had planned to make everyone's trip easier."
The others stop walking, and look at the wind girl in confusion, as she's pulling out the folded, large, slightly thick sheet that she's been using as a blanket.
Usopp raises an eyebrow at the sheet as he watches her unfold it. "How's a blanket going to help us?"
"Like this." She tosses the sheet up into the air and uses her wind to catch it, so that it's lying flat on the gust of wind just a few feet off the ground.
Once she's satisfied with the amount of wind she's using, she hops onto the sheet, and sits cross legged with a large smile. "Anyone up for a flying carpet ride?"
"AWESOME!" Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper look at the ride with stars in their eyes as they hop on.
"What a wonderful idea Rose-chwan!" Sanji says as he twirls towards the sheet, and takes a seat with his legs dangling over the edge.
Zoro though, just looks at the excited group blankly. "That's your big experiment? Why are you trying this now anyway?"
Rose casually shrugs, as she shifts to make sure that there's enough room, while using enough wind to hold them up. "Didn't account for Ace joining us when I thought of this. There's enough room for one more if you want in."
Zoro looks at the shifty ride with hesitance for a moment, before he reluctantly climbs aboard while Nami and Vivi stay on Eyelashes.
Nami quirks an eyebrow at the odd mode of transportation, as Rose manages to move the floating sheet towards them. "So this is why you got that large sheet? Wouldn't it be easier to just send everyone flying?"
Rose focuses on lifting the sheet, so that they're at eye level with the girls, and shakes her head. "It's actually a lot easier for me to focus on one large object than a group of smaller ones. Besides, flying like this is more badass."
Nami sweat drops at the last comment. "Why am I not surprised?"
Vivi looks at the large ride worriedly, as she remembers how Rose collapsed after she made their sand sled fly. "Are you sure you can handle carrying everyone like this? You remember what happened with the sand sled don't you?"
Rose nods while she keeps an easy going smile on her face. "Relax, I'll be fine. I was still recovering from fighting Ace and the birds that day. I'll let you know when I get too tired, so let's get going before the sun goes down."
She flies the sheet ahead, before another word of concern can be spoken. Eyelashes widens his eyes at the fast moving sheet before he runs to catch up with them.
Usopp grins in excitement as he looks around from his seat. "Wow, this is amazing!"
Luffy grins in excitement as he holds his hat down, to make sure that it doesn't fly off from the fast ride. "Yea, this is the best! Thanks Rose!"
Rose nods with a grin as she keeps her eyes on the cloth. "My pleasure, at this rate we'll reach Yuba in no time."
Sanji grins at her with hearts in his eyes. "Just what you'd expect from Rose-chan! As amazing as ever!"
Zoro rolls his eyes at Sanji's excitement as he stares out at the desert. "At least this is more useful than those breezes she made."
Sanji twitches an eyebrow at the poorly made compliment, and glares at the swordsman. "She's been a lot more helpful than you, you lazy moss head!"
Zoro furrows his eyebrows at the insult before returning the chef's glare. "What was that you curly-?!"
"If you two start fighting, then I'm kicking you both off the ride!" Rose says causing both pirates to stiffen up before they settle down.
She nods in satisfaction as she makes sure that the sheet's flying at a good pace when Eyelashes catches up to them. She gives the running camel a sideways glance to see that he's making sure that he's running ahead of them. When she flies a little faster, so that they're at the same pace, Eyelashes moves faster to get ahead.
Rose grows suspicious of his behavior, when she goes at his pace one more time which causes Eyelashes to run ahead at top speed!
Vivi widens her eyes at how fast Eyelashes is going, and holds onto Nami to keep her from falling. "Whoa, Eyelashes slow down!"
The camel doesn't listen to her as he runs ahead while he yells out to the others.
Chopper widens his eyes at what the camel just said, then translates for the others. "He said that 'there's no way an overgrown rag can be faster than me! I'll make sure we don't lose you guys on the way to Yuba this time, so take your time!'"
Rose freezes at the challenge, before she holds onto the sheet under her with a devilish smirk on her face. "He did huh? Well if that pervert wants a race, then he's got one! Hang on to something tight boys!"
The boys grow shocked when she makes the blanket fly faster to begin the race between wind and camel!
Chopper gets sent flying backwards from the fast flight, but clings onto Sanji's face to keep himself from falling, with the chef being too busy hanging onto the cloth to pry him off. Usopp screams in fright as he almost falls off, but he grabs onto Zoro at the last second, and clings onto his back for dear life. Zoro groans in annoyance at the additional weight, but he's too busy holding onto the ride to do anything.
Luffy however, is the only guy enjoying himself, as he wraps his arms around Rose, to hold onto her tightly, while he laughs at the adventure. "Shishishi, keep it up Rose!"
Rose immediately blushes at the arms around her waist then turns to Luffy. "I didn't mean cling to- AH!"
She and the guys yell in surprise, as the sheet starts stumbling until she concentrates on her wind again.
Once she makes the ride stable, she sighs in relief then looks straight ahead while she tries her best to ignore the arms around her. She keeps her gaze on the horizon, while she fights off her blush until it leaves a light pink tint on her cheeks.
Luffy looks at the blushing girl in confusion, but shows no signs of letting go. "Hey, are you ok? Why were we shaking before?"
She shakes her head while she keeps her face away from him. "J-just some turbulence! Doesn't mean I'm gonna lose to a freaking camel though! Look, we're starting to gain on him!"
She points to the camel that's half a mile away with everyone who can see following her gaze. Eyelashes doesn't give in though, as he runs as fast as he can for what feels like miles until Rose starts gaining on him.
When the group flies next to them, Nami and Vivi widen their eyes at Rose and the boys' peculiar holds during their flight.
Nami remains quiet as she smirks at Rose and Luffy's state. When Rose takes a glance at Nami's smirk, her blush starts to get stronger before she forces herself to look ahead, to keep herself from arguing with her.
