Chapter 40

In the days that passed since the crew's escape from Navarone, life on the Going Merry has been a peaceful one.

Today is no exception with everyone is doing their daily routine either on the deck or indoors. All but Rose, who's in the crow's nest, and studying on her devil fruit all day. When she looked inside the backpack that she took from Navarone, it not only held the three books that Lily gave her for her research, but also the devil fruit index that she first read to blend in.

She was only skimming the pages when she was in disguise, but now that she has time to pay attention to it, she's studying all she can about the secrets of her devil fruit.

The wind girl happily grins at the cheat sheet, when she feels ready to practice some of the moves that are recorded. She puts her book into her backpack, and holds her hand up to her eye level. She keeps her palm directed to the sky and begins to concentrate.

She narrows her eyes to her hand before wind starts to gather on her hand. She chuckles at the result, when the wind swirls around on her palm to appear as an orb of air. The brunette keeps a look of satisfaction on her face as she makes it spin in her hands faster, and reminds her of Naruto's rasengan.

She looks up at the afternoon sky to see that there aren't any clouds for her to throw it, then looks down for a target. She scans that deck for something to throw it at, and finds a barrel by the door.

She grins at the target as she aims her wind at it then throws it. As soon as she releases the ball, she chuckles in victory of it going straight to the target.

However, that victory is short lived, because when it's halfway to the barrel, it curves to the right and heads to the railing where Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy are fishing! "OH FUCK, GUYS BEHIND YOU!"

The three of them turn their heads, but it was too late because the attack hits Luffy's back and sends him flying in a spin.

Usopp and Chopper drop their jaws at how their captain flew ten feet off the ship in an instant, before Rose catches him on a gust of wind.

Rose sighs in relief as she brings Luffy back to the ship and flies down beside them. "Sorry about that. I was practicing a new move and it went haywire."

Luffy grins at the wind girl as he feels his feet placed back on the deck. "Don't worry about it, that move was great."

Rose returns the smile before she looks at the other fishermen. "You guys catch anything?"

Chopper frowns in disappointment as she reels his line back in to show nothing. "No..."

Usopp sighs in disappointment as he reels his line in to show the same result. "Yea, they're not biting. You guys want to do something else?"

Luffy nods as he grins at them. "Yea, let's play truth or dare! Rose, you're playing too!"

The wind girl chuckles at the order and nods. "Sure."

The captain runs off to see who else would be willing to pay while Rose, Chopper and Usopp take a seat in the middle of the deck.

In a matter of minutes, Luffy returns to the group but the only other crew mate that he could convince to play with them was Nami.

The navigator sits cross legged next to Rose, while Luffy takes a seat to make it so the group's in a circle.

Rose looks to the red head with mild confusion. "How'd he get you to play?"

Nami gives her a small smirk as she puts a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I wouldn't miss a chance to play this game with you guys."

Rose gets suspicious of what she's planning when Luffy speaks up. "So, how do we play?"

All the players are taken aback by the question and turn to see him staring at them innocently.

"Why did you suggest a game that you don't know how to play?!" Chopper asks.

Luffy however, doesn't see it as a problem as he shrugs off their looks. "I heard it was fun, so I wanted to try."

"Of course you did..." Nami and Usopp mutter in disbelief of their captain.

Rose however, grins at the childish pirate and answers his question. "This is a game where one person asks the other to choose truth or dare. If they choose true, then they have to answer a question honestly. If they choose dare, then they have to do a task whether it's to do something crazy or not is up to the person who asked. You got it?"

Luffy nods with a carefree smile. "Yup, how to we decide on who's first?"

Rose goes into her backpack, and takes out the empty liquor bottle that she had stored in there since her interview with Zoro. "We can use this."

Usopp sweat drops at the random item in her bag. "Why do you have that?"

The wind girl shrugs at the question before she puts it at the center of their circle. "I forgot to throw it out. We can spin it to decide who asks first and then they spin it to see who they ask truth or dare to. Sound fair?"

The others nod in agreement as Luffy grabs the bottle. "Alright, let's go!"

He spins the bottle too fast so it takes a while for it to stop. Once it does, it points to the ship's doctor for him to be the first.

"Sweet, I'm first!" Chopper says with a happy grin as he spins the bottle.

Luckily, the spin wasn't as long as Luffy so it didn't take long for it to stop and point to the rubber man. "Alright Luffy, Truth or Dare?"

Luffy gives the doctor a toothy grin as he's almost bouncing in excitement. "I choose dare!"

Chopper knits his eyebrows in thought, because he doesn't know what could be a good dare for someone so reckless.

Nami sees that he's having trouble, so she taps his shoulder. "If you need help, I have a suggestion..."

Rose's worries become stronger when she realizes what she's planning. "You can't lead his dare!"

"Who said? You don't mind if I give you a suggestion do you Chopper?" Nami asks with a sweet smile that can't hide the devilish aura that's coming out of her.

Chopper hesitantly nods before she takes him out of the circle to talk in private.

Luffy tilts his head at all the secrecy before he looks to Rose. "What's Nami planning?"

"Some kind of stupid crap..." Rose says with a tired frown.

Usopp snickers at her reaction as he smirks at Luffy. "Probably something to get you to-!"

Rose cuts him off with a punch to the arm that's hard enough to knock him over.

Luffy laughs at the attack while he gets back up. Usopp rubs his sore arm and mutters curses when Nami and Chopper return to the group.

Rose narrows her purple eyes at Nami suspiciously, but the navigator just gives her an innocent grin as she sits down.

Chopper sits down and looks at Luffy nervously. "I dare you to kiss someone in the group..."

Rose tenses up at the dare while Usopp and Nami smother their laughter from her reaction.

Chopper is timidly worrying about Luffy picking him since he's staring at him innocently.

"I need to kiss someone?" Luffy asks with his head tilted cutely.

Chopper nods but points to the others. "Yea, someone in this circle, you get to choose."

"Oh, ok." He gets up and shocks Rose when he starts walking towards her.

She looks to Nami and Usopp, who are both giving her sly smirks, and is giving them a million curses in her mind. Still, she can't fight the blush when Luffy crouches in front of her with a toothy grin and holds her shoulders. "Let's kiss."

Rose's blush doubles from the innocent look on his face, and timidly nods. She knows that he's only kissing her for a dare, so she knows not to be nervous. Her heart doesn't know it though, because it's beating a mile a minute when he leans forward with his eyes closed.

She closes her eyes to get through the dare, but they open back up when she hears a thud behind her and no rubber man in front of her!

Everyone looks in shock to find Luffy kissing the railing instead of Rose, because he fell through the wind girl's airy body and landed face first on the rail behind her.

Rose couldn't help but chuckle at what happened when Luffy pulls away and rubs his face. "Sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen. You alright?"

Luffy nods as he puts his hand down and sits next to her. "I'm good."

She turns away from him and looks to Chopper. "Does that count?"

Chopper nods and looks to Luffy. "That can count since you-!"

He cuts himself off when Luffy leans to Rose's side and sneaks a kiss on her freckled cheek.

Usopp, Nami, and Chopper are surprised by the sneak attack, but nowhere near as surprised as the blushing brunette.

Luffy pulls away to see Rose's face competing with the redness of a cherry, and feels a warm mood breeze flying off her. "Was that too much on your allergies?"

Rose slowly shakes her head as she covers her face with her hand to hide the blush, and settles down her mood breeze. "I'll be fine. Keep playing..."

He nods with a toothy grin and he reaches for the bottle and gives it a spin. Once it stops, it shows the next target to be the crew's sniper! "Alright Usopp, truth or dare!"

The sniper snickers at the question. "The mighty Usopp never backs down from a dare!"

The captain smirks at the challenge and points to the kitchen door. "Then I dare you to get me some food from the kitchen!"

Usopp immediately regrets his choice, and begins to pale at the deadly task of stealing from Sanji's domain. "Seriously?!"

Chopper tilts his head at Usopp's hesitance with an innocent look in his eyes. "What's wrong? Are you backing down?"

Usopp tries to regain some of his composure as he gets up with shaky legs. "O-of course not! Consider this dare completed!"

