Chapter Text
When Vivi woke up, she found herself in a large, mostly empty room. She was wearing clothes that were a bit too big for her, clearly borrowed from the hospital. Her side of the except for a desk and a dresser. The nurse had mentioned earlier that she would have to earn those privileges. On the other side of the room, across from her bed, it was more decorated; maps covered the walls, and there were pictures taped up. That side also had a storage space and a desk where another piece of paper was spread out. In the bed on the opposite side of her room was a sleeping girl with orange hair, snoring peacefully. A small clock on the wall indicated it was 6:30 am The nurse had said that breakfast would be at 7:00 am, but Vivi was always room was bare as an early riser and couldn’t fall back asleep, so she watched the girl instead, observing the rise and fall of her back and listening to the gentle snoring sound that came from her.
After what felt like ages, a knock on the door from a morning nurse indicated to Vivi that it was time for breakfast. Vivi assumed the nurse would leave, but she knocked again and entered
“Oh, hi. I didn’t know Nami was getting a roommate; that wasn’t mentioned in the notes, but that’s okay. I’m Robin.” Robin was tan, with dark hair that fell past her shoulders and bangs framing her face. She held a clipboard in one hand, while extending her other hand out for Vivi to shake.
Vivi needed to remember her plan: act as normal and sane as possible, and get out of there as quickly as she could to get her life back on track. She forced a smile and shook Robin's hand, just like her dad had taught her to do for different business exchanges when she was younger.
"Usually, the morning nurses wake up the patients, but Nami prefers not to have them wake her up, and she trusts me enough to dopist here." Vivi assumed that the orange-haired girl's name was Nami. it. I’m a thera
“Your morning nurse would have shown you around on your first day, but since you don’t have one, I’ll take you around instead. Let me wake up Nami first for breakfast, and then we can start the tour; it won’t take long."
The dark-haired girl walked over to Nami and gently shook her awake, calling out her name. Finally, the orange-haired girl woke up with a small snort, looking a bit confused. Robin handed her a small card and said something to her that Vivi didn’t quite hear, and out she left.
"Alright, let’s get started with the tour, shall we?"
As Robin led them around the hospital, Vivi realized this tour wouldn’t be long because the hospital was quite small. It passed by in a daze, and at the end, Robin handed her a card. “This is the card that you give to the nurses at the med station; it will show them what medications you need or if you need any at all. It’s stamped every day, and at the end of the month, you get a new updated card. The nurse station is located right in front of the cafeteria since it’s the first place you go after taking your meds. Three meals are served a day, but your therapist might offer snacks, and during group therapy every Sunday and Wednesday, snacks will be provided.
Vivi wondered how many Sundays and Wednesdays she would spend here. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be long before she could go home.
“Thank you for your help, Robin. I think I’ve got things from here.” Vivi had already memorized her med station schedule (which she didn’t have any medication for since she hadn’t had a therapy lesson yet), breakfast, free time, therapy arts, lunch, outside time, individual therapy, dinner, and then more free time until lights out. The next day would follow the same routine unless they had group therapy; in that case, no one would have individual therapy that day.
"Okay, I trust you will ask for help from one of your fellow patients if you need it.
“Of course.” Yeah, right, she would.
With that, Robin smiled at her and walked away, clipboard in hand, probably heading to fill out some paperwork.
Vivi faced the cafeteria, where a small number of patients sat, which made sense since it was a small hospital. They were all gathered at one table: a boy with black hair and a straw hat. To his left sat a green-haired boy in a white shirt; across from the green-haired boy was another boy with dark skin and a long nose, and next to him was a blonde-haired guy with only one eye visible. Finally, on the straw hat kid's right was her roommate, who had bright orange hair and big brown eyes. Most of the people there wore sweatpants, t-shirts, and bits of borrowed hospital clothing, but not Nami, the green-haired guy, or the black-haired guy—they all wore relatively normal clothes. Vivi stood there for a moment, holding a small applesauce cup because she wasn’t hungry enough for a big breakfast, and then her eyes met Nami’s.
“HEY, THAT'S MY NEW ROOMIE!” the girl shouted, waving her over. “COME SIT WITH US!”
Vivi blushed at the commotion, but no one else seemed to mind, so she took a seat across from the girl. Nami smiled at her, and so did the blonde guy sitting next to her to.
”I’m Nami, your roommate.”
