#luffy looks just like he did when he passed out after ace died..... STOP

[hauntingblue]

LAWWW FUCKING SHAMBLEEEES

[gatitties]

HELLO SO UM LOVE UR WORK BUT I DO WANT SOME MORE ANGST IN GENERAL SO IWAS WONDERING IF YOU COULD DO A THING WITH THE WHITEBEARD PIRATES AND STRAW HATS WERE A TEEN READER FUCKING dies, uh yeah just like reactions and stuff if you don't feel comfortable with making that type of angst that's completely fine too!!! But urm yer 🦠🗣️

—Whitebeard Pirates & Strawhawts x teen!reader (platonic)

—Summary: It is said that when you are born you set your destiny, but why did it have to be so cruel to you?

—Warnings: blood, dead

Ohhh, It's not like I don't want to write angst, but I feel like I'm not good at itttt 🤚🏻 (sorry for the delay again)

—Time is something immovable, something that humans cling to without knowing if they are wasting it or taking advantage of it.

—You never thought that you wasted your time with Whitebeard's crew, not a single second was wasted.

—Because when no one was looking, in the middle of a colossal battle, your blood spread like water spilled from a glass, taking your life without mercy, the only thing you saw were happy moments with your crew.

—Your breathing became slow and your vision focused and out of focus, seeing how in the distance almost the entire crew ran to save Ace.

—You were one of the many corpses found in Marineford, maybe even one of the first people to die.

—Your captain always warned you of your recklessness, you were still young, you made mistakes and you let yourself be carried away by the wind of life.

—It's a shame that it passed in a flash, so sudden and unexpected that no one knew you were gone until the waters calmed down.

—You hadn't been the only one, but the living couldn't even see you for the last time.

—Izo preferred it that way, he preferred to have a vision of you in which the sparkle in your eyes remained intact, in which you joked with him.

—He preferred to think that in some way you lived but fled before you could die, but deep inside his being the uncertainty of your death would remain.

—Marco was the one who decided not to tell anything, because when he found your lifeless body it was some time after the events, among all the people, you remained there with empty eyes.

—He had to look away, it had already been painful for him to have to bury his father and friend, now you too.

—You stabbed him in the heart when he saw your inert posture asking for help even though you were rigid, you looked like something he hadn't seen in a long time, a normal scared teenager.

—When he buried you next to Ace and Whitebeard he wondered if he could have done something to save you, or if your destiny was to die alone with no one to ask for help.

—Whatever it was, you wouldn't be so alone up there.

—The helplessness and anguish of seeing your partner and friend beaten to death is something indescribable, Luffy was burning with rage as he saw the scene with his own eyes.

—It was only seconds, but it was enough for there to be no turning back.

—Zoro, Sanji and Luffy took charge of finishing off the person who had beaten you until you were unrecognizable and useless.

—It didn't matter how much Chopper ran, how much Nami and Usopp cried, not even Robin's last hug could stop all the pain that spread over your body.

—Brook, Jinbe and Franky remained serious, a little more on the sidelines, they couldn't hear how you begged for it to end, for them to end your pain, for them to end you.

—Luffy got angry with you for saying those things, he was the only one who was desperate to make you see reason when your conscience was already abandoning you.

—The others knew it, they knew that there would be no chance to see you laugh, joke or smile again, that their last image of you would be a miserable plea to end your suffering, with your body bruised and covered in blood.

—Zoro had to hold Luffy to calm him down while he looked somewhere else but you, unable to accept the reality of another loss.

—Nami hugged your body until it stopped being warm, holding it despite the stained clothes, she didn't stop crying on your shoulder and caressing your head to calm you down, even knowing that you were already gone.

—The worst thing was seeing your deep expression of pain, your inevitable suffering and desperation to leave was a scar that left a mark on everyone.

—No one spoke for a couple of days after your death, everything felt colder and emptier, after all you were just a teenager trying to have a good time, looking for adventures with friends. Why? Why you of all people?

[minniiaa]

Nighttime Chats with Ace - A Sabo Headcanon

Some nights Sabo talks to Ace. He knows that if someone caught him, they would probably think he was crazy, sitting there talking with his dead brother. But he doesn't care. He is crazy.

On those nights, Sabo sits in his room in the pitch dark with a stiff drink, the only light being the flame he creates with the devil fruit he inherited from his brother. He stares into the fire. Maybe if he looks hard enough, he'll see Ace in there somewhere.

And he talks.

Sabo talks about Luffy, how amazing he is, and how much he reminds him of Ace. He's stubborn as a bull, insanely strong, and fights for what he believes is right with no fear or hesitation. Luffy has such amazing friends who would lay down their lives for him without a second thought. He didn't really need Ace or Sabo anymore but that was okay. He's going to become King of the Pirates, an even greater one than Roger ever was. Their silly crybaby little brother is a god. His heartbeat is the drums of liberation. He will lead the world into a new era, one of freedom. Sabo could not be more proud of him, more honored to be his brother.

He talks about himself too. How insane it was that Dragon of all people in the world was the one who found him, Luffy's father and the leader of the Revolutionary Army. He tells him how hard he trained to master his haki and become as strong as possible. He explains that he is still living out his dream, the one he told them when they were kids. He's traveling around the world and secretly writing a book about his adventures. But that's not his only dream now. Sabo dreams of a world where he dismantles the World Government and the Celestial Dragons, freeing the people under their rule. He thinks that the Revolutionary Army can do that. No, they will do that.

Sometimes Sabo cries. About how much he misses Ace. How he wished he could have been there to save him. About how much pain Luffy must have been in as he watched the light slip from Ace's eyes. He misses him. He wishes Ace was there to smack him on the head and tell him to stop being such a crybaby like Luffy. What he wouldn't give to hear Ace yell at him just one more time. Just one more night passed out at Dadan's limbs wrapped up in each other's as they slept soundly without a care in the world. Those were such simpler times.

He talks about Ace too. About where Ace is. Is there an afterlife? What was he thinking when he died? Was he happy in his last moments? He wishes he could hear all of the stories of Ace's adventures. Where had he gone? Who had he met? What were the events that led to a scrappy kid like him ending up becoming a Commander of Whitebeard's crew? Did he find it, the place he belonged?

Sabo wonders out loud too. How different would things be now if he was still here? Would they all be together again like they were when they were children? Probably not, they all had their own goals. But they would always be there to team up and defeat any enemy that blocked the path of their brother's accomplishing their dreams. Just like they had always done.

After a while, he bids goodnight to Ace and extinguishes his flame, leaving him in the pitch black. Because even though he has the ability to make light and turn into literal fire, he wouldn't have that if Ace wasn't dead. He sits in the dark, letting the whiskey burn his throat as he thinks of one thing and one thing only: I wish you were here, Ace.

[apphiarothowrites]

Carry my burdens

(I seem to really enjoy the discovery of Marco as a person from the perspective of other people lmfao) (trigger warning gore)

The first time Ace remembers feeling his soulmate's pain is just after Garp's dumped him with the bandits. It blooms over his cheekbone, feeling like a crack and a shift inside his face, and he flinches hard. He rubs the spot, tears welling up, and then it's gone under a flash of warmth like a rag that was dipped in hot water dragged over the spot.

Dadan huffs and tells him that his soulmate probably got slapped. Ace isn't so sure. Years later, when some adult who hates Roger breaks his cheekbone, he remembers that moment and knows suddenly it wasn't a slap. But it makes him wonder why it disappeared so quickly.

It happens the same way every time. Sometimes sharp, sometimes dull; always hard and fast and bone-breaking, and enough to make Ace flinch and want to cry or scream with it. Ace's tolerance for his own pain grows, but even his own wounds are nothing in comparison to the stuff his soulmate experiences. His only consolation is that his soulmate's pain never lasts longer than a few seconds or a minute at most. Sabo and Luffy timed him, once, when he felt something pierce his chest that sent him to the ground in a hysterical fit. Like a hot lance through his ribs and heart and out his back, he screamed for a solid 45 seconds before it disappeared, once again, under a rush of warmth.

He thought, for a time, that he might hate his soulmate. While it didn't last long, it was always intense and horrifyingly hard. Why was it always like this? What were they doing that they were hurt in such terrible ways? How did they make it go away so quickly?

He thought he'd never have an answer until Whitebeard. Until after he took the mark. Until his first real fight on Pops' crew.

A rival crew from the North Blue challenging for territory. A man with a shotgun, blunt and mean looking. Ace had been only a few feet away and the resulting spray of horrible buckshot went painlessly through his fire.

It did not painlessly pass through Marco. Half of Marco's skull disappeared in a messy riot of giblets, strings of flesh and bits of bone bouncing off the deck. Marco's shoulder and arm and torso were instantly shredded like they'd been fed into a grinder. Pain, so similar and yet unlike anything he'd experienced before, exploded over Ace's side, arm, shoulder, and face.

His scream stopped everything dead in it's tracks. He didn't know he'd collapsed until the pain stopped-the warmth that always came gentling it away. When he could open his eyes again, Marco was a vision of blue wings and a golden beak bathed in red. The man with the shotgun was in pieces and somewhere in the world that man's soulmate learned what happens to people when their soulmate dies.

When the fighting was over, nobody believed him when he insisted he was fine. That was he felt wasn't his own pain, it was fine, he was fire anyway nobody was going to be able to hurt him while he was on the ground.

Marco locked them into his office, looking haunted and tired in a way Ace had never seen him before. He sagged into his chair, rubbed his hands over his face, and said

"I'm sorry-yoi. I never meant to do any of this to you."

[vickyshinoa12]

Loss and Gain [Ace x OC x Sabo!] Prt 2 Dressrosa

Authors note: So since I haven’t caught up in One Piece in a while (I’m in Dressrosa rn lord it’s long >_>) some stuff won’t make sense and all that, I apologize for it and if I see that it doesn’t make since I’ll work it out later on! Anyway enjoy!

Two years passed since Ace died at Marineford. I quit being a pirate all together as well. Marco accepted my decision and told me to be whatever I wanted to be. That I didn’t know who to be. Without Ace being beside me, telling me where to go, how to do things… I can’t make the call. Eventually I ended up just going along whatever the sea felt like was best for me. The One Piece is out there… but I’m sure Luffy was going to find it, and I want him to find it anyway. The thought of Luffy loosing his brother also weighed on my mind as I am in another part of the world away from my own family, my sibling. I can only pray again that Luffy will be okay and to guide me to whatever I need to do. I was lost. Had no goal. The only goal was erased now so… what now?

After a month of useless searching. I landed on an island that was a bit away from Punk Hazard, that’s when I met Law. He was a pirate but recognized my character. How it was broken down and no motivation. He told me we can team up and that a bigger threat is on the loose. I didn’t care at first until he said that lots of innocent people were going to get hurt or dead. Most importantly it had to do with the Marines and the World Government as a whole. Something sparked that day and it took me a while to find Law again, but I agreed to be an ally with him to take care of the threat.

Punk hazard was a mess. It was cold as hell on one end and hot on the other. Law told me the Admirals fought one another and created this island, part I’ve part lava. Just the thought of that scared me. If they can create an island based off that, they could easily destroy the world if they wanted to. Soon Law and I reached a large building and he was explaining to me what to do and who was the target. Then I heard a familiar voice. It was Luffy and his crew my eyes bottled up with tears and I automatically apologized to him for not saving his brother. Luffy said that it wasn’t my fault and that Ace would have wanted us to become stronger and push to our goals. I didn’t tell him that I haven’t had a set point on what my goal was. I was just following Law’s role for the moment.

Days went by and Punk Hazard’s villain, Caeser, was kidnapping children to test some sort of experiment on them. It was awful. “Why would someone do this? To kids?” I asked and Law responded, “People are born to treat others like trash, no one knows the reason.” After that we teamed up with Luffy again, not after their characters had to be fixed, to rescue the children and stop Ceaser. Soon when we did it Law and I went to a room where Ceaser has a bunch of fruits. Law told me that he was making fake Devil fruits and then we got ambushed and he told me to run. I didn’t want to leave him alone so we fought together and eventually Ceaser stood down.

After that battle, we joined with Luffy and the straw hats to go to the next destination that Law told us. Dressrosa. He told us that Ceaser was a pawn to the bigger picture and that the real enemy was Doflamingo. We all agreed to help, but the only problem is when we got there… Law was gone. I went with Luffy and Zoro to search for him… but thanks to the over crowded area I got lost. I started to freak out as I didn’t want to somehow end up with the bad guy.

I walked around a few more blocks before stopping at a shop that sold clothes and food. I looked around and noticed how exposed the women clothes were and decided not to buy it. Soon I grabbed something and went on my way. After a while I started to give up the search and went to a random bunch of tables and sat at one. “Damn… if Ace was here… I would have been out of this situation and would have found Law…” I mumbled and took a bite of my food. There was more people walking about and talking about the colosseum and the fight that was that day. I wanted to see myself and thought that maybe Luffy was there. Okay… that’s a good start! I finished my food and went to get up as I then ran into someone with a huge thud.

My glasses flew across and as I went to look up all I saw was a black and blue blob. “Sorry! I didn’t see you there!” It was a man. “No worries. I’m just in a hurry to find someone.” I went to the ground and started to search. Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder and then a gloved hand with my glasses were in front of me, “These yours?”

“Yeah! Thank you!” I bowed my head and grabbed them from him and put them on. I sighed as my vision came back and stood to thank him again. The man had blond hair, black eyes, and a top hat with googles. His attire was fancy like and he wore a black coat. “Thank you again. Sorry I ran into you.” I put my hand up with a sheepish smile. “Don’t worry about it. You said you were looking for someone, want me to help?”

“Huh? No, you already found my glasses. I don’t want you to do anymore for a stranger like me.” I said and he smiled largely, “Maybe we won’t be strangers.” I was confused by his words as he then took out his hand to shake, “My name is Sabo, I’m here looking for someone as well!” My hand was hesitant as I went to shake, “Victoria…”

“Great! Now we can help one another. I have to find someone very important. Once we get that done, I’ll help you find your person.”

“Thanks… but I already told you-“

“Let’s get started shall we? I’m in a bit of a hurry myself as my friend wants me to get this done ASAP!” Sabo turned on his heel and started to walk off and I was trying desperately to explain why he shouldn’t help. It reminded me of someone. But I couldn’t put a finger on it.

Later we ended up in the colosseum. I looked around and was confused. “Your person is fighting in the colosseum?” I asked and he hummed, “He’s very important like I said. Once we find him, I’ll have to explain a lot of stuff, but I’m sure he’ll understand.” Seems like a close friend. “So since is where I needed to go as well, maybe we can split up?”

“No no! That’s too risky, plus you’ll only get lost again.” Sabo said and I was about to protest when I stopped and turned to him slowly. How’d he know? Sabo turned to face me and I felt a shiver down my spine. What’s up with him? “You were talking about someone by the name of Ace hours ago, weren’t you?” My heartbeat went insane. Was he the enemy? “Don’t need to be scared. I’m an ally. You see, Ace is my brother.” My eyes widened as I slowly pointed up, “You’re… You’re his brother too?”

“Yes I am. We go way back- what do you mean by ‘too’?” He asked as he tilted his head. I blinked, “Someone else said he was Ace’s brother… his name is Luffy.” Sabo’s smile went wide again, “Yep. He’s also my brother!”

“WHAT?!” My jaw dropped as I put my hands on my head, “That’s insane! Another brother?! And you’re just telling me now?! Why didn’t you tell me before?!” I yelled and Sabo laughed, “Cause you bumped into me remember? Then dropped your glasses. So I couldn’t just drop the bomb right then and there about it.” I put my hands down, “I guess you’re right…” He continued to stare at me, that’s when I noticed a burn mark on his left eye. Maybe a childhood burn? “You see… when you also said you’re name. I remembered the small note you put on Ace’s grave. He must have impacted you a lot Huh?” My chest hurt, “Yeah…” The note I left before I quit was a heart felt one. About how I looked up to Ace and how I wanted to tell him how much I loved him, to only be too late. “Hey.” My head went back to look up at Sabo. “It wasn’t your fault. Don’t blame yourself for his death.” Tears went to my eyes as I wiped them, “I know, but… I should have pressed harder…”

“At least you were there for him…” Sabo muttered and put his hat over his face, “I… suffered from amnesia after a Celestial shot me down as a kid… after that I worked for the Revolutionary Army for years… until I heard of his death and all the memories came back…” My eyes soften, “So. Don’t blame yourself. I blamed myself for not being there for him all those years. Plus I’m pretty sure he wants all of us to push forward for a better future.”

“Yeah… say Luffy said the same thing when we were on Punk Hazard.” I smiled and Sabo smiled back, “He is our brother alright. We always somehow have the same wavelength, the three of us.” Now I know about Luffy’s second brother, more compassion drizzled to them. “Say… Luffy was the person I was actually looking for-“

“No way! Me too! Say, let’s find him together, but don’t tell him that I’m his brother! Let it be a surprise!”

“Why? Did he forget you or something?”

“You’ll see. Let’s go to the dressing room.” Sabo said and led the way. Soon we met up with Luffy who dressed up in a beard and was called Luci. Sabo introduced himself to get the Flame-Flame fruit and soon confessed to being Luffy’s brother. Luffy explained that Sabo died that day when he was shot down. Sabo and Luffy had a reunion with a giant hug. All I can do was laugh a bit as Luffy was now not alone without a brother, he had Sabo. Come to think of it… maybe Sabo is a little like Ace. But I might be reading through the lines…

[itsthemoofacewriting]

It’s heaven in your arms

Well, this is just a clusterfuck of emotions. Let me lead you down the path of grief and mourning only for it to end with a bed sharing trope.

I have no idea if there are even people that like the original trio together romantically, but I was really vibing, so hopefully I can convince some of my regular readers to take the plunge.

If any of my ZoNami readers are here, I’m doing the requests you all sent in – I swear!

I’m not sure what to expect from posting this, so I’ll say this once pre-emptively: if this isn’t your cup of tea, you know where the door is, please leave quietly.  

Summary: It may have been two years since Ace’s death but, for Luffy, sometimes it still felt like just yesterday. Or, sometimes, something beautiful can blossom from a place of hurt. Rating: T

You can also find this on AO3 and FFN.

Nami awoke, eyes burning from lack of sleep and mouth dry. It was still dark outside, and she grumbled to herself at waking up so early, but it was no use. She wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep until she had a glass of water. She swung her feet off the bed, clumsily trying to find her slippers before getting up. It was warm outside, so she didn’t bother with anything other than her pyjama top and shorts.

As annoying as it was to be awake so early, it was peaceful. It was a quick shuffle across the deck and into the kitchen, where she filled her glass hastily, already thinking about getting back into bed.

That last thing she expected when leaving the kitchen was the sight of Luffy sitting on the railing, facing the ocean with his feet kicking over the edge. Reckless as always it seemed.

