Chapter 10

Rose felt as if she was turned to stone as soon as she heard the demand to join Luffy's crew. She had to replay it at least three times in her hear to fully understand the crap that just came out of his mouth, because of how unexpected it was.

She shakes her head to snap herself out of it before she weakly chuckles and takes her hand back. "Sorry Luffy, but that's the worst joke I ever heard. I can't join you."

Luffy looks up at her in shock and reveals the redness in his cheeks from the alcohol. "This isn't a joke, and I refuse your refusal~!"

She widens her eyes at the slightly slurred response and leans closer to Luffy's face to see that he's still in a daze from the alcohol.

*Shit, he's still drunk...* She groans in frustration before she scowls at the stubborn boy. "In that case, I refuse your refusal to my refusal."

He's completely taken aback by the refusal, because he thought that she would jump at the chance. "You can't do that!"

"I just did." She turned around to walk away when a rubber arm suddenly stretched around her waist and pulled her onto the hammock. They almost fell to the floor, but Rose managed to stop them from falling by holding onto the hammock.

The rubber drunk could care less that they're swinging and keeps his arms around her, so she won't escape. "Don't leave! Join my-!"

She covers his mouth, with an embarrassing blush decorating her face, just when she manages to stop the hammock. The brunette slowly looks around to see that the others guys are still asleep, then sighs in relief that they didn't wake anyone.

However, she doesn't know how long they can sleep through the noise, so she takes her hand off his mouth and whispers to him. "Keep it down will ya?"

"I'll do it if you-!"

"Please just stop, I can't join you."

"Why not~?"

She starts massaging her temples to try to soothe her growing headache, before she sits up, and unwraps herself from his hold with a soft, sorrowful, look. "I just can't..."

Even without looking back, she can tell that he's upset with the answer, so she gets off the hammock and starts.

She can hear Luffy trying to get up, so she stops a few steps away, and turns around.

The captain is happy that she stopped, but his smile fades when he can see the sadness in her eyes as she speaks to him. "Look, I appreciate everything you guys did for me, and you have no idea how flattered I am that you offered, but I can't stay. I need to find my place in this world and Alabasta's the perfect spot to get my start as a real astronomer..."

She starts giving him a reassuring smile while she waves her hand dismissively. "Besides, you guys are pretty bad ass on your own. You guys will quickly move on. There's tons of better people out there than a wind girl any-!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

She hitches her breath when Luffy stumbles out of bed with a furious look on his face. "What do you mean I'll move on?! Don't think that I just forget my friends like they're nothing!"

She quickly looks around to see the guys stirring, but their eyes are still shut, so she raises her hands defensively. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean it like that. What I mean is you'll find people that'll fit with your crew better."

He doesn't take the excuse as he keeps pressing for her to join. "That doesn't make sense at all! We worked together great back at the island, your power's cool, and you're really fun too! If you don't fit with the crew then none of us do either!"

She looks at the honest boy in utter shock, because not many people would be persistent for her friendship. Best of all, she knows that he's telling the truth because of how honest he is regardless of if he's sober. All she can feel right now is joy for knowing what he thinks of her, and lets it show with a soft smile. "Thank you Luffy, I'd love to join your crew, but-!"

"Awesome, you're in the crew then! Good night!" He starts smiling at the declaration before he lays down on the hammock with his back to the slack jawed girl.

Rose blinks in surprise as she plays back the conversation in her head, before she angrily walks up to the hammock and loudly whispers. "Hey, let me finish dammit! I'd love to join, but I can't. If I stay I don't know what would happen to everyone. I don't want to cause you or the others problems, so it's better if I-!"

She stops herself to the sound of Luffy's snoring and looks over his shoulder to see that he fell asleep!

She growls in frustration as a fist is raised to throw him a well deserved punch, but her other hand grabs onto the wrist to keep her from punching him!

To avoid giving to temptation, she storms out of the room, and takes a deep breath to try to calm herself down. However, it's hard to relax when the guy she just argued with just decided her fate, then fell asleep like he did nothing wrong! Honestly, it's no wonder the others got so pissed off when he recruited them! Wait no, he didn't recruit her, he was just rambling from the booze! There's no way he'd recruit her otherwise...

She takes another deep breath to calm herself down again then quietly sighs while she runs her hands through her hair. Once she starts calming down, she walks down the hall while she tries to think of something else. However, all she could think of is how crazy her situation just got, because she never thought he would recruit her. She thought she'd separate after helping them out and then live out her life trying to find her answers. That plan won't change if she has to say anything about it. No matter if she wants to stay, she won't be interfering with them longer than-!

