#also the pirate au was really good too

[simplykorra]

thanks for calling out @sunsafewriting for all of us 😅 girl me too i've been trying!

lol i fully understand that sometimes circumstances and busy schedules and just flat out losing your creative momentum can totally happen - whatever the case may be, i totally respect them taking time off

that being said, i will let them know as often as possible that do a flip and the other fics set within it are incredible and whenever they're ready to come back, we're all here and ready to eat it up

[oops-its-a-fanwork]

Just got a notification for 500 likes! Thank you for all who leave a little like, and especially thank you to those who leave tags or comments! It's nice to see people enjoying what I make :)💖 I will start scheduling some reblogs at some point, since I do not have any finished new posts. I am working on some things though! just very slowly due to other things in my life ;)

[where-does-the-heart-lie]

ASL brothers HAIKYUU!! AU!!!!!

Day one of Self Indulgent month for me! I love these three, i love haikyuu, i love killer whales!

(The Naval Academy is this au’s version of marines)

For those who dont know, in Haikyuu (and prob in real life too but in my experience its not as important as they make it in the anime) The "Ace" of the team is the person who primarily scores points via spiking. Theyre the Hard Hitter, basically.

Design talk👇

Originally, i was gonna make their school mascot just "The Pirates" but i couldnt figure out a clever pun with the school name so i scrapped it in favor of an animal mascot. I figured I would have a wider range of puns that way.

I landed on Orcas as the mascot because I think they really embody a pirate way of life. Theyre strong, hang out in groups of a mix of found family and their actual family, hate the rich, and theyre fun loving! And also im a bit biased because theyre my favorite animal, but hey, i said its self indulgent month, didnt I?

Their school name is a play on the word for Killer Whale (Shachi シャチ) and the word for 'knowledge' (Chishiki 知識), i just smashed the two words together. I'm very proud of myself for coming up with that given i dont speak japanese at all.

Anyway, with their designs, I was taking inspiration from orcas to match the design themes of haikyuu. Ace's hair is bleached on the underside to look like the underside of an orca's body, I made ace and sabo's eyes look more whale-like, the clip in sabo's hair is meant to resemble to spots behind orca's eyes, and I tried to make luffy's hair look more like it's round and spiking down more than i usually do.

Ace is wearing a ''way of the ace" shirt in the first picture, Luffy is wearing a shirt that just says "VOLLEY BALL" because i think it would be funny if he wore a bunch of those Zero-context-poorly-translated-random-english-words shirts that theres a bunch of in Asia. Sabo dyes his hair like delinquents do, but it doesnt much look delinquent~y because of how soft it looks. He means to do it to make him look like a delinquent though. Sabo still has his scars in this au, but he uses his hair, arm braces, and leg braces to cover them up. LUFFY AND ACE HAVE FUNKY SOCKS BECAUSE NO ONE CAN TELL THEM (or me) THEY CANT. Sabo wears athletic socks though because he's a debbie downer. He defends himself saying “It’s practical” and Ace and luffy call him “practically a Debbie Downer.”

Luffy is very good at receiving from growing up with Sabo and Ace practicing setting and spiking with eachother and assigning Luffy as Ball Boy. So he got the libero position from that cuz sabo and ace put in a good word for him. Nepotism.

I didn't feel like coming up with designs for them, but Zoro and Bepo are also on their team (theyre in the fifth image sitting on the right of the line of students). Koala and nami are student managers, Robin is the teacher manager, and Franky is the coach. all other straw hats/luffy friends, rev army comrades, and whitebeard brethren are in the stands. Im trying to keep the ages consistent with how they are in canon.

I didnt do a very in depth research, but i couldnt find what Japanese schools have as mascot costumes. and given no one wears any costumes in haikyuu for their team, i can kind of assume they dont use them over there. But unfortunately for them, I'm American. And part of the backbone of our schooling system, is Vaguely Unsettling Mascot Costumes. My sister says my design for it looks like its from Club Penguin, and i find that delightful. [moment of silence for my billions of fallen Puffles, taken from me in The Shutdown] Anyway.

I thought I was clever coming up with the equivalent of the Marines in this au being a Naval Academy. And their mascot being Seals, famously the animal that gets the absolute Worst Of It from orcas. Get shit onnnnn

I believe thats about it, thanks for coming to my ted talk :)

[diminuel]

This was kind of my Stinky Child AU concept.

(It was first supposed to be part of the Kuja Empress comics so Croc was supposed to go by "Vanille" in this AU, the transition to Sir Crocodile happening much later. But I changed my mind at the last moment before posting the Ace meeting Luffy comic I guess X'D Who knows if I might change my mind again as this is a Work in Progress and some of you might have good input into it too. But this is where my mind's at now:)

Crocodile makes a sharp distinction between who he is as a pirate and who he thinks he has to be to safely raise Luffy. Nobody can know who he is. I imagine that actually raising Luffy was an unexpected decisions because he simply couldn't let him go so he and Dragon changed plans.

Crocodile tries hard to present in a certain way in Windmill Village, which is why we see him with make up and feminine clothes when he's interacting with Dadan and Makino. When it's just Dragon his clothing is more gender neutral (I guess?? he's definitely not wearing a push up bra, not that boobs in One Piece obey the laws of gravity) and he doesn't wear make up.

He'll gradually stop trying so hard when he learns that the people of Windmill Village don't judge if he doesn't conform to the idea he has about how a woman/ mother should present and they especially keep quiet about the most wanted man living among them. They'll do the same about a Warlord. He'll eventually be "baba" to the kids and not mom.

(Also, I don't know what Iva's involvement is. Since it's a gradual process, Iva might just help along a little bit? I don't know~

Additional note: I don't think Crocodile really struggles with dysphoria in this AU. That doesn't mean he's at ease with the concepts of womanhood and motherhood he attempts to live up to.)

Thoughts, input, objections, tomatoes?

(Edit: alright!! I gave him his fur coat back! *lol* Here's a little comic about why he might not have a coat!)

[that1notetaker]

HERE COMES ZOLU GOD AU WITH A STEELCHAIR!!!!! Lore below!

(In which everything is the same except Luffy was 'born' as a god-like entity and grew copying the people of his island.

He basically copied and pasted human (and some non human) behaviors, especially kids (i'm looking at the ASL brothers.) until whatever blob of energy he was, turned into something resembling human. (See how luffy is kind of a physical mix between sabo and ace? yeah. he took inspiration)

He's the manifestation of freedom, but he also made up the personality we know and love, as kids do. He's 18 when some weird three sworded demon gets deployed by some mercenaries of the island who want to get rid of the really weird devil fruit user that keeps breaking havoc and getting in their way. Zoro just came for a simple job and got a handful of Sun god. Good for him. Also, because this au is basically a What If scenario in which everything but Luffy is the same, you can assume that finding the one piece is ON the table. Being a pirate and finding the crew is ON the table. It just takes a couple extra years, give or take. I'm thinking that there's a reason why Luffy hasn't left the island already, but Zoro is, ironically enough, the one to push him to go and go crazy at sea. Also, because Zoro never got to meet Luffy early on, he's a little extra grumpier. He has no friends basically and his life's purpose is kinda a bit stranded at the moment. He's been picking up odd jobs for some time now and it's gotten old. He's losing his edge and he hates it. And then he meets ITS FREE REAL STATE himself. Huzzah. Ps: Yeah the world government knows about Luffy. Kinda. They've been ignoring him and praying/hoping/begging to whatever god is out there that he DOESNT GET OUT. Too bad.)

[mister-mickey]

HALLOWEEN HEADCANONS (modern au) (Tw- drinking)

Darry

- wasn’t going to dress up because he was focused on other things, but pony and soda convinced him to dress up as Superman and he really enjoyed it

- he spent the early parts of the night handing out popcorn balls to trick or treaters, but later on he went to a Halloween party with Tim and Twobit

- At the party he got super drunk and ate a bunch of peach rings. Tim had to drag him home (which was insanely difficult for many reasons)

Soda

- dressed up as a cowboy, he actually took a long time getting his costume how he wanted it. He def goes all out for Halloween

- he helped Darry with the trick or treaters, but left early to go to a different party with Steve

- At HIS party, he didn’t really get drunk, but he had the time of his life babysitting Steve. At some point, Steve passed out and soda just sat next to him in the floor and ate chocolate and drank punch

Pony

- he wasn’t going to go all out, but soda wanted him to. So pony ended up dressed as a werewolf

- he and johnny went around town looking at peoples costumes and giggling. Later in the night, they got scared by Dallas who chased them through a field with a knife

- when Dallas was done harassing them, he gave them the candy he stole from some kids and disappeared into the night, pony and Johnny went home and watched scary movies with their new candy

Johnny

- Johnny dresses up as the same thing every year: himself. However, this year soda got out some fake blood and made him a little greaser vampire, and Johnny was giddy

- he hung out with pony most of the night, not trick or treating because they both felt too old, but just soaking everything in. Dallas chased after them with a knife, which was scary but he gave them candy so Johnny forgave him.

- all in all, it was a great Halloween for Johnny! He ate chocolate and watched Carrie with his bff and he’d do it all again

Dallas

- you might think he isn’t the type to dress up, but you would be wrong. He’s the type that LOVES to buy a cheap ghostface costume and scare girls, and that’s what he did

- he chased many, many, MANY people, ending with Johnny and pony because he couldn’t resist. He went to a few parties, but they weren’t wild enough for his tastes. He made fun of Tim while Tim was trying to drag Darry home, but regretted it when twobit tackled him

- he spent the rest of the night at the Curtis house eating candy and drawing on everyone that fell asleep

Twobit

- he took his sister trick or treating dressed as a wolf (she was little red riding hood) and guilt tripped many houses into giving him candy as well

- he got Tim and Darry to come to a Halloween party with him and they had a good time until he and darry got too drunk for their own good. Tim (also drunk) was roped into being the babysitter. When dally joined the group, twobit decided he deserved to get tackled

- when tim finally got them both at Darry’s house, twobit immediately started in on his Halloween candy and ended up getting incredibly sick. He passed out sometime after three am

Steve

- he did NOT want to dress up but soda made him and Steve ended up as a a bottle of mustard (soda was going to be the ketchup but he forgot so Steve is just mustard by himself). Steve came to the Curtis house to pick him up for the party and they had a blast!!!

- soda didn’t drink, but Steve did. He ended the night with his head in sodas lap while soda ran his fingers through his hair (Steve was too dizzy to stand)

- eventually, Steve woke up in sodas bed with him, both of them still in their Halloween costumes. Steve went straight back to sleep with a smile on his face

Tim

- Tim is the one that REFUSES to ever dress up. The last time he dressed up he was like seven (he was a pirate). He hasn’t trick or treated since then either because he thinks he’s too old for it.

- he made sure curly and Angela had plans for the night and then left to go to a party with Twobit and Darry. He proceeded to get absolutely shitfaced and was having a great time. Until he and his bros didn’t really want to stay any longer, then he realized that navigating a party (with two guys taller and heavier than you, and drunk) while you’re drunk is… difficult. He managed to get them outside when Dallas started making fun of him. They all ended so going to Darry’s house

- Tim passed tf out and woke up on the kitchen floor with a marker mustache

Angela

- she dressed up as an angel (obviously) and went to a party with her friends. She lied to Tim about it because he didn’t want her going to any parties.

