17 Chapter 17: Apis

I should've figured that going to the Grand Line was going to be one heck of a trip, but I never expected this. A little girl stranded in the water? Definitely a new one. And it was pure dumb luck that we found her and picked her up; Luffy thought she was a fish. Him grabbing her and reeling her in ended up knocking Zoro and I into the ocean while we were napping. Not a fun way to wake up. Sanji gave Luffy a good kick to the face though, so it wasn't that bad.

We brought her into the galley to rest up and I sat beside her while Usopp checked her over. I never realized it before, but this is the first time I've seen a kid up close that wasn't chasing me or squeezing me to death. I forgot how vulnerable they really are.

I carefully climb onto her stomach and gaze at her when her eyes fly open. She shoots up and our foreheads collide. We both cry out in pain, holding our throbbing heads.

"That hurt!" she whined.

"Pika pi!" After a few agonizing moments, I open my eyes to find the girl staring at me. I wait to see if she'll say anything but she stays silent. She looks pretty shell shocked, but I get where she's coming from. I know what it's like to wake up in some unknown place with no idea of where you are. At least she probably remembers what happened to her.

"You're awake!" Nami exclaims. "That was quicker than I expected."

"Nothing some grub won't cure." Sanji remarks. "I'm cooking some soup if you're hungry."

The girl grins to herself. "Lucky!" I give her a slight smile; sounds like she's an adventurous little one.

"You really are lucky." Nami says kindly. "What's your name?"

Girl suddenly frowns. "It's polite to give your names first before asking a stranger questions." she says. Wow, she has guts, speaking out to a bunch of adult strangers like that.

Nami nods, "You're right." she says. "I'm Nami, the guy making the soup is Sanji, and the guy with the nose is Usopp." Sanji and Usopp wave in greeting. "That's Zoro down there." Nami gestures to him sleeping against the wall. "Despite his scowl, he's a good guy."

"Shut up." Zoro snaps. Guess he's still pretty ticked about his dip in the ocean earlier.

"And you've already met our little friend, Pika-chan." Nami finishes.

"Pikachu!" I say, raising my paw in greeting. Girl looks at me with that stare again, full of intrigue. Then she slowly stretches her hand towards me. Once she nears my head, she hesitates.

Sanji chuckles. "Don't worry, as long as you don't make it mad, Pika-chan's as friendly as they come." Feeling a bit better, Girl places her hand on my head and gives me a stiff pat. I smile and give a little squeal of approval and she relaxes greatly, giving me a big smile. Aw, isn't she cute?

"I'm Luffy." Luffy says, looking at her. "I'm the captain of the pirate ship."

Girl lets out a shrill yell. "What?! Pirates?!" she exclaims. Oh boy...I had a feeling she wouldn't react well. She probably thinks we're evil pillagers who prey on small villages and take whatever we please. That's a pretty funny image to think about actually, considering it's Luffy we're talking about.

"Soup's on." Sanji says, filling bowls with the delicious smelling food. He passes them around and gives one to me as well. "Hungry?" he asks, looking at Girl. Girl frowns and shakes her head. I slightly frown at her while drinking my soup; I expected her to be a little hungry, I mean she was drifting in a boat for who knows how long.

I'm starting to recognize the look she has in her eyes: distrust. I looked just like that when I first woke up on the Baratie, I'm sure of it. Once everyone's finished eating and Sanji manages to save some soup before Luffy inhales the whole third pot, everyone disperses to watch the ship again.

"Pika-chan, keep an eye on our guest, alright?" Sanji says as he and Nami exit.

Nami gives Girl a wink, "Don't worry, Pika-chan will take good care of you." And with that, we're left alone.

I look at Girl and she looks away from me, turning up her nose. "Don't think I'll let my guard down just because you're really cute." she mutters. I smirk at her, holding back a laugh; I'm not gonna eat you, you know.

Girl glances at me. "Yeah, well...you're still a pirate!" she stutters. Whoa, wait a minute...did she just answer me? Answer me directly?