“If you fell, no one would be around to save you,” She lectured.

His shoulders hunched; she’d surprised him it seemed, but he didn’t react as she’d expected. There was no carefree laughter or beaming grin as he told her not to be a worry wart. Instead, she received a muffled, “You’re up.”

Without looking at his face she didn’t know how to take that but his whole attitude was off, and it had alarm bells going off in her head. The comfort of her bed a distant memory now as she walked over to the railing to join him and settled her glass of water beside herself.

The words on the tip of her tongue vanished into the night air when she finally caught sight of his face. His eyes were red and puffy, his face pale despite his constant tan and drawn. It was an expression she’d never seen on his face. He looked defeated.

He looked tired.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He shook his head, just as she’d expected him too and uttered out a quiet, “No.”

“That’s okay, but I’m going to sit here,” she told him. He could sit in silence if that was what he wanted, but she wouldn’t leave him, that wasn’t an option.

She took his hand in hers because whilst he may not want to speak, he’d always been a tactile person and she couldn’t just sit here and not do anything when there were tears still running down his face.

They sat in silence, only the sound of the waves hitting the ship could be heard with their thighs pressed snuggly against the others and his hand clasped in hers, a thumb absently roaming over the skin of his wrist. His tears had resided for the time being, only the stray one falling every now.

She felt like she was sitting with a deer, trying not to spook it because it felt like any wrong move would have him scampering away.

Well, that was until he pried his hand from hers and she was going to say something until his head feel heavily against her shoulder and an arm wrapped around her body. That was all she needed to let herself relax, no longer worried about scaring him away as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders to pull him closer.

It was another long moment of them sitting like that until he whispered in her shoulder, “It hurts.”

“What hurts?”

He was silent but the tears were back as she felt them soaking into her pyjama top.

“I had a bad dream.”

“Yeah? What about?” She encouraged softly.

“About him.” His voice cracked as he said it and his shoulders shook.

There was only one him she knew of.

“It played in a loop, and I couldn’t do anything.”

Although she was being fed the information in dribs and drabs, it wasn’t hard to piece it together. She waited for him to continue but the long pause told her he wasn’t going to.

She thought about what she’d want in that moment, if their roles were reversed, what she’d want from the other person sat with her, so she settled on, “I only met him briefly, tell me more about him. What was it like growing up with him?”

He was quiet and for a moment she didn’t think he was going to respond, that maybe that wasn’t what he wanted at all.

“He hated me when we were younger,” he said wetly, fighting through tears to talk. “I caused trouble, couldn’t fight and cried a lot. He called me cry baby all the time.”

“He didn’t when we met him in Alabasta though.” She remembered how he’d looked at Luffy, eyes full of adoration and voice warm as he asked the crew to look after Luffy for him.

He huffed out a laugh at her words, such a stark contrast to his normal boisterous laugh.

He told her everything. How Ace had gone from despising him to accepting him as a brother along with his other brother, Sabo, how they’d caused trouble together and had the best times together. How he’d made Luffy’s childhood a happy one.

It made her ache. Because as he talked, selfishly she thought about her own sister. How devasted she’d be to lose her, someone that felt like her other half since before she could remember, knew her better than anyone else, who she could talk to about anything. It was hard to explain a sibling relationship to someone without one, there was a different feeling to, you felt it in your core.

Mostly, she thought about how hollow she’d feel.

It felt like an unspoken rule that siblings were for life. You knew that parents were older and that they’d pass at some point in your life, but not your sibling. It felt like they were meant to be with you for life, that you’d grow old together and have each other’s backs no matter what to the very end.

She supposed that was part of the grief.

Although she didn’t know the ins and outs, even now Luffy was edging around his dream and what’d happened back then, she knew the key details - how Ace had jumped in front of him to save him. How Ace had died before his eyes. Even if she suspected there was more to that moment than what she knew, it was traumatic enough.

Another tangled chain to unwrap from the knotted ball of necklaces that was grief.

Ultimately, she didn’t need to know what the dream was about or what’d happened back then, because the picture she had in her mind was vivid enough and she knew how he felt. Watching someone slip away before your eyes, helpless as you watched them go and wishing you’d done something different.

Her heart bled for him as he spoke, words blurring into his tears, she could feel her own eyes prickling as sadness overflowed.

Hands clumsily wiped at her face and belatedly she realised Luffy had stopped talking. “I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he said.

Without thinking, she wiped his face in return. “It’s okay, I’m glad I get to share this with you.”

She cupped his face and she meant it as a soothing gesture, yet it seemed to have the opposite effect. Watching his face crumple before her eyes was so much worse than how she’d imagined it when his face had been buried in her shoulder. He was so expressive all the time that she shouldn’t really be surprised, his lips quivered and those big eyes scrunched as he tried to hold back his tears.

“I know I still have so much, and I should focus on that…”

“But that doesn’t make that little part feel any better?”

“Yeah.”

“I know. It’s not going to either.” He nodded glumly at her words, staying silent and she suspected it was because he couldn’t form words. “You love him. That’s not going to disappear no matter what happens.”

She continued because she needed to say it, to let him know this was okay before she the moment passed, and he locked this all away to deal with another night. “You’re allowed to mourn him, you’re allowed to feel sad without feeling guilty, but when it overwhelms you, tell one of us, okay?” She paused, thinking over her words, before adding, “And even when it doesn’t overwhelm you and you just want company, come find us.”

“Okay.” He sounded choked up, more so than before.

She brought him back into a firm hug, running her hands up and down his back, letting her words sink in and giving him a chance to speak or cry more if he wanted to.

His next words told her they were done for the time being.

“I don’t want to go back to sleep,” he said.

She didn’t have to ask why. She still woke up sometimes in the middle of the night, tears in her eyes as she relived all different versions of Bell-mère’s death, each worse than the last. She knew that he feared having to relive his worst nightmare over again or catching even a whisp of his brother behind closed eyelids, taunting him over the fact that that would be the only way he’d ever be able to see him again.

“I don’t either,” she lied smoothly, “We could raid the fridge-” Sanji would understand- “or I could show you a new card trick or we could go draw on Zoro’s face. He’s probably up in the crow’s nest and he sleeps like a log.”

Luffy grinned, it didn’t reach his eyes like it normally did but that was okay, it was an improvement on the solemn expression from before. “Usopp just bought new markers!”

They both turned at the sound of heavy footsteps and the very person they’d been planning to mess with was stood only a few steps away.

“Why do you two look guilty?” He looked suspiciously at them both.

Neither of them answered, but she saw the moment Zoro noticed Luffy’s face and took in his red, puffy eyes and worn expression. His demeanour changed instantly, he looked serious, and he didn’t say anything more as he joined them on the railing, pressing up to Luffy’s vacant side and taking his other free hand into his- he could probably feel that it was wet from Luffy’s tears.

The ocean lapped silently against the ship and whatever plans her and Luffy had made seemed to be put on hold as he stayed sat on the railing, but that was fine with her, she was happy to sit there with him in silent support.

“It should’ve been me,” Luffy finally spoke, voice sure but only a whisper.

Those were heavy words, she imagined how often that thought circled around in his head and how hard it must have been to finally say it out loud.

“That’s stupid,” Zoro said.

“Zoro,” she hissed. For his blunt words and because Luffy looked on the verge of tears, it made her heart crumble all over again.

“Ace loved you a lot and he didn’t do it for you to think that; he wouldn’t want that. It was his choice and he made it and he’d do it a hundred times over.”

He made a good point, she knew that, but a tough love speech felt too soon.

“Zoro’s not stupid all the time,” Luffy defended weakly, smile wobbly.

Maybe not.

“Oi.”

Nami shook her head, smiling slightly at their antics. “Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. Shall we agree it’s a 10% smart and 90% stupid?”

Zoro tried to look miffed, although it was betrayed by the smirk tugging at his lips. He knew what she was doing, trying to lighten Luffy’s spirits, so he let it slide.

“Well, we can’t draw on Zoro’s face now-” Zoro glowered at her- “but if you want an extra challenge, we could get Usopp or Sanji.” They were light sleepers; she knew he’d be up for the challenge.

Luffy smiled, nodding tiredly and stifled a yawn that had her and Zoro sharing a quick look between them.

“You can sleep with me if you want,” Zoro offered nonchalantly and Luffy perked up at that.

She should leave them to get on with it. They’d made their arrangements already and in the back of her mind, she knew she should, but Luffy’d told her so much, it felt callous to just palm him off. And maybe, somewhere deep down she didn’t like the thought of being left out. Maybe.

The words were out before she’d properly thought them through.

“You can both sleep in my bed.”

“Like a sleepover!” Luffy said and his eyes brightened, a shimmer of what normally resided there returning.

“It’s a one-time offer and no one tells Sanji!” Nami warned even though Luffy looked considerably lighter and Zoro was smirking at her. She didn’t doubt Zoro would store that away to use against Sanji later, but she’d deal with that then. And if he decided to blab, she’d then have the perfect opportunity to charge him, and he wouldn’t be able to say a thing.

The walk to her room was quiet, only the sounds of their shoes thumping against the deck with every step, getting louder and louder as they got closer to her room. She wondered if she’d regret this. What if she’d made it awkward? She should’ve just let Zoro and Luffy bunk together.

Opening the door felt heavy, like something awful would be waiting for her on the other side. Instead, there was just a dark, muted room to greet her and the awkwardness she felt doubled to the point she wondered if the other two felt it too. She wasn’t sure if she was thankful or not that Robin was still asleep, facing away from them.

All those thoughts were put to rest as Zoro and Luffy moved past her, seemingly more than comfortable with this arrangement than her. Zoro shucked off his boots and settled against the far side of the bed so his back faced the wall and Luffy kicked off his flip flops, his hat already sat safely on her bedside unit.

“Absolutely not,” Nami whispered fiercely, hands on hips and they both peered up at her quizzically. “I’m not sleeping on the edge only to wake up on the floor. Zoro, swap.”

“What, so I can wake up on the floor instead?”

“You can sleep anywhere!”

Luffy had snickered at their bickering, watching them go back and forth until he seemingly grew bored of that and stretched his arm out to wrap around her waist. As his arm snapped back, he dragged her with it, she collided with the both of them in her bed. Like a true rubber man, Luffy looked unbothered although she was fairly sure she’d kicked him, but Zoro wheezed behind her as she’d winded him with her elbow.

“That hurt!” Nami moaned.

“Think before you do that!” Zoro grouchily whispered.

“There we go, now we’re all cosy.” He ignored them both, nestling down into the bed as his arm reached across Nami to rest over onto Zoro.

“Luffy!” She squawked, rosy faced. “Move over! You have all that space!”

This was not what she’d had in mind when she’d invited them… into her bed. Although she didn’t have a massive bed, she’d thought they’d at least try to keep their distance, she hadn’t expected this. Luffy was so close she could feel his breath on her face and his hair brushed against her forehead, no doubt mingling in with her own strands. She could feel Zoro spooned behind her, his own arm outstretched across them both and she was only now just considering how appropriate her pyjama shorts were. Which was ridiculous, it was only those two.  

All of this didn’t feel right, they were there for Luffy, he should be the one in the middle not her. He should be the one squashed between them, safe and warm and feeling supported, not her. Yet one look at his face put all of that to rest. You could still tell he’d been crying; the puffiness would take a few hours to go down, but he looked relaxed, the tormented and weight in his expression gone.

He looked content.

And that was enough right now for her brain to shut off, thoughts pushed to the back for another day, and have her burying into the warmth from the two bodies next to her with the knowledge that everything would be okay for now.

----------------------------------

This was meant to be a one-shot, but it’s now a two parter at no one’s request. I’m writing/editing the second chapter right now; it’s on its way.  

I used to ship LuNami hard when I was younger, but I think I’ve lost my ability to write them romantically nowadays… unless you throw in Zoro and then it’s back on apparently.

I write and edit all my pieces by myself, so if there’s any errors, please excuse them.

Thanks for reading.

[imasimpforshanks]

omg I am so sorry I completely forgot to put the alphabet 😅 E C J M T for Shanks for the angst alphabet! thank you and sorry for the mistake! ❤️

Angst Alphabet - Shanks

a/n: hiii! Thank y’all for requesting! To the second anon, I went with Shanks (I hope that’s ok!!!) 💗💗💗

LOLOL THIS MY HUSBANDDDDD 💍😍

A-Accident (would they blame themselves if you died in an accident?)

It would depend on how much he felt he could have prevented it. However, Shanks understands all to well just how cruel the world can be. He can’t constantly be in control of everything, so although it would be devastating, he would have to realize that this is reality.

B-Break up (How would they break up with you?)

Shanks would use the excuse that he is a Yonko. He’s no good for you, and you deserve so much better than an infamous pirate who only brings danger. While these are just excuses - ways to make breaking up with you easier - he really would be speaking from the heart. Shanks has always felt this way but never voiced it, but now it’s finally time to let you go.

C-Crying (how would they make you cry?)

He leaves for long periods of time and refuses to you along. You know he’s only doing it for your safety, but it hurts that he doesn’t think you’re strong or responsible enough to join his crew on their voyages (note: he doesn’t actually think you’re not strong or responsible – his pirate life is just extremely dangerous, even as a yonko).

D-Death (how would they react to your death?)

He’s seen and experienced a lot of death in his life so he’d be a able to cope with it a little better than others would. Even so, your death would still be heart-breaking (he would mourn privately though). Now, if he literally saw you get killed in front of him then RIP to the person who killed you because they will be the one/s to die next.

E-Emotion (what is one emotion they would try to hide the most and how would they do it?)

Shanks is quite an open book. If he’s angry everyone knows. If he’s happy everyone knows (etc.). But, if I really had to pick one… I suppose it would be sadness or grief. He feels obligated to put on a front for his crew (although they can see right through it). He tends to let out his sadness and grief when he’s alone.

F-Fight (do you two ever fight? How big are the fights? What do you fight about? Etc.)

He tends to crack jokes before your fights can escalate into anything too serious. Sometimes it’s intentional, but other times it’s just his personality shining through. And rather than serious fights there’s just a lot of teasing and taunts between the two of you.

If you were to have a serious fight, it would be about both of your safety (As would most fights with any of the One Piece characters).

G-Guilt (what is the biggest thing they feel guilty about?)

More often than not, Shanks finds himself able let go of a LOT of shit. But the one thing he can’t seem to stop feeling guilty about is his failure to show up to Marineford on time. He knows he’s not directly responsible for Ace’s death, but that doesn’t stop the overwhelming guilt. If only he had gotten there a few minutes earlier.

H-Heartbreak (what would cause them pain in the relationship? How would they deal during a break-up?)

Coming back to you after each voyage is something he always looks forward to. However, that happiness is short-lived when he realizes he has to leave again in a few weeks. It’s always so painful having to say goodbye again.

I don’t think he would be too different during a break-up. Perhaps he may crack a few less jokes, but other than that, his personality and demeanour when around others remains the same. It isn’t until he’s alone that he lets his smile fall.

I-Injured (how would they react if you are badly injured?)

Undoubtedly, he’d be concerned, but he knows you’ll pull through (you have to pull through). So, after that initial concern has passed, he’ll be feeling all types of pissed off. Whoever, or whatever, injured you will pay – and honestly, he may not even deal the perpetrator himself (his crew is already on it - you are like family to them).

J-Jealousy (what do they do if they are jealous?)

I honestly think Shanks is just the type of person to just tell you if he’s jealous. But he wouldn’t say “uhh I’m feeling a little jealous” or anything along those lines – no. Instead, Shanks puts on a little pout and does a massive fake sigh until you finally ask him what’s wrong. That’s when he hits you with the “I guess my attention just isn’t enough for you”, and you’re like “HUH?? MF WHAT?” He’s literally such a child HAHA.

But, if there’s one particular person he really does not like you being around and they won’t leave you alone, then he is not at all opposed to just shoving his tongue down your throat right in front of them. That’ll definitely get the message across.

K-Kill (would they kill for revenge?)

Shanks may be a goofy and laid-back individual, but he will resort to violence if the situation calls for it. So, it is very likely that Shanks would kill for revenge. Maybe he wouldn’t necessarily do it himself. But, if he orders it, it’ll definitely happen.

L-Loss (what is their greatest loss?)

Gol D. Roger’s death was probably one of the greatest losses in Shanks’ life. Roger is the reason Shanks is a pirate today, and young shanks was absolutely broken by his death.

(hard to write much for this one seeing as shanks’ character is still quite a mystery to us!)

M-Mistake (what is the worst mistake they ever made with you?)

One time he completely forgot a date night that you spent SO LONG planning. It wasn’t just any date night either. It was a date you planned on his final night before him and his crew had to leave again for a while. You spent hours waiting for to show up, but he was nowhere to be seen. Finally, he showed up at your place, breath reeking of booze. You just looked at him and it hit him (he was like “OH SHIT”). He started apologizing profusely. He didn’t try to make any excuses, he completely owned up to being a shitty boyfriend. But, the moment he knew he had well and truly fucked up was when you just nodded and waved good night to him, wishing him safe travels – you didn’t cry, get visibly angry you just left alone. Shanks knew that was far worse than any yelling.

N-Nightmares (how often do they have them? What are they about? How do they deal with it?)

I literally am not joking when I say this but I think Shanks practically drinks till he passes out so even if he were to get nightmares he wouldn’t wake up LMAOOOOOOOOOOOO (ok maybe I am joking with this one but also kind of not).

In all seriousness though, I don’t think Shanks has nightmares very frequently. It’s gotten to the point where any fear or things of that matter that could be nightmares for him, have become so common in his life that he almost finds it not frightening to think about.

O-Outrage (how and why would they get mad at you?)

He would get mad at you for placing yourself in unnecessary danger. He’d call you stupid and irresponsible, even though he doesn’t really mean any of those things – it’s just the image of him potentially losing you forever is replaying in his mind and it absolutely terrifies him.

P-Past (what has happened in your relationship that changed the way you saw each other?)

You saw him get serious serious once before. Like the kind of serious where he uses his conquerors haki and everything. It definitely caused a bit of a change in your relationship as it was terrifying to witness. You’ve always known Shanks was strong and intimidating when needed, but that moment really showed you what it meant when people called him an “emperor of the sea”.

Q-Quality (what is their most dangerous/toxic quality?)

Not wanting to openly express his sadness and grief in front of others can be a very unhealthy quality. Shanks doesn’t allow himself good enough opportunities to express him emotions in a safe and healthy manner.

R-Rejection (how would they react to you rejecting their confession (or the other way around))

(First of all WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO REJECT SHANKS ANYWAY LIKE HUBBA HUBBA I LOVE HIM ANYWHOOOOOOOOO…..) Shanks is the type to just shrug it off. He’d be a little disappointed, bc c’mon the hottest most amazing person he’s ever known just turned him down! But he knows not everything in life goes how you want it to. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and this just happens to be one of the things he’s lost. So ultimately, he’ll just shrug it off. (he will definitely get teased by his crew though).