The reindeer stares at him with stars in his eyes as he watches Usopp stalk towards the kitchen.

"Good luck Usopp!" Luffy calls out, and earns a glare from the sniper.

"Shut up, you jerk!"

Nami snickers at the situation while Rose tries her best to keep herself from laughing.

Usopp stares at the door to his challenge, and tries to think of a strategy to get him enough time to complete his goal. Once an idea pops up in his mind, he starts to smirk and slightly opens the door. "WHOA, ARE THOSE BEAUTIFUL MERMAIDS IN THE WATER?!"

"MERMAIDS?!" Luffy and Chopper yell out in shock as they get up and run to the railing to search for them.

Sanji slams open the door with hearts in his eyes and joins the gullible pirates at the railing. "Where are the mermaids?!"

"They're on the horizon, you can't miss them!" Usopp answers before he runs into the kitchen to finish his task.

Nami couldn't take it anymore and starts laughing at how his plan worked.

The boys stop searching when they hear her laughter and look back to see her still laughing.

Rose lets out a few giggles before she points to the kitchen door, for the boys to see Usopp walking out with some cookies in his hand.

He freezes when he sees everyone's eyes on him, and becomes terrified when he sees Sanji practically burning him with the fury in his eyes.

"YOU LIED ABOUT MERMAIDS TO STEAL FOOD?!"

Usopp runs as fast as can be with the angry chef close on his tail.

"CHOPPER CATCH!" Usopp throws the doctor five cookies and keeps running for his life.

Rose decides to be merciful and uses her wind to pick Sanji up.

The chef stops running when he sees that's he's not moving anymore. He finds himself a foot in the air, and flails his limbs to fruitlessly struggle to get down while it's dragging him backwards. "Please put me down Rose-chan, this idiot needs to pay!"

"Can't do that Sanji." The wind girl says as she drags him towards Nami.

Usopp timidly hides behind the mast while Chopper gives Luffy half of the cookies for them to enjoy.

Nami tiredly sighs at the ordeal, when Rose brings Sanji right in front of her, so she gives the chef a sweet smile. "Sorry Sanji-kun, we're playing truth or dare. We'll keep the game out of the kitchen, so please don't be mad at us."

Sanji's rage immediately melts away from Nami's beautiful smile, and stops struggling. His scowl is replaced with a loving grin while Rose sets him down. "I could never be mad at you Nami-san. If any of yours or Rose-chan's dares require the kitchen, you're more than welcome to come in."

He turns around and glares at the boys. "As for you guys, no more daring to steal food, got it?!"

The three of them quickly nod before Sanji heads back into the kitchen.

Usopp sighs in relief as he comes out of hiding. "Thanks for the save."

Rose and Nami nod in acknowledgement as they all return to the circle to resume the game.

Usopp spins the bottle for his turn and waits in anticipation. Once the green glass stops moving, it reveals the game's next victim to be Rose. "Alright Rose, truth or dare."

Rose gives him a mischievous smirk and gives him a thumbs up "Give me your worst fucking dare, but no suggestions from Nami."

The sniper snickers at the challenge. "I don't need her help on this one. I already know what I want." He points to her with a look of pride. "I dare you to wear a dress for the rest of the day!"

Nami happily grins at the dare, while the other boys are surprised by the random challenge.

The tom-boyish pirate however, is unimpressed by the stupid dare and looks at him blankly. "Seriously? You couldn't choose something more interesting?"

"It's my pick, so you gotta do it!" Usopp says with a prideful smirk.

Rose tiredly sighs before she shrugs. "Sorry, but I can't put on something that I don't have."

The wind girl tenses up when she feels a hand on her shoulder, and doesn't need to turn her head to know that the navigator is smirking right behind her.

"Oh don't worry, I'll lend you a dress, and even do it for free as long as I pick it out and style you up..." Nami doesn't give the poor girl a chance to respond before she drags her inside by the back of the collar of Rose's jacket.

Rose is stunned by the crazy turn of events, but before she was taken to the door she glares at Usopp and flips him off. "The next time Sanji chases you, I'm letting him kick your sorry ass!"

Usopp barely cares about the promise as he waves her off and laughs in victory. "It was worth it!"

Chopper and Luffy both stare at the sniper in confusion, because they don't know why he's so smug.

"What's the big deal about Rose wearing a dress?" Chopper curiously asks.

Usopp turns to the reindeer and still keeps a small smirk on his face. "Because we've never seen her in one before. Dares are about taking someone out of their comfort zone."

He looks to Luffy and nudges him with his elbow. "Besides, I'm sure out of all people, you'll want to see how good she looks in a dress."

Luffy tilts his head at the remark. "What are you talking about? Rose always looks good."

Usopp tiredly sighs at his captain's cluelessness before he looks to the door that Nami dragged Rose through. "Just wait and see, you'll know what I'm talking about."

Both innocent pirates are still unsure of what he means, but nonetheless they have no choice but to wait for the dare to be completed.

Meanwhile, after bringing Rose into their room, Nami is digging through her closet for something her crew mate to wear.

Rose tilts her head at the navigator's determination, because she doesn't understand why Usopp and Nami are so enthusiastic. "What exactly is the big deal with me wearing a dress?"

Nami comes out of the closet with a frown and a dress in her hand, then points to her model. "It's because you're always wearing that kind of outfit! You didn't even wear the dancer outfit in Alabasta!"

Rose looks down at her outfit of a green long sleeved shirt, under her knee length jacket, blue jeans, grey gloves and sneakers, then knits her eyebrows. "I still don't see why it'd make you guys so curious."

She tiredly sighs as she gives the brunette the new outfit. "Haven't you ever wanted to dress up?"

Rose only shrugs as she holds up the sleeveless dress by its thick straps to examine it. "Not really. I had to focus more on comfort, and coverage, than fashion growing up, so the habit kind of stuck. Besides, it's hard to fight and run in a dress, so I never developed an interest."

The navigator is taken aback by the explanation and remembers how Rose looked when they first met. Remembering all the scratches and bruises on the brunette's arms, and face, makes her understand why she has a habit of covering her skin.

However, it also motivates her to let out her friend's inner beauty more. She goes back in the closet to find some shoes while she speaks to her. "Well, that dress is form fitting, so you can still use your wind. Go put it on."

The tomboy hums in acknowledgement as she changes clothes. Nami wasn't kidding about how form fitting it was, it showed off Rose's small curves perfectly as it snugly hugs her form down to the middle of her thighs. However, the dress has a thin overlay skirt, with a slit in the front to show the bottom layered skirt, that flows to her knees.

With a look in the mirror, she takes a closer look, and immediately loves the colors the most. From the top of the dress to the outer layered skirt, the dress is dark blue, with silver stars dusting the edges of the skirt and waistline. The bottom layered skirt though, holds the same shade of black as on the right side of her necklace to give it a more night like look.

She still doesn't understand the big deal about wearing a dress, but she's glad that it doesn't reveal too much like other clothes that she's seen in this world.

She looks down at her necklace, that's out in the open by the scoop neckline, and adjusts it to center it on her chest.

While she's admiring her necklace's beauty, Nami comes out with a pair of black gladiator sandals, with a small beige wedge, and sees Rose staring at herself in the mirror.

Nami happily grins at how the dress fits and comes up to her. "It looks even better than I thought."

Rose looks back at her and shyly grins at the compliment. "Thanks, so we can go now?"

"Not yet." Nami drops the shoes, then goes to a dresser. "I know I have it in here..."

Rose puts on the sandals, that snugly fit her, then looks at Nami in confusion. "What are you looking for?"

Nami chuckles when she finds a hair tie, with a fake silver rose attached to it. "Something to complete the outfit."

Rose widens her eyes at the girly hair tie and shakes her head. "Can't we use a regular ponytail for this?"

"No way." Nami approaches her, takes her long, straight brown hair and uses the tie to put it in a ponytail, with the flower clearly shown in her hair.

Nami happily grins in satisfaction of the look as she turns around for some make up. "Now what else can we do?"

Rose tenses up when she sees her crew mate examining make up, then goes into her dresser where she keeps the pictures of her past adventures. "If we stop now, I'll give you a picture that you'd really want."

