Woohoo! Here's the first chapter of the new version of Ripping Seams! Ack, you guys wouldn't believe how long it took to write this! Many a painstaking hour, let me tell you that. Thank you all for all of your support, It's greatly, and thoroughly appreciated! Much love!

Full Summary: To be a rider meant to own the sky. But Patches Avy always felt the sea was more her style. Of course, being the best seamstress in the East Blue doesn't help when you're stuck with Alvida. But Avy's 'good energy' rams her head-long into a grinning Monkey D. Luffy. Can she still reach her goal with this crew of misfits? Better yet, can she survive their horrid senses of style and reeking piles of laundry?

I wish I could say I owned One Piece, but I don't. OCs and their backgrounds are mine.

Two Days Before Luffy's Arrival

"…So, sweet song of the sea

Who's words jingle in my ears

Like little bells in a caroling chorus.

Who, by the night time's awkward wishes

Do continue thy rhythmus beating upon my ship

Even into the most unholy hour a'night.

I take thy melody into my uneven soul

To forever,

And wholly wishing ever after that,

Know thy cold embrace

Around my lock'ed heart."

I grinned, beaming at the yellow pages of my journal as I finished the poem. As shut the leather bound book closed with a clap, I tossed it up in the air. Shortly laughing as it came back down into my hands, I stood and did a spin, humming a little tune to myself. The ship's board creaked underneath my weight, but their moaning only added a bit of rhythm to my make-believe melody.

I'm finally done. Done with that poem that had taken me so very, very long to finish.

The leather folded as I pressed the book to my chest, collapsing into my cot. As the springs squeaked in protest, the contents of the leather bag that lay on the bed beside me shifted; and with my grin still intact, I shoved the diary into the bag before flipping the flap shut. While I wormed my way further into the covers, I could feel everything relax as my muscles thanked whatever forces that be for the invention of beds.

I had stayed up for who knows how long working on that poem last night. In fact, I'm not quite sure if it is 'last night'. All I remember is a spur of the moment idea that popped into my head, and before I knew it I was writing in my journal.

My lungs filled with tension as I took a deep breath before I sighed all of the air out: causing a great rush of relaxation to coat over my entire body. Sleep was coming quickly, and before I knew it, I was starting to doze off…

"PATCHES!"

Reflex threw me out of my bed as I scrambled for the door. At times like this, having your own cabin wasn't as nice as it was made out to be, as there were more doors to get through in order to reach your captain. I tossed my door open and rushed out into the narrow hallway, the few crewmates in my way pressed themselves against the wall. A rush of pounding feet on wood passed them.

"Good luck!" One of them called, and as I began to climb the stairs up to the main deck, I looked back at my fellow pirate. Straight lavender hair lay flat on Coby's head, and his glasses lay crooked over his nose. He was young for a pirate, and I could briefly remember the day we picked him up from the docks. We had become friends almost immediately. After all, he had joined right after I did.

"Don't need it!" I yelled back with a grin before turning around and going up the stairs into the bright sunlight of midday.

"PATCHES!" The captain yelled again, not noticing I had made my way onto the main deck.

"Yes, Captain Alvida?" I asked as I walked up to her. I folded my hands behind my back, using a brisk pace to get to her faster. The other crewmates watched on as she turned to look over her shoulder, a glare coming to her face.

Rather, she turned to squint her beady black eyes over her sloping shoulders and through her long and curly black hair as an attempted glare made its way onto her chubby and freckled face. Something of an outdated black cape draped off her huge form, hiding the fatness that showed through from the front. She then moved to face me, giving me full view of her extreme obesity as it protruded through her plaid button up shirt and too tight black pants. A bandana attempted to hide a few rolls in vain as it wrapped around her neck, and a typical pirate hat with a plume topped her entire atrocity of an outfit off.

I tried to forget the fact that I made the clothes she was wearing: it was insulting.

The woman opened her blubbery mouth and proceeded to start yelling all sorts of profanities. As she did so, I became distracted by a small hole that had been ripped in her shirt, no doubt from the pressure of so much weight against it. This was the obvious cause of her anger.

"My, captain! Who tore your shirt?" I interjected, catching her off guard. I blinked as I leaned down to examine the rip. "This is most certainly a knife cut! Did you perhaps get in a fight? You shouldn't do something like that, Captain! That's what we're here for!"

I looked up and gave her an award winning smile, tilting my head to the side. "Let me make you a new one, okay? A beautiful lady such as yourself shouldn't be wearing such a horrid thing; it's a sacrilege to your petite figure."

She didn't catch the hidden insult I habitually laced in there.

Alvida smiled, slightly blushing as she brought up a ringed hand, nuzzling her cheeks into it, "Oh Avy~! You're so right, like always! Let me go find the asshole that ripped my shirt, and I'll burn this top right away!"

The crewmates sweatdropped, probably wondering how I was able to diffuse the situation time and time again. It was simple: I had just come to know how Alvida's mind works. She was a hot head, but responded well to compliments. That much was painfully obvious.

