Artemis could feel the weight of the sky bearing down on her, she could hear Atlas gloating about how the Titans would win, how the Gods would lose and how the world would be theirs. He was talking about how she would be forced to watch as her father and brother were torn apart, their essences and power being scattered to the four winds where they would never be able to reform again.
As this happened Artemis thought, she thought about her family as crazy and messed up as a family could be but it was still HER family. She thought about her huntresses, would they be alright without her? She hoped so but regardless she would still miss them more than anything else. And then her eyes fell onto the sea and she thought of HIM.
He was the only man she had ever come to respect, he was loud, annoying, stupid, and reckless but he was also brave, kind, caring, surprisingly insightful and would do anything for those he called a friend. He was no god, no demi-god or even a monster he was just a mortal, a mortal with odd abilities but still a mortal. He was also the one who she loved more than anything, even more than herself and she had to admit her and her family were famous for their vanity so it was saying something.
She remembered the day she first met him, he fell from the sky and landed on her.
"Lady Artemis! Lady Artemis! Are you alright?" one of her Huntresses, Phoebe, asked as she threw the man off of her.
Artemis pulled herself to her feet, the pain and injuries already healed, "I am well Phoebe. Perhaps you can tell me just what happened though."
All of the assembled huntresses started to talk all at once, desperate to be the one to tell their goddess just what had happened. Artemis however tuned them out as she looked about her.
She was in the middle of a crater that was oddly shaped like a paw-print and the corpse of that filthy man was thrown to her side.
The man was dressed strangely, he was in a red vest and blue shorts, had sandals and was wearing a raggedy old strawhat. No one dressed like that around here, especially not in winter where the temperatures were regularly below zero degrees Celsius. "Curious, I wonder where he came from," she muttered to herself.
"It was probably an ill thought attack against you Lady Artemis, you know how stupid these men can be. Probably didn't even realize that falling from such a height would kill him," Zoe stated derisively.
Artemis gave a small shrug, "you are probably correct. Just leave his corpse out for the animals to feast on. We must continue our hunt after all."
The Huntresses moved to do as their lady had ordered when a loud moan filled the air. "FOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDD!" moaned the, previously thought, corpse.
Artemis snorted slightly to herself, the looks on their faces when he did that was priceless.
"Oh you think that me taking your Huntresses one by one against there will is funny do you?" Atlas asked with a sneer.
'Why do all bad guys always sneer?' HE had asked that once and Artemis was curious about that as well. She was half tempted to ask Atlas that very question just to see how he would respond. The Huntresses were right, HE had rubbed off on her quite a lot, not that she was complaining. Her thought's drifted off once more.
"I will ask you one last time MAN. Why did you attack our Lady," Vanessa asked cruelly, a knife against the man's throat.
The man looked at Vanessa blankly before light filled his eyes, "hey do you have any meat?" he asked stupidly.
"Just answer the question you idiot!" Vanessa screamed, smacking the man over the head, not that he seemed to notice.
"Awww come on," the man whined. "I haven't eaten in three days, that's twenty seven meals I've missed. Please? I just want a tiny bit, only half a pig. Please?" the man begged, giving Vanessa the cutest case of puppdog eyes that Artemis had ever seen, not that she would ever admit that.
"Perhaps I should carry out the interrogation instead Vanessa," Artemis offered/ordered as she made her presence known. "Wouldn't want you to kill the prisoner before we get any answers now would we?"
"Yes Lady Artemis he is all yours," Vanessa said jumping into a salute.
The man's eyes seemed to focus on Artemis, it was as if he could see every little thing about her, her past, present and future, it was as if he could see into her very being and it made Artemis feel a little nervous, there was something about this man that radiated power. "Hey are you a captain?" he eventually asked, breaking the moment.
"Stop pretending like you don't know who Lady Artemis is you brute," Vanessa growled, smacking him over the back of the head again.
"I am not a captain, as you called it," Artemis told the man. "I am Artemis, Goddess of the hunt and the leader of the Huntresses."
