Chapter 47

As soon as Luffy brought the ice statue of what used to be his crush back to the Merry, Chopper and Nami rush to the bathroom.

The rest of the crew stays outside on the deck to be on the lookout for any other enemies, except for Luffy who follows Nami and Chopper inside with Rose on his shoulder.

Chopper is the first to make it into the washroom while keeping the door open for Nami to walk in with Luffy carrying his patient right behind her. "Nami, set the water at cold, so her body doesn't crack. Luffy, place her in the tub as gentle as possible."

The captain hums in acknowledgement, before he gently sets Rose in the tub just before Nami turns on the shower to start splashing cold water on her.

Chopper grabs two buckets from under the sink and passes one to the navigator. "We need to keep splashing her to get this done faster."

"Right!" Nami grabs the bucket and starts filling it with the flowing water and splashes it back at the statue with Chopper following suit.

As they get to work on healing her, Luffy rushes out of the room with his own idea to warm her up.

In a matter of minutes, the crazy guy stumbles back in, but Nami and Chopper can't see his face from the mountain of clothes that he's carrying!

Both navigator and doctor drop their jaws at the various garments, that belong to both the guys and the girls, and drop their buckets at the sight.

"What the hell?!" Nami asks when Luffy drops the clothes.

He ignores the shock as he takes out one of his vests from the pile. "Rose once said that giving frozen people new clothes warms them up faster, so I grabbed whatever I could find!"

Chopper understands what he means, and while he's grateful for the help, that's too much. "We can't use all of that. Leave an outfit and put all the others back."

"And make sure that they're her clothes! They're warmer than your vests!" Nami points out when she sees him about to leave one of his shirts, which causes him to pout.

Nonetheless, he reluctantly leaves a sky blue, V-neck sweater, white socks, and black sweat pants before he picks up his giant pile. He doesn't bother with the straggling shirts, that threaten to fall. just when he bumps into someone.

Luffy stretches his neck up so he can peek over the clothes to see that it was Robin. "My bad Robin."

The archaeologist giggles at the sight of Luffy's rubber arms stretched around everyone's clothes with Luffy stretched over before she opens her arms out. "I can take that for you Captain-san."

"Thanks Robin!" Luffy quickly gives her the pile, before he goes back to the washroom to see if there's anything else he can do.

As soon as he's gone, the archaeologist's smile fades away as she forces herself to do her task with a tight hold on the pile. Ever since she made it back to the ship with the others, she's kept herself at a distance from the others, with her eyes on the island the whole time in fear of Aokiji coming after her.

When Luffy came back instead with their frozen crew mate, she was honestly surprised that they both came back alive. Especially when Aokiji called Rose a demon as well.

Robin clicks her tongue at the memory when she goes in the guys' room. As she drops the clothes on the floor, she starts remembering how Rose tried to get her to leave before everything happened.

The way she was trying to convince her, and how she was completely ready to protect her from Aokiji throughout the ordeal, it's like she knew exactly how she felt. Honestly, with how Aokiji called them both out before the fight, it doesn't seem that far off the mark. Still, she was completely willing to face him head on regardless of how strong he is and what he could've revealed about her to everyone. Just what exactly was it?

She lightly shakes her head to snap herself out of it, and distracts herself by using her devil fruit to sprout at least three arms on all four walls, so they would take out the boys' clothes from the pile. All of the arms neatly pile them on the boys' beds for them to sort through later while making sure they don't touch any of the girls' clothes.

As soon as it looks like only the girls' clothes are left, she cancels the arms, picks up the pile, that's half its original size, and makes it to their room. It doesn't take her long to separate all three the pirates' clothes for her to put away.

As soon as Robin grabs Rose's clothes, she goes to her closet, but stops when she sees the red backpack in front of the door. She realizes that Rose left it on the ship when she was putting the afro wig away, and starts to grow curious about this holding her answer.

She gently sets the clothes pile on Rose's bed, then starts approaching the backpack.

"What are you doing?"

Robin immediately recognizes the masculine voice, and turns around to the angry looking swordsman. "Captain-san tried to warm up Wind-can with all of our clothes, but that didn't work, so I'm placing everyone's clothes back. I must've gotten distracted."

Zoro narrows his eyes at the excuse when he sees the backpack that Rose was always wearing. "Distracted enough to want to go through Rose's bag?"

Robin steps away from the red backpack and looks down at it. "It was? I was curious about whether or not it was hers."

Zoro grits her teeth about her fake nonchalance of the whole thing. "If there's anyone we should be curious about, it's you."