Vivi blinks at the sight, then looks to see both Rose and Eyelashes starting to tire themselves out. "Don't overdo it guys!"
Neither racer listens to her word of warning, as they continuing going neck and neck until Rose manages to take the lead.
Eyelashes strains to run faster, but it wasn't enough as Rose creates a new lead. Once she's feels that they have a long enough lead, where they can still be seen by the girls, she starts to slow down so that he can catch up, but faster than when they're walking.
Luffy looks back at the camel, that's small from where they were, and smiles in victory. "ALRIGHT, WE WIN!"
Usopp looks back, and snickers at the frustrated camel. "The pervy camel challenged the wrong captain!"
Zoro looks to see that the sniper's still attached to his back, so he shakes him off. "Get the hell off already!"
"You too Chopper!" Sanji says as he pries him off his face, and catches his breath.
Rose looks down at Luffy's arms, that are still wrapped around her, and turns to him. "You can let go too Luffy, I'm not gonna go that fast anymore."
Luffy blinks at the request, as he realizes that he's still holding onto her. "Oh, ok."
He takes his arms back as if he did nothing strange.
Sanji widens his eyes at what he just heard, and starts glaring at his captain. "You had your arms around her you-?!"
"My 'no fighting or you're off the ride' rule still stands Sanji!" Rose says as she's looks back at him to show that she's serious.
Sanji stops himself from kicking Luffy, once he sees her face, then sighs in defeat. "Yes Rose-chan..."
Rose nods at his compliance as she looks back to see that Eyelashes is now speed walking towards them in order to catch up. She slows down a little more so that Eyelashes can reach them then turns her attention back to the desert ahead of her. "Looks like Eyelashes learned his lesson. I'm gonna stay at this pace so that he and the girls can catch up."
The others silently agree as they look back at their companions and continue to enjoy the ride.
As Rose keeps flying the sheet she begins to silently pant from exhaustion, but shows no sign of stopping the ride. She refuses to stop though, because she wants to see how much longer she can last with her experiment.
She continues to strain her strength, with Eyelashes less than half a mile behind them. As Eyelashes gets closer though, Rose gets more weary.
Luffy looks around his surroundings, then sees Rose's tired face, and grows worried. "Hey, are you ok?!"
Rose pauses at the question, then turns to see the guys turning their attention to her. She quickly puts on a reassuring smile, while she waves her hands dismissively. "Why the worried faces guys? Relax, we still have some time before-!"
She stops talking, when she feels her nose starting to twitch. "Oh crap, not again!"
The others look at her in confusion, as she grabs the cloth while she starts landing, but she couldn't stop herself from sneezing and sending herself flying. During her flight, she accidentally keeps her grip on the sheet, and sweeps it from under the guys just as she breaks her concentration on her wind.
"AAH!" The guys yell in shock as they free fall and land in a dog pile on the ground.
They struggle to get off one another, while Rose lands in a tumble on the ground ,and manages to wrap herself up to the point where only her head is visible.
She groans to herself as she stays down for another minute to recollect herself. There's obviously some bugs on this kind of travel, but that's what these tests are for. Still, that has to be one of her best ideas yet.
Rose chuckles to herself, as she sits up while Nami and Vivi ride up to them.
"Are you all alright?!" Vivi asks as the boys manage to untangle themselves.
Luffy nods with a toothy grin. "Yea, that was awesome!"
He looks around to see Rose shaking the sheet off of her. "You ok?"
Rose nods with a smile, as she puts the sheet back in the bag, and gets up. "Yea, that was fun. Besides some little quirks it looks like the ride was a success."
"SAY THAT WHEN YOU DON'T DROP US!" Usopp and Zoro yell out at the same time, as they dust the sand off them.
Nami sighs at all the craziness, then looks back at how far they went. "At least that stunt moved things along. We made some good timing."
Rose smiles in satisfaction, as she straps on her backpack. "I can try again after I come up with a way to fix the landing, if you guys want?"
Chopper, Sanji and Luffy eagerly nod while the other boys reluctantly agree, then continue their journey on foot for the rest of the day.
As the sun begins to set for the day, the group shows no signs in stopping to take a break. As the crew keeps walking, Vivi widens her eyes at the small buildings coming up ahead. "I think that's Yuba over there!"
The others pause at the announcement and look at the distant town that they're approaching.
"Are you sure this is Yuba, Vivi?!" Nami asks as the town becomes more clear in view.
Vivi nods with a large smile, as she looks at the town. "I'm sure of-!"
She loses her smile when they reach the town, to see that it's half buried in the sand. "No..."
Zoro scowls at the dry town as he scans the area. "Damn, it's no different than Erumalu..."
Vivi couldn't take her blue eyes off the village as she remembers Erumalu. "The oasis has been swallowed up by the sand too..."
Rose looks at her softly for a moment then looks around the wasteland. The more she sees Crocodile's destruction in person, the more she hates the sand man than when she read about him.
The wind girl scowls to herself, before she looks to see sand flying up from a hole, that's half a mile from them. "Hey guys, I think someone lives here."
The others look at the direction she's staring at, and rush to the hole to see a skinny old man digging in the hole.
The old man doesn't spare them a glance as he keeps digging. "You're all travelers? You all must be tired after that long journey. I'm afraid the town's dried up, but we have plenty of inns that you can rest in."
Vivi moves her hood, so that her face is a little more concealed, before she speaks up. "Excuse me, we heard that the rebel army is based here. Do you know where they are?"
The villager stops digging, and turns around with a furious look in his eyes. "You want to speak to the rebellion?"
He suddenly throws his shovel at them, along with any sticks that he can grab. "DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE OUT TO JOIN THOSE ROTTEN REBELS!"
The group flinches at the flying objects as they dodge the shovel and sticks.
