This story was originally spacecrazygirly's story Somwhere Else And Back Again, but I am rewriting it and adding my own touches to the story, so it'll be a bit different then the original.
Declaim: I don't hold all the credits for this story, some of them goes to the original creator, spacecrazygirly.
so, this is my version of Somwhere Else and Back, hope you like.
Chapter One: How The Day Started Out
When Arc woke up that morning, he knew he was in for it. He'd taken a shower and gotten dressed in his brown school uniform and headed down stairs to meet with the rest of his family.
As he got to the bottom and into the kitchen, Arc found his family being as normal as can be, his mom at the dinner table, braiding his little sister's hair as she sat, legs dangling, on the chair and happily eating her food while their father, wearing a blue T-shirt and plain blue jeans (his work cloths), was making coffee. His little sister also wore her blue school uniform for the elementary kids while their mother was in her every day cloths consisting of jeans and a tank top.
Arc held his breath as he quietly made his way over to get his breakfast on the other side of the counter, eyeing his mother very carefully as he made his long journey over to his food.
"Monkey D. Anchor," came his mother's clam, yet bone shilling voice.
But of course he just could never make it past her.
Arc stiffened and froze on the spot upon hearing his full name just as his father turned his head around to them, a cup of steaming hot coffee in his hand. He could see his father's bright, yet pitied smile as the older man made his way over to the dinner table.
"Ohh," his little sister, Mikan, said as she took a sip of her milk while their mother put the last touch on her braids, tying it with cute red butterflies at the ends.
She then turned towards Arc, her arms crossed and a disapproving flown on her face as she eyed him. "Care to explain why I got a call from your school concerning your behavior yesterday mister!" she stated.
His father put the cup down on the table for his mother, sat down opposite his daughter and grinned at his son. "You got into a fight?" he asked and his mother quickly wiped her head around to glare daggers at her husband. His father just shrugged his shoulders, though his eyes betrayed his calmness, as he would not look into her ragging ones.
Arc had already moved at that time and had gone over to get his breakfast, Mikan and their father's eyes trailing him as he went. He took his plate and sat down next to his father, across the table from his mother.
"Yeah," he answered as he sat down, not looking up from his steaming food, knowing that if he did, he'd be met with his mother's dragoness eyes.
"…Why?" his mother asked once she realized that he wasn't going to look up from his food and meet her eyes.
That was the very question he had been dreading would come.
Pausing for a moment, Arc finally formulated an answer for her. "I… he was making fun of Leo… I hadn't want to get caught, but coach Bower just had to come out right at that time and see the end of it…" he answered, now looking off to the side.
His father laughed. "Luffy!" his mother scold, managing to slap the back of his head despite their distance. Arc glimpsed for his father's pain as he had heard how loud that was. "You shouldn't be encouraging him!"
"Ma (now), ma (now), Nami," his father waved it off as he crouched his head, picking up at his wife with tearful eyes and a small grinned-laughing face. "Clam down…" Nami glared at him still, so Luffy gave her his trademark grin. "…Gome (sorry), but he is just like me after all…"
"Maybe too much," Nami sighed loudly and put a hand to her temple. "Well, that can't be help. He is, after all, your son."
Luffy laughed healthily before looking back at Arc, who was almost finished with his breakfast now, having taken the time his parents were distracted by each other to glum down all that he could. Luffy, having seen that, could only grin wider.
"We have a meeting with the head principal of your school today, so we'll be going to school with the both of you," Luffy simply said with a bit of humor in his voice, munching down a plate of meat that was, if Arc remembered correctly, all the way at the other end of the table, where his mother was.
"Luffy," Nami hissed at him.
Both Mikan and Arc paused in their eating. The head principal of their school, Aruron Academy of Fine Arts, never gets involved unless it was serious, or… considering their relationship with each other…
"So… you're not mad at me?" Arc hesitantly questioned.
"Arc," his father started, "you're twelve. When I was your age, I was out hunting in the woods, fighting who knows what sorts of creatures, including my own grandfather, but we're not gona talk about that…" his face grew grim and sickly at the though. Arc had always wondered about his great-grandfather and the other members of his family. He and Mikan had asked about them once, but all their parents did was gave them a sad smile and said that they all lived very far away from them and couldn't come for visits. "That's not as big of a problem here as it would be there…"
"That's just stories you told us when we," he looked to Mikan, "I mean when I was little," Arc muttered.
Luffy eyed him seriously before sacking his head at him. "You're still young Anchor, live it to the fullest boy."
"But not too full though," Nami said as she looked to Luffy.
Luffy shrugged. "Besides," his face now turned back to that of a punting child's, "who ever said that it never happened."
"Common sense dad, common sense," Arc smartly answered.
Luffy humped at that response, crossed his arms and turned away from his son, reaching out for a drink and frowning when he found it empty. Honestly, his father was such a kid sometimes. Though it probably didn't help with the fact that his birthday's on Children's Day.
Nami sighed at her husband's antiques before turning to her son. "So, what do you plane to say to the head principle?"
