Hours after that conversation, and Luffy still couldn't help but mentally thank Robin for her help. Because of her, he'd been allowed to stay inside the palace, and been given a legitimate excuse to hang around Zoro more often.

When she had smiled, she'd subtly signalled the end of their conversation, though Luffy hadn't caught it; she'd crossed the room and opened the door before Luffy could really catch his balance again, still off put by the conversation they'd had. Zoro was outside the door, fist raised to knock. She gave him a charming smile, leaving the room and shutting the door behind her.

Luffy had been left alone, hesitantly standing again from the chair and resting most of his weight on the table as he shakily practised trying to walk, and though he was sure Robin didn't mean for him to hear – or maybe she did; Robin was confusing – he could catch the faint strains of their conversation through the door.

"Well?" Zoro had demanded, tone louder than Robin's calm and steady one.

"Physically, he's fine. His inability to walk is really mainly tied into his psyche, but I'm sure he'll figure it out soon enough. Accompanying him, however, would probably be a good idea. He may get tired often, and I'm sure he would appreciate company that he has already become familiar with."

"Did you figure out why he can't talk?" Zoro asked, voice no longer as demanding, and Luffy concentrated, forcing his feet to move (though the frustration over not having any ease of movement made him frown) while he distractedly listened in on their conversation.

"Yes, Your Highness. I will be working on a way to potentially fix it."

Was Robin lying for him? She wasn't telling Zoro why he couldn't talk…But how would that help her? Why didn't she immediately recommend Zoro kick him out of the palace once she found out he was cursed? For that matter, why hadn't she called the alarm or anything like that when she first knew he had a spell on him?

"But may I recommend keeping him here? I'd like to keep an eye on him, if that's possible. Besides, I'm sure having some less insulting company will surely keep you amused." Robin was really the only one who sounded amused to Luffy's ears, but Zoro made a quiet sound of agreement, the lilts of their conversation fading even further until they'd stopped altogether and both had come back into the room.

Zoro had rushed at him then, a furrow in his brow at seeing Luffy standing, but Robin laid a palm in front of him, and Luffy's painless grin must have convinced him that nothing was wrong, because he'd stopped and instead tried to offer his own faltering smile. Luffy had grinned even wider, at seeing that, and then they'd gone to explore the palace – Zoro's palace.

The place was huge! Luffy would be amazed if he didn't get lost within the first day left by himself, and was silently glad that although he'd slowly managed to get the hang of walking rather than swimming Zoro had yet to leave him alone.

Though Zoro had managed to get them lost (he denied it, but Luffy had seen the embarrassed flush that crawled up his neck) while he was showing Luffy around, they had both still managed to get to the kitchens in time for food, and at that point Luffy had been very glad that he could walk – he doubted Zoro would have been able to carry him, with how excited the prospect of tasting human food had made him.

Clack! Clack clackclack clack!

The sharp tapping sound from his window made Luffy snap from his remembrance of the day's events, head jolting up as he looked around for the source of the noise before spotting Nami. Slipping off the bed and staggering to the window, Luffy opened the door leading out to the balcony, Nami immediately fluttering inside. Though learning to walk had been difficult and made his feet ache in a slow burn of agony, he figured it was just his body getting used to an entirely new way of moving around, and at the moment he didn't really care – being able to move around freely, even with pain, was better than being constantly carried everywhere, and it allowed him the freedom to let his friend into the room Zoro had given him without being questioned by anyone.

"Usopp told me what you did," were the first words from Nami's beak when she landed inside his room, claws clacking against the wood of the drawer as Luffy huffed and went back to the bed, plopping onto it with no small sigh of relief. "How are you going to get someone to fall in love with you in two weeks?"

Did she know about the heart? Maybe Usopp hadn't mentioned it. Did Usopp even know that he'd ended up agreeing to trade someone's heart for the ability to walk?

Luffy's stomach churned at that thought, the blunt horror behind it finally hitting him in full force, and he pushed the back of his hand against his mouth, trying to calm his rebelling stomach. He'd traded someone's heart! He'd agreed to steal someone's heart so that he could walk.

