One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter Eleven [Rewritten]

-Chapter Eleven-

"Tony?" Nami questioned as we walked through the castle gates with her and Vivi dragging Sanji by his ankles as I walked beside them.

"What's he doing out here?" I asked, head curiously tilting the moment I noticed the reindeer standing before our captain.

"Hey! You're going to come onto our ship and be a pirate with us, okay!" Luffy started it like a fact as he eagerly threw his arms in the air as if preemptively celebrating the reindeer's inclusion into our crew.

"I can't..." Chopper sadly muttered as he lowered his head as if afraid to see the captain's reaction to his rejection.

"Sure you can, reindeer, it's a whole lot of fun" Luffy argued.

"That's not a very good argument" Usopp frowned.

"I can't...I'm...I'm not a human—I'm a reindeer!" Chopper angrily shouted as that tiny body of his slowly began to tremble. "I have antlers and hoofs, don't you see?! I even have a blue nose!" he ranted, pointing out all the things he seemingly saw wrong with himself. "Okay, maybe I do want to become a pirate, but I can never be one of you—I'm not human...I'm a monster..." tears instantly sprung to his eyes as he quietly began to sniff. "I can't be your friend and I can't become a pirate on your ship, you see?!" he cried.

"I'm just here to say...thank you..." he embarrassingly confessed, lowering his head once more. "I appreciate you asking me to join your ship...that was really nice, so thank you. I'm going to stay here for now, but if you wanted to, you could stop by here again" he offered as if attempting to lighten the mood.

"Shut up! Let's go!" Luffy shouted, throwing his arms once again up into the air and knocking his hat right off as he proudly rejected the reindeer's attempt to turn down his offer.

"Most people don't become friends when you tell them to shut up..." Zoro grumbled as the reindeer burst into tears and loudly began to sob.

"It certainly is a unique way of making friends though" I quietly giggled.

-Later-

"Nami, how are you feeling? Are you completely recovered?" Usopp worriedly asked as he now busied himself with building a snowman while we waited to leave.

"Huh? Oh, yeah" Nami nodded, taking a moment to fully process what the sharpshooter was asking as if she had forgotten all about her illness.

"What about Skylar? Is "he" alright?" he asked.

"Don't you mean she?" Nami corrected. "Because she's doing perfectly well" she couldn't help but smile at the confused expression she had received not only from the sharpshooter but also from Zoro as well who had silently been listening in on the conversation.

"What are you talking about? Skylar's a "man," isn't "he"?" the swordsman asked.

"Who are you to go and assume my gender like that" I butted in, now playfully scolding the two.

"W-What!? When did this happen?!" they shouted in shock.

"Well your alls reaction to this sudden revelation is truly amazing, I'm rather glad I decided to keep up the charade for as long as I did" I cooed with a smile that quickly faltered the moment I locked eyes with Zoro. Quietly did I watch as his gaze traveled up the length of my body as if to examine every inch of it before a glint of something appeared in his eyes. I waited for him to say something—anything really. But...I was only met with silence as he quickly averted his gaze elsewhere the moment our gazes locked.

'Just give it some time, I'm sure he'll come around' I told myself yet couldn't help the way that my shoulders deflated.

"Hey, why don't we go say goodbye to that Dalton guy and old lady" Luffy suddenly suggested as he rolled by on what appeared to be a giant snowball.