Girl looks at me but with a little less malice, "Yeah, I did." she says.

Ahh! She did it again! What's going on here?! I climb onto her lap causing her to flinch and I slowly make my way towards her with wide, curious eyes. How did she know what I was thinking? Is she in my head? Can she read my expressions really well like Sanji?

"I can read your mind!" Girl suddenly blurts out. "That's it okay? Stop asking so many questions!" I stare at her in amazement as she hugs herself, still avoiding my gaze. "I...I can read the minds of creatures and animals…" she admits in defeat.

I decide to give it a try. 'You can hear my thoughts?' I say in my mind. She gives a nod and I almost stumble back; holy crap...a human who can understand me!

She looks up at me in confusion. I rub the back of my head; she probably heard that. 'It just...feels so good to have someone be able to understand me.' I explain. 'Having a language barrier really isn't fun for me.'

She gives a hint of a smile and wrings her hands. I frown a bit and tilt my head in confusion. 'Something wrong?' I ask.

Girl looks really conflicted and finally she looks at me frantically and blurts out, "You won't tell will you?"

I jump back slightly, my ears wilting. 'Huh?'

"Please, don't tell them about my power!" she says.

I hold up my paws, 'Hey relax, even if I wanted to, they wouldn't understand me.' I reassure her. That seems to calm her down. 'Don't worry, your secret's safe with me, whether I like it or not.' I say with a smile.

Girl breaks into a smile and suddenly pulls me into a hug. "Thank you thank you thank you!" she gushes. "Thank you so much!" I let out a small laugh and she pulls away, beaming down at me. "By the way, my name's Apis; nice to meet you!"

I smile back, 'You can call me Pika-chan.' I respond.

For the rest of the day, Apis and I talk. She tells me about how she ate the Whisper Whisper Fruit, giving her her powers and how she just narrowly escaped the Marines. "I still can't believe I ended up on a pirate ship of all things; so many bad things shouldn't happen to one person at once!" she whines.

'Not all pirates are bad, you know.' I say.

"And why should I believe you?" Apis asks. "You're a pirate too!"

I give her a smirk, 'Do you think I'd be sitting here talking to you if I was an evil pirate?' I ask.

Apis struggles for an excuse, "Well...you're their pet; you're probably just protecting them!"

My eye twitches, 'I am not a pet.' I say irritably.

"But you're an animal and you stay with these pirates!" Apis protests.

'I'm only here because they're my friends and...well...I kinda don't have anywhere else to go...'

"Huh?" Apis tilts her head. "What do you mean?"

I rub the back of my head sheepishly; she told me her secret, guess I should tell her mine. 'I...I have amnesia…' I admit. 'I don't know who I am or where I came from before I met my friends.'

"But you know your name; Pika-chan, right?" Apis points out.

'Yeah, but it's not my real name!' I respond. 'Until I remember what my real name is, I'm stuck with that stupid name.'

"I think it's kinda cute." Apis says.

'Exactly my point...' I mutter. Apis suddenly blushes as her stomach growls. 'Hungry?' I ask.

She shakes her head vigorously and looks away with a pout, "No, don't be silly." she says.

I give her a look, 'C'mon, we just about shared our deepest secrets with each other and you still don't trust me?' Apis doesn't say anything. I lean towards her, 'I know you want food; that soup really did smell great didn't it?'

Apis whines and her eyes linger on the pot of soup that's sitting simmering on the stove. I glance out the window; it's still daylight so Luffy's probably sea watching, so we better take while the taking's good. I trot over and hop onto the stove, turning the heat on a little higher. While it heats up, I jump onto the pantry shelf carefully and manage to jump down with two soup bowls in tow. I give the soup a sniff to see if it's warm enough and turn the heat back down to a simmer.