- she was having a good time until she saw Tim at the party. Even if he was totally wasted, she was NOT sticking around and snuck away. She got home and hung out with curly

- her and curly ate candy and watched children of the corn

Curly

- he dressed up as Batman because I like to headcanon that he really likes Batman. He didn’t trick or treat, he mostly just harassed little kids all night. He egged dallys car and decided the night was over when he almost got run over

- he went home, poured his candy out on the coffee table, and ate it while watching tv. It wasn’t until Angela got home that they put something in to watch together. Curly have never seen children of the corn, but he was freaked out fs

- he woke up warm and cozy on the couch with Angela

[m00neroni]

in response to your latest reblog re: popular fics, are there any lesser known fics you'd recommend? I feel like every tiktok or tumblr rec list is full of the same stuff now... preferably on the medium to long side (90k+)

oh, hi, nonnie! love this ask because I love yapping about fics! it feels like my moment! let's see, 90k+ directly from my very messy bookmarks that are, in my opinion, highly underrated:

(The yapping got too long, sorry)

Precious Love by AdrianManwaring: Remus and Sirius, upon moving to a new city, are called to become foster parents. Really lovely story about family and finding a place in the world. (kid fic-adoption. established wolfstar. 188k.)

call it fate, call it karma by veridity: Sirius wants to make an entire corrupt empire fall down and recruits Remus, a journalism student with a big sense for justice and his sworn enemy since, probably, day 1. A personal favourite, highly highly recommended. (university au. journalism. 103k)

Harry Potter and the Dog and The Wolf Series by thewholeofthemoon (on-going, main story finished): The Full Moon doesn't fall during the Shack reunion, so Peter never escapes and things adjust according to it. I always recommend this series for a reason. One of my favourite wolfstar. I've reread it several times. (fix-it/canon rewrite. 605k)

Second Generation Series by @languagelessonswolfstar: Teddy is found in a broom closet with his boyfriend, Leo, who happens to be Sirius' kid. When their parents are called into school, things get a bit awkward, considering they are exes. Completely obsessed with this fic and this dynamic and the pain.

Glorified Foresight by irrelevanttous: Remus comes back to England with the promise of Wolfsbane and has to face his previous life, very pissed off with him ex lover included. This fic is such a fucking rollercoaster. It also has one of my favourite magical battle scenes so !! (kinda enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers again! and a mystery! canon divergence. 157k)

How Long 'Til My Sould Gets It Right by @severedreamerfox: Remus and Sirius try to build a life together while they stay at Grimmauld Place. But destiny has its surprises, ones better than others. If you know me, you know how much I love krabapple's fics, but this will probably always be my favourite, not only of hers but of any fic ever. Highly recommended. (bring back black. mpreg. 88k)

The World Is Waiting For You by thechanchanman: Lily and Remus participate in a reality show around the world. Their main rivals happen to become more than that at quick speed, but first, they need to win the race. Very light funny and lovely story if you need fluff in your life. (amazing race au. 92k)

couple more, this time shorter:

Ullswater by @eyra: Winter term at the Ullswater Institute. Lots of classical music, pining and just, so lovely. (university au. 30k)

Let Me Get What I Want (This Time) by Sierra_Sitruc: Teen Sirius starts having visions that seem from a different life. Personal favourite, right at the top and brilliant concept. (canon divergence/fix-it. 69k)

The Adventures of Captain Sirius Black and His Most Excellent Dragon Padfoot by OptimisticDinosaur: Sirius is a pirate who, somehow, gets adopted by a lovely dragon and fights a war alongside a very grumpy Remus. They fall in love while on it. THE DRAGONS !!!! THE ACTION !!! just so good (historical fantasy. 37k)

The Killing Time (unwillingly mine) by @kaaaaaaarf: Sirius loves getting engaged to lame and insufficient men, so Remus takes matters into his own hands. I love this fic so much I went down a rabbit hole of making all my friends read it, so trust my delirium. (murder husbands. 17k)

9 Months by @billspaid: Lily is expecting, and these are the nine months of her journey. Such an amazing and heartwarming fic from such an amazing and talented friend. Any of her works is brilliant, but this one will always be my favourite. (pregnancy fic. 32k.)

Blood Sugar Sex Moony by @emeryhall: Sirius and Remus from 1981 London are magically deposited in 1995 Sunnydale High, with its cliques and a bit of murder. The concept of this fic is the coolest thing ever I devoured it in a day !! (canon divergence. 63k)

Step & Repeat by @theresthesnitch: In which Remus accepts to be famous actor Sirius' fake boyfriend, they platonically share bed and live in a lovely denial. I want to remark not only the amazing writing and story but also the media content used in the fic, because it is such a brilliant work it needs to be addressed. (fake dating au. 62k)

Best Friend's Wedding by amberlink: Sirius is in love with James. But James is marrying Lily. So Sirius has a plan to get James back, and it involves Remus. What can go wrong? An absolute masterpiece of pining and bad decisions. (fake dating au. 61k)

drop your recs too if you want!!

[mambodork]

Hi, me again! In the buttercup HOA au, does Grian need to eat in his code bodies? Or is he like one of Martyn's lore Watchers where he only feeds off of emotions? Or maybe every time he makes a new body, he cannibalizes the code of the old one if Scar doesn't need it for snacking? I assume Scar eats normally with the exception of occasional flesh, and Mumbo, being a sort of parasite, either can make his host eat to sustain himself or just slowly eats the host and changes them every once in a while.

Also is there a reason Grian needs to keep making new bodies, like the code can only hold itself together for a short while before it starts decaying, or maybe because he can't eat it starts to die and that'd why he builds new ones?

I did not, in fact, find motivation to write anything today because my roommates distracted me with watching pirates of the carribean, but the ideas have been bouncing around in my brain all day long.

Anyways, sorry for the ramble can you tell I'm obsessed with your aus <3

In concern of Grian eating... I really like Martyn's interpretation of it with the watchers feeding off of emotions. Would also explain why Grian loves to make games and pranks all the time since he primarily feeds on positive emotions. Although I do believe his primary reason is always to make his friends happy, the benefit of being able to absorb their happiness for his own gain is an added bonus. I like to think the more emotions he gets, the more powerful he can be. Meanwhile, if he doesn't get enough to feed, he'll just dwindle out and fade back to become part of the universe.

My headcanon for the Watchers are that they're the main force to drive the world so it can continue living by making things interesting. Consider it like a book or a movie or even a game. Nobody would play it if nothing good happens, and if they stopped playing, the world within that game would just stop altogether. This is the primary worldbuilding I use when using the concept of minecraft inherently being a game as their actual world. The watchers are creatures created by the universe to keep it going by rousing powerful emotions like sadness, grief, or happiness. In this note, I am also a firm "the watcher's are morally grey" believer. They simply have their own goals and do what it takes to get it.

I think you're quite spot on with Scar and Mumbo's way of feeding! Mumbo is definitely a parasite and I agree with the fact that he makes his host eat for him to eat aswell.

As for Grian's body, my current headcanon of it at the moment is that unlike normal players who treat the world as real life and bodies, etc, as organic, Grian has ascended when he became a watcher and could see the world as what it truly is (code, for simplicity). As such, he treats his body and how he uses it more like an actual minecraft skin. Normal rules of real life and logic that ground a player also don't really apply that much to him now.

For why he has to change it every few days or so... I just think that Grian is just too weak or simply doesn't know that much about code yet to make a sustaining body (think of him like a highschool intern developer that's still learning how to code). I like to think that Grian's current bodies are being held together by duct tape and glue 😭 he doesn't really know what he's doing yet, hence the body malfunctioning or just simply disintegrating back to the universe's code (at this point, he would just give the body to Scar for him to snack on. Just because it's all useless code to him doesn't mean that it's not organic fresh meat for Scar). I also like your suggestion on the body decaying because it couldn't eat... maybe this can also be integrated since the entire organic world & code stuff is separated much like the 4th and 5th dimensions. It would SEEM that the body is rotting due to lack of nutrition, but it could also be a code error on Grian's part, who knows :3

Tysm for the interesting questions and ideas !! These are all just my headcanons atm and you're free to take anything you want from it, or not use them at all ! Again, I really appreciate it that you're willing to expand on this world lol <3 take your time on it !

[yournightmary]

Loser!Ellie HCs

content warning:: fem!reader, modern!AU

AN:: first time writing, literally scared shitless🔥 english isn’t my native language🙏

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who made a pasta recipe once (probably from instagram reels), and became a self-appointed master chef. Forgot about the fact that it took her 3 tries to even cook the pasta.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who can’t stop saying flavor instead of scent. She just genuinely doesn’t see the difference.

“What flavor do you want?” she asks you while holding up two colorful packs of wax melts. She bought a wax burner and used it to melt chocolate so she can have chocolate covered fruit anytime she wants. Used it 2 times total.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who vapes. I’m sorry but that’s the truth. She just loves to puff on her cute little mixed berries disposable. Also, keeps saying she can quit anytime she wants, she can’t.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who uses axe body spray. If someone asks about it she just says it works better, but she actually likes the scent. Kind of her guilty pleasure.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who hated on the sims franchise her whole life only to find out you’re a fan. She pirated the whole series (DLCs and all) off of some russian website in one night. Got like 20 different viruses but at least her girl could play the sims 2 happily.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who is terrible at foreign languages yet has a duolingo streak that over 500 days. She knows how to say ‘the apple is red’ in german and can barely pronounce her order in mexican restaurants.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who is chronically online. Constantly posting shit to her insta stories, sending you tik toks 24/7 and all that stuff. One time she got so invested in a facebook group drama that she didn’t reply to your texts for the whole day.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who wears the most unfunny-funny shirts you can imagine. Stuff like ‘women want me, fish fear me’ and ‘eat, sleep, game, repeat’. And they’re always either way too big or way too small.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who always said she doesn’t want any pets, that it’s too much of a commitment for her… Then she found the ugliest kitten she’s ever seen on the street and took it home without thinking. Let you choose the name but calls him ‘stinky’ no matter what. Like mother, like daughter.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who couldn’t tie her shoes until she was 15. That’s it.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who is so lovestruck for you that I can’t even explain it. She’ll always do the cheesiest things possible, like standing before your house with roses, a bluetooth speaker and a promposal poster or bringing you every little thing she found on her walk that ‘reminded her of you’.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who doesn’t like to go out on dates. She’d rather stay at home with you, watch a movie, make dinner together (you’ll be the only one actually cooking), maybe paint something or just spend time together doing nothing… Would really enjoy a date at the planetarium though.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ loser!Ellie who is a total yapper. Can and will talk about anything and everything for hours on end. And if you mention an interest of hers? Oh god, get ready to see a powerpoint presentation about it. Literally the definition of ‘☝️🤓’ but in a good way.

I’m so scared to post this it’s not even funny☠️ Hope you liked it <3

[eand47]

Chapter II | Compass

Summary: You moved to one of the biggest cities in the world - Grand Line to pursue filmmaking career. Soon enough your path will cross with the vocalist of upcoming band called “The Neighbourhood”. At first you decided to be just friends - because it would be easier, but sadly as everything in life sometimes by taking the easy path we regret a lot of things.

