#the old man has the king's haki too???

[hauntingblue]

Look how they massacred my boy (the sunny)...

[glassartpeasants]

Deny Your Feelings

Trafalgar Law x Assassin!GN!Reader

Warnings: small angst, mostly fluff, blood, mentions of death Grammarly said it was fine so i say its fine

~~~

For a government that prides itself itself in getting the job done by killing pirates, they sucked at it behind the scenes. Which is where you come in.

You were a high-end assassin for the world government. They called you when they deemed the target too dangerous for basic marines and too unpredictable to send out admirals.

No matter the pirate, you always got the job done. The payout was great each time, but it did get boring. Same thing over and over again. Join the crew, gain their trust, kill the Captain, then the crew, take the treasure, go to an island, set the ship on fire and finally go back to the higher-ups. Every single ‘crew’ you joined was nothing but rude, rowdy pirates who stole from the weak and treated people like trash. So you never had any problems taking their lives. So when you got a call about a new job, you figured it’d be the same old same old, but as soon as the pirate's name was revealed, you knew you finally had a challenge.

Trafalgar Law, aka The Surgeon of Death.

You’ve heard many stories about him, mostly bad ones, but stories nonetheless. He was Captain to the Heart Pirates and has a bounty of 200,000,000 berri’s. His bounty was the highest you’ve ever been sent after. You’ve never had to deal with a million berri’s man, so to be hired for such a feat almost felt like a gift. It was thrilling to be sent on such a mission, finally something to spice up such a monotonous cycle.

You couldn’t wait for the job to start.

~~~

“Everyone, this is (Y/N). They’re a new member of the crew, so treat them like you would anyone else.” Waving to everyone, you smile brightly before speaking.

“Nice to meet you all!” Not even seconds later, a giant polar bear runs up to you. Its outfit is orange compared to the common grey ones.

“Wow! It’s been so long since we’ve had someone new! I’m Bepo! Where are you from?” You were taken aback by its complete ability to speak as you had never seen something like it.

“I’m from the North Blue. What about you, big guy?” Everyone started to gather around you and began to ask questions about you. You told them the truth for the most part while still sprinkling some lies in to avoid suspicion.

“I need you guys to show them around. I have to get back to my studies.” Law voices rang in your ears as you turned your sight to him. Even though you’ve seen multiple pirates, there was something about the surgeon of death. His eyes seemed so hypnotizing, and the way his tattoos looked against his skin had you struggling not to ogle. He was a handsome man, truly, but his bounty poster didn’t nearly do him enough justice. It was a shame he was a pirate. If he wasn’t, you would have totally made a move. But alas, the universe had other plans and made him a pirate.

A dangerous one at that. Killing him would be no easy task. His devil-fruit abilities were a force to be feared. No doubt he had haki, too. Truly a formidable opponent. 

“No problem, Captain!”

“Thanks. Now, get ready to submerge.” Law’s last words had your stomach dropping.

“Submerge?...” A slight grin cracked his face.

“Yep, 450m under the surface.” A look of horror crossed your face, causing Law to stifle a laugh. You make a dash to the nearest window, and your heart sinks as you watch yourself descend to the deep. Being on a ship? Fine. You were above water. But below water? 450m down in Sea King waters? The thought of being in a metal-enclosed space had your blood freezing.

“I think I’m gonna be sick.”

~~~

Ever since entering the Polar Tang, you’ve done your best to distract yourself from how deep you were underwater. Cleaning, exercising, playing games with the crew, and getting to know their routines. Currently, you're making yourself a snack. Onigiri, to be exact. You’ve been cravigning it since joining the Heart Pirates and just now have the motivation to make it. You hummed a tune while dancing lazily as you finished the onigiri. The sound of footsteps approaching goes unnoticed as you are too enveloped in your own world to notice them. 

“Having fun?” Law’s voice broke you from your trance, causing you to yelp and turn to face him. Your face felt as if it were on fire with how embarrassed you were.

“Jesus! You scared me! How long have you been standing there?” You fiddle with your fingers before turning around to try to finish the onigiri quickly so Law doesn’t see how flustered you are.

“Long enough.” You could feel his gaze burn from behind you. It made you unbelievably nervous. There was no doubt he was studying you. What if he knew who you were? He’d kill you for sure!

“What are you making?” Law’s monotone voice returns, and you feel yourself slightly calm down.

“Oh? Just some onigiri. Would you like some Captain?” Turning around, you see a small pink dust on his cheeks. Did you embarrass him or something?

“I…Just ate, but thank you.” You nod your head before sitting down at the table to eat.

“It’s my favorite, so I thought I should share something that makes me happy.” This was a true statement regardless of whether Law was a pirate or not. It did give you the idea to kill him via poison. If you made food and poisoned it and fed it to everyone, they’d all be dead without a fight. But you heard about all the powers Law’s devil fruit can do, so that plan was shut down before it could even come to fruition. Him also being a doctor makes things only 10x harder. The plan needed to be perfect for it to work. No room for mistakes.

~~~

If only you could use your governmental status right now. The Marines shooting you were pissing you off. While it’d make your job easier if they hit the crew members, you wouldn’t get all the pay if they shot Law. And that would not stand.

“Captain! More just arrived!” You and Law both turn your heads as you see more Marines approaching.

“There must be a base nearby if they keep coming like this. I don’t wanna deal with an admiral, so let’s go. Everyone to the sub!” Following Law’s orders, everyone makes a break for the Polar Tang.

“It’s like they're randomly spawning! They're coming out of nowhere!”

“Welcome to the pirate life newbie.” You can hear the smirk in Law’s voice as he runs right beside you. Despite trying to focus on running, your eyes move in Law’s direction. Even though he looked exhausted, he moved with such precision. The way a small bead of sweat rolled down his face made a slight burning feeling appear on your face. 

‘No! He’s a pirate! Get your head in the game!’ Shaking your head, you return to making your running your top priority. You wouldn’t get money if you were dead.

Bullets whip past you and Law, making your heart jump in your chest. You’ve been shot before, but it felt different coming from your own team. Usually, the sound of Marines yelling didn’t bother you, but now it gave you an intense feeling of unease. You haven’t even been a ‘pirate’ for 3 months, and you're already starting to despise them!

Moving your head to the side, you catch a Marine aiming straight for Bepo. Your eyes widen as you stop in your tracks. Turning around, you run towards the bear. Dread filled your heart as you feared for the bear's safety. 

“Bepo! Look out!” Without a second thought, you push the bear out of the way. The gunshots echoed in your ears before a stinging pain hit your shoulder. You could see the worst possible outcome if you weren’t there even seconds later.

“Fucking A! Damnit, whatever. Bepo, hurry, let’s go!” You grab the bear's paw and begin to drag him to the polar tang. The pain in your shoulder had you biting your lip until blood appeared from your bite's sheer force. While it wouldn’t be the first time you’ve been shot, this one felt so much more painful. You can feel blood seep into your uniform as you try running faster.

“(Y/N) your bleeding! A lot!” Bepo’s voice rang in your ears as you finally looked down at your wound. He wasn’t kidding when he said a lot. Almost your entire shoulder was drenched in the red substance.

“Now’s not the time to worry about it! Our priority is getting back to the Polar Tang! I can see it from here, so don’t stop now, alright?!” Bepo’s worried face is replaced by a serious one as he continues to run. The yellow metal of the sub gives both of you determination to run faster.

Once getting on the dock, you have Bepo jump in first before yourself. An action you ask yourself for. In fact, you were questioning why you saved him in the first place? If he died, that’d be one less nuisance to kill later. That and you wouldn’t have been shot! You wouldn’t be currently bleeding out if you just left him to die. Yet, the thought of the bear getting hurt made your heart burn. 

~~~

The event’s of earlier replayed in your mind as you sit in the infirmary. As soon as the Polar Tang went under the waves, you rushed yourself to the infirmary so you could fix your shoulder.

While yes, your ‘Captain’ is a doctor, the last thing you want is to owe him. Not to mention he was too busy setting course for the next destination. You didn’t have the time to wait. So you were gonna do it yourself, it’s not like people would come looking for you. That being said, you grab all the supplies you need and begin your own health care. It couldn’t be that hard.

“Damn bullet. Just get out already.” Putting your gloved finger in the wound, you try to fish out the bullet. A hand towel between yoru teeth as you bit down in pain. How can something be so difficult?! It’s a metal cylinder for chirsts sake! Why can’t you find it?! The lack of success made you aware of how much more blood you’ve lost. Your gloved hand is covered in it and ran down your arm. A weary feeling fills your body as you can feel yourself growing tired. Which even you know is not a good sign.

“Yeah, they're in here, Captain!” The sound of hurried footsteps catches your attention as the infirmary door opens. The figure of Law and Bepo enter your vision. You should have known Bepo would tell him.

“Jesus (Y/N)-ya! What are you thinking?!” The way his voice reprimanded you made you unintentionally lower your head.

“I just didn’t want to bother you since you were busy.”

“I’m your Captain, and as your Captain, it’s my job to make sure my crew stays okay! That means fixing them when their hurt! Never do this shit again, understand?” Looking away from him with a lowered head, you respond.

“Yes, Captain.”

~~~

You were currently sitting in the crew bunks reading a book, trying to ignore the pins and needles in your shoulder and your heavy heart. It shouldn’t affect you as much as it is, but when Law yelled at you, you felt ashamed. The fact a pirate could make you feel this way pissed you off. How can a simple pirate crew influence your emotions to where you took a bullet for one of them? No matter how hard you tried to focus on the book you were reading, your agonizing thoughts kept running rampant. 

Yet just as you were about to put the book away, theres a knock at the door.

“Hello?” Waiting to see another crew member, you were shocked to see Law standing at the door frame staring at you.

“Do you need something, Captain?”

“Bepo told me you took the bullet for him. Is that true?”

“Yeah. I didn’t want him to get hurt after I saw a Marine aiming at him.” Law said nothing as he looked at your bandaged shoulder.

“How’s it feel?”

“Like a bullet wound.” A small chuckle left his lips as he stared at you before going silent.

“Sorry for not telling you about it. You were already busy, so I didn’t want to add more trouble to your plate.”

“I apologize for yelling; Bepo wanted to say thank you, but he felt too bad to say it in person.”

“I’ll have to tell him it’s no problem. But it’s sweet of you to help him.” Law looks away as he puts his hand on his neck. He couldn’t have you seeing how your words made his cheek show a slight pink.

“Also, I have a question. Or, well, a request, really.”

“What is it?”

“I was wondering when, or if you have the time, you could teach me some basic first aid and CPR? I just would like to help in case someone got hurt on the battlefield. Like a field medic who can take care of their own.” Law’s heart did a small flip as you looked at him. You’ve only been a Heart Pirate for 3 months, and you’ve already taken a bullet for a crewmate, made meals more than half the time, always cleaned, and now you're making an effort to try and help him and your crewmates even more?

How can someone be so caring to people they barely know?

The thought of being alone with you, having you watch him in awe made his fingers twitch. It annoyed him. Why did you have this ability to have him feel emotions he hasn’t felt in years? Was it your eyes? You voice? What was it about you that had Law’s heart skipping a beat? How could he feel this way about someone he’s only known for 3 months? If he was smart, he’d say that he was busy and that he didn’t have the time to teach you.

“I’m free now so get up and let’s go.”

~~~

The moonlight was just bright enough that you were able to read your notes late into the night while everyone else was sleeping. Ever since you asked Law to teach you about first aid and CPR, you’ve been taking notes on everything he teaches. You didn’t want to forget anything. Even if you’d never admit it, you caught yourself looking forward to the lessons.

Penguin told you thathe’s never spent this much time with a crewmate before. That you’ve been the only one to actually get him out of his office. Knowing that made your blood run faster. It was both good and bad. You were getting him to trust you, it’d be easier to kill him if he lowered his guard around you. But on the other hand, your heart started to constrict every time you thought about killing him. That you looked forward being next to him. You could feel yoru face burn each time you saw a smirk on his face.

His beautiful face.

Slapping both hands to your face, you try to get rid of the thoughts that dared to threaten your mission. He was a pirate, you were a assassin hired by the world government to kill him. The things you began to feel for him was simply unacceptable. You couldn’t fall for a pirate.

The urge to read your notes was now gone, making you put them under your bunk. You didn’t want to think about anything that involves the man poisoning your heart. Grabbing your covers, you pull them over your head, hoping that no one would see the conflicted look on your face as your plagued with thoughts about the man only two doors down.

~~~

The kitchen was nice and quiet this time of night. Perfect time to simmer in your thoughts and write down all the information you learned from Law. You even bought all sorts of notebooks, pencils, highlighters, and anything you could think of that would help you keep track of things. It does help keep your mind occupied so you forget that your underwater. Even though you were internally screaming at yourself for putting in so much effort to make Law proud, you try tto ration that learning things like this could help you in the long run.

Reaching out, you grab the onigiri that you had prepared earlier and take a bite. The flavors making you lose focus from your notes as you smile. Eating the food always made you happy not matter how shitty the day was. You even had some tea to keep you awake. A perfect combination. Favorite food, great drinks and drawing your Captain all over your notes.

Wait.

Your eyes widen as you coke on your food. Rubbing your watery eyes, you see your hand just above a drawing of Law. Your eyes scan the entire page and all you can see is drawings upon drawings of Law werre scattered anywhere there was free room. Speechless, you quickly put down yoru food and start searching for a big eraser. You needed to erase them right away before anyone saw. Erase them before you could continue to think about him. 

Desperately trying to get rid of the drawings, you end up ripping the paper. Looking down, you could feel your heart slowing downseeing the crumpled up paper, no longer containing Law. His face comeptely erased from the notes. You drop the eraser before rubbing your face. Even when your not thinking about him, you are! How dare he make you feel this?!

You went to grab your unfinished onigiri but decided against it. Not wanting to taint your favorite food by thinking of a pirate.

“Damn pirate…”

“What are you doing awake?” Law’s voice had you jumping in your seat. You quickly turn the page of your notebook so he won’t see the sins you drew. Even if they were already erased.

“Could ask the same for you, Captain.” You joke with the man as he stifled a chuckle.

“Working. Came for coffee.”

“Ah. I’m working on notes for the things you’ve been teaching me. It’s just quieter at night to study. Also easier to make food and tea without worrying about it being stolen.” Law looks down and sees a perfectly made onigiri next to you.

“You can have one if you want. I don’t mind sharing…if it’s with you.” Law watches you move the plate closer to him. He could feel his heart skip a beat. Normally he’d not be one to eat food this late at night, but what could one hurt?

“Thanks.” Grabbing the food, Law takes a bite. His eyes widen upon the taste. Never in his entire life has he had onigiri this good.

“Is it bad?” Realizing he’s been quiet and seeing your saddened face, Law quickly swallows the food and begins to speak.

“No, not at all. I’ve just…this is really good.” He could see his words immediately lifting your mood. Whether he said it or not, your smile had him struggling not to smile back.

“That’s good to hear. I’m glad you like it, Captain.” Law looked down at the scattered notes. A small part of him was amazed at how serious you were about it. Another part told him that he needed to get back to work. Yet the voice telling him to stay was much louder, and thankfully, he had the perfect idea.

“I’m giving you a pop quiz.”

“What?! You never said anything about a quiz!”

“That’s why it's called a pop quiz. Now put your notes away." You can see the almost invisible smirk Law had. Grumbling, you stack your things neatly and place them far away. Your annoyance soon fizzled out when he sat right next to you.

“First question. What does ABC mean in first aid?”

“Easy. Airway, breathing, and circulation.” Law nods, and you can see him thinking of the next question.

“Injury caused by rubbing or scrapping of the skin?”

“Abrasion.”

“Correct.” You watch as Law grabs another onigiri. The sight of him wanting another one made your heart jump. He liked them enough to eat a second one? You had to keep yourself from gushing. He’s a pirate. No gushing over some dangerous pirate!

“A method of prioritizing treatment?”

“Triage.”

“Good job (Y/N)-ya.”

Maybe being in the company of a dangerous pirate wasn’t so bad.

~~~

Two arms wrap around your waist while you feel something bury in the crook of your neck. The smell of breakfast was easily over powered by the muck of the man holding you close. You reach up to run your fingers through his hair under his hat. A sigh came from teh man and you smile as it fans against your skin.

“What’s got you so loving? I thought you didn’t like PDA?”

“I don’t. Everyone's gone.” Short words, yet it’s all you need to know. The feeling of his arms wrapped around you had you feeling an overwhelming sense of safety engulf you. You intertwine his fingers with his before gently rocking side to side. 

“I’m so happy that I get to see the most handsome man in the world every day. And that he’s all mine.” Your words cause Law to hide his face deeper in your neck, but you can still see his ears a light pink.

“I’m happy that you're with me, too.” He whispers against your skin. Turning your head, you place a kiss on the brim of his hat. You watch as Moves his head to look at you. His eyes travel to your lips before he moves closer to your face-

“Everyone up! Time to dock and grab supplies!” Your eyes shot open when Penguin's voice broke you from your slumber. All your crewmates grumble as they begin to change and get ready for the day, yet your stuck in bed. The dream replays in your mind like a broken record. Lifting your fingers to your face, you gently brush your fingertips against your lips. If Penguin didn’t wake you up, would he have kissed you?

Your heart has never beat more faster as you simply think about the dream. It felt so real. What’s worse is that you wished you finsihed the dream.

Frustration and anger fill your body as you feel tears slip down your skin. Clenching your teeth, you try to yell at yourself internally. Tell yourself that what you feel is wrong! That you’d rather die than fall in love with a pirate!

‘Stop! You can’t fall in love with him! Get your shit together (Y/N)!’ You yell at yourself as you groggily get ready to dock. Maybe if you breathe fresh air, you’ll realize that your thinking like a fool/ A change of scenery is what you need. It’ll help you realize what your really here for. 

To kill the Surgeon of Death.

