Chapter 1

Every love story has a beginning, but not every story is a chapter in a fairy tale and not every story has a happy ending.

One thing is for certain though, we all get one chance at finding that one true love, our soul mate, and if you are so lucky as to find that person, no matter what the circumstances may be in finding that person, then you may count yourself truly blessed...

"Hi!"

A young ten-year-old boy blinked and looked up from his current task of building a fort out of sticks. He turned his head one direction, then turned it in the opposite direction, but the boy couldn't find the owner of the voice. Grumbling, he decided to go back to his handiwork and forget about it, but...

"Whatcha doing here?"

Suddenly a blur of white was right at his side and the boy jumped back, tripping over his own feet and falling right on his ass. "OW!"

"Ooh y'know, you should be more careful where you're walking! Don't want to fall over like that again, do ya?"

His head snapped up, eyes narrowed into a deadly glare as he got a better look at this individual who had dared to interrupt his important building time. What he hadn't expected to find was a curly-haired girl no older than he was, grinning down at him.

The girl extended a hand down to him, smiling all the while as she waited for the boy to take her hand in his. He took the opportunity to get a look at what she wore, a nice dress with nice shoes, making him even more aware of the tattered pieces of clothing he himself wore. The boy stared at the hand offered before grumbling and slipping his hand into hers.

She quickly tugged him to his feet, the moment he was steadied she jumped right into his face. "I'm Johanna! What's your name?"

The boy took a staggered step back, blinking owlishly as he got a better look at this girl who he had just met. He opened his mouth to give her a piece of his mind, to tell her to go away and leave him alone to his fort building but...

Her wide blue eyes were sparkling with excitement, white curls bouncing around her face as she rocked herself back and forth on the heels of her feet.

He forced himself to swallow, and instead of telling her to go away, he found himself answering her question. "Um, I-I'm Sakazuki."

Johanna's nose wrinkled and she let out a little giggle. "That sounds like an old man's name, I don't like it."

Sakazuki felt his jaw tic and he whipped his head to the side, feeling his cheeks flush from slight embarrassment. "W-Well no one asked you for your opinion! If you don't like it then you can just go back to wherever you came from!"

He huffed, turning his back to Johanna in order to go back to his poorly crafted fort. The boy stiffened upon feeling a light tap to his shoulder and looked over his shoulder to find the girl giving an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to be rude but... It's just that your name doesn't really suit you, I mean you seem like a really interesting person with the way you're working on this fort so I thought you'd have a name to match too!" Johanna's brow furrowed as she looked Sakazuki dead in the eye. "So, I'm going to call you Saka instead! Alright, Saka?"

He could feel his eyebrow twitch at the audacity this girl had at just assuming she could call him whatever she pleased. "Hey! You can't just-"

"Great! So what exactly are you working on here, Saka?" She ignored his protests, leaning closer in toward the fort to get a better look at it for herself.

He huffed, arms crossing in front of him as he watched Johanna out of the corner of his eye. "Don't touch anything! It took me forever to get it the way I wanted it to be and if you mess any of it up-"

"This is so awesome!" Johanna squealed in excitement, whirling around and clapping her hands as she faced Sakazuki again. "Can I help? Please please please? I promise I can be of some help if you'd let me! Honest!"

Now Sakazuki was a loner, always had been. He had no family, no friends, he had always been alone since he had been born and that was the way he liked it. He certainly wasn't about to let some annoying little girl try and have her way with his important work!

But the young boy found himself stopping once again upon looking at the girl who was flashing him a brilliant smile. The ten-year-old felt his cheeks warm and he quickly looked away, shoulders shrugging slightly. "Do whatever you like," he mumbled under his breath. "Just don't get in my way!" His head snapped back to Johanna who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Great!" She reached out, grabbing onto one of Sakazuki's wrists before dragging him back to the fort. "Let's get to work then, Saka!"

"Don't tell me what to do! ...And don't call me by that name! My name is Sakazuki, not Saka!"

"Whatever you say, Saka!"

And so, a strange and unlikely friendship was formed that day between the pair. They had worked and worked on the fort until they both deemed it to be as perfect as they could have possibly made it, and once they had finished their work, the two children put the fort to good use, playing and roughhousing as children did.

The sun began to set after several hours of play between the two and Sakazuki found himself not wanting the girl to leave him.

"Do you really have to go? You could stay here! With me! Then we could play like this everyday!"

Johanna gave a sad smile before slowly shaking her head. "I wish I could Saka, but I can't... Daddy will be here soon and then we'll have to leave."

The young boy's fingers slowly clenched into fists at his sides, anger slowly rising within him as he quickly whirled around and turned his back to the girl. "Fine, then just go! I didn't want you here anyway!"

Johanna remained quiet at first as she stared at Sakazuki's back. Then after a few moments of tense silence, the white-haired girl reached a hand out and gently grasped one of his clenched hands with her own. "But Saka, aren't we friends?"