She widens her eyes at the comeback when Zoro goes up to the bag and takes it, so that she can't touch it. "That marine wasn't just calling Rose a demon. Where do you get off looking into her when you have your own secrets?!"

Robin is dumbfounded by the question, but he's right. Normally she would've left her alone after she learned that Rose wasn't using the eternal pose that she took to steal the ship. However, the more she got the know the strange pirate, the stranger it was to see how similar she is to her and yet so different at the same time. It all just made her want to see what exactly was the reason for it.

She clicks her tongue at the thought and can only find one thing to say to her crew mate. "I don't know, I can normally understand people's patterns, but I can barely understand hers. I'm just trying to see why she's so odd."

Zoro slightly softens up at the answer, but he's still pissed by how she went about it, so he steps back while strapping on the bag. "Then actually talk to her instead of snooping. Better yet, open up about yourself before prying into other's pasts."

With what he had to say out of the way, he leaves to rejoin the others on the deck.

Robin herself wasn't too far behind, with an uncharacteristic frown etched on her face from the new thoughts on today's events.

Both Sanji and Usopp are still outside as well, but no one can say anything with the tension so thick. None of them have ever faced an Admiral before, and to see how helpless they were against him has them all either shaken or pissed off.

If any other adversaries come around though, they won't hesitate to take their frustrations out on them. Zoro and Sanji especially, so they keep their eyes to the ocean in hopes of luck being on their side.

All they got though was the calm afternoon until Luffy gets thrown outside by Nami!

Luffy grits his teeth as he gets back up, but Nami blocks the doorway. "Why can't I just stay there?!"

"Because all your staring is making Chopper nervous! You don't want him to mess up right?"

"Of course not!"

"Then stay out here, and calm down!" Nami yells back before she sees everyone else's eyes on her.

She can tell what they're all thinking, so she gives them a soft grin to relax them. "We just got her out of the ice. She's unconscious, and has severe frostbite. Chopper's working on warming up her limbs right now, but her life's not in danger anymore."

The tension in the air visibly lessened from the news with the group finally starting to relax.

Nami starts to feel relieved by their relaxation and turns around to the doorway. "We're going to stay at the island tonight. You guys should rest up."

She doesn't give them time to answer before she goes back inside to keep helping Chopper.

Sanji heads to the kitchen to help distract himself and the others with food while Robin takes a seat on the lawn chair to stare at the ocean.

Usopp slumps in his seat beside the mast and lets out a depressing sigh from going through the crazy day.

Zoro takes a look at the sniper, and goes up to him. "What's up?"

The depressed sniper slightly looks up before he keeps his eyes to the deck. He knows that he's not the strongest in the crew, or even close, but seeing how there's such a strong guy like Aokiji out there has really shaken him. Sure, most of the strong crewmembers were exhausted from the Davy Back Fight, but even if everyone was at full strength, he doubts that they stood a chance. "We'll be facing strong guys like that in the future, won't we?"

Luffy is surprised by the question and steps up to his friend. "Of course we are, but we just need to kick their ass!"

"Right… I'm just glad, that today is finally over…" Usopp sighs out, though it's hard for him to believe him right now with where they're standing.

Zoro notices this, and softly frowns to the sniper. "Just get some rest, you look tired."

Usopp slowly nods as he gets up and goes to the boys' room to sleep.

Zoro heads on his own to do his own training, and leaves Luffy to do whatever he wants. And right now, all he wants is to stay close to Rose, so he goes inside to sit outside of the room Chopper and Nami are working in until he gets the go ahead to see her.

The rest of the afternoon ran painstakingly slow for the crew as Chopper and Nami finish healing their friend. For Luffy though, it was worth it to finally get permission to go into the girls' room where Rose is resting, as long as he promises to keep it down.

Right now, that promise is being kept well because when Nami and Chopper left to tell the others about her condition, Luffy sat cross-legged on the floor next to Rose's futon to keep her company.

Seeing that Rose is sleeping soundly, with the plushie he gave her held closely to her face, helps him to relax in knowing that she's ok now. Every time she stirs or turns though, he always gets startled, and expects her to wake up only for it to be a false alarm.

He groans after the fifth time it happened, and stretches his hand towards her in boredom. He holds out only one finger, and pokes her freckled nose, but flinches back from the icy touch.

Luffy quickly gets up, grabs five blankets, that are laying around the room, and lays them on top of the two she's already covered in to provide her with extra warmth.

He grins in satisfaction of the blanket mountain he made, with the only part of the patient's body to be shown is her head. Still, even with the extra warmth there's no sign of her waking up anytime soon, so the victory is short lived.

