Island Hopping

by ZareEraz

ZoroxLuffy. As captain and crew journey through their many adventures, we'll be taking peeks into the little moments that pop up in Luffy's and Zoro's lives. There will be a little love, a bit of worry, a dash of anger and frustration, and a whole lot of excitement as these two find their crewmates and find places in each other's hearts. Fluff and good stuff! Update in progress

16. The Smell of Adventure

A/N: ZareEraz here! It's time for another update! Yay! HQV and I have actually been done with Skypiea for about a week now, but I had a heck of a time trying to come up with titles for this chapter so it's a little late, but I hope it's worth the wait! This chapter is a little different because I have another story that fits in between "Saved by the Bell" and "Down to Earth", a mature fic you can find in the One Piece category. It's called "Up to the Heavens" and both this story and the other one can be read independently but they have been written to go together. If mature isn't your style, don't worry; I've referenced what happens in this fic, so you won't be lost if you don't read the other one. And with that...enjoy! Don't forget to let me know what you think in the review section! Happy reading! :3

(Updated October 2024)

Chapter 16: The Smell of Adventure

Beach Bums

The sky was nothing like they thought it was going to be – it was even more than they could've ever imagined! The entire ocean had been white, liquid clouds, and the sky above them had been filled with even more clouds like they were in a cloud cocoon. There hadn't even been a bottom to the white sea because Usopp had swum right through it and had been falling back towards the Grand Line before Luffy and Robin had caught him. Even the creatures in the white sea were strange and balloon-like, having adapted to the high altitude by becoming huge, but incredibly almost weightless. They had even traveled higher onto a second layer of clouds with a lobster pulling their ship no less! Everything was so extraordinary and so outlandish with each discovery that the Straw Hats had to abandon logic and just enjoy themselves.

Once they'd popped out of the second layer of clouds and were once again under a blue sky, they finally saw what they were searching for: Skypiea! The sight of such a fantastical island had everyone staring in amazement, and everyone (especially Luffy) was ready to go exploring.

"There it is! Sky Island!" Luffy shouted, hanging onto the Merry's head, smiling like an idiot. The big island in front of them was made of more solid-looking clouds, and it had buildings and bridges connecting even more floating clouds together and huge white roads held in place with twisted vines. Despite the cloud-ground, there were bits of green plants and trees flourishing everywhere on the island, adding a splash of color to the pastel buildings and the white clouds around them. It was like a paradise laid out in front of them, just waiting to be explored. They'd all had an idea of what might've been up in the sky, but such a pristine and amazing place blew the whole crew's mind; If God truly did exist, this was His land. The white waves of the sea ran up against the island, gently lulling back and forth as the Going Merry pulled up near the shore. Luffy was the first one off the ship, leaping onto the sky's equivalent of the ocean and taking a deep breath.

"You can smell the adventure! Potent as the seaweed in summer!" he declared, crashing into the shallow water.

"Wait for me! I like adventure!" Usopp called after him, kicking off his shoes and running up the Merry's head before leaping off into the cloud-water.

"Kinda shallow!" Luffy warned him too late. Usopp hit the water head and arms first, collapsing into the white sea-clouds with only his nose poking up as he floated. "Hey! Usopp! Did you hurt yourself?" Luffy asked.

The sniper popped up out of the watery clouds and stared up at his captain in amazement. "Is it just me or is this whole place made out of clouds?" he asked.

"Biiiiiggggg fluffy ones!" Luffy sang back with an even bigger smile.

"I love this stuff!" The pair shared another smile before running ashore, starting all the excitement by themselves.

"Wait! I'm coming too!" Chopper called, jumping ship.

"Me too!" Nami added, "But I've got to change first." She ran off into her room without another word to anyone.

"Hey, Luffy!" Zoro called, being the only one who was still thinking properly about important things. "We may have a problem dropping anchor! There isn't a seabed at the bottom of this cloud."

"You know, I thought about that and who cares?!" Luffy shouted back, turning to look at the swordsman. He blew Zoro a kiss before running off with Ussop. Zoro blushed, his mind decidedly no longer thinking of important things.

"I love the way you think!" Usopp winked, running into the rubber man and pushing him with this shoulder. Luffy shoved him back, starting up a game of the pair pushing and running into each other as they ran across the beach. It looked like fun, being so carefree, but Zoro still held back, only giving his boyfriend a soft chuckle before walking portside to heft the heavy anchor off its hook and drop it into the white sea below. Despite not having a real bottom, the anchor hit something and stayed lodged, keeping the Merry in place. Zoro shrugged and looked back at the sky island, still in awe by its presence.

"Come on down and check this out, you guys!" Luffy was yelling again. "The beach is actually fluffy!"

"It squishes between my toes like marshmallow mud!" Usopp added.

"What the heck is marshmallow mud?" Luffy asked.

"I don't know but that's what it feels like!" Usopp answered.

"Well, regardless of how the ground may feel, it's an amazing sight," Zoro said, almost to himself. "Better than I imagined."

"It is a piece of work, sure," Sanji replied, walking over to the railing. "But I think our shipmates are overreacting. It bugs me when they get all worked up." The cook slipped off his shoes and jumped into the sea, flipping no less than three times, his eyes having transformed into hearts with his excitement.

Zoro sweatdropped. "'When they get all worked up,' huh?" he chided, shaking his head at the idiot cook. Nami emerged in a blue camouflage bikini top and dark brown pants with the angry South Bird they'd forgotten to let go pecking at her head. The bird eventually flew off and the navigator and the swordsman hoped that it'd be alright in the new environment. Nami then turned to Robin, and after a little discussion about the composition of the different clouds and how they might work up here, Nami brushed it all off by saying it made zero sense and that they should just enjoy themselves. She leaped off the ship and joined the others in the carousing. She kept shouting for Robin and Zoro to jump off the ship and get their asses moving, but Zoro just sat down on the upper deck's railing, watching his crew having the time of their lives.

"Swordsman, you coming?" Robin called, climbing up onto the nearest rail to jump off.

"Yeah, I'll be along soon," he replied, smiling.

"The captain smells adventure…" she mused. "Huh. I'd never stopped to think of any of this as adventure. Maybe I should reconsider my stance." The woman was smiling now too and leaped off the rail to head to the beach.

"Yeah," Zoro mused to himself. "And 'adventure' to Luffy usually means trouble." Not that he had any room to talk; the swordsman was just about as bull-headed and reckless as his captain.

Soon they were all being unproductive, Zoro included as he leaned against the Merry's railing, watching. Chopper was rolling across the cloud-beach half asleep, Sanji was running around with sky flowers in his hands looking for Nami and Robin, and Usopp was sculpting a cloud castle on the beach like he would normal sand. Luffy was hanging upside down from a tree with one stretchy leg wrapped around a branch several times, shouting something about how he was having too much fun to do captain stuff and that made Zoro sigh about how he never did captain stuff.

"Alright, Mr. Giant Fruit!" the rubber man giggled, swinging himself upright and grabbing a huge green, pumpkin-looking thing off the tree. He let his leg recoil and sat cross-legged, letting the fruit rest in his lap. "You're all mine!" He then proceeded to try and take the hugest bite out of the fruit and failing when the thing nearly broke his teeth. "Ow! That hurt! Why is this thing so hard?!" He punched the fruit lightly and then decided what the best course of action to do with it. And that meant dropping it on Usopp.

The fruit crashed into the back of the sniper's head and smushed his face into whatever he'd been making out of the cloud sand. When he popped up again, he was furious. "You practically crammed my brain into my chest! What's wrong with you!?" Usopp wailed. A huge goose egg appeared on his noggin' and he wasn't too happy about that and Luffy just laughed at him.

At that point, Zoro shucked off his shoes and leaped into the sea below to join his friends, to do damage control for his boyfriend if nothing else. He sloshed through the cloud-water and up onto the beach, making a discovery of his own as a little white creature lay at his feet. It was a kind of fox, and he picked it up by the tail, surprising the beast and making it squirm.

"Sorry," he apologized, letting it go. The sky-fox landed on its feet and shook itself out, staring up at the man as if it was just as curious about the new thing as he was. Before Zoro could look at the creature further, the sound of the harp drifted over the beach, announcing to the crew that they weren't alone. Zoro's hands instantly went to his swords, but he had nothing to worry about, their guest wasn't a threat: she was an angel. Her name was Conis and she welcomed them to Angel Beach, befriending the crew with her soft manner and kind smile. Sanji was already smitten with her and the rest of the crew were curious about the stranger in their midst.

Eager to help her new friends, Conis helped Luffy with the green fruit that he'd picked, producing a knife and cutting a hole in the underside. "The top of a conassh is as hard as steel; it's impossible to crack. So, you have to cut through the underside, like this," she explained as she put a straw into the hole she'd just made, turning the fruit into the drink. "Here you go!" She handed it back to Luffy who took a monster drink.

