There are a few awkward moments until I see the old man throw a cannonball with his bare hands straight at us.
Luffy inhales, and with the amount of air he was intaking, he was blowing up like a balloon. Literally. The cannon ball hits Luffy's stomach square in the middle, and it gets launched back towards the other vessel. It hits one of the masts of the ship, creating a large amount of damage, enough for the Marines to stop trying to advance on us.
"That was....," Usopp comments in shock, "amazing! You saved us!"
"You didn't tell me you could do that," Nami scolded.
Zoro and I looked at each other, both of us smiling in shock and adrenaline. Meanwhile, Usopp and Luffy start cheering and jeering at the Marines, Nami still in somewhat of a shocked state.
"Nami, get us out of here," Luffy orders.
"On it," the redhead starts to position the sails to help guide, the fog cloud drawing nearer, "Let's disappear."
Short Time Skip
"How's the ship looking?" Nami asks.
"Broken railing," Zoro responds, "Minor damage. Could've been a lot worse."
"Could have been better."
"Can't see the Marines anywhere," Usopp interrupts.
"I don't think the Marines would come either way. You saw what happened to their ship, they aren't worried about us at this point. They have major damage," I point out, "With that type of damage, going into the fog is a bad idea for them."
"Can't see anything in this soup," Nami retorts, "What we need is a place to lay low, wait out any reinforcements they send after us. My charts are useless in this fog."
"To be honest, I don't think that we are going to be followed. At least for a while. The Vice Admiral seems like a man of pride... he's probably going to pursue us himself."
"What did Luffy say?" Zoro asks.
"He's on the bow," Usopp answers, looking back, "He hasn't said anything since we hightailed it."
"Well, someone needs to talk to him. About this and that other thing."
"What other thing?"
"Oh, gee, I wonder," Nami sarcastically retaliates, yet earns no recognition from Mr. Swords-for-brains. "The vice-admiral-of-the-Marines-is-my-grandfather thing."
"Oh, that," Usopp starts giving an excuse, wiggling out of talking to the captain, "Yeah, I don't really know the guy that well."
"Doesn't seem like a big deal," Zoro cuts him off.
"Why don't you do it then?" I offer, "I can come with you if you want."
"Yeah, what (Y/N) said. You're his first mate. Kind of seems like that falls under your job description, hmm?" the navigator points out, backing up my request.
Zoro looks around for around for a second, eyes finding Usopp also encouraging him. "Fine."
Then he turns and grabs my arm, and starts walking in Luffy's direction. The short walk is silent, but with each step his hand would get closer to mine. By the time we reached the bow of the ship, we were holding hands again.
Why did I even offer to go with him? I should have known that he would try this.
Zoro stopped for a second, looking between the never-ending fog, and down at Luffy, who was sitting and looking at the damage on his precious hat.
"Hey, how you doing?" Zoro starts off, breaking the silence.
"Great. But my hat took a couple of hits during the battle."
"Right. About the battle, do you wanna talk about it?"
"Nope."
"Ok, good talk."
Zoro turned around and started walking away, subsequently dragging me along.
"Wow, I knew you were bad at talking but I didn't know you were this bad," I tease, laughing a little from the encounter.
"Ok, why don't we go back and you do the talking?"
"It's fine, it's fine. No need."
"Thought so."
Nami and Usopp migrated from the stern of the ship, nearer to the bow. We walked past the redhead, Zoro stating, "He seems fine to me."
"Did you even ask him? (Y/N)?" she asks in disbelief.
"Technically, yes, he did," I answer.
"Hey! You guys smell that?," Luffy jumps up out of nowhere, sniffing the air.
"Smell what?" Nami looks at the food-driven captain, a perplexed look resting on her face.
"There's something on the breeze," Luffy starts giving some insight, continuously sniffing the air, "Smells like butter."
More sniffing.
"Soy sauce.
Another big whiff.
"And meat."
Usopp walks nearer to the captain, "I can't smell anything."
Zoro looks down at me, an unimpressed look on his face, "Think he has brain damage?"
"Its a likely possibility. In this moment, definitely."
"I think that every day," Nami retorts.
Usopp rubs his temple, seeming to be tired, "Look, Luffy, playing follow the smell is fun and all, but we really got to get out of this fog."
"I know, but I smell food, which means that there's someone somewhere cooking."
Small Time Skip
Luffy is now sitting on the sheep head, and giving orders, just by smelling the air. Weird power, but ok I guess. This kid is really wonky. Or just really hungry. Eh with this kid, both options are probably happening at the same time.
"Add food to the equation, and suddenly he knows how to navigate," Nami states, a little in disbelief.
Neon lights start to appear in the distance, alerting everyone.
"Is that land?" Zoro doesn't have an aim to whoever he's asking.
Nami answers with her endless knowledge about geography, "Can't be. There aren't any Islands anywhere near here."
We start to near the end of the fog, the floating anomaly becoming more clear. Baratie?
"What's a... baratie?" Usopp squints, trying to make out the signs.
Small Time Skip
The others docked the ship, Zoro excusing me from my part. What can I say, I'm lazy. I'm not passing up an opportunity to be when it appears. I just stayed at the railing, watching everyone, my red based fan, the one with the black dragon, open and fanning myself. There were different people doing an array of things, people at the bar drinking (yay to alcohol, the alcoholic of our ship will love it), some people helping other ships tie into the port, different crews were walking into the boat, and more.
Once our ship was docked, everyone joined me at the railing, starting with Zoro. He came up, put one hand over my free hand on the railing, resting his foot at the base.
"Everyone's going to that fish ship," Zoro points out.
"That smell. I think this place is a restaurant," Nami states, looking at the bustling dock.
"There's also a bar over there," I point to the side, a small ledge jutting out of the ship, showing Zoro, "I think you, of all people, will enjoy it most."
His way of acknowledging me is squeezing my hand a little, and lightly kicking my leg playfully. At least I think so.
"What? Am I wrong?"
A smile starts building, but no words are spoken. I got my answer to that thought.
"Then I know what we're gonna do next," the food-lover smirks.
"Disguise the ship so the Marines can't find us?"
"Sail back to Syrup Village where it's safe?"
"Nah. Let's eat!"
I close my fan on my arm, creating a snap as it's spines come together, and put it in it's holder for safekeeping, "I guess there is no turning back now."
"That fish better have good alcohol," Zoro adds, grabbing my hand, and we started to follow the excited captain.