I almost can't believe that I actually managed to write a new chapter. I thought hard about if I should just go and rewrite the whole thing but eventually decided against it.

I can't promise that I can keep up a regular update schedule as I'll start my university studies in a couple weeks and right now I'm working almost without breaks. We'll see! It's definitely all thanks to the continued support (even though it's almost been a year since the last update...) that I can keep writing this story. You guys are seriously such precious things. Thank you.

Ready to read about our cuties? Here's some recap:

Dragon entrusts his only son to his father, Garp, who ends up being unable to protect the boy, Luffy, from the Marines. Luffy is raised in captivity not only as an important piece in politics, but also as a test subject for the mysterious Devil's Fruits. It is a single trip at sea with his grandfather that Luffy's life changes completely, as during an encounter with pirates, he ends up in the ship captained by the infamous "Red-Haired Shanks. There, he learns of the meaning of freedom, as well as the cost of it. Their journey together brings them to East Blue, where they end up taking aboard two more kids yearning for their own freedom.

As always, unbetaed material, read it as such.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece

Chapter 9 - Behind the curtains

Most likely, they had made a terrible mistake. Whatever they had thought a pirate's life would look like - it was nothing quite like this.

There were no adventures to be seen, no monsters to fight, no robbing, no killing, no nothing! The only thing that was as they had imagined was the drinking. All day and night, the men would down more than a few barrels and somehow do it all again the next morning. There was always someone singing, but once they had heard the songs a hundred times in the one week they had been aboard, they became more of an annoyance. What was the worst, however, was that none of the pirates seemed to really mind what they sighed in a content manner to be "peace".

All the excitement that they had gone through with Sabo's rescue and their narrow escape had vanished from their memories with the pleasant breeze and sunshine while they sailed through the peaceful seas.

Ace and Sabo decided that these pirates were far from what they had originally thought. They weren't strong, or at least brave, and their lifestyle all but destroyed the image they had of pirates. Cowards was what they were.

And it wasn't like they could go back anymore either. In the middle of the ocean, there was little they could do but wait for the next island to appear. Then, it was just a matter of leaving to start a new life. Perhaps they would start building their pirate ship and show these idiots what a real pirate looked like. Until then, they had a lot to put up with.

With eyes on them around the clock, Sabo and Ace were cautious in their every action, both not wanting to anger their rescuers and not wanting them to know much about the two of them. Safer that way, Sabo had said.

However, more than the waiting and crappy singing, something else entirely was testing their level of patience.

"Ne, what's your name?"

Ace swore that he was going to lose his mind every time the kid spoke.

"Those googles are so cool! Can I try them on?"

It was far easier to say "let's just ignore him," than actually do it.

There had to be a limit to how long he could hold himself back. Ace had never been the patient type, but he knew that if he killed this annoying idiot now, he wouldn't live to see another day either.

"Are you guys pirates? You don't look like pirates."

But, GOD DAMN! He was about to lose it. They kept walking around the deck, but the kid didn't leave them alone for a second. If he would say another word-

"Hey, hey, hey~!"

"SHUT UP, YOU BASTARD!" he screamed. The kid behind him froze and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Ace...!" Sabo warned, and the red he saw cleared just enough for Ace to see what his outburst had caused. Everyone on the deck was staring at them.

Not wanting to lose his head quite yet, Ace pushed his anger down. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and glared at the kid, trying to scare him.
"Let's go, Sabo."

The kid behind them took a step to follow them, and Ace lost it for a moment again.
"Don't follow us!" he shouted at the kid, who just kept staring at the two of them with his impossibly big eyes. Something about the kid seriously rubbed him the wrong way.

The kid had been following them for two days straight without leaving them alone for even a moment. It was seriously testing their limits. So many times Ace had just wanted to kick the kid off the ship, but Sabo had been smart enough to stop him each time.

The kid - Luffy - was a small mystery for them. Not only his existence itself, as he was far too harmless to cause for the world to hunt and kill him (he kept tripping over his own legs, for god's sake), but also his existence on the pirate ship. The captain was clearly not that interested in having kids aboard (Ace still remembered how they had killed the bandits in cold blood) as they were weak and would potentially cause them trouble. Yet there they were, three kids aboard their ship. It all made little sense to them but seeing how comfortably the kid clung onto the captain's leg as he walked across the deck they knew there had to be some reason. Something they just hadn't understood yet.

They had no idea how wrong they had been.