~~~

You follow Law and the rest of the crew in town to grab supplies and maybe rob a store or two. Whatever, it’s not like it matters. Not when this is the last stop that Law will ever see. There's a half-ass plan you came up with in your head when you got ready to leave the Polar Tang. It’s not perfect but it has to do. You couldn’t risk being next to him anymore. Simply being near him made your body crazy. Hearing his voice made your heart flip, and looking at his eyes made your legs weak. Without even knowing, Law had your heart in the palm of his hand.

“Okay, everyone. We’re splitting into groups.” You try to ignore his voice but still listen to where your group would be. 

“Me and (Y/N)-ya will be going west of town. Everyone got it?” If you could, you’d disappear on the spot. The universe has to be screwing with you. Truly a cruel joke it was playing.

Everyone separates, leaving Law and you alone. You quickly try to hide all the negative emotions and put up a happy front. Walking closer to Law, his smell hits you like a sack of bricks. You desperately try to seem unfazed, but you can feel your legs weaken.

“Anywhere, in particular, Captain?”

“Bookstore.” You blink at him.

“Really?”

“Yes. Your getting textbooks.” You pout at his words. It’s a shame since they’d be useless after today.

“That and I overheard you talking to yourself, saying you like to read books to help with your insomnia.”

BA-DUM

BA-DUM

“Y-Yeah, I do. Aren’t you gonna get something for yourself as well?”

“Nothing I can think of.”

“So we're going just for me?” Law’s eyes widen as your face burns.

“Sleep is important. You need it to be healthy, and you already do a lot more than your fellow crewmates.”

“Thank you, Captain.” Law nods, and you both make your way to the bookstore. Despite your outer emotions, inside, you were screaming. How could he hit you with such an act? He’s acting like he cares about you. What if he did? He’s acting like you mean more to him than just a crewmate. But that can’t be possible. Pirates are ruthless. They don’t care about love and things like that.

Law was a pirate, nothing more to it.

~~~

“Did you choose the biggest textbooks cause you could?!” Your complaining as you carry the heavy textbooks only made him smirk. If you weren’t holding all your books, you’d jump him.

“Perhaps.” A gasp leaves your lips as you stop in your tracks.

“Your lying!”

“Who’s the one carrying the textbooks?” You were speechless at his audacity. He seemed to think your reaction was funny as the men let out a laugh. So quiet that you almost couldn’t hear.

BA-DUM

BA-DUM

His laughter made your blood run hot as your heart beat against your ribs. How can laughter make you such an utter blubbering mess. The laughter of a pirate sounded more beautiful then any other laugh you’ve ever heard. It was something your heart wanted to listen to on repeat.

Suddenly, a drop of water falls from the sky and on your nose.

“Rain?”

“If it is, then we should get back to the Polar Tang. The textbooks could be ruined.” Nodding your head, you walk next to Law as you both hurry to get out of the rain.

~~~

Finally making it to the Polar Tang, you stop outside. The rain pelting against your skin did nothing to distract you from the scattered junk that's running through your mind. It was quiet on the way to the sub, and you hated it. It left you in your conflicted feelings. How would you finally get the opportunity to kill him? How your heart screamed that what you felt was real but you knew better. You were more strong-willed than that-

“I’m glad you joined.” A voice so soft and quiet broke the silence. It had your eyes widening and your heart freezing.

“What did you say?”

“You can see the pink appear on Law’s cheeks as he repeated himself.

“I’m glad you joined.” His final words made you bite your lips as tears began to form in your eyes.

BA-DUM

BA-DUM

CRACK

You fall to your hands and knees as sobs begin to escape your lips, and you can no longer deny what you feel. No amount of lying to yourself could work anymore. You had failed your mission. A mission you gave a year of your life to. You had fallen in love with Trafalgar Law, and there's nothing you could do about it.

“You shouldn’t be…”

“(Y/N)-ya? What’s going on? What are you talking about?”

“I don’t deserve to be called a Heart Pirate!”

“(Y/N)-ya, what's wrong?” The sound of worry and confusion in his voice only made it worse.

“Just kill me. I can’t handle these feelings! It’s not fair to you and the crew!”

“I’m not going to kill you (Y/N)-ya! Now what the hell is going on?!-”

“I’m an assassin sent by the world government to kill you!” Your head was touching the ground, and your soaked uniform clung to your skin. A sickly silence covered the two of you before you continued to confess.

“But I can’t! I can’t do it! The thought of anything bad happening to you makes me sick! It makes my heart burn to think about you in any pain!” Hiccups soon accompany your sobs as your hair starts sticking to your face.

“The thought of living in a world without you is hell! Ever since I’ve met you, my heart has beat faster than it ever has! Seeing you everyday and being near you everyday makes me so happy and i could never be happier!”

“I love sharing food with you! I love spending time with you! I love listening to your voice and laughter! I love you, Trafalgar Law! I love you so fucking much that I’d rather die than live without you!” Law’s still silent, and it only makes you ramble more.

“I know you don’t feel the same and I don’t deserve for you to feel the same! You deserve someone who wouldn’t lie to your face for a year! I deserve nothing! I don’t deserve to dream about you! I don’t deserve to imagine holding your hand or holding you close! I don’t deserve to dream about kissing you…” Sobs echo in your ears as your vision blurs. You could barely breathe as the tears kept flowing.

“Please, Captain…just kill me. I’m a traitor who deserves to die. I failed you and used your kindness selfishly. Now I can’t imagine a world without you and a world without you is a world where i’d rather die. So please, Law, stab me, poison me, just do something! I’ll take whatever punishment you give me with open arms as it’s all I deserve…” Hugging yourself, you can’t hear Law over the now thundering sounds coming from the sky. The rain only started pouring harder and hitting your back like hail. You wait for some sort of pain or the bittersweet embrace of death, yet it never comes. 

You didn’t dare look up at Law’s face. You didn’t deserve to.

“(Y/N)-ya.” His voice made your heart split in two. 

The tears and sobs distracted you from the sound of crunching grass coming up from in front of you. It’s only when you feel a hand grab your chin and lift it up.

“Get in the sub. We’ll talk about this later. You're going to get sick if you stay out in the rain longer.” Your tears still continue when you feel him grab your arm and pull you to your feet. The sudden action had your eyes widening and your legs shaking. 

“B-But…Captain-” Before you could utter a word. A gentle pair of lips connect with yours before leaving. Lasting only a few seconds yet you could still feel the sensation on your lips. The tears still blur your vision, but you ignore them as you feel yourself being led to the Polar Tang.

“It’s Law.”

[cozage]

I hope you enjoy the beach and Legend of Zelda. Can I request a Koby x reader who is Garp’s granddaughter (same age as Koby) who wants to be a marine but Garp is overprotective and won’t let her. She and Koby train together and become friends then boyfriend/girlfriend. In the end, she is allowed to join and Garp is a proud grandfather. Just way too much fluff. Please and thank you. 😊

Hiiii! I really did enjoy both so much, thank you :) I’m happy to be writing again though! A break was much needed but I have missed it. 

Characters: female reader x Koby Word Count: 2.3k

To Be a Marine

“You wanted Luffy and Ace to be in the Navy!” you yelled. “Why can’t I?!”

“I already told you!” your grandfather yelled back. “A woman being a marine is much different than a man being a marine!”

“Sexist old man,” you grumbled under your breath. “Ace was right about you.”

“What did you say!?!”

A knock at the door saved you, and two young men entered your grandfather’s office. 

“Ah, my new recruits!” he cheered. 

“You’re joking,” you said, looking at them. “You’ll take them but reject me?”

“Garp-san.” The pink-haired boy bowed to your grandfather. “It would be an honor to train under you.”

“Koby! Helmeppo! Are you ready to go through hell?!”

They both stood and saluted. “Yes sir!”

You scoffed and stormed out the door. 

You saw the two recruits around the base often, but neither of them talked to you much. You were just a civilian on a Marine base, and you held much less stature than even the lowliest of Marines. 

After about a week of ignoring each other, something changed. Koby walked into the room, looking around. You glanced up to see him enter, but returned to your book quickly.

“Your Garp-san’s granddaughter, right?” he asked, startling you. You hadn’t expected him to speak to you. 

“Unfortunately,” you grumbled.

“What do you mean!?” he demanded. “I bet he’s a great grandfather!”

You scoffed. “He won’t let me be a Marine, but he won’t let me be a pirate like my brothers. He just keeps me locked up on this base. Great grandfather he is.”

Koby’s eyes widened. “You’re Luffy’s sister?!”

“Mmmhmm,” you nodded. “I don’t want to be a pirate though. I want to be a Marine.”

Koby laughed. “Yeah, you’re way different than Luffy! All that talk about King of the Pirates-”

“He’ll do it.”

Koby paused, looking at you. “But if you’re a Marine, won’t you have to stop him from achieving his dream?”

You shrugged. “If it comes down to it, I suppose so. But that’s a nonstarter, because I can’t even join.”

Koby hummed for a moment, thinking. 

“Oh!” he finally exclaimed. “What if you get stronger?”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s train! I can teach you what Garp-san is teaching me!” he offered. “And then he has no reason to say no!”

You laughed dryly. “I’m sure he’ll find a reason.”

“You have to fight for your dream!” Koby encouraged. “You have to do everything you can possibly do to make it a reality.”

“You sound like Luffy,” you groaned. “But fine. Teach me. I promise I’ll do my best.”

You could beat him in a fight. You had been able to from the very first day. Growing up with three brothers, you knew how to fight scrappy and dirty. But that kind of fighting didn’t really work in the Navy, and Koby helped you create your own fight style that was mixed between your past and your future. 

For weeks you spent the evenings with Koby, learning about haki and how to use it in an observational and armament sense. You refined your battle abilities, and worked to strengthen your weaknesses. The two of you didn’t associate outside of your normal training, but you still felt a strange tingling sensation whenever his hands touched your skin to correct your form. 

He was handsome, you couldn’t deny that. Even after hours of training when he was drenched in sweat and ready to collapse, you still found yourself admiring his physique. 

“Do you want to go get ice cream?” Koby asked, wiping the sweat off his forehead. “You certainly earned it.”

You looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”

“I didn’t have to correct your form once today,” he said. “You did good.”

You blushed, pleased to be complimented by him after such hard work. “Thanks,” you muttered. 

“So, ice cream?” Koby grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder, starting for the door. 

You shrugged, trying to play it casual. “Sure.”

You walked side by side down the street towards the ice cream shop. Neither of you said much during your journey. You still weren’t entirely sure why Koby was helping you. He didn’t really have anything to gain from helping you, and it’s not like you all were friends beforehand. You almost asked him, but he turned into the ice cream shop, and you lost your courage. 

“Whatever she wants and two scoops of butterscotch in a waffle cone, please,” he asked, handing money to the cashier. 

“Butterscotch?” you asked, a smirk appearing on your face. “You sound like my grandpa.”

“Don’t knock it till you try it!” he said, grabbing his ice cream. “They have the best butterscotch you’ll ever taste.”

You frowned, looking at his cone. “I’ll just do a double-double chocolate in a waffle cone.”

You grabbed your order and the two of you strolled outside and down the sidewalk, still silent. 

“Wanna try it?” he asked, holding out his cone to you. 

Your face scrunched in disapproval, and you shook your head.  

“Come on,” Koby goaded, waving the ice cream in front of your face. 

You had to admit, just the smell was enticing. You grabbed the cone and took a lick. Koby was right, it was probably some of the best ice cream you had tried. It tasted different from the candy your grandfather used to hand you as a child; this was much creamier and lighter, with hints of vanilla and sea salt. 

“Delicious, right?” Koby asked, watching your face light up. “I told you!”

“It puts my double-double chocolate to shame,” you laughed. “I regret not getting that now.”

“We’ll come back,” Koby promised. 

And Koby kept his promise. The days grew hotter, and your trips to the ice cream shop became more frequent. You fell into a pleasant pattern of studying in the mornings, training in the afternoons, and going off on some kind of adventure with Koby in the evenings. Sometimes it was an ice cream shop visit, but he also liked to plan other activities like hikes, picnics, and walks on the beach. 

He taught you how to use and hone your haki abilities, and he held you when you cried out of frustration of failure. He bought your ice cream and held your hand when you walked around town. He picked flowers for you and spent every moment he wasn’t on duty with you. 

You never stopped to consider that friends don’t typically treat friends like the way Koby treated you. It was Koby, after all. The only person you really felt safe with besides your brothers. He was always reliable and he was always there. 

You realized he was more than a friend when you stood alone in the courtyard, waiting for him to show up. Sometimes he was a few minutes late, but it had been almost an hour, and he still hadn’t shown up. If he ever had to cancel, he always sent someone. But it had been radio silence. 

After two hours you finally left the courtyard, trying not to cry. As you entered your grandfather’s apartment, you saw Koby sitting on the couch across from your grandfather. His eyes found yours, and you could see the devastation in his eyes. 

“Y/N.” He stood, reaching out to you. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there. I-”

“Koby.” Your grandfather's voice was curt and authoritative, and Koby cut his eyes from you and sat back down on the couch. 

You opened your mouth to speak up for Koby, but your grandfather cut you off before you had a chance to get a word out. 

“Do you want to tell me why I had one of my subordinates inform me of your relationship?” he growled at the two of you. 

You felt your cheeks flush. You had just come to the realization that you had feelings for the man sitting on the couch. You weren’t sure how news traveled so fast when you hadn’t even told Koby yet, but your grandfather had to be the first to find out. 

“Me and Koby aren’t in a relationship,” you said.

Koby squinted his eyes at you from across the room. He opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it. 

Your grandfather laughed a hearty laugh at your response. “Denial isn’t gonna work, kid. Koby already told me.”

“Told you what?” you asked. Your head whipped to Koby with fear in your eyes. “You didn’t tell him about-”

“No!” Koby rushed to say, looking at you. He gave Garp a quick side glance. “I mean, yes! I told him about how we’re dating and that’s why we’ve been spending so much time together.”

You could feel your grandfather’s watchful eyes on you. He knew you were hiding something, but he couldn’t quite tell what it was about. 

Koby walked over and grabbed your hand. It was something he had done hundreds of times before, but now it gave you butterflies. He gave you a reassuring squeeze and a small smile before turning back to your grandfather. 

“We didn’t tell you because we were afraid of the predicament it would put you in, Garp-san.” Koby lied. “We apologize.”

“You know you could get kicked out of the Navy for hiding a relationship with an on-base civilian, Koby,” Garp said, looking at him. “You sure this is the story you want to go with?”

“Yes,” Koby said confidently. 

You stared at him. This isn’t how you wanted it to go down. You couldn’t ask him to give up his dream just so you could have yours. 

“No,” you said, looking at your grandfather. “He’s lying.”

“Stop,” Koby hissed. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not!”

“Quiet!” Garp yelled, silencing you both and cutting off your argument. “Tell me, Y/N. What have you been doing with Koby all this time then?”

You swallowed, mustering up the courage to finally ask- no, demand a place in the Navy. 

“We’ve been training,” you said. You could feel Koby squeezing your hand to get you to stop, but you refused to back down from this fight. “He’s helping me become a Marine.”

Your grandfather stared at you for a few moments, and then burst out into his booming, room-filling laugh. He laughed for a long time, and when he finally settled down, he wiped tears from his eyes and looked at you. 

“A Marine, huh?” he asked.

You took a breath, deciding how to respond. As you were thinking, you sensed it. You jumped back, pulling Koby with you. The two of you got out of the way just before your grandfather’s fist slammed into the ground, creating light cracks in the floor from the source of impact. 

“Grandpa!” you screamed. You looked in horror at the ground, but your grandfather only began laughing again. 

“You taught her haki, I see,” he said, looking at Koby. 

“Yes sir,” Koby said. “She’s a fast learner.”

“I bet she is.” Your grandfather looked at you and gave you a sad smile. He put his hand on top of your head, ruffling your hair. 

“Alright. You can be a Marine.”

Your eyes widened and a smile spread across your face. “Really?!”

“Just answer one thing,” he said. 

“Anything!” you cried. 

“Do you really just see Koby here as your trainer?” he asked, looking back and forth between the two of you.

“I-'' you paused, exchanging glances with the boy whose hand you were still holding. Suddenly you felt dizzy and very aware of how clammy your hand was in his. 

“You too, Koby,” your grandfather said, walking out the door. “Is she just some girl you trained?”

The door slammed shut, and you two stared at each other in silence. 

“No,” Koby whispered. “No, you-I-We could-”

You smiled at him. You wanted to say something too, but you knew you’d be stammering as much as him. 

So instead you changed the subject. “Should we go get ice cream?”

Koby’s eyes glanced down at your lips, and then back up to your eyes. 

“Ice cream sounds good,” he said softly, looking a little disappointed. 

“Okay.” You gave his hand a squeeze, settling for an ice cream date instead of a confession. Words didn’t matter that much in the big picture. 

You all walked to the ice cream shop, hand in hand. Your hands still felt clammy, but the air felt lighter. You were going to be a Marine. You had Koby by your side. 

