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“hey, you guys!” a random fisherman on his boat called out to them, waving them down, “it’s not good for you pirates to be openly sailing in the front. go around the backstreets over there!”

“ah…okay! thanks!”

[name] squinted at the guy before shaking his head and not even allowing himself to question what he was riding on top of. with the merry now being steered in a different direction, he was also too occupied with noticing the mass amount of water around them. it was all moving so quickly and with so much power it almost knocked the breath out of his lung.

”this is really something,” he marveled, looking up as far as his eyes could see of the city and grinning when he took in how ginormous it was, “really, really amazing. i can’t wait to adventure out here!”

“right?! [name] really gets it,” usopp cheered with him, doing a small dance in front of [name], who would have definitely joined if it wasn’t for the human backpack still sticking onto him.

“hey, you! pirate ships shouldn’t come in here!” another civilian warned them, this time on land and sweeping away at the front of his shop. “what’d you come here for? to plunder?!”

usopp and [name] both tilted their heads in confusion, wondering what the hell this guy was talking about. asking pirates so casually if they’re there to cause trouble — especially as an unassuming civilian — was something they have never seen before.

“no! we’re here to look for a shipwright!” luffy answered with a smile on his face.

“in that cause, there’s a cape ahead of there. you can anchor there for now!”

“wow, they’re like…water traffic police or something,” [name] thought out loud making luffy laugh and usopp sigh, tired of being shunned to other parts of the island that they didn’t even know about.

after a couple more minutes of sailing along the outer perimeter of the island, merry finally was anchored at a small connecting piece of floating land to the big city. upon furling merry’s sails, though, zoro ended up snapping the mast right in half and causing it to break. it would have completely fallen over if he had not caught it in time.

“zoro! what the hell! don’t you know we’re here to get merry fixed, not broken even more!” [name] shouted, walking over and slapping zoro on the back of his head.

angry tick marks appeared immediately, “do you think i did it on purpose, shit for brains?! why don’t you help me instead of standing there too?!”

“woo! zoro, i believe in you! you can do it!”

zoro pushed the mast back in place and immediately choked [name] out with his hands, “shut the hell up!”

“what an intimate love confession…” [name] gasped through his strangled breaths, making zoro toss him to the side.

“isn’t it interesting that they’re not scared of pirates here?” nami asked, completely ignoring the two fighting beside her.

“maybe they have bodyguards strong enough to deal with pirates who cause a ruckus?” robin suggested, a serene look on her face as she looked at the island.

“probably, also pirates are just any oth-”

“pirates are just any other customer on this island,” [name] cuts zoro off, watching with a blissful smile as zoro’s hands go up again to choke him out of frustration and anger. he dodges it with ease, though, sticking his tongue out at the swordsman.

“really?! what are we gonna do?! this is bad!” usopp’s familiar fearful crying was a stark difference from the calm conversation at hand. so, [name] went up to him to rest his hand on his shoulder.

“fear not, usopp, you are strong enough to take out a whole battalion, i’m sure! hey, maybe when we go into to town we might even run into some marines. how about you teach them a lesson?!”

“don’t say such scary things, [name]!” usopp jumps up and holds onto [name]’s torso as if he were a backpack resting on his front. he even hides his face in [name]’s neck and shakes his head multiple times, “get them, orphan!”

“oi!” [name]’s hand goes to chop usopp on the back of his head, but he doesn’t force the man off of him.

“quit scaring him, [name],” sanji grunts, shaking his head in disapproval, “it actually does make a difference this time, too. since we are customers,” sanji shrugs.

his words seem to put usopp at ease who jumps off of [name]’s warm body and immediately gets ready to bolt off of merry. luffy and him had the same idea as well since the captain was now ready to blast off of deck, grabbing [name]’s hand in the process. the taller man had obviously no issue with it, happy to be brought along on their adventure.

before they could get far from merry, though, nami stopped all three of them.

“hold it, usopp, luffy, [name]!” the three skidded to a halt and turned back around, “at least two of you need to come with me…preferably not [name] too…”

“hey! why not me!” [name] whined, feeling left out.

“because! we need to go and get our gold exchanged and i don’t know if you remember this, [name],” she growled out his name with an angry tick mark on her forehead, “but you’re a highly wanted man. regardless of what sanji-kun said earlier about us being customers, i don’t need you — such a high profile guy — drawing attention to us when we are going to be transporting hundreds of millions of beri! i’d rather not get robbed or run into trouble just because you decided to tag along.”

“hey, but i’m real good at hiding! look!” he covers his face with the neckline of his shirt, hiding the lower half of his face, but nami still shakes her head.

