As I cradled Vivi in my arms, there was another knocking at my door. I sighed and laid her on my bed. I then walked over to see who it was. I was still kinda emotioned out, so I didn’t have it in me to feel the Aura’s of anybody else. Turns out it was Zoro. “Luffy says to gather everyone. We’re gonna be leaving before morning.” I sighed and nodded. He then noticed Vivi in my bed behind me. His eyes widened a bit as he stared at me with shock. I shook my head solemnly. “Nothing happened… She’s… Not going to be coming with us…”

Zoro looked back at her and nodded with his eyes closed. He seemed to understand and began to walk back to where everyone else was located. I sighed and began to get dressed in my disguise. After I was done I took one last look at Vivi. I walked over to her and saw the Den Den Mushi in her hand. I took it from her and pet her head one last time. “Be happy…”

I then left the room and felt for everyone’s Aura’s. I went over to where the crew was all at, along with one other Aura that I familiarized myself with. I walked in through the door to see everyone now looking at me. I sighed a bit and felt all of the different emotions emanating from all of the different crew mates. The one that was mostly shared was the feeling of confusion and anxiety. I nodded at them all with a frown. “She can’t come with us…” Was all I could say. Luffy frowned more and stomped over to me. 

“Why couldn’t she tell us herself!?” I looked at Luffy’s angry face and felt his anger directed at me. It made me feel even worse than I already was feeling. I looked at the other bits of the crew, and I didn’t want to put my rejection of Vivi on display to all of her friends, but I knew Luffy also wouldn't let this go. “Luffy… I need you to not tell anyone else the reason ok?” He looked at me with confusion as I dragged him out of the room for a second. 

He crossed his arms while I whispered into his ear. “She wanted to come with us all, but she also can’t leave this country that still needs her help…” Luffy frowned more. “She could’ve told us that herself! I’m going over to talk to her!” He started to walk off, but I really couldn’t let him reopen the poor girl's wounds. “Luffy stop!” He stopped and looked back at me with a frown. “She also… Was in love with me, and I don’t love her back, so she really can’t… Enjoy her time with our adventures…”

Luffy just stared at me. I could feel he still wanted to go to her and listen to it directly from her. I sighed and nodded at him. “Just… Please don’t… Push her too far…” I really didn’t know what to do. Luffy wouldn’t let it go, making everyone else hear about Vivi’s embarrassing past, or have Luffy ask her directly while she was asleep. They were both terrible options, but the only ones I could think of.

Luffy nodded with his serious expression and ran off to my room. I went back inside and sat down on the floor. Everyone stared at me wondering what Vivi’s reason was. I refused to feel either Luffy’s or Vivi’s emotions right now so I began to focus on Robin. She was sitting in the corner of the room kinda away from everyone else. Sanji noticed my gaze and lit up a cigarette. “Welcome our newest crew-mate… Nico Robin.” I snapped my expression to Sanji as I felt Robin’s happiness. I looked back at her while she gave me that playful and teasing smile.

“H- When?” Is what I settled on for my question. This caused Robin to feel embarrassed more than happy now, confusing me. Nami then spoke up. “She asked me to help her ask Luffy to join us during the bath… I’m frankly surprised she wanted to join us after almost getting peeped on by all the other guys, who still haven’t paid me!” She scowled at all of the guys who were blushing and looking away. Well… Sanji was erupting in a fountain of blood. ‘No wonder he almost died of blood loss…’

I tried to think of something else to take my mind off of what happened to me during that bath, and feeling Robin’s emotions so close didn’t help either. I looked at her while I was blushing and frowning to see the same smile. ‘How is she so good at that!? I can feel she is more embarrassed than me!’ I sighed while looking away from her, only to see that changed her embarrassment to happiness. Robin really confused me. It was then that Luffy came back into the room.

We all looked at him, and I noticed he brought company. Vivi was right there with her eyes still puffy. Vivi started speaking with her voice shaking. “I’m sorry… I can’t go with you all…” She was trying her best to keep it together, but her shaking voice proved otherwise. “I’m really sorry…” Everyone went over to tell her there was nothing to be sorry about, and that they understood. While they were doing that, and saying their goodbyes Luffy came over to me with a frown. I had a sad expression and had a hard time meeting his gaze. I knew Vivi would leave anyway, but I still felt responsible.

“If you did love her, would she stay?” He asked with the straw hat covering his eyes. Robin was listening in, and I could feel her shock of what she just heard, but I had to focus on Luffy right now. I shook my head and sighed. “She might’ve… But I think it would have been bad either way… She loves this country, and this country  needs her right now. If she left… I don’t think she would forgive herself for coming with us now… The time isn't right…” Luffy was silent and I could feel him thinking. It was strange since he was normally an airhead, but right now he was really thinking of what was best for his friend.

I shook my head and sighed while frowning at watching a friend leave on bad terms. Luffy and I just wallowed in the corner away from the others. Robin was close by, and I could feel a surprising amount of sadness and guilt coming from her too. Just then Vivi came over to us with a look of determination on her face. She looked at me with a forced smile that I could feel the grief it was trying to cover. Vivi knew I could feel it too, but wanted to keep up appearances in front of her close friends.

She took a deep breath before talking to me. “Did you take the Den Den Mushi?” I nodded as I held it up. She nodded with a slightly more natural smile. She felt slightly better knowing that I wanted us all to stay in contact. She then looked over to Robin with a dark smile that held malice thinly veiled behind her eyes. “I hear that you have joined the crew now…” Robin gave her usual calm smile that she always wore. “Yes… I just felt like it would be a good opportunity.” 

Vivi let out a chuckle as I felt her anger and what I thought was jealousy, skyrocket. “Well… Just know that I will be in contact with you all…” Robin nodded with her calm smile, but her emotions were confusing, and I couldn’t make out what she was feeling at this point. “Of course… I’m so glad you will be able to hear of our adventures.” Vivi let out a chuckle. “Oh you don’t have to worry for long… As soon as I get things working around here… I will be back to take what is mine…” Robin gave a sultry chuckle of her own. “That is… If it is still available…” I started to get scared from the amount of emotions that were coming off of these two and started to hide behind Luffy instinctively.

They both smiled and laughed at each other, and did a great job of not showing the malice they had for each other, but I could feel every bit of it. Vivi then broke off from Robin and all of her anger left in an instant as she looked at me. I just stared at her silently, wondering what she was thinking. She then came over and wrapped me up in her arms. I was surprised but then she whispered in my ear. “Please… Just let me have this.” I frowned a bit from shame of what I did, and sadness, before rubbing her back with my paws.

We stayed like that for a bit, just in silence. Just before Vivi let go she whispered one last thing in my ear that made me blush. “I had a little inspiration from Luffy… To never give up on my dreams… So I won’t… Once I’m done with helping my people on their feet, I can join the crew again… You won’t have any more excuses by then…” She then gave me a light kiss on my cheek that nobody would notice and watched my reaction. She smiled as she saw how I blushed and looked embarrassed of what she just said and did. I could feel her happiness soar as she got up. She looked at me, but spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. “I just need to help my people back up, and then I can join you.”

The rest of the crew celebrated what Vivi said. Except Robin, I, and Nami who seemed to pick up on what she really meant by that. I looked down, and refused to meet Vivi’s gaze at the moment. Vivi let out a happy giggle as she left. Everything left on that note, as we all left out the window into the night.