"Oh," the man sad, clearly impressed by what she had said. "I'm Luffy, I'm going to be Pirate King. Nice to meet ya. Do you have any meat?"
That was probably the first time when Artemis felt a Luffy-induced migraine coming on, it certainly wouldn't be the last.
"Hey do you know that Lightening guy?" the man, Luffy, asked.
Artemis knew who he was talking about, there was only one 'lightening guy' as he put it. "Yes he is my father," she told him.
"Oh….," the man said. "Your dad is a bastard….You seem nicer, do you have any meat?"
Artemis giggled slightly at that memory, Luffy had been the only person to openly insult her father. Sure many people didn't like him and would give back-handed praise to him but no one, NO ONE, ever insulted her father besides his brother, without fear of death. She would later learn that There was very little Luffy feared but death was not one of those things.
It had been a few days since Artemis had 'found' the man called Luffy and she had realised several things about him. He was loud, stupid, thought only about pleasing his baser desires, idiotic, annoying and quite possible 'touched' In essence he was like every other man she had ever met. She had finally had enough of him so she decided that he would make great bait for their latest prey, the Ismenian Dragon, it was said to be in a spring nearby.
The plan was simple, tie up the man, place him near the spring and have her Huntresses surround the spring ready for when the dragon showed it's self. It almost worked too.
After tying up the man and ignoring his whining for meat, she had her Huntresses surround the spring and then threw the man out into position. The Ismenian Dragon made it's presence clear very fast, only it didn't go for the man. Artemis didn't know it at the time but the man would never be a good source of food for any animals or beasts, instead the dragon rushed forward for her.
Too shocked by the dragon's sudden actions Artemis was not prepared and as such was knocked back by it's charge. Screaming in fright for their lady the huntresses rushed forward to protect her, their bows and plan all but forgotten.
Artemis could only watch from the ground as her Huntresses rushed forward in what could only be called a suicide charge, the dragon sent each and every one of them flying. Once all of her Huntresses were knocked down the dragon advanced on her again, this time slower, more predatory and Artemis was helpless. She could see her death in it's eyes and there would be nothing that she could do. Then the Ismenian Dragon lunged forward, intent on biting her in half.
There was a red blur and Artemis found that not only was she still alive but the dragon had stopped. The man, Luffy, was standing in front of her only he was different, his skin was red, he was literally steaming and unlike his usual child-like personality he seemed very, very angry.
"Do not touch my friends," Luffy growled out, his voice seething with so much rage Artemis knew that even Ares would have been terrified.
Then her eyes lit up on something. The dragon's teeth were buried in his shoulder, one movement and his arm would come clean off yet he didn't care at all, he did not even seem to notice he was just focused on keeping the Ismenian Dragon from hurting her.
To this day Artemis would deny that she had blushed when she had realised that.
Yes Luffy was never afraid of death or pain, he was much more frightened of losing those he cared about and Artemis knew she was lucky to be one of those few. A small blush lit up her cheeks as she thought about how much she would like to show Luffy how much she cared for him.
"Aww is the little princess having dirty thoughts about me?" came Atlas' mocking voice, snapping Artemis to reality. When had he taken off his shirt? More importantly why?
"Just thinking about how even your mother would be disgusted by the small of manure that is your odour," Artemis replied. Luffy had certainly changed her from being the uptight little princess she used to be, though she was still a virgin and untouched by man.
"You know," Atlas remarked dismissively, "I don't understand why such a beautiful woman as you will wear such a ratty hat," he then reached forward to try and take it off of her head but Artemis was able to get up a foot to kick him away.
"Don't touch my hat," she spat.
"Don't touch my hat," Luffy growled, snatching his strawhat out of Louise's hands. The amount of rage etched on his face was frightening and even Artemis had taken a step back.
Her Huntresses had been practising their archery when Louise had gotten the idea to try and scare Luffy a bit, she had shot his hat right off of his head and Luffy had frozen, in what Louise assumed was fear.
