Chapter 1 - A new friend

They had arrived late last night and all Shanks had wanted was to rest up after one of the worst hangovers he had ever had so far in his life.

The death of his former captain had been exactly 10 years ago which in addition to feeling down and alone had left him feeling old for the first time. 10 years was a long time after all.

The little figure standing in front of him now only added to that fact. "Who are you?"

The boy had to be very young and why was he up so early, weren't little kids supposed to sleep all the time?

"Why are you in my room?" Shanks asked in return blinking a few times before sitting up in his bed. No point in going back to sleep.

"I asked first!" The boy tried to glare but it quite failed the desired effect. Shanks laughed. More adorable glaring followed.

"I'm Shanks, and downstairs is my crew. Are they still asleep?"

"No, they have lunch and make jokes about their 'idiot captain'. So this is you then? Shouldn't they be nice to you?"

Shanks chuckled as the somewhat-glare returned. "Calm down, they're just joking. You mind getting out now...? What was your name?"

The little face lit up. "I'm Luffy."

Without another word he rushed out and shouted something downstairs.

Shanks finally got out of bed and wondered why the ground was swaying. So the hangover still wasn't over, so he guessed he had another of these hangstillthere as he liked to call it. There would be worse ones to come though, he was sure of it.

After showering which took ages he trotted downstairs, cheerily greeting by his men.

"You look like you just got out of bed!" Yasopp was laughing about it but the look he got told him he was in fact correct.

He sat down at the bar; the young woman from last night was there again. Not many would rent out their whole place to a group of pirates and hardly anyone would do so with a kind and honest smile. "Good morning, captain! You look much better."

"Thanks, the ground is less shifting than yesterday. Is there food left?" He knew how much his men could devour in few minutes if they were hungry enough, and the food out at sea wasn't usually the best.

"I saved you some." Some would turn out to be a lot.

The smell of more food however lured someone else closer. Luffy crawled up on the chair next to Shanks.

"Can I have some?" He looked as innocent as could.

"Careful capt'n, he even ate more than Lucky."

"All mine." Shanks grinned at Luffy, whose expression hadn't changed except that he was drooling by now.

"Grown men need more food than little kids like you." Shanks explained while enjoying his meal even more.

"I'm not small! I will be bigger than you in ... two years!" Luffy was standing on his chair, still not overlooking Shanks, who was rather tall. The sadness that had still lingered on the pirate was gone by now. This little boy was just to cute.

"Makino, you still have some food left? Luffy's gonna need to eat a lot to grow bigger than me."

For Luffy two remarkable things had just happened. For one Shanks had just gotten one more friend and secondly, and Luffy would never tell anyone, he was now convinced that if he just ate enough he would grow eventually.

Happily Luffy downed the plate that was put in front of him and started to eye Shanks' food again. Wordlessly he pushed the plate closer to the boy and gone was what had been left of his lunch. Benn walked over to brief his captain on what the crew had been busy with.

"... Once you are done we can leave. ..."

Luffy was alerted. He didn't want the funny man with the red hair and strawhat to leave so soon. He was giving him food as well.

"There is a rather large marine base not far from here. I wouldn't extend our stay here longer than necessary." Benn finished.

"Why are the marines a problem for you?" Luffy couldn't quite make the connection. He hadn't seen their ship yet.

"We are pirates, Luffy -" Shanks started but didn't get any further.

"You are pirates? AWESOME! I will be a pirate, too! Can I join your crew?"

Benn could just stare for a moment before he gathered his thoughts. Surprisingly, Shanks was quicker to answer. "Little boys can't join our crew. When you are as tall as me, you can try again."

"I am not LITTLE!"

Shanks knew, teasing Luffy would become his favorite thing to do on this island. He wasn't planning on leaving anytime too soon.