S-Scars (battle or self-inflicted)

Shanks has no self-inflicted wounds. But he does have a scar across his left eye given to him by Blackbeard. He also has a missing arm which he (heroically) sacrificed as he saved lil Luffys life (does a missing arm even count as a scar?)

T-Trust (have they ever broken your trust?)

He’s never given you any reason to not trust him. He’s always open and honest with you. Well, as honest as he can be without placing you in any danger. Trust was something needed from the get-go of your relationship because he would be gone for long periods of time. The two of you wouldn’t be able to last without trust.

Oh, also if shanks ever did do anything to break your trust you best believe his crew will beat his ass (especially Benn). You’re family to them.

U-Urge (how badly do they want to see you after you guys separated?)

My god does he want to see you. He would give his other arm just to be right by your side in an instant. He’s gone for weeks, sometimes months, at a time. Shanks loves his crew, they’re a lively bunch and he trusts them with his life, and vice versa. But they’re not you. They don’t provide him with that same feeling of home that you do. Sure, this could be fixed if he let you join the crew on their journeys, but he absolutely cannot place you in that kind of danger. You’re already in enough danger as it is simply being in a relationship with him.

V-Vicious (what do they do when they lash out on you?)

Rather than lashing out at you, Shanks tends to give you the silent treatment. He looks at you without a word and just turns away. He does this in an attempt to make you feel guilty and as if everything is your fault.

W-Weak (what makes them feel weak how do they try to avoid it?)

There isn’t much that makes Shanks feel weak. But, being unable to be near his s/o is one of the few things that does make him feel weak. It’s a constant struggle between wanting to have them around him constantly, but also not wanting to place them in any danger. Ultimately, he decides that not placing them in danger is the better choice, despite how much it pains him.

X-X-ray (what do they hate and show it most obviously?)

Shanks can handle being picked on and ridiculed himself, but he will not tolerate that sort of behaviour towards his friends. The second someone goes after a friend (or someone else he cares about) they are done for.

Y-Yearn (what is one thing that they want but can’t have?)

LMFAOOOOOO WHY DID MY BRAIN AUTOMATICALLY THINK “his arm back” OOP-

I’M SORRY BUT I LITERALLY CAN’T THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE OTHER THAN HIS ARM HAHAHAHAHAH

Z-Zero (what do they do/say in your dying moments?)

He’d try to crack a few jokes to at least help you feel better. Other than that, he just tries to make the most of your final moments together.

[holykillercake]

One Year

pairing: Zoro x Reader

word count: 2k

summary: No summary this time. I´ll just say this ¨Bartholomew Kuma and Sabaody¨. Read at your own risk. Seriously, ¨KUMA AND SABAODY¨, do you understand?

highlight: ¨Everyone did their best, but no one could have done better.¨

warnings: angst with happy ending; Sabaody Archipelago spoilers (?)

notes: Hey guys! This was a request from @roronoatrash​ in which ¨Zoro who has 0 sense of direction seemed to always find his way back to is s/o, and his s/o only.¨. I really hope you like it!💚 This is also the first time I write a Devil Fruit user, so I'm considering a sequel to develop the character and add more humor.

𝕷𝖊𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖘, 𝖗𝖊𝖖𝖚𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖘, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊!

It was a cloudy and melancholic day in the New World. The men on board were leisurely enjoying their afternoon; some drinking, some napping, some eating. The air was humid and cold, and the tides were strangely calm. No one seemed to care. After all, that was the New World. 

¨Boss!¨ the lookout shouted from the crow's nest ¨Something is falling from the sky! It´s going to land on deck!¨

All men tilted their heads to look at the sky, watching a tiny black spot become bigger and more recognizable.

¨Is that what I think it is?¨ the captain asked himself, not believing his eyes.

¨Boss, is that a girl?¨

¨Yep, I think so.¨

They stood still watching what they suspected was a girl fall from the skies. The red-haired took a quick glimpse at his first-mate and officers, and since no one moved, he felt safe to assume that that was not a threat. Mainly because whatever was falling towards the ship looked dead already. 

The body fell through the main deck and went straight to the lower level of the ship. The captain and his officers stood around the hole on the wooden floor, observing the unconscious and injured body of a girl. 

¨I´ve seen some crazy things rain around here... but this is new.¨ he spoke.

They were ready to have someone dispose of the dead body when the girl opened her eyes, putting herself on her shaky legs. Blood dripped from her eyebrows and nose, and she had bruises all over. Her eyes wandered around as if she was looking for something.

¨Z-Zoro...¨ she spoke when her teary eyes met the captain´s ¨I-I need to find Zoro.¨ 

That was all she said before falling on her knees and collapsing. 

                                                             </>

Almost a year has passed since the tragedy in Sabaody Archipelago. A year passed since you were defeated in the fight against the marine force. Your gashes closed, and your bruises healed, but there was a wound that would not go away, even after one year. 

So much had happened since that day. Luffy had broken into Impel Down, fought in the Paramount War, and lost his brother, Ace. A few days later you received the hidden message he had left you, saying that you were no longer going to meet in Sabaody in three days but in two years.

It took you a while to understand the situation you and the rest of the Strawhats were in, and it took you even more to let go of your selfishness and trust them. The guilt for not being strong enough to protect yourself and your comrades ate you alive during the first weeks, but then you considered how they must be feeling too. No one could have done better. 

Everyone did their best, but no one could have done better. 

For one year, whenever a News Coo flew by to deliver a newspaper, you would run and grab it before anyone did, hoping to see another message from your friends. But the status of your captain was the only one you knew so far. You knew he was training with Rayleigh-san, and this whole two years thing should have been his idea. 

When Bartholomeu Kuma used his Devil Fruit powers on you, you ended up landing on the ship of the Red Hair Pirates. They would always tell you how you rained on their Red Force and broke the deck floor. They said you were looking for someone, and during your stay in the infirmary, you would always call for the same person. 

For months nightmares had you waking up in the middle of the night panting and crying. The same one, torturing you in an infinite and merciless loop. 

Every detail, color, and noise. Everything was so precise and clear in your head. 

When he fought still injured from the last encounter with the Shichibukai; when he stood up and faced the Warlord fearlessly. Even with the damages caused by Kizaru and the Pacifistas, he stood up. 

And maybe your eyes fooled you, maybe your exhausted body played a sick trick on you because he was there until he wasn´t.

 Right in front of your eyes.

 His cropped green hair and tanned skin, the vibrant red and white striped shirt, the scar across his chest, the haramaki, and the swords. Gone, simple as that. 

But after all the training that you had with the Red Hair Pirates, you seemed more in peace with yourself. After one year, the nightmares would bother you only every once in a while. You were not prepared for the New World before, maybe still aren´t, but you will get there. 

And they made everything easier. It was no mystery why Luffy liked them so much. Whenever you were not engaged in a fight or some other Emperor crap, those guys were incredibly light-spirited. And the moment they realized you were part of Luffy´s crew they treated your wounds and welcomed you onboard. 

Shanks agreed to have his men training you, but he made very clear that no one would babysit you, so it was ¨keep up or keep out.¨. You spent most of your time with Yassop, Benn, or Roux, for they were the best in the abilities you exercised. 

Inside the Strawhats you were a stealth agent, mostly because of your Devil Fruit, the Nagi Nagi no Mi, once possessed by a Marine Commander. Another Supernova, the Surgeon of Death Trafalgar Law had told you that before shit broke in Sabaody. 

You used that combined with your fighting skills to breach the enemy´s first line of defense before they saw you coming. Usually, Usopp would assist you with the sniper training, trade he ¨learned from a friend¨, Sogeking. 

His father was an extraordinary sniper, and he used the same kind of firearms as you, differently than Usopp´s slingshot. Benn´s combat skills were remarkable, and Roux was exceptionally fast for a man his size. You haven´t had a lot of opportunities to fight the Red Hair himself, though you had a strong will, his Haki was something you have never seen before. 

¨We´re going to a bar, kid. You´re coming?¨ Benn asked you with his cigarette on his lips. 

You pondered a little over his invitation but decided to decline it. ¨Thanks, Benn, but I´m keeping a low profile tonight.¨ He nodded and smiled, turning to follow his crewmates ¨Don´t drink too much, we have training tomorrow!¨ 

The first mate laughed shortly and spoke without looking at you ¨Roger that, kid.¨ 

You walked the opposite way, wandering between the vegetables and gimmicks tents, feeling the kind sunset kiss your skin. There was some music playing, kids running around with ice cream in their hands, laughing loudly and happily. Marketers were announcing their prices, housewives were thinking about delicious recipes to prepare for their families, and couples would sit together around the font, swearing love to each other.

Every day was like that. The citizens would wish their neighbors ¨good morning¨ from their windows; bakers would open the doors early, letting the delightful smell of fresh bread wake up those who slept in.  

How could you, in the middle of all that happiness, feel so sad and lost?

You sighed and made a route change. Maybe you needed a little bit of booze. 

The island where Shanks had decided to dock was in the Grand Line, a place where they were known and welcomed. So you knew where they were, and it would be a short walk to get there.

¨Y/N?¨ 

You turned automatically, thinking that a crew member had gotten lost and was looking for his captain - or boss, how he likes to be called.

 But when you saw the man standing in front of you, everything stopped. The music, the kids, and the love promises. 

At some point, you started to cry and hyperventilate, believing you were in another nightmare, and you would have to go through that day all over again. Your lover carried pain in his eyes as well, like his fears were the same as yours. 

Those minutes you stared at each other felt like hours while you kept every detail of him in your memory. His hair was slightly longer, and his complexion was paler, even with the sunset painting his skin. 

¨Z-Zoro...¨ you whispered shakily.

He gave a step forward ¨Y/N... it´s you...¨ 

You ran in his direction as soon as your name fell out of his mouth. Your arms embraced his neck, and your legs gave up when he held you tight against his body, whispering comforting words as you broke into tears. 

¨I...¨ nothing but sobs came out.

¨I know... me too.¨ he fondled your hair and hid his face in the curve of your neck. And there stood the both of you, not wanting to let the other go. 

                                                          </>

¨How did you know I was here?¨ you asked and he blushed a little.

¨I didn´t... I had to buy stuff for the castle, and I got lost.¨ a loud laugh came out of your mouth. It was so obvious, how didn´t you guess that?

¨They didn´t give you a log pose?¨

¨They did, but I took a nap and when I woke up, I was here.¨

You spent the rest of the day cuddling on the beach sand. Zoro was laying on his back, and you were resting on his chest. You had one year worth of conversation to catch up on, and neither of you rushed to do so. He told you about Mihawk, the creepy island in which the only native habitants were copycat human drills, the boat he destroyed, and even how he begged the Warlord to train him.

The sun had started to hide behind the sea, and the warm sand was cooling down. The sound of the waves crashing on the shore together with the salty breeze made you question if you had died at some point, and that was heaven.

¨You´re paler.¨ he chuckled.

¨It´s not very sunny where I´m living.¨ 

¨Hm...¨ you hummed ¨And how long did you take to figure out Luffy´s message?¨ 

¨Oh...¨ he thought for a second ¨ I knew right away.¨ you giggled and doodled on his chest with your finger. 

You felt his chest go up and down as he let out a sigh. 

¨I missed you, Y/N.¨ he hugged you tighter. 

¨I missed you too.¨ you stayed in silence for a few minutes ¨Anyway, when are you setting sail again?¨ You asked him softly, and he tensed up. ¨I know... ¨ your lips began to tremble ¨ I don´t want to go either, but what happened in Sabaody... I don´t want that to happen ever again.¨ you bit your lip as tears started to roll on your cheeks. 

He wiped the tears with his fingers and pulled you closer. None of you wanted to part ways again, but not only those were your captain´s order that was your future. If something like that happens again in the New World, a two-year separation would be the best scenario possible. 

¨It won´t. I promise.¨

When the night came, you decided to stay on the beach and talked until you fell asleep under the stars. The best sleep you´ve had in a long time. No nightmares, no agony, and no pain. Just the warmth and peace you missed so much.

On the following morning, you helped him get the provisions for Mihawk´s castle. You toured around the city holding hands and joking, kinda like the couples sitting by the font, enjoying every second you had before he left. 

If he didn´t get lost trying to go back to Kuraigana Island, it would be a quick trip. You assisted him with the bags and walked him to his boat. Your heart ached to say goodbye to him, but you had to. The circumstances were bigger than the two of you.

¨I love you, Zoro.¨ you hugged him and tried not to cry again.

¨I love you more, Y/N.¨

¨Careful with the naps, ok?¨ he chuckled and nodded ¨One year. We´ll meet again in one year.¨ 

¨Wait for me. I´ll go get you, and we´ll return to Sabaody together.¨ 

¨But how will you know where I will be?¨

¨It doesn´t matter where you´ll be. I´ll always find you.¨

[chenziee]

There are sparks between us

First one for this batch of requests! (I really should stop pretending they’re going to be “drabbles”, I haven’t written a single one that could pass for a drabble)

Thank you so much @detective1412d​ for the prompt! This... might not be what you had in mind but I hope you like it! <33 (I absolutely love your username btw, just needed you to know that)

Requests are still open, please refer to this post for more info :)

[Read on AO3 or under the cut]

----------

Even when he was only just nearing the little house where he and the Straw Hats had taken shelter after the battle with Doflamingo, Law could tell it was noisy. That could only mean that Straw Hat was finally awake and a wave a relief washed over him. It wasn’t like Straw Hat sleeping the past few days away was unexpected after the strain on his body, and Law had checked his condition regularly to make sure everything was alright, but hearing his laughter was still a weight off of his shoulders.

He could do without the noise but he supposed that was just a part of the package with these pirates and their captain. Just couldn’t do the simplest of things quietly.

Law was surprised at the chuckle that had escaped him at the thought. When did he become so… fond of these people? He quickly wiped the smile off of his face, schooling his expression back to neutral as he reached out to open the door.

“Torao!” Straw Hat greeted him immediately. “Where did you go?”

Looking in the direction of the voice, Law was surprised to no find the other Straw Hats or the samurai sitting at the at the table but instead, Fire Fist Ace and the revolutionary army chief of staff were there with Straw Hat himself. What he wasn’t surprised about, however, was seeing his fellow pirate captain stuffing his face with food, his head barely visible behind the mountain in front of him. At least he swallowed his food before he tried to talk to Law.

“Just checking on the marines,” Law replied, leaning Kikoku against the wall and pushing his hood away from his face.

“Boring,” Straw Hat said in response.

“Someone has to do it since you people don’t seem to give a damn,” Law noted, raising a challenging eyebrow but Straw Hat only stuck his tongue out at him, making Law huff out a small laugh.

“The navy can suck it,” Fire Fist said as he stole a chicken leg right from under Straw Hat’s fingers, earning himself loud protests from his younger brother. A second later, a pipe came to land against the side of Ace’s head. The man clicked his tongue and dropped the chicken back on the pile with a huge pout.

Sabo smiled in approval, then finally reacted to Ace’s words, “Yeah, they don’t seem all too eager to catch us anyway.”

“That’s because gambler old man isn’t a bad guy,” Straw Hat said, nodding seriously to himself as he grabbed the chicken leg that Ace had tried to steal.

As if that made any difference. “He’s still an admiral. They’re going to move sooner or later,” Law sighed, ruffing Straw Hats hair on his way to grab some water.

The other pirate only snickered, letting his head fall so far back that Law’s neck hurt at the sight. “But Torao, it’s not like we can’t beat them.”

 Before Law could say anything, Sabo interrupted him, “You’re not fighting an admiral, Luffy. Not now when you’re still recovering.”

“Exactly, Luffy. I’m the one who’s going to fight him,” Ace agreed in a grave voice.

“Neither of you is fighting the admiral!” Sabo snapped, and Law was glad at least one of these brothers seemed to be remotely sane.

Is what he thought at least, before Luffy whined, “Not fair, you already fought him, Sabo!”

His words were closely followed by Ace rolling his eyes and huffing, “You just want to fight him yourself.”

“What can I say, it’s my job to pick fights with the government,” Sabo said with a grin, shrugging as if what he had said made perfect sense.

Law sighed. How and why did he get involved with these people? “How about no one is fighting the admiral,” he said, voice perfectly flat as he shot them all a glare.

“You’re no fun.” Straw Hat announced, sounding as sulky as Law had ever hear him and looking back at Law with a huge pout on his lips.

Law felt the corner of his mouth twitch upward. How was this idiot so cute? Moving away from the counter, Law took the two steps that separated them and leaned down, briefly pressing his lips to Luffy’s. It was just a quick peck, but only when the soft touch of skin sent jolts down his spine, making his heartbeat speed up like crazy, did Law realize what he had just done. He kissed Luffy.

He kissed Luffy.

They barely even had time to talk about this… thing between them—really only had a minute in the middle of the battle, back on the roof while Luffy’s haki recovered—just enough for some hurried confessions. Luffy was asleep the entire time after and Law wasn’t even entirely sure he felt the same way.

He was honestly starting to panic a little bit.

Taking a deep breath, Law finally stood up straight, moving as if on autopilot to drop into the last available chair at the table. Not like he could do much about it now except try to play it cool, after all. Especially when the silence suddenly hanging over the room was getting unbearable. He hoped his expression wasn’t betraying the battle that was raging in his mind but hell, he couldn’t even look anyone of them in the face. Mostly, he just didn’t want to know what expression Luffy was wearing right then so he only focused on the mug in his hands, taking a long sip of his water just to have an excuse to close his eyes.

He was brought back to reality when he felt something warm touch his cheek and his eyes shot open. It took him a second to realize what just happened. That Luffy had kissed him back. When he turned to look to the side, he came face to face with that bright, wide grin and he didn't bother stopping the small, soft smile that pulled on his own lips right then; the warm feeling in his chest and his stomach, the ghost of Luffy's touch on his lips and cheek… It was too much, too impossible to fight.

Plus, he didn't want to fight it anyway. Luffy reciprocating his feelings made him feel light, made him feel safe, made him happy, and Law was done running away from things that made him happy just because he was too scared to lose them.

He wasn't going to lose this one thing even if it killed him.

Suddenly, the comfortable warmth Law was feeling disappeared, only to be replaced by the unbearable heat coming from the wall of fire in his face. Law jerked back on reflex, nearly falling off of his chair in the process.

“Ace, stop!” came Luffy’s voice from somewhere on the other side of the fiery wall.

Law as well turned to look at him questioningly; the only possible suspect was glaring right back at him, an unspeakable fury written all over his face while his entire right arm was engulfed in flames. Even his hair was on fire.

“You touch my little brother again and I will burn your face off,” Ace growled, making the wall grow even larger to prove his point.