'Look, I'll prove to you that we're not gonna poison you or anything.' I say to Apis. I stand on my tippy toes and dip one bowl into the pot, getting a decent amount of the food. I then face Apis and drink the soup in one go. I lick my lips and smile, 'See? Nothing to worry about!' I quickly refill my bowl and the second one, making sure to fill it a bit higher than my own.

'C'mon, eat with me, please?' I ask, giving her a sympathetic look. Apis finally gets off her makeshift bed and makes her way over to me. I nudge her bowl towards her and she slowly picks it up. She smells it again and finally gives into her hunger, gulping it all down. 'That's better!' I say.

"Yummy!" she says happily. "I've never had anything so tasty in my life!"

'What'd I tell you?' I say with a grin. 'And there's plenty more!'

Apis and I help ourselves to some more soup and we sit at the table, talking and laughing. After a few moments, Sanji comes in. "Well, glad to see that you're eating." he says.

"You're finally smiling," Nami observes walking in behind him. "Guess Pika-chan got you to open up."

"Pikachu!" I say happily. Apis suddenly picks me up and pulls me onto her lap, pressing my back against her chest like a stuffed animal. I look up at her to see her staring warily at the others. Guess I'm the only one who's earned her trust so far.

"Aw, looks like you've made a friend." Nami says with a smile. "Pika-chan seems to have that effect on everyone." She gives me a pat.

"Pika!" I say happily, hoping to get across that they weren't bad people.

"So...you're not gonna sell me off?" Apis asks shyly, nuzzling my head with her chin.

"No way!" Usopp says.

"You've kinda got a mean look, I see your point." Zoro comments.

"You're the expert on bad looks!" Usopp retorts, resulting in a small brawl. I laugh at their antics and Apis gently laughs with me, starting to warm up a bit more.

"Well, it's getting pretty late; who's up for dinner?" Sanji asks.

"Ooh! Me me me!" Luffy cheers.

"I hope you're still hungry, cause Sanji's cooking isn't something you want to pass up." Nami says.

'It's true.' I say, looking up at her.

Apis smiles and nods, "Okay! I'd love some!"

"Dinner for seven, coming up!" Sanji says, getting his instruments out and ready.

I look at Apis once more. 'Don't worry; on this ship, you'll have the time of your life.' Apis smiles and gives me a hug, and we all wait in anticipation for dinner to be ready.

Once dinner's finished, everyone's ready to head to bed. I decide to spend the night with Apis, and Sanji seems fine with it. After all, Apis would probably be lonely and we've really started to become friends. She falls asleep almost instantly, and I curl up beside her. I expected her to sleep well into the morning, but she woke up early, long before it was time to raise anchor. She gets up super quietly and tiptoes over to the kitchen.

'What are you doing?' I ask, sitting up and yawning.

Apis jumps and turns back to me. "You scared me!" She whispers.

I get off the bed and walk over to her. 'Need something?'

"Uh no." Apis answers looking at the ground. "I was just...going to cook." she says softly.

'Cook?' I ask. 'What for? If you're hungry you can just ask Sanji-'

"No, I mean, I want to make breakfast for everyone!" Apis says. "You guys have given me food and shelter and rescued me from the ocean, so...I want to help somehow."

I slowly smile at her, 'I see; then why don't you let me help?'

Apis holds up her hands and shakes her head, "Oh no, you've been so nice to me, I don't want to trouble you." she says but I wave my paw.

'It's no trouble; I help Sanji cook all the time.' I say.

"Really?" Apis asks. I nod.

'Yeah; I think Sanji would appreciate not having to cook a mountain of pancakes for Luffy, so let's do it!' I say giving a determined look and leaping onto the counter. 'It won't be as good as Sanji's cooking, but let's give it a try!'

"Yeah, let's do this!" Apis cheers softly and comes over to the counter.

'So, what do you want to make?' I ask.

Apis puts a finger on her chin, "Well, I would like to make Pork Buns, but those take way too long." She says. "How about those pancakes you talked about?"

I nod. 'Yeah! And maybe some eggs too!'