Main characters: Portgas D Ace x Reader (female)

Supporting characters: Nami, Usopp, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Law, Deuce, Shanks, Buggy, Sabo, Eustass Kid, Koala (more to be add)

Description: Modern AU | Musician Ace

WARNINGS: sexual harassment, mention of alcohol and drinking, explicit language, self doubt

Word Count: 10.1K

<- previous chapter

NOTE: I really hope you guys like this chapter as I was surprised by myself and the fact that I was able to write 16 pages of material for it. I promise you soon there will be a lot of Ace x Reader moments, as of right now I want to establish a steady tempo of how things will go between them for the future, and also introduce you a little bit of the Reader’s already established relationships with certain characters. I recommend you listening to the song “Compass” by The Neighbourhood (the real ones hehe) when you get to the moment where they will sing it. Please feel free to leave a feed back as it’s important to me. I re-read it like six times now, and I hope that I have fixed all the spelling and grammatical mistakes, but again English is not my first language so I’m sorry if some things are unclear, let me know so I can fix it. Also if you haven’t seen “Fantastic Mr. Fox” I recommend the movie as bot only you will understand the references better, but because it’s an amazing movie. Enjoy <3333

PS: this is what the gesture from the movie looks like for those of you who haven’t seen it, as I’m afraid that I might not describe it good enough.

I’ve reached the street where “The Red Pirates” was located. I was taken aback for a moment when I saw how big of a queue was in front of the entrance. The bar was not very big, but it was quite spacious, and the vibe overall was a mix of underground place with a hint of an old rock and roll bar. One thing Shanks knew how to do best was making the most out of things. His cheerful and charismatic persona knew how to lure people around him, so it was no surprise to anyone when he made this place quite popular in this aera of the Grand Line city. At the end of every month, he invites well-known local bands to perform and usually it gets sold out, but I have never seen such a queue in front of it like the one tonight.

As I got closer, I noticed most of the people in the queue were around my age. The place was more known among people around their middle age, but I guessed from what Nami and Usopp told me I shouldn’t be surprised that there were so many young people here tonight. By the entrance were standing Beckman and Lucky Roux – a big smile appeared on my face when I saw them.

“Beckman, Lucky!” I shouted as I ran and hug them.

“Here is the real star of the night” Lucky lifted me off the ground as he squeezed me in a tight hug.

“Shanks is putting you to work tonight, huh?” Beckman patted me on the shoulder as he laughed at the face I made when he mentioned it.

“Please don’t mention it!” I whined. “On top of it my friends are going to be here, as apparently one of their friends is a brother of two of the guys in the band, so they all be having fun while I just watch behind the bar.”

“Oh, cheer up, beautiful.” Lucky chuckled at me. “At least we are here – if someone gives you trouble at the bar just let us know.” He cracked his knuckles with a grin on his face.

“(Y/N)” I heard someone shouting out my name behind me. Beckman, Lucky and I turned our heads to see who it was.

“Nami, Usopp” I called them as I gestured them to come. “I thought you are already in.”

“Well, someone here took too much time to get ready.” Usopp nodded his head at Nami, and she rolled her eyes at him. She was dressed stylish as per usual – with a dotted colourful bodysuit imitating bathing suit, a long denim skirt with some sparkling belts on top. Her long ginger hair let down nicely. Usopp was wearing a knitted light grey coloured sleeveless top – showing off his biceps, with some dark greyish baggy jeans. Two silver necklaces – one thicker than the other on his neck, his head was cover in one of his many durags that he owned – his look slaying as well.

“Anyway.” She looked at me. “Can you get us in, as we don’t want to wait on the queue, plus Luffy and the rest are waiting for us.” She grabbed my hand, squeezing it in hers.

“Yeah, of course.” I turned back to Beckman and Lucky. “Please, please, please these are my friends I told you about, please, please, let them skip the queue.” I childishly begged them, as Beckman shook his head at me with a smile and Lucky chuckled.

“We don’t need this whole performance to just let them in, you know?” Beckman said as he removed the rope that was stopping people to go in, letting Nami, Usopp. Some people in the queue complained how this wasn’t fare, but no one really paid attention to them.

“I know, but I have to be dramatic.” I stuck my tongue at them, we were about to go in when both Beckman and Lucky stopped Usopp and held him on the spot. Nami and I looked at each other confused of why they would stop him.

“You fella look oddly familiar.” Lucky said, as he eyed Usopp from the head to toes. “Any chance being related to Yassop?”

“Y-yes...” Usopp stuttered as he heard his dad’s name being mentioned. Even as absent father he has always found a way to cause his son problems.

“How so?” Beckman asked, intimidating Usopp even more.

“H-he is my f-father.” Usopp was ready to take whatever punches Beckman and Lucky were going to throw at him, as it won’t be the first time this would happen.

“Ha, I’ve heard his son is like a copy of him, but damn Yassop was working overtime when he was making you.” Lucky snorted out loudly as they let go of Usopp and patted him on the back. “Say ‘hello’ to your dad from us.”

“S-sure I will.” Usopp muttered as he glanced at them when they let him pass, the look of irritation visible on his face.

“Are you, okay Usopp?” I knew his relationship with his dad was very complicated and he hated to be reminded how much he looked like him. I knew that Beckman and Lucky didn’t mean to offend him, but they hit a nerve. I glanced back at them as they were back to stopping and letting people in.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Maybe I will be better if I don’t look so much like my dad.” He shook his head trying to forget what just happened. “Let’s go find Luffy, plus I really need a drink right now.” He said as he started to walk ahead of us. Nami and I just looked at each other without saying anything, knowing that he would need a minute to cool down.

“You haven’t forgotten about the free drinks, right?” Nami nudged me.

“Even if I did, I was sure you were going to remind me.” I nudged her back. “Anyway, I need to go and change – see you in a bit. Just find me somewhere by the bar and only order to me so you don’t have to pay.” We hugged each other and then I headed to the back of the bar where the staff entrance was. I was struggling to reach it, as there were so many people inside. I couldn’t remember to have seen this place so full before and knowing how many more people were waiting outside was stressing me out already. I reached the staff door, and as I was about to open it, when someone literally kicked it in my face and if I didn’t react fast, I was probably going to end up with a broken nose. I looked at the person in disbelief.

“You can say sorry at least, asshole.” I got even more pissed when I saw who it was.

“Watch where you stand spoiled brat.” He replied with the same annoyance.

Perfect, not only it was going to be a long and a busy night, but on top of it I must work with the biggest jerk I have ever met - Eustass Kid. Till this day I couldn’t get why Shanks kept him around, when they didn’t even get along; yet every time I’ve asked Shanks why, his reply was the same ‘He is the best bartender I have.’

I was going down the stairs towards where the ‘changing’ room was – if I could even call it that. It was the space downstairs where they store everything – from the drinks to the staff lockers. I started to take off my hoodie as I was still pissed from my encounter with Kid. I didn’t even pay attention that there were three guys sitting on the sofas, where the lockers were, until one of them didn’t clear his throat. I slowly turned around, the shocked look on my face from the embarrassment clearly visible on my face. They were trying their best not to look at me while I was standing in front of them with my bra on.

“I guess no one told you that we will be down here.” The blond guy that cleared his throat said awkwardly as he was trying to avoid looking at me. The other two – a black short-haired guy who was wearing a simple black tank top and a silver neckless, with tattoos covering his entire body and dark jeans; and the other one on his left side – with the light blue coloured hair, who was wearing glasses with a thick black frames dressed, in a dark blue t-shirt with some dark blue oversized jeans, were both looking away.

“Yeah, this little detail was clearly missed.” I covered my front with my hoodie. “D-do you mind turning around so I can quickly put m-my work shirt on?” I was trying not to die from embarrassment, avoiding looking at them.

“Of course, don’t worry we won’t be looking.” The blonde quickly said, as they all just turned their heads to the side not looking my way. I quickly changed and excused myself as I ran upstairs embarrassed of what has just happened.

*******

They all looked at each other and laughed.

“Poor girl I actually feel bad for her.” Deuce said.

“Yeah, I bet she wasn’t expecting to see anyone here.” Law agreed with him. They all laughed again as Ace came back from upstairs, caring with himself some bottles of cold water.

“Did I miss something?” He looked at the guys confused.

“Yeah, they got us a stripper, but she ran off after she saw Law’s ugly face.” Sabo burst out laughing as Law pushed him from the edge of the sofa.

“The only ugly face here is yours, you morron.” Law and Sabo started to wrestle and mess around, and Ace looked even more confused, as he threw a bottle of water to Deuce to caught.

“Are they for real? They really got us a stripper?” Ace sat next to Deuce as he opened his bottle to drink some water, watching his brother messing with Law. Deuce only shook his head and chuckled.

“One of the girls working here came, and she didn’t notice us as she was clearly pissed about something, she started to change in front of us without realising and when she realised it became quite award for everyone.” Deuce quickly explained to him.

“Was she hot?” Ace playfully raised his eyebrow.

“Your type for sure.” Sabo said as he sat back on the sofa looking at his brother with a smirk. “If you haven’t smashed recently ...” Sabo didn’t get to finish his sentence as Law slapped him with behind the neck. “Ouch what was this for?” he winced looking at Law.

“Have some manners man.” Law scolded him.

“Come on, it was just a joke.” Sabo tried to defend himself. Ace and Deuce were just observing them not saying anything, as this was Law and Sabo’s usual dynamic.

“Don’t worry bro, if I want to smash, I don’t need a wingman” Ace chuckled at Sabo.

“You sure? You are quite grumpy lately; I can always ask Koala to hock you up with one of her girlfriends.” Sabo continued to tease Ace, as Ace just rolled his eyes at him.

“Again, I don’t need you or your girlfriend as a wingman.”

“Law what about you? You are even grumpier than Ace.” Sabo turned to Law with a teasing grin, as Law glared at him without saying anything.

“What’s with you and playing a wingman tonight?” Deuce asked Sabo, as Sabo was clearly in the mood to annoy his bandmates.

“I just care about your well beings’ guys. You know if I can help for your happiness I would gladly do it.” He tried to play innocent, but the guys knew him too way, he just wanted to mess with them.

“Where is Koala, by the way? Is she not coming tonight?” Ace asked his brother, his girlfriend Koala never missed their performances and usually hung up with them before they start playing.

“Ohh she is coming a little bit later tonight as one of her girlfriends has a birthday today, and they are out celebrating.” Sabo and Koala have been together for five years now. They had met in high school, and from the start Koala had massive crush on Sabo, which later grew to having stronger feelings for him. Koala tried to keep all these feelings bottled up, until the night when Ace had thrown a ‘goodbye’ party for his brother, who was going away to college. She drank so much alcohol that night to gain courage to confess to him, only to end up in the bathroom floor, hugging the toilet while Sabo was there by her side running gentle circles on her back, as all the alcohol was coming back. While he was in there with her, making sure that she will be alright, she looked at him in the eyes and ‘I love you’ slipped from her lips before her mind could even procced it. Sabo didn’t have much time to react as she threw up again. The next morning Koala just woke up in Sabo’s room, not really remembering anything, but from that night on their relationship started as Sabo decided to not go to college in another city but stay in Grand Line so he can be close to Koala. And till this day Sabo haven’t regrated the decision he took – not only he was with the girl that he has been in love with since they met, but he also got the chance to do music, something he has always loved, with his brother and friends by his side.