"It's goooooood!~" he sang, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

"If it's that good, I want to try some!" Usopp said, grabbing the straw and drinking. He had the same reaction as Luffy "It's gooooood!~".

Conis smiled at the pair, picking up her Cloud Fox and petting her. She told the Straw Hats that they could ask her anything if they had questions and Nami immediately took her up on her offer, however, before they got far, they were interrupted yet again by the appearance of a man riding on a strange contraption out in the middle of the sea. His name was Pagaya and he was Conis' father. The thing he was riding was a waver (which he immediately crashed onto the beach as he approached) and Nami instantly fell in love with it. It was like a small, one-person boat with an odd, upright steering bar and handles, and had something shooting out of the back of the boat part that none of the Blue Sea dwellers understood. When Nami rode it, she was a natural, zooming across the White-White Sea like a pro. Luffy (who had tried the waver first after Pagaya had crashed it, had also crashed it and had to be fished out of the water before he drowned) got all moody and sulked off with his conassh sipping the fruit with a frown on his face. Zoro followed the young man across the beach as Sanji started talking to Pagaya about the island and tried to multitask by wooing Conis. Luffy stopped at a poof of cloud piled on the beach and flopped down on it back first and Zoro sat down cross-legged next to him, taking his swords out of his sash and leaning them on his shoulder. Luffy mumbled something about Nami being a showoff and Zoro just chuckled to himself.

The rubber man snapped a "What was that!?"

"You're just jealous that she can ride it, and you can't," Zoro replied. Luffy growled at him and held the conassh (top side down) over his head and dropped it.

"Here! Have some!" he hissed with an evil smile on his face.

"OW!" Zoro shouted, as the rock-hard fruit konked him on the head. He caught it in his lap and snatched it away before Luffy could grab it again, glaring at his captain as a goose egg swelled on his head. "And for that, I am having some!" Zoro sucked on the straw with all his might, drinking most of the delicious juice inside of the fruit. He had to suppress the "It's gooooood!~" reaction so that he could still be pouty with his boyfriend.

"Don't drink it all!" Luffy shout-whined, trying to grab the conassh, but Zoro stuck his hand in Luffy's face and pushed him back. The rubber man struggled for a minute but then caught sight of Sanji flirting with Conis still, trying to make her fall in love with him. He didn't seem to be getting anywhere with her, and Luffy was so distracted by watching the cook that he gave up his struggle for the conassh. Sanji's romantic crushes were hilarious, but Luffy wondered why Sanji was always going after the ladies if nothing ever happened. He guessed that Nami and Robin were fun as friends but why would he devote so much time and attention to them when they didn't flirt back or show that they loved him? It was weird unless he was after something else. And that thought sparked another that the teen immediately voiced in Luffy-fashion.

"Hey, Zoro," he started, poking the swordsman. Zoro looked at him, still draining the conassh.

"Hm?"

"How do guys do it with guys?" Luffy asked bluntly. Zoro choked on his surprise, spiting the juice of the conassh out violently and then coughing when his chest heaved. Once he caught his breath he whirled on his boyfriend, shocked at his question.

"Where did that come from?!" he snapped. Luffy pointed at Sanji and Conis and it made a little more sense. Zoro's eyes narrowed, annoyance flaring up in his chest. His competitive nature with the swirly-eyebrow bastard prickled, thinking of him and Luffy discussing those things together, especially since Sanji was into girls! "So, what did the cook tell you?" Zoro asked.

"It wasn't Sanji. I was just watching him flirt." Now Zoro was confused. "It was Robin who told me that we could do it!" Luffy declared. If Zoro had had more juice to spit out, he would've spit it twice as far.

"Robin!?" he yelped, more scared of what she'd say to Luffy than what Sanji would say.

"Yeah, I asked her what people do together when they're in love and she told me that they do fun things together like going to dinner or festivals and parties or living together or having sex." And now Zoro was blushing because Luffy was acting so completely innocent while mentioning some very personal things. "And since I love you, I want to do those things too!" Luffy continued. "But we already have dinner together and we have fun adventures together and we already kind of live together, so I wanted to have sex with you! Sanji only goes after girls, which I guess is how people usually do it, but can guys do it? Can we do it?"

His face was so sincere and curious that Zoro just sighed, wrestled down his embarrassment, and began explaining how sex worked with two men. He was a little relieved that Luffy had been the one to bring up the subject as this was what he himself had wanted to broach for a while now. They'd cuddled together and of course, they kissed, but the swordsman had wanted to be more intimate with Luffy the closer they got. But actually having to explain the mechanics of intimacy was a little mortifying, especially when Luffy's eyes were glued to his, nodding at some parts and giggling at others that made Zoro blush. Having to explain wasn't romantic at all and he'd had to shush the rubber man several times so as not to draw attention to themselves before he was finished. But in the end, Luffy seemed to get what having sex would entail for them and just nodded eagerly.

He smiled widely, reaching for Zoro's shirt. "Let's do it!"

"Not right now!" Zoro hissed, slapping his hands away. Damn Luffy and his one-track mind!

"Why not? Do you not want to?" Luffy asked, his smile started to slip.

"No, that's not it!" Zoro denied quickly. "It's just we can't do it right here right now, on the beach." The green-haired man thought for a moment, trying to figure out the best way for them to be together. He knew that Luffy would want to explore as much of Skypiea as he could, and adventure was always following close behind, in addition to Luffy attracting trouble like a magnet. If there was some sort of danger, he wanted his captain to be in peak condition and not distracted, and not having to deal with any discomfort that would come from them being intimate. In this case, the most socially decent course of action was also the most sensible.

"How about we do it after this adventure is over?" Zoro suggested. "Okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"When we've explored the sky islands and had our adventures like you want, we can do it. That's what I mean."

"Okay! You promised!" Luffy laughed his signature shishishi and smiled widely.

The swordsman's heart fluttered at that smile, loving it, but also knowing that his carefree personality also got them into lots of trouble. He wondered how he ever got into Luffy's messes in the first place. Oh yeah: he owed Luffy his life for letting the rubber man save him from the Marines. However, something had changed: Luffy was his life now, his life and the crew's, they were friends after all. Zoro sighed and leaned back on Luffy's cloud pile, reaching up to grab the young man's head and bring him down for a kiss. Luffy was chuckling again, the happy sound slipping out between their lips. It was a nice slow kiss as their tongues tangled, and neither participant rushed as they played with each other. Zoro was always surprised by just how gentle Luffy could be at first, but the soft kiss didn't last too long because the rubber man got excited. Their kiss grew rougher, and he gripped Zoro's shirt tightly. Luffy had almost pulled himself into the swordsman's lap when they were interrupted by Luffy's favorite thing: food.

"Hey! Beach bums!" Sanji called, his voice hovering between annoyance at having to call his wandering crew members and still trying to sound nice for Conis. "We're having lunch at my lovely Conis' house! So, get moving!"

"Aye! Aye!" Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp all shouted, excited by the prospect of food. The trio leaped up and dashed across the beach from their respective spots. Luffy even left Zoro behind in his excitement for new food.

"You too, lover boy!" Sanji hissed.

"You're the lover boy," Zoro retorted, standing up and slipping his sheathed swords back into his haramaki as he started walking towards the stairs leading up from the beach. He was already missing his boyfriend's lips and his warmth, but he figured that after lunch, they could take a nap together and he'd get to snuggle with Luffy in his lap. That sounded great.

"Today you're the lover boy from what I saw," Sanji teased meanly, his mocking smile letting Zoro know that he'd been watching. The crew was totally fine with him and Luffy being affectionate with each other, but when Sanji teased him about it, Zoro hated him that much more.

"And from what I saw, you're still hopeless," Zoro replied, grinning callously. "At least I can get some ass when I want it." Sanji turned to stone, having no insult or retort to follow up with. Having pounded the swirly eyebrow cook into the dust, Zoro followed his crewmates up the stairs to the angels' house in the sky.

Hijacked

"Always thinking with his stomach," Zoro grumbled to himself, hauling himself up the rope ladder that Robin had dropped.

Nami had somehow ended up near the Upper Yard when she'd been out on the waver and whatever she'd seen had scared her so badly that she'd wanted to leave right away. Luffy didn't want to have any of that (since they hadn't had their adventure yet), but he was reluctantly convinced that they needed to leave the Sky Islands, especially after the White Berets had slapped them with fines and degrees of crime. However, he became totally distracted when he remembered that there were leftovers in Conis' house from lunch and asked her dad if they could have them. Pagaya agreed and Sanji joined the rubber man for the food, and Usopp followed so that Pagaya could show him some tools that could fix the Merry. Nami had been stunned by how her reasonable concerns and demands to leave were thwarted by food. Again! Zoro wasn't sure what she'd been expecting: Luffy always wanted food more than anything else, especially if it was readily available, and he and his kisses had also been passed over by the prospect of food not too long ago.