He sighs in boredom as he sits back down, then remembers the poster that Aokiji left behind. He takes the paper out of his pocket and gets a closer look at the bounty.

When he sees how high her bounty is, he grins at the number before he grows curious about the name on the poster. He never heard of her mentioning Alun, but barely cares. Rose is Rose to him after all.

He keeps his eyes to the poster before he jolts from the sound of the door opening.

He looks up to see the navigator coming in the room. "Sanji said that dinner is ready, let's..."

She trails off when she sees the paper in his hand and grows curious. "What are you reading?"

"Rose's new poster, the ice head dropped it before he left." Luffy answers as he shows it to her.

Nami widens her eyes at the high bounty and grabs it to take a closer look at the description that explains her bounty.

"Terrible wind powers, the ability to manipulate even the cleverest of men, and intends to use Hell's Comet to summon demons on the innocent…" As she mumbles the reasons listed on the poster, that don't hold her origins as one of them, she doesn't know whether to be angry or to laugh at the craziness. Sure, they were right about her acting skills able to trick people, and her powers are getting stronger, but the way that they're making her out sounds like the complete opposite of the reckless, childish, pirate that the crew has come to know.

Nami looks at the sleeping girl, who looks more like a turtle now thanks to the blankets, and starts to feel laughter winning when she tries to picture the demonic villain, that the World Government is talking about, in her.

She only releases a chuckle before she gives the poster back to Luffy. "When Rose wakes up, you can give that to her. For now, go ahead and eat."

Luffy nods as he quickly gets up, but freezes when he sees Rose still sleeping.

Nami tilts her head in confusion when she sees her captain turn his head from the door to the wind girl three times before he approaches her futon. "Luffy, what are you-?!"

She stops and drops her jaw when she watches Luffy picks up the light futon, the brunette, and all the blankets with both arms in a bridal carry.

Nami shakes her head to snap out of it and glares at Luffy. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Luffy stretches his neck up so that he can see Nami and grins like he doesn't have a care in the world. "Taking Rose to the kitchen, so she doesn't get lonely."

"We can't do that; we might wake her!"

Luffy knits his eyebrows at the complaint and looks down at the blanket cocoon to see that Rose is still sleeping despite the yelling. "But you're loud and she's still-!"

Nami cuts him off by throwing a book at his face to get him back for the insult! While Luffy's head reels back from the strong throw, she looks at the sleeping brunette and quietly sighs in defeat. "Fine, she's always been too heavy of a sleeper anyway. Let's go."

Luffy brings his face back up and smiles, despite the red mark on his face from where he was hit, and goes through the door that Nami has open for him.

As soon as the crew spots their captain carrying a futon with a blanket turtle on top of it, they immediately forget about the crazy day from the random sight.

"What the hell are you doing Luffy?!" Sanji asks when he watches Luffy put it down, but when he sees Rose's face peeked out from the blanket mountain, his annoyance disappears.

After Luffy makes sure that the blankets are covering every part of Rose, but her head, he looks to Sanji to answer his question. "I didn't want to leave her alone down there."

Chopper sees that his patient is still fast asleep and quietly sighs. "Alright, but don't move her around anymore."

He hums in acknowledgement as he follows Nami to the table and enjoys the meal with the rest of the crew.

The atmosphere seems to be as lively as before, and while Chopper would complain from time to time about the noise, the patient never woke up once.

The doctor even had to check her pulse at the end of the meal to make sure that she's truly alive because of how she's able to sleep through their racket. After he confirms that she's still alive, he takes her left hand out of the cocoon, and tickles her palm to see her fingers clench into a fist. When he does the same thing to her other hand, he grins in relief to see that the nerves in her arms didn't get too damaged. "Her left arm suffered worse than her right arm, but it doesn't look like the damage is permanent. I can't observe much more until she wakes up though."

"When will she wake up?" Luffy asks from his seat at the table.

"It could be a day or two, but that's up to her." Chopper answers when the rest of the crew comes back with sleeping supplies.

Most of the pirates set up small beddings all over the room, because none of them want to leave Rose alone while she's healing. Usopp sets one up for Chopper, which the doctor happily takes as he bundles up and goes to sleep with the sniper not too far behind.

Nami quickly bundles up in a corner, then looks around the room, and softly grins at the memory of when they did this when she was sick before she drifts off into her own dreams.