Out of that dull shell of a life as a pirate, something exploded out with such force it threw them off their feet and made their hearts almost beat out of their chests.

This happened only two days after they were giving up on all they believed in and were just about ready to try to swim to some nonexistent shore. Boredom was deadly.

It was out of blue that there was a sort of tremor which passed after a few minutes but it caused the atmosphere to change instantly on the ship. In only those few moments all those men who they had thought to only be hopeless drunks transformed into the pirates they had seen in the village. They stood up tall and a power started to radiate from them that made Ace and Sabo feel as if they had shrunk in size. They felt tiny in comparison to whatever these men possessed. However, there was a strange atmosphere of ease. Something was about to happen but the men were smiling.

The two of them could only stare in wonder as the captain stood from his spot and walked to the edge of the deck. The power that he seemed to radiate was far more intimidating than anything they had felt before. And they realized that they had been wrong about them. No, they had just forgotten.

These people were pirates.

And there was the kid again. Oblivious to what the two of them were experiencing he skipped after the captain with no worries on his mind. Their eyes met for a brief moment and the boy almost seemed to give a knowing smile. Maybe, just maybe, he did know.

It was a strange contrast. Maybe like seeing a bear and its weak cub next to it. No, it was like seeing the giant tiger from the forest along with a baby bunny. Two things that shouldn't be together. Strong and weak. And so they wondered once again: why was the kid allowed at the man's side when he had nothing?

They had no chance to wonder about the change that had occurred on the ship when the ship suddenly rocked to the side and water splashed violently, creating almost a small rainstorm over them. They tried to cover their eyes from the rocketing droplets, and only when they could open their eyes again they saw the long shadow stretched across the deck. Their eyes quickly found the source when a strange creature stood as tall as their mast, staring right at them, its red eyes fixed on all of them.

"A sea-king, huh? Did you get lost, coming all the way here?" Shanks questioned the monster that let out a strange, deep grumbling noise. For a second, the creature seemed to think about something, then jerked its head up and let out a kind of scream.

"Sorry, but we need to get pass," the man said to the monster but it didn't seem to like the idea as it suddenly opened its jaws and lunged towards the captain - clearly planning to eat him. Again, the dark-haired man - Benn - was there, his weapons blocking the creature's enormous teeth from reaching his captain. Shanks hadn't even flinched. Luffy was still there as well, hiding slightly behind the red-haired man's leg but was staring at the monster in a sort of awe.

"Shanks! It's a Sea king!" Luffy suddenly shouted, looking very proud of his discovery.

"Yes, it's a Sea king alright," Shanks confirmed. "Wanna go beat it up?"

Luffy's eyes almost seemed to sparkle and he jumped out of hiding. He nodded furiously. "Can I? Can I?!" he asked and couldn't stop jumping around.
Shanks grabbed the kid under his arm and without giving an answer, he kicked off the ship and jumped all the way above the creature's head.

Ace and Sabo had no idea they hadn't even seen everything yet.

Benn let his weapon fall once the creature retreated, and none of the men moved to help their captain even as he seemed to have let himself become the perfect meal for the "Sea king". The monster was about to open its mouth again to catch the falling pair inside what would become their grave, but Shanks moved before it could. What the two of them first thought was a some kind of rope they soon realized was an arm stretching. Their jaws dropped when they saw it was Luffy's arm.

"Wha- it's stretching!" They screamed and earned only laughs from the other men.

The arm went straight towards the creature's mouth but somehow managed to find its nose where it grabbed hold. Then, the two of them were flying towards the thing with impossible speed. In all that, the two missed the part where Luffy was flung onto Shanks' back and what they saw was a blade being pulled out. That sword hit its target straight between the eyes with the speed of a rocket, and the thing was dead in a split second.

The excitement being too much for him, Sabo fell to his knees and could only stare, like Ace, at the two figures that almost seemed to fly in the air.

"Luffy!" Benn shouted and extended his arm out towards the two. Soon, although it was completely unnatural, a small hand appeared in his, and the man held on even as the two flung towards them like a cannonball. Barely evading the impact, the man stepped aside as Shanks and Luffy were heading towards the other end of the ship. The red-haired man somehow managed to land on his feet and kept his balance as he skidded across more than a few floorboards. Eventually stopping, Luffy fell on the ground and almost seemed to bounce when laughter erupted from him.

"That was awesome!"