“Oh, that is why you are playing a wingman.” Deuce chuckled at Sabo. “I’m also single, why don’t you play my wingman?” Deuce clenched his fist up to his heart pretending to be hurt by Sabo’s decision to ask only Ace and Law. Ace snorted at Deuce and his little “act”.

“Sorry man, but you don’t match the birthday girl’s type.” Sabo put his arms in the air as he was helpless to help his friend.

“What’s her type then?” Ace mocked his brother and his pathetic attempts to play Cupidon.

“Guys, don’t mock the messenger.” Sabo tried to defend himself. “Koala told me loud and clearly – ask Ace, if Ace plays hard, ask Law.” He mimicked his girlfriend voice and gestures. “I guess her friend type is grumpy dark-haired dudes.” He mocked his brother and Law.

“Well Ace, you were the first choice not me - so good luck with the ‘birthday’ girl.” Law winked at Ace, his eyes full of mockery.

“Shut up man, last thing I want to do is going on a double date with Sabo.” Hearing this Sabo threw his empty bottle as Ace’s head, but he dodged before it hit him.

“Again, I’m up for it – if you show me at least how she looks like.” Deuce made Sabo pull out his phone to show him the girl.

“Deuce you can’t be that desperate.” Turning his head in disbelieve Law exclaimed at him.

“I’m not, but also it’s been a while, so I don’t mind being the third option of the night.” Sabo handed his phone to Deuce as he had opened the girl’s Instagram. Both Ace and Law looked over Deuce’s shoulders, taking look at the girl.

“Not bad, but I’ve had seen better.” Ace commented, not really impressed by the looks of the girl.

“Nah man she is cute.” Deuce protested and Law agreed with him.

“But same as Ace I don’t want to be stuck on a double date with you.” Law nagged at Sabo. Ace shook his head, as these two started to mess with each other again. He sat back on the sofa and pulled his phone out from the back pocket of his pants. Scrolling through social media, he checked the band’s Instagram profile, something he hasn’t done in a while, as he wasn’t a big social media user, noticing that they got some new followers, but one piqued his interest.

“@idkthisfoxy “ He murmured to himself. The profile was private and there was no bio, but he clicked on the profile picture making it bigger. On the picture was this girl with a sock covering her face and only her eyes were visible, the same way the animated fox Ash from Fantastic Mr. Fox was portraited at the end of the movie. He snorted out with a smirk. “Could you be...?” He thought to himself.

“What’s with this smug smirk on your face?” Sabo interrupted his thoughts, looking at his brother with a raised eyebrow.

“Nothing” Ace brushed him off, getting up from the sofa, and putting his phone back in his back pocket. “Okay guys, I think it’s time to go upstairs and get ready to play.” He clapped his hands, making the guys stand up, agreeing with him.

“Let’s go break some hearts gentlemen.” Sabo loudly exclaimed, clapping his hands in the air, as the guys were going upstairs.

*******

I left the ‘changing’ room that was used for everything – from changing your clothes to storage all the alcohol and beverages Shanks has to offer, with a quick run up the stairs. Last thing I expected was someone to be there, let alone three men standing on the sofa there, which was something new Shanks have had add as last time I worked here, there was no sofa downstair. And speaking of the devil he was right in front of me.

“Shanks!” I shouted out, catching his attention as he was busy flirting with some woman. He turned at me with a big smile.

“There is my beloved niece.” He pulled me in a suffocating hug. I tried to fight him, but he only tightened his embrace. “Why is my Foxy mad? Did someone step on your tail?” He started to poke me on my sides only fuelling my annoyance with him.

“I’m telling you – run while you can. This man is insufferable.” I told the woman who he was hitting on, as she was looking at us while we were messing with each other.

“Oh Foxy, I can’t wait for the day you gonna bring a man over, the number of comebacks I have collected for you is unlimited at this point.” He ruffled my hair, as he turned to his fling for the night, telling her to give him a second, as he nodded at me to follow him.

“Are they unlimited, or you just can’t count after ten?” I tease him with mockery in my voice as he only shot me a glance.

“Someone doesn’t want to get paid double tonight, I see.” He nagged me with a smug smile.

“Dare.” I challenged him, and he laugh at me.

“Okay now seriously.” He stopped in front of the computer making me clock in. “You and Kid will be working together at the bar. No need to check ID’s as tonight everyone must be 20+ to enter, so if they are inside that means they are legal to drink. If it gets to much I might jump in and help, but I have three runners tonight so it should be all good. And most importantly if someone is bothering you let me know immediately, okay?” I mentally prepared for the long shift, off all the people I could of work with tonight, I would have to work with Kid. Shanks patted me on the shoulder and went back to his fling of the night. I huffed and turned around to look at the bar. The queue was already quite big, and Kid needed help at this point.

I got behind the bar, and Kid glared at me with annoyance. He was wearing one of the work t-shirts with the “Red Pirates” logo on it, his muscular body defined by it. His whole left hand was covered in a tattoo sleave – a realistic robotic hand, something coming out straight from the Cyberpunk universe. The tattoo itself was amazing, the person having the tattoo – was not so much.

“Move Kid, I will work on the bar station closer to the stage.” He rolled his eyes at me but still moved so I can go to the right side of the bar. “You can come and order here as well.” I shouted and people started to come my way. Nami soon came to me with a big grin.

“Hey there, I heard there is this cute bartender working here, so I made sure to come and check if the rumours are true.” She teased me.

“Stop it, I might get all flushed.” I waved mt hands in front of my face as we both laughed. “What do you want to drink?”

“A strong vodka and orange juice – less juice more vodka.” I started to make her drink, as I filled the glass with a lot of ice, as I knew that she loved her drinks very cold.

“Where are the rest of the group?” I asked her as I didn’t expect to see her alone.

“They are standing by one of the round bar tables close to the stage.”

“Less vodka – more juice, as requested.” I joked with her, handing her the drink.

“Ha-ha.” She mocked me as she took a sip of her drink. “Oh yeah that is strong.” Her eyes widen as she tased the drink. “Damn you really made sure there is no alcohol in it.” She sarcastically said, taking another sip. “By the way my friend Luffy knows your uncle Shanks.” Nami took a sit on the last tall chair left at the bar.

“What are you for real? How?” I was taking other customers orders as we were talking.

“I don’t know, you have to ask him.” She shrugged, taking another sip. “Oh God, please put some more juice in this thing, it is too much even for me.” I burst out laughing as she handed me back her glass to pour more juice in it.

“Nami, who is this beautiful lady, and why I haven’t been introduced to her?” A tall blonde guy wrapped his arms arounds Nami’s shoulders. She rolled her eyes and huffed.

“(Y/N) – Sanji, Sanji – (Y/N). Don’t mind his flirting – everything that has two legs and boobs is beautiful in his eyes.” She pushed his hands off from her.

“Nami that hurt, I only flirt with beautiful women, no matter the size of their breast.” He advocated for himself. “Nice to meet you (Y/N), I have been hearing a lot about you from Nami and Usopp.” He flashed me with a seductive smile. “Only good things of course.”

“Nice to hear this.” I smiled at him. “Would you like something to drink?”

“I would love to but sadly, I’m the one driving everyone home tonight, so I will have to deny your offer.” He chuckled sadly. I took a quick look at him and his outfit suited his smooth persona; he was wearing off-white shirt, two buttons unbuttoned around his chest, with a dark grey chinos style pants and belt. His wavy blonde hair was let down nicely as half of it was covering his right side of the face. I was told by Nami, that Sanji was handsome and super stylish, and now I understand what she meant by it.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Sanji.” I did feel bad for him, knowing how Nami and Usopp behaved when they are drunk, I couldn’t imagine what dealing with their whole friend group would feel like.

“I’m sorry that you must be behind the bar.” He was smooth, but this was not working on me.

“Hey, enough with the chitchats, those asses playing tonight are starting soon, so focus!” Kid came next to me and hissed in my ear angrily as I was talking to Nami and Sanji.

“You are right, sorry.” I apologised to him, knowing that I really got distracted by Nami and Sanji. “Sorry guys but I have to focus on work now, but if I manage, I will sneak to your table.” They both understood and wish me good luck, as they went back to their table.

“Of course, on the busiest night I have to put up with you.” Kid continued to whine. I just rolled my eyes at his whining. His bright spiky red hair matching his personality perfectly. “Hand me two more bottles of rom.” He spat at me.

“Kid are you ever in a good mood?” I asked him, handing the bottles.

“Yeah, when I get my dick sucked.” He smirked at me.

“Oh, you are disgusting.” I was left in shock from his answer.

“You asked, you got you answer.” He had pleasant look on his face knowing well that his comment irritated me. “Don’t worry, brat. You will never get this lucky.” His cocky smirk not leaving his face.

Before I moved to Grand Line, the last two summer since I was working for Shanks, while staying with him in his apartment, as my dad usually toured during the summertime. The first summer I worked here, Kid had already been working for a while. He hasn’t changed much since then. That first summer for a little bit – I did in fact, had a little crush on him. It was something in his edgy persona and style that made my nineteen old self attracted to him. But with time this attitude became more unattractive than attractive, and my little crush turned into pure disgust.

Of course, he had his good moments as well. One night two months ago, just before I stared university, it was just him and I working on a Tuesday night. It was a very slow night, so Shanks left early and left us to close the place. As we were going for last orders, Kid was behind the bar cleaning it, while I was picking glasses from empty tables, as we still had some customers left. On one of the tables where three guys, around the age of forty-something, were sitting I tried to reach for the empty glasses, smiling politely at them. I felt a hand on the back of my thigh going up to my butt and squeezing it hard. I jumped back in shock and dropped all the glasses I had in my hand. The broken glasses shattered on the floor. The men burst out laughing at my frozen expression, but their laugher was quickly cut, as the guy who touched me got his head smashed on the table hard. The bang of the impacted of his head hitting the table echoed through the whole place. Kid had seen everything that had happened, and he was seeing red. He dared the guy and his friends to think about doing it again. They all locked at him with fear in their eyes. The man’s face, who harassed me, was all covered in blood, one of his teeth has fallen and probably his nose was broken. I was just standing there still frozen from shock. Kid kicked them out, the rest of the customers, as well. He came close to me, trying to shake me out of the shock. I still remember the way he gently placed his hand on my face, cupping my cheek, his fingers feeling rough on my skin. He tried to keep his tone calm as he called my name. It took me some seconds to come back to reality. Kid was standing very close to me, in a way that we have never been this close physically. He looked into my eyes, and I could see how mad he was but at the same time there was this hint of worry in them. We stayed like this for a moment until he took a step back and removed his hand from my face. He cleared his throat and told me that he has already called Shanks, and he will be here soon. I just nodded at him as I was still speechless. He told me to go and change my clothes.