The cashier saw you two, and had your two scoops of butterscotch ice cream in waffle cones before you even stepped up to the register. 

Neither of you said much on your walk back. You talked a bit about what life would be like once you were officially in the Marines, but you already knew it all. Koby had spent the past few months answering all of your questions to help keep you motivated. 

You arrived at your apartment door, and you finally pulled your hand away from his. 

“See you tomorrow?” you asked, opening the door to your apartment. 

“See you tomorrow,” he promised, giving you a tense smile. 

You nodded and walked inside, closing the door behind you. 

It was only a moment later when there was a knock at the door. Thinking Koby must’ve forgotten something, you turned and opened it again. 

“Ye-” Koby cut off your question with his lips, lunging forward to meet your own.  

His lips smashed into yours, and you embraced every second of it. You hung there suspended in time, the two of you existing in the moment. Funnily enough, only one thought came to mind: Butterscotch tasted even better on his lips than on ice cream.

[the-horned-pyramids]

ok so!

modern au but like still in the op world so the races devil fruits and haki still exist and the whole canon story played out like,,,,400 years prior.

omega mihawk is the middle child of some royal family (think less world nobles more british royal family but they are like,,, lords or something idk less then kings and queens but still up there ya dig?)

his older brother is the perfect son, diligent and respectful alpha who is the perfect heir, he is also significantly older than mihawk and his younger sister so he is also quite distant from them. The lord and lady had their perfect heir but the lady desperately wanted a daughter and after almost a decade and a half of trying and failed attempts, they had mihawk and they were disappointed and his childhood was quite lonely up until his sister was born when he was five, she was everything they ever wanted and they spoiled her greatly, she grew up to be a bratty child and would constantly blame mihawk for everything she did wrong, whenever mihawk started to excel in something she would have to as well, she would whine and cry to their parents who would instruct mihawk to stop overshadowing your sister and they would pay off judges to help her win. this went on their entire childhood until mihawk left for college at 20.

it took him three years to convince his parents to allow him to go to college because they are asses but when they finally relent he chooses the college with a sword fighting team as he has always expressed an interest in swords, there he meets two alphas, his roommate King, and an interesting red haired man on the sword fighting team

the semester goes on and mihawk and king add ‘with benefits’ to their roommate agreement and mihawk and shanks are getting closer and closer.

and then in their third year, king asks mihawk to marry him.

king comes from a very old and traditional family that is descended from the distant lunarians however most of the traits that they were praised for had vanished, there is a program within the clan to breed those traits back into existence and King is slated to be the next head of the family and is being pressured by the clan elders to pick a wife and so, after hearing that mihawk is also descended from lunarians, king asks for his hand in marriage. so the clan elders can get off his back and so mihawk won’t have to worry about his parents deciding to not pay for their “omega sons frivolities” anymore.

mihawk agrees and they tell their families, both are in agreement however, kings family makes them sign a prenup, that a child must be conceived within ten years that must belong to both individuals, should a child be conceived by either of the couple without the inclusion of their partner, will result in the breaking of the marriage and a severe consequence upon the offending family.

this is so very clearly targeting mihawk that it’s frankly unfair but he was so desperate to get out from under his parents harsh gaze that he accepted without argument.

the wedding was large and extravagant and utterly offensive to mihawk’s senses. the ceremonial garb was itchy and too tight, the smell of the flowers was too cloying and the lights were much too bright.

the one thing mihawk did ask for was for his brother to give him away, because while they were not particularly close, he was far kinder than the rest of their family.

although most of kings family were friendly enough and he had a few pleasant conversations, the clan elders were critical of his every move and the end of the reception could not come soon enough.

they were content with each other and began working on fulfilling the requirements of the prenup quite soon. both graduated college, king in idk the one the politicians take and mihawk with a degree in history of warfare, particularly the great pirate era. during school he also kept up with his swordsmanship, he competed in competitions and won medals, he even competed in the olympics once, several years into their marriage.

it was nearing the end of the eighth year of their marriage with no child to show that king suggested that they spice things up a bit and add a third, so mihawk suggested his long time friend shanks. king agreed and they invited shanks to join them in their bed for a night, but not before mihawk made them all meet with a notary to gey it in writing for the prenup.

so they have a lovely night together and a few months later mihawk is feeling under the weather so he makes an appointment for a doctors visit but as he goes to inform king, he over hears him speaking to someone over the phone about divorcing mihawk because “its obvious that he’s broken, if i want a child i need someone who is capable of giving me one, someone like you my love.”

mihawk stops, and goes to lay down to process what he heard. he didn’t exactly fall madly in love with king over the course of their marriage, but he did grow to care for him greatly, he was a great friend and a great fuck. or so he thought. this betrayal struck him deep because mihawk really thought that king also cared for him, but now it’s obvious that the only reason he even entertained this was because he wanted a child. mihawk quickly pushed his heartbreak down and got up to finish dinner.

when they sat down to eat, mihawk told king about the appointment he had made because he had been feeling under the weather, he watched kings face closely and was able to see the distance.

the conversation carried on about their day’s and they went to bed.

the next day king announced his intention to divorce mihawk because he did not fufil the agreement of the prenup and give him a child within 10 years, mihawk did not protest and the divorce was finalized within the day.

mihawk was able to get a suite at a hotel because he is not broke thats for sure, and he called up his friend and lawyer to start planning, because if the result of this appointment was what he thought it was then either mihawk was going to be able to spread some nasty rumors about kings “ability” to produce children, or mihawk is going to squeeze that pompous family for everything they have.

sometime during the day the news of the divorce hit the tabloids and paparazzi were waiting outside the hotel when mihawk went to his appointment and he smirked to himself knowing that this will just fan the flames even higher.

the test came back positive.

mihawk was pregnant.

mihawk and crocodile took king and the family to court, which became a whole lot more dramatic when it was revealed that the woman king was speaking on the phone with had been mihawks younger sister, and that she was also pregnant, she had gotten pregnant about a month after mihawk did which started the death tolls for the family.

there was a lot of fuss that led to DNA tests being taken on king and the sisters side to prove that the child was indeed kings’ child which was proven true, but also revealed that mihawk’s sister was a result of an affair on their mother’s part.

sometime during the court case and mihawk’s pregnancy, he began spending more time with shanks, and then shanks invited mihawk to move in woth him once the baby came. he also admitted that he had a crush on mihawk since freshman year of college and didn’t find the courage to tell him until it was too late. mihawk smiled and drew him down for a kiss and called him an idiot.

the day came,mihawk was admitted into the hospital and after four hours of sitting tensly in the waiting room, a nurse came out and invited shanks and king to come look.

shanks, king and the clan elders gathered arounf the window to the baby room as the nurse wheeled one bassinet to the window, a baby with dark hair and a tanned complexion matching shanks.

the elders tittered to themselves, confident that this showed that the omega had also broken the prenup, when another bassinet was wheeled to the window, this one contained a baby with dark skin and white hair. the titterign stopped.

then a nurse came by and helped the babies onto their stomachs to allow their wings to stretch out.

needless to say, mihawk was pleased as the cat that got the cream when the court ruled that king broke the prenup, and that mihawk would be getting full custody of both children and a vast majority of the assets previously owned by kings family.

@milfhawks @blackholesun321

[haljathefangirlcat]

What's your ideal age range for the Volsung-Nibelung-Dietrich cycle characters? In the Scandinavian sources, Brynhild claims to have been adopted by Agnar and Aud at 12 to be their mascot valkyrie (which is what got her in hot water with Odin) and was put to sleep for any number of years, with sources differing on if her old retainer Heimir was her foster father or brother-in-law. Sigurd himself claims to be barely a man, that is, the legal adult age of 16, when Regin packs him off to slay Fafnir. Altogether it seems the two of them are rather young (16-19 physically?) and Gudrun is also in their age group. Later on Gothorm is too young to swear brotherhood with Sigurd and is thus used to kill him, making him younger than Sigurd and younger than 16 when they met.

In the Continental materials, Giselher is also called young, but there's no mention of Gernot and by extension Giselher being under 16 when they meet Siegfried. Gunther seems a fair bit older than them, being the first born and succeeding to the throne (as a sub-king, presumably, in versions where Gibich is still alive) shortly before Walther's escape from Etzel. However, he doesn't seem to have had a wife in either Continental or Scandinavian versions before his mother suggests Brynhild, which might indicate he's still fairly young. Historically he was active during 411-436, which gives him a 20+ year reign.

Hagen's age definitely has the greatest variation across sources. In the Nibelungenlied proper he's much older than the Nibelung siblings, but in the Walther stories he doesn't seem that much older than Walther, Hildegund, and Gunther, and the first two might be preteens at oldest. And of course in the Scandinavian materials, he's definitely younger than Gunther, being one of the Nibelung brothers. Classically, he's brother #2, slotting between Gunnar and Gothorm, with his father being Andvari/Alberich/Aldrian the elf. Wagner makes him presumably the youngest sibling. (Of course there's also the possibility that Grimhild/Ute just brought him along when she married Gibich, which would make him the oldest sibling. And also explain why Gibich would just pawn him off to Etzel.) Dankwart is also in the older adult range, but if Hagen was illegitimate, he could just have had a different mother, because who knows how long elves live, except it being very long. Hagen's unnamed sister (Gullrond?) would have to be much older to give Hagen two nephews, one of which is an adult during the Nibelungenlied.

Dietrich's age is also funky. He's presumably the same age as Wudga and Heime, his two closest companions until the exile. They don't seem to be too much older than Siegfried, Gunther, and Kriemhild. Dietrich gets tutored by Hildebrand when he's seven, acquires Hildigrim and Nagelring at fifteen, and has his Virginal/Wunderer adventure (the plots are so similar I suspect them to be the same story) at sixteen. He goes into exile sometime between the Rosengarten tournament and Kriemhild's marriage to Etzel. By then he's definitely a fair bit older than the young adults Alphart, Wolfhart, and Dietlieb, but Hildebrand is just ready to welcome the birth of Hadubrand. Historically, the Burgundian Nibelungs died in 436, the Visigothic Dietrich died in 451, Attila died in 454, and if Dietrich was also Theodoric the Great, he would've lived into 526. Then again, his family is known for ridiculously long lifespans, with the stories from his cycle claiming his father, grandfather, and uncle all lived into at least their 100s.

Hildebrand, Ilsan, Eckart, and Regin are all consistently portrayed as old guys. So is Sigmund in the Scandinavian material, where he actually featured prominently. Sigurd's two Volsung brothers are presumably dead during the main adventures, because Brynhild and Gudrun mention Hamund and Haki, his nephews via Hamund, usurping the Swedish throne and feuding with the pirate King Sigar. Helgi died in the prime of his life, while Hamund never appears on screen (but the movie adaptation of Hagbard and Signy mentions he was killed by Sigar a few years before, when his sons were children).

Etzel is definitely older than Walther, Hagen, and Dietrich, but strangely, there's no particular mention of him being old. Then again, there's no mention of Gibich and Ute being old in the Rosengarten story either. Nor is there any mention of how much Hjordis and Prince Alf might have aged in the Volsung Saga. In the Scandinavian stuff, Atli's sister Oddrun gets sneaky with Gunnar, but that version doesn't include Etzel's past with Walther, so who knows how old either of the Hun siblings are.

That's a great rundown of all the different traditions, and you make some great points.

As for me, I don't have really have age headcanons for anyone, going more for The Vibes and the "okay, what do I need for this concept to work?", but at the same time, age is one of those things where I tend to compartmentalize pretty heavily, for both practical reasons (I'm pretty sure I'd have a harder time than you keeping track of everything going on and gathering it all up into something coherent!) and thematic ones. (Simply put: different things work better for me, or have a stronger hold on me, in different contexts because I feel I can make more out of them on a narrative level.)

So, here's how things (generally) go in my head:

Norse sources: I tend to see Sigurd as rather young, because as you mentioned, he describes himself as such around the time he's sent off to kill Fafnir. I also tend to see his first adventures, from finding Grani to falling for Sigrdrifa/Brynhild and meeting Gjuki's children, as happening in rather quick succession, sort of a whirlwind of violence and drama and revenge and romance... so, yeah, still a teen (older teen at most) when he ends up meeting married to Gudrun. I imagine Gjuki's children to be all pretty close in age (except maybe Gothorm, a fair bit younger than the rest, and Gullrond, who reads sort of like a wise oldest sister to me, tho she doesn't feature a lot in my headcanons) and in the same age range as Sigurd, but I don't otherwise have a fixed birth order for in my head besides Gunnar being the oldest.

Brynhild is... complicated. You've got the enchanted sleep, and the question of how long it lasted and how fast or slow she aged, physically and mentally, in it. You've got all her wisdom and knowledge that, to me, makes her read a little older than Siegfried in her brief stint as his teacher, but then again, also the fact that she used to be a Valkyrie rather than just a mortal woman, so all that might be more supernatural knowledge and wisdom than anything else. And then, you have her foster father, Heimer (who's also her brother-in-law through her sister Bekkhild), and her brother Atli, and ofc Agnar. The timeline can get kind of messy, if you try to make it all fit in, because there's just so much stuff. The one thing I always stick by is Atli being considerably older than her (by a decade or more) and them not being particularly close, due to the "Atli didn't give much of a damn about getting compensation for her death, it was just a pretext to get the gold" interpretation, which is the one I tend to favor.

Nibelungenlied/Waltharius/continental sources: Here, I tend to see everyone as a bit older then their Norse counterparts. Siegfried, after all, has already conquered something like twelve kingdoms and gained his fair share of fame through distant lands by the time he comes to Worms -- and while dragon-blood-enhanced strength must certainly come in handy with all that, all in all, it must still have taken him some time. Still, I do seem him as kind of younger than you'd expect with his curriculum. A little older than yet still a good fit for Kriemhild, a maiden who's definitely able to fall in love and fall hard yet doesn't seem to have ever felt that kind of feeling for anyone before meeting him, to the point she used to see the whole thing as something foreign and that she could totally just choose to avoid.

My birth order for her and her brothers is generally Gunther > Gernot > Kriemhild > Giselher. With the eternal "youth" Giselher, who gets stuck with that title even in later parts of the poems being kind of the baby of the family. Not literally, ofc, but in the sense that, even if the poem counts him as one of the three kings of Burgundy and protectors of Kriemhild, it's his brothers who handle most of the harder work even while kind of "mentoring" him on kingship through the rather hands-on method of having him rule alongside them. Anyway, I see this whole set of siblings as pretty close in age, too, just to avoid overcomplicating my life, but with a couple of years separating Gunther & Gernot and Kriemhild & Giselher, something that also influences their dynamics as siblings.

When it comes to Hagen, I'm very influenced by the Waltharius, where he's presumably the same age as Walther and Hildegund and somewhat older than Gunther. I still don't see him as that much older than his kings, tho, as I interpret Gunther being too young to be sent away as a hostage to the Huns as him really being very young. Think Hagen being in his early teens and Gunther still being a child at the time. I tend to assume something like an at least five years difference between them, and then Gunther ascending to the throne a bit younger than he should probably be due to Gibich's very sudden and premature death, with Ute being his counselor (or trying to be, at least -- Wasgenstein wasn't exactly the most brilliant idea and I do think she opposed it but also that in the end it was still his choice) for the first few years and then him naming Gernot (and finally Giselher) as his co-kings as soon as possible due to feeling the pressure of being the only ruler as soon as he got started on the job. (Which, in my head, also contributes to him only setting his eyes on a bride rather late, despite the court muttering a bit about it at times... too much stuff on his mind already, and for a good while, too.)

Dankwart is an interesting case, as in the latter half of the poem, he claims to have also been just a youth when Siegfried was murdered. Granted, I've seen interpretations dismissing that info as a mere messed-up timeline or as Dankwart just lying through his teeth, due to his role in the court of Worms, but I personally find more interesting/funnier to take it as face value. The idea of him being about as cunning as his older brother Hagen and proving himself as an asset to the kingdom from an early age (perhaps in part to live up to Hagen himself and his deeds) yet playing the "I am/was only a regular youth" card when it suits him is higly entertaining to me. As for their sister, the mother of Patravid and/or Ortwin, I see her as the oldest of the trio, and definitely already out of the house by the time Aldrian volunteers Hagen as a substitute hostage.

(I'm not very fond of the "Hagen as Gunther's uncle/family friend so dear he might as well be a blood-related uncle" thing, tbh. Does it have some backing? Yeah. Do I see it in the way the characters interact? Not really, and that's what matters the most to me.)

Etzel/Attila was already a considerable threat for the Burgundians at the beginning of the Waltharius, and married, too. And yet, apparently still childless... unless his children with Helche, who iirc get killed by Witege at some point, have already died by then. (But that does involve Dietrich, after all, and... er, I'm talking about him in a moment, let's leave it at that for now.) So, he's a bit of a question mark to me. Tho I like to think he and his wife ended up treating Hagen, Walther, and Hildegung almost like their children, whatever void in their life they're trying to fill by doing that... but ofc, that was a whole mess in it's own way, when everyone was perfectly aware that a broken treaty could spell death for any of those three. (Hi and welcome to a new episode of: Waltharius Manu Fortis Absolutely Obliterates Halja's Feels, I suppose.) I do see his later marriage to Kriemhild as a kind of May-December romance. Or, well, "romance."

