Part 0: OnePiece characters and whatnot all belong to Eiichiro Oda and etc, etc, the characters and world don't belong to me, etc., etc, but the way the words were put in this order – that bit is mine.

Because I think Makino x Shanks don't get enough attention.

Simple

They were all in here tonight. It must have been a good voyage or they wouldn't be spending their money so freely.

Shanks was sitting at the bar alone. "Here you go, Captain." He nodded.

It was always captain when the crew was around.

It was simple. He and the crew came in. The crew ordered drinks until they couldn't stand then returned to the ship. Some nights, the captain did the same.

And other times, Shanks ordered dinner and he stayed.

Luffy was in here, bandage newly applied to his face. That kid – always hanging around the pirates. His hero-worship of Shanks was a high source of amusement for her. It reminded her when she was a kid…wanting to run away to join the circus. Instead, she had run away here and found that giving up everything wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Then again, she wasn't a man. It was different for men.

The captain's eyes were on her again. It had been a long voyage, hadn't it? She tried to remember when they had left.

Luffy was proudly proclaiming that he would be pirate, that he would have a punch as strong as a pistol, and that he would learn how to swim and join the pirates on their next cruise. And the pirates teased him and told stories for him and basically treated him like a pet.

She realized that Luffy had probably not eaten all day. "Would you like something?"

And the swindler, that was what Shanks had called him, ordered the most expensive thing on the Party's Bar menu. She laughed and brought it to him anyway. The owner could take it out of her wages later.

She listened to the idle chatter of the boy with his hero. She smiled when she heard how many voyages were left. That many? She was surprised. Maybe the captain was humoring Luffy – he had told her different.

When the door hit the floor, her head jerked up. It was quiet as the gang strutted in and she knew from her vast experience (which she had purposely run away from) that this was not going to go well.

Their leader wanted beer. Well, there wasn't any. Shanks and his crew had bought it all.

She kept her smile plastered on like any good barmaid should. What she really wanted to say – well, it would have startled everyone. She hadn't worked in bars all her life without learning how to swear like a sailor. Living in rough places gave a person rough edges.

She held her tongue and answered him politely. She hated being obsequious, but it kept her out of trouble. The pirates weren't always in port and she was often left to tend the bar alone.

As she spoke, she realized she was sweating and she hated herself for it.

Shanks politely (real politeness, not politeness born of fear, like hers) offered the bandit beer and he got it back in the face. It surprised her – the sudden violence. She knew she shouldn't have been frightened, but it had been such a long time since she'd seen this. Her town was usually quiet and she had left the mountains so long ago.

She was startled out of her memories when Shanks asked for a rag. She stammered something and then Higuma broke bottles and plates and called the captain a coward. She whispered a quick prayer behind her hand and prepared for the worst. Bandits and pirates? This was going to be bad.

But the bandits walked away and the pirates stayed in their place. She could have cried, she was so happy. She hadn't wanted it to happen again.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?" she asked Shanks.

And for a second, just for a second, she had seen it. He had always been very careful not to frighten her but, for one second, she saw him as a pirate captain.

The crew laughed and Shanks joined in on the laughter. It was all a great joke to them but, Luffy, he didn't find it funny. Then all that strangeness happened…

Later, Shanks was quieter than usual. He didn't tell her tales of his adventures nor show her the small trinkets that he'd brought from other ports. He didn't smile much.

As he was putting on his sandals, she finally said it. "Thank you."

He paused. "For what?"

"For not fighting today. If anything had been broken - "

Shanks interrupted her. "Makino, it was beer. It was nothing to fight over."

She hugged her knees to her chin and smiled. "I know."

-------------------

She'd been ten when the bandits in the tavern killed her mother. They'd gotten drunk and gotten angry and they'd gotten violent. Her mother hadn't done anything wrong; she was just serving them, but when the fighting started, no one cared who was hurt.