When I came back Shanks was already here, and he was like a fuming bull, swearing that he would find these men and make them pay. When Shanks saw me, he came to me and hug me tight, I started to cry in his embrace, as he gently patted my head. He then proceeded to tell Kid to walk me to Shanks’ place, as he was not letting me stay alone tonight, and that he would be dealing with the police and the bar on his own. I was about to say that this was not needed but none of them let me have the word. Kid and I were walking toward Shanks’ apartment, but didn’t speak at all. I broke the silence, thanking him for what he did, and that he shouldn’t have done it as might of now he could be in trouble. He shushed me quick, saying that he didn’t want to hear any thanks or apologies from me, and that he did whatever everyone else in his place would do. We reached Shanks’ place shortly after. I pulled my keys out to open the door, but Kid stopped me as he came close to me again, as when we were in the bar. I gave him a questioning look. He was looking at me like he wanted to say something, his scared eye twitching a little. We stayed like this for a moment then he shook his head, more to himself than me, and told me to take care of myself, as he quickly left. The next time we worked together he was back to his arrogant self, so I guess it was something from the adrenaline rush that he got that night that made him act, so strange. But we never really spoke about what happened; neither had Shanks told me what happened after with the police and ect., both of them act like this never happened and every time I’ve tried to speak about it with Shanks, he cut me off almost immediately.

“What you got all dreamy about sucking me off?” Kid smirked with me as I got zoomed out.

“Yeah, you wish.” I snorted. He glanced at me but didn’t say anything.

******

The place was full. I looked at my phone and it was a little after 10PM so the band should come out and start playing any moment now. The image of the three guys seeing me earlier in my bra came up in my mind and a chill of embarrassment ran down on my spine. Someone got on podium, but it wasn’t who the crowd was waiting for.

“Hello there beautiful people.” Shanks announced on the microphone. “When my precious, like a son, friend came to me two weeks ago and told me, that I should give this month gig to his brothers’ band I was very critical at first. Then he played me some of their songs and I was impressed. I was even more impressed that the thickets sold out in one day. One day – can you imagine.” The crowd cheered loudly – some screamed the band’s name, some whistled, and others applauded. “So a big shout out to my friend Luffy.” A loud screaming and cheering that I could recognise from miles away echoed around, but from where I stand, I couldn’t see my friends. “I’m not going to keep you guys waiting anymore – big and loud applause for ‘The Neighbourhood’.”

I stopped what I was doing to watch them coming up the stage. The first one to step on stage was the guy with the light blue hair and the thick black framed glasses, he went and took his position next to the bass guitar and picked it up. I hear some girls yelling his name ‘Deuce’ loudly. Next was the blacked haired, covered in tattoos guy, he took the guitar that was on the right side of the stage. A girl standing next to the bar screamed to her friend something along the lines ‘get me pregnant Law’ and I looked at her shocked. Then the blond guy came up on stage and started to raise his hands up in the air making everyone going louder and louder. Before he sat behind the drums, he sent a kiss to someone in the crowd and a big grin appeared on his face. My heart was beating fast in my chest as I was expecting the last guy to come up on the podium. There was this small voice in my head telling me that it will be him – the guy from the coffee shop today. But then this wasn’t some Disney movie, so probably them having the same name was just a pure coincidence. The three guys started to play some chords, and their vocalist join. I recognised him immediately. There he was – no beanie on, his raven black hair messy and freely falling around his face. I didn’t notice back in the coffee shop, but he was quite tall. It was something in his aura that made him stand out from the others. Now dressed in a loose fit black pants and leather belt, with his silk black shirt tucked in them, sleeves up till his elbows, buttons unbutton revealing his muscular chest – he was breathtaking to look at. The red beam neckless around his neck adding a nice touch to his outfit. The other three guys stared humming the back vocals.

Ooh, I know once you come to California

You won't ever look back

Ooh, just a little bit can make you wonder

You got it in

Ace took his guitar on with a smug look on his face. I was watching him carefully from the bar, far away yet not that far, as I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Then he stared to sing.

Hands up, it's a stick up

Nobody's leaving this room for a minute

He sounded even better live, than in their records. I was mesmerised by his voice. It was so melodic, yet a little rough only adding to his appearance. I was just enjoying their performance as they were super good – all four of them.

“I swear to God you are gonna make a puddle her.” I heard yelling in my ear as I turned around and saw Kid standing behind me. “Stop staring – start working, damn it.” I quickly came back from the trance that Ace put me in and got back to work. They were on their fourth song when I saw Usopp on the queue for the drinks.

“Usopp!” I shout out his name, hoping that he would hear me, over all the noise. He did look in my direction without realising at first. He looked again and saw me clearly this time and he made his way to the side where I was working.

“They are good, right?” Was the first thing he asked me when we got close enough so I could hear him. I eagerly nodded my head.

“Are you kidding me. They are amazing.” They were already on their fourth song and so far, everything was great from what they’ve played.

“You shall meet them; they are all great guys. If you have time when they are done performing come by our table and we can introduce you to them.”

“Yeah about that... I kinda already met them...” Three out of four already has seen me embarrassing myself, and I thank to whatever power was out there – God, universe – whatever, that Ace wasn’t in the ‘basement’ when I waked on the guys half-naked.

“What do you mean?” Usopp got confused look on his face by what I’ve just told him.

“Story for another time.” I brushed it off quickly. “What do you want to drink?”

“Rum and coke, please. Make it four.” I started to make the drinks as I was taking quick glances at the stage. They knew how to entertain the crowd. Their stage confidence was noticeable. “Will you be able to carry all four at once?” I asked Usopp handing him the drinks. He confidently nodded.

“The moment you are out of the bar, come to us.” He shouted behind his back as he was leaving with the drinks, too focused not to drop them or someone to push him.

******

The band finished with the fourth song and the blonde guy took over the microphone:

“A very big thank you to everyone coming here tonight.” He was a little out of breath, as I can only imagine what was it like playing the drums for half an hour without stopping for even a second. My eyes moved to Ace who was taking a sip of his water. He turned his head at my direction and our eyes met. Ace raised his eyebrows in disbelief and squeezed his eyes to make sure that he saw right – that he really saw the girl from the coffee shop. I panicked and squatted down to the ground hiding behind the bar. “Big shout out to Shanks for letting us play here tonight – please a round of applauses him.” He raised his hands to applaud Shanks, and the crowd followed. “Big shout out to all off you who came to support us here tonight, I see some faces in the crowd who were there for us from day one till today.” Another round of applauses followed. “And- and the biggest applause and thank you goes to my amazing girl – Koala.” He paused taking a breath in and out. “Koala, baby I love you. This new song that I wrote is for you, and you only. Sadly, I wasn’t blessed with the voice that my brother has, but I will be in the back pouring my heart out on the drums, enjoy everyone.” Everyone started to cheer and applause.

I got back on my feet again as I heart the last thing the blonde guy said. Ace just patted him on the shoulder and laughed as he took over the microphone again. He looked around as he was still laughing.

“I’ve had always imagined that the first time I would have to sing a song dedicated to a girl, will be for a girl I’m in love with, you know?” He joked with the audience. “I still haven’t met the one, but my brother did. I’m telling you the first time I sang his songs to his girl – it was awkward.” Everyone laughed, so did I but something more interesting caught my attention from what he said. “I told to myself you know, with time it will get easier, less awkward.” He made a dramatic pause. “I swear to God this never get easier. Bro just learn how to sing.” He turned to his brother in dramatic disbelief, as Sabo only shout at him to start singing. “And you see what I get as a ‘thank you’.” The crowd laughed again. “Anyway – the song is called ‘Compass’, hope you guys like it as much as our other songs. It’s coming out next week so stay tuned.” He announced before they start playing, looking again at the bar but I quickly turned my head around.

“Go pick around some glasses. You are not helping behind the bar anyway.” Kid told me, pissed at my behaviour tonight.

“Now?” I asked surprised. He just glared at me with a killer look, I huffed and got out of the bar.

They started to play, and Ace voiced filled all my sentence. I stopped to listen to the song as I was closer to the podium now.

‘If I don't have you with me, I'm alone You know I never know which way to go I think I need you with me for all-time When I need new direction for my mind’

The song sounded so sweet. I didn’t realise that Ace was looking at my direction as I was focused on listening to the lyric.

‘I know that you're not something to lose, now’

Then the way he sang the last line of the first verse swept me off on my feet, as I closed my eyes loving the way how smooth his voice was. Then the chorus stared, and they were so catchy.

‘I've got something to confess I keep you in my pocket to use You're my only compass I might get lost without you’

As he sang the second verse, hearing minutes ago his brother proudly announcing how much he loves his girlfriend, the lyrics were having such a deep love held behind them.

‘Could you tell me where to go? You're always there to help me when I'm down I'm lucky you've been keeping me around You're the star I look for every night When it's dark, you'll stick right by my side’

It was hard to explain, but it was like something magical was happening around me and inside of me right now. I felt like I’m lost in the moment. Ace started to sing the bridge of the song, and I opened my eyes. The most cliche thing in every possible way - for every movie, book, play or song happened - our gazes met. The time felt like it stopped for a second.

‘Like a magnet Hard to imagine ever changing Anything changing my way Baby, like a magnet Can't help that I'm attracted to you, I am Could you keep on guiding me? Please’

He smiled at me as he didn’t move his gaze from mine. When he sang: ‘Can't help that I'm attracted to you, I am’ - he hold his hands up to his head and shock them, a big smile sprad across his face, as I did the same thing back at him. I was in disbelief that he recognised me, yet alone did the whole ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ thingy. The last part of the bridge felt very personal: Could you keep on guiding me? Please’ I couldn’t hide away the grin on my face, as I just gestured with my hands a ‘maybe’, as he was looking at me with a playful questioning expression. Ace chuckled and winked at me. When he moved his gaze away from me, I quickly moved around trying to disappear in the crowd as my face as flaming hot.

The song finished the guys were met with loud and well-deserved applauses.

“You really are kind of a quote-unquote Fantastic Fox.” Ace chuckled on the microphone. I knew this was meant for me, even though he couldn’t see me, he made sure I could hear him. Trying to distract myself right now was quite a challenge. All I could think about was this moment of interaction, we had in front of so many people, yet no one knew what was going on.

**********

Three more songs and they were done with their performance for tonight.

“Thank you, thank you all for coming here tonight.” Ace thanked the crowd, loud applauses echoed through the whole bar. “Six months ago, when the guys and I decided to finally start putting out the music, that we have been doing for the past year now, we never expected that people will find such an interest in us. For everyone streaming our music and coming to all the live gigs we have done so far – thank you from the bottom of my heart.” He bowed with his head before he took off his guitar and left the podium. The rest of the guys bowed and thanked everyone leaving a bit after him.

Ace was already surrounded by group of girls as he stepped down from the podium. As every man on this Earth of course he loved the attention he was getting, especially from young and attractive women, but there was this particular girl in his mind tonight that he wanted to get the chance to speak again with. He was thinking of their short interaction today even after she left the coffee shop. It was something about her that piqued his interest, and this hasn’t had happen in a quite long time. Ace didn’t really remember the last time he seriously got interested in a girl for more than a one-night stand or a short situationship.