“It’s Vivi. It's a pleasure to meet you.” Vivi didn’t consider it much of a pleasure. She didn’t want to be here, and she was leaving soon anyway, so making introductions didn’t seem necessary, but she wasn’t about to be rude.
The black-haired boy sitting next to Nami had a small scar under his eye. He flashed her a big, toothy smile and extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Luffy.” The guy sitting next to Luffy on his left merely glared at her. “This is Zoro.” Vivi reached out her hand for a shake, but Zoro continued to glare at her, so she lowered it. Luffy laughed nervously.
The long-nosed guy smiled at her. “I’m Usopp. You might have heard of my heroic stories on the news.” Vivi made a mental note to look him up whenever she got her phone back. “And I’m Sanji,” the blonde-haired guy added.
"It’s a pleasure to meet you all," she smiled widely at them."
Zoro kept glaring at her, while Sanji was eyeing her in a way that made her feel watched and a bit uncomfortable. Luffy was back to his food right away, inhaling it down, and Usopp was fiddling with his plastic cutlery.
“It’s your first. You’re an infant, then,” Luffy said after swallowing the last of his meal "Right?"
”Excuse me," Vivi said confused.
“That's just how they know how long you’ve been here,” Zoro finally said.
“Infants are people who were admitted in the past week, toddler level is when you’ve been here for a month, the teen level is when it’s your first birthday here, and young adult is when you’ve been here for more than two years," Usopp explained.
“Oh, what are all of you then?”
"Excuse me," Zoro said, glaring at her even more. She was certain that if looks could kill, she would already be dead.
"I’m sorry, was that offensive? I didn’t mean to intrude," she said quickly, avoiding eye contact.
"It’s fine, Zoro," Nami said. "Don't mind him, Vivi; he's just grouchy in the mornings. Luffy, Zoro, and I are young adults; Sanji is a toddler, and Usopp is a teen."
Great thought, Vivi. Not only am I stuck in a hospital I don’t need to be in, but I’m roommates with one of the sickest people here. There’s something about Nami that makes my stomach feel funny. Maybe it’s the way her hair shines under the bright hospital lights, or the small freckles that dotted across her face and on her arms. Perhaps it’s the way her smile lights up the room. Either way, it makes Vivi feel a way she can’t describe. She was so busy staring at Nami that she didn’t even realize Sanji was talking until someone called her name.
“Vivi, Usopp said, ‘Are you listening?’”
"Sorry, I zoned out for a second. What were you saying?"
“I was saying,” Sanji cleared his throat, “that you may have noticed, but the hospital is pretty small. There aren’t a lot of patients here. After a week, they’ll probably put you in your own room, but if you want to share with someone, you have to fill out a form.”
"Zoro and I share a room," Luffy piped in. "Sanji and Usopp both have their own rooms." though.”
”It’s only accepted if you pair by gender, so a boy is in a room with a boy, and vice versa. Whenever there’s a new boy, they put him with Sanji or Usopp, but when they place her with Nami it’s a girl."
”I don’t mind the roommates, but most people don’t stay in this hospital for long, Nami." said.”
”Are people released a lot?" It would be great if people were often released the quicker she was out of here, the better.
”Not exactly," Usopp began but fell silent when he received a glare from Nami.
”Is this your first hospital?" asked Zoro.”
”Yes.”
The table grew quiet as glances were exchanged. An awkward tension rose in the air.
It was interrupted by a loud bell ringing in the speakers.
“Good morning, residents,” a cheerful voice announced. “Breakfast has ended, so if you haven’t finished your food, please do so while I share this set of announcements. Today is May 27th, and it’s currently raining, so unfortunately, residents are not allowed outside. It’s been 15 days without an incident, and we have a new resident, Vivi Nefertari. Please be respectful and kind; don’t repeat what happened last time. Let's aim for a great day with no incidents. All residents will now transition to free time in the common area today, and if you haven’t finished your food, you may now get up and dispose of it. Have a great day!” A cackle over the speakers concluded the announcement.
Everyone got up to throw away their food except for Nami, who gave hers to Luffy.
“Why do we all have to throw away our food?”
”Meal times are only at specific times unless staff provides you with an unopened package," Zoro explained, observing Luffy scarf down as much of Nami's uneaten food as quickly as he could could.”
“Why did you give him your food?"
”They won’t get mad at me if I give him my food, but no one else is really allowed to," she answered.”