In the mountains, there wasn't much anyone could do about bandits. So she ran as far and as fast as she could, until she was physically stopped by the sea. When she couldn't run anymore, she found Party's Bar. She knew barrooms – she'd been born in one. She'd seen the many faces of humanity belly up for a drink and maybe the owner had seen that in her eyes when she'd boldly applied for the waitress position. She was young, but she wasn't afraid to serve the worst dregs that found their way into Party's Bar. So she'd made her new home, living in the back room, working in the front, happy to manage the place when she got older and always happy be away from the mountains.

She was left to her own devices by the rest of the town. She was only a barmaid and most of the time was treated as such, but her work gave her more freedom than if she had been living in the village proper. Many knew her; not many were more than acquaintances.

The tide brought ships in and the tide took them out again. Crews came in, made themselves familiar, and then they sailed away. The pirates were just another crew of many; crews that had sailors and first mates and captains that had ordered dinner and stayed late after she'd locked the doors. She never asked for much and neither did they.

It was simple.

------------------

The pirates were gone again. It was very quiet in the village without them.

She cleaned glasses. There wasn't much else to do. Luffy had found his way back here. Perhaps it was because it was a familiar place and reminded him of his friends that were gone. She was glad he was here. He made her laugh.

"Soon you'll be ready to go with your friends," she said, as he lamented his fate.

"I don't want to! I overestimated Shanks and his crew. I thought they were cooler than that. I have been disillusioned." He said it so plaintively that she had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing.

"Oh yeah? Well, I thought they were cool. The way the captain smiled…"

Luffy stared into his empty glass. "There are times when men don't do that."

She laughed. "So I'm wrong."

"Yeah. Way wrong."

The door opened.

"I hope we're not disturbing you…"

Disturbing? She kept a blank, pleasant face, but inside, her thoughts churned.

She wasn't going to begin to argue with them. She was alone and there were many of them; there was no way she could resist them.

She tapped the kegs quietly and quickly, serving all of them in record time, not that they noticed. She kept her mouth shut and cleaned glasses while they wagged their tongues. Bandits, she thought, keeping her eyes on the glass; there was a special place reserved just for them in hell.

She kept her eyes on the glass because if that man, Higuma, saw her eyes, he would make her pay. She knew he would because she had known men like him. That's what she'd left when she'd gotten out of the mountains and into this sea port.

She liked the port. It wasn't ever dusty here and the sea stretched out endlessly, offering a chance at blue oblivion, if one wanted to take it, unlike those rings and ridges of mountains that kept a person trapped inside.

Bandits brought the stink of the mountains with them.

-------------------

She ran so fast that she lost her kerchief. Her feet took her to the Chief's place. She burst in the front door, startling him. "Chief! It's awful!"

"Makino? What's the matter?"

"Luffy! The bandits!"

They found Luffy with the bandits in the middle of the village. Those bastards, she thought angrily, they were showing off. They were doing this for fun. She was livid, but there was nothing she could do. Chief tried to negotiate, but she could have told him that it wasn't going to work. She knew bandits.

There was going to be more blood.

"No one was at the port to meet us. So this was why. It's the bandits from before."

A body pushed past her.

"Captain!"

Things were moving quickly, they weren't moving at all. The bandit aimed a pistol to the Captain's head. Then there was blood and screaming, just like in the mountains with her mother.

She remembered that when Shanks was the captain, he was a pirate. And it frightened her.

She watched as Ben dispatched the rushing bandits, one, two, and three.

"Awesome." That was her voice.

Cool, amazing, awful, terrifying – it all meant the same thing.

Then Higuma was gone and Luffy was gone and the captain (no, it wasn't the captain, it was Shanks) had panicked. It was just for a moment, but she was reassured that he was the same man who stayed at Party's Bar later than the others.

"Makino! What happened?"

She told him how the bandits were jawing about the last time they met the pirates and how Luffy had started screaming at them and how she had been powerless to do anything, just like with her mother and she hadn't meant to tell him that, but he touched her arm and said that he would find Luffy.

--------------------

She'd never been on a pirate ship, but this is where he was. His crew wouldn't let him be removed from the ship. He'd lost too much blood. He'd lost more than that.

She walked up the ramp that connected the ship with the dock. It was strangely hushed. She missed the boisterous and dangerous mirth that usually poured off the ship and into the town.