His experience with girls was quite big, even though it wasn’t always like this. Girls started to pay attention to him around the age of seventeen, when he decided that he must start going to the gym and change not only his appearance, but behaviour as well. The person who he was now, and who he was almost a decade ago, were totally different people. Ace used to be the grumpiest, meanest and enrage kid you could have known; even now-a-days he would catch himself acting like this little kid again and he hated this. Lost in his thoughts for a moment he didn’t realise he had zoomed out until some waved their hand in his face.

“Sorry I got distracted for a second, what were you saying?” He smiled at one of the girls in front of him.

“I said would you mind giving me your autograph?” She teases him with a playful look in her eyes.

“Sure, you have a pen or something.” He gave her the same look, knowing that she was flirting with him.

“There you go.” She borrowed a pen from one of the girls standing next to her. “My name is Samantha, in case you were wondering.” She turned her back towards Ace, moving her hair on the side so he could sign the top of her shoulder.

“What should I write?” Ace took a look at her, from head to toe – ‘nice body, nice ass’ he thought to himself, stepping a little closer to her.

“How about your number?” She smirked at him, as he chuckled at her flirty tone. He checked her out one more time as he licked his lips with a sly smirk.

“There you go, angle.” He wrote his number on her shoulder. He gave the pen back to her with a wink as he continued his way towards the back exit.

Ace wanted to be at peace for just a second. A few more girls stopped him on his way to the back exit, but they were less flirtatious than the girl he gave his number to. Finally, he made his way outside and the moment the cold wind hit his face he breathed out. He pulled out a package of cigarettes, taking one out and lighting it, taking a long puff from it. Closing his eyes as he leaned on the wall, exhaling the smoke. Having attention was nice, especially from women, but that wasn’t so important for Ace. The goal wasn’t women – the goal was to make great music that people could love and enjoy. After every show Ace catches himself in the ‘imposter’ syndrome – that he was not good enough, that the performance sucked, that he was bringing the band down, that he was not a good singer or a guitar player. All these thoughts were hitting him like a truck every time he got off stage, and no matter what people were telling him, he couldn’t shake this feeling. The feeling of never being good enough. He was lighting up a second cigarette, and he noticed it was the last one.

“Fuck, fuck , FUCK.” He cursed himself, taking a puff after puff from his cigarette. As he was taking his last smoke from the cigarette, throwing it on the ground, he thought of her, the girl from the coffee shop. Ace wasn’t the type to believe in fate or anything from this sort of bullshits, but he chuckled to himself. What were the chances that in one day both happened to be in the same place at the same time – two completely strangers. And she was pretty – no, she was gorgeous. There was something in her that was waking up a little spark of fire in him, and she hasn't even had a proper conversation, yet. When he saw her from the stage it was like the time had stopped and he couldn’t move his eyes from her. She was just standing there, enjoying the moment, living in the song – and then she opened your eyes, oh those beautiful eyes which he didn’t have the chance yet to know the colour of, but he was looking forward to finding out soon. He took a few more minutes outside gathering his thoughts, before he put his poker face back, walking inside confidently like nothing was going on inside of his mind.

******

I wasn’t looking forward to going behind the bar right now, even when I knew I had to, but instead found Nami and the rest of the group.

“There she is!” Usopp saw me first and yelled, waving his hand gesturing me to come faster.

Nami had her head rested on Sanji’s shoulder as she was completely wasted, but Sanji was more than happy to take care of her. On his other side was standing a black-haired guy, a little shorter than Sanji, maybe the same height as Usopp. He was wearing a red oversized t-shirt and baggy light blue jeans. His face was scared under his left eye but still he looked quite boyish with his big grin on his face – I guess this was the infamous Luffy. Next to him was standing Zoro, he nodded at me as he saw me. Zoro was waring bandana on his head, his fit not very different from Luffy’s, the only difference was that his t-shirt was white. Nami tilted her head in my direction and quickly jumped from Sanji’s side, but he quickly grabbed her the shoulders, as she almost tripped and fell.

“Damn Nami, how much you drank, tonight?” I have seen her wasted but never this much.

“Way too much.” Sanji answered me instead of her as she was leaning on him again.

“Luffy, this is (Y/N) – the classmate we have been telling you about.” Usopp interrupted, introducing us as we exchange a handshake.

“Nice to meet you finally (Y/N). I have been hearing a lot about you.” Even thought we were the same age there was something so boyish in Luffy’s voice.

“So did I.” I smiled at him. “By the way, your brothers’ band is great.”

“Oh, I know! I’m so happy that Shanks let them play here tonight.” His smile grew wilder.

“How did you meet my uncle by the way? Nami told me that you two know each other.” I was really curious to know how these two knew each other, especially after Shanks refer to him as a ‘son’.

“Long story short – I was quite a troubled kid until I met Shanks. Then I became even more troubled and reckless.” We all laughed at his joke. “But yeah we met –“he got interrupted by someone shouting his name. We all turned around and the blonde guy from the band was joining to the table, with a girl under his arm, which I guess is his beloved girlfriend. She was wearing a very nice light purple ruffled dress; her shoulder length light brown hair was nicely styled in a blowout effect. Her face was lightened by her big smile and her big dark blue eyes were glowing with love as she was looking at her boyfriend.

“Sabo, Koala – come. This is (Y/N), Nami’s and I best classmate and friend from uni.” Usopp introduced me to them as I awkwardly nodded the moment Sabo’s eyes widen in shock.

“No way, look baby this is the stripper I was telling you about.” He told Koala, as she slapped him on the chest as she turned to me. I was shocked from the comment he just made, so did everyone.

“Stripper? You are a stripper?” Luffy looked at me confused, Zoro slapped him behind the neck, shushing him.

“Don’t listen to him, his humour, is little broken. Nice to meet you, (Y/N).” She smiled at me.

“No don’t listen to me guys. Sorry didn’t mean to offend you, I’m Sabo, nice to meet you officially.” He reached out his hand across the table, and we handshake. The other two guys – the light blue haired and the tattooed one joined as well. As they saw me, they had the same reaction as Sabo, but didn’t make any comments instead they just introduced themself.

“Where is Ace?” Luffy asked Sabo.

“Ah, probably out smoking, I don’t know.” Sabo shrugged. “You know how he is after we finish every set.” Luffy nodded at what Sabo said and continue to talk to Law. Deuce was talking to some girl, who was wearing a ‘birthday girl’ crown, Nami was barely standing, while Sanji was making sure that she was getting enough water.

“I am going back to work; it was nice to see you all.” I tapped Usopp on the shoulder, interrupting his conversation with Zoro.

“No wait a minute, so you can also meet Ace.” Usopp stopped me from going as he hold my wrist. My heart skipped a beat when he mentioned his name.

“Some other time Usopp I promise, I really need to go back, otherwise Kid will kill me at this point tonight.” I pouted at him, and he nodded, understanding my situation and let me go. The universe had other plans whatsoever – turning around I bumped into someone’s muscular chest. He gently held me for a second by the shoulders.

“Easy there, no rush.” I looked up and my eyes met his. Ace was looking at me with a little smirk placed on his face. “Hey (Y/N).” He took a step back giving us some space. He remembered my name.

“Hey.” I smiled at him, tying to hide the fact I was a little nervous.

“You two know each other?” Usopp pointed a finger at us.

“No.” We both said at the same time. “We just met this morning by chance.” I explained to Usopp. “Oh, nice. What a coincidence.” He chuckled as he turned back to Zoro. Little did he know how right he was.

“So, you work here?” Ace broke the silence between us.

“Yes and no.” I laughed awkwardly. “Shanks is my uncle, so sometimes when he really needs help like tonight I just jump in behind the bar.” I explained, looking down at my hands as I was playing with my fingers, a habit I have when I’m nervous.

“Hey.” Ace bent his posture a little trying to catch my gaze, I looked back at him immediately. “I don’t bite – relax.” There was a little hint of teasing in his voice.

“I’m relaxed.” I brushed it off, trying to play it cool. “It’s just strange – from lending me your charger to hearing you perform tonight here was quite a surprise.”

“Yeah, I agree. You- you, um, did you enjoy it?” He ran his hand through his hair, awkwardly scratching his neck.

“I loved it.” I eagerly told him, a little too eagerly for which I cringed at myself. “I didn’t know about you guys until today. Actually, Nami and Usopp invited me to see you performing here, but again funny coincidence.” I started to babble. “Then they played me this song of yours “Cry Baby” and yeah – I can say I’m defiantly a fan now. Especially after I heard you tonight. But I had no idea it was you, until I saw you coming on the podium, so I was quite surprised.” As I continued to babble, he had crossed his arms in front of his chest making, looking at me with half lidded eyes, a little smile playing on his lips. “I think I talk too much.” I awkwardly chuckled. A wild smile spread across Ace’s face, he shook his head, as he laughed.

“What?” I playfully tilted my head at him, wondering what made him react like this.

“I think you need to listen to ‘Cry Baby’ one more time.” He teased me, without giving me any more information.

“Okay, I will.” I teased him back. We stood there for a moment, just looking at each other.

“Wait how do you know Nami and Usopp?” He was the one to break the silence again.

“We are classmates.” He raised his eyebrows in awe.

“Oh, a filmmaker. What are you the most lead to – directing, scriptwriting or...?” He asked me clearly interested in my answer. I was about to answer him when someone grabbed me by the shoulders and squeezed me hard.

“Ouch.” I turned around and I saw Shanks’ smug smile. He reached his fist at Ace, and they bumped it.

“Ace could I politely ask you to not distract my beautiful niece as she is supposed to work not flirt.” Ace nodded at Shanks’ comment, with a little smirk.

“We are not, I – I’m not flirting.” My whole face got flushed. I took a quick look at Ace, but his face was unreadable.

“Flirting or not – go behind the bar or I will make you stay and clean as well.” I knew he was serious, despite the smile on his face. I just nodded at him and left without even looking at Ace as I was quite embarrassed.

******

After some time, people started to leave, and the work started to decrease. I saw Ace and the rest of the guys starting to put their instruments away, getting ready to leave. We locked eyes a few times, but nothing more.

“Stop staring and forget even thinking about Ace.” Shanks interrupted my thoughts, his tone serious.

“Excuse me?” I looked at him confused, why would he even tell me this.

“You heard me.” He leaned his forearms on the bar, having a very serious face, something that I rarely ever see. “You only gonna end up hurt Foxy, so be thankful that I cock-blocked you.” He tapped the bar and went away, not letting me say anything further. I continued to clean the bar, Shanks words still in my mind, wondering what exactly he meant by that and a little surprised of how he worded it. “Hey, we are leaving.” I looked up and saw Usopp and the rest of the group behind him. “Thank you for the drinks by the way.” I waved my hand, brushing it off as there was nothing to thank me for.

“It was nice to finally meet you (Y/N).” Sanji told me with a wink, him carrying sleeping Nami in his arms.

“Yeah (Y/N), we have to properly go out these days.” Luffy cheerfully exclaimed, as he came closer to the bar to high-five me.

“We sure need to Luffy.” I smiled at him, Zoro just waved me ‘goodbye’, he wasn’t usually the most talkative but tonight he was extra quiet. They all stopped to say goodbye to Shanks as well, who was standing by the exit. I was still little affected by Shanks’ words and didn’t want to look at him right now.