Nami stops what she's doing and looks at her in confusion. "What kind of picture would I want?"

Rose takes out a picture from when they were stealing gold from the snake's stomach and smirks at her. She shows Nami the picture, and the redhead drops her jaw at the photo of Sanji placing a crown on her head with both of them giving the other an adoring smile.

Nami widens her eyes at the photo and can barely take her eyes off it. "How the hell did you get this?!"

She tries to take the photo from Rose, but the brunette keeps it out of her reach.

Rose snickers at the frustrated redhead and looks back at the picture. "I took this when you guys were having your moment. Honestly, an earthquake could've happened, and you two wouldn't have noticed. You two make a cute couple."

Nami groans at the comment and scowls at her. "Shut up..."

The wind girl holds back from laughing, and softly grins at her. "Relax, I'm just teasing. If you don't want the picture, I'll just keep it."

The navigator is irritated by the blackmail, but nonetheless she takes the bait, and opens her hand to her. "No makeup..."

Rose hands her the photo with a sly grin. "Pleasure doing business with you."

Nami groans at losing for once, and puts the photo in her pocket. "I wouldn't be so smug if I were you. Even without makeup, Luffy's gonna shower you with compliments when he sees you."

Rose freezes at the comment, when she remembers the dare, and looks away from her. "You're getting Luffy mixed with Sanji now. He's not into this stuff."

"Only one way to find out." Nami takes Rose by the wrist and brings her outside.

"Here she is guys!" Nami calls out as she pushes Rose in front of her so Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper get a full view of her.

Chopper and Usopp are surprised at how the new look suits the astronomer and grins at the outcome.

"Wow, you look great!" Chopper says as he gets a closer look at her.

"Yea, great pick on the dress Nami." Usopp says as he gives her a thumbs up, which she returns.

Rose mutters a thanks, then looks at the captain to see him staring at her with wide eyes and his mouth slightly dropped.

She grows concerned when she sees him not moving, and walks up to the frozen pirate. "Luffy?"

Luffy only closes his mouth as a response, but keeps staring at her because he doesn't know how to react. Rose always looked good in his eyes, but it was like the dress was made for her. He's never seen her look so pretty and it's making his heart feel like it's jumping, like when he hears her laugh or sing.

Rose grows more worried by his lack of response and looks to the doctor. "Doc, we lost Luffy!"

"What?!" Chopper hurriedly runs up to him to try to wake him up.

Usopp and Nami are both laughing their butts off from Luffy's reaction, as they watch Chopper go into heavy point and shake him by the shoulders. "Luffy, wake up!"

Luffy snaps out of his daze and gets away from Chopper's grasp. "Stop it, what are you doing?!"

"He was getting you out of your trance! What the hell happened?!" Rose asks in fear of it happening again.

Luffy innocently blinks at her before he scratches the back of his head. "I don't know."

Both Rose and Chopper look at each other with concern before the doctor looks at him. "Has this happened before?"

Luffy shakes his head. "No, this is the first time."

Chopper furrows his eyebrows at the strangeness, but if he was just daydreaming then there's no issue. "Ok, but try to be careful."

The clueless boy nods with a toothy grin. "Alright, let's get back to the game!"

Rose hesitantly nods as she and the others get back to the circle.

Rose makes sure that her legs are closed as she sits down and spins the bottle for her turn. As soon as it stops, the freckled girl smirks in victory to see that her target is Nami.

She gives the navigator a devilish smirk and a mischievous glint her eyes. "Truth or dare Nami?"

Nami begins to grow nervous about the wind girl's intense stare and doesn't know which to choose. If she picks true, she might have to answer an embarrassing question regarding Sanji. If she chooses dare, then she might do something crazy...

She decides to risk it to avoid answering any embarrassing questions. "I choose dare."

Rose's smirk widens at the bad choice as she scoots next to her and whispers the challenge into her ear.

The boys grow more curious about the quiet dare, especially since with each passing second Nami's brown eyes widen in fear.

Once Rose pulls away, she gives Nami a friendly smile as if she didn't just give her a crazy dare. "If you want to back out, just cancel my debt and we can switch to truth."

Nami snaps out of it from hearing that she can lose a debt, and stands up. "No way, I'm doing it!"

"Good luck!" She waves her off as she and the others watch Nami storm off into the kitchen.

The boys blink at the randomness before they look to Rose.

"What exactly did you make her do?" Chopper asks with curiosity of what's going on.

Rose just points to the door with a prideful smirk before they hear a scream of joy from Sanji and a thud right after.

The group runs over to the kitchen to see a stunned Nami, with an embarrassed blush decorating her face, standing over the collapsed chef who's laying in a puddle of blood from his nose bleed.

"Aah! Sanji!" Chopper runs to Sanji to give him first aid.

Usopp looks at the ordeal in shock before he timidly turns to Rose. "What the hell kind of dare did you give her?!"

"All I fucking did was dare her to kiss him! I didn't plan for him to react like that!" Rose says in shock that he got a nosebleed from just a kiss.

Robin, who's been sitting at the kitchen table the whole time with a book, giggles at the explanation. "So that's what happened. I was wondering why she barged in and pulled him by the tie to kiss him."

"I don't care why she did it, I'm just happy to get a kiss from my lovely Nami-san~!" Sanji says with a blissful smile on his face while Chopper stuffs tissues up his nose and sits the half-conscious man up.

While Nami is happy of the praise, she feels guilty for giving him a nosebleed, so she glares at the group that she played with. "Get out, the game's over got it?!"

Rose, Luffy, and Usopp both nervously nod before they run away to avoid Nami's wrath.

Robin giggles at her crewmates' fleeing then looks to see Nami give Chopper a couple of rags for Sanji then takes some for herself to clean up the blood on the floor. "Do you want some help Navigator-san?"

Nami shakes her head as she starts cleaning up as a way to make up for what happened. "It's fine, I got this."

Robin nods as she gets back to her book like nothing happened.

"Nami-san is so sweet~!" Sanji says in a lovesick daze while Chopper confirms that the bleeding has stopped, so he lays Sanji's head down on a pile of rags then puts a cold compress on his head.

Chopper sighs in relief that this isn't anything critical as he sits in a chair. "He'll be ok in a bit. He just needs to take it easy."

"Thanks Chopper." Nami says with a grin as she looks to the weakened chef, who's just smiling at her with hearts in his eyes.

Nami just looks away from his loving smile while she finishes cleaning up, then heads off to navigate the ship in hopes of finding another island, so Sanji can get a break tonight.

It didn't take long for Nami to spot a spring island during their travels, so she makes the decision to get supplies and dinner there.

The navigator looks to her log pose to figure out how much time they have to stay on the island then looks to the crew, who's working to dock the ship. "We have two days before the pose resets itself. We can re-supply tonight and then head out tomorrow morning."

"Alright, let's go!" Luffy says as he jumps off the ship with Usopp and Chopper running after him, and Zoro staying behind to take a nap.

Nami and Robin head off together to go shopping for clothes, while Sanji goes on his own to go grocery shopping.

Rose, who's still wearing the dress Usopp dared her to wear, with her backpack and guitar in hand to street perform. Once she gets a closer look, she's surprised to find that the locals are busy with setting up different stands.

Rose walks over to an elderly man and points to the town. "Excuse me, but what's going on here?"

The old man grins at the slim girl before he looks to the town. "You must not be from around here. You see, tonight is our annual festival to celebrate this town's founding day. We celebrate every year with a festival full of games, food, and a fireworks show. If you're not in a rush on your journey, you should stay and enjoy yourself."

Rose happily smiles at the news as she bows her head. "I definitely will. Thank you."

He chuckles at the polite girl as he returns the bow then goes on his way.

The wind girl raises her head and is more motivated to perform now than ever to raise some money to have fun tonight. She heads to a shopping district, that's a small distance from where all the festival workers are setting things up, and picks a place to perform for the townspeople.

Once her backpack is in front of her, and open to accept potential tips, she tunes up the guitar.

Once ready, she gets to work by strumming up the chords to the opening to "Better when I'm Dancing" by Meghan Trainor.

