One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.

-Chapter Twenty-Six-

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Usopp agreed, "because when I think about it, I get really thirsty" he panted as Chopper and I nodded in agreement. Despite coming to this conclusion, Sanji and Luffy still continued to go at it. Only coming to a halt when they noticed the group of birds walking past with all our stuff.

"Give us our stuff back, you thieves!" Luffy shouted, rushing straight for the birds the moment they took flight in an attempt to get away.

"No, Luffy! Don't chase them!" Vivi cried out.

"That idiot!" Sanji irritably groaned.

"Wait—will you be able to find your way back?!" Nami called out.

"Probably not" I said, causing the ginger to groan.

"Get back here, you dope! Luffy!" Usopp snapped.

"He's not going to listen, and besides, he's already too far gone" I said.

"I know, but it was at least worth a shot" Usopp sighed as his shoulders deflated in defeat.

-Later-

"Do you think Luffy's doing alright?" I asked.

"It's Luffy, so of course" Zoro responded as he leaned back against the rock behind us.

"Yeah, that's true...but he's been gone for quite a while..." I mumbled, biting my lower lip in worry.

"Zoro's right, the idiot's fine" Nami sighed. "Even if he is taking forever in getting back..." she grumbled.

"I just wish he would hurry it up so we can get moving" Usopp groaned, fanning his face with his hand in some desperate attempt to cool himself off.

"You don't suppose he got lost, do you...?" Chopper weakly asked, sprawled out on the ground and currently dying from the heat.

"He has absolutely no sense of direction, but he's always running off" Nami huffed.

"Hey, kind of like you, Zoro" I teased, earning a couple of chuckles from the others.

"Oi!" he snapped.

"There are still so many desert dangers I have yet to have the chance to warn him about yet" Vivi wistfully sighed, bringing back up the problem at hand as she worriedly stared out into the vast desert before us.

"Not to mention the moron was hungry, so you know that he's not thinking straight" Sanji pointed out.

"That's for sure" I hummed, gaze flickering to the side the moment I spotted movement as Zoro pushed himself up into a stand.

"The guy's so hopeless" he irritably sighed.

"You can say that again" Sanji agreed, standing as well.

"I'm sorry, I know my brother can be a handful—I apologize" Ace apologized to the two that were now starting to take off.

"Hey, hold on a minute, I'm coming too" I jumped up from my spot, quick to jog after the two only to come to a halt the moment I felt Zoro's hand make contact with my chest.

"Nope, you're staying here with the others" he shook his head.

"Oh? Says who?" I asked, an eyebrow raised as I placed my hands on my hips.

"Says me—we won't be too long, besides, three's a crowd" he simply argued, standing his ground in his decision to not let me tag along.

"Oh?" I tilted of my head. "So just because your hand is groping my chest that automatically puts you in charge of me? How sexist of you!" I giggled as I watched how quick he was to draw his hand back and away from my chest as if he had just been burned.

"J-just stay here, alright!" he fumbled with a snap, huffing as he turned away and stalked off before any more could be said. Sanji narrowed his eyes as he quickly followed, now angrily chewing the swordsman out and triggering a fight between the two of them as they began to bicker like normal. I huffed before feeling the way the corners of my mouth curled upwards in amusement, quietly laughing at just how flustered he had gotten. It wasn't like I was all that hellbent on going with them, I just thought it'd be more entertaining to go searching for the captain than staying stuck here where there was nothing else to do other than slowly being cooked alive by the desert heat.

"Good luck finding him" Usopp said.

"Yeah..." Sanji dismissively muttered.

"What's that?" Chopper asked when the ground suddenly started to shake.

"Earthquake?" I suggested before piles of sand were suddenly thrown into the air as something shot out of the ground and came barreling toward us. Instantly did my hands fly down to the handles of my swords, my body wobbling as I quickly regained my balance.

"What on earth is that rumbling? Is it another sandstorm?" Usopp frowned as he pulled down his goggles so he could attempt to get a closer look at whatever was happening in the distance. "No, wait," he hummed in thought as he adjusted his goggles, "that looks like...uh…it's Luffy!" he gaped as the distant sound of the captain's boisterous laughter soon carried through the arid air.