Usopp quickly dodges the flying shovel in shock. "What the hell?!"
Once the old man runs out of things to throw, he sighs in exasperation, and climbs out of the hole. "The rebels aren't here anymore..."
Everybody drops their jaws at the news. "What?!"
He nods as he grabs his shovel, and goes back to his hole to dig. "This town's been through a lot of sandstorms. With all the sand eating away at the oasis, along with no rain, it's led to the dried up town you see here. When the town completely dried up, the rebels couldn't work here anymore. I was told they moved to Katorea."
Vivi gasps at the news. "The rebels went to Katorea?!"
"Is Katorea close to us?!" Nami asks, but the princess can only shake her head with a look of defeat.
"Katorea's next to Nanohana, the town that we first visited..."
The group looks at her in utter shock. "Are you serious Vivi?!"
The elder stops digging as soon as he heard the princess' name. "Did you kids say Vivi?!"
The others jolt at the question but they quickly shake their heads. Luffy nervously steps up in front of the group, while he waves his hands around. "Listen old guy, Vivi's not a princess!"
"DON'T TELL HIM THAT!" Zoro and Sanji yell out as they whack their captain on the head.
The old man ignores the scuffle, as he climbs out of the hole again to get a closer look at the nervous princess. "It's really you Vivi-chan! I'm so glad you're alive! Don't you recognize me?!"
Vivi takes a closer look at the thin old man's face, then widens her eyes when a name comes up in her head. "Mr. Toto?!"
The old man grins at being remembered, with tears welling up in his eyes. "That's right!"
Vivi looks at him in utter shock as she remembers how chubby he was, when she last saw him as a little girl. "I can't believe it!"
Chopper looks from the villager, and the princess in confusion. "You know him Vivi?"
"He's the father of my childhood friend. They both helped build Yuba from the ground up years ago."
Toto places his hands on her shoulders while he allows his tears to flow down his cheeks. "Listen to me Vivi-chan, I believe in your father! I know he wouldn't betray this country! The majority of the country does as well!"
"Y-you believe us?" Tears begin to well up in Vivi's eyes at her friend's kind words.
Toto can only nod before he falls onto his knees. "The rebels won't listen though! They almost have enough power to overtake us! "
The group can only remain silent as they watch him silently weep.
Vivi looks at him softly for a moment before she grabs a handkerchief from her pocket, and hands it to Mr. Toto. "Here Mr. Toto."
Mr. Toto lifts his head to see the handkerchief, and widens his eyes when he sees her smile.
"It'll be alright, we'll stop the rebellion."
He starts sniffling at her kindness, before he takes the handkerchief to wipe his tears. "Yes, thank you... I insist that you and your friends rest here for the night. I can show you an inn that you can all use."
He stands up, and leads the group over to an inn. "I'll leave you to settle in. If you need anything, let me know."
"Thank you very much." Vivi says before Mr. Toto leaves to let the group settle in for the evening.
After Sanji prepared dinner for the group and Mr. Toto, most of the group gets ready to settle in for the night.
"Alright guys, great work today! We deserve a good rest!" Usopp says with a large smile, but his smile quickly fades when a pillow hits his face courtesy of Zoro.
"You're acting like you did something."
Chopper chuckles at the throw, but stays out of the pillow fight while Usopp grabs a pillow.
"Like I could do anything you jerk! I'm not a monster like you guys!" The sniper throws the pillow back at Zoro, then grabs another one for the reindeer.
"And I wouldn't be laughing, you win the award for the laziest traveler!" He throws the pillow at him, but before it can hit him, Rose uses her wind to throw it back at his face.
"Knock it off Usopp!" Rose says, as she gets her pillow ready for another attack.
Chopper quickly nods, as he grabs his own pillow. "Yea, it's not my fault I can't stand the heat!"
"Umm Sanji, that's my bed." The group stops their argument to Vivi's complaint, and looks to see her bed being occupied by Sanji.
The chef lifts the cover for her with a carefree smile on his face. "I know, I just figured that you'd want some company ton-!"
He was cut off by a pillow to the face courtesy of Usopp. "The reward for biggest pervert goes to Sanji."
Rose, Chopper and Zoro chuckle at the comment, while the chef gets up and glares at the boys. "Oi, you wanna fight?"
He quickly grabs a pillow, and gets off the bed to commence the pillow fight between the group. Nami huffs at the childish fight, and tries to ignore it until a stray shot hits her head. "DON'T YOU GUYS KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD 'QUIET'?!"
She quickly joins the fray, while Vivi stays out of it even when a pillow hits her. The princess caresses her cheek where the pillow struck her then softly smiles at the scuffle before heading to bed.
Rose takes a few of the hits before she takes the chaos to her advantage and slips outside. Once she knows that she's safely outside, she looks through the window and chuckles at the new experience she had with them. As much as she wants to get back in there, she knows Luffy isn't with them, and is probably at one of the holes.
She goes closer to the edge of Mr. Toto's hole, to see Luffy sitting in Mr. Toto's ditch while the old man's digging.
"How do you stand living here without any water?" Luffy asks as he watches the old man dig.
Mr. Toto doesn't spare him a glance as he keeps focusing on the hole below him. "The oasis is still alive. It's just buried under the sand we got from the sandstorms. Yuba's not so weak that it can lose to some mere sand. I just need to dig it back up, and the oasis will be good as new. The last thing I'm going to do, is lose faith in the land I was given to by the king..."
Luffy stares at the old man intently for a moment, before he starts digging a hole with his bare hands. "Alright then, let's dig!"
He starts digging his own hole right next to Mr. Toto's, but he's sending it flying into the old man's hole.
The elder widens his eyes at the flying sand coming his way. "Hey wait, don't throw your sand into my hole!"
Luffy tilts his head at his complaint. "Huh? You said that you wanted to dig a hole."
