One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda
Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney
OCs belong to me.
-Chapter Thirty-Seven-
"Alright, slingshot boy, I'm going to shove that pillow so far down your throat you'll choke on it" Sanji menacingly threatened as he stood and crossed the room, stalking toward the long-nosed pirate like a man on a mission.
"I didn't expect men to get into this sort of fight" I whistled, giggling as I watched the men basically get into a pillow fight with one another like a bunch of pubescent girls having their first sleepover.
"You guys don't seem to understand the concept of—" Nami was interrupted by a stray pillow harshly hitting her. Growling, she angrily threw it right back down at the group of men in an attempt to hit whoever had thrown it first.
"I hope you're ready" Sanji sneered, cracking his knuckles as he rushed Usopp. Laughing at the scene before me, I soon got a mischievous glint in my eyes as I snatched up one of the stray pillows now lying around.
"Not you too" Nami groaned the moment I stood, feet sinking into the mattress and causing its springs to creak as I bounced—eyes now locked on target. I only chuckled as I brought the pillow above my head before quickly smacking it right against the back of Zoro's head.
"Gotcha!" I laughed, taking advantage of the way he stumbled in stunned surprise as I jumped onto his back and knocked us both down onto the floor. Laughter seemed to just erupt from everyone else in the room after a split second of silence as I now sat on top of Zoro's back, widely smiling up at them all as the swordsman groaned from underneath me.
-Later-
"You've sure grown a lot since the last time we saw one another..." I quietly muttered, staring through lidded eyes as I peacefully watched the swordsman beside me snooze away the night Unfortunately, there hadn't been enough beds. Luckily for me though—and much to Sanji's dismay—Zoro had offered to share before anyone else had a chance to do the same. Currently, everyone else was peacefully passed out asleep around the room with me being the only one still awake...
I couldn't sleep.
Which wasn't anything new, if I was being honest. Sometimes sleep came naturally and other times it didn't, tonight was no different as I lay there with my eyes open. Silently admiring just how calm and relaxed the man beside me was as he unknowingly mocked me with his ability to effortlessly fall asleep.
"Do you remember?" it was a simple question that received no answer other than a soundless snore. Shifting onto my back, I peered up at the ceiling as I now began to ponder my own question...part of me wanted to say that he did—part of me wanted to believe that he did, at least, and that's why things between us felt so natural like nothing had ever changed between us despite how much time had passed. But another part of me...a cynical part of me...tried to reason his behavior and explain away his actions as nothing more than simple playfulness between crewmates with a dash of teenage hormones. I mean, technically, he hasn't really said anything to verbally confirm anything...
I sighed, suddenly tired yet still unable to close my eyes.
Five years...
It's been five long years since we last saw each other and yet the way he still made my heart race with just his mere presence and bright smile and joyful laugh sent my mind in a tizzy and made my stomach flutter with butterflies. It felt silly to still harbor such feelings like the ones I had for him back then for so long...and yet, I couldn't fully deny their presence like I so clearly wanted to. He was my first crush after all and technically still is—I have yet to experience the same feelings I have for him toward anyone else since the last that I saw him. It felt like the moment he stepped back into my life and we began to fall back into our old routines and habits, I started to fall for him all over again much to my startled surprise.
I hated it.
At least that's what I told myself when in reality it actually scared me how big of an effect he seemed to just have on me without him even knowing. It's those feelings of mine that mainly scared me away and made it difficult for me to speak whenever I thought about confronting him myself—it's those feelings that made me want to recoil anytime I tried to take the reins because with those feelings came the simple yet overwhelming fear of rejection. What a horrible feeling that was. Rejection. It was one that I was all too familiar with and usually expected from everyone around me...and yet, the simple idea that he could possibly reject me and confess to having no recollection of who I was or the past we shared absolutely terrified me into cowardice. I wanted to push the responsibility of confrontation onto him and him alone to spare myself from such a familiar and agonizing pain.
I wanted him to be the one to take the leap and confess to me how much he missed me even if he only meant it in a platonic sense. I wanted him to be the one to reassure me that our time spent together during our youth all those years ago actually meant something to him and that he truly did fondly think back on them in the same way that I occasionally would in my darkest of ours...
That's all I wanted...
-The Next Morning-
"I'm so sorry that I didn't have more to offer you, Princess Vivi" Toto apologized.
"No, please don't worry about it" Vivi quickly reassured him. "Well, we should be off now, Toto" she softly smiled.
"Oh, Luffy, take this with you" the old man said, suddenly handing Luffy what appeared to be a canteen of water.
"Wow! Water!" the rubber man excitedly grinned the moment he saw the canteen.
"Water?!" Usopp happily echoed.
"You found some then?" Luffy asked.
"Yes—it was last night, a bit after you fell asleep while digging that huge hole of yours" Toto smiled. "I finally reached a moist area under the dry stuff, that water there is moisture I was able to extract from the damp sand" he explained.
"Whoa, that sounds really complicated, but thank you" Luffy smiled, nodding even though he clearly didn't understand a single word the old man had said.
"That right there is genuine Yuba water, it's not much, but it's all I was able to get" Toto smiled back.
"Right, then I'll drink it with care" the rubber man nodded.
-Later-
"Luffy?" I questioned, coming to a halt the second I noticed that the captain had suddenly stopped and taken a seat underneath a palm tree located nearby.
