#the people can’t get on board with frinbei because they are afraid of two dads kissing

[mushiemellows]

Frinbei fic budding in my brain but it’s just them getting really protective over the fish tank’s maintenance

Like I already hc Franky as A Fish Tank Guy (you don’t build an aquarium like that without going down a rabbit hole or two in your life) so I think he’s already really careful about like. Saline levels, nitrates, algae blooms, coral growth conditions. The workshop’s below the lounge so he has easy access to the pumps and filters just to make sure nothing breaks down.

And then post-Wano Jinbei shows up and is properly impressed by the tank (as he is with almost all of Sunny) and he starts asking to get involved with the maintenance. And Franky’s excited because no one wants to help with it, he has to usually force Usopp to help or just do it himself. And he’s a little wary about the new guy overstepping, but he puts Jinbei on Inside Glass Squeegee Duty for a week just test the waters. Pun intended. But at the end of it, the tank’s never looked nicer. The glass is sparkling, the filter’s running clean, the substrate’s been changed out. Jinbei’s diving into the sea to find new grasses to plant and extra fish to support the ecosystem and the whole thing is just thriving.

Franky’s just sitting on the other side of the glass at the bar watching him work, eyes wide, a little turned on by Jinbei in just his swim suit, totally appreciative that someone sees what he sees in the project. They keep an extra eye out when they find tide pools and look for sea stars to fill the tank with. Someone Usopp accidentally throws some of those snails that reproduce like the devil in the tank on accident and they spend weeks trying to clear baby mollusks from the water.

The aquarium flourishes as they work on it together, and Jinbei starts to use a corner of it as a meditation space. Sometimes they leave the entrance hatch open so the sunlight can shine through and they both work inside the tank at the same time. Franky’s trying to figure out how to install underwater speakers. And maybe they kiss in the bubbles idk I don’t make the rules