"Um, yes that's right, but you're throwing your sand into my hole. That just defeats the purpose of digging in the first place."
The rubber man looks at him in thought for a moment before he nods. "I get it, it's a mystery hole!"
"No it's not! Just throw your sand at the other side!"
"Oh, ok!" Luffy does as he's told, and starts throwing the sand he's dug up at the opposite direction.
The old man softly grins at the hard working young man, before he gets back to work on his hole.
Rose looks over at the two men, that are digging themselves into deep holes, and grins at their work ethic. She looks back at the inn, where the others are sleeping soundly, and contemplates her options. Sleep may be nice, but there's no way she can go to bed when she knows that they're hard at work out here.
She sees a spare shovel on the side of one of the buildings then grabs onto it, and sneaks close to the boys' holes to start digging for her own oasis. Neither boys notice her working alongside them, because they're focused on their own jobs.
As a few hours pass, Mr. Toto gets out of his hole to take a breather, then looks in Luffy's hole to see that the boy fell asleep in his ten foot hole. The old man softly grins at him then freezes then he sees the third hole in the corner of his eye.
He takes a look inside and widens his eyes when he sees Rose fast asleep in the hole that's half as deep as Luffy's. "When did she get here?!"
He looks over the sleeping kids and couldn't stop the proud smile that grew on his face. "Vivi-chan's has some good friends."
He goes into Luffy's hole, carries him to the inn to rest with his friends, then he does the same for Rose, before he returns to his ditch for the rest of the night.
The sound of a baby's crying echoes throughout the pizza restaurant as the child's mother tries to calm him down at their table.
"Hey come on Brian. It's ok." She lightly bounces the baby boy over her shoulder while she gently pats his back to burp him.
The baby keeps crying though, as he looks around the small restaurant, but stops when he sees a sixteen year old girl clumsily juggling two tomatoes from behind the counter.
Rose continues to awkwardly juggle the fruits, while she makes silly faces to stop his crying. Brian starts giggling at the display before he finally burps and relaxes.
Rose chuckles at the adorable child, but loses track of the tomatoes until they break onto both shoulders of her T-shirt, that she's wearing over her long sleeved shirt.
Timothy giggles at the show as he returns to the counter from cleaning some of the empty tables, and hands her some napkins. "Good job getting the baby to stop crying."
Rose chuckles at the compliment as she grabs the napkins, and wipes the tomato chunks off her. "Thanks, looks like I can use some practice though. Don't tell your mom I broke those tomatoes."
"Relax, I won't. Hey, did you fill out the application she gave you yet?"
The pale girl tenses up at the reminder of the application Naomi gave her last week, to become an official employee, and shakes her head. "Sorry, not yet..."
Timothy sighs as he sees some of the families leaving, and grabs a bin to start collecting the dishes. "Please do it soon. Mom's getting pissed that it's taking so long."
Rose raises an eyebrow at the complaint. "But I'll still be paid in cash right? So why the need for the application?"
"We wanna know more about the employee that lasted this long."
"Huh? I've only been here like four months."
"Exactly!"
Rose blinks at what he just said, but one look at his face shows that he's serious. *I know Naomi's scary, but seriously?*
She snaps out of her thought and chuckles to try to play down the request. "Still, is the application really necessary? Things are just fine the way they are."
Timothy pouts at her stubbornness, as he puts some plates in the bin. "It's necessary when you barely say anything about yourself... We don't even know your birthday..."
"January tenth."
The brown haired boy loudly gasps in horror, because that day already passed. "What?! That was like a month ago! Wait, you worked that day too! Why didn't you say anything?!"
Rose looks to see that the mother and baby, who are the only customers left in the restaurant, are paying them no mind, so she shrugs at the question. "No one asked. Besides, it's just like any other day."
The older boy grows even more mortified by the statement as he puts the bin on the table. "How can you say that?! It's your birthday! What about your family, didn't they want you to celebrate with them?!"
Her mood starts to drop, as she remembers the fight she had with her foster family on her birthday, but she brushes off the memory with a smile. "Relax, we managed to celebrate like usual. Work didn't affect it."
Timothy barely calms his dramatics as he looks at her with large, sympathetic, eyes behind his glasses. "But still, it was your sixteenth birthday right? That's really special... You should've said something so that mom and I could've done something for you..."
She sweat drops at the sympathetic look he's giving her and has no idea on how to respond. She never had to deal with someone outside her real family caring like this, let alone someone who can be as dramatic as Tamaki Suoh. She needs to handle this delicately...
She sighs at his distress then rubs the back of her head. "Well, I wasn't there for your birthday last year right? Then we'll celebrate them when they come again. By the way, when's your birthday?"
Timothy's depression quickly washes away, and gets replaced with a large smile. "My birthday's March twentieth! You don't forget mine and I won't forget yours!"
"Deal." Rose grins at his enthusiasm as she watches him scurry into the kitchen with the dish bin.
She keeps the grin on her face as she waves off the baby that's being carried out of the restaurant by his mother. Once she's alone, she goes to the newly empty table to collect the plates with a small grin. For once, she feels that things aren't too grim for her thanks to this job. She doesn't want to risk it by that application though, because it wants family contact. If they find out about her being a foster kid, god knows what'll happen...
She sighs to herself as she tries to come up with a way to keep her personal problems quiet from her friends. Thankfully, this city's large enough for her foster family to have practically no chance of coming here. If she puts her belated family's information on there, then they'd be none the wiser.
She nods to herself as she puts the plate in the second bin behind the counter when the door opens. She quickly puts on a smile while she turns to greet the new customers. "Welcome to-!"
She quickly stops herself when her high school bullies Carrie and Peggy, who practically worship her foster sisters, look at her in shock.