Robin quietly sets up her spot next to Nami, and can only think about the events that transpired today. She knows that her past will be coming back to her sooner or later, but for once she doesn't want to leave the organization she's in. Seeing how the crew supported her, and protected her, makes her feel like she's truly a part of something for once. Still, if she had to choose between letting her cursed self cause their destruction or leaving to keep them all safe, then her choice will be obvious…

She keeps a small frown on her face, and forces herself to lay down with thoughts on her options going to swim around in her head all night.

Zoro just sits at the table with a drink in his hand, and looks at the sleeping girl, who has only twitched in reaction to the loud noises that they made at dinner. "I get that she's a heavy sleeper, but it's still weird to see her barely reacting to us."

Sanji quietly sighs before he motions his hand towards the cute girl. "Take a good look moss head, that's how you act when you sleep. The only difference is you have no excuse."

"At least I can sleep without dreaming about making out with every girl I see, you pervert!" Zoro retorts back which brings the two of them into a glaring match.

Luffy laughs at the two's bickering before he starts to hear shifting from Rose's futon, and suddenly feels a soft, cold, gust of wind.

He, Zoro, and Sanji, who are the only ones still awake, look towards the wind girl to see her shivering under the blankets, and clenching onto them tightly, while the cold air escapes from under them.

Zoro widens his eyes at her mood breeze activating, and looks at her face to see her eyes clenched tightly while her lips are trembling as they let out small whimpers from a bad dream. "She can't keep making that mood breeze. We should-!"

He cuts himself off when he sees his captain rush over to her.

The rubber man burrows into the mountain of blankets, that feel cold from her scared mood breeze, until he lays next to her on the futon. As soon as he wraps his arms around his crush, and pulls her into his chest, her shivers immediately stop.

She still holds a frown in her sleep, with some tears in her eyes, but being in her captain's arms unconsciously relaxes her enough to stop her mood breeze.

Luffy sighs in relief in that he got her to stop, and wipes the tears away with one hand. As soon as they're gone, he looks up to see the other two members of the monster trio giving him a look of pure astonishment. "What?"

"You managing to comfort a girl is just plain weird." Sanji answers while still keeping his eyes on Luffy to make sure that he isn't seeing things.

Luffy just pouts at the rude answer until he feels one of her arms wrapping around his waist. He looks back at the brunette to see that she's still asleep, but still smiles nonetheless from the affection. "I don't see why that's so weird. If we're close enough to kiss, then I should be able to do this much."

He ignores the shocked looks that he's getting, and allows himself to quickly fall asleep with the girl in his arms.

As soon as Luffy's asleep, Sanji's surprised look immediately turns into one of jealousy. Sure, he's happy that Rose can be happy now, but at the same time, he can't believe that this moron managed to find someone before he could.

Zoro notices the look the chef is giving before he sighs. "If you want a girl so badly, then get your act together."

Sanji flinches at the advice before he turns his annoyed look to the moss head. "You're the last person that I want to hear that from."

The swordsman just shrugs it off before he gets back to his drink. "Whatever, but if you want a girl to be serious with you, then quit skirt chasing and just focus on someone you like."

Sanji knits his eyebrows at the advice, and as much as he hates to admit it, Zoro might be right. Whenever he tries to flirt with a girl, he rarely has any luck. When he does, they never try to stay long because he always admires beautiful women. However…

He looks over to where the beautiful navigator is resting, and softly smiles when he sees her face. When he had that date with Nami at the festival, the same night that Rose and Luffy had their date, all he could think about was her. He didn't bother to flirt with anyone else or stared for too long, because whenever he saw Nami smiling at him he felt happier than ever.

As long as he can get Nami to keep giving him that charming smile, then he feels like he can die happy. He gives out a lovesick sigh before he goes to his own bed space to dream up different fantasies of him and his sweet redhead.

When Sanji's finally asleep, Zoro lets out an annoyed huff for his idiocy. Still, it's better than seeing him and the others sulk from dealing with the Admiral…

He looks around at the sleeping pirates, and feels nothing but relief that no one died. He knows that facing strong enemies like him is not over by a long shot, so he takes a drink, and takes watch by going outside to train for as long as his body can hold out.

Just as the night fades away into the dawn, the defrosted girl finally begins to awaken from her slumber. As soon as she opens her purple eyes, they grow into the size of plates when she sees Luffy's sleeping face right in front of her with his arms wrapped around her!

"What the fuck?!" She scoots back with her blush growing, until Luffy's arms, that are still around her, show no signs of letting her go by pulling her back to her original spot.