"With bacon!" Apis adds excitedly. We give each other a high five, "Let's get cooking!" We cheer quietly.

We manage to gather all the ingredients we need without breaking anything but once the cooking starts, oh man… We decided to start with making the bacon and we barely managed to get it off the pan without it completely burning or bursting into flames.

'You've...never been in a kitchen before, have you?' I ask, after we get the semi-black bacon onto the plate.

Apis laughs nervously, "Well...we don't use this much cooking stuff on my island." she says.

'Well, good thing I'm here or the kitchen would probably blow up.' I joke.

We get started on the eggs and that goes a little better. They turn out a bit on the goopy side, but they still look edible; hell Luffy will eat anything so at least the food will get eaten no matter what. Not to mention Sanji's strict 'Don't waste food' policy.

Once those are done, Apis tries making a batch on her own, but with her own special touch. "Let's see if this will work." she says, putting a whole bunch of seasoning on.

'Mind if I try?' I ask.

"Sure!" Apis says and scoops a bit out onto the spatula.

I take a small nibble and my mouth feels like it will burst into flames. I run back and forth on the counter with sparks flying from my cheeks, my face red and my eyes watering. Apis jumps around, narrowly avoiding my lightning until I turn on the sink and start gulping down water. 'Spicy...' I manage, sticking my burned tongue out.

"Really?" Apis asks, and gives it a taste herself. Her face mirrors mine and she jumps towards the sink, sticking her face under the water. "I feel like my mouth's on fire!" she whines. "I must've used the wrong seasoning!"

I nod, 'Let's keep these eggs far from the others for now.' We put the spicy eggs in a small separate bowl and get to work on the pancakes. We got just about all the ingredients we needed and mixed them up. Working the griddle was hard, but with Apis helping, we soon had a tall stack of slightly burned but still edible pancakes all set. We got a whole bunch of flour and batter all over us, but it was worth it.

"We did it!" Apis cheered, giving me a hug and spinning me around. I have to admit, that was pretty fun. I guess after so many months of being just a helper to Sanji, it felt good to give equal effort on a meal.

We set the table, the one task we manage to do without trouble, and set the food on the table. We look at the messy counter; the whole thing is coated in flour sugar, and broken eggshells. I spy the bag of flour we used and go over to it. 'We better get this back to storage.' I say.

"Okay." Apis goes over and attempts to lift the giant sack.

My ears droop, 'Uh, are you sure you can carry that?' I ask uneasily.

"Don't worry," Apis grunts, slowly staggering towards the door. "I can do it!" The moment she says that, she slips on some flour on the ground. I run towards her to try and help, but only end up getting tangled with her. We burst through the door in an explosion of white dust, landing on the deck on top of the flour sack, completely covered in flour from head to toe.

"Hey; what's the trouble down there?" We look up to see Sanji looking down at us from the crow's nest. The sails are up and the anchor's in too. Wow, everyone woke up already? Looks like we finished just in time.

"No trouble, we've just been cooking!" Apis responds.

"Pika pika!" I confirm with a small wave.

Apis stands up, holding me in her arms and waves to the others. "Breakfast is ready everyone!" she calls, making flour fly everywhere with her gestures. Apis and I shake the flour off ourselves and file into the galley along with everyone else. They actually seem pretty impressed with what we accomplished.

"Wow, you made this all by yourself?" Nami asks.

"Well, Pika-chan helped a lot!" Apis says with a nod.

"Pi pikachu!" I say happily.

"I wanted to pay you back for all the help you've given me, so Pika-chan and I decided to make breakfast!"

Sanji reaches down and pets me, "I never pegged you for a chef Pika-chan." he says. I give him a look along with my smile; did you think I was helping you cook without paying attention?

"Awesome! Let's eat!" Luffy says. As to be expected, the food wasn't high quality. But no one was gagging or dying so I deemed it a success, and I think Apis did too. But then, a small familiar bowl of eggs made its way into circulation around the table.