That raised a lot of questions for Vivi, but she pushed them to the back of her mind. None of them mattered or were important; she wasn’t going to be here for long.
“Come on, roomie, I’ll show you where the common area is"
The hospital wasn’t particularly large, but it had many empty rooms and confusing hallways. The common area was located after several confusing twists and turns. Nami held Vivi’s hand as she guided her through the hospital. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach; it felt as though her heart was doing backflips. The room itself wasn’t anything extraordinary. It featured a large TV in front of a couch, along with a chair nearby. Opposite the chair was a green, well-loved bean bag.
Everyone seemed to have their specific spots. Sanji sat in the chair, Luffy sat on the couch between Zoro and Nami, and Usopp sat on the bean bag. Vivi, unsure of where to sit, chose to sit next to Nami. She wasn’t certain if it was the right decision, but it seemed to be so when Nami smiled at her. At the same time, though, Zoro glared.
"Alright, gang, what movie?" Luffy asked.
Usopp looked at Luffy daringly. "What movie? We’ve already watched them all; let's play Uno.” The others appeared rather tired, as if this were something they’d experienced a thousand times.
Zoro turned to Usopp. “I don’t want to ask for the Uno cards when we can just put the movie in ourselves."
Nami nodded. “And if we start in the next ten minutes, we’ll be able to watch the whole thing."
Luffy turned to the blonde. "Sanji, what do you think we should do?"
Sanji didn’t even glance. “I think you should leave me out of this. I don’t care what we do; I’ll be reading my book the whole time."
“That means I automatically win!"
“NO! We still have Vivi who hasn’t voted!”
Truthfully, Vivi didn’t care for either option. She figured a movie would be quieter. “Movie,” she said, plain and simple.
Usopp buried his head in his hands as Luffy jumped in victory.
Nami stopped Luffy before he could grab whichever Disney DVD he was eyeing. “Not so fast. Newbies get to pick first!”
Luffy pouted. “But the rotation was finally on my turn.”
“You made the rules, and it’ll be your turn again soon enough anyway.” She picked up the bin and plopped it down on Vivi’s lap. “Most of these are Disney movies and like a thousand years old, but there are a few good ones in here.” After digging through the old bin, Vivi found her movie: Aladdin, an old Disney film she used to watch with her mom.
”Nice choice; cars would’ve been better, but—" Nami elbowed Luffy in the stomach before he could finish his sentence, causing him to dramatically fall over on the floor. A laugh escaped Vivi's mouth as she tried to cover it with her hand. Nami smiled at the sound and blushed a little. Unbeknownst to Vivi, Zoro noticed and raised an eyebrow at her. Nami saw his raised brow and shot one back. The two seemed to be having their own private conversation apart from the group before Nami gave him a look that said, 'We’ll talk about it later,' and he went back to brooding.
Luffy fiddled with the DVD player and TV for a bit before turning it on, and the Disney fast play turned on. Immediately, everyone scrambled to push the button on the remote, practically falling over one another to smash the damn thing. Once the trailers were skipped, the remote was handed to Sanji, who was considered responsible enough to hold onto it. Everyone settled into their unassigned (assigned) spots, doing whatever they could to make themselves more comfortable. Usopp had a blanket draped over himself, while Sanji crossed his legs and paused from reading his book to glance up at the screen. Luffy leaned against Zoro, and Nami leaned onto Luffy. The three of them had overlapping blankets, creating one big comfy cover. Vivi leaned back on her armrest, enveloped in the nostalgic tune of the Disney opening.
Near the end of the movie, Sanji had completely put his book down. His gaze was fixed on Zoro, who was sleeping, slumped against his armrest, while Luffy leaned into his side, softly snoring. Usopp, though not asleep yet, could feel his eyelids growing heavy. Nami had her back against Luffy and was dozing in and out of consciousness. Sanji glanced back at her. The credits began to roll, and he stood up.
“Don’t worry about your movie choice; they fall asleep during every film they watch. After being in a routine as long as they have, they look for little ways to break it, even if it means causing a bit of trouble every now and then or dozing off during a movie.” movie.”
Vivi forgot that Sanji was the newest before her. He had only been there for a few months.
“It’s time to start waking them up so they can move on to the next thing in their schedule."