Rose groans at his stubbornness but tenses up when she feels a piece of paper sticking out from Luffy's pocket. She hums in confusion when she grabs the paper and once she sees her wanted poster, everything from her fight with Aokiji hits her like a moving train. The more that she remembers about her conversation with the Admiral, and the new information she received from her new bounty, the more she needs time to sort this out.

She turns her body into air to get herself out of Luffy's embrace, and re-materializes just outside of her futon on her hands and knees. Even after sleeping under seven layers of blankets, and in Luffy's embrace, she still feels a shivering chill coursing through her veins as if she's still trapped in the ice. Even so, when she shakily pushes herself off the floor, with her poster held in her right hand, and stands herself up like it's the first time she's doing it, she's glad that she only feels numb from the cold.

She doesn't know how she'll handle this chill though, so she takes the top, dark blue, thin, blanket from the pile. The edges of the blanket are then wrapped around her neck to create a makeshift cloak that ends just above her feet. The brunette sighs in relief of the new warmth that's just enough to keep her from shivering.

She turns to leave, but stops when she looks down at her cute captain's face. While she remembers her troubles with Aokiji, she also remembers Luffy's confession which brings a revived blush onto her face.

It's still hard for her to fully believe that he said it, but there's no way she can play it off as anything else when he was so blunt. If anything, his actions spoke volumes when he kissed her and cuddled her to help warm her up after her fight.

She looks around to see that everyone is still asleep, so she hastily crouches down, leans her head to Luffy's face and kisses his cheek as a small piece of gratitude for all he's done for her.

When he unconsciously smiles from the kiss, a small smile creeps onto her face from the adorable sight. She could stare at the view all day, but she can't waste too much time, so she shakes her head to get herself to focus, and lets her white sock clad feet stumble to the door.

Once outside, she takes a moment to adjust to the new temperature before she slowly walks up to Merry's figurehead. Once she makes it to the goat statue, she takes a seat on her usual spot next to Merry's neck and leans to the figurehead. She looks up to Merry's face, then smiles up at her and speaks to her as if she's still the ghost child from Sky Island. "Hey Merry, believe it or not things have gotten even crazier than I thought it would."

She holds up her new poster, like she could actually see it, and gives a small smirk. "I actually topped Zoro's bounty. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he finds out."

She snickers at the thought of seeing a look of defeat from the hedge head, before she looks down at the paper, and spots the family name that she hasn't heard of since she was a little girl. "Not only that, I found out where my mom came from. The World Government picked up her maiden name from those researchers that disappeared, and even gave me their names. Alun D Aria, and Alun D Aidan, they must've been my grandparents..."

Her smile starts to fade at the word when she remembers her mom's answer to her question about them. "Sadly, when that night happened, she never found out what became of them. As she was growing up, she did try to find them, but never got any leads. I honestly don't even know if they went to the same place or some other world…"

She quietly sighs to herself about the lack of answers, before she changes the subject with the middle initial. "Of all the things though, they had to have come from the will of D. How cheesy can you get? I mean it's cool and all, but this sounds like something you would read in a fanfic."

A chuckle escapes her lips at the comment before she shakes her head to ignore it. "I guess it doesn't matter now. I have other things to worry about like-!"

She stops herself when she hears the door opening, and turns her head over her shoulder to see Robin silently walking outside.

Robin is quick to spot Rose, and is hesitant, much to the other's confusion.

It's obvious that there's something on the archaeologist's mind, but it seems like she has some resolve when she starts to walk to the front of the ship.

Rose swings her legs around to face the back of the ship, but doesn't make any further movements when Robin approaches her. "Hey Robin, how long was I frozen for?"

"Not too long, but you were asleep for half a day."

Rose slowly nods before she looks at her with nothing but concern in her eyes. "And, how are you? Are you feeling ok?"

Robin accidentally releases a giggle from the question. "You got frozen alive, and you're asking how I'm doing?"

"I'm not the one who freaked out from just seeing him." Rose bluntly answers which wipes the smile clean off of Robin's face.

Rose immediately feels bad for saying that, but she doesn't regret it. "What I mean is we both suffered damage from him. Like I said before, I won't press you to tell me what your deal with him is, but-!"

"I'll tell you." Robin interrupts her which surprises the astronomer.

Robin however, doesn't give her a chance to respond as she keeps going. "Aokiji called us both demons. Which means we're both in the same situation. In order to survive, we need to be on the same side."

She starts to remember how she's acted towards Rose up to this point, from the spying to the trick to stay on the ship, and gives her a soft frown. "I do apologize for what I've done up until now, but I hope you understand that I don't trust easily."

Rose slowly nods as she gives her full attention to her friend to show support.

