Kaz

"CHOPPER!!" Luffy screams and I prop open one eye to see Chopper run out. Jiro moves to follow him but looks back at the man.

"Go I'll get you if something happens." Jiro jumps at the sound of my voice but he still looks uncertain. "I promise on my life." Saying that seems to satisfy him and he rushes out after Chopper. I close my eyes and relax getting comfortable in this spot before lightly drifting off. A few seconds later Jiro and Chopper come back along with Luffy.

"Nothing happened while you were gone." I look at Jiro with one eye open.

"Thank you." He says and he gives a small, grateful smile which I return.

"Huh you're here Kaz? Everyone thought you just went to sleep above the crow's nest." Luffy sits down on a nearby crate and looks at me.

"Geez they think I'm heartless and just sleep all the time don't they?" I shake my head at the thought.

"Well that's all you do on the ship." Chopper points out.

"It's boring though so unless you want me to destroy the Sunny that's the only thing for me to do."

"Why don't you train?" Luffy asks me.

"Do you want me to surpass you even more? I can already kick yours and Ace's ass easy enough at the same time."

"I could probably kick your ass now though." Luffy says while holding up his fist and giving me a huge smile.

"We'll see about that. How 'bout we see if that's after we settle this?" I say with a smile equally as large as Luffy's on my face. Luffy nods his head energetically and we quiet down before slipping into sleep.

---

I open my eyes slowly before closing them quickly. I reopen them slowly and they adjust to the bright lights around me. I look around and am greeted by white walls and some pieces of machinery. It appears that I'm located in some kind of medical room and I try to sit up only to find myself strapped down. A strap runs across my midsection, across my wrists, my ankles, my neck, and just above my knees. What the hell? The last thing I remember is jumping off the cliff in hopes of escaping the government. Don't tell me they still caught me. A door on the left side of the room opens and three men walk in. One's wearing a lab coat and I can tell he's eaten the Gas-Gas Fruit. Another is wearing a marine Admiral uniform and I can sense the Magma-Magma Fruit is with him. The last one is an older man with a black suit on and the symbol of the world government on his left breast. It appears the curse is fully awakening since the last holder is dead and I have to hold back the tears when I think of how they just shot my mother.

"Oh so you're finally awake little girl. We have some questions we would like you to answer and if you cooperate we'll let you go." The man in the black suit says as he pulls a stool over to the bed. "First off what's your name?" he asks me and I just turn my head away keeping my lips sealed. "How about telling me about your little family curse?" I still don't say anything and I can see he's getting frustrated from the corner of my eye. "If you're not willing to answer my questions then I guess I'll have to find a way to find out on my own. Caesar I give you permission for your earlier suggestion." The man in a black suit looks towards a the man whose eaten the Gas-Gas Fruit. Caesar gains a huge smile and he quickly walks over to me.

"Thank you sir for allowing me to conduct experiments on her, I'll find out the secrets she hides." Caesar sends a grin my way and I feel shivers run down my back. I feel something poke me in the arm and I quickly look in surprise to find the Magma-Magma man holding a needle in my arm while applying pressure to the tip. "Now sleep tight my new research project." Caesar says happily as I lose consciousness.

---

I wake up frowning at the horrible memory and I feel tears starting to well up. I wipe my eyes and notice Jiro looking at me with concern. I hold my finger to my mouth in hope of him understanding the message of not telling anyone and he lightly nods his head before we hear mumbling coming from the bed. The guy suddenly sits up and smashes his head against the wooden beam above.

"Careful there; we don't want to have to patch you up again." I tell him and he looks around confused while holding his forehead.

"Captain Puzzle!! You're awake." Jiro rushes to the bedside and Puzzle looks at him.

"Jiro what happened?" Puzzle asks Jiro and Jiro quickly explains everything to him while Chopper, who had woken up by the sound of us talking, checked him over. "Call everyone to the deck." I slowly stand up and kick Luffy to wake him up.

"Come on idiot we're moving to the deck." I say while I start dragging Luffy to the deck with Jiro, Puzzle, and Chopper following. I let Luffy go when we reached the deck and we stood off to the side as they started talking. "Hey Luffy I'm going to head back first." I say and Luffy nods while he still watches the other crew's discussion. I let out a sigh knowing he probably didn't even pay any attention to what I said and walked over to the rope that connects the two ships. I stepped onto the rope and started walking effortlessly across it when suddenly everything starts shaking. The water below me starts bubbling and a huge glacier shoots up. The glacier breaks the rope in two and since I was standing above it I was sent flying.