Nami fluttered to him worriedly, hopping around him as he bent over and tried to prevent himself throwing up, but there was very little she could do as he panicked. Forcing himself to keep breathing past the clench around his throat, Luffy squeezed his eyes shut and slowly managed to force his stomach to settle. Though he was breathing heavily, he was once again under control of his panicked thoughts.

"-ffy-? Luffy?" Nami repeated again worriedly, feathertips soft against his dark skin, and Luffy finally blinked from his anxious, nauseating thoughts to realise that the seagull must have been trying to get his attention for some time, for that level of worry to enter her voice. "Look, okay, I'll figure something out. Don't you know me? I always do. And even when you do some crazy shit like this, we all manage to pull through, don't we? So don't panic. We'll fix it."

Luffy gave a soft, breathy chuckle, and saw her eyes snap onto it, tensing as she stopped to stare at him. Seeing that he had recovered from his previous moment of panic, she breathed a sigh of relief, feathers finally smoothing. Sorry Nami, he tried to mouth, and saw her roll her eyes, fluttering back up to her spot on the desk.

"Whatever, Luffy. I hope you remembered that with you being gone for two weeks, Ace is gonna blow a gasket. He'll probably ground you for something like a gazillon years when you get back to normal and he finds out you were up here."

Oh shit, Ace, came his first thought upon hearing his brother's name, and he could tell by Nami's squawk that his emotions were clear on his face.

"You forgot, didn't you! Oh for God's sake Luffy, did you think any of this through?!"

Food, he mouthed, giving her a cheeky grin, and heard her give a very loud groan of exasperation.

"Go the hell to sleep before I put you there myself, you damn nuisance. You do your part to get this stupid human to fall in love with you, and Usopp and I will work on whatever we can to get this fixed up from our side, too. Usopp can keep Ace off your fins-," Nami paused, feathers ruffling as she stared at Luffy's feet, and he obligingly wiggled his toes for her, seeing the bird try not to gag. "Feet? Till this all gets back to normal."

Giving his friend a tiny nod, Luffy gently placed his straw hat next to Nami and curled up on top of the bed, the exhaustion of the day finally hitting him and lulling him into a dreamless sleep.

Waking up the next morning felt a bit disjointed – he was usually woken up early for breakfast by Ace (which usually consisted of bird, any large dead sea creature, like a shark, or seaweed,) before his brother had to deal with all his kingdom-y things. Not being woken up left him blinking awake in the sunlight instead, frowning in confusion at the gauzy material that hung from what looked like dark wood. He stretched out, curling his toes-

All the events of yesterday rushed back to him, and Luffy bolted up right, (making Nami let out a loud squawk as she was disturbed from her makeshift nest,) throwing off the blankets that covered his legs.

It hadn't been a dream – he really had been turned into a human!

He stretched out his legs before him, taking the same delight in wriggling his toes as he had yesterday, but his glee was quickly cut short by a sharp peck to his head. "Luffy damnit, are you going to do this every morning?"

The former mer pouted at Nami, batting his eyes for extra effect, but she merely huffed and fluffed her feathers, settling down on the desk rather than on his bed.

What was he meant to do now? Luffy mused to himself, letting his eyes go over the room he'd only had a passing view of last night in the dark. With how careful he was going to have to be around the humans to avoid getting kicked out of the castle, and losing any hopes he had whatsoever for winning Zoro's heart, he figured that even if his patience chafed, it would be better to wait for someone to come and get him.

Luckily for both of the room's occupants (Nami had started to watch Luffy worriedly as he began to fidget more often), there was a knock at the door before he could get fed up with waiting.

He practically bounded from the bed when he heard the sound, and when he threw the door open and was greeted with Zoro's surprised face, it became obvious to him that the green-haired prince hadn't expected the door to be ripped open quite so suddenly. Still, Zoro recovered well, smoothing the surprise from his features and indicating down the hall. "Sanji sent me to get you for breakfast. Hungry?"

