This is a challenge I took on from doubledamn. I hope you all like it, flames will be ignored like the plague, otherwise review on the story if you want, follow it as well.

Disclaimer: I don't own shit.

(Party's Bar - Fuschia Village - East Blue)

"Shanks, I showed you I'm not afraid of pain, so let me on your crew." a young boy pleaded. He had black hair, onyx colored irises, and a bandage under his left eye. He was wearing a white t-shirt that had a blue anchor on the front with the word 'ANCHOR' in red over it. He was also wearing red shorts and open toed sandals.

"No way, even if you're not afraid of pain, you're still too little. Come back in 10 years, then I'll consider it." a young man with shockingly red hair a, straw hat with a red ribbon around it, loose white button up shirt, and a pair of brown trousers going down to his shins.

"I'm not little! I'm strong, my punch is as strong as a pistol!" exclaimed the young child, punching the air with his fist.

"A pistol, really?" Shanks asked with a skeptical tone.

"What's with that tone?!" the child shouted out in anger.

"Just chill out Luffy. Here, have your juice." Shanks told Luffy, handing him a glass of apple juice.

"Gee, thanks!" Luffy exclaimed happily, chugging the drink wholeheartedly.

"HA, see you are still a kid! No pirate drinks juice!" Shanks mocked Luffy, laughing out loud with his crew, causing Luffy to choke on his drink slightly.

"THAT'S A DIRTY TRICK, YOU ASSHOLE!" this got Luffy a smack on the back of his head from Makino.

She gave a stern glare to Luffy. "No cursing," Shanks laughed at Luffy for getting scolded but stopped when Makino turned the glare to him, "and no teaching him curse words." Shanks stopped laughing and pouted, twirling his fork in his food, moping like a child scolded. Luffy stomped off, muttering 'goddamn Shanks', luckily Makino didn't hear.

"Luffy, you should try to understand the captain's feelings better." a voice called out, Luffy turned to the source and saw Benn Beckman, first mate of the Red-Haired Pirates. He had black hair put into a ponytail, a cigarette in his mouth, and his trusty rifle resting on his shoulder.

Luffy scoffed. "What do you mean Shanks' feelings, he just likes messing with me." he had a tic-mark on his eyebrow pulsing, and, as if on cue, Shanks turned around and pointed at Luffy with a teasing grin.

"Can't swim." he then proceeded to burst out laughing whilst Luffy looked at Benn with a 'do you believe me now?' look.

Benn had a sweatdrop on the back of his head. 'Maybe Luffy has a point.'

Luffy cooled down enough to not glare at Shanks every second when Makino got him some food. He sat down back next to Shanks on his stool. "Shanks, how long are you staying here?" Shanks hummed thoughtfully, holding his fork in his mouth before sliding it out and answering.

"Probably two or three more voyages, then we'll have to leave." he said after a few moments.

"A few more voyages, huh?" Luffy muttered to himself, a bit sad at the short time Shanks was going to be here, although Shanks teased him a lot, he was like a father to him.

BAM!

The bar door was nearly slammed off of its hinges as it was kicked open by a tanned man with a black goatee, long coat, loose white shirt, brown trousers, and a saber strapped to his side. The man looked around the bar with a cocky smirk on his face and air of arrogance about him.

"So, these are pirates? Heh, look pretty weak to me." the man cockily said, a group of men in turbans, white shirts, brown trousers, and had sabers on their sides following him.

He walked up to the counter and slammed his hand down on it. "Me and my men are thirsty, get us some saké and we won't trash the place." the bandit threatened Makino, she had a small bead of sweat on her temple.

"I-I'm sorry, but we're fresh out of alcohol." Makino stuttered.

The bandit looked at the pirate crew with a disinterested look on his face. "Then what are these pirates drinking, juice?"

Still sitting on the stool next to the bandit, Shanks raised up a saké bottle in offering. "Sorry, me and my men drank all the alcohol. Here's a bottle, it hasn't been opened."

In response, the bandit punched the bottle, making it shatter and spill alcohol on the red-haired captain and the floor.

"One measly bottle won't be enough for me and my men, pirate." Higuma sneered down at Shanks with a glare of anger.

"Now look what you did, the floor's all wet. You got a rag, Makino? I'll clean it up for you." Shanks said, treating the mishap as nothing. Makino nodded and went off to get a rag as Shanks got off of his stool and started picking up shattered glass.

This enraged the bandit as he kneeled down to Shanks' eye level and pulled out a poster. It had 'WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE' in big letters on it, below that was 'Higuma the Bear for 8,000,000 beri.

"You see this, ya bastard, I'm a wanted man, pirate. I'm feared here, unlike you." Higuma put the poster away and smirked. "But if you like cleaning so much, I'll give you all of this to clean!" he said, swiping his now drawn saber across the counter, spilling the food and alcohol on the floor, soaking Shanks even more.

