Kaede

"What? Look out Kaede!" Nami yells just as Kuma's hand hits my side and sends me flying. I end up circling the island for an hour or two before landing aka crashing into the ground near the forest. When I climb out of the crater I'm greated with the sight of Kuma and a heavily injured Zoro.

"Am I missing something?" I ask.

"You shouldn't be back for another hour." Kuma says and I shrug.

"So? What's going on?" I ask looking at Zoro this time who was ready to collapse.

"Nothing much." Zoro says slowly crossing his arms over his chest.

"Okay... Let's get you patched up then and Kuma," I turn to look at the bear man. "Get out of here and you're not taking anything with you." I say staring at him.

"Yes I know; I will see you later." Kuma says walking off as I walk over to Zoro and I offer him my shoulder.

"I'm good." He says but I shake my head at him.

"Drop the tough guy act. I'm the only one here." I say giving the swordsman a soft glare and he lets out a soft sigh before leaning against me.

"Thanks," I hear him whisper softly and I smile.

"No problem. Let's get you over to where the others are." I say slowly directing Zoro in the direction he needs to go in.

"Don't tell the others about this." Zoro says and I nod.

"Don't worry I won't." I say helping him sit down on a rock near where the others where situated. "Stay and don't go falling unconscious on me." I say patting his shoulder lightly before walking over to where Chopper is located.

"I don't plan on it." Zoro says as I start patting Chopper on the cheek.

"Chopper get up. Oi Chopper wake up." I say patting the reindeer on the cheek before getting fed up and slapping the reindeer on his cheek hard enough that wakes him up.

"What? Kaede," Chopper asks still disoriented.

"Yeah it's me. Your expertise is needed." I say and Chopper sits up straight.

"Are you injured?" Chopper asks but I direct his attention towards where Zoro was sitting.

"He is." I say and Chopper lets out a quiet squeal before rushing over to where Zoro was sitting.

"What happened to you Zoro?" Chopper asks.

"Nothing." Zoro says and Chopper stares at him like he's an idiot.

"Just leave it Chopper. He's not going to say." I say sitting beside Zoro who was now being patched up by the reindeer. Zoro sends me a grateful look and I gently lean against him. More for him to lean against me but I have it looking like I'm leaning on him. My head rests against his freshly bandaged shoulder and a second later I feel my eyes slowly drift shut.

---

"We should bring here to Dadan. Dadan and the rest of the bandits would know what's wrong with her." I hear a young male voice say.

"I thought you were the smart one. Shouldn't you know what's wrong with her Sabo?" I hear another voice ask.

"She needs meat." A third male voice says.

"She doesn't need meat." The first two voices yell at the third one.

"Shut up." I mutter flicking my hand towards where the voices where coming from only to hear a bang resound next. I open my eyes and sit up with my hand in the same position as before. I look over to where the sounds had come from only to find three young boys squished against the wall. Two have black hair and the third one has blonde hair. I quickly drop my hand and the three boys fall to the floor in a heap.

"Sorry?" I question as the three boys turn to look at me.

"That was awesome. Did you eat a devil fruit?" One of the black haired boys asks. He has an old straw hat resting on his head that was partially keeping wild hair matted. A small crescent shaped scar was underneath his left eye and I could sense that he had eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit. Focusing a bit more I discover his name's Luffy but for now that's all I can get due to the strength of the curse at the moment.

"Something like that." I say cautiously shrugging and watching the boys for their reactions.

"What devil fruit did you eat?" The blonde wearing a top hat asks looking at me with interest.

"Sabo leave her alone. She doesn't have any reason to tell us." The last boy in the room says slightly glaring at me.

"That's true Ace but we did save her." Sabo says and I blink at that before bowing my head slightly.

"I guess I owe you a thank you." I say before raising my head up.

"Why? We just brought you here after finding you on the beach." Luffy asks obviously confused.

"Still you could've left me there were I could've been eaten by some random animal, gotten taken out to sea by the current where I could've been eaten by a sea creature or left drifting before I finally die." I say and the three stare at me.

"You have a very morbid sense." Sabo says and I stare at him.

"I'm just stating a fact of life." I say shrugging.

"Still." Sabo says staring at me. "Who are you anyway?"

"Oh my name's Kaede. Nice to meet you." I say bowing my head slightly before slowly getting up.

"Whoa you shouldn't be moving." Sabo says but I shake my head.

"Doesn't matter. If I don't get on the move I'll get caught again." I say making my way towards the doorway with my hand pressed to the side where I can feel a couple of my ribs were broken.

"You're going to stay here until your healed and then you can get on the move. If you go out there with your injuries, you'll just be putting your self into a death sentence." Ace says still glaring at me.

"And why should I listen to you? My life has nothing to do with you." I say glaring at Ace.

"We saved you so you owe us. You stay 'til you're healed and we'll call it even." Ace says glaring even more.

"Fine." I say.

"Fine." Ace says and the rest of the day is spent with me resting while the boys always left one with me.

---

"Kaede, hey Kaede." A high pitched voice says and I feel hooves poking me.

