Firestorm (Ace x OC)

Chapter 14: Clear Skies Part 1

A scream of delight made the small girl's eyes open quickly before looking for the source, hearing the scream be quickly muffled made her turn her head slowly to glance at the trio of boys within the room. Her eyes were dull as they landed on the youngest, a boy who wore a straw hat, and was currently having his mouth covered by Ace and Sabo. "Luffy quiet," Sabo warned softly, wary of the lady who was cooking breakfast in the other room.

Ryoko perked up ever so slightly at the familiar face before she grimaced clutching her chest and coughing into the blanket that was still cocooned around her, a shiver running down her spine. Seeing this the young boy broke out of his brothers' hold and ran over to the girl, "Ryoko are you okay?!" he asked in a whisper yell that was louder than talking normally.

"How the hell do you know her?" Ace asked seeing the younger boy crouched beside the girl he had brought in, no way had Luffy overheard the name.

Luffy looked towards his brother and grinned, "Shanks introduced me to her last time he was here." he chirps before looking at his friend who huddled in on herself more.

Ryoko coughed a few more times, "I-I'm okay Lulu." she says quietly before shivering as she pulled the blanket over her head a bit to block the sun that had begun to hit her face. It wasn't noonday sun, but it was hot and unpleasant for the girl.

Luffy paused before moving closely to inspect her face under the blanket, his eyes squinting slightly while he observed her. He then grins brightly and goes to sit down on his bedroll, "Okay!" This lasted all of a couple of seconds of course.

Ace sighs in disappointment at the loudness of his younger brother, before tensing as he heard Dadan call up to the loft, "Alright brats, food's ready!" This caused Luffy to leap up with a joy-filled scream of delight and book it out of the room. 

Sabo and Ace exchanged looks and nodded in understanding, the blond moving over to crouch next to the huddled form of Ryoko as Ace quickly ran from the room, "He'll be back okay, just stay here." Sabo says before also quickly leaving the room.

A few moments later the sound of chaos was what sparked the girl's sluggish move to the doorway of the loft room, peaking out into the main room where there was a mountain of people around a central area with scraps of food flying in the air. Her blue-gray eyes look around at the many people all fighting for their food, landing briefly on the woman with thick curly orange hair eating her food off to the side of the chaos. As the woman seemed to start to turn her head the girl moved back to hide in the room again. Her bare feet padded slowly and silently over to the furthest corner as coughs began to force their way out once again. Her face scrunched up as she felt like she was trying to cough out part of her own lungs, when the coughing subsided however she began to try to breathe as best she could but it felt like she couldn't catch her breath. She tried to calm herself down, pulling her knees to her chest and putting her hands behind her head only to shiver and curl up in the blanket once again. 

Two sets of feet approached the girl, causing her to glance up as a drumstick of some sort of animal was held out in front of her. The freckled face Ace was looking away while eating into his own drumstick, holding out the second towards the girl. The girl slowly reached out from inside the blanket and took hold of the offered food as tears welled up in her eyes and she sniffled. "Eh? What's wrong now?!" The boy asked exasperated, after all the effort to get the food for her he was agitated that she started to cry.

Ryoko held the food in both hands while rubbing her face onto her shoulder, "th-thank you." she whimpered before taking a bite of the food. While both Ace and Sabo finished their food, Sabo kept an eye on the girl and noticed her stop eating with a trembling lip as coughing shook her form once again. The blonde moved over to the girl to rub her back over the blanket, allowing her to eventually calm down again.