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Vivi loved everyone in the crew. Ever since they had agreed to take her to Alabasta, she kept discovering exciting, funny and sometimes terrifying things not only about the world, but also about the crew she was travelling with. They were an amazing family and she knew that if she wished to, she could stay with them forever and be a part of that family too. But her duty as a princess, as the only heir, kept her from thinking about that. She would rather enjoy the time she was spending with them before they had to part ways.
One day, while she was watching Luffy annoying Zoro, Nami came to talk to her.
“Vivi,” she said hoarsely, her cheeks red, “I think I caught a cold. I'm just going to rest a bit, could you keep an eye on the Eternal Pose?”
Vivi accepted. She was growing more and more worried about Nami's health. She kept complaining about headaches since they had left Little Garden and it seemed to only get worse as time went by. Vivi hoped she only needed to rest, especially since, as they had told her when she joined, no one was a doctor.
Vivi looked at the Eternal Pose with a heavy heart. The inscription Alabasta reminded her that this journey was only a race against time – she couldn't take the time to have fun or make a detour. Her country was being destroyed because of Crocodile and she had to hurry home to put an end to that useless war.
She sighed and put her hands on the guardrails. Thinking about it was useless, they were going as fast as possible and she could only try to wait patiently until they reached their destination.
“Vivi!”
She turned to Luffy who was waving at her from the figurehead. She walked to him, curious.
“Luffy-san?”
“Did Nami give you this?”
He was obviously talking about the Eternal Pose she was holding carefully.
“She did...”
He reached for it, smiling.
“Lend it to me.”
If there was something Vivi had learnt during the last few days, it was that she couldn't trust Luffy at all when it came to direction. If she gave it to him, he was probably going to do something stupid – such as dropping it into the ocean. She clutched the Eternal Pose and frowned.
“Nami-san asked me to take care of it,” she said, “I don't think she wants me to give it to someone else.”
Luffy pouted, but he soon lost interest when he caught Usopp working on something on the deck. He dropped his fishing rod – and Vivi stared as it fell into the ocean – and literally threw himself onto his friend, breaking not only the thing he was working on, but also his nose.
Vivi shook her head, smiling. There was a sudden gust of wind and she shivered. They were probably near a winter island, she thought. She'd better go inside to find a coat before she also caught a cold. She stepped over Usopp's tools, and shivered again.
She walked quickly and, not seeing Zoro sleeping, she tripped over his legs and fell, the Eternal Pose flying out of her hands.
She barely managed to see Luffy catch it, smiling widely, before she knocked her head and passed out.
When she woke up, Vivi felt like his head was splitting in half. She first thought she had hurt herself, but when she heard Nami screaming she understood her pain probably came from her yelling. She slowly opened her eyes, the sun blinding her and increasing her headache. She turned to face the woman who was screaming, trying to focus on what she was saying.
“You knocked her out to take the Eternal Pose?!”
“No! She fell because of Zoro and knocked her head!”
“It's something an idiot like you could no, not Vivi!”
Vivi flushed. It was definitely something that could happen to her...
“Because of you we're literally going backwards!” she shouted. “We turned around!”
Vivi felt like she could pass out again. She knew her journey with the crew would be full of surprises, but still... Just thinking about the time they were losing...
She closed her eyes when she heard Nami hitting Luffy.
She felt a bit guilty, she should have looked where she was walking after all, but on the other hand, Luffy was the one who had changed their course. He deserved it and she deserved to take a nap after this long, long day.