Dietrich is... Dietrich. If Brynhild's complicated and Etzel a question mark, he is a headache. I'll admit I've never even tried to build a timeline for him that could possibly make sense in my head. Stephan Grundy has a bit of a running joke about him looking like he never gets old/no one being able to figure out his age for sure, and, tbh, I totally get him. Drag him.

Bonus Wagner's Ring Cycle: I'm pretty sure Gunther mentions being the firstborn... tho I've only ever read the libretti/subtitles to the operas in Italian and English, so for all I know, he might as well be just saying that he has the right of primogeniture, as the one legitimate male son. Still, I see Gutrune as the middle child and Hagen as the youngest. This is another canon that skews very young in my head, with Siegfried, the Gibichungs, Wotan's eternally-maidenly Valkyries, as well as Siegmund and Sieglinde in Die Walkure, all being some subset of Troubled Teen Who Needs Therapy (As Well As Better Parents), Not This Shit. Based on the implied timeline in Die Walkure, I think of Hagen as just a little older (a few months to a year, no more) than Siegfired. I love to joke about the former being a cynical goth/emo teen (Hagen's Night Watch scene and its endless -- if objectively kind of justified -- bitching, my beloved) and the latter being your typical meathead teen jock. I also joke about Gutrune being the stereotypical middle child with no self-esteem and Gunther being the young adult who should probably be at least a little more mature and responsible than everyone else, given his age, but is really just a mess on every level, but alas, I do that mostly just in my head, because sometimes I get the impression it's mostly just me seeing (or being interested in seeing) them this way.

[invye]

How They Met [2/3] - CoraHawk

[CoraMiShanks Fix It AU]

I think it's time I write up my thoughts about how exactly Mihawk, Shanks and Rosinante met and outline the start of what will become their relationship. And since I am pathologically incapable of writing short posts, I'll cut it into three, so I can take my time.

Mihawk & Shanks [link]

Mihawk & Rosinante/Corazón [this post]

Rosinante & Shanks [link]

- Mihawk & Rosinante/Corazón -

Technically, Mihawk meets Rosinante before he meets Corazón. It just takes until meeting Corazón for him to realise that he did indeed cross paths with then Marine Ensign Rosinante a couple years back.

For that he can 'thank' Vice Admiral Garp. The Warlord system was created about a year into the aftermath of Rogers' execution; and with nothing better to do, Garp apparently decided that Mihawk would make an excellent addition. They spent another year playing catch across the Grand Line, with way too many cannonballs lobbed at Hitsugibune way too close for comfort, until Mihawk gave in.

Really it was less giving in and more getting bored. He had fought his way through the new and coming pirates, had found himself the old and established swordsmen and beat them all. Two years and the only interesting challenge left for him was Shanks, and the Dark King Rayleigh, whenever he deigned to resurface again. It wouldn't be long until the title is his, some people already considering him the Strongest Swordsman, and with the amount of Marines he has killed along the way, he's gained quite a lot of attention. A fact that becomes annoying as the Marines sent after him are more of an insult than a threat.

So Mihawk accepts Garp's invitation to join the Warlords. His acceptance was met by Garp laughing, clapping him on the back and then turning to a blond Ensign and saying: "See Rosinante, I told your old man I'd get him!"

Mihawk didn't make a habit of remembering Marine Ensigns, but when five years later that very same Marine turns up at the Warlord meeting as a silent shadow to Doflamingo? Colour him intrigued. He knew it was worth attending the meetings for the wine and the drama alone.

Corazón is not having a good time. Two months in deep cover and he couldn't convince Doffy not to drag him everywhere and loudly announce his long lost brother returned. So now he's standing in the corner of a room with six of the Seven Warlords assembled and has to pretend he doesn't know Sengoku sitting at the other end of the table. To make matters worse Doffy is making a scene as usual and the (former? please say former--) Marine Hunter has been unblinkingly staring at him ever since they walked in.

To make it even worse, Knight of the Sea Jinbe, leans over to Mihawk, says something, receives a response and then proceeds to give Rosinante Corazón an extended quizzical look of his own. The cherry on top comes at the end of the meeting, in form of Dracule Mihawk, Marine Hunter, walking by Corazón on his way out and quietly, just for them to hear, saying: "Good luck on your assignment, Donquixote Rosinante. You will need it."

Corazón falls over his own feet with how quickly he rushes after him.

Turns out the Marine Hunter / Strongest Swordsman / (Hawkeyes?) / Dracule Mihawk a) is not at all intimidated by Rosinante's silence ability, b) remembers Rosinante from his Ensign days on Uncle Garp's ship, c) dislikes Doffy with an unexpected fervour and d) thinks Rosinante is the worst possible choice for the job. Great.

Oh and also his Observation Haki is so strong that even despite the Silence blocking out all sound, he knows Doffy is about to walk in on them having a conversation. With words. That he isn't supposed to be able to speak.

Corazón swears he has been given extensive undercover training before all this. He swears. The deep cover preparation was a whole big thing across an entire year. But how is he, an alleged mute, supposed to explain away an extended interaction with another Warlord during which he didn't write a single note??

So here he is. Kissing the Marine Hunter and praying that Hawkeyes won't kill him for it. Or blow his cover.

And for some insane reason Rosinante will never forget to thank his luck for, Hawkeyes goes with it. Kisses him back (okay, first off, wow), gives Doffy the coldest side eye that has even his insane brother take a step back, says something about Rosinante better being safe in the upcoming storm, and manages to slip him his contact information under the guise of pulling out Rosinante's sunglasses which he proceeds to put on his face for him.

Rosinante Corazón is floored.

Doffy is delighted that his brother brings a connection this powerful to the table.

The message going along with Hawkeyes' number reads: "For when you inevitably require competent assistance" in perfect cursive that Mihawk must have written before all this.

[opbackgrounds]

You've stated that the Katakuri fight was one of your favorites. I love Katakuri, I love Brulee and I love his change of heart and character development, but I personally never really cared for the fight itself. Is it something I'm missing? For reference, my favorite fight in the entire is Usopp+Nami vs. Enel. A lot of people online seem to prefer more serious fights like Katakuri, but my favorite aspects of that fight was him eating donuts and the flashback.

I think there’s a lot to like about the Katakuri fight. Firstly, I think WCI is start to finish the strongest post timeskip arc, and the stakes/tension benefits from that bump in quality. The surrounding drama elevates the fights.

Secondly, I think it’s the best integration of haki in the series. Haki has always felt vague and wishy washy as a power system, and that vagueness can lead to some frustrating moments. Katakuri’s future sight is about as concrete as you’re going to get within that system, with a very specific hurdle for Luffy to overcome as the fight goes on. Similarly, Katakuri’s presentation as “Luffy, but better” was a unique and satisfying gimmick. By the end of the fight I felt like Luffy was one step closer to being the Pirate King, and that’s not always the case.

You already brought up Katakuri as a character so I won’t get too deep into that, but his growing and mutual respect for Luffy was really cool to see. His mouth reveal was one of the best moments in the arc for a lot of reasons, and, again, that quality character work elevates the ensuring fights.

Last but not least, Snake Man is my favorite form since Gear 2. Luffy looks cool as hell, and the sharp angles of his punches turning in midair makes for a lot of visually distinct panels, which is so much more interesting than all of Luffy’s old moves with a haki palate swap. Seriously, how can you look at this and not get hyped?

[blacklegsanjiii]

North Blue Language CH 11

“You should call your mom.” Luffy says, simple as that.

The arrival on the ancient elephant's back is met with horror. The gates are broken open wide and the town is destroyed. Luffy has already run off and gotten into a fight. And won. Nami and Chopper are running to them in the hidden village where two minks, Wanda and Carrot, have led them too.

“Where's Sanji?” Luffy asks as Nami closes her arms around the captain and she's crying.

“I'm so sorry, Luffy.” She sobs. “He's gone.”

The world is crashing down around them. The denden on the Sunny is probably ringing off the hook because Zoro gave the number to Sora and Mihawk.

ONLY ALIVE rings through Zoro's ears as Nami continues to sob and cling to their captain.

“What do you mean he's gone?” Luffy asks as he pushes Nami away so slightly to look at her.

“I'm so sorry.” Nami says again and Chopper is crying too in Usopp's arms. Zoro hates that he feels relieved the cook is gone. The cook would hate that he’s making Nami cry. One less burden to carry, Zoro thinks.

The attack on the Minks is explained and it's the beast pirates' fault. Kaido’s fault. They're looking for the samurai but Luffy beat them. They're gone. Fled like cowards. Zoro doesn't pay attention to what happened to the cook, it's a relief, really. The cook is a coward for not fighting back.

“I'm going after Sanji with Nami, Brook, and Chopper.” Luffy tells him as Zoro reads the note.

“He left, Luf. Leave him gone.” Zoro says, handing the note back.

“He's my cook!” Luffy argues, anger flaring. “He's our friend!”

“He's a coward who left!” Zoro argues back and Robin stomps forward and slaps him.

“I hope you don't feel that way when he comes back.” Robin growls at him and Robin is rarely angry but she is now. She's furious.

“Take everyone else to Wano with Law and we'll meet you there.” Luffy says with a finality that Zoro doesn't argue with. They're all leaving and Robin finds him in the Polar Tang. Away from everyone who looks at him with disdain.

“He's not dead.” She says.

“He is to me.” Zoro answers and Robin shakes her head at him.

“You push too much. Try pulling.” Robin says as she walks away. Zoro doesn't fucking get it. It's just the cook.

~*~

“Where is your mother?” Judge asks as Reiju snaps the explosive golden cuffs to his wrist.

“No where you can touch her.” Sanji answers honestly.

“She's dead then? Good.” Judge says as his brothers laugh. She's not dead, Sanji wants to say, she found a man willing to kill and die for her. For him. Sanji stares ahead. They make him change, a red cape with golden attachments to match the bombs attached to his wrists, white shirt, black pants, dress shoes.

He stops a plate from hitting a poor maid. His fiancee is sweet, he'll give her that but he just wants to get back to his crew, to the Sunny and be home. She's sixteen and Sanji feels weird that Big Mom is offering a teenager to be his supposed wife.

He has flashbacks during his beating of a bright blue haired toddler crying as Yonji crushes his heel into his ribs. The cracks and breaks burn under his skin and Ichiji and Niji wail on him. Reiju patches him up like old times.

“Why did you come back? You were free!” Reiju berates him.

“They were threatening my crew. The Baratie, I'm not letting someone die for me.” Sanji answers as the bandages make him look normal. He visits Pudding, she peels them off and soothes him. The next day Luffy is there and Sanji hates this.

“I am Vinsmoke Sanji! Third prince of Germa! Not some low life pirate.” He growls at Luffy hoping Luffy knows he doesn't want to do this as he beats the shit out of his Captain. Yelling at him to use is haki or die. He takes Nami's slap like he deserves and he doesn't cry until he's back in the carriage. He doesn't let them turn around. He will be strong so they are safe.

“I'll starve to death before I leave!” Luffy cries after them. “I'll fucking starve without my cook! I can't be the pirate king without you! Sanji!”

He decides to take Pudding some flowers and properly propose to her. He'll make the best of this decision but-

“We'll kill you all! Your brother is so ugly and gross!” Pudding laughs as Sanji soaks in the rain. He takes the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and sticks one in his mouth. “You couldn't even bring me a proper prince, maybe then we would let you all live. But you'll all die at the wedding!” She cheers. He can't get his cigarette to light.

“Why are you telling me?” Reiju asks, neutral as always. Never helping but never hindering their brothers when they were children.

“You won't remember.” Pudding shrugs and she stabs Reiju in the legs and Sanji watches her pull film out of Reiju’s head like a camera mushi and Sanji feels ill. He wants to go home.

He runs back, dropping the flowers, dropping the pretences as he rushes back and cooks for Luffy, quick and meaty and filling before stopping by the infirmary. Reiju looks at him and tilts her head. He glares at her.

“We're going to die, Pudding and Big Mom are going to kill us at the wedding.” Sanji snaps at her.

“We have an alliance.” Reiju says, confused and weak as her super healing takes its time apparently.

“No, you don't. I'm going back to my crew and maybe I'll make it out alive.” Sanji bites out. “Thank you for caring for me, but I have a family now.” I have a mother and father I should call, I have a captain who is starving, he thinks as his glare only hardens and she gives one back.

Sanji leaves with a nod as he runs. He runs to the kitchen and whips something half-assed and not worthy of his captain up. He trips and falls and the food is fucked just like it was when he fed his mother. He makes it to Luffy. He looks like Sanji did coming out of that damned dungeon, sunken and sad and starved.

“Sanji!” Luffy says as he rips into the basket to eat. Nami isn't around. He wants to go home and Sanji is crying. “Sanji?”

“I want to go home, Captain. I want to go back to the Sunny and the crew. Please. I want to go home.” Sanji sobs and Luffy is wrapped around him and Sanji is holding him so fucking tight. He doesn't want to let go again, Luffy doesn't either. He can tell by the way Luffy’s heart thrums in his chest and the feeling of belonging Sanji feels in his arms.

“We'll go home, Sanji.” Luffy smiles like he didn't beat the shit out of him, like he didn't abandon the crew.

“I have to save them, even if they don't deserve it, I can't let them die here.” Sanji explains. He thinks of his mother pacing and his dad trying to calm her down. He wants to save them so his mom and dad can deal justice how they see fit. He just wants to see his crew and cook and not be a prisoner anymore.

“So we will.” Luffy shrugs, easy as that. “I don't like it but if it's what you want.”

“Thank you.” Sanji says desperate and pleading.

“You're my cook, Sanji.” Luffy smiles at him. They start heading back to the castle where they'll figure out more and then Luffy will let the others know. “Someone called the denden mushi looking for you. I told them I would go get you.” Luffy says and Sanji whips his head to his Captain.

“Who?” He asks, he didn't give his parents the number.

“Dunno, she sounded angry though.” Luffy shrugs.

“Oh.” Sanji says, looking ahead.

“You should call your mom.” Luffy says, simple as that.

“Her son is dead.” Sanji replies.

“No he's not, Sanji's right here!” Luffy grins at him and hugs him and yeah, he is right here. They break apart with a plan formed, they go through the motions. Sanji does at least as he prepares for his wedding. He's dressed to the nines and is waiting for Luffy while he stands at the altar. Pudding with a gun and a third eye.

“Beautiful.” Sanji breathes and he believes it but he also doesn't want to die.

As he only ever is with his timing Luffy smashes through the cake and the fight is on. Big Mom however goes into a state of mind that makes Sanji recreate the cake recipe down to the hidden notes. He splits from Luffy, again and he hates it. But they get the cake made in a time limit of nine hours, him and Pudding and her family as Luffy fights someone. Katakuri?

That sounds right. Mirror world. Nami is still disappointed in him and he takes a shot for Luffy in the arm as they're escaping. Niji grabs him as Luffy is passed out in his arms and the bloodloss starts to make him light headed.

“Are you still alive, failure?” Niji yells at him.

“Damn you!” Sanji yells back.

Sanji has bruises and broken bones for days. They land on the ship and Niji flies off to continue fighting. Sanji can feel everything twisting and stinging as he moves. How is he still standing? Would his parents be proud? Luffy had just managed to wake up as Germa approaches.

“You're too kind, your weak heart changes to those of lesser status. You care too much.” Judge sneers. There's more but Sanji tunes him out.

“Well duh, that's why he's the best!” Luffy calls after him.

“That's not what he meant!” Sanji snaps to his captain who laughs at him.

“Take this!” Yonji calls as he tosses Sanji a black canister with a bright yellow ‘3’ on it. “And send Mom our regards!”

“Oh she doesn't want them! She's going to come take down Germa!” Sanji promises as Reiju and Niji look at him.

“She's alive?” Ichiji yells, shocked that the failures lived.

“And deadly!” Sanji answers as Reiju tells them to go again and there's an open pathway through the Germa fleet. They escape barely and once the coast is clear, Luffy and Nami are cared for, Sanji collapses on the deck of the Sunny. Blood pouring out of his arm and staining the deck and his suit like the rest of his cuts and stab wounds are. The last thing he remembers is Luffy's haki basically screaming that Sanji is his, that his crew belongs to him and no one will take them again.

The melody of the moon lullaby plays the whole way to Wano by Luffy's request.

~*~

“I'm on my way to get Sanji now.” Strawhat's voice rings through the denden. Mihawk is off to the side, listening in as Sora grips Sanji's poster.

“You have to understand, Germa-” Sora starts.

“I'm gonna kick their ass, don't worry. The Sunny is his home.” Strawhat assures in what could be the worst way for Sora. Mihawk stares at her as her voice cracks.

“I'm trusting you.” Sora shakes out and then hangs up the receiver. Mihawk is wrapped around her and she’s buried into him and sobbing. “I'll kill him.” She gets out.

“Of course.” He's not going to fight her on this, he'll help. Mihawk will do anything for them. “We have to trust Strawhat to get him back to his crew.”

“I'm not worried about him getting back I'm worried about what they'll do to him while they have him!” She yells, stepping away. “We're dead to Germa! To Judge! Why the hell does he want Sanji?”

“We won't know until they call back or the paper comes. Sora, we also have to be wary of the Navy and World Government.” Mihawk says but Sora is shaking her head. Mihawk never wants to control her. “We'll keep them off the island, we can wait as long as we have to.”

“I'll kill them all too.” Sora snaps.

“Well no one is around now.” Mihawk assures her. Perona had left during the Reverie. Moria being found made Perona pack her bags and leave. It's just them in the castle now, empty nesters as Sora had said. Mihawk grabs her hands and pulls her towards him. He's never seen her so angry, truthfully he's never been in love as he is now.

