A.N: Hooray, I wrote a new one shot again. I know I should write my other stories, but this just came to my mind and it was short, so I thought that why not. And there´s not many fics about Coby, and that fact needs to be fixed. C´mon, he´s a great character, so him some respect! :D
Disclaimer: I don´t own One Piece
Cool
Coby watched as Luffy and Zoro left from the island.
"Next time we meet, I´ll be a marine!" Coby thought, looking at his friend´s little boat disappearing.
XXXXX
A couple of weeks later, he was washing the floors as a marine chore boy. It didn´t bother him, he had known that he had to start from the bottom.
But he got horrified when he did a big mistake. Actually, it wasn´t that big, but for him it was. He had washed the marine uniforms with too hot water and now they had gotten too small. Everyone told him not to worry and that it could happen to anyone, but he still panicked like a crazy.
"What´s wrong Coby?" asked Rika, a little girl from the town from Coby. He was visiting her and her mother again, since they were his only friends in the island if the other marines didn´t count.
"I messed everything up", Coby said with a sigh.
"What do you mean?" Rika asked, sitting down at the table.
"I washed everyone´s clothes with too hot water and now they´re too small to wear", Coby mumbled in shame. Seriously, how could he be so stupid! He had done the same things for two years now, and the most of the time was in pirate ship! If this would have happened there, he would have gotten beaded up.
"But that´s not bad", Rika said, blinking.
"Yes it is", Coby said "I´m such a failure… maybe I should just give up on being a ma-"
Before Coby could finish, he already felt Rika´s small fist colliding with his cheek.
"Ouch!" Coby yelled. He was really weak since even a punch of a four year old hurt him.
"Stop it! If you say something like that you´ll never be cool like the two big brothers!" Rika yelled. Coby held his cheek and looked at the angry little girl.
"You´re right. Thanks, Rika."
XXXXX
The next time Coby met Luffy was in Water 7. They talked together; he, Luffy, Helmeppo and Zoro. Then just he, Helmeppo and Luffy. When Helmeppo left to get something to drink, Coby decided to tell Luffy something he hadn´t been able to tell earlier.
"Luffy-san", he started, getting Luffy´s attention.
"I… I want to say thank you. I wouldn´t be here without you", Coby told, looking at the ground.
"Yeah, you would still be stuck at Alvida´s ship!" Luffy laughed.
"Not only that!" Coby yelled suddenly, looking Luffy straight in the eyes "Even if I haven´t been at Alvida´s ship, I would never have become a marine without your help! I would still be the cowardly little runt who just watches cool people like you from far away!"
"You´re still a runt", Luffy said, making Coby fall off of his seat.
"But I´m happy", as Luffy said this, Coby looked up at him, dumbfounded.
"When I was a kid, I thought that my big brothers were cool. I always wanted to be like them", Luffy said.
"It´s really nice to hear that someone thinks the same way about me!" he added with a grin.
"Luffy-san…" Coby said, so moved that he got tears in his eyes.
"Can you believe it? I was once a stupid, weak little runt, just like you!" Luffy laughed, making Coby´s smile drop. Sure he knew that his friend didn´t mean anything bad, but it still hurt.
Oh well… at least he had said what he had wanted to say.
XXXXX
Coby was walking in the Sabaody Archipelago. The war against White Beard was over and the silver age of pirates had begun, giving marines much more job to do. Coby was feeling guilty for trying to stop Luffy at Marine Ford. Sure he hadn´t been able to harm him, since he had been knocked out with a one punch, but he still felt horrible.
And the information that he could use haki didn´t help.
Sure, he knew it would help him with his career, but what if something went wrong? What then? Garp had told him that haki was a powerful weapon, but it was no use if you couldn´t control it. Garp had already tried to teach him a little, but so far his didn´t success.
Coby´s thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream. A wave of fear washed over him, but he bushed it aside and ran towards the sound. He was a marine now; his duty was to protect people!
XXXXX
Soon he saw where the scream had come from; a young woman, holding a small child, maybe four or five, was being tied up by slave traders.
"Quiet, you bitch!" one of the men yelled at the woman and hit her arm.
"Stop that!" Coby yelled and used soru to get next to the man. He hit him on the chin and he was down.
"Now you did it, brat!" one man snarled, running towards Coby. Coby kicked him and saw that there were still five more men.
Not long after, all the seven men were lying on the ground, unconscious. Coby walked to the woman and the little kid, who he now noticed was a boy, and carefully untied them.
"Thank you! Thank you so much…" the woman thanked him, tears in her eyes.
"It was nothing, really", Coby said, lowering his head towards the boy.
"You okay kid?" he asked with a smile. The boy wiped his tears and smiled.
"Yeah!" he cheered.
"Are you a marine?" the woman asked suddenly from Coby.
"Hm? Yeah", he replied. The woman smiled, saying: "We don´t usually see marines here in lawless zones."
Coby´s eyes widened.
"This is lawless zone? Man, I must have gotten lost." he mumbled. The woman laughed.
"Well you´re not the only one. I ran after my son and came here by accident", the woman said, looking at her son who had guilty face.
"Sorry mum", he mumbled.
"Do you find your way back?" the woman asked from Coby, who scratched nervously his head, saying: "Uuh… I don´t think so, I´m not very familiar with this area."
"Well I´ll show you the way, as a thanks of saving us." the woman said with a smile.
"Thank you", Coby said and they started to walk in to safer areas.
XXXXX
"We´re here", the woman said when they arrived to Grove 40.
"Thank you for the help", Coby said. The woman laughed again.
"No, thanks to you." she said. Coby smiled at her and felt a tug on the hem of his shirt. He looked down and saw the little boy tugging at his shirt.
"That was so cool how you beat those bad guys! Bam, bam! I wanna be a marine too when I grow up!" he said. Coby and the woman laughed.
"I thought you wanted to be a reporter", the woman said to her son.
"I did, but now I want to be a marine! I want to be cool just like this mister!" the boy said, pointing at Coby. The woman and Coby laughed again
"It was nice to meet you, but I need to get going." Coby said to them.
"Well, good bye then." the woman said with a smile and Coby smiled back and started to walk away.
"Bye bye mister!" the little boy yelled and waived. Coby turned around and waived back.
XXXXX
Coby was walking back to his hotel, his earlier bad mood gone. Luffy had been right, it really did feel nice when someone respected you and wanted to be like you. A small smile came to Coby´s lips as he thought: "So I´m cool, huh?"
A.N: I´m not really sure which groves were lawless and which weren´t, but I am pretty sure that grove 40 wasn´t lawless. Review?
