❛ I'M NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN. ❜
₊˚៹ . ❪ episode : 98 ❫˖ ₊˚.⋆
࿐┊ CH. 6┊🏴‍☠️🌊👒

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On the start of their next attempt to continue crossing the desert, half of the group had been split up because of the camel taking off with Nami and Vivi, who both of them begged (Y/N) to get on with them, but she refused even if she wanted to. She rather be with her boys, Happy, Usopp and her brother instead right now.

"So hot... Water...." Luffy panted with his tongue sticking out from his mouth, using his stick to carry himself and his sister who was trying to haul him along also despite her dying from the heat too.

She did panic a little bit when she didn't spot her older brother with them anymore, narrowed down eyes trying to glance out at the heat desert sands under the hat hoping to spot him, but found no sign. But she knew he would be alright since he was strong, though she still couldn't help but worry over Aces' well-being and miss him.

"Thanks, Zoro. This heat is too much for us..." Chopper wheezed out laying on the sleigh beside a passed out Happy again, getting tugged along by the swordsman across the sand dunes they were walking up.

He just grunted down at the animals under his care right now, too hot and tired to comment something snarky, and looked back to see where (Y/N) was. He waited for her to catch up when Luffy gently pushed her up to him, and it had the entire group now looking back.

Luffy's head was hanging low not saying anything dropping the stick in his hand now eerily quiet, "What's wrong Luffy?" Usopp questioned tiredly from beside the girl, running a hand over his forehead to wipe off the sweat.

"Tsunami!" The rubber male was suddenly exclaiming like an insane man, his eyes like swirls being in a dazed trance, and wave his arms around in the air screaming, "A tsunami's coming!"

(Y/N) watched her brother act crazy worriedly fixing up the rode around her shoulders, crossing her arms over her chest sighing out, and felt Sanji and Zoro trail up beside her, "Lu? What's gotten into you now?"

"I told him not to, but he said he was so thirsy he couldn't stand it." Usopp commented deadpanning at the male, standing in front of the other five behind him watching Luffy, "So he chomped down on some cactus growing back there."

He pointed at the eaten and in half food on the sand that showed Luffy did eat it, being off in the distance a few meters away from them. Hearing this gained an exclaim from (Y/N) panicked, and Chopper to yell freaking out, "EH? Those are bad! Those are mezcal cacti! They're used to make hallucination drugs!"

She and Usopp shrieked shocked hearing that information, just as Luffy got worse with his drugged fit, "Oh no! We're gonna drown!" He yelled gripping the sides of his face, seeing a massive wave heading straight towards them, "Quick! (N/N) use your waterbending!"

He tried to charge towards her waving his limbs around blindly still yelling, which resulted in Sanji to send a kick straight to his head, "Knock it off, bonehead!" He snarled having shark teeth, standing protectively in front of her, "Don't you dare touch my angel in the state you're in!"

This irritated Zoro a lot at Sanji's flirty ways with his captain, scrunching his knuckles around the rope of the sleight but didn't act on his feelings, knowing he would of done the same thing to keep Luffy away from her right now.

"Alright! Bring it on, if you can!" The rubber boy didn't even acknowledge the hit to him, and just bounced back up snatching the sleigh from the group, "I'll beat all of you up!"

Chopper shrieked terrified getting thrown off the wood which had him quickly grabbing Happy in his arms, and ran to hide behind (Y/N)'s legs, gripping onto her pants material with his free hove that wasn't holding a dizzy Happy.

Luffy smashed the sleigh on the sand in front of them, creating a mess of woof and sand to appear in effect, "I'll beat all of you up!" He aggressively yelled having shark teeth, eyes now white throwing fists into the air, "Gum-Gum.."

They all panicked at him about to use his normal attack on them, the boys covering her body with their own in case, but she simply walked over to Luffy and placed her palm onto his forehead, using her power to make him fall asleep now.

A small blue glow came from under her palm when she did that, making the others gape at her in shock having never seen her do that. She caught Luffy's snoring self against her shoulder, holding him up with one arm around his waist giggling, "Problem solved guys!"

Sanji was instantly going over towards her in a love dance, hearts in his eyes swooning over his beloved, "Ahh! Amazing as always my sweet-!" He went to exclaim happily, for only Zoro's foot to kick the back of him sending him into the sand face first.

She panicked looking down at the twitching cook on the ground under Zoro's shoe, and glanced back up to see him scowling at him, "Anyways, let me carry that idiot." He coaxed now gently, taking Luffy by the back of his collar off her roughly, "You shouldn't have to do it."

Usopp deadpanned knowingly from beside them holding onto a confused Chopper, and a still sleeping Happy in his arms, watching as the swordsman and cook were back to butting heads growling.