Sanji began by waking up Luffy, knowing that he could help wake the others after that. It was better this way since others didn’t mind his touch as much. Vivi started folding the blankets. Luffy, prompted by Sanji, woke up Zoro first, who preferred to stand since he didn’t like being touched much. He yawned, stretched out his arm, and nudged Nami awake. Sanji went to wake Usopp, who was sitting nearby.
The announcement system went off again for the second time that day, waking everyone up with a loud cackle of the phone.
"Good morning, patients. We should all be heading to art therapy now, unless your schedule indicates otherwise, in which case you should go there. It’s started to clear up outside, which I believe is a good sign that today will be a positive day. That's all for now; remember to take care of yourselves.
'Remember to be well?' This is a hospital, who here would be well? Vivi thought.
Vivi double-checked her card again to confirm it said art therapy before slipping it back into the pocket of her oversized hospital clothes. The walk to the art room was much quieter than the walk to the common area.
Everyone was walking down the hallway when Usopp parted ways and waved goodbye.
”Bye guys, I’ll see you all outside.”
They all waved to him. Vivi assumed it was his turn for individual therapy. Given the hospital's small population, she wasn’t surprised there weren’t many therapists. They likely took turns going at different times during various months.
When they entered the art room, everyone seemed to come alive a bit more. The art room was large and seemed designed for more residents, as there were many empty chairs and tables. Everyone once again took their seats. Luffy sat between Zoro and Nami, while Sanji sat next to Nami, leaving Vivi next to Zoro. It wasn’t that she disliked him; it felt more like he had something against her. Unlike during the free period when they were left alone, a staff member stood next to an emergency button in this room.
The staff member moved away from his post and handed everyone cut-out shapes, glue, and a large piece of paper. The shapes included three ovals, one circle, and a thin rectangle. The guard spoke. “Your assignment today is to use the shapes to create a flower. After that, you must write a positive quote next to the flower.”
Everyone picked up their glue sticks and began attaching the shapes to the paper. Sanji started by gluing down the main circle first. Zoro glued the stem on first. Luffy didn’t even look like he was doing the assignment correctly; it looked like he was goofing off, gluing things onto himself, or ripping the paper to make other shapes. Nami wasn’t following the assignment either, but not in the same way Luffy was. She appeared focused on her work. She glued the circle down and then added two petals extending from it to resemble a ladybug. For the stem, she ripped tiny little rectangles for the legs. and with another petal, she made a head. She gave Luffy all the leftover paper she didn’t use.
Vivi looked at her unfinished work, determined to make it appear as if she had put a lot of effort into it while still completing the assignment correctly. She glued the stem onto the paper first, then placed the circle on top of the end. She arranged all the petals, spacing them out perfectly so they would fit. Once she was done, she used green to color the stem, yellow for the middle part of the flower, and blue for the sky. Something was missing, though. She needed to color the petals of her flower, but what color? Her hand gravitated toward the orange crayon, and she gently shaded each of the petals. When she finished, she picked up a Sharpie and tried to think of a quote. What quote could sum up how she felt? Nothing good, that’s for sure, so she just used a popular one. When she was done, she wrote her name on the back of her paper with the Sharpie again.
By then, most of the time was up, and they were collecting the finished work. Luffy’s looked like some sort of collage. Zoro’s looked like a normal flower, but instead of a quote, he drew a picture of a middle finger. Sanji’s was a normal flower with a quote that Vivi didn’t recognize because it was in a language she didn’t understand. Nami’s was beautiful; it was a ladybug with a quote that said, "Fuck this shit." A bit vulgar for Vivi, but what was she expecting? A bell rang, and Luffy shot up. “LUNCH TIME!”
He ran down the hallway, with Zoro and Sanji right after him, probably trying to save their food. Nami stayed back with Vivi, waiting for her so they could walk together together.
“why aren’t you up ahead with them?” Vivi asked.
Nami grinned. “They’re all worried that Luffy will eat their food, but he won’t eat mine unless I tell him he can. Also, you need someone to walk with; it’s your first day.”
Vivi smiled back at her. While she didn’t need to make friends, especially not in this kind of place, she supposed she wouldn’t mind having some.
”Nami, you seem so nice. How come you’ve been here for so long?”
Nami’s smile faltered a bit. It wasn’t a pleasant story. “I’m in and out of this place; sometimes I’ll go to other locations, but I always get transferred back here.”