“You know I discovered that coffee shop recently.” I turned around to face Ace, as I heard his voice.

“It is a hidden gem, right?” I gushed. He smiled at me and nodded.

“So I guess I will be seeing you there?” he raised an eyebrow at me, a little hint of tease in it.

“Definitely Ace.” I smiled at him. He kept his eyes on mine for a moment.

“(your eyes colour).” He murmured, I tilted my head at him wondering what he just murmured to himself. He saw my reaction and just flashed me a smile. “Till next time then.” He winked at me and then he left.

next chapter ->

[calamaroo]

CW WARNING FOR GRAPHIC EXPLAINATION OF GRAPHIC IMAGES (no blood, just flesh and descriptive words)

___________________________________________

Calico Jack's missing leg, explained with my headcanons and au:

Calico Jack lost his leg at 20 years old when a kraken attacked the ship he was working on (that young in his life, he moved around from ship to ship doing whatever to earn money)

~~~~~~~

• The kraken's barbed tentacle was what removed his leg, grabbing it, peircing the flesh, and recoiling with enough sudden strength it ripped instead of held

• Calico Jack is very on the fence about his leg. He knows it draws attention - something he doesn't like - but also finds it makes him look brave when he explains his heroic tale of "fighting off a monstrous kraken!" Calico Jack isn't very brave canonically, so I headcanon that since pirates were all about putting on a good show, he brags and boasts about just how awesome he is. In reality, he's cowardly and tries not to let anyone figure this out (despite his fame for it) ----- pretty much everyone knows he's not as macho as he says, but they humor him, understanding that's what makes him feel safe in stressful situations

• as this happens to many/most amputees, Calico Jack has phantom pain, which is when the brain tricks itself into believing that a part of the body that is no longer there is still there, and sends nerve signals for pain, itching, and etc.

---- when it itches, Calico Jack will sometimes comically chew on the stub (like how you gnaw of the palm of your hand when it's itchy, i KNOW im not the only person who does this)

--- when it hurts, he tries to push through and ignore it. When that proves ineffective, he removes the peg and massages it (this is done when he has complete privacy, as he isn't fond of people's starring when they see his mangled stub) ------ Peso has suggested mirror therapy when the pain is too much, but Calico Jack resists, opting to deal with it alone. That's how he's done it for 40 years - it's just always been that way. (Except for rare occasions where he allows his closest friends: Natquik, Marsh, or Kwazii, to assist him)

• his painful phantom pain moments can often be worsened when he has anxious or panic attacks (I hc he has really bad ptsd from his evil pirate days, and it messes with him to varying degrees of severity)

~~~~~~~

That's about it 👍 I love drawing wounds (edge-lord ahh) and coming up with creative backstories for them

[goingmerryfics]

Hi, would you write some family-fluff with child Law Corazon and reader? 🙏😊🥰 Maybe Cora and his so adopted Law and they celebrate together Laws birthday 🥺

Corazon and S/O celebrating Law’s birthday

Content: GN reader! Some angst, One Piece Spoilers

Notes* Wait this is so cuuuute!! I was so excited to write this that I was writing down ideas while travelling to and from work. Thanks for waiting, enjoy this! Reader is in a relationship with Corazon here.

Corazon & Law

Content w/ spoilers: Cora lives au

You were escapees from the Donquixote Pirates

A year ago when the two of you had met Law, Cora took the both of you when he left to find Law’s Devil Fruit- the cure to his condition

It was a hard journey, full of different emotions

Cora had nearly died at the hands of his brother. It was a good thing you were nearby and were able to help him before it was too late

Since then, the two of you had laid low both from Doflamingo and the Marines and now were just trying to live a normal, day to day life

Just you, your now boyfriend, and your adopted child

One of the things you’d learned was that you were always better with dates than Corazon was. It had taken Law reminding Cora about your birthday for him to realize what day it was, and you remember him coming home late, disheveled, with flowers that hardly had any petals on them, soaked head to toe and yet still somehow on fire

You don’t even remember asking Law when his birthday was, nor do you remember him answering you, but somehow you knew it was coming up soon

So you waited until Law was asleep one night and you were curled up at Corazon’s side to remind him

“Really? So soon?”

You remind him how it’s been about a year since the three of you left his brother’s pirate group and he still seems surprised

He insists that whatever you two decide to do, it has to be special. So you offer the idea of a small surprise party and he loves it

The days leading up to his birthday are the both of you preparing for it. Corazon gets baking supplies so you can make a cake and some decorations, you search around for a gift he would like and end up on some medical textbooks that he’d pointed out at the bookstore a while back

It’s hard to hide- Law is a smart kid and he knows something’s up, but he hasn’t talked about his birthday with you so you’re both sure he’s not into either of you

You really did expect Cora to spill it due to his clumsiness, but the night before your preparations he’s still been able to keep it a secret

His devil fruit helps a lot with the party talk, but you still wait for Law to be asleep to talk about it

The night of, Cora uses his devil fruit so you two can prepare while Law sleeps. You get baking while Corazon struggles puts up the decorations

The two of you wrap the gifts together and leave them on the kitchen table

You’re thankful that the smell of the cake doesn’t wake Law and also that your baking skills are on par enough that the cake is edible

You ice it and write, ‘Happy Birthday, Law’ and then add, ‘Love,’ your name, and then hand the bag to Corazon to put his on, too

You’re hoping Law will understand what ‘Corq’ and a splat will mean after the bag explodes in Corazon’s hands

You make a gross joke about him tasting sweet, share a laugh, then head to bed in excitement

The next day you make sure to wake Corazon up when the sun does to you, knowing Law won’t be awake just yet

He’s groggy at first and it takes some poking, but you eventually get him up and the two of you begin to cook breakfast.

Law gets up some time later and enter the kitchen rubbing his eyes while you and Cora are wiping pancake batter on each other

He sees the birthday decorations and his jaw drops

“Why’d you do this…? I thought you forgot.”

You two turn quickly, and Cora yells out a very late, ‘surprise!’ before the both of you dive down to trap him in a hug

He doesn’t fight it. He’s too busy fighting tears, knowing that even though his parents and sister might be gone, he’s still got a loving family right here

You let him open his gifts right after breakfast. He doesn’t waste a moment opening up the textbooks to start reading

He gives Cora a look at the messy cake, trying to hide a smile at his endearing clumsiness

The entire day is about Law, even if he just wants to read his books you still keep him company

[devilsrecreation]

I’ve had this in my mind for a while so now I give you

Outlander Pirate AU (feat. Makuu)

-This is definitely one of the Zootopia-esque au’s because who doesn’t love animal pirates?

-The hyenas and vultures are part of one big crew, with Janja as the Captain and Mzingo as his first mate

-Jasiri and Reirei both defied gender roles by being Captains of their crew. Reirei met Goigoi while captured on another ship and she rose to the top. She married Goigoi and her crew grew from there

-Jasiri is actually a privateer who works under newly crowned King Kion. She eventually convinces Janja’s crew to merge with hers and is known as “The Pirate Queen” by everyone else.

Janja agreed cuz he maaay or may not have a repressed crush on Jasiri but he’ll obviously take that to his watery grave

-Captain Kiburi formed a new pirate crew after he started a mutiny against his former captain, Makuu. Makuu, however, had seen it coming and was able to fend off Kiburi and his followers. His crew isn’t as big as the other pirate captains, but holy shit can they fight. They’ve killed more animals than the rest combined

-Kenge was found as a stowaway on Kiburi’s ship, with him against the world and turning to piracy for survival. The crocs wanted to kill him on sight, but Kenge had something they didn’t: venom. So when Tamka tried to attack after calling him “little”, he ferociously bit him and held him at knifepoint. It was then when Kiburi had a better idea: Why not put that anger and those fighting skills to good use? He’s now one of the crocs, being Kiburi’s new friend and best fighter. Everyone thinks they should be scared of the crocodiles when it’s really him you gotta worry about. Kiburi likes to use him as a threat. Either give them all the loot or they’ll sick Kenge on you

-Sumu is an interesting story. Kiburi’s crew found him while exploring a desert island. It’s unknown how he got there in the first place (he doesn’t like to talk about it), but he ultimately joins the crew as a cabin boy among Kenge’s suggestion. Kiburi thought nothing of it until he saw Sumu in action. Turns out he can fatally stab people so that’s fun.

-Ushari was once a great pirate, but after too many near death experiences, he decided to become a grumpy innkeeper with Shupavu and Njano as his employees. They usually act as bartenders who serve drinks to the guests.

-After Makuu started a mutiny against him, Pua stepped down from captain of his crew and resides at the inn, telling all kinds of stories to anyone who would listen

-Hodari is a cabin boy in Makuu’s float. It was always his dream to be a pirate and he was able to prove himself when he helped Makuu steal from Kiburi (after Kiburi stole from him first lol)

-All the captains act like mortal enemies at sea, but put them next to each other in a tavern or Ushari’s inn and they’re acting like they’ve been friends for years

-Out of all the crews, Kiburi’s curses the most. They’ve even done it in the inn when they visited for the night. Ushari had to threaten to bite them on the spot if they didn’t stop driving his customers away. The skinks didn’t do much to help, as Shupavu was too busy laughing and Njano was encouraging them

-Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed are also retired pirates, giving their ship to Janja’s crew once they put the life behind them. They own a tavern, which is another popular hangout spot for pirates

-Njano once snuck onto Kiburi’s ship on his day off. It was a disaster

Kiburi’s realization went like this

[diminuel]

Due to Crocodile's influence on actually raising Luff, what if Luffy was actually taught the value of money and jewels and other treasure? Leaving Luffy with either a head for money or just an understanding of how to get things accomplished through using gold to get things done, i.e. being really good at bribing people. (Not that he'd do it much as that's Nami's job, but he'd step in if Nami failed or wasn't around).

This was a long wind up, but imagine if this really impacts his ability to get treasure. Like Luffy since he understands value of treasure will just pick it up now. This leads him to just casually bring back gold he found/stole while off adventuring. Skypia, when the strawhats take the gold, is perhaps the best cannon example of this, but just Luffy doing it more. Eni Lobby? Sure he'll steal from the Marines. Gecko Moria, he's gotta have treasure right? Might as well take it.

Crocodile would be proud of his son if this is how he took after him. (Sorry for multiple asks in a row! The Crocodile giving treasure like crows do tangent morphed and took over my brain a bit)

Ooooh!! While it's funny to imagine that Luffy can't handle finances at all, it's also quite possible that in an AU where Crocodile raised him, Luffy does understand the importance of money.

Like... he's the captain, he has to pay his crew and their expenses! Crocodile has always been very firm on how a pirate crew should be run efficiently, so Luffy knows how to run a crew efficiently, how to budget, bargain and pick up the treasure that can be easily turned into money, but it's not fun. When Nami and the rest of the crew just assume he's too dense to do it and takes over, he's not going to protest. It's like that with pretty much anything - from cooking to navigating to being knowledgeable about what's going on in the world. The comedic potential of Luffy surprising his crew is too good to pass up. *lol* (And they just assume it's a fluke when it happens. It might take quite a while for the crew to actually catch on.)