Meanwhile, Luffy noticed that a small treasure chest was on the bar counter with the lid closed.

'Treasure.' that was the first thought that entered Luffy's head when he saw it. His curiosity peaking, Luffy grabbed the chest and brought it over to him and opening it when he had it in front of him.

What was inside the chest disappointed Luffy but also made him happy. Inside was a bright blue fruit shaped like an apple with swirls all over the fruit with a curly stem and a lavender leaf sprouting from it.

At the sight of the fruit, Luffy's stomach rumbled quietly in hunger, in his defense it looked a tiny bit appetizing and he was still hungry and he couldn't get any food at the moment, so this would have to settle.

Nodding to himself, Luffy grabbed the fruit with his small hands, took a large chomp out of it and nearly gagged at the bitter, sour taste of the fruit, but held it in and swallowed the rest.

Luffy's attention was brought on to the scene of Higuma sending all of the contents from the counter onto Shanks with a swipe of his sword and a cocky smirk on his face.

"There, that should keep you cleaning, weakling." Higuma walked out of the pub, sheathing his sword with his men following him out. "We'll be back soon, you better not be here you damn pirates."

Luffy just glared at the bandit's retreating form, while the rest of the bar was silent except for Makino asking if Shanks was alright.

"Ah, don't worry Makino, I'm fine." Shanks said, putting his hand on his straw hat before bringing his head up and laughing with a large grin on his face as his crew laughed along and poked fun.

"The captain sure looked funny!"

"Hahaha, he made you look silly, huh captain?"

This shocked and angered Luffy. "Why are all of you laughing about that humiliation!?" he shouted out, standing on his stool with clenched fists and an angry look in his eyes.

"Calm down Luffy, all they did was spill some alcohol on me, nothin' to worry about." Shanks said, brushing off the child's angry comment.

Luffy seemed to have an inner argument before he sighed and clicked his tongue. "Just 'cause you're right, doesn't mean I have to like it." he grumbled to himself, sitting in back down on the barstool, a frown on his face.

Shanks sat back onto his barstool next to Luffy with a large grin on his face as the cheerful mood began to return to the bar.

"Now now, don't be so grumpy Luffy, have some fun." Shanks raised his hand and brought it down onto Luffy's back in a friendly gesture.

Only to have it splash through water that was now Luffy's body, shocking him and his entire crew into silence, bringing back the deathly quiet atmosphere from before, but only with shocked expressions galore.

As Shanks was about to speak, Lucky Roo shouted out in a panicked tone from near the bar. "Captain, the Mizu Mizu no mi we stole is missing!" Lucky was holding the small chest by the lid and pointing at it with a frantic expression.

"Luffy, did you eat the fruit that was in that chest?!" Shanks asked with a horrified expression on his face as he leaned in, grabbing Luffy's shoulders and shaking the surprised child back and forth.

Luffy nodded his head yes. "Well, I was hungry and even though it looked weird it looked appetizing, but it tasted really bitter." he punctuated the taste by sticking out his tongue in disgust.

"Luffy, what you ate was called an Akuma no mi*! When someone eats it they lose their ability to swim forever!" Shanks shouted at Luffy, causing the child's eyes to widen in shock, but he blinked as he sensed a 'but'. "But, you do get a power depending on which fruit you ate."

Luffy tilted his head to the side with a curious expression. "What fruit did I eat?"

"The Mizu Mizu no mi, it's a Logia class that let's you turn into water, control water, and is the only fruit that allows you to swim and breathe underwater like a fishman." Lucky Roo said, looking into a small book that had information on devil fruits.

Shanks begrudgingly sighed and ran his hand over his straw hat. "It could be worse." he simply stated, getting agreements from his crew.

(time skip- 1 week)

It's been a week since the bandit incident and a few days since Shanks and his crew left on another voyage.

In Party's Bar, Luffy sat at the bar concentrating on a glass of water in front of him. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, trying to will the water to levitate out of the glass, not leaving a single droplet in the cup.

The clear blue liquid hovered a bit before it splashed back down into the glass, making Luffy open his eyes and start lightly panting after his mental exertion.

"Dammit, I still can't get it out of the cup." Luffy complained, glaring hard at the glass as if that would solve his problems.

He was broken out of his musing when he was smacked on top of his head by a frowning Makino. He brought his gaze up to the bartender and pouted questioningly.

"What have I said about cursing?" Makino asked scoldingly with her hands on her hips and an upset frown on her face.

"Not to do it." Luffy grumbled looking to the side with a small pout on his childish face.

Makino was going to scold him further when the bar door was slammed open by Higuma and the bandits from the week before. The bandit group walked into the bar and sat down at the tables, Higuma leaned back in his chair and planted his feet on the table.