Shanks chuckled, in a carefree manner that didn't match the sight behind them where the creature finally slumped back into the ocean, creating another splash of water that rained down on them.

"Get any stronger than this and I won't be able to stick the landing, Anchor," the man told the boy, who seemed more than pleased with the comment.

"So how was it? My attack!" the boy asked excitedly.

"Needs more practice," Shanks teased.

Ace and Sabo couldn't move after such events happening too quickly. Keeping their head together already took enough of their brainpower. They stared as Luffy argued with the captain, the man humoring the kid along with his first-mate, as some men were looking to see where the Sea king had gone under. It was a bizarre thing to witness.

"Ace..." Sabo managed, "who are these people?"

But Ace had no answer.

There was quite little two boys could do on a small, cramped ship surrounded by rowdy adults who they had no interest in befriending. Even so, it was one of Shanks' favorite pastimes to watch the two fight the impending boredom by various means.

He always sat somewhere afar, just looking from the shadows and never getting involved with anything that they did. He liked to observe the two of them and learned much about their life before in that way. When they had finally become a usual sight on the ship and no one paid that much attention to them, that's when they struck. They were so subtle with their movements that none of the men had noticed what was going on.

They would casually walk around the deck, talking in toned-down voices, and on the outside it seemed there was nothing out of the ordinary. However, Shanks' trained eyes quickly saw the truth. The kids were stealing from others. It was beyond amusing.

Benn had warned not to let it get out of hand, and reminded that not everyone was willing to be so lenient on the two of them. Shanks however, couldn't help himself. He let it all go and watched as every day the same thing repeated in one shape or another.

Until they found something else to do.

Shanks ignored the fact that the two had taken two long iron bars from somewhere without permission and watched as the two sparred with each other with fervor, neither giving an inch. To all of them it looked a tad bit clumsy and inexperienced, yet there was something pure with the way they fought that created sparks of excitement everywhere in the air, calling an audience around them. Soon, there was a crowd of men cheering them on and betting on the winner, only further spurring the two on.

Shanks saw, perhaps for the first time, how Ace's expression changed a little. The cautious fear that he had tried to hide so well melted away and Shanks could swear he saw the boy's lips twitch into a tiny smirk, if only for a moment.

"Was this a part of your plan?" Benn asked. He too, had decided not to get involved and stayed on the sidelines for the match.

"No, this is all their doing."

Luffy sat perched on a railing in front of him overseeing the deck below and even through the back of his head Shanks could tell how his eyes were almost sparkling with excitement. He could hardly stay still and his small frame shook with that feeling rushing through him.

He once again mused about the fact that his role as a captain had taken a whole new face as now he was not only a leader but also a guardian.

Sparring was strictly forbidden on the ship. Had been, at least. Then again, how much damage could such small hands do anyway?

Just as that thought crossed his mind, Ace roared in frustration as Sabo kept evading all his swings and he jumped up, planning to catch the blonde from above. This gave the other plenty of time to dodge, leaving Ace's metal bar connecting against the floorboards. Which, surprisingly, couldn't take the impact as well as they thought. The boards cracked and groaned, leaving splinters everywhere and a big, round dent on the floor.

Everything stopped.

The stunned silence lasted for a good three seconds before the shouting started.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" "YOU JUST BROKE THE SHIP!" "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, YOU IDIOTS!?"

The two boys threw down their weapons and backed into a corner, their eyes revealing more fear than there should have been. Clearly, they still misunderstood their intentions in many ways.

Shanks broke into a hearty laughter, silencing the angry men with just that. Luffy's tensed shoulders fell and he jumped at Shanks' arm that caught him with practiced ease, as the man walked closer so all his men could see him.

"Now, now," Shanks said, "It's just a few broken floorboards - nothing to get so worked up about."

The tension was gone in a mere few seconds. Shanks saw how some glanced at his missing arm and seemed a little ashamed of themselves.

"Ace, Sabo," Shanks called for the kids who came out of hiding a little nervously. "Next time, try to control your strength a little, alright?" The two looked baffled at the lenient treatment and nodded several times.

"Now, help the kids fix that up, alright?" he added, and some guys groaned as a response.

He was about to head to his room when a voice called back. "No! Please let us fix it. We broke it after all."

Sabo's eyes were pure and honest - qualities about children that Shanks had found himself to be a little envious of - and could not refuse his request. He nodded and said nothing, not wanting to put any pressure on the kid. Fixing a ship wasn't as easy as one would think, especially for someone shorter than the sword resting at his hip.