Rose mirrors their look of shock as she screams in her head. *OF ALL THE FUCKING RESTAURANTS IN THIS CITY, THESE BITCHES HAD TO CHOOSE THIS ONE?!*
Carrie snaps out of it then gives her a large mocking smile. "You actually did something normal like get a job?! This is great, this means there's hope for you to be normal!"
Rose snaps out of it from the false compliment, and scowls at her. "Don't get your panties in a wad. I only come here to help out sometimes. Wait, if getting a job is what normal people do, then doesn't that make you the freak?"
Carrie loses her smile at the insult, then turns around to leave. "Not when it's at a place that would hire a comet freak. We shouldn't eat here, come on Peggy."
She starts heading to the door, but stops when her friend isn't moving. "Peggy?"
The dark skinned girl looks around the room for a moment, before she turns to her friend. "Hey Carrie, didn't Marie and Laura say that Rose has been acting weirder than usual? You think this place could be why?"
Rose twitches at the question, but doesn't say a thing while Carrie notices her reaction.
She smirks at the freckled girl as she takes her Iphone from her purse. "So that's how it is. Wonder what the twins would say about this? I should call them over, so they can have a look-!"
"Don't you fucking dare!" Rose practically growls at them while both girls snicker at her situation.
Carrie keeps a small smirk on her face as she puts the phone away, and approaches the counter. "Don't worry, this'll be our little secret. Of course, it'll cost you. For today, let's start with free lunch."
Rose keeps her fists clenched from under the counter as she contemplates her options. She doesn't want to trouble Timothy and Naomi by this. If she says no though, they really would call the twins.
Her teeth are clenched with rage, but there's nothing she can do at the moment. She can pay for their lunches with her salary, but as soon as she's off her shift, these bitches are getting the crap beaten out of them.
She keeps a scowl on her face as she grabs her pad and pen. "Fine..."
Peggy claps her hands in excitement. "Great, then I'll have a slice of pepperoni pizza topped with parmesan and a small diet coke."
Carrie looks over her options on the large menu above her head. "I'll have a plain, and if you can put parmesan on it that'll be great, along with a small diet coke. Make them both to go."
Rose nods as she writes down the orders when Timothy walks out of the kitchen.
When he sees the anger on his friend's usually smiling face, he immediately knows that something's wrong. "Hey, are you ok?"
Rose snaps out of it to her friend's high voice then gives him a smile to ease his worries. "Yea, I'll be fine. The dishes from the last family are over there, can you get them in the kitchen?"
She points to the plates in the bin that are hidden behind the counter. He looks at her curiously for a moment before he picks up the bin. "Alright, you got the new customers?"
"Yup, no problem." She says as she watches him leave the room.
Carrie blinks at her exchange with the chubby boy before she giggles. "Now what's this? Hiding a boyfriend too?"
"Nothing of the sort. He's my friend." Rose says as she takes the smile off her freckled face, and pulls the slices from their respective pies in the display case, to put them in the oven.
Peggy snorts at the statement. "Makes sense, hard to find him attractive with that girly voice of-!"
"Finish that insult and I'll kick you out." Rose says as she gives Peggy a glare that shows that she's not making a threat, but a promise.
Peggy flinches at the menacing glare while Carrie tries to mirrors her glare. "Don't act like you can do anything. Hurt us and not only will the twins know, but we'll give this place such a bad online review, that it'll have a worse reputation than you do."
Rose furrows her eyebrows at the threat, but she backs off to get the paper cups for the drinks. Unbeknownst to her though, was that Timothy watched the scene from a crack in the thick doors. He narrows his brown eyes at the girls, before he goes in the kitchen to grab something.
Rose though only pays attention to the drinks as she goes to the ice machine to fill the cups with them. Then, she grabs the nozzle of the soda gun, that's connected to the counter, and fills the cups with diet coke.
Once satisfied, she puts the plastic lids, and straws, on them then hands them to the girls. "Here."
She grabs some paper plates, and goes to take the slices from the oven while the girls start drinking.
Timothy walks out of the kitchen with a large, dark grey, parmesan shaker in his hand, and heads over to Rose. When she's about to use their usual parmesan shaker, he quickly stops her, and shows her the container while speaking soft enough for only her to hear. "Use this parmesan instead. I got mom's permission, so it's fine."
He hands her the shaker which she stares at with confusion. "What's this-?"
"Hey, did you do something to the drink?" Carrie says causing the employees to look to see her lifting the lid of her cup to stare at the dark drink with disdain in her brown eyes.
Rose raises an eyebrow at the accusation. "What are you talking about? You saw me make them."
"But it tastes weird."
The brunette looks in the cup, but sees nothing wrong with it. "It looks fine to me. I don't know what-!"
She cuts herself off when Carrie lets the drink slip from her hand to spill all over her t-shirt. She looks down at the shirt with wide purple eyes, and starts grabbing napkins to wipe some of the soda off.
Timothy however, couldn't believe what he just saw, before he narrows his eyes at Carrie. "What the hell's wrong with you?! Why'd you do that?!"
Carrie snickers at his angry squeaks, but keeps an innocent look on her face. "I don't know what you mean. It was an accident. You know, you really shouldn't jump to conclusions."
She holds up the cup to them as if she did nothing wrong. "Hey Rose, how about a refill?"
Timothy clocks his tongue at the customer's attitude as he goes to tell her off, but Rose stops him by patting him on the shoulder with a smile.
"Relax, it's just soda. Shanks dealt with way worse at Makino's bar."
Carrie and Peggy look at her in confusion, as they don't get the anime reference, while Timothy looks at her sadly as she throws away the used napkins.
He sees her about to take the cup to refill it, but grabs it before she can touch it. "Wait, I'll do it..."
Rose raises an eyebrow at the quick action, when Timothy grabs the soda gun right next to him. He looks over the different buttons at the back of the nozzle before he turns to Carrie. "What was your drink?"
"Diet coke."
