Hey! Here's our latest story. We've always wanted to write a fic like this (these sort of stories are definitely our favorite, and there are so many ways to add fun twists) Enjoy!

-DMTwins-

A large wave slammed against the hull and the ship lurched violently for what must have been the hundredth time. The clouds hung above their heads ominously, letting almost no sunlight through despite the fact that it was mid-day. The crew had been hit by surprise by the storm. Had it not been for Nami, there would have been no warning whatsoever.

It had taken mere minutes for the breeze that Nami had said "smelled like rain" to turn into a full blown squall. She had ordered the crew to clean up the deck and fasten down any loose crates. The wind was howling and the storm was roaring by the time they'd finished raising the sails.

Most of the crew had retreated below deck after completing their jobs. Only Zoro and Luffy remained on deck, fastening down the crates of supplies that they had bought a few days ago and had failed to unload in time. Zoro cursed the cook under his breath-a good majority of these supplies were bought for the kitchen. Who the hell needs this much silverware? How many forks can one person own?

Zoro glanced over to Luffy, who was attempting to hold three crates together long enough to wrap a rope around them. He had an intense look of concentration on his face that made Zoro want to laugh. One of the crates got away from him and slid across the deck to tumble down the stairs. Luffy watched it go then turned to Zoro with an expectant look. Zoro sighed and ran off after it. Luffy chuckled as Zoro scrambled for the railing when a particularly large wave nearly sent him headfirst down the stairs.

Luffy returned his attention to the two offending crates that were currently sliding back and forth across the deck. The two collided, sending one spinning toward Luffy and the other tumbling straight for the railing. With a sickening wood-splitting sound that Luffy swore sounded just like the sound of Franky yelling at him for his carelessness, the crate went over the edge. Luffy ran over and lunged for it, catching it as he hung halfway over the edge of the ship. As he was pulling it back onto the ship, one of the largest waves he had ever seen slammed into the side of the ship, sending a sheet of water splashing across the deck. He was thrown forward over the edge. Dropping the crate, he grabbed the railing of the ship and watched the crate as it was swallowed by the waves. He breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that he was not in the crate's place. Luffy felt one of his hands slip and his grip with the other hand tightened as he swung around with the tilt of the ship. He felt a cold wind blow across his face, and watched with a horrified look, as his hat fell, guided by the wind, into the raging waters.

He watched as it was swallowed by the waves and, without a second thought, plunged in after it.

The first thing Zoro noticed as he climbed back up the stairs with the escaped crate in hand was that one of the crates was missing. In fact, that wasn't the only thing that was missing…

Zoro's breath caught in his throat when he spotted the splintered wood hanging from what had been a beautifully carved rail. Without skipping a beat he discarded his swords on the deck—careful to be sure they clattered down the stairs to a place that they wouldn't be able to fall off—and dove off the edge of the ship.

The ocean was so cold that it felt like a physical punch. The deafening roar of the waves above was almost entirely muted below the surface. Zoro swore internally at how hard it was to see in the murky water. With no time to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he began to swim downward. He pressed forward, as far as he could swim, and then he kept swimming. His lungs ached, how the hell was he going to find Luffy in almost total darkness? He silently prayed that he would handle drowning as well as he handled blood loss.

Just as he was beginning to think that he wouldn't be able to reach Luffy in time he thought he saw a glimpse of red below him. He strained his eyes and saw the silhouette of a person only a few feet below him, sinking fast. He tore through the water as quickly as he could, until his hand brushed against the front of his vest. He grabbed it and immediately began to swim upwards. He was fighting the currents now, and he couldn't think of a time that he was more grateful for his training—he glided through the water easily. He felt as though he'd been swimming for hours, and just as his vision was beginning to blur, he broke through the surface. Zoro gasped and coughed, then pulled Luffy closer to himself. A wave of relief washed over him when he realized that he was only unconscious, and still breathing. The Thousand Sunny had drifted a good hundred feet away.

Zoro looked down at his captain, who looked oddly peaceful. Something was missing…

Shit.

Zoro looked frantically between the Sunny, Luffy, and the water. He groaned inwardly, knowing damn well what his captain wanted him to do. He pressed a hand over Luffy's mouth and nose to keep him from inhaling any more water and dove back down below the water. The roar of the waves disappeared once more as he began to swim downward. He was getting tired, and the fact that he only had one hand to swim with made it increasingly hard to fight the currents. He spotted Luffy's hat about fifteen away. It was lighter and slower to sink, and its bright color made it easy to see in the darkness. Zoro snatched it and began to return to the surface once more. He was swimming furiously. Just as he was about to break the surface he smashed his head on something. He gasped in pain, which he immediately regretted when the air in his lungs was replaced with water.

