-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.
"Don't speak nonsense, Chopper needs time to talk to Doctorine" Nami lightly scolded as Usopp stared at the rubber man in slight awe as if captivated by what he was doing. My mind wandered as I looked over at the castle and up towards the flag that was currently being blown about in the wind...such a sight brought a small smile to my face as I recalled the events involving that flag from earlier.
"Hey" I jumped, startled by the sudden sound of Zoro's voice right in my ear. Jerking back, I grabbed my chest in an attempt to soothe my frantic heart as I whirled my head in his direction.
"Oh, hey..." I blushed, cheeks instantly growing warm the second I realized just how close he was as I quickly looked away and back towards the flag. "Is there something you need?" I asked, curiously watching from the corner of my eye as he opened his mouth...before suddenly and silently closing it. There was this look of hesitance in his eyes now as if he didn't really know what exactly he wanted to say as his mouth silently opened and closed a few more times.
"No, it's nothing" he eventually shook his head. "I just was wondering if you were doing alright?" he finally settled on asking.
"Oh..." I deadpanned.
"W-what's that face for? Am I not allowed to ask if you're fine or not?!" he sputtered as his cheeks suddenly flared up in either embarrassment or annoyance. I didn't know which.
"No, that's not it" I breathlessly laughed as I shook my head at his reaction. "I was just..." I trailed off, realizing that I didn't exactly know what to say either as the words became lodged in my throat...
How exactly did one go about confronting a situation like this without making it awkward?
"It's nothing," I finally settled on, "thank you for asking, but I'm doing fine" I smiled. I watched in amusement as his cheeks darkened even further before he quickly averted his gaze elsewhere.
"That's good..." he quietly mumbled.
"Doctorine acts all tough around us, but deep down inside she's a nice person" I soon overheard Nami say.
"Hm, you sure?" Luffy questioned, not quite believing the ginger.
"I'm going to have to go with Nami on this one" I butted in. "She's quite the kind old woman, it's just that she shows her kindness in her own strange and violent way is all" I butted in, silently wincing at how bad that sounded on the surface despite how true it was.
"Right, that's exactly what it is" Nami agreed.
"So, we're just going to leave without saying anything to her?" Usopp asked.
"Yeah, that's right" Nami nodded. "Once Chopper comes back, we'll head straight down the mountain and set sail to Alabasta—sounds good to you, right, Vivi?" she smiled as she looked over towards the princess.
"Yes, now that we have a doctor coming with us" Vivi agreed, returning the ginger's smile with one of her own.
"Doctor?" Luffy questioned, tilting his head in slight confusion.
"Well, in that case, I'll go ahead and get the ropeway ready" Usopp piped up as he started to walk away. "Hey, Luffy, give me a hand" he requested of the raven-haired man.
"I didn't even know there was a ropeway, so cool" Luffy excitedly grinned as he hopped off the giant snowball he had been riding and quickly followed after the sharpshooter
"What's going on?" Zoro suddenly asked. "There's a lot of noise coming from inside the castle" he noted as our attention was suddenly dragged towards the sounds of a ruckus coming from the castle.
"No one's considerate, making noise while those two are trying to say goodbye" Nami irritably huffed. "That's just downright rude" she scolded as she placed her hands on her hips.
"Oh, finally, here he comes" Zoro pointed out the moment he spotted Chopper—who was now in his deer form and looked to be pulling a sleigh behind him—rushing towards us.
"He looks like he's running from something" I noted the second I saw the frightened look on his face.
"Huh? You're right" Nami agreed. "What's going on? He's being chased?" she squinted her eyes in puzzlement, not quite understanding what was happening. It wasn't long before we saw what exactly was happening as coming into view behind the reindeer was Doctor Kureha who appeared to be the one that was currently chasing him down. There was a look of frustration etched onto her face as she charged after the reindeer, wildly swinging a mace over her head as she did so.
"Hey, we got the ropeway ready—ready to go?" Usopp shouted from the ropeway.
"Everyone, get on the sleigh!" Chopper ordered. "We're going to head down the mountain—hurry!" he shouted. Frantic screams soon filled the air as we all quickly jumped aboard the moving sleigh the minute Kureha sent the mace flying overhead and toward us. Though it only ended up harmlessly landing in the snow and missing us completely as we finally started to make our way down the ropeway. Nearly everyone clung onto the sides of the sleigh with Luffy being the exception as Usopp tightly held onto him in an effort to keep him from going flying. Things didn't seem to calm down until we reached the woods at the bottom of the ropeway and were finally able to properly seat ourselves inside the sleigh.
"Hahaha! Hey, reindeer, can we do that again?" Luffy cheerfully laughed.
"Idiot, we don't have time for that!" Nami snapped
"I thought I was going to die" Usopp whimpered, now clutching his chest in some pitiful attempt to soothe his racing heart.
"I don't know, I think Luffy has a point—it may have been terrifying, but it was also pretty fun" I grinned, causing the captain to cheer in agreement as he flung his arms up in excitement.
"Don't go siding with that idiot! There was nothing fun about that at all!" Nami snapped as she swatted at me. I laughed as I held my hands up in a weak attempt to defend myself.
"Hey, where am I? What's going on?" Sanji asked in a panic as he finally awoke only to discover that his surroundings were vastly different from the last time he was awake.
"Oh, Sanji, you're awake" Vivi sighed in relief. "Are you okay?" she worriedly asked.
Just as we were finally closing in on the area where our ship was currently docked, we came to a sudden halt as the sound of cannon fire now echoed through the night air.
"Cool!" Luffy shouted in awe as we peered up at the now vibrant-colored sky. Chopper also appeared to be in awe as he turned back to his normal self and took a few tentative steps back toward the direction we had just come from. His gaze solely focused on the vibrant sky and nothing else.
"It's beautiful..." I breathed out, eyes wide with wonder at the stunning sight before us.
"Yeah" Sanji grinned in agreement.
"Wow..." Nami breathlessly awed.
"Got to say, that's one hell of a way to say goodbye" I smiled as Zoro hummed in agreement from beside me with a grin on his face.
"Doctor...Doctorine...!" Chopper choked as tears now streamed down his furry cheeks.
It took a while, but we eventually made our way back to the ship. Unanimously did we agree to hang around just a bit longer. Quietly wishing to admire the night sky and pink flecks of snow that fluttered from the sky like petals falling from a cherry blossom tree just a little bit longer.