FOR NAKAMA

"You know its funny how people all want freedom. How they don't want to be held down by anyone or anything… but they don't realize how heavy that burden is when you have no one to truly share life with. Your own soul can be the heaviest thing you possess. I had freedom from everyone, but it wasn't until I became a part of this crew, this family, that I had peace. To give up everything for my captain would top a life of freedom every time."

The Day Before-

Huge splashes soaked the Merry Go from the bombardment of cannon-fire scattered across the crystal water of the Grand Line. On the deck, the crew could be seen running to and fro to keep the ship sailing and protected from the aggressing marine fleet behind them.

"Luffy!" Nami called "cannon ball, six-o'clock!"

"Wait, is that your six o'clock or my six o'clock?" he shouted back, his eyes darting around to spot the projectile.

"Your-" her reply was interrupted by the crack of metal skidding across the wooden deck as the cannon ball glanced off of the railing, plopping into the water on the other side.

"Dang it Luffy! Just keep doing what you're doing!"

"Alright!" he shouted back, jumping to block another shot.

"Chopper! Robin! Keep up that rowing! We need all the headway we can get!" Nami shouted over to the other two crewmates.

"Sanji-"

"Yes Nami-swaaann!"

The navigator turned to see the cook in a swivel of joy.

"Err, go below deck and patch up any leaks that you find."

"As you wish my loveee!" he proclaimed as he rushed off the deck.

- 2 hours later -

Combining the Merry Go's compact size and it's navigators skill led to the pirates successful escape; finally making enough distance that they could no longer see the pursuing ships.

The crew collapsed on the deck, exhausted from the full day of rowing and mending the ship. Chopper rushed over to patch up Usopp's side, which had a large splinter of wood lodged into it. Aside from the marksman's injury, the group had fared well considering the circumstances.

"WooHoo!" yelled Luffy as he hopped onto the ram's head "no ship can match the Merry Go! We showed them didn't we?"

"We sure did captain" Sanji said as he climbed out from below deck "but we wouldn't have had to if you hadn't gone waltzing right by a commanding officer of the marines back there."

Luffy made a pouty face, "I'm not gonna go sneaking around like a fugitive."

"Luffy, we're all fugitives here."

"Yeah… but I'm gonna be king of the pirates, and the pirate king does not "sneak" anywhere."

"… I guess you're right" Sanji sighed, plopping down next to Nami who scooted over a few inches, "just try to use some discretion next time, for our sake."

Luffy just laughed and rolled onto his stomach, facing the open sea ahead of them.

"I think we should have just taken them out when they discovered us rather than tucking our tails between our legs and running" Zoro spoke up from what looked like a nap.

"Are you kidding?" Nami exclaimed "you're talking about one of the largest marine fleets in the grand line! You're too sure of yourself."

Zoro shrugged and then began to snore silently.

It was late in the day and soon the crew members had gone to their own non-active devices. Zoro took catnaps around the boat, occasionally waking to do some pushups or lift some weights. Usopp, once he had been bandaged up thoroughly by the little reindeer, went about trying to fix up the damages done to their small ship. Sanji had gone to fix supper for the crew, Robin made her way to the crows-nest and Chopper had turned in to sleep a bit.

Nami made her way into the study where her maps were laid across the table, along with a feather quill and a sealed container of ink. A few books had fallen out from the shelves so the navigator went about to put them up, then turned to her charts.

The sun was beginning to set, casting a warm yellow light into the room. She sighed as she began to draw on the map she had already begun working on, marking their progress of the day. She would never have dreamed that she would be able to follow all of those dreams she had had back when she served under Arlong. It was foolish to think that one could roam the seas with no obligation and she wouldn't have thought it possible a few months ago.

"That is… until Luffy got involved…" she voiced her thoughts.

"Until I got involved with what?" Luffy said from the doorway, causing the navigator to jump back in surprise. She grabbed a book and flung it at him, which he caught before any damage could be done.

"Dang it Luffy! You can't just pop in and listen in on someone's conversation with themselves! It's very inconsiderate."