Literally. She had a habit of hitting people on the head with her spiked club if they didn't do everything she wished. And when she put her rather impressive bodyweight into it… let's just say I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of such a blow. It would only break just about very bone in my body.

I sent a smile to my crewmates as they all gave me thumbs ups. They grinned, causing me to laugh slightly as I headed back down to my cabin. Most of the pirates on the ship were a friendly bunch. They usually only asked for my assistance with clothing whenever a button had popped off or something. Unlike Alvida, who insisted I painstakingly edit each and every article of clothing she found cute to her body size.

I learned from the first week on the ship: doing that got really old, really fast.

It isn't that I dislike making clothes: quite the opposite. I'm proud to say that I'm the best seamstress in the East Blue. And that isn't bragging, that's a fact. However, meaningless labor only gets you so far when it comes to bettering yourself, which I needed to do. Being the best isn't a permanent title, you know. You have to keep up with the times.

But none of that matters anymore, I thought to myself as I made my way below deck. I had finished that painstaking poem I had been working on for the past two years. Now that it was done, I could finally send in my latest journal and get off this ship. I had been here too long, anyways. The poem was supposed to be a short one, something my doctor had recommended for venting all of that tension I tended to build up. But it had turned into so much more than that so swiftly, it was hard to believe I had written it at all.

I couldn't help but smile as I walked through the wooden hall of the ship back to my room. The constantly shifting floors had taken awhile to get used to, but sea legs had grown to be a part of me within the first month on board. Coby grinned at me as I passed him, his glasses glinting from the sunlight that streamed in from the loose floorboards above our heads.

"Great job with that one, Avy-san! That had to be you're quickest yet!" He encouraged, referring to the amount of time it took for me to deflect Alvida's anger. I shrugged, smile still in place.

"Thank you, Coby! What can I say? It's just been my lucky day today." He laughed at my short joke as I passed him. My grin stretched as I turned the corner away from him. Sure, it was luck. But it was my luck. The luck I had made for myself. The luck that was so hard to maintain, but worth it to the highest degree.

After all, I thought to myself as I entered my room, shutting the door behind me and moving the lock into place with a 'click', when does a little bit of luck not come in handy?

A small tune started up as I began to hum, making my way over to my work desk. It was littered with all sorts of things necessary to my profession: Fabrics, threads, scissors and pins. A few pencils or fabric markers lay here and there, and needles were, needless to say, shoved in the wood in random places across the wood's surface. Carefully, I lifted up the bundle of blue silk I had been working with to examine the plans for the dress that lay beneath. This particular dress was one of the few that were not of my own design, but a request from a client who lived on an island in the north blue. It was to be a simple, but elegant dress meant for the upcoming annual ball her city was throwing. Or at least, that was what her letter had said the dress was to be for.

Occasionally I got these request, and in exchange for compensation, I would tailor the dress to their standards and send it back out to them. Of course, being the best, I could usually get a pretty penny for this sort of thing. And my clients almost always returned for more business.

But, I grinned, this dress would have to be finished at some other time. I had other things to do at this point: packing, for one. Now that my poem was done, I had no need to stay any longer on this ship. As soon as the next mail pelican came in with the fashion magazine I ordered weekly, I'd send it off with the journal to my doctor, and I'd be scot free of the ship and the wretch of a captain. Gently picking up the silk, I folded it neatly and placed it on the desk's seat. Then came the rather difficult task of wheedling the needles out of the wood, and grouping together all of my essential items into their separate places before tying them together and placing them in my leather bag. The items themselves were crucial; however, the bag itself was far more important to me. I had owned it for many, many years now, to a grand total of twelve. And, doing the math in my head as I gently placed the items inside in a semi-orderly fashion- that put me at the age of about seventeen.

Which meant a lot when put next to my professional skills as a seamstress. My little hum stopped short as I breathed outward, closing the bag. Being carefully careless, I lightly tossed the bag back onto my bed, where it had laid previous to my packing. The morning after next I'll be gone from this ship. I had better get to saying goodbye to Coby. I could feel my throat start to constrict as I flipped the blue silk dress design over and placed it carefully into the sketchpad that lay beside it. Goodbyes were always so hard.

But, I thought as I tucked the sketchpad under my arm and lifted the folded silk up in my other, if luck should have it, we'll meet again.

Scooting the desk chair under its counterpart with a swing of my hip, I then treaded the short distance back over to my bed, where I placed the silk and pad down carefully. A heavy sigh released a large amount of the anxiety that had already started to build up, and with an ironic thought, I couldn't help but link my future goodbye to my dear friend with the most despised of all tasks in sewing:

Oh, how I hated Ripping Seams.

Whew! There it is! What do you think? The next chapter will be whenever I get the chance, as I've got a seriously crowded schedule as of late. However, I promise that this story will be completed. On my honor as a writer, I swear it! Hehe, review please! What do you think?