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

-Chapter Seventy-Four-

"Now hang on—wait! I'm going to eat it!" the old man assured, owlishly blinking as he soon came to some sort of realization. Looking towards Luffy, he then looked back down at the rubber man's stretched-out arm before screaming in shock. "Ah! What was that?!" he jolted.

"Are you okay, old man?" Chopper worriedly asked, quick to rush to the old man's side when he saw just how shaken he was by Luffy's unnaturally stretched-out arm.

"Don't scare him!" Nami snapped as she struck the top of Luffy's head.

"Sorry" the captain apologized.

"So you ate a Devil Fruit, huh? Speaking of eating" the old man laughed, relaxing after getting an explanation for Luffy's stretched-out arm before he finally started to dig in. "This food, I haven't had anything delicious in ages!" he praised.

"Old-timer, if there's anything else we can do for you, just ask—we'll be more than happy to do it" Nami smiled.

"Yeah, don't be afraid to make any request" I piped up.

"Do you have any particular last request?" Usopp seriously asked, causing the old man to halt in his eating as he stared at the sharpshooter in confusion. Not quite understanding where this air of seriousness suddenly came from.

"No one asked you!" Nami snapped, punching Usopp.

"Quite quick to jump straight to violence, I see" I chuckled, raising my hands in defense once she directed her glare toward me.

"If you like this kind of food, I can make it again for you" Sanji offered.

"You will? Thank you!" the old man brightened. "Yum! It's just so good!" he happily grinned as he continued to stuff his face. "Too much delicious food, it's like I died and went to heaven!" he laughed before suddenly freezing as he dropped his chopsticks.

"What's wrong, old goat guy?" Luffy worriedly asked when he saw the old man grab his chest as he visibly started to shake.

"Oh no!" Chopper gasped.

"Already?!" Usopp stressed, already quick to jump to the worse conclusion.

"Poor thing" Nami whimpered as I felt Zoro take my hand while I covered my mouth and looked away...I wasn't sure if he was doing it to comfort himself or me, yet I didn't care as I scooted closer toward him, giving his hand a tight squeeze in the process.

"Hey, stay with us" Sanji frowned right as the old man loudly swallowed what was in his mouth before giving a sigh of relief.

"Ah, it was so good that I gobbled it down too fast and it got stuck in my throat" he chuckled, unaware of the fright he had just unintentionally given everyone.

"You almost made our hearts stop there, old fellow!" Usopp cried out.

"You had us all worried" I sighed, holding my chest in relief.

"Don't scare us like that!" Nami snapped.

"What a relief, I knew it was too soon for it to happen" Chopper breathed out in relief.

"For what to happen, furball?" the old man asked, blinking as Nami threw one of her shoes at Chopper in an attempt to quickly shut him up.

"Um...nothing, he just meant that it was too soon to stop eating Sanji's delicious food" Usopp nervously laughed as he quickly held up a plate of food. "Here, have some, old-timer" he offered, practically shoving it in the man's face.

"And mine too" Nami added as she held up her own plate.

"And mine as well" Robin gently smiled as she also held up her plate.

"All this, for me? Thank you" the old man smiled as he stomped down on Luffy's arm when he noticed that the rubber man was trying to steal some of the food. "Ah-ha! This is fantastic!" he cheerfully laughed, grinding his foot down on the captain's arm and causing him to whimper.

"Hey..." I whispered when I noticed the intense look Zoro was giving the old-timer, eyes narrowed in thought as he quietly examined the old man.

"Huh?" he blinked. "What?" he asked, looking down at me.

"You doing alright? You kind of spaced out there" I tilted my head, watching as he furrowed his brows before shaking his head.

"I'm fine, just thinking..." he muttered.

"Stop, you've already eaten so much!" Chopper suddenly cried as the old man finished off another plate of food and got ready to get some more.

"Oh, I'm just getting started" he chuckled, causing the rest of us to laugh.

"You're awesome, old goat guy!" Luffy grinned.

-Later-

Standing beside Nami, Robin, and the old man, I watched as the men worked away at rebuilding the ship we had discovered yesterday.

