if you can't live without regrets then what gives you the right to tell me how to live mine with them
(-There were screams and shouts, of anger and tears and frustration- smoke was blocking everyone's view and flames were roaring somewhere nearby. Luffy didn't look, he only charged and charged again at anyone or anything that threatened his nakama, and then he heard a yell, his name, and bloodbloodbloodwaseverywhere-)
"Monkey, can you solve the problem on the board please?"
Luffy tore his eyes away from the clock, where he was watching it as closely as he could as it inched its way towards noon, and looked towards his teacher. Some of the other students were giggling behind their hands, he could hear them whispering to each other 'As if the idiot could solve a problem like that', but he just ignored them as he squinted at the problem on the board.
"Twenty-seven." he answered promptly, and the students giggled some more.
His teacher sighed. "Monkey, we're doing science, not math. Please pay attention."
Luffy shrugged as the attention was taken off of him, and went back to staring at the clock.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick-
(-Nami was reading a magazine while Robin was talking admittedly with Chopper, Sanji was humming to himself in his kitchen as Zoro took a nap in the sun. Brook and Franky were composing and building respectively, and Usopp was showing off his vastly superior skills as an artist by painting several more pictures of the Straw Hat's jolly roger. Luffy looked over his crew proudly from his spot at the front of the Thousand Sunny, and he couldn't imagine anything better-)
The bell rang.
"Hey, Monkey, you coming?" one of the kids called out, and Luffy gave him a big grin and nodded.
"Uh-huh!"
There were some sniggers. "What a weird guy." One girl told her friend.
Luffy ignored them.
if you don't risk your life you can't create a future
"Shanks, I'm home!"
Luffy's guardian stuck his head out of his room and grinned. "Welcome home Luffy! Have a good day at school?"
Luffy shrugged. "It was really boring. There wasn't enough meat for lunch."
"There's never enough meat for you." Shanks shook his head. "Do you want to go down to the boat yard before you start on homework? I need to pick up a few materials for my next project."
The boy immediately brightened. "The boatyard? Eh, what are we waiting for then?" He grabbed his guardian's arm-
("Shanks-" Luffy sobbed as the sea rushed all around them, only Shanks's grip on him holding him up. "Your arm!")
-and pulled him into the hallway.
"Woah!" Shanks laughed and pulled his arm out of Luffy's tight grip, and motioned for him to wait. "Let me put on shoes."
Luffy bounced up and down by the door, complaining to Shanks to hurry up as the man deliberately took a long amount of time to get ready, before they finally headed out the door and called a cab to get to the boatyards.
("What's wrong with saying that?! I regret them, now! If I hadn't made those ships, nobody would have gotten hurt!")
Luffy burst out of the car before it completely stopped, running down the docks before Shanks could tell him to stop. The redhead just shook his head and smiled, paying the taxi cab before chasing after him. "Oi, Luffy, slow down!"
Luffy skidded to a stop in front of the dock office, where a young women was sitting. "Welcome back, Luffy!" Makino waved to him from inside the booth. "It's been a while since you've last visited. If you're looking for the new supplies that just came in for Shanks, they're in warehouse three."
The boy grinned. "Thanks Makino!"
He ran off again.
Shanks pulled up in front of Makino. "He's heading towards warehouse three." she told him, and Shanks winked at her before taking off again.
Luffy bounced into the warehouse, ducking under some of the worker's arms as they grumbled at him good naturedly, far too used to him being there. He turned towards the left side of the warehouse, where most of Shanks's supplies were usually kept, and was nearly there when Shanks caught up to him.
"Gees, Luffy, you make me look out of shape!" Shanks laughed, and Luffy laughed a small 'shishishi' as he pulled them in front of the cases.
"Alright, Luffy! Want to go pack these outside? We can probably do this in less than an hour."
Luffy reached his arm up to grab the first of the crates, but he couldn't reach it. He stretched his arm as far as it could go-
("Gomu Gomu Pistol!" and Luffy was flying through the air as his arm was outstretched to hit an unknown enemy in the face-)
-but he still couldn't grab it.
Shanks laughed at him. "Ha! Still can't reach anything huh?"
Luffy pouted. "I can reach it!"
"Sure, sure." Shanks grabbed the crate and pushed it into Luffy's arms. "Whatever you say."
Luffy hazardously managed to navigate himself out of the warehouse.
if i die trying then at least i tried
Luffy woke up with a silent startled gasp and his eyes were glassy as they stared at the ceiling of his apartment. His breath was even and his heart was quickly slowing down back to a normal speed. He could hear Shanks snoring loudly from the other room, and if he strained his ears hard enough he could almost hear (almost imagine) hearing Ace or Sabo sleeping near him, like when they were younger, or his nakama sleeping or moving around all over the Thousand Sunny.
But of course they weren't there. His breath was even and his dream (nightmare? memory?) was slowly fading from his mind and everything was conflicting inside his head.
Luffy tried to clear his mind to get rid of the ever present headache (was he a Straw Hat? Was he just a normal high school student? Did he have his nakama and Sabo and previously Ace? Or was he just the weird kid in class that nobody liked? Was he Monkey D. Luffy, the captain of a pirate ship and having his goal being the Pirate King? Or was he Monky D. Luffy, student, adopted son of Shanks because his father was MIA and his grandfather was a marine? Was he anything special? Was he brave? Was he somebody he himself would admire?) and stared up at the ceiling, as if would have the answers to anything.
He turned his head towards his desk drawer, where inside was a small paper cutout from the newspaper.
'Teen found dead in home, suspected suicide of one Coby… bullied at school Mr...'
Luffy scrunched his hands into fists as the clock on his side table read three AM.
I won't fail my nakama. I will find them, and I will help them.
Luffy flipped to his side and fell asleep.
For Evil Cosmic Triplets, I am terribly sorry how long this took and that it's not what you wanted, I know you wanted hurt/comfort with the whole gang and I'm so sorry I wasn't able to do it! If I have the energy sometime soon, I will definitely write you one!
This is an AU, as you can tell, where One Piece is an alternate universe and Luffy is remembering pieces of it from his other self, but sometimes not his other self, more like some omnipotent god or something but not.
I don't own One Piece, that belongs to the wonderful man whose birthday I believe it is today!