"Come on, boys." She was straight away trying to break their fighting back standing between them, raising her hands up a bit to smile nervously, "We need to keep going and find the others, remember?"

And like the dedicated males they were the two went back to normal, with Sanji cooing in agreement having heart eyes, and Zoro to sigh but nod his head, which made Usopp exclaim seeing how quick they listened.

The group went back to walking along the dunes now after that scene happening, her now back to carrying Happy in her arms with Chopper trailing beside her in the middle of the three males in his other form.

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Ace for a while, either." Zoro spoke up when they were talking about where the others were, sending a quick glance to his captain just as Luffy woke up from his nap.

He was being dragged along the sand by Zoro's hand holding onto his ankle, "I bet he got separated from us." He commented sitting up, which had all the other males stopping to look back at him, "Sheesh! What a troublesome big brother!"

"We're the ones who got separated!" Usopp snarked at Luffy, as him, Sanji and Zoro beat up the rubber boy with their boots on the sand, making (Y/N) nervously smile at the scene worried for her brother's health standing with Chopper on the sidelines holding who was now awake Happy.

Once they were finished their scolding on Luffy, Usopp looked up suddenly hearing something in the distance, "Did you hear something?" He asked the crew gaining confused noises, and he rushed up to the top of the dune using his goggles to spot what was making the noise.

The others joined him up on the dune being careful not to fall over and slip, which hade Sanji and Zoro making sure their captain wouldn't do that knowing how clumsy she was, and how easily she could be in any situations.

"What is that?" Happy questioned suspiciously, feeling his ears twitch on his forehand, and narrowed his big black eyes onto something incoming from behind another sand dune.

All of a sudden a massive pirate ship was sliding along through the desert before them, the flags up high and proudly catching the wind that drifted them along, "A pirate ship?!"

"Oh no! It's-" Usopp exclaimed panicked once he spotted who was on the ship through his goggles, seeing two of their friend tied to the mast with Eyelash the camel, "Nami and Vivi've been caught! Oh, and the camel."

Hearing this had Luffy now yelling running straight through them to swiftly pick up (Y/N), and Happy, who both screamed in fear at the sudden movement. They clang into the running male down the dune for dear life, crying out protest realising what he was going to do to get onto the ship.

"Hey! You idiot!" Zoro and Sanji both yelled out aggressively seeing their beloved getting taking away into the madness again, now running on after them knowing it wasn't going to end well, "Get back here!"

Luffy shouted his normal catch phrase for his power, stretching his arm all the way to the mast of the ship to wrap around it, and ignored his sisters and Happy's frantic protests about not wanting to case even more trouble for them to deal with.

"Give-us-water!" He flanged them towards the ship now flying through the air, swiftly bringing his back to the mast first to protect to two in his arms and took the heat of the hit first.

They slammed into the mast with a loud bang, which caused the wood to now topple down in two pieces from how much force was behind their landing. It broke into even more pieces when it fell into the railing of the ship, and went overboard making some of the new pirates yell panicked watching that happen.

"Oh, my bad!" Luffy sheepishly apologized now being on the deck of the pirates ship, sweat dropping at Happy who was shaking him around by his collar scolding him angrily, "I'm so thirsty, and I wanted to get my sister some water so I misjudged..."

The Monkey D. girl was beside him laying on her back breathing heavily, trying to calm herself down from almost having a panic attack, and sat up groaning holding her shoulder, before breaking out into quiet laugher seeing Nami kicking Luffy scolding him despite how she was tied up.

Heavy footsteps now land in front of the trio on the deck, looking up to see an males grinning eerily face down at them who had a black beard around his lower half, and a small umbrella hat that popped back up to block out the sun.

"We, the Bardar Sand Pirates, have a saying." The captain of the said crew spoke to them, his voice holding a jolly tone behind hit, "Aside from friends, nothing alive in the desert can't be eaten!" He stated making the colour drain from (Y/N)'s face, swooping up Happy in her arms protectively not liking the sound of that.

"Don't eat me, beard guy!" The cat screeched with his blue fur sticking up, paws wrapped around his best friends neck, "But you can eat the idiot camel." He added now bluntly pointing at the said animal, who sulked dramatically at the betrayal behind the broken mast.

The captain belly laughed amused which had Happy irking, and sent him an incredulously stare from his spot in (Y/N)'s arms next to Luffy, "I'm Barbarossa, captain of the Bardar Sand Pirates!"

He sat down on some of the crates on the deck, placing his hands onto his large knees, "(Y/N), and Luffy was it?" He spoke now friendly to them, "I'm sorry for our rough treatment of your friends. It's just that we're all so hungry..."