"That's one way to go showing off your swordsmanship..." I sweat dropped, watching Zoro cut the trees down into planks with just his swords. Occasionally, I would catch him looking this way, an almost expectant look as if he was trying to see if I was in any way impressed. I couldn't help but chuckle at the way he almost seemed to brighten when I gave a smile as if pleased.

"Show off..." Nami muttered, causing Robin to giggle.

"Come on, can't you work harder than that?" the old man frowned. "This isn't a tea party you know—try putting your backs into it, why don't you?" he ordered, practically scolding the young men for just how slow they were being in fixing up the ship.

"Look, old-timer, just take it easy—we can handle this without your help" Chopper assured as Nami went and retrieved a chair the old man could sit down on.

"That's right, gramps, you just settle down and take a load off" she smiled, forcefully pushing him down into the chair.

"How about a nice shoulder rub to relax you" Robin offered, using her Devil Fruit powers to sprout a pair of arms behind the old man.

"Wait, where did they come from?" he asked, startled by the sudden appearance of disembodied arms.

"So I was wondering," Sanji suddenly started, "why are you building this ship if you're way up in the mountains, old-timer?" he asked.

"Ah, it's not a ship" the old man responded.

"Uh...it's not a ship?" Luffy questioned, looking around in confusion.

"It sure looks like one" I remarked.

"Yeah, come on" Usopp frowned. "If it isn't a ship, then what is it supposed to be?" he asked.

"Well, son, it's my coffin" was the response we got.

"Your coffin?" we questioned as we tried to imagine this thing as a coffin.

"Yeah, it's my final resting place" the old man nodded.

"I see, we're standing on your grave" Luffy bowed.

"You jinxed him, stop that!" Usopp snapped.

"Now hold on, slow down" Sanji frowned.

"Yeah, you shouldn't overprepare" Chopper nodded.

"What are you all so jumpy about? I live alone on an island—I have to plan for everything, even the possibility of my own death" the old man scolded. "After all, I'm going to die someday, aren't I?" he asked, giving us a closed-eyed smile as he leaned back into his chair.

"That's reasonable thinking" I nodded, impressed that he had thought far enough ahead to even think about building himself a coffin instead of just simply passing away on his cot for the next poor sap that comes to this island to find.

"Yeah, and it's not so unusual for a grave to be in the mountains" Luffy agreed.

"Yeah, but why would you want your grave to be a pirate ship?" Sanji asked.

"I don't know, to be unique" I shrugged. "If I had the choice to build my own coffin, why in the world would I want it to be basic and boring?" I argued.

"Old-timer!" Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper shouted when they saw the old man suddenly slump over in his seat.

"Wait, old man!" Sanji frowned, nervously sweating as he and the other three rushed to the geezer's side.

"Coffin, a grave, or whatever you want to call it! It's almost finished—you don't want to go jumping the gun, do you?" Usopp whimpered.

"Don't die yet!" Chopper cried.

"Shh! You're going to wake him" I shushed the three as Nami threw a blanket over the old man.

"He's just sleeping, that's all" she softly smiled as the others sighed in relief once they finally heard the old man's snores.

-Days Later-

"Ha!" Nami cheered, knocking over one of the old man's chess pieces.

"Uh-huh, nice one" he complimented, nodding as he took another bite out of the cheese he had been munching on. "Oh, wow—how did you make this? It's delicious" he asked, looking to Sanji who was currently taking a smoke break on a nearby crate.

"It's from the milk of the island goats, eating it will give you lots of energy" Sanji smiled.

"Well, gramps, it's your move" Nami smiled as I sat on the ground close to the table, watching the two as my hand idly scratched the top of Baxter's head.

"Sleepy?" I murmured, smiling down at the goat when he yawned and rubbed his head against my stomach.

"Let's see...ah! Here we go" the old man brightened as he moved one of his pieces. "Check and mate" he grinned.

"Nice move" I praised, causing that grin of his to grow as he proudly puffed out his chest. Nami, on the other hand, become absolutely distressed by the old man's victory as she grabbed and pulled at her hair.

"Now wait a second" she desperately plead, grabbing ahold of the man's hand in a panic and stopping him from getting up from the table.

"Sorry, all moves are final—that's too bad" the old man chortled.

"Got to play by whatever rules you two made, Nami" I nodded, playfully wagging my finger as the ginger gave a low whine of distress.

A/N: Enjoy

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