"Huh?" Usopp frowned. "Hey, Luffy, what are you doing over there?" he asked.
"Luffy?" Nami questioned as Sanji helped her get down off Eyelash.
"Um...is everything alright?" Vivi worriedly asked, nervously fidgeting the moment she noticed just how quiet the captain was.
"What's he doing?" I whispered as Zoro only shrugged in response.
"I quit!" Luffy suddenly declared.
"Huh?" we questioned.
"What do you mean?" Nami frowned.
"What's that mean? Quit what, Luffy?" Vivi asked.
"Now really isn't the time to start acting up, Luffy" I pointed out, nervously scratching my cheek as I realized just how poorly timed this outburst of the captain's was.
"Skylar's right, we don't have time to put up with every weird little mood you have right now, Luffy" Usopp nodded in agreement. "Let's go" he motioned with his head, urging the captain to get back up.
"Yeah, shouldn't we get going?" Chopper questioned.
"Yes, we should, and fast" Sanji nodded. "If we don't get to that Katorea place we came from and stop the rebellion that's about to begin, then a million Alabasta citizens will start fighting and things will get real ugly real quick" he frowned. "We're doing this for Vivi, so let's go" he huffed, marching toward the captain and grabbing at the front of his robe, only to be thrown aside within the blink of an eye. "What's wrong with you?!" he snapped.
"Vivi" Luffy calmly said.
"Yes?" the princess asked.
"Right now, all I want to do is kick Crocodile's ass, you understand?" he asked, eyes narrowing as the princess became taken aback by his sudden aggression. "Maybe we can keep the people from starting a rebellion—but that won't stop Crocodile" he told her, acknowledging the one flaw in her plan that none of us had been willing to mention. Just because we stop the rebellion, didn't change the fact that Crocodile was still a huge threat. "Besides, we won't be able to accomplish anything in Katorea—we're pirates, everyone knows that things are better off without us around" he firmly stated.
"You got to admit, he has a way of getting straight to the point when he really wants to" Sanji sighed as he crossed his arms.
"Well, yeah, but not often..." Usopp grumbled.
"That's because he's being serious right now and understands that the subject at hand isn't meant to be taken lightly..." I softly murmured, adding my two cents to the conversation.
"No, that's not true!" Vivi angrily snapped, temper quick to rise upon hearing his words as if she didn't want to believe them.
"You want it to work out so that nobody dies in this fight, isn't that right, Vivi?" Luffy asked. "None of the citizens, none of us either—we're up against one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and a million of your own people on top of that and you still want everyone to end up all safe and sound, you'll never win that way" he coldly stated, not bothering to beat around the bush at all.
"Come on, Luffy, can't you at least try showing Vivi a little sympathy" Nami suggested, ready to approach before suddenly being stopped by Sanji.
"Wait, hold on, Nami..." he mumbled.
"For what?" she frowned.
"And what's wrong with that?! Huh?!" Vivi snapped. "What's so wrong about not wanting to see people die or get hurt?!" she venomously sneered.
"Because people die, that's why" Luffy harshly responded before being thrown back by the harsh smack he received across his face by the seething princess.
"Stop talking like that—I won't listen to it! Say that again and I really will hurt you!" she glared, her breathing now labored as her blood began to really boil. "That's the whole point of what we're doing here, don't you understand? No one in Alabasta—not even the Rebel Army, the Royal Army, or the people are to blame for this! None of them have done anything wrong, why should any of them have to pay for what's happening when every last bit of it is Crocodile's fault?!" she screamed before crying out the second Luffy struck her.
"So you're saying it's only alright for you to die!" he angrily screamed right back.
"No, Luffy, you've gone too far" Usopp whimpered.
"Dammit, Luffy!" Sanji cursed, pulling one of his sleeves up as he got ready to pounce on the raven-haired man. But before he could get a chance to attack, Vivi had already beaten him to it as she tackled the captain to the ground.
"Just being in this country for one day and taking a look around—even if I could tell!" Luffy grounded out between every smack he received.
"Tell what?!" Vivi asked, continuously smacking and punching the young man across the face in an attempt to shut him up while simultaneously letting out all her pent-up anger.
"What this country needs more than anything! Think putting your life on the line is enough to stop this from happening?!" Luffy asked.
"What else exactly should I be putting on the line, Luffy?! What?!" she screamed as he finally grabbed hold of her wrists and restrained them above her head. "I don't have anything else I can put on the line...just…just me..." she confessed in a low whimper.
"Well, you can at least try putting all of our lives on the line together! Aren't we friends, huh?!" Luffy frowned, harshly throwing the princess off of him as he sat up. "Well, aren't we friends?" he repeated, curiously tilting his head as he watched how she finally started to cry. "There, now you see—now you understand" he said, lowering his voice to a soft murmur now as he picked up his hat that had fallen during the scuffle and dusted it. "Hey, you can cry" he remarked as the princess started to sob, finally letting out all the pent-up emotions she's been holding in since the start of this trip and properly letting her tears shed.
"With each passing day, you seem to remind me more and more of Sora" I softly sighed, a gentle smile now gracing my features as I watched the scene that was unfolding before me.
"I know how much you hate this, you want to get Crocodile the most" Luffy said as Nami and I moved to comfort the crying princess. "So now tell me, where can I find Crocodile?" he asked.
A/N: Enjoy
Please Review, Favorite, and Follow.