He pulls her into a slow waltz, trying to distract her as their son is missing in Germa. His captain will save him, his captain won't lose another person like he did in the Battle of Marineford. Monkey D. Luffy is stronger than before and willing to take out anyone in his way now. He wonders where Sanji trained and the others. He wants to hear about the two years where he was training, what he learned.

He does his best to keep her distracted. He does. But another week passes when fresh bounties come out and-

VINSMOKE SANJI

330,000,000 BERI

DEAD OR ALIVE

Mihawk thought she was angry before, fury has never looked more beautiful or enticing as it does on his wife. He lets her take it out on him for another week and they seem to have a fantastic time as at least Sanji is alive. He's with his crew. They get to take out Marines on their breaks. All in all it is very fun for the empty nesters, Mihawk thinks.

[redhatmeg]

So, Luffy and Fujitora's fight...

At first it looked like any other fight Luffy had with anyone ever. When others ask him, why he wants to fight a Navy admiral who is far stronger than any other Marine, he says that he has to fight whoever goes after them, if he's going to be Pirate King.

But Zoro points out that Luffy fights "so weird" with Fujitora and I didn't know what he meant by that. Then it hit me: Luffy was screaming: "I will kick you!", "I will punch you!" before every attack. He was telegraphing his moves. Fujitora, obviously, gets pissed because he takes it as his opponent taking pity with him, but Luffy says, he has to scream what he's doing to a blind old man because: "I kinda like you!"

I think that he wants to be fair towards Fujitora. Partly because he witnessed earlier how Fujitora was cheated during roulette and Admiral didn't realize it until Luffy told him. Notice, however, that Luffy doesn't specify which hand/leg he will be punching/kicking, from which direction, whever his fist or foot will be coated with haki etc. He gives very general descriptions, not even names of his moves. So I guess, it's more like he gives his oppontent a heads-up... but he's not very patronizing either (even though Fujitora sees it that way).

Fujitora himself laughs at Luffy's confession and considers it a weakness. He comes off as a hard-ass during his chase of Straw Hats and their allies... but he also mentions that Luffy should act according to his rank, just like Fujitora has to even if he "doesn't want to". I interpret it as: "I kinda like you too, Straw Hat.", especially considering his earlier actions towards Luffy.

[lale-txt]

may i ask some nsfw hcs of the one and only, the dark king ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) more specifically his older self, not younger 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

me: i prefer non-anon requests also me: sees a request with her fav dilf, grabs it with little racoon hands and holds it up like a mf treasure yissss lmao also because you were the sweetest while requesting and i take every excuse to write for this fine man, hope you enjoy this mess <3

(n.sfw) spicy headcanons w/ old Rayleigh & gn!reader (no pronouns)

Rayleigh is always looking for the next fling – or maybe his next fling is looking for him, who knows

they’re hiding in the tall grass as if they’re hunting down a shiny pokémon

you laugh but next thing you know you’re kneeling next to us, hungry for a piece of this fine gilf

the older man just has this charm that makes everyone fall for him so easily

and he knows

just a few words to avoid when dating Rayleigh: monogamy, commitment, responsibility, alimonies, paternity test

at this age, Rayleigh has tried out everything and he’s happy to teach you or let you experiment everything your heart desires

want to peg him? sure, he’ll get the good lube and guide you all the way through it, it’s not his first time and he comes prepared

or maybe you want him to utterly destroy all of you? he’ll do it with a sweet smile and hold you in his big arms afterwards

Dark King Of Aftercare™️ 

he’ll eat you out like a starved man until he has you whimpering to stop because your body feels like it’s falling apart under his tongue

what that haki do 👀

he’ll praise you so much for how well you’re taking all of him in and how good your insides feel, clenching around his big fat cock

he’s also cool with introducing you to Shakky and if she likes you, you might get to enjoy the best of both worlds (she’ll also give you a discount on all of your orders in her bar so now you’re only getting half ripped off)

once he took a liking on you, he’ll stick around for a while, but never for too long, so don’t get too attached maybe 

you’re still getting attached because how could you not

old Rayleigh comes with a lot of heartbreak, but believe me that it’s not only your heart that is breaking little by little

it’s almost as if he’s trying to fill this void inside of him by touching all those different hearts, always yearning, always searching for that missing piece that his partner took with him when he died

i’m so sorry for making this fucking sad

imagine Rayleigh rising in slow motion from the waves after crossing the Calm Belt like it was nothing, flipping his long silver hair back, maybe that’ll help to dry your tears

[goodlucktai]

I don't know if requests are open, but I've had this idea for awhile. I've seen a lot of posts about an Ace Lives AU, but I've never seen one been written before. If possible, what about a Smile Again AU where Ace survives instead of Luffy? I feel like he'd have a different way of coping with losing his brother.

i see that we woke up and chose violence on this day 😭😭 i wrote it, but at what cost ? listened to this the entire time haha my heart is in shambles ❤️‍🩹

(its not a smile again au tho, sorry 🥺)

read on ao3

x

Ace is at the epicenter of an inferno. 

He’s burning so hot that his nakama are forced back, and back, and back, and the ground is turning molten beneath his feet, and his flames are no longer the merry orange and red and yellow Marco has grown used to—they’re white and icy blue.

An awakening, he realizes. 

Ace comes down upon Akainu like a Sea King, a gaping maw of fire and teeth, melting absolutely everything he touches. Akainu’s magma isn’t hot enough to save him. He dies, presumably screaming. It’s impossible to hear anything over Ace’s howling. 

It’s not a human sound. It’s raw and animal. 

And it doesn’t stop. Marco is standing nearly at the edge of the wharf by now, his ankles inches away from the drop into the sea, when he realizes Ace isn’t going to stop. 

During his rampage, Marineford itself begins to sink into the sea. Most of the salt-water evaporates before it gets anywhere near him, but the combined Haki of Shanks and Whitebeard is enough to send Ace stumbling backwards, into the powerful surf crashing up the ruined base, and finally his fire begins to flicker out. 

But even now, knee-deep in the ocean, stubborn tongues of white flame lick away from his shoulders. Steam billows from where he’s standing. His chest is heaving, his dark eyes are wild.

There’s nothing but ash and ruin behind him. It pales in comparison to the devastation on his face.

“It’s over now,” Shanks says. Marco doesn’t know the man well, but he knows pain when he hears it. Despite the absolute destruction Ace just wrought, Shanks speaks to him gently. Theirs is a shared grief. “There’s nothing more you can do.”

Whitebeard moves toward his wayward child, and Ace’s lips pull back, baring his teeth. He’s swaying on his feet and he doesn’t even seem to see anything but he still fights it when their father lays his giant hands on him. Marco’s chest twinges as Pops’ palms begin to blacken and blister, but he doesn’t even wince. He just pulls Ace forward against his own wounded chest. 

Behind them, Shanks stoops to pick up a worn straw hat floating in the rubble. The string snapped when Akainu’s blow landed, and the hat itself was so light that it blew clear away. That’s probably the only reason it survived the following destruction.

Shanks just holds it for what feels like a long time. Behind him, the Red-Hair pirates stand at attention, weapons drawn. They each look ready to kill the next person who twitches in a way they disagree with. Most of them are crying.

Finally, Shanks tucks the hat into his shirt, and asks, “His body?” 

His voice, this time, is a warning of clear and present danger. It’s directed toward the shaken Marines, who have all moved as far away from the pirates as they possibly can on a crumbling, slowly collapsing base. 

All but a few: Vice Admiral Garp, who is on his knees and staring vacantly into the middle distance; two young petty officers, a pale blond and a blush pink head bowed together as the boys weep openly; and the pirate empress, whose eyes are black with rage. 

“Unaccounted for,” Sengoku replies. He’s clearly leaning on his years of experience to keep from sounding rattled, but the tight lines around his eyes give him away. 

It reminds Marco of an old saying he once heard from a retired sailor in a shady dive bar, about a man’s first real taste of the brutality of the sea—’seeing the kraken.’

Well, Marco thinks bitterly, we saw it today. 

“Jimbei’s body is gone too, yoi,” he offers. He barely recognizes the sound of his own voice. 

“I see,” Shanks says. He taps his hand against the hilt of his sword. The only sounds for a moment are the steady rush of the wind and water, those two boys’ crying, and the vicious snap-crackle of Ace, still fighting the ocean and the arms of his father, still trying to burn. Then Shanks goes on, “I would like the burials left up to us. For now, we will erect temporary grave-sites until our friends have been recovered. If I find out that you have in any way desecrated their graves or their bodies, then I will make this—” He waves his hand, indicating what is left of Marineford. “—look like a birthday party.”

Not a single soul is brave enough to speak out against a pirate calling the shots. Shanks and his crew look like they’re just waiting for a reason. They look the way Pops did when he found out about Thatch.

All Sengoku says is, “Understood.”

The war is over. 

##

The next few days are a special kind of hell. 

The Ace they brought home from the war isn’t the same person Marco has come to know and love. He isn’t even the same one Whitebeard first dragged into the family kicking and screaming, that angry, guarded boy who wouldn’t know a helping hand if it slapped him in the face. 

The Ace they have now is a different manner of creature altogether. He says nothing. He does nothing. He allows himself to be led from room to room, and he sits wherever he’s planted. He takes the path of least resistance every step of the way. It’s easier to just let the nurses examine him, so he lets them. It’s less work to just eat the food set in front of him, so he eats. It’s not worth the conversation, it’s not worth the fight, it’s not worth anything. 

Sometimes Marco will catch him staring at his own hands, where his brother’s blood coated his palms and fingers like paint, right up until his skin lit up like a torch and burned all of it clean away. He’ll rub them against his pants, or start to itch until the skin peels away. 

Tate noticed, and now his hands are wrapped up in neat bandages that change every day. Ace lets that happen, too. 

The most frightening thing in Marco’s whole life is the idea of what might happen if this version of their Ace is left alone, even just for a minute, and he decides that it would be easier not to survive this after all. 

He lays awake at night, watching the rise and fall of Ace’s chest, counting his breaths. 

##

A sloop gallops toward them at full sail, all bright, bold colors. It bears a lion figurehead and a painfully familiar Jolly Roger. 

Marco’s heart leaps into his throat and stays there. 

“Let them come,” Pops says wearily. 

So they throw their lines, and tie Moby and Sunny together, and brace themselves.

The first Straw Hat to board them is the swordsman. Pirate Hunter, the only supernova without command of his own crew. 

He nods once and that is all the greeting any of them get. In another world, it would smack of disrespect. Right here and now, Marco is surprised they received even that much. Four of Pirate Hunter’s nakama follow him—Black Leg, Devil Child, Cat Burglar, and Cotton Candy. The others stay behind. 

There’s something slightly unsettling about them. Marco isn’t one to give credence to ghost stories, but it’s still the first correlation that springs to his mind. 

“We’re here for the hat,” Pirate Hunter says at length. “We’re taking it with us.”

“With you, yoi,” Marco parrots cautiously. “Where to?”

“To the end,” he replies.

“I’m sure you came to the Grand Line with your own dreams and ambitions.” Whitebeard’s tone isn’t condescending, and it isn’t conversational. It’s as grave as this broken crew deserves, and it’s more than a little concerned. “I followed some of your exploits in the papers. Your captain cared about you. He moved heaven and earth for you. Is this what he would want you to do now?”

“If he has something to say about it, then he should be here to say it,” Black Leg says plainly. Maybe once he was handsome and charming. Now he’s a knife, cool and sharp and made for cutting. The only lively thing about him is the absent way he taps the toe of his right shoe against Moby’s deck, a quick and sturdy knock knock knock. 

“And since he’s not, we’ll do as we please,” Cat Burglar adds. “Hat.”

They’re not asking. Marco would call the look in their eyes manic, if it wasn’t so resolved and self-assured. It’s not so much that they look ready to die, as much as they look like they’re already dead, and all of this is just extra. 

They’re serious. They have a plan. They’re carrying the same conviction that carried their captain all the way through Impel Down.

Marco glances down at the little reindeer. He’s the only one crying, but it’s a silent, steady drip of tears, and his eyes are unfocused. He’s rolling something between his hooves—a little golden ball. It looks like it could be candy. Marco is willing to bet that it isn’t. 

They’re so young, and they’re hurting, and the last thing Marco wants to do is cause them more pain. The hat, by right, should be theirs. 

But there isn’t a single soul among the Whitebeards who would be willing to walk into Ace’s quarters and take it from him. And that’s sort of the impossible deadlock Marco finds himself trapped in. 

He’s about to look to Pops for guidance, when it abruptly becomes unnecessary. 

“Here,” says the last person in the world Marco expected to hear, and he whirls around sharply to find Ace—heartbroken, hollowed Ace—holding the precious article out to them at arm’s length. Marco has no idea when the fuck he got out here, or how much he overheard. 

Cat Burglar moves forward immediately, the heels of her sandals clicking across the deck with each smart step. She takes the hat, and the shape of her fingers around the frayed, tattered brim is familiar and proprietary. This belongs to someone she once belonged to. 

She looks up at Ace. They’re the same sort of haunted. They’re carrying the same sort of wounded love. 

Marco can barely breathe through the sudden tension. Izou and Jozu are frozen on either side of him. They’re all braced for something hateful or hurtful or explosive. Marco can almost hear it—

My captain died for you. He was only there because of you. Was your life really worth his? 

It’s not his place to deny the Straw Hats their grief, however it may manifest in the moment, but Marco can’t just stand by and let Ace shoulder any more pain. He can’t. He doesn’t know how Ace will survive any more. 

If it weren’t for Pops’ silent, steady presence over all the rest of them, Marco might have spoken out of turn. 

As it is, Cat Burglar doesn’t speak at all. Her gaze isn’t even accusatory. She just turns and rejoins her crew, and as simply as that, they prepare to leave. 

“The revenge you’re looking for is impossible to obtain,” Whitebeard says at the last second. Marco darts a glance at him, and then looks away again quickly. He’s never seen his father’s eyes look so old and sad. “The World Government isn’t just a flag you can burn or an island you can demolish. It will take more than hatred to destroy them in any way that matters.”

“We have much more than hatred,” Cat Burglar reassures him. 

“They take and they take,” Devil Child says coldly. “Now they’ve taken too much.”

“Call it one of those hard life lessons,” Black Leg adds. He blows out a plume of cigarette smoke, still knock-knock-knocking his foot against the deck. 

“Impossible or not, it’s what we’re doing,” Pirate Hunter says, as if they’re talking about the weather. “If we have to die to make it happen, then so be it.”

Cotton Candy lingers a beat behind the others. His teary eyes find Ace from across the deck. 

“Luffy paid for your life, so you’re not allowed to waste it,” the reindeer tells him—blunt and bleak and understanding. “Other people make choices and we have to live with them. We have to. You have to at least try.”

The Sunny races away, and Marco watches it go until it’s gone; the first leg of a doomed voyage. Ace sinks slowly to the sun-bleached deck of his ship, his home, and he looks rattled. It’s the most alive he’s looked in a week.

For the first time since he burned the Marineford down, he’s letting himself feel it. He’s letting it hurt. 

##

“I was mean to him,” Ace says abruptly. 

It’s late, and Ace isn’t sleeping, so Marco isn’t sleeping. The two of them are laying in Marco’s bunk, draped in a blanket of moonlight from the porthole. Ace’s earthen tones are all washed out to silver and white, and his eyes are deep and dark. 

He used to talk about his brothers all the time, about how they slept in a little treehouse they built together, and shared pillows and blankets and generally lived all tangled up in each other like a pack of clumsy wolf cubs. 

Marco is not tactile by nature, preferring to roost alone, but he’s learning. If it will coax Ace into resting for a few precious hours, Marco will get downright cuddly. 

“Mean to who?” Marco asks, already knowing the answer.  

“Luffy.” Ace stares up at the ceiling. His bandaged hands are clenched. “When we were little. I treated him like shit. I didn’t want him around. I was so angry all the time and I hated everyone and I took it out on him. It took me a while to get my shit together.”

Marco doesn’t roll over to look at him. He very carefully doesn’t move at all. 

“And I just keep thinking,” Ace goes on, his voice thick and wavering now, pinched right on the edge of tears, “that he deserved so much better than me.”

“You don’t get to decide that, yoi,” Marco says quietly. His heart is breaking all over again. “Besides, that kid adored you. He went to hell and back for you. You must have done something right.”

Ace sobs, a guttural, heaving sound, and digs the heels of his hands into his eyes, and sobs again. And then he’s crying in earnest, and Marco rolls over to face him after all. When he pulls Ace into his arms, Ace lets himself be gathered there, and clutches at Marco’s shirt. It reminds Marco of how goddamn young he still is. Twenty. Still a baby. And his little brother, the kid whose Wanted posters Ace loved to show off, the kid who was already rattling the world with every step he took, even younger than that. 

It hurts. Marco is afraid he’s going to forget what it felt like to breathe without pain. 

“It should have been me,” Ace chokes out, his face buried in the hollow of Marco’s throat. His skin is too hot to the touch for comfort but Marco would backflip into the ocean and drown before he’d entertain the idea of letting his brother go. “Not him. Not Luffy. He had so many plans. It’s not fair. I promised to take care of him. I can’t be the last of us, I can’t be. It should have been me.”

“Sorry,” Marco says, his own eyes burning. “I’m sorry, yoi. I’m sorry he’s gone. But I’m glad you’re here.”