"There are some more eggs if anyone wants any." Sanji says. Everyone takes a bite size portion and it finally hits us.

"No wait, it's really-" Apis is too late as everyone's faces turn red and they yell out in pain. "...spicy." Apis finishes. I rub the back of my head nervously as everyone gulps down their water. "Ehehe, sorry." Apis says sheepishly. "I was trying to make some on my own and used the wrong seasoning."

"Pika pi." 'We both learned that the hard way.'

"Don't worry, that's a common mistake." Sanji says. "Next time you'll know what spices to avoid uh…" he trails off. "I don't think we ever got your name." Oh wow, I totally forgot that she only told her name to me!

"Oh, my name's Apis!" she says cheerfully.

Nami nods, "Well Apis, it was very thoughtful of you and Pika-chan to make breakfast for us."

Everyone nods their thanks and Apis blushes, "Oh, it was nothing really…" she says sheepishly.

"Pika pi."

"Thanks a lot for your help Pika-chan." she whispers to me.

'No problem.' I respond.

Once everyone's done, Sanji starts doing the dishes and Apis sits with me in her lap. "So, what's your story Apis?" Nami asks. "Why were you adrift at sea?"

"I escaped from a Marine ship that was holding me prisoner. I escaped three nights ago." Apis answers.

"That was during the storm…" Nami muses.

"How'd you get in trouble in the first place?" Zoro asks. "I know the Marines are twits but they must've held you prisoner for a reason."

"Well, um…" Apis trails off.

I look up at her. 'You okay?'

"I'm not hiding anything, I swear." she says. "I just...can't talk about it."

"Why not?" Luffy asks.

"Easy, she must have her reasons." Sanji says, stepping up. "If she doesn't want to talk we shouldn't press her."

"Yes, I agree." Nami says kindly. I've never noticed earlier, but Sanji and Nami are really reminding me of parents. They way they treat Apis is eerily like a mom and dad would.

I flinch slightly as those figures appear in my mind again, but this time something happens. Two of the taller figures begin glowing with a faint aura, but I can't tell what it is before it vanishes again. Well, that was odd.

I look up and realize that Nami just asked where Apis is from. The answer: Warship Island. Nami pulls out a map and sees that it's close to the Grand Line. Well, that's lucky.

"The distance is reasonable; what do you think Apis?" Nami asks. "We can drop you off if you want."

I look up at Apis who looks at the ground. "I'm sorry, you've done so much for me so I'd feel bad if you went out of your way." she says. "But I really want to go home...maybe you could hand me off to another ship or-"

"Pika!" 'Absolutely not!' I say, tapping her arm firmly and shaking my head.

"Pika-chan's right." Nami says. "A pirate ship can't get close to another without risk of being attacked."

"Oh yeah…" Apis says in defeat, resting her chin on my head.

"But still, we're only on our own time table, so we can do it." Nami says. "What do you think, dear captain?"

"Sure, fine with me." Luffy says simply.

"Really?" Apis gets to her feet still holding me. "You don't mind taking me home?"

"Nope." Luffy says with a grin and Apis is ecstatic.

"Yes! Thank you thank you thank you!" she cheers. She turns me around and beams at me. "I'm going home Pika-chan! I can't believe I'm finally going home!" She pulls me close into a hug and starts spinning around happily. I laugh along with her until she has to stop before getting dizzy. It's really nice to see her so happy.

I wonder what kind of place Warship Island will be?

That cooking scene was WAAAAAY too fun to write! Apis is hands down one of the cutest creations in the whole OP universe! And thanks to her Whisper Whisper powers I can develop Pika-chan more! Yay!

I'll admit, I was skeptical about if her powers would work on Pika-chan since she says I can read the minds of ANIMALS. But then I remembered that she can talk to a fucking dragon, which is a CREATURE/MONSTER not an animal. Plus, the power is READING MINDS, so I'm thinking as long as they're not human, the power flies. And that's my logic, ladies and gentleman X3