Law rolled his eyes. Talk about an overreaction.

Sabo’s hand landed on Ace’s shoulder a moment later. “Calm down, Ace, or you’re going to burn down the house,” he said, voice sounding soothing.

Law almost thanked him, but when he looked at the revolutionary’s face, there was a cold smile there and that was honestly a lot more terrifying than whatever Ace was show him.

“Just leave it to me, I’ll crush his head like an egg for robbing Luffy of his first kiss,” the man added, his hand already coated in Armament haki.

As if Law was about to stick around for that.

With a sigh, Law coated his own arm in haki and reached through the flames to grab at Straw Hat. “Shambles,” he said lazily and immediately, the two of them found themselves on the roof, the two enraged screams only a muffled echo from down below.

“Your power is always so cool,” Straw Hat breathed as soon as he found his footing after the sudden change of scenery.

“Thanks,” Law replied with a chuckle at the stars that were dancing in Luffy’s eyes. He was seriously too cute. However, his amusement soon died down when he remembered what Sabo had said and he frowned, his gaze turning to quizzical. “Was that really your first kiss?” he asked slowly.

Straw Hat cocked his head to the side, a confused expression finding its way on his face. “Yeah?”

A feeling of dread and shame washed over Law. He really fucked up there, didn’t he? “I’m sorry,” he said, trying to sound as sincere as he could.

“Why?”

Law paused, staring blankly at the honest, bemused frown on Luffy’s face that accompanied the simple question. Did he seriously not understand why Law was apologizing?

“For stealing your first kiss?” he tried, gesturing vaguely between them. “And without asking,” he added, making a face at his own stupidity. Why didn’t he realize what he was about to do until after it happened?

“Why?” Straw Hat asked again, pausing for a second before continuing, “I mean, it’s not a big deal, right? I don’t know why Ace and Sabo reacted like that. And I like you and I liked it so it’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

Law blinked. Luffy wasn’t wrong but it… sounded a little too simple. Looking into Luffy’s eyes, Law couldn’t see any hint of uncertainty or any sign that he didn’t mean every single word he had said and out of nowhere, Law felt like he was the stupid one.

He couldn’t help it. He laughed, suddenly feeling so light and calm. Maybe he really shouldn’t be thinking too hard about things, especially where this idiot was concerned. It wasn’t like he bothered to think anything through, after all.

With a crooked smile still on his face, Law leaned forward, his fingers gently brushing Luffy’s cheek before they buried in his soft hair. He ignored the shouts of his name and death threats coming from the two brothers who were now running all around the house looking for them, only focusing on the grin on Luffy’s face and the warmth of his gaze. “Then I better do it more often,” he whispered only a second before their lips connected once more.

The kiss was slower this time, soft and innocent and making those damn butterflies in Law’s stomach go crazy. He really was so gone for this man. He couldn’t help but remember the time after they had left the auction house on Sabaody two years ago, the one where he met Luffy for the first time. After all was said and done, Shachi had looked at him with this stupid grin on his face and called Law smitten.

Law had just rolled his eyes and told him not to be an idiot but he wondered, if the same conversation happened now, whether he would be able to say anything against the accusation. Hell, maybe Shachi was right even then. Maybe Law was taken in by his brightness, the life he was radiating, and his reckless willingness to fight the entire world for the people he cared about. He couldn’t deny he was drawn to him ever since they first met.

Finally, they pulled away from each other, both out of breath and with smiles on their faces, and Law thought to himself that it might have been unavoidable. Unavoidable for Luffy to save him, both metaphorically and literally, for Law to fall in love, for the two of them being here, kissing on the roof while Luffy’s brothers went through several stages of mental breakdown below them.

And Law would go through everything that had happened in the past week all over again just for this moment.

[mystical-flute]

Uncharted Waters 50: Welcome to the New Age

AO3 || Ko-Fi

Ace and Luffy turned murderous, their eyes sparking with haki as they stared at the phone in Reika’s hand.

“Then we’re leaving. We gotta save Sabo,” Luffy said, already turning to run back the way they’d come.

“Luffy, wait!” Nami shouted after him, grabbing what treasure she was able to. The others were doing the same with the books, and Reika knew Robin had likely filled the Sunny’s library with the old tomes. “It took us almost four days to get here! We’ll never make it in time!”

“You can,” Aiko’s voice piped up from the phone. “Just use the Veil. I can input the coordinates of Mary Geoise to Reika’s device no problem.”

“Aiko, we’ve never tried to send a shp through the Veil!”

“The worlds are reconnected, Reika. They had to have traveled through them somehow. Just trust me, okay? Get on your dragon and set up the coordinates I send.”

She sighed, watching as everyone made it back onto the ship and started preparing to leave. “Alright, alright. Give us a few minutes. Jinbei, if you could turn the ship around and start sailing back the way we came, that’d be great.”

It was hard to believe they had to leave Laugh Tale so soon. She imagined they would have had a feast to celebrate Luffy’s finally becoming King of the Pirates, to finally celebrate what she had been working for with the I.D.R.A.

But, if Sabo was in danger, of course they were going to go after him. And if that meant taking down the World Government in the process, well, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

“We need to make a pit stop first, Aiko,” Ace suddenly said. “Law and I have our crews waiting for us back at Lodestar.”

“You’re lucky I already wanted to help tear down the Celestial Dragons, Portgas,” Law grumbled.

“Fine, sure. Just stay safe, Ace.”

Ace blinked, frowning in confusion. “Are you not going to be there, Aiko?”

Aiko let out an annoyed grunt. “No. Dad hasn’t cleared me medically yet. Joey and I are here keeping watch on everything, which is why I was able to call Reika. Yamato, you’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything too stupid, right?”

Yamato looked a little baffled by the phone, but still, he nodded in agreement. “Yeah! I mean - I can’t see the rest of the world if Ace dies, right?”

“I’m not gonna die!” Ace protested.

“No, no, you just started a trend of you brothers getting captured and scheduled for execution,” Yamato snickered. “Don’t worry, Aiko. We’re all gonna get out of there alive.”

“I’ll be cheering all of you on. Reika, I sent the coordinates to your device. There was a change of plans - Dragon wants you to rendezvous at an island closer to the Red Port.”

Luffy didn’t seem to understand the implications of Aiko’s words. Instead, he puffed out his chest and let out a shout of “Hurry up!”

And of course, the obliged. Reika summoned Blizzard Dragon, soaring to the height of the Sunny and taking a deep breath as she stared down at the device in her hand. “Alright Veil… let’s see if you really can open for a ship,” she whispered, typing the coordinates in and pressing the button.

The bright blue portal surged to life, just tall enough for the Sunny to pass through. On the deck, she saw the shocked looks from those who had never passed through one before.

“Jinbei! You have to get the ship through first! I’ll follow!” she shouted. “It’s safe, I promise!”

Jinbei didn’t look convinced, even as he did as she said and guided Sunny through the Veil, back to Lodestar. As promised, she followed just as the stern finished passing through.

“That was so cool!” she heard Carrot squeal. “And now we’re right back at Lodestar! It’s so convenient!”

“Law! Ace!” she called, watching as they moved back toward their own ships. “Give me a signal when you guys are ready to go through!”

She didn’t wait long - not with the gravity of the situation.

Minutes later, she soared through the Veil to the island Dragon was waiting on. She dismissed her Blizzard Dragon and dropped to the deck of the ship as Jinbei pulled into port, Revolutionary Army members milling around and watching them closely.

“Wow… these guys seem more intense than I thought,” Usopp said, eyeing the revolutionaries warily. “I thought Dad’s crew was intense but… this is on another level.”

“You guys! You’re finally here!” Koala cried, rushing forward as they disembarked. “Actually, you made great timing considering how far you were… and you brought backup! Good. Good. Dragon’s inside, he wants to talk to you.”

“I didn’t think we’d ever get the chance to meet Luffy’s dad,” Nami whispered as they moved through the throng of revolutionaries to the massive tent on the other side of the island. “To think we’re fighting with them”

“After everything Zeff told me about them, it’s hard to imagine I’d ever be working with them to bring down the government,” Sanji agreed.

A wave of haki washed over them, but despite its strength, none of them succumbed to its power.

“Heh. Good. That’s just what I would expect from your crew,” Dragon’s voice rumbled from the head of a long table, littered with maps and charts. He turned slowly in his chair to face the crew. “I’m glad to finally see you again, my son.”

Unease was high in the room, but Luffy was unfazed and simply tilted his head. “‘Again’? What do you mean? I’ve never met you before!”

Dragon let out what Reika could only describe as a pseudo-chuckle as he rose to his feet. “That’s because the last time you saw me, you were just a baby drooling into my cloak.”

Luffy let out an indignant noise. “Let’s get one thing straight here. I don’t drool! And who are you, anyway?”

“Be that as it may,” Dragon said smoothly, an arm sweeping open in greeting. “I am Monkey D. Dragon - your father. And I am the leader of the Revolutionary Army. I hope we can work together in order to save Sabo.”

Luffy brightened at that. “Oh! Yeah! Sabo works for you! So what are we doing to get him back?”

“Come take a seat. You brought others to help, yes? And your Fleet?”

“You know about them?” Luffy questioned as the crew sat down around the table.

“Yes, I do. They showed up here last night after the news broke about Sabo. Koala and Hack verified their identities for me. They have their orders. It wasn’t smart to have all of them on this island at once, along with you. The government is sniffing around here. Come. Let’s discuss our plan. Betty, show the other captains in.”

Belo Betty, one of the commanders, nodded and disappeared from the tent. When she returned, Ace and Law were with her, and Nami was dragging Sanji and Brook back to their seats so they wouldn’t say or do anything stupid.

Dragon cleared his throat. “I’ve been keeping an eye on your exploits Luffy, and I’ve come up with a winning strategy to get Sabo back and make those who took him pay for what they’ve done. Luffy, you and Ace will be the leading force into Marie Geoise. My commander, Morley, will be able to get you through the Red Line.”

Ace blinked. “Through the - ”

“Captain Law, you will be with my group. We'll sneak our way through the Red Port and up to Marie Geoise. Sabo is being held in Castle Pangaea - the seat of power for the government,” Dragon continued, ignoring Ace’s question. “A pincer maneuver.”

“Okay. Let’s say this plan works and we defeat the Celestial Dragons. What happens after that?” Zoro asked. “Not that I’ve been a fan of rules or government or anything, but… overthrowing one of the three powers of the world could lead to a lot of innocent people getting hurt.”

Dragon smirked. “I assure you, our plan is not to destroy the government as a whole - anarchy and chaos would not end well, especially with Eturn and Earth reunited. All we want to do is free people from the tyrannical rule of the Celestial Dragons, abolish slavery, reveal the true history of the world… The Marines are always going to be needed in order to combat criminals and people will still need rulers,” Dragon’s eyes slid over to Vivi before he continued. “We do not intend to overthrow any king or queen who is a fair and just ruler. Should you wish it, Princess Vivi, you are free to return to Alabasta after the war. Earth has agents stationed there to keep it out of government hands.”

Vivi nodded. “Thank you. I’m glad to know Alabasta is in safe hands.”

Dragon rose to his feet, pointing at the map on the table. “Mary Geoise is a large and dangerous place. There will be Cipher Pol Agents and Marines waiting. The area we’re targeting is Pangaea Castle - that is where Sabo is being held, and where they plan to execute him.”

“Then that’s where we go!” Luffy declared, also standing. “Let’s hurry up!”

“Yes, I quite agree,” Dragon said, gesturing to the giant waiting outside the tent. “Follow Morley. She’ll take you to her ship.”

“Why can’t we use ours?”

“Morley’s is inconspicuous and has had one of her men posing as a fisherman for months in order for us to gain entry to the Red Line. Trust me, you’ll be safer there.”

Luffy wrinkled his nose. “Fine.”

Morley was all too happy to guide them to her ship after Ace’s crew caught up with them. The ship was brown and unassuming, with a merchant’s flag on it instead of one of the grand Revolutionary flags.

“It wouldn’t be good to have one of those while doing reconnaissance, would it?” Morley shrugged as the ship rocked and the Red Line came into view. “Just a few more minutes, Luffy. Then we’ll be inside.”

They ducked away from windows, hidden away from prying eyes, until a knock on the door had Morley moving onto the deck. They followed, staring as Morley quite literally started pulling and pushing at the Red Line like it was made of clay. “Ah, here it is.”

“Here what is?” Sanji questioned.

“The pathway I built into the Red Line,” Morley replied, pulling apart the bedrock like it was nothing. “Come on, another ship will be by soon. Just follow the pathway until I get inside. Then I’ll show you all the way.”

A sense of unease crossed them, but, with no other option, the Straw Hats, Spade Pirates, and Morley’s men jumped through the opening.

“You know… this cavern almost reminds me of the one that leads to Newkama Land in Impel Down,” Bentham mused as they followed Morley through the tunnel.

“Oh, did someone find my hiding spot in that terrible place?” Morley suddenly asked, a blush growing on her cheeks as she glanced back at them. “And it’s called Newkama Land? How flattering!”

Bentham stopped short and bumped into Usopp. “Wait, Morley, you created Newkama Land?”

Morley shrugged. “I didn’t call it Newkama Land, but yes, I did manage to escape my cell and create a little hideaway for myself. Figured out a way to get news from the outside world… and a few months later I made my grand escape! Makes me a little sad that no one seemed to notice I was gone, though. However I did hear all about your exploits, young Luffy. You should tell me a story!”

“Not until we get Sabo back!” Luffy snapped, charging ahead of the group, Ace on his heels.

“Sorry, Morley, he gets this way when someone he loves is in trouble!” Reika called as the crews followed their captains.

“Just like Sabo,” Morley sighed, running along behind them. “I suppose that’s why they’re brothers. It’s endearing, in an annoying sort of way.”

They rushed through the tunnel, up a gentle incline, and when they finally reached the end of the road, Morley grinned. “Step back everyone, it’s time to make our grand entrance!” With a flourish of her trident, Morley stabbed the bedrock above them, pushing it apart like it was nothing.

Luffy and Ace didn’t wait for an explanation, or a list of what to do next. No, instead they exploded out of the ground, knocking down whoever was up top waiting for them.

A few guns and swords dropped into the hole in Luffy and Ace’s wake.

The crew didn’t hesitate in following their captains up to the surface.

Marines surrounded them on all sides. She could see her mother, Tashigi, and Smoker among them, only they weren’t fighting Revolutionaries, but Cipher Pol agents and their own men.

SWORD must have been in play too.

“Luffy! Ace! The castle is this way!” Vivi called, slicing down some enemies with her new and improved peacock slashers. “Follow me!”

“We have to create a path for them!” Sanji shouted. “We can’t let any of these damn Marines or Cipher Pol agents follow them into the castle!”

“Sorry to say, but you’re not getting anywhere near that castle.” Kizaru appeared before them in a flash of light, an apathetic look in his eye. “I have to say though, it is touching how far you’d go for a family member… it’s just too bad you’re all criminals and I have to kill you.”

Robin gasped. “Kizaru. This isn’t good.”

“If he’s here… the others must be too,” Jinbei said with a frown. “We need to be on our guar -”

But Luffy was already gone, running ahead of the crew with only Sabo on his mind. Ace was right behind him.

“Oh my, they’re speedy when they want to be,” Kizaru sighed. “But not as fast as m -”

“I don’t think so, you bastard. You’re not going after them, you’re going to be fighting me,” Sanji snarled. “If you beat me, then you can go after my captain… if you can get through the rest of the crew.”

Kizaru shrugged. “That’s fine, providing your crew can get through the others…”

Trying to separate them so they couldn’t all raid the castle at once. It was clever, Reika would give them that.

No other words needed to be spoken as Sanji’s fight began. One by one, the crews became separated as Vice Admirals and Admirals crawled out of the woodwork itching for a fight. Jinbei and Yamato were tag-teaming Ryokugyo, and Zoro had taken up a fight with Fujitora.

Kizaru, Ryokugyu, Fujitora. That only left one.

Sakazuki.

As if on cue, Sakazuki erupted from the building just before the castle, looming over Ace and Luffy.

Dammit. If Ace got killed by Akainu when they were so close to freeing Sabo, she was going to bring him back to life and kill him again.

They couldn’t lose anyone. Not today.

“Young lady! It doesn’t bode well for a fight if you’re lost in thought!” Vice Admiral T-Bone chastised, his sword coming down to collide with her batons. “Honestly, I was hoping to have a more exciting spar with someone like you.”

He had always been particularly polite, for any person, let alone a Marine. An honorable man. To see him fighting her, fighting to protect the people that wanted to suppress information and keep slavery around. To keep oppression thriving…

“I just don’t get it,” she said, shaking her head as she looked at him. “Why are you fighting to defend them?”

T-Bone paused in his attack, frowning at her. “What are you talking about?”

“The Celestial Dragons. Why are you fighting for them? With how much pain they’ve caused people?”

“How much pain have you caused people, pirate? How many people have suffered because you decided to go and invade their territory?” He lifted his sword, swinging it at her, and she blocked it, batons sparking with electricity.

“There’s a difference between us and the Celestial Dragons is that pirates don’t have the government in their back pocket. When we do things that cause people pain, we’re rightfully punished for it, but if the government, say… decides to usurp a king and murder him, sending his daughter on the run, well, they have an army at their beck and call. But if a pirate does the same thing, they’re branded as criminals. Rightfully so, of course, but it doesn’t seem fair that the government can do these awful things and we can’t, does it? But those guys there?” she paused and gestured to the Revolutionaries that were inching their way toward the castle, led by Lindbergh, “those guys want to make things more equal for everyone. To free everyone.”

T-Bone’s sword shook as he lowered it. “You… sound remarkably like Vice Admiral Miaka. She was saying some of the same things as you. About freedom and equality, and helping the innocent… but why would a criminal want that?”

She shrugged. “Because having the freedom we do is fun and everyone should get that chance. And besides…” she glanced up at the sky, T-Bone following her gaze as the Veil fluttered in the atmosphere. “It’s about time everyone learns about the world beyond the Veil, isn’t it?”

T-Bone looked even more pale than he normally did, eyes frightened as he glanced back at her. “The Veil…? What’s that?”

“You can learn all about it if you help us beat the Celestial Dragons.T-Bone, I might not have any honor, but Vice Admiral Miaka does, right? Would she be saying the same things I am if she was evil?”

T-Bone looked like the entire world crumbled before him. “No… she wouldn’t. She is one of the most honorable Marines we have… and Vice Admiral Garp wouldn’t have taken her under his wing if he couldn’t vouch for her.” He paused and glanced up at the sky again, his crown turning to horror. “What in the world…?”

She followed his gaze. “What’s wrong?”

“How are there storm clouds up there? Mary Geoise never gets rain! We’re too high in the air for that to happen!”