Zoro grabbed onto it and realized that it was the crate that had been missing from the Sunny's deck. He pulled Luffy onto it, and coughing violently, tried to locate the Sunny. He spotted it a few hundred yards away and immediately began to shout in an attempt to draw attention to himself. After a while he realized that the ship was slowly shrinking into the distance. Zoro swore angrily, but he could hardly hear himself over the wind. The ship was sailing away from them, and there was no way that he would be heard. The crew probably hadn't even noticed that they were gone, and might not for who knew how long since everyone else had retreated inside.

So he resigned himself to making sure that they stayed afloat as they were pushed further and further from their ship.

He had no idea how long they had been drifting, but he suspected that it had been more than one day that they had been afloat. He was exhausted and he had swallowed more than his fair share of seawater, only to cough it back up again as soon as he tried to take a breath. He glared at the water that had been taking up residence in his lungs as though it were poison. The storm had long since subsided, and now Zoro was simply waiting for rescue. Luffy hadn't made any noises since Zoro first fished him out of the water, and he couldn't help but check every couple minutes to make sure that his captain was only sleeping. He told himself that the seawater was draining him, so of course he hadn't woken up yet.

Needless to say, it was difficult to keep both himself and his captain from slipping below the water's surface. The crate they were holding onto wasn't very buoyant, so it bobbed under the water if Zoro tried to put their full weight on it. Zoro was tired, and the mundane scenery wasn't helping him stay awake at all. He tried to focus, but it was getting harder every moment. He realized that he'd been staring at a red spot on the crate. He frowned, before realizing that it was an apple, only the picture was upside down. It had taken him much too long to realize that.

Zoro sighed and rested his forehead on the crate. He looked sideways at his captain, who was sleeping with a peaceful expression on his face. After shifting so that he could better keep Luffy from sliding off the crate, Zoro put his head down on the crate again and allowed himself a moment to rest. Only a moment. At least, he thought it was only a moment, so when the crate's bottom scraped against sand his original reaction was to ignore it and assume that he had imagined it. There'd been no island in sight, so there was no way they'd struck sand. When it happened a second time, however, he gathered enough energy to look up. He saw a wide stretch of beach hardly twenty feet away, and he wasn't sure whether he should be happy that they struck land or disappointed that they hadn't found the Sunny yet.

With all the strength he could muster he grabbed Luffy—who had refused to wake up no matter how hard Zoro had tried—and dragged him toward the shore. The second Zoro stepped onto the beach he felt just how tired he was. What he'd felt earlier was nothing compared to this. He grabbed his captain and dragged him as far onto the shore as he could manage before collapsing on the beach.

Luffy frowned and shifted his position. He was really tired, but this bed was really uncomfortable. It was cold, and scratchy, and all-around lumpy. He sighed and opened one bleary eye to the daylight. His frown deepened as he took in his surroundings. He was on a beach, a few feet from the water. About one hundred feet from the water was the first sign of plant life and beyond that was the beginning of a forest.

Luffy sighed and pushed himself onto his knees. He was tired, and his clothes were soaked—probably from being in the ocean, which explained why he was so tired in the first place. He turned away and saw Zoro, who was lying up to his waist in water and sleeping soundly. Scooting forward to nudge him with his foot, Luffy tried to remember why they were on a beach, no Sunny in sight. He remembered a storm, trying to tie down crates, and…

"My hat!"

His eyes widened enormously and one hand shot to his head. Panicked he leaped to his feet and spun in a circle, franticly searching for his hat. Seeing nothing on the beach, he turned to the ocean to see if it was floating away. He stepped back only to catch his foot on Zoro's leg. He stumbled, flailed, and fell in a heap on the ground. It was then that he saw a piece of his hat protruding from beneath Zoro's arm.

"Thanks, Zoro!" He laughed, grabbing his hat. After shaking the sand off of it, and picking off a few pieces of seaweed, he replaced it on his head. He turned to his first mate with a curious look on his face.

"Oi, Zoro." He whined poking his first mate on the shoulder. "Wake up." He frowned when this earned no reaction, and proceeded to poke the swordsman in the cheek instead. When this still earned no reaction, he grabbed the swordsman and dragged him farther onto the beach so that the waves couldn't reach him—even in high tide.

Luffy sighed and sat down next to his first mate. Zoro was probably tired. After all, for all the time that Luffy was asleep—and he had no clue how long it had been—not only was he awake, but he was trying to keep them both from drowning. Luffy frowned and brushed a piece of seaweed from Zoro's forehead. Though he'd never blame him for it, it was essentially Luffy's fault that they were stuck here, and that made him feel a little guilty. Guilty enough to apologize—which he did—but not guilty enough to sit and wait with his first mate until he woke up. Because this was a new island, after all, and he wanted to get a look around.