"Nami" Luffy continued, ignoring his crewmates protest "are we going to be arriving at an island soon? We might be having a shortage of food soon." The captain looked to the side with an expression resembling a kid trying to hide something.

"Luffy, you can't go eating the last of our food supply. We can't know what's going to happen out here so we have to be cautious… but yes, there is an island coming up."

"YAY! An island! Is it cool?"

"Well" Nami said, looking down at the papers on her desk "climate wise it looks pretty average…" she looked up, seeing a disappointed look cross her captains face. "B-but the elevation charts look very peculiar" she continued, pointing at another set of maps "it looks like it has some kind of swollen mountain on it, possibly volcanic."

She smiled seeing Luffy's expression lighten up.

"Sounds awesome!" Luffy exclaimed "thanks Nami."

With that, he dashed out the door, leaving the ginger-haired girl alone, once again, in the chart room. She sighed and turned back to her papers, the room silent aside from the churning waves echoing in from the outside.

The crew got together after the sun had set and ate an impressive amount of food for supper. Sanji had been working most of the evening to provide enough to satisfy the group that he knew would be famished after the long day of running from the marines. It was crowded and loud inside of the small room as each crew member grabbed for their own scrap of food. Getting a satisfactory portion of the meal had become a battle due to the captain's advantage over the others with his stretching limbs. Once the food had been divvied out, the conversation went on to the adventures of the day and preparation for the next as they came upon a new island.

The ocean and sky were dark and clear, causing the small pirate ship to look very alone in the vast expanse of black water; the light from the small dining room the only hint of life for miles and the voices from inside sounded alien in contrast to the waves sloshing lazily against the Merry Go's hull.

Soon the crew had turned in and the ocean was dark and silent once again.

- Robin POV-

Robin had returned to the crows-nest, enjoying the view once her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. Hearing a sound below, she peeked down to see her captain sneaking across the deck towards the kitchen. He must have forgotten that there was always someone on-watch, even at night, but she let him continue to believe he had evaded detection; smiling as she waited to see what would follow.

A few minutes went by, then the sound of chaos was heard below. The light came on from the kitchen and the historian watched in amusement as Luffy was kicked out, followed by an aggravated Sanji yelling something about "conserving food" and "not knowing what could happen on the sea." Luffy then responded with his usual whine about being hungry and something about an island coming up.

Robin continued to watch as Zoro came storming out of the sleeping quarters, interrupting the argument, his yell loud enough for her to hear clearly.

"Dang it Sanji, if you're going to kill Luffy for raiding the food, do it quietly!"

The historian leaned back in the crows-nest, listening as the chefs angry words were directed from the captain to the swordsman. After a few more minutes of bickering the group managed to calm itself and she assumed by the absence of voices that they had adjourned back to their beds. However, looking down at the deck, she saw that Luffy was still there, his elbows leaned onto the railing, looking down at the dark water. She wondered what her captain was thinking.

The historian looked out to sea and smiled at what she saw. She made a mouth appear beside Luffy and spoke so he could hear her.

"Captain, I hope you don't lose too much sleep tonight-"

"OI! What the heck!" the boy exclaimed, jumping at the voice.

Robin chuckled, "its Robin. I'm up in the crows-nest and I just sent a mouth down so I wouldn't disturb the others… but I suppose it doesn't matter now."

Luffy blinked and turned to look up at her, "wow… you could really play some mean pranks on someone if you really wanted to" he spoke back, assuming she had sent an ear down so she could hear him.

"Luffy, you might want to take a look at the horizon from the other side of the ship. I think you'll like what you see."

The captain cocked his head but ran over to the other railing. Squinting to see in through the early morning darkness, he spotted what his historian was talking about and his eyes widened with excitement.

TBC…

Yes, this is a re-write of this chapter. I wrote the first chapter of this fic in 2006 and I do believe that my writing style has developed a bit since then so I wanted to clean it up a bit…

So if the next few chapters seem like a step down, hopefully the writing will get better as the story progresses XD

Thanks to all of you who have given such wonderful reviews! Nothing makes me want to keep writing like a kind review! It makes my day ^_^

Do enjoy the rest of the story