The clouds thickened, causing a strange green tint to the world as they circled and coiled around a particular section of the castle. 

And then one of the upper walls exploded, obscuring the castle even further.

So the Revolutionaries have made it this far. This is the most entertainment I’ve had in centuries…

The voice was smooth, ethereal, and cut through her head like a knife. A quick glance told her others felt it too - pirates and Marines holding each other up.

Even Sakazuki, beaten down and near unconsciousness, had a palm on his forehead in confusion.

It’s quite astounding that you’ve managed to get this far, and interfere with my perfect world, the voice continued. No matter what I threw at you. No matter how many agents died for the cause of eliminating you. You survived, and you seek to kill me.

“Who the hell are you?” Luffy shouted, voice ringing above anyone else that questioned it.

The voice just laughed, high pitched and cold as the smoke cleared. Standing on one of the balconies was a figure cloaked in black, wearing a tall crown. It was humanoid - well, sort of. It was standing on two legs, had two arms, one pair of eyes, lips, and one nose… but otherwise it looked nothing like a human with its paper-white skin and golden and black eyes. In a way, they resembled Mihawk’s, if Mihawk was a skeleton.

I am Imu. I am the king of this world.

“There’s no king of this world!” Kuzan shouted. “Where are the Five Elders?!”

Oh. Them? A flourish of the cape revealed the five bodies strewn behind him, the faces still paralyzed with fear. They were nothing more than a sacrifice for the greater good. But they had grown weak thanks to the fighting. Luckily, I have a more powerful sacrifice waiting for me… Another flourish of its hand, and Sabo floated ominously in the air. You’re all lucky to witness -

But Luffy, of course, didn’t miss a beat, stretching his arm toward the balcony. He managed to grab it, but with a wave of its hand, Imu slammed Luffy back to the ground.

Pathetic! And you are supposed to be the new JoyBoy? You are not fit to tie the old one’s shoes! But it matters not, when I’m done with this one here, I’ll drain -

And all at once, Imu stopped, a lightning bolt lodged straight through its mouth, where it had been draining Sabo’s… life energy or whatever.

Imu collapsed to the ground, unmoving as Dragon finally stepped out from the shadows, his dark green cloak billowing in the wind. Lindbergh was right behind him, seastone in his grasp. He quickly bound Imu in the chains and dragged it away as Karasu, the final Revolutionary commander, helped Sabo to his feet.

Dragon looked out at the gathered crowd, then at the news coo that were flying overhead.

“It is over,” he said, not yelling, but his voice carried over the battlefield all the same. “This world is free from the evil of the Celestial Dragons, and will now be able to heal. And we will do that with the help of our neighbors from Earth.”

To her surprise, Kenji stepped onto the balcony next, and began to speak. The Marines and Cipher Pol agents moved closer, and the Straw Hats moved back, gathered together in a quiet celebration as Chopper treated their wounds.

“Reika…”

Reika looked up and smiled with relief when she heard her mother’s voice. “Mom, Takeshi!” She managed to stand up, ignoring the dull ache that had caught up to her now that the adrenaline was beginning to wear off, and rush into her arms. “You’re okay! But - but where’s Dad?”

“He’s in Domino. As soon as we returned to Marineford, he evacuated Rei there. We weren’t sure if Sakazuki was going to try anything since we survived Blackbeard’s wrath,” Miaka explained. “They’re safe. Don’t worry.”

“We should call them, let them know the battle is over.”

Reika nodded and pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket, quickly dialing Yugi for a video call.

“Reika!”

In a second, the screen was filled with anxious family members. Seto stood behind the couch, his brow twisted in worry. “Reika, are you -?”

“It’s over, Seto. It’s over. We won.”

Dawn, at last, had come to Eturn.

[lawxbread]

I wasn’t sure where to send the request, but I was wondering is you could do an x reader where the reader was Ace’s girlfriend and after he died and the straw hats were on haitatus she went to train with Laws crew and they fall in love but she’s afraid of getting hurt again by losing someone she loves because important people seem to always die in her life

Hey,hey,hey!(bokuto's voice) Oh my god! I really enjoyed writing this, thanks for sending me this awesome plot!! Lol I tried my best but I think I was too descriptive (I got too excited and this got longer than I planned...) But I hope you like it!

A/N: I rushed at the end because I felt every brain cell of mine dying as i wrote the smut scene lmaooo

Sorrow

Synopsis: You were Ace's girlfriend and since when he died you've been afraid of losing someone again. Your heart is wrapped up. You feel solitary. But... What if the doctor, Captain Of the Heart Pirates, heals your pain by making you realize that you are capable of loving again?

"I can't control myself anymore"

"Make me yours, Law"

    Warnings: angst, smut, implied death, unprotected sex, swear-word

   Word count: 3K

It's all dark. You feel something touching your skin lightly. That touch... you recognize it, that warm touch you are so used to. Suddenly, your vision comes to be brighter, a few seconds have passed when you feel a breath on your face, then you finally see it, It's the man you loved wildly: Portgas D. Ace. As soon as you see him, he stops touching you, posteriorly Ace looks at you with tears in his eyes and starts running away. You don't understand what the hell is happening so you just try to reach him, "Wait!! Ace!!!" : You try to scream but, for some reason, your voice doesn't come out. When you realize, Ace abruptly fades away and then the surroundings are no longer warm. You start to cry, still trying to scream his name but not a single word comes out of your mouth. A deadly hush. "ACE!!! NO!" you try again, nothing. All your efforts are ineffective. You start blaming yourself, hopeless.

  "Y/N- ya!!". You hear someone yells. Attempting to come back to your senses, you slowly open your eyes. You feel your sweat rolling down your face and take a deep breath until you feel steady. Eventually, everything seems regular. You see Trafalgar Law staring at you with an apprehensive look and it doesn't take long for him to ask

  " Another nightmare, Y/N- ya?"

   "Uh... Apparently yes." You retort, then add "Law... When will this pain go away?"

   "It depends on you. Everyone has their traumas, I know it's not easy... But, Y/N, you have to move on." Law replies, using a concerned voice tone.

  You start to cry, then you get up from the bed and instantly hug Law. He freezes.

 "H-hey...Y/N-ya...uhh. Everything will be alright..." He says embarrassed while patting your back

  Law gently moves you away and says "Y-you should grab something to eat, Bepo prepared a breakfast."

   "What the hell I just did??!" You think, blushing as you realize the hug you gave Law.

  "O-Ok" You declare.

You were Ace's girlfriend. One year has passed since your boyfriend's death. Portgas D. Ace wasn't just some guy you dated, he was, foremost, your best friend and the only person you could count on.

   Your parents died when you were just 10 years old and you grew up cleaning houses, selling stuff you found in the junk, and doing any kind of service for other people. All of these just to survive, relying on a very small amount of money. Then, you met Ace, when you both were 18 years old, he helped you by beating some thieves that stole bellies from you, and little by little you fell in love with each other. Two years have passed when you heard that Ace was captured by the Blackbeard Pirates and taken over by the Navy, who would execute him at Marine Ford. You wanted to go save him immediately but when you declared to the WhiteBeard you would save Ace with him, he didn't let you go. Whitebeard ordered some of his sons to stay with you and prevent you from going with the rest of the numerous crew, as Whitebeard knew that Ace wouldn't be happy to see his girlfriend in the middle of a war. You tried to fight back but it was worthless.

   You couldn't sleep and eat properly, fretted over Ace's life. Then, you heard the choking news: Ace died in Luffy's arms at Marine ford.

       You couldn't believe it, you just couldn't. 

You suffered so much, you only wanted to die because you had totally lost the reason for continuing to exist.  Until  1 month after Ace's death, a huge yellow submarine appeared in front of you, and Trafalgar Law came out of it saying that Luffy asked him to take you and make you stay with his crew. You didn't have anything to lose so you just accepted the offer. Since then, you've been training with Law while the rest of the straw hats are on hiatus.

   It's not that you still can't accept Ace's death, you know presently that this kind of tragedies happens. It's just that... you are afraid that something similar occurs again. You are so attached to the Heart Pirates Crew, they are like a family to you, and Law has been great to you ...so your biggest fear is losing them. This sort of thought results in constant nightmares, leaving you scared when you wake up.

    "Good morning, everyone!" You say as you approach the kitchen with Law.

   Bepo and Shachi are eating some fried eggs and cake, discussing something about the fish Bepo fished earlier being poisonous.

     "Hello, Y/N!! Did you have another frightening nightmare?" Bepo asks.

       "Yeah, nothing new..." You retort while taking a piece of bacon.

   As you walk towards the dinner table to sit on a seat next to Shachi, you notice Law staring at you non stop, making your heart races. "Uhm, what feeling is this?", you keep thinking about it but don't understand what is going on with you so you just ignore it.

  The things between you and Law have been weird in the past 3 months since you joined the crew one year ago. He seems more comprehensive with you than usual, Law used to argue with you every time you did something wrong but now... He's changed, in a certain way.

    You seat next to Shachi, in front of Bepo and Law. As soon as you realize, Shachi puts on your plate a piece of the cake he is eating.

        " Hey, Y/N-chan, you should try this", Shachi says as he looks at you with a smirk.

    "Oh, thanks..." You say in an embarrassed voice tone, trying to be polite.

    You look at Law and he is still gazing at you, but now he seems uneasy.

   You eat the cake, unintentionally, leaving a crumb on the right corner of your mouth.

   "Y/N-ya, there's a crumb right there," Law tells you as he points from his seat at the crumb left on your mouth.

   "Here?" You attempt to clean it, but you don't succeed since you can't see it.

   Shachi quickly says "Let me clean it for you." He presses his finger against the crumb, taking it off for you. Then he caresses your cheeks "Done, Y/N-chan". He gives you a  smirk.

   You are uncomfortable, really uncomfortable. "T-thanks..."  You stutter.

    You look at Law and he looks pissed as hell but you don't understand why, you just suppose he woke up in a bad mood today.

   Law gets up from his chair not saying anything, then he utters "Y/N, a word?"

  You don't comprehend why he called you and interrupted your meal, but you feel relieved since you don't have to stand Shachi's inconvenience anymore. You obey him, following Law to his office.

  Law could wait for you to eat but he was irritated seeing Shachi shamelessly hitting on you, so he called you just to get you out of there, he knew you were uncomfortable. Besides Law was worried about you, he was jealous. Actually, you are a breath-taking girl, really stunning and beautiful so most of the crew's men always hit on you when they get the chance of doing so. It bothers Law a lot but you'd never imagine that.

   As soon as you enter the office, you shut the door. You notice that Law isn't looking you in the eye and then he starts seeking some papers that he left in one of the desk drawers. He grabs the papers and says:

    "Y/N-ya, I think I don't have to train you anymore, you seem prepared enough to train haki by yourself from now on." Then, still avoiding to look at you, he orders, coldly.

   "So, I need some favors, take these papers that have a list of tasks for you to do at the submarine, most of them are related to repair stuff. " Law putts them in your hands.

  "What? Why all of this so suddenly?" You ask.

  "It's nothing. Just go." Law replies, indifferently.

     You left the office questioning yourself if you've done something wrong for Law to act that way. But not a single idea comes to your mind, so you just decide to do what he ordered since he is your captain.

   Six days have passed since then, you've been doing repairs and improvements all over the submarine, and when you get the chance, you train haki and fight skills by yourself. Since the day Law acted weird, he's been more absent than before. Plus, he avoids you every time you try to reach him and you don't understand why, but seeing Law ignoring you makes you feel sad for some reason. You start to think that there's a remote chance of ~maybe~ you had catch feelings for Law. But... You don't wanna accept them, thinking about how much you loved Ace and he died abruptly makes you feel hesitant to love someone again. You are already afraid of losing Law, if you fall in love with him, you fear that the pain you'd feel if he dies, would be worse, like how happened between you and Ace.

  On your way towards your room, you see Law entering his office so you decide to go talk to him and ask him why he's acting like that.

   You knock on the door. "Come on in," Law says.

  As soon as Law sees you, he instantly changes his facial expression, he seems more anxious, uneasy.

   "Hi, Law. Can I talk to you for a second?" You ask him as you slowly approach his desk.

  "Yes. But be brief, I'm busy." He declares with a coldhearted tone of voice, still avoiding your stares.

  "So..." You take a deep breath, then let out  "Why you've been avoiding me these past days? Have I done something wrong?" 

  Law quickly replies, "I'm not avoiding you. Are you done?"

  "Liar, you can't even look me in the eye!!"

Silence fulfills the room as Law puts his hands on his forehead, letting his head rests on them. You try to understand whatever is going on, a sentiment of heavy tension appears when you look at Law.

   Tension. Simply, tension.

Law , still with his head down, finally confesses "Y/N-ya...Yes, I've been avoiding you" He mumbles. "Do you really wanna know the reason?"

   "Yes!! I'll try my best to help you with whatever is making you feel low!" You declare.

  "I don't think you can help me, but... I can't control myself anymore when I'm by your side.Y/N-ya..." Law admits as he finally stares back at you, and this time, he's looking deeply into your eyes.

  You freeze.

   "W-what? What do you mean by that?" You certainly think you misunderstood his words.

   " I have feelings for you," Law confesses directly, leaving you no more doubts.

  You try to keep your composure, but it looks like you are on fire, your whole body is steaming. You don't know what to do so you just stand still, staring at Law with a shocking glance.

 "Y/N-ya...You don't have to return my feelings, I won't compel you to do anything about it." Law says, then he gets up from his chair, approaching you, so he adds "Look, it's just that it's hard for me to see you and couldn't be able to announce you're mine. I don't know when it started, maybe 3 months ago so you can just ignore it and I'll move on."

   "Law..." you mumble, an immense desire to cry emerges, so when you least expect it, you are covered in tears.

   Law looks surely worried about you, he attempts to approach you even more but you are moving away from him.

"Law..." You cover your eyes with your hands as you cry, "I-I think I feel the same but..." You sigh, "I'm afraid... I'm afraid of losing you! I can't go through that again."

   You are crying a lot but you stop when Law abruptly hugs you.

     "I'm not going anywhere, Y/N-ya." Law whispers.

    Important people seem to always die in your life, you lost your parents when you were just 10, and then you lost Ace... This fear that haunts you has total control of your mind, but, somehow, the last few words that Law said to you comforted your troubled soul.

  "Y/N-ya, take your time," Law says as he sweetly moves you away, now you both are no longer hugging, but staring deeply at each other. "I'll wait for you to make your decision, please rest...have a good night," Law says then opens the door for you

  "Good night, Law..." You leave his office and go straight to your bedroom.

  Two months have passed and surprisingly you didn't have any nightmare during its period. You felt so calm when Law hugged you and said he wouldn't go anywhere, since that day you've been wondering if you are capable of giving love a second chance. Besides, Law is still waiting for your decision but you can't just get through your trauma so easily; however, the time you took to think was enough for you to understand that you were worrying too much about an uncertain future. You thought a lot about it and figured it out that you have strong feelings for him, the idea of having him by your side is being more recurrent in your mind than the idea of losing him. You certainly want him, you want him so bad.

       Since the day Law confessed to you, he is no longer avoiding you and everything is natural between you two. As he is respecting your time and not bringing the relationship matter back.

    You have made your decision. Maybe...It's time for you to move on and tell Law what you want the most: him.

   It's 2 am when you decide to go see Law and tell him your decision, you couldn't wait anymore longer. You go straight towards his bedroom to check if Law is still up and notice that the door is half-open so you slowly push it.

    "Law...?" You mumble as you enter the bedroom. You don't see him anywhere. A few seconds have passed when suddenly Law appears right behind you.

   "Y/N-ya?" Law says, he looks kind of surprised. You turn back to see, then you gradually make steps forwards "I'm sorry I was at the kitch-" You kiss his lips wildly, interrupting Law's words.

   Still with his eyes open, Law can't believe what's going on. He stops you from kissing him, "H-hey....Y/N-ya w-what are you doing?" he stutters.

   "Oh, I made my decision, Law." You confess "I realized that I want you much more than I fear losing you. It seems confusing but..." You look down, "I don't want to live the rest of my life wondering what my life would have been like with you.  I really want to live it." Law smiles.

  You add "I don't care about the future anymore, we are in the present and I want you right now!"

   "Y/N-ya, I want you so much, and hearing from you that you got over your fear really makes me glad..." Law kisses your forehead.

  You look back at him, you both exchanging stares, "I want you, you want me so... please, make me yours, Law"

  Law doesn't hesitate a second, he kisses your lips remarkably as he slowly shuts the door. Law puts you against the wall and starts kissing your neck and touching your right breast with his left hand. You let out a groan.

   "Y/N-ya, you make me so..." Law whispers while he takes off your shirt then he kisses your neck again, leaving it marks.

  "L-law??" you mutter as you are blushing, you just can't believe it, you want him right now.

   He presses his body against yours while he also kisses your lips, you feel his hard manhood touching your thigh. Your whole body is on fire, he unhurriedly moves down his right hand until it reaches your cunt, Law dry rubs it using his index finger as you moan. You can't stand it anymore, the heat between your both bodies is driving you insane, plus his warm touches all over your trunk.

   "Y/N-ya..." Law takes off his shirt and pants, revealing his ample chest with his tattoos, muscles and his bulky underwear, indicating his cock's hardness. Everything about him turns you on. "Take off your skirt and panties ", Law orders, his eyes: full of desire. You obey him, embarrassingly. Law watches every movement of you taking off your remaining clothes, hardening his cock even more.

  Unawares, Law took off his underwear, showing his thick and lengthy dick. Your face turns flushed.

   Law holds you by the waist, making you put your legs around his hips, he controls your waist back and forth bringing in your pussy to rub his cock's tip for some seconds. " Y/N-ya... I can't hold it anymore". He stops then lifts you in his arms, leading you to his bed.

   He lays you on the bed, lying on all fours on top of you and so he starts to gently caress your face, hair,ear... Unexpectedly, you feel the tip of his manhood lightly touching your entrance, then, Law holds your hands, pushing your arms against the mattress. So he starts penetrating, "Fuck. It's so tight" Law exclaims. The impact sound of skin against skin is gradually increasing, Law is moving faster and faster, you can't help but moan, moan a lot.

  "L-Law" you call out his name, "L-Law".

" I love you, Y/N-ya," Law says while he moves into you, you are so close to reaching your climax, and so do him, that in you head only Law and you exist, so your vision starts to blur;  you felt like fire was running through your veins instead of blood. "Law, I'm...almost..." you finally achieve your culmination.

   "Y/N-ya" Law stutters your name as he releases his cum inside you. Law takes a deep breath then he lays down next to you and you both embrace each other.

Law kisses your forehead, "I'm not going anywhere, Y/N-ya. It's a promise." He whispers.

   So you reply to him, "I know." and after a few cuddles you both fall asleep.

[classysmashy]

Into Each Life...