Most of the nearby civilians, who are walking around town, freeze at the sound of the upbeat music. They look to the performer in shock to see her moving around to the beat as she starts singing.

Don't think about it~

Just move your body~

Listen to the music~

Sing, oh, ey, oh~

Just move those left feet~

Go ahead, get crazy~

Anyone can do it~

Sing, oh, ey, oh~

The audience is surprised by un-planned performance, but they like the rhythm, so they stay around with a few dancing to the beat.

Show the world you've got that fire~

Feel the rhythm getting louder~

Show the room what you can do~

Prove to them you got the moves~

I don't know about you~

But I feel better when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah~

Better when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah~

And we can do this together~

I bet you feel better when you're dancing, yeah, yeah~

The street performer is completely lost in her own world, and wouldn't have it any other way. She enjoys herself so much that she begins to move around with the dancing civilians in her performance.

When you finally let go~

And you slay that solo~

'Cause you listen to the music~

Sing, oh, ey, oh~

'Cause you're confident, babe~

And you make your hips sway~

We knew that you could do it~

Sing, oh, ey, oh'

Show the world you've got that fire (fire, baby)~

Feel the rhythm getting louder~

Show the room what you can do~

Prove to them you got the moves~

I don't know about you,~

But I feel better when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah~

Better when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah~

And we can do this together~

I bet you feel better when you're dancing, yeah, yeah~

In a nearby shop, Nami and Robin are walking out, with a couple of bags in their hands, and freeze to what looks to be a dance party of twenty people on the street.

They know that the festival doesn't start until after sunset, so they get a closer look. The last thing they expected was to see Rose in the center of it all, and swaying around with her guitar.

Nami blinks at how Rose managed to draw such a quick crowd with her music, but grins at the nice melody. "Wow, she's pretty good."

"Good enough to attract some admirers." Robin says as she looks away from Rose to see a handsome young, slightly muscular, man standing in the back of the crowd.

However, there's no denying the look of admiration on his olive skinned face as he watches the wind girl dancing around to give the crowd a fun show.

Rose doesn't notice her crew mates' arrival as she continues to sway her body, and finishes off the song.

Feel better when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah

Better when I'm dancing, yeah, yeah,

Don't you know

We can do this together

Bet you feel better when you're dancing, yeah, yeah

I feel better when I'm dancing

I'm better when I'm dancing, hey

Feel better when I'm, yeah, yeah

She stops dancing around with a final spin as she plays the final chord, and giggles at the fun performance. The townspeople happily applaud the great performance, that gets the guitarist to remember where she is.

Rose bows to the crowd, then gives them a bright smile as she points to her open bag. "Thanks everyone, hope you're all getting fired up for tonight. If you like what you heard, please leave a tip in the bag. No amount is too small. I'll provide you with the next song in a minute."

Half of the crowd goes to fill her bag with tips of various amounts of beli while Rose double checks the tuning on her instrument.

Before Nami or Robin could approach the musician, the man who's been admiring her since the start of the show quickly approaches her.

Rose hums in confusion as the dark haired man's approach, before he shyly grins at her. "H-hello, my name is Daichi!"

The wind girl blinks at the nervous introduction, but nonetheless smiles up at the taller man. "Nice to meet you, I'm Rose."

Daichi's smile grows from the cute girl's friendly introduction as he relaxes. "Your song was amazing. You came to town to perform at the festival right? I definitely would've known if someone like you lived here."

She shakes her head at the question, and is completely oblivious to the fact that he's trying to flirt with her. "I'm not a part of tonight's festivities, but I'm sure my friends and I are gonna stay for it though."

The local keeps a small grin at the chance to get to know her more. "O-oh, well if you don't have any plans with your friends, do you want to hang out with me at the festival tonight? I know all of the best places."

Rose nods her head to the invitation with a sweet smile. "Sure, sounds like fun."

He blushes at the lovely smile, but nonetheless happily grins before he points to the clock tower at the center of town. "Thank you! Meet me at the clock tower at sundown!"

"Ok, I'll see you then." Rose gives him a small wave as she watches him run off at top speed. She chuckles at his enthusiasm as she gets ready to play the next song, but stops when she feels a hand on her shoulder.

She turns in shock to see Nami and Robin in front of her, with the red head looking at her in disbelief while Robin is keeping her calm smile on her face.

"What the hell was that?" Nami asks.

Rose doesn't understand why she's so frazzled so she tilts her head. "What do you mean?"

"We saw you accepting that boy's invitation." Robin says as she keeps her eyes on the path that Daichi just took.

Rose looks from one girl to the other before she starts understanding why Nami's upset. "Oh, I get it. You're worried that he's a bounty hunter or marine in disguise."

Nami twitches an eyebrow in frustration of her obliviousness and whacks her on the head, but her fist goes through her. "No you idiot! You just accepted an offer to go on a date with him!"

Rose is taken aback by the announcement before she starts laughing. "Hahahaha, you can't be serious!"

The navigator groans at her before she tries to spell it out for her. "Think about it, a boy invites a cute girl to a festival, they both have a fun time, then he kisses her under the fireworks! That's exactly what's happening here!"

The astronomer sweat drops at the theory, that's insane in her eyes, and looks at her blankly. "Have you been reading a bunch of cheesy romance novels lately?"

Nami scoffs in frustration before she throws her hands into the air as a sign that she gives up, and walks away.

Robin giggles at Nami's rashness and calmly turns to Rose. "You really don't see this as a date?"

The brunette shakes her head and gives her a normal smile. "Daichi doesn't know me at all, so there's no way it can be a date. It makes more sense that he's some sort of bounty hunter. If he tries anything, I'll just use him as a training dummy. If he's an honest guy, then I'll have a good time with a new friend, so it's a win-win."

The archaeologist chuckles at the simple strategy. "In that case, I suggest learning how to suffocate him by stealing the air from his lungs."

Rose chuckles at the morbid recommendation as she gets her hands on the guitar to get ready for the next song. "I won't go that far, but thanks for the suggestion. I'd better get back to the show."

Robin nods as she leaves while Rose continues to entertain the crowd with her music.

Once Robin manages to catch up with Nami, she finds the redhead still fuming about how oblivious Rose is.

"I can't believe her! How could she not see that it's a date?! She and Luffy are both so oblivious! I can't stand it!" She keeps muttering out her frustrations as they reach the docks to drop thei stuff off at the ship.

Robin giggles at the navigator's ranting as she speaks up. "Speaking of Captain-san, what will happen if he finds out?"

Nami immediately tenses up at the question before she shakes her head. "I don't know, I just hope he doesn't get us thrown out of town."

"Why would Luffy get us thrown out of town?" The girls freeze to see Sanji walking up to them with no bags in his hand.

Nami shakes her head, because she doesn't want him involved in this. "It's nothing, how are you feeling?"

Sanji grins at her concern. "I'm a lot better thank you. I just placed the supplies back on the ship."

Robin grins at this when she speaks up. "Now that you're done, do you have any plans for tonight, Chef-san?"

The chef looks at her in confusion, but answers her question. "No I don't."

Robin nods before she looks to Nami. "How about you Navigator-san, any plans?"

Nami shakes her head, so the archaeologist takes her bags. "Good, because I have plans tonight. You two enjoy your date."

The two pirates are shell shocked at the sudden set up as Robin walks off to let the couple try to figure out how she just match made them.

For the entire afternoon, Luffy, Usopp and Chopper have been exploring the town with excitement of learning about the festival.

Just as the sun is getting close to setting, the boys are searching around the festival for any game stalls to play.

"When is the fireworks supposed to start?" Chopper asks as he enjoys some cotton candy that he got from a food stand.

Usopp hums in thought as he looks up at the clock tower. "Not sure, it needs to be very dark for it to happen, so we have plenty of time."

Luffy keeps looking around for something to do when he spots a high striker game, that's twenty feet tall, with a bell at the top of the game. "Whoa, what's that?"

Usopp and Chopper spot the strength testing game and are shocked by how tall the target is.