Louise, and the rest of the Huntresses, had laughed at Luffy as the girl walked over to pick up his hat, after ripping the arrow out of it she had held it out to Luffy. "You should keep a better hold of your hat," she had sneered and then Luffy had snapped.
After growling at Louise he had walked off into the trees, smashing several of them down as he went. Artemis and the rest of the Huntresses were shocked by Luffy's reaction. No matter what had been said about him, no matter what had been done he always seemed to just laugh it off and ignore it, they had never expected him to act like he did.
Deciding to go and see if the man, who she was slowly beginning to admit was not as horrible as the rest of the men, was going to be alright, Artemis followed after him. She found him almost a kilometre away from the camp where he was sitting on a fallen tree staring at his strawhat, sadness obviously clear in his eyes.
Artemis knew that there was only one thing she could say in a situation like this, "i...I can fix that if you w...would like?" she asked hesitantly, inwardly cursing her hesitance. She was Lady Artemis, leader of the Huntresses when did she ever hesitate?
Luffy's head instantly snapped up to her, child-like glee was in his eyes. He looked like Santa had just given him everything he had asked for for Christmas and then some. Artemis couldn't help but smile when he looked at her like that. "Really?" he asked hopefully.
Artemis nodded and held her hand out, "may I?" she asked gesturing to the strawhat.
He hesitated for only a second before handing her the hat, "thanks Arty," he said, grinning wide.
Normally Artemis hated nicknames but for some reason him calling her Arty caused a light blush to colour her cheeks. Not knowing how to respond she just summoned a sewing kit and began to silently work on the strawhat.
"Wh...why did you get so angry before?' she asked when she was halfway done.
Luff didn't say anything and after a few minutes Artemis was wondering if he had heard her and was going to ask again when he spoke up. "I made a promise that I would look after that hat for a friend," he told her.
Irrational as it was Artemis felt slightly jealous when she heard that, "must have been some friend," she muttered.
"He was, Shanks was great. You know he's a pirate like me? He stopped off at my home island when I was a kid and he would always tell me stories of his adventures. I looked up to him more than anything. One day some bandits caused trouble in the town and I got into some trouble. Shanks ended up saving me but lost his arm to do it and you know what he said?" Luffy asked a small smile on his face.
Artemis had stopped sowing at that point and just watched Luffy as he told his story.
"He told me that it was just an arm and that he had another one. The main thing was that I was safe," Luffy told her.
"He really cares for you doesn't he?" Artemis asked softly.
Luffy nodded, "yeah he does. A week after that he gave me this hat and told me that he wanted me to give it back to him but only after I gathered a crew and became the King of the Pirates."
Artemis smiled, "tell me about your crew."
Luffy then began to tell her all about his nakama and all of the travels they had been on, it was well into the night before he stopped. Not that Artemis had noticed it was so late, she could have listened to Luffy speak all day and all night long. His adventures just sounded so amazing.
Artemis stared at Atlas with all of the fury and power that she could muster, "I swear to the gods that if you so much as lay a finger on this hat then there will be nothing that can save you."
Atlas stared at her is shock for a few seconds before bursting out laughing, "oh and what are you going to do about it? You are stuck, you are weak and helpless and there is nothing you can do," Atlas laughed.
Artemis froze at those words, 'nothing you can do,' oh how she hated those words, she hated the nightmares that had been caused from those words.
It had been two years to the day from when she had first met Luffy and Artemis had finally admitted, if only to herself, how she felt about the rubber pirate who came from another world. She loved him. She loved him more than anything, more than life it's self and she was finally going to tell him.
All of her Huntresses had remarked about how happy she looked that day, about how there was a spring in her step as she went about her daily routines. Once all of the morning preparation was done Artemis went off in search of the man who held her heart.
She found him, not to far from the camp talking to someone. She knew who the man was, Luffy had described him enough for her to know him on sight, he was Bartholmew Kuma.