#3/??? of Nuclear Winter

ZoNa Holiday 2020 Entry Prompt 3 (Ornaments / Tradition)

@zonamievents

One Piece in Fallout Universe (kinda~)  [I do not own One Piece or Fallout]

AN: There was something in particular I wanted to convey about Nami with this one, but after this there will definitely be more Zoro. So, I have ideas of how to explain the devil fruits, fishmen/mermaids, and sky natives into the Fallout universe for this and it’s pretty exciting. I don’t know when I might try to get into moments to explaining them out, but I might do future chapters (after the holiday event is over) to do flashbacks that put key moments into this universe since this is supposed to take place six years after Luffy originally started his journey. If I do these, I might build up a wayyy longer chapter for those moments to try and keep them from taking away from the main story being focused later in the timeline compared to the past. Again, sorry for this being late, I had my ideas for these, but it was a matter of putting everything into the words I wanted. The original Fallout 1 and 2 games had much darker themes than the newer ones and I want to try and incorporate that, but not too heavy outright.<3

Rated: T for Blood, Heavy Violence, Suggestive Themes

Word Count: 4,379

*****

Ever since she was younger, Nami understood that bad things must happen for the good times to come rolling in. That was the second lesson she had learned from the death of Bellemere. The first lesson had been that she had to keep living, for being alive meant something, even when you don’t necessarily know just what that something is.

A part of her wanted to rip the world to shreds for the death of Bellemere and believed Arlong deserved the most cruelest, torturing death for the crimes he had committed to her hometown. And for so long Nami lived with that spite building inside of her, brimming over the top at times and causing her to lash out upon herself.

The first time she went wild with her anger, it happened while she had been visiting Nojiko and storing away some of the money she had stolen. Nami had lost it in a fit of rage, putting her fist through a flower vase, the broken ceramic cutting at the skin of her hand, and smashed up the kitchen table with one of the dinning chairs.

It was during those times that Nojiko started making sure Nami was voicing herself to the older sister, since bottling those feelings away inside was destroying Nami each time she felt helpless. 

Nami never cried though. She would get angry, break things, lie about being happy, but she would never let the full extent of the misery hiding inside to be released out for anyone to see. 

This had went on through the years, her deceiving charms becoming her main weapon to steal from unsuspecting raiders —after she had gotten used to their behavior and could trick them to not shoot at her. Eventually, the most normal occurrence seemed to be stumbling on the newer recruits of the raiders to swindle, stealing their money and valuables to sell.

Those years of experiences is what had paid off when she met Luffy that very first time in Orange Town, the idiot so unaware of what people could do to those who were too naïve. Nami used him like a puppet to gather up Buggy’s recent escapade of cash and stash, but had felt horrible when it seemed the guy was going to be killed, and that was another first time for her. Quickly, her fingers had already reached out to stop the refashioned canon from shooting at Luffy locked up in a cage. 

He seemed to make his mind up about Nami in that moment as well as the rest of Buggy’s men who were racing onto her form, ready to slash and make her one with the wasteland. 

Yet, that death never came back then. 

And that was how Nami met Zoro the first time, her back to him, clutching onto a lit string, and him with all of his swords out to stop the fighters in their tracks. 

That one moment in time seemed to set off a chain reaction. Zoro was constantly the one saving Nami from danger during their travels together, always seeming to run his lost feet right to where she was in need of help.

Robin passed on a comment to her about the action when he still seemed to find himself saving her randomly after all of them reunited. “If Zoro has no sense of direction, possibly it means his internal compass is set wrong. And I believe that internal compass is set to find you when you’re in danger, hm? It’s only a small theory, but one that holds merit with the actions he has presented.” The small chuckle Robin had hid after walking away from Nami and leaving the girl with just that, still echoed her mind.

All along through the years of being with the Strawhats, there did seem to be something odd about how often Nami and Zoro seemed to be thrown together when the two had clearly been offsets to one another, ideologies varying drastically and causing constant arguments between the two. The fighting between them had begun to die down some when they all came back together after two years. 

Whether it was because of herself or Zoro, she had never picked up on. The swordsman didn’t even seem to end up around her much at first, but when they were together he had seemed so... calm. Zoro had a different air around him, everyone did, and the way Zoro seemed to change had put him at ease about what his true mission was now with being a part of the crew. 

Protector. Zoro decided during the time apart that he was and had to be the one who was the full protector of the crew, of Luffy’s dream, and carry the burden of keeping everyone alive. The idiot became ready to throw his life down just to keep the others safe.

Nami had been pissed off by it.

A protector in her mind would never let themselves die so easily, never give up on their own dream like that, wouldn’t throw everything away in a blink of an eye.

But, that was exactly what Bellemere had done for her and Nojiko.

When she realized how much Zoro was becoming like Bellemere in that sense, she avoided him and kept distance between the two. Frightened. She had been frightened imagining the crew going through a death like that, Zoro’s death. And it was the pain she imaged Luffy had felt after their initial break apart when Ace died.

Losing Zoro would be hard, as a close friend and even worse on the dynamics of all the Strawhats. It was her realization of this that had brought on their first fight since everyone got back together.

During one of his nightly workouts while on watch, Nami had stormed Zoro and began questioning him about if he planned to roll over and die. 

To say the least, he was stunned at Nami for it, and he lashed back with his own yelling. Damn if it woke anyone up on the ship, the woman was talking mad.

Zoro would yell about how it was impossible for him to die so soon and he wasn’t giving up on his life that easily and Nami would yell back with how he had changed his philosophy, that she wondered if he truly wanted to be the greatest swordsman throughout the wasteland still. The moment she had brought his dream into question, he cuffed her wrists above her head and pushed her body up the wall, leaving her feet dangling off the floor. 

 Before, she had been frightened about his death, but this was the first time she was actually scared of Zoro’s actions. Her breathe had been caught in her throat and leaving her speechless as Zoro closed in around her, caging Nami upon the wall with a deadly look in his eye. The look that most experienced just moments away from him bringing great pain into the life of his enemies.

“I don’t question you about your dream, why question me about mine? You don’t know a damn thing about me right now through that clouded gaze of yours. Die? I’m not planning to go anywhere, so get used to it, witch.”

If anyone were to ask her about it, Nami would deny the fact that there had been a small heat that swallowed her insides when Zoro hung her out to dry then.

He seemed to gather some wits about the predicament he had placed both of them into, releasing Nami to stand back on her feet and turning away again to his weights. 

Zoro had promptly ignored her for the rest of the night, even as she burnt holes into his back until the wee hours of the morning.

*****

Winter was always harsh back home, even before Bellemere had been murdered. The income for the family would dry up as the mikan trees couldn’t bear fruit during the cold season and had to be watched over carefully. That also meant the family dinners would be kept small and that Christmas presents for little Nami and Nojiko would be drastically different compared to the kids of the rest of the villagers living in the town.

Nami was always rougher during winter, making a comment every single day about how Bellemere had to be upset about raising them and them eating up all of her money and time. Bellemere simply ignored it though, until spring would finally break the clouds above and Nami would drop the subject of money from her mind.

She couldn’t be upset about the traditions that Nami held for winter, just as Nojiko became more clingy and stuck to Bellemere’s side when winter rolled around. 

There were many traditions that the little family held together with their heartstrings on the line. Like how Nami and Nojiko would bake a tiny cake that would cut into four adequate pieces, how Bellemere would bake up the pretty ham Genzo brought over, how the four of them gathered together in a pray that Genzo asked of them to do around the food before eating. 

Four people just enjoying being together for another year, smiling and laughing for the whole day without any issues. Christmas was the one day that fighting wasn’t allowed, the day was to be sweet and jovial with nothing weighing down on the bright mood. 

But, the good times had came to an end after Arlong showed up.

Many people throughout Cocoyashi had stopped celebrating any holiday all together, in favor of saving up that bit of extra money to pay for their keep the next time Arlong’s goonies came to collect. Genzo would rest a slice of ham and pour a bottle of booze over Bellemere’s grave. Nojiko would spend time out with the mikan trees and would take the very last one of the year to Bellemere’s grave, returning on Christmas day and talking with her through the night about Nami. 

And Nami would stay away from home until only a few days were left of the year. There was a guilt that Nami carried for giving herself up to Arlong that she couldn’t shake off and she never wanted to disrupt a nice day for Bellemere, so she waited for the holiday to pass before making her own visit with a bouquet of flowers.

Each time she wanted to cry out, bawl until the ground became so wet it would sink beneath her and swallow her whole with the grass and mud and dirt, bringing Nami to be one with Bellemere’s body beneath. 

But she wouldn’t let those tears fall down, she would recap the bottle on her heart even tighter and chug down bottles of whiskey and vodka until her throat burned too much and passed out. Maybe, it was because of Christmas that Nami had developed her tolerance over time, each year drinking more and more and  pushing out how long it would take to reach the tipping point.

Things became different around Christmas after joining up with Luffy and Zoro in Orange Town.

As the crew built up more and more, the holiday came around just before they had reached Sabaody Archipelago the first time, and they had stopped for a few days to celebrate together.

It was a weird time for all of them. The only ones who was close to having a proper Christmas in the past years was Chopper and Franky, Chopper because of him living in the cold climate that was constantly set in Christmassy time and Franky because of how his “family” would booze it up and gamble money off together on the holiday.

Nami knew that Robin hadn’t celebrated the holiday in her life nor had Zoro either, Sanji didn’t count into having celebrated since the Baratie only had special Christmas dinners for customers and not actually anything for themselves. Usopp didn’t get to celebrate as a kid with his mom sick and nobody wanted him around during their Christmas dinner because of his lies, which would leave him all alone. Luffy had actually never told them if he had celebrated before and Brook was so old that he forgotten about the last time he had a Christmas, so it was a restart for him.

The whole thing went well though, super in fact, as Franky liked to put it. 

 Sanji cooked a feast after him, Zoro, and Luffy had a hunting contest. Franky couldn’t find any lights, but cut a tree down for them to settle around. Nami, Robin, and Chopper would work on cutting up fabric to hang around the place they were hunkered in to make the scene just a bit more festive. Usopp had been the one to tell all the jokes and stories that gave everyone hearty laughs and looks of disbelief as they ate and drank. Brook would be playing Christmas tunes on his violin through the nights, whisking them to sleep with the beautiful melodies.

That was their first time celebrating Christmas all together and after being apart two years, when Christmas rolled back around, they did it again. This time more people were celebrating with them, Jinbe, Law, people that Luffy had dragged into his life deciding that from this time onward, they were his friends whether they liked it or not.

Those traditions built of being together as a family of friends were beautiful and she would look forward to when the time would come and she would be able to get actual gifts together for all of them.

*****

A cool, wetness dragged across the skin of her cheek, the dishrag scratching at the blood splatters covering her face. Another one was wiping away at the blood all over her hands, gently tugging between fingers and nails to remove the evidence of the crimes that just happened.

Zoro’s bracelet was still on her wrist, the gold tainted by brahmin blood that had collected inside of the gold plates that hung from it. 

Nami’s eyes were out of focus, a blur of frames moving at turtle speed, unable to look at the two men cleaning her. But she didn’t need to see properly to know the horrifying sight laying out before her on the highway. 

Like cattle to the slaughter, they had been leaving Sabaody when hell broke loose, a rainfall of bullets scattered down, two dozen gunners giving their hiding places up. There was screams that came from a few of them about how Nami and the settlers had killed their friends so now it was time for revenge.

Nami had ducked away behind a car, a bullet hitting straight into her left shoulder and as she hit the deck, she realized there was a sliced up body impaled on metal poles along this stretch of highway. 

The settler she had sent back first had his body torn apart, limb for limb, with each one stabbed through with the metal poles. His torso had a metal chain shoved through it and tied to the poles with his arms, lifting it up for crows and bloodbugs to get their pickings in. The most disgusting part was the short metal pipe shoved into a right angle down what was left of his throat and his head had been decapitated to screw the settler’s head onto the pipe and making the pipe poke out of his right eye, mouth left open in a scream, and Nami wondered how much of the torture he was alive for.

Just from the sight of him, it was clear that there was no hope left for them.

One by one, the three settlers left succumbed to the bullets, unable to get away in time, and the screams of pain would probably haunt Nami’s nightmares for years to come. The poor brahmin came to run and hide with Nami, but it was brought to the ground when her back right leg was shot off and the brahmin fell with moos and groans of agony.

It was a pitiful sight and made her heart ache as hot tears slid down her jaw. She kicked herself up, bringing out a boot knife to stab into both of the skulls of the brahmin, giving the girl the peace she deserved, the noises silencing and chest growing still. The oozing blood from the brahmin sliding around on her hands when she shut the eyes of the animal.

A swarm of four gunners were suddenly on Nami’s body, guns beating into her flesh, and preventing her from doing anything to get out of their grip. She felt one of the male gunners swipe his hand over the front of Zoro’s jacket that was zipped to the top, his hand close to grabbing a full feel of her breast.

When a slash of a sword cut him in half, body sliding off of itself and spurting blood all over her body, and it was going to be over quickly now, she had decided.

Luffy was running headfirst at the rest of the gunners on the highway, she could hear the screams from them, the impact of the blows suffered by Luffy’s strength, and the flops to the ground in their death.

Before her was Zoro, a wicked glint to his eye, slashing away over and over and over again at the gunners that had surrounded her. Nami watched as his focus shifted to be on the one who had planned to assault her, puke rising and burning her throat as she watched him chop the gunner into pieces.

And into more pieces. Blood pouring out over the concrete, running over her shoes, splashing on her face and body.

Nami remembered that stare, from that night on his watch when she had set him ablaze with anger. Blood was everywhere. Everywhere.

The more the two went at it with their brutal strength, Nami retreated into herself, shaking uncontrollably and losing sense of what was going on around her. She didn’t want to see them like this, it wasn’t the matter of being scared, but seeing what Luffy and Zoro were capable of reminded her of rougher days in her early life.

Every time Zoro went for such a grotesque kill, she had the image in her mind of seeing the smoking gun in Arlong’s hand. The way Bellemere’s body caved in on itself, shoes flying in the air, the black ring of hole left in her forehead and more smoke pouring out. Bellemere’s blood had ended up on her face in that moment, as well as on Nojiko. 

Just like now. The blood from each cut and stab Zoro produced was in close proximity to her, painting her. It was too much for her senses to handle and her eyes slid shut, hiding away from the massacre.

Luffy and Zoro would always be a deadly pair together. More so than Sanji could ever hope to achieve by teaming up with the two because Sanji had his limits to how far he would go while Luffy and Zoro didn’t. This was especially true in the case of something involving all of their friends, but the two had also made it clear that they wouldn’t take anything happening to Nami and would act like this.

Right now, Usopp was properly working with Franky with what could be spared to decorated until the new materials got back to the settlement. Robin and Chopper would be preparing gift ideas for the boys who would have no clue about what to get. Sanji would be placing in orders for different ingredients and checking stock for the dinner. Brook would be cleaning and tuning instruments, deciding the order of the classic songs and writing his own. Jinbe would be picking up the slack that anyone needed and making sure people were getting done what needed to be. Law was probably trying to figure out a way to run and how long he might be able to hide out before Luffy found him.

Some time passed ever so slowly. Nami pushed out the noise of gushing blood and gurgles of pleading by placing her mind somewhere else.

A week and half would be Christmas, by this much time having passed, the tradition during this time was to be preparing for the Strawhats Christmas celebration. 

“People should stick to their traditions.” Luffy was the one to be dead-set in making Christmas happen every year. It wasn’t like this world really called for the holiday, the world was too destroyed for the majority to have the time to think on the holidays. 

Luffy was the one wiping the blood from her hands. A weird sight to see him so calm, but it was soothing to know the captain cared to be careful of the discomfort that radiated from Nami’s body.

Zoro cupped her chin with one hand and the other was cleaning the blood away from her face. She wondered if he realized the effect his skills had on her and not the good effect. Well, it was good to know he could keep her safe, yet there was a fear of what the man held inside.

He probably contained his own anger at times, like Nami did as a kid, and that anger led to who he became today. When Nami went the cunning route to counter what happened in her life, Zoro had built up a steady resistance in him and strength to demolish whatever stepped in his path again.

The two of them, Luffy and Zoro, they were made for this world, created for this wasteland. The two could survive without issue, it wasn’t the same as to how Nami’s main way to protect herself was by tricking the enemies or standing beside people for safety, rarely she could survive by her own hands, though during their past travels she had been better at it than now.

This was the wasteland.

A brutal and bloody mess, normal humans sent into a world of monsters and having to become monsters themselves to survive. The raiders were drove to drugs and insanity. Gunners fighting for the hell of it and for the money. Super mutants had been normal humans, subjected to experiments to make them into the monsters they were. The brahmin and radstag were normal animals in a lost world, now they were their own monsters by being mashed with one of their own breed, two cows and two deers forced into twins. The ghouls were normal people as well, the radiation seeping into their bodies so much that their skin was now papier-mache and slowly rotting their brains. Domesticated robots having codes changed to murder on sight, new robots created as pure killing machines. Synths would be used to kidnap the normal humans and replace them, driving fear into every single person that no one could truly be trusted. 

Just as Luffy had created traditions that they would all follow at their home, the wasteland had its own traditions.

If you can’t kill, you get killed.

Lately, Nami had been spending time out and about, but it had been nearly a year since the last time she went out before getting the feral ghoul blood with Zoro. She had grown so used to the setting of being inside walls and being away from reality. 

The life being built was worth the payoff, but it was destructive for her wellbeing.

“Nami,” Zoro’s lips were pressing at the skin behind her ear, Luffy had clasped their fingers together and circled her legs. “Where are you?” She turned into Zoro’s warmth and felt her eyes shaking.

The promise to Bellemere was that she wouldn’t cry. Nami broke that when she asked the first time for help against Arlong. A high rule for herself was broken because of the trust she had gained in all of her friends.

“Why are you here?” She bit the tears down, she did trust them, but now wasn’t the time to reveal all of the trouble inside.

“Mm, materials for Franky, lots of money, stories to look into...” She needed to hurry up and move on, get the bag of materials for Franky down from what was left of the settlers torso and go forward, not backwards. She needed to be away from her own head.

“It doesn’t matter,” Luffy said, catching onto Nami’s eyes and holding her gaze, “Did the trade go well?” Distraction, don’t think about this if it’s taking a toll on you, gather yourself.

Zoro tore away her hand from Luffy, lifting it to see the cleaned bracelet jingle against her wrist. “It looks better than I thought it would.” A smile stretched on his lips, pressing them into the skin just beneath her palm with a hum. “Your heartbeat is starting to even out, that’s good. You don’t have to be scared.”

He knew, of course he knew. The swordsman could always read her at nearly any given moment, only missing at certain times, that was part of the dynamic that Usopp would never understand. 