[the-frizzle-fry]

Y’all need to stop smack talking my man Garp. He was on par with Roger. ON PAR WITH THE KING OF PIRATES.

He has no Devil Fruit so you KNOW he got that big dick Haki energy. Roger knew Garp was a challenge. So when Kaido puts Roger on that pedestal I put Garp up there too.

Cmon, if you think Old Garp couldn’t beat a character, stop and think, could Old Roger absolutely fuckin floor this enemy? And if you said yes Garp would probably win too.

We aren’t giving these old guys enough credit cuz the story isn’t about them.

[itsmeimclown]

Oh look I wrote a Buggy fanfic

~will cross post to ao3 at later date~

Buggy, first and foremost, was a Roger pirate. He was a cabin boy on the ship of the Pirate King, of the man who started revolution, and somehow, he knew he always would be in some way. He stayed in the East Blue. Making himself inconspicuous. Making himself look like an idiot. A lowlife. Someone who no one would look at and associate with Roger. At times it hurt. He had his reasons.

Shanks and Buggy had decided long ago that they would be the ones to look after Roger’s legacy. Everyone else was too old—too broken—too hurt in all the wrong ways. They lived on as their captain had wanted them to (freely, safe). Buggy and Shanks were not like the rest. The rest had fought their battles. But Roger had given Shanks his hat and somehow knew that his boys would pave the way for the new generation. They had reached Laugh Tale early.

It was decided Buggy would stay in the East. Shanks’ instinct had always been uncanny and he swore that’s where who they had been waiting for would be. Shanks—Buggy would come to find out—was right. Infuriatingly so. Buggy had stayed in the East, his observation haki so sensitive the Grandline and the New World with all its hectic battles and weather were too much for him to block out all the time. It exhausted him. Shanks had never known someone so skilled in observation, then again both he and Shanks were picked up by Roger because they were prodigies in their own rights. People on the outside saw Buggy as a coward on Roger’s ship. A liability. An easy target. In truth, he was just inexperienced in haki and it was always overwhelming, always overbearing (Roger’s presence had calmed that in him.)

So, Buggy stayed in the East where it was quiet, more than fine and willing to wait, lie low, test the rookies who had delusions of grandeur of making it on the Grandline. (Buggy had been on the Grandline) (Buggy had made it to the end) (Not one rookie he fought with had convinced him yet.) And then Shanks called him. 

It wasn’t abnormal for Shanks to call. They had secured lines and practically scheduled times to talk each week. (because they were brothers in all but blood) (because they had been children in a world too big and not yet ready for them) (because they had been on the crew of the Pirate King with a Captain more like a father to them than anything else) Shanks called and told him he was in the East, Buggy knew this. His haki could tell he was just a few islands over, but Shanks didn’t need to know he was stretching it that far. In truth, it searched Shanks out. A familiar feeling of warmth and happiness and strength (safety, safety)

Shanks told him he was in the East and had met an interesting kid. He told him about a spitfire with determination in his eyes. And he was only seven. “He reminds me of the Captain.” Shanks would say and Buggy scoffed in response and told him that was just because their Captain was a child, and Shanks had just laughed. 

Shanks stayed in the East for a while. Visiting Buggy every now and then when they went out on supply runs for things the tiny island of Dawn couldn’t supply for the large crew. Buggy learned about Makino. Buggy learned Shanks had fallen hard for Makino. “She’s something else, Buggy.” His voice wistful.

“So take her out to sea with you.” He replied taking a sip of the sake they were passing between each other. They were sitting on the deck of the Red Force. Its planks welcoming their Captain’s brother home in a way his own Big Top couldn’t. There was an age and awareness in the battle-worn ship, meticulously cared for that Buggy’s own hadn’t seen. Its aura surrounded him.

“I can’t” Shanks sighed dramatically, falling against the shoulder he had been haphazardly leaning on, causing the bottle to spill some streams of sake down his face. Shanks ignored the annoyed look he has gotten in response, Buggy wiping his arm against is lip, “She may be a child of the sea, but she’s a barkeep first and foremost. And Luffy’s caretaker. I can’t take her away from that.”

The mood was a tad more somber than Buggy liked—Shanks’ aura giving off an almost suffocating sadness for how in tune he was to his brother. “Well if you can’t take her with you, maybe she’ll wait for you. If she’s anything like how you say she is.”

Shanks brightened up at that, “You really think so?”

Buggy took another swig, “Why not?” Almost immediately Shanks’s aura was clearing up back to that familiar warmth and comfort Buggy could never be tired of. 

“Yeah! Makino’s pretty great.” Neither of them mentioned how long she’d have to wait. How crazy it would be to giver her heart to a pirate who frequented the Grandline. How it was nearly unheard of for the couples separated by oceans to not be unfaithful. Instead Shanks grabbed the bottle back from Buggy and took a long deep shallow. 

                          ***

The next morning came quickly. When he opened eyes he was greeted with two coffee cups being shoved into his hands. Briefly he acknowledged Shank’s first mate, Benn standing above them. “Drink” was all he said before walking out the door, presumably to take charge of the ship while their captain was indisposed. Belatedly he realized how much they must have drunken, if not for the pounding of his head and the nausea stirring with the gentle rocking of the sea beneath him, but for the warm body next to him snoring loudly and spread out like a starfish. Buggy chuckled to himself. That man’s sleeping habits never changed. 

He ended up leaving the cabin first, making sure to set the extra mug of coffee on the table next to the bed. He didn’t remember how he got there, but if the throbbing in is head had anything to do with it, he bet it was Shanks’ fault. The damn alcoholic. Benn looked up at him when he entered the kitchen nodding over the paper in his hands. 

“Morning.” Been grunted in response, clearly engrossed in whatever happened to grace the paper.

“Whitebeard lost another island to Kaido.” Benn said it with the same tonality as if he were commenting on the weather. Buggy sat down with him at the table, sipping his coffee slowly, savoring the warmth that pooled into his stomach. 

“That’s the second one this year, huh?” 

Benn sighed, “Yeah…looks like we’ll be headed back out to the New World sooner than later.”

Buggy hummed over his cup in response. 

“Maa, maa Benny, that’s something the Captain decides.” And there was Shanks standing in the doorway, voice relaxed, but posture showing he knew the gravity of the news of Whitebeard losing another island. Kaido could very well be coming for his territory next. “Surely you’re not planning a mutiny here without me.”

“Of course not, Cap’n.” There was a smirk in his response before he gathered up his paper and left to the deck.  Shanks took calculated steps to the table, clearly still affected from their bender the night before.

“Guess you’ll be taking your leave soon.” Buggy said by way of greeting. 

“Yeah, looks like. I wanna visit Luffy once more though. Last time I was there some mountain bandits worth some 8 million spilled some liquor on me. I want to make sure they won’t bother the bar again. I didn’t want to scare Luffy though, and honestly fighting them at the time wasn’t worth it.”

“8 million berries and picking a fight with an emperor.” Buggy scoffed. “clearly they need a knock or two in the head to make them start seeing sense.” Neither of them mentioned Buggy’s own bounty was smaller. They both knew why it had to be. 

 He swallowed down the rest of his coffee. “Well, I’ll be taking my leave then. I know my crew is probably wondering where I am by now. I told them I’d be back late last night but someone had to make sure that didn’t happen.” 

“Oh come on, Buggy! We had a good time.” Shanks called after his retreating back, cheekiness meeting his eyes.

Buggy turned and waved a hand over his shoulder,” I’m going now!” 

“Buggy don’t be like that!” Shanks called out, but there was a jovial quality to his voice. Normal brotherhood bickering the same as when they were kids.

“Good bye!”

                                                                                        ***

The next time Buggy felt Shanks he was on an island adjacent to Dawn, or as close as he could get. If he wanted to see his brother off properly, no one on his crew said anything.  But then it hit. Pain. Searing blinding pain. Distress. And Buggy clutched his head and screamed. 

                                                                                        ***

“Where is he?!” Buggy had barged onto the Red Force with such abruptness the few crew on deck had jumped. 

“Captain Buggy.” Yassop was the one to step forward. “Come with me.”

Buggy gritted his teeth, fists clenched, and he knew without his gloves there would be blood where his nails met his palms. He couldn’t reach the infirmary quickly enough. His stomach dropped when he was met with the picture of Shanks laying in bed, bandages wrapped around his chest and where his left arm should be. “What happened?”

He was standing in the doorway in horror. Shanks was the strongest person he knew. To lose an arm in the East Blue? At his level? Unheard of. 

“He lost it to a sea king. We had gotten back to Dawn and Luffy had apparently picked a fight with some mountain bandits who had a grudge against us. They took him to the water. Shanks…..Shanks got to him in time, but the resident sea king got in a good bite. He told us he was so preoccupied with trying to keep Luffy safe that he forgot haki even existed.” Yassop took sidelong glance at Buggy from where he had been staring at his captain’s prone form. “He’s alive Buggy. That’s what matters.”

“I’m staying until he wakes up so I can yell at him. Give me a den den so I can call my crew. I kinda left without any warning.”

“Aye Captain. I’ll bring you one.” And then Buggy was alone with his stupid, idiot, selfless brother. His brother who gave so much and took so little. His brother who was now one arm down. And gods he was still an emperor. He was a swordsman. Later, Buggy would realize he lost his sword arm. And Now Shanks had to head back to the New World and live and battle among the monsters that lived there. He had never been more thankful for the crew Shanks had gathered than now. They would keep him safe. This Buggy knew. Still he couldn’t help but worry. 

He finally moved from the doorway to the chair that was set at Shank’s bedside. He was hooked up to an IV, no doubt supplying fluids to combat the lost of blood that must have occurred. Thank god Doc was so skilled. Buggy doesn’t know what he would have done….couldn’t even begin to think…god he couldn’t wait for the new generation alone. 

At some point in his silent vigil, he had fallen asleep partially on the bed. He woke and saw a den den on the nightstand and Shanks staring down at him.

“You’re awake.” He greeted.

Buggy sat up stretching his back and neck, wiping what he hoped wasn’t droll from the side of his mouth, “That’s supposed to be my line.”

Shanks ghosted a smile, “I called your crew. They were worried about you. Cabaji said you just took off.”

He received a glare in return. “Yeah well I could feel you. What happened?” He wasn’t expecting the look Shanks gave him. One of absolute certainty. One of no regrets. One that spoke as if he knew exactly what he did. Then he replied. 

“I took a bet on the next Generation.”

Buggy went silent for a second, sitting up straighter in his chair, gripping the seat. “Shanks—you don’t mean.” He was cut off. 

“I do.”

“Shanks….”

Shanks cut him off again. “He said the same words as the Captain, Buggy. He’s going to be King. I bet my arm, and my hat on it.”

Belatedly, after having been caught up in the fact that his brother’s arm was missing, he realized the other thing Shanks was never seen without, practically a body part in its own right, was missing. “Captain Roger’s hat?” He said dumbly.

Shanks smiled a disturbingly blinding smile “Yeah. He said he’d return it when he’s a great pirate, even better than me. We’ll be seeing him burst onto the scene. Just wait.” There was resolve in those eyes. Buggy had learned long ago not to question Shanks’ uncanny instinct. 

“Okay. Okay I believe you. But you better not be wrong. We’ll see how he holds up against me. I’ll give him a bigger test than I’ve given anyone else. Let’s see if he has the devil’s luck on his side.”

Shanks grinned even bigger—if that was somehow possible, “Sure he will! He’s a D. after all!”

Buggy sighed and sat back in his chair, “A D….I should have known.”

                                                                                     ***

The next time Buggy heard about Luffy was when he met him for himself. If his Captian’s, then Shanks’, unmistakable hat didn’t give it away, then his grandiose personality did. The boy came to him tied up by a quick-witted girl. This was the boy his brother bet his arm on? Bet the future on? A rag-tag group of two pirates being out-witted by a simple thief? He knew why the rookies kept coming to him. Buggy had probably every map and copy of the Grandline. He left his message that he stole it therefore they came to him first. If they wanted any chance of making it passed Reverse Mountain, they needed one of his maps. He needed to test them.

But the lanky kid, short statured, idiotic. This was the boy? The one they had been waiting for? (Buggy was furious) (This kid seemed like a joke.) (A disrespect and a blemish on the D.’s name.) He didn’t deserve to wear his Captain’s (his father’s) crown.)  But it was Buggy’s job to test the idiotic, the rookies, the ones who thought they could make it. And this kid with a crew of two was no exception to his tests. He had them load a Buggy ball. Had them trap him in a cage. It wasn’t seastone. No cuffs. Just simple rope—easy to escape. Especially with a rubber body. He had his crew load a Buggy Ball. Had his crew load the cannon that always misfired. Had the girl who claimed to have no affiliation light the wick. Already she was hesitant. 

Luffy stared death dead on in the cage. And Buggy for once saw what he thinks Shanks had seen in this kid’s eyes. Resignation, acceptance—no fear in the face of death. And then Pirate Hunter Roronora Zoro showed up. Which, Buggy will admit, surprised him a bit. That Luffy had managed to make a famous (at least for the East Blue) pirate hunter his first mate.  The Loyalty Zoro had shown his new captain was unmistakable. He had been stabbed in the back by Buggy—a swordsman’s greatest shame—to leave Zoro with a reminder that he needed to grow stronger, be stronger, if they ever had any chance of making it as the future Pirate King’s crew.  

But Zoro fought and then he picked up the Buggy Canon and flipped it back towards his own crew. And the next thing Buggy knew was Zoro picking up the cage that contained his captain, escaping with his guts spilling out through his back. All for the sake of loyalty. Yeah Buggy could see it. But he wasn’t exactly happy about it. Zoro had passed his test, but Luffy hadn’t. 

He chased them down, giving them some time to recuperate. Buggy may be a pirate, but he wasn’t evil.  It was easy to find them in the abandoned town. Easy to chase down Luffy. Easy to fight him. Easy to stab the hat. He didn’t mean to—not really—he had blocked out his observation. His future sight would have been helpful. But when battling rookies, he liked to give them a fair chance. Acting like an idiot in battle himself. Acting like a coward. He had a reputation to uphold after all. But everything in Luffy’s demeanor changed with his hat having three very obvious stab marks through it. His face contoured in anger. His posture straightened up—shoulders squared back, feet firmly planted on the ground—He was pissed. Good, Buggy thought, get angry, get pissed, get something other than carefree. The seas are dangerous and unforgiving. You have to be too to survive.  Somehow, he thought Luffy heard him.

Their battle ended with Buggy being unsatisfied. He saw snippets of a D in Luffy, but his captain? No. His captain had a better head on his shoulders. Had better understanding of the world. Instead of thinking Luffy unexperienced and immature, He was angry. 

                                                                                        ***

Buggy called Shanks up as soon as Luffy had left taking his first hand and the orange haired thief in tow. In way of greeting he said “I met your idiot of a bet.”

The den den picked up the joyous curiosity in Shanks’ face “Oh yeah? How’d he do?”

“He’s an idiot.” And Buggy slammed down the receiver of the den den mushi to block out Shank’s thundering laugh.

                                                                                        ***

Buggy wasn’t convinced. He needed to test him some more. So, Buggy did what he hadn’t done in a long time, and decided to leave the East. Decided he would follow and watch after the one they had apparently been waiting for. Decided he would test him again at Logue Town. A place he hadn’t returned to since the execution of his late Captain. A fitting test it would be. Flashy, and just the right amount of threatening. 

He noticed the orange-haired was still with them. Also, a scrawny long-nosed brat and a blond chain-smoker who looked eerily like the lost prince of Germa, but that something that Buggy really didn’t want to think about. The swordsman, pirate-hunter, was also still there. That was something Buggy had never doubted. One of the only things about Luffy that struck Buggy was his ability to inspire loyalty. He had made a common thief who turned him over to his own crew into a crewmember. He had gotten a famous bounty hunter to become a pirate. That was a truly powerful ability, and not one to be taken lightly. 

They were there now, on the execution platform. Storm clouds brewing overhead almost like the world itself was angry at Buggy. Luffy under his knife. 

“Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Ussop! Sorry! I’m dead.” And even from above him, Buggy could see a genuine smile. A D. he was. 

Then pain struck through his body. If he hadn’t felt it coming, if he hadn’t covered himself in armament quickly enough, Buggy would have been the one who was executed on that island that day. He could feel a powerful presence. (One that felt like rolling waves.) (One that felt dangerous.) (One that felt nothing like he had felt before.) He spotted the green cloak among the calamity that was Captain Smoker chasing after Luffy and co. There was only one person that could be. Monkey D. Dragon. Buggy should’ve known. Really, he should’ve known.

                                                                                         ***

“So I heard about the stunt you pulled. A little much even for you, huh, Buggy?” The den den smirked on Buggy’s end. Shank’s end rolling its eyes.

Buggy scoffed and turned his head, just so he couldn’t see the shit-eating grin forming on the snail. “Oh shut up. I needed to test him some more. I wasn’t convinced.”

“Mmm” Shanks hummed, “How about now?”

Buggy paused, “Not quite.”

“Still? You almost kill the kid and you’re not convinced?” Shanks teased, “You’ll see I’m right, Buggy. I always am!”

Buggy waved his hand even knowing Shanks couldn’t see it. “yeah, yeah. Tell Benn I said hi and to keep you in line.”

The sound that followed was definitely a shit-eating grin, “Aw don’t be like that!”

Buggy was done with this conversation. “Goodbye, Shanks.”

