Savior

11

Walking back they boys were again bickering as to who the captain of their crew will be.

"Like I said I should be captain"

"You're the last person who should be captain, Luffy!"

Emilia was deeply amused. No matter how much they fought at the end they were planning to stay together, in the same crew.

"Maybe I should be the captain." Emilia said in a sing song voice. This caused the boys the all stiffen up and turned to her with wide eyes.

"You're joking right?" Ace said walking to her with wobbly legs still with wide eyes. He was naive. He never considered the possibility  that Emilia would want the captain position.

"No...but then if Emilia was the captain...she has the brains and power....isn't she the one best suited for this." Sabo started muttering to himself with a gloomy aura surrounding him.

"B-but Emilia didn't you say that you'll join my crew?" Luffy asked.

"I don't really think I accepted that offer, Luffy. I just listened but never said okay." Emilia said walking forward with a straight face.

The trio seemed to give up and stay with depressed expression surrounding them without moving even a bit.

" I lied."

"Ehhhh?!"

Emilia smiled."But I need your help in something ."

"Huh?" The person who just caused them despair just moments was currently asking a favour.

"You see...I was going to make medicine the other day but then one of the ingredients had finished." Emilia started. "So I was wondering if you guys could help me get it."

But of course the boys didn't refuse.

They were currently still in the forest but in a rather plain part.

"The plant is green, two to three inches long and has numerous leaves. The leaves divide into two parts at the tip." Emilia explained. "This is quite difficult to find but it really accelerates your recovery from external wounds."

After the explaining was done they then all  started walking around looking for the said plant.

After an hour of search they seemed to find only about nineteen of it but Emilia has said she needed twenty or more.

Ace was looking around and saw the plant. Finally. He thought as he went and pulled it out from the ground. Just as he was about to walk away he noticed a small pink flower  at the corner of his eyes. Without hesitation he pluked it too.

Emilia noticed Ace walk towards her with the plant in his hand. He then placed the plant on the pile.

"Here." Ace said showing his hand.

To Emilia's suprise there was a pink cosmos  on his hand, reaching it out towards her.

"You can have it." Ace looked away but she noticed his bright red coloured ears. "You do alot of stuff like training and fighting with us but then you're still a girl...so I felt that sometimes you needed to be treated like one."

After saying that Ace walked away quickly desperately making sure Emilia didn't see his red face.

Emilia looked at her hand staring at the cosmos in her hand. She really doubted Ace knew the meaning of the flower but his words earlier really warmed her heart.

.....

Currently they were all resting, done with their daily sparing.The day was not too hot even though it was the middle of summer, along with it there was a gentle breeze.

"When you swing your fist, you should lean a bit back and also bend your legs abit. This way you can keep your balance, Luffy." Emilia stated doing a demonstration. When ever Luffy used his powers he tends to fall alot after losing his balance.

"Like this?" Luffy said as he stretched his hand and then punched it ,doing just as Emilia instructed. "Woah! Emilia I didn't feel like I'll fall this time!"

"Trying to keep his centre of gravity low,I see..." Sabo who was also watching them commented.

"Hey! You guys stay here, I'll be back after sometime." Ace shouted suddenly as ran into the woods, in the direction of their house.

They agreed and stayed there, talking to each other and joking around. Then after a while Ace came back with a bag in his hand and without a word his went towards the base of a cut down tree.

"Did you bring food, Ace?!" Luffy said jumping happily towards Ace where as Sabo and Emilia went towards them wordlessly.

Ace then opened the back and place four traditional red cups where sake was drunk from.

"About who is going to become captain, we will decide it in the future." Ace said taking out the sake bottle. "Maybe we will end up in three different ships."

"Ah! You stole a liquor from Dadan." Luffy exclaimed.

"Did you guys know?" Ace said grinning as he opened the liquor cap. "When men drink together, they become brothers. When we become pirates and if we are not on the same ship but then we are united by our bond of brotherhood"

"No matter what we do or where we are...No one will break that bond!" Ace said picking up the cup.

"Brothers..."  Luffy said in awe. Then he stayed silently for a while. "But Emilia isn't a man! What should we do?!"

"Luffy, sharing sake had different purposes. One as Ace stated can be to become sibling and other can be to pledge our loyalty." Emilia said also picking up the sake cup.

"But loyalty doesn't sound as cool as brothers..." Luffy sulked.

"Then....I can be a brother,Luffy."

"What?! No! Remain as you are, Emilia!"

Just a while ago he told Emilia that she should be treated as a girl, how embarrassing! Along with that he now knew a new fact that sharing sake  can be used for pledging as well.

"Yeah....Thats what I had in mind..." Ace said  acting as if he always had that purpose.

Liar!  Sabo thought.

Luffy and Sabo grinned and picked up the cup. Ace looked and saw that all of them had picked up their cups.

"From now on..." Ace said as he raised his cup. "We're brothers!"

The others also raised their cups until all their cups were hit against each other.

.....

Emilia was watching her mother water the flowers. They had made a small garden at the back of their house and now after all the hard work of planting and watering the flowers were finally blooming.

Emilia looked at a yellow flower in front of her.

"That's a daffodil."  Her mom came towards her and then stood next to her. "Did you know Emilia. Each flower has their own meaning. And this daffodils represents a new beginning."

"What about this one?" Emilia pointed at circular blue flowers.

"That one is called Morning Glory. In a certain folklore,they represent a single day for lovers to meet since the flower blooms and dies within a day."

"And that one?"

"That's a cosmos. This flower is often used to illustrate one's deepest feelings of love. When sent to one's love it can be said to mean 'walk with me hand in hand' and 'see, life is indeed beautiful. "

"Such a beautiful flower".