Robin doesn't mind as she continues on. "There's a reason for that. You see, back when I was a child on my home island, the scholars there and I studied a taboo known as the poneglyphs. When I was eight, the World Government found out about this, and destroyed almost everyone who inhabited the island. Aokiji spared me, and allowed me to venture to the next island. Ever since then, I had to do whatever I could to survive without being caught which led me to Baroque Works, and now here…"

She looks towards her audience, and only sees an unreadable expression due to her bangs covering her purple eyes.

However, a soft cold wind from her sadness helps give away what she's feeling just when she stands up.

Rose doesn't give her any sign of what she's going to do when she steps up to her, then takes her arms out of the blanket to pull her into an embrace.

Robin is surprised by the sudden act, for besides Luffy, she's only seen her give someone a pat as a sign of affection. She didn't even take time to adjust for almost as quickly as it came in, Rose releases her from the hug and pulls the blanket back around her arms.

The brunette gives her shocked friend a small frown as she sits back down on the railing. "Sorry, your story kind of hit close to home. You see, my family and I also are researching a taboo. It's called the Timore comet; it has the ability to travel to other worlds. My home island isn't involved with the World Government, so we didn't get persecuted, but no one in my homeland believed in its power, even though my grandparents disappeared from it. We were all considered lunatics by almost everyone because of it. When my parents died, all the ridicule from the place was just too much, and I couldn't get any answers. I left to try to finish what my folks started, and wound up with this crew. Back in Navarone though, the marines found out, and well…"

She shows her the wanted poster which makes the archaeologist completely dumbfounded.

Robin takes the poster and is not only surprised by the amount and description, but by the middle initial. "You have D in your name?"

Rose shakes her head as she takes the poster back. "'Alun D' was my mother's maiden name. I'm surprised they found it, but I took my father's surname 'Catone' and no initial when I was born. As far as I'm concerned, I don't have the will of D."

Robin is slightly calmed by the explanation and grows more curious about what she knows. "The will of D?"

"It's what I've heard people holding that initial having. I don't know much about the details, but apparently those who possess it have the potential to change the world, and the luck of the devil."

Rose chuckles at the thought and looks to the kitchen where the others are sleeping in. "Luffy's a prime example of that."

Robin follows her gaze, and a small smile returns to her when she thinks about the great crew that's protecting them. It's obvious they already know about Rose's research with how Usopp and Zoro were protecting her secret from her. If they could accept one taboo user into the crew, regardless of how the World Government will act, then maybe there's hope for her as well.

She grows more relieved by the second as she sits on the railing next to her friend and looks to her. "So, what now?"

Rose is taken aback by the question before she remembers Aokiji's warning about Cipher Pol. She loses her smile at the memory before she looks to Robin. "Honestly, I don't know. Right before Aokiji completely froze me, he mentioned an organization called Cipher Pol…"

Robin's smile immediately faded which leads Rose to grow concerned. "You know them?"

The archaeologist slowly nods, with a look of fear still on her face. "They're a special intelligence organization in the World Government. They have different units for various types of missions, did he say which one by chance?"

Even though Rose knows which unit it is, she doesn't want to scare Robin into running away, so she shakes her head. "Sorry, he didn't. We should be careful on the next island though. I think it's better if we stay together."

Robin is in complete agreement with that notion. "You're right, we shouldn't group with the others as well. We can't let them get hurt in this."

Rose couldn't agree more, so she extends out a hand for her to shake. "Then it's settled, from now on, we'll have each other's backs, and protect what we have in this crew."

"Agreed." She seals their partnership with a handshake and allows a genuine smile to return to her face. "Now that that's out of the way, there's just one more thing to settle."

Rose grows confused by the comment just when a high pitch scream is heard from the kitchen!

"WHERE DID ROSE GO?!" Luffy slams open the kitchen, but was so frantic that he didn't notice the girls when he runs below deck to try to find Rose.

Rose drops her jaw at the sight, with a small blush on her face while Robin giggles at her reaction.

However, Robin's smile starts to fade when she turns to the outsider. "I know you have feelings for him as well, but whatever problems come your way from your research, he will get affected as well. Are you sure you can handle that?"

Rose snaps out of her daze from the question and remembers her situation. Luffy opened his heart to her, and now it's up to her to decide if she wants to be with him.

She knows that Robin is right, her being with Luffy will only cause him problems. She'd be ruining whatever romantic relationship he was meant to have in this world, and with Cipher Pol being after not just Robin but also her, there's no guarantee that they'd see the last of them in Enies Lobby.