Somehow through his laugh Shanks managed a “Goodbye, Brother.” Before Buggy could slam down the receiver. It would ring in Buggy’s ear for a long time.

  ��                                                                                         ***

The next time Buggy ran into Luffy was in impel down. He had heard a rumor. A very interesting rumor indeed. Apparently, they had the son of his Captain being held there. Buggy couldn’t sit back and do nothing. He had a plan—really—a stupid plan, maybe, but a plan nonetheless. He could’ve bone without the boiling water baptism though. Luckily haki drills had been pounded into his head by Rayleigh and his armament was nothing to scoff at. If he hadn’t, he would have passed out from the pain. 

He was nothing but a dedicated actor. Stay low. Lay low. And when the time was right, when they were bringing Ace up for his execution, he would bust out of the cell and make his great escape. He had managed to hide the fact that he had a devil fruit from the guards, which made escaping from the cells without seastone handcuffs that much easier. Even if the measly cells could hold someone like him. It was almost a joke. No—the real form of torture here for Buggy were all the voices. The loud, hurting, screaming voices of hundreds if not thousands of prisoners crying out and then disappearing.  He could hear and see exactly were Ace was chained up in level 6. He should’ve known the first time he saw Ace when he was tested in the East by Buggy himself. The kid looked like a perfect mix of Roger and Rouge. (He had passed Buggy’s test.) (He apparently made it to be a Commander under Whitebeard.) (That was certainly nothing to scoff at.) 

But this lying low was becoming tedious and the waiting for the moment to strike was boring. Still, he wasn’t stupid. He knew when his chance would be. So, he sat in his cell. Haunted by the voices. 

(And then the funniest thing happened.) Luffy had broken into the most fortified prison in the world. Luffy. Idiotic, rubber-brained Luffy had managed to sneak in unnoticed. That is until he was. Buggy was dumb-founded. He couldn’t believe the brat had the gall to do something insane like that. And why not honestly. This was the kid Shanks believed was going to take the world by storm. And Buggy….well Buggy was starting to see it. 

He broke Buggy out. Or Buggy let himself appear to be broken out—in truth he could have gotten out anytime he wanted. But he had his own agenda, and as entertaining it was for Buggy to get carried up in Luffy’s nonsense, he realized Ace was in good hands. The rescuing could be done by the crazy kid. Buggy would see himself out.

                                                                                           ***

He saw himself out until he didn’t. For some way or another Luffy had managed to stage the biggest break out in Impel Down’s history. And Buggy was stuck with this motley, rag-tag group of criminals on a warship headed to the biggest warzone since his Captain fought Rocks. He was not prepared. Already the voices were starting to get to him and he was more jumpy than usual. He wanted off. But his Captain’s son was going to be executed and something in Buggy screamed a resolute no. He would see this through. He had said never again to the grandline and had ended up chasing Luffy. He’d chase Ace too.

                                                                                         ***

They arrived by falling, and Buggy immediately made himself a distraction. Prisoners were worshiping him. Anything he could to lessen the death ringing in his head. He would be loud. He would be flashy. And he would pray that Luffy could get there in time. That the Whitebeards could provide enough cover. That Garp would come to his senses. That somehow this would all end. He didn’t want to reveal himself unless he had too. And what he saw of Luffy in the short period he had been on the seas, Buggy started to become more and more certain, begrudgingly, that Shanks was right. 

                                                                                        ***

Buggy had seen a thing or two in his days on the seas. Growing up in the most dangerous area of the world, you saw a thing or two. But in the past few hours Buggy had seen more than he had in a long time. He saw Luffy break in and out of impel down—coming alone, leaving with hundreds of prisoners, hundreds of allies. He saw Luffy stand up to Whitebeard. He saw Luffy tell a second Yonko that he was going to be Pirate King. He saw Luffy knock out hundreds of marine officers with inexperienced conqueror’s haki. He saw Luffy face down three admirals with a look of resolution in his eyes. He saw Luffy break his brother off the stand. He saw them nearly escape. He saw Ace stop the rescue in its track. He saw Akainu’s fist about to strike a fatal blow. He saw it. He saw it. He almost believed it had happened. But He felt the force of a fist against his and he belatedly realized he was going up against an admiral instead of the one trying to protect his younger brother. (Buggy’s brother in all but blood)

“This is a surprise.” Akainu’s face was set midly in shock—if you knew where to look for it at least. The slight raise of his eyebrow. The slight smirk around his cigar. As surprised that someone as pissed off and hot-headed as he could have been. (Buggy had never been one to reveal all his tricks.)

Buggy gritted his teeth against the magma threatening to sear his arm off just like the sea king had taken his brother’s, “Yeah well I can’t let you end his life here. Not yet.”

Morbid curiosity crossed Akainu’s face. Buggy felt Luffy give in to exhaustion. Ace still hunched over him behind the human shield. The Whitbeards calling out for Ace to get up and run. He wasn’t moving. “And why is that?”

“His future hasn’t been fulfilled.” He said it resolutely. Like he knew. Like he could see the ultimate end. Like he could see the new generation and all that they would do. He believed in Luffy. Believed in these kids (because they were kids to him) that were beginning to carve the new era. Buggy didn’t know if he was talking about Luffy or Ace.

The veins started to pop in his forehead, face growing even hotter, even angrier. Buggy hadn’t thought Akainu could look more pissed.“He won’t have a future if I have anything to do about it.”

Buggy didn’t know where the sudden confidence had come from. The war was still raging on around him. The voices still dropping at an unbelievable pace. It was all he could do to focus on the battle occupying him. He thought of Luffy. He thought of Ace. He thought of his captain and the care he had taken to allow his crew to live safely after his execution. He planted his feet, readying his body to use the full extent of his devil fruit, “You’ll have to go through me first.”

The next blow was aimed for his abdomen. Buggy quickly separated and dodged, coming up on Akainu’s side to deliver a haki coated fist to his face. Damn that felt good. Behind him, he could tell that Ace had gotten the hint and taken Luffy and ran. The last he saw was a yellow submarine disappearing under the ice.

It had been awhile since Buggy had an opponent this strong. Sure, he and Shanks spared from time to time, but Buggy stayed in the East and Shanks’ and his fights were just playful—not fighting for his life. 

He felt him before he saw him. Always did. Always could. His presence calming him and reassuring him almost immediately. Shank’s sword came between Buggy and Akainu. The war seemed to stop in its tracks.

Instead of relief, Buggy felt anger. “Damn you!”

Still holding Akainu off Shanks responded in a jovial, “Hey Buggy. Been a minute. “

Buggy wasn’t having it. “Damn you Shanks! Where were you?!”

“I had a run in with Kaido on the way over here. Cut me some slack.”

“Why you---”

“Hey we can talk later. Not really the time now.”

“Not the time? Not the time?! Captain Roger’s son was here to be executed and you say now is not the time?! He was all we had! He was our father too! You would let our brother be executed?”

Buggy’s hands tightened their grip on Shanks’ lapel. Akainu all but forgotten. Sengoku had come down from his place on the platform and managed to put a stop to the magma man. Even Sengoku knew when it was time to step down. Shanks was not to be messed with.

“Buggy. Brother. I tried my hardest to be here. Even you know I got here as quickly as a could with a run in with Kaido.”

“Yeah…”

“I’m here now. Ace is safe. Luffy is safe. We didn’t lose another.”

“Yeah. You’re right.”

Belatedly, they looked around realizing the entire battlefield was staring, eyes wide, mouths agape at their confrontation. Oops. 

Shanks grinned something fierce that Buggy would see in his dreams for years to come. “Guess the secrets out now, huh brother?”

***

Buggy had left with one of Shanks’ allies to go back to the East. His head couldn’t take the voices on the Grandline any longer. If the voices in Impel Down had been torture, then Marineford was Hell. It nauseated him and he needed to leave before he went insane. 

When he finally crossed into the East and got a sight of the Big Top, the relief was overwhelming. He wouldn’t cry—never cry—but there was salt on his skin and wetness in his eyes. He would swear up and down it was just the salty spray of the sea.

Cabaji and Mohji had started to let the sake flow the minute they caught wind of the ship carrying their captain. They knew he would need time to recuperate. They knew just had hard the toll the trip out onto the seas alone had taken him. They knew he’d need to lock himself away for a while. They’d keep the rest of the crew distracted in the meantime. Ever the loyal subjects.

                                                                                      ***

Buggy scoured the newspaper for word on Luffy’s return. Shanks had filled him in with an update as well as he could. He learned that Old Man Rayleigh had taken Luffy under his wing to personally train him to prepare for the new world. He heard that Mihawk had somehow taken Luffy’s first mate under his wing. The prospects of those ideas were terrifying. If he still had doubts in his head about Luffy being the one, they were gone now. Somehow the idea had cemented into his head without him realizing it. He could see the King Luffy would become.

After the stunt that Rayleigh, Jinbe for some reason or another, and Luffy had pulled with the Ox Bell, Buggy had told his crew to get ready for more battles coming their way. Luffy had ushered in a new era of pirates with it’s ringing. Whitebeard’s proclamation at Marineford aired for all to see that One Piece does exist pushed more and more people to set sail. Buggy was still in the East. He still had to test the Rookies so they didn’t meet their end in paradise. Only now, he wasn’t testing for a King. That one had passed his test long ago. 

                                                                                    ***

Two years later Buggy saw the Strawhat’s return to the New World. The world of Pirates. To the endless battle for freedom on the sea. He smiled. 

[multifandomthoughts]

Buggy, Shanks, Rayleigh and Whitebeard with a younger s/o

Buggy

Buggy the pirate is a young looking soul, despite being almost 40 years old. You swear that he could be younger and you remind him of this every time you can. Sometimes this makes him feel a little bit worse about being older than you.

Buggy always hears about Luffy everywhere he goes. Being one of his first real enemies, he is still irritated from that first meeting. He calls Luffy a little punk, even though you are only a few years older than him.

He gets irritated when you call him your old man, as he doesn’t want to be mistaken for your father, and he doesn’t want to feel even older than he already does. You love him all the same anyways.

You praise him for his rapid progress through the hierarchy to become a Warlord, but sometimes it feels more like the fawning of a wide eyed child than the adoration of his lover.

Whitebeard

Whitebeard feels quite guilty about his age; he’s not nearly as mobile as he once was; he’s covered in scars and is almost always hooked up to machines. He can’t do as much as he would like with you, and he wishes he was much more agile.

When he hears news about newer pirates or bandits in the newspaper, it always reminds him of the days when he was much younger. You always love to hear about the stories he had about his rivalry with the roger pirates, the pirates that basically created the great pirate era.

Ace and Marco may call Whitebeard “pops” but you do not. Whitebeard likes being called daddy-o and father by you as it makes him feel young, and makes him feel better about being your s/o.

Whitebeard occasionally complain of some back ache or other ailment of no longer being in his prime, and it feel more like you’re his nurse than his partner. You reassure him that you’re happy to help him and that no partner would want to see their loved one in pain. No matter how old he is, you will support him and love him.

Shanks

Shanks moves and grooves like no other older person you know. You wonder if he’s magically defying age with his incredibly powerful Haki. Is that even possible? He is the same age as Buggy yet he looks like he should be in his late 20s.

Shanks is not as phased as much by being older than you than the others. He has accepted aging, and is happy to be with someone much younger and spry than him. He likes how it reminds him of himself when he is younger.

Shanks’ handicap makes some things tougher for him, and you’re happy to aid him, but he’ll occasionally feel like it’s more akin to the help Whitebeard gets from his nurses.

Of course you want to ask him lots of questions about what it was like to be part of the Pirate King’s crew, and reminiscing about his younger days make him realize how long ago that was and how close to your age he was back then.

Rayleigh

Shakky is already younger than him, though not by too much, so you know he doesn’t mind younger women or men. He likes to gamble, so if you come to get him out of bad spots that result from that it could rub him the wrong way because he’s the older one. you’re the mature one caring for him like a parent.

It does make him a little happy to not feel like the old one in those situations. It makes him feel like he’s worth it, despite being an older man and being one of Roger’s most powerful crewmates.

He’s amicable enough and wouldn’t mind teaching you a thing or two, whether it’s about Haki or bubble coating. He would love to spar with you if you wouldn’t mind, and would love to help you become stronger just like Luffy did. However, if that’s not your thing, he totally understands. He wants to be of some use to you, as he is older, and is your s/o.

Whenever he tells you a story about something that happened in the past and you might say “Oh, I remember hearing about that from my parents when I was little!” And Rayleigh dies inside a little realizing the vast gap in age between you. You don’t mean it to be insulting, you really do love hearing about it firsthand.

[nejibaby]

The Only Thing I Got Right

Pairings: Ace x Y/N

A/N: I just finished watching the Marineford Arc and I cried so much so I wrote this on a whim. Sorry in advance if there are grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. It's the tears' fault, I swear! 😭 ((I just desperately wanted Ace to survive, you know? 😭))

This song reminds me of Ace, idk why.

You’re shaking. It would’ve been nice if it was because of the cold or if it was from excitement, but this isn’t the case. You’re shaking from fear, from anxiety. Today, Ace, the love of your life, is going to be executed and you didn’t know if you’d make it on time. You barely got out of Impel Down alive with the help of Ace’s little brother, Luffy.

You hate the fact that you got thrown there with Ace courtesy of Teach, or should you say, Blackbeard. You hate the fact that you couldn’t save Ace from Blackbeard no matter how hard you tried fighting him. It was frustrating, but if a Devil Fruit user like Ace had no match for him, what more of you? You have no powers like that, the only thing that you have is your knowledge on Rokushiki and daggers.

You got imprisoned at Level 3 of Impel Down while Ace was rumored to be on Level 5. Being thrown on a relatively lower level was understandable, even if you are part of Whitebeard’s crew, you are no commander like Ace. Still, even if you are weaker than Ace, you desperately wanted to go get him out of there but it was impossible. Or so you thought.

When you saw a Straw Hat on a male running around with two others on Level 3, you instantly knew it was Luffy. It seemed like god was in your favor because apparently one of your cellmates, who you came to learn was Mr. 2 from Baroque Works, was Luffy’s friend. When he got Mr. 2 out of the shackles, you begged to come with them, telling him your relationship with Ace. Luckily for you, Luffy needed all the help he could get so he easily got you out with the help of the other prisoner he was with. It was all chaos after that.

You’re currently hiding in the crow’s nest of the Marine ship you helped steal alongside Crocodile, Mr. 1, and Jinbei. Your body is already aching from all the running and fighting you did just to escape Impel Down. But even before that, your body had already been tired from the lack of nutrition and of sleep. How could you even dare to sleep knowing Ace was somewhere else, probably beaten to a pulp? And if that wasn’t enough, the sudden knowledge of him being executed in a few hours added more strain and tension to your body. You didn’t want anyone to see you in such a state. You didn’t want anyone to pity you.

But if you’re hurting this much, then it must’ve been so much harder for Luffy. You make a mental note to talk to him before crashing to Marineford. For now though, you need to rest — not only for your body, but for your mind as well. You have to be ready, the worst is yet to come. When you closed your eyes, you welcomed sleep like an old forgotten friend.

Your sleep didn’t last long, however, because of both the nightmare of Ace reaching out for you with bloodied hands and of the waters that suddenly rocked the whole ship. Before you could even get down the crow’s nest, the ship abruptly stilled and the air chilled. When you looked down, you clenched your teeth at the sight of the sea that turned into ice.

A mental clock was ticking like a time bomb in your mind. How were you supposed to save Ace now?

As if hearing your question, Luffy started gathering the people in the ship about his plan. At this point, you would do anything just to get to Ace so you didn’t hesitate to help him in his plan on freeing the ship from the ice. But the next thing you know, you were falling after kicking the thick layer of ice as hard as you can.

Just as you looked down to where you’re supposed to land, you realized that it was Marineford and the war had already started. With a little tilt of your head, you see Ace in the scaffold, shackled up. Worry was etched on his face, his focus on Luffy. You could almost hear him saying how stupid his little brother is.

Was it wrong to smile at the sight of him at a time like this? But how could you not? He’s still alive! You have a chance at saving him. You release a sigh of relief.

You try not to draw his attention to you. He already has a lot to worry about — namely, the Whitebeard pirates, the allied pirates, and Luffy. It was a good decision that you didn’t change out of your prison clothes, it was easier not to get noticed by him this way. For all he knows, you’re just one of the many escapees Luffy helped. You want to keep it that way. At least for now.

There’s no time to waste, so when you landed, you immediately head off to the direction of the scaffold. After seeing that Ace was still alive, you feel yourself get pumped up again. You fight each and every Marine who tries to stop you.

No matter how hard each blow you receive, no matter how painful each swipe of the swords you get, no matter how many times you get knocked down, you keep on fighting. You keep on standing up. There’s only so much your Tekkai could do when you’re severely outnumbered. Nevertheless, you keep on going. Nevermind the multiple cuts and bruises you have. There is only one thing in your mind and that is saving Ace. Even at the expense of your own life.

From the way Luffy fought at Impel Down, you know he’s incredibly strong and tenacious so you find yourself backing him up. You don’t go near him, knowing Ace’s attention was on him, but you guard him from your side. Not a single Marine was able to pass through you from your side of the battlefield. But you can’t cover every area for him. Despite that, he managed to take down anyone who was in his way.

Your ears are ringing from all the overlapping noises of guns being fired, screams of agony from pirates and Marines, swords clanging, and hurried footsteps. At one point, you block all of the sounds while you focus on your own breathing as you run.

