Firestorm (Ace x OC)

Chapter 10: Lost in the Heat

The guys and Ryoko had seemingly made some progress on catching up after the girls, but they all had to slow down to walk. In order to keep themselves from overheating and losing precious hydration from sweating excessively.

Ryoko had her head down as she walked, trying to take deep steady breaths, but even her lungs didn't want to breathe in the dry desert heat. This had gone on for at least an hour, seemingly the desert was silent other than the shifting sand and the desert winds. She was following after the footprints in front of her, having fallen to the back of the group as she was slightly slower than the others.

"Ugh... Luffy do you see Nami anywhere?" Ace asked, seemingly because the sun was also affecting him a bit, which was saying something. But when he looked up and around he only saw Ryoko trailing not too far behind him, "What the?!"

Ryoko looked up as Ace spoke, and looked around, "So that's why it was so calm..." she says tiredly, not seeing anyone else around other than the Firey individual in front of her. She sighs as she continues to walk over to Ace, "Well, better being with you than being off on my own I suppose."

Ace chuckled with a nod of the head as he began to walk alongside the girl, holding onto the strap of his bag, "Knowing Luffy he'll turn up eventually."

"That certainly is accurate from what I've seen, he has an uncanny timing when it comes to showing up out of nowhere," Ryoko says rubbing the back of her neck while keeping pace with Ace.

"That certainly sounds like Luffy," Ace says with a bright grin, glancing over to Ryoko who seemed to be more aware and chatty than she had been a couple of days prior, "Actually, how did you meet him anyway?"

It was Ryoko's turn to chuckle, "Ah well, we met when he was trying to get Nami and Sanji to a doctor on Drum Island. "He was very determined to get to the castle, which of course he decided to climb up the side of one of the mountains to get to. I helped him climb up to the top, that was a challenge in and of itself since there was so much snow and wind blowing down at us. There were a few times that he almost fell, but he was too determined, and nearly got frostbite all over him. He was pretty battered by the time we got close to the mountain edge... I'm glad that Chopper pulled them up, I..." She paused with a frown crossing her face. "I didn't really help much in the time I could have... I froze... if Chopper hadn't managed to pull them up they would have fallen to their collective deaths." A pained look crossed her face. "He didn't hold it against me though, I wasn't really all that helpful against Wapol either, but he still invited me to join his crew."

Ace looked at the girl, listening to the story before setting a hand on her shoulder, "Well, he probably saw something in you, even if you were scared. He is just the kind of person to help someone out."

"I really owe him a lot... More than he knows. Definitely, more than he thinks, he gave me something to do again. Even if it is just being a tailor." Ryoko says with a soft chuckle, the pained expression loosened up, "He seemed like an old friend, even if I had just met him there..." she squints her eyes thoughtfully, "I think that was the first time I met him... can't really remember, I was a drifter in the east blue for a time, perhaps I met him or something." 

Ace thought about it for a moment, "Maybe, did you ever stop at a place called Dawn Island?"

Ryoko paused at the name, still moving but seeming to be thinking hard, "Possibly? I really didn't ask what the name of the islands was while I was there... not that anyone really wanted to tell me anyway."

There was that tone again, Ace had heard it before, and the more he looked at the girl beside him, a nagging thought pulled at the back of his mind. "Well... have you ever been to an island with a village that included a bar called 'Partys Bar'?"