She can think of a million reasons to say no to Robin's question, and just keep her own emotions bottled up. However, there's one thing, one important reason, that stops her from doing it. That being that she's in love with him too.

Rose takes in a deep breath to steady herself before she gives her a soft frown. "I'd never forgive myself if my problems hurt him, but I still want to try. As selfish, and crazy, and stupid as it is, I want to be by his side."

Robin slightly relaxes by the innocent answer and gives her a small grin. "It's not wrong to want love, but you need to be careful. There's no guarantees when we're branded as curses."

Rose grows annoyed the comment and scowls at her. "We're not curses! This crew is still here isn't it?!"

"For now." Robin answers before she stands up and looks back to her. "But when the time comes, you'd best prepare for all outcomes."

She walks into the kitchen, where the others are breaking up a fight between Zoro and Sanji, without giving Rose a chance to say anything else.

The astronomer is disappointed that Robin still thinks of herself as a curse, but after going through twenty years of discrimination, she knows that she needs to do more to get through to her. Still, she was able to show Robin that she's not alone in this mess. That alone is a true victory for her.

When she hears loud crashes from below the deck, she's brought back to her current situation when Luffy runs back up to the deck.

As soon as Luffy lays his eyes on the missing wind girl, he runs up to her, pulls her out of her seat, and into his rubber arms. "There you are, I've been looking all over for you!"

Rose starts to blush from the embrace before she pulls back, so they're face to face, and gives him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry for worrying you."

"You should be, what the hell were you thinking facing him alone?!" Luffy asks which pisses her off because he does crazy shit like this all the time.

She shows her anger more than usual by using the hand not holding her poster to pull his rubber cheek out. "Like you're one to talk, you jack ass! How many times have you told people to let you fight alone?!"

He swats her chilled hand away and steps back with his angry eyes on her. "That's different! A captain's job is to protect his crew!"

"Then who protects you?!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"You're able to die just like the rest of us, yet you face mountains to strong enemies by yourself! I saw that you would freeze if he touched you, but I had a chance so I took the fight out of your hands! I may be sorry for worrying you, but I won't be sorry for wanting to protect you for once!"

Luffy softens up from the pure intention she had, but at the same time he's even more annoyed at the fact that she got hurt. "That still doesn't make it ok! You should've let me fight with you!"

She feels like she went through a full circle in the argument and pulls him by the collar of his shirt so that they're at eye level. "What part of me wanting to protect you didn't you fucking get?! You would've just been frozen along with me! That would've helped nobody, and I could've won anyway if I had just kissed you!"

Rose releases his shirt to slap her hand over her mouth, but it was too late because Luffy heard the outburst as clear as day.

His anger is blown away from the confession, but he doesn't fully understand so he tilts his head. "What do you mean by that?"

She awkwardly looks away from him, with her freckles covered in red, then keeps her eyes to her feet, while she speaks in a volume just above a whisper. "Do you remember what you told me about Nami's advice about kissing?"

"Yea, I can conquer anything if I kiss the girl I'm in love with. It helped me beat Foxy."

She couldn't be more embarrassed from the sweet comment and tries to get through this quickly. "W-well, then I would've conquered anything if I kissed you too…"

Her crush knits his eyebrows at the explanation, and frowns at her. "But I'm not a girl."

A gust of hot air flairs out of her for a moment, from the frustration, before she glares at him. "I'M TRYING TO SAY THAT I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU TOO, DAMMIT!"

Luffy flinches back from the outburst, while Rose takes a deep breath to calm down.

She is annoyed with herself for giving such a horrible, tsundere, confession, and studies his face for a reaction, but all she sees is shock and disbelief.

She starts to regret saying anything, and goes to tell him to forget it, but stops when she sees a wide grin stretch to the point where his teeth almost cover the lower half of his face.

Rose can even see stars in his eyes when he breaks the silence. "You do?! Then let's be a couple that goes on real dates!"

The brunette heavily blushes from the demand, and dazzling smile, then shyly looks down before she shows him her poster. "A-are you sure that's what you want? I can't promise being in a couple is easy, especially with someone like me..."

Luffy loses his smile at the last piece of the warning, and to Rose's surprise, he snatches the poster, crumbles it up, and tosses it over his shoulder. "Don't listen to what that poster or what Aokiji said, because you're not a danger to us! You've done nothing, but help us from escaping marines to fighting enemies! And I'm always happier when I'm with you than when I'm away from you! I might not know anything about this couple stuff, but I know that you're the only one I'm in love with, so say yes!"

Rose can feel her heart pick up with every word he said, and her vision start to blur from the tears piling up in her eyes.