“it’d be good to have you as extra security, but who’s to say we would even need it…bringing you along is too much of a risk i will not be taking! not when beri is on the line!” predictably, her eyes turn into the beri signs and he sighs, dropping his hand from luffy’s.

“hey! that’s so unfair! you’re breaking the adventure team!” luffy cries out, stomping his foot onto the ground like a child.

“yeah, evil, heartless navigator! i can’t believe you’d break apart our bond like this!” usopp vocalizes, punching his fist into the air.

“say what you want, but my word is final,” nami waves them off, obviously not bothered at all. “now come back on deck and help me collect this gold.”

“well, it won’t be me since you’re refusing me to come along with you. hmph,” [name] says under his breath, turning his head to the side and walking back to merry.

“just for that, now you really have to help~”

“nami!!”

after [name] and luffy helped stow all the gold onto a wagon, the three began their walk into the city. sanji was waving them goodbye with well wishes for luffy and usopp to keep nami safe. chopper is beside robin and [name], downtrodden that he missed out on going with his friends to explore.

“why don’t we go into town together later, then?”

that makes the reindeer brighten up instantly, “yes! let’s go together!”

“can i come too?” [name] asks, a bright look on his face, “i wanna see water 7 too. it’s making me excited just looking at the place.”

“your stomach isn’t in any type of pain?” robin asked curiously, arm sprouting from [name]’s side and teasingly prodding at his abdomen, “you’d think with the nature of the island you’d be vomiting everywhere or something,”

“hey, that’s too nasty and crude, robin!” [name] whines, “i’ve only done that a handful of times anyway, i can keep my stomach calm for the most part,”

“wonder where all that “keeping your stomach calm” went whenever you’d go bitching and moaning about a stomachache,” sanji murmurs, lighting his cigarette, “i have to go into to town, should we all go together?”

“eh, but i don’t want to be with you sanji, i much prefer robin and chopper!”

“hah?! as if i give a fuck about if you want to be me with or not, idiot, i’m obviously only interested in hanging out with robin,” sanji shouts, then quietly adds in, “sorry, chopper,”

”it’s alright, i expected it!”

“sanji, no matter how hard you beg, i won’t be joining you,”

“i ain’t begging for shit from you!!”

“well, it would be smart if you guys were to be going separate, don’t you think?” zoro chimes into the conversation, “thinking back on what this shit for brains said earlier,” [name] smiled widely at his referral, making zoro shake his head, “the government might be on high alert for robin or [name], best for them if they get both. robin and [name] travelling together hardly sounds smart now that we know what we know,”

there’s a silence on board before robin nods her head, “i suppose you do make a point,”

“interesting, so the marimo can think clearly sometimes,” sanji says in bewilderment, making [name] clap his hands in amazement.

“so proud of you, zoro!”

“shut it!” zoro snarls, “i’m going to stay on board to watch over merry while you guys head into town, so however you go in doesn’t really affect me. just thought i’d remind you of the position we’re in,”

with that, he breaks away from the conversation and goes to sit on the railing.

“he likes to pretend like he doesn’t care, but in reality this is him confessing his undying love for all of us and saying he cares a lot for our safety!” [name] proclaims.

“well, his confession of undying love already did happen earlier…”

”no way!”

“mhm! we should tell you about it!”

“yes! i want to hear! who’s the unlucky soul?!”

you could almost hear the sounds of crickets with how quiet merry got. sanji broke the silence, though, when he continued off of where zoro left them with.

“if that’s the case, then shit for brains should come with me,” sanji spoke up.

“i was going to say, i agree! i would like for robin to come with me!” the heads all look to chopper who is speaking with a rushed tone, his hoof raised in the air as if he were in school. feeling the pressure of all eyes on him, he goes on to explain shakily, “well, since me and robin are more interested in books and…bookstores…than you guys it only makes sense,”

[name] pouts before nodding his head in understanding, “this is true, it does make more sense. plus, if you add on what nami said earlier, my face walking alongside you guys would just be asking for everyone to find out about us, more importantly - me and robin being here. so i’ll instead make everyone chase sanji!”

“as long as they’re beautiful ladies,” he breathes out, shrugging his shoulders, “this arrangement sounds fair to me,”

“very carefully crafted plans, i hope nobody tries anything lest they feel the wrath of the strawhat pirates,” robin jokes, obviously fine with the plan as well as she guides chopper to the dorms to change.