"What are you waiting for, we're customers, we deserve service." Higuma said in his cocky tone with a smirk on his face.

(quick time skip)

"Get your smelly ass foot off of my face, mountain gorilla!" Luffy shouted out from underneath the foot of Higuma, who stood over the child with his right foot planted on Luffy's head and his saber in his hand.

"You've pissed me off, brat, I've killed 52 people, you'll be the 53rd in my body count." Higuma sneered, raising his sword.

"Please, wait!" an elderly voice shouted from nearby, the town's mayor, Woop Slap was on his hands and knees with a desperate expression on his face. "Let the child go! I don't know what he did, but please let him go!" Woop Slap pleaded, touching his head down to the ground.

"Seems the elderly know best, but it's too late, the brat pissed me off enough and now he'll pay." Higuma raised his sword again ready to strike and brought it down on Luffy.

Luffy's eyes widened as time seemed to slow down, he snapped his eyes around at any form of salvation. His frantic eyes stopped on a sealed barrel filled with water. How he knew? He didn't know, he could just feel that water was in the barrel.

Luffy shut his tight and clenched his jaw in concentration, he felt a large tug in his gut and let the tug lead him. All he heard next was what sounded like a barrel exploding, water splashing down, and multiple screams and shouts of surprise and pain.

The child opened his eyes and was left slack-jawed at the scene before him. Bandits were sprawled across the street, which was now soaked and covered in wooden splinters.

"Luffy, that sure was impressive, it surprised me." Luffy's head snapped over to the voice and saw Shanks standing with a large grin on his face.

Luffy grinned back proudly. "You're da-" Luffy crumpled forward, unconscious from exhaustion of overexerting himself.

Before he could hit the ground, Shanks picked Luffy up into his arms with a smile on his face. "You really are amazing, Luffy. I might just take you along after all." he whispered to the still barely conscious child.

(another time skip)

Luffy groaned as he woke up and his eyelids fluttered open, when his eyes were fully open, he saw that he was in a room that had a wooden ceiling that he had seen multiple times before.

'I'm in the bar, but it's too quiet to be the bar.' Luffy thought to himself.

"Oh, Luffy, you're up! You better hurry, don't want me to be late, do you?" Luffy looked over and saw Shanks sitting in a chair with two large suitcases on either side of him.

"Late? Late for what?" Luffy asked, genuinely confused.

"I'm leaving, kid." Luffy's face fell at the blunt reminder of his idol's departure. "I'll be back in a few months, so cheer up."

Despite being overjoyed about Shanks coming back, Luffy was really curious about the reason.

"Why are you going to come back here?" he asked, tilting his head to the side in a curious gesture.

"We're going on our journey, and in four months, we're going to pick you up and take you with us through the ocean." Shanks explained with a grin on his face. "Anyway, come with me down to the docks, you gotta say goodbye to the crew." Shanks said with his grin still present on his face.

Luffy yawned a bit but complied anyway, hopping out of the bed and following Shanks down to the docks.

(short skip)

Luffy was standing behind Shanks as the crew got supplies onto the ship and were preparing to leave.

"I'll see you in a few months, Luffy, though even when I take you onto the crew, you still won't be a decent pirate." Shanks said the last part in a teasing tone and stuck his tongue out at Luffy.

The act of immaturity brought a tic-mark onto Luffy's forehead. "I'll be better than you! I'll get a better crew and everything! Then I'll go find One Piece and BECOME KING OF THE PIRATES!" Luffy shouted out with determination.

Shanks just let out a grin and a chuckle. "Oh? You're going to be better than us?" Luffy nodded. "Well," Shanks reached up to his hat and took it off of his head, "I'll leave this hat with you. It's my most cherished treasure, take care of it and return it to me when you've become a greatly reputed pirate." Shanks said, keeping his hand on Luffy's head, which now bore the worn straw hat.

By now, Luffy had silent tears running down his cheeks as he nodded in promise. Shanks grinned one last time at Luffy and walked onto his ship the rest of his crew following behind.

"Set sail! We're heading back to paradise!" Shanks shouted to his crew, getting 'aye's in response.

Luffy stood at the docks, clutching Shanks' straw hat in his hands with a few stray tears on his face.

'Just you wait Shanks, I'll be the pirate king.' Luffy thought with a grin as Shanks and his crew sailed further towards the horizon.

Holy shit! Finally done, I hope you enjoy this new story inspired by doubledamn, if you do drop a review, favorite it, follow, whatever. This and Sub-Zero Strawhat are still going strong, but with kind of slow updates. Again, hope you enjoyed the read, thanks for reading and flames will be ignored and/or blocked.

Mizu Mizu no mi*: Water Water fruit