"Worried about our captain?" the archeologist asked smoothly, leaning on the rail a little way down from the swordsman.

"They're all crazy, thinking that they need dials and tools and food when we're clearly in trouble. Not that it matters much to me. But Nami's incredibly upset; whatever she saw spooked her."

"You're damn right it did!" Nami stomped up the ladder as well as she could, still in a pissy mood after having returned from the Upper Yard. "We do not want to be in any of that! So, I don't get why Luffy is so keen to go!"

Zoro waved her off. "You know how he is. There's no persuading Luffy of anything. He won't listen, even if we all gang up on him." He walked down the stairs to the lower deck and sat down with his back to the mainmast, leaning his swords against his shoulder for a nap.

"Fine! Then I guess I'll stay put!" Nami retorted.

"Well, you're free to do whatever you want."

"I KNOW THAT!" she shouted, baring her fangs. "But if I stay here, I'll be killed!"

"Yep," he replied, unconcerned. What would happen would happen; there was no changing it. "Quite a predicament." And then the green-haired man folded his arms around his swords and fell asleep almost instantly.

Zoro didn't hear Nami's complaining or Conis' explanation of a current that would take them to Cloud End, bypassing Upper Yard or Chopper dragging up the anchor. He didn't hear their sighs of relief that they were going to foil Luffy's heinous idea of going to the Upper Yard and getting in trouble, and he definitely didn't hear trouble already headed their way. What he did hear (and felt) was when something huge rammed into the ship from beneath, sending everything and everyone reeling from the impact.

"What's going on?" Zoro asked, startling awake when the ship tilted and creaked wildly. His swords fell from their spot, and he reached out and grabbed all three before they could hit the ground.

"I think we might be already caught in the current," Chopper guessed, hanging onto the Merry's railing as they rocked from side to side. The ship rolled again, swaying haphazardly and starting to move, but it was moving backward! Nami screamed and grabbed the railing, hanging on as tight as she could. Robin ran to the rail and looked down, trying to see if something had caught them. Zoro was up in a flash, leaping to the side of the boat and looking down too, trying to figure out if there was some way to stop whatever had captured them.

"Are we in that current that Conis was talking about?" he asked, voicing Chopper's guess as a question.

"No, I think we have a bigger issue here," Robin answered, her voice low. Zoro's hands went to his swords, ready for anything. As soon as the threat revealed itself, he'd slice it down and stop the ship from moving too far away from its captain and the rest of the crew.

The beach was already vanishing at a startling rate; the house where Luffy and the others were already a speck on the horizon. It wouldn't be long now before it disappeared altogether, but Zoro wouldn't let that happen if he could help it. Luffy was going to be back in a few minutes, and they were going to set sail together, crew and all, and that didn't quite work if half the crew was still stuck on Angel Island while the other half was headed to who knows where. Zoro squinted at the shore, trying to catch a glimpse of his captain, their sniper, and their idiot cook, but they were too far away now.

The Merry continued getting dragged out on the White-White Sea, and there was very little that could be done to stop it. An almost physical ache blossomed in the swordsman's chest as he realized that they'd all become separated. Luffy and the others couldn't catch up with them at this rate, and they were going to be on their own. Zoro took out one of his swords and planted it into the Merry's deck to balance himself while the ship rocked wildly again, zooming away even faster. He knew that Usopp would rant at him later for damaging the deck, but it couldn't be helped. He could barely see the beach and he hoped that Luffy and the others had seen them disappear; otherwise, they'd be none the wiser as to where the ship went.

Thankfully, Usopp was paying attention.

"Hey! Something's wrong with the ship!" he yelled, running over to the balcony at Pagaya's and Conis' house. He was gaping in shock as his precious ship tilted wildly in the White-White Sea.

"What?" Sanji exclaimed, running over.

"Take a look! She just started rocking all of a sudden!" Usopp pointed to the Merry and Luffy came over to see what was up to.

"Really? I hope they're not having a party without us," Luffy said, frowning at the fact that those four had left him out of the fun.

"Hey, look! It's Nami!" Sanji said, gazing through a small telescope, seeing Nami hanging onto the ship as it tilted again. She was now wearing a T-shirt over her bikini top, which greatly disappointed the perverted cook. His face turned a depressing blue. "Wait…why in the world is she wearing a T-shirt?!" Sanji was so upset that he couldn't see the navigator's beautiful figure anymore and started chewing on his shirt in mortification.

"I'm pretty sure we have more pressing concerns right now!" Usopp smacked him, growling at the cook.

"Guys, look! The ship's started moving!" Luffy exclaimed, finally getting worried about what was happening. This was all wrong. The Merry was going out to see without them, and backward! The ship couldn't go backward! But why?! They wouldn't just leave us here, would they?" Zoro wouldn't really leave him behind, would he? No that was silly, but what was going on!? "I don't think I've ever seen a ship sailing backward before!"

"But they haven't even set the sails yet!" Usopp argued. "There's something underneath them!"

"'Kay…what is that?!" Usopp and Luffy both asked, horrified.

"It must be…" Pagaya started saying, walking up to the railing and looking out at the quickly retreating ship. And that's when the giant lobster showed itself, popping up out of the clouds and clamping its claws on each of the Merry's broken wings. GOD was written on its forehead, and Pagaya instantly recognized the creature. "The legendary White-White Sea Super Express Lobster!" It was twice the size of the lobster that had dragged them up through Heaven's Gate! It was an amazing sight, to say the least, but since it was dragging their friends away, the awe of such a massive beast was clouded over by panic and surprise, the trio of pirates not knowing what to do.

Things were livelier back on the ship as the rest of the crew was finally able to figure out the mess they were in.

"Guys! We're being hijacked!" Zoro shouted, taking charge. "We have to abandon ship! Come on! We've got to move right now while we still have time!"

Chopper wailed in response, "We can't leave the ship! Without it, how will we get back home!?"

"Then I'll stay behind! Just go! Now!" Zoro shouted, willing to stay with the ship to let his crew get away. As long as someone was with the ship, they might be able to meet up again, even if it meant that he was alone. The Going Merry and her crew were Luffy's precious treasures, and he'd protect them at all costs. The Merry was their home: everyone loved her, so he wouldn't abandon her if there was a chance that staying could save both the ship and his friends.

"Forget it!" Nami shouted, tightening her grip on the rail. "You can't defend the whole ship by yourself!"

"I'll manage!" was his reply as he put the Wado Ichimonji into his mouth and leaped off the Merry. He landed on the shell of the lobster and reached for the Kitetsu III and the Yubashiri, drawing the last two of his swords with quick efficiency before slashing down at the beast. The slashes ricocheted off the hard shell, sending sparks flying in the direction his swords had swung. They didn't even leave a scratch. Again and again, he attacked, jumping across the lobster's shell in an attempt to hurt the thing, to slow it down before they vanished from sight. After five attacks, he stopped, sheathing his blades.

"Oh, come on!" he huffed, looking at the unharmed shell. Then, cracks started appearing across the hard surface, fracturing where his blades as cut. "That's more like it! Alright, making progress." He smiled and flicked the guard of the Yubashiri with his thumb to start drawing the sword again. If he could just stop the lobster, then they could sail the ship back to the shore and back to the beach.

"I don't think that's going to get you anywhere," Robin commented, looking down at the man and lowering the rope ladder. "Come back on board," she ordered.

"Why should I?" Zoro turned his scary eyes on her.

"You'll never be able to significantly damage that creature, and we've got bigger problems now. Look!" She nodded to the front of the ship.

"What?" Zoro huffed, looking back towards the shore, clicking the Yubashiri back into place. They were being followed. A horde of Sky Fish was leaping out of the water, their blue, serpentine bodies undulating with their leaps, hissing and snapping their jaws as they waited for someone to jump off.

"A school of vicious Sky Fish is following us, ready to attack," Robin explained. "We can't jump ship and escape now. Even if we did manage to defeat the Sky Fish, I'm sure more would arrive to take their place. Our punishment has already begun and there's no way to stop it."

"Heaven's Judgment? They must be taking us to the forbidden island. I guess they got tired of waiting. Eneru's really got it in for us," Zoro reasoned. If God Eneru was behind this, then that's the only place they could be headed. At least Luffy gets to see the island that he's been so excited about. No stopping it this time.

"Oh no!" Nami breathed, her knees collapsing as she sank to the deck. "Please…I can't go back there! LUFFY! HELP US!" she screamed, reflecting what Zoro was feeling in his heart about their separation. "SANJI!" He definitely wasn't feeling that one, "USOPP!" He shrugged that one off. He knew that they were coming to get them no matter what. Luffy wasn't giving up his adventure or his crew. It just wasn't in his nature. The navigator's voice rose over the White-White Sea, fading away in the vastness of the clouds all too quickly.

