One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter Twenty Four [Rewritten]

-Chapter Twenty-Four-

"Well," Vivi began, "I was born and raised in this country, so I guess you could say I'm just used to it" she reasoned.

"Makes sense" I nodded.

"So what's with all these hills?" Usopp curiously asked, motioning toward the large piles of sand that surrounded us. "I was expecting a desert to be more flat" he admitted.

"This is an old desert—some of the sand dunes here are over nine hundred feet" Vivi answered.

"Nine hundred feet?" Usopp echoed. "Oh my god...no...that's a mountain..." he breathed out in horror, sounding almost petrified at the thought that a pile of sand could grow so insanely high.

"So...hot...water..." Luffy weakly groaned, tongue lulling out as he dragged himself along until finally, someone gave him one of the canteens of water we had packed in an attempt to shut him up.

"Just one drink, Luffy—just a mouthful" Nami desperately begged, pleading for him not to take much from the canteen. "Not so much!" she snapped, smacking the back of his head the second he started to chug the canteen like his life depended on it.

"Idiot! You better save some of that water for Usopp!" Usopp growled, also smacking the back of the captain's head.

"What did you expect was going to happen when you gave him the canteen?" I asked, not understanding why they were so angry over the captain being his usual self.

"I expected him to be a rational human being and know how to preserve our water" Nami huffed.

"This is Luffy we're talking about, I don't think he understands what "one mouthful" means" I pointed out. "It's like expecting a newborn puppy to not chew up your shoe while you're away when it's teething" I said.

"Well I can hope, can't I?!" she snapped before an argument finally broke out between her, Usopp, and Luffy the moment they noticed the captain trying to sneak more water.

"Hold on, you just had some!" Sanji suddenly barked, quick to join in on the fighting once he realized what was happening.

"Stop it, you guys, you're only going to wear yourselves out if you keep it up" Vivi pleaded as she attempted to settle the four down.

"She started it!" Luffy childishly shouted.

"It's your fault!" Nami defended.

"It's always his fault" Usopp huffed in agreement.

-Later-

"I'm so hungry!" Luffy impatiently whined while hungrily eyeing the food over the fire.

"Don't be such a greedy pig, it's still raw" Sanji scolded. "Don't eat that!" he snapped, angrily swatting away the rubbery hand that attempted to steal some food.

"Tired?" Zoro murmured as I yawned.

"Hm..." I tiredly hummed, leaning my head against his shoulders as my eyelids became heavy with sleep. All that walking around earlier today along with the intense heat of the afternoon sun had really done a number on me as I felt absolutely exhausted. It didn't help that the night air felt good—much better compared to the heat of earlier.

"Your dinner will be ready in just a minute, Nami" Sanji cooed.

"Hey, that looks good" Usopp complimented.

"Warm..." I sleepily muttered, snuggling closer to the swordsman's side as he wrapped an arm around my waist.

"Get away from that!" Sanji snapped as he smacked Luffy away once again.