Luffy's eyes never left the two, his gaze tightly locked on the two boys over Shank's shoulder.

He woke up to banging sound coming from outside. It was pitch black all around him, even when he opened his eyes, and for a moment he wondered if he was just dreaming. However, the sound persisted, and he found himself waking up. He pushed himself up to a sitting position and the straw hat that had been covering his face fell down on his lap. It found its place on the top of his head next, and he could finally make out the room a little better with the small amount of light coming in from the gap of the ajar door.

Shanks realized a little more slowly than he hoped that the door was supposed to be closed in the middle of the night and that the blanket on Luffy's bed should only have been resting so flatly against the mattress if there was a small bundle nestled next to him. There wasn't.

Every time he lost sight of the boy, he couldn't deny that his stomach would drop a little and that his throat felt a little too tight until he saw him again. For his defense, the boy was the master of getting into trouble.

Tonight the luck was on his side as he didn't have to go far to find him. He was right outside, sitting under the moonlit sky, staring at the deck below. Shanks approached him quietly and crouched behind him to see what the boy was looking at.

Ah. It was the two boys. They really were planning on fixing the ship by themselves. For a moment, he felt as fascinated at the sight as Luffy was, watching Sabo measure and draw lines on the boards, looking through a book for instructions, as Ace would saw and hammer as told by the other. They worked in almost a strange peace, each knowing exactly what their role was and seemed to know exactly what the other was thinking. You could almost call it 'harmony'.

Shanks peeked into Luffy's dark eyes and saw how they were deep with his secret thoughts. His expression revealed nothing, and every time Shanks saw him stare at something like this, he found himself being drawn into it.

"What are you thinking about there, Anchor?" Shanks quietly asked and sat down next to him softly as to not make any sound.

There wasn't even a smallest twitch on Luffy's face to indicate he had even heard Shanks, and his eyes never left the scene in front of him. "Ace and Sabo..." he started and closed his mouth again. Shanks waited patiently for the boy to continue. "They're kids but... they're really different from me."

"What do you mean by that?" Shanks couldn't help the small smile that rose to his face whenever Luffy was thinking so deeply about something.

"I dunno. But somehow, it's like that. I mean, why else won't they be friends with me?"

Shanks felt a little sorry for the kid. They all had definitely had a little too rosy picture painted when the kids had first arrived that the three of them could become friends. They had hoped that Luffy would be able to be a kid for once if he could play with actual children and not some old men with the mental ages of ten-year-olds. The reality hadn't quite turned out to be as kind, and while Shanks hoped that it wouldn't affect Luffy too hard, even that wish seemed to have been mere wistful thinking.

It was hard to find an answer to something like that, and Shanks found himself looking at the two boys again.

They hadn't seemed to notice their presence and were completely focused on their task, and seeing their somewhat relaxed expressions made Shanks feel a little relieved. Perhaps it was when they could be just the two of them like this that they could feel safe.

A thought came to him. "You see, Luffy, friends help each other, right?"

Luffy nodded.

"I think Sabo and Ace are just so used to helping each other that they think they don't need help from anyone else."

"Yeah, they're always by themselves!" Luffy agreed.

Shanks smiled at himself. He came up with a great answer after all. "Maybe you can help them a little sometime then? I think they would appreciate some help when they don't know something about this ship or us, for example. You can help with that, right?"

Luffy's eyes grew wide as he looked at Shanks. His shoulders rose and a smile finally grew onto his face. "Yeah! I'll help!"
Shanks patted Luffy's head. "Good. Now, how about we go back to bed?"

Luffy nodded and - the spoiled kid he was - raised his arms in a silent request to be carried. Shanks swore to himself that he was a lost cause if he was trying to raise the kid to be a pirate someday, and he hoped that those big, innocent eyes never lost their power so that the whole world might just crumble at the sight of them like he already had.

Luffy quickly snuggled against Shanks' chest when he was off the ground, and so he missed how Ace was now staring at them. Shanks could quite not place the feelings behind the usual, hard look, but if he were to guess, it would have been something akin to envy.

No question corner this time, folks, but do submit any questions or suggestions you might have and we might see them in the bottom of the next chapter (whenever I get that one done).

And yes, not much going on in this chapter, mostly just little old me getting used to writing again. Hoping it's not a letdown, but honestly I think I write best when I do it for the funzies.

Until next time!