Back at Conis' house, a profound sense of quiet had passed over the five inhabitants, the remaining Straw Hats having fallen silent as their ship and their crew disappeared over the horizon, trailed by a school of Sky Fish. Luffy watched in quiet horror as his ship was dragged out of sight, feeling an emptiness in his stomach as his friends and boyfriend vanished with it. But there was also something else roiling around in his stomach: excitement and the smell of adventure. Half of his crew was already on one and he was going to find them no matter what, which meant that he was going to have an adventure too.

Zoro, keep everyone safe until I figure this out, Luffy sent that one thought out to his first mate. We will figure this out together! Just wait for me!

Party Animals

"That's what you were sensing, Usopp!" Luffy chuckled merrily as the sun began to set. "An incredibly unsafe drop off of this tree!" And that's when the Crow tipped over the other side of the "biggest tree Luffy had ever seen" and began hightailing down the Milky Road at breakneck speeds. Luffy and Usopp screamed with Luffy's being joyous and Sanji just kept an eye on the road ahead of them quietly, searching for danger or the three other priests that they hadn't seen yet.

"Please tell me it's not another corkscrew!" Usopp wailed, hoping to keep whatever was left in his stomach in there, as the last spiral into horrible nausea that they'd endured had almost made him throw up.

"Huh? You see them down there?" Sanji asked, looking through the hole in the tree canopy that the Milky Road passed through, seeing vicious Sky Sharks in their path, growing ever closer with each passing second.

"Are those the priests!?" Usopp's eyes were closed as he asked, praying that it wasn't.

"No, just Sky Sharks," Sanji replied calmly.

"Oh, thank goodness! I thought for sure that we were goners – whoa, whoa, WHOA! What do you mean, Sky SHARKS?!" Usopp screamed, hanging onto the mast of the Crow even tighter. The Sky Sharks were waiting for them at the bottom of the drop, their mouths and wickedly sharp teeth just waiting to tear them apart. "Those suckers will swallow us all!"

It was a good thing Luffy had a plan because Usopp clearly didn't have one. The rubber man jumped onto the top of the Crow's head, and wound up his arms, itching for some action. "Gum-Gum…GATTLING!" he shouted, raining down a barrage of punches that sent the Sky Sharks flying as the boat slid into the cove below the Milky Road. The fish were knocked out by the barrage and floated in the water listlessly as the Crow skipped across the sea-clouds like a rock, soaking all its passengers.

"We're soaking wet!" Usopp complained. Luffy ignored him and looked at the new place they were in. There was a huge stone structure in the middle of the cove, all lit up with tribal torches. The Going Merry was sitting on top of it, looking a little worse for wear. They'd found the altar and the rest of the crew!

"Check it out! We found them!" Luffy shouted happily, pointing at the altar and the Merry. "There's the altar with the Going Merry sitting right on top!" Luffy's shouts drew the attention of Zoro, Nami, and Robin who were on the shore and talking to Chopper on the Merry. They all smiled happily as they saw their captain and the rest of their friends with him.

"Nami! Robin! I missed you so much!" Sanji called, his eyes turning into hearts. "Sorry to keep you waiting but I beat the Ordeal of Love to get here!"

Luffy was laughing and waving wildly but still found time to correct his cook. "Hey! I thought I was 'Spheres' not 'Love!'" he argued.

"If that was love, I don't ever want to find it again! But who cares!? We're alive!" Usopp added, his voice trembling. Nami was so confused by the conversation, not understanding a word that was coming out of their mouths.

"Sounds like they're happy to be here," Nami said, smiling. "Safe and sound."

And that's when Luffy decided that he was tired of waiting to get to the shore and just sling-shotted himself out of the Crow and into Zoro's arms, tackling the swordsman.

"ZOOOROOOO!" The captain of the Straw Hat Pirates yelled, knocking the green-haired man off his feet and onto the ground, planting a huge kiss on his lips at their reunion. After getting over the almost-concussion Luffy nearly gave him, Zoro kissed him back. The exhaustion from exploring he'd been feeling melted away a little bit as he held his boyfriend in his arms. He didn't even care if he was soaking wet. Luffy kissed him again, liking how Zoro's face always turned a little red every time he was affectionate.

"Yep, happy," Nami sighed, rolling her eyes at her friend's behavior. After that, Luffy wouldn't let go of the swordsman and just hopped on his back, wrapping his legs around Zoro's waist, forcing him to carry the young man around as they made their way back to the ship.

Once the Crow had been moored and everyone was back on the ship, the crew had to take stock of their situation: Merry was trashed, the Sky Knight was resting in the kitchen area recovering from his fight with a priest, and it was almost dark. Sanji made the call to camp on land and Luffy was so excited to camp that he stood up on Zoro's shoulders and jumped up and down. Zoro let him do it too until Luffy stepped on his head, then he dumped his rubber ass on the ground.

"This isn't a party! We're in enemy territory!" Usopp chided loudly. "Now calm down!"

"Not a party. Got it," Luffy repeated, peeking over the side of the ship to the hoard of unconscious Sky Sharks floating in the clouds. He still hadn't had dinner yet and those fish were looking really tasty. He started drooling at the prospect of barbeque fish and asked Usopp. "Hey, Usopp…? Is a barbeque a party?"

And the crew dissolved into giggles because Luffy had found yet another loophole to get what he wanted.

They all went ashore and set up camp. Sanji fried Luffy up one of the Sky Sharks to keep his mouth full and quiet as they all reported on what they'd encountered during the day. What resulted was a report that included two of the priests – both with a power to predict moves called mantra – and the realization that Upper Yard had actually been a part of Jaya four hundred years ago. But the best part was the fact that the City of Gold was up in the sky instead of down at the bottom of the ocean, which then got Luffy excited about an adventure with gold in it for once! Nami had to agree with him, happy that someone was finally on her side! Robin also said it "sounded like fun," and Sanji smiled and said that they wouldn't be very good pirates if they turned their backs on gold. Zoro figured that everyone up here already hated them, so why not steal the gold? So, it was decided that they were going gold hunting the next day, to make their fortune and be good pirates at the same time. Only they had to get through the night first before that could happen.

Sanji started ordering everyone around to get things prepared for the next day. Chopper and Zoro wandered into the forest in search of herbs and plants to use as medicine to treat the Sky Knight and their own scrapes, and they were also catching meat for dinner. Nami and Robin were in charge of coming up with a plan for tomorrow and Usopp was out gathering lumber to fix the Merry in the morning, which just left Sanji to cook and Luffy to be bored. Well, the rubber man did have a job – he was supposed to fill up the canteens with the distilled water Sanji was boiling, but it wasn't a very fun job, and he was sooooooo bored. But thankfully, before he could complain too much to the cook or start making trouble, Zoro and Chopper came back with their successful search, relieving the young man's boredom. Zoro dropped off his rats and frogs with Sanji and was immediately glommed by Luffy.

"Luffy! Are you going to do this all night?" Zoro huffed. He was happy to have the attention, but it was getting tiresome to haul his boyfriend around his back when he still had things to do.

"Yep! I missed you!" Luffy said, shimmying his way around to Zoro's back again and wrapping his arms and legs around his neck and waist. And then he was distracted by the giant pot of stew the cook was making! "Smells like a winner!" the rubber man sang, stretching his arm out to lift the pot's lid and take a bite.

"Keep your hands off!" the cook snapped, leaping up into the air and crashing his heel down on Luffy's head, inadvertently kicking Zoro as well, and he was not happy about that (but Sanji was). The rubber man crashed to the ground with the swordsman.

"Hey!" Zoro hissed, but he was ignored when Luffy's whining cut in.

"But Sanji, I'm hungry!"

"It's not ready yet!" the blond shouted, baring his fangs at the endless void that was his captain's stomach. "Weren't you just cramming a Sky Fish down your gullet not ten minutes ago!?"

"Yeeaaaahhhh," Luffy admitted, looking unashamed of his behavior. "But that was just an appetizer, I figured you knew that," Sanji growled, pissed that no matter what he did, Luffy just could not be full when it came to food.

"He must have a rubber stomach too," Nami huffed, her study of the giant salt crystal that Robin found getting interrupted by the arguing.

Robin also made a face. "Yeah, tell me about it."

"Hey! Moss-head!" Sanji snapped.

"Huh?" Zoro growled back, ready to pound the swirly eyebrow cook into dust for insulting him.

"Keep your boyfriend entertained while I cook!" And for once, Zoro didn't argue; it was a good idea. The swordsman stood up and reached behind him and grabbed Luffy's shirt collar. He hauled the skinny man up and held him out in front of his body like a dirty sock before walking off a little way into the forest. They could still see the campfire from there and were still in its circle of light, so it wouldn't be a problem to get back without getting lost (for Luffy at least).