Nonetheless, they know that they can't stop Luffy from wanting to play, so Usopp points to the game. "It's a test your strength game. They give you a hammer and you need hit the lever to make the puck hit the bell."

Luffy blinks at the simple rules and goes up to the game with Usopp and Chopper following.

They look to the five layered shelf, that's placed next to the stand, and holds various kinds of prizes from stuffed animals to trinkets.

A bulky middle aged man, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, grins at the kids from his seat next to the game. "You kids want to play? The higher you can get the puck, the higher the shelf you can choose from."

Usopp looks up at the water gun at the top shelf in awe before he looks to the owner. "So if we hit the bell then we can choose from the top shelf?"

"That's right. It costs 500 beli for a try."

The sniper brightens up at the chance as he turns to Luffy to ask him to win the gun, but stops when he sees his captain also staring at the top shelf.

He follows his gaze to see a yellow star plushie, that's a little bigger than his head sitting there.

Usopp can tell where Luffy's mind is going, because it reminds him of the crew's astronomer, so he smirks at him and pats him on the back. "After you win that, can you get me the gun?"

Luffy quickly nods with a large smile as he takes some money from his pocket and hands it to the owner. "I'm gonna play!"

The owner takes the money and hands the lanky boy a mallet. "Don't feel bad if you can't hit the bell kid. Depending on how high you go I can-!"

He cuts himself off when Luffy slams the hammer down on the lever to make the puck fly high enough to not only hit the bell, but break it off the game!

The whole group drops their jaws at the now flying bell as it descends from the sky. The brass bell breaks through the sky light of the building behind the stand, and they cringe when they hear it crash into the various musical instruments inside.

"MY SHOP!" The stall owner cries out in horror while the customers to the instrument shop run away in fright with some of the employees running outside to see what happened.

While all this chaos is happening, Usopp timidly goes behind his crew mates and whispers to them. "Let's go!"

Chopper and Luffy didn't need to be told twice at all three of them make a run for it, but stop when two employees block them off.

"You're not going anywhere!" The stall owner blocks their other path while he cracks his knuckles. "You're paying for the damages!"

Chopper hides behind the boys, with most of his body exposed, as he shakes in fear. "We only have a few thousand beli!"

The shopkeeper knows that it won't be enough, so he starts thinking about putting them to work to pay the debt. With his own stall being busted and the store about to close though, he's not sure how that could work.

A female employee looks at the attractive young man in the straw hat in thought before she smirks to her boss. "Hey boss, isn't that event still open to volunteers? If anything, this boy would be perfect for it."

The boss immediately knows what she's talking about and smirks at the pirates. "You're right, both him and long nose can do it..."

Usopp and Luffy both grow nervous at the mischievous glints in their eyes, and get grabbed. Chopper is frightened about what's going on and follows them deeper into town to see what they're planning.

After having a fun afternoon of street performing, and raising a good amount of spending money, Rose happily walks back into festival after she returned her guitar to the ship.

She keeps her hands on her backpack straps as she easily skids through the bustling crowds, like she was back in New York. Her eyes wander from stand after stand while she passes them, and makes a mental note of which ones that she wants to go to. Once she reaches the clock tower, she looks around the crowds, but finds no signs of the boy who asked to meet her there.

She looks up to find that sun is about to set, so she knows that she won't have to wait too long. She leans her back to the building to relax, and watches the various forms of friends and families having the time of their lives in the festivities.

She grins at the families taking their children to different game stalls, then brings her attention to a young couple that walked past her. She sees the cute couple walking hand in hand and brings her thoughts to what Nami said. *This is obviously a date!*

The wind girl rolls her purple eyes at the thought, because she can't see it possible for this guy to suddenly be interested in her. She knows that she's not ugly, but she never saw herself as some gorgeous beauty either.

The way Luffy reacted to her wearing a dress was proof enough. He must've shut down from seeing how strange she looked.

She quietly sighs at remembering Luffy's trance and looks down at the dress that she's been dared to wear all day. If wearing something like this could get such a bad reaction from her captain, then she's positive that Daichi didn't ask her out. When he comes by, she'll be ready for any traps that he's set for her.

"Hey, Rose!" Speaking of the devil, Rose turns her head to the voice to see the person she's waiting for on his way to her. Daichi happily waves at her from half a block away as he tries to go through the heavy crowd, but with little luck.

The brunette puts on a smile and waves at Daichi, as she starts going to meet him halfway.

"ROSE!" The wind girl was barely able to take a few steps before she has to jump back to avoid Chopper, who's in walking point, running up to her.

Rose widens her eyes at the exhausted reindeer, who's trying to catch his breath, and looks around to see that he's alone. "What happened doc?!"

The poor reindeer changes into brain point and points to the direction he came from. "Luffy and Usopp are in trouble! I don't know how much time they have left!"

The wind girl barely hesitates to pick up the reindeer, starts flying higher than the crowd. Daichi stops walking and drops his jaw at the flying girl, along with half the crowd.

Rose sees Daichi dumbfounded by her power, and calls out to the boy. "Sorry, I gotta go!"

Before Daichi could call back to her, Rose flies off at top speed.

The wind girl is thankful that Nami gave a form fitting dress, so she doesn't have to worry about the skirt as she flies. She looks around for her crewmates, but she can't find them. "Where are they doc?"

"They're over there!" Chopper says as he points to a big red tent, that's half the size of a building, at the edge of the festival.

Rose sees Robin walking towards it, and lands in front to her. "Are you here for Luffy and Usopp too?!

Robin furrows her eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Rose goes to explain, but stop when Usopp walks out with a tired frown.

The reindeer gets out of Rose's hold and looks to the sniper in shock. "You escaped?!"

He shakes his head and looks to the tent. "They only had room for one more, so they got Luffy to do it."

Rose furrows her eyebrows in confusion. "Do what exact-?"

She stops and widens her eyes at the sign that's propped outside of it. "What the ever flying fuck?"

She gets a closer look at the sign in hopes that this is some sort of joke. Robin looks at the sign and is almost as shocked as she is when they find out what this event is.

Come one come all, to the annual date auction! All proceeds go to charity, so no price is too small!

Here are the rules for those who wish to bid for a date.

The date can't say no to going out with you.

The date will only last for tonight.

The people being auctioned have the option to be armed with self defense weapons, so treat them kindly.

Rose drops her jaw at what she just read before she looks to Chopper. "What the hell?! I thought you said he was in trouble!"

"He is! He broke a strength testing game, but didn't have the money to fix it! The stall owner dragged him and Usopp here to be auctioned!"

Robin is the first to snap out of it and giggles at the situation. "Heehee, I gotta see this!"

"Wait, we should be stopping this!" Rose says with their eyes moving over to her.

Usopp just smirks at the flustered girl, and eggs her on. "Why should we? He brought this on himself for breaking the game."

Robin hums in agreement. "A date won't certainly kill him. At the very least, captain-san can gain some experience in-!"

"Don't even say it!" Rose interrupts her and starts storming to the table at the front of the tent.

"WELCOME TO OUR ANNUAL DATE AUCTION! FOR OUR LOVELY LADIES, WE'LL BE STARTING THE EVENT WITH THE AMAZING MEN WHO ARE LOOKING FOR A FUN NIGHT WITH YOU! COME ON OUT BOYS!"

Rose stops when they hear the announcer starting up the event, and the ladies' cheers following right after!

"Looks like they're starting! Let's go see!" Usopp says as he rushes back in with Chopper following.

Rose groans at how they're allowing this while Robin smirks at her distress. "If you don't want Captain-san to be bought by someone, then you should win his bid Wind-chan."

Rose narrows her eyes at the woman, but she knows that at this point, that's the best option. She follows the archaeologist into the tent and widens her eyes to see that all the seats are filled and people are standing in the back including her crew mates.

She looks to the stage to see that ten men have been lined up on the stage, including her captain.

The straw hat captain notices Rose in the back and waves to her with a bright smile.

Rose looks away from the carefree boy, to see some girls in the audience waving back at him. She narrows her eyes at how they're giggling at his adorable smile, and gets more pissed off by the second.