Timothy nods as he gets the setting ready,. "Got it, I hope you like the color."
Carrie and Peggy grow confused by the sudden low tone in Timothy's voice, when he suddenly turns the nozzle towards them and sprays them with diet coke!
Both girls scream in terror at the soda shower, as they walk back until they hit the tables, but they're still in range of the weapon.
Rose looks at her friend in utter shock, for she's never seen him lose his temper before.
Timothy though practically cackles with delight as he keeps spraying from Carrie to Peggy repeatedly at a fast pace. "Let's see how you like getting messed with!"
Rose snaps herself out of it, from hearing Timothy's normal tone, then goes to stop him. "Timothy, wait!"
The pale boy stops his weapon while the girls are in a frozen stupor, then hands Rose the gun. "Sorry, did you want a shot?"
Peggy widens her dark eyes at the offer then glares at them. "Of course she doesn't you fat piece of- AH!"
She and Carrie resume screaming when Rose takes Timothy's place and sprays them in any place she can. She knows there's no escaping her foster family hearing about this now, so she has nothing left to lose by joining the fun!
She chuckles to herself as she keeps going while she hears them scream.
Peggy tries to dodge, but Rose follows her movements. "STOP IT YOU COMET FREAK!"
"DON'T THINK YOUR SECRET'S SAFE NOW YOU BITCH!" Carrie yells when Rose goes back to spraying her.
"Fine with me!" Rose chuckles as she covers them from head to toe in the dark soda, then turns it off when she sees that they had enough.
Naomi runs out of the kitchen from all the screaming, then widens her eyes at all the diet coke splashed on the floor, wall, table and her customers. "What the hell happened here?!"
Everyone stops, and stares at the owner in shock, while Naomi turns to Rose who's holding the soda gun. "Rose, I want an explanation right now!"
Timothy widens his eyes at how this looks before he takes the gun from her. "Wait mom, it's not what you think! I-!"
Rose takes back the soda gun from him, to keep him from taking the blame, and turns to Naomi. "I'm sorry, but it had to be done. These two are bullies from my high school. They tried to blackmail me into a free lunch and spilled their soda on me, which caused this soda storm to happen."
Carrie grits her teeth at the excuse, as she approaches the counter with sticky steps from the soda on the floor. "I didn't blackmail her! When my hand slipped from holding my soda, the boy went crazy, and sprayed us then she followed in! I want you to fire them both!"
Naomi narrows her brown eyes at the demand ,while she points to her employees. "There's no way I'm firing my son, and the girl doesn't work here."
Peggy widens her eyes at the excuse then glares at her. "That's a lie! She's wearing the same shirt you're wearing!"
Naomi looks at Rose's stained shirt then shakes her head. "Hard to tell if that's my restaurant's shirt with the soda stain on it. Like I said though, she's not an employee. She's just a stray that comes by whenever she feels like it. She never even gave me an application."
Rose pauses when she remembers the application, and feels a sense of relief for not filling it out yet.
Fury begins to well up in Carrie and Peggy as they feel like they're losing this battle, when Carrie snaps. "Well then I demand you pay for my dry cleaning! We were sprayed in your restaurant and were accused of blackmailing someone! Do you know how bad this looks for you, and this shack you call a-!"
Naomi stops her by grabbing her chin, and moving her face so that she sees the security camera, that's hanging from the corner of the ceiling, and recording everything that goes on. "Listen, I don't know what people will say about your dry cleaning, but I doubt they'll take the word of a liar. If I look through today's recording, will you still tell me that you didn't try to blackmail her? Or should I just post your soda shower on YouTube, so that you can get your pity?"
"NO!" Both girls shout in fear of being a laughing stock.
Naomi nods at this as she grabs a napkin, and wipes the soda off her hand from grabbing Carrie, then goes to the abandoned slices. She then generously splashes parmesan on the pizza from the shaker Timothy tried to give to Rose. Afterwards, she furrows her eyebrows at the girls as she shows them the slices. "Then you'd better take your slices, and keep what happened here quiet! Whatever problems you have with Rose, keep it out of my restaurant! Understand?!"
The girls quickly nod as they take the slices and run out of the restaurant.
Rose and Timothy can only look at Naomi in pure awe at how she took care of them like a total badass.
"Don't think either of you are off the hook!"
Timothy and Rose flinch at their boss' furious tone, as they see her piercing them with her gaze.
Rose goes in front of Naomi to try to keep her from getting mad at Timothy. "Wait, it wasn't his fault! I was-!"
"Trying to protect the restaurant's reputation by taking their bullshit. Timothy heard the whole thing."
Rose widens her eyes at the statement while Naomi gently ruffles her hair, as if she's her own daughter. "I appreciate it, but we've been through worse than a couple of spoiled brats. Next time just tell us when something's wrong."
The freckled girl, can barely utter the word out from the sudden kindness, or else she might cry on the spot. Still, the overwhelming joy is clear when she nods her head to tell her she will do what she says.
Naomi softly smiles at the sweet girl, but that smile quickly fades when she looks to her son. "As for you, you know our policy for dealing with bad customers! What were you thinking?!"
Timothy flinches at her glare then points to the shaker. "I was going to use it, but when that girl spilled her drink on Rose, I couldn't take it anymore!"
Rose looks at them both in confusion, then looks at the container. "What exactly is that?"
The mother and son pair speak simultaneously as if the shaker holds something normal. "Laxative Parmesan."
Rose jaw drops as far as it can from hearing the name of the pranking weapon, they used on the girls. "Wait, what?!"
Timothy giggles at her shock. "Yup, it's a tasteless white laxative powder that's mixed with regular parmesan cheese. We slip this on the food for customers that we don't want coming back. It works pretty well."
Rose blinks at his explanation before she starts laughing. "Hahaha, that's awesome! I wish I could see their faces!"
