The Anatomy of Cross-Dimensional Pirates (One-shot Collection)

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Chapter is Rated M for its Lemon Scent.

"Chopper?" Lexi called, ducking her head into the room where Duke Inuarashi was resting peacefully. She hadn't expected the mink leader to be awake yet, and she was correct, watching him snore loudly, the blanket covering his body moving up and down with each breath. She pursed her lips, eyes flicking around to look for the cute little reindeer in particular.

"Dr. Chopper?" She called again, leaving the Duke's room and heading off down the hall. Where had he gone? The fortress wasn't that large to begin with, and she'd already been searching ten whole minutes.

A high-pitched screaming came from further in the fortress, and Lexi stopped, listening intently to see who it was or where it came from. It wasn't a scream of pain or fear, rather of excitement or high emotion. She frowned, hearing it come closer, and thinking it sounded a lot like-

Suddenly, further down the hall, a pink-coated reindeer came barreling past, yelling Nami's name loudly as he did so. He disappeared behind the wall and Lexi jogged to see where it was he was going.

"Nami!" He cried, running his way to the further door on the left as Lexi saw from poking her head around the corner. "Nami!" Curious, she followed after him. There wasn't any sort of obligation to really follow him, but they'd gotten closer over the past several days due to their hours spent treating the wounded and going over medical techniques together.

"Chopper?" She called, seeing if she could gain the reindeer's attention, but he did not reappear from the room. He was still screaming something quite incoherent at this distance, and so she walked closer.

"They're finally here!" She caught, edging closer to the room. "They made it safely!"

Lexi froze, eyes widening at the revelation. They had finally returned? Had they really come back? Nami's enthusiastic response followed after Chopper's exclamation, and before she could think, the two Straw Hats bolted out of the room and past her in the opposite direction, barely giving the brunette a glance at all.

She jogged to try catching up with them, wanting to meet the rest of their crew, and her own Captain, of course, but the sound of her name being called stopped her in her tracks.

"Dr. Lexi!" The Heart Pirate turned, sighing at the use of the inaccurate title. Despite her adamance that she was not that extensively trained in medicine, they refused to call her otherwise. She looked to see a tiger mink running to catch up with her, before pointing down the hallway he had just come.

"Dr. Lexi, could you take a look at Master Nekomamushi's wounds again? He's refusing to cooperate with Dr. Chopper's order to sleep. A few of his bandages have unfurled."

Lexi sighed in irritation, rubbing at her forehead. "Gah, that damned cat." She muttered under her breath, knowing something like this would have happened again. "Yes, I'll be right there. Let me go get some extra supplies just in case."

The mink nodded before heading off where he'd come from, leaving Lexi standing alone in the hallway.

"That cat will use up all the medical supplies at this rate...we're low on bandages enough as it is..." Lexi continued to grumbled, walking off towards the infirmary to gather the things she'd need.

__________

Law meandered through the woods, eyes closely following the direction the small piece of paper in his hand pulled towards. The surrounding landscape was alive with birds and other small animals chattering in the trees, almost distracting him from his task, but he kept determined, feeling a coil of anticipation and excitement as he got closer and closer to wherever the Vivre card took him. It had been almost three months since his departure. Three months since he'd last seen his crew. Too long, in his opinion. He'd missed those familiar faces.