Luffy closed eyed grin at the male laughing loudly, his arm wrapped around his sisters waist to keep her close in case, "No, we don't mind!" He instantly got a knuckle to the head from Nami, who snarled out annoyed, "That's not for you to say!"

"But, captain!" One of the crew mates protested, stepping forward once he realised what problem they were stuck in now, "We don't have any wood at all to repair out main mast! Without a main mast, we won't have enough thrust!"

This caused all the other crew behind him to freak out, and turned to each other screeching panicked also realising the issue, "Yeah! What're we gonna do?!"

"If we don't do something, we're going to die like dogs in the middle of this desert!" The same male pointed out, and hearing that it had the entire crew now sulking to each other also saying their part of scared comments.

"We sand pirates are born in sand pirate ships," Barbarossa exclaimed over his crew's crying, gaining their attention back and for them to quietn down with the occasionally sniffle, "and we'll die in the sand pirate ships! Abandoning our ship is unthinkable!"

The crew's once depressed attitude was switched up when their captain said this, yelling out their agreement also cheering. Barbarossa's smile widen more looking at them, "That was fate, this was fate! We sand pirates will never do anything to defy the flow of sand!"

He now stood up from the crates, walking over to the fallen mast that was on the ship's railing, "But there is timber at the Meriyasu Oasis." He remembered moving the wood with one hand, and hearing that had the Straw Hat chaotic trio standing up straight.

"Where is it?" (Y/N) asked kindly up at the much taller giant standing in front, placing down Happy onto the floor in between her and Luffy, "I'm sure we'll be able to rush there real quick."

He hummed in acknowledgment glancing out at the hot sand lands, "But the sands've changed lately. It's too dangerous for outsiders." He warned having his back facing the trio behind him.

"I'm responsible for it! I'll do it!" Luffy exclaimed stubbornly shaking his head side to side, and pointed at his chest huffing out, which made his sister smiled gently proud of him.

Barbarossa bellowed out some laugher again turning his grinning face back over his shoulder, "Yeah?! You will?" He boomed out to them joyfully, making some of his crew lower two sand-sleds down onto the ground off the ship, "Bring back wood with this sand-sled."

They were all off the ship now on the ground seeing the transport getting lowered down, (Y/N) standing in between Zoro and Sanji holding Happy again, who was panicking over not wanting to go in one of those sleds.

"I'd say this is more of a canoe than a sled.." Nami commented in a mumble eyeing off the wood, earning her a snicker from the Monkey D. girl that had Nami smiling amused at her beside Vivi.

"Zaba and Rasa will show you to the Meriyasu Oasis." Barbarossa tells the siblings and Happy, looking down at the trio still flashing his toothy grin as Zaba appeared beside him showing a salut signal.

Her (E/C) eyes flickered away from him and Luffy still talking, finding Vivi's figure who was standing next to one of the sleds with a frown. She adjusted a quiet Happy in her arms close to sleeping again, and walked up to her despite the boys making noises for her to stay.

"Hey, Vi." She started off in a soft tone coming to stand beside the princess, and it made Vivi look up curiously at the captain's appearance, seeing her smiling kindly, "You doing alright?"

The blue haired girl felt her cheeks heat up from the look (Y/N) was giving her, wondering if it was the desert's environment but deep down knew it wasn't. Before she could even open her mouth to say anything, someone came flying at them from behind causing her eyes to go wide in horror.

Vivi was going to warn the other girl about the axe weapon spinning through the air, but was met with (Y/N) swtily moving their bodies out of the way without looking, protecting Happy also who paled now seeing the axe stuck in the side of the ship that almost hit them.

Zoro and Sanji became on high alert at how their captain was almost hit, the swordsman fingers twitching on his katana's, while the cooks legs were tensing up ready to intervene if she needed the protection.

Someone was perched up on the broken mast of the ship holding onto it with one hand, causing the Straw Hats to look up now. The figure jumped out from hiding, spinning through the air and landed gracefully in front of a startled Vivi who's side was still touching (Y/N)'s.

"Oh! That as so cool, Rasa!" One of the crewmates commented in awe from where he stood, fawning over how cool her display was.

The Monkey D. girl sensed no danger from the new girl that just was introduced, letting go of Vivi to shuffle back to her regular spot beside Luffy, who grinned taking  Happy into his arms making the cat pale even more.

"The other seem to be outsiders..." Rasa trailed off giving Vivi a harsh stare, pulling her weapon from the wood to point it out at the confused princess, "but you're from here." She flipped back her weapon to hang down, and walked up to the sled, "You must have some experience with a sand-sled. You will join us."

Some of her friends protested hearing that idea for her to go out, which made her furrow her brows in thought before sighing out, "Alright. I'll come with you." She agreed nodding her head at Rasa, who smirked.