He and Luffy were talking to each other, saying something that Artemis was unable to hear but Luffy looked angry. He had come, he had come to take Luffy away from her, Artemis just knew it.
"WAIT!" Artemis screamed in fear as she rushed forward, intent on stopping Kuma but it was all for naught. Just before she reached them Kuma touched Luffy and the pirate was gone, his strawhat being all that was left.
"Bring him back!" Artemis screamed at Kuma. "Bring him back right now!"
"I am sorry," Kuma told her, he actually sounded sorry, "but there is nothing you can do to bring him back and I will not do it."
Normally if someone said something like that to her Artemis would fight tooth and nail to prove them wrong but she was just too distraught. Falling to the ground she picked up Luffy's strawhat and held it to her chest tightly, refusing to let go of it. "I was just about to tell him," she whimpered. "I was about to tell him how much I love him and you just had to take him away from me. Do the Fates hate me that much or is it Aphrodite? Is the thought of me being in love that horrible for her that she must punish me? Why? WHY?" she screamed breaking into tears.
There was no response from Kuma, he had disappeared long ago.
Tears filled Artemis' eyes as she remembered that day three years ago, she hadn't given up hope that he would return though. "I didn't even get to tell him," she muttered.
"Tell who what?" atlas asked, his sneer still on his face.
Artemis was about to respond but she was interrupted by a sound, it was the sound of music. It was such a beautiful sound that Artemis knew it could have only been created by her brother. "No," she whispered in horror. She couldn't lose Apollo, not him as well.
The music drew closer and closer until suddenly, "excuse me miss but can I see your panties?" a skeleton with an afro asked her.
Artemis and Atlas stared at the skeleton in shock, she had no idea how to respond to that and neither did Atlas it seemed. Something however tickled the back of Artemis' mind but she couldn't remember what was so important about a skeleton with an afro.
"You shitty skeleton that's no way to talk to a lady," a blond-haired man shouted as he kicked the skeleton away. The blond suddenly got on one knee and faced Artemis, "excuse me mademoiselle but would you like some help with that?"
"I think that even your great strength would be unable to lift the sky," a female voice chuckled. "You may be squished to a paste if you tried." a mature looking woman appeared right behind the blond.
"Are you kidding?" a long nosed man asked, "I remember when I was three years old I held up the sky for an entire month with no food, drink or rest."
"Really!" a cute blue nosed reindeer exclaimed in awe.
"Stop lying!" a scantily dressed red-haired woman snapped, hitting the long-nosed man over the head.
"Hey careful you might give long-nose some brain damage and that wouldn't be SUPER" a man with square arms shouted, striking a pose as he said super.
Artemis suddenly felt the sky lift from her shoulders. She turned to see a green haired man with three swords on his waist casually holding the sky up with one hand, "nice hat," he told her.
"Oh and what do you idiots think you are doing?" Atlas asked with a growl, advancing on Artemis and the strange group.
Artemis made to move forward but was stopped by the green haired man's hand, "just wait our captain will deal with this."
At those words Artemis remembered just what was so important. A pervert skeleton, a blond pervert who liked to kick people, a woman who told morbid jokes, a long-nosed liar, a blue-nosed reindeer, a red-head with a fierce temper, a strange man who screamed Super and only wore speedos and a green haired swordsman with three swords. "You...you're Luffy's crew aren't you?" she asked hopefully.
The green-haired swordsman, Zoro she remembered his name was, nodded with a slight smirk.
"Gomu Gomu no Gigant Pistol!" a voice shouted out and suddenly a fist the size of a giant's slammed into Atlas, sending him flying right into Zoro. The swordsman let go of the sky allowing it to drop on Atlas' prone form.
"Hey Arty," came Luffy's voice. "Did you miss me?"
Artemis didn't say anything she just rushed forward and gave her Pirate King a kiss.
…
…
…
So what do you guys think? Like it? Never did a romance before so I hope you did.