Luffy nodded eagerly, darting past Zoro and out into the hall, ignoring the sudden sharp pang that his feet sent through his legs at the movement; they were probably still adjusting. Being on land was different than being underwater. He could feel a heavy drag almost constantly, instead of the weightless buoyancy of water.

Zoro once again seemed taken aback by his enthusiasm, but followed after with little protesting, and though Luffy almost got lost he managed to find the kitchen again with relative ease – he gave up at one point, (refusing to take Zoro's directions when he realised that the green haired prince was making them go around in circles) and had wandered around following his nose until it lead to the kitchen.

Sanji waved at him with a spatula once the two of them had managed to enter the homey and warm space, barely looking up from the meal he was preparing to spare the two of them the time of day, but that suited Luffy just fine. He eagerly poked around the little nooks and crannies until Sanji forcibly pushed him towards the table with his leg, a frown on his face as Luffy explored everything in the room. "I'm making omelettes for breakfast, so just sit your shitty ass down and don't interrupt me, got it?"

This is the greatest place in the castle, Luffy thought reverently, sighing in absolute happiness as he watched Sanji whirl around the kitchen, knives a silver flash in his hands as he cut up meat and placed in front of the two of them a plate of-

FISH, his mind shrieked in a loud panic, horror marring his face. His friends were fish! Almost autopilot he tried to flail backwards, forgetting about the stupid gravity that was present on land. His chair tipped backwards, startling him as he went with it, and it was only Zoro's quick lunge across the table to grab his wrist that prevented Luffy's skull from cracking into the floor.

"The hell?" Zoro cursed, sliding bodily across the table to check if Luffy was alright and just barely missing the plate of fish that Luffy eyed with no small look of trepidation. "Are you trying to end up back with Robin?" Zoro released his wrist once he was sure that Luffy had his feet under him again, gingerly turning the limb as though inspecting it for injury, but Luffy grabbed Zoro's chin to face him.

'Sorry,' he mouthed slowly, hoping he'd picked the right human word for the situation.

Zoro frowned for a moment, looking almost confused, and Luffy began to think he'd used the wrong one (oops, he thought to himself,) but then Zoro's expression seemed to change slightly – instead of confusion over what word he'd said, it seemed to be confusion over why he'd said it.

Trying to think of something that would get rid of the tense stillness that hung around the kitchen, Luffy remembered what Nami had told him last night as she tried to formulate a plan to get him back to 'normal'; do your part to get him to fall in love with you.

What exactly was 'his part'? Did he have to nod and agree with everything Zoro said? Because Luffy could see how that'd get really boring after a while. What did suitors usuallydo when they tried to win Ace's affections?

Casting his mind back to the last time someone had tried to 'woo' Ace, Luffy felt something like a mental light-bulb ignite above his head. Aha! He could do that.

Tugging Zoro's wrist, he pressed a feather-light kiss to the man's knuckles flicking his eyes up and giving the prince a small smile. Hopefully he'd done alright, he thought slightly worriedly when Zoro froze – he wasn't sure about this whole 'wooing' thing. Didn't humans have their own weird customs when it came to how they flirted and acted around people they wanted to win the affection of?

Luffy had to blink, though, as red scoured the prince's cheeks. Was Zoro…blushing? Luffy knew that he got flustered easily, especially judging by how embarrassed he was at getting lost in his own castle, but this was just hilarious!

Of course, what wasn't hilarious was the frozen looks on both Sanji and Zoro's faces. He glanced worriedly between them, his grin fading, uncertain of what he'd down wrong, but then Sanji laughed uproariously, turning to Zoro and insulting him about the light red visible under his tan.

Luffy glanced between them both, still confused about the reaction he'd caused, but silently soothing any worries he had under the promise of food and the knowledge that if he'd done something irreversibly bad, than Zoro and Sanji would likely have kicked him out of the kitchen already.

Still, while Sanji was distracted he grabbed the plate of fish in the centre of the table and, silently mourning the poor creatures, secreted it away underneath the table to collect and give back to the ocean at a later time.