"Be careful going over there, princess." Zoro's concerned voice reached (Y/N)'s ears feeling his rough, but warm hand being placed on her upper back, and turned to see him grimacing at Luffy in the sled, "Knowing what your brother is like, he'll do something before even told how to control the damn thing."

He looked down to her now through his orange cloth, and smirked mockingly using his spare hand to pinch her waist playfully rasping, "Like you're any better though."

She whined in pain at the pinch, and pouted upset using her palm to shove him back a bit, gaining a low chuckle from him, and a drawl from Happy in her arms snickering, "Someone's in lovveeee~"

His tease was cut off by her squishing his furred cheeks together in a rough hold, glaring down at him half heartedly to shut up which had him gulping nervously, and going back to staying quiet under her arm.

"Oh? So these go on top of the sand?" Luffy was questioning Viv who was beside him, the male in the sled with his sister and Happy now all glancing at the transport curiously, "How does it work?"

"I'll pilot the sled." Vivi assured seeing the worried look on the other girls face, smiling at the trio she's grown fond of in the sled, and remembered that one time she drove a sand-sled,  "I did this once long ago."

(Y/N) sighed heavily through her parted lips, swallowing to ease her dry throat sitting down on the small wooden part in the sled, and placed Happy in her lap who watched Luffy excitedly kicking his legs back and forth.

"It's not too different from a ship." Her brother grunted taking a rope that was tied to the sail in his hands, and pulled it up straight without knowing what will happen, "This goes like this, right?"

The wind now picked up suddenly blowing a strong gust through the area, which made the sail be pulled forward and for (Y/N)'s and Happy's faces to pale realising what was about to occur.

Terrified screams escaped their lips holding onto each for dear life, them echoing around as the sand-sled shot straight forward like the speed of light along the sand to leave nothing but dust in their wake.

"NO! (Y/N), my sweet-!" Sanji exclaimed in a panic seeing that happen, hearing her screams still echoing through the area as dramatic tears welled up in his eyes, sulking out, "How dare Luffy put her in harms way like that!"

That idiot.. I tired to warn her, Zoro thought to himself grumbling, smacking his sweaty forehead with his palm also really worried about his captain, and waited for them to return back.

Not even a few seconds later the chaotic trio's yells were all heard mix together, followed by the sled they were on in the distance speeding back down along the dune.

Luffy was shrieking holding onto the end of the sled, trying to keep up, while (Y/N) and Happy were screeching holding onto one other praying for the ride to now stop, no longer finding it fun anymore.

Once it did came to a skidding stop back to its oringal place, it sent Happy flying out knocking down Chopper and for (Y/N) to also be flanged out from the force, making her sulk some more to being quick enough to catch herself knowing Luffy couldn't catch her in his weak state.

Sanji and Zoro both panicked watching her figure flying towards them, their eyes going wide trying to pin point where she would land. But she ended up slamming straight into them, using their bodies to soften her fall as they all fell back onto the floor in a pile of limb.

Oh that's a sight to see, Nami and Usopp both thought to themselves snickering, sharing an amused look between each other knowing how the males were around their captain. Vivi sent them a confused look hearing the two giggling, before bent down to check on Happy who was twitching in a sulking Chopper arms.

"I'm never doing that again." (Y/N) heaved out in a mumble trying to calm her heart down, face being squished against the males chests underneath her body, and felt one of their hands on her lower back, "Never ever, I swear."

She gained two strangled groans of agreement making her left her head up slowly, placing her legs to straddle both their waists. She pressed her palms onto the boys chests, and saw Sanji's red cheeks with hearts in his eyes, and Zoro's ones now white also red in the face.

At the reactions to using their bodies to soften her fall, she giggled sweetly leaning her head down, to brush a kiss against Zoro's sweaty tanned cheek making him squirm, and one next on Sanji's cheek, who cooed out a squealing at her way of thanking them.

"W-we're back!" Luffy huffed out with an agitated, look over his frowning face, sweating badly down his forehead breathing heavily near the end of the sled, before falling onto the sand exhausted.

Nami and Usopp felt their eyes twitched at the males ways, "Don't waste your strength doing stupid things!" They in sync snarled in a scolding way at him, scrunching their fists up with shark teeth, as Luffy just groaned in response still on the sand not moving anytime soon.

─►☆ AUTHOR'S NOTE :
not as long as i wanted it to be but anyways i really wanna get into more of this arc sooner rather than later but i also don't wanna say goodbye to ace traveling with them, which is gonna make
me sad cause you guys know the next time they meet won't be good :(((

hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and pleaseeee don't be silent readers, it really helps to
keep me motivated lmao :') kisses🫶