"Hey, Zoro!" Luffy asked with a mischievous grin on his face. "Are we going what I think we're doing?" he questioned with suggestive eyebrows, reaching out to grab the man's chest and try to yank his shirt off. Zoro had promised after all…

"No. We're taking a nap. I'm tired," Zoro replied, cock blocking Luffy before he even got started.

"Aw!" the rubber man whined as Zoro sat down. He deposited the skinny boy into his lap, laying his swords on the ground simultaneously. "But you promised!"

"I said after the adventure, remember? We're not done here yet," Zoro reminded him. "Now calm down." He wrapped his arms around Luffy and pulled him closer to his chest, resting his chin on his boyfriend's head. Luffy pouted but still snuggled into his broad chest.

"You're mean," he grumbled. However, he was enticed by his boyfriend's comforting warmth and found that taking a nap might be the best idea right now. He was exhausted from everything they'd done today, from getting shot up into the sky by the Knock Up Stream to finding Skypiea and having to search for his crew and fight a crazy priest.

"No, I'm being sensible," Zoro replied. "I don't want to hear any complaining about it tomorrow so we're not doing it."

Luffy nodded in response, already finding himself dozing off. He brought one of his arms in line with Zoro's and threaded their fingers together. He liked holding Zoro's hand a lot, but it embarrassed the swordsman every time he tried to do it in public. But right now, he didn't have a problem. Zoro squeezed Luffy's hand back and softly went to kiss his head, but that damn hat was in the way. He used the hand not holding Luffy's to pluck the hat off his head and slid it behind his back like he always did. Now he could kiss Luffy's head, and he smiled as he heard a content sound slip out of the sleepy man's mouth. Neither of them said a word for a few minutes but that was due to both having dozed off almost instantly when the quiet set in.

Twenty minutes passed quickly, and Sanji sent Usopp off to find the pair and tell them dinner was ready and that's where the sniper found them, curled up like two bugs in a rug. He giggled at them both quietly and waved Chopper over to take a peek, the reindeer smiling happily as he saw his friends napping peacefully. But then they had to wake them up eventually and the group wandered back into the camp to eat, the boyfriends yawning at the same time.

"Have a nice nap?" Nami teased, giving the pair a once-over.

"Yeah!" Luffy answered perkily. "A good sleep!"

"Great. Then sit down and we'll go over everything while we eat." Nami then explained how things were going to go down the next day (with several interruptions as Luffy pissed Sanji off by constantly coming back for more stew to the point where the cook slammed the pot lid into his captain's face). Once they got past that, and after several more interruptions, the crew finally had a plan: they would split into two teams and one team would stay with the Merry and sail her to the eastern side of the island to pick up the other team, who was going gold hunting once they'd snagged all they could. And that pretty much wrapped up the meeting.

But a lot of things happened really quickly after dinner because Robin wanted to douse the fires to hide their location from enemies on the island, but Luffy and Usopp wanted the fires because you had to have a campfire when camping. Then Nami agreed with Robin because she didn't want the island's monsters (priests, guerillas, and actual monsters) to kill them and then Chopper got scared and started worrying about said monsters. Then Sanji and Zoro popped in and showed Luffy their impressive stack of wood that they'd Lincoln-Logged into a pile, which was for the bonfire the captain had planned to have. And then to top it off, they got attacked by wolves who were disturbed by the Straw Hats' noise, but Nami punched the mean right out of the leader when he said that everything belonged to them (which she assumed included the gold and she wasn't letting anyone get in the way of her and her gold). And then they had a party. So, it was pretty much a normal night for the crew, minus the wolves, of course, because none of them had had a party with a pack of wolves before.

"CAMPFIRE!" Luffy shouted, getting the party started. The bonfire was lit, the booze was passed out, surprisingly most of it from the Cloud Wolves, and soon, everyone was dancing and laughing and drinking, proclaiming the party a festival on the night before gold hunting. Chopper was riding one of the wolves because he was so short, and Sanji was calling Robin to come join in on the fun. The archeologist just smiled and continued sipping her drink. Even Zoro was clinking bottles and cups with the wolves, finding a drinking partner with hardly any effort. Gan Fall eventually joined the party too but took a more sedate approach and just watched as everyone enjoyed themselves.

"Tomorrow the treasure's ours!" Luffy shouted, holding up Sanji's soup ladle like a scepter.

"Aye! Treasure!" Chopper answered just as loudly.

"Tomorrow!" Sanji added, dancing around with a very pretty girl wolf. And then Luffy was tackled by a wolf as a game and Sanji tackled the wolf and then another wolf plus Usopp jumped on top of him and they all came tumbling down. But they all got up and started partying again just as rambunctiously as before.

"Zoro! Dance with me!" Luffy called from between two Cloud Wolves. The trio was up on their hind legs, kicking and prancing around the bonfire, howling like the wild animals they were. It looked like fun. Zoro left his drinking companion what remained in his tankard and went to join his boyfriend at the bonfire.

What Luffy had meant by "dancing" ended up being Zoro lifting the short man onto his shoulders and keeping him from falling off while he waved his arms and wiggled up in the air. "I'm tall!" he laughed, howling with the wolves as they sent up a chorus to the moon.

"You're about to be much shorter if you lean back any further!" Zoro sweated, trying to keep Luffy from falling off by grabbing his legs as the rubber man leaned even further back. Zoro lost his footing and fell back in a heap with Luffy, both men giggling and a little tipsy from the drinking, and they ended up rolling on the ground, starting up a cacophony of laughter from everyone else, including the wolves.

The night was young, and they had much to be excited about. Only after the fire had died down and the booze had run out, did the crew and the wolves finally drift off into sleep in a huge dog pile, minus Robin and Nami who found their own places on the ground. Sanji's head was on the belly of a wolf, his foot resting on Usopp's thigh, and the sniper's head was on the ground while his lower body was draped across another wolf. And Zoro, Luffy, and Chopper? They were all huddled together in a mess of Cloud Wolves, all limbs and no space, but they still slept peacefully on, dreaming about the adventure and the gold waiting for them in the morning.

Hell and High Lightning

"Soon, your body will know the power of God!" Eneru sneered, handing upside down in the air. Zoro was running at the so-called "god," his blades out and baying for blood. This bastard had hurt Gan Fall and Robin, and the swordsman was so done with this shit. His blades moved, slicing a stone pillar easily, but the man he'd wanted to cut was made of lightning, and even with his torso and legs separated, he did not die. The man shimmered, the two pieces of his body glowing blue-white, his skin sparking and crackling with electricity. "I have a tremendous power that you puny humans cannot ever hope to overcome! Can you feel it now? The despair?! If one loses all hope, it is an experience not unlike losing one's life."

Eneru solidified again and grabbed each of Zoro's swords in his hands, still hanging upside down without a care in the world. He cackled delightedly as he sent a wave of electricity through Zoro's beloved swords and straight into the man's body. The swordsman screamed in agony as his body seized in pain. Once his swords were released, he fell to the ground, groaning pitifully.

"People fear death above all things," the god continued as if he hadn't just sent the man in front of him to his knees. He flipped right side up and stomped on Zoro's face, pressing his cheek into the rough stones they stood on. "That's why people prostrate themselves before an insurmountable power and beg for mercy! It is simply the natural order of things. Beings are meant to bow before that which they fear. It's a shame that you're bound by your instincts."

While the blowhard was blathering on, he was interrupted by the guerilla, a Shandorian, leaping onto him and wrapping his legs around Eneru's waist. Zoro was freed as the other man and reluctant ally pressed a Reject Dial into the god's chest, and resolved to die trying to take back his homeland, the vearth all around them. Eneru couldn't escape this because the guerilla was using Sea Prism Stone as well, which negated the lightning man's Devil Fruit powers. That was the first time the god actually seemed panicked. The Dial went off, obliterating Eneru, and for a moment, it seemed that they had won. The Shandorian, Wyper, stood tall and proud and bleeding over the tyrant who had controlled their lives and the Skypieans for so long. Zoro almost passed out as a wave of relief at believing the battle was won pulled at him.

But then, the god's body sparked, a pulse rippling across his skin. He started to glow as the pulse continued, and both Zoro and Wyper were horrified to realize with Nami's help that Eneru was restarting his own heart! They both tried to move, to kill the bastard before he got up, but they could both barely stay conscious, let alone move fast enough. When the lightning man stood up again, he wiped out the Shandorian who was already half-dead from using the Reject Dial, but Zoro wasn't giving up quite yet. He grabbed one of the Shandorian's Skate-Type Wavers, which had the Sea Prism Stone in it, and charged Eneru again.

"And now it's your turn, swordsman of the Blue Sea," Eneru drawled, as he tapped his left shoulder drum with his golden staff and started to intone his attack.

"The only choice now is to kill or be killed!" Zoro yelled, swinging his sword.

"Kiten!" the lightning man sent out an electrified wolf which sprang at the swordsman, its vicious mouth open and roaring before it bit into his skin.