"What is it Chopper?" I ask yawning and opening my eyes to look at the reindeer.

"Can you move so we can get Zoro indoors?" Chopper says and I look up at Zoro's face since I was still using his shoulder as a pillow.

"Sure," I say gently moving away since I could feel Zoro's weight leaning on me and I look around to see that it's still use three plus Brook who are awake. I stand up and offer Zoro help as well.

"I'm fine." He says and I just give him a 'seriously?' look which he responds to by sighing before taking my hands so I can pull him up.

"Let's get you inside. Chopper can you point out where you want him?" I ask taking one of Zoro's arms over my shoulder and supporting him.

"Yeah, I'll go get the spot ready for him." Chopper says rushing off. We slowly make our way to the hole in the wall that leads indoor and soon enough we reach the spot Chopper has prepared which is just a stone slab. I help Zoro sit down before getting him to lay down.

"Kaede can you stay here and watch him while I check on everyone else?" Chopper asks and I nod.

"No problem Chopper." I say sitting down on the cement slab beside Zoro.

"Thanks Kaede." Chopper says rushing outside.

"So you feel like shit?" I ask looking at Zoro who stares at me.

"Yeah." Zoro finally admits. "By the way why did you come crashing down from the sky?"

"Oh Kuma flung me away when I met him at the docks." I say laying down beside Zoro and using his arm as a pillow.

"Why did he seem surprised when you got back?" Zoro asks.

"Probably because I got back earlier than he expected. Actually that was probably the shortest fly by that he's ever done." I say before we fall into silence and I feel my eyes starting to drift close and soon enough I fall asleep.

~~~

Zoro

I look over when I hear a quiet snore to find Kaede asleep with my arm acting as his pillow. Shouldn't I be the one who was falling asleep? I need the rest more than he does. A strand of hair falls out from behind Kaede's ear and before I can stop myself I gently push it back. My hand lingers on his surprisingly soft cheek and I can't stop myself from gently cupping his cheek. I freeze when Kaede's hand moves up to mine and he grabs it. He places his hand on top of mine and after that he doesn't move again. After a couple of seconds I gently take my hand out from underneath his and I turn onto my side facing him. Kaede turns onto his side facing me as well and places one of his hands on top of my arm as he shuffles slightly closer. I feel my cheeks gently heating up before they cool down and I drift asleep as well.

~~~

Third Veiw

Outside of the building Chopper was going around patching everyone up. Some people were waking up while he was doing that.

"Has anyone seen Zoro?" Sanji asks looking around and not spotting him. He was starting to worry about Kuma actually taking Zoro as people kept shaking their heads no.

"Has anyone seen Zoro?" Luffy suddenly yells loud enough for everyone to hear.

"He's inside resting. I have Kaede watching him so he doesn't do anything stupid." Chopper says walking over since he was now done patching everyone up.

"Wait Kaede's back?" Nami asks looking confused and everyone looks at her.

"What do you mean he's back?" Robin asks.

"Earlier she disappeared because of Kuma." Nami says.

"What bear guy?" Luffy asks.

"We'll explain later Luffy but yeah Kaede seemed to know Kuma. He talked with him for a bit before Kuma took off his glove and Kaede seemed to know what was going to happen. He looked annoyed and asked Kuma if he was going to fling him off again then he told me he'd be back in a few hours." Nami says.

"Well Kaede's back and he has no injuries at all." Chopper says before everyone shuffles inside to party. The Strawhat crew goes to check on Zoro only to find him asleep but what surprises most of them is that he's asleep holding onto Kaede who's also asleep and using his arm as a pillow.

"So does Mosshead have a thing for Kaede or is Kaede just using him as a pillow and Mosshead didn't want to wake him?" Sanji asks hiding his relief and Chopper checks on Zoro's wounds again.

"Huh?" Chopper says before checking all of Zoro's injuries.

"What is it Chopper?" Robin asks.

"His wounds are healing quicker than they should be." Chopper says and Luffy lets out a laugh.

"I know what's causing that. Don't worry about it." Luffy says and everyone stares at him.

"How could you possibly know something like that? You don't know anything about the body or anything medical." Nami says raising a fist towards Luffy.

"I don't know anything medical but I do know nakama." Luffy says confusing everyone there.

"Luffy......." Kaede mumbles in her sleep. "Ace......Sabo..."

"Hmm, wonder what she's dreaming about." Luffy says.

"Damn crocodile. Spit him out." Kaede mutters again and Luffy laughs.

"She's dreaming about that time." Luffy says smiling before turning around. "Let's party." Luffy yells and everyone instantly agrees.

Author's Note (Important one so I suggest reading this or you might get a bit lost beginning of next chapter)

Just to let you know the next section starts at Spa Island. I have a timeskip in my draft (I write my story as one huge thing in word before splitting it into chapters when I publish parts) but just the way I'm doing the chapters it works out were the next section starts at Spa Island and for future refrence these will mean timeskip >>> adding to the --- means flashbacks and ~~~ is perspective change.