Luffy is shocked to see her weeping, but calms down when he feels a warm gust fly off of her to tell him that she's happy.

Rose doesn't care about her mood breeze as she releases a shaky chuckle, wipes away the tears with the back of her hand, and gives him a genuine smile. "There's no way I can say no to that. I don't know much about this stuff either, but I want to try it with you."

Luffy brightens up at the answer, then laughs in victory as he rushes to pick her up in a hug, and spins around.

Rose giggles with him, and hugs him back while feeling like everything in her life at this moment is perfect. While she knows it can't last forever, especially with all her problems looming at Water Seven, along with the secrets she has left to share, she wants to make the most of this joy right now.

She snaps back to reality when Luffy starts walking while still carrying her with his arms around her waist. She still holds her chilled arms loosely around his neck, and looks down at her new love in confusion. "Luffy, what are you doing?"

"I can feel that you're still cold even though you're in that blanket, I'm bringing you back to the kitchen where the other blankets are." Luffy bluntly answers before he pulls the, slightly open, kitchen door, but stops at the doorway in confusion. "What are you guys doing?"

Rose looks over her shoulder, and couldn't be more embarrassed when she sees everyone crowding the doorway to eavesdrop except for Robin who's casually drinking a cup of coffee at the table.

Usopp awkwardly chuckles as he pretends that the door hinges are his main interest. "The door looked like it was about to break open, so I'm inspecting the hinges!"

"Yea, we were all helping him!" Nami says with an innocent smile while the others just step back, and pretend they're inspecting the door.

"Bull shit…" Rose mutters but nobody hears when Luffy takes her back to the abandoned futon and gently drops her down.

Zoro smirks at how close they are as he watches them sit up with the six remaining blankets covering their waists. "So, what happened to you guys?"

Luffy gives him a proud grin just as he wraps an arm around her shoulders. "We're a couple now!"

Almost everyone gives them a look of surprise, as if they weren't just watching the whole thing.

"Oh really, congrats!" Chopper says with a sweet smile.

"About damn time." Nami says with a smirk with earns her the middle finger from Rose.

Usopp looks at them worriedly for a moment because of the bet and tries to make sure of the results. "Which one of you confessed first?"

Both lovers are confused by the question, but Rose doesn't see why it would matter, so she answers. "Luffy was the first, why?"

"No reason!" Nami quickly says as she wraps an arm around the disappointed Usopp's shoulders and takes him outside with Zoro following so they can settle the winnings of the bet.

Both Rose and Luffy are even more confused about what the big deal was, but they don't have time to question it when Chopper approaches Rose. "How are you feeling?"

"I still have a chill even when I woke up under these blankets and in Luffy's embrace. Nothing hurts too badly though."

The doctor slightly nods to this, goes to his human form, then grabs her right wrist to feel her pulse. After a few seconds, he slowly nods and speaks up. "Your pulse is slightly slow. It looks like your muscles and nerves are still recovering. Move your left arm for me."

Rose quickly complies by lifting her left arm up, picking up Luffy's arm that's still around her shoulder, and gently drops it onto his lap.

Chopper grins at how she moved it with ease and gets up. "Perfect, and you walked out of here this morning?"

She nods her head which greatly relieves him. "It doesn't look like there's any permanent damage. You should lose that chill in a few days as long as you keep using your muscles. For now, just take it easy and rest."

"Thank you Doc, you're the best." Rose says which causes a happy dance to be given by the humanoid reindeer as he spouts curses at her, until he's out the door.

Sanji chuckles at the dance before he starts grabbing some food to start making breakfast. "I'll make you something warm Rose-chan. As for you Luffy, if you don't make any noise or touch the food while I'm cooking, you can stay."

Luffy has no problems with that as he wraps his arms around Rose's waist and pulls her down to the bed. "That's fine."

Rose blushes at the captain's sweet embrace but has no complaints when she pulls the blankets up to their shoulders. She looks up at the man holding her and can feel nothing but gratitude when she sees that he's not leaving her side, just like when she was recovering, and intends to show that gratitude to him. "Thank you Luffy."

He goes to ask why she thanked him, but Rose sneaks a peck on the lips before he could react. As quickly as she came in, she pulls back and snuggles up to his chest before she falls asleep.

Luffy is surprised by the quick affection, but that shock is quickly changed to joy as he cuddles with her and joins her in her sleep.

Neither of them is thinking about the problems that await them, and they don't care.

All that matters to them right now is that they're together, and no matter what comes their way, they're going to protect this new happiness.

TO BE CONTINUED