Pain. Blinding, unending pain, and despair. Electricity coursed through Zoro's veins, lighting up every single nerve in his body, burning every cell and hair, charring his very soul as the lightning wolf that Eneru sent at him sunk his fangs deep into his chest. He couldn't feel normally anymore, everything was so intensified and arduous to process outside the bounds of the agony of being electrocuted. The electricity? Terrifying suffering. Dropping his swords? Heartbreaking failure. Hitting the ground? Inconsequential. Knowing that he'd failed his captain and his crew in their search for gold and his duty to protect his friends? Tortuous anguish.

He'd faced God and lost, falling with his allies and supposed enemies. Chopper…Robin…Nami…Gan Fall… they were lost too, all because he couldn't even touch the man ruining everything on the island. Who could even touch lightning? Who could go up against that and not die in the process? They couldn't defeat him if they couldn't touch him, it was that simple. Eneru was almighty but for the wrong reasons. Zoro wished he could've knocked him down a few pegs, but it all happened so fast. Now he was on the ground, his skin burned, and he was losing consciousness. He hadn't even found Luffy yet, hadn't even seen any of the gold they were looking for. But none of that mattered now because the blackness was setting in, blocking out everything as the last of the lightning left his body, sparking its way into the ground beneath him.

He didn't see or hear anything, not Wyper standing up once more only to fall, not Nami leaving with Eneru, not Luffy and Isa and Pierre falling out of the snake's mouth and landing with a lot of noise. He didn't hear Luffy shouting that he'd finally gotten out of the snake. All of that was lost on Zoro, the act of barely breathing tiresome for his charred body.

"WE'RE FREE!" Luffy screamed, running up the nearest building and throwing his arms into the air. "We finally made it out! Whoo-hoo! Where are we? What are these old buildings?" Isa was right behind him, running up to the top of the stone ruin and looking around. It was a city, a stone city that was crumbling and overgrown with vines and moss, but it was still amazing. "This looks like the place where that huge golden bell is supposed to be!"

"What is this place?" Isa asked, the little girl trying to riddle out where they'd ended up. "Wait…could this be our homeland?" Her eyes opened wide, seeing Shandora for the first time in her life. Luffy was doing the same thing, looking around to see what there was to see.

"Your homeland?" he asked, spotting a huge hole in the ground not far from them. "Not bad! But where did that big hole come from?" And then he didn't say anything else, having seen something that made his heart nearly stop.

His stomach rolled in fear as the bodies down on the ground started to look familiar. His eyes widened and he leaped off the building holding his hat to his head, leaving Isa behind to complain about him leaving her. Luffy ran as fast as he could, heading to the spot with the big hole desperately. When he got there, he was horrified to figure out that what he'd thought had happened had actually happened. They were lying on the ground, seemingly dead, their bodies dark and charred like something had roasted them. Chopper…Robin…Old Knight Guy…that weird guerrilla…and Zoro! Luffy dashed over to his boyfriend, his heart twisting in worry. He grabbed the man's shoulders and lifted him, shaking, trying to get him to wake up, trying to see past the burnt skin and blood in search of some sign of life.

"Hey! Zoro!" he called, his voice nearly breaking with worry and fear. "What's wrong with you?! Say something!" Please don't be dead! Zoro didn't wake up and get mad at him for disturbing his nap, he didn't wake up and ask where they were, and he didn't wake up, period. It was like he was dead. But Zoro couldn't be dead! He was strong! He was tough enough to beat up almost anybody!

"How could this have happened to you? How could any of this have happened with you here?" Luffy's voice dropped, horror dawning on him. He leaned down and rested his head against the man's shoulder, holding back a few tears. "Zoro…" And then he heard something soft brushing against his skin. Breath. Zoro was still breathing!

Luffy smiled in relief, his head popping up as he realized that the man he loved was still alive. But that joy was wiped away as he also realized that someone on the island was stronger than Zoro and the rest of his crew and that someone was going to get an ass-kicking for hurting his friends! He carefully laid Zoro back down on the ground, his hands trembling in anger as he gently pressed a kiss onto his boyfriend's forehead. An unrestrained fury kindled in Luffy's belly, spurred on by Pierre's squawks as he tried to get the Old Knight Guy to wake up. It was spurred on by Isa's screams and sobs of "Wyper!" as she cried over the guerrilla. It was spurred on by the fact that Nami was gone and that Robin was barely breathing as she explained what had happened to Luffy while being held in his arms. She painstakingly explained that Nami was with Eneru and that Eneru was planning to destroy Skypiea. Luffy needed to find that bastard and teach him the consequences of hurting his crew. Eneru was going to pay dearly for hurting his friends and threatening the rest of the Skypiea!

"I know where they are," Isa said, trembling in anger. "There are only two voices left on the island." She was also fearful that her newly found homeland would disappear before her eyes if she didn't do something. "They're Nami and Eneru."

"Isa…" Luffy said, his voice dropping low as he set Robin back down carefully so she could rest. "I need you to take me to them right now!" he raged, his eyes burning with determination. Eneru…you're going to wish that you'd never met me!

Luffy's fists balled up, ready to destroy God in the name of his injured crew, ready to beat down the unbeatable in retaliation for his friends. Nothing was going to get in his way. He left Robin with the others, trusting her to take care of them as much as she could, as he walked away, dead set on avenging his fallen comrades.

Saved by the Bell

It rang. It rang for all to hear, clear and pure as its voice rattled the heavens. The bell sparkled in the brilliant sun that had been hidden behind the angry thunderclouds, ringing even as it fell from its four-hundred-year perch in the sky. The bell dropped into the White-White Sea, ringing until its voice was drowned by the clouds, the joyful song flowing across the island.

The fight is over! it said. The fight is over!

And for several people down in the Blue Sea World, it had another message: We are here! We were here all along! Montblanc Cricket smiled, feeling very much at peace knowing that his ancestor had been telling the truth about the City of Gold. He was also thankful for the sound of the golden bell, as now he knew that those crazy kids who'd wanted to get themselves shot up into the sky were all fine. He couldn't help but smirk as Luffy's giant shadow spanned the sky, illuminated by the sun brightly shining through the clouds. His signature straw hat was clear to everyone on Jaya – all the believers, the dreamers, and the doubters could see him and know that the Sky Islands really existed if they cared to look up.

And up on a little cloud still hanging in the sky after Eneru's final Raigo, two people were resting from their ordeals, listening to the ringing of the bell far below them as it sank into the cloud-sea. Luffy was lying on his back, looking up at the sky and Nami sat next to him grinning ear to ear, the waver next to them, forgotten for the moment.

"It rang," Luffy said, breaking their silence. "Hey, I wonder if Pops heard it." Luffy had rung the bell for him, for Cricket and his ancestor Noland, to prove that the City of Gold wasn't a lie, that it really did exist. "I hope he did."

"Yeah, I'm sure he did," Nami replied quietly. She didn't say anything else for a while; just let them both rest after all their trouble. But there was a pressing question that she wanted to be answered. "How the hell are we going to get down?" Nami asked, sighing and flopping back with her captain.

"No clue. We'll figure it out," he replied.

"How the hell do we figure our way off a cloud in the middle of the sky?"

"We figured out how to get up here, so we can get down. You are a navigator; you can get us anywhere! I trust you!" Luffy chuckled good-naturedly, showing confidence in his crewmate.

"We had a giant beanstalk to ride up the first time!" She huffed, trying to think her way out of this one. "We have no beanstalk, no sails or rudder like a ship and you still expect me to get us down!?"

"Yep!" Luffy laughed louder. Nami glared at the rubber man, ticked off by his laid-back nature for the millionth time, but then she noticed the waver behind him and an idea started to form. The navigator smiled, her grin stretching wide maliciously.

"Naaaammmiiii…" Luffy dragged out as he squatted beneath the waver's jet dial a few minutes later, tipping the scooter's back end into the sky and the front end down into the island cloud. "This might be crazier than the idea you came up with the beanstalk…"

"Well, you said that you trusted me to get us down so now you have to!" Nami grinned evilly, balancing carefully on the waver, her hands ready to rev the machine.

"Okay…" Luffy still believed in his navigator, but to be honest, he'd rather just take his chances jumping off the cloud and catching himself with Gum-Gum Balloon or something like that. However, Nami said it was too dangerous for her and her new plan was sounding just as reckless as his plan had been.

"We're going back down! Ready?" Nami asked, giving her captain a pointed look.

"Ready!" He braced his arms and legs for the impact of the powerful Jet Dial.

"I'm not going full throttle – no need to destroy ourselves when we hit the ground – but this is going to be risky!" Nami stated, gripping the controls.

"Do it, Nami!" Luffy smiled readily at the challenge.