Ben met her at the rail.

"Permission to come aboard?" she asked tentatively, not sure how to proceed.

"Only one who can give permission is the captain," he said tersely. She lowered her eyes in embarrassment at her mistake. Then he motioned for her to follow him.

Strident voices cut through the air. The town doctor and the local healing woman were on the deck, bickering with each other on how they should treat the pirate captain. Makino clenched her hands into two fists as she followed Ben. She was worried before and now she was angry.

"Stop it, both of you!" she hissed. "If you're going to argue, do it off this ship!"

Hearing this coming from Makino, quiet, pleasant Makino, was enough to shame them into silence. She stalked past them and allowed Ben to open the door to the cabin for her.

The room was dark. He was lying on his bed with the coverlet pulled up to his neck.

"Captain?"

"I heard you from outside." His voice was hoarse.

She covered her mouth with her hand. "I'm sorry. I – "

He interrupted her. "Don't apologize. You don't have to be the perfect lady all the time. Sometimes it's good to be a pirate."

She approached him slowly. She felt very aware of her hands and was unsure of where to put them.

"Luffy? How is he?"

She smiled. "Tired, still a bit shaken from his scare, but mostly he's worried. He's worried that you might not like him anymore."

She couldn't tell if he was smiling too. It was too dark. "Well, you tell him not to worry then."

"I already have, but he's only going to believe it when he hears it from you." She paused. What should she say? What was there to say?

There was the way the sheet lay, unable to mask the absence.

"Is there anything I can do?" she asked.

He was silent for some time before saying, "No."

The pauses and the silence; it had never been awkward before this. Everything had been understood; it had been so simple.

He coughed. "Is there anyone minding Party's?"

She understood that. She stood up, smoothing her skirt nervously. "No. I should probably go back."

"Thank you for visiting, Makino," he added as she went to the door.

She wouldn't leave him to think anything was different. Nothing had changed; she would make sure he understood it.

"I'll expect to be seeing you in Party's soon," she said firmly. "Promise?"

Nothing.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

-----------------

They were all in here tonight. The crew was ordering beer and rum like it was going out of style. Shanks sat in his usual place and was on his third mug. He wore his cape; it was the first time he had done so in Party's Bar.

Now or never, she thought as she came out of the kitchen.

She put the plate down in front of him. The spoon against the edge.

"I didn't ask for this," he said quietly, meeting her eyes.

Pity and charity; those were insults to men and women like him and her. This had nothing to do with gratitude; there were much better ways to show it. She shrugged, trying to be nonchalant, hoping he would understand what she meant by her reply. "You don't get to ask all the time."

He looked at the plate and he looked at her and he picked up the spoon.

------------------------

"Makino?"

She opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling. "Hmm?"

He took her hand and squeezed it. He didn't have to say anything; nothing had changed.

She turned on her side and looked at his profile. "Voyages are long for both of us, you know."

"You should know. We're leaving tomorrow. For good."

"Tomorrow?" she mused. It didn't surprise her. "Luffy'll be crushed."

"As long as it's only him."

She smiled and brought her hand up to his face, tracing his beard with her fingertips. "You know that saying? He's got a girl in every port? The rest of that saying is – and she's got a man on every ship."

He laughed, glad to know that she did not resent him his life. How could she? He had never resented her for hers.

--------------------

Luffy's body was shaking with repressed tears. She rested her hand on his shoulder as he wiped his runny nose with the back of his hand. The ship grew smaller and then slowly disappeared over the horizon.

Her world consisted of salt and sea and beer. She was lucky to have the bar and a certain amount of freedom. It was more than many women had.

There had been, and there would be, many ships, with sailors, Marines and pirates, with crew and first mates and captains. Soon a new group would take over Party's and use it for their base when they were docked. 'They' would become a new crew with new faces. She would learn about them and joke with them and have good times with them and they would leave. As the years went on, the faces and ships ran together, like all the rivers that ran from the mountains into the sea.

That was the nature of her life. It was simple and she loved it.