"… I hadn't thought about it," Arc answered honestly.
"That won't do," she said, shaking her head. "You always need a plan of action."
"… I'll just apologize, I guess," Arc muttered.
Nami laughed. "You should stand up for yourself," she said. "it was the other kid's fought for provoking the fight anyways, right?"
Arc shifted in his seat. "Yeah, but I threw the first punch." He looked up at her this time. "And you said fighting is bad, mom."
"Yes, well, I didn't say that standing up for yourself and your friends is a bad thing," Nami finally sat down next to Mikan and across from Arc. "But you should try going about it a different way. Only words were thrown first, right?"
Arc nodded as Luffy got up to go to the fridge.
Nami smiled. "Then be the bigger person. Don't fight back. It'll only provoke them if you start throwing fists."
"Nami!" Luffy suddenly called back. "We're out of sake!"
"We'll get some on the way back from school Luffy," Nami called back.
"Kay," Luffy happily skipped back to his seat.
Arc had looked down at his food and was thinking for a moment. "But Mom, this is different. You haven't gone through this before."
Nami huffed and put both her arms on her hips, straightening her body more. "Who says I haven't?" she asked, looking insulted. "Your father and I were in a town called Jaya once. This was over fifteen years ago. That makes me feel old…"
"But you don't look old though," Arc said as a small laugh escaped his lips. "Neither of you do." And it was true; they didn't look as old as they should be at all. For some strange reasons, instead of looking like they're in their mid 30s or so, Nami and Luffy looked to be around their early to mid 20s.
Nami smiled. "Thanks, squirt. Anyways, where was I. Ah yes, Jaya. We were there, and there was a man there, called Bellamy, he insulted your father, but Luffy didn't do anything."
"What happened?" Mikan asked, now very much interested in the story and forgetting her need-to-be-washed plate. Arc also got up with his plate and walked over to the sink to wash them, but still had his ears opened as his parents, who'd also picked up their meat-cleaned breakfast plates and was heading towards the sink, talked about their past.
"Well," Nami continued as everyone got into their position, Nami doing the dirty dishes, Mikan rinsing the cleaned ones, Arc drying them with the clean towel, and Luffy, very carefully so as to not get on Nami's bad side (again), put them all away in their proper places (including places only he could reach while the kids were distracted), "Bellamy started a fight. But Luffy and Zoro didn't fight back. And they got their ass handed to them!" Nami laughed before her face turned grim again. "Though it didn't help with the fact that I was embarrassed in front of all those watchers and then had to treat your father's wounds afterwards. But that's not the point." She shook her head to clear the memory and looked back pointedly at Arc. "The point is that because they didn't fight back, Bellamy got no satisfaction out of beating them."
"Who's Zoro, mommy?" Mikan innocently asked.
"An old friend of ours sweetie," Nami explained with a small, fond smile on her face.
"What happened next?" Arc asked, fascinated with the story, because, after all, his parents didn't often speak of their past much.
"He provoked us later," Luffy said from behind them and the children turned to their father, egger for him to elaborate. "And because we didn't fight back before, he didn't know how strong we were." Luffy grinned. "I beat him."
"But only keep the first part in mind," Nami said sternly. "Beating people up for no reason isn't wroth it."
The children nodded at their mother's insightful words before turning back to their father once again.
"What did he do to provoke you, dad?" asked Arc for, as far as he knew, his father was completely optimistic and couldn't get mad.
"He stole something from a friend." Luffy then looked to Nami. "Done and ready to go?"
Nami nodded and went to grab the car key and her purse while the children went to get their book bags and Luffy grabbed his wallet and slipped it into his back pocket before putting on their shoes, Arc his brown sneakers, Mikan black school shoes, Nami in high heels and Luffy in his sandals, and then all headed out the door and to the bright red car in the driveway.
"Why'd you have to get such a flashy car?" Arc asked.
"Because your father's favorite color is red," Nami replied, going to the driver's seat.
"But he can't drive."
"He's the one who bought the car."
Arc huffed and got into the back seat with Mikan, who was all ready to go. As they drove to the Academy, Arc found himself staring out the window, not one bit worried about this whole matter at all, since his parents wasn't worry, he figured why should he? And besides his grades weren't that bad anyhow, since he'd always managed to get at lest a B or higher every semester anyways, even if it was only by a landslide. If he'd gotten anything lower, his mother would be on to him like a hell cat.
As they drove, Mikan had asked their father to tell her of his stories and Arc tuned them out, having already finished the story and gone back to it thousands of times before. Besides, he was older now, and knew better, so he couldn't, shouldn't believe in things like that. Not even that "other world" part his father told him at the end. And yet, despite all that, he still couldn't get that funny feeling in his gut, telling him that it was the truth and that his father was a bad liar, to go away nor could he ignore the strange feeling of something on the way, and the fear that his life was about to turn upside down very, very soon as they came nearer and nearer to the Academy.
And done with the first chapter.
Please REVIEW and comment on what you think of this beginning.