"There you are Rose, I was just about to check on you."

Rose snaps out of her thoughts when she sees Vivi, and realizes that she made it just outside of the girls' room. "Was everything ok? You were taking a while."

She quickly nods with a reassuring smile. "I'm ok, sorry for worrying you. Luffy woke up when I was bringing him in and started talking nonsense, but I managed to bring him in."

"I see, we should get some sleep ourselves. We have a long day of travelling tomorrow."

Rose tiredly sighs as she follows her into the room. "I couldn't agree more..."

Once in the room, Rose quickly falls onto her futon, and sleeps while silently worrying about what's going to happen tomorrow.

In the early evening in New York City, a seven year old Rose was practicing playing an acoustic guitar, that's too big for her, in her parents' study. "How did that song go again?"

She starts sloppily stringing the beginning of the song 'Hey There Delilah' by the Plain White T's, but gets frustrated when the chords weren't sounding right. "Dammit!"

"Hey, ease up on the language!"

Rose widens her eyes when she turns around to see her dad walking into the room with a scowl on his face. "Where did you learn how to curse like that?!"

She looks down in shame while she rubs the back of her head. "Umm, I think I heard it when I was learning moves from Yusuke Urameshi or Ranma Saotome..."

Joe sweat drops at the answer before he bursts out laughing. "Hahaha, you've been copying moves from martial arts animes like Ranma 1/2 this whole time?!"

She puffs her cheeks in a pout before she puts the guitar down. "Quit laughing! How else am I supposed to learn?! I know I can't do the cool magic moves, but I can at least learn some of the fighting moves!"

He finishes laughing before he pats her on the head. "Sorry, sorry, you shouldn't just be copying things from other worlds though."

"Why not? If we go into one of these worlds, I can blend in easier from what I learn."

He quirks an eyebrow at the explanation before he shakes his head. "Blending in isn't always a good thing. Besides, it's better to learn from someone in person. I can teach you how to fight if you want?"

She scowls at the suggestion before she pushes his hand away. "What do you know about fighting?"

"A lot actually. When you're in a fight, there's only one spot that you need to always aim for."

Rose looks up at her dad with pure curiosity in her eyes. "Are you talking about the crotch?"

The brown haired man was completely slack jawed at what his child just said and scoffs. "Don't go saying crotch like it's a decent word! That's not the spot I'm talking about! When you're fighting someone, you need to aim for the nose!"

She quirks an eyebrow at the statement. "Why at the nose?"

He starts smirking with pride before he points to his freckled nose. "Because people are like sharks, when you hit the nose they go running."

Rose could only blink at the statement before she starts having her own laughing fit. "Hahaha, what kind of a reason is that?!"

Joe looks at his daughter in utter shock before he starts pouting. "Hey, I'm serious! The nose is a good weak point! If you hit it just right, you can give them a good nosebleed!"

She keeps laughing, so her dad sighs in defeat before he looks at the instrument that she was trying to play. "You were trying to play my guitar?"

She hitches her breath before she shifts her eyes everywhere. "N-no way, I wasn't trying to play it..."

He doesn't believe the lie at all and shakes his head. "You're a terrible liar..."

He looks at the guitar and thinks on how recently she's been trying to learn various skills from cooking to even healing. Knowing his kid, there's always a reason, so he tries to get to the bottom of it."You've been trying to learn a bunch of new stuff lately. Any reason for it?"

She shyly looks away before she scratches the back of her head. "I want to learn real skills. Most of the stuff I learn at school's going to be useless when we get out of this world."

The kid remembers a skill that she's always wanted to learn and gives him a pleading look. "By the way, can you teach me your glare of death?"

He blinks behind his glasses then chuckles as he adjusts them. "Sorry, but I'd rather not ruin your adorable face by teaching you my glares."

"Oh come on, please?! I can use it to scare my enemies away!"

The teacher couldn't help but chuckle again before he pets her head. "I'll make you a deal then. I'll teach you everything you want to know, but if we wind up in an anime world then you need to do your own thing instead of copying the main characters. Can you do that?"

She eagerly nods as she picks up the large guitar. "Deal, then let's get-!"

"Hold it!" He takes the guitar from her and holds it up out of her reach while she tries to jump to grab it. "As punishment for cursing, I'm not teaching you a single thing today. That includes our normal constellation sessions."