She doesn't know why she's so aggravated, but she knows that Robin's right. To get her captain out of this situation, she has to win his bid, so she goes to her backpack to grab the money that she's saved up since her journey began.

The middle aged man on stage, who's in charge of the show, notices Luffy's waving and smirks. "Looks like our last minute volunteer is eager to go first! Let's give him the first run!"

Half of the ladies cheer when Luffy steps up and pisses off the wind girl enough for a light, hot breeze to fly out of her.

The other pirates flinch at her rage while the announcer approaches the pirate captain. "Tell us your name kid!"

"My name's Luffy, and I'm gonna be the king of the pirates!" Luffy says with a toothy smile.

Half the girls swoon while the announcer plays along with the claim. "You heard it here ladies! You have a chance to win a date with the future pirate king tonight! Now this rogue is not only cute, but strong enough to break our festival's high striker game! Because of that, he has a debt to pay so how about we help him out with starting our bid at 10 thousand beli?!"

The audience immediately gets to work on raising the bid to win a chance with Luffy.

"12 thousand!"

"15 thousand!"

"20 thousand!"

The pirates are shocked by the quick running bids as it continues to rise.

Rose goes to make her bid when she hears three girls in the back row gossiping.

"He's so cute! I can't wait for us to win him."

"He looks so innocent! I bet he's a virgin!"

"No doubt, but he won't be when we're done with him!" She raises her hand to put her next bid in, but freezes when something zooms past them from above!

Rose furiously flies past the audience and roughly lands next to Luffy on the stage!

Luffy innocently tilts his head in confusion when Rose wraps an arm around his shoulders, with her bangs covering her eyes. "Rose?"

The wind girl ignores him as she turns her head to the frozen announcer. "200 thousand..."

The MC snaps out of his shock and scowls at her. "I'll accept the bid, but you can't..."

He trails off when she lifts her head to reveal one of the most frightening glares that he's ever seen in his life. He pales at the menacing look and shakily turns to the audience. "U-uh, 200 thousand for Luffy, anyone want to challenge her?"

Rose turns her head to aim her glare at the audience, but more towards the back where those perverted girls are seated.

The perverts take the hint and keep their mouths shut, along with the rest of the audience, in fear of her killing them if they try to take Luffy from her.

Chopper shivers at the frightening look, and stays behind Robin. "I didn't know she could be so scary..."

"Yea, but it looks like Luffy will be fine. Let's go." Usopp says as he and the other pirates sneak out of the tent, and head off to the festival.

The announcer doesn't hear any more bids so he quickly speaks up. "Alright, sold for 200 thousand! C-congratulations, you can pay outside! Please go away!"

Rose nods as she takes her arm off of Luffy's shoulders to take his hand and leads him off the stage. Luffy has no idea what just happened, but he's happy that she won his bid, so he lets her lead him away.

She leads him past the audience with people looking away from the wind girl in fear of her harming them. The wind girl couldn't care less as she walks past them, but freezes when she sees that Robin and the others left. "What the fuck?! Where are the others?!"

Luffy looks over her to see no one else is there. "I don't know. I think they left when you were bidding."

Rose couldn't believe this, but she has other problems to deal with, so she shrugs it off. "Alright, let's just get out of here."

They see the table just outside the tent, with the person in charge of paying, along with the owner of the game Luffy broke.

Rose approaches the two of them and provides them with the 200 thousand beli. "Anything else I need?"

The volunteer shakes his head as he counts the money to make sure that it's all there.

The game owner is satisfied with how this money can fix his skylight and his game, and grins at her. "You better be careful with this one. He's full of surprises."

"Trust me, I know." Rose says while she's still slightly upset that she lost almost all of her money, but doesn't regret it.

The volunteer nods in satisfaction as he hands the game owner the money. "It's all here."

"Thanks for letting him in." He says but when the couple starts leaving he calls out to them. "Hold on!"

The two of them stop and turn around to see him grabbing the star plushie from under the table. Rose tilts her head in confusion as he walks up to them and hands it to Luffy. "You still won the game so you can keep it. Hope there's no hard feelings."

Luffy nods with a toothy grin as he takes the toy with a happy grin. "Yea, thanks!"

Rose's lingering anger melts away from her captain's adorable smile as he turns to her. "Here, you can have it as thanks for getting me out of there."

Rose looks down at the cute plush, and widens her eyes at the star shaped toy that reminds her of Kingdom Hearts' paopu fruit but without the leaf. She doesn't remember the meaning the fruit had in the game, but the gesture gives her a wide grin as she takes it into her free hand. "Thanks, let's get out of here."

Luffy nods as he takes the lead to get them away from the auction.

The astronomer looks down at their still joined hands, and realizes that they've been holding hands since she won his auction. She blushes in embarrassment before she wiggles her hand free.

Luffy already misses the warmth of her hand, but when he sees her blush he looks at her in confusion. "Why's your face red this time?"

Rose looks away from him as she settles down her blush. "Hand holding can sometimes be affection too..."

He grows more confused by the explanation. "But you just got red."

"Maybe I'm getting better." Rose says as her blush finally goes away.

He grins at the news that she's getting better before he looks around the town. "So what now?"

Rose freezes at the question, because she has no idea. She looks around the heavy crowd to see no signs of her crew mates anywhere. "I have no idea. Maybe we can find the others."

Luffy tilts his head at the suggestion. "Is that how dates normally go?"

Rose stops at the question, when she remembers that she actually bought a date with Luffy, and hastily shakes her head. "No they don't, but uh... Wait, what do you think a date is?"

"When two people who are close to each other hang out." Luffy bluntly answers.

Rose nods in satisfaction of him understanding the gist of it. "That's pretty much what it is, but I don't want to force you into one because of some auction."

Luffy knits his eyebrows in confusion. "We hang out a bunch already, what's the difference?"

Rose quietly sighs as she nervously scratches the back of her head. "These two people are a lot closer than friends."

"I wanna see what it's like, be my date." Luffy says without any hesitation.

The brunette should've seen that coming, but she has a hard time finding a reason that can convince him not to. She never experienced one for herself, so it could be better to experience it with someone she trusts. As long as she doesn't force him to do anything, or do something stupid, then there shouldn't be any problems.

She takes a deep breath before she looks him in the eyes. "Alright, but this is a friend date. This means we do it just to see what it's like."

Luffy happily nods to the compromise. "Alright, then let's-"

He cuts himself off when both their stomachs growl at the same time.

Rose looks down at her hungry stomach and chuckles. "Let's go get something to eat. It'll take forever to wait in line at a stand, so let's head to a restaurant."

Luffy quickly agrees as he takes her by the hand, and leads her to the closest restaurant. "Alright, let's go!"

Rose looks down at the two joined hands and softly grins at the warmth before she intertwines her fingers with his.

They reach a bar, and take a seat at a small table in the far of the half full room. With a lot of people eating at the festival, the waiters were quick to get their orders in. Even Luffy's large order of meat was given to him in a flash, which brought joy to both of the pirates.

Even while Luffy was eating his own meal, he still tried to swipe a piece of Rose's chicken, but was stopped every time by Rose's fork.

It didn't take long for both of them to finish with both of them satisfied with the meal. Even though Luffy couldn't win against Rose in their usual food picking war, he's happy with the good meal as he gets up. "I'm gonna take a leak. I'll be right back."

Rose nods as she watches him head off. She relaxes in her seat when the door opens to see a group of five young men enter the place.

She curiously looks to the group and spots Daichi as one of them.

The young man doesn't notice the wind girl as they take a seat a few tables down. He sits on a chair with his back to her so there's no chance of her being seen.

Rose looks to him, and feels like she owes him a proper apology. After all, she promised to hang out with him first, but pretty much blew him off. Because of that, she gets up and starts approaching them, but stops just a table away when she sees one of them talking to Daichi.

"I can't believe you lost our bounty Daichi."

The wind girl freezes at the complaint and takes a seat at the empty table to continue eavesdropping.

Daichi doesn't notice the girl behind him as he groans to himself. "I know, I even pulled that stupid shy guy act to get the bitch's guard down. If that weird raccoon dog didn't show up, we would've had the 17 million easily."