Even when everyone stopped moving to watch as Pops descended the Moby Dick and made his move, you continued running. You have to keep up with Luffy. There’s no way you’d let Ace die.

The only moment you actually stopped running was when Luffy unconsciously used the Conqueror’s Haki. So he can do that too, you thought.

That was also the moment you actually got to look at the surroundings properly and realized that Pops had been stabbed. Your knees buck from the sight and you fall down. Regret immediately flooding your body. You’re so focused on trying to save Ace that you didn’t notice Pops needed help too.

The Marines took this opportunity to attack you. Just as a sword was about to hit you, McGuy blocked it.

“What are you doing, Y/N? Snap out of it. This is war. There’s no way we’d be able to rescue Ace if you don’t get your bearings straight!”

The harshness in his tone brought you back to reality. He’s right. Pops ordered everyone to lend their strength to Luffy, and that’s exactly what you’re going to do.

You, along with everyone else, push yourselves to your limits to help Luffy. He did not disappoint. He even punched his own grandfather, Garp, just to be able to reach Ace and free him.

The moment the scaffold collapsed, you almost collapsed with it. Tears start falling from your eyes as you see Ace finally free from his shackles. A smile has finally graced his face as he fought side by side with his brother. At that moment, you think that he’s at his brightest when he’s with his sworn brother. You couldn’t be any more happier.

Now that he is free, it’s time to figure out how to escape. Everyone’s running towards the ships but you stop after noticing Pops wasn’t making the same movement.

“The order I’m about to give will be my final captain’s order!” Pops announces. “You and I will be parting here.”

Your breath hitched at the declaration.

“All of you, make sure you survive, and reunite with each other in the New World!”

You don’t listen to whatever he says next. You refuse to. You stand your ground. You’re not going to abandon the man who warmly accepted you into his family without hesitation despite knowing all of the crimes you committed.

As if sensing your refusal, he turns slightly to your direction, “Are you disobeying your captain’s orders?!”

Stupid old man, he should know by now that you’re no good at following orders.

Ace is one of the last persons to follow his order. You turn away from the conversation they are having, knowing it was a private matter.

When they’re done talking and Ace finally starts running towards the ship, Pops turns to you. He doesn’t talk, he just looks at you.

Shame suddenly overcomes you. You didn’t get to stop Ace from coming for Teach. When he left, you begged Pops everyday to allow you to set sail, promising that you’d bring Ace back. When he finally allowed you, you didn’t waste any time. But even when you found him, you couldn’t bring him back, it was too late and you were just too weak. It was your fault this happened. “Pops, I’m sorry I—”

“I did this. This is all my fault.”

“But—”

He shut you up with his stare.

“Let’s leave here together,” you plead.

But he doesn’t reply. With his stare, you can tell that he isn’t backing down on his order, no matter how much you persuade him to. You release a shaky breath. With tears streaming down your face, you gave one last bow and one last thank you.

And then you ran.

The others are already further away from you but you notice a group of them stopping in their tracks. There in the center of the commotion is Akainu and Ace, seemingly discussing something.

There’s no time for this, you thought.

“—In other words, Whitebeard is an eternal loser, who will never surpass Roger. That’s all he is. Everything I’ve said is the truth,” the admiral says. “He reigned the seas for decades, yet he never became a king or gained anything.”

You clench your jaw at the bullshit he’s spouting, after everything Pops had done to save you, you’re livid to hear him be deduced as a loser. But regardless of the anger rising in front of you, you know this wasn’t the time to get riled up.

The thing is, Ace gets easily riled up. It’s one of his flaws as a person. So when he starts walking to Akainu’s direction, Izo is first to shout, “Don’t fall for it, Ace! Turn back!”

But it’s no use.

That’s when you let your presence known, you shout at the top of your lungs, “Just turn back, Ace!”

Everyone whips their head at the sound of your voice, except Ace and Akainu.

Even you, who are usually able to keep Ace in check, couldn’t snap him out of his anger.

It’s too late.

They exchange blows. Ace falls down, magma is far greater than fire, after all.

“The Pirate King, Gold Roger. Dragon, the Revolutionary. These two men’s sons being stepbrothers is quite a frightening thought.” Akainu says.

When he looks over at Luffy’s direction, you immediately know what he plans to do. You don’t even think twice. There is no second to waste.

“Soru.”

The sound of your voice finally reaches Ace. His eyes widen in realization of what’s going to happen.

“Wait!” He pleads.

But before he could even stand up, you already placed yourself in front of Luffy. “Tekkai.”

But the admiral’s strength and power is far greater than your ability. His fist goes through your chest.

“Y/N!” Ace shouts.

The rest of Division Commanders are in shock.

Akainu clicks his tongue at the sight of you and detaches his fist from your body.

You slump, Luffy catching you in the process. “Oi, Y/N-chan... What did you…? Why did y-you d-do that?” He asks.

In no time, Ace comes to Luffy’s side. “Y/N…”

You smile sweetly at the two men and then you turn to Luffy. “You’re Ace’s brother, silly. Of course I’d do this for you.” You cough out blood and then hiss at the pain.

“Stop talking!” Ace demands.

While Luffy and Ace are distracted, Akainu makes his move once again. But the slight motion didn’t go unnoticed by Jimbei and the Division Commanders. Even if you aren’t a Commander, you acted like Ace’s right hand. To the crew, you’re as important as Ace is. There’s no way they wouldn’t fight for you. So altogether they start covering for the three of you.

You feel your body shutting down on you. You could barely hear Ace calling for a doctor and Luffy desperately asking Ivankov to help you. But you know it’s no use. “I… can tell my body is at its limit,” you whisper.

Ace doesn’t agree, then he gently takes your body from Luffy. “No, I’m going to find someone else who can help—”

“Ace…”

“—you. There’s got to be someone who—“

“Ace… My organs have been burnt. I know this’ll be the end of me.”

“No, don’t talk like you’re dying, Y/N!”

“But I am…” You say. “Look Ace, don’t worry, okay? I was prepared to die when I came here. I was ready to die just to get you out of here.”

“Why would you…”

“Because I love you,” you whisper. “You know… when I take a look at my life and all of my crimes, you’re the only thing that I think I got right.”

Ace hides his face on your neck as he hugs you. With the little strength you have left, you give a comforting squeeze on his shoulder. “Don’t go around disobeying the captain’s order and don’t go around breaking your promise to Luffy. You said you won’t die, right?”

You feel Ace nod at your words.

“Go to the ships and take everyone else. Please don’t follow me too soon.”

Ace hugs you tighter, panting as he continues to cry.

A small smile reaches your lips once again. At least this time he’ll listen, you think. “I can’t raise my voice anymore but please tell Pops and everyone else, even Luffy, they made my life worthwhile. I’m sorry if our journey ends he—”

You didn’t even get to finish your sentence because darkness had consumed you.

[gildedmuse]

Prompt

Zoro arrived at Sabaody first. He doesn't have any plan on what to do while waiting for the others to arrive. He's bored. Cue asking Rayleigh for a spar/talk/advice/etc.

With a little flirting there and there

I didn't quite make it all the way to the end of this one, boy it got large enough it definitely deserved it's own post....

A Little AdVice Captain Talk

Zoro is first to reach Sabaody ("All because of me, you idiot! At least be grateful!") which isn't surprising in the least ("Arg! So frustrating! Im going to be so glad that you're gone!"). Still, since he's here early and is stuck waiting for the rest of them to stop messing around and catch up, Zoro figures he deserves something of a reward.

Also, Hawkeyes only had wine - some of it was alright but the white and pink stuff might as well have been dessert it was so stupidly sweet; who ruins perfectly good alcohol like that!? - and even that he wasn't allowed to have for the three weeks it took for him to master both kinds of haki. He's looking forward to having a drink he isn't suppose to "savour" but can just throw back like a normal person.

It works out perfectly, because that old pirate guy who'd been looking after Sunny, he lived at that bar with the strangely smiley, touchy woman, didn't he? So Zoro can track him down and also grab a nice bottle of sake, maybe more than one depending on how far behind him everyone else is. It was a really odd looking place, too, easy to find. And he's sure it was close by....

-A Few Hours Later-

"You have the face of a man on a mission." Zoro pauses, his posture in others by the intrusion despite the last two times someone on this Island has tried to get his attention they wanted to rob or stab him.

Zoro hadn't really been bothered then, either, except that maybe afterwards they were all either too unconscious or running off too scared to give him proper directions. Maybe this one can at least tell Zoro where they moved that strange old bar before -

"Hmm? Oh, you're that old man who talked with Luffy." It's been two years, but the man looks exactly like he had when Zoro had last seen him. Which is just as Zoro expects. It's only two years, no one could have changed all that much.

The man gives a loud, hearty laugh. "I may be getting old, but I seem to remember the rest of you were there, too. But, yes, I am that very same old man." The man smiles. Zoro likes it, maybe because it's so carefree that it reminds him of Luffy? No, that isn't it. He may be good natured, but Zoro has a feeling he's far less easy-going than he acts. Not acts like a lie, but more how Perona should sometimes throw an extra loud, dramatic fit in hopes of annoying Hawkeyes into doing what she wanted. She really was that spoiled - something she hated him saying and would whine about him being mean when really he'd just said what was the obvious truth - but she also put up this whole act. Maybe it use to be she had to scream and cry and make a big fuss to get her way and so it's just what she does out of habit.

Zoro has the blurriest memory of this Dark King taking on that asshole marine, the one who had been about to kill Zoro right then and there. Zoro had gotten his ass kicked by a couple of fake (and one real) Shichibukai. As he remembers it, Rayleigh had fought back a Marine admiral without much of an effort. Still, Zoro thinks there is a lot more behind that easy going nature than just being strong. This old man has seen thing, he's sure.

The man laughs again, which makes Zoro frown. He hadn't even done anything, what is so funny? "You've got a young face," Rayleigh says, which Zoro just cocks an eyebrow at. The one with the scarred over eye. His payment to Hawkeye for two years acting as his sensei. He doesn't want any such connection to remain between them. The next time he meets the other kenshi, Zoro wants to be able to challenge him not as a former student but as a true rival. "Don't take it so hard." Rayleigh smiles again, walking over towards Zoro. He moves almost like he expects Zoro to jerk away, reaching over to lay a heavy hand on Zoro's shoulder. But Zoro doesn't run from things. "Whatever you're thinking about, you don't have to wear such a serious expression!"

Zoro cocks his head, reaching up to scratch at his nose as he considers how him having a young face is the same as him looking so serious. He hadn't been trying to look serious. His face just looked like it looked.

"I was thinking about you helping us out, that last time," Zoro tells him, because it isn't as if he's meaning to keep it some big secret and Rayleigh is just standing there with a hand on his shoulder like he expects Zoro to explain. So he does. "You probably doesn't have much to worry about, when it comes to fighting. You always know you're going to win, or at least you'll come out of it fine enough," he offers, shrugging at the admittance.

Rayleigh just continued smiling at him, though now he's the one with the raised eyebrow. "You don't seem like you're the kind to get scared during battle or to overthink the consequences."

That last part sounds like it might be an insult, bit it's not untrue so Zoro doesn't say anything. "I'm not." Because he isn't, he hasn't ever been. Not for himself. "Because I know I will win." He gives a sharp, cocky smile before remembering the last time Rayleigh had seen him. Zoro gives a half a shrug, and his face must look "young" again to Rayleigh, whatever that means. "Even when I was outmatched, I wasn't afraid. If I died it was because I was too weak, and I would have died protecting my captain and my crew. I wouldn't be afraid to die for them."

"Although," Zoro adds after a second. "I wouldn't lose now."

Rayleigh's laugh rings through the huge trunks of the bubble forest. The hand on Zoro's shoulder moves, wrapping around his shoulder. Without a word about it, Rayleigh starts to lead him in direction Zoro has already been. He's sure of it. "That's a very strange thing to think, though I suppose it's only natural, having only visited Sabaody the once before."

Zoro eyes the way Rayleigh is taking him suspiciously. The old man must be taking him either to that bar or the ship, that's the only thing that makes sense. Still, Zoro knows this is the wrong way. He'd just come from this way. He remembers that tree. "You act very carefree, but you're not like Luffy," Zoro goes on, since he doesn't think Rayleigh understood that he hadn't really been thinking about the Sabaody incident, at least not anymore than thinking about his promise to Kuina makes him think about the day he had learned his friend was dead. "Luffy is too cheerful to let worries bother him, and even when something upsets him he often acts recklessly instead of thinking things through." Zoro crosses his arms over his chest and gives a very knowing nod that speaks of his maturity on the subject.

Rayleigh coughs into his hand, and when he looks back at Zoro his smile has only gotten wider. "Is that so?"

"Because he is carefree, he does not take care," Zoro explains as plainly as he can, I'm case Rayleigh missed his meaning. "You come off as a very easy going old man, but maybe it comes from years of building your strength and finding your balance. It's like me..."

Zoro's eyes flash dangerously as he turns to glare off three huge men who had been trying to stall around nearby. Rayleigh gives the trip a friendly wave. They immediately start to scramble, chattering in a panic among themselves. "I could have used haki and catch any of these cowardly thieves who keep trying to stab me when my back is turned," Zoro goes on, continuing as though the entire interaction simply hadn't happened. It certainly wasn't worth his time to pay it any mind. "I could sprint off and get behind them, turning the situation around and taking them by surprise before they even have a chance to approach me. But..." Another shrug. "That's a big fuss for a couple of poor swordsmen. It takes nothing to chase them off or knock them out, so I am not bothered by them."

"But," Rayleigh cuts in, giving Zoro this strange smile. "It doesn't make you careless." despite the smile, there is something behind his eyes. Something that makes Zoro feel...

There are times when Hawkeyes would give him this searching look, as if he was trying to stare into Zoro's soul, into the heart of him. As if he wanted to cut Zoro open not to spill his blood but to spill some secret. It was sometimes when they were sparring and Zoro would get almost close enough to land a strike, though a lot of times it was when Hawkeyes was explaining something or correcting Zoro. He would look Zoro over head to toe, or else standing close, shoulder to shoulder or hands on Zoro's arms or pushing at his back. The look always ruffled Zoro, but he fought not to let it show. He didn't want Hawkeyes to know how those long, searing stares got to them, how he could feel them like a physical thing. The tip of a blade pressed against his unbroken skin.

He supposes he doesn't mind it as much with Rayleigh, since whatever the old man is looking for it can't be some weakness or signs of giving up. It still makes his skin feel that same warmth.

"No." He answers simply, looking ahead of them, trying to figure out when Rayleigh had turned them around and.started them down this brand new, unfamiliar path. "Somebody has to take care of Luffy. And the rest of the crew."

"That's your job?"

"I'm the swordsman." What else would his job be? "They're a good crew, but they can often be soft and naive."

Rayleigh ducks his head, his shoulders shaking slightly, while Zoro just eyes him. He isn't sure what's so amusing about him talking about his crew. Rayleigh had meant them, he saw how they were. Luffy was careless and impulsive, the stupid curly brow refused to fight a person just because he thought it was "disrespectful" (surely it's more disrespectful to refuse to fight someone who is challenging you? It certainly is in Zoro's mind), Franky and Brook get too focused on a good time and too overwhelmed by anyone with a sad story, and the young ones.... Well, like Zoro had said. Soft and naive. Really, Robin is the smartest among them and she isn't much for a fighter, is she?

"Well, it's a good thing they have a vice captain like you." Zoro frowns at the title. He's the swordsman, he just told him that. They don't have a vice captain, that sounds like something very official and formal. They have Luffy, that's the only captain they need. Still, he can't correct Rayleigh since right then the old man pats him on the back. "At least one of you isn't an innocent lamb."

Pats him hard enough that Zoro nearly trips over himself, making a surprised noise at finding himself so easily pushed around. Rayleigh just laughs, letting Zoro catch himself and straighten up as if nothing happens before reaching around for his waist to keep him steady.

Even though Zoro's already found his footing again.

"No," Zoro repeats, walking along like he hadn't almost fell flat on his face. "I'm not." What is with these old pirates insisting on calling him such useless animals? Rabbits and lambs and all. The kinds of creatures Robin would find so cute but are really just annoying and useless.

"Shakky will be happy to hear that," Rayleigh announces, wearing a huge grin. "She'll be happy to know that you simply don't have any interest in that direction!"

Zoro glances around them to figure out where they are. "Which direction?"

"You sound very sure of yourself earlier." It doesn't surprise Zoro that Rayleigh doesn't answer his question, but he's sure he will find it annoying if he does it often. The way Hawkeyes did. "When you said that this time you wouldn't lose."

Rayleigh doesn't turn to him, just shifts his gaze over to Zoro. There is a mad glint like sunlight off steel in his eyes. "What do you say to a little sparring?"

A chance to match skills against the former vice captain of the king of the pirates? There's no way Zoro could turn down such an offer. He returns Rayleigh's look with a brilliant smile, one that is all teeth: sharp and dangerous. "You're on, old man."

"Not yet," Rayleigh replies, all smiles. Of.course, he's smiled this whole time. There is something new about this one though, and maybe if Zoro were the type to run from things, that instinct would be kicking in about now. He's just excited to get a chance to test his new skills against someone other than Hawkeyes or those damn apes. "But I'm sure a vigorous young man such as yourself will have no trouble turning me."

Zoro has never heard defeat worded that way before, but he's not about to back down because Rayleigh speaks a little strange. "You bet I can!"