If she had half a mind of her normal senses right now, Nami would say that the two had been following along around her or ahead of her for a reason. The fact that Shakky said they went to the bar and the fact that they had been here to save her now.

Everything was everywhere in her mind, lost in a state of confusion she still couldn’t break.

Why had she been thinking so much about the past? Why did she have such bad luck to get the people she was supposed to protector murdered instead? Why, why, why?

Nami was spinning, she wasn’t sure if her body was even actually moving, she could barely make out Zoro saying something about her heartbeat, her pumping blood.

White. The sky was white, all the blue drained away and the sun hidden deep in the clouds. Snow was trickling down in shimmers, slow and unsure of the places that they wanted to stick to.

Nami’s breathing had increased, she had to be hyperventilating, her mind numbly noting the change.

Both Zoro and Luffy’s faces flooded her sight, their mouths were moving, but she didn’t hear a word. Then her eyelids slid closed and she felt the darkness flood her.

[nyd-needs-cuddles]

What If (AU Snippet of Not Quite Black)

Au: Ace dies in Marineford

“What?”

Momonga stared at his fellow Vice-Admiral, incredulity clear on his face. Beside him, Fleet Admiral Akainu scowled at the still smiling Marine—or was it ex-Marine now?—as if what he had just said was a simple comment about the weather.

“And what do you exactly mean by that, Vice-Admiral Noir?”

Baccara smiled wider. It was not a nice smile. “I meant exactly as I said. I wish to resign from the Marines, Fleet Admiral.” He tilted his head, innocently. “Shall I repeat what I have said once more?”

The sound of Akainu gritting his teeth could be heard, and Momonga shot the younger man a panicked look, hoping to convey his worry and confusion.

“And may I ask why?”

Baccara continued smiling. “You may not.”

Silence. And for all that Akainu was the bearer of the Magu Magu no Mi, Momonga swore that the room’s temperature went down by several degrees.

Finally, after what seemed to be a lifetime, Akainu said, “...Fine. Wait until the Tenryuubito leave. Then you can submit your resignation letter.”

Momonga inwardly grimaced when Baccara’s eyes sharpened. Judging by the way his smile inched higher, that was not the correct response.

“I believe I cannot stay longer, Sakazuki.” Akainu glared, as if willing his Devil Fruit to melt this upstart from where he stood with his eyes alone. Momonga despaired over it all. “Lest I be tempted to do something... unsavory.”

Akainu raised a brow, vein pulsing. “And that is?”

Baccara’s smile turned into a feral grin, one befitting of a D, and sang, “This.”

One second, Akainu was standing perfectly normal on Momonga’s side. The next, the walls on the other side of the room were broken and cracked, with the other seven rooms following the same fashion. Momonga gaped, jaw working at what was obviously an assault, and stared at his former colleauge.

The face he was greeted with sent shivers down his spine.

Gone was the amiable smile of his lips, and instead left a blank slate with dull, silver eyes void of their usual shine. Slowly, the coat of Justice hung on Baccara’s shoulders fell to the ground with a muffled thud, and he walked away.

Momonga should stop him. Should stop him and ask him why he had done that. But there was something in his empty gaze that made him freeze in his tracks and glue him to the floor.

And so he watched as Noir D. Baccara left, chaos in his wake.

—

Smoker was having a bad day.

First, moving to the New World was a pain in the ass (and what the fuck, why the fuck do you need three Log Poses? Fucking Grand Line bullshit). Second, the G-5 Marines were utter dipshits and he’s seriously reconsidering his order to Tashigi of ‘not engaging’ because if he hears another one calling him ‘Smo-yan’ he was going to go on a murder spree. Third, Strawhat is still at large even though it’s already been a year since Marineford went in and over itself, and he’s been smoking three times more than he usually does because of that damn pirate.

Fourth, he now has to help watch over the Tenryuubito for ‘security’. Tch, damn World Nobles.

Glancing at the other poor sod enlisted to protect the rich douchebags, Rob Lucci looked perfectly at ease and as helpful as a brick wall in showing his emotions. Smoker wished that the Cipher Pols would get the fuck out of his life, but alas. It was not to be.

A few meters ahead, his Observation Haki picked up the presence of a familiar spirit, and he looked ahead to see—

Smoker nearly stumbled at the sight of Baccara’s expressionless face, and he could almost feel the eyebrow raising Rob Lucci was doing right now.

Though, what shocked him even more was Baccara’s lack of acknowledgement to their guest, not even bowing or minding them a glance. Something which the Tenryuubito took great offense with.

“You lowly critter! How dare you not grovel in the dirt where you belong!?” Saint Gregoria screeched, pointing a manicured finger towards the approaching Marine. Baccara gave no indication of hearing her, and she shrieked, “Off with his head! I want him dead! No, brand him as my slave!”

Smoker’s blood went cold at what he heard, and he turned to intervene when—

A blur of silver and a sheen of light passed by, and Saint Gregoria’s body was cut in half.

“What the—!?” Smoker jumped backwards away, a move mirrored by Rob Lucci, and he scanned his surroundings to look for the perpretator—

Baccara stood as still as a statue, indifferent to the blood dripping down Themis, blade shining ominously as red liquid pooled near his feet.

“Noir D. Baccara,” Rob Lucci intoned, eyes narrowed and voice low. “What have you done?”

With nary a hint of trepidation or remorse, Baccara met Rob Lucci’s dark gaze with a stare that could make gods cower before it and replied, “Justice.”

And then, spinning on his heel (showing his back at them, like he was not a foe), he faced the World Government’s flag silently. With growing unease and a niggling memory near the back of his head, Smoker watched him pull back a fist and—

“FIRE FIST!”

—flames shot out from his clenched fist, engulfing the World Government’s flag and Smoker—

Smoker could only watch as history repeated itself.

Head moving to look at them over his shoulder, Baccara started in a tone perfect for idle comversations and said, “Hear me now, former allies of mine.”

Multiple sounds of boots hitting the gravel echoed across them, and hundreds of Marines were suddenly surrounding them all, rifles locked on and swords raised. But all their faces were anxious, uncertain, for this was their beloved Vice-Admiral. Their sweet, kind Baccara. Surely this was a mistake? A misunderstanding of some kind?

“You may all rest in your laurels, but heed my warning—nay, heed my prediction with utmost attention.”

He faced the group of Marines in front, and bellowed with all the certainty of a man who knew the truth and saw it himself, and Smoker’s hair raised on its end.

“Portgas D. Ace will rise again. And with him, Monkey D. Luffy, the Future Pirate King of the New Era, will turn this world upside down!”

“How do I know this, you ask? Well,” and here, he smiled. But it didn’t reach his eyes. No. His eyes were filled with misery and hate and sorrow and love and hope that it didn’t match the brightness in his smile. “Of course I know. I raised them myself, after all.”

It took a few moments until the gravity of his statement sunk in. And when it did, Smoker inhaled sharply—

“NOIR D. BACCARA!” shouted Akainu, body dripping with magma and fury evident.

—until a burst of Conqueror’s Haki exploded from Baccara’s relaxed form, and the Marine HQ abruptly burst into flames.

[inupibaldspot]

Saviour : Chapter 19

I'm going to be a marine.

After the shock had eventually dissolved and they had finally calmed down and properly digest the fact, Emilia's decision.

The statement triggered two different reaction from the two boys.

Luffy would always be stuck with Emilia. The boy would never leave her side saying that he was going to spend as much time as possible with Emilia. Look at Emilia you'll see Luffy. Kitchen? He was there. Bed? He was there. Toilet? He would be near the door like a overly attached dog waiting for his owner.

On occasions the boy would hug Emilia and give a pout asking, "You're really going to be a marine?" Which made Emilia's resolve flatter abit. The girl would then have to shake her head to vanish thoughts which went against the decision. Emilia would then smile and simply say, "I'm sorry."

However on the other hand, Ace would ignore her and avoid her as much as possible. Every time Emilia would catch Ace looking at her, there would always be a frowning face, seemingly fuming with anger and disappointment. The only time they would share the same room would probably be the bed room and living room; that also Ace would eat really fast and just go outside making a heavy feeling develop in Emilia.

But then Emilia could understand why Ace felt that say. It's seemed as if he was saying "You're going to be part of the organisation which killed Sabo?!".

Celestial Dragon.... Just the name made Emilia frown. The people who are said to be similar to God's, yet have no sympathy and looks down And discriminate humans. And honestly just the fact that she may be someone assigned to protect them when she turns into a marine gave her an headache.

A few weeks had passed but still Ace kept on avoiding Emilia. At first she thought that he might get sick of this avoiding game but she was proven otherwise. Even the bandits tried to resolve the matter between them since they said that the air when ever Emilia and Ace were together was suffocating. It was as if Ace had gone back to the time when they had first met if not worse.

Emilia sighed as she looked at Ace in front of her, who was carrying the deer for lunch. He did help in capturing it and the trio still had a perfect coordination in capturing their prey but still then he refused to talk to her.

"Ace!" Luffy who was beside her called out. "Your still not going to talk to Emilia?" Leave it to Luffy to always ask questions which people usually avoid. The small rubber boy did the same thing a few months ago, when he asked Ace if his father was really Roger, thoughtlessly. And ofcourse that triggered the wrath of Ace.

"Shut up Luffy!" Ace shouted still not facing their direction and walked quietly back to their place even though Luffy kept on asking the reason why.

Soon enough they did reach back home and Emilia went straight into the kitchen and went to make some lunch, followed by Luffy of course. After she was done some bandits came and set the table.

Everyone quietly ate their lunch with their eyes wandering between Ace and Emilia.

"I'm done." Ace broke the silence and picked up his dishes, placed them in the sink and went outside.

Dogra sighed at the scene. "You guys are still fighting?" He sighed looking at Emilia who was staring at the door which was now closed after Ace went away.

Emilia simply smiled. "We are not fighting." Her heart ached when Ace kept on ignoring her and to be honest even though they saw each other daily Emilia missed him. She missed his smile, she missed talking to him ,she missed his presence...

"Did he really take you being a marine that bad?" This time Dadan was the one who asked. When Emilia first told them her future plans evertime was shocked but after a while they eventually accepted it and moved on with their daily lives except for Ace.

"I guess."

Silence took over the room but it wasn't maintained as a rather loud sound of someone shouting was heard.

"This presence..." Emilia almost laughed. It's as if the person knew what was going on in her mind and had come to retrieve her.

"Who is it?" Luffy who was having his second or maybe third share asked, as he kept on eating. The bandits who were in the room and some in the kitchen ,which was attached to the living room, washing the plates also looked at Emilia curiously.

"Garp-san."

"GYAHAHAH!"  Just as Emilia said those words the man came through the doors making a rather loud entrance. "How are you, brats?!"

"Geh! Grandpa?!" Luffy exclaimed in surprise.

"Hmmm?" Garp made a confused sound. "Where are the other two?" He asked.

This made everyone go silent.

"Sabo..." Emilia was the one who started. "He passed away..." After that she started explaining everything to the old man.

"I see..." Garp let out a sigh. He didn't know the small blond brat for long but still knowing that the boy died made his heart break.

"Garp-san...I have something to tell you." Emilia said looking at the man in front of her. "I want to be a marine."

Garp felt his jaws drop. "A marine?" He questioned wondering if he heard it wrong. Wasnt she going to be a pirate just like Luffy Luffy and Ace? The girl nodded making Garp know that what he heard was indeed correct.

"You sure?"

"Yes..."

"To think one of you brats are doing what I say." Garp sobbed as tears rolled down his cheeks. Emilia reached out her hand and passed him a tissue to which Garp took and blew his nose.

"But then" Garp started. "Today I came here because I had a work in East Blue so I have to leave tomorrow. If you're going to be a marine you'll have to go back with me tomorrow since I don't really know when I'll be able to get my next break and come get you."

"I don't mind leaving tomorrow."

.....

"I'll be waiting near the docks of the village." Garp said as he walked away.

Emilia nodded and turned towards the group of bandits in front of her. Some of the bandits were sobbing while others were waving at her with a smile ,saying words of encouragement for her new journey. Where as their boss,Dadan just was looking elsewhere avoiding eye contact with the young girl.

"Thank you for always taking care of me." Emilia bowed showing her gratitude. " I'm sure I was alot trouble but then I really loved and enjoyed the time I spend here.I'll really miss you guys."

Hearing this Dadan turned back and walked into the house. "Boss,are you crying?" One of the bandits teased.

"Shut up! I'm not crying!" The woman objected but the tone she said it confirmed that she was indeed crying. Emilia laughed a bit at the scene. She then turned around and walked towards the forest.

"You're not going to the village,Emilia?" Magra questioned as he look at the girl who was walking in the opposite direction where Fuusha village was.

"I wanted to talk to Ace one last time." Emilia replied.

"I see...Patch things up properly before you go." The man said smiling.

Emilia walked forward following her haki searching for Ace. While walking she looked at the area surrounding her. The large tree which had sunlight passing through the branches, the small river which had a few stepping stones, a few flower which she passed by ; her eyes stayed on the group of cosmos for a few seconds more than others. Certainly each place of the forest held great meaning to her, she was certainly going to miss the place.

Emilia kept on walking and eventually the forest had cleared up. She had reached the edge of the forest where the view of the vast sea was magnificent. The wind here was gentle and sounds of the waves hitting the land was the only sound accompanying it.

Her blue eyes looked at the silhouette which was simply standing there looking forward. Emilia walked towards it and stopped, keeping a small distance.

"Ace." Emilia called out. The boy in front then turned and looked at her. This was the first time in weeks that the boy was properly looking at her. "I'll be going now." She continued smiling gently at the boy.

Ace's mouth opened slightly in surprise. He was so fixed in on avoiding her that she didn't even know she would be leaving so soon. But he didn't voice his thoughts and instead asked something which was always in the back of his mind. "Why...why are you going to be a marine?" He asked as he clenched his fist.

Emilia didn't answer right away, she simply looked at him making silence fall upon them. "I don't intend to be a dog of the marine, Ace." She avoided the question.

Ace wasn't satisfied with the answer but neither did he feel like she would give him the answer to his questions, however the way she phrased her reply made him a bit relieved. It was as if she was saying being a part of the marines doesn't mean she forgave what they did to Sabo. Also as if saying even if they were on different sides, she will still see him as a comrade. "I see..." Ace felt embarrassed now that he thought about his actions these past weeks. Being against Emilia's desire to be a marine was as if he was trying to chain Emilia and stop her from making her own decisions, stop her from being free.

"I guess this is good bye then." Ace smiled at her. How he wished he could turn back time and spend his time with Emilia rather than avoiding her.

"Uhn.." Emilia nodded and smiled back. She raised her hands and waved at Ace. "I'll see you next time in the sea."

"No way!" Ace shouted at the girl making her drop stop waving and drop her hands. "If we ever met in the sea, it'll mean we will be meeting as enemies!" Ace huffed and put both his hands on his hips. "I don't want that."

Emilia's eyes widened and then she giggled. Sometimes Ace was more difficult to understand than Luffy. She the nodded and said. "Bye bye." And turned around and started to walk away from him.

Ace watched the girl in front of him. The winds caused her slightly wavy hair to sway. He held up on of his hands and imagined him holding hers. He didn't want her to leave yet. "I like you..." Ace confessed. It wasn't loud not more than a whisper.

"Eh?"

Ace looked at Emilia and saw that she had turned around, her face was slightly red. Shit! She somehow heard it!  Ace cursed himself. Of course! Its Emilia for god sake!

He looked at Emilia's still confused face and then let out a loud sigh, scratching the back of his head. "You didn't hear it wrong... I like you Emilia." Ace said loudly.

"I never had these feelings before so I'm not sure my self but yet I can't really imagine my self having these same feeling again in the future if it is not you. Even though your strong I can't help but think 'I want to protect her'. At first I questioned myself but then I realized that it is because you're someone very precious to me."

Ace walked towards the girl as he kept watching  the girl who still had a flushed face, shifting weight from one side to the other and played with her fingers.She is still bad at dealing with confessions but the way she looked right now.... She look so adorable. Ace smiled.

Emilia bit her lower lips mustering up every courage she had to tell how she felt about Ace. "I...I-"

"I'm not asking for an answer but i guess I really wanted to let you know how I  felt." Ace cut her off.Emilia's eyes widened as she felt Ace hold her wrist and pull her towards him. Her head rested on Ace's chest. Ace wrapped his arms around her as he rested his chin on her head.

"Just let me stay like this for a bit."  Ace whispered. He felt like this was the right thing to do. He felt as if he didn't do this right now he might never get this opportunity in the future.

Emilia nodded as she listened to Ace's heartbeat.

Ace smile turned into a grin as he felt arms wrap around him. He looked down to see Emilia hide her face into his chest however he did notice the way the girl's ears red.

Maybe I should have asked for an answer after all... Ace thought as he slightly tightened his hold around the girl.

.......

"You sure you got everything you need?" Makino asked with a worried look on her face.

Garp, Emilia, Luffy and Ace were on the docks of Fuusha Village. The bandits didn't come saying that they would most probably scare the people in town.

"Yeah." Emilia smiled. She then looked at the doctor who had thought her medicine. The doctor reached out his hands and placed it on top of Emilia's head. "Take care, my lil prodigy." He said.

"I will." Emilia replied back. "I'll keep on studying medicine as well,doctor."

"I'm sure you'll do a great job at it."

"Oi!" Garp called out from the ship. "We're ready! Let's get going!"

"Do you really have to go,Emilia?" Luffy asked with his eyes filled with tears holding onto Emilia's shirt. He really wanted the girl  to stay and be a part of his crew.

"I'm sure we'll meet again, Luffy." Emilia smiled and then finally turned towards Ace. Her face turned a bit red as she waved at Ace, remembering what had happened between them. Ace also didn't say anything and simply grinned back with his hands on his hips.

"Take care."

"I will..."

Emilia then picked up her bag, which had nothing other than a few clothes, her medicine box and a book on navigation, and walked up the stairs leading to the ship. And as soon as she got in, the marines opened the sails, brought up their anchor, making the ship move.

"Bye Bye Emilia!!!" Luffy shouted loudly,both tears and snots rolling down his face.  Along with him others also waved their hands.

Emilia smiled waving back. She kept on looking at their direction till they were no longer in view.

She was going to miss them.

[lo-55]

Lost Things Ch. 3

The Trapped                   

Marco sat in the chair, watching Ace move around the house.

There wasn’t much room to move to begin with, the place was small after all. If Marco wasn’t so used to the confines of a ship it might be claustrophobic. There was still the creeping feeling of being caged whenever the wind blew to hard and the trees rattled against the glass but it passed.