"Okay!" The navigator revved the engine, gunning it as fast as she dared. The Jet Dial on the waver shot air out of its back, pushing the front end into the island cloud, straining at Luffy's hold. The rubber man held his stance and propped up the Dial so that they could drive the island cloud down to the ground as safely as possible. The cloud started moving, pushed by the wind of the Jet Dial, and started to fall, gaining speed as it was moved from its spot in the sky. "It's working, Luffy! Just hang on! I'm going a little faster!"

"Great!" he replied, and then shit hit the fan. Nami increased the power of the Jet Dial and the cloud unexpectedly shot down to the ground, faster than she was expecting, Nami screamed, cutting the engine as the two of them raced towards the Upper Yard at breakneck speed. Seeing the trouble, Luffy let go of the waver and jumped in front of Nami, wrapping his arms around her and the waver as the ground loomed behind them.

"Gum-Gum….BALLOON!" Luffy took a deep breath and inflated himself just in time as the island cloud crashed into a building and disappeared in a poof. He acted as a buffer for Nami and stopped their momentum, bouncing only a few times after breaking through the roof before letting all his air out and skidding to a stop, Nami and the waver crushing him.

"Nami…please get off…" he whined, not feeling pain so much as compression. The navigator opened her eyes, finding herself safe on the ground and on top of her captain.

"Sorry!" she apologized and jumped off the waver, rolling the contraption off of his as well. Luffy sighed in relief as his chest was freed and he sat up, looking around. "Well, that could've gone better," she sighed.

"It worked out okay! Where are we?" he asked. And then he saw it: food! Wherever they were, there was food here! "Nami! Food! Look! Food!" Luffy leaped up and started stuffing his face with the fruits and meats that were stored in the building they'd crashed through. The woman looked at her surroundings, trying to come up with an explanation.

"It looks like a storehouse," she concluded. "This must be where the priests kept their food.

"'Whoo ares?" Luffy said, his mouth fuller than a chipmunk's cheeks. "It's mine now!"

"Save some for the others!" Nami snapped baring her fangs. Her stomach grumbled too, not having had anything to eat since that morning, and she blushed in embarrassment. But Luffy wasn't paying attention, still stuffing his face, and the navigator figured that it wouldn't hurt to have a little snack. Then they could get back to the ship, and so they did.

Back in Shandora, the rest of the Straw Hats were getting themselves put back together after their latest adventure, a lot of aches and pains accompanying their battles.

"So, did you have a chance to patch him up?" Zoro asked, as Chopper finished with Wyper and started bandaging up his wounds.

"Yes. All he needs now is rest." the doctor replied, tightening the swordsman's bandages. Usopp and Sanji had patched each other up after Chopper had looked at them and Robin was resting near them as well, looking worse for wear like the rest of them.

They were still two people short, even though Luffy had kicked the shit out of Eneru and dislodged the golden bell from the sky. It was worrying, not being able to get any news on how they were doing or where they were. Zoro looked up at the sky, trying to see if there was any sign of his captain and navigator, but all he could see was clouds. He sighed, dead tired. Luffy would come back to them with Nami in tow, he needed to believe that. Usopp and Sanji were talking quietly, worrying about Luffy and Nami and Conis like they all were, but their conversation was interrupted by a loud, obnoxious yell.

"HEEEEEYYYYY!" The crew turned their heads towards whoever was yelling, their faces lighting up as Nami, Luffy, and Conis ran towards them, the rubber man dragging the hugest bag behind him, his face full of meat. Usopp leaped up and cheered as their friends approached, and everyone had a big smile on their faces.

"NAMI! CONIS!" Sanji shouted, hearts in his eyes.

"LUFFY!" Usopp finished, jumping up and down.

"We're back!" Conis shouted, starting to cry as she saw that all her friends were safe. "I'm so glad you're okay! I was worried that I wouldn't see any of you again!" Su the Cloud Fox chirped happily with her.

"Ahhhhh!~" Sanji twirled in elation as the beautiful woman worried over him. "She was worried!"

"Oh please," Usopp said skeptically, folding his arms and rolling his eyes at the cook.

"Zoro!" Luffy leaped at the swordsman, letting Zoro catch him as he glommed onto his neck. He managed to perfectly situate himself in his boyfriend's lap on the first try. "Robin! Sanji! Chopper! Usopp! We're back!" he shouted, sticking a whole hunk of meat into his mouth.

"Very attractive," Zoro commented, wrapping his boyfriend in a hug. Now that the idiot was in his embrace, he was going to keep him there for a while in compensation for all of them almost dying several times that day. "But I'm glad you guys grabbed some food." He quirked a thumb at the nearly building-high bag of grub. "Where's it from?"

"We found the priest's storehouse on our way back through the forest. And Conis too!" Nami explained.

"There was a lot more!" Luffy said through a mouth full of meat and Zoro wasn't surprised that he'd already eaten a chunk of the hoard.

"How'd you guys find your way back down?" Usopp asked. Luffy flashed the Victory sign.

"We drove a cloud down and then Gum-Gum Balloon!" Zoro saw that Conis was looking down over the bag of food, surprised that her father wasn't with her.

"Conis, where's your old man?" Zoro asked, pushing Luffy's face out of the way.

"Well…he…protected me." Conis' face furrowed up in sorrow as she remembered her father's sacrifice in the face of Heaven's Judgment, pushing her out of harm's way at the cost of his own life. "And Eneru…" she started, tears spilling down her face.

"Don't tell me…" Chopper whispered, his horrified face reflecting the faces of the crew. Conis' head dropped, confirming their fears.

"I'm sorry," Sanji said solemnly, speaking for the whole crew. They'd all grown attached to Conis and Pagaya, the father and daughter having helped them so many times on their journey that it was heartbreaking to find out that Pagaya had died.

"Yeah, me too," a chipper voice added.

"Me three," Luffy said quietly as well. And that's when everyone noticed that someone had joined them. They all snapped their heads around to find Pagaya standing behind them.

"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!" they all shouted, pointing at the man.

"Sorry, but I'm alive!" Pagaya held up his hands defensively. Conis' face lit up, the joy of seeing her father alive overwhelming her.

"Father!" She ran into his arms, crying in joy this time as Pagaya explained that he'd been pushed down into the White Sea instead of being killed by Eneru's lightning, and he'd been with the other Skypieans that had evacuated the area and were heading to Cloud End when Eneru was planning to wipe out the Sky Islands. Now, all the ships that had left were coming back up to Upper Yard since they didn't have any other home to go back to. All of that was reason for celebration, so the crew and the pair ate their hearts out until the huge bag of food was gone and the sun had started to sink far below them.

"Ah!" Usopp sighed, his belly full and looking as fat as Luffy's. "Boy! I stuffed myself!"

"Well, it's getting pretty late, you guys," Zoro noted, leaning back carefully on his bandaged arms.

"It's time to hit the ship!" Nami added. Usopp and Luffy snapped their heads around to glare at the navigator.

"Whoa, you're not talking about leaving, are you?" Luffy asked, his voice judgmental. Zoro just smiled, knowing exactly where this was going.

"Relax!" Nami replied. "All I meant was that it would be a nice change of pace to go back to the ship and sleep in a warm bed!" Usopp's and Luffy's eyes narrowed, their mouths frowning.

"Usopp, can you believe what she just said?" Luffy asked.

"Hardly! It's sick!" The sniper turned his long nose up at her. "I mean, the thought doesn't even cross her mind to go out and look for gold! And she calls herself a pirate!"

"You can't be serious!?" Nami retorted, staring back at the two idiots staring back at her. They hummed, disappointed in the navigator. Nami growled at them. "How would you like fat lips to go with your fat bellies!?" She shouted so loud that what was left of Giant Jack the beanstalk shook at her voice. They both turned their noses up at her and Nami retaliated by punching both of them in the face.

The rest of the crew just laughed at Luffy and Usopp rolled across the main thoroughfare of Shandora and crashed into each other before running into a building. Their joyful laughter carried over the forest and drew the returning Skypieans and Shandorians to them. When the two groups met at the ruins, the hard feelings and bloodshed between them dissolved into shouts of celebration as everyone had survived Eneru's tyranny together. That wasn't to say that problems wouldn't surface later, but for now, it was time to put those grudges behind them and revel in the majesty of the City of Gold and the fact that they were all still alive. And of course, the Straw Hat crew was the life of the party, helping build an impossibly giant bonfire in the middle of the city and dancing the night away as the Skypieans and the Shandorians joined in on the festivities.

The only really shocking thing that happened was when the giant snake made its appearance, scaring the shit out of everyone until the beast smiled in its snakey way and started dancing, continuing the party. Voices shouted in festive choruses, hands banged on drums of peace, and celebration and laughter rose and fell like the tides, accompanied by the sparking and whooshing of the giant fire lighting up the night. Dancing hand in hand, the Skypieans and the Shandorians celebrated their victory, and a few brave souls scaled the Lord of the Sky and danced on her snakey head as she roared with her new friends.

