A/N: For the 20 Years at Sea event over on Tumblr, Day 12: Promises (cross-posted). I could have kept going with this one, but decided to stop it there. Maybe one day I'll get back to this and do the rest (but not for a while at least).
Promises
Luffy had made many promises in his life.
He had promised to grow strong and form a crew stronger than even Shanks'. He had promised to become Pirate King and take care of Shanks' hat and give it back when he was done.
He had promised that he would love and be the best little brother he could for his big brothers. He had promised also that Sabo would never be forgotten.
He had promised each of his crew that they were his, his friends. He had promised to that he would take care of their dreams and help each one of them reach them. He had promised not to get between Zoro and his goal to be to Greatest Swordsman. He had promised to protect Nami's smile. He had promised to protect them and to come after them if they left without wanting to. He had promised to come back to them when they had separated, that they would journey on together again (he just knew that they all needed a little more time before that could happen).
He had promised that he would save Ace, but he hadn't been able to.
(Ace had made a promise too. Had promised Luffy he would not die.
But he had also made a promise that predated that one, to a brother he thought forever lost. That he would protect their baby brother and that was the one he needed to keep the most. Because what would his life mean if he didn't keep it.)
Zoro didn't make promises lightly and he always kept them when he did. Though occasionally along the way the meanings behind them changed slightly and his personal code changed the outcomes.
He had promised that he would become the World's Greatest Swordsman, that he and Kuina would battle for the title. Now he would still be the Greatest but instead of battling his rival, he would carry her spirit and blade into his challenge for the title. He would make his name reach the heavens to ensure she knew that their dream was accomplished.
He had promised to join Luffy's crew, but he had also promised that should the rubberman get between his and his dream, he'll kill him. He would be a pirate but on his own terms. (And now his dream was so entangled with his Captain's it would be impossible for him to do so.)
He had promised his Captain (his King, for all that no-one had yet realised that was what he was yet) that he would never lose. He had not broken that promise, for all the Curly-brow had once brought it up, because he two of them knew it only applied to swordsmen/women, so the devil fruit morons that had knocked him down didn't count, not that they had kept him down long. (The taining with Mihawk didn't either; spars, not battle.)
The swordsman had also promised his crew that he would protect them as best he could. But that he would also push them to grow stronger for themselves and the crew as a whole. He and the other frontline fighters had their own battles to fight, and they each had their own potential that would be stifled if he continued to stand between them and what came at them.
He had promised that even though they were an unusual crew, with unusual dynamics, in some things their Captain needed to be respected. As painful as a decision may be to the crew, if it came down to it and Luffy made a decision, it was to be understood and followed. New crewmates could be tested to ensure they met the standards of the crew, loyalty wise, but somethings concerning safety of the crew could not be laughed off and ignored.
Zoro had promised that he would return to the crew, stronger and more prepared for the new calibre of enemies they would fight in the New World. Ready to sail on, journeying together. Whole again to show them all who the King truly was.
(Kuina had made promises to him as well. That she would join him on the journey to the top of the world of swordsman/womanship. That she would prove that women could have incredible sword craft, and hold their own in the world. Then she had died and left him only able to help with one part of her dream.
Zoro had to wait for the Copycat Marine to grow and prove herself to prove to the world the other part. Because as much as it annoyed him to admit it, she did have the skill if she stopped worrying so much about his reaction to her, and how the world currently saw her and actually reach for the top.)
Nami had made and broken a lot of promises in her life. She had been a thief and all but alone in enemy territory for years after all. But she had attempted to
She had promised that she would make the money to buy her town back from the monsters that had taken her mother from her. She had almost done so too, before the bastard pulled his little stunt.
She had promised a lot of things to her victims when she was stealing to make up the ransom. Very rarely had she ever come through on them though, they hadn't been of any consequence to her except to keep in mind in case she came across them again.
She had promised to navigate the Straw-Hat ship through any seas they ever decided to cross. This she kept in the most surprising of ways, up mountains, up a vertical current, on cloud-seas, through random storms and sunny days that suddenly changed weather every two seconds. But she had kept it (and she will continue to do so for as long as she is able).
She had promised to chart a map of the world. A dream she had once given up hope for, but she had sworn it again in the fall of her nightmare and again at the end of the East. It will take time, but with the help of her crew she'll get there.
She had promised that she would re-join the crew, separated as it was at the time. Follow he Captain's order and learn all she could where she was in the time he had given them and then join them all back at Shabody to travel under the sea.
(Arlong had promised that he would set her and her village free as soon as she came up with the money to pay for it. The bastard had gone back on his promise, even as he wheedled his way around it when she accused him of it.
But it hadn't mattered, because Luffy had already made a promise she hadn't realised at the time. He had promised that he was her friend, had promised his and the crew's strength to help her and he didn't back out on his promises unless he was forced to.)