He scoffs to himself as a waitress provides them with drinks. He takes his mug of beer as he continues talking. "At least I get why they named her Wind Rider now. That curve-less freak can actually-"

He's cut off when Rose approaches him from behind, grabs the back of his hair and slams his face to the table as hard as possible!

The other men are completely dumbfounded about what just happened while Daichi cradles his bleeding nose. He turns around in anger and freezes when he sees his target behind him.

He shivers in fear of the menacing look in her eyes, but his body moves on its own as he gets up and looks to his men. "Don't just sit there, you goons! That's the bounty!"

The patrons look at the noisy people with curiosity while the rest of the bounty hunters get up and grab their weapons.

Rose scoffs at the men in front of her as she gives them a devilish smirk. "You had all this planned for me? I can't say that I'm not flattered."

Daichi narrows his dark eyes at the pirate as he points his pistol at her. "I don't give a fuck about what you're feeling. Give up now and I'll only rough you up a little for hitting me."

Rose furrows her eyebrows as if she's thinking hard on the options, then slowly walks to him with her hands behind her back. "I guess I only have one choice then."

Daichi smirks in satisfaction as he lowers the gun, but the smile is short lived when Rose reveals an orb of wind in her right hand, and presses it to his stomach!

The bounty hunter barely had time to think when he's suddenly sent flying backwards in a spin until his back hits the wall. The man falls unconscious and leaves cracks on the wall as he hits face first on the ground.

The rest of the men drop their jaws at the insane sight while the civilian customers run away.

Rose however, doesn't act fazed as all as she looks down at her hand with a carefree grin. "Alright, not much on long range yet, but pretty good on close range."

"Don't act so smug, you creepy witch!" One of the bounty hunters yells out as he charges at her with a sword in hand.

The wind girl however, ignores him as she lets his metal blade pass through her. The older man couldn't believe his eyes as his whole body runs through her and crashes into the table behind her where a group of thugs were seated.

The crash sent the table tumbling and threw down all the food and booze that was set for them. Saying that the gang of muscular men were pissed, was an understatement.

They were so pissed that not only the thugs on that table, but in the three other tables they were sitting at, got up with their guns and swords ready. "Oh, it's on now!"

In a matter of seconds, an all out barfight gave way with no one pulling any punches!

The employees hid behind the bar to avoid getting caught in the crossfire and started placing bets on who will be the last one standing.

Meanwhile, Luffy just walked out of the bathroom and stopped in his tracks when he sees all the chaos! He looks around for his date, and freezes when he sees her almost cackling in delight as she turns both her arms into small twisters to send a few guys, who were twice her size, flying!

He thought she was pretty back on the ship, but how he sees her right now puts that moment to shame. The way that she's cutting loose in the fight with a gleeful smile on her face is absolutely beautiful in his eyes, and he starts getting the mystery feeling in his chest again.

"Oi kid, what are you doing?!" One of the employees snaps him out of his daze by grabbing him by the side of his shirt and pulling him behind the bar.

"You need to be careful, these people are nuts!" Another employee says as he keeps the money for the bets behind them.

Luffy's weird feeling in his chest fades and looks at them in confusion. "What happened?!"

A scrawny guy flinches when an unconscious guy crashes into the wall right above them then quickly explains the situation. "From what I can tell, a bounty hunter tricked this pirate girl into going on a date with him to lure her into a trap. She blew him off for some reason, but they came in here while she was eating. She found out the truth and sent him flying with her wind powers. Now she, the dude's gang, and a bunch of other random thugs are beating the shit out of each other."

"More like the pirate's beating the crap out of all of them..." A chubby girl says as she peeks over the counter to see Rose using her twister arms to take down four guys at once!

Luffy widens his eyes at the story, but his shock is immediately replaced by rage of knowing that they tried to capture Rose. He immediately gets up and runs into the fray before anyone could stop him.

Rose throws someone out the door with a gust, and widens her eyes when she sees Luffy punch a guy out. She grins at the new arrival to the fight, while a thug runs through her, but her grin fades when sees her captain's angry face.

She shakes her head to stay focused as she practices turning her arms into tornadoes on two thugs. It barely took a minute for the two pirates to finish the fight with them as the last ones standing.

The hidden employees cautiously come out of hiding, with a waitress taking her winnings, and are speechless of the sight. They could barely understand how at least a dozen men sprawled all over the floor with the broken tables, glasses and plates everywhere, but the two scrawny teenagers didn't get a scratch on them.

The wind girl chuckles at the fun fight before she looks to her captain to see that he's still upset. "What's the matter?"

Luffy keeps a frown on his face as he looks for anyone else to punch. "I heard about what happened! Which one of them tried to date you?!"

Rose widens her eyes at the angry question, but tiredly sighs as she points to Daichi, who's still knocked out. "He didn't try to date me. He tried to lure me into a trap to capture me. I already knew that's what he was planning, and was gonna use him as a punching bag. Before we could even fight though, doc got to me and told me you were in trouble. I wound up ditching him to go help you."

Luffy loses his jealousy from the explanation and immediately smiles at the fact that Rose rushed to help him. "Thanks, ready to go?"

"Not yet." She goes through the bounty hunters and thugs' things and took their treasure, that's worth at least a million beli and brings them to the bar. "I'm sorry about the chaos. Would this cover the damages as well as our meals?"

The girl quickly nods as she takes the loot. "Absolutely, thank-!"

BANG!

A gunshot was fired straight at the side of Rose's head and shuts everyone up!

Especially since Rose didn't collapse due to the bullet only phasing through her air head!

Everyone looks in shock to see that the shot was made by Daichi.

The bounty hunter trembles on the floor, from the sight of the bullet not even affecting his target, and accidentally drops his still smoking gun. "What the fuck are you?!"

"Someone you just pissed off..." Rose says with a scowl as she starts approaching him with hot wind blowing off of her.

Luffy lowers his head as he scowls at the bounty hunter and tightens his fists.

However, the novice hunter barely realizes who the pirate captain is, because he's barely thinking straight from all the fear! He rushes to grab his gun and aims it at the straw hat. "Stay right where you are!"

Rose stops halfway towards him when she sees where he's aiming at, and is ready to beat the living shit out of him. Even though she knows that guns won't affect Luffy, she grows furious that he even threatened him, and gives him a frightening glare while she picks him up with her wind.

"You must be a fucking masochist..." Rose says as she makes a wind orb in her right hand that's twice the size of what she's been using.

Daichi nearly wets himself from the scary look, as the winds gets him closer to her, but he keeps his weapon aimed at Luffy. "Put me down you ugly bi-!"

Luffy cuts him off by stretching his fist towards him and punches him in the face!

The punch was hard enough for him to not only send him flying off Rose's wind, but out the already broken window!

Rose drops her jaw at the punch as she cancels out her wind and goes to the window to see Daichi lying unconsciously in a pile of garbage. She twitches an eyebrow at the missed chance to test her abilities and turns to her captain. "What the hell?! He was my opponent!"

Luffy doesn't look sorry at all as he scowls at her. "I can't do nothing when he tried to hurt you, and then lie about you!"

The wind girl's anger fades from the comment and tilts her head curiously. "Lie about me?"

"Yea, you're too pretty to be ugly!"

Rose's heart skips a few beats from the sudden, and pure, compliment as she feels her face heat up. She completely forgets about the bar fight that they went through and she gives him a small grin. "T-thanks, let's get back to the festival."

"Yea!" He happily takes her hand and runs out the building with her, and leaves the crazy scene and stunned employees behind.

As the evening continued on, Rose and Luffy have been exploring every booth that they could find. They competed in every game that they came across from darts to water guns with neither of them backing down from the challenge. Regardless of the big crowds that surrounded them while they conquered the stands, it felt like they were the only ones there because of how much they enjoyed each other's company.

It felt like the night would never end for the young couple as they finished another game, but freeze as the clock tower started chiming.

Rose and Luffy look to each other in confusion before they look around to see swarms of people heading to the fields on the outside of town.

"You two better go follow them to the field. That chime is the sign that the fireworks show is going to start soon." The stall owner says as she starts closing up her stand.