If Ace knew he was being watched, he didn’t show it. The boy talked a lot, not about much of anything, but it filled the silence. He told Marco about everyday things. Like the black squirrel that watched him chop firewood because it knew Ace didn’t mind sharing his pistachios. He told him about the baker, Mrs. Madaline, who let him have the day old bread as long as he carried her flower bags for her. About the portmaster, Henry Finch, who had wild stories of life in the New World.

Marco didn’t miss the way Ace’s eyes lit up when he started talking about that, so much like the wonder he had seen the first time they took their own Ace to the New World for the first time, it was the look he’d seen on his brother’s face every time he looked out over the waves.

It was the love of the sea.

Marco’s heart clenched. This boy was so like the Ace that had died.

There was, still, that small hope in the back of his head. That sense at the edge of his heart that tried to tell him that this was the Ace that he knew.

He tried to shake it off. He couldn't take another heartbreak. Not so soon.

“How long had you lived here?” he asked, trying to draw himself back into the present, and away from the darkened past.

Ace went from surprised to thoughtful, his head tilting. Long black hair spilled across his broad shoulders, a stark contrast to the pale scarf draped there.

“I think about a year and a half? Before that I stayed with the Jones’, they had a guest house they let me use. There kids are so cute, between the three of us I’m surprised there was only four fires,” Ace laughed, sheepish.

“Fire’s?” Marco repeated, trying not to sound too interested.

“Yes,” Ace’s cheeks darkened, just a bit, “I’m a bit accident prone.”

“Can you swim?” Marco asked next, confusing Ace.

“I… don’t know. I’ve never tried. The water on this island is too cold for it. Why?”

“Well, if you were to put to sea, you would want to be able to. Most people do, at least,” he reasoned.

Ace’s brows furrowed. “Why would I go to sea?” he asked the question, but Marco could see the spark that had entered his eyes. The brightness, the longing, the love. Ace wanted to go to sea.

“You love the ocean,” Marco said with absolute certainty. “One day, you should go sail on it.”

“How do you- I mean I do but I don’t even know how to sail!”

“You might,” Marco suggested lightly. He drummed his fingers on the wood, still warm from the stew. Stew that he knew. Stew that Thatch had taught him how to make. There was no mistaking what it was, it was the exact same stew that Thatch made on the Moby Dick. There was no way that a strange could recreate it exactly.

And, Ace had known how to make it.

 Marco had never had to deal with such an unruly logia type before. For someone made out of fire he was a slippery little devil, always disappearing to sulk after he tried to kill Pops. He kept finding new places too. Marco had once found him curled up in the rafters of a store room, another time he had been under Marco’s on bed. Marco always found him within the hour.

   Today, after yet another flying lesson from Whitebeard, Ace had vanished to the point that even Marco couldn’t find him.

   Part of Marco was suspicious that he had finally given up and jumped ship, but he doubted that was the case. The boy was fearless and determined, and stubborn to the point of potential suicide trying to kill the strongest man in the world. Not that Pops would kill him. He had already decided that Ace was going to be one of  his beloved sons, and once Whitebeard decided you were his that was that.

   But, Ace could not become one of Marco’s brothers until he had been found, and no one had seen him in hours.

   Which brought Marco to the kitchen. Thatch was usually in there this time of day, and Ace was usually nowhere near it. For one reason or another, out of pride or paranoia, he refused to eat with the rest of them. Instead he would sneak in and eat at night, alone in the dark.

   That would stop once he was their brother, hopefully, but until then it was only a matter of time before he snuck into the kitchen to filch a snack or two.

   Marco eased the door open, peaking in. His mouth was open to call for Thatch before he realized who exactly was inside the kitchen.

   Thatch was there, yes, but so was one Portgas D. Ace.

   The pair of them was huddled by a massive pot that was steaming, the scent of it the stew that Thatch excelled at. If anyone outside the crew was allowed to eat it he would be world famous for that alone, but nobody who did not carry Whitebeards mark was allowed to eat it.

   Except, it seemed, for Ace. He was even allowed to sample a spoonful of it.

   Marco leaned against the doorway, just watching the pair talking about food. Thatch pointed a jar on the ledge beside the stove and Ace grabbed it for him.

   “Three shakes,” Thatch said, and Ace obeyed. Marco was amazed. Thatch was teaching his secret recipe to Ace, who wasn’t even his brother yet.

   It seemed that, whether Ace knew it or not, he was already family.

“How would I even get to sea? People don’t exactly come here often, and I don’t think the Marine’s are interested in someone who barely knows their own name,” Ace shook his head, his words breaking Marco from his thoughts.

“Fuck the Marines,” Marco said viciously. Ace drew up, staring at him. Marco met his gaze, unrepentant. “Fuck the Marines. They’re murders and liars, and you belong with people better than them.”

Ace slowly stood up. “Sorry but, what exactly makes you think that? You barely know me.”

Marco faltered. That did make him think that? Just the similarities between this Ace and the one he lost? Or the light in his eyes when he talked about the sea?

“Sorry,” he wasn’t really, but he did nod to Ace. “I guess I can’t pass judgement, can I?”

“No,” Ace agreed, regarding him. “But it’s okay. “

Marco wondered if it really was. If anything about this situation was okay.

“Have you been to sea?” Ace asked, before turning sheepish. “No, nevermind. You’re a pirate.”

Funny, Marco didn’t remember telling him he was a pirate. Still he smiled indulgently at the younger man, the ferocity from earlier already forgotten.

“I have. It’s beautiful, and wild. There’s an adventure around every wave,” he watched Ace, waiting until he saw the spark enter his eyes once more. Then, he leaned forwards.

“Would you like to come with me?”

It was, perhaps, a poor choice. How could he have someone on board when he had travelled alone so long? How could he invite someone who was so close to his dead brother to travel with him? It wasn’t fair, not to either of them. He opened his mouth to retract the statement, but the wonder on Ace’s face stopped him.

“Would you really take me with you? To the sea?” he was breathless. Breathless and bright and eager.

Marco didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

Ace’s smile lit the room better than the lamp in the corner. It was bright, beautiful. So horribly, painfully familiar. That horribly dangerous hope pushed back into his brain.

“It won’t be for a while though,” Ace said, though his excitement didn’t sim a single watt. “The storm won’t die down for a couple of weeks. We probably can’t even leave the house.” And didn’t that just figure, that they were stuck together in a cabin in the middle of a snow storm.

Was it a miracle, or a cruel coincidence?

~

 The scream that tore through the air was heart wrenching. In all his life Marco didn’t think he had ever heard such a forlorn sound than the one the wind carried across the battlefield to him. He turned, forgoing his battle, and felt his heart freeze inside of his chest.

   He had to be wrong. That couldn't really be Ace’s body laying on the ground, blood pouring out of a massive hole in his chest. It couldn't.

   Marco could only stare as Luffy, who was really just a child, wailed above his brother’s broken body. Before his very eyes a soft red light enveloped the corpse, growing brighter until it obscured Ace’s smiling face. His dark hair, his strong arms, his dusting of freckles.

   The light stopped. Wind blew and the light vanished, flashing out of existence in a wave of embers that lifted into the air and vanished.

Marco opened his eyes to see a painfully familiar face hovering above his own. His breath caught in his throat.

“Ace?”

“You um. You were crying,” Ace offered him a tissue. Marco sighed and accepted it. It had been almost a year since he’d had that particular dream. He sat up, slowly, giving Ace time enough to pull back from him so they wouldn’t knock their foreheads together.

“Sorry,” he said, rubbing some of the color out of his cheeks. Damn it, he felt like a child.

“It’s okay,” Ace sat at the edge of the bed. Despite Marco’s objections, he insisted that the pirate sleep there. As if he needed it. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“It’s just a bad dream, Ace. You don’t need to worry.”

Ace shrugged, looking at him with a smile that was so familiar it hurt.

“Well, if you ever do…”

“Sure.”

Marco didn’t see a reason to say more. He looked away, towards the little kitchen. No sooner had he glanced away than a weight landed on his shoulder, pulling his attention back.

Ace leaned on his shoulder, snoring softly.

Marco snorted at the sight. Carefully, he pulled himself out from under the younger man and lay him down on the bed. And he said he didn’t need it! Ace must have been exhausted, to just fall asleep like that.

He used to fall asleep in his food, said a little voice that he did his best to smash viciously.

Yes, Ace did had Narcolepsy. The coincidences just kept piling up. Marco touched the sleeping mans arm, above a tattoo Ace had never gotten around to telling him the full story of. Just that the ‘s’ wasn’t crossed out as a mistake. Was it there, on this man?

If it was, what the hell did Marco do?

It was clear that, even if this was his Ace, he didn’t remember him. So what was he supposed to do now? He could heal his own body, but no one elses. Certainly not their mind.

Marco grimaced and a ran a hand through his hair. What was he supposed to do now?

Outside, the howling wind shifted. Far enough that the new sound invaded his sensitive ears. The sound of boots in snow. No one had shown up since he’d been there, no one had braved the snow and according to Ace no one would. Not for another couple of days.

Yet, there was someone outside the warm little house in the middle of the woods. And Marco had the distinct feeling that they were not going to be friends of his.

[luccislegs]

alsjlskzjs, I loved the Law/maleso/Luffy, you wrote it amazingly! Can I ask for a continuation, maybe with a little interatcing with the crew and their ghosts, but as a little time passes, Male reader finds himself accidentally using the ghosts powers or skills? like, they are at dinner one night, and sneezes fire. Or after getting startled, they silnce the whole ship for like 3 hours? or like, hes talking to Robin and can read the Ponglyps for a few mineuts (Robons mom) and they freak out?

sorry this took me so long! i really had to take and do this in chunks bc my brain would fry trying to figure out all the little details for everyone. i don’t think sanji has anyone important to him in his past, so he isn’t here. also the first four are the longest bc they play an actual part in some things, and also theirs have the most obvious powers and drawbacks. i hope i did this enough justice to warrant the wait lol

Over the course of the few months you were on the sunny, more ghosts began to show up, like they were drawn to you. Some spirits, like ace and rosinante, sought you out before you ever met whoever was keeping them tethered. Others, like Olvia and Tom, seemed to sense when you met their loved ones, and then sought you out.

Or that was what you guessed anyway, since they didn’t seem to have an answer for it either.

Regardless, there were now half a dozen ghosts following you around, and new symptoms had shown up on top of that.

Safe to say, you were losing your mind.

luffy:

You were just cuddled up with Luffy on the couch in the aquarium, his head in your lap as you chatted back and forth about the next island.

The urge hit you out of the blue, and you turned your head to the side to avoid sneezing all over Luffy.

That went right out the window as a huge column of flames shot out of your nose when you sneezed, lighting the curtains beside you on fire.

You immediately jumped up, knocking Luffy onto the floor as you panicked, smothering the flames with the other half of the curtains. 

Luffy, helpful dolt that he is, laid on the floor upside down staring at you in awe before jumping to his feet and picking you up in a hug

“That is so cool, ___. I didn’t know you could do that! You looked just like a dragon!”

To be fair, you didn’t know you could do that either. Over Luffy’s shoulder, you sent ace a murderous glare, to which he happily responded with a shoulder shrug, a smirk, and laughter.

You never actually got a chance to figure out what the hell had happened because, mid-hug, you fell asleep right in Luffy’s arms.

law:

A few days after the incident with Luffy, something else happened. You were beginning to think you needed to screen the ghosts before you agreed to help them from now on.

You were hanging out quietly in the boy’s room with Law, who was busy reading over a medical text from chopper, and Rosi, who was lounging on the other end of the couch smoking a transparent cigarette (which, by the way, was pretty funny when he managed to light himself on fire, freaked out, then realized he couldn’t actually burn) when Franky came bursting into the room with Usopp hot on his heels.

You weren’t even sure how it happened, it was like reflex. Rosi jumped and floated up to the ceiling, you jumped off the couch and hit the floor, and then all of a sudden everything was dead quiet.

You could clearly see Franky and Usopp yelling about…something, but you couldn’t hear anything.

Law, on the other hand, was looking at you with curiosity, like he knew exactly what was going on.

“Er, Law…?” you asked, and you heard yourself perfectly fine, but he didn’t react.

Rosi floated down behind you, and you nearly jumped out of your skin when he spoke. “I think you may have just silenced the ship. Seems you can use my calm calm powers, ___.”

You sighed. “Yeah I was afraid of that. how do I fix it?”

But Rosi only shrugged before floating over to law. “Come over here and see if he can hear you.”

You didn’t understand how moving closer would help, but did as told. 

Or tried to. You tripped over the floor mat and tumbled, smacking your head off the floor and blacking out before you could get there.

robin:

Your next stop was to see Robin, and you found her in the library, looking over a charcoal shading of some strange symbols. She looked up as you entered and smiled.

“Well hello, ___. What can I do for you?” she asked. She always had a knack for telling when someone was actively looking for her and when you just happened upon her.

“Well…I have a problem. and I think you might be the most able to help,” you said, sitting beside her.

You glanced over the sketches in her hands absentmindedly, and a word popped into your head.

“Those are Poneglyphs, right?” you asked, pointing to them.

Robin froze, then nodded slowly. “How did you know that?” she asked, staring at you with a guarded expression. She had never mentioned them to you before, or in your presence, and she was pretty sure that no one else would have a reason to.

“Uh, that’s sort of why I’m here,” you answered, pointing over your shoulder to the– to her, empty– space where Nico Olvia floated. “I think I may be spouting some of the spirits powers out. It just started. I almost burned the library down a few days ago, then just earlier I muted everyone like Cora used to do.”

Robin looked stricken at the mention of her mother for a moment, as she always did, before it turned thoughtful. “I’ve never heard of that being possible. Although Blackbeard stole devil fruit powers, he can use them freely. You can only use them momentarily, right?”

You nodded, looking back down at the papers. Some of the words you could understand, but most of them just looked like gibberish. Slowly, more came into focus, as if your brain was automatically learning another language. 

Before you could really start to piece the words together though, everything seemed to explode into agony. You couldn’t breathe, as if your lungs wouldn’t expand. The edges of your vision turned black, and you collapsed.

Robin’s voice sounded very far away, and there was Chopper’s alongside hers. As you came to, you could start to make out what they were saying.

“…he just blacked out? What was he doing before then?” Chopper was asking.

“We were just talking about the new powers he developed, and he was looking at the pictures of Poneglyphs, and then he was on the floor gasping.”

“Look, he’s waking up.” That was Law’s voice, and he sounded very concerned.

You opened your eyes just a crack, testing whether that was a good idea. Your head felt like it was splitting open, and Law helped you to sit up slowly. 

“What happened?” he asked, and you shrugged.

“I don’t know. I was talking with Robin and then suddenly everything hurt, like I’d been beaten, and I couldn’t breathe anymore,” you said, looking around at everyone. It was just you, Robin, Chopper, and Law in the room, and they all looked like you felt.

Robin’s gasp broke the silence, like a lightbulb had turned on. “It sounds like you were experiencing what my mother did before she…I wonder if you aren’t taking their powers but also some of their personality too,” she said, looking at you curiously. “What happened after you used Ace’s and Cora-san’s?”

Law broke in before you could answer. “He fell asleep in luffy’s arms after lighting the libary on fire, and tripped and knocked himself out after silencing our room. Which is exactly what they used to do.”

You nodded in agreement, but Robin still looked perturbed. “It seems like you experience more than just their quirks, but their deaths too. That can’t be good. I’ll do some research and see if there’s anything about your powers, but you need to be careful too.”

zoro:

This new development was slightly detrimental to your health. You couldn’t figure out a rhyme or reason to how your new powers worked, or when they would, but you were keen to find out. 

The safest way, you figured, was to try practicing with a sword and seeing if you couldn’t channel some of Kuina’s swordsmanship at will.

It didn’t work. At all.

You couldn’t seem to find any trigger for making it work, swinging the sword as you normally would have. Zoro seemed disappointed as well, having hoped to have a decent match against someone besides Law for once. It didn’t matter that you explained to him you could only use it for a few seconds.

Only when Franky, who was working on something on the mast, accidentally lost his grip on a drawing knife he was using and sent it flying towards you did those “instincts” kick in. Your vision went a little blurry, as if you were seeing things through water, and you lifted the sword and swung with more grace than you ever had, knocking it aside before it could reach you.

Zoro clapped in impressed surprise. “I guess you need to be in danger to use it,” he said, watching you stumble and fall to your knees. “Are you alright?”

“No, I uh,” you struggled to think through the screaming pain that was lancing through your back. It wasn’t nearly as excruciating as Olvia’s death, but your head was still swimming from it. “Can I ask how Kuina died?”

Zoro paused, looking like he swallowed a lemon. “She fell down the stairs.” He sounded bitter, so you nodded and moved on.

“I think I’m experiencing some of the things the others did in their lives, deaths included. Earlier, I could read Poneglyphs, but right after I went through Olvia’s death. This is…a little scary,” you admit, just as Luffy and Law came onto the deck. 

Franky had gone to fetch them when you collapsed, and they pulled you gently to your feet. 

“Are you alright, _____?” Luffy asked, just as Law asked, “what the hell is going on?”

Explaining it all over again, you sighed tiredly. “I just want to go lay down now, if you don’t mind.”

nami:

Nothing happened for a few days after that. At every turn, though, you were expecting an outburst followed by some type of mayhem. Practicing with Zoro a little more revealed that only when something dangerous you weren’t expecting happened did you channel Kuina’s excellent swordsmanship. Needless to say, Zoro was disappointed.

Nami’s first experience happened when you were helping her trim her tangerine trees. It was one of the only pleasant experiences you had, because for some reason– maybe you were just relaxed enough that it was flowing– Bell-mere’s knowledge of tangerines was flowing freely. 

For nearly an hour, you and Nami chatted about the best ways to take care of the trees. You could see Bell-mere floating aimlessly through the trees, and knew she was listening but never once did she input anything to the conversation. 

The only negative side-effect you experienced was an overwhelming craving for cigarettes.

Franky:

Franky’s was another pleasant experience, since you were able to channel Tom’s knowledge of shipbuilding. It didn’t last as long as Bell-mere’s, but it came much more frequently than Rosi’s or Ace’s. 

You were beginning to suspect that the physical aspects took a different type of catalyst compared to the knowledge. Unfortunately, you were unable to physically put any of Tom’s knowledge into effect, but Franky enjoyed talking with you while he was working.

chopper:

Chopper’s was another unpleasant one.

Channeling Hiriluk’s medical knowledge was a struggle at best, because even though you knew what was going on, you didn’t really understand, and it gave you a headache. 

Combine that with the fact that you spent almost 30 minutes doubled over from unbearable stomach cramps– which you found out was most likely what Hiriluk experienced before he died from eating a deadly mushroom– and his knowledge really wasn’t worth the experience.

Chopper couldn’t even really enjoy chatting with you about it because you were just so miserable, but the catalyst for Hiriluk’s knowledge was pretty much just entering the medical bay, so you suffered quite a bit from that one.