Sakazuki stiffened upon feeling soft fingers grab his hand and hearing Johanna's question. "F-Friends?" He hadn't thought of it like that... After all, he had never had friends, most everyone ran the other way when they saw the boy, but here this girl was wanting to actually be his friend.

It blew the ten-year-old's mind.

Slowly, he turned and faced Johanna again, dark eyes meeting her own bright blue orbs. "You really... You want to be my friend?"

Johanna giggled, squeezing Sakazuki's hand tightly. "Of course I do silly! Why wouldn't I want to be your friend?"

The boy shrugged. "I dunno, nobody's ever wanted to I guess..."

Blue eyes blinked and Johanna's face screwed up into a look of annoyance, huffing as she shook her head quickly. "Well they're all stupid! You're a great person and a great friend!"

"You really think so?" Something inside the boy wanted to believe Johanna's words, he realized that he actually wanted Johanna to be his friend.

"JOHANNA!"

The two younglings jumped at the sound of a booming voice, Johanna squealing and rushing toward the tall man wearing the standard uniform for an important Navy officer.

"Daddy! Daddy I had so much fun today! I've even made a new friend!"

Johanna's father grinned and scooped his only child up into his arms, spinning her around. "You did?! Wahahaha! That's wonderful Johanna!"

"He's right over there! His name's Saka!"

The boy grit his teeth, growling under his breath. "I told you before it's Sakazuki!"

Suddenly Rear Admiral Barker stopped in place upon hearing his daughter say that her friend wasn't a she as he had originally thought, but rather a he... Ice blue eyes narrowed to slits as he turned his attention to the boy before putting his daughter back down to her feet.

"So," Barker began, arms crossing in front of him. "You're my little girl's new friend?"

Sakazuki suddenly realized just how scary Johanna's father really was right in that instant, swallowing forcefully before nodding once. "Y-Yes..."

Barker snorted and Johanna quickly stepped out in front of Sakazuki, hands planted to her hips as she glared up at her father. She knew that particular look in her father's eyes all too well... "Daddy! You be nice to my friend!"

The overprotective father stared over Johanna and right at Sakazuki, deadly intent very apparent in the father's gaze. He didn't trust any male with his little girl, after all she was the only family he had left, and something in his gut told him to be extra cautious around this young boy that he had never even laid eyes upon before today.

That boy would someday try to defile his little girl, he just knew it!

"Johanna, say your goodbyes. We'll be getting on the ship soon and leaving." With that, Barker turned and left his daughter and her friend behind in order to return to his ship.

Johanna and Sakazuki watched Barker's back until he was out of sight, the girl then sighing as she turned to her friend. "I guess I have to go..."

"Oh..."

Johanna quickly lifted her hand out to Sakazuki, pinky extended out to the boy who merely stared at the finger, blinking in confusion.

"Wh-What are you-"

"Promise me!" Sakazuki blinked again, but Johanna continued before the boy could respond. "I want you to promise me that we'll stay friends no matter what!"

All Sakazuki could do was nod, his own pinky poking out and curling around Johanna's. The little girl's features relaxed and she beamed before throwing her arms around the boy, kissing his cheek quickly.

"We'll see each other again someday, I know it!"

With that, the curly-haired girl bounded off in the direction her father had gone, stopping to turn around and give Sakazuki a big wave before once again turning and running off.

The boy was completely and utterly dumbfounded. A hand slowly made its way to his cheek, to the place where Johanna had kissed him. That had been the last thing he had expected, but... He found he didn't really hate it.

In fact, it merely made him want to see Johanna again. He knew he had to see her by any means necessary. She was his friend, the only one he had ever had, and he had to see her again.

His young ten-year-old mind remembered that Johanna's father had been wearing a hat, one with the word MARINE on it. Her father was obviously in the Navy, and maybe, just maybe that was the way he could see Johanna again.

The young Sakazuki decided in that moment that he had to become a Marine in order to be closer to Johanna, by any and all means necessary.


Aww, young love at first sight! Isn't it so cute?

Sooo what did you ducklings think of this first chapter? If any of you have read or follow my stories Against the Tide and Perception, then you're aware of the SakazukixOC pairing I have in there. Johanna is Sakazuki's love and his everything, here we see their first meeting when they were young children and they'll continue to be part of one another's lives until death do them part. *grins*

Now originally I wasn't a big fan of Akainu/Sakazuki, especially after Marineford where he killed Ace, but I absolutely adore Johanna and the more I wrote about Johanna and Sakazuki, the more I found myself warming up to him somewhat. I love writing this pairing out so I came up with the idea for more background on Sakazuki and Johanna's past together.

I'm not sure how long this particular story will be, hopefully no more than 10 or so chapters but we'll just have to see where the plot bunnies take this fanfic! Updates won't be very regular since I work over 40 hours a week and have several other stories currently that I'm working on as well, but I won't give up on this story I can promise you all that!

Hope you all enjoy~! Please tell me what you ducklings thought, good or bad!