"Fireworks?! Awesome!" Luffy says with a toothy grin as he goes to follow the crowd, but Rose stops him by taking his hand.

He looks back at his date in confusion to see her wearing a playful smirk on her face.

"Don't go that way, I know a better place to see them!" She doesn't give him a chance to respond as she takes him further into town.

Luffy sees that it's the exact opposite of where the locals are going, and looks at her in confusion. "What's this better place?"

She chuckles to him as she leads him towards the clock tower, which is the highest building that the town has to offer. "You'll see..."

The rubber man pouts at the cryptic answer, but he allows her to take the lead until they stop at the base of the tower.

Rose almost giggles in excitement as she creates some wind for the two of them and starts bringing them up.

When she brings them up to the roof, they take a seat with neither of them releasing the other's hand. Luffy looks around at the town from the new height, then looks to his date. "Why'd you choose this spot?"

The wind girl smiles at the question and starts to remember both the fun, yet lonely, times she saw fireworks from the roof of her foster home. "I've learned from experience that fireworks are best seen from high places. You'll see why in a moment."

She looks to the direction of the show, with Luffy following her gaze just when the first rocket is shot up from a distance.

As soon as the first firework exploded, both pirates are entranced by beautiful sight of a giant red flower blooming in the sky. One after the other, fireworks of every color that they can imagine lights the night sky.

With the height that they're at, they're face to face with the amazing show, and feel like they have a front row seat to it all.

Luffy absolutely loves the view and can't take his eyes off the show. "This is awesome!"

"Told ya." Rose says as she looks to him, then freezes at his smile that's competing with the brightness of the fireworks.

She's used to seeing that beautiful smile, but the way that the fireworks shine on his face makes it looks like his dark eyes are changing into different colors. In all honesty, she could look at the sight all day and never get bored.

Luffy feels a pair of eyes on him, and looks to see Rose jolt when he turned his head. "What's up?"

She shakes her head and looks back to the fireworks with a nervous grin. "N-nothing, just glad you're enjoying the show."

Luffy blinks at the shy answer before he happily grins at her. "Thanks, I'm glad you brought me here."

He squeezes her hand then gets back to watching the show. As the lights continued to brighten the night sky, the two pirates unconsciously lean against one another and silently enjoy each other's company for the rest of the show.

Once the last firework faded into the night, both pirates look around to see if there's anything else they can do. However, they can only see the audience, that was in the fields, either closing down the stands or are going home.

It's easy to tell that the festival is over, so Rose pulls her hand away from Luffy's and stands up to stretch her legs. "It's getting late, we should get back to the ship."

Luffy sadly frowns at their fun ending, but he's starting to get tired so he gets up with her. "Alright..."

Rose is taken back by the disappointment in his voice, but doesn't think too much about it as she creates a gust of wind for them to start floating towards the docks.

While the wind girl is bringing them back to the ship, Luffy is looking down at the town below them. As he scans the area, he spots a young couple in front of a house.

He intensely stares at them as they give each other compliments, then end their conversation with a kiss. Just as the two lovers pull away for one of them to go home, Rose taps him on the shoulder.

He snaps out of his daze, and looks to see Rose looking at him in concern. "What's up?"

"You looked like you were in a daze again, what are you looking at?" Rose asks as she follows his gaze, but only sees a man walking home.

"You missed it." Luffy says with a grin.

Rose is grateful that he didn't fall into a daze like earlier today, and grins back at him. "Too bad I missed it. Did you have fun tonight?"

Her captain happily nods to the question. "Yea, this was great!"

She chuckles at his enthusiasm. "Glad you had fun too."

The brunette sees that they've reached the docks, so she lands them on the deck but finds that there's no one else on the deck.

She doesn't think too much of it, as she grins at him. "I'll see you tomorrow. Good night."

She turns around to leave, but Luffy stops her by grabbing her hand. She looks down at her hand in confusion, then looks at her date to see him staring at her with determination in his eyes.

It feels like butterflies are flying around in her stomach from the look he's giving her, and doesn't understand why. "W-what are you-?"

She stops talking when he leans into her, but Rose accidentally makes her body airy, so he trips through her and head butts the mast.

Rose takes a step back from him and tries to understand what the hell just happened. "What the crap were you doing?"

Luffy rubs his aching face then frowns in disappointment of his plan failing. "I was trying to kiss you like that couple did..."

She calms down at the explanation and looks at him in confusion. "What couple?"

"The one I saw while we were flying back. People kiss each other to end their dates right?"

Rose starts to blush at the question and rubs the back of her neck nervously. "Some do, and some don't. We don't have to since this is a friend date."

"But I want to." Luffy bluntly says which makes her blush spread all over her face.

She couldn't believe what she's hearing, and tries to understand why he would. She starts thinking about how at the beginning, he wanted to learn how a date goes, so he'd want to experience the aspects from start to finish. That's the only way she could make sense of him wanting a kiss from her.

As for herself though, she barely knows what she wants. All she knows is that she's been on an emotional rollercoaster all day thanks to her captain, and needs some revenge.

She starts to remember how this all started, and cheekily smiles at him. "Ok, I'll-!" She looks out at the dock and widens her eyes. "Hey, is that Sanji with a cart full of meat?!"

"Where?!" He looks to the docks to find no meat in sight. "I don't see-"

He stops talking and freezes when he feels a pair of soft lips on his cheek.

Rose quickly pulls away from Luffy, with a red hue over her freckled cheeks, and runs to the door. "Good night!"

He turns his head with wide eyes to find Rose running inside like a madwoman!

Even though Rose knows that no one is around, she covers her face in embarrassment of what she did. Once she's in her room, she closes the door behind her and catches her breath. All she could hear was her pounding heart as she puts down her bag and sits down on her futon.

She replays the kiss in her mind, and gently touches her lips. While she's glad she was able to surprise him for once, the way Luffy looked at her when he tried to kiss her can't escape her mind. If he didn't pass through her, she knows that she would've melted into the kiss.

She groans to herself as she pulls her hair free from her ponytail and gets up to get some pajamas. *Motherfucker, I'm starting to act like the fucking snake bitch Hancock! All this date shit is getting in my head! I can't have a crush on Luffy!*

She finished changing clothes and goes to her bag, to get some socks, but instead sees the star plushie he gave her. She remembers the good time she had with her captain thanks to the cute prize, and calms herself down. *I shouldn't worry about shit like this, we both had a great time. That's all that matters...*

She hugs the toy to her chest and gets in her bed, with her conflicting feelings towards her captain pushed to the back of her mind.

Meanwhile, Luffy is still on the deck, and completely shocked about the surprise kiss. He touches his left cheek where she kissed him, and feels, not only his face heat up from a light blush, but also his heart pounding from remembering the feeling. "What the hell is going on with me?"

"What are you doing Luffy?" The captain looks down to find Nami and Sanji heading back together.

The rubber man lets go of his cheek while his heart settles down, and his blush fades, then looks to his crew mates who are climbing onboard. "Going to bed."

He walked back inside before anyone could ask him anymore questions.

The two pirates look to each other for a moment before they shrug it off. Both pirates had a wonderful time at the festival, and watching the fireworks in the fields, so they're both ready to follow Luffy's example. Before Sanji goes in though, he gives his date a charming grin and takes her hand. "Thank you for accompanying me tonight Nami-san, I had a wonderful time."

Nami is taken aback by the farewell when Sanji kisses the back of her hand. "I-I had a good time too. Good night."

"Good night." Sanji says as he releases her hand and goes inside with a love filled grin.

She looks down at her hand then lightly blushes at the kiss she received. She does her best to shake it off as she goes inside. Once in her room, she finds Rose already asleep in her pajamas.

Nami sees the dress that she lent Rose neatly folded on her bed, with the ponytail placed on top and quietly sighs in disappointment. "She could've waited up..."

She goes to put the outfit away before she sees her crew mate smiling in her sleep as she holds her toy close to her chest.

The navigator softly smiles at the sight and can tell that she had as much fun as she did tonight. Tomorrow though, a full day of travelling and questions of how it went will be made, so she heads off to bed to be ready for the next journey.

TO BE CONTINUED