Timothy nods as he grins triumphantly. "Me too, that'll teach them to mess with one of us!"
Naomi walks towards the celebrating kids, holds their heads, and clashes them together like they're coconuts. "I don't know why you two are so happy! You still have to clean this place up!"
Timothy groans at the pain as he rubs his head, but Rose cradles her head with a genuine smile on her face.
"You got it boss!" The brunette goes into the kitchen to grab the supplies, then rushes back to start cleaning while Timothy follows her.
Naomi looks over the two kids working hard, while they still smile in victory, before she smiles at them. She heads towards the kitchen door, but stops herself just outside of it. "One more thing, you two."
The kids turn to Naomi, as she holds up the soda gun. "The next time either of you has an itchy trigger finger with this, use orange soda. It's not as popular as coke, and it's stickier."
The kids blink at the instructions, before they nod with a large smile, as they watch her walk back to the kitchen.
Rose happily gets to work on cleaning the tables as she can't stop thinking about how, for the first time since her family died, someone has genuinely taken her side. While she sees now that there are still some good people left in this world, she also knows that she's in deep shit when she gets home, because her secret's out.
She quietly sighs at her situation, but she doesn't regret it one bit because of the beautiful soda storm that she got to witness from it. She chuckles at the memory of the soda shower as she wipes off a table, and looks to her friend who's cleaning the walls. "Man, that was nuts. Thanks for the help Timothy."
Timothy nods as he glares at the door the girls left from. "No problem, but they deserved more than that for messing with you!"
She shrugs as she keeps cleaning. "It's not that bad, when I fight them at school I always beat the crap out of them."
"Awesome!" He grins at the thought of her holding her own, when what one of the girls shouted from being sprayed comes back to him. "Hey, why did they call you a 'comet freak'?"
Rose pauses at the question about her research, but doesn't want to deal with that today, so she shakes her head with a smile. "Sorry, but I think we had enough drama for today. We can talk about that when Naomi doesn't want to kill us."
He widens his eyes at the offer before he whines. "But she always wants to do that!"
Rose chuckles at the joke when Timothy sighs. "It's fine if you don't want to talk about it. If you ever do, just let me know."
The freckled girl pauses at the offer, then slowly nods with a small smile. "Sure Squeaks."
The boy grins at the atmosphere returning to normal as they finish cleaning, and go back to work for the day.
Rose wakes up just after the sun began to rise with a smile from the happy memory. She looks around to see that she's sleeping in the inn with the crew.
She goes outside with her backpack strapped on to see that nobody else is outside. She looks in her hole to see the shovel that she left behind's still there. With some time to kill, before the others wake up, she'd rather put it to use by trying to see how much deeper she can dig.
She smiles to herself as she puts down her backpack then jumps into her hole and starts digging. She keeps a grin on her face as she remembers her dream of the soda incident. Even though she got thrown out of her foster home for the night, for keeping that secret from her foster family, and spraying down the twins' friends, she can't complain about that day at all.
At the very least, she's grateful that those monsters learning the secret didn't get them to go to the restaurant. If Timothy or Naomi actually met them, god knows what would've happened. And now that she's gone, she can only imagine them worrying about her, and Naomi probably blaming her foster family...
She stops digging for a moment, as her guilt returns for leaving her friends without a word, then shakes it off as she gets back to work. She knows that it's not right for her to keep feeling sad about leaving Naomi and Timothy. She never planned of staying in that city after all. And they knew all too well when she told them about her research, when she gave them her application. All she can hope is that they move on quick, and forget about her.
She sighs to herself, as she keeps digging in hopes of searching for the oasis, with a cold breeze blowing from her.
Meanwhile, Luffy slowly wakes up to the sound of his stomach growling. He searches the bags that his friends aren't holding for any scraps, but there's no luck.
He stops in his search to see that the wind girl is missing. "Huh, where's Rose?"
He looks around the room to see that she's not in any of the beds. He looks out the window to see chunks of sand flying out of one of the holes. He heads outside, and looks in the hole to see Rose too distracted with digging to notice him.
He pauses when he feels her cold breeze, then jumps down right behind her. "How come you always make cold breezes by yourself?"
Rose immediately stops at Luffy's voice, and realizes that she's blowing a cold mood breeze again. She stops her wind by taking a deep breath, to calm down, then turns around with a smile. "Sorry about that, my mood breezes have a mind of their own. Hey, what are you doing up anyway?"
"I got hungry, but Sanji's holding all the food that's in his bag."
"Not all of it. I should have a few pieces of fruit left." Rose says as she uses her wind to bring her backpack down to her. She digs into her bag and brings out two mangoes. "Here ya go."
She tosses one of the mangoes to him then chomps down on hers. Luffy blinks at the sudden generosity before he grins at her. "Thanks!"
"Don't mention it." Rose says as she keeps eating.
Luffy finishes first, then looks at the brunette in front of him with curiosity in his eyes. "Hey, what makes your wind cold?"
Rose almost chokes on the last bit of her mango at the sudden question, before she swallows it. "W-why do you keep asking?"
"You never use it around us. and you never answer my questions about it. Is it something bad?"
She widens her eyes at the question, before she shrugs it off with a smile. "Who's to say? Some people think it's healthy to feel that way sometimes."
He knits his eyebrows in confusion, as he tries to understand what she means. "That doesn't make any sense. Just tell me, captain's orders!"
She pauses as she remembers that Nami's 'no fighting' ban has been lifted now that they're in Yuba.
"Fuck..." Rose mutters a curse before she starts flying up. "That won't work on me since you're not my captain. I'm not joining your crew, so there's no point in telling you any more of my power's secrets."
Luffy is surprised by the answer, but he won't let her go this time, so he stretches his arm up to grab her hand. "Then if I figure out what makes your wind cold, you have to join my crew!"
Rose's purple eyes widen at his statement, and looks down to see that he's serious. "What are you talking about?"