She stops jumping and slowly nods with a sad look on her face as she watches her dad put the guitar to the side. "Instead, we're going out to run some errands before mom gets back from her tutoring sessions. Besides, you need a guitar meant for your size."

She widens her purple eyes at the last sentence before she gives him a large smile. "Yea, let's go!"

Joe softly smiles at his little girl before he leads her out of the apartment and takes her out into the city for the rest of the evening.

The next morning, Rose is sleeping soundly with a soft smile from the memory of her father before she slowly wakes up to see that she's the only one in the room. *How long was I asleep?! Never mind that, I gotta get up and see if Luffy remembers!*

She rushes out of the room and runs down the hall while she chuckles at the dream she had. At the very least, she knows that she's keeping her promise to her dad. After all, there's no way she can copy this crew. Honestly, if they saw what was going on now, she'd guarantee that they'd be laughing their asses off because of the irony of refusing to join the crew.

She shakes her head when she heads outside to see Nami and Vivi hanging out at the front of the ship and Zoro training on the deck. Once she sees that the captain isn't there, she goes into the kitchen to see Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, and Carue sitting at the table and chugging a large glass of water while Sanji is cooking breakfast.

"Having a water drinking contest?"

The guys widen their eyes at Rose's voice and turn to her after they finish their water.

Sanji is the first to react by showing hearts in his eyes as he twirls to her. "Good morning Rose-chan, did you sleep well?"

She nods while Usopp groans and rubs his aching head. "Shut up Sanji, Chopper's medicine didn't work yet..."

Sanji twitches a curly eyebrow at the comment before he turns to the guys. "You shut up, it's your fault for getting a hangover!"

He gets back to cooking while Rose takes a seat at the table in between Chopper and Luffy, then starts speaking softly. "You all have hangovers?"

Chopper shakes his head. "Just Usopp, Luffy, and Carue. I gave them some medicine to help them recover faster."

She nods then sneaks a glance at Luffy who's focusing on the food Sanji's cooking. Even though she wants to know if he remembers, she can't ask without him getting suspicious. Because of that, she has to wait for him to say something here.

Usopp lays his head down on the table to try to take the pressure off his head. "I'll never drink again..."

Rose widens her eyes at the statement, when a memory from last night pops up in her head, so she starts chuckling. "That's too bad, because you were pretty funny last night Usopp. "

Usopp slowly turns to her in confusion while he keeps his head on the table. "I was? I don't remember."

"Yea, you started singing that you were 'Captain Usopp'. Then later on, you tried copying Carue by pretending to be a bird, and I helped with that by making you fly around a bit."

Usopp become mortified by the story and he shoots his head up to give her a glare. "That did not happen!"

Sanji shakes his head with a small smirk as he's getting the fruit ready. "No, I remember. You tried flying to Nami's tree, but Rose wouldn't let you. You somehow fell out of her wind, and almost landed on your face before she caught you."

Usopp drops his jaw at the story before he buries his face in his hands. "That's settled then, no more alcohol..."

Everyone else softly laughs at Usopp's reaction when Luffy turns to her with an excited grin. "What did I do?! Did I say anything funny?!"

Rose widens her eyes at the questions while he, and the rest of the guys still suffering from a hangover, groan at the captain's loud voice.

*HE REALLY FORGOT!* Rose keeps the cheering in her head, while she only shows her joy through a small chuckle. "You were pretty funny too. When I was bringing you inside, I somehow got you to believe that Merry hid Alabasta in the ship. You also asked me if meat can poop."

Everyone was laughing at the story, except for Chopper who was looking at Luffy in confusion. "You really don't remember anything from when Rose brought you in the guys' room Luffy?"

Rose tenses up at the doctor's question while Luffy shakes his head. "Nope, it's all blank after I fell asleep on the deck. Why?"

"You woke me up last night when you were-! Mmmph!"

Rose quickly covers Chopper's mouth causing the other guys to look at her in confusion. She looks at them nervously, before she awkwardly giggles. "Hehe, sorry we woke you doc. Luffy wouldn't stop clinging to me when I was getting him in his hammock, and there was a bit of an argument."

Sanji widens his eyes at the story, as he finishes cooking, before he glares at Luffy. "You clung to her in bed you shitty captain?!"

Luffy gulps before he gets up and runs away from the angry chef!