The whole party was wild as Shandorians and Skypieans celebrated together, their long war finally ended. But not only were the two peoples enjoying their newfound peace, but a rambunctious band of pirates was celebrating their own victories as well. Sanji was dancing with a Skypiean woman, Laki was laughing with the White Beret Captain, McKinley, Zoro was having a friendly drinking competition with a Shandorian named Braham, Robin was sitting quietly with Kamakiri, another Shandorian, Nami was jumping around with Old Lady Amazon from the White Sea entrance, and Pagaya was having the time of his life making up a silly dance routine with another Shandorian man. To any onlooker, the party was pure chaos. The fires of victory lit up the night until dawn and continued through the day until night fell, again and again, and again for four days. There was nothing in the world that could've stopped the festivities, the light hearts and joyous shouts happy and loud until everyone ended up passing out on the fourth day out of pure exhaustion.

And in the middle of it all, the tiny Straw Hat crew huddled together in snores and tangles of limbs. They were the sole reason for throwing this world into chaos and bringing it back together again, thanks to one man and his crazy ideas, who was currently curled up next to his first mate and navigator contently.

"You still owe me sexy times," Luffy whispered to Zoro when he was sure the rest of the crew was asleep.

"I know," the swordsman replied without opening his eyes, pulling Luffy closer to him. "Sleep first, sex later," he said with a yawn.

"It's a promise," Luffy replied with his own yawn. They were out in two minutes flat, but Luffy was the one to wake Zoro up three hours later, yanking the green-haired man to his feet and dragging him off towards the ship, unable to wait any longer for his promised night with his first mate. He just hoped that they didn't get lost on the way there.

What they didn't know was that two pairs of eyes watched them leave and both women said nothing as their captain and fellow swordsman disappeared into the trees.

Down to Earth

Okay, they had been expecting Cloud End to be an end of some sort, just not the end that they ended up with. The Merry was freefalling through the sky, the Milky Road they'd traveled on for all of fifteen seconds, dropping off into nothingness. Conis and Pagaya were waving to them up on the shore of the White Sea, huge smiles on their faces as the Straw Hats fell.

Luffy and Zoro had woken up from the nap they'd been taking on the deck to say goodbye to Conis and her father and to get a last glimpse of the Sky Island, but they were thinking that they just should've stayed asleep, that way they could've died peacefully. The whole crew had been lively, taking in the sails and readying the ship for the drop down the Milky Road that Conis and Pagaya had warned them about (well, they hadn't really said anything about a Milky Road, but it was just assumed that there was one) and then the South Bird they'd brought up to the Sky Islands made his appearance, pissed that they were going to leave him behind. Then it was time to go down to the Blue Sea. And that's when it happened: the Merry had fallen off the edge of the sky without so much as a warning, the vast drop down to the ground looming below them.

The whole crew was scared shitless, their bodies levitating off the deck and into the open air as Conis' shout about a freefall faded away. Silence. There wasn't any screaming or shouting or yelling or praying, just dead silence as the Merry started the long descent down to the Blue Sea the hard way. The whole crew was reaching back for Cloud End, as if they could grab the ledge for safety, their eyes popping out of their heads in horror. Conis and Pagaya were still smiling at them from the short, their arms raised in farewell.

"Hesso!" Conis shouted with a huge smile, and then they dropped out of sight as the Merry fell at lightning speed. That's when the screaming started.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The whole crew lost their minds. They were going to fall all the way down to the Blue Sea and smash into the ocean at exponential speeds! The ship would crack, and shatter, and they'd all be dead! If the fall didn't kill them, then the ocean would! A shrill whistle broke the horrified screams of everyone on the Merry and something pink leaped out of the White Sea, latching onto the ship and expanding above her. It was a huge octopus!"

"OCTOPUS!" Usopp screamed as his eyes popped back into his head. Everyone regained their senses (and their eyes) and planted themselves on the deck. Zoro's hands were instantly on his swords, ready to cut up the monster that had their ship in its clutches.

He only got out a "What the-?!" before the ship came to a sudden and violent stop, throwing everyone down on the deck as their descent was halted. Unfortunately for Zoro, Luffy had landed on top of him, his own fall combining with the swordsman's for double the ouch.

"Well, that hurt!" Nami exclaimed, sitting up. Luffy sat up next, having had a little cushion to his fall.

"What happened?" he asked, and then he looked down to see what was under him. It was Zoro and his face was screwed up in pain. And that's when Luffy noticed where he was sitting. "Oh. Those your jewels?"

"G…get…o…off…m…me…" Zoro choked out, the unbearable pain of having his crotch slammed into at the speed they had been going by a solid body making it hard to even think straight let alone form a proper sentence. And Luffy hopped off of him, running to the side of the ship to see what the octopus was doing.

"Hey, guys!" he shouted, leaping up onto the railing. "Get a load of this!"

"What the hell is it?" Zoro asked, his hand pressed to his crotch to relieve some of the pain (and to protect it from any more incidents).

"A balloon?" Chopper asked.

"Shishishi! Yeah! Ain't it great!?" Luffy laughed.

"We're not falling!" Nami shouted happily.

"Oh good!" Usopp sighed, wiping the scared tears off his face. "For a minute there I thought we were goners! All of us!"

As the crew settled down again, they heard the unmistakable sound of the golden bell ringing far above them, having been pulled from the White-White Sea earlier that morning. The bell rang on and on as if to wish the pirates safe travels, to thank them for saving Skypiea, and to send wishes to come back soon. Of course, if the crew could've heard the shouts of gratitude from the Upper Yard, that's exactly what the people were saying. The pirates smiled, listening to the pure sound of the bell echoing from the dreamland they were leaving behind. But it was okay; they could come back someday if they wanted.

"Shishishi! This is great!" Luffy called, his smile widening as the bell rang on and on.

"You're telling me! What a way to travel! I love it!" Usopp laughed too, leaning over the rail to look at the sea far below them. Despite being happy at the send-off, Zoro growled and carefully scooted over to sit against the mast, tenderly moving so his aching crotch didn't flare up at him angrily.

"You okay, Zoro?" Luffy asked, walking over to the older man and reaching out to touch his groin, concerned about the hurt he'd caused. Zoro's hand grabbed Luffy's wrist, catching his hand before he could do it.

"Don't touch!" he snapped, still nursing his pain.

"Oh, come on! I'm just trying to help! I'm sorry!" Luffy apologized while still trying to see how bad it was, and Zoro wasn't having any of that.

"Get away from me!" But Luffy tackled him, and they started to roll across the deck and Zoro tried to get the rubber man off of him once again and Luffy just kept trying to pull his pants down to check on his groin. The rest of the crew watched the two imbeciles rolling around and Sanji blew out a puff of smoke before speaking.

"Well, they got that much closer real fast, those idiots," he sighed, walking away before he got run over by the pair. "But I guess that's what happens when you see someone naked in bed."

"They were naked in bed?!" Chopper shouted, mortified, and then he remembered that they'd taken baths together naked all the time, so he didn't get it anymore. "What's wrong with that, Sanji?"

"Nothing, it's just that…" Sanji motioned Chopper and Usopp in close and then whispered in their ears. What he told them was what had happened between Luffy and Zoro the night before in the simplest terms he could, which had both doctor and sniper falling to the deck in mortification at being privy to that information.

When they hit the deck, Luffy and Zoro stopped rolling around, Zoro's foot planted in Luffy's stomach to hold him off as the rubber man reached for his hips, and they stared at the pair joining them on the floor. They'd heard what was going on and Zoro was blushing as his private life was now completely out in the open. Luffy, on the other hand, just laughed, amused by the whole situation and glad that everyone was on the same page now.

"Shishishi! This is fun!" Luffy chuckled.

"Oh, can it!" Zoro huffed, kicking the rubber man off him and crossing his arms moodily.

"You're the one that should can it," Sanji called, riling up Zoro even more.

"What did you say!?" Zoro snapped, glaring at the cook. Luffy took his opportunity of distraction to jump the swordsman, careful not to land on his hips, and tackled him to the ground again in a hug.

"Luffy! Get off of me! I'm still mad at you!"

"Never!" The rubber man smiled an impossibly large smile as he laughed.

"Take that grin and shove it up your ass!"

"No, that's what you do!" Luffy shot back.

"Hey!" Zoro once again tried to pry his captain off him, but it didn't work, Luffy had a tight grip on the swordsman, and he wasn't letting go this time; Zoro just had to deal with it.

"That's our captain," Robin chuckled, as she watched from the sidelines. "Always making a ruckus." While the fall down to the ground again wasn't going to be a peaceful one, it was going to be fun nonetheless, as long as Luffy and the rest of the crew were around to make it interesting.

To be Continued...

A/N: And there you go! Stay tuned for some more updates headed your way pretty quickly now! See you all later! :3