”hey, we are going to leave soon. i just have to check inventory and make a list of supplies then we will head out too,” sanji says, stepping away from [name] to get to his duties.

that leaves [name] to go change into different clothes. as he’s changing, he sees his sword resting on his bed. he’d usually leave with it, but he’d rather not draw more attention. he looks down to his wrist and frowns as he sees the cloth that shanks had given him still securely wrapped.

he takes the sword and begins undoing the knot, retying it to go around the handle of his sword. after fixing his outfit for the last time, he steps back onto the deck just in time to catch robin and chopper leaving. he bids them farewell, reminding them to stay safe, before going to find zoro.

as expected, he’s sitting where he was before and plopped down right in front of him.

“zoro, i have a favor,”

“scram, don’t bother me with your bullshit,”

“hey!! i’m being serious,” this makes zoro crack one eye open and look [name] over.

“what is it?”

“please, i need you to look after my sword,” [name] presents the sheathed sword to zoro who just quirks his eyebrow up in surprise.

”why would i do that? just bring it with you,” then he notices the cloth on the handle and narrows his eyes, “hey, you never go anywhere without that raggedy thing on you. don’t tell me you’re planning something?”

the unspoken words are clear that zoro doesn’t even need to clarify. he’s insinuating that leaving his sword and cloth with someone else, not on his person, is the least likely thing to come from [name]’s own mouth. a warning flag is going off in zoro’s head, telling him not to do this “favor” for [name], for everyone’s best interest.

”i just don’t want to attract too much attention, idiot. don’t go overthinking this,” [name] rolls his eyes at zoro’s odd way of showing that he cares, “i’m leaving the cloth here only so i don’t lose it. i’m not sure if i’ll be in my right state of mind with all that abnormal water currents surrounding me, i might act weird and misplace this cloth…not to say i’d go insane or something! from the water! i just don’t know how i’ll react so i don’t want to take chances!!”

zoro doesn’t look impressed. the words sound like bullshit to him, anyway.

“i don’t believe you.”

“oi!!” [name] cries out at zoro’s blunt tone, “just do me a solid and watch over them.”

“and i’m telling you, i won’t. take them with you,” zoro insists, glaring at [name] and poking his finger into [name]’s forehead, “quit your lies!”

“what lies?! i’m being honest!” [name] cries out, rubbing his sore forehead as he beggingly looks at his crewmate, “please, zoro! it’s really only for the reasons i said…trust me,”

zoro grumbles, narrowing his eyes before taking the sword off of [name]’s hands, “so goddamn annoying…”

“ah! zoro, so you do love me!!!” [name] exclaims, going ahead to smother zoro’s smaller frame with his and hug him tightly, “thank you so much, don’t worry, i’ll be back to get them off of your hands when sanji and i return!”

“whatever! i don’t care what you have to say, don’t make me regret it, idiot!” zoro grabs [name] by the ear and pulls him off with enough force, leaning in and pressing his forehead against his with a fierce glare, “are you hearing me, shit for brains?”

“ow! ow! ow! i hear you, zoro, i promise i won’t make you regret it!”

“ah, zoro, where is rob-” sanji’s words are cut off as he steps up the stairs and looks to see the scene in front of him. [name]’s body positioned in between zoro’s legs, his arms resting on either side of the swordsman due to his past cuddling. their faces inches apart and barely any space left in between them.

“what the hell.” sanji’s curly eyebrow shoots upwards as he takes in the sight in front of him.

zoro immediately pushes [name] off of him and glares at sanji, “shut the hell up!”

“i didn’t say anything,” sanji shrugs, a smirk on his face, “so it was true then? your love confession earlier?”

“eh? what love confession?”

“i said shut the hell up and like hell it was! there was no love confession!” zoro cries out, glaring at both of them, “are you guys trying to get me to slice you both up?!”

“i didn’t say anything though!”

sanji only shakes his head and points a finger at zoro, “me and [name] are going to go into town for grocery shopping now. make sure you watch over merry while we are gone,”

“whatever, ero-cook. hope you drown in the city of water,” zoro grunts.

“c’mon, [name], let’s head into town!” sanji calls out, the man immediately attaching to his side in the blink of an eye.

“hey, hey, sanji will you treat me to some coffee when we go?! say you will, say you will!”

“nami gave you your own allowance, get off me,” sanji grunts, pushing [name]’s face away from his own. but there was zero strength behind it as he did so, “we don’t even know if they have a specialty bean, idiot,”

“coffee is coffee! besides, every city has their own special bean! remember!”

“yeah, yeah,” sanji half heartedly replies, looking over his shoulder at zoro, who was watching them with a stoic face, “try not to do something stupid while we are gone marimo!” there’s a smirk on his face as he drapes his arm around [name]’s shoulder and jumps off of merry with the taller man attached to his side.

“fuck off!!”

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