Standing, Luffy first pulled off his vest, which was soaked, and laid it out next to Zoro. He considered doing the same for Zoro, but decided that it would be too much of a hassle. Besides, the swordsman looked perfectly content to lie on the scratchy sand in a wet shirt and sleep the hours away.

So, with a promise that he would return, Luffy bounded off down the beach, searching for anything and everything cool or mysterious. He didn't get far, however, before a large rock face caught his attention. It was huge and almost entirely vertical. The only way you could get to the top would be if you had wings or—as luck would have it—a devil's fruit. Luffy ran at it, excited to see the island from such a high point, and rocketed himself to the top.

He landed with a clatter of sandals on rock, but did no damage—which was always good. There was nothing remarkable about the rock itself. It was large, but almost empty. Almost, save for the bird that was startled from its nest when he first landed. Luffy turned with excitement towards the island.

From what he could see, there was a ring of beach, followed by a ring of thin forest that got thicker as it went to the center. The rings were entirely visible, especially at the points in the island where the land very abruptly started to grow more and more plant life. He hummed in awe at the rings, and focused on the center. The trees not only grew thicker here, but taller as well, so that the island looked like a giant pyramid. There was a stream far off to this left that eventually disappeared into the trees of the center ring. To his right, he could see Zoro and his shirt lying on the beach.

Luffy smiled in excitement before about-facing to search the ocean for any sign of the Thousand Sunny. He could see the ocean almost all the way around the Island—save for the spot just beyond the point of the pyramid. It was big, and beautiful, but there was no Sunny to be had.

Only slightly disappointed, Luffy decided to head back to see if he could wake Zoro up so that they could decide what to do, when he spied the bird that he'd startled earlier. The bird was large—it stood as tall as Luffy, and its wings were huge. It was eyeing him warily, hopping closer to him every few moments. Luffy grinned devilishly, which the bird seemed to pick up on since it stopped hopping closer.

He was tired, that was sure, but the only thing that he was more was hungry. And here in front of him was a giant piece of meat. Taking a moment to position himself, he launched himself at the bird, which narrowly escaped capture. Luffy missed and flew right over the edge of the cliff. The bird appeared to laugh at him, that is, until Luffy turned to grab the rock face and rocket himself up at it for a second try. Again, it evaded capture, and began flying toward the center of the island, shrieking as it went, while Luffy began to fall over the opposite edge of the cliff. By the time that Luffy had gotten back onto the cliff, the bird was well on its way to disappearing into the thickest part of the forest.

No sooner had it disappeared into the forest did the bird's shrieking stop. Or rather, it was stopped, as the bird gave one dying shriek before being killed by whatever it was that had claimed it as its dinner. Luffy pouted, not at all curious about what kind of creature could have killed a bird that size so quickly, but rather jealous. He sighed exasperatedly—all that effort for naught. That was when he spied the bird's nest, which held two large eggs.

He smiled to himself and went to retrieve them. They were no giant bird, but they were better than nothing. Carefully placing one under each arm, he leaped off the edge of the cliff, intending to free-fall all the way to the ground. He hoped that the eggs wouldn't crack when he landed. The shells were sort of leathery and tough, so it was no surprise when they survived the landing. Satisfied, Luffy took off back the way he'd come to go and find Zoro once more. As he grew nearer, he was happy to see the swordsman sitting up, holding his vest in one hand and looking out to the ocean.

"Zoro!" He yelled, causing the person in question to turn, almost in alarm, before visible relief spread across his face. Zoro raised an eyebrow at the watermelon-sized eggs Luffy held under either arm.

"What're those?"

"Dinner!" Luffy beamed, setting them on the ground and sitting down himself. He frowned at the eggs, before turning to Zoro. "How do we eat them?" He asked, looking lost. Zoro shrugged and shoved Luffy's vest into his hands.

"I don't know, but put your vest on. You're going to get sunburned." He mumbled.

"We could eat them raw…" Luffy offered, picking one up and preparing to crack the shell on his knee. Zoro frowned.

"That's disgusting." Luffy stopped, looking up at Zoro.

"But I'm hungry." He stated, rather bluntly. Zoro sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was no cook, nor was he a doctor, but he was still pretty sure that you could get sick eating raw eggs. Not to mention the fact that eating an egg that size raw could only be appetizing to someone like Luffy.

He frowned and stood, glancing around briefly before walking towards the shoreline to retrieve a large, flat rock. He carried it back to Luffy and dropped it next to the eggs.

"Hold this." He said, walking away from the beach to collect some wood. Luffy leaped to his feet and followed Zoro, who already had an armful of wood.

"We'll make a fire, and we'll cook them." The swordsman said in response to the confused look his captain was giving him. "We need one anyway." He picked up another stick. Luffy reluctantly followed suit. This seemed like a hassle just to avoid eating a few eggs raw.

But he trusted Zoro, so he sidled up alongside him, brushing against him fleetingly as he started to collect sticks.