Once they're out of the room, Rose takes her hand off Chopper's mouth. "Can we talk alone doc?"

Chopper nods as he follows her out of the kitchen, and leaves Usopp and Carue alone in the room.

Usopp quirks an eyebrow at the departure and looks to the duck. "What's with her?"

Carue shrugs as he sneaks some of the food off the counter while waiting for everyone else to come in.

Rose leads Chopper into the girls' room before she closes the door behind them. "When exactly did you wake up last night?"

"When you refused his refusal to your refusal. I was pretending to be asleep while listening to the conversation."

Rose blinks in surprise before she runs her hands through her hair. "Shit, sorry we woke you..."

"It's ok, but why don't you want to join?"

She quietly sighs as she scratches the back of her head. "I have my own goal to accomplish and it doesn't link with being in a crew. Like I told Luffy last night, Alabasta is the perfect place to help me get started on accomplishing my dream along with becoming a real astronomer. I'm definitely grateful to everyone, and I'll help you guys out in Alabasta, but when that adventure ends I can't stay anymore."

Chopper looks up at her with sadness in his eyes. "Is there any way you can stay?"

Rose slowly shakes her head, and does her best not to cave to the cuteness, before she kneels down to his level, and pats his head. "Sorry, but I can't. Can you do me a favor though?"

"What is it?"

"Please don't tell Luffy and the others what you heard. I don't want to get into another fight with Luffy."

Chopper slowly nods but still holds a sad frown from knowing she won't stay long. "Ok, but what if he asks you again?"

She widens her eyes at the question before sighing in exasperation. "I have no idea..."

Nami manages to stop the convesation by slamming the door open.

"There you guys are. Come up and have breakfast."

Rose nods before she waves at her. "Ok, we'll catch up in a bit."

Nami accepts it, and walks away, while Rose turns to Chopper. "I'll figure something out when the time comes. Chances are, he probably just asked because he was drunk."

Chopper hums in agreement, even though he's still upset, so she changes the subject. "Thank you, not just for helping me, but also for this."

She starts smiling before she points to her right cheek, that's no longer marked from her foster family's abuse.

Chopper is surprised by the healed skin, because he forgot about it through the chaos, and sees that her arms and neck are no longer marked too. "Wow, the ointment worked perfectly!"

The patient nods as she looks down at her pale arm. "I'll say, this is the first time since I don't remember when that my body doesn't have any scratches or bruises on them. You really are an amazing doctor."

Chopper starts blushing from the compliment before he starts dancing with a large smile on his face. "Shut up you asshole! I don't want any compliments from you! I'm not happy at all you bastard!"

Rose giggles at the adorable dance as she gets up before Chopper stops dancing, and looks at her softly. "I don't think Luffy just asked because he was drunk. I'm sure he's going to ask you again."

Rose widens her eyes at the comment before she shrugs with a sad smile. "Only time can tell. Let's get going before Luffy eats our breakfast."

Chopper quickly nods as he follows her out of the room while the freckled girl loses her smile and drifts off into her thoughts. Even with Chopper saying that, she can't accept that he truly will recruit her. She was never supposed to meet him in the first place, let alone join him. That reasoning is why she had her guard down this whole time, and allowed herself to enjoy her time with them, but not anymore.

If there's a chance of her being recruited, then she can't be too friendly with him and the others. At least up until Alabasta, she needs to keep her distance from Luffy to make sure he doesn't remember their fight.

She slowly nods to the plan when the two of them make it to the kitchen where everyone else was waiting for them.

Luffy smiles at the pair with a footprint implanted on his cheek from where Sanji kicked him. "There you guys are. Let's eat."

The two latecomers don't need to be told twice as they take their seats, and start eating with everyone as if everything was normal.

After helping Sanji with the dishes, Rose walks out of the kitchen to see Luffy, Usopp, Carue, and Chopper playing tag on the deck.

Rose grins at the game before she starts making her way to the back of the ship, but before she can make it there, Luffy runs up to her. "Hey Rose, come play with us!"

She shakes her head with a soft smile to get a start on her plan to distance herself. "Sorry Luffy, I can't play."

"Huh?! Why not?"

Before she can say anything, Zoro walks up to them. "She promised to help me train."

Rose widens her eyes at the excuse before she nods.

Luffy blinks at the excuse before he sighs in defeat. "Aww, ok. We can play later."

Rose hums in agreement as she waves him off, and follows Zoro to the back of the ship where they're out of earshot.