"If I find out what makes your wind cold before it's time for us to leave Alabasta, then you have to join!"
She tilts her head at how he could've gone from going into a constant argument with her, to forming a bet for her recruitment. Regardless, it's piqued her interest because of how much easier it would be to deal with, but with that is a better chance of the pirate captain to win. She furrows her eyebrows to mask her interest in the bet as she sighs. "And what if I say no to your bet? I still have my own goals to accomplish you know."
"There's no reason why you can't do it with us! It's a lot better than doing it by yourself!"
She bites her lip as she tries to find a way to talk him out of it when images of Timothy and Naomi pop up in her head. She considers her last option in how to convince him to not take her in, and realizes that there's no other way around it with someone so stubborn. *If he wants a reason then he's got one.*
She lands in front of him, and takes her hand back while her unruly bangs cover her purple eyes. "Alright, I accept your wager, but you only get two guesses a day. This way we won't annoy everyone during the journey again."
Luffy brightens up at this, and opens his mouth to make the first guess, but Rose raises her hand, while she lifts her head to let her eyes show that she's not backing down either. "Hold on, I need to tell you why I can't join you first, so that you know what you'll get yourself into. Before I do though, I want you to promise that what I tell you stays between us. Not even your crew mates can know, alright?"
The captain is surprised by the seriousness in her eyes, but he still nods in agreement.
She takes a deep breath to steel her nerves. before she begins to tell him her story. "First, I should tell you what I'm researching. You see, I'm studying a comet that has the ability to travel to other worlds."
Luffy drops his jaw at what she just said. before he starts smiling from ear to ear. "Are you serious?!"
She chuckles at his encouraging grin as she goes deeper into her dream. "Yea, this comet is called the Timore comet. It's astral energy has the power to cross the barriers between the universes, and travel to every world that you can imagine. My family first started this research by coming up with theories on everything they can about the comet's existence, how to travel with its power, and even on what you can expect from other worlds. My goal is to finish what they started, by not only confirming every theory I learned from them, along with my own, but also by travelling the universes to learn the comet's travel path."
Luffy couldn't be more amazed by the chance of new adventures across the universes, as he's practically bouncing with excitement. "That's so cool! Why would this make you not want to join?!"
She loses her smile, when the question pulls her out of her dream and back to reality. "Because while I completed some of the research, I haven't perfected it. When the comet comes to this world, I'll need to test out my theories to see if they work."
The rubber man tilts his head, as he tries to wrap his head around what she's saying. "I don't get it."
She sighs to herself and tries to explain it another way. "Let me give you an example with a girl I know. After she saw the comet, she vanished from her world and wound up in this one by accident. The comet however, can't take away her existence from the memories of the people she knew in her old world. This means that her friends and enemies from that world lost her without ever knowing what happened to her."
She softly frowns when she remembers Bobby, Naomi, and Timothy again, but shakes her head to get rid of the thoughts. "Now don't get me wrong, she's definitely happy to be here, and to leave all the bad things from her world behind. But, there are times when she thinks back on her old friends, and feels guilty for worrying them by leaving without a word."
Luffy is taken aback by the story, and wants to know more. "Who is this girl?! Where's she now?!"
She slowly shrugs as she keeps her head down, with her bangs shrouding her eyes, and keep her thoughts on things that make her angry, instead of sad, in case her mood breeze shows again. "Doesn't matter, the only reason I'm telling you this is because I don't want that to happen to you guys."
"What do you mean?"
"I have my theories on how to travel, but that's all they are until I test them out when the comet arrives. And even though I don't want to leave yet, it's not set in stone that I'll still be here after I see the comet, and work on my research. That being said..."
She walks up to him with guilt building up inside for what she's about to say, then looks him in the eye with a deadly glare, that she'd rather give to herself than to him. "Do you honestly want a crew mate who could disappear from your life, without a trace, and never come back?"
He can only stand there and be completely speechless at the question, because everything she said is finally starting to sink in.She refuses to join, because she doesn't want to get close just to disappear on them.
He snaps out of it when he feels a breeze of hot air then cold air, softly blowing out of her, and keeps switching temperatures. Before he can say anything about the wind, Rose turns around and starts flying out of the hole. "I'll let you think about it. If you still want to keep the wager, then go ahead and guess, but you gotta figure it out on your own. I won't be giving you any hints either."
She turns around when she lands on the edge of the hole, and gives him the best smile she can give him after telling him her story. "Wouldn't be any fun in the game if it was easy after all. And no matter what, we'll still be friends, so there's no hard feelings either way. I'm gonna go see if anyone else is up."
She walks away from the hole and allows her smile to fade while she rakes her hands through her hair. She can't stop her guilt from giving him an intense reason that could even make him speechless, but she knew that it had to be done if there was a chance for him to give up. After all, what she said wasn't a lie. With her being uncertain that she would stay in this world after she sees the comet again without making a wish, or go to a random world instead, she can't join in good conscience. It would just break both her and the crew's hearts if she became a member of the crew just to disappear on them. She'd rather go back to living like a stray dog than to do that to them...
She nods to herself as she heads inside the inn to join the others and leaves Luffy alone.
The rubber man remains speechless at his friend's retreat as he thinks back on her reason. For him though, the answer is simple. He just needs to make sure that she doesn't vanish after she joins him!
He starts smiling at his plan, until he realizes he has no idea what makes her wind cold. He sits cross legged while his face goes a little red from thinking hard about what her cold wind could mean. With her never showing her face when doing it, there's no telling what it could be...
He snaps out of it when he hears his stomach growling. He pulls himself out of the hole and rushes to the inn where the others are waking up. "Sanji, food!"
He rushes inside to get his breakfast, and is ready than ever start the next part of his battle of will for Rose to join his crew on their adventure in Alabasta.
TO BE CONTINUED