"KAZ." I hear Luffy and Chopper shout but before I can shout back I find myself barely able to see them. I have no clue how long or how far I've been flying when I feel gravity starting to take over again. I look down and try to approximately calculate where I'm going to land when I spot something move. As I move closer and closer I'm slowly able to identify the object. It's a person and I believe it to be Zoro. I notice that he's moving towards the spot I'm most likely to land, or crash.

"LOOK OUT ZORO." I scream at him but instead of moving he turns his head and looks towards me. This isn't good I think when I realize that at the speed I'm going even if he tries to dodge I'll end up taking him out. I close my eyes before smashing into Zoro and I can tell we go skidding back a couple of feet. I open my eyes after I'm sure we've stopped moving and blink in surprise at how close Zoro's face is. Both our eyes widen when we realize that we're pressed tightly together and that are lips are pressed against each other. We burst apart coughing and I try to hide my face from him since its turned bright red as we continue to cough.

"Let's agree that never happened." He coughed out.

"Agreed," I say still coughing as well. "Why didn't you move when I yelled at you to look out?" I scream at him after I stop coughing.

"I just heard someone scream and I was wondering who said that so I tried to find the source when you crashed into me." He says and I see a little bit of red cover his cheeks. "Anyway what the hell happened to you?"

"Don't you mean what happened after you got lost?" I ask him since I knew that if he wasn't with the others he got lost and I have an approximate idea of when he got separated.

"I didn't get lost you guys did." He yells at me.

"Sure anyway I'll just give you a run down on the basics." I told him the basics of what happened and after that we just started walking in a random direction.

"Are you sure you want me to lead? You know I get lost easily." Zoro asks me with a questioning glance.

"Oh My God did you just admit that you get lost easily? Are you feeling okay?" I place my hand on his forehead and check his temperature. "Did that crash leave you damaged in the head?" I still have my hand on his head and I move closer to look in his eyes trying to distinguish if they were cloudy. As I move closer I notice his face getting redder and redder but I figure that it's just from the cold.

"I'm fine; don't even think about telling the others that I said I get lost easily or else I'll kill you." He glares at me.

"Don't worry I won't." I pat him on the back and walk past him taking the lead.

~~~

Zoro

That had surprised me. Out of nowhere Kaz had just crashed into me and our lips had collided. What the hell? I'll admit it could have been worse; it could have been that shitty love cook I think as we burst apart and start coughing. We agreed to never speak of this event ever again and I feel a blush creeping onto my face when my mind travels back to the kiss when I explain why I didn't move earlier. Wait why am I feeling like this? I shake off the thought when Kaz fills me in on what has all happened since I got separated from the others. After he fills me in we start walking in a random direction with me leading for some reason.

"Are you sure you want me to lead? You know I get lost easily." I ask him not believing that I just said that out loud. I think that a lot but I'm just too proud to admit it especially when I know the crew will tease me about it. Kaz suddenly gets really worried and places his hand on my forehead to check my temperature I'm guessing. I feel another blush come to my face and it just intensifies as he leans in. I back away and try to hide the blush that just seemed to keep growing. I hope he doesn't notice it; Kaz pats me on the back and walks in front of me taking the lead.

"At least I hope I'm fine but I can't tell anymore." I murmur to myself as I follow behind Kaz. I don't know anymore, I feel like I can open up around Kaz without worrying about him making fun of me. I feel like I can trust him with my life even if it came down to it; even though I can tell that he's hiding something from us and up until a couple hours ago I still didn't trust him. When I made him cry earlier I sensed that he truly would try his best to prevent any troubles relating to him from coming down on the crew even though Luffy would probably help him if need be. I could also tell that he's been holding a lot of emotions in for a long time and that he has issues with trusting people.

Even though the last time I pried I ended up making him cry I still want to find out what he's hiding. I can tell Luffy knows and Chopper knows something but it's a smaller detail. Kaz is hiding something extremely big and I plan to figure it out, soon hopefully. Wait why do I care so much? I just want to know if it's going to cause trouble for the crew even though he said that if he was going to end up endangering the crew he would leave before that could happen. I feel something pull in my chest while I watch Kaz's back and thinking about him leaving. Is it possible that I care for some other reason instead of the safety of the crew? No that's impossible. I shake my head before jogging up beside Kaz and I take a quick peak at him through the corner of my eye.