The brunette grins in excitement for the training, as she looks around the deck for ways to help him out. "So you decided to take my offer to help huh? Great, then-!"

"What problems were you talking about last night?"

She widens her eyes at the question then turns to see Zoro scowling at her with his arms crossed over his chest.

She can tell that he heard too, so quietly sighs and drops her shoulders. "So you heard that argument too huh?"

The protective pirate narrows his eyes on the guest as he tries to get some answers about what kind of trouble she'll bring. "I woke up when Luffy asked if the room was actually Alabasta, but kept my eyes shut. After Luffy said that you're a crew member, you said you don't know what'll happen to everyone if you stayed. What are you hiding?"

She looks at his hard stare nervously while she tries to come up with something to say.

"Well?"

She quietly gulps at the demand before she sighs in exasperation, and lowers her head. "I wasn't lying to you guys if that's what you're thinking. I really am a runaway. No one's after me at the moment, but I'm studying to be an astronomer and researching something very important to me and my family. I won't go into too much detail because I'm not certain yet, but if the World Government sees my research as a taboo then I can't guarantee everyone's safety if I stay."

He keeps a hard stare on her, because he barely buys into the story. "How do you not know if this research is a taboo or not?"

She clenches her fists while she keeps her stare to the deck. "My homeland is one of the few places that aren't affiliated with the World Government. Instead, they have their own government. That's as much as I can and will tell you about it."

She looks him in the eye to give him her own hard stare. "Look, I have no intention in hurting the crew. I don't want to drag you guys into my problems either. After I help you guys out in Alabasta, we part ways no matter what the verdict is on my research."

Zoro continues to stare her down, then once he can tell that she's telling the truth, he nods in satisfaction. "Fine by me. You'd better be prepared though, when Luffy wants someone in his crew, it's almost impossible to change his mind."

Rose chuckles at the comment. "If last night was an example, then I have my work cut out for me. For now, I think the best thing to do is make some distance between us."

The swordsman completely agrees, but freezes when Rose accidentally starts floating!

Zoro chuckles at her predicament then gets into push-up position. "In that case, let's get started on helping me train. You got used to blasting your wind right?"

She nods at she flies above him. "You want me to blast wind on you while you do push-ups?"

"Yea, as hard as you can. Also, can you put that crate on my back?" He points to the large heavy crate near the stairs causing her to comply by using her wind to lift it and gently set it on his back.

He balances the weight on his back while holding his body up with one arm then gives her a thumbs up. "Ready when you are."

"Ok!" She starts blasting her wind out of her hands and down onto him as hard as she can causing him to land on his stomach before he uses both of his arms to push himself up and starts counting to himself.

Rose widens her eyes to see that he's actually pulling it off then tries to push her wind down on him harder with one thought in mind. *I know that he has super strength, but this is ridiculous!*

Zoro feels the strong wind making him struggle to keep his body up, so he smirks at the challenge.

After the hundredth count, Rose starts sweating from all the energy she's using to make the wind blow down on Zoro. She tries her best not to let up as Zoro keeps doing his push-ups under her, but she keeps growing exhausted.

Zoro notices that the wind is starting to get weaker and looks up to see that she's getting tired, so he shakes the crate off his back. "We can stop now!"

She releases her wind before she lands next to him while she leans next to the railing to keep her balance. "Did that help you at all?"

He nods while he wipes the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand. "That worked better than I thought. What do you say to doing this more before we get to Alabasta?"

Rose nods at the idea. "Works for me, I can use the practice with my wind."

Zoro chuckles at her tired state. "I can see that."

She glares at him while she flips him off before she pushes herself off the railing. "I'll slam you to the deck next time."

He chuckles at the empty threat before he goes to his weights. "Yea whatever, just go rest up. We can try again later."

She clicks her tongue at his sass, but still heads inside when Luffy waves at her. "Hey Rose, you done? Come play with us!"

Rose shakes her head with a small frown. "Sorry Luffy, the training took more out of me than I thought. I gotta rest."

Before Luffy can say anything, she heads inside and goes into the empty girls' room. She gets in the covers on her futon when her eyelids begin to grow heavy. Not only is she tired from the training, but now guilt is forming for how she has to treat Luffy. Still, it's the best she can do to keep herself from getting recruited.

All she can do is silently pray that it won't happen as she falls asleep while silently worrying about what the rest of the trip to Alabasta will hold for her.

TO BE CONTINUED