When Luffy didn't show up for an afternoon, Ace wasn't worried. His younger brother was an avid explorer (much like he wished he could be) and Luffy knew how to take care of himself.

When his younger brother didn't show up for breakfast, however, he was slightly more worried. Luffy had never – ever – skipped a meal, not when they had access to them, and breakfast was sometimes the only time of day when the two of them would even get to talk to each other, depending on what either of them had to do during the day.

Though he tried to tamp down on his anxiousness, worrying that Luffy would get stroppy if he snapped at him for being late, by the time lunch rolled around Ace was a bundle of nerves and both the council members and the dignitary from Italy – Marco, Ace was pretty sure his name was – had completely given up on making Ace pay attention.

He practically disappeared in a trail of bubbles to see if he could find Luffy, rocketing through the castle and checking all of his brother's favourite haunts, and when he finally slowed, having been unable to find his brother anywhere, he spotted Usopp chattering away with Chopper, mouth moving a mile a minute.

The young mer king immediately bolted for the small fish, looming behind his brother's friends and making Chopper yelp quietly before he waggled his fins and tried to bow. Ace waved his hand, showing he'd seen the other young fish's attempt, but his laser like attention had already fastened onto Usopp. "Where's Luffy?"

Usopp practically jumped out of his scales, spinning around in surprise, and Ace could see the fish's mouth open and close wordlessly. From the corner of his eyes he could see that Chopper had quietly excused himself from the conversation, but all of his attention was focused on Usopp.

"Well?" he demanded, when Usopp didn't look likely to speak, and Usopp gave a quiet yelp before spitting out,

"He- he- foundaguyhereallylikes-likelikelikesandisjustgonnahangwithhimforalittlewhileifthat'sokay!"

Are you breathing? Ace thought to himself silently as he heard Usopp's panicked words, and he frowned slightly, trying to decipher Usopp's rushed words. "He likes a guy?" he questioned, staring at Usopp in undisguised shock when he finally figured out what he thought Usopp was trying to say, and saw the little fish flinch back, fins flickering. "I mean- I- uh-? I'm glad for him. But can't I meet this guy?"

Usopp immediately began to shake, stuttering out, "N-n-nope, sorry your kingliness-" and Ace narrowed his eyes slightly, suspicious – he knew his brother's friend was often fearful around him, (considering his kind-of kingly status) but honestly, this was an overreaction!

Usopp never acted like this, unless he was…trying to hide something. "Usopp," Ace said threateningly. "Why can't I meet this guy?"

"Uh- uh-," Usopp flailed, (as much as he could underwater,) and the young fish's eyes darted everywhere but at Ace. "Because Luffy doesn't want you to!"

"Why not?" he asked, voice half a demand, (and stubbornly refusing to pout,) because he was ninety percent sure something was going on, and even if his brotherly pride was wounded over being potentially cut out, he still couldn't help but be suspicious of Usopp's question-dodging.

He could practically hear Usopp's brain repeat don't say it, don't say it, don't say it! but when Ace levelled another glare, the fish squeaked and darted away, vanishing in a trail of bubbles.

There was a moment of frozen shock, as bubbles tickled his nose and Usopp's tail vanished around the corridor, and then Ace lunged after the fish, scales flaring a bright red instead of their usual gold. "USOPP!" he shouted, "GET BACK HERE AND TELL ME WHERE MY BROTHER IS!"

AN: Usopp you're kind of bad at thissss.
I was going to wait to upload this chapter till I had a few more stocked up, but then I realised that today (for me at least) iS THE FIFTH
AND THIS IS THE FIFTH CHAPTER -sparkles hands in direction of chapter-
So yep.
Anyway, chapter six and seven are partway written, so hopefully I can get 6 up by Friday? (I would like to able to upload it tomorrow but that is sooo not happening. I'm going to just be happy with chapter 5 on the fifth). If all goes the way I've planned it, then I should be able to wrap this up in 6 more chapters!

Beta'd by Beyond Kailani.