Vivi noticed that it was a sore subject. There was a shift in the air, and an awkward silence followed. The chilly mood continued until they arrived at the café.
Usopp had his arms crossed over his food, and Zoro’s looked like it had already been attacked. Sanji and Luffy were bickering when Nami and Vivi got there.
Both girls went to grab their trays and sat down. Nami took her place next to Zoro and dropped her tray—not high enough for any food to fall out, but loud enough to make a racket. One look seemed to calm the two bickerers.
“NAMI! Are you going to eat all your food?” Luffy asked.
”YOU FREAK! SHE JUST SAT DOWN! LET HER TAKE A BITE FIRST!” Sanji shouted.
Nami laughed, picking bits of food from her tray to give to Luffy.
Sanji grumbled something and rolled his eyes. Luffy happily chewed away at his new food. Usopp and Vivi both laughed. Even Zoro, as tough as he seemed, let out a small chuckle.
No announcement yet. Who the hell was running this thing anyway? Vivi thought. She looked down at her food. She wasn’t hungry, but she needed to eat a bit. The meal consisted of macaroni with grapes on the side. Nami had given away most of her macaroni and was eating most of the grapes, leaving only a few bites of the main course for herself. Vivi wondered if anyone else noticed that, or if it was just an unspoken thing. She began making her way through her meal in a specific order—macaroni first, then grapes. She was very particular about such things. Everyone ate in comfortable silence, probably because Luffy was too busy trying and failing to sneak bites from other people's plates.
The announcement rang through again. “Good morning, residents! It is currently near the end of lunch. I suggest you start finishing your food as you hear this. After this, you will all have outside time unless you have therapy next; in that case, you can start heading down there. Under no circumstances should there be any problems during outside time. Please don’t make me take it away again; I didn’t want to, and you all didn’t like it gone. Have a great rest of your day, and please start throwing away your food now.”
Nami hadn’t finished her food. She had a few heaps left and most of her macaroni uneaten on her plate. Not wanting to be wasteful, she shoved the rest in Luffy’s direction, but she could feel Zoro’s judgmental gaze on her. She shit him a glare in return, and he rolled his eyes, dropping it.
They all walked together outside, with two nurses following behind them. Both were carrying laptops and some folders, planning to get some work done while watching the kids. At some point, Sanji broke off from the group to attend his individual therapy session. It was a quiet send-off: a grunt from Zoro, a loud “BYE!” from Luffy, a big wave from Usopp, and a smaller wave from Nami. Vivi just smiled at him as he walked away.
When they got outside, it was a large area. The fences were tall and had no gaps. Because of their height and smoothness, they were impossible to climb. The grass was green but clearly artificial. The sky was bright blue on a sunny day, with hardly a cloud in sight.
Luffy picked up a kickball. "Let’s play!" They barely had enough players, but they made it work. Luffy was the pitcher, Zoro was at first base, Nami was at second, and Usopp was at third.
“Newbies kick first; show us what you’ve got,” Luffy said while assigning everyone their positions. The roster went from newest to oldest, with Luffy being the last kicker and Usopp following him.
Luffy wound his arm back and then swung it forward, launching the ball in Vivi’s direction. Vivi kicked the ball as hard as she could and started running. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, dodging tag attempts and keeping on. Then she was stopped. People were cheering her name, and Nami was clapping. She looked stunning, her shirt sleeves rolled up, revealing freckles on her shoulders. She was jumping up and down.
”You did it, Vivi! You scored a point!"
Everyone congratulated her on getting a point. Then, the assigned roles switched. Luffy was on first, Zoro was pitching, Nami was at third, and Usopp was kicking. He ran but was tagged out, although it was close. Eventually, everyone got a turn kicking and pitching. Vivi found herself actually enjoying it, laughing with the other residents. She smiled as the nurses looked up from their work occasionally, offering smiles to the teens.
The bell rang again after time flew by (way too fast, in Vivi’s opinion), and she knew what was coming next. The others ran ahead to whatever they were doing afterward. Except for Nami.
“You have an individual after this, " she said. Her tone was more like an “I know” than a “ask.” Vivi nodded. She was nervous.
“Let me walk you down there I know the way.” Vivi smiled at the redhead and let her lead the way.
Standing in front of those doors made everything feel too real—how she got there, being there, and what her future there was going to be. Nami gripped her hand and gave her an "I got your back" look. She took a deep breath in and out and knocked on the door.