[anonymous-dentist]

A tiny little merpepito au for the week

-

Pepito misses Apa Roier. Pepito misses Apa Roier so much it hurts, and Apa Roier is so close! He’s just on the other side of the ship, and Pepito can tug on his shirt and get picked up and held the way Apa Roier used to hold Pepito in The Ocean, but. But he’s sad, and it’s all Pepito’s fault, because Pepito is a Very Bad Pepito.

Every night, Pepito eats dinner at the same table as everybody else. He sits by Pomme, because she’s nice, and by Richarlyson, because Richarlyson is too small to sit at the adult side of the table. But Pomme sometimes leaves her seat and asks her mom to hold her, and Richarlyson always goes to bother his dads. But Pepito… can’t. Because Apa Roier looks so sad when he looks at Pepito, and Pepito might start crying if Apa Roier tells him why.

Tonight, four days after Apa Roier joined the crew, Pepito sits alone and eats Pepito’s dinner. Pomme is with Miss Baghera, and Richarlyson is with Captain Celbi, and Pepito. Is. Alone.

Pepito sits with his head down, and he picks at his food idly with a fork.

He jumps as a plate it dropped in front of him.

He looks up, and there is Apa Roier with a fish bone sticking out of his mouth.

In the Language Of The Ocean, Apa Roier says, “Ayyyy, Pepito! There you are! I’ve been looking for you all day!”

He sits, and Pepito’s hands shake.

“Have you been avoiding me?” Apa Roier gasps.

Pepito doesn’t like lying, so Pepito almost nods. But then Pepito remembers that he’s a pirate now, and pirates are evil. So Pepito shakes his head slowly.

Apa Roier nods. “Ahhh, I see. You’re just too busy for me now, I get it.”

Pepito’s stomach turns uncomfortably.

“You’re a big Pepito now,” Apa Roier says. “And I’m just an old man.”

He even puts on his old man voice- the one that he does to piss Ama Rivers off that makes Pepito laugh- when he says that, but all Pepito does is put his fork down and stare at his plate with a chilly-feeling heart. He feels bad.

Miss Mouse laughs at the other end of the table. Misters Pacandmike are arguing with Captain Celbi.

Apa Roier is quiet.

Pepito isn’t going to cry. He isn’t!!! He’s a Strong Pepito! And he’s a pirate! Pirates don’t cry, they make people cry!

…Pepito probably made Apa Roier cry. Apa Roier probably broke down the second he heard what Pepito did, all because Pepito did a Very Bad Thing because Pepito is a Very Bad Pepito and and and and-

“Pepito,” Apa Roier quietly says, “I’m not angry.”

What?

Pepito looks up with wet eyes. He makes eye contact with Apa Roier, which honestly makes Pepito feels so much worse because Apa Roier looks kinda depressed with only two eyes. The Sea Witch took his eyes because of Pepito; just one more bad thing that Pepito has done.

Apa Roier gives a small smile. “I don’t know why you ran away, but I’m not angry. I mean, I’m pissed, but I’m not angry, you know?”

Pepito doesn’t know, but he also doesn’t care, because what does Apa Roier mean, he doesn’t know why Pepito ran away? He has to know! He’s a genius!

“BadBoy might be a real fucking creep sometimes, but he brought you to a real good guy,” Apa Roier continues. He glances over at Captain Celbi, his smile turning Weird. “I mean, Cellbit is kind of an asshole and he’s probably going to Hell, but he’s a nice guy.”

“Are you talking about me?” Captain Celbi calls, the same Weird smile on his face. Huh.

Apa Roier rolls his eyes and flips him off.

Pepito’s eyes widen. Apa Roier is so brave! Everybody knows not to mess with Captain Celbi, he’s evil! Mister Mike says so at least once a day!

“But listen, Pepito,” Apa Roier says, looking back at Pepito, “if you think I swam for a month to come and get you just for me to say I hate you or something, then you really are as stupid as your Apa Mariana. Because I-” (He reaches across the table and boops Pepito right on the nose.) “-will never let any stupid human pirates bully my Pepito. Only I get to bully you.”

Pepito’s eyes are starting to water again, dang it. Pepito is a Strong Pepito!

But then Apa Roier looks at Pepito’s plate of food and sighs and starts moving stuff from his own plate to Pepito’s, saying, “Pepito, Pepito, Pepito… You’re allowed to have more than fish for dinner. We’re pirates now, have pirate food. Here.”

And Pepito can’t help it. He missed Apa Roier so much…!

He jumps from his spot at the table and runs around to Apa Roier. He holds his arms up, and Apa Roier clicks his tongue annoyedly, but Apa Roier picks him up with a groan:

“Pepito, what the fuck? When did you get so big, eh? You’ll be taller than Mariana at this rate!”

Pepito is a growing Pepito, Pepito knows this. But he settles down in Apa Roier’s lap, anyway, and he hugs him because he can because Apa Roier doesn’t know that Pepito is a Bad Pepito. He still thinks that Pepito is a Good Pepito even if he is a Pirate Pepito now.

Apa Roier doesn’t know what happened. And Apa Roier never will.

[bubuslutty]

Pirate!Captain Price au (nsfw ver)

word count: 1.2k

tags: nsfw, f receiving, p in v, making out, spitting, skinny dipping, mentions of public sex (nobody gets caught tho)

warnings: kidnapping

a/n: I tend to go on a tangent with the story telling n lore instead of sticking to John fucking. ANWAY. I love him and if you also love him and have silly thoughts abt him and his boys, send me an ask, or comment, or reblog, whatever you want 💙

pirate!captain Price fucks like he's trying to kill you, with determination and pure hunger for it. He's a man on a mission, and nobody can stop him from getting what he wants.

Captain Price has wicked hips and a filthy walk, he's hot and he knows it. He's so comfortable in his skin, scars, fat, muscles, freckles and all. His movements are confident yet relaxed. He appears to be so sure of himself without doing anything, just standing there and people hate him for it. How infuriating is a man with such charm and confidence decided to become an outlaw, a pirate of all things.

So he knows how to use those hips, pounding his sweetheart on the mattress and making her wail and scream for him with how good he's making her feel.

pirate!captain Price has ridiculous core strenght, he could fuck his sweetheart for hours, rolling his hips against hers like he was born to fuck her. And he's so fucking filthy with it as well, "Too much for you? Should I slow down, sweetheart? hm?"

And slow down he does, rolling his hips deep deep in her guts, forcing her to listen to the filthy squelch that resonats in his Captain's cabin everytime their hips meet. And he has a dumb smile on his lips, obsessively watching where they meet between her legs.

And you better believe he'll kiss his pretty lady like he wanted to drink her up, he's nasty and it would be embarrassing to call what he's doing to her kissing, not even making out can cover how sinful he's with his mouth and tongue.

Pirate!Captain Price, when he's in a mood he'll even spit in her open mouth, holding her pretty face in his bigger, rough and scarred hand, then spitting right in her tongue, and he watches how her eyes roll at the back of her head and she moans loudly, swallowing his little offering.

He's also big on eating her out, be in his cabin, outside on the deck in the middle of the night under the stars, where anyone can catch them, or in a dark alleyway behind a pub. And because he has a beard, he likes to get it absolutely drenched and leave his sweetheart's inner thighs all red from the friction.

And he doesn't mind when she whines how much her inner thighs are bothering her, he just has a smug smile on his lips and apologizes with a coo, placing a wet kiss to her forehead and cheeks, and deep down he's not really sorry, but for his sweetheart, he'll coo and coddle until she melts over and over again in his arms.

Pirate!Captain Price barley kidnaps rich folks in exchange for ransom money from their rich family. If he has an excuse to dress his sweetheart in the finest of clothes, he would take it without hesitation.

So she's the one who sneaks in a ball, so she can later open the gates for them so they can sneak in, rob the place while everyone is busy dancing and then kidnap the wealthiest person in there.

And of course she's dressed in blue, John's favourite colour, the colour of the sky and the sea. Her dress is shiny, made out of silk and fabrics only found in far, far away countries, that even rich folks struggle to get, but not pirates, pirates can get their hands on anything if they tried hard enough.

She's wearing a layered blue gown, the sleeves long, with her whole neck, collarbone and a generous chunk of her chest exposed, and she looks so so beautiful, her hair half up, decorated with pearls and gold. And she's quickly stealing everyone's attention, coyly tucking a stray strand of hair behind one of her ears with a gloved hand.

She's invited to dance by many people, and she makes up elaborate stories about being a foreign Duchesse, laughing and giggling at stories and anecdotes she's been told, forgetting for a moment she was an outlaw, a criminal, who stabbed her to-be-husband right through the heart on their wedding day.

When the job is done, she returns to their ship on horseback, laughing in delight with John's men.

When the kidnappee is tied and locked in the basement, they sail away and celebrate with music and drinks of their own.

Sometime in the same night, Price's sweetheart is running and giggling on the ship, chased by Price, who's trying to catch her, still dressed like a dream. And she gasps and swoons when he catches her in his arms.

She acts like she's trying to fight him, wiggling in his arms and telling him, "Let me go, you pirate! I'm a woman of honor and dignity!"

Price tickles her and she laughs, trying to slip away, and he has his arms securely wrapped around her waist, breathing the perfume she sprayed on her neck in, sighing in pure bliss.

"You're mine now." He speaks against her naked shoulder, placing a wet kiss on the skin.

"I'm not yours! Let me go or the Royal Navy shall have you hung!" She threatened, turning in his arms and pushing his chest away.

"Hm, no. Finders keepers." He hums and pulls a string that kept her corset securely tied around her body, and when she felt it getting loose she squealed and crossed her arms over her chest, "John!"

"What? You'll be naked by sunrise, I'm just speeding this up." John says, shrugging while wearing a small smirk, "You've got a problem with that?"

"If that's the case, let me help." John's sweetheart says, wearing a smirk of her own and starts undressing right there on the deck, while his men are still having a party not far off, the only privacy they've had was the shadow of the Captain's cabin and nothing else.

"What are you doing?" John asks, looking over his shoulder and panicking a bit because as much as he enjoyed fucking his love where they could get caught, he still made sure nobody was around, and if someone happened to pass by, he'd use his body to shield her away. But this, this was madness, any of his boys would just turn around and see her standing there naked, glowing under the moonlight like a siren.

The only things she still had on was her pearl earrings and a necklace John gifted her a while back. "Come swim with me." She offered, smiling and still fucking standing there naked with her clothes a puddle to her feet.

John gulped and decided to just get naked as fast as possible while she watched him, and when he was done, she tiptoed to where he was standing, cupped his cheek and placed a kiss to his lips.

And before his fingertips could graze her skin, she pulled away and dived into the open cold sea.

Fuck this.

John dived right behind her, controlling his breathing and taking a deep breath when he resurfaced, his body freezing due to the cold water, but he knew his body would soon get used to it. He then felt arms hugging his shoulders from behind, and he grinned when his sweetheart kissed his cheeks with her cold plush lips.

"Did I just see Cap'ain and his bonnie jump in the sea naked?" Johnny said with a frown, cheeks pink due to how much he's drunk.

"Hm?" Simon hummed with his eyes closed next to him, leaning his head on his shoulder.

"Never mind." Johnny said and yawned, scratching his chin and leaning his head on Simon's.

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