"Oh no, it can't be!" Nami frowned, dreading the idea of what kind of trouble the captain was bringing back with him now. "Why is he on a camel?" she asked, confused once she spotted the animal he was riding.

"He's on a camel?" I questioned, eyes squinting as I soon saw that she was right.

"Someone want to tell me what the hell's chasing him?" Sanji asked, more invested in the dust cloud currently chasing behind the captain than the camel he was riding.

"I can't really tell, but it looks like there's something in the sand burrowing after him" Zoro responded over the sound of Usopp and Chopper's panicked screams. "What is that?" he asked when the thing finally pulled itself out from underneath the sand

"Looks like a giant…lizard?" I suggested, brows furrowing in thought as I looked over the scaly beast that was currently chasing down our captain.

"It's a Sandora Dragon!" Vivi gasped.

"It's a what?!" Usopp cried.

"A Sandora Dragon—they're the biggest reptiles that live in the desert" Vivi explained. "They wait under the sand for their prey and then ambush them."

"I can see why" I nodded, admiring just how large and vibrant the reptilian was compared to the dusty landscape around it.

"They have razor-sharp teeth and claws, but they hardly use them because they are so incredibly huge that they usually just end up swallowing their victims whole" Vivi continued, going into far more detail than she really needed.

"I got to admit, that boy does have a talent for attracting trouble" Ace whistled.

"Right, and we have the scars to prove it" Sanji agreed.

"What kind of crap star was he born under to attract trouble like that?" Zoro asked right before he and the blond dashed forward.

"Whoa, camel! You're going too fast!" Luffy screamed as he tightly clung onto the animal he was riding so that he wouldn't be thrown off. Despite his concerns, it honestly did take much for him, Zoro, and Sanji to take down the Sandora Dragon as if it was nothing.

"They didn't have to go that far" Usopp whimpered.

"Whenever those guys fight, it almost makes me feel sorry for the monsters" Nami sighed in admittance.

"I don't know, with how big that thing was, I don't think they went overboard" I shrugged.

"You sure? Because to me it looked like they went overboard!" Usopp and Nami snapped.

"Huh? Another one!" the navigator soon cried when the ground behind us started to shake once again before another Sandora Dragon popped right out of the ground.

"I'm sorry, I guess I must have forgotten to mention that Sandora Dragons always hunt in pairs" Vivi apologized.

"Strange, you would think with how huge they are, they wouldn't want to work together" I hummed.

"Ace?" Nami questioned when the raven-haired man suddenly stood and started walking towards Sandora Dragon.

"Look out!" Vivi gasped in worried.

"You think you can handle that thing by yourself?" I asked, one hand now resting against the handles of my swords.

"Yeah, I'm sure" he nodded, clearly confident in himself as I nodded and took a step back as to give him his room. "Lots of pests in these deserts, don't you agree?" he casually asked. "You want to play? Well alright, if that's what you want" he grinned just as he dashed forward.

-Later-

"That power of yours is really quite amazing" I whistled, admiring the burnt carcass of the Sandora Dragon.

"It's alright" Ace shrugged in modesty, though the grin he wore showed how pleased he was with the praise. Luffy was quick to jump at the prospect of food the moment he saw the reptile's corpse upon arriving back at the group, eagerly pleading for Sanji to cook it right up. Something the blond clearly had no qualms about as he rolled up his sleeves and set off to work.

"This is convenient, these rocks are like natural frying pans" the blond grinned as he laid another piece of meat on top of a rock that had been cooking underneath the desert sun all day. Just like he said, the heat that came off of the rock caused the meat to sizzle as if it had just been laid to rest inside a hot pan.

"You know, I didn't expect it to taste so good" I hummed as I took another bite from the meat I had been served.

"So, now that we have a moment, what's the deal with the camel?" Zoro asked, settling down beside me with a plate of his own as he looked at the wild animal Luffy had brought back with him.

"What about him?" I asked. "As far as I'm concerned, he's not bothering anyone."

"You know that's not what I meant" he said with the roll of his eyes, lightly bumping me with his shoulder. Lightly did he grin as I stuck my tongue out and bumped him right back.

A/N: Enjoy

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